Inside Iowa State

Dec. 09, 2005

Regents approve 2006-07 tuition

by Anne Krapfl

Upper division students (juniors and seniors) in the College of Engineering will pay $500 more in tuition next year than other ISU undergraduates. The 2006-07 tuition rates were approved Dec. 6 by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

For the second year in a row, 4 percent is the approved increase in tuition and mandatory fees for undergraduate and graduate students (residents and non-residents) at Iowa State. For resident undergraduates, that amounts to $226 more next year (total of $5,860); for nonresidents, the new rate is $630 more, or a total of $16,354, in tuition and fees.

Upper division engineering students -- residents and nonresidents -- will pay the 4 percent increase, plus a supplemental increase of $500.

Resident graduate students will pay an additional $256 (total of $6,666) and non-resident graduate students will pay $658 more next year, or a total of $17,080 in tuition and fees.

This is the first time the regents have considered differential tuition proposals for undergraduate students.

President Gregory Geoffroy and Engineering dean Mark Kushner have said that the facilities and technology required in the engineering fields make it more expensive to educate students.

Kushner said the college will use the additional tuition income in three ways:

• Create more faculty positions to lower the student-faculty ratio
• Create teaching assistantships for students
• Purchase new equipment for undergraduate labs

Kushner is in the process of appointing two advisory teams -- one of students and one of faculty -- representing the college's departments, that will make recommendations to him on an appropriate break-out of additional dollars in the three areas. Their work will begin in January.

"On the faculty hiring side, we need to start quickly, since that process has begun nationally for next year," Kushner said.

He said he anticipates that at least half of the supplemental revenue will go to faculty positions.

Vet Med tuition

For the second straight year, tuition for veterinary medicine students will go up 16 percent, or $1,912 (to $13,860) for residents, and 12 percent, or $3,665 (to $34,198), for non-residents. The additional tuition revenue will continue to help modernize the vet med curriculum, add board-certified faculty positions and address facility deficiencies.

In other board action, the regents approved the appointment of Gary Steinke to executive director of the board, retroactive to Aug. 5, the date he began serving as acting executive director. Steinke is a former director of government relations for ISU.