Monday
/NorthernIowan
December 4, 2017
@NorthernIowan
Volume 114, Issue 26
northerniowan.com
Opinion 3 Campus Life 4 Sports 6 Games 7 Classifieds 8
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Homicide witness search 2 New Star Wars trilogy 3 40th Glee Club concert 4 Football loses in playoffs 6
Vertigo showcases performance art AMELIA DUAX Staff Writer
The performances at UNI’s bi-annual Vertigo event drew in a large crowd of students on Thursday evening. Students involved in performance art classes use Vertigo as an opportunity to show off their skills by setting up their own unique performances in UNI’s Gallery of Art in the Kamerick Art Building. Vertigo attracted the public, professors and students from a variety of majors. Elementary education major Alexis Bowers was one of the students in attendance at Vertigo. “It gave me a little bit of anxiety because of how loud and how many people were there,” Bowers said. “But the exhibits were interesting; I’ve never seen something like that before.” Bowers said that she participated in the interactive performances at Vertigo, such as the “Give a SecretTake a Secret” performance. Students would anonymously write a secret onto a notecard and give it to a person inside a black box and then receive another person’s secret in return.
Another student in attendance was art major Kailie Hesner, a freshman at UNI. “I thought Vertigo was very interesting; it was not what I expected,” Hesner said. “There were a lot of different types of pieces that I didn’t necessarily expect to see there. I didn’t expect to see a lot of performances where people were just sitting and not doing anything. It was more for people to just look at.” Hesner said she was surprised to see performances in which the performer would walk around the gallery instead of staying in a single area. Hesner also participated in the interactive performances. “I participated in one where a girl was sitting in a dress and had a book in her hand, and would excessively put on lipstick,” Hesner said. “You could sit next to her on a bench as she read you a page in her book. Then she would tear the page out and kiss the page to leave a lipstick print and gave the paper to you.” Sophomore Emily Lovell also got involved in the lipstick-print performance, in addition to a few other interactive performances. “I like how you could
JORDAN ALLEN/Northern Iowan
interact with the acts,” Lovell said. “I did the hula-hooping one and the one where the girl kisses the page. I also did the give a secret and take a secret.” According to Lovell, one performance in particular involved a girl who would rip a paper from her notebook and scream as she threw it against a wall.
“The screaming was a little hard to ignore as I walked around the gallery,” Lovell said. “But I found the performances quite interesting overall.” Ken Hall, an art professor at UNI, attended Vertigo as well. “This particular Vertigo had maybe the largest crowd that I’ve seen before. I think
it’s one of the things that the art department does that really draws a crowd from outside the department and really all across the campus,” Hall said. “It’s really developed a reputation across the campus as being a spectacle and something worth coming out to see.” See VERTIGO, page 5
House GOP tax hike on graduate students raises concerns JOSHUA DAUSENER Copy Editor
As the Republican effort to pass the largest tax reform package in decades continues, several details of the House bill, passed on Nov. 16, have come under intense scrutiny from the academic community due to its projected impact on graduate students. Iowa’s three public university presidents co-authored a letter to every member of Iowa’s federal delegation — Senators Chuck Grassley (R) and Joni Ernst (R) and Representatives Rod Blum (R), Dave Loebsack (D), David Young (R) and Steve King (R) — to express concern over several provisions in the House version of the bill. The letter stated: “There are provisions of the bill that would discourage stu-
dents from pursuing higher education, increase the costs of students and their families and jeopardize our campuses’ ability to operate cost-effectively.” Several provisions have come under scrutiny due to their impact on higher education, but the provision that has received the most attention is the repeal of Section 117(d) of current law. Repeal of Section 117(d) would remove the tax-exempt status of tuition waivers, significantly increasing the tax burden on Iowa college students, disproportionately affecting graduate students. Many students utilize tuition waiver and stipend programs to help finance their graduate education. In exchange for conducting or assisting in research and/or teaching, students receive a tuition waiver, which covers
part of/the entirety of a student’s tuition, and may also receive a stipend to help pay for living costs. Assistant to the President Andrew Morse detailed some of the waivers that UNI offers in an e-mail to the NI. “UNI does offer tuition waivers for out of state students, and these put the outof-state student’s tuition at the in-state rate,” Morse stated. “To qualify, the student must hold at least a halftime Graduate Assistantship (GA) for the entire semester. GAs work 20 hours per week in a research, teaching or administrative position […] The average stipend for a half-time GA is $2,658 per semester, and $5,450 per semester for a full time GA.” Currently, an out-of-state graduate student working a full time GA would receive a roughly $10,474 tuition
waiver from the university to cover the difference between out of state and in state tuition. The graduate student would also receive a $5,450 stipend. These two allotments, totaling approximate ly $16,000, would be fully taxable under the House Republican plan. Under current law, only the stipend is considered taxable income. According to CNBC, the House bill will increase taxes for graduate students by roughly 400 percent. Regarding Section 117(d), the letter read: “The provision would affect more than 8,000 graduate and professional students across Iowa’s public universities. Repealing 117(d) would increase tax liability per student by an estimated $3,000-$10,000 depending on the terms of the employment arrangement at each
COURTESY PHOTO
Andrew Morse, assistant to President Mark Nook, discussed the GOP tax bill with the NI.
of our public universities. At UNI, for example, full-time graduate assistants receive an average stipend of $5,450 per year; increasing their tax liability would result in a net loss of income.” See TAX BILL, page 2