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(06/29/14 9:56pm)
When IU Informatics and Computer Science Professor Filippo Menczer was working on social computing and crowdsourcing to gather “big data” that is normally hard to obtain, he was interested in an idea for an application that could acquire that data.
(06/29/14 4:39pm)
June marked the start of New Student Orientation, a program session required of all first-time freshmen students. But the projected 6,500 incoming IU students this year can expect to have a different New Student Orientation experience than in previous years.
(06/25/14 6:46pm)
Indiana is the 16th least corrupt state, according to a new study that identifies the most corrupt and least corrupt states in the U.S.
(05/15/14 2:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After nearly a year-long hiatus, a long-standing tradition returned to campus Monday.The iconic Light Totem, created by IU professor and professional lighting designer Robert Shakespeare, was reinstalled in front of the IU Art Museum.During summer orientation, new students receive a copy of the IU bucket list.Many new students were denied a popular bucket list item that reads: “At night, lay on the ground and watch the lights change on the side of the IU Art Museum,” as the Light Totem was taken down earlier in the year. Sophomore Ashton Moody said she was upset she wasn’t able to participate in the IU tradition as a freshman.“At orientation, I remember the Totem being mentioned in videos about the unique traditions of IU but never could find it since it was taken down before we actually moved in,” Moody said. Linda Baden, project curator at the IU Art Museum, said the Light Totem was originally created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Art Museum’s I.M. Pei building in 2006.Baden said she recalled how the museum building was very dark at night.The museum wanted a presence on campus, even when it was closed., she said.“It was intended to be a very temporary display, only three months long, but the great popularity of the piece led to the IU Trustees making it a permanent fixture in 2010,” Baden said in an email.Because it was meant as a temporary installation, the IU Art Museum had to do annual inspections of the tower.They found that it was time to replace the structure with a new one.“We did not expect that it would be so popular with students, and we are thrilled that it is,” Baden said. “Rob Shakespeare, however, knew that people are drawn to light, and he was confident that the Totem would become a gathering place for folks on campus at night. We just never expected it would become the campus icon that it is.”After taking down the Light Totem, the museum saw that the community missed it.Rita Grunwald, a donor with a long work history at the School of Fine Arts, said she loved the iconic piece.That was why she gave the museum the money to replace the structure.The Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President then contributed the remaining funds to reinstall the Totem.Although recently reinstalled, the Light Totem will not have the full lights displayed until the official relighting ceremony at 9:15 p.m. June 21.The ceremony will include music by the Dynamics, art and crafts activities, self-guided tours of the museum galleries, food vendors and refreshments. The ceremony is open to the public. Sarah Ditlinger, former IU Art Museum marketing and communications intern, said the official relighting date will also be when the museum celebrates it’s annual Midsummer Night. “This celebrates the shortest night of the year for the summer solstice,” Dillinger said. “But this year there will be that added excitement with the Totem being lit back up again.”Returning students and alumni have expressed they are looking forward to seeing the Light Totem when they return for the fall school year.“My friends and I definitely plan on seeing the Light Totem once it’s back,” Moody said. “We really want to complete all the different IU activities on the IU bucket list before we graduate.”
(05/15/14 1:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As a young girl raised near Grenada and the West Indies, recent alumna Maria Eliza Hamilton Abegunde was exposed to a high degree of African influences. “It was the culture, history and art of black people all over the world in my upbringing,” Abegunde said. “My family is Caribbean, and we always went to the theater. My father is also an artist.”Last Friday, Abegunde became the first person to receive a Ph.D degree from the IU Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies since the program was established in 2009. “The Ariran’s Last Life,” the dissertation Abegunde successfully passed with distinction, recounts the effects of the African slave trade upon their descendants, in which she uses memory work from ancestors that survived the Middle Passage.A retired IU professor and chair of Abegunde’s research committee, John McCluskey described Abegunde as a hardworker and a pleasure to work with.“She was well ahead of me in terms of working on assignments,” McCluskey said in an email. “My thing was to simply guide her and focus her energies. She has a great amount of energy. She was never prodded to write certain things and re-write certain things.”To earn the Ph.D., Abegunde had to be engaged in the department for five years. Valerie Grim, chair of the AAADS department and mentor to Abegunde, acknowledged Abegunde’s extensive commitment to her studies. “The process required focus, clarity and a determination that she was not going to quit,” Grim said in an email. “Abegunde spent long hours writing the dissertation, while also teaching.” Grim said she believes in the necessity of studying the experience of black people in and out of the U.S.A. “Awarding the first Ph.D means a lot to the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies,” Grim said. “It means this department and IU join an elite group of universities, 13 of them, that offer a Ph.D. in some form of Africana/Black Studies.” Abegunde pursued her bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University and her master’s degree at DePaul University. Abegunde said she chose IU because the department allowed her to write a creative dissertation. “I’m a fiction writer and poet by training and practice,” Abegunde said.The department gave Abegunde the opportunity to utilize her training in writing to craft her dissertation.“It allowed me to write a world beyond, to creative forms to pursue the work I wanted to do that’s combined with research.” Abegunde said she believes her doctoral degree means a lot of responsibility to her community.“In speaking to other people, I’ve become very conscious of the responsibilities of opening the door for my colleagues and other places who are working on the creative processes, as well as traditional research,” Abegunde said. “I’m a community-based person, so I have a responsibility to my community. It’s an opportunity to do good with what I’ve earned.”While at IU, Abegunde said one of the most rewarding things was introducing students to African American studies and watching as they created processes to engage in the world. She often allowed students to be creative in their final projects and encouraged them to turn theories they learned in class into reality.“Black studies is part of the focus and engagement of the community,” Abegunde said. “How is your research connected? Teaching builds the research. Students have great ideas about what’s important, and in order to stay relevant, we have to listen to our students.”Abegunde said she hopes to continue teaching and writing, as well as serving as a doula, a person who assists a woman both physically and emotionally during pregnancy. “It’s connected to the next phase of work I want to do in terms of studying black motherhood and black motherhood in literature,” Abegunde said. “The doula work is empowering, whether the mom-to-be or the students in my class, them to have a voice in their own lives.”McCluskey said he believes Abegunde’s accomplishment is important to the department because her good work will set a bar for the three to four students in the department still working on their doctoral degree. But because of staffing issues, the college has suspended admissions for the program.“We hope Abegunde’s work will reopen the application process,” McCluskey said. “People are very proud and supportive of her, and they made their presence known during commencement when they called her name. People are really excited to get the work going and do well.”
