The Wisconsin Alumni Association announced its endorsement of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates Tuesday, adding one last vote of support before the finalized proposal goes before the Associated Students of Madison tonight.
“We think it’s a very smart plan, an important investment in undergraduate education,” WAA President and CEO Paula Bonner said. “We just wanted to make sure, as an organization, the students and the regents knew the association supported it.”
According to the endorsement, WAA chose to support the initiative because it “holds the potential to provide a high-quality, affordable education to generations of future UW students, and to uphold the value of the more than 370,000 UW-Madison degrees awarded to alumni around the world.”
Bonner said WAA supports many individual aspects as well, such as improved need-based financial aid and increased support for students.
“I just think it’s been exciting to have such a creative and bold kind of central strategic priority come forward for the university,” Bonner said. “Hopefully it pulls us all together and lets us continue to make this great university even stronger. We don’t want to lose any strides in our excellence.”
The endorsement was passed in the form of a resolution by the WAA Board of Directors’ Executive Committee, which acts on behalf of the board between meetings in accordance with bylaws.
Bonner said the WAA’s endorsement is important to the university because it represents the voices of University of Wisconsin alumni and their continued influence on the happenings on campus. She said overall there is clear, strong support from WAA for the initiative.
The endorsement precedes a vote tonight by ASM, which voted on April 8 to partially endorse a previous version of the proposal.
According to Class of 2010 President Hannah Karns, ASM originally had several concerns posed in the form of eight questions. Karns said Chancellor Biddy Martin addressed all eight at an ASM meeting and further questions were answered in an updated PowerPoint posted on the initiative website.
After ASM voted to partially endorse the initiative, Karns said representatives were instructed to go to constituents to gauge the level of student support. Their votes tomorrow are supposed to represent whatever feedback is gained.
“This is something I expect there to be a lot of debate [about today],” Karns said. “It just is a contentious issue. I’m not sure of where everyone stands.”
If ASM does not endorse the proposal, Karns said her understanding is it will again go back to the chancellor for revision.
“She really values student input on this, and so if the student government votes against this — which is the voice of the students — she’ll take another look,” Karns said.
If ASM decides to endorse the proposal, it will be passed on to UW System officials Thursday. The Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on it at the board’s May meeting.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates would increase in-state tuition by $250 and out-of-state tuition by $750 per year over a four-year period, after which tuition rates will top out at $1,000 and $3,000, respectively, more than current rates.
