The Iowa Board of Regents concluded its two-day meeting in Iowa City on Thursday where it discussed the addition of a new center at Iowa State, as well as a retention incentive for graduate and professional students and 2016-2017 tuition.

A group of graduate and professional student government members from the three Regent universities presented their proposal Wednesday of a financial retention incentive to keep young professionals in Iowa.

The proposal included a 50 percent tax break for graduate or professional students who chose to stay in Iowa after graduation, as well as a 75 percent tax break for graduates employed outside of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Des Moines metropolitan areas.

No action was required from the board, and the graduate and professional student governments involved have presented their proposal to Gov. Terry Branstad.

Hundreds of protestors also showed up Wednesday at the main lounge of the Iowa Memorial Union to voice their displeasure over the board’s selection of former IBM executive J. Bruce Harreld as the University of Iowa’s next president.

Protestors held signs and chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, the Board of Regents has got to go” after entering the Memorial Union, where they handed over a petition — which had over 1,000 signatures — that called for the resignation of Harreld and each member of the Board of Regents.

The board discussed and approved Thursday the creation of a new center at Iowa State called the Center for Statistics and Application in Forensic Evidence. Iowa State will be the lead university, partnered with Carnegie Mellon University, University of Virginia and the University of California Irvine, to provide a national research center in forensic sciences.

Also on Thursday, the Board reviewed for the first time the proposed 2016-2017 tuition rates from each of the three Regent universities.

Under the plan, Iowa undergraduate resident students would see a 3 percent increase in tuition, while Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa would not see a change due to their respective 3 percent increases for the spring 2016 semester.

One item proposed under the plan is an increase in fees of $500 per year for three years for international non-immigrant students at Iowa State, an increase Iowa State asked for. According to a docket provided by the Board, the extra funding would be used to keep additional education and training for international students at an optimum level as the amount of international students increases.

The board will vote on the 2016-2017 tuition and fees rates in December.