At UW-Eau Claire, campus leaders say they must close three computer labs, offer fewer classes, and leave faculty positions open because of tight budgets.

That’s why administrators are proposing a tuition increase of $1,500 over four years. Called the Blugold Commitment, it’s how UW-Eau Claire hopes to maintain services in the face of stagnant state support.

If the initiative sounds familiar, it’s because UW-Eau Claire is the third University of Wisconsin System school in as many years to introduce a campus-wide tuition increase, a move called differential tuition.

The trend means Wisconsin’s public universities — which traditionally relied heavily on support from state funds — are increasingly putting the burden on students to pay for their educations.

"I don’t think this is a popular thing to do, certainly not on our campus, not on any campus," said UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich. "None of us like to be in this situation where we have to ask our students to pay more."

The concern is that these tuition hikes will price Wisconsin students out of a college education, said Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at UW-Madison. Although most of these tuition increases, including the one proposed at UW-Eau Claire, offer financial aid for low-income students, she said no one knows the long-term impact on student access.

"I think this is the wrong way to go about things," she said. "I think they need to say money is tight and we’re going to take a really hard look at what we’re doing and the way we’re doing it and ask, can we do it more efficiently?"

UW-Madison is in the first year of the "Madison Initiative for Undergraduates," a four-year plan that will increase tuition for in-state students by $1,000.

UW-La Crosse instituted a tuition increase in 2008, a $1,000 surcharge for freshman and sophomores. This year, the school asked students if they were willing to pay $45 more per year for an "academic initiatives" fee to retain student services and 11 employees. A majority of students voted to approve the fee, now the proposal goes to the UW Board of Regents.

It sends a clear message from campus administrators: We don’t feel like we’re getting enough taxpayer support, so we’re taking matters into our own hands. But that approach could backfire, if the goal is to preserve state support.

"The state will never pick up the share that they did before," Goldrick-Rab said. "They have no incentive to. Because if you can pass the buck on to families and the families pick it up, then the state has no incentive whatsoever to step up."

Administrators say raising tuition is an act of desperation. Levin-Stankevich said his campus explored other options, but it came down to a choice: either ask students to pay more or let education suffer.

"Short of that, something’s going to have to give."

Levin-Stankevich, who came to UW-Eau Claire in 2006, said he thinks the school offers an intimate, "private school feel" to its students. UW-Eau Claire prides itself on having faculty teach every course, rather than graduate students.

The student-to-faculty ratio has crept up to 21-to-1, he said, which jeopardizes the university’s ability to offer small class sizes and close relationships between students and faculty. Administrators said the school would need to hire 50 additional faculty to get the student-to-faculty ratio down to 19-to-1.

Fifty new faculty requires a tuition hike of roughly $1,500 per student. The increase would be phased in over four years, starting with $375 in the first year.

Michael Umhoefer, student body president, spent the last week pitching the plan to around 700 students.

"An increase of $1,500 phased in over four years is something that’s concerning to most students," he said.

But in his presentation, he tells students that tuition will still be less than UW-Madison and University of Minnesota — and comparable to UW-La Crosse — the three schools most in competition for UW-Eau Claire students.

Like UW-Madison’s initiative, the program will offer grants to low-income students so that they won’t have to pay the tuition increase.

Student support is crucial to getting approval from the Regents, who have final say over all tuition increases. The UW-Eau Claire student body will have a chance to vote on the tuition increase on Dec. 1 and student government will vote on it Dec. 7.

If students approve, Levin-Stankevich said he hopes to take the proposal to the Regents in February.

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