ISU Retirees September-October 2026 Newsletter

Updated Newsletter Format

If you experience any issues with the new format or have questions, please contact Heather Bristow, Director of the ISU Retirees Association, at hbristow@iastate.edu or (515) 294-5790.

Letter from the Director

Summer has always felt like it should be a season of long days, slow schedules, and time to recharge. Yet somehow, each year seems to pass more quickly than the last. Between driving my son to and from, tackling projects delayed by Iowa winters, and fitting in yard work when weather allows, I find myself wondering, “Where did June, July, and August go?” As summer comes to a close and school has begun, I want to provide an update on the ISU Retirees Association and the progress we are making with reorganization.

As you may know, the past few years have brought a number of changes. Our transition from the ISU Alumni Association to the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has been an adventure. Although I do not yet have the finalized plan I had hoped to share, I am happy to report that we continue to make steady progress. Working with the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, University Human Resources, and CELT Executive Director Sara Marcketti, I remain committed to ensuring that retirees have a meaningful connection to Iowa State.

As we navigate this transition, I want to thank those who took the time to complete the engagement survey last year. Your feedback has been extremely helpful in informing our planning efforts. During this period of uncertainty, the ISU Retirees Association Board of Directors decided to pause the lecture series and postpone Rock On for this fiscal year. Since planning for these events begins months in advance, the Board felt it was best to wait until we have greater clarity about our future structure and direction. While we know many retirees enjoy these events, this pause will help ensure that future programming is thoughtfully aligned with the guidance and support provided by the university.

In the meantime, if you are looking for opportunities to continue learning and engaging with the Iowa State community, we encourage you to explore both OLLI at Iowa State and the ISU Lecture Series. These programs offer a variety of lectures, courses, workshops, and educational experiences that support lifelong learning and connection. You can learn more about OLLI later in this newsletter or by visiting their website at https://olli.iastate.edu/.

The ISU Lecture Series, funded by ISU Student Government and administered through the Office of the Provost, brings distinguished speakers and engaging discussions to campus throughout the year. Learn more by visiting the ISU Lecture Series website at https://www.lectures.iastate.edu/.

Heather Bristow, ISU Retirees and OLLI at Iowa State Director

University Museums Welcomes New Director

Coming to Iowa State to replace the retiring Lynette Pohlman, David Schmitz has some big shoes to fill. A legend at Iowa State, Lynette served University Museums for 55 years – 46 of them as director – before her retirement in June 2026. He also has a big title to fill, as only the second Warren and Beverly Madden Endowed Director and Chief Curator of University Museums. The position honors the contributions and impact of retired Senior Vice President Warren Madden, who also served the institution for five decades, and his wife, Beverly.

Originally hoping to become a professional artist, David credits thoughtful mentors with steering him toward a career in arts and museum management. He recalls, “One mentor told me that I always seemed to be collaborating with other students and trying to organize exhibitions,” and suggested he take an administrative path. So he followed his undergraduate experience at the University of Northern Iowa with a graduate degree from Columbia College in Chicago.

Then, having deep roots in north-central Iowa, he returned to the state to work at the Des Moines Art Center, the Dubuque Museum of Art, and the Iowa Arts Council, which he led for five years. David joined the University Museums staff as Interim Academic Engagement Coordinator in December 2025, acting, as he says, “like a consultant, in terms of looking for opportunities and ways of deepening our existing engagement with students, faculty, and across campus.”

Comparing Iowa State’s museums with those of peer universities was also part of his assignment. Despite having a smaller staff than, for example, Michigan State University or the University of Kansas, and managing multiple sites instead of one campus location, “University Museums measures up very well, especially in terms of integrating art with student learning across many university courses,” he notes.

Despite having spent some time on campus, David won’t admit to having a favorite museum piece – yet. Among those he “really responds” to are works by public artist Norie Sato, who has created three installations on Iowa State’s campus relating to the stories and symbols of engineering, chemistry, and human development and family studies, respectively.

“Norie’s works affect you differently each time you experience them,” he observes. Among the museums’ strengths, David prizes the visual literacy program, which is designed to help people become more perceptive, seeing deeply and interpreting objects, then analyzing what is seen. Visual literacy is essential in many fields, for example veterinary medicine or other health fields in which diagnostic information is important, or engineering or design, where one needs to read plans or blueprints.

A first-year English course is a central part of the visual literacy program, but David hopes that students will return on their own or through other courses. To that end, museum staff work one-on-one with faculty, creating custom programming to build course engagement. Each year, University Museums serves all colleges and academic units at Iowa State, directly affecting nearly 10,000 students through tours and class visits.

The museums, however, are not just for students. “Looking at and understanding art helps us all to improve our lives,” David says. Toward that end, University Museum hours have expanded and all museum buildings will be open until 7 p.m. Thursdays beginning this fall. And for those who live away from central Iowa, David points out that a number of programs are held virtually via Zoom. These can be found on the University Museums’ calendar of events. In addition, more than 200 videos are available on the University Museums YouTube channel.

