Rings of smoke rose over Central Campus as rounds from a Howitzer cannon thundered in the air April 22. For the first time, artillery rounds honored ROTC lead commanding officers and the guest of honor at this year’s Tri-Service Change of Command ceremony.

Cadets and midshipmen from the Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC units stood in formation in front of the Campanile while Army ROTC cadet Craig Stanley, senior in mechanical engineering, said an invocation prayer. Cadet Austin Dummer, senior in marketing, introduced the ceremony and cadet Cole Barbee, sophomore in interdisciplinary studies, sang the national anthem.

The formal ceremony was the official passing of command from current student commanders of each branch to the ones who will command next year. This is done by passing the guidon, each branch’s flag, from the current to incoming commander.

An Iowa State Navy ROTC midshipman walked into a classroom after drill in the mid '70s, amid the nation’s public controversy surrounding the Vietnam War. Seeing his uniform, the professor told him he could drop the class or stay and take an F. He dropped the class.

“Unfortunately, there were a few very liberal leaning instructors and professors who voiced their views,” said retired Navy Capt. Douglas MacCrea. “Who am I, a 20 year old, to tell a professor, ‘you’re wrong?'”

MacCrea started at Iowa State near the end of the “very unpopular” Vietnam War, he said. He went on to commission and served a career in the Navy, which brought him back to Iowa State as the NROTC commanding officer and professor of naval science from 2004 to 2007. He was the speaker and guest of honor at the NROTC dining out and awards ceremony Saturday in the MU.

Danielle Ferguson sat with two other editors at the news desk around a Joe's Pizza box before learning she would be the next 2015-16 editor-in-chief of the Iowa State Daily Media Group.

Like any other day in the newsroom, the three were ensuring the next day’s paper was written, edited and sent to the press.

But on Wednesday night, there was extra stress.

Madison Arnold, Makayla Tendall and Ferguson, all juniors in journalism and mass communication, were waiting together for word on who would be the editor in chief for the 125th year of the Iowa State Daily, which this year became the Iowa State Daily Media Group.

A siren blared outside. Tendall looked out the window and turned on the police scanner app on her phone. An automatic fire alarm at Willow Hall. Building evacuated. Nothing more.

They continued talking about the impact past editors-in-chief had on them. The conversation moved along and the wait continued.

At mile 15 of a marathon through a desert, an Army ROTC cadet’s boot stepped into deep, loose dirt, causing her to twist her ankle. 

With more than 10 miles left, she kept going. She refused medical attention for another three miles, where medics recommended she drop out. She finished.

“Her eyes were really excited to see me [at the finish],” said Emma Diamond, cadet and freshman in animal science, who assisted with the trip. “And then she was like, ‘I need medical attention right now.’”

Joyce Mercado, freshman in kinesiology and health, and eight other cadets in the Cyclone Battalion ran and marched 26.2 miles for the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. on March 22.

The march the cadets participated in honors the American and Filipino soldiers from World War II who walked a torturous 65 miles to prisoner of war camps when Luzon, the Philippine island they were defending, was surrendered to Japanese forces on April 9, 1942. 

An ISU professor is chairing a congressionally-mandated study of the use and effectiveness of the Department of Veterans Affairs mental health care services for recent veterans.

Alicia Carriquiry, distinguished professor of statistics, is chairing an 18-person committee tasked with a VA-sponsored Institute of Medicine evaluation to be completed in 2017. She said she hopes it will raise awareness of VA benefits and spark positive change in the VA.

“Even if you are opposed to the war, you cannot possibly be opposed to the veterans,” Carriquiry said.

The evaluation will analyze the quality and capacity of services provided to veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn as well as barriers they may face in accessing services, according to the Institute of Medicine.

She was dizzy and light headed. She slurred her words. Her friends had left the bar. She accepted a ride home from a guy she doesn’t know well.

This was the beginning of one scenario that two Army ROTC cadets posed to members of Phi Kappa Theta fraternity at a sexual assault and harassment prevention training session they led Monday.

In the basement of the fraternity house, Jessica Bales, senior in public relations, and Evan Ireland, senior in supply chain management, stood in front of 19 men. The two are leaders in Cadets Against Sexual Harassment/Assault, a cadet-led education, response and prevention program.

They defined sexual misconduct, assault, abuse and harassment. Then they defined consent.

Be strong and courageous.

Throughout their time as cadets in the ROTC Cyclone Battalion, this slogan has guided Derrick Hill, Trenton Speer and Anthony Stoll.

Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. in the South Ballroom, the cadets concluded their ROTC journeys and began new ones as commissioned second lieutenants in the United States Army.

Choking up at times, Lt. Col. Richard Smith, professor and chairman of the military science and tactics department, introduced each cadet with a personal memory.

For veterans, transitioning from active duty to college comes with more challenges than most students face.

Jathan Chicoine, veteran services coordinator, said that the ISU Veterans Center works to diminish barriers to student success.

On Nov. 24, Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that Iowa State has been named a Certified Higher Academic Military Partner as part of the Home Base Iowa Act, a law signed in May which recognizes communities and educational institutions that provide resources to veterans.

“It is reiterating our commitment to providing the best support possible to veterans and their families,” Chicoine said.

A uniformed cadet handed her training rifle, a “rubber duck,” to the senior standing on the Beyer pool high-diving board and climbed the ladder.

She pulled her hat down to cover her eyes and took the gun back. The senior held a strap on her back and guided her with short steps as she inched toward the edge of the board, her stiff arms holding the rifle in front of her.

