Resources

Iowa State University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC). In addition, numerous Iowa State University programs are accredited by specialized accrediting agencies.

For more information about each organization, including their current officers, please visit their respective websites (linked below).

Faculty Senate

The Faculty Senate represents the general faculty of Iowa State University and participates in shared governance of the University with the administration. It is comprised of approximately 80 representatives elected by the general faculty, and divided into caucuses representing each of the seven colleges. The Faculty Senate has legislative responsibility for general academic and educational policy, serving to facilitate communication among faculty, students, and administration. It also cooperates with the administration in conflict resolution, and advises the administration on budgetary and other policy matters.

The Faculty Senate conducts its business through a system of five councils (Academic Affairs, Faculty Development and Administrative Relations, Faculty Governance, Judiciary and Appeals, and Resource Policies and Allocations) and their committees. The Executive Board of the Faculty Senate consists of the chairs of the five councils, the chairs of the seven college caucuses, and the officers. The Faculty Senate was established in 1988.

Professional and Scientific Council

The Iowa State University Professional and Scientific Council is an elected university body that serves as a resource and advocate for Professional and Scientific employees. The Professional and Scientific Council identifies the needs of its constituents, provides information and advice in response to those needs, recommends policies and procedures to the University administration that benefit Professional and Scientific employees, and assists in fulfilling the mission of Iowa State University. The Council consists of approximately 45 members, including seven ofﬁcers, elected from Academic Affairs, Operations and Finance, the President’s Ofﬁce, and Student Affairs (or one representative for every 75 P&S employees).

Student Government

Student Government (SG), an elected body, actively represents all students to the university administration, and local, state, and federal governments. The SG has sole discretion over the allocation of the student activity fee to student organizations and initiatives. The mission of SG is to serve students and improve the student experience through advocacy and empowerment.

Graduate and Professional Student Senate

The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS), founded in 1970, is an elected body of graduate and professional students. The GPSS addresses issues related to graduate and professional students, develops and disseminates ideas for improvement of graduate/professional education and provides graduate/professional student representation on university committees. The GPSS also allocates funds to graduate/professional student groups, professional advancement grants, and hosts several events such as Graduate Orientation, Graduate and Professional Student Research conference, and semester socials.

Board of Regents Peer List

Since 1986, the Iowa Board of Regents has maintained a board approved list of 10 land-grant universities for use as a peer comparison group for Iowa State University. The initial list created in 1986 was updated by the Board in 2016 and again in 2023. The institutions on the board approved peer list are all public, land-grant universities that are classified as Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity in the 2021 Carnegie Classification of Higher Education.

University	Location	School Website
Colorado State University	Fort Collins, CO	colostate.edu
Kansas State University	Manhattan, KS	k-state.edu
Michigan State University	East Lansing, MI	msu.edu
University of Missouri	Columbia, MO	missouri.edu
University of Nebraska	Lincoln, NE	unl.edu
North Carolina State University	Raleigh, NC	ncsu.edu
Oklahoma State University	Stillwater, OK	okstate.edu
Oregon State University	Corvallis, OR	oregonstate.edu
Purdue University	West Lafayette, IN	purdue.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	Blacksburg, VA	vt.edu

IPEDS Peer List

These 29 institutions are used for broader national comparisons within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

University of Arizona	Arizona State University	University of California-Davis
Clemson University	Colorado State University	University of Georgia
University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)	Kansas State University	University of Kentucky
Louisiana State University	University of Maryland (College Park)	Michigan State University
University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)	University of Missouri (Columbia)	University of Nebraska (Lincoln)
North Carolina State University	Ohio State University	Oklahoma State University
Oregon State University	Penn State University	Purdue University
State University of New York at Buffalo	University of Tennessee (Knoxville)	Texas A&M University (College Station)
Texas Tech University	Virginia Tech	Washington State University
West Virginia University	University of Wisconsin (Madison)

Historically, IR has managed a database of numeric and alpha codes used for administrative purposes to identify departments, offices, or other university units. As part of a systems transition, these legacy codes will not be updated after July 1, 2025.

For more information, please contact the IR office.

