Still with no new budget, regents set fall tuition

After saying it delayed the decision as long as it could, the UW System Board of Regents approved fall semester tuition rates at its July 25 meeting.

The regents’ 1997 UW System budget raises tuition by 7.9 percent, which for resident undergraduates calculates to a $209 increase – or $105 per semester – at UW–Madison. Non-resident tuition will increase 8.5 percent. The regents said fall rates had to be set by late July because tuition bills must be paid when registration begins in August.

The new tuition levels are based on the state budget as recommended by the Legislature’s bipartisan Joint Committee on Finance. The full Legislature has not yet passed its version of the 1997-99 biennial budget, and not since 1971 has the Board of Regents had to set tuition before a budget was adopted by state lawmakers.

Spring semester tuition will be adjusted up or down based on the final state budget, said UW System President Katharine Lyall. Each semester’s tuition will probably be treated as a stand-alone rate, and refunds or bills most likely will not be issued in the spring, Lyall added.

Even with the 7.9 percent increase, UW–Madison still ranks next to last in tuition costs among public Big Ten universities.

Several students spoke against the tuition increase at the meeting, saying the state should fund more of the cost of running the UW System. The total cost of undergraduate tuition, fees and room and board for 1997-98 at UW–Madison will be $7,273 for resident students and $15,012 for non-resident students.

The regents’ budget uses the tuition flexibility included in the Joint Finance Committee’s spending document to plan for 4 percent raises for faculty and academic staff in each of the next two years. Lyall predicted that salary increases for classified staff will probably be higher than the 2 percent raises recommended in the budget. The Joint Committee on Employment Relations is expected to make its recommendations on state pay plans at its Aug. 27 meeting.

Pay raises are retroactive to July 1, the start of the state’s fiscal year, and the additional pay will probably be included in employees’ paychecks in November, Lyall said.