The Board of Regents approved the budgets for the three state universities at its meeting Wednesday after a lengthy discussion on the budget process.
Regent Christine Hensley says she was really disappointed in how the process worked compared to the 24 years she spent on the Des Moines City Council where they had detailed discussions of the city budget. “I first saw these budgets when the docket was first sent to us about ten days ago. We’re talking about an 8.4 billion dollar budget,” she says.
Hensley the presentations by the presidents of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa don’t give many details on the budget numbers. “There’s great information in there, but you don’t get into the overall financials,” she says. “And when I looked at what is the mission and purpose for this Board of Regents, it is oversight to the financial operations of the universities.”…