Universities mum on if tuition freeze will be possible with state budget

DES MOINES - Iowa's public universities aren't saying whether one-time funding infusions will be enough to ensure a third year without tuition increases.

As part of a tentative state budget deal announced Monday by lawmakers, the University of Iowa would receive $2.9 million, Iowa State University $2.3 million and the University of Northern Iowa $1.1 million in funding increases, or a 1.25 percent boost.

Senate Democratic leaders said they believe the appropriations will be sufficient to ensure another tuition freeze for in-state undergraduates.

'I think that is the view, that those are enough resources to avoid a tuition increase,” said Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs.

But the universities would not yet make that promise, saying they need to get a better understanding of the complete budget picture.

'The House and Senate budget framework released today includes no final details on education appropriations. Until those plans are released, we will refrain from commenting on the budget impact on the public universities,” said a statement from Bob Donley, executive director of the Board of Regents.

A spokesman for UNI said the school wishes to withhold comment until it has 'an absolute understanding of the numbers.” UI officials forwarded budget questions to the regents. And an ISU spokesman declined to comment.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, has maintained the universities possess the wherewithal to institute another tuition freeze regardless of a funding increase. Paulsen said Monday he believes the one-time funding in the deal should be used for one-time projects, and that a committee still is negotiating the overall higher education budget.

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, said under the proposal the UI and ISU receive no permanent boost to their base funding levels, while UNI would see a permanent increase of $5.1 million.

Dvorsky said some lawmakers would have liked to give more to ISU, which has seen massive jumps in enrollment and is now the largest public university in the state with 34,732 students.

Lawmakers did not make appropriations to Iowa's universities based on new funding metrics proposed by the regents last year that would have tied a majority of state support to resident enrollment and could have pulled nearly $13 million from UI in 2016.

Dvorsky said the 'performance-based funding” is dead for this year, but said legislators assessed the individual needs of the institutions in deciding how to allocate funding.

Specifically, he said, they considered the fact that UNI gets about 90 percent of its students from within Iowa, meaning it doesn't benefit from the higher out-of-state tuition.

Vanessa Miller of The Gazette contributed to this report.