The Iowa Board of Regents approved the 2002 fiscal-year budgets for the three state universities and voted to discontinue the current early retirement program last week.

The Board also examined the 2003 appropriations request and heard presentations from President Gregory Geoffroy.

Geoffroy said at the meeting that Iowa State began planning this year’s budget with $21.8 million less than last year’s budget and said that because of the Plant Sciences initiative, the university will be asking for $5 million more in 2003.

Government of the Student Body President Andy Tofilon said he was concerned about the budget cuts.

“From GSB’s perspective, we understand that things needed to be cut, but they should have been targeted cuts,” Tofilon said.

On the other side of the spectrum, each university president received a pay increase from the previous year. University of Iowa’s president Mary Sue Coleman and University of Northern Iowa’s President Robert Koob both received a 16.8 percent increase in pay. Newly hired Geoffroy will be earning $275,000 for the year, which according to the Board of Regents office, is a 16.8 percent increase from former president Martin Jischke’s salary.

The Regents also voted to discontinue the current early retirement programs. The discontinuation will begin when the program expires June 30, 2002, and each university will have until February 2002 to suggest a replacement plan.

Robert Barak, deputy executive director of the Board of Regents office, said the decision came from recommendations from various groups at each of the three state universities. The board also authorized each university to decide whether their faculty and staff qualify for the current early retirement program.

“The groups from each institution said the [early retirement programs] were set up for a certain purpose, and apparently, from their recommendation, they were not achieving that purpose,” Barak said.

Coleman brought concerns to the regents regarding limiting salaries of college coaches. Coleman is a member of the Knight Commission, which emphasizes reform in college athletics, and said even though university presidents probably will not agree to limit coaching salaries because of antitrust laws, the matter should still be investigated.

The regents also approved a project description and budget for the Iowa State Extension 4-H Youth Building, which will be located on the corner of Stange Road and 13th Street. Initial construction is expected for March 2002 and will be completed May 2003.

These decisions were made at the Regents’ meeting July 18 and 19 in the Maucker Union at the University of Northern Iowa.