Iowa Wesleyan closing its doors

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VeloClone

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Does anyone have any information on a loan they recently tried to get from the state ($12M) but was denied? That is what the Wiki page says, but I don't take anything on Wikipedia at face value.
 

intrepid27

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Oct 9, 2006
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IMO this won't be the last. 4 year schools, both public and private are pricing themselves out of the market. With public finding support decreasing and most schools still willing to pay old professors $300K to teach one class per semester. Also, younger people are growing leery of trying to start out life with $70K in debt.
In 20 years college will only be for the wealthy.
 

cykadelic2

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Jun 10, 2006
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They have been on thin ice for a few years now but still too bad for the students and community.
On a positive note, people can stop paying their alumni dues.
With the looming "enrollment cliff", they won't be the only small IA private school closing down during this decade.
 

KidSilverhair

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Dec 18, 2010
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Does anyone have any information on a loan they recently tried to get from the state ($12M) but was denied? That is what the Wiki page says, but I don't take anything on Wikipedia at face value.
According to today‘s CR Gazette story, Iowa Wesleyan asked the state for $12 million in federal ARPA funds (COVID relief money) to help them transition to a self-sustainable enrollment of around 1000 students. Governor Reynolds said 1) we didn’t get that request until February 3, don’t you know we have other more important priorities right now and 2) our independent auditing firm says you’re a bad risk.

Interestingly, Iowa Wesleyan has actually been slowly growing enrollment, even through the pandemic, almost doubling since 2015. Undergraduates have gone from 386 in 2015 to about 750 this year.

The college was, though, still looking at some serious financial challenges - they still owe the US Department of Agriculture over $26 million on a loan they took out a few years ago, using the campus as collateral - and that loan could be called as early as this November. That was one of the issues cited by the auditing firm that said it wasn’t a good risk for the ARPA funds.
 

houjix

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The food wasn't always great there, but it will always have a fond spot in my memory as the "fancy" place we'd go to when I was a kid. Always loved the salad bar too.
Ya, you don't go to Spaghetti Works to get good Italian food, you go for multiple bowls of noodles with a variety of sauces (angel hair with beer cheese was always my first bowl) and an okay salad bar. If I wanted Italian food, I would go to an Italian restaurant.
 

ISULibrarian

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IMO this won't be the last. 4 year schools, both public and private are pricing themselves out of the market. With public finding support decreasing and most schools still willing to pay old professors $300K to teach one class per semester. Also, younger people are growing leery of trying to start out life with $70K in debt.
In 20 years college will only be for the wealthy.
As someone who works in higher ed, I am going to laugh VERY HARD at the idea that any of these schools are paying a single professor 300K to teach a single class, let alone multiple. At every single one of these private institutions, the number of faculty has been dwindling, and at the very best those that have been there the longest might, MIGHT be making 100K.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
As someone who works in higher ed, I am going to laugh VERY HARD at the idea that any of these schools are paying a single professor 300K to teach a single class, let alone multiple. At every single one of these private institutions, the number of faculty has been dwindling, and at the very best those that have been there the longest might, MIGHT be making 100K.
The profs at Waldorf were making 80-90k when I would sub 20 years ago. Would think 100k would be average area now.
 

ISUTex

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May 25, 2012
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According to today‘s CR Gazette story, Iowa Wesleyan asked the state for $12 million in federal ARPA funds (COVID relief money) to help them transition to a self-sustainable enrollment of around 1000 students. Governor Reynolds said 1) we didn’t get that request until February 3, don’t you know we have other more important priorities right now and 2) our independent auditing firm says you’re a bad risk.

Interestingly, Iowa Wesleyan has actually been slowly growing enrollment, even through the pandemic, almost doubling since 2015. Undergraduates have gone from 386 in 2015 to about 750 this year.

The college was, though, still looking at some serious financial challenges - they still owe the US Department of Agriculture over $26 million on a loan they took out a few years ago, using the campus as collateral - and that loan could be called as early as this November. That was one of the issues cited by the auditing firm that said it wasn’t a good risk for the ARPA funds.


This is very true. Only time I ever heard of Iowa Wesleyan was through the Mike Leach story. Guessing it isn't a huge loss. Kind of like Spaghetti Works. Or Pamida.