After extensive deliberation the UW System Board of Regents approved the BluGold Commitment, a controversial differential tuition increase for University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, at their meeting last Friday.

In the wake of student opposition on the UW-Eau Claire campus, the Board of Regents debated over the right course of action regarding the BluGold Commitment.

Members of the UW-Eau Claire student government presented the proposal to the UW-System’s Business, Finance and Audit Committee Feb. 4.

Regent Brent Smith said while the proposal was sound, the committee wanted more details on what the funds would be used for.

Smith said the committee heard testimonials from students both for and against the proposal at the meeting.

One stipulation the regents required of the BluGold Commitment is that it comes back to the board in the May meeting for a review of the expenditure plan.

The BluGold Commitment is a differential tuition proposal that would add $300 annually to each student’s tuition over the course of four years, totaling a $1,200 increase in each student’s tuition in the end.

The proposal makes 40 percent of the funds available for financial aid for students who qualify.

Regent Thomas Loftus proposed the final decision of implementing the proposal be pushed back to the May meeting.

“A tuition increase of this size at this time has a serious impact for some students and families,” Loftus said.

He said there were enough outcries against the proposal on the UW-Eau Claire campus that would warrant pushing the proposal back to make sure all students reached a consensus on the increase.

Loftus claimed there is a division on the campus regarding the division, and passing the proposal at the stage it is at would mean “some students would be losers.”

Adam Sorelle, member of UW-Eau Claire’s student government and one of the students who gave the presentation to the regents, said there are approximately 1,000 members on a Facebook page against parts of the proposal.

Sorelle said there is always a knee-jerk reaction to increasing tuition, and while the Facebook page is evidence of some dissatisfied students, he did not hear regular student feedback while the BluGold Commitment was in its planning stages.

Most regents did not share Loftus’ sentiment about pushing a vote back on the proposal, and his proposal to do so failed.

Regent Eileen Connolly-Keesler likened the proposal to the Madison Initiative, passed by the Board of Regents May 2009, which raises differential tuition $250 each year for four years for in-state students.

She claimed the market was much worse back in the spring than it is now and the BluGold Commitment is approximately the same increase in tuition as the Madison Initiative.

“To delay it one more time, my worry is that we will not make a timely decision,” Regent Jos� V�squez said.

The vote to implement the BluGold Commitment was 14-2.

In a similar development, a UW-La Crosse differential tuition increase for the existing La Crosse Excellence Initiative was passed unanimously. It will add $60 to students’ tuition each year for the next five.

State Auditor Jan Mueller also presented the auditing finance statement of the University of Wisconsin System to the Board of Regents Feb. 4, saying the system has a weak payroll infrastructure which could cause problems.

UW System spokesperson David Giroux said while the UW System was given a clean bill of health, Mueller presented an unqualified opinion on the problems lingering in the UW System pay roll system.

The state auditor confirmed the need for a new payroll system, Giroux said.

The payroll system is in the process of being replaced as part of the plan for the Human Resource System, which is a multiyear initiative to put new human resources software into all the universities in the UW System.

Giroux said parts of the overall plan for the Human Resource System will go online in 2011, but the exact date for an unveiling of the new payroll system is unclear.