By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The Board of Regents met in closed session for most of the day Wednesday to review the performance of the three state university presidents and the executive director of the Regents.

Board president Robert Cramer made a single motion on the salary of UI president Barbara Wilson when they returned to open session. “For President Wilson to extend her employment agreement for two additional years and to increase her base salary by $50,000 effective July 1st of 2026, establish a new deferred compensation plan commencing July 1st, 2028 and terminating June 30th, 2030 with the annual contributions of $555,880,” Cramer says. Wilson’s salary moves to $875,000 with the increase. The increase comes once again after the Board of Regents increased student tuition.

The Board approved Wilson’s raise and Cramer had this comment. “Really feel like President Wilson that you hit all your benchmarks. You’re just knocking it out of the park with so many big constituencies, with the healthcare, with the students, with the faculty, with athletics, just doing a great job,” he says. “So we appreciate what you’re doing and what all the presidents are doing. We feel like we have three great universities with a lot of great leadership.”

President Wilson got a $65,000 raise last year, while outgoing ISU President Wendy Wintersteen got a $25,000 raise and UNI President Mark Nook received a raise of almost $13,000. Nook was not given a raise Wednesday, and new ISU President David Cook, who took over in March, was also not given an increase in salary.