OKOBOJI — The Board of Regents unanimously approved Iowa State’s $422.5 million general fund budget for the 2005 fiscal year and a $27 million athletic budget at its meeting Wednesday.

Although the university’s general budget represents a $4.5 million increase from 2004, it still means staff cuts, fewer class sections from which to choose and larger class sizes.

However, staff and faculty will still receive increases in salaries.

The average tuition increase for students will remain at 8.3 percent for the 2004—05 academic year, bringing the total income from tuition and fees to $162 million. Tuition will be $4,702 for in-state undergraduate students for the academic year and $14,404 for out-of-state students.

No state appropriations were provided for salary increases to implement the state’s salary policy, so Iowa State needed to reallocate funds to facilitate the raises for faculty and professional and scientific staff. For the 2005 budget, Iowa State will reallocate $8.5 million to provide salary increases.

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said he didn’t know if the reallocations would be a recurring means of dealing with state shortfalls.

“That was a budget action taken just this time in order to give salary increases for next year,” Geoffroy said. “We hope that we won’t have to do that in the future and that there will be sufficient funds for compensation increase packages.”

Salaries make up 71.5 percent of Iowa State’s budget.

Due to the reallocation of $8.5 million to provide salary increases for staff and faculty, 528 class sections were cut from the schedule, resulting in 12,895 fewer seats for students. Some class sections were increased in size to minimize the impact on students, but there are still 8,869 fewer seats.

“Going forward we will, of course, keep [class sizes] as an important agenda item for the university,” Geoffroy said. “Ultimately, though, it requires resources to increase the number of faculty.”

General funds include operating appropriations, some federal funds, interest income, tuition and fee revenues, reimbursed direct costs, and sales and services for fundamental operations of the institutions.

For the past several years, Iowa’s regent institutions have faced significant budget challenges with declining state appropriations. The Board of Regents has significantly increased tuition during these years to support the quality of its higher education in the general university budget units, but the increased tuition has not covered the state cuts and shortages in funding for state-mandated salary increases. At Iowa State, tuition has increased 61.8 percent since the 2000-2001 school year.