(Editor's Note: The following is a letter that was sent to UI faculty and staff via email the morning of Friday, June 6.)

Dear campus community,

We have caught our breath after graduating more than 5,000 students last month, and I wanted to give you a brief campus update.

First are some points of pride about our students and your efforts to help them succeed. Among undergraduates, we last year saw more than 51 percent graduate within four years (up from 48 percent in 2012) and 90 percent secure jobs or graduate/professional school placement within months of graduation (a rate consistent with 2012). I'm confident that the future looks just as bright for the class of 2014.

This year, we have seen tremendous progress on rebuilding the facilities that were destroyed in the 2008 flood. We are also seeing the new UI Children's Hospital rising above ground, the Mary Louise Petersen Residence Hall taking shape, and the final touches being put on the Pappajohn Biomedical Discovery Building. It truly is an exciting time to see a renewed campus taking shape.

The Board of Regents has begun an efficiency and transformation study to look at operations on all three public university campuses in order to find ways we can work more closely together and be more efficient. I have been a huge proponent of gaining efficiency by focusing on our core mission of ensuring that our students get the best possible, highest quality education. I look forward to having external eyes show us new ways to be even more efficient. I am sure we will have many things to discuss as Deloitte completes its initial recommendations. As always, we will take a team approach to making any possible changes work.

Earlier this week, the Board of Regents adopted the recommendations of the Performance-Based Revenue Model Task Force. We are grateful that the board recognized the importance and value of our graduate and professional students. While there have been a number of articles and opinions expressed about the approved recommendations, there are two important things to remember.

First, there is a stopgap built into the recommendations that will limit any reallocation of funds to 2 percent in any given year. This is a very important component that will provide time to retool our efforts. Second, and more importantly, the predictions are based on our not doing anything different from our current approach. We will adapt. We will innovate, just as we have done with every change that has come our way. In fact, I think this revenue model provides a great opportunity for the University of Iowa to show how dynamic and nimble we can be while maintaining the world-class institution we have become.

Since the first legislature established the University of Iowa as the public university in Iowa, we have always been a higher education leader by being innovative and on the cutting edge. It is good to remember that the University of Iowa was the first U.S. public university to admit women and men on an equal basis, the first university to accept creative work in the arts in lieu of a written thesis, the first public university in the country to grant a law degree to a woman and to an African American, the first U.S. public university with an African American player on a varsity athletic squad, the first to appoint a female college newspaper editor, the first tax-supported college to establish a school of religion, along with many more firsts.

Enjoy your summer, and thank you for all your dedication and hard work.

Sally Mason

President