Lyssa Beyer

With the current state of higher education funding in Wisconsin and the country, how can tuition rise any more? Well I’m writing to tell you that it will continue to rise, with a significant jump occurring in the next two years, if we let it happen. OK, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Before initiating this revolution, I need to address how I know that tuition is going to keep increasing. First, all signs are pointing toward this end. According the 07-08 UW System Fact Book, students and the state are contributing nearly identical amounts of money to fund this system. In the last ten years alone, the percentage of the total cost of instruction – how much it costs for us to attend classes – what students are paying has increased from 35.8 percent to 55.8 percent. In those same ten years, the state contribution to the whole UW System has decreased from 33.75 percent to 24.21 percent. There is a plethora of information out there to show the state is failing to provide for the UW System and that students are picking up the slack.

Another indication that tuition is going to significantly increase very soon is through a draft report released over Winterim by the UW System Tuition and Financial Aid Workgroup. This committee’s goal was to determine how to raise tuition and get the most out of it in the least controversial manner. Throughout the entire report there is negligible regard for the amount students are currently paying. Their main argument is because the UW System is about $1,000 below the median of our peer institutions, we should at the very least raise tuition $1,000. And if we look closely to the Advantage Wisconsin efforts of the UW System, we will see that they are trying to figure out how to do the most with the money we keep losing. Remember when the 2-year colleges received a tuition freeze for this academic year? If I were a betting man, I would bet that the main reason it happened was so we could stay competitive with the Wisconsin Technical College System that has lower tuition than our 2-year colleges, and not out of concern for students. The Tuition and Financial Aid Workgroup report nearly lets that cat out of the bag.

Another interesting fact is that since its conception in 1972, the UW System has been losing money from the state. Every year, the UW System is cut. Every year, the UW System raises tuition. But these tuition increases do not match the money we are losing. In 1972, the state provided $272.3 million to the UW System. In 2006, the state provided $218.2 million, in 1972 dollars adjusted for inflation. Slowly but surely, the UW System is going from a state supported public higher education system to a user and donor supported private education system.

As you know, we are the debt generation. Many of us have credit card debt. Many of us also have significant federal loans to pay back after graduation. In the latest UW System report, the average student will graduate with more than $20,000 worth of loan debt, not accounting for credit card debt. This is outrageous. We currently have administration and a few select student leaders telling us to be realistic about this budget cycle and not fret about tuition.

It’s not going to be that easy.

It is time that we, as students, organize and tell our administration, regents and legislators that we are not going to stand for any more tuition abuse. We chose the UW System because it is one of the greatest public higher education systems in the country. It didn’t get that way through the unrelenting taxing of students. We are who we are because of the foresight of past administrators, regents and legislators. What amazes me is that the data is there. We know and can prove what a significant investment in higher education can do for this state. Instead we focus on how to raise tuition without upsetting students and how to do the most with the money that we’re losing.

Students, this is our time. Our involvement in the 2006 midterm elections changed the tide of politics in Wisconsin. Our involvement in the primaries around the country has already had significant effects on the candidates. We need to organize, get upset and demand that our administrations, regents, and legislators prioritize higher education in Wisconsin the way they did in the past. This is the beginning of a movement. We want lower tuition. We want the money stolen from the UW System to be returned. Our education, for Wisconsin’s sake and ours, is too fragile for politics. We’re losing the tuition battle but we can’t afford to lose the education war.

French is the Student Body president and guest columnist for The Spectator.