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MONDAY, APRIL 19
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THURSDAY, APRIL 5
VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
VOLUME 117, ISSUE 51
COVID-19
COLLEGE HILL
SOFTBALL
NEWS PAGE 2
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
The UNI campus positivity rate sees little change from last week’s number.
In celebration of Earth Day, there will be a College Hill clean up organized by a UNI student.
UNI comes out on top in two day matchup against Loyola Chicago.
Panthers get vaccinated on campus EMMA’LE MAAS
Executive Editor
Vaccination clinics opened at the University of Northern Iowa from April 14-16 for students and staff. Panthers received their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a two-shot vaccination. All students and staff who participated are expected to return during finals week to receive their second and final dose of the vaccination. The clinics were originally scheduled for April 13-16, with the April 13 clinic to have administered the one-dose vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson. However, FDA recommended a “pause” on the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Tuesday, leading to the cancellation of that clinic. Students like senior elementary major Ashlynn Averhoff chose to receive their vaccination through the university
because it was more “convenient and easy.” “It hopefully means a little bit more normalcy, and I can hang out with family members and friends without feeling so nervous,” she said. Freshman movement and exercise science major Hayden Amos also made the decision based on family. “A lot of my family is older, and I want to see them, and I want to know I’m being safe for them,” he said. Amos is a member of the UNI football team. He said his sport also influenced his decision, since he can now be more confident that “next fall I’m not going to be a risk to bring down other teammates because of COVID.”
See VACCINATION, page 5 UNI/Courtesy Photo
UNI students and staff had the opportunity to get their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on campus this past week.
Virtual Diversity Colloquium discusses health inequalities NICK BAUR
Staff Writer
Four local healthcare and human rights experts gathered in a Zoom virtual conference call on the evening of Thursday, April 15 for an academic seminar about health inequalities in the
age of COVID-19. The event was part of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology’s Diversity Colloquium series established in 2016, sponsored by the department and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Thursday’s event brought together panelists from across the UNI and Cedar Valley communities to discuss their research and professional experiences related to health inequalities and the COVID-19 pandemic. The panelists taking part in the colloquium— Dr.
DIVERSITY COLLOQUIUM/Courtesy Photo
This was the second academic discussion the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology has hosted this semester.
Adam Froyum Roise, physician and member of the Black Hawk County Board of Health; Rev. Abraham Funchess of the Waterloo Human Rights Commission; Francis Degnin, medical ethicist and professor of philosophy; and Ashleigh Kysar-Moon, assistant professor of sociology— represented a healthy selection of specialists from across the Cedar Valley. Adopting a question-and-answer structure moderated by assistant professor of sociology Kamryn Warren, panelists touched on a wide array of topics related to both healthcare and societal inequalities in the United States and specifically the Cedar Valley. Kysar-Moon spoke on a theme permeating across the ninety-minute discussion.
“I will just echo again what Dr. Degnin said: it is not that the pathogen is targeting racial and ethnic minority groups, but it is because of the long-standing inequalities in the social determinants of health leading to poor COVID-related outcomes,” she said. On the subject of vaccines and public sentiment towards them, Funchess shared his insight and experiences drawn from the communities of which he is a part. “The risk factors associated with being in some of our communities— diabetes, asthma, cancer and all these other underlying known clinical risks— absolutely frightens some of the people I have talked to,” he said.
See COLLOQUIUM, page 2