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(12/01/00 4:02am)
Local Bloomington youth leaders, IU students and staff members met with a common goal Thursday.\nIn a dialogue sponsored by Community Outreach and Partnerships in Service-Learning, 23 people gathered at the Monroe County Public Library to talk about youth issues in Bloomington. The focus centered on the Crestmont neighborhood community, located on the west side of Bloomington.\nA $3,000 grant for the project has been provided by the Indiana Campus Compact.\nCatherine Gray, assistant director of Community Outreach said the goal of the dialogue was to "try to develop partnerships with community agencies who would benefit from working with students."\nRepresentatives from various local and school related organizations including the United Way, the Girls and Boys Club, Collins Living-Learning Center, Teen Council and more attended the meeting.\nDirector of Community Outreach JoAnne Campbell stressed the importance of including a variety of groups in her opening remarks, defining a dialogue as "the art of thinking together."\n"We want to get people thinking even bigger about how we can use IU as a resource in the community," said Campbell.\nGroup members discussed the feelings of community they had as children to facilitate discussion about the positive and negative youth programs in the Bloomington area. They discussed community ties often coming from geographic connection to the area or personal connections with fellow citizens, noting that these relationships are often created in school. Members mentioned that those from smaller communities typically felt closer ties than those from bigger cities..\nA representative from the Office of Multicultural Affairs noted that race can often make children feel disenfranchised from the community. Minority children suffer from different treatment and sometimes feel different from the rest of their peers.\nSocioeconomic status and sexual orientation were other dividing factors discussed.\nAmy Wolverton, a graduate student, focused her comments on student involvement. She said she thought more IU students would get involved in the community if the opportunities were offered to them.\n"Right now, we have to seek out these opportunities on our own," she said.\nThe Boys and Girls Club in the Crestmont neighborhood was a major focus for the group. The facility is too small to handle the number of kids in the area. The club was recently granted money for new computers, but because of space limitations, could only put them in the upstairs of the small duplex. The computers are not accessible to the club's children with disabilities.\nThe club is also bogged down with a transportation problem. Lack of transportation to take kids to local parks, basketball leagues or other recreational activities limits what the club can provide.\nAnother group member argued that children should not have to leave their community to participate in outdoor organized events, creating another issue for the group to tackle.\nCampbell encouraged the group to bring students with them to the next meeting Jan, 11. "It needs to be an organic process," she said, encouraging all of the groups represented to work together.\nGraduate student Alyson Mease said she was impressed with the meeting. "I liked that action ideas were proposed and we used our own experiences," she said.\nWolverton agreed and added that the groups goal should be "seeing kids as resources and not as problems"
(10/27/00 5:36pm)
In the spirit of this year's presidential election, education building room 1006 was full of energy Thursday morning.\nStudents in E300, "Elementary Education in a Pluralistic Society," prepared to debate social issues from the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian party platforms. Groups within each party -- with the exception of the Libertarian party, who had only one group -- presented issues about education, civil rights, childcare and the Supreme Court. \nBefore the students spoke, graduate student Christy Kendrick encouraged her class to hold its applause until the end.\n"No booing, eye rolling, hissing or obscene gestures either," she added.\nKendrick said she wanted the main focus of the assignment to be on the issues, not on partisan biases.\nEach side was given two minutes to speak, a one minute planning break and an additional two minutes to rebut the opposition's argument.\nSophomore Natalie Rhodes got to class early to review her notes and prepare. She researched Bush's stance on childcare.\n"I liked trying to find things on Al Gore that were weak to his campaign," she said. \nDebating for the vice president's childcare plan, junior Alyssa Gavin said she chose to represent Gore because of his strong tax plan. \nThe Republican side emphasized Bush's plan to improve the quality of education and to narrow the learning gap. The debaters argued for local control and vouchers. \nOn the issue of childcare, Bush supporters stressed the importance of after school programs. The group argued the benefits of having activities to keep kids safe, occupied and off the street during prime juvenile crime hours.\n They also favored his "affirmative access" plan to avoid quotas and eliminate affirmative action, opposed same sex marriages and supported the discretion of local police to control hate crimes. \n The party said the selection of Supreme Court justices will be a crucial issue in the election. As many as four seats on the bench might be selected by the next president.\n The Libertarian party argued against government control. The brochure they passed around the classroom said "Government doesn't work." \n They said anyone should be allowed to marry, and the republican stance on same-sex marriages was "so ridiculous." \nThe third party also argued against the FDA, governmental involvement in health care and schooling policies.\nDemocrats attacked Bush's education plan. The group mentioned smaller class size, higher teacher salaries and Internet connections in schools. They said parents are crucial to a good education and claimed to have a more specific plan than their GOP rivals.\nThe Democrats also argued that "tolerating" gays was not enough. They said Gore thinks a gay union should be legal, opposes the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and continues to support affirmative action.\n'I thought it was good to have this debate now, so people will be able to vote knowing the information they heard about in class," Rhodes said.\nKendrick said she was also pleased with the assignment.\n"I was impressed at the students' ability to objectively look at the platforms and argue the points of the issues presented"
