Articles Tagged: University of Northern Iowa

Four months after longtime Regent Milt Dakovich died following a battle with cancer, Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday named Seneca Cos. President and COO James “JC” Risewick to fill the regent vacancy.

Tuition for in-state undergraduates attending one of Iowa’s three public universities will increase 4.25 percent in the fall under a rate proposal the Board of Regents will consider for a first reading next week.

Given its long history training educators, University of Northern Iowa — called the Iowa State Teachers College from 1909 to 1961 — is working to address the shortage, including through a new “fully online teacher preparation program” that allows working paraeducators with associate degrees to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education, with a special education minor.

The state Board of Regents has agreed to settle a complaint with a University of Northern Iowa student who accused the institution and its employees of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Pruning away dried up programs, degrees, and academic centers while reframing, reformatting, or fashioning anew majors and curricular opportunities meeting student and employer demands is becoming increasingly imperative for institutions vying to attract and retain students from a shrinking pool of applicants.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, higher education challenges remain — and in some cases are more prevalent — although COVID, with all the discomfort it brought, might have forced to the forefront one potential solution: online education.

Both University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen are getting 8.3 percent pay raises this summer — bumping up their annual base pay from $600,000 to $650,000.

Even as total enrollment across Iowa’s public, private, and community colleges and universities fell in fall 2021, Iowa’s institutes of higher education this academic year are educating more students who identify as a minority than last year – at a combined 39,120.

Massive losses in international enrollment have decimated the University of Iowa’s need for English as a Second Language services – compelling big cuts.

After three attempts in four years to eliminate through legislative action academic tenure across Iowa’s public universities, lawmakers this year didn’t propose such a measure.

For the first time since the Board of Regents in 2016 scolded Iowa’s public universities for their regular and — at times significant — annual room and board rate hikes, Iowa State University and University of Iowa are proposing residence system rate increases for next year reaching 3 percent.

Fewer international students have been enrolling in Iowa’s public universities for years – even before COVID-19 locked down travel and crippled the campus’ global reach – and lawmakers on Monday probed the Board of Regents for an answer to why.

Instead of granting the Board of Regents’ ask for an additional $15 million in general education appropriations for the 2023 budget year – bringing the state’s total regents higher-ed allocation to $501 million – the House has suggested keeping gen-ed funding flat while putting $12 million into a new “Iowa Workforce Grant and Incentive Program.”

Iowa’s public universities in recent years have drifted farther from a target of one supervisor per 15 employees to a narrower ratio of one supervisor per nine or 10 subordinates, according to a new Board of Regents report.

The pandemic depleted resources across Iowa’s public university residence hall systems in the last budget year – to the tune of millions – and even though the campuses are back to mostly in-person classes and traditional operations, fallout for the dorms and dining halls continues.