(The Center Square) – Tuition at the University of Wisconsin has been “like a rollercoaster” with tuition freezes followed by hefty increases over the past 50 years, according to Rep. David Murphy, R-Hortonville.
That’s why he is pushing Senate Bill 399, which would tie future tuition increases to the consumer price index for the prior year rather than allowing the schools to increase tuition further in an individual year.
Murphy began pushing the bill while the state was in a tuition freeze for the University of Wisconsin campuses, at which point there was support for the bill from university system advocates, according to Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken. He read from Badgers United testifying for the policy in 2019.
Jacque told The Center Square this week that a lack of guardrails on tuition increases has allowed to University of Wisconsin to spend like “drunken sailors” and avoid taking hard looks at expenses surrounding the system while increasing student tuition costs.
An audit earlier this year showed an increase in staff and salaries over the past 10 years while student enrollment has dropped by 16,000.
Representatives from the University of Wisconsin were at public hearings in the Senate Committee on Universities and Technical Colleges for the tuition cap and several other potential changes, including an attempt to block online class fees unless the university could prove the fees are tied to actual expenses.
Universities of Wisconsin Interim Vice President of Finance and Administration Julie Gordon said that affordability is always at the forefront for the Board of Regents and that it is sometimes difficult to fully realize the additional online course costs immediately.
Those costs can include training for professors, technology, student verification and test-taking integrity checks.
Gordon said the university system is in the process of simplifying bills so they don’t read like telephone bills with extensive lists of add-on costs and instead provide a clear cost of tuition.
“Ease and clarity of message is incredibly important,” Gordon said.
Jacque said that he has worked on affordability in the University of Wisconsin System since he was part of student government at UW-Madison. He wants to make certain the university is prioritizing affordability and applauded UW-Green Bay for not taking the optional 1% increase in tuition that was approved this summer after the Wisconsin budget was approved.
The Board of Regents approved a 4% tuition increase along with a 1% optional increase on its campuses in July in the weeks after the new state budget included a two-year $256 million budget increase with the schools receiving $1.13 billion in capital budget and $316 million for operational budget.
“Have we looked at every other option first before going to students?” Jacque asked.
