News

La Crosse hopes for aid legislation

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students could see a big increase in financial aid for the 2008-09 school year, but with that comes a $500 increase in tuition.

UW-La Crosse put together a plan which would allow for the expansion of the university by 1,000 students in order to increase financial aid and pay for new staff and faculty. However, the plan was not included in the 2007-09 state budget.

The university reworked its plan so that instead of using additional money from the state to hire new staff, it would use student tuition dollars. There is now a bill in the Senate that would allow the university to reallocate $664,000 to funding financial aid for students instead of hiring new faculty and staff.

To pay for new staff and faculty, the tuition of students would be increased by $500. The plan would also allow for an additional enrollment of 500 students.

“This is kind of like changing the label,” said Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, who is supporting this bill. “The budget labels where the money has to be spent. Sometimes … the money is allocated for one purpose, but the group needs it for another thing. We have to go back and change that.”

Sen. Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse, said UW-La Crosse’s Student Senate is completely behind the plan for this. Students’ tuition would be higher, but it would increase the financial aid low- and middle-income students receive from the university as well as how many students the university could afford to enroll.

“The students are behind it, and the community is behind it,” Kapanke said.

According to UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux, many state representatives are in support of this plan. The university’s plan for the reallocation of money has strong bipartisan support.

Kapanke said the bill would provide benefits to the state’s education system as a whole.

“This is a good thing for UW-La Crosse, for UW, for La Crosse, but mostly it is a good thing for the current students of the university and the 500 additional students they will be enrolling,” Kapanke said.

Nothing quite like this has been done in the UW System before. And though Giroux said he wouldn’t say something like this couldn’t happen at UW-Madison, it is a very unique situation to UW-La Crosse.

Before the bill can be passed, it has to go through the Joint Finance Committee. Kapanke said any bill involving fiscal costs must go to the Joint Finance Committee.

He said there is a good possibility that the bill will go through the Joint Finance Committee and be brought onto the floor very soon to be voted on by the Senate.

Bob Hetzel, Vice-Chancellor of Administration and Finance at UW- La Crosse would like for the Senate to approve the bill quickly.

“We are hopeful that we will have approval soon,” he said, “so … we can give [financial] awards for our students in 2008.”