Iowa’s three-month average unemployment rate has fallen below the required 6 percent needed to qualify for the federal government’s “tier 3″ extended unemployment benefits, the state said. That reduces the extended weeks available to Iowans from 47 weeks to 34 weeks after Jan. 14.

Iowa’s unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in November.

“While Iowa is fortunate to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, it does effect the overall benefit eligibility for the state,” said Director Teresa Wahlert. “The change in Iowa’s eligibility will affect approximately 4,200 individual in the first quarter of 2012.”

The extended unemployment compensation program has three tiers, with each carrying varying weeks of maximum eligibility, the state agency said. Tier 1 carries a maximum of 20 weeks; tier 2, a maximum of 14 weeks, and tier 3 a maximum of 13 weeks.

Iowa also offers up to 26 weeks of eligibility for unemployed workers.

The week ending Jan. 14 will be the last week in which unemployed workers can establish tier 3 eligibility, the state said. After Jan. 14, about 300 individuals per week will exhaust tier 2 benefits and will not be eligible for tier 3.

Unemployed workers will receive written notification prior to the expiration of all available benefits. Jobless workers now receiving tier 3 benefits will not be affected by this change, the state said.

Written by: Donnelle Eller

Des Moines Register

January 4, 2012

Farmers had 5.8 days suitable for fieldwork during the week, according to the USDA’s weekly crop report, with precipitation averaging 0.65 inches.

Precipitation was measured at 1.53 inches in Cedar Rapids and 2.58 inches in Iowa City.

The amount of the state’s corn crop harvested had approached the halfway point as of Sunday, Oct. 15. The USDA reported 45 percent of the crop harvested, eight days ahead of average for that date. The soybean harvest had reached 87 percent complete, two weeks ahead of the average pace for that date.

The harvest was the most advanced in northwest Iowa, where 60 percent of the corn had been harvested. The pace of the harvest was slowest in south central Iowa, where only 27 percent had been harvested.

The drying of crops got a boost from temperatures that averaged 4.6 degrees above normal for the week.

Pasture conditions were disappointing across much of the state due to the recent trend of dry weather. The USDA reported 19 percent of the pasture in “very poor” condition. Another 23 percent was in poor condition and 33 percent was in fair condition. Only 25 percent was in good or excellent condition.

Written by: Dave DeWitte

SourceMedia Group News

October 17, 2011

Image source

Four of the eight indicators used to create the Iowa Leading Indicators Index declined. Diesel fuel consumption, the new orders index, the Iowa stock market index and the national yield spread were all down from July, the Iowa Department of Revenue. Diesel fuel consumption was down 3 percent from August 2010. The new orders index dropped to 50.4 from 60.8 in July, and remained well below the August 2010 level of 73.8.

Average weekly manufacturing hours were unchanged from July, while building permits, the agricultural futures profits index and initial unemployment insurance claims showed improvement.

The index has now declined three of the last four months. During the six-month period through August, the Iowa Leading Indicators Index rose at an annualized rate of only 0.1 percent.

A separate index used to track changes in employment rose 0.11 percent in August, extending its streak of gains to 11 months. The nonfarm employment coincident index rose by 0.11 percent, the same level of increase seen in July.
Gazzette – Business380 – SourceMedia Group News

Written by: David DeWitte

October 3, 2011

WQad..com

The Coralville City Council unanimously passed a purchase agreement with the Von Maur department store with little discussion Tuesday night.

The council voted 3-0 to approve the agreement that includes more than $11 million in incentives to bring the anchor tenant to the Iowa River Landing multi-use development.

Council members Bill Hoeft and Mitch Gross were absent from the meeting, but both indicated through written statements that they supported the agreement, though Gross said he had some provisions.

The agreement includes $9.4 million for construction costs for the new 80,000-square-foot store and up to $650,000 for Von Maur to use if they decide to relocate from Sycamore Mall in Iowa City before their lease expires in 2014.

The city plans to provide its developer, Oliver McMillan, a grant for $1.5 million, which Oliver McMillan will use to purchase the property. Then the developer will sell the property to Von Maur for $10.

Gross, who was attending an education convention in Kentucky, said he supported the premise of the resolution but not without provisions, “such as the language regarding relocation and the termination of Von Maur’s lease,” he wrote. “I hope there will be a chance for public input at tonight’s meeting.”

The council did provide the public an opportunity to talk, although no formal public hearing was scheduled.

