Final approval of promotion or tenure for 98 Iowa State faculty is scheduled during the state Board of Regents' April 1 virtual meeting. The agenda is on the board's website, and the meeting can be viewed there as well.
Ninety-eight requests for promotion or tenure represents a 40% increase over last spring's 70 P&T requests. The table (below) breaks down the total by gender and promotion type. If approved, the promotions take effect for the 2020-21 academic year.
2020-21 Promotion and tenure requests
Promotion |
Total |
Male |
Female |
Promotion with tenure |
58 |
28 |
30 |
Promotion (already have tenure) |
39 |
20 |
19 |
Tenure without promotion |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Totals |
98 |
49 |
49 |
Large building projects
Iowa State leaders will present budgets and schematic designs to the board for a new two-story, 72,000-square foot Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory ($75 million) and outward expansion of the north and south concourses at Hilton Coliseum ($22 million). As proposed, the testing lab facility would be paid for with $63.5 million in state funds, $7.5 million in university funds and $4 million in private gifts. Construction would begin this fall. Improvements at Hilton would be covered with athletics department operating funds and private gifts. The work would begin next spring.
Pay grades, salary policy
The board will be asked to approve the compensation structure in Iowa State's new classification/compensation system for professional and scientific employees. Implementation is underway for the new system and currently targeted to wrap up in late May. Its 15 grades use a fanned approach to grade widths, with lower grades being narrower and higher grades becoming progressively wider to account for greater market variability in higher-level jobs.
As they do each spring, representatives of non-unionized employee groups at Iowa's three regent universities will present comments to board members before they set (at the June meeting) salary policies for the fiscal year that begins July. 1. Iowa State employees will represent the Faculty Senate and Professional and Scientific Council.
At its April meeting, the regents also receive annual reports on: faculty tenure, diversity and competition with private enterprise.
Other ISU items
Iowa State also will seek board permission to:
- Set parking permit rates for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
- Set student residence system rates for the 2020-21 year.
- Offer a new undergraduate degree, B.S. in environmental engineering, beginning this fall.
- Award an Honorary Doctor of Science degree to ISU alumnus Subra Suresh, president of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, for outstanding contributions as a distinguished engineer, scientist, entrepreneur and leader in higher education.
- Award an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to ISU alumna Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O'Lakes Inc., to recognize her contributions as a pioneering leader in business and agriculture and advocate for farmers and rural communities.
- Sell the Fick Observatory, 45.3 wooded acres and three observatory buildings four miles southwest of Boone to Aaron Gillett, Boone, for $339,870. The observatory has been inactive since 2008.