The president of the University of Northern Iowa says his school will continue to have a high number of in-state students on the Cedar Falls campus. Mark Nook says about 85-to-90 percent of UNI’s students are from Iowa, though he’s open to admitting more out-of-state students. “But we’re not going to do that at the expense of the number of Iowa kids we continue to educate. You’ve got to balance those, especially at a place like UNI. We’re training teachers and we’re training business leaders, we’re training other professionals, really for the state of Iowa and the surrounding region,” Nook says.

Out-of-state students pay about ten-thousand dollars ($10,000) more in tuition than in-state students. A new state Tuition Task Force begins a series of public meetings this week to discuss a five-year plan for revenue needs at the three public university campuses. Nook says his goal for UNI’s tuition is to make sure future increases are justifiable and more predictable.  “I think our students are very concerned that we not let the tuition grow at a rate that they can’t keep up with, that puts them in greater financial harm,” Nook said.

Nook made his comments on the Iowa Public Radio program “River to River.”

(Radio Iowa w/thanks to IPR)