Iowa State students will pay 4.3 percent more in tuition next year if the Iowa Board of Regents approves the recommended increase.

The Board of Regents office has recommended the base tuition increase of 4.3 percent at the three regent universities for the 2000-2001 school year.

The board is scheduled to meet next Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. The regents will consider the recommendation and hear proposals by university representatives concerning what they deem a fair increase for their schools.

Matt Craft, Government of the Student Body president, will represent Iowa State students at the meeting. He said GSB members know an increase is inevitable, so they’re trying to make sure it’s reasonable.

“Our job is to look out for the students,” he said. “We look at numbers to determine what seems fair for them.”

Craft said a number of factors are considered in coming up with a proposed increase, but one of the more important factors for ISU is the farm economy.

“A lot of students here have family ties to agriculture,” he said. “And right now, there’s a good deal of concern in that area.”

According to numbers in the docket for next week’s board meeting, a 4.3 percent increase would raise in-state tuition and fees to $3,132, and nonresident students would pay $9,974. Those numbers are currently $3,004 and $9,564, respectively.

At 4.3 percent, the tuition hike would come in slightly lower than the 4.5 percent approved by the board last year for the current academic year. The increase would be bit higher than those over the past several years, with percentages as low as 3.5 percent for 1996-97.

Part of the reason for higher increases is a change in the policy used by the board to determine a percentage. For a number of years, they used only the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI), a number set by the Research Associates of Washington, in making their decision. The HEPI is based largely on inflation and family income.

The board now considers funds to increase the quality of education at each university along with the HEPI.

“Making improvements is important,” Craft said, “but we need to be careful when it means higher tuition.”

He said that while the proposed increase is lower than last year, he still would like to see it come down a bit.

“Obviously, we’re shooting for the lowest increase possible,” he said. “And if we could have no increase at all or even a decrease, we’d push for that. That’s not realistic though, so we’ll push for what we can get.”

ISU President Martin Jischke said he was satisfied with the proposed increase.

“I understand that the recommendation is consistent with the policy the board has adopted,” he said. “The increase would allow us to improve ISU, not just maintain status quo.”

Craft said he would like to see a higher percentage of tuition money go to financial aid for ISU students.

“ISU has a lower amount of tuition going to financial aid than the University of Iowa or the University of Northern Iowa,” he said. “I feel that as tuition goes up, financial aid should increase accordingly.”

Jischke said ISU’s financial aid is consistent with board policy requiring at least 11 percent of tuition to be set aside for need-based aid.

“In addition, we’ve been working very hard through private fund raising to increase financial aid,” he said. “We’ve raised nearly $90 million through endowments in our campaign thus far.”