One method some UW System campuses will employ to help offset proposed state budget cuts and another two-year freeze on resident tuition, is to raise tuition for out-of-state students.
Several non-resident students at UWM are concerned about the impact on them, if the Legislature does not ease the funding cuts contained in Gov. Walker's proposed budget for Wisconsin.
Wandson Moreira is from Brazil and is one of 1500 students attending UWM from 80 outside countries. Moreira says he enrolled to study industrial engineering, hoping to establish a career in logistics.
“In my university, I don’t have a lot of classes of logistics, so I come here and am taking a lot of those classes,” Moreira says.
He says he also appreciates the variety of classes UWM offers.
“I can know more about the major; it’s really good. Because if I see something I have more interest in than logistics, I can change,” Moreira says.
Moreira says he will finish his time at UWM after this semester. He wonders how many more Brazilians might follow his footsteps here, if the university eventually cuts programs or hikes tuition substantially for out-of-state students.
“The culture of education will go down. It’s better to have a great budget because education is the basis of society; it’s not the right thing. And I think the other Brazilians who don’t yet come here will decide not to come to UWM,” Moreira says.
Moreira says an international agency directed him to UWM and helped arrange a scholarship. Tuition for undergrad, out-of-state residents tops $19,000 dollars, about $10,000 more than for in-state residents.
While an agency directed the Brazilian to Milwaukee, sophomore Aaron Harris came to UWM on his own, from Illinois. He attended a presentation this week at UWM, to ask about pending changes.
"(I am) majoring in pharmacy. For the fall semester, I want to re-enroll because I feel that UWM will help me through my college process as far as getting my bachelor's degree and going through graduate school, but come the fall semester of 2015, I will still be considered an out-of-state student, so I don't want to experience the burden of paying that extra amount of money. So my question is, what are some methods to help ease us through the process?"
Chancellor Mark Mone encouraged Harris to work with the university's financial aid office and search for tuition assistance and scholarship money.
Enrollment at UWM this year is just over 28,000 students. About 4,000 are not Wisconsin residents.