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(04/21/05 6:14am)
IU President Adam Herbert and a majority of the trustees support the $30 athletics fee despite widespread campus objections. \nThat scenario is unfolding this month as the University's administration goes against the Committee for Fee Review's recommendation to eliminate the athletics subsidy. \nIt has happened before.\nLast year a nine-member committee that included students proposed alternatives to the $30 fee such as changing the student-athlete advising structure and examining student ticket allocation and prices. \nAlthough those proposals were dismissed then, key portions of the "Zorn Committee Report" since have been enacted.\n"It's concerning that they've implemented the recommendations when we were told they weren't feasible," said former IU Student Body President Tyson Chastain, who sat on both the Zorn and CFR committees. "Why weren't they an alternative then?"\nThe Zorn Committee Report suggested last year the department make changes to ticket allocation and pricing to generate more revenue.\nSince then, the athletics department has allocated 200 more men's basketball tickets for students, raising total student seats from 7,800 to a record 8,000, said Bruce Jaffee, a business professor and chair of the faculty and alumni IU Athletics Committee. Seventy-two new court-side seats were added at Assembly Hall and brought in $400,000 in additional \nrevenue, said IU Media Relations Director Pete Rhoda. And starting next fall, student ticket prices for football will drop from $10 to $8. \nThe Zorn Committee Report did not recommend these exact plans, but it did explore the possibility that demand for tickets is highly elastic. \n"An excellent point of the Zorn Report is that we should look more thoughtfully at ticket pricing," Jaffee said. \nAn additional alternative to the student fee called for campus support for student-athlete advising. That plan was approved by the Bloomington Faculty Council earlier this year and should save athletics an estimated $250,000 a year. \n"Where is the review to look into whether these alternatives have worked and if we can now get rid of the athletics fee?" Chastain said.\nDespite the changes, Jaffee said a mandatory student fee is still necessary to support the department. The athletics debt for 2005 is projected to be at least $1 million more than last year, according to athletics reports. While average attendance for Big Ten home football games is 75,000, attendance at IU home games averaged only 30,000 last season, Jaffee said. Of the 24 sports offered at IU, only three -- football and men's and women's basketball -- generate revenue. \nJaffee said the fee helps reduce the deficit but does not come close to solving it. He said revenue raised from the fee, about $1.1 million, would account for only 2.5 percent of the total athletics budget. \n"In the absence of a fee, maintaining what we have is very questionable," Jaffee said. "It is viewed as part of an overall financial strategy." \nWithout a student fee, IU Athletics might have to raise ticket prices, reduce student seating, cut sports programs or seek more commercial deals, Jaffee said.\nOther plans to generate more revenue and cut costs are ongoing, but the deficit-reduction is tied closely to new football coach Terry Hoeppner. In recent weeks, he has made himself very visible, talking to students at a Union Board forum, visiting Jill's House and appearing at the Bloomington Convention Center at a conference on economic development.\nChastain said Hoeppner and new Athletics Director Rick Greenspan have done a tremendous job in handling the deficit they've inherited. Chastain plans to lobby trustees on behalf of students and the Committee for Fee Review. Trustees will officially vote on the $30 fee May 6. \n"We as students are the ones paying the fees," he said. "Students should be listened to." \n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(03/29/05 5:11am)
Punk-pop band Something Corporate and G-Unit artist Young Buck will play concerts coinciding with Little 500 at two fraternity houses in April.\nSomething Corporate will perform at 7:30 p.m. on April 11 at the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, 1100 N. Jordan Ave. Tickets cost $20 and can be bought from fraternity brothers or from Ticketmaster.\nAlpha Tau Omega fraternity, 720 E. Third St., will bring Young Buck at 5 p.m. on April 14. Tickets cost $25 and are available at Tracks Records, 415 E. Kirkwood Ave., or from fraternity members.\nThe Young Buck concert has been billed as "Hip-Hip Palooza" and features an MC battle and two opening acts. The MC battle will be judged by three talent scouts from Interscope Records. First prize is two tickets to Las Vegas.\nHip-hop acts Da Gorgeous Gangsters from Astoria, Queens, and House of H.E.M.P. from Gary, Ind., will open for Young Buck. The G-Unit artist will perform for 45 minutes, said ATO Vice President and junior Adam Goldberg. \nThe fraternity is still accepting entrants to the MC battle. Proceeds will go to the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club.\nAnother G-Unit member, The Game, was also advertised to perform in Bloomington during Little 500 week, but the show was cancelled last week. More than 500 tickets had already been purchased.\nGoldberg insisted that the Young Buck show will take place. The fraternity is not working with the same promoter, and Young Buck has already publicly discussed the IU show on radio, he said.\nPhi Sigma Kappa sophomore Jason Boo said Something Corporate will be an alternative to the Little 500 hip-hop shows. Union Board is also bringing The Roots on April 14. \nHe said the five-member band from Orange County, Calif., has created their own identity with a style called "piano rock." \n"There's no other band really like them," Boo said. "It's a rock group but they incorporate the piano."\nPhi Sigma Kappa senior Michael Palm said Something Corporate has built a loyal fan base by touring and not selling-out to "MTV, TRL or the music machine."\n"They've not gone on your typical pop route," he said. "They put on an amazing show. It's really energetic."\nThe band has released three studio albums: "Audio Boxer" (2001), "Leaving Through the Window" (2002) and "North" (2003).\nDavid "Young Buck" Brown, from Nashville, Tenn., originally recorded with Cash Money Records in the late 1990s before joining 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks in G-Unit. His first album "Straight Outta Cashville" (2004) debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Pop Charts.\nLate last year Young Buck was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly stabbed a man at the Vibe Awards in Los Angeles. Reports have said that Young Buck was retaliating against a man who punched Dr. Dre. Young Buck is currently free on bail and faces an eight-year prison sentence if convicted.\n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(03/25/05 6:06am)
A concert featuring hip-hop artist The Game, which would have been held during Little 500 week, has been canceled, and some local businesses say they won't work with its promoters again.\nThe Game was advertised to perform on April 19, with tickets on sale at www.mitickets.net and at Tracks, 415 E. Kirkwood Ave.\nTracks will give full refunds for the nearly 60 tickets it has sold, said manager Brett Hayden. The online policy of www.mitickets.net states that it will give refunds for the face value of the tickets -- $20 -- but will keep the processing and shipping fees -- $1.50 for each ticket -- to cover "the expenses already incurred."\nAntawan Brown of Indianapolis is the owner of www.mitickets.net and co-founder of promotion company Mizuma Entertainment, which planned the concert. He said the event was canceled because The Game demanded additional luxuries. \n"He wanted a private jet, and we never agreed to that," Brown said. "And they wanted more money."\nAll people who purchased tickets through the Web site will be refunded within 30 days, Brown said, adding that more than 500 tickets had been sold online.\nHayden confirmed that the promoters told him Tuesday the concert had been canceled because The Game raised his original asking price and demanded a private jet. \nHowever, www.mitickets.net, which posted a cancellation notice late Wednesday night, now states the show was nixed because not enough tickets were sold.\nJunior Kevin Donahue bought two tickets at Tracks for $22 apiece. He said when he heard the concert was officially canceled, he became skeptical. \n"I thought it would be an actual concert," Donahue said. "Now that I look back on it, it is sketchy." He also said a recent ad claiming Ron Artest would be at the show brought about his skepticism.\nThe Game is scheduled to perform in Wichita, Kan., April 19, during a tour with Snoop Dogg, according to an announcement on The Game's official Web site, www.comptongame.com. That message was posted March 17. Representatives for The Game could not be reached by press time.