The state Capitol has had to walk a tight line in recent years, trying to cope with a massive budget deficit while keeping the University of Wisconsin System as affordable and accessible as possible.

As Friday's protest indicated, many students are unhappy with the direction higher education is heading in Wisconsin. With tuition on a sharp incline, they allege the state university is being priced out of the reach of many state residents.

Steve Baas, spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said the legislature empathizes with students' concerns, but at the same time stresses that taxpayers' needs cannot be ignored.

"The number one priority for the state has to be reducing the burden on taxpayers," Baas said. "Everybody would like to keep [the university] the great bargain it is — among the lowest tuition in the Big Ten. But we have to find an acceptable middle ground so that reasonable access to the university can be maintained without taxpayers being forced to bear an unreasonable tax burden."

Gov. Jim Doyle's 2003-2005 budget included a $250 million cut to the UW System. The Board of Regents asked students to pick up the tab for $150 million of that, meaning tuition raised an average of 37.5 percent over the last two years.

Dan Leistikow, Doyle's press secretary, said the governor has done his best to sustain accessibility to higher education in the face of the budget shortfall.

"Affordability to the university is a very important priority to this state," Leistikow said. "In the last budget we included the largest financial aid increase in history."

Some say students feeling a financial pinch should consider pointing their finger at Bascom instead of the Capitol.

Rep. Frank Lasee, R-Green Bay, accuses the university system of playing a game of "Chicken Little" by complaining about budget cuts while at the same time increasing administrative salaries.

Lasee refers specifically to recent findings by the state Legislative Audit Bureau indicating 25 percent of UW System personnel fill administrative positions, far exceeding the 6.9 percent figure reported by the system. In the last year administrative positions have seen a 9 percent increase in salaries.

In his weekly newsletter, Lasee says the system believes, "Budget cuts were going to directly affect the classroom — many students weren't going to be able to afford college anymore. Those who could wouldn't get the same quality of education."

"I wonder — was the 9 percent salary increase in the works at the same time they made these claims?" Lasee wrote.

Regardless of who is at fault for the escalating costs of higher education, the future of educational funding in Wisconsin remains cloudy, at least in the near term, Leistikow said.

He said it is too early to say how much money will be allocated to the UW System in Doyle's next biennial budget. State revenue figures, yet to be released, will influence when Doyle crafts his budget in early 2005.

The Board of Regents in September submitted to Doyle a plan to raise tuition 4.3 percent along with a 7.2 percent increase in state funding.