Lock and load: the Iowa Board of Regents has a full chamber of proposals on its agenda to deliberate at its Wednesday meeting in Iowa City.

Regents will consider a comprehensive security policy that includes a provision to regularly arm police at Iowa’s three public universities. The policy, if approved, would permit 81 campus officers from all three regents’ universities to carry guns. Under current Iowa law, certified police officers on the campuses of public universities have been prohibited from carrying firearms unless they’ve been granted special permission from the university president.

Iowa is one of the few states prohibiting public university police from carrying weapons. Public safety directors at Iowa’s universities had begun drafting this proposal more than a year ago but the sense of urgency was heightened after the shooting spree on the campus of Virginia Tech. Public safety officials said armed police would not prevent a situation similar to Virginia Tech from happening, nor would it have stopped the Gang Lu shooting on the UI campus in 1991.“The requirements for carrying a weapon on the college campuses in Iowa will be greater than anywhere else in the state,” Gary Steinke, the board’s executive director, told The Press-Citizen.

The proposal includes permission from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy and  FBI regarding the types of guns and ammunition that campus police would be allowed to use on duty. Moreover officers will be held accountable to measures similar to officers in off-campus law enforcement agencies. Campus officers would be required to submit a written report each time a weapon is fired outside of training, and any officer who causes serious injury of death would be placed on administrative leave pending a review of the incident.

In addition to arming campus police, the policy would require universities to implement an emergency communication system, seek early identification of people who may be a threat to themselves or the campus and establish additional training programs for campus police.
The Regents will also consider changes in policy that would allow the universities to name buildings and departments after corporations or products. The proposed policy says the Regents may approve names of people, businesses or, “in rare circumstances,” commercial products for major university facilities, properties or university units.

The proposed policy change is in response to the controversy over the summer when the University of Iowa considered renaming its College of Public Health after Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in exchange for a $15 million gift from the insurer’s foundation. Faculty and the dean rejected the gift, saying it would hurt research funding. Wellmark withdrew the offer, which led to Marvin Pomerantz’s resignation as head of the college’s capital fund-raising committee.  “I think the College of Public Health dean embarrassed me and embarrassed the university,” said Pomerantz, a University of Iowa alumnus and prominent donor. “It is a terrible insult to the university what Dean Merchant has done.”

Regents President Pro-Term David Miles of West Des Moines, asked at the board’s September meeting that products be excluded from the naming policy, but university presidents wanted to keep their options open. The naming policy would also change the requirement that universities keep the regents’ board apprised of naming discussions with donors. The schools would confer with the regents’ president and president pro-tem under the new policy. This change would likely keep these discussions secret for a longer period of time as mass communications to all regents are public information.

The Regents will also review a proposal that would raise tuition and mandatory fees an average of 3.2 percent for the 2008-9 school year. In past years students have seen double-digit hikes. However this year’s proposed increase is the second lowest since 1980 and benefits from Iowa lawmakers’ decision last session to appropriate an additional $40 million for faculty salaries and $25 million more for operating budgets.

The board will vote on tuition in December for the 2008-09 school year. Under the proposal:

-The University of Iowa would charge undergraduate residents $6,524 for tuition and mandatory fees in 2008-09, a 4 percent increase from this year. Nonresident undergraduates would pay $20,638, a 6.1 percent increase from this year.

-Iowa State University undergraduates would pay $6,380, a 3.2 percent increase from this year. Nonresident undergraduates would pay $17,350, or a 2.5 percent hike, from 2007-08.

-University of Northern Iowa resident undergraduates would pay $6,378, a 3 percent increase from this year’s tuition and fees. Its nonresident undergraduates would pay $14,596, an increase of 2.2 percent from this year.