graduates are employed and working within six months, and right here in Wisconsin.
They're certainly in demand. Our latest graduate outcomes report released on
Tuesday this week showed that median wages for associate degree graduates
were over $60,000. So that we know that these credentials are in demand and a
great value for Wisconsin residents.
I will just add on to what Eric and Leila had offered. I think we have to step back
and first ask the question and the way I would answer it is that education is a
public good. It's not just for the individual student because I think you have
to ask the question where is the next teacher going to come from, where's the
next nurse going to come from, where's the next engineer going to come from,
where's the next person who's going to be coming out of the tech college and doing
work that helps support the economy. So I would start from that standpoint. At the
universities of Wisconsin we have done survey work most recently about six
months ago that indicated that we are the lowest cost public university system in
the Midwest and beyond. We have done our best to try to maintain our tuition at
levels that are affordable. We have tried to increase over the last decade. We have
doubled the amount of institutional aid that we provide to students so that is
the tuition remission and support that we provide to them. But there's a limit to
our ability to do that and still deliver the quality of education our students
deserve and expect. And one of the things I will tell you is when we did that survey
the good news was we are relatively affordable. We offer I believe great value to
our students but that survey also showed that we are educating fewer students
today on a percentage basis of lower socioeconomic means than we were 10 years ago.
If this legislation stands as it is currently presented that number is going to get worse.
And I would submit to you Wisconsin doesn't have the flexibility to allow that to happen.
We need people going on to hire education to fill the jobs that the great employers of the state
are creating or those jobs are going to move elsewhere. We need those jobs so people can have
that life changing event that trajectory changing event in their lives giving them
social mobility to make sure that they may be able to better than the past generation did.
That's what this is all about. That's why this is critical. And I think the suggestion that
well we should just put it back on tuition is is short site. This is an investment in the future
of our state. It is an investment in the citizens of the state of Wisconsin.
I have a question for all three presidents. Are your institutions taking the steps to
contact Congress directly to encourage them to reverse the spell and if so what steps are you
to encourage them to do this? I can comment what we've been doing at the universities of Wisconsin.
I have talked to almost every member of the Wisconsin delegation on this very issue.
We meet with them. We have people in Washington frequently talking to legislators about what's
going on. We are working through our national organizations as well of which we are members
to advocate for ensuring that we protect this financial aid that and avoid this narrowing of
resources that are going on to do that with our really supporting students that really need that
support. But we're also talking to the public because I think it's important. It's one of the
reasons we're having the conversation today. It is important that the public understand
the impact because our legislators listen to their constituents and I think the
conversations I've had with our legislators I think they appreciate the value of higher
education in the state and its importance to the state of Wisconsin and we are going to continue
those advocacy efforts.
I was personally in Washington D.C. less than two weeks ago meeting with policymakers to talk
about these issues. We've also stayed in constant contact with their staff and with the entire
congressional delegation trying to help them understand the impact to their constituents
back here in Wisconsin.
I also have been speaking to members of our congressional delegation both in the House
and the Senate as have members of the Waikou staff and we've been asking our individual
presidents and other leaders on our campuses to reach out to them as well. We've had many
conversations and as President Rothman mentioned there is an understanding of the value of higher
education for many members of our delegation but despite that the bill passed this morning.
So other questions.
What kind of effect do you think these changes would have on enrollment at your institutions?
You know I said well there's a lot of elements of the of the bill that will impact undergraduate
students and there's a significant number that will impact graduate students. I suspect that the
students with the least ability to pay might we will lose some of those students as a result of the
the elements of this bill. They won't be able to get enough money in Pell Grant.
They won't be able to obtain any loan programs that they need to obtain
and they will not be able to attend. On the graduate side I fear what this impact of the
limiting of the loan programs will do for students particularly in the professional fields
doctors, lawyers, dentists, physician assistants and other other fields. So we will have students
who are unable to continue as a result of this. We're hoping of course that as the process
continues as the Senate gets involved and then the House and the Senate work together to come
up with a bill they can both agree on that some of these provisions will be made more helpful for
our students. Others? I mean certainly enrollment is a piece of this but it's about students.
It's about the students standing up here today and the students that they represent.
That's what this is about in my mind and it's about giving people the opportunity
to have that higher education experience that can change their lives and I think back to the
period I mentioned in my opening comments about the the GI Bill and how it supported veterans
coming out of World War II. I'm standing here today because of the GI Bill. My father was a
recipient. It allowed him to go on to higher education. He then encouraged me to go on to
higher education. That's the impact that this has and it's exponential. It is exponential and
it's about the students. I suspect each of our systems can manage the enrollment issue
but I think the students coming up today deserve the same opportunity that generations past have
gotten. That in my mind is what this bill is about and that's why we are advocating to support higher
to support that our students have access to that aid because they will pay it back multiple times
in terms of what they contribute to society. I'll echo those comments while this bill would certainly
reduce access and opportunity in the state of Wisconsin and across the country. We'll certainly
see some students who ironically take fewer credits because they just can't afford to take
more and cover their cost of living at the same time. I think Wisconsin's employers will also be
hurt by this. As we see fewer students pursuing higher education, fewer students who are able to
complete on time, Wisconsin's employers will be waiting longer for those folks to join them
at the high skill, high wage jobs that we know we have all over Wisconsin right now that are
that are unfilled. Other questions? There are you speaking to just more broadly. Obviously you're
here meeting and talking about this bill today but we've seen a series of comments from the
president, law students, additional funding threats coming down the pipeline. I guess how are you
guys leading these universities at a time when there's still so much uncertainty about what can come
next on top of this bill? I think what we do is we remain focused on our mission and we do our best
and to operate in uncertainty is never easy. It's not a whole lot of fun but we never lose sight of
the mission and for at the universities of Wisconsin for us it's 164,400 students that are
being educated in our in our 13 universities. Our mission is to ensure that they are successful
and we will do whatever it takes to try to position ourselves to make sure that we can
continue to do that because we know how important it is for those individuals but we also know how
important that is for the state of Wisconsin. I would say specific issues that have come from
the White House have impacted international students, have impacted the research that our
institutions are doing and and threaten future research and future international students in
particular and so but as President Rothman said our focus in Waikou schools and I'm sure in the
technical colleges as well as to focus on our students and our missions.
Yeah absolutely we remain focused on our mission serving our students every day
making ourselves as accessible and available to support those students as we can possibly be
and continue to deliver for the taxpayers here in Wisconsin.
Under this current, under that I give one last question too.
Under this current proposal Wisconsin colleges could risk losing or colleges in general but risk
losing access to federal aid if their students don't make a return on their investment if they
don't see financial gains from their degrees or consequences with this after the long-term future
of technical colleges. Well everything we do here in the technical college system is driven by
employers and our local economies. So I'm very confident that our credentials are in demand.
We don't offer programs if our students do not get jobs at the end of them. We don't offer
programs if local employers do not sign on to that and cosign that and say yes these are the
skills and credentials that I am looking for in my business that's required for every program
that's approved in in my system. So I'm very confident that we could show a return on investment
as long as the measuring stick is fair. We know what our graduates are making as soon as they graduate
and we know where they're going to work and it's right here in Wisconsin. So I'm very confident in
the product that we're that we're putting out. All right thank you. Thank you very much for being
here. Appreciate it.