Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-06-04
.lah.r (lIIIcInr
MIMI UUI0IUl
STUDENT PAY
Grand Rapids Member of Board
OF Visitors States Facts on
Cost of Education al
State University


last meeting which strongly recon-
nlended a thorough investigation as
ID what costs for Institutional work
In his report, Mr.. Hambrecht says
that the cost to the state for each
student per year has been variously
estimated at $40 to 1925. Exact fig
ures should be compiled to form the
basis Of an Ineligible report. Data
thus far available seems to place
the amount at about $500 for each
regular student enrolled per year.
Figures for the last ten years
show that there has been an increase
of 49 per cent for students and 200
per cent for foreign students. The
present calendar show that there
are %. residents students and So
non-resident students at the univer-
sity.
Each nonresident student is now
required to pay a tuition charge of
$40 a year, with $24, Incidental ex-
penses (required from all students),
which makes $94 in all a sum
grossly inadequate to compensate
the state for money raised to edu-
cate such foreign students. TIL big
increase in the attendance of nom
resident stud ents brings up a ques-
ton which is certainly worth COIL
Sidering as the matter is close TO
the hearts of the taxpayers. Con-
tinuing, Mr. Hambrecht's report
shows that the report of the Bureau
shows that the total attendance, res
ident and nonresident, students al
the university 1904, was 1854. In
1928, it was $3.50, a total increase
of SO per cent.
Resident students, exclusive of
summer course and short course stu
dent, have increased from 1888 in
1904, to 2,948 in 1928, an in
crease of only 40 per cent or five per
cent a year.
Nonresident students have increas-
ed from 443 in 1904 to !, Isl in 1912
10, an increase of 159 per cent. Add
ing the nonresident student, who
take the summer school work, and
short course, we have 800 or an
increase Of 200 per cent. In other
words, the nonresident students at
the state university have increased
four times as rapidly as the resident
student
Students are now enrolled at the
University from every state in the
union, except Vermont and Delaware;
only 229 students from Wisconsin are
enrolled at the state institution.
Many nonresident students at the
Wisconsin University register from
Wisconsin in order to evade the
| nominal fee charged them. The Blu
istered as Wisconsin students are
nonresident students.
I'm 1911-12 the state received only
SIS 800 from nonresident students,
and it has cost the taxpayers of the
state approximately a half million
dollars a year for the educational
privileges to these foreign students.
Another advantage to be gained by
charging nonresident students the
cost they impose upon taxpayers of
the state would be the solving of
the present overcrowded condition
of the class rooms and dormitories at
the university. This would also tend
for better educational advantages for
the resident student.
While not ummindfuI of the desire
to make the University of Wisconsin
a cosmopolitan university, yet the
taxpayers of the state should not be
burdened with the cost incident to
educating nonresident students.
No one can object to reimbursing
the state of Wisconsin for his or
her education and surely no one out
side the state can expect the tax
payers of this state to provide his
educational expenses free
The University of Wisconsin is
supported wholly out of the resour-
ces of the state and cannot be com
pared with the endowed institutions
Like Yale or Harvard. The greater
part of the money used to run the |
university is raised by taxation, and
1t is not just to the taxpayers that |
he be compelled to spend rs of the |
money so raised to educate the nom
resident students. Even i'm privately |
endowed universities like Yale. Har-
ward and the University of Chicago,
charge tuition fee of from s12O to |
$3.50 year and this i'll addition to |
the so-called Incidental fee. These
small sums pay only a small part of
the cost of tuition at these privately
endowed universities.
This problem should be met and
solved in business like way and i'm
mediate steps be taken to ascertain
the cost to the state of educating the
students at the university, and then
charge the nonresident students
sim proportionate to the money ex-
pended by the state in educating
them.
Mr.. Hamihrecht's recommendations
are Just and ought to- be of great in
terest to all taxpayers. The high cost
OF taxation has reached the limit in
TINS state and way is here point
ed out to reduce the taxes by a big
by making the outside the
state student pay for what he gets.