The state Board of Regents has become the latest battleground for a feud between the Iowa State administration and Campus Book Store.

Campus Book Store officials petitioned the Regents at Wednesday’s monthly meeting for access to the university’s billing system. They argued that students should be able to charge purchases to their university bills at Campus Book Store, a service the University Bookstore already offers.

Campus Book Store representatives said their business has lost over $600,000 in the past two years because students prefer to charge book purchases to their university bills.

“This is a life-and-death issue for the Campus Book Store,” said Pete Cannon, Campus Book Store’s lawyer.

But ISU officials do not want the university to get into the habit of providing credit and collection services to private businesses.

“We do not believe it is appropriate to provide credit services to off-campus organizations,” said Warren Madden, ISU’s vice president of business and finance.

Madden expressed his sympathy for the bookstore, but said it was not the university’s responsibility to regulate credit between private businesses in the area and ISU students.

The board deferred a decision until next month’s Dec. 13 meeting in Des Moines.

The Regents also passed a resolution that allows ISU to give an honorary degree to a university graduate and former professor who gained international acclaim in agricultural economics.

According to a university news release, D. Gale Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in 1938 and a doctorate in 1945. He was an assistant professor of agricultural economics from 1941 to 1945. Johnson became a member the University of Chicago’s faculty in 1945 and served as Eliakim Hastings Moore Distinguished Professor from 1970 to 1986.

Johnson is best known for his predictions in the improvement of per capita world food supplies. He has also done extensive work in food production in the former Soviet Union.

The honorary degree will be given to Johnson at fall commencement Dec. 16.

The Regents also received an annual report on student persistence for the three state universities.

ISU President Martin Jischke told the board that the university is trying to reach a six-year graduation rate of 70 percent.

“Student persistence and graduation rates are the highest priority of the officials of this university,” Jischke said.