The process needs overhaul definitely. It's very challenging for international students to get employment, then H1 then greencards. Some companies can't and/or don't want to sponsor H1. The ones who do, end up not sponsoring greencards because they are afraid employees would leave after they get their greencards - and some of these companies lowball their employees who need visa and/or greencards or hold the promotions because they know employee cannot go anywhere easily without sponsorship.
David Harris-UNI AD
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The process needs overhaul definitely. It's very challenging for international students to get employment, then H1 then greencards. Some companies can't and/or don't want to sponsor H1. The ones who do, end up not sponsoring greencards because they are afraid employees would leave after they get their greencards - and some of these companies lowball their employees who need visa and/or greencards or hold the promotions because they know employee cannot go anywhere easily without sponsorship.
Yeah but they say 'hey I'm not going to ISU because the tuition keeps going up and up every year', and the reduction in state funding is a major cause of that.
Then they compare it to out of state, then to a private school and go; well it's still the same price/cheaper/or about the same and end up there anyhow. Or are you saying they just quit school? There are several MN students at Iowa schools since they claim it is cheaper than Minnesota.
What I was told is that with accreditation comes with a requirement to provide a certain level of courses.
The CPA Exam Review courses would not fit this. The CPA Exam is broken into 4 parts plus an Ethics exam once you pass the first 4. The CPA Review course focuses specifically on CPA exam type information that they have taken from past exams. A true story about this - I studied for the Audit section a lot (probably to much), the morning right before I left to take the exam I took a 100 question multiple choice quiz that was part of the study materials. I did the quiz in 20 minutes and only missed 1 question. I get to the test site and start taking my test. The questions I am answering are almost word for word what I had on the quiz, I was conflicted whether I was being tricked or if it was really happening. I ended up getting a 93 on the Audit test and passing. That should be a good indicator of how the Review Courses spoon fed you what you needed for the Exam.
While I agree the CPA Exam is a hard test to pass, it should be. With your CPA you can pretty much get any Accounting job you want so you need it to weed out those who are not serious. However, the memorizing aspect of the exam is a huge fault (and quit frankly of all tests). In real life there is a lot of information I don't know or forgot, but I am able to research it and get the correct answer. Almost every day there is something I have to research for a client and tests should be the same way. They should be testing your skills to find the correct answer and not just have you memorize it.
Accounting is a wide area and the exam tests that ENTIRE are, and that is the part that makes it tough. But most CPA's specialize in an area (Accounting Law, Tax/Booking/Consulting, Cost Accounting, etc.). I personally have never liked Cost Accounting and it would take some major studying for me to re-familiarize myself with that. Which is the reason why most people take the exam right out of college.
Or they go to a Community College for 2 years and then finish up at a University. This is happening a lot.
jack whitver will be the bill’s sponsor.
Uni has always had the same problem, and as far as I can tell it hasn’t changed. There are very very few UNI only fans.
Of those folks, not a lot of them donate. They have a small handful of donors that do all the heavy lifting
similar to Iowa State in that regard, but on a much smaller scale
Many I know are doing the first year during HS and then have to decide if going to a CC for one year tops is worth the hassle and will the classes (not credits) transfer correctly.
I see it as a bit of a "chicken-or-the-egg" type scenario.
I can honestly say I don't know a single UNI fan that I would put their "fandom" on par with Iowa or Iowa State fans. I know people who went to UNI, and I know people who root for UNI, but I don't know any that make going to games or even following games a high priority. I see some UNI fans pop out of the woodwork when they are good, but other than that it's awful quiet. It's just the nature of being a smaller school filled with people who are probably fans of bigger teams.
So I imagine not being good causes a lack of support, making it more difficult to make the investments necessary to become good again.
It's definitely a chicken thing, as in most of their alumni root for the chickens to the south and that's where their entertainment dollars go.
Honestly, UNIs core is about 3500 people that buy season tickets in the major revenue sports and the Panther Scholarship Club (UNIs NCC) has just over 2000 members (pre-pandemic) and raised $1.65M in 2021.
