Proposed strategic plan edits, second 'future' degree go to regents next week

When it meets Feb. 27 at the board office in Urbandale, the Iowa Board of Regents will receive proposed changes to Iowa State's 2022-31 strategic plan. The board directed the review to comply with a 2024 state law prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices at the regent universities as well as DEI work broadly defined by the law. The open portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. and will be streamed on the board website. The agenda also is online.

Among the proposed edits (PDF) to Iowa State's strategic plan, the most notable is a reworking of the second of the plan's five aspirational statements: To be the university that cultivates a welcoming and respectful environment where all students, faculty and staff flourish.

The previous version read: To be the university that cultivates a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where students, faculty and staff flourish.

Last fall, the regents asked the three regent universities to revise their strategic plans as needed to comply with the new law. In December, senior advisor to the president Sophia Magill led a 15-member committee that reviewed the 2022-31 strategic plan and recommended the changes to senior leaders.

The board approved changes to its own 2022-27 strategic plan at its January meeting.

Second 'degree of the future'

Iowa State will seek final approval for its new bachelor of science degree in integrated health sciences, led by the departments of genetics, development and cell biology and food science and human nutrition. This would be the second approved degree program in a 2022-31 strategic plan-funded initiative, Degrees of the Future. The interdisciplinary program includes coursework in life sciences, behavioral and social sciences, data science and the humanities to provide a holistic view of health care and fill unmet needs in the state and national healthcare landscapes. It offers students five tracks:

• Science of health and disease
• Human health and nutrition
• Data science and human studies
• Public policy, ethics, communications and human health
• Behavioral and mental health studies

In other degree activity, Iowa State is asking to:

• Suspend admission to the Ph.D. program in rural, agricultural, technological and environmental history, for history department budget reasons, and as the first step of a five-year sunset plan for the program.
• End the interdisciplinary master of science in transportation program, College of Engineering, due to declining student interest. No students currently are enrolled, and the last graduates were in spring 2020. Future students could apply to the civil engineering major and specialize in transportation engineering.

Parking permits won't increase this summer

The parking division is not seeking an increase to campus parking permit prices or parking fines for the budget year that begins July 1. All outstanding bonds on the ISU parking system are paid off. Permit rates for the Memorial Union (MU) parking ramp, which is operated by the MU separately from ISU's parking division, would go up 3%, as proposed. Hourly rates in the ramp would not change in FY26.

Memorial Union parking ramp: Proposed permit rates

Change to the admissions application

As of Feb. 13, the gender selection box in the regent universities' application for admission was reduced to three options: Female, male, prefer not to answer. This change (PDF) was made following a communication to the board from members of the Legislature.

Other Iowa State requests

In other business, Iowa State leaders will seek board permission to:

• Award two honorary Doctor of Science degrees at spring graduation ceremonies. The first is to Larry Buss, alumnus, western Iowa farmer and retired chief hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, in recognition of extraordinary achievements in engineering and agriculture and his work as a staunch advocate for farmers and rural communities. Faculty in the agricultural and biosystems engineering department submitted Buss' nomination. The second is to Creston native and Grammy Award winner John "JR" Robinson, the music industry's most recorded drummer (his discography includes more than 10,000 recording sessions for the music, television and film industries), in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the music industry. Faculty in the music and theatre department nominated Robinson for the honorary degree.
• Approve a list of academic majors and high-demand jobs (PDF) (as provided by Iowa Workforce Development) eligible for the Iowa Workforce grant and incentive program for academic years 2025-26 and 2026-27. These are awards available to junior and senior in-state students at the three regent universities, for up to four semesters, with an additional $2,000 incentive payment if they accept a high-demand job aligned with their major within six months of degree completion and work fulltime in that position for 12 months. Last year (2023-24) was the first year of the program.
• Begin planning to renovate an estimated 12,000 square feet in Black Engineering Building for the mechanical engineering department. The space will be vacated this summer by the industrial manufacturing and systems engineering department's move to the Therkildsen building. The renovation would focus on research labs, offices and support spaces. The estimated $12.6 million-$14.2 million project would be funded with private gifts.
• Renovate three parking lots, including underground utility and lot lighting improvements and new sidewalks, this summer. The three lots are north of Black Engineering (lot 8), east of Atanasoff (16) and east of Physics (36). The combined $2.75 million projects will be paid for with parking and utility system funds.
• Renovate six second-floor teaching labs in the Human Nutritional Sciences Building for the Textile Science Teaching Lab, which is located temporarily in Bessey Hall during the LeBaron Hall replacement. The $2.35 million project, funded with private gifts, would locate the teaching lab next to the newly renovated Textiles Science Research Laboratory. Work would begin later this spring.

The regents also will hear short presentations Thursday on multiple required annual reports from the universities:

• (2) Academic program review, distance education, to the academic affairs committee, 11 a.m.
• Student financial aid, to the free speech and student affairs committee, 12:30 p.m.
• (3) Span of control, human resources and affirmative action, to the governance, evaluation and human resources committee (consent agenda items), 1 p.m.
• (2) Residence system governance, graduation and retention, to the full board, 2:30 p.m.