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(07/18/05 3:10am)
The search committee elected to find the next Bloomington campus chancellor has assembled a Web site to aid in the process. The committee will nominate three candidates by December to President Adam Herbert, who will then make the final selection said Trevor Brown, retired Dean of the School of journalism and chair of the committee.\n"We don't think this is going to be a lifetime employment for us as a search committee," Brown said. "My hope is that we will be able to present the president with the three candidates that he has asked us to."\nBrown said the Web site, which can be viewed at www.chancellor.iub.edu/search, is just one more way the group is seeking to get the word out and attract viable applicants for the position. The committee has also been aided by the help of Jerry Baker from the professional search firm Baker Parker and Associates in Atlanta, as well as using the mail, nominations from third parties, and advertisements in several publications.\nBrown said he sees this as one arm of the search rather than a particularly special part.\n"The Web site is not a particularly special way," he said. "It's just one more of several ways of which we try to get this information out, and it's a convenient way."\nBy making the announcement online, Brown said that beyond announcing the position, he hopes the Web site will give applicants better preparation for speaking about the job and IU. He said that this is not a reflection on the quality of the present applicant pool.\nBrown said he doesn't think the Web site will attract a different sort of person.\n"I don't think we're targeting the Web site at a particular kind of person." Brown said. "I don't think there's a particular kind of candidate that goes to Web sites ... The purpose of the Web site is to help all candidates know what the job is all about and get some information about IU."\nBrown said this process is taking no longer than the last search for former Chancellor Sharon Brehm, who stepped down from her post last year. He said in the past it has taken about a year to find a suitable candidate.
(06/28/05 12:24am)
University Information Technology Support systems might have experienced a\nsecurity compromise, said Dennis Gillespie, manager of the UITS Support Center.\nGillespie said no one is certain whether it was a compromise, meaning someone purposefully intruded upon the machines, or a vulnerability, meaning certain machines were not patched well enough to prevent problems.\n"I don't know the extent of it," Gillespie said. "...It may just be a\nvulnerability. We won't know until (Monday)."\nHe said the affected devices included internal development machines and not\nstudent server technology or centers, which would be what most students use\ndaily.\nAn e-mail sent out to UITS consultants and support staff said a server had been\ncompromised and a timetable for its restoration was unknown.\nUITS plans to issue a report explaining what happened. But Angie Quick,\ncommunications officer for UITS said she doesn't know when that report will be completed.\n"We don't have an estimated time of completion at this point," she said. "At\nthis time I don't know when the report will be completed"
(06/20/05 1:42am)
Before Herman B Wells, IU had a different face. \nMany officials at the official naming ceremony of the Herman B Wells Library Friday voiced the many ways which the past IU president and chancellor shaped the University. They said Wells would have been too modest to name a building after himself, though he was primarily responsible for the building of the present library, having made it one of his pet projects during his 24-year tenure as IU president and 38-year tenure as IU-Bloomington chancellor.\n"Everything he did, everything he had was suffused with caring for others," said IU President Adam Herbert.\nIU-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said the Wells Library was a jewel, and cited how different the University landscape looked when the library was built in 1969. He said the Arboretum did not exist yet, the trees were smaller and the telecommunications building faced south instead of its present north.\n"But one things was not different," Gros Louis said. "One of the speakers (at the 1969 dedication ceremony) was Herman Wells."\nMany friends and acquaintances of Wells attended the ceremony and said he touched their lives with the sharpness of his memory, modesty and thoughtfulness.\nIU alumnus Ron Vallenger, who is a member of a group of Wells' friends and coworkers named "Hermie's Army," served as one of Wells' many houseboys and lived with him and his mother across from the library in the '60s. He said he watched the library being built from the windows of that house.\n"It's hard to describe, because you learn so much from just listening to him over dinner," he said. "...I think outside of his mother, he loved the University more than anything."\nDean of University Libraries Suzanne Thorin said in her speech that when she came to IU, Wells sent her his book "Being Lucky" with a note signed by "an ancient alumnus."\nAlumnus Doug McKinney said he was surprised how moving the ceremony was.\n"I certainly remember Herman Wells," he said. "Since it's been five years since his death, I really wasn't expecting an emotional reaction."\nAssistant Dean of Students Suzanne Phillips knew Wells from 1972 until his death. She said Wells would be happy with the library facility today.\n"I walked through the Information Commons and I saw the computer instruction labs," she said. "I think Herman would be amazed by that. I mean, I'm amazed by it."\nJunior and Wells scholar Khalil N. AbuGharbieh said naming the library after Wells' memory would ensure that future students and faculty remember him.\n"One has to wonder if anything would exist as we know it if not for Herman Wells," he said.\nIU officials had decided to name the building after Wells following his death March 18, 2000, but waited until this year to name the building posthumously because of an IU policy that states building can't be named after people until five years after their deaths. Wells began the policy, Herbert said, and he doubted the man would have wanted to make himself an exception to his own rule.\nSome alternatives discussed just after his death included naming E. Seventh Street or the Auditorium after Wells, Phillips said.\nToday the Wells Library has about five million books, Herbert said, and is still considered one of the top university libraries in the country.
