A debate was sparked among college campuses Thursday after a federal committee released a report criticizing universities nationwide for current \tuition explosions,"" according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The report, written by Republicans in the House of Representatives Committee on Education, accuses universities of ""blaming budget and difficult economic conditions"" for increased tuition while the universities themselves should be held accountable for ""years of disproportionate cost increases.""
The report uses economic data and public polls to suggest that wasteful spending and economic mismanagement by universities are at the root of tuition hikes. One part of the report notes that in the 2002-'03 school year, all 50 states raised their tuition regardless of whether they increased funding for higher education or froze spending.
Alexa Marrero, a spokesperson for the Republican-led committee, argued the report is not ""making accusations,"" but is focusing on opening up branches of communication.
She stated that four-year colleges do not make economic data available to the government, resulting in an inability to identify and fix the financial situation at a university.
""There is not a lot of transparency in higher education,"" she said. ""There needs to be more economic reporting at the federal level, and universities are giving vague reasons for higher tuition costs.""
Marrero added it would not make sense for universities to raise tuition by 40 percent unless their budgets were cut by 40 percent.
However, the budget cuts at UW-Madison are almost as extreme as Marrero's fictitious example, according to Erik Christianson, spokesperson for the UW System Board of Regents.
Christianson said the comments made by the committee point to ""a lack of understanding"" about public universities like UW-Madison.
""We're going to lose $250 million in the next two years in government funding. State support, which used to make up 50 percent of our total budget, is now only 27 percent of our budget,"" he said.
The spokesman also said the accusations of hidden economic data in universities were false. ""They're absolutely wrong,"" Christianson said. ""Our entire budget is online. We're as transparent as any state agency.""
Christianson pointed out that even though tuition has been raised, the UW System must still compensate for more than $100 million worth of budget cuts. Even with tuition hikes, UW-Madison has one of the lowest in-state price tags in the Big Ten.
The university is already in the process of fixing its financial woes. Last month, the UW System Board of Regents created a committee called Rethinking the University to deal with such problems.
David Walsh, vice-chair of the Board of Regents, said even though the newly formed group had not formally submitted any ideas, they were committed to representing students.
""We don't have a constituency or an interest group in favor of UW students. We are the group fighting for UW. Our goal is to sit down and develop a position paper to take to legislature in order to persuade legislature to invest more funds into education,"" he said. ""We're going to work together to figure out funding, raising private funds and even redefining the word public university.\
