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Future unclear for UW’s Iraqi project
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After University of Wisconsin students approved a referendum last week to fund tuition for five Iraqi scholars, the UW System Board of Regents president said “some research” may be needed to get the board to consider the proposal.
The Campus Antiwar Network proposed a $1 raise in tuition to fund the Iraqi Student Project, which would grant full-tuition scholarships to several Iraqi students to attend UW.
But Regent President Mark Bradley told The Badger Herald a proposal like this would normally come from the university’s chancellor, who recommends differential tuition proposals designed to meet a wide range of student interests on a campus.
“If there was something that arrived in the e-mail from a student organization that said, ‘We would like you to vote on this tuition matter,’ we would have to return it saying, ‘Thank you, but we get tuition proposals made to us from the campus chancellor,’” Bradley said.
The Board of Regents has not heard a formal proposal for the ISP, and Bradley said most of what he knows about it is what he has “read in The Badger Herald and other newspapers.”
Since the project has not been signed off by Chancellor John Wiley, ISP supporters would have to research the logistics and policies of presenting such proposal to the Board of Regents, Bradley said.
UW currently has a differential tuition system in place for engineering and business students to increase faculty retention and obtain equipment for the departments.
UW spokesperson John Lucas said the Chancellor’s Office has also not received a formal proposal regarding the ISP and could not say whether Wiley would consider writing a recommendation to the regents.
“If the Iraqi Student Project came to the regents from the Madison chancellor, I think this would be the first time that the chancellor would propose this to help a very small and very targeted number of students,” Bradley said. “Not that it couldn’t be done, but it would be unique.”
The ISP was founded in the summer of 2007 and modeled after the Bosnian Student Project, in which from 1993 to 1996, 150 Bosnian students came to U.S. colleges with tuition waived, according to CAN member and UW freshman Jenny Wustmann.
Middle East-based recruiters would work with Iraqi natives in Iraq, Syria and Jordan to identify, test and screen students. The students would be recommended based on academic records, language abilities, economic need and likelihood of success.
UW students would be able to request their $1 back within 45 days of the beginning of instruction. Bradley said he is uncertain how the refund system would work since most differential tuition requests are permanent and non-refundable.
UW sophomore Sam Finesurrey, one of the project organizers, said CAN is currently seeking more student support before presenting the project to the regents. He added the student support in last week’s referendum is “very encouraging,” and the group is willing to explore the idea of going through the chancellor if necessary.
“Just because the project is unprecedented, doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen,” Finesurrey said.
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Rather than making excuses why not to support this project the board of regents should look for ways to make this happen. Something like this could grab fantastic press for the university all over the country. This is a great opportunity for the UW to do something both right and noteworthy.
This wouldn’t be the first student-passed initiative to be completely snubbed by the administration. (Student Living Wage)
How about putting our dollar to subsidizing beer specials on the Terrace? I know talking about Iraqis and education makes us all feel good about ourselves, but not quite as good as we’d feel with two-for-one pitchers of Rathskeller brew on Thursday nights. Express outrage all you want, you know I’m right.
6:56 just proved that ignorance truly is bliss. This project isn’t about feeling good. Its about standing up and starting to heal a wound. At this current moment, if the war was to dissipate and the sectarian violence were to cease and everything would return to a kosher state where everything returned to how it used to be its estimated it would take at least 20 t0 30 years to rebuild the higher education system to the caliber of which it once stood. but if you’re more concerned with cheap beer rather than a vast outcry for help that’s your prerogative. but i’d strongly encourage that you wake up instead, because as much as we’d like to turn our heads to it, this is reality, and one day it’ll come to a point where it can no longer be denied.