(05/15/14 1:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Confidential counseling will be available this summer though a partnership between The IU Asian Culture Center and the School of Education’s Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology.Although the ACC has offered counseling in different formats before, this summer will be the first time they will have staff interns available in the building.Melanie Castillo-Cullather, director of the ACC, said she believes there’s a need for accessible counseling services in the Asian and Asian-American community.“There is a host of reasons why people don’t seek counseling, and one of the biggest obstacles is stigma,” Castillo-Cullather said. According to a report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2011, shame is often the reason Asian-Americans do not seek mental care. The report also acknowledged the lack of access to health -care as another factor behind the phenomenon. “We would like for people to see the ACC as one of the spaces that they can come to for this type of service,” Castillo-Cullather said.“By making it a part of the ACC’s identity, it would eventually help break any obstacles to seeking this type of help.” ACC intern counselor Rose Xu said she hopes the counseling services will help students grow personally.“As a counselor, my role is to be here and assist my clients to achieve their goals for themselves,” Xu said.“We’d really like to see people in need get the help they want. We are here to support in a understanding and non-judgmental environment.”Castillo-Cullather hopes to continue this service all year because it benefits clients and provides professional training to the intern counselors.The free confidential counseling service will be available until July 31.Walk-in hours will soon be determined for Mondays and Wednesdays, and the services are available by appointment Monday through Friday.
(01/23/14 4:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU sophomore Alissa Becker was browsing through Facebook when something stood out to her.One of her friends posted about a new fitness organization that emphasizes women’s health and fitness. After reaching out to the friend and asking how to get involved, Becker applied to become an ambassador for CHAARG — Changing Health, Attitudes and Actions to Recreate Girls — at IU.“I really wanted to bring CHAARG to IU because I’ve always had this huge passion for health, wellness and fitness,” said Becker, an exercise science major. “I want to show that to other girls and help them find other ways to find their fit, and bring this new support system for college-aged girls.”CHAARG is a national student organization that started two years ago at Ohio State University. It has expanded to nine universities, including University of Michigan and Xavier University. The organization hopes to expand to five or six universities each semester, according to its website. After Becker began working as ambassador last semester, she went through training with an adviser to put together an executive team and recruit new members. Since then, IU CHAARG has recruited 60 members and has almost 300 ‘likes’ on Facebook.Elise Madrick, a junior majoring in human development and CHAARG event coordinator, said she was instantly interested in joining when she heard about CHAARG coming to IU.“CHAARG is all about health, fitness and making girls feel great about themselves,” Elise said. “It is important that college girls feel confident and empowered, and CHAARG is the perfect place to start.”IU CHAARG members have recently been tweeting the number of miles they run at the gym along with #runCHAARG for their national CHAARG challenge. Members are eligible to win Nike merchandise for each mile they run.CHAARG members plan to have events once a week come February. These will include welcome events where the members can meet and talk to one another and fitness activities such as CrossFit, yoga and Zumba.“(We) plan on different exercise classes that put you in a mindset of not just getting on the elliptical for your workout, and get you out of your comfort zone,” Becker said.Members of CHAARG plan to organize the events from 7 to 8 p.m. and from 8 to 9 p.m. every Monday this semester.“When you’re at school, you feel like it’s hard to make time for working out with classes,” said Natalie Muoio, a junior majoring in public health and CHAARG secretary. “We have it set for them every Monday night. Each exec member will have their own small group, and we’ll plan exercises that are easier to fit everyone’s schedule.”Sophomore Hannah Kappes, a new CHAARG member, said she saw CHAARG as a chance to make new friends.“I wanted to meet other girls on campus that had the same desire as I did — to obtain a healthy, active lifestyle,” Kappes said. CHAARG will have an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at Woodlawn Field. There will be a one mile “fun run” followed by an informational meeting. “I hope to see CHAARG take off within the next year,” Becker said. “IU CHAARG girls can empower and inspire one another, and build a support system for their health and wellness. I am excited to show up to the gym and see CHAARG taking over with girls who want to balance their life and take care of their health.”
