The Board of Regents is scheduled to give a presentation before the Iowa Senate Education Committee Tuesday, stressing the need for increased funding and additional support for the state’s three public universities.

With the regents’ strongest advocate now missing from the board, higher education proponents worry about their chances for support among legislators.

Former Board of Regents President John Forsyth was scheduled to give the presentation before the education committee. However, he resigned along with La Porte City Regent David Neil Jan. 20 over conflicts of interest centering around a board decision to authorize the University of Iowa to give notice of termination to Wellmark Inc. for its contract with the University of Iowa Hospitals. Forsyth is the CEO of Wellmark, and Neil was a member of the company’s board of directors.

Forsyth served as the principal architect of the regents’ Partnership for Transformation and Excellence.

He came up with the idea for the partnership’s four-year funding proposal with the Legislature, which would increase state appropriations to the regents universities and hold in-state tuition to inflation.

If the General Assembly agrees to the partnership, by fiscal year 2010, state funding would match 2001 appropriation levels.

While his departure has some university officials concerned about support for the proposal, Iowa senators and Ames representatives said Forsyth’s absence from the board will not affect their commitment to providing affordable education.

“I’m saddened to see him go, and I certainly understand and respect the reasons for him stepping down. But I still think discussion will move forward,” said Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, House assistant minority leader.

Heddens said the Legislature will continue to carefully consider the partnership.

“To be honest, I don’t think it will have much of an effect,” said Sen. Jeff Lamberti, R-Ankeny, Senate co-president and member of the Senate Education Committee. “We have lost one of the strongest advocates for the universities and for higher education in the state. Will that potentially hurt efforts? Yeah.”

Although there may be some fallout, the partnership will be more of a funding issue centering on state revenue projections, Lamberti said.

Fellow members of the Senate Education Committee say Forsyth’s resignation, while disappointing, was timed fairly well.

“I don’t think the regents’ legislative efforts will be affected,” said Sen. Michael Connolly, D-Dubuque, Senate assistant Democratic leader and co-chairman of the Senate Education Committee. “Everything in the budgeting process is up in the air. It’s really early in the session.”

Yet, House Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said he will not make a commitment to higher education funding until he receives more answers behind the board shakeup.

Rants, who was unavailable for comment Thursday, told The Associated Press that there is not enough information on what forced the resignations.

“Now that we have a mass exodus, I, for one, have lost confidence whether or not such a transformational process will continue,” he said.

While members of the Legislature are waiting for Gov. Tom Vilsack to announce next year’s budget Monday, Ames representatives are already voicing their support.

“From what I’ve seen, I do think it will help to limit the rise in tuition,” Heddens said.

“This proposal is the best direction for supporting the universities and for supporting the students to help with increased costs of education.”

However, she and other legislators do have some concerns with the proposal.

“Students and their families have taken such a large brunt of the tuition increases. Four percent may be reasonable, but I would like to see a lower increase,” she said. “We need to look at ways so students are not outpaced from receiving a post-secondary education within the state.”

Fellow Ames legislator Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said he supports the proposal, but prefers to see a one-year freeze in tuition.

“Obviously tuition has to go up over time because of inflation, but you’ve had 60 to 70 percent boosts in the last four years and I think students and families should have a year off,” said Quirmbach, member of the Senate education committee.

Regent university funding was cut by nearly $162 million during the past four years, causing tuition to increase by 62 percent since the 2000-01 school year.

Quirmbach and Heddens are also concerned about the proposal’s call for the universities to match state increases in funding through university reallocations.

“Reallocation can mean different things to different people,” Heddens said.

Although Vilsack’s request and Quirmbach’s amendment for a $30 million increase in funding to the universities did not pass last session, a closely divided Legislature could give state Democrats better leverage in approving the proposal this session, Quirmbach said.