Regents to ask Legislature for $13 million for ISU, UNI

IOWA CITY - Using new enrollment- and performance-based funding metrics, the Board of Regents is planning to give Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa and additional $6.3 million and $6.6 million, respectively, in the 2016 budget year.

That is money that presumably will be reallocated away from the University of Iowa unless legislators approve a supplemental request of $12.9 million to help implement the board's new performance-based funding model, according to board documents.

'By funding the transition to (performance based funding), the state can minimize any short-term disruptions caused by reallocations among the institutions, while sending a strong message of support to the Board of Regents for taking this much needed step,” according to the board's 2016 operating appropriations request.

The Board of Regents will discuss the 2016 appropriation requests during its meeting Wednesday. The appeal for $12.9 million in supplemental funds will come in addition to the board's overall operating appropriations request of $649 million.

But some lawmakers have said there are 'major concerns” with the regents' new funding model, and they want to have a 'thorough debate” on the topic when the General Assembly convenes in January.

'This isn't a done deal,” Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville said, adding that final allocation decisions are 'up to us.”

The board since 1945 has been funding the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa the same way - using a base-plus formula. Under the old model, UI received the most money, and UNI ran into budget problems.

In June, after a task force spent months developing an alternate funding system based on performance and enrollment metrics, the board approved the new model, which aims to 'incentivize the universities to align with state and regent higher education priorities.”

The model ties 60 percent of state appropriations to resident enrollment, 5 percent to graduate and professional enrollment, and 35 percent to outcome metrics - like progress and attainment, access, and sponsored research.

If the new metrics were rolled out over one year, $46.5 million would be reallocated from UI to the other two universities, according to board documents. The board previously estimated that figure at $47.8 million using a 'demonstration model” based on 2014 budget numbers.

The 2016 budget request is the 'first opportunity to put actual, current numbers into the (performance-based funding) model,” board spokeswoman Sheila Koppin said.

To prevent UI from losing $46.5 million in one year, the board approved a three-year rollout of its new system that caps redistribution at 2 percent of the 2013 operating revenues. Under that cap, $12.9 million can be redistributed, hence the board's supplemental request.

Despite earlier implications, Koppin would not confirm that the $12.9 million would be taken from the UI allotment, if the legislature denies the board's funding request.

'It's too soon to speculate on that,” she said. 'We would have to revisit it.”

Dvorsky said he supports providing additional funding to the board so it doesn't pull $12.9 million from UI, but he said the new funding metrics on the whole seem to fall short.

'I have been talking to my colleagues, and they have major concerns,” he said. 'We need to sit down and work out something that people are more comfortable with.”

Dvorsky said he believes the new funding model, as approved by the Board of Regents, most likely will see revisions.

'I don't think it probably will come out exactly as they proposed it,” he said.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said he thinks the new funding metrics are unnecessarily intensifying competition among the state's three public universities - creating unintended consequences. He said a push to get more resident students to the regent institutions could hurt community and private colleges, for example, tipping the balance of Iowa's higher education system.

'We need to leave the competition on the sports field and let the universities work together,” he said.

Bolkcom said he 'absolutely” will support the $12.9 million supplemental request from the Board of Regents in hopes of keeping any impact to UI at a minimum. But, Bolkcom said, he'd like the new funding system to include heavier weights for performance, rather than enrollment.

'In January, we need to have a thorough debate about this Board of Regents proposal,” he said.

According to regent documents, Iowa State plans use the additional $6.3 million obtained through the new funding model in 2016 to hire additional faculty, increase 'personalized” learning, and make college more affordable.

'Over the past 15 years, the university's student-to-faculty ratio has increased from 13.7 to 19,” according to regent documents. 'Continuing to invest in hiring faculty … will ensure that the university provides students with a high-quality education.”

UNI will use its additional $6.6 million to offset the loss of $4 million in one-time funds granted for the 2015 budget year and to enhance financial aid, improve enrollment management, repair buildings, and invest in recommendations made through a systemwide efficiency study.