Spectator - Monthly News for UI Alumni and Friends

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A Match Made…on Campus Iowa fans make the University part of their big day

The University of Iowa’s Hancher has announced its 2011–12 schedule of performances, which includes dance, music, theater, and family events. The season will get under way on Sept. 4, when the dancers of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago perform a free, outdoor show on the Hancher Green as a farewell to the flood-damaged auditorium. More

Related: What was the best performance you saw at Hancher Auditorium? Did you get to visit with an artist backstage? Maybe you had a special date at a Hancher event? E-mail your favorite memories of Hancher to hancher-social@uiowa.edu. We’ll publish a selection in our August issue of Spectator.

COMPUTING POWER

High-performance computing cluster is University's largest supercomputer ever

Tackling the world’s biggest problems and advancing cutting-edge science and learning require computing power on a very large scale. Now researchers at The University of Iowa have access to a new high-performance computing cluster that’s the largest ever installed on campus. More

INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH

Law professor Reitz helps guide Nepal to new constitution

Negotiators in Nepal are in the final stages of drafting a new constitution for their country, and UI law professor John Reitz recently helped push the process along. More

STATE FAIR

University's Iowa State Fair exhibit needs volunteers

University Relations is seeking volunteers for the UI exhibit at the Iowa State Fair from Aug. 11 to 22 in Des Moines to distribute football posters, temporary tattoos, athletics schedules, and other items, and interact with fairgoers. The UI booth is located in the Varied Industries Building. Fair admission, parking passes, and a Hawkeye T-shirt will be provided. Details and a sign-up form are available online. More

COLLEGE OF LAW

New book chronicles history of Iowa's law school

The UI College of Law has published a detailed academic history of the school dating back to the days when it was first imagined in 1845. More

DIVERSITY

UI researcher says Iowa's first minority majority town is sign of state's growing diversity

For the first time in decades, Iowa has a minority majority town, and a UI researcher says it’s a sign of how quickly the state’s cultural face is changing. More

FACULTY OUTREACH

Faculty connect with central Iowa during annual trip

Just after the spring semester ended, 28 faculty members left town in search of the Iowa beyond Iowa City and found Marshalltown, Webster City, Goodell, and Des Moines. They were part of the sixth annual Faculty Engagement Corps, sponsored by the Office of the Provost as an opportunity for faculty to spend time listening to and learning from Iowans in their communities. More

TECH INNOVATION

Student entrepreneur makes world's most adorable flash drives

UI senior Doug Stienstra of Orange City, Iowa, combines flash drives and finger puppets to make the cutest digital memory devices you ever did see. A portion of each sale is donated to the World Wildlife Fund. More

FOOTBALL

Iowa-Nebraska game will be national telecast

When the Iowa Hawkeyes travel to Nebraska for the final regular season football game of the 2011 season, the contest will be televised by ABC-TV to a national audience, with a start time of 11 a.m. CDT. The contest at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln will be played on Friday, Nov. 25, the day after Thanksgiving. More

MEDICAL RESEARCH

UI study: Carbon black nanoparticles activate immune cells, causing cell death

Researchers from the UI Carver College of Medicine have found that inhaled carbon black nanoparticles create a double source of inflammation in the lungs. More

PET THERAPY

Photo Essay: Furry Friends program provides emotional lift

At University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the power of pets can be felt firsthand through the Furry Friends program, a partnership of the hospital’s volunteer services and rehabilitation therapies departments. More

RIDING FOR A CAUSE

Writers' Workshop alumnus Clute cycles 800 miles to 75th reunion to fight ALS

Alumni and former faculty of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop traveled from all directions and from great distances to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the famous and influential program in June. But 1992 graduate Mitchell Clute likely is the only one who arrived by bicycle—from 800 miles away. More

Related: University Relations photographer documents a portion of “Monte's Ride to Defeat ALS” More

ATHLETICS GIVING

Track letter winners help provide new scoreboard

Three former Hawkeye student athletes on the track and field and cross-country teams, including former football and track standout Tim Dwight, have made major gifts to support the purchase of a state-of-the-art scoreboard for the men's and women's track and cross-country programs. More

“That change has been creeping up on us since the late 1970s—it’s kind of a silent epidemic.”

Kevin Leicht, UI sociologist and coauthor of Postindustrial Peasants: The Illusion of Middle-Class Prosperity, noting that many unemployed blue-collar employees in their 40s and 50s may struggle to find work in the near future (Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31).

More UI national news

“My daughter once said she can’t wait for a day when her class mates don’t ask her why she reads but what she reads.”

Rana Dajani, who received a PhD at Iowa on a Fulbright Scholarship and now is a professor of molecular biology at the Hashemite University in Jordan, discussing “We Love Reading,” a program she started to instill interest in reading for pleasure throughout the Middle East and elsewhere (Huffington Post, May 19).