No tuition increase for in-state undergrads

Tuition will not increase this fall for in-state undergraduates as part of the 2000-01 UW System budget approved by the Board of Regents.

The tuition freeze for resident undergraduates was included in the 1999-2001 state budget. The two-year spending plan, adopted last year by legislators and Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, provided $28 million in additional funding to the UW System to keep tuition at last year’s level.

At UW–Madison, that means resident undergraduate tuition will remain at $3,290 for the 2000-01 academic year.

“Keeping tuition affordable for University of Wisconsin students was one of my top priorities this past budget cycle,” Thompson says. “This tuition freeze will make it easier for Wisconsin students to get an education.”

Tuition for non-resident undergraduates and most resident and non-resident graduate students throughout the UW System will increase 7 percent this fall. But the increase for non-resident undergraduates and graduate students at UW–Madison will be 8.6 percent.

The additional 1.6 percent will go toward the Madison Initiative, the university’s public-private partnership to broaden educational opportunities for students and strengthen Wisconsin’s economic development.

The university is two years into the four-year investment plan to raise $57 million in additional state support and match it with $40 million in private funding through the University of Wisconsin Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

State lawmakers approved the first $29.2 million in public funding for the Madison Initiative in the 1999-2001 biennial budget, and the university will seek the remaining $28 million in state support in the 2001-03 budget.

Tuition for UW–Madison resident and non-resident students in law, medicine and the master’s of business administration programs will increase 9.1 percent this fall. The increase will address long-standing needs and reflects a phased approach to raise tuition in these professional programs to the midpoint of the university’s peer institutions over several years.

Student segregated fees at UW–Madison will increase 11.9 percent, from $445 to $498. Student-approved increases for organized activities, recreational sports and student salaries are the main reasons for the increase.

UW–Madison students living in residence halls will pay $4,538 for the 2000-01 academic year, a 4.3 percent increase over last year.

Overall, the UW System’s $3.1 billion budget for the upcoming academic year includes the following increases for several priorities:

• $3.8 million to allow for enrolling 1,000 new students systemwide, including 300 at UW–Madison.
• $1.7 million to hire additional student information technology workers.
• $2.4 million for library acquisitions, electronic access and inter-library loans.
• $1.7 million for Plan 2008, the 10-year plan to increase diversity at all UW schools.
• $500,000 for need-based study abroad grants.

“This budget allows us to keep the UW System moving forward on behalf of our students, the institutions, and Wisconsin,” says UW System President Katharine Lyall. “It also puts us in a good position as we begin to develop our budget proposals for the next biennium.”

In other action, the regents also approved updated enrollment management figures for UW–Madison and the UW System. The Madison campus was originally slated to enroll 35,200 full-time equivalency students in 2000-01, and now that target is at 35,499 when factoring in the additional enrollment growth approved by the Legislature last year.

By fall 2006, the enrollment management target for UW–Madison is 35,615, a growth of 116 students beyond the target for this year. UW System also projects a growth of 170 non-traditional, or adult, students beyond the enrollment management target at UW–Madison. Those enrollments above the target are projected to be financed through program funding and future state budget requests.