Free to raise tuition, UW regents choose not to

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — University of Wisconsin System leaders voted Thursday against raising tuition just hours after Gov. Tony Evers signed a budget that gave them the ability to do so for the first time in years.

The Board of Regents approved a system budget that calls for no resident undergraduate tuition increases for the 2021-22 academic year.

Republican legislators froze resident undergraduate tuition heading into the 2013-14 academic year. That was finally undone on Thursday when Evers signed a Republican-written state budget that, besides handing control of tuition back to the board, includes a $2 billion income tax cut.

Regaining control of tuition was “something that we've all wanted and rightfully deserved,” interim System President Tommy Thompson said, t he Wisconsin State Journal reported.

Regents said little about why they chose to keep tuition flat, the State Journal reported, aside from Regent Bob Atwell calling it “a big win.”

Thompson had already said last winter that tuition increases weren’t an option if the university system hoped to get anywhere with its $96 million budget request.

The budget Evers signed will give the system $8.25 million in new funding over the next two years.

“We came out not as good as I wanted to but much better than what a lot of people thought we would,” Thompson said on Thursday.