Space race: Rooms ready for big move-in
President Steven Leath and Senior Vice President Tom Hill were among ISU officials welcoming students to the residence halls this week. Photo by Bob Elbert.
With Iowa State leaders estimating a fall enrollment in the neighborhood of 31,000 students, the residence department was in overdrive this summer preparing to meet its goal of housing about one-third of them. As of early this week, the department reported it found spots for just under 10,575 students in campus housing for fall semester. That's an increase of nearly 6 percent over last fall's record-setting group of 9,976 students living on campus.
| On-campus occupancy since Fall 2003-12 | |
| Fall |
Total students assigned* |
| 2012 | 10,572* |
| 2011 | 9,976 |
| 2010 | 9,403 |
| 2009 | 9,106 |
| 2008 | 8,936 |
| 2007 | 8,585 |
| 2006 | 8,154 |
| 2005 | 7,909 |
| 2004 | 8,032 |
| 2003 | 8,422 |
| *Residence halls and apartments combined; 2012 number estimated | |
This Friley Hall house den will be home to up to four students this fall. Photo by Bob Elbert.
A few other details about move-in week:
- The housing inventory includes about 10,170 permanent spaces and 428 temporary spaces in floor dens in every hall except Eaton, Martin and Buchanan halls.
- Besides the temporary spots, the growth in the housing capacity since last fall comes primarily from reverting former triples and quads to full status (likely they've served as double rooms recently), and from opening nine of 10 floors in "The Towers" Wallace Hall as double-occupancy rooms. Last fall, students occupied just five floors of "super single" rooms in Wallace. (The 10th floor will remain super singles this year.) These two changes created about 300 more permanent spaces for students this fall.
- The goal is to find permanent spots before winter break for all students in converted dens (not because they're anxious to move, but in order to return that community space to the floors).
- The residence department added nine custodial positions in the last year, including four weekend positions. It also converted several graduate assistant hall director posts to full-time positions.
- About 750 returning student volunteers will help first-year students and their families move in to residence halls Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
The human welcome mat
Cyclone Aides -- those versatile, energetic undergraduates who help all year with new student programs -- were preparing 6,000 string bags Monday morning for freshmen and transfer students participating in Destination Iowa State Thursday through Saturday. Director of new student programs Liz Kurt said just under 5,200 new students are registered for Destination Iowa State (DIS), up 18 percent from a year ago.
Kurt's staff recruited another 415 team leaders – returning students who each will guide a group of about a dozen new students through DIS events.
New students living on campus move in Tuesday or Wednesday. Destination Iowa State events open at 5 p.m. Thursday with an outdoor picnic and a large-group session at Hilton Coliseum. It concludes Saturday night with a Hilton performance by comedian Michael Palascak and "Cyclone Sweep" – a private two hours of late-night shopping at the Ames Target store.
Kurt noted that not all new students participate in Destination Iowa State; they're too busy.
"Students are doing other things to get connected – and that's good," she said. For example, students involved in marching band, Greek recruiting, a Cyclone athletics team or an ROTC program, have other demands on their time this week. Photo by Bob Elbert.
Some changes are coming to ISU budget model
Following his review of a May report (PDF) by a task force asked to analyze the effectiveness of Iowa State's now 5-year-old budget model, president Steven Leath has decided Iowa State will continue to use the model. He will, however, implement changes – some recommended by the task force, some he has identified – aimed at making the model work more effectively and efficiently for this university.
Leath said he intends to name soon a small group that will develop an implementation plan for those changes.
Iowa State first used the Resource Management Model to build budgets for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009. The model is designed to link resources with responsibilities, offer better flexibility as priorities evolve, and build in incentives to support university goals and strategies.
First change: Advisory committees
Leath said he will continue to use a budget cabinet and that the three senior vice presidents -- Tom Hill, Warren Madden and Jonathan Wickert -- will continue as members. Joining the group is associate vice president Miles Lackey, with assistant vice president for financial planning and budgets Dave Biedenbach providing support to their work. Leath said other individuals could be invited to join budget cabinet meetings for specific agenda topics.
The University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) will be noticeably smaller, reduced from 18 designees and seven ex-officio members to nine designees and Lackey. Biedenbach also will assist UBAC. The Faculty Senate, Professional and Scientific Council, Graduate and Professional and Student Senate, and Government of the Student Body each will retain a representative on UBAC. Slots for the divisions of both student affairs and business and finance are upgraded from their former ex-officio status. The academic affairs division will have three representatives, one each of whom should have expertise in extension/outreach and research/economic development. Leath will chair both the president's budget cabinet and UBAC.
Leath directed that the other five advisory committees within the budget planning structure be discontinued. Library dean Olivia Madison, chief information officer Jim Davis and associate provost for academic programs David Holger should continue to solicit advice from key stakeholders on the best ways to serve the campus, Leath said.
