What's next for Iowa Wesleyan University students as the college prepares for closure

Iowa Wesleyan University was the only college freshman Emma Soukup applied to and visited, her heart set on the private university in Mount Pleasant, one of Iowa's oldest. It's close to home and some of her family are alumni.

So it was devastating for Soukup, who grew up in the Iowa City and Lone Tree areas, to learn along with her classmates on March 28 that Wesleyan, one of the oldest colleges in Iowa, will close May 31 after the end of this school year, loaded down with debt and unable to convince the state to help bail it out.

“Just hearing that it was closing was like my home was being taken away from me, like we got hit by a tornado… I called my Dad immediately right after (the announcement) and I said, ‘I don't know what to do. I'm lost. I'm confused,’” the physical education major said. “I was upset. I was crying.”

Soukup is still trying to determine what’s best for her as she decides where to continue her education. But she said she wants to stay in Iowa to remain close to her two younger brothers.

The freshman was one of some 100 students attending Wesleyan’s teach-out and transfer fair Monday morning, where 83 colleges set up information booths in the college's Howe Student Activity Center and made their pitches to the students, according to Meg Richtman, Wesleyan's vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications.

Representatives handed out brochures and merchandise bearing their colleges' logos while answering the many questions students have about issues such as applications, costs, transfer of credits, majors and the other complex details of transferring.

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Iowa Wesleyan University students consider where to transfer

Among the many schools from across Iowa and the Midwest represented Monday were Orange City's Northwestern College, Forest City's Waldorf University and Illinois' Quincy University. But the schools that particularly drew junior Kassandra Ayard's attention were the University of Dubuque and Culver-Stockton College in Missouri.

Both, along with William Penn University in Oskaloosa and Upper Iowa University, have teach-out agreements with Wesleyan, which means they would grant Ayard automatic admission, assuming she’s in good academic standing.

It’s important to Ayard, a psychology major, that she attend a school that will honor her concentrations in substance abuse counseling and developmental psychology.

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“I worked at all of these concentrations and minors for so long and then just to know that it could possibly not be honored or not be taken, it's like you've done all the hard work for it to not work out,” she said.

Ayard, who came all the way from California to attend Iowa Wesleyan, also participates in women’s wrestling, a sport she's competed in since she was a freshman in high school.

Coming from so far away, she was nervous to leave friends and family behind, she said, but said she liked Mount Pleasant and the community.

Now, three years’ worth of life, friendships and study all are impacted by the university’s pending closure, she said.

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She'll have to get used to a new community, find places to live and work and figure out which of the 103 credits of the 120 she needs to graduate will transfer.

“It definitely has my anxiety going, just because you have such a short time frame to put everything together,” Ayard said.

Riley Silva, a freshman psychology major respectively, said Wesleyan teachers have been helpful as students navigate the closure and figure out what it means for them.

His sister Nayarelli, a sophomore elementary education major, recalled that her first class after the announcement turned into a discussion of the news.

As the Silvas consider where they may attend school — tuition cost is their main concern — they’re also prepared to sit out the fall semester so they can consider what’s next.

What Iowa Wesleyan students are seeking

Lauren Schellenberger, provost at Culver-Stockton College, said students’ top concerns at the teach-out and transfer fair were whether they’d be able to complete their degrees on time and that tuition doesn’t exceed Wesleyan's.

Schellenberger said Culver-Stockton has been working with students since the announcement of the closure and that beyond addressing concerns like whether students’ credits will be accepted is trying to help them see the Canton, Missouri, school as a possible new home.

“It's an emotional time,” she said. “They're not just losing their plans, their dreams that they were going to do, they're also really being displaced from their homes in some cases.”

Iowa Wesleyan University will organize trips to teach-out school campuses

Richtman anticipated about 400 of the school's 850 students would drop by the teach-out and transfer fair by the time it concluded Monday afternoon.

She said that although she does not know whether there will be more such events, it is something that is being discussed. She added that Wesleyan will set up trips to schools with teach-out agreements so that students can visit those campuses.

Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa Wesleyan students share anxiety as university prepares to close