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(05/01/06 4:31am)
Almost 20 years ago, Randall Baker, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, was approached by a woman on a bridge in Bath, England, who made him an interesting offer; she wanted him to help found the first free democratic university in Bulgaria.\n"I knew nothing about Bulgaria," Baker said. "It could be the dark side of the moon for all I knew."\nWhat made the offer so unique was while Baker had previously helped design the curriculum of four new schools within different universities, he had never helped found a new university itself, let alone on the far side of Europe.\nBaker was no stranger to foreign countries or the strange way his life seems to twist to take him there. Growing up in the '60s, he was fascinated by Africa and received degrees from universities in Wales, Africa and London. By age 23 he had received his Ph.D. and was being recruited by British Intelligence. \n"I can't tell you if I worked for them or not," he said with a smile. "I can tell you I caught two Russian spies, both women. James Bond really does exist".\nIn 1975 he became the dean of the School of Development Studies at England's University of East Anglia where he wore midnight-blue and bright orange dress robes sewn by Her Majesty the Queen's seamstress. \nOn a chance meeting he met the SPEA dean from IU and in 1985 moved to Bloomington because of his personal theory to completely change his life every 10 years.\nSo when Baker found himself on a bridge in 1990 being asked to help found a university, he admits it was strange but not very surprising. The woman on the bridge's name was Emilia Kandeva, and she approached Baker to help "think things through" after reading a paper of his on starting new schools within universities. Shortly after, he traveled with two colleagues to Bulgaria to help think things through. \nWhen they arrived the country appeared to be in shambles; everything was run down.\n"I remember thinking, 'How are they going to build a university in this?'" he said.\nBulgaria is a small country about the size of Tennessee located in Eastern Europe directly south of Romania. According to www.cia.gov, Bulgaria was first controlled by the Turks after the Byzantine Empire, gained autonomy for a short time at the turn of the 20th century then was under Soviet communist rule until 1990.\nBut the group of professors trudged through the streets of Bulgaria's capital Sofia until they approached a little red boutique that sold ladies' clothing with a cardboard sign that simply said "NBU" (standing for New Bulgarian University) by the door.\n"We went inside and it was like a fantasy land," Baker said.\nThe apartment above the boutique was the former home of the beloved Bulgarian children's author Angel Karaliichev, who wrote mostly about monkeys.\n"I looked around at all the monkeys and I thought, Well maybe this isn't a bad place to start a university," Baker said.\nWhile they worked inside what felt like a whimsical children's book, their tone was very serious. To create a university based on liberal arts, the idea had to be approved by the Bulgarian National Assembly. The vote passed in 1992 and the New Bulgarian University officially was founded. With no property of its own, the university rented space to conduct its first classes and the first class Baker taught was in a room with glass walls rented from a girls' prep school.\n"I had students sitting in class, and girls were walking past the whole time," he said. "No one's eyes were on me -- their eyes were glued to those glass walls."\nThings kept going well for the New Bulgarian University as it kept carving out a place for itself in the educational community of Bulgaria.\n"Thing is, it just worked, this project," said Baker, shaking his head.\nIn 1998, six years after being voted into existence by the National Assembly, the university had the funds to buy a property large enough to educate 10,000 students. Its policy of openness and honesty and its strict code of academic ethics showed the school truly valued education, and eventually made it the second largest institution of higher learning in Bulgaria.\n"It's really exciting to be associated with something that really works," Baker said. "You go there and every time it's better than the last time you went there."\nEven with the success, there are setbacks and difficult decisions, and Baker said he plans to grapple with these when he retires from his position at IU in January 2009 to return to Bulgaria and take a trustee position at the New Bulgarian University. NBU is facing numerous issues in the coming months. There is a debate over whether to teach classes in English or Bulgarian; the university faces a housing problem for international students; and Jan. 1, 2007, Bulgaria is scheduled to join the European Union, which could disrupt a delicate economy just 15 years removed from the state controls of communism.\n"It will be the extreme end of Europe then," Baker said. "It's been isolated for so long, and it still is isolated. It's dodgy business getting out there, I would say." \nBut Baker says he thinks the biggest problem for NBU is its graduates regularly receive degrees and then leave the country.\n"By introducing American standards (to graduates) you are basically giving them a ticket to immigration," he said. "The more qualified you are, the easier it is to leave."\nAccording to Bulgaria's 2001 census, the population at that time was 7.9 million, about a half million lower than it was after the 1992 census.\n"They're drawn away by the money," he said. "How do you keep people at home when the average wage at home is $1.50 an hour?"\nUntil he returns to NBU, the Bulgarians must be appeased with Baker's presence in the form of a portrait that hangs in the atrium of the school, recognizing him with an honorary degree. \n"It's embarrassing to walk past your portrait in the atrium," he said. "They should leave that until you are dead"
