After being closed for four-and-a-half years, the magnificently renovated MIU Pool — the Cowhig Family Aquatic Center, to use its full name — will finally open June 1.

When the pool closed for the season in the fall of 2019, pool goers looked forward to swimming again in the spring. But spring brought Covid-19, and the pool remained closed through 2021 and 2022. By the time 2023 arrived, the pool and the surrounding deck needed extensive repair before it could reopen.

Thanks to a major targeted gift from Vincent Argiro, past professor of neuroscience at MIU and emeritus member of the MIU Board of Trustees, along with other donations, that renovation work was done during the spring, summer, and fall of last year. 

It was completed in October, just in time for a late season inaugural celebration and ribbon cutting. A few people took that opportunity to chill — literally — in the water for a few minutes.

Inauguration of the pool on October 7, 2023.

Davis Eidahl returns for his 30th year

Pool fan favorite Davis Eidahl will be returning to the pool for his thirtieth year. In prior years he has worked with the lifeguards, taught swimming lessons, and scheduled all the activities. This year he will focus on what he loves most — teaching swimming lessons.

“I have enjoyed every year at the pool,” Davis says. “I have made many great relationships in the MIU community.  It’s been so enjoyable watching so many people come together to swim and talk and create such a congenial atmosphere. Parents bring their children, we have students and staff and faculty, we have international students from countries around the world. Everyone gets along very well — it’s very enjoyable.”

From fall through spring for the past sixty-one years, Davis has taught biology at nearby Pekin High School. He also coaches cross country running, girls basketball, and boys and girls track. His teams have won fifteen state championships, and he has received multiple awards for coaching.

“Davis taught me to swim when I was seven or eight years old,” said Soren Pearson, director of the MIU Rec Center and past certified pool operator for the pool. “He was Mr. Eidahl to us back then. He has given swimming lessons to hundreds and hundreds of kids and adults. He’s a legend.”

Long-time MIU Vice President of Operations Tom Brooks will serve as the certified pool operator, having recently completed the two-day state certification course in Iowa City to prepare for the role.

Jan Harvey will train the lifeguards. A Fairfield community member since 1999, Jan has been an American Red Cross lifeguard instructor since 2015 and has instructed at YMCAs and municipalities in the Jefferson County area.

Sign up for swimming lessons here.

This fall, MIU kicks off a new undergraduate pre-professional specialization in art therapy, which will prepare students for most graduate programs in art therapy, the stepping stone to becoming a licensed art therapist.

The program will be offered online for maximum flexibility, and Federal grants and loans will generally cover all or most costs for US students. No prior art experience is required.

What is art therapy?

“Art therapy is a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship,” according to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA).

Art therapy can be used “to improve cognitive and sensorimotor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, reduce and resolve conflicts and distress, and advance societal and ecological change.”

Art therapy at MIU

“The new program came about organically as a way to fulfill a need,” said Genevra Daley, assistant professor of art.

“We have two art students who both came here to complete their undergraduate art requirements in preparation to apply for an MA in art therapy,” Daley said. “One student had already completed their psychology requirements at another school, and the other was going to have to complete her psychology courses somewhere else once she graduated. Both students were having to gather their prerequisites at multiple schools. We decided to create a specialization that packages together what most master’s programs in art therapy require.”

“Our art students gravitate to MIU because they are interested in wellness, meditation, and art, things we’re already providing,” Daley added. “Creating this specialization was just the next step for us.

The new art therapy specialization fits right in with a cluster of other academic programs — the BA in Consciousness & Human Potential, the BA in Ayurveda Wellness & Integrative Health, the Bachelor’s with Specialization in Positive Psychology & Consciousness, and the Bachelor’s with Specialization in Life & Wellness Coaching.

MIU shines new light on traditional psychology, with its emphasis on cultivating one’s full potential in the light of consciousness. Every academic program spotlights self-awareness and self-development.

The MIU version of art therapy training

The MIU art faculty developed a unique take on pre-professional training in art therapy.

“Our department has had solid success with helping students develop portfolios for MFA grad programs, so we’re looking forward to applying this strength to a new but similar field.”

— Genevra Daley

“Most MA programs in art therapy require around 18 credits of art and 12 credits of psychology as pre-requisites,” Daley said. “We designed our specialization to cover these basics but in a way that builds to a capstone portfolio development class. This final class helps students create a cohesive body of work and establish a daily art practice of their own. The portfolio class also helps students with written materials, like artist statements and letters of intent, that a school might require in an application process. Our department has had solid success with helping students develop portfolios for MFA grad programs, so we’re looking forward to applying this strength to a new but similar field.”

Art therapists are credentialed mental health professionals. “Especially when people are struggling, facing a challenge, or even a health crisis — their own words or language fails them,” the American Art Therapy Association says. “During these times, an art therapist can help clients express themselves in ways beyond words or language. Art therapists are trained in art and psychological theory and can help clients integrate nonverbal cues and metaphors that are often expressed through the creative process.”

Professionals can incorporate art therapy into other therapeutic practices as well.

