2008 Woodie Awards
Reciprocity agreement reached
Andrew Whitman
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
|
The original reciprocity agreement was set up in 1968 and allows students from Minnesota and Wisconsin to study in either state for the same price.
According to the Wisconsin Higher Education Board, the agreement allows a student to attend an out-of-state university at a comparable cost to what they would pay in their home state.
Every year the Wisconsin and Minnesota Higher Education Boards meet to review the agreement.
Currently, Wisconsin residents are paying about $2,000 less to attend University of Minnesota campuses than Minnesota residents, the office of the Governor in Minnesota said.
To offset this deficit Wisconsin sends Minnesota an annual supplement to the general fund, but the money is not given back to the universities. The loss of the revenue prompted the Minnesota Higher Education Board to call for an adjustment on the original agreement.
"On June 22 they decided on the current agreement," Troy Moldenhauer, student service coordinator for the Office of Admissions at UW-Whitewater, said. "Minnesota wanted to pull out initially."
The two states agreed to extend the reciprocity for another school year and make changes to it sometime in the fall of 2007, Moldenhauer said.
A statement released by the Wisconsin governor's office ssaid the new changes had been decided and agreed to. The changes will take effect during the 2008-09 school year and will not affect any students who have already applied for reciprocity.
The statements issued by the governor's office in Wisconsin and Minnesota said the changes would be in the financing structure of the agreement and resolve the growing gap in tuition. The new agreement will address the disparity by charging all students the higher of the two resident tuition rates.
"This primarily impacts Wisconsin students attending Minnesota universities," Lynn Paulson, assistant vice president of Budget and Planning for Wisconsin, said.
"There will be no impact on the amount Wisconsin students attending Minnesota universities will pay, and there will be no increase in the amount that the state of Wisconsin will pay," Paulson said.
To accomplish this, Paulson said Wisconsin will re-direct a portion of its annual supplement from Minnesota's general fund straight to the universities. The supplements will cover the difference between what students would have paid under the old agreement and the amount assessed under the new agreement. Because the funds are being re-directed there will be no added costs to taxpayers.
Students will still need to apply for reciprocity as they normally would, and no other changes will have any direct affects on students wishing to receive reciprocity.
"Reciprocity has been extremely valuable to thousands of Minnesota students and their families, and it benefits the entire region," Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said. "We have worked hard to find a solution that keeps the agreement intact and we are pleased to continue this important partnership."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Matt
posted 12/03/07 @ 9:53 PM CST
This was an interesting article to write because I didn't know that there were many students from "the land of 10,000 lakes" attending collegiate schooling at UWW. (Continued…)
Post a Comment