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Find your way around Bloomington's art scene.
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Find your way around Bloomington's art scene.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Oct. 4, 2009 — We’re young. We’ve got love to mess around with, time to screw up, and money to lose. Right? We wish. Here’s how to get your life back.Juniors Aden Adhanom and Lidia Gebremichael sit with empty Burger King trays at the Indiana Memorial Union, reminiscing about sophomore year, when they ate out nearly every day.They’re now trying to cut back, but the cost still hurts.“It makes me mad that I’m spending all this money,” Adhanom says. “Though it’s not a lot, it could be something. I could have saved up for something else.”WHY POOR SPENDING HABITS DEVELOPMost students are inexperienced with money. “It’s really the first time they are out on their own and having to make a lot of spending decisions on their own,” personal finance lecturer Doug McCoy said.Some students value the short term over the long term. Many call this the “Latte Effect,” McCoy said. “It’s a lot of little things we do every day: habits that cause us to spend beyond our means.” It can also be classified as the “Pancake Effect.” “You just keep stacking up and stacking up and it’s amazing how much money it is,” he said.WAYS TO COMBAT SPENDING FOR THE FINANCIALLY NAIVEPlay your cards. Check over your credit card and debit card statements and create a monthly budget, McCoy says. The monthly budget should include income and two expense categories — fixed, or overhead, costs like rent and utilities, and variable expenses like food and clothing.Compare your projected budget to what spending actually occurrs. Focus on the surprises. “What was the variance?” McCoy asked. “It’s very much like dieting: It’s about discipline and very little about rocket science.”Being unfaithful to a budget can signal danger, economics professor James Self said. “Think about your budget and your priorities in a very realistic way, and stick to it. The first time you deviate from it, it always makes the next time easier,” Self said.Budgeting your funds wisely and proficiently goes beyond monetary savings. It provides mental gain.“It’s the positive, psychological benefits — the freedom, the sense of control that one has versus the anxiety and sadness that can come from being out of control,” he says. “It’s that you understand where you are, what you need to do to continue to improve your situation. And there is a lot of peace of mind to that.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Madeline Haller predicted it.After failing to place first in her two previous attempts, the now three-time Little Fifty participant told her father that her Crimson running team would win the Thursday race — a bold, albeit accurate, prediction.Crimson, finishing with a time of 1:08:08, won the eighth-annual Little Fifty women’s race at Bloomington High School North on Thursday during rather temperate conditions.In the battle for “campus-wide running supremacy,” the Crimson team, comprised of juniors Haller and Chelsea Sutton and freshmen Becky Boyle and Sarah Turner, never surrendered a lead accrued midway in the 20,000 yard, four-person relay race.“It feels amazing,” said Haller, who is also an IDS reporter. “We just get closer and closer every year. It feels good to get this.”In the men’s race, Los Corredores was not challenged after obtaining its lead after about 25 laps. With 10 laps to go, Los Corredores, made up of sophomore Andrew Schroyer and freshmen Michael Nussa, Dan Phistry and Kyle Brehm, had a 39-second advantage on the second-place finisher.“This is the best that we’ve ever run in the seven months we’ve been working out together,” Schroyer said. “It’s just a dream come true.”The beginning pace was unforeseen for the male victors, but adjusting proved manageable. “We had a plan to just run our own race and be smart about it,” Nussa said. “The first few laps were faster than we thought, but we were like, ‘Hey, everyone is doing it, and we are just as good as anyone out here.’”Instead of focusing on a regimented system, Crimson adopted a more fluid race-day strategy, one dictated primarily by how its runners felt throughout the race.Two teams finished the entire 50 laps during the women’s race: Crimson and second-place team Cream (1:09:44), who ranked first after qualifications.On the men’s side, The Seaward (55:53) took second place while Phresh (56:14) placed third. “We realized we could not focus too much on ‘This is how it needs to be,’” Haller said. “We just wanted to focus on how each other felt.”
Bloomington straddles the fencepost between woodsy wilderness and hip college campus – think impractical, tight-fitting flannel. If you ever lock your keys in the car while parked at Bradford Woods, you’ll want to know which berries to eat.
