4-14-2022

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UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA CEDAR FALLS, IA THURSDAY, APRIL 5 VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42

CEDAR FALLS, IA

THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022

VOLUME 118, ISSUE 49

OPINION

CAMPUS LIFE

SPORTS

OPINION PAGE 3

CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4

SPORTS PAGE 6

Should current students make the switch to UNIFI?

Track and field competes at Wichita.

Film critic Hunter Friesen reviews the movie “Ambulance” giving it 3/5 stars.

UNI offers new 4+1 Students graduate program clocking out Communication and media, history and athletic training programs to allow undergraduates in senior standing to enroll in Masters level classes and complete both degrees in five years

Students and faculty notice growing trend of skipped classes and burnout

MADDIE DAVIS Staff Writer

UNI will be offering an exciting new opportunity to high-achieving students at the beginning of this fall. The communication and media, history and athletic training programs will be offering a 4+1 graduate program that allows undergraduate senior standing students to enroll in MA-level classes and complete both degrees in five (rather than six) years. The process of creating this new program started last year and went through different committees in the fall. It was soon approved, and the recruitment process for eligible students was set to begin this spring. Charles Kyle Rudick Ph.D is the Graduate Program Director and an Associate Professor within the University of Northern Iowa’s Department of Communication and Media. Rudick expects students to

Northern Iowan Archives

Professors are noticing lack of engagement and unusually high absences from students. Students assert mental health issues and burnout as reasons for clocking out of classes.

NIXSON BENITEZ Executive Editor

TREVOR MEYERS/Northern Iowan

The approval process for the new 4+1 program started last year in committees. The recruitment process for eligible students will begin this spring.

feel excited and possibly a little overwhelmed due to this opportunity arising so quickly. However, once this oppor-

tunity becomes more known to students, he believes it is something they will be excit-

During COVID-19, while others were teching-up, ProfessorCline-Brown teched down KATE GREENWOOD Guest Writer

Kimberly Cline-Brown, Ph.D. has spent the last year and a half reinventing her teaching methods to better serve her students during the pandemic. From spending the summer writing a lab manual from scratch to figuring out how to do biological experiments with everyday home materials, Cline-Brown has been recognized for dedication, passion, and creativity with the Beverly Funk Barnes Educator Excellence

COURTESY/CHAS

Professor Kimberly Cline-Brown has reinvented her teaching methods as a result of the pandemic.

Award. On top of many other awards, including the

See 4+1 PROGRAM, page 2

Liberal Arts Core Teaching Excellence Award and the Red Apple awards from students, Cline-Brown has proved to be an instructor dedicated to the needs of her students. Raised in Canada for most of her life, it wasn’t until high school that Cline-Brown returned to the U.S. after her father was transferred to New York for his work. Laughing, she recalled the move to New York being in the middle of prom and SAT season, and not knowing what any of that was.

See CLINE-BROWN, page 2

As the semester is coming to an end, students and faculty are starting to see a growing trend of students clocking out from their classes before finals. This includes a different level of engagement from students including experiencing burnout. Associate Professor and Director of the Interpreters Theatre Danielle McGeough recognized different levels of engagement and signs of burnout from students happening earlier in the fall while teaching an undergraduate course and saw it continue in the spring semester. McGeough now teaches graduate students, but still is seeing the same concerning trends in his classes. “I’m concerned about their mental health, emotional health or wellness or wellbeing.” McGeough said. “Opportunities to do things face to face have emerged more this year. I think that people have been so excited to take up those opportunities, but there’s things that we also maybe put on our plate while we couldn’t do those.” McGeough shows empathy for students right now as many students have been seen carrying the burden of a rapidly changing world and not having the chance to experience what used to be normal.

“The challenge of that as a faculty member, staff member or administrators, we’re adapting to meet the needs of our students. That requires further innovation and adaptation, which takes even more energy and so it’s really hard,” McGeough said. Jasmine McGee, a first yearstudent studying family services is also seeing this trend of students missing classes, and also finds herself missing classes as well. “Sometimes I just don’t have the motivation to go,” she said. “Well, for professors, I would say be more understanding, because life does get in the way. Sometimes it is not an excuse. Life is not an excuse. So that’s what I feel for students.”

CATHERINE CROW/Northern Iowan

Some students have noticeably lost motivation and have been skipping classes.

See CLOCKING OUT, page 2


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