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.

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.

When Maggie Shipstead’s friend was hit by a golf cart driven by a hoity-toity Nantucketer, Shipstead had no idea she would one day walk off with one of literature’s top prizes as a result. Shipstead, an alumna of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, in November received the Dylan Thomas Prize for her first novel, "Seating Arrangements."

University of Iowa Recreational Services will offer a Holiday Tennis Camp for beginner through intermediate players ages 6-12, Dec. 27-30 at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex.

"Reading Duncan Reading: Robert Duncan and the Poetics of Derivation," edited by Stephen Collis and Graham Lyons, is now available from the University of Iowa Press. In the book, 13 scholars and poets examine first what and how the American poet Robert Duncan read and, perforce, what and how he wrote.

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.

A University of Iowa economist’s new study of Depression-era bank failures in Mississippi suggests that the overall economic damage caused by financial crises can be mitigated by cash infusions from the Federal Reserve.

Jessica Reed, who earned her Master of Science degree in chemistry from the UI in 2012, won this year's Sims Award for her research on hydrogen gas storage for use as fuel. Reed's work with magnetic microparticles substantially increases the hydrogen storage capacity of palladium and other metals used in hydrogen fuel cells.

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.