The French Fry is completely satire. Any resemblance to any real person is completely coincidental. The statements in the French Fry do not reflect the views of the Northern Iowan, nor do they reflect the views of the advertisements outside of this insert.
Chicago is referred to as the “Windy City.” However, many University of Northern Iowa students may feel as if Cedar Falls should be honored with the nickname. The Iowa Board of Regents appears to agree with students and their struggles of navigating the wind at UNI.
This past Tuesday the board approved plans to extend the iconic dome of the UNI-Dome to the entire campus in order to protect students from the dangerous winds on campus.
“We are very excited that the Iowa Board of Regents approved our proposal of extending the dome to the entire campus,” President Nark Mook said. “We feel as if this decision will help in this great struggle of having students fly away from the dangerous and unprecedented wind on campus.”
It has been said that back when the buildings on the UNI campus were first constructed, there was a goal to create actual wind tunnels between the campus buildings by using the shape of the buildings for a wind tunnel to appear. This was done since the temperature on campus was so hot during the summer and there was no air conditioning in the buildings on campus. At that time, the wind tunnels were not always dangerous for students on campus.
However, the strength of the wind gusts have only gotten stronger since the buildings were first constructed. Now wind gusts can reach up to 140 mph. The wind tunnels present on campus will no longer be an intense place for students to walk through on campus thanks to plans to extend the dome.
“I am so grateful that the Iowa Board of Regents approved these plans. I know a couple of people who literally flew away when they tried walking through the wind tunnels,” senior Reale Persone said. “All of them are fine but they definitely were not able to make it to their class on time. One of my friends was trying to go to Lang Hall, but walked through a wind tunnel and flew all the way back to Gilchrist Hall.”
The plans to extend the dome to all of campus are not finalized, however, early stages show the outer edges of the new extended dome ending near the corner of West 23rd Street and College Street, as well as to the corner of Hudson Road and University Avenue. The university stated that the extension of the dome would feature the same look of the original UNI-Dome.
“The UNI-Dome is an important part of UNI history and we are excited to see the impact of the building expand to all of campus. The dome stretching across all of campus will bring the community closer together,” Mook said.
According to University Archives, the idea for the original UNI-Dome came about in 1968 after the Ad Hoc Committee on Auditoria Needs recommended building three facilities for the campus. One of the facilities they recommended building was a “coliseum” seating 10,000. This would later turn into the UNI-Dome which began construction in 1974 and opened in 1976.
The university also stated that construction of the dome would coincide with the improvements being made to the UNI-Dome from the Our Tomorrow campaign. University officials stated that these plans will help solve the problem of students flying away as well as enhance the importance of the UNI-Dome on campus.
