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(03/25/14 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>He wants every day to be different, so today David Chen will teach Chinese with fried green onion pancakes.It’s Sept. 20, the day after the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. Fried green onion pancakes are staples.“Perfect day for a food lab,” he says, holding a plate of the oily, aromatic cakes with one hand and fumbling his keys with the other.Unlocking the door, he steps into the classroom he shares with Tri-North Middle School’s social studies teacher. Chinese characters are written on the chalkboard opposite the U.S. Constitution.Chen is Monroe County Community School Corporation’s first-ever Chinese language teacher. At a time when budgets are tight, and Indiana education seems obsessed with teaching students to pass tests, Chen is confident he can succeed where other teachers have failed. He not only wants every one of his students to pass Chinese, but to love learning the language, too.So far, he says, it’s working. His students are already learning at a rate faster than most high school classes.“Compare my 12- and 13-year-olds to high schoolers, and they’ll beat them every time,” he often says.But would they really beat them every time? He couldn’t possibly know. A first-time teacher, Chen has never taught a class of his own.So he’s taking it day by day. Each morning, he sets a goal — learn those words, then that sentence, then review last week’s stuff. That’s what food labs are for; the students are rewarded with food if they achieve the goal. He calls it “controlled chaos.”Last week, they cooked dumplings in class after learning how to say “I want.” Today, they’ll learn wo xiang chi cong you bing — I want eat fried green onion pancake.The bell rings, and students crash through the door. They shout their hellos.“Ni hao, Mr. Chen.”There are the three boys who can’t keep still; the two girls who whisper answers to his questions; and one girl from China, who, like Chen at her age, is trying to learn how to survive as a Chinese-speaking student in an American school.After teaching them to say fried green onion pancake and reviewing “I want,” Chen begins.“OK, so how do you say ‘I want eat fried green pancake’?” he asks.Chen translates Chinese in broken English. Words like “a” and “is” don’t exist in Chinese, he says, omitting them makes translation easier.Several students attempt the phrase and stumble. A few offer no response at all.Chen takes control. He goes to each student, offering the plate of pancakes. They won’t get one until they ask for it in Chinese.They try sounding the syllables, many of which have no English equivalent. Some succeed the first time. Chen helps those who mumbled failed attempts.“How do you say ‘I want eat fried green pancake’?” “Wo xiang chi cong you bing.”Soon, everyone is asking for fried green pancakes in Chinese, and everyone eats some. Chen plays Chinese lesson videos on YouTube until class ends. The day’s goal was met.But it’s only day 12 of 180, and Chen worries whether his methods are working. Are his students committing Chinese to memory? Can they truly learn Chinese and love it, too? He’s confident the answer to those questions is yes. But he doesn’t have proof.There’s no proof his students are actually learning what he’s teaching. No proof the principal who hired him will have his faith rewarded. And no proof the new and fragile Chinese program will continue.“Every day, I ask myself,” he says, “Am I going to be fired?”* * *When Chen first interviewed for the teaching job, Jackson Creek Principal David Pillar didn’t know what to make of him.Pillar had been to China. He saw students there were learning other languages faster and at younger ages than those at Jackson Creek Middle School. He feared whether his students would be able to compete in a globalized world.So he came back to Bloomington, lobbied for and won approval for new Chinese classes, and prepared to hire a teacher. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but he said he knew he wanted one thing: experience.Then he interviewed Chen.A 6-foot 27-year-old with a round face and barrel chest, Chen talks with his hands and looks more like a coach than a teacher when he speaks about Chinese. His voice is melodic, rising and falling with his mood.Pillar interviewed this rookie teacher, fresh out of graduate school at IU, and listened to him talk about downplaying grades, giving out candy and playing movies every day. All that was supposed to add up to stronger Chinese classes than he’d get from anyone else. Pillar wasn’t sure it would work. That’s why he’d asked Brian Flaherty to the interview.Flaherty knows the field of Chinese language education. Before joining IU’s Chinese Flagship Center, one of the nation’s premier Chinese learning programs, his experience included teaching English in China for four years and teaching Chinese at IU for about three years. Chen’s methods struck him as unorthodox.Flaherty said Chen’s methodology is fascinating: sticking to daily goals, knowing exactly what he wants students to learn and review each day and taking calculated steps to achieve that goal while also mitigating the stress that comes with being a middle school student. Flaherty was impressed.But what impressed him most, he said, was Chen’s obvious passion for teaching Chinese. Pillar agreed.“You knew it when you saw it,” Pillar said. “His enthusiasm outweighed any lack of experience he had.”Chen was hired. Every day he would drive between three middle schools — Batchelor, Tri-North and Jackson Creek — teaching four classes, about 80 students in all.Pillar’s new fear was whether Chen could keep the new program alive.For any language program, the first year is the most important. It’s when you retain enough students to sustain new classes. MCCSC required 80 percent of the first year’s students register for second-year. If classes are too hard, too few new students sign up, and too many first-year students drop out. If retention rates drop below 80 percent, the program might be scrapped.Pillar said he’d be heartbroken if the program died in its first year. It was his baby. But securing the retention rates falls to Chen, and there were no guarantees.“Classes die all the time,” he said.* * *It’s Oct. 2, week nine, and Chen is at Jackson Creek.He doesn’t share this classroom; it’s all his. His cabinets are pantries, filled with potato chips, candy and cooking ware. Next to the door, there’s a photo of him holding the textbook. But inside, the textbooks are on the shelf. Few have their spines broken.He teaches two classes here, with about 15 students each. Right now 12 of his 15 students are jumping around in a circle, playing Chinese hacky sack.Screaming and flailing, they kick the feathered ball to one another, trying to keep it aloft, and count each successful kick in Chinese.Yi ge! One.Liang ge! Two.San ge! Three.Today’s goal is learning to count to 15 — shi-wu. The students sigh and frantically recall more numbers in Chinese with each missed kick and dropped pass. If they reach 15 in a row, they earn a reward more satisfying than any grade: five gummy bears each.Chen worries less now about whether he’ll be fired. A practice test showed signs his students are retaining much of what they’d learned. Rather, he worries aloud about the projector hanging from the ceiling as wild kicks send the ball in all directions.