University bills are still fresh off the presses, but Government of the Student Body leaders have been lobbying for lower tuition increases for months – and they already have chalked up their first victory to save students money.

President Andy Tofilon and Vice President Charlie Johnson were successful in lobbying President Gregory Geoffroy to wait another year before splitting recreational fees from the tuition.

When the fees are separated from tuition, tuition still goes up, and students have another fee on their U-bills.

Tofilon said this will lower the projected tuition increase for the 2002-2003 school year by one percent. Tuition could increase as much as 13 percent next year, he said, but the student leaders are lobbying for a single-digit increase.

“We really feel we saved students money,” Tofilon said. “It is very promising that our president wants to make sure students have access to Iowa State.”

Geoffroy said the presentation Tofilon and Johnson made was good, and it helped in his decision to wait another year to split out the recreational fees. However, he said, the tuition increase will still be significant.

“Andy and Charlie made a good case for doing it, and there will be a relatively large tuition increase next fall,” Geoffroy said.

The fee-split proposal first came from the University of Iowa administration in the fall of 1999, Tofilon said. He said it is a way for the university to get more money from tuition charges by splitting out fees and making students pay for those fees separately. However, he said, this doesn’t slow down tuition increases.

The recreational fee originally was slated to be split from tuition within three years at Iowa State, Tofilon said.

Johnson said the cooperation between the university administration and the student government marks a change.

“I was very surprised,” he said. “It didn’t seem like it would happen.”

Johnson said he doubted former presidents would have considered leaving the fee included with tuition, because it would have generated more money for the university. Geoffroy’s approval of the GSB proposal, he said, shows the new president’s commitment to students.

“It should be a victory for all students,” Johnson said. “[Geoffroy] deserves a lot of credit for this.”

The student fees committee will oversee any additional increase to these newly split fees, Tofilon said.

In mid-September, the Board of Regents will announce its recommendation for the 2002-2003 tuition increase. GSB will then propose with its own, lower tuition numbers, Tofilon said.

“[Johnson and I] don’t shy away from things” Tofilon said. “If we think it is a problem, we will fight for it.”