“It’s time to take down this bureaucratic model and turn it into a true democracy in order to restore common sense for the regents.”
– Rep. Scott Suder

The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents’ plan to cut tuition for out-of-state students has prompted State Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) to draft a bill proposing that the board members be elected officials, rather than appointees of the governor.

The cut, which was approved in early February, will reduce per-year, non-resident tuition by $2,300 at UW-Milwaukee and $2,000 at every other public university except UW-Madison. The decrease will take effect in the fall if it is given final approval by the board in June.

“The regents’ actions demonstrates just how disconnected they are from Wisconsin’s middle-class families,” Suder said. “It’s time to take down this bureaucratic model and turn it into a true democracy in order to restore common sense for the regents.”

Suder said that right now, appointees answer to no one, and by enacting the bill, the board would be held accountable by voters.

“(The regents) are all millionaires from Milwaukee and Madison who care more about out-of-state wealthy families than the Wisconsin taxpayers that pay the bills for these institutions in the first place,” he said. “What about all the Wisconsin students that are lining up to get into our schools?”

According to Margaret Lewis, associate vice president for the UW System, the cut was intended to boost the enrollment of all students, including Wisconsin residents, by helping the UW System regain lost revenue.

“It was simply a business decision made to increase revenues,” Lewis said.

Currently, non-resident students pay close to four times as much as resident students, which helps to subsidize costs for students from Wisconsin.

Annually, UWM students who are Wisconsin residents are charged $6,220, while out-of-state UWM students are charged $18,972 — rates that are higher than non-resident tuition at similar public universities outside of Wisconsin.

Lewis said that in the past four years, out-of-state enrollment has dropped by more than 900 students, resulting in a loss of more than $13 million in revenue each year.

“Our goal is to return to the non-resident enrollment levels from 2001,” she said.

By enrolling just 240 more out-of-state students at four-year campuses (except UW-Madison), the UW System would be able to make up for the reduction in non-resident undergraduate tuition, Lewis said.

“This would bring in additional dollars and make it possible to educate and serve more Wisconsin students,” Lewis said.

In addition to decreasing out-of-state tuition, the regents unanimously approved higher pay ranges for top university administrators, another reason Suder wants to implement his bill.

“While families and small businesses are struggling just to make ends meet, the Board of Regents continues on its spending spree for its top administrators,” Suder said.

Once implemented, the minimum salary for the UWM chancellor would be $251,507, the UW System president would be $279,707 and the UW-Madison chancellor would be $307,800. For all other chancellors, it would be $176,113.

Lewis defends the increases as a necessity for the system to remain competitive and that the ranges are compared and matched with outside peer institutions.

She said that without higher salaries, the UW System would be unable to attract or retain leading executives.

Suder, whose bill is modeled after Senate Bill 576, which calls for the popular election of technical college district boards, hopes to get his bill circulating and on the governor’s desk sometime this spring.

Lewis said that the board has not yet taken a position on the matter of Suder’s bill because it is so early in its developmental stages.

“In the past there have been proposals to change members of the board and they have taken a very neutral position, and I think that (the board) will act similarly towards this bill,” she said.

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