University officials tell lawmakers no ‘fee explosion’ during tuition freeze

DES MOINES - After hearing from university officials, Iowa lawmakers appear satisfied that a 'fee explosion” some legislators feared might happen in the wake of a two-year tuition freeze at state regents' universities has not occurred.

Representatives of the Board of Regents and the three state universities - Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa - told the House Government Oversight Committee Tuesday mandatory student fee increases have been stable and in line with those assessed at peer universities.

'I'm appreciative of the concerted effort to keep fee growth limited during the two-year tuition freeze,” Chairman Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, said.

'I'm completely reassured,” added Rep. Dawn Pettengill, R-Mount Auburn, who commended the regents and universities for lowering fees in some cases.

At University of Iowa and Iowa State University mandatory fees have increased slightly more than 1 percent since the 2011-12 school year, the year before the tuition freeze went into effect, to $1,401 and $1,083, respectively. At University of Northern Iowa, fees have increased 16.8 percent to $1,101.

The university officials emphasized the fee revenue cannot be used for tuition. Also, students are involved in determining how the fees are used. Part of the benefit of this approach is that students can decide to support things 'not specific to academic offerings,” such as homecoming, said UNI Vice President for Student Affairs Terry Hogan.

For example, Pam Cain, ISU associate vice president, said students agreed to increase fees for CyRide, the campus bus service, to cover increased ridership. At UNI, Hogan said, psychiatric health services have been added to the student health service. At Iowa, Rod Lehnertz, vice president for finance and operations, pointed out the recreation fee followed a student decision to replace a 1927 facility with a modern wellness center.

Although there were few questions, not everyone was satisfied with the mandatory nature of the fees. Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, wondered why students couldn't opt out of services they didn't use.

'I keep hearing about student debt and I wonder how much students and their parents could reduce that if they weren't paying these fees,” he said. 'As long as they pay room and board, and tuition, all the rest of that is fluff.”