By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The president of the Des Moines Area Community College says he’s “a little concerned” about a proposal that would have Iowa’s 15 community colleges offer four-year degrees. The chairman of the Higher Education Committee in the Iowa House asked the colleges to study the issue and their final report was publicly released this fall. DMACC President Rob Denson discussed the concept during a weekend appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.

“The community college legislative agenda does not include a request to do bachelor’s degrees, so it’s really going to be what the legislature decides to do, but I think we’ve got a pretty good system now,” Denson said. “All three Regents have capacity. Most private colleges have capacity. We’ve worked together so well for so many years.”

Denson was an administrator at a community college in Florida in the 1990s when it began offering four-year degrees, but Denson said it was because there were more students than slots for Florida students seeking baccalaureate degrees. “Really, it was because there was no capacity at the University of Florida and other Florida universities,” Denson said. “Here we’ve got a great relationship with all the privates and the three Regents.”

The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa as well as 18 private colleges and universities in Iowa have transfer agreements with Iowa community colleges. Denson said the community colleges already are competing against those institutions for first and second year students and he warned that offering four-year degrees at community colleges would likely have the biggest on impact enrollment at Iowa’s private colleges. “Every community in Iowa that’s got a private college, if they lost that college it would be a big deal,” Denson said, “so we like the fact that the colleges now are doing all right and we want to make sure they stay viable.”

The community colleges have told legislators they’d need about $20 million extra over the next five years to set up 40 degree programs in high demand areas.

Denson holds a degree in political science and a masters in higher education administration from Iowa State University and in 1979 he earned a law degree from the University of Florida. He’s been president of Des Moines Area Community College since 2003 and plans to retire at the end of this year.