David Harris-UNI AD

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dafarmer

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Mar 17, 2012
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Anti-Asian sentiment? At Iowa State? Are you implying the student body or the admissions process is racist? Sorry I don't get where you are coming from on that.
Anti-Asian sentiment at the federal level the last 4 years. Keeping it out of the cave , but facts are facts. You can’t tell me that state government attitudes toward investing in education hasn’t hurt enrollment numbers.
 

StateThrowdown

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Also to note, the coming enrollment cliff in the 2025-27 Midwest high school classes is very significant and very real and that is going to hurt everyone.

The one on the horizon in the late 2030s is catastrophic.

I’ve thought a lot about this as well.

I’m sure isu, ui and UNI will survive, but I think a lot of Iowa’s private colleges are going to significantly struggle or close in this time period.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Lack of foreign students due to pandemic and Anti-Asian sentiment has hurt ISU enrollment. Plus continued erosion of State government funding has hurt total enrollment.
I honestly don’t know any student that has ever said, hey I’m not going to ISU because they cut state funding. I have two there and know many kids, it a single one has ever brought that up.
 
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bustamoveisu

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I am close to a significant UNI donor. According to them, DH is poor at networking and doesn't display the drive needed to upgrade the program. Also, to save $, he makes the fball team fly in/out the same day.... not cool.
 
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ClonesFTW

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I’m not going to be surprised at enrollment decline anywhere for the next decade. I’m of the opinion higher education is in for a major structural change as young Americans now have access to so much information, exposure, and networking for free that can translate into income.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
I’m not going to be surprised at enrollment decline anywhere for the next decade. I’m of the opinion higher education is in for a major structural change as young Americans now have access to so much information, exposure, and networking for free that can translate into income.
There is so much online also. As we keep going through the years, the students get more and more comfortable,maybe even more preferable, to online courses. ISU charges the same rate for in person or online. You can save 50% on several classes by taking them online some place else. ISU needs to understand this and find a way to compete.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Also, students aren’t in school as long. Show up with 16-30 credits and you shave a semester or year off the time. If everyone did that, you could cut 15-25% of the students right there.
 

ISUTex

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May 25, 2012
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  • Fewer kids in Iowa in general, which will only get worse with current trends
  • Iowa (and the US in general) becoming much less attractive for international students
  • Cuts to UNI academic programs have decimated the marketability of the school
  • ISU has become much more attractive and even U of I has with improved facilities post-flood
  • UNI’s gameday atmosphere is awful at both FB and MBB, and I say this as someone who’s attended a lot of games over the past decade
  • Their ticket prices for everything are ridiculous
All of these are factors leading to the decline of UNI athletics. It’s always been a suitcase campus and unfortunately, the folks running game ops have really struggled while their teams haven’t played exciting styles to watch. The games aren’t worth students sticking around to watch on the weekends. It’s very sad as my wife is an incredibly proud UNI alum, but there are a lot of reasons things have dried up and it really feels like the only chance for a change is a total restart with younger, hungrier leaders - AD, FB, and MBB. Lots of folks we know who used to be die-hard Panthers and now have no interest in attending games.


I went to UNI back in the mid 90's when they were good at FB and MBB with Allen and Miller. There was no game day atmosphere. A few tailgaters and nothing more. Most students were drinking in their dorms/apartments watching the Iowa/Notre Dame/Nebraska games. Take your pick, but it was mostly the Iowa game on. We would go to the UNI game at 7:00. Leave at halftime to head to the Hill. Basketball games were a little better, but students didn't really show up in #'s unless we were playing Iowa or ISU. Surprisingly most of the UNI students there would cheer for UNI in those situations. Not sure what it's like now, but that was my experience many moons ago.
 

Cycsk

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That's why IIRC there was a claim that they had ~70% rate of first time CPA exam passing rate. Unfortunately, it wouldn't help in the real job as excellent "exam-questions-problem solver" struggled when faced into new assignments where there were no prior year's workpapers (aka "can't just follow what people did previously")


Why does this lead to prohibitions on CPA exam prep courses in accredited college programs, but not a groundswell of opposition to the CPA exam itself?

It far too many fields, the professional certification exams are far-removed from the actual competencies of the field. They tend to test more about what you can memorize from a book (which could also be easily looked up as you need it), rather than the fundamental principles and skills that are needed to be effective in those fields.

