The club was greeted by Rtns. Jerry Fleagle and Margaret Reese
Our Meeting was called to order by President Steve Quigley.
President Steve asked the club to observe a moment of silence for Lois Harper Eichacker, who passed away November 18th. She was the wife of George Eichacker, who was a longtime member of our club and recently transferred his membership to Las Vegas.
Announcements:
Rtn. Christina Kimerle, co-chair of the Rotarians Supporting Women Committee, accounced that RSW has created a scholarship for local women in the community. A woman or person who identifies as a woman may apply for the $1,000 scholarship to assist her in continuing her education and living the ideals of Rotary. RSW has a $500 match on the table and is asking for donations. Please see Christina Kimerle or Tara Minetos to donate cash or checks payable to Rotary, with RSW on the memo line.
Rtn. John Gross is making his annual ask for Toys for Tots – please fill his hat with donations as you exit today. He will go to the Iowa Children’s Museum this week and purchase educational toys at a significant discount. These toys will be distributed to less fortunate children in the community.
Rtn. Margaret Reese reminded everyone that the Joint Service Club Luncheon will be Thursday, December 6th at our regular meeting time and location. To attend, you must have purchased a $20 ticket from Anna Moyers Stone.
Rtn. Don Carstensen is soliciting labor for bell ringing for the Salvation Army. He is looking for ringers at the Coralville HyVee on December 7th and the North Dodge HyVee on December 15th. Please come and be part of this 127 year tradition.
President Steve Quigley thanked the 20 or so Rotarians who attended the Corridor-North Corridor lunch meeting last Wednesday. He also noted that we had a goal of 40 new members for 2018 and we are still a little short. Please bring guests and encourage them to join and enjoy Rotary.
PROGRAM:
Rtn. Lynette Marshall introducted the program. Dr. Melissa Shivers, Vice President of Student Life at the University of Iowa, came to UI in Summer of 2017. She spent 20 years working in student life at the University of Tennessee, at Knoxville. She is an extremely enthusiastic college football fan, cheering for Iowa, Georgia Southern, Clemson, and University of Georgia. Dr. Shivers was born and raised in Georgia and attended all the Georgia schools that she cheers for to obtain her undergraduate, masters, and PhD degrees. Since moving to Iowa, Dr. Shivers has learned about snow and is tempted to cancel classes for even an inch of it.
Dr. Shivers believes that she has the best job at the University and gets to engage, support, advocate for, and challenge students and help shape who they become. She is constantly thinking about how to support the whole Hawkeye for the 65-70% of their time that they’re not in the classroom. She is amazed by the continued interest in partnership with the Iowa City community to provide great experiences and a nice home to the students.
Dr. Shivers introduced the 5 dimensions to support the whole Hawkeye:
- Relationship-Rich Education: The University has over 600 student organizations. The Office of Student Life tries to help students to connect and build strong relationships with each other, mentors, faculty, staff, and the community. They also support the Parent and Family Network to help families help students succeed.
- Enriching High-Impact Practices: Research has shown that if a student can engage in 2-3 high impact practices like living on campus or an internship, they will have a richer, more meaningful experience. The Office helps to facilitate these practices.
- Diversity, Equality, & Inclusion: There has been a recent paradaigm shift from not just diversity, but equality and inclusion so that students can work, play, and live in an environment where they can flourish. This includes having cultural and resource centers on campus so that students can connect.
- Leadership & Civic Engagement: The University of Iowa wants to help connect the dots for students between their experiences on campus and practical skills that allow them to pursue full time employment or graduate school. Student Life has developed the Hawkeye Engagement Initiative, where a student can input all their student activities and merge it with their transcript to allow them to show future employers and graduate schools their meaningful leadership experience.
- Health & Wellbeing: A healthy Hawkeye brings his or her best to class. The University offers robust services that students can leverage. UI has a strong commitment to the health and safety of all students and partners with the local community to ensure students’ success. There is university counseling, student health, and student wellness. Students recently addressed food insecurity issues on campus with a meal share program. Students with a meal plan can donate to a meal bank that’s distributed by the Dean of Students. Within 3 weeks, 4,000 meals were donated to help other Hawkeyes. Student government also created the Hawkeye Completion Grant program to remove barriers to graduation. For many students, a $100-500 bill impacts whether or not the student can return to campus and graduate. These grants can allow a student to graduate.
Dr. Shivers reminded everyone that her office tries to offer as much as possible to students, but resources are limited. They have to be thoughtful about how they leverage fees. The Office of Student Life partners with the UI Center for Advancement to focus on funding priorities so they can best articulate why the University of Iowa is such a special place and why a student can’t get this experience anywhere else.
The meeting ended at 1:00 pm as President Steve led the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.
MEETING:
Please forward any newsworthy items and/or photos to Jon Brown or Janice Baldes to include in the weekly slide decks emailed to members prior to each meeting and shown just before Rotary meetings at the Club. You can send information to: Janice Baldes janicebaldes@gmail.com or Jon Brown at mjonBrown@taxesplusiowacity.com
It is our policy to have all members silence their cell phones before the meeting and refrain from answering their cell phones during the meeting out of respect to the speaker and fellow members.
Our Greeter, Jerry Fleagle announced that there were no visiting Rotarians.
Guests of Rotarians: David Barker (Sarah Richardson); Melissa Shivers (Lynette Marshall); Kevin Priest (Dan Kuenzl); Patty McCarthy (Susan Craig); Tracy Hightshoe (Geoff Fruin).
Program: Tom Cilek; Attendance: Nancy Droll
