President's annual address is Sept. 12

The theme of President Steven Leath's fall address is "taking the university to the next level." The address will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Memorial Union Great Hall. Refreshments will be available, starting at 8 a.m.

Summer 2014: A look back

Revisit (or learn for the first time) the top news stories from summer 2014, including faculty/administrative changes, construction updates, technology improvements and other tidbits of must-know information.

PeopleAdmin upgrade enters home stretch

The new online classification and hiring system goes live in less than two weeks. Here's what you need to know prior to Sept. 9.

Back to school

Some faculty and staff members shared their back-to-school class selfies, photos and videos to document the start of the fall semester.

Offices closed, classes recessed for holiday

University offices are closed and classes will not meet on Monday, Sept. 1, in observance of the national Labor Day holiday.

The following announcements were added this week:

• Leadership training opportunities from UHR

• Registrar's scheduling/fees unit will relocate temporarily

• Club's weekly ice cream sale began Aug. 27

• Merle Haggard Oct. 6 concert tickets go on sale Friday

• Wanted: Potential treehouse masters

• Three new members selected for biotech council

• Sick kids? Consider The Comfort Zone

• Iowa historian Dorothy Schwieder dies

• Cyclone Club Thursday luncheons move to Alumni Center

• Faculty research mentors sought for first-year Honors students

• Civility conference scheduled for Sept. 4-5 postponed to spring

• UHR training: Learn how to write a P&S position descriptions

The following events were added this week:

• Critical Thinking Symposium, Sept. 11-12, several campus locations; open to all faculty, staff, graduate students and postdocs with an interest in critical thinking; registration required via AccessPlus for small-group discussions

• Mark Braun, chief of staff and vice president for external relations, University of Iowa, to project manager for the state Board of Regents' Transparent, Inclusive Efficiency Review (TIER), effective Aug. 25

• Mack Shelley, University Professor of political science and of statistics, to chair of the political science department

• William Simpkins, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, to chair of the department

• Kenneth McCown, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to chair of the landscape architecture department, effective this December

Feature film series opens tonight

Cyclone Cinema, a weekly film series featuring recent box office releases, opens this weekend with eight showings of the April release, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (7 and 10 p.m., Thursday-Sunday, 101 Carver). Sponsored by the Student Union Board, admission is free and the public is welcome.

Final performance in guest carillon series is Sept. 2

Robin Austin closes out the music department's 2014 summer carillon concert series with a Sept. 2 performance on central campus (7 p.m.). Austin's home carillon is in Washington Park on the west side of Springfield, Ill.

Student work from Italy captured in two-week exhibition

Projects by fourth-year College of Design students who studied in Italy last spring will be on display Sept. 5-19 in the college's Gallery 181. The exhibition features drawings, notebooks, models and digital projections created by 41 architecture and 11 landscape architecture students.

Cyclones in action

Three Iowa State teams will compete in their home openers this weekend:

• Aug. 29, Volleyball vs. Stanford, 7 p.m., Hilton Coliseum ($5)
• Aug. 30, Football vs. North Dakota State, 11 a.m., Jack Trice Stadium (limited tickets remain, $30-$50)
• Aug. 31, Volleyball vs. Florida State, 1 p.m., Hilton Coliseum ($5)
• Aug. 31, Soccer vs. Saint Louis, 1 p.m., Cyclone Sports Complex (free admission)