The Daily Iowan

Student loan caps complicate funding higher ed

Students navigate uncertainty as changes to federal student

loans loom.

Karima Mohammed, a fourth-year University of Iowa student from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, always wanted to be a doctor. Under Republican lawmakers’ new student loan caps for certain graduate and professional programs, her path to a medical degree has even more financial obstacles.

“My passion has always been to help people, and I’ve always had a kind of calling into medicine from a young age,” Mohammed said.”

Currently, Mohammed is working toward her degree in human physiology while preparing for medical school. However, the fourth-year student is worried student loan caps, which go into effect on uly , , might complicate the financial reality of medical school.

dents frompursuing graduate or professional degrees,

college has ballooned to untenable heights, with the average total cost of medical school at

Mohammed pays roughly , a year in out-of-state tuition for her undergraduate degree and works part-time to help afford her expenses while attending the UI. She worries medical school might be financially out of reach.

The national student loan debt has also skyrocketed to nearly .7 trillion, and some experts view the caps as forcing schools to lower

“My worry is about the impact on having the financial ability to go to medical school,” she said. “There is the option of private loans, but there is more stress with those because they have higher interest rates and aren’t guaranteed.”

aid to prevent declining enrollment,

minates the Graduate PLUS loan program, where the federal government directly lent to graduate and professional students and required credit

checks to

qualify. It limits prodegree

fessional degree program borrowing at $200,000 overall, with a $50,000 a year cap.

Hassan Warraich, a fourth-year UI medical student, said he’s not entirely sure if the caps would have changed his decision to go to medical school. However, with the complex financial reality of medical school, he said it would have made it more difficult to afford.

“I mean, in the past, it was pretty simple — the government would sort of provide all of the loans that you needed for medical school,”

Currently, tuition and fees for a first-year medical student at the UI are more than , a year for out-of-state students and more than , a year for in-state students. The total cost of attendance, including food, housing, and supplies, is estimated to be almost , for first-year out-of-state medical students and more than $70,000 a year for in-state students at the UI.

Mohammed said if she were faced with the caps on graduate student loans before she decided where to go to undergraduate school, she might have picked a school where she could qualify

repayment programs and Pell Grant eligibility, though experts estimate the changes won’t affect educational attainment nearly as much as the new caps on student loans.

While the caps do not apply to undergraduate programs, the limits to professional and graduate degree programs will affect those who take out more student loans than the average graduate.

The law caps graduate students’ lifetime borrowing limit at , , with a $20,500 cap per year and eli-

moving forward.”

The average student loan debt accrued during medical school at the UI is , , with percent of students receiving some sort of aid.

to be able to afford graduate school,” Keller said. “It’s also absolutely going to affect students’ choices. Maybe it will affect where they enroll because medical school comes with a lot of different price tags depending on which instituThe law also prorates student loans if a student is not full-time, even though students were previously allowed to take the full student loan amount even if they were

some level of simplicity there. For students, that will be a lot more complicated Parent PLUS loans.

The national average student loan debt for a medical student, according to the Education Data Initiative, is , , with , of that debt incurred during graduate school. While the average h.D. holder has 7 , in debt, with ,7 incurred during graduate school, the average master’s holder has , in debt, with , incurred during graduate school.

MoraLee Keller, a senior consultant with the National College Attainment Network, said the student loan caps will affect those who can’t obtain the needed loans for their desired degree.

“That may inhibit the ability of low-income folks who can’t have access to the needed volume of student loans

“We think that one will have a pretty large impact on our undergraduate students, because in a sense they’re used to being able to borrow those kinds of standard amounts each year,” Keller said. “Previously, they were eligible for the full loan amount.” The law makes no changes to undergraduate borrowing limits or the subsidized student loan program. However, the law does impose a $257,500 lifetime cap on all borrowing per student, excluding undergraduate Parent PLUS loans, or direct loans to the parents of an undergraduate student that require credit checks. The law imposes a $20,000 per year cap for each dependent with a lifetime limit of , for

Erick Danielson, the vice president of programs at the Iowa College Access Network, said oftentimes, PLUS loans have worse terms and fees than private options for most families.

“We’ve been letting families know that before you jump into the PLUS loan, you should probably take a look and see what is available privately,” Danielson said. “Because many — not all, by any means, because there are credit checks — but many families could benefit with a better interest rate and no fees on those loans as well.”

Danielson said the private sector might bring low-interest and no-fee loans to a broader sector of students and step in and fill the gap created by the absence of federal student loans for some students.

“We’re waiting to see, when the dust settles, what some of the

Molly’s Cupcakes closes doors after 13 years

The Iowa City staple celebrated its last day on Aug. 10 after announcing its closure in July.

With blasting music and popping champagne, the final day of Molly’s Cupcakes resembled a reunion rather than a closure.

Trading memories, employees and community members celebrated years of service in Iowa City.

Jamie Skinner, owner of the downtown location, got her start in the cupcake business years ago at the flagship store in Chicago.

“It was the hustle and bustle, it was the smell of the bakery, like all of the things just gave me great feels,” Skinner said.

Skinner worked in the front of house then transitioned to the backend where she managed finances and insurances. About six months in, she built the courage to ask the owners if she could franchise in Iowa.

“They said ‘Where’s Iowa?’” Skinner said.

Molly’s downtown opened for its inaugural day on uly , . Skinner said there wasn’t anything like it in town, and the store performed well for the first couple of years, paving the way for her to open North Liberty and Des Moines locations.

However, in , the Wall Street ournal reported the gourmet cupcake market was crashing.

While the Des Moines location is going strong, the North Liberty location closed in after five years. Skinner had been con-

sidering listing the Iowa City building over the last few years, citing changing foot traffic and increases in building costs. In order to make the same profit margin as the store years ago, each cupcake would have to sell for . “No one’s going to pay that. I wouldn’t pay it,” Skinner said.

Iowa City community members stopped in throughout the month, sharing their experiences with Molly’s to Skinner and the crew, often stories Skinner never knew happened. “I wanted the town to have the chance to

Leaders reﬂect on Center for Worker Justice

The Iowa-City based nonprofit closed after 13 years of serving low-wage, immigrant workers.

Mazahir Salih, one of CWJ’s co-founders and former executive director, said. “Even though we look completely diﬀerent, we have all these issues in common.”

Citing external political threats and division within the organization, the Center for Worker Justice, or CWJ, announced its closure on uly . eaders of the nonproﬁt re ected on years of serving low-wage immigrant workers in Eastern Iowa communities.

Since , the nonprofit has united low-wage immigrant workers from diverse backgrounds, drawing in members from over different countries who spoke a range of languages. Despite their differences, the workers came together with the goal of directly addressing issues they realized affect many of their communities.

“Different community members had the same issues but never talked about it, or they never knew how to talk about it or if they could even do that as immigrants,” Mayor Protem

In response to the ostville aid in , where Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested undocumented workers at Postville’s Agriprocessors kosher meat packing plant in the largest immigration raid in the U.S. at the time, organizations formed to support Iowa’s immigrant communities. However, Robin Clark-Bennett, one of CWJ’s founding members and volunteer board members, said most of these initiatives were not led directly by those most aﬀected.

“What didn’t really exist were immigrant-led organizations where the communities most impacted had an opportunity, themselves, to deﬁ ne issues and solutions that they most needed to strengthen their lives,” Clark-Bennett said. The result was the Immigrant Voices Project,

or IVP, a local grassroots movement formed in as the precursor to CW . Salih still recalls the ﬁ rst IV meeting she joined at Coralville Public Library shortly after moving to Iowa from Virginia. After following a group of Sudanese people into a meeting room with her son, Salih faced a crowd of people from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, chatting amongst themselves in Spanish, Swahili, French, and Arabic before introducing themselves and their issues to the group.

Salih described the ﬁ rst meeting as amazing, saying the community was ready to come together and needed a channel to bring everyone together.

“They realized that when we come together, we can speak about this,” Salih said.

A survey sent out by IVP assessed the issues facing the low-wage immigrant workers in the community, revealing concerns about

Protesters rally amid concerns over loss of history

The State Historical Society of Iowa set to close by June 30, 2026.

Iowa City community members gathered to honor the historic Centennial Building on Aug. 23., as local musicians let out somber guitar strums and ute breaths that bounced around the walls of the Iowa City Public Library.

Hundreds of other marchers heralded an empty co n, representing the upcoming closure of the landmark building.

Hosted by the Save Iowa History Coalition, the Reverse the Decision Rally featured a group of concerned citizens and historians gathered to oppose the closure of the State Historical Society of Iowa’s, or SHSI, Iowa City Research Center.

Guest speakers and songs captivated coalition members and attendees, rea rming the building’s historic value. The rally began in the Iowa City Public Library and made its way to 402 Iowa Ave., the location of the soon to be closed research center.

The coalitions Iowa City Research Center, also known as the Centennial Building, was established in 1956 through an agreement with the University of Iowa and the SHSI.

Between the Iowa City and Des Moines SHSI facilities, it’s estimated that more than 200 million pieces of Iowa and national history call these facilities home. They are the sites of both archaic and familiar journals, pamphlets, books, pictures, and countless other crumbs of Iowa history.

The Department of Administrative Services, which oversees SHSI, announced the closure of the Iowa City location on June 17, because of ﬁnancial considerations and only one facility was needed.

By June 30, 2026, the society hopes to have the building emptied. At their June 26 Board of Trustees meeting, the SHSI revealed only 40 percent of the Iowa City collections could be moved to the Des Moines facility.

While the closure has already been set in motion, Colin Gordon, chair of the UI of History, walked through some possible solutions for the remaining 60 percent of the collections that can’t ﬁt in the Des Moines facility.

“I have no objection to putting [the documents] in deep storage, so that you have to make a request to use them, and you can access them in a couple of weeks because they don’t have to be instantly

mistreatment by local law enforcement employers, wage theft, housing, language barriers, and lack of translation services, and a desire for civil engagement. In collaboration with like local faith partners, university partners, and community organizations, committees were formed to address these issues.

In July of 2012, IVP became the Center for Worker Justice and established a board of directors and bylaws requiring a majority of board members and the president be low-wage workers. One of its first victories included establishing the Johnson County Community ID Card, the first inclusive community ID program in the Midwest that ensures members of Johnson County can “participate fully in the economic and social life of our county.”

