Iowa State News

Blotter: September 17

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:22:54 +0000

Julie Lynne Bell, 63, was charged Sept. 16 with vehicular homicide.

Shaquannsha Mecole Dixon, 22, was charged Sept. 16 with assault causing bodily injury.

Ebonie Sharaye Forrest, 41, was charged Sept. 16 with driving while barred – habitual offender.

Felicia Michelle Jones, 26, was charged Sept. 16 with operating while under the influence – second offense and possession of a controlled substance.

Charlie Dwayne Pitchford, 40, was charged Sept. 16 with violation of a no contact order and a controlled substance violation.

Samuel Geo Pitts, 32, was charged Sept. 16 with domestic abuse assault without intent causing injury, driving while license barred or revoked, third-degree criminal mischief, and interference with official acts.

Joni Alise Reed, 36, was charged Sept. 16 with domestic abuse assault with display of weapon.

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North Liberty man accused of controlled substance violation

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:17:18 +0000

A North Liberty man has been accused of possession of MDMA.

Charlie Dwayne Pitchford, 40, 1567 Jaylen Ln, North Liberty, was charged Sept. 16 with a controlled substance violation.

According to the arrest affidavit, Pitchford was pulled over during a traffic stop. There was a strong odor of marijuana, and police searched the vehicle and found what appeared to be MDMA in a pill bottle. Pitchford admitted the tablets were ecstasy, according to the affidavit.

A controlled substance violation is a class-C felony.

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North Liberty woman accused of vehicular homicide

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:15:42 +0000

A North Liberty woman has been arrested for allegedly killing a passenger in a utility terrain vehicle she was driving while under the influence.

Julie Lynne Bell, 63, was charged Sept. 10 with vehicular homicide. Bell was arrested on Sept. 16.

According to the arrest affidavit, on July 17, Bell was operating a Kawasaki Mule ATV at 2664 Newport Road in Solon that wrecked and killed the passenger. When police officers originally contacted Bell at the scene she appeared intoxicated, and admitted to drinking alcohol. Bell was later determined to have a blood alcohol level above .08.

Vehicular Homicide is a Class-B felony.

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North Dodge Hy-vee recycling drop off center moving to Riverside Drive

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:15:39 +0000

The Iowa City Recycling Center will move to a city-owned location on Sept. 21, causing mixed community feelings about the change in distance.

The center, previously located on Dodge Street and owned by Hy-Vee, will move 3.3. miles to 12001 S. Riverside Drive as Hy-Vee plans another use for the lot.

Iowa City Recycling Coordinator Jane Wilch said the city is excited for the move — as the city may save on costs in the future — but it wasn’t the city’s plan.

“We’ve been using that parking lot for a number of years,” Wilch said. “And we really appreciate the partnership with Hy-Vee. We just talked to them recently and it sounds like they have some anticipated future development or uses for the site where we are currently located. And so that is the reason for the move.”

A Hy-Vee spokesperson did not say what the Midwest-based grocery chain plans to do with the vacant lot.

“For several years, Hy-Vee has provided the City of Iowa City use of its property at 1201 North Dodge as a recycling drop-off for its residents,” said Dawn Buzynski, Hy-Vee’s director of strategic communications. “At the beginning of August, we asked the city to find another location because we have a future use for the property that will be announced at a later date. It was our intention to provide the city with enough time to find a new location for the recycling drop-off. We are pleased that city officials found a location quickly and there will be little to no disruption for residents.”

Jennifer Baum voiced her discontent with the move on the City of Iowa City Facebook page. She said this move would be a bad thing for people that live on the north side of the city.

“It really hurts the renters that use that site,” Baum said. “Most landlords don’t offer recycling bins. I understand the logic, but I think it ignores quite a large chunk of folks.”

Wilch said the property on Riverside Drive was the most immediate location available on short notice.

The city will end up saving vehicle miles traveled related to emptying and maintaining the recycling containers. This will reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, Wilch, the recycling coordinator, said.

Wilch added that the city estimates the new location will save them about 40 truck miles per week, and 30,000 truck miles per year.

Iowa City Resource Management Superintendent Jennifer Jordan said moving the recycling center to Riverside Drive will allow the city to utilize more efficient equipment.

“Since this is a city site, we’ll be able to work toward a compactor for cardboard.” Jordan said. “With a compactor, the cardboard is compressed in the machine and holds a lot more than the non-compacted containers we have now. We’d likely be able to reduce down to two trips per week total.”

At the North Dodge site, the city did not have these compactors, Jordan said, so the containers would have to be dumped roughly 15 times per week. The same situation occurred a few years ago at the East Side Recycling Center, and with the help of a compactor, the city saved an estimated $91,000 in the first year on fuel, equipment, and staff time.

Wilch said although this North Dodge site received heavy traffic, the city wants to make sure it maintains at least three drop off sites at all times.

“We’re always trying to make our recycling programs as accessible and easy to use as possible,” she said. “We do appreciate the dedication that our residents have to recycle. We think we’ve got an awesome community that really cares about recycling and about the environment.”

Where to drop off recycling in Iowa City and Coralville

– East Side Recycling Center, 2401 Scott Blvd. SE

– Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center, 3900 Hebl Ave. SW

– Coralville Recycling Center, 950 Hughes St.

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Regents consider approval of deferred maintenance funding request of $30 million for fiscal 2022

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 03:10:30 +0000

The state Board of Regents will consider approval of a state-appropriations request totaling $30 million for fiscal 2022, to be allocated toward deferred-maintenance projects at each of its institutions.

In a virtual meeting Thursday, Board of Regents Director of Facilities John Nash presented the regents with a six-year capital plan for state funds. Of the requested $368 million, $268 million would fund renovations, additions, and replacements and $100 million would fund deferred maintenance, safety, security, compliance, and conservation projects, according to regent documents.

“This year we have pushed all projects ahead one year, so that the only request for FY 2022, is a $30 million request for deferred maintenance,” Nash said. “… That’s the only request we have, and we are obviously trying to draw attention to deferred maintenance and we have good reason for doing that.”

State funding would have a positive effect on the reduction of the regents’ $1.2 billion in outstanding deferred maintenance in General Education Fund buildings and utilities and $9 million in outstanding fire-safety projects, regents’ documents state.

From fiscal 1993 to 2020, regent institutions completed $579 million in deferred-maintenance projects in General-Education Fund facilities, according to regent documents. For fiscal 2021, $32 million is slated for deferred maintenance, which is down $46 million from the previous year.

The average capital request for regent institutions was $74 million over the last 21 years, making the request of $30 million for fiscal 2022 a 59 percent decrease in proposed state funds. Nash said circumstances brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and the derecho in August were considered when the regents’ Property and Facilities Committee formed its request.

According to regent documents, the UI had a 4.5 percent increase in outstanding deferred maintenance this year.

University of Iowa Senior Vice President for Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz said the UI would prioritize deferred maintenance in the UI Carver Biomedical Research Building, Lindquist Center, Eckstein Medical Research Building, Chemistry Building, and the Pappajohn Business Building. The financial needs of the five buildings total about $8 million, Lehnertz said.

Another four buildings — the Iowa Memorial Union, Theatre Building, Bowen Science Building, and Medical Laboratories — are further down the UI’s list of high-priority deferred maintenance and need $4 million total, Lehnertz said.

He added that the current deferred maintenance on the UI campus is more than $400 million.

“No small number,” Lehnertz said. “A part of $30 million obviously doesn’t make that go away, but in our … assessing these kinds of priorities, it allows us to reach an operational balance where those working and learning on campus don’t recognize the challenges of older facilities that we have.”

Part of the UI’s plans to tackle deferred maintenance includes its Pentacrest Modernization project, which is proposed to start as early as July 2021. According to regent documents, this project seeks to restore Macbride, Maclean, and Jessup Halls, and would eliminate about $27 million in deferred maintenance.

The UI received $13 million in bonding authority to restore the three buildings in 2007, however that money was diverted to emergency recovery after the 2008 flood. Essentially, regent documents state, the university is reactivating its request for state funds to modernize the Pentacrest, starting with Maclean Hall.

The university also wants to invest $30 million in university funds to renovate the University Capitol Center, Calvin Hall, Jefferson Building, and additional spaces on campus, according to regent documents.

Lehnertz said General Education Fund buildings on campus average more than 50 years of age.

“When we say we build them to last — we do,” Lehnertz said. “But it does take great care.”

The regents will vote upon approval of the fiscal 2022 capital-funding request at its Sept. 23 meeting.

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Iowa’s regents universities introduce changes to Title IX policies

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 02:29:41 +0000

The University of Iowa reported its new interim policy on sexual harassment and sexual misconduct at the state Board of Regents meeting on Thursday. The new policy maintains the same standard of evidence for sexual misconduct cases, despite changes made by the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

The new policy is in response to Title IX regulations relating to sexual assault, introduced on May 6 by DeVos. Colleges and universities were required to adhere to the regulations by Aug. 14. Iowa’s three state universities shared the changes to the sexual misconduct policies on Thursday.

Title IX is the federal law that outlaws discrimination in education on the basis of sex.

One of the new regulations by the U.S. Department of Education under DeVos was changing the evidentiary standards of sexual misconduct cases. It allowed universities to choose between a “preponderance of evidence” standard or a new, stricter “clear and convincing” standard. The UI retained the preponderance of evidence standard in its new policy.

Iowa State University Title IX coordinator Margo Foreman said universities are required to use a formal grievance process for types of allegations.

“The formal processes have to include the investigation, a live hearing, the questioning of parties throughout by using an adviser, and a determination by the objective decision maker whether or not that allegation is substantiated and that there are responsible parties to be named,” Foreman said.

University of Northern Iowa Title IX Officer Leah Gutknecht said the new Title IX policies use ‘emergency removals’ if they see the need to remove a respondent student entirely or partially from their education program during the Title IX process.

Gutknecht said the new Title IX regulations emphasize the need for a well trained team including investigators, decision makers, appeal officers, and the Title IX coordinators.

“Schools are now required to post that training that each team member receives along with the actual content of the training,” she said.

The UI, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa coordinated over the summer to develop the new regulations. Gutknecht said all of the institutions have been trained on the new requirements, created feedback opportunities for students and faculty on the new policies, and revised policy and procedures.

In a notice sent to all UI students and faculty, the UI’s Interim Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct was replaced by two university policies including the Policy on Sexual Misconduct, Dating/Domestic Violence and the Stalking Involving Students, and the Policy on Sexual Harassment.

The UI said its new policy on sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, “created a single interim sexual harassment and sexual misconduct policy and procedures to ensure compliance with the new Title IX regulations while upholding the university values of excellence, learning, community, diversity, integrity, respect, and responsibility.”

“We all worked with one another and with the Board Office staff throughout the summer to discuss elements of the regulations and how they would be addressed by each of our institutions,” Gutknecht said

The new Title IX regulations still include rules regarding sexual assault, stalking, and domestic and dating violence. The new rules define sexual misconduct as “any unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that is committed without consent or by force, intimidation, coercion, or manipulation.”

The university seeks feedback on the new rules during an interim period of no longer than one year.

“We recognize that the time to date by which the regulation was issued and when it was enforceable was very short and recognizing that we are going to continue seeking feedback from our campus constituencies,” UI Sexual Misconduct Response and Title IX Coordinator Monique DiCarlo said.

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University of Iowa leaders wary of looming bar closure deadline, not ready for in-person learning

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:33:34 +0000

Leaders from the universities governed by the state Board of Regents said they are not ready to return to in-person learning or resume regular activities as the coronavirus remains prevalent in university towns.

At an update on campus life and COVID-19 operations delivered to the regents, University of Iowa Vice President for Student Life Sarah Hansen said she’s concerned about another spike in COVID-19 cases if bars in Johnson County reopen after the governor’s order expires Sept. 20. UI officials have pointed to off campus behavior, and not classroom access as the cause of the spread of COVID-19.

As The Daily Iowan previously reported, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered bars in six counties, including the counties home to Iowa’s three public universities, to close due to a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in 19-24 year-olds. On Sept. 15, Reynolds opened bars in four counties, but kept bars in Johnson and Story Counties, home to Iowa’s two largest universities, closed until Sept. 20.

Hansen said the bar closures have been helpful to keeping COVID-19 cases below triple-digits per day since Sept. 4.

“The bar closure in our county has been a tremendous help,” said Hansen. “Our numbers have absolutely plummeted…We are down to 20 cases a day at this point. I am worried about September 20…We know that our transmission hasn’t been in the classrooms or residences halls. Most of our cases are in apartments, downtown socializing, and fraternity and sorority houses.”

A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a Daily Iowan request to comment by publication about whether Reynolds would extend the bar closure order.

On Sept. 11, four UI Greek sorority chapters were sanctioned for violating agreements related to COVID-19 and group gatherings. The four chapters posted on social media on Thursday apologizing for not adhering to COVID-19 guidelines and promising to assist in a PPE drive through a local organization.

The UI also reprimanded dozens of students for violating the COVID-19 student agreement for failing to social distance, failure to wear a face covering, and failure to isolate or quarantine, the DI previously reported.

When asked by Regent David Barker how many classes at the university were online and whether the university would move more classes in-person, Harreld said 78 percent of classes were now online and he has no intention of moving students back to in-person learning until the county’s percent positivity rate falls below 5 percent. Johnson County’s 14-day average positivity rate is 10 percent, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

While the UI has enough classroom capacity, Harreld said, it doesn’t have the testing capacity to bring more classes back in-person.

“I’m not comfortable [with our] testing capacity…specifically to allow us to test a large enough percentage of our population,” Harreld said. “We will need to get an infection rate of under five percent and right now…the county is at 12.6 [percent], so we have a long way to go.”

While discussing when students will return to in-person classes, Harreld said he was unsure if there is enough data on if students want to be face-to-face or online. In his personal experience with the class he teaches, Harreld said only a few students have opted to be in-person.

“I’m not sure we have good data to support that [students who want to be in-person]”, he said. “I am currently teaching and I have a class of 30. They’re largely campus leaders and we are teaching in a blended fashion…we have a classroom…configured for 30 students as well as online for every class. Students can choose where they want to be and so far, the most I’ve had physically in class is five. 25 have chosen to stay online wherever they are.”

