The University of Wisconsin-Madison released a report Tuesday detailing the status of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, a program with the goal of increasing the quality, efficiency and affordability of the university.
The program, created by former Chancellor Biddy Martin and approved by the UW System Board of Regents in April 2009, aims to provide need-based financial aid and improvements to undergraduate education through new funding provided by “differential tuition,” or costs added to the base level of tuition to create supplemental services and programs for students.
The program was funded by an increase in tuition of $250 per year for in-state undergraduate students and $750 per year for out-of-state undergraduate students over a four-year period from fall 2009 to fall 2012.
According to the report, the funds have created 54 new improvements to undergraduate education through the addition of faculty, academic staff and teaching assistant positions over a multitude of departments, among other project initiatives.
Sundar Sharma, an undergraduate student representative on the MIU Oversight Committee, said the Department of Chemistry was able to acquire more teaching assistants through MIU funding, giving students more options for chemistry classes and discussion sections.
“In general, all the things we’ve been able to do using MIU tuition differential money have been great,” Sharma said. “I think that the overall impact on campus has been phenomenal and it’s measurable and that’s the one thing that you can see in the report.”
Additionally, the report said half of the MIU funds were used to create additional need-based financial aid resources for thousands of undergraduate students.
