New strategic plans, enrollment and student retention and graduation rates will be among the topics discussed during the Iowa Board of Regents meeting today and Thursday in Iowa City.

“I think the board will pay pretty close attention to the enrollment report, the graduation rate and the fringe benefits report,” said Regent Lisa Ahrens, junior in agronomy. “I don’t think anything’s really going to be a hot issue.”

The regents will be giving a preliminary review of the strategic plans of its state institutions and own governing body during the meeting.

“The universities will present their reports, and we will discuss some of the goals that they have and discuss where they want to take the university,” Ahrens said.

Regent Roger Lande said it is important for the institutions to form these goals for the future.

“If you don’t know where you want to go, you don’t have any chance of charting a course to get there,” he said.

Ahrens also said the goals are important for the universities to move ahead.

“It’s basically what allows our university to have a point to head to and a point to work to,” she said. “We need to know what’s important to us, and a strategic plan allows us to do that.”

Lande said the regents will continue to study the issue of enrollment at the regent universities.

“I think we are going to see a continuation of the success of the three institutions,” he said.

Ahrens said the enrollment report is a way of checking how the universities are doing.

“If we keep increasing enrollment, that means we’re doing a good job and meeting the needs of students,” she said.

A particular area of interest for the regents is the amount of minority student enrollment, student enrollment and graduation rates, Ahrens said.

“We’re going to be continuing the improvement there, and that’s heartening,” Lande said.

Ahrens predicted that the regents will be happy with Iowa State’s progress on these.

“Everything is moving the direction that it should be,” she said.