Harreld said he does not want to rush back to face-to-face instruction when there are several unknown variables about the virus. He said he wants students, faculty, and staff to be able to choose their comfort level for as long as possible.

Checking in on students

Hansen said one focus the university has this fall is on mindfulness and mental health education during the pandemic. She said a change the university has made recently is an addition of a request for additional help on the self-report form students who have tested positive for COVID-19 must fill out.

“They can request additional help or an outreach and they can let us know if they’ve already notified their faculty,” she said. “Our student care and assistance operation [has] added staff in that area and they are outreaching to every student who fills out the self report form…They’re reaching out to those students to find out what they need immediately as well as periodically reaching out during their quarantine and isolation periods.”

Hansen and representatives from Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa said helping students stay connected and creating interpersonal relationships during their isolation period was important.

During her presentation to the board, Hansen said the UI’s Temporary Alternative Learning Arrangements for students and faculty members have been utilized by many to ensure everyone can be accommodated during COVID-19.

“482 requests [from faculty] have been submitted and 460 have been approved,” she said. “…We’ve had 352 students who were in the COVID-related medical category and then 369 students who requested alternative arrangements for online learning not related to health conditions. Most of those are handled on a collegiate level.”

She said to her knowledge, all of these student and faculty requests have been approved.

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University of Iowa leaders wary of looming bar closure deadline, not ready for in-person learning

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:33:34 +0000

Hansen said the bar closures have been helpful to keeping COVID-19 cases below triple-digits per day since Sept. 4.

A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a Daily Iowan request to comment by publication about whether Reynolds would extend the bar closure order.

While the UI has enough classroom capacity, Harreld said, it doesn’t have the testing capacity to bring more classes back in-person.

Checking in on students

She said to her knowledge, all of these student and faculty requests have been approved.

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City Manager seeks approval for new Iowa City police chief

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:33:12 +0000

Iowa City City Manager Geoff Fruin has recommended El Paso Police Department Lieutenant Dustin Liston as Iowa City’s next police chief, pending approval from the city council.

In a memo sent to the city council on Thursday, Fruin said he is asking the city council to approve his appointment of Dustin Liston as the next police chief, to be announced at the Civil Service Commission’s meeting on Sept. 24.

“Throughout the selection process, Mr. Liston exhibited a strong understanding of the type of leader we need here in Iowa City,” Fruin wrote. “He understands that his role will be to lead this department as it accelerates its path toward a more robust community policing model, one that acknowledges the importance of equity and incorporates new approaches to long-term issues.”

Dustin Liston was one of three police chief finalists, along with Jason Lando and Jeremy Logan. Born and raised in Iowa, Fruin wrote that after graduating the University of Iowa, he joined the El Paso, Texas Police Department and served there for 22 years.

Linton currently works as a lieutenant assigned as the Director of the El Paso Fusion Center, a regional multiagency intelligence hub dedicated to protecting citizens and the infrastructure of Far West Texas and Southern New Mexico.

Fruin said Liston’s experience in the community has provided him an opportunity to positively collaborate with a diverse population, which is a point of emphasis for the Iowa City Police Department. He said the El Paso Police Department serves a diverse community of 680,000 residents, with over 80 percent of residents identifying as Hispanic, and The University of Texas of El Paso, with over 25,000 students.

“His experience serving a diverse community with a large higher education institution is also an invaluable asset to our community,” he wrote. “…[Liston] has proven to be a strong collaborator and is highly respected amongst his peers. He has no disciplinary history in his 22 years…and is regarded as having strong morals and ethics that serve as a foundation for all of his actions.”

Fruin added that Liston will be a solid partner to the Community Police Review Board, the Human Rights Commission, and other boards and commissions eager to bridge gaps between the community and the police.

All finalists for the police chief position attended a community forum on Aug. 25, spending two and a half hours talking to community members and answering their questions, and expounding on their qualifications, as previously reported by *The Daily Iowan*.

Community organizations and social justice groups, such as the Iowa Freedom Riders, have called for defunding the police in protests throughout the summer.

Liston said at the forum that he believes he can build solid and lasting relationships with protestors so that they feel as though their voices are being heard.

“…People need to feel like they not only have a voice, but that that voice is being heard and is being valued,” Liston said on Aug. 25. “And we might disagree on just about everything…but the leader of the department needs to be front and center on that.”

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UI requests state Board of Regents approve property sale, window replacement project

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 23:50:22 +0000

The state Board of Regents heard two requests from the University of Iowa, the first for a project that will replace the windows on the English and Philosophy Building and the second for the acceptance and sale of rural property in Louisa County.

The UI requested approval for the property sale and window replacement during a virtual regents meeting on Thursday.

The EPB window replacement project will be funded with building renewal and deferred maintenance funds and is estimated to cost $2.15 million, according to regent documents. This project will replace 270 single-pane windows with insulated double-pane windows to improve the building’s energy efficiency.

Construction will take place during summers 2021 and 2022, UI Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations Rod Lehnertz said during the meeting.

The EPB is a heavily used facility at the UI with 10,000 students, faculty, and staff typically utilizing the building on a weekly basis, according to the documents. Each year the UI receives comfort complaints and reports of excess moisture and sometimes mold that needs to be abated.

According to the documents, this project is at the top of the UI’s deferred maintenance list.

Additional insulation will also be installed around the windows and sealants to exterior wall panels will be replaced as part of the project. The current window blinds will be replaced with roller shades, according to the documents.

If project bids are favorable, the UI may consider accepting a bid for additional work to install a water repellent on exterior concrete and masonry wall panels and make minor exterior repairs.

The second request was to accept a property gift of 39 acres of rural land 42 miles southeast from campus in Louisa County from the estate of Wallace M. Fieldman, and sell the same property to Oscar Hiller for $168,000, according to regent documents.

While the UI is appreciative of the gift, it does not have a use for it as it does not fit into the university’s academic or research mission, UI Finance and Operations Business Manager David Kieft said during the meeting.

The property includes an old home with no operating septic or water systems, with the remainder of the property being prairie and timber, according to documents.

“It’s an old farmhouse abandoned about 20 years ago, missing windows, more raccoons in it than you can imagine, there’s about 15 vehicles, large dump trucks, that are completely rusted out with trees growing through them, the property is in pretty poor shape,” Kieft said.

The assessed value for the property was about $56,000, Kieft said. The property is not residential or farmland, but is pristine woodlands with a pond and wetlands, he added.

The attorney for the Fieldman estate approached the UI to inform it that a family friend was interested in purchasing the land, as is with no contingencies, he said. The intent of the buyer is to keep the area as preserved habitat for wildlife, Kieft said.

According to the documents, the UI has been made aware of repeated trespassers on the property.

“As the condition of the property stands right now it’s a significant liability risk to the university and I think transferring this out of the university’s name at this point is a very smart thing to do,” Kieft said.

Along with this request, the UI asked the regents to waive the policy that states real estate should be conveyed based on appraisal, according to the documents

Kieft said the UI is comfortable with the price the property will be sold for.

According to regent documents, the funding needed to appraise the property or fix it up in order to list that it would not be a good use of university funds.

The regents will vote on whether or not to approve the two requests during its Sept. 23 meeting.

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University of Iowa, Iowa State University share $100,000 Kauffman Grant

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 20:29:23 +0000

The University of Iowa and Iowa State University will split a $100,000 grant awarded to their respective entrepreneurial centers by The Ewing Marion Foundation in an effort to bolster each school’s entrepreneurial training and outreach capabilities.

The grant is a part of the Kauffman Foundation’s Heartland Challenge, which is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas overcome business challenges specific to the Midwest.

Judi Eyles, director of ISU’s Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, said the Kauffman Foundation’s Heartland Challenge awards grants on behalf of one of three challenges, including the effort to commercialize new technology.

The director said the grant will help support people who want to use university-developed technology as the foundation for a startup business.

“That’s one way to get people to say, hey, does my technology have a viable opportunity either as a licensed technology or to create a business?” Eyles said. “Lynn Allendorf and I and our teams, we’re all focused on entrepreneurial development based on university technology.”

Photo of Lynn Allendorf, Director of John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. Contributed.

Lynn Allendorf, Eyles’ counterpart at the UI entrepreneurial center, said there are not as many federal grant applications for midwestern states compared to other areas of the country, and that the Kauffman Foundation says one of their primary missions is to increase those applications.

Allendorf said these types of grants help find commercial uses for new technology.

“If you think about technology commercialization throughout the country, Midwest states and certainly Iowa struggle with less capital than other states,” she said. “Fewer venture capitalists, fewer angel investors; it makes it a little bit more difficult to move projects forward… so this is just one way where we can help faculty members and help small businesses in Iowa and the Midwest region be able to access federal funding.”

Allendorf said she and a colleague from Iowa State are scheduling meetings with other Midwestern universities to get input on how to best recruit and train faculty members for grant opportunities like this one.

“Will we do a train-the-trainer program where we maybe select 10 other universities and train one person at each university to run a training program locally, or will by next spring things open up enough that we could run one or two training programs in a central location maybe in Iowa, maybe elsewhere in the Midwest,” Allendorf said.

She went on to say investment such programs will receive be where the majority of the Kauffman grant will go.

David Hensley, executive director of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, said the organization was happy to partner with ISU to help promote industry use of new technology.

“We’re pleased to be partnering with Iowa State University on the Kauffman Challenge grant to help accelerate innovation and technology commercialization across our campuses and in the state of Iowa in particular,” Hensley said. “We’ll be utilizing the bonds to identify strategies to increase technology commercialization efforts, bring new innovations to the market, and create economic impact for our universities and communities.”

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ICCSD Foundation receives donation to provide critical digital learning tools to K-6 students

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 19:58:24 +0000

HAVlife of Johnson County recently donated $20,000 to the Iowa City Community School District Foundation, helping students to access digital software and resources while they are online during the pandemic.

Beginning the school year virtually meant that Iowa City students were not able to access the resources in a physical classroom. HAVlife — an organization focused on preventing lost potential among students within athletics, music, and the arts — recognized the district’s need for easy to use and accessible digital resources for all K-6 students.

With the money donated from HAVlife, K-6 students can use Lexia and Dreambox software, which help students learn reading and math, respectively.

Patty Grabinski, a HAVlife board member said that although the organization tends to focus on athletics, arts, and music, it felt it was equally important to give attention to students’ educational needs and potential during this time.

“During COVID-19, we kind of realized we needed to think outside the box a little bit,” Grabinski said.

Grabinski said HAVlife is usually able to acquire funding through various fundraisers. But with COVID-19 forcing the cancellations of many in-person events, she said, this was not a viable option,.

Despite this, Grabinski said there were many generous donors in the Iowa City community who came forward to support the organization as well as the local students in general.

“We have amazing sponsors and donors in this community,” she said. “People have been extremely generous to us. Even though we did not have a fundraiser this year, so many of our sponsors and donors have continued to help us, so we could not be any more grateful for those people in our community who care so much and really want to reach out and help kids as much as they can.”

Susan Brennan, executive director of ICCSD Foundation, HAVlife has been an ongoing partner to ICCSD for years, as they have donated funding for both the foundation and the district itself for items deemed necessary for students.

Brennan said HAVlife reached out to her in anticipation of the letter she sent out to families about critical needs. The organization asked her what the critical needs were, what the students needed to succeed, and how they could help provide these tools.

Brennan said this past spring, ICCSD was able to provide all K-6 students with the Lexia and Dreambox software. She said that this greatly impacted students and helped them continue to learn while outside of their classrooms.

“Trying to reach our students in a remote learning environment, our districts had piloted these two softwares, Lexia and Dreambox,” the director said. “When [COVID-19] hit, these two tools became our connections to our students.”

She said Lexia and Dreambox are interactive and operate like a video game of sorts — perfect for engaging younger students. When students struggle in a particular area, the program stops them and alerts their instructor where the student is having trouble, so that the instructor can intervene and help create learning tools specific to each student’s individual needs.

“[This software is] especially important for our kids who have fallen behind,” Brennan said. “Pre-COVID days, 30 percent of the Iowa City school district students were not proficient in our reading and our math – so we knew a 30 percent was struggling — and that was the 30 percent that we really targeted for our Lexia and our Dreambox.”

United Iowa Financial also worked to create an endowment that would help provide funding to ensure each student’s needs were met. Carrie Wagner, chief development officer, said she was involved in this endowment project.

Wagner said her children, a first-grader and fourth-grader, attend an Iowa City elementary school and have been using both Lexia and Dreambox.

“We knew we wanted to focus our charitable giving on the basic needs of students and children in our communities,” she said.

She said she finds Lexia and Dreambox to be extremely important tools and that it has helped her children stay engaged with their schoolwork and learn at their preferred pace.

“Having those resources when school shut down in the spring was nice,” Wagner said. “I tried to keep [my children] on track academically through reading and workbooks and things, but sometimes it’s just difficult to keep them motivated and engaged because they were out of their regular schedule and routine.”

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City Council holds public forum to discuss mental health resources

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 04:54:07 +0000

The Iowa City City Council — joined by the Iowa Freedom Riders, Prelude Iowa, and CommUnity in Iowa City — held a public forum on Wednesday to discuss mental-health and addiction services, as well as restructuring the police department.

Citizens gathered in Mercer Park to share concerns regarding community resources. Another topic was a proposal to reroute cases — incidents that would originally be assigned to law enforcement — to professionals that may be more specifically suited for various crises.

Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague shared his appreciation for the city’s current mental-health and addiction services, saying he hopes to further integrate those initiatives with local law enforcement.

Iowa Freedom Riders supporter David Drustrup said the public is concerned that the training currently required for police officers cannot provide a proper mental-health intervention.

“An actual mental-health professional gets 40 hours of active participation in mental-health situations every week, while police officers get that in a year,” Drustrup said. “I hope we can see the problematic nature of that.”

He went on to say if any amount of reallocation of funds that previously went to law enforcement can relieve some of the barriers to mental-health distribution, saying it would be worth it.

The Iowa City Police Department officers have undergone crisis intervention training, which teaches de-escalation tactics to officers.

Director of CommUnity Becci Reddus said one reason mental-health resources are less abundant than what is needed is because there are external factors. Reddus said obstacles such as food and housing insecurity are not being given the necessary attention.

“There is not nearly enough mental-health funding, and without the funds, many resources are unable to be provided with 24/7 access,” Reddus said.

