Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
AMES — Students from Regents universities will be descending on the state Capitol for an annual lobbying day Monday, mainly in an attempt to stop further budget cuts to the public higher education institutions. However, a student Republican activist is criticizing his university, saying they are behaving in a partisan manner.
Tea party activist Ryan Rhodes appeared on Jan Mickelson’s show on 1040 WHO-AM radio Friday, bringing along Logan Pals, head of the ISU College Republicans.
Pals said an effort to organize a bus trip, including free lunches, offered to all students at Iowa State University for Monday has been entirely one-sided against Republicans and the proposed cuts to Iowa’s Regents’ universities.
All three universities will be sending students for “Regents’ Day.”
Public universities face millions in further cuts by House Republicans and Gov. Terry Branstad, even though the schools are all facing record enrollments and have seen the share of state aid shrink from 77 percent of their revenue in 1982 to just 39 percent today.
One of Pals’ qualms was an e-mail sent to all ISU students (pdf) by Jessica Brunning, head of the ISU Ambassadors encouraging students to go along to fight against the budget cuts. Pals said since ISU Ambassadors is supposed to be a non-partisan group, it should have included that students are welcome to go and voice their support for the cuts.
Members of the ISU Ambassadors have worked for Republican politicians at the Capitol in the past, and the universities have been suffering continual decline in state support for decades from both Democratic and Republican-controlled legislatures and governors.
Pals said on the radio he requested the ISU Ambassadors send another e-mail apologizing and clarifying opposing viewpoints were welcome. He said he was told the Ambassadors, a branch of the student government, did not wish to pay the $26 fee they would be charged to e-mail all students again.
“So Logan, when did you decide to be a traitor to your generation and the college kids you associate with and turn on them,” Mickelson asked, “to defund their college and increase their tuition like this?”
“I personally feel everyone needs to be voiced down there,” Pals responded on-air. “I’m basically going down to support the state legislature.”
Pals said he went through the ISU Strategic Plan available online and listed off research on chimpanzees, the purchase of solar powered trash cans — which will pay for themselves within five years through savings — and a $300,000 cost of setting up a textbook rental program at the university
“The university no different than any other government entity, and it’s not efficient, and it needs to be cut,” Pals told Mickelson.
Mickelson accused the universities of not going through efficiency efforts yet and not having to tighten their belts, but that is factually incorrect. Measures from closing buildings and rooms, turning off power during off-peak hours to furloughs and layoffs throughout multiple departments. Graduate programs have been greatly reduced, especially in low enrollment majors like sociology. The University of Iowa has dropped 12 graduate programs.
David Miles, President of the Board of Regents, spoke of those, like Mickelson, who think the universities have not become more efficient in a recent editorial:
They ignore the 900 early retirements that will generate $175 million in savings over the next five years, and the additional $25 million in savings from faculty reductions, position eliminations, employee furloughs and benefit changes. They overlook the fact that our universities have reduced faculty by 4.4 percent (despite a 4.9 percent increase in students), administrators by 8.2 percent and general service staff by 21.6 percent since 2009.
Miles also said the universities consistently bring in more money in research grants than state funding.
Mickelson also incorrectly said the universities would be using taxpayer money to fund the lobby day, but the university stated quickly money comes from the student-elected Government of the Student Body. The buses and lunches are in fact paid for by the Government of the Student Body at Iowa State. Their money comes from a student activity fee, currently set at $33.50 per semester. Most of the GSB’s money goes toward student clubs and organizations, but they also spend money on events, activities and purchases for use by any enrolled student.
Pals was also upset about a lobby training session hosted on campus Friday by the ISU Ambassadors and attended by state state Sen. Herman Quirmbach (D-Ames), state Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell (D-Ames) and Rep. Lisa Heddens (D-Ames). The Ambassadors said it just happened to be all the elected representatives for Ames and the Iowa State community happen to be Democrats.
State Rep. Dave Deyoe (R-Nevada) was also invited to speak by Ann McCarthy, a state relations officer for ISU who also was at the training session, and he declined because he didn’t see a partisan issue with the training.
ISU President Greggory Geoffroy was scheduled to appear at the training session, but did not show. No explanation was announced at the session.
During the session, the Democratic lawmakers all repeatedly said students could share whatever opinion they may hold concerning the budget cuts, or any other issue before the legislature. However, Quirmbach, chair of the Senate Education Committee and vice-chair of the Senate Education Appropriations Committee, did go into an explanation of why he believed there should not be further reductions in appropriations to the Regents. Quirmbach is also an economics professor at Iowa State.
Pals and other members of the ISU College Republicans attended the training session, no confrontations occurred though. They said they would not be taking advantage of the free bus ride and lunches.
“The e-mail that was originally sent out by the ISU Ambassadors [regarding the student lobby day] … is completely one-sided,” Pals told The Iowa Independent. “Non-partisan would be, ‘here’s the facts, this is what’s going to happen. We’re going to go down on Monday, March 7, and lobby. If you want to lobby for the budget cuts, that’s fine. If you want to lobby against the budget cuts, that’s fine.’”
Pals admitted he doesn’t want to see tuition increased and no one likely did. But he believed talking to the legislature was the wrong procedure, and tuition increases do not need to be what makes up the difference in budget cuts.
“If they’re going down to Des Moines to lobby against tuition increases, they’re lobbying the wrong people,” Pals said. “If you want to lobby for tuition increases, you need to lobby your university officials, not your state representatives.”
The Board of Regents have proposed an average 5 percent tuition increase at this point. The increase does fluctuate depending on whether a student is from Iowa and what major they go into. That does not include increases in fees decided on by each university.
–
Portions from the student lobbying training session
Follow Tyler Kingkade on Twitter
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter