August 2011 may go down in the history books as being the most busy month ever at the UI! With the new first-year immersion program, On Iowa!, and another record incoming class, life has been busy, so I wanted to share a few highlights from the month:

• UI had another record enrollment for its first year class with a total of 4,565 first-year students enrolled at UI. Check out the News Release.
• The Office of Admissions has three new admission counselors and one new Assistant Director of Diversity — so lots of new staff in our office!
• The first Hawkeye Football game happened (well that was technically on September 3, but I’m going to count as a recent highlight) and the Hawks won! I was at the game and it was so crazy because there were two delays because of lightning and gusting winds and rain. I made it to the fourth quarter and ended up leaving soaked in my Hawkeye poncho! Still a great game…and this coming Saturday, September 10 we take on the Cyclones – GO HAWKS! BEAT STATE!
• On Iowa! happened the week before school started and there were so many wonderful activities that new first-year students could take part in to help with their transition to college – some activities were optional (Pottery Painting, Coffee House Crawl, Party in Hubbard Park, etc) and some were required (Kickoff at Kinnick, small group sessions and Convocation). The University of Iowa plans to continue this program again next year for the next incoming class. At the Kickoff at Kinnick on the Friday night part of On Iowa!, first-year students participated in a barbeque, learned Hawkeye traditions, like the Fight Song and other cheers, and special guest Dan Gable even showed up to inspire the crowd (and I got my picture with him!) One of the other cool things at that event is that all students of Class of 2015 formed a block ‘I’ on Kinnick Field – it was awesome!

So as you can probably tell August was definitely a wonderfully busy month filled with lots of Hawkeye Pride! I think the first-year students were left with feeling why it is GREAT to be a Hawkeye! On that note, check out these fireworks that were at On Iowa! at Kinnick! What a treat!