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UNI's personal commencement for tardy student is 'Iowa nice'

Linh Ta
lta@dmreg.com

"There's nice, and then there's Iowa nice."

Carley Johnston receives her diploma from UNI President Bill Ruud at the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls Saturday

A viral Reddit post that shows University of Northern Iowa staff giving a student her own commencement after she experienced a flight delay has been spreading online, along with comments like the one above about "Iowa nice."

On Saturday evening, Carley Johnston of Altoona was supposed to walk across the stage with 2,000 of her peers to receive her Master of Arts in leisure, youth and human services in the McLeod Center in Cedar Falls.

But while she was job hunting out in Gettysburg, Pa., the UNI student learned there her flight was delayed. She was supposed to fly back to Iowa that day to make it to commencement at 6 p.m.

When she touched down in Cedar Rapids, the other students had already lined up to walk the stage.

Though the ceremony in Cedar Falls finished around 7 p.m., after hearing about Johnston's plane issues, President Bill Ruud, along with other administrators and staff, decided to wait nearly an hour for her arrival and to give Johnston her own personal commencement with her family present.

"We talk about a lot about being a UNI family," Johnston said. "That they can take 45 minutes of this evening, it just meant so much."

As soon as Ruud heard that a student's flight was delayed, Scott Ketelsen, spokesperson for UNI, said there was no hesitation for them to wait for Johnston.

"There was never a question if everybody would stay," Ketelsen said.

On Reddit, over 900 comments were made on the post, noting Midwestern kindness, saying, "Those are some decent folks," and "This is Iowa nice."

Eric Boisen, a UNI alumnus who wrote the post, said he appreciates the positive comments on the thread.

"I thought it was perfect for posting to Reddit because it's very uplifting and unexpected," Boisen said. "I have never heard of that happening at a university before."