Vanessa Miller

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.

Including $28 million it bid in a bankruptcy auction to buy Mercy Iowa City, $8.5 million it covered of the hospital’s “cash-based operating losses,” and $3.4 million it spent resolving Mercy’s unpaid contract obligations, the University of Iowa’s total cost to acquire the 150-year-old community hospital is expected to reach nearly $40 million.

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.

For the first time in nearly seven years, Iowa’s Board of Regents has a new president in Sherry Bates -- a social worker who’s been on the board for nearly a decade.

The University of Iowa has initiated a national search for a new vice president for research — a key member of the president’s cabinet — after announcing last week that J. Martin (Marty) Scholtz is resigning after five years.

Kirkwood Community College will pay its new President Kristie Fisher — officially inaugurated this week — an annual salary of $350,000 for the budget year that ends June 30, according to her three-year contract.

As the University of Iowa reshapes its west campus to accommodate a massive new $1 billion inpatient tower, $249 million Health Sciences Academic Building, and other renovation and expansion projects across its health care and athletic operations — administrators are eyeing not one, but now two new parking ramps.

For just the sixth time in Kirkwood Community College history, the 58-year-old campus on Wednesday inaugurated a new president -- and Kristie Fisher, who officially started her tenure Oct. 30, did not want all the pomp and circumstance of a ceremony.

The University of Iowa is looking to lease 65,760 square feet of warehouse, office, and support space on ACT Inc.’s former Iowa City campus for use by UI Health Care’s pharmacy services group.

In an effort to save money and better allocate resources, the University of Iowa is planning to close several off-campus centers — including the Tippie College of Business Cedar Rapids Learning Center on Second Avenue SE.

University of Northern Iowa’s Patricia A. Tomson Center for Violence Prevention -- which for more than a decade has been working to address violence through education, training, engagement and collaboration -- on March 7 will host a free screening of the documentary, “This is Where I Learned Not to Sleep.”

Iowa continues to have the second highest cancer rate in the nation — and the fastest growing rate of new cancers, with another 21,000 estimated this year — according to the Iowa Cancer Registry’s 2024 “Cancer in Iowa” report.

Survey asks respondents if they feel comfortable expressing their opinions on and off campus and on social media; if they seek out and listen to people with differing views; if they feel other university faculty and staff do; and if they feel the university provides an environment for free speech.

Beginning in the 2024-25 academic year, Cedar Rapids-based Coe will debut a new Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree — offered through its Physics Department as an “engineering physics” major.