Thursday, the Board of Regents met in Cedar Falls to discuss a list of things, but the subject on many student’s minds is tuition. Will tuition for Iowa universities be raising this fall?

The short answer is yes.

But before you go breaking down the doors of the board members’ houses, it’s important to know why this is happening.

State universities get their spending money mainly from two places – the state and the students.

The state budget for higher education has been cut by $58 million along with other programs such as health and human services and the judicial branch. That money needs to be replaced and the only other way to get that money is from students.

“It’s not really on [the Regents] at all. It’s really just the plate they’re dealt,” said Student Body President Cody West. “They ask the institutions what they’re going to need in the fall, and we have to give them that bottom-dollar number for what we can scrape by with.”

It’s important to understand that the universities aren’t requiring students to pay more because they’re spending more money – the budget should stay the same, but the amount of income, and where it comes from, is changing.

We don’t need the regents to vote to not raise tuition, we need the state to do their part and supply higher education with the funds that they need to be successful and more affordable. 

The flat amount added to the December increases puts total monetary increases from 2016-17 to 2017-18 at $358 for resident undergraduates. Out of state undergraduates have a $830 increase; resident graduates increase by $470 and non-resident graduates by $870.