The state Board of Regents approved last week Iowa State’s capitol improvement plan, which includes nearly $110 million in campus projects. The plan covered fiscal year 2000, which begins July 1.

The regents met at the University of Iowa on June 16 and 17.

The improvement plan, which details what projects will be funded and how they are to be funded, was approved, but many of the individual projects slated for the next year are still subject to review of the board.

Iowa State’s received nearly half of the $236 million doled out to state schools for capitol projects.

According to regents documents, over half of the funds in ISU’s plan, $60.7 million, will be devoted to new building construction.

Remodeling and renovation will take $40.9 million, $3 million will go to safety measures, $2.5 million will go to deferred building repairs, road improvements will take $2 million and $1 million will be spent on parking lot improvements.

Planned construction includes the $26.3 million Union Drive portion of the Department of Residence’s Master Plan, a $21.5 million College of Business building, $7.8 million for the Reiman Garden Conservatory, a $3.5 million 4-H/Extension building and a $2 million Honors Program building.

The planned remodeling includes $25 million on Coover Hall, $8 million on Marston Hall, $4 million on Hamilton Hall and $3.5 million on Hilton Coliseum.

The other major action taken by the board was approving Iowa State’s post-tenure review policy.

The policy, already in place at the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa, allows administration to review the productivity of tenured faculty.

It does not change the process required to terminate a tenured faculty member.

ISU was not required to bring a policy before the board until December 1999, but the board was happy to have the policy approved before the deadline.

“The reason I think that is good is because this will give us time to look at this policy,” said Regent Clarkson Kelly, Jr. “We like to know ahead of time what you’re planning.”

The issue of post-tenure review had previously been a controversial one among faculty members.

Although a large percentage of the faculty, about 72 percent, approved of the draft policy that was sent to the board, an earlier attempt at setting a tenure-review policy was narrowly defeated by the faculty, 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent.

Kelly explained why he felt a post-tenure review policy was a necessity at state universities.

“The tenure plan was made so a professor could espouse his view and the administration couldn’t fire him for his viewpoints. You can’t hire anyone anymore without tenure because they won’t come,” he said.

“But on the other hand, if someone is doing a poor job and has tenure and you can’t get rid of them, that’s a bad situation,” Kelly said.

“The review policy allows these people to be examined and picked out to change their ways,” he said.

Kelly also was pleased with the support the policy received from ISU faculty.

“Why wouldn’t [faculty] be all for it?” he said. “If they’re doing their job, they shouldn’t fear it.”

The three-paragraph policy outlines guidelines for university departments to follow in post-tenure review, but most of the specific details of the review are left up to each department to decide.

In other Board of Regents action:

• The salaries of university presidents were raised by 4.2 percent. ISU President Martin Jischke, who made $218,275 last year, will receive $227,443 during fiscal year 2000.

• The board considered the athletic budgets of the state universities.

ISU has a preliminary budget of $17.6 million, including the $2 million bail-out of last year, when the athletic department took a heavy loss in ticket revenues.

Approximately $1.4 million of the shortage is to be balanced by draining the reserve accounts of the department.

• The board approved a new Biotechnology Outreach Education Center at ISU.

The center will provide yearlong teaching labs for K-12 students and teachers in Iowa, as well as adult educators, community teachers and industry leaders.

The center, whose annual budget is expected to be about $140,000, will be actively using the Iowa Communication Network to reach out to more than 665 sites around Iowa.

The Board of Regents will next meet on July 14 and 15 in Ames.