Students at Iowa’s three regent universities will be digging a little deeper into their pockets next year after the Board of Regents, State of Iowa’s approval of a 4.3 percent tuition increase for the 2000-2001 school year.

The increase was approved during the regents’ Thursday meeting in Iowa City. The regents also passed the University of Iowa’s tuition resolution separating the payment of student fees and tuition.

ISU President Martin Jischke said he approves of the tuition increase.

“Quality is not free,” he said. “Our plan is to become the best land-grant university in the country, but we can’t do that without resources.”

Jischke said money from the 4.3 percent increase will be used to enhance library resources, improve information technology in the classroom and hire faculty for growing areas such as management information systems and computer science.

Matt Craft, Government of the Student Body president, said it was “reasonable to expect an increase due to inflation and rising costs,” but he does not approve of board’s passage of fee and tuition separation at U of I.

“I’m really disappointed that went through,” he said. “A lot of long-term consequences can happen because of this system.”

The approved system at U of I will separate mandatory fees from tuition on students’ bills. The money that previously went toward the student fees will now be applied directly to the university’s general fund, and students will have to pay mandatory fees above and beyond tuition.

While the new system applies only to the U of I this year, Craft said it is likely the same proposal will be made for ISU next year.

“This vote today represents a change in board policy,” he said. “The odds of the board going with one school and not the others are minute.”

Jischke said a similar proposal probably will be made for ISU next year. “This provides a vehicle to free up current tuition,” he said in support of the policy.

Regent Dave Neil was one of two regents to vote against fee separation at the U of I. While he agrees tuition increases are necessary to maintain quality, he doesn’t feel the new fee policy is a good approach.

“There needs to be a stable, consistent, predictable growth in quality,” he said. “The separation of tuition and fees accelerates that.”

Craft said he believes the new system will cost students more over time since fees will not rise to meet increasing product and service costs. He said this also could affect the number of services financed by student fees, since there may not be enough money to go around.

“I don’t see how this could benefit students,” he said.

However, Jischke said he feels the new separation could be very beneficial for ISU. “We look to our peers with whom we compete,” he said. “This is another way to improve the academic program with tuition.”