The University of Iowa is forming a series of working groups as it begins transitioning the AIB College of Business to the University of Iowa. The AIB president and Board of Trustees announced its intention to gift the college to Iowa on Monday. University of Iowa Executive Vice President and Provost P. Barry Butler immediately began work on a transition plan and is forming 10 working groups to address key issues moving forward, including student registration, financial aid, housing, and academic programming.
“We are committed to making this a smooth transition for students, and we will support them at every step along the way,” Butler says.
AIB has a 20-acre campus immediately south of downtown Des Moines and currently enrolls more than 1,000 students in seven business-related majors. University of Iowa President Sally Mason says the goal is to complete the transition from AIB to Iowa by June 2016. Mason says the programs offered in Des Moines will depend in part on the recommendations made during the TIER academic review, which will begin in March.
“The university intends to work closely with the Iowa Board of Regents and Des Moines business community to determine which academic programs will best serve the metropolitan area,” says Mason.
When it was founded in 1921, AIB initially offered a variety of business training programs but later reorganized to begin awarding associate and Bachelor of Science degrees. From its inception the student body has been predominately from Iowa and the Des Moines area in particular.
The working groups formed at the University of Iowa:
- Academic Programs
- Enrollment Management
- Faculty
- Undergraduate Deans
- Legal
- Finance and Operations
- Distance Education
- Diversity and Compliance
- Student Life
- Communications