Inflation has risen since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Iowa State has been no stranger to the trend of growing costs. As the cost of groceries and housing rise, tuition and services at Iowa State have also increased.
On-campus housing costs have increased by almost 7% last year, from 2021 to the 2024-25 academic year. These increases have been all across the board.
According to Inside Iowa State, from 2021 to 2024, the residence department “intentionally kept increases below inflation,” alongside its increases to meal plans.
“Last year, residence leaders announced a new strategy in order to make needed facility improvements and reduce deferred maintenance costs,” the article states.
Next week, the Board of Regents will see a proposal for a 3% increase in tuition next fall, citing “inflationary cost increases.”
Expressing the sentiment students feel when seeing a hike in costs of attendance, Alice Kessler, a graduate student in mathematics, cited “sunk cost.”
“You, as a student, are basically forced to make this choice: do I put that $10,000 down the drain and drop out in order to not deal with these tuition increases, or do I just deal with it?” Kessler said.
Compensation for faculty and student workers has remained stagnant, including ISU Dining employees, who have been paid $13 per hour since 2022.
Dave Peterson, a political science professor, expressed his concerns.
“We got a 3% raise on average, but our healthcare costs go up every year,” Peterson said. “The electrical bills for the university go up every year. Insurance goes up every year…The expenses go up over time because a lot of these costs go up every time.”
Fiscal reports show that Iowa State has significantly increased its net financial position and expenses. The makeup of these expenditures and revenue sources has changed significantly. State funding to the university has decreased from 19% to 16.8% since 2022.
“I don’t think funding has been actively reduced, but I think that some of those years have been flat, or it’s been a small increase way below the cost of stuff to run the university,” Peterson said.
Many students also rely on scholarships, where there has been a decline. Since 2022, the allocation of scholarship expenditures has decreased from 5% to 3.7%.
“It feels very hopeless in the sense that, again, there is not really much we can do,” Kessler said. “It does feel like a slap on the face when you see tuition increases every year….it’s never about things that will generally increase the quality of life of most students by any significant amount.”
