Private College Presidents

Clay Masters

Budget challenges enrollment keeping tuition affordable. We'll talk with two private college and university presidents about how they're tackling those challenges and more. On this edition of Iowa Press.

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Iowa Press has.

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Brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS. This is the.

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Friday, October 6th edition of Iowa Press.

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Here is Clay Maters.

Clay Masters

 

Clay Masters

Earlier this year, Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, one of the oldest universities in the state, shut its doors for good. As higher education evolves, small private institutions are working hard to remain strong and viable. Our guests this week lead to liberal arts schools doing just that. Patricia Graves is the president of Graceland University in Lamont. She's in her seventh year leading that university.

Clay Masters

And Jay Byers is just a few months into the job as president of his alma mater, Simpson College in Indianola. Thanks to both of you for being on Iowa Press today.

Patricia Draves

Thanks for having.

Jay Byers

Us. Thanks. We appreciate it very much.

Clay Masters

Across the table, Caleb McCullough, the Des Moines bureau chief for Lee Enterprises. It has newspapers in the Quad Cities, Waterloo, Sioux City, just to name a few. And Erin Murphy is Des Moines bureau chief for the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

Erin Murphy

So we wanted to talk about tuition costs, which is obviously something that a lot of families and students talk about. And and managing the affordability of those in each of your schools is has implemented some new and interesting programs. And we wanted to give you both a chance to talk about. So, Patricia, we'll start with you at Graceland.

Erin Murphy

Graceland has cut its base tuition in half. Tell us a little bit more about that, why you did that and how you're able to make that work.

Patricia Draves

Yeah, just a couple of weeks ago, we announced a big transformation in our approach to tuition. So we cut you know, we transform the tuition for sticker price or published price from 32500 to 19950. And we you know, one of the incentives for that was just about opening access to higher education into private higher education and a Graceland education for the for all students.

Patricia Draves

We found that 70% of our students weren't even looking at us based on that sticker price. And then a big part of it is also just simplifying the process. So we committed to simplifying the financial aid process because so many families don't understand with scholarships and federal aid. And in just a simple way to look that in a way to highlight our transformational leadership program, which I hope we get to talked about later on.

Erin Murphy

And Jay Byers, I believe this predated your tenure, but Simpson College implemented a program that offers full tuition scholarships to families that are under $100,000 of family income levels. Right?

Jay Byers

Yeah. Correct. So we it. SIMPSON College affordability and accessibility is really important for us. So we still have about you know, about a third of our students are first generation college students and about 40% are Pell eligible. So we're very much a college of social mobility. And so for multiple years now, we've had what's called the Simpson promise, which is in the recent announcement, is building on that.

Jay Byers

So actually that was has been implemented since I started. It was and it's called out where I'm the overall program is called All in for Iowa. And so there is the 100,000, $100,000 promise. And basically any family with with income of $100,000 or less and you meet the income requirements and you're from Iowa and you live on campus your first year, it's tuition free.

Jay Byers

So basically paying costs of room and board and then you'd qualify. And most of those students would qualify for Iowa tuition grants and also the Pell Grant. We also also implemented what we're calling that, that the 99 county scholarship as well, too. So we're offering one tuition scholarship to at least one student in all 99 counties, and that is regardless of income requirements.

Jay Byers

And so we're super excited about that, that dual program.

Erin Murphy

How important is it to if you could just take a quick crack at this, that to have something like this to get students to look at your colleges? Because as I said, you know, we know and this isn't unique to private colleges either. Public universities are facing the same thing, that tuition costs have skyrocketed in recent years. So how important is it to have something like this to draw its students to your college?

Jay Byers

Well, I think it's really important. And again, we're in a great trend right now. There's a lot of momentum at Simpson right now. In fact, our numbers are way up this year. We had with first year students, we were up 14% year over year. And then if you put in, our transfers were up 11%. It was our largest class in five years.

Jay Byers

So, you know, some of the trends you're hearing nationally that that that's not what's happening at Simpson College.

