After a summer of talk and speculation the state Board of Regents finally announced their preliminary tuition increases yesterday. While the 13.2 percent proposal is not final, it has Government of the Student Body President Andy Tofilon and Vice President Charlie Johnson scrambling to update their tuition presentation for the regents Sept. 12.

We knew this was going to happen.

After last year’s cuts in the state legislature it was obvious that the coming year was going to be tight for Iowa’s regent institutions, particularly the three state universities. Forget covering basic inflation or maintenance costs, the state of Iowa was putting its money elsewhere.

So that leaves Iowa State, with its goal to be the best land grant university in the country, scraping for funds to accomplish its goal.

Everyone complains about the effects of the budget cuts. Larger classes and a shrinking number of faculty are just a few of the ways they are becoming a reality on the ISU campus.

Yet we have this goal of being the best land grant university in the country, and cutting programs and faculty is not the way to do it.

Providing a quality education means having the money to pay for the programs, teachers and resources students need. It is Iowa State’s primary purpose and the Board of Regents’ responsibility.

Ideally Iowa State should be accessible to everyone. But not at the real cost of a quality education. Sometimes, tuition must be increased to prevent that.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle Kann, Zach Calef, Omar Tesdell