Submitted by Susan Yager, ISU Retirees Newsletter Editor

What’s Going on Over There?

Lake Laverne is Lake Mud for now

This feature highlights developments for retirees who haven’t been “over” to campus lately, whether you’re a mile or a thousand miles away.

Lake LaVerne doesn’t look like itself right now, as the first phase of improvements to the lake began in late spring. In mid-May, many families and others fished the lake in anticipation of its being drained [see image below]. Once removal of sediment began, workers uncovered a lot of materials that start with a B: bottles, bicycles, balls (bowling and golf).

Then they moved on to the letter C, discovering a cannon in the muck [click right arrow for next image]. The rusty relic might have been a “football cannon” fired after touchdowns, field goals and first downs, which was stolen from Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity in 1972. Currently, more than 1,000 loads of sediment are being removed from the lake in order to make it deeper and improve its water quality [click right arrow for final image]. We’ll fill you in when the next phase gets underway.

You think you have roof problems?

Portions of Beardshear Hall have been fenced off this summer for replacement of the building’s 27-year-old roof (all but the dome).

The project began in April and was expected to take about three months. Each day, crews were scheduled to remove several layers of roof materials, including some that contain asbestos, in 500-square-foot sections.

The new roof material is a synthetic rubber membrane which is the university’s standard. In addition, the protective polycarbonate covers above Beardshear’s stained-glass skylights were replaced this year. The skylights themselves were not affected.

A Look at Artificial Intelligence on Campus

For many years, artificial intelligence (AI) seemed to be just around the corner, like smartphones before 2007. Things like self-driving cars were on the horizon, we were told, soon but not yet. Then, in November 2022, AI arrived with a bang on university campuses with the emergence of ChatGPT, a web platform that, on request, produces text, images, Excel files, and other data (not always completely accurately), and the basic version is free.

Immediately essays, the workhorses of undergraduate education, became obsolete, since any writing assignment can be produced instantly (if sometimes awkwardly) by AI. Many, but not all, faculty saw this development as a problem.

Michael Bugeja, then a distinguished professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at ISU, published an online piece in 2023 titled “If AI kills the essay, I will be a pallbearer at the funeral.” In it, he argues that since AI is (perhaps irresistibly) attractive to students needing to write, different skills should be taught: reading, grasping concepts, and articulating ideas. To a large extent, instructors quickly adapted to the new reality of AI; English teachers, for example, more than ever emphasize the process of thinking and communication as much as, if not more than, the product of that thinking.

With amazing speed, the reach and power of AI have become evident in all aspects of university life, research and administration as well as teaching. It codes, runs online chats, analyzes data, streamlines processes, iterates drawings, finds fraud, and performs thousands of other functions. The latest development, agentic AI, can “plan, reason, and take multi-step actions” toward a goal – at least, this is how Google’s AI overview explains it.

Questions abound: For teachers, what does AI leave for their students to do? For researchers, can AI be used to do a lit review for a professional research paper? How does one cite AI use? For everyone, how can the “bad actors” seen in every technological transformation for the past 30 years be avoided?

The short answer is: no one fully knows. AI is changing the world very quickly and far more radically than the internet did. In response, Iowa State is building on its strengths in innovation in every part of campus. Researchers are using AI, for example, to explore new frontiers in resilient agriculture, to optimize specialized three-D printers, and to replicate systems in order to study cardiovascular aging. (See more in the AI on Campus sidebar below.)

Students, as well as faculty and staff, have full access to advanced, professional-level applications, as well as frontier technology like Meta “smart glasses” and AR/VR headsets, at the AI Innovation Studio Makerspace in the Student Innovation Center. This collaborative workspace, which opened in January 2026, allows students in every field to explore and use AI tools and to be mentored as they learn. This new generation will learn to partner with AI agents and tools in ways that can’t yet be imagined. There is no stopping this latest technological tsunami, and Iowa State will keep riding the wave.

