Q&A: Mason discusses 21 ordinance campaign, incoming freshmen class
DI: The $11 million in missing charges at the UIHC has been a big topic this year. What has the UIHC doing for prevention in the future?
Mason: Obviously, [officials] have been watching billing much more carefully and making certain that the same kinds of things that happened that led to this do not happen again. This gives me great confidence in our internal audit system, too. To be able to use our internal auditors to come in and watch over some of the processes to see where we’re doing a good job and where we can improve turns out to be a great opportunity for this institution. This is the perfect example of why we have a good internal audit process in place.
DI: Would you recommend doing an audit every year?
Mason: For a while. In fact, internal audit is always being asked to look at various aspects of the institution, just to see whether or not we are doing it well and where we can improve. And here’s the classic example of not only can we do this better, but we were making some pretty serious errors here. Those now have been caught and fixed, and audit will go back in the not too distant future to make sure things are corrected. And then we will just look at it periodically; we wouldn’t do it every year. This is a big operation, and we have a small internal audit office so what we really do is try to give it a sampling each year of places where it can look for us to see how our processes are working.
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DI: The university is preparing for the largest freshman class ever. Will class sizes be larger? How will this affect the incoming freshmen?
Mason: We sort of knew with the budget cuts that our classes might be a little bit bigger this fall than we’re used to, and I think that’s definitely going to be the case. I’m pretty sure liberal arts is busy making certain we have enough graduate teaching assistants and instructors in place for the course offerings that we’ll need for this large freshman class. And of course, housing is working very hard to make sure that we have some additional opportunities for housing for both the new freshmen coming in and the transfer students who will be new to the university, too.
DI: Do you wish that the UI had built a new dorm sooner so it would not have to resort to the off-campus housing?
Mason: You know, it’s one of those things that you can only do so much planning for. If I were a magician with a crystal ball and I could see each year exactly what our enrollment was going to be, then the answer would be certainly we should have planned for this sooner. We’ve always been judicious with our residence halls and residence-hall space so that we keep the occupancy rate very high, certainly well into the 90 percentages of occupancy in those residence halls, and that’s what you want. It’s not like a hotel where you can perhaps afford to have months where you don’t have full occupancy. We really need to be able to run these at full occupancy. The time is right. I think this growth spurt that we are going to see this fall, we certainly hope this isn’t just a one-time growth spurt. We’re looking to stabilize that and maybe even grow more in the future. Now is the time to start filling residence halls, and in the meantime, we’ve got some good contingency plans to house students who are coming here.
DI: With the creation of the 21 Makes Sense group, do you think the organization of this group and having big-name members involved, especially university officials, will help keep the 21-ordinance in place?
Mason: I sure hope so. Again, this about more than the university, too — this is about our community and it’s about health and safety. I’ve said from the start, the 21-ordinance was not an attempt to try to make this a less welcoming or friendly place for our students or cut in on the fun students might be having at the university. In fact, we are going to work very hard to provide alcohol-free venues so that there’s lot to do and this continues to be a desirable and exciting place for students to come to. On the same token, what all of us have noticed who live within this community for any period of time is that the culture — the binge drinking, the violence that sometimes occurs because of abusive behaviors — is something that we really need to get our arms around and change because it’s much more about health and safety then it is about anything else. And I think there are many students out there who appreciate that, too.
DI: You mentioned increasing alcohol-free venues. What would those be?
Mason: Tom Rocklin and the provost are working hard on that, and they are working with students to be able to do some of this. It doesn’t do any good if we come up with the ideas, and students don’t like them. It is very important that the students have the input into what would be appealing to them. And with the opening of the new Wellness Center, in a very short period of time now, we can plan some activities that will utilize some of the new space we have on campus to take advantage of the fact that there are things to do that don’t necessarily involve getting drunk.
DI: Why did you decide not to join the 21 Makes Sense group?
Mason: It’s very hard for me to speak out as a private citizen and not still carry the name of the University of Iowa. I do not want, in any way, to have my position and what I represent somehow interfering with the election process. I am going to be very vocal — I support the 21-only ordinance. I absolutely support what the group Makes Sense is doing, but I think I need to be a little bit careful about how I portray myself and the University of Iowa in this entire process. And that does not mean that I do not support the 21-only ordinance — I absolutely do.
DI: Although officials say flooding is not likely, the river is pretty high. Does the UI have an emergency plan in place?
Mason: Oh, yeah. I think what helped us get through the flood of 2008 is that as early as February in that year, we had begun planning. The university has a very good risk manager and a very good team in place that thinks about all these things. We have one of the world’s best hydrology groups that can help us with our modeling and our understanding of what might be happening in our river, both above the river and below the river here in Iowa City so that we’ve got a sense of what we might face. When you say flooding is not likely, I cringe because you can’t depend on Mother Nature. I think that’s one of the things we’ve learned, in the end, the natural forces that are out there often have their way. So while it doesn’t look as if we’ll be facing serious flooding this summer, until it’s over I certainly won’t rest easy. We will always be preparing and thinking about what might happen and what could happen.
DI: Rumor is there will be an increase in monitoring tailgating. Is that something that is in the plans for next year?
Mason: Yes, it is. And again, it comes back to some of the same kinds of things that the 21-only ordinance is trying to deal with, and that is making certain that we have a healthy and safe environment. By and large, 98 percent of the people who come to the university on football weekends to tailgate come and have a great time. They party, they enjoy themselves, they don’t hurt themselves, they don’t hurt others. But there’s a small percentage that can create quite a ruckus, and that’s really where the focus is likely to be, is making certain that some of the unsafe behaviors are mitigated and sending the same kind of message that we are — folks, let’s obey the law, and let’s be safe and healthy while we’re enjoying ourselves at these great events. Our football weekends are certainly tremendous events for everybody.
DI: A report was released saying fewer students have been arrested or cited in the past few years. What does this show about the university?
Mason: I think it shows that some of our efforts are starting to pay off. Some of it is education — obviously, I’d love to tell you that the alcohol-education course that all the freshmen are taking is having an effect. I suspect it is having an effect. I suspect some of what we’re trying to promote in terms of good behaviors with our students is paying off, so it’s never one single thing. It’s always going to be a number of things that we’re doing and trying to do that can have a positive effect. It’s gratifying to see those numbers come down. I hope it’s a reflection of some changes in culture and behavior that are coming along with it. Let’s see if the trend continues.
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