The Daily Iowan interviewed University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson on Wednesday afternoon on topics ranging from women’s basketball, campus rights and safety, UI Health Care, the future of campus buildings, and more.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Daily Iowan: The Iowa women’s basketball team sold out its tickets for the second consecutive season. What are you most looking forward to with that program under the helm of Jan Jensen?

Wilson: I’m so excited for Coach Jensen and really excited to see the new team. It’s some returnees, but then also some new folks. They’re going to look different. She keeps reminding us it’s not going to be the same, but I’m just really impressed with the way she’s taken over seamlessly.

She wants to build a team. She acknowledges it’s going to look a little different, and none of the coaching staff left, so I think that’s a tribute to her and what Lisa started and what Jan’s going to continue. It’s a great culture, and it’s a great group of students. We just got a really big recruit from Alaska, and she had a lot of offers at other places, and she chose Iowa, so it’s really exciting and, as you said, sold out. That’s fabulous, so I hope it’s a trend.

The University of Iowa announced that it would transition RVAP’s services to DVIP by Sept. 30. How would you say the transition has been going?

It’s been reasonably smooth. We’re committed to working with RVAP and making sure the services don’t fall off. Only 12 percent of the individuals who use the service were even from the university. We always have to look at our resources and how we’re spending our financial contributions and our tuition money. So, it made sense to us to work with DVIP and they were eager to do it, too, so it seemed to us like an actual partnership.

We’re going to continue to support two staff members who are going to rotate around the campus to serve campus people. We’re not giving up on any of our services, but I think what we’re going to do is be more efficient, consolidate into one organization, let them really take the lead for most of the county services that they provide, and yet continue to work with them for campus support.

It’s a win-win. I know it didn’t feel that way to a lot of students, but we feel really assured that we’re going to continue to offer what we were offering before — it may even be better.

With the Iowa Board of Regents’ recent decision regarding DEI initiatives at state universities, what has been the biggest change to the University of Iowa?

The biggest change is that it’s allowed us to really talk about and think about diversity in a different way. I’ve been really clear with the board and with our own people — we’re not giving up on diversity. But it’s really important as an educational institution to keep thinking about what we do. How do we do it better? Are we measuring what we’re doing in a way that shows success? So, it’s given us an opportunity to do a little reorganizing to make sure that when we talk about diversity, we’re talking about all aspects of diversity.

You know, diversity, to us, is not just about race and gender and sexual orientation. It’s about first-gen students. It’s about international students, students with disabilities, students from other countries, and students whose background is in the military — our ROTC students, our IVET students. The more we think about diversity in a multi-factorial way, the better off we’re going to be. How do we bring everybody to the table and help our students learn what we are calling cultural competence?

We know that in order for you all to succeed in the work world, you have to have skills that allow you to interact with and build teams with people who are different. And so we’re trying to focus more on defining diversity broadly, making sure everything we do is compliant with the state law and meets our accreditation requirements and our federal laws. It’s given us an opportunity to take stock.

So, it hasn’t been easy, but I can assure you we’re not giving up on the principles of making sure that we welcome all kinds of people to this campus, and we make sure they flourish.

Charges related to former FIJI members that sparked protests across campus years ago were settled today, but there is still concern among students regarding student safety. How is the university taking steps to address sexual assault on campus?

In lots of ways. Teaching students how to manage safety is one of my greatest concerns. I think I’ve mentioned that in the past, people say, “what keeps you up at night,” and one of the issues is student safety. I think we’re doing a really good job, but we can always do more. We have got a lot of training and a lot of educational opportunities. You probably went through some of them when you became new students here.

We continue to do that. We’re continuing to work with the Greek system, the fraternities and sororities, around education. You can now go and look at the scorecard for fraternities and sororities about how much they’re doing each chapter in terms of educational efforts and training.

Is it done? No. Is it never ending? Yes. We continue to believe that we can help students manage situations in a way that safety prevails, and we have a lot of resources for people who get into difficult situations and need support or need to make complaints. We’ll continue to foster that as well.

Over the past several months, free speech in university spaces has become increasingly relevant. What efforts has the University of Iowa implemented to ensure the First Amendment is protected across campus? 

