10-26-2020

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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CEDAR FALLS, IA

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THURSDAY, APRIL 5

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26

VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42

VOLUME 117, ISSUE 20

PRESIDENTAL ROUND TABLE

FILM REVIEW

JERRY WEST

History department discusses presidential politics.

Film critic Hunter Friesen reviews Netflix’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

NEWS PAGE 2

CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4

SPORTS PAGE 6

AJ Green comes in at No. 2 on the list of candidates for the Jerry West Award.

PMB takes a “Trip to the Movies” SARA QUALLEY Staff Writer

The Panther Marching Band (PMB) returned to the UNI-Dome field on Friday, Oct. 23 for the second time this season to present “A Trip to the Movies,” a performance featuring popular songs from movies such as “Jurassic World” and “Star Wars.” The performance was also livestreamed on their Facebook page. Kathryn Rech, a senior at UNI studying graphic technology and interactive digital studies, plays the mellophone for the PMB. Prior to the performance, she was excited to be back on the field. Rech said the music for “A Trip to The Movies” could be the most difficult of the season. Despite the challenge, she said the band has done a good job of becoming comfortable

with the music and performing it well. Other challenges Rech believes the band has handled well are social distancing and coming to terms with the fact they would not be marching. At the beginning of the season, the band learned how to properly cover instruments so aerosols would not spread and how to play instruments with masks on. “We are definitely proud to say that we have not had an outbreak happen in the Panther Marching Band,” Rech said. “Something awesome to kind of show off is that we really care about getting the opportunity to play music with each other, especially at a time like this.” Rech misses playing on the field during football games and sharing traditions with freshmen like running onto the field. Although the band

GABI CUMMINGS/Northern Iowan

TC enjoys the spirited music of the Panther Marching Band in the UNI-Dome as they play familiar songs from movies.

is not marching, dance moves are incorporated into songs. “There has been a bigger focus on the music side of things,” Rech said. “We have seen, definitely, a heightened musical level, but we have not

necessarily been able to touch the marching aspect of what marching band is supposed to be.” Sam Smith, a junior studying computer science and interactive digital studies,

plays the trumpet for the PMB. Before the performance, Smith looked forward to returning to the UNI-Dome, a place he describes as home to the PMB.

Oct. 23, showed a significant increase in the campus’ positivity rate over the past week.

As depicted in the accompanying graphic, from Oct. 19-25, the Student Health Center reported a 24.27% positivity rate, with 25 positive cases through Student Health Center testing. This is the highest positivity rate and number of new cases that the Student Health Center has reported since the week ending Sept. 6, when 35 new cases were reported for a 22.96% positivity rate. However, it is worth noting that the positivity rate may decrease slightly today when the Student Health Center updates last week’s data to include any tests conducted on Friday. Since the end-of-week updates only include data collected through Thursday, Friday numbers are added to the weekly total by noon on the following Monday and are therefore not included in the NI’s weekly analysis. Last week, the NI reported a 12.5% positivity rate for the period from Oct. 12-18, which was what the university had reported at press time. When Friday’s numbers were added on Oct. 19, however, that rate dropped to 9.77%. Even if a similar phenomenon

occurs with this week’s numbers, though, the case counts and positivity rate are still likely to represent a substantial jump for the UNI campus. Cases and positivity rates in Black Hawk County have also been rising steadily since early October, according to the Black Hawk County Health Department website. This week’s 10.5% 14-day average positivity rate marks the first time the county has moved above 10% since the NI began reporting county data this fall. The UNI COVID-19 Response Team predicted the trend on Thursday in a campus-wide email, noting that the onset of winter is a contributing factor and asking the campus community to be “especially vigilant” in following public health procedures. “Cooler weather is officially upon us, meaning more people will be staying indoors - a hibernation season that coincides with the start of the flu season,” they wrote. “With viruses being more prevalent this time of year, it’s logical that national health experts are predicting a rise in COVID-19 cases, as well.”

COVID-19 on campus: numbers rise ELIZABETH KELSEY News Editor

This week’s COVID-19 statistics from the UNI Student Health Center, released Friday,

KARLA DEBRUIN/Northern Iowan

This graphic depicts the positivity rate on campus as well as other statistics regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

See PMB, page 5


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