REThink IU offers chance to discuss University policy

Freshman Elizabeth “Biff” Hernly said she surrounds herself with good people.

Hernly defines a “good person” as someone who “cares about things outside themselves” and said that through REthink IU, a coalition of individuals interested in University matters, she has found the community she had craved.

REthink had its second meeting of the semester on Wednesday. Students conducted the meeting outside the east side of the Herman B Wells Library.

A group of about 30 individuals watched YouTube videos of protest movements projected against the side of the wall for “REthink Tank Teach-In II on the Corporate University: Alternatives.”

Although the event was associated with Occupy IU, individuals of all ideologies attended.

“I think that everyone in the group is doing it for slightly different reasons, but we’re all interested in the future of the University,” graduate student Jeanette
Samyn said.

Samyn brought Gordy, her black Labrador, to the meeting, and she said she attended to discuss horizontal educational structures.

“University was really formative for me in terms of intellectual growth, so I’m really interested in facilitating that sort of learning with other students,” Samyn said. “The idea would be to engage with your students as much as your students are engaging with you.”

The event was advertised as a “small group discussion of alternative university models.” Projected videos were mainly of featured students rioting against increases in student debt in Quebec and Chile.

Discussion was muted, however, and the group seemed more interested in enjoying the company of the other attendees rather than discussing alternatives to IU as a “corporate university.”

Sophomore and IDS opinion writer Peter Oren provided bagels for the evening. Oren said he thinks the University caters more to the state economy than to its students.

“The Kelley School of Business is being renovated soon, but the humanities are not getting much love,” Oren said. “That’s sort of an interesting dynamic about how the University functions over decreasing funds.”

He described the University as a public, collective school rather than a specific set of programs. It’s not fair for specific majors, such as those in the business school, to receive more funding than others, Oren said.

“Ultimately, you have to look at Indiana University as Indiana University,” he said.
The collective university Oren described was Hernly’s favorite part of the meeting’s atmosphere. Hernly does not describe herself as particularly knowledgeable concerning politics or social culture but said she strongly believes that REthink represents a group of people she can relate to.

“I’m socially flourishing, which obviously I wasn’t doing before,” Hernly said. “They’re just good people, enjoying life and involved with a lot of things I’m interested in.”