When about a dozen students in University of Northern Iowa professor Justin Holmes’ political science senior seminar joined their first online class last week, they couldn’t help but smile.
Holmes greeted them before a Zoom background of a famous meme - a cartoon of a dog sitting down to a cup of coffee in a room engulfed with flames. The thought bubble reads “This is fine.”
For UNI senior Cassidy Flory, public health is a calling. Two of her sisters are nurses, her mother works with disabled adults and Flory, a public health and gerontology major, hopes to work in a public health department someday.
Nothing - not even a global pandemic - is going to change that.
Most days, first-year UNI student Jacey Meier doesn’t have the luxury of waking up late. Not only does she have to get ready herself, but before she heads out the door, she needs to grab a leash, fasten a vest, and pack up her dog’s lab gear, which includes a protective sweater and goggles.
Erin Brockovich, then a single mom and law clerk, became a household name after an Oscar-winning film starring Julia Roberts told the story of her dogged investigation into groundwater contamination in Hinkley, Calif. and the historic class-action lawsuit that followed. On Feb. 25, Brockovich gave her talk “The Power of One” in the Great Hall of the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center.
TC and TK briefly took to the floor of the Iowa State House Monday as the University of Northern Iowa hosted UNI Day at the Capitol, an annual event highlighting UNI’s impact across the state by showcasing its programs, services, students and alumni.
Three weeks remained before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, but rounds of media interviews and education events had left UNI political science professor Donna Hoffman’s voice scratchy and fading. So when a French news outlet reached out to Hoffman — one of several UNI experts on Iowa’s idiosyncratic method for selecting presidential candidates — her voice couldn’t quite manage another phone or video interview.
Gloria Kirkland-Holmes overcame discrimination and self-doubt to become a valued member of the UNI community, launching a number of on-campus initiatives to promote diversity in her 41-year career at the university.
A recent $200,000 grant will support the UNI Tallgrass Prairie Center’s mission to restore prairies, improve agriculture and increase the quality of life on farmland and beyond.
For the past several years, teams of University of Northern Iowa computer science majors have been competing in cyber defense contests, often taking on schools several times their size to either fight off or take part in cyber attacks in a purely digital battle.
