The University of Wisconsin?s Associate Vice President of Budget

and Planning, Freda Harris, presented financial aid proposals part

of the ?Charting a New Course? study that focus on aiding

low-income students to the Board of Regents Friday.

The plan, aimed at solving the state’s fiscal deficit, would

raise tuition by 15.8 percent in 2005 and 10 percent the following

year. Harris said these figures would be adjusted according to

inflation at a later date. The plan also demands a total budget

request of $26 million for the 2005-07 fiscal years.

In 2002-03, UW tuition increased on average system-wide $224,

and Harris called for an additional increase. She said she did not

know the minimum UW would be forced to raise tuition, but said

there was “not a lot of room to go below” $500 to $700

increases.

In 2002, UW tuition cost low-income families 33 percent of their

annual income. Harris said 35 percent of UW African-American and

Hispanic students were in the lowest income bracket, while 18

percent of white students and 15 percent of Asian-American students

were also in the lowest bracket.

“Minority students are as a group more dependent on financial

aid,” Harris said at Friday’s meeting.

Harris also noted that the more diverse the student body, the

higher the unmet need, or the gap between the amount a student can

pay and the amount the university asks of them, would be for

minority students. Harris said this was reflected in the percentage

of low-income students in the UW student body, which declined by

3.5 percent from 1992 to 2002.

Regent Nino Amato said the budget needs to address

lower-middle-income students, whose families’ annual income falls

between $40,000 to $60,000, and middle-income students, whose

families’ incomes begin at $61,000. Amato said the percentage of

low- to medium-income students also decreased at UW, but students

whose families earn more than $83,000 annually increased by 5.7

percent over the last decade.

“That is what I would call a wake-up call to this institution

that was built for students — that we are pricing a UW education

out of reach of a growing number of students,” Amato said. “That

[Harris’] proposal only addressed the lowest quartile of students,

and we need to include the next two quartiles if [UW is] going to

raise tuition.”

Harris said extending the plan to the second quartile would cost

$84 million because UW requires a $50 million base just to fill the

“hole” in the next budget caused by factors such as students’

growing unmet needs and inflation.

Amato said he and other regents, such as Jose Olivieri and Danae

Davis, believe the issues of financial aid and growing tuition

costs need to be the centerpiece of the upcoming budget.

Amato said the budget issues will be discussed at meetings in

April, May and June.

“The choice is that we don’t raise tuition and keep it at what

it is, but if we dare raise tuition, then we have to offset it,”

Amato said. “Students don’t need any more debt. Financial aid is

great, but if it’s not a grant, it’s not going to do anybody any

good.”