One person, Mark Vandehaar, 25 of Coralville, said the city needs to look more closely at its decisions associated to the landing and give residents more opportunity to respond to the proposals.

“I think this should probably be in the public,” Vandehaar said. “I think we need to look at what’s been there and what’s been brought forward…this might help out before we make another mistake.”

Council member John Lundell said he sees the investment in Von Maur as an investment for the whole community, and one that helps improve an area that was once an unattractive entrance to the community.

“This area is a former industrial wasteland, basically,” Lundell said. “If we don’t take this opportunity now, we’ll forever regret it. It’s an opportunity to kick-start development and an opportunity to support what’s already down there.”

The vote came the same day that Republicans in the Iowa House called for a review of Iowa’s tax increment financing statute in light of Coralville’s agreement with Von Maur.

Republicans Erik Helland of Johnston and Nick Wagner of Marion released a statement questioning the need for the incentives and also the city’s use of TIF revenue from Coral Ridge Mall to spur development in the river landing.

Several years ago, Coralville extended the Coral Ridge TIF district along a right of way on Interstate 80 to include the Iowa River Landing.

“I think there’s a couple things that are concerning, ways in which they’re using the TIF and they’re creating a district that isn’t really a congruent district to help take money out of an existing one and use it for what will be a new one,” Wagner said.

Wagner argued that although expanding the district in such a way wasn’t illegal, he is “not sure it was the intent of the TIF law to begin with.”

Coralville City Administrator Kelly Hayworth said after Tuesday’s meeting that the argument about expanding the district was moot because the Iowa Supreme Court already had decided on the case.

Coralville went to court over the issue in 2002, and the court ultimately ruled on the side of the city.

Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, served on the council at the time Coralville approved the expansion. He said he’s always willing to review sections of the state code, and that, while he supports the use of TIF as an economic development tool, he would like to see a sunset on how long cities can collect tax increment revenue.

Also Tuesday, the city approved a 56-year lease with Backpocket Brewing to build a 15,000-square-foot brewery in the IRL. The city will lease the land to the brewery for a base price of $448,000.

Written by: Emily Schettler

Iowa City Press-Citizen

Sept. 27th, 2011

While the Iowa City area real estate market has weathered the downward trend rather well compared to other locations, we are now seeing renewed activity in all segments of the market.  Especially significant is the activity in the higher price range, which was almost at a stand still for many months, while the lower priced homes have still been moving fairly consistently for the last couple of years.

Our local luxury market, or the 10% upper tier of our market, represents all homes at and above $330,000.  Once we get over $400,000, the average days on the market get longer and all properties above $500,000 have suffered from a definite slow down in sales and overall activity.

However, this trend is slowly changing and local realtors have enjoyed a renewed activity in the higher price range.  More local people are looking to move up from their existing homes, and more people are relocating to the area and are welcoming the good opportunities available to them in our local luxury market.

Renting vs Buying In Higher Price Range

Most out of town clients have always been eager to purchase in the Iowa City area, even when relocating for a specific period of time such as two to five years only.  However, during the last two years an increasing amount of them opted to rent executive rentals rather than to risk buying an expensive home only to see its value decline.

This has been challenging for the area realtors because of the limited choices available in the rental market, which is really geared for the most part to college students and younger professionals.  In an effort to find suitable executive rentals, realtors have knocked on builders’ doors to get their clients in new construction homes still for sale, or eager sellers who are willing to rent for a year or two rather than to reduce their prices for a possible sale.  Either way, this has been a win-win for everyone, with relocating clients and local sellers both finding common ground while the market regains vigor.

Luxury Homes Market Back On Track

This graph represents the average price for sale and sold homes from 4/10 to 6/11, in the $400,000 to $999,999 price range.   Note that the activity is on the up swing and that average sold prices are finally inching upwards.

With extremely low interest rates and eager sellers waiting to downsize or move on, this is a great time to purchase a home in the Iowa City area!  Contact Toni Rubin, Skogman Realty’s Iowa City Director Corporate Relocations and licensed realtor in the State of Iowa,  at 319-541-0190  for more information on our local market.

	Curnt vs. Prev Month			Curnt vs. Same Month 1 Yr Ago			Curnt vs. Same Qtr 1 Yr Ago
	Jun. 11	May. 11	% Change	Jun. 11	Jun. 10	% Change	Apr. 11 to Jun. 11	Apr. 10 to Jun. 10	% Change
Avg. Active Price	528	530	-0.4%	528	544	-2.9%	529	544	-2.8%
Avg. Sold Price	580	481	20.6%	580	516	12.4%	531	511	3.9%

Global Digital World At Our Fingertips

Digital media have made creating and disseminating text, sound, and images cheap, easy and global. The bulk of publicly available media is now created by people who understand little of the professional standards and practices for media.

