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
APRIL 12, 2013
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FRIDAY
VOLUME 109, ISSUE 48
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
GBPAC
2Cellos brings modern touch to classical instrument
The feisty duo made the strings sing Tuesday night in the GBPAC, bringing the beautiful voice of the cello to rock and pop songs. < See PAGE 8
SOCIAL MEDIA
‘Clusterflunk’ street team comes to UNI
The new website promises UNI students a new method to collaborate on classwork.
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA
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NORTHERN-IOWAN.ORG
PARKING
A little ticket goes a long way — 30,000-40,000 — parking tickets are issued per calendar year. AMBER ROUSE
Staff Writer
Walking out to your car after a day of studying can be liberating – until you find a parking ticket gently tucked underneath your windshield. Helen Haire, chief of police and director of public safety at the University of Northern Iowa, said the dollar amount of the parking fines is based on a number of factors. The fees are calculated from a comparison of rates with other universities in Iowa, a comparison of rates with other universities simi-
lar in size and location to UNI and the demographics of the UNI campus itself. Haire said anywhere from 30,000 and 40,000 tickets per calendar year are issued. Monthly, that comes to about 2,500 to 3,300 tickets. In 2012, paid parking tickets brought in approximately $421,000. What happens to that revenue? “The money generated goes into the general parking fund that is used to cover all parking expenses,” said Haire.
Only about 3 to 4 percent of all tickets issued are appealed; the main reason for the low percentage is that < See TICKETS, page 2
< See PAGE 4
STATE GOVERNMENT OPINION
I’ve made a huge mistake
Columnist Ruane takes a moment to extol the virtues of “Arrested Development,” a TV series with a major cult following that is about to enjoy a Netflix revival. < See PAGE 4
ONLINE
Branstad’s BOR nominees rejected LINH TA
News Editor
On April 8, the Iowa Senate rejected Governor Branstad’s appointments of Craig Lang and Robert Cramer to the Iowa Board of Regents. Currently, Lang serves as the president of the Board of Regents. Cramer runs a bridge construction firm, and formerly worked for the Family Leader, a conservative group in Iowa. In a split vote between Democrats and Republicans, Cramer was voted against 27-23 and Lang was voted against 30-20. To be appointed to the BOR, the Iowa senate must approve candidates by a two-thirds majority. Iowa Senator Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, said that he can’t speak
for other senators, but he felt that “under (Lang’s) leadership, the Board of Regents lacked transparency in decision making.” “What’s more, he failed to make changes that honored a public decision making process benefitting a public university. Therefore, I could not vote to re-confirm,” Danielson said. In regards to voting against Cramer, Danielson said, “I had deep concerns about his commitment to academic freedom and ensuring equal rights for all students and employees, given his past public actions as a sitting school board member and leader of a statewide nonprofit,” Danielson said. Danielson said that Cramer’s public
NISG
New senate rejects 2 of 4 executive branch candidates
LINH TA
News Editor
The 2013-14 Northern Iowa Student Government senate grilled executive director appointees for nearly two hours at their April 10 meeting, ultimately rejecting two of the four. President-elect Thomas Madsen and Vice President-elect Blake Findley appointed Dakotah Reed as a temporary director of administration and finance, Beth Monnier as director of governmental relations, Elijah Seay as director of
< See BOR, page 3
< See NISG, page 3
ACADEMICS CAMPUS LIFE Check out Pin Happy! and more coverage online. < visit northern-iowan.org
INDEX I SPY AT UNI......................2 OPINION............................4 CAMPUS LIFE....................6 SPORTS.............................8 GAMES............................10 CLASSIFIEDS...................11
Graduation rates for UNI class of 2013 down from previous years BROOKS WOOLSON
News Writer
Graduation is approaching for the spring class of 2013, but fewer students will graduate this semester than during the spring semester of 2012. Phil Patton, registrar for the University of Northern Iowa, attributes the decline
to a lower number of seniors enrolled this semester. “The spring 2012 graduating class was much larger than normal,” Patton said. “I’m not sure of all the reasons, but the fact that it was so large will impact comparison rates with spring 2013.” Patton said there are about 100 fewer seniors enrolled
this spring than last spring. To be classified as a senior, a student must earn at least 90 hours of credit. As of the spring semester of 2013, 3,645 students fit the classification, which is down from 3,762 in spring of 2012. However, as Patton noted, there is not a simple relationship between the number of
students who have obtained that classification and the number of students who will ultimately graduate this semester. “The application to graduate process is an ongoing dayto-day situation,” Patton said. “At this point it is impossible < See GRADUATION, page 3