Pamela Anthony

AMES – Pamela Anthony, assistant dean of students at Georgia State University, Atlanta, will begin as Iowa State University’s new dean of students Aug. 1, ISU officials said Friday.

Anthony succeeds Dione Somerville, who left ISU in June 2011 to become vice president for student affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony has been assistant dean of students at Georgia State since August 2003. Previously, she was director of student activities at Spelman College and held two positions at the University of Alaska.

Anthony earned her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology from James Madison University, a master’s in student personnel in higher education from the University of Georgia and her doctorate in educational policy studies from Georgia State.

The jury judgement in favor of the UI, with court costs assessed to the plaintiff, was reached this week in Johnson County District Court.

Donald Macfarlane, a professor in the Carver College of Medicine, claimed in the lawsuit that the UI Research Foundation managed the patents on his research in a way that limited his further work on and potential income from a lucrative sale of the technology.

The non-profit UI Research Foundation commercializes university-developed technologies and inventions through licensing and manages the revenue stream.

In his lawsuit, Cliff Missen said that despite his repeated complaints to Heritage Property Management agency, the UI and the regents office, the university ignored the problem. He said he was eventually diagnosed by an allergist with a serious mold allergy after suffering numerous health problems.

He’s seeking $125,000 in general damages and $250,000 in punitive damages.

“There’s something really wrong about what they did,” he said. “Decent people would have sat down and said, ‘We made a mistake, I’m sorry, let’s fix it.’ That’s exactly what I wanted.”

Officials with the regents office said they don’t comment on pending litigation. UI officials did not immediately have a response to the lawsuit.

Missen filed the suit against the board of regents, the UI and Heritage on May 7 in Johnson County District Court.

He said he rented the UI-owned house at 219 Melrose Ct. in October 2008 through agent Heritage Property Management, and he lived there for about 10 months.

Chaden Djalali (image via University of South Carolina's Web site)

University of Iowa officials on Friday named Chaden Djalali as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective Aug. 15.

Djalali is professor and chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina. He was one of three finalists to visit the UI campus in the dean search in March and April.

Djalali, 56, joined the physics faculty of South Carolina in 1989 and has served as the chairman of the department since 2004. In 2007 he was appointed to a Carolina Distinguished Professorship in recognition of his outstanding research and teaching.

His UI salary will be $325,000. The appointment is subject to approval by the state Board of Regents.

Djalali will replace Linda Maxson, who served as dean of UI liberal arts and sciences for 15 years and will rejoin the UI biology faculty upon stepping down.

Djalali maintains an active research program in intermediate energy nuclear physics and hadronic physics and has taught at all university levels and contributed significantly to undergraduate and graduate curriculum development.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Paris XI and doctorate from Institut de Physique Nucléaire in Paris.

Nursing instructor Jessica Manning shows the life-like actions of the infant that is part of the new NOELLE maternity simulator used to instruct nursing students at Kaplan University in Cedar Rapids. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

Complaints to two state agencies about for-profit colleges have risen dramatically in recent years, enough so that it’s become a top priority for the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Many of the student complaints involve billing practices or student loan issues, according to data from the Attorney General’s Office and the Iowa College Student Aid Commission. A majority of the complaints come from students in the schools’ online programs.

“It’s one of the areas that we’ve identified as a priority because of the amount of money involved with these student loans,” Bill Brauch, director of the Consumer Protection Division of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, said. “We have concerns about practices of some of these entities.”

Since 2008, 129 written complaints have been filed with the Attorney General’s Office regarding for-profit schools, training academies or correspondence courses, and the complaints more than doubled from 2010 to 2011. Since 2009, when a new tracking system was launched at Iowa College Aid, that office has received 242 complaints about for-profit institutions, with complaints growing by more than 300 percent from 2009 to 2010. To compare, Iowa College Aid received five complaints about community colleges in that span, and nine complaints about private non-profit colleges.

The most frequent concerns are about a school’s management of financial aid, bills owned to the schools by students who withdraw, concerns about poor customer service and misleading information about what a program would prepare students for, state officials said.

Susan Spivey

Officials with one large for-profit university that has six Iowa campuses, including one in Cedar Rapids, said they work to meet the needs of their growing number of students, and they try to quickly resolve concerns that arise. It’s an educational model that works for thousands of students, said Susan Spivey, president of Kaplan University’s Cedar Rapids campus.

“We don’t have anything to hide. We do a good job,” she said. “If someone has a problem, we want to fix that.”

Kaplan’s Cedar Rapids campus has 600 students, but the university as a whole serves 50,000 students nationwide, especially online, Spivey said. The 28 complaints the Iowa attorney general received about Kaplan since 2008 seems like a small number compared to the large population served, she said. The for-profit industry also has been put under a spotlight in recent years, Spivey said, which likely led to more complaints.

Kaplan student Tammy Dame of Marion said she likes the small class sizes and the accelerated nursing program option, adding Kaplan’s Cedar Rapids campus feels like a small family. The 42-year-old is studying for an associate nursing degree and she previously earned her LPN from Kaplan.

“I’ve had a really good experience,” she said.

Student’s dispute

Keith Morgan looks through a file of paperwork Thursday at his home in North Liberty. Morgan kept the paperwork while trying to settle a dispute with ITT Technical Institute. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Keith Morgan of North Liberty. It took more than a year for Morgan to settle a dispute with ITT Technical Institute’s online program about $313 in charges the school said he owed for classes Morgan says he never registered for or attended. Morgan, 52, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office in 2011.

Morgan took online classes in the criminal justice program in the spring of 2010, but told ITT officials he was transferring to another school at the end of that term. He notified them and had his federal student loans switched to the other school, he said. But it took months of phone calls, letters and emails, and some help from Sen. Tom Harkin’s office, before ITT said he was no longer responsible for the charges and released his academic transcript, he said.

He was working 40 hours a week as a night security guard during that time and helping his wife, who was sick with cancer, with an at-home day care. They were getting calls nearly every day from collection agencies about the $313. Morgan still hasn’t gotten back on the education track after the transcript delay.

“This whole thing drug out for a year and there was just no reason for it,” he said. “I do want to finish my degree, but I’m tired of dealing with everything I had to deal with.”

Growth industry

Private for-profit institutions are the fastest growing part of the U.S. higher education market, according to a February report by Harvard researchers. For-profit enrollment increased from 0.2 percent to 9.1 percent of the total enrollment in degree-granting schools from 1970 to 2009. The researchers also found that for-profits educate a larger fraction of minority, disadvantaged and older students and do a better job retaining them in their first year, but have higher student debt burdens and loan default rates and higher unemployment rates.

Some government officials worry about those trends, and about the large amount of federal student loan money flowing to the schools. Harkin, D-Iowa, has led a charge to improve oversight of for-profit schools, which Harkin says are more expensive, and often have high-pressure recruitment but poor student support.

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office recently released a consumer advisory about for-profit education, warning consumers to investigate tuition and fees, a school’s accreditation and graduation rate information before considering enrollment.

Ashford University was the subject of the most complaints to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office since 2008, at 53. Ashford has a small campus in Clinton and a much larger online presence. Officials with Bridgepoint Education, which owns Ashford, declined to comment for this story.

Debbie Rutledge, 46, filed multiple complaints with Ashford during her time as an online student and filed a complaint with the attorney general this year. Most were related to financial aid, specifically about the time it took Ashford to release to her the money that goes to students once college costs are covered.

“They would argue with you that it wasn’t yours, that it was theirs until they let you have it,” she said.

Rutledge graduated with honors last weekend with a degree in health care administration and a minor in psychology. She chose Ashford after a recruiter came to her home in Bettendorf, selling her on the online program, but said after she enrolled she had trouble getting answers to her questions and concerns. Now she owes nearly $60,000 in student loans, and she wonders if it was worth it.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “What I paid and what I did doesn’t match what I got.” There is an investigation under way by the Iowa Attorney General of Bridgepoint for possible violations of the state’s Consumer Fraud Act.

Iowa also is cooperating with a number of other states to share information about for-profit college practices and complaints, Brauch said.

An aerial view of the Kirkwood Community College campus at the south edge of Cedar Rapids. (Sourcemedia File Photo)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Students at Kirkwood Community College will pay $5 more per credit hour in tuition next year, a 3.9 percent increase approved unanimously by the school’s board of trustees Thursday.

The increase will make tuition $133 per credit hour next year for Kirkwood’s more than 17,000 students.

State funding was favorable for community colleges this Legislative session, Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich said. But Kirkwood officials project a 5 percent decrease in credit enrollment in the fall, which necessitates the tuition increase, he said. Had enrollment been projected to remain steady, Starcevich said he would have recommended no tuition increase.

“We have to protect against the likelihood” of an enrollment decline, which will lead to a drop in revenue, he said. “This is just a safeguard for that.”

Board of trustees Chairwoman Lois Bartelme said Kirkwood will remain one of the lowest-priced community colleges in Iowa, even with the increase.

