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Iowa regents task force to enhance transparency By Emelie.Knobloch @iowastatedaily.com

Suhaib Tawil/Iowa State Daily

Monica Ernberger, program coordinator for study abroad, sits with Maxwell McClelland, junior in supply chain management and international business, at the Study Abroad Center. Ernberger has seen a growing number of ISU international students explore study abroad opportunities.

A broader adventure International students take advantage of Iowa State’s study abroad program By Kat.Grunewald @iowastatedaily.com ISU international students might already be experiencing a different environment by coming to study in the United States, but for some that is not enough. As the international undergraduate population has grown, so has the number of international students going abroad again, said Monica Ernberger, program coordinator at the Study Abroad Center. “It has become increasingly popular. France, Italy and the United Kingdom are favorites among international students,” Ernberger said. Many international students seek to

study abroad during the summer. “A lot of times they are looking to do something with their summer that is going to help show that willingness to do something different, and a lot of times they are interested in learning another language,” Ernberger said. Afifah Abdul Rahim, senior in animal science from Singapore and participant of two study abroad programs, said she agrees. “To truly understand a language, you have to embrace the culture and the language in the way it is practiced [in the native country]. It is like English for us,” Afifah said. “Coming here, I knew English, but here they have their own slang.” A lot of international students are surprised when they realize that they can study abroad as well, Ernberger said. They, too, go through the ISU abroad application system like domestic students. But when it comes to the visa, things can get a little

tricky. “Some students’ [current] visas are bound by number of entries or what they are here for,” Ernberger said. In some cases entering a study abroad program might require the international student to reapply for their U.S.-visa afterward, maybe even in their own home country. “That might get a bit complicated, but more often, I see that [students have] that multiple-entry visa,” Ernberger said. “It is not as challenging as it used to be.” Afifah, who has been on a three-week study abroad trip to Germany, Poland and Denmark in July 2011 and will accompany a trip to Thailand this winter, describes her travels abroad as a life-changing experience. “At the end of the day, there is only so much that you can learn from the text-

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Student wins award for 3-D tree design By Julie.Paulson @iowastatedaily.com Sara Davids, junior in landscape architecture, has won the 2013 Student 3-D Design Contest sponsored by Land F/X for designing a realistic looking tree in Google Sketch-Up. According to the Land F/X contest website, the focuses of the contest were whether one could orbit freely around the tree model, whether it looked good from a bird’s eye view, if it used less than three or four materials and if it looked good when placed in more complex design models. The tree that Davids designed was based on her favorite species of trees, the ginkgo tree. “[It’s] an ancient tree. There aren’t many others in the same family. It has unique

Nur Surya Abu/Iowa State Daily

Sara Davids, junior majoring in landscape architecture, has won the 2013 3-D Student Design Award for her 3-D tree design entry. Davids’ tree design was based off the look of the ancient ginkgo tree.

fan leaves also,” Davids said. “There wasn’t really anything specific about that tree. I knew I really wanted to do a ginkgo tree … and I was just kind of walking along Lincoln Way, and I thought, ‘Oh my, this is the perfect example!’”

It wasn’t the allure of winning that drew Davids to this competition. She had learned Sketch-Up last semester in one of her design classes and simply wanted a chance to practice. “It was kind of fun to ex-

periment,” Davids said. “I didn’t do it with the intention of winning. ... The win was kind of a bonus.” The process was lengthy, taking 15 hours of work time to complete. She began by importing a photo of the tree and tracing the branching structure, and then copying and pasting branches. Once copied, the branches were tilted to make the design more three-dimensional. For the leaves, Davids found a texture in the free Sketch-Up warehouse and then edited it on a computer for a more realistic feel. She copied and pasted the same leaf over and over and also changed the angles and moved them to cover the branches in order to make the tree less uniform.

