Outgoing Iowa student regent regrets voting for new funding model

COUNCIL BLUFFS - In her last meeting as a member of the Board of Regents, student representative Hannah Walsh on Thursday told her colleagues she regrets voting for a proposed change to the funding model for Iowa's public universities.

The board voted 8-1 last summer - with regent Bob Downer, of Iowa City, casting the lone 'no” vote - to adopt new performance- and enrollment-based funding metrics for distributing state dollars that tie 60 percent of the resources to resident enrollment.

Because Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa have larger proportions of in-state students, that change could benefit those institutions and pull tens of millions from University of Iowa unless it changes its enrollment patterns.

UI senior Walsh told her fellow regents Thursday that she voted for the new funding model - which must be approved by lawmakers before it can take effect - because she wanted to fairly represent all three institutions.

'But this is a decision I have come to regret,” she said. 'You cannot tear down one university to build up two.”

The proposed funding model - which also ties 15 percent of state funding to progress and attainment, 10 percent to access, 5 percent to both research and graduate and professional enrollment, leaving 5 percent up to the regents - puts too high an emphasis on undergraduate education, Walsh said.

Any revised model needs to have a better balance, she said, also addressing the impact many worry it will have on competition among the state's higher education entities.

'Individually, our institutions are strong,” she said. 'Put together, they are stronger.”

In response to the proposed change in funding, UI administrators have rolled out significant advertising campaigns and recruitment efforts in hopes of adding more resident students to its campus and avoiding the potential funding hit.

State lawmakers and representatives from Iowa's private and community colleges have expressed concern about how those UI efforts will affect the other institutions.

Meanwhile, supporters of the funding model say the current system is broken, outdated, and this proposal is a good step forward. As proposed, the funding model could pull no more than $12.9 million from UI in the next budget year, and the board has asked lawmakers to backfill that total to give the universities time to adjust to the new funding metrics.

Gov. Terry Branstad included $4 million toward performance-based funding metrics in his proposed budget, but he did not appear to redistribute state dollars among the universities according to the regents' suggestions.

Rastetter on Thursday responded to Walsh's comments, saying a lot of 'overreaction and hype” has surrounded the new funding model over the past year. But, he said, it already is working and having an impact and he looks forward to a 'successful” outcome in the legislature.

Thursday's meeting is the last for regents Walsh, Downer, and Ruth Harkin.