The Board of Regents’ Tuition Task Force will not be meeting with legislative, economic development and business stakeholders as was planned for July 27.

Previously legislative stakeholders were invited to present, such as the governor or a designee or leaders in the legislature, along with time set aside for economic development and business stakeholders to present. The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, Department of Workforce Development and Department of Economic Development had all received invitations.

“Unfortunately, we were not going to have a high enough turnout of presenters to hold the July 27 meeting,” said Tuition Task Force chair Larry McKibben in a release. “We need to be mindful of everyone’s time and the use of state resources. As we are having three other Task Force meetings, there are several opportunities to hear feedback from a wide variety of constituents, including hopefully those invited to the July 27 meeting.”

The Tuition Task Force was established this year by the Board to start to address the reasons tuition was raised in previous years, and to have that discussion publicly and transparently. A large part of that discussion is budget cuts from the state.

McKibben told the Daily in a previous interview, one of the things that concerned him during his four years on the Board was setting a budget, only to have to change it when the legislature finally set their budget.

Iowa State Student Government President Cody West said in a previous interview that Iowa State University not protecting in-state students from tuition increases as a result of lost funding from the state was a clear message.

“I think that sends a powerful message to the state house that if they continuously don’t give Iowa State the support it needs, we’re not going to let that burden not fall on in-state students,” West said.

Sessions will still be held, open to the public, at the three regent universities. Iowa State’s will be August 9.

The Tuition Task Force is chaired by McKibben and vice-chaired by Milt Dakovich. Regents Sherry Bates and Nancy Boettger also sit on the task force.

All groups invited to the July 27 meeting are encouraged to submit written comments to the Tuition Task Force or attend one of the three remaining meetings.