Year after Iowa Wesleyan shuttered, lawmakers proposed private-campus closure mandates

Nearly a year ago, the Iowa College Student Aid Commission reached out to Iowa Wesleyan University, instead of the other way around, about news the 181-year-old campus would be closing.

The commission — according to its March 30 email to Wesleyan, provided to The Gazette through an open records request — told the institution that it had been “made aware of Iowa Wesleyan University’s decision to close.”

Iowa lawmakers this session — as part of a Higher Education Reform Act that passed the House but didn’t get picked up in the Senate — proposed a measure that would have made sure the state has more involvement, interaction and information about any future closures like Wesleyan’s.

“An accredited private institution shall provide notice to the Department of Education immediately upon a vote of the accredited private institution’s governing board to close the institution,” according to the bill that failed to advance past Friday’s second “funnel” deadline but can be revived by a legislative leaders.

Still, the proposal’s message was evident in the lawmakers’ interest for more state involvement and more student support in cases of closure.

Wesleyan reminded of obligations

Last year, a week before Wesleyan closed, its President Christine Plunkett on March 21 warned Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office that her university was in dire straits and near closure. She issued that warning in pressing Reynolds for an answer to her appeal for $12 million in federal pandemic relief aid.

When Reynolds turned Wesleyan down, the private college told everyone at the same time — via a March 28 news release and news conference — that the board had voted to close the college in Mount Pleasant.

Wesleyan, as an institution authorized to provide postsecondary education in Iowa, was required to provide the state with a list of information in the event of its closure. The Iowa College Student Aid Commission — now part of the Iowa Department of Education — reminded Wesleyan of those obligations days after the announcement.

That information began arriving April 6, the Iowa Department of Education recently told The Gazette.

House bill

The “closure of private institutions of higher education” language in House File 2558 would have built in supports for impacted students — like the 878 who were enrolled in Wesleyan when it closed last spring.

Within five business days of notifying the state of plans to close, under the measure, any closing private school would have had to provide the department with a list of relevant details including:

When Iowa Wesleyan closed last year, the Iowa College Aid Commission asked it to provide a similar list of items.

Per Plunkett’s response a week later, she provided her own number and email address as primary contact for school closure questions, along with two other administrators for student and financial inquiries.

Regarding the request for an approved teach-out plan, Plunkett said “the provisional plan is being developed” — with plans to submit one to the Higher Learning Commission for approval at the end of April.

Additionally, per the state’s request, Wesleyan’s information technology team was compiling a list of impacted students and would “send it as soon as possible.”

Still hasn’t answered

After Wesleyan’s closure announcement, it held on-campus transfer fairs featuring schools from across the state and nation — many of which accepted former Wesleyan students and athletes for the next academic year.

The shuttered university transferred student transcripts for safe keeping to the University of Iowa and left its campus property decisions to the Wesleyan board of trustees, which recently sold portions to the Mount Pleasant Community School District.

The closure followed years of financial hardship that first publicly threatened closure in 2018. In a last-ditch effort, Wesleyan in February 2023 joined three other private universities in Iowa — Graceland, Upper Iowa, and William Penn — in seeking a combined $48 million in COVID relief aid from Gov. Reynolds.

When she didn’t immediately answer, Wesleyan pressed her — reporting, “We need confirmed access to the requested funds over the three years beginning June 1, 2023, in order to ensure continued operations.”

The governor’s office denied the funds, having run an independent audit of Wesleyan’s finances that found the campus at “high” financial risk. The governor’s office still hasn’t answered the other universities’ funding requests — telling The Gazette it has until the end of the year to decide.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com

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