The University of Wisconsin System announced Friday it will go forward with a plan to waive fall-semester tuition for any student displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
The UW Board of Regents made their intention clear after passing a "Hurricane Katrina Victims Resolution" at their meeting in West Bend, Wis., Sept. 9. The resolution moved to waive tuition for a new class of students, the Hurricane Katrina victims, pending approval from the state.
"We wanted to wait until [Friday] because we needed to talk to legislative leadership and make sure we're on the same page, including the governor's office, which everyone was," Regent President David Walsh said, "because it is the right thing to do at this time of crisis."
A first draft of the resolution would have set the tuition rate for Hurricane Katrina victims at zero, but after some debate it was decided not to act on the matter without consulting the state to make certain there were no objections.
"They delegated [System President Kevin] Reilly and Walsh to make sure there weren't any hiccups from that end," UW System Communications Director Doug Bradley said. "It took this week to touch base with leadership from both parties in the Senate."
While students from Tulane University and other New Orleans area schools are studying at a number of different UW institutions this semester, the UW system is attempting to make it clear they desire those students to return to their home schools when the doors reopen.
Any students who decides not to return to the Gulf Coast region but continue their study in Wisconsin will be required to pay for all credits earned in the UW system that apply toward a UW degree, according to a release.
"You'll notice that we're not trying to keep the students and we give them incentive therefore to go back," Walsh said. "It's not our mission to be taking somebody else's students especially if it's a crisis."
As the UW System attempts to accommodate evacuees, the regents noted in the resolution it should not exclude the system or its institutions from attempting to seek any available reimbursement for its tuition waiver.
"We're going to be out several hundred thousand dollars here so just a way for us to recoup anything along the way, that would be great," Bradley said.
According to Bradley, one reason for Wisconsin's tuition waiver is that some of the students may not receive refunds on tuition paid for the fall '05 semester at their previous school. If that tuition is returned to the students, the UW system would expect reimbursement from that school.
Regardless of the financial detriment the UW system absorbed as a result of waiving tuition, both Bradley and Walsh said the resolution was a good gesture given the devastating conditions of the Gulf Coast.
"We did it because it's the right thing," Walsh said. "It's no different if there had been an explosion down there and some of them needed beds in our hospitals."