Iowa Freedom Riders organizer Raneem Hamad voiced her concern that law enforcement officers are sent out to do jobs that they are ill-equipped to handle. She said that that some of the ICPD’s funding could go to different areas in the community.

“A lot of what the Iowa Freedom Riders have discussed this summer is defunding the police and redirecting those funds to resources in the community that provide necessary crisis management and resources,” Hamad said.

ICPD officer Andrew McKnight is involved in the city’s crisis-intervention program. He said that many on the force support incorporating mental-health services to policing.

“The more mental-health training I receive, the better service I can provide to the community,” he said. “And the more training we provide to officers with de-escalating situations, the better the situation will be.”

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Blotter: September 16

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 03:11:45 +0000

Zainel Abdin Mohamed Ashry, 58, was charged Sept. 15 with operating while under the influence – second offense.

Kaye Cristina Briones, 35, was charged Sept. 15 with driving while barred – habitual offender.

Jordan Avery Burmeister, 27, was charged Sept. 15 with intent to operate vehicle under the influence and possession of a controlled substance.

Brady Elijah Cronan, 22, was charged Sept. 15 with controlled substance violation, operating while under the influence – first offense, and escape of a felon.

Anthony James Elliot, 39, was charged Sept. 15 with domestic abuse assault – second offense, domestic abuse assault impeding blood or airflow, and interference with official acts.

Chris Gordon, 31, was charged Sept. 15 with operating while under the influence – first offense.

Dustin Roy Martin, 31, was charged Sept. 15 with third-degree burglary and third-degree theft.

Keonte Akiwa Laral Martin, 24, was charged Sept. 15 with eluding.

Joshua Michael Wardenburg, 36, was charged Sept. 15 with possession of a controlled substance, public intoxication, interference with official acts and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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Marion man accused of controlled substance violation, fleeing police

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 03:09:24 +0000

A Marion man has been accused of fleeing from police after he was taken into possession for a controlled substance violation.

Brady Elijah Cronan, 22, 1165 Ridge Dr., Marion, was charged with a controlled substance violation, escaping from custody, and operating while under the influence – first offense.

According to the arrest affidavit, Cronan was involved in a motor vehicle accident on First Ave. and Highway 6 in Coralville on Sept. 15. Cronan fled the scene on foot and was observed by officers attempting to conceal himself in a dumpster. Cronan had a .112 BAC at the time of the traffic accident. Cronan had a backpack with six baggies of marijuana in it on his person, according to the affidavit. While being taken into custody Cronan attempted to flee from officers while handcuffed.

Possession of a controlled substance and escape of a felon are Class-D felonies.

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Iowa City-area man accused of stealing bicycle

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 03:07:44 +0000

An Iowa City-area man has been accused of stealing a bicycle.

Dustin Roy Martin, 31, transient address, was charged Sept. 15 with third-degree burglary and second-degree theft.

According to the arrest affidavit, Martin entered a locked storage lot at the Latitude apartment complex in Coralville. The defendant was seen on video taking a bicycle valued at $1,149.

Third-degree burglary is a Class-D felony.

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Students get creative to stay physically active at University of Iowa

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:58:07 +0000

With most University of Iowa classes online during the fall semester, students have had to get more creative in order to exercise, replacing the daily walk to class.

Not leaving the UI residence halls for a few days at a time is the new normal for many students. UI freshman Lily Hintz said she has felt the struggles of staying indoors all day.

“I feel like I get super tired throughout the day,” she said. “It is exhausting having to look at a webcam constantly. It is really weird, and I feel like I have not been in touch with nature or explored the campus as much as I would like to because all of my classes are online.”

Hintz said she heard about Zumba and other fitness classes offered by the UI Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, but in her free time, she chooses to walk around campus and visit other people.

Hintz has not visited the recreation center yet. She said she is also concerned about the strict reservation policies but agrees that the university did the right thing.

According to a survey from Statista, around 27 percent of respondents said they have been exercising less than normal during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 53 percent said they had exercised the same amount as usual.

To promote social distancing, UI students who are interested in coming to the UI Campus Recreation and Wellness Center must reserve a time slot online to come in. The center’s staff announces over the intercom that those who were in a certain time slot that has ended should exit the facility.

“You must wear a mask at all times inside of our facilities,” Associate Director of Fitness and Wellness Patricia Kutcher said. “All locations, including the Field House, have been marked for social distancing.”

UI freshman Abbie Davitt said she has tried to spend time outside, but that it’s dependent on the weather.

“Especially when it is raining, it’s tough,” she said. “The days run together, time runs together, and it just feels like you are not doing much and there is not much to do.”

Davitt said she tries to go to the UI Campus Recreation and Wellness Center most days. There is a park that she and her friends found that they go to to walk around, as well, she said.

One thing she was looking forward to to help stay active during the school year was involvement in student organizations and club activities, but now that they are online due to UI COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, it has been hard for her to figure out plans for herself.

Although it was stressful for Davitt at first having reservations for the UI Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, she said she also agrees that they have done the right thing.

“I think they are doing the best they can and it is a little inconvenient,” she said, “…but overall it has been fine.”

Kutcher said another thing the recreational facilities are offering is at-home resources such as online pre-recorded classes and live Zoom classes.

“We have an at-home fitness bar with [instructors], we have gentle yoga, HIIT classes for beginners, kettlebell workouts,” said Kutcher. “There are a lot of classes and workouts that our members can get through our at home resources, and it is a great opportunity to get to meet our instructors.”

Even with COVID-19 discouraging some students from entering campus facilities, Kutcher said she has noticed an even greater student participation than she has seen in the past.

Kutcher said UI Recreational Services is offering a program called the Fit-to-Go program. It is a private class that can be in-person as well as virtual that does cost money, she said, and is a way for student groups to be able to hire a private instructor for any type of class.

“We hope to be starting in the near future outdoor fitness classes at Hubbard Park,” she said. “We are trying to give all of our members different avenues to come and workout and continue to be a part of their community.”

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University of Iowa drive-up Wi-Fi locations a ‘Band-Aid’ fix for larger problems of digital divide

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:31:06 +0000

More than three-quarters of University of Iowa classes have an entirely virtual format, and internet access is no longer a luxury as COVID-19 continues to impact education.

While 88.2 percent of Iowans have access to broadband internet 100mpbs or faster, Iowa is currently ranked 45th in state broadband access.

“Digital divide –– that means you have technology haves and technology have-nots,” said John Achrazoglou, clinical associate professor and chief technology officer in the UI College of Education. “Internet access, high speed, high quality internet access is no longer an extravagant treat. It’s an essential piece of life, of work, learning, and play.”

There are many rural areas in the state that could not even get high-speed internet if they wanted, Achrazoglou said, and technical difficulties are inevitable no matter where you are.

One solution the UI offers is drive-up Wi-Fi centers on campus. In an email to The Daily Iowan, Communications Officer for the UI Office of the Chief Information Officer Nicole Dahya said this has been a popular option for members of the UI community who need WiFi but do not feel comfortable going into campus buildings.

“People can walk, bike, take a bus, etc. and utilize the Drive-Up Wi-Fi service (practicing appropriate social distancing and safety measures, of course),” Dahya said. “We have also expanded outdoor wireless service to Hubbard Park and the Pentacrest, and are working to add it to the T. Anne Cleary Walkway.”

Achrazoglou said these Wi-Fi spots were a good start, but not a permanent solution to the technology access issue.

“The number one issue that we have is getting high speed internet access to all different students.” Achrazoglou said. “They go home and they might not have that anymore, well, what are they going to do?”

UI Clinical Associate Professor Stephen Cummings, who is also the distance education administrator for the UI Social of Social Work, said while he supports the option because it is a solution at a local and institutional level, it is not optimal for learning.

“At best it’s a Band-Aid, something we are offering,” Cummings said. “But the issue isn’t just with the university, it’s with a larger approach to how we even do this technology.”’

The divide has always been there for lower income households and people, he said, and it is harder for them to pay for broadband. In rural communities, it’s much harder to connect digitally to do anything, he said.

“We could offer the best program on Earth,” Cummings said. “And we can pipe it through our infrastructure, but once it gets out to the last mile wherever people are at, they’re still going to struggle getting connected to it.”

Cummings added that while broadband internet structure is still shaky, virtual learning at this scale would have never been possible just a few years ago.

“And that’s not to polish the issue, it’s just to point out that we’re taking advantage of a really fragile infrastructure as it is to convey our courses to include students in this way,” the professor said. “But I hope that we learn a lot about what we need to change as a result of this.”

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UIHC Respiratory Illness Follow-Up Clinic helps patients with ongoing effects of COVID-19

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 01:31:42 +0000

The University of Iowa Respiratory Illness Follow-Up Clinic, the only COVID-19 follow-up clinic currently in Iowa, is seeking to help patients struggling with lingering effects of COVID-19 and study the long-term consequences of the virus.

Set up through the UI Hospitals and Clinics, people who have had COVID-19 and are clear of the virus for four weeks or more are eligible to become a patient. The clinic was started by UI Professors of Internal Medicine Alejandro Comellas and Joseph Zabner.

“We established the Respiratory Illness Follow-Up Clinic in June,” Comellas wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan. “It was the first such clinic in the state, and one of the first in the country, to provide dedicated care for patients dealing with long-term health complications from COVID-19.”

Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine Alejandro Pezzulo said he researches pulmonary diseases, including COVID-19, and treats patients from anywhere in their 20s to their 60s, with devastating effects for the virus present even in younger, healthier people.

“I have some cases where I saw someone that was in their 40s, super healthy and a trucker that used to work every single day very hard and is completely unable to keep doing his work due to this disease,” Pezzulo said. “This is still two to three months after the initial disease.”

Pezzulo said he combines his patient care with research, an effect that he attributes to the university. He said he loves to get to know about his patient’s lives and understand how the disease has affected them personally, while still being able to provide clinical care.

He added that there is not always a way to help someone with the impact of the disease at our current level of understanding.

“Despite all the resources and how quickly the science is advancing, sometimes we’re still unable to help, and it really is heartbreaking to see the impact of this disease in some of our patients,” Pezzulo said. “Particularly when we don’t have something to help them get better immediately.”

UI Clinical Assistant Professor in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Department Raul Villacreses, who has been at the UI since 2012, said he works in the intensive care unit at his clinic in Muscatine in addition to working at the follow-up clinic.

Villacreses said he was in Ecuador visiting his parents when the pandemic worsened, and he decided to change his flight and come back early to the U.S.

“I had the feeling that I needed to be back where I’m the physician really,” Villacreses said.

Working with COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit, Villacreses said he saw more Spanish-speaking patients than usual, a disproportionate number noticed by his colleague Pezzulo, as well. Villacreses said he later made an offer to Comellas to work with outpatients.

So far, the clinic has not seen many patients, Villacreses said, but he sees the number of people slowly starting to change.

“My favorite part of the job, of course, is to be able to help,” Villacreses said. “I mean, that’s the most important one. I always go with the idea of trying to provide insurance to our patients to try to do as best as we can as I mentioned to provide care and try to make them have a better quality of life.”

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University of Iowa Aging and Longevity Studies Program Marks 40th Anniversary

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 01:25:20 +0000

Learning summits from University of Iowa faculty, elders, and stakeholders from around the world are marking Thursday as the 40th anniversary of the founding of the University of Iowa’s Aging and Longevity Studies Program.

“We are one of the longest-living certificate programs in the University of Iowa, and one of the longest-lived gerontology certificates in the country,” said Mercedes Bern-Klug, the program’s director.

The learning summit is open to students, practitioners, and the public and will feature two days of presentations. Bern-Klug said she believes people do not give older adults the chance to fully participate in society, citing ageism, discrimination, and misconceptions about aging as barriers that the 40th anniversary summit – and the program itself – is working to dismantle.

“We’re trying to broaden people’s ideas of what it can mean to be an older adult in contemporary society,” Bern-Klug said. “So, we’re featuring older adults themselves, who are on their third career and are having fun and making money and doing good in society.”

Although she originally planned to hold the summit in person, she said the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to go online. However, Bern-Klug said there is a silver lining to a virtual celebration.

“Now we have a speaker from Dublin who was able to join us, two from New York City, and one from Boston,” she said. “We have speakers we could never have afforded to bring in, but through Zoom will be a part of our conference.”

The event itself is dedicated to Paulina Mclaren, the founder of the Aging and Longevity Studies Program. Bern-Klug said Mclaren had come to work in the UI’s College of Dentistry and was tapped to create a university-wide credential to prepare all students to work with older adults.

Mclaren then served as the director of the program for 17 years, Bern-Klug said, which made honoring Mclaren’s legacy a reason Bern-Klug created the 40th anniversary summit.

“She died suddenly and unexpectedly a few years ago, and so we have set up a student fund in her name,” Bern-Klug said. “Part of what we’ll be doing is also encouraging people to donate to that student fund so we can support students who are working on their aging and longevity certificate.”

The director added that all the presentations from the summit will be available online for free beginning Oct. 1, which is the United Nations International Day of Older Persons.

Nadia Sabbagh Steinberg, the program coordinator, said everyone can benefit from this nuanced understanding of older adults that the summit and program teaches.

“It’s the first time in our history that a number of older people surpass the number of children… particularly in developed economies like ours in the United States,” Sabbagh Steinberg said. “No matter what profession you pursue, all of us are going to experience the effects of population aging in any career.”

Although the Aging and Longevity Studies Program is part of the School of Social Work, the coordinator said it is a university-wide and multidisciplinary program available to any student.

UI senior Austin Uhl is involved with program as well. He is graduating this year with a bachelor’s in Global Health Studies and certificates in Aging and Longevity Studies and Disability Studies, and said he first got involved with the program when he took the introduction to gerontology course.

“It turned out to me loving this class and learning so much more than I thought I would about the aging process, and how important this subject is in so many different aspects of the world,” Uhl said.

The graduate-to-be said although he is not completely sure what he will do with his degrees, he is hoping to do research on problems facing the aging population.

He added that he is excited to attend the 40th anniversary summit, where he will be introducing and moderating a Q&A with Craig Mokihiber, the Director of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York.

Said Uhl: “Out of all of the coursework I’ve done at Iowa, the Aging and Longevity Studies Program’s classes and administration has been by far my favorite and the best.”