(01/22/14 10:08pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU sophomore Alissa Becker was browsing through Facebook when something stood out to her.One of her friends posted about a new fitness organization that emphasizes women’s health and fitness. After reaching out to the friend and asking how to get involved, Becker applied to become an ambassador for CHAARG — Changing Health, Attitudes and Actions to Recreate Girls — at IU.“I really wanted to bring CHAARG to IU because I’ve always had this huge passion for health, wellness and fitness,” said Becker, an exercise science major. “I want to show that to other girls and help them find other ways to find their fit, and bring this new support system for college-aged girls.”CHAARG is a national student organization that started two years ago at Ohio State University. It has expanded to nine universities, including University of Michigan and Xavier University. The organization hopes to expand to five or six universities each semester, according to its website. After Becker began working as ambassador last semester, she went through training with an adviser to put together an executive team and recruit new members. Since then, IU CHAARG has recruited 60 members and has almost 300 ‘likes’ on Facebook.Elise Madrick, a junior majoring in human development and CHAARG event coordinator, said she was instantly interested in joining when she heard about CHAARG coming to IU.“CHAARG is all about health, fitness and making girls feel great about themselves,” Elise said. “It is important that college girls feel confident and empowered, and CHAARG is the perfect place to start.”IU CHAARG members have recently been tweeting the number of miles they run at the gym along with #runCHAARG for their national CHAARG challenge. Members are eligible to win Nike merchandise for each mile they run.CHAARG members plan to have events once a week this coming February. These will include welcome events where the members can meet and talk to one another and fitness activities such as CrossFit, yoga and Zumba.“(We) plan on different exercise classes that put you in a mindset of not just getting on the elliptical for your workout, and get you out of your comfort zone,” Becker said.Members of CHAARG plan to organize the events from 7 to 8 p.m. and from 8 to 9 p.m. every Monday this semester.“When you’re at school, you feel like it’s hard to make time for working out with classes,” said Natalie Muoio, a junior majoring in public health and CHAARG secretary. “We have it set for them every Monday night. Each exec member will have their own small group, and we’ll plan exercises that are easier to fit everyone’s schedule.”Sophomore Hannah Kappes, a new CHAARG member who majors in tourism, hospitality and event management, said she was excited when she heard CHAARG was coming to IU.“I wanted to meet other girls on campus that had the same desire as I did — to obtain a healthy, active lifestyle,” Kappes said. “What I am most looking forward to is simply the participation in as many CHAARG related events, challenges and workouts that I possibly can.”CHAARG will have an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at Woodlawn Field. There will be a one mile “fun run” followed by an informational meeting. “I hope to see CHAARG take off within the next year,” Becker said. “IU CHAARG girls can empower and inspire one another, and build a support system for their health and wellness. I am excited to show up to the gym and see CHAARG taking over with girls who want to balance their life and take care of their health.”Follow reporter Catherine Huynh on Twitter @cathuynh_.
(12/11/13 2:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When IU senior Andrew Salamone stepped on campus his freshman year, he knew he wanted to join an organization that not only had a long history at IU, but also promoted a mission he believed in. Like most freshmen looking for a way to get involved on campus, he went to the Student Involvement Fair at the IMU, where he came across College Mentors.College Mentors is a nonprofit organization that pairs college students with young students, mostly in elementary schools, to help them understand the opportunities that higher education provides. The organization develops peer mentoring relationships between the two groups.According to the College Mentors website, the IU-Bloomington chapter of the organization has a rich history. In 1996, the first pilot program of the organization began at Indiana University and Butler University after IU students Heidi Schmidt and Kristin Huang found a similar goal: “to improve children’s lives by encouraging education.”After it was founded at IU, the organization expanded to 23 college campuses, including universities in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and New York.Currently, the IU-Bloomington chapter and its almost 110 student volunteers pair with Fairview Elementary School and Arlington Heights Elementary. Between the two schools, the chapter serves 90 students between first and sixth grades.“Generally, the kids involved come from low-income homes and/or would be first generation college students,” Salamone, now the president of College Mentors, said.Only 11 percent of students born into the bottom income quartile obtain bachelor’s degrees, while 79 percent of students born into the top income quartile tend to obtain their bachelor’s degree, according to the Postsecondary Education Opportunity website.Of Monroe County residents, 24.7 percent live below the poverty line, 8.9 percent higher than the stage average of 15.8 percent, according to the 2010 census.Salamone believes that reducing the high poverty level in Monroe County is a multi-step process, but it should start with education.“Our program believes that the process begins and ends with educating our youth,” Salamone said. “The kids who participate in College Mentors visit a college campus 20 times a year. This frequent immersion into an environment filled with as much energy as IU provides our kids with quite a preview of what higher education can offer them.”The chapter buses the students from their school to Showalter Fountain every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon to engage in activities that tend to focus on higher education and career, culture and diversity, and community service.“We have partnered with Phi Delta Epsilon pre-medical fraternity to teach the kids about science topics, made blankets for the Ronald McDonald house, taught the kids about business before making a lemonade stand in the arboretum, among many others,” Salamone said.Last week, College Mentors worked with Kappa Kappa Gamma and Phi Mu to host a holiday party activity with the students.“In the future, we hope to partner with even more fraternities and sororities for this event,” Salamone said.Other goals that Salamone hopes to accomplish with College Mentors is to expand the program by including an additional partner school in order to serve 40 more students.Vice President of College Mentors and IU senior Taylor Twiggs says she has learned much from the children that she is a “buddy” to.“Doing activities with the kids that expose them to giving back to others have meant a lot to me,” Twiggs said. “For example, making blankets for others kids at Riley Children’s Hospital. It is very powerful to see kids giving back to other kids that are in need. Being involved with College Mentors has allowed me to have a positive impact on the lives of many children and my time spent with the kids has taught me valuable lessons about working with children who need a little extra encouragement.”
