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Iowa State will continue to seek budget efficiencies, president says

Diane Heldt, CR Gazette –

Iowa State University doesn’t have the severity of the budget crisis faced by the University of Northern Iowa, but ISU leaders will scrutinize every program as part of a look at the budget model, President Steven Leath said Monday during a visit to Cedar Rapids.

Leath, in his third month as ISU president, gave credit to the university’s former leadership team for running a tight budget ship. Leath noted he sometimes carries a binder, about a half-inch thick, to show people filled with examples of budget efficiencies ISU officials have found in the past five to six years.

There is constant streamlining, Leath said, but added his fresh set of eyes likely can find ways to “squeeze some more and be a little bit more efficient.”

“We’re getting ready to do that,” he said. “Every program, whether they’re academic or whether they’re in support of academics, will get a scrutiny as to are they being funded at an appropriate level.”

The state Board of Regents in recent weeks approved closing the Price Lab School at UNI and cutting nearly 60 academic programs there as part of university budget cuts recommended by UNI President Ben Allen.

ISU officials have on a regular basis looked at small academic programs and reduced some of those but have also added degree programs in high-demand areas, and they will continue to do so every year, Leath said, “regardless whether the economy is good or bad.”

Leath spoke to about 200 people at the Cedar Rapids Downtown Rotary Club Monday. During his trip to Eastern Iowa, he also visited an ISU Extension Office and the Kirkwood Community College campus, met with community and business leaders and with University of Iowa President Sally Mason in Iowa City.

Leath, 54, called it a getting-acquainted tour and said he wants ISU to be a great partner for Cedar Rapids, its citizens and its businesses. He wants to help focus the power of Iowa’s public universities to drive the state’s economy, Leath said.

“It’s difficult for a land-grant university to really serve its mission and serve its state if the president doesn’t really know the state,” Leath said. “Any way that Iowa State can help this state in pushing its economy forward is something I want to do.”

Too many universities become disconnected “ivory tower” models, because they are filled with smart people who have good ideas. But Leath said that “ivory tower” is not his style, and that’s not what Iowa State has been nor what it will become. He plans to lead a university that is responsive and “extremely sensitive” to the needs of the state. Agriculture, life sciences, biorenewables and engineering will continue to be focuses, Leath said.

“We’re going to be more and more demand-driven than Iowa State’s ever been before,” he said, noting that those demands will come from citizens, government officials and business leaders.

Leath previously served as vice president of research and sponsored programs for the 16-campus University of North Carolina system, where he helped guide the creation of the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, a public-private venture that promotes advancements in biotechnology, nutrition and health.

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