“If this gets violent,” he says, “no candy for a week.”Then, shi-wu. Victory.Cheering, the students collect their five gummy bears. After about 10 minutes of review, they’ve grasped counting by playing the game. All Chen does is reward them with candy.Another day, another goal met. Everyone gets candy and everyone gets an A. But everyone almost always gets an A. Aside from tests, there are no grades in Chen’s classes. He thinks students’ only motivation should be to learn Chinese.“As soon as you focus on grades, their motivation lies no longer in Chinese but in, ‘how do I get an A?’” he says. “Then you lost that student.”For similar reasons, Chen rarely assigns homework. He says only about one-fifth of students benefit from it. The other four-fifths have hectic lives, unsupportive parents or just no motivation to do homework. Those are things he can’t change.“I try to make school as much not like school as possible.”Yet school is still school, a place where not every student will grow at the rate Chen wants, and Pillar still needs test results to know Chen’s classes are meeting standards.The first real test is two weeks away. His highest achieving students are ready, he says, but the struggling students have more work to do.He says that’s his most important job: to help the average student excel. Too often, he says, Chinese teachers play favorites with star students, leaving others feeling dejected. Chen has seen it himself and experienced it.For his average students to succeed, he says, it’s simple.“They need to become Chinese.”* * *Chen’s first students were his mom and dad.He was born in Munster, Ind., to Taiwanese immigrants who spoke little English. Neighbors were “unforgiving.”For as long as he can remember, Chen was his parents’ translator, English teacher and defender. He rebuked strangers who scoffed at their accents, explained their customs and did his best to protect them from racists.Speaking only Chinese at home and trips to Taiwan meant Chen’s English suffered, too.“I’d get ostracized for saying things like ‘the day before today,’” he said.After leaving Munster in 2006, Chen studied business at Purdue, later transferring to IU’s Kelley School of Business. But the longer he studied business, the less it interested him, and the more Chinese language education attracted him.Through studying Chinese at IU, Chen discovered a lifetime of serving as a bridge between the U.S. and China distinctly prepared him to be a teacher. Now he combines what he learned coaching his parents with his favorite teachers’ best techniques.“My whole life, I’ve accumulated knowledge on being Chinese, being American and everything in between,” he said. “So now, I’m the fastest avenue to these kids becoming proficient at the language.”* * *On test day, Oct. 18., it’s still dark when Chen arrives at Batchelor for his first class.When he flips the switch, only half the lights come on. He frowns.The bell rings.“They’re coming up,” he says.One by one, the students file in silently. Usually his students are raucous and lively, but not today.Chen’s not worried, but he is nervous. He has spent time every class working one-on-one with the most struggling students. Despite that, they’re all behind when it comes to writing. Today’s test is all about writing.His students don’t all agree about what’s the best part of his class. As for the worst, though, it’s unanimous: tones.Each Chinese character can represent different words, defined by the pitch with which it’s spoken. Ma might mean horse or mother, depending on its pitch, or tone.That’s why the students are so quiet. Writing Chinese means remembering tones.Chen passed out the test: full sentences of Chinese characters comprising almost all the words they’d learned so far. They needed to translate the sentences to English on one line, and on another spell its pronunciation, complete with tones.The first student finishes after about 10 minutes. The other students take their time, some handing in half completed tests just as class ends.Chen has already finished grading. Mostly A’s and B’s, a few C’s and D’s. But there are 18 students, and he had only 16 pieces of paper.Two students had walked out without turning in their tests.Of all his students from three schools, they were the two who struggled the most. What if he didn’t get them back? Would this show he’s not the teacher to keep the program alive? He doesn’t know. Right now he wants only to know why they kept the tests.Trotting past lockers, full classrooms and the front office, Chen searches in a huff. Some teachers might let it go, he says, especially considering he lets his students retake tests as many times as they need to get an A.He found the first student in another class. When he sees Chen standing in the doorway, he immediately stands to hand over the mostly unfinished test.Chen asks him why he didn’t turn it in.“I don’t know,” the student says, shrugging.Chen learned as a student teacher not to weigh too heavily on your students, but also not to be too doting, lest you make the student think you’re pretending to be a parent.“Well, don’t do it again,” Chen says.Continuing his search for the second student, Chen finds him at his locker.Like the other, the student gives up the test without argument.“Why didn’t you turn it in?” Chen asks.“I didn’t know the answers,” the student replies. Only half of one sentence was translated.“That’s OK,” Chen says. “You know you can retake it again, anyway.”“Thanks, Mr. Chen.”* * * It’s Thanksgiving, and most students have retaken their tests four or five times. Eventually, they all scored A’s, including the students who walked out.A week goes by, and they’re already preparing for the semester’s final exam: translating and reciting about 200 Chinese characters. For the students, it’s just another test. For Chen, it’s another opportunity to prove how quickly his students are learning.He no longer worries about whether his methods are working. He said he stopped when one of his students came to him and asked, What can I do at home so I don’t need you anymore?Days before the final, snow fall prompted a two-hour delay. Chen took the extra time to tidy his room at Jackson Creek.“I almost had a student drop out,” he said while bundling calligraphy brushes.When he asked the student to participate in an activity, the student refused. Chen said he asked the student if he wanted to drop out of Chinese.Yes, the student replied.He walked the student to the office, prepared to help the student drop his class. But the student changed his mind, admitting he didn’t want to leave.“He cried. I cried. We hugged,” he said. “And he’s still learning Chinese.”With only one week remaining in the first semester, not a single student has dropped from Chen’s classes.Soon after next semester begins, students sign up for classes. Chen doesn’t know whether they’ll achieve the retention rate needed, but he’s confident they will.He dreams of what the second year will look like. Maybe classes at both high schools, another Chinese teacher to work with. In time, Chen says he could grow MCCSC’s Chinese program to the largest in the nation.Maybe then, he says, Chinese teachers around the nation will look at his program and see every student can successfully learn the language. But it all starts with the classes relying on him now.