Can states be pressured into reinvesting in higher education?

By Todd Finkelmeyer | The Capital Times | tfinkelmeyer@madison.com. Campus Connection: Can states be pressured into reinvesting in higher education? Each June or July, the UW System’s Board of Regents meets to set tuition rates for the next academic year.
Despite acknowledging concerns about the increasing costs associated with earning a college degree, the Regents this past June ultimately voted to increase tuition by 5.5 percent for the 2012-13 academic year for in-state undergraduates. It was the sixth straight year in which resident undergrads attending one of the UW System’s 13 four-year campuses have had their tuition bumped up by that exact same percentage. Add it up, and tuition and mandatory fees at UW-Madison are topping $10,000 for the first time in 2012-13, costing an in-state undergrad $10,378.
As usual, when reporting on this jump I noted that a driving force behind this tuition increase was the perpetual state cuts to higher education; in this case, Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 biennial budget signed the previous summer slashed state funding for the UW System by a record-tying $250 million. That hit jumped to record levels last winter after the UW System was told it needed to absorb an additional cut of $65.7 million over the biennium to help balance the state's budget.
Despite such caveats, the headlines associated with these articles invariably read something like, “Regents hike tuition.” And the public fumes.
“The usual pushback goes something like this, ‘The university needs to solve its budget problems by cutting waste before raising tuition,’” says Grant Petty, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. “But I haven’t heard specific, credible suggestions as to where that waste is, certainly not in amounts that come close to closing that gap we’re facing. From where I stand it’s clear that the fat is long gone and that we’re now cutting into the bone.”
The fact that the public isn't clearly drawing a line between cause (state cuts to the UW System) and effect (yearly 5.5 percent tuition increases) has frustrated many in higher education for years. Indeed, nearly 100 percent of undergraduate education at UW-Madison is funded via a combination of tuition and taxpayer support, with tuition now making up the larger proportion of that funding formula.
But what’s one to do?
As this Inside Higher Ed article notes, some public universities now are trying to reframe the debate. As that piece points out, “Recognizing the pressure to keep prices down, several (institutions) have proposed budgets that would hold tuition level if states agree to up their financial commitment to the university, hoping to shift the pressure to state lawmakers.”
In fact, it was just last Friday that the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents adopted a biennial budget proposal that’ll freeze undergrad, in-state tuition — as long as the state bumps up its investment. The Star Tribune reports that the University of Minnesota is asking for $91.6 million more — or an 8.4 percent increase over the current biennium. Part of that, $28.4 million over two years, would be linked to a tuition freeze for Minnesota’s in-state undergraduates...
Brad Barham, a UW-Madison professor of agricultural and applied economics who chaired the University Committee last year, notes that in December, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling for a “new social compact” between the state, higher education and the private sector that aimed to guarantee a more stable funding base of taxpayer support for the university in order to end the upward pressure on tuition. More...