Articles Tagged: University of Northern Iowa

Paying attention to the evolving world of college football, UNI head coach Mark Farley is in no rush to take as many recruits as usual in the early signing period.

Since the Board of Regents three weeks ago directed its public universities to make COVID “vaccination verification and accommodation systems available to all campus employees on a voluntary basis,” 3,426 workers have confirmed they’re vaccinated.

Though total enrollment across Iowa’s public universities has been sliding for the last five years — including big drops from COVID since 2019 — the University of Iowa is predicting a 4-percent one-year jump next fall and 6-percent bump by 2026, according to new data UI provided to lawmakers.

With Iowa eager to put COVID in the rear view mirror, Board of Regents President Mike Richards in May lifted the state of emergency he imposed in March 2020 and mandated Iowa’s public universities return to pre-pandemic operations.

COVID-19 altered how faculty members across Iowa’s public universities spent their work days in the last academic year – draining hours spent in a classroom and decreasing time on research and scholarship while spiking virtual instruction and online grading and preparation.

The ongoing enrollment losses Iowa’s public universities are experiencing mirror trends shaping the higher education landscape nationally – with the Board of Regent campuses since fall 2019 losing 7 percent of their total enrollment, compared with a 6.5 percent two-year drop at the national level.

The University of Iowa’s dining operation this fall is about 900 workers shy of being fully staffed — putting it at only 42 percent of its goal.

The University of Northern Iowa faculty union is filing a prohibited practice complaint against the Board of Regents and UNI for reprimanding their tenured peer for rebuffing regent guidance by requiring masks in class and threatening lower grades if students didn’t comply.

Just as the Board of Regents’ five-year strategic plan nears its end, higher education across the nation and in Iowa finds itself experiencing widespread disruption and primed for a fresh – re-imagined – start.

Iowa’s Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously approved, without discussion, a request for $20.3 million more in state funding for the next budget year, including the first increase in five years for University of Iowa special purpose units like the State Hygienic Lab and the Iowa Flood Center.

After University of Northern Iowa and Des Moines Area Community College in 2020 debuted a streamlined path for DMACC students seeking a four-year UNI degree, the pair have announced a new “tuition equality” initiative allowing the students to get their Panther degrees for a Bears tuition rate.

Reversing some of its losses in recent years, the University of Iowa in the “2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges” rankings out today made among one of the biggest gains on the publication’s oft-touted national university list.

Total enrollment across all three of Iowa’s public universities dropped again this fall, according to new numbers made public Thursday showing a continued slide that began in fall 2017 and worsened last year when COVID-19 upended the higher education experience.

Iowa’s Board of Regents – denied any state funding increase for its public universities in the last legislative session – is requesting a $15 million bump to its higher education appropriations for the next budget year.

In response to a federal complaint from University of Northern Iowa’s faculty union accusing the UNI administration of prohibiting COVID safety measures, a state health and safety official pointed to Iowa’s law barring mask mandates.