UW-L gives incentives for students to get vaccine before spring semester

Many young people are headed back to school this week after a holiday break, but colleges generally will wait a little longer.

UW-La Crosse has a short winter class schedule, starting Monday and lasting three weeks. Its spring semester begins on Jan. 24.

UW-L Chancellor Joe Gow expects many students who were away from campus during the fall to return in person for the new semester.

“We have many students who are coming back who did not attend in the fall because of the pandemic,” Gow said, “and we offered them special scholarships to get them to come back, and many of them took us up on that, and so we’re excited about that.”

Gow is hoping to have as many students vaccinated as possible before the start of spring classes.

Tuition will go up during 2022 at many of the UW System campuses, for the fall semester, but UW-L was not included among schools raising tuition for out-of-state students.

“That’s because we’re really waiting to see what the things look like after we’re through the pandemic,” Gow said. “Some of the other campuses, they felt that they wanted to get moving on that right now and they did, but we thought it better to wait a little longer.”

The increase is scheduled at UW-Eau Claire, UW-Platteville, and UW-Stout, among other campuses.