The Daily Iowan
UI Flock follows Hawks
Campus Safety backs the AI-powered license plate readers in light of hundreds of abuses nationwide.
I
n Iowa City, all eyes are on you. Between students traveling to class on T. Anne Cleary Walkway, driving down Madison Street, feet away from the Pentacrest, and through downtown on Clinton Street, and those coming into town, visiting University of Iowa Health Care or catching a Saturday game at Kinnick Stadium, the UI Police Department’s automated license plate readers are positioned to see activity going in and out of campus. All seen. All recorded. All remembered. A vast nationwide network of over 100,000 cameras can know your habits: where you go and when. But just for 30 days. Flock Safety develops AI-powered license plate readers designed to assist law enforcement in identifying criminal activity and taking action sooner. This network is at the disposal of countless law enforcement agencies across the U.S., including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Hundreds of abuses cropped up over the summer, giving rise to questions surrounding privacy rights. ampus afety hief of taff Hayley Bruce wrote in an email statement to the DI that ALPR technology helps law enforcement shorten the time required to identify and locate those who are a risk to public safety. “License plate reader technology has helped UI Police generate investigative leads, identify vehicles associated with reported crimes, and more quickly locate vehicles connected to public safety concerns,” she wrote. Driving across the invisible boundaries between city and university property, you come into sight of a Flock camera. Iowa City has not championed the installation of ALPRs. In fact, city councilors and other
officials vehemently oppose the technology. The university does not. The university is in a three-year process to fully acquire the Old Capitol Town Center in downtown Iowa City. Earlier this summer, a Flock camera appeared at the corner of BLICK Art Materials. “Cameras are an important part of the university’s layered approach to campus safety, helping police investigate incidents, identify suspects, and respond more effectively to public safety concerns,” Bruce wrote. “As new campus facilities are constructed and acquired, camera infrastructure is routinely evaluated and incorporated where appropriate.” Flock Safety develops AI-powered license plate readers designed to assist law enforcement in identifying criminal activity and taking action sooner; hundreds of abuses cropped up over the summer, giving rise to questions surrounding privacy rights. UI students are pensive but concerned. Iowa’s branch of Young Democratic Socialists of America, a student organization on campus, has a rolling petition for the university to divest from Flock. The petition sits at 245 signatures at the time of publication. “I see at least one or two every time I walk to class because there are two by T. Anne Cleary,” second-year student and YDSA member Leyton Mau said. “There’s one by my dorm as well. So I see at least one every day.” Mau said the cameras around campus surprise him and put him slightly on edge when spending time walking to class or being with peers. “I walk everywhere basically, and it’s just creepy in a way that it feels like it’s always looking at you,” he said.
Tippie to undergo $60 million renovations
A two-year construction project will be taking place at the John Pappajohn Business Building and Gilmore Hall.
City and nearby farmlands. This clearcutting had legacy effects on cicadas. Forbes had never studied cicadas before but became interested in them after observing their patterns. “We actually don’t study cicadas in this lab,” he said. “We study parasitic insects.” Forbes said after hearing about an upcoming emergence of the cicadas, he became intrigued, and decided to do further research on the insects. He said he was disappointed to find they weren’t emerging in the forested areas of Iowa City and its surrounding areas, so he became curious about the change.
The green, lively courtyard in the John Pappajohn Business Building looks different lately. Passersby will notice towering white screens and mounds of construction material littering the area. Scaffolding lines the front of the building, masking the work in progress. The University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business is currently undergoing a $60 million construction project to accommodate rising enrollment numbers. The renovations will expand spaces for students, a llow ing T ippie to prov ide bet ter resources and support. Construction officially began on Aug. 18, starting the project of connecting the John Pappajohn Business Building with its nextdoor neighbor, Gilmore Hall. The renovations are set to be finished by Summer 2028. The renovations will increase the Tippie College of Business’s size by 33 percent, adding more than 72,000 square feet. Dean of the Tippie College of Business Amy KristofBrown said the main reason for the expansion is the growing number of students in the business school. When the business building opened in 1994, it was designed for an enrollment of 1,600 students. The college’s current on-campus enrollment is nearly 4,600 undergraduate students. “We've grown over 50 percent in the last six years in our undergraduate, on-campus population,” KristofBrown said. “It became pretty clear about five years ago that we were going to need more space.” The last construction project at Tippie concluded in January 2018, when the Biz Hub was added to the building. She said expansion into Gilmore Hall proved to be much cheaper than the alternative renovation option, which was moving the business college across the street. That project was estimated to be $120 million.
Study finds periodical cicadas may be doomed University of Iowa researchers conclude decreasing tree cover to be the cause.
A new University of Iowa study has concluded that periodical cicadas might be at risk of extinction, based on research conducted in Iowa City and Johnson County. Biologists at the university found that because tree cover has been waning in Johnson County and its surrounding areas, periodical cicadas, which emerge every 13-17 years, might not be able to continue to survive. Andrew Forbes, the main author of the study, said in the 1800s, trees were cut down to create the city of Iowa
The Daily Iowan
Second-year Chase Haydock said the cameras’ presence and the lack of information surrounding them feel almost alien to campus. “There’s no telling whether it’s just scanning license plates because everything about Flock seems so shifty and secretive that it’s like they could be just scanning our faces as well, and we would have no idea.”
The Iowa City City Council has never approved a contract with Flock Safety to install and use their license plate readers, though it has employed license plate readers in areas like parking garages. Earlier this year, it updated a 26-year-old resolution to effectively terminate a “right-of-way” agreement with the university. Right-of-way agreements enable an organization or municipality to access and use another’s property; in this case, it allows the university to install ALPRs on city ground. When the council voted 7-0 to rescind the former resolution and adopt the revised one on March 10, it specifically targeted “agreements involving information or video systems that capture and store data related to individual behaviors” — ultimately forcing ALPRs off city property. City Councilor Oliver Weilein claimed the university pushed back on the decision. “From what I heard from some city staff, what was clear is that they didn’t agree with us on the council, and they wanted their Flock cameras on our property,” Weilein said. Weilein claimed the UI understood after some negotiation that the agreement to use city property would not hold, but that they argued for keeping the cameras installed for a handful of months until Flock contractors visited campus. “I said that was unacceptable, and that I don’t believe that,” he said. “And then by and large, they were able to get them down within a week.” The terminated right-of-way agreement, signed on Dec. 22, 2023, and reviewed by The Daily Iowan, stipulates the university had a maximum of 10 calendar days to remove cameras upon receiving written notice from the city. It also lists the cameras the UIPD operated through the agreement. As of Oct. 31, 2023, the agreement allowed for 28 cameras across Iowa City. The university now operates 30 cameras, relocated onto UI property. Flock Safety ALPRs are not a recent addition to campus. In fact, Flock predates students rounding out their four years in Spring 2027. The cameras used by UIPD are Flock Safety Falcon 2 LE cameras and can identify car license plates, make and model, color, body type, along with personalizations like bumper stickers and aftermarket modifications tapped into a vast database, Flock’s network can know who you are before you roll to the next red light. Flock’s database, available to law enforcement officers at varying levels dictated by their contract, manifests as a “hot list” that notifies officers of a tracked vehicle.
Flock maintains a transparency portal with publicly available information on the UI’s use of its network. The portal shows 1,360 alerts in the last 30 days, broken up into categories like “Protection rder,” “ ex ffender,” “ arrants,” “Stolen Plate,” and more. For instance, of those 1,371 alerts, 817 are labeled as “Protection Order.” The network detected 297,425 unique license plates in the last 30 days, as well. This is not a count, however, of each time the camera has viewed a vehicle. Instead, this figure accounts for each time a new license plate is viewed. The count of each time a camera sees a vehicle would be much higher. The portal also shows every municipality with which the UIPD actively shares data. These include
Des Moines Police Department, the Iowa State University Police Department, and the Iowa Department of Corrections, among 60 Iowa law enforcement agencies. Purchase orders obtained by the DI show the university paid $156,800 to operate 28 Flock cameras from February 2023 to January 2025. UIPD has since renewed the contract after adding two additional cameras for $12,300 in December 2023. It renewed the first 28 cameras at $87,500 for March 2025-26. Not including fees paid for the most recent year, the UI doled out $256,600 to operate Flock ALPRs on campus between 2023 and 2026. That fee is broken down into the software and physical components. The software is an artificial intelligence and machine learning program proprietary to Flock Safety. According to internal documents reviewed by the DI, Assistant Vice President of Campus Safety Mark Bullock signed a contract with Flock Safety in January 2023. In April 2023, campus safety announced the integration of the technology with its law enforcement efforts. Bullock believes the network is invaluable to fight worsening crime on the UI campus, he said in an article published by Flock Safety. “It’s nice to have something that can be both a resource to the campus but also be a resource to our local law enforcement community in trying to address these emerging issues with crime that seems to be getting closer to campus over time,” Bullock said in the article. In the UI’s policy manual, chapter 33, i. b. says a university official must not speak on behalf of or use the university name for a purpose not affiliated with the university if not sanctioned by the ffice of Strategic Communication. “Individuals or entities who contract with the university for goods or services are not permitted to imply an endorsement by the university of their goods or services by virtue of their contract with the university,” the policy manual reads. The article, presented on Flock Safety’s website as an example of how its ALPR technology can assist college campuses in preventing crime, begins with an introduction that revisits the issue of university versus city property. “Set in Iowa City, the University of Iowa is intertwined with the surrounding urban community. Spanning more than 1,900 acres, it’s often difficult to discern where its campus begins and ends,” the article reads. “With such a large, ungated area and more than 31,000 students, the university’s campus safety team has a challenging task when it comes to keeping students and faculty safe.” The most recent Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act and Fire Safety Annual Report, published in 2025 and available on the UI’s website, includes campus crime statistics. Available data is for the period of 2022-24, in which the crime numbers — broken into categories such as robbery, aggravated assault, murder, statutory rape, and others add up to criminal offenses. That is approximately 0.02 crimes per student on average in 202224. The data records no murders or manslaughters for the period, but does identify upward trends in aggravated assault and fondling. Bullock said in the article that the ALPR use adopted by UIPD helps automate more practices and generate efficiency in the policing process. “One thing that’s been nice about Flock Safety is that it does some of the work for us,” Bullock said. “Our response and our efforts can be a little bit more precise, effective, and efficient.” According to law enforcement outcome records obtained by the DI, UIPD has made 124 arrests in the period of July 1, 2024, to Sept. 8, 2026, with the assistance of data captured by Flock ALPRs. Records re ect cases in that time period where Flock data was used. In 61 instances, the only observation and identifiable outcome was from images captured by UI ALPRs and is designated as “Made a stop.” No arrests or further action can be seen as having been
taken in the records. The records re ect a variety of criminal offenses among these 308 cases. These range from an unidentified 2026 incident, designated as “Murder and NonNegligent Manslaughter, Weapons ffense hooting Riot,” resulting in five arrests, to stolen property, vandalism, rape, fraud, and more. According to the records, UIPD used Flock data to track nine instances of fraud, with arrests made in only two of the cases. There are four records of “Suspicion,” with no arrests made, and two instances of “Trespass,” with one including harassment. Bruce wrote Flock ALPR systems have helped UIPD locate endangered or missing persons by not “spending time searching an area a person is not currently located.” UIPD also assisted with an interjurisdictional murder investigation, where campus Flock data yielded information that resulted in an arrest. Bruce also described in generalized terms an instance where UIP identified, tracked, and arrested an individual after stealing a vehicle on campus. “The license plate and vehicle information was entered into the campus ALPR system,” Bruce wrote. “The car returned to campus a few weeks later, and the ALPR system notified police. fficers went to the area, located the vehicle, confirmed the license plate information, and observed a suspect who matched the description from previous security camera footage. After a subsequent search warrant, investigators recovered a large amount of the stolen property.” The UI denied the DI’ s request for official information on camera locations, citing Iowa Code 22.7(50), which prohibits disclosing records regarding physical, cyber, and security infrastructure “if disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize such life or property.”
