The UW System and UW-Madison will present a proposal to the Board of Regents Thursday, that would to increase the nonresident student enrollment cap for the next four years.
UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank first announced the idea at a campus-wide budget discussion in February, requesting to raise the cap from where it currently stands at 27.5 percent to 30 percent.
Blank said in an Oct. 2 online post that this proposal will draw high school graduates into Wisconsin, compensating for the decline of high school graduates within the state.
“In the face of declining numbers of high school graduates, our commitment to enroll at least 3,500 Wisconsin freshmen is a commitment to this state,” Blank said in the post.
The UW System is working with industry leaders throughout the state to encourage recent UW-Madison graduates to start their careers within Wisconsin.
Blank said increasing the out-of-state tuition cap will not change the school’s enrollment profile.
“We estimate that with our current classroom and housing capacity we can accommodate a few hundred more non-resident students per year,” Blank said in the post.
The Associated Students of Madison voiced its concerns of the potential changes the proposal could bring in an open letter to Blank and UW System President Ray Cross.
“If the university enrolls more students, we are highly concerned that the quality of education will not remain the same,” ASM members said in the letter. “We already have consolidation of resources across campus from the last budget cycle, and we cannot accommodate a larger student population.”
ASM members questioned how admitting additional out-of-state students would improve the Wisconsin workforce and encouraged the university to first help Wisconsin high school students become prepared for attending UW-Madison.
In the letter ASM members said the administration did not include any student opinion when planning the proposal.
“We would like to express our dismay at the lack of collaboration that went into this decision,” members said in the letter. “After all the conversations around the value of shared governance on campus, this proposal was publicly rolled out prior to any meaningful consultation with the key stakeholders of the university.”
Executive Director of University Communications at UW-Madison John Lucas said in a Wednesday email that Blank consulted with faculty leadership on the University Committee before moving forward with the proposal, and informed ASM before its public release.
The Board of Regents will vote Thursday to decide if the nonresident enrollment cap will increase.
