The Daily Iowan — 10.01.25 by Student Publications, Inc.

The Daily Iowan Vaccine rates drop, posing risks

Rhiannon McNulty, now 4 years old, has been hospitalized three separate times for a number of infectious diseases. On two of the three occasions, the young girl had contracted respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for which a vaccine was not yet available.

The rate at which vaccines are being administered in the U.S. and across the state of Iowa has decreased following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Iowa, 69.6 percent of 2-year-olds in 2023 received the recommended series of vaccines, a percentage typically at the 90 percent mark, according to the Iowa Immunizes Coalition.

The recommended series in the state of Iowa, laid out by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, includes diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, or DTaP; polio; measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR; Hepatitis B; Haemophilus inﬂuenzae type B ; varicella, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and the RSV vaccine for thos eligible.

Nationwide, these numbers reﬂect a similar downturn. According to the National Library of Medicine, the number of 2-year-olds in the U.S. who received four doses of the DTaP vaccine dropped from 89.5 percent in 2019 to 82.5 percent in 2023, and those who received one dose of MMR dropped from 79.9 percent to 72.1 percent.

This impact has been felt on a local level as well. Samuel Jarvis, community health division manager at Johnson County Public Health, said during the 2024-25 school year, roughly 7.7 percent of children in licensed child care were

UI Sailing Club to relocate before lease ends

to use the Macbride area due to a lack of financial sustainability.

After 60 years, the University of Iowa Sailing Club’s boathouse at the Macbride Nature Recreation Area is being knocked down, and the club is being removed from the property. Earlier this summer, the UI announced the end of its leasing agreement between the UI and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Despite the lease officially ending in 2029, the university told the club it must be off the property by July 31, 2026.

The UI Sailing Club is a student organization established in 1965 whose main goal is to promote sailing as a sport with organized activities for UI students. The club has utilized Lake Macbride within the Macbride Nature Recreation Area to practice sailing and store equipment such as

boats and other supplies. The sailing club currently offers both lessons and group club sailing on the weekends.

Maggie Lennon, a UI fourthyear student in the College of Engineering and the current president of the UI Sailing Club, said the club currently has over 20 active members. However, it expects to have about 25 by the end of the semester, even in the face of relocation.

Lennon said from what university officials told the club, the

decision was purely financial.

“The UI has experienced cuts like everything else lately, and it costs a lot to maintain that space out there,” Lennon said. “Toward the end of the committee’s decision, they asked for community input, and the majority of the responses wanted to keep the space open, but financially it couldn’t be possible.”

The club, Lennon said, will have to downsize its fleet of almost 40 boats to 10 or fewer. Due to the relocation, the club is expecting large expenses associated with the need to move the boats and upkeep supplies. This includes increased rent wherever they end up and temporary storage until they find a new home.

The club has yet to find a place to relocate and is focused on looking for equipment storage.

The club operated from the Macbride Nature Recreation Area, surrounding the Coralville Lake, until recently, when the university chose to end its lease with the Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency providing services for national infrastructure projects.

A committee created to review the university’s use of the nature area determined continued use would require $14.8 million in immediate repairs and infrastructure improvements as

Out-of-state students notice a diﬀerence in gas prices when comparing their hometown to prices in Iowa City. For Emily Manalli, a second-year student at the UI, gas prices in Iowa are signiﬁcantly cheaper than in her home state of Illinois. “It is always fun to get gas here

because of how much less I’m spending,” Menalli said. Compared to its neighboring states, Iowa fares well in terms of the price of gas. According to AAA, as of Sept. 28, Iowa’s average price for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.85 per gallon. Wisconsin sits below Iowa, averaging $2.84 a gallon. But, Illinois gas prices are significantly higher than Iowa’s, averaging $3.38 a gallon. Nationally, the average price of gas is $3.13 per gallon, meaning UI students are paying less than most drivers across the country.

“I’d say toward the end of last year gas prices really fluctuated a lot, but this year has been really cheap,” UI fourth-year, Lily Fournier said. “Instead of it being a $50 tank, it is a $30 tank, which, as a student, makes it way more affordable.” The difference between spending $30 and $50 on a tank of gas may seem insignificant to some, but for college students like Manalli and Fournier, these savings can help them afford other essentials.

well as nearly $1 million per year in ongoing maintenance, according to the committee’s report completed May 15.

Zach Warren, UI fourthyear student and senior member of the club, said the news came as a surprise, and with the short notice, the move will be more diﬃcult.

“We kind of knew the lease was going to be ending in 2029, but we weren’t expecting to have to move all of our equipment out a few years ahead of time. It is deﬁnitely going to be a big challenge, given we have 60 years of supplies for our boats and a fleet to downsize,” Warren said.

In an email sent to The Daily Iowan , Chris Brewer, UI public relations manager for the Office of Strategic Communication, said dates have yet to be finalized regarding ending programming at Macbride Nature Recreation Area.

“The university is working with colleges, units, community partners, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine the next steps in the winddown of operations at the Macbride Nature Recreation Area,” he wrote in the email.

Lennon said when the sailing club asked its

“It is so annoying to have to spend money on gas, so I love that the prices have been cheaper recently,” Manalli said.

“There are just so many other things I would rather be paying for than gas.”

As inﬂ ation continues to climb, essentials like milk, eggs, and bread continue to affect students’ budgets. Since 2022, milk prices have increased by nine percent in the Midwest, and egg prices have gone up by over 12 percent in the Midwest as of 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

UI students working a part-time job average roughly $13.95 an hour, according to a survey conducted by the UI Human Resources Office. With growing concerns around the cost of living, the cooling of transport costs is providing relief for ]students’ wallets.

The City of Iowa City oﬀers fare-free transit on city buses, but for students who go home on weekends, commute, or travel, cheaper gas allows them to do so freely while still aﬀording living essentials.

April Phillips, a fourthyear student at the UI, said she has taken more trips this fall due to lower prices.

“It’s really nice to have cheaper gas prices in the area right now,” Phillips said. “I went to Des Moines last weekend, and I went to Ames the weekend before, and it feels like I can justify doing more things when gas is cheaper.”

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, a website updating gas prices across the country, said weather plays a huge role in the price of gasoline. “A lot of what we’re

able to assist its move, the club was told they were limited. The club advisors said they would help the club get in contact with people to help sell their boats and ﬁnd places to relocate.

The club is currently looking at diﬀerent lakes to relocate to but has yet to ﬁnd anything concrete.

Warren Darling, former faculty advisor and one of the club’s four coaches, said the club will have to relocate speciﬁcally to a lake, not just any body of water, which further limits their options of areas to relocate to.

Darling said the boathouse will be taken down because a stipulation was set when the lease was first signed, stating the area was to be returned to its original state if sold.

“I suppose if another entity comes along and wants to take it over, they could keep the buildings if it isn’t torn down yet,” he said.

Warren has developed connections with many fellow club members and the waters at Macbride in the area over the years, he said, remarking the change is a somber one.

“I’ve been in the club my entire college experience, so I have a lot of good memories there, and this task of moving out is not going to be an easy one,” Warren said.

seeing now is seasonal. Now that we are out of the summer driving season, gasoline demands will slowly decline into the fall,” De Haan said.

De Haan said, companies have begun producing winter gasoline, which is cheaper to produce and less costly as a whole. De Haan said the price of oil is also a factor.

“This year the price of oil has been remarkably stable. There have been a lot of economic headlines that have caused oil prices to be locked in a pretty tight range,” De Haan said.

In January 2025, U.S Crude Oil First Purchase Price was $73.15 per barrel, according to the EIA. In August 2025, this number decreased slightly to $65.33 per barrel, a 12 percent decrease in prices.

De Haan is surprised to see the lack of ﬂ uctuation, because the war in Ukraine and conﬂ icts in the Middle East would typically cause prices to increase. Russia is a major supplier of the world’s oil and gas.

The war in Ukraine is causing infrastructure to be targeted, leading to a decrease in supply, simultaneously leading to an increase in demand and price, according to the International Energy Agency, or IEA. The Middle East also plays a crucial role in the distribution of oil. Tensions in the Middle East make transporting oil more diﬃcult, according to the IEA.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, controls a third of the world’s oil supply, according to De Haan and the EIA.

In March 2025, the organization started raising the amount of oil being produced on a monthly basis. This increased the

Regular gas prices in Iowa metro areas as of Sept. 28

As inﬂation across the U.S. rises, gas prices in Iowa have been lower, giving relief to community members and out-of-state students.

supply of oil, making it easier to compete with demand this summer and into the fall.

Demand for gas goes down due to fewer trips being taken in the winter, along with a general decline of activity.

In January 2025, the EIA recorded 499,551 gallons of ﬁnished petroleum products distributed. These products include

gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel. In June 2025, the EIA recorded 516,315 gallons of finished petroleum products.

This is a 3.29 percent change in fuel consumption in the summer compared to the winter.

“Gas prices tend to slowly decline for the next several months, bottoming out around the holidays. We tend to see

gas prices remain relatively low through about February,” De Haan said.

either under-immunized or not immunized at all. Megan McNulty, Rhiannon’s mother, said at nine months old, Rhiannon caught human metapneumovirus, a virus impacting one’s respiratory system, for which there is no vaccine.

“I remember telling my wife, ‘Oh, she’s going to be ﬁne. It’s not COVID-1 , and it’s not RSV,’” McNulty said.

But, just 24 hours later, McNulty was in the hospital with her baby, being told by multiple doctors her daughter would need to be intubated, the process of a inserting a tube through one’s nose or mouth in order to aid with breathing becase of her metapneumovirus.

“Making that decision to intubate our baby because she couldn’t breathe was horrible. She fought the intubation and the tube. They had given her a paralytic, and yet nothing worked. She always looked terriﬁed and scared,” McNulty said.

Less than a year later, McNulty and an 1 -month-old Rhiannon were back in the hospital after Rhiannon contracted RSV. At the time, there was no vaccine for RSV. Michael Pentella, a clinical professor at the UI and director of the State Hygienic Laboratory, said RSV is a respiratory virus that can cause a type of pneumonia in infants.

A research study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics found 13,524 31.4 percent of children under the age of 5 nationwide were RSV positive in 2024.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, the ﬁrst RSV vaccine was approved on May 3, 2023 for individuals aged 0 years or older.

Two months later, on July 17, 2023, the RSV vaccine was approved for use in babies under eight months.

Rhiannon spent a week in the pediatric intensive care unit. Once the RSV vaccine became available, Rhiannon was no longer eligible for it, as she had aged out. At the time, McNulty said, the vaccine was only being given to the elderly and babies.

“We felt if the vaccine had been available to us when she was a baby, we would have given anything for her to have been able to have it... so our vulnerable kid who just can’t breathe when she has a cold wouldn’t have to go through that,” McNulty said.

At age 3, Rhiannon was hospitalized for the third time due to contracting RSV again. McNulty said Rhiannon was hooked up to breathing tubes because she was unable to breathe on her own.

McNulty’s wife was able to get vaccinated for RSV while she was pregnant with their son, Archer around the time Rhiannon was hospitalized Once born, Archer was also given the vaccine.

