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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
IU is the best large university in the country at helping freshmen adjust to college, according to an article in this week's Time magazine.\nThe article cites IU's programs -- such as Groups, Intensive Freshman Seminars and Freshman Interest Groups -- that are aimed at making IU's 36,000-member student body seem smaller. Time also recognized three smaller colleges for similar efforts.\nThe article's introduction says the magazine wanted to go beyond standard rankings to determine how well students learn and become engaged in their learning.\n"Helping new students survive has, in our judgment, become an essential responsibility of every college," wrote Time Assistant Managing Editor Dan Goodgame. "This year Time recognizes four institutions with highly effective programs to help first-year students make a successful transition into college life."\nThe article -- expected to be on newsstands today -- mentions three other "notable" large colleges: Harvard, Michigan and Stanford.\nIU officials said they are glad the University is receiving recognition for its programs. \n"It's good news," said University spokeswoman Susan Dillman. "We've always believed we have an outstanding program. It's nice to see IU get recognition."\nDon Hossler, vice chancellor for enrollment services, echoed Dillman's praise for the recognition and added that the University will benefit from it. \n"I'm certain that for this year and the next it will have an impact on more students looking at us," he said. "I think it's important validation for things we've always thought about freshman education here."\nHe cautioned, however, that it would influence the number of prospective students for only a few years.\nIU's goal is to make sure each student can connect with a smaller community that makes him or her feel at home, Hossler said. As groups like the FIGs and IFS have been implemented in the last decade, the number of students that stay for their sophomore year has increased, Hossler said.\nFIGs are small groups of freshmen that live together and take some of the same classes; Groups is a mentoring program aimed at first-generation and low-income college students; and IFS is a three-week academic program for freshmen before classes start.\nGeorge Kuh, an IU higher education professor, was on the committee that nominated schools for the Time article. He also heads the National Survey of Student Engagement, which studies how universities use special programs to help students learn and develop.\nThe seven-member committee held teleconferences in the spring to suggest schools that had promising programs for freshmen. Kuh said he and at least one other panelist suggested IU be featured.\nTime took the names of those mentioned and did their own investigating. Kuh said he didn't know until July -- when a Time reporter showed up on campus -- that IU had been selected. \nAs associate dean of faculties about five years ago, Kuh helped shape some of the programs the article cited. IU has subscribed to former IU president Herman B Wells' philosophy of making the big campus seem small for many years, he said.\nFinding an "affinity group" in which students feel welcome and comfortable is an essential step in adjusting to college, Kuh said. The theory goes that the students will not only stay at the University but also do better in their classes.\nThe difficulty colleges face is in creating affinity groups that reinforce the academic mission of the University. Whereas groups like drinking clubs don't reinforce those goals, Kuh said, efforts like the Groups program, FIGs, residence hall thematic units and greek houses are positive influences.\nThose are the influences IU has tried to nurture, Kuh said.\n"This is a deserved accolade because Bloomington has done something to make first-year students more engaged," he said. "At the same time, there are a lot of things that can be improved. The good news is I don't think Bloomington will sit on its laurels."\nJacek Dalecki, director of the Freshman Interest Groups, said he hopes the Time article will help some of IU's programs for freshmen "resurface." Some of them have suffered from a lack of awareness, he said. \n"(Time) covered the freshman experience, and IU has quite a few programs," he said. "This is something earned; it's not just a gift"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Starting this weekend, the IDS and WIUS student radio will present a special Web site for IU football fans to "watch" the games and track statistics as the game unfolds.\nWin or lose, you can watch it at www.idsnews.com/liveupdate. The site features WIUS's radio feed from Memorial Stadium and constantly updated play-by-play and statistics from the IDS reporters in the press box.\nYou can listen to the WIUS student broadcasting team and check the stat totals throughout the game. You can have it up on your computer while you're watching the game on television so you can get the student perspective from the radio broadcast and see the stats -- which ESPN doesn't keep on the screen the whole time.\nOur plan is to gradually increase the number of features on the site during the rest of the semester, so you can expect to see a roster added soon, and we're working on a plan for updating photographs during games.\nIf you can't make it to Memorial Stadium this weekend, stop by www.idsnews.com/liveupdate and check it out.\nWe want to hear your feedback, so if you have comments, suggestions or problems, send an e-mail to agammill@indiana.edu or call the IDS newsroom at 855-0760 and ask for Andy Gammill, the IDS assistant managing editor for projects.
(10/29/01 3:30am)
Imagine living in a country, perhaps in the Third World, where the police were given sweeping new powers.\nThe police could enter your house and search it without ever telling you they had been there. They could tell a judge that tapping your telephone is part of an investigation into terrorism -- simply tell him or her that, not give any other proof -- and be given a warrant to tap your phone. \nBut this government is efficient; that wiretap will move with you to whatever phone you may use. Your cell phone. Your work phone. The pay phone down the street.\nThis new government would be able to compel any business or public agency to turn over personal records on any individual, simply by telling a judge that the person is part of an investigation of terrorism. Not that it suspects him or her of terrorism, but that his neighbor, or perhaps one of his employees, is under investigation. Again, no proof required. \nIf a friend of yours is accused of terrorism and had been seen going into a library where you hold a library card, this police agency could obtain a list of what you had been reading on the off chance that he had borrowed your card. They could go to a hospital and demand your medical records.\nThe police would be able to monitor your Internet activity with permission of the person who owns the computer. If you were to use a computer owned by the university you attend, the federal government could easily get permission to monitor your Internet activity.\nSuppose, now, that you are an immigrant to this country. These new police powers would allow the government to hold you for up to seven days without charging you with a crime, without allowing you to consult with an attorney and without being told why you\'re in jail. The only grounds required to jail you under these conditions would be "suspicion." Suppose you had donated money to an organization, perhaps a political organization in your homeland, that the government later classifies as a terrorist group. To avoid deportation, you would have to prove that you did not know the money could be used to support terrorism. \nIt's pretty difficult to prove that you didn't know something. \nBut, you say, this is irrelevant to me because I live in the United States of America, a great bastion of freedom. If you want a shock, look up H.R. 3162, a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate last week. President George W. Bush signed it into law Friday.\nEverything I just described is now legal in the United States of America.\nStarting to feel a little nervous? I know that I am.