Addiction can be overwhelming, sometimes fatal. Deuce Thevenow, co-director of the music committee for the Business Careers and Entertainment Club, found this out all too painfully. His friend died of a fentanyl (pain medication) overdose the night before their high school graduation in 2006.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>To sophomore, artist, and Bloomington native Jeremy Gotwals, this city is a musical oasis. It’s a place that offers a “myriad of opportunities to express” oneself openly and freely. Gotwals says his music, defined as “progressive acoustic,” revolves around his life experiences, spirituality, and a self-proclaimed “quest” to inspire and motivate. Think he’s kidding? He performed a song called “Azadi” (Farsi word meaning “Freedom”) with Iranian music legend Soheil Zolfonoon at the Jacobs School of Music last August. Bloomington’s music scene embraces an array of sounds, textures, colors, and “vibratory possibilities,” Gotwals says. Case in point: Gotwals often strums and sings on campus buses. Any music, anytime, anywhere. We’ve composed a list of music you too can find around Bloomington anytime, anywhere, so you can find your own oasis. Bear’s Place 1316 E. Third St.Phil Resler tends bar on a Friday morning. The mood is calm – a complete antithesis to the previous night. Thursday nights at Bear’s are irresistibly intense. The karaoke room is so packed (220 eager songsters) that customers are turned away at the door. One man offers to give $50 to enter. That’s $48 more than is required to sing.The booze (30 gallons of the legendary “Hairy Bear” sold in one night) flows as freely as the words of Elton John, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and the Backstreet Boys. “Something as simple as a drink and music brings so much together,” Albert Bridgewaters, the charismatic bouncer, says. Nostalgia is thick. Resler recalls a woman from California returning after 20 years. “There’s something about this place,” he says, remembering her. “People come back.”Pourhouse CafE 314 E. Kirkwood Ave.The coffee’s good, but try a listen. “We book live music to see, not just as background,” pourer George Drake says. The house tries to stay as “local as possible,” with its furthest performer, Brooks Ritter, coming from Louisville, Ky.Pourhouse addresses global needs by exposing local talent. All profits go toward current causes, like to victims of AIDS and leprosy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Two to three times a month, Pourhouse features live shows, mostly but not limited to acoustic acts. The daily music depends on the atmosphere inside and outside, Drake says. “Music depends on the day. It’s upbeat when it’s busy, like today.” BuffaLouie’s 114 S. Indiana Ave.“Saying ‘no’ is bad for business,” manager Ed Schwartzman says. When he joined forces with Eric Love, director of diversity education, to start Open Mic Night (every other Thursday) a year and a half ago, the duo applied the credo, “no limitations.” Anyone, any age, can take to the microphone. The night has become a welcomed and anticipated (often “standing room only”) complement to the already smoking wings. The passion Schwartzman has for the evening adds to the ambiance. The stage, a 6-by-8-foot box, is named in honor of Schwartzman’s son and musician, Ben, who died in 2007.One night it’s interactive rapper Chris Tabron, the next it’s a group of 15-year-old jazzers. Expect anything at Louie’s. Soma Coffee House 322 E. Kirkwood Ave.Vibrant yellows and greens punch up the limited confines of this hip coffee shop. However, the musical selection has no ceiling. “They really change it up,” Soma regular and graduate student Colin Jenkins says. “It’s got the whole package.” Visitors hear anything and everything from the sounds of Swedish electronic artist Fever Ray to the techno-German band Kraftwerk, and from punk performer Black Flag to Screaming Females, who are influenced by “spooky things and sea creatures.” Employees such as Lauren Jones play DJ during shifts. Just don’t expect the usual. “There are other coffee shops to go to to listen to Mozart,” Jones says.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Megan Watson, second-year graduate student in Library Science and Musicology, is a reference/technical associate at the Herman B Wells Library. She recorded the number of steps she took during her work day. Her grand total was 2,456 steps. About 1,800 steps occurred from 9 a.m. to noon. Her tasks included walking up and down the stairs to refill the department’s paper and toner supplies. From noon until 2 p.m., she was at the reference desk, which limited her movements to getting books from directly behind the desk and walking between reference desk computers. From 2 to 3 p.m. she sat at her desk. Kelley School of Business I-Core student Aaron Davis, a junior from Long Island, N.Y., walked 3,575 steps one day. Items on the day’s agenda included a walk to the bus stop from his Smallwood apartment, a walk back to Smallwood from the business school, and a walk to the Girl Talk concert at the now-repaired Dunn Meadow. Three days later, on a crisp Sunday morning, IU cross country runner Andy Bayer completed more than 16,500 steps throughout his team’s 10-mile morning run. The remainder of his Sunday proved less intense. He traveled to Target in the early afternoon and St. Paul Catholic Center later in the day, bringing his day’s total up to 20,000 steps.