The ID card allows card holders to open bank accounts, interact with public agencies and law enforcement, and conﬁ rm their identity when using credit cards, among other activities.

Alongside recovering over $250,000 in wage theft, CW won the ﬁ rst county-level minimum wage increase in 2016,

accessible,” he said. Gordon said the best solution would be for the UI to step in with its archival expertise and request SHSI to give it more time to assess the collections and store what couldn’t ﬁt in the Des Moines facility.

The remaining 60 percent have not been given clear destinations.

“I do think it’s dangerous territory to start picking and choosing what you’re going to save,” Gordon said.

State departmental downsizing did not start with the building’s closing announcement in June.

In 2023, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds passed Senate File 514, a document reducing 37 cabinet-level departments down to 16. The SHSI lost its autonomy and was placed under the Department of Administrative Services. Valerie Van Kooten serves as SHSI administrator.

Kathy Gourley, an archaeologist and a historic preservationist who worked for the Des Moines facility for over 30 years, spoke at the rally about how the signing caught her attention in 2023.

“I knew something like the SHSI would be quite vulnerable because

raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, and worked to persuade 160 businesses to continue paying their workers $10.10 when the state legislature passed a law to nullify the increase and roll back the minimum wage.

The nonprofit also provided free language, computer, and civic leadership training. CWJ provided life-saving aid during the pandemic to secluded workers while many other organizations closed, connecting community members with necessary resources.

CWJ also helped residents from Rose Oak and Forest View to win relocation beneﬁts when residents faced unjust displacement due to lease terminations and redevelopment plans. Like all of its initiatives, these victories were the result of the workers facing the issues becoming directly involved in the process of seeking justice, former CWJ Treasurer and Board Member Charlie Eastham said.

“That was a really complicated project, and it required a good deal of work on the part of the center’s staﬀ and leadership, but it also required a lot of work on the part of the Forest View Mobile park residents,” Eastham said. “They were enthusia-

it was already such a small agency,” she said. “I spoke in the public hearings for both the House and Senate when they had an opportunity to comment — my remarks didn’t make any diﬀerence. I have to say that most remarks didn’t make any diﬀerence.”

Suzanne Wanatee Buffalo, a historian and the wife of Johnathan . Buﬀalo, the director of the Meskwaki Historic Preservation Department, and attendee at the rally, said preserving history is an important generational practice.

“If you are exposed to history, no matter how you get it, if you don’t do something with them, if you don’t protect it and preserve it, if you don’t keep it, if you don’t touch it on you are the reason why the person who comes next doesn’t know it,” she said.

She used one book stored in the archives, “Prairie Voices: Iowa’s Pioneering Women,” as an example of the duality between the oftentimes hostile and sometimes tender relationship between Iowa natives and settlers.

One journal entry in the book described the grave robbing of the Sauk chief Black Hawk by a local doctor. A ip of the pages later,

stic about it, they were determined, and they were very willing to learn what they needed to know about zoning regulations to get what they wanted to have done, done.”

While many are saddened by the news

and Wanatee Buﬀalo found a journal entry by a settler woman who evaded starvation in the winter with the help of the natives.

“If you forget [the Meskwaki] are here, you’re going to forget how far back it goes those meaningful relationships, knowing each other as human beings, knowing that this is an awful, awful story, but there’s so many beautiful stories in the book ,” Wanatee Buﬀalo said.

In Des Moines, the Department of Administrative Services shows no sign of reversing or slowing down the closure. And in Iowa City, the Save Iowa History Coalition shows no sign of staying silent. Besides welcoming the dozens of rally attendees, the coalition has been pushing for residents to sign their petition, Save Iowa History 2025. It has more than 5,000 signatures to date.

“It really underscores how broad the constituency is for these records,” Gordon said. “It’s not just an academic enterprise. I think it’s a resource for the people, for the state of Iowa to maintain its own history, for local history, for personal histories, and for academic histories.”

dozens and dozens of immigrant and refugee leaders, community supporters, and allies dedicated thousands of volunteer hours and their love and determination to keeping it going,” Clark-Bennett said. “This was

of CWJ’s closure, Clark-Bennett said many coalitions only remain operational for three to five years, and she was proud CWJ could remain together for 13 years despite the challenges it faced.

“It stayed alive because

always a volunteer-driven organization, driven by the love and passion of a lot of volunteers who, when it would’ve been easy to give up, kept going and picked themselves back up.”

Despite CWJ’s physical doors closing, Salih

said its impact continues to be seen with many of CWJ’s members taking leadership roles in the community at nonproﬁts that serve immigrant and low-wage communities like Iowa City Compassion, Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County, Open Heartland, Prairie Land Freedom Fund, and Escucha Mi Voz.

Salih herself has been elected mayor protem and city councilor at-large and said she takes the leadership skills she learned from CWJ with her into o ce.

“The Center for Worker Justice was not just an organization to me, it was a place where I, myself, grew as a leader,” Salih said. “The Center for Worker Justice was not a charity organization. It was empowering people, empowering them to identify a problem and come together and let us solve it. It was uniting immigrants from different backgrounds and low-income people from diﬀerent backgrounds.”

private lenders might do as far as oﬀering loans to students in that case, what kind of interest rate, and if loans without fees are available,” he said.

Iowa College Access Network helps high school seniors and undergraduate students across the state ﬁgure out how to afford school. Danielson said they are waiting for guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.

“Our message, in some ways, is not going to change. We’re always going to say, exhaust federal options ﬁ rst,’” Danielson said. “We’re not going to say this should be the option to go to, but these are the options that are out there for you to look at.’But it’s going to be up to every student or family to make that decision.”

Experts agree that the changes to the Pell Grant made in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will not affect the amount of aid most students qualify for, and those affected will be a small subset of those pursuing higher education.

One of the biggest changes to the Pell Grant and the FAFSA in the bill was pioneered by U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, which included reviving an exemption for small business owners and farmers in asset calculation.

Under the new provisions, farmers and owners of businesses with fewer than 100 employees will be able to exclude the farms and businesses from the asset calculation.

“By passing my Family Farm and Small Business Exemption Act into law, I’m working to break down barriers to education for Iowans by ensuring rural students aren’t forced to choose between their family farm and their future when navigating the college admissions process,” Ernst said in a statement to The Daily Iowan.

“As a farm kid myself and a recipient of a Pell Grant, this issue is personal for me,: Ernst said in the statement. “I was proud to pass this legislation so unfair policies don’t hold Iowans back from giving the next generation of students the chance to pursue higher education.”

The law also adds $10.5 billion to the Pell Grant to backfill a projected shortfall for the program that was expected to come later this year.

Some advocates say it is not enough, claiming the program is still on financially shaky ground.

The law would also exclude students who receive enough scholarships or state aid to cover the full cost of attendance from receiving Pell Grants, a benefit they were previously eligible for.

Keller said this will mostly affect student-athletes who are Pell Grant eligible.

private student loans.

“Students are our top priority,” the spokesperson wrote in the statement. “The university also continues to work hard

donor support for ﬁ nancial aid, including the Forevermore Scholarship.”

Financial aid administrators across the state are awaiting guidance from the federal Department of Education on administering the law changes which take eﬀect uly , .

A UI spokesperson said in a statement to the DI they are working on preparing for the changes and will update advising materials and communications “as needed to ensure students and families understand their options.”

The spokesperson pointed to the university’s Financial Wellness staff, which helps students fi nd ways to pay for college and make sound fi nancial decisions regarding student loans, even requiring loan counseling before approving for

to absorb higher operating costs to keep tuition aﬀordable advocate for federal increases in Pell Grant funding, which has not kept up with in ation and attract

The UI raised over $34 million in private philanthropic support for student ﬁ nancial aid in , a percent increase from the previous year.

“Our goal is to help students ﬁ nd a pathway to college because we know the investment will produce the largest return of any investment they make, through lifetime earnings,” the spokesperson said.

In , roughly half of graduates completed their degree without student loan debt, and the average graduate has more than , in student loan debt upon graduation.

While private schools still wait for guidance, many schools are emphasizing their ﬁ nancial aid programs in the face of changes to student loans.

At Drake University, professional degree students will mostly be aﬀected by the elimination of the graduate PLUS loan. However, the increase in the federal loan program limit will help them make up for the diﬀerence, Director of Financial Aid Ryan Zantingh said.

“The University remains committed to ensuring that students from all economic backgrounds can access a Drake education,” Zantingh said in a statement to the DI

The university also launched two full-tuition coverage programs, in addition to scholarship and grant packages, for qualifying Iowans.

Mohammed said the caps on student loans have caused her a lot of stress because she won’t be able to work during medical school due to the intensity of many programs. She worries about being able to aﬀord her expenses while in medical school.

“The rigor of medical school curriculum requires you to have your full attention on med school, so they don’t usually allow you to have side jobs, which is why you have to pull out a large sum of money, and then budget out your living expenses, your food expenses, and your school costs,” Mohammed said. “So I guess it just adds that extra stress that you’re already ﬁ nancially strained, but then you also have this other factor you

OPINIONS

The death of meritocracy

Forget the question of whether higher education is obsolete — now we must question if it’s even possible.

School is getting harder. Achieving meritocracy, in turn, is also getting harder.

Although once seen as a direct path to success, the price to pursue higher education is becoming exceedingly high, with the cost being the death of meritocracy. Medicine, law, and other competitive ﬁelds have always been exclusive. It was the belief that education could level out economic classes or at least lead to upward mobility that urged students to follow that path, despite barriers.

Yet the barriers are only getting taller and more divisive.

If the rich keep getting richer and, at the same time, smarter, then what keeps our country from becoming more and more stratiﬁed

Third-year niversity of Iowa student, Josh Thomas, condemned the growing gap between socioeconomic statuses.

“It is sad to see the gap between the haves and the have-nots widening and starting to aﬀect metrics as serious as life expectancy,” Thomas said. “America will never be a meritocracy without equal access to education.”

And the numbers support him. Those without college degrees or higher are dying at a younger age than those with. Well-educated people have always had better access to proper resources, from health care to housing. So it is not surprising that as of 2019, the life-expectancy gap increased to about 11 years

Eﬀective in , resident Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will set a student loan cap at $100,000 for graduate schools and $200,000 for professional programs, like medical and law school. Although intended to curb excessive borrowing and tuition, pre-med and medical students, comparatively, will face the opposite eﬀect.

