The presidents of Iowa State University and Des Moines Area Community College held a joint press conference this (Monday) morning to announce a new level of cooperation. DMACC president Rob Denson says the two schools already have an alliance to bridge the gap between a two-year and a four-year degree. This will allow students who already know they’ll be transferring to Iowa State when they enroll at DMACC to become “jointly admitted” to both institutions.

It’ll allow students access to I-S-U advisors on a regular basis and gives them opportunities at tickets, athletic events and other opportunities available to Iowa State housing. He says they might even be able to live in ISU housing. “It’s just a great way for Iowa State to begin to meet students earlier, and to make sure that when students are ready to transfer,” they’ll have had a lot of chances to understand the Iowa State culture and coursework, and be able to move on to their program.

DMACC is the largest of Iowa’s fifteen community colleges. Denson says DMACC served 24-thousand, 784 credit students, and teaches about 32-thousand non-credit students per year. He says all of Iowa’s community colleges do a great job, but being in the center of the state this one has access to a lot of students to serve, as well as employers looking for a skilled workforce. He says Iowa’s community colleges all have expanded the expectation that many students will transfer to a four-year institution after completing a year or two.

Students who come to DMACC for the first two years of a four-year degree transfer to all the colleges and universities in the area, Denson says, but this partnership with I-S-U is special since most of the students will be headed there.