(06/16/05 2:01am)
Experts are still cleaning the room in the Chemistry building where a fire started Sunday at 4 a.m.\nLaboratory safety manager Chris Kohler said the fire ignited after chemicals in a wash bottle were left too close to a hot plate. The fire then ate away at the protective coating barrier surrounding the lab station and set off the sprinkler system in the room, he said. Because no one was present when the fire occurred, there is no way to know for certain exactly what happened, said Kohler, who is in charge of determining just what caused the blaze.\nThe University is still calculating the dollar amount of damage that occurred. IU is self-insured and no one was injured by the fire so it is likely the issue will be dealt with internally by the University, Kohler said.\nKohler leads seminars periodically on lab safety and first inspected the damage Monday morning. Kohler lead one of the seminars Wednesday to inform students how to be safe while in the labs. He is also involved in the cleanup of the affected lab. \nHe said the fire occurred in a research lab or room where graduate and doctoral students can perform experiments largely unsupervised. Undergraduate students perform predetermined experiments in a much more supervised area.\nThe fire did not damage all of the room, though, as there was a student performing an experiment independently Wednesday in the room.\nKohler said the fire is unlikely to affect undergraduate students, but will affect graduate and doctoral students because the damage happened to the facilities they use, which are separate from the ones undergraduates use.\n"It's definitely a big hit on the research labs because it disrupts their work," he said.\nThe other lab stations in the room affected by the fire are still being used. Devices were placed strategically in the areas affected by the sprinkler system to dry up the water. Water from the sprinkler system has leaked through the floor and caused water damage to the rooms below. Kohler said it could take months before everything dries.\nKohler said incidents requiring his experience with chemical cleanup happen about once a year. With 500 labs on campus the potential of a fire is relatively high, he said. Kohler said knowledge of lab safety can help prevent fires like the one Sunday.
(06/13/05 1:10am)
The class of 2009 will get its first taste of college today as IU's summer orientation begins. \n"By the time they leave it's just a little more familiar ... and that makes it much more comfortable," said Associate Director of Orientation Programs Melanie Payne, who oversees the summer program.\nOrientation gives incoming students their first taste of college life, but it's also an event that takes faculty and students the whole previous year to plan. Every student who enrolls at IU has to go through orientation, even transfer and international students. Because of this, it is an event that helps determine what the incoming freshmen class will look like, Payne said.\n"We'll be able to predict pretty accurately what the student class will be because we lose very few," she said. "But our numbers are huge for how many show up in the fall."\nSix thousand incoming students have signed up so far for a series of orientation sessions that will span until July 19. \nThis year, Payne said the orientation staff is aiming to extend the interaction between the IU community and new freshmen. \n"We're trying to do a little bit more with a smaller group of students," Payne said, "to help them feel even more of a personal connection with the students at IU. So we're starting things off a little differently, to help them get to know each other and the program."\nTo do this, she said the staff has added some evening sessions including one for parents to help them discuss and find their relationship with the University.\n"We've gone more and more toward personalizing it," she said. "We've added some sessions that are pretty frank about student life."\nAssistant Director Megan Ray said orientation is an effort between many organizations on campus. These groups help to form the message the staff wants to send to incoming students about issues such as academic integrity, alcohol use, sexual assault prevention, general health and safety and connecting with faculty members.\n"We need to decide what some of the most important messages are to give to our students," Ray said. "Then what we start to do is we go out and create a program based on those messages."\nPayne said orientation makes the IU college experience "real" to incoming freshmen and it is exciting to watch them experience it for the first time. She also said people not involved in orientation welcome new students and play a hand in the overall atmosphere on campus during orientation.\n"There's just a different energy on campus," she said. "And maybe that's easy for me to say because I'm in the front of it, but I feel that way. I like to see people not involved in orientation see orientation going on. I love the energy in the summer during summer orientation; I think the campus is aware of these newest community members ... I find it a very welcoming atmosphere on campus."\nStudent Coordinator and recent IU graduate Kyle Lineback has been working with orientation for four years. She said she was inspired to become an orientation leader by her experience as a freshmen at orientation.\n"A lot of the time you don't realize the impact you have on students and their families and then you get an e-mail from them," she said. "It's the little things that make the best kinds of days." \nPresent students will lead future students around campus answering questions today. Among those will be junior André Vaughn, an orientation leader doing this job for the first time.\n"Well for one reason, I didn't feel like staying home all summer," he said, when asked why he wanted to do this job. "But for another, I also had orientation leaders when I was coming in and a lot of them are still my friends today so it looked like a cool job... I'm going to have a blast. I love meeting new people so this is right up my alley."\nPayne said the goal of orientation is to get new students comfortable with the idea of going to college.\n"We get great reactions," Payne said. "They feel just a little bit better. We get great feedback from students and parents. I think the students really start to feel like college students, and they've met with their adviser… I think this really helps them to feel real"
(06/09/05 1:02am)
