The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse is proposing to increase students' tuition by $1,300 over three years as a pilot for proposed systemwide tuition increases.

Cary Heyer, director of public relations for UW-La Crosse, said the planned tuition increase is different than Gov. Jim Doyle's 4-percent increase across the entire UW System. Instead, she said the increase is in addition to smaller annual tuition increases, which account for inflation.

Under Doyle's proposed budget, UW-Madison students would pay more than $500 over the two-year budget period for annual 4-percent tuition increases.

Heyer said additional revenue from UW-La Crosse's tuition increases would support its plan to "invest in quality" and would allow enrollment to increase by 750 Wisconsin students and 250 out-of-state students.

"We were forced to explore creative ways to make up for state funding," Heyer said. "We want to ensure the quality that we are known for."

State Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, is critical of the plan and called it a diversity tax on students.

"[UW-La Crosse] is trying to place a tax on students for what the university should be paying for," Suder said. "If anything, the money should be taken out of the administration."

Doyle's 4-percent tuition increase across UW System schools hits students pretty hard, Suder said, adding the amount needs to be much lower for students.

Despite criticism from some legislators, Heyer said the UW-La Crosse plan will become a "benchmark that other [universities] will measure themselves against."

Besides the proposed 4-percent tuition rate for all state universities, Doyle's budget includes an additional provision that allows UW System faculty and staff the right to collective bargaining, or the ability to form unions.

Under the provision, faculty would be treated like other state employees and work together to fight for their own economic interests.

Suder said a policy that allows UW System faculty and staff the right to bargain is a major policy change that requires discussion and deserves a public hearing.

"We can't just slip a major policy change into the state budget," Suder said. "[The policy] would require a great deal of money and we have a budget shortfall."

Suder, a member of the Legislature's bipartisan Joint Finance Committee, said he plans to block Doyle's tuition increase and the collective bargaining provisions from the budget.