Strategic Plan 2004-2009

Benefiting Iowans through education, research and service

2004-2009 Strategic Plan of the Board of Regents, State of Iowa

The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, enhances the quality of life in Iowa and beyond by governing five outstanding public educational institutions: the state's three public universities – the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa – and two special preschool-12th grade schools – the Iowa School for the Deaf and the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. The Board’s 2004-2009 Strategic Plan demonstrates the commitment of the nine volunteer Regents to serving the needs of Iowa, its citizens, and the world.

Mission: What we do today

(adopted May 22, 2003)

Serving the people of Iowa, the Board of Regents

  • Governs and coordinates the activities of Iowa's three public universities and two special schools;
  • Advocates for and exercises responsible stewardship of resources;
  • Engages capable presidents and superintendents to ensure that the institutions apply knowledge to benefit Iowans;
  • Communicates the positive impact and value of the Regent institutions to the state, its citizens and society.

The Board expects the Regent institutions,in accordance with their respective missions, to

  • Provide a high-quality accessible education to all students, in concert with Iowa’s other educational entities;
  • Engage in high-quality research, scholarship, and creative activities to enhance the quality of life for Iowans and society in general;
  • Provide needed public services;
  • Support economic development in partnership with public and private sectors.

Vision: The aspirations we pursue

(Adopted January 20, 1998; reaffirmed May 22, 2003)

The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, expects its public education enterprise to become the best in the United States.

The Board of Regents will become the nation’s higher education leader by developing the best-educated state in the nation, by creating new knowledge that demonstrably improves the quality of life for Iowans, and by employing the resources of the Regent institutions to serve the needs of Iowa, its citizens, and the world.

Values: The ideals we uphold

(adopted May 22, 2003)

The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, is committed to:

  • Intellectual development and creativity
  • Academic freedom
  • Academic quality and access
  • Civility
  • Honesty, integrity, and fairness
  • Ethical behavior
  • Collaboration
  • Continuous improvement
  • Diversity among faculty, staff, and students
  • Open, effective communication
  • Public accountability, stewardship and service

Culture: How we do things

(adopted June 19, 2003)

The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, and its institutions nurture cultures, consistent with their values, that are characterized by the following:

  • A passion for learning that enables individuals to achieve their full potential and enhances quality of life
  • Academic freedom that stimulates creativity, inquiry, and the advancement of knowledge
  • Leadership in demonstrating the highest levels of integrity, honesty, ethics, and civil discourse in all activities
  • Collaboration and coordination across the Regent enterprise and with other institutions and organizations, both public and private, to meet the needs of Iowans
  • A commitment to Iowans, our students and our employees to seek continuous improvement in applying knowledge, using resources, and responding to needs and opportunities
  • Respectful interaction among members of diverse backgrounds, cultures and beliefs in nurturing environments that promote critical thinking, free inquiry, open communication, and broad participation
  • Effective communications that inform citizens of the roles, value and impact of the Board and its institutions
  • Governance that demonstrates effective, accountable service to the public through strategic planning, hiring of and delegation to presidents and superintendents, responsible oversight, and effective stewardship of resources.

Priorities, Objectives, Strategies, and Indicators

(adopted February 19, 2004

The Board of Regents, State of Iowa , and its institutions serve Iowa , its citizens, and the world by being a recognized leader in these four priorities:

  1. Ensure high-quality educational opportunities for students.
  2. Discover new knowledge through research, scholarship, and; creative activities.
  3. Provide needed service and promote economic growth.
  4. Demonstrate public accountability and effective stewardship of resources.

The Board of Regents has identified four sets of objectives that set its course for accomplishing the four priorities. The Board has also defined strategies for meeting these objectives. The success of the plan will be measured by progress in performance indicators or completion of appropriate action steps for each strategy.

Strategies, indicators, and action steps that fulfill more than one priority or objective appear more than once in the strategic plan.


  1. Educational Opportunities

    The Board expects the Regent institutions, in accordance with their respective missions, to:

  2. Offer high-quality programs through ongoing program improvement for undergraduate, graduate, professional, and non-degree students and special school students.

    1. Utilize continuing quality improvement processes for all academic programs.

      1. Review of all academic programs at least once every seven years, including assessment of student outcomes

      2. Average undergraduate class size and faculty-to-student ratio

      3. Percent of undergraduate student credit hours taught by tenured/tenure-track/clinical faculty and lecturers

    2. Continue to improve efforts to recruit, enroll, and retain a qualified and diverse student population.

      1. Qualifications of new freshmen (e.g., ACT score, high school rank)

      2. Profile of undergraduate, graduate, and professional student populations by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and socioeconomic status

      3. Total financial aid awarded to resident and nonresident undergraduate and graduate/professional students; number and percentage of resident and nonresident undergraduate and graduate/professional students receiving financial aid(1.2.2.1.)

      4. Retention rates of students by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and socioeconomic status

      5. Development and implementation of an instrument to assess campus climate related to achieving the educational benefits from having a diverse campus community (1.1.3.4.)

    3. Expand educational experiences for Iowa ’s future workforce and foster cultural understanding by recruiting and retaining a highly qualified and diverse faculty, staff, and administration.

      1. Profile of faculty, staff, and administrators by race, ethnicity, gender, and disability, and ratio of tenured to non-tenured faculty by college or school

      2. Retention and tenure rates of faculty by race, ethnicity, gender, and disability

      3. Faculty and staff salaries as compared to peer institutions

      4. Development and implementation of an instrument to assess campus climate related to achieving the educational benefits from having a diverse campus community(1.1.2.5.)

      5. Percent of special school teachers and staff participating in professional development in collaboration with higher education programs(2.1.1.3.)

    4. Provide special school students with skills for lifelong learning and community participation.

      1. Percent of Individual Education Program goals met and progress made, including diploma attainment, as appropriate

      2. Amount and type of services provided by special school personnel to off-campus students who are blind, visually impaired, deaf, and/or hard of hearing

      3. Development and implementation of an assessment instrument that tracks special school students’ participation in extracurricular and community life activities

  3. Facilitate student access and transitions to the Regent universities.

    1. Monitor and enhance opportunities for qualified Iowans to access postsecondary education.

      1. Percentage of eligible Iowahigh school seniors and community college students who apply for admission to the Regent universities and enroll

      2. Headcount enrollment in credit and non-credit courses offered through distance education and off-campus instruction in Iowa(1.3.2.1.)

      3. Number of courses and programs offered via distance learning(1.3.2.2.)

    2. Continue efforts to maintain and enhance affordability of the Regent universities.

      1. Total financial aid awarded to resident and nonresident undergraduate and graduate/professional students; number and percentage of resident and nonresident undergraduate and graduate/professional students receiving financial aid(1.1.2.3.)

      2. Number of students demonstrating financial need who receive tuition set-aside aid

      3. Tuition and fees as a percentage of Iowa’s per capita income, compared to surrounding states, peer institution states, and the national average

      4. Comparative analyses of tuition and fees of Board-established peer groups of the Regent universities

    3. Collaborate with other education sectors to inform potential students about the preparatory work required to enroll in the Regent universities.

      1. Profile of core/non-core courses taken by Iowahigh school students who take the ACT

      2. Significant collaborative efforts of the Regent institutions with K-12 and community colleges

    4. Ease Iowans’ access to opportunities of the Regent institutions through enhanced customer service and communication, and clear and simplified admission processes.

      1. Assessment of undergraduate application processes to ensure seamless transitions to the Regent universities from other education sectors

      2. Creation of an online “gateway” among the Regent institutions, Iowa community colleges, and the Iowa Department of Education, and number of hits on the site

  4. Provide educational experiences that enhance the knowledge, abilities, opportunities, and personal incomes of individual Iowans through educational attainment.

    1. Determine levels of student program completion and promote degree attainment.

      1. Undergraduate student four-year and six-year enterprise graduation rates

      2. Undergraduate student length of time to degree

      3. Undergraduate post-graduation status

      4. Annual survey of reasons students withdraw from the Regent universities prior to graduation

    2. Maintain and create opportunities for distance learning.

      1. Headcount enrollment in credit and non-credit courses offered through distance education and off-campus instruction in Iowa(1.2.1.2.)

      2. Number of courses and programs offered via distance learning(1.2.1.3.)

  5. Research and Scholarship

    The Board expects the Regent institutions, in accordance with their respective missions, to:

  6. Support and increase research, scholarship, and creative activities at the Regent institutions to serve the needs of Iowa and its citizens.

    1. Continue efforts to increase the quantity and quality of research, scholarship, and creative activities.

      1. Development of specific measures of scholarly productivity

      2. Library system ranking

      3. Percent of special school teachers and staff participating in professional development in collaboration with higher education programs(1.1.3.5.)

  7. Create and pursue opportunities to widely disseminate knowledge to other sectors to enhance applications, including those that stimulate economic growth in Iowa.

    1. Stimulate commercial application of knowledge and creation of jobs in Iowa through business and technology incubation, relationships with external partners, and services for businesses, entrepreneurs, and communities statewide.

