Board of Regents October Update

Dear UNI Family,

This month's Board of Regents meeting was held Oct. 22-23 in Iowa City.  There was a lot of discussion about tuition and fees at each of the Regents' institutions. A tuition freeze for the third consecutive year was proposed, which would have a greater impact on our campus because more than 90 percent of our students come from the state of Iowa. The BOR will vote on a plan to freeze tuition for in-state undergraduates during their meeting in December.

We also shared a few outstanding UNI accomplishments with our in-state colleagues:

'Best Business School'

UNI is an outstanding business school for the ninth consecutive year, according to The Princeton Review. The College of Business Administration was featured in the just-published 2015 edition of "The Best 296 Business Schools. Students told The Princeton Review that UNI offers a "practical business curriculum that can be directly applied to the business world." And, "It is a highly interactive atmosphere with professors who want you to learn."

UNI alumnae fighting Ebola virus

UNI alumnae Nancy Powell and Nancy Aossey are at the forefront of the effort against Ebola in West Africa. Powell was recently appointed by Secretary of State John Kerry to be "Ebola Coordinator" for the State Department. Aossey is president and CEO of the International Medical Corps., which is one of only a handful of non-governmental organizations in the world to be treating Ebola patients in West Africa.

'It's On Us' campaign

UNI is teaming up with the White House and other institutions to promote a campaign aimed to raise awareness about sexual assault. "It's On Us" is a campaign to help prevent sexual assault on college campuses through awareness and education. UNI debuted our "It's On Us" video on October 20. We're also asking students, faculty and staff to take a pledge to help keep women and men safe from sexual assault.

Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award

UNI's Regional Business Center received a Gold Excellence in Economic Development Award for its 2014 project in the category of Entrepreneurship for communities with populations of greater than 500,000 from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). The project that was honored was the Business Concierge program, which was created to provide on-call and online business intelligence to startups and small businesses in Iowa.

I want to thank all of you for the support and kind words while I was on medical leave. As of today, I'm back part time. Mike Licari will return to his role as interim provost. Thank you again for all that you do!

Bill Ruud
UNI President