Time has changed many of Iowa’s rural communities. Strengthening these towns starts with understanding how social capital and leadership influence development in a small town. A group of Iowa State University researchers has tracked changes in quality of life and social capital in 99 Iowa towns since 1994. This month, they begin a third, two-year study to determine if the changes have continued.

PASCAL recently posted a policy brief on the role of the ‘regional-intensive’ university. Recent days have seen some other important contributions on this and related issues in a variety of media. This note is intended to highlight some of the points made, to supplement and exemplify the discussion in the policy paper.