Like journalists everywhere around this time of year, we on the fyi staff think it’s worthwhile to spend a little time and newsprint putting the past 12 months in review. We thank our cohorts in University News Services, Health Science Relations, and University Relations Publications for weighing in on the most significant news to come from the University of Iowa campus in 2004. If you disagree with our choices, please drop us an e-mail and tell us what events you think were most compelling.

Research lab vandalism

An organization known as the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for a Nov. 14 break-in at Seashore Hall and Spence Laboratories that involved vandalism of offices and laboratories, including the theft and death of lab animals. In an open letter in

The Daily Iowan, the faculty senate, staff council, the UI chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and almost 800 UI faculty and staff members expressed solidarity with psychology faculty, staff, and students, as well as their families, and urged the public to reaffirm the importance of academic research and recommit “to the use of reason to persuade rather than violence to silence….”

Return of the natives

Two scholars with advanced UI degrees returned to their alma mater to serve in chief administrative roles. Michael J. Hogan, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, left his post as an executive dean at Ohio State University to become The University of Iowa’s new provost. And Carolyn Jones, a graduate of The University of Iowa and the UI College of Law, became the 16th dean of the University’s law school. The native of Carroll, Iowa, became the first female law dean at Iowa, replacing N. William Hines, who retired after 28 years at the helm.

Herkyland

	Reflections of U (above) was a Herky on Parade favorite. Photo by Kirk Murray.

From May through October, sports fans and art lovers alike enjoyed a colorful celebration of school spirit and public art in the display of 90 statues of the official mascot of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Herky on Parade was the official name of the public art program, which enlisted area artists to create imaginative incarnations of Herky. Each fiberglass Herky stood at 6’2” and the statues dotted the landscape from downtown Iowa City to Coralville; one even greeted travelers at the Eastern Iowa Airport. In late October, organizers decided to cut the parade short, one month earlier than planned, in response to vandalism of the statues.

Campus politics

With the eyes of the media fastened on Iowa’s Democratic Party caucuses last January, newswriters in University News Services, political science professors, and others around campus raced to keep up with hundreds of requests for interviews from local and national television and print journalists—and on every topic imaginable, from the significance of a candidate’s rebel yell to the viability of the country’s voting machines. And the Iowa Electronic Market—a research and teaching tool run by faculty members of the Tippie College of Business—continued its Election Day track record, predicting President George W. Bush’s victory within 1.1 percent of the actual outcome.

Kicking off the new Kinnick

Work started this past summer on a two-year project to renovate the University’s 75-year-old football stadium. Most of the work will take place over the next two off-seasons as construction crews build a four-level press box that will stretch from goal line to goal line and include indoor and outdoor club seating and luxury suites. By the 2006 season opener, players will have new locker rooms, and fans will enjoy seats widened by two inches, larger concession stands, new scoreboards, and an improved public address system. Other improvements will include more restrooms and a south-side entry plaza.

Making room for Dada?

A Walker Art Center employee installs Barry McGee’s 291-piece untitled (left), part of the American Tableaux exhibition that marked the opening of the UI Museum of Art’s new gallery space..Photo by Kirk Murray.

After more than eight months of renovation, the University of Iowa Museum of Art grew this past winter—gaining 8,000 square feet of gallery space, extra room for educational programming, a print study area, and other refurbished amenities, including an expanded store and café. Curators have more floor and wall space for the museum’s permanent collection, traveling exhibitions, and lectures and performances.

Time for a helping hand

The crowd at a May 2 Ben Folds concert in the Iowa Memorial Union had 13,572 reasons to celebrate. The concert was a reward to student volunteers, and the number represents the hours of service that more than 625 University students gave to good causes. Through a new campus program called The 10,000 Hours Program, students volunteered to spend at least 10 hours working with any of about 60 local and nationally based community service agencies. The focus on volunteering shouldn’t seem surprising in a state that ranked second in the nation two years ago in the percentage of adults 16 and older who volunteer; Iowa’s average is 40.8 percent, while the national average is 27.4 percent. In his year-end keynote address, President David Skorton also took up the cause of volunteerism, declaring the 2005-06 academic year the University’s Year of Public Engagement.

Magnetic bedside manners

UI Hospitals and Clinics nurses Linda Schultz, Peg Young, and Sandra Dennis (below, left to right) celebrate the Magnet Hospital designation with their colleagues.Photo by Susan McClelland.

Nurses at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics became the first in the state to enable their hospital to earn Magnet Hospital status. The American Nurses Association awards the coveted honor, which has gone to only about 100 hospitals in the United States. Independent studies of Magnet hospitals show that patients in such centers average a shorter length of stay and have higher rates of satisfaction.

Adding it all up

The budget—the year’s biggest story? If not, it was at least on the minds of a lot of faculty and staff. And if there’s a positive spin to put on the University’s budgetary challenges, it may be that the University has people devoting considerable time, energy, and thought on how best to deal with them. Last January, President Skorton appointed a campus ad hoc committee to respond to a directive from the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, to cut general education funds (GEF) for certain noncurricular programs. In May, after reviewing the GEF Task Force report, Skorton announced $2 million in GEF reductions for FY05. In September, even as administrators pondered the cuts, UI provost Michael Hogan reported to the Board of Regents that high priority should be given to finding ways to retain the University’s top faculty.

compiled by Gary Kuhlmann and Anne Remington