"I believe there is value in gathering input from the campus on matters pertaining to budgets, but I don't believe the current structure is the most effective means of accomplishing this," he wrote in a memo to Hill, Madden and Wickert last week.
One of the recommendations in the review committee's report was a revision of the advisory committee structure. The report noted that some of the committees' size curtailed effective discussion and that the emphasis was on broad representation rather than on tapping individuals who could offer the most useful or timely insight.
Leath directed his senior vice presidents to develop another appropriate mechanism for "collecting broad-based input and advice about [your] division's budget planning and resource allocation decisions," beginning this fall with the FY14 planning process. They have a Sept. 10 deadline to propose a new structure for accomplishing that and an Oct. 15 target to implement it.
Less is more for revamped employee orientation program
New Iowa State faculty and staff members will be welcomed to the university with a fresh employee orientation program beginning Aug. 22.
The content of the program is nearly the same, but the new presentation is more streamlined and interactive. It's shorter, too. In the past, employees participated in a lecture-heavy, whole-day orientation and acclimation presentation. The new orientation is a shorter session (8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.), which includes lunch provided by human resource services.
To register
To register for new employee orientation, visit the HRS website and select a date. The program is offered almost monthly from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. There is no cost to attend.
"The current program needed freshening, and we wanted to welcome people in a much more interactive and impactful manner while still conveying the vital information necessary for new employees to have when starting their careers at Iowa State," said David Trainor, associate vice president of HRS.
Some of the new additions to orientation are a video welcome message from president Steven Leath, an icebreaker activity, anonymous question cards and get-to-know-you exercises.
The resource fair, where employees used to learn about different services on campus, has been eliminated. Instead, participants will receive a bag containing "freebies" and information about available campus resources.
The HRS staff began revamping orientation last February, with the help of focus groups from across campus.
"The feedback we received reflected the need to make the program more interactive," Trainor said. "We previously had new employees sit and listen to a lecture-type format for several hours. We also wanted to respond to common questions about ISU, such as what it means to be a land-grant university."
Orientation is required for all new employees, Trainor said. His wish is that the experience is a positive one.
"I hope that we are effectively able to convey to new employees how special ISU is, how thrilled we are that they have chosen to join our university, and that all of us -- regardless of our position at the university -- have an obligation to work as hard as we can to contribute to the ongoing success of Iowa State."
Save the dates
College plans
Save the dates
- Presidential Installation: Friday, Sept. 14 (10-11:30 a.m., Stephens Auditorium, reception follows)
- University Awards Ceremony: Friday, Sept. 21 (3:15 p.m. MU Sun Room, reception follows)
Agriculture and Life Sciences
Convocation: Tuesday, Sept. 4 (4:10 p.m., MU Sun Room, reception follows)
Business
Welcome-back picnic, Friday, Aug. 17 (6 p.m., Big Bluestem Shelter, Moore Memorial Park)
Design
Welcome reception: Monday, Aug. 20 (6-8 p.m., King Pavilion, College of Design, 6:45 p.m., presentation of Christian Petersen Design Award to alumna Rebecca Greco)
Engineering
Convocation: Thursday, Sept. 6 (3:10-4 p.m., auditorium, Howe Hall, reception follows)
Human Sciences
Convocation: Thursday, Aug. 16 (7:45-11 a.m., Reiman Ballroom, Alumni Center)
Liberal Arts and Sciences
Convocation: Wednesday, Aug. 29 (4 p.m., MU Sun Room, reception follows)
Veterinary Medicine
Convocation and breakfast, TBA
Campus curiosities on display
Photos by Bob Elbert.
A stuffed tapir from the anthropology department.
Unique items collected from around campus are part of an exhibit opening Aug. 20 at the Christian Petersen Art Museum in 003 Morrill Hall. The "Cabinet of Curiosities" exhibit features objects from Iowa State's history, including original pieces from a natural history museum housed on the third floor of Morrill in the 1890s.
Jen Munoz, a graduate student in interior design and a summer intern at University Museums, pursued the project by calling campus departments for relics that may be on hand or buried in storage. She procured more than 100 artifacts from about 30 different departments and programs. Some objects, such as napkins from Adolph Hitler's estate, are from University Museums' collections.
Some objects were selected from University Museums' own collection.
Not surprisingly, the collection sports a wide range of objects. A full gorilla skeleton greets visitors at the entrance. A mammoth's tooth, preserved plant and animal specimens, and teaching artifacts are among the items in the cabinet displays. Munoz is partial to the stone tools and arrowheads native to Iowa's first inhabitants.
The exhibit runs through Dec. 14. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays during the semester, excluding holidays. The cost of admission to the Christian Petersen Art Museum is free, but visitors are asked to consider a donation of $3.
Arts and events
A collection of unique objects acquired from many parts of campus are featured in University Museum's "Cabinet of Curiosities" exhibit that opens Aug. 20.
