University of Iowa president Sally Mason says she and other campus officials need to do a better job of explaining that the university is a “huge economic engine” for the entire state. In the closing days of the 2014 legislative session House Republicans abandoned their plan to cut the University of Iowa’s allotment of state taxpayer support, in order to shift more dollars to the University of Northern Iowa.
Mason refers to the university’s research mission as one reason the University of Iowa’s budget is larger than U-N-I’s.
While nearly half of the undergraduate students at the University of Iowa come from out-of-state, Mason says 70 percent of the university’s medical school students are Iowa residents.
Mason says it’s “good and healthy” to have out-of-state students choose the University of Iowa, but she says as policymakers start to “rethink the model” of how state funding is distributed among the three state-supported universities, it’s important for her institution to stress the “intentional” decisions that have already been made to ensure, for example, that at least 60 percent of dental students in Iowa City are Iowa residents. Mason also points to data indicating 40 percent of the out-of-state students who graduate from the University of Iowa wind up landing their first job within Iowa’s borders and more would choose to stay, but can’t find a job in Iowa.
