The University of Northern Iowa campus is once again alive.
After a long layoff due to COVID-19, the first day of class on Aug. 17 unfolded with the everyday sights and sounds of college life. Masked students walked to and from class or lounged in the Adirondack chairs in the shade of elm and ash trees.
The electronic beep of scanned student ID cards and the whir of espresso machines filled the background while students waited six feet apart for their coffee or tea at Chats in Maucker Union, the baristas protected by a sheet of Plexiglass.
International students and campus administrators at the University of Northern Iowa breathed a sigh of relief after the federal government rescinded a policy decision Tuesday that could have forced thousands of international students across the country to return home amidst a global pandemic.
The speech that won University of Northern Iowa junior Hannah Haisman a first-place finish at a recent national competition was inspired by a lesson learned during a summer internship: “When the going gets tough, the tough stay joyful.”
Haisman, a communications major who will start her senior year at UNI this fall, took first place in the speakers’ competition at the national convention for Pi Sigma Epsilon, a national co-ed professional fraternity for students interested in sales and marketing.
For Jeremy Rosel, the transition to college life was a bit different than most students.
Instead of dealing with the challenges of leaving home for the first time, he was leaving five years of military service as a combat medic with tours in Iraq and Germany.
It was an abrupt transition. He left the rigid structure of military life to enter the more relaxed atmosphere of a college campus, and he struggled to adapt.
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.
The University of Northern Iowa has been named to Phi Theta Kappa’s Transfer Honor Roll for the second time in three years.
Only the top quarter of the regionally accredited institutions that applied made the international honor society’s list, which recognizes excellence in helping community college students successfully transition to institutions offering four-year degrees. UNI is one of 112 colleges nationwide - and the only public university in Iowa - to make the cut this year.
After suffering the most devastating loss of his esports career, Ty DeBondt woke up the morning of Jan. 26 a defeated man.
The junior University of Northern Iowa physical education major, who specializes in the video game NBA 2K20, had surpassed about 1 million players in the second annual MyTeam Unlimited Tournament to make it to the top 16. He had a 10-point lead on his semifinal opponent with just minutes left to play. The $250,000 grand prize beckoned.
After setting a national fundraising record at the University of Northern Iowa’s first Dance Marathon eight years ago, organizers have an even loftier goal for this year’s event.
UNI’s largest student organization is hoping to raise $700,000 for the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital on Feb. 29. An anonymous donor has agreed to match the total dollar-for-dollar and will speak at the event.
That $1.4 million haul would shatter the group’s previous record of $680,464.
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.
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.