“For our other two daughters [Rhiannon and Freya], who are 4 and 7, they are just out of luck. And the same for me. I am just a

normal, healthy adult, and they don’t oﬀer it for those groups right now,” McNulty said.

Deborah VanderGaast, child care consultant with Johnson County Public Health, audits immunization records for various child care programs.

Provisional certificates, VanderGaast said, are administered when a child has received at least one of the required vaccines but has not received all vaccinations required to attend a child care program.

Often, however, families who moved into Iowa from out of state do not have an Iowa certiﬁcate. To be eligible for enrollment in Iowa’s public schools and many day cares, children must have an Iowa certificate, which requires a doctor’s appointment — a process VanderGaast said can be challenging to obtain. For those who choose not to get vaccinated, VanderGaast said there is an entirely diﬀerent and separate process in order to obtain the necessary requirements.

Religious exemptions and medical exemptions, VanderGaast said, count in place of a vaccine certiﬁcate for enrollment.

Religious exemptions in Iowa schools

Across a 10-year time span, the number of families applying for religious exemptions increased over threefold.

According to Iowa HHS, religious exemptions can be made when they directly conﬂict with a “genuine and sincere” religious belief. However, in the event of a disease outbreak, a child can be excluded from child care or school as a result.

During the 2023-24 school year, Iowa had 15, 03 religious exemption certiﬁcates. In 2024-2025, the number increased to 1 ,72 .

The number of medical exemptions in 2023-24 was 1,10 , with a drop in 2024-25 to 1,004 certiﬁcates.

In the event Johnson County experiences an outbreak, such as measles, unvaccinated children will be excluded from childcare or school, VanderGaast said.

Regardless of exemption status, VanderGaast stressed the importance of ensuring children are immunized.

“My two college-aged children have chronic health conditions. They were able to get vaccinated, but what about for people who maybe don’t meet one of the criteria, maybe don’t want to get sick again ” VanderGaast said.

JJ Neiman-Brown was almost 3 years old when he died from inﬂuenza. JJ had been

vaccinated for the ﬂu in 2020, the year he died, and in years prior. His mother, Maurine Neiman, an evolutionary biologist and professor at the UI, could never have imagined her son would be with her one day and gone the next.

Neiman’s son had already been vaccinated for the flu when he caught the infection, exhibiting symptoms such as a low-grade fever.

That morning, when JJ woke up, Neiman said he seemed ﬁne. As the day progressed, JJ’s demeanor remained cheerful. When Neiman and her husband put him to bed that night, all seemed normal, as JJ was showing no signs of distress.

“When I checked on him in the middle of the night because he had been very quiet, I found him dead,” Neiman said somberly.

Sudden unexplained death in childhood is often associated with infections such as JJ’s, causing a sort of silent seizure. That seizure, Neiman said, can then cause one’s breathing to stop.

Neiman said what happened to JJ isn’t clear but likely involved an infection-related trigger that interfered with his breathing.

Both Neiman and McNulty said they understand adults who choose not to have their children vaccinated.

McNulty said she tries to understand this decision, particularly for an adult who has done their own research and has decided they themselves wish not to get vaccinated.

“If you decide for yourself [to not get vaccinated], ﬁne, but when you start deciding for those who can’t choose, then it’s not so great,” McNulty said.

According to a Washington Post KFF poll, one in six parents has delayed or decided to skip vaccinating their children altogether.

Advocates and parents alike have argued for increased vaccination rates.

Elizabeth Faber, director of the Iowa Immunizes Coalition said the coalition worked to provide information on the importance of preventing HPV-related cancers in Iowa when the introduction of Iowa House File 1 7, a bill no longer requiring schools to teach about human papillomavirus, or HPV, making the practice optional, was passed into law.

When Senate File 3 0, passed a Senate subcommittee in May 2025, removing the requirement for mRNA vaccine administration and increased liability for providers, the Iowa Immunizes Coalition provided legislators with science-based evidence and information.

Access, Faber said, is a key aspect of vaccinations, not only in one’s ability to go and get a vaccine, but also one’s ability to access information.

VanderGaast expressed her desire for people who have knowledge on vaccinations to continue to have a voice in the matter.

“You are not only protecting your child but you are protecting someone else’s child,” VanderGaast said. “I have seen some of these diseases firsthand and cared for those affected by these at one point or another, and it has lifelong effects.”

For those who are uncertain about vaccinations or concerned about the safety of vaccines, VanderGaast urged individuals to consult with their primary care provider.

Neiman said the process by which vaccines are tested is highly rigorous, and the beneﬁts of vaccines overwhelm the risk for nearly all people. The take-home message, Neiman said, is the only way to protect kids against these types of illnesses is through good public health.

“JJ was so full of life, and we had no idea we could go from this happy, healthy, very normal almost 3 one day, to him being gone the next with no warning and no opportunity to intervene,” Neiman said.

OPINIONS

UI Center for Intellectual Freedom is hypocritical

The center claims it will promote openness, but this isn’t possible without diversity.

The Board of Regents finalized the advisory board for the newly established University of Iowa Center for Intellectual Freedom on Sept. 17.

Described as a center aiming to promote intellectual diversity on campus, the advisory board, which is also in charge of appointing the director of the center, is ironically missing the one thing it claims to value: diversity.

Within the 26-member board, only two are women, only half are from Iowa, and many politically lean far right, with only three Democrats in comparison to 11 Republicans and 12 independents.

Intellectual freedom is the idea that we can seek and receive information about the world without censorship and with limited political interference. The center aims to address the so-called progressive crisis in education, which is the concern that students are supposedly being taught to critique the U.S.

But with a demographic makeup so disproportionate, I’m skeptical these intellectual discussions will be free.

As someone who has taken probably every history class offered throughout my primary education and is currently pursuing a political science degree at the UI, the purpose of this center is a prevarication. Throughout my K-12 education, I was

Gov. Kim Reynolds, and everyone involved in appointing the center’s advisory board want to limit talk of America’s failures, especially at a collegiate level.

board of 11 conservatives in a typically liberal university town could help address the growing feeling among Republicans that their voices are marginalized.

taught the basics of U.S. history, from the Revolutionary War and the Constitution, all the way to the controversial Vietnam War and Sept. 11 attacks. The argument that schools are failing to teach America’s foundations is simply false. In reality, Iowa

I understand the center’s goals for primary school. It is appropriate, if not necessary, to teach U.S. history, where a standardized curriculum encourages an overarching knowledge of our past. But teaching objectivity in education means teaching the good and the bad, regardless if it feels unpatriotic. Acknowledging slavery, segregation, and war is not anti-American — it is just accurate. In theory, balancing ideas on college campuses makes sense. At this level, professors are given academic freedom to investigate ideas in their ﬁeld without repercussions. College campuses, like the UI, have the impression of being more progressive than their neighboring towns. In the 2024 election, Democrats won by almost 40 percent of the vote in Johnson County. No one wants to be the minority. Picking a

“But it is not a chemical formula that we need to balance. Bringing a conservative entity or center in this case to dilute the progressiveness of college campuses is not going to change much.” Brett Johnson, UI professor and First Amendment lawyer, said.

“College is made for critical thinking. To be a critical thinker means to hold the powerful accountable. We have this rhetoric coming from the right that says they are the victims. But in the end, I think the predominant power in America tends to be conservative,” Johnson said.

And with the board so politically and demographically homogenous, the pursuit for intellectual diversity looks increasingly like a branding strategy for conservatives, rather than a sincere commitment.

National trends make the board and

center seem insincere. Across the country, Republicans have tried to ban books about “woke” issues and restrict classroom discussions on race and gender. The Trump administration has made eﬀorts to whitewash history, removing artifacts that have an "inappropriate" focus on tainting American history, like images and texts about enslavement and theft from Native American lands. Most recently, President Donald Trump ordered the removal of the historic “Scourged Back” image, showing the horrors of slavery during the Civil War Era. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Trump criticized museums for being “out of control” by displaying art that portrayed “how bad slavery was.” Rewriting history will never be OK. And if these national conservative changes are upheld in local education, we risk the very thing college is about — critical thinking. The Center for Intellectual Freedom fails to show people that objective education is non-partisan.

Fall fosters productivity

The autumnal season is set to boost student’s achievement and motivation.

Pumpkin spice lattes, crisp autumn leaves, knit cardigans, and apple cinnamon-scented candles are just a few fall time staples. Any combination of these elements can create a productive season.

Fall feels like a fresh start, similar to the feeling of a birthday or a new year. It’s a temporal landmark, a moment that stands out and structures people’s perception of time. The anticipation and experience of temporal landmarks often increases motivation for students.

“I feel more productive because of the excitement of something new starting. I’m more motivated to really lock in for the year. It’s like a New Year’s resolution in the sense that you want to do better than last year,” ﬁrst-year University of Iowa student Evelyn Fern said. change of seasons may prompt many of us to embrace change in our personal and academic lives.

temperatures and wonderful foliage encourage students to get outside and enjoy nature, which

presents favorable health beneﬁts. The National Park Service states spending just 20 or 30 minutes outside can improve concentration, cognitive function, and memory, as well as heart health and circulation, while also lowering cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure.

Just ﬁve minutes in nature improves mood, self-esteem, and relaxation. Class attendance is less of a chore when students aren’t walking in the harsh winter conditions or sweltering summer heat, with the walks between classes automatically adding in the health beneﬁts of time spent outside even when short.

For students, health also comes down to having a steady routine after the unpredictability of summer vacation.

Fall is a time of togetherness and connection, too.

The traditions and holidays create something to look forward to, whether it's tailgating before a game, going to a pumpkin patch, going out for Halloween, or staying in for Thanksgiving. These occasions can be influential on mental health.

“Football is my favorite sport, so football season is obviously my favorite time of year,” third-year UI student Shelby Rinaldo said. “I love going to the games with my friends and having something to put on the TV almost every night to watch with everyone. Pumpkin patches are such a fun way for friends to get together and experience the beautiful weather. It's a calm way to relax and spend a weekend.”

We enjoy and thrive when we discern things to be beautiful, whether that be the natural beauty of the season or the created beauty of a cozy study

setup complete with a pumpkin spice-scented candle, mood lighting, and an artfully concocted chai latte.

In a Psychology Today article from October 2021, Shahram Heshmat, PhD, wrote “Perceived beauty enhances the perceived social and intellectual competence of people.”

When we perceive something as beautiful, a pleasurable feeling arises from the act of doing rather than only from task completion or accomplishment.

“I like to study outside when the leaves start turning colors because it creates a calm and beautiful atmosphere,” Rinaldo said. “At home, I like to light fall-scented candles and open the window. I think it helps me focus when the surroundings are calm and beautiful. I also like to put those fall scenic videos on YouTube on my TV to provide ambient sounds while I study.”

The threat of winter, seasonal aﬀective disorder, and burnout lurks around the corner, so it’s all the more important to seize on this unique time of year to set yourself up for success later in the year.

Go to Wilson’s Apple Orchard or take walks down tree-lined paths to reconnect with nature. Set up a consistent routine for yourself and romanticize or aestheticize it in whatever way works for you.

