Last week, the University of Iowa announced it will close seven centers, cut funding from six others, and ax jobs for 33 people.
In April, the Iowa Legislature made $5.49 million in midyear cuts to the institution’s budget. With fewer than three months left in the fiscal year at that time, the move forced the UI to temporarily defer $5.5 million by halting campus construction projects. In June, the state Board of Regents set increased tuition rates for the state’s public universities during the 2018/19 academic year. At the UI, there will be a 3.8 percent increase for resident undergraduates and a 2.1 percent increase for nonresident undergraduate students. Rates for graduate students, which vary by program, will also increase.
Make no mistake; these cuts and tuition hikes are a direct result of the Iowa Legislature’s continued devaluation of public higher education. Since 1998, the state budget has increased by nearly $3 billion. In that time, UI enrollment has grown by more than 5,000 students, but state funding for the UI has decreased by $9 million.
And so, tuition hasn’t skyrocketed solely because school has become more expensive. Contrary to years past, UI students and their families now bear most of the burden in funding the institution. In fiscal 2001, the regent universities’ general-education revenue was 63.7 percent state appropriations, 30.6 percent tuition. Those numbers have essentially flipped, with fiscal 2017 being covered by 32.3 percent state appropriations, 63.3 percent tuition.
The Legislature’s disinvestment in the UI has obviously hurt students. But the greatest unforeseen cost comes to the state as a whole. The UI’s most recent closings include the Iowa Center for Assistive Technology Education and Research and the Labor Center. Cuts will be made to such centers as Iowa Supports Education and Resources for Veterans and Enlisted and Iowa’s Center for Agricultural Safety and Health. Research for people with disabilities, workplace-related training, resources for veterans, farm safety — all of these initiatives
directly benefit Iowans. And they are rightfully some of the first to be cut when the state shifts financial burden onto students.
“We’re disappointed to be in this position because these centers and employees provide valuable outreach and service to Iowans,” UI President J. Bruce Harreld said. “But we can no longer ask our students to support activities previously supported by the state just a generation ago.”
Of course, even with these cuts, tuition will rise. And while cuts to research centers are necessary as the state continues to defund the UI, the institution’s status as a public research university must also be considered.
The UI has a proud tradition of continued growth and study. In 1927, the UI became the first tax-supported university in the U.S. to establish a School of Religion. In 1947, the first program on a college campus devoted to rehabilitating children and young adults with disabilities opened its doors here. In 1999, two professors establish the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights to uphold and defend human rights through research, education, and public service. As the UI continues losing support from the state, the inevitable cuts may come to what makes our school great.
The Legislature’s dwindling support for public higher education is nothing new. But the consequence of further decades of defunding is yet to be seen. Despite the state’s budget cuts in recent years, the UI has flourished and contributed positively to the welfare of the state. Let’s hope that tradition will continue until, with any luck, the Legislature changes its course.