The Badger Herald: News: Students ask for Wiley’s support

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Students ask for Wiley’s support

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Also by Natalie Rhoads:

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Morgridge Center finds new head (May 2, 2005)
Proposal urges SOAR diversity orientation (April 6, 2005)
State: no mediator in TAA negotiations (May 2, 2005)
Votes for Earl all for nought (April 11, 2005)

Thursday, February 24, 2005 12:00 a.m.

8 Vote 0 Votes

Members of the Associated Students of Madison met with University of Wisconsin chancellor John Wiley Wednesday, to request assistance in sending out a letter to students’ parents regarding recently proposed tuition increases.

The letter, which would be sent out to parents of students who are Wisconsin natives, is in response to Gov. Jim Doyle’s February budget proposal to keep tuition increases between 5 and 7 percent over the next two years.

ASM member Ashok Kumar, who met with Wiley, said the letter would urge Wisconsin parents to contact their legislators and ask for an increase in funding for UW from the state.

“The letter would inform [parents] about the current budget crisis,” Kumar said.

ASM members had initially hoped Wiley would draft and send the letter out to parents. Now, Kumar and Joel Feingold, a Student Labor Action Coalition member who also met with Wiley, said the chancellor said during the meeting that he is willing to provide the necessary resources for ASM to send the letter.

Kumar and Feingold said the letter would detail the effects the proposal would have on education as a whole. They added it is being sent to parents because those are the people who have the best ability to make a difference and are often the ones responsible for paying their children’s tuition.

“Parents need to do everything in their power to contact their legislators,” Feingold said.

Doyle’s proposal, if passed by the state Senate and Assembly, would increase tuition between 5 and 7 percent and increase financial aid by 34 percent over two years. This could potentially be a total increase in student tuition costs of 14 percent.

“For the first time in more than 10 years, my budget will add more state money to UW and financial aid than it will to the Department of Corrections,” Doyle said in his budget proposal speech Feb. 8.

Despite Doyle’s statement that his proposal would add more state money to the university, Feingold said it is important to stress that ASM is asking for a larger increase in funding from the state. Kumar said students are currently paying double the amount of money coming from the state.

“For every two dollars the student [pays], the state is giving one,” Kumar said.

Feingold said they were not calling for a tuition freeze, but parents and students should not have to work double shifts at work or take out student loans to attend the university. Last year the average student was $18,000 in debt upon graduation, he added.

“It is obvious the university is becoming very exclusive,” Feingold said.

Kumar agreed with Feingold that the university is becoming less affordable for students.

“We are on a steady pace to privatization,” Kumar said.

Feingold said ASM is currently drafting the letter and it would likely be sent out in the next couple weeks.

“I am really terrified for the future of this university,” Feingold said.

8 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | February 24, 2005 9:38 AM | Reply

I can think of no better way to submarine the university than to have the chancellor piss off parents with a letter like that.

Whoever is running the show over there at ASM needs to get Feingold on a leash. That guy is just killing you. I’ll bet he is the kind of guy who goes to talk to legislators and starts screaming in their faces.

Anonymous | February 24, 2005 1:30 PM | Reply

I agree with the above poster. Feingold comes off as jackass who is arguing for nothing but free tuition. I’m surprised this article didn’t mention the state “Starving the University”

Also 18 grand in debt is next to nothing these days for college debt. You don’t have to start paying off student loans until you graduate and even then they have low rates and the interest you do pay is tax deductible.

Anonymous | February 24, 2005 2:16 PM | Reply

i think you would be doing the state of wisconsin a service if you could explain how a letter, which you have not even seen, could piss off parents. i guess they just don’t know how badly they’re getting fucked, and despise finding out how to stop the fucking.

and obviously joel is a jackass because he believes in something you don’t. and because he actually fights for what he believes in. you’re just a chickenshit anonymous poster, go have a rally for privitizing the university. not to mention that you again don’t know him, have never met him, and have only read soundbites meant for the news.

and 18k isn’t a lot of student debt? tell that to a family who makes that much in a year. yes, there are families who only make that much. there are people outside your whitewashed, upperclass culture, who can barely afford to put food on the table, muchless send their kid to college, to end the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck and sacrificing things to provide for their family. and no, financial aid does not always cover them.

Anonymous | February 24, 2005 2:53 PM | Reply

There is a difference between fighting for what you believe in and accomplishing what you believe in.

Anonymous | February 24, 2005 4:03 PM | Reply

funny when one anonymous poster calls another anonymous poster chicken shit for posting anonymously. Apparently it is ok for you to make attacks but not him?

Oh yea, and I come from a family that struggles… and I wish i only had 18K in debt when i get out… and I still think this is a gay (oh yea, i used the term gay in a negative way!) idea.

Anonymous | February 24, 2005 5:21 PM | Reply

18K is puny compared to what I’ll be graduating with. But then again with an EE degree I’ll be making a lot more with a college degree than without one so it’s worth it to me. I would not sacrifice the level of my education to save a few dollars. And no, I’m not one of your “whitewashed upper class” students, if I was I would have at least given MSOE and some out of state schools a look. As it was with my financial situation I chose Madison because it was far and away the best school for the dollar.

Some people have to realize that you can’t have a top quality education for free. Somebody, somewhere has to pay for it. Whether it’s the students paying for it through tuition or their parents paying for it through taxes somebody will be paying.

And I agree that 18K is a lot for people with limited earnings, but it seems Feingold is only fighting for cheap tuition. Wouldn’t a more suitable cause be fighting for more assistance to low income families?

Anonymous | February 25, 2005 12:05 AM | Reply

How can ASM continue to whine about high tuition when they keep imposing high segregated fees? It doesn’t make sense. Legislators won’t give a hoot until they see some fiscal self restraint on the part of the students clamoring for change.

Anonymous | February 25, 2005 12:42 AM | Reply

Pete McCabe gets $8000 from CFACT’s budget, which comes from SSFC.

a hypocrite says what?