Editor’s note: Noah Hackbart currently serves as the Director of Governmental Relations for Northern Iowa Student Government.

With a lot of changes in store for the 2023-24 school year at the University of Northern Iowa, tuition is on the rise and the university’s general budget is on the decline. Over the summer, the Iowa Board of Regents approved tuition increases at all three of the public regent institutions, including UNI.

Here, in-state and out-of-state tuition for both undergraduate and graduate students increased by 3.5%. At the June 13 and 14 Board of Regents Meetings, representatives of the institutions’ student governments were given a chance to speak before the board voted. UNI Student Body President Micaiah Krutsinger mentioned to the board that, “when comparing the tuition rates for regional comprehensive universities and public research universities in other states, you will notice they are thousands of dollars apart from each other, whereas Iowa’s is only a few hundred. Since UNI provides a unique opportunity to the state, I encourage the legislature and the Board of Regents to look at how UNI is being funded.” The June 14 meeting is when the Board of Regents made its decision to raise tuition and mandatory fees at all three of the universities by a unanimous roll call vote. To note, last year’s tuition hike at UNI came in at a 4.25% increase.

While tuition is a major basic cost, another area of importance is student fees. These include fees for technology, health and facilities, and student services and activities, to name a few. According to UNI’s “Admissions & Aid: Cost & Aid” webpage, mandatory fees for students make up $1,332 for both resident and non-resident students. These fees are in addition to tuition, which is at $8,396 for residents and $19,940 for non-residents. Housing and dining remain some of the priciest areas costing as much as $9,648 for both resident and non-resident students depending on the specific plans chosen.

While tuition is going up, the university’s general operating budget decreased this year. According to budget reporting by the Board of Regents, the university’s fiscal year 2023 general education operating budget sat at $169 million with an additional $8.1 million for special operating purposes. The updated report for fiscal year 2024 shows the university’s general education operating budget sitting at $167.1 million. This is a decrease of nearly 1%. UNI is the only regent institution that saw a general education operating budget decrease this year while both Iowa State University and the University of Iowa saw theirs increase.

At the August 2 meeting of the Board of Regents, UNI President Mark Nook instead decided to talk about specific areas of growth in different campus programs rather than the budget numbers put out by the university.

In his opening remarks to the board, President Nook said, “Thanks very much regents for the opportunity again to speak about the University of Northern Iowa and our budget. You have the details in front of you and materials so I won’t go through those, but instead will choose to focus on two programs where we have put significant resources over the last couple of years, especially in the year ahead of us in teacher development and preparing to launch our nursing program in the fall of 2024.”

The private acquisition of the UNI Bookstore was also discussed at this meeting by UNI Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations, Michael Hager. For more information on what the Board of Regents worked on this summer and for financial reports and data, you can visit their website at www.iowaregents.edu or their channel on YouTube where all of their meeting live streams are available to watch.