Apparently Governor Vilsack wants the budget cut by 2.5 percent as soon as possible and, due to this new development, student tuition is likely to be raised by more than the eight percent agreed upon by the Board of Regents not too long ago.

Why doesn’t Governor Vilsack and all of our state senators and representatives in Des Moines agree to take a pay cut instead of asking students to cough up the money? Why not come up with some innovative measures to save money instead of reducing the quality of higher education?

This needs to end before Iowa State becomes as expensive to attend as some private colleges. After all, more tuition hikes mean there will be less enrollment. More drops in enrollment will hurt everyone in the university community, as well as Ames business owners and landlords whose revenues come from students.

Governor Vilsack, his administration, state senators and representatives and the Board of Regents need to look at the big picture.

Laura Messer

Sophomore

Spanish