UNI and Faculty Senate working to update “peer institution” list

At the last UNI Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 23, 2023, a proposal was discussed to update UNI’s list of peer institutions. The purpose of UNI having peer institutions is so the university can have similar colleges to compare and contrast itself against in critical benchmarks. These benchmarks include enrollment growth and decline, as well as overall educational goals for the institution.

The University of Northern Iowa currently has ten peer institutions. They include the College of Charleston, Eastern Illinois University, Ferris State University of Michigan, James Madison University of Virginia, Marshall University, Southern Illinois- Edwardsville, Truman State University, U-Mass Dartmouth, U-Minnesota Duluth and Western Washington State.

These colleges were selected as peer institutions in 2014 due to their strong similarities to the University of Northern Iowa, as they are all comprehensive regional universities. Nevertheless, as times changed, so did these universities’ similarities to UNI, so in reaction, the University of Northern Iowa’s faculty senate has proposed to update the list.

Changes to be included on the new list include keeping the University of Minnesota Duluth, College of Charleston, Eastern Illinois, and Western Washington State University. Concurrently, the College of New Jersey, Central Connecticut State University, Minnesota State-Mankato, University of Wisconsin Whitewater, the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Indiana State University will be added.

Universities removed from the new list include Truman State University of Missouri, Ferris State, Marshall, SIUEdwardsville, U-Mass Dartmouth and James Madison.

Kristin Moser of UNI’s Institutional Effectiveness & Planning office said it was time to change the list. Moser stated, “It is best practice to review an institutional peer list on a regular basis. The last time this review happened was in 2014. During this intermediate period, university characteristics changed based on institutional priorities, demographic shifts, enrollment changes, etc. An institution that was a peer to UNI 10 years ago may have changed to the point that we no longer have as many similarities as differences.”

Moser gave an example regarding the drop of Missouri’s Truman State University from the original list to the new one, “For example, Truman State

University was on our peer list. However, their enrollment has declined over the past 10 years, and they no longer are the best peer for us.”

The six new peer institutions proposed to join the list were chosen for several reasons.

 See PEER INSTITUTIONS, page 2

THE BAND IS BACK continued from page 1

“This was new money, and they were specifically interested in helping us with this initiative,” Harris said. “It was important to them, and so they wanted the money directed specifically for this cost.”

Justin Mertz, Ph.D., associate director of bands at UNI, said he was notified on the morning of Feb. 2 that the band would attend the tournaments.

“I, the rest of the faculty and staff here in the band program and the students were very pleased and very happy to hear that,” he said.

“We were very happy and gratified that people around campus thought it was important enough to make happen, because people do value the band,” Mertz said. “They thought it was important enough to make happen, and they were able to make it happen.”

After the announcement that the bands would attend the tournaments, Mertz said that they were immediately able to staff bands to travel to both the men’s and women’s tournaments.

“The students are very excited to go. They’re excited to represent UNI, they’re excited to be a part of a great event, and they’re excited to support the student athletes,” he said. “The student athletes and the band students sort of develop a little bond each season, and they come to really appreciate each other,” Mertz said.

Maggie Glenn, a junior sousaphone player in the pep band, echoes Mertz’s statements.

“I was so excited to find out that we could go on the trips because I had a lot of fun on the band trip last year,” she said.

“The pep band is at almost every basketball game and helps create that atmosphere in the arena. I believe it’s important to bring the band because we choose to be there to cheer on our teams, and we genuinely want to support them during their playoff runs. Plus, I’d like to think we boost the morale in the arena,” Glenn said.

Harris also expressed gratitude from UNI Athletics that the funding was able to be provided.

“It’s not the same without [the band], and they add in an element of school spirit that we think is important for that environment, which is why we’ve continued to try to pursue different ways to be able to make this happen. We’re just fortunate that there was someone who was willing to come forward with the funding that was necessary to make it a reality,” Harris said.

The athletes and bands will be hitting the road in just a few weeks, with the conference tournaments taking place March 2-5 for the men and March 9-12 for the women.

PEER INSTITUTIONS continued from page 1

Regarding the reasons, Moser stated, “The current set of peers was selected in 2014 using a collaborative, data-informed process involving various campus stakeholders. The 2023 list of institutions was chosen using the same methodology as in 2014, taking into consideration a variety of high-level institutional characteristics (e.g., institution size and types of degrees offered) as well as specific variables like tuition, in-state vs. out-of-state enrollment, student financial need, number of full-time faculty and total operating budget.”

