(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is backing a plan to charge students from the six states that surround Iowa the same, LOWER tuition rate Iowa residents pay at the University of Northern Iowa. U-N-I president Mark Nook says it’s a creative approach to one of the state’s challenges.  “We’ve got to find a way to grow the number of workers in this state and that means grow the population,” Nook says. Between 45 to 50 percent of U-N-I graduates wind up taking a job in Iowa and Nook says U-N-I is offering degrees in workforce shortages areas, like nursing.

“At the University of Northern Iowa, we have capacity for more students,” Nook says. “We currently have about 9300 students. We’ve have facilities that we could go to 13,000 fairly comfortably. I’m told we had as many as 14,000 on our campus in the past. I was told that was a little tight, but we could handle up to 13,000.” About 450 current students at the University of Northern Iowa come from the six states that surround Iowa.

Governor Kim Reynolds is recommending the legislature provide U-N-I with three MILLION dollars a year to replace the proposed reduction in out of state tuition. Nook estimates once a new batch of out-of-state students paying in-state tuition graduate, up to 300 of them would take a job in Iowa each year. “They’re each leaving us $10,000 in tuition for four years and $10,000 in room and board whether it’s to us — UNI — or to private rental properties in Cedar Falls,” Nook says. “…While they’re being educated, they will leave $54 million in the Iowa economy every single year.”

Wisconsin residents may pay in-state tuition at public universities in Minnesota and Minnesotans who go to public universities in Wisconsin can pay the same rate as Wisconsin residents.