Hi everybody, thanks for joining us.
Does everybody have recording
capabilities that want them?
I'm going to go ahead and record
here. If there's no objections,
we have Regent President.
Recording in progress.
Kyle Weatherly and Interim President
Renee Wachter with us
to
discuss today's announcement.
I will turn it over to them in
just a moment.
President Weatherly.
Hey, good afternoon everyone.
Thanks a lot for making time and
greetings from UW-Green Bay,
where we just made this announcement
in person.
I'm Kyle Wetherly, president of the
University of Wisconsin Board of
Regents. Over the last six years,
I've had the privilege of seeing
firsthand how our universities
change lives, strengthen
communities, and prepare Wisconsin's
workforce for the future.
Today we are announcing a
centerpiece of the Universities of
Wisconsin's budget proposal.
A commitment to make high quality
university education more affordable
and accessible for Wisconsin
families as part of that commitment,
the Board of Regents is proposing a
new four year tuition pledge
under this pledge.
Tuition will remain frozen for two
academic years, beginning in the
fall of 27 provided
that the state invests 190 million
to support the cost of the freeze
and other operating needs that
preserve high quality education
that pledge also.
The universities of Wisconsin to
limiting tuition increases in the
following two years to no
more than the rate of inflation.
For students entering one of our
universities in the fall of 27,
that means four years of predictable
tuition with costs that remain
well below inflation.
It represents an important
commitment to Wisconsin families and
helps ensure the University of
Wisconsin remain the Midwest
leader in tuition affordability.
And with that, I'll turn
it over to President Wachter.
Thank you, Regent President
Weatherly.
You know, over the past week, we
have been traveling across Wisconsin
to share the promises that we're
making to the people of our state
through our budget proposal.
At their core, these promises are
about expanding opportunity and
helping Wisconsin meet the
challenges and opportunities ahead.
Today, we're highlighting our
Signature Affordability Promise,
ensuring that every Wisconsinite has
access to a high quality, affordable
Universities of Wisconsin education.
The four-year tuition pledge is an
important part of that commitment,
but the second part of that is a new
initiative called Wisconsin Work
and Learn.
Wisconsin Work& Learn would
eliminate tuition for Wisconsin
students whose families earn at
or below the state's median
household income.
In exchange for a commitment to
work, internships,
apprenticeships, or career
preparation, students would gain
a more affordable path to a degree
while Wisconsin gains the workforce
our future depends on.
By combining last dollar financial
aid with career-connected learning,
the program helps ensure that cost
is not a barrier to opportunity
while strengthening Wisconsin's
economy and workforce.
Together, the four-year tuition
pledge and Wisconsin Work and Learn
would help to ensure that the
universities of Wisconsin remain
the Midwest leader in tuition
affordability.
They would provide families with
greater certainty, remove financial
barriers for thousands of students.
And reaffirm Wisconsin's
long-standing belief that talent and
hard work, not financial
circumstance, should determine
a student's opportunity to succeed.
Thank you very much President
Wachter and now we'll turn it
over for any questions
Thanks, President Weatherly.
Sabina, do you want to kick us off?
Yeah. Thank you so much for
taking some time today to
speak with us.
I just wanted to start by
asking about this Wisconsin Work
and Learn program.
Could you just give us some more
specifics on how this
exchange for a commitment to
work for internships would
work for you're eliminating
tuition, just some more specifics on
that.
Sure, so it is
a last dollar financial
aid program connected with
career learning.
And so we know there'll be a work
certification part of it and
it covers things like all the things
that you think about that help
develop our students to go out into
the workforce. So that includes
having an internship,
if you're in education, your
teacher placement, your
clinicals, those kinds of
experiences that contribute to you
being career ready.
And if I can just add onto that
from my personal experience,
my wife graduated from UW
Oshkosh 20 years ago.
She came from a lower working
class family.
She paid for college by herself.
She worked two jobs,
and she still
wasn't able to fund
her entire tuition and had to take
out loans.
It's people like my wife.
I mean, she still has actual scars
from where she was donating plasma.
To help make ends meet.
