The following is a roundup of the highlights of the Aug. 5 Iowa Board of Regents meeting in Ames:

Proposed Spring FY 2016 Tuition Increase 

The Board of Regents made no objections to a proposed 3 percent increase in undergraduate resident tuition for the Spring 2016 semester. A vote on the proposed increase is expected at the September board meeting. The proposed increase would add $100 to a full-time undergraduate resident student for the spring semester and be prorated based on credit hour for part-time undergraduate residents. If approved, the Spring 2016 tuition rate for basic undergraduate residents would be $3,439.

The increase is expected to generate $3.5 million if it is applied to all three universities for the second half of the FY 2016 academic year. The increase would help manage inflationary expenses, now projected to average 1.9 percent.

Buildings and Facilities

The Board of Regents voted to allow the UI to proceed with project planning for:

Renovation of north stands at Kinnick Stadium and Paul W. Brechler Press Box – The 30-year-old north stands remain unchanged from the original 1980s construction, with the exception of the video/scoreboard that was added in 2013. The anticipated cost ranges from $35 million to $45 million and would be covered by athletic department gifts and earnings. Improvements under consideration include:

• Fixing all seating issues
• Creating suites and other premium eating options
• Improving concourse amenities
• Increasing audio/visual technology
• Creating spaces with modern amenities such as plazas and patios
• Modernizing restrooms
• Updating food-service/vending options
• Developing additional resources opportunities for non-game day events/programs
• Improving accessibility for fans
• Improving flow of spectators on north side of stadium

Construction of new west campus residence hall – The hall would be located near Kinnick Stadium and the West Campus Transportation Center and provide housing for student-athletes and the general student population. The project would create about 500 to 600 suite-style beds and be open to first-year and returning students. The facility would include a dining venue, athletic training table, and standard resident amenities. The estimated cost is $85 million and would be funded by dormitory revenue bonds and athletic department gifts and earnings.

Construction of new indoor track and field facility – The facility, which would be located on the far west “Hawkeye” campus, would include an indoor track, spectator viewing area, spaces for weight and athletic training, events operation area, offices, men’s and women’s locker rooms, storage, and other service space. The relocation of the indoor track, currently housed in the Recreation Building, would provide the UI with the option of locating a new residence hall on the Recreation Building site, or retaining this central west campus site for future development options. The estimated cost is $15 million to $20 million and would be funded by athletic department gifts and earnings.

The Board of Regents voted to approve the schematic design, project description, and budget for:

Fit-out of fifth floor at College of Public Health Building – Fit out about 12,000 gross square feet of shelled space that is expected to house the informatics administrators and technical staff, graduate student and faculty workspace for data analysis, meeting spaces with advance collaboration technology, and associated support space. It will also include a suite for the newly established Iowa Institute of Public Health Research and Policy. The project budget of $4,635,071 will be funded by Treasurer’s Temporary Investment Income and sponsored research indirect cost recoveries.

The Board of Regents approved project descriptions and budgets at UIHC for:

Main Operating Room (OR) Air Handling Unit Fan Array Installation project  - The project would replace with a redundant array of multiple fans the 20-plus-year-old single, non-redundant fans that serve the five main operating room air handlers in the John Colloton Pavilion. The units would then be able to run at a reduced capacity in the event of a fan or motor failure. The project budget is $2,025,000 and Modus Engineering of Iowa City has been selected as the design professional.

Central Sterilizing Service (CSS) – Air Handling Unit (AHU) 23 Replacement project  - The project would replace AHU 23 located in lower level 2 of the John Colloton Pavilion (JCP); the unit would be sized to support future CSS expansion. The project budget is $2,401,000 and Heery International, Iowa City has been selected as the design professional.  

FY 2016 Budget

The Board of Regents approved a General Operating Budget for FY 2016 of $705.1 million (up from $699.6 in FY 2015). Some 61.3 percent will come from tuition and 32.8 percent from state appropriations.

Note about state appropriations: The 2015 General Assembly approved an appropriation of $230,923,005 for the UI in FY 2016, the same amount the university received in FY 2015.

The Board of Regents approved the following FY 2016 restricted budget for the UI:

• $13 million for Pharmacy Building
• $11 million for bioscience facilities
• $13.4 for tuition replacement
• $1.05 million for innovation fund
• $280,000 for Regent Study Center

Note about FY 2016 Athletics budget:

• The UI’s $93.6 million FY 2016 athletics budget does not use any funds from the state. Athletics is a self-sustaining auxiliary enterprise and receives no general university support.

TIER Update

The Board of Regents received the final reports from Huron Consulting and Chazey Partners:

• Huron Consulting identified a potential recurring savings range of $3.9 million to $7.8 million. Chazey Partners validated that university plans approved by the board will result in more efficient and effective services when implemented.

Background: In January 2015, the board retained the services of Huron Consulting for analysis and recommendations regarding the Sourcing and Procurement business case approved by the board. Huron did a full analysis of seven spend categories (office supplies, computers, computer peripherals, scientific supplies, janitorial supplies, maintenance and repair, and food), as well as a high-level analysis of three additional spend categories (travel, print services, and audio visual). 


Also in January 2015, the board approved the university proposal for the implementation of Delivery of Services (Shared Services) and hired Chazey Partners to assist the universities in implementing the plan. Chazey provided the following work:

• Finance - Assisted in implementing finance shared services.
• Human Resources - Assisted in implementing efforts to increase the strategic services.
• Information Technology - Assisted in implementing transformation of the distributed IT landscape to strengthen collaboration between the distributed and central IT teams, streamline the delivery of commodity technology services, and plan for future technology innovations.

After the business cases were approved by the board, each university and workstream submitted individual plans addressing the design and development for each of the business cases.

Findings:

Huron recommended:

• Defining purchasing policies and document procedures that support each policy and eliminate redundancies in policy and procedure documentation.
• Moving to a “center-led” structure. In a center-led model, university procurement organizations manage their own transactional functions. However, the strategic functions (strategic sourcing, developing formal solicitations, contract negotiation and management) are led by the board office. 


Chazey recommended:

• Proceeding into building and implementing shared services across the workstreams at each of the universities to realize significant efficiencies and cost savings as outlined in this report.
• Chazey also estimates a steady state net savings of over $14 million each year, which has been consolidated across the three universities and three workstreams.