The University of Wisconsin?s Associate Vice President of Budget and Planning, Freda Harris, presented financial aid proposals part of the ?Charting a New Course? study that focus on aiding low-income students to the Board of Regents Friday.

The plan, aimed at solving the state’s fiscal deficit, would raise tuition by 15.8 percent in 2005 and 10 percent the following year. Harris said these figures would be adjusted according to inflation at a later date. The plan also demands a total budget request of $26 million for the 2005-07 fiscal years.

In 2002-03, UW tuition increased on average system-wide $224, and Harris called for an additional increase. She said she did not know the minimum UW would be forced to raise tuition, but said there was “not a lot of room to go below” $500 to $700 increases.

In 2002, UW tuition cost low-income families 33 percent of their annual income. Harris said 35 percent of UW African-American and Hispanic students were in the lowest income bracket, while 18 percent of white students and 15 percent of Asian-American students were also in the lowest bracket.

“Minority students are as a group more dependent on financial aid,” Harris said at Friday’s meeting.

Harris also noted that the more diverse the student body, the higher the unmet need, or the gap between the amount a student can pay and the amount the university asks of them, would be for minority students. Harris said this was reflected in the percentage of low-income students in the UW student body, which declined by 3.5 percent from 1992 to 2002.

Regent Nino Amato said the budget needs to address lower-middle-income students, whose families’ annual income falls between $40,000 to $60,000, and middle-income students, whose families’ incomes begin at $61,000. Amato said the percentage of low- to medium-income students also decreased at UW, but students whose families earn more than $83,000 annually increased by 5.7 percent over the last decade.

“That is what I would call a wake-up call to this institution that was built for students — that we are pricing a UW education out of reach of a growing number of students,” Amato said. “That [Harris’] proposal only addressed the lowest quartile of students, and we need to include the next two quartiles if [UW is] going to raise tuition.”

Harris said extending the plan to the second quartile would cost $84 million because UW requires a $50 million base just to fill the “hole” in the next budget caused by factors such as students’ growing unmet needs and inflation.

Amato said he and other regents, such as Jose Olivieri and Danae Davis, believe the issues of financial aid and growing tuition costs need to be the centerpiece of the upcoming budget.

Amato said the budget issues will be discussed at meetings in April, May and June.

“The choice is that we don’t raise tuition and keep it at what it is, but if we dare raise tuition, then we have to offset it,” Amato said. “Students don’t need any more debt. Financial aid is great, but if it’s not a grant, it’s not going to do anybody any good.”