Midterms are approaching, so grab a fall ﬂavored latte, light your pumpkin-scented candle, and study at Java House until the sun goes down.

UI responds to structural changes within CLAS

Two restructured CLAS departments opened July 1.

ned about the restructuring, especially now that her certiﬁcate was housed in the new school.

The University of Iowa’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the largest of the 11 colleges on the school’s campus, has undergone one of its most signiﬁcant administrative restructurings for the 2025-2 academic year.

The restructuring involves combining and reimagining previously existing departments with the departmental executive oﬃcers of both the new School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, or SEES, and Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures, or LLLC, expressing the goal of streamlining administrative processes and encouraging collaboration among departments. The school and department combine areas of study previously separated in diﬀerent areas.

The change, ﬁrst approved by the Iowa Board of Regents in September 2024, combines the departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Geographical and Sustainability Sciences with the Environmental Science program to form the newly opened school and to concentrate the departments under one roof.

“We saw that there was a real interest from students in environment and sustainability, but those pieces were sort of spread throughout the college in different departments or in different disciplinary programs,” Emily Finzel, the departmental executive officer of SEES, said.

The school, which formally opened July 1, provides students with the opportunity to explore three majors, two of which are redesigned and combine previous majors, and one that remains unchanged.

The majors include geographical and sustainability science, which combines the geography and sustainability majors; earth and environmental science, combining the environmental science program with the geoscience major; and environmental policy and planning. Students currently enrolled in the old majors have the opportunity to graduate with their current major or elect to enroll in one of the new majors. Should they choose to remain in their current majors, Finzel said, their coursework and graduation date will remain unaﬀected.

The majors all require the same four core courses, so students who are unsure of which major ﬁts best for them but know the areas within the school that are of interest to them can explore while still working towards a degree.

Finzel said the new school’s goal is to help students more easily explore areas of study related to Earth and environmental science and encourage more students to enroll in the programs related to these studies.

“There were many students who love Earth Day, they want to save the Earth, they want to understand the way humans interact with the Earth, but they didn’t know what the names of those majors were,” Finzel said.

Finzel said SEES has received positive feedback as a result of the restructuring, especially from high school counselors, who say students are excited about the opportunity to join the majors now that they’re combined into a school.

While the school has received positive feedback from prospective and current students, Amira Qidwai, a fourth-year UI student studying international relations and Arabic with a certiﬁcate in geographic information science, recalls being initially concerned when she lear-

As a student member of the Undergraduate Educa tional Policy and Curriculum Committee at the UI, she voiced concerns that geography might be overlooked in the new school structure.

“One of my initial concerns was that the word ‘geo graphy’ isn’t in the name of the school,” idwai said. “Geography is a pretty foundational science in all forms of earth science, and I continue to think it’s kind of strange that word has been removed.”

However, other than a change in name, Qidwai hasn’t noticed much of a diﬀerence now that the departments have merged.

Jill Beckman, the departmental executive oﬃcer for the Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures, said she hoped students would barely notice a diﬀerence in the new departmental structures to ensure a consistent and reliable academic experience.

“I hope that students haven’t really noticed there’s a huge change,” Beckman said. “Not because we want to hide anything from them, but because if they’re noticing there’s been an administrative change, it might mean something has impacted them negatively, which we don’t want.”

Qidwai, who is also a tutor in the Center for Language and Culture, or CLCL, said overall, she feels as though the restructuring has been positive.

“I felt like there was a pretty good opportunity there, speciﬁcally because the Arabic program that I study, in the past, has been nestled in the French and Italian department, which is kind of a misnomer, so I do prefer how it is now where all the languages are on an equal footing inside of this much larger department,” idwai said.

While Qidwai was excited for the opportunities the new department would bring for languages to be on equal footing, she also had her worries.

“Initially, people were concerned that consolidating departments would mean people would be ﬁred,” Qidwai said.

The previous director of the CLCL, Claire Frances, was ﬁred over the summer. However, Beckman wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan Frances’s ﬁring is unrelated to the restructuring , and she had been let go of before the new department formed.

Qidwai said the department does not have tutors for some of the languages.

“It was six months later that the college began an assessment of the CLCL, with the goal to build a sustainable, focused mission for this center,” Beckman wrote, referencing how the assessment began six months after the announcement of the CLCL. “It’s a great resource that will continue to be vital to the success of our students.”

As the department chair, Beckman oversees the collection of 14 diﬀerent academic areas including American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, English as a Second Language, French, German, international studies, Italian, Japanese, Korean, linguistics, Russian, Swahili, and translation. These had previously been housed in the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures within various departments and areas of study.

The department of Spanish and Portuguese continues to remain its own department. The departmental merger will bring more students into a collective department, which Beckman said will allow the department to better accomplish its goal of teaching the importance of being a global citizen and developing intercultural competencies by streamlining the administrative structure of the department.

“We’re hoping consolidating everybody into a single department will give us strength in numbers that will help us more eﬀectively share that message with students and prospective students,” Beckman said.

Zoe Kohler, a third-year UI student studying neurobiology and Mandarin on the pre-med track, was a student ambassador for the old Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and is currently a student ambassador for the LLLC. She manages the department’s social media and set up the new LLLC’s Instagram page after deleting the now-defunct program’s Instagram.

“That was a very visual representation of how these are now two diﬀerent departments,” Kohler said. Other than the name, she said she hardly notices a diﬀerence following the merger. Like idwai, she hopes the merger will allow languages to be treated equally.

“I’m excited to see that maybe with this department, the merger will give other languages more of a spotlight and a chance to grow,” Kohler said. “Now that we’ve kind of split from Spanish and Portuguese and become the LLLC, maybe we can have more of a spotlight on our smaller departments.”

NASA grant powers UI navigation tech

UI grad student landed $150,000 to develop a compact X-ray telescope prototype.

Jacob Payne, a gradu ate student and research assistant at the University of Iowa’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, landed a NASA grant to build a small X-ray tele scope that can assist with deep space navigation.

Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER, launched in 2017, is an X-ray telescope aboard the International Space Station that studies neu tron stars, black holes, and other cosmic phenomena.

For this three-year pro ject, Payne will receive $50,000 a year for from NASA to design and create a lightweight prototype

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Daily Iowan : What’s your backgro und in space science? How did you get into this kind of research?

Jacob Payne: I went to school at Georgia Tech, and there, my undergraduate academic advisor encouraged me to apply for their continuing master’s program. I got into a master’s program at that time [at Iowa], but I had to pick something that sounded science-y as a master’s thesis topic. So, I was just looking at cool space news. There had been a new telescope launched in 2017, and they were reporting some

results from that, and they were showing, in particular, a cool experiment where they demonstrated a new kind of navigation. So I was like, whoa, this seems really cool, and it sounds very science-y to do something related to interplanetary navigation using X-ray emission from pulsars. So, I picked that as a topic.

Explain what you’re building to me as if was 5-year-old.

GPS uses satellites to tell you where you are. You use these reference signals from satellites, and that works when you’re on Earth. But if you want to ﬂy to Jupiter or Saturn, you need a diﬀerent kind of

tracking system. There is a kind of star that blinks or pulses very consistently, called a pulsar. We can use those like a natural reference point or a natural GPS satellite.

If we can see them, we have to be able to see them very clearly. That’s the problem right now. They’re out there, they’re blinking, but we can’t see them very well. So, I’m working on a telescope where I can see specifically the pulses we want to see very clearly. We’re working on choosing the right kinds of mirrors and the right coating to make them shiny and reflect specifically the light emitted from these stars, but not the light emitted by other sources, so that only the stars show up

very clearly.

Hopefully that means we can build a small and eﬃcient telescope for this so it could be used by spacecraft, and it doesn’t take up too much room.

How will this tech nology change how we navigate space?

The 2017 demonstration of pulse navigation showed that we can do radio ranging out past Jupiter, but the radio ranging gets less accurate the farther you are from Earth. Pulsar navigation is the same level of accuracy throughout the entire solar system. So we could have a consistent position estimate anywhere in the solar system or even interplanetary space.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years after working on this project?

When I showed up, I was sure that I wanted to go be an engineer and work for a company that was working on spacecraft, but now I kind of think I need to work on this project full-time. Three years of funding will get a prototype, but then we have to work on the actual hardware. It feels like the path I can see most clearly is trying to start a lab at a university to do that.

Right now, my goal is to be a professor or research faculty to continue working on turning these into actual [tools] on future missions.

Iowa PBS faces challenges amid budget cuts

Iowans should expect programming reductions after federal funds were revoked.

Iowa PBS will be forced to reduce local programming content, local services, and Iowa-based staﬀ as a result of budget cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration, Andrew Batt, executive director and general manager of Iowa PBS said in a statement to The Daily Iowan He said 90 percent of cuts will come directly from a reduction to local services.

Public broadcasting organizations are facing the biggest budget cuts in U.S. history after the Trump administration cut over $1.1 billion in federal funds to public media, including PBS and NPR.

The funds, appropriated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, which provides money for public broadcasting organizations, were cut in the Recessions Act of 2025, which passed July 1.

The CPB has since reported it will be shutting down following the enactment of the bill. The organization will end the majority of staﬀ positions on Sept. 30, which was announced in a press release on Aug. 1.

The cuts amount to $3.5 million in annual operating expenses at Iowa PBS, totaling 18 percent of its annual budget.

Iowa PBS cut 34 staﬀers, eliminating their positions on Sept. 4 as a result of the funding cuts.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, voted for the recessions package and has been a key advocate for cutting federal spending through Trump’s Department of Government Eﬃciency, or DOGE.

Ernst has been a vocal critic of PBS and NPR, stating they are partisan outlets and should therefore not receive federal taxpayer dollars. She has called the CPB funds “wasteful.”

“NPR and PBS have a right to say whatever the heck they want, but they don’t have a right to force hardworking Americans to pay for their political propaganda being masked as a public service,” Ernst said in a speech on the U.S. Senate ﬂoor on July 15, where she urged her colleagues to vote in favor of the recessions package.

Iowa state Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, D-West Des Moines, said the dismantling

of the CPB is frustrating because it saves a small portion of the federal budget, but eliminates important resources for Iowans. Konfrst is also running for the Democratic nomination in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District in 2026.

“People were playing politics with public broadcasting,” she said.

Konfrst said the cuts will cause a chain reaction where fewer local stories will be told, and knowledge of local topics among the public will decline.

“The impact will be large, and I can't see a really strong, really clear justification for why this service needs to get ripped out of everyone's homes,” Konfrst said.

She referenced Fred Rogers, the television personality who pioneered broadcast media for children with his wildly popular educational show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which aired on PBS.

Rogers played a critical role in securing funds for the CPB by testifying before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications to oppose budget cuts to public broadcasting proposed by the Nixon administration in 1969. He argued public broadcasting could be used as a medium to educate and serve the developmental needs of children as opposed to strictly entertaining.

Konfrst said Rogers’ arguments ring as true today as they did back then, and public media still serves as an educational platform.

sometimes we forget there are people who either don't have access to Wi-Fi or who don't want to pay for a lot of services,” Konfrst said.

