The outbreak of COVID-19 has shuttered most of the University of Northern Iowa’s campus services, but a small, dedicated group of dining services workers have continued to work through the pandemic to provide three meals a day to the tiny population of students still living on campus.
When the UNI Foundation launched a fundraising campaign last week for a new scholarship to help students facing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the response was powerful.
Within a few days more than 500 people donated a combined $50,000 for the new UNItogether Scholarship, which will help mitigate tuition costs for new and returning students.
Nearly 2,000 brand-new University of Northern Iowa graduates are expected to gather Thursday for a commencement ceremony unlike any in UNI history.
Instead of crossing a stage at the McLeod Center this weekend to receive their degree, the Class of 2020 will celebrate their achievements online. Social distancing guidelines amid a global coronavirus pandemic have left US universities little choice but to move their commencement ceremonies off campus.
As the nation and Cedar Valley region continue to grapple with the devastating fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, the University of Northern Iowa is stepping up to help students.
Under a cloudy sky on the first day of May, Emily Dvorak and two University of Northern Iowa students pushed seedlings of broccoli and cauliflower into freshly tilled soil at the People’s Community Garden in downtown Waterloo.
Marion, Iowa, and Rawalpindi, Pakistan are separated by a distance of over 7,000 miles. Mahlia Brown grew up dreaming of a career in human resources, while Farhan Amjad’s interest in technology led him to study computer science with a desire to make his own impact on Silicon Valley. Their paths converged at UNI as the 2020 Lux Service Award recipients.
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.
It started as a pilot project to provide about 50 University of Northern Iowa students with remote access to specialized software.
But with the dawn of the coronavirus and the wave of campus closures and remote learning that followed, demand for the small pilot project surged to serve more than 1,000 students in just two weeks.
Welcome to the new normal for UNI’s IT Department.
