The University of Iowa is one of three public institutions overseen by the commission.
Voting student positions on the Iowa Board of Regents would be eliminated under a new bill advanced by the Hawkeye State House Higher Education Subcommittee, iowa capital wire the report said.
If the bill passes and is signed into law, the student regent will be replaced by a ninth student regent appointed by the governor. In addition, seven new non-voting seats would be created: three for students, two for state senators and two for state representatives.
The proposed legislation also details several new policies and programs the board would be required to enact and would give members of the state Legislature the ability to override board and university spending through joint resolutions.
These policy overviews are consistent with the higher education priorities of the Republican majority in the state Legislature. They include:
- Establish a post-tenure review process
- Develop approval criteria for new academic programs
- Prohibits the Faculty Senate from “exercising any governance authority over the institution”
- Review of all general education requirements and low-enrollment academic programs every two years
- Establishes an Office of the Ombudsman to “investigate complaints of violations of state or federal law or board policy”
The Iowa Board of Regents is the central governing body that oversees all three of the state’s four-year colleges and universities – the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Public community colleges are overseen by locally elected boards of trustees.
