The Daily Iowan
SHE’S IN
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024
THE INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COMMUNITY SINCE 1868
DAILYIOWAN.COM
UI names Beth Goetz athletics director | 2A INSIDE
CITY COUNCIL
IC residents smell trouble
Many residents fear air quality will be harmed by industrial development. Isabelle Foland News Reporter
isabelle-foland@uiowa.edu
IC Robotics build accessible vehicles for kids IC Robotics created a modified car for a 16-month-old boy who has muscular dystrophy. The team of high schoolers plan to make more of the mini “Jeep” cars in the future. IC ROBOTICS | 3A
The UI is a ‘global hub’ for fan fiction UI creative writing students cite fan fiction as their inspiration to pursue writing. 80 HOURS | 1C
ONLINE • Listen to the latest episodes of The Daily Iowan’s two podcasts, Above the Fold and Press Box Banter, where we cover the latest news and talk sports at dailyiowan.com. • Look out for The Daily Iowan’s online coverage of the next women’s basketball game against Bowling Green on Dec. 2 at dailyiowan.com.
When Anne Marie Kraus, a southside Iowa City resident, is out in her garden tending to her plants, she said she is often bombarded with many scents. These scents are not the pleasant aromas of peonies or fresh-grown vegetables, though. Instead, Kraus said these scents are potent, headache-inducing odors put off by nearby industrial buildings. These kinds of odors have become somewhat of a norm in the neighborhood, according to residents. These smells are so strong Kraus said she can tell the exact brand and product that is putting off the odor. “You can tell today is Gain detergent, and then the next time is the shampoo, and now it’s Febreze,” Kraus said. Kraus along with over a dozen community members came to the city’s Jan. 17 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to voice their opposition to the industrial rezoning of the old campus. Many residents were specifically concerned about the effects an industrial building could have on the area’s air quality. These community members fear these scents may be amplified by a potential industrial development in the old Kirkwood campus, which is located near several residential zones in the southside area. At the meeting, manufacturing company Procter & Gamble said they are planning to purchase the old campus by February. Also at the meeting was Tracy Daby, who said she gathered almost 30 signatures from community members against the rezoning before the meeting. She said she was angered by the result and even lost sleep while trying to write the statement she read to the commission. The size of the land that was rezoned for industrial use is about seven acres, according to the commission’s meeting agenda. Directly next to the old college campus is an Oral B manufacturing building, which is a Procter & Gamble company.
Matt Sindt | The Daily Iowan
The Iowa City Kirkwood campus is seen on Feb. 17, 2023. The rezoning would turn the former Kirkwood campus for industrial use by Procter & Gamble. At the meeting, Procter & Gamble representative Joe Townsend said there are no current plans for what will be built on the land, but assured residents that if the manufacturing company were to expand its Oral B plant into the area, it would not create air quality issues. In an email statement to The Daily Iowan, Patrick Blair, senior director of communications for Procter & Gamble, wrote the company has been in Iowa City for over six decades and is dedicated to doing good for the community.
REZONING | 3A
Faculty concerned by admin power in new policy The changes in a CLAS manual would make an administrator co-chair of a faculty-led board. Shreya Reddy News Reporter
shreya-reddy@uiowa.edu
Amid changes to the manual of policy and procedures in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, some professors have presented concerns about the revisions that will affect faculty and staff across the board. These changes include changing the role of the faculty assembly, which is a group of faculty members representing the college, and the co-chair of the assembly becoming the CLAS Dean. The College of Liberal Arts has two groups that advise Dean Sara Sanders: the executive committee and the faculty assembly. American Association of University of Professors UI chapSanders ter President Ann Rhodes, who is also a UI clinical professor, said these changes will significantly impact non-tenured, instructional track, and clinical track faculty, as it would diminish their voices in decision-making during faculty assembly. Non-tenured faculty members and clinical track faculty members do not have the protection of tenure, Rhodes said, meaning their positions at the university are constantly at risk. The UI wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan that the CLAS Dean and
executive committee have worked to draft revisions that “clarify roles and duties, improve transparency, and better align with institutional practices.” The statement also emphasized that the faculty assembly’s role is frequently misunderstood and that the revision makes its existing role clearer. “Its role is consistent with the university’s other shared governance bodies,” the statement said. In regards to the co-chair, the statement said the dean is valuable for all faculty and lecturers, not just those in leadership positions with the goal being to maintain active, ongoing communication with the dean’s office and reiterate the college’s commitment to shared governance. The faculty assembly, if necessary can meet without the dean present. “These revisions strengthen the shared governance process, the values that have guided all our work together in CLAS, and elevate the voice of all our faculty. “We encourage faculty to vote yes,” the statement said.Rhodes said instructional track faculty, in particular, are dependent on the dean reappointing them, saving their position as a faculty member at the university. Appointing the dean to co-chair of the faculty assembly would cause instructional track faculty members to feel less willing to speak up, Rhodes said. “They would be concerned about speaking freely as their jobs may be jeopardized if they disagree with [the dean],” Rhodes said.
FACULTY | 3A