This fall’s projected enrollment decline would follow a 4.8 percent enrollment decline in fall 2011, to 17,610 students. That came on the heels of two years of enrollment growth that totaled more than 20 percent, Starcevich said.

The college has increased the amount is raises for student scholarships, to more than $2 million.

Also at the meeting, the board approved bids on three construction projects.

A $1.1 million bid from CJ Moyna of Elkader was the low bid out of 12 on a project to build truck-driving ranges, a training loop and a parking lot at the new Kirkwood Continuing Education Training Center, 101 50th Ave. SW.

The board also approved a bid of about $714,800 for the new Kirkwood Eagle Tech Store in Benton Hall, which will be an Apple Authorized Campus Store, and a bid of $397,400 for a remodeling project in Benton Hall.

Many of the UI commencement ceremonies will be held Saturday. The largest ceremony, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences event, will be 9 a.m. at Carver Hawkeye Arena, with UI President Sally Mason awarding about 2,145 bachelor’s degrees. Also Saturday, The College of Engineering ceremony will be at 10 a.m. at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville and the Graduate College ceremony will be at 3 p.m. in Carver Hawkeye Arena.

The Tippie College of Business ceremony will be 1 p.m. Sunday in Carver Hawkeye Arena.

This year, the UI also presents honorary degrees to three Iowans, recognizing former Iowa governor Robert Ray, former state Board of Regents president Stanley Redeker and pharmacy leader Robert Osterhaus. Ray will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree at College of Law commencement Friday. Redeker will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the Graduate College ceremony. Osterhaus will received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree at College of Pharmacy commencement Thursday.

Also this week, Kirkwood Community College will hold spring commencement activities Friday and Saturday.

Kirkwood will honor more than 2,750 students in commencement ceremonies for its college credit and GED/adult high school programs this week. Both ceremonies will be held at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids.

Kirkwood will confer 2,290 college credit degrees, diplomas and certificates for study in the past academic year. The college also has awarded more than 465 GED and adult high school diplomas in 2011-12.

The Kirkwood Adult High School Commencement is set for 7:30 p.m., Friday. The college commencement will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday.

Volunteers fill sandbags along Madison Street in front of the Lindquist Center on the University of Iowa Campus Friday, June 13, 2008 in Iowa City. The UI announced on Friday that all non-essential faculty and staff should not report to work on the UI campus, effective immediately. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

University of Iowa officials said they are disappointed by the federal government’s denial of money to replace the UI Museum of Art at a new location, and they are considering their next steps.

State officials Wednesday announced the decision by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to deny the UI’s second appeal regarding museum funding in the wake of the 2008 flood. The first UI appeal was denied in January 2011 by the regional FEMA office. The second UI appeal for funding was to the federal FEMA office.

UI Spokesman Tom Moore said university officials are reviewing possible next steps or any other available recourse in coordination with the state.

“President (Sally) Mason reiterates her strong support for the UI Museum of Art and for the need for a reliable and safe facility for the university’s art collection,” Moore said in the statement.

UI officials seek FEMA funding to replace the Museum of Art at a new location, away from the Iowa River, because university officials say no insurance company will insure the art in that location. The 12,000-piece collection was evacuated from the museum in the days leading up to the June 2008 flood, and some of the art was damaged. The collection is now being displayed and stored in other locations.

After the flood, FEMA ruled the Museum of Art did not sustain enough damage to qualify for replacement funding. Instead, FEMA would help pay to repair the museum building, but not to replace it elsewhere. The UI appealed, arguing the museum was ruined, since art cannot be returned for insurance reasons. The extensive collection is insured for $500 million.

Under FEMA regulations the building is eligible to be replaced if it is not feasible to repair it so that it can function at the same level that it had before the disaster. This denial by FEMA claims the regulations do not apply because the decision not to insure “is a business decision by private insurance companies,” according to the statement from the state office.

“I am disappointed in this decision by FEMA,” Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division Administrator Mark Schouten said in the statement. “We will work with the University of Iowa to evaluate our options.”

In March, Mason said it’s “absolutely realistic” to build a new museum without federal dollars, but that it would require significant fundraising. At the time, Mason expressed hope the appeal would come back in the UI’s favor.

State Board of Regents leaders in March gave support to Mason’s statements, saying it’s a priority to replace the museum. They wanted to work through the appeal process but said they are committed to rebuilding the museum “with or without FEMA funding,” Regents President Craig Lang said.

He also said it’s not unusual for the spouses of college or university presidents to be paid for their work on behalf of a school.

Lang released a statement in response to questions raised about the pay arrangement for Ken Mason, Sally Mason’s husband. Ken Mason will get $54,175 this year to attend fundraising events on behalf of the school. The UI Foundation pays for the position, which is in addition to his job as a lecturer in the UI biology department — bringing his total annual pay to more than $107,000.

Lang said he will not comment on contractual arrangements made during the presidential hiring process that predates his term as board president, but he said “it is not uncommon for informal discussions of this nature to take place during the presidential hiring process.”

“Ken Mason plays an important role in helping the University of Iowa President Sally Mason in promoting and raising money for the university. As a spouse, Ken’s daily schedule, including teaching, is very demanding as he is expected to attend almost every event on campus with President Mason,” Lang said in the statement. “He attends most, if not all athletic events, including networking, and entertaining donors and alumni at hundreds of other university events throughout the year. Ken is an invaluable partner to President Sally Mason and the university community, helping to raise over $800 million dollars for the university since their arrival in 2007.”

And compensation for presidential spouses is not new, Lang said.

New University of Iowa President Sally Mason and her husband Ken look at a sign welcoming them to the UI Thursday, June 21, 2007 at the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City.

The UI is a member of the Association of American Universities, a group of 63 large research universities. That organization estimates as many as half of its members now pay the spouses of presidents, Lang said. The association adopted guidelines in 2001 urging governing boards to recognize a partner’s role when they recruit presidents, and to consider offering spouses a titled position with a job description, salary and/or benefits, he said.

The airtight maze of metal ducts and two large turbines were installed in the new environmentally controlled blower room beneath the Sinclair Auditorium stage. The blower provides the air, or “wind,” that makes the sounds for the Skinner organ.

Doug Cornell from Climate Engineers checks the fit of segments of pipe as he works in the organ chamber in Sinclair Auditorium at Coe College. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)

“This is the lungs of the colossus,” said Jeff Weiler, a 1981 Coe graduate and organ curator based in Chicago who is leading the restoration. “What this represents is the first major phase of a multiphase, multiyear project that will restore this instrument to its 1929 condition.”

It’s important for the college and the Cedar Rapids community to understand that they are home to “one of the most important pipe organs in the world,” Weiler said.

“It’s an enormous cultural asset,” he said. “It’s iconic in terms of its heritage value.”

Constructed by esteemed builder Ernest M. Skinner, considered the “best of the best” in American organ building, it will be one of few Skinner organs in the country to be fully restored upon completion of this project in several years, Weiler said. And the Coe organ represents the work of the Skinner firm at the zenith of the company, he said.

Skinner organs are no longer made. To build something like this today would cost millions of dollars, and certain materials used in the instrument are no longer available, said Weiler, a Traer native.

The old blower room was located in an unsuitable environment, next to where steam entered the building, he said. Burst steam pipes on several occasions caused water and mold damage to some of the old blower components, so a few portions were rebuilt with new materials.

But the rest of the blower’s original parts were restored in this project, Weiler said. The blower also will be restored to “full voices,” since the instrument’s power was tamped down in the move to Sinclair Auditorium in 1952.

The organ actually belongs to the city of Cedar Rapids. The Veterans Memorial Commission purchased it new for $35,000 in 1930; it was not unusual at that time for cities to buy organs for civic auditoriums. But by the 1950s, the organ had fallen into disuse and some disrepair. The city struck a deal with Coe to move the organ to campus in 1952, and Coe has since housed and maintained the instrument.

Coe raised more than $100,000 for the restoration. The college hopes to get $800,000 from the Bradley Foundation in Bryn Mawr, Pa., a philanthropic group with the sole purpose of supporting the preservation of Skinner pipe organs, to complete the rest of the restoration to the 3,170 pipes and organ console. What happens next in the process and how long that takes depends on the amount officials receive from the Bradley Foundation.

About 40 local donors contributed to Coe’s fundraising effort, with the Veterans Memorial Commission making the largest contribution, said Dick Meisterling, Coe’s vice president for advancement.

“We are very excited to reach this stage,” he said. “This is a big deal for us.”

The quality of the restored organ will be such that organ enthusiasts from around the world will come to see it, Weiler said.

“There is interest on an international scale,” he said. “What you see here is the best of the best.”

The push to make Iowa the healthiest state — up from 16th place now, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index — hinges on community-wide efforts such as the Blue Zones initiative, but also on one-to-one contact between health care providers and their patients, Branstad said.

“Obviously we need to get people to take ownership of their own health,” he said. “Where you can be involved is, as health care professionals, the impact you can have and the influence you can have with your patients” to make healthy choices.

Branstad spoke to the annual spring Nurse Practitioner Conference of the University of Iowa College of Nursing and the Iowa Association of Nurse Practitioners. Cedar Rapids is a Blue Zone site finalist, and the first round of chosen communities will be announced Friday.

Some of the nurse practitioners noted that financial resources or health insurance constraints are often a hindrance to them helping patients, especially elementary-age students, get affordable access to the resources or education they need, such as dieticians. One nurse practitioner noted that helping low-income families find ways to afford healthy food is a big frustration for her.

Food stamps can be used a farmers’ markets around the state, Branstad noted, and it also helps to educate people about buying healthy food in bulk so it’s more affordable. He said state mandates on insurance companies regarding coverage can be a tricky process if it drives up insurance costs at first.

Another nurse practitioner said she refers many families with young children to the free access of the dietician in each Hy-Vee grocery store, because she knows that many insurance companies won’t cover such services. Branstad that’s an example of the public-private partnership needed to tackle such a challenging issue.

Getting people to take ownership of their own health also could come in the form of financial incentives from their employers for making health choices, Branstad said. He also noted that 96 percent of state employees pay nothing for their health insurance coverage. He wants to see state employees — including the governor and elected officials — pay at least 20 percent of their health insurance premiums. It’s a budget-saving measure for the state, but also encourages healthy choices, he said.

“Frankly, it will also help people to really feel they have some ownership and some skin in the game as we work to make Iowa the healthiest state,” he said.

Branstad said he believes in leading by example, noting he has lost 12 pounds since Jan. 1 and has a goal of wearing his Army uniform this Memorial Day, 41 years after he served in the Army.

A boat full of people makes it's way through the intersection of Highway Six and Hawkins Drive in Iowa City as sightseers take photos Friday, June 13, 2008. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa officials on Tuesday received word of the official obligation of more than $6.7 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the demolition of three flood-damaged campus buildings.

The new obligation is money UI officials had expected from FEMA, but the obligation is the final step in the formal commitment of these funds.

The newly-obligated funds will be used in the demolition of Hancher Auditorium, Voxman Music Building and the Studio Arts complex, save for one portion of the Grant Wood studio there that was deemed historic and will be preserved, UI Spokesman Tom Moore said.

Of the $6.7 million obligation, nearly $5 million will go toward the Hancher and Voxman demolition, and $1.7 million will be used for the Studio Arts demolition. Work on those projects is expected to start this summer or fall, UI officials have said.

The UI already has received its total obligation from FEMA for the replacement of those buildings. FEMA treats demolition as a separate project, and therefore obligates money through a process separate from the replacement obligation, Moore said.

FEMA awards the money through the Iowa Homeland Security Office. UI damage and recovery costs from the June 2008 flood could total about $1 billion.

Cedar Rapids resident Sonia Kendrick

CEDAR RAPIDS — Sonia Kendrick will walk across the stage Saturday to collect her diploma in agronomy from Iowa State University.

But before she gets to enjoy that pomp and circumstance, Kendrick, 35, of Cedar Rapids, has some other walking to do. About 100 miles of walking, actually.

Kendrick is spending four days walking from Cedar Rapids to Ames to raise awareness about hunger in Iowa and for her nonprofit organization, Feed Iowa First. After taking her last final exam Monday, she left Cedar Rapids early Tuesday and expected to overnight along her journey with family or community hosts in Keystone, the Meskwaki Indian Settlement and State Center before arriving in Ames on Friday.

Driving that route three times a week for six semesters — mileage that would take her around the world one and a half times — gave her plenty of time to think, Kendrick said Tuesday during her lunch stop at the Youngville Cafe, about 15 miles west of Cedar Rapids. She said she decided she wanted to do something to help the 340,000 Iowans who have limited access to safe and nutritious food on a daily basis, and raise awareness of the fact that 85 percent of Iowa’s food is imported.

You often hear that Iowa feeds the world, Kendrick said, but some of the state’s own residents aren’t being fed.

“We put all of our focus into two different crops,” she said. “But when Iowa State was founded there was over 200 different crops we grew.”

To increase production of vegetables and fruit, the state will need “many, many good farmers,” she said.

Importing food ties the price of that food to rising fuel costs, Kendrick said. So Feed Iowa First aims to take donated plots of land — mostly from Cedar Rapids-area churches at this point — to grow fresh produce for local food pantries. In a trial run in 2011 with one acre of donated land, she grew more than one ton of vegetables for the Abundance of Love food pantry.

As her venture blooms, Kendrick said she hopes to hire aspiring farmers for one- or two-year rotations, so they can help tend the produce and learn farming techniques they can then teach others around the state, hopefully eventually qualifying them for low-interest Farm Service Agency loans as new farmers.

“We have to invest in our future,” she said. “It’s vital that we see beginning farmers and new farmers as an investment into our future food structure, because it’s going to be more costly to ship food here.”

As for all that walking, Kendrick said she tried to train with daily walks, when possible, since she hatched the plan a few months ago. Her time spent in the Army and the National Guard, including a stint in Afghanistan in 2003, taught her some good lessons in keeping your feet dry for long-distance walking, she said.

She wears a yellow safety vest with reflective stripes and carries a backpack with spare socks, PowerBars, rain gear and a gallon and a half of water.

“I thought if I broke it up into four days, it’s doable,” she said. “I knew it was gonna hurt. But we can do things we cannot imagine.”

Officials with the state Department of Education said the 11 community colleges earned accreditation through the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), which validates the quality of programs that provide college courses to high school students.

The colleges earning accreditation in 2012 include Northeast Iowa Community College, Hawkeye Community College and Kirkwood Community College.

To earn accreditation from NACEP, the Iowa community colleges conducted extensive self-study, documented how their programs adhere to standards and were evaluated by peer reviewers from NACEP-accredited programs, state officials said in a statement.

A still image from the feature film "Bully." (image taken from thebullyproject.com)

The University of Northern Iowa will host a panel discussion on bullying and violence prevention featuring the writer and director of a current documentary on the subject.

UNI’s Center for Violence Prevention is supporting the Bully Project’s: 1 Million Kids movement by bringing the documentary film “Bully” to campus. Students and educators in Cedar Falls and Waterloo schools and at UNI will get 1,000 tickets for the film, which will air April 27 through May 1 at Marcus College Square Theatres in Cedar Falls. The public can purchase tickets at the theater.

Then UNI will host “Bully” film director, Lee Hirsch, and Cynthia Lowen, producer and writer, for a panel discussion that is free and open to the public, at 4 p.m., Tuesday, May 1, in Sabin Auditorium on the UNI campus. UNI faculty who research and educate about bullying will join Hirsch and Lowen. The panel will discuss bullying and strategies for prevention as well as work on the film.

“Bully” follows the lives of five students who face bullying on a daily basis. For more information about the film, visit thebullyproject.com.

UNI’s Center for Violence Prevention houses the Mentors in Violence Prevention Institute at all three public universities in Iowa, and leads the effort to infuse MVP into the teacher education and education leadership curriculum at UNI.

Water is pumped out of a service tunnel near the Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building on the University of Iowa Campus Thursday, June 19, 2008 in Iowa City. UI officials have become concerned about the structural integrity of some of the tunnels which are primarily used to provide steam to heat UI buildings. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

CEDAR FALLS — University of Iowa officials will appeal three more flood-related funding decisions to the Federal Emergency Management Agency regional office in Kansas City.

At stake is millions of dollars denied at the state level of FEMA on several projects that UI officials believe the federal government should help fund.

Doug True, UI senior vice president for finance and operations, said it’s not unusual for multiple appeals to be filed with FEMA in the cases of such extensive disaster recovery. Damage and recovery estimates could total $1 billion at the UI from the June 2008 flood.

“I think we’ll have a number of appeals,” True said after updating the state Board of Regents during a meeting in Cedar Falls. “Our hope is we can document it vigorously and prevail.”

The UI already has an appeal pending with FEMA’s federal office in Washington, D.C., regarding the denial of funding for a new Museum of Art building.

Of the three new appeals, the two biggest involve the UI Power Plant, True said. One appeal involves recovery work done in the wake of the flood at the Power Plant and in the underground utility tunnels across campus. About $22.6 million in recovery work was done, and the state FEMA office denied $16 million of that reimbursement, which the UI is appealing to seek 90 percent FEMA funding, True said. That work involves about 2,300 separate work invoices, so it’s a detailed process, he said.

A second appeal involves denial of costs for mitigation work planned for the future to protect the Power Plant, work that will cost “in the millions, a number that’s significant,” True said.

“It is a critical facility” for operation of the university and the hospital, he said of the need to protect the power plant.

The third appeal involves recovery work at the Iowa Memorial Union, and Americans with Disability Act accessibility standards required as part of that work. That is about $800,000 worth of work that UI officials will complete, with or without FEMA funding, True said.

Many of the items just said “denied” and UI officials don’t know the reasons.

“We don’t know exactly why, but we start from scratch and go through it all” with FEMA, he said.

A group protesting cuts at UNI and the Malcolm Price Lab School stand in the back of a Iowa Board of Regents meeting in the Maucker Union on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Thursday, April 26, 2012. (RICK CHASE / Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

Protesters opposed to budget cuts at the University of Northern Iowa challenged state regents and UNI President Ben Allen today to meet with them to discuss why the decisions were made and what the protestors see as the lack of public input surrounding the plans.

About 100 protesters gathered outside Maucker Union on the UNI campus while the regents were meeting inside this morning. Eventually, many of the protesters made their way inside the ballroom where the regents were meeting, and about 30 to 40 protestors crammed into an area for a media briefing with board and university officials during the lunch break.

During the media briefing, the protesters challenged Board of Regents leaders and Allen on the budget cut plans, amid some shouting. The regents and Allen for the most part did not respond to the shouts, and took questions only from the media.

Joe Gorton, UNI associate professor of criminology, at the end of the briefing asked regents if the board would be willing to meet with a coalition of community leaders to discuss the closing of Malcolm Price Lab School, cutting the university museum and cutting nearly 60 academic programs, all approved in recent weeks by the regents.

Board officials filed out of the room and didn’t respond to his questions.

“Let’s have a conversation, why are you walking away,” Gorton shouted. “Would you be willing to meet with a coalition of community leaders? OK, the answer is no? The answer is no? They won’t meet with us.”

Walking into the media briefing, the regents were met with shouts of “no!” “no!” and “shame!” Many of the protestors held homemade signs about the cuts.

UNI President Ben Allen leaves a press conference after the morning session of an Iowa Board of Regents meeting in the Maucker Union on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Thursday, April 26, 2012. The press conference was attended by sign-carrying protesters.(RICK CHASE / Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

In response to a media question about the protesters, Regents President Craig Lang said it’s part of the American way.

“I believe it’s important for people to demonstrate and show their concerns,” he said. “We’ve read their emails and we’ve seen all their letters. We respected those, as well as we like them to respect us. This is a difficult time. I know that decisions that have been made have… impacted on many families, many teachers and many students.”

The concern from here on out, Lang said, it to make UNI sustainable in the future and to bring the most value to Iowa students.

Lang’s comments that the board read the emails and letters from the public drew some groans from the protestors, who have said they believe public input was lacking and board members did not see or respond to many of the concerns.

Allen said he respects the people who disagree.

“We also know that there are many people who are moving forward with these decisions and trying to implement those decisions in ways that will continue the strength of this university,” he said.

After Allen made some comments about not knowing how many layoffs will result from the budget cuts, one protestor yelled that she had received a pink slip.

“Here’s a layoff. Terminated! I’ve been terminated,” Price Lab School teacher Courtney Clausen shouted.

Some tenured UNI faculty have been offered buyout packages, with an April 30 deadline to declare their intent to take the offer. Allen said that means officials won’t know how many layoffs there might be until they know how many take the buyout, which should be in the next week or two. More than 29 buyouts were offered; Allen placed the number “somewhere in the 40s.”

UNI Associate Professor of Physics John Deisz listens to UNI President Ben Allen's answer to a question at a press conference before the noon break of an Iowa Board of Regents meeting in the Maucker Union on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Thursday, April 26, 2012. (RICK CHASE / Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

There will be a “x number” of positions available in the restructuring of the research and development school and relocating student field experiences, but the number of positions offered likely won’t “match up with the people affected,” Allen said.

The lab school is slated to close June 30, though parents and other supporters of the school have filed a lawsuit charging the regents did not have authority to close the school without Legislative action.

People watch at the University of Iowa Athletics Department's indoor practice facility knowns as "The Bubble" is deflated Friday, April 20, 2012 on the campus of the University of Iowa in Iowa City. The bubble has served as Iowa’s indoor practice facility since it was completed in 1985. (Brian Ray/The Gazette-KCRG)

State regents today approved a University of Iowa plan for the $36.6 million phase two of the UI Football Operations Facility.

No general university dollars or increased student fees would be used as a revenue source. Construction is scheduled to start in spring 2013, with completion in summer 2014.

The building will be immediately adjacent to and south of the new Indoor Athletics Practice and Recreation Facility, now under construction. The Football Operations Facility will include spaces for strength/conditioning, squad meetings, video editing, lockers for players and coaches, coach’s offices and reception space.

UI Athletics Director Gary Barta said the funds for the project are all self-generated, through fundraising and athletic department revenues.

Also at today’s meeting in Cedar Falls, the board gave officials approval to demolish three UI-owned properties. The demolitions are: three duplexes at 2220 Crosspark Rd. on the Oakdale Research campus; a house at 711 Melrose Ave.; and a house at 15 Melrose Pl.

The regents also approved increases to residence hall rates for next year at the UI, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University. Double-occupancy rooms with full board will increase 3.74 percent, to $8,343 at the UI; a 1.33 percent increase, to $7,722 at ISU; and a 2.3 percent increase, to $7,597 at UNI. The residence systems are self-supporting and don’t receive state funds for operations or improvements.

Losing the tuition set-aside program, which has come under scrutiny from some lawmakers in recent weeks, could mean losing students who receive aid through the program. That would lead to a drop in revenue at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, regents Chief Business Officer Patrice Sayre told the state Board of Regents.

Ending the program, which provides scholarship money to more than 25,500 undergraduate students at the three schools, also could mean declines in retention and graduation rates, an increase in student debt and a narrowing of diversity on the campuses, Sayre said. If the program were ended, money now used for the set-aside scholarships could be directed to other budget areas at the universities, she said.

The average tuition set-aside grant to a resident student was $3,944 last year.

State regents will spend a “good deal of time” discussing tuition set-aside at the board’s June meeting,  President Craig Lang said. They want to look at how much money goes to student scholarships — need-based and merit-based — through the program and how much of that money goes to in-state students and out-of-state students, among other issues, Lang said.

Under the policy, the three regent universities must set aside at least 15 percent of student tuition revenues for use as need-based and merit-based scholarships. The policy has been in place since 1989.

Some legislators have questioned the program, saying it has happened under the radar of most students and parents and that it may not be fair for some students to help cover the costs for other students. Several other states have similar set-aside programs.

At Thursday’s meeting, the board heard some basic facts about tuition set-aside in preparation for the June discussion.

The program is used to boost access and affordability, and to achieve enrollment goals in making the student body more diverse demographically, ethnically and socio-economically, Sayre said.

The program is a “valuable tool that allows the universities broad discretion” to meet the needs of students and respond to economic conditions, such as the Iowa farm crisis, she said.

Tuition rates are set using the Higher Education Price Index, which measures inflation in education, Sayre said. No additional amount of tuition increase is set to compensate for the set-aside program, she said.

Tuition proceeds do not cover the cost of running the universities, and all in-state students are subsidized by the state appropriations, she said.

At the three universities, 80 percent of resident students who receive aid demonstrate need, Sayre said. Nationally, Iowa ranks third-lowest in state-funded aid to students at public universities, she said.

Regent Bob Downer of Iowa City said there seems to be a perception that tuition revenues go into a bucket, and 15 percent to 20 percent of that bucket comes out and goes to someone else. Downer said that’s not the case.

“It goes into the general fund, and the case could be made that it’s coming out of the state appropriations or other general fund sources,” he said of the set-aside program.

Craig Lang

State regents today re-elected the board’s president and president pro tem to another term.

Regent Craig Lang of Brooklyn, Iowa, was unanimously elected as board president, with Lang abstaining. Regent Bruce Rastetter of Alden was unanimously elected as president pro tempore, with Rastetter abstaining.

The board elects leadership each spring in even-numbered years. The new terms will start May 1 and run through May 1, 2014.

Lang took over as board president in July, with Rastetter voted as president pro tempore at that time. That vote came after Gov. Terry Branstad asked the former president and president pro tempore to step down from those leadership posts, saying he wanted different board leadership.

Lang, a Republican, has been a regent since 2007, and his term on the board expires in 2013. Rastetter, a Republican, was appointed to the board by Branstad in 2011, and his term on the board expires in 2017.

Women march through downtown Boston during the "SlutWalk" in Boston, Mass., Saturday, May 7, 2011, which organizers described as a demonstration against those who blame the victims of sex crimes. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

A University of Iowa student group will host a “SlutWalk” Thursday, part of an international movement to call attention to sexual assault and the hypersexualization of western society.

The movement is brought to Iowa City by the UI campus feminist organization, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. Organizers hope to work in conjunction with other local student and community organizations for the event.

A protest gathering and commencement speech will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday at College Green Park, followed by a march downtown through the Pedestrian Mall, and back to College Green. A number of speakers will address the assembly in the park.

Local organizers said SlutWalks held around the world are meant to challenge the silent underpinnings of a hypersexualized western society and notions that sexual assault has as much to do with the victim as the assailant. Participants may wear anything they feel comfortable in, but should feel free to dress in provocative or “slutty” clothing if they choose to do so, organizers said.

Hancher Auditorium on the campus of the University of Iowa as seen looking west over the Iowa River in Iowa City on Wednesday, July 9, 2008. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — The presence of asbestos at the flood-damaged Hancher Auditorium means a slower demolition process, but that building should start coming down this summer, University of Iowa President Sally Mason said Tuesday.

In her annual visit to the UI Faculty Senate, Mason said the eventual demolition will be a slow process “because it contains a good deal of asbestos” so workers must mitigate and contain that.

The discovery wasn’t surprising given that asbestos is common in buildings of Hancher’s age, Mason said. The performing arts facility was built in 1972 and heavily damaged in the Floods of 2008. A new Hancher Auditorium will be built up the hill from the current structure, to the north.

Groundbreaking on several flood-recovery projects should happen within the next year, Mason said, and university officials expect to spend about $20 million per month on new construction for the next four to five years, including flood-related projects and work at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

Also at the meeting, faculty members voted to support an interim university policy about video surveillance equipment on campus. The group plans to revisit the topic in a discussion next fall.

UI officials believe there are about 700 cameras on campus used for surveillance, but there is no policy on how they’re approved, where they can be placed and how they’re used.

An installation moratorium was put into effect last summer when questions about the process came up, said Steve Fleagle, associate vice president for information technology services. About 400 more cameras have since been requested, many for new buildings under construction.

“So I think we’ve got a lot of pent-up demand,” he said.

The policy would establish a process for approval and gather a listing of all existing surveillance equipment. Officials want to make sure the decisions are made at the appropriate levels of the university, they said.

Robert Koehler, a University of Iowa senior from Ames, signs a pledge to not use bottled water for personal use and use tap water when ever possible in order to receive a free reusable metal bottle at a table in Hubbard Park in Iowa City on Friday, April 20, 2012. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

Iowa colleges and universities are handing out reusable bottles to incoming students, installing water refilling stations across campuses to make it easier for students to fill their own bottles and using pitchers of water over prepackaged bottles at meetings and conferences.

Some of the campus movements to reduce the use and sale of bottled water are driven by students, who see sipping from reusable bottles as cheaper for students and more environmentally conscious.

The original intent of some of the students pushing for change was to get campus bans on the sale of bottled water. After finding that wasn’t feasible in many cases due to existing vendor contracts and the high demand for bottled water, focus has shifted to pushing to make it more convenient and visible for students to drink from reusable bottles.

“Since we couldn’t eliminate the product, we’re trying to find something that would pique student interest and get them to make the behavioral switch,” said University of Iowa sophomore Kelsey Zlevor, sustainability liaison to the UI Student Government.

More than a dozen “hydration stations” around the UI campus are tall enough to set reusable bottles for refilling, and they have a counter to measure how many plastic bottles were saved.

“It kind of creates the awareness we were looking for … a tangible sense of looking at what was diverted from the landfill,” the 20-year-old environmental science major from LaGrange Park, Ill., said.

Colleges are spending from $900 to about $2,000 per unit in many cases to install the hydration stations or to retrofit existing fountains for bottle refilling, but officials say they think it’s a worthy investment to promote green practices. A recent Bloomberg News article said more than 90 schools are banning the sale or restricting the use of plastic water bottles.

At Mount Mercy University, a campus sustainability task force this year set a goal of eliminating the sale of bottled water on campus by 2013. The Cedar Rapids campus also has four new water refilling stations that track the number of plastic bottles saved.

The university also received a grant from the Sisters of Mercy to cover the cost of retrofitting existing water fountains with a gooseneck-style spigot. The grant covered the cost of installing 12 of those fountains, and another eight will be in next year’s budget, Barb Pooley, vice president for finance and business operations, said. Environmental awareness is an important issue for the Sisters of Mercy, the founding order of the school, Pooley said.

Mount Mercy junior Ben Wood, a Cascade native studying public relations and communication studies, said he often sees students using the refilling stations in the residence halls or mentioning how much they like the option. Wood, 21, served on the campus task force that recommended eliminating the sale of bottled water.

“With people using reusable water bottles, it eliminates the factor of just tossing things,” he said.

Student groups at Iowa State University are on both sides of the issue.

The Government of the Student Body recently passed a resolution supporting the reduction of bottled water sales on campus. But a group representing students living in the residence halls support the continued sale of bottled water.

ISU officials are considering restrictions when the current vending contract expires at the end of this fiscal year, Warren Madden, vice president for business and finance, said. Bottled water sales are about $100,000 in revenue annually for ISU Dining, he said.

It’s cheaper for students to drink tap or fountain water, Madden said, but there also is the issue of offering a choice to consumers.

In the meantime, ISU will continue to add taller spigots for refilling bottles. About $100,000 is included in a preliminary budget for campus repairs next year to retrofit all fountains on campus, Madden said.

Kirkwood Community College is including water refilling stations in all new campus construction or renovations, Facilities Director Tom Kaldenberg said. A typical drinking fountain costs about $650, and the modified filling stations cost about $1,000, he said.

Some Kirkwood students originally wanted a ban on the sale of products in plastic bottles, but it was deemed unfeasible. Testing the new fountains in Iowa Hall found significant demand.

“We went a different route of just promoting reusable water bottles and getting the word out about how bad plastic bottle waste is,” said Kirkwood sophomore Kirsten Kraklio, a liberal-arts major from Cedar Rapids.

The University of Northern Iowa this year installed 10 bottle refill stations in residence halls and apartments, but officials aren’t advocating a ban on sales. When customers stop buying bottled water, the university will stop providing it, said Carol Petersen, UNI director of dining services and interim executive director of residence.

Free reusable metal water bottles wait to be distributed to any student who signs a pledge to not use bottled water for personal use and use tap water when ever possible in order to receive a free reusable metal bottle at a table in Hubbard Park in Iowa City on Friday, April 20, 2012. Take Back the Tap and University of Iowa Student Government ordered 500 reusable metal water bottles to distribute to students who signed the pledge to use tap water. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette-KCRG)

The Price Laboratory School at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Ralls. (image via Facebook)

Groups opposed to the closure of Malcolm Price Lab School and other cuts at the University of Northern Iowa will rally during the state Board of Regents meeting Thursday at the UNI campus in Cedar Falls.

The group Citizens and Students UNIted sent out the information about the rally, and said several organizations will convene for the event, to take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 Thursday. The group will meet by the wading pool in front of UNI’s Maucker Union at 11 a.m. and then move inside the union, where the regents meet.

The “Rally for the Facts” will be attended by representatives from United Faculty, Students United for Academics, UNI for Working Families and the Iowa Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Organizers said the purpose is to voice concerns to the board about the Price Lab closure, set for June 30, program cuts and faculty layoffs, all planned as part of budget cuts at UNI.

The regents previously approved the lab school closure and nearly 60 academic program cuts on the recommendation of UNI President Ben Allen.

President Barack Obama speaks about health care reform at the Field House Thursday, March 25, 2010 on University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. Obama first unveiled his health care plan, which he recently signed into law, three years ago as a candidate during a stop in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)

Student loan debt will be on the agenda when President Barack Obama stops at the University of Iowa Wednesday.

Passing $1 trillion, U.S. student loan debt has surpassed credit card and auto loan debt. Average student loan debt tops $25,000 nationally, up 25 percent in 10 years. Iowa ranks third in the nation for average student loan debt, according to one 2011 study, which put average debt for graduates of Iowa’s public and private universities and colleges in 2010 at $29,598.

During stops this week at campuses in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa, Obama will talk about his call on Congress to support legislation to stop Stafford Loan interest rates from doubling in July. That increase would affect more than seven million borrowers and result in an average $1,000 in added debt per borrower, White House officials said.

What’s the Issue?

Interest rates for borrowers of federally-subsidized Stafford Loans will double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on July 1 if Congress does not act to fund the program.

Iowans who are Stafford Loan borrowers

255,404

Estimated average cost per Iowa borrower over the loan life, if the rate doubles

$993

Total cost across the state

$253,616,172

What’s on the table now?

Bills introduced in both chambers in January aim to extend a 2007 measure with the lower interest rate for one more year, but they are unlikely to gain traction in Congress, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

What does the other side say?

Ending federal funding that maintains the lower rate would save taxpayers more than $6 billion a year, Republicans say. They say Obama’s policies have not kept tuition or unemployment low for young people.

-- The University of Iowa held a special dedication ceremony on Friday for the new College of Public Health building.

IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa has in the past 12 years built a world-class College of Public Health, and now that college has a world-class facility it calls home, UI President Sally Mason said Friday at the dedication of the college’s new building.

For the first time in the college’s 12-year history, students, faculty and core administrative staff are being housed under
one roof. The nearly $48 million College of Public Health Building opened at the beginning of the spring semester.

A banner at the building entrance declared “Welcome to our New Home” for the several hundred who attended Friday’s ceremony and tour.

“It’s easy to see how successful we have been,” College of Public Health Dean Sue Curry said. “It’s a time to imagine how successful we will be.”

During a tour before the dedication with Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa City, and Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials saw examples of the public health research UI faculty and students conduct, and learned about projects in agricultural safety, aging populations, cancer prevention and promoting a healthier workforce.

“The University of Iowa has been a terrific partner for the CDC,” Frieden said. “They’ve been a real leader in many areas of prevention. They have important centers on prevention, on injury, on worker health, and they’re identifying things that are helping not only Iowans but people throughout the country and with implications throughout the world.”

The college already houses almost 30 centers of excellence that focus research in critical public health areas, Harkin said.

“It’s no question that experts at this college have had a profound national impact in the last decade,” Harkin said.

Now is not the time to retreat in matters of public health, Harkin said, but rather the time to be on the offensive to push for greater strides.

“Now is the time to really make a quantum leap in public health,” he said. “Why is society structured so that it’s easy to be unhealthy and harder to be healthy?”

The ability to recruit talented faculty and students who remain at the cutting edge of public health research “is now enhanced a thousand fold or more” with the new facility, Mason said.

Having the college together under one roof, after years of having faculty housed in five locations and teaching in nine locations, will benefit research and collaborations with outside partners such as health departments, businesses and hospitals, Curry said. Those collaborations are the “lifeblood of what we do, that’s what keeps us relevant,” she said, and they will be greatly enhanced by having a permanent home for the college.

But in looking at only Iowa resident students, average debt at graduation rose at ISU and the UI from 2009-10 to 2010-11, according to the report. The average need-based indebtedness for Iowa resident graduates also increased at ISU and the UI last year.

The most recent student debt numbers are in the annual financial aid report, to be discussed next week by the state Board of Regents.

Average student debt load at graduation in 2011 was $25,446 at the UI, down from $25,515 in 2010. At ISU, it was $29,324 in 2011, down from $29,475 in 2010. At UNI, it was $25,523 in 2011, compared to $25,735 in 2010. Those numbers are for all students graduating with debt.

But in looking just at Iowa resident students, the average debt at the UI was $24,652 in 2011, up from $24,453 in 2010. At ISU, it was $29,035 in 2011, up from $28,804 in 2010. Debt for Iowa resident students declined slightly at UNI in 2011, to $25,435 compared to $25,916 in 2010.

Numerous factors impact student debt averages, so it’s hard to pinpoint one reason for increases, Mark Warner, UI financial aid director, said. The economic downturn that started in 2008 likely impacted for several years how much students were borrowing for college, a factor that continues to play out in this report, he said. The UI also has increased the grant and scholarship money available, which should theoretically decrease the need for student loans, Warner said.

“And I’d like to think all the national media about student debt and comparison to foreclosures and what not, that that’s opened up some eyes to say ‘let’s think three times before we go the borrowing route,’” Warner said. “There’s just a lot of variables that impact these things.”

Nationally, 44 percent of seniors in 2009-10 graduated without debt from public four-year institutions. In 2011, the numbers of students without debt at Iowa’s public universities were all lower than that.

The number of students graduating without debt was 39 percent at the UI in 2011, and Iowa residents graduating without debt was 33 percent at the UI. At ISU, 30.4 percent of all students graduated without debt in 2011, and of Iowa residents, 25.2 percent graduated without debt. At UNI, 22.3 percent of all students graduated without debt in 2011, and of Iowa residents, 22.9 percent graduated without debt in 2011.

The national average indebtedness for those graduating with debt from public four-year universities was $22,000 in 2009-10. The national average need-based indebtedness for those graduating with debt from public institutions was $11,653 in 2007-08.

In looking at need-based indebtedness at Iowa’s three regent universities, it was much lower than overall student debt averages. Need-based indebtedness in 2011 was $11,823 at the UI, $13,615 at ISU and $12,983 at UNI.

The Iowa Braille and Sightsaving School in Vinton. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

State regents next week will consider having the state conduct a study of the functions of Iowa’s two special schools that are overseen by the board, a required step if the board wanted to merge the two schools or close either one.

The Board of Regents, during a meeting next week in Cedar Falls, will consider approval for board staff to contact the Iowa Department of Management to conduct a feasibility study to examine “administrative and programmatic functions” of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton and the Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs, according to the agenda information. The regents meeting information was released today.

Appropriate next steps will be taken after the study is conducted, though the agenda item does not say what those next steps might be.

Iowa Code specifies that the regents cannot merge the two schools or close either of the schools until the Department of Management has presented to the general assembly a comprehensive plan, program and fiscal analysis of the existing circumstances and the circumstances which would prevail upon the proposed merger or closing. The analysis must include a detailed study of the educational implications of the merger or closing, the impact on the students, and the opinions and research of nationally recognized experts in the field of the education of visually impaired and deaf students. The general assembly also must study the plans, programs, and fiscal analysis and review their impact on the programs, and the general assembly must enact legislation authorizing either the closing or the merger to take effect not sooner than two years after the enactment.

The Iowa School for the Deaf and Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired operate under the direction of the Board of Regents as two separate entities. The board at its March meeting appointed braille school Superintendent Patrick Clancy to a joint position as the head of the School for the Deaf, a move met with some opposition in the deaf community because Clancy is not fluent in sign language.

The regents meeting information said “in order to plan for future effective and efficient

operation of services for students with sensory impairments, it is necessary to determine the

feasibility of examining the administrative and programmatic functions of the two schools.”

Doing so addresses the board’s strategic plan priorities to provide “educational

excellence and impact; and economic development and vitality,” and the strategic plan goal that “Iowa’s public universities and special schools shall be increasingly efficient and productive,” according to the meeting information.

State appropriations for Iowa’s special schools have significantly decreased in the recent past, according to the regent meeting information. This has resulted in work force reductions and other

expenditure decreases by the two schools.

The Iowa School for the Deaf was founded in 1854 and moved to its current location in 1870. It serves more than 100 Iowa students on its campus each year through a combined residential and day-school attendance, and about 10 students from Nebraska under a contract agreement.

Services provided by the Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired are centralized on the campus of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, which was established in 1852 and moved to its present location in 1862. Each year, Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired serves more than 500 students statewide through a partnership agreement with the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Department for the Blind, and Area Education Agencies.

The demolitions requested are: three duplexes at 2220 Crosspark Road on the Oakdale Research campus; a house at 711 Melrose Ave.; and a house at 15 Melrose Place.

The duplexes on the Oakdale campus have been used for faculty, staff and visiting scholars since the 1960s, but are unoccupied two-thirds of the year and no longer serve needs and require repair, UI officials said. The area would be returned to green space. The 711 Melrose Ave. property will be razed as part of the surface parking lot planned for that location. And the vacant house on Melrose Place has outlived its economic use and has significant deferred maintenance, officials said.

Other items on the regents agenda for their meeting Wednesday and Thursday include:

* A progress report on the Malcolm Price Lab School closure at the University of Northern Iowa, approved by the board in February after a recommendation from UNI President Ben Allen. The research and development school is slated to close June 30. Educators, parents and residents wanting to keep the lab school open filed a lawsuit in March arguing the Legislature would have to change the Iowa Code to shutter the school.

* Increases to residence hall rates for next year at the UI, UNI and Iowa State University. The proposals for double-occupancy rooms with full board are a 3.74 percent increase, to $8,343 at the UI; a 1.33 percent increase, to $7,722 at ISU; and a 2.3 percent increase, to $7,597 at UNI. The residence systems are self-supporting and don’t receive state funds for operations or improvements.

* Approval of the design and $36.6 million budget of phase two of the UI Football Operations Facility. The building would be immediately adjacent to and south of the new Indoor Athletics Practice and Recreation Facility, now under construction. The Football Operations Facility would include spaces for strength/conditioning, squad meetings, video editing, lockers for players and coaches, coach’s offices and reception space. No general university dollars or increased student fees would be used as a revenue source. Construction is scheduled to start in spring 2013, with completion in summer 2014.

* Election of a president and president pro tem of the board. Officers typically are elected prior to May 1 in even-numbered years to two-year terms. The current leadership terms of President Craig Lang and President Pro Tem Bruce Rastetter began July 1, 2011, and will expire on April 30.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Southern District, in Davenport, by Dr. Fawzy Amer Deghedy, a citizen and resident of Egypt. Deghedy is a laparoscopic surgeon employed with the Saudi German Hospital Group in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, since 1998.

Named as defendants in the suit are Viztek, Inc., Cyber-Anatomy Corporation and Karim Abdel-Malek, a University of Iowa engineering professor who is a majority shareholder and part owner of Viztek and of Cyber-Anatomy, both Iowa City-based companies.

Viztek, formed in 2001, is creator and distributor of “turnkey” visualization and virtual reality systems. Cyber-Anatomy Corporation, formed in 2007, creates and sells 3D learning systems.

In the lawsuit, Deghedy said he attempted to find a company to help him in developing a comprehensive 3D anatomical system of the entire human body, to be used for teaching dissections to medical students when cadavers are not available or cannot be used. Deghedy approached Viztek and described his idea, according to the suit. Abdel-Malek said Viztek had the capabilities to assist him in developing that system for his hospital, and they agreed Viztek also would market and develop the system to third-parties for profit, the lawsuit says.

Deghedy alleges in the suit the company failed to pay him his share of revenues and royalties from sale of the Cyber-Anatomy system to third parties, and he is suing for breach of contract.

Abdel-Malek said Wednesday he was surprised to hear of the lawsuit and surprised that he was named personally in it. Abdel-Malek said there was a contract, but it was broken by Deghedy and the hospital and not by Viztek.

“In the end, the company did not” break it, he said. “They broke the contract we had with them.”

It’s unfortunate the suit comes at a time of growth and recognition for the Iowa City company, Abdel-Malek said. Cyber-Anatomy just received two Prometheus Awards from the Technology Association of Iowa: the Innovation in Teaching award and the Outstanding Startup Company of the Year.

“The company is creating jobs,” Abdel-Malek said.

New Cornell College President Jonathan Brand talks with people at a "Meet the President Reception" at Cole Library on the Cornell College campus in Mount Vernon on Friday afternoon, February 18, 2011. (Stephen Mally/Freelance)

Cornell College will inaugurate President Jonathan Brand Saturday, with a slate of weekend events that highlight student achievements and the college’s campus.

Brand began as Cornell’s 15th president in July 2011. His installation will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday in Cornell’s King Chapel.

Brand holds a law degree from Cornell University, a master’s degree in French literature from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree in history and French from the University of Wisconsin. Before coming to Cornell, he served as president of Doane College in Crete, Neb., for six years.

The ceremony will be preceded by the 16th annual Student Symposium. The symposium is the most prestigious academic event of the year, and students present their original research in sessions and poster presentations in the Thomas Commons. The symposium will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year more than 50 students will give oral presentations and more than 30 will give poster presentations.

Immediately following the inauguration ceremony there will be a student organization street fair on the Pedestrian Mall and a reception in Kimmel Theatre. The schedule for the weekend also includes two performances of the play “Defying Gravity;” a softball game against Loras College; choral and orchestral concerts; and a community tree planting in Memorial Park in uptown Mount Vernon.

A complete schedule of events is available at http://www.cornellcollege.edu/inauguration/index.shtml

The ceremony and all the weekend events are open to the public. The college asks people interested in attending to RSVP at http://www.cornellcollege.edu/inauguration/RSVP-forms/rsvp-form.shtml.

For those unable to attend the event, the college will live-stream the installation ceremony at http://news.cornellcollege.edu/streaming-video/.

A fourth candidate withdrew from the search and did not visit campus, said search chairman David Johnsen, dean of the College of Dentistry, in a campus-wide email. The process is moving forward with the three finalists who did visit campus in recent weeks, he said.

“We’re very pleased with the three finalists we had,” he said. “We’re very interested in hearing from the university community. We’re intent now on moving the process along as quickly as we can.”

A recommendation from the search committee will go to Provost Barry Butler. It’s hard to say when the recommendation will be made, Johnsen said, but the committee hopes the new dean is announced well before July 1, which was the initial timeline.

The finalists are Chaden Djalali, Peter L. Hahn and Patricia Okker.

Djalali is Carolina Distinguished Professor and chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina. Hahn is tenured professor and chairman of the department of history at Ohio State University. Okker is professor of English and faculty fellow in the Office of the Provost at the University of Missouri.

A sign reading "Right isn't always wrong!" is held up during a protest against discrimination in hiring practices at the University of Iowa on Monday, April 9, 2012, in Iowa City. The protesters hoped to bring attention to a lawsuit against the university for discrimination against conservatives in hiring. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

IOWA CITY — When University of Iowa associate professor of political science Tim Hagle led the George W. Bush re-election campaign for southeast Iowa in 2004, he heard gasps from a few crowds when he introduced himself as a UI professor.

“‘There’s a Republican there?’ Because they just couldn’t believe it,” Hagle recalls.

The popular notion that the UI campus is a liberal bastion is in part a reflection of its environment. Johnson County has twice as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans, according to the most recent data from the Auditor’s Office.

The role of campus politics has spurred recent discussion.

In a federal discrimination lawsuit, a conservative lawyer claims she was denied a job at the UI law school because of her political views. The Johnson County Republicans this week protested on campus and recently sent a letter to UI President Sally Mason, sharing concerns about what they see as a lack of political diversity among faculty. Last year, a UI professor responded to the annual “Conservative Coming Out Week” with an emailed profanity that made headlines.

Some students and faculty say there are more conservatives on campus than people realize, but they do believe the more liberal political environment can affect classroom discussion.

“Sometimes you can tell by how a professor talks about certain things or certain people,” said junior Kelsey Boehm, chairwoman of the UI College Republicans. “I’ve never felt very uncomfortable directly about my political views, but then again, knowing that a lot of my professors are liberal, I’m hesitant to speak out as much as I would otherwise.”

Others say even if the UI faculty leans liberal, they believe professors work hard to keep personal politics from making students feel their views are unwelcome.

“Part of the learning environment is the professor and the student are both willing to be challenged,” said Bill Cook, 19, a sophomore political science major from Crystal Lake, Ill., who is active in Democratic organizations. “They encourage students to challenge them.”

Cathy Grawew of Coralville (left) and Arleigh Clemens of Coralville participate in a protest against discrimination in hiring practices at the University of Iowa on Monday, April 9, 2012, in Iowa City. The protesters hoped to bring attention to a lawsuit against the university for discrimination against conservatives in hiring. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

UI leaders won’t comment on the specifics of the discrimination lawsuit but have said generally the university respects the right of everyone to express opinions.

Spokesman Tom Moore said the university has reminded staff “that it’s imperative for all of us to engage in civil and respectful discourse.”

The letter to Mason from the Johnson County Republicans said a recent check of voter registration found only one member of the law faculty and one in political science were registered Republicans. In a response letter, UI Provost Barry Butler said those numbers may or may not be true, but he noted party registration is “clearly not relevant to any hiring decision by the university,” and officials do not ask about it.

The perceived imbalance is a concern Regent Bob Downer hears from time to time, but he said he doesn’t see it as a significant problem. Downer, an Iowa City attorney, is one of five registered Republicans on the nine-member state Board of Regents, which governs the public universities.

Downer said he knows Republicans in Johnson County who sometimes register as Democrats to vote in primaries, so relying on that to measure balance can be misleading.

“I think we should be balanced, and there should be no favoritism from a grade standpoint or anything of that sort,” he said. “But by the same token, I don’t regard having strong political views as necessarily a disqualification.”

Junior Robert Crozier, a self-described Ron Paul Republican, said the slant he sometimes notices in the classroom is often not blatant or even purposeful.

“It’s not the facts; it’s the framing” of the discussion, he said.

University of Iowa senior Natalie Ginty of Coralville (left) looks on as Deborah Thornton of Iowa City holds up a shirt she bought from the University of Iowa College Republicans during a cookout at College Green Park as part of Conservative Coming Out Week on Thursday, April 5, 2012, in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

The 26-year-old journalism major from Cedar Rapids said being a Republican in a town with so many Democrats often means “people automatically assume things about you,” such as being anti-gay rights or in support of war. That can spill over into classroom discussions, he said, and “you’re subject to judgment.”

History professor Jeff Cox sees two issues at play: Making all students, particularly those with strong religious convictions, feel comfortable discussing their views; and partisan-based attacks on academia.

The first issue is something on which most professors work hard to keep balance, Cox said, because he believes some students do feel their views aren’t welcome. It’s the professor’s responsibility to set the tone, said Cox, a self-described liberal Democrat.

“I think there’s a professional obligation there … to keep partisan politics out of the classroom as much as possible,” he said. “It’s a fine line, but I would never, for instance, assert to students that I support a particular candidate for office or anything like that.”

He believes the issue of partisan attacks on higher education, alleging hiring discrimination or liberal indoctrination, are unfair. While it may be true more professors are liberal, Cox said, it’s because many faculty view Democrats as being more supportive of higher education. He believes most work hard to keep partisan politics out of the classroom.

Hagle, faculty adviser to the College Republicans, said it’s a question of how faculty deal with politics in class. He hears from students who believe their conservative viewpoints aren’t as welcome, but he said it’s hard to measure how widespread that is.

“From a student perspective, if you’re in class and getting cues that anything conservative you say isn’t well-received, there is a nagging suspicion that if you mention it in a paper or essay, that it’s not going to be approved of,” he said.

That self-censorship concerns Lucas Draisey, 21, a junior political science major at the University of Northern Iowa and chairman of the Iowa Federation of College Republicans. The group has 20 chapters in Iowa, with the UI’s one of the largest and most active.

“It really does kind of stifle a free flow of ideas on university campuses,” he said.

The move to seek bids on the projects was approved by the Kirkwood board of trustees at their meeting Thursday.

The projects are:

• Construction of truck-driving ranges, a training loop and parking lot at the Kirkwood Continuing Education Training Center at 101 50th Ave. SW, a project estimated at $1.3 million;
• Construction of the Kirkwood Eagle Tech Store in Benton Hall, which will be an Apple Authorized Campus Store, at an estimated cost of $700,000; and
• A renovation of Benton Hall classrooms in the older portion of the building, at an estimated cost of $300,000.

The board will consider bids on the three projects at a meeting May 10.

The truck-driving range will be completed sometime in fall 2012. The Eagle Tech Store is slated to be done by November. The Benton Hall classroom remodeling is expected to be done by the start of the fall semester.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board approved the bid on the roof replacement at the Kirkwood Continuing Education Training Center, which is the old Midland Forge plant where Kirkwood will relocate its programs in semi-truck driving, fire safety and group industrial training. The lowest of four bids on the roof replacement was $713,000.

A procession of Cornell College faculty, students and staff walks through Old Sem, the college's original academic building, on Thursday to commemorate the Nov. 14, 1853, march from the Mount Vernon Methodist Church to open classes on campus. This view is from atop the 130-foot main tower of King Chapel. (Photo by David Lienemann, Mount Vernon, for Cornell College)

Declining state funding to higher education has impacted students at private colleges as well, through decreased support for tuition grant programs that help Iowa students, according to a report released Thursday.

The decade-long trend of reduced state funding to higher education has notably impacted public higher education, but Iowa students who attend the state’s private colleges also have been affected through reduced tuition assistance via the Iowa Tuition Grant program, the report says.

When adjusted for inflation to 2011 dollars, state funding to that program peaked in fiscal year 2000 at $62.25 million and has declined steadily since, to $47.51 million this year, according to the report from the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.

“The point is, every part of higher education is getting whacked,” Iowa Policy Project Executive Director David Osterberg said. “Whether it’s Coe College or ISU or Kirkwood Community College, it is just an attack on higher education.”

It’s the third report analyzing higher education funding issues released this spring by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership, a joint initiative of the Iowa Policy Project and the Child & Family Policy Center. The previous reports looked at the trend of state funding cuts to Iowa’s public universities and community colleges.

This report looked at state funding to numerous tuition assistance programs. The Iowa Tuition Grant program is for Iowa students who attend one of the state’s private colleges. The report also looked at funding to smaller programs, including the Iowa Vocational-Technical Tuition Grant, the Iowa National Guard Educational Assistance Program, the Iowa Grant Program and the All Iowa Opportunity Scholarship.

The grants are helping students cover the cost of college far less than they did in the past and the money is reaching fewer students, Andrew Cannon, the report’s author and research associate for the Iowa Policy Project, said.

While the size of the annual average award through the Iowa Tuition Grant program has not changed much over the past 20 years, the dent the average award made in student tuition and fee costs has decreased significantly, the report says. Average Iowa Tuition Grant awards cover about half as much tuition and fees in 2010-11 as they did in 1989-90, falling from 28 percent to 13 percent, the report states.

“No one can say that the folks in Des Moines are committed to higher education when you have numbers like this,” Osterberg said.

In the decade starting with Fiscal Year 1990, the statutory maximum Iowa Tuition Grant award increased by 56 percent, to $3,900. But from Fiscal Year 2000 to last year, the statutory maximum grant increased by just 3 percent, to $4,000, according to the report.

State funding for Iowa’s public universities is still under discussion in the Legislature, with varying proposals under consideration. But Mason, during a visit to the UI Staff Council, said UI officials are planning for 2012-13 with a flat budget model, which means no funding cuts.

“We’re somewhat optimistic that we’re not likely to get cuts or large cuts this year” which is different from the past several years, Mason said.

Modest pay increases for faculty and staff are being planned, she said, and officials will know more about that at the end of the legislative session.

Growing enrollment in the past several years helped the UI cushion the blow of state budget cuts, Mason said, and officials expect more enrollment growth this fall. Current application and enrollment numbers are robust and running ahead of this time last year, she said.

Efforts will be made to recruit more Iowa resident students to the university, Mason said, despite flat and declining demographics of high school graduates. The UI enrollment in fall 2011 was 43 percent non-resident students.

“Those numbers have been flat for a while,” Mason said of the in-state students applying to the UI. “We still think we can put some more effort into attracting more Iowa students.”

Kal Penn (left), actor and former Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, and Mitch Stewart, Battleground States Director, listen has Loras College junior Erin Sexton speaks about her support for Obama and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act during the Greater Together Obama For America Iowa Youth Summit at the Downtown Sheraton Hotel on Tuesday, April 10, 2012, in Iowa City. (Liz Martin/The Gazette-KCRG)

IOWA CITY — President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in Iowa could come down to the 200 or so people who gathered Tuesday night at a student summit to support the president, campaign officials told the young crowd.

“This year is going to be much tougher,” said Mitch Stewart, the director of Obama for America’s Battleground States effort. “What the president needs from you is to believe in the power of your action, believe in the power of your voice.”

About 200 students, mainly from the UI, filled a ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel downtown for the Greater Together student summit. Participants from campuses across Iowa, including Iowa State University, Luther College, Drake University and Loras College, joined the event via webcam.

Iowa is a swing state at the nexus of the needed electoral votes for Obama, Stewart said. The students were urged to spread their support via Facebook and Twitter, and to talk to friends about why they back the president. Stewart and other speakers stressed what they say is at stake for young voters in this election, pointing to Obama’s health care reform and support for higher education funding.

Kal Penn, an actor known for his roles in the television show “House M.D.” and the “Harold and Kumar” movies, told the crowd he saw the strength of Obama’s character during his time working with the campaign and later as the White House associate director of public engagement. Obama fought for increases in student aid and health care reform, but there is still a lot of work to be done, Penn said.

“Do we really want to roll back all the progress or do we want to keep it going?” Penn said.

Students at the event said they support Obama’s efforts to decrease student loan debt and his work on health care reform. Others pointed to the end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that barred openly gay members of the military.

The event was “probably the largest of the semester for Obama supporters” and a chance to show unity, said Bill Cook, a UI sophomore in political science. The 19-year-old from Crystal Lake, Ill., likes Obama’s work on health care, college affordability and support for the middle class.

Patricia Okker

IOWA CITY – A professor and administrator from the University of Missouri is the third finalist for the position of dean of the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Patricia Okker is a tenured professor of English and faculty fellow in the Office of the Provost at the University of Missouri. From 2005 to 2011, she chaired the department of English, overseeing a department of 70 faculty members, more than 500 undergraduate majors and more than 100 graduate students.

In leading the department, she worked with staff and faculty to increase student participation in intensive research and creative experiences; fostered the development of several faculty-led study abroad programs; and advanced numerous academic partnerships within the college and across campus.

Okker will interview Thursday and Friday on the UI campus. An open forum will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday in room W290 of the Chemistry Building with a reception to follow at 5 p.m.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from the University of Illinois.

Peter Hahn

A second finalist to become the new College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean at the University of Iowa will visit campus Monday and Tuesday.

Peter Hahn is a tenured professor and chairman of the history department at Ohio State University. Hahn, a research scholar specializing in U.S. foreign relations in the Middle East, has been executive director of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations since 2002.

During his tenure as chairman of the OSU history department, Hahn has increased the diversity of the faculty, helped lay the groundwork for a revised and more rigorous history major and led a strategic planning process, according to the UI release.

An open forum with Hahn will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday in 240 Art Building West. A reception will follow in the atrium of that building.

The Curris Business Building at the University of Northern Iowa on Thursday, June 23, 2011, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (SourceMedia Group News/Jim Slosiarek)

A higher education finance expert on Thursday will give a presentation at the University of Northern Iowa on UNI’s spending and saving.

Professor Howard Bunsis, who holds an MBA and a law degree, is a national expert on university finances and a faculty member at Eastern Michigan University, according to the statement about his visit. Bunsis also is chairman of the American Association of University Professor’s Collective Bargaining Congress.

His presentation will be at 5 p.m. Thursday in the John Deere auditorium of the Curris Business Building on the UNI campus.

Drawing on UNI’s audited financial statements and other public records, Bunsis will explain the details of UNI’s financial practices, from the amount of money spent each year on administration, to the university’s cash reserves, to administrative salary increases and the diminishing support for research and teaching, according to the statement. A question-and-answer period will follow the presentation.

UNI officials in recent weeks have announced cuts to nearly 60 academic programs and plans to reduce tenured faculty positions as part of budget cuts. UNI faculty leaders argue UNI’s finances are sound and the drastic cuts will harm the educational quality and the university’s reputation.

“Our only goal is to have an honest and open discussion of the actual facts about our university’s finances,” Cathy DeSoto, United Faculty president, said in a statement about the presentation.