The Board of Regents will consider approval of the proposed Fiscal Year 2017 amended operating budgets for the three regent universities after funding reductions by the Iowa Legislature and the Governor. 

Reduced by a total of $18 million by state funding, along with reductions of $2.75 million from the Department of Management, Iowa State plans to foot the cost of nearly $9 million in state funding reductions largely through deferring maintenance projects. 

Among other reductions, Iowa State also plans to delay faculty and staff searches, according to regent documents. This pause in hiring will “result in larger class sizes and longer wait times for services.”

This will inevitably, according to regent documents, “delay efforts that enhance the university’s research profile.”

Plans to reduce expenses within the professional and scientific supplies and services will also be implemented. 

The $18 million in regent budget cuts to the three Iowa universities is just a portion of the $110 million in the state funding reduction proposed in early January by Branstad, who is slated to leave for the U.S. ambassador to China position should he be approved later this year.

After the announcement in January in regard to the state funding reductions, then-Iowa State Student Body President Cole Staudt said that while he is disappointed at the decision to cut funding [from higher education,] he’s glad the amount has decreased from Branstad’s initial speculations.

“I’d like to see no cuts, but with today’s atmosphere, I think this is the best we can hope for,” Staudt said.

Staudt, however, wants to make the dangers of continuing to cut funding clear to legislatures.

“We need to make it very clear that we need [the funding] that the Board of Regents and Iowa State requested to hold undergraduate tuition increases down,” he said. 

The amended budget for Iowa State Fiscal Year 2017 is now roughly $175.4 million from state appropriations.