\nThe Bloomington concert was scheduled to take place at Pic-A-Chic farms, 6949 S. Rockport Rd. But Dennis Grubb, who handles contracts for Pic-A-Chic, said Brown contacted him to cancel the concert Tuesday, just three days before the final contract was to be signed.\n"He called me several times and he was all gung-ho about it," Grubb said. "Then he called me and just abruptly said they were having some problems."\nGrubb said he also was told the concert was scrapped because of the private jet demand. Brown originally contacted Pic-A-Chic in January, Grubb said, and continued to be optimistic about the concert until Tuesday. \nPic-A-Chic was only going to sign a contract with Brown if the Mizuma representative agreed to pay a deposit with a check that cleared five days before the concert. Mizuma arranged a show with Pic-A-Chic in late 2003 that featured the music group Naughty By Nature and brought a smaller-than-expected audience. Pic-A-Chic received a $1,500 deposit from Mizuma, but not the total cost of the venue, which was a few thousand more dollars, Grubb said.\n"I don't have any personal problems with them, other than we didn't get paid," Grubb said.\nMizuma Entertainment promoted a Little 500 concert last year for 50 Cent, which was cancelled in nearly identical circumstances to this year's event.\n"All I know is it has been a pain in the ass for me," Hayden said. "I probably will never do a show for these guys ever again."\nHayden said the promoters told him The Game had already signed a contract when Hayden agreed to help them sell tickets.\n"Who knows what's really going on," he said. "Maybe they got too far in, and he got bigger than they thought."\nPromotion for the concert began even before The Game's album "The Documentary" was released. The album debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard's Top 200 Chart in January.\nThe concert for 50 Cent was also promoted in the months before the release of his debut album "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'."\n"It seems like the same thing with this one," Hayden said. "They haven't had any luck."\nThe Web site, www.mitickets.net, states that the decision on whether to refund tickets is made by the venue or promoter and that the Web site assumes "no responsibility for making any such decision."\nHowever, the promotion and the ticket sales were both handled by Brown.\nMizuma had also offered free tickets to The Game with the purchase of an album by Midwest hip-hop artist "Desperado," with which Mizuma Entertainment closely works.\nThe Web site appears to sell tickets on its site to more than 30 concerts and sporting events, including Ashlee Simpson, Cher, Chingy, the Indianapolis Colts and the Indiana Pacers. However, only tickets to The Game could be purchased directly through the site. The remaining links go to an Indianapolis Star ticket-purchasing site.\nIU Auditorium Director Doug Booher said that fact "presented a red flag." He said he was concerned about the concert's advertisements. \n"I would suggest ticket buyers be very careful," Booher said. "It's very easy to put up a Web site and purport to sell tickets and not end up presenting the show."\nHayden said he agreed to sell tickets at Tracks, for cash only, because he wanted to support efforts to bring musical acts to the community. He also wanted to help buyers avoid extra fees charged from buying tickets online. \n"I hate it too because it makes it look like us who canceled the show," he said. "We have nothing to do with it."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Rick Newkirk at renewkir@indiana.edu and General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu .
(03/24/05 5:50am)
After a student attempted suicide on campus last year by jumping from Ballantine Hall, the University asked the Health Center to hire a second psychiatrist. \nBut costs for psychiatrists are rising industry-wide. Still the center plans to pay the added expenses by increasing students' mandatory health fee, even though less than 10 percent of students use the psychiatric services, according to Health Center reports. \nIt is not uncommon for student fees to fund services used by a small minority. Mandatory fees subsidize campus child care and student legal services, for example, even though a small minority of students use them each year.\nAssociate Dean of Students Damon Sims said it makes sense to spread the cost of some critical services across the entire student body to make them more affordable. \n"It's not just as simple as, 'We have to have 50 percent plus 1 students participating in this program for it to be meritorious of a mandatory fee,'" said Sims. "There are some very good things that need to be supported."\nAccording to a plan submitted by an appointed committee of students to the University before spring break, the Health Center, Student Legal Services and Campus Child Care all would receive fee increases next year.
(03/23/05 6:05am)
The two-year drought has ended.\nHip-hop group The Roots will play a concert at the IU Auditorium for Little 500 week, bringing back a tradition of inviting major musical acts to perform during the "World's Greatest College Weekend."\nTickets for the April 14 show go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Auditorium Box Office and cost $27 for students and $35 for nonstudents. \nThe hip-hop band will play IU as part of its 18-stop "Gymnasium Invasium" tour of college campuses. \nThe Little 500 tradition of music concerts had been broken during the past two years. Fraternities and sororities staged smaller shows with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Rusted Root. But the last Union Board-sponsored artist to play a Little 500 concert was Guster in 2002.\n"We are very excited because The Roots are known as one of the best live hip-hop acts," said Lana Kleyman, director of concerts for Union Board. "This show gives the whole feel, energy and excitement of Little 500."\nThe Roots will not have an opening act. All four band members will make the trip: Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter (vocals), Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson (percussion), Leonard Hubbard (bass) and Kamal Gray (keyboard). The band signed a contract to come to IU the day before spring break, Kleyman said. \nThe Roots were nominated for two Grammys this year for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for the song "Star" and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for the song "Don't Say Nuthin'." Both songs are from their eighth album, "The Tipping Point," which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2004, according to www.okayplayer.com.\nThe band earned its only Grammy in 1999 for Best Performance By a Rap Duo or Group for "You Got Me" from its Gold album "Things Fall Apart."\nKleyman said the band is "known for its live show." It tours about 250 days out of the year.\n"We have wanted a hip-hop show for a while," she said. "We haven't had one in quite a long time."\nOther stops on The Roots' "Gymnasium Invasium" tour include Syracuse University on April 12 and Butler University on April 17,\n"That's going to be so amazing," said junior Derrell Asante-Addae. "I can't wait to go."\nHe said he appreciates the depth of the lyrics on the albums "Phrenology" and "Tipping Point."\n"When you hear them, it's like 'that's so true,'" he said. "Other artists say things like money, cash, clothes and all of that is not true. What The Roots are saying is what they've been through." \nJunior Hashim Hathaway, who worked on Union Board last year, said the major obstacle to bringing an artist for Little 500 was that artists only want to play in the summer, he said. \n"We received a lot of flak for not bringing a concert," he said. "Believe me it was not for a lack of trying."\nHe said The Roots are a throwback to Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone because they perform with live instrumentation as opposed to two turntables.\n"When you see The Roots perform, you get your money's worth," he said. "When you replace synthesized drum beats with an actual drummer and have a multi-piece band, you bring something more to the audience. They bring that quality from the old school. It's refreshing."\n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(03/09/05 6:17am)