Caleb McCullough

Now, both of these measures that your schools took are ways to effectively decrease your tuition prices and attract more students. But students and parents alike are kind of data shows rethinking the value of a four year degree and whether it's worth that investment. So is it worth the investment for a private school in Iowa? And you know, what can private colleges do to signal that they are worth a student's time?

Patricia Draves

Yeah, I mean, the value of a four year degree has never been stronger. There's data on the national level of the Iowa level to support that. I mean, things like how much income. You know, if you look at a high school student that is graduated from high school in Iowa versus a bachelor's degree, it's about twice the earnings.

Patricia Draves

You know, if you look at the health of that individual, the happiness of that individual between high school and and college, much higher for the college graduates, never mind for the state of Iowa. The economic impact, you know, college graduates versus some high school or some other high schools, you know, use the most you know are living third in poverty are using, you know, some of the social programs, whether it's Medicare at a much higher rates, 25% higher than college graduates as well as you know, other economic impacts as well.

Patricia Draves

And that's just here in Iowa. So the value of placing, you know, our resources into supporting education are seeing just in the economic impact, because if we're not paying from there, we're going to be paying for them in just different social programs. Never mind bringing innovation to the state.

Jay Byers

I'd just like to add to that, too. Again, you know, the economic data is very clear in terms of lifelong earnings. And by the way, that gap is not getting smaller. It's getting bigger whether you have a beer or don't have a beer. But there's a lot there's a lot more to it than just that. And how do we sell this to, you know, parents and students?

Jay Byers

Because ultimately, when students are coming here and for parents to they want to make sure that they're that they're that their student has a good job and a good career. And so I think a lot of what happens in places like Simpson and Graceland and other small colleges across our state are what are those skills that they're learning that are beyond just the classroom?

Jay Byers

And so some people call those soft skills. I don't think there's anything soft about them. I call them power skills. So it's things like leadership and teamwork, collaboration, communication, problem solving, adaptability. And that is something that small colleges are really great at. And by the way, those skills, it's not just what you graduate with with a degree, it's what are those skills that are going to transcend lots of different jobs, lots of careers?

Jay Byers

Because because, you know, our current students are going to have nine, ten, 11, 12 different jobs, different careers. And by the way, a lot of those careers don't even exist yet with with the evolution of all the technology that's happening faster and faster every day. So these skills that we're teaching them when they graduate, they're going to be able to transcend all of that and continue to be successful.

Jay Byers

And one of the thing I just want to mention on that front, too, is Gallup has done a lot of research and it's called the Big Six. So these big six factors and and Pat mentioned some of these as well, too. But, you know, things like a professor made me excited to learn. A professor cared about me as an individual.

Jay Byers

I had a mentor that help me reach my goals. I'm working on a long term project. I'm now I'm actively engaged in extracurricular activities. I had an internship that was related to classroom work, and so at Simpson, about 86% of our students will score at three or higher than that. That's almost three times the national average. And what that shows is some of the things that Pat mentioned to overall lifelong well-being, happiness and careers.

Jay Byers

And so that's something we do really, really well at. And just one more thing to add to that is the long tail of COVID. Now, with with that, the concerns that we're seeing with so many of our students, not only at our institutions, but every institution across this country with the rise in mental health issues, and then and just the remediation that's needed for certain academics, again, because of the challenges that our current students face.

Jay Byers

Small schools are really good at that with that personal care. And on top of that, when you're in small towns, like a lot of us are, you are embraced, right? So I think we're exactly what today's college students need at.

Clay Masters

The same time. So you both get to be cheerleaders for your schools, for the towns in which both of your institutions are in. At the outset of this conversation, I talked about Wesleyan closing its doors in Mount Pleasant. I mean, this is a a situation that's unique to that school, but it faces universities across this state. And there are a lot of private institutions across the state face new realities and concerns.

Clay Masters

How much of a concern is keeping your doors open for for both of you? Pat, we'll start with you.

Patricia Draves

I mean, for I think every college president, whether you're in a state school or whether a private institution in the Midwest and in a rural state, that is a concern. Right? There's lots of risk factors out there for colleges and universities and and we have some of them right, as here in Iowa. So so, yes, I would not be responsible if I were doing my job, if I wasn't concerned about each and every one of those.