Instead, these amateurs produce endless streams of mediocrity, eroding cultural norms about quality and acceptability, and leading to increasingly alarmed predictions of incipient chaos and intellectual collapse.
1.8 billion

Estimated number of Internet users world-wide:  1.8 Billion

But of course, that’s what always happens. Every increase in freedom to create or consume media, from paperback books to YouTube, alarms people accustomed to the restrictions of the old system, convincing them that the new media will make young people stupid. This fear dates back to at least the invention of movable type.

A Little History…

As Gutenberg’s press spread through Europe, the Bible was translated into local languages, enabling direct encounters with the text; this was accompanied by a flood of contemporary literature, most of it mediocre. Vulgar versions of the Bible and distracting secular writings fueled religious unrest and civic confusion, leading to claims that the printing press, if not controlled, would lead to chaos and the dismemberment of European intellectual life.
Journal Community

These claims were, of course, correct. Print fueled the Protestant Reformation, which did indeed destroy the Church’s pan-European hold on intellectual life. What the 16th-century foes of print didn’t imagine—couldn’t imagine—was what followed: We built new norms around newly abundant and contemporary literature. Novels, newspapers, scientific journals, the separation of fiction and non-fiction, all of these innovations were created during the collapse of the scribal system, and all had the effect of increasing, rather than decreasing, the intellectual range and output of society.

To take a famous example, the essential insight of the scientific revolution was peer review, the idea that science was a collaborative effort that included the feedback and participation of others. Peer review was a cultural institution that took the printing press for granted as a means of distributing research quickly and widely, but added the kind of cultural constraints that made it valuable.

We are living through a similar explosion of publishing capability today, where digital media link over a billion people into the same network. This linking together in turn lets us tap our cognitive surplus, the trillion hours a year of free time the educated population of the planet has to spend doing things they care about. In the 20th century, the bulk of that time was spent watching television, but our cognitive surplus is so enormous that diverting even a tiny fraction of time from consumption to participation can create enormous positive effects.

Wikipedia took the idea of peer review and applied it to volunteers on a global scale, becoming the most important English reference work in less than 10 years. Yet the cumulative time devoted to creating Wikipedia, something like 100 million hours of human thought, is expended by Americans every weekend, just watching ads. It only takes a fractional shift in the direction of participation to create remarkable new educational resources.

Time  Average American Spends Watching Television Per Week:  34.5 Hours

Similarly, open source software, created without managerial control of the workers or ownership of the product, has been critical to the spread of the Web. Searches for everything from supernovae to prime numbers now happen as giant, distributed efforts. Ushahidi, the Kenyan crisis mapping tool invented in 2008, now aggregates citizen reports about crises the world over. PatientsLikeMe, a website designed to accelerate medical research by getting patients to publicly share their health information, has assembled a larger group of sufferers of Lou Gehrig’s disease than any pharmaceutical agency in history, by appealing to the shared sense of seeking medical progress.

Of course, not everything people care about is a high-minded project. Whenever media become more abundant, average quality falls quickly, while new institutional models for quality arise slowly. Today we have The World’s Funniest Home Videos running 24/7 on YouTube, while the potentially world-changing uses of cognitive surplus are still early and special cases.

That always happens too. In the history of print, we got erotic novels 100 years before we got scientific journals, and complaints about distraction have been rampant; no less a beneficiary of the printing press than Martin Luther complained, “The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure of limit to this fever for writing.” Edgar Allan Poe, writing during another surge in publishing, concluded, “The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age; since it presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information.”

The response to distraction, then as now, was social structure. Reading is an unnatural act; we are no more evolved to read books than we are to use computers. Literate societies become literate by investing extraordinary resources, every year, training children to read. Now it’s our turn to figure out what response we need to shape our use of digital tools.

Does the Internet Make You Dumber?

The cognitive effects are measurable: We’re turning into shallow thinkers, says Nicholas Carr.

