Iowa official register

 

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E

DUCATIONAL

 

I

NSTITUTIONS

 

 

Chapter 9 

 

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EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 

 

STATE UNIVERSITIES 

THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 

Sally Mason, Ph.D., president; Iowa City 52242; [phone]; 

www.uiowa.edu 

The University of Iowa (UI), chartered within the first two months of statehood in 1847, exem-

plifies Iowa’s commitment to innovative leadership in education, research, and service. In 1855, 

the year classes began, the UI became the first public university to admit women on an equal 

basis with men. Today, under the leadership of President Sally Mason and Executive Vice Presi-

dent and Provost Wallace D. Loh, a distinguished faculty of nearly 1,800 attracts more than 

30,000 students from every county in Iowa, all 50 states, three possessions, and more than 110 

foreign countries. Minority enrollments in Fall 2008 were 3.9 percent Asian, 2.8 percent Latino, 

2.4 percent African American, and 0.5 percent Native American. 

In 2008, U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Iowa as the 26th best public uni-

versity in the country. In that issue, many of the university’s programs were rated among the na-

tion’s elite: creative writing, nursing service administration, physician’s assistant, speech-

language pathology, audiology, nurse practitioner in gerontology and geriatrics, otolaryngology, 

printmaking, rural medicine, social psychology, rehabilitation counseling, physical therapy, nurs-

ing, ophthalmology and visual sciences, primary care, paleontology, clinical psychology, and 

plasma physics.  

The university’s strategic plan, The Iowa Promise:  A Strategic Plan for the University of Iowa 

2005-2010, aspires to make the university one of the ten most distinguished public universities in 

the country. 

Fifty-five percent of UI students are enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 

which includes numerous schools, academic departments, and interdisciplinary programs. An-

other 18 percent are enrolled in the Graduate College, and about 12 percent are in the professional 

Colleges of Dentistry, Law, and the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Other 

colleges are Education, Engineering, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and the Henry B. Tippie 

College of Business. The UI now grants nearly 6,000 degrees each year — 315,487 thus far. More 

than 50 percent of its students are from Iowa. There are more than 100 areas of study at Iowa and 

seven professional degrees (MD, JD, MBA, LLM, PharmD, MNHP, and DDS). The student-to- 

faculty ratio is 15:1. 

The top ten undergraduate majors are business, engineering, psychology, English, biology, 

communication studies, interdepartmental studies, political science, art & art history, and nursing. 

Most common graduate majors are education, engineering, nursing, public health, social work, 

music, business, chemistry, English, and physical therapy. 

The University of Iowa educates many of the state’s professionals, including 79 percent of 

Iowa’s dentists, 50 percent of Iowa’s physicians, 47 percent of Iowa’s pharmacists, and 45 per-

cent of Iowa’s BSN nurses, as well as the teachers and administrators in 80 percent of Iowa’s K-

12 school districts. 

The university has produced 18 Rhodes Scholars, 22 Pulitzer Prize winners, 67 National Sci-

ence Foundation Young Investigators, and numerous Guggenheim, National Endowment for the 

Humanities, and Senior Fulbright Fellows. Among the faculty, 97 percent hold the highest de-

grees in their field.  The UI faculty ranks include a National Medal of Science recipient, a Na-

tional Academy of Engineering member, three Pulitzer Prize winners, four Howard Hughes Medi-

cal Institute investigators, five National Academy of Sciences members, 11 American Academy 

of Arts and Sciences inductees, 15 American Institute of Medicine members, and 22 American 

Academy of Nursing fellows.  In FY 2008, University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students were 

awarded more than $386 million in federal, state, and private support for research and develop-

ment. 

Iowa ranks 18th among public universities in federal research and development funding. Since 

1966, the University of Iowa has been awarded more than $5 billion in competitive grants and 

contracts.  In more than 90 formal research units, UI investigators explore such emerging tech-

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IOWA OFFICIAL REGISTER 

 

nologies as nanotechnology, image processing, hydrology, gene mapping, pharmaceutical devel-

opment, proteomics, and bioinformatics.  

University of Iowa continues to be a national leader in the biosciences, ranking 13th among 

public institutions in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in 2008.  University of Iowa 

biomedical research efforts have produced such innovations as a multispecialty program for the 

care of cleft palate patients and the designation of the university by the NIH as the main medical 

center for evaluating performance of the many types of cochlear implants, in recognition of 

Iowa’s leadership in the surgical implant and clinical follow-up of these devices.  The university 

is also home to one of the National Cancer Institute’s designated comprehensive cancer centers. 

The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop was the first creative writing degree program in the 

United States and the model for contemporary writing programs.  Workshop alumni have won a 

dozen Pulitzer Prizes (most recently Marilynne Robinson in fiction in 2005, and Michael Cun-

ningham in fiction and Mark Strand in poetry, both in 1999), as well as numerous National Book 

Awards and other major literary honors. 

University of Iowa scholars and scientists have been pioneers in such fields as psychology, 

physics, biology, biomedical engineering, hydrology, and astronomy (Dr. James Van Allen, for 

instance).  In the arts and humanities, the University of Iowa has consistently held national leader-

ship rankings in creative writing, art and design, psychology, English, history, sociology, print-

making, and others.  Departments in the College of Education — in particular elementary educa-

tion and curriculum and instruction — are top-ranking programs.  

Consistent with state priorities, the University of Iowa Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocess-

ing has established a pilot scale cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice) fermentation pro-

duction facility to produce biopharmaceuticals suitable for human use.  The university also pro-

duces finished dosage forms of drug products for human clinical trials in its cGMP compliant 

Division of Pharmaceutical Service and develops analytical methods and conducts drug stability 

testing at its Center for Advanced Drug Development.  The university is home to the world’s most 

sophisticated driving simulator, the National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS).  NADS re-

searchers conduct advanced driving safety research that often cannot be accomplished elsewhere 

and develop advanced simulation technology that can be used to assist in the design, testing, and 

implementation of transportation products and systems at a fraction of the cost of traditional engi-

neering methods.  

The university translates this extraordinary research and development into economic develop-

ment for Iowa and beyond through its IOWA Centers for Enterprise.  The IOWA Centers includes 

six integrated units that work collaboratively and seamlessly to engage the University of Iowa in 

economic development.  These include the Office of Corporate Partnerships (corporate outreach), 

University of Iowa Research Foundation (patenting, licensing, and new company formation), 

John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (entrepreneurial education and outreach), Small Business 

Development Center (small business assistance), Technology Innovation Center and UI Bio Ven-

tures Center (business incubation of university-related start-up companies), and Oakdale Research 

Park (research- and technology-based companies seeking sustained relationships with UI).  

In 2007, Iowa received a $33.8 million Clinical and Translational Science Award from the 

National Institutes of Health. The Carver College of Medicine’s Institute for Clinical and Transla-

tional Science has now joined only 23 other CTSA-awarded organizations in working with physi-

cians, hospitals, and community health centers across the states to bring cutting-edge biomedical 

research and clinical trials to patients in their own communities. 

The University of Iowa is renowned for its leadership in writing not only in developing the 

Writers’ Workshop, the Playwrights Workshop, a distinguished nonfiction writing program, and 

the world’s only International Writing Program, but also in improving the teaching of writing at 

all levels of education. In 1922, the university became the first to accept creative work to meet 

thesis requirements for graduate degrees in the arts, and it continues to offer excellent programs in 

creative writing, dance, theatre, music, and art. 

In 2008, for the 19th year in a row, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the state’s only 

comprehensive academic medical center, ranked overall as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” 

with nine of the hospital’s specialties listed in an annual survey published by U.S. News & World 

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