“This is really awful for us.” – Martin Jischke on the state budget recommendations.

He ain’t kidding. I would like all of you to cut this column out and save it for the middle of September. For it is at that time I will be able to give Iowa State one big “I told you so.” The tuition increase that we so dread every year will actually be worth dreading this year. If you thought that last year’s was bad, then prepare yourself for the Mount Everest of all hikes as the regents will propose one that will be in the double digits.

I don’t have any source on this matter. Actually, no one in the regent office knows what it is either, since it hasn’t been decided yet.

It’s not that hard to figure out, though. Every year we take about a 4 percent tuition increase. Add on about an extra 2 percent because last year the regents approved a policy of being able to separate fees from tuition and currently we are at a 6 percent hike.

Since no one wants to cut the quality of our education, I would expect the regents to try to make up the money they didn’t get from the state in tuition revenue. So take what they didn’t get, add it to the 6 percent and there you go, about 10 percent. Think that’s bad?

Well that’s just to maintain what we already got. If we want to get better (God forbid), it’s going to take more money than that.

Better take that extra shift at Pizza Hut because it’s going to get worse before it gets better. The Governor’s office says they won’t be as hard on the regent universities as they were this year, as does the Legislature.

While they might not be as hard, it remains to be seen if they will give the same level of support as they have in previous years.

Iowa State only has four sources of income: state allocations, research, private donations and tuition. If one of those goes down, something else must go up because no one will sacrifice quality.

That’s why it is so important that the state funds Iowa State near the level it needs, because they’ll get the money from somewhere, it’s just a matter of where.

So what can we do about it? Well, if there isn’t an actual effort by the regent university student bodies to express what they think, I can guarantee the regents will accept nearly what the board office proposes.

Which will lead the state to think they can get by with short funding the schools again.

So either be quiet and pay it, or actually do something to change it. That’s as simple as I can put it. Ben Golding and Lisa Dlouhy can’t do it alone, even though they’re already working on it.

I’m talking about having actual students who don’t have some title behind their name tell the outside world what they think. As extreme of an idea as that is, it is the way that all interest groups work.

The reason they’re listened to is because the members stand up and be heard instead of sending a lobbyist to fight for them. Write the regents a letter, e-mail your state representatives. All the information is on the web and what the web doesn’t have, GSB does. I’m asking for a 20 minute commitment, not a kidney.

We’re starting to get into a bad habit of talking this big game of how we’re young and you’ve got to listen to us, etc. But what have we done about it? Sure, each year about 50 people will get mad and march toward the Knoll in honor of VEISHEA while another 500 watch. Even that was done more for our own entertainment instead of actually having a point. The reason we’re not listened to is because we’re not speaking.

You’d be surprised how far an e-mail can go. Don’t worry about getting the facts right on the estimated 2006 fiscal year projections, just speaking from the heart is enough.

They’re not going to laugh at you, they’ll listen. Besides, if you don’t speak now, you’ll pay later. And I’ll be there, with this column.

---

Matt Craft is a senior in secondary education from La Porte City.