With winter just around the corner, this is a good time for members of the campus community to get reacquainted with the University of Iowa’s severe weather policies and make sure their Hawk Alert contact information is up to date.

Jake Christensen, a University of Iowa alumnus who was not comfortable coming out as a member of the LGBT community when he first came to campus, is helping other LGBT students feel supported to succeed on campus in his role as a UI senior admission counselor.

The UI has become the first public institution in the nation—and the second U.S. institution of higher education—to specifically include optional questions about students' sexual orientation and gender identity in their application for admission.

UI science education professor Brian Hand discusses the importance of the Science Writing Heuristic, an approach that uses language and argumentation to teach science as part of a story on literacy instruction crossing disciplines. (Note: A paid subscription is required.)

The new seminar, “Passport Project: Exploring Knowledge,” will engage students in campus- and city-wide active research. Participating first year students will attend 12 or more cultural events over the course of the semester.

Infant Noelle Ames is thriving at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UI Hospitals and Clinics even though her mom's water broke just 20 weeks weeks into her pregnancy. Mom Alicia spent months under the care of doctors and made it to 32-week mark without going into labor.

A conservation and research effort under way at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, a project between the UI Museum of Art and the Getty, is helping to debunk the idea that Jackson Pollock's masterpiece Mural was created in a single setting. (Note: A paid subscription is required.)

The University of Iowa will confer an estimated 1,500 degrees at three December commencement ceremonies Friday, Dec. 14 and Saturday, Dec. 15, to honor students graduating at the end of the fall semester.

University of Iowa College of Education Dean Margaret Crocco has announced her resignation as dean, effective Dec. 14, 2012. Crocco has served as dean of the College since July 1, 2011.

Hancher announces an addition to its Club Hancher lineup and the title of a previously announced—but unnamed—performance by a well-known monologist.

University of Iowa Libraries is teaming up with Therapy Dogs of Johnson County to offer a finals week study break for students on Monday, Dec. 10, from 4-7 p.m.

The UI Office of Student Financial Aid wants to help students better manage the educational debt they shoulder, even while reducing the overall need to borrow. New financial counseling initiatives may do just that.