greg wickencamp is a lifelong Iowan.

Community members from across the state took part in the national Teach Truth Day of Action on Saturday, June 8. The gathering responded to a national call from the Zinn Education Project and other nonprofit organizations, with more than 160 cities across the United States participating. Educators and social workers organized the event, with help from local nonprofits like the Antelope Lending Library, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Corridor Community Action Network, Great Plains Action Society, and the Human Restoration Project. Organizers and attendees advocated for public access to a robust and critical education—something conservative lawmakers have recently sought to ban in Iowa and across the country.

Once a leader in education, Iowa now faces teacher shortages, shuttering of districts and gutted libraries, and reduced access to crucial support services for children in poverty or with disabilities. Iowa’s GOP has been a nationwide leader in effectively banning books and critical histories, criminalizing LGBTQ+ youth, and funneling public money to private, unaccountable religious schools. This has earned the Reynolds’ administration kudos from anti-democratic moneyed networks and anti-student extremist groups.

The June 8 event took place at the historic College Green Park, blocks away from where John Brown and his band were once chased out of town by those advocating law and order. Brown and his raid on Harper’s Ferry would be a major catalyst for the Civil War and the end of slavery. In addition to training for the raid in West Branch, Iowa, he returned to Iowa many times, carefully navigating the divided political landscape.

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All three of Iowa’s public university presidents were given raises of at least $25,000 after the Board of Regents unanimously approved a tuition hike on Thursday.

The presidents at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa were evaluated in a closed session at the Levitt Center in Iowa City.

“The Board is very happy with the outstanding work that university leadership is doing, and wanted to recognize their efforts with additional compensation,” Iowa Board of Regents senior communications director Josh Lehman said in a statement Friday.

More: Iowa Regents approve 2-3% tuition hike at state’s 3 public universities

Wilson, Wintersteen each secure $60K bump

University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen each received a $60,000 pay raise, bringing Wilson’s annual salary to $760,000. Wintersteen will make $710,000 next fiscal year.

Wilson and Wintersteen were each given a $50,000 raise last summer.

Wilson took over as president in Iowa City in 2022, and has received $160,000 in raises in the ensuing years. Wintersteen is the first female president at Iowa State University, assuming her role in 2017. She’s spent 40 years with the school.

Wintersteen took a $59,000 pay cut in 2020, a 10 % salary reduction, to help the university recover from revenue losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her base salary in 2017, when she was chosen as the school’s next president, was $525,000, and it rose to $590,000 in year three.

More: ISU announces retirement incentives; Wintersteen takes 10% pay cut

Northern Iowa president given raise

University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook’s salary was increased by $25,000, bringing his annual earnings to $397,110. The Board of Regents renewed his employment agreement and revised his deferred compensation plan, originally established in 2018, to extend through June 30, 2027. Under this plan, starting from July 1, 2025, Nook will receive an annual contribution of $100,000 until the plan concludes.

Nook was given a $15,000 raise last summer.

More: Students’ protest at Regents meeting calls for divestment from Israel, end of grad student fees

Why did the Iowa Board of Regents raise tuition again?

The raises came after the Regents approved a 3% tuition hike for the University of Iowa and Iowa State University and a 2% tuition hike for the University of Northern Iowa. Last year, The Regents agreed to raise tuition at all three universities last year by 3.5% for undergraduate students.

The Board of Regents cited inflation as their deciding factor in raising tuition for the upcoming school year. Earlier in the year, Iowa lawmakers rejected the Board of Regents’ full funding request for the 2024-2025 academic year. The board asked for an extra $14.8 million in general funding, but the legislature agreed to increase funding by 2.5%, or $12.3 million.

Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and business reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at JRish@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rishjessica_

State regulators are seeking to severely restrict the hunting of female deer in several southwest Iowa counties in an effort to increase the animal’s population in that area.

Hunters in six counties would be barred from shooting white-tailed does during the first shotgun season, and none of the counties will have additional doe licenses available for other seasons.

Those counties include Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Pottawattamie and Shelby. The new restrictions already exist in 17 counties of northwest Iowa, where some have been in place for a decade.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been gradually reducing the number of licenses for antlerless deer in the southwest counties in recent years.

“This is in response to what we’ve noticed is a sustained population decline,” said Jace Elliott, the DNR’s deer biologist. “The hunters in that area, what I’m hearing from them is, it’s about time. I’m always surprised when we propose relatively large changes, and I don’t get a single person reaching out from that part of the state that’s even confused about why we’re going in that direction.”

Also, no doe licenses would be issued for Cass and Page counties, and the number of available licenses will be reduced for Adams and Montgomery counties.

The department might finalize the new restrictions next month as it hosts a series of meetings that are part of its Western Iowa Deer Initiative, which is meant to solicit input from hunters and landowners.

The new restrictions represent a significant reversal of the state’s policies two decades ago, when there was a robust deer population in southwest Iowa. The DNR had made thousands of antlerless licenses available and also allowed hunters to use powerful rifles during special January seasons to encourage more participation.

“It worked probably too well,” Elliott said. “At the time, people didn’t have the foresight to realize that we’d be in this situation.”

He said deer numbers declined gradually over time in the area and — because of the area’s relatively open landscape — were unable to rebound as they quickly can in southeast Iowa, where there are vast areas for deer to hide.

Tim Powers, an Iowa field director for Whitetails Unlimited, a group that promotes hunting and habitat conservation, said he trusts that the DNR’s decision to impose new restrictions is necessary to increase deer numbers.

“I’d go along with what their research is telling them to do,” he said.

The restrictions have worked in north-central Iowa, where they have been lifted or loosened in some counties in recent years as populations recovered, Elliott said. It will likely take at least five years to notice an appreciable improvement in southwest counties. Those with the quickest gains are typically adjacent to counties with larger populations and have more available habitat.

The following DNR public meetings are scheduled to go from 6:30 to 8 p.m.:

— July 8: Atlantic, at The Venue, 307 Walnut St.
— July 9: Denison, at the Lookout Shelter at Yellow Smoke Park, 2237 Yellow Smoke Road
— July 10: Council Bluffs, at Bass Pro Shops, 2901 Bass Pro Drive
— July 11: Shenandoah, at the Shenandoah Public Library, 201 S. Elm St.
— July 15: Onawa, at the Onawa Public Library, 707 Iowa Ave.
— July 16: Sioux Center, at the Sandy Hollow Clubhouse, 3395 400th St.
— July 17: Sioux City, at the Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center, 4500 Sioux River Road
— July 18: Cherokee, at the Cherokee Community Center, 530 W. Bluff St.