Tuition and diversity were on the minds of the students and faculty present at Marquette Student Government's open forum with University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild on Thursday.

According to Chris Hoff, MUSG program vice president and a senior in the College of Health Sciences, about 125 people attended the one-hour forum, which also included answers from University Vice President Greg Kliebhan and Provost Madeline Wake.

MUSG had promoted the forum for the past week with the "Where's Wild-O" contest, a scavenger hunt in which the winner of a drawing received an iPod Nano. College of Business Administration junior Dan Voors won the prize after Wild called the names of five other students who were not present.

"There were a few more people this year," Wild said. "I think the iPod had a great deal to do with that."

However, Voors said although the incentive may have been a major factor for other students' attendance at the forum, he was there to listen.

"I was more so interested in the issues that other students saw and the answers the administration had," he said.

During the forum, Pat Landry, MUSG senator for Straz Tower and a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, asked Wild to explain the use of tuition fees.

Wild said about 60 percent of all university spending comes from tuition, and about $9 million has been cut from the budget on the administrative end in the last few years. According to Wild, tuition rose 6.9 percent last year but the university increases financial aid as it is able.

Kliebhan said because Marquette has lower tuition costs than more than half of Jesuit universities, "the value is a lot higher today" than 10 years ago.

Kristen Druschke, a graduate student in education, asked the administrators what the university is doing to retain the minority student population.

Wild said "we are by no means satisfied with where we are situated at this point," but there has been a constant increase in Marquette's minority population and retention last year was "spectacular."

Wake said the most significant efforts have included the CommUNITY floor in McCormick Hall and the Freshman Frontier Program, which was "recrafted with the notion of increasing minority enrollment."

A student asked Wild to explain the decrease in merit scholarships offered for incoming students. Wild said the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, which offers support for scholarly studies and informed public opinion, had previously offered four annual full-ride scholarships but the funding ran out. However, he said the university is trying to replace it.

"I think it's been a real loss that we haven't had that in the last few years," he said.

College of Business Administration senior Tim Petrie expressed concern over the lack of visual appeal of Parents' Park behind Abbottsford Residence Hall.

"It's not the most beautiful area of our campus," Wild said. "However, we don't like to spend money on this project that we don't have."

Other issues discussed at the forum included purchasing renewable energy to power the university, the decision to stop printing class schedules after this semester, a lack of green space for club sports on campus and implementation of later hours for campus services.