When it comes to student loans, IU students are nervous. \nAs the government prepares to raise interest rates on student loans at the end of the month, the amount students must borrow to go to school continues to climb. Many graduated students are struggling to pay off loans and many current students are worried about how they will pay them off in the future.\nSo when the Partnership for Public Service found students across the country more afraid of student debt and joblessness than terrorism, many people from IU did not seem surprised. The May 18 survey found students fear terrorism -- just not as much. \nThe study asked students across the country "What are you most fearful of at this time?" Only 13.4 percent said a terrorist attack and 31.2 percent said "being unemployed." 32.4 percent said "going deeply into debt." \nOf the students who answered the survey, 45.1 percent said they will graduate with $10,000 or more in student loans, 20.6 percent said they expect to have $20,000 in loans and 27.5 percent foresee no college debt when they finish.\nIU professor of finance Robert H. Jennings said debt is something students know they will have to face. \n"If you think about the likelihood of terrorist attacks compared to student debt, you could come to the conclusion that students in the U.S. Midwest colleges (are) where the actual threat of terrorism is very low," he said. "I think it would be fairly easy to dismiss that kind of threat."\nMost IU students and alumni have negative sentiments over their student loans, beyond what the loans might enable them to do in their careers. IU alumna Alison Jung began paying back around $90,000 in 2003 student loans between her and her husband.\n"Everyone I know who is currently paying back their student loans has a negative attitude about (student loans)," Jung said. "I think it has to do with the fact that you are paying toward something intangible."\nSome students said the intangibility of terrorism makes it a thing to be feared less than student debt. Junior Margeaux Lawson Loyd said she estimates she will owe twice as much as her current $14,000 amount in loans when she finishes. \n"Terrorism is something you can't really prepare yourself for and paying back student loans you need to prepare yourself for," Lloyd said. "I think that the loans definitely cause more stress than the threat of terrorism." \nJunior Virginia Clifton said she took a year off school in order to research student loans. When asked if she thought IU students feared terrorism or student loans more, she said the answer was complicated.\n"(The answer is) yes and no," she said. "Yes because the idea of paying a debt off is a scary prospect and it hits much closer to home. I think the idea of being broke and having bills to pay is a much scarier concept than a terrorist regime. On the other hand, terrorism is on a much larger scale and that can be easily just as frightening. If you were to ask me which I fear more while waiting in line at the airport, I don't think student loans would really come into my head."\nClifton said things could be done to make student loans less confusing.\n"Everyone that I know that has loans is probably as equally confused about it as I am," she said. "It's a lot of paperwork, and then when I go to investigate from friends what loans (they) have and who with no one really knows ... I wish someone would create a collective booklet stating all the loans and types and what the details are of them. There is just so much to sift through, it gets overwhelming"
(05/26/05 2:22am)
Gregory Scott Johnson was executed Wednesday night while 22 people in Bloomington held a vigil at the courthouse, waiting for the phone call confirmation of his death in Michigan City, Ind. \nMembers of the Bloomington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty held candles and signs under the street lights as they awaited Johnson's scheduled 12:01 a.m. execution on the Bloomington courthouse steps. This has been the third vigil for an execution the coalition has held in the past three months. \nIndiana Gov. Mitch Daniels denied clemency to Johnson, who wished to donate part of his liver to his sister Debra Otis, who is in need of a transplant. Johnson had been convicted of the 1985 murder of Ruby Hutslar in Anderson, Ind., as well as the burglary and arson of her home. \nDaniels said he had no good reason not to accept the parole board's 4-0 vote that Johnson should not receive a delay to his execution.\n"In view of the family relationship, I accepted the sincerity of Mr. Johnson's motivation in making this offer," Daniels said. "If his proposal had turned out to create a clear, demonstrated medical advantage to his sister, I might well have considered a brief postponement to seek a way to fulfill the request."\nGlenda Breeden, current secretary and member of the coalition from its inception, said she came to spread awareness.\n"I think we're here mainly to be witnesses to what's being done in Michigan City," She said. "The public isn't aware of what's going on. It happens in the middle of the night, so the public is basically unaware."\nPeople at the vigil read a letter Johnson had written as well as quotes and other writings about the death penalty. Many said they were not surprised by Daniels' decision.\n"I was disappointed, but I think it's consistent with his general insensitivity to the poor," said Bloomington resident Robert Epps. "I would have actually been shocked out of my brain had Mitch Daniels in any way negated this sentence."\nMember of the coalition Kevin Spangler said having the death penalty in general looks bad for America. He also said he was disappointed with Daniels.\n"I feel disappointed in Daniels. I think his soul needs a little looking out for it, too," said member of the coalition Kevin Spangler. "You can't fight hate with hate... I certainly don't think it would have hurt for him to have donated his liver."\nJunior Erin Parks was one of the few IU students at the vigil. She said IU students don't come to events against capital punishment because groups like the coalition are often affiliated with churches. She said she wants to represent at least one student from campus.\n"Honestly, when I say I'm coming to a vigil, I hear a lot of people saying, 'I totally agree' and then they don't act," she said. "All I can think is that (they think) there's someone else doing it. They're going to school and have a lot of things distracting them."\nIn the past, other inmates have given organs to family members and friends. Dr. Joseph Tector, director of transplants at the IU School of Medicine and Clarian Health Partners in Indianapolis, said in a press release Johnson's sister is second on the list for her blood type in Indiana and should be able to find a donor. But inmates normally do not make desirable donors because of a higher disease contraction rate in prison. Reportedly, no tests were done to see if Johnson would be a match for donation to Otis.\nThe members of the coalition received the phone call from Michigan City, Ind., at about 12:45 a.m. Johnson was pronounced dead at 12:28 a.m.
