The Daily Iowan — 04.03.24

The Daily Iowan

Marriage equality 15 years later

Exactly 15 years after legalization, some LGBTQ+ Iowans are still worried about the future.

Isabelle Foland

isabelle-foland@uiowa.edu

When Jen and Dawn BarbouRoske first met on a softball team in Grinnell, Iowa, the two said it was the sentimental kind of love that is only seen in romantic

“It was one of those sorts of goofy love at first sight, it really was for both of us,” Dawn BarbouRoske said. “We would just hang out, looking at the stars, and I mean, it was pretty sappy.”

As the years went by and their love for each other grew, the BarbouRoskes eventually got married — not once,

Their first wedding was just between the two of them in October 1990, and they exchanged rings without any big ceremony or family and friends. This first wedding was not legally recognized because of one reason: The BarbouRoskes are a lesbian couple.

After moving across the country for Dawn BarbouRoske’s job, the BarbouRoskes eventually settled back down in Iowa — specifically in Iowa City — to begin to raise their first child around 2001. Soon after, the couple found themselves as plaintiffs in Varnum v. Brien , the Iowa Supreme Court case that legally recognized samesex marriage in the state.

As their family grew, the BarbouRoskes said there were many legal hoops they had to jump through at each new milestone. For example, when Jen BarbouRoske gave birth to her first child, the BarbouRoskes had to sign multiple papers and meet with a counselor to jointly adopt their child.

Despite many bureaucratic setbacks, though, the BarbouRoskes built a strong, accepting community around their family. The couple formed the Proud Families group shortly after moving to Iowa City, which consisted of local members of the LGBTQ+ community and their children.

Iowa City’s aging population

grows Longer life expectancies and low fertility rates are widening the age gap.

Grace Olson News Reporter grace-olson@uiowa.edu

As Iowa’s older person population increases, experts say the state will face new political, social, and economic consequences.

University of Iowa researchers found that Iowa currently has the largest percentage of adults over the age of 80 nationwide. By 2030, more Iowans will be 65 years old or older than 18 years old or younger.

According to the 2022 Iowa City census, 13 percent of Iowa City’s population is over the age of 65.

Brian Kaskie, UI professor of health management and policy in the College of Public Health, said this trend is a result of improved health care, which led to longer life expectancies since every county in the state of Iowa has a hospital and nursing facility, so the older population is well taken care of.

“If you’re born today, you can easily expect to live to the age of 85,” Kaskie said.

However, Kaskie said because younger generations tend to have fewer children and the fertility rate in Iowa has dropped by seven percent in the last 10 years, the burden of such a large population of older adults will be expensive.

Additionally, he said there are fewer young people to support the elderly and check in on them so nursing and hospital urgent care facilities are being used when they are not necessary. Kaskie said the younger generations are then responsible for paying for Medicare and Social Security to fund hospital visits and nursing home stays.

“Who do you think’s going to pay for all these old people?” Kaksie said. “You don’t want them spending on health care when they don’t need it.

Sahithi Shankaiahgari | The Daily Iowan

The Senior Center’s singing group sings during a Lyrics Alive event at the Iowa City Senior Center on April 1. According to the 2022 Iowa City census, 13 percent of the city’s population is over 65 years old.

It’s super expensive. Young people really should think about how they’re going to get fleeced.”

Kaskie said one factor that aids in fewer hospital visits is the Iowa Return to Community program, launched in 2019 to mitigate this issue and help transition older people back to their homes after surgeries or hospital stays.

The program uses social workers who go to doctor’s offices to see a patient’s home and ensure they have access to assistance with daily

tasks, such as feeding a dog or taking a shower. This way, older people aren’t reinjuring themselves trying to do things alone and winding up back in the hospital and using more taxpayer money. “Those places are supposed to be there to take care of people with really serious nursing problems,” Kaskie said. “They’re not there just

IC nonprofit supports Indigenous communities

The Great Plains Action Society distributed buffalo meat to Indigenous people in Iowa.

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See

Emma Jane News Reporter daily-iowan@uiowa.edu

A lifelong passion for justice fuels Iowa City resident Sikowis Nobiss, a member of Plains Cree/Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan.

“I feel like my ancestors put something in me where I have always been somebody that feels very strongly about social and environmental justice,” Nobiss, founder of the Great Plains Action Society, said.

Nobiss moved to Iowa City for graduate school and recognized a need in the community for Indigenous spaces and representation.

“After I graduated I felt lonely,” Nobiss said. “I knew that we needed a voice for Native

people here.” Nobiss found her footing as a local activist during the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016, challenging the construction of an oil pipeline that threatened water resources and sacred tribal sites throughout the Dakotas and Iowa. Protests of the pipeline eventually concentrated at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Nobiss brought an Indigenous perspective to the forefront of the fight in Iowa, bridging the gap with rural landowners who also opposed the pipeline. “I decided that we needed more resistance in Iowa,” Nobiss said. She established Little Creek Camp, a traditional healing space and action center for water protectors. The camp evolved into the

Great Plains Action Society in 2017, an Indigenous-run nonprofit that works to amplify and empower Indigenous voices in Iowa.

The Great Plains Action Society’s mission goes beyond efforts for education and acknowledgment of historical trauma. The organization actively works to empower Indigenous communities by reclaiming traditional practices and connection to the land and its creatures, a facet of what Nobiss calls “reMatriation.”

Putting their vision into practice, the Great Plains Action Society partnered with Water Panther Consulting and the Intertribal Buffalo Council in February to hold their first buffalo harvest initiative.

Working with three buffalo gifted by the

Emily Nyberg | The Daily Iowan

Jen and Dawn

make dinner at their home in Iowa City on April 1. The two were legally married July 12, 2009, after Iowa legalized same-sex marriage. Previously, they had a wedding ceremony on Oct. 12, 1990.

On April 3, 2009, samesex marriage became legal in Iowa because of Varnum v. Brien. The BarbouRoskes said at the time they were flabbergasted by the decision because they never thought marriage would ever be an option for a couple like them.

“We always hoped to be in a committed, long-term relationship with somebody, but the concept of marriage was beyond what we were thinking,” Jen BarbouRoske said.

Attitudes toward samesex marriage in Iowa at the time were positive despite the state’s conservative reputation. Mitchell Gold, the retired founder of the home furnishing company Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, said he got married in Iowa in June 2010 despite not being from or living in Iowa.

Gold said he and his partner at the time, Tim Scofield, chose to get married in Iowa partly because of its central location to their family members, but mostly they felt recognizing the state of Iowa for its progressive values would be a powerful statement.

“I thought it would have a great impact if it was written about locally that we got married in the middle of America — Iowa — not a liberal place but a rather conservative [place],” Gold said. Gold said he was never on the receiving end of any homophobic comments in Iowa or North Carolina, which is where he lives.

“I can’t think of anybody that said something nasty and snarky to me, which is just some level of progress,” Gold said.

In recent years, however, the BarbouRoskes and Gold said attitudes around same-sex marriage have shifted.

“I think it’s not easy to say ‘Oh, everything is better,’ and on the contrary side, it’s not easy to say, ‘Oh, everything’s falling apart,’” Gold said. “It’s this continued struggle, but I do think the struggle now is a little more severe than it was five years ago.”

Recent marriage equality bills

Last year, a bill was drafted in the Iowa Legislature that would define marriage in the state’s constitution as “the solemnized union between one human biological male and one human biological female.” The bill was sponsored by

eight Republican representatives in the state House.

Bills of this nature have been introduced in the Iowa Legislature year after year, Rep. Brad Sherman, R-Williamsburg, said.

For example, a bill was introduced in the Iowa House that would amend the Iowa code to state that the Iowa Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction over the laws determining the validity of marriage in the state. This bill was introduced during the 84th general assembly, between 2011 and 2013.

Sherman, who drafted the bill, said the bill is not trying to take away the right to marriage for samesex couples but rather preserve Christian values in the state.

“I’m not trying to violate somebody’s rights or push them down,” Sherman said. “But what I do believe is that to define marriage in this way violates very sacred religious principles.”

Sherman said although the current state code already defines a “valid” marriage as being between a man and a woman, this bill is necessary because state courts have to abide by Iowa’s constitution.

“The courts basically have ignored state code, and they’ve gone ahead and basically legitimized samesex marriage — the [Iowa] Supreme Court did that in

LEGALIZING GAY MARRIAGE THROUGH US HISTORY

Over a span of 15 years, the legalization status of gay marriage took many turns.

2009,” Sherman said. “So I think it’s probably just one of those things in the code that has been overlooked.”

Around the same time this bill moved through the Iowa Legislature, another bill was drafted that would make the state code less gendered when referring to marriage. This bill was sponsored by 30 Democrats in the state House.

Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Iowa City, drafted the bill and said the time has come for the state to bring its code to modern times.

“Iowans want to let others go about their business and live their lives. Iowans want to see their friends and family happy and safe and secure,” Levin said. “And these bills that try to tear families apart, that try to take adoptive children out of loving homes, are never going to be the way to do that.”

Neither of these bills were assigned to a subcom-

New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., also in 2009.

Arts Editor Avi Lapchick olivia-lapchick@uiowa.edu

Asst. Arts Editor Charlie Hickman charlie-hickman@uiowa.edu

Visuals Editors Emily Nyberg emily-e-nyberg@uiowa.edu

than marriage equality at this point in time. These bills can have a detrimental effect on the mental health of the

“We always hoped to be in a committed, long-term relationship with somebody, but the concept of marriage was beyond what we were thinking.”

Jen BarbouRoske Iowa City LGBTQ+ community member

mittee, but both Levin and Sherman said these kinds of bills will certainly be seen in the Iowa Legislature in the future.

Bills such as these in Iowa have also popped up in legislatures across the U.S. For example, a Tennessee bill that allows public officials to refuse to carry out a marriage if it goes against their beliefs was signed into law in Feb-

Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO and president of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD, wrote in a stateThe Daily Iowan the fight for marriage equality in Iowa was one step in making the nation more accepting of same-sex

“Our relationships, children, and families are more accepted now than ever,” Ellis wrote. “The fight for marriage equality had an immeasurable impact on expanding empathy and acceptance in the heartland

According to a 2023 poll from Gallup, 71 percent of those surveyed said they believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid with the same rights as opposite-sex mar-

Marriage equality’s history

The first few states to legally recognize same-sex marriage did so through court rulings rather than putting marriage equality into the law through legislation, according to Reuters.

The first U.S. state to do so was Massachusetts in 2003. Five years later, Connecticut became the second state to recognize same-sex marriage in its courts, followed by Iowa in 2009.

That same year, Vermont became the first U.S. state to recognize same-sex marriage through legislation. This was soon followed by

Eventually, more and more states began to recognize same-sex marriages through legislation or court cases. By February 2015, only 13 states banned samesex marriage, according to CNN.

On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that same-sex marriage is a right guaranteed by the Constitution in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges . This decision legalized same-sex marriage for all states.

In December 2022, President Joe Biden signed the “Respect for Marriage Act” into law. This act created legal authority for same-sex and interracial marriages and repealed any laws that prevented a same-sex marriage in one state from being recognized in another.

Marriage equality’s future

Despite the progress and cultural shifts surrounding marriage equality, some members of the LGBTQ+ community worry this right could be taken away in the future.

Grace Nelson, a first-year student at the University of Iowa, is from Sioux City, Iowa. She said while she considers Iowa home, she would leave the state if her rights as a member of the LGBTQ+ community were taken away.

“If it comes down to it where I’m not going to be legally recognized as married to another woman if that law were to be passed, then I would leave,” Nelson said. “I would completely move out of the state and live somewhere where I am recognized as legally married to another woman or whatever the case may be.” Nelson said Iowa’s recent legislation surrounding transgender issues, such as “bathroom bills” and bills that would require school officials to out transgender students to their parents, are more concerning to her

transgender community, especially transgender youth, Nelson said. “I don’t think what [the state legislature is] trying to do is going to have any positive impact whatsoever,” Nelson said. “So it just causes me a lot of fear.”

According to a 2023 national survey from The Trevor Project, 41 percent of youth in the LGBTQ+ community seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

Kylen Phllips, a UI second-year student, shared the same sentiments as Nelson. The Davenport native said he has considered leaving the state because of recent legislation involving the transgender and LGBTQ+ community, but he does not plan to leave forever.

“I’ve always had plans to leave the state to gain some sort of more power to come back and help this state,” Phillips said. “Because I see that there are a lot of glimmers of hope a lot of the time, and there’s a lot of people who do care about the community in Iowa, it’s just not enough right now.”

The BarbouRoskes said recent legislation targeting the transgender community has made them fearful as well as disappointed.

“I think often of moving,” Dawn BarbouRoske said. “We fought so long to earn the rights not only for marriage but for LGBTQ+ youth, and we don’t want to give that up at the same time.”

The BarbouRoskes both work for the Iowa City Community School District and said seeing the children they work with has given them hope for the future.

“We work with youth, and I have great hope that things will get better because the kids seem to understand,” Jen BarbouRoske said. “They respect each other and respect each other’s pronouns.”

Cody Blissett cody-blissett@uiowa.edu

Asst. Digital Editor Natalie Dunlap natalie-dunlap@uiowa.edu

DEI Director Christie Cellman christie-cellman@uiowa.edu

DITV News Director Ashley Weil ashley-weil@uiowa.edu

DITV

Emily Nyberg | The Daily Iowan

Jen and Dawn BarbouRoske make dinner at their home in Iowa City on April 1. The two were legally married July 12, 2009, after Iowa legalized same-sex marriage. Previously, they had a wedding ceremony on Oct. 12, 1990.

Levin

Sherman

Contributed by Don BarbouRoske

NONPROFIT

Nature Conservancy at Dunn Ranch in Hatfield, Missouri, the primary focus of the harvest was to educate Native youth on traditional harvesting methods and emphasize community building and healing through hands-on learning.

The buffalo harvest, Nobiss said, was also a display of Indigenous resilience in action.

“We’re trying to bring resources and skills back to Indigenous people, and that’s what the buffalo harvest was about,” Nobiss said. “It’s about building community and bringing that power back to us. It’s all part of the idea of Rematriation.”

Prioritizing the needs of urban Indigenous communities, the harvested meat and bones were primarily distributed in Sioux City, Iowa’s largest urban Native population center. A smaller portion returned to community members in Iowa City.

“Seventy percent of us don’t live on the reservation anymore, so there needs to be more for us outside of that,” Nobiss said. “That’s where we’re trying to fill in the gaps.”

The organization has been a lifeline for Indigenous people facing racism, said Marie Krebs, a member of the Apache Nation and managing director for the Great Plains Action Society.

Before the founding of the Great Plains Action Society, she said, her voice as an Indigenous parent was ignored when she raised concerns about her son being placed in a Redzone youth football team in Coralville called “The Redskins.” The team’s name changed in 2022 following the rebranding of the NFL’s Washington Redskins, but Krebs said it was not

AGE from 1B

because somebody needs assistance to go to the bathroom. We need people to be at home to help these folks.”

Kaskie said another reason for the state’s significant older population is that very few Iowans leave the state for work, and they don’t leave for retirement, either.

“These older folks don’t leave,” he said. “They’re not moving to Florida or anything. They’re here, aging in place.”

Iowa City is also commonly known as one of the best places in the country to retire and was featured on the Forbes Best Places to Retire list in 2023. The city has UI Hospitals and Clinics

and other university-based perks, such as sporting events and shows at Hancher Auditorium.

The Iowa City Senior Center is another amenity for older people in the area. Senior Center Program Specialist Michelle Buhman said she has seen an increase in the number of people 50 years of age and older who utilize the center’s programs and events. The center has also been providing more activities over Zoom for older people who may not be able to drive or have the mobility to attend in person.

“There’s a lot of people retiring in the last few years, and I witness new people coming in all the time and taking tours and participating in activities here for the

driven by a moral imperative.

“With Sikowis and Great Plains Action Society, we’re louder now, and they can’t brush us off so easily,” Nobiss said.

While the Great Plains Action Society empowers local Indigenous communities, Nobiss’ dedication to social justice extends to citywide initiatives.

As a commissioner, she secured the inclusion of Native partners on the Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission, allowing the addition of traditional healing circles to its meetings.

Her commitment and the visibility of the Great Plains Action Society also led to the Iowa City Human Rights Commission’s adoption of a formal land acknowledgment in 2021 which is read at the start of each meeting.

“They’ve been a great resource to us,” Doug Kollasch, the chair of the Human Rights Commission, said. “If you were to ask me to name a couple nonprofit organizations in Iowa City that have a tremendous impact, they’d be at the top of the list.”

The Great Plains Action Society also organized the first local celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day — celebrated annually across the country on the second Monday in October — and hosts an annual event in November called Truthsgiving.

Krebs highlighted the importance of this event for the Indigenous community to celebrate on its own terms as well as to dispel the misconception that Native people are a relic of the past.

“We talk about the truth about Thanksgiving and share Indigenous culture and voices,” Krebs said.

first time,” Buhman said. Politically, older citizens also hold a strong role in the state. UI associate professor of political science Tim Hagle said older people have historically been registered to vote in the highest numbers, and the Iowa caucuses lead to high voter registration numbers, too. Not only are they registered at higher numbers, but voters 65 and older voted in the highest percentage in 2022.

