A $1.2 billion deal the University of Iowa cemented in March 2020 for the private operation of its utilities system over the next 50 years amounts to the “largest financial obligation ever held by Iowa taxpayers,” State Auditor Rob Sand found in his four-year review of the blockbuster agreement.
Three years after stepping in as dean of the University of Iowa’s nationally-ranked College of Engineering, Harriet Nembhard is leaving to become president of a southern California liberal arts college specializing in science, engineering and math.
The athletic departments across Iowa’s public universities have spent more than a combined $7.3 million taking COVID-19 tests and other pandemic-related precautions and measures – expenses covered by their main campuses, athletics revenue or federal aid.
The University of Iowa is seeking help hiring temporary workers for its State Hygienic Lab that – like many other industries – is facing a labor shortage stretching its staff thin as it aims to process an average of 1,000 tests a day for things like COVID-19, newborn and maternal screenings, and tuberculosis.
Spelling out its contention with a $12.8 million jury verdict awarded to a contractor on its Stead Family Children’s Hospital, the state – on behalf of the University of Iowa and Board of Regents – is accusing jurors of leveling “excessive” damages and of being “influenced by passion or prejudice.”
Meanwhile, contractor Modern Piping the day after its favorable verdict Oct. 27 asked the court to require the state, UI and regents to pay an additional $16 million related to bond issues and questions that arose at the start of the disagreement in April 2016.
Going back to fiscal 2018, University of Iowa Student Health psychiatry visits are up 40 percent, even though total enrollment is down 8 percent over the same period.
Reported crimes tied to social interaction jumped at the University of Iowa last year, with rape reports surging to 64 in 2021 from 38 in 2020, 50 in 2019, and 22 in 2015.
Adding to the hundreds of millions in new construction, renovations, and expansions already planned or underway across its Johnson County campuses, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics this week wants Board of Regents approval to spend another $16 million upgrading its main Iowa City location.
Although Iowa’s regent universities still enroll far more Iowans than out-of-state residents, the gap between the two groups of students is narrowing – with all three campuses reporting fewer resident students this fall than last fall.
More than seven years after a Cedar Rapids contractor first sued the University of Iowa over payment for work on a pair of high-profile projects – its new Hancher Auditorium and children’s hospital – a jury has delivered another blow to UI, ordering it pay $12.8 million more.
Despite massive deficits during the pandemic for both University of Iowa and Iowa State University athletics, both programs not only are reporting a rebound but record-breaking revenue in the budget year that just ended.
With more than a year of construction to go on a new 38,500-square-foot, two-level Hawkeye wrestling practice facility, the University of Iowa is moving to officially name it after a family that made the $7 million lead gift.
The Board of Regents has settled a lawsuit with a former Iowa State University custodian who said she wasn’t informed she could take leave for her migraines, retaliated against for time off she took to address them, and discriminated against because of her skin color.
The ISU vision for the $200 million CyTown project involves a 135,000-square-foot development including a medical facility, retail space, offices, and luxury suites. The endeavor would include an outdoor public plaza and amphitheater, restaurants and pubs, a hotel and convention center.
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