AIB to become University of Iowa - Des Moines

[Incyte]

i dont need more than 30 seconds to tell you that a campus full of buildings near downtown DSM is worth more than the $1.2mm they owe against it. i honestly have no idea what you are trying to argue here, but ive come to realize that you are just horrible at it.

my main point was to prove that i wasnt making up the $40mm figure. its right there in the minutes.

That AIB campus would be worth a lot more with no building on it.

 

[Althetuna]

“It’s an unusual gift in that it’s property so it’s not a gift of cash which is fairly easy most of the time to assume and accept so it’s a gift of about $30 million of urban property that’s gonna have to have the diligence done on it before we accept it along with what is the plan to operate that campus by the University of Iowa,” says Board of Regents’ President Bruce Rastetter.

http://whotv.com/2015/02/05/board-of-regents-says-much-to-be-worked-out-in-aibuniv-of-iowa-merger/


Geez President Rastetter, you think you should at least look at what your getting the Iowa tax payer into before accepting this "gift"?! Probably should have thought of that before you sat in on that "lie-fest" of a public announcement.

Even residential property typically isn't exchanged without an appraisal and inspection. Seriously, incompetent much?

 

[CYlent Bob]

http://whotv.com/2015/02/05/board-of-regents-says-much-to-be-worked-out-in-aibuniv-of-iowa-merger/


Geez President Rastetter, you think you should at least look at what your getting the Iowa tax payer into before accepting this "gift"?! Probably should have thought of that before you sat in on that "lie-fest" of a public announcement.

Even residential property typically isn't exchanged without an appraisal and inspection. Seriously, incompetent much?

Hey. It's the South side of Des Moines. It's not like they could find a bunch of buried 55 gallon drums on the property, right?

And when the "merger" won't take place for another 16 months and the "burn rate" for the endowment is around $1.7 million per year (and rising), their endowment will be gone by that time. Then you've got to start borrowing against assets to cover severance packages and any possible lawsuits filed by current students. And if you want to bring the buildings, parking lots, utilities, etc up to current standards, you've got to borrow against your assets again. And if the land is valuable cleared of buildings, you have to pay for demolition to get that value out of it.

I'm not saying that this is a White Elephant. I'm just saying that it's good to be skeptical when you're talking about a failing non profit with a marginal reputation. And the people doing those studies could be motivated to "make the sale" and shade those numbers WAY over on the optimistic side.

Caveat Emptor.

 

[VeloClone]

Caveat Emptor.

Wouldn't it be more like caveat susceptor donum?

 

[cyclonestate]

Somebody mentioned earlier that AIB is Ukraine. If that's true, than Sally Mason must be Vladimir Putin! (I won't make any shirtless jokes.) And the Board of Regents must be the US government!

 

[Althetuna]

Hey. It's the South side of Des Moines. It's not like they could find a bunch of buried 55 gallon drums on the property, right?

And when the "merger" won't take place for another 16 months and the "burn rate" for the endowment is around $1.7 million per year (and rising), their endowment will be gone by that time. Then you've got to start borrowing against assets to cover severance packages and any possible lawsuits filed by current students. And if you want to bring the buildings, parking lots, utilities, etc up to current standards, you've got to borrow against your assets again. And if the land is valuable cleared of buildings, you have to pay for demolition to get that value out of it.

I'm not saying that this is a White Elephant. I'm just saying that it's good to be skeptical when you're talking about a failing non profit with a marginal reputation. And the people doing those studies could be motivated to "make the sale" and shade those numbers WAY over on the optimistic side.

Caveat Emptor.

I agree completely. They can't even answer the most basic questions i.e. what the facility will be used for? What resources will be needed? Who will be served? etc.

How can any estimate be put together? Did Rastetter just assume he had a bottomless barrel of tax payer money?

 

[CYlent Bob]

Wouldn't it be more like caveat susceptor donum?

Ooooooh. Check out the big brain on VeloClone!

 

[Cy94]

So if AIB were to go out of business... who would get the assets, as a non-profit organization, if they had not donated themselves to another government organization?

 

[dafarmer]

As I stated right after the merger plans, it is all about the new funding formula from the BoR. If you can't bring in in-state Iowa students by improving the University, buy more students. AIB president should be Sued for every penny she gets out of this.

 

[kingcy]

I agree completely. They can't even answer the most basic questions i.e. what the facility will be used for? What resources will be needed? Who will be served? etc.

How can any estimate be put together? Did Rastetter just assume he had a bottomless barrel of tax payer money?

They guess at the number. Its all a lie to see what they can get away with and what they cannot. No company would give them $40M for what is there.

 

[cmoore_23]

As an alum the way this has been handled is pathetic I know plenty of students there and they r being treated like crap the lack of info before and now being told they may not have a school to go to then the students that were recruited there get told they can't it's a crock of **** honestly and I'm ashamed of the way AIB has handled it

 

[othercy]

I'm sure this will allow them to up their MBA offerings in Des Moines. But you don't buy a whole campus for that, even a small one. I'm sure their plans are for more than just MBA classes.

