Iowa Higher Education

IOWA CITY — A Johnson County jury has ruled in favor of the University of Iowa in a lawsuit filed by a UI researcher over the handling of patents on his technologies.

The jury judgement in favor of the UI, with court costs assessed to the plaintiff, was reached this week in Johnson County District Court.

Donald Macfarlane, a professor in the Carver College of Medicine, claimed in the lawsuit that the UI Research Foundation managed the patents on his research in a way that limited his further work on and potential income from a lucrative sale of the technology.

The non-profit UI Research Foundation commercializes university-developed technologies and inventions through licensing and manages the revenue stream.

AMES — Pamela Anthony, assistant dean of students at Georgia State University, Atlanta, will begin as Iowa State University’s new dean of students Aug. 1, ISU officials said Friday.

Anthony succeeds Dione Somerville, who left ISU in June 2011 to become vice president for student affairs at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Anthony has been assistant dean of students at Georgia State since August 2003. Previously, she was director of student activities at Spelman College and held two positions at the University of Alaska.

Anthony earned her bachelor’s degree in speech pathology from James Madison University, a master’s in student personnel in higher education from the University of Georgia and her doctorate in educational policy studies from Georgia State.

CEDAR FALLS — University of Northern Iowa officials expect to save about $1.3 million in salary and benefits costs from the 12 tenured faculty members who will take a buy-out incentive or phased retirement as part of budget cuts.

Of the 12 faculty members, seven of them opted to take part in the early separation incentive plan, an option for which 21 faculty from Malcolm Price Lab School and 50 faculty members from other academic programs were eligible. An additional five faculty will take a phased, two-year retirement option that will offer some financial equivalence to the buy-out incentive, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Virginia Arthur said.

“We’re coming close to that savings target we hoped to achieve,” she said. “We’re hoping by next week we’ll have a sense of if we’re going to do layoffs, where they’re going to be needed or if they’re going to be needed.”

If layoffs are needed, the university will follow the terms of the master agreement with United Faculty that directs the order, Arthur said.

UNI officials had aimed for getting 13 faculty to take the buy-out package, but that goal number did not include staff numbers from Price Lab School, as officials are treating that separately since some Price Lab faculty will move into field experience faculty positions when the lab school closes, Arthur said. Of the 12 faculty taking the incentive, two are from Price Lab, which means the number of faculty taking the package fell three short of the goal, Arthur said.

“When we say 50 were eligible, it sounds like there wasn’t much success to the program, but on the other hand we weren’t expecting to get 50,” she said.

Faculty had until April 30 to apply for the incentive, and then had seven days to change their minds. There were a number of Price Lab teachers who originally applied for the buy-out, but then withdrew after getting more information about the field experience faculty positions UNI will create as part of replacing the Price Lab School model, Arthur said.

UNI offered the buy-out to eligible tenured faculty as a way to reduce the need for layoffs as academic programs are cut. Participating employees will receive one year of salary and a cash payment equal to 18 months of COBRA premium for health and dental insurance. For the faculty who opted to take the two-year phased retirement, they will work 50 percent time but receive 60 percent pay. They also will receive the insurance premium cash payment, Arthur said.

“In our calculation, that was some financial equivalence there,” she said.

UNI will cut nearly 60 academic programs and plans to close Price Lab School as part of budget reductions.

IOWA CITY — An Iowa City man is suing the University of Iowa and the state Board of Regents, claiming he rented a university-owned house that had repeated problems with water in the basement and an eventual mold infestation.

Cliff Missen says in his lawsuit that despite his repeated complaints to Heritage Property Management agency, the university and the board of regents office, the university ignored the problem. Missen says he was eventually diagnosed by an allergist with a serious mold allergy after suffering numerous health problems.

In his lawsuit, Missen asks for $125,000 in general damages and $250,000 in punitive damages.

“There’s something really wrong about what they did,” Missen said Wednesday. “Decent people would have sat down and said ‘we made a mistake, I’m sorry, let’s fix it.’ That’s exactly what I wanted.”

Officials with the regents office said they don’t comment on pending litigation. UI officials did not immediately have a response to the lawsuit.

Missen filed the suit against the board of regents, the UI and Heritage Property Management on May 7 in Johnson County District Court.

Missen says he rented the UI-owned house at 219 Melrose Court, through agent Heritage Property Management, in October 2008, and he lived there for about 10 months. He says he complained to Heritage in January 2009 about water infiltrating the basement walls, causing damage to his property and creating an unhealthy environment.

