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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA
CEDAR FALLS, IA
THURSDAY, APRIL 5
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23
CEDAR FALLS, IA
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VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 29
OPINION
BAGELS
WRESTLING
OPINION PAGE 3
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 5
SPORTS PAGE 6
Join the Wellness Service’s “Joyful Mover” movement.
UNI dining services introduces Everything Bagels.
The Panthers defeat Air Force 28-12.
Buttigieg hosts town hall EMMA PISTARINO Staff Writer
On Jan. 15, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg held a town hall in Maucker Union in preparation for the Feb. 3rd Iowa caucus. The event followed the previous evening’s Democratic debate in Des Moines. Buttigieg’s talk was preceded by the endorsement of several prominent politicians of Black Hawk County, such as Waterloo mayor Quentin
Hart and long-standing state senator Bill Dotzler, who announced his support for Buttigieg in December. “One of my UNI professors once told me, ‘The world is run by those who show up,’ and that is especially important for this election. Mayor Pete has the important perspective, as a mayor, of trying to bring people together, and that gives him the ability to bring voters away from Trump,” Dotzler said.
See BUTTIGIEG, page 2
GABRIELLE LEITNER/Northern Iowan
Packing the Dome for MLK Day SOFIA LEGASPI
Campus Life Editor
Around 1,500 volunteers gathered at the UNI-Dome on Monday, Jan. 20 for “Pack the Dome: Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service,” the largest volunteer event held in the Cedar Valley to date. Participants packaged meals for the Northeast
SOFIA LEGASPI/Northern Iowan
Iowa Food Bank’s (NEIFB) BackPack Program in an effort to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a “day on” instead of a day off. Volunteers ranged from UNI students, faculty and staff to community members and families from Cedar Falls and beyond. Addressing the crowd of volunteers as the day began, KWWL anchor Daniel Winn
said the BackPack Program, which provides non-perishable meals and snacks for K-12 students over weekends and school breaks, currently serves over 4,000 children monthly in 145 different schools in 16 counties across northeast Iowa. Last school year, the NEIFB packed and provided over 125,000 bags in total, according to its website. “I didn’t know that there was so much interest in the community in participating in things like this,” said Madison Sallee, a junior human resources and marketing major who regularly volunteers at the food bank, but was attending MLK Day of Service for the first time. “I know that there are small groups that go to the food bank all the time, but to see this many people is really incredible.” At this year’s event,
volunteers assembled 48,000 bags for the BackPack Program. For each of the two shifts throughout the day, 34 assembly lines put together packages of fruit snacks, juice boxes, mac n’ cheese and other kid-friendly food items. UNI has hosted MLK Day of Service events for the past decade, beginning a partnership with the NEIFB and the UNI Service and Leadership Council (SLC) three or four years ago, explained Kristina Kofoot, community engagement program coordinator for the university. Previous years’ events were held in the Maucker Union ballrooms, with 700 volunteers packing 17,000 bags last year. This year, those numbers were more than doubled, thanks to a John Deere sponsorship that allowed the event to relocate to the UNI-Dome.
Kofoot said the relocation was propelled by the growing popularity of the event and demand for more volunteer spots. In addition to the Office of Community Engagement, SLC, the food bank and John Deere, other partnerships making the event possible included the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley, Panther Pantry, AmeriCorps and the Atlantic Bottling Company. “It’s been a dream — like, a dream — for years and it’s finally come true,” Kofoot said. “So we’re excited to be here and keep being here.” Attendees included individuals and families, as well as several student organizations like Women in Business and residence life groups. Nearly every UNI athletic team was present, Kofoot said. See MLK DAY, page 5