Well, you all know that we have a First Amendment for free speech training — hopefully, you do it every year. It’s for faculty, students, and staff. The percentages are a little lower for students than for staff and faculty. The training really is to make sure people understand what the law is, what the law says, what the university’s rules and structures are, so that people know what they can do, what they can’t do, how it will protect them under certain circumstances, how they file complaints, what’s appropriate, and what’s not appropriate.

But one training isn’t going to do it, as you know. We’ve been doing a lot of workshops around free speech in the election and around other issues that have been particularly challenging. We used to have these easels up to help students know what their rights and their responsibilities are. They blow over, and they’re heavy to carry, so now we’re putting things on the sidewalks where you can pick your phone up and dial in a code and find what the rights and responsibilities are for students. We want people to know we support the First Amendment. It’s part of who we are and what we care about, and you have to know what the guardrails are and what kinds of policies we have, because we also have a responsibility to make sure you can get educated, that you’re safe, that we can carry on the functions of the campus. It’s not a one-shot deal. Every fall, some other university has asked me about our easels and our putting things on sidewalks.

So, I think we’ve actually been a little bit of a trendsetter in some ways, helping institutions think about, “How do you get the word out?” You’re not going to go to a website in the middle of a moment when you’re trying to figure it out, but you might put your phone over a thing on the sidewalk and realize, “Okay, can I do this? Or can’t I do this?” And of course, it’s on us to keep helping educate people.

The University of Iowa has goals to be coal-free by 2025. Is everything on track for that goal to be accomplished, and what steps is the university taking to bridge that final gap?

I think things are on track. If you really want more details, I encourage you to talk to our Office of Sustainability. We’re working on multiple fuel sources. We are now burning pellets, which are made from miscanthus grass, and that’s been a really revolutionary process, so we can diversify our fuel sources. We’re working with our NG partners to think about how we move increasingly away from coal, but we have to have multiple sources of fuel, because we actually run a big hospital here, and one of the requirements is that you don’t rely on a single source of fuel for that big of a facility.

So, we’re working on both diversifying, strengthening, and ensuring, and we’re looking at different ways of enhancing our use of pellets as well. So, if you don’t know anything about that, I encourage you to look at it and look at a pellet. It’s amazing. It’s made out of grass and forms of plastic that can’t be recyclable. And it’s, you know, it’s really a pretty clean form of energy that we’ve adopted. Other institutions are looking at it, too.

Since acquiring the Mercy downtown campus, how has the transition for staff members and general operations writ large gone?

It’s been pretty amazing, frankly. When you think about the amount of work that was required to bring this hospital on board, it goes all the way from IT to physical plant to people, and all of it happened very quickly. I can tell you that one of their requests for the opening day was that Herky showed up, so I think that shows you they were excited. Staff wanted to be part of us. I’ve visited over there with several of our board members, and we heard nothing but positive feedback from physicians and from nurses and from staff. They’re excited. They see a future that they weren’t sure about before we brought Epic in, which is the big patient record system that didn’t even exist there before.

So that, in and of itself, caused them to erupt in applause when they heard we were going to bring Epic over, and I think they are excited about some of the facility upgrades that we’ll be making over there as well. So far, it’s been good. The parking lot has got some issues, and we’ve got lots of things we’re looking at, but I think that the folks that are there are really happy, really pleased, and I think the community support and reaction has been very positive. People are thankful that we’re keeping it open, thankful that it’s an alternative place to go. We birth a lot of babies in that hospital, and it’s less crowded — the wait list time is shorter there. So having multiple places for people in this community to go is a really positive thing for us.

What is the status of the Old Capitol Mall purchase? What will happen to the businesses on the first floor?

There’s no change in that right now, and the businesses are going to stay, so we’re excited that they’re there. We are looking at a long-term plan where we might increase our oversight and perhaps ownership of the space, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. We’ve got a lot of people on the second floor and even on the first. Our Public Safety Office is there. Our Office for Students with Disabilities is there.

