Iowa State News

Babikir’s leadership shines through at Iowa

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:46:04 +0000

Within moments of entering the Old Capitol Mall, Razan Babikir received smiles and waves from people who recognized her as they were passing through the mall. The graduating senior, who always waved back or replied with a cheerful “hi,” seemed to know everyone, possibly because of her involvement in multiple student organizations throughout her time at the University of Iowa, including serving as president of Walk It Out, the university’s multicultural fashion show.

Babikir, who will be graduating this semester with a bachelor’s degree in public health and a double minor in Arabic and informatics, was a member of the Muslim Student Association, the African Student Association, Black Student Association, and the Undergraduate Public Health Organization. She also co-founded the Sudanese Student Association in her second year to help unite the Sudanese community in Iowa City with Sudanese students and strengthen the community at large.

“Walking into a PWI [predominantly white institution], it’s scary, but I’ve found a really good community and a good support system,” Babikir said. “I’m Sudanese, and there’s a big Sudanese community in this area, and I’ve been able to really create friendships through other cultural organizations. And my Arabic minor has introduced me to a lot of people I’m still friends with.”

And while Babikir didn’t remain with every student organization she joined, one she continued to participate in throughout her time at the UI was Walk It Out.

During her freshman year, Babikir joined Walk It Out as the organization’s first creative director, and continued in this position during her second year before becoming Walk It Out’s vice president in her third year. Babikir said these executive positions required a lot of time and commitment, so she almost did not return for her senior year because she worried about balancing the workload, but because of her knowledge and experience within the organization, members continued to ask her to return as president.

“Virtually no one else, or at least no one else that had my experience with Walk It Out, was running, so everybody was like, ‘The city needs you,’” Babikir said. “And I was like, ‘OK, I guess hand me the cape.’”

Walk It Out, UI’s largest multicultural organization, and Babikir’s role as president, became especially important this past semester as the university made drastic cuts to many DEI programs and organizations that provided safe spaces and community for many at the university, including eliminating identity-based LLCs and closing the Division of Access, Opportunity, and Diversity.

Though there were concerns that funding would be cut for this year’s Walk It Out show, Babikir said she, along with many in the organization, would do everything in her power to support the multicultural fashion show and ensure it continues, even if that means fully funding the show with fundraisers.

“Its been a lot. It’s been hard to still feel like we can celebrate and do all this stuff when everyone around us is being cut,” Babikir said. “But that’s also the importance of Walk It Out. We do have to be there and have to represent because just because we’re sad about other people being cut, if we stop also, then there’s no one really carrying that on.”

And as president of this year’s Walk It Out, Babikir also had to make important decisions about how to address concerns about ICE potentially being on college campuses and about student visas being revoked, especially because the organization includes many international students. Babikir decided that if the need arose, the show would be canceled to protect these students.

“That’s the spirit of Walk It Out, we’re here to protect each other,” Babikir said. “At the end of the day, my job is to help people showcase their culture and themselves, but it’s also to protect them. So, it’s really important to be tuned into student government, to be tuned into local government, to be tuned into other student organizations.”

Jasmine Lee, Walk It Out’s vice president and a fourth-year global studies health studies student, said Babikir has always been a considerate leader.

“She’s a really good ‘let’s get down to business’ kind of person, and that’s what I liked about her, but she was always really really considerate,” Lee said. “A straightforward leader but very considerate of other people, which is really nice to have when your emotions are getting the best of you and tensions are high.”

Babikir dedicated time to Walk It Out beginning in summer 2024, and she continued to work with group leaders and executive members even after Walk It Out’s fashion show performance on April 12. During this time, and outside of her time with Walk It Out, Babikir has remained dedicated to Walk It Out’s mission of showcasing people’s cultures and supporting cultural communities, as Lauren Jackson, one of Walk It Out’s hip hop group leaders, explained.

“Razan even brought back our actual mission to donate, which is part of what Walk It Out originally stated for,” Jackson said. „Razan brought us back to that heart of like we’re here to celebrate our cultures and raise awareness for us, but also to help our communities while we’re doing so.”

And while Babikir is done with her time as Walk It Out president, she will be continuing her studies at the UI as a part of the U2G program. But Guillermo Ng Yi, a fourth- year biomedical engineering student who connected with Babikir while helping lead international student orientation, explained Babikir has been a role model for him and a strong leader.

“Razan is someone who I would trust to lead a country,” Ng Yi said. “I would vote for her for president.”

The post Babikir’s leadership shines through at Iowa appeared first on The Daily Iowan.

Graduating into uncertainty

Wed, 14 May 2025 00:21:15 +0000

In less than two weeks, fourth-year University of Iowa student Grace Corcoran will go from being a Hawkeye to an alumnus. After four years at the university and holding multiple jobs and volunteer positions, she is excited about the new possibilities and change that graduation can bring.

However, that change, and the subsequent job search that comes with it, has been a point of anxiety for the student double majoring in finance and business analytics and information systems. Despite having experience in her field, Corcoran is having trouble hearing back from hiring managers and getting a job offer post-graduation.

“I feel like graduation is coming up in two weeks, and people keep asking me where I’m going to be and what my plans are, and my answer is always, I would like to know as well,” Corcoran said. “It’s kind of stressful not knowing where I’m going to be in the next couple months. I’d like to have a plan, but just trying to take it day by day.”

Corcoran has an accounting assistant internship at a private equity firm under her belt, along with other jobs as a student at the UI. She can go back to her home of Puerto Rico and the firm if necessary, but it is not exactly what she wants to do because her interests are not in accounting.

“I thought the fact that I had that internship and performed so well that it turned into a part-time remote job would help me obtain other jobs, but I am finding that’s not the case,” she said.

The job application process has been frustrating, Corcoran said. She has found herself applying to nearly 80 jobs in the last six months, with various results in communication.

“I’ve had some where I just don’t even hear back. I have a couple where I do hear back, but it’s like five months later,” Corcoran said. “I think all businesses and all application systems are just so kind of backlogged with the hiring freezes in the mass amount of applicants this year.”

Companies across the U.S. are opting to pause hiring for positions as a result of President Donald Trump’s trade war and enforcement of tariffs on other countries. These political movements have added another layer of difficulty and uncertainty to the process, Corcoran said.

“I think stress is a common theme amongst all my friends when I talk about finding a job and their post-grad plan,” Corcoran said. “I know it’s usually a stressful process, but I think the current political and economic state of the United States right now is kind of hurting the process a lot due to so many financial institutions and other big businesses being on hiring freezes, the results to the economic uncertainty that’s taken place.”

Corcoran is not only hearing the uncertainty about the job market from her friends. She has also recently heard experts speak about the implications of the hiring freeze on television, including Bloomberg’s morning brief segment.

“One of the chief economists from the big banks was just kind of like, yeah, it’s just bad luck if you’re a 22-year-old university graduate looking for work, [it’s] very difficult right now with all the hiring freezes,” Corcoran said. “I think it’s definitely a nationwide issue for graduates.”

While the state of the economy is concerning to many, it has not yet entered a detrimental period. The U.S. is not in a recession, which would be a real cause for concern, said UI Professor of Economics Anne Villamil.

A recession happens when there is a major shock to the economy, like the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2008 recession caused by a global financial crisis, or the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

For Carla Keppler LaPorta, a 2009 UI graduate who majored in journalism and mass communication and communication studies, graduating into a recession was a nerve-wracking experience that was made more intense by the economic state of the U.S.

“I think looking back, it was a combination of excitement to enter the ‘real world’ and some nerves about securing a job and the right job immediately after graduation,” Keppler LaPorta said. “No doubt there’s a certain level of pressure you feel as you’re starting to count down the days until you get your diploma. It’s just part of it.”

While Keppler LaPorta was able to secure an internship following her graduation from the UI, there was still an air of uncertainty surrounding her graduating class.

