Iowa

LeBaron Hall’s $39 million makeover has kicked off at Iowa State

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1 year ago

September 6, 2024

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LeBaron Hall’s million makeover has kicked off at Iowa State

A substantial makeover is underway for Iowa State University’s 66-year-old LeBaron Hall.

Demolition started Thursday, Sept. 5 to make way for the new home of Iowa State’s College of Human Sciences.

Bundled with additional renovations of McKay Hall and the Human Nutritional Science Building, the estimated $51.5 million project will replace LeBaron Hall, complete with a three-story building with classrooms, a multipurpose courtyard and renovated lobbies.

LeBaron Hall’s demolition and replacement will cost $39 million. The entire project was made possible through private donations, including a $15.5 million lead gift, and university funds.

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A groundbreaking moment

The groundbreaking for LeBaron Hall’s makeover took place on April 18.

Iowa State College of Human Sciences Dean Laura Dunn Jolly said the university is excited to see the project get underway.

“This has been something we’ve been working on for several years, and it’s really exciting to see it come to life,” Jolly said. “Students are just thrilled; they’ve been walking by, taking videos of the building coming down. There’s a lot of buzz about this new building coming to fruition.”

Construction is expected to be finished by the fall of 2026.

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A new, modern LeBaron Hall

The new LeBaron Hall will be located on the northwest corner of the Iowa State campus at 626 Morrill Road. The original building, built in 1958, will be expanded to 30,000 square feet, complete with two additional above-ground floors.

The new facility will include a 100-seat university classroom, studios for the college’s nationally ranked apparel program, experiential learning space for the event management program, and a historic textiles and clothing lab.

“(There will be) a lot of what I would call multi-purpose, experiential learning space,” Jolly said. “That’s been our goal, this welcoming and student-centric space that serves as a hub for student engagement.”

McKay Hall will eventually be connected to LeBaron Hall, LeBaron Auditorium and the Human Nutrition and Science Building. Once complete, Jolly said it will be a “very integrated complex” with improved wayfinding.

“We expect other renovations to follow pretty quickly after the initial building renovation,” Jolly said. “That will set the stage for moving forward with the other projects.”

More: Ames’ $4 million Schainker Plaza expected to open in October despite skating rink issues

Where will classes be held during construction?

Classes and laboratories that are typically held at LeBaron Hall have been moved to the Student Innovation Center, McKay Hall and Bessey Hall.

Jolly said Iowa State is considering what the future use of those spaces will be when classes return to LeBaron Hall.

Since the new facility will have no faculty offices, LeBaron Hall’s faculty has been relocated to other permanent locations.

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Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.

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Iowa

Where to watch Iowa State vs Northwestern basketball today, time, TV for exhibition game

Published

12 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Press Room

Where to watch Iowa State vs Northwestern basketball today, time, TV for exhibition game

Iowa State basketball returns home on Sunday, Oct. 26 to play Northwestern in an exhibition game.

The game is scheduled to tip off at 12 p.m. from Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

Iowa State was 25-10 overall and 13-7 in the Big 12 last season but lost its first exhibition to Creighton, 71-58. Northwestern, meanwhile, went 17-16 in 2024-25 and was 2-9 on the road.

Watch Iowa State vs. Northwestern on ESPN+

What channel is Iowa State vs. Northwestern on today?

Iowa State vs. Northwestern time today

Date: Sunday, Oct. 26
Start time: 12 p.m. CT
Location: Hilton Coliseum in Ames

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2025-26 Iowa State Wrestle-Offs: Brackets & Info – Iowa State Athletics

Published

2 days ago

October 24, 2025

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2025-26 Iowa State Wrestle-Offs: Brackets & Info – Iowa State Athletics

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State head wrestling coach Kevin Dresser released the brackets for ISU’s 2025-26 wrestle-offs, which will take place this weekend. Semifinals will be wrestled Saturday, Oct. 25 at 11 a.m. on the Lied Rec Center main floor. Finals will take place the following day at Ames High School at 2 p.m.

Seven matches will be wrestled Saturday with nine on Sunday. A full bout order can be viewed at the end of this story.

Stevo Poulin, Evan Frost and Rocky Elam will be held out of competition this weekend and will wrestle off in the coming weeks. Daniel Herrera will also miss this weekend’s wrestle-offs due to his participation in the U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia Saturday and Sunday.

Additionally, Dresser also announced that Nando Villaescusa, Sawyer Bartelt, Carson Floyd and Carter Fousek will miss the 2025-26 season due to injury and will pursue a medical redshirt.

Results from the inaugural Cyclone Invitational Presented by Daily’s Premium Meats, in which two wrestlers per team can enter, will also factor in to setting the ISU lineup.

To see the full wrestle-off brackets, CLICK HERE.

Wrestle-off results will be posted to Cyclones.com following each round.

Fans attending Saturday’s wrestle-offs are encouraged to park in Lot 68 and walk to the Lied Rec Center. Plan for increased traffic in the area due to the football gameday.

IOWA STATE WRESTLE-OFF SCHEDULE

Semifinals

Date: Saturday, Oct. 25

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Lied Rec Center

Finals

Date: Sunday, Oct. 26

Time: 2 p.m.