In July, Hambersham County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Department eputy hristian Brewer was fired and arrested after abusing Flock data to stalk a significant other. That same month, police in Auburn, Washington, arrested the wrong individual while investigating a shooting. At the time of publication, nonprofit law firm The Institute for Justice had compiled 240 instances of Flock and other ALPR abuse from across the nation. There is only one in Iowa. In December 2025, supervisors in Story County, home of Iowa tate University, identified misuse of Flock data obtained by the Story ounty heriff’s epartment. They claimed Flock imagery captured by the department was accessible to those with no authorization. Story County is still negotiating whether it will renew its contract. The violations of data usage, sharing, and individual privacy have ignited awareness among legal advocates this summer. The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, of Iowa released a report in December 2025 examining how Iowa law enforcement agencies use and share ALPR data. Data retention is also built into Flock’s contract with the university. Contract section 4.4 states Flock can collect “aggregated data” from the UIP , which it defines as “compiled anonymous data which has been stripped of any personal identifying information.” The proliferation of incidents caused Flock to reduce its suggested data retention period from 30 days to ust a week. The final decision, however, falls to the contracting organization. The UI has so far kept it at 30. This change also introduced an “evidence mode,” which increases detectives’ ability to decide what data is kept past the deletion period. Becca Eastwood, deputy policy director with the ACLU, said access to this amount of data, coupled with interjurisdictional access by law enforcement, creates a situation
where citizens can be surveilled, regardless of criminal activity. he cited specifically Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. “Our position here is that the government shouldn’t be tracking people ‘Just in case,’” she said. “It has to have an individualized suspicion of wrongdoing in order to watch you. It can’t just be tracking your movements in case you do something wrong.” Eastwood said she has witnessed a massive shift in attitude against ALPR technology in the last several months. “As a result of that report, we decided that this is the moment,” she said. “This is a really critical juncture for not only the use of ALPRs but for privacy and surveillance writ large, and what this technology means for protecting Iowans’ privacy rights and their civil liberties.” The ACLU actively lobbies with the Iowa legislature against ALPRs and Flock. A lack of legislation leads organizations to form their own operational rules for license plate readers, and Eastwood said the ACLU’s goal is to eliminate these idiosyncrasies in policy. “Right now in Iowa, there’s next to no meaningful regulation on the use of these cameras,” she said. “So we believe that there has to be, at the minimum, a oor, and right now there’s not.” Data sharing is one of the foremost issues the A LU identifies with Flock Safety and other ALPRs’ vast, AI-powered networks. Independent journalism site 404 Media identified unfettered access to Flock data by ICE, which allegedly used the data to detain migrants without warrants, the ACLU claims. The UI’s two-page usage policy says Flock data access, use, and the installation of the cameras fall under the authority of the UIPD investigations lieutenant, a position occupied by Lt. Travis Tyrrell. The policy states Flock data accessed by individual workstations is locked behind a username and password, and the system undergoes monthly audits.
On top of its petition, YDSA also holds periodic tabling events and hosts speakers to inform students about the misuse of Flock cameras. “That allows essentially law enforcement to keep tabs on people that might be members of vulnerable populations in our community,” YDSA co-chair and UI fourth-year Nate Royer said. “That includes immigrants. That includes people who are traveling to different states for, say, abortion care, as we have seen.” At one event on Sept. 17, UI law professor Megan Graham, who worked with the ACLU on its Flock report, said Flock technology poses distinct risks for Americans’ First and Fourth Amendment rights. She said the debate surrounding the privacy questions accompanying Flock technology comes into question given a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling on privacy rights. “They have a Fourth Amendmentprotected right to information about their location because of the nature of what you can determine about somebody’s life and their activities and their preferences based on location information alone,” she said. Graham said the question then falls to whether the privacy rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution apply to Flock. In Bruce’s statement, she wrote that the university is aware of privacy concerns and issues with misuse and data sharing. However, she wrote the network of Flock cameras is critical to keeping students safe. “We respect that reasonable people may have different views about this technology, and we understand the concerns raised by some students and community members,” she wrote. “Our responsibility is to balance those concerns with our obligation to do what we can to protect the safety and well-being of our campus community.”
Periodical cicadas spend most of their lives underground. Forbes said periodical cicadas move very little, making it difficult for them to move to a different habitat after previous habitats have been destroyed. After doing collections and modeling work, Forbes and other researchers on the study concluded periodical cicadas may never make their way back to Iowa City. “It would take way too long, literally thousands of years for them to make it back to Iowa City,” Forbes said. “Because the landscape keeps changing, we think it’s possible that they may actually be on the road to extinction.” As part of their research, Forbes and his team looked at old Johnson County newspapers from the 1870s and 1880s. “There were a bunch of stories about cicada emergences in Iowa City. By about 1900, that’s no longer true,” he said. Forbes credits this trend almost completely to deforestation in the area. “They got removed by us taking out all the trees,” he said. Susan Meerdink, assistant professor in the UI School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, worked with Forbes and other researchers to look at how
tree cover has changed in the area over time. Meerdink said it was interesting to see how certain parts of the landscape have been resistant to change, and have been able to sustain large amounts of tree cover. She said knowing which trees have been around for a long time was helpful in determining which areas supported cicada populations. Meerdink said her work on the study involved comparing present day imagery with historical imagery, and looked at the level of tree coverage in both of those time periods. “ e took the difference of the two to be able to tell which areas stayed the same and which ones didn’t,” she said. Adam Skibbe, senior Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, administrator at the UI and contributing author on the study, worked with Forbes and Meerdink to analyze this data. He said a critical component for survival for cicadas is the need for tree roots. That’s why trees are necessary for their survival. “Basically, we are contributing to a lack of their environment, their necessary environment for life,” Skibbe said. In addition to analyzing this data, the research team also did survey work. Forbes said he and his team dug in the soil to see the places where the periodical cicadas might reside. “You can tell when they’re emerging because they make these big holes in the soil,” he said. What they found, he said, was periodical cicadas were
mostly found in areas where forests hadn’t been cut down. Because most of the problem seemed to be cicadas’ inability to move to more forested areas, the research team tried to move them. “We moved more than 20,000 cicadas,” he said. “The idea was that maybe they would breed and lay eggs.” However, after being moved, all of the cicadas died. Forbes said moving them did not prove to be a solution to this possible extinction. In terms of other solutions, Forbes said there is still a way to stop the extinction of periodical cicadas. “If people don’t cut down the forest where they still exist, then they can stay there,” he said. hile this solution may be effective, he recogni es that it is unlikely. Because people are expected to continue using resources and cutting down forests, periodical cicadas may be doomed. “Human land use practices are ravenous,” he said.
Kristof-Brown said 90 percent of the $60 million for this project is coming from private donors, with only 10 percent coming from the university. She also said expanding into the existing hall, rather than constructing a new building, is more sustainable. “We are taking something that is already existing and reutilizing the space,” she said. Gilmore Hall was the original law school at the University of Iowa, built over a hundred years ago in 1910. Kristof-Brown said some of the new spaces coming with the renovations include a 150-person event space, four new experiential labs, and new spaces for students to gather. She said because most of the construction will be happening outside, Pappajohn will stay open throughout construction during the school year, which will speed up the process. She isn’t expecting much disruption for students while construction is taking place, besides the removal of the courtyard, which has been closed since the beginning of the semester. Kristof-Brown said she thinks it will be good to turn the courtyard, which could only be used in good weather, into a space used year-round. She said the biggest impact of the project for students is the improved amount of space. They will also have access to additional group rooms and an additional computer lab.
“All of the services that the Tippie students have come to really value, I think they will find those spaces are bigger and allow them more opportunities,” she said. Kristof-Brown also said new “AI-enhanced labs” will be coming with the new renovations. She said they are exploring the ways in which students can “use AI to enhance the experiences that [they] have when they're here.” The new communications lab, she said, will have mock boardrooms where students can go and practice talking to AI avatars. “You can take a student who's practicing a presentation and give them a chance to practice it in front of lots of different audiences, which we could never do without AI,” she said. She said the business school is encouraging departments to think about using AI to improve student experiences. “A lot of what we're building the space for is services for the students to help make their experience better.” she said. Kristof-Brown said she is excited for this project and the new opportunities it will bring to students. “I think it's going to be great,” she said.