“Said simply, it was pretty gloomy,” Keppler LaPorta said. “We were in the middle of the recession, and with that, of course, comes high unemployment, historically high, I believe, at that time, so not an ideal situation for someone just hitting the job market. I also had an internship my senior year at Iowa, where I saw several tenured staff members face layoffs, and that was a tough thing to watch as someone just looking for a job themselves.”

Keppler LaPorta added it was not unusual for her peers to immediately find roles in their area of interest and that the job search came with a learning curve for many people.

“I saw a lot of my friends at this time having to take part-time roles until they were able to find something in the field they study, or some started down a different track and just kind of headed in a different direction than they originally planned. But I think in the end, we all kind of landed in a good place and moved forward,” she said.

The period, as stressful as it was, was also an opportunity for Keppler LaPorta and her peers to learn how to navigate a difficult situation. For some, it meant working a little harder or getting a little bit more creative in the job search, and for others, it meant taking a few extra steps or shifting and shuffling before landing something, she said.

The uncertainty allowed Keppler LaPorta and her fellow students to try different jobs and roles while also adjusting to postgraduate life. No matter the state of the economy, the likelihood that you are going to have to navigate multiple jobs and different experiences after graduating is high, she said, especially after a temporary job like an internship, you are hoping to turn into an offer.

“It’s kind of like an initial wave, and then the potential for doing it again. But, you know, I think it’s the job search. You’ll probably do it, maybe again at another point in your career. So it’s just kind of part of it.” Keppler LaPorta said. “That’s always the hope, right, that you can land something and get in there full time.”

Keppler LaPorta’s experience is unlikely to mirror the experience of 2025 graduates, Vilamill said. Currently, the unemployment rate in the U.S. is low, but there is softness in the economy itself, and the potential for a self-induced recession from the trade war is there.

“I think the real issue is the policy uncertainty, because what you want is a stable macroeconomic environment, and when you have policies that are continually changing, that makes it difficult,” Villamil said. “The trade war…is right now just characterized by massive uncertainty.”

The uncertainty around foreign and trade policies is causing firms to delay investments, she said. This impacts the costs that companies are facing, leading them to potentially lower or delay some of their hiring plans or instead offer short-term contracts until that uncertainty is resolved.

“Certainly, if you don’t know the policy rules as a firm, you’re not going to want to make large capital expenditures,” Villamil said. “The Trump administration says it wants more investment in the U.S. economy, and that certainly is a good thing, but investment is a long-term phenomenon.”

Because of this, more companies might hesitate to make an offer to a potential candidate. Instead, some may opt to offer a potential start date as opposed to a hard start date that the employee can depend on.

“There’s enough uncertainty in the economy, particularly since people are concerned about a Trump tariff recession, that firms aren’t saying, ‘here’s a contract, and the starting date is January 2, 2026,’ it’s, ‘this is a target date,’” Villamil said. “So there’s uncertainty for everybody, the firm, the potential employee.”

Additionally, the nature of the trade war has made it hard to know what to expect financially.

“Most economists have said, very openly, ‘don’t do this, this is very destructive. It destroys GDP and it destroys wealth. Don’t do this’ and if you’re destroying global GDP, eventually jobs will follow,” Villamil said. “The hope is that the President is maybe getting the message that a trade war is not a good policy, and because this is ongoing, it is very difficult to predict what is going to happen.”

The Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is a measure of a country’s economic activity. According to a April 30 report from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent over January, February, and March. The GDP had previously increased by 2.4 percent.

The key to stabilizing and unfreezing the job market will be the trade negotiations between the U.S. and the countries that have tariffs implemented against them, she said.

“We’ve got to get to those negotiations to create a more a more stable global trading environment, which will feed back to us jobs,” Villamil said.

While it is still an extremely tense time, Corcoran is comforted because she is not the only student experiencing the uncertainty of a job search.

“It is a little bit reassuring that when I talk to a couple of my friends or other students in Tippie that they’re going through the same struggles,” Corcoran said. “It’s not just the isolated issue with me, which kind of provides some support and encouragement, but it definitely is a very stressful and anxiety-inducing situation.”

One of these fellow students is Luke Loving, a fourth-year student at the UI majoring in marketing with minors in psychology and media management. Loving also has previous experience going into the post-graduate search as a content marketing intern, but the company was unable to offer him a full-time position.

“They basically said they would love to have me, that they love having me as a worker, but they don’t know if they could hire me full-time after graduating because sales have been down recently, so now I’m not sure,” Loving said. “I’m kind of just assuming I’m not going to have that job, so I’ve just been really ramping up my search and applying to jobs, but I haven’t really heard anything since.”

Loving’s experience is similar to Corcoran’s. He has experienced either no responses to job applications or a long wait before hearing back. While he said he has not applied to a lot of jobs, that is because he is being specific with the places he chooses to apply.

“It’s kind of late, so finding somewhere to live if I were to go work in person in the summer would be difficult now,” Loving said. “I’m looking for completely remote jobs, or just jobs that are close to my hometown of Davenport. I probably have been applying as much as I should have been, should be, but I’m still applying to enough.”

While Loving was initially looking exclusively for full-time positions, he is now considering any job possibilities that he sees.

“I think what I’m really looking for is, if it’s an internship, I want disclosure that there’s opportunity for a full-time role after if I perform well enough, or if they like what I’m doing,” Loving said. “That’s kind of what I’m looking for now, is an internship with opportunity to become full-time or just a full-time role.”

While Loving said he is not worried about getting a job due to the strength of his resume and networking skills, the process is still slightly disheartening.

“It is a little sad, because as a college student, I know how much time people spend getting their degree and all the money that has to be spent,” Loving said. “It’s just kind of disappointing when you have to find a job that your degree is not even in, like a job that any kid with a high school diploma could get, after you graduate, because you can’t find a job that correlates with your degree.”

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Habitat for Humanity honors longtime volunteer with Memorial Duplex in Iowa City

Fri, 09 May 2025 01:53:00 +0000

I am good. I do not charge for being good. Therefore I am good-for-nothing.

You would have seen witty phrases like these fixed to the cap of William “D’Grouch” Laubengayer had you been volunteering alongside him through the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity, or IVHFH.

Laubengayer helped build 104 homes during his 20-year run with IVHFH.

Although he died in 2020, his name is still brought up today. IVHFH’s most recent duplex project, located on Blazing Star Drive, was built in his honor. The group held a dedication ceremony on April 26.

Laubengayer’s personal tools were used during the construction, effectively making the duplex his 105th and 106th home with IVHFH. For Tami Bonnett, IVHFH Development Director, that isn’t all he leaves behind.

“It’s hard to express how much he meant to our organization,” she said. “He was a very skilled guy and brought a lot as far as our capacity as an organization. The extra time spent that he put in would help us be a little more ahead on our projects.”

Laubengayer spent his time at home in his workshop preparing and measuring the frames of doors, creating design templates, and cutting lumber used in construction.

“He was also a teacher,” Bonnett said. “He’d help people stepping on the built site that aren’t necessarily comfortable, or have never experienced building in any way. So, he really taught people that didn’t have skills or maybe didn’t even pick up a tool before.”

Now, the duplex built in his honor is set to receive a certificate of occupancy early to mid May.

IVHFH Executive Director Scott Hawes highlighted the main features of the duplex. Housing five bedrooms and two bathrooms, the two mirror image sections total up to 2,000 feet.

“Some that Grouch would certainly be proud of is how energy efficient the home is,” he said.

The duplex is built with spray foam insulation, energy-star rated appliances and windows, and an energy recovery ventilation system to ensure clean and efficient air exchanges.

“And all that adds up to a home that reduces utility costs, but also greenhouse gas emissions,” Hawes said.

For people like Jessica Andino, executive director of the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition, IVHFH’s work helps address problems they run into every day.

Andino said the county has a low housing stock, which leads to a low vacancy rate. The low stock tends to hit the lowest wage earners the hardest.

“It’s like a game of musical chairs,” she said. “You have only so many houses to fill, and the slowest person, or the lowest wage earner, isn’t able to sit in any chair or fill any home. So what ends up happening is somebody that could afford maybe a $600,000 house takes a home that’s maybe $350,000.”