(04/20/06 4:00am)
Scattered across tables in common rooms around campus sit paper triangles urging students to register against rape with the IU Student Association rape crisis fund on one side and another important message on the other.\n"The Little 500 Weekend -- protect yourself, protect your friends."\nLittle 500 riders have helmets to help shield them from dangers during the race, students who participate in any of the activities associated with Little 500 week don't have protective gear to keep them safe during the parties and substantial drinking that accompany the week. \nWhile IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger says students are as safe during Little 500 as they are during the rest of the year, he says he sees an increase in risky behavior.\n"It is amazing how these people also bring attention to themselves by committing these offenses out in the public eye," he says.\nDuring the year, noise, underage or excessive drinking, traffic accidents, theft and vandalism occur with regularity. However, this behavior happens more frequently during Little 500. Minger attributes this behavior to the fact that there is a large influx of people from outside the IU community, the festive atmosphere and, of course, alcohol.\nSenior Shaleen Riddle, a Health and Wellness educator for the IU Health Center, says because alcohol plays such a prominent role during the week, there is a greater instance for random hookups and sexual assaults. \n"For most people who have sex or are assaulted, a huge factor is alcohol," she says.\nRiddle says to stay safe while getting busy, students should ask their partner about STDs, condom use or simply decide before alcohol comes into the picture exactly how far to go.\n"Before you drink decide what you want to do," she says. "Tell yourself you're not going to have sex and stick to it. Think about it while you're sober." \nAlong with thinking ahead, Minger says the best way for students and party-goers to protect themselves is to be aware of their surroundings.\n"Using this common sense approach would keep potential victims of crime from going to underage drinking parties, accompanying and drinking with males that may want to take advantage of an unsuspecting date, engaging in illegal or risky behavior or driving while intoxicated," he says. "Sounds like such a simple thing to be safe but I guarantee you there will be a large group of individuals assembled to pick up trash on Sunday morning after the race and supervised by the Monroe County Corrections Officers."\nStudent groups on campus are going out of their way to remind their members to be safe during the week including Panhellenic Association President, and senior, Brittany Cohen.\n"Yes, we definitely addressed the issue of safety during Little 500 with the chapter presidents (during a weekly meeting)," she says.\nMinger says of course safety is important to the IUPD during the week, but so is having fun, as long as it's legal.\n"We enjoy the activities at IU and only hope for them to occur without issue that make the community unsafe or not secure," Minger says, adding, "We do have zero tolerance to crime." \nRiddle says she hopes students enjoy the week, but to remember they still have to face their classmates Monday morning.\n"Just because it's Little 500 doesn't mean go crazy," she says. "Don't do stuff you wouldn't normally do. Be safe. It's just a random weekend. It's not spring break"
(04/20/06 3:14am)
Scattered across tables in common rooms around campus sit paper triangles urging students to register against rape with the IU Student Association rape crisis fund on one side and another important message on the other.\n"The Little 500 Weekend -- protect yourself, protect your friends."\nLittle 500 riders have helmets to help shield them from dangers during the race, students who participate in any of the activities associated with Little 500 week don't have protective gear to keep them safe during the parties and substantial drinking that accompany the week. \nWhile IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger says students are as safe during Little 500 as they are during the rest of the year, he says he sees an increase in risky behavior.\n"It is amazing how these people also bring attention to themselves by committing these offenses out in the public eye," he says.