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WUWM's Emily Files reports on education in southeastern Wisconsin.

UW Regents Okay Employee Pay Raise, Tuition Increases

ADELIE FREYJA ANNABEL, FLICKR
UW-Milwaukee

Updated December 8, 2:08 p.m.:

The UW Board of Regents voted Thursday to increase employee salaries, as well as bump up tuition for out-of-state students.

Both decisions come as deep state budget cuts continue to impact public universities across Wisconsin.

The move to increase tuition would add $2,000 to bills for out-of-state students. It would also affect some graduate students in programs like medicine and business.

Leaders content the increase is necessary because state lawmakers issued a big round of budget cuts to the UW system in 2015. The system as a whole lost about $250 million dollars, and state schools have been looking for ways to fill that gap.

The Regents also okayed a two percent raise for employees, each of the next two years.

Raises aren’t guaranteed for all employees; individual campus chancellors will get the money, and distribute raises as they see fit.

That decision now moves to the legislature and Gov. Walker for final approval.

The Regents also unanimously approved mandatory online training for all students and staff, on issues of sexual violence.

This has been a topic of conversation on many campuses in recent times, but the UW System hasn’t updated its sexual harassment policy since 1987. A task force came together to re-write the policy, and this online training is one of the key changes the group recommends.

The policy also reinforces that faculty cannot have relationships with their students.

Original post, from December 6:

UW System officials want to increase employee salaries and out-of-state tuition to help soften the impact of budget cuts.  

The UW Board of Regents will consider both proposals at their monthly meeting Thursday.

System leaders are asking for a two percent raise for all employees in each of the next two years. In a memoto the Regents, UW officials say their workforce faces a pay gap with those in other public universities, which have been steadily increasing compensation to keep up with the rate of inflation. 

"Our employees are integral to the success of our institutions, and the Board of Regents can recommend a pay plan increase to help maintain the quality education that students and families expect and deserve," the memo reads.

People who follow higher education say they're worried UW faculty are leaving because of the impact of system-wide budget cuts, as well as changes to tenure policies. And sometimes those faculty take valuable research money with them, when they leave.

An updated reportshows that system-wide faculty turnover averaged eight percent in the most recent fiscal cycle, compared with an average of 5.9 percent over the last five years.

Should the Regents okay a pay raise, the proposal moves on to the legislature's Employment Relations Committee for final approval.

UW leaders are also seeking a tuition increase for out-of-state and graduate students.

The proposal on the table this month would add $2,000 to nonresident tuition bills, as well as bump up graduate tuition at six four-year campuses and all of the UW's two-year schools. The Regents approved a similar proposal in 2015, and again earlier this spring for a handful of campuses.

Leaders say the increase would provide $9.6 million in additional funding each of the next two years.

UW Chancellor Becky Blank saidin a blog post that the decision to increase prices isn't something she takes lightly:

"We have a responsibility to maintain access...for Wisconsin students and to maintain lower tuition for our in-state students...our educational quality is highly rated in national and international rankings; we have a responsibility to maintain this quality. It is because of our commitment to these goals that we want to set nonresident and professional school tuition at market rate. This will allow us to maintain quality in our education programs, and cross-subsidize long-term lower tuition for in-state students."

State schools have not been able to raise tuition for three years for in-state undergraduates, because of a four-year freeze imposed by Gov. Scott Walker. That freeze lasts until summer 2017.

Blank also said recent tuition increases have not had an adverse impact on the number of out-of-state students choosing UW schools. She cited interest in UW-Madison, in particular, which has seen nearly double the number of nonresident applications over the last decade.

The Board of Regents meets Thursday in Madison. The meeting can belive-streamed online, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

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