Heads of Iowa’s public universities discuss new funding model

CEDAR RAPIDS - Lawmakers have not yet had their say on a plan to alter how the Board of Regents allocates state funding to Iowa's public universities.

But presidents of those institutions, private schools, and community colleges across Eastern Iowa say the proposal is already having an impact.

For starters, the leaders said Wednesday, the proposed model already has them competing harder to attract a shrinking pool of college-bound Iowans.

'All of us are going to be fighting for those Iowa students,” Kirkwood Community College President Mick Starcevich said at an event hosted by the Corridor Business Journal. 'And that's going to impact us. We've already felt the impact.”

Kirkwood annually gives presidential scholarships to the 'best and brightest” students, high school seniors with ACT scores of 25 or higher and GPAs of 3.5 or above. Starcevich said three of those scholars this fall were recruited away from Kirkwood to the University of Iowa.

'They had said ‘yes' and then ‘nope,'” Starcevich said. 'And we're going to lose more of those.”

Starcevich told the crowd of several hundred business, community and higher education leaders that he feels the public, private, and community colleges in Iowa have developed a good dynamic in how they complement one another.

'If you start changing that, it's going to affect our graduation rates as well,” Starcevich said.

The group of administrators - including presidents for UI, University of Northern Iowa, Coe College, Cornell College, Mount Mercy University, and Kirkwood - spoke Wednesday in support of the idea of using performance metrics to fund institutions.

But several said the model approved by the Board of Regents over the summer places too heavy an emphasis on enrollment. As proposed, the board's new funding model ties 60 percent of state allocations to in-state enrollment, 5 percent to graduate and professional enrollment, and 30 percent to performance metrics - like access, degree attainment, and research. The remaining 5 percent is left up to the board's discretion.

Regents plan to begin using the new metrics in the next budget year, but the final decision on how to allocate dollars rests with the Legislature.

Because UNI and Iowa State University have larger portions of in-state students - the new model benefits them and could cut UI allocations by $46.5 million. To minimize that potential impact, the Board of Regents has capped the amount of money that can move from one university to another at 2 percent for the first three years.

That translates to $12.9 million in the first year, and the regents have asked the Legislature to provide that amount for the 2016 budget year to cover the initial hit to the UI.

As the model gains footing, regents have said they expect UI to increase its enrollment of Iowa students to maintain the same level of state support. UI President Sally Mason said she intends to do that. But, she said Wednesday, it will require change.

'We are going to have to get bigger,” Mason said.

Supporters of the model say it will help restore support to an underfunded UNI and use taxpayer dollars to educate Iowans, who pay lower tuition rates, while also promoting performance goals.

But Coe College President David McInally on Wednesday said private colleges are 'concerned about the formula,” even though they don't receive any state funding via the Board of Regents.

'We are not directly affected, but we are concerned about the competition it creates,” McInally said. 'It's very much on our mind.”