“By the time you get to age 65, you’ve had a lot of years where people have been trying to get you registered for one reason or another,” Hagle said. “There really aren’t a lot of people who are 65 who aren’t registered at this point.”

Since the older genera -

tion holds a great deal of political power in the state, Hagle said younger voters should focus on being involved and proactive in elections.

“The key for a lot of younger voters is to make sure that their concerns are being heard,” Hagle said. “Whether that’s talking to their state legislators — which should be somewhat accessible to them — or whatever it happens to be to make sure that those folks understand what the issues are from their perspective.”

Sahithi Shankaiahgari | The Daily Iowan

The Senior Center’s singing group sings during a Lyrics Alive event at the Iowa City Senior Center on April 1.

Iowa lawmakers assess tuition solutions

Could a tuition cap be the solution to the continued rising cost of colleges in Iowa?

Liam Halawith Politics Editor liam-halawith@uiowa.edu

Avery Dettbarn knew she wanted to be a lawyer since she was 10 years old. After watching the popular TV series “Law & Order” with her mother in her rural northeastern hometown of Strawberry Point, Iowa.

The high cost of college made Dettbarn’s journey much harder.

When Dettbarn applied to colleges during her senior year of high school, she wanted to kickstart her legal career as a Hawkeye. The combination of in-state tuition and proximity to Strawberry Point — just 83 miles away from the town of just over 1,000 people — made the University of Iowa her first choice.

After being accepted and receiving her financial aid award letter, Dettbarn — now a second-year student studying political science — knew she would still have to cover several thousands of dollars in tuition with private student loans. Despite applying for dozens of loans using her mother, father, grandparents, and her uncle as cosigners, no one in her family had a high enough credit score to qualify for a private student loan.

Distraught, Dettbarn said she didn’t know what to do. Having never considered that she couldn’t afford college, Dettbarn asked her high school guidance counselor for advice.

“There was no advice,” Dettbarn said. “It was just, ‘Then you can’t go to college,’ which was hard to hear because I wanted to go to college. I wanted to be a lawyer.”

Ultimately, a distant relative was able to loan Dettbarn the money to cover the gap left over after financial aid for her first year of college, which Dettbarn is still paying back.

The next year, Dettbarn said she was able to get enough scholarships to cover her tuition and fees, but the cost of college still weighs on her. She plans to graduate a year early to save on the cost of tuition.

“... If I don’t get a scholarship, I probably wouldn’t be able to go another year,” Dettbarn said.

Dettbarn is one of thousands of students at Iowa’s three public universities and across the country grappling with the rising cost of college.

The average cost of tuition for all undergraduate resident students at Iowa’s public universities has risen 263 percent since 1998, pushing the yearly advertised price to an average of $10,396, according to an analysis of tuition rates by The Daily Iowan More of the regents’ budget derives from tuition than from state appropriations.

Now, on average, in-state undergraduate students can expect to pay over $10,000 tuition. For out-of-state students, the burden is even higher at $26,735 per year. On average, the majority of Iowa undergraduates are saddled with $25,800 in total debt upon graduation, according to the 2022-23 regents financial aid report.

While state funding has shrunk in recent decades, regent university leaders have said they need to hike tuition to maintain educational quality at their institutions. As a result, the burden of paying for college at public universities in Iowa has fallen mostly on families and students.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are looking to solve out-of-control tuition costs and provide relief to Iowa students,

University have fallen in the same period.

Inflation has also caused the cost of providing services to rise as well, resulting in state funding making up increasingly smaller portions of universities’ overall budgets.

The percentage of university budgets paid for with student tuition revenue has dramatically increased since the 2008 financial crisis. State appropriations comprised 50 percent of regent university revenues in fiscal 2008 and only accounted for 30 percent of revenues in fiscal 2023, the budget year ending on June 30, 2023.

The last year state appropriations made up a majority of regent university revenue was fiscal 2009 when state funding made up 48.3 percent of the universities’ budgets, according to a 2023 regents report.

Democrats largely support increases in state appropriations to regent universities to help combat the high cost of college.

“What that means for students — if you think about costs going up, state appropriations going down — the burden of paying for college and educating our workforce has really shifted from one that’s taken on by the state government, to one that has been shifted on to Iowa families,” Rep. Adam Zabner, D-Iowa City, said. Zabner introduced House Democrats’ bill to freeze tuition.

While Democrats support large boosts in funding, Republicans have been wary of approving appropriations increases while they focus on reducing funding for DEI programs and administrative costs.

Increasingly, the GOP has favored

full-time employees employed by regent universities to lead DEI initiatives at their respective institutions. Collins said these DEI executives collectively cost regent universities $750,000 a year in salary and benefits.

“It is very frustrating when I have to tell my constituents that that is going on,” Collins said during a floor debate on Feb. 29. “The reason for this proposal is that Americans, and ultimately Iowans, are losing trust in our higher education system.”

Collins did not respond to requests for comment from the DI after over 10 attempts by phone and email over two weeks.

He acknowledged that a report presented to lawmakers at a House Education Appropriations subcommittee meeting before floor debate showed Iowa’s universities are among the lowest in the country for administrative costs. According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, the report showed administrative costs account for 5.8 percent of “core” expenses.

Declining state appropriations for regent universities has been the trend nationwide, according to a 2021 report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. The report states state funding is generally linked to recessions, where states take stock of spending priorities and often have to massively cut budgets.

Dustin Weeden, associate vice president of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, said states often rely on public universities to raise tuition to account for the lost revenue from dwindling state appropriations.

“Most institutions nationwide have shifted to relying more on students to pay than they were 20 to 40 years ago,” Weeden said. “Following the Great Recession, half of the states, at one point, the majority of their revenue came from tuition, and we have since seen a lot of states reinvest.”

The state of Washington cut tuition at its public colleges by 20 to 30 percent in 2015 — the same time the Iowa regents froze tuition at the three public universities — and Washington lawmakers backfilled the tuition reduction with state tax dollars.

However, studies show that dwindling state funding for higher education isn’t the only contributing factor to rising tuition costs. The number of enrolled students, inflation, and state appropriations all contribute.

Could a tuition cap slow the cost of college?

but they differ on the methods.

This legislative session, Iowa House Republicans and Democrats introduced rival bills aimed at tackling the cost of college: House File 2558 and House File 2352.

Both bills were killed by legislative deadlines that prevent them from being revived without tactics that legislative leadership can use to resurrect any bills they want to see considered.

One theme rang true in both proposals: A tuition cap may be the answer to Iowa’s rising tuition rates. However, Democrats worry that without an increase in funding to Iowa’s three public universities, it could cause the universities to cut programs. Republicans suggest administrative bloat is to blame for soaring costs.

Increasing state appropriations is part of the solution, experts say State funding to Iowa’s regent univer sities has remained relatively stagnant, only increasing by $10 million since 1998 as appropriations to the UI and Iowa State

investing in workforce programs to provide Iowans with job training beyond high school without having to pursue higher education.

“We are interested in looking at every aspect of taxpayer dollars being spent at our regent universities. Everything: what they spend on programs, DEI, and other administrative costs,” Rep. Carter Nordman, R-Adel, said during a February budget subcommittee meeting on higher education funding. “We are interested not only in how much we appropriate but how those appropriated dollars are being spent at our regents.”

Nordman chairs the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee that crafts higher education budgets. He declined multiple requests for comment from the DI before publication.

Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis said during a floor debate that administrative “bloat” has cost the state millions and pointed to four

While experts agree there is no singular solution to the rising cost of college, some say that limiting tuition increases could be a key part of the solution. However, others say it is a temporary solution to a complex problem and could hurt universities’ fiscal outlook if not done right.

House Republicans’ proposal, among other things, would have capped tuition increases by the regents, who govern Iowa’s three public universities, at 3 percent year over year.

The bill didn’t include an explicit increase to funding for the state’s public universities, which Democrats said was “reckless” because it could result in the loss of services or quality at regent universities. Democrats’ proposal would have given state appropriations to fund any lost revenue from the tuition freeze they proposed.

Zabner, who represents western Iowa City including the area surrounding the UI campus, told the DI the Republicans’ pro posal would put regent universities in fiscal precarity. Zabner said Iowa needs to ensure legislation addressing the cost of college doesn’t affect services and rather makes college more affordable.

they’re faced with huge loads of debt.” Collins said the cost of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and services has led regent universities away from their focus on providing high-quality education.

The bill would have put 10 directives on DEI programs into law that require regent universities to eliminate any DEI programs not required for accreditation or by federal and state law. The regents signed off on the directives in November.

