A jump start on spring
Glasshouse gardener Alex Trouch turns the soil in a bed of spring flowers inside the Hughes conservatory at Reiman Gardens. Photos by Christopher Gannon.
The first exhibit of 2025 in the Hughes conservatory at Reiman Gardens ushers in spring several weeks ahead of the calendar. Instead of the usual tea party sweet treats, "Tulips and Tea: A Tea Party" features tulips, pansies, grape hyacinths, daffodils and a variety of succulents in oversized tea cups and tiered cake stand. It also includes begonias, various ferns and African daisies. The exhibit launches the gardens' 30th anniversary year and runs through Easter weekend, April 19-20.
Indoor visitors to Reiman Gardens this weekend (Feb. 8-9) also will experience its annual orchid festival, held in collaboration with the Iowa Orchid Society. Orchids are symbols of love, beauty and luxury. The festival includes exhibits and sale of several species and colors of orchids.
As recently announced, Reiman Gardens is now open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. year-round. The butterfly wing closes each day at 4:30 p.m.
Sophomore marketing major Fayth Appenzeller chose a colorful, aromatic setting for her study session Monday, the Hughes conservatory at Reiman Gardens.
Faculty duo's app matches faculty and grad students
Convinced that a holistic approach to matching research faculty and graduate students would make both happier, two Iowa State faculty are developing a mobile app that finds those matches. Faculty who lead research teams are invited to try it.
Coltie ("COAL-tee") helps professors share their research, recruit graduate students or even fill staff positions in their lab. It helps would-be graduate students find not just the right university or the right program, but a compatible faculty match. Coltie is free and downloadable from both Apple and Google Play.
What's in a name?
Coltie is a portmanteau of sorts: College + Ties
"Good quality of life in academia resides at the core of the app. Graduate school presents a lot more ambiguity than the undergraduate years, and this is about finding the right fit," said Coltie's chief operating officer Anuj Sharma, Pitt-Des Moines Professor in Civil Engineering. "Making a decision based on geography, a sheet of paper or a U.S. News and World Report ranking really isn't a good way to do it."
The app is in start-up mode, and growing the numbers of researchers and graduate students using it is the focus now -- and its strength down the road. Associate professor and Carlyle G. Caldwell Endowed Chair in Chemistry Robbyn Anand, Coltie's chief executive officer, said they'll continue to develop Coltie's algorithm, which currently matches people by key research words. For example, two labs that appear similar may not be, she said, and as the user group expands, additional Coltie filters could fine-tune matches between faculty and students.
"Do students in that lab go on to jobs in industry, or do they choose academic roles?" she said. "Is the group culture collaborative or competitive? What's the expectation for publications?"
As available, the app's match recommendations include a range of faculty -- assistant, associate or full professor -- and range of students, from undergraduate in search mode to post doc.
These variables matter to students, and faculty will reap the benefits of well-matched students, said Anand.
Scheduled to launch in May, Coltie Hive is a management tool that lets recruitment staff for specific graduate or undergraduate programs engage interested students with, for example, event announcements and other communications, deadline reminders or videos about campus or the broader community. Staff can alert faculty researchers to students who are well-matched to a program or team.
Learn more
100-second tour of Coltie
The Coltie team has applied for a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences to develop more features in the app, for example an expectations match quiz, and to add video content that gives students deeper insight into graduate school. The proposed project includes an evaluation of Coltie's impact on educational outcomes at all three of Iowa's regent universities.
Early focus: Midwestern schools
Faculty and students in any academic discipline may create profiles in Coltie, though the emphasis is in the STEM fields "because it's what we know" and because they're research-intensive, Anand said.
While both Anand and Sharma have connected in Coltie with new, high-quality graduate students overseas -- opening a pipeline to those schools -- the app's early focus is on Midwestern colleges and universities with a history of sending students to graduate school in the STEM disciplines. The Coltie team recruits students to the app at regional and national undergraduate research events, with invitations to programs at specific Midwestern schools and by hosting "Ask Me Anything" virtual sessions every few months.
Social connections
Coltie's faculty database contains information for about 45,000 faculty members nationwide -- more than 600 at Iowa State -- extracted from public information sites such as Google Scholar. The app confirms or updates a researcher's key words based on the last five years of publication so matches aren't made based on 15-year-old research interests. To claim their profile in Coltie, faculty use their university email address to verify who they are and then can add content. Faculty not in the database simply create a new account. When they provide a link to their Google Scholar profile, their publications will automatically populate their Coltie profile.
