University Students Head to Des Moines to Fight for College Funding

About 75  students joined students from the University of Iowa and Iowa State University in Des Moines today in asking lawmakers to support increased funding for higher education.

The Iowa legislature will soon open negotiations on how much funding to grant - or cut from - the universities. The negotiations will seek a compromise between the $34 million funding increase the Senate voted for and a $31 million funding reduction the House approved earlier this week.

UNI has been heavily hit by  from the legislature and is planning to close  and 58 academic programs and the  to save money. Those cuts have been fraught with controversy.

"We talk about how important it is that our school is funded. You’ve seen what's happened this year," UNI student body president Spencer Walrath said. "We really can’t weather any further cuts, because we’re going to see even more of our programs cut. We’re all very concerned about the future of our school."

He said the students were focusing on senators and representatives from their home districts.

"We're trying to get to everyone, and I think we pretty much have," he said.

Rep. Bob Kressig, D-Cedar Falls, talked with Walrath.

"It was a great opportunity for me and other legislators to visit with UNI students and hear their pleas for additional funding for UNI," he said. "They were very passionate about the discussion that we should do the right thing and make sure these schools are receiving the adequate funding."

, which proposed cutting UNI's funding by $3 million, was a party-line vote, with Republicans voting for the cuts and Democrats voting against them. But Walrath said the Republicans he'd talked to said they still support the university.

"The Republicans say this is just their starting point for negotiations," he said. "And they're really hoping to get increased funding for UNI during the negotiations."

One of those Republicans is Rep. Walt Rogers of Cedar Falls. He said he thought the students were advocating well for their schools.

"I think it has been a really good impact," he said. "They’ve been visible all day. They've been speaking very cordially and maturely to a lot of representatives. I’m proud to be a UNI graduate today."