Nick Benson, coordinator of the Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities (IISC), is making new connections between the University of Iowa and Iowa communities. Benson is working to expand the IISC into a campus-wide initiative. The IISC recently formalized agreements with four Iowa communities for the 2013-2014 academic year: Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, and Washington.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds joined about 20 University of Iowa students for a crash course on medical devices for treating cardiovascular disease—and an introduction to new facilities that are changing how UI faculty teach.

Kathleen Janz, a UI professor of health and human physiology, says parents need to be part of the solution of helping kids get more physical activity in response to a report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Barbara Eckstein, Jim Giglierano, and Mark NeuCollins will present "The Arc, the Wall, and the Line: Mapping the People's Weather" from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13 in 1117 University Capitol Center (UCC) Conference Room A.

Telecommuters actually work more overtime than their office-bound colleagues, says Mary Noonan, UI associate professor in sociology, in a story on how Yahoo's chief executive has decreed that workers must start showing up at the office.

H.S. Udaykumar and Meena Khandelwal will discuss their efforts to trace the linkages among forests, energy, gender relations, health, consumption, and culture, and between the local and global processes at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 13 at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 111 Church St.

Pursuing internships abroad is a growing trend at the University of Iowa with 162 students pursuing such internships for academic credit in the 2011-12 academic year.

Upcoming programs from UI Recreational Services will keep some participants dancing and sweating, others building shelter and finding their way through the wild.

UI psychologist Jerry Suls was part of a research team that looked at how people get on with their lives following harrowing experiences after he was unscathed when a tornado hit downtown Iowa City in 2006.

Six University of Iowa students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been awarded the first-ever John and Elsie Mae Ferentz Undergraduate Fellowships for Research. These fellowships were made possible by a gift to the UI Foundation from Kirk and Mary Ferentz in honor of Kirk’s parents.

Andrea Cooper will bring her daughter's story to the University of Iowa campus when she shares "Kristin's Story: A Story of Acquaintance Rape and Depression" at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 10, in the Second Floor Ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union.

The Huffington Post fashion blog site takes a look at the authentic personal style that University of Iowa college students display while strolling across campus, dispelling the myth that fashion can't exist in the midst of cornfields.