“After 10 years of this, I’ll probably be jaded and forget students’ names,” Chen says. “But not this first year, I’ll remember them forever.”* * *For Chinese New Year, Chen gets to teach Chinese to all of about 550 of Jackson Creek’s students.It’s Feb. 4, five days after the start of the Chinese New Year, and Pillar has called the entire school to the auditorium for a celebration. Chen’s the star of the show. He’s in front of the stage, at a table topped with cooking ware from his classroom and ingredients from Kroger. This time it’s dumplings.As students take their seats, some who he doesn’t recognize walk by and say, Hi, Mr. Chen.The school’s band — some of Chen’s students are performers — is here to play China-inspired songs that sound like what you’d hear at a Chinese restaurant. Brian Flaherty’s here, too, dressed in traditional Chinese clothing to demonstrate Tai Chi. Pillar takes the mic and starts the show.He introduces Chen.“Mr. Chen is a very accomplished and good cook,” Pillar says.Most know the Chinese teacher. But they don’t know Chen and Pillar heard the program was a success. They don’t know the three classes at Batchelor, Tri-North and Jackson Creek will continue, and two more will start at Bloomington North and South high schools.Chen’s not worried about all that now, though. He’s worried whether his dumplings are too salty.“Not too much soy sauce,” he says as he mixes the dumpling filling. A camera broadcasts his cooking to a white screen on the stage.Pillar’s controlling the camera with a laptop. While Chen was setting up, Pillar said his classes at Batchelor and Tri-North retained all but two students, and his classes at Jackson Creek retained every one. He said such a high retention rate in a first-year program is rare.“It’s a testament to him,” Pillar said. “That just doesn’t happen.”Chen finishes making filling, satisfied with the saltiness, and the band takes the stage. By the time it finishes playing songs with names like “Chinese Folk Fantasy,” Chen is ready to show his 550 students how to wrap dumplings.When Chen was young, Chinese New Year meant making dumplings with his mother, grandma and family. The number of folds is up to you, he says, while he wets the dough and presses.Though his program will continue, Chen has learned he can’t make every student learn Chinese, let alone love it. There were the two students who didn’t sign up for year two, and others who, despite one-on-one coaching, never seemed able to catch up.Scooping more filling to another doughy sheet, he tells the crowd the portion is the most important part. Not too much, not too little.“If you try to overpack it,” he says, “you will never close this dumpling.”After Brian Flaherty’s demonstration and a performance of traditional Korean drums, Chen serves his dumplings to his fellow teachers. There’s the math teacher whose classroom is across the hall from Chen’s, and the Spanish teacher.Then the celebration ends. All the students and teachers leave the auditorium, until only Pillar and Chen are left. Pillar will go on to facilitate the growth of the Chinese program, and Chen will continue doing what he does best: cook and teach Chinese.But there’s one dumpling left. Pillar eats it. It’s good, he says.“Thanks, Chen.”
(02/19/14 1:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Local and Indiana residents gathered outside the office of Rep. Todd Young, R-9th District, Tuesday to pressure Young to support what they call common-sense immigration reform. But no one was there to listen.Young’s office, located in the City Hall building on North Morton Street, was closed. The lights were off, and the blinds were drawn.About 20 demonstrators signed a poster that read “workers’ rights for all in immigration reform” and a letter expounding their call for Young to take action. They settled for sliding the literature under the office’s door.The Bloomington office is closed Tuesdays, and Young’s spokesman Trevor Foughty said they weren’t notified of the demonstration.Bill Regan, organizer for Fast For Families — an immigration reform advocacy group that staged the demonstration — said they assumed the office would be open, adding they should be able to reach Young any time.“This takes ‘do nothing Congress’ to a new level, doesn’t it?” Regan said to the demonstrators.Had the office been open, members of Young’s staff might have heard the demonstrators’ calls for Young to help enact comprehensive immigration reform. The demonstrators wanted a broad, clear path to citizenship that would lead to full legal status, according to the letter slipped under Young’s office door.Some demonstrators said they wanted broad immigration reform because enfranchising undocumented immigrants could bring economic benefits, and others said reforms are needed because the current immigration is causing a humanitarian crisis.Fast For Families organizer Rudy Lopez said his cousin died when trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. If a path to citizenship existed, Lopez said, his cousin might have avoided the lethal journey.In 2012, U.S. Border Patrol caught about 356,000 immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border — about half of all attempts, according to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, about 11 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2011, and about 81 percent of them were born in Latin America.Demonstrator John Cowery, a Bloomington resident and former IU educator, said he thinks providing those millions of undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship could have far-reaching economic benefits.A bill awaiting a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives could provide some of the immigration reforms the demonstrators seek, but Republican House leadership has said the bill is unlikely to see a vote this year. The bill, called the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, was passed by the Senate in June.According to the Immigration Policy Center, the bill reforms almost all aspects of immigration policy and practice. Undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. would see due-process protection and be provided full legal status.Republican House leadership, however, has balked at the bill’s far-reaching reforms, indicating they’re more interested in piecemeal reform.Foughty said in an email that because the issue of immigration is so broad, Young also prefers a multi-bill approach to reform instead of one comprehensive bill.“We anticipate the House will begin by tackling border security and perhaps cracking down on employers who hire those here illegally,” Foughty said in the email. “We must ensure border security will be enhanced and existing laws enforced before addressing other aspects of immigration reform.”But under current immigration policies, border-crossings are taking lives and deportations are separating families, Lopez said — so House Republicans, including Young, need to enact comprehensive reform now. It’s not clear how Young defines border security, Cowery said. He added he has never heard or read about how Young intends to achieve border security, or how much it might cost.“He needs to tell us what he believes,” Cowery said to the crowd. “The congressman could act as a leader.”Follow reporter Gage Bentley on Twitter @gagebentley.
