U.S. News Ranks Audiology, Printmaking, Creative Writing, Others No. 1

The University of Iowa has the nation’s top graduate programs in creative writing, printmaking, audiology, nursing service administration, and speech-language pathology, according to rankings by U.S. News & World Report for the 2001 edition of its annual guide to America’s Best Graduate Schools.

In addition to the first-place rankings, the University ranked among the top 10 in a variety of programs and specialties: physician assistant ranked second, up two spots from 1998; physical therapy–third, up one spot from 1998; rehabilitation counseling–third, up three spots from 1998; rural medicine–fourth, up three spots from 1999; nurse practitioner-gerontological/ geriatrics–fourth, up three spots from 1998; social psychology (doctoral program)–fifth, maintaining its ranking from 1998; College of Medicine-primary care–sixth, maintaining its ranking from 1999; paleontology (doctoral program)–seventh, maintaining its ranking from 1999; College of Medicine-family medicine–ninth, climbing into the top 10 for the first time; and fine arts–sixth, maintaining its ranking from 1997.

Other highly ranked Iowa colleges and programs: the master’s program in nursing ranked 12th; the College of Law ranked 21st, up two spots from 1999; the political science Ph.D. program ranked 22nd, a repeat of its ranking in 1998; the drama/theater program ranked 23rd, a repeat of its ranking from 1997; the College of Medicine ranked 32nd, down two spots from 1999; and the College of Education ranked 30th, down three spots from 1999.

A Portable Program for VA Nurses

Last year, The University of Iowa’s College of Nursing became the first in the nation to target and assist Veterans Affairs nurses with distance learning, allowing registered nurses at VA facilities in Iowa to earn baccalaureate degrees by attending classes offered by the college part-time in their workplace. This program is funded through a $50-million federal grant for education assistance for VA nurses.

A change in the qualification standards for nurses working for the Department of Veterans Affairs nationwide will require any nurse hired or promoted to have a baccalaureate degree starting in September 2005.

Through the Iowa program, nurses can complete the degree from their home locations. Course work is delivered over the state-run Iowa Communications Network and telecast to the Iowa City VA Medical Center, the Des Moines VA Medical Center, and the Knoxville VA Medical Center.

In April, the College of Nursing received a Points of Presence Award from the Iowa Distance Learning Association, citing the college’s "outstanding distance education program."

Alumni Association Tallies Honors

The University of Iowa Alumni Association (UIAA) had a banner year in which:

• UIAA membership topped 52,000, its highest enrollment ever.

• Iowa Voyagers, the Alumni Association’s travel program, recorded 546 travelers this year, its highest participation to date.

• The UIAA’s student membership program, S.T.A.T. (Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow), was awarded the only Gold Medal given in the student involvement category of the CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) national competition. This award also recognized the new HawksNest student support program for men’s basketball.

• The Regents Central Iowa Jobs Fair was awarded the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Circle of Excellence Award for national recognition in the area of career service to students and alumni.

• The Distinguished Alumni Award "Wall of Honor" was installed in the Levitt Center, paying tribute to all alumni and friends who have been recognized with this award over the past 38 years.

International Writing Program Hires New Director

The University of Iowa renewed its commitment to world literature during the 1999-2000 academic year, appointing a new International Writing Program (IWP) director and moving oversight of the program to the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Christopher Merrill, who was the distinguished writer-in-residence and holder of the William H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., was appointed director of the IWP in May and began his official duties on Aug. 1. Merrill is the author of three collections of poems, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Peter I.B. Lavan Award for younger poets from the Academy of American Poets; four book-length works of translation; several edited volumes; and three volumes of nonfiction, with a fourth volume forthcoming.

The IWP is a unique residency program that brings writers from around the world together in Iowa City. Founded in 1967, it was the first international writers’ residency at a university.

Youth Survey Completed

In September 1999, the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation on the University of Iowa’s Oakdale Research Campus conducted its triennial Iowa Youth Survey, exploring issues relevant to positive youth development. More than 85,000 6th-, 8th-, and 11th-grade students from 333 Iowa school districts participated in the survey and related their experiences with alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, and violence. The survey also explored values and beliefs that influence these behaviors and examined students’ involvement in school and family systems. Supporting questions assessed participants’ feelings of safety and security in their homes, neighborhoods, and schools and asked for youth feedback on how community services might be improved to serve them better. The collected data will be used by Iowa school districts, area education agencies, community organizations, and the state government to identify youth needs better and develop programs and services in order to meet them.

A Different Classroom Experience

For the past two years, some of Rahima Wade’s elementary social studies methods students have skipped the tropics and spent their spring break working with children in some of the toughest, poorest neighborhoods in the Windy City. The program is called the Chicago Experience, and it’s designed to give future teachers a different kind of hands-on experience from what they would get through a traditional teaching practicum. The program fulfills two important requirements of the elementary education curriculum: the community service-learning (CSL) project that is part of Wade’s methods course and a related classroom practicum. In the mornings, the students fulfill their practicum requirement by helping a teacher in a school. After lunch, they work on their CSL project at a neighborhood center.

UI Press Finds Utopia

The University of Iowa Press states its mission is to publish "truly fine and distinguished books." This is exactly what it has done since it began in 1938. But in the 1999-2000 academic year, the UI Press consistently outdid itself.

Picturing Utopia, a photographic history of the Amana Colonies by Abigail Foerstner, came out in April to excellent reviews. Jon Anderson of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "I recommend this book to all who are overwhelmed by the complexities of modern-day living." And Sylvia Wolf, a curator of photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, said Picturing Utopia "offers a wonderful selection of photographs and an insightful account of one of America’s great utopian societies."

