Higher Ed

With an estimated 11,870 students across Iowa’s public universities expected to receive degrees during in-person and livestreamed commencement ceremonies this weekend, the regent system is reporting rising graduation rates.

Eight years after Wendy Wintersteen became Iowa State University’s first female president in 2017, the esteemed entomologist on Friday announced plans to retire in early 2026.

A federal judge has made more permanent an initial temporary restraining order she issued last month blocking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from terminating the status of four University of Iowa international students by granting a preliminary injunction through the summation of their case.

On her morning walk with husband John Lammers and their dog Ollie recently, University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson went to pick up some litter only to discover it was something more.

Leaders of Kirkwood Community College’s Continuing Education Division were intrigued by the credentialing as a way to recognize students’ completion of noncredit coursework that won’t show up on their transcript.

Just over a year after establishing its first chapter at the University of Iowa, the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity has been suspended from campus for at least four academic years following a November hazing incident involving 57 shirtless men in a basement storage room, many of whom had food splattered on them.

Recently-reappointed member of Iowa’s Board of Regents David Barker has been nominated to serve as U.S. assistant secretary of post secondary education following the resignation of Nasser H. Paydar, appointed in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden.

A day after a federal judge told an attorney representing four University of Iowa international students to identify themselves or drop a complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the attorney filed a document with the court swapping the John Doe #1-4 labels with the real names of the men she’s representing.

One day after state senators advanced an education budget bill starving Iowa’s public universities of any general aid increase in the coming year, the Iowa House advanced its own package cutting general education support by the amount each university was spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. But unlike the Senate version, the House would increase some support for other regent initiatives and for community colleges.

Nearly 90 Jewish faculty, staff, students, and alumni across Iowa’s higher education landscape have issued a collective statement condemning threats to and attacks on their college and university campuses “in the name of the Jewish community.”

For the second time in four months, the University of Iowa has paused a search for a college dean -- with its Graduate College this month joining its College of Law in the limbo status of interim leadership.

Of the 40 Iowa public universities, community colleges and private institutions contacted by the Iowa Capital Dispatch and the 28 that responded, 13 acknowledged having some number of university students or recent graduates with changed federal status.