Today many ISU students will be down at the Capitol talking to Iowa legislators about the proposed cuts to the Regent Universities’ budgets. Some will be fighting the proposed appropriations cuts with the ISU Ambassadors organization, and others will be supporting the cuts.

My question in all of this is why students would advocate for cuts to university appropriations? If you are an ISU student, you go to school here, many of you are Iowa residents and even of those who are not, many pay Iowa taxes. Why would you possibly want to support the government’s work to cut state university appropriations and put more financial burdens on your shoulders again?

I’m not trying not to take a political stance on the issue here, though I, of course, have bias. I simply wonder why Mr. Pals of the ISU Republicans was arguing that it is partisan to do the logical thing, to try to preserve state funding for our university. Does it make any sense to shoot yourself in the foot and advocate raising the cost of attendance at Iowa State?

I know when I first decided to come to Iowa State in my senior year of high school, one of the good things about Iowa State was that it was not super expensive for an out-of-state school – I’m from Minnesota. I had a few scholarships that helped bring down the price and make Iowa State an affordable choice for a student who wasn’t sure about his degree aspirations.

That was five years ago. Today, my scholarships are long gone, and next year I estimate that my education will cost me more than $12,000 not including food and textbooks — for the one semester that I am at Iowa State in 2011-2012. Now to give Iowa State credit, this is still much lower than the cost to attend a private university, but it will definitely take me some time to pay back all of my education once I graduate.

I understand that Iowa, like many other states, is in a budget crunch right now and is spending much more than they will receive in taxes. Services will need to be cut back and belts will need to be tightened. But along with this belt-tightening, can’t we look at other methods to balance the budget? Once services are cut back by the state, why not get more money by raising taxes a little? I have worked in Iowa for the last few years, and I really wouldn’t mind paying a bit more in taxes on my engineering salary.

It seems like for Republicans, raising taxes is one of the biggest taboos in the book. Why would we increase taxes to pay our debts when we can simply strip government to a shell of its former self, right? Watching a few clips of Republican pundits, you would think that they would simply prefer no government at all. Where would we be then? Iowa State would certainly have never existed without state support and a massive grant of national land many years ago.

So before you go yelling about the partisan ISU Ambassadors and ISU administration, realize that they are only trying to support the affordability of this university and are not trying to push a specific political agenda. GSB, for instance, has been pressuring the Iowa Legislature to keep Iowa State affordable for years. I know it was a high priority when I worked for the GSB administration three years ago. This issue was not a political Republicans vs. Democrats fight until Mr. Pals made it one.

I also debate his sentiment that Iowa State should simply pass cuts down to students, canceling whole programs, firing non-tenured professors and further degrading the state of the university. If you want to understand how Iowa State is struggling today, just ask your department chair or maybe your favorite building custodian. With all the cuts that Iowa State has already endured, I’m not sure how much more we can handle before tuition starts to rise exponentially.

In any case, if you are not able to work with the Ambassadors to fight in person for or against the cuts today, consider writing to your local representatives to tell them how you feel about the potential of cuts. It’s just one more way you can make your voice heard.