Iowa State sees growth in first-year, undergraduate student enrollment

By Angie Hunt, news service
September 12

Iowa State continues to see strong enrollment with 30,432 students on campus this fall and a class of 5,906 first-year students, which has increased by 16% over the past five years. The enrollment numbers reflect growing interest in Iowa State's STEM programs and degrees of the future.

"Students recognize Iowa State University as a leader in innovation and for opportunities to take on leadership roles, conduct undergraduate research and gain hands-on experience in preparing for their future careers," said President Wendy Wintersteen.  

Kaylee Cavanh, a first-year student from North Liberty, knew Iowa State was the place for her after learning about the variety of classes and clubs offered as well as programs connecting students with leaders in business and industry. Affordability was another factor for Cavanh, and the financial assistance she received sealed the deal.

"I had it in my mind that I was coming to Iowa State -- that was the goal and the plan," Cavanh said. "I knew I needed to apply for as many scholarships as possible. It was critical for me to focus on my education, rather than finances. From an academic standpoint, I'm better prepared to take on the year."

Iowa State was recently ranked in the top 10% in the nation for affordability, quality of education and student outcomes by Money.com. This fall, around 72% of undergraduate students and 77% of first-year students are supported through scholarships and grants.

Enrollment breakdown, additional numbers

Iowa State's total fall enrollment of 30,432 -- an increase of 255 students from 2023 -- includes 25,628 undergraduate, 4,170 graduate and 634 veterinary medicine students, and students from all 99 Iowa counties, all 50 states and 116 countries.

"Traditionally, around 60% of Iowa State students are majoring in STEM fields and this year is no exception," said Laura Doering, associate vice president for enrollment management. "Students not only come to Iowa State for quality academic programs, but they know they'll have the support they need to succeed in any field."

Of the 5,906 first-year students on campus this fall, nearly 21% are first-generation students and nearly 23% are eligible for Pell grants. The average high school grade point average is 3.75 and average ACT score is just under 25. 

Naming proposals, insurance premium increases go to regents next week

By Anne Krapfl
September 12

Proposed health and dental premium increases for 2025, a new name for the College of Human Sciences and a request to name a campus building for retired senior leader Warren Madden are on the docket when the state Board of Regents meets Sept. 18-19 at the ISU Alumni Center. The meeting agenda is online, and all public portions of board activity will be livestreamed on the board's website.

Addition: Health

The proposed College of Health and Human Sciences reflects strong programs, research and outreach across multiple health dimensions in the college's current offerings. The addition of health to the college name also helps communicate its health-related focus to students, employers and stakeholders. The change also would be consistent with what's happening at other universities. Of Iowa State's 10 peer institutions, six have colleges similar to the College of Human Sciences, four of whom have the word health in their college name. The others are considering the addition of "health" to their college names.

If the board approves the name change, it would become effective immediately.

Employee insurance premiums

Iowa State leaders will ask the regents to approve health and dental premium increases (PDF) for the plan year that begins Jan. 1. Only premium increases are proposed; no changes are being made to the health care and dental plan designs.

The faculty/staff members of Iowa State's Employee Benefits Advisory Committee worked with the university's consultant, WTW, to review the ISU plans, compare them to other health plans and consider plan design, guided by the findings of the 2022 benefits survey. Their recommendation was to leave the plan design alone and increase premiums. As proposed, all plan participants would experience an increase to their monthly health care premium, between $12 and $66 for HMO participants, and between $11 and $97 for PPO participants.

The university will absorb most of the premium increases and will cover more than 87% of the total cost of the health care plans.

