Dealing with budget constraints is nothing new to college students. Every day we make choices about how to spend our limited money. We buy the economical 30-pack of PBR over our favorite microbrew. We decide to share a textbook with a friend.
While some budgetary decisions in our lives are relatively trivial, some can be very stress-inducing. Either way, we know that we must make them and figure out a way to live within our means.
Budgetary situations at the state and university level are no different, except that decision-makers at these levels can, unfortunately, choose to balance their books on the backs of others. When this happens, taxpayers, students or both are affected.
Our state legislators were sworn in on Jan. 3. They now enter a budget period in which they face a deficit and will have to make difficult decisions regarding funding for the UW System, as well as other vital programs and services. For the sake of Wisconsin’s taxpayers, who are some of the most highly taxed in the country, this must be done without raising taxes of any sort. The state is required to balance its books each budget cycle, and asking taxpayers to bear more and more of the brunt should not be an option.
Just as our newly inaugurated state representatives must work within the budget constraints before them, so must our university. In the past year, the University of Wisconsin System hired Kevin Reilly to replace Katherine Lyall as its president. It also made the decision to set Reilly’s starting salary at $320,000 — nearly $12,000 more than Lyall’s ending salary. Although I’m sure the UW System has its reasons for this spending increase, such as attracting highly qualified administrators, it does send students and taxpayers a message. To me, it says that the UW is not hurting for funds to maintain the quality of education for its students. Surely if it can afford to raise administrators’ pay, it can afford to keep tuition low for the people that it serves.
Whether reduced from previous years or not, each budget cycle presents the UW with a finite amount of funds that the system must allocate with students’ needs in mind. As we have seen our tuition levels skyrocket in the past few years, UW officials simply say that the state is not giving them enough money and they therefore must pass the cuts on to us as tuition increases.
This is why it was promising to see Reilly’s salary. If the UW can afford to spend money on its top official, it can certainly afford to meet its students’ needs without raising tuition. I doubt the UW will ever be presented with a budget it is completely happy with. Its administrators should use the energy that they expend to complain about the level of funding allocated by the state to research new ways to cut costs without further straining students and their families.
University officials will soon decide how to use their limited funds in the best way possible for the students they serve. Ultimately, cuts will probably have to be made. I suggest starting at the top.
However, the same constraints do not apply to those who approve our student segregated-fee bills. Each spring, the ASM Student Segregated Fees Committee and Student Council approve the student organization budgets that eventually determine the amount of segregated fees that we will pay the following year. Unlike the UW System, which has a finite budget that it may raise tuition on top of, ASM is virtually given a blank check that builds on students’ tuition accounts. While certain student organizations play a vital role in our student life at the UW, their needs should in no way take precedence over the ability of students to afford their education.
Take a look at your tuition bill for this semester. You will see that $306.08 goes to segregated fees. To most students, this is a hefty fee, and one that is not easily absorbed.
We must urge our decision-makers and representatives at the student government, university, and state levels to consider their constituencies’ ability to pay when making important budgetary decisions. Through collective action, we can put to rest the mentality that others — be it Student Council, university officials, or state legislators — know how to spend our money better than we do.
Whether it’s trying to figure out how to stretch your last $5 on a Friday night or deciding how much money to allot a public program, budgetary decisions are never easy. However, decision-makers at all levels of government must decide to live within their means, just as we do.
Nicole Marklein ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science. She is campus chair of College Republicans.