116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Vanessa Miller
I’ve covered lots of beats over my decades as a reporter, and one reason I really enjoy higher education is because it touches on them all. One day I’m writing about science and interviewing University of Iowa NASA researchers, the next I’m writing about health care, or agriculture, or a new Iowa State-supported business, or athletic budgets, or criminal justice, or the Legislature and potential bills affecting Iowa’s university and college campuses. I also love that I get to investigate and dig deep on some stories, report hard news, and then also share incredible and sometimes harrowing tales of survival or discovery. When I’m not working, I’m playing with my kids or following them around to wrestling tournaments. Get the news delivered right to your inbox.
Latest Articles by Vanessa Miller
Higher Ed Jan. 7, 2025 5:52 pm340d ago
The chair of Cornell College’s Philosophy Department is suing her institution, its provost Ilene Crawford, its former Dean of Students Jackie Wilson, and a professor who she said obsessively and persistently sexually harassed her.
Higher Ed Jan. 6, 2025 8:04 am342d ago
In 2020, the University of Northern Iowa suspended its professional development assignments application process for the 2022 budget year — given requests are approved two years in advance — dropping the three public campuses’ total from 134 in 2021 to 72 in 2022.
Higher Ed Jan. 6, 2025 7:47 am342d ago
Iowa’s Board of Regents, governing the state’s three public universities, has been understaffed for seven months spanning five meetings – with its student-regent seat sitting unfilled for the longest stretch since the Legislature in 1988 passed a law requiring a student fill one of the nine spots.
News Jan. 2, 2025 5:32 pm345d ago
Iowa native and prolific astronaut — first with NASA for three decades and recently as director of human space flight for Axiom Space — Peggy Whitson again is celestial bound as commander of the 2025 Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station.
Higher Ed Jan. 1, 2025 11:30 am346d ago
The Windstar Lines charter bus carrying the Cyclone Marching Band home from Iowa State University’s Pop-Tarts Bowl victory in Orlando was involved in an accident -- leaving some band members with “bumps, bruises, and cuts.”
Higher Ed Dec. 31, 2024 7:41 am348d ago
The University of Iowa for years has had the top writing program in the country among public campuses – competing at times for No. 1 nationally with Ivy League universities like Yale and Brown, and generating a stream of award-winning novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, and screenwriters.
Higher Ed Dec. 30, 2024 8:26 am349d ago
With a rich history in teaching and producing top-tier writing, the University of Iowa has gotten creative not just in the texts its students publish but the tactics its educators take to train them – turning from traditional textbooks for inspiration and education to society and culture, including pop-culture.
Higher Ed Dec. 26, 2024 7:25 am353d ago
The University of Iowa is planning to close its 50-year-old Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and its Department of American Studies — both of which are replete with the kinds of courses and content that have been the target of Republican regent and lawmaker ire, directives, and legislation in recent months.
Higher Ed Dec. 23, 2024 2:46 pm355d ago
The University of Iowa has denied an appeal from a fraternity it placed on interim suspension in November for alleged hazing -- rejecting the organization’s argument that only two members were responsible and those two have been kicked out.
Higher Ed Dec. 23, 2024 5:30 am356d ago
Two weeks after receiving a progress update on its public universities’ efforts to comply with 10 directives to scale back or eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on campus, the Board of Regents in late November issued an 11th DEI mandate.
Higher Ed Dec. 23, 2024 7:29 am356d ago
“There's much more demand than five or six years ago for delivery, which is part of why looking for efficiency is really important. Because how many trucks do you want in your downtown, circling around, looking for parking?”
Higher Ed Dec. 23, 2024 7:46 am356d ago
After evaluating campus feedback to a trio of finalists under consideration to become the next University of Iowa College of Law dean, UI leadership has determined “none of the candidates was the right fit for the position.”
Higher Ed Dec. 23, 2024 3:04 pm355d ago
More than 4,100 students across Iowa’s three public universities are slated to graduate this weekend in fall ceremonies that, while smaller in size and hype than spring commencement, are no less momentous on a personal, professional, and workforce level.
Higher Ed Dec. 19, 2024 4:13 pm359d ago
The University of Northern Iowa in fiscal 2024 contributed $6.3 million from its main campus’ general fund to its Athletics Department — the most in program history — indicative of an evolving college athletics landscape and analogous to budget issues facing similar programs, officials said.
Higher Ed Dec. 18, 2024 3:29 pm360d ago
Nearly a year after crews began work on the first new road on the University of Iowa campus in more than a decade — pouring pavement and removing 126 trees to make space for the 1,500-foot artery — a roundabout portion of the project is complete and began welcoming traffic Wednesday morning.

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