(01/30/14 5:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One of the nation’s top lawyers’ group honored an IU professor Wednesday for her significant contributions to dispute resolution, which include improving citizen involvement in government.According to an IU press release, the American Bar Association awarded Lisa Blomgren Amsler, a faculty member at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the Section of Dispute Resolution’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work.Amsler is a leading expert on dispute resolution, the process of resolving legal conflicts between parties, according to the release. She has co-edited three books and written almost 100 articles and book chapters.In December, Amsler led a team of experts and scholars in publishing “Making Public Participation Legal,” a guide to updating laws so that citizens might more easily participate in government.“The laws governing public participation are at least 30-years-old and predate social media, online forums and email listservs,” Amsler said in the Dec. 9 release. “The playing field has changed but the laws haven’t.”The ABA credited that publication and Amsler’s further work on institutions’ conflict resolution processes, which revealed previously undisclosed facets, according to the release.Amsler will receive the award April 5 during a conference in Miami.
(09/08/13 6:02pm)
Romanian Studies Organization protests at Sample Gates
(09/05/13 3:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Romanian students plan to protest a proposed gold mine in Romania that could level whole villages and blast away mountain tops.The protest group, Bloomington for Rosia Montana, is meeting 6 p.m. Friday at the Sample Gates, joining a worldwide network of demonstrations.The demonstrations, centered in Bucharest, Romania, are meant to draw attention to the proposed mine, which would use cyanide to extract more than 1 million pounds of gold in Rosia Montana, Romania.The Romanian government passed draft legislation of the proposal last week.Alexandra Cotofana, an IU graduate student studying anthropology, said the proposal allows the mine’s developer, Rosia Montana Gold Corporation, to leave behind a lake of cyanide solution, develop more than 3,000 acres of wilderness and evict citizens blocking the mine.She said the proposal will likely pass another legislative test next week, furthering it along the path to full legalization.“There are people in Rosia Montana who don’t want to leave,” Cotofana said. “We want the people in Romania to know they have support all over the world.”Follow reporter Gage Bentley on Twitter @gagebentley.
(04/08/13 2:46am)
Mufarrah Musaeva was discussing Uzbek dating culture in her class when a student asked whether couples in Uzbekistan talk about their sex lives with friends. Before she could answer, a student told her to “keep it PG.”
(03/27/13 3:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Shani Robin stood before about 100 people gathered outside the Monroe County Courthouse Tuesday evening.Bloomington resident Robin wants to marry her partner. She’s advocated for marriage equality for almost 10 years, a fight that requires faith, she said. Faith is needed to prevent hatred from stealing the soul, she said, and to demand visibility in the public arena and embrace one’s identity. Robin expounded her philosophy in a poem she read aloud to the audience titled “Faith.”FairTalk, a grassroots activist group based in Bloomington, organized the rally. It joined the “Light the Way for Justice” campaign, a nationwide public demonstration that coincided with the United States Supreme Court hearing, deliberation and testimony Tuesday regarding Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage in California. The constitutional integrity, or lack thereof, of the Defense of Marriage Act will also be argued today before the Supreme Court.A man passed Robin a microphone before she began to read the poem aloud. She pushed it away. She didn’t need it. Although many at the rally joined in shouting chants like “Gay or straight. Black or white. Marriage is a civil right,” Robin’s voice rose above most.Faith is bricks stacked together, Robin said. And those bricks make a fortress, meant as a bulwark for proponents of equality during a coming revolution. She said the revolution is a battle fought for marriage quality and it begins with the Supreme Court’s hearings.Robin said she chose the brick metaphor because there are different types of people who fight for marriage equality.Faith in an American value that all people are equal is one reason why FairTalk Treasurer Phil Cooper said he didn’t hesitate to fight in the Vietnam War.“I want to believe that’s true,” Cooper said as tears rolled down his face. “The Supreme Court has it in their hands right now.”Cooper said his heart is broken because his lesbian daughter has fewer rights than others. But he has faith, he said, that the Supreme Court will declare Prop 8 and DOMA unconstitutional.A minister who spoke to the crowd chose not to speculate.Minister Caela Wood said although she won’t try to predict the Court’s decision, she has faith small movements like the rally will influence the Court to move in favor of marriage equality.Wood has served at First United Church on East Third Street for six years and said faith can be used against marriage equality, too.“I’m sick and tired of churches who use the Word to support close-minded agendas,” Wood said. “We need to stop talking about who’s having sex and start talking about who’s having healthy relationships.”Wood said she is, however, undaunted by the opposition.“I think I’ll see marriage equality in my lifetime,” Wood said. “I’m a young woman, so there’s plenty of time.”
