Iowa State leaders will ask the state Board of Regents to approve promotions for 75 faculty members at the board's meeting in Ames next week. The request includes 43 cases of promotion with tenure, three tenure-only requests and 29 promotions for tenured faculty.
The board meets Wednesday (committee meetings) and Thursday (full board meeting), April 19-20, at the ISU Alumni Center. Public portions of the meeting will be livestreamed on the board's website. The agenda and supporting documents are online.
New degrees
Iowa State also will seek a final green light for an online Master of Accounting Analytics (an in-person version exists), and a new Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural communications. Since 1996, this programming has been offered as a communications option within the agricultural and life sciences education major. Students have asked for a degree program with a name that reflects the strategic communications aspect of their education.
In anticipation of a FY 2024 salary policy discussion at their June meeting, board members will receive comments from the leaders of employee representative groups about their constituents' pay situation. At Iowa State, those leaders are Jon Perkins, Faculty Senate; and Jamie Sass, P&S Council.
Building projects
The regents will review an Iowa State proposal to purchase and install a combination of donated and discounted feed mill and grain processing equipment at the new grain science complex on the Curtiss Farm west of Ames along U.S. Highway 30. The proposal would add $11.2 million to the current project budget of $24 million, with the difference covered by private gifts and university funds. In replacing three ISU feed mills, the facility will be used for research and training future employees in grain and feed facilities to serve the state's ag industries.
Iowa State also will ask for board permission to:
- Begin planning for an estimated $22 million project to add 16,000 square feet to the southeast corner of the Lied Recreation Athletic Center and renovate 20% of the facility. The project would expand weight rooms, locker rooms and sports medicine areas for the Cyclone wrestling and track and field programs. Recreation services and the athletics department would exchange some space; rec services' space allocation would not decrease. Athletics operating funds and private gifts would pay for the project.
- Build seven teaching labs for textile sciences (apparel, events and hospitality management department) in the Human Nutritional Sciences Building, permanently replacing and modernizing current labs in the adjacent LeBaron Hall (which is planned to be replaced). University funds would cover the $2.1 million cost.
Other business
In other Iowa State-related business, the board will:
- Approve parking permit rates for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Iowa State is proposing a 3% increase.
- Approve residence system rates for the 2023-24 academic year. An average room-meal plan combination would go up about 4%, as proposed.
- Consider requests to close four centers: Biobased Industry Center, Center for Metabolic Biology, Iowa Center for Advance Neurotoxicology and the Center for Earthworks Engineering Research. The first faces declining private sponsors, the others are due to center leadership departures.
Presentations
Board members will receive presentations on the topics listed, in most cases from university employees (times are estimates):
- Student employment on campus, to the campus and student affairs committee, Wednesday, 12:45 p.m.
- K-12 educator preparation programs, to the academic affairs committee, Wednesday, 2 p.m.
- Protecting the world from antimicrobial resistance, Paul Plummer, College of Veterinary Medicine, and executive director of the National Institute of Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education, to the full board, Thursday, 10 a.m.
- Regent universities' economic impact in Iowa, Hannah Ruffridge, Lightcast market analytics firm, to the full board, Thursday, 11 a.m. (held from the February meeting)
