The story
The University of Northern Iowa was founded as a result of two influential forces of the nineteenth century. First, Iowa wanted to care for orphans of its Civil War troops, and later, Iowa needed a public teacher training institution. The prelusive orphanage first opened as the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans Home. The efforts to establish an orphanage were first promoted by Annie Turner Wittenmyer of Muscatine. She lobbied the Iowa General Assembly to establish homes in Cedar Falls and Davenport. In 1876, when Iowa no longer needed an orphan home, Black Hawk County legislators Edward G. Miller and H. C. Hemenway introduced legislation to transform the orphanage campus into the Iowa State Normal School. By thin margins, one vote in the Senate and two votes in the House, the bill passed and Governor Kirkwood signed into law the measure "for the special instruction and training for teachers of the common schools of the state."
The school's first building opened in 1867 and was known as Central Hall. The building contained classrooms, common areas, and a living facility for most of the students. It was also a home to the college's first principal, James Cleland Gilchrist. The building was the heart and soul of the school, allowing students to study courses of two-year, three-year, and four-year degrees. In 1965, a fire destroyed Central Hall, and school faculty and Cedar Falls citizens donated over $5,000 to start building Gilchrist Hall.
The school has been known under the following names:
Iowa State Normal School, 1876–1909
Iowa State Teachers College, 1909–1961
State College of Iowa, 1961–1967
University of Northern Iowa, 1967–present
From 2014 through 2018 the UNI hosted the Midwest Summer Institute: Inclusion and Communication for All, a two-day conference on facilitated communication sponsored by the Inclusion Connection and Syracuse University's Institute on Communication and Inclusion. Facilitated communication is a discredited practice, and in 2018 UNI decided to discontinue the conference at the urging of multiple nationwide academics.
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Presidents
Since its founding, the university has had eleven presidents.
James Cleland Gilchrist, 1876–1886
Homer Horatio Seerley, 1886–1928
Orval Ray Latham, 1928–1940
Malcolm Poyer Price, 1940–1950
James William Maucker, 1950–1970
John Joseph Kamerick, 1970–1983
Constantine William Curris, 1983–1995
Robert D. Koob, 1995–2006
Benjamin J. Allen, 2006–2013
William Ruud, 2013–2016
Mark Nook, 2017–present
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Northern Iowa, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4