University of Iowa was eyeing Des Moines before AIB deal

In the hours, days, and weeks after Des Moines' AIB College of Business announced plans to give its campus to University of Iowa, dozens of faculty, staff, and other people expressed interest in getting involved.

Some professors shared ideas about expanding university programming. Others already planning to move into the Des Moines market asked how this could affect their plans.

Several had thoughts around collaboration with AIB, neighboring colleges, and businesses.

'This is fantastic news,' Jon Winet, director of the UI Digital Studio for the Public Arts and Humanities, wrote to administrators just minutes after they announced the AIB gift Jan. 26. 'The studio is committed to the public expression of the university's digital arts and humanities research across Iowa, and we welcome the opportunity to see how a presence in Des Moines could help this effort.'

'Let's bring a branch office of the studio to (Des Moines)!,' responded Tom Rice, academic director of the Pappajohn Education Center.

Others had a more moderate — if not concerned — response, according to the email obtained by The Gazette.

'Wow. When we talked about getting land in Des Moines via partnership or acquisition, we thought it was a pipe dream,' wrote Kenneth Brown, associate dean in the UI Tippie College of Business. 'I'm freaking out a little because this is the first I've heard of it, and AIB has what appear to be business faculty (only). This would seem to have big implications for Tippie. …

What can you tell me about this to ease my mind?'

Rice responded to many of the questions and prospects of involvement with the same answer administrators gave to the public — details are being ironed out. But, Rice told The Gazette on Friday, UI was working to increase its presence in Des Moines long before the AIB deal emerged, making many of the ideas for expansion possible with or without the AIB campus.

'We were planning to do that whether or not AIB showed up on the radar,' he said.

In fact, Rice said, he relocated to Des Moines from Iowa City in October to work with businesses and students on identifying degree programs UI could offer that would best serve the region. Rice had been working with UI faculty before the AIB announcement in hopes of offering more opportunities in Des Moines through a combination of distance and traditional education.

'AIB gives us the opportunity to build that faster, in the sense we would have some space,' Rice said. 'But we still want to be methodical about how we add degrees.'

UI and AIB officials are finalizing a gift agreement, which must be approved by the state Board of Regents. But, Rice said, UI does not need to wait for that approval to proceed with its plans for expansion in central Iowa.

'We are working to make some new programs available in Des Moines by next fall,' he said.

Rice said he didn't know anything about AIB's potential gift to UI until a few weeks before it was announced in January. Once he found out, Rice said in an email, he had to keep it secret.

Many of those who emailed administrators after hearing the news shared their surprise. And some referred to the deal's potential impact on a proposed change to the way the Board of Regents funds Iowa's public universities that ties a majority of state dollars to resident enrollment.

'Brilliant strategy by the University of Iowa to have AIB become your campus in Des Moines,' Peg Armstrong Gustafson, president and chief executive officer of Des Moines-based Amson Technology, wrote in a Jan. 26 email to a UI official. 'That is so smart. Bet it has a lot of folks reeling right now.'

'Wonderfully well played,' another person wrote.

AIB has more than 800 in-state students that UI President Sally Mason initially said could be counted as UI students, possibly as soon as fall 2015. One email from AIB President Nancy Williams on Dec. 18 — more than a month before the gift was announced — indicates Mason had asked for the college's enrollment inventory.

'Please print this data for President Mason,' Williams wrote to Mason's chief of staff. 'She requested it of me yesterday. The column that says 'resident' does not mean they live on campus; rather, that means they are Iowans.'

But the future of AIB's 20-acre campus looks different today than it did initially. One week after the gift was announced, Mason told regents the campus would not become UI-Des Moines but rather a Regional Regents Center capable of offering courses from UI, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

The transition was pushed back until summer 2016, when AIB would cease to exist and the regional center would come on line. 'Based on what I read in the paper this morning, we won't be opening AIB as a UI campus,' one faculty member asked Rice in a Feb. 6 email. 'Pretty crazy stuff.'

Rice responded by saying, 'It will almost surely be our campus, but with an odd name: Regents Regional Center. It all comes down to politics.'

Rice told The Gazette on Friday that UI needs to work with the regents to determine what it means to be a regional center. But his understanding is that AIB facilities would be made available to ISU and UNI as well.

'And that just makes good sense,' he said. 'We need to do our best to support each other in our missions …

and making space available to ISU and UNI is something we would welcome.'

UI has formed 10 working groups to address key issues around the transition, including enrollment management, faculty, financial aid, housing and academic programming.

Doug True, who recently retired from his position as UI senior vice president and treasurer, is serving as project manager for the AIB transition, according to UI spokeswoman Jeneane Beck.