Iowa lawmakers moved multiple bills out of subcommittee Wednesday determining residency requirements for the nursing and law programs at the University of Iowa, adding to legislation passed last session for the university’s medical school.
House Study Bill 530 would require the UI College of Nursing to ensure at least 80% of its students accepted to its nursing program are residents of Iowa and implement priority admission to Iowa residents. House Study Bill 532 would apply the same requirements to the UI College of Law, except the residency requirement and would include those who were enrolled previously in an Iowa public, private or community college.
The term “resident of Iowa” is also defined differently between the two bills, with House Study Bill 530 describing it as someone who graduated from a high school in the state. House Study Bill 532 expanded that to include people who have lived in Iowa for at least four consecutive years before the classes they’re applying to are set to begin.
Both bills would have the university include “an applicant attestation” in which applicants would identify themselves as an Iowa resident or nonresident, or someone who’s interested in working in Iowa after graduation. The UI would also need to submit annual reports on the programs with information on how many residents were accepted or not and why any applicants weren’t accepted.
Iowa Board of Regents State Relations Officer Jason Chapman had similar comments at both subcommittee meetings, saying the board is concerned about potentially limiting the number of nurses and attorneys working in Iowa through recruiting fewer out-of-state students to the programs. These rules would also create greater competition across the state between higher education institutions.
Both the nursing and law programs currently admit people based on merit, he said. During the meeting on House Study Bill 532, Chapman said the university would “likely have to lower some of the admission standards to be able to get the number of students this would require.”
“We’re concerned about what it will do for recruiting potential students to the state to fill the jobs that we have need for in the state, and the potential unintended consequences of what it will do for some of the other programs in the state as well,” Chapman said during the House Study Bill 530 meeting.
Iowans for Affordable Healthcare lobbyist Phil Jeneary was the only person during public comment in either meeting to show support for a bill, saying during the meeting on House Study Bill 530 Iowa has a health care worker shortage and the group is “certainly supportive of trying to keep as many Iowa students here as possible.”
Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, said during the House Study Bill 530 meeting she would not support the legislation for the nursing program, saying she’s worried about potentially limiting the number of young people who would otherwise move to, and hopefully stay in, Iowa.
Subcommittee chair Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, said he understood his fellow lawmaker’s concerns, but he recommended the bill move to the full Iowa House Higher Education Committee.
“As far as having people move into the state of Iowa, however, a good majority of those people that come to Iowa to go to our schools then go back to their home state,” Wills said.
Iowa judicial branch lobbyist Caitlin Jarzen expressed similar views on the legislation relating to the UI law school, with the branch registered as “undecided” on House Study Bill 532. She said those in the judicial branch would be interested in seeing additional data on how this legislation could keep graduates of the law school in Iowa, as currently they are unsure whether this bill would be successful in that aim.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, participated in the subcommittee on House Study Bill 532 alongside Wills, acting as subcommittee chair again, and Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. Wilburn said during the meeting he’s unsure of the intent behind the bill.
UI College of Law Dean Todd Pettys, who said during the meeting he received a request from the Iowa Legislative Services Agency to develop a fiscal note for the legislation, told the subcommittee he believes the bill, if passed and depending on how admissions qualifications would change, could lead to the UI losing $7 million t0 $11 million in tuition revenue.
One concern Pettys shared was of the quality of applicants the UI would have to admit if the legislation was signed into law, and whether as many students would see success on the bar exam — something that could leave students without necessary credentials and an average of $90,000 in debt and hurt the UI’s reputation as a quality law educator.
About two-thirds of the roughly 330 Iowa students wishing to go to law school apply to the UI, Pettys said, around half of whom accept the UI’s offer to attend classes. Many Iowans look to leave the state for their law education, and he said he’s worried this bill could just end up redistributing Iowans between Drake University’s law school and the UI without keeping more students in the state.
Of the out-of-state students attending the UI’s college of law, Pettys said around one-fifth of them stay in the state after graduating, which he sees as “critical to meeting the growing needs of Iowa.” The legislation would most likely change these numbers, and gut enrollment at the UI, he said.
“I’d hate to see the state’s law schools taken in the wrong direction,” Pettys said. “It’s going to make it even harder to recruit the kind of talent that I think you’d likely want representing Iowans in different matters.”
Holt said he’d love to see any information Pettys could share with lawmakers, and he looks forward to receiving the fiscal note.