Mandatory student fees would decrease slightly next year under a plan submitted to the University Tuesday by a committee of students.\nThe Committee for Fee Review approved an 11-cent decrease in the total fees every undergraduate student would pay next year and called for ending the athletics fee, providing universal bus access and distributing free national newspapers. \nThe biggest change proposed in the committee report was the elimination of the $15-per-semester athletics fee. The committee's report said the athletics department's "budgetary disclosures were not sufficient to command a fee from all students."\nThe committee requested that the athletics department pursue alternatives to a student fee such as corporate sponsorships. It also suggested that interest from the department's "rapidly growing endowment" could help offset its deficit.\nThe other major change proposed by the committee was the adoption of a transportation plan granting universal access to all campus buses. The plan would cost all students an additional $19.40 per semester next year.\nWith the passage of universal busing, IU transportation has agreed to assume operation of the safety escort service from the IU Student Association. \nThe committee recommended that the $1 mandatory fee that funded safety escort be reallocated to a newspaper readership program. The program would bring free copies of The New York Times, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star to campus next year. IUSA President Tyson Chastain said The Indianapolis Star could be removed from the program.\nThe technology fee for undergraduates was reduced from $200 per semester to $186. Although graduate fees are not included in the final report, the graduate technology fee was raised from $150 to $186. \nThe board of trustees will vote on the plan at a meeting later this year. \nThe committee set the final mandatory fee total at $395.45 for undergraduates. The total is a 3.9 percent increase from the last time the committee met two years ago. The increase from two years ago is in line with the 4 percent fee cap imposed by the governor's office last year.\nIn most cases, the committee did not grant any organization its full funding request. Had it done so, total fees for next year would have been $426.29 with the athletics fee and $411.29 without it. \nOther recommendations in the committee's final report included:\n• Decreasing the fee supporting Union Board by 43 cents. Union Board had requested the elimination of the late-night initiative because of low student interest. The committee refused the request. It decreased the fee for late-night programming by 50 cents while raising the fees for concerts and lectures by 7 cents.\n• Increasing the fee for the Division of Recreational Sports by $2.08 to fund non-student salaries and a small increase for equipment repair. The committee said it was "disappointed by the clarity of the fee request from Recreational Sports" and asked for a "clearer and fuller disclosure" next year.\n• Increasing the fee to the Graduate and Professional Student Organization by 3 cents. The committee refused to approve the GPSO request of 23 cents to fund staff salaries because the committee said it does not believe in "funding salaried positions for students."\n• Increasing the fee for IU Student Television by 6 cents to purchase modern equipment. The committee refused IUSTV's 58-cent request because the money would have gone toward student salaries.\n• Increasing the fee to WIUS radio by 7 cents. The committee would not increase the fee to fund the move to an FM transistor, asking that the station possibly raise the money from alumni.\n• Increasing the health fee by $4.73 to fund non-student salary increases and psychiatric care.\n• Increasing the IU Auditorium fee by 11 cents to support student ticket discounts.\n• Increasing the child-care fee by 4 cents. The committee requested child care seek other sources of funding to help student parents so as not to place "any greater burden on students at large."\n• Increasing the fee for IU Outdoors by 9 cents to fund new equipment.\n• Increasing the fee for Student Legal Services by 28 cents for inflationary considerations on salary.\nThe seven-student committee deliberated for nearly a month and invited all groups requesting fees to submit their budgets during a public hearing.\nThe recommendations were based on a total student enrollment next year of 35,000. \nChastain, who chaired the committee but was not a voting member, said members spent 70 to 80 hours deliberating the fees.\n"It's a very difficult process when you're reviewing fees that go from dimes to a hundred dollars," he said. "The committee shows the support the administration and trustees give to the student voice regarding fees."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(03/08/05 5:32am)
Mandatory student fees paid by every enrolled student have exploded during the past five years. \nThe growth reflects a steep decline in state funding and the struggle some campus organizations are facing to raise new sources of revenue. \nState appropriations, which once supported between 35 and 60 percent of some groups' budgets, now account for only about 5 to 10 percent. At the same time, mandatory student fees now support as much as 70 percent of some budgets. \nLast year, campus organizations such as the IU Auditorium, the Division of Recreational Sports, University Information Technology Services and Campus Child Care hit each student with nearly $400 in bills.\nThat total is set to rise again next year. \nA committee of IU students will release its recommendations this week for as many as 15 mandatory student fees for next year. The Committee for Fee Review heard requests in mid-February for student fee money totaling $425 per semester for every enrolled student. \nAll but three groups asked for fee increases to take effect next year. The largest request came from UITS, which asked the committee to approve a $50 increase in tech fees for graduate students. \nOther requests amounted to no more than nickels and dimes. Campus Child Care asked for a $.10 increase for all students. WIUS radio asked for a $.05 increase.\nThe major focus of the seven-member committee is ensuring students get something in return for their money, said Associate Dean of Students Damon Sims, who also serves as the committee's adviser.\n"They aren't eager to charge students more than is absolutely necessary," Sims said.\nThe Division of Recreational Sports and the Auditorium are two of the campus organizations that depend more than ever on mandatory student fees to fund their services. Both have asked for fee increases next year.
(02/11/05 6:03am)
Internet access in several campus buildings crashed early Thursday morning, preventing use of e-mail, OneStart, OnCourse and IUCAT. In classrooms where computers were needed, students went home early, unable to log in.\nIU's Classroom Technology Services received about a dozen calls from professors inquiring about the outage, said CTS Director Beverly Teach. \n"We had several classrooms affected by it," Teach said. "If you had to use computers in the room for anything, you couldn't."\nFreshman Amber Brothers, who takes a 9:30 a.m. calculus class, said her professor could not access his PowerPoint presentation to share prepared notes with the class. He had to turn to the old-fashioned blackboard, instead.\n"Usually he projects the tables on the screen," she said. "He couldn't do that so he had to write the entire thing out."\nA software upgrade in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation went awry Thursday morning and sparked the outage, said Mike Lucas, director of IU telecommunications. The upgrade was to the HPER "core switch," which channels Internet access to most campus buildings.\nOnly two switches exist on campus. The other is located at the Wrubel Computing Center at 10th Street and the 45/46 bypass. Buildings connected to Wrubel were not affected.\nThe upgrade was supposed to prevent Ethernet "loops," which occur when data is mistakenly sent to multiple addresses. Ethernet loops slow down Internet access by flooding servers with needless traffic. \nTo restore the network Thursday morning, the planned installation had to be undone. \n"We'll schedule that again at a later point," Lucas said. \nMost maintenance occurs early in the morning when few people use the network. \n"We make network upgrades quite often," Lucas said. "They don't normally have problems."\nThe outage lasted from about 8 to 10 a.m. according to the IU Network and System Notices Web page.\n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(02/10/05 5:00am)