 

HMO: Proposed increases to monthly premiums

Coverage	Employee premium: Plan year 2025	Increase over current employee premium	Total premium: Plan year 2025*	Increase over current total premium*
Employee only	$45	$12	$798	$130
Employee + spouse	$217	$33	$1,832	$297
Employee + child(ren)	$150	$30	$1,432	$232
Employee + family	$300	$66	$2,331	$378
Double spouse	$195	$41	$2,331	$378

*includes university portion

 

PPO: Proposed increases to monthly premiums

Coverage	Employee premium: Plan year 2025	Increase over current employee   premium	Total premium: Plan year 2025*	Increase over current total premium*
Employee only	$76	$21	$817	$126
Employee + spouse	$373	$41	$1,868	$289
Employee + child(ren)	$257	$11	$1,458	$226
Employee + family	$522	$97	$2,395	$371
Double spouse	$333	$31	$2,395	$371

*includes university portion

 

Employee monthly premiums for basic dental insurance would stay flat (employee only coverage) or go up $1 for all basic plan options except employee and family, which would go up $2/month, as proposed. Employee premiums for the comprehensive dental plan would go up $3 per month, with two exceptions: Employee-only coverage would cost the employee $1 more per month, and employee and family coverage would cost $4 more per month.  

Warren Madden Building

Iowa State is asking to name the north-side Administrative Services Building the Warren Madden Building (PDF) in honor of the alumnus (1961, industrial engineering), who retired in 2016 as senior vice president for business and finance after serving the university for 50 years. Among many contributions to the campus and Ames communities, Madden helped preserve several 19th-century structures and the central campus greenspace as the university grew, develop the Iowa State Center in the 1970s, expand campus utilities and the residence system, collaborate with city leaders on town-gown initiatives such as CyRide and the ice arena, and coordinate major campus flood recovery in 1993, 2008 and 2010.

The Administrative Services Building opened in 1998, and currently is undergoing a water damage renovation necessary from a burst pipe in January.

New academic programs

Iowa State will seek final approval for two bachelor's degree programs:

• Bachelor of Science in game design (PDF), an interdisciplinary and inter-college degree program based in the College of Design. Students who complete the degree will be prepared to work in major or boutique-sized game design companies as game artists, programmers or writers. This is Iowa State's second "degree of the future" sent to the regents for approval.
• Bachelor of Science in education studies (PDF) in the School of Education. The degree meets the needs of students interested in education but not in working as a K-12 classroom teacher. This could include educators for settings such as museums, zoos or libraries; and community-based education, international education, educational technology, instructional design or educational policy.

Appropriations requests for July 1

Iowa State leaders are proposing a total of nearly $11.8 million in state appropriations for the fiscal year that begins next July. The board office sends the universities' appropriations requests to the state by Oct. 1 each year. Iowa State's seven proposals are:

1. Incremental operating funds to the Ag Experiment Station ($3.75 million) and Cooperative Extension ($1 million) to help maintain the state's agricultural competitiveness and explore opportunities for growth. Three proposed focus areas are: agricultural workforce and entrepreneurship, digital and precision livestock and crops, ag economics policy and training.
2. Incremental support ($1.5 million) to cover the cost of occupying and operating the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory's stand-alone Biosafety Level 2 facility. Current appropriations and the lab's fee income can't cover this expense.
3. Incremental support ($250,000) for livestock disease research, to leverage even more external research funding and combat threats to the state's livestock industry.
4. New support ($1 million) for scholarships to provide in-state tuition at the College of Veterinary Medicine for up to 10 students/year accepted into the ISU Production Animal – Veterinary Early Acceptance Program established in 2023. Upon graduation, students would be required to work as food animal veterinarians in rural Iowa for five years to have their scholarship forgiven.
5. New support ($4 million) to launch four manufacturing hubs in partnership with regional educational institutions and create new avenues for students and manufacturing employees to complete advanced credentials. Funding would upgrade existing training centers with advanced technologies and refresh and update and align curricula.
6. Additional support ($36,000) to reach a total of $3 million annually for the three state bioscience platforms based at Iowa State (biobased products, vaccines and immunotherapeutics, and digital and precision agriculture), getting to the goal established in 2017 when the initiative launched.
7. New support ($0.25 million) to support staff and operations in entrepreneurship, for example, competition prizes, travel to national conferences and competitions, professional mentoring for faculty founders, etc.