Alumni, faculty, students and donors gathered in the courtyard of the Pappajohn Business Building on Sept. 18 to commemorate the start of the project. Despite the rainy day, the area was packed with attendees, including members of the Tippie family. The event featured four speakers, who all highlighted the
opportunities this project will bring. UI President Barbara Wilson said this project marks a period of expansion for the university. “We are on a path toward growing, not too fast and not too much,” she said during her speech. Wilson also said students are a large priority when going through the renovation project. Many of the new areas of the building will be designed with students in mind. “One thing I love about this project is how studentfocused it is,” she said. “Student success will be at the center of the space.” Paige Reynolds, a fourth-year student majoring in Management, also spoke at the event. Reynolds also serves as president of the Business Student Ambassador Organization at the Tippie College of Business. “Part of what makes Tippie feel like home are the amazing organizations we have here on campus,” she said during her speech. Reynolds spoke about the expansion the Tippie College of Business has gone through, necessitating the renovation project. She said the college has grown over 25 percent during her time at the university. “While this growth has been absolutely incredible to see, what is even more amazing is that Tippie never lost its closeknit identity,” she said during her speech. Reynolds said she is excited to see the opportunities available for students in the renovated space. “The expansion is designed to build on top-tier
opportunities for students while also managing to keep the Tippie identity that has made it so special.” she said during her speech. Reynolds said even though she’ll be graduated by the time the construction wraps up, she knows the building will feel the same when she visits. “What makes Tippie special isn’t the building that our classes are in, but the students, faculty, and staff,” she said during her speech. Several other students mirrored Reynolds' excitement for the changes taking place at Tippie. “I’m really excited for the construction,” third-year marketing student Ashely O'Brien said. O’Brien said she likes the AI and communications labs being added to the building, as well as the improved amount of space available. “I think it’s what students need,” she said. Ian Hopkins, a fourth-year finance student, said the expansion will help make Tippie a more popular destination for students. He said he hopes it will help bring more faculty and staff to Tippie. “It makes us more competitive on a national scale against other colleges, and that’s really important,” he said. Tyler Ben , a fourth-year marketing and finance student, said he hopes the improvements will help students with life after their time at Tippie. “I’m excited about how Tippie is going to be able to expand its career opportunities for students,” he said.
OPINIONS
How a jail expansion could benefit JoCo Investment toward infrastructure in its jails will address inmate overcrowding and overall allow better access for medical and mental health services.
Residents of Iowa City and Johnson County will have a consequential decision to make in the upcoming 2026 election to approve a bond to build a new sheriff’s office and jail. Voting to approve this bond will support a safer, more functional facility, and continuing to rely on an aging jail and outside housing is not a sustainable solution. The proposed . million ail and sheriff’s office expansion in Iowa City considers cost savings from inmate outsourcing, rehabilitative programming, and resolving structural safety failures. Local officials, including Sheriff Brad Kunkel, argue replacing the county’s aging, -year-old facility provides several distinct community advantages. These advantages include eliminating out-of-county housing costs, investment in improved maintenance conditions, dedicated treatment resources, expanded medical care, and worker and inmate safety. The bond measure faced deep division among supervisors. ome, including Fixmer- rai , Johnson County Supervisor for District 4, opposed the referendum, calling the proposed jail “more like a prison” and was concerned about increased isolation and potential for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use the space. These valid concerns are the same thoughts I had when I first heard about a possible jail expansion for Johnson County, but once I learned how the funds would be distributed and contribute toward public health and inmates’ wellbeing, I began to reali e the impact it could make. But acknowledging those concerns does not eliminate the underlying problem: the current structure already has a cost. According to past reporting from The Daily Iowan, expanding the Johnson County jail is a response to long-standing overcrowding, decrepit infrastructure, and growing public safety needs. The current facility has only 92 beds but an operational capacity of 65, forcing inmates to be held in other jails at higher taxpayer costs. The proposal states the new jail will have 120 beds — expandable to 140 — with larger housing units, dedicated programming and counseling spaces, expanded medical housing, and professional visitation areas. upporters emphasi e the ail is not a “prison” but a short-term holding facility with medical and rehabilitative services. The expansion would also address the growing number of inmates with mental health needs, providing better care, and reducing the burden on other systems. The possibility of any joint law enforcement facility or jail expansion between Johnson County and the City of Iowa City was taken off the table about a year ago when Kunkel published his letter stating his withdrawal of support after city council members not in favor of the joint law enforcement expressed their adamancy. The city council never had an opportunity to vote for or against a joint facility. City councilor, Josh Moe, said he understands unkel’s decision because the city council only narrowly passed a resolution for further study.
“I voted for the continued study because I wanted a complete understanding of the cost savings — both initial construction costs and lifetime personnel costs. I also take the principle of regional cooperation seriously: If local governments can share resources and collaborate, we should," Moe said, “Ultimately, the city moved forward with our own police facility. I’m very pleased that we found a good existing building in a good location that will serve our community for many years.” Shawn Harmsen, city councilor, explained how the pitch of putting a new ail, the sheriff’s office, and the Iowa City Police Department under one roof drove Iowa ity’s interest. The pitch also included separate operational space, with a chance to save money on land, meeting rooms, and shared task-force work. This is
all rooted in a space-needs study of ity Hall and the reality that Iowa City residents also pay county taxes. The Johnson County jail proposal has not actually been re ected yet instead, the downsi ed . million bond referendum to fund the new ail and sheriff’s office is heading to the upcoming Nov. 3 ballot coming from a - vote from the ohnson ounty Board of upervisors. For those who believe public safety requires functional infrastructure, adequate medical and mental health resources, safer working conditions, and humane conditions for people in custody, the proposed jail represents an opportunity to address problems that have been deferred for years. By making informed choices and acknowledging why safe facilities for staff and inmates matter for public
Let the humanities be economically useless
As education is focused more on career earnings, the humanities are being pushed aside, but education does not have to be economically useful.
When I told friends and family I wanted to pursue a secondary major in philosophy, the most common response was, “How will that make money?” No matter how much I explained I liked the subject and found it intriguing, the look of “you’ll regret it in ten years” never really left their eyes. Their concern is understandable, to an extent. Humanities are shrinking in higher education. According to the American Academy of Arts and ciences, , bachelor’s degrees in humanities were awarded in 2025, the lowest since 1991. Part of the reason is obvious: humanities have a much lower return on investment compared to degrees in STEM or social sciences. However, that is where we so often go wrong. We tend to only view education as a way to get a paycheck. As degrees increasingly get judged by the salaries they produce, subjects that without an obvious financial payoff are pushed to the side. Humanities courses, like philosophy, are increasingly viewed as something students only pursue if they are willing to put up with a low earning potential, instead of something every educated person should encounter. If colleges are meant to educate students rather than prepare them for employment, the humanities should not be treated as optional but an essential part of the college education. Today, college is seen as a transaction, where students put in four years of time and tuition, expecting employment and a starting salary in return. This understanding is vastly different from the purpose of establishing American colleges. Historically, college was seen as a means of gaining knowledge and mental discipline, not solely obtaining a job. The Yale Report from 1828 argues colleges should prepare students to lead society, not simply to succeed economically in it. The curriculum examined humans, society, and expression. This meant a humanitiesheavy workload was central to what it meant to be educated.
f course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to pursue a degree for financial benefit. The problem isn’t that college prepares people for careers. The trouble comes when we start measuring knowledge by economic usefulness, and push humanities education out of the centeral college experience. The humanities teach us how to be human, so when we measure it only in pay, we lose sight of its intrinsic value. “Humanities is an opportunity to explore human experience,”Dr. Debra Trusty, associate professor of instruction in Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Iowa, said. “It’s an opportunity to explore why we are here in this world, what makes us human, and what gives us purpose and sense in the world. The purpose [of humanities] is to be happy.” Beyond just personal satisfaction, through humanities, people learn how to interact with the world and society around them. “ tudents learn self reflection. That’s not something you can uantify. kills like being able to analy e an argument and ask, ‘Is that true for me ’ and be able to make an opinion yourself and be able to explain why,” Trusty said. A fruitful society needs more than workers who are prepared to enter the workforce, it needs citi ens who can think critically, understand multiple viewpoints, and participate thoughtfully in social life. These skills cannot be measured in salary, but it doesn’t make them any less important than other curriculum. No, not every student will become a philosopher, writer, or historian, but every student needs the chance to understand themselves. This is why the devaluing and cutting of humanities programs is so concerning. Rather than treating the humanities as an expendable part of college education, universities should place them closer to the center of curriculums. If colleges are meant to educate rather than simply train, humanities should not be confined to just humanities students. Universities should require or strongly encourage students across majors to take courses in philosophy, literature, history, and the arts. Most programs like engineering do require ethics courses, but they are treated as part of a much larger
curriculum instead of a crucial part of education. As technical careers get more advanced, this need is more prevalent. An engineer may be able to create complex AI software, but by centrali ing education in the humanities, they may come to question the ethical constraints. Scientists can tell us how far we can go, but humanities can make us ask whether we should. College should prepare us for the world, but most of all prepare us to live. If universities keep pushing humanities to the sidelines because they may not be as profitable as other fields, we risk forgetting the purpose of education.
A lifetime of showing up
From protesting the Vietnam War to registering new voters, Kathy Clark has made civic engagement a lifelong pursuit.
F
orty people from 21 countries stream from the auditorium of the Herbert Hoover Museum, wearing red, white, and blue and carrying American ags after receiving citi enship in the U. . Kathy Clark and other volunteers from the Johnson County League of Women oters welcome newly naturali ed citi ens, clipboard in hand, ready to help each of them register to vote for the first time. Of the 42 people to receive citi enship, became registered to vote. The naturali ation ceremony is one of five recent events put on by the league. lark’s interest in civics began with the Dwight Eisenhower-Adlai tevenson election. Clark, in the suburban town of Birmingham, Michigan, grew up near presidential campaign head uarters. At the age of five, her sisters and brothers would go to pick up the campaign souvenirs, including a pack of Eisenhower cigarettes. “They had a cigarette with isenhower’s face on it, red and white stripes, and it said, ‘I like Ike,’” lark said. “They gave it to me and said, ‘ h, go take it to your mom.’” ven now, she remembers isenhower’s campaign jingle singing, “Whistle while you work, tevenson’s a erk. isenhower has the power. histle while you work.”