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“As a whole, we are more sedentary because of electronic media,” Baute says. “We can do so much more on our computers such as blog and go on Facebook. Adding some movement can be as simple as catching up with a friend over a walk instead of e-mailing or texting.”In Baute’s lecture classes and in some other HPER classes with a lecture component, walk breaks are incorporated during class time. Long lectures cause students to be more fatigued, Baute says.“Most college professors are pressed for time, but they might have a win-win situation if they sacrifice a five-minute break and have students come back more refreshed and awake,” Baute says.Sitting down in front of a computer or television for too long can make anyone drowsy. Baute says people should do an activity every half-hour. Try sit-to-stands in your chair and repeat them 10 or 12 times. Also, try to sit up straight to improve posture. Poor posture can lead to neck issues, back pain, and headaches. How to sit up straight. Or, how to eat dinner with your ex-Marine grandfather.• Think ears-over-shoulders-over-hips. Imagine a straight line through these three areas.• Pretend there is a string pulling your head up and squeeze your shoulder blades together.• Use your core muscles by sucking your navel inward and upward. It’s like sit-ups for people who don’t like sit-ups.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The program tells participants to aim for 6,000 to 10,000 steps each day, equaling roughly three to five miles. More than half of American adults aren’t coming close to these numbers, and nearly 50 percent of people ages 12 to 21 are not “vigorously active,” according to the Surgeon General.One participant, James Clark, a chemistry laboratory coordinator, said the experience made him add activity into his life. For instance, if he had to give a colleague a message, he would walk over to his or her office instead of sending an e-mail. He also did simple tasks such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or walking to Kirkwood Avenue with his wife for lunch.Clark was motivated by the number his pedometer recorded. On average, Clark achieved 10,000 to 12,000 steps a day with some help from his soccer games.“It was curious to me, to see how many steps I took,” Clark says. “If I didn’t take a lot of steps, I felt like I did nothing, so I went to the gym or went for a run.”Step just a little more, Amadeo says. Ten minutes here, 10 minutes there. “How people utilize their time is a choice, not a limitation,” she says. “Making exercise a priority is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, even when life gets hectic.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>How would you describe yourself? Attracted to the dazzling city life? Eager to pop a top while looking out at Memorial Stadium from your front step? Longing to stroll down the brick-covered streets of central campus? Just like its students, Bloomington housing offers an abundance of personalities, each fitting for certain types of students. Here are a few avenues to consider when searching for that ideal neighborhood.NORTHWESTAlmost every other Saturday in autumn, you are exposed to the madness of tailgating, the immensity of Big Ten football and those classic Washington Street parties heard from several blocks away. Also found in the area are the notorious Varsity Villas, an energetic community comprising mostly sophomores and juniors, that are “not expensive, but livable,” former Varsity Villas resident John Rosenberger said. He added the area’s residences are diverse, which made for a “quality party atmosphere.”DOWNTOWNWithin crawling distance from the bars, restaurants, shops and art studios that give Bloomington its entertainment reputation, apartments and lofts around the city square provide an “urban, contemporary feel,” said Nikki Jenkins, property manager of Olympus Properties. Larger complexes, like Smallwood Plaza and the Olympus-owned Mercury Building, can offer the sentiment of “living in New York,” Jenkins said. Furthermore, many smaller apartments are pure diamonds in the rough – historically rich and unique.COMMUTER NEIGHBORHOODSThe geographic expansion of student housing has taken off in recent years, with properties such as The Village at Muller Park, Colonial Crest Townhomes and Apartments, Jackson Heights and Bradford Place being constructed at considerable distances from campus. However, amenities such as swimming pools, fitness centers, athletic courts and even tanning booths at The Village make these locations feel like one’s “own vacation spot, but in a college town,” Vince Forchetti, a former resident of The Village, said. Its residents are mostly fitness-minded, with several football players living there as well, Forchetti said.SOUTHWESTEmbraced by a notably upperclassman and graduate student population, the neighborhood’s edge consists of the expanding Burnham Rentals apartments and moves south to a variety of apartments, like Campus Walk Plantation South’s townhouses and houses. Within a couple blocks of both Kirkwood Avenue and the Maurer School of Law, this residential quarter is “close to everything,” Burnham Rentals’ John Burnham said. Not quite as boisterous as other parts of campus, the area is ideal for “more or less, the serious student,” Burnham said.CENTRALIt is the quintessential college neighborhood – “experienced” houses situated in a shaded backdrop. The heart of this historic district, the brick streets of Park and Fess avenues, is just about as central to campus as student housing can be. “It is amazing,” former Park Avenue resident Bryan Bailey said. “You can literally get anywhere from here.” Bailey said the neighborhood is difficult to personify, but he considers most residents to be upperclassmen who have “realized the benefits to being close to campus.