On the heels of presentations by Iowa State University and the University of Iowa regarding a 7 percent annual 5-year tuition increase, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday there is “no way” Iowa families can afford the growth. 

“There is no way that Iowa families could afford a 7 percent increase over five years,” Reynolds said, according to the Des Moines Register. “So I would encourage the Regents to… take a look at what’s manageable and keep in the forefront doing everything we can to keep higher education, post-secondary education costs down.”

The proposed tuition increase – as requested by the Iowa Board of Regents – would add $522 to the base tuition starting in fall 2018 at Iowa State, and rise to $684 more per year by fall 2022. 

Iowa State Interim President Ben Allen presented the five-year plan on Aug. 9, with the University of Iowa following suit Aug. 14 outlining a very similar plan to Iowa State. 

“To fulfill our mission and level of quality our students and all Iowans expect and deserve, we need the resources to make real investments,” Allen said. “This five-year plan will allow us to make significant progress on our strategic priorities, and we believe this is a proactive, reasonable approach for our students and their families.”

Reynolds, while saying that the 7 percent tuition increase is out of reach for Iowa families, did not promise an increase in state support, the Register reported.  

Enrollment growth at Iowa State has been consistently increasing over the past eight years – with 37 percent more students since 2009. 

State appropriations to Iowa State have declined 30 percent over the same period and last year, according to Iowa State, the university has received $3,700 less in state support per resident student than in 2009.

“If we don’t maintain quality, the degree becomes less valuable,” Allen said. “Without these funds, we can’t maintain that quality.”

University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld shared similar reasoning behind the 7 percent increase, saying, “This lack of resources has resulted in placing the UI at a competitive disadvantage with its national competitors and has also had an impact upon our rankings and placed an unnecessary burden, I believe, on our students, their families and the state’s economy.”

The University of Northern Iowa’s proposal varied from Iowa State’s and Iowa’s with UNI President Mark Nook proposing that the basic resident undergraduate rake hikes trend down from 5 percent this year to 4 percent in 2019 and eventually 1.75 percent by 2022. 

At the task force meeting August 7, UNI President Mark Nook said the university would like to minimize its tuition increases through 2022, proposing that the basic resident undergraduate rate hikes trend down from this year’s 5 percent bump to 4 percent in 2019 and eventually 1.75 percent by 2022.

After the regents meeting when Iowa State proposed its plan for a 7 percent increase annually, student leaders spoke out about the increase shifting fault to legislators and not administrators.

“The time has come that we move past pointing fingers at the university administration and the Iowa Board of Regents and demand that our state legislators make higher education a priority again in Iowa,” said Cody West and Cody Smith, president and vice president respectively.

“We have said it before and we will say it again, an investment in the students of Iowa State University is an investment in the future of our state and our nation.”