Artificial Intelligence on Campus

An ISU Retiree’s First Adventures in AI Until recently, my only direct contact with AI was asking ChatGPT how to reduce the sodium content in a recipe (it did admirably). After writing the article about AI on campus that you just read, I wondered what ChatGPT — the basic, free version — would have to say about the topic. In the box below, you will see the prompts I used to explore this topic. I shortened some answers below but changed nothing else. Prompt: Write a paragraph about some current uses of artificial intelligence at Iowa State University Reply: Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important part of education, research, and everyday work at Iowa State University. Students, faculty, and staff can use AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, and NotebookLM for tasks including answering questions, summarizing information, generating ideas, analyzing files, and helping with computer code…. Researchers are using generative AI to help organize and summarize information, perform basic analysis, develop ideas, and improve drafts, while the university emphasizes human oversight and responsible use…. Overall, AI at Iowa State is being used not only as a technology but also as an important subject of study and research. Here, the bot was using, as is typical, sweeping generalizations and tell-tale transition words like “overall.” So my next prompt was: Be more specific Reply: At Iowa State University, artificial intelligence is being used in several specific ways in education, research, and campus work.… In the Department of Animal Science, Professor Karl Kerns developed an AI tutor for ANS 2140L: Domestic Animal Anatomy and Physiology Lab. The tutor allows students to ask questions and receive help outside normal class hours, including evenings and weekends…. In 2026, the Department of Computer Science launched a new AI track for its bachelor’s degrees, requiring students in the track to complete at least 16 credits of AI-related coursework. In addition, students from any major can take AI 2010, Introduction to Applied AI, and AI 2020, Ethical Design, Use, and Impact of AI. Then I asked: where else is it being used in research This is a perfect (though unintended) example of an unclear prompt. I meant “Where else, in the world of research at ISU, is it being used?” but ChatGPT apparently read it as “Where else is it being used? In research?” So it answered, “Yes. Iowa State is using AI in research far beyond general computer science.” Then, using bullet points as it often does, it added: Some specific current examples include: • Agriculture: Researchers are using AI to improve crop breeding, study drought resistance, manage livestock more precisely, and monitor conservation efforts. One project is developing “digital twins” of crops and farm fields to help predict how plants will grow and respond to conditions. • Renewable energy: Researchers are developing an AI-powered self-driving laboratory that can automatically run experiments on anaerobic digesters and use the results to determine the next experiment. The goal is to increase biogas and renewable natural gas production from materials such as swine manure and food-processing waste. • Health and medicine: An Iowa State team is developing an AI system to support physical-activity treatment for adults receiving obesity care. • Space research: NASA-funded researchers at Iowa State are developing an AI platform to predict astronauts’ risk of Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome, a condition that can affect vision during long-duration spaceflight. • Trustworthy AI: Researchers are also studying how to make AI systems more reliable, explainable, safe, and ethical. Wrapping up its response, ChatGPT assured me, “These would give you much more concrete examples for your paragraph.”

Submitted by Susan Yager, Newsletter Editor

Congratulations, New Retirees!

Cross-Country Relay Update

Walkers, hikers, and bikers have been headed east since July 1 as part of the American Discovery 250 Relay. This coast-to-coast relay is intended to create community among participants and celebrate the history and beauty of the continental U.S. Although several days’ routes in the Rockies were disrupted due to heat and wildfires, the relay is expected to arrive in Omaha on September 26 and make its way through Iowa to Davenport on October 5.

The Iowa portion includes several biking days but also walking days near Des Moines, Cedar Falls, and Cedar Rapids. Membership (as low as $30) is required to participate. More information is available at the American Discovery Trail website.

OLLI at Iowa State Update

OLLI at Iowa State has continued to stay busy throughout the summer. Membership for the 2026-27 fiscal year opened on July 1, pop-up courses and social events were scattered through the summer months, including our First Friday Coffees at Sixty Forward starting at 9 a.m. We would love to see you there!

Other notable accomplishments this summer: we want to share are that a Communications Specialist was hired, and Heather Bristow (OLLI at Iowa State Director) was invited to present with two other OLLI directors at the National Osher Conference in October. However, the most exciting news is that a full fall course schedule has been planned.

Fall 2026 Course Registration is now open. Visit the Course Information page of our website for more details. OLLI at Iowa State members will also benefit from three free OLLI Talk programs this fall. Two ISU men’s basketball coaches, Micah Byars and Diante Garrett, will share insights about the team, George Belitsos will offer information about human trafficking in Iowa, and we will hear from Amanda Epping from Ape Initiative which is the only research center in the world dedicated to studying Bonobo Apes and is located in Des Moines.

An OLLI at Iowa State membership is required to register for courses. Membership comes with a valuable list of benefits, is valid from July 1 through June 30, and is only $35! We hope you will consider continuing your lifelong learning journey with OLLI at Iowa State by becoming a member today!

2026-2027 OLLI at Iowa State Membership Benefits

• Connection to a community of enthusiastic learners
• Access to quality non-credit educational opportunities (priced separately)
• Nine OLLI Talk programs with no cost or registration ($225 value)
• Monthly newsletter delivered to your email
• Weekly Friday emails during course terms about the next week’s activities
• Ames Chamber Artists complimentary pair of concert tickets ($30 value)
• Central Iowa Symphony complimentary pair of concert tickets ($40 value)
• ISU Library card for use at Parks Library for $5 (non-ISU retiree, Iowa residents only)
  ($15 value)
• Stephens Auditorium Buy One Get One ticket offers to select shows

If you have any issues with the membership form, please contact the ISU Extension Registration Services Team for assistance at registrations@iastate.edu or (515) 294-6222.

ISU Retirees Association Board of Directors

Jan Breitman
Mary Lynn Damhorst
Scott Elston
Norman Hill
Jane Jacobson
Barbara Pleasants
Max Porter
Pat Strah
Florine Swanson
Susan Yager, Newsletter Editor
Ex Officio Heather Bristow, ISU Retirees Director

Stay Connected With Us!

To stay connected with the ISU Retirees Association, please be sure to share your current contact information with us, especially if there has been a recent change. You may access the online ISU Retirees Information Form on the website.