Master Naturalist course begins at Karst Farm Park
Monroe County Parks and Recreation and Monroe Lake are offering an Indiana Master Naturalist course which began yesterday at Karst Farm Park in Bloomington.
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Monroe County Parks and Recreation and Monroe Lake are offering an Indiana Master Naturalist course which began yesterday at Karst Farm Park in Bloomington.
The IU Office of Sustainability will present the fifth annual Big Red Eats Green Festival today.
In 2007, there were only 400 undergraduates in the School of Informatics and Computing. As of 2014, there were 1,196 students with ?majors within the school.
About 40 IU students gathered Tuesday night at the Showalter Fountain to rally in support of the people of Ferguson, Mo., and the unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, 18, who was shot and killed by a local police officer.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the slums of Victoria, Brazil, residents live in a war zone overrun by a drug cartel. The average household makes about $400 to $600 a month. Every day is challenging and uncertain. For these people, IU School of Informatics Ph.D. student David Nemer said, technology can be the difference between life and death. Nemer has spent the last six months in Victoria, Brazil studying the technology use of residents in the slums. Although many locals have cell phones, service is limited and many cannot afford a data plan. The residents have to turn to tele-centers and LAN centers, which provide large desktop computers to use for free or at a discounted price.These centers represent the only locations in town that are off-limits to drug lords. Residents come to escape shootings, receive mail, safely catch up with friends and learn. “When shootings happen, they run inside the LAN houses,” Nemer said. “It’s the only place that people go and have access to have technology, and the drug lords won’t try to get in there, because the owner will shut it down, and there’s no access to technology anymore.” Nemer said Facebook is the main form of social networking. When it is not safe to visit their friends or family in different territories of the slums, locals count on the privacy of Facebook messaging to stay in touch with their friends and families. Locals can also turn to these online forums for an escape from the dangerous and uncertain war zone around them. “I met this girl that said, ‘Sometimes I feel like screaming and asking for help, but I can’t do this on the streets,’” Nemer said. “’But I go online, and I know that someone will be online listening to me. I can read good stuff and see good stuff. I can get out of this crazy reality that I live in.’” But they have to be careful what they post, because the drug cartels closely follow what happens online. Any status about the drug lords or drug wars could lead to serious repercussions. Like the United States, Nemer said, he found an emerging “selfie movement” in the slums. But, unlike the U.S., the Brazilians are not trying to show off their make-up or destination for the night. “The selfies, which are really huge, are used so they can express their emotions without being too explicit or fearing retaliation,” Nemer said. “They’ll post an angry photo on Facebook, but the drug cartel won’t know what’s going on.” Nemer grew up in this town, but he did not visit the slums until he made it the subject of his dissertation. He lived in the wealthier portion of Victoria, where middle and upper class residents do not interact with the people of the slums. He was told the slums were where all the bad people lived and everyone there was involved with the drug war. He described visiting the slums for the first time as a “culture shock.” “I thought they were just poor,” Nemer said. “I didn’t think they were having all this trouble, but by looking at these peoples’ use of technology, you can identify their struggles with health care and education.”Nemer has always been interested in how people use technology around the world, he said. After studying abroad in the U.S. in his senior year of high school, Nemer completed his undergraduate education in computer science in Brazil and a master’s in computer science in Germany. Now, he is completing his dissertation at IU. Graduate student Lindsay Ems has known Nemer since 2010, when they met in a Social Informatics seminar. She describes him as funny, kind and smart, in and out of his work. She said she admires the personal connection and involvement Nemer has in his work. “He gets to know people one-on-one and invests a lot of himself in the work he does,” Ems said. “Because of this, I think he’s able to do things that others haven’t been able to do in the past.” Eden Medina, Nemer’s adviser, said his work is notable in its “deeply human understanding” of how poor people in Latin America are using technology. “We are fortunate that David brings this international perspective to the IU classroom as an assistant instructor while also raising issues of economic inequality and social justice,” Medina said. After analyzing his research, Nemer plans to return to Brazil and work to improve the well-being of the people living in the slums. He said he wants to help them by designing a better keyboard or going to the local Congress and lobbying for more security in the slums. Ultimately, Nemer believes that guidance and better education is key to helping the residents of the slums.“Technology could give you more access to information, and if you turn that info into knowledge, then that’s power,” Nemer said. “But nothing will be done if they just have the technology there, and they are not turning that information for their own benefit.