New University of Iowa President plans to address tuition, COVID-19 concerns, among other topics
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – In her short time since starting, new University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson has already made plans to focus on how much students pay to learn and how they stay healthy while at Iowa.
The Board of Regents plans to meet next week to discuss a likely 3.5% tuition increase this upcoming school year. Wilson wants to find ways to help keep that cost affordable.
“Iowa has kept tuition costs down, and we’ll continue to look carefully at that, but we also have costs and we have to pay our staff and our faculty and think about inflation, and all the things we want to do to support students.,” Wilson said.
Even with that potential increase, Wilson said she takes comfort knowing that Iowa is still one of the lowest costing schools in the Big Ten Conference. Even so, she plans to look closely at financial aid and scholarships.
”What I would like to do is be able to have a tuition level that makes sense and is competitive, but then also backfill with a lot of financial aid for those students who can’t afford to go to college,” Wilson said.
Another topic she plans to address is COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccinations and COVID-19 tests will no be required this academic year.
”The Board of Regents has made that decision about vaccinations, and we looked to the board, to the Iowa Public Health Department, and to a variety of authorities besides us to make decisions on how to go forward,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s first day was on July 15.
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