Get the best bang for your book 9
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Northern Iowan
the university of northern iowa’s student-produced newspaper since 1892
August 30, 2011
I
Volume 108, Issue 2
opinion 5 | campuslife 9
TUESDAY
| sports 13
Cedar Falls, Iowa
| games 17
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northern-iowan.org
| classifieds 19
Reaching for Higher Ground to focus on community after 9/11 RACHEL ZIDON
AJ CASSIDY
Staff Writer
Like many students at the University of Northern Iowa, student body president Spencer Walrath remembers Sept. 11, 2001 vividly. “Everyone remembers where they were when they saw the towers fall,” Walrath said. “I was in seventh grade, which was just at the precipice of when you’re starting to understand the world.” Ten years later, a project called “Reaching for Higher Ground: Community after 9/11” is attempting to help students, faculty and community members commemorate the tragedy, delve into its impact and discuss how See HIGHER GROUND, page 3
Students and staff adjust to eLearning changes
Staff Writer
COURTESY PHOTO/MCT Campus
Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, four years after the World Trade Center towers were destroyed. Reaching for Higher Ground will focus on the events of 9/11 this year, remembering the tragedy, its impact and how to move into the future.
A renovation behind the scenes is impacting students campus-wide as eLearning courses have officially changed from the old WebCT platform to Blackboard Learn 9. In 2005, WebCT was purchased by Blackboard. During the past six years, Blackboard has been working to integrate the WebCT users and software into its existing platform. After June 30, 2012, support will no longer be offered for the WebCT program. The change itself has not been simple, acknowledged Jeffrey Ries, assistant applications administrator at the See ELEARNING, page 3
Progressive Picnic connects GBPAC stage set for 2011-12 season students to communities ELISSA TERRY Staff Writer
AJ CASSIDY/Northern Iowan
The Progressive Picnic, held Aug. 25, brought the different progressive groups and progressive-minded people of the University of Northern Iowa community together. The Northern Iowa Democrats, UNI Freethinkers and Inquirers, Philosophy Club, UNI Proud and One Iowa at UNI joined together to put on the recruitment event, the first of its kind in recent memory. “When UNIFI came to me,
Junior communication/public relations major Trisha Rooney gets food at the Progressive Picnic, while grad assistant Kyle Pitzen prepares it.
See PICNIC, page 2
ALLIE KOOLBECK Editorial Staff
The show will go on at the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Seven months after a pipe connected to a sprinkler head broke at the GBPAC, damaging the stage and causing a set of Blue Man Group performances to be rescheduled for this September, the new stage is completed and ready for the upcoming performances of the Blue Man Group. “It was the prompt response of UNI’s physical
plant that saved last season and literally millions in water damage,” said Steve Carignan, executive director of GBPAC. “We are grateful to our Friends group and all the other donors and partners that paid for the floor and made us better than we were before the accident.” After six weeks of work, the new stage was completed on Aug. 10. With costs of $150,000 for all repairs, Carignan said they “took advantage of the opportunity to repair the floor and other equipment to make See STAGE, page 2