In recent weeks, AIB College of Business announced that it would merge with the University of Iowa. In the original press conference on Jan. 26, AIB announced that it would become the University of Iowa’s Des Moines campus and that AIB students could become Iowa students.

Much of this original plan announced during that press conference, however, has already been changed. In the Board of Regents meeting on Feb. 5, it was announced that AIB would no longer be a UI satellite campus, but it would become the Regional Regents Center and offer opportunities to Iowa State and Northern Iowa to put some programs in place, the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported.

There is much controversy, however, surrounding the futures of the current students and how they have been treated by AIB and Iowa since the original announcement of the merger. According to a press release, AIB will discontinue all athletic programs after the spring 2015 season.

But the issues did not stop with the student athletes. The school also announced that it would not accept any freshman in the fall of 2015 and the last class from AIB will graduate and the faculty members’ contracts will end in June 2016 in order for Iowa to overtake the campus in July 2016, also according to the press release.

Finally, although the original announcement of the merger made it seem as though AIB students would automatically be admitted to Iowa, they now “need to meet the admission criteria for transfer students” for their individual schools or programs, according to the press release.

While AIB said it would work closely to either help students transfer or finish their degrees by 2016, is it really rewarding to receive a degree from a school that will not exist immediately after a student graduates?

And what about those students who are seniors in high school and just found out the college they chose to attend in August will no longer accept them? Especially those who counted on scholarships offered by AIB or planned to play on athletic teams.

Perhaps the most shameful part is that AIB students were told they would be kept in the loop about the upcoming merger. In the original press release from AIB, President Nancy A. Williams said “both institutions are fully committed to keeping everyone well-informed during the integration.”

However, this does not appear to have happened in the past two weeks because multiple media outlets, including WHOtv, have reported that current and future students and athletes found out about the merger and updates by watching or reading news stories.

While this merger between Iowa and a private college in Des Moines does not negatively affect Iowa State all that much, even if Iowa State may benefit from the merger if the school can rent part of the Regional Regents Center, it is shocking that college students so close to us would be treated so poorly.