More than half of the nearly 6,000 University of Iowa employees who participated in a recent survey said they have "seriously considered" leaving the university in the last 12 months, The Courier reported Jan. 25.
Key reasons for staff contemplating leaving the university were pay, workplace culture and career advancement, according to the survey, which was distributed to 45,580 employees and students and received a 23 percent response rate. Retention, free speech, diversity and bias were among the question topics included in survey.
The Iowa City-based university published results of the survey the same week that the University of Iowa Health Care nurses union demanded a 14 percent pay raise and more safety protections for clinicians, according to The Daily Iowan.
"People are leaving," UIHC nurse Courtney Smith, RN, told state Board of Regents negotiators last week after their initial contract proposal offering a 1.5 percent to 3 percent pay bump, The Courier reported.
The percentage of respondents who said they had "seriously considered" leaving the university was 51 percent in 2022, up from 39 percent in 2018, according to the report.