Patricia Draves

But innovation meeting students where they're at and addressing their needs and supporting them is part of the reason we're for success. So. So some of the things like in Gracelyn that we've done in terms of package that the what we call the Gracelyn experience of, of leadership, we produce leaders for lots of times and you know, announced, you know, a year ago a transformational leadership major that does those I call them durable skills.

Patricia Draves

Right. Those hard skills, you know, along with an area of expertise to try to get to have students equipped for all those changing jobs is an important part of it. But also making sure that we are meeting what are some of the market demands for jobs out there? So, you know, changing what the academic portfolio is and that means making hard decisions about what we're not going to do and eliminating majors, but also what we're going to do and what we're going to invest in.

Patricia Draves

So we've seen like our business program over the last year, triple in terms of students that are interested that digital content creation major versus some other majors that we had in the past to address some changing needs. I think that's a really important part, is addressing some of the market need for jobs as well as where students interests are.

Clay Masters

Jay Beyers Do you feel like you're in fiercer competition these days with other private colleges within the within the state, just as we see outmigration of young people? I mean, and you've seen some colleges like in Mount Pleasant, close its doors. Do you feel more competitive with the small liberal arts colleges in Iowa?

Jay Byers

Well, I think our biggest challenge actually, is that percentage of students who are choosing not to go to college right now, I think if we all do a better job with some of the messaging we've been talking about today, there's plenty of students for all of us to be successful. And whether or not those are students that are within Iowa, across the country and internationally.

Jay Byers

And so I think that again, I think that's the biggest challenge that we're all sort of facing in terms of that percentage of students who don't think they need to go to college anymore and how can we continue to show them and their and their families that that that that that value is still really, really important. So ultimately, I think if we're successful at that, there's pathways to success with all of us.

Jay Byers

But I do agree with with Pat too, that it is about innovation. It's about looking forward. How do you continue to evolve? Because what worked in the past is not going to you know, you got to move with the times right? You got to place like Grace in a place like Simpson. You've got to honor the past, but you got to redefine the future.

Jay Byers

And and quite frankly, that's every industry. And and so higher education has got to be that way, too.

Erin Murphy

And correct me if I'm wrong, earlier you said enrollment j at Simpson has been bucking trends. Enrollment has been increasing. Is that right?

Jay Byers

Correct.

Patricia Draves

Yeah. And at Graceland, we're meeting our incoming classes are eight year high.

Erin Murphy

So what do you attribute that to?

Patricia Draves

So some is, you know, and we know that is response to some of the new programs that we have introduced that students are coming from that. And also there's transformational leadership. They know they need the career readiness skills in order to move into the workforce. And that major is allowing them to do that. And some of it is just a lot of hard work and doing it a little more effectively.

Patricia Draves

But to jump on your part, the piece that keeps me up at night is the number of high school graduates in Iowa that are choosing not to attend College is much higher than our than our region. You know, 7% lower than it was, you know, eight years ago. And so just moving directly into the workforce and not attending college.

Patricia Draves

And what does that mean in terms of the economic impact and the innovation for the state? Who's going to start those new businesses is something that is something I keep up. And I would say five years ago, I didn't think I was going to have to worry about like people, high school kids not choosing not to go to college.

Patricia Draves

But some of that is around the the misperception about the return on investment in the college degree, which is clear.

Caleb McCullough

So we talk politics a lot here on Iowa Press. But, you know, so much attention at the state House is put on public universities and we don't hear as much about private universities at that level. So what public policy changes would you all like to see that would help address some of the challenges you see at your schools?

Jay Byers

Well, I think by far and away, our most important issue for small colleges is our tuition grant. And it's it's it's an amazing program. So I think from Simpson's perspective and from the industry, you know, we're just very thankful to the governor and the legislators for their ongoing support of the Iowa tuition grant. There's there's other issues that we're following, but that's our biggest issue by far.

