Articles Tagged: Iowa Board of Regents

Far from this week’s dramatic scenes of baton-wielding police clad in riot gear and bulletproof vests clashing with pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses coast to coast — a diverse combination of Iowa City students and residents on Friday mingled peacefully on the University of Iowa Pentacrest lawn.

Relief but sorrow after missing Iowa trucker’s body found, ISU, UNI closing DEI offices, Universities balance retention with lawmaker concerns as tenure numbers slide, Heavy rain, severe storms possible Friday through Sunday

In response to 10 directives the Board of Regents handed down in the fall to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion spending and programming across its public universities, presidents of all three campuses on Thursday shared significant changes underway – including the permanent closure of Iowa State University’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office.

With questions about tenure, its value, and its threats still top of mind for some Republican lawmakers, the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty on Iowa’s regent campuses is continuing a generational slide to its lowest in recent history.

Iowa’s Board of Regents is not ready to include in its automatic-admission scoring system a relatively new “Classic Learning Test” gaining traction nationally and especially in conservative-leaning states as an alternative to the traditional ACT and SAT tests.

A growing percent of students across Iowa’s public universities feel comfortable expressing their opinions on and off campus, in and out of class, and even on social media — according to a second free speech survey Iowa’s Board of Regents administered earlier this year, just over two years after ordering its first following a string of campus incidents that drew intense criticism from Republican lawmakers.

A critical audit of the University of Northern Iowa’s Office of Compliance and Equity Management – responsible for making sure UNI offers equal education opportunities and complies with state and federal laws like Title IX and affirmative action – uncovered shortcomings that could “expose the university to unacceptable risks” and “result in serious consequences.”

Among $2-plus billion in upcoming University of Iowa Health Care construction -- including a $1 billion, 842,000-square-foot inpatient tower near Kinnick Stadium -- is an expanded burn treatment center, now facing a 10-percent budget hike due to the “challenging and complex nature” of hospital renovation work.

Relief but sorrow after missing Iowa trucker’ss body found, ISU, UNI closing DEI offices, Universities balance retention with lawmaker concerns as tenure numbers slide, Heavy rain, severe storms possible Friday through Sunday

Any funds that would otherwise have been directed to DEI offices at the end of fiscal 2025 would be directed to the Iowa Workforce Grant and Incentive Program under the bill.

The University of Iowa’s world-renowned hydroscience and engineering center focused on fluids-related education, research, and public service wants to build a new $40 million hydraulic modeling facility in Coralville – an endeavor aimed at maintaining the program’s leadership and innovation in an increasingly-relevant field.

Taking matters into its own hands — following the U.S. Department of Education’s tumultuous and confused rollout of its new FAFSA — Coe College on Tuesday announced a “regent price match” aimed at providing “immediate help to Iowa students entering college for the first time in the fall.”

Instead of an originally-proposed $27.4 million major renovation of its 50-year-old Duane Banks Field – meant to “significantly improve the game-day experience” and add hundreds of seats for fans – the University of Iowa is paring down its baseball stadium upgrades, for now, “due to funding and cost concerns.”

Before COVID curbed enrollment in 2020 — hitting the University of Northern Iowa especially hard with a nearly 10 percent drop in total students and 20 percent drop in its graduate and professional count — the last time UNI reported a grad school cohort under 1,300 was 1993.

Iowa State University has agreed to settle and part ways with an employee just two weeks after hiring him to work as a manager in its University Library. The employee told The Gazette he doesn’t blame anyone, says it was a “miscommunication.”