Iowa City Press-Citizen, IA
05-04-06
Students could face mid-year tuition hike
By Gregg Hennigan
Iowa City Press-Citizen
CEDAR FALLS — A mid-year tuition increase may be necessary to offset a lack
of state funding, university officials and members of the Iowa state Board of
Regents said Thursday.
“It just seems the Legislature has really let us down,” University of Iowa Student
Government President Peter McElligott said.
The possibility of a tuition increase was raised as faculty and staff
representatives made presentations to the board on the need to raise their
salaries or risk losing ground, and employees, to peer institutions.
“We must make more progress, and now that the Legislature is out, we know that
we cannot do so without higher tuition than any of us would like,” Katherine
Tachau, a UI history professor, told the regents at their meeting in Cedar Falls.
The Legislature included $11 million in new funding to the public universities
rather than the $40 million asked for.
The regents asked the board office and the universities to prepare a report on the
funding and tuition issue for the regents’ June meeting.
Under the regents “transformation plan,” the universities agreed to keep tuition
increases at the rate of inflation in exchange for an extra $40 million in state
funding annually for four years and the internal reallocation of half that total. The
plan, which is in its second year, is not guaranteed.
For the upcoming school year, tuition and fees for in-state students at the
University of Northern Iowa, UI and Iowa State University will increase between
4 percent and 5.5 percent.
ISU President Gregory Geoffrey said he felt let down by the Legislature.
“I believe very strongly that the transformation plan was an understanding,” he
said.
In addition, the transformation plan is critical to increasing faculty salaries, an
issue UI Provost Michael Hogan has said is his top priority. After a 5.4 percent
increase in average salaries in the past year, UI believes it ranks seventh out of
10 public schools in the Big Ten in faculty pay.
ISU officials said its salaries are at the bottom of their peer group.