\nDuring the year, noise, underage or excessive drinking, traffic accidents, theft and vandalism occur with regularity. However, this behavior happens more frequently during Little 500. Minger attributes this behavior to the fact that there is a large influx of people from outside the IU community, the festive atmosphere and, of course, alcohol.\nSenior Shaleen Riddle, a Health and Wellness educator for the IU Health Center, says because alcohol plays such a prominent role during the week, there is a greater instance for random hookups and sexual assaults. \n"For most people who have sex or are assaulted, a huge factor is alcohol," she says.\nRiddle says to stay safe while getting busy, students should ask their partner about STDs, condom use or simply decide before alcohol comes into the picture exactly how far to go.\n"Before you drink decide what you want to do," she says. "Tell yourself you're not going to have sex and stick to it. Think about it while you're sober." \nAlong with thinking ahead, Minger says the best way for students and party-goers to protect themselves is to be aware of their surroundings.\n"Using this common sense approach would keep potential victims of crime from going to underage drinking parties, accompanying and drinking with males that may want to take advantage of an unsuspecting date, engaging in illegal or risky behavior or driving while intoxicated," he says. "Sounds like such a simple thing to be safe but I guarantee you there will be a large group of individuals assembled to pick up trash on Sunday morning after the race and supervised by the Monroe County Corrections Officers."\nStudent groups on campus are going out of their way to remind their members to be safe during the week including Panhellenic Association President, and senior, Brittany Cohen.\n"Yes, we definitely addressed the issue of safety during Little 500 with the chapter presidents (during a weekly meeting)," she says.\nMinger says of course safety is important to the IUPD during the week, but so is having fun, as long as it's legal.\n"We enjoy the activities at IU and only hope for them to occur without issue that make the community unsafe or not secure," Minger says, adding, "We do have zero tolerance to crime." \nRiddle says she hopes students enjoy the week, but to remember they still have to face their classmates Monday morning.\n"Just because it's Little 500 doesn't mean go crazy," she says. "Don't do stuff you wouldn't normally do. Be safe. It's just a random weekend. It's not spring break"
(03/22/06 5:40am)
Before meeting their \nboyfriends, Jean Ford's \nsorority sisters always stopped by her room in the Kappa Alpha Theta house.\nFord was a vendor for Holiday Magic Cosmetics, but she said she had more fun giving her friends makeovers and wasn't concerned about making money.\n"I was a dateless wonder for the first three years of college," Ford said of her time as a student at IU in the 1960s. "I never went out, but everyone I made up looked good."\nFord and her twin sister Jane went from giving their sorority sisters makeovers to founding Benefit, a cosmetics company with more than 600 counters in 10 countries.\nThe San Francisco-based company is bringing Jean back home to debut the company's first counter in Indiana Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Sephora in the Keystone Mall in Indianapolis.\n"It's about time Benefit got to Indy," Jean said. "I'm excited ... because that's my hometown." \nJean describes Benefit as cosmetics that are not only beautiful, but solve a dilemma. She said the cosmetics, known for their quirky names and whimsical packaging, blend color and trend into a kind of art piece.\n"I think beauty ought to be fun," Jean said. "At best, it shouldn't be taken seriously. Smiling is the best beauty cosmetic and I try to bring humor (to Benefit)."\nThe opening of the Benefit counter Saturday will feature "Dallas," a bronzer product with the tag line, "an outdoor glow for an indoor gal." Jean said the powder personifies Benefit's products in that it's easy to use and gives instant results.\n"Everyone can use it and everyone does use it," Jean said. "And the box is so darn cute."\nAfter all, she designed it. Jean received a degree in art education at IU and said that degree and other experiences at IU, such as being a member of IU Student Foundation's prestigious Steering Committee, played a key role in helping her launch her company.\n"My degree in art ed and the IU Foundation gave me the opportunity to succeed," Jean said. "I had no idea I would found a cosmetics company that would be global. \nWhile she lived in the Theta house at IU, Jean said the look seen across campus was "Twiggy," after the famous model, with girls peering out from eyes thickly lined with black eyeliner and weighed down with false eyelashes and soft matte eye shadows.\n"If I got extra money I'd wear Estée Lauder," Jean said, "but there wasn't a large variety like there is now. There was very high end and then drugstore. But it was pretty cute."\nScott Lundy, color specialist at Sephora, said the store has been busy preparing for Ford's visit and the opening of the counter.\n"The response we've gotten has been amazing," he said. "Indiana people love Indiana and Indiana things, including a major cosmetics line."\nFord's visit marks the store's first major event since it opened in October of last year. Lundy said the store has already scheduled 200 appointments for the seven hours the 10 visiting Benefit specialists will be available.\nOpening a Benefit counter in Indianapolis is the beginning of Jean's dream to open a Benefit boutique in the city.\n"I do miss Indiana," Jean said. "I've been in California for 30 years, but I still feel I'm a Hoosier and I still have a great fondness for IU"