The case for digitally-driven stupidity assumes we’ll fail to integrate digital freedoms into society as well as we integrated literacy. This assumption in turn rests on three beliefs: that the recent past was a glorious and irreplaceable high-water mark of intellectual attainment; that the present is only characterized by the silly stuff and not by the noble experiments; and that this generation of young people will fail to invent cultural norms that do for the Internet’s abundance what the intellectuals of the 17th century did for print culture. There are likewise three reasons to think that the Internet will fuel the intellectual achievements of 21st-century society.

First, the rosy past of the pessimists was not, on closer examination, so rosy. The decade the pessimists want to return us to is the 1980s, the last period before society had any significant digital freedoms. Despite frequent genuflection to European novels, we actually spent a lot more time watching “Diff’rent Strokes” than reading Proust, prior to the Internet’s spread. The Net, in fact, restores reading and writing as central activities in our culture.

The present is, as noted, characterized by lots of throwaway cultural artifacts, but the nice thing about throwaway material is that it gets thrown away. This issue isn’t whether there’s lots of dumb stuff online—there is, just as there is lots of dumb stuff in bookstores. The issue is whether there are any ideas so good today that they will survive into the future. Several early uses of our cognitive surplus, like open source software, look like they will pass that test.

The past was not as golden, nor is the present as tawdry, as the pessimists suggest, but the only thing really worth arguing about is the future. It is our misfortune, as a historical generation, to live through the largest expansion in expressive capability in human history, a misfortune because abundance breaks more things than scarcity. We are now witnessing the rapid stress of older institutions accompanied by the slow and fitful development of cultural alternatives. Just as required education was a response to print, using the Internet well will require new cultural institutions as well, not just new technologies.

It is tempting to want PatientsLikeMe without the dumb videos, just as we might want scientific journals without the erotic novels, but that’s not how media works. Increased freedom to create means increased freedom to create throwaway material, as well as freedom to indulge in the experimentation that eventually makes the good new stuff possible. There is no easy way to get through a media revolution of this magnitude; the task before us now is to experiment with new ways of using a medium that is social, ubiquitous and cheap, a medium that changes the landscape by distributing freedom of the press and freedom of assembly as widely as freedom of speech.
—Clay Shirky’s latest book is “Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.”

Matthew McGregor-Mento put 400 plants in his vertical garden in Manhattan

GIVEN the chance to accompany a team of botanists on a plant-collecting expedition to South America, most gardeners would probably be satisfied with the experience. They wouldn’t come home and try to recreate the rain forest in Manhattan.

But Michael Riley isn’t like most gardeners. Mr. Riley, a former commodities trader turned plant expert who went on to become assistant director of the Horticultural Society of New York, was eager to move beyond potted plants in a way that hadn’t yet occurred to many others. It took a number of expeditions, a lot of research and more than a decade and a half, but by 2003 he had figured out how to grow a wall of plants inside his Upper West Side apartment.

“In the rain forest, I realized that plants didn’t need to grow in pots with labels,” said Mr. Riley, 64. “I wanted to grow plants in ways that were natural to them.”

With his partner, Francisco Correa, a Spanish teacher who is now 52, Mr. Riley attacked a corner of his living area, stripping the walls of plaster and affixing exterior-grade plywood to new and existing building studs. On top of the plywood went bitumen roofing to protect the walls. Cork bark was then stapled over that, and plants were inserted into pockets in the cork. Sprinklers and lighting were installed overhead, trenches were put in at the base of the walls to catch water that trickled down, and pools were added in the middle of the room to increase humidity.

Vertical Gardens

These days, Mr. Riley’s project isn’t that unusual. Vertical gardens — which began as an experiment in 1988 by Patrick Blanc, a French botanist intent on creating a garden without dirt — are becoming increasingly popular at home. Avid and aspiring gardeners, frustrated with little outdoor space, are taking another look at their walls and noticing something new: more space. And a number of companies are selling ready-made systems and all-in-one kits for gardeners like Mr. Riley who want to do it themselves. (For those who prefer to leave it to the professionals, landscape designers can build vertical gardens for a hefty fee.)

In the last few years, companies that sell green wall supplies have seen a jump in sales. ELT, an Ontario company that specializes in green roofs, began selling living wall systems a little over three years ago and is now one of the biggest suppliers to the United States. Greg Garner, the company’s president, said that its green-wall sales have increased 300 percent since 2008. Four months ago, the company introduced a cheaper, lighter kit to make living walls accessible to the average gardener; prices start at about $40 for a one-square-foot panel.

“We’ve turned living walls into something anyone can do,” Mr. Garner said. “The walls have gone from zero percent of our business leads to 80 percent of our business, and it’s happening all over the place, from the Middle East to North America to Europe.”

