Awards and the ISU general catalog will be discussed at the Board of Regents meeting this week at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

This is part of a recent recommendation by the regents-appointed Task Force on Transparency. 

“The overarching goal of this Task Force is to develop a consistent protocol that can be used by the universities, the special schools and the board when responding to public information requests,” said Craig Lang, president of the Board of Regents.

Topics on the agenda for the meeting include a request to award an honorary doctor of science degree from Iowa State to Peggy A. Whitson and registering Iowa State University Capital Improvement Business Transactions.

Proposed revisions for the Iowa State 2013-14 general catalog will also be discussed at the meeting.

“I thank all of the outstanding members of the Task Force for their willingness to serve in this effort to ensure consistent practices in our responses to Iowans,” Lang said.

The Transparency Task Force was put in place to recommend the best practices for responding to public information requests and to recommend the best practices for access to information of interest to Iowans.

Iowa State’s representative for the Transparency Task Force is Miles Lackey, ISU chief of staff.

“The president’s goals and priorities are my goals and priorities,” Lackey said. “That being said, the president is focused on making college more affordable and making Iowa State more efficient in the process. … Like President [Steven] Leath, I understand my role is one of public service,” Lackey said. “As a result, I will do all that I can do to make Iowa State as good as it can possibly be.”

The Board of Regents is a group of nine citizen volunteers to govern five public educational institutions in the state through policymaking, coordination and oversight, as provided by law, according to the Board of Regents website.

The nine citizen volunteers for the Board of Regents are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate to serve a staggered six-year term.

The board’s priorities are to provide high-quality accessible education to students, provide needed public services and engage in high-quality research, scholarship and creative activities to enhance the quality of life for Iowans and society in general.

The Board also creates and supports economic development in partnership with public and private sectors.

“We try to be as open and transparent as we possibly can,” Lackey said. “When we have information that we cannot share, there are very legitimate reasons for doing so, and we always make it perfectly clear as to why we cannot release that information.”

The meeting will be Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 23 and 24, in the Iowa Memorial Union.

The next meeting to take place at Iowa State will be in June 2014.