In addition, the board will seek a $30 million capital request in FY 2026 to allocate to deferred maintenance projects at the three universities.

Building projects

Iowa State leaders will present a proposed budget ($14 million) and project description for phase 1 of the National Testing Facility for Enhancing Wind Resiliency of Infrastructure in Tornado-Downburst-Gust-front Events (NEWRITE) in 1380 Howe Hall. Fully funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, this first phase would build a 1/15th scale prototype of the phase 2 facility that would study the impact of short-term downbursts of wind such as tornadoes and derechos. Phase 1 funding also includes designing phase 2 up to construction bid documents and site selection. A second NSF grant (up to $80 million) is needed for phase 2. Partha Sarkar, professor of aerospace engineering, leads a team of researchers from nine universities involved in the project.

University leaders also will present revised budgets and plans for:

• Stange Road reconstruction between 13th Street and Blankenburg Drive in the summer of 2025, $3.65 million (increase of $2.2 million). Additional road funds from the Iowa Department of Transportation will allow the project to be completed in a single season, not two as originally proposed, minimizing the impact and saving costs. The work will include concrete pavement, sidewalks on both sides of Stange Road, street lighting and storm sewer improvements.
• Lloyd Large Animal Hospital expansion in three phases, $12 million (increase of $2.8 million). Changes to this equine-focused project would expand the in vitro fertilization embryo transfer lab addition (phase 2) and add a rehabilitation room with sports medicine, physical therapy, exam space and a treadmill (phase 3).
• Seasons Marketplace remodel (Maple Willow Larch Commons), $6.25 million (increase of $3.8 million). The increase adds dining room and food service upgrades to a "back of house" renovation completed in the kitchen, food prep and office area this summer. The expanded project also would add a dedicated special dietary needs station, improve the venue circulation and entrances, upgrade the heating/cooling, plumbing and electrical systems and establish some environmental continuity with other campus dining locations.  The work would be completed over the next three summers.

Presentations

The board has invited these reports or presentations:

• Annual report (FY 2024): Performance of regent endowment portfolios against their peer groups, to the investment and finance committee, Wednesday, 11:45 a.m.
• Update presentation: Admissions and the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), with the admissions directors, to the academic affairs committee, Wednesday, 1 p.m.
• Update, Annual required training on First Amendment and Free Speech, to the free speech and student affairs committee, Wednesday, 2 p.m.
• Presentation, Advising student organizations, with senior vice president for student affairs Toyia Younger and Memorial Union director Chad Garland, to the free speech and student affairs committee, Wednesday, 2 p.m.
• Presentation, Digital Innovation and Iowa Farming, with Matt Darr, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, John Deere Endowed Chair in Ag Innovation and leader of the Digital Ag Innovation Laboratory, to the full board, Thursday, 9:45 a.m.

 

University prepares for second phase of federal overtime pay changes

By Megan Landolt, office of the president
September 12

Iowa State is preparing for phase 2 of changes to federal overtime pay requirements that take effect Jan. 1, 2025.

In April, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a final rule raising the salary threshold for nonexempt employees eligible for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), with the increase occurring in two phases.

On July 1, the phase 1 increase moved the minimum salary threshold to $43,888. Sixty-six employees were moved to nonexempt status, making them eligible for overtime pay or compensatory time as applicable. These employees and all other currently nonexempt salaried employees will move to a semimonthly pay cycle on Oct. 1.

Phase 2 further increases the minimum salary threshold to $58,656. This means, in most cases, employees who make less than $58,656 per year will move to nonexempt status and be covered by FLSA overtime rules. It is estimated this change will impact approximately 600 professional and scientific (P&S) staff, faculty and contract staff. 

Notifying employees

In the coming weeks, all potentially impacted employees and their managers will be notified, and university human resources will provide additional resources to begin planning.

"It's critically important that we work together as one university to comply with this federal mandate," said President Wendy Wintersteen. "Regardless of exemption status, we value all of our faculty and staff and their efforts to advance ISU's mission and support our students. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we navigate this process."

Determining nonexempt status

Under FLSA, nonexempt employees must receive overtime pay of at least 1.5 times their regular rate for work exceeding 40 hours per week. The salary threshold is not the sole factor in determining whether an employee will move to nonexempt status. An employee whose salary is below the threshold may remain exempt from overtime pay if their position meets certain criteria outlined by the U.S. Department of Labor. The final determination of an Iowa State employee's exemption status is made by the university's office of general counsel.

 

 

CELT course assists faculty with AI

By Jeff Budlong
September 12

Faculty use of artificial intelligence (AI) varies across campus, but the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) is helping all skill levels with a new course in Canvas. The CELT Generative AI in Education course has three main modules to explain: 1) what generative AI is, 2) challenges it presents and how they can be managed in the classroom, and 3) how faculty can integrate AI in their teaching.

Faculty can self-enroll in the course.

"This is a response to the need we heard from faculty," said CELT course design and senior manager Lesya Hassall. "We have used Canvas to supplement our faculty training before, but this is a self-paced course that is engaging and gives faculty ideas and skills in integrating AI in classes."

Course structure

The course, which takes about two hours to complete, is interactive with videos, questions, quizzes and applicable scenarios to get faculty thinking about how it relates to their work. CELT staff designed the course with faculty input, highlighting innovative Canvas functions to show how  AI can benefit students. Some pitfalls of AI use, such as providing incorrect results or making up information, also are discussed.

"Faculty can learn more about AI by interacting and doing activities with the assist of generative AI tools in the course," CELT instructional designer Jamie Niman said. "We focused on demonstrating a variety of quizzing and interactive learning techniques. On top of the videos, text and activities, there are ways to take a deeper dive past surface-level summaries to learn about AI."

Hassall said the course doesn't have to be completed sequentially. Faculty members with a solid AI background can begin in the third module, focusing on experimenting with Microsoft Copilot to build the strongest prompts for the best results.

English associate professor and Jonathan Wickert Professor of Innovation and Student Innovation Center associate director Abram Anders and accounting associate professor and CELT director of instructor development Christine Denison contributed videos to highlight how they use AI in the classroom and its impact. Those shared experiences show the importance of instructors in teaching students how to effectively use AI.

"The course gives faculty a chance to try prompting, post their output and read what other faculty did so they can do some analysis," Denison said. "It helps them think about where they are in the process and where they want to go."

"AI is a very powerful technology but it can never 100% replace a human," Niman said. "When dealing with AI there is always the human-in-the-loop element where we must review and refine what AI produces."

Nieman said CELT will host a virtual discussion before the end of the semester so enrolled faculty can talk about what they learned and ideas they implemented.

Survey

All faculty members received an email survey on Sept. 12 from the Iowa State University Generative Artificial Intelligence Teaching and Learning Committee on the integration of AI on campus. Faculty -- whether they use AI or not -- are asked to respond by Sept. 30. Results will help the university provide AI guidance, tools and resources.

Workshop

Denison and Anders will present at a workshop Sept. 27 (1-2 p.m., 1118 Student Innovation Center) focusing on integrating AI in the classroom and implications of its use in education. It is the first of three workshops in CELT's fall semester AI in teaching series.

Denison said she will talk about teaching students to effectively prompt AI, evaluate the output and integrate it into their own work. Her students provide a disclosure note with every assignment to explain which AI they used, how they used it and affirm they are responsible for the result.

Anders said faculty gathering to talk about AI often leads to new and improved uses.

"Even when you gain an understanding of AI skills, and you have a sense of how you might adapt it in your courses, being in a workshop and working alongside peers gives you examples and allows you to share ideas," he said. "It's all essential to help you put the pieces together to design a learning experience that will be effective for students."

What's new with undergraduate tutoring this fall

By Anne Krapfl
September 12

With an eye on both improving scheduling ease and retaining tutors, Iowa State's undergraduate tutoring program is using a new system this year. Knack is a national tutoring platform that features an online scheduling app but each school's peer tutors. Universities -- about a hundred so far -- are billed for students served to keep tutoring sessions free for students.

