Iowa Board of Regents April 23 roundup

The following is a roundup of highlights from the April 23 Iowa Board of Regents meeting in Council Bluffs:

Interim President approved

Jean Robillard

The Iowa Board of Regents has voted unanimously to name Jean Robillard as interim president of the University of Iowa beginning Aug. 1.  Robillard is UI’s vice president for medical affairs and chair of the search committee tasked with recommending candidates to replace Sally Mason.   The Presidential Search and Screen Committee has established a tentative timetable that will bring finalists to campus in late August or early September.  President Mason announced her retirement in January and will have served eight years when she steps down on July 31^st.

New undergraduate degree approved

Beginning in fall of 2016, the University of Iowa will offer two bachelor’s degrees in public health, becoming the first higher-education institution in the state to host an undergraduate program in the field.  The Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees will help address an expected shortage of public health, community health, and clinical health workers in Iowa and nationally.

The UI public health bachelor’s degree will provide students with a basic understanding of the five core public health knowledge areas: biostatistics, social and behavioral sciences, epidemiology, health policy and management, and environmental health sciences.  Students graduating with this degree will be well prepared for employment in health education, research, clinical settings, and non-profit and state agencies.  It’s also a natural platform for an advanced degree in public health or a related field.

Annual Report of Student Retention and Graduation Rates

The UI saw improvement in both the first-year retention rate and six year graduation rate—attributable in part to programs such as our living-learning communities, first-year seminars, first-year courses in common, and supplemental instruction and tutoring resources.

• First-year retention rate of 86.1 percent for the entering class of 2013 — up 0.3 percentage points from the previous year
• Six-year graduation rate of 70.0 percent for the entering class of 2008 — up 0.4 percentage points
• Four-year graduation rate of 50.9 percent for the entering class of 2010 — down 0.2 percentage points.

The UI continues to press for improvement in those numbers by emphasizing to students the importance of working with their academic advisor on an academic plan, providing additional information about available majors, and informing students about the opportunity to take summer school courses at lower tuition costs through the Summer Hawk Tuition Grant.

Annual Student Financial Aid report

At the UI, approximately 41 percent of seniors graduated without debt; 31 percent who were Iowa residents graduated without debt.  The loan default rate among UI students is also significantly lower than the national average or even state average.  In FY 2011, the three-year default rate was 4.1 percent for the University of Iowa compared to 17.3 percent for the state of Iowa and 13.7 percent nationally.  

Other key takeaways include:

• In approximately 10 years, the Pell Grant “buying” power has decreased from 98 percent of average public four-year tuition to 63 percent.
• Total annual education borrowing declined for the third consecutive year even though loans continue to play a major role in the student financial aid packages.
• Students have relied more on employment while in school even though studies have shown that working more than 20 hours per week can affect students’ progress toward graduation and limit some aspects of their academic experience.

Annual Governance Report of Faculty Tenure

The Board of Regents approved 209 recommendations for tenure and promotion for the 2015-2016 academic year.  The University of Iowa has a total of 113 promotion and tenure actions compared to 100 the previous year. 

More than 76 percent of the tenure-eligible faculty at the regents universities is tenured (76.7 percent at UI). 

• The number of tenure-track male faculty members increased 1.8 percent
• The number of tenure-track female faculty members increased 5 percent
• The number of tenure-track minority faculty members increased 14 percent

Iowa River Landing Lease

The board today (Thursday, April 23) approved a revision to a lease rate for space that will be used to expand services in the Iowa River Landing clinical site. The new lease will result in valuable upgrades to the facility.  The rent for the space will $61,589 per month for the first year of the lease. The revised lease term is for 20 years and seven months, beginning September 1, 2014, and ending on March 31, 2036, with three additional ten-year extensions.

The shelled space will be fit-out to accommodate cardiology and family medicine clinical and administrative needs. The revised lease also provides for the construction of a climate-controlled skywalk bridge from the second floor leased premises to the second floor of the adjacent parking ramp and an enclosed climate controlled walkway within the second floor of the parking ramp that will connect to the second floor of UI’s Iowa River Landing facility. This will allow patients being seen in the leased space to access the labs and other clinical space within the UI’s main Iowa River Landing facility without walking outside.

Power Plant Improvements

The board approved a $15 million project to upgrade UI’s main power plant in order to meet new, more stringent federal emissions requirements.  After investigating a number of options the university has elected to install pollution control equipment on three steam-generating boilers which will allow the university to maintain flexibility with various fuels (including biomass).  The air pollution regulations became effective Jan. 31, 2013 and require compliance by Sept. 30, 2016.  The compliance project will be funded by utility system revenue bond proceeds.

Program name change

The board permitted changing the name of the Department of Psychology to the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in UI’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.