Des Moines Business Record
03-18-807
Change in Plans
By Sharon Baltes
sharonbaltes@dpcdm.com
Some people call it "misleading." Others call it a "transformation." But all agree
that the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center is being used differently
today than the plan originally envisioned when public resources and support
helped build the facility.
The 35,000-square-foot center opened in the fall of 2004 at 1200 Grand Ave. as
the new home for the Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative, an
organization formed in 2000 to promote continued education opportunities for the
business community. Now, a building expansion is planned for the center to
accommodate an increased need for space for the Collaborative's newest
member, the Des Moines Public Schools. Having the school system so heavily
involved in the Collaborative - an organization originally designed for the state's
colleges and universities - was not anticipated when the community rallied
behind plans for the downtown campus.
Some of the colleges and universities in the Collaborative are already having
difficulty reserving space in the Pappajohn Center because of capacity issues or
are struggling to figure out how to use the center because they can't get enough
adults to enroll in classes there. Now members of the community wonder what
this decision to bring more high-school-age students to the center means for its
future.
I think our best opportunity for developing new programs lies in identifying areas
where higher education, corporate and professional training, and community
development overlap.
- Kent Sovern executive director, Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative
Nan Stillians, a community activist for education and leader of a group called
Support & Save Our Schools, sees the change as a sign that the Collaborative is
giving up on what it set out to do.
"Several campaigns to attract adult-group support to the building floundered,"
Stillians said. "Giving up on their original mission, [the center's leaders] now
negotiate an addition for high school students."
The reality
Since its opening, the Collaborative's partner schools - the University of Iowa,
Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa, Simpson College, Grand
View College, Drake University, Des Moines Area Community College, and Des
Moines Public Schools - have used the building's classroom space to varying
degrees. Most of the colleges and universities tend to offer classes during
evenings and weekends, and Des Moines Public Schools uses a majority of the
building's classroom space during the daytime. According to the Collaborative's
enrollment figures, 576 adult learners took classes at the center last fall,
compared with about 900 Central Academy students.
Currently, the U of I, ISU and Drake offer graduate-level classes at the
Pappajohn Center. The U of I's classes are part of its master's degree in social
work program, ISU's classes are part of its master's degree in business
administration program, and Drake's classes are business-oriented. DMACC
offers business classes and emergency management services classes and some
professional development workshops and training. The Des Moines school
district's Central Academy started offering classes there for its scholars program
in 2005, and has continued to expand the number of classes offered there.
Simpson, Grand View and UNI have offered classes in the past, but are not
doing so at this time. John Pappajohn, the building's namesake, said the center
is meeting its projections, but he had expected to see more activity from the
Collaborative's members.
Karen Anderson, Grand View College's dean of the College for Professional and
Adult Learning, said her institution experienced low enrollment when it offered
classes at the Pappajohn Center, which prompted the college's decision this past
year to stop using the facility as a satellite campus.
"Adult learners have a lot of options in the metro area, and research shows that
adults prefer to take classes closer to their homes in the suburbs," Anderson
said.
Walter Pearson, Simpson's associate dean and director of the Division of Adult
Learning, said his institution offered courses downtown for three years through
the Collaborative, but found that students would rather use the college's West
Des Moines, Indianola and Ankeny campuses.
"Since we're more connected to the Des Moines community, the need to have a
downtown presence isn't as necessary," Pearson said.
UNI, which does not have a local campus, would like to serve more students in
Greater Des Moines, but has struggled with identifying the types of courses to
offer. Jim Lubker, UNI's provost and vice president for academic affairs, said his
school is using the center for occasional workshops and meetings.
"We would gladly offer courses that meet market demand, but we need a lot of
advice from the Des Moines area on the sorts of things to offer," Lubker said.
"We're not getting that help at this time that I'm aware of."
Market shift
Kent Sovern, executive director of the Collaborative, said trends in education and
training make it a challenge to increase the number of courses and professional
development programs offered at the Pappajohn Center.
"The whole market for higher education and training has changed dramatically
since the time the Collaborative was formed in 2000," Sovern said. "Not only do
we have competitors from our region, but from around the world. If anything, this
area is over-served with a higher education product."
Sovern said the Pappajohn Center is one of 15 locations where the
Collaborative's member colleges offer classes. In terms of corporate training,
many local companies, such as Nationwide Insurance and Principal Financial
Group Inc., have onsite training centers at their downtown corporate campuses,
and rarely need to arrange off-site training.
In response to some of the challenges, Sovern said, the Collaborative is trying to
develop programs that offer a product addressing the needs of the community.
