Hopefully you've heard of the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates. If you haven't, get out from under your rock and check out http://madisoninitiative.wisc.edu/. Basically, the initiative is being proposed as a way to improve student services, provide more need-based financial aid, and hire more faculty through a tuition differential that will increase in-state tuition by $250 per year and out-of-state tuition $750 per year over the next four years.
Obviously this is a big deal, for students and the institution.
This Initiative could be very positive for students and the reputation of the University of Wisconsin. However, it will need a lot of oversight to work, most likely through a shared governance committee.
How do you see this oversight process working? What would you like the committee to be charged with? Who should be sitting at the table? Should there be a separate student subcommittee to evaluate student services proposals? How can students be engaged, active participants in this process, putting their tuition dollars to work in the most effective ways?
Comment on this post with your thoughts!
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4 comments:
how much of this increase does administration use to help other student's pay tuition, and how much of this increase is relegated to a shared gov-type committee for us to decide how to use?
50% of the money would go toward need based financial aid. A complete breakdown is on the website.
At the moment my position is that this proposal is so thoroughly under-developed that it falls in the category of boondoggle. My apologies if this seems obstructionist, but some one needs to voice some opposition.
To be clear, we need to understand that this is a $1000 annual surcharge ($3000 for out-of-state) that is being phased in over 4 years. We cannot be caught up in the "$250 increase per year" jargon.
It's entirely reasonable that certain fees may be necessary for a campus of our size and stature. However, it is entirely UNreasonable for the administration to ask for money without a to-the-dime accounting of what these fees will provide.
As far as oversight goes, the best that we as students can do is withhold support until the campus leaders *act* like leaders instead of asking for funds now but promising answers and plans "later." We should have been at the table when the plan was developed, not angling for a seat after the fact.
This is the Chancellor's mess and my position is that we should not wade into it with her.
Actually, you are both wrong. The supplemental increase would be a $250 cumulative increase over 4 years. $250-$500-$750-$1000. Through the proposal an estimated $20 million would be injected into the UW-Madison's financial aid system and an additional $10 million would be allocated for academic services and refunding previously lost faculty positions.
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