BY: Nik Zaid Hanis

May 7, 2009

Cedar Falls is a small town that does not seem to have many exciting places or things to do. If you stand in the Prairie Lakes Park at Viking and Hudson, and make a 360 degrees turn, the tallest building you’ll see is the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) water tower.

Everything else seems flat, while much of the countryside is carpeted with cornfields. During winter, the fields will be covered with snow like a gigantic white blanket. It appears that Cedar Falls is not much of a place to stay. Is it?

There are two major factors that would potentially make Cedar Falls less desirable when it comes to living here. 

One of the biggest issues that make many UNI students frown at staying in this small town is the unpredictable cold weather.  The beginning of a Spring Semester in UNI can be devastatingly cold, especially in January and February. Temperatures could go down to minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit making it difficult for many students to go out, especially at night. This is the time when the sidewalks are topped with snow, the roads are dangerously slippery for vehicles, and the winds are so chilly that without earmuffs, you’d feel excruciating pain in your ears. Furthermore, there are times when it is so cold your car might not start.  

Ashveen Sekaran, a UNI junior student majoring in Actuarial Science believes that the cold weather does have a negative impact on Cedar Falls. “Let's face it, most of the academic year would be around the cold season and that does become a deterrent when it comes to choosing this place,” said Sekaran. Apparently, he does not find the snow a pleasing thing.  “Of course, the media does portray the snow as something so beautiful, soft and relaxing, but the snow in Cedar Falls is no Disney fairy tale!”

For another UNI student, Mandy Miller, the weather is a “major factor” for her. “Iowa weather can be miserable enough in itself,” she said. “Weather has a major influence on my mood and during the winter months, I'm especially bitter towards the area.”

There are times when the cold weather can be so extreme that people can be discouraged to leave their homes. A UNI graduate student who only wants to be referred to as PJ finds it difficult when it is extremely cold outside.  “Being indoors all the time is so depressing,” he said. “And also you have to wear suffocating layers all the time. Furthermore, when you enter a room you have to take everything off and back on when you leave.”

“The cold weather makes me feel trapped,” said Emma Collingwood, another UNI student. “And in January, especially when the weather was so bloody cold it was dreadful to step outside to go anywhere.” 

Along with the cold weather, public transportation at Cedar Falls can be another issue for those without cars. For those who stay on campus and nearby, they will find it quite difficult to go to certain places like Wal-Mart, Crossroads Center and even the College Square Mall. “If you are not going anywhere near campus, public transportation will be absolutely no help to you,” said Maggie Rees who already graduated last December.

Dr. Paul Siddens, an Associate Professor of Communication Studies in UNI who enjoys playing guitar, writes poetry and songs during his free time, thinks that it is not easy here in Cedar Falls without a car. Apparently, the public transportation is not very helpful. “There is city transportation but then you have to work around their schedules and routes to get anywhere and do anything,” he said.

The public transportation can be quite a hassle and disheartening. To travel to Wal-Mart from the campus a student without a car needs to take the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MET) bus, which only makes a stop for every hour. The MET bus is scheduled to arrive 15 minutes after the hour and so the student has to time it right, otherwise he’ll need to wait another hour for the next bus. For Adam Waheed (this person has requested for a different name to appear in this story instead of his real name), a UNI student majoring in Geographic Information Systems, this is extremely troublesome. “If I did not have a car in Cedar Falls, life here would pretty much be hell,” he said. “Because there is no reliable and efficient public transportation system in Cedar Falls, life gets difficult especially if you are a UNI student.”

With all these issues, Cedar Falls does not sound like a fun place to stay. In fact, it sounds depressing.  “I have no desire to stay here at all, after I finish my studies,” said Waheed. “Hopefully after I am done with my graduate studies, I can move back to my home country.” Waheed is originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina and he came to Iowa with his family because his father is working in Waterloo.

Can this mean that Cedar Falls is not a very desirable town? Can it be so boring because it lacks entertainment due to harsh obstacles like the weather and inefficient public transportation? Despite the two major factors that contribute to the reduction of the town’s desirability, Cedar Falls is actually a fun place to stay after all.

It may not have luminous skyscrapers like the buildings in Chicago.  The cinemas like those of Marcus Theatres’ in College Square and Crossroad Center may not be IMAX theaters like the ones in New York or Los Angeles. Mountains may be absent and fresh seafood may be rare. But at the end of the day, Cedar Falls does have a lot to offer, especially from UNI itself. “This place is nice because it’s a college town,” said Mikey Williams, a UNI student who is graduating this May.

“The university provides lots of extra events,” said Dr. Siddens.

UNI’s Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center (GBPAC) is the home of many entertaining shows worthy of Broadway that students, tourists and all members of the local community have the chance to experience. Drew Van Woert, a UNI student who is graduating this year has written a very positive online article on the Generation Iowa website about the kinds of entertainment GBPAC provides. “I have been to several performances and I have to say this is one of the best venues for entertainment in Iowa, not just Eastern Iowa,” he wrote.

On the fall of 2008, Sekaran himself was involved in UNI’s Glee Club Variety Show which was held in the GBPAC. Even though he finds Cedar Falls boring, his active involvement in UNI extracurricular activities is what makes the place appealing to him. “I would love to stay here because of the UNI activities I have been involved in,” he said. “If I choose to stay, that would be the only reason.”

Dr. Julia Lowell, an Associate Professor from the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology finds a lot of entertainment experience offered by the GBPAC. “I really like the programs of the Gallagher Bluedorn,” she said.

GBPAC may have some great shows like the upcoming Riverdance, but the UNI’s Department of Theater also has a center of attraction: the Strayer-Wood Theatre building.  According to Eric Lange, the head of the department said that it is their mission to “produce high quality shows” from which Theater Majors can be educated. Waheed, who apparently has a number of complaints about Cedar Falls said, “I attended a few plays and I absolutely loved them.”

“The plays at the Strayer-Wood Theatre are definitely in my list of favorites,” said Sekaran. “The plays presented have normally been pretty interesting. I do try and work my schedule in such a way that I could allocate time to go watch these plays. And the one thing I like about the theater is that these plays are normally free or at minimal pricing for UNI students.”

            The Panther Productions is a student organization in UNI that provides some form of entertainment for members of both the UNI and Cedar Falls communities. “Our goal is to at least host one [live] concert per semester with a discount rate for the students,” said Erin Wheat, the advisor of Panther Productions. Last February, the organization invited David Cook, an American Idol winner to perform live in the Maucker Union Ballroom. Many students were queuing up from the ballroom to the Essentials store in the union. “David Cook was a sellout,” said Wheat.

During the weekends, the College Hill street may seem dead but at night the bars and clubs like Beck’s and Ice Lounge are crowded with people, especially UNI students. “As a college town, the local bar scene seems to be pretty popular,” said Dr. Siddens. “The bars in Main Street are nice because each has a different vibe,” said Williams. The students would flood these entertainment facilities even during winter when it is extremely cold. When she was partying with her friends in December of 2007 Collingwood remembered that Ice Lounge was so crowded that people would still wait for at least 20 minutes queuing outside, despite the harshly cold temperature. 

At the end of the day, it would be unfair to say that Cedar Falls is a boring and undesirable place to stay only because it is surrounded by flat land, and seems to lack entertainment. Despite the horrendous winter that could somewhat upset some moods, there’s so much Cedar Falls has to offer, from the lively night bars to the dramatic performances of college theater. “There are a lot of opportunities for entertainment in UNI and Cedar falls,” said Williams. “My advice is to go out there and give it a shot.”