During the past four years, gauging tuition increases from year to year has been little more than a guessing game for students and their families.

A tuition schedule requiring the Board of Regents to set university budgets and tuition before the state of Iowa could forecast accurate revenue projections — combined with annual reductions in state appropriations — has caused tuition to fluctuate significantly in recent years.

It’s a trend, however, that the Board of Regents hopes to change. Having pledged their unanimous support, the regents are expected to give final approval of tuition and fees for the 2005-2006 academic year at their meeting Thursday. If approved, the proposed 4 percent across-the-board tuition increase for all students would be the smallest since 1998. It would also be the first step in a new tuition policy approved at the regents’ last meeting in November.

The policy provides a four-year plan to stabilize tuition through 2009. If the proposed increase is approved under the new policy, tuition would not increase to adjust for decreased state funding but hold at a set, predictable level. If all is approved at the board’s meeting and the universities are funded at the requested levels, board and university officials said there would be no need to adopt supplemental tuition requests beyond base inflationary increases.

According to Higher Education Price Index projections, inflation for university costs is expected to remain at a steady increase of 4 percent per year through 2009.

“Personally, as a student, I think this is the best news students have had in the past five years, because it’s not a double-digit increase,” said Jenny Rokes, student regent and junior at the University of Northern Iowa. “I think this is the best bargain students can get. Obviously, no one wants to see an increase, but tuition is going to have to increase, there’s no way around it, and 4 percent is reasonable.”

Sophia Magill, ISU Government of the Student Body president, has voiced her support for the increase as well.

“Four percent is a good place to be at, compared to previous years when it’s fluctuated quite a bit,” Magill said. “This should provide an opportunity for more and better planning by students and families on how they can deal with costs because there won’t be as much uncertainty as students have had to deal with in the past.”

But students attempting to recover from past tuition increases will still be burdened by the increase, according to board reports. As tuition costs have steadily increased, financial aid has as well, though it has not kept pace with the rising costs. As a result, students have been forced to depend more and more on loans rather than grants.

The regents have said they are sensitive to the financial situation of students.

“The regents and I are concerned with increasing the quality of higher education provided by our regent institutions. Unfortunately, the reality is it costs more to provide it every month,” said Amir Arbisser, regent from Davenport.

“Yes, we are asking students and families to provide more — not any more than the inflation that is occurring in higher education across the nation.

“There are a whole variety of areas where there are inflationary pressures, and it’s not fair to look just to the students to cover those. This is why this 4 percent increase is only one part of a proposal calling for a partnership with the Legislature to draw more funding from the state, as well as calling for a commitment from the institutions to reallocate money internally,” he said.

Arbisser said he does not ignore the fact that there are significant consequences with any increase.

“We are constantly sensitive to the pressures put on families, which is why we will remain in requiring at least a 15 percent set-aside of all tuition revenue for financial aid,” he said.

“I am very disturbed by the double-digit increase we’ve been levying on students and families over the past two years. So, this proposal aims at escaping that trend we’ve been used to.”

Even with the increase, the regent universities will still remain below national tuition averages, and Iowa State will continue to be below the average level of tuition and fees of their peer groups for both resident and non-resident students. The regent 2003-2004 tuition and fees, as a percentage of Iowa’s per capita income —17.1 percent — were less than the percentages for regional and peer states, which average 18.5 percent.

“I think it is a very reasonable proposal. We will continue to set aside some of that tuition revenue for financial aid. The board requires us to set aside 15 percent of all tuition revenues. Right now, we’re actually setting aside about 23 percent of all tuition revenues for financial aid,” said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. “We are going to work very hard at keeping tuition at this set, inflationary level. Ultimately, it depends on the amount of resources available that the Legislature has to work with. We’re going to be working very, very hard through all of our channels to convince legislators that we need to make higher education a high priority.”

The Board of Regents will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.