In-state undergraduates again will pay 2012-13 tuition rates -- $6,648 – next year, as approved Dec. 4 by the State Board of Regents. The freeze is conditional and assumes at least a 4 percent increase in general operating funding for Iowa State next year from the 2014 Iowa Legislature.
"We've had a great response from leaders in the House and Senate," said board president Bruce Rastetter, adding that a budget meeting with Gov. Terry Branstad is scheduled for next week. "By all indications, it's been successful so far."
Nonresident undergraduate tuition will go up $334 (1.74 percent) to $19,534. Resident graduate students will pay $142 (1.81 percent) more, or $7,990, and nonresident graduate students will pay an additional $646 (3.2 percent), or $20,804. College of Veterinary Medicine tuition, resident and nonresident, will rise 4.5 next year – to $20,014 and $44,768, respectively.
Mandatory student fees will go up $5.80, to $1,083.40 for Iowa State undergraduates and to $1,037.40 for graduate students, in 2014-15. That includes a $3 increase for student services and a $2.80 increase for student activities. Student fees haven't changed for Iowa State students in three years.
Professional development assignments
The board also approved 37 professional development assignments (PDA) for Iowa State faculty during the 2014-15 academic year. This represents 2.1 percent of eligible faculty members and is down slightly from the current year, in which 45 faculty members were OK'd to complete a PDA. The list of assignments (PDF; ISU list begins on page 30) is on the board's website.
The gender breakdown this year is 24 men and 13 women. Seven assignments are for the full academic year, the others are for a semester. Thirteen of the faculty members previously completed a PDA.
The net cost of the 37 PDAs is about $131,000 ($403,000 in teaching replacement costs minus $272,000 in salary savings for the seven full-year assignments). Some assignments do not bring additional costs when the department can manage a faculty absence by reassigning courses among other faculty.
At Iowa State, any faculty member employed at least half time is eligible to apply for a professional development assignment. There is no requirement for length of service.
Regents efficiency study
Regent Larry McKibben reported that the work of the renamed Regents Efficiency and Transformation Review Committee has begun. Rastetter announced the review in October, with McKibben and regent Milt Dakovich agreeing to lead the review effort. The review will look at academic, administrative and auxiliary units at the regent institutions, with an eye on maintaining high quality while assuring affordability and accessibility. McKibben said an RFP (Request for Proposals) for a consultant to lead the review would go out yet this month, with the goal of having a consultant on board by early February. Associate vice president and chief of staff Miles Lackey is Iowa State's representative to the committee.
Retirement of Patrick Clancy
Patrick Clancy, who has served as superintendent of both the Iowa School for the Deaf, Council Bluffs, and Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, Vinton, since April 2012, announced his retirement, effective June 30, 2014. Former regent Rose Vasquez will chair a search committee to find Clancy's successor; regent Nicole Carroll will serve on the committee.
New center, program-specific fees, bond sales
In other business, the board approved Iowa State requests to:
- Establish a new center, the Center for Arthropod Management Technologies, in the entomology department. The center is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, following that program's consortium model; in this case, industry, government and universities collaborating to develop technologies that better manage arthropod pests. Iowa State is the lead university and the University of Kentucky is a sister institution. Initially, the consortium will have seven industry members: BASF, Bayer CropScience AG, Bayer CropScience LP, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont Pioneer, FuturaGene and Monsanto Co.
- Set program-specific fees for 2014-15. Iowa State's only new fee is a $120 orientation fee for international students for services and activities that enhance their transition to the university.
- Hold two bond sales in revised amounts (due to lower than expected interest rates): $8.75 million in dormitory revenue bonds to complete the six new student apartment buildings in Frederiksen Court, and $6 million in academic building revenue refunding bonds to save about $556,000 in interest on two previous academic building bond sales (2003, 2004).
