Articles Tagged: Iowa Board of Regents

Preparing to receive longtime U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s complete collection of political papers spanning 67 years, the University of Northern Iowa is seeking Board of Regents approval to start planning for a new Chuck and Barbara Grassley Center.

The Board of Regents’ pared-down funding ask comes after lawmakers rejected its $30.3 million request last session and instead offered a $4 million bump, largely supporting legislative priorities and ignoring university appeals.

Celebrating its new seats, suites, and Teflon-coated fiberglass roof, the University of Northern Iowa’s UNI-Dome on Monday hosted a tour of its recent renovations aimed at appealing to the “next generation” of fans and athletes.

For weeks and months last fall, according to emails obtained by The Gazette through an open records request, University of Iowa administrators, staff, committee and community members discussed a range of Macbride Nature Recreation Area issues.

On the eve of a Board of Regents vote to change its academic freedom and class content policies to satisfy legislative concerns about “indoctrination,” the national Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — or FIRE — reached out with a plea.

Despite an oppressive heat index nearing 110 degrees, with 73 percent humidity and almost no breeze, Tiger Hawk-clad freshmen and their families over the weekend unloaded truck beds and trunks crammed with duffel bags, laundry baskets, pillows, and microwaves in anticipation of the start of the fall semester.

Questioning the accuracy of numbers University of Iowa Health Care used to justify construction of a $2-plus billion inpatient tower on its main campus, along with the potential impact on traffic and the overall budget, Iowa regent David Barker in June told UIHC leadership he doesn’t believe an adequate case has been made for the new 842,000 square foot project to be built on its longstanding Iowa City site.

Given changes threatening higher education norms — and the University of Iowa’s “strong financial position today” — the campus on Thursday announced a new strategic initiative focused on increasing revenue and improving operational efficiency.

In a politically-charged higher education climate — including in Iowa, where students are just weeks from returning to campuses under fire for undercover videos attempting to expose gaps in compliance with DEI laws — the Board of Regents on Tuesday approved new policies aimed at avoiding “indoctrination.”

Instead of passing a new policy banning Iowa’s public universities from requiring students to take courses with “substantial” DEI or CRT content to satisfy any major, minor, or certificate, the Board of Regents — facing fierce backlash — has found an “alternative approach” aiming to avoid “indoctrination of one perspective.”

Although the University of Northern Iowa had wanted to offer in-state tuition to both new and returning students from Iowa’s six border states, only freshmen and new transfer students from those neighboring states will get the lower rates – given the limited available funding to support the initiative this year.

In a campuswide message Thursday in the throes of an unfolding investigation into the University of Iowa’s compliance with new DEI laws, UI President Barbara Wilson stressed her campus “has been working diligently to comply” -- despite comments a UI employee made in an undercover video aired on Fox News.

The University of Iowa has placed on administrative leave an assistant director who in an undercover video aired on Fox News this week described ways her campus is defying and skirting a new state law banning DEI spending and staffing.

Following a contentious discussion about growing university budgets and the process for reviewing and approving them, the Board of Regents on Wednesday OK’d FY2026 budgets while also agreeing to review the numbers and processes going forward in hopes of digging deeper into the expenses and revenues driving the state's public institutions.

Gov. Kim Reynolds late Tuesday condemned a video she saw on Fox News depicting a University of Iowa employee “who blatantly admits to defying DEI restrictions I signed into law on May 9, 2024.”