This memo was sent to University of Iowa deans, senior HR officers and business officers from UI leadership.

Over the past 4 years the University of Iowa has used its strategic plan to frame its investments to impact the long-term quality of the UI. Utilizing the following principles, the university will begin the process of managing the financial impact of COVID-19 by:

• Placing people first as our university is only as strong as its students, faculty, and staff
• Preserving the core values of the institution (Excellence, Learning, Community, Diversity, Integrity, Respect, and Responsibility)
• Delivering on the mission of education, research, and delivery of healthcare
• Protecting the core activities of the university to ensure delivery of the mission, and
• Engaging shared governance and campus leadership

The University of Iowa’s budget process empowers the colleges and central service units to determine their yearly budgets based upon their projected revenue. Each college will be working to understand the potential changes in enrollment and will need to model different scenarios based upon those projections.

It is important that these decisions be made at a local level as the impact from the pandemic will be different for each college and each central service unit.

Consistent with this approach, leadership of colleges and central service units have control and are empowered to make decisions and they will have the backing of the university.

As leadership moves forward with decisions please work with University HR, University Budget Office, and Strategic Communications so that we can help each other progress through this difficult time.

Finally, the university will also look at taking campus wide steps and the university will engage with shared governance and campus leadership prior to taking any action.

This is a unique time in our history and campus leadership has a strategic opportunity to differentiate ourselves as a destination university.