UNI to host championship round of international business competition

Next month, the University of Northern Iowa will host the Network of International Business Schools (NIBS) Worldwide Case Competition.

For 10 days, March 3-13, the university will be home to the championship rounds of the 2022-2023 competition year. There will be 16 teams from 13 different countries present. Each team is from a differ- ent university or college. The international teams are from the Netherlands, Romania, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Finland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, Guatemala and the Republic of Korea. The Netherlands has three teams competing, and the United States has two teams, including a team from UNI. The other team from the United States is coming from Saint Mary’s University’s Greehey School of Business in Texas.

This is the 27th year that this competition has been held since inception in 1996. From the first stage, this competition is very competitive and there is always lots of strong competition which is what makes it known as a prestigious competition. This is the eighth time that the University of Northern Iowa has had a team make it to the championship round.

The University of Northern

Iowa was chosen to host the competition along with the distinct honor of being chosen to host the championship round.

Since the competition’s inception, there have been over 1,000 students who have been able to participate in the championship round. This competition has helped provide many learning experiences for students all across the world as the students who participate are challenged with real world problems, while also learning and benefitting from the unique settings of the culture of the host country.

During the visiting teams’ stay at UNI, they will also go experience several things that the Cedar Falls and Waterloo area have to offer, including a tour of the John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum, a tour of Techworks and even fun recreational things such as bowling at Maple Lanes.

Over the course of the competition there will be several rounds of presentations which will ultimately lead to the announcing of the winners at the award banquet. There will also be several other awards such as best volunteer, best ambassador, team spirit award along with best male and female presenter.

For this event, they are still looking for some people who would be able to judge and volunteer. They still need a few people to be ambassadors, who would host a team that is competing and help them with any questions or concerns that they have during their stay here at the university. If volunteering or any of the other positions sound interesting, contact Chris Schrage at schragec@ uni.edu to get more information on the competition.

SIX PROPOSALS continued from page 1

The first item on the agenda is the creation of a culture center. The sit-in conducted by the UNI Seven was instrumental in putting this action finally into place.

After the sit-in, change was not immediate. The participants faced repercussions, but President Maucker ultimately worked on a proposal for Vice President Lang’s house to become the cultural center following his retirement.

It was passed by the Board of Regents, and Lang’s home became the Ethnic Minority Cultural and Educational Center (EMCEC). It officially opened in 1971. The name changed in the 1997-1998 academic year, where it became Multicultural Education.

In 2003, it was moved to Maucker Union, because of the history and the role that President Maucker played in finally getting a designated culture space to come to fruition. The Center for Multicultural Education (CME) has been in Maucker Union ever since.

Having a quiet gathering space, resources and faculty, the CME is a place of refuge for minority students. It is a place for resources, camaraderie, and for marginalized students to work with staff who look like them.

Implementation of a Minority Recruitment Program

The second proposal was to create a minority recruitment program, to get other marginalized students interested in coming to UNI. Admissions does have a recruitment program, but it is not at its highest potential.

Chiquita Loveless, director of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice, said, “There is a recruitment program, but it is not as strong as it should be.”

UNI is a primarily white institution, with 7,784 of the students from the 2021-2022 academic year being white. In comparison, there were 1,387 students of other races in the same year. In order to make UNI more diverse and increase these numbers, the minority outreach program needs to be focused on and strengthened.

NORTHERN IOWAN

L011 Maucker Union Cedar Falls, IA 50614 www.northerniowan.com northern-iowan@uni.edu

319.273.2157

NIXSON BENITEZ

Executive Editor benitezn@uni.edu

319.273.6826

EMMA KOEHLER

Managing Editor koehlere@uni.edu

319.273.6420