The Iowa Board of Regents convened Tuesday and approved several items that will directly affect ISU students.

One motion that was approved was the slightly controversial renovation of the president’s residence, the Knoll. The Regents approved a motion that would allocate $375,000 for aesthetic repairs for the 110-year-old building.

Despite criticism for allocating $90,000 to recarpet the ground floor of the building, Bruce Rastetter, Board of Regents president pro tem, was confident in the decision, especially because the funds will be granted by the Iowa State Foundation.

“When we look at the president’s residence, whether it’s at Iowa or Iowa State or at UNI, there are special places for students for fundraising and to bring people in as a front door to the university,” Rastetter said.

The motion also included permission to continue development of the $70.5 million bio-renewable complex and with the Larch Hall fire improvement project.

The Regents also approved a 7 percent increase in funding for public universities for the 2013 fiscal year to be distributed between the Regents universities.

Warren Madden, vice president of business and finance, gave an update on the current status of the Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement for the flood damage to ISU facilities. Most of the projects are completed, and they also have taken flood irrigation precautions. Although FEMA will be reimbursing part of the bill, the university still will be in charge of covering $6 million of the construction costs, also to be split with the Department of Residence and athletics.

“We are hopeful that this process will move forward with some reasonable timing over the next several months,” Madden said. “We believe we can now keep water out of those facilities.”

Iowa Public Radio also gave the board an update on its current process of getting out from Regents university funding through garnering their own donations.