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Iowa Central Community College: Leveling the playing field

Iowa Central offers flat-rate tuition, tablet devices for all students; begins work on $8.5 million Student Success Center

-Submitted graphic
When finished, the new Greehey Family Student Center could look something like this architect’s rendering.

In 2019, Iowa Central Community College became the first community college in the state of Iowa to offer a flat-rate tuition for all full-time students.

For in-state students taking between 12 and 18 credit hours, tuition is $2,850 per semester. For students from neighboring states with high enough GPA, the rate is $2,950 per semester. For all other out-of-state students, the tuition rate is $4,100.

Along with the flat-rate tuition, Iowa Central introduced a new initiative that allows students to check out a Microsoft Surface Go tablet, which can be used to access more than 22,000 textbooks and other resources.

“We are still in the early stages of these programs,” Iowa Central President Dr. Dan Kinney said. “The feedback I have heard on the flat-rate tuition is very positive. Students are taking more hours, but more importantly we are providing education at a lower cost for our students.”

The college made a $1.3 million investment, purchasing 3,000 Surface Go tablets last fall.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Sacha Colomban, an Iowa Central student, goes through notes on his Surface Go tablet in the Student Resource Center on Wednesday. Iowa Central now provides the devices for students to check out for the school year.

“Our goal is always to provide the best education possible we can to our students,” said Dr. Stacy Mentzer, Iowa Central vice president of instruction. “Above anything, we want to make sure we are meeting students’ needs.”

Mentzer said some of the college’s students have never had a device like a tablet or laptop computer and that some just can’t afford a device.

“The Surface Gos have been a great hit,” Kinney said. “It has leveled the playing field for all students and provided every student with access to technology.”

Kinney said he believes he will continue to hear great things about both programs.

In September, Tom Beneke, Iowa Central vice president of enrollment management, gave the Iowa Central Board of Directors an update of the fall semester’s enrollment hours. He said that while the school had a slight decrease in students, it had an increase in total credit hours.

-Messenger photo by Elijah Decious
A backhoe digs into the ground where the Greehey Family Student Success Center will be built.

Beneke said he wasn’t too worried about the decline in the number of students because the increase in credit hours is where the school’s revenue comes from.

In 2019, Iowa Central also began construction on a major building project on campus. The $8.5 million Greehey Family Student Success Center will create “a true one-stop shop” to help students, housing the academic resource center, career services, retention center, health services, mental health resources and veteran affairs.

“We are hoping to have a completion date by the middle of summer,” Kinney said. “We have focused on the goals the students have when they come to Iowa Central. By putting all our student support services in one building will allow us the ability to better serve students and assist them in reaching their educational goals.”

Part of the funding for the facility, $4 million, was donated by Bill Greehey, Fort Dodge native and Valero Energy CEO.

Iowa Central purchased the former Budget Host Inn and its land, located next to campus, in December 2018. In fall 2019, the asbestos was removed from the building and it was demolished.

For now, the college does not have any immediate plans for the area, except for it to be a green space.

“We hope to turn it into an area that can be used for students to use as a recreational space,” Kinney said.

Also introduced in 2019 was the Last-Dollar Scholarship.

The Last-Dollar Scholarship is an initiative through Future Ready Iowa and is funded through the state. The scholarship is designed to work with other federal and state programs to completely cover the cost of tuition toward a certificate, associate degree or diploma in a high-demand field like nursing, industrial mechanics, carpentry and more.

Stacy Mentzer, Iowa Central vice president of instruction, told the board in September, that in this first year of the Last Dollar Scholarship, Iowa Central has 334 students receiving a total of $761,729 through this scholarship.

“This program introduced by the governor has been a great program,” Kinney said. “It is helping students in reducing their loan debt in programs that are high-demand in Iowa.”

Iowa Central also expanded its Second Chance Pell Grant program beyond the face-to-face classes in Fort Dodge and Rockwell City, to online in order to provide more correctional facility inmates with educational opportunities.

In 2020, Iowa Central will be opening the Laurens and Jefferson Career Academies, which will allow the college to serve more high school students.

Once the Greehey Family Student Success Center is complete, the college will begin working on the former student services building.

“This facility will become an open learning space for our visual arts, photography, computer networking and programming and engineer decision tech programs,” Kinney said. “This will be open classrooms with shared equipment with better access for our students to specialized equipment.”

The facility will also include a gallery for students to display their works.

“We are excited because it will be a collaborative work space for these programs,” Kinney added.

The college also has plans for renovations on Decker Auditorium and a new fuels testing lab.

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