U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in an Ames appearance Thursday that the Department of Agriculture will help find new opportunities for using the campus being vacated by the closure of Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant.

The 850-student liberal arts college, one of Iowa's oldest, has lost millions of dollars every fiscal year since at least 2013, according to tax records obtained by ProPublica. It has received $26.1 million in loans from the USDA, its primary lender, and the campus will become the department's responsibility after the closure, set to occur by May 31.

During a stop at Iowa State University, Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who got his start in politics as Mount Pleasant's mayor, called the future use of the property critical to the economy of largely rural southeast Iowa and said he wants the USDA to "work with the community to see what the options could be."

What does Tom Vilsack think should be done with the Iowa Wesleyan campus?

Vilsack had declined to comment on the issue when the university announced its closure plan March 28 because his wife, Christie, was a member of the Iowa Wesleyan Board of Trustees, which voted on the decision. She has since resigned.

"Right now, the community is hurting," Vilsack said Thursday. "There are people whose lives have been turned upside down. And in that circumstance ... you've got to be able to say to them, 'We feel for you, and we're going to try to do our level best to create something out of this that helps.'

"The initial reaction would be that you start parceling off the campus," selling off a building at a time, he said. "I don't want them to do that."

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Vilsack said he wants a USDA team to "think creatively" and "start working with the college to see whether or not there are other universities or colleges that might be interested in" in the property.

People "need to think about the ways in which they can keep the economic capacity of that particular location as much intact as possible," he said, pointing to a university report indicating Wesleyan contributed a $55.1 million annually to the southeast Iowa economy.

The college “generated opportunity,” Vilsack said. It “brought students in. Money was spent in the community. Jobs were created.

"Is there some way to do that again? Perhaps it's a college or university. Perhaps it's a new venture that didn't exist before," he said. "Perhaps it's a foundation that's looking for a location. Perhaps it's a training center.

"The point of this is that people need to be creative about it," he said. "If it doesn't work out. If there is no interest in it, then obviously, it's about parceling off the assets."

Why is Iowa Wesleyan University closing?

The university said last week in a statement that the decision to close was "based on a combination of financial challenges ― increased operating costs due to inflationary pressures, changing enrollment trends, a significant drop in philanthropic giving, and the rejection of a proposal for federal COVID funding by (Gov. Kim) Reynolds."

Reynolds had declined a request from the university for $12 million from the COVID recovery funds to cover ongoing expenses. She said a state-initiated independent review of the school's finances showed Wesleyan's USDA loans could be recalled in full as early as November.

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"As I’ve said many times, we endeavor not to spend one-time federal dollars on ongoing expenses," Reynolds said in a statement last week.

Wesleyan officials said the request fit the governor's Empower Rural Iowa Initiative.

Vilsack was at ISU to announce the USDA was investing $40 million to 31 conservation projects, including two in Iowa. The Iowa Soybean Association, working with the Iowa Corn Growers Association, received a $910,092 grant to research best practices for using cover crops in different areas of the state. And Iowa State University received a $539,919 grant to explore the potential for introducing another cash crop within the state's traditional corn and soybean rotation.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Reusing Iowa Wesleyan campus after closure is critical, Tom Vilsack says