For many students, spring break means sun bathing and spending time with friends. For 15 students at the UI, this spring break will mean rolling up their sleeves and making a difference through a public health trip where they will work with people with HIV and AIDS.

While the number of casinos in Iowa has doubled since 1995, there are fewer gamblers overall, and fewer gambling addicts as well, according to a new study from the University of Iowa. The results suggest the market for gaming facilities, in Iowa and other states, reaches a saturation point. Findings published in the journal "Annals of Clinical Psychiatry."

University of Iowa President Sally Mason has selected Tom Rocklin, vice president for student life, and Richard Fumerton, a professor of philosophy and past president of the Faculty Senate, to chair a committee to search for a new vice president for strategic communication.

The University of Iowa has become the nation's first public university to include optional questions about sexual orientation and gender identity on its admission application.

"Iowa Now" will publish on a lighter schedule over Spring Break March 18-22.

With grain bin entrapments on the rise nationally, the University of Iowa hosted a conference to raise awareness and to seek solutions. Kelley Donham, professor in the College of Public Health, says more attention needs to be paid to make such work safer.

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.)

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.

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.

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.)