Higher Ed

A century after its debut along the Iowa River that divides the University of Iowa campus, the Iowa Memorial Union early next year will embark on a “major redesign and renovation” that could include new franchised food vendors -- among other new union services and features catering to today’s evolving student needs, expectations, and preferences.

Using a student-teacher model for therapists in training, the grant-funded Telepsychology Training Clinic at the University of Iowa has offered free, short-term counseling to more than 200 Iowans in 17 counties.

Within a matter of days, college and university communities across the state will experience the annual population swell of students returning to campus for another academic year.

At a time of growing worker needs across the agriculture industry and strong sustained interest among agriculture students, Kirkwood Community College last week secured itself more educational cropland with a $1.4 million purchase of 80 nearby acres.

A new partnership between Kirkwood Community College and the University of Iowa will allow students to use programs at both institutions to earn their degree in medical laboratory science.

Nearly seven years after a Mt. Pleasant man underwent a coronary artery bypass graft at University of Iowa Health Care in January 2018, UIHC has agreed to pay him $250,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging negligence.

University of Iowa Health Care will pay $1.2 million to the parents of a 17-year-old Iowa City High School senior who died unexpectedly in July 2020 after several UIHC providers mistook her symptoms of a developing pulmonary embolism as COVID.

Adding to its growing clinical enterprise and footprint across Eastern Iowa, Steindler Orthopedic Clinic on Monday debuted its eighth location — this one in Cedar Rapids, where about one-third of its clientele reside.

Three days after asking a judge to get involved in the delayed distribution of Mercy Iowa City’s liquidated assets -- accusing the bankrupt hospital’s management team of poor communication and miscalculation in stalling payments -- Mercy’s bondholders last week finally got back some of the long-sought $62.8 million they’re owed.

Making official a likely union Mount Mercy and St. Ambrose universities announced earlier this year in the face of financial headwinds sweeping across higher education, presidents of the two Eastern Iowa Catholic campuses Thursday signed a formal agreement to combine their institutions.

Nearly two months after a bankruptcy judge confirmed a liquidation plan for the former Mercy Iowa City’s tens of millions in assets, and more than a month after that plan went into effect, secured bondholders “have yet to receive a single ‘effective date’ distribution.”

Although Iowa — as America’s top hog producer — generated $10.9 billion in cash receipts in 2022, it could have made more if not for the persistence of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, according to new Iowa State University research.