She expressed particular concern for rural Iowans. Some areas of the state do not have access to broadband or highspeed internet connections. This prevents Iowans from using the internet or streaming services, leaving broadcast television as their primary source of news.

Konfrst said the cuts are alarming because they threaten Iowans’ right to information, and will be dangerous because public broadcasting provides severe weather warnings, which are critical in rural areas with limited cell service.

“Just because you live in a community without broadband access doesn't mean that you don't have a right to have access to weather information that could help keep you safe,” Konfrst said.

Konfrst said the state government should allocate funds for public broadcasting before Iowans start to feel these eﬀects of the losses.

“We as a state should step up and help public broadcasting when the federal government has backed away,” she said.

Batt said requests to the state for the ﬁscal year 202 do not replace cut funds.

Iowa PBS and other public broadcasting organizations will have no federal dollars starting Oct. 1, the start of ﬁscal year 202 .

Konfrst worked for Iowa PBS from 2001 until 2015, and said she realized while traveling the state, many people still rely on public broadcasting as one of their only sources of information.

“We are all so digitally connected that

Konfrst said while the Trump administration has been responsible for cutting funding, she has not felt a state-level partisan attack on Iowa PBS or other public broadcasting organizations.

“There are folks on both sides of the aisle who see the importance in their communities and want it to continue,” she said.

“As a state of Iowa agency, our fiscal year 2027 request for operating expenses is in line with previous years’ recommendations from the governor s office,” Batt said in the statement. Iowa PBS requested $3 million in capital funds to replace transmitters, or devices radiating radio waves to carry broadcast signals, in the Sioux City and Waterloo areas for the fiscal year 2027, which begins Oct. 1, 202 . Funds for the transmitters were requested for eight of the last 10 years, according to Batt. Iowa PBS has previously received funds to replace two transmitters in the state, installed in Council Bluffs and the Quad-Cities.

Local nonprofit receives withheld federal funding

Bur Oak Land Trust received AmeriCorps grants to fund conservation e orts.

Bur Oak Land Trust, a nonproﬁt working across Eastern Iowa to preserve and protect land and advance the biodiversity of native species, had a new team of AmeriCorps members start Sept. 8, after previously withheld funding was released Aug. 28.

Bur Oak Land Trust was one of a handful of organizations to lose AmeriCorps funding, a federal agency working with nonproﬁts and governments on projects through stipended volunteer work, in April 2025.

Stipended volunteer work involves volunteers getting paid enough to cover living expenses but not enough for it to be considered full-time employment.

Jason Taylor, executive director of the land trust, said he got an hour’s notice that his AmeriCorps program, which was supposed to extend through the summer of 2025, was cut. He called the move “ludicrous,” and said it aﬀected the land trust’s ability to work all summer.

Meredith Roemerman, deputy director and AmeriCorps program director for the land trust, pointed to the problematic timing of the cuts.

“The chaos of the whole situation was we had to dismiss all these members in the height conservation project season,” Roemerman said.

Roemerman oversees the AmeriCorps grant application and reports, working to recruit and onboard members. She said the land trust was given no indication as to why its program was terminated over others.

“We have completely upheld every single element of our contract,” Taylor said. “We had this amazing program… We were bringing young people into Iowa to show them what Iowa is about, and give them skills for careers.”

“Bur Oak Land Trust could never have done as much stewardship work as we have accomplished in the last six years that [AmeriCorps] has been around,” she said.

Bur Oak Land Trust elected to join a lawsuit with over a dozen other groups in response to rescinded AmeriCorps funds, after its grants were revoked in April. Attorneys general from 24 states — not including Iowa — also filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration.

The suit alleges the “wholesale dismantling” of AmeriCorps has caused "irreparable harm to nonprofit organizations.”

“The loss of its award will not only harm Bur Oak’s land and wildlife management but also severely impact its small staﬀ,” the initial complaint read.

Taylor said the decision to join the suit, led by Democracy Forward a nonproﬁt legal organization providing pro bono counsel in an attempt to “advance democracy and social progress,” according to its website was diﬃcult but, ultimately, worthwhile. He said the land trust had taken full advantage of its funding, and eliminating it so suddenly seemed unfair.

AmeriCorps and the additional plaintiﬀs won a preliminary injunction in July, in which District Judge Matthew Maddox of Maryland blocked the move by the Trump administration to dismantle AmeriCorps. Maddox ordered workers who were laid oﬀ, along with rescinded funds, to be reinstated.

The injunction restored the summer program but Taylor called the timing terrible, because the funds came only two weeks before the end of the program. Taylor also made sure members were paid promised funds for the remainder of the 2025 term, including the time they would have — but did not get the chance to — served over the summer.

Despite the injunction, plaintiffs amended the lawsuit to allege the Office for Management and Budget, or OMB, withheld funding awarded for the next fiscal year. If funds were not released by the OMB before a looming filing deadline, they would have been reabsorbed back into the federal government, Taylor said.

The land trust did not receive withheld funding until Aug. 28, when they were awarded the full $250,000 from the grant.

The OMB released funds totaling nearly $185 million, which were labeled as the remainder of fiscal year 2025 funds, according to the lawsuit. Fiscal year 2025 ends Sept. 30.

Taylor said the process of applying for AmeriCorps grants includes organizations applying a provided framework to local needs. For the land trust, AmeriCorps members serve a full-year term — getting paid living allowances through grants and receiving an educational award at the end of the period. He also referenced summer positions, which allow college students the ﬂexibility of returning to classes in the fall.

Taylor said having AmeriCorps members makes a large difference, as their AmeriCorps program is twice as large as their full-time staff. The land trust has the equivalent of five full-time staff members, and now has 10 full-time Americorps members — who will serve until Aug. 2026.

Jill Grime, prescribed fire specialist and AmeriCorps member, said federal funding for conservation work is a game changer.

Grime described the hard work of land conservation to prevent non-native species from taking over.

“A lot of people think of conservation as acquiring land and then letting it do its thing, but it is a lot of work you need to do,” Grime said.

The land trust hired three AmeriCorps members through emergency fundraising efforts onto its staff for the summer. Two of them, Grime and Prescribed Fire Specialist Hayden Martinez, focused on completing field work that would have been prioritized regardless of the program cuts.

Grime and Martinez have since been reinstated as AmeriCorps members with the funds’ release.

Taylor said the land trust would usually have roughly eight members working each day over the summer, completing tasks such as mowing trails, removing invasive species, leading hikes, and doing other management work.

Grime described the summer as ineﬃcient and said projects which would have taken a morning with a full AmeriCorps program took days instead.

“It was sad to see the things we couldn’t accomplish,” Martinez said.

Roemerman said being able to hire AmeriCorps members onto the staff allowed the land trust to get some of the work done but not at the capacity they had intended.

Taylor said while “mission-critical” work still happened over the summer, much less of the work intended to be ﬁnished in that timeline was completed.

“It is funny because the premise behind all of this was governmental eﬃciency, right?” Taylor said. “I would say this has probably been for us, the most ineﬃcient use of time in the last six months I have ever experienced.”

Taylor said all things considered, the land trust can move past the roadblocks of the summer and is excited to get the new AmeriCorps program up and running.

The new group of all-female members, Roemerman said, has positive energy and even with the chaotic summer, she thinks the land trust can look past the uncertainty of the summer for now and believes the program can function uninterrupted going forward.

“There are still a lot of questions about what AmeriCorps is going to look like in the future, and if we are going to face additional challenges from the Trump administration,”Roemerman said. “For now, we are really hopeful about the program.”

Hawkeye homecoming traditions

Over 100 years later, Hawkeyes still wear these buttons to commemorate their return to Iowa City and celebrate the homecoming tradition.

marks years of homecoming tradition. The

structure launched in 1919 but was put on pause in the mid 1990s.

In 2014, ASCE revamped the corn monument, and it’s been ongoing ever since.

Football. Parades. A giant corn monument. The University of Iowa’s homecoming remains rooted in tradition after 114 years.

The UI hosted a 5K, held a bingo night, and a blood drive for homecoming, among several other events, all organized by a board of students.

Nicola De Jager, a fourth-year student at the UI and homecoming executive director, encouraged students to get involved with homecoming events and traditions.

“We try to make our events low stakes so people are incentivized to show up to them,” she said. “We really want people to have the most fun they can in a low-pressure environment, to ease the stress of the school year.”

Among these events are traditions that have remained for many years.

The UI introduced homecoming buttons in 1924, which initially were sold for 10 cents to raise funds for the homecoming committee.

Featuring UI icons such as former head football coach Hayden Fry, current head football coach Kirk Ferentz, and a whole lot of Herky, these buttons, current and past, are now collector items for Hawkeye fans across the country. De Jager said buttons could be purchased for $4 a piece at tailgates and at the Iowa Hawk Shop leading up to the football game against the University of Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday.

“Our sales have been amazing this year,” she said. “We’re honestly almost out of buttons, but it’s exciting we see people wearing them.”

With the words “Fight, fight, fight for Iowa” on one side, an old-fashioned Herky, and the homecoming logo on the bottom, this year’s corn monument stood high on the west side of the UI’s Pentacrest.

Designed and built by the UI’s student chapter of the American Society for Civil Engineers, or ASCE, the corn monument

The 2025 construction was led by Fernando Carrillo and Colin Meehan, both UI fourth-year students and society members.

Carrillo and Meehan started designing the monument in April, working on a shorter time frame as homecoming came earlier this year.

They said they went with a classic obelisk design, featuring a four-sided pillar that tapers at the top.

“It was a good way to harken back to older corn monument designs and pay homage to the designs of the past, and also have a simplistic yet good-looking design that could feasibly get done within our build days once the school year got started up again,” Meehan said.

The monument was displayed Sept. 21 and stayed up for homecoming week.

“All the students and faculty can go and visit the monument,” Meehan said. “Then everyone, all the alumni and everyone that wants to come back during homecoming weekend, can stop by and see it, too.”

For almost 30 years, Trisha Brosius, UI class of 1997, along with some of her former cheerleading teammates, have made their way back to Kinnick Stadium for nearly every homecoming since graduating. Brosius said the environment and the feeling she gets when being down on Duke Slater Field have made returning a no-brainer over the years.

“The overall tradition of Iowa football, being on Melrose [Avenue], being down on the field for ‘Back in Black’ keeps me coming back and wanting to do that with the people that I’ve either cheered with or the people that I’ve met over the years,” she said. This year, it was a family affair. Brosius has a daughter who was on the UI cheerleading team and graduated in 2024. This was her first year returning for homecoming as an alumna, along with other friends and teammates she has met along the way.

“You pick up right where you left off. That’s the neatest thing,” she said. “No time has passed when you get together. We just feel like we’re back to being in college for a few minutes. We’re all back and nothing changed, except we all have families now.”

IC first responders navigate increase in calls

With admission rates rising, first responders prepare for seasonal increase.

The University of Iowa added its second-largest first-year class in its 178-year history, resulting in 23,407 university undergraduates in the city for the fall, and with population increases, the city also faces an increase in the incidence of accidents, and first responders face an increase in calls.

Calls for service for all agencies in Johnson County, including the Iowa City Police Department, totaled 14,825 between Aug. 31 and Sept. 29, according to the Joint Emergency Communications Center website.

