By
Jonathan Cook, Courtney Brusoe, Zeyao Wu, Jingyu Liang
The Walker administration pushed for an extension of the
tuition freeze in the 2014 gubernatorial campaign. The Walker tuition freeze is
a restriction in the amount a UW school can charge an undergraduate student as
well as a freeze of the tax support from the state. According to the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel (jsonline.com) the reduction in revenue is estimated at $210
million across the two year freeze, accounting for a loss of $181 million in
state tax support and $28 million from tuition if UW schools increased their
tuition only 2% per year.
The tuition freeze legislation came as a response to a 2012
audit that found large sums of money in the unrestricted budget of UW schools.
Many within the state legislature believed the large sums of money to be a
malpractice that caused undergraduate students to pay more than they should, so
they passed the freeze in tuition and a freeze in state funding as a reaction.
$648 million was found across hundreds of accounts in unrestricted cash
balances across all UW schools. The UW system claimed the majority of that
balance, $441.2 million, was already planned to be used, leaving $207 million
in reserve.
While “unrestricted” suggests that the fund was extra money,
the balance is viewed as a savings account to cushion the blow against
decreased enrollment or emergencies. The forced cap in revenue has caused many
UW schools to use their savings to maintain normal functions and to pay their
faculty without making deep budget cuts.
Joe Gow, Chancellor of UW – La Crosse said, “86% of the UW-L
budget is to pay faculty members. If schools have a cap in revenue, they are
not as competitive in recruiting top professors and not as able to maintain the
highly trained staff they already have.”
Two years after the beginning of the tuition freeze, the UW
school system released a 250 page budget report. This time, the system was much
more transparent about where the unrestricted budget money is and what it is
for. According to the report, $973 million is classified as unrestricted, but
$798 million is planned for specific expenses like construction projects or new
equipment. Of the remaining balance, $111 million is classified as emergency
use and $64 million as discretionary. The discretionary account is less than
half of what was found after the 2012 audit. The emergency fund accounts for
around 3% of the total $6 billion UW budget.
The original legislation pertaining to the tuition was for
two years. Therefore, if the state legislature does not renew the law the
tuition freeze is scheduled to end at the end of the current 2014-2015 school
year. Scott Walker and his administration was reelected for another term on a
platform that includes an extension of the tuition freeze.
Many students think the tuition freeze is necessary in order
to afford college. Kelsey Pierce who studied Therapeutic Recreation at UW-L,
said, “I live in great pressure this semester, because I have to work three
nights a week from 5:30pm to 11:59 pm, and on Sunday sometimes to earn money
for my tuition. Tuition is high for me because my parents don’t pay for me. I
know that they [the university] will increase tuition to maintain the
quality of the university in the future, I just want them increase it within
the reasonable range so I can afford it.”
Another UW-L student, Katie Faster thought that the tuition
freeze was a good policy to help students graduate. “I am a lucky person,”
Faster said. “My grandparents help me pay a part of tuition. Some students’
families have the ability to pay tuition, but their parents don’t pay for their
children. These students cannot get financial support because of their parents’
income. It is terrible for them.” Faster really encourages tuition freeze
practices on campus. Yet, Faster said, “Some of them might not have enough
money to pay for faculty salary and new campus buildings because the state cut
the funding.”
While a two year freeze in tuition was manageable by many
universities, a further extension could be problematic. According to a 2014 UW
report, some schools like UW - Superior and UW - Milwaukee are reduced to a
very small savings account. UW - Superior specifically is $1.9 million in debt.
UW - Milwaukee is reduced to only $1 million in reserves.
According to Chancellor Gow, “Tuition freeze is a popular
topic, but providing students with a quality education is hard to provide with
a frozen tuition. When the frozen tuition is ended, it will likely increase
significantly to help make up for the loss.”
While the tuition freeze may sound good to current and
future undergraduate students, many students admit that they don’t really
understand the repercussions of the freeze on the universities.
Senior UW-L students Aimee Goodew, Amber Rodriguez, and
Hannah Bartelt acknowledged that they didn’t know much about the tuition
freeze. However, after becoming more aware of the negative impact on
universities, the popular response of interviewees was that while they didn’t
want tuition to rise, they still thought it was important for universities to
maintain adequate reserves for unexpected projects and maintaining the
university.
“Since I was here during the Drake fire, I know that
emergency stuff like that does happen, so it is important for the university to
have reserves for situations like that. I would like the tuition to be kept
frozen, but I still think it’s important to have those reserves,” Goodew
stated.
Similarly, Rodriguez agreed saying, “From a student’s
perspective I like it [the tuition freeze] because it costs an arm and a leg to
go to college. Most people can’t afford to go without taking loans. From a
university perspective, it lowers the chance for a university to compete if
something goes wrong--there will be no money to fix anything.”
Bartelt added, “I think the tuition freeze is good but there
should be a plan for the future. That money in the unrestricted funds should be
used for its original purpose, not to make up for the loss in tuition. And
what’s going to happen when that unrestricted money runs out? What will the
university do then?”
University officials say it is important to remember that
paying tuition is more than a cost of going to school. A lot of times the
tuition that is paid is for expanding university function and investing in the
university’s future. Chancellor Gow said, “We [UW schools] are a not-for-profit
entity. We want to increase the tuition to provide a better experience for our
students.”
