Members of the Board of Regents are feeling pressure from the state Legislature to come up with the cash to operate the state’s three universities.

Students and their parents are bracing for the board’s decision.

Regent David Neil, of La Porte City, said although he expected the proposed cost increase for the universities to be high, he was not anticipating an additional $650 for yearly tuition for resident undergraduates and graduates that was announced last week.

Nonresident tuition for undergraduates and graduates will likely increase $1,300 for the 2003-2004 school year. Graduate students will likely pay an additional $648 in mandatory fees while undergraduates might pay an extra $686, according to board documents.

A major focus of the board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday in Iowa City will be the cost increase. Traditionally, the board makes its tuition and fees decision in October. Another focus is the appropriations request for next year, which the board will submit to the Legislature.

“My hope is that we elect a legislature that will support higher education funding,” Neil said. “Frankly, had [the Legislature] followed Governor [Tom] Vilsack’s recommendations, we would not have had the kinds of cuts we did this last year. But they turned a deaf ear to the board.”

In a statement last week, Vilsack called the possible increase “unacceptable.”

He said, “I stand with the students and their parents in firm opposition to a proposal that could reduce educational opportunities.”

Neil said with the November election comes “a good opportunity to gain supporters of higher education.”

Neala Arnold, senior in elementary education at the University of Iowa, will participate in her second meeting as the new student representative to the board. She is fulfilling the term of ISU alumna Lisa Ahrens, who resigned from the board after her graduation last spring.

Regarding the discussion of tuition, she said, “There is a lot to think about there. I want to look at it from all sorts of different angles before I make a decision.”

T.J. Schneider, president of the Government of the Student Body, said he and the executives from the other Regents institutions will help Arnold and the other regents see what the tuition increase will mean to both students and the institutions by giving oral statements to the board about the proposed tuition increase.

Schneider said he and GSB Vice President Joe Darr met with veterinary medicine students on Tuesday to get their input on the proposal.

“We’re trying to meet with as many groups as possible,” Schneider said. “We’re really concentrating now.”

He said GSB is looking for information from students as to what they need and what their concerns are.

“Students have to make a fundamental decision. The financial burden is hard to bear but we shouldn’t lose our quality,” Schneider said.

The quality initiatives identified by President Gregory Geoffroy last spring have identified key areas of focus for maintaining and improving quality, he said. Schneider said similar areas should be identified to support graduate and professional students.

“If you’re going to maintain quality, we have to have the resources to do that,” Neil said. “The Legislature do not equate quality with dollars. They don’t really define it. Quality is people.”