Access, affordability, quality: These are the main goals of President Steven Leath’s tenure, which began four weeks ago.

At Wednesday night’s Government of the Student Body meeting, Leath spoke about his plan for Iowa State, which includes everything from funding to raising the prestige of the university.

Leath began by saying how he had been on a listening tour so far: figuring out what to do, hearing ideas on what works and what does not. One of the main problems he had heard about was the funding issue.

“When I got here, there was nothing wrong or broken even though you guys had been cut 22 percent in the past five years,” Leath said.

Leath talked about how he is negotiating with the Iowa Legislature for an increase in funding after the university’s budget had been cut five years in a row.

Moving from the topic of the budget, he began to speak about tuition and student debt, which are some of his main goals to fix. Leath talked about the $860 million donated to the Capital Campaign which is part of his plan to counter tuition costs; currently from this campaign they have developed 700 new scholarships.

“We are trying to sustain and better the quality here while keeping tuition costs low,” Leath said. “But in terms this is a good deal.”

Following this statement he said Iowa State had a 90 percent job placement rate.

Another issue Iowa State faces is the enrollment increase. Iowa State projects to have an enrollment of 30,000 students next year, a record high, surpassing the University of Iowa in enrollment.

“If we go over 30,000 students next year, we’re going to be out of living space,” Leath said.

Leath stated he wants to start planning for increasing enrollment in the coming years stating projections of maybe having an enrollment of 35,000 students in five or six years.

Going from enrollment he talked about increasing the prestige and quality of the education offered here. He talked of putting equal importance on all colleges of Iowa State and increasing research programs here along with increasing the graduate program.

“Iowa State needs to be a little less humble. We’re trying to raise the prestige more here which increases the value of your degree,” Leath said. “We need to start raising our profile, showing what we got here and raise awareness about how good Iowa State actually is.”