In March 2009 and in each of the subsequent months, Missen says he complained to UI’s agent and Heritage agent about water in the basement and poorly maintained gutters and downpipes that drained directly into the house’s foundation. Mold in the basement eventually rendered the area unusable, Missen says, and despite months of his complaints, he says no agent for Heritage or the UI visited the house to verify his claims until days before the lease expired at the end of July. He also was not able to engage city or county health inspectors since it was a university-owned property, a practice he would like to see changed.

From February to July of 2009 he developed symptoms of fatigue, itchy eyes, headaches, sinus problems, depression and leg ulcers. Missen was diagnosed by allergist in July 2009 with a new, serious mold allergy, and he continues to suffer from the allergic reaction, he says in the lawsuit.

Missen, who works at the UI as director of the WiderNet project, also says his professional relationships with UI colleagues have been affected by the “contentious strategy” the university chose in this matter.

CEDAR RAPIDS — A class of Coe College students learning about leadership got to chat about the topic with former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver Monday.

Culver talked about his decision-making in times of crisis, including the 2008 flood, and the students quizzed Culver about how he motivated his team and how he knew when he was ready to make important decisions.

“I think it’s wonderful being able to absorb all of the experiences they bring,” Coe junior Ryan Chavez, 20, said of the impressive line-up of guest speakers to the class. “I think it’s probably one of the best ways to learn.”

In the coming weeks, the Coe students will meet with Cedar Rapids Schools Superintendent Dave Benson, Mercy Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Tim Charles and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, among others.

The new May-term course is Coe’s Leadership Institute, taught by Lou Stark, vice president for student affairs, and Wendy Dunn, a professor and chairwoman of psychology.

Coe students had to write essays and submit resumes in their application to be in the class. The 14 students chosen all moved into Schlarbaum House apartments on the Coe campus, to complete the living/learning environment feel of the four-week Leadership Institute.

The point of the class, Stark said, is to blend theory with practice. Students learn about leadership ideas and techniques, Stark said, and then actually have conversations with business, community and political leaders about their real-world practices.

“I told the kids the other day: connect the dots,” he said. “It’s been very engaging.”

Chavez, a junior majoring in biology and Asian studies with a creative writing minor from Anaheim, Calif., wanted to improve his leadership and social skills through the class. He likes that students often gather in each others’ rooms at night to discuss the day or meet in small groups to talk about class lessons.

On Monday afternoon, Culver spent about 90 minutes with the students. The former governor said he’d rather be too hands-on as a leader than be not involved enough. He stressed that a good leadership is engaged, listens, works to educate himself, is accessible and then makes decisions.

“You can’t be afraid of making a decision,” Culver advised the students, also encouraging them to get involved in leadership roles with campus or community groups.

Jennifer Snook, 21, a Cedar Rapids senior majoring in public relations, communication and business administration, wanted to improve her leadership skills that she uses as a member of the Coe soccer team, in her sorority and on the student senate.

“I wanted to make all my teams better,” she said.

It’s inspiring to hear government, community, business and cultural leaders talk about their paths to success, Snook said.

“It helps to see they had been leaders early on in their lives,” she said. “It gives me an idea of what I can be doing. It makes it seem doable.”

Culver, a former high school teacher, said he enjoys any chance to get back into the classroom with students who are excited about a topic.

“Our country and state really depend on the next generation of students,” he said.

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa officials on Friday named Chaden Djalali as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective Aug. 15.

Djalali (pronounced Ja-lá-li), is professor and chairman of the department of physics and astronomy at the University of South Carolina. He was one of three finalists to visit the UI campus in the dean search in March and April.

Djalali, 56, joined the physics faculty of South Carolina in 1989 and has served as the chairman of the department since 2004. In 2007 he was appointed to a Carolina Distinguished Professorship in recognition of his outstanding research and teaching.

His UI salary will be $325,000. The appointment is subject to approval by the state Board of Regents. Djalali will replace Linda Maxson, who served as dean of UI liberal arts and sciences for 15 years and will rejoin the UI biology faculty upon stepping down.

Djalali maintains an active research program in intermediate energy nuclear physics and hadronic physics and has taught at all university levels and contributed significantly to undergraduate and graduate curriculum development.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Paris XI and doctorate from Institut de Physique Nucléaire (IPN-Orsay) in Paris.

MOUNT VERNON — Former presidential advisers Karl Rove and Dee Dee Myers will share their insights on the presidential election in a lecture next week at Cornell College.

The lecture, free and open to the public, will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in King Chapel on the Cornell campus. Rove and Myers will address the Republican and Democratic points of view in a Delta Phi Rho lecture “Election 2012: Two Perspectives.”

The event will be moderated by Cornell politics Professor Craig Allin. Rove and Myers will offer insiders’ analysis on the candidates and the White House, including issues ranging from healthcare to the economy and foreign policy.

The lecture will be followed by a book signing in Cole Library.