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>We’re young. We’ve got love to mess around with, time to screw up, and money to lose. Right? We wish. Here’s how to get your life back.Juniors Aden Adhanom and Lidia Gebremichael sit with empty Burger King trays at the Indiana Memorial Union, reminiscing about sophomore year, when they ate out nearly every day.They’re now trying to cut back, but the cost still hurts.“It makes me mad that I’m spending all this money,” Adhanom says. “Though it’s not a lot, it could be something. I could have saved up for something else.”WHY POOR SPENDING HABITS DEVELOPMost students are inexperienced with money. “It’s really the first time they are out on their own and having to make a lot of spending decisions on their own,” says personal finance lecturer Doug McCoy.Some students value the short term over the long term. Many call this the “Latte Effect,” McCoy says. “It’s a lot of little things we do every day: habits that cause us to spend beyond our means.” It can also be classified as the “Pancake Effect.” “You just keep stacking up and stacking up and it’s amazing how much money it is,” he says.WAYS TO COMBAT SPENDING FOR THE FINANCIALLY NAIVEPlay your cards. Check over your credit card and debit card statements and create a monthly budget, McCoy says. The monthly budget should include income and two expense categories – fixed, or overhead costs like rent and utilities, and variable expenses like food and clothing. Compare your projected budget to what spending actually occurrs. Focus on the surprises. “What was the variance?” McCoy asks. “It’s very much like dieting: It’s about discipline and very little about rocket science.”Being unfaithful to a budget can signal danger, economics professor James Self says. “Think about your budget and your priorities in a very realistic way, and stick to it. The first time you deviate from it, it always makes the next time easier,” Self says.Budgeting your funds wisely and proficiently goes beyond monetary savings. It provides mental gain.“It’s the positive, psychological benefits – the freedom, the sense of control that one has versus the anxiety and sadness that can come from being out of control,” he says. “It’s that you understand where you are, what you need to do to continue to improve your situation. And there is a lot of peace of mind to that.”
These seniors know what it takes to have a fresh start at campus.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s important to be in the know. We’ve all needed that person – a trailblazer, a pioneer, and a connoisseur – to show us the savory tastes of a new restaurant and the fun of a weekend getaway. By staying fresh and expanding the originality of others, these seniors have traveled the path.Alex Boler, of Wheaton, Ill., a central defender on the men’s soccer team.Check out this fresh B-Town spot: Bear’s Place (corner of Third Street and Jordan Avenue) You’ve got to try the Hairy Bear. You’ve got to experience it for yourself.Fresh restaurant: Butch’s Grillacatessen & Eatzeria (on the corner of Seventh and Washington streets). It’s sort of pricey, but they have huge sandwiches. The philly cheesesteak – just the size, the size is overbearing.Fresh activity in Bloomington: Take a trip to Griffey Lake. You can run, jog, or hike around there. Most people are familiar with it. It’s about as scenic as Bloomington can get.Fresh, perhaps unconventional ideas for the weekend: How about Iowa City (six-hour drive). Everyone should try to experience other Big Ten Schools ... You gain knowledge and respect for the schools in your conference – their campus, restaurants, bars, just the feel around town. Some campuses are really sweet, but some campuses, well, you’ll realize why you chose IU.How do you stay fresh through college? Be myself, but at the same time, sort of networking. Making new friends, branching out from the group of friends from your home town. And school spirit, don’t be the “cool guy,” attend games and enjoy the experience to the full potential.Adryan Dillon, of Evansville, Ind., was an intern at Glamour Magazine in New York City this summer. While in the Big Apple, Dillon hung out at Black & White, the same East Village bar where Twilight’s Robert Pattinson partied.Fresh hangout: Once you turn 21, definitely check out The Office Lounge. They have great karaoke; it is such a great Bloomington scene. It is a little bit far away, though. It is off of Third Street, down by College Mall. It is just a great Bloomington establishment where a lot of locals go. You’ve got to go for the atmosphere ... You can sing pretty much anything (Dillon recalls some impressive Springsteen renditions), just don’t do Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” That song should be banned from karaoke.A fresh idea for school: Take a music class. There’s a class on The Beatles (Z401-The Music of the Beatles), the history of rock ’n’ roll (Z201-History of Rock Music I: Roots of Rock to the British Invasion, Z202-History of Rock Music II: Rock’s Classic Era), and even jazz, taught by David Baker (former conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra).
