University of Iowa president Sally Mason says the university will be "open for business" on Monday. She acknowledges it won’t be business as usual, but summer classes will resume Monday.
"We will be open this fall. Our fall semester will go on as we had planned," Mason says. "There’s a lot of work to be done, obviously, before the fall semester starts, but we’re up to the challenge." Mason says it’s not likely that buildings on the "arts campus" will be ready to open by the fall semester, but classes normally held there will be moved to other buildings.
Flood waters reached a total of 20 major buildings on the campus. While a total dollar amount of flood damage to the university won’t be known for some time, Mason says they have a number of options available to help pay for the damages.
"Insurance is one source of that. Federal help is another source of that. We will be looking at all sources of money to help us through this," Mason says. "There won’t be any one source alone that will take care of all the damage we have incurred." Mason is in nearing the end of first year as University of Iowa president as she became the university’s leader on August 1st of last year.