Adriana Gonzalez-Elliott, who leads the Academic Success Center, said her team tweaked Iowa State's in-house program over the last several years in response to student preferences.

"We improved our match student-to-tutor rate for high-request courses and increased the pay for tutors to $15 per hour," she said, "but in surveys we conducted, the message from undergraduates was that they really want an individualized experience and they get to set the terms."

What's different

The Knack platform lets students request individual or small group sessions, in person or online. Student and tutor also get to set the length of a tutoring session. The previous program featured small group, in-person options only, which made it more challenging to schedule sessions among a tutor and two to five students.

Gonzalez-Elliott said she's approaching this year as a pilot.

"We want to take tutoring to the next level. We also want to make sure this is a good fit for Iowa State and for our students," she said.

This fall, 91 Iowa State courses are included in the service offered through Knack. All students in all sections of those courses will have access to Knack. Gonzalez-Elliott said she reviewed two years of student data to identify the courses. Each had at least five requests for tutoring assistance each term. Students in the selected courses any term -- fall, winter, spring, summer -- may seek unlimited tutoring through Knack. In the previous Iowa State system, undergraduates could request tutoring help in any course, a service pledge that sometimes proved difficult to fill.

Serving all students

Iowa State's course catalog is loaded into Knack, which allows students to request help in a course outside of the current semester's selected courses. Knack tracks those requests and offers Iowa State the flexibility to, mid-semester, add a course with a significant number of tutoring requests.

"If students feel they need tutoring 'right now' but don't see their course on the list, they should come in and talk to us," she said. "Let's have a conversation about where you're struggling.

"Sometimes it is about the course content, sometimes it's about time management or study skills. We have other resources at Iowa State, depending on what the issue is," she added.

The transparency about courses served, price and ease of scheduling may encourage more students to seek tutoring help. Gonzalez-Elliott said that across the board, other universities who use Knack tutoring reported after the first year that 50% of the students they served hadn't sought tutoring services previously.

"If we're focusing on access and equity and reaching our students where they're at, this is an opportunity to improve that," she said.

Benefits to tutors

As in the previous program, Knack tutors are high-achieving Iowa State students who have taken the course and achieved a B grade or higher. They complete a two-hour Knack training course online and earn $15/hour, paid by Knack. Similar to, say Uber Eats food delivery, they'll self-select tutoring requests at times they can accommodate. Tutors who respond quickly get the assignments -- but they're limited to 15 hours of tutoring per week.

If no peer tutor picks up a student's request, Knack has professional tutors who can fill requests and work with Iowa State students.

Funding for Knack tutoring comes from the dean of students office and a strategic plan initial investment (2022) focused on improving student retention and graduation rates.

Provost meets the Faculty Senate

By Jeff Budlong
September 12

Senior vice president and provost Jason Keith addressed the Faculty Senate at its first meeting of the fall semester on Sept. 10, discussing some of the first issues he wants to work on. He and President Wendy Wintersteen currently are making in-person visits to each college.

"My first few weeks have been intense and busy, but I have been spending time immersing myself in the culture, campus and people of Iowa State," he said. "I also recognize the prior relationship that is in place between the Faculty Senate and the provost's office, and I appreciate it and want to support, foster and extend that relationship into the future."

Keith said faculty salaries and retention are two areas he plans to look at to see how they can be improved. He wants to work with campus leaders to determine how to deal with faculty salary compression.

Three-quarters of faculty who completed an exit survey prior to leaving the university rated their experience between fine and great, but culture in individual units and departments was not always as positive, Keith said.

"I want to determine how to identify when there is an issue in a unit or department and how we can find ways to address that," he said. "We want faculty to be supported and connected in a network of community."

Keith also said the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and how faculty want to – or not – use it is an important issue campuswide.