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Lynette Anigbo showed up for her first class of junior year with a backpack, a diaper bag, a breast pump and her baby boy strapped to her chest. Anigbo got pregnant at the beginning of her sophomore year when she was 20 years old. “I really didn’t like kids, and I didn’t want to get married,” Anigbo said. “I was just going to jet set and see the world. That was my plan.” Her boyfriend at the time was two years older, and Anigbo said he took off for California shortly after finding out she was pregnant. Her parents live in Nigeria, and she had to call them from across the world with the news. “My mom said, ‘Call your dad,’” Anigbo said. “My dad was like, ‘Well, you’re not the first girl, and you won’t be the last girl. Make sure you finish school.’”Now, Anigbo is 26 and in her final year as a master’s student at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She has her own apartment, a job and a 5-year-old son, Charles, an outgoing kindergartner who likes to play soccer and guitar. Throughout the past six years at IU, Anigbo had to learn how to raise a child in an environment better suited for the single and carefree. Students with children on campus, like Anigbo, can spend years on the waiting lists at the IU childcare centers. The lactation rooms are limited and difficult to find.This past year’s closing of the Office of Women’s Affairs eliminated a safe and obvious place for pregnant students to go for help.IU houses five child care centers, which are reserved for the children of IU students and faculty. A third of the parents who use these facilities are students, according to Coordinator of Child Care Services Tim Dunnuck.Two hundred children are enrolled in the program, and 500 are on the waitlist.Because only eight infants are allowed in a classroom at a time, many younger children put on the waitlist do not get a spot, Dunnuck said.The infants who do get into the program end up filling up the toddler classes as well, gridlocking the waitlist until the child is of preschool age or older. “Right now, if you don’t get your child in as an infant, your next opportunity might not be until it is three years old,” Dunnuck said. For parents who do not gain a spot in a day care, Dunnuck said, he recommends a list of alternate options in the community. Though Bloomington has childcare available, Dunnuck said the quality of care in the community varies significantly.“The IU centers have traditionally been the best centers in the community,” Dunnuck said. Dunnuck said he recommends prospective parents start looking for child care when the mother is pregnant. Anigbo said she put her son on the waitlist a week after she found out she was pregnant, gaining a spot for him. But children can’t enroll in the IU day care until they are 7 weeks old, so she brought her son to class with her until he was old enough to enroll.She received support from her peers and professors.Anigbo said all but one of her professors in undergraduate and graduate school said she could bring her son to class with her.When she went into the hallway to feed her son during one class, Anigbo said, her professor lectured from the open door so she could continue listening. Being a full-time student and a full-time mom is challenging, and without the help of her parents or a partner, Anigbo said she had to learn a lot about raising a child on her own. After making it through her son’s first five months, she approached the women at the former Office of Women’s Affairs and offered to write a Parents’ Packet that would help guide young mothers. In the packet, she highlights some of the resources available in the community, including information on breast-feeding on campus, day cares to try and the best way to schedule classes with a child. Anigbo described the Office of Women’s Affairs as a safe place for women to talk about pregnancy, as well as self-esteem problems, rape, sexual assault and sexism on campus.It was dissolved last year, and its responsibilities were divided between Human Resources and the Office of Student Affairs. Anigbo cited Associate Dean of Students Carol McCord, former assistant dean of the Office of Women’s Affairs, as one of the most helpful resources for pregnant women on campus. McCord has assisted Anigbo throughout her son’s life, helping her organize her classes so she could remain in school and telling her what rights professors and students have in terms of bringing their children to the classroom. Anigbo said it was such a helpful office because women knew exactly where to go with these uncomfortable or taboo issues. “It gets lost,” Angibo said. “It’s not easy to be like, ‘Hey, I think this is a specifically a girl issue’ because most of the time you’re trying to blend in.” Twenty-year-old Darian Foster is a friend of Anigbo’s and another student mom on campus. She is a junior youth development student at the School of Public Health. Her husband is also a student at IU, and they have been married for two years. Their son is 11 months old. Foster said she surprised herself with her resilience and ability to get things done. She no longer has the luxury of wasting time. “Many students complain about not having enough time to do homework or study, but you haven’t studied your hardest until you’ve had to study on a time crunch because your child may wake up at any moment,” Foster said. Foster said she has not turned to the University for many resources, using government aid and Bloomington resources such as the Crisis Pregnancy Center, which offers discounted products and support for mothers in need. She is only aware of one lactation room on campus, Foster said, which is located in the Indiana Memorial Union. There are seven lactation rooms on campus, Anigbo said, but they are hard to find without asking.Some require codes to get in. Others are merely bathrooms with a chair next to it, she said. “It’s disgusting,” Anigbo said. “You’re pumping next to a toilet.” The IU Health Center does not offer pregnant students prenatal care IU health and sexuality educator Kathryn Brown said. However, Brown said pregnant college women can meet with IU reproductive providers to discuss their options and be referred to resource centers in the community. Anigbo said she tells her son that when he gets older, he is going to go to college and graduate school.When her son’s father is watching Charles, Anigbo said she walks around campus and watches the students laughing, playing music in the grass and sitting on the rooftops. She wonders what it would be like to feel carefree again, to not have anyone depending on her. However, Anigbo said she does not regret her choice, even if it meant growing up a little earlier. “I realized that no one is really doing anything more meaningful than what I’m doing when I’m taking care of my son,” Anigbo said. “I’m not really missing anything. When I’m out, I want to go back home and lay down with my child.