Tuition continues to climb across Iowa’s public universities

IOWA CITY — After hearing from student representatives worried about the rising cost of higher education but aware of eroding state support, Iowa’s Board of Regents without discussion Wednesday approved across-the-system tuition and fee increases — including a 3.5-percent hike for all in-state undergraduates.

New tuition and fee rates for the next academic year starting Aug. 21 include varying increases for out-of-state students and those at the graduate level, depending on the campus.

At the resident undergraduate level, the 3.5-percent tuition bump amounts to:

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Students coming from outside Iowa pay more — with ISU’s non-residents facing a 4 percent, or $1,006, increase next year.

With the increases, non-residents at the undergraduate level will pay $30,979 a year at the UI; $26,168 at ISU; and $19,940 at UNI.

“I am one of the many out-of-state students who are no stranger to the struggle to pay higher tuition,” UI Student Body Vice President Carly O’Brien told the regents. “Last academic year, I found myself working three small part-time jobs to offset the cost of my education.”

At the graduate level, base rates for residents will increase 3.5 percent at the UI and UNI and 4 percent at ISU — bringing the total cost to $11,256 at the UI; $10,996 at ISU; and $10,030 at UNI.

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The universities also continued charging “differential tuition” for costlier programs — resulting in, for example, a 17-percent tuition and fees hike for resident undergraduate students in the UI “medicine radiation sciences program” or a 6-percent increase for UI undergraduate residents in education.

ISU upped rates for resident undergraduate sophomores in business by 14 percent — or $1,374 — and by 4 percent for veterinary medicine residents.

“In my lifetime, tuition at the University of Iowa has skyrocketed across programs,” UI Graduate & Professional Student Government representative Mason Koelm told regents. “With graduate and professional programs like dentistry, nursing and medicine facing the highest increases.”

One year’s tuition and fees for an advanced dentistry student next year will be $90,091 — 12 percent above the $80,163 charged five years ago. So while some UI graduate programs were spared from significant increases or any at all — like UI doctor of medicine and physical therapy students — Koelm said, “This does not undo historic increases that disproportionately impact postgraduate students.”

“And as we know, tuition and fees are not the only expenses of students,” he said. “Last month, the average rent in the country was the highest in recorded history.”

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In calculating the total cost to attend one of Iowa’s public universities next year — including tuition, fees, room and board and books, among other expenses — the board reported an average of $24,886, which is 16 percent above the $21,369 five years ago.

“It is because of student debt, rising tuition, and the cost of being a student that now demands a kind of hyper vigilance toward payment and funding,” said Christine Cain, representing ISU’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate.

Highlighting consequences of that fiscal focus, Cain said more students are considering paychecks instead of passions when choosing a career or major. Fewer first-generation and minority students are able to attend college, affecting diversity and enrollment numbers — given shifting demographics across the state and region.

And because students want to make more after college to pay down debt, Iowans with roots and plans to remain local are moving away — hurting Iowa’s workforce. That, she said, is why the discussion around tuition must involve the Iowa Legislature.

“Each and every citizen in Iowa interacts, relies on, or benefits from college-educated people, and our current and future society depends on inspiring students to pursue a variety of careers and ideas, despite the cost,” Cain said. “But this shift in placing the burden of higher education on individuals and families, it starts with the appropriations committee in the Iowa Legislature.”

General education, tuition account for majority of universities’ budgets

Although regents for the upcoming budget year requested a $32 million increase in general fund appropriations from the state, lawmakers instead tied a combined $7.1 million increase to specific programs across the campuses: the UI College of Nursing; Iowa State’s Future Ready Workforce Program and UNI’s Educators for Iowa Program.

That continues a trend of Iowa’s generational disinvestment in higher ed.

Where state appropriations in 1981 accounted for 77 percent of the regent universities’ general education budgets and tuition accounted for 21 percent — with a small slice coming from other sources — the near reverse is true today.

For the current budget year, state appropriations account for 31 percent of the regents’ general education funding and tuition accounts for 64 percent. ISU relies most heavily on tuition — with 71 percent of its general university revenue coming from students and 26 percent coming from the state.

“Why must the burden of inflation false strictly on the students and their families wanting to go to college?” Micaiah Krutsinger, UNI Student Government vice president, asked the board. “Isn’t the point of a public education that it’s affordable and benefits the public and the entire state?”

In response to the regents’ rate hike, Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, issued a statement on behalf of the Iowa Senate Democrats.

“Senate and House Republicans denied the regents universities any increase at all in their general funding,” Quirmbach said. “Had the Republicans granted the full increase the board requested, it would have been enough to avoid any increase in costs for in-state students. Had the Republicans even gone along with Gov. (Kim) Reynold’s meager $12 million request, tuition increases for in-state undergraduates would have been unnecessary.”

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Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com