Oct. 27, 2011

2012-13 tuition rates get a first look at Thursday regents meeting

by Anne Krapfl

When it meets Thursday in Cedar Falls, the state Board of Regents will give a first look at proposed tuition rates for next year that would increase $240 (3.75 percent) for resident undergraduates and $480 (2.63 percent) for out-of-state undergraduates. Proposed graduate tuition would increase $280 (3.7 percent) and $504 (2.6 percent) for resident and nonresident students, respectively. Iowa State proposes to hold mandatory student fees at this year's rates for all students.

The regents aren't scheduled to approve 2012-13 tuition rates until their Dec. 8 meeting at Iowa State. One of the guides they use in assessing tuition increases is the Higher Education Price Index. The HEPI forecast for FY13 is a range of 2.6 to 4.2 percent, with a median of 3.4 percent.

Differential tuition

Iowa State is proposing differential tuition next year for four student groups: juniors and seniors in agricultural systems technology and industrial technology (both in the ag and biosystems engineering department), and undergraduate and graduate architecture students. The AST and ITec upper division students would pay an additional $584, the second of a proposed three-year incremental increase to lower student-to-faculty ratios and provide excellent instruction and cutting-edge lab experiences. All architecture students would pay a proposed $400 in additional tuition next year, intended to help hire more faculty to address the program's 30 percent enrollment increase since 2007.

If the differential tuitions are approved, these students would join upper division ISU students in the colleges of Engineering and Business who have paid differential tuition since 2006 and 2009, respectively. For example, resident upper division Engineering students would pay $2,166 more and resident upper division Business students would pay $1,642 more than other resident undergraduates.

The board meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. Live audio streaming of all public portions of the meeting is available on the regents website.

In other business, Iowa State will seek board approval to:

  • Name the research/teaching wing and atrium of phase 2 of the biorenewables complex. Sukup Hall and Atrium will honor of the Sukup family of Sheffield. The Sukups (Eugene and Mary and sons and daughters-in-law Charles and Mary Beth and Steve and Vicki) committed a lead gift of $5 million for phase 2. When they are completed, Sukup Hall and the adjoining Elings Hall, an office and classroom wing named for Engineering alumnus Virgil Elings of Santa Barbara, Calif., will be home to the agricultural and biosystems engineering department.
  • Name the expanded and remodeled small animal hospital as the Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital in honor of Christina Hixson, trustee of the Lied Foundation Trust; and in memory of Ernst and Ida Lied.

Vice president for business and finance Warren Madden will provide board members another update on recovery work and reimbursements from the Aug. 11, 2010, flooding of the east side of campus. Vice president for research and economic development Sharron Quisenberry and her peers from the universities of Iowa and Northern Iowa will present their economic development and tech transfer annual report to the board for the year that ended June 30.