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Andy Braden said he will never forget the first time he walked into the IU Student Association office.He was a freshman at the time, and he had taken several wrong turns and one wrong elevator before arriving for an interview. His first look at the previous administration working diligently in that big office was one of his most memorable experiences with IUSA, he said, and that was when he knew he wanted to be like them. “It was a really cool experience to see all these hardworking students dedicated to making IU better,” Braden said. Braden, currently a sophomore, will be next year’s IUSA president. In that role, he will represent the entire student body. His goal for next year’s administration is to reenergize IUSA and get more students involved across campus, he said. “I would be very proud if my administration’s legacy was that we gave IUSA a jolt of energy and increased its relevancy on campus,” Braden said. He said he plans to organize biweekly moving office hours, where IUSA senior staff members will go to popular locations on campus such as Wells Library and different food courts to interact with students and exchange ideas. One initiative next year’s administration is brainstorming includes possibly expanding recreational sports spaces, giving intramural and recreational sports more room to practice. IU currently has nine usable acres of sports fields. The Big Ten average is 41 acres, Braden said. He also wants to look into improving mental health services on campus by expanding Counseling and Psychological Services and removing barriers that might make students hesitant to use them, such as expanding hours. Braden said Welcome Week presents another area that needs improvement. The majority of alcohol and sexual assault incidents occur during Welcome Week, Braden said. He said he believes IUSA could encourage student organizations on campus to provide some alternative activities to partying for freshmen and incoming students during those first days on campus. IUSA will have a new committee called the IUSA Think Tank, which will be dedicated to gathering new student ideas, researching student ideas and coming up with feedback.“It’s basically a year-long outreach effort to push toward new ideas and thoughts outside of IUSA,” Braden said. “I don’t want to say these are the things we’re going to get done in office and then be satisfied with just moving toward those. IUSA should be a living, breathing organization that’s always adapting and requires always going to students.” Braden is majoring in policy analysis in SPEA and is involved in the five-year accelerated master’s program in public affairs. When he is not working with IUSA, Braden said he is performing in the improv group Awkward Silence or hanging out with his brothers in his fraternity. Sophomore Leah Steele said she has been best friends with Braden for more than 10 years.Steele said the two have gone through precalc in school, long bus rides, spring break and great times together in college. She said Braden is the best person she knows. “He genuinely cares about everyone around him and is the most compassionate person I know,” Steele said. “He is always busy changing the world in one way or another, but will drop everything to be there for those closest to him. I can always count on him having my back. Friends like that don’t come around very often.” Braden first got involved with IUSA in the internship program. Though he took on many leadership roles in high school, he said he was drawn to IUSA because he wanted to join an organization that had the potential to make positive changes on campus. This year, Braden served as one of the co-presidents of Culture of Care, a group within IUSA dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assault, mental health and drug and alcohol abuse on campus. “If I didn’t have a lot of student government experience, it would definitely be a lot more intimidating,” Braden said. “I definitely feel ready.” Current Chief of Staff and junior Dia Sharma will be serving in the same position in next year’s administration. Sharma said she is excited to see the new dynamic that comes with any turnover of administration, as a result of different members and leadership styles within the team. “He’s a great leader. He commands respect when he walks into the room,” Sharma said. “He focuses a lot on the team, which is really important. He’s really insistent that we make sure we get the best people for the job.” Sharma said IUSA will organize interviews this week for next year’s executive branch. “We have a lot of new people that want to get involved, and a lot of great people returning,” Sharma said.Braden said he encourages any student who is not satisfied with their college experience to approach IUSA. “I’m looking forward to being able to fight for a cause on behalf of students,” Braden said. “A lot of student organizations do wonderful things, but IUSA is one of the few where you can really fight for something you’re passionate about. I’m excited just to look at the experience IU is offering students and see how we can improve that.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The legacy of one of IU Department of Biology’s most important characters will continue through funding the study of plant life at IU. Late professor of biology Carlos Miller bequeathed almost $4.2 million to the IU Department of Biology, the largest donation ever made to the department. This money will be used to provide scholarships for graduate students pursuing a degree in plant biology. “We’ll be able to recruit more students that are interested in plant biology — and probably more talented students — because we will be able to offer scholarship support,” former colleague and professor of biology Roger Innes said. Miller worked at IU from 1957 to 1987. Even after his retirement, professor and Chair of Biology Clay Fuqua said he saw Miller in the greenhouse and lab every day working on experiments and interacting with students. Fuqua said Miller was known in the biology department for being incredibly generous with his money. He never married, so he donated a large amount of money to the biology department while he was a faculty member as well. After this most recent donation, Miller’s gifts to the faculty chair and the student fellowship now total more than $5.4 million, according to a press release.But his gifts weren’t just monetary. In 1999, Miller endowed and established the Carlos O. Miller Chair in Plant Growth and Development, and in 2007, he endowed and established the Carlos O. Miller Graduate Fellowship in Plant Developmental Biology. Miller is best known in the science community for discovering a new hormone named cytokinin, which has a strong effect on growth and development in plants. Fuqua said Miller identified one of the two most important hormones in plant biology.“He was very methodical and mechanistic,” Fuqua said. “He wanted to know what the underlying molecular mechanisms were that drive the diversity of biology. Why does one plant grow as a weedy, multi-branch plant and another grow as a single trunk?”Miller devoted the rest of his career to understanding the biochemical ways that cytokinin exert its effects on plant growth and development.In addition to his talents in science, Fuqua said he had a great conversational style. “He came across as somewhat of a country boy,” Fuqua said. “He had a very colloquial accent and had a really good sense of humor. He would laugh a lot. He was not the kind of person where you’d meet him and go, ‘Oh, this guy is a master biochemist.’ He was very unassuming.” Innes said Miller was known in the department for leading by example in his classes. Many of his graduate students are now leading students and professors at other universities studying plant biology, Fuqua said. “He just had an insatiable curiosity about how things work, and for the graduate students, that was something that rubbed off on them,” Innes said. Innes recalled Miller liked to talk about the stock market in addition to science. “He was very talented at investing in the stock market, which is why he was able to give so much to the University,” Innes said. “He did very well, but never spent it on himself.”Miller died in 2012. But with his scholarships and a statue in the biology department, Innes said Miller’s work in the department will not be forgotten. “He just loved doing science, and he appreciated that the institution provided him the resources and the infrastructure and students and colleagues that allowed him to do that,” Fuqua said. “The biology department was his family.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A new IU Student Association administration was officially sworn in Friday at the IUSA Transition Banquet. Members of the old and incoming IUSA administrations gathered in the Tudor Room of the Indiana Memorial Union to receive awards for the year and honor the outgoing and incoming IUSA members. After dinner was served, senior Jose Mitjavila gave his last speech as student body president to a room full of family members and IUSA friends. “This is my biggest moment at IU,” Mitjavila said. “It’s the thing I’m gonna remember the most.” He highlighted some of his administration’s biggest accomplishments, including additions to the Lifeline Law, the pilot program SafeRide, the transition to year-round Culture of Care advocacy and their push to get recycling bins in every dorm room. “I know the student body is better for it,” Mitjavila said.After one stressful night at the IUSA office, Mitjavila said, he found himself lying on the floor with his head under his desk. Under there, he found a quote from a former IUSA president that said, “You’re the watchdog of students from now until eternity.” Although it was a little embellished, Mitjavila said it made him think about his responsibility as student body president. “You get one year to do this job,” Mitjavila said. “You get one year to represent every student on campus. I realized how important my job was, and it gave me the strength to continue on and push forward because I realized the immense responsibility that I had on my shoulders.” After Mitjavila spoke, the members of the new administration went to the front of the room and were sworn in. Andy Braden gave his first speech as the official president of IUSA. He spoke about the purpose of IUSA and why IUSA members are passionate about their positions. “IUSA should be a catalyst for change,” Braden said. “It should be a mechanism through which students can see their ideas become real, see their ideal campus experience actualized and ensure students receive the experience that they are paying for.” But he said there are “glaring issues” on campus that he has the opportunity and the responsibility to address. “IUSA has not perfected the campus experience, nor will it ever,” Braden said. “The role is always changing and developing. We must continue to actively engage students to ensure that we are fulfilling our role on campus.” He said he and all the IUSA members are lucky to be in the position they are.Braden cautioned his incoming executive members to be appreciative of that responsibility. “Value and respect the role you play on campus,” he said. “We have the opportunity to actually do something to improve this University.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU students and faculty are working to create the first published journal of undergraduate research on campus. The IU Journal of Undergraduate Research will feature undergraduate student research from the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and pre-professional schools. The goal is to provide an official forum for undergraduate research, offer more opportunities for publication and recognition of students in all fields and improve IU recruiting and retention,according to the IUJUR mission statement. “It’s everywhere and it’s incredible,” said Kristie Hsu, co-founder and editor-in-chief. “But the problem is there is no place for the plethora of things going on here to get fully recognized in a unified forum.” The first volume of the IUJUR will be published May 2015, and Hsu said it plans to publish one volume annually. IUJUR will begin accepting student submissions of research Oct. 13. Hsu is a sophomore and has worked on this project for the last year. She said she noticed other colleges had journals for their undergraduate research, something IU did not.“We want to make sure these accomplishments are recognized,” Hsu said. During the past two semesters, Hsu said IUJUR has recruited around 40 associates, forming four student boards that have laid the groundwork for the publication. Once students submit their research, the Student Editorial Board will review their papers. The Faculty Advisory Board will review the ones with the highest scores and select articles for publishing. The Student Editorial Board will meet with the students whose work was selected and help them edit and finalize their papers. After final faculty approval, their research will be ready to publish. Janit Pandya, one of the three original founders of IUJUR, said this is valuable for undergraduates specifically because while graduate level and faculty professional level have their own mediums of publishing their research, undergraduates do not. IUJUR is for them. “Undergraduates are the people who will be later on filling in those roles, so we want to make sure we kind of bring that similar structure to them at the undergraduate level, and make sure it’s something they can actively participate in and be a part of,” Pandya said. Today, IUJUR will have a professional mixer from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Union Street Center auditorium to formally announce the release of the journal. IUJUR representatives will give more information about the journal and launching the official website. Hsu said anyone from any field is welcome to come. “I think undergraduate research is really kind of looked over and it’s something that IU should be recognized for,” Hsu said. “I’m hoping that when people first come to campus, they’ll be excited about the opportunities available to them.