Budgets and salaries will be on the agenda during the Board of Regents upcoming meeting Thursday in Iowa City.

Regent David Fisher said one of the main subjects of conversation will be the status of the budget for regent institutions in the Iowa Legislature. He said board members will be updated on the current status of the budget and future plans for it.

The Legislature’s upcoming vote raised concern among board members and university officials after Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed his budget for Iowa’s public universities. The governor’s budget does not match the board’s proposed financing, and some regent members believe it cuts too much money from the universities.

“There’s a great deal of concern,” Fisher said. “We don’t want to have [Iowa universities] fall back to where they were in the mid-’80s.”

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, said ISU administrators are also paying attention to the upcoming vote.

“President [Martin] Jischke has expressed some concern about salary appropriations since Gov. Vilsack’s budget does not agree with them,” McCarroll said.

Fisher said the Board of Regents will continue to watch the Legislature as it discusses the budget. He said he’s confident that it will be supportive. “We’ll have to see where we stand,” he said. “I know the board is committed to maintaining [faculty] salaries with our peer institutions.”

Fisher said board members also will be discussing the addition of two repeater stations for Iowa State’s WOI Radio.

Bill McGinley, general manager of WOI radio, said the repeater stations would be built in Spirit Lake and Carroll in order to improve the radio signal in those areas.

“It’s our goal to provide all of Iowa with at least one public radio signal,” he said. “This is an effort to provide those folks with a dependable service.”

McGinley said it may be up to a year before the repeater stations are in place since WOI must first receive permission from the Federal Communications Commission and raise money for the project.