The University or Northern Iowa marked its 150th birthday with a celebration Friday following a year of events.
UNI president Mark Nook talked about the Cedar Falls school’s history during the recent Board of Regents meeting. “September 6th of 1876, this university, then Iowa State Normal School, welcomed its first class of 27 students and four faculty. It was an amazing time. The building had existed for a while as the orphanage for orphans from veterans of the Civil War who didn’t return,” Nook says. The principal lived in the building with all of the students, and Nook says while he enjoyed dorm life when he was younger, he is glad there’s a separate residence now for the president.
He says the school has grown quite a bit since the beginning. “We opened the university on August 24th, our first day of class with 9,366 students, 1,500 plus employees. Things have changed quite a little bit,” he says. Nook says they’ve had many events to celebrate the 150th anniversary.
They also started a new tradition with the sesquicentennial bell. “Which is now displayed permanently right next to the campanile and is rung during special celebratory events,” Nook says, “we put the clapper in the bell during the welcome week so that students can ring themselves into campus. We put it back in the bell then during finals week. So as a student takes their last final, they can stop by the bell and ring themselves out for that semester.”
Nook says also talked about visiting the Iowa Legislature and its part in the creation of the school. “One of the things that still amazes me that it was March, around the 18th of March that Governor Kirkwood signed that bill and it became law. And in September, they opened the doors with 47 students, a principal and four faculty. We couldn’t do a search in that time these days, let alone get everybody hired in place, curriculum developed and ready to go,” Nook says.
Nook says they are off to a good start for the 151st year. “Everyone knows, since 2010, enrollment had been going down. We leveled off a few years ago. And now we’re starting to show some real growth with 9,366 students. It’s the largest enrollment we’ve had since 2020,” Nook says. He says that is the highlighted with a 10% increase in freshmen students. Nook made his comments at the recent Board of Regents meeting.