Three Regents support University of Iowa undergraduate tuition freeze

IOWA CITY - In an about-face of an original proposal to increase tuition, three members of the Board of Regents - including President Bruce Rastetter - said Thursday that they instead support freezing tuition for undergraduate Iowans for an unprecedented third year.

The Board of Regents Office last week made public a proposal to increase tuition by 1.75 percent in the next academic year for undergraduate in-state students at Iowa's public universities. It proposed similar increases for out-of-state students and at the graduate and professional level.

But, in discussing those proposals Thursday during the board's meeting on the University of Iowa campus, regents Larry McKibben, Ruth Harkin, and Board President Bruce Rastetter said they believe a sweeping efficiency review underway at the institutions will allow for a third straight tuition freeze.

'Over the last 60 days, as we have learned more and more about possibly efficiencies, it brings to question more, ‘Why are we raising tuition?'” Rastetter said. 'To me, it makes sense that we look at a tuition freeze. I will be supporting that.”

Rastter also said he wants the board to look into what other states have done around freezing tuition for non-residents and graduate and professional students.

'We don't say it enough how important our out-of-state students are,” said regent Hannah Walsh. 'It's important to educate Iowans, but these students also need to be recognized. They bring income into the state and diversity of opinion. They are a great asset, and we need to appreciate them more as a board.”

The board will finalize and take action on its tuition proposal at its December meeting.

Rastetter said any possible tuition freeze for the 2015-16 academic year would hinge on state lawmakers coming through with the board's requested 1.75 percent inflationary increase in appropriations and additional $12.9 million to help roll out new performance- and enrollment-based funding metrics.

'Legislative support has been critical for us” to freeze tuition in the past, Rasatter said. 'While we want to voice and be clear about where we are coming from on tuition, it's important that our request be approved.”

University of Iowa President Sally Mason on Thursday expressed support for a tuition freeze. But both University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University officials said they have some apprehensions.

ISU President Steven Leath reminded the board that his university has been growing at a rapid pace, and that 'takes a lot of support.” He asked the board to make sure all three universities 'have the resources we need to continue to provide the high quality of education we have in the past.”

UNI Acting President Mike Licari said he understands that cost and access is a critical issue for students in this state. But, he said, UNI gets about 90 percent of its students from Iowa.

'And so the institution's budget is influenced differently by tuition decisions,” he said. 'We don't have out-of-state tuition to fall back on.”

UNI Student Body President Kevin Gartman told the board Thursday that UNI students actually support a modest tuition increase and would like to see one planned annually so families can prepare and avoid the surprise of occasional big spikes.

'UNI students cherish the small class sizes, and many are willing to pay the price of a tuition increase to maintain that,” he said.

Rastetter said he appreciated students' willingness to accept a tuition increase.

'But that should be no substitute for this board properly funding the universities and the state doing the same,” he said.

Students on the UI and ISU campuses this week rallied against the rising cost of higher education in Iowa and mounting student debt. Upon hearing Thursday of another possible tuition freeze, UI freshmen Nelly Meyer, 18, said she's excited.

Meyer is from Chicago and couldn't afford out-of-state tuition and is taking one UI class and working full time this year to gain residency so she can pay the in-state rate next year. She said the financial aspect of getting an education has her behind other students her age.

'So anything to keep tuition down is great,” she said.

The originally proposed tuition increase for next year would generate an additional $14.5 million in revenue, according to Board of Regents documents. But Rastatter, McKibben, and Harkin said possible savings identified through an efficiency review of Iowa's three universities have them hopeful not to need the extra tuition dollars.

Deloitte Consulting LLC, the firm the board is paying $3.3 million to perform its efficiency review, has identified 17 efficiency opportunities that yield the best chance for savings. The board to date has agreed to move forward with four of them - including changes to sourcing and procurement practices and creating a common application portal for students interested in applying to more than one Iowa university.

The board is planning to vote in November on whether and how to proceed with another eight opportunities. Progress on a remaining five academic-related efficiencies was slowed earlier this fall, but officials said they are still on the table.

Deloitte officials have said implementation of the proposed efficiencies could save between $30 million and $80 million a year, although much of those savings are not expected to materialize right away. When asked whether enough savings could be realized in time to supplement revenue from a tuition increase, Rastetter said the universities already are implementing proposed efficiencies - including some of larger pool of 117 opportunities Deloitte originally identified.

ISU President Leath, for example, told the board on Thursday that his staff already has replaced about 1,000 desktop computers with 'thin client” devices, as suggested through the efficiency study.

'They are cheaper to purchase, install, replace, and they take up a lot less space,” Leath said.

ISU also has consolidated 800 servers on campus into a shared virtual, and Leath said the campus will continue to move quickly on as many opportunities as possible.

'That is not only good for the study but for the buy-in,” he said.

UI and UNI leaders said they too already are implementing some of the suggestions. But, all three schools also said they expect to need more information and, in some cases, consulting help to follow through on some the recommendations.

UNI Acting President Licari said members of his campus community have expressed concern in two areas. First, he said, many are wary that the proposed savings 'lack some verification.”

'The savings might be overstated as well, and Deloitte acknowledged the savings might be less,” Licari said, adding that UNI staff and faculty want verification of some of the consultant's assumptions before proceeding.

'The accelerated process used by Deloitte has caused some concern,” he said.