The University of Iowa will honor December 2013 graduates during a series of commencement ceremonies and other events, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 20-21.

The UI law school is reducing tuition and launching programs that will help students obtain degrees quicker and offer a broader range of course options: “We constantly are looking at what we are offering and teaching and what we could do different or better,” says Dean Gail Agrawal.

The University of Iowa College of Public Health has established a new Executive Master of Health Administration (EMHA) degree program. The program is designed to provide working professionals with advanced knowledge and skills to lead multifaceted health care organizations, emphasizing interprofessional teams.

Daniel Collier has discovered a feedback mechanism in cells that affects blood pressure. He has gone on to define the molecular interactions that can be used to control the problem. Collier is the 2013 Spriestersbach Prize winner in the biological and life sciences who earned his doctorate from the UI.

The state’s oldest university was not immune to the Panic of 1857. In fact, financial woes prompted the Board of Trustees to suspend operations at the University of Iowa for two academic years to allow the fledgling institution time to build up its coffers.

The UI football program ranks 16th among the 70 bowl-bound schools in graduation success rate—the percentage of students who graduate in six years or fewer—with a rate of 81 percent, highest among Big Ten Conference bowl qualifiers.

Robert Ketterer, professor and interim chair of the Department of Classics in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the 2013 Outreach Prize by the American Philological Association.

Marc Armstrong, professor in the Department of Geographical and Sustainability Sciences and the chair of the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature, has been appointed associate dean for Graduate and Online Education in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), effective Jan. 15, 2014.

Seventeen UI graduate students have been selected as Obermann Graduate Fellows and will participate in the 2014 Obermann Graduate Institute, a highly competitive program for UI graduate students who are interested in public engagement with research, arts, and teaching.

If you’ve studied abroad through the UI in the past 30 years, you’ve likely met Maria Hope, who has been with Study Abroad since its inception—first in a clerical position and eventually as the university’s first, and for many years only, study abroad advisor.

The University of Iowa football team is receiving votes in both of the national polls. However, the Iowa Hawkeyes are firmly entrenched in the Top 25 that ranks teams that will be bowling later this month by their most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate score.

Professor Philip Kutzko of the Department of Mathematics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been at the forefront of recruiting and graduating doctoral students from underrepresented groups.