Meeting Rundown

The Iowa Board of Regents will meet November 11-13 at the Iowa State University Alumni Center in Ames. Selected agenda items are outlined in brief below. Open session portions of the meeting will be livestreamed on the Board’s YouTube channel. 

Meeting Background
This year, the November meeting is expanded to three days, rather than the standard two. The Iowa State University Presidential search will conclude Tuesday when the Board interviews two finalists: Cornell University Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences Benjamin Houlton, and North Dakota State University President David Cook. The Board will spend all of Tuesday interviewing the finalists, deliberating and, finally, appointing the 17th President of Iowa State. 

More on Hiring the 17th ISU President

Typically the final regularly scheduled, in-person meeting of the calendar year, the November meeting features numerous annual reports, including the annual enrollment report, the comprehensive fiscal report, Clery Act reports and others. 

The Board will consist of just eight Regents this week, following the October confirmation of former Regent David Barker as Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education for the United States Department of Education. 
Resolutions honoring both ISU President Wendy Wintersteen and Barker will be presented during the Board President Report on Thursday.

Center for Intellectual Freedom Bylaws
The Board will consider bylaws for the Center for Intellectual Freedom at UI. The passing of House File 437 required the Board to create the center, which it did officially at the July 30, 2025 meeting. Additionally, the Board appointed Luciano de Castro to serve as the center’s Interim Executive Director in July. In September, the Regents approved the creation of a 26-member advisory council chaired by Regent Christine Hensley.

Workforce Alignment
Last February, Board of Regents President Sherry Bates charged the universities and the Board Office to conduct a review of academic programs to determine how they fit with high-demand jobs and align with workforce needs in the state. The Board will receive this report on Wednesday afternoon. 

More on the Workforce Alignment study

Tuition Guarantee Study
House File 440 mandated the Board to research the merits of a tuition guarantee program, whereby students that enroll as freshmen at one of Iowa’s public universities would not see a tuition increase during their subsequent three academic years. The Board will hear the report Wednesday afternoon. 

Annual Reports
The Board will receive the Comprehensive Fiscal Report, the Annual Fall Enrollment Report, the Campus Safety and Security Report, the Annual Accreditation Report, Professional Development Assignment Reports and Requests and the Economic Development and Technology Transfer Report.

• The Comprehensive Fiscal Report compares actual revenues and expenditures with Board-approved budgets. This comparison is useful in identifying variances between what was approved in the budget and what was actually spent.
• The Annual Fall Enrollment Report details total student enrollment at Iowa’s public universities and illustrates trends, demographics and other details. Enrollment numbers are calculated on the 10th day of the Fall semester, which usually falls after the Board’s annual September meeting, necessitating the need for the November meeting to host the enrollment report. More on this report.
• The Campus Safety and Security Report, required by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act of 1990, documents campus crime statistics.
• The Annual Accreditation Report details findings from programmatic reaccreditations at the three universities. This year, reaccreditations for ISU’s College of Veterinary Medicine, UNI’s Wilson College of Business and UI’s College of Pharmacy, among other programs, are included. 
• The Professional Development Reports detail the professional development activities of faculty and staff across the Regent enterprise. These include patent applications, completed manuscripts and published books, external grants and funding, and numerous others. 
• The Economic Development and Technology Transfer Report details university collaboration with business and industry to foster economic development and entrepreneurship efforts in Iowa. 

Free Speech and First Amendment Training
The Board will hear its annual update on First Amendment training from university representatives as part of the Free Speech and Student Affairs Committee Wednesday at 9:45 a.m. In addition, the committee will consider authorization of the 2025-26 Free Speech Survey for the three universities, which is performed every two years.