Free Internet access for university faculty and students may be coming to an end in Iowa if an amended version of Senate File 519 makes it through the Iowa Senate, although it may have trouble in the Governor’s Office.

Rep. Cecelia Burnett, D-Ames, who voted against the bill, said the bill is an issue of whether teachers and students should have access to the Internet. The bill is a result of complaints from telephone companies complaining of competition from the government-owned Iowa Communications Network (ICN).

If passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, by no means a forgone conclusion, students and faculty at the three state-owned universities — Iowa State, Iowa and Northern Iowa — would likely have to pay to use the Internet, much like other subscribers to Internet servers.

“Special interests have the ear of the majority party. They’re getting what they want for the most part,” Burnett said. “If it comes down to profit for telephone companies or support for education, I’m going to come down for education.”

Many Iowa House representatives did not agree when they amended the bill Thursday. It passed the House 58-36.

Now it returns to the Senate, where it started and originally passed 35-14 on March 25.

Burnett said some behind-the-scenes compromises are possible.

“It’ll pass and if it comes back to the House, I’ll vote against it again,” Burnett said.

Rep. Bill Bernau, D-Ames, who also voted against the bill, said, “I wouldn’t think it would have any trouble [passing the Senate] because we didn’t make any substantial amendment.”

Proposed House amendments to the bill Thursday that would have made certain people exempt from having to pay or freeze university Internet access at current levels failed.

Bernau said he thought an amendment that did pass, which allows dormitory residents to keep free service, added a technical concession because dorms are already wired. He said offering dorm residents a different level of Internet service than off-campus students raises further concerns.

However, he said there may be hope with Gov. Branstad.

“I think the governor’s going to veto it, myself, and I hope that he does,” Bernau said. “He’s one of the more enthusiastic ICN supporters in the Iowa government.”

Bernau said he encourages students, faculty and staff interested in the bill to call the Governor’s Office and share their opinions. He said even if the bill does get signed, it will be revisited next year.

Voting on the Internet Bill has gone largely along party lines with Republicans supporting the bill and Democrats opposing it. “I think there’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding and sometimes hostility about educators and students in the House,” Burnett said.

She said ICN is fairly unique. Most states don’t have state-owned fiber optic networks. “In this case, the state was way ahead of the private enterprise at the times,” she said. Some estimate Iowa has spent up to half a billion dollars on ICN.

Some people are questioning how much more money should be put into the system, Burnett said, and others “question whether or not we should be in competition with private enterprise.”

There has been some sentiment in the past to sell the network.

Sen. Johnie Hammond, D-Ames, said when ICN was formed, its purpose was to enhance education.

“That’s what we should be doing, even if it results in a loss to telephone companies,” she said. “It makes sense that educators should have access and students should have access.”

Hammond said those in the Senate who developed the bill “are basically people who want to sell the company.”

“If we can’t even allow [ICN] to be used for the purpose we had originally planned to use it, I’m gonna vote against it,” Hammond said.