Supporters of UNI's Price Lab School protest Regents decision

Nearly a dozen Malcolm Price Laboratory School supporters gathered outside a Schindler Education Center lecture hall this morning to express their displeasure with the Board of Regents' decision to close Price Lab.

Regent Katie Mulholland and other UNI College of Education alumni are on campus today as part of the university's first “Alumni in Residence” program.

Many who gathered outside said they were concerned about the lack of transparency and want to hold the regents accountable for their actions.

Dawn Ask Martin, the mother of one Price Lab child, said Mulholland, who has received multiple UNI degrees, has “shamed her alma mater” by voting to close academic programs and the lab school.

Linda Reichle, another Price Lab parent, said she found no evidence of studies done to show how the College of Education would operate without the lab school. She added that education leaders did much research and took several years to transition Price Lab into the state's research and development school.

But it wasn't just those with direct ties to the lab school who came out to show their support for the university and lab school.

“I'm not a parent, I'm not a teacher. I'm just a citizen concerned about the lack of transparency,” said Lucy Growth of Cedar Falls.