The ‘70s at UNI were defined by the struggle for racial equality and anti-war sentiment. On March
15-16, 1970, the Afro-American Society staged a sit-in at President Maucker’s home regarding the Culture House for Black students they had proposed two years earlier, which they felt was being ignored by the administration. The sit-in and the resulting protests forced UNI administrators to make lasting changes, such as establishing the Ethnic Minorities Cultural and Educational Center Building (formerly the Dean’s Home) and creating The Faculty’s Committee of Five, a panel composed of “moderate” Black citizens from Waterloo, members of the Cedar Falls and Waterloo Chambers of Commerce, and Black and white students and faculty. “The Center sponsors workshops, lectures, concerts, receptions, athletic activities, mixers, and the annual Black History Week,” wrote the Northern Iowan.

Political dissent struck the campus again on May 7, 1970 when more than a thousand students
boycotted classes and packed themselves into the coffeehouse at the Union to hear professors and students discuss U.S. involvement in Cambodia. Marches followed, along with a visit from Kent State University student Charles Klar, who had witnessed the death of a friend by National Guardsmen at a demonstration. Due to the unrest, Maucker met with faculty to develop a plan for students who wished to end the semester early to participate in Washington, D.C. protests. Ultimately, 10% of the student body elected to end the semester on May 13; the remainder finished on May 28.

Under the new president, John Kamerick, the building boom on campus continued. The UNI-Dome, a project started in the late ‘60s, was modeled after Idaho State’s Holt Arena as a single site for football, basketball, track, concerts, physical education, and recreation. The project, however, was mired in controversy; a portion of student fees were meant to fund the sports and entertainment facility, and one student (supported by a student coalition) sued in protest (they lost). Additionally, students took issue with the administration’s plan to charge them to attend UNI-Dome sporting events. A heated exchange between two hundred students and Stan Sheriff, the head football coach, ensued. Despite these issues, the dome was completed and in use by a wrestling match against the University of Iowa on February 7, 1976, and quickly became a popular venue. Artists that performed at the dome during the ‘70s included Dolly Parton, Foreigner, the Grateful Dead, and Fleetwood Mac.

To accommodate the student body, which grew from nine thousand seven hundred and twenty three in 1970 to ten thousand three hundred and eighty two by 1979, new buildings included the Hillside Courts (1972), Schindler Education Center (1972), Industrial Technology Center (1975), Communication Arts Center (1978), Strayer-Wood Theatre (1978), and Jennings Court (1978). The Hillside Courts and Jenning Court were both designed for married students; the Hillside Courts units were furnished with a stove and refrigerator; some even had air conditioning. Schindler, or the “Education Center” as it was known for its first twenty years, housed Education courses. A novel feature of the building was the Iowa Communication Network (ICN), a statewide close-circuit TV system described by Professor Robert Hardman as “the most complex television system in the state of Iowa.” The Industrial Technology Center, which was previously housed within Latham Hall, included study carrels, an ICN room, and color videotape players. Strayer-Wood Theatre opened for its first production on February 5, 1978.

Info box: Strayer-Wood Theatre, which opened for its first production on February 5, 1978, was the result of much planning on the part of UNI theatre professor Stanley Wood and UNI theater alumnus Richard Delvin, who devoted his masters thesis at Yale to the project.