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Trina Thompson tried for four months to gain employment after graduating from the Bronx’s Monroe College in the spring.Unsuccessful and jobless, Thompson filed a lawsuit against her alma mater July 24 requesting reimbursement for the $70,000 she paid in tuition.Despite several misspellings in the handwritten lawsuit – filed without a lawyer and with a filing fee waiving “Poor Person Order” – Thompson’s suit questions the purpose of higher education, IU Provost and Vice President Karen Hanson said.“It does highlight a number of political and social issues that we cannot dismiss,” Hanson said. Thompson claimed in her lawsuit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Bronx, N.Y., that the school’s Office of Career Advancement provided less support than promised.“The main purpose of a college is going to be to provide the education and the diploma, which they do,” IU junior Robby Racette said.Career services are part of a university, not its main mission, Racette said.“I wouldn’t sue because HPER did not get me in shape. That is just an auxiliary part of the IU campus,” Racette said.Though claims made by Thompson are legally shaky, the case’s publicity has damaged Monroe College, IU Maurer School of Law professor Aviva Orenstein said.“Even though I have no doubt that Monroe College is going to win, they have certainly lost in the court of public opinion,” Orenstein said.A college must be mindful of the message it sends prospective students through its advertising, Hanson said.“Particularly, you see someone saying, ‘I am making such and such per month and I owe it all to such and such,’” she said. “That is not a promise, but it could, particularly with people who are facing these desperate times, hold out a certain kind of expectation that is not realistic. And that is something that the institutions have a responsibility to be a bit more careful about.”Objective differences between the New York City and Bloomington colleges should not go unrecognized, Hanson said. Monroe has 4,521 undergraduate students as compared to IU-Bloomington, which has 31,626 undergraduates, according to IU Factbook.“Institutions such as ours are much more complex, much more nuanced, much more subtle about these things,” Hanson said. “But again, we do have a social responsibility.” The University needs to help out students when they graduate, not only for personal benefit but also societal benefit. Society is formed by college grads, Hanson said. But, she said, it’s irresponsible for a college or university to make specific, job-related promises.Hanson said she hopes to produce alumni events that offer “short courses based on the popular courses at IU” to alumni located in various cities. For instance, a course in current developments in the Middle East could be offered to a Chicago IU Alumni Association chapter, she said.“We do want to remain tied to graduates,” Hanson said. “There are certain benefits graduates accrue from being tied to IU and that we accrue by having an active, engaged alumni population. The relationship changes, but I do not know if it is a matter of obligations.”
Trash the brochures and snooze-inducing tour guides, and wake up to Bloomington’s local art scene.
