When people think of the University of Iowa, many immediately call to mind the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the world-renowned literary program whose alumni and faculty have garnered 17 Pulitzer Prizes and more than 40 National Book Awards. The program’s reputation is stellar, spanning more than 80 years and reaching far beyond the borders of our state — appropriately establishing Iowa as “The Writing University.”
As the dean of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, I’ve often found myself reflecting on how Iowa’s powerhouse writing reputation relates to what we do in the business school. I’ll admit, the connection isn’t immediately obvious. Given this reality, it would have been tempting to follow the path some other professional schools take: to carve out a separate identity to distance ourselves from the university’s brand and embrace something more commonly associated with business education. Instead, we chose to lean in.
The decision was strategic. Industry leaders repeatedly tell us that what they need most in new hires is exceptional communication and problem-solving abilities — skills that go hand in hand with a writing-intensive education. The latest GMAC Corporate Recruiters survey cites communication as the No. 2 skill most valued by employers. Yet, it’s an area where some business schools fall short.
Recognizing the value of Iowa’s strong writing culture, including its number one ranking among public universities for teaching writing and communications across disciplines by U.S. News & World Report, we chose to embrace that identity and align it with our own goals at Tippie. In doing so, we have been able to leverage the university’s brand to create a distinct, communications-focused identity that not only benefits our students but also better prepares them for the industries they’ll serve.
The truth is, leaning into a strong institutional brand doesn’t have to dilute your professional school identity; it can actually enhance it. With a strong foundation in communication throughout all our programs, we are able to stay true to The Writing University identity while also responding to emerging industry demands in ways that capitalize on our strengths as a business school. Our new Risk Management and Insurance major is a great example of this. As one of the largest insurance hubs in the country, Iowa employs over 60,000 professionals in the sector and needs skilled graduates — a need Tippie is uniquely positioned to meet. Our RMI students will be ready to enter the field as strong communicators able to respond to industry demands.
At the same time we continue to weave communication skills into all aspects of our curriculum, so that students develop writing and presentation skills alongside the technical skills learned in their majors. Initiatives like the Frank Business Communication Center, the Big 10’s first business-specific writing and communications hub, have played a major role in realizing this. The center, which provides resources and support to students and faculty on everything from visualizing data in presentations to sentence structure in business memos, has enriched our curriculum and helped us produce graduates who not only have the technical expertise that business demands but also the critical communication skills that set them apart in the job market.
We have a required course for all undergraduates, Business Communication and Protocol, yet we wanted to broaden the communication and writing skills beyond that single course to permeate all our curriculum. Instructors from the Frank Center were assigned to each major department within the school and worked collaboratively to generate writing assignments to integrate into course curriculum. All of our required accounting courses feature a writing, presentation or visual communication project, which the Frank Center supports through their accounting writing and communications program. Additionally, while we have designated instructional faculty for our business communications courses, we’re fortunate to sometimes have phenomenal writers from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop become instructors within the Frank Center to work directly with our students.
We also offer a summer writing support program for our Ph.D. students. And we introduced the Business Communications Certificate, which allows our Iowa MBA students to specialize in communication as part of their degree. This certificate is a unique selling point but also helps set our graduates apart in an increasingly competitive job market.
Over the last five years, we’ve worked to ensure that our students, from undergrad to Ph.D., have an opportunity to tap into the business writing expertise that Iowa is known for. Our students leave Tippie equipped with both the expected business expertise and the communication skills that employers value, giving them an edge.
Perhaps the most innovative way we’ve leaned into the Writing University brand is through Story Lab, a program designed to teach students how to use storytelling as a powerful tool in business. We launched Story Lab to help students understand the importance of narrative, and how to use it in variety of mediums, from presentations to written communications to social media. This program, which is open to both undergraduates and graduate students, draws on insights from industry leaders; we even recently hosted the chief storytelling officer from Microsoft.
But the benefits of brand alignment go beyond programmatic success. It has strengthened our internal identity at Tippie and enhanced our visibility both within the university and with external audiences. University leadership has taken notice of our efforts, and that increased recognition has translated into more support for our initiatives.
For all of the positives that have come from brand alignment, it’s not without risk. University brands are not static; they evolve with changes in leadership, funding, industry demands, and student needs. At Iowa, the university is increasingly focusing on healthcare, a vital sector in our rural state and beyond. This evolution presents opportunities for us to explore the intersection of business and healthcare in our future programming. But these shifts don’t negate the work we’ve done by leaning into our institution’s writing identity — they complement it.
For professional schools trying to stand out, the impulse may be to create entirely distinct brands, but I would argue that aligning with your university’s strengths can lead to a more powerful and sustainable identity. What’s more, Tippie’s embrace of Iowa’s writing reputation has resulted in stronger programs and better outcomes for our students. By leaning into our university’s brand, we’ve achieved something more lasting than differentiation: we’ve built a school that is stronger because of its connection to the institution and better equipped to serve the needs of our students and their future employers.
Amy Kristof-Brown is dean of the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business.