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University of Iowa Aging and Longevity Studies Program marks 40th anniversary

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 01:25:20 +0000

Although she originally planned to hold the summit in person, she said the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to go online. However, Bern-Klug said there is a silver lining to a virtual celebration.

Mclaren then served as the director of the program for 17 years, Bern-Klug said, which made honoring Mclaren’s legacy a reason Bern-Klug created the 40th anniversary summit.

The director added that all the presentations from the summit will be available online for free beginning Oct. 1, which is the United Nations International Day of Older Persons.

Nadia Sabbagh Steinberg, the program coordinator, said everyone can benefit from this nuanced understanding of older adults that the summit and program teaches.

Although the Aging and Longevity Studies Program is part of the School of Social Work, the coordinator said it is a university-wide and multidisciplinary program available to any student.

The graduate-to-be said although he is not completely sure what he will do with his degrees, he is hoping to do research on problems facing the aging population.

Said Uhl: “Out of all of the coursework I’ve done at Iowa, the Aging and Longevity Studies Program’s classes and administration has been by far my favorite and the best.”

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University of Iowa Dance Marathon’s “Big Event” will be virtual this February

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 01:20:55 +0000

Dance Marathon will be holding their “Big Event” virtually for the 2020-21 academic year because of the ongoing pandemic. The date of the fundraiser was also pushed from Feb. 5 to Feb. 26.

The University Iowa student organization raises funds for children treated at the UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital, and their 24-hour long dance party fundraiser has raised over 30 million dollars since the group’s formation in 1994.

Dance Marathon Executive Director Elizabeth Jackson said group leaders decided in the summer to move all their fall semester activities online. She said the choice was made after they realized they wouldn’t be able to adhere to UI COVID-19 guidelines, which restricts gatherings of more than 50 people.

“Our leadership team has over 300 members, so that number ‘50’ logistically just doesn’t work,” Jackson said. “We thought just for the health and safety of all students we should just go fully virtual… [for] our fall semester meetings, events, and programming.”

The UI decided on Aug. 27 to move all student organization events online, even if attendance was less than 50. When the number of Johnson County’s COVID-19 cases increased as classes began, Jackson said she realized the Big Event — which is held at the beginning of the spring semester — would also have to go online.

“We just thought it would be the best decision for us, our families, and our community members,” Jackson said.

She maintained that Dance Marathon is still passionate about keeping people engaged with the virtual format and she added that the group is looking for ways to expand it to different platforms through live streaming. Dance Marathon still plans to give participants the 24-hour experience of the traditional Big Event, said Jackson.

“We’re trying our best to do what we typically do at a Big Event,” she said. “I don’t think we want to cut anything, we’re just reimagining how we can make it work for this year.”

While this year’s dancer registration numbers have been down, Jackson said, the online format has allowed for new outreach opportunities. The group is currently holding a shoe drive and they were able to partner with people outside of Iowa City.

“Typically, that would just be a local event, and now people in other parts of the state and country are able to participate,” she said.

Despite the changes brought on by the coronavirus, the director said she still thinks this year’s Dance Marathon will be a success.

“At the end of the day, making sure our families feel supported is our greatest measure of success,” Jackson said. “I think, no matter what, we’ll still be able to do that.”

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Sexual assault reported in UI residence hall

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 22:40:37 +0000

University of Iowa officials received a report of a sexual assault in an east side residence hall on Sept. 12, according to an email from the UI Department of Public Safety.

According to the email, the assault was perpetrated by an acquaintance.

This is the second sexual assault reported at the UI this semester. An assault at a fraternity that took place on Sept. 3 was reported to the UI campus community on Sept. 11.

The UI Department of Public Safety said in the email that most common type of sexual assault is not committed by a stranger but someone close to the victim, and that students should trust their instincts and attempt to interrupt the chain of events.

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University of Iowa reports 37 new COVID-19 cases

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 20:14:05 +0000

The University of Iowa reported new COVID-19 cases, with 32 students and five employees self-reporting that they have tested positive for the virus since Sept. 14. This brings the total of self-reported student cases on campus to 1,836 since the beginning of the semester.

In the UI’s COVID-19 campus update, five employees also self-reported their positive cases, bringing the semester-to-date total for UI employees to 32.

One student in the residence halls is in quarantine and 21 students in the residence halls are in self-isolation.

The average 14-day total of cases on Sept. 16 was 673 in Johnson County.

“While we can expect new outbreaks may occur,” the campus update said, “…we are confident the spread of the disease can be minimized if the UI and greater Iowa City community continue to follow public health guidelines.”

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Chances for another round of stimulus checks “practically nil,” Grassley says

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 17:29:55 +0000

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Congress is unlikely to come to an agreement on another coronavirus stimulus bill before they adjourn in October as negotiations have again hit an impasse over the price tag of the legislation.

“As of now, as I see it, two weeks before adjournment, it’s practically nil,” Grassley said of the likelihood of passing another bill in a press conference Wednesday.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers released a $1.5 trillion plan yesterday that would include a second round of stimulus checks, increased unemployment insurance, and relief to states and cities.

House Democratic leaders rejected the bill on the grounds that it was not enough, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, is holding fast to a $2.2 trillion price tag, The Hill reported on Tuesday.

“A skinny deal is a Republican bill, that’s not a deal at all,” Pelosi told CNBC on Tuesday.

Pelosi also said the House will stay in session until an agreement is made on a bill.

While Grassley said the White House may be in favor of spending as much as $1.5 trillion, he didn’t say whether or not he would vote for such legislation.

President Trump signaled support for higher spending on a bill in a tweet Wednesday morning, telling Republicans to “Go for the much higher numbers.”

Democrats are “heartless”. They don’t want to give STIMULUS PAYMENTS to people who desperately need the money, and whose fault it was NOT that the plague came in from China. Go for the much higher numbers, Republicans, it all comes back to the USA anyway (one way or another!).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2020

Grassley said the $500 billion to state and local governments allocated in the bipartisan House bill was too much, and that many states had still not spent all the money doled out in the CARES Act in March. He said Republicans would be willing to spend as much as $150 billion on state and local governments.

“We see that as a bailout of a lot of irresponsible state governments, and that would be too high of a figure,” he said. “Although I wouldn’t want to say that Republicans wouldn’t go along with some money for state and local.”

Grassley blamed Pelosi for rejecting the House bipartisan bill and not negotiating with Republicans to reach a lower cost.

“I can only see the Democrat leadership must not be very serious about lowering the price tag and making sure our tax dollars are spent wisely,” He said. “And Democrats within the House caucus are even frustrated by the lack of compromise.”

Congress is set to adjourn in the beginning of October, and lawmakers up for re-election in competitive races are anxious about returning to the campaign trail without providing another round of relief for struggling Americans.

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Iowa City City Council passes resolution to create Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 06:09:53 +0000

Iowa City will create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after weeks of discussion and revisions, despite vocal opposition from Mayor Pro Tem Mazahir Salih, who said “black voices were not being heard” and reflected in the commission’s approved resolution.

The Iowa City City Council voted 6-1 to pass the resolution to create the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Tuesday night. Salih was the single dissenting vote.

The commission was one of several points the council committed to in a 17-point resolution in June, following widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism in the city. It was also one of the demands of the Iowa Freedom Riders, the group leading the protests.

According to the resolution, the commission will be tasked with collecting evidence and testimony of racial injustice in Iowa City, providing opportunities for creative expression, and hosting community discussions and learning opportunities on racial injustices in the city.

Salih said the city council had said they were committed to fighting systemic racism and for the Black Lives Matter movement, but she said she doesn’t feel the resolution reflects that.

“We are not taking seriously the recommendations and the amendment by Black people and people who fight for social justice and racial justice in the community, the people who really carefully put this amendment together,” she said. “My voice as a Black person is not there. It’s not. I am not going to stand by a decision while white people make it for ‘black lives matter’. Because clearly it does not support the amendments that the people who proposed this recommendation…this is a Black Lives Matter issue solved by staff and white people on this commission.”

City Councilors Laura Bergus and Janice Weiner have worked with the Iowa Freedom Riders, the Black Voices Project, and other community organizations to revise the specifics of the resolution each time it has been presented to the city council. The resolution presented on Tuesday was the fourth time the resolution appeared before the council.

Weiner said in response to Salih that she understood Salih’s disappointment, but that staff had no part in drafting the resolution. She said she and Bergus took into account multiple inputs and amendments when drafting the resolution and that they felt they ended with a framework in which the commission could grow from.

“Yes, two white women drafted it,” Weiner said. “And we took substantial comments from many Black people, including IFR, including people from the Black Voices Project, including people from the South District, and others. We considered everybody’s amendments. We did the best that we could and that’s what we’re presenting.”

Bergus said that much of the language of the Iowa Freedom Riders’ amendments had made it into the final resolution, and that she and Weiner had taken care to listen to several voices in the process.

Mayor Bruce Teague said he was grateful that the city had the chance to look more closely at systemic racism through this commission, and he expressed frustration with Salih’s concerns.

“I’m going to choose not to respond,” Teague said. “Because I’m quite hurt by Mayor Pro Tem’s comments, but I’m going to choose not to respond.”

IFR organizer Raneem Hamad said during public comment that she was disappointed in the memo City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes included alongside the revised resolution.

The memo included four amendment proposals from the Iowa Freedom Riders that Dilkes had issues with, including a clause that would give the commission an independent budget from that of the city council’s.

“City Council members are elected and charged with determining how city funds will be spent,” Dilkes wrote in the memo. “IFR’s proposal for the TRC to determine their own mandates and have control of city funds gives them authority that is not envisioned by either the state code or city charter.”

“With respect to the first point in the memo – the proposal of a budget by council – the City Attorney states that funds must be used for the public objective,” Hamad said. “We believe that the [TRC] is Iowa City’s public objective in and of itself, and the proposal of a budget for council approval serves to constrict the TRC.”

Weiner said she was sorry the framework of the commission didn’t fit Salih’s expectations.

“My goal is that this will be a start,” Weiner said. “Not an end, but a start. And that it can be filled with life and help everyone move forward. I’m sorry if it’s not what you were looking for.”

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UIHC, College of Nursing faculty inducted into American Academy of Nursing Fellows Class

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 05:16:18 +0000

The American Academy of Nursing will induct two University of Iowa nurses into its 2020 Class of Fellows later this year.

UI College of Nursing Assistant Professor Barbara St. Marie and UI Hospitals and Clinics Chief Nurse Executive Cindy Dawson were selected in August to join the Academy’s fellows, alongside 230 nurse leaders in the U.S. and 13 other countries.

St. Marie started at the UI when she took on a postdoctoral fellowship in 2012 under Associate Dean for Faculty Keela Herr, who said St. Marie has had a prolific career as a clinical expert in her field.

“Before [St. Marie] came to Iowa, she had done a lot in the field of pain management, particularly with patients who have a substance-abuse disorder as a clinician leader and a policy advocate,” Herr said. “When she came to Iowa, she wanted to become a researcher and to try and make change from that perspective. Since then, she has developed as a scientist with important contributions [to her field].”

St. Marie’s research surrounds pain management in individuals with substance-use disorders, specifically those with opioid-use disorders. St. Marie said being a part of the academy will allow her to have a broader impact both nationwide and around the world, and to share her work with more people in her field.

“Being part of the academy means that I have access to influential leaders in the nursing profession around the world,” she said. “It means I’m able to network with people that are making an impact in a variety of models and interventions of care. It means I’m part of a group that is working to advance nursing and making changes that advance health-care policy in my area of study and many more.”

Beyond being a researcher, St. Marie said the classes she instructs in the UI College of Nursing and her experience as a clinician have allowed her balance in her career and a different perspective on research in her field.

Dawson, who was also selected to join the academy, has been at the university for 44 years and will retire in December. She said her work in otorhinolaryngology – study of the head and neck – and founding of the local chapter of the Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-Neck Nursing at the UI have allowed her to help others understand how they can advocate for nurses.

Dawson said she was selected to be a nurse representative by the American Academy of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery’s clinical practice guidelines group before she became UIHC Chief Nurse Executive.

“I did that for a number of years and found it so rewarding because … we developed over 13 national guidelines for the care of the otolaryngology patient, and nursing was involved in every one of those guidelines,” Dawson said. “Those clinical practice guidelines have reached people, not only in Iowa, but across the nation and the world. During that time, I assured that nurses have a voice at the table.”

Herr said St. Marie and Dawson’s appointments to the Academy’s Class of Fellows showcases how uniquely situated the UI is, with Dawson’s nomination coming from the impact she has had at UIHC and St. Marie’s from her clinical advocacy for a select population of patients.

“This is one of the professional organizations of nursing with high impact on serving the public and the profession by focusing on health policy impacting practice,” Herr said. “Nurses are selected to be a fellow when they have demonstrated in their careers outstanding contributions to nursing and health care. It’s very prestigious to be selected and it’s competitive … It’s clear that our university has faculty that are leaders in the field of nursing and health care and [St. Marie and Dawson] are two of them.”

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State Board of Regents advisory group proposes construction moratorium

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 04:56:51 +0000

An advisory group created by the state Board of Regents is recommending a construction moratorium on new capital projects at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa effective until June 30, 2022.

The moratorium will be effective immediately if it is approved during the regents’ virtual meeting Sept. 23.

The group is recommending the moratorium so there is not an increase in the net square footage on the campuses of the regent institutions at the conclusion of construction projects, according to regent documents.

All current projects and their future phases that are approved or underway are exempt from the moratorium, according to the documents. Health care facilities and projects that are 100 percent by private gifts are also exempt.

For construction projects that require state funding, the university will need to demonstrate how the projects comply with the moratorium. The moratorium can be extended by the regents if necessary, according to the documents. The UI’s $90 million Pentacrest modernization project — which will restore MacLean, MacBride and Jessup Halls over the next 8 to 10 years and eliminate an estimated $27 million in deferred maintenance — was approved in April, and is exempt.

The advisory group met over the summer and recommended the moratorium in conjunction with the regents fiscal 2022 state appropriations request.

Regent President Mike Richards established the advisory group in April 2020 to look for academic and administrative collaborations and efficiencies within the regent enterprise.

The regents will vote on the moratorium during a Sept. 23 meeting.

