South Dakota approves lower tuition for Iowa students

South Dakota public universities officially have stepped up their efforts to persuade more Iowa high school graduates to cross the border for their college experience.

On Friday, the South Dakota Board of Regents unanimously approved a proposal to extend in-state, undergraduate tuition to new Iowa freshmen and transfer students at four of the Mount Rushmore State’s six public universities.

During the past five years, the universities' 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 are also down overall since 2010.

The tuition discount, based on current-year rates, is a $2,170.50 reduction for each new Iowa student over the course of a full academic year. The change is effective with the summer 2016 academic term.

Officials from Iowa’s private colleges say South Dakota’s decision is something they’ll “need to watch pretty carefully.”

“It worries me,” said Gary Steinke, president of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “This is a very competitive environment. … It’s concerning when institutions in bordering states are trying to entice Iowa students away from Iowa.”

USD historically draws the vast majority of its Iowa students from the state's northwest corner, especially from the counties that make up the service area for Northwest Iowa Community College and Western Iowa Tech Community College.

The fall enrollment for NWICC totaled 1,624 — of which 573 were full-time students. The fall enrollment for WITCC totaled 6,152 — of which 2,292 were full-time students.

USD officials say they hope the lower tuition will attract more Iowa students from as far as the Mason City and Des Moines areas.

Officials from the Iowa Board of Regents — which oversees the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa — declined to comment on South Dakota's new tuition policy.

The admissions standards for undergraduate enrollment are somewhat lower than for Iowa’s regent universities, said Scott Pohlson, USD’s vice president of enrollment, marketing and university relations. The educational offerings on the university's main campus in Vermillion, he said, runs the gamut from community college-type coursework to colleges of medicine and law.

“For that reason, there’s really no institution in Iowa quite like (USD),” 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 the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, which are further from the state's eastern border, will not offer a tuition discount to Iowans.

South Dakota already has a reciprocity agreement with Minnesota, but the proposed tuition offer for Iowa students would be "one-way only," USD officials said. 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.

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