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Home / News / Education / Higher Ed
Universities say grants brought by the research far outweigh cost
Jan. 5, 2025 6:00 am
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Faculty across Iowa’s public universities for decades have been seeking and receiving approval to take one to two semesters — or even a full year — off their regular campus duties to focus on a professional research, curricular or academic endeavor of their choosing while still getting paid.
In the early 1990s, the total number of University of Iowa, Iowa State University and University of Northern Iowa faculty granted a “professional development assignment” in a single year reached 189 — amounting to 8 percent of UI eligible faculty, 3 percent of ISU faculty and 4 percent at UNI.
At that time, the Board of Regents calculated the “total cost for professional development assignments” by adding up the salary and benefits for faculty on leave; the cost to replace them on campus; and research expenses. For the 1999-2000 academic year, for example, total “PDA” costs for the 158 faculty granted leave were $7.2 million.
In subsequent years, the universities started reporting only “replacement costs” — namely the expense of hiring fill-in instructors for courses taught by faculty on leave. And Republican state lawmakers started raising concerns about the program, going so far as to propose a moratorium in 2010 — even as regents boasted its benefits to the campus, state and beyond, including the monetary return on investment, which that year topped $5.2 million from grant proposals.
In 2011, Republican Gov. Terry Branstad signed legislation limiting the number of faculty leaves of absence for professional endeavors to no more than 3 percent of the faculty employed at each university — bringing down the percentages from what had been 5 to 8 percent per campus.
In subsequent years, the total number of faculty granted leave hovered under the 3 percent mark, with between 100 and 140 taking leave — until COVID-19 upended research plans and campus programming in 2020.
UNI that year suspended its application process for the 2022 budget year — given requests are approved two years in advance — dropping the three-campus total from 134 in 2021 to 72 in 2022.
And 15 assignments that had been approved for 2020 were canceled or deferred — with several others altered.
“During his PDA, (UI anthropology) professor (Andrew) Kitchen planned to travel to the University of Wisconsin and the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) to research the timescale of pathogen emergence in humans but was unable to do so because of pandemic-related restrictions on travel,” according to a summary of the UI professor’s assignment, for example. “Instead, Professor Kitchen developed complementary lines of research related to the history of Native Americans and an important human pathogen.”
Although remaining below the 3 percent-of-eligible-faculty threshold, all three universities have seen professional development assignments tick back up since the pandemic low — topping 100 combined in fiscal 2024, which ended June 30; again in fiscal 2025, which started July 1; and for the 2026 budget year.
The regents in November approved 104 professional development assignments for the 2026 budget year — including 56 at the UI, 43 at ISU and five at UNI, amounting to 2.4 percent of the eligible faculty.
The program in 2024 cost $470,654 in replacement costs, but generated at least $16 million in grants and external funding “already,” according to a regents report.
“Total grant proposals submitted because of this work have a cumulative value over $52M,” according to the report. “Viewed strictly in terms of financial impact, for every dollar invested in a PDA in 2023-24, the one-year return on investment for the state of Iowa was $34.”
Among the assignments completed in 2024 was UNI kinesiology professor Kimberly Hurley’s research on the efficacy of Tai Chi for rural seniors’ balance concerns. The study involved 16 “Tai Chi for arthritis and fall prevention” sessions delivered to seniors age 68 to 84 in Manchester.
UI art and art history professor Isabel Barbuzza traveled to Jujuy, Argentina, for her assignment to document the geographic and environmental impact of lithium extraction.
“She is interested in lithium extraction in the Lithium Triangle, Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina, as well as its impact on the landscape and the effects on Indigenous communities since water is used in its extraction,” according to the regents report. “In September 2023, she traveled 1,292.8 km through the Andes mountains from Mendoza to Jujuy, Argentina. She sketched, took notes, and photographed the mountains. She collected rocks from eroding mountains to make earth pigments to add to her work.”
And ISU history professor Jeremy Best “made substantial progress on his book project detailing the history of World War II military themed war games and their role in creating Holocaust ignorance in both countries.”
“Best traveled to New York and Germany to support his assignment, conducting research that will also support his history courses at Iowa State.”
Among the newest crop of assignments approved for 2026 is UI creative writing professor Ethan Canin’s still-untitled novel that will follow the life of a man beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 2030s — “constructed around this man’s yearly excursion to the wilderness.”
UI geographical and sustainability sciences professor Margaret Carrel during her assignment scheduled for spring 2026 intends to study the impacts of “increased heat and extreme temperatures on rural health.”
“While the U.S. is projected to experience higher daily and nighttime temperatures in the coming decades, the Upper Midwest will be particularly vulnerable to rising heat as rural populations engage in outdoor professional activities and reside in older housing stock with lower rates of air conditioning,” according to a regent summary of the project, which aims to “improve understanding about how rural health outcomes may change in the coming decades and indicate opportunities for prevention or intervention.”
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
Higher education reporter, The Gazette
I cover higher education for The Gazette, including Iowa’s public universities, community colleges, and private institutions.
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