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Standing Together: Latinx communities voice their support for Black lives

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 04:20:01 +0000

Latinx Heritage Month begins at a time like no other in modern history. Calls for racial justice are being heard across the country as Black lives are continuously lost at the hands of law enforcement — and Latinx individuals are also speaking out.

Regular protests have filled the streets of Iowa City and cities around the world to call on elected officials to reform policing systems following May 25, the day George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. For many, Black Lives Matter rings true to not only injustices within law enforcement, but also in day-to-day experiences.

Eric Vázquez, assistant professor in the UI American Studies Department and in the Latino/a/x Studies Program said the vast range of community reactions to the Black Lives Matter movement simulate the different reactions among American society.

“…if you look at some of the imagery that comes out of the BLM protest from across the country, there’s a lot of stuff for Latinos/Latinas, Chicanos/Chicanas for Black Lives Matter,” Vázquez said. “And I think that’s one of the great things about the protest, speaking just personally is that you do see a lot of solidarity, a lot of different communities — white folks, Black folks, people of color from various stripes, all converging to support the movement.”

Vázquez said while there are some anxious reactions surrounding the movement, there are also expressions of unity.

The Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Vázquez said, and other movements throughout history took a lot of influences from African American struggles for civil rights.

Historically, there’s been continuity in the kinds of oppression Black Americans and Latina/o/x individuals face.

This continuity still exists today, Vázquez said. According to a study on the use of lethal force by law enforcement done by the National Institutes of Health, victims were majority white (52 percent) but disproportionately Black (32 percent) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83 percent); however, Black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8 percent) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8 percent) victims.

Historically, only groups viewed as radical leftist or anti-enforcement like Copwatch seemed to pay close attention to these kinds of police enforcement statistics, Vásquez said.

“I think now, Latinos and Latinas are numbered, and Afro-Latinos and Latinas are also. So, there’s that overlap in the communities too, and I think those two identities … can’t be divorced from the propensity of police to perhaps bring more violence and bring more hostility or more anxiety to encounters with communities of color in general,” Vázquez said.

Isabel Ortiz, a UI graduate student, said the Black Lives Matter movement directly connects to Latinx Heritage month, especially for Afro-Latinos. According to a study done in 2018 by the World Bank, one in four Latin Americans identify themselves as of African descent. The study also found that violence occurs at a higher rate for Black Latinos.

“I think when Latinx heritage month gets brought up or people still refer to it as Hispanic heritage month, they envision whites, Hispanic, or Latinx people,” Ortiz said. “…Latinx heritage month and Black Lives Matter, they’re not separate, they’re very much involved.”

Ortiz said she hopes the movement and all of the dialogue it’s creating brings about sustainable change.

“Extremes are coming out, divisiveness is very evident,” Ortiz said. “And so, I hope that we’re seeing each other in a humanistic sense, cause Black Lives Matter…”

According to a recent report from the American Civil Liberties Union, a Black person in Iowa is 7.3 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, despite both groups using marijuana at the same rate.

Minneapolis native and UI student Chris Vazquez lived just 10 minutes from where Floyd was killed. Vazquez said they had a real-time experience watching people of color in his hometown call for change.

Vazquez funded supplies for protests and gathered money for individuals in need as protests continued on this summer.

“I definitely don’t always feel safe,” Vazquez said.

“If you Google ‘Latino,’ generally you don’t see Black Latinos, you just see brown-skinned Latinos,” Vazquez said. “I think that’s really interesting — there isn’t really a conversation about it.”

As of July 1, 2018, the Iowa Data Center estimates the Latinx population is 194,432, making people of Hispanic or Latino origin the largest ethnic minority in the state, accounting for 6.2 percent of Iowa’s population.

In an email to The Daily Iowan, Jorge Guerra, lecturer in the UI Latina/o/x studies department said when discussing solidarity, it’s essential to note Latina/o/x is an umbrella term that represents a multitude of different cultures and beliefs. Those from Latin America may include people with a mix of African, European, and Indigenous ancestry.

It’s important to acknowledge perspectives from Latina/o/x supporters, advocates of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and those who disagree with it, Guerra said. Younger Latina/o/x peoples who lean progressively, tend to be more supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Latina/o/x millennials and Generation Z Latina/o/x peoples are some of the major voices confronting the racist biases and perceptions of Black/African American people within the Latina/o/x community,” Guerra said.

The Latina/o/x population who do not support the Black Lives Matter movement, Guerra said, tend to be older and more traditional with moderate to conservative stances on racial issues, Guerra said.

“If this group of Latina/o/x peoples are not supportive of Trump’s perspective on BLM, they are sympathetic to the images of cities and small businesses — especially immigrant-owned businesses — burning across their television screens and electronic devices,” Guerra said.

University of Iowa student Oscar Rodriguez, had always been instructed by his parents to know what to say when confronted by the police or in an uncomfortable situation. For Rodriguez, growing up and learning how to deal with his identity was a cultural norm.

“Growing up in Iowa as a Latinx-identifying guy, I’ve never really felt safe,” Rodriguez said. “Thinking about Iowa itself with a mostly white population, I’ve never felt safe.”

For Rodriguez, the Black Lives Matter movement caught his eye in 2014 when 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white Ferguson police officer. Since then, Rodriguez has participated in the movement and calls for reform.

“No matter what I do, no matter who I become, no matter what I study, or whether I graduate with a degree or not, I am always going to be seen as this brown body by the police,” Rodriguez said.

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Meaning behind the UI students self-reporting COVID-19 tests

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 04:10:18 +0000

University of Iowa faculty, staff, and students are expected to self-report positive or presumed positive COVID-19 tests to the university. These numbers are emailed three times each week to the UI community, to inform it of the current spread of coronavirus on campus.

Johnson County case numbers have reached new highs since the start of fall classes. There have been 4,822 cases in Johnson County, and the UI has reported 72 new COVID-19 cases among students and 4 among UI employees since Sept. 11.

There have been 1,804 self-reported positive cases among students and 27 among faculty since the beginning of the semester.

UI Campus Health Officer Dan Fick said UI community members are expected to self-report their COVID-19 test results if they have talked with a health-care provider about having a positive test or have been contacted by a public health agency for being in close contact with someone who tested positive.

He added that people are not required to report a negative test result to the university.

UI Director of Student Health Paul Natvig said UI Student Health has facilitated over 2,000 coronavirus tests since the start of classes. This includes tests conducted by UI Student Health and tests conducted at UI Hospitals and Clinics that were ordered by UI Student Health.

UI Student Health is working with Johnson County Public Health to provide contact tracing for students, faculty, and staff who test positive for the coronavirus, Fick said. Johnson County Public Health provides contact information for individuals testing positive and affiliated with the university, he said.

“If those individuals have not self-reported, they are contacted and requested to report,” Fick said. “All contacted individuals have self-reported to date.”

Iowa’s ten peer institutions have taken different approaches. The University of Minnesota welcomed its students back to campus Sept. 8, two weeks after the UI began fall instruction on Aug. 24.

In an email to The Daily Iowan, UMN Public Relations Strategist Caitlin Hurley said students have access to 59 testing sites across two counties in the Twin Cities where the campus is located.

Similar to the UI, if UMN students and faculty get tested for the coronavirus off campus, they are not required to report their results.

“As such, the university cannot ask students, faculty and staff to disclose to the university their current COVID-19 status,” Hurley said. “This means the data on the dashboard is not fully reflective of the Twin Cities campus community.”

At Indiana University, mitigation testing is used to identify and isolate students who have COVID-19, but are not showing any symptoms. Indiana University Health administered 205,103 COVID-19 tests as of Sept. 8.

At the UI, self-reported numbers are broken into two groups — one for employees and one for students. Graduate students fall into the same category as undergraduate students.

Breaking the numbers into small groups, such as by college, department, or on campus status, could lend too much information and lead to identifying students, violating federal health laws, said UI Assistant Vice President for External Relations Jeneane Beck. The UI does not report COVID-19 cases to the public if the number is fewer than six.

“Following guidance from the Office of General Counsel, we cannot disclose FERPA or HIPAA protected health information about students if doing so will allow someone to identify particular individuals, as would be the case if the numbers are very low,” Beck said.

If the UI shared the numbers based on whether students live on or off campus or what year they are in school, it would violate the student’s right to privacy, Beck said.

No matter where a student, faculty, or staff member tests positive, if they report their association to the UI or record their residency in Johnson County, Beck said Johnson County Public Health will record their case.

Fick said the UI has not set a limit on the amount of times students, faculty, and staff can get tested for the coronavirus. The university is focused on following testing recommendations outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said, meaning it will test people with symptoms and people who have been identified as a close contact by someone who has tested positive.

For those who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past three months, the CDC does not recommend they get tested again, Fick said.

Unlike the UI, Iowa State University requires students to self-report even if they do not test through the university.

Each institution has different responsibilities regarding testing and how they coordinate with their county’s public health agency, Beck said. Story County Public Health delegated contract tracing to ISU, she said, while Johnson County performs the UI contract tracing.

She said Johnson County and the UI will compare self-reported cases and if Johnson County Public Health has a report the university does not, the UI will reach out to that student and encourage them to report. Students that have not self-reported for contact tracing have not received a violation at this time, she said, though it is possible to receive one in the future.

Students are expected to follow the student agreement they signed before returning to campus, Fick said. The agreement requires students to follow health and safety guidelines, including wearing face coverings, social distancing, and washing hands.

Beck said the UI Office of the Dean of Students reminded students on Aug. 25 that health and safety guidelines must be adhered to both on and off campus. Students can be held accountable for violating social distancing in areas throughout the county, including Coralville and North Liberty, she said.

“The language in the student agreement makes it clear that students are expected to cooperate with Johnson County. If they don’t, they may face consequences through the code of student life,” Beck said. “We are accomplishing the same thing as ISU through this process.”

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The cost of University of Iowa COVID-19 preparations

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 03:53:54 +0000

The University of Iowa offers free testing for students, faculty, and staff if they are symptomatic or have a known exposure to someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus. However, with a consultation before the appointment, testing can be expensive.

The UI released in its latest COVID-19 campus update that as of Sept. 11, there have been 1,804 self-reported coronavirus cases among students and 27 among employees since the beginning of the semester. As the coronavirus continues to spread, more people are looking for ways to get tested.

Director of Student Health Paul Natvig said the UI offers free testing for students, faculty, and staff, but they must complete a telehealth video call beforehand with a health-care provider to determine whether they need a test. UI Campus Health Officer Dan Fick said a test costs the university $100, the DI previously reported.

Natvig said if someone has health insurance through the university, the telehealth video session doesn’t cost them anything. He said UI Student Health will charge someone’s insurance, but the individual student will not incur charges.

For students, faculty, and staff members who don’t have insurance through UIChoice, UISelect, Student Health Insurance Plan, and UIGradcare, Natvig said they are required to pay their copay from an outside insurance agency or pay the full amount out of pocket.

UI Vice President of External Relations Jeneane Beck said the university offers financial assistance to those who can’t afford to pay for the testing.

“Students who are unable to afford the test can seek assistance with payment,” Beck said. “Additionally, Student Health can submit the test to the State Hygienic Laboratory at no cost.”

During the telehealth video call, Natvig said a health-care provider determines whether a person’s symptoms could be coronavirus. The health-care provider advises the person on whether or not they need to get tested, based on their symptoms and their known exposures to positive patients, Natvig said.

Beck said since the university is committed to testing everyone who needs it, there is no set budget limitation. Funding for testing comes from Student Health and the General Education Fund, she said.

Some students have lied about their symptoms in order to get a test through the university, Beck said, which can make it difficult for those who do need to be tested quickly.

“We rely on our students, faculty, and staff to provide accurate information about their health and any potential symptoms to their provider in order to ensure those who most need to be tested are able to be tested in a timely manner,” Beck said.

The number of tests distributed differs depending on the day. UI Student Health is administering between 100 to 500 tests per day, Natvig said.

While the university hasn’t set a limit on the amount of times a student can get tested for the coronavirus, they are limiting the amount of people who attempt to get tested again after testing positive, Natvig said.

Beck said the money for testing comes from the $218,710,793 General Education Fund budget, but the UI hasn’t set a limit on the budget for COVID-19 testing.

In addition to money spent on testing, the UI also purchased a significant amount of personal protective equipment to distribute on campus.

Assistant VP and Director of Business Services Deborah Zumbach said in an email to The Daily Iowan that the UI and UIHC invested an estimate of $ 22,481,000 in supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as PPE, hand sanitizer and plexiglass.

Zumbach said over Skype that her purchasing team buys supplies for both the UI Hospitals and Clinics and the university, so while the college wasn’t in need of supplies for students in the early months of the pandemic, the purchasing department has been working to secure supplies since March for UIHC.

When it came time to supply the UI campus, the purchasing department started by mimicking the hospital’s needs, Zumbach said. However, when they were in the market for supplies for the UI, they were limited in the vendors they could rely on, as some of their usual vendors were only allocating supplies to hospitals, she said.

She added that the purchasing department referred to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved list and local experts when searching for alternative supplies, she said.

“We had to go and look for relationships and basically what happened is we had people come to us who were either alumni from the university or were connected to doctors at the hospital, who said, ‘Hey, we want to help you get a supply of masks and we have connections in China’,” Zumbach said. “And so, if we’re just talking about masks supplies alone, we built relationships directly with vendors in China via connections from our alumni.”

The UI purchasing team gained access to a COVID-19 Amazon website available to hospitals that only a few higher up universities had access to, she said. By engaging with Amazon, the UI purchasing department was able to buy 10 million three-ply masks for the state of Iowa, Zumbach said.

The purchasing department has also used its connections to sell masks to the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University, she said. As part of a bulk buy, roughly 20 schools in Iowa purchased face masks and hand sanitizer from UI. They sell at the cost value, UI is not making a profit.

The UI received $16.17 million from the CARES Act in fiscal 2020 and 2021, half of which would go toward preventing, preparing for, and responding to COVID-19, and covering costs associated with changes to the delivery of instruction due to COVID-19, according to Board of Regents documents.

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Blotter: September 15

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 02:59:17 +0000

Luke Kenneth Becker, 18, was charged Sept. 14 with trespassing.

Jamaal Turner Brooks, 23, was charged Sept. 14 with third-degree theft and unauthorized use of a credit card.