Stability has been the key to limiting changes to their peer lists at the other two regent universities, Iowa and Iowa State. Iowa State updated its list in 2016, while the University of Iowa has kept theirs the same since its creation in the mid1980s. This lack of change is due to Iowa State and Iowa’s relatively stable enrollment over time. On the other hand, the University of Northern Iowa is ready for a change due to its presently changing environment. UNI’s enrollment has dropped over the last few years, and it no longer looks like some of the colleges from the 2014 list.

Esta era la quinta vez que el equipo acababa con más de 20 victorias en una sola temporada con la entrenadora Warren. Este año, los pronósticos de entrenadores de la liga, directores de información de deportes, y miembros de los medios predijeron que las Panteras acabarían quintas en la Conferencia del Valle del Missouri (MVC en inglés). Este año durante el día dedicado a los medios, la entrenadora Warren expresó que este año “este es el equipo de Maya”.

La estudiante de segundo año Maya McDermott va a ser la base titular del equipo esta temporada por primera vez.

“Quiero ganar el campeonato de la conferencia para el personal de entrenadores y para mis compañeras de equipo. Solo quiero ser parte de un campeón de conferencia, quiero lograr ir al torneo del NCAA”, dijo McDermott.

Like any other American university, UNI is always striving to be better and more appealing to potential students. Having a peer institution list streamlines the process of finding other institutions like UNI to compare critical programs and their viability. Moser says her office uses institutional peer lists, too, “We use our peer list to benchmark various metrics used to track continuous improvement efforts on campus. For example, it can show us how UNI performs on indicators such as student retention and graduation rates compared to similar universities.”

The UNI Faculty Senate and the office of UNI Institutional Effectiveness & Planning hope that the Iowa Board of Regents will approve this change at their February 2023 meeting.

The University of Northern Iowa faculty senate will hold its next meeting via zoom on Feb. 27, 2023.

For many pep band students, the postseason opportunities are a highlight to the season. Students and faculty alike are very grateful to have the oppportunity to support Panther basketball at the tournaments.

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McDermott fue adoptada de Guatemala cuando tenía 11 meses de edad. Ha vivido en Iowa toda su vida, y antes de venir a UNI, ella fue a la prepa de Johnston. Durante su último año de la prepa, fue parte de un legado que llevó al equipo de su prepa al campeonato estatal de la clase 5A en la temporada 2019-2020. A partir del legado de su carrera preparatoria, ha querido dejar ese mismo legado en el equipo femenino de baloncesto de UNI, pero tam-

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CIRCULATION

ELIZABETH SPAKE Circulation Manager bién quiere que los aficionados reconozcan su carácter como líder positiva fuera de la cancha.

“La marca que quiero dejar como persona es que quiero tratar a todos extremadamente bien. Mi mamá siempre me enseñó que no quieres ser conocida solo como una buena deportista, sino que también quieres ser conocida como una buena persona”, dijo McDermott.

Antes de que McDermott fuera titular este año, generalmente jugaba entre 10 y 12 minutos por partido y fue tomada bajo las alas de la entonces base titular Karli Rucker y la entrenadora Warren. Este fue un gran cambio para McDermott, ya que significó un cambio de ser titular en la escuela secundaria a ser una jugadora secundaria en la universidad. Durante los últimos dos años, puso su energía en ser la chispa del equi- po y en empujar el ritmo para que el equipo lo hiciera mejor. Este año, con McDermott como parte de la alineación inicial, puede dirigir el equipo y llenar los zapatos de su mejor amiga Rucker.

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“La entrenadora Warren, estos tres años que he estado aquí, me ha enseñado mucho, una de mis citas favoritas que me gustó de ella es que siempre me dice ‘cuando eres una base, incluso cuando no es tu culpa, todavía es tu culpa...’. Karli me enseñó a jugar con elegancia, a levantarnos unas a otras en la cancha... Ella me enseñó mucho, sin decir mucho. Era más una líder desde el ejemplo”. “Es un gran privilegio pasar por eso y que ella me tomara bajo su ala y me enseñara todas esas cosas”, continuó.

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