Collins also said the bill pairs down the DEI programs and the costs associated with them. However, the bill directs all required DEI programs to be available for all students, which a nonpartisan analysis of the bill by the Legislative Services Agency says could come with a steep increase in costs.

“This bill stops the pursuit of these distractions and ideological agendas. It reorients the focus of our higher education system back to the pursuit of academic excellence, which should have been the point from the start; controls the ever-rising costs of higher education; and gives this body increased oversight over the regent enterprise,” Collins said during floor debate on Feb. 29.

Other Republicans who cosponsored House Republicans’ bill to cap tuition including Reps. Skyler Wheeler of Hull; Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton; Dan Gehlbach of Urbandale; Craig Johnson of Independence; Henry Stone of Forest City; and Steven Holt of Denison could not be reached by phone for comment on March 29.

Iowa is not the only state that has considered capping tuition increases or freezing tuition. A 2020 report by the Education Commission of the States found that 11 states have capped or frozen tuition at their fouryear universities.

While Iowa lawmakers have not previously enacted a tuition cap, all three regent universities did freeze resident undergraduate tuition between the 2012-13 and 2014-15 academic years. Following the twoyear tuition freeze, regents increased tuition by $300 for resident undergraduates after state lawmakers undercut regents’ general fund request by $14 million.

The only other time in recent history the regents froze tuition was in the 2020-21 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bob Shireman, a higher education policy expert with the progressive think tank The Century Foundation, said states that have tried to artificially keep tuition low by capping it without backfilling state appropriations to fill the gap have had “negative unintended consequences.”

“It ends up being a lot more costly for students,” Shireman said, referring to indefinite caps on tuition increases, like the one proposed by the Iowa House Republicans. “It’s too simplistic an approach with a lot of unintended consequences that can hurt students and communities by undermining the quality education that schools are trying to provide.”

What’s next for higher education appropriations?

“What we’re seeing in Iowa with the rising cost of tuition is students who have that aspiration to go to college, have done everything right, and the cost is getting in the way, and they are not able to pursue those dreams of going to college,” Zabner said. “Or if they do,

While lawmakers will continue to debate solutions to the cost of college in the state as the session comes to a close, lawmakers must focus on crafting the state’s $8.6 billion budget over the coming weeks. That process includes deciding on state funds for Iowa’s three public universities. Republicans have undercut the regents’ funding requests for years. In this year’s proposed budget, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has recommended $27 million less for higher education funding than the $609 million regents asked for to support the universities’ general funds.

With both House and Senate Republicans announcing their state budget targets on March 28, the chambers will begin negotiations in the coming weeks.

Zabner

Cody Blissett | The Daily Iowan

University of Iowa professor Michael Flatté speaks during a Board of Regents meeting in Cedar Falls, Iowa on Nov. 15, 2023. Flatté spoke against the proposal to move the computer science department into the Iowa advanced technology labs.

Food-insecure Iowans deserve resources

State programs are not sufficient despite Iowa being a top U.S. agriculture producer.

It is an anomaly that’s hard to ignore: Iowa is one of the most productive agricultural states in the country, yet many of its residents go hungry. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Iowa is the second-highest food-producing state in the nation, but hundreds of thousands of Iowans still struggle with hunger.

According to data collected by Feeding America, around 238,290 Iowans are facing hunger in 2023. Of that number, 68,990 are children. This means that one in 13 people, or 7.7 percent of Iowans, face hunger and food insecurity.

Food insecurity refers to the lack of access to sufficient food that is necessary for a healthy and active life. This issue is considered a major public health concern, as it is associated with a range of adverse social and health outcomes.

The impact of limited access to food can be significant, particularly for children. According to an article published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, food insecurity “has insidious effects on the health and development of young children … These concerns early in life increase children’s risk of poor school performance, and subsequent health disparities …”

Factors that contribute to food insecurity include unemployment, poverty, and sudden loss of income. Food deserts, or places where it is difficult to gain access to cheap nutritious food, also contribute to this issue. All of these have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food banks across the state have experienced an unprecedented spike in the use of their services, with the Food Bank of Iowa reporting that 36 percent of “hardworking Iowa families and many folks living on fixed incomes do not make enough money to cover the cost of basic needs.”

According to its website, in November alone, the food bank distributed a new record of 21.5 million pounds of food across the state, an increase of 4 million pounds from the previous year.

Despite food banks having to accommodate increasing demands, it is alarming to hear that Senate File 494, a bill signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, poses an additional threat to Iowans facing hunger.

The new bill will require Iowa families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, funds to be newly assessed before they can obtain the food assistance they deserve.

Additionally, Iowa will not be participating in the 2024 Summer EBT program, which provides additional food assistance for children during the summer.

This program is crucial for families with children who are eligible for free or reducedprice meals at school, providing them with an EBT card to purchase $40 of food per child each month when school is not in session.

Food is not a luxury, and food assistance programs should not be treated as such. Food contains the necessary nutrients needed for the growth and maintenance of the body. People need food to stay alive and be productive, and we should not dehumanize those who need assistance in this area of life.

To address food insecurity in Iowa, all need-based financial aid must reflect the rising costs of living in Iowa, and we need to implement increased public benefits and easier access to food assistance programs similar to SNAP on a societal level. We must also bring acute attention to the role of government systems and policies that keep certain communities food insecure and perpetuate discriminatory practices.

By taking action on these fronts, we can work towards a more equitable and just society where everyone can access basic needs such as food.

Iowa’s recent plan for gun safety has failed

Gov. Kim Reynolds promised $75 million in school protection two years ago, yet the funds remain stagnant.

Gun violence has become a repetitive part of the U.S. experience, and Iowa is no exception. The state government’s response has been entirely inadequate.

Iowa was promised over $75 million to fund school security in 2022. Two school shootings later, that money still has not been received and more gun expansion laws have been passed. Iowa’s state government has done a terrible job of combatting gun violence.

On Jan. 4, a deadly school shooting occurred at Perry High School, leaving a student and principal dead and seven others wounded. A year earlier, a shooting occurred in January 2023 at East High’s

Evan Weidl Opinions Columnist evan-weidl@uiowa.edu

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, my friends were constantly sending me links to TikTok videos, much to my annoyance. With every discussion of a trend on the app, I would scoff, seeing myself as intellectually superior to those fools who would spend so many hours watching mind-numbing videos.

In May of that year, I finally caved. I downloaded the app and made an account, but only to watch videos my friends sent me, I said to myself.

Four years later, I spend an embarrassing amount of time on TikTok. In fact, I don’t spend half as much time on any other app as I do on TikTok. TikTok should be banned but not because of misguided security concerns. It

charter school in Des Moines, in which two students were killed.

Since these shootings, Iowa legislators have taken no action, instead expanding gun usage.

In June 2022, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Iowa would use over $75 million from pandemic relief funds to increase school security measures in schools, which came in response to the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

In an act of stunning hypocrisy, Reynolds signed a bill that would allow wider use of guns just a few weeks after the massacre at Uvalde. Even worse, she promised that over 1,500 Iowa schools would receive $50,000 to “fix vulnerabilities,” but many of those schools have still not received this funding.

According to the Associated Press, “most schools statewide have yet to receive funding, including those in Perry, a city of 8,000 people … ”

After these shootings and a failed opportunity to prevent them, it is clear the state government is incompetent at tackling gun violence. It’s not just the missing school funding—it’s also the gun expansion legislation.

The Iowa House passed a new bill in March to arm teachers at school. Teachers should not be responsible for protecting students from armed intruders. It’s not their responsibility to risk their lives to protect students, not to mention having access to guns in the classroom is dangerous for both the students and the teachers.

Reynolds told the public that the deaths of those in Perry and Des Moines were the fault of the education system, as the suspects “weren’t in school.”

“The tragedy is our educational system is letting these kids down. They should have been in school.

We should be figuring out resources to help them stay there,” Reynolds said, according to KCCI.

While she has a point about students staying in school to avoid entering “a life of crime,” there are other ways to tackle gun violence that do not include giving weapons to teachers or expanding the usage of firearms.

Rather than doing the sensible thing in calling for stricter gun control or doing anything that can prevent criminals from obtaining their weapons, she blames the education system.

According to the Quad-City Times , Reynolds also said “no additional gun laws would have prevented what happened. There’s just evil out there.”

It seems as though Iowa’s legislators, and particularly Reynolds, simply do not care about school security, as they pitch nothing but bad idea after bad idea.

Even if it means someone should go down to the schools in person to hand over the money, that has to happen. The best way to increase school security is to get that money in the hands of the schools and to stop expanding the use of firearms.

should be banned because of its addicting properties, harmful algorithm, and the ease with which it influences its users.

