Iowa Students Feel the Pinch of University Budget Cuts

A resident undergraduate student at Iowa who paid $3,412 in the fall will pay $3,512 in the spring, a small increase compared to what many people were anticipating after Culver's decision was announced.

Mason's report said the cutbacks will make up for the school's recent budget loss. This means tuition will not rise more than the $100 fee in the coming semester, and in the 2010-2011 school year it should not rise more than 4 percent, a yearly cost-of-living increase that has been the norm for the past decade. Mason's money juggling will also prevent the school from having to lay off employees.

The $100 fee added to University of Iowa students' bills is also the only spring tuition change for Iowa's two other state universities, Iowa State and Northern Iowa. The Board of Regents will meet Feb. 3-4 to decide tuition rates for the 2010-2011 year.

Private institutions across the state see the cuts affecting their students in a different way. The College Aid Commission, which helps private school students through the Iowa Tuition Grant, lost $6.3 million. The ITG provides need-based aid that for a deserving student, makes the cost of a private education comparable to a public institution's.

For instance, annual tuition at Drake University in Des Moines was $25,160 for the 2009-2010 school year. Tom Delahunt, vice president of admission and financial aid at Drake, says that since the school depends mostly on the private sector, it is only affected by the state's budget cuts in regard to the ITG. Other than that cut, Drake students will not see much more than the average 3-5 percent increase in tuition next year. And though 560 Drake students will see decreases in their ITGs beginning next semester, their financial packages won't change much due to the availability of private financial aid.

Arnold Woods, Grinnell College's director of financial aid, said his school has been similarly affected. He said Grinnell students' financial packages are never decreased because of state budget cuts, and that private funding responds to these changes and keeps tuition rates basically consistent for the student's entire four-year experience.

Though this sounds like good news for private colleges, some students still feel the impact of the cost-of-living increases each year.

"I go to Drake, where tuition goes up 3 percent per year," said third-year Finance Major Alex Bergman. "Our scholarships don't go up with that. When families plan for college, in the beginning they're given a face amount [for tuition], and it's implied that that amount will be constant for four years. Drake is not endowment wealthy, so they don't have much choice but to raise tuition. This cut could definitely change the way things operate for us."

However, private funding means the colleges can make up for it with their own scholarships and grants.

"We are actually looking at an increase in private scholarships in the coming year," Delahunt said. "Forty-seven million dollars per year goes to Drake's need-, merit- and talent-based scholarships, and those numbers have been on the rise."

And, despite his unease at watching his tuition bill creep up every year, Bergman says he can understand Gov. Culver's financial decision.

"It seems to me that Iowa's only options are to raise taxes or cut services," he said. "I would not like to be the politician making those decisions."