Spectator@IOWA - Monthly News for UI Alumni and Friends

Skip to Site Navigation Links
Skip to Features
Skip to Iowa News Highlights
Skip to Campus Links
Skip to Alumni-Related News links

A Reason to Fly Alumna sets a record and seeks a cure

Hawkeye fans marked the Sept. 11 game against Iowa State University with a show of school pride and patriotic spirit. More

ENROLLMENT

Welcoming and keeping more students

In a double dose of good enrollment news, the University welcomed a record first-year class, but also boosted its first-to-second-year retention rate to 86.28 percent—the highest in at least a decade. More

HANCHER REPLACEMENT

Pelli Clarke Pelli to design new performing arts center

World-renowned architects Pelli Clarke Pelli will design a replacement facility for Hancher Auditorium. One of 59 international firms that submitted proposals for the project, Pelli Clarke Pelli is known for some of the world’s tallest and most iconic buildings, including the Petronas Towers in Kualal Lupur, Malaysia (Night image of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, © 2004 Ángel Riesgo Martínez.) More

APPOINTMENT

Engineering dean named interim provost

Barry Butler, professor and dean of the College of Engineering, will step in as interim UI provost while the University conducts a national search to replace Wallace Loh, who becomes University of Maryland president Nov. 1. More

GAME DAYS

Faster stadium entry, refined tailgate rules

Hawkeye football fans can expect quicker bag inspections at Kinnick Stadium, more express lanes for fans without items that require inspection, and another hour of tailgating time for games that start at 11 am. More

HOMECOMING

Penn State game and a whole lot more

Students, alumni, and the UI community are gearing up for Homecoming 2010, which features the Oct. 2 football face-off with Penn State University, the annual parade in downtown Iowa City, and a week of other events. More

FUND-RAISING

UI Foundation reports more givers, more gifts in 2010

The University of Iowa Foundation accepted gifts from a record 73,332 contributors in fiscal 2010, which also saw a jump in the number of gifts and the third-best fund-raising year in the foundation’s history. More

ALUMNI DIRECTORY

Check your info, order your copy

The UI Alumni Association is developing the first official alumni directory in eight years, providing a resource to help UI grads connect. Alumni can update listings and place advance orders any time until Nov. 22. More

PODCAST

Cryonics’ big chill

Hear from a UI graduate student who’s examined a unique dilemma among couples—what happens when one partner wants to be frozen after death, but the other remains cool to the idea. More

EDUCATION

Pizza parties, pep rallies, and standardized tests?

A UI study finds that some Iowa high school principals use a host of motivational strategies to drive up students’ test scores, but can rarely assess whether their methods are working. More

SHOPPING

Parents pick healthy food—except when buying for kids

UI research shows that parents prefer healthy food for their families, but are half as likely to make healthy choices when picking products especially for children. More

ELECTION 2010

Electronic markets show trouble for Democrats in November

If trades on the Iowa Electronic Markets are any indication—and they usually are—Republicans are likely to win a majority in at least one chamber of Congress, and may even make an outright sweep. More

ARTS OUTREACH

Hancher brings ballet to Iowa communities

The University of Iowa’s Hancher is hosting a slate of free, outdoor performances by the company Ballet West II Sept. 17–22, including stops in Fairfield, Iowa City, Kalona, and Muscatine. More

Related: Hancher introduces arts management internships. More

TOP TOWNS

Iowa City named third-best community for college students

No surprise—academic environment, quality of life, and professional opportunities make Iowa City one of the nation’s best college towns according to the American Institute for Economic Research. More

“Whenever you have monumental legislation, you will always have new work for lawyers.”

Sheldon Kurtz, professor of law, on health care reform—the focus of a UI College of Law class available for free online (Des Moines Register, Sept. 1).

More UI national news

“Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. Cry, and you’ve been the subject of a Paul Conrad cartoon.”

Former President Gerald Ford on the UI alumnus and Pulitzer Prize–winning political cartoonist, who died Sept. 4 at age 86 (Washington Post, Sept. 6).