It’s no secret that social media can have devastating effects on people’s self-esteem and self-image, especially children. TikTok is a particularly dangerous proponent of this effect.

With its endless supply of short videos, TikTok is a cheap dopamine factory for the developing brain. This leads to young people, myself included, becoming addicted to mindlessly swiping.

Last spring, I declared that enough was enough, and I deleted TikTok from my own home screen. Not one hour later, I found myself on the couch, craving the cheap dopamine hits that those videos gave me. TikTok found itself back on my phone, and it hasn’t gone anywhere since.

I am not alone in my problem. Over 1.5 billion TikTok users spend nearly 4.5 billion minutes watching the 15 second to three-minute-long videos every day, according to Statista.

The best way to beat the temptation? Get rid of the option in the first place. For my sake, and the sake of the rest of my generation, TikTok should be banned.

NO

It’s no secret that TikTok has garnered a massive audience from both its supporters and opponents. With the recent announcement of the platform being banned in the U.S. by the government, many are questioning the validity of this recent legislation.

TikTok should not be banned because the platform has launched careers for many social media users and is primarily used in the beauty and fashion industries. The platform has boosted small-business sales and cultivated its audience of over 1 billion monthly users. To ban it would spell disaster for many U.S. beauty brands and social media users who rely on the platform for income.

Websites such as Youthforia with more than 185,000 followers, and skin care companies like Nailboo and BeautyStat have used TikTok to promote their products and build a large audience thanks to the platform.

With the app banned, it spells disaster for countless companies like these since they would either go out of business or have to transition to another app.

However, TikTok has become so intertwined in the beauty and fashion industry that finding a replacement would be a problematic task. Although many believe TikTok is a spyware company for the Chinese government, the truth is that it is not unique.

TikTok works by collecting data and information about users, but so do Facebook, Instagram, and Google. This isn’t special to TikTok. Following this logic on TikTok would mean banning those other sites, too, but that would mean banning popular websites beloved by people. Banning TikTok is not the right answer. There must be another option, like investing in better U.S. security privacy laws.

Aaron El-Kerdani Opinions Columnist fouad-el-kerdani@uiowa.edu

DI photojournalist wins first place Hearst award

Daily Iowan senior photojournalist Grace Smith won first place for the 2023-24 Hearst Journalism Award in the category of Photojournalism II - Picture Story/ Series. Her winning portfolio followed fourth grader Liam Doxsee, who lives with severe combined immunodeficiency, in his time as Iowa baseball’s Kid Captain. Smith is a fourth-year student at University of Iowa double majoring in journalism and cinematic arts.

Daily Iowan Visuals Editor Emily Nyberg won fourth place for the 2023-24 Hearst Journalism Award in the category of Photojournalism II - Picture Story/Series. Her winning portfolio followed the status of the maternal health care desert in Iowa, including photos of a live at-home birth. Nyberg is a second-year student at the UI double majoring in journalism and cinematic arts.

DI Visuals Editor wins fourth place Hearst award

Emily Nyberg

The Daily Iowan Moria Weitz supports Megan Swanson as she delivers her first child in her and her husband James’ home in Cedar Rapids on Sept. 21, 2023. Weitz started Rooted in Love Midwifery with Allie Kubik, a fellow CNM. In August 2023, March of Dimes, a nonprofit dedicated to improving

OB-GYNs or birthing hospitals. Midwives like Kubik and Weitz are working to fill this gap.

Grace Smith | The Daily Iowan

Liam Doxsee stands with Iowa baseball athletes Ben Wilmes (19), Michael Seegers (10), Gable Mitchell (2), and Blake Guerin (45) during a baseball game at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City on Sept. 21, 2023. A little over a year ago, Liam joined the Iowa baseball team as its Kid Captain, giving him the chance to deepen his connections with his favorite team and sport. Liam was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare genetic disorder that affects the immune system, when he was just five days old. About one in 58,000 children are born with SCID each year in the U.S.

CUTTING DOWN THE NET

The No.1 Hawkeyes defeated the No. 4 Tigers, 94-87, on April 1, paving their way to the Final Four. Iowa will play UConn for a spot in the NCAA Championship game on April 5.

Ayrton Breckenridge and Grace Smith | The Daily Iowan

(Above) Iowa guard Caitlin Clark gestures toward the crowd after a NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game between No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 LSU at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y., on April 1. The Hawkeyes defeated the Tigers, 94-87. (Below left) LSU forward Angel Reese prepares to shoot a layup during the

Tournament Elite Eight game. Reese scored

head coach Kim Mulkey puts her head down during the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game.

(Bottom left) Iowa guard Caitlin Clark shoots a 3-pointer during the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game. Clark now has the most 3-pointers in NCAA women’s basketball history.

(Bottom right) Iowa celebrates winning the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game. On April 5 Iowa will play UConn for a spot in the NCAA Championship game set for April 8.

During the NCAA Elite Eight game, both teams found themselves with a player fouled out in the final quarter.

CAN IOWA WIN?

Besides having the best player in the game wearing the Black and Gold, Iowa showcased its depth against LSU, particularly at the forward position. Shoot at least 40 percent from downtown in the next two games and the squad will be cutting nets.

TOP PLAYER

I’ll figure it’s that No. 22. Caitlin Clark put the Hawkeyes on her back in their Elite Eight matchup against No. 3 LSU, piling up 41 points, seven rebounds, and 12 assists. Clark will undoubtedly have 25 points, but the efficiency of her scoring will be most pertinent.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 | 8:30 P.M. CT | ESPN

CAN UCONN WIN?

The Wolfpack might be the leasthyped squad remaining, but don’t let their No. 3 seed and second-place finish in the ACC fool you. NC State dethroned the top two seeds in their region, holding each to below 70 points and shooting at least 40 percent from beyond the arc.

TOP PLAYER Paige Bueckers would easily be a top-10 pick in the 2024 draft had she not chosen to stay for a fourth year with the Huskies. The junior averages 21.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists this season and actually has a better three-point percentage and turnover rate than Clark.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SUNDAY, APRIL 7 | ESPN

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 | 6 P.M. CT | ESPN

CAN SOUTH CORALINA WIN?

Unlike last year, South Carolina was put to the test in early tournament play, narrowly surviving Indiana in a 79-75 nailbiter in the Sweet 16. Having this close of a contest helps prepare the Gamecocks for pressure situations, where Staley’s squad has the defense to thrive.

CAN NC STATE WIN?

Head coach Geno Auriemma isn’t fazed by the big stage, and neither is his squad, who lacks depth but bolsters a mighty triple-threat in Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, and Nika Muhl — each of whom played the whole game against USC and scored 75 percent of the Huskies’ points.

TOP PLAYER

Third-year guard Aziaha James topped the team in scoring in each of its tournament victories, not to mention making more than half of her shots from the field during that span. She logged all 40 minutes against the Longhorns, piling up 27 points, six boards, and four assists.

SPORTS COMMENT MATT MCGOWAN STATISTIC COLLECTION EMILY NYBERG AND ISABELLA TISDALE PAGE DESIGN MARANDAH MANGRA-DUTCHER

| THE DAILY IOWAN

Clark pushes Iowa to Final Four

Caitlin Clark avenged a national championship loss to LSU with a record-breaking performance in the Elite Eight. She had 41 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds.

Cooper‌‌‌‌Worth‌‌ Sports Reporter cooper-worth@uiowa.edu‌‌‌

ALBANY, N.Y. — In the 2023 NCAA National Championship in Dallas, Texas, LSU sent guard Caitlin Clark and Iowa packing in embarrassing fashion.

The Tigers ran Iowa off the court, winning by nearly 20 points and taunting Clark and company as time expired, with center Angel Reese hitting the now infamous ‘you can’t see me’ gesture toward Clark as she walked to the bench.

Now, almost a year to the date of Iowa’s crushing loss, Clark and Iowa got revenge.

The No. 1 Hawkeyes beat No. 3 LSU 94-87 Monday evening in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four for the second straight season. Clark led Iowa with a double-double outing of 41 points and 12 assists while also grabbing seven rebounds.

“I think that speaks to the confidence I have in myself, and I thought my shot felt good in warmups,” Clark said in the post-game press conference. “It was nice for sure to have a game where I got some good looks for three.”

It was a signature night for Clark, with the reigning national player of the year going 9-for-20 from beyond the arc, tying her career best for most 3-pointers made in a game and the NCAA Tournament single-game record.

Clark’s 45 percent clip from three was the best she’s shot in Iowa’s last seven games, and in the process of hitting her nine three-pointers, she broke the record for most triples made in a career in NCAA history.

