Thursday, September 07, 2006

Wisconsin fails in affordability

A national education group released a report today, rating state college systems. Wisconsin did quite well for education, but received an F for affordability.

Here is a link to the AP story describing the Wisconsin results.

It is a depressing story for students, but it gets even better when you hear UW-hater Rob Kreibich's response, as noted by Wisconsin Radio Network, "The Eau Claire Republican says the report shows the need for the UW system to cap tuition."

No talk about refunding the system after the big cuts or help from the legislature, just more cuts as a way of solving the problem. . . .

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have lived many places in this country over the last 40 years. NEVER have I lived in a state where the attitude that you should be able to have all sorts of wonderful things for absolutely FREE was as pervasive as it is in Wisconsin. The Average Citizen really seems to reject the notion that if you want to dance, you have to pay the band. I don't know the causes of this attitude, but it is widespread and pervasive in the public life of this state.

Anonymous said...

I wish people who did this costing asked how much of the price increases were DEMANDED by students. Our UWO students chose to pay $100 more per year to get more advisors, $150 more to park in a ramp rather than walk two blocks, $100 more to have yet another gym. How sorry am I supposed to be that they have high education costs?

Anonymous said...

"I wish people who did this costing asked how much of the price increases were DEMANDED by students. Our UWO students chose to pay $100 more per year to get more advisors, $150 more to park in a ramp rather than walk two blocks, $100 more to have yet another gym. How sorry am I supposed to be that they have high education costs?"

-i never asked for any of that when i was a student! sounds like an OSA rubber stamp to me

Lake Winneblogo said...

I wish that student fees were the only question for UWO students! One could always ask the question whether we should be spending money on things like a fancy new gym, but it is not as though students could add a fee for better instruction. LaCrosse students tried that and were shot down down by the Madison bureaucracy.

It seems to be that tuition has gone up significantly, without including those extra amenities on campus.

The legislature and governor (and of course the voters) need to realize the importance of higher education to the future of Wisconsin.

As long as we are perceived as a wasteful institution with employees like Kevin Barrett, tuition will continue to climb and college will be less affordable for our students.

Anonymous said...

First off the Student Rec and Wellness Center is not another Gym as some of you incorrectly assume it to be. If you don’t know what this building entails then don’t complain about it or call it a Gym, do some work and look at the plans. I’ve been on the committee for 3 years along with other fellow students and we worked damn hard to make this the best building with something for everyone.

I also need to comment on OSA and the ability for students to be involved. We tried to get students opinions in every way possible, through forums, discussions, including the referendum. If anyone felt so strongly against it then come tell us...I had exactly 1 student come to the OSA office and tell me they didn’t want this. The advisors were needed to replace cuts...or get even less service out an aspect that students determined there was a greater need not being met. Go back and look that was something students said they wanted in 2001-2002 I believe.

OSA is not the problem it's the students who represent clubs and organizations on campus. Every group has the ability to be represented yet most have trouble getting someone to show or god for bid that person speak on behalf of their organization. Come on people if you don’t like something get involved don’t bitch about it after it happened.

The fact is if you take all fees out and base the discussion on tuition alone you will find out that the increases are causing the lowest income families the greatest problem. Pricing students out no matter what their financial standing is troubling.

Finally online voting was instituted last year as a way to get better involvement in OSA elections and decision making. This tool will allow us to collect more opinions from students in a secure and readily available way. Its part of the steps OSA needed to start taking to contine to reach out to all students.

Anonymous said...

With all due respect to your efforts Jeff, the Rec Center could've been done better.

Many folks (athletics and facilities mangagment types) wanted to link it to Kolf but certain folks in Dempsey mandated it be a free standing building and to be specifically placed near the river.

Yes it will have many desirable features and provide many benefits to all users (faculty and staff too)but....Kolf is dramatically underutilized and to increase capacity when existing capacity is no where near being fully utilized makes the campus planning schemes look short-sighted because the very features the Rec Center are adding could have been added to Kolf with a building addition at a much more resonable price and with lower operating expenses.