Comment on Iowa schools spent $27,000 last year on food for regent meetings

IOWA CITY — The institutions that Iowa's Board of Regents oversee spent a combined $27,130 last year providing menu items including grilled salmon, beef tenderloin and donated alcohol to regents during their monthly meetings. At the time, the board was launching a sweeping efficiency review of its university campuses expected to eliminate more than 250 positions and eventually save $46 million a year. The total spent on food included breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks provided by the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa and the Iowa School for the Deaf. The meals appear to contradict a regents conflict-of-interest policy, although a board attorney said the policy never was intended to bar such food and beverages from being provided at full board meetings. Records requested and reviewed by The Gazette show regent institutions so far this year have spent $10,050 on food in conjunction with the first two board meetings and one brief meeting to accept the retirement of UI President Sally Mason. Most of the money for regent meeting meals comes from the institutions' general education budgets — although the schools' foundations donated more than $500 in 2014 for alcohol to go with the dinners, according to the regents office. Board members — who serve as unpaid volunteers — do not have to pay for food provided at the meetings, and they don't have to request reimbursement from the board office. Michael Gartner, who served on the board from 2005 to 2011, said the money for meals last year doesn't alarm him. “It's a lot of work to be a regent — it's an enormous amount of time for most regents,” he said.