To the record industry, John Seroff is something of a criminal. For music fans, he's a budding revolutionary. Seroff is the publisher of http://tofuhut.blogspot.com, better known as Tofu Hut, a genre-blending MP3 blog that treats its readers to free downloads of obscure music and well-written ruminations on little-known artists. Seroff's recently posted the music of Malicorne, a '70s French folk band, and Riko, a female MC from Britain. But by allowing people to download free music, Seroff and the other bloggerati have caught the attention of the record industry. Two weeks ago, the popular blog Moistworks shut down after Great Britain's version of the Recording Industry Artists of America threatened it with a lawsuit. Copyright law says that copyright owners control the distribution to their works.\n"It's a bitch that Moistworks got shut down, but I don't take it as anymore than a shrug," Seroff said. Seroff started his blog as a way to communicate with people after he moved to Florida. "I had scads of free time, and there was something about (blogs) that had revolutionary possibilities," Seroff said. "It struck me as a way for people all over the world to listen to anything. I said 'I've got good tastes. What the hell, I'll give it a shot.'"\nHe chooses the music he posts based on whatever moves him, be it old or new. He limits himself to music that he thinks not everybody has heard before. \n"Why does everyone and their brother have to hit me with the new Bright Eyes single?" Seroff asked. "We have 90 people posting Arcade Fire, too. I would love to see a country music blog. How about a bebop blog?"\nBlogs adhere to a number of common sense rules to help keep the record industry at bay. They only post songs for a week or two before taking them down. They make sure to provide links to places readers can buy the stuff that is posted. They don't give away whole albums.\n"When I first started, I would get phantom, random e-mails from people telling me I was going to jail," Seroff said. "They told me 'I love what you're doing, but you need to chill out.'" Once when he posted an unreleased Tupac Shakur track, he received a cease and desist notice from Amaru Enterprises. He said it's his red badge of courage.\n"By the time they got in touch with me, it was already down," he said. "(The record industry) shrugs at us every now and then. If they wanted to, I'd already be shut down."\nFor followers of the bloggerati community, Tofu Hut is a daily source of nourishment and a refreshingly independent voice amid the din of corporate marketing strategies. The beauty of music blogs is that anyone can start one, and it seems like everybody has. The Internet is the one truly populist medium because it gives the same access to all, provided you know a little something about computer programming. \nWith all the MP3 blogs in existence (and there are more than you think), you'll wish you had bought the 60 GB Ipod with the color screen. \nDuring January, a lot of superb and rare finds made it onto the blogs.\nSoul-sides, http://soul-sides.com, did a week's worth of tracks from the Prestige Records catalogue. The songs highlighted Bernard Purdie, Idris Muhammad, Sonny Stitt and others. The Of Mirror Eye, http://blog.ofmirroreye.net, recently posted multiple tracks from MF Doom's alter ego King Geedorah and Songs from the Deep Throat Soundtrack.\nAmong the hip-hop blogs, Common's latest single, "The Corners," made the rounds last week. Tracks from Edan's forthcoming album also popped up in more than one place. Cocaine Blunts, www.cocaineblunts.com, posted tracks from the Outsidaz, Ras Kass and Young Zee. On indie rock blogs, the LCD Soundsystem has been a late favorite, while Sri Lankan singer M.I.A. has been getting the equivalent of heavy airtime. Many bloggers post only older music. These don't seem to be in danger of going away because they stimulate renewed interested in otherwise forgotten artists. At a time when no one else is promoting older artists, blogs may increase their sales.. \nBut while that argument should justify keeping all blogs and file-sharing around, it doesn't. When blogs post sought-after music like Common's "The Corners," they may have the reverse effect of undercutting sales. Bloggers aren't making any money off their sites right now, although Seroff said he has his fingers crossed that a small record label will call and ask him to blog for their artists. \nSeroff said he is still paranoid that record companies will shut him down, but he is optimistic that MP3 blogs will keep multiplying and the readership will grow. \n"We plan to destroy the radio and the mass media and overthrow the government, and we'll all live with milk and honey and be naked," he joked.\nIf Moistworks is any indication, more shutdowns may be on the way. Another IU student was sued last month by the Record Industry Artists of America for illegal file-sharing. In Norway, a college student was sued for simply providing links to free Internet music. He didn't host the files himself but pointed people to where they could be found. He lost the suit and paid up. \nIn my own defense, I urge you to buy an album if you like what you download.
(02/09/05 5:18am)
To the record industry, John Seroff is something of a criminal. For music fans, he's a budding revolutionary. Seroff is the publisher of http://tofuhut.blogspot.com, better known as Tofu Hut, a genre-blending MP3 blog that treats its readers to free downloads of obscure music and well-written ruminations on little-known artists. Seroff's recently posted the music of Malicorne, a '70s French folk band, and Riko, a female MC from Britain. But by allowing people to download free music, Seroff and the other bloggerati have caught the attention of the record industry. Two weeks ago, the popular blog Moistworks shut down after Great Britain's version of the Recording Industry Artists of America threatened it with a lawsuit. Copyright law says that copyright owners control the distribution to their works.\n"It's a bitch that Moistworks got shut down, but I don't take it as anymore than a shrug," Seroff said. Seroff started his blog as a way to communicate with people after he moved to Florida. "I had scads of free time, and there was something about (blogs) that had revolutionary possibilities," Seroff said. "It struck me as a way for people all over the world to listen to anything. I said 'I've got good tastes. What the hell, I'll give it a shot.'"\nHe chooses the music he posts based on whatever moves him, be it old or new. He limits himself to music that he thinks not everybody has heard before. \n"Why does everyone and their brother have to hit me with the new Bright Eyes single?" Seroff asked. "We have 90 people posting Arcade Fire, too. I would love to see a country music blog. How about a bebop blog?"\nBlogs adhere to a number of common sense rules to help keep the record industry at bay. They only post songs for a week or two before taking them down. They make sure to provide links to places readers can buy the stuff that is posted. They don't give away whole albums.\n"When I first started, I would get phantom, random e-mails from people telling me I was going to jail," Seroff said. "They told me 'I love what you're doing, but you need to chill out.'" Once when he posted an unreleased Tupac Shakur track, he received a cease and desist notice from Amaru Enterprises. He said it's his red badge of courage.\n"By the time they got in touch with me, it was already down," he said. "(The record industry) shrugs at us every now and then. If they wanted to, I'd already be shut down."\nFor followers of the bloggerati community, Tofu Hut is a daily source of nourishment and a refreshingly independent voice amid the din of corporate marketing strategies. The beauty of music blogs is that anyone can start one, and it seems like everybody has. The Internet is the one truly populist medium because it gives the same access to all, provided you know a little something about computer programming. \nWith all the MP3 blogs in existence (and there are more than you think), you'll wish you had bought the 60 GB Ipod with the color screen. \nDuring January, a lot of superb and rare finds made it onto the blogs.\nSoul-sides, http://soul-sides.com, did a week's worth of tracks from the Prestige Records catalogue. The songs highlighted Bernard Purdie, Idris Muhammad, Sonny Stitt and others. The Of Mirror Eye, http://blog.ofmirroreye.net, recently posted multiple tracks from MF Doom's alter ego King Geedorah and Songs from the Deep Throat Soundtrack.\nAmong the hip-hop blogs, Common's latest single, "The Corners," made the rounds last week. Tracks from Edan's forthcoming album also popped up in more than one place. Cocaine Blunts, www.cocaineblunts.com, posted tracks from the Outsidaz, Ras Kass and Young Zee. On indie rock blogs, the LCD Soundsystem has been a late favorite, while Sri Lankan singer M.I.A. has been getting the equivalent of heavy airtime. Many bloggers post only older music. These don't seem to be in danger of going away because they stimulate renewed interested in otherwise forgotten artists. At a time when no one else is promoting older artists, blogs may increase their sales.. \nBut while that argument should justify keeping all blogs and file-sharing around, it doesn't. When blogs post sought-after music like Common's "The Corners," they may have the reverse effect of undercutting sales. Bloggers aren't making any money off their sites right now, although Seroff said he has his fingers crossed that a small record label will call and ask him to blog for their artists. \nSeroff said he is still paranoid that record companies will shut him down, but he is optimistic that MP3 blogs will keep multiplying and the readership will grow. \n"We plan to destroy the radio and the mass media and overthrow the government, and we'll all live with milk and honey and be naked," he joked.\nIf Moistworks is any indication, more shutdowns may be on the way. Another IU student was sued last month by the Record Industry Artists of America for illegal file-sharing. In Norway, a college student was sued for simply providing links to free Internet music. He didn't host the files himself but pointed people to where they could be found. He lost the suit and paid up. \nIn my own defense, I urge you to buy an album if you like what you download.