The average four-year bachelor’s degree already results in $35,530 of debt, and the current total student loan debt exceeds $1.8 trillion. Among these statistics, a doctoral degree leaves a student in an average

of $234,587 student loan debt, which is well over the federal limit.

Consequently, many students will be forced to choose between taking out private loans that often come with higher interest rates or, worse, abandoning their ambition altogether.

years-long journey ahead is daunting. But in the end, it is about why I am doing it, and that is what makes it worth it.”

Tuition is only one aspect of the shifting educational environment that leaves students worrying. Second-year pre-pharmacy student Rebecca Schroeder

question remains if the job market even warrants higher education. If institutions keep giving credentials and education without matching job growth, students are left with debt and a degree that won’t make a diﬀerence in the long-run.

So the new bill does have logic to it. Now, students won’t be burdened with such a substantial debt and encourage institutions to rethink the value of their resources. Yet, the bill does not differentiate between fields. A humanities or public policy masters program might be doable financially, but not everyone faces the same tuition.

ucia Fisher, a second-year at the I, plans to attend medical school after undergrad, but can’t help but express her concern.

“I can’t say I didn’t think about shifting career paths. It is deﬁnitely stressful knowing I may not be able to pay for it, and the

is thinking about something else.

“With the instability of the job market right now, it is almost impossible to get a job without having connections,” she said. Thanfully, pharmacology is a growing practice, and is estimated to grow 5 percent within the next decade. But the

Earning a bachelor’s degree is one thing, but the .S.’s job market is more about who you know and what they can do for you. Students from wealthy families are more likely to have family, friends, alumni, or paid opportunities to help network, instead of relying on cold job applications.

“It is reassuring to know people from the I harmacy School can help me ﬁnd a post-graduate path,” she said. “I know that if I didn’t, I would be more worried.”

Medicine has become too scientific

Patient satisfaction has been declining due to medical and health students writing o the humanities.

Each year, thousands of students choose to become doctors or nurses and pursue medical school. Labeled as “pre-medicine” or “nursing” students, they begin to prepare themselves for the most demanding classes: organic chemistry, foundations of biology, and microbiology.

They seek out jobs in local hospitals as patient care technicians, unit partners, or even just volunteers. I have found myself going down this same trajectory, spitting out one-liners like, “Can I help you use the restroom ” or “Need anything else while I’m here ” to my patients.

But most of that is pre-rehearsed, mimicked from the other techs and nurses I’ve shadowed. These jobs are repetitive, slightly adapted to each patient’s needs, but come with a very clear job description: bathe and wipe your patients, take blood sugar, help them use the restroom, walk down the hallway, and track their intake and output.

I began to wonder if this was truly preparing me to work with patients. Yes, I was taking care of them and tending to their immediate needs, but was I learning to communicate di cult things Was I learning how to explain medical processes they had never been exposed to before I don’t think so.

Everyone has encountered a health issue and felt the urge to Google their symptoms. That does us no good. It only creates more fear. If you type in stomach

ache, Google will spit out something adjacent to cancer.

The point of the doctor is to alleviate some of that stress, but if you get to their o ce and receive little to no answer, the spiral of anxiety worsens. University of Iowa pre-med student race ollo star ted this cycle in high school.

“I began to notice I was having symp toms similar to a panic attack, but even after seeing a psychiatrist, nothing was relieving these ‘anxiety-like’ symptoms,”

ollo said. “So, I started making visits to the doctor many times a year, but I got no answers. Even starting to go to school became di cult, and I had to change to a hybrid system so I could rest at home.”

After two years and a seven-hour drive to the Mayo Clinic, Rollo found out she had postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or OTS, a condition related to the nervous system, only by the regu lation of heart rate and blood pressure when changing positions.

“When I was having ‘panic attacks,’ I was actually falling asleep. But everyone just wrote it off as mental health issues. I think if they listened to my denial of it, I would’ve been able to ﬁght it earlier,” ollo said.

But isn’t the whole purpose of medical and health professionals to be responders and good listeners What is driving this wedge and gap in understanding between patients and doctors I believe we’ve far reduced health care to science. Most pre-medicine students major in something STE -related, like biomedical sciences, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, kinesiology, and human physiology. It is rare for someone to pair the already calculated and analytical nature of the pre-medicine track with something related to the humanities.

erhaps I’m biased as a creative writing major, but even though it’s a seemingly disparate field, writing stories, fiction or nonfiction, has taught me one thing that is the pinnacle of health care: how to listen.

Khushal Gujadhur’s class on poetry writing at the niversity of Iowa taught me how to dissect meaning out of oddly interwoven words. Foundations of Creative Writing required me to extensively read different writing styles and forms of communication, even the issue of chronic sickness and lack of medical cooperation. Even capturing interviews as a journalist has improved my listening skills. How often do pre-med and nursing students find themselves in a position where they are graded on transcribing others’ pain and issues, or even their own I can’t count on my fingers how many

times I’ve heard a pre-med student state that the English portion on the MCAT was the easiest. That means we are all capable of comprehension and connection with others, yet enn studies show that patient satisfaction has seen a steep decline post-COVID. We need to place health care students in situations where they are applying these humanity skills in real life and academic settings. Disciplines like history, English, sociology, psychology, and more teach us to become passionate about people. They teach us respect for the backgrounds others come from and to crave learning someone’s story or even writing it yourself. Medicine and health care are forms of the humanities. They are the study of people before taking action to treat and accommodate their ailments and pains.

Iowa City bars join Bar Safety Network

The Bar Safety Network helps implement a safer nightlife through active bystander techniques.

This fall, as thousands of niversity of Iowa students ood back into downtown bars, three of Iowa City’s bustling nightlife spots will enter the semester with a new tool: the Bar Safety Network.

The three bars under the Harmonic Hospitality roup oxxy, The Stuﬀed Olive, and Double-Tap announced in une they had joined the Bar Safety Network. The program, launched in , trains staff to recognize and safely de-escalate uncomfortable or unsafe situations – from a rowdy drunk guest to a student being harassed.

Conor Schley, executive general manager of Harmonic Hospitality Group, said the active bystander training is an approximately hour-long workshop that brings together a bar’s front line team, from bartenders and servers to security staﬀ, to learn minimally disruptive deescalation techniques.

“We’re not beating anybody up — our security guys are not doing that,” he said. “ ost of the safe network training

is just how to recognize that somebody might be in an uncomfortable situation, and what we can do to help that without throwing somebody out of the bar or creating a big scene.”

Schley said the active bystander approaches that staﬀ members take can be as small as diverting a rowdy, intoxicated guest away from other customers and oﬀering them water.

Bars around the city prepared for the return of UI students, bracing themselves for one of the busiest days of the year, the back-t0-school bar crawl on Aug. .

“I’m hiring like a madman right now,” Schley said. “I got applications last week alone. I’m trying to get people hired ASA .”

The spring semester saw , 7 UI students crowding around lecture halls, labs, and the lively streets of Iowa City, according to the I O ce of the egistrar. The summer slashed that number down to , .

At Brothers Bar & Grill, slower foot tra c during the summer is expected, but that doesn’t make the customers feel any less welcome.

“I would say that foot tra c and number of the people staying in town did seem a little lighter than past [summers ,” eneral anager Trey ennings said. “But we’ve had a little bit more lively weekend nights.”

On an average summer night, Jennings said, the bar can expect to serve anywhere from to customers. During the school year, conservative estimates range anywhere from , to , customers a night.

However, the UI’s growing incoming freshman numbers could make bars around the city experience foot tra c whiplash, pivoting from standard summer sales to more patrons than the bars can count.

I’s incoming class brought in , students, replacing ’s batch as the third-largest class size in the university’s history. Trends like these point to ’s class, and possibly future classes, kicking oﬀ the year with increasing numbers of students.

As the freshmen classes become the legal drinking age or inevitably slip through the cracks of ID checks, bars must navigate rising numbers of patrons.

“I will deﬁnitely say you can feel the demand is higher to come into the bar,” ennings said. “There’s longer lines everywhere. It deﬁnitely seems like any given night, more and more of the bars are completely full than not.”

In his 13 years of working downtown, the biggest change Jennings has noticed is timing.

“It used to be that more people would come in for afternoons and evenings, and then it would be decently busy during that time. It would still be pretty busy at night, but not quite as many people out and about only at night,” he said. “Now it seems like everybody waits till like, : , o’clock to go out.”

Schley also kept his ﬁngers to the bars’ slow, beating pulse during the summer.

“Summertime is just a tough battle,” Schley said. “I do really like the guys over there at the Iowa City Downtown District, because they really do pack the summers with events that bring foot trafﬁc downtown. When fall comes around, we don’t really need much help. It happens naturally.”

Joe Reilly, director of operations and nighttime initiatives at the Iowa City Downtown District, or ICDD, explained the summer as a cycle, with vacations in uly bringing in low foot tra c downtown, preceded by “festival season” in une, bringing heavy foot tra c from events such as the Iowa City Pride Festival and the Downtown Block arty. The latter brought in roughly , partygoers, eilly said.

“The block party, for a lot of our nightlife businesses, is a boom for them,” eilly said. “That’s their little nest egg that they can coast on until the fall when classes are back in session. During the summer, you really have to plan to either save your money and know what events there are to make money.”

Reilly said for some longtime residents, the slower summer nightlife sales work well for them.

“There are some who really appreciate the summertime when students are not here at such a great number because they can find it’s easy to get to their favorite bar or restaurant. There’s still nightlife going on. It’s just not as many people, and I think some folks appreciate that.”

Reilly and ICDD look forward to the foot traffic magnet that is football season, which invites a healthy number of customers back to the bars after a dry summer season.

“It’s always exciting to see people wander when they come down here, maybe they haven’t been here at all, or haven’t been here a long time, and just see what’s changed,” he said. “And so we’re always eager to welcome those folks back, or welcome them for the ﬁrst time.”

UIHC acquires three new advanced surgical robots

The new da Vinci 5s are expected to expand robotic surgical capacity by a thousand operations per year.

