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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CEDAR FALLS, IA THURSDAY, APRIL 5 VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
CEDAR FALLS, IA
VOLUME 119, ISSUE 25
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2022
OPINION
CAMPUS LIFE
SPORTS
OPINION PAGE 3
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
Guest Columnist Laura Belin from Iowa Capital Dispatch looks at recent diversity in Iowa Legislature.
Panther football ends the regular season with a 58-14 victory over South Dakota.
The Men’s Varsity Glee Club returns this weekend for their 45th Annual Christmas Variety Show.
UNI pep band to stay home Due to budget cuts, pep band will not travel to conference tournaments this year MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor
The spirit-filled tunes of the pep band are a longstanding staple of UNI basketball games. However, any UNI basketball appearances in conference tournaments will be noticeably quieter this season. Due to budget cuts within UNI Athletics, the pep bands will not travel to the conference tournaments for men’s and women’s basketball this year. The men’s basketball Missouri Valley Conference tournament is annually held in St. Louis, Mo., and the women’s conference tournament has been held in Moline, Ill., for the past six years. Professor Justin Mertz, associate director of bands, explained that pep band is a partnership between the School of Music, the College of Humanities, Arts & Sciences and UNI Athletics. “The School of Music and the college provide equipment in the form of instruments and the human resource directors to run the group, to rehearse
N.I. EN ESPAÑOL
Traducción: Las experiencias de estudiantes internacionales CAROLINE CHRISTENSEN Escritora
YESSENIA RODRÍGUEZ Traductora
COURTESY/TWITTER
While the UNI pep band traditionally makes an appearance at both men’s and women’s conference basketball tournaments to support the Panthers, Professor Justin Mertz, associate director of bands, was informed in July that the funds for the band’s travel would not be available this year due to budget cuts.
the group, run the group, manage the group and conduct the group at all men’s and women’s home basketball games,” he said. “The athletic department provides things like the band polo shirts and a fund for scholarships which, until this year, was used to incentivise students to travel to the post-season conference tour-
naments and/or NCAA basketball tournaments,” This year, however, Mertz said that he received the news in July that due to budget cuts, the band would not be funded to travel to those tournaments. “It came out of nowhere, but it wasn’t completely surprising,” Mertz said. “Campuswide there have been financial and budget challeng-
es, and the athletic department is no exception to that. It was not something we thought we would hear, but we weren’t surprised to hear it.” UNI Athletics Director David Harris stated that the decision to cut funding for the pep band’s travel was not an easy one. See PEP BAND, page 2
UNI aloja a estudiantes de diferentes países de todo el mundo. Muchas veces, venir a UNI para estos estudiantes internacionales es la primera vez en los Estados Unidos “Estamos muy interesados en tener la experiencia de vivir en los Estados Unidos porque lo conocemos solo por las películas”, dice Gavik Kuruppu, un estudiante internacional de Sri Lanka. “América es uno de los mejores países del mundo y todos lo saben. Bueno aprendiendolo, viéndolo en las películas, leyendo y luego por fin llegar aquí y vivirlo es lo que queremos. Entre más amistades que creamos nosotros podemos tener más experiencias. Pues muestren cómo es y compartan sus experiencias. Ver INTERNACIONALES, página 2
UNI ROTC celebrates future Army officers with contracting ceremony MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor
On the morning of Nov. 17, UNI Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) honored the students committed to taking the next step in Army leadership
with their contracting ceremony. Cadets Dylan Carlsen, Dani Danielson, Wyatt Fitzgerald and Colin Spies were celebrated in the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center for contracting with the military
COURTESY/INSTAGRAM
From left to right, cadets Dylan Carlsen, Dani Danielson, Wyatt Fitzgerald and Colin Spies contracted this semester. Contracting commits them to eight years of military service directly after graduation.
after graduation. UNI’s ROTC program also has an extension school, the University of Dubuque, bringing the total number of cadets contracting this semester to eight. Lieutenant Colonel Dean R. Ray is the head of the Department of Military Science at UNI. “They have an enlistment ceremony in the Army, and this is very much a similar thing,” he said. “The kids that are going to contract throughout this semester have one, stood up and said that they are ready to serve, so they are signing their initial contract, they’re committing themselves to the Army and to the profession. Two, they’ve been cleared through all of the medical and physical requirements.” The contracting ceremony was held alongside MercyOne’s Festival of Trees and the Veterans’ Breakfast.
“We don’t really get the opportunity to highlight the contracting ceremony like we would like to, because it is a big deal,” Ray said. “The Festival of Trees has partnered with us for the past few years and given us the opportunity to highlight those kids during this ceremony, which is great thing because it’s a big deal for these kids, and it just shows the support from MercyOne, the community and the university for allowing us to partner with this event,” he said. When cadets sign a contract, they agree to serve for eight years directly after graduating college. As Ray explained, this is the standard length of service for Army contracting, whether an individual joined out of high school, from a recruitment office or out of a university. However, the ROTC program is far more than just an Army recruitment tool.
We have over 100 years of leadership experience sitting right over here at the Nielsen Fieldhouse. Lt. Col. Dean Ray
Head of Department of Military Science
“A lot of people interact with the Army and Army recruiters coming out of high school and then when they come to college, they associate us with that. Which, we are in the same organization, but we’re going for a whole different mission set, because what we’re trying to do is build and grow officers and leaders,” Ray said. See ROTC, page 5