      1. Periodic reports by the Regent institutions on efforts to encourage, support, and/or fund faculty and staff entrepreneurship and outreach to Iowabusinesses

  8. Service and Economic Growth

    The Board expects the Regent institutions, in accordance with their respective missions, to:

  9. Attract investment to Iowaand grow a variety of business opportunities in the state by building on research strengths and increasing technology transfer to commercial and nonprofit entities.

    1. Increase collaborations that enhance the Regent enterprise’s economic impact.

      1. Major economic development collaborative projects with other state agencies, other public education institutions, and community/government entities

      2. Major economic development collaborative projects with Iowabusinesses and entrepreneurs

      3. Economic development appropriations

      4. Number of intellectual property disclosures; number of patent applications filed; number of patents issued; number of license and option agreements executed on institutional intellectual property; number of licenses yielding income and amount of income; number of clients served by the Small Business Development Centers; amount of total sponsored funding for Regent universities; employment in Iowa for incubator tenants, incubator graduates, and research park tenants; number of new start-up companies, annually, utilizing technology developed by a Regent university

  10. Improve the quality of life in Iowa through educational outreach programs, exceptional and accessible health care, cultural and recreational opportunities, and other valued public services in response to the needs of Iowans.

    1. Provide, support, and evaluate outreach services and opportunities that benefit Iowans.

      1. Numbers of individuals, organizations, counties, and communities served annually by educational outreach programs of the Regent institutions, reflecting statewide geographic impact

      2. Regent institutions’ major outreach programs in promoting education, health, agriculture, economic development,community vitality, and other areas

      3. Number of patients served annually by University of Iowa Hospitalsand Clinics, national measures of the quality of care, and increased patient satisfaction with the clinical experiences, reflecting statewide geographic impact

      4. Number of institution-wide cultural, fine arts, athletic, and other events offered annually, and number of attendees in each category

  11. Public Accountability

    Serving the people of Iowa, the Board of Regents and its institutions will:

  12. Utilize management and oversight systems that regularly measure achievements in Board and institution strategic priorities, while pursuing continuous quality improvement in programs and services.

    1. Pursue opportunities to realize greater efficiency in operations, consistent with best practices in the delivery of education and other services.

      1. Periodic evaluation of Board operating processes, including internal reallocations

    2. Monitor types and implications of governance reports.

      1. Periodic evaluation of all governance reports, including possible revisions and deletions, to ensure their continued value to the Board

    3. Periodically review the Board’s strategic plan and the Regent institutions’ strategic plans and assess progress.

      1. Periodic review of the Board’s and institutions’ strategic plans

  13. Maximize benefits to Iowans and other citizens by determining and fulfilling appropriate resource needs for education, research and scholarship, service activities, and economic development efforts.

    1. Advocate for adequate support and optimize funding for Regent institutions from all sources for high-quality educational opportunities accessible to Iowans, research and scholarship, service activities, and economic development efforts.

      1. Submission of regular Board-approved appropriations requests to state elected officials

      2. Trend data on Regent enterprise share of state appropriations

      3. Analyses of increased/decreased state higher education appropriations compared to surrounding states, peer institution states, and the national average

      4. Trend data on external grants and gifts, including federal appropriations

      5. Trend data on state and federal financial aid resources for undergraduate students

      6. Trend data on state support for capital projects that support teaching, research, scholarship, and service activities

  14. Expand opportunities for individuals by strengthening Iowa’s educational system through collaboration with other education sectors.

    1. Serve as active partners in developing and implementing statewide education improvement initiatives.

      1. Demonstrated leadership and participation in statewide education improvement initiatives and organizations

  15. Ensure compliance with Board policies and legal mandates through responsible oversight of operations.

    1. Monitor policies to ensure compliance with legal mandates and other regulations.

      1. Review of audit recommendations and implementation of corrective actions as necessary

  16. Serve as an active and enthusiastic advocate and communicator for the Regent institutions, their students, and the citizens they serve by maintaining positive relationships with elected officials, other education sectors, the media and the public at large.

    1. Communicate the opportunities, value, impact on the quality of life in Iowa , and accountability of the Regent enterprise to targeted constituents through cost-effective methods.

      1. Implementation, evaluation, and enhancement of Board’s communications plan, including regular online newsletter, web site, news releases, submission of editorials, media responses, and outreach activities with targeted constituents

      2. Utilization of research and public dialogue to evaluate and enhance awareness and understanding of the Regent enterprise

    2. Develop a program of continued interaction and outreach with elected officials.

      1. Number of legislative contacts completed other than those made during the legislative session