The Iowa Board of Regents will meet Wednesday and Thursday to discuss various initiatives that affect Iowa State students and the community of Ames.

The Academic Affairs Committee will discuss potential Iowa State University center terminations.

The committee will review recommendations to permanently close the Center for Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses (CPRES) and the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC).

CPRES, established in 1999, fell under the umbrella of the Plant Sciences Institute (PSI). Its purpose was to acquire information on how plants respond to environmental stresses and how they can be modified to tolerate those stresses.

“The PSI changed its model for funding centers in 2015,” according to the document. “As a result, CPRES lost funding and the unit is no longer receiving funds for programming from PSI. The rationale for closing the center was/is that there is insufficient funding to justify the center to function as a separate entity.”

When the IAC was formed in 1990, it provided energy audits to small and medium-sized manufacturing companies with recommendations of ways to reduce energy consumption and become more profitable. Now, the center is up for closure.

“The center was started with a federal grant,” according to the document. “The grant has not been active for almost five years and there is no ongoing effort to revive it. There is insufficient funding to justify the center to function as a separate entity.”

Both documents state the Council of Provosts and Board office support the requests.

Furthermore, the Properties and Facilities Committee will review a request for a proposed naming of a facility and request for approved acceptance of a real estate gift.

The committee will review the recommendation to change the current name of the Iowa State Curtiss Farm Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex to the “Iowa State University Kent Corporation Feed Mill and Grain Science Complex.”

Additionally, it will consider recommending the board accept 262 acres of land in Lucas County.

Located four miles southwest of Chariton, Iowa, the gift is from Mr. Ronny Tharp on behalf of Iowa State as an addition to Iowa State’s McNay Research Farm.

On Thursday, President Wendy Wintersteen will give her report to the board, highlighting recent institutional activities.

The board’s meetings will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday and 9:15 a.m. Thursday in the Slife Ballroom Commons at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Additional information on the board’s meetings and agendas can be found online at www.iowaregents.edu.