Northern Iowan t h e u n i v e r s i t y o f n o r t h e r n i o wa’s s t u d e n t - p r o d u c e d n e w s p a p e r s i n c e 1 8 9 2
OCTOBER 12, 2012
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FRIDAY
VOLUME 109, ISSUE 14
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA
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NORTHERN-IOWAN.ORG
BUDGET CUTS
Price Lab families discuss the transition to different districts LINH TA News Writer
VOLLEYBALL
UNI bounces back with victory over SDSU The Panther women moved on from a loss to Creighton to reassert themselves Tuesday against a nonconference foe. < See PAGE 8 STUDENT GROUPS
A day in the life of an ROTC student
Rising before dawn to push themselves to their physical limits, a battalion prepares not just for future careers but also military service. < See PAGE 6
PIN HAPPY!
Cook up some Panther pride for Homecoming Pinterest columnist Amanda Merritt shows readers ways to wear and eat purple and gold like a true Panther. < See PAGE 7 OPINION
Dreams, expectations and reality Columnist Ruane believes there’s no reason not to hold fast to the expectations behind our dreams, even if reality makes it all turn out a bit different. < See PAGE 4
PANTHER PROFILES
Johnson the academic Redshirt freshman running back David Johnson makes a study of football. < See PAGE 8
INDEX OPINION............................4 CAMPUS LIFE....................6 SPORTS.............................8 GAMES............................10 CLASSIFIEDS...................11
The University of Northern Iowa’s Malcolm Price Laboratory School and Northern University High School closed on July 1, forcing former elementary, middle and high school students to enroll at new schools. While many students now attend schools in the Cedar Falls, Waterloo and other surrounding area school districts, 33-year-old Laura O’Connell said her daughter sometimes misses her former school. “My daughter has made comments that she wishes that she was still going to Price Lab,” O’Connell said. O’Connell’s older son and daughter both attended Price Lab. Her son graduated from NU High in 2011, and her daughter finished fifth grade at the school. O’Connell said her children enjoyed their experience at the school and benefited from its unique traits. < See PRICE LAB, page 2
BRANDON BAKER/Northern Iowan
Malcolm Price Laboratory School and Northern University High closed on July 1. Its former elementary, middle and high school students made the transition to surrounding area school districts, such as the Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Janesville districts.
ACADEMICS
Faculty senate debates access to course grade distribution BLAKE FINDLEY Academics Writer
The University of Northern Iowa faculty senate recently expressed their support for faculty and administration to have access to course grade distributions. The reporting of course grade distributions would consist of the percentages of A’s, A-‘s, B+’s, etc., for each individual section of a course, according to Phil Patton, university registrar. Patton discussed the idea at the faculty senate meeting on Sept. 24. The faculty unofficially voted on the issue after Patton discussed it during a consultative session at the senate meeting. At least 10 supported it, while two senators voted to drop the topic altogether. Patton, unavailable for comment afterward, said at the meeting that the university has provided grade distribution information upon request to external bodies for the
last 10 years. When the question of whether to give external bodies this information first came up, the three regent institutions asked the attorney general, who said aggregate information was public information. Patton asked faculty senators if they wanted the information to be more visible on UNI’s campus, as it was visible off of campus. Additional questions posed regarding the issue included the inclusion of instructors’ names, availability to students and the way it would be published. Many senators expressed uncertainties about releasing the information to students because they feared students would “grade shop” or search for easy classes. Additionally, some senators expressed concern that the release of this information would put an emphasis on the grades rather than < See GRADE DISTRIBUTION, page 3
ENVIRONMENT
Cook urges changes in agriculture industry BROOKS WOOLSON Staff Writer
Ken Cook from the Environmental Working Group pressed University of Northern Iowa students and community members to demand changes within the agriculture industry during his presentation “Hunger Games: What Is It About Agriculture That’s Eating Consumers?” on Oct. 9. Citing the labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food, the decline of nutritious food in the United States and poor environmental management practices, Cook called consumers to action and stressed the importance and attainability of environmentally sound agricultural practices. Cook also detailed the public relations campaign being used by the industry in an effort to regain its “noble image” among consumers. Cook discussed his work on the 1985 Farm Bill that created the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a bill he said helped heal the damage done by the Farm Crisis in the 1980s. According to Cook, at the height of the < See COOK, page 3