University of Iowa Health Care added three new surgical robots, expanding robotic surgery capacity by an estimated one thousand operations per year and eﬀectively doubling the current capacity.

UIHC began using the robots on June . The model, da Vinci , is a robotic surgical system that allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures with high precision. The system sports tiny robotic instruments that follow a surgeon’s hand movements in real time.

Paired with a 3D simulated view of the incision area, surgeons are able to perform less invasive, smaller cuts than traditional open surgery.

Open surgery calls for larger cuts to allow surgeons to reach and work on organs with their own hands.

IHC purchased three of the da Vinci

units over the summer from Intuitive Surgical, adding to the three da Vinci i models UIHC had been operating with since . Intuitive Surgical, based in Sunnyvale, California, specializes in creating robots that help doctors perform surgery with more precision.

UIHC has not released how much the da Vinci models cost, but cases like that of emorial Hospital in Wyoming’s . million purchase of a da Vinci i model in 2023 show the robot is no small investment. According to UIHC spokesperson Laura Shoemaker, UIHC did not pay any upfront costs for the three da Vinci s, citing an agreement allowing the surgical robots to be paid per procedure rather than an outright purchase.

Daniel Yunek, clinical practice leader of robotic surgery at the UI, said the robots have a healthy return on investment due to the smaller incisions.

“If we are able to perform an open procedure, [the patient] would have to stay in the hospital for ﬁve to seven days. If you do it with the robot, the patient leaves in two days. In theory, we could potentially take care of three times as many patients,” he said.

Smaller cuts lead to faster healing times and more surgical availability.

The new da Vinci oﬀers a new bag of tools for surgeons on top of expanding robotic surgery operations, including advanced analytics, greater surgical precision and control, and force-sensing technology, otherwise known as haptic feedback.

The latter addition is the most appreciated by UIHC cardiothoracic surgeon ohn Keech said.

“I think that there is some resistance among some surgeons to adopt robotics because they do not have that ability to feel the tissues,” he said. “ Haptic feedback deﬁnitely adds an element of

realism that we previously had when we do regular open surgeries without a robot, where you can feel tissues, you can feel tension.”

Advancements such as these only smake surgeons more comfortable performing with the robots, Keech said.

He said in his ﬁeld, thoracic surgery, about half of the minimally invasive procedures have been performed with robotics in recent years.

At the core of the da Vinci and other similar robotic systems is feedback from surgeons, helping Intuitive Surgical to improve the robot’s design from model to model. Keech said the medical ﬁeld is currently navigating how the use of robots will impact the industry, such as if surgical robots will soon be advanced enough to not require a human operator.

“There’s a very existential question that we’re all obviously dealing with here now, with AI and the advances going on in robotics,” Keech said. “I think, for the foreseeable future, it’s still a surgeon controlling the robot at every step of the way.” Yunek is most excited about the robot’s new analytical system.

“Da Vinci will capture surgeons’ data from their most recent case, and then it’ll provide an analysis of their movement and their e ciency, and then that’ll go out to that resident, and then they can review that with their surgeon, and it’ll actually push out some recommended exercises to do,” Yunek said.

The new and improved analytical system compares a surgeon’s skill to the top percent of da Vinci users, allowing them to tune their weak points and someday match the best of the best.

In a press release, David Bender, director of robotic surgery at UIHC, said he is excited to see the new robots cover a wider range of procedures.

“We have surgeons across a number of specialties who are eager to have access to this technology,” he wrote. “Now that we have six robotic-assisted systems under one roof, we’ll be able to provide patients with new types of procedures we weren’t able to provide before.”

An onslaught of deportations hits Iowa

Changes in immigration policy have resulted in a sharp increase in deportations in Iowa.

Pascual Pedro, a 20-year-old who previously lived in West Liberty, Iowa, with his grandfather, entered the U.S. from Guatemala in 2018 and has resided in Iowa ever since. This summer, he was one of hundreds of Iowans deported from the U.S. This number has more than doubled since 2024.

He was a high school soccer star who helped propel his small town team to a state victory, an active member in his local community, and regular attendee at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in West Liberty. He had no criminal record, not even a speeding ticket.

He did everything by the book, yet in early July — after nearly seven years residing in the U.S. with permission — he was deported to Guatemala, where he now resides with his mother.

During his annual check-in on July 1 at the Cedar Rapids Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, o ce, he was told he would be removed to Guatemala and was unable to contact his family or friends until he landed nearly a week later.

During a call with reporters in late July, Pascual Pedro said he has had a hard time adjusting to life in Guatemala and wishes he could come back to the U.S. and remain with his grandfather.

“People like me, who are actually doing the right thing, actually working for a better life — a better future — we’re the ones who get aﬀected by everything that’s going on,” he said during the call with reporters. “Why us?”

Pascual Pedro had never missed a check-in, so he was confused about why he was now being removed after legally being allowed to remain in the U.S. However, when he entered the U.S. in 2018, he was given an order of expedited removal, but was allowed to remain in the U.S.

Under President Donald Trump’s administration, ICE has begun deporting those with removal orders even if they have been allowed to live in the U.S. for years. This is one change among several hundred changes Trump’s administration has made to federal immigration procedures and rules since taking o ce.

He’s ended temporary protective status for thousands of refugees, attempted to end birthright citizenship, and has changed the rules on who is allowed to stay in the U.S. while their immigration cases are waiting to be adjudicated.

All of these changes have been through executive order or policy memoranda — shaping federal administration policy through executive actions rather than changes to law.

This has resulted in a record increase in deportations in Iowa this year, according to ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by The Daily Iowan spreading fear among immigrant communities and even those with legal residency status.

Francisco Pedro, Pascual’s grandfather, said Pascual’s deportation has caused pain in their family.

“He was a great student. He was an amazing soccer player. He was a hard-working young man,” Francisco said during a July protest calling for Pascual’s return. “I’m in pain. We as a family are in pain. And he’s not the ﬁrst one, he’s not the second one, he’s not the third one. There are a bunch of us who are being kidnapped.”

The Trump administration has deported more Iowans in the ﬁrst seven months of 2025 than the entirety of 2024. According to the Deportation Data Project, 456 Iowans have been deported between the beginning of 2025 to the end of July.

Only 211 deportations occured in Iowa last year, according to the project.

The number of administrative arrests by ICE o cials has also more than doubled in Iowa since 2024, with only 298 in 2024 and 686 in 2025.

This increase is directly related to a monumental change in federal immigration policy brought by the Trump

administration, Iowa City immigration

attorney Jessica Malott said.

Malott said one of the largest changes under the Trump administration has been the shift in focus from border encounters, which made up most of the deportations under former President Joe Biden, to the enforcement in the interior of the U.S. This means that ICE has a larger footprint in the continental U.S. as they look to deport those who are living in communities

nal record yet are being deported.

However, Iowa lawmakers argue Trump is righting the ship after a record number of border crossings during Biden’s administration.

“Our nation has laws for a reason, and we can’t turn a blind eye to the essential role they play in keeping Iowans safe,” U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a statement to the DI.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said

around the U.S., while the Biden administration’s deportations mainly consisted of those who had just entered the U.S.

Malott pointed to changes to the rules about who is allowed to stay in the U.S. while their immigration proceedings and applications are in process, which often takes years, and the removal of protective statuses for those previously granted under previous administrations.

This has led to a sharp increase in the number of arrests and deportations in Iowa and other Midwest states as the Trump administration looks to deport more immigrants who have temporary permission to remain in the U.S. and those without legal permission to remain in the U.S.

Malott said those with a standing removal order and temporary protective status are “low-hanging fruit for this administration.”

“It’s like they’ve taken out the humanity in the decision-making process for [deportations],” Malott said.

Activists have called on Iowa’s congressional delegation to ﬁght for immigrants like Pascual Pedro, who don’t have a crimi-

despite their absence of a criminal record while in the U.S., they broke the law by crossing the border illegally.

“Congress passes laws, and the executive branch administers them, including immigration enforcement measures like ﬁnal removal orders,” Grassley said in a statement. “The people of Iowa elected President Trump to enforce our immigration laws, and entering the United States illegally is a removable oﬀense.”

Though the increase in deportations is not singlehandedly due to increased funding for enforcement under the Trump administration, the administration has made massive changes to immigration laws and precedent long considered settled.

Since the Trump administration came into power, it has enacted 421 new immigration policy actions, as of Aug. 22, according to the Immigration Policy Tracking Project.

That equates to roughly two immigration policy changes a day since Trump took o ce on an. . This has overwhelmed immigration attorneys and advocates who help immigrants navigate the complex immigration law landscape.

The changes range from attempting to end birthright citizenship to ending temporary protective status for thousands of refugees.

Immigration lawyers and advocacy organizations said the daily shifting in federal policy has made daily operations di cult.

Organizations like the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, which provides free or low-cost legal advice for immigrant communities, have faced challenges while working to provide timely and accurate information on the changes.

Communications specialist for the movement, Elena Casillas-Hoﬀ man, said the organization has seen a large uptick in requests from the community, which has caused them to have to turn away some of those looking for legal advice.

“It’s this constant wave, this constant onslaught of immigration policy changes that has been pretty much the hardest thing that we’ve been facing,” Casillas-Hoﬀ man said. “There are overall systemic changes to how policy is in uencing the legal system and the legal status that individuals have.

But every single day, it’s truly what’s next, what else is going to be attacked?”

The changes have ranged from relatively minor to massive shifts in federal immigration policy, all enacted via executive orders and policy memoranda, many of which have been challenged in the federal court system.

“I think that this administration thinks they can get away with a lot of things via an executive order or policy memos, but many of these things are being litigated,” Malott said. “In courts, the problem is that justice takes time.”

Malott said the changes in immigration almost seem to be made to prevent immigration and create insurmountable obstacles for those looking to move to the U.S.

“This shift in thinking about immigration, in my opinion, is designed to make the immigrants give up, because they keep putting roadblocks in front of them,” Malott said. “This is designed to put roadblocks up so that nobody wants to do it that way anymore.”

Since Trump has taken o ce, immigrant communities have been fearful that their immigration status and lives may be changed by the stroke of a pen or during a normal check-in at the Cedar Rapids ICE o ce.

