<p>Looks like the conversion of Iowa House has been tabled for now. This article does indeed say that funds to build dorms are separate from operating expenses and thus a dorm could be built even if the overall budget is being stressed:
[UI</a> backs off dorm conversion - The Daily Iowan](<a href=“http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/04/29/Metro/17040.html]UI”>http://www.dailyiowan.com/2010/04/29/Metro/17040.html)</p>
<p>Personally, I like Iowa House as an on-campus lodging option for my visits. Can’t say I’d want to live there for a school year, however!</p>
<p>I am concerned about increased enrollment as the pressure it brings on budgets is immediate while increasing those budgets, because they require action by the state legislature, is slow and intensely political. </p>
<p>I’ve heard that Iowa’s “crop” of 18 year olds lags that of many states, and that this is why they’re recruiting OOS aggressively. As a MN resident, we’re passing up in-state schools both in MN and WI to pay OOS at Iowa, which is not as cheap but still a far better value than we’d experience at big state schools elsewhere in the Big Ten, or in private schools. I think Iowa universities are a largely overlooked bargain by the throngs killing themselves to get into Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.</p>