ISU administrators have approved and submitted an engineering undergraduate differential tuition policy to the Iowa Board of Regents for consideration at their November meeting.

The proposed surcharge would incrementally increase junior and senior-level engineering students’ annual tuition by $500 beginning in the fall of 2006, with annual increases until the surcharge reaches $1,750 in 2009.

Gary Steinke, acting executive director of the Board of Regents, said the University of Iowa College of Engineering would submit a similar tuition surcharge proposal, although the Regents Office had not formally received it on Friday.

Mark Kushner, dean of the College of Engineering, said the approved policy would help lower the student-to-faculty ratio from 22 students per faculty member to 18 students per faculty member.

“We are half-again as large with the student-to-faculty ratio as we should be,” he said. “It translates into fewer section sizes that are larger. It translates into fewer offering of electives. It translates into not being able to offer as innovative of programs as we want to.”

Iowa City Regent Robert Downer said data must support the College of Engineering’s claims of insufficient faculty levels.

“If we are going to face and get into differential tuition among colleges – undergraduate colleges – within any one of the universities, we need to have comparative data that will support the action that is proposed to be taken,” he said.

Steinke said the proposal would be discussed at the next meeting, Nov. 2 to 3 in Iowa City.

“It is my understanding that the universities will be submitting proposals to the board for their approval that have been discussed on each campus,” he said.

Kushner said there would be a limit placed on the amount of extra tuition paid by engineering students, although the amount is not finalized.

“There will be a cap to the total amount of surcharge that is paid,” he said. “That cap may be $3,500 – the equivalent of two years of tuition. It may be a little bit more, but there will be a cap.”

Kushner said there would be a surcharge cap, but a minimum surcharge would also be applied to higher engineering coursework.

“We understand the inventiveness of students and I think if I was in that situation I would also probably be inventive,” he said. “We want to prevent the situation where someone may not be enrolled in engineering until the day before graduation and then switch majors. There’s a fairness aspect there as well.”

Downer said he understands engineering could use more funding, but subsidizing the problem by placing a burden on students may not be the best approach.

“I’m very sympathetic to the needs in the sciences. I’m just not certain this is the way to solve the problems that exist,” he said.

Because of a state law requiring a 30-day period between the introduction and decision of tuition proposals, no final decision would be made by the Regents until their Dec. 6 meeting at the University of Northern Iowa, Steinke said.

Kushner said freshmen and sophomores would not pay the surcharge to encourage students to pursue four years of coursework in engineering at Iowa State.

“We want students to be coming here to Iowa State for their entire four years of engineering experience as opposed to being overly swayed to go to a community college based on economic matters,” he said.

Downer said the proposed tuition policy could hurt engineering enrollment, which has declined more than 8 percent in the past three years.

“I certainly don’t want to see anything the State of Iowa would do that would make a serious problem even more serious,” he said. “I think we’ve got to be very careful in going down that road.”

John McCarroll, executive director of university relations, said the proposed surcharge could be revised prior to Oct. 25, when the November Regents meeting docket is released.

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