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If you don't see the university event you are looking for, please also visit events.uiowa.edu.

July 14, 2025 - July 25, 2025
100-Word Microstory Contest
All Day ()
Where: Online Event
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Our 100-Word Microstory Contest is a free online writing competition for a variety of age groups. Writing prompts here on Monday, July 14, 2025, at 9 a.m. CDT.

You don´t have to be an Iowa Writers´ Workshop grad-or even have participated in a writing contest before-to join in the fun. Just create a story in 100 words or less that uses one of two specific writing prompts.


The age categories are:

· Grades 3 & 4

· Grades 5 & 6

· Grades 7 & 8

· Grades 9-12

· Adult (University of Iowa Alumni)

· Adult (Friend of the University)

Contact: Tegan Donahue 319-467-3393

Departments: Iowa Writers' Workshop, MFA in Spanish Creative Writing, Center for Advancement, Division of Student Life, The Writing University

July 17, 2025
Grandparents University® 2025
8:00 am - 4:30 pm (CDT)
Where: 125 North Madison Street, Iowa City, IA US 52245
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Grandparents University® is an intergenerational learning program that allows grandparents - or honorary grandparents - to spend a day of discovery with their grandchildren (ages 8-14).

This campus event will offer hands-on educational opportunities with UI experts. You can make lasting memories while exploring engaging topics in everything from the arts and humanities to medicine and science.

Learn More!

Registration will remain open until Tuesday, July 1 - or until we´ve reached capacity.

For more information, please contact Erin Brokel, at the University of Iowa Center for Advancement, at GrandparentsUniversity@foriowa.org or 319-467-3668.

The term Grandparents University® is a registered trademark originating at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is used with permission.

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Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please email GrandparentsUniversity@foriowa.org or call 319-467-3668.

Contact: Erin Brokel 319-467-3668

Departments: Center for Advancement

July 19, 2025 - July 23, 2025
RAGBRAI & The University of Iowa
8:00 am - 2:00 pm (CDT)
Where: 1 Park Road, Iowa City, IA US 52242
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This year, more than 1,200 RAGBRAI riders are University of Iowa alumni and our partners at the University of Iowa will be with you throughout the week to share their Hawkeye pride. Look for them every day. Go Hawks!

Saturday, July 19: RAGBRAI Expo, Orange City
The University of Iowa Stead Family Children´s Hospital "Cool Riders are Safe Riders" RAGBRAI team will provide information about bicycle safety for you and your family and hopes to inspire the next generation of cyclists to ride safely and confidently.

Make sure to also stop at the Iowa Hawk Shop and University Bookstore pop-up shop to stock up on your Hawkeye gear and last-minute items you might need to have a great week on the road. The UI RAGBRAI team also will be handing out free maps of the route that you can carry with you throughout the week.

Daily meet-up towns: Hartley, Brown Park, Bancroft, Latimer, Parkersburg, Fairbank
Members of the University of Iowa RAGBRAI team will be handing out the Hawkeye swag you´ve come to know, love, and rely on throughout the week. Need more sunscreen? How about some lip balm? We´ve got you covered. Look for them while supplies last.

Monday, July 21, Brown Park
Tuesday, July 22, Bancroft
Wednesday, July 23, Latimer
Visit the University of Iowa tent in these meeting towns for fun UI activities and photo ops. If you´re one of the 1,200 Iowa alumni pedaling your way across the state, stop by and ask for an exclusive UI alumni bicycle license plate!

Contact: Lynn Rider (319) 467-3344

Departments: Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Center for Advancement, Graduate College, International Programs, University Honors Program, UI Retirees Association

August 2, 2024 - December 4, 2025
Art & Write Night
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm (CDT)
Where: 39-53 East Jefferson Street, Iowa City, IA US 52240
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Join the long, rich, historical tradition of artists creating in our spaces.

Professional, aspiring, and amateur artists alike, make our museum your muse. The return of this popular program series welcomes guests into the Museum of Natural History's magical gallery spaces after-hours to work on sketching or writing projects with other campus and community artists.

Tell a friend, grab a notebook, and join us on the first Friday of each month. We'll provide a new inspo prompt for each session and will sometimes move about the Museum but we'll always start in Mammal Hall on the third Floor of Macbride Hall. Join anytime between 6-8 p.m. and feel free to participate in a themed creation challenge or work on your own project with our exhibits as inspiration. We'll save the last 15-30 minutes of each session to share what we've been working on, connecting with others (optional, of course!).