In first-grade, Clark voted for tevenson in her class election. By age 17, she was taking a bus from her home in Birmingham to Milwaukee to do doorto-door canvassing for Eugene McCarthy, eventually protesting the Vietnam War in ashington, . . “It was wonderful,” she said. ” e, as young people, felt we really could make a difference. That march the ovember March in ashington was huge. I went
down on a bus, and we didn’t know where we were staying.” Clark described the time as having only two big issues: the war and the race riots. “[The ietnam ar] was a single issue thing, I feel so sorry for [the younger generations] now because there’s so many issues you can’t keep track of and they’re all critical,” she said. For many years, lark’s political participation consisted of voting what brought her back to being more politically active was Hilary Clinton losing the 2016 election and returning to . . for the omen’s March following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. That experience reinforced for lark the importance of political participation, including making sure people are registered to vote. “Understanding the importance of voter registration, the vote is critical, especially in this day and age when you have too much money in politics,” lark said. Clark got involved with the league in 2022 ahead of the 2024 election and said she would not have expected to be chair of voter registration now.
president of the league, when they first met. “I remember meeting her when she was first appointed to the board,” Aden said, ” he was very much a go-getter even then. I think you could tell that she was very anxious to be involved and help other people through the organi ation.” Aden said lark expanded the role of the registration committee, creating a “core group” of people to take on additional responsibilities of the league. “ he has really expanded the amount of work the committee does. he recogni ed she needed help and she went and pulled people in to get the help she needed to expand it to the vision she saw,” Aden said. When asked why she kept coming back to her work, Clark said she never really left it in the first place. he said she en oys working and can become “obsessed” with the things she takes on.
Clark said it always surprises her when young people tell her they don’t vote. “I think it was ust embla oned in my brain that it was your civic responsibility to vote,” she said. “I would never have thought not to vote in any election because that’s what you do.”
“I came in just wanting to get involved and help. But there was an issue where they needed a replacement right away. o they said, ‘ ould you help ’ And I said, ‘ ure.’ And then I was the chair,” she said. lark’s willingness to step in was part of what stood out to Vicki Aden,
hile volunteers aren’t supposed to challenge people when they ask them to register, Clark said she did question a student at irkwood ommunity ollege. “I couldn’t resist saying, ‘ an you give me a reason why you don’t think you should vote ’ He goes, ‘ ell, I don’t like
either political party. I don’t think the government works, and I don’t think it’s doing anything for me,’” lark said. he said she hears similar comments fre uently. “I can see where you think, ‘Well, look at it right now. e’re in a stalemate with not making too much progress.’ But there are ways. If you don’t work to change it, you’re not going to get anywhere,” lark said. According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, a non-partisan independent research organi ation based at Tufts University, percent of voters ages - cast a ballot in the presidential election. outh participation fell from 50 percent in 2020, but was still greater than in at percent. Karen Kedrowski, a politics professor at Iowa tate University, said in general, younger voters turn out at lower rates, attributing it to college students frequently moving and being inexperienced when it comes to voting. “One of the best predictors is when people really put down roots in a community. o they have a long-term ob Are they out of school id they buy a house o they have kids in school ” edrowski said. “ nce they really feel they are settled into a community, people who might not have been habitual voters in their 20s turn into habitual voters in their s.” Kedrowski said college students primarily need information about how to register to vote, where to vote, and the possibility of an absentee ballot.
According to CIRCLE, people who registered to vote or signed a pledge to vote with help from nonprofit staff or volunteers in 2014 turned out at higher rates than other registered voters across demographic groups. Among voters ages - , those reached by nonprofits voted percent more than young people overall. The research also said nonprofit outreach had a greater impact on Black, Asian, and low-income voters. Kaitlyn Mahon, a first-year student at the University of Iowa, said she is questioned around two times a week whether she is registered. “It doesn’t really change my mind when people are too pushy. I’m not registered to vote right now. I’ve thought about it, but it really doesn’t change my mind,” Mahon said. Clark said the face-to-face registration is important and volunteers help make the process easier, also helping procrastinators. Aden also said the organi ation helps people beyond ust registering. “We also answer many questions people have about voting as well as just helping people look up whether they are registered, or what their polling place is, or taking absentee ballot request forms,” Aden said. Whether students take Clark, or other volunteers, up on the opportunity to register with them, she stays consistent. “I didn’t actually ever really think of it as a passion, but it is,” lark said. “ r an obsession, one of the two.”
EPSTEIN-TRUMP READING ROOM A traveling art installation featuring over 3.5 million pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump made a stop in Iowa City on Sept. 19. The bookmobile started its journey at the beginning of the month in Dallas, with this being its fifth stop.
JoCo reviews voter registration issues The Johnson County Auditor’s Office completed its review of a list of 921 voter registration challenges.
Less than two months before the midterms, the ohnson ounty Auditor’s Office is swamped. In the months leading up to an election, every auditor’s office in the country works to prepare equipment, poll workers, and voters for election day. In August, the ohnson ount y Auditor’s ffice experienced a hiccup. An individual had submitted a list of 921 voter registration challenges to the auditor. Legally, the office had five days to contact each voter. In a college town like Iowa City, it’s common for residents to move regularly. According to ensus Reporter, . percent of ohnson ounty residents have moved since last year, which is almost double the national rate. Many students move every year, migrating from dorms on T. Anne Clear y to apartments on Gilbert Street to houses on Iowa Avenue. This threatens their voter registration, which is required to have updated address information. County Auditor ulie Persons said voter registration is not a priority for someone moving. “Nobody’s doing that maliciously,” Persons said. “It’s ust people don’t understand t hat par t of mov ing is you should really update your voter registration.” O t her Iowa c ou nt ie s a re a lso e x p er ienc i ng l a r ge nu mb er s of challenges. Linn Count y received challenges. Though Linn County’s population is about . times that of ohnson ounty, the county still doesn’t usually get a high number of challenges due to its lower geographic mobility rate. In 2022 and 2023 combined, Linn County received only 220 challenges. Persons said these lists have become common in recent years. In 2024, there were over 1,000 challenged voters in one list. Several Iowa auditors, including Persons, lament the state’s absence from the lectronic Registration Information enter, or RI , which helps prevent large challenged voter lists. RI was established as a bipartisan organization that helped election officials identif y citizens who had either moved or died, assisting in cross-checking and eliminating duplicate voter records.
Iowa was in RI , but Iowa ecretary of tate Paul Pate pulled out of the system in 2023. Persons said Pate’s move didn’t lay a clear path for future election administration without RI . “It was a great system,” Persons said. “It really helped us keep our voter list clean.” Pate’s actions followed the lead of other states under Republican leadership. Before states began to leave the system, RI underwent national politici ation. Most notably, President Donald Trump was a vocal critic of the organization, claiming it was a left-wing scheme to rig elections. A f ter Trump’s criticism, several Republican leaders uestioned the governing style of the organization and felt R I was attempting to micromanage election administration in its member states, and exited the system.
In a statement, Pate said RI ’s membership agreement “doesn’t allow each member to do what’s best for their respective state.” As seen by the auditor this year, the state’s absence from RI has now become a problem counties have to ma nage. A mid elec t ion preparation, the office had to review registration challenges. “ hen we were in the RI system, we weren’t getting things like this,” Persons said. “We’re doing all the stuff that we had planned, and we had made our schedule…and then all of a sudden here comes challenges,” Persons said. “The team is very, very good. But that means they are picking up extra work beyond what they were already planning to do for a really, really big election.” In light of this list, the auditor’s office encourages voters to update their registration sooner rather than later.
Additionally, organizations on campus like Hawk the ote act as a resource for students. Registration information can be found on Hawk the ote’s website or at tabling locations around campus. The programming director of Hawk the ote, Maria ose Blanco Arias suggests students contact the auditor’s office or check the Secretary of State’s website. “I always recommend check ing the of f icial information to make sure everything is accurate,” Blanco Arias said. Blanco Arias and everyone at Hawk the ote aims to give students the tools they need to participate in elections, because voting is crucial to democracy in the U.S. “ oting is one way to make sure your voice is included in the decisions that affect you and your community,” Blanco Arias said. “Ever yone should have the information and opportunity to participate if they choose to.”
Recent food recalls bring new attention to local farmers Food recalls throughout the summer have pushed more customers to buy from local vendors.
Over the summer, multiple food recalls have caused concern for customers across the country. From lettuce and other greens to fresh fruit, many products have been pulled off ohnson County shelves because of potential health risks. Cyclosporiasis was the number one concern, causing sickness and worries, including in Iowa. The state had an estimated 11-30 cases, according to CDC data released in uly. ohnson ount y Public Health nvironmental Health Manager Robert Thul said this specific recall impacted ohnson ounty customers getting lettuce at the grocery store as well as fast food restaurants in the area. Iowa City residents had their own concerns about the consistent recalls of produce. Residents mma and Ryan ollins said they heard about the recalls over the summer and sounded the alarm. “We had been participants with [Community Supported Agriculture] for several years, so it just made it really easy to say, ‘Okay, we’re not buying produce from anywhere else,” Emma Collins said. “We’ll just get things locally, and that’ll be easy.” Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, is a program allowing people to commit to buying produce from a farm or farmer on a long-term basis. This program helps provide funding for the farms during the winter and spring months when farmers are selling less than in warmer months. The county health department also gets involved whenever a recall is made to ensure the community is not eating anything unsafe. When a food recall is issued, the county is notified. ohnson ounty Public Health food program inspectors will then go onsite to the restaurants or grocery store and ensure the product has been removed and/or thrown out. The recent recalls brought a lack of confidence in both the grocery stores and where the food came from. lare Malloy, a fourth-year student, said she also stuck to more locally sourced produce throughout the summer. “I feel like big agriculture is very dependent on a lot of outside sources, and we do a lot of importing, which, along the way, can cause a lot of issues when it comes to contamination,” she said. “So, I think getting food local is going to be the best bet when it comes to safety.” ustomers like Malloy appreciate the transparency behind shopping locally.