Iowa City has an overall crime rate of about 39.56, slightly higher than the national average of 33.37, according to the NextDoor website, a neighborhood networking website and app with crime data for thousands of cities.

Although call volume sees a spike during certain times of the year, overall crime has fallen in Johnson County by 3.4 percent since 2024, according to Iowa’s Department of Public Safety. Scott Gaarde, a captain at the Iowa City Police Department, said there is a direct correlation with crime rates going up as temperatures rise.

“Even criminals don’t like the cold weather,” he said. Iowa City faces the unique challenge of a significant seasonal population increase.

The UI reported 31,563 total students enrolled in Fall 2025, according to university data. With the undergraduate class of 2029 being the second largest in history, most of whom live on campus, Iowa City’s first responders have been preparing themselves for an uptick in calls.

“There’s going to be more people during the school year, so there’s going to be more crimes,” Gaarde said. “Like a football Saturday, there’s going to be more culture service on a football Saturday versus a Saturday in February.”

Hayley Bruce, the public information officer for the UI police, said there can also be an alteration in what the departments are responding to seasonally, with more bike thefts and physical assaults being reported in the summer months and more incidents regarding alcohol as the academic year begins.

“At the beginning of the academic year, our call volume tends to shift a little bit, and we see an influx of alcohol related incidents and medical calls at the residence halls, especially early on those first couple weeks of the semester,” Bruce said. Bruce explained while staffing levels remain fairly consistent throughout the year, they reallocate resources depending on what’s needed on a given day.

“We might spend more time near the residence halls during the academic year, but during the summer, we might shift some of our resources to other areas of campus such as the hospital or doing extra controls

in buildings that are maybe a little bit less populated during the summer months,” she said.

Bruce said while Campus Safety does not alter the way they respond to calls seasonally, they do prepare for the beginning of the academic year and the shift in call volume.

“Our officers do some refresher training on the layout of each residence hall to make sure that we’re prepared to respond quickly if needed,” she said.

Emergency responders in the area work closely to ensure campus is as safe as possible, meeting with each other’s leadership teams regularly.

“Our officers train together to make sure that we’re all prepared to respond to different kinds of events that can happen on campus and near campus,” Bruce said. “We maintain that contact throughout the year as different situations arise that might require more collaborative response.”

Residence halls at the university are required to call first responders in the case of immediate danger or need. Students are also able to contact Campus Safety through an emergency and non-emergency line.

Bruce said Campus Safety is in attendance at summer orientation and welcome week events to help get familiar with students and recruit some to work with the department.

“The start of the semester also brings more opportunities for us to do community outreach and educational events with students so students can get to know us outside of emergency situations and learn more about the free safety resources we offer,” Bruce said.

HOME SWEET HOMECOMING

Students, faculty, sta , and alumni came together from Sept. 21-27 to celebrate homecoming week. Hawkeye culture was celebrated with a week’s worth of activities closed out with a concert put together by SCOPE Productions featuring the DJ duo nostrangrs and rapper-singer Teezo Touchdown. Following Friday’s concert was a sold-out football game against Indiana in Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 27.

SPORTS

One year makes a di erence

Iowa volleyball began 2025 with a 9-3 start in non-conference play.

high of 392 assists in Iowa’s 12-game non-conference run. While injuries can be spontaneous and occur even with preparation, Ammeraal still gives credit to Iowa City’s programs and staﬀ.

Iowa volleyball won nine non-conference games to start the 2025 campaign, one win short of their total wins from the entire 2024 season. A new year has seen a roster made of explosive new talent and program veterans alike come together to potentially have a season for the record books.

What triggered more success for the Hawkeyes so early in the season? For starters, Iowa has stayed healthy.

Last season, an early injury kept thenthird-year Claire Ammeraal off the court for nearly half the season, a major blow to the Hawkeye offense given the setter’s versatility.

A year later, Ammeraal is back at full potential, logging 71 kills and a team-

“Our sports medicine staﬀ is so helpful,” Ammeraal said. “Our team doctor is great. Our trainer is very helpful.”

The fourth-year also noted how the Hawkeyes’ training regimen has boosted important muscle groups.

“We’ve been doing shoulder prehab, which I think is helpful, especially because a lot of volleyball players have shoulder problems,” Ammeraal said.

“The stuﬀ we do in weights is preparing us and strengthening the muscles, which is helping strengthen those joints and keep us going.”

Fourth-year head coach Jim Barnes also shouted out Ammeraal’s impactful return.

“Claire’s having a heck of a season,” Barnes said. “She’s just really tearing it up.”

Iowa’s health has led to a 9-3 showing in non-conference play, with each of the three losses going to ﬁve sets.

“We’ve done a really good job this season of applying the pressure, not letting us feel any pressure,” third-year Gabby Deery said. “We’re focusing on our side and not really worrying about the competition. If we’re able to play our game and worry about ourselves, I think the game will take care of itself. That’s what we’ve seen.”

The pin hitter also noted, win or lose, the competitiveness of each game has enabled the Hawkeyes to improve their performance.

“Every single one of those losses, we’ve been able to get in the gym after and work on it,” Deery said. “It exposed some

From quiet arrival to tactical leader at Iowa

of our weaknesses. If anything, some of those losses have made us stronger.”

Iowa’s greatest strength is its talented roster, which consists of 19 athletes, 10 of whom return from last season.

In addition to Ammeraal and Deery, third-year Alyssa Worden collected 56 kills in this season’s ﬁrst 12 games, the sixth-most on the team. Second-year Aleksandra Stojanovic, who redshirted last season, has created 68 kills of her own as an eﬃcient middle hitter.

“The heart of our team is all our returners from last year,” Barnes said. “We returned 10, and if they’re not on the ﬂoor on game day, they’re a big part of helping the players who come in to get ready. They’ve helped build this program to be respectable.”

In addition to the returners, the

‘The game’s not over until it’s

over’

Berkley Binggeli epitomizes the Hawkeyes’ clutch gene.

Dreaming of hitting the game-winning shot is common among athletes, but only a select few actually get to experience this shared vision. For Iowa soccer’s Berkley Binggeli, this dream fully materialized on her 20th birthday.

“I was hoping for a win on my birthday,” said Binggeli.

“But I’d say that ball Skiﬀ gave me was my favorite birthday gift for sure.”

Tied 1-1 in a grudge match against conference foe Purdue, Iowa found itself on the oﬀensive attack with less than 20 seconds remaining in regulation. Second-year midﬁelder

Abby Skiﬀ charged deep into Boilermaker territory and lofted a pass across the penalty area towards Binggeli.

“It honestly did feel like slow motion,” Binggeli said. Lodged between two Purdue defenders, the 5-foot-8-inch Binggeli lept in the air and slammed her head into the ball, knocking it into the right corner of the net with 12 seconds left on the clock. The timely header sealed Iowa’s first conference win of the season, and for Iowa head coach Dave DiIanni, a spark of self-confidence for the midfielder.

“I just want her to believe in herself, just like we do,” he said. For Binggeli, the move revealed more of the Hawkeyes’ identity.

“It just shows how gritty our team is,” Binggeli said. “Obviously, we’d like to put goals away sooner, and that’s something that we need to continue to work on, but it’s just the idea that we stay in it and keep ﬁghting.”

The season began slowly for Van Cleef, as she had little knowledge of the playing style in the U.S. and needed time to adjust to a whole new team.

“During the ﬁrst few games, I got a better understanding of how everyone plays, especially when to lead, when not to lead, and assist my fellow forwards,” Van Cleef said.

Through eight games, Van Cleef has scored six goals, three assists, and has accumulated 28 shots — 16 of them on net — placing her second on the team behind Van Aalsum.

Van Cleef’s numbers have certainly played a large role for the Hawkeyes this season, but her impact on the program continues to reach beyond the pitch.

Due to her experience of playing at a high level in the Netherlands, she’s developed a high hockey IQ and tactical

Binggeli’s last-second offensive effort was her first goal of the season and third in her collegiate career. DiIanni said statistics don’t define Binggeli, whose effort makes others want to root for her.

“You could poll our team, and I think our team would almost be unanimous that they wanted Berkley Binggeli to be successful,” DiIanni said. “She works so hard, she’s a good kid, and she cares for others. That does not always necessitate success, but regarding this weekend, it did.”

While having plenty to celebrate, Binggeli’s focus reverted back to the team’s schedule — a six-hour bus ride back to Iowa City, then a home contest against Minnesota on Sept. 21.

With the narrow 1-0 lead, Iowa scored another score to deplete Minnesota of any comeback. An opportunity arose

Emerging star on the course

Second-year Kyle Montgomery has scored for Iowa men’s cross country in each of its first two meets, proving that hard work and the help of a hoodie can pay o .

The synchronized crunch of shoes gripping the pavement ﬁlled the silence of a city still asleep.

Eleven men surged through the cool morning breeze at a brisk pace, their breath visible with every huff and puff. The sun grazed over the horizon, glistening off the sweat from each runner’s forehead.

The perfect morning for a run.

Behind the pack, a similar yet accelerated rhythmic pounding of running shoes grew closer. A hooded runner ﬁlling those shoes weaved his way around the group and planted himself in front of the pack. While the others could only see the back of the hooded runner, they knew exactly who it was: Kyle Montgomery.

“We call him ‘Hoodie Kyle,’” second-year Luke Knepp said. “When he wears his hoodie, he’s dangerous.”

Montgomery doesn’t always wear the hoodie, but when he does, there’s always a purpose.

“I usually wear the hoodie when it’s cold,” Montgomery said. “If it’s not cold out and I’m wearing it, that either means I’m sick or I’m really locked in.”

Although Montgomery never started doing this until college, it has become his trademark with the Iowa men’s cross country team. The second-year out of Greenwood, Indiana, is currently competing in his second season as a Hawkeye.

Montgomery’s college decision came down to two Big Ten schools — Iowa and Purdue. When Purdue’s coaching staﬀ never got back to him, his decision became easy. It was time to start gearing up in black and gold.

The Indiana native didn’t choose the Hawkeyes blindly, as he visited Iowa while still in high school.

“I went to dinner with the team and ran with them a couple of times,” Montgomery said. “I felt like there was a really good culture here.”

Montgomery announced his commitment to Iowa in March of his senior year of high school. Eighteen months later, the secondyear has established himself as a key scorer for the team in 2025. He placed third on the team at the Hawkeye Invitational on Sept. 5

and second on the team at the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 1 . After ﬁnishing ninth on the team at last year’s Big Ten Conference Championship meet, Montgomery knew success and improvement weren’t going to simply fall into his lap. There was work to be done.

“I’m always focused and putting in the extra time,” Montgomery said. “When you’re running 0 miles a week, you really have to do a lot to stay healthy.” Montgomery’s drive doesn’t go unnoticed. His teammates consider him as one of the team’s

Iowa field hockey forward Rachel Herbine

If you didn’t play field hockey, what sport would you play and why?

I think I would be a good gymnast. I think I have good balance and ﬂexibility.

toughest workhorses.