Please note, the Museum is typically closed during this time, meaning the main entrance to Iowa Hall (atop the large staircase outside on the east side of Macbride Hall) will be closed and locked. All other building doors will be open, offering access to the Ground Floor of Macbride Hall. Mammal Hall is located on the third floor of Macbride Hall and can be reached by stairs or by taking the elevator to the third floor of the building.

Special thanks to Blick Art Materials for supplying extra art materials. Make sure to check in with us in Mammal Hall to check out a variety of special art tools and supplies.

Contact: Jessica Smith 319-335-3591

Departments: Department of Biology, Department of English, Iowa Writers' Workshop, Iowa Youth Writing Project, Leadership and Engagement, Magid Center for Writing, Museum of Natural History, Pentacrest Museums, Art Library

August 21, 2025
Johnson County I-Club Hawk Party
6:30 pm (CDT)
Where: 901 Melrose Ave, Iowa City, IA US 52246
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Join the Johnson County I-Club at 45th annual Hawk Party! This year´s Hawk Party is presented by McGrath Toyota of Iowa City; Deery Ford Lincoln; Billion Automotive of Iowa City; and Carousel Auto Group.

The event will feature a silent and live auction with a chance to bid on items such as season football and basketball tickets, hotel stays, unique Hawkeye autographed items, and more. All the proceeds go to support Iowa athletics.

Ticket and sponsorship opportunities for this year include:

  • General admission ticket-$75 per person

    • All-inclusive food and refreshments

    • Commemorative Hawk Party gift

  • Reserved table for 10-$1,000

    • General admission items

    • Reserved, named table in a premium location near the stage

  • Supporting Sponsorships for 10-$1,500

    • General admission items

    • Reserved, named table in a premium location near the stage

    • Logo recognition on all materials including ticketing website, fliers, event signage, and program (if applicable)

    • Recognition as supporting sponsor during the program with company name and logo rotating through the slide show

Availability is limited for reserved tables and sponsorships, so do not wait!

Contact a member of the Johnson County I-Club Board with any questions regarding the event. You may also contact the Hawkeye Events team at 319-467-3410 or hawkeyeevents@foriowa.org.

For more information about other Hawkeye events, visit jointheiclub.com/events. To learn how you can support Hawkeye student-athletes, visit jointheiclub.com.

Contact: Iowa Athletics Development 319-467-3410

Departments: Center for Advancement

August 29, 2025
2025 Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
5:30 pm (CDT)
Where: 1 Elliott Drive, Iowa City, IA US 52242
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Join the University of Iowa Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Iowa Letterwinners Club as we celebrate our 2025 Hall of Fame inductees.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. There will be a cocktail reception with heavy hors d´oeuvres and drinks available for purchase. The induction ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $25 per person.

Contact: Iowa Letterwinners Club 319-467-3410

Departments: Center for Advancement

September 19, 2025
Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Spring 2026)
11:59 pm (CDT)
Where: 111 Church Street, Iowa City, IA US 52245
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The UI Obermann Center for Advanced studies is accepting applications for Spring 2026 Obermann International Fellowships. This program offers dedicated space, time, and funding for interdisciplinary scholars to collaborate on innovative research at the University of Iowa. Up to eight international fellowships will be granted every academic year. Applicants must be active researchers at an accredited institution of higher learning outside of the United States or independent researchers/artists with a track record of excellence based outside of the U.S. Their area of research must have a direct equivalent at the University of Iowa. 

Obermann International Fellows will receive:

  • A $2,000 stipend to help defray the cost of travel and lodging

  • University of Iowa health insurance coverage for the duration of the fellowship

  • Office space at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies

  • Temporary University of Iowa affiliation, including access to UI libraries

  • Structured opportunities for scholarly exchange (seminars, lectures, introduction to UI researchers, etc.)

  • An official letter of invitation for institutional and visa purposes

  • Information about accommodations and other practical needs

Read more about the program and application process at https://obermann.uiowa.edu/obermann-international-fellowships. Applications for the Spring 2026 semester are due October 24, 2025. 

Obermann International Fellowships are funded by the University of Iowa's Obermann Center for Advanced Studies with generous additional support from International Programs and the Center for Social Science Innovation.

Contact: Erin Hackathorn 319-335-4034

Departments: Obermann Center, Center for Advancement, International Programs, International Writing Program, Office of the Vice President for Research, Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures

September 25, 2025 - September 27, 2025
2025 Alumni Band Homecoming Reunion
All Day ()
Where: 225 South Grand Avenue, Iowa City, IA US 52246
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This year we are celebrating our drum majors, Golden Girls, twirlers, and flag line. We will also debut new flags featuring our Alumni Band logos!

