OKOBOJI — Iowa State now ranks last among its peer institutions in staff salary comparisons, dropping two places from last year.

The staff salary comparison data provided by the American Association of University Professors was discussed by a committee within the Board of Regents at a Tuesday’s meeting.

Iowa State did not receive any state funding for salary increases for fiscal years 2004 or 2005. Full state funding of Iowa’s three regent university salaries has not happened since 1999.

Iowa State’s peer group — which includes Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State, California-Davis, Purdue, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, North Carolina State 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.