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Reciprocity agreement may be in doubt
Minnesota officials argue tuition gap is too large to maintain states' 39-year agreement
Ryan Dostalek
Issue date: 1/29/07 Section: Campus News
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Minnesota State College and Universities officials say the current pact between the two states is unfair, and Wisconsin students attending Minnesota institutions should have to pay more.
"For us it is an issue of fairness," said Barb Schlaefer, communications director for the Minnesota Office of Higher Education. "We are negotiating with Wisconsin about this issue."
Any change to the agreement would not affect students currently attending a school with reciprocity, she said.
In the original agreement, first established in 1968, any Wisconsin student wishing to attend a Minnesota university would pay the average tuition of a comparable university in Wisconsin. The same goes for a Minnesota student wishing to attend a Wisconsin university.
In recent years, however, the differences in tuition gaps have increased, forcing Minnesota students to pay more to attend college in their home state than a Wisconsin student attending the same school. In some instances these differences are as large as $2,000 a year.
According to a report released this month, nearly 30,000 Minnesota and Wisconsin students took part in the agreement in fall 2005.
UW-Eau Claire hosted 2,200 of the nearly 14,000 Minnesota students attending UW System institutions, making it the school with the third-largest Minnesota student population in the System next to UW-Madison and UW-River Falls.
When sophomore Geoff Bourassa, a Minnesota resident, was deciding where to attend college, he said he had both Minnesota schools and Wisconsin universities on his list.
Of the many reasons for coming to Eau Claire, Bourassa said being able to pay in-state tuition for an out-of-state school was a plus.
"Reciprocity was definitely a helpful factor in coming to Eau Claire," he said.
According to records from Minnesota's university system, a student from Minnesota who attends Eau Claire would pay on average $11,700 a year* - almost $1,800 more than a Wisconsin resident.
State Rep. Jeff Smith, D-Eau Claire, said he spoke with administrators last week in Madison regarding possible changes to the agreement.
"We will do everything in our power to preserve the great opportunity we have for students," Smith said. "But it has to be fair. We want it to be fair."
Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Minesota residents pay an average of $11,500 a semester.
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