Regents: Mason has responded to communications concerns

Nearly a year after University of Iowa President Sally Mason was reproved for 'failing” to communicate effectively with the Board of Regents - specifically related to issues around sexual assault on campus - the two top regents on Friday praised Mason for addressing their concerns.

'I think she has done a really strong job of responding to the kind of things that we had asked,” said board President Pro Tem Katie Mulholland.

During Friday's taping of Iowa Public Television's 'Iowa Press” show, which airs Friday night and again on Sunday, board President Bruce Rastetter said he and Mulholland have been meeting with Mason monthly since raising concerns at a special meeting in March.

The board, at that time, called a special meeting to receive 'an explanation” from Mason regarding comments she made about sexual violence on campus. Mulholland, during that meeting, called Mason's comments inappropriate, and pointed to broader concerns around the president 'not keeping the board apprised of such issues.”

Mulholland said the board and Mason had agreed long ago that communication was an area she needed to improve.

'We feel good about that progress, and that continues to get better,” Rastetter said Friday. 'President Mason, I think, is facing issues directly, and we look forward to 2015 with that continuing.”

The two regents on Friday also discussed their new plan for distributing state funds to Iowa's three public universities and a proposal to freeze tuition for an unprecedented third straight year for resident undergraduates.

Rastetter expressed confidence that lawmakers - when they convene for the upcoming Legislative session Monday - will support the regents' request for a 1.75 percent appropriations increase and another $12.9 million to prevent the University of Iowa from being harmed in the new funding model's first year. The model ties 60 percent of state support to resident enrollment, which benefits Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa because they have a greater portion of in-state students than UI.

'We have made it very clear early on what we intend to do with that state support,” Rastetter said. 'And it would appear to us that we're going to get that.”

Rastatter and Mulholland defended the board's new enrollment- and performance-based plan for distributing state appropriations to the three universities, saying it is open and transparent, matches the board's goals, and provides incentives for improved accessibility, affordability, and graduation rates.

'The purpose behind the whole formula is to give some stability to when we go for appropriations so that we can say exactly where the money is going,” Mulholland said.

And, Rastetter said, the $12.9 million request will keep the model from harming any institution in its first year.

'We've asked the Legislature to backfill the University of Iowa the $12.9 million so there aren't any winners and losers,” Rastetter said. 'The reality is we have clear funding goals, and then we've also asked for that backfill, and we're confident that we will be successful at that.”

Asked about the state of college athletics at Iowa's universities, Rastetter said, regents hear comments - positive and negative - about the sports programs that, for the most part, operate without taxpayer money. The board takes a hands-off approach in that area, Rastetter said.

'We do not micromanage the athletic departments,” he said. 'But we do have high expectations and we express those to the university presidents,” Rastetter told reporters after the taping.

'Do we like losing football games?” asked Rastetter, a UI graduate. 'No.”

Referencing the UI's recent bowl game loss to the University of Tennessee, Rastetter said, 'I know one person that's probably as disappointed as anybody is Kirk Ferentz.”

'I would expect, as Gary Barta has said, that there will be improvements in the program, and we'll see that,” Rastetter said.

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