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Main entrance of Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.

The University of Kansas’ long vaunted Chicago connection — a virtual pipeline of students from the Chicago area who attend KU — may soon get a shock.

And it may come from a fellow state university that is proposing to charge in-state tuition rates to all residents of the Chicago area.

Wichita State University is seeking approval for a plan to start charging residents of the Chicago area in-state tuition rates to attend WSU. At KU, those Chicago students pay out-of-state rates to attend the university.

The Kansas Board of Regents will consider the WSU plan at its monthly meeting on Wednesday in Topeka. It is one of several requests Wichita State is making to charge in-state tuition rates to residents of select metro areas in the midwest and beyond.

For several years, Wichita State has been aggressively growing its “Shocker City Partnership” program, which takes a fairly simple approach to growing university enrollment: Offer out-of-state students in-state tuition rates, which often can lead to thousands of dollars in savings per semester.

Numbers provided to the Board of Regents suggest the program is working. From 2015 to 2021, Wichita State has seen a 250% increase in students enrolled from Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, which have been the three states WSU has focused most intently on with the partnership.

Now, Wichita State has areas in Illinois, Colorado, Nebraska, Arkansas and Iowa on its list for expansion of the tuition discount program.

In Lawrence, the question is whether KU may create a similar program to help attract greater numbers of out-of-state students. KU Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer said KU is considering the idea as part of its strategic planning process, noting what Wichita State has done with its program.

Bichelmeyer, who spoke to the Journal-World last week before WSU’s proposal became public, said KU is evaluating its tuition model in light of new competitive forces across all of higher education.

“We have kind of lived in the historical perspective of we are great and we just assume people understand that and that they would want to come here,” Bichelmeyer said. “There are all sorts of new forms of educational experiences popping up that we need to benchmark against and survey the landscape to be in the hunt.”

WSU’s latest plan would be another change to the landscape. When it originally was approved, the Shocker City Partnership focused on markets along the Interstate 35 corridor and then the Interstate 70 corridor. Now, WSU is proposing to create several other lines on the map.

Specifically, WSU is seeking board approval to add the following metro areas to the tuition discount program:

• Colorado Spring and Pueblo, Colo.. The Denver metro area already is included in the program. In addition, WSU is seeking approval to offer a reduced tuition rate — higher than in-state tuition but less than standard out-of-state tuition — to all other parts of Colorado.

• The metro areas of Omaha, Grand Island and Lincoln, Neb.. In addition, WSU is proposing a reduced tuition program for the rest of Nebraska.

• The metro areas of Ames and Des Moines, Iowa. In addition, WSU is proposing a reduced tuition program for the rest of Iowa.

• The metro areas of Fayetteville, Fort Smith, and Little Rock, Ark. In addition, WSU is proposing a reduced tuition program for the rest of Arkansas.

• The metro area of Chicago. WSU already offers a reduced tuition program for the rest of Illinois.

WSU’s latest request to expand the tuition discount program comes at a time when universities across the country are struggling to grow enrollment. However, in recent years, Wichita State has seen enrollment growth while other state schools have posted declines.

From 2016 to 2021, WSU’s overall headcount of students was up 6.9%. During the same time period, KU’s overall enrollment fell by 3.2%. Wichita State’s growth in students from outside of Kansas is even starker. From 2016 to 2021, the number of out-of-state students has grown by 61%. At KU, during the same time period, it grew by about 8%.

The Regents will meet at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday at the Regents headquarters in Topeka.