(05/23/05 6:25pm)
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels appeared in Bloomington Friday with a committee attempting to save Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center from closing. \nDaniels said he could not be specific about what effect he had in Washington during a recent visit to the capital, though he suggested he used his influence in Washington as former financial adviser for President George W. Bush to help secure his case for Crane. \nLocal business owner Lee Merchant said Daniels' mission compared to winning the Super Bowl. \nDaniels also said he was optimistic about Crane.\n"(I) made the case, organized, documented and I simply attempted to be messenger, that our voice was made audible," Daniels said about his efforts with Washington officials. "The case we've made continues to be made."\nCrane, Indiana's last active military base and the third largest Navy instillation in the world, is currently slated to lose a reported 683 of its 4,000 jobs in Bloomfield, Ind., about 30 miles southwest of Bloomington. But Indiana is expected to gain 3,500 finance and accounting government jobs in the Indianapolis area, which should be jobs of comparable salary, Daniels said.\nDaniels met with members of the Southern Indiana Business Alliance and the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation that make up the committee.\n"I am optimistic," Daniels said about Crane. "Frankly, I'm not comfortable playing defense (economically). I want to be playing offense only."\nCutting jobs now at Crane could pave the way for business deals with private companies and more research by IU and Purdue, who signed a partnership with Crane in January.\nDaniels said Crane has shifted its mission from one of economic defense to one of offense, and he attributed this success to the members of the committee. \n"This was citizenship at its best," Daniels said, "in particular the private citizens who found time to make this incredible contribution to the state."\nHeron Project Manager Hilary Heffernan agreed the public had responded positively to the mission of saving Crane.\n"I was in awe of how much people adopted it and took it on as their own mission," she said.\nMarchant said losing Crane would have a harmful affect on the local economy.\n"In our lifetime, there cannot be anything that can have (a similar) devastating affect (of) Crane closing, other than the Great Depression," he said.\nDaniels said the battle is not yet over. The process has currently spanned a year and a half, and will continue until the pentagon makes its decision concerning the base this fall.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Joelle \nPetrus at jpetrus@indiana.edu.
(05/23/05 6:04pm)
IU Alumna Kate Comiskey loved nature. \nSo planting a tree in her memory seemed appropriate, said her friend Sarah Cahillane. Cahillane and her friend Danny Cheshire orchestrated a tree-planting ceremony outside the Education Building Wednesday for Comiskey, a teacher at Indian Creek High School in Trafalgar, Ind., who died in a car crash last November in Bloomington.\n"Sarah gave us a wonderful gift with a beautiful dogwood that will take root and bloom every spring," said Kate's mother, Nancy Comiskey, an IU journalism professor. "Kate loved her friends and I think this is a perfect memorial to her life."\nCahillane said she wanted a tree that would flower, like a dogwood. The journalism school donated more than half of the $300 it cost to buy the tree and family and friends chipped in the rest. About 30 people attended the event. \n "Hopefully the tree would provide some solace for all of us knowing that something has rooted in her name," she said. "And I thought the tree was a really great way for Kate to stay a part of the community that she loved so much." \nCahillane chose the words on the plaque by the tree, which read, "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart: Kate Comiskey, cherished always by family and friends."\nNancy Comiskey read a poem by Emily Dickinson at the event. Cahillane said she wanted the day to be one of remembrance.\n"My friend Danny and I, we really wanted it to be a day where we remembered all the happy moments with Kate and the funny things that she did," Cahillane said. "She always made us laugh. It was a nice, happy day to remember the good things about her."\nCahillane met Kate while working at Michael's Uptown Cafe, 102 E. Kirkwood Ave. They remained close friends for three years before Kate died. \nKate's brother Daniel Comiskey said he thought Kate would be "pleased" with the tree planting.\n"Bloomington meant so much to Kate and I'm glad that she'll always have a place here," he said. "That being said, the ceremony made me very sad. I miss my little sister terribly. The sapling reminds me of how delicate and graceful she was."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Joelle \nPetrus at jpetrus@indiana.edu.
(05/20/05 6:48pm)
IU Alumna Kate Comiskey loved nature. So planting a tree in her memory seemed appropriate said Sarah Cahillane. Cahillane and her friend Danny Cheshire orchestrated a tree planting ceremony outside the Education Building Wednesday for Comiskey, a teacher at Indian Creek High School in Trafalgar, Ind. who died in a car crash last November.\n"Sarah gave us a wonderful gift with a beautiful dogwood that will take root and bloom every spring," said Kate's mother Nancy Comiskey. "Kate loved her friends and I think this is a perfect memorial to her life."\nCahillane said she wanted a tree that would flower, like a dogwood. The journalism school donated over half of the $300 it cost to buy the tree and family and friends chipped in the rest. About 30 people attended the event.\nCahillane said she hopes the tree will help bring peace to the people Kate left behind.\n"Hopefully the tree would provide some solace for all of us knowing that something has rooted in her name," she said. "And I thought the tree was a really great way for kate to stay a part of the community that she loved so much.\nCahillane picked the words on the plaque by the tree which read, "Whosesoever you go, with all your heart: Kate Comiskey cherished always by family and friends."\nNancy Comiskey read a poem by Emily Dickinson at the event. Cahillane said she wanted the day to be a day of remembrance.\nMy friend Danny and I, we really wanted it to be a day where we remembered all the happy moments with Kate and the funny things that she did," Cahillane said. "She always made us laugh. It was a nice happy day to remember the good things about her."\nCahillane met kate while working at the uptown Café at. They remained close friends for three years before she died.\nKate's brother Daniel Comiskey said eh thought Kate would be "pleased" with the tree planting.\n"Bloomington meant so much to Kate and I'm glad that she'll always have a place here," he said. "That being said, the ceremony made me very sad. I miss my little sister terribly. The sapling reminds me of how delicate and graceful she was"
