Gender & Sexuality Services Stories & News

Noehren Hall

Final phase of Noehren to reopen this fall, providing gender-inclusive living space

UNI's Noehren Hall will be fully reopening in the fall for the first time since 2018, this time as an all-gender residence hall.
Jess Cruz, outreach educator and exhibit preparator for the UNI Museum.

From UNI Museum, helping make campus more inclusive

Jess Cruz, outreach educator and exhibit preparator for the UNI Museum, doesn’t just help prepare students for careers in museum studies through her work. As a proud Hispanic and bisexual woman, Cruz also serves as an advocate for students across campus.
UNI art professor Jeffery Byrd

Art professor creates a more inclusive reality

Growing up in a small town in Alabama, UNI professor and art department head Jeffery Byrd dreamed of a world that would be more accepting of his LGBTQ identity. At UNI, he made that dream a reality, co-founding UNI’s first LGBTQ studies course and acting as a role model for LGBTQ students — while building community and finding love in the process.
Pride Flag

A Pride Week for everyone

This year, virtual events and a week-long art exhibit provide a more accessible and socially distanced Pride Week to celebrate LGBTQ+ community on campus.

New LGBT student services coordinator, Kalyani Kannan

New LGBTQ student services coordinator has a passion for supporting students

Growing up in Logan, Utah, UNI alum Kalyani Kannan struggled to see her LGBTQ identity reflected in her peers and mentors. As a graduate student at UNI, she found a supportive community and now, in her new role as LGBTQ student services coordinator, she's able to be the role model she needed when she was young.

UNI campus

Cedar Valley Women’s March to discuss the intersections of feminism in the United States and Cedar Valley

UNI NEWS SERVICES – The University of Northern Iowa welcomes the community to the 2nd Annual Cedar Valley Women’s March. Due to Covid-19 precautions, the march will shift its format to a virtual discussion and explore the intersections of feminism in the United States and Cedar Valley. 

UNI campus

UNI Center for Violence Prevention and Iowa High School Athletic Association release racial equality and gender violence prevention programming

UNI NEWS SERVICES– The University of Northern Iowa Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) and the Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) have partnered together to provide and support racial justice and gender-based violence prevention programming to Iowa school districts and athletic departments. 

UNI campus

Creating change on campus

The University of Northern Iowa is creating change on campus, and faculty, staff, and students are working together to make it happen. This past fall, President Nook announced twelve action items to address needs, challenges, and opportunities expressed by the campus community.

UNI graduate student Hasina Jalal.

UNI Fulbright scholar empowering Afghan women

UNI Fulbright Scholar Hasina Jalal knows only too well the high stakes for women who work for equality, liberty and democracy in her native Afghanistan. 

Iowa suffragist Gertrude Rush

Suffrage exhibit features African American women

The year 2020 marks 100 years of women having the right to vote. But the ratification of the 19th Amendment only gave some women the right to vote. African American women were almost completely excluded. 

Iowa has many prominent African American suffragists in its history, yet they receive little recognition. A new traveling exhibit at the UNI Museum in the Rod Library seeks to change that.