OPINION & EDITORIAL
One step forward, two steps back
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by Badger Herald Editorial Board
Monday, September 4, 2006
For students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the UW System Board of Regents' recent tuition proposal must be seen as a positive step. The budget proposal calls for a 3 percent increase in tuition for 2007-8 and a 2 percent increase in 2008-9, numbers that represent the smallest jump in a quarter century.
The news is not nearly as rosy, however, for attendees of UW-La Crosse, where the Regents hope to hit students with a $1,320 charge over three years above and beyond the system-wide tuition increase. The extra revenue would be earmarked for a program that aims to raise enrollment by 1,000 students and increase access to the university for low-income and minority students.
While attempting to increase access to the university is a laudable goal, the Regents got it all wrong in La Crosse. Raising tuition significantly only puts a strain on working families of Wisconsin already feeling the squeeze from a continuous cycle of system-wide tuition hikes.
In essence, the La Crosse student body as a whole will be penalized so the Regents can implement a policy that helps only a few. Surely, the 1,000 new students will be granted the opportunity to attend a reputable university where such an option may not have existed before, but the rest of the La Crosse campus, a group numbering eight times larger, will find a La Crosse education increasingly unaffordable.
Prospective students will have to ask themselves, is it worth it to pay extra to go to La Crosse when one can get the same education at, say, UW-Eau Claire? The answer is not one that figures to be in UW-La Crosse's best interests as it tries to recruit the brightest students it can.
The revenue for any such program should come from other sources — state or federal funding, or private donations. Money from those sources is tight, but it's the only way to implement such a program without being counterproductive.
Ultimately, the idea boils down to this: the Regents hope to make UW-La Crosse more affordable by raising the cost of attending the school.
Such a notion defies logic, and we call on the governor and Legislature to reject the La Crosse program when scrutinizing the Regents' budget proposal next year.
