Iowa Universities Tapping Football Stadiums For In-person Graduation Events

IOWA CITY — All three of Iowa’s public universities are taking advantage of their expansive football stadiums to resume more traditional — albeit distanced and masked — in-person graduation celebrations this spring, including a novel University of Iowa event set for May 16 in Kinnick Stadium.The in-person events at the UI and the University of Northern Iowa, which is hosting three ceremonies May 7-8 in the UNI-Dome, come after both campuses earlier this year had announced commencements again would be virtual this spring.With a vaccine now more widely available and new case numbers down — and after a Republican lawmaker proposed legislation that would have forced the campuses to hold in-person graduations — the schools reversed course.