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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CEDAR FALLS, IA THURSDAY, APRIL 5 VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
CEDAR FALLS, IA
VOLUME 119, ISSUE 42
THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2023
OPINION
CAMPUS LIFE
SPORTS
OPINION PAGE 3
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 5
SPORTS PAGE 6
Opinion Columnist Drew Hill weighs the pros and cons of new technology directly entering our brains.
For Women’s History Month, the spotlight is on Connie Hansen and her extensive history with UNI.
Seven Panthers head to NCAA wrestling tournmant, including Big 12 champion Parker Keckeisen.
“Go Beacons!”: Pep band pays it forward Traducción: Un N.I. EN ESPAÑOL
UNI pep band supports band-less Valparaiso at Arch Madness tournament MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor
When the UNI pep band received word that Valparaiso University was not bringing a band to the Arch Madness tournament, the story felt all too familiar. Mary O’Connell, a graduate assistant for the band, leads one of UNI’s pep bands and accompanied the group to St. Louis for the men’s conference basketball tournament. “Originally, we weren’t slated to go to the conference tournament at all,” O’Connell said. “Then we got really lucky.” That luck O’Connell referred to came in the form of an anonymous donor. While the pep band was originally not going to attend the conference basketball tournaments due to budget cuts within UNI Athletics, the Northern Iowan reported on Feb. 8 that a donor had stepped in, allowing the band to support the Panthers on the road. However, the Panthers ended up not being the only team the band supported during the tournament. On the evening of Monday, Feb. 27, just three days before the
estudiante de la UNI presentará su poesía en una convención nacional NKASA BOLUMBU
Escritora
JOCELYN MENA
Traductora invitada
VALERIA TORRES
Traductora invitada
Nota de la editora : Jocelyn Mena y Valeria Torres son estudiantes del curso SPAN 3159 Translation for Heritage Speakers, dirigido por el Prof. Juan Carlos Castillo. COURTESY/PAUL OREN, THE VICTORY BELL
The UNI pep band traded their purple polos for white Missouri Valley Conference t-shirts as they played for Valparaiso’s Thursday night game against Murray State. They found out just three days beforehand that they would be filling in, but were able to learn their school song and pick up chants from Valparaiso’s cheerleaders.
Panthers’ first Arch Madness game, O’Connell received a call from the head of UNI bands, Justin Mertz. Mertz told her that a representative from Valparaiso had reached out to say that they were not bringing a band to the tournament, and they were wondering if UNI’s band would be willing to fill in. “Considering the circumstances around our travel and
how close it was for us to not have a band, we said absolutely, pay it forward,” she said. O’Connell spent the next few days communicating with Valparaiso’s band director and was able to get the music for their school song. However, given the sudden change of plans, the band would be going in cold.
“We give them lots of opportunities to explore who they are, what their interests are, to let them dive deep into one specific thing and to have experiences with their peers on campus to make campus less of a mystery space,” Seavey said. “After you’ve spent a week living in the dorms, going to the dining center and walking across campus between sessions, then it can really feel like a place that you know very well.” The camp is structured so students will spend their mornings in large group sessions about college and career readiness led by UNI staff members. After lunch in one of the dining halls, the students break up into smaller groups for more specialized learning sessions. This summer, the camp will be offering one session focused on environmental science and
food sovereignty, which will allow students to learn more about fishing, farming, soil health and other environmental topics that affect their own communities. The second confirmed session for this summer will focus on entrepreneurship. Students will learn about getting to know their customer base and use UNI’s podcast creation resources to learn how to promote a product amongst other activities. The camp plans to have one more session to offer students, but is still in the process of finalizing what it will consist of. They are currently accepting proposals from faculty members. While 2023 marks just the second consecutive year for this program, it is not the first time UNI and the Meskwaki community have collaborated. From 2014 to 2017, a similar
“One thing about pep band is that we only rehearse twice at the very beginning of the season,” she said. “After that it’s just all games. We don’t rehearse again, so we didn’t have a rehearsal to put this together.” See GO BEACONS, page 2
Un estudiante de la Universidad del Norte de Iowa (UNI) presentará sus cuentos cortos sobre la vida en el ejército a un público nacional e internacional. Mykel Townsend presentará la primera pieza de su colección, “Fort Hudson”, un conjunto de historias cortas sobre su experiencia en el ejército. “Fort Hudson” se basa en historias que Townsend inventó o escuchó de otros sobre su instructor de ejercicios. Ver POESÍA, página 2
UNI to host Meskwaki Summer Camp for second consecutive year MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor
While the majority of UNI’s student population will be absent from campus this summer, a group of UNI staff and students are currently preparing to welcome a different audience this July. This July 17-21, UNI will be hosting its Meskwaki Summer Camp for the second consecutive year. This program is aimed toward Meskwaki students entering grades 7-10 and focuses on college and career readiness. Marcy Seavey is the STEM coordinator at UNI and serves on the planning committee for the program. “A lot of what [the students] get to do while they’re here is explore not just what might they do, but how might they prepare themselves to have the future that they want,” she said.
program geared toward middle school students was run out of the College of Education, but it was discontinued. The idea for summer programming was rekindled just a few years ago. “A couple of years ago, Meskwaki leadership and the
university president started meeting together, and one of the things they talked a lot about was, what are things that the university and Meskwaki can do together?” Seavey said.
See MESKWAKI CAMP, page 2
COURTESY/LINDSEY HUBBELL
The Meskwaki Summer Camp focuses on college and career readiness. While some sessions take place in large group settings, students also get to break into smaller, more specialized sessions, such as last year’s environmental science session pictured above.