Hannah Kane pays for college on her own.

“My parents could pay my tuition, or they could feed my younger siblings,” the UI junior said.

Kane, who is from Manchester, Iowa, relies on a combination of scholarships, student loans, a summer job, and small family contributions to pay her U-bill. And with the state Board of Regents asking university presidents to consider a midyear tuition surcharge — one of eight options proposed for cutting the UI’s budget by $24.7 million — her bill could get bigger.

Kane is one of many students on campus curious to know what exactly would happen to that U-bill should officials approve an uptick in tuition.

If UI President Sally Mason presents such an option to the regents at their meeting Oct. 29 and it’s OK’d, it likely wouldn’t be too difficult for the UI Office of Financial Aid to adjust to changes in aid packages for students, said Mark Warner, the director of the office.

Officials would make a simple adjustment in the automated system, and students would not be required to resubmit forms, he said.

The office awards financial aid throughout the year as officials adjust to tuition and other factors that sometimes aren’t decided until just before school starts, he said. More than 12,000 undergrads applied for financial aid this year, he said.

An increase in tuition would be reflected in the cost of attendance component of financial aid, and the jump’s effect on students would vary, Warner said.

“It’s really done on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Any change in financial aid awarded would depend on a student’s aid package, generally composed of scholarships, loans, and grants, he said.

At Iowa State University, a tuition change may cause difficulties; ISU President Gregory Geoffroy is faced with a similar task as Mason in choosing how to address budget cuts.

Roberta Johnson, the director of financial aid at ISU, said adjustments to tuition costs typically don’t affect loans or grants, although some institutional grants could be affected. While officials haven’t made any decisions, she said a change in tuition might cause her office to reprocess all student financial aid forms.

“Given the volume of students, it would be work, but it is possible to do that,” Johnson said.

Students on Iowa campuses similar to Kane wait.

“I would have to cut back,” she said, anticipating added costs. “Some people have already made these cuts, and a lot of people can’t do it anymore.”