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Graduate Professional Student Organization formally called for IU to introduce more diversity awareness and education efforts when it passed a new resolution during its final meeting of the semester.In addition to more awareness efforts and education, the Inclusive Student Body Resolution calls for IU to examine its current efforts to foster greater diversity.“This resolution recognizes that the University has several important mechanisms and programs in place to address diversity issues and to build an inclusive environment for students,” GPSO President Brady Harman said. The GPSO offered four ways IU could improve these issues in the resolution.It encourages IU to develop mandatory diversity and inclusion training for all students, faculty and staff at IU. The organization also recommends IU release incident summaries at the end of each semester, which would include the offense, the group targeted by the offense and the action taken by the school. IU should monitor how effective any current or developing diversity initiatives on campus have been to identify and problems and create solutions, according to the resolution. It also urges increased student awareness about organizations and resources in place on campus, such as Incident Teams and IU Counseling and Psychological Services, for students or faculty to use if they experience any threat to their emotional, mental or physical safety on campus. Harman said this resolution was a response to some diversity issues on campus this year, particularly the actions of some white supremacist student groups on campus. “But we’d rather focus on proactive ways to address issues of discrimination, rather than give any more name recognition to these types of groups,” Harman said. Though this was the last GPSO assembly meeting of this year. Harman will serve as president again next year. He said his goals for next year include increasing inclusiveness and collaboration by surveying more students and by increasing the number of campus. “GPSO has maintained and increased academic support and community building initiatives,” Harman said. “We have also refocused our organization on advocacy efforts.“We have passed more legislation this year than in the last four years combined. This has all been due to an active and involved group of representatives and officers.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Representatives from the IU Student Association and members of the Purdue student government met with all the Indiana senators and representatives Tuesday to discuss higher education issues in Indiana. Some hot-button issues included higher education affordability, immigration, student mental health and the prevention of sexual assault on campuses.“It was a lot of open dialogue about these issues and getting our input on it,” said Christopher Kauffman, vice president of administration for IUSA. “It was an idea-sharing session.” IUSA executive members were given 30 to 40 minutes to speak with each representative or representatives’ staff members. Kauffman said the legislators were receptive to what IUSA and Purdue student government members had to say. “Legislators believe in students and want to hear from students,” Kauffman said. “If you can bring student voice to the table in a respectful and effective manner, then a lot of people are willing to listen.” IUSA President Jose Mitjavila said the most important issue they discussed was the need to renew the Higher Education Act to keep student loan interest rates at a manageable rate. This would also ensure Pell Grants and Unsubsidized and Subsidized Stafford Loans are still options for students.They discussed the need for more flexible and reasonable loan repayment programs, such as income-based repayment, which would mean that students could repay their loans based on a percentage of their income.Kauffman said this would make it easier for poor students out of college to pay back their debt. “If you leave IU with a lot of debt and you have to pay a flat 10-percent interest rate, that ends up being a sizeable portion of your income and makes it hard to live,” Kauffman said. Mitjavila said IUSA members also lobbied for increased enforcement of the Cleary Act, which requires universities to report sexual assaults on campuses. “Ideally, we would like regulation that incentivizes increased reporting by universities so that the public can get a better grasp of the actual number of sexual assaults on campus,” Mitjavila said. “The Cleary Act is not strictly enforced, leaving less incentive for universities to do so and potentially creating a system for under-reporting.” Kauffman said this event demonstrated college student governments have the power to make change by bringing issues directly to the legislators. “I think, in the future, it’s making sure that we are ever-present in front of state and federal legislature to make sure that they know these are priorities to students,” Kauffman said. “These are problems that need to be solved. It is about awareness, but it’s also about persistence in generating that awareness.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ten students sat in State Room West with their eyes closed Wednesday night, waiting to judge.After a short introduction from each of the six panelists at the front of the room, students were allowed to ask about each person’s favorite music, Broadway musical and hobbies. “Raise your hand if you think Eric is gay,” IU Health Center employee Kathryn Brown said. “Raise your hand if you think Eric is bisexual. Raise your hand if you think Eric is straight.” This event for Culture of Care Week, called “Guess My Orientation,” was created to address stereotypes about sexual orientation, Brown said. “When you have a stereotype, you can’t see differences in people of a certain group,” Brown said. Brown said she organizes three or four of these panels a semester, using faculty and student volunteers from a variety of orientations. Wednesday’s panel comprised six members, including Ph.D. students, undergraduates and faculty. After tallying up the audience’s responses, the panelists revealed their true sexual orientation to the audience. They were allowed to ask why people grouped them into certain categories.Many audience members said if they could not guess, they categorized the person as bisexual. Others said any male panelist’s expressed interest in Broadway musicals, classical music or theater were giveaways of homosexuality. Second-year law student Brandon King said he identifies as gay, an orientation that has caused him career-related problems in the field of law. “I have to make an effort to make myself more straight,” King said. “I can’t wear any extravagant ties. I have to even watch my tone sometimes.” King cited an experience when a potential employer said he was not a good fit for a potential job because of his “unprofessional vocal inflections.” Ph.D. candidate Sarah Gordon said she identifies as a lesbian, which she said has been an advantage in her job searches.