If you’re planning on enjoying your adventure at Iowa State during the 2011-2012 school year, keep this amount in mind: $7,485.62.

That, ladies and gentlemen — if the Board of Regents isn’t snowed out of Iowa City — will likely be the grand total for a year’s worth of tuition and mandatory fees for in-staters in Cyclone territory.

That’s a 7 percent, $523.95, increase over the previous year.

We don’t know how to make it stop. We’re not even sure if we can.

We sat down with President Gregory Geoffroy in fall 2010, where he discussed across-the-board budget cuts mandated by the state legislature, including their possible repercussions throughout the university.

You’ve heard about the Blue Sky fiasco. Not entirely unrelated is the notion that Iowa State is devolving into a “regional tech school.”

And, then, of course, there’s the GOP’s zeal in cutting state-subsidized preschool to save money.

It seems that, while on the campaign trail, it behooves those politicking to espouse deep adulation and affinity for the educational opportunities bestowed upon the youth of tomorrow.

“Oh yes, Miss Constituent, Johnny’s schooling is of the utmost importance to me, as is the schooling of all of Iowa’s youth.”

We can’t recall anyone stumping on a platform to the contrary, yet here we are, post-election, dealing with two huge legislative slaps to funding public education.

It seems that “budget crisis” serves as a wonderful excuse to wring every last nickel and dime out of John and Jane Q. College Student.

We’re told we’re coddled; that we’ve been given a wonderful, upwardly-mobile opportunity to make a difference in the “real world.” We’re told that the sheer expanse of educational opportunity we’re allowed somehow escapes us on a daily basis.

Somehow, our iPods and Facebooking obfuscate the fact that tuition inflation has outpaced “regular” inflation on an exponential scale.

It seems the general opinion is that the luxury of having a phone in our pocket as opposed to the kitchen wall means we’re somehow more coddled than the generations before us. Thus, we somehow under-appreciate the opportunity to inundate ourselves in six-figure debt.

Dearest Legislators, while you may indeed find us coddled, spoiled, or whatever other terms you’ve found in that thesaurus, know this: You made the bed you’re asking us to lie in.

It seems that in the end, the powers that be are looking out solely for big-business interests.

We’re faced with a state legislation that appears to find it wise to saddle students with an ever-increasing share of the educational burden. Surely, that’s not a move that has anything to do with student debt interest going to Iowa banks, right?

We can’t help but begin to wonder whether we’re college students or a legislative commodity.