With lobbyists for Iowa’s public universities lingering in an “undecided” state on the dozens of bills introduced this session angling to reshape higher education, the Board of Regents this week will consider creating a new “legislative committee” tasked with taking a position on pending legislation.
In the year since taking over Iowa City’s bankrupt Mercy Hospital and transitioning the 78-year-old facility into its new downtown campus, University of Iowa Health Care has not completed a comprehensive review of staff badge access, “increasing the risk of unauthorized entry,” according to an internal audit made public this week.
A month after Iowa’s Board of Regents cut references to diversity and inclusion throughout its five-year strategic plan, Iowa’s public universities largely have done the same in response to legislation and regent directives curtailing all DEI efforts.
Proposed renovations going before the Board of Regents next week include an open study lounge with adjacent small-group study rooms; an expanded fitness center with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out toward Iowa City Park and the Iowa River; and a centralized vending area.
Despite a University of Iowa announcement in December of its intentions to seek approval this month of a new “School of Social and Cultural Analysis,” the plan has been shelved following legislative opposition and regent rejection.
That bigger Children’s Hospital window replacement budget — if approved by the Board of Regents next week — will bring the total cost to replace cracking and damaged windows encasing the eight-year-old hospital to $52.5 million.
After eight months without a full nine-member Board of Regents, Gov. Kim Reynolds has appointed University of Northern Iowa student Lucy Gipple to fill the vacant student-regent spot, according to UNI.
Three days after a pair of Republican lawmakers contacted the Board of Regents with concerns over the number of genders listed on admission applications to Iowa’s public universities, all three campuses updated their forms to offer just three options: male, female, or “prefer not to answer.”
In voicing support for a legislative proposal to establish a new School of Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa -- with a bill that started in the House now bolstered by a companion bill in the Senate -- a tenured UI professor cited research revealing extreme political bias across top-ranked American colleges and universities, including in Iowa.
A multimillion-dollar gift from a Grinnell College alum and technology pioneer will help the private university transform its computer science offerings for students, with funds going to faculty, equipment and more.
Iowa’s community colleges for 60 years have innovatively and persistently pursued a Legislature-levied mission to provide educational opportunities, workforce training, and community enrichment through two-year associate degrees, one-year certificates, and other continuing or high school-level academic programming.
Republican lawmakers Wednesday advanced
A day after the University of Iowa paused or slowed research-related grant applications, hiring, and general spending in response to funding cuts announced by the National Institutes of Health — the campus’ largest federal research funder — UI officials on Tuesday retracted that guidance due to a temporary restraining order on the NIH cuts.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Iowa author Marilynne Robinson reacted to the use of her name last week by a researcher and writer for the conservative National Association of Scholars, who urged Iowa lawmakers to solve a “civic literacy crisis,” and pointed to Robinson as an Iowan who embodies “the civics education and civic literacy of times past.”
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