“I feel like I’ve used every word imaginable to describe [Caitlin],” head coach Lisa Bluder said. “Her distance shots were amazing tonight, [and] her logo threes were incredible. How do you defend that? It’s nearly impossible.”

“She’s lighthearted before the game starts, but she is super locked in once we step out on the

Sydney Affolter Iowa guard

Clark didn’t just camp out from beyond the arc against LSU, as she also blew by defenders and scored near the basket on four of her 13 made field goals. She also got to the foul line seven times during the contest, making all but one.

Guard Gabbie Marshall said she’s never surprised whenever she hears that Clark broke another record and added that it’s all a testament to the work she puts in during practice.

“She did it all tonight, and when [LSU] took away the three ball, she went into the paint,” Marshall said. “I think she was just shooting on fire tonight. She was just feeling it.”

The records didn’t stop there, as Clark’s double-digit assists during the contest also set the record for the most assists in a career in NCAA women’s tournament history with 140.

“Taking a step back, I’m like, ‘Holy crap.’

She’s just amazing to watch,” guard Sydney Affotler said. “She’s the best college basket ball player at the moment, and I’m just super grateful to be her teammate for the past three years.”

Affotler said she is so used to seeing Clark make logo 3-pointers in practice that it doesn’t even faze her anymore when she attempts them in a game.

“She’s lighthearted before the game starts, but she is super locked in once we step out on the court,” Affolter said. “I had all the confi dence in the world that she was going to have a performance like she did today.”

With much anticipation going into this second game against LSU due to the antics of Reese postgame and the first matchup being the most viewed women’s basketball game on record, Clark said she and the team didn’t pay attention to any of the outside noise being made about the rematch.

“It could have been five vs. five with nobody in the gym, and both teams would have com peted the exact same way,” Clark said. “I’m not thinking, ‘Oh my god, there are millions of people watching this game at home right now.’ Like no, that’s not what’s happening. It’s what can I do for my team to help me win this game right now.”

Heading into Iowa’s Final Four matchup against No. 3 UConn, which is a rematch from the 2021 Sweet 16 game where the Huskies beat Iowa 92-72, Clark said she and her team mates will continue focusing on their ultimate goal of winning a national championship. UConn defeated No. 1 USC, 80-73, to punch its ticket to Cleveland.

“We focus on Iowa, and [if] we do what Iowa does, we’ll come out on top,” Clark said.

rematch of last year’s national championship, with millions of people tuning in across the nation. A chance at revenge for the Hawkeyes, who were sent packing by the LSU Tigers last season after giving up the most points in an NCAA title game. When you think of Iowa women’s basketball and its historic 2023 postseason run, your first thought is probably Caitlin Clark. But Iowa wouldn’t find itself in the Final Four for the second straight year without Martin’s leadership over the past six seasons and her 21-point performance against LSU on Monday night. Throughout Clark’s basketball career, which started at age five, she’s never had a teammate quite like Martin, who she called “the best leader she’s ever been around in [her entire life].” The pair has started 137 consecutive games together at Iowa, the longest streak by any Division I duo in the last 25 years.

“Caitlin’s a generational talent. Kate is a generational leader,” associate head coach Jan Jensen, Martin’s aunt, said. Martin said she and her teammates don’t look at LSU as a rival, and they didn’t even speak about last year’s heartbreaking loss. The Hawkeyes didn’t care who their opponent was in the Elite Eight, they were going to manifest themselves cutting down the nets at the end of the night regardless. This visualization of success went so far that the Hawkeyes were passing around scissors at shootaround Monday morning, each taking a turn to practice how they would snip off their piece of nylon after advancing to the national semifinals.

“I’m a huge believer in visualization,” Martin said. “I do it before every single game. You have to visualize positive things, and they’ll come to you.”

Those positive manifestations paid off in the end, and Martin admitted it felt good to come out on the winning side this time around against the Tigers.

“It’s always nice to get a second chance in life, and we don’t always get those. We got another chance of playing them, and we capitalized.”

and trailed by five — Martin embodied her well-known nickname, “The Glue.” Martin said she’s most proud of her team for being resilient and having an answer whenever LSU went on a run. She added it wasn’t necessarily a point of emphasis for her to get to the rim so often, but the Hawkeyes were “just taking what was open for us.”

Jensen said Clark’s older brother, Blake, called Martin “Dirk” after the game, comparing No. 20 to Dirk Nowitzki, whose step-back fadeaway was lethal during his 21 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. Martin let out a laugh at the compliment.

“I think that fadeaway jumper was pretty much big time there in that fourth quarter,” Jensen said. They got [our lead] down to 10 or eight, but Kate was like, ‘Uh-uh, I don’t think so.’”

“It’s always nice to get a second chance

in life, and we don’t always get those,” Martin said. “We got another chance of playing them, and we capitalized.” Whether it was the fadeaway jumper in the fourth quarter when LSU was trying to claw its way back in the game, one of her many drives to the hoop, or words of encouragement in the huddle when Iowa gave up 31 points in the first quarter

Head coach Lisa Bluder thought Martin did a “tremendous” job defensively against Aneesah Morrow, who the head coach said is a little bit of a “mismatch down underneath” for the Hawkeye. Morrow ended the game with 14 points and 14 boards. “Aneesah Morrow is a great player, and I think me and Kate both guarded her — Kate guarded her for a lot of the game,” said Iowa third-year Sydney Affolter, who recorded 16 points and five rebounds against the Tigers. “They beat us on the glass, but I think in the second half, we really stepped it up and focused on our box-outs and defense.”

Bluder chose Martin to update the bracket in the locker room, moving Iowa’s name to one of the Final Four slots. Making the trip to Cleveland along with Iowa are undefeated South Carolina, North Carolina State, and the Hawkeyes’ next opponent, UConn, who boasts star guard Paige Bueckers.

“I feel super grateful to be a part of this team and a part of this program,” Martin said after the Elite Eight win. “I’m just going to enjoy this one for now.”

Ayrton Breckenridge | The Daily Iowan

Iowa guard Caitlin Clark shoots the ball during a NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game between No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 LSU at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y., on April 1. The Hawkeyes defeated the Tigers, 94-87.

Grace Smith | The Daily Iowan

Iowa guard Kate Martin celebrates during an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game between No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 LSU at the Hilton Hotel in Albany, N.Y., on April 1. The Hawkeyes defeated the Tigers, 94-87.

Kate Martin Iowa guard

Ayrton Breckenridge| The Daily Iowan Iowa guard Caitlin Clark celebrates during a NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game between No. 1 Iowa and No. 3 LSU at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y., on April 1. The Hawkeyes defeated the Tigers, 94-87.

literary legends like poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib and “In the Dream House” author Carmen Maria Machado.

headliners include indie rock singer-songwriters Neko Case and Indigo De Souza on April 4-5 respectively, as well as rock band Osees on April 6. works year-round to establish re lationships with both national and local agents and artists to book a well-rounded selection of acts,” Ella Kang, Mission Creek Festival senior marketing manager, wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan “Same as previous years, we also opened up direct submissions from local Iowa artists, which I feel gives the festival that homegrown, personal touch.”

Kang added that this year will see additions and changes compared to previous years, including the introduction of a new venue in rotation: ReUnion Brewery on the Pedestrian Mall, will host free shows on April 6.

How to attend Mission Creek Festival

Where: Downtown Iowa City. See a full schedule at missioncreekfestival.com.

When: April 4-6

Cost: 3-day pass: $120; insider pass: $215; day passes vary in price. Student passes sold out.

“We also have a live taping of the renowned variety show Live Wire Radio as our capstone literary event, which should be unlike anything we’ve done in the past,” she wrote.

Mission Creek Festival utilizes multiple venues and shops across Iowa City, including Gabe’s, The Englert Theatre, Riverside Theatre, ReUnion Brewery, Hancher Auditorium, Prairie

Creek Festival for over a decade, but individually, he has been with the event since the very beginning.

“We purchased Gabe’s in 2012, and so that would have been the first year that we were involved in Mission Creek,” McCarthy said.

This year, Gabe’s will host multiple artist performances, including Strangers of Necessity, Anthony Worden, Armand Hammer, M Denney, Sqvce, and Pelada. McCarthy said the distribution of artists is based on the size of the venue along with the genre of the artist.

“Gabe’s has always drawn the bigger rock shows, harder rock shows, bigger hip hop shows. It’s definitely been some of the bigger acts have been put at Gabe’s because of the size of the venue, because of the location of the venue,” McCarthy said. “Gabe’s is just a great venue for rock music.

We have a great sound system.”

For McCarthy, Mission Creek exemplifies what Iowa City’s music scene is at its core.

“It’s such a wide variety of music.