(05/16/05 1:27am)
IU President Adam Herbert pledged IU would help recoup job losses as the Pentagon proposed to cut back workers at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. The base is located 30 miles southwest of Bloomington.\nIU signed a contract in January to strengthen its liaison with Crane in military-related research. Herbert said the geographical proximity of IU and their partnership with Crane should help foster more research and could help the Naval Base prosper.\n"With this new challenge arising for Indiana, I want to reaffirm the commitment of Indiana University in strengthening our partnership with Crane and the state," Herbert said. "Crane and the surrounding area would make an ideal location for the kinds of research and development initiatives that will be evolving in the fields of national defense and homeland security."\nThe Pentagon is proposing job cuts to many military bases across the nation. Crane, Indiana's largest military employer, could lose 683 of its 4,000 jobs if the recommendations go into affect this fall. \nCrane's projected job cuts could affect the Bloomington economy negatively just as it will affect other surrounding towns. In order to combat that, Herbert has already announced the creation of a new position so that organizations will have a point of contact within the University for research proposals, with a search for a candidates set to begin this summer.\nThe cooperative research agreement, signed by IU, Purdue, the state, and Crane will mean more military-related research proposals for IU, said Larry MacIntyre, IU's director of media relations. IU has not begun any projects with Crane, MacIntyre said, but the job cuts at Crane could create a need to further outsource research to institutions like IU. \n"(Crane) now knows it can come to IU or Purdue with research proposals and we're going to be ready to entertain those proposals and do what we can to get it going," MacIntyre said. \nMacIntyre said cutting back jobs now could increase Crane's chances of growth in the future, because of the partnership.\nCrane currently produces, develops and manages a variety of military equipment such as vacuum tubes, electronic warfare systems, electronic counter-warfare systems for ships, night vision, smart bombs and smart munitions. These technical jobs could potentially be augmented by researchers at IU, MacIntyre said.\nBloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan said he is happy the Pentagon has chosen to at least keep Crane open.\n"We've known for a long time that the efforts to 'save Crane' would be an uphill battle," Kruzan said. "We are extremely encouraged that the Department of Defense has recognized Crane's economic and military value and has not placed it on the closure list."\nThe Base Realignment and Closure Commission will make recommendations based on the Pentagons proposals to President Bush by Sept. 8.
(05/06/05 4:38am)
An 18-year-old IU student who reported and later recanted an abduction could face jail time and fines for false reporting and obstructing justice. \nThe student reported she had been abducted at gunpoint outside Teter quad Sunday afternoon and then was forced to drive to Nashville, Ill., where she escaped her attacker. When the IU Police Department interviewed the student Tuesday, she admitted the story was false.\nThe woman could face charges of falsifying a police report and obstruction of justice in Illinois, once the Nashville Police Department receives IUPD files on the case, said Nashville Police Department Sheriff Shane Phillips. IUPD Lieutenant Jerry Minger said no charges will be brought against the student in Indiana. \nThursday a Georgia woman, Jennifer Wilbanks, said she had been kidnapped in Atlanta because of cold-feet before her wedding. Wilbanks could be sued for the $60,000 it cost to search for her as well as other fines and could possibly face a jail sentence.\nMinger said he deals with several false cases a year.\n"It does happen throughout the school year several times," he said. "But then I suspect there are several times where we can't prove it that they've been false informing ... We have to err on the side that the person is telling the truth, assuming it is valid information we are getting. At some point if the evidence doesn't match what we're being told we might investigate it further." \nThe student told police a man had been hiding in her car with a gun and told her to drive. When she stopped for gas at another town, she said the man got out of the car and she drove to Nashville, Ill., where she contacted local police from a convenience store. She stayed in Nashville for about three hours, Phillips said. Her mother came to get her after a crime scene technician processed the student's car.\nMinger interviewed the IU student with her mother and brother Tuesday morning in Bloomington after she had given her initial report to the Nashville police. \nMinger said the police had few leads and wanted to ask the student about the specifics of her abduction. She left that interview saying the story was true, but returned to recant the story 45 minutes later.\n"I guess she just wanted to tell the truth," Minger said. "In this instance the reason why she lied was much more immaterial because it didn't involve more than a mild inconvenience for the IUPD."\nMinger said the IU student could not relate to IUPD why she had lied. She was given information for IU Counseling and Psychological Services, according to a press release.\nDirector of CAPS Nancy Stockton said counselors focus on stress management and recognizing signs of stress early for students dealing with similar issues.\n"They think impulsively that if they can concoct some story that portrays them as a victim who can't be responsible for their difficulties, that that is their way out," Stockton said. "But I think most generally it's a question of anxiety, stress, feelings of desperation, creating a kind of tunnel vision in which they are able to latch onto only one way out of their difficulties."\nStockton said sometimes their judgement gets clouded and they are unable to think rationally.\n"The stress and anxiety can interfere with their ability to consider alternatives, to foresee consequences (and) even to realize that (what) they concoct very often is illegal, that they are violating laws," she said.\nIf brought to trial in Illinois and found guilty, the IU student's sentence could include one to three years in prison and up to $25,000 in fines for the charge of obstructing justice. She could also be sentenced to less than one year in the county jail and up to a $2,500 fine for falsifying a police report, Phillips said.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Joelle Petrus at jpetrus@indiana.edu.
