A year ago University of Wisconsin and state technical college officials cautioned legislators that unless there was a funding mechanism for a proposal to give free tuition to Wisconsin veterans, state campuses would have to bump up tuition for underclassmen.
So it was not surprising this week when the UW System Board of Regents stood with a tin cup in one hand and a larger tuition bill in the other as they adopted an operating budget for 2008-2009 academic year.
Under the Regentsâ?? vote on Thursday, tuition at the stateâ??s four-year campuses would go up by 5.5 percent â?? adding $265 to $350 to the tuition bills of undergraduates. More than half of that tuition hike will go to pay for the underfunded veteransâ?? benefit which, according to news reports, is going to sap the UW System of about $31 million over the next two years.