Action taken by the UW System Board of Regents Friday to freeze enrollment, seen by some state legislators as a scare tactic, was followed by additional cuts to the UW System by Assembly Republicans Saturday.
The cuts approved by GOP lawmakers include the elimination of the UW System's $4 million advertising budget and $1 million need-based grant program for studying abroad. The System's travel budget was also cut in half. State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said 58 amendments were passed related to education in the caucus.
The admission freeze was prompted by UW System cuts the Joint Finance Committee proposed on top of those originally outlined by Gov. Scott McCallum. The committee also lowered the tuition cap from 10 percent to 8 percent.
Nass said the university was acting \arrogantly"" in its methods of ""intimidation"" and ""bullying.""
""It did not help them,"" Nass said in reference to the board's action, which legislators learned of during session Friday through a memo from the regents. ""When they started that, they went down the wrong road with the Legislature.""
The legislators also voted to charge students with 165 undergraduate credits or more the full cost of their education. Currently, taxpayers subsidize approximately 60 percent of students' tuition costs. In addition, they voted to impose a 10-percent tuition surcharge on out-of-state students other than those currently covered by tuition reciprocity.
Board of Regents President Jay Smith said the regents had no option but to freeze enrollment.
""It's all about the quality,"" Smith said. ""The Board of Regents refuses to lower the quality of a UW System education.""
If university funds are cut, Smith said, administrators have to manage those cuts ""in terms of enrollment and tuition.""
""I have asked [legislators] directly, are they requesting us to take on additional students without having the funding for those students? Is that what they're asking?"" Smith said. ""And they won't answer that.""
Nass said there were multiple other options the UW System could choose to deal with budget cuts.
""If the regents can't work with those cuts like other state agencies are, ... then I think they are very, very poor fiscal managers,"" he said.
Nass said he thought the enrollment freeze would only serve to drive potential UW System students to out-of-state or private schools.
""The university just doesn't get it,"" Nass said. ""Next time around, we're going to be looking at least a $700 million deficit on top of all this and the university seems to think they should go away pretty much untouched.\