“Them pitching me as a diversity hire could be in their favor,” Gordon said. “I don’t put it in my letters, like, ‘P.S. I’m gay.’ But if you are looking for cues, you can find them.” Jamie Brazel was the only straight person on the panel. She is an office supervisor at the GLBT Service Center, and she said she initially worried she wouldn’t get the job because she was straight. But she said her work at the office could inspire people of all sexualities to come in and learn more. “It’s not the job of the LGBT community to solve homophobia. And I felt like, as an ally, I could empower people to get more involved.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Representatives from the IU Student Association and members of the Purdue student government met with all the Indiana senators and representatives Tuesday to discuss higher education issues in Indiana. Some hot-button issues included higher education affordability, immigration, student mental health and the prevention of sexual assault on campuses.“It was a lot of open dialogue about these issues and getting our input on it,” said Christopher Kauffman, vice president of administration for IUSA. “It was an idea-sharing session.” IUSA executive members were given 30 to 40 minutes to speak with each representative or representatives’ staff members. Kauffman said the legislators were receptive to what IUSA and Purdue student government members had to say. “Legislators believe in students and want to hear from students,” Kauffman said. “If you can bring student voice to the table in a respectful and effective manner, then a lot of people are willing to listen.” IUSA President Jose Mitjavila said the most important issue they discussed was the need to renew the Higher Education Act so student loan interest rates are kept at a manageable rate. This would also ensure Pell Grants and Unsubsidized and Subsidized Stafford Loans are still options for students.They discussed the need for more flexible and reasonable loan repayment programs, such as income-based repayment, which would mean that students could repay their loans based on a percentage of their income.Kauffman said this would make it easier for poor students out of college to pay back their debt. “If you leave IU with a lot of debt and you have to pay a flat 10 percent interest rate, that ends up being a sizeable portion of your income and makes it hard to live,” Kauffman said. Mitjavila said IUSA members also lobbied for increased enforcement of the Cleary Act, which requires universities to report sexual assaults on campuses. “Ideally, we would like regulation that incentivizes increased reporting by universities so that the public can get a better grasp of the actual number of sexual assaults on campus,” Mitjavila said. “The Cleary Act is not strictly enforced, leaving less incentive for universities to do so and potentially creating a system for under-reporting.” Kauffman said this event demonstrated college student governments have the power to make change by bringing issues directly to the legislators. “I think, in the future, it’s making sure that we are ever present in front of state and federal legislature to make sure that they know these are priorities to students,” Kauffman said. “These are problems that need to be solved. It is about awareness, but it’s also about persistence in generating that awareness.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Student Association executives will meet with all the Indiana representatives and senators in Washington, D.C., today to discuss issues affecting higher education in Indiana. The executives will join representatives from Purdue’s student government to discuss issues such as sexual assault, college affordability, textbooks and undocumented college students. “We’re able to give feedback to representatives from government agencies and our respective states on what’s going on from our perspectives in higher education, so they can hear it from the students themselves,” Kauffman said. They will meet these representatives as a part of the Association of Big Ten Student’s annual trip to Washington, D.C.This event allows representatives from Big Ten student governments to talk to representatives from their respective states about important issues in higher education. Big Ten student governments went to the White House Monday for a briefing from representatives from the president’s office to gain the perspective on what is happening in higher education. Later, they met with the IU Head of Federal Relations and a representative from the Department of Education for meetings that centered around changes in the Department of Education and college affordability. Kauffman said this meeting of student government and national government is a powerful tool in getting student voices heard, from the campus level to a national level. “These concerns are not just unique to IU students,” Kauffman said. “The collective voice of student governments coming together at a place like Capital Hill can be really effective.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The polls closed at 10 p.m. Wednesday, and PLUS for IUSA will be the administration for next year after running unopposed for the entire election.IU sophomore Andy Braden, a senior staff member for the current IU administration, will be next year’s student body president. Braden said one of his main goals for next year is increasing student engagement in IUSA decisions. “Face-to-face exposure to students is really key,” Braden said. “If you can have a conversation with someone and say this is what IUSA is, if they can be engaged, I think it resonates a lot more than fliers and things.” Braden said IUSA executives will continue to have office hours for students in the student tower. Additionally, Braden said, every other weekend IUSA representatives will be going directly to students. He said they plan to spend time in key locations such as food courts and the Wells Library to give students an opportunity to meet them face-to-face and give suggestions on how the campus can be improved. “I want it to be clear to students that we are your student government,” Braden said. “If you have an idea you can come talk to us, and we can help enact that.” Current Chief of Staff Dia Sharma, who will also serve