(02/04/05 6:15am)
The universal bus plan might soon hit a pothole. \nGraduate students in several departments said they are unlikely to endorse the plan when it comes up for a vote today at a meeting of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization.\nThe plan calls for extending unlimited bus access from the Bloomington Transit, Stadium Express and Midnight Shuttle to all campus buses and increasing the transportation fee to $50. \nBut graduate students rarely use the campus buses. The average graduate student works in the same building all day and has no need to ride the IU buses around campus, said graduate student Eric Zeemering, GPSO moderator.\n"Graduate students are saying it might not benefit me fully," he said. "Their primary concern with transportation is to and from campus rather than within campus." \nOther graduate students work as research and teaching assistants and can obtain A or C passes to park on campus. \nGPSO coordinator and doctoral student Kimberly James said she has heard from entire departments that oppose the fee increase.\n"Most commentary has not been supportive," James said.\nThe GPSO advises the dean of the graduate school. Each department on campus elects a representative to serve on GPSO committees. \nLast month, the IU Student Association Congress approved the same plan by a margin of 2-1. IUSA has elected representatives from both undergraduate and graduate departments. \nThe GPSO vote comes one day before the Committee for Fee Review meets to analyze the proposal in greater detail. If the fee passes the committee's scrutiny, it goes before the IU board of trustees for final approval. \nIUSA President Tyson Chastain said he understands why graduate students would oppose the plan. But while undergraduates will benefit most from the fee increase, graduate students have been well served by earlier changes, he said.\nThe board of trustees approved the concept of a universal transportation plan in 2000, but it has been a gradual process of implementation. The first phase of the plan gave students unlimited access to Bloomington Transit by showing their student IDs. Other phases introduced the Midnight Shuttle and Stadium Express.\n"This might be a time to say since we've been benefitting from the Bloomington Transit, we might commit to the rest of the plan," he said.\nBut Zeemering said representatives are also concerned that IU has no plans to add new buses next year if the fee is passed. \n"We need to ask some critical questions as the fee is being discussed," Zeemering said.\nCurrently, riders of the campus buses pay 75 cents per ride or $158 for a year-long pass.\nQuestions remain whether the trustees would approve the fee even if it came up for a vote. Gov. Mitch Daniels is expected to ask for a tuition and fee cap of about 4 percent, Chastain said, which might not leave room for a bus plan. \nChancellor Ken Gros Louis said the athletic fee might increase from last year, which would make a bus fee even more difficult to pass. \n"It's critical for the trustees to listen to the dialogue on fees on campus," Zeemering said. "They need to know where our priorities lie in services from the University." \n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(01/28/05 7:21pm)
At a school where diversity is touted, beliefs are being stepped on. \nMembers of IU's Muslim community said they are offended and puzzled that someone painted the sacred phrase "In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful" on sidewalks across campus.\nThe phrase is one of the most holy in Islam, and students said it should not be written on a place where thousands of people walk every day.\n"This symbol is a very dear saying to Muslims," said President of the Muslim Student Union Shahaab Uddin. "To see it on the ground and stepped on hurts."\nDevout Muslims speak the phrase, called the bismillah, before most religious actions, and both the reading of the Koran and the five daily prayers begin with it.\nThe drawing's detailed Arabic script and green ink suggests to some Muslims that whoever made the symbol has some knowledge of Islam. That's what makes its placement on the ground so confounding, Uddin said. \n"I would doubt it was a Muslim," Uddin said, "but if it was, it's a very un-Islamic action." Green is often considered the symbolic color of Islam.\nThe drawing's presence across campus was reported about two weeks ago to IU's Religious Bias Incidence Team. \nThe team contacted IU's Physical Plant and the IU Police Department, who removed most of the symbols. But even now some still remain.\n"These need to be systematically searched for and removed," Uddin said. "It hurts they haven't done more."\nMelanie Payne, a member of the Religious Bias Incidence Team, said they don't know who created the symbols.\n"It's hard to investigate who did an anonymous writing," she said. \nThe bismillah was drawn in ink rather than chalk, making it difficult to scrub away with water, she said. \nPayne said people should know that this action was insensitive and hurtful. \n"This script is held in extremely high regard, and it isn't something you would write on the sidewalk for someone to walk on," Payne said. "By doing so, it was defiling Islam."\nFour anti-harassment teams exist at IU: religious, racial, gender and the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender team. Whenever an incident of harassment occurs, the teams collect data, provide support for victims and seek resolutions.\nAlthough the racial, gender and GLBT teams are each more than five years old, IU did not create a separate religious team until this year. In the past, religious incidents were handled by the racial team.\n"We were getting enough reports of bias-motivated incidents dealing with religion that we thought we should split them out," said Bill Shipton, co-chair of the religious incidence team.\nShipton said the team has responded to more than a dozen incidents since the start of the fall semester. Several investigations handled reports of swastikas drawn on dry-erase boards and dorm walls.\n"We're concerned about any incident that targets a student because it does seem to us that the number of reports on religious bias have increased," he said.\nShipton said the increase may be due to students feeling more comfortable in coming forward with complaints. \n"We should never let our guard down," Shipton said.\nUddin said the sidewalk symbols are a very serious thing to Muslims on campus.\n"It's nothing to be taken lightly," he said. "Stepping on any holy book is wrong, and that's what it signifies."\n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(01/26/05 6:31am)
Snoop Dogg. Nelly. Mos Def. \nOne of these artists will headline the Little 500 concert this year, if all goes according to plan. \nKnock on wood. \nFor the past two years there has been no Little 5 concert, as offers made to major artists never panned out. Union Board concert directors Ty Krause and Lana Kleyman want this year to be different.\n"Having a Little 5 show is a huge mission for us," Krause said. \nFor starters, the Union Board began planning the Little 500 concert far in advance. \nOutgoing concert director Jeff Hasson put together all the offer packages before he stepped down, making initial calls to booking agents and setting acceptable price ranges. \nMembers of the board are elected by students, and new personnel take over at the end of each semester.\nKrause and Kleyman, who took over for Hasson this week, said the transition has been unusually smooth. That was not the case last year, Krause said. \n"This year we started early," he said. "There's been a very stern focus on Little 5." \nThe other important difference is that dollars are more flush. Kleyman said the success of previous concerts by The String Cheese Incident, Incubus and Howie Day throughout last year has allowed the board to look into a wider range of possible artists. \nEven with the renewed focus, it can be very difficult to get an artist like Snoop Dogg to sign a contract to perform. It takes a little more than the right amount of money, Krause said.\n"There are contingencies like how long does an artist perform?" Krause said. "We want students to leave the show feeling like they got their money's worth." \nStudents who bought tickets to see rapper Fabulous perform for less than 30 minutes in 2001 know this can be a huge issue. \nApril is an especially difficult time to book an act because many artists are in high demand, the directors said. IU is only one of many universities seeking a big-name spring show, and many acts tend to be preoccupied with planning early for summer tours.\nOften, artists just don't want to play at colleges, Kleyman said. \n"Last year's committee worked hard but offer after offer didn't come through," she said. \nKleyman and Krause have three years of experience with working on concerts for Union Board between them. They know how the industry works. It can get your hopes up, and it can send them crashing down. \n"No one was more disappointed than us last year," Krause said. "We definitely wanted to bring back the concert, where the weekend is more than the race, and the concert plays a prominent role."