The postgame concert tune honors all Hawkeye Marching Band members who have performed John Philip Sousa´s "The Stars and Stripes Forever" throughout the years.

Registration closes Aug. 8; however, registration for Saturday´s pregame performance closes when we reach 325 registrants, which may be earlier. Saturday morning walk-in registrations will not be accepted.

When you complete your registration, you will receive a confirmation email from alumni.engagement@foriowa.org. Review the confirmation to make sure all information and charges are correct, then screenshot (or print) and save your confirmation for event check-in.

Be sure to follow and like the University of Iowa Alumni Band on Facebook for Iowa Homecoming updates and additional information.

Contact: Amanda Remington 319-467-3505

Departments: School of Music, Center for Advancement

December 2, 2025
Student Impact Grant Presentations
4:00 pm (CST)
Where: Online Event
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Hear from the eight 2025 Student Impact Grant recipients and learn how private support enhanced their Iowa experience. Student Impact Grants are made possible by generous gifts from alumni and friends who provide unrestricted support to the university.

About Student Impact Grants

The University of Iowa Office of the President and the Student Advancement Network have partnered to create Student Impact Grants, which provide funding for undergraduate and graduate student activities outside of the classroom-including research, travel, and service projects. These grants enable students to pursue opportunities that might not otherwise be possible without financial assistance.

Contact: Holly Jones 319-467-3377

Departments: Carver College of Medicine, Center for Advancement, University Honors Program

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The Curious Case of the Missing Bust

