Over the past few years, UW students have seen their tuition increase at unprecedented rates. In the face of drastic budget cuts that originate in the statehouse, the university has been forced to continually demand more money from students while offering fewer, more crowded classes. A fourth-year in-state student now pays $2,933.12 per semester-a 64.4 percent increase from a semester's tuition when he or she entered the university in the fall of 2001.
Such a drastic tuition increase is hard for students and their families. Many families struggle to find the money to send their children to college anyway, and unexpected tuition increases not only put an additional strain on their bank accounts, but also make it much harder to plan for the future of their children's education.
However, because of state-level cuts, the university would be hard-pressed to find a way to make the cost of attending a UW System school put less of a burden on students' families. Plans that might make tuition more predictable, such as one that would put a cap on how much tuition could increase from one year to the next, could force the university to make even more drastic cuts on academic programs than have been made in the past. Such an idea, while it may seem more palatable to many students and their families, puts this university in danger of falling off the list of elite research universities.
Many states have seen similar cuts to their university system, and have tried to come up with creative ways to not inconvenience students while at the same time not allowing their quality of education to slip drastically. One idea that is particularly attractive is guaranteed tuition.
That plan, which the University of Illinois System implemented for the first time for students entering in the fall, guarantees that entering students will pay tuition at the same rate for four years. This would allow families to plan their children's education expenses for all four years at a set rate. According to U of I official Lex Tate, \The planning aspect is the best part.""
Furthermore, guaranteed tuition would not take tuition money away from the university, because new students could make up the difference. While this may create the unfortunate side effect of incoming students one year seeing a larger increase in tuition than those entering another year, it would still comfort students and their families to know they can expect the same tuition rate over four years. In fact, though in some cases entering classes may have to pay more than they would like, studies in both Illinois and New York, where the legislature is considering adopting a similar plan, have shown that the average per-year cost to the state for incoming students would be very similar whether or not they had guaranteed tuition.
A guaranteed tuition plan would also encourage students to graduate in four years. A student who knows his or her tuition will increase after four years has more of an incentive to graduate before the rate rises.
Guaranteed tuition will not fix all the problems this university faces. As Tate points out, ""Guaranteed tuition helps people to plan, but it doesn't add a dollar of state money"" to the university's budget. However, while this is not an all-encompassing solution, it would make planning for college easier to students and their families while not taking much money away from the university.
Wisconsin is facing hard times economically. Such times call for creative ways to make life easier for the state's residents while taking away as little as possible from its programs and institutions. Robert L. King, chancellor of the State University of New York system, said, ""I think there is a new willingness emerging ... to [strongly consider] a proposal like this"" in the legislature. We hope the legislature here thinks about implementing a similar program.