Companies Focus In On Living Walls

Another big living-wall company, Gsky Plant Systems in Vancouver, British Columbia, was founded four years ago as a green roof supplier but now focuses almost exclusively on vertical gardens, which it designs, installs and maintains for around $125 a square foot. Hal Thorne, Gsky’s chairman, said the company’s growth in the last year “was phenomenal — we nearly doubled sales.”

Many of the modular systems — essentially plastic trays filled with dirt and attached to a wall, with a sprinkler or drip irrigation system installed above — differ dramatically from Patrick Blanc’s living walls, which can be seen in commercial and institutional buildings around the world, including the Athenaeum hotel in London and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

Mr. Blanc, who was inspired by tropical rain-forest plants he had studied, knew plants could survive on water and fertilizer alone, and developed a system for growing them on walls lined with felt. The living wall was part of his effort to bring greenery into cities. “When you live in towns, you don’t always go into gardens,” he said. “It’s really important to use empty spaces to invite nature into town.”

He is not a fan of the new kits. On a recent visit to San Francisco to begin work on a green wall for a private high school, his largest outdoor vertical garden in North America, Mr. Blanc dismissed them as artificial. Plants may grow vertically on a surface like the face of a cliff, he said, but “in nature, you don’t have vertical dirt.”

Peter Kastan’s 12-by-12-foot green wall in Miami

“It’s like having a large poodle,” said Peter Kastan. “You have to take care of it, feed it, walk it. It’s intensive care for plants.” More Photos »

At a local nursery, he pointed at one modular system: “This is very heavy and a lot of plastic,” he said. “After three to five years, you have no more substrate — the dirt gets compacted.”

Last year, inspired by Mr. Blanc’s work, Matthew McGregor-Mento, 38, an executive creative director at Gyro: HSR, a New York advertising agency, and his wife, Emma, 35, a massage therapist, set out to build a vertical garden in their two-bedroom apartment in the East Village. They attached an 8-by-10-foot aluminum frame to a wall in the entry hall, screwed waterproof sheets of PVC to the frame and tacked on two layers of matting. Then they inserted some 400 plants — philodendrons, ivies and ferns — into holes they cut in the felt.

A trough they installed along the floor collects runoff water from the irrigation system, and a pump with a filtration sponge sends it back up the wall. Timers control the watering, which happens four times a day.

Design Challenges

The design, which they devised with the help of a horticulturalist friend, was based on Mr. Blanc’s system and on research they had done online. The total cost was $3,000, but the result was worth it, Mr. McGregor-Mento said. Most people who visit want a green wall of their own, and the effort involved wasn’t that onerous: “Building a vertical wall is about as difficult as painting a room.”

Others have found it more challenging. Peter Kastan, an unemployed movie location scout in Miami, had never grown anything when he decided to install a vertical garden in a friend’s loft. The apartment, which his friend offered to him as a laboratory since it was vacant and he couldn’t rent it, had abundant light and high ceilings, and Mr. Kastan, after reading about Mr. Blanc’s living gardens online, thought it would be an ideal environment.

He began by contacting living-wall creators around the world for advice, and then drove all over Florida visiting nurseries to find plants. He bought 650, including bromeliads, hoyas, begonias and ferns, favoring those that were local and “the most interesting to look at,” he said. And one weekend last November, he and his wife, Mai Tran, and a friend put up the 12-by-12-foot plant wall.

Like Mr. McGregor-Mento, Mr. Kastan used matting affixed to a metal frame bolted to the wall. He bought most of the materials from local hardware stores or online suppliers. About $10,000 later, he has a large, vibrant green wall. He recently completed a smaller one in the kitchen, with herbs and mini-tomatoes.

But it took a lot of work to get the irrigation, the lighting and the plants right. The first month, he lost several plants near the bottom of the wall, where water was collecting. He realized then that some plants were getting too much water and needed to be moved a different spot on the wall; others he had to get rid of.

“It’s like having a large poodle,” Mr. Kastan said. “You have to take care of it, feed it, walk it. It’s intensive care for plants.”

Even professional gardeners sometimes have trouble with their first living wall. Martha Desbiens, a co-owner of VertNY, a landscape design firm specializing in roof gardens, used sedums in a green wall on a client’s terrace, and they dried out over the winter while the irrigation system was off. In a roof garden, they would have gotten plenty of moisture from snow, she noted, but planted vertically, they didn’t get nearly enough.

