There are a few things in life you can count on. I’ve always known about death, taxes and the inevitable fact that you’ll always get an odd number of socks out of the dryer. But recently, one more thing has found it’s way onto my list: The fact that the Iowa Board of Regents will never be bothered with the true concerns of the students at the schools they are supposed to be serving.

I think most students have become accustomed to this fundamental truth of life at a Regents institution.

We deal with the tuition increases, questionable policy and/or policy changes and general neglect of anything that is important to those who use the institutions in this state.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed is that when we hear about a decision of the Regents in the news, it’s most likely a decision that most of the students would find unsavory.

Take for example, the annual tuition run-in. Every year I have been here there has been a substantial increase in tuition. So the popular refrain of “budget woes” that keeps emanating from the general direction of Des Moines is a little misguided if it is an attempt to explain away this year’s double-digit percentage increase.

And considering that the national inflation rate has not surpassed 3.4 percent for the last 10 years (including last year), I find this trend a little perturbing. There have been too few upgrades in the quality of education to justify any increases. These concerns have been voiced at this annual “Battle over Tuition” every year, to no recognizable effect.

We have also seen the Regents’ problematic decision-making concerning the new honors program building. OK, really – Jischke Hall? Are you kidding me? I was here for the final four years of Jischke’s “leadership,” during which time I never heard a single good thing said about him by any of my fellow students.

Not one solitary positive comment. Not even a neutral one.

Every time his name came up in conversation, there was a high probability that it would be accompanied by several expletive-laden unprintable remarks.

But somehow, right after the guy ditches us to go work for a competing school, we take the first new building that goes up and name it after him, a decision not only opposed by the student body, but also called into question by the Faculty Senate.

This is a situation that makes it clear that the basis for these choices is far from being the best interests of the institutions. Can you say “lobbying?”

One of the most interesting things I have noticed about the board is that of its eight citizen members, only four actually graduated from Regents institutions.

Somehow, you’d think that there would be a need for people on this board that is supposed to oversee important policy decisions in these institutions to have a reasonable amount of experience with what life is like at said institutions.

But with the present makeup of the board, clearly the state representatives don’t really share that view.

Thus it should be no surprise that the board’s decisions do not in any way shape or form reflect its interest in making this state a great option for tertiary education.

My opinion is that seven of the nine Regents should be citizens, and of those, all except one should be alumni of Regents institutions.

We can have one non-alumnus, but it’s necessary to have people who have experienced these schools making these important decisions. It also stands to reason that when the school in question is your alma mater, you’d be more invested in the idea of doing what is best for the institution.

For those who would say that the function of the Iowa Board of Regents is to make professional and/or business decisions, I’d venture the notion that there are plenty of Regents institution graduates living in the state who are more than qualified to do that job. With the rate of departure of graduates from Iowa, that might not always be the case, but that’s an issue for a later column.

The eighth person on the board is, of course, a student from one of the universities, which is appropriate.

And, guess what? Outrage of all outrages, I think the final spot ought to be a faculty member.

I mean, what is the justification for there not being a designated spot for a faculty member on the board, except for the determination to keep the people who are most affected by the decisions of the board out of that “elite” group.

Currently there is an initiative to change that, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.

Maybe one of these days we’ll see the Board of Regents turned into a group of people who care about what is in the best interests of the students, faculty and education at these institutions.

That is, of course, likely to share an anniversary with the day that Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat hold hands and skip into the sunset.

Emeka Anyanwu is a senior in electrical engineering from Ames.