as Chief of Staff next year, said IUSA will also develop a think tank for students to come to them with ideas and be provided with IUSA feedback. She said IUSA could help the students gain administration contacts or, potentially, financial resources for their projects. “Give us your idea and we will help you do it,” Sharma said. The current administration only has four more weeks in office, and Sharma said most of its goals have been accomplished. “We’ve learned a lot this year,” Sharma said. “You need to be continually working to be better. There are so many problems at the University, and we need (to) actively seek solutions.” IUSA has recently received the Readership Program data, which VP of Administration Chris Kauffman said would be assessed before the end of their administration so IUSA members can decide how to continue. The $100,000 Readership Program, which is an IUSA initiative aimed to provide daily copies of the New York Times and USA Today to students, had a $30,000 surplus this year, as stated in a Dec. 1, 2013, IDS article. The surplus amount was budgeted by the University to be used specifically by IUSA.Sharma said IUSA also hopes to improve their social media presence in the next four weeks and create a more direct line to students before their administration ends. IUSA executives are also going to Washington, D.C., this weekend for Big Ten on the Hill, a conference for Big Ten student governments to share ideas and solutions. “We’re going to continue working,” Sharma said. “We’re not just going to stop because we have four weeks left. We’re focusing on finishing strong.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Student Association Congress passed a resolution Sunday night to alter the election code to increase voter turnout and reduce bias at the polling stations, said Vice President of Congress Scott Borer. Currently, representatives from the tickets run the voter polling booths and are allowed to advertise their ticket directly at the polling locations. However, Resolution 39 dictates that the polling stations on campus will now be run by the Election Commission instead of the ticket representatives. Members of the different tickets will have to stand at least 300 feet from the polling location to distribute and market their information. The Election Commission will provide materials to inform voters at voting locations but will not provide an opinion on which ticket to vote for at the polling location. Borer said this distance between the tickets and voters should reduce voter bias at the polls.“The people who work at these polling stations are pretty pushy when people walk by,” Borer said.The Election Commission will be housed under the Judicial Branch of IUSA, to which members must be appointed and not elected. They will not be housed within the Executive Branch anymore “to avoid a conflict of interest with elected members of the organization,” according to the resolution. A minimum of five polling locations will be staffed by the Election Commission on campus. The resolution also includes a student body-wide email that will be sent out when the polls open to inform students that online voting is up and running. This email will include a blurb on each ticket informing the voters of each party’s platform. Borer said he hopes providing students with a link to the site and the information will increase voter turnout. Resolution 39 also dictates that dates for the next year’s election will be set at the end of the prior administration’s term instead of a few months in advance of the elections. Election Commissioner Jared Thomas said this was in reference to this year’s election, when the opposing team dropped because they felt PLUS had more time to organize. “Because of the incumbent ticket being involved in IUSA, they know there are going to be elections a year in advance,” Thomas said. “By setting the dates in advance, it’ll give everyone else a little bit more time to prepare.” Borer said only one member of Congress voted against the resolution. At the Congress meeting regarding the bill, Borer said some members expressed a concern that if students are approached 300 feet from the polling station, they will try to avoid the voting station instead of participating. “Even if voter turnout does decrease, it’ll be worth it in the sense that the votes coming in are informed votes,” Borer said. Follow reporter Dani Castonzo on Twitter @Dani_Castonzo.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Student Association will have a single-ticket election for the third time in 10 years. PLUS for IUSA is the only executive ticket running, making current IUSA member Andy Braden next year’s projected student body president. At the All Candidates Meeting Monday, Election Commissioner Jared Thomas said the election would still take place, and PLUS still needs to run a campaign. “You guys are going to be the representatives for this upcoming year,” Thomas said. Voting will be open April 1 and 2.According to the Election Code, the election must run as planned, even if only one ticket has applied. There is no possibility of pushing back the deadline to allow more people to apply. Braden said he was disappointed that PLUS does not have a ticket to run against. “We were looking forward to having a competitive campaign season,” Braden said. “It’s not healthy for IUSA to just have one ticket running.” All four of the PLUS executive members have been involved with IUSA at some point in the past. But Braden said many members of senior staff and Congress are fresh members who have not been involved in IUSA. Although Unify IU for IUSA had declared its intention to run against PLUS for IUSA, it never submitted an application and dropped just days before the deadline.Freshman Andrew Ireland, the presidential candidate for Unify IU for IUSA, said his ticket had gained 45 prospective candidates, but he did not think they could compete with PLUS.He said PLUS had secured votes “by recycling much of the current IUSA administration and bringing on board many strategic Greek organizations.”“This was no easy decision, but we simply did not have the time to run and develop a winning campaign,” Ireland said. “It was a huge disappointment both personally and to everyone involved, but we were simply naïve coming in to the rather undermining culture associated with the IUSA elections.” Ireland said he is running for Forest Residence Center’s delegate to IUSA and recommends that everyone involved with Unify consider running as well, either independently or with another ticket.Braden said one of the goals of PLUS is to review the Election Code in the near future and make sure everyone has a chance in IUSA elections.