\nThe duo's lips are sealed when it comes to the proposed price tag involved. Not even all the students who sit on Union Board are let into the budget process, they said. Union Board has been burned one too many times by out-bidding from other colleges, and greedy agents often think they can sucker clueless universities into over-paying.\n"The myth is that colleges will pay whatever price they ask," Krause said. "It's to our advantage to keep the numbers under wraps."\nUnion Board came close to signing Bob Dylan last year, only to have a Wisconsin school outbid them at the last second by $50,000. \n"We try to keep it private because the industry is so competitive," Kleyman said. "The industry tends to take advantage of colleges. It sees them as a big payday, as really desperate for shows." \nOne way Union Board hopes to make IU a more appealing attraction for artists is to stage shows at the Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse, next to Assembly Hall, rather than the auditorium. The Fieldhouse has a much larger capacity, holding about 7,000 people compared with the auditorium's 3,500. \nThe Fieldhouse doesn't have seats, so audience members will find it easier to get up and dance.\n"It will give more of a good party vibe atmosphere," Kleyman said. \nThe Fieldhouse has a reputation of being an "acoustic disaster," Klause said, which is why concerts have never been held there before. But after consulting with IU sound expert Gene Frazier, Klause said extra padding and speakers would make it work. \n"We wouldn't go forward with it if we weren't confident," Klause said. \nMaroon 5 made it on the initial short list of possible acts for this year, but committee members later decided to put all their efforts into pursuing a hip-hop act. \nKleyman said the board will work with agents in the coming weeks to negotiate a contract. They hope to make an announcement as soon as possible. \nAfter a long wait, this could finally be the year students get to drop it like it's hot. Knock on wood. \n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(01/21/05 6:41am)
The IU Student Association Congress approved a plan this month to increase the mandatory transportation fee to $49.50. which will allow students to ride both the campus and Bloomington buses by showing their IDs.\nThe current $30 transportation fee lets students with an ID ride the Stadium Express, midnight shuttle and Bloomington Transit buses. For about $20 more each year, students will also be able to ride the campus buses. Both a student fee review committee and the IU board of trustees must approve the fee before it goes into effect. Congress voted in support of increasing the fee by a margin of 2-1 Jan. 10.\n"I think it's a good thing for the University," said senior Cordelia Boersma. "Every student who goes through IU will probably live somewhere at least once where they'll think it's beneficial to use the buses."\nA trip on any of the "A, B, D and E" campus buses currently costs either .75 cents per ride or $158 for a semester pass. \nThe additional amount that a four-year student would pay under the new plan is $20 each semester, which roughly equals the per-semester cost of today's campus bus pass. \nSenior Tyler Bond said the universal bus plan would improve campus safety and alleviate traffic congestion. Students who study late at the library and don't have money for the bus fare will no longer have to walk home in the dark, said Bond, a former Indiana Daily Student columnist. Students who drive to class might consider using their universal pass to ride the bus next year instead.\nBut some members of Congress said IU transportation gave them few details about how the IU buses would adjust to the inevitable increase in passengers. \nSenior Charles Benson, who lives in Collins Living-Learning Center and represents the dorm in Congress, voted against the plan because he said he doubts the buses will be able to handle a surge in riders. On rainy and snowy days, many campus buses are already at full capacity. \nStudent Body Vice President for Operations Scott Norman said all IU buses will have a locating system installed next year to help them be more on schedule.\nThe University of Illinois recently switched to universal busing, and the number of passengers increased by 300 percent. Norman cautioned that the increase won't be nearly so dramatic here.\nJunior Jordan Johnson said he opposes the current $30 bus plan and would rather see a pay-as-you-go approach.\n"It's absolutely pointless to people who don't use the system to have to pay for it," he said. "You should buy a pass if you want it."\nBenson added that on-campus residents have little need for a bus pass because they live within walking distance of most buildings.\n"Any universal fee should benefit all the students," Benson said. "A lot of folks in the dorms have no reason to use it."\nThe bill's passage completes the IU transportation plan first proposed in 1998. At that time, Congress approved the first-ever transportation fee and called for bringing together the Bloomington Transit and campus busing. Although more than five years have passed, a universal access fare-free system may finally be in place next fall. \nThe student Congress has representatives from off-campus housing, the greek system, each of the academic schools and each student dormitory. Norman said Congressional debate on this issue was the most heated it had been all year. \nStudent Body President Tyson Chastain helped investigate whether the cost of the fee was appropriate and who would be impacted the most. \nBond said he expects students will come to embrace the universal plan.\n"Within a couple of years, students will be overwhelmingly supportive," he said. "Once students realize that on days that it's raining, they can hop on a bus instead of walking home, they will see the benefit."\n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(01/18/05 5:38pm)
Time will be forever frozen in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. spent his final moments of life on April 4, 1968. \nThe room is preserved down to the cheap paintings hanging on the wall, and visitors can look in through a transparent glass casing.\nThe motel became the National Civil Rights Museum after King's death, and its exhibits create a timeline of the African-American struggle for equal rights.\nAs visitors make their way toward King's room, a television set tucked away in the corner relives his final moments through the eyes of a colleague. \nYou almost miss it. \nThe day of his death, King and his followers awaited a federal court decision regarding whether Memphis, Tenn., could block a planned protest march by its sanitation workers. \nAt about 5 p.m., King's aide Andrew Young entered Room 306 with the good news that the march would proceed. \nThe victory thrilled King. He grabbed Young, threw him down on the bed and started beating him with a pillow. \n"He was like a big kid," Young remembered. "It was like, you know, after you make a touchdown. Everyone piles on everybody. People started throwing pillows and piling on and laughing."\nAfterward, King stepped outside on the balcony, and that's when a shot fired from across the street ripped into his jaw. "I frankly thought a car had backfired, and he was still clowning," Young said.\nA group of 50 IU students traveled by bus to visit the Memphis museum Saturday and Sunday. They experienced the history lessons of the Civil Rights Movement, ate ribs and soul food on Beale Street and joined the congregation of Rev. Al Green's Full Gospel Tabernacle for Sunday morning services (Green was away for a meeting about the Grammy Awards). \nIf you're ever in Memphis, go south on Elvis Presley Boulevard past Graceland and turn left on Hale Road. Green's church is on the left. Inside, church elders sit in a row of high-backed brown leather chairs behind the pulpit. Bishop A.E. Reed is their senior at 92 years old. Bishop George Valentine, wearing large sunglasses, shuffles his feet and shakes his fingertips in the air to the hot, boogie-woogie sounds of the organ. Rev. Whiting, barely pausing to breathe, quotes 43 scriptures in just 15 minutes.\nCalls of "hallelujah" and "thank you, Jesus" rise to the ceiling.\nAt nightfall, rhythm and blues music blares out of the doors of the clubs into Beale Street. Dr. Feelgood Potts blows his harmonica. The Masqueraders sing in four-part harmony, and only a full rack of ribs from the Beale Street Blues Cafe warms the cold Memphis air. \nFreshman Bernique Joanes, who said she never really does much on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was glad she went on the trip.\nOne of the important lessons she learned was the power of one. Instead of complaining about their problems, she said, King taught people to solve them. "You have to be brave enough to stand up and take action and get things done," she said. \nKing stands for different things to different people, and for freshman Tenia Sheppard, he stands for service to others. She said volunteering is important for uniting communities. \n"When you help somebody, it effects both them and you," she said.\nThe IU group spent about four hours at the museum Saturday afternoon. They traveled back to 1955 and sat down next to Rosa Parks in a replica of a Montgomery bus. They heard hopeful speeches by John F. Kennedy Jr., and they entered the Greensboro diner where four black students dared to sit at an all-white lunch counter. \nAlmost everyone seemed to walk away as changed people after seeing Room 306.\n"It helped me to see not the legend but the man," said graduate student Enyonam Hargett. "We're all mortal people. So was he. He was a regular person who had these enormous gifts." \nAs senior Margie Conely stood close to where King fell, she said she was overwhelmed by the closeness of history. \n"I just stood there for probably seven minutes and thought about all the positives and negatives of King's life and what his influence was on America," she said. "Standing in that spot was really emotional." \n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(01/14/05 2:07pm)
