Regents agree to seek state money that could temper tuition hikes

URBANDALE - With its university presidents saying they've already saved million by being more efficient, the Board of Regents meeting here Monday agreed to ask lawmakers to kick in $12 million more to help keep tuition from increasing as much as proposed over the summer.

Leaders at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have said that if state support does not increase, they'd need annualized 7 percent rate hikes for in-state undergraduates for five years. The University of Northern Iowa's annualized rate increase amounts to 5 percent in each of the next five years.

If lawmakers grant the regents' $12 million request - which the board Monday unanimously agreed to seek - the proposed rate increases could drop, UI President Bruce Harreld said.

Of that money, according to the proposal, the UI and ISU each would get $5 million and UNI would be $2 million.

'If we got our $5 (million) of that, then we would come down,” Harreld said.

He, along with interim ISU President Ben Allen and UNI President Mark Nook, stressed the need for more resources to meet strategic goals, including retaining and attracting top faculty, increasing research and scholarship, improving student outcomes and expanding accessibility.

Those additional resources, they said, should come from a trifecta of sources: tuition rates, state appropriations and university efficiencies and cost cutting.

The proposed $12 million increase in state appropriations for the 2019 budget year is part of a total request for $16 million more. The total includes $4 million to keep debt for academic construction projects from being added to the cost of tuition, and for costs at the state's two special schools.

The increase would bring the board's total appropriations request for lawmakers to $622.35 million - a 2.6 percent increase over fiscal 2018.

In ongoing efforts to persuade the Legislature - which cut more than $30 million from the regents earlier this year - the board is promising to use all $12 million of the new appropriation for student financial aid.

'We certainly understand the challenges related to increasing tuition,” Harreld said. 'That is why we are committed to maintaining our focus on first-generation students and increasing our need- and merit-based student aid.”

This fall, Harreld reported, first-generation students make up 23 percent of the freshman class at the UI. Thanks to financial aid options, they're paying an average of $1,117 a year for tuition - in contrast to the full $7,486 for resident undergrads.

'We have a process in place that is student-specific and family-specific that actually works hard to figure out how to close that gap,” Harreld said. 'I know when we take tuition up, it's important and it's hard. On the other hand, to say that no one can afford it … I don't think the facts would bear that out. We actually bend over backward to make sure people can get it.”

The university presidents bolstered the funding request by showcasing ways they've saved.

Harreld, for example, said his institution has saved $16.6 million since the 2016 budget year, with $11 to $12 million in savings expected to continue annually.

ISU reporting saving $22.7 million since the board launched an efficiency review in 2014.

UNI's savings top $16.4 million to date.

The efficiencies largely come from changes to information technology systems, contract collaboration among the institutions, building and energy-use upgrades and renegotiated bonds.

Still, without more money from either the state or from students, the university heads said they'll struggle.

Harreld noted shortcomings in comparison with peer institutions like the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Michigan.

Those schools have student retention rates at around 96 and 97 percent, while the UI's hovers at 86 percent. Compared with the UI's four-year graduation rate of 51 percent, UNC reports 82 percent, Michigan reports 75 percent and UCLA reports 74 percent.

Harreld said those competitors not only have more resources, they have more freedom in picking which students they enroll. Iowa's public universities, conversely, have an admission index by which they accept all applicants who meet a certain performance threshold.

'I think they're actually more selective … I think they actually get to this point by bringing people in with higher SATs and higher GPAs,” Harreld said. 'We've chosen not to go down that path. … But then I would remind us, please understand that to do the job that's required to make sure they not only get through the system, but they get through with a top-notch world-class education, says that we may need to do a little more work.”

However, Harreld said, the Legislature needs to decide if it wants Iowa's public universities to perform at that level.

'If we say we don't want to compete against this set of institutions, then we don't have as big of a gap,” he said.