Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I played there from 81-84, he was a few years after me. However, a couple of guys I played with coached with him there.

Northern Ohio Buckeye: Unfortunately your alma mater, Iowa Wesleyan, is closing. Iowa Wesleyan University to close at end of academic year (msn.com) 

Owing $26 million to the USDA, Iowa Wesleyan University announces closure - Iowa Capital Dispatch

I thought they righted the ship. They asked the State of Iowa for a grant of $12M, and were turned down. Usually these small schools have an alumni donor base that includes a few massively rich donors who can help fund requests like this, but Iowa Wesleyan doesn't seem to have those donors. (My daughter attended University of Dubuque which has doubled in enrollment the past 25-years and has had a massive infusion of infrastructure money from mainly one donor I think, but probably a handful of donors).

I noticed a few months ago enrollment at Iowa Wesleyan was up significantly. However, by all indications in the linked article the trustees secretly planned an orderly process to close the university and transfer students to other area small colleges and universities to finish their degrees.

It appears the USDA has some of the most significant mortgages on the property. I hope they find a buyer for the campus buildings. Maybe MIU?

Damn shame the USDA? Hope they are not as blundering/corrupt and inept as the federal agencies seem to be

Northern Ohio Buckeye: Unfortunately your alma mater, Iowa Wesleyan, is closing. Iowa Wesleyan University to close at end of academic year (msn.com) 

Owing $26 million to the USDA, Iowa Wesleyan University announces closure - Iowa Capital Dispatch

I thought they righted the ship. They asked the State of Iowa for a grant of $12M, and were turned down. Usually these small schools have an alumni donor base that includes a few massively rich donors who can help fund requests like this, but Iowa Wesleyan doesn't seem to have those donors. (My daughter attended University of Dubuque which has doubled in enrollment the past 25-years and has had a massive infusion of infrastructure money from mainly one donor I think, but probably a handful of donors).

I noticed a few months ago enrollment at Iowa Wesleyan was up significantly. However, by all indications in the linked article the trustees secretly planned an orderly process to close the university and transfer students to other area small colleges and universities to finish their degrees.

It appears the USDA has some of the most significant mortgages on the property. I hope they find a buyer for the campus buildings. Maybe MIU?

Yeah, I heard about that yesterday when a few of my old teammates started a texting thread about it. I haven't really looked into it or followed it, but from what they were saying, it was basically poor management by the past couple of presidents and the board.

I think there is a possibility if the buildings were well-maintained another college might come calling because it would cost less to buy the buildings out of bankruptcy than to build new. - If not a college - it seems there is very little else you can do to repurpose the buildings.

One of my Purdue buddies ended up in Gastonia NC for work, and for a while he lived in an apartment building that was repurposed from an old high school. *That* was a weird place. The only thing stranger than the architecture was the misfits who ended up living there. 

I can imagine how difficult it would be to repurpose a college campus into anything else. I could see it making a lot of sense for tech or research companies, but in the middle of Iowa it might be hard to entice potential job recruits to move there. I mean, if your alternatives are Silicon Valley, Research Triangle Park, Austin, the entire Boston area, Seattle, etc... Are there enough people who want to move to Fairfield IA to make it viable?

The last time I recall a small college shut its doors in Iowa was 1973. Parsons College in Fairfield closed, and filed bankruptcy. Maybe Fearless recalls another instance.

Shortly after Parsons College closed, Maharishi International University bought the Parsons College campus, which is just 21-miles from Mount Pleasant. I thought MIU would have a short-term existence, but they have persisted.

I think there is a possibility if the buildings were well-maintained another college might come calling because it would cost less to buy the buildings out of bankruptcy than to build new. - If not a college - it seems there is very little else you can do to repurpose the buildings.

Before my time, in the 1940s, Lenox College, a 2-year college, a few miles south of here closed. It must have had a very low enrollment because the Lenox College campus is small. Its buildings are now the Delaware County Historical Museum. The county keeps the roofs up, but the buildings are not well-maintained.

There was a bar in Fairfield that we would go to sometimes on the weekend were we would run into some of the students from MIU. They were some strange people. 

The hookah might pair well with the alcohol in that setting