Spectator - 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 Bulldog and a Hawkeye--Music education at Drake leads Nelson to top spot at UI Alumni Association

What’s been happening on the University of Iowa campus this past year? An online report, published throughout the week of Nov. 26-30, will review 2012, reflecting on faculty, staff, and student achievements; the latest UI construction projects, including a new residence hall; Iowa’s prominent role in space exploration; flood recovery; and, of course, the university’s financial picture. More

FLOOD RECOVERY

Homeland Security reaffirms federal funding for flooded art buildings

UI President Sally Mason joined state and congressional leaders in praising the federal government’s decision in October to reaffirm its commitment to provide $83 million for the replacement of Hancher Auditorium, School of Music, and studio arts buildings. More

SPACE RESEARCH

NASA pays homage to Van Allen

On Nov. 9, NASA renamed a recently launched mission to study Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts as the Van Allen Probes mission in honor of the late James A. Van Allen, U.S. space pioneer and longtime distinguished professor of physics in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The project aims to learn more about the radiation belts, which Van Allen discovered more than 50 years ago. More

UI NEWS

Iowa Now email subscribers can fine-tune news by topic, ‘as it happens’

Iowa Now subscribers now have greater say over what stories are delivered to their email in-boxes, and when and how they receive them. More

RESEARCH

UI study breaks new ground in reading development research

Many educators have long believed that when words differ on only one sound, early readers can learn the rules of phonics by focusing on what is different between the words. UI scientists are turning that thinking on its head. A recent study shows certain kinds of variation in words may help early readers learn better. More

STUDENT-ATHLETES

Freshman Lana Bonekemper heads to the Big 10 Tournament with the UI soccer team

Iowa Now photographer Bill Adams spent time with incoming freshman soccer forward Lana Bonekemper this fall as she adjusted to life as a Big Ten Conference student athlete. On the eve of the Big Ten Tournament, catch a glimpse of Lana’s season. More

ACHIEVEMENTS

Four UI faculty members win top teaching award

Four Iowa faculty members—A. Allen Bradley Jr., Jay Christensen-Szalanski, Caroline K. Sheerin, and Jodi Tate—have won the 2012 President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence in recognition of their years of outstanding teaching. More

FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

Living-learning communities to include to all first-year students

In 2010, the UI set an ambitious goal—make living-learning communities available to all first-year students. Next fall, that idea becomes a reality. More

ATHLETICS

Basketball kicks off with rekindled Black and Gold Blowout

Flames, fireworks, and fans. On old tradition was resurrected to deliver an explosive launch for the men’s and women’s basketball seasons. More

“Some of the most intense distractions can come when you’re stopped.”

Daniel McGehee, director of the UI’s Human Factors and Vehicle Safety Research Program, warning drivers that checking email while at a stop sign or a red light is still dangerous, as it takes attention away from pedestrians and surrounding vehicles (NPR’s All Tech Considered, Nov. 11).

More UI national news

“After each time I come back, I have a stronger desire to return.”

UI alumnus Shaun Harty, drawing personal and professional inspiration from his multiple visits to Haiti, which began in 2010 when he was a UI chemistry student volunteering with Community Health Initiative to provide health care and conduct research in remote villages (Mokena (Ill.) Patch, Oct. 17).