Student Life Stories & News

UNI student Caleb Christine works in the Industrial Technology Center.

It's never too late to pursue a dream

These days, Caleb Christine has a lot of time to think. Mostly because he spends a lot of time in his car.

He has time to look back and peer ahead, to reflect on his time as a soldier, a police officer, a truck driver and a college drop-out. It’s his time to take stock of the many decisions that led him, at 38 years old with a wife and three kids, to enroll at the University of Northern Iowa and pursue a new career as an industrial technology teacher.

Theatre UNI performs Cabaret.

Putting on a "Cabaret": Inside a Theatre UNI production

Abby Chagolla slouched over in a chair in UNI Assistant Professor Amy Osatinski’s office, doodling in her binder, trying to find the right question for the answer she was desperately seeking. The senior theatre performance and communications studies double major was struggling to figure out her role in the upcoming Theatre UNI production of “Cabaret.” She hoped her meeting with Osatinski, director of this production of “Cabaret,” would help her find clarity.

UNI backup quarterback Christian Ellsworth.

UNI quarterback joins NCAA huddle to represent students nationwide

UNI backup quarterback Christian Ellsworth will help influence the decisions that affect about 15,000 student-athletes nationwide as part of the NCAA's Division I Football Oversight Committee.
UNI campus

UNI reports fall enrollment, student success trends

In its official census day headcount, the University of Northern Iowa reported a total student population of 10,497, as well as a marked increase in a number of important areas including a record high four-year graduation rate.

While total enrollment is down from one year ago, the university began planning for the decrease in the early spring, making budget adjustments and working with the Board of Regents on a funding model to keep tuition rates steady.

University of Northern Iowa senior Mollie Sherman.

UNI senior returns from a life-changing summer

During an eight-week internship at Boston University this summer, senior Mollie Sherman saw all sides of medicine – the thrilling successes and the anguishing defeats. And it gave her the confidence to pursue a goal she had been told she could never accomplish.
University of Northern Iowa students excavate a part of campus for an archaeology class.

The search for Central Hall continues

UNI students will once again search for the remains of the oldest building on campus.

This may seem a bit abstract, but please consider this: The grounds of the University of Northern Iowa are like a Jell-O salad.

Think of the grounds as a three-dimensional mold, the jiggly, gelatin confection analogy within which layers of the university’s history reside. Bricks, limestone rubble, nails and all other manner of bygone miscellany then become the fruit cocktail, the artifacts that are unearthed as you excavate through that iconic dessert.