(10/21/13 3:56am)
After a one-year hiatus, IU alumni, students and families can expect a long-standing tradition to return to campus.
(10/15/13 3:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For contemporary college students living through what some call the hook-up era, sometimes, sex travels beyond the bedroom and into lecture halls.Students attended Monday’s “Sex Ed: A Real Conversation about Sexual Hookups in College” event in the Whittenberger Auditorium in the IMU to have an honest discussion about hook-up culture, both nationally and at IU. Culture of Care, an IU Student Association-led initiative to “shift the culture of IU ... to friendly and safe,” sponsored the event, which had two expert speakers.Dr. Justin Garcia, an assistant gender studies professor at IU and research scientist at the Kinsey Institute, and Dr. Kristen Jozkowski, assistant professor of community health at University of Arkansas, led the discussion.Three student panelists were also present to discuss and stress the importance of building positive sexual relationships with one another.Garcia said across the nation, 65 to 68 percent of college students engage in uncommitted, casual “hookups.” He also said America’s dating culture has radically changed over the last several decades, as oral sex is becoming more casual, and kissing is “too intimate.”“What appears to be happening is that dating hasn’t died, it’s just changed,” Garcia said. “Hookups are serving as ways of getting to know people and starting romantic relationships.”Garcia said hookups also appear to be happening more frequently.“That also suggests that it happens due to our culture,” he said. “They’re happening, but they’re not happening alongside relationships.”Although the main reason for engaging in hookups was for pleasure, a study to which Garcia contributed found that for both men and women, about 50 percent of people hook up because they’re “looking for love.”Garcia and Jozkowski both said that was fine — as long as sexual partners communicate consent effectively and in a safe manner. Jozkowski discussed the four different ways to give consent: direct, verbal, nonverbal and non-direct. She also noted that although women and men differ in how they indicate consent, it’s still important to address the subject in order to have a positive and pleasurable experience for both parties.“I’m not here to say not to have sex ... that’s not realistic,” Jozkowski says. “(People) need to be comfortable with what they’re doing ... consent ties into that.”After the presentation, students were able to anonymously text their questions during the open discussion time.Questions centered around how to communicate effectively and other social questions, such as “Can men be raped?”, “What are good ways to ask for consent without killing the mood?” and “What are good ways to say no without making the guy angry?” In response to “Why is there more stigma associated with women who hook up more than men?”, one student panelist suggested women are seen as more pure, and that if they have sex, they’re just giving what they have away. Kristy Dorsey, a freshman and nursing major, said she heard about the event through Twitter. Dorsey said she thought the discussion topic was interesting. “I came because I was curious on everyone else’s outlook on hooking up,” Dorsey said.Garcia said he hoped students would begin to think critically about the role of romantic and sexual relationships in their lives.“We want people to be having lots of consensual sex with lots of orgasms,” Jozkowski said.
