INDIANAPOLIS -- A federal judge sentenced a former state technology engineer to five months in prison on bank fraud and money laundering convictions for overcharging IU and the state for computer equipment.\nShawn D. Solomon, a former employee of the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System, pleaded guilty in September to taking at least $44,000 in taxpayer money.\nThe system operates the computer network for public agencies, schools and libraries, and runs the state's Access Indiana Web site.\nFederal Judge John Tinder on Friday also ordered Solomon, 28, of Indianapolis, to spend five months on house arrest and pay about $79,000 in restitution, including more than $16,000 in audit costs.\nFederal prosecutors said that between April 2002 and January 2003, Solomon caused the state Intelenet Commission and IU to buy nearly $94,000 in computer equipment at grossly inflated prices from a company from which he was receiving bribes. He used about $15,000 of that money to pay down his home mortgage, prosecutors said.\n
Indiana Alumni Magazine receives regional awards
\nThe Indiana Alumni Magazine and the IU Alumni Association received awards for excellence at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, District Five, according to a press release. The Indiana Alumni Magazine was awarded a gold medal in the Best Alumni/Institution Magazine category, as well as a silver medal for Most Improved Alumni/Institution Magazine. The magazine was redesigned in the fall of 2004 under Editor in Chief Elizabeth Hunt, who died last June of lung cancer. \nThe IU Alumni Association received a gold medal for Best Practices in Alumni Relations and a silver medal for Excellence in Special Events. \nIU Home Pages, the newspaper for IU faculty and staff, received a silver medal in the Best Tabloid/Newsletter for Internal Audience category. Home Pages photographer Chris Meyer received a gold medal for Best Individual Photo-Candid and a silver medal for Best Photo Series-Candid. \nThe IU offices of creative services and marketing and the IU Foundation also received gold, silver and bronze medals for their work. \n
IU study finds record giving for hurricane victims
\nA study from the IU Center on Philanthropy has found that charitable giving for hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma reached nearly $3 billion, an apparent record for private philanthropic giving in the United States for a single disaster relief effort, according to a press release.\nDonations after Sept. 11, 2001, reached a little more than $2.8 billion.\n"The outpourings of generosity from the American people after both Sept. 11 and the Gulf Coast hurricanes have been remarkable," said Patrick Rooney, the center's director of research, in the release. "Giving for the Gulf Coast region may be higher in part because of the extent of the damage and because almost everyone knows someone who was affected or who lives in the region."\nThe true value of donations might even be higher, as the center did not include direct assistance, such as loading trucks with supplies, in the total. \nThe Gulf Coast hurricanes aren't the only disasters to which Americans have donated. After the south Asian tsunami in 2004, U.S.-based organizations collected nearly $1.8 billion, and donations of nearly $78 million were collected for the earthquake in Pakistan in October last year.\nDonations for the Gulf Coast hurricanes, the tsunami and the earthquake totaled only 1.9 percent of all charitable donations in the United States in 2004, according to the release.
