UI student leaders brought suggestions to Iowa legislators at the State Capitol.

By Katelyn Weisbrod  |  [email protected]

Students on Tuesday faced lawmakers at the State Capitol to share what they would do with the $4.5 million in appropriations the state Board of Regents requested from the state Legislature.

Dozens of University of Iowa undergraduate, graduate, and professional students traveled to Des Moines for the Hawkeye Caucus. The annual event brings UI students and department representatives in front of Iowa legislators to discuss the UI’s performance and issues.

If this regents’ request is fulfilled, UI Student Government President Liz Mills said, the money would be used to fund mental-health services and faculty support and retention.

“Both of those areas have been struggling in the last three to five years, and we’re trying to build those up with an increase in appropriations,” Mills said.

The Graduate and Professional Student Government also asked for legislators’ support for increased appropriations, but it had another objective in mind than the undergraduates.

GPSG President Josh Schoenfeld said the group’s main focus would be creating incentives for students to stay in the state after they graduate from Iowa institutions with graduate degrees. These incentives could be in the form of a loan repayment program or an income-tax break, he said.

“We’re trying to build support for this and hopefully, have legislation for it next year,” Schoenfeld said. “We think it’ll be mutually beneficial for students, because they’re graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and for the state, which wants to combat this ‘brain drain’ sort of thing going on in Iowa.”

The issue of tuition freeze was not discussed at the Hawkeye Caucus. In December 2015, the regents voted to end the tuition freeze at the UI and increase tuition by 3 percent for undergraduates and 1.9 percent for graduate students.

“That conversation is going to come later, but a tuition freeze is probably not feasible for a variety of reasons,” Mills said. “The next administration is looking at different models to make sure that tuition stays affordable, but that’s not being talked about today; it’s solely focused on that possible increase in appropriations.”

Rachel Zuckerman, the 2016-17 UISG president, said keeping tuition affordable will be a priority during her tenure. During the Hawkeye Caucus, however, her goal was to establish personal relationships with the legislators, she said.

“We don’t get to do this very often where we get to have one-on-one conversations about what it’s like to be a student at the University of Iowa,” Zuckerman said. “We think that these stories and students’ faces stick out in the mind of legislators as they go on to decide the future of the university.”