University of Iowa at Des Moines? (Iowa City, Ames: 2013, houses, unemployment rate)

[fezzador]

Questions linger regarding AIB-University of Iowa merger | Local News - KCCI Home

It's official... as of 2016, the American Institute of Business will become the University of Iowa, Des Moines.

This should be a huge shot in the arm for the DSM metro as it's been in dire need of a public four-year institution of higher learning. The AIB campus is small, but there is opportunity to expand as needed, and in time, could be large enough to warrant its own varsity athletics department (maybe even FCS level football).

If nothing else, it should provide additional jobs and diversity to the Des Moines area. The next few years should be quite exciting for sure.

[Meemur]

You beat me. I was going to post an article about it after I saw the story on the news last night.

I, too, think it's a great idea! I hope that the campus does well and that there is a minimum of drama among staff members as the transition is made. I always think about these deals as tossing two houses full of cats together: there are bound to be some turf wars until the territories are settled.

[steel03]

Wow, that's a huge win for Des Moines. I could see this bringing some great development to the Waterworks/Grays Lake neighborhood a few years down the road. I hope the transition goes smoothly.

[fezzador]

The one thing that I really wonder is, how this could have stayed under wraps for so long? I haven't heard a peep about this until yesterday. I mean, something as major as this couldn't just happen overnight, the talks surely would have started out months - if not years - ago. They really must have taken every precaution to keep it from leaking because generally something this big, is well, too big to keep tight-lipped about for long.

[Meemur]

Originally Posted by fezzador

They really must have taken every precaution to keep it from leaking because generally something this big, is well, too big to keep tight-lipped about for long.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn later that people were threatened with losing their jobs if it leaked.

[fezzador]

I'm surprised there's not more discussion about this... this is some of the biggest news to hit DSM, if not the state, in some time.

I've been hearing different things about how the new campus is going to operate. On one hand, I've heard it'll be semi-autonomous - while under the UI umbrella, it basically governs itself and only reports to the highest of the UI brass and/or BOR. On the other, it's a glorified extra set of classrooms for the main campus, so any students that attend UI in Des Moines will have the exact same diploma as one would receive in Iowa City.

It's a win-win no matter how you slice it. It increases the U of I's exposure in central Iowa (it's been losing ground to ISU lately), and makes the flagship campus more prestigious. It affords UI-IC more selectivity (its admission rate is right around 70%, so not exactly selective) and gets more in-state students. I'd like UI-IC to admit right around 55-60% of its applicants - so be it if the bulk of them are out-of-state and international - as long as UI-DM admits primarily Iowa students (it'll probably have an admission rate of 85-90%, not that it's a big deal being a satellite campus) then it all balances out.

If planned and expanded carefully, in the next couple of decades I can see UI-DM being similar to what Nebraska-Omaha and Missouri-Kansas City are... decent sized-student bodies of 10-15K students and having its own athletic department.

[tollfree]

This will be entertaining. Des Moines metro is split for the most part between Iowa & ISU but leans slightly ISU.

The fans of each generally hate each other in a sense that is similar to left vs right politics.

Expect some good vaudeville out of this.

[lurtsman]

The Iowa City economy may take some punishment over the next several years as it was highly dependent on the university and most intelligent students given the choice between Iowa City and Des Moines will immediately pick the Des Moines campus.

[atler8]

No. Not really. "Punishment" isn't really an appropriate term of consideration for what may occur as a result of the establishment of a new campus in Des Moines at the AIB facility. What is true is that here will be many variables & unknowns at work in the dynamics of setting up a new campus affiliation for the university in Des Moines.
As for where potential students choose to enroll & study, their intelligence will not be a guiding factor in their campus selection. The choice will be guided more by the range of programs available at the 2 campuses & the type of university environment that will be available.
It's not completely apparent yet what the long range enrollment in Des Moines will be but for the short term, it's obvious that there will be no comparison between the 30,000 plus enrollment size campus experience of Iowa City versus what will be found at the new, smaller Des Moines campus. It will be sort of an apples vs. oranges type of contrast.
The U. of I. at Iowa City has been in a post-flood rebuilding mode for the past several years & new replacement buildings are still under construction and in the pipeline. During the post-flood period, the enrollment growth of the Iowa City campus has been minimal & ISU in Ames has surged ahead & is now noticeably larger with an enrollment of over 33,000.
Nevertheless, the Iowa City economy has been performing very well & diversifying to the extent that the unemployment rate there is shockingly low & job & population growth have been extremely energetic. Through the 2013 census estimate, metro Iowa City has been the fastest grower in Iowa in percentage terms & has been one of the fastest growers in the midwest & has frankly outperformed myriad metros in the sun belt areas of the U.S.
Of course metro Des Moines is much larger & has also been a stellar economic & population growth performer through 2013 as well as also outperforming many sun belt metros. The establishment of the new relationship with the U. of I will be another welcome shot in the arm to the Des Moines economy & help round out the educational opportunities in the city.
As I noted, Iowa City is a stellar economic performer & I do not see any plans in the works with the new Des Moines campus development that mark a threat to that dynamism.

[funksoulbro]

This is the best news to hit Des Moines since they got a Cheesecake Factory!