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THURSDAY, APRIL 5
THURSDAY, AUGUST 27
VOLUME 114, ISSUE 42
VOLUME 116, ISSUE 3
MAKE CAMPUS GREAT AGAIN
PMB PRECAUTIONS
FCS RANKING
NEWS PAGE 2
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4
SPORTS PAGE 6
The PMB adapts season due to COVID-19.
President Trump’s senior advisor for Iowa hosts “Make Campus Great Again” event.
Panthers ranked third nationally in pre-season poll.
BLM march draws crowd on campus KAYLA LAWRENCE Staff Writer
Despite the oppressive midday heat, over one hundred students and fac-
ulty members showed up Monday for the first Black Lives Matter march of the fall semester. To passersby, those gathered around the Maucker
Union fountain appeared a united front. All protesters came masked as per UNI’s policy and the organizer’s Facebook event page, and additional masks and cool-
TONI FORTMANN/Northern Iowan
Over one hundred panthers joined in the first Black Lives Matter march of the fall semester.
ers of cold water were also provided on site. Participants arrived in various states — some with homemade signs at the ready, others dressed in black as a show of solidarity and many still carrying backpacks having just come from class. But all came with a common goal: to peacefully support a cause they believe in. “The goal of the march is just to be present on UNI campus. To really start the semester off with letting them know that Black lives matter,” said UNI doctoral student Joyce Levingston, one of the organizers of the march. “We’re going to carry the momentum for Black lives really mattering in every space in our community, and that includes UNI’s campus.” As one of the event’s main speakers, Levingston explained that in many recent cases at UNI, the
voices of minority students have been suppressed when raised in alarm to the actions of their university. She maintained that the surrounding community and the students and faculty of UNI cannot allow comfort to settle over campus. “We can’t let UNI be comfortable,” Levingston said. “We don’t want professors getting comfortable. We don’t want the president getting comfortable.” As a long-time UNI student and activist, Levingston addressed issues specific to UNI that she’d personally faced. These included microaggressions in the classroom, which she described as instances of “racial abuse,” as well as tokenism in UNI’s use of racial diversity on campus in their advertisements and media.
has taken several steps in the past week in hopes of mitigating the spread of the virus.
student behavior off-campus. After multiple photos featuring maskless crowds of students outside bars on College Hill circulated on social media over the weekend, President Mark Nook addressed the issue in an email on Aug. 25. Nook called the images “very concerning and disappointing” and stated that students who visit crowded places off-campus where wearing of face coverings and physical distancing are not being practiced will be subject to the student conduct process. This can result in suspension from the university. Such actions, Nook wrote, violate the commitment students made during the required Protecting our Panthers COVID-19 training course, which he emphasized applies to behaviors off-campus as well as on-campus.
See BLM MARCH, page 2
UNI continues adapting to COVID-19 ELIZABETH KELSEY News Editor
After Iowa’s two other public universities released the number of positive COVID-19 cases reported on their campuses this week, UNI plans to begin releasing COVID-19 information on Friday. “Beginning Friday, university data related to COVID-19 will be posted at forwardto-
GABI CUMMINGS/Northern Iowan
gether.uni.edu,” the university’s official Twitter account stated in replies to several tweets asking for transparency in regards to the presence of COVID-19 on campus. UNI will become the last of Iowa’s three Regents universities to release campus COVID-19 data. According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, the University of Iowa on Monday reported 107 stu-
dents and four employees have self-reported positive tests since Aug. 18. Meanwhile, Iowa State reported Monday that 130 students, staff and faculty members tested positive during the first week of classes, according to the Des Moines Register. This followed baseline testing during ISU’s two-week move-in period, during which 175 students had already tested positive. In a New York Times survey of more than 1,500 American colleges and universities, UNI is reported as having 9 cases of COVID-19. However, the Times noted that the data in the survey includes all reported cases since the start of the pandemic, meaning that that number may not be representative of the current number of cases on campus. In addition to preparing for the release of the numerical data on Friday, the university
Panther health check Beginning Monday, Aug. 25, all students, faculty and staff are asked to complete a brief Panther Health Check survey before leaving their dorm room or arriving at UNI’s campus or facilities each day. The survey is designed to help identify members of the campus community exhibiting potential COVID-19 symptoms, as well as those who have tested positive or been in close contact with someone who has tested positive. After completing the survey, individuals receive a message either clearing them to come to campus or advising them to take different health-related steps. Student safety announcement UNI administration has also moved to address issues of
See COVID UPDATES, page 5