For other customers, such as Emma Collins, shopping for groceries locally provides a sense of safety because of the face-to-face connection.
County, which provides food for many local restaurants, create a sense of trust between customers and vendors. Echollective farmer Dusty Sanor
“What makes me trust it is being able to understand exactly where it came from, especially in those times of uncertainty,” she said. “I think being able to see and talk to the farmer that grew this today and right now, and ask them questions like what they used on the foods, if they have any concerns, and if there have been any incidents on their part, is very helpful.” Local vendors have also noticed the concerns about food safety and, as a result, have been more candid about how they handle their food. Farms like Echollective Farm in Cedar
said with grocery shopping locally, customers are able to rely on the local farmers because of the easy c om mu n ic at ion b e t w e e n s e l le r and buyer. “The customers know exactly who’s growing it, exactly who’s handling your food, and you know exactly where it’s coming from,” Sanor said. “We’re more than willing to have people visit the park and see what we’re doing. So, it’s definitely a safer option.” Many local farmers follow strict practices to keep their produce clean. Sanor said Echollective does not have
animals on their farm, which decreases the risk of produce contamination. Beth Bird with ilver Maple Farms said the farm follows safe handling procedures and keeps up with training and certifications. She also said they ensure anyone else who comes in contact with the produce is trained in the same safe handling procedures. Because of the face-to-face nature of farmers markets, consumers have turned to local producers to ask questions about the safety of the food, and in turn, increased foot traffic at the market. Bird said they have seen about a 20 percent sales volume increase. Even though the recalls have caused concern around the country and in the community, local farmers have continued to provide for the community while creating connections with those who buy it. “Seeing the people who are growing it and seeing how proud they are of their product, it’s very reassuring,” Malloy said. “People are super proud to put out good food, and it’s part of the Iowa culture, which I think is kind of beautiful.”
SPORTS
The Great Wall of Iowa
How the Iowa field hockey team approaches defense year to year.
Much like other Iowa athletics, the Iowa field hockey team has always prided itself on being the hardest defense to beat under head coach Lisa Cellucci.
Now, being the number two ranked team in the country, the Hawkeyes’ defense appears to be the scariest it’s been in a long time, allowing just one goal in the second half in its first six games. However, this team didn’t start perfect, nor are they now. The coaching staff continues to stress the importance
of getting better every single day. “Individually, they’ve all grown,” assistant coach Michael Boar said. “I think their poise and composure have really been exceptional. They’ve done a fantastic job, and they’ll only continue to improve.” Improvement is key, and so far this
year, Iowa has been the prime example of players striving to be better. The Hawkeyes have trailed at halftime in three out of the four games they’ve played against ranked opponents. However, the defense has stepped up time and time again, shutting opponents down in the second half to allow the explosive Iowa offense to recapture the lead. The seven minute halftime break plays a huge role in how Iowa has been able to come out to play in the back half, although it might not look or sound like most would think. The Hawkeyes love to focus on positives without being too hard on themselves. “A lot of the time, it’s trying to refocus them on the actual performance versus just thinking or worrying about the results,” Boar said. Lauren DeRose, a fourth-year defender, mentioned she’s been on teams in the past where the negatives were always highly focused on. However, at Iowa, after a game in which the team may have had a breakdown, they still try to find something they did well, and maybe even fit in a compliment here or there. “We respond really well to taking things as a positive,” DeRose said. “We are really open on this team where it doesn’t feel like you’re targeting people. We just want to win the game and do better.” More recently, according to goalkeeper Abby Johnson, the team believes they need to improve on more communication when others can’t. Sometimes, people can’t see where everyone else on the field is, making it tricky to cover everyone. Another important aspect of the team is chemistry. Fourth-year Gia Whalen believes this year is the closest she’s ever been with her teammates. When she’s able to communicate and understand her
Finding her footing Iowa women’s soccer fourth-year Sara Batchadji’s career has taken her from a Division II National Title to a critical role on the pitch for the Hawkeyes.
Fourth-year Sara Batchadji’s soccer journey started in Lubeck, Germany, where she was born into a soccer-focused family. Batchadji still remembers going to the pitch with her dad at a young age, as well as being inspired by her older brother, who also played soccer. Batchadji had heard of the opportunity to play college soccer in the U.S. from her uncle and, when one of her older friends took that route to play soccer at the next level, Batchadji knew it was a path she wanted to take. While the fourth-year is now a key defensive player for Iowa, her collegiate career actually started at Division II’s
Florida Tech. “Obviously, Florida is beautiful, but the people were just so nice and it was perfect,” Batchadji said. As a first-year college athlete, there were several changes and adjustments to be made, especially with the move being Batchadji’s first time in the U.S. The most challenging for her was the language barrier. “I felt like I knew English when I came, but it was still hard for me to only speak English,” Batchadji said. “But I had a really amazing environment with teammates and coaches who helped me get used to getting around campus and juggling soccer and classes at the same time.” Batchadji slowly rose up through the ranks of the NCAA, earning All-SSC
Third Team honors in her first year, before boosting her stock to the All-SSC First Team in her second year. The first two seasons at Florida Tech saw Batchadji put up great individual statistics, but it all clicked on a whole other level in her third year, when the Panthers claimed the Division II National Championship, their first in program history. The moment remains surreal to Batchadji, even to this day. “It was unbelievable,” Batchadji said. “It felt like a dream come true. It was a really amazing run, and I think the fact that we were so close as a team and we really did everything together is what helped us all the way through.” The accolades didn’t stop there for Batchadji. With a national title under her
belt, the rising fourth-year was named the SSC Female Athlete of the Year. In the car with her brother upon receiving the news, “shock” was the best word to describe Batchadji’s reaction. “I didn’t even think that was a possibility, but we started laughing in the car and celebrating,” Batchadji said. “I think it represents a lot of what the team went through because I don’t think I would have gotten that without the team I had. It shows my story of how I got here all the way from Germany.” Batchadji had her career planned out before she even boarded the plane to come to the U.S.: spend two years at one school and two years at another to explore as much of the country as possible.
Inside Iowa volleyball’s unusual season start The Hawkeyes opened their 2026 campaign with six straight road contests, the most to start a season since 2022.
The Iowa volleyball program is no stranger to traveling for competition, having traveled to nine states outside of Iowa last season. The Hawkeyes’ six-game road stretch to open the 2026 season was their longest streak of away games to open a season since , the program’s first year with Jim Barnes at the helm. In that season, Iowa followed up its annual scrimmage with eight road games, including time in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Ames, Iowa. For a squad of Hawkeyes who weren’t part of that 2022 campaign, it’s been both a valuable experience and challenging adjustment. “The first three weeks away were pretty difficult I missed a lot of class,” fourth-year Rosa Vesty said after Iowa’s home opener on Sept. 10. “But I think you just have good people around you, teammates who will support you, and then at home, get more into a routine. It’s exciting to get into that
routine before Big Ten [play] starts.” Vesty, a native of Christchurch, New Zealand, is among the team members who have played with Barnes the longest, now in her fourth consecutive season with the Hawkeyes. he is also one of five international players on Iowa’s roster this season, with Serbia, Ukraine, Germany, and Estonia also represented. hile the schedule is different from the season, which Iowa finished with a 15-17 overall record, that support and determination still produced solid results for the program to kick off . This season, the Hawkeyes won their first tournament, started the season with a - mark, and notched two of their first three wins via sweeps. With Iowa’s 3-1 triumph over UAlbany on Aug. 29, Barnes also achieved 500 career victories. Under Barnes, the Hawkeyes have yet to drop a season opener. Furthermore, despite the graduation of key facilitators, such as setter Claire Ammeraal and libero Milana Moisio in
Previewing Iowa football’s transition to Big Ten play
The Hawkeyes open up conference play with a bang, facing off against Michigan, Ohio State, and Washington
Volleyball’s Bulatovic talks life as a Hawkeye The setter entered Iowa as the No. 3-ranked overall player in the 2026 class for Illinois.
The non-conference slate is already finished for Iowa football, and the Hawkeyes step right into a gauntlet of challenging Big Ten opponents to open conference play. Iowa will begin Big Ten play with a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to face the Wolverines on Saturday, Sept. 26, followed by a home contest with Ohio State and a West Coast trip to Seattle to face Washington. The Hawkeyes have plenty of challenges in front of them during this stretch, but they’re playing at a much higher level than expected considering the amount of turnover on the roster. With young transfers and new faces in nearly every position group, it was expected Iowa could have some growing pains as the season began. However, the Hawkeyes have been humming to start 2026, averaging 37 points per game and leading the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 4.3 points per game with two shutouts. Quarterback Hank Brown has solidified himself as the starting uarterback through the first three games, capped with a 12-for-12, 153-yard performance with two touchdowns against Northern Iowa. Brown will be stepping into a packed Michigan Stadium on Saturday for his first career start on the road. The Hawkeyes will need to lean on the run game to open up opportunities for Brown through the air, as the Wolverine defense is one of the best units in the country.
The task doesn’t get any easier after this week, as Iowa will host perhaps the most talented team in the country, Ohio State, on Oct. 3. The Buckeyes lost a lot of defensive production to the NFL Draft, but, like usual, they replaced the losses with top-tier talent. After two battles against historically dominant Big Ten teams, the Hawkeyes will travel to the West Coast, where they’ve had historically bad performances over the years, for a Friday night game against Washington. The Huskies also have a very solid defense, but their offense has struggled to start the year, leaving some hope for Iowa on a short week. All three games will probably be ugly, hard-fought contests, meaning the Hawkeyes must stay healthy during this stretch. They do, however, have a welltimed bye week after their game against Washington, giving plenty of time to rest up before a rivalry clash with Minnesota. It’s been business as usual thus far for Phil Parker’s defensive unit. hutting out two of their first three opponents, the Hawkeyes have allowed only 4.3 points per game this season. Both Michigan and Washington saw rocky starts to the season offensively, with each failing to eclipse the 20-point mark until week three. Iowa has yet to allow an opposing quarterback to throw for over 200 yards, while Michigan’s Bryce Underwood has thrown over 200 yards only once this season. Underwood has found success on the ground, however,
averaging 52 yards on the ground in his first three games. Like Underwood, Washington’s Demond Williams Jr. also plays as a dual-threat quarterback. The third year has found success both through the air and on the ground, averaging 296 passing yards and 50 rushing yards a game. The Hawkeyes shut dual-threat quarterback Jaylen Raynor down in their win over Iowa State two weeks ago, but historically, Parkerled defenses have struggled against quarterbacks who can make an impact in the run game. While Michigan and Washington may not have the most impressive offenses, Iowa will need to emphasize containment of Underwood and Williams Jr’s scrambling abilities. Ohio State on the other hand will likely be the toughest test for the Hawkeyes this season. Of Iowa’s next three games, they’ve been the only team to find consistent offensive success up to this point. The Buckeyes have arguably the best quarterback-wide receiver duo in the country, Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith. The two have connected for three touchdowns and 400 yards through the air thus far this season. Out of Iowa’s three upcoming games, Ohio State is the lone matchup posing too difficult for a win. However, if they can at least play the Buckeyes close, and defeat at least one of either Michigan or Washington, the Hawkeyes will enter the back-half of the season with a resume capable of playoff contention.