Show and tell
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As an IU freshman in 1945, all he heard was that same, grumbled refrain: “What more do they want?” Despite complaints of prejudice, IU football legend George Taliaferro and other IU chapter members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People bellowed one common cry. “Equal rights,” the black college football hall-of-famer said. “That is all.” Prospering from the efforts of 64-year-member Taliaferro and some 500,000 other members, the NAACP has aimed to ensure equality and eliminate racial discrimination for a century now. The organization commemorates its 100th anniversary today. The NAACP will have anniversary celebrations throughout the year at its national headquarters in Baltimore, culminating with its annual convention in 2010, according to the organization’s Web site. The nation’s oldest civil rights organization was established on the centennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in response to the 1908 race riot in Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln honed his oratory skills in the Illinois state legislature. The correlation is meaningful, Taliaferro said. “This was the rallying call that all people were created equal,” he said. “That is what we did – that is what we are hopefully doing.” Striving toward this equality has been the mission of the Monroe County branch of the NAACP as well, President William Vance said. Vance, a deacon at the Second Baptist Church in Bloomington and a civil engineer for the U.S. Navy, succeeded 26-year branch president Clarence Gilliam in 1994. He described the branch’s legacy in two words: community involvement. The branch launched the Monroe County Youth Council, maintained strong legal redress through a two-attorney team and has obtained a position on Bloomington’s Board of Public Safety to establish minorities socially, economically and politically.With the organization’s centennial comes a time for reflection, but also for continued defiance toward existing inequality, Taliaferro and Vance said. “We must continue to put our reputation on the line,” Taliaferro said. “We will henceforth and forevermore fight for equal rights.” After a two-year absence, the IU chapter of the NAACP is set for reinstatement this month. The organization was absent from campus after no election was held following the 2005-06 school year.The student organization will strive for increased student diversity and communication between races and hopes to create events focused around President Barack Obama’s notions that “color does not matter,” said Byron Warren, one of the primary persons responsible for reinstatement.“It does not need to stop here,” he said. Vance agreed. “The challenge is not to take a step back, not to digress back into bad habits,” he said. “We need to get behind our president and look at his abilities, what he is able to accomplish. Not his color.” Warren said he was president of the Elkhart NAACP Youth Council as a high school sophomore, president of the state-wide Indiana NAACP Youth Council as a junior and was named Mr. NAACP for Indiana in 2007. Given his credentials, he said restarting the IU branch seemed only natural. “I have been training for leadership, you could say,” Warren said. Organized change – specifically NAACP presence on Bloomington’s campus – is important, Taliaferro said. “It is about individual obligation,” Taliaferro said. “It is easy for African-American students to accept changes that have been made. They have become non-vigilant because of these minor changes.”Warren, an Elkhart, Ind., native and IU sophomore, has been involved with the NAACP since he was seven years old, due in large part to Cora Breckenridge, the first black member of the IU board of trustees. She is also the membership chairman of the Indiana NAACP, secretary of the Elkhart County Branch and first lady at Warren’s home church. The church dynamic helped Warren find comfort in the organization. “It is kind of like a big family,” he said.Looking forward, Taliaferro said he believes civic engagement tied to unchanging principles will bring positive change. “We must keep the organization and its goals in front of the public,” Taliaferro said. “It is the only way you are going to enhance the ideas of how we can do things better.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS – An expected reduction in school funding, a desperate need for government reform and a cry for an immediate stimulus plan did not stop Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels from trying to calm fears during his annual State of the State Address on Tuesday.Indiana, Daniels said, will continue to “show America where the best ideas come from.”Daniels reassured the legislature that Indiana was merely facing challenges, not a crisis, and must deal with issues, not emergencies. Daniels guaranteed there would be no tax increases and that he would preserve the state’s rescue funds.The governor, who is just starting his second term, compared the current economic situation to the floods of last spring and maintained that Hoosiers must persevere through the trouble.But with a struggling unemployment fund and reluctance to tap into the state’s reserves, Indiana is not as economically comfortable as the optimistic Daniels claims, House speaker Pat Bauer said.“It is not a rain,” Bauer said in reference to the governor’s metaphor. “It is a downpour.”Daniels presented his vision of reducing school funding to establish an education system with smaller schools, smaller classes and more qualified teachers. He said it is essential that, even though funds will be cut, money still go to classroom learning.“It is unacceptable that $0.39 of every dollar is spent outside of the classroom,” Daniels said. “Put the children first.”Indiana, which spends $11,000 per K-12 student, ranks fifth nationally in education spending. States including New York, Florida and Virginia have started cutbacks similar to Daniels’ proposed plan, he said.A system offering an automatic tax refund was also proposed, hoping to provide stability for Hoosiers. Daniels said once the government reaches the predetermined tax revenue level, all additional tax dollars would be returned to citizens.Given the economic recession, Daniels said, now would be the right time to examine the merit of such a system.With many distraught about the current economy, Daniels was abrupt to applaud the legislature’s execution in lowering the property tax by more than one-third in 2008. Indiana is better able to handle the recession, Daniels said, thanks to the revised property tax and the two tightest budgets in the state’s history.Daniels also made reference to the idea of Indiana having a “crippling inferiority complex,” feeling as if it is simply “filling up the space between Cincinnati and Chicago.”After disclosing figures on Cincinnati’s deficit and hinting at political scandal in Illinois, Daniels told listeners that the Hoosier state is not a second-tier one.“Who here feels inferior about that?” Daniels asked.But the state’s economy is not as secure as Daniels proclaims, Bauer said. He warned the effects of an automobile manufacturer’s collapse would be devastating, referencing the closing of a Chrysler plant in Kokomo one month after it opened. In his closing marks, Daniels declared that Indiana would be a “state in motion” in 2009.“Indiana, where change is much more than just a slogan,” Daniels said. “This is a year not for intermission, but for encores.”