Location: Ames High School

Watch: IAWrestle

SATURDAY MATCH ORDER

125: Adrian Meza vs. Ethan Perryman

141: Anthony Echemendia vs. Osmany Diversent*

149: Paniro Johnson vs. Logan Stotts

165: Connor Euton vs. Manny Rojas

165: Aiden Riggins vs. Owen Helgeson

174: Melton Powe vs. Jacob Helgeson

285: McCrae Hagarty vs. Xavier Bruening

SUNDAY MATCH ORDER

125: Christian Castillo vs. Meza/Perryman*

133: Garrett Grice vs. Carter Pearson

149: Jacob Frost vs. Johnson/Stotts

157: Vinny Zerban vs. Kane Naaktgeboren

165: Euton/Rojas vs. Riggins/O. Helgeson

174: MJ Gaitan vs. Powe/J. Helgeson

184: Isaac Dean vs. Tate Naaktgeboren

197: CJ Carter vs. Rowan Udell

285: Yonger Bastida vs. Hagarty/Bruening

*Denotes exhibition

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Iowa

Iowa ‘illegal reentry’ law remains blocked, but 8th Circuit questions injunction’s breadth

Published

3 days ago

October 23, 2025

Press Room

Iowa ‘illegal reentry’ law remains blocked, but 8th Circuit questions injunction’s breadth

A federal judge did not err when finding an Iowa immigration enforcement law likely unconstitutional, a federal appellate court ruled.

But it is sending the case back to determine whether the state should nonetheless be allowed to enforce the law in some cases.

The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Oct. 23 decision upholds an injunction blocking Iowa from enforcing Senate File 2340, which Gov. Kim Reynolds signed in April 2024 to make “illegal reentry” a crime under state law.

In a lawsuit bought by the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Judge Stephen Locher ruled last year that immigration enforcement is explicitly a federal responsibility and Iowa’s law is invalid under the U.S. Constitution.

“As a matter of politics, the new legislation might be defensible,” Locher wrote in June 2024. “As a matter of constitutional law, it is not.”

Thursday’s decision is technically the second time the 8th Circuit has ruled against the law.

Originally, Iowa was sued twice: by Migrant Movement for Justice and the Biden Administration. Locher granted injunctions in both cases, and in January, the 8th Circuit affirmed his ruling in the DOJ lawsuit and dismissed the second injunction as duplicative.

Shortly after, though, the Trump administration dismissed the federal government’s challenge, and the court agreed to rehear and rule on the injunction in the Migrant Movement for Justice case.

What did Iowa’s immigration law do?

Under the 2024 law, entering or residing in Iowa after being deported from or denied entry to the U.S. or failing to depart when ordered became a state offense. It followed a similar law Texas adopted, both of which have since been blocked by courts.

The Iowa law also required judges to order anyone convicted under the law to return to their country of origin.

In his order blocking the law, Locher identified several problems: Most glaringly, a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision found that state-level immigration laws interfere with and are preempted by federal immigration enforcement.

In the case of Iowa, Locher noted, having state judges order people to leave the country bypasses the extensive and often case- and country-specific federal system to decide when, how, and to where a person can be deported.

“This creates an untenable dichotomy between federal and state law in an area where the Supreme Court has recognized that the United States must speak with a single, harmonious voice,” Locher wrote.

The law also does not make any exceptions for people with current legal resident status. That’s a problem for several of the plaintiffs in the Migrant Movement case, who at one time were deported or denied entry but later were able to obtain legal residency.

While Attorney General Brenna Bird said she did not intend to enforce the law against legal residents, Locher noted county prosecutors would not be bound by her statement.

8th Circuit finds law likely unconstitutional

In it’s ruling Thursday, the 8th Circuit once again upheld Locher’s reasoning.

Judge Duane Benton wrote for the court that Iowa’s law intrudes into federal immigration authority even further than the Arizona law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012.

Allowing state officials not only to detain people for suspected immigration violations, but to order them removed from the country, with a potential prison sentence of 10 years, greatly exceeds the state’s powers under the U.S. Constitution, the court found.

The court rejected Iowa’s arguments in defense of the law, finding that many ran contrary to the plain text of the statute.

For example, where Bird argued the law only required the state to deliver aliens to a “port of entry” — namely, the Des Moines airport — and would have no effect outside the state’s borders, the appeals court noted the law requires migrants to leave the entire country, not just the state, under penalty of prison.

“Any enforcement of the act would likely conflict with federal law by interfering with the enforcement discretion that federal law gives to federal officers,” Benton wrote. “(Plaintiffs) have clearly shown that their facial challenge is likely to succeed on the merits because every application of the Act stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.”

Yes, but: to whom does the injunction apply?

Locher’s injunction blocked any state agent, including county prosecutors, from enforcing the law against anyone. That may be too broad, the appellate court says.

In a June 2025 case against Donald Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court significantly limited the use of “universal injunctions” that apply beyond the parties in a particular case.

In light of that ruling, the 8th Circuit is directing Locher to consider whether he has authority to block enforcement by all state officers, as opposed to just those named in the lawsuit, and whether the law can be enforced against individuals who are not members of Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.

Regardless of how the injunction may be modified, the lawsuit is likely to continue.

Locher’s June 2024 order put in place a preliminary injunction, blocking the state from enforcing the law while the case progressed. Barring further appeals, Thursday’s appellate decision means the case will continue before Locher for further proceedings before the court could potentially make its injunction permanent.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.

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