Following the approval of a two-year tuition freeze for University of Wisconsin students earlier this year, Chancellor Rebecca Blank expressed her interest in raising out-of-state tuition in an interview with the Appleton Post-Crescent Friday.

The two-year tuition freeze only extends to resident in-state tuition. Last year, the UW System Board of Regents decided to extend the freeze to all tuition ranges, but this only lasts for one year, David Giroux, UW System spokesperson, said.

Blank said in her interview with the Post-Crescent she wants in-state tuition to remain low and relatively stable, but she is concerned about the price at which UW sells its services out-of-state. UW is comparable to University of Michigan with a similar number of high quality student applications, Blank said.

University of Michigan’s price for out-of-state, however, is $14,000 higher than UW, while offering a virtually identical product, she said.

Blank said in the interview she does not understand why UW is underselling an excellent product to people out-of-state and making it cheaper than competitors. She said she does not think it will have a substantial impact on the ability to recruit out-of-state and international students.

About 10 to 15 percent of the increase in college costs has to do with new buildings and allowing faculty and staff to have competitive salaries, Blank said in the interview.

“My faculty have national and, in many cases, international reputations — they compete in that national and international market,” Blank said. “So, if I don’t pay them the salary that they could get at any number of other institutions around the country or around the world, they will not stay at Wisconsin.”

Blank said one of her goals is to see where UW can manage more efficiently and effectively and run a little bit leaner because that will help keep some of the costs down.

Associated Students of Madison Chair David Gardner is interested in college affordability on campus and said he recognizes UW wants to have the best quality university possible. However, the university also needs to recognize the costs the students are facing, Gardner said.

The next time tuition prices will be decided is in summer 2014 for the 2014-2015 school year, and it is at this time the regents will have to decide if they want to make any adjustments to non-resident and graduate tuition prices, Giroux said.

ASM will be working with the Board of Regents to determine the price of tuition for next year, Gardner said.

“I can’t confirm what the Board of Regents will decide but ultimately our goal will be to say in-state-tuition is frozen for two years and we’d like to see the same for out-of-state as well,” Gardner said.

ASM’s short-term goal is to work along with Blank and the Board of Regents to find a common solution to potential problems regarding both quality and cost control, Gardner said.