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The Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative, a partnership between eight institutions across the state, used to occupy the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center downtown. Now it’s homeless and lost in transition.

And instead of looking for a new home, the Collaborative is slowly sorting through and packing up its belongings at the Pappajohn Center, wondering how it will disburse old computers, electronic equipment and the small sum of money that remains in the Collaborative’s fund, which was sustained by the $37,500 annual fee that each member institution paid as well as rental and leasing fees.

Failure to collaborate

“We never got to the point where we had a true collaborative program,” said Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) President Rob Denson, “We really never got the big-ticket item we were looking for.”

Denson, who also serves as the Collaborative’s president, agreed that the organization is still in its incubation period and in search of a mission, even after more than eight years in existence.

“Before, we were all involved contractually with the building, but we were operating as separate entities,” Denson said. “We never really did come up with a collaborative program, and with everyone being so busy and the markets, we’re not finding the silver bullet, but I think we are all still committed to doing so.”

Initially, the organization and its eight member organizations – the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Simpson College, Grand View College, Drake University, DMACC and the Des Moines Independent Community School District – planned to use the Pappajohn Center to promote continuing education opportunities for the business community in Des Moines, but lost focus quickly, as the location became more of an overflow site for overcrowded classrooms.

“The idea was that the institutions would come together,” said Chet Rzonca, associate provost and dean for continuing education at the U of I, “kind of be a coordinated place that a new business or existing business would go (to) and say, ‘We need X’ and then the (Collaborative) would provide the best way to get that.”

Denson explained that in the past, the Collaborative wanted to create its own product or a program that would help the business community meet employee training needs, but never really got around to doing so. When asked if he thought the organization attained its goal during the past eight years, Denson said, “Not entirely.”

“We all wanted to be in a facility where we would be working together even if we were offering different programs,” he said. “We wanted to find a product, an educational tool, that we could all promote, and that never happened. We never found the right product; we never came up with the right concept.”

New ownership

Rzonca echoed Denson, claiming “a lot of the time was devoted to the physical facility rather than the program.”

The U of I’s Division of Continuing Education officially took possession of the Pappajohn Center Aug. 1, after it was offered to the organization by John Pappajohn as a gift this past summer.

“I think it makes a lot of sense (for the U of I to get the center), because the U of I was the largest single user of the facility,” Denson said.

Currently, the university is moving into the facility, which already houses its social work master’s degree program, and has already devised plans for the future of the building.

Rzonca said the university would like to reconstruct the third floor, taking the three classrooms currently there and turning them into two larger classrooms. He also noted that WOI radio, Iowa State’s public radio affiliate, which has used the Pappajohn Center for years, will be moved completely out of the building by spring.

“If we can work things out correctly, we have been looking for additional space elsewhere,” said Don Wirth, director of finance and administration at Iowa Public Radio, which oversees WOI radio operations out of Des Moines. “We hope to make an announcement, but we are still in negotiations, so we haven’t been able to finalize that.”

Wirth said Iowa Public Radio plans to stay in Des Moines, but decided to look for a different location due to space constraints and a desire for more street visibility. “We hope to be moved by spring,” he said.

When asked about the transition of ownership of the Pappajohn Center from the Collaborative to the U of I, Wirth said there had been “little snags here and there, but that is to be expected any time you change landlords.”

The U of I hopes to “supplement what already exists in Des Moines,” but noted this will not become a “west campus” for the university.

‘The holy grail’

So while the U of I coordinates its Des Moines expansion, the Collaborative boasts of the one accomplishment of its tenure: joint admission agreements.

Denson said the Collaborative has made transferring between its seven higher education partner institutions easier for students, noting that when a student decides to transfer, he or she is immediately connected to an adviser from the other school.

However, that one accomplishment is not enough to leave Denson feeling satisfied, and he is hoping that the eight partners will find the a solution during one of their quarterly meetings.

“There is some likelihood that something comes up and we will say, ‘Here is the holy grail; here is the collaborative project we have been looking for,'” he said.

But until that happens, Denson is content with “the fact that the eight partners continue to meet and talk about educational needs. All the players are at the table, so just the fact that we meet and talk about what is going and what workforce issues are.”