(02/14/06 4:08pm)
Senior Anna Grimm awoke Christmas morning to find a book of Sudoku puzzles nestled in her stocking. \n"My family is big into math, We're kinda geeky like that," Grimm said.\nWhat might have previously been considered geeky could now be called geek chic as the logic puzzle most commonly known as Sudoku gains popularity across the nation through Web sites and newspapers' puzzle pages. (The Indiana Daily Student will begin printing a daily Sudoku puzzle in the Classifieds section Monday). \nThe premise of the puzzle is simple -- players must fill a 9-by-9 grid, separated further into 3-by-3 grids, with the numerals one through nine. The puzzle gets its difficulty because the same numeral may not be repeated in any column, row or 3-by-3 box.\n"I really like crosswords," said Grimm, who first saw the puzzle in her local paper, The Evansville Courier & Press, "but eventually I got bored with them. I kept seeing the same clues over and over again. Sudoku doesn't feel as repetitive."\nSudoku first appeared in a New York puzzle magazine under the name "Number place" in 1979. In the mid-1980s a Japanese puzzle company adopted the game and gave it a Japanese name that can be shortened to Sudoku, according to the January newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America. The puzzle eventually spread to newspapers in Europe and in May 2005 reached its peak in popularity when it was introduced to newspapers around the world.\nWhile anyone with logical reasoning ability can do Sudoku because it uses the same sort of logic as the popular board game Clue, said associate professor of mathematics \nWilliam Wheeler, mathematicians and logicians have an advantage because they are aware of the logical theorems that can be used to solve the puzzle. Wheeler said he could see using the puzzle in an introductory logic course to help illustrate these theorems.\n"I've given (puzzles) to students outside of class," said Alberto Torchinsky, professor of mathematics and an avid Sudoku solver. "I'm hoping to make those little gray cells become more active."\nBesides newspapers, puzzlers get their daily Sudoku fix online at Web sites such as www.websudoku.com and www.daily-sudoku.com, a site created by Ronen Azachi based in Israel.\n"I started the Web site thinking I would update it (with a new puzzle) on a month-to-month bases," Azachi said. "But I got so many e-mails from people who said they were waiting for their next puzzle that now it's daily."\nAzachi, an IT manager for an online booking company, created the Web site and the computer program that creates his puzzles as a hobby. He said he usually spends about an hour a day updating the site and reading e-mails from its 25,000 registered users from across the globe.\n"Thanks for the Sudokus," wrote a fan named Marie to Azachi in an e-mail from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. "I teach a class of learning disabled (ninth grade) students ... They love the easy ones as they are a real challenge for some of them (some can't do them at all)."\n"Since becoming a daily subscriber some six months ago, my wife and I had endless fun solving the Sudoku and really appreciate your regular e-mail. Have a great 2006 from us here in New Zealand," wrote Wayne Clarke.\nIf a puzzle has been created correctly, Wheeler said, there will only be one correct solution, putting the puzzle into a category of logic known as propositional logic.\n"That doesn't mean they're easy to solve," he said. "It just means there's an answer out there."\nThe puzzles range in difficulty from easy to evil, depending on how many numerals are given at the beginning of the puzzle, and it is this range that Wheeler said makes the puzzle so popular.\n"Because they are logic puzzles," he said, "people like to see if they can figure these things out. These are right at the limits of what people can ordinarily do. It's an interesting challenge because people can find their own level."\nBut it is the fact that Sudoku solvers know there is a correct solution that keeps them coming back to the puzzle each day.\n"If you follow the puzzle logically, you get the right result," Torchinsky said. "Unlike life, you follow the logical steps and you don't know what's going to happen. In Sudoku, there's a logical conclusion"
(11/29/05 11:26pm)