What is Iowa football’s best rivalry game? Sports reporter Regan Roberts argues for the annual contest against Nebraska, but assistant sports editor Jack Birmingham thinks Iowa State is the better matchup.
There’s obviously something special about every Iowa football game, whether it be a very winnable season opener or a Power Four contest against a ranked opponent. In terms of the best annual rivalry, however, while Nebraska is a lot of fun, Iowa State is clearly the better game. The overall point is the level of competition between the Hawkeyes and the Cyclones is far beyond that of the Cornhuskers in recent years. Why did tickets for this year’s Iowa State game reach $200 or more, compared to opponents like Northern Illinois, where you could buy one for $15 the day of? It’s because the opponent’s caliber is higher, so more people want to see the action live. It’s supply and demand for seats to see what’s almost always a close contest that comes down to the wire.
With Iowa’s 16-13 victory in this year’s installment, played under the lights at Kinnick on Sept. 12, the last decade has seen the Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones in overall points scored, 219-153, assuming you’re including Iowa’s 2023 victory, 20-13, that was vacated by the NCAA. On paper, it’s a 66-point gap, but when you weigh it against a decade, it comes down to less than a seven-point gap in each contest. Including the vacated 2023 game, the last time Iowa won by 10 or more points in the series was 2021. That’s five years of games decided by a score or less. By the very end of the 2026 game, Kinnick was still packed to the gills with fans. Nebraska, meanwhile, has won only a single football game against Iowa since its firing of Bo Pelini just one day after a 37-34 overtime win on Nov. 28, 2014. Now that I think about it, in my third year on campus, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a “hate week” for Nebraska the way Iowa fans show out against Iowa State. It’s the final nail in the ornhusker coffin. For once, I have to give credit where it’s due and place my bet on the Cyclones.
In my opinion, Nebraska is far and away Iowa’s biggest rival. Sure, Iowa State seems like a close game all the time, but the bad blood between Iowa and Nebraska is second to none. Waking up on Black Friday every year to get ready to watch the annual Heroes game take place is one of my favorite times. The build-up to this game really starts in the offseason when ebraska fans say they are back for the 20th year in a row and talk about how this is the year they blow Iowa out of the water. This then turns out to be untrue. You don’t hear much from the Iowa players and coaches because the expectation is to beat them year after year. The Nebraska team is constantly trying to beat Iowa and regain its blueblood status in college football.
The Iowa State game is always played close. However, that’s not all what a rivalry should mean because often after the Iowa and Iowa State game, fans live in unison for the whole next year. While I feel as though the rivalry between Iowa and Nebraska is a lot more heated. Iowa’s Defensive Coordinator Phil Parker has tweeted out four times since 2021, and all of them being the Iowa Secondary posing with the heroes trophy. You really expect me to believe there isn’t a rivalry those guys care more about than Nebraska. Nebraska also takes this game very personally. Before the 2024 edition of this game, during the coin toss, when the captains for Iowa went to shake the hands of their Nebraska foes, they were greeted with Nebraska and by trying to make a statement, which in the end didn’t turn out well for them, as Iowa would go on to win that game on a walkoff field goal by Drew Stevens. In conclusion, there is no love lost between these two programs, whether it’s on the internet, the field, or in the stands. The Heroes game will always be Iowa’s greatest rivalry.
“
“
teammates better, playing solid defense only gets easier. “We’re all super close; we have so much fun on and off the field,” halen said. “I think that’s what makes us so good right now because what you see on the fi eld with our connection also translates off the field.” “We’ve done a lot of team bonding and building,” ohnson said. “ ust making sure we trust each other and we can really lean on each other.” ohnson mentioned in a previous interview with The Daily Iowan how close this group really is, which is a little different from what she’s used to. Being a transfer student means she might not always click with new teammates; however, the starting goalkeeper has found no issues doing so. The nickname “The Great Wall of Iowa” would seem to embellish a rich history and be very thought out; however, that isn’t the case. Iowa has always been true to its defensive skills, but the story of how the name came to be is much more recent. In 2018, after a spectacular year, defensively, led by two freshmen, Anthe Nijziel and Lokke Stribos, the team crowned themselves with the name. It didn’t just give the team a cool name to lean on. It gave the Hawkeyes even more reason to play stout defense, with the pressure to live up to it. “I think it’s become one of those things where it’s like sticky language,” Boar said. “It almost doesn’t need too much of a descriptor. It’s just known what is
expected of it.” Defense like this doesn’t just come to be, though. It takes a lot of time, sweat, and energy for the players to not just play at a high level, but play the best way the coaches believe they can. For Iowa, this means playing good collective and individual defense. “A lot of times, if you’re one-on-one with somebody, the goal is not to try to get the tackle made. The goal is to try to delay the play and then tackle at an appropriate time,” halen said. Another aspect making this defense look dangerous is its depth and variability. Being able to take more breaks, but be just as confident with who’s on the field, is a massive strength and upside when looking at other teams that may not be as confident with some players. “It doesn’t necessarily make a difference who’s on the field versus who’s off,” eRose said. “It’s really great, and I think we’re meshing and jelling as the season goes on.” Being on defense doesn’t ust re uire skill, size, or talent, though. Iowa looks for a lot of composure, the ability to deal with pressure, physical and mental, and also a good game IQ. The way Iowa’s coaches see it, as long as the team gets the ball back or creates a tough situation, good defense is born. “You’re looking for someone that can think one step ahead at times and read situations before they occur. So that’s the magic dust, if you want to say,” Boar said. The past, present, and future perfectly encapsulate Iowa’s defense. The way coaching molds certain players, while also creating a sound team that can
After the second year at Florida Tech, it didn’t feel right to make the move, so she stayed another year. That decision brought the Panthers a national title, letting Batchad i know it was the perfect moment to open a new chapter. Playing at the Division I level was always the goal for Batchad i and, when Iowa came calling, the athlete described it as a “gut feeling” to take the leap and become a Hawkeye. hen Batchad i got off the plane from Florida to Iowa, she was greeted by falling snow and brutally cold temperatures, a stark contrast to the Sunshine State she had spent three years as a resident of. Though the weather may have been an unwelcome event at first, Batchad i says that her teammates ultimately made the transition much easier. “I just felt welcomed immediately and everything felt super natural,” Batchad i said. “It made it really easy to ad ust in the first weeks.” ven though Batchad i had achieved her goal of playing at the Division I level, it was still daunting to be faced with Big Ten competition. The fourth-year
the offseason, the change in the lineup has also allowed both newcomers and program veterans to step into bigger roles. “I think starting a bunch of our trips away was really nice, just because it was a lot of challenges out of the gate,” third-year setter enna Meit ler said. “I think that now, we can start building a unit at home and start growing as a team.” Meit ler’s role has been one of particular impact. Meit ler’s first year with the program saw her step up for extra playing time when Ammeraal suffered an in ury. Two years later, the setter has seen an explosive 372 assists and 12 service aces across the first nine games of this season, both the most on the team, as well as 27 kills and 59 digs. “I think that it’s going to be really cool to see how the team pulls together these next couple of weeks,” Meit ler said. With the season well underway and the
communicate perfectly with each other, will always be a staple with Iowa field hockey. “A wall isn’t an individual brick; it’s a
collection of them,” ohnson said. “ e’re all in it together, and when one brick’s out of place, that’s when the whole wall starts to slip.”
somebody that can kind of flip between defense and offense and it’s been super beneficial.” Batchad i scored her first goal against Loyola hicago on a free kick placed in the top corner and has provided lockdown defense to contribute to multiple Iowa shutouts on the season. With the season still young, she’s ready to help Iowa make a deep run.
inaugural Big Ten Tournament drawing nearer, Barnes re ected on the program’s consistency. “Last year, we started turning the corner, and this year I think it’s going to go further,” Barnes said. “But we’re still learning. This team has so many new parts, and so we’re trying to teach them how to show up every day and execute.” At media availability on Sept. 14, Barnes, one of active ivision I coaches to reach 500 career wins, credited the 10-game home stretch that followed the six contests on the road. “I think it’s a great way to do it because hopefully over those 10 games at home, we’re able to continue to conserve energy and get ready for the Big Ten,” Barnes said. “We don’t have any back-to-back, for the most part, especially never three matches in a row as we do in non-conference. It’s part of the plan, just to be home and try to continue to gain energy and not lose it on the road.”
kept reminding herself she belonged and had earned the right to be here. “I was definitely nervous at first and a little bit scared,” Batchad i said. “But my goal was to always push myself and try to be the best player I could be, so I think Iowa was the right decision for me.” Now armed with a few Division I matches of experience, Batchad i has shown more confidence and success on the pitch, even though the first couple of games proved a formidable challenge. “It was just different from what I was used to at Florida Tech, but obviously I expected it to be different,” Batchad i said. “It was a little surprise to ad ust to the level of play so early out of the summer.” First-year head coach Dean Ward has seen the results on the pitch from his defender and described her as “ uietly tough”. “ he has some uality in that left foot, and we’ve created a couple of chances from her delivery,” ard said. “She’s worked her socks off and has had some big challenges at moments she’s been like that all season.” Fellow transfer Lucia Englund gave a lot of praise to her linemate as well and has seen Batchad i rise into a larger role on the team. “She’s definitely one of the most impactful players on our team,” nglund said. “It’s super nice to have
Classifieds
HOOSIER THROWDOWN In second-ranked Iowa’s Big Ten opener on Sept. 18, the Hoosiers scored three unanswered goals in the first three quarters. Fréderique van Cleef scored one goal in the fourth, dropping the Hawks uninterrupted winning streak of six games.
