The University of Iowa will grow its student body while retaining its core mission of providing a high-quality, affordable education to undergraduate and professional-track students, UI President Sally Mason said at the President’s Forum on Thursday.
"Our top priority is to provide a high-quality, affordable education to Iowa residents, as it has always been. But we also recognize that a diverse campus is part of that high quality, providing the University of Iowa with much of its dynamism and special character."
—UI President Sally Mason
Speaking at the Iowa Theater in the Iowa Memorial Union, Mason said increasing resident enrollment has taken center stage in the university’s efforts since the Iowa Board of Regents adopted a plan to increasingly tie university funding to the number of Iowans enrolled, among other variables. The good news is that as the UI moves closer toward full recovery from the flood of 2008, the university is well-positioned for growth.
“Our top priority is to provide a high-quality, affordable education to Iowa residents, as it has always been. But we also recognize that a diverse campus is part of that high quality, providing the University of Iowa with much of its dynamism and special character,” said Mason. “Our students who come from every state in the nation and many countries throughout the world are crucial to who and what we are, so our goal is to increase nonresident as well as resident enrollment.”
Mason shared that recruitment efforts are already starting to pay off. Applications are up by over 8 percent, she said, with a 10.2 percent increase among Iowa residents. Admissions and acceptances are up as well at this early stage in the recruitment process.
“Obviously, we have a number of practical issues to contend with besides just getting more students here,” said Mason. “Once they’re here, we must provide the same or a better educational experience we have always been known for, and we must make sure our campus facilities can accommodate the larger student body.”
Mason added the university is looking at ways to address a needed increase in faculty, which includes the long-term goal of hiring tenure-track positions, as well additional housing capacity. The new 500-bed Mary Louis Peterson Residence Hall is set to open in fall 2015 and a new residence hall was recently approved to be built on the east side of campus. Mason added the university needs to look at a future additional dorm and will be working on increasing its leased capacity.
“A larger, more diverse, and better prepared student body is the future for the UI,” said Mason. “These are goals we have long held and have continued to accomplish. Those goals have not changed. As we look to and plan for the future, we will grow a larger student body, which in many ways is a strategy to help us meet these overarching aspirations that we have always aimed for.”
Read a full transcript of Mason's remarks at the President's Forum at president.uiowa.edu/presidents-office/presidential-forum.