UW-L sees largest increase in student fees in UW system

Students voted for fee increase, according to chancellor

Fees for students will rise $259 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The highest of the UW-system schools.

The fees, however, were apparently ones the students asked for.

“We had a referendum a few years ago,” UW-L chancellor Joe Gow said, “where we said to the students, ‘Are you willing to pay a higher fee and should future students pay a higher fee, in order to get a brand new student center?’ and they overwhelmingly said yes.”

Gow says only $9 of that $259 fee at the school does not come from referendums, but have been added to account for inflation.

“(The new student center), that’s a building that the state will not provide funding for,” Gow said. “They don’t build student centers or (residence) halls or athetlic facilities, so you always need to do those with student fees.”

The student union is scheduled to open later this year. Gow doesn’t know how long UW has had the policy of not paying for non-classroom buildings. 

“Athletic facilities, yeah there was a time when the state did pay for those, and I think that’s how our current Mitchell (Hall) was created, but they don’t do that anymore,” Gow said. “And I don’t really know whether that’s a formal policy change.

Mitchell, UW-L’s athletic facility, was built in the 1960s. A new fieldhouse is also being planned for east of the Veteran’s Memorial Field. 

Gow says students will have to be asked to raise fees again, before new dorms are built on the local campus.