University of Iowa 2015-16 Year-in-Review
Ranked 34th among the nation’s best public universities by U.S. News & World Report, the University of Iowa is a community that’s welcoming, personal, and energetic. Fall 2015 enrollment topped 30,000 students in more than 200 areas of study and 5,000 courses. Despite the University’s growing enrollment numbers, 80-percent of classes have fewer than 30 students, and Iowa remains one of the smallest and most affordable universities among its peer institutions.
In September 2015, the Board of Regents appointed Bruce Harreld, a former Harvard Business School faculty member and corporate executive who helped save a foundering IBM in the 1990s, as the 21st president of the University of Iowa. Harreld took office November 2.
The University welcomed its largest, most academically accomplished and diverse undergraduate class in its history; adding 5,241 new students; 575 more than in 2014 (4,666). The incoming class of students boasted 700 Old Gold Scholarship recipients and holds the highest ever average high school GPA (3.66).
Outgoing students joined a living alumni network more than 277,000 strong. Ninety-five percent of UI graduates find jobs or are accepted into graduate school, including 98 percent of College of Nursing graduates, 97 percent of College of Engineering graduates, and 96.4% of College of Pharmacy graduates. Graduates learned from world-class faculty that care deeply about student learning and recognize their role in shaping the student experience.
These Faculty continue to distinguish themselves. Faculty secured $443 million in grants during FY15, funding projects like the national Strategically Focused Hypertension Research Center and a joint effort with Grinnell University to develop new collaborative practices for the humanities, among many others. Four faculty founded a new company, Immortagen, with the help of the University’s Office of Research and Economic Development. Immortagen will introduce personalized cancer treatment using genetic testing. Iowa Writers’ Workshop faculty member Marilynne Robinson’s novel, Lila, was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in March 2015.
In January, 2015, The AIB College of Business announced it would gift its 20-acre campus in Des Moines to the University of Iowa. The assessed value of the real estate property by Polk County is around $20 million.
Fundraising achieved historic highs during the 2015-16 fiscal year. The University and the University of Iowa Foundation is nearing conclusion of an eight-and-a-half-year fundraising campaign. To date, more than 200,000 UI alumni and friends have contributed $1.7 billion to For Iowa. Forever More. Donors have created more than 550 new undergraduate and graduate scholarships, 64 new faculty chairs and professorships, and hundreds of funds that support vital research and academic programs.
The UI Children’s Hospital will be renamed the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital in honor of Jerre and Mary Joy Stead and their extraordinary commitment to children’s medicine at the University of Iowa. The Steads have committed $25 million to children’s medicine at the UI. The new name will take effect in November 2016 with the dedication of the new UI Children’s Hospital building