(04/09/01 6:45am)
Law student Robert Brandt said he thought his smoke alarm was malfunctioning when it went off early Sunday morning. After fumbling with it, he looked out the window of his third-floor apartment and found that he was wrong.\nSeeing smoke outside, he got dressed and went to the front door -- his apartment's only exit -- to leave.\n"I opened the door and got hit with a wall of smoke," he said.\nRetreating to his apartment, Brandt turned to a window for escape.\n"I had to wait for the fire department to get there," he said. "The smoke was so thick in my room by that time that I was hanging out the window."\nFirefighters responding to the two-alarm fire helped Brandt and three other residents from the Maple Leaf Apartments complex at 407 S. Grant St., said Bloomington Fire Department Battalion Chief Dean Williams.\nNo one was injured and the fire was out within minutes of the fire department's arrival, Williams said.\nThe fire started in the central stairwell of the apartment building, which has 12 units, Williams said. Because it engulfed that stairwell, most residents had to escape by the windows, he said.\nLaw student Jami Thompson said she also had to escape her third-floor apartment by ladder. She also discovered the wall of smoke in the stairwell when a smoke alarm alerted her while she was watching television and preparing an outline for class, she said.\nBrandt and Thompson gathered on the steps of a neighboring apartment building with other residents to find out the fates of their apartments and belongings. At about 3:30 a.m, an hour after the fire started, firefighter George Cornwell gave them the news that they would be able to return after the fire department had documented the scene.\nWilliams said the four apartments adjacent to the stairwell received the most damage, but that all of them had some smoke damage. \nAs for Brandt, his apartment appeared to have the most damage. He has renter's insurance but is living in a hotel for now.\n "My place is a complete wreck," he said. "I probably lost 80 percent of my stuff"
(11/09/00 4:25am)
While most Hoosiers slept early Wednesday morning, two men waited. In a night that would prove to be one of the most compelling political dramas in decades, both would suffer heartbreak and elation, followed by more waiting.\nVice President Al Gore was forced to accept a defeat he didn't really suffer, and Texas Gov. George W. Bush is still agonizing whether he will eek out a victory in the state where his younger brother is governor.\nA tight race all night, supporters of presidential contenders Gore and Bush rallied into the early morning hours. At about 2 a.m., the major television networks -- led by CNN -- announced that Bush had won Florida's 25 electoral votes, which would close the gap to the all-important 270 electoral votes.\nNewspapers around the country -- including the venerable The New York Times -- reported Bush's win on their Web sites.\nThe vice president called Bush and conceded, then prepared to take the stage to make a public statement. As millions waited for the concession speech, everything changed.\nThe first sign of trouble came from a CNN anchor who questioned the numbers she had been broadcasting. Then Florida's Secretary of State told CNN that the race was not over. The evidence mounted that the numbers in Florida and elsewhere were still in the air. What ensued among the national news media can only be described as panic.\nAcross the country, editors issued orders to stop press runs, reporters scrambled to confirm the newest development, and Web editors hurried to yank stories proclaiming Bush's victory.\nBloomington's The Herald-Times ran thousands of copies with the headline, "It's Bush." It was not alone. The New York Post, The Boston Herald, The Miami Herald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman were among the newspapers that declared Bush the winner.\nBy 3:45, no national news organization was still heralding a Bush victory.\nAnd by the time everyone awoke, most signs of the chaos of the previous night had disappeared. Save for a few newspaper readers who got the wrong story.
(11/08/00 1:23pm)
While most Hoosiers slept early Wednesday morning, two men waited. In a night that would prove to be one of the most compelling political dramas in decades, both would suffer heartbreak and elation, followed by more waiting.\nVice President Al Gore was forced to accept a defeat he didn't really suffer, and Texas Gov. George W. Bush is still agonizing whether he would eek out a victory in the state where his younger brother is governor.\nA tight race all night, supporters of presidential contenders Gore and Bush rallied into the early morning hours. At about 2 a.m., the major television networks -- led by CNN -- announced that Bush had won Florida's 25 electoral votes, which would close the gap to the all-important 270 electoral votes.\nNewspapers around the country -- including the venerable The New York Times -- reported Bush's win on their Web sites.\nThe vice president called Bush and conceded, then prepared to take the stage to make a public statement. As millions waited for the concession speech, everything changed.\nThe first sign of trouble came from a CNN anchor who questioned the numbers she had been broadcasting. Then Florida's Secretary of State told CNN that the race was not over. The evidence mounted that the numbers in Florida and elsewhere were still in the air. What ensued among the national news media can only be described as panic.\nAcross the country, editors issued orders to stop press runs, reporters scrambled to confirm the newest development, and Web editors hurried to yank stories proclaiming Bush's victory.\nBloomington's The Herald-Times ran thousands of copies with the headline, "It's Bush." It was not alone. The New York Post, The Boston Herald, The Herald (Miami), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman were among the newspapers that declared Bush the winner.\nBy 3:45, no national news organization was still heralding a Bush victory.\nAnd by the time everyone awoke, most signs of the chaos of the previous night had disappeared. Save for a few newspaper readers who got the wrong story.