The discussion in higher education affordability and tuition freezes continues.

At the Board of Regents’ September meeting, Board President Bruce Rastetter discussed affordability and strategic planning goals. Due to state support from Gov. Terry Branstad and the Legislature last year, the board was able to freeze tuition for undergraduate resident students for the current academic year. The board now is working on a tuition freeze for the next academic year

“Affordability is a critical topic and a shared responsibility,” Rastetter said. “The board’s responsibility is to keep tuition at a reasonable level.”

Rastetter said the board will be holding a meeting with the Legislative Fiscal Committee to discuss the ongoing partnership of student affordability.

“We stress the importance of continuing to address affordability as a joint responsibility [with the] relationship between the Board of Regents, the legislature and institutions,” Rastetter said.

At the 10:30 a.m. meeting Thursday at Maucker Union in Cedar Falls, the board will present a 4 percent increase in the fiscal year 2015 appropriations request. This proposed funding increase would allow the regents to freeze undergraduate resident tuition for the second year in a row, the first time since 1975.

The increased request of four percent compared to last year’s 2.6 percent will be talked about at the meeting, as well.

“In addition to the normal inflation increase, we also propose that part of that 4 percent will go to on-time graduation and funding for the universities to insure that we continue to address the issue of student debt and affordability in addition to access and affordability,” Rastetter said.

Sheila Koppin gave an update on the Transparency Task Force, stating the first public hearing had one speaker, Joelle Brown, from the University of Iowa, who thanked to the board for the tuition freeze.

Koppin said scheduling for the public hearings prior to the October board meeting will begin soon. Koppin anticipates scheduling all six public hearings on two consecutive days at three different times to accommodate the different locations.

“This will allow us to schedule the public hearings a year in advance for the benefits of the institutions and the general public,” Koppin said.

The October public hearings are tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 17, and Friday, Oct. 18, Koppin said.

ISU President Steven Leath addressed the board with an official enrollment number of 33,241 and shared Iowa State’s 2012 job placement rate of 94.2 percent, with students being placed in jobs within six months after graduation.

The next regent meeting is scheduled for Oct. 23 and 24 at the University of Iowa.