(04/27/05 4:54am)
Even though many of the other journalists seemed to be fleeing or deported, National Public Radio correspondent Anne Garrels captured the Iraq war. Garrels was the only U.S. broadcast journalist to stay in Baghdad until American military forces came to the city, and her book "Naked in Baghdad" is valuable even for people completely uninvolved with the media. \nGarrels offers a first-person account of the trials she faced while surviving in a country under siege. \nShe wrote the book about a month after her return from Iraq and titled it "Naked in Baghdad" because she broadcast some of her stories naked so she could garner extra time to hide illegal equipment in case there was a security sweep.\n"I figured that if I answered the door naked, I'd get a few minutes to shut the door, hide the phone, throw on a dress that I had laid out ready for such an event and then let them in," Garrels said in an interview on the NPR Web site, www.npr.org. "Those people who were found with illegal phones were either expelled or, during the war, four were detained for eight days in solitary confinement, and we did not know their whereabouts until they suddenly appeared safe and sound in Jordan."\nGarrels' book gives an account of life under the Saddam Hussein regime and how it affected the Iraqi people. She provides context and sheds light on a complicated situation, which often has been treated simplistically in daily news coverage. The sincere and honest tone of the book is undoubtedly a major reason for her respected status as a journalist.\nGarrels' descriptions of her life during those days are clear and provoke the reader to continue turning the pages even when the book is written in snippets and vignettes, similar to a journal. But the extremity of her time in Iraq and the flair of her language holds interest without glorification or overdramatization. Her style comes off straight forward and devoid of sugar coating while revealing an overwhelming hope for the future and a complexity that should leave readers, no matter what their political persuasion or opinions of the war, thinking long after they have put the book down.
(04/15/05 4:39am)
At the Def Poetry Slam Showcase Wednesday night, artists Tommy Bottoms, Dana Gilmore and Malik Salaam regaled a crowd of more than 100 people at the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Room.\nFor two hours, the three poets rotated in this order until each had performed three times with the microphone.\nTwo local Hip Hop Awareness Week Slam winners -- Pablo Airaldi and Joe Kerschbaum -- opened for the poets. \nEach of the showcased poets, Bottoms, Gilmore and Salaam, performed pieces that were primarily opinion-based about political issues they had either dealt with personally or felt deeply enough to write about. Their pieces were light on imagery or complex language, relying more on simply conveyed messages.\nThis style of spoken word aimed at simplicity is often more likely to receive standing ovations from mass audiences. Since Hip Hop Congress sponsored this event with Union Board, it is not surprising that the featured poets would teeter closer to hip-hop than slam in style.\nBottoms' style was the loosest of the three, in that he had a tendency to slur his words and used more expletives in his work than the other two poets. His pieces, heavy in opinion, tended to begin at point A and end at point B rather than moving in a circle or re-instating a common theme. The first piece he did was rather flat in performance, but after he loosened up to the crowd he performed a piece called "Pimpin' Ain't Easy," which presented a very interesting opinion on organized religion.\nWhen Gilmore stepped onto the stage afterward, the audience probably noticed she was small in stature. But she projected her voice just as well as, and maybe better than, the other two performers. As the second showcased poet, she enunciated her words effectively and used the volume in her speech to create a varied effect in her work. Her most memorable piece was about a 16-year-old mother and drug addict whom she apparently knew personally. For this piece she appeared to draw most closely from her experiences and for this reason this performance was especially captivating.\nSalaam, the third poet, had the most literary-leaning style of any of the poets, with the most imagery.\nHis performance was effortlessly fluid and relied less heavily on opinion, though it was still a major driving force in his chosen subject matter. He projected his pieces effectively and did not pause very often once he began. However, sometimes he stepped away from the microphone or walked into the isles and the difference in sound jarred the mood. His most memorable piece was a poem he wrote about his wife, in which he described the reality of love.\nAll three poets had an off-the-cuff, spontaneous, but not necessarily sloppy feel to their performances. \nThe event ended with about three-quarters of the people in the audience giving the poets a standing ovation.
(04/13/05 4:52am)
"Caucasia" by Danzy Senna captures the life of two biracial children who must fit into alternative worlds after their parents separate their family because of escalating racial violence in the mid-1970s. The main character, Birdie, who can "pass" as white, goes into hiding with her white mother. Her older sister, Cole, remains with her black father because she cannot "pass."\nBirdie then goes on a tumultuous search to discover her real identity after being pulled in many directions by external forces and people in her life. \nSenna constructs this well-crafted story around a central argument, which she states toward the end of the book: Although race is culturally constructed, it still exists.\nSenna reportedly draws the book's events and characters from her own life and biracial identity. The book is set in Boston, where she grew up, about the time of her own childhood. "Caucasia" was her first book, originally written as her graduate thesis at the University of California, Irvine.\nSenna's writing style is highly readable but also descriptive and character driven. Her writing delves into the deep crevices of identity formation. She avoids extreme examples in the novel and the normalized "tragic mulatto" stereotype, thereby allowing herself to unearth more telling truths about humanity, as well as the effect of environment and socialization.\nOne problem with "Caucasia" is its generational perspective, which might be too subtle for anyone not immediately aware of the common culture that existed when the action of the book takes place. Therefore, many of the author's 1970s references, meant to give context to racism, racial identity and race relations, might be lost on a traditional, college-aged reader. But it does lend itself to page turning and is almost guaranteed to hold the attention of the reader and evoke thought on this complicated issue.
