Possible changes to the tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin have been delayed until fall 2008, but University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks said Thursday he still wants the agreement changed.

"What we're doing is allowing the [state] Office of Higher Education to continue discussions with Wisconsin and hope they can come up with an agreement," Bruininks said. "My patience is extensive, but it is not infinite."

The longstanding agreement allows students from the two states to attend college across state lines, usually paying the same tuition they'd pay at a similar campus back home. Increasing tuition in Minnesota, especially at the University of Minnesota, has thrown those rates out of whack. Wisconsin students who attend U campuses now pay less than Minnesotans do.

Bruininks first asked that the reciprocity agreement be renegotiated in 2004. Talks between higher education officials in the two states picked up speed this year after U officials threatened to pull out of the agreement unless it was changed. Officials in both states had hoped to reach consensus by February, but that didn't happen, and the governors' offices in both states have been pulled into negotiations.

The delay means freshmen who begin school this fall will not be affected by any change in the reciprocity agreement.

Bruininks said the current agreement, which allows Wisconsin residents to pay $1,200 less than Minnesotans on the U's Twin Cities campus and about $2,700 less on the Morris campus, is untenable. But he said he wants reciprocity to continue.

"Our position is simple: Reciprocity means you can attend a university in another state and pay the tuition that university charges residents," he said. "We're being patient because we believe that reciprocity is a good idea and serves families and students in Minnesota and Wisconsin very well. We have every intention of continuing our commitment to reciprocity in both states."

At the end of each year, a complex formula is used to equalize reciprocity finances between the two states. In recent years, Wisconsin has owed Minnesota money. Last year, that payment was about $6 million. But it went not to schools but to the state's general fund. Some critics have asked why the money can't go straight to the U to fill the reciprocity gap.

Bruininks was impatient with that suggestion. College costs in the two states can't be directly compared, he indicated, because the two states fund higher education differently. And last year, he said, Wisconsin's payment to Minnesota fell about $3 million short of the tuition lost through reciprocity by both the U and schools within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

He said the U is letting the state handle talks now while the U focuses on budget decisions at the Legislature. "We just want this issue fixed in a way that is not detrimental to the University of Minnesota," he said. "It should be changed by next fall."

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380 • smetan@startribune.com