Articles Tagged: Iowa Board of Regents

Iowa’s Board of Regents, governing the state’s three public universities, has been understaffed for seven months spanning five meetings – with its student-regent seat sitting unfilled for the longest stretch since the Legislature in 1988 passed a law requiring a student fill one of the nine spots.

The University of Iowa is planning to close its 50-year-old Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and its Department of American Studies — both of which are replete with the kinds of courses and content that have been the target of Republican regent and lawmaker ire, directives, and legislation in recent months.

Nearly a year after crews began work on the first new road on the University of Iowa campus in more than a decade — pouring pavement and removing 126 trees to make space for the 1,500-foot artery — a roundabout portion of the project is complete and began welcoming traffic Wednesday morning.

“University teachers shall be entitled to academic freedom in the classroom in discussing the teachers’ course subject, but shall not introduce into the teaching controversial matters that have no relation to the subject.”

Iowa’s public universities in recent months have made progress on complying with a new law restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related spending, training, and programming, but some regents and lawmakers say their work isn’t done.

With the University of Iowa’s pending $20.6 million purchase of 45 percent of the Old Capitol Town Center slated for Board of Regents approval Thursday — making it full owner of the nearly two-block former mall — the campus will nearly double what it already has spent buying the first 55 percent.

Three years after $20 million in federal pandemic aid allowed the University of Iowa in 2021 to open a new “Center for School Mental Health” -- and two years after receiving a $15 million donation to keep it going -- the center is expanding to reach more school-aged kids and moving to a “fee-for-services model.”

Iowa is facing a “maternal care crisis” – as rural obstetric units disappear – funneling more pregnant mothers and babies to the University of Iowa, stressing and stretching its resources and compelling it to expand.

Ninety years after the University of Iowa opened its 53,000-square-foot Art Building along the Iowa River in 1936 -- hosting renowned artist and educator Grant Wood until his death in 1942 -- the campus is eyeing a long-awaited modernization of the vacant building, which has been unoccupied since the 2008 flood.

Nearly three years after airing plans to buy the entire 375,000-square-foot Old Capitol Town Center — which opened in 1981 as a downtown mall — the University of Iowa is seeking Board of Regents approval to spend $20.6 million to make it happen.

Since 2022, UI Health Care has scrapped those inpatient-tower-expansion plans amid significant change – including across its leadership team and its facilities footprint.

The campaign contributor, Iowa Board of Regents member David Barker, said he is not involved in the day-to-day operations at Indian Ridge Apartments and was unaware the Republican incumbent was living there.

As technology has made the world seem smaller, college campuses have gotten bigger — expanding not just in place but over oceans, mountain ranges and glaciers under the northern lights of Iceland through university-sponsored study abroad programs that have reignited since the pandemic has waned.

Gov. Kim Reynolds this week tapped another longtime Republican, supporter, and collaborator to serve on Iowa’s nine-member Board of Regents — charged with governing the state’s three public universities, including the sprawling University of Iowa Health Care system, and their combined $7.8 billion budget.

Both of Iowa’s public research universities slipped in this year’s national U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, with the University of Iowa sliding five spots to No. 98 and Iowa State University dropping six to No. 121.