Visiting Professor of Education Alvin O'Chambliss came of age in the 1960s as a college student at Jackson State University in Mississippi. Race relations in the Deep South were boiling over, and O'Chambliss soon grew to admire the radical black power leaders Stokley Carmichael and Julian Bond. \nMartin Luther King Jr. was at the height of his influence then, but many young African-Americans rejected him as a leader.\n"We felt he was less bold," O'Chambliss said. "We wanted black power. We were gung-ho."\nO'Chambliss said Carmichael and others in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee felt King was "an Uncle Tom."\nToday he sees it differently. He credits King's middle-class background and his calmness amid the turmoil for making black advancement possible.\n"I'm not too proud to say that we were wrong," O'Chambliss said. "(King) could express his feelings in a less radical way. When he spoke, the whole world listened."\nIU and the Bloomington community will celebrate the life and legacy of King Monday. Classes are cancelled, and government offices are closed.\nWhile the holiday is packed with seminars, lectures, music and a film festival, events are also planned for later in the week. \n"The spirit does not just reside in one day," said IU law professor Frank Motley.\nMonday's planned celebrations include:\n-- Featured lectures by African-American journalist and intellectual George Curry and civil rights trailblazer Constance Curry\n-- A public discussion on diversity in the classroom, race relations and hate crimes.\n-- A concert by the African-American Choral Ensemble\n-- A film festival showing three classic performances by Sidney Poitier \nEvents later in the week include a civil rights reenactment march down Tenth Street and a three-part discussion on Native American, Latino and Asian-American activism. \nMotley said he is looking forward to hear Curry's lecture. A nationally syndicated columnist who has worked for the Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Sports Illustrated, Curry has a reputation for tackling controversial subjects head-on.\n"He's a dynamic speaker, very passionate and very controversial," Motley said. "He doesn't bite his tongue."\nThe local theme uniting Monday's events is "A Day On! Not A Day Off!" to remind people to get out and participate in the activities.\nFormer President Ronald Reagan established the holiday commemorating King in 1983. O'Chambliss worked with Stevie Wonder and others to lobby Congress to create the national holiday. \nIU professor Carolyn Calloway-Thomas authored the book "Martin Luther King Jr. and the Sermonic Power of Public Discourse." She said King's philosophy of what he called "the beloved community" resonates today.\n"He wanted to bind people together in action," she said.\nKing's mesmerizing rhetoric also directed attention toward the gap between what America stood for in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and what it actually gave to its people, she said. \n"You can't deny that the 'I Have a Dream' speech catalyzed the movement," O'Chambliss said. "You have to have a symbol, and he was it."\n-- Contact General Assignments \nEditor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(12/09/04 3:34pm)
Congressman Baron Hill called off the recount in the race for Indiana's 9th Congressional District Wednesday and conceded defeat to Republican Mike Sodrel.\nAfter votes in six counties had been recounted, Hill said he was satisfied that major irregularities did not occur.\nThe recount in six of the 20 counties in the 9th District had given Hill only about 30 additional votes, far short of the 1,500-vote margin he needed to overtake Sodrel. In Monroe County, Hill gained about a dozen new votes. \nHill is expected to file his formal concession with the Indiana Secretary of State's office within the next two days. \n"It is now clear that major irregularities did not occur and votes cast have been counted properly," Hill said in a statement. "I thank the people of the 9th District for their patience and extend my best wishes to the incoming Congressman."\nJim Bopp Jr., the attorney representing Sodrel in the recount, said he agreed Wednesday to drop the counter-petition investigating whether ineligible voters cast ballots in Monroe County. \nOfficials finished the Bartholomew County recount Wednesday afternoon, with Hill picking up six votes. The Indiana Recount Commission was preparing to move on to the next county today.\nDean O'Neal, Sodrel's press secretary, said Republicans were confident from the start that Sodrel's victory would withstand scrutiny. \n"We felt like the clerks and the Recount Commission were going to be fair, and the system that they had brought forth would work," O'Neal said. "We felt like the (first) count was accurate, and it was."\nHill was the incumbent in the 9th Congressional District.\nKate Shepherd, spokesperson for the Indiana Secretary of State's office, said the recount has cost taxpayers in the tens of thousands of dollars. \nStefan Bailey, Hill's spokesperson, said maintaining the district's electoral integrity was worth the cost.\n"The point of the recount is to ensure that all votes are counted properly, and I think that's a legitimate and worthwhile reason to initiate a recount," Bailey said.\nMonroe County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Combs said it was unlikely Hill could have picked up the necessary votes unless there had been widespread voting equipment malfunctions. \n"I'm not surprised," Combs said. "The best that could be said for that recount request is that it was a forlorn hope." \nCombs said he hopes Hill will campaign again in 2006. \nBailey said Hill is spending time with his family.\n"Certainly his interest is in making people's lives better, and he will take that into account when deciding his future plans," Bailey said.\n-- Contact senior writer Adam VanOdsol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(11/19/04 5:53am)
The investigation into possible voter fraud in Monroe County begins today as a team of inspectors descends upon the Monroe County Justice Building to examine paper ballots, poll books and absentee materials. \nRepublican Mike Sodrel, the candidate elected earlier this month to the U.S. House of Representatives in Indiana's 9th District, charges that hundreds of ineligible voters cast ballots on Nov. 2. \nSodrel filed a petition with the Indiana Recount Commission last Friday, and the Commission agreed Tuesday to launch an investigation into the allegations. The Indiana State Police have impounded and sealed all voter registration records for Monroe County.\nDemocrat Baron Hill, the incumbent Congressman defeated by Sodrel, filed a separate charge asking the Indiana Recount Commission to investigate all votes cast in the 20-county 9th District. \nHill lost by 1,485 votes, or .5 percent of the total vote. \nThe Indiana Recount Commission begins that investigation today, too. \nChairman of the Monroe County Republicans John Shean said he first suspected voter fraud before the election. His party had mailed campaign information to 12,000 newly-registered voters, and hundreds of those mailings were returned by the Post Office as undeliverable.\n"That is odd for newly-registered voters," Shean said. "That's one of the aspects we're looking into."\nJim Bopp, attorney for the Sodrel campaign, said the charges are also based on "huge increases" in the number of registered voters in some precincts. Also drawing suspicion is "the unusual pattern" that Sodrel received more votes than he did in his 2002 race against Hill in every county in the 9th district except for Monroe County.\n"He lost Monroe County by 900 votes two years ago," Bopp said. "He lost by 7,000 this time. That raises a serious concern that we've had ineligible voters vote."