I suspect that most practicing professionals would struggle with their certification exams. What does it say about the exam when entire noobies can pass by cramming, but effective practicing professionals can't?
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Also to note, the coming enrollment cliff in the 2025-27 Midwest high school classes is very significant and very real and that is going to hurt everyone.

The one on the horizon in the late 2030s is catastrophic.

This doesn't get talked about enough. People get so excited talking about the rapid growth in Ankeny, Waukee, and the I-380 corridor but that all comes with a huge expense. People aren't moving to Iowa, they are either fleeing the rural areas after college or moving out of state.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Dang I don’t know if campus can sustain that number. tOSU has 50k and the campus is like 4X bigger than ISU.

Part of the problem was that Leath pushed Iowa State to grow too fast. Iowa State outgrew Gerdin in less than 10 years. Housing was also a really big problem. Wendy will certainly push for growth but I think we will see a much smaller rate of climb.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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I’ve thought a lot about this as well.

I’m sure isu, ui and UNI will survive, but I think a lot of Iowa’s private colleges are going to significantly struggle or close in this time period.

The only thing that has kept the small private colleges in Iowa afloat is student loan debt...
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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I am close to a significant UNI donor. According to them, DH is poor at networking and doesn't display the drive needed to upgrade the program. Also, to save $, he makes the fball team fly in/out the same day.... not cool.

The UNI athletic department is broke, that's the whole problem. UNI is a small alumni base, you can only tap the donor well so many times.
 

CascadeClone

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Regarding declining international student enrollment: One factor is the difficulty in getting employment in the US in general and in Iowa specifically.

Way off topic, but we ought to tape a green card to every degree an international student gets. If that's too many people then make it STEM degrees, or maybe Masters /PhD if you want to be pickier.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
But also give me your best and brightest too please.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Way off topic, but we ought to tape a green card to every degree an international student gets. If that's too many people then make it STEM degrees, or maybe Masters /PhD if you want to be pickier.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
But also give me your best and brightest too please.

Yeah, I'm sure that would fly at the statehouse...
 

CascadeClone

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From a school stand point, id imagine the CC growth has also hurt UNI the last 15 years.

I couldn't find any data quickly, but both Kirkwood and DMACC have expanded exponentially over the past 20 years. That might have pulled a lot of kids who otherwise might have gone to UNI at higher cost.
 
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BillBrasky4Cy

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DMACC works really closely with the various departments at Iowa State. I took classes at DMACC first and when I sat down with my advisor I said I had no desire to achieve an associates degree, I just want to check as many credits off as I can that will transfer into Iowa State. I told her I was going to be a business major (not sure which one at the time) and she literally handed a sheet of paper that outlined what I needed to take to transfer into the college of business as a junior.
 

cyclone13

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Why does this lead to prohibitions on CPA exam prep courses in accredited college programs, but not a groundswell of opposition to the CPA exam itself?

It far too many fields, the professional certification exams are far-removed from the actual competencies of the field. They tend to test more about what you can memorize from a book (which could also be easily looked up as you need it), rather than the fundamental principles and skills that are needed to be effective in those fields.

I suspect that most practicing professionals would struggle with their certification exams. What does it say about the exam when entire noobies can pass by cramming, but effective practicing professionals can't?

I agree with that we emphasize too much on certifications. Some people are not test takers despite how smart they are actually. I've seen CPAs with excellent passing CPA exam grades and they actually cannot work. I know couple of smart people who end up not being able to be a manager at accounting firms because they couldn't pass CPA exam and finally they gave up.

And this is not limited only to CPA. We have issues with putting too much emphasis on ACT and SAT scores during college admissions. That's why colleges end up doing holistic review but the other side of it, colleges end up putting too much weight on the "essay" part while not everyone is a good writer and that part is really subjective. It's hard to find a happy medium.
 

Peter

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Feb 21, 2010
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IMO, higher education has been running a completely unsustainable model for years and the whole thing is about to unravel. Enrollment will continue to decline as the population shrinks and students find cheaper alternatives.
 
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1UNI2ISU

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Jan 30, 2013
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I couldn't find any data quickly, but both Kirkwood and DMACC have expanded exponentially over the past 20 years. That might have pulled a lot of kids who otherwise might have gone to UNI at higher cost.

Throw in Hawkeye to that as well. They were racking up record enrollment after record enrollment pre-pandemic. Tons of Eastern Iowa kids between them and Kirkwood.