“A lot of living walls fail,” Ms. Desbiens said. “There’s a big learning curve.”

Marguerite Wells, a co-owner of Motherplants, a nursery in Ithaca, said she tries to steer people away from them.

“People want green bling,” Ms. Wells said. “People think, ‘It looks beautiful and perfect, and I want something beautiful and perfect in my life.’ ”

But vertical gardens can’t be watered with a hose or ignored for long stretches of time, she noted, and won’t tolerate certain plants. Inevitably, the irrigation stops working, she said, whether the pumps break down, the emitters get clogged (if a dirt system is used) or water gets stuck in one cell of a modular system. And within a few days of any malfunction, plants begin to die.

Overcoming Challenges

Amelia Lima, a landscape designer in San Diego, encountered the most basic problem when she decided to turn the 40-foot wall in her backyard into a vertical garden. At first, she tried hanging plants and art on the wall, which faced the picture windows in her living room and kitchen, but it looked drab. Then she found a landscape architect who had worked with Patrick Blanc on a project in Brazil and hired him to help. But halfway through the project, she realized she had forgotten something essential: a water source.

“People think it’s a green wall,” Ms. Lima said, as in, “you hang a picture on the wall and it’s done.”

But there’s a lot more to it than that, she added: “There’s construction, watering — you’re making a garden.”

Just Another Plant in The Wall

Making your own living wall can be done in one of two ways — as a fully bespoke model or something more off-the-rack. Whichever you choose, there are a few things to keep in mind.

• Vertical gardens are heavy, and not every wall is strong enough to support one. Check with a carpenter or your landlord to make sure the designated wall can handle the load.

• When selecting a spot for your living wall, make sure the area gets plenty of light. The best light is natural, but you will also need to install artificial lighting.

• Custom installations like the ones Patrick Blanc builds require a frame that can be attached to the wall, a waterproof barrier to protect the wall, a surface material like felt or cork to hold the plants in place and an irrigation system with PVC or polyethylene tubing and a submersible pump (the kind found in aquarium shops).

• Ready-made vertical garden kits have small containers angled to hold dirt and can be watered manually. After you plant your cuttings in the dirt, you’ll need to let them grow horizontally for several months so they develop strong roots. Once the roots have taken hold, you can attach the kit to the wall. (Kits are available from a number of sources, including eltlivingwalls.com, sgplants.com and floragrubb.com.)

• Each wall has different requirements, depending on its light and plants (talk to a local nursery or green-roof specialist about the best plants for your wall), but many people water their vertical gardens three times a day for 8 to 10 minutes. You will need to add fertilizer to the water to make sure the plants get necessary nutrients.

via New York Times

Trevor Tondro for The New York Times

Former UI provost begins September 1

The ACT board of directors named Jon Whitmore, former University of Iowa provost who is currently the president of San Jose State University, as ACT’s new chief executive officer. The appointment is effective Sept. 1, the beginning of ACT’s new fiscal year.

“ACT’s directors are very enthusiastic to have Jon Whitmore become our next CEO. We wanted an accomplished leader with notable executive experience and an exemplary track record of success,” ACT Board Lead Director Mark Musick stated in a press release. “We found just the right person in Jon. We’re confident that he will provide outstanding leadership to expand ACT’s role in helping shape state and national education and workforce policy and in helping more people achieve education and workplace success.”

San Jose State University is a major comprehensive research university located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Previously, Mr. Whitmore served as president of Texas Tech University and as provost at the University of Iowa.

“I look forward to carrying on ACT’s upward trajectory, which has been skillfully advanced by Dick Ferguson and ACT’s excellent staff,” Mr. Whitmore stated. “ACT’s reputation for excellence, and its mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success, are needed today more than ever. With President (Barack) Obama’s goal of dramatically increasing the number of citizens who graduate from high school, community colleges and four-year colleges, and with the need to retrain many Americans who have lost jobs or are looking to change professions, ACT has a vital role to play at this critical time in history.”

Mr. Whitmore was selected after a nationwide search by ACT’s board, assisted by the Spencer Stuart executive search firm. Richard Ferguson, ACT’s current CEO and chairman, joined ACT in 1972 and has led the organization for 22 years. Under his leadership, ACT grew into a highly respected international organization offering a broad array of assessment, information and program management solutions in the areas of education and workforce development, with more than 1,500 employees located in offices worldwide.