Harreld tells Board of Regents more funding needed to implement strategic plan

Harreld tells Board of Regents more funding needed to implement strategic plan
KCJJ Staff
08/02/18

University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld says the university is preparing to cut more programs if funding continues to fall.

Speaking over the phone to the Board of Regents on Wednesday, Harreld said he’s told Faculty Senate president Russell Ganim to work with shared governance leadership to enhance the review process of the strategic plan in case there are more funding cuts or a lack of adequate increases.

“We developed a strategic plan a few years ago to benefit the citizens of our state through enhanced research and scholarship which allows us to retain and recruit the best faculty that will educate the students of Iowa so they can make an impact upon our state,” Harreld said. “As we’ve discussed in the past, we compete in a national marketplace for this talent. We must have the resources available to pay competitive salaries, provide the needed equipment, and the appropriately-required facilities.”

The UI received a bump in funding from the state of $3.15 million for fiscal 2019. However, that was only after the state cut $5.4 million from the university’s budget in the middle of last year. And the UI’s funding has gone down by a total of $16 million over the last three years.

Harreld said while the increase in funding for the upcoming year is better than a decrease, it’s important for the board and the public to know they will struggle to implement the strategic plan without more funding.

“If additional investments are not made by the state, we must look for other resources,” Harreld said. “Not only tuition but maximizing our opportunities for other resources, as well. I want to be very clear on this point – the University of Iowa is not interested in increasing tuition ‘just because.’ We look to increase tuition in order to better the outcomes for the state and for the students that are attending our institution. We increase our tuition with a purpose.”

The Regents earlier this year approved a 3.8 percent increase in tuition for the upcoming school year, with Harreld and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen each asking for an increase of seven percent for the next five years to meet their budgetary needs.

The university has already taken several steps in reaction to the reduced state appropriations, implementing a construction freeze and a pay freeze, while also closing seven state centers based on-campus.

The Regents on Wednesday ultimately approved the UI’s $4.1 billion budget for fiscal 2019.