UW System schools will lose more than $20 million in state funding under Saturday’s Assembly action.
Assembly Republicans voted Saturday to cut millions from the UW budget after the Board of Regents suspended undergraduate admissions late last week.
Republican lawmakers also approved the elimination of UW’s $4 million advertising budget, $17 million from the travel budget and $1 million in a need-based grant program for study abroad programs.
State lawmakers largely agreed that the UW Board of Regents acted irresponsibly when halting undergraduate enrollment at all of the 26 UW System universities. Some, like Rep. Steve Naas, R-Whitewater, have said Wisconsin residents who are potential students are being cheated by not being allowed a place in a state institution.
The Assembly voted to hold onto the maximum 8 percent increase, which the Joint Finance Committee approved. Gov. Scott McCallum had proposed a 10 percent cap; due to the change, an estimated $20 million loss in funds would hit the system.
Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-Eau Claire, introduced a plan to impose a 10 percent tuition charge on out-of-state students, beyond those now covered by tuition reciprocity agreements. This would raise an additional $9.4 million.
In addition to the cuts in funding, lawmakers moved to charge students with 165 undergraduate credits or more with the full cost of their education. Under current law, taxpayers now pay about 60 percent of tuition costs without restrictions on the number of credits.
According to Kreibich, more than 3,000 students have more than 165 undergraduate credits.
“The current system perpetuates the professional student,” Kreibich said. “The bottom line is that the UW System has had an incentive to keep students on campus as long as possible.”
Assembly Republicans, who do not normally meet on weekends, took action only one day after UW officials announced a hold on undergraduate admissions at all 26 campuses.
UW officials announced the plan to hold admissions after the Joint Finance Committee, where the governor’s state budget-deficit proposal was approved, accepted $50 million in cuts to the UW Systems budget. The legislative committee went beyond proposed cuts by the governor and asked for 1 percent more by mid-2003. All state agencies will be asked to make an additional 1 percent cut to their budgets.
Kreibich, chair of the Assembly’s Colleges and Universities Committee, said the regents’ decision on admissions played into the Assembly’s decision.
“It totally agitated our members,” he said. “We don’t want to yield on tuition caps, and we didn’t want to succumb to blackmail.”
UW System President Katharine Lyall said the action taken by Assembly Republicans would reduce the opportunity for education. She also said she hopes the cuts were not intended as retribution.
“We have a responsibility to manage our resources. The regent decided to see what kinds of cuts were coming before we continued with the admissions process,” Lyall told the Journal Sentinel. “I hope the Senate will have cooler heads prevail.”
The bill must pass through the state Senate and be signed by Gov. McCallum before it becomes law.
Other state agencies were also asked to make deeper cuts. The 56 Republicans voted for additional cuts above those recommended by McCallum.
The joint committee approved state-agency cuts of 3.5 percent during this fiscal year and 6 percent in the next year, which begins July 1. Assembly Republicans bumped the cuts to 7.5 percent in the second year.