Gregory William Johnson, 55, was charged Sept. 14 with driving with an open container and operating while under the influence – first offense.

Robert Lee McGill, 37, was charged Sept. 14 with possession of a controlled substance.

Danielle Jo Wyant, 32, was charged Sept. 14 with second-degree theft.

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Waterloo woman accused of stealing from Scheels in Coralville

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 02:54:24 +0000

A Waterloo woman has been accused of second-degree theft.

Danielle Jo Wyant, 32, 219 State St,, Waterloo, was arrested Sept. 14 after a warrant served for an alleged theft that occurred June 2 at the Scheels store in the Coral Ridge Mall.

According to the arrest affidavit, Wyant wrote two checks to Scheels for $1,684.95 and $1,294.17. Wyant had opened a bank checking account at Dupaco Community Credit union and purchased checks, but never deposited money into the account.

Wyant has similar charges pending in Black Hawk County.

Second-degree theft is a Class-D felony.

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Second sickout brings UI and Iowa State together

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 01:04:15 +0000

The University of Iowa and Iowa State University are often against each other in their state school rivalry, but on Sept. 15, students and faculty from both universities joined together to call in sick and demand online classes for another sickout.

As of 1:30pm on Sept 15, the UI sickout received 510 pledges, which were fairly evenly split between the two schools, according to UI sickout organizers. Some University of Northern Iowa and Kirkwood students also signed the pledge.

In an email to *The Daily Iowan*, UI sickout members said they were contacted by Iowa State University organizers who wanted to organize a sickout at their school. UI held their first, independent sickout on Sept. 2, in which 916 students, faculty and staff participated, the members said.

“The first sickout was successful in terms of numbers, but this sickout is focused on showing solidarity with other college communities across Iowa,” UI sickout organizers said. “We are aware that this is not a problem unique to the University of Iowa and its administration. Across Iowa teachers, students, staff, and faculty, are risking COVID-19 exposure due to face-to face instruction. By partnering with other schools, we hope to bring more attention to our cause, and to show people that this isn’t just a UIowa issue — in fact, these harmful decisions are being made statewide and nationwide.”

Since students returned to campus, both Ames and Iowa City have been named hotspots for COVID-19. The latest COVID-19 update at UI reported 1,804 students and 27 employees have self-reported a positive COVID-19 test since the beginning of the semester.

In Iowa State’s most recent update, the university reported 976 students,11 graduate assistants, 23 staff and two faculty members have tested positive since August 19.

“Collectively, this action aims to bring attention to the mismanaged reopenings of campuses across Iowa,” said UI sickout organizers.

In a press release sent on Sept. 14, Alexa Rodriguez, an Iowa State student who was previously hospitalized with COVID-19, shared her support for the sickout.

“I’m terrified to go to my in-person class,” she said. “The only reason why we haven’t shut down is because President Wintersteen and the Board of Regents are trying to milk us for every last cent of tuition first. I’m already in massive amounts of debt for this degree, but now they want me to risk my life too.”

Rodriguez is a member of Iowa Student Action, which promoted the sickout on Twitter and Instagram.

About 78 percent of undergraduate hours are conducted online at the UI, and UI officials have warned that sending students home now would only spread the virus to people’s home communities.

UI junior Demitri Makeig, who is majoring in theater, said he participated in both of the sickouts. On Sept. 15, both of his classes were already canceled by the teaching assistants that lead them, who Makeig said have been vocal in class about their concerns.

“I’m just so appalled by the university just sending out so many emails over the summer being like ‘We got, we care about your lives. We’re doing so much’ and then it’s kind of all falling apart these past couple weeks,” he said. “It’s just very evident now that they’re not going to do anything until what seems like the tuition refunds are done, so they can cash their checks.”

Makeig, who also supports the Black Lives Matter movement, said he is ‘all about a protest’ and noted the ways that the COVID-19 intersects with BIPOC issues. He noted the racial disparities in how COVID-19 affects minorities, and said BIPOC students may not have the same access to resources that make in person class the best choice for them.

UI teaching assistant Steven Glavey, Makeig’s playwriting teaching assistant who canceled class for the sickout, said as a person of color, he was frightened for his life and the lives of others after seeing how people of color have been hospitalized and killed by COVID-19 at higher rates than white people.

Glavey said he also was motivated to cancel class to show his undergraduate students that he stands in solidarity with them, as he thinks the UI unfairly blamed those students.

“I think it’s important for me to show my students that they are not alone and that their instructors see the horrible nightmare that they are suffering under too. And also to show them that other people see the way that the University is lying and the way that the university is trying to use them as the scapegoat,” Glavey said.

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Tippie Associate Director of DEI inducted into the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 00:58:45 +0000

University of Iowa Tippie College of Business faculty member Gabriela Rivera, who was recently inducted into the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame, aims to serve as a welcoming and inspiring role model for UI students and the Iowa City community in her career at the university.

According to the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame, honorees “represent the Latinos who have helped shape Iowa, the United States, and the world. Their induction into the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame will enhance the visibility of their contributions to their work, communities, and the status of Latinos in Iowa.”

Rivera said she was only 18 when she came to Iowa from Mexico City, Mexico. Since then, she received her master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the UI and has become a mentor for marginalized voices on campus.

She began her career at the university as an admissions counselor, Rivera said, later transferring to the UI Center for Diversity and Enrichment, and then to the Tippie College of Business, where she has received additional recognition with her promotion to Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

She originally held the title of UI Assistant Director of Diversity, Inclusion, and Student Services in Tippie College of Business’s undergraduate program.

Rivera said she feels very grateful and privileged to work with students, and that she loves what she does at the university.

“The university is definitely invested in making sure that there are systems in place for making sure students, our faculty and staff, and everyone, feels welcome and included,” Rivera said. “And [in] everything that we do, we’re advancing initiatives that are aligned with equity and inclusion. I feel like I have all of these opportunities for me to become better at what I love doing.”

Rivera created BizEdge, a Tippie College of Business mentoring program for first-generation students that are minorities and underrepresented at the UI. She also works for Gateway, a program that reaches out to underrepresented high-school students to teach them more about attaining a business degree, Rivera said.

Undergraduate Program in Business Associate Dean Kenneth Brown said Rivera has won almost every award the university gives its staff members.

Rivera received the 2016-2017 Susan C. Buckley Distinguished Achievement Award for an outstanding achievement or lifetime record of service in 2017, making it the first time a Tippie College of Business faculty member won the award. She also received the UI’s Lola Lopez Award in recognition of undergraduate student advocacy in May 2020.

Rivera was named on the ‘20 Latino-Iowans You Need to Meet List’ through the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs. Both the commission and the Iowa Department of Human Rights announced her induction into the Iowa Latino Hall of Fame.

“[Rivera] does more than just serve as a role model for what it means to be welcoming and inclusive,” Brown said. “She’s helped create programs that bring more people to the table to do that work. Something she does every day is she tries to make the community that she’s in better by being more inclusive, and it’s really phenomenal to be a part of that and watch.”

Zahra Aalabdulrasul, a UI student who met Rivera through the BizEdge mentoring program, said Rivera has a special place in her heart.

“The individual colleges within the university have a long way to go,” Aalabdulrasul said. “So, knowing people like Gabriela [Rivera] exist is so important, and her value can’t even be measured by these awards and recognitions that she receives, although she’s so deserving of them.”

Aalabdulrasul said Rivera helps people simply because she wants to see them succeed. She mentioned that, in a predominantly white community such as Iowa City, it is important for people like Rivera to reach out to marginalized voices to help them find a community.

“I think with people like that, it’s very obvious who’s genuine and who’s doing it for recognition, but Gabriela has a very, very big heart,” Aalabdulrasul said. “And she’s always looking to help someone — she’s always looking to get someone connected. She’s always helping someone grow in some capacity.”

Rivera said that marginalized individuals who have the opportunity to connect with others should return that favor. She often gives out letters of recommendation with the hopes that those students will someday open similar doors for others.

“These doors will eventually open and you just don’t know when that door will open,” she said. “If you have the opportunity to interact with people who are very different than you, it’s a great opportunity just to be able to do that. When you’re able to give back and do that, be grateful and give back when you can.”

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Reynolds opens bars in four counties, Johnson and Story bars remain closed

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 23:15:21 +0000

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will allow bars in four counties to reopen, but bars in Johnson and Story Counties, the homes of Iowa’s two largest universities, will remain closed.

Reynolds closed bars, breweries, and other drinking establishments in Black Hawk, Dallas, Johnson, Linn, Polk, and Story Counties on Aug. 27, citing rising COVID-19 cases in those counties, especially among young people. Bars can reopen in all counties but Johnson County, home of the University of Iowa, and Story County, home of Iowa State University.

Bars in the four counties where restrictions were lifted will be allowed to reopen at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Bars were blamed for the large increases in coronavirus cases in college towns as students returned in August. University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld criticized the Iowa City business community in a letter in August for disregarding social distancing restrictions implemented by the governor.

Daily case rates went down in Johnson County following the bar shutdown, according to the Iowa coronavirus website. 4,854 people in Johnson County have tested positive for the coronavirus, and more than 75,000 people statewide have tested positive.

Bars that can reopen will still be required to comply with social distancing guidelines outlined in the governor’s proclamation, including keeping six feet of distance between groups of patrons, and requiring patrons to be seated while eating or drinking.

The White House Coronavirus task force recommended that bars in 61 counties be closed at the end of August, and that the governor issue a statewide mask mandate. Reynolds has been opposed to a mask mandate, elevating a message of personal responsibility instead.

“The proclamation also continues to strongly encourage all Iowans two or older to wear a mask or other face covering when in public settings, especially in circumstances when it is not possible to remain six feet away from others outside their household, unless it is unsafe to do so because of health or disability,” a press releasee from the Iowa Governor’s office announcing the bar reopenings said.

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Drought, plague, fire: the apocalypse feels nigh. Yet we have tools to stop it | Art Cullen

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 10:26:05 +0000

In climate change, the Four Horsemen have a perfect force of destruction. Maybe these fires and floods will be a wakeup call to stop stalling

As the west coast burns into an orange hellscape you have to wonder if those preaching the end of time aren’t on to something. The people smart enough to make a cellphone have been warning that we have no more than a decade to tamp down the climate crisis. Other wise men and women think we don’t even have that much time. We should listen.

People have been preaching the end of time since the beginning of time. The whole story got laid down in the Book of Revelations. Being raised Catholic, we did not read the Bible that much and were casually advised by the nuns to not wade too deep in that chapter. Concentrate on Love Thy Neighbor because Ye Shall Not Know the Hour or Day.

Whether you draw your clues from scripture or science, the writing is in the skies over the Golden Gate Bridge

Art Cullen is editor of the Storm Lake Times in north-west Iowa, where he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing on agriculture and the environment. He is a Guardian US columnist and author of the book Storm Lake: Change, Resilience, and Hope in America’s Heartland

City Council closer to creating commission addressing racial injustice in Iowa City

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 03:52:11 +0000

The Iowa City City Council may reach an agreement to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address past and future systemic racial inequalities in Iowa City at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Creating the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was something the council committed to in a 17-point resolution in June in response to Black Lives Matter protests, led by the Iowa Freedom Riders, across Iowa City. Creating the commission was one of several demands for the council made by the Iowa Freedom Riders.

This will be the fourth time the resolution has come before the council. Councilors have sought public input on the structure and mission of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission during past meetings.

The commission would be tasked with finding evidence and testimony of past and current racial injustices in Iowa City, provide forums for creative expression, and facilitate discussions and opportunities for learning about discrimination.

City Councilor Laura Bergus, who has worked on drafting new versions of the commission alongside City Councilor Janice Weiner, said she and Weiner had received new input from the Iowa Freedom Riders since the council’s last meeting and drafted a revised resolution for this week’s meeting.

Bergus and Weiner presented the new draft to Iowa City City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes, who included a memo in this week’s city council agenda on which proposals from the Iowa Freedom Riders had and had not been added into the resolution.

Of those proposals, four were outlined in the memo as being problematic: an undefined set of mandates/objectives of the commission and a budget independent of the city council, overall independence from city council, the ability for the commission to “take strong affirmative action” to protect those that participate in the commission’s process, and power for the commission to identify perpetrators and have access to documents and witnesses.

Bergus said she felt good about the work she and Weiner have put into the drafts.

“So all of that is to say, if you look at the memo from the city attorney and the revised draft document itself, we tried to pull all that together,” Bergus said. “And I think we’ve succeeded. I mean, I have yet to talk with my colleagues about it and we’ll be having that discussion at our formal meeting tomorrow.”

She said she hopes that the resolution will pass Tuesday night, but that it’s hard to tell what will happen until the meeting.

“It’s certainly been a really interesting and exciting process for me, but I can’t wait for the commission to get underway,” Bergus said. “I think it’s going to be really transformative for our community.”

Weiner also said she felt good about the new draft and hopes that city council will pass the revised resolution Tuesday.

“I am hopeful, I believe we are hopeful, that it will be considered and passed at this session because I really think it’s important that we get this moving,” Weiner said. “The reason that we deferred it to this meeting was to make sure that we could gather all the comments that came in at the last meeting. So I think we feel good that we’ve put together a good product.”

Mayor Pro Tem Mazahir Salih said that she doesn’t want to pass the resolution unless the community feels satisfied by its implementation.

“To me, this is one of the things that should be permanent in the city of Iowa City, that’s why I want it to be well done,” Salih said. “And I will try my best because we need to have it happen as soon as possible, but we don’t have to rush for something not satisfying the people.”

Iowa Freedom Riders organizer Raneem Hamad, who proposed several amendments to the resolution on behalf of the Iowa Freedom Riders at the Sept. 1 city council meeting, said she wished councilors had been more communicative of the legal limitations of the commission in discussions with the group.

Hamad said she would have preferred more specific language on how the commission would be able to protect people who participate in its work.

“I really wanted some language in resolution about legal protections for victims and survivors who come and speak out during the process,” she said. “And that was something for example, there really wasn’t any actual strong language, in my opinion, for that.”

Still, Hamad said the Iowa Freedom Riders, which is one of a few organizations the council wants to be represented on the commission, will continue to work with the council and support the commission.

“We’re just going to accept the limitations that are there and just try to work, do the best that we can with the commission as it continues to be developed,” she said.