In a survey the PSC did last year of Alumni that doesn't donate to UNI that does donate to other schools athletic programs, it's basically a 45-45-10 split (45% Iowa-45% Iowa State-10% other)
International student enrollment has garnered a lot of discussion the past few years in higher ed circles. I worked in a department at ISU that would routinely enroll several new freshman international students each year. None the past two years.
The drop is especially pronounced among Chinese students. China has a history of poor support of higher education within their borders and what they do have isn't enough for their population. Countries like the US and Australia stepped in to offer those opportunities and Chinese students flocked to the US.
The past several years China has made a significant investment in their higher education creating more opportunities at home. Also, in the US a hostility developed towards Chinese students especially from the Trump administration. This is not political but facts. Chinese families decided the US wasn't for them any longer and are going elsewhere (Australia is still a very popular destination). All of this I don't understand. We as a country should be wanting International students to come here. They spend a lot of money in our communities supporting local businesses. Isn't that what we all want?
Now, couple that with declining domestic population and we have a problem.
Now sprinkle in continued cuts to appropriations from the State and we can't even serve the students we have much less try to grow. And I will bet you the State will underfund ISU and Iowa again this year. Cuts and furloughs are on the horizon.
Lastly, don't forget the impact other States have had on Iowa schools. South Dakota offers reduced tuition to Iowa residents and they attract many students from NW Iowa. UWI Platteville does the same and they pull a number of students from the Dubuque area. Iowa just sits around unsure what to do. It is maddening. Iowa did discuss years ago adding a fourth Regent's school that would be completely online. This was about the time Phoenix began. The State shelved the idea. Another example of State leadership not being proactive.
Northwest Missouri State draws a lot of students from Western Iowa. They must be doing something right...
Other enrollment numbers
Northwest’s fall enrollment of first-time freshmen is 964, and 38 percent of those students identify as first-generation college students. The number of first-time transfers to the University is 305 students, up 4 percent from last fall.
Additionally, Northwest reports 1,594 students, or 20 percent of its student population, identify with underrepresented groups or hail from countries outside the United States. Northwest’s total domestic minority enrollment is 892 students, who represent another 11 percent of the student body.
The University’s 702 international students represent 9 percent of the student body and hail from 38 countries with most of those students coming from India, Nepal, Nigeria and Brazil.
While the University’s in-state student population is 5,052, representing a 4 percent increase from a year ago, Northwest students hail from a total of 44 states this fall as the institution continues to draw well from Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. Out-of-state enrollment increased by 15 percent from a year ago.
Northwest breaks enrollment record with 8% increase in total headcount, marking fourth consecutive year of growth
Northwest Missouri State University’s total headcount this fall is 7,870 students, making it the highest enrollment in the institution’s 116-year history, according to the University’s fall census count this week.
www.nwmissouri.edu
Yeah, there's zero debate about this. International students plunged starting about five years ago. Not just at ISU, but everywhere. But places like ISU relied heavily on international students to fuel their growth, so they're disproportionately hurt when the supply goes down.
Yeah, those are children of faculty members. There aren't *that* many of them and relatively few of them stay in Iowa for their post-secondary education.
And this is especially true for the Chinese students, they come here and they stay here. It hurts China and helps us.
It comes down to leadership. Tackle the problem, try to fix it and avoid excuses.
And without them you miss the entertainment in the physics study hall at night with them screaming across tables at each other in various languages and thinking it could come to blows.
That's not fair to say though. UNI's budget constraints aren't anyone's fault. The school is what it is, leadership isn't changing that.
It's harder than that because many of the most prudent "fixes" for schools like UNI are seen by the public as betrayals. Given the enrollment trends documented in this thread along with the political downgrading of education funding in IA, how likely is it that UNI as whole can maintain its current funding model? Not very.
For athletics, one long term fix is to cut the number of sports. Another would be to eliminate the most costly (i.e. football). Yet another is to complete at a lower level (non-scholarship) in some or all sports. Yet, if a prudent AD pursued those choices, they'd be pilloried -- even many on this board. Hell, the AD cannot even shutter an old, unsafe, and unaffordable building there (West Gym) without getting crapped on.
Moreover, taking any prudent action probably kills the AD's career. They'd be a pariah at their school for making the cuts, and unattractive for better jobs. I don't know anything about the UNI AD, but I bet he feels some buyers remorse taking the job.
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