BOR holds spending review forum at UNI

By Correy Prigeon, Northern-Iowan

Associate News Editor

The Iowa Board of Regents hired Deloitte Consulting firm to help the three regent universities more efficiently spend money. The UNI community had the chance to meet representatives from the company and the BOR Monday to ask questions regarding the efficiency report.

“I think this is a great idea, especially looking at how funds are spread out through the universities,” said ThomasMadsen, president of Northern Iowa Student Government. “UNI is already running pretty efficiently, but it’ll be interesting to see what other ideas they can come up with.”

The BOR presentation was held in the Maucker Union Ballroom and was titled “Rising to the Next TIER: a Transparent, Inclusive Efficiency Review.”

Bruce Rastetter, BOR president, said the study will be transparent and that options will be made public once they are in place.

The forum was held to introduce the university to Deloitte. The consulting firm will begin gathering data this week.

Regent Larry McKibben, chair of the BOR efficiency committee, said not every recommendation from Deloitte will be implemented, and the consulting firm will work closely with the regent universities during Deloitte’s three-phase process.

“We will have dialogue inside the regents with the universities and with all Iowans as we move forward,” McKibben said.

During phase one, which begins this week, Deloitte will collect data about key strengths of the university and identifying challenges. They will use large meetings, interviews, websites and surveys to gather the information.

Phase two will identify efficiency opportunities and determine the effort and impact of implementing the changes.

The BOR will examine the first two phases to determine whether or not to sign on for phase three.

“This town hall that we’re holding today represents the very beginning of that effort,” said Virginia Fraser, Deloitte representative, who manages the daily activities of the consulting firm. “We’re looking forward to interacting and engaging with the community.”

While the first two phases will cost the BOR $2.5 million, the panel said any savings made from the study will go directly to the universities.

After the presentation the panel took questions from the audience, which covered issues such as what organizations Deloitte has worked with before and how the firm will connect with both students and faculty.

“I thought it was very good, lots of good conversation, lots of good discussion,” said UNI President William Ruud.

Madsen saw the forum as a learning opportunity for students who don’t know much about the study or the BOR.

“I think it will be interesting and a lot of tough questions will be asked,” Madsen said. “I think it will be a lot less stressful than people think it will be because they’ll be working so closely with the community.”

While Rick Fraser, Deloitte director, couldn’t name any specific examples of the kind of programs that have been changed with other universities the firm has worked with, he said unanswered questions could be sent to UNI’s efficiency webpage, which can be found at www.uni.edu/web/efficiency(opens new window).