ISU and UNI ask public to help in reviving new funding model

The presidents of Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are turning to the public for help in salvaging a new way of funding Iowa's public universities, calling the proposal 'the right thing to do.”

In a guest opinion submitted Wednesday to newspapers, the presidents urged Iowans to contact legislators in support of the formula.

Neither the House nor Senate last week included in their education budgets the Board of Regents-proposed 'performance-based funding model,” which would tie 60 percent of state support to resident enrollment, 5 percent to graduate and professional enrollment and at least 30 percent to performance metrics.

If approved, the model would take about $13 million from the University of Iowa in the upcoming budget year and distribute it between ISU and UNI - although regents asked lawmakers to backfill that the first year to give UI more time to increase in-state enrollment.

Critics of the model say it penalizes the UI and pits the universities against each other and against private and community colleges by encouraging them to go after more Iowa students.

In the guest opinion, ISU President Steven Leath and UNI President Bill Ruud said the regents didn't adopt performance-based funding to reward or penalize any university.

'In the nearly one year since the Board of Regents adopted the plan, objections have been raised, but no one should be against linking funding to performance,” they wrote. 'It would be irresponsible to do otherwise. To have Iowa tax money follow Iowa students is the right thing to do.”

UI President Sally Mason's signature was not on the opinion piece. UI officials declined Wednesday to comment.

Mason previously signed a Board of Regents letter asking lawmakers to support the new funding model, but she had told The Gazette she signed that letter in support of the proposed $13 million backfill.

Leath and Ruud, in their guest opinion, laid out the 'glaring” inequity of the current funding system, which allocates state money using a 'base-plus” method that uniformly applies percentage increases based on previous allocations.

'This continues to make an inequitable situation worse,” they wrote.

State general operating appropriations in the current budget year were split 46 percent to the UI, 36 percent to ISU and 18 percent to UNI - or $230.9 million to the UI, $180.9 million to ISU and $93.2 million to UNI.

UNI's enrollment, meanwhile, is about 88 percent resident students, meaning it doesn't capitalize on higher out-of-state tuition rates like the other institutions and is hit hard by in-state tuition freezes.

And ISU has grown more than 30 percent in seven years and now boasts the largest total and in-state enrollment of the three universities with 34,732 total students and 20,260 residents.

UI in the fall reported 31,387 students, 17,048 of whom were Iowa residents. UNI reported 11,928 students, 10,491 of whom were Iowans.

When considering state funding per resident student, ISU gets about $5,000 less than the UI and UNI gets about $5,700 less, according to the opinion piece.

Gov. Terry Branstad earlier this week also supported reviving the performance-based funding discussion.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said he has supported the funding concept from the start - provided it includes the $13 million backfill for the UI - and is willing to work for it 'all the way up to the last minute.”

But Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, said the proposal is 'so dead.”

'It's a desperate attempt,” she said of the opinion piece. 'It's a last-ditch effort. It's over.”

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