80
HOURS Staging on screen Pro-shots have been increasingly taking over the world of theater.
Shakespeare’s writings and woes explored in Riverside’s latest play Scott Carter’s “I Will: A Late Romance” kicks off Riverside Theatre’s 2026-27 season, marking its latest world premiere.
Scott Carter sits in the back row of Riverside Theatre, watching as his words come to life on stage. For two hours, he and the other audience members traveled back 400 years, watching as one of the most celebrated writers in history experienced a creative drought. William Shakespeare came to life in Carter’s “I, Will: A Late Romance.” In the show, Carter imagined how one of Shakespeare’s romances, “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” came about, and explored how a poet as celebrated as Shakespeare got mixed up with his lowlife co-writer, George Wilkins. “He [Wilkins] is a terrible guy, and he’d been arrested dozens of times,” Carter said. “Why would Shakespeare — at this point, he’s written almost all his great plays — why is he collaborating with this guy?” The play is loosely based on two facts from the great Billy Shake’s life. As seen in the play, while in London, he lodged with a French immigrant family, the Mountjoys. Secondly, at this point in his career, he was stuck in a rut writing tragedies while a new generation of playwrights were leaning toward lighter content. Through “I, Will,” Carter said he compressed nearly 12 years into a few months. Having the playwright present was helpful for Tim Budd, who played the iconic Shakespeare. “The challenge was to make sure you don’t play who he is now, you play who he was in the time of the play,” Budd said. “The scariest thing about this part is the playwright has notes saying Shakespeare is the smartest man in the room, and you have to be on your game if you’re the smartest guy on stage.” While living with the Mountjoy family, Shakespeare became involved in a dispute between the family and an apprentice, Stephen, who wished to marry
Mary Mountjoy. Shakespeare’s smarts shone through as context was revealed, such as that he had been a character witness during the lawsuit of the young couple against Mary’s father. Carter said this instance is one of only six times historians were able to find a signature from hakespeare. In the play, there are references to Shakespeare’s works and moments throughout his life, such as the lawsuit with a deposition-esque scene. “The rule was, for me, I’m not going to have Shakespeare quote any line that has already been performed or published,” Carter said. “He can only say a line that is coming from something that has not yet been produced, like the four romances or the sonnets, which have not been published at the time.” Former University of Iowa English professor, Miriam Gilbert, was present throughout the rehearsal process of “I, Will” to give her Shakespearean expertise. She highlighted the context behind the characters in the play and the decisions they made, especially the man himself, Shakespeare and his acting company, the King’s Men. This was particularly important for London during the early 1600s, as actors were not held in high regard. “These are not respectable people. They are pretending to be somebody else. They’re vagabonds,” Gilbert said. “By the time we meet the King’s Men with Bobby and Dick, they are well known, but I think they always lived in fear of what could happen to them and how they’d be seen.” Deucalion Martin played Robert “Bobby” Armin in “I Will.” Bobby, one of the players in the King’s Men, passionately hated Shakespeare’s latest works, especially “Timon of Athens.” His and his partner Dick’s displeasure with “Timon” is what kicks off hakespeare’s search for a fresh idea. “He hates ‘Timon of Athens,’” Martin said of his character. “Partially because the script isn’t great, and secondly there’s
no heart in him for it, so he’s not making any money. And the king’s probably going to hate it, he’s hated the last couple. So it’s like he’s saying, ‘I love you, man, but you need to write something better. I need you to lock in.’” Martin said acting as Bobby was a lot of fun due to his sassiness, and the belief that the real Bobby played clowns and female characters in King’s Men productions. “It’s my first staging of a world premiere that isn’t in school,” Martin
said. “It’s nice having the playwright in the room.” Carter will have the opportunity to showcase “I, Will” to other parts of the country after its run concludes at Riverside. Other partner theaters of the show include Stage West Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, and The Invisible Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. “I want this play to feel like one of these last four new kinds of plays that he discovers.” Carter said. “One of the things I most admire is Shakespearean love.”
Sara Levine speaks about her comedy novel, “The Hitch” The creative writing instructor read from her latest novel at Prairie Lights on Sept. 16.
S ar a L ev ine is t he au t hor of t he nov els “ Tr eas u r e Is land ! ! ! ” and “ The H it c h, ” as well as t he s hor t s t or y c ollec t ion “ S hor t Dar k O r ac les . ” L ev ine ear ned her P h. D. in E ng lis h lang u ag e and lit er at u r e f r om B r own U niv er s it y, and now t eac hes c r eat iv e wr it ing at t he S c hool of t he A r t Ins t it u t e of C hic ag o and p u b lis hes on her S u b s t ac k “ Delu s ions of G r am m ar . ” “ The H it c h” is L ev ine’ s lat es t nov el, a c om ed y f eat u r ing an ec lec t ic wom an at t em p t ing t o b anis h t he s p ir it of a d ead c or g i f r om her nep hew af t er a d is as t r ou s b ab ys it t ing ac c id ent . L ev ine r ead ex c er p t s f r om “ The H it c h” at P r air ie L ig ht s .
The Daily Iowan: “The Hitch” has a wildly comedic premise. How did you come up with this concept? Sara Levine: When I started, I had the idea of a woman whose dog killed another dog at the park, and that dog came back and haunted her, but it was outside and just a regular ghost. Then I realized if I put the dog inside the little boy’s body, there’s more of a story there. I already had this auntnephew relationship and this tension of her wanting to spend more time with her nephew and sort of idealizing him because she only spent a couple of hours a week with him. So, the premise of the book is that she has a week to look after her nephew while his parents are on vacation in Mexico, trying to fix their marriage. It’s
like a drafting thing; it just came alive once I thought to put the ghost inside the little boy, and then she had to battle the corgi. Why did you land on a corgi? I think corgis are funny, and I was looking for a dog that even people who aren’t dog lovers might be able to recognize. Plus, with the Queen of England and everything, corgis just seem to be having a moment right now. I feel like they’re all over the place — like on magazine covers or advertisements — and maybe it’s just magical thinking, but they just keep crossing my path. So, the main character can’t deal with the guilt of having been responsible for this dog’s death, so she rants against corgis. There’s all this anti-corgi
rhetoric in the book, and I thought it was funny to pick a dog that most people would find pretty adorable and then just hate on it. The main character, Rose, has quite a predicament on her hands; what aspects of her character and personality help her navigate this adventure? I tend to think about the aspects of her personality that get in the way. She’s a very anxious person who is prone to micromanaging everyone around her, is always very bossy and tells people what to do, and really doesn’t understand her own feelings. She’s one of those people who’s smart in the business world — she owns an artisanal yogurt company, which she is actually disillusioned with because she thinks everyone should be vegan — and really wants to be right all the time. Her first impulse is not to believe her nephew; she has no belief in the supernatural, no religious or spiritual background, so she just thinks that it’s psychological and an imaginary friend. But once she realizes it’s really there and she gets over her terror, she thinks she can just bulldoze her way through the problem and use her aggression to get the corgi out. Part of the book is about her unlearning that aggression, then learning those strategies of micromanagement and actually realizing that the corgi is okay and the little boy likes having an inside dog. He thinks he’s in a Pixar movie; she thinks she’s in “The Exorcist.” What was your biggest challenge bringing this story to life? I think the biggest challenge, even if it’s a totally goofy premise, was that I really wanted there to be this serious thing underlying it. I always think of what I’m trying to do as making the reader laugh, and then sort of snatching that laugh out of their throat and making them cry. So, I think the biggest challenge was just balancing the fastpaced comedy and then letting it open out into something that was slower and unexpected.
What do you want your audience to be able to take away? I wanted them to feel Rose’s loneliness. She’s a first-person narrator, so she’s telling the story, and she doesn’t want to name her loneliness. Her whole life is about feeling like a strong, capable person who doesn’t need anybody, and that other people need her. She wasn’t going to say ‘I’m lonely;’ that was just never going to come out of her mouth, so I wanted the reader to gradually grasp the depths of that loneliness and her desire to change.
Why Iowa City residents keep turning to Little Free Libraries
Although Iowa City has a traditional public library, residents keep turning to Little Free Libraries. These tiny libraries offer a different way to discover books and connect with the community.
