FACEBOOK.COM/NORTHERNIOWAN
WWW.NORTHERNIOWAN.COM
TWITTER: @NORTHERNIOWAN
UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CEDAR FALLS, IA THURSDAY, APRIL 5 VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
CEDAR FALLS, IA
VOLUME 119, ISSUE 44
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2023
OPINION
CAMPUS LIFE
SPORTS
OPINION PAGE 3
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 7
Opinion Columnist Drew Hill raises the possibility of the U.S. entering a banking crisis.
Women’s basketball ends an exciting season with second round WNIT loss.
The UNI Museum honors women of the past with Women Crush Wednesday.
N.I. EN ESPAÑOL
UNI receives $2.5 million federal Traducción: CATS desafío grant for mental health access de tradiciones CAROLINE CHRISTENSEN
DIAMOND ROUNDTREE
Staff Writer
After extensive research and collaboration with numerous Iowa Area Education Agencies (AEAs), UNI has received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to train 15 new school psychologists for various schools across Iowa in the next five years. Nicole Skaar, an associate professor and School Psychology Program coordinator, is hopeful the grant will relieve current school psychologists of an overloaded schedule. Currently the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) recommends the ratio of school psychologists to students should be about one psychologist to 500 students. In Iowa, the current ratio of school psychologists to students is about one to 1,800 or 1,900. In places like Great
Escritora
KARINA ORTIZ
Editora en español
COURTESY/UNI
With this federal grant, UNI hopes to help address the shortage of school psychologists in Iowa schools. The recommended ratio of school psychologists to students is one to 500, while Iowa’s current ratio is about one to 1,800 or 1,900, some regions having a much higher disparity.
Prairie Education Agency, an AEA UNI is collaborating with on this grant, the ratio is one to 4,379 students. “There is a real need for school psychologists in Iowa
just to get to that optimal place where we can actually do the things we need to do,” Skaar said. “What often happens is that school psychologists have to do a lot of the legally
required work, and we are not doing a lot of the great stuff that would be very beneficial to students.” See MENTAL HEALTH GRANT, page 4
Conectando ex-alumnos con estudiantes (CATS por sus siglas en inglés) alienta a todos los estudiantes a participar en el anuario digital de UNI—el desafío de tradiciones. Las tradiciones tienen que estar entregadas el viernes, 21 de abril 2023. La ceremonia de guardianes de tradición será el martes, 25 de abril a las 5:30 p.m. en el Great Reading Room–Seerly 116. El desafío de tradiciones lista 63 tradiciones para completar dentro y fuera del campus. ¡También tienes la opción de crear 10 de tus propias tradiciones! Ver DESAFÍO DE TRADICIONES, página 2
WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
A space of their own: UNI’s sorority leaders honor over a century of tradition MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor
UNI student Cassie Williams has always known that she wanted to be part of a sorority. However, starting with those first days of recruitment her freshman year, she stumbled across a community at UNI with stronger bonds, deeper roots and vast opportunities beyond what she initially expected. “Running home on bid day was probably the first time at college that I felt like I knew where I’m fitting in. I know who my people are,” Williams said. “I think that has just provided me with the best sense of belonging.” That desire for belonging is exactly what brought sororities to college campuses in the first place. Ana Muell is the current president of UNI’s Panhellenic Council, a six-member student board that oversees sorority life as a whole on campus.
“The first women who were able to attend college are the ones that created sororities,” she said. “[Sororities] were initially places where women could be safe, and women could get together and talk about things that they wanted to talk about in a place that was not a man’s space.”
I would’ve never expected to ever get as much out of it as I did. LAURA HARMS
Co-Vice President of Recruitment
UNI’s first sorority, Sigma Phi, was formed in 1896. It merged with another local sorority in 1918 before becoming nationally affiliated with Alpha Chi Omega in 1968. While Alpha Chi Omega is one of five national sorori-
ties that are no longer active at UNI, women today can participate in any of the six existing sororities on campus. They include five National Panhellenic Conference sororities and one cultural sorority, Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority. In creating a space for belonging, early sorority leaders also created a space for growth. Williams has progressed from being just a sorority member to being co-vice president of recruitment in UNI’s Panhellenic Council. “I had never been a leader in high school or before college, so sorority life was the first time I even considered stepping into a leadership position, and it was because my sorority sisters and other people in the community told me ‘you should run for co-VP of recruitment, I think you’d do a really good job.’ And that was the first time I really felt
empowered to do something like that,” Williams said. Laura Harms, the other co-vice president of recruitment, has had a similar experience through Greek life. “If I would’ve gone back, I would’ve never expected to ever get as much out of it as I did,” Harms said.
“I have been given endless, endless, endless leadership opportunities, and they continue to arise, and I have grown tremendously as a leader since joining sorority life here on campus,” she said. See SORORITY LIFE, page 2
COURTESY/ANA MUELL
UNI’s Panhellenic Council works behind the scenes to coordinate sorority life as a whole. Cassie Williams, second from left, Laura Harms, third from right and Ana Muell, second from right, shared how sorority life has empowered them as young women pursuing an education.