The Board of Regents will hold a teleconference Wednesday to decide its official stance on several legislative issues.

Most importantly, the board will discuss the state’s budget woes, said Executive Director Gregory Nichols. Currently, the Iowa Legislature is recommending a plan requiring furloughs, meaning about 50,000 state employees, including professors at the Regents institutions, would have to take a half-day off every two weeks without pay in order to save funds.

“The bottom line is any further budget reduction to the university will really have a devastating impact this late in the year,” said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. “A furlough of university employees, likewise, has enormous problems with it.”

Geoffroy said the university stands to suffer problems should the legislature follow through with the budget reduction. He said Vilsack’s plan to use the state’s economic emergency funds would be better for the university than the furlough plan presented by Iowa legislators.

Geoffroy also released a budget memo to all faculty and staff Tuesday, in which he outlined his stance on what must be done about the budget.

The state’s revenue-estimating conference will be Thursday, Nichols said, after which decisions will be made rapidly.

“There is a consensus that there will be a need to reduce expenses for the current year,” Nichols said.

This could occur as an across-the-board cut of 2.6 percent if no legislative action is taken.

Nichols said the regents believe that would be the worst option.

Rather, the board hopes Gov. Vilsack and the Iowa Legislature will decide to use the emergency fund, or “rainy-day fund,” to compensate for the shortfall.

“It is hard to say how that will impact next year,” Nichols said. “A cut is most difficult in a year that is three-fourths over. So much is already planned and ongoing, it’s hard to make that work.”

Provost Rollin Richmond said ISU officials are working with the board.

“We are working hard with the Board of Regents staff and the Regents,” he said. “People need to make their concerns known to the Legislature.”

Richmond said there are some actions students can take as well.

“Students are citizens of this state and this nation. If they care about the role of education, that’s a message they need to get to their legislative representatives,” Richmond said. “Students carry a lot of weight – I wouldn’t underestimate their views.”

The board will make a stance on a bill regarding human cloning and a bill that would change the operations of 4-H extension.

Nichols said each of the regent institutions has a lobbyist who keeps the office abreast of concerns within the Legislature. It is rare for the lobbyists to ask for a board stance on issues because few items reach such a level of concern, he said.

Tuesday night, the board held a closed executive session, which Regent Lisa Ahrens, senior in agronomy, said can be called in accordance with Iowa’s open meetings law for personnel issues or lawsuits. A board office press release said no decision was expected to result from the closed session.