Student voting

Catt Center director Karen Kedrowski spoke to senators about recent Iowa State student voting history and how faculty can educate students about the voting process in a nonpartisan way.

Iowa State students voted at a higher rate than other students across the nation in both presidential and midterm elections dating back to 2012, but that trend changed in 2022 when the percentage matched the national rate at 30.6%.

"Sixty percent of Iowa State students are majoring in STEM fields, but at ISU and nationally, STEM students have a lower voter turnout rate than students in other disciplines," Kedrowski said. "It is not entirely clear why, but there is some belief that STEM students don’t see politics relevant to what they do."

Kedrowski presented six ways faculty could help students:

• Download the #CyclonesVote 2024 module from Canvas.
• Direct students to the Catt Center's voting FAQ page.
• Encourage students to read their emails from the Catt Center.
• Direct specific questions to the Catt Center.
• Work with student groups to research candidate positions relevant to your discipline.
• Provide Election Day accommodations when possible.

New sign-on dashboard

Amy Ward, identity services manager, information technology services, discussed the transition from Okta to the new Microsoft sign-on dashboard, which officially becomes the Iowa State dashboard on Sept. 16. Ward said the Microsoft sign-on offers more security factors for employees and has a new feature allowing them to reset a password.

"In the past, if you forgot your password you had to wait for the Solution Center to open," Ward said. "But by setting up the new feature you can reset your password on your own."

Other business

Senators approved:

• An interdisciplinary bachelor of science in integrated health science, a degree of the future. It focuses on developing holistic health care professionals who understand the biological, behavioral, environmental and social determinants of health. Five specialized tracks are available to students.

• An undergraduate minor in artificial intelligence in the computer science department. It's designed for undergraduates with a strong quantitative background to learn basic AI and machine learning techniques to help solve practical problems.

• The discontinuation of the rural agricultural, technological and environmental history doctorate program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a five-year sunset period. Eliminating the program saves the college about $110,000 annually.

• The discontinuation of the  master's degree in transportation in the College of Engineering. The degree was designed to attract students from the humanities and business but drew low numbers.

• Changes to the academic dismissal policy that require any student not meeting requirements of their academic probation to be dismissed. Students with extenuating circumstances can petition for early reinstatement.

• Changes to the reinstatement policy for students dismissed for academic reasons. It applies a consistent reinstatement process for all colleges.

• Changes to the course prerequisite policy with the move to Workday. Students are notified at the midpoint of each semester to review their present and future schedules to ensure they have not dropped or are at risk of failing a course that is a prerequisite for future courses.

 

Winter data breach impacted some ISU employees

September 12

Iowa State employees who receive a letter from California-based Change Healthcare about a February data breach are encouraged to follow the suggested steps to protect their financial accounts and credit file. The letter, which began appearing in U.S. mailboxes early last month, doesn't mention Iowa State or any of its benefit providers.

Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group and Optum, is one of the largest payment networks in the health insurance industry, electronically connecting doctors' offices, pharmacies and hospitals with health insurers and routing about a third of all claims. Any of Iowa State's insurance providers -- Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Delta Dental, Express Scripts, Avesis, for example -- that process claims submitted via Change Healthcare potentially were impacted.

Insurers were informed Feb. 21 of the security breach.

"Although Wellmark alerted Iowa State that its systems were not impacted, our vendors haven't been able to tell us who was impacted or the extent of the impact," said benefits director Ed Holland, university human resources. "What we do know is that Change Healthcare is obligated to communicate with impacted individuals because the breach was to their system."

According to Change Healthcare, data impacted in the breach includes health insurance information, medical records, billing, claims and payment records and personal identification such as Social Security number or driver's license.

