Area legislators comment on IW closing

MT. PLEASANT — Local legislative representatives, joined community members and leaders in the Mt. Pleasant City Council chambers Friday morning for a round table discussion.

Much of the conversation revolved around the topic of Iowa Wesleyan University announcing their impending closure at the end of May.

While a brief conversation about the happenings in legislative session and the topic of distracted driving began the morning, it quickly turned to the topic of Iowa Wesleyan.

One attendee started the conversation by asking House Representatives Jeff Shipley and Taylor Collins, and Senators Adrian Dickey and Mark Lofgren if they had made any comment about IW closing.

While Dickey said he had not yet made a statement, he did comment that his newsletter set to release later on Friday would contain a statement.

“I back up the Governor in her statement,” Dickey added.

“You know, the state of Iowa did not put IW in that financial situation,” he added. “That may be a very unpopular comment for me to say, but it's the truth. There are $26 million in debt. The state did not do that to them.”

“I'm guessing if I came back to this forum, without this whole situation happening, and I somehow had some input to give $12 million to every other private college in Iowa, everybody in this room would be upset with me,” Dickey said. “I'm not going to be a hypocrite on the issue.”

Due to IW President Christine Plunkett including the denial of ARPA funds as a reason for the school closing, Collins disputed this as valid with a brief history of the institutions financial hardships.

“Over the last few fiscal years before COVID fiscal year 2019, the university lost $2.5 million,” Collins said. “Fiscal year 2018, they lost 3.8 million. Fiscal year 2017, they lost 2.6 million. Fiscal year 2016, they lost 3.3 million. This the year 2015, they lost 4.5 million. In fiscal year 2014, they lost 2.8 million.”

“This was a problem clear before COVID And as Representative said, it was extremely frustrating to me that folks took this opportunity to try to throw someone under the bus, and I wasn't going to let that happen,” Collins said.

According to the representatives, Plunkett never reached out to them for assistance with this latest financial hardship either.

While Shipley shared condolences on Facebook alongside Gov. Kim Reynold’s response, “Iowa Wesleyan never reached out to me, so, this is the first time I'm talking about it publicly and it is shocking and sad,” he said.

Shipley also addressed a comment about the state funding private schools in correlation with them not funding this request from IW.

“ It's really not a good analogy at all,” Shipley said. “Although what we do in Iowa is the Iowa tuition grant where kids, students that have enrolled in private colleges are eligible for usually around $4-5,000 state assistance.”

“I think just in general, with the education system we're trying to create is funding those students directly and not giving money directly to financially insolvent institutions,” he said.

Shipley added that in his opinion, even if legislators could have doubled the state support for students directly, it would not have solved IW’s financial difficulties.

“I mean, if it was a community college that was in the same boat where enrollment is rising, but they're getting into more financial trouble,” Shipley said.

“Even after increasing enrollment, the revenue was not going up because of the increase in tuition assistance,” Collins said.

As the conversation continued, emotions began to rise.

“That is just a headwind we have to face,” IW Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing, and Communications Meg Richtman said before taking a break from the conversation.

“At some point, hopefully, we get to the point where we're celebrating the rich history of the university rather than doing this here, but in the meantime, I think what would help bond this area and this rural area in here would be a little bit of compassion, of instead of jumping to insinuate and protect,” IW graduate and President of Lomon Molding Jason Bender said.

With this in mind, the representatives use this as a segway into speaking about solutions.

“One thing we don’t want to see is the campus become an eyesore,” Dickey said as he shifted to conversation about the campus. “The federal government is going to own it. I can't imagine they're going to be too interested in maintaining it.”

Dickey would like to look into rewording some of the funding to ensure maintenance of the property.

He further questioned if he and Lofgren as vice-chair and chair of the Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee could do something to ensure funding for redevelopment.

“So, for 110 people, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, the world got turned upside down this week,” Mt. Pleasant Chamber Executive Vice President Rachel Lindeen said. What along with Iowa Workforce Development, what plans are next for these.

“At this point, we all want answers and we all want answers fast, but that's not the reality,” Lindeen wrapped up the round table event. “…We will be putting together a small committee of leaders and there will be more to come.”

“I wish I had more to share because like you, I want answers to and I want solutions,” she said. “Just know that we are working but there's nothing to tell, unfortunately.”

“We are a strong, resilient community and we will get through this together,” Lindeen concluded.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com