The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Student Senate unanimously approved a resolution last Wednesday recommending changes on the Board of Regents’ policies regarding student involvement with differential tuition.
The final resolution, according to UW-La Crosse Student Association Vice President Karly Wallace, requests the Board of Regents amend their policy to allow differential tuition proposals to go through a student referendum.
UW-La Crosse Student Association officials were concerned the recent approval of the BluGold Commitment — a $1,200 differential tuition for UW-Eau Claire that will be implemented in $300 increments in the fall for the next four years — would set a precedent for the Regents to think it is acceptable to raise tuition without student body support.
The goal of the resolution is to either amend the Regent policy dealing with student involvement or to raise awareness on the issue of this lack of student involvement, showing that student opinion matters just as much as the student elected officials, Wallace said.
There has been some controversy, however, that the resolution is telling the Regents and other UW System schools how to deal with differential tuition, Wallace said.
“This [resolution] doesn’t direct other campuses how to set up differential tuition,” Wallace said. It just requests that the Regents amend their policies to mandate that there must be a minimum amount of student body involvement for tuitions to be raised.”
Wallace also believes there has been a lot of student approval of the resolution and the finalized resolution notes 69 percent of UW-Eau Claire students said they disapproved of the tuition hike.
The resolution also mentioned the survey given to UW students concerning the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates last spring, which resulted in an 80 percent disapproval rating.
Two UW-Eau Claire students, off-campus Student Senator Collin Hawkins and former Intergovernmental Affairs Director Armon Tabrizi, also attended the meeting in La Crosse to show their approval of the resolution and to talk about the BluGold Commitment.
Tabrizi spoke at the meeting, mentioning the need for this resolution and specific policy changes, said Michael Umhoefer, UW-Eau Claire Student Government Association president.
The finalized resolution has come with some criticism on the side of the UW-Eau Claire Student Government.
While many in the UW-Eau Claire Student Government have stood by the BluGold Commitment, there are students who disapprove of the way UW-La Crosse handled the resolution-making process, Umhoefer said.
“The report was very vague; it doesn’t clarify the use of a binding referendum or an advisory referendum, and also eliminates the opinion of a student government,” Umhoefer said. “If we’re going to talk about policy changes, we must make sure that all of the students and the student government have a say on where the money goes, not just a small student sample.”
They also would have preferred the resolution to be a discussion item between all of the UW System student governments to provide a unified word to the Regents, Umhoefer said.
Now that the resolution has been submitted, the Board of Regents is looking over the UW-La Crosse proposal. The Regents are expected to make their decision in April.
