Officials and students at Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I are beginning to pressure state legislators and the Governor to spend more on their schools, and a small but well-regarded program is getting a lot of attention. State taxpayer support of the public universities was cut dramatically in the past two years as Legislators and Governor Vilsack struggled to balance the state budget. One of the programs to be cut completely was the workstudy program which pays students to work on campus, like in a lab or doing research. Most work study money comes from the feds, but state supports accounted for about three million dollars. University of Northern Iowa president Robert Koob says 72 percent of U-N-I students receive some sort of financial aid, and that includes loans, grants and work study. Koob says there’s no question work study is the most popular of the forms of financial aid because the students work to earn their money, and at the same time they work on campus, which translates into success in college.Koob says students in work study programs are more likely to get better grades and stay in school University of Iowa interim president Sandy Boyd says in the past academic year, two-thousand University of Iowa students had work study jobs. He says it’s a very critical program, and students have always worked hard to pay their way through school. Mary Ellen Becker of Ottumwa, a member of the Board of Regents, says students have been forced to become too dependent on loans to get through college.Becker says she can’t believe the legislature cut the work study program, which helps students work their way through school.