Patricia Draves

And I could not agree with you more. I mean, one of the things that Iowa's done well under the leadership of the governor and the legislator is support students to go to different types of universities, whether it's three regions, 15 community colleges or 32 private colleges. But the Iowa tuition grant keeps a lot of Iowans in Iowa. And so that's the number one issue.

Patricia Draves

There's a lot of talk this year about the change in federal financial aid simplification, an act on the federal level, and what that means for students. You know, we're delaying the announcement of of that or availability of the FAFSA, which many of you know until December. And so what's the impact? But every college in the nation is dealing with that delay so.

Patricia Draves

Well. Well, at least I'll go through it together. But helping make that a simpler process for families, I think it's going to be a good one. But something that we have and I would say I was led there were some very concerning things in that simplification act that would impact small businesses, but more importantly, rural and ag families and how they were going to kind of count farms in terms of assets.

Patricia Draves

All the Iowa college presidents got together to to kind of go into Washington, had days where we met with legislators to to make them aware of that issues. And there was some changes as a result of that, which was great.

Clay Masters

Talking about federal policy. Back in June, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action when it came to admissions either. Have you seen much of an impact on your campuses? Jay, we'll start with you.

Jay Byers

It had basically no impact on Simpson College, but I think some of the the effect, if we look at the demographics are changing demographics. I think some people would be surprised at how diverse a place like Simpson College is. So the last two years, you know, roughly 25% of our classes have been racially diverse. And, you know, we have a test optional admissions.

Jay Byers

And, you know, it's based off of GPAs and we recruit in urban areas and suburban areas, rural areas, and everybody who meets those admissions requirements that they have the opportunity to become a Simpson student at Simpson College.

Clay Masters

Pat, how would you come at that question?

Patricia Draves

Yeah, I would answer the same thing with race is not used ethnicity as an admissions requirement, so it really hasn't had an impact. And for us, we're even more diverse than Simpson. We're about 38, 39% with different backgrounds. So, you know, in terms of underrepresented groups. But it's a part it's a really strong enrollment piece for us because students get to live in rural II with a pretty diverse group from from lots of different cultural backgrounds.

Patricia Draves

So it's one of the things that students really like about Graceland.

Caleb McCullough

Yeah. So private colleges often try to emphasize one or a few areas that they try to excel in to stand out among the crowd. What what is that for you all? I know you said you had a major that you wanted to talk about. Is that part of that or what do you look at?

Patricia Draves

Yeah, I mean, transformational leadership major, is a major that's offered to every student at Graceland. So every student will get two majors, one an area of expertise, and then a transformational leadership which captures, you know, leadership development over four years, but also, you know, some of those durable skills, especially for the digital economy. So digital citizenship, class and fluency, you know, as well as a social responsibility class and just health and wellness type of class.

Patricia Draves

So that's that's an added piece. But, you know, for us, we have lots of diverse programs, but our business program and our STEM fields, you know, science, technology and, you know, in math, we don't have engineering are big parts of the Graceland experience for our students in our biggest majors.

Jay Byers

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, we've got a lot of areas of strength. And so, again, we've got a lot of business majors, a lot of science majors, education, political science, lots of others as well, too. So we're we have got a lot of strengths and I think, you know, a lot with our core curriculum working on it in terms of a lot of those other leadership development and career preparation that that pattern mentioned as well to similar things at Simpson.

Jay Byers

So we've got a lot of of Centers of excellence.

Erin Murphy

Yeah. How much do sports and extracurriculars play into that and into drawing the students to campus?

Jay Byers

Just huge. You know, we have about 60% of our students who are student athletes. We just recently launched four new sports within the last couple of years. So men's and women's gymnastics, women's wrestling and men's volleyball. And we also have a really active E sports program that's now competing at the national level. But I think other activities as well too.

Jay Byers

So for example, our speech and debate program is very, very strong at Simpson. We were we've been national Champs six for the last seven years, and that's going against, you know, the largest schools in the country. And so there's there's there's a lot of those opportunities. And again, when you go back to those big, big six factors I mentioned with Gallup, you know, a huge percentage of our students are actively engaged in multiple co-curricular activities.

