I tweeted a lot earlier out of fear for a student’s well being, but I’d like to now return to one point i made. Specifically, I’d like to ask: why do Iowa students have to pay to attend our state universities? The institution exists to support citizens, not vice versa. 1/n

I am not a professor of history or political science - i study beautiful little beneficial wasps and I teach students about biology - but I know enough to say that state universities weren’t set up to have students come pay for a product in the form of an education. 2/n

Rather, while individuals DO benefit from their degree, state universities are ultimately here to benefit the public good. There is a benefit to ALL of us if all Iowans have access to inexpensive (or dare I say, free) education 3/n

Because when Iowans get degrees, Iowa has more healthcare workers, agricultural scientists, engineers, economists, accountants, geologists, teachers, event planners, journalists, archaeologists... you name it, we train them here 4/n

And then isn’t the goal, isn’t the plan, isn’t the hope, that these professionals, these newly minted experts, make Iowa better? Help our state? Teach our kids? develop new technologies? Design our buildings and roads? That they lead us into whatever the future holds? 5/n

I think it is. 6/n

And so then: why not make that investment? Why not fully fund the state Universities such that Iowans don’t have to pay for what ends up being a huge boon to the state and all of Iowa’s communities? 7/n

Why is this relevant now? As I wrote earlier today, my students and many others here in Iowa City are sick and scared and the only reason for this is that they had to come back to campus for classes because without their tuition the university collapses. 8/n

(Arguments about online courses being inferior experiences are rhetorical nonsense, manufactured b/c of the reliance on tuition to support the institution. Our many great teachers at @uiowa find ways to be great whether in person or online because they CARE about students) 9/n

So while others are arguing (rightly) that we need to quickly reverse course here at @uiowa, go fully online, and test everyone, including by doing contact tracing, I think we need to fix this other systemic issue that takes away the need to insist on in person classes. 10/n

What’s great is that funding public unis doesn’t even seem like an issue people of different political parties should disagree on. Education is such a fundamental part of American society and our wonderful graduates so obviously benefit us all. 11/n

I guess that’s all I wanted to say. Someone smarter than me could perhaps articulate this better, but I’d love to have our state government consider the issue and have a serious conversation about the importance of higher ed to our state and citizens. /end