With the threat of severe weather Friday, Oct. 4, the 2013 University of Iowa Homecoming concert is moving from the Pentacrest lawn to the Iowa Memorial Union Main Lounge.

Jim Leach, who spent 30 years representing Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives, was selected as the first speaker for the College of Education's new Distinguished Speakers Series on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at 10:30 a.m., in N300 Lindquist Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Members of the public, the media, local and state government, and University of Iowa officials will participate in a day of special events dealing with a free press and open government Thursday, Oct. 3 on the UI campus.

Along with Hancher, the UI’s School of Music started construction recently. Both are major flood recovery projects on campus that are expected to be completed in 2016.

More than 1,400 writers from more than 140 countries have attended the University of Iowa’s International Writers Program since its inception in 1967, making it one of the strongest centers for international literary exchange in the United States.

Amy Belfi, a fourth-year graduate student in the UI Neuroscience Graduate Program, is using crowdfunding to help support her study on the link between music and autobiographical memory. Her goal of $1,500, to be raised by Oct. 18, will be used to compensate study participants and defray their travel costs.

Several University of Iowa groups are working with the City of Iowa City to organize an Iowa River Cleanup project on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 9 a.m. to noon. Volunteers, age 18 or over, are invited to help pick up trash along the banks of the Iowa River.

Poets Lucy Ives and Haley Thompson, alumnae of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will read from "Orange Roses" and "Home Is a Place Worth Burying," respectively, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

The University of Iowa International Writing Program, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and Prairie Lights Books will host a reading to commemorate the life and works of Irish poet Seamus Heaney, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, in Room 100 of Phillips Hall on the UI campus.

The University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program will present a free public performance by the JACK Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus. The concert, which will feature clarinetist Derek Bermel, is part of the JACK’s extended residency Oct. 6-13 at the UI School of Music.

Five weeks into the 2013 college football season, the Baylor University Bears are the most productive team according to a weekly ranking that measures offensive and defensive production compiled by a University of Iowa economist.

University of Iowa Recreational Services is offering another session of Bootcamp, a fitness class that combines functional sports training exercises, metabolic conditioning, and partner and group exercises.