Vanessa Miller

As the University of Iowa searches for new leadership atop its sprawling health care enterprise, growing network of hospitals and clinics, and highly-ranked college of medicine, administrators want a partner to help them assess “fair market valuation” of a “wide range of health care settings and assets.”

Northeast Iowa’s 166-year-old Upper Iowa University is cutting 37 positions and closing seven of its more than 20 regional education centers due to dropping enrollment, shifting student needs, and headwinds facing all of higher education.

About 12,000 students will graduate from Iowa’s public universities this weekend – many of whom will commemorate the achievement by participating in one or more of the dozens of ceremonies and receptions scheduled across the three campuses.

In the early 1940s, when Fred Taylor was pursuing a postsecondary degree at Cornell, the world was at war and the United States was drafting servicemen.

The Board of Regents on Thursday -- without much discussion -- held its first of two required readings on a tuition increase for all students across its three public universities, with final approval expected in June.

The University of Iowa – which did not boycott the rankings like dozens of elite law and medical schools nationally and continued providing U.S. News with internal data – lost ground in its overall law and medical school rankings, although still placing high.

For the fourth time since 2007, the National Institutes of Health has renewed a large scientific grant for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine — this time awarding it $28 million over seven years to “take clinical research out into rural communities.”

A month after Mercy Iowa City leadership named a new CEO, announced the hospital again would exit its partnership with Des Moines-based MercyOne, and disclosed the hire of an operations improvement consultant, executives last week shared more organizational updates – including that an “internal and external” rebranding is underway.

In-state undergraduate students across Iowa’s three public universities could face a 3.5 percent tuition hike in the next academic year under a proposal the Board of Regents will consider later this week.

The second of two finalists for the highest job atop University of Iowa Health Care and the UI College of Medicine on Monday spoke directly to key concerns, issues, and incentives presently before the enterprise he aims to lead – including physical growth, community collaboration, patient satisfaction, and staffing.

Nearing a century after the Western Golf Association teamed up with accomplished amateur golfer Charles Evans Jr. to establish a scholarship program for young golf caddies, it has added the University of Iowa to its list of partner schools – unveiling an inaugural class of 10 UI Evans scholars for the upcoming fall.

Mark Rosenblatt, a top executive with the University of Illinois College of Medicine and health system, is the second finalist of two to succeed Brooks Jackson as vice president for medical affairs of University of Iowa Health Care and dean of its Carver College of Medicine.

As Wesleyan heads toward its last commencement Saturday, nearly 100 will cross the stage to collect a diploma.

Nearly 10 years after leaving her vice president position at Kirkwood Community College for a senior post at ACT Inc., Kristie Fisher is returning to the Cedar Rapids campus — but this time for the top job as Kirkwood’s sixth president.

The education appropriations proposal scheduled to be considered by the full House and Senate on Wednesday includes a combined $7.1 million more for specific programs across Iowa’s three public universities – well below the $32 million spike in general fund dollars the Board of Regents sought for its campuses in the upcoming budget year.