\nDan Combs, chairman of the Monroe County Democrats, said the number of votes Sodrel received was similar to the number received by most other Republicans. He said an increase in registered voters was no surprise with the high interest in the presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. \nCombs said hundreds of IU students leave Monroe County each year and returned mailings prove nothing. He has asked the Republicans to release the names of the voters believed to be ineligible. \n"This is an unsubstantiated claim," Combs said. "The Sodrel campaign on this issue is as windy as a baked bean factory."\nHe accused Sodrel of driving a wedge between Monroe County and the rest of District 9. \nHill's petition asks for a massive recount and alleges that mistakes occurred in the programming of voting machines that make it "impossible" to determine who won. He also claims a number of voting machines malfunctioned. \nThe Indiana Recount Commission has not estimated the cost of either investigation.\nHowever, a recount in a state senate contest conducted after the May primaries involving candidates Larry Borst and Brent Waltz cost $60,000 and involved only two counties -- Marion and Johnson.\nThe 9th Congressional District includes 20 counties and 613 precincts.\nSince last Friday, the Indiana State Police have spent $15,000 impounding election materials, said Kate Shepherd, communications director for the secretary of state. \nShepherd said the Recount Commission hopes to complete the recount in December, although it could take longer.\n"Secretary of State Todd Rokita has said you can't put a deadline on thoroughness," Shepherd said. \nThree types of voting machines were used in the southern Indiana district: optical scans, punch cards and touch screen machines. The State Board of Accounts, charged with conducting the investigation, will examine each of the 287,510 paper ballots cast. \nTen teams of two people each have been designated to handle the ballots. Republican and Democrat watchers fielded by the candidates will be able to monitor the recount but will not touch the ballots. \nThe 2000 presidential recount in Florida became infamous for the difficulty inspectors faced in deciphering the punch cards. While some Indiana counties also use punch cards, Shepherd said there will not be widespread confusion about hanging or pregnant chads. \nIndiana election laws are very specific about counting ballots, Shepherd said. \n"You're not going to see those problems here," she said. \n-- Contact staff writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(11/17/04 5:13am)
Robert L. Carter, the head counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People legal team that challenged school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education, has unfinished business.\nAlthough the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 and 1955 decisions in Brown ended the 'separate but equal' standard for education, Carter said he believes urban schools today are no better than they were before the landmark case. \nFull integration has still not been achieved. \n"Schools where blacks attend, in Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit -- I'm talking about poor blacks ... are not giving education to those children to compete for decent jobs," he said. \nCarter spoke Tuesday at the IU School of Law on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. His topic was the role he played in Brown and the other 20 civil rights cases he argued and won in front of the Supreme Court.\nCarter said Brown's effects include an expansion of the black middle class, the creation of a more aggressive black community and more volatile race relations.\nBut it also showed that blacks could not expect any white institution in America to promote racial equality, he said.\n"The mistake we made was that segregation was the evil," Carter said. "It was the symptom. The evil is white supremacy ... that evil is marring this country."\nIn Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 the "separate but equal" standard that legally permitted racial segregation in schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment of the Constitution.\nCarter said psychologist Kenneth Clark's 1951 "Doll Test" was a key part of the NAACP case showing separate schools fostered a feeling of inferiority in black children.\nThe Court in 1955 supplemented its first ruling by declaring that integration should occur with "all deliberate speed."\nCarter said this phrase was a racial stain on the ruling. \n"They should have (integrated) immediately," he said. "They thought they were making it easier for the South to accept the decision. It shored up the resistance, actually."\nCarter said Affirmative Action has given blacks the opportunity to attend college despite deficiencies in reading and writing. \nAlvin O'Chambliss, a distinguished visiting professor in the IU School of Education who studied law under Carter at Howard University in Washington D.C and won a case in 1991 in front of the U.S. Supreme Court that argued Mississippi had not done enough to promote equality in its public universities, said Carter's speech was frank and direct.\n"Disparities are wider now," O'Chambliss said. "Racial equality will not come until we change."\nIU Law Professor Kevin Brown said the biggest issue facing equality in education today is the constitutional challenges to voluntary desegregation plans. \nOn Oct. 20, a federal appeals court struck down a Massachusetts plan to improve racial imbalance present in the state's schools. \n"That's the irony of it all," Brown said. "What he set in motion boomeranged and came back." \n-- Contact staff writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(10/28/04 6:14am)
The Indiana Daily Student reported Wednesday that Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan has proposed the creation of a law capping college tuition increases at 4 percent per year. \nTina Noel, Kernan's spokeswoman, said while Kernan does in fact support a 4 percent tuition cap, he does not believe it should be made into law. Instead, he hopes universities will voluntarily keep future tuition increases at that level to ensure college is affordable for lower- and middle-income families.\n"The governor believes right now that the best way to approach this issue is by working with the state's colleges and universities," she said. "It's an approach he takes to most issues, and that is working together."\nStill, some policy experts said any form of a tuition cap at a time when the state's economy is still shaky is a mistake. \nIU-Purdue University Indianapolis Political Science Professor Bill Blomquist said as long as state funding for higher education continues to be low, tuition caps could stunt university growth.\n"Without increased state appropriations, tuition caps will simply leave higher education in Indiana falling further behind," Blomquist said.\nLast year, Kernan asked universities not to raise tuition by more than 4 percent, and IU seemed to comply. The IU board of trustees voted on May 9 for a 4 percent increase. IU trustee Patrick Shoulders said Kernan's proposal was in line with what the board intended to do anyway.\nShoulders, who was appointed to the IU board of trustees by late Gov. Frank O'Bannon in 2002, supports the Kernan campaign. Senate Bill 262, introduced in January by Indiana State Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, proposed making the tuition cap a law. A study by the Indiana Legislative Services Industry suggested universities offset the possible loss in revenue resulting from the cap by raising fees for incoming students. The bill did not pass.\nRepublican candidate Mitch Daniels offers a different solution. He wants universities to tighten their belts and be more efficient in how they operate. He believes IU and other state universities can be more effective in pooling their purchasing agreements and can boost revenues from new business formation, patents and technology transfer, said Ellen Whitt, Daniels' spokeswoman. \n"Those internally-generated revenues could help lower tuition costs," Whitt said. \nDaniels also proposes the creation of an Office of Federal Grants and Procurement to be part of the state executive branch. Whitt said the office could help IU secure more dollars from out of state. \nThe Federal Funds Information for States, a nonpartisan group, reported in May that Indiana ranks last in the nation in education grants from the federal government.\nBlomquist said Daniels' cost-savings plan could translate into more part-time instructors and classes taught via video-links and the Internet.\nDespite offering distinct plans, neither candidate is likely to give higher education much of a boost, said Blomquist.\n"Want to choose your governor this year based on who'll be best for higher education?" asked Blomquist. "Flip a coin."\n-- Contact staff writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.