By the time the University of Iowa student union celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025, administrators expect the campus hub will be deep into an $81.1 million renovation that includes swapping its historic Iowa House Hotel for a new “campus well-being and mental health center.”
“The current Iowa House Hotel, which will close in late 2023 or early 2024, will be converted into space for services such as student counseling and student care, and be near other student services already located in the IMU,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.
Renovations to the 326,729-square-foot Iowa Memorial Union — built in 1925 at the corner of Jefferson and Madison streets adjacent Hubbard Park — will begin in summer 2024 and unite a range of well-being and mental health services under one roof, including clinical care and counseling.
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Other wellness programming and student care resources planned for the new center include the UI food pantry and case management services for students experiencing emergencies, according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.
“Bringing so many of the well-being and mental health services for students into one place will allow them to address multiple facets of their physical and mental health needs at once,” UI Vice President for Student Life Sarah Hansen said in a statement. “Co-locating such services in the center of campus makes them more accessible and ensures our students have the support they need to excel in their Iowa experience.”
The planned IMU renovations — coming a decade after UI restored its union, devastated in the 2008 flood — also include updated meeting space, ballrooms, multipurpose rooms, and food service options.
The total project cost is $81.1 million, broken up into two phases “to allow for continued use of as many spaces as possible during the process.” UI officials hope to finish the first phase, costing $63.7 million, in time for the union’s 100th birthday in 2025.
The second phase is expected to cost the remaining $17.4 million — with UI planning to spend $20 million of the total in the upcoming budget year; $40 million in fiscal 2025; and $20 million in the 2026 budget year, according to UI’s five-year facilities plan.
Project funding will come from gifts, revenue bonds, and a new student fee of $100 to $120 per semester. The university’s Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate and Professional Student Government proposed and supported the fee to take effect around the start of construction.
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Centralizing and uniting student mental health and wellness services feeds a key tenet of UI’s 2022-27 strategic plan to foster “holistic well-being and success” by providing a “comprehensive foundation of support for individuals throughout all stages of their relationship with the university.”
“Its people are the University of Iowa’s most important resource,” according to the plan, debuted at a time of heightened awareness around mental health following a pandemic that upended higher education and disrupted college-bound students in their formative teens and early 20s.
“The pandemic compelled the university to engage in new ways of teaching and working, and highlighted the importance of attention to health and well-being,” per the UI plan. “These experiences informed a series of strategies to better support the success and wellness of the university’s people as individuals and as a community.”
Although UI’s enrollment has trended down in recent years, its University Counseling Service has seen an expansion — if not explosion — in demand for services, compelling it to embed providers in colleges and residence halls, offer more group and online services, and seek more mental health-specific state support.
Within UI Student Health, psychiatric visits have surged even as demand for other services has dropped in recent years. UI Student Health reported 3,400 psychiatric visits in fiscal 2022 — up from fewer than 3,000 in 2019. Going back to 2018, UI psych visits are up 40 percent, according to a recent Student Health report.
The university — following years of research, planning, and reviewing multiple options for a campus “well-being and mental health center” — identified repurposed space in the IMU as the “most practical, timely, and cost-efficient plan.”
The Iowa House Hotel features a range of double, queen, and king rooms and suites with river views and capacity for two to six guests at a cost of $95 to $220 a night, depending on the time of year. Amenities include free access to the campus fitness center, campus shuttle, and all IMU services.
The union — which opened in 1925 — has for its near century in existence offered some form of dining, housing and campus employment. Over the years, it’s evolved into a form of entertainment venue — offering games, hosting concerts, and welcoming speakers, politicians, and the governing Board of Regents.
The union opened a non-alcoholic nightclub in the 1930s and added a bowling alley, snack bar, and billiards space in 1955. The 2008 flood devastated the union — like so many buildings across campus — and UI in 2015 unveiled its restored IMU, including an updated food court, coffee shop, and learning commons.
By reinvesting in the union, UI also is addressing deferred maintenance needs in the aging building — adding up to $55 million. Replacing the entire union would cost about $245 million, UI officials reported, citing the decision to go with $81.1 million in upgrades.