MIU recently completed its “Year 4 Assurance Review,” a key milestone in the ten-year accreditation cycle with its accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission.

“This is a significant attainment for us,” said Scott Herriott, MIU’s provost and chief academic officer. “It affirms that MIU continues to successfully meet all the criteria for institutional accreditation.”

The Assurance Review involved MIU submitting a detailed report describing how it met HLC’s formal Criteria for Accreditation. These criteria fall into five broad categories:

• Criterion 1 – Mission
• Criterion 2 – Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct
• Criterion 3 – Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support
• Criterion 4 – Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Improvement
• Criterion 5 – Institutional Effectiveness, Resources and Planning

When HLC received the report, they sent it to a “peer review team” consisting of academic leaders at other HLC schools, typically deans and college vice-presidents. The team wrote its own 39-page analysis of the report, assessing the degree to which MIU met the criteria, and submitted it to HLC for a final review.

“The peer review team that evaluated our Assurance Review was very impressed with our report.”

— Scott Herriott

“The peer review team that evaluated our Assurance Review was very impressed with our report,” Herriottsaid. “These educators recognized MIU’s uniqueness and distinctiveness, and they valued it. You could tell they were selected for this team because they had that broadmindedness to be able to look at MIU with fresh eyes, and they were impressed with what they saw.”

Options for accreditation

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) — headquartered in Chicago and one of a number of institutional accreditors in the United States — accredits the University of Iowa and Iowa’s private colleges as well as more than 1,100 colleges and universities around the country. 

HLC offers two options for accreditation. MIU is on HLC’s Open Pathway option, which is designed for more mature institutions. The other option is the Standard Pathway.

Both pathways follow a ten-year cycle, and both focus on quality assurance and institutional improvement, which the HLC monitors through comprehensive evaluations during the cycle.

But the Open Pathway is more flexible than the Standard Pathway. Where Standard Pathway institutions must undergo two days of on-site interviews and inspections for their mid-cycle review, Open Pathway institutions submit a report that is read by the HLC team and evaluated on its merits. 

Also in lieu of a mid-cycle site visit, Open Pathway schools undertake a Quality Initiative, an improvement project they choose according to their needs and aspirations. “The Quality Initiative is intended to allow institutions to take risks, aim high and learn from only partial success or even failure,” the HLC says. Institutions submit a proposal for their projects to HLC and then report on the outcomes at the end of the project period.

MIU was invited to join the Open Pathway in 2010. For its Quality Initiative during the 2010-2020 cycle, MIU chose assessment, the shorthand term in higher education for systematically improving student learning by objectively assessing how well students meet the specified learning outcomes of the courses and programs they take.

The 10-year Open Pathway accreditation cycle

Here’s what the 10-year cycle looks like, showing how HLC monitors its Open Pathway colleges and universities:

• Every year — Schools submit an Institutional Update, providing data on their operations and educational offerings. HLC reviews these updates to gauge schools’ health and identify trends.
• In Year 4 — Schools complete an Assurance Review to ensure they’re continuing to meet HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation. This is what MIU just did.
• In Years 5–9 — Open Pathway colleges and universities design and implement a Quality Initiative.  
• In year 10 — HLC schools receive a comprehensive in-person one-and-a-half-day site visit by a four-person peer review team consisting of educational leaders from other HLC schools who are trained as “consultant-evaluators” and certified to conduct these reviews.

Dr. Herriott became an HLC consultant-evaluator in 1998 and has visited 35 schools as a member of HLC peer review teams since then. He has been the team leader for eight of these comprehensive visits.

“My 25 years of working for the Higher Learning Commission has been of incomparable value to MIU.” 

— Scott Herriott

“My 25 years of working for the Higher Learning Commission has been of incomparable value to MIU,” Dr. Herriott said. “Particularly as the team chair, who organizes the site visit and edits the final version of an evaluation report, I learned very well what is expected of all colleges and universities, and that has helped us write self-studies that give the HLC teams exactly the information they needed to write their own reports.”

“This experience has also exposed me to the challenges that the smaller colleges and universities are facing nationwide,” Dr. Herriott said. “MIU is very fortunate to have started to offer online degree programs several years before the pandemic. When we needed to grow our online programs, to adapt to the new reality of higher education, we already had the base of experience to build on.”

Writing the Assurance Review

• Dr. Herriott guided the process of writing the Assurance Review and wrote Section 1, on Mission, with support from Jodi Hill, Co-director of the MS in Regenerative Organic Agriculture
• Dr. Herriott also wrote Section 5, Institutional Effectiveness, Resources, and Planning, with assistance from Bill Smith, Vice President of Online Education and Digital Transformation.
• Selin Ozbudak, MIU’s Registrar, wrote Section 2, on Integrity: Ethical and Responsible Conduct.
• Liis Mattik, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, wrote Section 3, on Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support, with assistance from Jane Schmidt-Wilk, Dean of Teaching and Learning.
• Katie Snyder, Director of Assessment, handled section 4, Teaching and Learning: Quality, Resources, and Support, with help from Jodi Hill.

Thank you to Scott Herriott for his help with this story.