I mean, especially if you look back at some of the early years of 2012, ‘13, and ‘14. I’m just looking at Tuesday through Saturday, the different bands we had at Gabe’s, it was just incredible,” he said. “We’ve had like four or five different completely different genres of music, and each one of the shows was completely packed and just awesome shows.”

like that. You know, most festivals are genre-specific. There’s festivals out there that mix it up, but nothing like Mission Creek,” McCarthy said. “I think Mission Creek is very unique, and I think it defines what Iowa City is all about.”

Gabe’s began setting up and preparing for Mission Creek the week of March 25. As McCarthy has participated for the past 19 years, he said the festival is a part of his life that he anticipates yearly.

lights and has met with the Mission Creek team repeatedly to ensure that their aspect of the festival runs smoothly.

“You know, most festivals are genre-specific. There’s festivals out there that mix it up, but nothing like Mission Creek.

Pete McCarthy A manager at Gabe’s Iowa City

“I look forward to it. I embrace it … I look forward to the bands that they put here. Every time I’m upstairs in Gabe’s, I look at some of the old posters we have, and I just remember some of these great weeks and they never disappoint,” McCarthy said. “I always have a highlight of each year and always look forward to it. I’ve never missed one.”

Riverside Theatre is also gearing up for the event, hosting multiple performances over the three days, including Single

“We’re just one arm of this but it’s a really fun operation to be a part of, and we just want to make sure that our space is really welcoming for the audience and the artists backstage and that everything looks fantastic on our stage,” Knight said.

Riverside, which was first founded in 1981 and moved into its current location in the Pedestrian Mall in 2022, is another location that allows the Mission Creek Festival to reach more of the Iowa City community, Knight said.

“It was part of our original conceit of the new space was that it might be a place for Mission Creek to utilize during the festival,” Knight said. “I remember when we were contemplating the space had a conversation with Andre Perry, who’s the artistic director of the festival, and we both thought it would be really cool if concerts

Knight, who came to Riverside after working for 17 years in Newing when theater spaces were used for concerts in New York.

“When I did see concerts in theater spaces, I think a theater provides a very interesting thing that a small venue like a bar can’t, and I think the audience sits and listens in a very distinct way when they’re sitting in a small theater, listening to music, and that’s certainly something I’ve seen play out over the last few years that we’ve hosted,” he said.

Similar to Gabe’s, Knight said the curators decide which performances and artists are in each venue during the festival.

“We don’t really have any say, but what I think their curators do really well is tailor the artists to the venue and vice versa,” Knight said. “So, I think the five acts that are going to be playing in our space are really going to shine very well in our [venue] and our size and type of space.”

Kang wrote that Mission Creek remains an integral part of the year for many community members, which keeps it important to Iowa City as a whole.

“This is the 19th year that we’ve had the privilege of hosting the festival, and it continues to be a beacon that calls community members home, even if it’s just for the weekend,” Kang wrote. “There’s definitely a great sense of pride for being able to host something like this in our small city, so the festival means a lot to us.”

Shuntaro Kawasaki | The Daily Iowan

Trombonist Étienne Lebel from TEKE::TEKE performs during the Mission Creek Festival at Gabe’s in Iowa City on April 8, 2023. TEKE::TEKE is a Montreal-based psychedelic Japanese surf rock band.

THURSDAY

APRIL 4

• DJ CRIMSON MASK

DJ Crimson Mask leads the music every Thursday night at Gabe’s.

10 P.M. | GABE’S IOWA CITY 330 E. WASHINGTON ST.

FRIDAY

APRIL 5

• PO/ART/RY

In honor of National Poetry Month, Artifactory will host a free reception including a poetry reading and a dance performance in their lower-level gallery.

6 P.M. | ARTIFACTORY 120 N. DUBUQUE ST.

SATURDAY

APRIL 6

• TERMINAL CARE

This multimedia exhibition

12 P.M. | PUBLIC SPACE ONE 229 N. GILBERT ST.

SUNDAY

APRIL 7

P IANO SUNDAYS AT THE OLD

CAPITOL: RÈNE LECUONA AND STUDIO

UI professor of piano Rène Lecuona has performed all over the world, even at the acclaimed Carnegie Hall. Lecuona will lead the final performance of Piano Sundays for the semester.

1:30 P.M. | OLD CAPITOL MUSEUM SENATE CHAMBER 21 N. CLINTON ST.

MONDAY

APRIL 8

• DAN BEACHY-QUICK

Poet and translator Dan Beachy-Quick will discuss his work translating ancient Greek, writing essay collections, and his most recent book “The Thinking Root: The Poetry of

7

15

TUESDAY APRIL

S

9:30

WEDNESDAY

•

UI alum creates song for Clark

4:30

The “Pinball Wizard” parody video celebrating Clark and the women’s team’s achievements has amassed over 120,000 views.

Riley Dunn Arts Reporter riley-dunn@uiowa.edu

Ever since her Iowa debut, Caitlin Clark has transformed women’s basketball and brought a wave of new attention to women’s sports. With her signature logo-threes, Clark seems to break a new record every other game. Her talent is so impressive that one could even call her a “B-Ball Wizard” — or at least University of Iowa alum Rob Merritt would.

Under the username madreindeer on YouTube, Merritt posted a parody music video adapting “Pinball Wizard” by The Who to spotlight Clark’s basketball abilities. The video has garnered just over 120,000 views in the nine days since it was posted. A lifelong Hawkeye basketball fan, Merritt graduated from the UI in 1998 and went on to become an award-winning journalist, writer, editor, and videographer.

In 2020, he first gained YouTube popularity when he parodied Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in his three-part “Dumpster Fire” series, which premiered throughout that year and collectively garnered over one million views.

After the series wrapped up, however, Merritt did not plan to return to parody-making. When his co-worker at the New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative, Alex Taylor, contacted him about an idea, his inspiration was reignited. Taylor, who also works as an adjunct instructor in the UI’s Tippie College of Business, was grading papers a few weeks ago. In his office, both the Iowa women’s basketball game and “Pinball Wizard” were playing in the background. “I looked up and watched Caitlin drain a three-point shot. I just shook my head thinking, ‘That girl plays a mean basket-

ball.’ Then, the light bulb went on, and I thought Rob Merritt would be perfect to do a video on this,” Taylor said. Merritt agreed on the condition that Taylor would make a cameo appearance in the video. He agreed and, on March 19, they filmed the parody in downtown Iowa City. “Rob is very creative and talented. With the right team around him, he could probably have a side gig just doing deals like this. He’s sort of a contemporary version of Al Yankovic,” Taylor said. Despite making the audio

First-years lead UI’s ‘Ink Lit Magazine’

Students learn from others on staff.

Sophia Connolly Arts Reporter sophia-connolly@uiowa.edu

Ink Lit Magazine is unique among other literary magazines on campus as it is run only by first-year students — including its editor-in-chief. The magazine puts out poetry, fiction stories, nonfiction stories, art, photography, and drama in a publication once a semester, and grants aspiring publishers fresh experience. The editor-in-chief works with the different editing teams, manages the social media and website, writes the letter from the editor, and selects the magazine cover and design.

To choose the editor-in-chief and other editors each semester, Daniel Khalastchi, director of the University of Iowa’s Magid Center for Writing, and assistant publisher Jenna Mather asked each interviewee the same questions to assess their leadership skills, time management, conflict resolution, and passion for literature.

First-year student Rachel Sorensen rose to the position of editor-in-chief this semester.

“It’s been really nice,” she said. “I think [the publishers are] very accommodating to learning new things, and they don’t expect you to know anything.”

Khalastchi said Sorensen and other past editor-in-chiefs stood out for their passion for literature and their willingness to ask questions.

“When you’re sitting in an interview in your head, back-toback, you’re asking questions, it’s confidence, it’s humility, its willingness to say, ‘I want this position because I want to learn, I want to experience, I want to help others,’” Khalastchi said.

CARTOON

Working for Ink Lit taught Sorensen about editing, leadership, formatting, and copyreading. Sorensen said the learning curve allows younger students to learn about working and editing for a literary magazine before jumping into a more experienced magazine later.

Compared to another magazine she works on, The Broken Clock Magazine , Sorensen said Ink Lit also did a lot more in-depth teaching and explaining of the process versus expecting students to know the jargon and how to work a magazine.

“I’ve learned that running a magazine is a team effort,” Sorensen said. “I definitely couldn’t do it on my own without having a publisher, assistant publisher, and the assistant publisher in training, and then there’s another manager beside me.”

Due to it being a first-year student-only magazine, Sorensen also gained a community.

“You’re all the same grade, you’re on the same experience level, and it’s a lot easier to connect with the other students because we’re all going through the same life stage,” Sorensen said.