About 2,340 miles west of Bloomington, former IU English professor Murray Sperber has recreated his Herman B Wells Library 10th floor faculty study where he wrote four books, down to the pictures of San Francisco he tacked on the walls.\n"I often wonder why I have pictures of San Francisco," Sperber said, "when I can look out the window and it's right there."\nFive years after he spoke out against former IU men's basketball coach Bob Knight and a year and a half after his retirement from the IU faculty, Sperber has finally stepped out of the spotlight and settled into his new life, living in California, lecturing at universities across the country.\n"I have no sentimentality toward IU," Sperber said. "They were my employer. I miss my friends, but I don't miss my enemies."\nIn the spring of 2000, Sperber was interviewed for a CNN/Sports Illustrated investigative broadcast about Knight in which he voiced his concern about Knight's conduct as a member of the faculty at IU, specifically in the allegation that Knight choked former basketball player Neil Reed. Sperber was immediately thrown into a media frenzy and became a target Knight supporters viciously attacked. \n"It was bizarre," Sperber said. "What I mainly said was IU had very good rules about how faculty treat students. There were no rules at all for Bob Knight, and he made IU look ridiculous. The idea of a statement like that would get people so enraged is just bewildering." \nKnight fans were so enraged that Sperber received threats left on his voice mail such as, "If you don't shut up, we're going to shut you up," and "We figured out how to find you. We can look in the schedule for the fall," according to an Indiana Daily Student article from June 2000. As a result, Sperber took a year leave of absence from the University.\n"I have trouble making sense of it," he said. "I always knew fans of college sports were a little nuts, but the idea of sending threatening notes or death threats was just very weird."\nSperber's colleagues at the time, including Interim IU-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis, said they supported him.\n"I thought that Murray said what he thought, and I respected him for that," Gros Louis said.\nEnglish professor Scott Sanders said Sperber simply voiced what many faculty members were thinking.\n"I fully supported Sperber's public statements, which expressed sentiments that many, many faculty members had felt for years," Sanders said. "I had long considered Knight to be a bullying, vindictive and vulgar man. He presented himself as a teacher, yet his behavior would never have been tolerated from any faculty member." \nSperber was more qualified to speak out about collegiate sports than many of his critics thought. A devoted sports fan, Sperber played semi-professional basketball in France for two years before he came to IU in 1971 and covered the North American Soccer League for Soccer America magazine in the 1980s.\n"I think people have a stereotype of college critics as pointy-headed professors," he said. "I played basketball at a high level. I worked as a sports reporter. I love sports."\nWhile Sperber said he lectures at colleges on a variety of issues, such as "Sports and ethics" and "College sports and the Catholic identity," often the schools want him to discuss his latest book, "Beer and Circus," published in 2004, which discusses how the undergraduate culture at many universities revolves around drinking and partying.\n"The national trend is now beer and circus," Sperber said. "IU never bucked the national trend."\nLike with sports, Sperber has inside knowledge of collegiate parties. As an undergraduate at Purdue University, he was a member of Tau Epsilon Phi, a fraternity he described as "a sort of 'Animal House.'" When the movie came out in 1978, he said he got phone calls from his fraternity brothers about how much the Delta house resembled their own.\nStill, Sperber is quick to point out that getting a good education at IU is definitely possible, but only if students know how to work the system and refuse to accept the party culture.\n"IU is still one of the best schools -- you just have to be aggressive," Sperber said. "I don't think it should be that hard. I think the school should work better for its students."\nBut working for students is a job that although he said he enjoyed, Sperber no longer has to worry about.\n"Once I retired, I realized immediately how much responsibility goes with teaching," Sperber said. "It's a whole world of responsibilities that's just not there for me anymore."\nSperber said he is content with his life in retirement, beginning each day by reading USA Today (because it has the best sports coverage), chauffeuring his 15-year-old daughter Logan and taking the time to catch up on all the leisure reading he didn't have time to do while he was teaching.\n"I have trouble envisioning Murray retired," said Paul Strohm, a former IU English professor who is now a professor of the humanities at Columbia University. Strohm met Sperber when they were graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. "But, because he is a lively minded guy, I'm sure he is up to plenty of interesting things. We're going to meet in Berkeley this winter and sit on the porch and indulge in old-guy reminiscences. Actually, neither of us has a porch. But you see what I mean."\nFor now Sperber's new office, decorated like his old one in Bloomington, is getting a workout as he begins to write a fifth book on the culture of the 1960s. It's also going to get a new look.\n"I know I have some photos of Chicago somewhere," he said. "I should put those up."\nAfter all, now San Francisco is right outside.
