All but one state senator have voted to make changes in the way the board that governs the state’s public universities operates.
Senator Jeff Danielson, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, has been a critic of the board’s decision to close a K-12 laboratory school on the UNI campus.
“There are a number of high-profile decisions or circumstances that have gone on related to the Board of Regents that I believe either would have been minimized or avoided if their decision-making process was more transparent and more open,” Danielson says.
The bill calls for the public to be allowed to speak during the first 30 minutes of every Board of Regents meeting. Board members also would be required to hold public forums outside of Ames, Cedar Falls, Des Moines and Iowa City. Senator Jerry Behn, a Republican from Boone, was the only senator to vote against the proposal.
(Updated at 8:50 a.m. A previous version included information about provisions in the bill that were deleted during Senate debate last week.)