Protect yourself from credit fraud

In its letter to impacted employees, Change Healthcare advises these steps be taken to protect financial accounts and credit files. Holland noted the measures apply to any type of suspected data breach:

• Carefully review statements from Wellmark and your health care providers to confirm the validity of listed activity. Report any questionable charges or credits promptly.
• Monitor your financial accounts and promptly notify your financial institution or card company if you detect unauthorized transactions.
• Enroll in a credit and identity monitoring service. Change Healthcare will pay for two years of coverage with IDX , which also is the service employees enrolled in an ISU medical plan may use (at no extra cost). Log in to your myWellmark account and click on "identity protection" in the lower left corner. Or follow the enrollment directions on Change Healthcare's data breach website.
• Request a fraud alert on your credit file to help protect against fraudulent new accounts in your name. By calling any one of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion), this will flag your account for a fraud alert with all three companies. The alert notifies the credit grantor to take specific steps to verify the applicant's identity.
• Consider requesting a freeze of your credit file at each of the three major credit bureaus. No new credit accounts can be opened in your name without a PIN number issued. Unlike the fraud alert, you must contact each credit bureau separately to request a freeze.
• Contact local law enforcement or the Iowa Attorney General's office to report suspected cases of identity theft.

More information is online. Questions about the breach may be directed to Change Healthcare, 1-866-262-5342.

A celebration for the campanile's 125th year

By Dave Roepke
September 12

The campanile and Stanton Memorial Carillon is one of Iowa State University's most prominent landmarks and potent symbols, found in both the geographic center of campus and in the memories of those who have called it their home.

"To many of us, the campanile is really the heart of Iowa State, not just based on where it’s located but for how it makes us feel," said Michael Golemo, University Professor of music and director of bands.

The bells inside the top of the 110-foot tower have been ringing their way into Iowa Staters' hearts for 125 years, an enduring tradition the university will honor in a free public event Sunday, Sept. 15. The 2 p.m. celebration north of the campanile will feature stories about its inspiration and legacy, remarks from President Wendy Wintersteen and numerous musical performances. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP online and to bring chairs and blankets, as seating will be limited. A reception will follow in the Memorial Union Campanile Room.

Cownie Professor of Music and university carillonneur Tin-Shi Tam will premiere two carillon compositions written by Iowa State students -- the winner and honorable mention selection in a campuswide contest. Tam also will collaborate to perform with the ISU Brass Ensemble and the Iowa State Singers, closing with the alma mater "Bells of Iowa State."

Golemo said in his 25 years at Iowa State, this will be only the third time he recalls university bands performing with the carillon. It's a challenging collaboration for reasons musical (rhythm and pitch are tricky) and logistical (the group and soloist can't see each other).

"We don't do it too often, but every time we have it's been exciting, fun and rewarding," he said. 

Brad Dell, chair of the music and theatre department, will intersperse the music with stories about the campanile. He'll talk about the gift of love that brought the first 10 of the Stanton Memorial Carillon's 50 bells to campus. He'll also explore the role the bell tower plays in Iowa State's folklore and daily life.

"It is probably the most photographed spot at graduations, and it's also a special place when people come to visit for the first time. It really marks a student’s entire journey here," Dell said. "I hear that all the time from alums. They look back at the campanile with such fondness because of the moments they experienced in its shadow and from hearing it every day throughout their time at Iowa State."

Beyond its timekeeping chimes every 15 minutes, the carillon's bells are heard during the 20-minute concerts Tam plays at midday on weekdays when school is in session. Iowa State has had a devoted carillonneur since 1931, and Tam is only the fifth person to hold the role in the 93 years since.

"It's a tradition we are proud of, and I will continue to keep the bells ringing for the next generation," Tam said.

Not only are the bells still ringing, but since 2019 a version of them can travel. In a multi-year, cross-disciplinary project, successive waves of students designed and constructed a 1:5 scale replica of the campanile with a playable 27-bell carillon. Though the campanile-carillon model is mobile, it’s often found in the Sukup atrium of the Biorenewables Complex. The Sept. 15 celebration will be held in the atrium if there's inclement weather. 

"The model campanile-carillon is a shining, shimmering example of innovating at Iowa State and the collaborative spirit that’s at the heart of this university," Dell said. "It's an incredible symbol of who we are and proof that this story is far from over."