Caleb McCullough contributed to this report.

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City Council closer to creating commission addressing racial injustice in Iowa City

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 03:52:11 +0000

The Iowa City City Council may reach an agreement to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address past and future systemic racial inequalities in Iowa City at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Bergus said she felt good about the work she and Weiner have put into the drafts.

She said she hopes that the resolution will pass Tuesday night, but that it’s hard to tell what will happen until the meeting.

Weiner also said she felt good about the new draft and hopes that city council will pass the revised resolution Tuesday.

Mayor Pro Tem Mazahir Salih said that she doesn’t want to pass the resolution unless the community feels satisfied by its implementation.

Hamad said she would have preferred more specific language on how the commission would be able to protect people who participate in its work.

“We’re just going to accept the limitations that are there and just try to work, do the best that we can with the commission as it continues to be developed,” she said.

Caleb McCullough contributed to this report.

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Botter: September 14

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 02:58:23 +0000

Ethan Daniel Ball, 28, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – second offense.

Tomas Ilan Blasberg, 21, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – first offense.

Camden Michael Christensen, 21, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – first offense.

Morgan Noreen Donaghey, 23, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – first offense.

Jon Corydon McIntyre, 41, was charged Sept. 13 with public intoxication.

Juan Oscar Baltazar Moreno, 38, was charged Sept. 13 with public intoxication.

Olivia Anne Marie Renze, 18, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – first offense.

Georgia Elizabeth Sampson, 21, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – first offense.

Khaven Dean Wagenknecht, 24, was charged Sept. 13 with operating while under the influence – second offense.

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University of Iowa drops slightly in US News rankings

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 02:18:26 +0000

The University of Iowa slid in the touted national US News and World Report rankings for top national universities, but maintained its ranking among public universities from the previous year.

Every year, US News releases its rankings of the top national universities and public universities, which are indicators of academic quality, and used by incoming students when looking for a prospective college.

The UI moved down four spots from No. 84 in the 2020 rankings to No. 88 nationally. Its ranking of No. 34 for public universities – which was held in last year’s 2020 rankings, as well – remains the same.

The rankings are based on several categories rating an institution’s retention, academics, and financial factors. The UI decreased in the categories of financial resources, faculty resources, average alumni giving rate, Pell Grant recipient graduates, and social mobility rate.

The rankings were determined by fall 2019 data and earlier, and do not demonstrate any impact that COVID-19 had on institutions. The effects from COVID-19 on universities will show in the fiscal 22 data.

US News wrote in its article on the rankings that the methodology for determining these ranks comes from user feedback, discussions with schools and higher education experts, literature reviews, trends in its own data, availability of new data, and engaging with deans and institutional researchers at higher education conferences.

The UI improved in peer assessment, graduate retention rate, percentage of classes under 20, selectivity rank, and the percentage of first-year students who were in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Financial resources for the UI are a combination of tuition and state support. In fiscal 2020, the UI’s financial resource rank was No. 83. This year, the ranking dropped to No. 87. The UI’s faculty resources rank dropped 10 notches, from No. 69 to No. 79, as well.

UI President Bruce Harreld has often cited the U.S. News rankings when making requests to the state Board of Regents and Iowa lawmakers for more funding — which he has said would lead to more resources for students and better outcomes, such as higher graduation and retention rates.

Following a trend of disinvestment, in 2019, lawmakers approved a $12 million boost to the regents.

But facing pandemic-shorted funds, the state cut $8 million from the universities budgets in June. The UI’s general education fund was $746 million for fiscal 2020.

Compared with its 10 other peer universities, Iowa ranks second from the bottom. Just the University of Arizona ranks lower, at 97 of all U.S. universities.

In response, within the state of Iowa, and no increase in state support, the UI was not able to allocate as much funds toward faculty and students resources compared to other universities.

The Pell Grant rate, a grant for students who demonstrate severe financial need, for the UI dropped from 64 percent to 60 percent. Social mobility rank dropped from 335 to 353, which is determined by the Pell Grant graduation rates and Pell Grant graduation performances.

Iowa State University, ranked at No. 55 for top public universities last year, increased to No. 44 and improved in the national universities category, jumping up to No. 118 from No. 121 the previous year. The University of Northern Iowa, not included in the national rankings, remains at No. 2 for Midwest public schools and dropped from No. 20 to No. 24 in the Midwest overall rankings.

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Disposable masks can have environmental impact, UI sustainability experts say

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 02:16:36 +0000

While three main types of facial coverings are currently being used to slow the spread of COVID-19 — reusable, disposable or plastic face shields – experts are looking at how these masks and the virus are affecting the environment.

Iowa City Recycling Coordinator Jane Wilch said reusable masks are a great option and are easy to make with at-home materials. Upcycling and reusing old T-shirts and hair-ties are great ways to create masks with the lowest environmental impact possible, she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has guidelines online including helpful instructions on simple ways to make masks from home while assuring the mask is effective.

Wilch said if people must buy masks, to buy them locally. The closer a product is to home, she said, the smaller of a carbon footprint it will have.

Buying masks, she said, is a great way to support local businesses during difficult times.

University of Iowa Sustainability Program Manager Elizabeth MacKenzie said she encourages people to use whatever type of mask best fits into their lifestyle. She said sometimes cleaning masks can be difficult without adequate time or a washing machine, so people need to choose the mask that works best for them.

MacKenzie added that reusable products tend to have less of an environmental impact than disposable options, but this can vary based on when the reusable product is disposed and how it’s disposed of.

She said lately there have been a lot of cases of people not disposing of their masks properly in the garbage, and instead are putting them in the recycling or littering.

If someone throws masks into recycling, MacKenzie said, the recycling center is required to dispose of the entire load of recycling to the landfills.

There has also been an increase of masks being littered not only throughout Iowa City, but everywhere, MacKenzie said.

“Eventually it [facemasks] washes into sewer drains if it doesn’t get picked up that can contribute to flooding. If those drains get clogged, it can have a threat to any wildlife that might get entangled or ingest those materials,” MacKenzie said. “Once it goes through rivers it ends up in the ocean and that’s why we have a lot of ocean plastics. Any littering of masks is not ideal.”

MacKenzie said typically reusable products do have fewer environmental impacts than disposable options as long they are reused enough times.

UI Director of the Office of Sustainability Stratis Giannakouros said right now, proper recycling can be more difficult because of the risk of contaminating workers. He said there are more ways that people are increasing in waste right now, as well.

“We have all of these plastic masks or PPE and lunches are being prepackaged now, that all adds to our waste profile. None of these are things we would want to control right now, because they keep the campuses safe, but it does add to our waste profile,” he said. “But for good reason, we understand the necessity of these items.”

Wilch said people should look at all of their daily habits, which are reflected in the trash after several months, Wilch said. Masks are important to use, she said, but how people choose to use the mask and dispose of it is important, as well.

“A lot has changed in 2020, but there are still ways to be mindful of your everyday actions with sustainability, it may just look different.” said Wilch.

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Student organizations, Johnson County looks to keep young voters civically engaged during COVID-19

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 01:45:06 +0000

As the election approaches during the pandemic, first-time and young voters are looking for new ways to stay active civically while remaining safe.

At the University of Iowa, the non-partisan student organization Hawk the Vote is working to continue their pledge to register students to vote, educate them on voting, and foster a civically-engaged community on campus.

Executive Director Jocelyn Roof said while this year changed the organization’s plans, it has started new outreach programs to keep students active in politics.

The organization’s two main projects are the 90 Percent Challenge — which looks towards student organizations and groups to have 90 percent of their eligible members registered to vote — and their new student Voting Ambassador program to get “some local voting experts on campus,” as Roof put it.

“We have between 25 and 30 student organizations signed up for the 90 Percent Challenge right now,” she said. “We currently have 130 ambassadors who will spend one to two hours a week posting on social media and contacting up to 100 of their friends from their own networks about updating registrations, requesting absentee ballots, and answering any questions they might have about voting”

Roof said Hawk the Vote wanted to expand their digital side and get creative this fall in light of COVID-19. She said these two programs were a combination of what other organizations and schools in the past have done to keep students engaged. For example, the 90 Percent Challenge was piloted at the University of Michigan.

Hawk the Vote typically registers around 2,000 students to vote during welcome week alone in the past couple of years, which Roof said couldn’t happen this year. However, the director said she expects Hawk the Vote’s Voting Ambassador program will reach more students and community members.

“I’m optimistic about this year and we’ll have better data in real time to see how things are progressing because each of our ambassadors are updating a spreadsheet with confidential information,” she said. “Once we really get going, we… might be able to have one-on-one conversations with around 13,000 people, which is way more people than we’ve been able to reach in the past.”

Alongside concerns about the pandemic, Peter De Guzman, a research and program coordinator for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLES) at Tufts University, said young voters from 18 to 29 have become more civically engaged due to protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.

He said CIRCLES polling has shown that young people are remaining engaged in several ways, including with an uptick in donating money to campaigns and convincing others to vote.

“We compared our 2018 and 2020 election polls specifically around 18-24 year olds [and] we are seeing in our most recent poll of about 2,200 people that 50 percent of young people have tried to convince other people to vote,” De Guzman said. “And that’s higher than the 33 percent in 2018. We are also seeing 27 percent of young people said they attended a demonstration or march compared to 16 percent in 2018 following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.”

The program coordinate said another issue for young people in the 2020 election is accessibility to voting. Since a lot of first-time voters don’t necessarily know how to request an absentee ballot or the guidelines for voting by mail, he said, it might be more difficult for younger voters to participate and remain safe, he said.

This issue has been central to Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert and his preparations for the election. He said while the auditor’s office has hired extra staff and moved locations to accommodate and increase in mail-in voting, they are also still preparing to have satellite locations for voters to vote early.

“We’re hoping satellite locations will help voters social distance, since voters can go there instead of to their precincts on election day,” Weipert said. “We are not having one at the university’s hospitals this year, but we will have some on campus for younger voters.”

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Iowa City B&B’s offer limited forms of housing while some remain closed completely

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 01:19:18 +0000

Bed and breakfasts significantly changed how they housed guests this year, and some that closed in March under challenges presented by COVID-19 are still waiting to reopen.

The Burford House Inn, owned and operated by Mark McCallum, is one of the Iowa City B&Bs still open and accepting guests, though in limited numbers and only through directly booking over the phone.

McCallum said part of what allows him to stay open is that the rooms his guests stay in have amenities in them that do not require his guests to leave their rooms often, such as private bathrooms and mini-bars.

He added that operating a B&B is heavily dependent on the season, and that he gets surges of guests for significant events such as football games in the fall and commencement ceremonies in the spring.

“Every corner of the year is a little bit different, but consistent in that COVID pretty much wiped everything out,” McCallum said. “In January and February, often I’ll start taking deposits on rooms because I’ll get the writers who’ll come down for a week at a time at summertime…they pre-pay their stay and in April I refunded over $5000. These were non-refundable reservations, but I felt compelled to refund them.”

The hospitality businessman said he provided transitional housing last spring for people who were displaced by COVID-19 in order to make up for lost revenue.

McCallum said he usually hires students from the University of Iowa to help him clean rooms in between guests, but he has since taken on that responsibility entirely on his own. In addition to doing the typical cleaning for each room, he said he started using ultraviolet lights as an additional measure of sterilization.

“I do the room cleaning and then I put a UV light in the room for an hour for the final cleaning,” McCallum said. “It’s a UV light that covers 600 square feet; most of my rooms are not that big.”

He said he puts the lights on the furnace to prevent circulated air from carrying the virus between rooms that share heating and cooling systems.

Mark Ruggeberg, who co-owns the Brown Street Inn with Bob Brooks, said they are completely closed because there is no way to safely distance when inviting people into someone’s home.

Ruggeberg said he was unsure on when they would be able to open back up.

“The timeline keeps changing and there are too many variables to have an accurate timetable,” he said.

Daissy Owen, owner of A Bella Vista Bed & Breakfast, said her place has been closed since March, after one of her guests — who she said was a physician — recommended shuttering for the year.

Owen is 82 years-old, and she said she fell under the high-risk category if she were to contract COVID-19. She said she is lucky she doesn’t rely solely on money from the B&B, but she misses having guests stay with her.

“The social life with my guests has been absolutely wonderful,” Owen said. “I always thought of my guests as my family, and the young people as my grandchildren. That’s what the bed and breakfast has been to me, family coming to visit.”

She said she would like to open as soon as she can feel safe with others in her house.

“I definitely would love to be able to open when it is safe,” the B&B owner said. “Hopefully by then, they’ll reach a vaccine. But you just don’t know; vaccines take a long time. I am hoping that the time will come when things will go back to — maybe not the way it used to be — but to better than now.”

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No spring break at UI, classes to remain in hybrid format for spring semester

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 21:42:00 +0000

The University of Iowa announced Monday that there will be no spring break in the spring 2021 semester, and classes in 2021 will operate in a similar format to the fall 2020 semester.

In a campus-wide email sent Monday, the UI wrote the spring semester will begin on Jan. 25, a week later than originally scheduled, and will end on May 14.

The University of Northern Iowa also announced on Monday it will have no spring break.

The winter instruction session at the UI will still take place, and will be extended by one week, and the majority of classes will take place online.

“This change was made in consideration of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the ability to maintain the same number of instruction days while starting one week later,” the email stated.

For the fall semester, nearly 80 percent of undergraduate hours were conducted online.

There have been 1,804 cases of COVID-19 among UI students since the beginning of the semester, with 72 new student cases since Sept. 11. In Johnson County, home to the UI, 15.84 percent of COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours were positive, according to numbers kept by The Daily Iowan. That’s down from the first few weeks of classes, when positivity rates climbed as high as 50 percent.

“The university will closely monitor cases of COVID-19 throughout the winter and spring semesters and will take action deemed necessary to help mitigate the transmission of the virus,” the email said.

There have been 27 cases among employees since the beginning of the semester. Currently, two students are in quarantine in the residence halls and 30 are in isolation.

Several other universities nationwide have announced plans for the spring semester, with most planning to continue operating in a similar format to the fall semester.

The UI has made temporary work arrangements available for university employees who don’t want to work in-person. According to the campus-wide email, the UI Human Resources has received 482 requests — 253 from faculty, 105 from staff, 114 from graduate assistants, and 10 from fellows and student employees.

