ISU students will pay 13.9 percent more in tuition for the 2002-2003 school year if the state Board of Regents approves its preliminary numbers at its October meeting in Ames.

The regents released their increase proposal Wednesday, including an 11.5 percent base tuition increase for all three regent universities. With the fee split, ISU tuition will increase an extra 2.4 percent.

Student fees split from tuition include computer fees, health fees and CyRide fees. The fee split at Iowa State is a four-year process.

The regents now will discuss the recommendation for at least 30 days, according to Iowa law, before taking action in October.

“We are very disappointed in the board, and we hope that better ideas will come up to the forefront,” said Andy Tofilon, president of the Government of the Student Body. “There is a better way to come up with money.”

GSB is working to the keep the tuition increase under 10 percent. Realistically, Tofilon said, student leaders are looking at a 2 percent reduction of the regent’s recommendation. The board might consider a 2 percent reduction more favorably than a request for an increase below 10 percent, he said.

“We agree that there has to be a tuition increase,” Tofilon said, “but you have to do surgery with a scalpel, not an ax.”

The tuition increase proposal is a good starting point, said Regent David Fisher.

“Legislators have decided to give less and less to higher education,” he said. “The shortfall has to be made up from one of two sources – private funding or tuition increases.”

Regent Amir Arbisser said the board does not enjoy increasing tuition.

“I think we are not happy to be agents of that change, but unfortunately, the Board of Regents is caught in the middle,” he said. “We are all major advocates for the quality of education in the state.”

Iowa State’s record enrollment is an indication of the quality of Iowa’s regent universities, Fisher said.

Tofilon said tuition increases are making a university education in Iowa less accessible.

“We are saying no to people who can’t afford to go to school,” he said. “We are saying `no’ to middle- and lower-class families, and we are telling them they cannot have an affordable education.”