It vanished from campus 34 years ago. Now a UI relic with a fascinating history returns to the Chemistry Building. Photo: Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs, UI Special Collections University of Iowa professor Elbert W. Rockwood gives a lecture in the 1930s in the Chemistry Building. Police divers were combing the icy Raisin River in southeast Michigan in January 2001 when they spotted a strange figure. There, amid the murk and muck, was the upper torso and head of a mustachioed man, hair neatly parted down the center, in a necktie and academic robe. Michigan State Police had been dredging the riverbed for discarded evidence from a robbery. Instead, what they pulled from the water was an old bronze bust, 2 feet tall and about 60 pounds. The face wasn't familiar to police in Michigan?or anyone else living in the 21st century, for that matter. Authorities could, however, decipher the signature etched into its base: ?E.W. Rockwood.? Back at the crime lab, a Michigan State Police employee searched for the name online and came up with a hit. It seemed that the man with the mustache was linked to the University of Iowa's history. She contacted the State Historical Society of Iowa, which sent over a Rockwood signature from its archives. It was a match. But questions remained. How did the statue of an Iowa City academic end up in the bottom of a river 450 miles away? Just how long had it been there? And who heaved it in? The bust of Elbert W. Rockwood, which was reinstalled in the Chemistry Building earlier this summer, disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the 1980s. A century earlier and a couple states west, the living, breathing Elbert W. Rockwood (1895MD) was one of the most recognizable faces at the State University of Iowa. A distinguished professor of chemistry and toxicology, Rockwood had likely taught more students than any other professor since the founding of the university, the Iowa Alumnus wrote in 1924. Rockwood, who came to the university in 1888, was the first director of the university's hospital and established what's believed to be the first courses on physiological chemistry in this part of the country. He served as head of the Department of Chemistry from 1904 to 1920, growing the department from 50 students to 575 enrolled in courses. In fact, Rockwood was such a popular lecturer that a group of his former students commissioned a bronze bust in his honor in 1930?no small expense during the Great Depression. To capture their professor's likeness, they hired a noted Chicago sculptor named Alice Littig Siems (1919BA), who also had deep ties to the university. An Iowa City native and daughter of a UI physician, Siems studied at the prestigious Chicago Art Institute after earning her degree at the UI. She was the prot?g? of renowned sculptor Lorado Taft, a frequent lecturer at the UI who had met Siems on a visit in 1921 when she was working as a museum assistant in the zoology department. Taft was so impressed by her artistic talent that he invited her to work in his Chicago studio. Siems became one of the more prominent sculptors of her era and exhibited work at galleries in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. She created portrait busts of many well-known figures, including Taft and poet Carl Sandburg. Several UI leaders also sat for Siems, who sculpted bronze likenesses of university president Walter Jessup (34LITTD), Graduate College dean Carl Seashore (27BSAS), and political scientist Benjamin Shambaugh (1892BPH, 1893MA), among others. ?Each head is a forceful portrait,? the Chicago Tribune once wrote of Siems' work. ?These portraits stand out, each one alone, complete, able, and distinctive substitutes for the men who sat for her.? Rockwood remained on the faculty until his death in 1935, but his bust became a longstanding presence in the Chemistry Building. Though not a permanent one, as it turned out. Photo: 1932 Hawkeye yearbook. Alice Littig Siems, a prominent sculptor last century, graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1919 and created busts of several university dignitaries, including E.W. Rockwood. Students who frequent the Chemistry Building may be as science-minded as they come, but even they have their superstitions. For decades it was tradition for test takers to rub the old bust perched outside the lecture hall for luck. In fact, so many nervous hands had patted the sculpture that E.W. Rockwood's nose was said to have developed a distinctive shine to it. The bust also was a favorite target for pranksters. On several occasions the sculpture went missing from its 5-foot pedestal only to reappear a few days later. Fraternity members were the presumed culprits. In the mid-1980s, the bust vanished yet again?only this time it never turned back up. ?It disappeared so often that the last time it disappeared, I don't think anyone really noticed,? chemistry professor emeritus Jack Doyle told a reporter years later. Eventually the empty pedestal was removed, and as the years passed, memory of Rockwood faded. That is, until the 2001 phone call from Michigan. The bizarre story of a UI statue found among the fish in Michigan made headlines in Iowa. The Gazette dubbed it ?heads-up investigative work,? while the Des Moines Register reported that Michigan authorities weren't interested in prosecuting anyone involved in the decades-old caper. ?We just want someone to give up the information so we can find out what happened,? a state police employee said. Soon after the Register story ran, an anonymous caller from Des Moines told Michigan police that fraternity members swiped the bust in fall 1984 and eventually dumped it in the Raisin River. He provided no further details. The statue had been found in waters near Adrian, Michigan, home to Adrian College and Siena Heights University and about 35 miles away from the University of Michigan. It's plausible that the bust's abductors had dumped it while visiting fraternity brothers in Michigan. Or perhaps Michigan fraternity members swiped it from a house in Iowa City and brought it back home before discarding it. Regardless of how it ended up in Michigan, the sculpture was grimy but otherwise in fine shape for sitting at the bottom of a Lake Erie tributary for years. After its discovery, Michigan authorities shipped the bust back home to Iowa City, where the UI Museum of Art took possession of it for restoration. For various reasons, however, the statue was never put back on display. Early on, there was talk of raising money for a new marble pedestal, but the idea proved too costly. The Chemistry Building, which opened in 1922 while Rockwood was leading the department, also underwent major renovations after the sculpture's return, further delaying its reinstallation. Then, the flood of 2008 swamped the old art museum, and the bust and thousands of other UI-owned art pieces were evacuated and placed into emergency storage. Once again, the bust was all but forgotten. Brenna Goode, a departmental administrator, first heard the story of the missing sculpture from a longtime faculty member when she joined the chemistry department in 2010. Goode was curious and inquired about its whereabouts over the years. Her persistence paid off; the bust was located among the items mothballed by the museum after the flood, and plans took shape earlier this year to return it to its rightful perch. The department recently commissioned a new plaque and pedestal. Then in late July, after its strange journey and 34-year absence, the memorial to E.W. Rockwood made its homecoming to the Chemistry Building, no worse for the wear. When students return for classes this fall, Rockwood will be keeping watch just inside the building's main entrance, ready to be rubbed by a new generation of chemists. ?It's great to see the Rockwood bust finally returned to its prominent place in the Chemistry Building,? says Edward Gillan, an associate professor of chemistry who has written about the department's history. ?Our alumni honored Rockwood's teaching legacy with this bust. I hope that its return inspires current and future chemistry faculty to sustain the Rockwood teaching legacy.? One important alteration has been made to the statue, it should be noted. The bust is now fixed to the pedestal, and the pedestal is secured to the floor and wall. ?No one should be able to get at it without some significant effort,? laughs Goode. Do you remember the Rockwood bust or its disappearance? Email josh.oleary@foriowa.org. Department Head A new plaque now accompanies the bust of E.W. Rockwood, which was reinstalled last month just inside the main entrance of the Chemistry Building. The plaque reads: ?Dr. Rockwood joined the teaching staff in 1888 and pioneered laboratory instruction in physiological chemistry at Iowa. Head of the Department of Chemistry from 1904 to 1920, he served as professor until his death.?In 1890, on his return from studying with German master of physiological chemistry Felix Hoppe-Seyler, three medical students asked Dr. Rockwood to introduce them to the field. He later said, ?Our work together on Saturday afternoons... was the beginning, at least west of the Mississippi, of what is now called biochemistry.'?

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NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity that works to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

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