The state Board of Regents accepted the fiscal year 2023 state appropriations request Thursday, including the University of Iowa’s ask for a $7 million increase.

The regents unanimously voted to accept the state appropriations request, which included the requests from Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Iowa School for the Deaf and Blind, and the University of Iowa for budget increases.

UI President Barbara Wilson told the regents what the $7 million will go towards:

• $4 million designated for student success.
• $3 million for the upkeep of facilities such as the hygienic lab, research park, and family medicine training.

Efforts to reduce allocation to regent-governed institutions have been seen through by the Iowa Legislature. A  bill to freeze funding was approved by the state House Appropriations Committee in April and money for Iowa’s public universities has decreased since.

The $4 million student success aspect of the budget will go toward improving mental health services and retention rate, Wilson said.

“The increase will be targeted toward expanding the kinds of services and support that we need to help students, and we are laser focused on those kinds of metrics to support students,” Wilson said.

The UI is paying close attention to students and their participation using a metric-driven system, Wilson said.

“We’re tracking students across the semester, across the year, in terms of what they’re doing, what they’re engaged in, how often they visit various services, and we are responding to them in very personal ways when we know they need help, so that we can increase our graduation and retention rates,” Wilson said.

The $3 million will be focused on maintaining flood resistance, the research park, the state hygienic lab, and experiential learning, Wilson said.

“We’re really thinking about how we can help the state [with] a variety of levels, both in terms of health and well-being but also in terms of economic development,” Wilson said.

The regents expect the legislature to grant the full amount of $638.6 million listed in the state appropriation that the board is requesting, Regents President Mike Richards said.

“We’re asking for the full [amount], we would hope to get the full [amount], we would expect to get the full [amount],” Richards said. “That’s why we put the request in.”