“He’s always trying to get that extra rep in and push the guys to keep going,” Knepp said. “He’s fairly quiet, but he’ll lead by example.”

“It’s almost impossible to hold [Montgomery] back,” teammate Carson Houg said. “He goes 100 percent almost every day.” Montgomery plays a pivotal role as a scorer and leader for the Hawkeyes. With the improvements he’s made over the span of one season, the sky is the limit for “Hoodie Kyle.”

The Daily Iowan: Who got you into field hockey? Rachel Herbine: My sister played when she was in kindergarten, and I think my parents did the same with me when I got to kindergarten.

What is your favorite memory with the team? My freshman year we beat UNC [North Carolina] at their ﬁeld for the very ﬁrst time. That was the most exhilarating feeling in the world.

What is the coolest place you have visited with the team?

After we lost in the Big Ten tournament last year, we got to go to the monuments in Washington D.C.

Who do you think is the funniest on the team and why?

I would have to say Rylie Novak because she can make some good jokes that make everyone laugh.

What team do you enjoy playing I am going to have to say Northwestern. We compete with them a lot, and they are always a great competition. We know them, and they know us very well.

When not practicing or playing field hockey what are you doing?

Mostly hanging out with friends and watching movies. My favorite movie is “Ten Things I Hate About You.”

Why did you choose Iowa?

Since my sister played here, I came and visited one day and just fell in love with the place.

Which Iowa basketball team will have the be er season?

The Hawkeye women look to improve from a second-round NCAA tournament exit while the men aim to make the postseason under a new head coach.

Coming off nine-straight 20-win seasons, the Iowa women’s basketball squad is coming into the 2025-2 campaign to make that number an even 10.

Iowa went 23-11 last season and drew a favorable non-conference schedule. To start the season, Iowa features three home games in a row against Southern University, Evansville, and Drake.

Iowa’s first road game is set for Northern Iowa, but given the two-hour drive to Cedar Falls, the distance should not play much of a factor. During conference play, Iowa will play Nebraska, Oregon, Michigan State, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio State, all at home. Michigan State, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio State all finished ahead of Iowa in the final Big Ten rankings last season. Having those opponents as home games will leave the Hawkeyes with plenty of opportunity to level the playing field.

Finishing conference play last

year with a respectable 10- record, Iowa basketball will get heavily tested on the road against USC and UCLA, as both teams finished the regular season in the top-five of the AP poll. Another test for the Hawkeyes comes in late February with back-to-back road games against Nebraska and Purdue. Iowa did lose three out of its four top scorers from last season, but Iowa returns veteran experience with Hannah Stuelke, Kylie Feuerbach, Taylor McCabe, and Ava Heiden. McCabe and Feuerbach appeared in all 34 games last season. Stuelke was close behind, appearing in 32 games herself, with Heiden seeing action in 2 games. The four will have big shoes to fill with Lucy Olsen, Sydney Affolter, and Addison O’Grady graduating, but a new face in Addie Deal could fill one of the departing shoes. Deal, a -foot first-year out of Irvine, California, is a five-star recruit and the top-ranked player in her state, per 247 Sports. ESPN ranks her as the 1 th overall prospect nationally. If anyone could replicate the offensive production from Olsen, it would be Deal. If Iowa can replace missing pieces from graduation and win the big games at home, this squad can surely rally a Sweet-1 run come tournament time.

The hard part about picking Iowa men’s basketball is because it’s essentially a brand new team.

We’ve seen Ben McCollum lead Drake to the Missouri Valley Conference championship and to an NCAA Tournament berth, but we’ve never seen him coach in the Big Ten. Not to mention at least half of his roster from Drake followed him to Iowa.

The Hawkeyes will be the underdogs in a lot of Big Ten matchups this year, and I think it’ll serve them well for extra motivation to surprise a lot of people.

For starters, the Hawkeyes will need to take advantage of their out-of-conference schedule. Its first five opponents are those outside Power Four conferences. Then comes a four-game slate including Ole Miss, Michigan State, Maryland, and Iowa State.

Another three-game slate of non-Power Four schools hit, which are the last matchups before Big Ten play. It’s crucial Iowa wins all eight of those non-Power Four matchups. As for the team itself, a big part of success is team chemistry. And while some players will be new to McCollum’s system, at least half the roster is following the head coach from Drake, not to mention one of the best point guards in the country in Bennett Stirtz. Fans nervous about former Hawkeye Josh Dix’s transfer should be relieved with Stirtz filling the scoring void. And last but not least, the home crowd. As good as former head coach Fran McCaffery was during his tenure in Iowa City, his teams struggled to fill half the stadium in recent years. McCollum and Co. should bring back excitement for fans with a more athletic, hustling, defensive-minded team Hawkeye fans have been missing for some time now. Yes, Drake’s scoring offense ranked 2 1st in Division I, but its 5 . opponent points per game ranked second. The offense will be slower and more methodical, but the Hawkeyes should stay competitive against better competition.

Hawkeyes welcomed nine newcomers to Iowa City, each with a unique role to play. Representing ﬁve U.S. states and four countries, the new faces have made a deep impact on the court.

Deery said adding new players into the mix keeps things competitive and brings out stronger performances from the veterans.

“It deﬁnitely adds new faces and experience,” Deery said. “It makes our gym more competitive. You’re playing against other great hitters, and it just makes me that much better having to ﬁne-tune my shots.”

The Burlington, Iowa, native also noted the correlation between good practice and payoﬀ on the court.

“If anything, scrimmaging in our practice gym makes us that much more prepared for Big Ten games just because we get to see those more experienced players every single day,” Deery said.

Iowa’s top two leaders in kills at the end of the non-conference season were both newcomers, namely sixth-year Chattanooga transfer Chard’e Vanzandt, who tallied 112 kills in 12 contests, and ﬁrst-year Estonian recruit Carmel Vares, who grabbed 7 kills of her own.

Fourth-year libero Milana “Mo” Moisio transferred from Miami to anchor the Hawkeye defense, recording 1 digs in Iowa’s dynamic start. Moisio, who brings three years of postseason experience, also ﬁ lls a role

diate impact,” Barnes said. “That’s what we were hoping for. I really love the mentality of these ladies that are driven. They love being Hawkeyes, and they can get so much better, too. I think through Big Ten play, you’re going to continue to see the team improve.”

Ammeraal also credits Iowa’s early success to a change in mindset.

previously left open by recent graduate and libero Joy Galles.

“Bringing in Mo, bringing in Chard’e on the left side, bringing Carmel on the right side, they’ve made an imme-

perspective, so much so that head coach Lisa Cellucci has credited her as “another coach on the team.”

“I play exactly the same as when I played at home in the Netherlands,” Van Cleef said. “I try to connect my speed with tactical skills and help everyone on the team.”

To her fellow Hawkeyes, Van Cleef stands out for her speed and high energy both in practices and games.

“When she takes one step, she’s five steps ahead of you,” third-year Rachel Herbine said. “She’s also very feisty and really lifts the team’s energy, no matter the situation.”

Van Cleef didn’t just bring playing skills from the Netherlands. As a graduate student, she’s become a model for younger recruits, showing what a professional ﬁeld hockey athlete looks like and does on a day-to-day basis.

“We’re having more fun this year,” Ammeraal said. “Last year, we got a little tense when we played those smaller schools because it’s a ‘must-win’ game, and that was not a good mindset. We haven’t had great years in the past we haven’t really established ourselves as a program.”

Ammeraal said it’s important the Hawkeyes don’t under-

“Being a graduate student, she has real maturity,” Cellucci said. “Her experience at such a high level has taught her things all athletes need to know how to prepare for games and how to recover after them.”

Iowa still has eight games to play before the Big Ten Tournament, and Van Cleef has a chance to challenge Van Aalsum for the top spot on the Hawkeyes’ team ranking.

“She is going to rack up a ton of goals, a ton of assists, and we haven’t even completely utilized her in all spaces,” Cellucci said. “Specifically in our penalty corners where we haven’t had to feature her yet, but as we get deeper into Big Ten play, she is going to have a lot of opportunity.”

To Van Cleef, it’s not about the stats or recognition it’s about the team.

“I just want to win every game,” Van Cleef said. “If it’s Dionne or me who scores, I don’t care as long as we win, and I play a good game.”

estimate any of their opponents.

“They might be a smaller school, but that doesn’t mean they’re worse at volleyball,” Ammeraal said. “[We’re] just taking every team the same and having a good time while we’re doing it. That’s worked pretty well for us.”

While Barnes agrees Iowa is playing at a high level to begin the season, he knows his team is ready to be competitive in Big Ten play.

“We’ve been able to really upgrade the talent,” Barnes said. “With every coach, you’re just hoping they can stay healthy as they go through the season. We’ve been able to do that, and we’ve got good depth. This team is capable of winning a lot more.”

First-year transfer Grant Gudgel is all about winning

Gudgel holds lofty goals for himself in his first year at Iowa after transferring from Oklahoma State.

For most student-athletes, playing for their hometown school is a dream. For Iowa men’s golfs transfer Grant Gudgel, Oklahoma State provided this opportunity, but he never took a swing with the Cowboys. Still a kid from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Gudgel doesn’t regret his decision.

“I’m very grateful I did go to Oklahoma State. Being from Stillwater, I always wanted to play at Oklahoma State, and when they recruited me, it felt like I had to go there,” Gudgel said.

After having two wrist surgeries before his ﬁrst year at Oklahoma State, Grudgel entered his first year still injured. Although he couldn’t play, he said he still learned valuable lessons during that time.

“I am grateful that I went through that adversity and was able to know the tough times and know that I can come out of them and play some really good golf,” Gudgel said.

Gudgel hit the transfer portal and stumbled upon Iowa, a state he had never even been to prior to his ﬁrst visit. Despite the unfamiliarity, Gudgel said he felt comfortable in Iowa City, whose residents rally around the university’s sports teams.

“I fell in love with the town, and I feel like everyone here loves the place. It’s pretty easy to come here and love this place,” Gudgel said. “I want to win some tournaments with the team that’s why I came here. I don’t like anything but winning.”

Gudgel knew some of his teammates beforehand. He played amateur tournaments with Iowa second-year Ryan Shelberg and followed Chance Rinkol on Instagram.

In the Hawkeyes’ last tournament, Gudgel placed the highest out of his teammates at 22, but he still sees ways he can improve his game.

“I’m just going to build on it. I know there can be a lot better golf, and I think that’s the same with the team,” Gudgel said. “We know how good we can be, coach knows how good we can be, it’s just about going out there and competing.”

So far this season, Gudgel is content with his driving but feels dissatisfied with his short game. In the fi rst two tournaments of the year, Gudgel placed 22nd and 43rd. The Hawkeyes’ next event, the Fighting Irish Classic, is another chance for Gudgel to improve his putting, but the opportunity offers a chance for revenge on his former team.

“It’ll be nice to see my buddies, but I want to go out there and beat them all,” Gudgel said. “We’re there to compete, so it’ll be kind of fun going against them.”

Gudgel has only spent a few months in Iowa City, but the transition to a new setting hasn’t whittled his determination. Back in Oklahoma, Gudgel played alongside PGA golfer Viktor Hovland and hopes to share Hovland’s profession in the future.

