Students ask lawmakers to address tuition, debt

DES MOINES - Regents university students took a slightly sharper tone in lobbying lawmakers Monday, saying the state's leaders have been slow to react to the twin problems of higher tuition and student debt that force many graduates to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Tuition and debt numbers have been heading in the wrong direction for years, but lawmakers have done little to reverse the trends, University of Northern Iowa student Andrew Morris said at the Capitol. Despite ample evidence the combination of high debt and low wages encourage Iowa graduates to leave the states, state leaders have relied on "improper strategies" that have not stopped the outmigration of young Iowans.

"So it's hard for me not to be critical," said Morris, a senior who was among the regents university students who spent the day lobbying lawmakers.

Alyssa Staley from Iowa State University has a front-row seat on the process as a clerk to Rep. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig. She understands the financial hurdles the lawmakers face this year, so the ISU senior wasn't going to tell lawmakers what to cut, "but to treat the universities equitably."

She called on universities to tighten their belts and tell lawmakers to pump as much federal stimulus money as possible into the university system to prevent higher tuition and higher student debt load.

The average debt for University of Iowa graduates was $22,856 in a study presented to the Board of regents in March. At ISU it was $30,732 and at UNI it was $24,176. The national average student debt was $19,237 in 2003-04, the most recent figure available.

"I'm tired of Iowa being first in student debt," Morris said.

Students, who spent the day talking to lawmakers to encourage them to provide the funding regents universities need, said some lawmakers misunderstand their motives.

"It's not that we want someone else to pay for our education," but that they want to maintain the incentives for going to college4 in Iowa and staying in the state once they graduate, Morris said.