The UW System Board of Regents heard a tuition and financial aid report Thursday, weighing options to balance accessibility with the quality of UW System schools.
Regent Michael Falbo, a member of the tuition and financial aid workgroup, said the committee’s charge was to come up with tuition options not proposals to vote on.
Regent Danae Davis said she worried about the student voice and questioned how UW System President Kevin Reilly will ensure student input as the process moves forward.
“I am concerned because I have sensed a change … in the input from leadership representatives of the student voice to us,” Davis said.
Davis asked Reilly what he planned to do in an “authentic, sincere” way to ensure the students are heard.
“Student government leaders participated in the development of this report,” Reilly said, adding the Regents have arranged events to include UW students earlier in the budget process.
“We want to have them to be able to talk directly to [the Regents] about this issue and more broadly about the development of the budget,” he said.
Regent Colleene Thomas, a UW-Madison senior, said students remain concerned about college affordability.
“Students are generally supportive of ideas of going forward on differential tuition particularly because there can be a strong student input in where the dollars go,” Thomas said.
Thomas discussed the impact of tuition streams on the UW-Madison Political Science department, a department she is enrolled in.
“In the last two or three years, including the loss we expect this year, we will have lost 14-of-40 faculty.”
She said losing the professors is damaging to the largest department in the College of Letters and Science in terms of quality of education. She expressed her concern for immediate action to keep tenured faculty from leaving UW System schools.
The Regents discussed the pros and cons of specific options, including differential tuition as a possibility to increase funds for financial aid.
Reilly emphasized the importance of individuality of UW campuses to determine the tuition and financial aid proposals.
Further considerations for tuition will be discussed at the next Board of Regents meeting in April. Final decisions on tuition rates will be determined in June.
McPike resigns as Regent:
The Regents honored Milton McPike Thursday, who announced his resignation from the Board of Regents Tuesday due to health reasons.
A former Madison East High School principal for 23 years, McPike was once a professional football player. He began serving as a Regent in 2004.