So it's people like my wife that are
donating plasma, that are working
two jobs.
And she ended up getting a 4.0
at UW Oshkosh, that
we're trying to help with this
program.
Thanks. Go ahead, Josh,
with politics.
Thanks very much.
I wanted to ask, will
this last
dollar financial aid, will it be
dependent on students
getting internships or
apprenticeships, will they have
help? And then will it cover all
career paths or just a set of
degrees or career paths?
You know, all of our universities
have career
centers, and oftentimes
even some of that career
guidance is within the programs
themselves. And so we
anticipate that our
career service centers and advisors
stand ready to help our students
as they navigate their choices.
But this is really meant to cover
all students across the state of
Wisconsin.
Nadia, do you have a question?
Yeah, I was just wondering in the
past, I know there's been discussion
in budget proposals about
like,
tuition promises, those kinds of
programs.
How would this
tuition freeze work with those?
Is that something that you guys were
considering would work
into this at all?
I would just love to make sure that
I cover that base.
Yeah, I mean, this is
very similar to a tuition promise,
but where I would describe a tuition
promise as the
state asking students
to meet them halfway,
the students are really meeting us
more than halfway.
They're doing most of the work.
They're not only carrying a job and
a full workload, but
they're
working on their academics as well.
So we are just carrying that little
bit. You
know You know, I
compare it to the last 10 yards
of sort of fully funding their
education right they're getting most
of the way they're on themselves.
But we're just helping them at that
very end so as the President already
said, this is a last dollar program,
so this is after they've already
received any programs they're
eligible for any other scholarships
are eligible for.
And this just makes up the last
thousand 2000 $3,000
that that might be
the delta between.
Their entire tuition and having to
take out loans.
Hi, this is Corey.
You said in the beginning that you
would commit to
keeping tuition frozen for
the next two academic years provided
the state invests $190 million.
What if the state doesn't commit
to that?
Will there be tuition increases?
Just a point of clarity,
commit to keeping any
tuition increases below the
inflation.
So two years of a freeze funded by
the state followed by two
years that is tied
to it that is going to be below
inflation.
Right, so this is for 4 years,
you're talking about, but again,
if the, if, the state does not
commit to this investing this money,
will there then be higher tuition.
Increases.
That's part of a different process
later in the year.
At the same time, we
have the same inflationary pressures
that every other business,
every other organization in the
country is under right now.
In addition to that, we need to
fund our payroll increases that
are set by the state.
They're not set by us.
So we need meet those obligations.
So even if we try to
hold everything flat, our costs
increase dramatically from
year to year.
So while that's part of a different
process, it would
be very, very difficult.
It would be difficult to
not increase tuition if the state
doesn't commit to
the 190 million.
Yes.
Okay, thank you.
Scott of AP
Hey, thanks.
Sorry.
So with that in mind, do you guys
have a position on
who you'd like to see running state
government next year?
Do you think Democrats would be more
amiable to this plan?
Or have you approached either
candidate for governor to
get their thoughts on where they
fall on this?
Well, we know that
the election talk is in the air, but
really the last few months we have
spent most of our time
and attention on really crafting
a budget that is designed to
be bold and address the
state's needs. You know, really
building on the legacy
of the universities of Wisconsin,
who's It's been built over
several generations and we
feel very excited about the
difference that we can make to meet
some of the greatest challenges
facing the state.
The things that we're talking about,
the promises that we are making with
this budget process,
health care, advancing the
Wisconsin economy and
addressing affordability,
we view as bipartisan or nonpartisan
issues and we're
excited to have conversations with
all the potential
future governors, potential future
senators and representatives over
the course of the coming months.
PBS Wisconsin is somebody here
from PBS Wisconsin with a question.
How about a 620 WTMJ?
And Sean,
Sean, do you have a question?
Okay, well, thanks, everybody.
I don't know if we'd be able to get
through another round.
So I think we'll
end here.
We'll move on to one more round
of interviews that we have
scheduled.
Very much appreciate your time.
We'll be around to ask, answer
follow-ups if you have them.
Thanks everybody.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Nice.