Overview

Iowa State University, as a part of a Board of Regents, State of Iowa effort, is participating in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Explorer online dashboard.

The Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes Explorer (PSEO) is an experimental data product from the U.S. Census Bureau that contains earnings outcomes (how much graduates earn one, five, and 10 years after graduation), employment flows (where graduates are physically located), and sectors of employment (what industries are graduates working in) for a set of partner colleges and universities, including Iowa’s Regents institutions.

The statistics are generated by matching university transcript data with a national database of jobs. Only graduates who earn at least the annual equivalent of full-time work at the prevailing federal minimum wage and work three or more quarters in a calendar year are included.

Iowa State college-based Career Services offices continue to capture outcomes/salary information from graduates, within six months of graduation. While the Census site provides a more holistic look at salary, geographic, and industry sector information at one, five and 10 years post-graduation, Iowa State’s internal data includes information not currently available on the Census site (e.g. employer names, job positions/titles).

Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Codes

The data in the Census platform groups graduates based on the standard Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) codes assigned to Iowa State degree programs. Two levels of CIP codes are used to group programs – the first two digit codes (general program specificity on the site) and first four digits on the CIP codes (detailed program specificity). The detailed level is not available for masters and doctoral degree graduates (except for DVM). For many CIP codes, the related Iowa State degree program are clearly aligned. For example, the CIP code grouping that is two-digit “Engineering” and detailed four-digit code “Mechanical Engineering” represent students graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. For other programs, the CIP names do not align as closely to Iowa State degree program names. Tables have been created to allow users to understand which current ISU degree programs are included under the specific CIP code groupings on the Census Bureau site.

Undergraduate Degrees, by Major (PDF) | Undergraduate Degrees, by Category (PDF)
Graduate Degrees, by Major (PDF) | Graduate Degrees, by Category (PDF)

Limitations of the Data

As with any large dataset, there are certain limitations to what data are available. It is important to keep these limitations in mind, especially when comparing programs and/or institutions.

Limitations include:

The census data only includes individuals who earned wages in the U.S. The data do not include individuals working outside the U.S.; self-employed individuals not reporting enough wage earnings to meet the minimum wage threshold; and individuals who are not currently working.
When looking at the industries where graduates are employed, we do not know what type of work the graduate may be doing. For example, a graduate with a degree in marketing who works for Iowa State would be classified in the educational services industry.
Data are left blank or are suppressed if the number of individuals in a certain grouping is too small.
Data are not necessarily recent; five-year data is only available at the 2010-2012 cohort or earlier for bachelor’s graduates, and the 2006-2010 cohort for masters and doctoral programs.
Degrees are based on Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes, which do not always match the names of our academic majors. The Institutional Research website will provide documentation that shows the connection between current majors and the CIP code names used on the Census Bureau website.
- For masters and doctoral programs, data is only available at the 2-digit CIP code “general” program specificity (e.g., engineering, as opposed to aerospace engineering).
- Since data goes back to 2001, there are majors included that are no longer offered at Iowa State in the data set. Similarly, newer majors will not be represented yet.
Employment industries are based on first two digits of the NAICS coding structure.
The geographic regions are based on U.S. Census definitions. Iowa is in the West North Central Division of the Midwest Region.
When comparing across majors or institutions, the data can be skewed by where graduates live. If most apparel merchandising graduates move to New York City, for example, their earnings will reflect a higher cost of living.
Looking at salary data, it will generally be most helpful to focus on the most recent cohort of graduates, who graduated in 2016-2018, for first-year earnings data; the 2013-2015 cohort for 5-year data; and the 2007-2009 cohort for 10-year data.

If you have any questions about the data, please contact IR.

Reports

Faculty Peer Salary Comparison Report

2023-24 Executive Summary (PDF)

Iowa State University faculty and staff can access the full report HERE, via CyBox. NOTE: An ISU login is required to access the report.

IPEDS Feedback Report

2023 Report (PDF)

Survey Results

NSSE - Survey of Student Engagement

Iowa State University participates periodically in the National Survey of Student Engagement. The survey focuses on the engagement activities of undergraduate first-year and senior students.