Scholarships to offset tuition increase

Tuition increases for the 1999-2000 academic year will be offset for students receiving federal or state financial aid as part of the Madison Initiative.

About 4,200 undergraduates – those receiving a Pell grant or a Wisconsin Higher Education Grant – will receive $300 scholarships from the Vilas Trust to offset the $289 tuition increase on the Madison campus.

For resident undergraduates, that means they will pay $11 less in tuition than last year. For out-of-state undergraduates, the scholarship will offset the tuition increase attributed to the Madison Initiative.

Of the $145-per-semester increase, approved Monday, July 19, by the UW System Board of Regents, $41 each semester will go to the innovative public-private partnership proposed by Chancellor David Ward to maintain the university’s competitiveness in the new millenium.

The $50-million proposal will match money from the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation with state tax revenue and tuition over four years to recruit and retain key faculty; increase financial aid; improve research and instructional programs; renovate and maintain aging buildings; and meet general academic needs, such as advising and libraries.

At the regents meeting, Leah Whigham, a UW–Madison graduate student in nutritional sciences, stressed the importance of the Madison Initiative. She said the proposal will lead to better faculty, increased research opportunities for students and more one-on-one contact with professors.

“It’s to our detriment if our faculty leave for better offers elsewhere,” she told the regents.

The $2.9 million UW System budget for 1999-2000, approved Monday, would fund 5.2 percent raises for faculty and academic staff. Regents say they hope the state will fully fund the pay plan with state revenue instead of relying on tuition to make up any difference.

Overall, tuition will increase 9.6 percent at UW–Madison and 6.9 percent at the other four-year UW schools. The 2.7 percent difference at Madison will go towards the Madison Initiative. Even with the tuition increase, UW–Madison still ranks second to last in tuition costs in the Big 10, at $3,290. Only the University of Iowa is lower.

Student fees will total $445 at UW–Madison for the upcoming year, a 10.1 percent increase, most of which is attributable to student-approved spending measures. Room and board will cost $4,341, a 3.2 percent increase.

The regents said they were forced to set tuition and approve the budget even though the Legislature has not adopted the new two-year state budget. Tuition bills must be mailed to parents and students so payments can be made before the start of the fall semester. The same thing happened in 1997, when the state budget wasn’t approved until September.

Tuition may be readjusted in the second year of the state budget depending on how much financial support the UW System receives from the state, explained UW System President Katharine Lyall.

Four students spoke against the tuition increases at the regents meeting. They argued that the price hikes would limit access to UW System schools for middle-class and working-class families and their children. They lobbied the regents to freeze tuition and work with students to increase state funding for universities.

The regents pledged to work with students on increasing state aid, but emphasized that the budget is a student-centered spending plan designed to ensure the quality of the UW System.

“Students have been at the forefront of thought since this (budget) has been developed,” Regent Fred Mohs of Madison said at the meeting.