Nonresident students at UW-Madison could see a $4,000 hike in tuition over the next two years if a proposed increase goes as planned during the UW System Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
The increase, which would take effect during the 2017-’18 academic year, was a pre-planned move by UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank and other university leaders to fill gaps in funding caused by stagnant in-state tuition coupled with declining state support for the system.
It would also increase tuition for several of the university’s professional schools—some, like the Wisconsin School of Business’s global real estate program, would increase more than 10 percent each year.
The proposed changes will complete the final step of a four-year plan brought to the regents in 2015 for tuition increases for these groups, Blank said in a university release Monday.
“I have been public about my intentions to request these additional two years of tuition increases, including my speech to the Faculty Senate earlier this semester, to help students and families plan ahead,” Blank said in the release. “We don’t make a decision to increase tuition lightly.”
Out-of-state students would pay $35,523 in tuition during the 2018-’19 school year. The current price of nonresident tuition is already fifth-highest among Big Ten schools.
The proposal regents will receive Thursday states that the school is “confident that additional nonresident tuition increases can be implemented without hurting the ability to attract top students.”
Regents will also examine the work of the system’s task force on sexual violence and harassment.
The group was tasked with creating a comprehensive, system-wide policy on the issue that would combine several related policies from other regent documents.
One portion of that policy requires that each school “establish educational programs designed to inform employees and students of the nature of sexual harassment, to increase their sensitivity to it, and to publicize the procedures, sanctions and remedies available against it.”
Each campus’s Title IX coordinator will be responsible for facilitating that education and training, and it will be a requirement for all students and employees throughout the system, according to the proposed policy.
In addition, chancellors will be required to offer more in-depth training on issues of sexual assault for executives, supervisors, managers and others in leadership roles.