Rove, widely considered the architect of George W. Bush’s presidential victories in 2000 and 2004, served as senior adviser to Bush from 2000 to 2007 and as deputy chief of staff from 2004 to 2007. While at the White House, Rove was deputy chief of staff for policy, coordinating the White House policy-making process.

Myers was the first woman and one of the youngest people ever to serve as White House press secretary. During the first years of the Clinton administration, Myers explained the actions of the new president to the press corps and the nation.

This is the fifth lecture funded by Cornell’s Delta Phi Rho Centennial Endowment. Previous speakers were Bob Woodward, Fareed Zakaria, George Stephanopoulos and David Gergen. A group of Delt alumni created the lecture series to contribute to the intellectual capital of the college and the community.

Accessibility note: an elevator will be installed in King Chapel by fall 2012. In the interim the building is not wheelchair accessible.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Students at Kirkwood Community College will pay $5 more per credit hour in tuition next year, a 3.9 percent increase approved unanimously by the school’s board of trustees Thursday.

The increase will make tuition $133 per credit hour next year for Kirkwood’s more than 17,000 students.

State funding was favorable for community colleges this Legislative session, Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich said. But Kirkwood officials project a 5 percent decrease in credit enrollment in the fall, which necessitates the tuition increase, he said. Had enrollment been projected to remain steady, Starcevich said he would have recommended no tuition increase.

“We have to protect against the likelihood” of an enrollment decline, which will lead to a drop in revenue, he said. “This is just a safeguard for that.”

Board of trustees Chairwoman Lois Bartelme said Kirkwood will remain one of the lowest-priced community colleges in Iowa, even with the increase.

This fall’s projected enrollment decline would follow a 4.8 percent enrollment decline in fall 2011, to 17,610 students. That came on the heels of two years of enrollment growth that totaled more than 20 percent, Starcevich said.

The college has increased the amount is raises for student scholarships, to more than $2 million.

Also at the meeting, the board approved bids on three construction projects.

A $1.1 million bid from CJ Moyna of Elkader was the low bid out of 12 on a project to build truck-driving ranges, a training loop and a parking lot at the new Kirkwood Continuing Education Training Center, 101 50th Ave. SW.

The board also approved a bid of about $714,800 for the new Kirkwood Eagle Tech Store in Benton Hall, which will be an Apple Authorized Campus Store, and a bid of $397,400 for a remodeling project in Benton Hall.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Eastern Iowa native and business leader Henry Tippie has given $1 million to establish an endowed chair at Coe College.

The Henry B. Tippie Professorship in Business and Economics was announced by Coe President James Phifer during the college’s commencement ceremony May 6, at which Tippie was honored. He was accompanied by his wife, Patricia, at the ceremony.

Tippie has had a distinguished career as a business leader. He graduated from Belle Plaine High School in 1944 and enlisted in the Army Air Force at 17 and studied briefly at Coe College in preparation for service as an air cadet. Tippie went on to earn an accounting degree from the University of Iowa, and after beginning his business career as an accountant, went on to lead various enterprises. He has been a longtime supporter of the college of business at the University of Iowa, renamed the Henry B. Tippie College of Business in his honor.

“Just as he has been generous in support of education elsewhere, Mr. Tippie has now stepped forward with an important gift to Coe College, one that will touch the lives of students for generations to come,” Phifer said.

The first recipient of the Henry B. Tippie Professorship is Rick Eichhorn, who has taught in the Stead Department of Business Administration and Economics since 2000. Eichhorn also is the director of the First-Year Experience Program at Coe.

The Henry B. Tippie Professorship in Business and Economics is the 27th endowed chair at Coe.

Nearly 4,800 University of Iowa students will receive degrees during spring 2012 commencement ceremonies.

Many of the UI commencement ceremonies will be held Saturday. The largest ceremony, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences event, will be 9 a.m. at Carver Hawkeye Arena, with UI President Sally Mason awarding about 2,145 bachelor’s degrees. Also Saturday, The College of Engineering ceremony will be at 10 a.m. at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Coralville and the Graduate College ceremony will be at 3 p.m. in Carver Hawkeye Arena.

The Tippie College of Business ceremony will be 1 p.m. Sunday in Carver Hawkeye Arena.

This year, the UI also presents honorary degrees to three Iowans, recognizing former Iowa governor Robert Ray, former state Board of Regents president Stanley Redeker and pharmacy leader Robert Osterhaus. Ray will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree at College of Law commencement Friday. Redeker will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the Graduate College ceremony. Osterhaus will received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree at College of Pharmacy commencement Thursday.

Also this week, Kirkwood Community College will hold spring commencement activities Friday and Saturday.

