The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved
differential tuition for UW-Stevens Point at a meeting today in Madison.
This is the final step in a five-year journey, Chancellor Bernie
Patterson said in a message to students, faculty and staff members.
The Regents’ Business and Finance Committees recommended approval
Thursday after hearing from several members of our Student Government
Association. “This was an exceptional student-led effort,” Patterson said. “I
am so proud of President Katie Cronmiller, Vice President Amy Vida and numerous
SGA representatives, past and present, who worked diligently to achieve this.”
He thanked the “incredible, effective partnership” of faculty,
staff, students, community leaders, alumni, legislators and Regents involved in
the process. The campus learned a valuable lesson in perseverance, he said.
The Joint Finance Committee included – and the
governor retained – differential tuition in the 2015-17 state budget bill last
summer, if students approved it via referendum. In November, 62 percent of the
3,308 UW-Stevens Point students who voted in an online referendum favored
differential tuition. Response was twice as high as any previous votes.
Differential tuition will be used to support
student success in two vital areas: adding instructors to relieve bottlenecks
in high-demand courses so students can graduate on time; and creating a new
academic advising model that is more responsive to student needs in each of the
four colleges.
Planning will begin in the spring semester for
implementation in the fall 2016. A student-led Pointer Partnership Advisory
Board will be created to implement differential tuition and the new academic
advising model, Cronmiller said. “We’re excited to be actively involved
in the planning and creation of these new initiatives supporting student
success and opportunity.”
The proposal calls for students to pay an additional $200 per
semester. Differential tuition will be phased in for upperclassmen. Seniors
would pay nothing the first year and $100 the second year. Juniors would pay
$100 the first year.
Ten other UW universities have differential
tuition. Today’s approval helps level the playing field and ensure student
success, Patterson said.
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