University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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An Interview with the President In his white-walled office with the clock that runs eight and one-half minutes slow, President Willard Boyd talked to person after person while we waited for our interview. Secretaries buzzed around in an informal atmosphere, obviously already at home in their new offices. Shortly, a pensive and tired-looking President greeted us and we met with him in his in- formal outer office: comfortable chairs, a small rug and a coffee table full of campus publications. Presi- dent Boyd is a college president with many troubles facing him, and yet he was congenial and eager to talk. Here our interview begins: Hawkeye: Money seems to be the biggest problem within all of the University schools and colleges, and there has been a lot of talk about a tuition raise. From what does the financial problem in the Uni- versity result, what is foreseen for the future? Boyd: Well, first there is no question but what the financial problem is a major one, and I think this University is headed for trouble financially. This is certainly due in a very large part to the economic conditions of the country and the state. The economic growth of the state is not what it once was, and there- fore the question is whether taxes will be increased - and if they're increased will the taxes go to help local governments or state government. If they go to the state, then the universities will probably share in that. The appropriations to education from the general assembly have increased in recent years with the percentage of legislative appropriations but the Regents' share has been decreasing because the last appropriations went mainly to help the school districts so they could hold down the real estate taxes. In the sense of foreseeing it, we've been in a very austere period this biennium and that's what gave rise to the last tuition increase. The last increase went to do three things. First of all, slightly more than half of it went to,pay the salaries of faculty, staff, teaching assistants and so forth. Over one quarter of it went for student aid: somewhat less than a quarter went for critical things such as paying the bus drivers for the student teachers to go out of town and so forth, so we've been very much concerned about this. The in- flation exacerbated this. Also affecting the situation is the fact that the economic situation of the state has been getting steadily less healthy, although there is not a depression by any modern means. Still, we must avoid a major tuition increaseg this is my atti- tude. I believe in low-tuition institutions, I want to avoid a major tuition increase. Therefore, we are giving a lot of attention to how we can cope with the appropriations of the next biennium. Even if we get the full appropriations that the Regents are asking for, we will have fiscal problems, so we will have to 194 Boyd ' I re-order some of our priorities. I do, as I have said, want to avoid a major tuition increase. Hawkeye: Do you think there is a chance of taxes covering the financial problems? Boyd: I don't know. I know there's a great feeling that there's a sort of Utaxpayers' revolt and the peo- ple aren't looking forward to having higher taxes. Recently a gentleman pointed out to me that a man engaged in farming can understand a S500 increase in the cost of a tractor as opposed to an increase in taxes on the grounds that he can defer buying a trac- tor for three or four years but he can't defer the taxes. There's a great deal of concern about the tax problem so you don't find this solution la tax raisel being sug- gested readily by anyone, simply because there is such strong public reaction against it. Now this is also true of the federal government, because they have had to cut back, and this is compounding the diffi- culty. We get a great deal of financial aid for students from the federal government and a lot of other sup- port such as funds for the medical school and the medical compound's expansion. So it's tight on the state level and it's tight on the national level. Hawkeye: Do you think we will see another tuition increase within the next two years?

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table of contents volume 2 Academics Professional and Honorary Groups Organizations Communications Militaryi Athletic Teams and Scoreboard Dormitories I Greeks Seniors Hawkeye Staff 272 280 312 354 420

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Boyd: Well, as I see it . . . no, I can't answer that, but I do know this: I'm spending every effort to avoid a major increase. Hawkeye: I recently saw an article about the en- rollment at the state universities dropping. Do you think this will be the trend? Boyd: It's not dropping. It's just not increasing as rapidly as it was in the 1960's. You've got to re- member another factor here, that when you're ask- ing for a major tuition increase, the major factor is a shift in the mix of our students. We are beginning to have more at the upper divisions of graduate and especially professional training. The staying power of students is changing, and especially the professional schools will be expanding. That means you get a greater and more expensive program. The costs for each department are greater per student, so when you talk about an increase in enrollment, part of it is a shift in the areas and forms of instruction. Hawkeye: What effect do you feel a tuition in- crease would have on enrollment? Would it seriously affect future enrollment? Boyd: Well, I think it would have a deterring ef- fect. The first year after the last tuition increase the enrollment was really higher than we expected, but I think this was because some students had made their plans fthe tuition increase was not voted until late spring, effective the next falll and they couldn't or wouldn't do anything about it. But I think there is no question but that it had an adverse effect. This is why I feel we should have low-tuition universities - so that people are not deterred. Hawkeye: Why, with this monetary situation, is there so much campus building going on? Wasn't this situation foreseen? Boyd: All of this trouble has come very rapidly and even now we have absorbed many students with virtually no increase in space. We've got to build to expand some of these colleges and professional schools so that the physical facility which is needed is there. We have never had an auditorium on this campus . . . we have a lot of out-moded buildings . . . and even now with this construction we don't have the space in prospect that is needed today for stu- dents. Forms of instruction are different and you've got to have different facilities. We've got a great shortage of space and a lot of old space we need for new approaches. We simply cannot, with some of our facilities, give the kind of quality that is really re- quired this day and age. If we're going to give the right kind of instruction, there have to be changes. We are making up for a fantastic space deficit not only in the amount of space, but in the quality of space available. ' Q fi ti ji it i I , ' i Ei Ei :fir Boyd 195