Kirkwood will honor more than 2,750 students in commencement ceremonies for its college credit and GED/adult high school programs this week. Both ceremonies will be held at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids.

Kirkwood will confer 2,290 college credit degrees, diplomas and certificates for study in the past academic year. The college also has awarded more than 465 GED and adult high school diplomas in 2011-12.

The Kirkwood Adult High School Commencement is set for 7:30 p.m., Friday. The college commencement will be held at 10 a.m., Saturday.

University of Iowa officials said they are disappointed by the federal government’s denial of money to replace the UI Museum of Art at a new location, and they are considering their next steps.

State officials Wednesday announced the decision by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to deny the UI’s second appeal regarding museum funding in the wake of the 2008 flood. The first UI appeal was denied in January 2011 by the regional FEMA office. The second UI appeal for funding was to the federal FEMA office.

UI Spokesman Tom Moore said university officials are reviewing possible next steps or any other available recourse in coordination with the state. UI officials waited nearly a year for word on the second appeal.

“President (Sally) Mason reiterates her strong support for the UI Museum of Art and for the need for a reliable and safe facility for the university’s art collection,” Moore said in the statement.

UI officials seek FEMA funding to replace the Museum of Art at a new location, away from the Iowa River, because university officials say no insurance company will insure the art in that location. The 12,000-piece collection was evacuated from the museum in the days leading up to the June 2008 flood, and some of the art was damaged. The collection is now being displayed and stored in other locations.

After the flood, FEMA ruled the Museum of Art did not sustain enough damage to qualify for replacement funding. Instead, FEMA would help pay to repair the museum building, but not to replace it elsewhere. The UI appealed, arguing the museum was ruined, since art cannot be returned for insurance reasons. The extensive collection is insured for $500 million.

Under FEMA regulations the building is eligible to be replaced if it is not feasible to repair it so that it can function at the same level that it had before the disaster. This denial by FEMA claims the regulations do not apply because “the difficulties in obtaining insurance is not a direct result of the impact of the declared major disaster on the facility, but rather is a business decision by the applicant’s insurer,” according to the FEMA letter to the state office.

“I am disappointed in this decision by FEMA,” Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division Administrator Mark Schouten said in a statement. “We will work with the University of Iowa to evaluate our options.”

In March, Mason said it’s “absolutely realistic” to build a new museum without federal dollars, but that it would require significant fundraising. At the time, Mason expressed hope the appeal would come back in the UI’s favor.

State Board of Regents leaders in March gave support to Mason’s statements, saying it’s a priority to replace the museum. They wanted to work through the appeal process but said they are committed to rebuilding the museum “with or without FEMA funding,” Regents President Craig Lang said.

The cost to repair the flood-damaged museum building is estimated at $5.2 million, while the cost to build a new museum was estimated at $40 million, according to information in the denial letter from FEMA.

CEDAR RAPIDS — High-tech medical simulators allow nursing students to install an IV, monitor a patient’s vital signals and change the dressing on a surgical wound without risking patient safety.

Kaplan University in Cedar Rapids held a dedication and open house Tuesday celebrating its new health care simulation lab, with two lifelike simulators that will be used by dozens of nursing students each term.

“We can customize the simulator to any situation we have,” Kelly Siems, a full-time nursing instructor at Kaplan, said. “The biggest benefit is this is a safe environment, so if a student makes a mistake, there’s no patient harm.”

A control room in between the two simulator labs allow instructors to manage the simulators via wireless signals from a laptop computer. They can tell slow the heart beat, make it cough or even talk and send it into cardiac arrest, to run the students through medical situations.

“You’re actually by yourself for the first time,” Tara Crawford, 37, a Kaplan Practical Nursing student from Norway, said. “It’s so realistic. It interacts, it breathes, it tells you what’s wrong. In a hospital setting you never know what will happen next.”

That unpredictability make the simulators feel very much like a hospital setting, as does the real medical equipment the students use in the simulator labs, said Caitlin Shanley, 23, a Practical Nursing student from Cedar Rapids.

Tammy Dame said the new simulators are much more high-tech and realistic than the old simulators at Kaplan. It’s a good upgrade that will benefit students when they get out on the job, said Dame, 42, of Marion, who is studying for her associate degree in nursing at Kaplan.

“We’re able to put them in high-risk situations,” he said.

One simulator, SimMan, is for more general medical scenarios and the other is a maternity simulator that gives birth. Kaplan’s Cedar Rapids campus has about 100 students in its two nursing degree programs. The total investment for the new simulators and lab was about $500,000, Kaplan Cedar Rapids President Susan Spivey said.

“Nursing programs that want to help students be successful will go this direction,” she said.

Kaplan officials also have offered use of the simulator facilities to local law enforcement agencies for First Responder and emergency training.