(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa’s undergraduate insurance degree program has only been around a year, and it’s already being named among the top ten such programs in the country. Martin Grace, who heads the U-I’s Risk Management and Insurance program in the Tippie College of Business, says it’s a thrill to see national recognition for such a new effort. “The program has actually been around for a number of years,” Grace says. “You could get a minor in it, or they called it a certificate, which sounds better than a minor, but it’s like four or five classes, and then last year, they made it an official major.” More than 200 students have signed on for the new major at the Iowa City institution.

“It seems like it’s relatively small, but that’s a strong signal of commitment by the Tippie College as well as the university to support this academic field,” Grace says. “It’s actually a professional field, and it makes our program very strong.” This week, U.S. News and World Report named the U-I’s insurance degree program number-eight in the nation, its first appearance in the rankings. While the state is widely known for its hogs, corn and soybeans, more than 200 insurance companies are headquartered in Iowa. “It’s as important as agriculture in the state, and you think of this state as being an agricultural state, but to have another sector that important?” Grace says. “I think it’s like 12-and-a-half percent of the state’s GDP. In the typical state, it’s one-sixth of that.” He says the risk management and insurance industry is the state’s largest non-agricultural economic sector, while the finance and insurance industries account for some 95-thousand Iowa jobs.

“It’s not just insurance sales, right? So a lot of what insurance companies do are pay claims and invest. So there’s just a lot of jobs, finance jobs, there’s some sales jobs, but the insurance companies in Iowa don’t just sell in Iowa. They sell all over the country.” He predicts the demand for risk management and insurance graduates will continue to grow, especially as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce refers to Des Moines as a “global hub of the insurance industry.”

(Radio Iowa) – A federal appeals court could take months to decide whether Iowa’s new immigration law that makes illegal reentry a state crime can be enforced. During a hearing in federal court yesterday (Thursday), Iowa’s Solicitor General said the law was passed in response to an immigration crisis and he argued local law enforcement should be able to arrest and charge migrants who were previously deported or denied entry into the United States. American Immigration Council Deputy Legal Director Emma Winger says some immigrants with permanent legal status could be prosecuted under Iowa’s law.

“There’s nothing that truly protects our clients from arrest, prosecution, imprisonment and then orders to leave the country other than a federal court order,” Winger says. “And that’s of course what we’re asking for.”

Winger spoke with reporters after the hearing. The U-S Department of Justice and immigrants rights groups filed the lawsuit that challenged Iowa’s law and earlier this year a federal district court judge issued an order to block it from being enforced. Iowa’s law is similar to a Texas law which has also been blocked by court action.