AIB student body shrinks

When Des Moines' AIB College of Business began its spring term this month - following the first break after announcing plans to close next summer - its student body was 20 percent smaller.

New AIB enrollment numbers made public Tuesday show 1,014 students enrolled for the fall term, 948 enrolled for the winter term, and 763 enrolled for the spring term, which began March 9 and runs through May 21. That represents a 185-student drop from term to term - or about 20 percent.

The makeup of AIB's spring enrollment includes 504 day students, 50 evening or blended-learning students, and 209 online students. The 763 students also is down about 16 percent from last spring, when AIB enrolled 905 students.

A 'significant” number of AIB students are expected to graduate this spring, while others are expected to transfer after this term - with the college on track to close in summer 2016 and reopen as a 'Regional Regents Center.” The college also is not admitting a freshmen class for fall 2015, all of which means next year's student body is expected to be much smaller.

In a news release Tuesday, the college announced nine of 23 full-time AIB faculty members were told Friday that their agreements would not be renewed for the 2015-2016 academic year.

'As enrollment figures decrease, the need for full-time faculty members also decreases,” according to the news release.

Officials with AIB - which splits its academic year into fall, winter, spring, and summer terms - announced intentions to gift the 20-acre campus to the University of Iowa on Jan. 26, about two months after the winter term began.

The original proposal would have turned the AIB grounds into a second UI campus in central Iowa and allowed AIB students to become UI students - possibly as soon as fall 2015. Officials initially couldn't answer specific questions about faculty retention but said, 'We need them.”

About one week later, however, officials updated those plans, saying the campus instead would become a Regional Regents Center capable of offering courses from UI, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa. AIB would officially close in summer 2016, according to the new plan, and any students wanting to remain at the regional center would have to reapply and meet the universities' admission standards.

Many AIB students expressed outrage at how the deal was rolled out, including those on scholarship and athletes who recently learned all athletic programs will be discontinued after the spring season.

'It's disappointing that our athletics will be cut after this season,” according to a post on the 'Save AIB Athletics” Facebook page. 'Our athletes are not finished.”

AIB has submitted a 'teach-out plan” to the Higher Learning Commission, which now is reviewing the proposal. AIB officials said they'll announce more details about the closure after the commission approves the plan.