Andino said houses in Johnson County range anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000. She believes the duplex provides a great alternative for the families set to live inside.

“They don’t have a landlord that may deviate or increase their rent over time; they have security in the fact that their children can live in this neighborhood as long as they wish, and then that money is going to equity,” she said. “I think it’s a really wonderful option when people have home ownership under their belt.”

Bonnett believes that the duplex will provide a more stable environment for its families.

“That’s why William bought into us,” she said. “He did it because he saw how transformative home ownership is, and so I think the family being able to watch their kids play outside the home is just a vision of what William always saw when he was helping on site.”

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Students reflect on time at LLCs before closure

Fri, 09 May 2025 00:31:52 +0000

Following widespread anti-DEI legislation and mandates that have resulted in millions of dollars in cuts, office closures, job eliminations, and reductions in programming and training across Iowa’s public universities, the University of Iowa has confirmed the elimination of three DEI-related living learning communities, or LLCs, in its residence halls.

Rocio Gonzalez, a second-year student at UI, shared her deeply impactful experience as a member of a university LLC, where cultural exchange and community support have played a central role in her college journey.

For Gonzalez, the LLC has provided a unique opportunity to meet others who share similar cultural backgrounds, helping her navigate the challenges of being far from her home, Puerto Rico.

After having thoughts that Iowa wasn’t the place for her, she later found comfort, through the LLC, Unidos.

“It was a little bubble that I had of people with very similar backgrounds to me,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like more than anything, being able to feel comfortable speaking the way that I speak, and they would understand me, it was just amazing. It was incredible.”

One of the most meaningful aspects of the LLC for Gonzalez was the sense of belonging it provided.

“Before coming here, I had no idea how significant race and ethnicity were in the U.S. People here take it so seriously and are often very close-minded, which really shocked me. So, being in this LLC was not exactly a shield, but more like an oasis, surrounded by people who understand,” she added.

Unidos also provided Gonzalez with a space to connect to her Puerto Rican heritage. She recalled a memory of an event that was hosted with Puerto Rican music and food, she said, it felt like being at home.

However, Gonzalez’s experience in the LLC has taken a disheartening turn with recent news that the university plans to eliminate all cultural LLCs, including those that have been so integral to her experience.

A community wall with messages is seen during a Unidos event at the Latin Native American Cultural Center on April 30, 2025. This is one of the final living learning community events for Unidos, as the floor will be discontinued for the 2025-2026 school year. (Samantha DeFily)

“It makes me really sad that any freshman that comes in is no longer going to have those opportunities. I feel like we’re going backwards,” Gonzalez said.

The cultural scholarships provided through the LLC were also crucial for Gonzalez’s ability to attend the university. With the program’s elimination, Gonzalez expressed concerns for incoming students who may not have the same support system that she did.

“That’s literally the whole reason why I got to come to Iowa and come out of my island and get a better education over here,” she said.

In addition to cultural connections, the LLC helped Gonzalez form lasting friendships. She spoke fondly of her best friend whom she met through the program.

Despite the challenges ahead, Gonzalez remains hopeful.

“I’ve found my people here, and I’ll carry these connections with me forever,” she said.

For Melanie Flores, a fourth-year UI student and resident assistant, or RA, for the Unidos LLC, it wasn’t just a place to live, it was a family.

“I came to Iowa knowing absolutely nobody,” Flores said. “Kickoff at Kinnick my freshman year, that’s when we all really clicked. I finally felt like I had a group.”

Flores has spent her entire college journey in the Unidos LLC, first as a resident and later as an RA. From shared meals every evening to spontaneous group adventures, the community provided a sense of belonging that many students struggle to find at a predominantly white institution.

During her freshman year, a group of residents even traveled to Puerto Rico over spring break, an experience that left a lasting impression.

“It was nine of us. We stayed at our friend’s house for a week — it was amazing,” she recalled. “Just being together like that, it was more than a trip. It was a bond.”

As an RA, Flores found herself mentoring the next generation of students while still feeling genuinely included.

“They’re my residents, but they’ve made an effort to be my friends. It doesn’t feel like I’m just in charge,” she said.

The Unidos resident assistant Melanie Flores laughs during a Unidos event at the Latin Native American Cultural Center on April 30, 2025. This is one of the final living learning community events for Unidos, as the floor will be discontinued for the 2025-2026 school year. (Samantha DeFily)

That sense of connection became particularly important in the context of cultural identity.

“I was never hyper-aware of my appearance or culture before coming to Iowa,” she said. “But in Unidos, all that went away. It felt like home.”

As the Unidos LLC faces closure, Flores expressed deep concern for future students who won’t have the same support.

“I contemplated dropping out my first semester. If I didn’t have Unidos, I might not have made it,” Flores said. “It’s devastating to think others won’t have that lifeline.”

Looking ahead, she hopes the spirit of Unidos lives on.

“I just wish more people could have experienced what it’s like to live on a floor that feels like family,” Flores said.

Ana Zamora, a first-year student in the Unidos LLC, described the community as a tight-knit group where students could relate to one another through shared backgrounds and experiences.

When the university announced the closure of the LLC, Zamora and her peers felt blindsided. The decision, she said, reinforced feelings of being unsupported.

“It felt like everything was being taken away,” she explained, adding that many students relied on the space for emotional grounding.

Zamora said future students will miss out on an experience that made her feel safe and seen. While friendships made in Unidos will last, she expressed concern that without such a space, incoming students may struggle to find the same sense of belonging.

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UI dining navigates rising egg prices as contract ends

Thu, 08 May 2025 00:41:36 +0000

This is the third installment in a multi-part series investigating Iowa’s egg shortage.

Despite the U.S. Department of Agriculture reporting a decrease in wholesale egg prices, many consumers still expect to see high retail egg prices in their local grocery stores.

This has impacted many nationwide, as the average price of eggs in the U.S. soared to a record-breaking price of $6.23 in March 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The spike in egg prices, which has been attributed to a spike in bird flu cases in the U.S. and has left almost 170 million poultry affected since January 2022, has impacted the wallets of many consumers, left food pantries struggling to keep up with the demand, and has led to institutions, such as Iowa State University, to stop serving fresh eggs entirely.

However, while many have been struggling to continue incorporating fresh eggs into their daily diets, students at the University of Iowa who eat at the university’s dining facilities with a meal plan might face less of an impact.

Julia Antoniou, a first-year student at the UI, utilizes the meal plan she purchased from the university to visit the Burge Market Place for her meals, and it prevents her from having to visit grocery stores and deal with the direct cost of eggs.

“So far, the egg prices have not impacted me just because I’m on a meal plan, so I don’t have to go get groceries,” Antoniou said.

The UI, despite rising egg prices, continues to serve fresh egg products in its dining facilities — scrambled eggs, egg beaters, egg whites, hard-boiled eggs — and has continued to provide the Catlett Market Place’s omelet bar.

In a way, it would appear as though nothing had changed, though Alexis Cheville, a third-year at the UI who also frequents the Burge Market Place, explained she feels as though she has noticed the shortage reflected in the food options provided by the dining hall.

“There are a lot more vegan options than before,” Chevill said.

But as Don Stanwick, the director of dining services with UI’s dining, explained, the UI can still provide fresh eggs because of a contract the university has with Kalona-based Farmers Hen House.

“We have a contract with a provider for eggs that has been locked in for the last several years, and so that price has been set based on that contract,” Stanwick said. “So, our price remains consistent despite rising prices everywhere else.”

Farmers Hen House is a network of over 50 farms, consisting of local Amish and Mennonite farms, farms in Bloomfield, Iowa, and farms in northern Missouri.

While the UI’s contract with Farmers Hen House has allowed the university to navigate turbulent egg prices and continue providing fresh eggs to students amidst the bird flu, as Stanwick explained, the UI’s contract with Farmers Hen House will end at the conclusion of the spring 2025 semester.

The UI’s Purchasing Department declined to comment on the egg shortage and the UI’s contract with Farmers Hen House.

