Under a pilot program proposed to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents last Thursday, three UW schools plan to decrease non-resident tuition for children of alumni by 25 percent.

If accepted, the program “Return to Wisconsin” would start next fall and would cut tuition at UW-Eau Claire, UW-Oshkosh and UW-La Crosse for the children and grandchildren of alumni who live outside of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Non-resident students currently pay $13,546 annually for an education at these three UW schools, but if the proposal is passed, non-resident students would pay $10,160.

The proposal is intended to recover the $4.7 million lost this year in non-resident tuition caused by the plummeting number of out-of-state residents applying within the UW system.

As UW system officials noted, the system lost nearly 400 out-of-state students this academic year, most likely due to tuition skyrocketing over 50 percent over the last five years.

The tuition break is designed to amplify enrollment of out-of-state students and to provide incentive for students with Wisconsin ties to get an education here and integrate themselves into the Wisconsin workforce.

“When [UW-Madison] graduates 29,000 educated students each year, the stereotype is that they run for the border as fast they can, and the more highly trained workers aren’t here,” UW Systems Spokesman Erik Christianson said. “[‘Return to Wisconsin’] is trying to address this problem early by recruiting early for educated college graduates who will not only enrich UW schools, but also the state in the long term.”

As Christianson noted, the program would also work to ultimately decrease the UW System’s reliance on state dollars and create more space for resident enrollment.

“[Non-resident students] help subsidize in-state tuition by paying more than it costs to educate them, and this money can be used for need-based financial aid for resident students. There is a direct relationship between the number of resources and the access rate, or number of high school students who come to college,” Christianson said. “‘Return to Wisconsin’ is all about bringing in additional resources for Wisconsin students.”

But some officials at the pilot schools are anticipating that an influx of non-resident students applying could possibly take the spots of Wisconsin high school students.

“It could be a problem if we got so many [non-resident students], we couldn’t handle them all,” Elizabeth Hitch, provost and chancellor of academic affairs at UW-La Crosse, said. “But out of the 42,000 La Crosse alumni, only 38 alumni have college-age children and live out of state. There probably won’t be a huge wave of students, but there will definitely be more than we have now.”

The UW Board of Regent members opened the pilot program to any UW campus, and UW-Whitewater and UW-Stout have also expressed interest in the program.

UW-Madison will not participate in the “Return to Wisconsin” program because of the already-full capacity of non-resident enrollment.