Government of the Student Body President Bryan Burkhardt expressed his discontent with the Board of Regents’ final decision on the 4.5 percent tuition increase during his comment time at the GSB meeting Wednesday night.

Burkhardt said he was not happy with the decision, which was reached at Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting by a 6-3 vote.

“I am disappointed about the increase,” he said. “To an extent I feel like I did let down the senate and some of the student body, but on the whole I feel we did the best we could.”

Rod Morris, director of Inter-Governmental Affairs for GSB, also said he was disappointed about the increase.

“I think the increase is definitely too high,” Morris said. “4.5 [percent] is higher than the increase has traditionally been in the last two years.”

Morris also said some of the reasons for the increase did not make sense, such as increasing tuition to offer more financial aid.

“I also didn’t understand how they came up with the percentage for the quality factor,” he said.

Although GSB had put forth an aggressive campaign to combat the increase, Burkhardt said possibly something more could have been done.

“It’s a two-fold thing — perhaps we could have done more. However, the things we did, we did exceptionally well,” he said. “I think the Board of Regents let down the students and citizens of Iowa, but there’s nothing more we can do to change their minds. So we move on.”

Morris said he thought it was a good lesson for GSB.

“GSB has learned quite a bit from this experience and can pass it on to future administrations,” he said. “They in turn can learn what to do and what not to do.”

Burkhardt expressed frustration with the proceedings at the Board of Regents meeting.

“In my opinion, there is too much political maneuvering that went on at the meeting among the regents,” Burkhardt said. “I am pleased that there were a couple of regents that are in tune with the citizens in Iowa and the economic environment in Iowa and had the courage to state that they felt the tuition increase should be lower.”

Burkhardt said students need to become more involved in the proceedings of their administration.

“Students need to implore the university to communicate with them together on all needs,” he said. “As always, GSB wants and is seeking the opinions of students so they can be the voice of the students.”

Burkhardt said GSB will now seek to ensure that the money from the tuition increase will be spent wisely and in the best interests of the students.

“Now we will make our best effort to encourage and advise the administration to spend the tuition revenues designated for quality in the interest of students,” he said.

Although he is disappointed with the results, Burkhardt said he is looking forward to moving on in GSB.

“I’m glad the tuition issue is over so that the cabinet, senate and myself can begin focusing more of our time and efforts on other student issues,” he said.