Khalastchi emphasized the role of students in Ink Lit’s 25 issues since 2011, with the 26th on the way.

“It’s continued because every year we have students who come to this university who want to participate in the community, and they do it, and that’s what makes me think it’s not me,” he said. “It’s the energy of the students who come here, that energy that they have is what makes this publication possible.”

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and video recordings on his own, Merritt did enlist the help of recording artist and audio engineer Tim King to ensure all the words and harmonies flowed together in a way that made sense and fit the style Merritt described King’s remixing talents as “incredible,” and credited him with a lot of the parody’s fine tuning. Together, the team created a viral video with a view count that has doubled this

“It’s neat how Rob and I work, because he’s definitely in the video area, so there’s a little bit of mystique behind what he does. And I’m in the audio area, so he treats it in the same way, where there’s a little mystique behind what I do.” King said. “It keeps the relationship fresh and fun.”

Alongside his considerable talent, Merritt gives much of the credit for his parodies to the writers of the original song.

“The thing I’ve always thought about parodies — and the reason that Weird Al is so good at them — is that the parodies people remember are ones that can preserve the original song as much as possible.” Merritt said. “You’re paying tribute to the original song and the humor comes from the tiny changes that you make.”

REVIEW

Future and Metro Boomin have become two of the biggest names in hip-hop over the past decade. They boast numerous classic tracks and projects together. Sadly, however, the same couldn’t be said in 2024. The artist’s new album “We Don’t Trust You,” released on March 22, wasn’t anything to write home about.

The album opens with a smooth, dimly lit groove from Metro, while Future lays the foundation for the cutthroat attitude of the record. From the very beginning, this album is more or less exactly what we expected from the two in both sonic and lyrical content. Naturally, Future’s lyrics brought subjects of sex, drugs, all the spoils of wealth, and his quintessential voice at the center of it all. Metro’s production was dense in dark, sample-heavy beats, complimented by various strings, horns, and booms — but not punchy 808s. I found the featured artists to be one of the

album’s highlights. First up was the Weeknd on “Young Metro,” and his unique voice was beautifully tucked within the instruments, which added a tasteful texture to the song. Later, the one and only Kendrick Lamar joined as a feature on “Like That.” In all the online discussions I have seen about this album since its release, I would estimate over 90 percent are related to this feature. Lamar’s appearance alone was a surprise, but his throwing shots at J. Cole and Drake over a fiery flow was an even bigger one, given his publicly tame demeanor. Unfortunately, there were a handful of moments in the album when I was desperate for it to take a different direction. The album could have done without around half its songs, especially “Fried,” “Claustrophobic,” and “GTA.” I must admit, about halfway through the album, I started doing Sporcle quizzes. At its best, “We Don’t Trust You” is catchy, ominous, and rich. At its worst, it’s dragging, bloated, and repetitive.

Ayrton Breckenridge | The Daily Iowan

A Nike advertisement of Iowa guard Caitlin Clark is seen on The Edge building on East Burlington Street in downtown Iowa City on March 2. Merritt filmed his viral video in front of the Nike ad.

Khalastchi

Musicians grapple with focal dystonia

UI trombone instructor Jonathan Allen and tuba student John Reyna share their experiences with the quietly feared and seldom discussed neurological disorder that affects many musicians.

Lily Czechowicz Arts Reporter lily.czechowicz@gmail.com

Jonathan Allen first picked up the trombone in the fourth grade. After playing for years, he eventually earned a doctorate in musical arts and a teaching position at the University of Iowa.

Then, one day, he picked up his instrument and could no longer play.

Allen had developed embouchure dystonia, a condition discussed in vague, fearful whispers among musicians.

“I didn’t know much about what it was. All I heard was that [the condition] makes it so that you can’t play anymore,” Allen said.

Embouchure dystonia, also known as focal dystonia or musician’s dystonia, is a neurological condition that presents as a sustained inability to control muscle contractions. For brass musicians like Allen, whose mouth movements have to be as calculated as they are precise, the condition is considered a career-ender. The disorder can affect one of every 2,500 Americans, according to the National Institute of Health.

“I looked like I maybe had a stroke,” Allen said, describing his embouchure. “The right side of my face was dipping [and] some muscles had stopped working.”

Henry Hoffman, an otolaryngologist and a professor at the UI’s Carver College of Medicine, often treats patients with laryngeal dystonia. He shared that dystonia is a broad condition, and the treatment differs with each case.

higher prevalence with age, primar ily affecting those who begin playing late in life and have longer cumulative practice times, higher workloads, and perfectionistic tendencies.

“If you have neuroplasticity, that is essentially rewiring your brain by over-practicing and putting your lips into an unusual position [for] hours [or] years,” Hoffman said. “That’s when you can rewire your brain to something that’s nonproductive.”

Allen attributes his onset of symp toms to his anxieties, saying the more he focused on his deteriorating embouchure, the worse it became.

“I freaked out about it and tried to over correct and tighten certain muscles and started playing wrong,” Allen said.

When his symptoms first began as a twitch in his lower lip, the first few words of advice he received were to keep it a secret. He was warned that even if he recovered, no one would want to offer work to someone who couldn’t play their instrument.

Allen reached out to the few people in the music industry with experience treating musician’s dystonia. He spent thousands of dollars on lessons from a few teachers, only to make little prog ress. Finally, he had a breakthrough after finding an online program from Joaquin Farias, a focal dystonia specialist.

In an effort to be more open about his condition, Allen began disclosing to his graduate students why he wouldn’t be able to demonstrate in class and his experience with musician’s dystonia. That’s when one of his students, John Reyna, perked up.

“It’s the Boogeyman. If they have it, they don’t want to talk about it because they could lose a gig.”

John Reyna University of Iowa student

“One dystonia is not the same as another dystonia. There are some familial dystonias, there’s some that affect the whole body, [and] some affect just the lips or affect the larynx — the treatment for them is different,” Hoffman said.

Treatment depends on the symptoms and location of the dystonia but ranges from behavioral to oral therapy, dental splints, medication, botox injections, or surgery.

In a protocol page published by Hoffman as part of a weekly series called “Music and Medicine on Monday,” he described music dystonia as having a

In 2020, Reyna was preparing for his final two recitals while studying tuba performance at the University of North Carolina Greensboro when he began experiencing symptoms of embouchure dystonia.

“All of a sudden, I just started to have [lip] tremors that were uncontrollable,” Reyna said.

There, Reyna’s instructor recognized the dystonia and asked what he would do if he could no longer play.

“I did not know. I had nothing. I just wanted to play tuba,” Reyna said, recalling his answer to his instructor’s question.

Reyna took behavioral changes to work

around his condition; he cut a section of music from his recital and avoided music in the upper range. He had some improvement when he used a larger mouthpiece on his instrument.

Still, he had few solutions for what he was experiencing and even fewer ways to navigate his symptoms. While auditioning for graduate programs, Reyna continued to struggle with dystonia but kept the condition to himself, afraid the schools he auditioned for might doubt his future as a musician.

“I didn’t know where [my ability] was going, and if [the dystonia] was going to get worse,” Reyna said. His outlook on his condition was suddenly uplifted when, at the beginning of his master’s program at the UI, Reyna sat in Allen’s classroom and heard his instructor speak of his own experience with embouchure dystonia. Encouraged by Allen’s recovery, Reyna asked to meet and talk about his symptoms.

Allen gave Reyna breathing exercises and hope. Almost immediately, Reyna’s symptoms began disappearing. However, with the condition’s pervasive nature, after a

couple of years, Reyna felt a familiar tremor in his upper lip.

This time, however, Reyna was prepared to face the symptoms. Returning to his breathing exercises has allowed him the skills to work around his symptoms. However, the condition is still bothersome for Reyna and his career goals; to this day, the condition remains taboo in the music industry.

“It’s the Boogeyman. If they have it, they don’t want to talk about it because they could lose a gig,” Reyna said.

Still, Reyna is open about his experiences as an example of an accomplished, capable musician with dystonia.

Allen believes it is his responsibility as an instructor with dystonia to speak openly about the condition so more musicians and students recognize that it is not a death sentence.

Allen’s experience with dystonia has provided many students with a new, knowledgeable resource they might not have had otherwise.

“The world is increasingly anxious,” Allen said. “We are only going to see a continuing increase of these types of disorders.”

2024 Iowa Women’s Basketball Book

Madison Frette | The Daily Iowan

John Reyna, a graduate teaching assistant and tubist, poses for a photo in the Voxman Music Building on March 29. Reyna has previously had musician’s dystonia. Musician’s dystonia is a movement disorder that results in a loss of voluntary motor control in extensively trained movements.