Outside the classroom, Iona students can join more than 75 campus clubs, including about 10 fraternities and sororities. Student athletes can play at the recreational level or try out for the Iona College Gaels varsity sports teams, which compete in the NCAA Division I Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Gaels are people with Irish-Gaelic ancestry, such as the Congregation of Christian Brothers, who founded Iona College in 1940.
Spandex is a synthetic or man-made fiber manufactured from polyurethane. It is lightweight, highly stretchy and elastic, strong, durable, and non-absorbent to water and oils. First produced in the United States in 1959 by DuPont, it was marketed under the trademarked name Lycra.
Elastic fibers (or yellow fibers) are bundles of proteins found in extracellular matrix of connective tissue and produced by fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells in arteries. These fibers can stretch up to 1.5 times their length, and snap back to their original length when relaxed. Elastic fibers include elastin, elaunin and oxytalan. Elastic tissue is classified as connective tissue proper. The elastic fiber is formed from the elastic microfibril (consisting of numerous proteins such as microfibrillar-associated glycoproteins, fibrillin, fibullin, and the elastin receptor) and amorphous elastin.