(09/04/13 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU senior Audrey Chambers was 5-foot-6 and weighed 97 pounds when she decided to get help for her eating disorder freshman year. She weighed 21 pounds less than the recommended weight for her height. The IU Health Center diagnosed her with anorexia. She began treatment and began gaining weight, but the Health Center said she wasn’t gaining it fast enough. Chambers and her family received an ultimatum in the form of a letter from the Health Center in Nov., only a few months after she started treatment.If she didn’t gain a certain amount of weight by the time she came back from winter break, she wouldn’t be able to return to school, the letter stated. “They had explained to me that if they know a student is as physically unwell as I was, and they allow that student to continue on campus not making progress towards becoming healthier, then they could be facing a liability issue,” Chambers said.Chambers’ eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, is characterized by fear of gaining weight and poor eating habits. As many as 24 million people suffer from an eating disorder in the U.S., according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders website. Only one in 10 people seeks treatment.“I was really scared, alone, and having trouble sleeping because my bones were protruding so much,” Chambers said.Chambers was assigned to a physician, a dietician and a therapist from the IU Health Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services. Dr. Nancy Stockton, director of CAPS, said CAPS doesn’t usually give out ultimatums to students.“With (student’s parents’) permission, we strongly recommend intensive treatment or have the student leave the University to thrive,” Dr. Stockton said. “If students are near starvation, and anorexia taken over, they’re angry, but often what happens is when they get better.”Chambers said she believed she was “never good enough for anybody,” which was the root of her illness.Stockton said CAPS works with students who “want to be there and who want treatment.”“Through CAPS and numerous people from the University, we try to get external support to help bolster the student to combat the anorexic thinking,” Stockton said.After receiving the letter from CAPS, Chambers stopped going to the Health Center for counseling sessions and started seeking help off-campus.She sees a physician and dietician occasionally, but is still wary, she said.“The ultimatum absolutely did not help me,” Chambers said. “It scared me.”Jessica Setnick, dietician and founder of International Federation of Eating Disorder Dieticians, said the decision to give an ultimatum was probably an indicator of how strong and serious the eating disorder was.“I assume that it was a way to motivate the student to get treatment,” Setnick said.In response to the letter, Chambers said she felt her mental health should not be a threat to her education.“I just really dislike how the Health Center threatens people,” she said. “I do understand why they do what they do, but that doesn’t mean I like it.”Chambers is now recovering and is getting good grades, she said.She is also involved in the National Eating Disorder Association as a navigator, helping an anonymous pen-pal with the individual’s eating disorder via email. “Helping people with recovery is one of the best things I’ve done in my life,” Chambers said.Chambers said she hopes CAPS can find a better approach to helping students.“I’m a very strong advocate for eating disorder recovery, and the last thing I want to do is turn people away from a big source of help and support on campus,” she said. “I would really like to see them find a less threatening, more supportive way of helping people.”
(06/27/13 1:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Affirmative action, a practice used to help benefit underrepresented groups and to promote nondiscrimination, is now the subject of a case that claims this practice does discriminate.In 2008, Abigail Fisher, a white honor roll student who had a 3.59 GPA and was in the top-12 percent of her graduating class, applied to the University of Texas at Austin.UT, a school with currently a little more than 50 percent of their student body consisting of people of color, automatically accepts Texas students who graduate in the top-10 percent of their class. Applicants like Fisher were then to compete against other students who didn’t place in the top 10 percent of their class “under a system in which UT expressly considered race in order to increase enrollment of Hispanic and African-American applicants.”Fisher was denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin, and filed a lawsuit against the university shortly after on the grounds it allegedly discriminated against her race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.The following year, District Court Judge Sam Sparks upheld UT’s policy as it met the standards of Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 Supreme Court case that upheld the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy.Fisher’s attorneys then filed petition for Supreme Court review in September 2011.In a 7-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin case was to be sent back to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for reconsideration because the lower courts “did not hold the university to the demanding burden of strict scrutiny.”Justice Kennedy also said that schools must show “that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity.”In a statement in response to the Fisher decision, IU President Michael A. McRobbie says IU “will analyze the decision carefully before taking any action.”“While we are disappointed that the court did not rule in favor of the University of Texas at Austin, we are pleased that the previously established principle of limited race-conscious admissions standards remains intact,” McRobbie said. “IU remains steadfastly committed to its longstanding goal of providing outstanding educational opportunities to students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.”This Supreme Court decision has sparked much debate among Americans and has some universities wondering about the future of their admissions policies. Beth Cate, an associate professor at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said the court decision doesn’t require universities to make instant changes to their admission programs.The court decision allows further lawsuits to challenge universities that consider race.“Overall the Supreme Court’s decision will make it harder for schools to use race as a factor in admissions,” Cate said. “In the meantime, the Court’s prior opinions leave ample room for schools to try to boost minority enrollments through enhanced outreach and recruitment efforts, and nothing in its Fisher decision appears to disturb any of that.”Kevin Brown, a professor at the IU Maurer School of Law, says he believes the decision is likely to have little impact on how affirmative action functions in college admissions.“While the Supreme Court remanded the case, it reaffirmed its commitment to Grutter and to the use of race and ethnicity in the admissions process of selective higher education programs,” Brown said via email.Mark Land, vice president of IU communications, said race is one of the factors IU considers when accepting students, but it does not use a scoring system when weighing applicants, as quoted in the Louisville Courier-Journal.In his statement, McRobbie continued to say, “the perspectives and experiences a diverse student body brings to an IU education also represent a critical part of helping students be successful in the increasingly diverse and international 21st century. “IU will continue to be as inclusive as possible in its admissions decisions within the bounds of the law.”
(06/23/13 11:09pm)
Starting July 1, one hour will be the only thing that will keep IU employees, as well as all employees in the U.S., ineligible for health care through their employer.