(10/23/00 5:01am)
Sophomore Paul Lao was exhausted.\nBy 11:15 a.m. Saturday, he had been awake for nearly 11 hours on a sofa at the corner of 10th Street and Jordan Avenue.\nThe annual Dodds Couch-A-Thon ran from noon Friday to noon Saturday to raise money for Shelter, Inc.\nThe activity ran for 24 hours, but the largest group was out around midnight.\n"The last couple hours are a little dead," said senior Gerard Gasparino, who was in charge of coordinating the event. By 4 or 5 a.m., Gasparino said most had gone inside.\nAdam Russell, an alumnus of Dodds, came back to Bloomington from Batesville, Ind., to support the Couch-A-Thon.\n"I was out a couple hours last night," he said. Several alumni came back to support the "couch sitters" and join in on the fun.\nGasparino said participants had fun during the night, with loud music playing while the house residents asked for donations from passers-by. Lao even chased an SUV down 10th Street to Pizza Express and was rewarded with a $3 donation. After Lao caught up with them, the occupants even gave him a ride back to the couches.\nThe plastic tub used for money collection held everything from American dollars to pesos, condoms and candy. "People got pretty creative," Gasparino said.\nPizza Express came by three times during the night to show support and boost energy with free pizza. Michael Reinke, executive director of Shelter, Inc., said the IU Foundation is also a heavy supporter of the fund-raiser, and promised to match funds raised by Dodds.\nShelter, Inc. provides transitional housing for Bloomington residents who are trying to move from homelessness to permanent housing. The shelter has financial problems, but is still able to house 30 single adults and nine families on any given night, according to its Web site. \n"Every $200 provides emergency shelter for a family for a week," Reinke said. "We have been overwhelmed with people needing emergency shelter. We need donations of volunteer time in the evening and of course donations to keep the lights on."\nShelter Inc.'s brochure states that 186 of the 662 people served in 1999 were homeless children. Of the shelter's residents, 49 percent are families, including 28 percent children. The average family stays for nine weeks, according to a release from the shelter.\nGasparino estimates residents raised about $1,600 for the shelter from the event. He said the residents of Dodds will count the funds later this week, then go to the bank and write a check to the shelter.\nBut after Saturday, Lao said Dodds residents were ready for a good night's sleep. The couches went in at noon, but Lao was too tired for that.\n"I am gonna crash," he said. "I can't lift anything"
(10/20/00 4:55am)
The men of Dodds are couch potatoes, and proud of it.\nThe Doddsmen will sponsor their annual Couch-A-Thon from noon Friday until noon Saturday to raise money for Shelter, Inc., a non-profit emergency and transitional housing service for homeless families. \nMembers of the Wright Quad house will be stationed on couches in front of the Dodds door on the corner of 10th Street and Jordan Avenue to collect money.\n"There's something going on for 24 hours," promised Gerard Gasparino, a senior, who is also coordinating the event. He said he expects participants to play instruments, toss footballs or even just listen to a stereo. "All we do is have a good time."\nAccording to the Shelter's Web site, it can house up to 30 single adults and 14 families. The goal of the organization is to provide a smooth transition for the homeless to work toward self-sufficiency. Programs including employment counseling, treatment for addictions and medical services.\nAccording to a release from Shelter, Inc., space is limited and some residents have slept in cots in the community kitchen. Not enough rooms exist in the shelter for families to have private conferences with their caseworker and no staff worker has his or her own office.\nShelter, Inc. has been in the Bloomington community for 186 years and 15 percent of its budget is paid by the United Way or from individual contributions, according to the Web site. Families comprise 49 percent of the people living in the shelter. Twenty-eight percent are children.\nDodds Governor Justin Alexander, a junior, has been in charge of informing residents about the needs and services of the shelter. He has also been in close contact over the past few weeks with Shelter, Inc.'s Executive Director, Michael Reinke. \nLast year, the Doddsmen earned close to $2,000, a goal they said they would like to surpass this year. The IU Foundation said it will match the amount raised by the "couch sitters." Alumni of Dodds are also big financial supporters of the event, Gasparino said. Although most contribute money to Dodds around Little 500 time, some also give donations to the Couch-A-Thon. The biannual alumni newsletter helps generate support.\nBut factors such as the weather and the number of people attending Saturday's football game can affect the amount raised for the shelter. Fans on their way to the Homecoming game are expected to be the biggest financial supporters. \n"The best time to come is 3 a.m," Gasparino said. "That's when the diehards are collecting money"