Iowa Board of Regents approves fiscal year 2025 budgets

The Iowa Board of Regents heard from state university presidents Wednesday as they discussed programs supported by state dollars. (Logo via Iowa Board of Regents)

The Iowa Board of Regents approved state universities’ fiscal year 2025 budgets at its Wednesday meeting and heard from university presidents about how they are spending state and private dollars.

After receiving flat funding from the state in fiscal year 2024, the University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University received a 2.5% increase in state appropriations for fiscal year 2025. The combined general education operating budget across the state universities totals $1.72 billion, according to the fiscal year 2025 budget document , compared to the $1.66 billion reported in fiscal year 2024.

The total regent enterprise budget comes out to $7.8 billion, of which $3.24 billion is restricted funds. It also includes University of Iowa Health Care’s budget, which totals $2.77 billion, and special purpose funds.

University of Iowa

The UI’s $823 million fiscal year 2025 budget is an almost $21 million increase from last year. The university received a $5.5 million increase in state allocations and a budgeted increase of $16.8 million in tuition revenue from approved increases as well as “indirect cost recoveries and interest income,” according to the budget document. Just over 63% of the budget comes from tuition revenues, with state appropriations making up 27% of the budget.

Spending on instruction, academic support, scholarships and fellowships make up 70% of the UI’s expenses, according to the document, and this year the student aid budget will increase by $2.8 million to account for enrollment changes.

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UI President Barbara Wilson said in the board meeting that the university has doubled its spending on academics and cut administrative costs by 30% in the past 20 years, evidenced by the fact that, according to a study by the American Council of Trustees, the UI spends 11 cents of every dollar on administration and 89 cents on instruction.

“Just to give you a sense of what that looks like among our Big 10 peers, that’s 8 cents lower than the Big 10 average administrative spending, which is something to be proud of,” Wilson said. “Whenever I meet with our colleagues at other institutions, we are leaner and doing as much as many of our peers are doing.”

Wilson said the UI is also working to meet retention goals for students, increasing its fall-to-fall retention for first-year students from 88% in 2021 to 89.3% in 2023 with the goal of hitting 90% within five years of fiscal year 2020. The UI has also recruited 65 new faculty members over the past four years in health care, business analytics and other areas, and retained 26.

Last year the UI received $2.8 million in state allocations for its College of Nursing, which has been used to hire 10 faculty members and increase enrollment by 14 students. The university will use state dollars this year to focus on rural health care, Wilson said, hiring more faculty in certain areas in order to increase enrollment in the social work master’s program, clinical mental health counseling, other areas of nursing and programs that serve as “launchpads” for the university’s health care degrees, like biology and chemistry.

“These are all focused on areas of rural health and the areas that are critical to the health care deserts across the state by adding more students … graduating from our degree programs so that they can foster improved health in the state,” Wilson said.

Iowa State University

Almost 25% of ISU’s $725.5 million fiscal year 2025 general operating budget comes from state appropriations, with tuition revenues comprising another 71.6% of the budget. The $4.4 million increase in state dollars and estimated additional $27.8 million in tuition revenue, along with indirect cost recoveries and other incomes, bring the revenue to a $34.4 million increase over last year.

A total of 72% of general university expenses go toward instruction, academic support, scholarships and fellowships, according to the budget document, and the university increased its student financial aid budget by $9.5 million for fiscal year 2025.

According to the budget document, ISU has “reallocated more than $10 million to align the budget with its strategic goals and critical institutional needs.”

ISU President Wendy Wintersteen said the university has used the $2.8 million it received last year from the state for STEM workforce development to invest in 26 faculty and staff involved in six different initiatives “to grow high demand STEM programs that meet the state’s workforce needs and produce innovative solutions for business and industry.”

These initiatives focus on areas including biomanufacturing, artificial intelligence, meat science and swine nutrition, digital agriculture and health sciences.

State dollars were also used to renovate spaces for new and expanding programs, like the biomedical engineering bachelor’s degree program, which launched last fall with 53 students and currently includes 109 students.

ISU is offering new programs through these initiatives, Wintersteen said, including an AI minor and an online master’s degree in digital health. New degrees in development include bachelor’s degrees in integrated health sciences and digital agriculture.

University of Northern Iowa

UNI, the only state university with state appropriations comprising more than half of its operating revenue budget, expects a revenue increase of $7.1 million compared to last year, bringing its budget to $174.2 million.

About 55% of the university’s budget goes toward instruction, academic support, scholarships and fellowships, according to the budget document, and the increased tuition and expected enrollment growth led to the student aid budget getting a $1.2 million bump.

UNI President Mark Nook said during the meeting that all university budget decisions are made with a focus on student success on the long-term health of UNI.

“We continue to make investments in key academic programs that meet Iowa’s workforce needs, and in programs that potential students have a high interest in so that we can continue to grow the enrollment,” Nook said.

The university’s new nursing program is set to launch this fall with a cohort of 30 students, Nook said, with 48 more joining in the spring. The nursing program has received $1 million in private support for scholarships and equipment as well as $275,000 from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, and phase one of facilities renovations for the program is complete.

Nook said the university is also making investments in its material science engineering, material science engineering technology and hybrid accounting programs, all of which will be able to help meet workforce needs.

UNI has raised at least $275 million through its capital campaign, Nook said, with 31% going to scholarships and around 36% going to academic programs and faculty support. There are six new or expanding programs included in the campaign, he said, including nursing, data science and applied engineering.

Regent Jim Lindenmayer complimented UNI for its quick response to workforce needs in terms of academic offerings.

“I know that’s not always easy to do, it’s like turning a battleship, and it seems like you’ve gotten it done rather quickly, so thank you,” Lindenmayer said.

When discussing the budget narrative and a chart showing the trend of decreasing percentages of state allocations and rising percentages of tuition in general education funding, Regent David Barker said the past eight years have been “the longest period of stability” the state has ever seen.

State appropriations dropped from 32.2% to 30.3% of general education funding from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018, and in fiscal year 2025 appropriations are reported at 29.3% of general education funding. Tuition jumped from 63% to 64.7% of general education funding in that same time period, and now sits at 64.9%.

“I would kind of reemphasize what some others have said, that we’re grateful for that state support,” Barker said.

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