Regents History: October 19-20, 1972

Board of Regents Membership

  • Stanley Redeker, President, 
  • Ray Bailey, Milford
  • John Baldridge, Chariton
  • Margaret Collison, Oskaloosa
  • Ralphy McCartney, Charles City
  • Ned Perrin, Mapleton
  • Mary Louise Petersen, Harlan
  • Donald Shaw, Davenport
  • Ralph Wallace, Mason City

Highlights

  • The Board received the Fall 1972 enrollment report. Total enrollment at the three state universities was 48,104, a drop of 1,162 students from Fall 1971. Much of this decline was centered on a 59-percent drop in freshman enrollment in teaching programs at the University of Northern Iowa. UNI President John Kamerick stated that the reduction in the need for teachers was one very large reason for the decline.
  • An appropriation for $963,900 was approved to replace the space lost in the Old Gilchrist Hall fire of 1972. The cornerstone of Old Gilchrist Hall, dating to 1882, was discovered by crews razing the site. A metal box inside the cornerstone contained numerous artifacts, including a copy of the bill that established the school in 1876. The Administration Building was renamed Gilchrist Hall in 1975 and carries that name to this day. Oddly enough, new Gilchrist Hall would also suffer extensive fire damage in 2005. 
  • The Iowa State University Department of Nuclear Engineering was officially merged into other departments at this meeting. Nuclear Engineering curriculum was largely absorbed by the Department of Chemical Engineering. The Nuclear Engineering building, however, stood on campus until 2017, when it was demolished to make way for the still-in-the-works Student Innovation Center.
  • Regents toured the West Dormitory Remodel at the Iowa School for the Deaf. The West Dorm project was finished later that year.

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