Community organizers like Casillas-Hoffman said the fear has been palpable as her organization has worked to help the community comprehend the changes to federal immigration policy.

“We know that this administration is going after all immigrants of all statuses, and truly, that feeling that no one is safe is felt throughout all of our communities here in Iowa,” Casillas-Hoﬀmann said. “It’s truly palpable, and it’s in every facet. It’s at the back of every immigrant community and allies’ minds at all times.”

Escucha Mi Voz organizer, Alejandra Escobar, who has been organizing eﬀorts to bring Pascual Pedro back, said her organization has been building power by having people show up and support immigrants at ICE check-ins.

Escobar said there is a large amount of uncertainty among the immigrant community, but showing them that the larger community is supportive has helped reassure them.

“The community has been amazing, because we have a lot of support,” Escobar said. “It’s growing and growing and [the larger community] sees how this is aﬀecting everyone. Because we’re not only human beings, but we are also essential workers.”

She said that there is also a lot of anger among the immigrant community and their allies, which has helped motivate turnout.

“This is not what America is; these are not the values of America,” Escobar said. “I think that we’re mad, we’re angry, and then we’re moving forward. We’re resisting. We’re ﬁghting back.”

Local activists from immigrant rights organizations have rallied for Pascual Pedro’s return since he was deported in early July. They have called on members of Iowa’s congressional delegation to facilitate his return, even protesting outside their Cedar apids and Davenport o ces.

Those have yet to result in his return or a meeting with congressional representatives.

Despite no current path to returning to the U.S., Pascual Pedro said he hopes one day he can reenter the U.S., and he misses his friends and family who still reside there.

“One day I would like to go back if God gave me a chance,” Pascual Pedro said. “I would like to go back because, like I said earlier, I haven’t done anything bad. I was just doing the right thing, going to my check-ins, and I would love to go back if everyone over there thinks that I deserve a chance.”

ﬁnally come in, grab some cupcakes, say their ﬁnal good byes, and that would also create that hustle and bustle again that made me fall in love with olly’s to begin with,” Skinner said.

Iowa City native Alexandra Hernandez attended the clos ing event. She has always been a fan of olly’s Cupcakes, she said. Now a student at the niversity of Iowa, she is disappointed to see the business close.

”I was distraught when I heard the news,” Hernandez said. “I’m sad about the closure because my family and I enjoyed their cupcakes. We had Molly’s Cupcakes at most gatherings and birthdays.”

The ﬁnal day resulted in plenty of odd concoctions, but three stood out. The “Marcus,” the “Meegus,” and “Cecil Bill.” All three lovingly named after a day-one employee, pastry chef Marcus Kenyon.

“That was actually a really special moment for me,” Kenyon said. “It’s like people are coming in and ordering my name.”

Kenyon started as a dishwasher 13 years ago before work ing up to become a pastry chef. When Skinner hired him, he was a UI student. The only thing he remembers about his ﬁrst day was the chaos.

“I was in the dishroom struggling for my life,” he said.

The chaos of the ﬁnal days mirrored the beginning, he said, with olly’s delivering one ﬁnal stressful but energizing shift.

“When we’re busy like that, everyone has to be working together,” he said. “Every day, you’re working so closely with these people, and you just form a connection. That was probably my favorite part of the job.”

In his time at olly’s, Kenyon quickly learned many aspects of the store like maintenance and deliveries before taking on the role of pastry chef after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“She’s Skinner such an intense person,” Kenyon said. “She has so much passion. I have a lot of gratitude for her

because of her just letting me be here all these years and giving me stuﬀ to do and putting trust in me. She’s deﬁnitely someone you want in your corner.”

Skinner said she’s always been big on incorporating ideas from staﬀ to give them autonomy and conﬁdence in them selves. This eases nerves and allows employees to open up at work, Skinner said, which creates strong friendships.

That kind of energy has helped to create a collaborative and neighborly atmosphere behind the counter at Molly’s, Skinner said.

“I’ve brought my babies into the shop and they’ve taken care of them,” Skinner said.

On olly’s ﬁnal day, customers poured in from open until after close. Friends dropped in to say hello. Kids and parents swung on Molly’s iconic swings. In the back of the house, staﬀ members’ goodbyes lingered as they traded work stories and made plans to visit each other at their new jobs.

Skinner said she is grateful for the community support she has received since the announcement.

“The community has really shown up for us over the past month. That’s the whole reason why we opened this place — to build community,” she said. Skinner said her mother, who always got out her rosary and prayed a little extra when she decided to open up a new business, was all smiles.

“They’ve always been supportive of my decisions,” Skinner said. “I know it in my heart and soul that it was what I needed. It was to walk away from Molly’s Iowa City.”

Iowa City Songwriters Festival to make its debut

The three day event will shine a light on a lesser recognized style of writing.

With fall around the corner, the streets of Iowa City are bustling with crowds once again. To keep up with the oncoming busyness, The Englert Theatre has decided to put on its ﬁrst-ever Iowa City Songwriters Festival.

Beginning on Sept. 4 and ending Sept. , the three days will include a variety of activities for attendees to enjoy at several venues across downtown Iowa City, including The Englert Theatre, The James Theater, The Black Angel, and the Trumpet Blossom Cafe.

While there are many performances littered throughout, this festival is slightly diﬀerent from a typical one.

“I think this festival is just very focused on the craft of writing,” Brian Johannesen, the programming director for the Englert, said. “I don’t think we’ve ever done anything that melds education and performance the way that this one does.”

Alongside the regular artist shows, the event also oﬀers several extra opportunities to learn more about the songwriting processes for each creator. The festival stands out for this, combined with the speciﬁc ticketing style that allows people to choose what festivities they would like to be part of.

With oﬀers for single tickets to speciﬁed shows, full weekend passes, and all-access passes, the songwriter's festival is exible enough for anyone to join. Although they are sold out of passes, a

list on their website displays the calendar of performances free for any member of the public.

Some of the ideas for a festival surrounding songwriting, as explained by ohn Schickedanz, the Englert’s executive director, came from a performance given by Courtney Marie Andrews at a Mission Creek Festival and the literary scene of Iowa City.

“There’s something here in not just encountering the art as a ﬁnished product, but exploring deeper in the actual craft of songwriting and where that inspiration of human form can be in an individual artist, and seeing them as people through a process,” Schickedanz said.

This festival is unique for what it focuses on: songwriting. The combination of being a UNESCO City of Literature

and having the well-known Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the niversity of Iowa makes all forms of writing stand out, but songwriting is one that those at The Englert Theatre noticed might not be as appreciated as some of the others.

“Iowa City is used to celebrating writers, and we just felt that the songwriting community was underrepresented in that celebration,” Johannesen said.

Over the past few years, The Englert Theatre has been organizing smaller events to bring the art of songwriting to similar levels as other writing styles that are more practiced within the community. In the long run, Johannesen said he hopes that one day the university will be able to acknowledge this neglected group by adding a major for songwriting to its catalogue.

A ‘BITTERSWEET’ GOODBYE

A Chicago-based cupcake chain, Molly’s Cupcakes, shut down their Iowa City location on Sunday, Aug. 10, after more than a decade of service. Owner Jamie Skinner chose to close the downtown staple because of rising costs and decreased foot tra ic. After a month of celebration, coworkers, friends, and family visited a final time.

SPORTS

Hawkeye football is back with new faces

Roster turnover and o ensive continuity could determine the Hawkeyes’ success in 2025.

to join the Hawkeyes.

In just three days, Iowa football will walk out of the tunnel in Kinnick Stadium to “Back In Black” in a sea of black and gold to kick oﬀ its season against Albany. Will Iowa compete for a conference title? Can they secure a College Football layoﬀ bid Or will the team crumble during the season? While only time will answer those questions, there are plenty of key storylines to take note of.

As the nation’s longest-tenured head coach, Kirk Ferentz naturally approaches things from an old-school perspective. His motive is to recruit and develop players, but that didn’t stop him from being active in the transfer portal this offseason.

The biggest addition came at the quarterback position with South Dakota State transfer ark ronowski. One of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal, the two-time FCS champion bypassed the NF Draft

“I’m glad I found Iowa,” Gronowski said. “It’s a very similar culture to South Dakota State, which is important to me. We’re going to play tough football. We’re going to play hardworking football.”

Before Gronowski committed to Iowa, Ferentz reeled in Auburn’s Hank Brown. With Gronowski having one collegiate year left, the anticipation is for the redshirt sophomore to act as the backup this year and play for the starting spot next year.

An already-deep receiving core got even deeper with the addition of Sam

Iowa women’s soccer faces sti er competition

The Hawkeyes upset Arkansas to open the year with a three-goal e ort. Taylor Kane and Fernanda Mayrink have each received starts in net.

conference opponents.

After a - loss to Virginia Tech in the third round of the NCAA tournament last year, Iowa soccer aims to make a name for themselves with a gauntlet schedule.

Iowa will be heavily tested this year with a stacked schedule full of ranked conference and non-

Phillips. The fourth-year transfer from Chattanooga is a deep-ball threat and is currently listed as the backup slot to returning senior Seth Anderson. Phillips was searching for a bigger opportunity and found it with the Hawkeyes in the Big Ten. He could pair well with Gronowski’s tendency to make plays downﬁeld.

“When you have the opportunity to grow as a player, and not only the player, but a person, you got to take that leap of faith,” Phillips said. “I didn’t have a big

New faces, same fight

Iowa field hockey looks to rebound after missing the NCAA tournament in 2024.

After a disappointing 9-9 campaign last season, which ended with a devastating loss to Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament, the Iowa field hockey team returns to Grant Field with renewed determination and a roster brimming with fresh talent.

nder the steady leadership of head coach isa Cellucci, now entering her th season at the helm and her th overall with the program, the Hawkeyes are embracing a gritty, growth-focused mentality as they prepare for a challenging season ahead.

“We worked to get better, faster, and stronger, with the goal of operating in a high-performance environment,” Cellucci said. “We looked back at our practices, our tactics, and asked ourselves what needed to change. Us as coaches put a lot of thought into our principles of play and what we need to focus early on in the season.”

Iowa will feature ten newcomers, many of them top prospects who will be expected to contribute early and often this season. Integrating new talent has been a central theme for the Hawkeyes in the past few years, and Cellucci emphasized the importance of building cohesion.