Of those, 469 were approved, 12 are pending approval from the college, and one was withdrawn.

The UI also has received and approved 352 requests for a temporary learning arrangement for students who are at risk according to CDC guidelines or are living with someone who is at risk.

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Iowa City extends mask mandate until November

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 20:16:17 +0000

The mask mandate for Iowa City has been extended into mid-November, almost two months longer than the original end date.Violation of the order is punishable by a simple misdemeanor.

In a press release from the City of Iowa City on Monday, Mayor Bruce Teague extended the order on Monday until Nov. 13. The mandate was originally set to expire on Sept. 15.

The mandate, which requires everyone in Iowa City to wear a mask in public when social distancing is not possible, was issued by Mayor Bruce Teague on July 21 because of rising COVID-19 cases. Currently, there are 4,822 total cases in Johnson County, according to the New York Times.

The University of Iowa released on Monday that there have been 1,804 cases of COVID-19 among students since the start of the fall semester, with 72 new student cases since Sept. 11.

Included in the new extended mandate was a change in the minimum fine for violating the order. The fine for a simple misdemeanor, first offense will be $105, with a second offense costing $855. A citation will be given as a last resort to obtain compliance, the release said.

“Because we know that face masks reduce the risks of transmitting COVID-19,” Teague told the The Daily Iowan on July 20, “…mandating masks is necessary to protect the health and welfare of our residents and visitors.”

The resolution includes exceptions for those who are not required to wear masks:

Anyone two-years-old or younger
Anyone with trouble breathing, on oxygen or ventilator
Anyone who is unconscious, incapacitated, or others unable to remove a face covering without assistance
Anyone who has been told by a medical, legal, or behavioral health professional not to wear a face covering
Anyone actively engaged on a public safety role, including but not limited to law enforcement, firefighters, or emergency response personnel

The release said those who wish to report a violation for individuals can call the routine police business phone number, and those wishing to file a complaint against a restaurant, bar, or business with alcohol involved can do so at the State of Iowa’s Alcoholic Beverages Division.

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Iowa athletics department reports COVID-19 testing update

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 19:05:53 +0000

The University of Iowa athletics department announced Monday that it conducted 677 COVID-19 tests for the week of Sept. 7-13 and received 24 positive tests and 653 negative tests.

As part of Iowa’s return to campus protocol, testing began May 29 and includes athletes, coaches, and other staff members. A total of 221 positive tests, 3,489 negative tests, and one inconclusive test have been received.

According to a release, following the positive test result, protocol established by UI Athletics and medical staff, including contact tracing procedures, is being followed to ensure the safety of all UI Athletics student-athletes and staff. This mandatory protocol also includes isolation for the individuals who test positive, and quarantine for those individuals who might have been exposed to someone with the virus.

The department announced Aug. 31 that it had paused all workouts through at least Labor Day after it conducted 815 COVID-19 tests for the week of Aug. 24-30 and received 93 positive tests and 722 negative tests. Workouts resumed Sept. 8.

Infographic by Chloe Peterson/The Daily Iowan

The Big Ten announced Aug. 11 that all fall sports in the conference were postponed because of ongoing concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said the decision would not be revisited.

However, according to multiple reports, the conference’s presidents and chancellors were presented with a plan over the weekend for how the Big Ten could start its football season in October. According to Pete Thamel, a national college football reporter for Yahoo Sports, the proposed start date for the season is Oct. 17.

The Big Ten presidents and chancellors have not voted on this proposed plan yet, but Thamel said there is a “lot of optimism” that the plan will be approved.

The Big Ten presidents and chancellors originally voted 11-3 in favor of postponing the season, with Iowa, Nebraska, and Ohio State as the schools that wanted to play in the fall.

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Johnson County District Court judge rules in favor of Trump campaign, invalidating thousands of ballot-request forms

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 18:14:27 +0000

A judge in the Johnson County District Court ruled Monday in favor of a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign, invalidating thousands of ballot-request forms mailed to voters with pre-filled information.

Johnson County Auditor Travis Weipert must contact every person who mailed in a ballot-request form with pre-filled information and tell them their form is no longer valid. Voters can send in a new ballot-request form on a blank, standard form.

The Trump campaign filed the lawsuit because Weipert mailed out forms with voters’ pre-filled information, despite an order by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate saying auditors must send out ballot-request forms that are blank, except for the election date and type.

Weipert told The Daily Iowan on Sept. 7 that he mailed out the pre-filled forms because he wanted the auditor’s office to preemptively correct any incorrect or ineligible information, because many voters often fail to provide the proper information.

Now, about 25,000 ballot-request forms returned to the Johnson County Auditor’s office will be invalidated.

The Johnson County District Court held a hearing for the case on Sep. 9, but the judge didn’t make a ruling during the hearing.

The Trump campaign and national Republican Campaign Committee said that the forms jeopardized important security measures that protect voters, such as sending out a postcard in advance to the voter’s address to make sure they’ve updated the address on their voter registration.

Otherwise, the pre-filled form may not be delivered to a voter’s most recent address.

“Plaintiffs [Trump campaign] further allege Defendant [Travis Weipert] has willfully circumvented a key election-security measure designed to ensure that the person who submits an ABR form is who he or she claims to be, and Defendant’s actions threaten to disenfranchise his own constituents and dilute the votes of Iowans who live outside Johnson County,” the court ruling says.

The ruling also said Weipert was in violation of an amendment to the Iowa Code passed by the Legislature this year that prohibits auditors from using a voter registration database to fill out missing information on returned absentee ballot requests. The court ruled that the statute also prohibits filling out that information in advance.

6th District Court Judge Ian Thornhill, who heard the case, also said that many counties would not have the technology to offer pre-filled ballots and so it would not be justified for only certain counties to send them out.

The Trump campaign also filed lawsuits in Linn and Woodbury Counties after the county auditor’s mailed voters ballot-request forms with pre-filled information.

Judges ruled in favor of the Trump campaign in both Linn and Woodbury Counties as well.

The same judge presided over the Johnson County and Linn County cases, and the judge acknowledged that some of the conclusions of this case would be identical to those of the Linn County case.

About 65,000 ballot-request forms were nullified in Linn and Woodbury Counties.

“With respect to this case, the Iowa Secretary of State, with the authority of the legislature, has specifically ordered county auditors to distribute only blank absentee ballot request forms, which the Court finds to be appropriate, pursuant to the authority granted to the Secretary of State … and the Iowa Legislative Council’s July 17, 2020 approval,” the court filing said.

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Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to resign as U.S. ambassador to China next month

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 17:16:07 +0000

U.S. Ambassador to China and former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will step down and depart Beijing early next month and return to Iowa, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Branstad, a Republican, confirmed his decision to end his three-year ambassadorship in a phone call with President Trump last week, the statement said.

In an internal meeting at the U.S. Embassy on Monday, Branstad thanked his staff and said he is most proud of his work in negotiating a phase one trade deal between the U.S. and China “and delivering tangible results for our communities back home,” the statement said.

In the phase one trade deal signed in January 2020, China agreed to strengthen intellectual property laws and to increase U.S. imports by $200 billion above 2017 figures. The U.S. agreed to reduce some tariffs placed on China.

“We are rebalancing the U.S.-China relationship so that it is fair and reciprocal and can fuel positive growth in both countries,” Branstad said at the Monday meeting, according to the statement.

Trump’s ongoing trade negotiations with China resulted in a $28 billion federal relief package for farmers across the U.S. who endured a hit in farm income due to the trade war. In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of Chinese products, and China placed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agriculture and automobile products.

According to the BBC, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on more than $360 billion of Chinese products, and China has imposed $110 billion in retaliatory tariffs.

Branstad served as governor of Iowa for 22 years, from 1983 to 1999, and again from 2011 to 2017. The statement did not give a reason for Branstad’s departure.

China’s state-owned People’s Daily newspaper declined to run an op-ed written by Branstad last week, saying the article was “full of loopholes and seriously inconsistent with facts.”

The op-ed calls for a reciprocal relationship between the two countries and accuses Chinese leadership of stealing American technology and operating in bad faith.

Iowa Republican leaders took to Twitter on Monday to recognize Branstad’s work. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is also up for re-election in a competitive race, said Branstad “made Iowa proud” during his years of service in Beijing.

You’ve made Iowa proud, Ambassador Branstad! Thank you for your service to our nation over the past three years. We can’t wait to welcome you back home. God bless you and your family. https://t.co/PwKWjfs7of

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) September 14, 2020

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, complimented Branstad for his “outstanding service.”

Once again I compliment Amb Terry Branstad for his outstanding service as ambassador to China It continued his dedication to public service after 22+ yrs being governor of Iowa. Terry, I look fwd to welcoming you back to Iowa!

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) September 14, 2020

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds — former lieutenant governor to Branstad and eventually his successor — said she’s grateful for Branstad’s service and for representing the U.S. “during some of the most challenging times for trade and diplomacy.”

As Ambassador to China, Terry used his work ethic, dedication, love for Iowa ag, and his long-time friendship with the Chinese people to represent us during some of the most challenging times for trade and diplomacy. Grateful for his service and proud to welcome him back home. pic.twitter.com/jHCO8wMjL3

— Gov. Kim Reynolds (@IAGovernor) September 14, 2020

Iowa state Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks — Republican candidate in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District — thanked Branstad, saying “public service does not have to be about blind ambition.”

Throughout his career, Ambassador Branstad has worked tirelessly on behalf of Iowans and has always put his constituents first.

Thank you for showing that public service does not have to be about blind ambition but instead, it can be about promoting the public good. #ia02

— Dr. Miller-Meeks (@millermeeks) September 14, 2020

The post Former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to resign as U.S. ambassador to China next month appeared first on The Daily Iowan.

ICCSD continues to provide free meals, technology and internet services to families

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 03:53:12 +0000

Iowa City Community School District students are unable to return to school buildings as they start their fall semester in a virtual format. Having a structured environment with access to various resources gives students a sense of stability — something that COVID-19 has otherwise taken away.

To ensure all students are able to successfully learn outside of the classroom, Iowa City schools will provide students with free breakfast and lunch meals available for pick up, district-issued technology devices, district-wide technology help-desk services, and home internet services if needed.

Nutrition Services Director in the district Alison Demory said she believes the school district has an obligation to provide students with more than just educational opportunities.

“We recognize that for some of our students, this is an opportunity to get meals that they may not have that opportunity at home with food insecurity,” Demory said. “It’s what we do. It’s what we wanted to do — we don’t just educate students, we want to nourish their minds as well.”

Demory said Iowa City schools have been providing free meals for all children under the age of 18 since the end of March, when the district was initially forced to close its doors due to health and safety concerns surrounding COVID-19.

Students are provided with breakfast and lunch for the day, and families can pick up these meals between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at any of the seven different designated locations within the district.

Demory said funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows the Iowa City Community School District to provide free meals to all students, regardless of their socioeconomic status. The department will also reimburse the district for serving free meals, helping decrease the risk of a financial strain within its budget.

Demory said she feels as though this initiative provided families with a sense of routine and stability, during a time when nearly everyone’s daily schedules had been interrupted.

“Especially in the spring, everything was so crazy and people just felt that everything seemed very out of control,” Demory said. “[For] families, this kind of became their routine. They would drive through, they would see us, we would love to see them, and they welcomed seeing us as well — it kind of became their new normal and felt like a schedule in a world where there wasn’t much consistency.”

Demory said their staff has seen the many rewards of the program through appreciative messages from parents and students.

“Successes [of the program include] the families — their thanks, the smiling faces that we see every day when we hand out these bags. Kids write us adorable thank you notes and color us pictures,” Demory said. “They are overwhelmingly appreciative and thankful for us being there every day with food.”

Iowa City resident and parent Amber Capps has two children in the school district right now, a sixth grader and a fourth grader.

Capps said her family took advantage of the opportunities to pick up meals provided by the district this past spring and summer, and she appreciates the service and the ability to change up her family’s daily routine.

“We did do some free meals last trimester and also here and there in the summer,” Capps said. “I greatly appreciate that that service is being offered, even for those of us who can provide meals for our family … just the monotony of making food, it gives us a little break to go get a school lunch and have that connection still.”

Iowa City Community School District Director of Technology and Innovation Adam Kurth said the district is also providing different technology and internet resources to families at this time — one of the most important being district-issued devices for all students K-12.

“We’re providing a number of resources, perhaps [the] most obvious of those is providing devices for students,” Kurth said. “Last year, we had a one to one device program that included our secondary students at junior high and high school, and then in the spring, with the [COVID-19] shutdown, we extended that as an opt-in to any other student in the district, pre-k through sixth grade.”

Capps said her children both received district-issued chromebooks, and that beginning the school year virtually has been a challenge for her children, but they have adapted well so far.

“It’s been a bit of a learning curve,” Capps said. “I think with the break being so long since they’ve done anything, and it’s just a very different start to the year, but they’ve done remarkably well with it, too.”

In addition to providing devices, Kurth said the district is also providing families with home internet services. By working with several internet providers, they have been able to give 500 families these internet services, and have provided hotspots for families where they cannot access the internet directly to their home.

In order to fund these resources for students and families, Kurth said the district paused ongoing tech projects at various schools and instead reallocated this funding to support providing devices and internet services. Additionally, Kurth said the district received funding through the federal CARES Act to offset some of the costs with the device purchases and home internet services.

Kurth said the district is also allowing families, students, and staff to access help desk services for any technological issues that may arise.

“The other big [resource] that we’re providing that we didn’t use to is providing help desks services for families,” he said. “It used to be that our technology help desk in the district was really only directly accessible to building staff, and we’ve changed that.”

Kurth said within the first week of school, the district received almost 1,000 tech support requests per day. He said this makes it more difficult for their team to prioritize critical technology issues for students and staff that hinder their learning and teaching experience.

Kurth said district staff were excited to see the high percentage of student attendance in their first week back.

“Early on, I think the biggest success is that we see a lot of classrooms where our attendance rates, even on day one, were in the 90 percent plus range,” Kurth said. “The vast majority of our students, even though we’re fully online, were able to get connected on day one — get into their classes.”

The post ICCSD continues to provide free meals, technology and internet services to families appeared first on The Daily Iowan.

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