(04/24/13 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the first time in two years, students, faculty and staff can expect a few changes next year regarding on-campus meal plans.One of these changes will be a price increase.The price of all Cream meal plans will increase by $150. The increase is based on operational costs, such as employee salaries and benefits, supplies to run dining operations and the rising cost of food, Director of RPS dining Sandra Fowler and RPS Executive Director Patrick Connor said.“Additionally, RPS is opening a new dining center next fall, the Restaurants at Woodland, and the cost of this new facility has an impact on meal plan rates,” Connor said.Opening this August at Forest Quadrangle, the Restaurants at Woodland will offer nine different micro-restaurants. Various food choices will include a cafe, yogurt bar and ethnic restaurants.“Finally, RPS tracks the time of the semester when students start to add I-Bucks to their accounts in the fall semester, and the earlier it happens is also an indicator that we need to increase the starting levels of the plans.”By increasing cost and starting levels of the plans, RPS hopes to avoid students having to add more I-bucks later in the semester.RPS also plans to discontinue the Crimson meal plan at the end of this school year.A new program, Hoosier Bucks, will be available to students, faculty and staff. Hoosier Bucks will allow students who aren’t required to have a meal plan to have more dining options while offering the same discount approach that the Crimson meal plan offered in the past.Hoosier Bucks will offer a 25-percent discount on every purchase.“The Crimson plan was replaced with the Hoosier Bucks account to offer more flexibility across campus,” Fowler said. “This account can be used at all RPS dining locations and also in the dining locations in the IMU and Wells Library food court.”Connor said RPS and IMU dining are looking forward to serving students and are pleased to have this partnership that will benefit students on the go.
(04/18/13 12:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While it usually is not a problem for people to tell others if they have cancer or diabetes, people find it harder to say they suffer from a mental illness.IU sociologists led an international study that found despite worldwide acceptance that people with mental illness can be treated, there is a still a stigma associated with being mentally ill.The “Stigma in Global Context — Mental Health Study” found that people view those with mental illness as undesirable for close personal relationships and positions of authority.The study was launched after the International Study of Schizophrenia found that people in poorer, developing countries recovered at a higher rate than people in developed countries.“(It) seems paradoxical,” said Bernice Pescosolido, the IU sociology professor who led the study and a recognized expert in the field of mental health stigma. “While in the West, we’re expected to have better technology and health care, in other countries, they seem to look out for each other and had a sense of collectiveness. This is what challenged my group.”According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in four adults experience a mental health disorder in a given year.Anyone at any age can develop a mental illness, and yet there is still a stigma associated with those who are mentally ill.“Like mental illness, anyone can get old, too,” IU psychology professor Eliot Smith said. “And the elderly get stigmatized, also.”The most recent stigma for the mentally ill is the media linking them to violent tragedies, such as the Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., shootings. The truth is that the vast majority of those with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence rather than perpetrators, Pescosolido said.“A small percentage with mental illness act in violent ways,” Smith said. “But it’s absolutely unfair to link those with mental illness as dangerous. For example, it’s unfair to stereotype males as those who are more likely to get a gun and kill everyone.”These stigmas then affect those with mental illness in a major way and pave a way for negative implications, such as refusal to get help.“People have to recognize they have a problem,” Pescosolido said.The National Alliance of Mental Illness of the Greater Bloomington Area provides support and advocacy for families of individuals who suffer from mental illness. They’ve been witness to those with mental illness hold high-power jobs.“Some of these folks are ‘out,’ and some feel the need to keep their mental illness a secret to avoid the stigma issue,” said Jill Bolte Taylor, world-renowned neuroanatomist and president of NAMI-GBA.The SGC-MHS study found that individuals were very hesitant to work with someone with a mental illness.“If you’re going to interact with someone with mental illness, you might be nervous because you don’t know how to act,” Smith said.The SGC-MHS study was conducted to help make institutional changes for those with mental illness and to help reduce the stigmas.The study’s goal is to find a new way to educate.“We were trying to find a new hook to change the culture to be more receptive for people with mental illness,” Pescosolido said. “People can recover from mental illness, we know that. People have higher self-esteem and they do better if people can accept them. We seem to think the mental illness is one big problem, but it’s completely different to everyone else.”