Stanwick, however, explained the university is already making plans and adjustments to prepare for the contract’s termination.

“We look at menus and everything around those lines to be able to still offer product as much as possible,” Stanwick said. “We’re not going to completely take away everything, but we’ll be smart in terms of how we utilize eggs throughout our menus.”

While Stanwick emphasized that all the plans being made are probables and will not be finalized until the university has a new contract, he also discussed how the university might navigate the issue of rising egg prices in the future by reducing the amount of times they serve an egg dish or limiting an egg dish to being by request only.

“There are still ongoing conversations as we make the plans for our fall menus,” Stanwick said. “Our point is, even if the prices go up, we will still try to find a way to incorporate those products so students can have what they want in the marketplaces.”

Students also expressed their desire to keep eggs available in the dining halls amidst rising egg prices.

“As the egg prices are rising, I hope that they’ll consider the fact that people do still want that for breakfast because that’s one of their main options that they’ll have, scrambled eggs,” Antoniou said. “So, I hope they’ll continue to have that as an option and not take that away.”

And while students using a meal plan might not have to pay the direct cost of rising egg prices, meal plan prices have risen in the past, including a 3 percent increase to meal plans in 2022. But as Stanwick explained, this hopefully will not be something students see.

“Our goal is to keep everything as affordable as possible for students, to keep it within reason,” Stanwick said. “We’ll look at other ways that we can better meet the needs of our students while trying to maintain affordability and the ability for students to be able to get what they want and have that as part of their meals.”

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AEA transition to a fee-for-service model has left rural districts paying more

Tue, 06 May 2025 23:54:47 +0000

Megan Dial-Lapcewich, of Oxford, Iowa, knew her 3-year-old son Eddie was falling behind developmentally with his speech. She said she could only understand about 50 percent of what he said, when at that point in his development, she should be able to understand 75 percent.

She said Eddie’s developmental delay in speech caused some frustrations at home as he tried to communicate with the family but couldn’t get his point across.

Dial-Lapcewich said she decided to get his delay checked out after a teacher at the in-home play school she takes Eddie to mentioned it. His speech delay was later confirmed by Eddie’s doctor.

His doctor recommended Dial-Lapcewich contact the Area Education Agency, or AEA, to start free speech therapy under Early ACCESS, a program that AEAs provide to Iowa families free of charge for children under 3 who are not developing as expected.

However, Dial-Lapcewich is concerned by recent legislation that restructures how AEAs receive funding. She worries it could mean a reduction in services that AEAs are able to provide.

“I’m more than a little bit afraid,” she said. “My boys are not school age yet, but they are very close, and I just cannot imagine them not being able to get the support that they need when they’re in school for whatever issue may be arising for them.”

Eddie, 3, and his mother Megan Dial-Lapcewich read books about dinosaurs in their home in Oxford on May 3. Eddie and his mother read books from the Oxford Public Library to help develop vocabulary and work on reading. (Isabella Tisdale)

AEAs offer a variety of services including special education services to Iowa students in public and private schools. State and federal funding provides for services like Easy ACCESS that paid for Eddie’s speech therapy.

They are designed to provide free, easy-to-use services for children with disabilities. Dial-Lapcewich said all she had to do was fill out an online form, and a speech therapist from the AEA contacted her within a week to set up a consultation.

Dial-Lapcewich said the easy access to services was a lifesaver for her since she was already trying to get her other son with behavioral issues help, and having to navigate insurance for speech therapy for Eddie would have been even more stressful.

“By being able to get him the help right away, when his language is going through so much development,” Dial-Lapcewich said. “Like, it’s been amazing, and we just wouldn’t have had that without the AEA being able to help us right when we needed it.”

Speech therapy has been transformative for Eddie, Dial-Lapcewich said, and he has seen enough progress in his six months doing appointments with the AEA speech therapist to get back on track developmentally.

“So, it’s been a huge difference, and we’ve seen such a positive impact on how we understand him and how he’s able to get things that he wants by using more language,” she said. “He is so much more willing now to repeat new words, to try out new phrases.”

However, the agencies are seeing major changes under new legislation that has shaken their foundation.

In 2024, Iowa lawmakers passed House File 2612, which started an overhaul of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies, changing how the agencies are funded and who performs oversight and administration of special education; and giving school districts more latitude over some of the funds that used to flow straight to AEAs.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds made the legislation her top priority in 2024 because she felt Iowa’s special education system was failing, citing a 2018 report from the Department of Education that listed Iowa as “needs assistance.”

She said the organizations were top-heavy and had gone beyond their original mission of providing special education services.

Iowa lawmakers sent her an overhaul of the system that made large reforms to the way AEAs functioned. The bill gave school districts control over 60 percent of general education and media services dollars that previously flowed directly to AEAs, but it required 100 percent of special education funding to go to the AEAs for this school year.

Starting this fall, school districts will retain control of 10 percent of their special education funding and are required to give the other 90 percent to an AEA. The districts will also get control of 100 percent of their education services and media dollars.

The bill removes the oversight and administration of Iowa’s special education system from AEAs and moves the function to a new Special Education division of the Iowa Department of Education, which would be in charge of oversight of special education.

Now, AEAs are required to make contracts with school districts and assign dollar values to services that were provided without one before. This has left rural districts paying more for the same services they were getting for free before.

The nearly 50-year-old entities were created as economies of scale to help rural districts provide special education services to schools under their jurisdiction. Now, AEA administrators say they are confronting massive reforms that have shaken their foundation, causing staff to leave faster than they can hire, leaving agencies short-staffed and upending the way they are funded.

Staffing shortages

Under Iowa law, AEAs are required to identify students with disabilities and provide support and supervision of school district special education providers.

University of Iowa Clinical Instructor of Educational Leadership Lisa Kieffer-Haverkamp, who used to run a regional special education division at Grant Wood AEA, said AEAs are obligated to identify, monitor, and help put in place interventions in schools for special education students.

Kieffer-Haverkamp said AEAs also have specialty teams that help assist with students with certain needs, like autism, or those who need extra help with reading.

However, this school year all AEAs have seen a 12 percent across-the-board decrease in staff and Grant Wood AEA — which serves Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and the surrounding area — having a 16 percent decrease.

This has affected AEAs’ abilities to staff these special teams. Grant Wood AEA Chief Administrator John Speer said they have had to reduce their number of staff dedicated to these teams to ensure they are fulfilling their chief responsibility of identifying students with disabilities or “Child Find.”

“We still are not quite staffed like we would have been a year ago, so caseloads are increasing,” Speer said. “It’s more hectic and harder to serve districts exactly like we have had in the past. Our staff just can’t do that.”

Great Prairie AEA Chief Administrator Nathan Wood wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan his organization has reduced staff across the board by not filling positions emptied by resignations or retirements.

But Great Prairie AEA is struggling to fill vacancies that are still left open, including for speech and language therapists, and it is looking to fill the vacancies with a remote or hybrid contract for the next school year. The AEA still has openings for math and literacy curriculum consultants.

Other services the Grant Wood AEA provided that went beyond what is required by law are going away because it doesn’t have the resources to provide them, Speer said.

“There’s various examples of where we’ve had to pull people from, from teams that we really value,” Speer said. “But in order to Child Find the way we want to, we’ve had to make those decisions.”

Kieffer-Haverkamp said with staffing shortages, AEA staff spend less time with stakeholders in each school and are not able to give the best services.

“You don’t get to get into a deep level in terms of knowing the building, knowing the teacher who’s being able to support them in a more comprehensive way,” Kieffer-Haverkamp said. “You’re going to come in and do the identification of students and leave because you’ve got four other schools you have to be at.”

Mediapolis Community School District Superintendent Adam Magliari, who serves on the state AEA task force, said the impact on special education beyond staffing shortages is yet to be known.

“We don’t know the impact of this legislation yet, because they haven’t had a full year to see,” Magliari said. “We’re going to see the impact of this in the next two to three years, when AEAs are really full service, pay-to-play.”