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Awards and the ISU general catalog will be discussed at the Board of Regents meeting this week at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. This is part of a recent recommendation by the regents-appointed Task Force on Transparency. “The overarching goal of this Task Force is to develop a consistent protocol that can be used by the universities, the special schools and the board when responding to public information requests,” said Craig Lang, president of the Board of Regents. Topics on the agenda for the meeting include a request to award an honorary doctor of science degree from Iowa State to Peggy A. Whitson and registering Iowa State University Capital Improvement Business Transactions. Proposed revisions for the Iowa State 2013-14 general catalog will also be discussed at the meeting. “I thank all of the outstanding members of the Task Force for their willingness to serve in this effort to ensure consistent practices in our responses to Iowans,” Lang said. The Transparency Task Force was put in place to recommend the best practices for responding to public information requests and to recommend the best practices for access to information of interest to Iowans. Iowa State’s representative for the Transparency Task Force is Miles Lackey, ISU chief of staff. “The president’s goals and priorities are my goals and priorities,” Lackey said. “That being said, the president is focused on making college more affordable and making Iowa State more efficient in the process. ... Like President [Steven] Leath, I understand my role is one of public service,” Lackey said. “As a result, I will do all that I can do to make Iowa State as good as it can possibly be.” The Board of Regents is a group of nine citizen volunteers to govern five public educational institutions in the state through policymaking, coordination and oversight, as provided by law, according to the Board of Regents website. The nine citizen volunteers for the Board of Regents are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate to serve a staggered six-year term. The board’s priorities are to provide high-quality accessible education to students, provide needed public services and engage in high-quality research, scholarship and creative activities to enhance the quality of life for Iowans and society in general. The Board also creates and supports economic development in partnership with public and private sectors. “We try to be as open and transparent as we possibly can,” Lackey said. “When we have information that we cannot share, there are very legitimate reasons for doing so, and we always make it perfectly clear as to why we cannot release that information.” The meeting will be Wednesday and Thursday in the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City.

Longtime residence staff explore evolution of Friley Hall Former custodians share memories of building’s expansion By Cody.Timm @iowastatedaily.com For 35 years, Rich Garrey has seen Friley Hall change and morph. Garrey, now manager of residence hall maintenance, started working for the university as a member of the custodial staff assigned to Friley Hall in 1978. Having worked at the hall since then, Garrey has seen a lot of changes to Friley and recalls the biggest one being the fifth addition to Friley in 1984. “I was here for the 1984 addition, which is where the administrative offices are with contracting, and the hall desk and the computer lab,” Garrey said. “That was originally a green space, underneath the grass was the membrane to the dining room which everybody refers to as ‘dungeons,’ because it has no windows.”

There were leaks into the dining center, and at the time, the university was out of women’s housing, so they fixed the leaks with the new addition and above that, new housing for women was built. Garrey remembers his first day on the job. “On my very first day when I came here, my supervisor at the time handed me my keys, showed me my break room, introduced me to three custodians and said, ‘Good luck,’” Garrey said. “I was lost that whole day.” Garrey said the only way he was able to find his bearings was looking out the windows and using Lincoln Way as a guide, but after about five to six years, he knew his way around pretty well. Garrey said he believes he now knows his way around Friley better than the rest of the custodial staff. Peggy Pfrimmer has been working at the university for more than 25 and, like Garrey, started as a member of the custodial staff. She also got a little lost at the beginning of her time

at Friley. “After a couple days, I thought I’d be able to learn better on my own, so I went off on my own and couldn’t get back,” Pfrimmer said. Pfrimmer found a member of the maintenance crew who helped her find her way back to the break room, she said. Eventually, Pfrimmer was able to learn her way around the building, especially after working during the summer, because the staff was required to work throughout the entire residence hall. Pfrimmer and Garrey were both on staff when Union Drive Community Center opened in 2003 to replace the old dining center in Friley Hall. Along with the dining center that closed, the post office and the convenience store in Friley were also moved to Union Drive Community Center. Out of all his memories of working at Friley, one day particularly sticks out to Garrey. He was working before a break, and as he was leaving he heard someone

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Ellen Williams/Iowa State Daily

Peggy Pfrimmer started working for the university more than 25 years ago in Friley hall as part of the custodial staff. She is now the supervisor of custodial services at iowa State, and her office is located in Helser Hall.