South Dakota may offer in-state tuition to Iowans

Iowa’s three regent universities aren’t the only four-year public institutions in the region interested in enrolling a higher percentage of Iowa’s high school graduates.

The South Dakota Board of Regents is scheduled to vote this week on a proposal that would extend in-state, undergraduate tuition rates to new Iowa freshmen and transfer students at four of the Mount Rushmore state’s six public universities.

"That shows you the power of Iowa enrollment," said Scott Pohlson, vice president of enrollment, marketing and university relations at the University of South Dakota. "Schools want Iowa students."

USD has studied geographic diversity of its full-time undergraduate population on the main campus in Vermillion, according to documents included with the agenda for this week's board meeting in Rapid City.

During the past five years, the university's in-state student population has been stable at around 60 percent, according to the proposal. The trend for Iowa students enrolling during that same time, however, has slipped from 15 percent of the freshmen class to 11 percent. USD’s transfer numbers from Iowa likewise are down overall since 2010.

To counteract those trends, the executive director of the South Dakota board has recommended reducing tuition costs to Iowa students while also increasing marketing and recruitment efforts in the Hawkeye state.

Although USD historically draws the vast majority of its Iowa students from the state's northwest corner, Pohlson said university officials hope the lower tuition would attract more students from as far as the Mason City and Des Moines areas.

"It's a reflection of the competitive landscape in higher education," Pohlson said.

Besides USD, the universities proposing in-state tuition for Iowa students include South Dakota State University in Brookings, Dakota State University in Madison and Northern State University in Aberdeen.

Officials at Black Hills State University in Spearfish and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City do not “feel that offering students a discount would impact the number of students coming to their institution," according to the proposal.

South Dakota already has a reciprocity agreement with Minnesota, Pohlson said, but the proposed tuition offer for Iowa students would be "one-way only." The proposal is modeled after similar "one-way" programs that Black Hills State University has for Wyoming residents and Northern State University has in place for North Dakota residents.

South Dakota regent officials say the effort is needed “to counter some of the push in Iowa to retain their students in state,” according to the proposal.

"With what Iowa schools are doing in terms of tuition — both for public and private schools — the competitiveness of price is becoming more and more apparent," Pohlson said. "This is a long-term strategy to ensure that we stay affordable to Iowans."

The Iowa Board of Regents approved a new performance-based funding formula in 2014 that called for more closely matching state funding levels for the three regent universities to each school’s resident student population. The Iowa Legislature, however, has not used the new formula when allocating money to the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

Using tuition rates for the 2015-16 academic year, South Dakota officials estimate the tuition revenue discounted per Iowa student per academic year would be about $2,171.

Undergraduate resident tuition at USD, for example, is $8,022, compared to $10,794 for non-resident students. At UI, resident undergraduates are paying about $8,104 in combined base tuition and fees for resident undergraduates for the 2015-16 school year.

Iowa regent officials have said resident tuition rates for the 2016-17 academic year will depend on how much additional funding the Iowa Legislature and governor provide for the three institutions.

Spokesman Josh Lehman said the Iowa Board of Regents had no comment on the South Dakota proposal.

South Dakota officials estimate the break-even point for the proposed pilot initiative would require attracting about 143 new full-time students from Iowa each year, according to the proposal. If all schools participated, total enrollment would need to increase by 422 full-time students over a four-year period to break even.

"We call it a pilot program, but it's not our plan to take this back," Pohlson said. "If after four years we don't see an increase in Iowa enrollment, we would reconsider it. But going in the other direction is not something we're interested in."

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter at @jeffcharis.