Short videos are encouraged to introduce yourself, your research team, advising style and Iowa State. Student profiles feature a video personal statement, which helps both groups make a more holistic assessment.
So far, about 75 Iowa State faculty and 200 graduate students are using Coltie, Anand said.
She said the Coltie team would like to work with Iowa State faculty to develop content that would benefit many, on a range of topics: writing a research paper, balancing career and home life, for example. The goal is to reach students who can't visit campus and provide some insight to what an Iowa State graduate experience might be like.
"We're trying to facilitate the guidance the very luckiest students might receive who have a very good mentor," Anand said.
Questions about Coltie may be directed to Anand, robbyn.anand@coltie.com, or Sharma, anuj.sharma@coltie.com.
Free websites help faculty connect with students
Don't let the name dissuade you. Faculty in any Iowa State college may use a website template service -- at no cost -- coordinated by the CALS/LAS web team since 2018 in a partnership with IT Services.
It makes sense for efficiency and scalability. The team's bread and butter is developing department and center websites for units in the college of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Liberal Arts and Sciences. The computer code for that service is modular and, in fact, the same code used to build the free faculty sites, officially known as ISU Sites.
"This is very efficient for Iowa State. We put a lot of time up front into automation and scalability," said John VanDyk, strategic lead for the website projects. "There's a lot of overlap between the two website services, with certain features turned on for the faculty sites.
Learn more
ISU Sites walk-in workshop
Feb. 6, 10-11 a.m.
206 Durham Center
"The code spins up a site and sends you an email with a unique link. So, from our perspective the difference between one site and 20 sites isn't much," he added.
Faculty sites follow the university's web theme, and site owners receive a monthly assessment for digital accessibility from Siteimprove. Team members also isolate and fix accessibility snags as they arise and share the upgrade systemwide.
"We want ISU's online presence to be the best it can be," said project manager Misty Treanor. She said the platform is designed for people without a lot of technical experience who know how to log in, click an edit button and upload files.
Connect with students
Content strategist Hannah Schultes said the websites are one way faculty can share their story with students, current or prospective.
"This site is something you own. You can shape the classroom experience or the lab experience you'd like to share with students," she said. "For example, including photos from your lab or of grad students at a symposium is appealing.
"Don't let 'Rate My Professor' be your only story," Schultes said.
In addition to meeting digital accessibility and university brand standards, she said faculty websites:
- Keep the user experience consistent with department and center websites.
- Provide three options for pre-built templates.
- Send the site owner an auto-generated, monthly report on their user analytics and accessibility score.
- Let the faculty member control the content. In some departments, faculty can't tweak their page on the department website.
- Include support from the CALS/LAS web team.
Get started
Treanor said about 25% of ISU faculty have an ISU site -- and 100% isn't the goal.
"We know not everyone needs their own faculty site. Sometimes your page on the department website is enough to serve your needs," she said. "These pages don't have to be complicated, but they do let you decide what you want to feature."
For those who want to give it a try, a single page site can be completed in about 20 minutes in an automated process:
- On the ISU Sites page, click the "Log in" button to use your Net ID.
- Click "Manage my sites" and "create new site."
- Choose the website type you need, from three options: Simple (single page), advanced or full-scale. A guide provides examples and helps you with that choice.
- Within three minutes you'll receive an email with a link for your site.
- Log in to your site and get started. If you haven't hidden your contact information in the ISU directory, it automatically will load into your profile.
- Choose the "edit" mode and follow the directions, section by section, to add photos and other information.
A 4-minute video includes how-to instructions with visuals.
Hamburgers are back on the menu at MU
Employee Jerry Morrissey (left) chats with students in 1944 in the former Union Grill. ISU Dining's newest venue in the MU food court is a nod to the original grill. Photo courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives.
The newest option in the Memorial Union's (MU) food court reaches back to the building's opening. The 1928 Grill began serving hamburgers and fries at the start of spring semester, and its name is a nod to a dining option in the MU when it opened in 1928.
Located in the back right corner of the food court, The 1928 Grill replaces Zodiac Cheese Steaks with a classic menu of hamburgers, cheeseburgers (American, cheddar or pepper jack), bacon cheeseburgers and potato-skin fries. The burgers, with a toasted brioche bun, can be topped with shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, red onion, dill pickles and a house burger sauce.
"Zodiac Cheese Steaks didn't gain the popularity that we anticipated, so that, along with requests from students to bring back burgers, led to the decision to bring back a fan favorite," said Meredith Ponder Hanisch, communication and marketing director for campus life.
