Give Buena Vista an award, not a boot in the rear

Colleges are economic engines for Iowa

With colleges under full frontal assault, whiskey purveyor and Beaver great Keith Kerkhoff regaled the Storm Lake United annual banquet with tales of facing legendary Football Coach Jim Hershberger with a hangover.

Where Kerkhoff came from in 1973, diversity amounted to a Catholic from Arcadia marrying a Lutheran from Carroll. The co-founder of Templeton Rye whiskey and defensive tackle for the Maize & Blue in the Boot Hill Bowl got some snaps in with the Dallas Cowboys. Black or White, they all hit hard in that league.

His lessons from Storm Lake stuck, and there he was the keynote speaker to our local business leaders. Kerkhoff has been a loyal BVU supporter. You can tell he loves the place.

It was likewise gratifying to see Storm Lake United honor BVU Diversity and Inclusion Center Director Jenelle Martin with the Young Professional Award “for fostering belonging and inclusion.”

You might know that half of BVU’s freshman class are first-generation college students. Many of them are the children of immigrants. Storm Lake United noted how Martin has directly assisted immigrants and builds a stronger community.

Politicians should take note.

Private college graduates like Kerkhoff, a farmer and businessman, tend to stay in Iowa. Storm Lake is full of Buena Vista alumni teaching, running businesses and practicing health care. Drake Law School graduates, including Judge John Duffy, populate the Buena Vista Bar.

BVU President Brian Lenzmeier, an immigrant from Minnesota and graduate of St. John’s University in St. Cloud, is primarily concerned with delivering a valuable education to any student within shouting distance of Storm Lake, no matter race or creed. Part of that value is making certain all students succeed. That’s why diversity and inclusion support are necessary.

Give BVU an award. And all the colleges that try to give kids from a humble background a leg up in that cold, cruel world out there.

Instead, Iowa legislators continue to threaten higher education. A House bill that would hold back Iowa Tuition Grant funding to students at colleges that support diversity efforts passed a Senate subcommittee. Shame on them.

Buena Vista is a conservative place, Presbyterian at its roots. It’s known for an outstanding accounting program, and for providing teachers and coaches to rural schools for generations. Its main benefactors include the Siebens family of oil wildcatting fame, Don Lamberti and Harry Stine. They are not the woke types. They encourage first-generation collegians with their donations. They are Iowa down to their bones like Kerkhoff. They are pragmatists who believe that their investment is well-made at Buena Vista.

I’m sure you could say the same for the supporters of Dordt in Sioux Center or Wartburg in Waverly. Grinnell would be an entirely forgettable place were it not for the college that educated Robert Noyce, the father of the silicon computer chip, who laid a massive endowment on his alma mater. Grinnell hauls a ton of elite tuition money into Iowa every year, as does Drake. Those Clarke alumna widows pour a lot of Chicago cash into Dubuque.

It mystifies me why politicians want to mess with something that works. Private colleges in Iowa are an economic engine if properly fueled. Threats from the Capitol are not good for business.

Go ahead and hate on Harvard, but it is at the core of an economic supernova around Boston, along with MIT. The research triangle around the University of North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest is the envy of the world. The Bay Area is super-rich because of Stanford and Berkley.

While you are cussing the educated elite, consider that the seeds of hybrid corn were planted in the mind of young Henry Wallace by Iowa State University scientist George Washington Carver, a Black man. The computer was invented in Ames by Vincent Atanasoff, son of a Bulgarian immigrant. The space program was informed by the University of Iowa’s James Van Allen, who graduated from Iowa Wesleyan. I can personally attest that the University of Iowa Hospital is first-rate for vascular surgery.

It costs too much: $40,000 to attend an Iowa public university. Some tenured professors are lazy as me, while the truly devious generally get consumed by fratricidal campus politics. Columbia probably wastes some federal funds but it is not anti-Semitic. Columbia houses space scientists and researches cancer cures. This isn’t really about Gaza. It’s about attacking Drake for being Drake, and Harvard for being Harvard.

It’s a slap to free speech right here at Buena Vista. Don Lamberti and Harry Stine don’t have time for subversion. Why would legislators not trust those no-nonsense types? Because politicians think they can score points with the ignorant who resent success. Beavers keep busy building communities by supporting first-generation students. Politicians stay busy playing on fears and quashing dreams, which only makes Iowa weaker.

Kerkhoff wanted to quit. Coach Hershberger wouldn’t let him. That’s value delivered the Buena Vista way. Don’t use the Iowa Tuition Grant as a weapon. Use it to help Storm Lake, Grinnell and Waverly grow. Let Buena Vista teach, and let Iowa State research. George Washington Carver made Iowa great. Education is our main asset. Quit trying to kill it.

Art Cullen is the editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Northwest Iowa, where this column appeared. For more columns and editorials, please consider a subscription to the Times Pilot. Or, if you wish, you can make a tax-deductible gift to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation to support independent community journalism in rural Iowa. Thanks.

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