Happy summer!

As we begin summer and wrap up the fiscal year, our work begins to look different. We spend less time on the road and more time gathering data from the last fiscal year, planning the year ahead, and probably taking a few vacation days to enjoy the beautiful Iowa summer. You’ll likely be hearing from your directors about FY26 reports and scheduling planning for FY27. Thank you for all of the work that you continue to do!

• June 2 — Transfer Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 2 — IA-CEO is participating in the Employee Ownership Ideas Forum
• June 4 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 5 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 6 — JPEC’s Coffee Connect event will feature Laura Hoy and Mitch McCunniff
• June 8 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 9 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 12 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 15 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 16 — Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 23 — Transfer Orientation, Wear Purple
• June 23 — Family Business Day happy hour celebration in Des Moines
• July 3 — Paid Holiday
• July 15 — Dean Ken Brown’s First Day
• July 15 — Advance Iowa is presenting at the Last Tacticle Mile in Michigan

The results are in for the recent college-wide Q12 survey. Looking forward, each team (individual programs, BCS leadership, and Wilson College leadership) will meet to discuss results and learn how we can all make incremental enhancements. Thank you for participating and using your voice to help make BCS programs the best they can be!

The 2026 legislative session adjourned on Sunday, May 3. Most of the BCS programs in Wilson College, as well as the Metal Casting Center and Foundry 4.0 Center, receive a portion of their funding through the State of Iowa’s economic development budget that the legislature appropriates annually during the legislative session. The economic development budget was passed by the legislature and has flat funding for our BCS programs. The budget bill appropriates over $2.7 million to BCS. The approved legislation has been sent to the Governor for her to review and decide whether to sign the bill as is, veto the entire bill, or line-item veto specific funding lines in the bill. We do not anticipate the Governor line-item vetoing any of BCS’s funding lines since she had included them in her proposed budget back in January. This is promising, meaning that we anticipate that those BCS programs that receive state economic development appropriations will receive the same amount of funding that we received this current fiscal year.

Zane Ceynar, a 2026 Environmental Studies grad, who is joining the IWRC team as of June 1, transitioning from a student role to a full-time program assistant. Welcome, Zane!

IA-CEO staff (Todd Hutcheson, Stacy Mullinex, Judy Butler, Janell Crow and Annette Stevenson) who, with Atul Mitra, received the Wilson College’s Inspiring Innovation Award during the all-college meeting in May.

Dean Leslie Wilson, whose service to UNI and support of BCS has allowed us to thrive doing what we do best — Building a Better Iowa. Leslie, thank you for your leadership and congratulations on your retirement!

A quick reminder of upcoming construction work that will close South Campus Street for reconstruction between University Avenue and Jennings Drive beginning Tuesday, May 26, 2026. The street reconstruction is scheduled to be completed on August 10, 2026. During the construction time frame, the AEB A parking lot and AEB West B parking lot will be closed. The AEB South parking lot will remain open with access to the lot via Jennings Drive north of the BCS Building. The BRC B parking lot will also remain open. If anyone has an issue during the construction process or beforehand, please contact Doug Lovejoy, UNI's Construction Project Manager at 319-273-4400 or Douglas.Lovejoy@uni.edu, and these concerns will be relayed to the CONSTRUCTOR, and additional precautions will be taken.

• June 5 — Weekly Campus Walk
• June 10 — New Hire Orientation
• June 12 — Weekly Campus Walk
• June 19 — Weekly Campus Walk
• June 26 — Weekly Campus Walk

Find all HRS events here.

• 2025 — Haley Hamm, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center
• 2023 — Jordan Henniges, Iowa Waste Reduction Center
• 2021 — Alicia Rosburg, IWRC/Wilson College

• June 4 — James Hoelscher, Institute for Decision Making
• June 9 — Megan Pezley, JPEC/IASourceLink
• June 12 — Molly Wells, Iowa Waste Reduction Center
• June 14 — Katie Kreis-Voigt, BCS/Family Business Center
• June 20 — Jordan Henniges, Iowa Waste Reduction Center

Submit an item for the next monthly BCS Brief newsletter by emailing katie.kreis@uni.edu.