“I just want to be the best teammate I can be and compete hard,” Gudgel said. “I’m hoping to get some team and individual wins under the belt. We’ve got some really good coaches here, so it’s going to be fun.”

at the 80th minute on a penalty kick for the Hawkeyes. Performing in front of nearly 2,000 fans, a poised Binggeli stutter stepped to the ball, throwing the Minnesota goalkeeper off balance. Binggeli’s offering was more ground ball than line drive, but her deceptive approach left the goalkeeper diving in the opposite direction. game away. Getting up after the foul, I was out of breath, I won’t lie. So I just took a second to try and slow my breathing and gather myself.” Binggeli’s heroics sealed a 2-0 Iowa victory and capped another late offensive surge for the Hawkeyes, a trend becoming more familiar than foreign. The opportunity to flip the script can arrive at any time, even with 12 seconds left.

“We just ﬁnd a way to keep digging and digging until we put [a team] away,”Binggeli said. “That’s what we did today and

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

The Iowa Hawkeyes fell to the No. 11 Indiana Hoosiers 15-20 at the university’s homecoming game at Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 27.

a third-year UI student, started working on her passion project called “The Sacrament.”

Sets and scenes of a UI student film

piece from above, standing on a table not meant for the weight it was holding. Between herself, the set design on the table, and the camera, the flimsy piece of wood did not hold together.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, is anyone else seeing this?’” camera operator Carter Routt, a second-year University of Iowa student, said. “And then it breaks, and she’s grabbing onto my shoulder, and then she falls through, and everyone grabs the camera first to make sure the camera is fine.”

Kaiya Kralik, a second-year UI student and another camera operator, was trying to get the perfect shot of a table

“I just felt the floor go out from under me and heard a bunch of gasps around me,” Kralik said. “The table fell really slowly, but I’m sliding down this thing, and I quickly jump off before it completely collapses.”

This was only the first day of shooting for the cast and crew of the independent student-made psychological body horror film, “The Sacrament.” The movie follows a young couple as they go through the tribulations of marriage in a world a bit different than ours. In the logic of the

FilmScene to hold fourth film festival

The festival will take place from Oct. 9 to 12, featuring over 30 events and films.

In collaboration with the Iowa City Book Festival, FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival will debut its fourth season the weekend of Oct. 9-12.

“The original conception was to have films that were literary adaptations, but we expanded that deﬁnition pretty quickly when we were putting together the 2022 lineup, to include things that were as varied as a video game, a podcast, or a song adapted from a previous work,” programming director Ben Delgado said.

This year’s program will consist of over 30 events and movies. Events manager Angie Mabeus explained how FilmScene ties art into its ﬁlm festival showings.

“In our larger theaters, we have a live musician before every ﬁlm, or we have an on-screen artist,” Mabeus said. “Artists submit their work, make a 20 minute slideshow, and as people enter the theater, they experience an art show on screen or live.”

This year’s program was the result of a collaboration with Public Space One sending a call for local artists and musicians to perform at the festival. Mabeus illustrated with the example of the Post-Script party, the opening night after-party.

“We have an artist, Jessie Kraemer, who will be doing a little pop-up station where you can sit down with Jessie, tell her what you thought about the ﬁlm, and then she’ll make you a piece of art that you can take home,” Mabeus said.

Community Engagement Coordinator Sarahann Kolder shared her excitement for some ﬁlms she hope will do well.

“One I’ve seen, that I hope other people see, is 'River of Grass,' which is an adaptation of a book of the same name, and it’s about nature, environmentalism, and conservationism inthe Florida Everglades,” Kolder said.

Delgado shared one of his favorite events hosted every year during Refocus, a live podcast taping of Filmspotting.

world, wedding traditions take a gruesome turn.

Third-year UI student Abril Garcia Rojas first came up with the idea for the feature film in a foundations of screenwriting class. After months of reworking her script to be longer than what it originally was, her next goal was to find people to help bring the project to life, eventually reaching a 30-student staff of cast and crew.

“I went into the freshmen introduction production class and pitched my idea and was like, ‘If you guys want to join my crew, you can, because I need hands on deck,’” Garcia Rojas said. “That’s who makes up the majority of my crew, second-years. It’s an interesting dynamic, I will say, because this is their first big

project, and some of them have never worked on another project before.”

With many of the crew being new to the film world, the on-set experience is a learning opportunity for everyone. Since they are not entirely sure of the official processes, as they are still going through classes, there are quite a few things the crew has been able to take a more creative turn with.

“[Garcia Rojas] has such a clear vision of what she wants, but she’s also so open to other ideas and working with everybody to try and make ‘The Sacrament’ the best that she can,” Finley McGregor, a UI second-year and the script supervisor, said.

Stephen King is a multimedia master

New film “The Long Walk” joins an acclaimed roster of King adaptations.

performances and a monstrous female lead with supernatural telekinetic powers that leave the audience in suspense and shock.

“The Long Walk,” based on one of Stephen King’s oldest stories, was released in theaters on Sept. 12, making it a perfect time to recap the seven best ﬁlms inspired by a King novel.

No matter what bookstore you step into, whether it’s the three-story Barnes & Noble in New York City or a small store at a local airport, the chances of ﬁnding a King novel are near a hundred percent. With over 80 novels and 200 short stories published, it’s no surprise these stories have been adapted into several popular movies and television series.

“Here’s Johnny!” is one of the most widely referenced horror movie quotes of all time, and for good reason. “The Shining” is a chilling psychological thriller featuring outstanding acting performances from Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. It’s hard to ﬁnd a scene in “The Shining” that isn’t popular among cinema fans, and even if King himself has expressed displeasure in the movie, it doesn’t deny the fact that “The Shining” is one of his most popular adaptations.

You can’t call yourself a movie lover if you’ve never seen “The Shawshank Redemption” before. As the highest-ranking ﬁlm on the IMDb Top 250 Movies with a 9.3 out of 10 star rating, “The Shawshank Redemption” is an intense story about prison, friendship, and character. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman deliver the best performances of their careers. Highlighting the character development of Andy Dufresne and Red makes this movie as emotional as it is.

Even if you’ve never seen the film before, you’ve definitely heard mention of the prom scene in it. “Carrie” is known for catapulting King to success. With the original novel being published in 1974 and the movie being released only two years later in 1 7 , “Carrie” was both King’s first novel and his first to be adapted into a movie. “Carrie” delivers on stunningly chilling

Sorry, but if you’re afraid of clowns, then “It” is deﬁnitely not the movie for you. With a creepy, unsettling antagonist and a coming-of-age story driven by a group of young, frequently bullied kids, “It” has both a chilling plotline and dramatic suspense. The young actors deliver impressive performances throughout the movie, and Bill Skarsgård enunciates the distressing feeling the audience gets every time Pennywise is on the screen.

“The Long Walk” is a very popular King adaptation, as it is the most recent. The ﬁlm follows a group of 50 teenage boys who compete to win whatever the winner wants for the rest of his life as long as he keeps walking at a steady pace. Like the other King novels and movies, “The Long Walk” is filled with the same psychologically thrilling climaxes and emotional journeys present in all of King’s work.

A ﬁlm about prisoners on death row with unusual powers might sound like a horror movie, but couldn’t be any farther from what “The Green Mile” actually is. While other King adaptations focus on horror and thrilling aspects, “The Green Mile” delivers on emotional impact and a compelling narrative. While there are supernatural elements throughout, they serve more to propel character development.

Another break from horror films, “Stand By Me” is a coming-of-age story about a group of young boys who go on an adventure to ﬁnd the body of a missing boy from their town in 1 50s America. While the boys initially set out to ﬁnd the body for their own cruel curiosity, they develop a deeper understanding of themselves and each other. “Stand By Me” is another example of a King adaptation with great performances from young actors and a deeply moving plot that resonates with audiences.

One masterpiece after another

Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio can’t miss with “One Ba le After Another.”

“One Battle After Another” is a singular moviegoing experience. It contains the sort of immersive, large-scale, emotionally, and intellectually involved blockbuster ﬁlmmaking legendary movies are made of.

I’m not sure if I’m ready to call “One Battle After Another” a legendary movie yet, but director Paul Thomas Anderson’s 10th ﬁlm is certainly among the best of this decade so far. The contemporaneously set actionthriller feels so prescient I couldn’t help but laugh at times; the ﬁlm’s absurd sense of humor captures the existential chaos of living through our current political landscape. Despite being written sporadically over 20 years, Anderson’s script feels like it was ripped from the headlines.

“Viva la revolución!” Leonardo DiCaprio, wearing a ragged plaid bathrobe and boxy sunglasses, shouts as he embarks on a journey to save his daughter from a radical military force. DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, also called “Ghetto Pat,” a former revolutionary who has supplanted his political ideology with marijuana in the 16 years since the mother of his daughter was taken from him.

DiCaprio’s performance is predictably great, but I was taken aback by how diﬀerent it felt from anything he’d ever done. The manic paranoia of a former vigilante activist, reckoning with the consequences of the past, is a similar headspace DiCaprio occupies during some of his best recent work in “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

But there is a tenderness in Bob Ferguson I feel has been purposefully missing from DiCaprio’s performances since his early teenage heartthrob years. Bob is a father and a protector; he spends much of the movie mourning the woman he loved and desperately searching for his daughter.

For a movie as outrageous and fast-moving as “One Battle After Another,” DiCaprio’s truly sweet and emotionally rich performance grounds the insanity. Similarly, while the movie is three hours long, the propulsive pacing and extremely intense score by Jonny Greenwood make the running time ﬂy by.

The pace is helped by the structure of the movie, too, as the plot is mostly a series of chases and escapes. It begins with a long prologue told mostly in montage as Bob meets Perﬁ dia Beverly Hills, played with extraordinary humanity by Teyana Taylor, an impassioned revolutionary who ﬁ ghts with a radical vigilante network, the French 75.

Throughout the montage, we see the French 75 combat Steve Lockjaw, played by Sean Penn, a militant white supremacist who runs a ring of migrant detention centers in California. As Bob and Perﬁ dia work to disrupt this ﬁctionalized U.S. government’s fascist state, and fall in love doing it, Lockjaw stalks them.

When the couple has a child, Perfidia is forced to make a sacrificial choice to protect her family from Lockjaw at the cost of the French 75. In the modern day, Bob and his daughter Willa are living off the grid in the fictional town Baktan Cross, California, where they sporadically keep in touch with the dwindling revolutionary network. Meanwhile, Lockjaw is offered a seat at “The Christmas Adventurers’ Club,” a deep state white nationalist cabal, but not before he has to clean a few skeletons out of his closet. Thus, he tells one of his commanding officers, “Make me a reason to be in Baktan Cross,” and the hunt for Bob and Willa begins. Penn’s performance as the cartoonishly evil Lockjaw is remarkable. His physicality is caricature-like, and the facial ticks he deploys stick out, but it’s everything beneath his goofy exterior that is truly terrifying. Behind Penn’s eyes is this selfish, cruel, and powerhungry drive that makes him appear threatening. An added layer of psychosexual confusion and insecurity lingers just enough to constantly remind you how humiliating it is to be a fascist.

