Sydney Newton
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It’s not often we think about the demographics of students at our university. We have been prone to think that most of the students are usually from our own state and a small portion are from elsewhere. This is becoming less and less true, however. The rise in the number of nonresidents attending the University of Iowa not only brings in increased revenue but a more diverse population as well.

The estimated cost of living on campus for the 2016-17 school year at the university is $18,658 for Iowa residents and $38,746 for nonresidents. That is a pretty big difference. To make that even more interesting, in this most recent class of students, 47 percent are Iowa residents, and 30 percent are Illinois residents. That’s a lot of money coming in from Illinois students. The rest? Twelve percent are from other states, and 11 percent are international.

The number of international students has increased from 2,982 in 2010 to 4,540 in 2015, and the biggest group of those students come from China. According to CNN, Chinese students pay an estimated $70 million a year in tuition at the University of Iowa and put an estimated $100 million into the local economy. At the UI, the number of Chinese students outnumber the combined African-American and Latino student population.

However, this shouldn’t be considered a bad thing. There are many, many benefits in having a diverse student population. Most of the time, it doesn’t become clear to students how culturally aware they can become until they take a look at our campus. There are a lot of different student organizations, but are there enough to accommodate the large number of different cultures?

This is an entirely different question that might never be fulfilled. There might not ever be a sufficient solution, but the university should ensure that if it welcomes this many out-of-state students and international students, they need to have adequate resources.

The UI enrolls the smallest percentage of in-state students of the three state universities. Out-of-state students receive the majority of the institutional aid. Last year, Iowa gave out $64.7 million in aid and 68 percent went to nonresidents, while only 32 percent went to residents. Of course, out-of-state tuition is higher, so there should be more aid, but would this make Iowans less attracted to Iowa?

Is the lack of aid why Iowa students would rather choose to go to Iowa State or UNI? Getting more Iowa natives to attend school here could help fix that problem. Some students from Illinois chose our university rather than other Iowa schools because they received better aid offers.

Some people would say the university is losing its pride because fewer and fewer students are natives of the state. It’s debatable if this is a good or bad thing. On one hand, the benefits from having a large portion of the students being nonresidents will be helpful later on in life. But on the other hand, if the population of Iowa students keeps decreasing, the tradition of in-state students coming to this university will be lost as well.