The nine Iowa Board of Regents members are about to begin serious discussions regarding the development of a comprehensive strategic plan for Iowa State, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa, Board President Michael Gartner said during Thursday’s meeting at the Scheman Building.

The Regent institutionwide plan would better coordinate long-term planning by Iowa’s three major universities to better achieve the academic goals of the state, Gartner said.

“It’s imperative that we try to come up with a strategy to ensure the universities 10, 20 years from now are among the leading universities in the nation,” Gartner said. “[It is important] that we deal with all the issues we have and best serve all the people of Iowa. It’s really as simple as that.”

The process is to be a collaborative one, with discussion between the Regents, university presidents and eventually the public, said Gartner and Iowa City Regent Robert Downer. Gartner said he is hopeful talk of the strategic plan would begin as early as late February, but “speed is not necessarily of the essence,” he said.

With no strict timeline, Downer said he hopes to present a proposed strategic plan to the state in roughly nine months.

“Sometime, maybe summer or early fall of 2007, we’d have these presentations around the state where we get impressions of how people reacted to this,” he said.

ISU officials did not directly address the board regarding the development of an overarching strategic plan Thursday, but Gartner read a statement of support from ISU Faculty Senate President Gregory Palermo.

“We respect the initiative being taken,” Palermo, professor of architecture, wrote to Gartner, also stressing that “the process should be open, public and representative of broad perspectives.”