(02/26/13 4:06am)
The student's story in her own words.
(02/25/13 4:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hoosiers need not look beyond campus to find a theater featuring international, independent and documentary films and opportunities to meet filmmakers.IU Cinema, founded in 2011, has worked with the film industry, University departments and schools to create an “art house” moviegoing experience.Oscar-nominated German director Werner Herzog and independent filmmaker John Sayles are among the talent IU Cinema has brought to campus.The first two years have seen other such successes, and audience members should look forward to more distinctive and valuable opportunities in 2013, IU Cinema Director Jon Vickers said.“Some of the things we’re starting to build are a couple of conferences or mini-festivals,” Vickers said. “We’re going to be home to Orphans Midwest in the fall. It’s an academic program, with screenings, that supports and explores the relevance of orphaned films — films that have never been screened. It’s a high-profile symposium.“Another is an interesting and fun festival called Slapsticon,” he said. “It’s three and a half days of slapstick films. We might be the future home for that from here on out.”Every IU Cinema screening and event is open to the public. The cinema receives some of its budget from the University, so Vickers said people and students especially should be aware of the tremendous value offered.“The majority of events are free to students,” Vickers said. “The public pays nothing, too, for more than half of the events.”He said the cinema’s success is due in part to its efforts staying academically relevant. The cinema was founded after IU President Michael McRobbie recognized film studies at the University needed a place to live.“We’ve very quickly become academically relevant with our programs and partnerships,” he said. “We’re also building a really strong national reputation.”Kathryn Bigelow, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese are among the filmmakers invited to visit IU Cinema in 2013, Vickers said.Corresponding with big-name Hollywood filmmakers and directors isn’t easy though, IU Cinema Business Manager Carla Cowden said.“We have a very small staff,” Cowden said. “We have three full-time staff and a number of students, some of whom are volunteers. Our success is contingent on everyone’s enthusiasm for film.”The cinema exceeded original ticket sale expectations by selling more than 90,000 tickets in two years, according to a press release.Combined with dozens of lectures and hundreds of partnered screenings, the cinema has proven to be a worthy endeavor, Vickers said.“People are always impressed with what they see,” he said. “They can’t believe what’s happening at Indiana.”
(02/10/13 6:11am)
Four IU students speak about their personal experiences on campus as members of the minority population.
(01/29/13 12:00am)
Alvin Tan, president of IU's Singapore Student Association
(01/28/13 6:40pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU’s Singapore Student Association President Alvin TanWhere are you from?SingaporeWhat year are you?SeniorWhat are you majoring in?Economic consulting and public policyWhy did you choose IU?When you study public policy, the United States is the place to be, and IU fit the profile. And I wanted something different. I come from a bustling city. It’s a slower pace and less of a distraction.How safe do you feel in Bloomington?I feel quite safe, but I take the basic precaution of not going out alone at night in some off-campus areas.What resources have you found useful in terms of looking for housing?The best input is from seniors, the people who came here before. There is scant information online, but it provides a good overview.What challenges do international students face in terms of looking for housing?One of the biggest concerns for international students is information. They don’t get the on-campus housing they desire because their applications are processed later.Also, international students should be able to stay in their on-campus rooms during breaks. They pay a lot in fees and shouldn’t be relocated to contrived living spaces.Knowing what you do now, what would you have done differently before you moved here?I was pretty lucky as a freshman. I wouldn’t have changed anything. I got a nice roommate, a nice environment, where the mix of international students and local students was 50-50.What more can the University do to help international students be comfortable here?The University should provide more online information about housing. Other students from Singapore and I are used to speaking English, so it’s easier for us. But other international students might need a lot more online information from the University.