(04/02/13 3:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Before advanced technology, the common way to send an anonymous notice of admiration was through a note or letter.A trend on college campuses has changed that.The IU Secret Admirers Facebook page has gone viral with nearly 6,000 likes. The site allows students to submit a note to someone they admire in a public but anonymous fashion.Matt Ruehling started the page March 7. Ruehling, a sophomore informatics major, had seen a similar page for a different school.It’s unclear what started this trend, but numerous schools throughout the United States have launched their own Facebook and Twitter campus secret admirers pages. Purdue recently made its own Facebook page shortly after IU’s went viral. “I thought it’d be cool to start one here,” Ruehling said. “It’s an easy way for people to thank someone for something and appreciate them.”The IU page has a Google form where users can submit their posts. They are then sent to the page’s administrators. No names — just the notes that were sent.“I figured maybe we’d get a thousand,” Ruehling said. “But it went from 500 likes to 2,000 likes in one night.”During the past few days, the page has received around 2,000 anonymous posts.With the unanticipated heavy traffic, Ruehling recruited best friend Jonas White, a sophomore apparel merchandise major, to help.Together, they go through submissions and post them to the page. The page has been the center of attention for many students during the past week.“It’s a new thing for people to do and talk about. People are always curious to see if they’re being posted about,” White said. Justin Garcia, a research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, said he believes this trend alludes to the interest in the pursuit of romance among the IU community.“Dating culture is virtually nonexistent on most college campuses in the U.S. today,” Garcia said. “Outlets like this become a way for people to find others in their local community.”Posts on the page vary from true, heartwarming declarations of admiration to posts that may be seen as crossing certain social lines. Various students have different opinions of the page.“I think that’s it’s funny,” freshman Ashton Shirley said. “You can state what you’re truly thinking without having anyone know who said it ... but at the same time, if (a post) was being posted about me, I possibly wouldn’t like it.”Others believe it’s a new way to connect with other students.“I think it’s a cool way to connect with other people and say things you normally wouldn’t be able to,” freshman Lindsay Cate said. “I wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise.”Some students said they believe it’s childish.“I think that it’s immature and dumb,” freshman Luke Woolbright said. “I think that if you like someone, you should tell them instead of being like an eighth-grader.”Garcia said he believes that the page at first is “charming.”“But, the anonymity that allows users to post without fear of public rejection can also create a situation where some might push things a bit too far by being too detailed or making the object of their attractions feel uncomfortable,” Garcia said. “I sincerely hope that doesn’t become the case, as on its own this can be a fun way for people in the IU community to connect.”Ruehling and White made the page for students to have good fun.“Honestly, we made it because it’s funny,” White said. “We mean for no one to feel that they’re being harassed. It’s all in good fun, and if (a post) is obviously not right, we won’t post it.”The pair recently added three people as page administrators to help the site’s traffic.They also plan to make a Facebook application for the page in order to decrease the numerous posts on fans’ timelines and allow fans to look at posts on their own time.“You know the site and app, ‘Texts From Last Night’? That’s the aim,” Ruehling said.
(02/13/13 5:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>More than 250 people came to watch the drag queens in sparkly corsets, flashy dresses, fishnets and high heels strut, dance and strip down the aisles of the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union. The Beta chapter of Sigma Phi Beta, a queer and allied fraternity, put on their first drag show benefit Tuesday night. The Drag for a Cause event featured five drag queens and two drag kings from two IU campuses, as well as Indianapolis. They battled for a crown and tiara, along with the title of Queen and King of Campus.The drag queens and drag kings lip synced to numerous hits, such as Christina Aguilera’s “Come On Over Baby,” and Cher’s “Believe.” The hosts of the evening Ophelia Knightly, sophomore Devin Roberts, and Matilda Rose, sophomore Payne Banister, also brothers of Sigma Phi Beta, started off the show with laughter and jokes. The poked fun at Chick-Fil-A and its anti-gay stance as Rose came on stage eating its signature waffle fries.“Don’t you know they hate us?” Knightly asked, to which Rose said he didn’t care. “It’s delicious,” Rose said.Then the performances began. The audience whooped, hollered and threw out single dollar bills at the queens and kings as they lip synced to a song of their choosing. During the past month, contestants had put in more than 15 hours of practice before the event. “Everyone’s been working hard,” Will Mruzek, manager of Sigma Phi Beta said.Contestants were judged based on their performance, appearance and audience reaction.At the end of the night, Zorro, student Zuryvette Borrero, who lip synced to Corinne Bailey’s “Girl, Put Your Records On,” was named king and Nikita Diamond, an IU freshman, who lip synced the song “Sasha” won queen.“Drag makes me feel alive,” said Diamond, who just recently started entering drag queen pageants. “It’s a release for me.”The event was inspired by the previous Miss Gay IU pageants, which had been a tradition in Bloomington for 20 years and annually drew 1,000 attendees until the productions stopped due to debt in 2010.Proceeds from the event will go to the Indiana Youth Group, a safe house for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in Indianapolis.“This is all for a good cause, really,” Roberts said. “The safe house allows others to express themselves and allows them to have leadership opportunities.”
(01/30/13 4:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU graduate student Jordan Vinson recognized a problem with recycling in Bloomington apartment complexes of and wanted to figure out a way to solve it.“I believe that organized effort can go a long way,” Vinson said.He, along with more than 120 students, went to Tuesday’s Indiana Student Public Interest Research Group call out meeting in Woodburn Hall to show their interest in volunteering to help the Bloomington community.INPIRG is a student-led, student-funded nonprofit organization that ultimately aims to help solve various social problems, such as recycling to homelessness.The most recent achievement for INPIRG was convincing Congress to vote to stop student interest loans from doubling, which saved students an average of $1,000.“We don’t complain, we implement solutions,” INPIRG Chapter Chair Faith Nebergall said. “We provide service to Bloomington, Indiana, and the United States.” INPIRG has different campaigns for each different social problem. During the meeting, INPIRG introduced the five main campaigns and their campaign coordinators for this semester, which included Sustainable U, Democracy, Renters’ Rights, Cheaper Texbooks and Hunger and Homelessness.After the introduction, each campaign broke off into smaller groups and into different classrooms, then had attendees flock to which campaign interested them the most.Each campaign group discussed semester goals, brainstormed new ideas and interviewed for the various internship jobs available.Sustainable U, coordinated by Vince Tite, aims to have landlords start their own recycling program for their residents and educate students on issues of waste.Democracy, coordinated by Rachel Bond, aims to introduce a constitutional amendment to the House of Representatives to debunk corporate heads.Renters’ Rights, coordinated by Sherouk Omara, aims to educate students about their landowning rights by creating a rating system for each landlord in the Bloomington area.Hunger and Homelessness, coordinated by Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, aims to help those in poverty. Last semester, they collected more than a 1,000 items for the homeless.Cheaper Textbooks, headed by Kyra He, aims to help IU students save money when buying textbooks. Goals include convincing professors to choose cheaper textbooks and they plan to have a textbook swap event at the end of this semester.“Our volunteers and interns have been making announcements in classes, been recruiting volunteers at tables set up around campus, and phonebanking nearly every night to get new volunteers so we can accomplish our campaign goals this semester,” INPIRG Outreach and Internet Coordinator John Barth said.Tuesday’s meeting had the best turnout that INPIRG has ever had, Nebergall said.
