Iowa regent airs grievance over tuition-setting process

IOWA CITY — Not every member of Iowa’s Board of Regents is supportive of a proposed 3-percent tuition increase for resident undergraduate students next year, or the process the board used to come up with the number — prompting regents to commit to a deeper and more inclusive dive into the rates before bringing them back for a final vote in April.

“I learned about the proposed tuition increases via the media, which I have a real problem with,” regent Christine Hensley said Thursday during the board’s first of two tuition readings — indicating that only a subgroup of board “leadership” met to determine proposed tuition rates for fall 2026.

“The process that we have gone through, and not including every single board member here, is problematic,” Hensley said, suggesting regents take the next couple months until their final tuition reading in April to have more collaborative behind-the-scenes conversations. “What I would ask is that maybe there be a committee that sits down and has some discussion. Maybe it's not 3 percent — maybe it's 1.5 or 1.75.

“But right now, I'm not going to support this because I don't think the process has been inclusive. And this is one of the most significant things that we as a board are asked to do.”

Under Iowa’s open meetings law, a majority of a public governing body like the Board of Regents cannot meet either in person or by electronic means “where there is deliberation or action upon any matter within the scope of the governmental body’s policymaking duties” without making the discussion open to the public.

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Board President Robert Cramer apologized to Hensley and took responsibility for the lack of comprehensive regent involvement — suggesting the board’s “different committees” chime in before the final tuition consideration in April.

“I think in the interim between now and April, it would be good to maybe have our different committees look at it, talk about it, and can bring recommendations,” Cramer said, promising to get tuition-related details to “all the regents” before the next meeting.

“Lets work on putting that all together and getting it to each committee so all the regents can see this and weigh in if they have any issues,” Cramer said.

In explaining during their public meeting Thursday in Iowa City how regent leadership landed on a 3-percent proposed increase for resident undergraduate students, Cramer said they started with the Higher Education Price Index, which rose 3.6 percent in fiscal 2025, and kept the proposed increase under that at 3 percent.

Cramer said board leaders decided not to go lower without knowing how much state appropriations will be for fiscal 2027 — given two-thirds of the universities’ general education revenue comes from tuition and the rest comes from appropriations.

“We were concerned that the third from the state might be flat to zero,” Cramer said. “That means a 3-percent increase on tuition results in a 2-percent increase overall.”

Plus, he said, about a quarter of the campuses’ tuition revenue goes back to students in the form of financial aid — leaving 75 percent of tuition revenue to support operations.

“That’s why we landed at this place,” Cramer said of the 3 percent — which, if approved, would amount to the following dollar increases on the university campuses:

The board also proposed 3-percent tuition increases for instate students at the graduate level, along with varying increases for non-resident students and those in costlier programs like business, engineering and nursing.

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In terms of mandatory fees, both the UI and UNI are proposing 3-percent increases, while ISU wants a lower 1.6-percent bump.

All three also are proposing raising residence hall rates — 3.5 percent at ISU and UNI and 3 percent at the UI “for the benchmark air-conditioned double room combined with the standard board plan.”

Including tuition, fees, room, board and other ancillary costs, the estimated price for a UI resident undergraduate next year — if regents approve the increases — would be $30,997. That’s a 50-percent increase from the $20,635 estimated total a decade ago in 2016 and 90 percent more than the $16,261 estimated total 20 years ago in 2006.

“It's not just a tuition increase,” Hensley said. “You’ve got residence and dining on top of that — that we're not talking about.”

Plus, she said, legislation is advancing through the Iowa House and Senate to either prohibit the board from raising tuition for resident undergraduates for the next five years or require it to enact a policy freezing tuition for four years at a freshman’s starting rate.

Addressing those proposals, Cramer said Thursday he thinks the universities first need to complete an ongoing efficiency review — being referred to as the “revenue enhancement and productivity study,” or “REAPS.”

“When our legislative friends suggest a tuition freeze, I say, ‘Yes … if we can’,” he said. “But we won’t know if we can until after we see what we can reap out of this study. Instead of freeze first and see what happens, I believe it is more responsible to save first and then reduce or freeze tuition, while ensuring we have the resources necessary to maintain the value of a degree from Iowa’s public universities.”

Acknowledging uncertainty around state appropriations — which in 1981 accounted for 77 percent of the public universities’ general education budget and today makes up just 28 percent — new regent Steve Lacy stressed the import of retaining control over tuition and suggested offering clear information about how the campuses use state dollars, including on student aid.

“One of the important things that this group is supposed to do is what we're talking about, and if we allow that to be abdicated to the Legislature, I think that's a real slippery slope that we don't want to be involved with,” he said.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com