Our new student lounge for students with disabilities is on the first floor. Our International Programs and Services are on the first floor. So, if you’ve been watching, we’ve taken over more and more space in that place, but we also really love that we’ve got retail there as well. I think in the long term, it’s not going to be that different. It’s just going to be who’s running it and who’s overseeing it and who’s managing it.

It was announced at the end of last year that the university is keeping Mayflower for the next several years. What is the university doing to make that space more desirable to students?

We’ve done a couple of things. We’ve enhanced the number of student lounges and study spaces on various floors. We have added some food choices out there. We’re never going to have a full dining service out there, but we’ve made hot food available. I heard walking tacos are available out there, among other things.

We’re really trying to think about how we renovate the space in a way that meets students’ needs. We’ve also brought student advising out there during certain hours. That’s just round one, and that we did pretty quickly because we didn’t have a lot of time before Mayflower opened for fall. I think in the long run, we’re going to be looking more closely at the appliances in the kitchenettes, if you will, at just the general facility itself. How do we encourage more second-year students to think about Mayflower? Right now, there’s about 800 students living in Mayflower, and about 150 to 200 were returning.

We see it as a really viable second-year option, especially if we boost the amenities out there. And, eventually, we may even think about possibilities of having some parking out there or something like that. So are a lot of people that like Mayflower, maybe not for the first year, but for the second year — it would be really good when you’re a little bit more accustomed to walking, and you don’t need a dining hall right on your property. And so to envision it as a really powerful second-year opportunity is sort of what we’re thinking long-term.

On that note, with residence halls in general, there were conversations about having another residence hall built primarily for returning students.

I don’t think that’s on the horizon now that we’re keeping Mayflower, at least not right now. So even though we have a bumper crop of students this year, we’ve managed to find housing for all of them, which is a really good thing.

With the Parklawn space, are there any near future plans for that?

It’s not open now. As far as I know, we don’t have any long-term plans for it. It did have some accessibility issues, and we hadn’t planned on opening it, but at the last minute, we did because we needed more space, so it was appropriate to close it, and we’re kind of still thinking about what we’re going to do with that building.

What are you most proud of?

One of the things that I feel most excited about is, well, first of all, our enrollments. You all know that there’s an enrollment cliff that everybody’s talking about. Some other campuses around the country are really showing some significant decreases in the number of students coming, and the fact that we welcomed our third largest class in the history of the university is a big deal. Part of what we do is we showcase who we are really well. And so all these visits, all these visitors with their yellow bags, are coming to us in great numbers right now from all over the country. And what we hear over and again is, “This place is incredible.” We just had a group of people here, parents, saying, “Your campus is clean. Everybody’s so friendly. Love the downtown.” So, I think we’ve got a really special place here, and the more we can get people to come here, the more we knock it out of the park, and our numbers are up, which is a really good thing.

The other thing I’m really proud of is that we hit 90 percent retention for our first-year students. That was our five-year goal, and we hit it in three years. So maybe our goal isn’t ambitious enough, but I mean to retain 90 percent of your freshman class is amazing, especially when you think about how accessible we are. So, our doors are wide open, and we admit 85 percent of our applicants. 85 percent. Do you know what Michigan admits? Twenty percent, so they are turning away most of their applicants. We’re admitting most of our applicants. They’re all college-capable, but they need, perhaps, a little more support in some cases, and for us to get 90 percent retention when our doors are as wide open as they are, we’re not going to be out of the park compared to any other institution.

So, I’m really proud of that. They say, “No, no, no, no, okay, no, no, no.” We say, “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” and we’re going to retain you at almost as high a level as these very elite institutions that are only admitting a smaller percentage. It’s a way that distinguishes Iowa from its peers, even Illinois, where I came from — they’re admitting about 50 percent of the student applicants they get. We’re admitting 85 percent, so doors wide open, and then to retain them at levels that are as high as our peers — it means a lot of people are focusing on how to support students here, and you don’t get that at every institution. First Gen Hawks program, our program to revitalize our STEM courses, a lot of people are working on those first-year opportunities to make sure we keep students in school there. I just had to share that with you because it’s something very good for you all to feel good about.