He said removing even 10 percent of the special education dollars that go to AEAs could have severe consequences on their abilities to serve their rural districts. He said sending all state special education funding to the AEAs makes sure special education teachers have support.

“It ensures that our kids have the services they need and allows AEA to be able to budget better,” Magliari said.

While special education services have been impacted by staffing shortages at AEAs, changes in funding models have affected general education and media services that AEAs used to provide to districts free of charge.

The City of Oxford is seen on May 3, 2025. Oxford is home to 800 residents and many residents attend Clear Creek Amana schools. (Isabella Tisdale)

Fee-for-service leaves some behind

Speer said AEAs are not built to be dollar-for-dollar and that “fee for service” contracts can make it so smaller districts are paying more than they were before to keep AEA services, since AEAs have to assign a price to all services that are not required by law for special education.

“The whole system used to be like a buffet. You could ask for as much as you wanted, whenever you wanted. You were able to do that,” Speer said. “And now it’s like ordering off a menu.”

Speer said this has exacerbated the differences in general education and media services in large and small districts served by Grant Wood, when they used to get the exact same services.

“What you start to see in rural areas specifically is inequity in the resources that they can acquire from the AEA system,” Speer said. “The AEA system was designed to equitably serve students in districts of various sizes.”

Speer said the inequities are caused by the bill requiring AEAs to move to a fee-for-service model.

AEAs were designed to be economies of scale, Kieffer-Haverkamp said, offering districts services at a discount because they could not afford to purchase them on their own.

“It’s going to be harder for them and to provide those services in a meaningful way and in an economically feasible way,” Kieffer-Haverkamp said. “That part of the AEA structure was developed for efficiency and effectiveness.”

Speer said the Grant Wood AEA offers curriculum consultants and online resources through the general education and media services dollars. This includes online resources like Encyclopedia Britannica, an online encyclopedia. Districts used to get these for free, but now they have to pay a per-student fee.

“Well, we don’t have that flexibility anymore,” Speer said. “Now we have to charge for all services.”

Wood said some districts in his area were forced to use the funds that would have gone to educational services and media services to cover budget shortfalls.

“This is a reality that superintendents and school boards must face,” Wood wrote in an email to the DI. “It is unfortunate that funding that has been previously designated to be used for teacher professional development is now general fund dollars and can be used in any way the districts see fit.”

However, many superintendents are enjoying the extra flexibility the legislation has given them with state funds, as education funding has remained relatively stagnant over the past few years.

Districts find flexibility with funding

Solon Community School District Superintendent Davis Eidhal said his district has used the dollars to contract with an out-of-state curriculum vendor for a math curriculum that is closer to the structure of the district’s literacy curriculum. The district has also used the dollars to contract with Tanager for expanded mental health services for their students with the greatest needs.

“It was an area that we just didn’t find through the AEA,” Eidhal said. “So, having that flexibility to meet our needs, our district-specific needs, was a benefit.”

Eidhal said the flexibility allows the district to decide if the specific services offered by the AEA suit them when it comes to professional development and curriculum.

“For the majority of our professional development, we’re able to utilize the AEA, but there are some areas that we have gone outside and been able to have the flexibility to use those dollars,” Eidhal said.

However, Eidhal said they send all of their special education dollars to the AEA and plan to do so in the future.

“It’s a lot more efficient and cost-effective that we’ve been working with the same consultants, basically that we have prior to the change,” Eidhal said. “They know our district well and continue those services, and they’re more local, and that has been helpful in providing our district support in a variety of areas.”

Magliari said his district decided to give all of its AEA funding to their AEA while they evaluate how education services and media services dollars could help them with improvements they are looking to make.

However, Magliari said while he appreciates the flexibility with education services dollars and media services dollars, he worries about what the flexibility with special education dollars could look like in the future.

“I don’t believe any cuts should be made towards special education services for our kids, and I do think it’s going to impact the rural districts the most,” Magliari said.

Dial-Lapcewich said she has appreciated all the help from the AEA in getting Eddie up to speed in his speech development but worries about the future of the organizations given the new legislation.

“I just cannot say enough about the AEA, the way it’s set up, and the way we’ve experienced it is how services should be set up for families and kids,” Dial-Lapcewich said. “Yeah, I had to do minimal work. I just had to say, we need help, and they provided that help, and that’s how it should be, especially when it comes to the education and development needs of kids.”

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Caitlin Clark entertains frenzy of fans in Carver homecoming

Tue, 06 May 2025 23:51:47 +0000

When Olivia Tanke first saw Caitlin Clark play in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the WNBA superstar was still in college, having not yet gone on her back-to-back tournament runs with the Iowa women’s basketball team.

On Sunday, Olivia was once again given the opportunity to watch Clark, though not in the Black and Gold. Instead, she got the pleasure of watching Clark’s professional team, the Indiana Fever, take on the Brazil national team in a highly anticipated preseason contest.

Though the game was the second the Fever played, it was Clark’s first outing of the 2025 season, a leg injury having kept her out of the Fever’s debut against the Washington Mystics — a contest in which the Fever scraped out a 74-79 overtime win.

“I liked watching Caitlin make all those threes,” Olivia said, remarking on the star’s ability to shoot from several feet behind the three-point arc.

Clark made several three-point shots in the game against Brazil, including one from just beyond her own number 22 logo with seconds waning in the third quarter.

The moment likely caused deja-vu for many Hawkeye fans, who remember watching her drain a similar-looking shot when she broke the NCAA women’s basketball scoring record in her senior season at Iowa.

As soon as Clark made the basket on Sunday, the arena erupted into cheers, with fans jumping to their feet and filling Carver with a deafening roar. Clark played up the moment, a huge smile spreading across her face.

“I knew coming into the game, everyone wanted to see me shoot one from there,” Clark said after the game. “I had to give the fans a little something.”

When Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White was questioned in a postgame press conference about Clark’s shot, she immediately defended the Fever star.

“It’s what she does,” White said. “Nobody tells Steph Curry not to take good shots.”

It’s true; Taking three-point shots from several feet beyond the arc is part of what makes Clark so appealing to young fans of the game.

“She’s the whole reason we come,” Olivia’s mother, Breanne Tanke, said. “I think she’s a great role model for my kids. They love her. [Olivia and I] were Iowa fans and now are Fever fans because of her.”

Tanke and Olivia are not the only fans who joined the Fever’s flock upon Clark’s arrival. Last season, the Fever’s total home attendance of 340,715 marked a single season record for any WNBA team, surpassing the previous record of 250,565 set by the New York Liberty in 2001.

“The young girls and young boys screaming my name to sign their stuff … I don’t take that for granted, that is so cool,” Clark said in a press conference postgame.

Upon the conclusion of the game, which the Fever won, 108-44, dozens of young fans gathered near the railings that overlook the tunnel leading out to the locker rooms. Many of them held handmade posters or Clark gear they brought to the game, hoping to catch the star guard’s attention as she left the arena.

“That’s what I appreciate about [fans] the most. They want to cheer, not only for myself, but everybody else on this team. They have so much fun watching us,” Clark said in a post from the Indiana Fever’s official X, formerly known as Twitter, account.

She wasn’t wrong.

The moment the first Fever players took the floor, the arena erupted into a chorus of claps and cheers, with many young fans lifting hand-made signs into the air proclaiming their love for No. 22. But Clark wasn’t the only player to receive her laurels from the Iowa crowd.

When the starting lineups were announced, guard Kelsey Mitchell and forward Aliyah Boston both walked in to an overwhelmingly positive reception, as did new additions Natasha Howard and DeWanna Bonner.

The Fever’s game against Brazil is one of four preseason games to be played in college arenas, allowing WNBA stars to return to the courts where they first gained followings. Other sites that have WNBA games on their schedule include Notre Dame, LSU, and Oregon.

This trend began last year at South Carolina University, when star Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson traveled to her alma mater, and continues to bring in new fans to the increasingly popular WNBA league.

Logan Barron, one of Clark’s young fans, entered Carver on Sunday for only the second time, following a game early in the Iowa women’s basketball team’s 2025 season. Though Logan got to see many of Clark’s old Iowa teammates during that game, she never saw Clark herself play until Sunday.

