If University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman isn’t leaving in part because of our state’s drooping public financial support for higher education, she sure has swell timing.

She probably would never say she’s running away from budget cuts, and the University of Michigan is a larger school than the U of I, meaning she’s probably looking at a nice pay raise. But when she steps down later this summer, it is hard to believe she won’t be relieved to get away from this mess.

First the University of Northern Iowa (our state’s primary teachers’ school) is forced to cut $800,000 from the budget of Price Lab (its hands-on teaching lab). Then Iowa State (our state’s primary agricultural school) is forced to gut the Leopold Center (a center for sustainable agriculture). What’s next? Asking the Iowa Braille School to save money by stopping the use of braille?

I guess Coleman thought it was only a matter of time before tight-fisted legislators cut the legs out of a core program at the U of I. What’s it going to be? The world-renowned International Writers Workshop? The Law Review? University Hospitals?

We all know times have been tight since we cut state taxes without cutting spending, not that we’d think about restoring taxes to their previous levels in an even-numbered year. State revenues are $200 million short this fiscal year, the Legislature says. It’s supposed to be just as bad next year, and Senate Majority Leader Stewart Iverson thinks it will be twice as bad ($400 million!) in 2004.

“We’re just having to tighten our belt,” Iverson said in Tuesday’s Daily.

I’m sorry, Senator, but cutting the Leopold Center isn’t akin to tightening our belt – it’s more like taking our pants. And if the Leopold Center, an institution that studies small, sustainable, environmentally friendly agriculture, plans to get financial support from corporate farming conglomerates, as Iverson suggests, a lack of pants might come in handy, if you know what I mean.

Let’s not get bogged down on the Leopold Center, though. That’s just the latest in a line of budget cuts that unfairly targets state universities.

Iowa’s state schools have been asked to cut more than $80 million in the last year, which the Board of Regents has pointed out is about what UNI receives from the state per year. Those cuts caused 700 positions at the schools to be cut. In a joint statement last month, the three university presidents and the Regents railed against the cuts, saying they have suffered enough.

President Gregory Geoffroy said in an interview with Ethos magazine last month that if the budget continues to be a problem, enrollment caps might be the answer.

“The only two solutions are to have sufficient resources or limit the number of students,” Geoffroy said.

Without more students, though, who will make up the university’s budget shortfall? It’s been on our backs for a while now.

In the last 20 years, the students’ share of higher education costs has nearly doubled, while the state’s share has decreased by 25 percent, Faculty Senate President Max Wortman told the Daily last month. Students now pay 38 percent of Iowa State’s costs, Wortman said. Tuition will just continue to rise this fall, when another double-digit increase is inevitable.

And when Tuesday’s special session of the Iowa Legislature was held, guess what was numero uno on el blocko choppo? Time’s up, and if you’ve read this far, you just answered correctly. The regent schools.

The line from the GOP-controlled statehouse is usually some variant of, “Well, whatcha want? Gotta cut somewhere. You wanna cut public safety? K-12 schools? Roads?”

The answer is yes, all of those. And the universities. But that’s not what’s happening. When state schools are forced to cut more than $80 million in one year, that’s not fair. That’s not equitable. That doesn’t even make sense.

For the state it means less research unstained by the dirty money of corporate grants.

For universities it means losing priceless programs central to their education missions.

For students it means higher tuition.

For “new breed” university presidents, the academic dynamos who are supposed to be adept at raising both private AND public money, it means it’s time to do your job.

For Mary Sue Coleman, it meant it’s time for a new one.

Yup, she’s got swell timing all right.

Dave Roepke is a senior in journalism and mass communications form Aurora. He is the opinion editor of the Daily.