At Upper Iowa University

My old friend, Bill Duffy, who worked with me at Appalachian State University many years ago, is now President of Upper Iowa University. UIU is a small private Division II school in Fayette, Iowa. Bill invited Louise and me to come up and give a talk introducing “Finding Strong” as part of their Project Stand Up. Stand Up is a federal grant program to inform college students about sexual violence and to encourage them to stand up to it through prevention efforts, reporting, and aiding victims. This subject, of course, is right in line with Leigh’s message in “Finding Strong.”

I couldn’t possibly have been more pleased with how it turned out. Bill and his lovely wife, Sharon, and the project director, Joy Jager, had put the word out on campus. The old Opera House was packed with students, faculty, and staff who were genuinely interested in Leigh’s message. I took a box full of books with me and came back with none. Many in attendance had already read the book.

Louise and I had a wonderful time at Upper Iowa. Bill and Sharon graciously opened up the lovely and historic President’s Home to us and treated us like royalty. In addition to my talk on Friday night, we enjoyed the excitement of their “Giving Day,” as they exceeded their goal for number of donors, total amount received, and even met their goal of getting a donation from every state. We gathered with other UIU supporters at a local restaurant and anxiously watched the data projected onto a large screen as the numbers came in. On Saturday, we enjoyed their Spring Carnival on campus, which was attended by the entire town of Fayette in spite of the cold weather. We also watched their Spring football game and a baseball game. We capped off the weekend with a beautiful Honors and Awards banquet on Saturday night.

I’ve always been proud of the family atmosphere here at Clemson, but we have nothing on the folks at Upper Iowa. We enjoyed strolling around the campus with Bill and Sharon, though the pace was extremely slow due to the fact that they both knew the names of almost every student we passed and stopped for a hug and a chat with every one. We enjoyed a couple of meals in the university dining hall, where again, every student, faculty, and staff member stopped by our table to greet their president and his wife.

Never at a loss for something daring and exciting, Bill even took Louise and me up onto the roof of the Administration Building so we could get a bird’s eye view of the campus. We also climbed up through the bell tower to ring the campus bell. The pictures below were taken from the roof.

Thank you, Bill and Sharon, for a truly remarkable weekend, and we look forward to a return trip after y’all visit us in Clemson.