Kirkwood expects to announce changes to Iowa City campus, presence in early 2023

IOWA CITY — The coming spring semester likely will be the last for Kirkwood Community College’s Iowa City campus — at least in its current form — after a recent study found the institution would have to spend nearly $40 million over the next 24 years to maintain the campus that’s seen a 75-percent enrollment drop in five years.

Details of what Kirkwood’s future Iowa City presence might look like remain undetermined as administrators tour possible alternative locations, consider community needs and weigh an expanded joint-enrollment partnership with the Iowa City Community School District.

“I anticipate that we will have a decision on location and programming by early next calendar year,” Lori Sundberg, president of the Cedar Rapids-based Kirkwood Community College, wrote to faculty and staff last week in an email.

“I want the fall 2023 semester to start in whatever new location we believe will work for us,” wrote Sundberg, who in November announced plans to retire in October 2023.

Kirkwood spokesman Justin Hoehn said the institution remains “fully committed to serving our Johnson County district and more specifically the residents of Iowa City.” But, he said, “It is likely that we will not stay in the current location.”

“Given the decline in enrollment for Iowa City, it’s a reasonable conclusion that we don’t need as much space as we needed 10 years ago,” he said. “As a public institution who receives state funding and property taxes, we have an obligation to use our funding in the best possible ways to serve our students.”

Hoehn said that college administrators have been meeting with businesses and educators in Iowa City to see if there are unmet needs that Kirkwood could offer.

Sundberg, in her message, reported that “there appears to be little unmet need on the credit side.” Her team did identify some credit and noncredit needs for adult education, pre-health curriculum, business courses and English as a Second Language instruction.

“Our research indicates there is a need for an online cybersecurity program for both credit and noncredit. However, it does not require additional space because of the online component,” she wrote.

Kirkwood officials haven’t determined what Iowa City changes could mean for faculty and staff — including whether any will face layoffs. But by making Iowa City-related decisions by early 2023, that campus’ faculty and staff could stop guessing.

A prompt decision also will help students plan for “where they will be receiving instruction and support services,” Sundberg wrote.

‘Smaller footprint’

While Kirkwood’s overall head count has dropped 28 percent over the last decade from 23,422 in the 2012-13 academic year to 16,775 in the last full academic year, its Iowa City-specific head count has slid even more — falling 64 percent over the same decade.

Looking at only for-credit students, Kirkwood’s Iowa City campus enrollment dropped 75 percent from January 2016 to December 2021, according to the campus’ recent study that recommended, among other things, finding a new and smaller Iowa City site and recalibrating its course offerings.

“Given current market realities, a smaller footprint that more efficiently uses space, with improved agreements for sharing instructional space, and a floor plan to facilitate these benefits is recommended,” according to a study by consultant WSP USA in May.

In the months since, Kirkwood administrators have toured three potential sites to house Iowa City offerings, including the main ACT campus on ACT Drive in northeast Iowa City; Pearson Iowa City at 2510 N. Dodge St.; and the ACT Tyler building, which Iowa City Community Schools bought this summer. Officials also looked into resources at its Coralville-based Johnson County Regional Center, 2301 Oakdale Blvd., “to determine available space at an existing Kirkwood campus.”

And while the Iowa City study suggested turning that campus’ focus toward career and technical education — like programming in health sciences, auto repair, construction and plumbing, currently offered on the main Cedar Rapids campus — Sundberg suggested that doesn’t make sense.

“If we were to relocate a CTE program to a Johnson County site, the college would just be moving it for the sake of moving it,” she wrote. “That is not a good reason to incur additional costs.”

Liberal arts declines

Kirkwood’s Iowa City campus offers mostly liberal arts courses — from math to music to economics, history and education — enabling students to fulfill prerequisites for other programs or obtain full liberal arts associate degrees in the arts or sciences.

That focus also portends changes for the Iowa City campus. “In terms of liberal arts, we know that the demand is going to continue to decline in the near term,” Sundberg wrote.

Nationally, the number of college students earning humanities degrees has been falling for years, according to The Hechinger Report, citing federal data. Iowa hasn’t escaped the national headwinds, with its public universities reporting slipping liberal arts enrollment and coinciding budget deficits. Iowa State University’s liberal arts college last year reported an $11.4 million deficit. University of Iowa’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences had a $6.2 million deficit last year — prompting both campuses to unveil plans to right-size their programming.

Reasons college students are taking fewer liberal arts courses include a surge in high school students completing their required general education courses through joint or concurrent enrollment programs, like Kirkwood offers.

Acknowledging that growing concurrent enrollment, Sundberg in her message suggested Kirkwood’s Iowa City team do more with Iowa City schools.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean Kirkwood needs more of its own space in Iowa City.

“In terms of the delivery of liberal arts concurrent enrollment, we know that there is a desire for more of that coursework to take place in the high schools and not at off-site locations,” she wrote, flagging overall declines in high school graduates and demographic projections as another concern.

‘Marginalized student populations’

The number of Iowa high school students who enrolled in a community college the fall after graduating fell 20 percent over the last decade, according to an Iowa Board of Regents report, which found a 3 percentage point drop between 2011-12 and 2018-19 in the number of public high school students who even intended to enroll in college.

And while Iowa’s racial and ethnic minority population is growing in public high schools, the percentage of that group enrolling in college in dropping.

The impact that Kirkwood Iowa City changes could have on growing minority and immigrant populations is among concerns faculty have aired — as 51 percent of that campus’ students identify as a minority.

“It is our mission to serve our communities,” Hoehn said. “Kirkwood has never shied away from that or not stepped up to serve the needs of its district.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

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