In both Iowa and California, budget shortfalls have lessened the amount of funds available to state universities, and student responses have differed in both states.

Students at the University of California-Berkley and other California universities have occupied multiple buildings on campus to protest cuts. Over 100 students have been arrested for trespassing in university buildings across California, according to the student activism blog, www.studentactivism.net.

Jon Turk, GSB president and senior in political science, said the student response at Iowa State has been consistent, yet far calmer than the more radical protests of California.

“It is complicated only in the fact that a mid-year tuition increase is unprecedented,” Turk said.

A 6 percent tuition increase has been suggested by the Board of Regents. Turk said much of the feedback he hears from students is based around this increase.

Turk said students often look at the situation of increasing tuition and fees that go up at more than the rate of inflation and often become upset at the state government. He said that many students are beginning to ask why they should continue to live in the state.

Turk said he has lobbied consistently for lower tuition increases.

GSB originally proposed a 2 percent increase which was raised to a 4 percent increase after Gov. Chet Culver proposed his budget cuts. The Board of Regents is now proposing the 6 percent tuition increase.

Turk said students debate and discuss the tuition increases even if they are not forming committees and lobbying the state government directly.

Turk says in spite of tuition increases, GSB is in tight communication with the Board of Regents.

“There have been areas of contention between them and myself,” Turk said.

Turk said to insinuate that students are not playing their part in this budget crisis is asinine. He said students are doing their part exactly by paying the increased costs created by the financial difficulties.

“I reject the notion that the student’s part is to pay a surcharge,” Turk said.

Turk said that while no one wants the 6 percent tuition increase, students understand the necessity of the increased costs.

He said if tuition increases occur in Iowa that are similar to those in California, he believes that students would have a much more aggressive response.

Alex Tuckness, associate professor of political science, said that universities facing shortfalls have very few ways to increase their revenues other than tuition increases.

Tuckness said that the issue of low participation by young voters is somewhat a factor in state government’s decisions to reduce funding to state universities here and across the nation.

“Politicians tend to be aware of how many people from different groups show up to vote,” Tuckness said.

Older voters, who benefit much less from increased tax revenue diverted to state universities, are much less likely to support tax increases for student’s benefits.

Tuckness said that California’s state constitution makes passing tax increases and even budgets difficult.

“California is in this circumstance partly because they can’t keep a budget and tax base in line,” Tuckness said.

The constitutional structure of Iowa makes it easier for the governor and legislature to spend money in accordance with reasonable budgets, Tuckness said.

Angus Johnston is a historian of student activism who teaches history at the University of New York and maintains the blog www.studentactivism.net.

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Johnston said the California protests are an unusual happening, but organizing against tuition increases has been occuring in other states as well.

Johnston said much of the excitement over California’s situation may be due to press coverage.

Johnston said in November, 600 students in Maryland marched and protested at their university but received very little press coverage.

Press coverage has a major effect on how protests are perceived and their potential impact, Johnston said.

It is too soon into the event to judge the effectiveness of the California protests, Johnston continued.

He said there may not be an immediate effect, but when the California legislature meets in the future they may be likely to remember the uproar over the last tuition increases.

“One of the things happening in California is that students are reacting not just to tuition and fee increases but to the police response to student activism,” Johnston said.

Johnston said that the California protests are not occurring in a vacuum.

In September, more peaceful demonstrations were held in California that received less media attention, Johnston said.He also said that the current situation is taking these same protests to the next level.

Peter Orazem, university professor of economics, said that much of what may be dictating the difference in protests is simply how much less severe the tuition hike in Iowa is compared to the tuition hike in California.

Approximately $8,000 is afforded by the state government to each student, Orazem said after consulting the most recent data.

He said California is being hit harder by the recession than Iowa, so part of the difference in student responses may be purely economic. He also said that much of the problem is government mismanagement.

“At some point, it’s all politics,” Orazem said.

Orazem said the state did have a rainy-day fund to help with budget shortfalls, but the legislature kept spending the money to balance the budget.

“Under the current structure, this circumstance is almost inevitable,” Orazem said.