Other publications from the UI Press won these honors:

• An American Library Association Best of the Best from university presses for Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry About School, a collection of poems about the school experience edited by Maggie Anderson and David Hassler.

• A William Carlos Williams Award from the American Poetry Society for The Oval Hour, a book of poems by Kathleen Pierce.

• Benjamin F. Shambaugh Award from the State Historical Society of Iowa for There Goes the Neighborhood: Rural School Consolidation at the Grass Roots in Early Twentieth-Century Iowa, by David R. Reynolds.

• A Theodore Saloutos Memorial Award from the Agricultural History Society for Of Cabbages and Kings County: Agriculture and the Formation of Modern Brooklyn, by Marc Linder and Lawrence Zacharias.

• Recognition on the American Booksellers Association’s Book Sense 76 list for both Out of the Girls’ Room and Into the Night, by Thisbe Nissen, and Boomer Girls: Poems by Women from the Baby Boom Generation, edited by Pamela Gemin and Paula Sergi.

Public Radio Stations KSUI and WSUI Go Worldwide

This past year, the University of Iowa’s public radio stations, KSUI (91.7 FM) and WSUI (910 AM), began broadcasting via the World Wide Web. Listeners can log on to web radio service at the stations’ sites: wsui.uiowa. edu and ksui.uiowa.edu.

In order to hear the webcasts, computer users need a sound card, speakers or headphones, an Internet connection, and a free downloadable version of an application called RealPlayer (which can be accessed through the KSUI/WSUI sites). This will give listeners in Iowa and all over the world access to the University’s unique blend of programming, including shows such as "Live from Prairie Lights." Webcasting is the latest trend among both public and private radio stations, with hundreds of stations across the United States now offering it as an option.

In addition to launching webcasts, the stations recently created an internship program with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication that offers students hands-on experience with radio news production

Students Enter the University Early

The inaugural class of The University of Iowa’s National Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (NAASE) arrived on campus in September 1999.

NAASE, a program developed and administered by the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, offers early entrance to outstanding high school students. In its first year, NAASE received 338 applications from interested candidates and selected the ten most promising. These students from Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Colorado included Presidential Scholarship recipients, award-winning musicians, and Iowa’s top woman bicyclist.

NAASE students are housed together on an honors floor in Daum Residence Hall. The Belin-Blank Center provides specialized services such as a counselor, trained in gifted and talented issues, who meets with them weekly and also leads a peer support group.

WOW! Turns 10

Children and families from all over southeastern Iowa visited the Museum of Art on April 16 for the tenth annual Widen Our World (WOW!) Family Day. This event capped a month-long program for third-grade students to provide art education in school and a museum tour.

"Our goal is to introduce children to the museum as a lifelong learning resource," said Emily Vermillion, curator of education. "It’s also to expose children to cultures around the world and help them understand their own multicultural heritage."

The 2000 WOW! Family Day featured an African storyteller, a performance by the City High School String Ensemble, and a demonstration of African drums, dance, and drama by Olabayo Olaniyi, a Nigerian artist and performer. Hands-on activities included building bridges and making mudcloth.

Volunteer docents from a program at City High School in Iowa City were on hand to help guide visitors through the exhibits. The docents program at City High, now in its ninth year, teaches 12-15 youth members to give tours of the museum, provide art education to younger children, and help design special events.

The WOW! Program was sponsored by Firstar Bank of Iowa City, Knutson Construction Services in Solon, and Cedar River Paper.

Helping Students Recognize, Avoid Risks

The Department of Public Safety appointed Brad Allison as its new crime prevention officer. Allison was certified as a campus crime prevention specialist by the Campus Crime Prevention Program, a national organization, after he attended the 1999 Campus Crime Prevention Seminar in Louisville, Ky.

In addition to speaking at orientation sessions, he has spoken at residence hall floor meetings, fraternities and sororities, and with individual students to get the safety word out.

The best way to deal with crime on campus is to make sure it never happens in the first place, Allison says. He said he decided to take the position when he saw how many times students could have avoided becoming victims of crime simply by recognizing potential risks and knowing how to prevent them.

"I would rather educate than enforce," he says. "If a student drinks, I want him or her to know the laws. I want to teach personal safety programs."

A Convention of Young Inventors

Pets were a frequent source of inspiration for young inventors who convened at the Iowa Memorial Union for Invent Iowa 2000 in April. A second-grader brought her Night Light Dog Collar; a fourth-grader entered his Automatic Fish Feeder; and a fifth-grader presented his Drool Proof Window Protector, which he developed because his dog was always making a soppy mess out of the family’s car windows. Other entries included a computer mouse that does not cause the hand to sweat, a lap desk for long car trips, and an Ever Drink water bottle that can be attached to a bicycle’s handlebars and requires no hands to use.

The 13th annual Invent Iowa was sponsored jointly by the Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development and the Colleges of Engineering at The University of Iowa and Iowa State University. More than 350 students in grades three through twelve exhibited 285 inventions, with 179 Iowa schools represented. Invent Iowa guidelines require that students’ inventions meet basic patent requirements. To reach the state level, entrants must pass through local and regional conventions.

This was the first year Invent Iowa’s statewide competition was held on the University of Iowa campus, and it allowed participants to take part in other enriching activities. Youth inventors heard from David Hensley, director of the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, on how to market their inventions, and they took tours of the College of Engineering, including the Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences and the Hydraulics Laboratory Annex.