(04/08/05 4:11am)
Town staples earn their notoriety by staying in town. That's how Bathtub Gin became synonymous with Bloomington for many local poets. The nationally distributed biannual literary and art magazine will continue to be synonymous with Bloomington until it moves printing locations to Erie, Penn., in August.\nArtists will say goodbye to the magazine at the "Farwell to Bloomington" poetry and prose reading at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Runcible Spoon, 412 E. 6th St.\nChristopher Harter started Bathtub Gin in 1997, a brain child he nursed among friends as far back as his college days at Ball State University. After finishing his master's at IU in 1996, he began work at the Ruth Lilly Library when he thought the time was right to act on this festering idea.\n"At the time I started Gin," he said, "it seemed to me that lit mags tended to separate into two camps: the academic reviews and those that published a lot of neo-Bukowski writers. I felt there were a number of contemporary writers that I liked that didn't write in either vein and weren't finding an outlet for their writing. So, I started Gin to help them find an audience."\nAround that time, other people apparently wanted to help such writers find their audience too, Harter said.\n"Little did I know there were a number of lit mags looking to do the same thing that started around the same time as Gin," he said. "So I must have been right. Unfortunately, I think Gin is the only one of that group that is still publishing."\nAfter years of publishing at the Bloomington location, Harter's wife is going to Erie to finish her Ph.D. and teach. Harter plans to go with her, so Bathtub Gin must move as well.\nLocal poet and resident Tony Brewer said the magazine might be the only other nationally recognized literary magazine in south central Indiana besides the Indiana Review, so he sees it as a loss for Bloomington.\n"The Gin will continue to flow from Erie," said Brewer, who has had his work printed in issue No. 10. "But I'll miss Chris's involvement in the scene in Bloomington, particularly the exhibitions he's curated at the Lilly Library and the poetry and spoken word artists he's brought to town and the chapbooks he's produced and the poets he's published. He did a beat generation exhibit at the Lilly in 2002 that was phenomenal. He's a wealth of knowledge of that era."\nHarter leaves behind some fond memories of the literary community in Bloomington, as well as memories of printing Bathtub Gin.\n"(My favorite memory is) probably printing the very last copy of that first issue and seeing that the magazine had become an actual publication," he said. "I've also enjoyed getting to know a number of writers in the Bloomington area and watching the literary scene change over the past 10 years and watch it grow."\nHarter has also garnered respect and friendship from local poets. Graduate student Christopher Essex has been published in one previous issue of Bathtub Gin.\n"(Harter) has a fine eye for literary quality and very easy to work with," Essex said. He has been published in one previous issue of the literary magazine and is a Ph.D. candidate in Instructional Systems Technology.\nHarter said literary magazines are the only print outlet left for new writers to reach audiences. Though he only printed 400 copies, that is a lot for a literary magazine, Harter said.\n"Historically, literary magazines (and small presses) have been the place where new writers first found their audiences and have been allowed to develop their work," Harter said. "They are even more important today because with the conglomerization of the publishing industry, the major publishers have completely abandoned serious literary publishing. It is complete win of style of substance with them, nothing but fluff. And when I say 'serious literary publishing,' I don't mean writing that only MFAs read. I'm talking about good, honest poetry and fiction that goes beyond typical formulas."\n-- Contact Arts Editor Joelle Petrus at jpetrus@indiana.edu.
(04/07/05 5:22am)
Sometimes, IU junior Sidney Bolam likes living in the past.\nShe lives in the past all across the Midwest and the North East. Her camp grounds include October's Feast of the Hunters Moon in Lafayette and Niagara Lake, N.Y., in July. Bolam is a historical re-enactor. The past is what she does. \nHistorical re-enactors often camp at the sites of battle scenes, to commemorate the event that happened there by recreating it. They serve as walking, talking history museums for the people in attendance. Living history might also happen at locations where no historical event is known to have taken place, such as School of the Native from 10 to 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Piankeshaw Trails located 10 miles southwest of Bloomington.\nBolam began historical re-enacting four years ago when she was still in high school. Now she has two personas: a Native American from the Wea tribe, a subbranch of the Miami, and a French woman from the 18th century. Bolam said she chose a Native American who would likely have lived in the Lafayette region, where she is from.\n"I wanted to portray a Native American from the 18th century," she said. "Nobody special, not a princess or something stupid like that ... and my second persona started because I was interested in the white counterpart of my persona. And you really get a real feel for people when you are in their clothes."\nBolam said there ends up being few representations of women in general in this male-dominated hobby.\n"I think it's (like) how guys go on fishing trips, but they're just going out there to drink ... Re-enacting is similar in that it's outside, lots of camping and tons of guns and weaponry," she said. "So it's very macho kind of hobby. So usually everyone thinks I'm somebody's horribly young girlfriend or daughter."\nSophomore Jessica Diemer doesn't dress up. Instead, she is a historical interpreter at Piankeshaw Trails, meaning she might interpret the actions of a historical re-enactor for the public. She also helped organized School of the Native, aimed at spreading awareness of historical crafts and Native American culture.\n"Although many reenactments of the mid-west revolve around wars, School of the Native is based more from a cultural aspect," Diemer said. "(It) revolves around the everyday life-ways of different and diverse Woodland Peoples. So many times, the only way people are exposed to Native American history is through romanticized and brutalized ideals ... omitting everyday ways of life."
