The Iowa Board of Regents will meet Wednesday and Thursday for their final meeting of the calendar year. They will discuss finances, free speech and other university reports.

The meeting will begin with reports from the Academic Affairs Committee, including a request for a new research center at the University of Iowa. The Iowa Center for Neurodegeneration would be housed under the Iowa Neuroscience Institute. The goal is to improve research on neurodegenerative diseases and focus on helping underserved Iowa communities affected by these issues.

The section for the Free Speech Committee will consist of a presentation on academic freedom, a free-speech campus training update and a free speech survey update. The presentation on academic freedom will be given by Scott Peters, head of the Political Science Department at the University of Northern Iowa.

There will also be presentations from the Investment and Finance Committee. They will include a comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year of 2021 and a proposed bond issuance schedule for the calendar year 2022.

As part of the Consent Agenda, the Regents will discuss the three schools’ Economic Development and Technology Transfer Report. Iowa State’s report will discuss developments from the past year, such as the ISU Research Center and the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship.

The meeting will also include a report from Wendy Wintersteen and reports from the other two Institutional Heads. A public comment section will also be held.

While the meeting will be hosted at the University of Iowa, it can only be attended virtually. The meeting can be streamed at www.iowaregents.edu from 10:30 a.m. to 5:45 a.m. Wednesday and from 9:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday.