Students will once again face another round of tuition increases this year at all four-year University of Wisconsin System schools.

The Board of Regents unanimously approved the 5.5 percent tuition increase at its June meeting, but froze tuition at the UW System’s two-year schools.

Tuition increases are nothing new to students, who have faced a 5.5 percent increase in tuition every year for the past four years.

However tuition hikes go back much farther than that.

AUW spokesperson David Giroux said, no one can remember the last year tuition did not increase and was frozen.

Giroux said the UW System is facing a serious challenge of increased costs and underpaid faculty, all while state funding for the system is going down.

Giroux added the state has many funding priorities, and the university system is one of the only institutions that has another funding source – student tuition.

Because of the student funding via tuition the amount the state pays for each resident student has gone down dramatically in the last 10 years, Giroux said.

“Ten years ago, the state paid for 60 percent of a Wisconsin resident’s tuition and the student paid the other 40 percent,” Giroux said. “Now those percentages have switched, with the student paying 60 percent and the state paying the 40 percent.”

With the 2011-13 biannual budget looming and the state facing large deficits, there might be more cuts for the UW system in the near future.

Board of Regents President Chuck Pruitt said he and UW System President Kevin Reilly have been going around the state in the past few days.

He said they have been talking to editorial boards and citizen groups to try and make the case for why the state needs to support higher education.

“We are working hard to try and make the case for the need for the state to re-invest in the university,” Pruitt said.

Certain costs on campuses, Pruitt said, have been going up steadily almost every year.

He added even though universities might not be doing more or cutting costs, tuition still increases.

“There are a lot of what we call costs to continue […] which basically means what it costs to continue next year, what you’ve already been doing this year,” Pruitt said. “Those costs have been going up pretty steadily, most of which are things like utility costs, energy costs and healthcare and benefit costs.”

Pruitt said his best advice for students who are concerned with the rising cost of tuition is to apply for as much financial aid as they can and to engage in conversations with the people at the state level to show them the importance of supporting higher education in Wisconsin.

“Certainly if they are comfortable they should feel free to participate in democracy and talk about how important it is for candidates and others to support the university through tax and state dollars,” Pruitt said.