More than 50 students gathered to voice their concerns and have questions answered regarding potential engineering undergraduate tuition surcharges, although not every concern was addressed.

Iowa State has submitted a tuition increase proposal to the Iowa Board of Regents to be considered at its Nov. 2 and 3 meeting in Iowa City.

The proposed surcharge would increase junior- and senior-level engineering undergraduate tuition $500 for the 2006-07 academic year and would permanently increase to at least $1,750 by the 2009-10 academic year.

Mark Kushner, dean of the College of Engineering, said concerned students should believe the surcharge would improve the college’s academic status by lowering the student-to-faculty ratio.

“In these situations, you need to put trust in your leadership,” he said.

“I cannot give you guarantees. I can give you my word and my best assessment as a person who I think has a record of integrity.”

Ben Selvig, sophomore in agricultural engineering, said additional faculty wouldn’t necessarily improve the College of Engineering.

“From what I’ve heard, our money is going to stuff we already don’t use,” he said.

When a student asked about why 5 percent of the tuition surcharge could go to other areas of the university from the College of Engineering should enrollment drop, Kushner declined to explain the reasoning behind the appropriation.

“I would rather not go into some of the details about funding, about how decisions on funding are made at high levels,” Kushner said.

“We can have that discussion in private; it is not something I would like to have in an open forum where there are members of the press.”

Traye Hindman, junior in agricultural engineering, said few engineering students graduate in four years, so they already pay more than other majors.

“It takes longer for engineers [to graduate] so we were already paying more to be here,” he said.

Kushner said if the surcharge is approved by the Board of Regents, tuition would increase $500 during the 2006-07 academic year, although in future years the surcharge could increase greater than what already has been proposed.

“The way the proposal reads now is it would allow for surcharge to increase in later years with whatever the base tuition increase would be, so if the base tuition increases by 4 percent, it would allow the surcharge to increase 4 percent, but certainly not in the fall [of 2006],” he said.

Michelle Dillon, junior in psychology, said she was concerned about the proposal’s affect on other academic areas.

“I am concerned about it because if it proves successful in the engineering college, it will take hold in other colleges,” she said.