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“The current Iowa House Hotel, which will close in late 2023 or early 2024, will be converted into space for services such as student counseling and student care, and be near other student services already located in the IMU,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.
Renovations to the 326,729-square-foot Iowa Memorial Union — built in 1925 at the corner of Jefferson and Madison streets adjacent Hubbard Park — will begin in summer 2024 and unite a range of well-being and mental health services under one roof, including clinical care and counseling.
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Other wellness programming and student care resources planned for the new center include the UI food pantry and case management services for students experiencing emergencies, according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.
“Bringing so many of the well-being and mental health services for students into one place will allow them to address multiple facets of their physical and mental health needs at once,” UI Vice President for Student Life Sarah Hansen said in a statement. “Co-locating such services in the center of campus makes them more accessible and ensures our students have the support they need to excel in their Iowa experience.”
The planned IMU renovations — coming a decade after UI restored its union, devastated in the 2008 flood — also include updated meeting space, ballrooms, multipurpose rooms, and food service options.
The total project cost is $81.1 million, broken up into two phases “to allow for continued use of as many spaces as possible during the process.” UI officials hope to finish the first phase, costing $63.7 million, in time for the union’s 100th birthday in 2025.
The second phase is expected to cost the remaining $17.4 million — with UI planning to spend $20 million of the total in the upcoming budget year; $40 million in fiscal 2025; and $20 million in the 2026 budget year, according to UI’s five-year facilities plan.
Project funding will come from gifts, revenue bonds, and a new student fee of $100 to $120 per semester. The university’s Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate and Professional Student Government proposed and supported the fee to take effect around the start of construction.
Mental health needs
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Centralizing and uniting student mental health and wellness services feeds a key tenet of UI’s 2022-27 strategic plan to foster “holistic well-being and success” by providing a “comprehensive foundation of support for individuals throughout all stages of their relationship with the university.”
“Its people are the University of Iowa’s most important resource,” according to the plan, debuted at a time of heightened awareness around mental health following a pandemic that upended higher education and disrupted college-bound students in their formative teens and early 20s.
“The pandemic compelled the university to engage in new ways of teaching and working, and highlighted the importance of attention to health and well-being,” per the UI plan. “These experiences informed a series of strategies to better support the success and wellness of the university’s people as individuals and as a community.”
Although UI’s enrollment has trended down in recent years, its University Counseling Service has seen an expansion — if not explosion — in demand for services, compelling it to embed providers in colleges and residence halls, offer more group and online services, and seek more mental health-specific state support.
Within UI Student Health, psychiatric visits have surged even as demand for other services has dropped in recent years. UI Student Health reported 3,400 psychiatric visits in fiscal 2022 — up from fewer than 3,000 in 2019. Going back to 2018, UI psych visits are up 40 percent, according to a recent Student Health report.
The university — following years of research, planning, and reviewing multiple options for a campus “well-being and mental health center” — identified repurposed space in the IMU as the “most practical, timely, and cost-efficient plan.”
IMU history
The Iowa House Hotel features a range of double, queen, and king rooms and suites with river views and capacity for two to six guests at a cost of $95 to $220 a night, depending on the time of year. Amenities include free access to the campus fitness center, campus shuttle, and all IMU services.
The union — which opened in 1925 — has for its near century in existence offered some form of dining, housing and campus employment. Over the years, it’s evolved into a form of entertainment venue — offering games, hosting concerts, and welcoming speakers, politicians, and the governing Board of Regents.
The union opened a non-alcoholic nightclub in the 1930s and added a bowling alley, snack bar, and billiards space in 1955. The 2008 flood devastated the union — like so many buildings across campus — and UI in 2015 unveiled its restored IMU, including an updated food court, coffee shop, and learning commons.
By reinvesting in the union, UI also is addressing deferred maintenance needs in the aging building — adding up to $55 million. Replacing the entire union would cost about $245 million, UI officials reported, citing the decision to go with $81.1 million in upgrades.
UI replacing student union hotel with ‘mental health center’
By the time the University of Iowa student union celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025, administrators expect the campus hub will be deep into an $81.1 million renovation that includes swapping its historic Iowa House Hotel for a new “campus well-being and mental health center.”
www.thegazette.com
