The UW System Board of Regents came one step closer to officially passing the UW-Madison School of Business differential-tuition proposal when it approved the policy in committee at its Thursday meeting at UW-Oshkosh.
Under the proposal, undergraduate business majors would pay an additional $500 per semester, and those in the Certificate in Business program would pay an additional $150 per semester.
""We want to keep our professors. We don't want to lose them to private universities or others that have already approved a differential,"" said Eric Eickhoff, a UW-Madison undergraduate who was present at the board's meeting and chairs the campus chapter of Future Business Leaders of America. ""This will be pennies on the dollar of what it's going to give us in the future.""
If approved by the full Board, the fee will begin in fall 2007, and 25 percent of revenues from the proposed tuition fee would be earmarked for financial aid to students enrolled in the programs.
The proposal, which will come before the full Board Friday, was presented by School of Business Dean Michael Knetter and three student leaders from the school, according to UW System Communications Director David Giroux.
According to the School of Business, the differential is needed to sustain quality and to expand the size of the certificate program and, possibly, the major. Funding by the state does not currently provide the resources needed to maintain the quality of the program relative to competing institutions, including almost all other Big Ten schools, according to the school's website.
By charging higher tuition for the undergraduate major, the school will be able to maintain faculty quality, enhance academic and career preparation and offer the program to more students, the website said.
Also passed in committee was the UW-Madison Division of Intercollegiate Athletics contract with Learfield Communications, a company that handles all multimedia and marketing for UW Athletics.
""Changes from a current agreement with Learfield include extending the contract term an additional 10 years and increasing annual rights fees for the last two years of the current contract totaling $2.04 million,"" the meeting summary read.
Also passed was the authority to construct two utility structures for UW-Madison's East Campus Utility Project, which will be subject to a vote by the full Board today.
According to Giroux, the utility structures are tunnels, which will serve during major utility projectsA-A-—water, gas and steam pipes—so that pedestrian traffic on campus remains unaffected.