At one point during the game, Cedar Rapids natives Logan and her mother Taylor Barron, left the roar and excitement of the Fever faithful to search through the racks of Fever jerseys and other merchandise set up around the arena.

“[Logan] is just trying to find anything that fits,” Taylor said.

While she and Logan were looking around at various dark blue Fever jerseys and yellow Hawkeye-clad hats, Logan spent her time dribbling a small black and gold basketball and mimicking the movements of Clark and her teammates.

One of Logan’s favorite memories from the game was the mascot race between Herky the Hawk and Freddy Fever. During the race, Herky and Freddy had to dribble a basketball down the court and make a shot from each end of the floor.

Freddy ended up winning the race by making a three-point shot. After his win, he stood and gestured toward the crowd, calling forth some claps, despite an anguished loss from Herky, who collapsed to the floor in despair.

“I liked seeing Herky down on the court,” Logan said. “And it was silly when the mascots went and threw the ball.”

Both mascots moved around the stands throughout the game, introducing themselves to and snapping pictures with any fans they encountered.

“I also loved it when Caitlin made that three right away,” Logan said.

The first three of Clark’s eventual 16 points came 32 seconds into the first quarter when she hit a shot from the top of the arc, marking the first points of the game.

After an impressive showing from the entire Fever roster, many fans are now looking to the future. After the game, ESPN reporter Holly Rowe got the opportunity to talk with Clark on the floor of the arena.

When asked about the Fever’s ceiling for the coming season, the Hawkeye star had only a few words to say.

“Yeah, a championship,” Clark said. “That’s why I’m here.”

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International students receive support from courts and organizations amid lawsuit

Tue, 06 May 2025 01:54:27 +0000

As federal authorities are scrutinizing student visas across the country, Iowa immigration attorneys and organizations are advocating for students impacted by the revocations. This comes as immigration courts impose injunctions restricting these revocations, but uncertainty still looms for thousands.

At the University of Iowa, four international students had their student statuses reinstated and their visas restored after the federal government suddenly revoked their visas on April 10.

While this lawsuit offers temporary relief for students, ruling that the students’ statuses could not be terminated without proper justification and blocking the Department of Homeland Security from initiating deportation processes, there is still uncertainty surrounding why the students’ visas were initially revoked and how this will affect them.

Student visas can typically be revoked for minor offenses, such as an operating while intoxicated charge, but as Dan Vondra, a practicing immigration attorney, explained, such offenses are typically not grounds for removal or deportation. Though, it may require a student to prove they’re allowed to be in the country and reapply for a student visa should they leave the country.

“The visa revocation itself does not terminate the status,” Vondra said.

However, in the case of a student’s status being terminated, students may risk being forced to leave the country if they do not voluntarily deport.

This has incited fear across higher education campuses and has caused students to experience, as UI professor Kate Melloy Goettel described in the lawsuit, “intense mental and financial suffering because they cannot continue with their studies and fear being detained and removed if they do so.”

Vondra said the lawsuit filed by Goettel sets the precedent that students will be informed of why their status is being terminated and will have the chance to respond without fear of being removed.

“The precedent and the restraining order in the injunction is important because we need to know specifically why the status is being revoked, and if it has something to do with a constitutionally protected right, then the courts need to know about that,” Vondra said. “The students need to know about that. It becomes an issue where the court might need to get involved so that people who invest their time and energy coming to the United States don’t unlawfully lose what they put into all of this.”

Many students, including those at the UI, were not provided with a reason why their student visas were revoked. In his initial email to UI international students on April 10 to inform students about the first student visa revocation, Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs, Russell Ganim, wrote, “The university did not initiate the action and was not aware of any violations.”

But because of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “Catch and Revoke” initiative, which uses artificial intelligence to scan social media profiles of international students for any signs that they are supporting pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic ideas, many international students fear that speaking out or criticizing the government would be grounds for revocation.

AI scanning of social media is nothing new, as Weiguo “Patrick” Fan, Henry B. Tippie Excellence chair in Business Analytics professor, explained. Also known as social listening tools, AI has been used as an analytical tool in partnership with social media providers for years, often scanning social media posts related to a specific brand, product, or service to track its impact on companies.

Oftentimes using specific keywords or semantic matching, which flags posts or content that is semantically related to a keyword, Donald Trump’s administration has used this technology to target international students, as was the case with Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Öztürk who was detained for an op-ed she wrote for Tufts University’s student paper and Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University, who participated in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

“I think right now, definitely, you have to be very careful about what you say and what you post within the social media space,” Fan said.

As he further explained, even setting a social media profile to private doesn’t guarantee that a user’s profile won’t appear in an AI scan because the Department of Homeland Security can request and collect a user’s data for the purpose of monitoring for “anti-semitic activity,” as described by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services webpage.

“The government, the law enforcement agencies, they have the power to be able to access any content they need as long as it’s for legitimate reason,” Fan said. “As consumers, as users, we have to basically set up the proper controls within each social media account. For example, if you post something you do not want anybody else to see, you keep them private, or you don’t post anything at all.”

While Fan advises international students to be cautious of what they post online, Vondra explained that everyone in the U.S., regardless of citizenship status, is guaranteed protection under the same rights.

“This is the United States and we have the First Amendment, it’s the right to free speech,” Vondra said. “That right is guaranteed to everybody in the United States.”

While international students may be anxious to speak up, graduate and undergraduate students at UI are coming together to support international students, to help their voices be heard while still protecting their identity, and by gathering funds to support the international students who had their visas revoked.

This was the case at a protest hosted by UI graduate student union, the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, and the UI’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors where comments submitted by international students were read anonymously and flyers with a QR code to donate funds to support the international students were passed around.

Similarly, UI’s Latino Student Union, or LSU, has partnered with Escucha Mi Voz, an immigrant-led community organization, to raise funds for the international students to support them amid the uncertainty of having their visas revoked and status terminated.

While donating funds directly supports international students, Eleana Lemus, the vice president of LSU, commented on the importance of staying informed, especially as break and graduation approach.

“The best thing is to stay informed and to stay updated, whether that be with student organizations or reading or even social media, just stay informed,” Lemus said. “If you can, go to one of these meetings and see where you can go from there.”

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UI concludes planting of Miyawaki forest next to Hillcrest Residence Hall

Tue, 06 May 2025 01:33:26 +0000

More than 4,000 trees from 26 native species were planted on a sloped plot of land on the northeast side of Hillcrest Residence Hall from April 25 to 29.

The planting was a collaborative effort between the University of Iowa and the LENA Project, a local nonprofit organization advocating for sustainability and empowering people to make a positive environmental change.

Andrew Dahl, the UI urban forestry supervisor and campus arborist, said the community involvement during the first three planting days was fantastic.

“I could not believe the volunteer support — it was overwhelming, really. It had exceeded my wildest dreams,” he said.

He estimated that at least a combined 600 volunteers had shown up on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to plant.

Alyssa Hatch, a fourth-year UI student and sustainability major, was among the volunteers. She said the event attracted a diverse mix of people, but that the planting allowed the community to connect and grow closer together.

Volunteers plant tree seedlings using the Miyawaki method near Hillcrest Residence Hall on Sunday, April 27, 2025. The method was developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who planted native species very close together for accelerated growth. The Office of Sustainability and the Environment planted over 1,000 seedlings so far over the last week in honor of Arbor Day. (Ava Neumaier)

“When the community gets together and does something on campus, it creates almost a bond to the project and the area, as well as each other as you work along together,” she said.

The final two days of planting, Monday and Tuesday, saw fewer participants. Dahl said this was due to students having class but also to adverse weather in the Iowa City area.

Dahl said Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki originally developed Miyawaki forests, and it is when native trees are planted at very high densities — a foot to 16 inches apart — to increase competition with one another and speed up the growth process.

“It’s a way to quickly establish a forest, and [trees] will mature faster than ones planted by nature or other more conventional methods,” he said.

