Inside Iowa State

June 15, 2005

Decision on supplemental tuition will come in July

by Anne Krapfl

Spring 2006 tuition would increase an additional 3 percent for all students at Iowa State under a proposal reviewed June 14 by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa. There was no discussion of the proposal. The regents will vote on the supplemental tuition proposal at a special, single-agenda-item meeting July 14 in Ames.

The request, mirrored by the universities of Iowa and Northern Iowa, comes on the heels of the Legislature's less-than-full funding of the Regents Partnership Plan for Transformation and Excellence. Under full funding of that plan, Iowa State would have matched approximately $16 million in new state funds with $8 million in reallocations. Instead, Iowa State will receive about $9.7 million in new operating dollars from the state, although just over $6 million will be added to the base budget. The rest is one-time funding. The board has directed regent universities to honor their full reallocation pledge. Iowa State reallocations totaled $9.1 million.

The additional tuition revenue -- an estimated $2.2 million -- will be used to raise faculty and staff salaries and create faculty positions in strategic areas.

According to the board's policy, supplemental tuition normally would not become part of the base tuition. Iowa State and Iowa leaders have asked that the 3 percent become part of the base tuition for 2005-06.

Following a decision on the proposed supplemental increase in July, the board will approve FY06 operating budgets at its Aug. 3-4 meeting in Davenport. Regents president Michael Gartner said universities should award proposed salary increases beginning with the July pay period.

$74 per year

If supplemental tuition is approved and added to the base tuition rate, a resident undergraduate student would pay an extra $74 next year, bringing tuition for the 2005-06 academic year to $4,964 ($2,445 fall semester and $2,519 spring semester). Last December, the board set in-state undergraduate tuition at $4,890 for the 2005-06 academic year. A supplemental tuition increase would raise 2005-06 tuition for resident graduate students by $86, from the $5,708 approved in December to $5,794 ($2,854 fall semester and $2,940 spring semester).

Leaders of the Faculty Senate, P&S Council and Government of the Student Body, and the President's Advisory Committee for Budget Priorities and Planning have endorsed the concept of a supplemental tuition increase at Iowa State.

The regents are considering an 3 percent increase in the spring 2006 tuition. The board is expected to vote on the proposal at the July 14 meeting in Ames.