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.

The Kennedy Center is creating a new partnership in Iowa City as part of its Any Given Child Program. Members of the news media are invited to attend the news conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, in the Iowa Community School District Education Services Center, 1725 North Dodge St. in Iowa City.

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.

Carl Klaus, founder of the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program and professor emeritus, will read from "A Self Made of Words" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the UI 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.

A survey conducted by the Public Policy Center at the University of Iowa shows that while most children in Iowa have a medical home base, some are being left behind, including those with special-needs, on public insurance, or who are African-American. A webinar on the findings will be Friday, Oct. 4 at 2 p.m.

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.

Martine Bellen, Iris Marble Cushing, Magus Magnus, and Joshua Ware will read as part of the Furniture Press Books poetry tour at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.