The University of Iowa's Initiative for Sustainable Communities (IISC) is excited to announce that its students and faculty will be working with the combined communities of West Burlington and Burlington and Pathfinders RC&D for the 2024-25 academic year. The selected partners provide unique opportunities for University of Iowa students to apply their learning through hands-on projects that will benefit Iowa.
West Burlington and Burlington applied jointly to the competitively selected program. Gregg Mandsager, City Administrator, West Burlington, has worked with IISC before and is enthusiastic about the opportunity for his city to collaborate with students and professors. “Those projects that have a direct impact and improve the built environment and quality of life for our residents are particularly exciting and meaningful for me," he says of the ten projects slated to be completed between this fall and May 2025.
A prairie restoration will be the first visible work completed in West Burlington. Students enrolled in an Earth and Environmental Sciences class will work with the city’s facilities staff to identify a suitable site for a small-sized prairie and the best selection of native plants. They will do the planting in mid-fall and provide the city with a maintenance plan.
Pathfinders RC&D serves southeastern Iowa, particularly communities in Davis, Van Buren, Jefferson, Wapello, Mahaska, and Keokuk counties. RC&D programs across the United States were first established by the Agriculture Act of 1962, built around the idea that local people could work together to protect and develop their economic, natural, and social resources in ways that improve quality of life. Pathfinders RC&D has been serving communities since 1978, with a mission to “create vibrant communities by strengthening local economies and encouraging natural resource conservation.”
The nonprofit's application to partner with IISC emphasized engaging local youth in areas of job growth. “Working in conjunction with the South Central Iowa Workforce Development Board, Pathfinders is thinking creatively and strategically about how to keep young people in Iowa’s small towns and rural areas,” said Travis Kraus, director of IISC and an Associate Professor in the University of Iowa’s School of Planning and Public Affairs. “They have already made significant progress in this area, and we’re excited to bring UI students’ creativity to bear on an issue that effects our state’s future.”
Every year IISC works with one or two Iowa communities, bringing the creative force of multiple University of Iowa classes from across campus to focus on issues identified by city leaders. The program gives essential, applicable learning experiences to graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in areas ranging from planning and engineering to visual art and marketing. At the same time, it provides valuable services to community partners, including construction plans for new buildings, parks, and underpasses; creation of public art and branding materials; and large-scale studies and policy recommendations.
As projects are announced, they will be available on the Pathfinders and West Burlington/Burlington pages of the IISC website. In addition to these partnerships, IISC is working with Iowa Valley RC&D and several other communities on individual projects. Please reach out to Travis Kraus (travis-kraus@uiowa.edu) to discuss a specific project idea.