University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents met Thursday to discuss several major issues involving the UW System, including the continuing controversy over tuition and financial-aid policy.

The regents began Thursday’s meeting discussing creative ways to tackle these issues, while in today’s meeting they will aim to establish tuition rates for the UW System.

With looming tuition rates threatening undergraduates, regents focused Thursday on the policies shaping tuition and financial aid.

According to UW System Associate Vice President for Budget and Planning Freda Harris, the board can utilize tuition revenue from the state biennial budget approved through the Legislature and governor.

Further revenue can be raised to pay for employee pay plans and benefits, funds lost due to enrollment reductions and state-imposed costs not paid in the state budget.

Harris also addressed the regents’ 2005-07 budget recommendation to Gov. Jim Doyle, as well as Doyle’s executive budget proposal.

The board’s ’05-07 budget proposal gave additional funding for financial aid, protecting low-income families from rising tuition costs, an attribute not retained in Doyle’s own budget request.

According to Harris, students struggling to afford UW System tuition costs “would be held harmless for tuition increases” if the funding was not allocated to financial aid.

Despite budget conflicts and proposed tuition increases, financial aid continues to play an important role in UW’s achievements.

According to UW System Interim Assistant Vice President for Policy Analysis and Research Sharon Wilhelm, almost 100,000 UW students were given $700 million in financial aid in 2003-04, 70 percent of which went to undergraduates.

However, 80 percent of financial aid is generated through federal government endowments such as Pell Grants and Stafford Loans.

Doyle’s 2005-07 proposed budget would increase tuition 5 to 7 percent per year. Thirty-seven million dollars would go to student auxiliary funds to cover last year’s financial-aid costs, while $16.3 million would fulfill financial-aid rate and tuition increases and $4 million for the state’s largest grant program.

In an effort to creatively approach obstacles, the regents offered possible solutions to help approach the tough tuition situation.

Regent Jesus Salas suggested the board hold true to protecting low-income families from rising tuition costs.

Additionally, Regent Jose Olivieri said the board should reform the current pricing structure to allow lower-income families a lower tuition rate.

“If we have [pricing authority], we should see how we can use our authority to deal with this issue,” Olivieri said.

The regents followed their discussion of tuition and financial aid with an analysis of the state’s Accountability Report. The report, a grade sheet of how the UW System is stacking up against its goals, benchmarks the strategic tradeoffs made amid shifting resources, according to UW System President Kevin P. Reilly.

“It was designed to help us strive for continuous improvement,” Reilly said. “We can weigh our performance gaps against student, faculty and state priorities to inform our budget, management and policy decisions.”

Additionally, the UW System achieved 12 of its 20 goals established in the report.

Four of the other goals were considered a mixed success, since only parts of the goals were achieved.

Reilly said the success of the UW System was only possible because of the exceptional efforts of UW chancellors, provosts, faculty and staff.

“Their collective energy has led to success in the short run,” Reilly said. “With the proper support, we can achieve even greater excellence next year, and in years after that.”

The regents also made a full review of Doyle’s executive budget proposal, which includes 29 UW projects, two-thirds of the requested $231 million for new construction and 84 percent for all major state construction projects for the next two years.

UW Assistant Vice President for Capital Planning and Budget David Miller told the regents the state aims to involve itself in higher-education projects.