While “One Battle After Another” has many things to say about the world we live in, Lockjaw’s siege on Baktan Cross feels like a terrifying display of the

more heartbreaking.

Things aren’t all doom and gloom, though. Bob meets Sensei Sergio, played incredibly relaxed by Benicio del Toro, who helps him escape Baktan Cross. For a movie full of explosions, car chases, and shoot-outs, it’s a fascinating story choice to mostly keep Bob out of conﬂict.

In fact, whenever Bob tries to take an active role in the violent story unfolding around him, he fails and needs to be bailed out by someone else. At one point, Bob and Sensei are sharing Modelos while driving through the California desert, and Bob tells his friend, “I don’t even know how to do her hair, man.”

It’s a deeply aﬀ ecting moment that says so much about why the twisty, shocking story has unfolded thus far. At its core, “One Battle After Another” is about the world we leave behind for generations after us, and particularly the fear among members of Generation X — which DiCaprio and Anderson are both a part of — about the future they’ve ushered in for their children.

Throughout an insanely tense last act, Willa, played by Chase Inﬁniti, realizes outside of her father’s bubble, she is a product of a world of violent power struggle. As a consequence of her parents’ actions, the teenager is forced to see and do things Bob never wanted her to.

Without giving away the ending, the absurd dread about contemporary society that “One Battle After Another” builds in its opening acts gives way to something far more hopeful — at least on its surface — by the end.

Anderson’s movie has a lot going on, and I’m not done parsing through its character relationships and political implications, but it is, most importantly, an absolute blast. It’s an action movie made by, for my money, one of the best living ﬁ lmmakers and set to some all-timer needle drops and laugh-out-loud funny performances.

The film conveys its story about how the world cyclically grinds the idealism out of young people by keeping the darkest themes layered beneath exhilarating craft and jaw-dropping spectacle.

In some ways, this movie feels like a culmination of Anderson’s ﬁlmography. It has the stoner comedy of “Inherent Vice” and “Punch Drunk Love” while maintaining the introspective character study of I may be biased, as Anderson is one of my favorite ﬁlmmakers, but I cannot recommend “One Battle After Another” more. I made the trek to Davenport to catch the movie in IMAX, and it left my mind racing from the sheer scale of what I witnessed. It’s the kind of crowdpleasing blockbuster made even better by sitting with an engaged audience. See it loud and see it big, the ride is worth it.

After gathering a crew, Garcia Rojas had to plan for how the shooting would go. For starters, as an independent project, they had to figure out where their funding would come from.

Starting with a GoFundMe page linked to their Instagram, the group began its journey to ﬁnd ways of saving money. One way the crew was able to creatively bypass their budget issues was by renting equipment through the Cage, the UI’s equipment rental service.

The crew was able to utilize professional equipment through the Cage, including the C200 cameras, which are Canon compact digital cameras, used on the set of “The Sacrament.” The cameras can cost upwards of $3,000 on their own.

“They had a lot of really advanced stuﬀ, like a track. I’ve never seen a dolly before, so that was really interesting. And a stability vest, I didn’t even know we had those,” Routt said.

Despite this being a way to save money for the crew, it also became a problem when the equipment needed had already been rented out.

“We get all of our equipment through the school,” Jori Webb, a third-year UI student who is the assistant director and director of photography, said. “The ﬁlm isn’t run through the school, but it is very dependent on the university for the materials.”

Another issue Garcia Rojas and her team needed to adjust before they could shoot was the

varying schedules of everyone involved. Considering the group was almost entirely students, conﬂicting class times and prior arrangements often got in the way of potential shooting days.

“Our schedules rely on the actors; we can’t really shoot much without them, so their schedules are the most dependent,” Webb said. “If I can’t be there one day, it sucks, but it’s not a huge deal. If an actor can’t be there one day, then we’ll have to put production oﬀ until they can make it.”

Even if scheduling a time to shoot can be diﬃcult, the team behind “The Sacrament” made the most of their shooting days. With their ﬁrst shoot running over 12 hours long, the crew tried to capture as many scenes as possible while everyone was available.

As an independent student film, the crew had to make the best out of what they had, which can be diﬃcult when it comes to ﬁnding places for their shoots. They have been traveling throughout Iowa City to location scout, but when it comes to the at-home scenes, their friends’ apartments can only go so far.

“We are looking for apartments that aren’t from our crew,”

Garcia Rojas said. “It’s getting to the point where we might have to oﬀer people money to be like, ‘Hey, let us use your space.’”

The team has found some luck using public locations. During a shoot on Sept. 17, they were granted permission to ﬁlm inside the CVS at the Old Capitol Mall. However, there were still a few things that did not go exactly to

plan.

“It was just the location we were in that made it a little bit difficult because it’s hard to work in a public space that isn’t built for a shoot. There were a lot of things that we didn’t expect to happen,” Garcia Rojas said. “Especially with the machine and my card and the CVS receipt, so that was fun.”

Throughout their time at CVS, Vivian Bonde, a third-year UI student and one of the main actors, had to purchase an item from the store in the scene, which led to more issues than anyone predicted. Based on how the store’s self-checkout is set up, it is meant to greet a customer as they approach, which was not the plan for the shot. The crew had to reset the scene a few times, therefore leading to Bonde having to return and buy the product multiple times.

“While on set, you’re prone to at least something happening,” McGregor said. “Obviously, ﬁlming is not going to be perfect every single time.”

Luckily for those working on “The Sacrament,” there have been fewer complications while ﬁlming than feared. The only obstacles it seems anyone has had to overcome have been the switch the actors have had to make from their theater backgrounds to movie-style performances.

“Working on an independent project is so diﬀerent from working on theater or any kind of class film projects,” Bonde said. “There’s a lot more you have to work around because it all has to happen in your free time.”

Before the ﬁrst day of shooting even began, Garcia Rojas invited the cast and crew out to dinner as an icebreaker. The night was intended to remove any awkwardness the team might feel around each other, and gave them all a chance to bond before they set out to ﬁlm “The Sacrament.”

The team has been using this opportunity to learn, and Garcia Rojas has been supportive the entire time. Even though this is her ﬁrst time directing a ﬁlm of this length, Garcia Rojas made the working environment for the movie a positive space for everyone involved.

“I remember just being so nervous before. Then we got to the dinner and were sitting down, and we all just yapped the entire time. There were no awkward moments at all,” Webb said. “She didn’t put much pressure on attending the dinner, and I have to praise Abril because she does such a good job being so ﬂexible with everyone’s schedules.”

Even though the cast and crew have had their fair share of obstacles and challenges, they’ve managed to overcome them every time.

As they continue production, the team is sure to continue working towards creating something they can all be proud of.

“Over the course of three festivals, we’ve seen every year people being a little bit more comfortable doing the things that are associated with a ﬁlm festival: waiting in rush lines, getting their tickets

One of the co-founders of the podcast, UI Professor of Practice Adam Kempenaar, hosts diﬀerent speakers each year and plans to discuss the top five films adapted from Iowa writers for this year’s episode, Delgado said. Looking back at the previous years’ festivals, Delgado recalled how people supported the program from the beginning and began to take a chance on ﬁlms they had never seen before. As the festival gain recognition, attendees trust the program more.

early, and taking a chance on new things,” Delgado said. “That’s a really important part of the ﬁlm festival, and we’re really happy to see people doing that now.”

Choosing the films is about balance to Kolder. In illustrating taking a chance on films, Kolder plans to see a film called “Kontinental ‘25.”

“We kind of broke down each ﬁlm to list its attributes and put it on a scale of mood and low-brow, high-brow,” she said. “[‘Kontinental ‘25’] had a very unique position in that matrix, so I’m very excited for that one.”

Five fall comfort meals

These easy autumn recipes will help you transition into fall.

As the leaves change, so does the food cycle season. Because of this, making fall recipes is easier than ever. Unfortunately, the changing of the seasons also means school is starting to pick up, and students are spending longer days in the library, leaving less time to make healthy, nourishing meals. Here’s a list of ﬁve fall meals to cook while you’re studying.

Of all the recipes I made this past week, this was my favorite. Start by cooking your rice according to the directions on the bag. While that’s cooking, bake diced sweet potatoes and sliced onions in the air fryer at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Dice your salmon and marinate it with a few tablespoons of soy sauce, a drizzle of toasted sesame oil, a dash of cinnamon and ground ginger, and about three tablespoons of brown sugar. Once the veggies are done, bake the salmon in the air fryer for about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how well done you like your salmon. Serve with the salmon, sweet potatoes, and onions over rice.

Start by sauteéing any vegetables you’re trying to get rid of; I used a red pepper, half an onion, carrots, corn, and green beans. Once the veggies are softened, add about two cups of chicken broth as well as three to four cans of whatever beans you want; I used two drained cans of black beans and a can of chili beans. Let that simmer for about 20 minutes. While that’s simmering, start baking any fries. I like crinkle cut best. I also like to cook some ground beef, which I add to the chili once it’s no longer pink. Add a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste to thicken the chili. Once that’s heated, serve the chili over the fries and top with shredded cheese, sour cream, and sliced green onions.

get fancy, heat on the stovetop, but if you don’t have the time, heat the soup up in the microwave. Make the grilled cheese as you normally would. I used sourdough bread, buttered two pieces, put the first on the pan set to medium heat, and sprinkled cheddar cheese onto the piece. Once the cheese gets warm, add the second piece of sourdough, butter side up. Let that cook until the first piece is golden brown, then flip the sandwich and do the same with the other piece of bread. Cut in half and dip into the soup to eat.

The three FilmScene staﬀ members shared some events would be free and open to the public as well as some free ticket opportunities for UI students in partnership with the Bijou Film Board. “We hope everybody comes out and knows about Refocus and enjoys it,” Kolder said.

roasting time is plenty to get a few assignments done. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees, puncture some holes in your sweet potatoes, and rub olive oil and salt onto them. Bake for 45 minutes. While that’s cooking, brown some ground beef. When the sweet potatoes are done, cut them in half and top with ground beef, cottage cheese, avocados, and whatever seasoning you like best.

This meal may take some time, but the

For this fall breakfast, you’re going to make another trip to Trader Joe’s. Use the pumpkin brioche to make french toast. For the egg mixture, beat five eggs and add cinnamon, ground ginger, and a dash of milk. Whisk that together, dip the bread in it, and cook it in a frying pan on medium heat until both sides are golden brown. Serve with pumpkin butter from Trader Joe’s, ricotta cheese, and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. As midterms begin to curse our weekends, these meals will keep you motivated.

You can make soup from scratch by roasting tomatoes, peppers, squash, onions, and pumpkin; however, I think that takes too long. So, take the trek to Trader Joe’s and buy whichever harvest soup sounds the best to you. My favorite is the autumnal harvest or the pumpkin bisque. If you want to

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Living in Oblivion directed by Tom DiCillo

The Studio on Apple TV+

Cornﬁeld Chase | Hans Zimmer

Shark Attack | John Williams Phantom Thread | Jonny Greenwood Worm Ride | Hans Zimmer

The Godfather | Nino Rota