Iowa Wesleyan warned governor of looming closure

Nearly two months after Iowa Wesleyan University President Christine Plunkett in February asked Gov. Kim Reynolds for $12 million in federal pandemic aid to help keep her Southeast Iowa campus open, she sent another email in March telling the governor — who had yet to decide — that time was up.

“Unfortunately, we have run out of time to make a decision about our future,” Plunkett wrote just before 8 p.m. March 21 to the governor, according to emails provided to The Gazette in response to an open records request following last week’s news the 181-year-old university will close in May.

“Our audit report has been released, and it accurately indicates ‘significant doubt’ that we have the necessary resources to continue operations,” Plunkett wrote.

Given legal and ethical obligations to provide Wesleyan’s 200-plus workers with 60 days’ notice of closure “so they can begin looking for new employment,” Plunkett told the governor her board of trustees was planning to meet March 24 “when a vote to close the university is anticipated.”

Plunkett the next day sent Reynolds’ office another email — which indicated the governor’s staff had reached out by phone with questions — that further summarized Wesleyan’s situation, including its risk of losing accreditation and federal financial aid.

“We do not have the necessary cash to responsibly begin our new fiscal year,” she wrote. “We do not need cash in hand this week, but we need confirmed access to the requested funds over the three years beginning June 1, 2023 in order to ensure continued operations.”

That, she said, could save Wesleyan’s accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission.

“If we are able to provide documentation of pending funding, the audit will be released with updated financials and a clean audit.”

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'Left with a vacant campus’

Plunkett described the anticipated blow a Wesleyan closure would have on students, employees and the Mount Pleasant community — noting economic studies show the university has a $70 million impact annually on the region, which she said is “facing declining populations, increasing poverty, declining educational attainment levels, and workforce shortages.”

“Most of our employees would move out of the region, if not out of state, to find employment,” Plunkett wrote. “Furthermore, Mount Pleasant would be left with a vacant campus property and a significantly diminished community population.”

Although Wesleyan was developing plans at other colleges to absorb its students, she doubted many would take advantage.

“Statistically speaking … it has been shown that only about 25 percent of our diverse population of rural, low-income students will complete college if we close,” she wrote. “The other 75 percent will return to their homes, many of which are out of state.”

In her email, Plunkett invited the governor to participate in the Wesleyan board meeting, at which a vote on closure was planned. The governor’s office didn’t respond to The Gazette’s question about whether Reynolds participated.

And four days after the trustees voted March 28, the Mount Pleasant campus announced plans to close at semester end on May 31 — wrapping its historic tenure as Iowa’s second-oldest university, older than the state itself, having opened in 1842.

Reynolds that day issued a statement explaining her office had not received the Wesleyan request until Feb. 3 and decided committing $12 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds was neither a proper nor smart use of the money — not wanting “to spend one-time federal dollars on ongoing expenses.”

“My thoughts are with the students, faculty, and staff who are stunned by this announcement, and the people of Mount Pleasant who have long revered the university as a pillar of their community,” Reynolds said in her statement. “The state is committed to supporting them during this time of transition.”

In making its $12 million request Feb. 3, Iowa Wesleyan joined three other small and private Iowa institutions — Graceland University in Lamoni, Upper Iowa University in Fayette and William Penn University in Oskaloosa — in a combined $48 million ask. The governor’s office hasn’t yet decided whether to provide the other institutions the $12 million they’re each seeking, a spokesman said.

$15 million need

Plunkett received an answer on its funding request faster than the other campuses because she pressed the governor’s office for a swift response in a separate follow-up Feb. 17. In that message, Plunkett said Wesleyan actually needed $15 million to stay open through 2026 but recognized “we have an obligation to raise a portion of the funds on our own.”

She broke down Wesleyan’s needs into four key components: partnerships, enrollment growth, student success and retention and educating non-traditional students.

Operating expenses associated with Wesleyan’s 2021 partnership with Southeastern Community College — plus a new economic development director earning $125,000 a year — was expected to cost $1.4 million between June 2023 and May 2026.

Enrollment growth and related efforts account for the largest chunk of the expenses — at $9.3 million over three years, including an agreement with a “recruiting partner that provides critical marketing and recruiting support within Iowa and out of state.”

Wesleyan, which signed that deal in June 2022, had planned to formalize four “schools” within the university: a School of Health Sciences (nursing); School of Education; School of Business (including agribusiness); and School of Humanities. Deans for those schools, expected to cost $1.8 million over three years, would have been responsible for promoting their programs to high schools and community colleges, Plunkett said.

Student success initiatives were to cost $2.8 million over three years, as Iowa Wesleyan has a student population that’s 51 percent ethnically diverse.

And non-traditional student education was expected to cost $1.5 million, including staffing to meet the needs of 130 international students from 40 countries.

“Many of our international students are nursing, teaching, and business students,” Plunkett said, warning Wesleyan’s closure risks further depraving those sectors across the region.

“We know from our conversations with regional health care providers and school systems that the shortage of nurses and teachers is particularly critical,” according to the Feb. 17 letter.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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