UW students blast plan to lift out-of-state student limit

The UW System now caps the number of out-of-state undergraduates at 27.5 percent of the total undergraduate population at each campus.

The Board of Regents’ education committee approved lifting the limit for the next four academic years with a unanimous voice vote on Thursday.

The contract calls for Under Armour to supply $3.3 million in shoes, apparel and equipment to UW-Madison’s teams for free in the first year.

UW-Madison officials plan to ask the Board of Regents this week to lift that school’s cap, saying in-state enrollment is dropping and they need new young talent that can bolster Wisconsin’s workforce.

The association has scoffed at Blank and Cross’ workforce-building justification, calling it absurd because most out-of-staters will leave Wisconsin after graduation. The school has 3,617 in-state freshmen right now, said Charlie Hoslet, UW-Madison interim vice chancellor for university relations, after the committee meeting. What’s more, Blank believes the increase in out-of-state students at the Madison campus will be small, perhaps around 100 to 200 students in each freshman class over the next four years, Lucas said. They have questioned how the change could affect transfer students and those from Minnesota, who won’t be counted as part of the in-state student minimum, and have criticized Blank and Cross for not seeking more input from students and faculty before writing the proposal. University officials insist the move isn’t about the money but providing new talent for Wisconsin’s workforce as in-state enrollment continues to dip.

Providing access to in-state students is the school’s “top priority, UW-Madison spokesman John Lucas said in an email to The Associated Press”.

“This will be a workforce crisis if we don’t do something to start dealing with this problem now”, Regent S. Mark Tyler said.