Students, this year, your tuition is between $3,200 and $4,200 per semester if you’re an in-state resident, depending on your major. A decade ago, your tuition was half that.

Are you getting twice the education an ISU student did 10 years ago? Does your degree carry twice the weight in the job market today than it did at the turn of the new millennium?

Ten years ago, the state funded two-thirds of Iowa State’s general education and your tuition paid the remaining third. Back then, you had a true public education. Today, however, the story is much grimmer because now the inverse is true: You cover two-thirds of the bill. In just the last three years alone, the state of Iowa has reduced appropriations to the three regents universities a whopping 25 percent.

If you’re funding most of your education now, aren’t you getting a private education, not a public one? If the state is appropriating less money to public universities, where is that money going that’s more important than the education of Iowa’s citizens?

This summer, the state auditor reported a quarter billion dollar surplus in the last state of Iowa budget. Projections of surpluses for this fiscal year are even higher. If the state had a record budget surplus this past year and they’re expected to have even more this year, why is your tuition set to go up another 4 percent?

Classes are eliminated. Programs are cut. Lecturers are being hired instead of professors, and when a professor retires, they’re not replaced. Graduate TAs teach more and more classes, but there’s fewer of them too, so undergrad TAs are taking their place. What professors we do have left are teaching an extra class or three, and some are even acting as secretaries because their department’s support staff was fired to cut costs.

If your department is going to be gutted and your classes taught by TAs, then wasn’t the movie “Good Will Hunting” right when Matt Damon bragged about getting a better education with nothing but a free library card?

What about when you graduate and you’ve got twice as much debt as someone graduating 10 years ago? It wouldn’t be such a big deal if wages doubled, but they’ve hardly changed at all in a decade — and that’s if you can even get a job.

Would it not be in the Iowa public’s best interest if our debt was lower so we could be more productive citizens? Less debt means graduates would be more likely to stay in Iowa to work, start a business or, of course, spend more.

Think about this: 25 percent of ISU graduates start a business, and about 75 percent of those are right here in Iowa. Better than half of Iowa State’s graduates will stay in state and work for someone else. How about the grads from our illustrious Vet Med college? They’re contributing to Iowa’s $10 billion animal industry.

Of course, Iowa State isn’t the only gig in Iowa: For every $1 the state gives the University of Iowa, there’s a better than 1,500 percent return on that investment. The vast majority of doctors, dentists and pharmacists in Iowa were educated in Iowa City.

And we all know Northern Iowa’s impact on Iowa’s K-12 education. The Panthers rely on the state the most, deriving nearly half of their education funding (opposed to our 35 percent) from appropriations. If we’re hurting here in Ames, you can only imagine how badly the cuts are killing the good folks in Cedar Falls.

You and the taxpayers of Iowa are getting screwed, and it’s high time you did something about it. Complaining gets you nowhere, so I want to offer you a shot at taking control of your student debt and education destiny.

I am the legislative coordinator of the ISU Ambassadors. Historically, the Ambassadors have lobbied against the cuts to the Iowa Legislature during Regent’s Day each spring.

This has made for a nice dog-and-pony show, but by the time we go down there to lobby, the deals between the legislators have already been made and there’s diddly squat some student wearing a “Stop The Cuts!” button on his shirt is going to do to change that.

But this year, instead of being reactive, I proposed to the Ambassadors that we be proactive. So we’re writing our own legislation and we’re taking it to Des Moines for a vote. The thing is, I want your input.

I’ve already talked to some of you, but I want to talk to more. I want to hear what you have to say. I want to hear about how the cuts have affected you, and what ideas you have to make Iowa State and the other regents schools a better place to be a student.

If you think there’s waste, tell me how. If you think the university is divvying up the money incorrectly, let me know. If you think certain programs are woefully underfunded and desperately need more funding, I want to know that too.  Just give me specifics.

So students, professors, janitors, whoever, I want your input. Send your ideas to [email protected], and we’ll take them to the Capitol.

Here’s your chance to affect change.