Des Moines, IA- The USDA will become responsible for the campus of Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant when the school closes on May 31st.
US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack tells Radio Iowa that it’s too early to tell what’s next. “Our folks will work with the community to see what the options could be,” Vilsack says. “I mean there’s a variety of opportunities to think about. I’ve asked the team to be very creative about this.”
Last week, the school’s board of directors voted to close the school at the end of the academic year.
“Right now the community’s hurting. There are people whose lives are turned upside down and in that circumstance and situation you’ve got to be able to say to them: ‘We feel for you and we’re going to try our level best to create something good out of this that will help the community,” Vilsack says.
Iowa Wesleyan has had significant operating losses in recent years, and nearly closed in 2018. The school owes $21 million on a USDA loan, as well as another $5 million on a loan guaranteed by the USDA.
“One of the reasons we invested and have invested in other colleges across the country is that they’re an economic driver. They’re a job creator…A lot of opportunity can be generated by a college in a regional area,” Vilsack says. “Wesleyan, I think they did an evaluation. They had a $50-70 million dollar impact on the community every single year, so that’s real and obviously the community is going to have to be dealing with the potential of how do we replace that.”
Vilsack, a former Iowa Governor, served as Mayor of Mount Pleasant in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He says he would like the USDA to avoid dividing the 60 acre campus into parcels and selling individual buildings.
“I’d like them to start working with the college to see whether or not there are other universities or colleges that might be interested. Are there other folks that might be interested in a campus of some kind? Are there agencies of the federal government, for example, that might be thinking about training facilities and could this be an opportunity,” Vilsack says. “People need to think creatively at this point to try to keep it as a whole, if possible, and keep it as the economic driver that it has been.”
