{"id":2851,"date":"2023-05-16T03:32:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T03:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2023-05-16T04:15:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T04:15:20","slug":"uw-president-defends-tuition-hike-budget-increase-during-enrollment-dip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2851","title":{"rendered":"UW President Defends Tuition Hike, Budget Increase During Enrollment Dip"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/uw-president-defends-tuition-hike-budget-increase-during-enrollment-dip\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Wisconsin\u2019s Assembly Speaker, Robin Vos, this month hinted at withholding some state money from the UW System to push Rothman to rein in DEI efforts on campuses.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman said the \u201cwar for talent\u201d is driving his vision for the school, which he says is necessitating both a tuition increase and a request for $200 million more in the next state budget.<\/p>\n

Rothman told WisPolitics\u2019 Newsmakers program that Wisconsin must do both in order to compete in that war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not graduating enough people in the state right now to fill the jobs that are there,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cThat war for talent is in this state. If we are not successful in graduating the number of people that this state needs, the state\u2019s long term economy is going to suffer. Those jobs will leave the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothman uses the \u201cwar for talent\u201d to justify not only the recently approved tuition increase for students, but his request for an 8% budget increase over the next two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more nurses, and engineers, and educators, and data scientists,\u201d Rothman added. \u201cSo our budget request, which is 4% on the operating side in each year of the biennium, is really to address those needs. To build the capacity we need to educate students in those high-demand areas, as well as to attract them, get them enrolled, and get them graduated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enrollment is an issue for Rothman and the University of Wisconsin. A Legislative Fiscal Bureau reported that enrollment declined nearly 10% between 2012 and 2021. The same report said four-year campus enrollment is down 5.7%, the lowest since 2000.<\/p>\n

Rothman said enrollment is starting to bounce back after COVID, noting that last fall\u2019s freshman class was the largest since 2018, and the new class for the fall of 2023 is even larger.<\/p>\n

But Rothman also came back to his \u201cwar for talent\u201d stock answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the states around us are having more people go on to some form of higher education. That ought to be very concerning to the state of Wisconsin,\u201d Rothman explained. \u201cIf we don\u2019t [reverse that trend] Wisconsin is going to fall behind in the Midwest. But we\u2019re not just competing in the Midwest. We are competing nationally, and we are competing globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothman\u2019s focus on the \u201cwar for talent\u201d is so encompassing, that it\u2019s his answer to questions about diversity, equity, and including concerns on UW campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep going back. We are in a war for talent,\u201d Rothman again said. \u201cWe need to be as inclusive as we possibly can to get our students and prospective students interested in coming on to our campuses, and feeling they are included.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wisconsin\u2019s Assembly Speaker, Robin Vos, this month hinted at withholding some state money from the UW System to push Rothman to rein in DEI efforts on campuses.<\/p>\n

Vos said he\u2019d rather see the university spend its $13 million DEI budget on in-demand degree programs.<\/p>\n

Rothman last week told lawmakers the UW System will no longer require DEI statements as part of the hiring process, which was welcome news to the Republican-controlled legislature.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen, however, just how much of a budget increase (if any) lawmakers will provide to the university system in the new budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/uw-president-defends-tuition-hike-budget-increase-during-enrollment-dip\/ Wisconsin\u2019s Assembly Speaker, Robin Vos, this month hinted at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2851"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2853,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2851\/revisions\/2853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}