Opinion: Letter
Tuition initiative worth it
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The state of
But, we’ve faced financial shortfalls for several years. Budget restrictions limit what we can do and prevent us from keeping pace with the costs of higher education. We need to find new ways to provide a world-class education and compete on a national and international playing field.
Chancellor Biddy Martin proposed the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates just a few weeks ago. This initiative addresses the threat of an eroding undergraduate experience and increases need-based financial aid.
Personally, and as Dean of the College of Letters & Science, I enthusiastically support the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates. This proposal will greatly improve the core education in the university, but will ensure that future students continue receiving world-class educations and hopefully even better.
You may not know this, but L&S teaches more than 80 percent of the first- and second-year student credit hours. Those classes you took in math, chemistry, English, philosophy and political science stem from L&S.
L&S also supplies courses for students who major in other schools and colleges. An average student who majors in business or engineering will take more than 45 percent of his or her credits from L&S.
Simply put, L&S provides the core of an undergraduate education at
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates would do just that. If the proposal is implemented, L&S would be able to do the following:
· Increase the capacity of the Economics Department to meet rising student demand for courses and majors. We would hire more faculty and teaching assistantships and offer more faculty-taught large class sections and faculty-taught small class sections. This would tackle an ongoing problem in Econ, where full classes close out students. In Economics 302, an average of 200 students are closed out of the class every semester.
· Increase the capacity of language instruction — especially in the Spanish Department — by hiring additional faculty, teaching assistants and academic instructional staff. This semester there were more than 350 students that could not be accommodated in Spanish courses. We even added and filled three additional Spanish sections on nearly the last day to add courses in the semester.
· Meet annual demand in chemistry by hiring additional graduate teaching assistants for some group sections. Currently, demand exceeds capacity by about 300 seats each semester in Introduction to Organic Chemistry.
· Increase the number of Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGs) or Undergraduate Research Scholars (URS). These programs work extremely well — students in FIGs or URS are three times more likely to graduate with a GPA higher than 3.1. They also graduate sooner and are more likely to participate in service activities and take on leadership roles on campus.
· Improve academic advising and services. Combined with better course access, this will ensure students get access to courses appropriate for them and in the correct sequences.
· Increase the amount of need-based financial aid five-fold, which will support incoming students before department specific aid is available to them.
We have a great university. The Madison Initiative will help maintain that quality in our undergraduate experiences in the College of Letters & Science and throughout the entire university. I fully support it.
Gary Sandefur
Dean,
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So the university needs more money… who doesn’t need more money right now? People and companies with budgets cut back before they do ridiculous things like cut money. Why should parents who already pay taxes or students who end up in debt foot an additional bill for this university? If these additions to L&S are so important for everyone, who do only some people have to pay for it? Why should upperclassmen who will see no benefit from this plan help pay for it? You’ve ignored the major flaws in this plan to put another piece of propaganda out trying to get students to support another tuition hike that’s unnecessary.
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The fact is, if you compare it to its peers, the tuition at UW-Madison has been too low for quite some time. If it wants to not only hold steady, but keep up with its peers and hold up against all the schools trying to move up, a tuition increase is absolutely necessary. Great article.
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I am worried about the justifications for this tuition increase. I thought that the money the UW made through WARF, alumni donations, private contributions, and a high level of state aid helped to keep tuition low. Saying that tuition is too low BECAUSE it is last in the Big Ten is a terrible argument.
Are the facilities at Madison in the median of the Big Ten? Are professor salaries? Are administrator salaries? Are graduate’s projected future earnings in the median of the Big Ten? What about state aid, WARF, or alumni donations?
In order for this proposal to not be met by outrage from students, there has to be a strong reason for it. I will gladly pay extra if it will improve my education. But will this money truly be used for what they say? If the differential tuition at the College of Engineering is any guide, no.
Having the lowest tuition in the Big Ten is a feature, not a bug!
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Glad to see someone who will benefit from the program and not pay any additional fees supports it.
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You have got to be kidding me! I understand all of the facts and figures about our tuition being the second lowest in our Peer Groups and the Big 10, HOWEVER just because it is the lowest doesn’t mean that all the money raised by this increase should all go towards L&S! What a crock - just because 80% of our core classes come from L&S DOES NOT MEAN that L&S should get all of the money, we also have high demand courses and majors where we are not able to admit approximately 40% of the students trying to get into these courses. There are several colleges on campus that are just as deserving of this money and L&S SHOULD NOT BE BOASTING about getting all of this money. How are we, faculty and staff, supposed to support this initiative when there is this blatant statement about where the money is going. We have asked the Chancellors Office to provide a justification for L&S getting all the money and they are “unable to comment” however you see a letter from the L&S Dean saying this is what we are going to do with the money!!! We held a listening/information session for last night and we had over 60 faculty, staff and students show up - and the majority of the feedback we received was their concern that L&S was getting all the money - what about the other schools/colleges who are just as deserving! The Chancellor’s Office needs to better explain this and support this initative university wide rather than L&S focused.
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The general education requirement (GER) for all UW students is about 40 credits accounting for one thirds of the typical 124 credits for graduation. L&S provides all the courses for GER credits. If money follows credits, L&S should receive more from tuition paid by students than any other colleges. Why students in other colleges should pay more for L&S to expand? Instead of expansion, we should think of reduction. Many of GER courses can be easily implemented as online classes. These afterhours online classes for sure help students to graduate in four years. State Senate President Fred Risser compares paying tuition to paying tax. Families making $80K to $120K bear most taxation burden; and also most likely have college students. These families have already paid more through taxation to support our public education system. Why should they pay elevated tuition?