He elaborated on the differences between trees growing while in competition with other trees and trees that grow without competition.

“If you plant a tree in your front yard, they tend to get wider, and they’re usually shorter. [If] you think about that typical maple or oak tree that your tire swing is on, it is kind of a board tree,” Dahl said. “Well, if you ever walk in a forest, you notice the trees are quite a bit taller and skinnier. That’s because of competition. They all kind of race for the light.”

Dahl also mentioned that using native trees in the planting would attract other native species — including insects, birds, and fungi — that create a micro ecosystem within the forest.

The only other official Miyawaki forest in the state is located in West Des Moines and is smaller than the new forest on campus.

Tricia Windschitl, cofounder and director of the LENA Project, said the project allows people to get involved and spend time supporting nature with other members of the community, a necessity to remain optimistic about the future of our planet.

“An initiative like this not only helps Mother Earth — because it truly does, and that’s so important right now, more important now than ever — we need to take care of our home,” she said. “But by going out and doing this in the community, we are with others. We have our hands in the dirt. We’re talking to other people while we have our hands in the dirt.”

The LENA Project is an Iowa City nonprofit started by Windschitl after she was inspired by her students at Preucil Preschool, who were passionate about various sustainability projects they had been a part of. Windschitl said she realized the students were going off to preschool and someone needed to carry their voice and work toward a cleaner environment.

Lena is the name of the preschooler who drew the turtle, which eventually became the mascot for the nonprofit, which in turn became an acronym for the organization. L stands for lessen, E for empower, N for notice, and A for act.

Windschitl expressed her gratitude to everyone at the UI Office of Sustainability for their work in getting the Miyawaki forest project completed.

“It’s just been so amazing to be able to work with all of them and the support that they have given us, but also just the collaboration,” she said. “It’s just been a true collaboration, and it’s just been wonderful.”

Dahl exclaimed similar appreciation for everyone involved in the event, extending thanks to volunteers and the Office of Sustainability.

UI students and interns for the Office of Sustainability, Emma Skelley and Nicole Ramker, worked at the community celebration held on May 2, an event commemorating the completion of the project.

Skelley said the project will open the door for additional sustainability initiatives on campus.

“It’s a really neat opportunity to get more projects like this started on campus — I’m only a second-year, but this is one of the first times I’ve heard of something like this on campus,” she said.

They both reflected positively on the planting experience.

“It’s just like a happy, beautiful thing to see everyone come together and do this,” Ramker said.

The community celebration also featured Song*Lines Project, a singing circle held by Grant Wood Fellow and UI educator Lyndsey Scott.

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Iowa City Farmers Market opens for the season

Mon, 05 May 2025 01:56:06 +0000

Despite a slightly overcast sky, the Iowa City Farmers Market buzzed with energy on its opening day on May 3.

Locals streamed through the rows of vendors, clutching coffee cups and canvas totes as they browsed booths filled with everything from homemade cookies to handmade soaps.

For some vendors, Saturday marked a long-anticipated return. For about 20 vendors, it was a brand-new experience.

Lydia Davis, the founder of Krunch Time Kettle Korn, a local kettle corn brand, was one of the new faces at the market.

Her journey into entrepreneurship, however, began at another farmers market.

“There was a popcorn guy, and we had a newborn, so we walked around and struck up a conversation with him. He offered to get us started and got us trained and going,” Davis said.

Davis said one of the most exciting things about joining the Iowa City market was seeing the number of people and products.

“It’s a little bit smaller, but there’s a lot more people and more produce,” she said, comparing it to her experience vending in Cedar Rapids. “[It’s] fun to see all the people and get out and about.”

Just a few steps away was Scream, a local ice cream shop’s booth.

Unlike most ice cream shops that rely on pre-made mixes to which they add flavorings before freezing, Scream creates its ice cream from scratch, using an on-site pasteurizer to craft each batch.

Every scoop of Scream ice cream is crafted with organic, grass-fed dairy sourced from local farms, exclusively using premium organic whole milk from Radiance Dairy, located in Fairfield, Iowa.

Scream is stocked in more than 12 regional grocery stores, including select Hy-Vee locations, New Pioneer Co-op, Everybody’s Whole Foods, and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market.

Kate Vigmostad, owner of Scream, added that this is her second year selling at the Iowa City Farmers Market.

“I love everything, it’s the best vibe,” Vigmostad said. “There’s a great community here, and there’s always amazing food.”

Laura McPeterson, a nine-year vendor, sells jewelry and pottery through McPete Clay.

“When you first start selling something, it’s very scary,” McPeterson said.

She began her journey as a vendor at the farmers market and continues to return because of the vibrant downtown atmosphere. All of the jewelry she sells is handmade, offering a unique alternative to what people typically find in stores.

The next market day will be on May 10, and the last day will Oct. 25.

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Senator Chuck Grassley grilled at Iowa town hall over ‘shameful’ Trump policies

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 19:40:41 +0000

The Republican, 91, was confronted by attendees angered over mass deportations and executive overreach

The Republican senator Chuck Grassley struggled to control a town hall meeting on Tuesday as constituents erupted in anger over border security policies and the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation practices.

The 91-year-old Republican lawmaker from Iowa is the latest elected official to get grilled by a packed room of constituents. Attendees in the Republican state were concerned about the treatment of asylum seekers stemming from the president’s approach to immigration enforcement.

Iowa law banning books including 1984 and Ulysses blocked by US federal judge

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 13:29:26 +0000

Judge rules that law banning school libraries and classrooms from carrying books depicting sex acts had been applied unconstitutionally

A lawsuit brought by publishers and authors including John Green and Jodi Picoult has led to a portion of a law banning Iowa school libraries and classrooms from carrying books depicting sex acts being halted.

On Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the measure, writing that it had been applied unconstitutionally in many schools and that books of “undeniable political, artistic, literary, and/or scientific value” had been caught up in it, including Ulysses by James Joyce, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

Protesters throng Iowa capitol to decry bill to roll back trans protections

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:15:43 +0000

Hundreds brave heavy police presence as lawmakers mull stripping gender identity from civil rights code

Amid a heavy police presence and hundreds of vocal protesters, Iowa lawmakers on Thursday considered an unprecedented bill that would strip the state civil rights code of protections based on gender identity, a move opponents say could expose transgender people to discrimination in numerous areas of life.

Both the house and senate were expected to vote on the legislation on Thursday, the same day the Georgia house backed away from removing gender protections from the state’s hate crimes law, which was passed in 2020 after the death of Ahmaud Arbery.

Farmers ‘very worried’ as US pesticide firms push to bar cancer diagnoses lawsuits

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 17:00:53 +0000

Pesticide-backed proposed law that opponents call ‘Cancer Gag Act’ pits Iowa farm groups against each other

Pesticide company efforts to push through laws that could block litigation against them is igniting battles in several US farm states and pitting some farm groups against each other.

Laws have been introduced in at least eight states so far and drafts are circulating in more than 20 states, backed by a deluge of advertising supporting the measures.

Maureen Henderson obituary

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 17:24:41 +0000

My friend and colleague, Maureen Henderson, who has died aged 83, joined the Polytechnic of North London as a social work tutor in the 1970s. At that time it had the biggest social work department in Britain and Mo soon became an important member of it, as the principal tutor and leader of the combined childcare and family social work course.

She helped to make this course reflect the community that social workers served in London, including introducing an access course for minority ethnic students. Another of our colleagues there, Mary MacLeod, remembered Mo as having, “a gentle presence that belied her fierce resolve and determination to bring a very disparate group of people together, despite ideological differences, to give our students the social work education that would focus them on serving the people for whom they were responsible”.

Bleak outlook for US farmers – and Trump tariffs could make it worse

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 12:00:36 +0000

Bumper grain crop set to weigh heavily as farmers count costs of seed, fertilizer – and effects of possible trade war

Many US midwestern grain farmers will lose money this year after reaping a bumper crop, and the outlook for their future income is bleak.