Erin Murphy

Is it similar to Graceland?

Patricia Draves

Yeah. I mean, we have 23 sports grizzly Lane. About 75% of our students are student athletes. And but one of the things at Graceland is you can do a lot. So we have a lot of student athletes that are also members of the choir and the band or those communication groups that the J mentioned, but an important part of their overall experience.

Patricia Draves

And we very much and I think Jay will agree, I mean, part everything is part of a student's education. So whether it's how they live in the residence halls is part of their educational experience, of course, their classroom and academics, but they're their co and extracurricular are important part of their leadership. You know, whether it's leadership, development, teamwork, skills, working with the various others.

Patricia Draves

And that's an important part in our coaches and and arts directors are an important part of that.

Clay Masters

So during the COVID pandemic, we saw the explosion of online learning lots of ways for people to get their education by taking classes online, whatnot. How does that square into your institutions, especially when what I'm hearing from both of you is so much the on campus kind of experience that these students have. Jay, we'll start with you.

Jay Byers

Sure. Well, some people might not know this, but we've had a West Point campus for many, many years. And in fact, I used to be an adjunct professor a number of years ago for Simpson and teaching out of our West Point campus. And so a lot of those programs are now online as well, too. So I mean, that's been an important part of our offering.

Jay Byers

So we have a lot of of adult learners who are part of that, and we'll continue to expand that in addition to what we're offering on campus as well. So I think it's important to have that diversity and it's been a big part of our strength and we're going to really lean into that in the future.

Clay Masters

To online learning. How does it fit into Graceland?

Patricia Draves

Yeah, it has been a long part of our history. So we have an Iowa campus that is traditional residential, that online, you know, that in-person experience that students are craving, especially out of high school. But we have we actually are the school that offered the first distance education master's and nursing program that's offered out of our Kansas City campus as well.

Patricia Draves

And so we have several master's programs, data science, nutrition, human performance, and launching a doctorate in physical therapy program, you know as well under Kansas City. And then Graceland has an interesting organization that we educate and train about a million people in business, soft skills at our organization called Skill Path that is out of Mission Kansas. And so a different part of the organization.

Patricia Draves

So we've got three parts. You know, obviously, we're focused in Iowa today.

Clay Masters

And you get the final.

Erin Murphy

Question. Yeah, we just have about a minute left. And as we mentioned before, you two, part of the reason you're here is to advocate for each of the schools. So so maybe just as we go, 30 seconds seats. One more thing you want viewers to know or prospective students maybe to know about your your school. And we'll start with you in Simpson College.

Jay Byers

Yeah, well, our our mission is to transform students, to transform the world. Right. And that's what we do. And so I think if you look at today's world of political divisiveness, we I think we do a really excellent job of preparing our students to be successful in a very challenging world right now. And that's really what we focus on.

Jay Byers

And I think those are the types of leaders that our state really needs moving forward in terms of how we're going to continue to navigate the tough political waters and bring our state together. Urban, rural, suburban. And I think, you know, being in Indianola, we're in the perfect place to do that. I think we've done that really well for a long time.

Jay Byers

And I think that that's just an important mission for us and for the entire state.

Erin Murphy

And.

Patricia Draves

Pat Yeah, and Graceland University has a long heritage. And so 1895 of producing leaders were doing that in new and different ways. This year with the transformational leadership. And then with our tuition transformation announcement just a couple of weeks ago, trying to make sure that everyone knows a Graceland education is open and available to them if they explore that option.

Patricia Draves

And, you know, one of the things that, you know, as a proud Iowan, you know, as of six years ago and an American, I mean, just the way that Iowa colleges work together is amazing. It's not like any other state that I've seen. And so how do we get students to Iowa? So it's thank you for allowing us, Jay and I, to be on the show and share with you.

Clay Masters

Thank you both for being here on Iowa Press.

Jay Byers

Having a great time. Thank you so much.

Clay Masters

If you missed any of this show or want to watch a preview show, you can find all Iowa Press episodes online at Iowa PBS.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, I'm Clay Masters. Thanks for joining us today.

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