Exactly the case. This is NOT good longer term for ISU in any sense other than maybe serving as a wake-up call for better innovation. This is Iowa going after market share on ISU's front porch and backyard. If they were doing it in Med or Law I would have no problem - but this ain't that.

 

[othercy]

Unfortunately in that - about 800 students just got their lives turned upside down. I know, buzzkill :wink:

I'm kinda missing the uproar a bit, at least from the iowa side of things. Sure AIB and their board had answers they didn't give. Nothing new there. Not even when you consider it's academia. I don't think anything in that report on WHOTV says Sally Mason was privy to any of the board's discussions. And I'm missing the risk in "taking over a sinking ship". They are getting it for free, with what appears to be endowments in excess of the debt.

I don't like some of the out of context comparisons. Williams said this began last summer in discussions with Sally, but docs show AIB talked about it in 2010. Well sure, she talked to Drake in 2010, when did she talk to iowa? That's all she said. She said AIB is "virtually debt free". Well, that's open ended. 1.4MM isn't peanuts. But what do you think other institution's debt loads are? Probably safe to say well in excess of that. And I don't even get the comparison trying to be made regarding the difficulty about going against DMACC, and her comments about how their enrollment is going up?

This may very well die from the PR of it all. And it sucks, the limbo these students are in. But I'm kinda missing the scandal that WHO is trying to make out of it.

Mason said it would have to be portrayed as a gift to get it by the regents. Only way politically she could make this land grab. May not be illegal but is an underhanded crock from an ISU perspective.

 

[Althetuna]

...and now the Iowa legislature may step in.

“We were all misled, in terms of the protection of the students and the transition,” Bisignano said.

Bisignano on Friday said he’s disappointed lawmakers weren’t consulted from the beginning and thinks they need to get involved now — perhaps in the form of a government oversight committee.

“I think this is an extremely large move on the part of the university without any involvement from the Iowa Legislature, which is going to have to — at some point in the future — fund the operations,” he said. “It’s time now that we sit down and make sure government oversight is in place to put this to where we all have input and understanding.”

Senator from Coralville is not happy with the new plan

Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, said he has similar concerns around what was presented Thursday compared with the original proposal. “AIB wanted to gift the facility to UI so they would continue somewhat of a similar operation,” Dvorsky said. “I’m not sure that’s what’s going on and is going to happen with the new regional center.”

Although the decision about how to proceed lies mostly with AIB and the Board of Regents, Dvorsky suggested they address the concerns of the students, consider the original intent of the merger, and consult lawmakers.

What a cluster. Nice work President Mason and Regent Rastetter.:goofy:

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/regents-regional-center-would-be-uncharted-territory-20150206

 

[CyFan61]

While the whole process seems like a cluster****, I think it could actually work out positively if it ends up being much different than was originally planned.

It could be kind of like a much smaller version of the IUPUI campus. Basically, there's one campus in Indianapolis that students can go to and enroll as either Indiana or Purdue students.

Because DSM is a big market, and the three public schools want to share it, let them compete. They can each run programs there (probably night school, and ISU's MBA program can move there) and the students could be pursuing either UI, ISU, or UNI degrees while being on the same campus. Let the students decide what they want, and over time, I imagine each of the universities will have carved out their own niche in the DSM market.

I think the BOR should at least investigate a model similar to (but on a smaller scale than) the IUPUI campus in Indiana.

 

[Althetuna]

I think the current management at AIB has more blame here than the U of I does. Iowa is getting damaged goods, but they didn't damage the goods themselves.

I think there is plenty of blame to go around. According to AIB's leaked meeting minutes, President Mason was pressuring AIB to make an announcement. Apparently long before any of the detail had been worked out. Yes, AIB was going under but the transition process was completely botched and that is Mason's and Rastetter's fault.

I am amazed Rastetter is not getting more heat. Mason informed him of the "gift" and he didn't inform any of the other regents. What the hell?

 

[Althetuna]

While the whole process seems like a cluster****, I think it could actually work out positively if it ends up being much different than was originally planned.

It could be kind of like a much smaller version of the IUPUI campus. Basically, there's one campus in Indianapolis that students can go to and enroll as either Indiana or Purdue students.

Because DSM is a big market, and the three public schools want to share it, let them compete. They can each run programs there (probably night school, and ISU's MBA program can move there) and the students could be pursuing either UI, ISU, or UNI degrees while being on the same campus. Let the students decide what they want, and over time, I imagine each of the universities will have carved out their own niche in the DSM market.

I think the BOR should at least investigate a model similar to (but on a smaller scale than) the IUPUI campus in Indiana.

I'm not opposed to that. Whatever happens, I would like to see a preliminary plan and budget.

 

[CyArob]

Why does a Wisconsin fan care so much about AIB?

 

[CTTB78]

You're saying it's indisputably true that having a degree with the name "AIB" on it is going to be viewed as more valuable in the job market than having a degree with the name "University of Iowa"?

Depends who is doing the hiring. All of my UI resumes go straight to the trash barrel.

 

[SoapyCy]

Depends who is doing the hiring. All of my UI resumes go straight to the trash barrel.

Let's hope you never get sick or need legal advice.