Associated Press
05-17-06
University students likely face higher fees
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iowa City, Ia. — When lawmakers agreed to give Iowa’s three public universities
a smaller budget increase than expected, campus leaders say they were forced
to target the student body to make up for the shortfalls.
When students return to campuses in Ames, Cedar Falls and Iowa City next fall,
a variety of higher-priced changes may be waiting, from bigger tuition bills and
surcharges to increased fees for smoking cessation and fitness classes.
Campus administrators say they will also look to trim costs by freezing the hiring
of faculty and teaching assistants, defer maintenance projects another year and
cut programs to keep pace with inflation.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t express some appreciation,” said Michael Hogan,
University of Iowa's provost. “But the funding increase does leave us short of
being able to pay all the bills. We’re going to face another year of belt tightening
at the university.”
The Legislature in April agreed to provide regent universities $11 million in new
public money to help pay for increased operating costs. That total will be divided
between the University of Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa to pay for higher
energy costs and pad faculty salaries that in the past five years have fallen
behind peer universities.
The state Board of Regents had asked for a $40 million base increase as part of
a deal struck with lawmakers last year. In return, the regents had vowed to hold
tuition increases to 4 percent, an increase estimated to keep pace with inflation.
Lawmakers allocated $40 million, but half of that amount was set aside for
economic development projects and another $9 million for one-time funding
projects.
“This very small state appropriations increase to our base operating budget is
extremely disappointing,” Iowa State University President Gregory Geoffroy
wrote in a letter to faculty and staff earlier this month.
“This budget sends a strong message from our state leaders that they expect an
increasing share of the cost of operating Iowa’s public universities to be borne by
our students.”
The regents voted in December to increase tuition in the upcoming school year
between 4 and 5 percent, but university officials have hinted that a supplemental
increase may be needed before students return in the fall.
And as they have in past years, campus administrators are now looking at other
steps to stretch and save valuable resources.
At the University of Iowa, Hogan said he anticipates a freeze on hiring faculty and
filling teaching slots opened by retirement. As a result, students can expect
bigger class sizes and new challenges in building relationships with professors
and teaching assistants, he said.
Between 2001-06, University of Iowa officials had to offset a $36 million cut in
state support, according to university statistics. During that time, the university
lost 90 tenure track professor positions and salaries dropped to among the
lowest in the Big Ten, Hogan said.
Renee Romano, vice president for education and student services at Northern
Iowa, said her staff is reviewing ways to make ends meet by raising prices for
student aerobic, diet and smoking cessation courses and cuts in the university’s
career services programs.
“With things the way they are, that obviously means prioritizing,” said Romano,
who has lost 28 of 150 staff positions in the past five years. “But ultimately, I think
what happens is students end up with fewer services than they’ve had in the
past.”
The reduced funding is not new for Iowa’s three public universities. During
legislative cutbacks the past five years, the regents approved double-digit tuition
increases three straight years to help pay operating costs, salaries and maintain
financial aid accounts.
But the impact caused by the shift in funding from public sources to student
pocketbooks is doing more than adding to the debt facing students upon
graduation, campus officials say.
“In many ways, the changes have forced us to become less and less of a public
university ... one that is accessible to all Iowans,” Hogan said. “And that’s
worrisome, because it took generations of Iowans to build these universities.”