(01/23/13 5:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sam Laubach tried to donate blood once.When the nurse asked him if he had ever had sex with another man any time after 1977, Laubach, president of Sigma Phi Beta, lied and said no.He knew if he told the truth, he’d be deferred as a blood donor when he had perfectly clean blood to donate. However, a nurse who knew him prior had noticed him and called him out on his lie.Laubach eventually told the truth and was then told he was ineligible to donate blood.“I could tell it just really hurt him to tell me I couldn’t donate any blood. I could see it in his eyes,” Laubach said.For the past 30 years, homosexual men have been banned from donating blood.In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration implemented the MSM blood ban, which states that men who have had sex with other men any time since 1977 are ineligible to donate blood.The ban also deems women who have had sex in the past 12 months with a man who has had sex with another man, even if only once, ineligible to donate blood.The Secular Alliance at IU and Sigma Phi Beta fraternity are partnering with the Red Cross to sponsor their second Blood Drive for Equality to raise awareness about the MSM blood ban in the U.S. There will also be a petition to repeal the FDA’s policy on the MSM blood ban. The blood drive is taking place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Georgian Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.The blood drive comes just in time for the end of National Blood Donor Month.During last year’s blood drive, the Secular Alliance and Sigma Phi Beta took a tally on a poster board as a visual representation of those who were ineligible because of this lifetime ban. About 15 people were unable to give blood due to the MSM blood ban. Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs a blood transfusion, said Katy Maloy, program manager of communications at the American Red Cross, via email. The average amount of blood taken when donating is one pint. The average amount of blood someone needs in a transfusion is three pints. Without the blood ban, ineligible donors would have been able to provide enough blood for five blood transfusions.“This is a law based on scientific fear. We need more blood, and this is a ridiculous policy we don’t need,” said Jessika Griffin, Secular Alliance president. “It’s scientifically and medically unwarranted.”According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration site, “a history of male-to-male sex is associated with an increased risk for the presence of and transmission of certain infectious diseases, including HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.”They also state that men who have sex with other men are 60 times more likely to have HIV than the general population. According to the Indiana State Department of Health site, by the end of December 2010, there was a total of 9,893 people living with HIV/AIDS in Indiana. The majority infected were men who had sex with men.Despite these statistics, there is still an urgency to change the policy. In 2010, Senate Democrats called on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a new study in order for the ban to be lifted.“‘Healthy gay and bisexual men continue to be banned for life’ while ‘a man who has had sex with an HIV-positive woman’ can give blood after waiting only one year,” the Democrats said in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. There’s also been action to help those afflicted by HIV/AIDS. The Obama administration released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) in July of 2010, which aimed to lower HIV infection by 25 percent. This past summer, the FDA approved of Truvada, the first drug to prevent HIV.Although they are required by law to follow FDA guidelines in regards to the MSM blood ban, the Red Cross site says the group supports “rational, scientifically-based deferral periods that are applied fairly and consistently among donors who engage in similar risk activities.”“The American Red Cross is disappointed that the FDA has chosen not to make changes ... to press for donor deferral policies that are fair, consistent and based on scientific evidence, while protecting patients from potential harm,” Maloy said.This controversy can be dated back to 1984 when Ryan White, an Indiana teenager, contracted AIDS through a tainted hemophilia treatment. He was expelled from his middle school due to his condition, which turned him into the poster child for fighting AIDS-related discrimination.During the years, AIDS-related discrimination has reoccurred sporadically. Before White, a major misconception in the U.S. was that only gay men contracted AIDS.Most recent and relevant example of this discrimination occurred last July when IU professor Uri Horesh was arrested for protesting the MSM blood ban policy after being told he was ineligible to donate blood.“It’s just nice people who want the opportunity to help ... It’s a heterosexist practice and it’s based more on stereotypes than actual fact,” Laubach said.According to CNN, there was a nationwide shortage of blood donations last June.“It’s important, we need more blood and we have an untapped resource. It just makes sense to repeal the blood ban,” Laubach said.