After discussions with local employers and professional associations, the highereducation members of the Collaborative spent about a year and a half
developing a course called "The Art and Science of Project Management," which
started in February.
"The real promise of collaboration is in new product development," Sovern said.
"I think our best opportunity for developing new programs lies in identifying areas
where higher education, corporate and professional training, and community
development overlap. Our board is going through that transformational process
right now to redefine our missions and goals."
Sovern may be undergoing a transition of his own in the near future. His
employment contract is set to expire at the end of June, and he doesn't expect to
continue working in this role after that point.
The vision
The idea for the Pappajohn Center started in 1998 when a local task force
identified a need for continued education geared toward the business community.
This recommendation led to the formation of the Collaborative in 2000. The
organization initially operated out of leased space downtown in the Capital
Square building.
The Greater Des Moines Partnership supported the lifelong learning mission of
the Collaborative, and in its 2003 Project Destiny vision statement for the city, it
recommended that the Collaborative have its own downtown campus to serve as
a central location for classes, certificate programs, professional development and
other educational opportunities. The Pappajohn Center was identified as the
home for the Collaborative.The city of Des Moines donated the land for the
Pappajohn Center, and the Vision Iowa committee designated $1.5 million for the
project. John Pappajohn donated $2 million for the center and helped raise the
remaining $6 million to build it.
The Collaborative generates revenues through three streams: annual
membership fees, room fees for classroom space and leases with office tenants.
The annual fee for each member of the organization is $37,500.
Filling the space
As a venture capitalist, Pappajohn has learned that when plans don't come
together as expected, you reorganize and take a different approach. That's the
strategy he is encouraging.
"I've helped put a lot of business plans together, and the business plans never
work out quite the way you originally plan," Pappajohn said.
According to Pappajohn, the scenario of Central Academy students taking
classes at the education center dates back to 2004, when he and Des Moines'
former school superintendent, Eric Witherspoon, started putting a plan together.
What clinched the deal was a federal grant from the U.S. Department of
Education, which pays for Central Academy's fees to rent classroom space at the
Pappajohn Center. This revenue stream has benefited the center's bottom line.
"We weren't programmed initially to generate that kind of revenue from daytime
usage," Sovern said. "So we've met our expectations for traditional higher
education and exceeded our expectations in the afternoons and evenings."
Enrollment in Central Academy's scholars program has grown every year for the
past seven years, according to Dennis Johnson, program coordinator for the
academy. Enrollment this year exceeded 1,000, and 1,100 students are signed
up for the 2007-2008 school year. Students have indicated that they plan to take
25 percent more classes next year. Johnson said the academy currently offers
about a third of its classes at the Pappajohn Center.
Sovern said the Central Academy scholars program fills about two-thirds of the
center's classrooms during the daytime, leaving limited space for corporate
development, training or other programs.
"With two-thirds of your assets occupied, it does reduce your flexibility to an
extent," Sovern said.
Grand View's Anderson said she has noticed that it can be challenging to book a
room for training during the daytime hours, but said that Sovern has always been
willing to help her.
"I think that having the Central Academy students there is a good way to utilize
the space that wasn't being used, but it makes it challenging as we've tried to
schedule some things down there and you have high school students," Anderson
said. "They behave differently than an adult learner might."
If the expansion for the Pappajohn Center proceeds as planned, it will bring even
more of the high-school-age learners to the center. Des Moines School District
Superintendent Nancy Sebring said when the district closes Central Campus,
possibly for the 2009-2010 year, it would move the Central Academy scholars
program entirely to the Pappajohn Center. The school district has set aside $8
million in its budget for an addition to the center, which would double the size of
the current building. Construction is expected to begin in the fall of 2008, with the
addition being completed for the 2009-2010 school year.
So far, no members of the Collaborative have canceled their memberships based
on the new plans for the center. But not everyone thinks the plans for the
building's expansion are a good idea. Stillians thinks it's a poor use of public
money that could be used to repair aging schools. She is also concerned that the
Pappajohn Center's non-traditional design is not well-suited for a public school
learning environment. She would like to see more public discussion about these
plans before the school district builds an addition to a building it does not own on
land that it does not own.
Pappajohn said he plans to invest some of his own money in the addition and
launch an entrepreneurial center for students to learn about starting their own
businesses. He has financed five entrepreneurial centers across Iowa, and this
would be the first one not based at a college.
"This would be a major plus for students, and I think the other members of the
Collaborative could benefit by having access to these bright students,"
Pappajohn said.