Iowa universities diverge on coping with bleak budgets

URBANDALE - Iowa's public university presidents weighed in Wednesday on how they're managing deep cuts in state support, with Iowa State University announcing it won't give everyone raises and the University of Iowa maintaining its push for higher tuition.

'We understand the hardship of the last-minute tuition increase, especially considering this is the second year in a row for such an increase,” ISU Interim President Ben Allen told the Board of Regents meeting Wednesday in Urbandale. 'Consequently, we made a difficult decision this year - with the exception of the previously negotiated increase for AFSCME-covered staff - there were no mandated salary increases for FY18.”

UI President Bruce Harreld, on the other hand, noted his institution's decision to use revenue from tuition increases to pay for raises, committing $4.8 million to increasing 'the average of UI faculty salaries who merit it” to be close to the 2016 average of faculty salaries of peer universities.

'This step is only the beginning,” he told the regents, explaining the pay raises as a 'significant forward step on an important segment of our strategic plan.”

'By staying competitive with our peers on compensation, we will be able to recruit and retain the very best and brightest faculty,” he said. 'Please remember top faculty drive world-class scholarship and insure our Iowa students have the opportunity to learn from the very best.”

Harreld has been vocal about the need to raise tuition on par with UI's peers to support of his efforts to bolster faculty pay and address other campus needs. Wednesday, he also announced plans to increase student financial aid by $4.7 million this year 'focused completely on merit and need-based scholarships.”

'Educating first generation students is an important part of our mission and a good portion of this increase in financial aid will be targeted at this important priority,” he said.

The presidents' presentations came as the board considered a fiscal 2018 budget that includes dramatic cuts in state appropriations. In total, the Legislature - facing a tighter state budget than initially forecast - has reduced its support for Iowa's public university general operating budgets by $30.33 million from the start of the last budget year.

The board, which is engaging in a broad tuition review this summer, unanimously approved the 2018 budget.

'Budget planning is never an easy task, but it was made even more difficult this year by the recent legislative session,” Allen said. 'It was one of the most challenging and disappointing legislative sessions for Iowa State in recent history.”

After reporting his administration's decision to skip many pay raises this year, Allen acknowledged the potential repercussions.

'It creates a burden for our employees who should, at the very least, be able to rely on annual salary increases to keep up with inflation,” Allen said. 'It's also concerning because inevitably the lack of raises will drive some of our faculty and staff to leave, putting our quality at risk.

'Competitive compensation must be a priority moving forward,” he said. 'However, this year we felt we could not justify another last-minute tuition hike to fund salary increases.”

Rather, he said, ISU put as many of its resources as possible toward 'instructional and academic functions of the university to directly benefit our students.”

About $6.8 million went toward hiring new tenure and tenure-track faculty, along with academic advisers and teaching assistants.

The goal is to keep faculty and teacher-to-student ratios low, despite a surging student body.

'But even with 450 new faculty hires in five years, our enrollment growth has far outpaced our faculty growth,” he said. 'With our very limited resources this year, we hope to at least maintain our current student-to-faculty ratio.”