It’s the end of the semester. Finals are taken, grades are in, students have graduated. What next for the professors?
Road trip!
A group of University of Iowa faculty is headed to northwest Iowa May 21-24 as members of the 8th annual Faculty Engagement Corps, sponsored by the Office of the Provost. Along the way, they’ll stop in Orange City, Okoboji, Estherville, Spencer, Lester, Le Mars, Sioux City, Sergeant Bluff, and Storm Lake to meet with local business and civic leaders, visit schools and colleges, tour a 2,500-acre grain and livestock operation, experience a Native American sweat ceremony, and learn about the role of public libraries as information hubs for rural Iowans.
The trip allows faculty members to develop a clearer understanding of the cultural, historical, economic, and educational underpinnings of the state, and introduces faculty to the communities from which their students come and in which the state taxpayers live.
“This trip is a learning mission for our faculty—an opportunity to find out how we can put our resources into the service of Iowa communities and to learn from what they are already doing so well,” says UI Provost P. Barry Butler. "For these faculty and the communities they visit, it’s a terrific way to start learning about some of the connections we already have all over the state, and perhaps spark some new ideas for collaboration.”
After a late-night bus ride across Iowa, the group will awake on Wednesday, May 22, ready for a full day of meetings including a summit with faculty colleagues at Northwestern College, lunch with the Great Lakes Rotary, a tour of Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, and a primer on Iowa’s wind economy with the experts at Iowa Lakes Community College in Estherville.
The following day, the group will meet with the Spencer Blue Zone committee to learn about community based public health efforts before heading out to Mogler Farms just south of Lester for an introduction to large scale farming in the farthest northwest corner of the state. From there, the group heads off to sample one of Iowa’s favorite homegrown treats at the Blue Bunny Museum in Le Mars, Ice Cream Capital of the World and then moves on to Sioux City for the night. While in Sioux City, the group has been invited by Native Youth Standing Strong to participate in a traditional Lakota sweat ceremony.
The trip ends Friday, May 24, with a visit to the Sergeant Bluff-Luton Community Schools to meet with elementary and high school teachers, administrators and students, and a stop in Storm Lake for a discussion of public libraries in rural Iowa.
The Faculty Engagement Corps began in 2006 as part of the university’s Year of Public Engagement and has continued with trips to different regions of Iowa each May since then. Past participants have praised the program for offering them a window into their students’ pre-university lives and helping them understand the issues of most importance to their fellow Iowans.
You can join this year’s corps virtually by searching #UIengaged on Twitter and reading the daily journal entries here in Iowa Now.