He signals. She jumps.

Dakota Farrer, senior in biology, plunged into the water Nov. 19 as part of Army ROTC’s combat water survival training lab.

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014

Veterans and ROTC members sprinted, squatted and did other modified military exercises together as part of a tribute workout this morning at Lied Recreation Center.

Gyms nationwide participated in "WOD" (work out of the day) with Warriors, a “functional fitness tribute workout,” which aims to observe Veterans Day and to connect veterans with their community, according to the Team Red, White and Blue (Team RWB) website. Team RWB is a nonprofit organization that serves veterans and holds the event on Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

According to Team RWB organizers, Iowa State's event was the biggest of the year.

“It’s a time to say ‘thank you for doing what you did and hopefully I can carry that torch on for the future generations,’” said Andrew Larson, senior in criminal justice and Air Force ROTC cadet.

Monday, Nov. 10 2014

JOHNSTON, Iowa - Bare feet lined the wall by the Beyer pool as uniformed ROTC cadets sat and listened to Ryan Brady explain rules for the swim portion of the badge competition that took place this weekend on campus and at Camp Dodge.

The line was broken in the center by a few pairs of tan army boots worn by ROTC instructors and armed forces members. Amid those, in black boots and with a slightly different, tanner, greener camouflage pattern on his uniform, sat Mike Kitzler, Sgt. Maj. of the German army.

Kitzler visited Ames to watch and present awards for the German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge competition. Stationed in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he serves as a liaison officer and advises German commanders and instructors. A secondary part of his job is to make this badge competition available to soldiers.

“It’s a visual sign that the German army and American army are very much in cooperation with one another,” said Brady, a senior in history. 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Iowa State's marketing department may make changes to curriculum by offering three tracks to students.

The program would move from what Russell Laczniak, professor and chair of marketing, described as a “vanilla generic” program to a segmented track approach, which he said will better reflect the needs of employers.

“We’re trying to align the skills that they can acquire with three main sorts of roles that students might have when they are employed,” Laczniak said...

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Students in the College of Human Sciences are gaining a new perspective on small town Iowa by partnering with the Iowa Retail Initiative to strengthen rural communities and retailers with new ideas and competitive strategies.

“Everybody wants the quality of life that we have in Iowa small towns,” said Susan Erickson, Iowa Retail Initiative program co-director. “But you can’t have that without purposeful support of local retailers.”

The Initiative is a collaboration between the College of Design and the College of Human Sciences supported by the ISU vice president for extension and outreach. It aims to connect Iowa retailers with helpful resources from a variety of areas of expertise.

Erickson said that the initiative is a way for the university to be valuable in ways beyond the classroom as part of its land grant mission...

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Twenty-six students representing every major in the College of Business are spending their spring breaks tracing the life of spatulas and other kitchen wares backward along their supply chain from the aisle at Target in Ames to the factory in Shenzen, China and every step in between.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to fry an egg the same way again,” said Steven Sapienza, senior in supply chain management.

Students enrolled in the three-credit International Live Case course, Supply Chain Management 428, took tours of the Ames Target store and the company’s regional distribution center in Cedar Falls, Iowa before they departed from Minneapolis last week for the next steps of their journey.

The trip will take them through ports, warehousing facilities and a factory. Stops include Long Beach, Calif., Yantian, China and Shenzen, China...

Friday, March 7, 2014

Three members of the ISU Enactus team braved snow and hail and drove to Manhattan, Kan. for the Phillips 66-Enactus Business Ethics Case Competition. The team took home third place and a $1000 prize.

Enactus is an international organization that uses a business approach to help people in need.

Scott Elston, senior lecturer of management and the club's faculty adviser, said that it is a self-motivated group that engages in “socially responsible, community-conscious activities...”

Friday, April 11, 2014

Students are reliving childhood memories by organizing lemonade stands on campus. Five groups of students set up one-day stands this week and will continue next with hopes of earning more money for charity than other teams.

The students are all in the business administration entrepreneurship seminar, BUS AD 292. Groups were given a $75 budget and expected to complete a business proposal for their stand...

“It seems like a simple little thing to do a lemonade stand,” Judi Eyles, professor of the one-credit seminar said. “But it still takes thought and a plan.”

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The new RESULTS chapter in Ames takes a community-based grassroots approach to impacting anti-poverty legislation by meeting with congressmen, writing letters and making calls.  The group is part of a nationwide RESULTS organization.

"A whole grassroots organization pushing for the same issues is powerful," Madeline Becker, senior in political science and co-leader of the Ames chapter said. According to results.org, their mission is to “create the public and political will to end poverty.”

Nick Jackosky, junior in global resource systems and co-leader of RESULTS, was inspired to advocate against poverty by seeing the struggles his best friend faced with poverty in his home town of Cleveland.

"I know her situation was not unlike what many other people in the U.S. are going through," Jackosky said.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

"If you thought the digital revolution was fast, the life code revolution is faster," said Juan Enriquez.  Enriquez is a leading authority on the impact of life science research in business, technology and society.

On Feb. 6, he came to the Great Hall to speak about the uses of the genome code in a range of disciplines. Enriquez talked about the use of binary code in technological advances, comparing it to the "life code" found in DNA and how widespread the impact of biogenetics will be. 

Enriquez was introduced by President Steven Leath and Craig Venter, who described Enriquez as a "unique individual that lives in the future..."