Regent: Students at Iowa state schools may face tuition hike next year

One state regent today said students at Iowa's three regent universities may have to reach deeper into their pockets next year due to an expected lack of state funding.

The regents did not discuss tuition proposals at their meeting today in Council Bluffs - tuition recommendations come in October. But during a discussion of the Board of Regents state appropriation request for fiscal year 2011, Regent Craig Lang of Brooklyn said he doesn't think 2.7 percent - the midpoint of the Higher Education Price Index - will cut it as a tuition increase in 2010-11.

The Higher Education Price Index range is 1.8 percent to 3.5 percent, and the presidents of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are required to bring tuition proposals in that range, though the board can set any rate it chooses.

“It's unreasonable to say with the cuts the universities had, that I would support something as low as 2.7,” Lang said today. “I personally believe these are times when people have to reach in their pockets and say we can do more” and support public education.

The 2.7 percent HEPI midrange is just a starting point upon which regents staff based budget assumptions for 2011, Regents President David Miles said. There is still much work to do before tuition is decided.

Difficult budget decisions lie ahead for state officials, Miles said, “but if anyone is going to make the case for the importance of higher education in Iowa, it needs to be this board.”

The board unanimously approved a state appropriations request for 2011 of $767.6 million. State entities must submit requests by Oct. 1. That figure includes a request of $80.3 million in one-time state money to replace the one-time federal stimulus money the regents institutions received this year. That federal stimulus money helped fill a budget hole created by state funding cuts of $86 million this year.

But Regent Michael Gartner of Des Moines, though supportive of the appropriation request, warned university leaders not to count on getting that one-time state money next year, given the state's financial picture.

“It would be folly to plan” based on that number, Gartner said.