During his weekly session on WOI Radio’s “Talk of Iowa,” President Gregory Geoffroy spoke about proposals to raise tuition at Iowa’s universities.

During Tuesday’s program, Geoffroy explained that current resident tuition for a year at Iowa State is about $3,700 and will likely go up by $650 next year. For nonresident students, the increase will be twice that amount.

“Graduate tuition rates are comparable” to other universities, he said. “They’re a little bit higher but are in the same ball park.”

These hikes are the result of the “difficult financial situation the state of Iowa finds itself in and the very deep budget cuts the regents have been asked to undertake,” Geoffroy said.

The latest mandatory fee and tuition increase, proposed by the Board of Regents, would raise the cost of attendance by 20 to 23 percent and is aimed at maintaining the quality of Iowa’s universities. Last year tuition increased 19.5 percent.

“This creates an obvious financial burden on parents and students,” Geoffroy said. “The trade off is the quality of educational programs at the university. We want to work hard to maintain the excellence of our programs.”

Another topic discussed on the program was an upcoming ISU study on herbal dietary supplements. The study involved 15 ISU scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health.

On hand during the program to discuss the $6 million study was Diane Birt, professor and chairwoman of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.

Birt said the purpose of her research is to better characterize Echinacea, St. Johns Wort and active compounds within supplements derived from them.

She said although consumers are using herbal dietary supplements, most haven’t considered their benefits and risks.

“This research will give the public a better understanding of the status of the science on these herbs. There is intriguing evidence which suggests they have medicinal properties,” Birt said. “We need a better scientific base in order to allow the public to exploit their medicinal properties.”

Iowa State is the leading institution in the research, she said. Birt said of the 20 scientists working on the project, 15 are from Iowa State, four are from the University of Iowa and one is from Louisiana State University.

“[There are] clinics for people interested in `natural’ approaches for improving health,” she said. “We’re going to look at those people and how they are using these herbs and assess the toxic components in these herbs.”

Herbal dietary supplements saw a resurgence in popularity in Europe during the 1980s, Birt said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stopped regulating dietary supplements in the mid-1990s.

“We’re interested in Echinacea because it is native to Iowa and has been used to cure common cold and flu symptoms, though there is not a scientific basis for this,” Birt said.

The Ames Laboratory has seeds for all nine species of Echinacea, allowing scientists to compare across species, she said.

Birt said the use of St. John’s Wort has no scientific basis and is based on folklore. It has been used in the treatment of depression, sleeplessness and anxiety. She said it is also used by HIV patients.

George Kraus, professor of chemistry, said the money for this research has already been obtained and discussion groups are working to establish methods for extracting and identifying chemicals.

“Right now people are interacting among their various groups, which is an important step,” he said. “We’re talking about how to identify and catalog the materials we collect. We hope to receive plant materials to extract very soon.”