Students, faculty and staff from throughout the UW System presented to a state legislative task force on UW restructuring Wednesday, outlining their hopes for the future of the system.
Outgoing United Council Vice President Dylan Jambrek, a UW-Eau Claire senior, told the task force raising tuition to boost financial aid and help deal with budget cuts would be detrimental to system schools.
Jambrek said first-generation and underrepresented students are less likely to attend institutions with such policies because of the shock of seeing high tuition costs before aid.
When task force members noted UW-Madison’s tuition is lower than tuition at some other Big Ten institutions, Jambrek said other system schools are not necessarily comparable to other Big Ten schools.
He said even at UW-Madison, tuition increases to match similar institutions is inappropriate.
“I don’t think we should think about how much we can raise tuition to get away with,” Jambrek said. “I don’t think there should be an arms race to raise tuition.”
Associated Students of Madison Rep. Libby Wick-Bander told the task force that boards at each institution composed of students, faculty, staff, regents and community members could benefit the schools through advising them and facilitating communication throughout the state.
But giving such boards governing powers, such as the ability to set tuition, could be “add bureaucracy in an already highly bureaucratic system,” Wick-Bander said.
But task force member David Olien said UW-Madison has different needs than other UW System schools and needs its own board with governing powers.
Outgoing chair of the Faculty Senate’s University Committee Brad Barham urged the task force to consider clearly defining the relationship between the system and the state.
Barham said while increased flexibilities for institutions are necessary for the future, the flexibilities will not be sufficient replacements for state support of higher education.
UW System faculty and leaders are criticized for the outcomes of budget cuts when they are doing the best they can to keep the quality of institutions high in light of such cuts, Barham said.
“They’re labeled as the bad guys,” Barham said. “But the vast majority of us are bleeding Badger red, working hard every day to do the best we can with less.”
