Sep 22, 2022

UNI's legislative agenda for next year

UNI has a strong legacy of providing Iowa’s public and private schools with educators. UNI would like to start a new grant program to encourage more people to pursue an education that leads to teacher licensure. UNI’s educator preparation program is the largest in the state with 450 to 500 graduates each year for the past 10 years. Currently, more than 10,000 educators in Iowa can trace their path back to a UNI education and are employed in all 99 counties in Iowa and in 99% of Iowa’s school districts. UNI is requesting $4 million from the state for a new Educators for Iowa grant program to recruit more students into the teaching profession and provide annual grants to educator preparation students until they graduate.

“I’m looking forward to working with Governor Reynolds and members of the Iowa Legislature as we build upon our commitment to ensuring a reasonable and predictable cost of education for Iowa families, while providing the high-quality education our students need to be successful professionals and leaders in Iowa's changing economy,” said UNI President Mark A. Nook. “Our legislative requests for next year will help UNI honor its mission as an affordable education for Iowa families.”

In addition to our Educators for Iowa grant program request, UNI’s other priorities for next year’s legislative session include:

  • $4 million to continue our efforts to realign UNI’s sticker price and net cost of tuition and mandatory fees relative to Iowa’s two public research universities, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, which will allow us to hold tuition flat for the 2023-24 academic year.
  • $2 million to expand the successful UNI@IACC (Iowa Community College) partnership to directly support students in four additional community college campuses.
  • $400,000 to expand the growing Family Business Center and UNI’s Institute for Decision Making as they play a critical role in supporting Iowa’s family-owned businesses.
  • Annually set aside money to allow the Regents universities to bond for academic building renewal projects

The Iowa Board of Regents gave final approval to UNI’s fiscal year 2024 state budget requests at their September meeting. These requests now go to the Governor and the State Legislature, to be considered during the next legislative session that starts on January 9, 2023.