(12/07/12 4:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Stigma is everywhere in professor Bernice Pescosolido’s office. It’s written on the covers of her books and in the abstracts of her papers. Ask her about stigma, and she will likely tell a story about a graduate student who tried to win a scholarship for students with disabilities.“She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder early in her life,” Pescosolido said. “Under the ADA (American Disabilities Act of 1990), that’s a disability. I made some inquiries into whether it would be a good idea she apply for a dissertation grant under this announcement. They said, ‘she could, but we wouldn’t recommend it.’”The scholarship representatives didn’t recommend it because of stigma associated with mental illness, Pescosolido said, which encompasses the stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination suffered by those who experience mental illness. They were worried she would be discriminated against.“I think the people who said this were people who were very aware of the stigma of mental illness,” she said. “They were concerned with the best interest of the student. They were trying to protect the student’s future because of the stigma.”She said because of stigma, people who experience mental illness may be seen as incompetent, childish or dangerous.Pescosolido is a distinguished professor of sociology at IU, director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research and an expert about stigma.According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one of every three college students experiences mental illness, which includes depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Pescosolido said mental illness creates a catch-22 that for many students makes treatment difficult. To challenge stigma, students must disclose what they’re experiencing. But disclosure means they will be stigmatized, which makes treatment-seeking problematic.Mental illness can cause hallucinations, depression and panic attacks, said Jill Bolte Taylor, president of the Bloomington branch of the National Alliance of Mental Illness.She said the effects of stigma exacerbate these symptoms.“They are ashamed or not educated about what mental illness is,” Taylor said. “As a result, they don’t reach out for help, and the pain and illness becomes more complicated.”Pescosolido said disclosure challenges stigma because when people come into contact with individuals who experience mental illness, stigma is greatly reduced.She said inclusion is when individuals are accepted into groups like families or workplaces.“What we haven’t seen is a decrease in stigma attached to inclusion,” Pescosolido said. “That might be the last bastion of intolerance.”But if students wanted to inform instructors when experiences with mental illness hurt their performance, she said she would tell them to be careful disclosing the truth. Faculty members aren’t always more tolerant than others, she said.“The universe of faculty is as the universe of society,” Pescosolido said.Though faculty members might not understand students’ experiences with mental illness, there are helpful resources available, IU Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Nancy Stockton said.“We would talk with the student if they have an onset of depression that’s impacting their studies,” Stockton said. “We might write a letter that informs their faculty, but ultimately the decision is up to the student.”IU’s Mental Health Working Group is dedicated to providing mental health resources and support to graduate students, as well as learning about graduate students’ mental health, founder and IU doctoral student Rachel La Touche said.She said graduate students don’t have enough access to information about resources, so mental health issues get worse while they’re learning about how to access care. She also said distinctive pressures of graduate school, like working closely with rivals and potential employers, cause students to avoid seeking treatment.If an IU student does disclose and wants instructors to change their expectations accordingly, there’s a bureaucratic process involved, she said.“You can’t just say to an instructor ‘I’m experiencing extreme anxiety, and it’s influencing my performance,’” La Touche said. “You need to go to disability services. There’s a program in place for individuals who need to be tested and have recommendations proposed to their instructors. That’s the only way.”Individuals must disclose to others when seeking treatment at IU, Stockton said. Meanwhile, they might have to wait several weeks before an appointment.“They might want to wait a while,” she said.Taylor said students should demand a change, adding there must be increased support, education and advocacy at IU in order to reduce stigma and expedite the treatment process.“I know it is very difficult to get seen by a psychiatrist at IU,” Taylor said.Taylor said it might help if there were a student organization that addressed the issue.Several years ago, Pescosolido said, students tried to form a group dedicated to reducing mental illness stigma, but it dissolved. Streamlining the treatment process might help reduce stigma, though, Pescosolido said.“If they find a cure, or if they find something that makes it incredibly manageable in an effective way, stigma tends to go down,” she said.
(12/06/12 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Residents’ concerns about lethal methods of deer management proposed by the Deer Task Force prompted further discourse from the Bloomington City Council and residents Wednesday.The council unanimously passed an advisory document regarding the population recommendations for deer in Bloomington. Since the council conditionally accepted the recommendations Nov. 28, some council members formed new questions about the humaneness and safety of urban hunting and the state of the biological community at Griffy Woods.Because the document was advisory, no city official nor the council is bound to any action.The 12-member task force’s report distinguishes two problem areas regarding the deer: Griffy Woods and southeast Bloomington. The task force recommended deer at Griffy be culled by teams of sharpshooters and the Bloomington deer be reduced by urban hunting and trap-and-kill methods.Council member Marty Spechler asked whether bow hunting in city limits is either humane or safe.“Safety can be relatively guaranteed,” task force member and expert hunter Susannah Burchell said.According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, bow hunting in city limits is currently legal. Burchell said the task force has recommended stricter regulation of urban hunting.“We’re not going to be in people’s backyards,” she said. “We’re not going to be where people don’t want us.”Burchell said regulations should also include demanding urban-bow hunters pass proficiency tests, in hopes they make well-placed shots to minimize harm. Council member Andy Ruff didn’t address recommendations concerning urban deer but asked if the science driving the recommendations for Griffy Woods was valid.“We have concrete, scientific data,” IU biologist Angie Shelton said.Shelton has worked closely with task force member and IU biologist Keith Clay.Shelton said although the study of deer in Griffy Woods hasn’t been formally peer-reviewed and published, other scientists have informally approved the data, and hundreds of similar studies corroborate her findings.Some members of the public said because the task force’s report relies on Shelton’s studies, it must be published and peer-reviewed before the city can proceed with recommendations.IU philosophy faculty member Sandra Shapshay said Shelton’s study does not indicate a deer problem at Griffy.“To single out deer, when rabbits, opossums and raccoons were also very likely excluded is unscientific,” Shapshay said. “Most important, it gives no evidence of a deer problem per se, but rather a small mammal problem in general.”
