UW regents OK chancellor spending $800000 donation

Segregated fees for students across the UW System will increase $59 on average during the upcoming fiscal year as a part of the System’s 2016-’17 operating budget, which was approved by the Board of Regents Thursday.

The budget will draw down $160.24 million of the controversial carryover balances that sparked outrage among Republican legislators in 2013. UW System has been drawing on these reserves since 2012 – when their presence sparked controversy in the state Legislature – and has done so at an even greater pace since the Legislature cut $250 million in state funding in 2015.

Application fees for UW-Madison graduate students would go from $56 to $75 and for the law, medical, veterinary and pharmacy schools application fees would increase between $16 and $19.

However, students will actually save $456 this year on meal plans after the university revised its contract with its food service.

The request, which was approved during the Regents’ meeting Thursday at UW-Milwaukee, will now be sent to the state Higher Education Aids Board, which administers the Wisconsin Grant.

Julie Gordon, the System’s interim vice president for finance, explained that expenditures outweigh revenues in several areas of the budget, meaning the fund balances will continue to drop. Cross and regents President Regina Millner told the newspaper that they’re anxious about releasing complex information before it’s formally presented because it could be cherry-picked in advance and not presented with clarity in a highly political environment.

The budget was eventually posted online Thursday afternoon, about 90 minutes before the Regents voted on it.

The full board is scheduled to take up that matter Thursday immediately following the budget vote.

“I’d like to be more open”, Evers said.

The system should finish the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2017, with $622.3 million on hand, down from an estimated $782.6 million at the end of this fiscal year later this month.

The Republican-crafted state budget prohibits system officials from raising undergraduate tuition but they’re free to raise fees and other price tags. The extra money would raise the average award in the Wisconsin Grant-UW program from $1,773 to $2,161. She left no directions on spending it, triggering a regent policy that only income generated from the gift can be spent. Some campuses have also seen increased enrollment, Hummel noted.

“We’re not doing our job and making sure (the system) is properly funded”, said Sen. According to system data, state aid to the system for 2016-17 will ring in at about a billion dollars less than in 2007-08.

The UW Board of Regents approved a resolution requesting an additional $6.4 million per year in funding for the Wisconsin Grant program, which provides need-based scholarships to thousands of state college students. Additionally, UW-P will not increase room and board rates.

Application fees for other UW campuses will increase from $44 to $50.

Overall, UW-Eau Claire students will see a $171 reduction in costs.