With the elections just a month away, many University of Wisconsin-Madison students remain unclear on which gubernatorial candidate has their best interests in mind. Issues relevant to the university system include the continued battle over the schools’ shares of the state budget.

The UW System’s Board of Regents wants to have the final word on yearly tuition for in-state students. This would give the UW System the flexibility to deal with budget cuts without sacrificing the quality of education or being forced to cut enrollment and close two-year campuses.

“[UW System president Katharine] Lyall and the Regents have said if the state can’t commit to continue to grow enrollment, we either need to cut back on our ways or will have to cut enrollment to maintain quality,” UW System spokesman Erik Christianson said.

Incumbent Republican Gov. Scott McCallum and Democrat Attorney General Jim Doyle both oppose the regents having that power over the university system.

“Right now, tuition increases have to be approved by two houses and the governor,” said Debbie Monterrey-Millett, communications director for McCallum’s campaign. Monterrey-Millett said this system of checks and balances is the reason the governor remains in favor of the Legislature deciding in-state tuition.

“Last year, in the budget, the governor capped tuition increases at 8 percent,” Monterrey-Millett said. “Having tuition control by [the] Legislature keeps tuition low, and ultimately, that’s advantageous to the students.”

Christianson explained the regents’ historical power in tuition caps.

“The regents used to have that flexibility until 1999,” Christianson said. “In the 10-year period before that, tuition increases averaged around 6 percent, or about $125 a year, which are very predictable increases.”

Libertarian candidate Ed Thompson said tuition decisions should be left to the university.

“I think the university should make decisions on issues that concern the university,” Thompson said. “Tuition shouldn’t rise beyond the rate of inflation, and I feel that with that, financial aid should rise.”

While Thompson is in favor of the UW System controlling itself, he added that the Board of Regents would benefit from business sense.

“In any business I know, you wouldn’t give your people more money when you’re in financial straits,” Thompson said, referring to last year’s 3.2 percent increase in salary for system chancellors, vice chancellors and senior officers, which totaled $300,000.

“You’d just say, ‘Look, you’re going to have to work for the same amount as you did last year,'” Thompson said.

All the candidates agreed a more highly educated work force would bolster the state’s economy.

“If we want to stop the brain drain and encourage industry, then we need to lower taxes,” Thompson said. “We need to create jobs first and foremost to make these students want to stay and work in Wisconsin.”

McCallum’s campaign has stressed the use of “benchmarks” in determining funds for state universities. One of these standards would be the success rate each university had keeping students in the state after graduation.

UW-Madison had 55 percent of graduates stay in the state over the last six years, compared to UW-Milwaukee, which retained 90 percent of its students.

Christianson says Chancellor John Wiley has been clear he feels it is impractical to use student retention as a funding benchmark because a university cannot control where its graduates accept jobs.

“The ‘brain drain’ term that gets talked about is really a misnomer,” Christianson said. “The UW System does an excellent job of retaining in-state students. Where we could do better is retaining out-of-state graduates.”

Monterrey-Millett said graduate retention isn’t the only factor McCallum would consider a benchmark, and UW-Madison’s graduate retention would most likely be balanced by other factors in deciding funding.

“It would also be taken into consideration which schools have been making advancements in science and technology, because those [schools] spur industry,” Monterrey-Millett said. “UW-Madison is also the source of patents. Patents also bring industries into the state, and UW-Madison has always been a force in that area.”

Doyle’s platform statement said he is heavily in favor of research in science and technology, specifically biotechnology, in which Wisconsin is a leader.

The platform said Doyle would veto attempts to outlaw, criminalize or limit the vital research at Wisconsin’s universities. The platform said such research would create high-paying jobs and incredible economic opportunity.

“The top priority of the UW System is to grow graduates who can get higher-paying jobs, which is harder to do with squeezed budgets and, possibly, reduced enrollments,” Christianson said.

Doyle’s proposed budget would include the elimination of 10,000 state jobs.

“Doyle hasn’t been specific about where cuts would come from,” Monterrey-Millett said.

Christianson said it is unclear and impossible to tell how these proposed cuts would affect the UW System.

“We have 500 fewer faculty members than we did in 1994, but enrollment continues to go up,” Christianson said.

Thompson said he would take cuts first from the inflated state prison system, which is running at 125 percent of capacity.

“I would start with prisons and cutting costs in other places,” Thompson said.

Christianson stressed that the UW System has never and would never endorse gubernatorial candidates but would continue to work closely with whoever occupied the office.