State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, will reassume his position as Assembly Colleges and Universities Committee chair in the next session and is ready to show the UW System some tough love.
In an interview with the Capital Times, Nass' spokesperson Mike Mikalsen said Nass, who has long had a contentious history with the UW System, hopes to introduce legislation that would cap UW System tuition hikes at 4 percent, an idea he says would have bipartisan support.
The tuition cap would be in addition to potential cuts in state funding, according to Mikalsen, and Nass is hoping for cooperation between the incoming legislature and the UW System.
""If they come to the table saying, ‘We're the economic engine for the state and you need to give us more money,' then it's going to be a difficult time in the next two years,"" Mikalsen told the Capital Times.
UW System spokesman David Giroux said he would not speculate on the prospective proposal and would need to see more details before commenting.
However, UW-Madison economics professor Andrew Reschovsky said funding cuts will be inevitable with the magnitude of the state deficit, and a tuition cap on top of that would put the university in a serious financial bind.
""If the state appropriations are reduced, and tuition can only grow by 4 percent, that makes it increasingly more difficult for the university to continue providing the services that it provides the students, namely education,"" Reschovsky said.
Another issue Mikalsen told the Capital Times Nass would want to tackle is ""viewpoint neutrality in the classroom,"" noting that liberal opinions are overrepresented on campus.
UW-Madison political science professor Donald Downs agreed that there is a need for more intellectual diversity on campus, but said laws regulating what instructors can and cannot say in the classroom is not the way to fix the problem.
Downs said the way to address it is by having public debate on the issue, and that professors expressing their opinions in class is appropriate so long as it is in a ""pedagogically responsible way.""
""Do I want a bureaucrat, a state bureaucrat, looking over my shoulder in a classroom, to make sure that I am neutral?"" Downs said. ""No.""
