In a Sept. 28 press release, Gov. Doyle reported that if there is no new state budget, students might face an additional $800 tuition surcharge next semester to cover the $96 million UW Systems needs to continue operating. Though this is only one option UW System could take to cover the shortage, it proves a point:Students will pay if the state Legislature won't. And if the $800 does not come from students' checking accounts, it will come from the classroom.
According to a Sept. 25 memo Chancellor Wiley wrote to the State Budget Conference Committee, if departments at UW-Madison are forced to cover the costs of underfunding, the College of Letters and Science would have to cut 2,230 sections this spring semester because it could not afford to employ nearly half its TAs. Wiley wrote that cuts would also force UW-Madison to cap enrollment in its top five majors: political science, biology, english, history and psychology.
Republicans say they would rather operate under the current budget than pass a new one that includes new taxes. Their answer to the UW System shortage is to tell the administrators to be more thrifty, at our expense.
But the UW System cannot be more thrifty with utilities or faculty health care, two of the UW Systems largest expenses according to David Giroux, executive director of communications for the UW System. So, the cuts will significantly affect TAs, class selection and building hours.
By denying the UW System the funding it needs to operate at continuing costs, the Legislature is in danger of abusing one of its most valuable and abundant resources - students. There are currently over 160,000 students in the UW System and they are enrolled in what have in previous years been some of the highest rated academic programs in the country. But will these programs continue to be highly ranked with cuts this devastating? And if these cuts are forfeited and students are charged, will every student currently enrolled be able to pay?
The UW System needs an additional $96 million to continue operating. It is too late in the game for this money to come from anywhere but drastic cuts or tuition increases.
If the state Legislature had told the UW System July 1 that they would be in charge of shouldering these costs, universities could have warned students about tuition increases and spread the cuts out over the year. Now money has to be made or cut in one semester.
Universities and students should not be held responsible for the shortcomings of the current state legislature. We need money and the state needs a budget.
