UI stockpiling supplies in preparation for possible flooding

The University of Iowa is stockpiling barriers, sand and pumps in preparation for possible flooding this spring, UI President Sally Mason said Wednesday.

It's still early in the season and the likelihood of flooding is unknown, but after a devastating record flood nearly two years ago, UI leaders are playing it safe and have started to stockpile supplies, Mason said Wednesday during a visit to a UI Staff Council meeting.

“It's early in the game, but we can't be over prepared,” she told reporters after the meeting. “We know that now.”

The university is still recovering from the June 2008 flood that caused an estimated $743 million in campus damage. Plans are moving forward to replace Hancher Auditorium, just north and west of the current site. And negotiations to buy property in downtown Iowa City for a new School of Music are going well, Mason said.

“People are giving me smiles and positive signs,” she said of talks to buy the downtown land.

In other news from the Staff Council meeting, Kevin Ward, assistant vice president for human resources, said UI officials will take a revised plan for a second early retirement window offering to the state Board of Regents for approval at the board's March 24 telephonic meeting.

The revised proposal will include a service requirement of 10 years for employee eligibility. The regents last month rejected a UI proposal for a second early retirement window, with some regents saying the plan seemed too generous and that they wanted it to have a length of service requirement.

One Staff Council member said there are rumors the second early retirement window, if approved, would not be offered to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics employees. Ward said some UI units have indicated they may not participate in the second window, but he thought that would be the exception rather than the rule.

The UI approved 340 employees, about 60 percent of applicants, during a first early retirement window last year, for estimated savings of $67 million over five years.