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One in four searches made online are in search of pornographic material, telecommunications professor Bryant Paul said. And Paul is on a mission to discover exactly what kind of pornographic content is out there. “This is a benchmark study to find out what the hell is actually out there,” Paul said. “How can you not study the most fundamental social behavior?” Paul and his group of student volunteers have watched and logged 5,000 explicit videos in their last year of work. By the end of this year, Paul said, he hopes to have 6,500 videos ready to analyze. Paul said he received a lot of media requests asking what kind of explicit material is available online but could not find any specific information on what types of porn were most popular or what trends were present. “I thought, we need to do this,” Paul said. “We need to come up with an objective, systematic content analysis and figure out what the most popular sites have on them.” He said his team has studied both heterosexual and non-heterosexual pornographic videos from xvideo.com and pornhub.com, the two most popular porn sites. The process to analyze the videos is complex, Paul said, with students watching videos anywhere from 30 seconds to two hours. After answering some basic information about the time, length and title, student volunteers watch the video and fill out an elaborate Excel sheet with 73 questions about the content. These questions range from the number of people in the scene to the number of times an individual was penetrated. This “coding” process takes much longer than people assume, volunteer and senior Abbey Gross said. Gross said she has been working on this project since the beginning of the semester. Paul’s students can get anywhere from one to three credits for participating in this study, depending on how much time they are willing to dedicate. “Coding a five-minute double penetration scene can take longer than you think whenever you are looking for things like whether or not the girl had her genitals pierced,” Gross said.Paul said the goal of these specific questions is to gain bigger ideas from the small details. For example, the question “Does aggression take place?” is vague. To solve this problem, Paul said, he asked “Is any physical aggression shown during any sex act?” and then provided a dropdown menu of acts such as “pushing,” “pulling hair” and “gagging” to gain more specific answers. The questions for the coding program took almost a year to develop, while the definitions for this program were fine-tuned for over a month, Paul said. “We're trying to be as scientific as we can about this,” Paul said. Paul said this was important because as Internet use increases, so does the availability and popularity of pornographic materials. “It’d be foolish not to think that there is a generation of kids growing up now that are learning about sex specifically from pornographic depictions,” Paul said. “It’s having an impact.” Gross said the only challenge she has faced during this study has been balancing her schoolwork with the video-watching and seeing participants in the videos pretend to enjoy themselves for the screen. “Catching a woman flinch at potential pain while pretending that she is enjoying herself for the viewer’s sake is most difficult for me,” Gross said. Paul said people usually think his work is funny or his students are using this as an excuse to watch porn. “Whenever I tell people I am watching 10-plus videos of various porn a week, I get anything from uncomfortable laughter to ‘You must want sex all the time,’” Gross said. Paul said he intends to finish the coding this semester and start analyzing the data over the summer. Once he has finished his analysis, he plans to make the data public for anyone to use. “I know what I’m doing is not wrong,” Paul said. “But I do respect that some people are uncomfortable with it.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>One of the two tickets that had declared its intention to run in the IU Student Association election dropped out Monday, leaving PLUS for IUSA’s campaign unopposed. Presidential candidate and freshman Andrew Ireland explained on the ticket’s Facebook page Monday that his ticket Unify IU for IUSA was dropping out because he felt it couldn’t compete with PLUS for IUSA.With a ticket dropping so soon before the deadline to apply, March 14, there’s little chance another ticket will have the time to form a campaign and run, IUSA President Jose Mitjavila said.According to Election Commissioner Jared Thomas, Unify IU for IUSA was the other ticket expected to run. It expressed its intention to join the IUSA election at a callout meeting and created social media pages for its campaign. Unify IU for IUSA did not contact the Election Commissioner or IUSA to formally withdraw, Thomas and Mitjavila said. In the Facebook post, Ireland said PLUS for IUSA’s established support group was “unbeatable,” adding that it consisted of “recycled IUSA members, a handful of select Greek organizations and ‘friends’ of the current administration’s work.” Ireland was recently elected as the president of Forest Quad. Plus for IUSA Congressional campaign director Ty Nocita was not affiliated with Youniversity, the executive ticket led by Student Body President Jose Mitjavila that won this year.He worked with the SPARC campaign as a representative in Congress, which consists of multiple campaigns that work together throughout the year. He said Plus for IUSA was making efforts to hear the most voices possible by talking with Residential Programs and Services student governments.They’re also trying to recruit both greek and non-greek members, particularly in Congress, he said.“At the end of the day a lot of the people running for IUSA are already involved in IUSA,” Nocita said. “There’s a reason for that.” Thomas said he found the single-ticket election disappointing, and he wished the ticket had approached him earlier with their concerns. “That is usually what happens every year,” Thomas said. “But I wish he would have stuck with it. He could have tried to give it a shot and see what happens.” If only one ticket runs, as outlined in the Election Code, Thomas said, it still has to run a campaign and try to obtain votes. Thomas said his goal is to find student leaders on campus willing to put together a campaign and run against Plus for IUSA. He said he intends to look over the constitution to see if he can push back the application for deadlines to give interested students more time. “My goal as Election Commissioner is to get as many people involved,” Thomas said. “If there’s any way we can get a second ticket, that’s where I’m looking right now.”