Inside Iowa State

November 5, 2004

Editor's note: At its Nov. 4 meeting, the board gave preliminary approval to the tuition proposal and approved all the requests in the bulleted list, below.

Regents take first look at 2005-06 tuition proposal

by Anne Krapfl

Tuition for undergraduate and graduate students at Iowa State would rise 4 percent next fall, under a proposal submitted to the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, on Nov. 4. The regents are expected to vote on the proposal at their December meeting.

The increase, if approved, amounts to a $188 tuition increase for undergraduate resident students and a $576 increase for nonresident undergraduates at Iowa State. It would amount to $220 and $606 tuition increases for ISU graduate resident and nonresident students, respectively.

Four percent is the anticipated median of the Higher Education Price Index, and a new tuition policy set for regent universities in September applies this median increase to all base tuition rates. The tuition policy is tied to the regents' state funding proposal to the Iowa Legislature, "Partnership for Transformation and Excellence." That four-year proposal calls for increases in the state appropriation to regent universities; a 50 percent match from the schools accomplished by internal reallocations; and moderate, predictable tuition increases.

If the size of the total appropriation increase is less than the requested $40 million, the regents have said the universities might be allowed to request higher tuition or student fee increases next spring.

Vet Med proposal

The tuition policy also allows for a different, market-based rate of increase for non-resident students (in any category) and graduate and professional students.

Iowa State is requesting a 16 percent ($1,648) increase for resident veterinary medicine students next year, and a 12 percent increase ($3,271) for nonresidents. The additional tuition revenue would help modernize the vet med curriculum, add board-certified faculty positions and address facility deficiencies noted in an accreditation report (spring 2004) of the American Veterinary Medicine Association.

Student fees

The mandatory student fee for ISU undergraduates would go up $20, from $724 to $744 per year, (2.8 percent) next fall, as proposed. Graduate students would pay an additional $18 (2.6 percent) in mandatory fees, in the proposal the regents receive this month. Mandatory fees fund such things as computers, student health service, CyRide and recreaction services.

In other business, the regents were asked to:

• Receive bids and award bonds totaling $24.625 million for phase 1 of a renovation to the Memorial Union, repairs to the MU parking ramp and payment of the last $4.4 million of the debt the university assumed when it acquired the Union in spring 2003.
• Approve the firm of Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck, Des Moines, as architects for the new alumni center.
• Approve a $350,000 budget to construct a new hog building at the Bilsland Swine Farm, Madrid, for research programs being relocated from the Lauren Christian Farm, Atlantic, which was closed as a budget-cutting measure.
• Approve demolition of the Wallace Road Office Building (in January 2005) and selection of that site for the new Student Success Center, and approve the firm of OPN Architects, Cedar Rapids, as architects for the building. The Student Success Center will be home to the athletic department's center for educational services, Christina Hixson Opportunity Awards program and Academic Success Center.
• Approve a lease between WOI Radio and Graceland University, Lamoni, for building space on the Graceland campus to house broadcasting equipment for KOWI-FM (which WOI Radio Group purchased in 2003). In return, Graceland may use the equipment for educational purposes (so no money is exchanged).