“Much of the off-season has been spent learning and teaching these new recruits as well as assessing the personnel and how they fit into this program,” she said.

Among the standout additions is Jordan Byers, a top prospect from andisburg, ennsylvania. Known for her intensity and versatility, Byers is already making an impression.

Her mindset re ects the overall mentality of the team, one focused on meeting the moment, no matter the challenge.

The Big Ten boasts Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, and C A, each of whom are ranked in the top- national preseason poll. Iowa head coach Dave Dilanni said his squad has the eighthhardest schedule in the country but doesn’t hold any regrets. Rather, he welcomed the opportunity.

“We just decided that it was really important to put ourselves ﬁrst every year,” he said. “We try to put ourselves in positions to be vulnerable and to grow with adversity.”

Three games into the young season, the Hawkeyes have proven themselves against talented teams but sometimes ran out of time to deliver. After a - upset over Arkansas to open the year, Iowa’s late comeback fell short against

“I am just trying to bring energy and intensity to everything I do and be a part of as much as I can,” she said. Providing a stabilizing presence are two returning senior starters, Milly Short at center back and Mia Magnotta in goal. Both veterans are expected to help anchor the team’s defense and serve as mentors to the younger players new to the program.

“ illy is ﬁtter than she has ever been, and her execution has been fantastic. Mia Magnotta in goal has been great

After another hot and humid Iowa summer, the calendar now ips to autumn, where many folks in Iowa City are gearing up for football.

But just down the street is the James M. Hoak Family Golf Complex, the home of the Iowa men’s and women’s golf teams. Their focus is on the links, where they hope to engineer bounce-back campaigns in 2025-26.

Following their th place ﬁnish in the Big Ten Championship last season, the Hawkeyes look to improve under 15th-year head coach Megan Menzel.

Third-year Ximena Benites looks to build on her outstanding previous season that included a 7 . average and two top- ﬁnishes. Benites also led the team in birdies with 77, including one eagle. Benites is the top candidate to ﬁll in the shoes of former ace Paula Miranda, who graduated last year.

This season’s roster features four seniors, one of which being Riley Lewis who totaled an average of 7 . 7 and a top- ﬁnish last year.

Another fourth-year is Kaitlyn Hanna, who tallied a 78.66 average and one top-20 finish.

Adie Maki, who transferred from Loyola

Chicago last year, ended her inaugural campaign in Iowa City with a 78.11 average and three tournament appearances. Shannon Vogler made two tournament appearances last season with a 76.17 average and aims to finish her Hawkeye career strong. Iowa also brings in two new first-year players who already have long resumes of success.

Cailyn ogers is a ﬁrst-year player from Lexington, Kentucky. As a freshman in high school, Rogers was named the Kentucky Player of the Year and won ﬁve tournaments. The Kentuckian also won titles at the NB3 Long Drive tournament and Hurricane Junior Long Drive tournament.

Another newcomer is Sunny Tianlang Wang. Hailing from Beijing, China, Wang brings her four top-10 finishes and careerlow round of 66 to Iowa City.

This 2025-26 men’s golf team will aim to improve on their 14th place finish at the Big Ten Championship under 12th-year head coach Tyler Stith.

The lone fourth-year, Gage Messingham, led the Hawkeyes with the lowest average last season at 72.2. The Colorado native started all tournaments last season and is due for an outstanding senior season.

Former Iowa quarterback Drew Tate

The Daily Iowan: You grew up in Texas, so what led you to the University of Iowa?

Drew Tate: [My dad] knew [then-Iowa running backs coach] Carl Jackson who was already on staﬀ. I was committed to Texas A at the time, and so he had called my dad, and he had heard that the head coach at A might be on the chopping block. That’s how it got started.

What was a typical practice like with Coach Ferentz?

He could be very intense, but he had a good eye. You know, I think looking at things and seeing just all kinds of things, right layers, coaches, staff, effort, the details on little stuff like that.

What are some of your favorite off the field memories of him?

Third-year Maxwell Tjoa comes into this season off a team best six-over par performance in the Big Ten Championship. Tjoa carries a lot of potential, which he showed in his 33 rounds last season.

Second-year Chance Rinkol also showed a lot of promise in his ﬁrst season with the Hawkeyes and was named Iowa’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree. With a 74.7 average and seven rounds at par or better, Rinkol is a potential name to watch.

The men’s team’s two new first-year players are also bound to make an immediate impact. Iowa signed Oklahoma State transfer Grant Grudgel in May as he looks to start his collegiate golf career. A redshirt firstyear, Grudge won the Saguaro Amateur in January, his first competition after suffering a wrist injury the prior fall.

The other new face in town is first-year Kansas native Bennet Warren. Warren was the top ranked junior in the state of Kansas and ranked No. 60 nationally and No. 33 in his class.

The men’s team will open their season with a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Visit Knoxville Collegiate on Sept. 5-7, while the women’s squad begins their fall slate with the Boilermaker Classic on Sept. 1-2 in West Lafayette, Indiana.

We used to go to his house for barbecues and stuff like that. His son, Brian, was my center for a year, and we ran around together a lot.

It’s been 20 years since the iconic “Tate to Holloway” play. What do you remember from that play?

When I first threw it, I thought I overthrew him, and then I’m sitting there, I’m looking at the ball, I’m looking at him, and then I can just see the corner outside of him that was covering ankle was folding in. So I thought he was going to come up, drop up and pick it or knock it down, but [Ed] Hinkle was able to hold him off. Warren [Holloway] catches it, you know, goes through the arm, a little kind

of swipe by the dude, and then that was it. Coach Ferentz is two wins away from becoming the all-time winningest coach in Big Ten history. You were one of the guys that built the foundation for his success at Iowa. What does that mean to you?

It’s awesome to be a part of that. I just think about how he and the program have changed so many lives and the way that they’ve changed them. It’s a special place. And not only is it really about, well, it is about that. I mean, like I said, being a special place you’ve only had two head coaches in 50 years.

What will Iowa football’s record be this year?

Iowa football’s 2024 season was a rather disappointing one when considering all the talent the team had. What was expected to be a team potentially making the postseason was gutted by some brutal losses to teams it should have beaten. This year, however, will be rather different an underrated team that’ll play its way into the College Football layoff picture. Let’s start with the fact last year’s Iowa offense had somewhat of a resurgence. Even without the presence of a consistent quarterback, running back Kaleb Johnson and a dominant offensive line carried the load for a team lacking air yardage.

A huge part of that was due to Tim ester’s ﬁrst year as the Hawkeyes’ play-caller. And now with a year under his belt, the oﬀense should be used to the system in place all except the new quarterback, Mark

Gronowski. Over his four years at South Dakota State, Gronowski racked up 10,330 passing yards and 93 (!!!) passing touchdowns along with 1,767 rushing yards and 37 rushing touchdowns on the way to two FCS national championships. His pedigree should bring some life to the passing game. Then there’s the hounding Iowa defense. What’s been a staple to the program’s success became a deficit in some losses that shouldn’t have even happened. And the losses of Jay Higgins, Nick Jackson, and Yahya Black, among others don’t help with that. But as Kirk Ferentz and Co. do best, the developed talent will find a way to prevail. Defensive end Max Llewellyn started to come along toward the end of last season and should continue to carry that momentum into the fall. Linebackers Karson Sharar and Jaden Harrell have gotten a lot of praise throughout training camp. And defensive backs TJ Hall and Xavier Nwankpa are expected to make their names known in the Big Ten. The defense will bounce back, the offense will finally produce touchdown passes, and the Iowa Hawkeyes will etch their name among the final 12 teams in all of college football.

A team is only as good as its schedule allows. For Iowa football, the calendar boasts few friendly dates. Even in the second year of Tim ester’s oﬀense, this time with star transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski under center, the Hawkeyes won’t have it easy in autumn.

It’s not that the road turns rough early, far from it. The Hawkeyes will start the year 4-0. UAlbany and UMass are UPushovers, and it’s frankly embarrassing to play them in nonconference action. Iowa State is always a close contest, but the Cyclones lost their top two receivers to the NFL. Plus, Iowa knows how to win in Jack Trice Stadium. And unless Tony Soprano and Co. pull some strings, the Hawkeyes leave New Jersey unscathed with a victory over Rutgers.

Then come the potholes.

Indiana made the CFP last year, and while I’m sure it will regress in 2025, the Hoosiers will make a trying conference home-opener. Iowa manages a W, but then heads north to Madison. The Badgers are hungry for revenge and hired a new offensive coordinator in eff rimes, whose run-heavy scheme will return the offense from its recent mediocrity. Mobile transfer quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. will also be a factor. Down goes a perfect season. With an undefeated campaign in the rearview mirror, Iowa collides with Penn State, and even Kinnick night-game magic won’t defeat a consensus top-three team in the country. And if fans thought that UCLA road loss last year was ugly, wait until Iowa meets the superior USC out west. The Trojans lost by just three points to the Nittany Lions last year. Any of these three Iowa losses could be swapped out with Oregon as well. A three-loss season is nothing to complain about, but not enough to reach the mountaintop of an expanded Big Ten.

concern about taking that leap.”

There were also a few additions on the defensive side of the ball — cornerback Shahid Barros from South Dakota, safety Ty Hudkins from Purdue, and defensive tackles Jonah Pace from Central Michigan and Bryce Hawthorne from South Dakota State.

The defensive line was already strong and only got stronger with Pace and Hawthorne. Barros and Hudkins will add another layer of protection to the defensive back room that’s coming oﬀ a season derailed by struggling play and injuries.

TCU. A shutout victory over Western Michigan placed Iowa at 2-1 with three games to play before conference action starts.

While Iowa returns some notable stars from last year’s roster, like forwards Kenzie Roling, Berit Parten, and Meike Ingles, this season will likely feature some new faces in the black and gold.

“I think this team is one of the deepest, if not the deepest, team I’ve had at Iowa,” Dilanni said. “We have a lot of options … I think that’s one that we have a good balance of some youth and players that are new to the program.”

