Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds toured the University of Iowa's Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory (BELL) and the UI College of Pharmacy Thursday at the invitation of student government leaders.

The tour followed remarks and a news conference by the governor and UI President Sally Mason at the Iowa Board of Regents meeting earlier in the day. [See related story: Branstad, Mason announce plans for Iowa history course, website.]

Representing the student leadership were Ben Gillig, president of the UI graduate and professional student body and a graduate student in the College of Education's Higher Education and Student Affairs Program, and Katherine Valde, UI undergraduate student body president and a student in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Gillig and Valde led a delegation of student leaders in a meeting with Branstadand Reynolds in July in Des Moines to discuss college affordability.

The BELL, part of the Tippie College of Business' John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, is a business incubator for entrepreneurial students pursuing the creation of a startup while attending the UI. Individual students and teams in the program receive dedicated office space in the remodeled 10,000-square-foot facility, enabling them to concentrate on developing their business concepts.

More than half of all practicing pharmacists in Iowa are graduates of the UI College of Pharmacy, which has alumni practicing in 95 of Iowa's 99 counties. The college boasts one of the select few High Throughput Screening facilities (drug discovery) in a college of pharmacy in the country. Additionally, it houses University of Iowa Pharmaceuticals, the most comprehensive university-based, FDA-registered drug manufacturing facility in the United States, offering pre-clinical and commercial drug product services.