The UW System Board of Regents discussed the advantages and disadvantages of possible tuition changes Thursday at its monthly meeting, with much of the debate focusing on cohort tuition.
Cohort tuition involves freezing the tuition for each entering class of undergraduate students, with students consequently paying the same amount for four or five years.
With this form of tuition, the cost is higher than the amount charged now, but the student and parents would be able to plan financially for the following years.
Ric Porrecca, senior vice chancellor and chief financial officer at the University of Colorado-Boulder spoke to the Regents, addressing the pros and cons of a cohort tuition policy.
\Your tuition price will look higher than your competition,"" he said.
He added that an institution loses a ""certain amount of flexibility"" by raising general tuition to meet expenses.
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said he did not have a position on whether the UW System should implement cohort tuition.
The main reasoning for this system, Wiley said, would be to ease the year-to-year tuition jumps.
""The students react fairly positively,"" he added. ""But they also understand that it makes it easier to increase tuition.""
Regent Fred Mohs said he did not support the cohort system.
""We have had increasing tuition rates, and not drastically increasing tuition rates,"" he said. ""Stability does not seem to be something people are looking for.""
He said it would be ""unattractive"" for the UW System to make a profit as a result of cohort tuition.
Another possible change addressed at Thursday's meeting would give the children of out-of-state alumni a discounted tuition rate.
One detail yet to be clarified concerning this possibility is whether the students of a specific UW institution would have the option of attending any UW System school at a discounted rate.
Wiley said he was ""totally enthusiastic"" about the idea.
Regent James Klauser raised concern over whether this option would displace Wisconsin residents as students in favor of out-of-state students. He said he also had a problem with raising tuition for incoming freshmen in order to ""subsidize"" seniors.
Other possible changes included charging for tuition on a per-credit basis instead of charging a single amount for all full-time students and charging higher tuition based on higher family income and lower tuition based on lower family income.