First-year Liana Tarasco arrives from Montreal after appearing with Canada’s youth national team. The midﬁelder already turned heads by earning Big Ten Freshman

The ester-led off ense proved to be the change that many fans felt should have happened years ago. In his fi rst year as the Hawkeyes’ play-caller, Lester produced one of the best rushing attacks in the country with Kaleb Johnson, which helped make up for a lackluster passing attack. That should change with Gronowski’s presence. A proven passer with over 10,000 yards and nearly 100 touchdowns throughout the past four years, he put in extra time with Lester to get a full grip of the offense.

“It’s very similar to the oﬀense that

of the Week honors with her go-ahead goal against Arkansas. She is the 10th player in program history to receive the award.

Teammate Josie Jones will stay in the Hawkeye state after a career at Waukee Northwest High School that featured a ﬁrst-team all-state nod. Fellow ﬁrst-year Elli Wildman logged 39 goals and 40 assists at East idge High School in innesota.

The Hawkeye oﬀense found its stride early in the season with multiple threats proving to be a force on the ﬁeld. Iowa led the Big Ten last year with 50.5 percent of its shots on target.

The potent Iowa offense featured six different goal scorers, with graduate student and former FSU Seminole Olivia Lebdaoui leading the way with a pair. Five Hawkeyes’ including Tarasco, Roling, Jones, fourth-year forward Shae Doherty, and third-year midfielder Abby Skiff added a tally.

I played in previously,” Gronowski said. “There’s still things that we’re adding to the oﬀense every single day, things that I like, things that he likes.”

The expectation is to be more passfriendly this season. This became a major factor in Phillip’s decision to join the program after Lester mentioned it during his recruiting visit.

“Iowa has not been known for throwing the ball, but when I met with them [during a visit] and sat down, I truly felt like they weren’t lying to my face,” Phillips said. “I can really trust them and know that they’re wanting to throw the ball this year.”

The adjustment will be a big one, but a shift in run-pass ratio will take some time

to get used to for all the returners, and Lester knows that. He’s not trying to rush the process. “It takes time. Time on task, time on repeating an action over muscle memory is real,” Lester said. “I think [the receivers] and the oﬀensive line are understanding what we’re trying to get out of each play which really allows the opportunity to make a jump like we did.”

The Hawkeyes lost over 10 players from last year’s team including Kaleb Johnson, Jay Higgins, Yahya Black, and Nick Jackson. This leaves the door open for several players to shine, including running backs Kamari Moulton and Jaz Patterson. The two backs will likely share the workload, whereas Johnson was a threedown back for the majority of last season. Despite notching over 1,500 yards, Johnson’s rushing capabilities were limited by inconsistent quarterback play.

A boost in the passing game should keep defenses on their toes, opening more opportunities for breakout plays in the run game. With Higgins and Jackson now in the NFL, seniors Jaden Harrell and Karson Sharar slid into the starting linebacker spots. The two came in together in 2021 and have studied those before them, patiently waiting for their opportunity.

“They’re unbelievably knowledgeable when it comes to the defense,” said assistant head coach Seth Wallace. “They’ve done things in a way in which Jay Higgins did them, a way in which Jack Campbell did them, where, when they were buying their time.”

Cornerback Xavier Nwanpka and defensive end Max Llewellyn also went through that waiting process and showed out once their opportunity arose. Both are now entrenched into leadership positions, guiding younger players like Harrell and Sharar.

“I think we have a lot of inexperienced guys that are in experienced roles now. So just learning together, all combining as one, being able to play together and play fast would be our biggest thing,” Nwanpka said.

defense retains its form from last year. Anchored with acy Enneking in net, the Hawkeyes allowed just 12 goals over 22 games last season, placing them tied for second in the conference. Enneking’s expired eligibility leaves Iowa with two experienced options in net with grad student Taylor Kane and sophomore Fernanda Mayrink.

This offensive prowess comes without Ingles, who led the team last season with seven goals and has yet to score. Same for scoring threats Parten and third-year midfielder Sofia Bush, who combined for over 12 goals together just a season ago.

Iowa’s record is 57-2-4 in its last 63 games when scoring two goals or more. If the Hawkeye oﬀense keeps utilizing its multiple threats on the ﬁeld, then they will have an easy path to the win column, so long as the

Kane, now in her ﬁfth season of eligibility, arrived in Iowa City in 2023 following two seasons at Pomona-Pitzer in Claremont, California. She logged just two minutes in an Iowa uniform before starting against Arkansas, collecting four saves. Mayrink spent last season at Barry University in Miami, amassing a .817 save percentage across 11 games. She received the starting nod against TC , earning ﬁve saves. Kane was back in net against Western Michigan for her second-career shutout. While the Hawkeye defense has allowed more goals to start the season than in previous years, the season is still fresh with stiff competition on the horizon, whoever is defending the net will have their opportunities to shine.

the last couple of years, and she will be relied on for a lot of leadership this season,” Cellucci said.

To Short, stepping into a leadership role has been both meaningful and energizing.

“Now, being the old person on the team, it has been exciting to train and work with all the new players, get to know them, see how they play,” she said. “It’s refreshing to have all the positivity around.”

Despite the influx of new faces, the team’s goals remain unchanged. The Hawkeyes are focused on competing at the highest level, embracing pressure, and delivering in gamedeciding moments.

“We want those moments,” Cellucci said. “We want to compete, accomplish, and win when the time comes.”

The road ahead won’t be easy. Iowa’s schedule includes matchups against powerhouses 202425 NCAA National Champs of Northwestern as well as other topranked Big Ten rivals.

But the Hawkeyes are no strangers to adversity. Last season featured several close contests and notable upsets, including a thrilling Oct. 27 victory over then-No. 3 Ohio State. That win highlighted the team’s potential and resilience, even as their season ended in disappointment. With preseason training now behind them, the Hawkeyes are ready to turn the page and write a new chapter. Their season kicks off with the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at Grant Field in Iowa City against Wake Forest on Aug. 29 and North Carolina on Aug. 31. It will be the first test in what promises to be a season defined by grit and growth.

HawkEYES on the goal

The No. 9 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes sealed their third victory of the season after defeating the Western Michigan Broncos in a dominating 2-0 shutout. The goals from freshman Josie Jones and senior Shae Doherty increased the Hawkeyes standing 3-1 record for the 2025-2026 season.

Iowa City Video Zine platforms filmmakers

The video program provides artists with equipment and a supportive community.

real dialogue and scripts and acting,” Hotka said.

ICVZ helped him set up a screening for this new second ﬁlm, which premiered at rizzly’s South Side ub rill.

Kyden Hotka always dreamt of directing a feature-length ﬁlm. Now, with a few short ﬁlms under his belt and with the support of the local video program Iowa City Video Zine, Hotka is turning that dream into a reality.

Hotka works as an independent artist based in Iowa City. He created his ﬁrst short ﬁlm entirely by himself as a solo project, making up the story as he went along.

“It was something super abstract, nightmarish, and crazy,” Hotka said. “I was just kind of trying to get people’s attention.”

After finishing, Hotka decided to submit his project to ICVZ in one of their bimonthly collaborative episodes, which seek to promote experimental video artists. Operating out of ublic Space One, the program collaborates with FilmScene to host screenings for each new episode. It was at the screening for his solo ﬁlm that Hotka met the team with whom he would tackle his next project.

“I was able to meet a whole bunch of people and was able to get together a cast and make a bigger short ﬁlm, which had

Hotka’s ﬁlms are just one example of the various submissions and creative works that go into each episode of ICVZ’s programming.

Clare Kinkaid and atrick O’Connor run the project together and come up with the episode themes. These often arise from program meetings and center around impactful or interesting topics.

After settling on a theme, ICVZ puts out an open call for submissions, sometimes reaching out to speciﬁc in uential artists to connect with the community through yers and social media posts.

“After getting submissions, we give ourselves a week, a week and a half maybe two if we’re feeling generous — to edit it all together,” Kinkaid said.

The length of the editing process depends on the number of videos the team receives as well as the number of bumpers they choose to insert into the ﬁnal product. Bumpers are smaller videos made in-house, spaced between larger video content segments to connect everything.

Real horror is at home in ‘Weapons’

Zach Cregger’s horror movie is a twisted good time.

At : 7 a.m. one morning, an entire classroom of elementary school students got out of bed, walked out of their homes, and into the darkness. A month later, the town of aybrook is angry and desperate for answers as the police, concerned parents, and enterprising local teens fail to solve the grisly mystery of the children’s whereabouts.

Nothing I can say will make you more intrigued about “Weapons” than this setup delivered through a child’s narration in the opening minutes of Zach Cregger s film. eleased on Aug. , the film crafts a mystery so open-ended it demands attention, and luckily, the film unravels its central question in an extremely satisfying manner. Cregger is one of my favorite filmmakers working right now. With his breakout hit “Barbarian” in , the former member of sketch comedy group “The Whitest Kids Know” established a brand of high-strung suspense building to an absurd punch line.

“Barbarian” manages to balance gnarly horror, slow-burning suspense, and laughout-loud funny sequences of absurdity.

“Weapons” similarly juggles polar opposite tones to great effect, but to a less uproarious extent.

Instead of frequently diving into pure comedy, “Weapons” litters moments of levity within a truly bleak and melancholic odyssey through a suburban town reeling with loss.

The film is structured in chapters, each from the perspective of a different character. The first segment follows ustine, played by ulia arner, the teacher the town blames for the disappearance of its children. Her story is plagued by paranoia, as if angry members of aybrook are watching her all the time.

The chapter unfolds the mystery and builds to an insane crescendo before cutting to Archer, played by osh Brolin, a grieving father looking for answers.

Cregger’s pattern takes shape in this segment as it becomes clear every character we follow will bring another piece of the mystery into focus, build to a terrifying event, and cut away. Eventually, the lives of the school’s principal, ustine’s sole remaining student, a

local cop, and a local junkie collide for the film’s final and most ingenious act. Without ruining any of the film’s greatest scares or most fascinating subtext, I found the third act electrifying.

As the answers to the mystery are revealed, all suspense is dropped in favor of loud, kinetic violence. The ending may not satisfy all viewers, though. pon the release of every new horror movie, I find constant conversation about what the movie means. When I walked out of the theater following the insane final minutes that had me gripping my arm rest so tight I thought I was going to rip the fabric out, everyone I watched Weapons with had a different take.

