IOWA CITY – The Board of Regents decided Thursday to postpone its decision on the 2002-2003 tuition increase, one that could be as high as 18 percent.

“We are currently staring down a bulldozer with no brakes that’s speeding up,” ISU Government of the Student Body President Andy Tofilon said.

The tuition vote usually hits the regent floor at the board’s October meeting, but the vote was delayed until November.

Regent Deborah Turner of Des Moines made a motion to consider increasing the quality component of tuition “to no less than 1 percent of the education budget” of each institution.

Although no figures were compiled at the meeting, Turner’s motion would raise the quality component to higher than the originally proposed 2 percent increase.

Student leaders said they don’t support Turner’s motion.

“I think the regents made a rash decision and rushed into something they really haven’t studied,” said Charlie Johnson, GSB vice president. “They failed to discuss monetary values or percentages. But they did give themselves another month, which could be a benefit.”

Turner said her motion was based on the presentations by the three regent university presidents and their desire to improve quality in the face of severe budget cuts by the Iowa Legislature.

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said it will take a tuition increase of 15.5 percent just to maintain last year’s budget. Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Iowa, told the regents an increase of 15 percent would get her university on par with last year’s budget. University of Northern Iowa would need an increase of 15.4 percent, said UNI President Robert Koob.

“These are very hard decisions in very hard times,” Turner said. “If you stay the same, you fall behind. I don’t think we can afford to do that. We are at a critical point.”

Tofilon and Johnson will continue to work with the Board of Regents.

“We will full-court press the regents,” Tofilon said. “We will make sure that [the regents] know that this is not about numbers, but about people.”

Tofilon outlined a plan to arm students, alumni, donors and parents with the contact information of their Iowa legislators.

“We must prepare for the next session of the Legislature and make this the last time we are left to fend for ourselves,” Tofilon said. “Something must change.”

Johnson reminded the regents of the suffering farm economy and the extra burden placed on out-of-state students.

“We need to serve the people we were founded to educate,” he said. “They are putting money into the economy, and they may stay in Iowa.”

Quality improvement was a major focus of all parties.

“I am deeply concerned,” Geoffroy said. “The quality [of education at Iowa State] is being seriously eroded.”

Geoffroy cited the reduction in computer lab hours, a reduction in the range of classes offered and increases in class size as implications of decreased quality.

Geoffroy told the regents of his concern with the ratio of students to tenured faculty, which has risen 14 percent in the past decade.

“Affordable education is Iowa’s No. 1 resource,” said University of Iowa Student Government President Nick Klenske. “[The possibility of an 18 percent increase] is a shock, and it will be a bigger shock for students.”

UNI Student Government Vice President Kellie Greiner said she was disappointed with the regents’ preliminary numbers.

“The 18 percent is disheartening,” she said. “It will be interesting to see if it will all go to quality improvement.”