Regents president pushes for ‘larger viable research parks’

IOWA CITY - Research parks at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have grown, but Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter said Wednesday they can be bigger and do more to encourage entrepreneurship and create jobs.

'When you look around, there are others that are much better,” he said, referencing the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and similar endeavors in Silicon Valley. 'We should have larger viable research parks here.”

Rastetter, speaking during a UI Staff Council meeting, said he as board president would be actively engaged in making that happen.

UI operates the Oakdale Research Park in Coralville, which hosts growing enterprises in areas like biotechnology, medical research, and genetics. ISU has a research park in the Ames-based Cultivation Corridor, which enables public and private entities to work with higher education institutions.

Rastetter said those hubs could do more to turn intellectual property into jobs. They have succeeded in some aspects, he said, but 'not in the dynamic way I think we could.” He challenged the universities not to settle for being good, or even great.

'We often talk about the brain drain in Iowa,” he said. 'That is a difficult thing to stem. But there are places that have chosen to collectively work together to do that and have done that.”

They should be models for universities here, Rastetter said.

'The easiest way is to learn about how others have done it,” he said.

Rastetter said UI should strive to make all its good programs great.

'The board believes strongly in not being placeholders,” he said. 'If you are placeholders, you think the system that exists today doesn't need to change or improve collectively. I really believe that if you start with the premise that you are put here to make an improvement on what you do, then we ought to strive to be better and recognize that what we have today can be improved upon.”

He said that mind-set will be critical in the board's selection of a new UI president. President Sally Mason earlier this year announced plans to retire Aug. 1, and a search is underway for her replacement.

Rastetter said he plans to spend more time on the UI campus this summer listening to faculty, staff, and students about what they want in the next leader.

In answering staff questions Wednesday, Rastetter addressed a new funding model based on enrollment and performance that the board proposed to the Legislature last year. That model would change the way state dollars are allocated to Iowa's public universities, tying a majority of funds to resident enrollment and potentially pulling millions from the UI.

The Board of Regents has asked lawmakers to support the new funding model, approve a 1.75 percent appropriations increase and provide $12.9 million to keep UI from being harmed by the new funding formula.

Rastetter said Wednesday he continues to lobby for the board's request but is hesitant to speculate on the outcome.

'I would expect, as the Legislative process starts in the House, we won't get everything we want,” Rastetter said. 'And there will be constructive discussion from the Senate. But we will react to that as it comes about.”