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Wisconsinites are feeling
like they help others and

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others help them when
they're in need.

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>> The cost of attending
University of Wisconsin

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schools is going up in the
fall. This month, the UW

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Board of Regents approved a
2% tuition hike for

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in-state undergraduate
students, plus roughly

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commensurate increases in
fees and room and board

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that will put UW-Madison at
$12,416 on the high end,

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and UW Parkside at 8851 at
the lowest price point.

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It's the fourth tuition
increase in a row after a

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ten year freeze. In the
midst of increasing cost

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pressures on families, how
reasonable is the tuition

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hike? We're joined by
professor in the UW-Madison

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Department of Education
Policy, Taylor Odle, and

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thanks for being here.
>> Thanks for having me.

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>> So a 2% tuition hike on
paper seems really modest,

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but at a time, as we said,
when people questioned the

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value of a college degree,
does it turn some people

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away?
>> I think it's very

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important to acknowledge
that a 2% increase is very

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real money for students and
families. I think at the

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same time, we also have to
acknowledge that costs are

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going up for all of us,
including organizations and

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businesses like the
Universities of Wisconsin.

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2% is relatively modest and
predictable, and below the

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rate of inflation right now
doesn't mean it doesn't,

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you know, have important
conversations about dollars

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and cents at the end of the
day. But what students and

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families should really care
about is the net price of

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college. So when you quote
that $12,000 or that $8,000,

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that's what we call the
sticker price, what you see

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on the website. But from
that, we know people get

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grants and scholarships,
and that pulls it down to

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what we call the net price,
the check that you have to

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write at the end of the day
to be able to enroll. And

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that number has actually
been relatively flat over

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the last several years
because UW is taking money

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from these tuition
back into financial aid.

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>> With a 30% decline in
highest paying

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international students and
volatile federal research

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funding. What is a
university to do except use

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that tuition lever?
>> That's a great question.

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UW the universities of
Wisconsin have three

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primary revenue sources,
right? Federal grants,

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which we are among the top
in the nation at securing.

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We enroll students who pay
tuition and fees, and we

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receive funding from the
state. State support has

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long stagnated, with the
exception of a recent

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increase. And so tuition
dollars are a primary way

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of raising funds. With a
tuition freeze for many,

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many years, our ability to
do that was hamstrung. And

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so it quite literally
strangled some of the

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campuses. We benefit from
having international

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students and even students
from out of state who pay

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higher tuition rates
because they can afford it.

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They are mobile geographic
for colleges with a decline

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in international student
enrollment. There aren't

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many other students that we
can look to except for our

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in-state students,
especially now because the

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state has begun to
increasingly regulate our

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ability to even draw
students from Minnesota and

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Iowa and other out-of-state
partners.

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>> So how kind of in
jeopardy are the finances

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of the Universities of
Wisconsin given all of

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these factors?
>> It's a very serious

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position, right? We've
already seen campus

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closures of many regional
campuses. We've seen cuts

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to academic programs. We've
seen staff and faculty

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restructurings. And so no
one wants to raise prices.

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If you're a business owner,
you don't want to walk out

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and show your customers
raising prices. The

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university doesn't want to
do that either. We want

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more people to access and
have access to a college

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education. Like you said,
for upper social and

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economic mobility. But when
the state is no longer a

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primary funding partner,
federal research and grants

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landscape is certainly
uncertain. Tuition is one

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of the only lovers left.
>> So some Republican state

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policymakers are super
angry about this tuition

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increase, saying it's, you
know, the fourth in a row

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after a state budget gave
the system $256 million.

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What about that persuasion?
>> Yeah, I think the

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average Wisconsinite should
also be super angry about

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that characterization. So
256 million is a big number

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and it's a very important
investment. It's however, a

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biennial increase. So we
have to divide that by two

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because it's going to be
the 120 something million

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every year. And just to put
that in context, the

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university leverages its
the state's largest public

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employer, and its operating
budget is around $7 billion.

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And so that increase is
less than almost 1.5%, so

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substantially below
inflation. And more

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importantly, that $256
million came with a lot of

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important caveats. Most
importantly, an unfunded

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tuition or salary raise for
faculty and staff across

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the institution. So no
other piece of state

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government has unfunded
mandates in that same way.

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So we're required to raise
salaries by 2% for all

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faculty and staff. But the
state didn't put in the

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money to fully fund that
raise. And so the Regents

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have said that the tuition
increase will predominantly

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fund faculty and staff
salary increases mandated.

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>> Well, that's another
piece that some

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policymakers are unhappy
about, because they say the

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number of staff has gone up,
whereas the number of

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students has not.
>> So many people, when

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they think about staff
increases on cross campus.

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We use this federal survey
where we report people in

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these huge buckets. Do they
teach? Do they work? Are

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they administrative in
different ways? It doesn't

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capture the granularity of
what those staff are

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actually doing. So if we
hire more students to

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provide career exploration
or oversee internships for

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students or help them get
placements with employers,

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those are staff members and
those are very valuable

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staff members. I'd be happy
to double or triple those

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numbers. And so it's a
really nuanced conversation,

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right? Are there
efficiencies to be had? Of

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course, but we need to have
better data and a more

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frank conversation around
frank conversation around