Board of Regents approve UNI’s budget plan

University of Northern Iowa students will have to wait until December for a decision on the $100 spring semester tuition surcharge.

The state Board of Regents approved UNI’s $8.9 million budget reduction plan Thursday in the Maucker Union Ballroom. The plan outlines UNI’s strategies to meet Governor Chet Culver’s 10-percent across-the-board state budget cut.

With one-third of the school year already over, the plan may place students, faculty and families in a difficult situation.

“The budget situation that we are facing has created ...  substantial concern, apprehension, anxiety, anger, depression and stress among faculty, staff and students.” said UNI President Benjamin Allen, when presenting his plan to the regents.

Early in the meeting, the three presidents of the state universities announced they would forgo performance-based bonuses for 2010.

Adam Haselhuhn, UNI student body president, said he believes that the proposed spring tuition surcharge will have the greatest impact on students.

If approved at the Dec. 10 Board of Regents telephonic meeting, the tuition surcharge would cost UNI students between $18 and $100 depending on the number of credit hours they enroll in.

The surcharge, which is expected to generate $1 million in revenue for UNI, was a hotly debated topic among regent members and student body presidents.

Haselhuhn told the regents about a student who said, “$100 might not seem like a lot of money to some people, but for me, that will feed my 1-year old daughter for at least a month, if not more.”

“I understand the need for a $100 surcharge, but cannot, in good conscience, say that students of UNI support its implementation,” Haselhuhn said.

Allen told the regents that the surcharge was “very reluctantly” included in the plan.

“It is difficult for families and students to accommodate changes in tuition after they’ve started school,” he said. “However, we feel that this is a fair share of the burden.”

Besides the surcharge, the university’s plan calls for a reallocation of surplus tuition from higher-than-expected 2010-2011 student enrollment; permanent budget reductions, which will include program cuts and possibly permanent layoffs; temporary unpaid leave for all employees, contingent on faculty union negotiations; redirection of federal stimulus funds; a 10-percent across-the-board cut to special line-item units; and a temporary reduction in employee retirement contributions from 10 to 8 percent.

In total, these strategies are expected save UNI $8.9 million.

Allen expressed his concern about low student participation in the process.

“Students need to get more involved,” Allen said. “We will be getting rid of programs ... and the students’ voices need to be heard.”

After Allen’s presentation to the regents, Madison Frei, a senior at UNI, stood up and requested to ask Allen a question, but was denied by Regents President David Miles.

“Oh, I see. Students first,” she said, and then sat down. Haselhuhn, who spoke with her afterward, believed that she didn’t understand the board meeting process.

“If (students) want to have their voices heard their best channel is to go through me, and I can relay their message ... Yes, I’m busy, but I’ll make time (to talk),” Haselhuhn said.

 

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