(12/06/12 4:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One in five charter schools in the U.S. should be shut down due to poor performance, according to National Charter School Authorizers.NACSA represents entities that oversee charter schools and announced Nov. 28 its “One Million Lives” campaign, an initiative designed to ensure the worst charter schools are shut down. The campaign’s creation was inspired by a NACSA survey that showed, despite a recent jump in closures, there are still too many charter schools operating with poor performance.“In some places, accountability unfortunately has been part of the charter model in name only,” NACSA President and CEO Greg Richmond said. “If charters are going to succeed in helping improve public education, accountability must go from being rhetoric to reality.”NACSA’s analysis suggests 900 to 1,300 charter schools are performing in the lowest 15 percent of all schools in their states. According to the 2012 A-F accountability report published by the Indiana Department of Education, 23 of the 64 charter schools evaluated this year received an “F,” the state’s lowest rating.Although five schools have been refused charter renewal since 2003, according to the Department of Education, it’s not clear what will be done about the schools currently under-performing.The Indiana Charter School Board, a component of the Department of Education, is Indiana’s charter school authorizer and charged with holding them accountable. According to the board’s website, whether or not a charter school is meeting the standards is determined by ICSB. The board visits schools before, during and after the duration of their charters and chooses to renew them accordingly. Nothing on the website indicates a school can be shut down mid-term, and the board representative could not be reached for comment.A goal of “One Million Lives” is to ensure states’ authorizers not only close poorly performing charter schools but immediately replace them with better ones, according to a press release. By Gage Bentley
(11/30/12 5:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Local deer might want to leave Bloomington soon. The city could be gunning for them as early as next year. Bloomington City Council approved all advisory recommendations submitted by the Deer Task Force on Wednesday at the city council meeting. Tailored to two distinct areas, Griffy Woods and southeast Bloomington neighborhoods, the recommendations included contracting sharpshooters who might use silenced hunting rifles to cull the deer in Griffy and using clover to trap and kill urban deer. The task force’s recommendations were non-binding. No elected official is required to act on them. Other recommendations were more benign: raising allowed fence heights, banning the feeding of deer and educating the public about the animals. All council members supported the non-lethal recommendations, as did the citizens in attendance. But the suggestion of lethal means has been controversial since the task force published its report in October.According to the report, the deer in Griffy Woods are overpopulated and destroying the ecosystem.The urban deer aren’t overpopulated but have instead reached social-carrying capacity, meaning residents’ tolerance of their four-legged neighbors has peaked.Bloomington resident Travis Puntarelli played a song about a hunter who abandoned killing, complete with choral accompaniment. Many expressed their concerns that the task force’s science was faulty.“There are no deer in Griffy,” Bloomington resident Mark Haggerty said. “I hiked through Griffy 200 times this year, and I saw only a handful of deer.”The Indiana Department of Natural Resources does not suggest deer censuses because they’re difficult and expensive, IDNR wildlife biologist Josh Griffin said.The situation at Griffy should be investigated by the National Humane Society before the city proceeds with lethal means, resident Jay Santa said. He said the task force refused the NHS’s offer to conduct such an investigation.Other members of the public said the science used by the task force is overwhelmingly convincing. Several residents said they had seen deformed deer and a decline in songbird populations and shrubs and bushes.Deer are the primary contributing factor to the biological degradation in Griffy Woods, IU biologist and task force member Keith Clay said to the council by phone.Clay’s colleague, IU biologist Angie Shelton, presented photos that contrasted healthy forest floor enclosed from the deer and barren-looking floor where the deer roamed freely. A major problem is that deer are eating tree saplings, she said.“No trees are regenerating,” Shelton said. “Not only is the deer population high, it’s extremely high.”Council and task force member Dave Rollo said the situation in town is very different than Griffy, though.Rollo presented the results of a nonscientific survey conducted by the task force. It suggested people in southeast neighborhoods have seen one to five deer every day and incurred $100 per-person in deer-related damages during the last year.In addition to higher fences and abstinence from feeding, task force member Thomas Moore said residents can use a bow to hunt deer during bow season.Council member Marty Spechler said that conflicts with the task force’s mission to use humane lethal methods.Rollo said the most humane and effective method of reducing urban deer populations is using clover to trap and kill deer.The survey suggested the majority of respondents, 45 percent, were in favor of using the traps, but some citizens said they thought it wasn’t safe.Hunting expert Joel Caldwell said it was safe, but the trapping would stop if deer were too distressed before a biologist could arrive to shoot the animal. No one said how much stress is too much, though.Though no one said what is humane, and what is not, the task force decided against trapping and relocating deer because it was more inhumane than killing them outright.Griffin said relocated deer suffer from trap myopathy, or severe distress, and usually die with 26 hours.Council member Susan Sandberg said regardless of whether recommendations were humane, doing nothing was most inhumane solution because overpopulation means deer will starve to death.All council members said the task force’s two-year-long efforts should not be wasted. They voted to approve the advisory recommendations, 7-0-2.Council member Steve Volan said if opposition groups want the recommendations superseded, they must provide better-developed recommendations.
(11/29/12 4:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Those who want to help Monroe County schools can bid online for a variety of items, ranging in value from $30 to $4,000. The Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools is auctioning a free pet adoption at Bloomington Animal Shelter, a five-day vacation in Cancun and an opportunity for up to 10 people to play basketball with former IU men’s basketball players. Foundation representative Sara Neeley said she hopes such priceless experiences will attract more bids.“It’s all for the schools,” Neeley said. “Proceeds will go to grants, literacy projects and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).”Neeley said former IU basketball player Haris Mujezinovic, who played from 1995 to 1997, first agreed to play basketball with whoever bid the most for the opportunity.After Mujezinovic, nine other former IU players signed on, including Calbert Cheaney, Brian Evans and Matt Nover. The opening bid for the basketball game is $1,000, and bidders must be 18 years or older.Other items listed as “priceless” include a football signed by Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee, four tickets to the Big Ten tournament and a scholarship for a high school senior, named for the highest bidder.Nick’s English Hut also donated 16 pieces of “priceless” memorabilia, some of which cannot be purchased anywhere else.“I’ve got stuff people would like, pieces from the bar,” Nick’s owner Gregg Rago said.Rago said people who have spent a lot of time at Nick’s and IU will love the opportunity to own a piece of the community. Although Nick’s could sell the goods privately and make money, Rago said helping the foundation is a more worthy cause.“Some people are greedy,” Rago said. “But this is a great opportunity to support Bloomington.”Eligible participants can place bids online at biddingforgood.com/fmccs. The auction ends Dec. 10.