The 1928 Grill is the most recent addition to the first floor of the MU since Sushi Do opened in October 2023. Ponder Hanisch said ISU Dining continually evaluates its offerings to ensure it's following food trends, meeting customer expectations and providing an array of options.
"We have QR codes posted at all of our locations for students to provide feedback. In addition, the Inter-Residence Hall Association, a student-run organization, shares students' suggestions with us in a collaborative way," Ponder Hanisch said.
In 1928, the Union Grill was located on the west side of the commons and offered hamburgers and shakes as part of its menu.
Serving faculty and staff
Ponder Hanisch said the food court provides faculty, staff and those on a schedule with options but, like most restaurants, is busiest around noon and when classes let out. Customers arriving a little earlier or later than the peak times reduce wait times.
"I went over recently and stood in the longest line," she said. "I got my meal, picked out a side and filled a fountain drink before walking back to my office -- a 10-minute walk -- and still was back in less than 30 minutes."
Brian Reichert, MU food court manager, said the food court remains popular with faculty and staff, especially those working in the MU and surrounding buildings. Students living off campus and first-year students also frequent it. ISU Dining went cashless in May 2023 but faculty and staff can use their meal plan, meal block swipes, dining dollars or credit/debit card.
Food court options
The 1928 Grill joins these menu options in the food court on the ground level of the MU:
Lance & Ellie's: Made-to-order deli sandwiches
Pono Poké: A Hawaiian concept of sushi in a bowl
Poco Picante: Mexican burritos and bowls
Rowdy Rooster: Gluten-free chicken strips and fries
The Mix: Salad bar, soups, fruits and fresh sides
Godfather's: Pizza
Grab and go: Desserts, chips and drinks
Other ground-level options near the food court are the MU Market and Café (coffee, bakery items and snacks), Panda Express (Chinese) and Sushi-Do.
"It is a good variety in the food court, and students, faculty and staff are able to find something they want," said Cheryl Lounsberry, assistant director of the MU food court and catering.
Looking for things to do? Campus offers options
With the temperatures bouncing between balmy and frigid (sometimes in the same day), the winter blahs can be real. For employees looking for options, the Inside staff culled some campus options for no-cost to low-cost answers to the winter doldrums.
Learn something. University Museums' free art walks. The next one, on Feb. 12 (3:10-4 p.m., Kildee Hall south entrance) delves into public art of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Stay up-to-date. All faculty, staff and students can subscribe for free to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. The university library has guidance online for how to sign up.
Pay less. Get a 30% discount on men's and women's Skechers shoes with free shipping, or give meal kits a try at a discount in Blue Cross 365 discounts, available to benefits-eligible employees.
Check out books for your kids (or you). The Ames Public Library's bookmobile parks near the Kildee food truck court on Thursdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Kick winter in the shins. Visit the ISU Creamery (2953 Food Sciences Building) for a scoop or three. Ten ice cream flavors rotate daily from the Creamery's 20 flavors.
Enjoy a novelty. ISU carillonneur and music faculty member Tin-Shi Tam performs every weekday at 11:50 a.m. And remember, she takes requests.
Walk. Strolls for Well-Being has three strolls for winter on themes of journey, possibility and gratitude. Each features six pauses across campus, indoors and out, such as the Memorial Union north entrance, Morrill Hall and Kildee Hall. Strolls can range from five minutes to an hour, depending on your schedule. There also are options for people not on campus.
Walk indoors. Parks Library has a self-guided tour of the building's art and architecture. Or, just walk. Smart librarians have calculated that one mile equals six laps around the second floor (including the tiers) or five laps around the third floor (without the tiers).
Be a campus philanthropist. Improve the lives of our students by making a cash or merchandise donation to the SHOP food pantry, 1306 Beyer.
Take in a movie. The Student Union Board selected 13 film titles for Cyclone Cinema's spring season. The films are recent and admission is free. Films show Thursday-Sunday (7 p.m., 101 Carver).
Get outdoors. Snow has not been plentiful in central Iowa this year, but ISU recreation services has plenty of game equipment available for rent. The "weekend" rate (any four days) is charged at double the daily rate. The outdoor rec counter in State Gym's lower level (opposite the climbing wall) is open 2-7 p.m. Monday through Friday; complete the online request form, and pay before you take your equipment.
Take a tour. Power plant staff conduct tours of the power plant. Utility staff also conduct tours of other utility systems including the other production facilities, substations and steam tunnels. Tours are available 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Monday-Friday.
