It's official: College of Health and Human Sciences

Meeting this morning on campus, the state Board of Regents approved a new college name at Iowa State: The College of Health and Human Sciences. The change takes effect today. Associate provost Ann Marie VanDerZanden said the addition of "health" to the name reflects strong programs, research and outreach in its current offerings, helps communicate its health-related focus to students and other stakeholders and is consistent with renaming occurring at Iowa State's peer universities.

The College of Human Sciences formed in 2005, a merger of two colleges: Education and Family and Consumer Sciences. Three departments formed the School of Education in 2012.

The regents also approved health and dental insurance premium increases (PDF), to both the employee and employer portions, for the plan year that begins Jan. 1. No changes are being made to the health care and dental plan coverages.

All plan participants will see an increase to their monthly health care premium, between $12 and $66 for HMO participants, and between $11 and $97 for PPO participants. The university will absorb most of the premium increases and will cover more than 87% of the total cost of the health care plans.

Employee monthly premiums for basic dental insurance will stay flat (employee only coverage) or go up $1 for all basic plan options except employee and family, which will go up $2 per month. Employee premiums for the comprehensive dental plan will  go up $3 per month, with two exceptions: Employee-only coverage will cost employees $1 more per month, and employee and family coverage will cost $4 more per month.

HMO: Approved increases to monthly premiums

*Includes university portion

PPO: Approved increases to monthly premiums

*Includes university portion

Administration building honors Warren Madden

Iowa State received permission to name the north-side Administrative Services Building the Warren Madden Building in honor of the alumnus (1961, industrial engineering) who retired in 2016 as senior vice president for business and finance after serving the university for 50 years. Among many contributions to the campus and Ames communities, Madden helped preserve several 19th-century structures and the central campus greenspace as the university grew, develop the Iowa State Center in the 1970s and expand campus utilities and the residence system. He collaborated with city leaders on town-gown initiatives such as CyRide and the ice arena, and coordinated major campus flood recovery in 1993, 2008 and 2010.

"For 50 years, Warren Madden invested his time, talents and affection for Iowa State University to make a special place even more special. With the naming of the Warren Madden Building, we'll have a permanent recognition of him on our campus," said President Wendy Wintersteen.

The Administrative Services Building opened in 1998.

New academic programs approved

The regents gave a final green light to two Iowa State bachelor's degree programs:

• Bachelor of Science in game design (PDF), an inter-college degree program based in the College of Design. The curriculum will include new and revised courses, and the program will first be offered in fall 2025. Over its first three years, the plan is to add three faculty positions to teach core courses. Students who complete the degree will be prepared to work in major or boutique-sized game design companies as game artists, programmers or writers.
  This is Iowa State's second approved degree of the future. In April, the board approved the first, a Master of Digital Health program in the kinesiology department.
• Bachelor of Science in education studies (PDF) in the School of Education. The degree is designed for students interested in education but not in working as a K-12 classroom teacher. This could include educators for museums, zoos or libraries; or those working in community-based education, international education, educational technology or educational policy. The program will first be offered in fall 2025.

First Amendment training

The board's Free Speech and Student Affairs committee received a summary of completion rates last year of the regents' annual First Amendment training among all students, faculty and staff. The board began this required practice in the spring of 2021.

FY24: Completion of First Amendment training, Iowa State

Building projects

The regents approved a budget ($14 million) and project description for phase 1 of the National Testing Facility for Enhancing Wind Resiliency of Infrastructure in Tornado-Downburst-Gust-front Events (NEWRITE) in 1380 Howe Hall. Fully funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, this first phase will construct a 1/15th scale prototype of the phase 2 facility that would study the impact of short-term downbursts of wind such as tornadoes and derechos. Much of the phase 1 funding will be used to design phase 2 up to construction bid documents and site selection. A second NSF grant (up to $80 million) is needed to implement phase 2. Partha Sarkar, professor of aerospace engineering, leads a team of researchers from nine universities involved in the project.

Iowa State also received final approval to revise the plans and budgets for three previously approved projects:

• Stange Road reconstruction between 13th Street and Blankenburg Drive in the summer of 2025. The revised budget, $3.65 million, reflects an increase of $2.2 million. Additional road funds from the Iowa Department of Transportation will allow the project to be completed in a single season, not two as originally proposed, minimizing the impact and saving costs. The work will include concrete pavement, sidewalks on both sides of Stange Road, street lighting and storm sewer improvements.
• Expansion of the Lloyd Large Animal Hospital in three phases. A revised budget, $12 million, includes an increase of $2.8 million. The changes to this equine-focused project will expand the in vitro fertilization embryo transfer lab addition (phase 2) and add a rehabilitation room with sports medicine, physical therapy, exam space and an equine treadmill (phase 3). All work will be completed by fall 2026.
• Remodel of the Seasons Marketplace, campus' second-largest dining center, in the Maple Willow Larch Commons. The revised budget of $6.25 million (an increase of $3.8 million) adds dining room and food service upgrades to a "back of house" renovation completed in the kitchen, food prep and office area during the 2024 summer. These are the first improvements to Seasons Marketplace since 2008. "Front of house" improvements include a dedicated serving station for special dietary needs, better venue circulation and entrances, upgrades to the heating/cooling, plumbing and electrical systems and environmental continuity with other campus dining locations. The work will be completed over the next three summers to allow the dining center to remain operational during critical summer programs.

Editor's note: The board's discussion of fiscal year 2026 appropriations requests to the state of Iowa took place after Inside Iowa State's deadline. Look for a summary in the Sept. 26 edition.