Nineteen-year-old senior, Yun William Yu, came to IU when he was 15. He’s earning three degrees and applying to medical school, but his GPA is a mere 3.993 thanks to an A-minus in a freshman-year honors analysis class.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Starting college is one of the biggest challenges a teenager can face. Not to fear: Harlan Cohen, best-selling author, syndicated advice columnist, speaker and fellow Hoosier has the answers to college life’s toughest questions. The Indiana Daily Student spoke to Harlan about the challenges students face in the upcoming weeks.Indiana Daily Student: What opportunities is a student faced with at a big school like IU that might not be found at a smaller school?Harlan Cohen: Well, there’s the opportunity to get lost, but you have to work to find your place. You see all of the tradition, and you have expectations. Especially with things like athletics, you see so many ways to have fun. The reality is that these experiences don’t all come right away. You must find experiences that will define your experience. Give yourself time to have a good time.IDS: Students often feel pressured to “find their niche” as soon as they arrive at college. What are the effects of this?Cohen: You end up settling for whatever gets thrown at you first. With friends, they might reflect nothing of who you are. They could be assholes. If you can identify what you like to do, when you find out, you can then find the place where you belong. It’s all about being comfortable in your Indiana thong.IDS: What’s an Indiana thong?Cohen: Your Indiana thong is the thing that accentuates the things that you are uncomfortable with. When you’re wearing the thong, all those things are exposed for everyone to see. You’ve got to embrace the thong. You’ve got to be comfortable with who you are and with what experiences you might face. IDS: What advice would you give a student preparing for his or her first weeks of college?Cohen: You have got to do something. Opportunities are not just going to come to you. Things are not just going to come to you. Maybe food will come to you if you if you order it ... but you have to go do it. And people get uncomfortable because they don’t know people or they don’t know the answer in class. You’re not supposed to know everything. You’re new. Think about this: If a freshman eats alone, they either think of themselves as a hungry loser or a hungry freshman who is eating alone. Soon enough, other people are going to sit down and eat there, too. You just have to be patient.IDS: What are some of the most common issues you’ve come across that discourage new students?Cohen: Homesickness always. Two-thirds of students feel homesick. It’s normal. Relationships, too; friends from back home, long-distance relationships, figuring out whether a long-distance relationship is worth it. Then you’ve got the roommate who smells or is hard to live with. My advice would be to say to them from the start, “If I do something that pisses you off, tell me. I’ll listen. And I will do the same.” It’s tough because you want to be nice. And it’s not nice to be honest. But it’s also not good to create confrontation when you aren’t honest.IDS: College has always been considered a time when you can “reinvent yourself.” How do you feel about this idea?Cohen: It all depends on how you want to reinvent yourself. You can’t forget who you are. You start with who you are, then you take steps. Eventually, you can become that ‘somebody else.’ But it’s big that you not completely change who you are right away. Because, to be honest, it’s exhausting to be someone else.Harlan Cohen is the best-selling author of “The Naked Roommate And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into In College.” His syndicated advice column, “Help Me, Harlan!” also appears in daily and college newspapers across the country, including the IDS.