UI The Daily Iowan
10-29-07
Regents mull tuition hikes
Ben Fornell, The Daily Iowan
Tuition may rise between $172 and $1,676 in the next school year, according to
a proposal before the state Board of Regents.
Under the plan, tuition would rise by 3.2 percent for in-state undergraduates and
6 percent for those from out-of-state - the highest increase for non-Iowa
undergraduates at any of Iowa's public universities.
"You know you need to do it," said Regent Jenny Connolly, the only regent who
is a student in the Iowa public university system.
She said she's just glad the tuition hikes aren't so bad as they were a few years
ago, when she was an undergraduate - hikes climbed into double-digit
percentages.
"People are doing what they can to keep costs down," she said.
The increases are tied to the Higher Education Price Index, which tracks
increases in the cost of attending college. The index is projected to rise by
between 3.2 and 4.5 percent over the next school year. The Consumer Price
Index, a traditional measure of inflation, has risen by 2.48 percent so far this
year.
UI Vice Provost Thomas Rocklin, who was involved in setting the 6 percent rate
for out-of-state students, said the UI can raise rates that much because there is a
"large amount" of interest from out-of-state students.
"We felt like we wouldn't cause fewer out-of-state students to come here" by
raising tuition by 6 percent, Rocklin said. "We don't try to make a profit; we try to
have enough money to provide a high-quality educational experience."
He also cited generous state appropriations as a reason that in-state tuition hikes
for undergraduates were set relatively low - 3.2 percent at all Iowa public
universities.
State appropriations are "not meant to educate nonresidents - that money is
meant to educate residents," he said.
Despite these appropriations, nonresident tuition hikes at Iowa State University
and the University of Northern Iowa were lower than those for residents, at 2.2
and 2.5 percent respectively.
Tuition increases at the UI are projected at 3.2 and 6 percent for graduate
residents and nonresidents. Increases are projected at 11 percent and 8.6
percent respectively for in-state and out-of-state upper-division engineering
students.
E-mail DI reporter Ben Fornell at:
benjamin-fornell@uiowa.edu
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