US farmers harvested some of the largest corn and soybean crops in history this year. Big harvests traditionally weigh on crop prices because of plentiful supply. And those price pressures comes at a time when costs remain persistently high to grow corn and soybeans, the US’s most valuable crops.

Trump sues Iowa newspaper over election poll claiming Harris’s lead

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 20:16:30 +0000

Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer accused of consumer fraud and ‘election interference’ in lawsuit

Donald Trump has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and its pollster, J Ann Selzer, accusing them of consumer fraud and “election interference” over a poll from before the election that showed Kamala Harris leading Trump in Iowa.

The lawsuit was filed in Polk county late on Monday, as reported by Reuters and NBC News, which have reviewed the documents.

Eleven children worked on Iowa pork plant’s ‘kill floor’, US labor officials say

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:41:32 +0000

Federal investigators find children working at Sioux City meat processing plant for second time

Nearly a dozen children were working shifts cleaning meat processing equipment used at an Iowa pork plant’s so-called kill floor over a four-year period, the US Department of Labor announced.

Eleven children were using corrosive chemicals to clean as well as perilous “head splitters, jaw pullers, bandsaws, neck clippers and other equipment” at a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing plant in Sioux City, according to officials. This is the second time federal investigators have found children working at that particular Sioux City meat processing plant.

‘Queen of polling’ J Ann Selzer quits after Iowa survey missed by 16 points

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 21:58:47 +0000

Pollster announces she’s moving on ‘to other ventures’ after poll wrongly predicted strong shift in state to Kamala Harris

J Ann Selzer, the celebrated Iowa election pollster, announced on Sunday that she is moving on “to other ventures and opportunities”, two weeks after her survey in the state wrongly predicted a strong shift to Kamala Harris in the days before the election.

That poll, which projected a 47% to 44% lead for the vice-president over Donald Trump on the back of older women breaking for Democrats over the issue of reproductive rights, came three days before the national vote, giving Democrats false hope that Harris could win the White House decisively. When the votes were counted, Selzer was off by 16 points as the former president won the state decisively.

Judge rules Iowa can challenge validity of hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 03:57:41 +0000

Republican effort comes despite criticism that the efforts could threaten the voting rights of recently naturalized US citizens in the election

A federal judge ruled Sunday that Iowa can continue to challenge the validity of hundreds of ballots from potential noncitizens despite criticism that the efforts could threaten the voting rights of recently naturalized US citizens.

In the ruling, US district judge Stephen Locher sided with the state in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of an Iowa Latino group and four recent citizens who had been placed on a list of questionable registrations by local elections officials.

Trump disputes Iowa poll showing Harris ahead in red state: ‘It’s not even close!’

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 21:19:07 +0000

Selzer poll, widely respected organization with good record in Iowa, shows vice-president leading Trump 47% to 44%

Donald Trump has passionately disputed a shock Iowa poll that found Kamala Harris leading the former president in the state 47% to 44%.

“No President has done more for FARMERS, and the Great State of Iowa, than Donald J. Trump,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network on Sunday morning. “In fact, it’s not even close! All polls, except for one heavily skewed toward the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it totally wrong the last time, have me up, BY A LOT.”

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Harris grabs unexpected last-minute lead over Trump in Iowa poll

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 01:14:02 +0000

In shocking result that could reshape the race, ex-president falls three points behind in a state he won in 2016 and 2020

A poll in Iowa that has unexpectedly put Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump in what was previously expected to be a safe state for the Republicans has sent shockwaves through America’s poll-watchers.

The Selzer poll carried out for the Des Moines Register newspaper showed Harris ahead of her Republican rival by three points.

Onions are likely source of deadly McDonald’s E Coli outbreak, USDA says

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 19:47:43 +0000

Batches of the vegetable produced in Colorado, where many people fell ill after eating quarter pounders, were recalled

Fresh onions are the probable source of an E coli outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants that has sickened 49 people and killed one, the US Department of Agriculture said, alarming fast food chains using the ingredient.

Taylor Farms, a supplier for McDonald’s, the biggest US burger chain, recalled several batches of yellow onions produced in a Colorado facility, according to a memo on Wednesday by US Foods, one of the largest suppliers of food service operations in the country.

Robert Coover obituary

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 16:29:48 +0000

One of the leading lights of US postmodern fiction best known for his 1969 short story The Babysitter and The Public Burning

Robert Coover, who has died aged 92, was one of the pioneers of postmodern writing as it developed in the US in the 1960s, alongside writers such as Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, John Hawkes and Donald Barthelme. This was before postmodernism acquired its current political and structural connotations, a time Hari Kunzru described, in a 2011 Guardian profile of Coover, as a “fantastical funhouse of narrative possibilities”.

Coover recounted his frustration with Saul Bellow’s 1953 novel The Adventures of Augie March, and what was called realism. “It wasn’t realistic. He was using modes of response to the world that had become stultified.” He later explained: “I learned my realism from guys like Franz Kafka.”

US midwest braces for hottest days this summer, with 55m under heat alerts

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:50:29 +0000

Chicago, Des Moines, Topeka and other cities experiencing extreme heat ‘with little to no overnight relief’

A heatwave has left US midwest states confronting what may be some of the most sweltering days the region has seen this summer, with 55 million people included in alerts over the conditions.

A late-season high-pressure system over cities such as Chicago; Des Moines, Iowa; and Topeka, Kansas, has left them experiencing rare “extreme heat” for a long period of time, “with little to no overnight relief”, according to the National Weather Service.

Iowa man allegedly shoots his father in face after complaint about smelly feet

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:00:03 +0000

Son faces attempted murder charge after ‘stinky feet’ remark set off heated argument, police say

A man shot his father in the face after the victim complained about the son’s smelly feet, according to authorities in Iowa.

David Carpenter, 48, faces a charge of attempted murder after investigators arrested him in a case that illustrates how quickly relatively minor, interpersonal quarrels can escalate into shootings in the US, which – according to some estimates – has more guns in circulation than people.

Harris urges Americans to vote after six-week abortion ban takes effect in Iowa

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 18:40:59 +0000

Court reinstates ban after lengthy legal battle in a decision pro-choice advocates call ‘violation of human rights’

Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, urged Americans to vote after a six-week abortion ban took effect in Iowa on Monday.

“This ban is going to take effect before many women even know they’re pregnant,” Harris said in a video posted to YouTube. “What this means is that one in three women of reproductive age in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban.”

Elon Musk’s 20-year-old estranged daughter responded to his rant about her

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 13:00:25 +0000

On Thursday, the billionaire went on a disturbing anti-trans rant about Vivian Wilson, who legally dropped Musk’s name in 2022

Would you like to do some Muskian mathematics? Here we go: there are 24 hours in a day and even the most superhuman among us need to spend a few of those hours asleep. Elon Musk, unless he has figured out a way to clone himself, is just one person. He has at least 12 kids with multiple women. His first child tragically died as a baby and a couple of his offspring are adults now, but he has six kids under the age of five. He also runs six companies and oversees more than 130,000 people around the world. And he spends an inordinate amount of his life tweeting. Bearing this busy existence in mind, how on earth does the billionaire spend any significant amount of time with his kids?

Iowa law banning most abortions after six weeks will take effect next Monday

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 21:59:54 +0000

Block on law was lifted after state supreme court said there is no fundamental right to procedure in state constitution

An Iowa judge has ruled the state’s strict abortion law will take effect Monday, preventing most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

The law passed last year, but a judge had blocked it from being enforced. The Iowa supreme court reiterated in June that there is no constitutional right to an abortion in the state and ordered the hold to be lifted. That translated into Monday’s district court judge’s decision ordering the law to into effect next Monday at 8.00am CT.

Tornado reported at Chicago airport as storms blow through midwest

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 12:55:30 +0000

Multiple twisters reported in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana as weather service warns of damaging winds

A tornado apparently touched down outside Chicago’s O’Hare airport on Monday as storms spawned multiple reports of twisters blowing through Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.

The turbulent weather knocked down trees and power poles, cutting electricity to more than 460,000 customers and businesses. A woman in Indiana died after a tree fell on to a home, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed reporting