Students revive UI Homecoming tradition

If you’ve strolled through the Pentacrest this week, you likely noticed a University of Iowa Homecoming tradition that is making a comeback—a 25-foot tall monument made with 1,100 ears of dried Iowa corn.

The Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the UI student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) joined together this year to create the corn monument. According to university archivist David McCartney, the corn monument display was started by a group of engineering students in 1919. The tradition waned in the 1960s, but has enjoyed an off-and-on revival since 1981.

Stephanie Then, president of the UI student chapter of ASCE and UI College of Engineering student from Peosta, Iowa, says she hopes the tradition stays alive.

“Working on the corn monument has allowed us to take our skills and interests and bring them to life in an effort to remind the UI campus and alumni that being a Hawkeye is a well-rounded, healthy, and creative endeavor of self-expression and community,” she says.

The monument will be on display through Sunday, Oct. 12.

Images and a brief history of all the past monuments can also been seen at the Kendall Gallery, located on the first floor of the Iowa Memorial Union, through Oct. 31.