The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has forced some health care providers to make gut-wrenching choices. In Italy, doctors had to decide which terminally-ill patients received ventilators. And in New York, there have been reports of patients unable to get lifesaving treatments.
Each year, hundreds of students pack Lang Hall Auditorium for the annual Catwalk fashion show. The show is run by students in UNI’s textiles and apparel program (TAPP) and showcases their original designs. Students dive into planning and creating pieces for the event at the start of every spring semester. Senior TAPP major Jenna Vermost had already made six pieces, including four elaborate wedding dresses, for this year’s show when COVID-19 threatened to end the event altogether.
University of Northern Iowa junior Ashley Campbell had just made the biggest scientific discovery of her life, but it took a moment for the truth to sink in.
Campbell is part of a group of UNI undergraduates researching the genetic makeup of the chewing louse, a grain-sized parasite similar to lice in humans that makes its home on furry animals. The research, which aims to expand our knowledge of evolutionary biology for use in medical applications, is exacting and sometimes tedious.
In early March, before mandated bar and restaurant closures and social distancing guidelines brought the Cedar Valley economy to a grinding halt, University of Northern Iowa business and manufacturing instructor Heath Wilken could see that the looming COVD-19 pandemic would spell trouble for local small businesses.
UNIBusiness first piqued Sarah Roemer’s (MAcc, ’20) interest in high school. She was looking for a reputable business college with a hometown feel. But being a Des Moines native, she decided to stay closer to home at a small liberal arts school. Four years later, as Roemer began looking at graduate schools, UNIBusiness once again displayed prominently on her radar.
With a UNIBusiness education as a base, Becca Flynn Kettman (Marketing ’14) has been serving a larger purpose in her career track — working to improve and preserve our planet. Kettman is a fellow with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in Cincinnati, Ohio.
A few weekends ago, we spent a lot of long hours cleaning up a seven acre property. With that space, social distancing would not be a problem, so we hired three Panthers to help get it done. Fortunately, they all passed the Wilson Work Ethic test.
At first glance, it looks like something sprung from the mind of Jackson Pollock.
But the vibrant colors strewn across the image represent not the paint strokes of an artist, but the tiny, mineralogical components of a rock. And they were produced by a new set of scientific instruments at the University of Northern Iowa that will give students a deeper, more detailed look into geology than was previously possible.