(11/27/12 5:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The world of language is violent and chaotic, a linguistics expert said Monday during a lecture.John Edwards, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, criticized the idea that while globalization flattens the world, languages nicely align with others as the individuals who speak them mingle.“The lion and calf may lie together, but the calf won’t get much sleep,” Edwards said.He said the lion for most of the world is the English language. Globalization has created the need for a common language with which the beneficiaries of the flattened Earth may communicate, he said.Every year, the number of English speakers in countries like India and Peru increases while the number of people who speak indigenous languages and dialects decreases. He said in a Darwinistic sense, the bigger languages are killing the smaller languages.In Peru, the most endangered language, Huanca Quechua, is dying as Spanish is being taught with earnest to each new generation, IU Education Professor Serafin Coronel-Molina said.He said governments must promote bilingualism to preserve smaller dialects while expanding more globally relevant languages.“The best way is to transmit from generation to generation,” Coronel-Molina said. “The schools can maintain bilingual education. People in the community need to be encouraged to keep their language alive.”That lesson is valuable to education students, education graduate student Lorin Estes said.“There’s something very unique in each language that’s valuable,” Estes said.Edwards said although he agreed bilingualism is the most sensible way to ensure smaller languages survive, he knows governments are resistant to bilingual education because they’re interested in maintaining national identity.He said U.S. politicians who are resisting the influx of the Spanish language and trying to establish English as the only official language is one example. He added that similar conflicts occur in Canada and elsewhere.“I think the notion of immigrant languages militating against national identities is unfounded,” Edwards said.He said compelling governments to foster bilingual education, and thereby linguistic diversity is a very difficult task.“Why can’t we have our linguistic cake and eat it, too?” he asked.
(11/16/12 4:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ivy Tech Community College’s Bloomington campus was named a military-friendly school for the second year in a row by G.I. Jobs magazine. G.I. Jobs chooses schools that offer the best and most adaptable services. Veteran students may also vote for schools they believe are military friendly, according to a press release.Though IU was also on the list, some veteran students prefer Ivy Tech because of low costs and veterans-only classes, Ivy Tech Bloomington student Pat Rincon said.“I want to take more classes that are veterans-only,” Rincon said.He said his U.S. history class is taught by a veteran and that the all-veteran students value such familiarity.Ivy Tech Bloomington will offer three veterans-only courses in the spring, said Laura Vest, Ivy Tech veterans benefits coordinator.“The classes allow veterans to share like experiences,” Vest said. “They’re more comfortable sharing with people who have had similar challenges.”Rincon said he’s stalling his transfer to IU because he doesn’t know of any veterans-only classes at IU and because Ivy Tech classes are less expensive.Student Service Assistant Sarah Gibson works with IU’s Veteran Support Services and said IU actually has one such class.Education 206: “Orientation to College Life” is a veterans-only course specifically designed to support the transition of veterans to higher education and to utilize their experiences to aid their academic careers, according to the IU registrar’s website.Gibson said IU doesn’t offer more veterans-only classes because interest isn’t shown very often.“We might consider more if our student veterans expressed that’s something of interest,” Gibson said.Veteran students, like other students, encounter many challenges, but remain different because those challenges vary greatly between individuals, she said.“We have to adapt our services to individuals’ needs,” Gibson said.
(11/14/12 4:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ousted Indiana education chief Tony Bennett leaves a bevy of reforms in his wake, changes his successor said she will try to rescind.Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect Glenda Ritz won the Nov. 6 election after promising to roll back or repeal reforms made during Bennett’s current term. Ritz has said some of the problems with Bennett’s reforms are that they created a culture of blaming teachers and reliance upon faulty standardized tests. David Harris, CEO of education policy research center the Mind Trust, said Ritz’s election was a surprise.“Tony seemed like someone who was well-positioned,” Harris said. “He was a big loss for education reform.”Neither Ritz or Bennett could be reached for comment.Now that she has won the odds are slim that Ritz will roll back any reform, State Board of Education member James Edwards said.“The board is very deeply committed to the agenda of the past four years,” Edwards said.The superintendent doesn’t legislate policy but rather implements it, and one function of the State Board of Education is to approve the rules for that implementation. The governor appoints members to the board, and Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed Edwards in 2008. Gov.-elect Mike Pence said at a press conference last week that he too is committed to the path of reform set during the past four years.However, Ritz will be chairwoman of the board as superintendent and a full-voting member. By influencing the rules by which she implements policy, Ritz can change the impact reforms have on public education.But Edwards said that because the general assembly is dominated by Republicans who are committed to Bennett’s reforms, Ritz’s powers might be limited.Instead of trying to change laws and policies, Ritz will most likely focus on improving conditions for teachers and other educators, said Vic Smith, a board member of the Indiana Coalition for Public Education. The coalition is composed of volunteers who supported Ritz throughout her campaign in the interest of resisting privatization of public schools.“We’re better off with her there than her predecessor,” Smith said.People should be pleased Ritz won because Bennett ignored the concerns of teachers and families in his zealous pursuit of reform, said Sen. Tim Skinner, D-Terre Haute.“What made Tony Bennett unpopular was policy,” Skinner said.He said Ritz plans to deploy community outreach specialists to school districts so that her implementation of policy will align with the needs of specific communities. That’s enough for her to out-qualify Bennett, he said.“I think Glenda Ritz has 10 times the capabilities to run the Department of Education than Tony Bennett did,” Skinner said.