Dear Governor Kim Reynolds,

Congratulations on becoming the first elected female governor of Iowa. It’s a major milestone for Iowa politics. However, now that you’re in office, we have some things we’d like to ask of you, specifically in regards to higher education: please invest in Iowa State and the state’s other regent universities.

Earlier this year, Iowa State was faced with yet another budget cut. Now, obviously money doesn’t grow on trees and no budget gets balanced overnight. However, we hope you recognize the importance of the prestigious public universities in Iowa and the financial burdens the university and its students are under due to recent budget cuts.

Some may say, “oh, Iowa State will be fine. They have plenty of money!” Iowa State is not a for-profit university, so every penny in goes to benefiting the students. Whether it’s through teacher’s salaries, facility improvements, or club funding, all the money goes to improving the university.

These budget cuts come back to the students in the form of increased tuition, something no one is a fan of. However, tuition has been raised before, but this past time, it was different. In September, Iowa State fell in a national ranking of universities. The culprit? Funding.

“Adequate financial support is vital as we work to fulfill our responsibility to provide an outstanding educational experience for our students and to help meet the needs of Iowans,” Wintersteen said in a statement provided to the Iowa State Daily in September. “Rankings reflect the decreased investment in public higher education in Iowa.”

This investment needs to return to Ames for the benefit of Iowa, for the benefit of Iowa State and for the benefit of the Cyclones.

Now, there are some things that will help that came up this recent school year. First, student enrollment has finally plateaued with 1,668 less students than 2016’s enrollment. Iowa State is also no longer literally running out of physical building space and the Forever True fundraising campaign reached their $1.1 billion goal early.

However, Iowa State shouldn’t have to rely on decreasing enrollment and a university sized bake sale to fund the university. If there was ever a time to reinvest in higher education, there is no time like the present.

Iowa State by no means will be shutting the doors if there is another budget cut, but we could see another drop in rankings soon if you and the Iowa Legislature do not start prioritizing higher education, across the state’s regent universities. No one wants to see that happen.

The not so distant future of the higher education students in Iowa rests in you and your administration’s hands. Please, help take some of the financial burden off of the students coming to Iowa to learn.

Congrats on the election, and we look forward to your historic first term as governor.

Regards,

The Iowa State Daily Editorial Board