Articles Tagged: University of Northern Iowa

Thousands pick up degrees this week at universities and colleges

A first peek at proposed tuition increases for Iowa’s public universities — made public Monday — indicates resident undergraduate students at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University could pay 3 percent more next fall, while University of Northern Iowa in-state undergrads could pay 2 percent more.

Back in mid-March — more than a month before the Iowa Legislature passed a bill imposing on Iowa’s public universities sweeping diversity, equity, and inclusion restrictions that go beyond directives from their governing Board of Regents — Republican lawmakers sought a DEI update from the campuses.

In response to 10 directives the Board of Regents handed down in the fall to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion spending and programming across its public universities, presidents of all three campuses on Thursday shared significant changes underway – including the permanent closure of Iowa State University’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office.

With questions about tenure, its value, and its threats still top of mind for some Republican lawmakers, the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty on Iowa’s regent campuses is continuing a generational slide to its lowest in recent history.

Iowa’s Board of Regents is not ready to include in its automatic-admission scoring system a relatively new “Classic Learning Test” gaining traction nationally and especially in conservative-leaning states as an alternative to the traditional ACT and SAT tests.

A critical audit of the University of Northern Iowa’s Office of Compliance and Equity Management – responsible for making sure UNI offers equal education opportunities and complies with state and federal laws like Title IX and affirmative action – uncovered shortcomings that could “expose the university to unacceptable risks” and “result in serious consequences.”

Any funds that would otherwise have been directed to DEI offices at the end of fiscal 2025 would be directed to the Iowa Workforce Grant and Incentive Program under the bill.

Before COVID curbed enrollment in 2020 — hitting the University of Northern Iowa especially hard with a nearly 10 percent drop in total students and 20 percent drop in its graduate and professional count — the last time UNI reported a grad school cohort under 1,300 was 1993.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon house is listed at over $1.2M and presents a ‘redevelopment opportunity.’

Iowa boasts a higher six-year graduation rate across its public universities -- 73 percent -- than any state in the nation, a meaningful statistic for a region facing growing workforce demands and a higher education landscape facing mounting pressure and skepticism from lawmakers.

Mediapolis Republican asks how many ‘illegal immigrants’ each campus has

According to a national public-university assessment on what increasingly is referred to in critical terms like “administrative bloat,” Iowa essentially is tied with Hawaii for spending the least on administrators, according to a new Board of Regents report.

Should the state adopt into law a bill that passed the Iowa House this week aiming to restructure the Board of Regents and its powers while also capping tuition costs and diversity programming, Iowa’s public universities could take a financial hit in the millions.

Adding to its list of athletics projects, the University of Northern Iowa on Wednesday received Board of Regents permission to start planning a 22,000-square-foot $10 million “court practice facility“ to be shared between men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball.