Feb 01, 2019

This Week at the Statehouse – Week 3

On Tuesday, January 29th, President Nook, along with the other two university presidents and Regent President Mike Richards, presented our budget recommendations to the Education Appropriations Subcommittee. In total, our budget proposal includes:

  • $99.7 million for general education (a $4 million increase)
  • $38 million over three years for the Industrial Technology Center renovation and expansion
  • $5.4 million for STEM education (no change; governor recommends a $1 million increase)
  • $1 million for economic development (no change)
  • $900,000 from the Regents Innovation Fund for economic development (no change)
  • $175,256 for the recycling and reuse center (no change)
  • $125,302 for real estate education (no change)

Additional information can be found on the Panther Caucus website.

We are registered against SF 27, which directs the Board of Regents to prohibit the establishment or continuation of a tenure system at the Regents universities. This week, a Senate subcommittee moved the bill to the full Senate Education Committee on a 2-1 vote. The first funnel day is March 8; bills need to come out of a committee to remain alive for the remainder of the legislation session. We will continue to urge the committee not to take up this bill. We use these talking points to dispute certain lawmakers’ assumptions:

  • Iowa would be the only state in the nation without tenure if this bill becomes law.
  • This will have a negative impact on recruiting top talent to teach Iowa students. The best faculty will work in other places.
  • This will affect our ability to attract outstanding graduate students because they often choose an institution based on where they can work with the best faculty.
  • Over time, this will affect university rankings as research dollars go down, likely reduce prestigious awards to faculty, and the highest performing students choose other states or institutions.
  • Fiscal impact is impossible to precisely calculate, but would include:
  • Faculty resigning for jobs at other universities (example of how limitations on tenure that were imposed in Wisconsin affected those universities almost immediately
  • Need to increase faculty salaries to be competitive in job market for top talent (Wisconsin example also mentions increasing salaries to stem the higher turnover rate)
  • Loss of millions in external grants as faculty leave and take grants with them
    • Less than 60% of faculty at the three Regent institutions either have tenure or are in the tenure-track. The other 40% are a mix of full-time and part-time clinical, research, adjunct or visiting professors for whom teaching, research or guiding students in clinical settings are their primary role.
    • Tenure is not a blanket granting of job security or immunity from termination. In order to earn tenure, faculty go through a rigorous 6-year probationary period when they can be dismissed for a broad range of reasons. If they do earn tenure, faculty can still be dismissed for just cause, program termination or financial exigency. In the last 10 years, about 25 tenured faculty members were terminated or resigned while they were under disciplinary review at one of the Regent’s universities.
    • Annual review processes with department heads set clear and specific expectations for each faculty member. Even with tenure, a poor record of teaching, research, or support for students can and sometimes does result in termination. Tenure policies at Regent universities ensure faculty have clear employment expectations.
    • It is important to note that several tenure-track (probationary) faculty members resign each year when during their annual reviews their department head notes they are not meeting standards for tenure and promotion.  Some leave before the final determination of not receiving tenure (e.g. year 3 or 4).   This helps keep the quality of the professoriate high, and it explains why terminations after tenure are less common.

A lot of committee and subcommittee work was conducted this week.  The Board of Regents is registered on 134 bills.  This link will provide a complete list of bills we are tracking (in the box marked as lobbyist, type in Mary Braun).

Upcoming events in the legislature:

Feb. 5 – Randy Pilkington, Director of BCS, will present our budget recommendations to the Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee

Feb. 18 – UNI Day at the Capitol, first floor rotunda

Mar. 8 – Legislature’s First Funnel Date (Senate policy bills need to come out of a Senate committee and House policy bills need to come out of a House committee to remain eligible for debate this legislative session)