One way to think about it is we’re part of the AAU, which is the elite research universities. There’s 71 of us. If you look at those 71 schools, and then you look at what the acceptance rate is, I mean, that’s Harvard, Yale, Penn, all the Ivy’s big flagships. And then how many of them admit 85 percent of their undergraduates? It’s a much smaller number, and then to hit 90 percent retention, we’re down to three. So, it’s just a way of thinking about what we are doing that’s different here compared to our peers. And I would say we are extremely accessible, open doors, and then we’re going to make sure you succeed when you meet.

A couple of the majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have merged for new programs. What future do you see, and what changes do you envision for that? 

I’m proud of CLAS for going through a pretty rigorous process involving lots of faculty input to think about how many ways should we slice and dice what we do, and could we reorganize in a way that meets students’ needs? Sometimes, the academy creates departments that make sense to faculty but don’t really make sense to students. The reorganization around sustainability just makes sense. They’ve taken multiple places or multiple units and created a school. They’ve done that in the languages to try to connect in different programs. It makes them more effective, more efficient, and probably makes more sense to students. But it’s been a long process. Faculty have supported it. It’s not something that just came out of the — it wasn’t a top-down process. The goal, I think, ultimately, is to make our degrees stronger, better, and more attractive to students.

Are there going to be any tangible changes that students see in their day-to-day operations?

Your degree might have a different name on it. I don’t know how much that matters in the end. Having a degree from Iowa is probably the most important thing you’re going to take with you, but you might have a degree that makes more sense to you at some level. But I think for all practical purposes, it’s not going to change the curriculum or the kinds of things you do in the classroom.

It’s really just a way of organizing us that’s more effective and makes more sense. And it’s happening across the country. I mean, if you look, there’s a lot of reorganization in the academic world. We shouldn’t just be static. I mean, 30 years ago, we didn’t teach creative writing in English, and now it’s one of our biggest draws in the English Department. We should be there, right at a place that emphasizes writing and communications. But that didn’t exist 30 years ago, so I think we should always be evolving to meet students’ needs and to meet the interests of our employers and to teach the best skills we can for students.

Ohio State University is doing a completely asynchronous day on Election Day to make sure that students can get out and vote. Is the University of Iowa doing any initiatives?

Hawk The Vote is a big student group — in fact, they were over for dinner last night, and the executive team was talking about all the work they’re doing to get students registered to vote. I didn’t realize this, but you can vote if you sleep here. So, people are always asking, “Where do I vote?” and “How do I do this?” It’s easy. If you want to know how to vote, contact your Hawk the Vote reps. They’re everywhere. They’re out in the Pentacrest, they’re out on T. Anne Cleary Walkway.

They were giving out cinnamon rolls the other day. We’re doing a lot of outreach to students to help them easily register to vote. I don’t think we need to do asynchronous classes because we’re going to have voting places right on campus, and Catlett is one of them. So, I don’t think anybody could say, “I need the whole day off so I can go over to Catlett and vote.” It’s a nice idea, but we’ve got to keep our classes going. But there’s going to be a polling place at Catlett and at Peterson, and you can vote early at the IMU. I think you’d be hard-pressed to say that we’re not supporting students voting. It’s a great thing that we’re doing, and we want to make sure students are politically engaged.

Your age group is the least likely to vote, and it should not be that way. And a lot of students say, “I don’t know if I qualify.” This group will help you with that. And then some say, “I don’t know who to vote for,” and they’re not going to tell you who to vote for, but they will provide a lot of information on the candidates, both locally and nationally, because, of course, it’s a presidential election, but there are local candidates, too, that really make a difference for our everyday lives. So, Hawk the Vote.

Last year, after the Iowa Board of Regents had all the universities present about how they were restructuring their DEI departments, Representative Taylor Collins criticized the University of Iowa for not doing enough to be compliant in the spirit of the state law. What is your reaction to those kinds of comments?

Just continue to work with our legislators. Help them understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it. Part of my job is to work with our leaders across the state, including representative Collins, but many others as well.

Sometimes, they don’t understand what we’re doing, and it takes more than a board meeting to work through all the issues. We’ve done a lot of work behind the scenes to help communicate, to understand their concerns, make sure we’re responsive to them, but then also to make sure they know what we’re doing.