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.
The UNI Foundation today launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the new UNItogether Scholarship Fund, which was created to provide tuition assistance to students facing financial hardships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
The award is the most prestigious given by the Office of the Dean of Students each year to honor graduating seniors with a track record of serving others on campus.
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.
Fortunately Cedar Valley physicians have so far been spared making those momentous life-or-death choices about who receives care. But they’ve turned to a UNI professor and bioethics expert for guidance in case that day ever comes.
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.
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.
So, he decided to do something about it. On March 15, he started the #CedarValleyStrong movement, a social media and business outreach campaign designed to bring awareness to area small businesses and encourage local shopping.
With Cedar Valley hospitals, health clinics and nursing homes still in critical need of personal protective equipment, the University of Northern Iowa continues to be part of the supply effort.
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.
Facing a dire shortage of protective gear for healthcare workers, hospitals in Iowa and across the country have turned to their communities for assistance. In the Cedar Valley, the University of Northern Iowa is helping answer that call.
