Meeting Primer
The Iowa Board of Regents will meet September 18-19 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. View the full agenda here.
Meeting Background
The Board passed FY2025 budgets for the three universities, the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory and the Board Office in July. This month, the Board will consider state appropriations requests for FY 2026, which begins July 1, 2025. In addition, the Board will consider the annual facilities report and the capital request for FY 2026. If approved, these two actions would comprise the bulk of the Board’s fiscal requests of the Iowa General Assembly, which considers and acts on the requests during its Spring legislative session.
FY 2026 State Appropriations Request
The Board will consider FY 2026 operating and other state appropriations requests for the Regents enterprise near the end of day two.
Iowa Code requires state entities to submit appropriations request on or before October 1. State appropriations for the Regent universities are typically included in the education appropriations, economic development appropriations, and agriculture and natural resources appropriations bills passed each year by the Iowa General Assembly.
This year, the Board’s request includes new programs at Iowa, Iowa State and UNI that provide service to Iowans. The university presidents will outline their respective appropriations requests, including specific programs and initiatives to be funded, prior to Board action.
Annual Facilities Report and FY 2026 Capital Request
The Property and Facilities committee will review the Annual Facilities Report, which includes the five-year institutional roads program, the facilities governance report and five-year capital plans, including the capital request for FY 2026. These reports were presented as separate items until 2018 when they were combined for simplicity and ease of access.
This year, the Board’s capital request includes deferred maintenance funds for UI’s MacLean Hall and ISU’s Atanasoff Hall, as well as UNI’s Commons building for UNI’s proposed Center for Civic Education. All three projects would eliminate deferred maintenance costs for their respective buildings.
ISU Proposed Naming
Iowa State will request Board approval to name its Administrative Services Building after former ISU Senior Vice President Warren Madden. Madden earned a BA in industrial engineering from ISU in 1961, returned to campus in 1966 as a grants officer and retired as Senior Vice President for Business and Finance after 50 years of service to ISU in 2016.
The Lakeside Laboratory
The Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, located in Milford on West Lake Okoboji, provides science classes and research opportunities for university students, and offers outreach programs and services through the state universities. This year, the Lakeside Lab is requesting Board approval through the Property and Facilities Committee to construct additional lab space. Funds for the project were appropriated by the Iowa General Assembly in 2024. In addition, the Academic Affairs Committee will receive the Lakeside Lab’s annual report.
Capital Improvement Registers
UI, ISU and the Lakeside Lab will present Registers of Capital Improvement Business Transactions, which generally include building and renovation projects on campus, to the Property and Facilities Committee. UI will request permission to proceed with project planning for multiple projects at the UI Health Care Medical Campus Downtown and a new Carver College of Medicine Cancer Research Facility. ISU’s request includes project description and budget for NEWRITE Phase 1 to be constructed in Howe Hall room 1380 and study the impact of wind events like tornadoes and derechos.
Program Adjustments
The Academic Affairs Committee will consider numerous new programs and centers and program restructuring at UI. Notably, Iowa State’s new Bachelor of Science in Game Design would represent the first such program at Iowa’s public universities.