(04/06/05 5:03am)
Ishle Yi Park knows how to pause. She knows how to enunciate her words and tap into the flow of her own language. Her style is reminiscent of other New York poets and slam fiends, garnished by theatrics and a lot of hand motions. This style would be expected of a Def Poetry Jam poet, and maybe of the Poet Laureate of Queens, N.Y. Park is both.\nShe was projecting Monday night from Whittenberger Auditorium for an audience of about 60 people, many of them sharing her Korean heritage. Union Board brought her to this Bloomington venue partly to recognize Asian Pacific Heritage Month, Union Board outreach director Kenn Cooper said during his introduction of Park. That afternoon, Park also offered a poetry workshop.\nPark, in pigtails and hoop earrings, recited most of her poetry from memory, at times descending from the stage for effect.\nHer performance, at least for that night, focused on the experience of Koreans and Asian Americans in general. Most of it was softly political rather than angry, encapsulating memories and offering heavy descriptions of events.\nMost of her work is written from a second- or third-person perspective, as if she sought to distance herself from her inspiration. \nThe pieces stemming from her experiences were among the best. In one piece she described a race war between blacks and Koreans that culminated in a fire within a Korean neighborhood in New York. Her voice assumed the sentiments behind the Korean outcry about this event and at least partially masked her own voice. \nIn another powerful piece titled "Open Letter to Military Wives," she represented women who were losing their men in the Iraq war. The piece's lack of run-of-the-mill political anger increased its power. Although the poem's metaphorical nature meant to hide Park's fear of losing her past military boyfriend behind the strong emotions of the military wives, the audience was left wondering what Park would have said if she had embraced the personal quality of her situation more directly.\nToward the middle of the nearly hour-long performance, she read a few newer love poems that dodged cliché effectively. For these pieces, her performance assumed a more staid expression because she read them from the page. In many ways, this muted style was just as agreeable, if not more so, as her other pieces, which clearly were meant for use at slams and teetered on the edge of being overperformed in some parts.\nMuch of her performance was calculated, almost mathematical; she was very exacting with language and projection, as if she had sought to add the emotion in later and stir. The big picture of her pieces was memorable, which is a hard-won accomplishment for many spoken-word poets. \nAt the end she sang a well-crafted song she had written for her friends for their non-legally binding wedding. For more information about Park, visit her Web site at www.ishle.com.
(02/21/05 5:06am)
'Assassins' is a musical that explores the dark side of the American dream through music and the plans of nine presidential assassins. The production, presented by the University Players at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, sold out its Saturday night performance, which featured a montage of American folk music, 19th-century ballads, mid-'70s pop music and comedic sarcasm.\n"Everyone has the right to be happy" is a tag line of the characters throughout the show. But their idea of being happy was to kill the president. The nine characters represent the actual assassins who have killed or have attempted to kill American presidents. Through music and historical accounts, the show identifies and explores the motives that drove these people to extreme acts.\nOne of the show's major hurdles is maintaining continuity in a play with no continuous plot. It was a challenge to keep the characters straight without a solid sense of the history behind the assassination attempts. This problem could have been solved in part by listing the characters' full names on the program and perhaps the name of the president they attempted to kill.\nIn general, the characterizations of Gerald Ford's would-be assassins, played by Rachel Sickmeier and Angie Perez, were particularly impressive. \nMusically, the vocal talents of Peter Stoffan stuck out. Stoffan played the dual role of Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald. The cast somewhat successfully tapped into the dark humor of the production, though there were times when the audience did not have enough time to reflect and absorb the humor. Although the tunes were well-executed, more diction could have improved a few particular numbers. Some of the audience members might have been lost when the rhythm became quick and words became slurred.\nThe lighting of the production was very creative, as back lights completely washed out the stage and left Oswald's (Stoffan's) silhouette a perfect illustration of the scene. The cast and crew of "Assassins" did extremely well with their resources, capturing the humanity of the characters, which was the play's intent.
(02/17/05 5:06am)
Laura Farruggio is a woman on a mission. That mission is to make music business a major.\nStudents can currently study the field through the Individualized Major Program at IU, a program designed for people determined to choose the precise flavor of their degree. These students can choose their own curriculum with the help of at least one sponsor. \nAnd more and more these days, they are choosing music business.\nThe music business major has experienced a surge in popularity in the past few years and is the one of the most popular majors in the program, said IMP Director Ray Hedin. \nSenior Eric "Ricky" Marcus said there were only a few other music business majors when he joined the program. Now, the IMP Web site lists 13 students involved in this major.\nFarruggio said she noticed the increasing popularity of this major at least a year and a half ago. That was when she started her project toward making music business its own major with a set curriculum at IU.\nWhen she used to make phone calls as part of her past job at the School of Music to prospective students, she heard the same responses again and again.\n"I made countless calls to prospective students that would say, 'Well, I am a percussion major, but I am really interested in music business. Do you also have that major?'" she said. "And every time I would have to say, 'We don't offer a music business program'. Click ... the student wasn't interested in IU anymore."\nShe said IU is losing students because it lacks this major.\n"I believe we lost a lot of prospective (students) and students who are already at IU who would have considered switching to music business if we had a major here." \nFarruggio said she thinks having music business as a major would be an obvious decision in a university that has attracted many students with its reputable music and business schools.\n"But where do you put it?" she said.\nThis question is the major hang up in her quest to standardize the music business major at IU with courses, faculty and requirements. All IMP students must complete a project before they are handed their degree. This was her project as an IMP student at IU -- she presented a program for music business to the IMP committee.\nMany other schools already have music business programs. Along the way, she said more than 100 professors have given her advice on the project.