This isn’t to say there aren’t clear answers to the ﬁlm’s mystery they are very clearly spelled out, and they absolutely rock. It’s the reasons why Cregger chose the answers that are more interpretive.

In an era of horror movies where everything is a metaphor for grief or trauma, “Weapons” serves as a reprieve. The ﬁlm has things on its mind, and its depiction of suburbia as a nightmarish nexus for modern America’s anxieties is certainly relevant, but it is also a propulsive blast.

If you want to annoy your friends at parties like me, there is plenty you can read into in “Weapons.” But if you’re a fan of gorgeously filmed, well-crafted movies about creepy kids and scary houses, you’ll get just as much out of this. I frequently find myself walking out of contemporary horror movies feeling like a filmmaker sat me down, explained an allegory to me for minutes, and incorporated horror as an afterthought.

I felt the terror in every frame of “Weapons.” Almost every shot is moving, as if the camera is constantly pulling you along to the next shocking image against your will. In most cases, the scariest scenes in “Weapons” provide the most enlightening insights into the thematic purposes behind Cregger’s mystery. At least two moments in the movie made me audibly yell in the theater. I never do that It was very embarrassing “Weapons” delivers a thematically rich story about coping with the randomness of violence without holding back on pulse-pounding suspense and expertly crafted scares.

Collecting physical media in a digital world

Collectors and film scholars combat the digital age through collecting.

wheelhouse to ﬁll in gaps on his organized spreadsheet.

“At this point, I’m picky. When I’m buying, I’m thinking about how this ﬁlm will add to the whole curated collection.”

any avid TV and film fans share this experience when browsing streaming services: finding an interesting title and throwing it on the watchlist only to find it’s disappeared to another service the next time the app updates. If this has ever ruined movie night, physical media may be the solution.

As the media we consume has shifted further online, purchasing physical copies of music and ﬁlms has become a way to ensure access.

“ eople are longing for something anti-digital. We don’t own anything anymore, so it’s very satisfying for some people that if they buy something, they’ll always be able to watch it,” eremy aughery, a second-year h.D. student at the niversity of Iowa, said.

aughery’s collection began as a rejection of streaming when he was in high school. Without access to apps like Spotify, listening to CDs in his car was the only option. As he continued collecting music into his s, it became more of a moral battle.

“Artists get paid almost nothing from streaming services, so buying merchandise and records is a small way I could show I support them,” aughery said.

Now, his collection consists of over ﬁlms and over records, always readily available and on display. Similar to how an avid reader would organize their books on a shelf, ﬁlm collectors, too, take pride in their display.

anging from three oor-to-ceiling shelves, cinematic arts h.D. candidate Chris Wei’s collection is currently sitting at around , items. He keeps his most prized collector s items on prominent display within the shelves.

“It’s a way of presenting myself. Not only do you have this book, but you have it visible. It’s similar to movies. I keep the box sets up top because they portray this curatorial sensibility and give a collector’s mentality that I consider a part of my cinephile identity,” Wei said.

Naturally, with that many ﬁlms, Wei hasn’t seen all of them. Buying well-regarded ﬁlms he hadn’t seen was common when he began collecting in . This is due in large part to his initial desire to begin collecting.

“When I started, it was this intentional selection for watch parties,” Wei said. “I was thinking about whether I would have something for everyone when they came over. Did I have a movie that could align with everyone’s sensibilities ” As Wei became more dedicated to studying ﬁlm, the collection became more esoteric. He gathered titles outside of his

Wei mainly sticks to shopping online for the speciﬁcity and security in packaging or shipping. Other collectors, like cinematic arts h.D. candidate Dana Alston, much prefer brick-and-mortar collecting.

“If I had to choose between shopping online or in-store, I would choose the store every time. The experience of browsing informs what I’m in the mood to get,” Alston said. “It’s more satisfying than scrolling a website because those are designed to give you exactly what you want.”

The thrill of ﬁnding something valuable or unique in a resale shop is something that entices aughery as well.

“I once found a box set of Brian De alma and obert De Niro ﬁlms in a record store for way under market value,” aughery said. “When I brought it to the counter, the employee and I had a conversation about the ﬁlms, and they made recommendations, so it became a real bonding moment.”

Aside from choosing between online or in-person, picking a distributor is also a challenge for collectors. The Criterion Collection hosts a library of contemporary and classic, canonized films not found anywhere else. Arrow Video has a more grindhouse-leaning assortment. Vinegar Syndrome seeks to preserve more pulpy, forgotten genre films. ore of these labels are likely to hit the scene as brands like etterboxd and A market cinephilia as a more accessible hobby. Alston’s research centers around how media companies have commodified niche fandoms and interest groups, finding the popularization of the once niche interest to be more capitalistic.

“The hopeful way to look at it is there’s a broad sense in the culture right now that the way we are consuming things is not healthy, so I think an increase in physical media collection from young people combats that,” Alston said. “ y research is about how industry has invaded the things we love and turned them into data-scraping monetization practices.”

Collectors have several theories as to why their hobby has gained traction, some positive and some skeptical. Wei ﬁnds that instead of contributing to the increasingly monetized digital world, collecting physical media can be an escape.

“I’ve been seeing more videos online of creators making lists of thought-provoking ﬁlms to stave oﬀ the further degradation of our attention spans,” Wei said. “Young people are hungry for something that demands their attention. The brainrot discourse online seems to be that everyone scrolling knows it’s bad for them, but they’re selfaware about it, so it continues. Cinephilia can be an antidote to that.”

For one episode, Kinkiad said the team staged a talk show, which took more editing due to the large presence of special eﬀects.

According to Hotka, ICVZ’s support can become a huge help to artists like him, who, when starting, don’t have access to many resources. With the team he met through his ﬁrst ﬁlm’s screening, Hotka was able to sit down and revise his script with people who were digging deeply into his work.

“It’s my job as a director to see how everyone’s diﬀerent opinions align. That was something I’d been practicing even before my solo short ﬁlm,” Hotka said. “I’ve just fantasized for years now about directing people, so it wasn’t a huge jump for me to go from solo project to working with people, because I’ve always mentally been prepared for it.”

Hotka said that ICVZ has helped him over the years by providing not only ideas and support but also resources and equipment.

“They’ll give you lights, they’ll give you sound equipment, they’ll give you cameras, they’ll give you screenings,” he said. “They’ll give you resources to help you reach out to other people and actors. To have other people look at you and go “we’ll help you” is everything artists can dream of, just hearing people say that they’ll listen and help you is so incredible.”

Currently, Hotka is working on his next project, a feature ﬁlm he is writing independently which he plans to shoot in Iowa City. He plans to get some of the people he’s met at ICVZ involved with the project.

So far, ICVZ has produced two full seasons of videos, each season spanning about a year’s worth of time. The first episode of season three, a youth-led episode, premiered earlier this year on Aug. 7.

“The youth-led episode was a Clare idea, and I was so down for it,” O’Connor said. “I think it’s really cool to involve kids and the kids we have here in Iowa City are so creative. It went really well with the small group we had.”

While putting together the episode, ICVZ hosted workshops that kids could attend in order to develop their video ideas. At the ﬁrst one, around three people showed up, but by the second, there was a slight bump with ﬁve attending.

O’Connor said he was impressed with the amount of creative ideas the kids came up with and the development process as a whole was rewarding. However, it was also a challenge.

The kids themselves don’t always have

of middle schoolers and was very inspiring.”

Ituk believes engaging with diﬀerent mediums of art and becoming involved within the community is a great way for ICVZ participants, especially youth participants, to gain real-world knowledge and experience.

“It takes a lot of time to ﬁnish a video,” O’Connor said. “Even all the time you put in doesn’t always translate into video progress. Art in general isn’t like other things, where the more time you put in, the better it gets. Sometimes the best stuﬀ you can make really quickly, but sometimes it takes a lot more time.”

Kinkaid said it was cool to see how ideas from inside their youth team’s heads came to life. For the ﬁrst time, she and the others at ICVZ had less creative control over what went on in the episode, because the show featured anything and everything that the kids wanted to do.

“It was really cool to hear their ideas,”

come and see what it’s about. We’re super open people.”

full say about how they go about their days or how much they can work on their video projects while at home. Also, ICVZ relied solely on the dedicated work of volunteers to make workshops happen.

“It was hard because it’s an all-volunteer based event. So, we — luckily — had some friends and artists that helped Clare and I lead the workshops,” O’Connor said. “But aside from that, it’s mostly me and Clare trying our best with the time we have as volunteers.”

Kufre Ituk was one such volunteer who helped out at the workshops. Ituk often helps out ICVZ with organizing, promoting, and collaborating on various videos, studio work, and events.

“I think, honestly, that each episode just gets better and better,” Ituk said. “I loved the superstition episode, and I also really loved the kids episode, which was led by a bunch

Kinkaid said. “They were like, ‘we’re going to dance in front of a green screen and we want a nuke to explode all around us and then sprinklers are raining down.’ And we’re like, ‘okay, sounds good.’”

As of now, the team is still brainstorming what their next project will look like. The only thing certain about it is that it will connect in some way to the community, as all ICVZ projects strive to do. Both Kinkaid and O’Connor emphasize that the project is completely open to anybody who wants to get involved.

“I think it would be cool for people to know that even if you don’t create experimental videos, we are open and we love being a platform for the community,”

Kinkaid said. “We do have a pretty stylized image sometimes, but even if you aren’t into that or even if you don’t make video art, if there’s any inkling that interests you at all,

Kinkaid said ICVZ, above all else, is interested in encouraging creative expression and not in creating perfect videos. Sometimes, she said, ﬁlmmaking can become a gate-kept art form, but

inreality, creators don’t need to have fully developed technical skills to get started creating.

“I think Iowa City Video Zine has had several people who have submitted who have never made a video before,” O’Connor said. “We ultimately just want video of people on the big screen. And I think it’s cool that people involved will get to be part

of something bigger than themselves.”

The team believes making DIY, lowbudget videos using only the people and places around you can be incredibly intimate and meaningful. Anyone can make a video zine submission, and anyone is encouraged to.

“Even though it’s one medium, you’ll be surprised by the interdisciplinary and the inter-medium relationship between video art and literally any other kind of art,” Ituk said. “It’s so expansive.”

Editor’s Note: Kufre Ituk is a former reporter with The Daily Iowan.