Tucked between houses, along sidewalk s, and on cozy neighborhood corners throughout Iowa City, tiny wooden cabinets stand fi lled with colorful book s of a l l gen re s and interests, inviting passersby to stop and browse. Some are painted in bright colors, featuring eye-catching paintings, while others resemble miniature houses. Each tiny library gives Iowa City residents the opportunity to discover new written works or leave behind a book to share with the next lucky visitor. Little Free Libraries have been part of Iowa Cit y neighborhoods for over a decade. Run entirely by the community, these libraries create sm a l l s p ac e s w her e residents can share their love for reading. hile the traditional public library provides access to thousands of books in the heart of downtown Iowa City, Little Free Libraries offer a uni ue feeling of community, accessibility, and connection. Sam Helmick, community and access service coordinator at the Iowa City Public Library and former president of the A merican Librar y Association, values these tiny libraries’ ability to effectively ref lect their community. “ hat I love about Little Free Libraries is they’re not curated like a school or public library,” Helmick said. “They are curated not to meet all intellectual needs, but to share and connect and represent stories that actually matter to [the neighborhood].” Helmick acknowledged t he fac t t h at L it t le Free Libraries and the traditional public library compliment each other rat her t ha n compete w i t h o n e a n o t h e r. hile the public library
gives residents a place to f ind book s, Lit tle Free L ibra r ies br ing literature right into their neighborhoods. “Not only have Little Free Libraries learned from Iowa ity Public, but Iowa City Public has learned that sometimes ust a community shelf is what folks need,” Helmick said. That sense of community is what makes each Little Free Library special. hile Helmick sees them as places that re ect the neighborhood around them, residents like Sarah Alward are fortunate enough to see that connection right in their front yards. A l w a r d bu i l t a nd maintains an Old Capitol Building-shaped Little Free Library outside her Iowa City home, where she regularly sees neighbors stopping by. “I have had so m a ny he a r t w a r m i ng experiences where people are just so happy that it is in the yard,” Alward said. “Everytime my kids look out the window and there’s someone there, they’ll be like, ‘Mom, someone’s at the library!’ It is so fun.” Alward noted her Little Free Librar y a lways has something to offer, no matter the reader. hether someone is looking for a new favorite read or simply curious about what books their neighbors have been loving, Alward says her librar y keeps readers coming back. “My neighbors have great taste in reading because I always have awesome books in mine,” Alward said. “It’s not like a computer manual from the 1990s — it’s always a really good fiction novel that’s in there.” R achael arlson, director of operations at Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, emphasi ed this uni ue nature of these little libraries. “Bo ok s a re re a l ly important to people that
live [in Iowa City], and so different ways of sharing those books just enhances that,” Carlson said. “They play a fun role a great opportunity for people to explore, they’re all different, and they look cool.” Although the primary audience for these Little Free Libraries is book lovers and literat ure connoisseurs, the charming and vibrant appe a ra nc e of t he se outdo or b o ok shelve s effortlessly catches the eye of any passersby. ot only do these colorful cabinets serve as a way to share books, they also have become a way for their owners to add a creative touch to their homes. “I moved to Iowa City and I just noticed that our neighborhood didn’t have one, so I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I should build one,’” Alward said. “Because I love books
51 Excludes 53 Mount ___ Health System 54 Immature high score initials on an arcade game 56 Something to trust 57 Hides one’s central point, in a way ... with a doubly homophonic hint to 20-, 30-, 38- and 48-Across 62 They offer support 64 Speak at a political convention, perhaps 65 Field 66 Facility 67 2008 film about a solitary trash-compacting robot 68 Semiaquatic relative of a weasel 69 Blue No. 1 and Yellow No. 6 70 Fall bloom 71 Cave wall hangings?
Down
Across
1 Sahara-esque 5 Exams for high school jrs. 10 Private sleeping accommoda-tions? 14 “Didn’t you get the ___?” 15 Wipe from one’s memory, so to speak 16 Section in a textbook 17 “___ She Lovely” (Stevie Wonder hit) 18 Deceptive move in fencing 19 Depend (on) 20 Natural pillow filling 23 Graffiti, to some 24 Three unnamed things, in
25 28 30 34 36 37 38 41 44 45 48
shorthand Quinceañeras, e.g. Lifted Services for senior citizens Hybrid tennis attire Word with pan, pump or paint ___ Minor Unofficial vote President who was a heavyweight wrestling champion in college “___ got it!” Cats and dogs, for example Old West outlaw who left behind poetic messages after some robberies
1 Female friends from Fuenlabrada 2 Some vacation destinations 3 “My mood is pretty low” 4 Top three sights in Fiji? 5 Like eyes during an allergy attack 6 “Bless you!” elicitor 7 ___ Minor 8 Something that’s pitched 9 “Family Guy” creator MacFarlane 10 Set of courses offered 11 Miserable rating 12 “___ death do us part” 13 What a parent might compare a messy bedroom to 21 Put forth 22 Drop the ball 26 Verbal hesitations 27 Neptune’s territory 29 Situations one might no
31 32 33 35 39 40 41 42 43 46 47 49 50 52 55 58 59 60 61 62 63
longer put effort into Drop Drop North Carolina university Chicago paper, with “the” ___ Max, singer of the 2018 hit “Sweet but Psycho” Not taut Longtime “American Dad!” airer 2001 biopic starring Will Smith The “Beyhive” for Beyoncé, e.g. Country bordering Chad and Benin Lecture attendee ___ royale (Champagne cocktail) Rat (on) They can be well-done See-through Part of the Corn Belt Important stretches The word “salary” derives from the Latin for this What a shepherd may shepherd Bouncy part of a trampoline “A drop of golden sun,” in song
Theater takes a different stage Pro-shots are becoming increasingly popular, but how does this change the viewing process?
W
alking into a dark theater stirs inimitable feelings, from the cozy, red cushioned chairs to the buzz of the crowd excitedly waiting for actors to grace the stage with unmatched talent. Now imagine having the best seat in the house, paying much less than the average Broadway ticket. Imagine seeing the sweat on an actor’s forehead or the miniscule quirks, mannerisms, and acting choices you’d often miss without buying front row seats. This is what you can get from a pro-shot, or a professionally filmed staging of the production. Pro-shots have been all the rage in recent years, with the theatrical release of musicals such as “Hamilton” and “Hadestown,” or with the less formal release of “Next to Normal” on PBS. In a recent Snapchat poll of roughly 100 University of Iowa students, 34 percent had seen a pro-shot musical. Out of that, 44 percent had seen that same musical live, with only 30 percent preferring it as the pro-shot. UI first-year student Vivian Laslo sided with the majority who preferred seeing a musical in-person. Laslo has seen “Hamilton” live and has watched the pro-shot. “Nothing can beat live theater,” Laslo said. “But it was different. There were different actors [in the live show], which I think impacted it a lot. I would say that I prefer the live performance, but that’s also because I had access to it.” With pro-shots being recorded, the exclusive viewpoint of a camera offered a different perspective a live viewing of a performance would not have had. Laslo agreed with this sentiment, citing the pro-shot of “Hadestown” that came out in July 2026. “I was immersed in the show and I never felt like the camera was cutting out and missing moments. If anything, I actually felt like I was able to view the emotion of the actors and actresses on stage better because of the way it was shot,” Laslo said. “I also feel like the way it was shot gave way to a lot more. I got to see more of the band, the behind the scenes of getting ready, putting on their makeup, doing their little warm ups in the beginning, and their little affirmations.” For Rob Cline, director of marketing and communications at Hancher Auditorium, the “Hadestown” performance at Hancher and the pro-shot served different purposes. In an email with The Daily Iowan, Cline discussed the immediacy that comes with live theater — how things can happen right in front of you. “The instant of tragedy in the live performances of ‘Hadestown’ that came to Hancher, for example, could be felt throughout the auditorium, and so could the hopefulness of the show’s ending gambit,” Cline said. “That’s the sort of experience live theater offers again and again.” However, seeing a pro-shot in theaters provides a unique experience, especially after seeing the performance once live. For Broadway shows, seeing the original cast members on stage can be entirely different than in a theater.
“Seeing André De Shields as Hermes in ‘Hadestown’ on the big screen felt like an honor,” Cline said. “He’s such a storied actor and his performance is a treasure for theater lovers.” For Emerson Heinrichs, a third-year UI student, theater is a major part of her life. She participated in theater throughout high school and loves just about any show she sees. Because of this, she heavily prefers the live version to the pro-shot. “I’ve only been to three shows [on Broadway], but nonetheless, each one was so individually special. They were so unique,” Heinrichs said. “‘Wicked’ was completely different from ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,’ which was completely different from ‘Moulin Rouge,’ but they were each such great shows.” Heinrichs was fascinated by the technical side of theater, especially with guessing how the backstage crew is able to make different effects seem so real. This was important for her, and sometimes she doesn’t feel immersed by recordings. “It’s just like watching any other movie to me,” Heinrichs said. “You get to sing along, which is obviously fun, but I feel like it’s fun when I’m with my friends, but it’s not something I would ever put on by myself.” The little things that go into a performance before the curtains are drawn are not lost on Laslo. As a “theater-kid” herself, she was enthralled with many of these habitual practices. After spending years on-and-off stage, seeing professionals do the smaller-scale
things she and fellow cast members would do was special. “I think that it’s a really special representation,” Laslo said. “It also gives a view to people who might not be in theater to what the theater community is like and how close of a bond a cast can have. They become family essentially.” First-year UI student Aheli Mustafi enjoys all kinds of theatrical productions. Despite favoring plays, she has still seen the occasional pro-shot or two. In her experience, little details even the front row seats would miss are blown up on the big screen. “You can see all the sides of the show. A lot of times it’s a better view of the character of the actors and you can see facial expressions a lot more clearly in a pro-shot versus when you’re in live,” Mustafi said. Laslo and Mustafi both believe pro-shots can fill the accessibility gap. As a recorded and archived showing, the pro-shot can be viewed at any time by anyone. “I’m fortunate enough to live in an area where if I wanted to go see a Broadway show, I could manage that. But there are people across the country who don’t have access to that but still want to experience the magic of theater by seeing musicals,” Laslo said. “Especially if they don’t have community theaters that are putting on high level productions.” The cost of a live performance is something else to consider. If someone wishes to see a performance and cannot afford the fee or even the amount it takes to
travel, they’re out of luck. With pro-shots, money becomes less of a trouble. “Seeing it live is so expensive, and a lot of times it’s not always near you,” Mustafi said. “If you want to go see a musical, you might have to travel a lot, and that’s also very expensive. It’s so much easier to watch a pro-shot. And if you’re hesitant about musicals in general, you can always pause the pro-shot. You can’t pause live.” Laslo knows first hand what it’s like to not have access to live theater. Living in a more rural area for 14 years, live theater was something Laslo couldn’t always go see. “When the pro-shot ‘Hamilton’ came out, I was so excited because it was my favorite musical at the time,” Laslo said. “Being able to have that as an option was fantastic.” Nevaeh Brown, a fourth-year UI student who loves theater, echoed this statement. Growing up in Iowa, she didn’t have many opportunities to see live theater performances. For Brown, not only are these pro-shots more accessible, but they pique her interest in the shows, both encouraging her to watch either the pro-shot or a bootleg, as well as listening to the cast recordings. “It’s different from going in and actually seeing it live, but it still gives a way for people to find it and be interested in it because that’s how I got interested in ‘Next to Normal,’” Brown said. “I saw people talking about the pro-shot, and I was like, ‘Oh, I wanna go watch that,’ so I watched it.”