(11/17/05 7:24pm)
When senior Kevin Donahue opened his mail Monday, he received a less than pleasant surprise.\n"Dear Kevin," the letter began, "On Monday, November 7, security analysts in the Kelley School of Business and Indiana University's Information Technology Security Office determined that an instructor's computer in the Kelley School of Business had been compromised by a hacker. We are writing you about this security problem because your personal information was present on the computer."\n"I was kind of scared," Donahue said.\nJames Anderson, director of information technology at Kelley, said during a routine scan, UITS detected three malicious software programs that had been installed on an instructor's computer in mid-August. \n"You're not going to find folks who are not malicious hackers who have access to these programs," Anderson said. "They are not something your average computer user would use. They are very cryptic and non user-friendly."\nWhile Anderson has not yet figured out who hacked into the system, some of the files from the hacker included instructions in French, which, Anderson said, he doesn't know how to interpret that information.\n"It could mean the hacker was from France," he said. "It could mean he was from a different country or it could mean that it's someone from this country fluent in French."\nThe programs had been accessed Oct. 3, resulting in confidential student information, including social security numbers, names, attendance records and grades being compromised by the hacker. By Friday, 5,278 students received letters from Kelley School of Business Dean Daniel Smith stating that some of their personal information was on the computer. The social security numbers of 4,778 students were on the machine. All of the students affected had been enrolled in X100 Introduction to Business between 2001 and 2005.\nAnderson said there has been no reported misuse of personal information, but he does encourage students who received a letter from the dean to take a few precautions. For those students whose social security numbers were on the computer, it would be a good idea to get a credit report and look for unusual behavior, Anderson said.\n"I got my credit report yesterday to see how easy it was," Anderson said, "and I was amazed. After 30 seconds I had a report in front of me that was 28 pages long."\nAnderson said students should look at their accounts on the report and make sure new accounts they did not open are listed. \nSmith said he, Anderson, and the members of the Information Technology and Security Offices are working to make sure no more computers are hacked into.\n"We are completing an audit of all computers in the school to ensure that they are configured properly to automatically update anti-virus software and system patches," Smith said in an e-mail. "Additionally, faculty will be stringently reminded to store all institutional data on a secure network drive in the future."\nAnderson said he is available for students if they have questions about the hacking. He's received more than 40 phone calls already. He has also set up a Web site to help students with questions, www.kelley.iu.edu/security/X100.cfm.\nFor Donahue, all of his questions were answered when Anderson came to speak in his X100 class.\n"I'm still going to get a credit report," Donahue said. "I mean, it's not good that someone can put a trillion viruses on the computer"
(11/10/05 5:00am)
Along with having a social life, studying and sleeping rank high on collegiate "to do" lists. The University population has spoken, and the library and the Indiana Memorial Union have been ranked as the Best in Bloomington for studying and sleeping on campus, respectively.\nSitting in the lobby of the Herman B Wells Library, sophomore Katrina Babin simultaneously listens to her iPod and translates her Arabic homework as she waits for her professor.\n"I didn't come to the library at all before this semester," Babin says, "but now I come almost daily."\nShe says she attributes her change of heart to the fact that the library funnels out studying distractions such as the TV and AOL Instant Messenger, but not necessarily talking to friends.\n"I think people come here partially for the social aspect," she said, "knowing other people have the same goal of getting their work done. But sometimes I don't see a lot of studying going on."\nFreshman Devon Springer comes to the library with fellow Foster resident Hilary Shafer, but says both come with the intention of studying.\n"It's just a good place to get away and not be interrupted," Springer says.\nReference assistant Melissa Van Vuuren says the library is such a popular study spot because it offers so many options for students, such as the possibility of group work in the Information Commons and the availability of quiet solo study space up in the stacks and in the Reference Room.\nVan Vuuren, who has worked at the Wells library for three semesters, says there is a definite trend in student study habits; the library is the most crowded during midterms and finals.\n"The beginning of the semester is really pretty slow," she said, "because the reality of classes haven't set in yet."\nBut by mid-November, the reality of classes have set in for freshman Tanetta Ranson, who normally studies on the fourth floor of the West Tower, but studies her X100 textbook in the lobby as she waits for a fellow classmate to meet up with her to go over key terms for her test Monday.\nVan Vuuren said one of the library's best-kept secrets is the classrooms on the fourth floor, which are not available to students while classes are in session, but are free for students to use any other time.\nBut long hours at the library can lead to study breaks which include naps. While Babin, Springer and Ranson all said they never sleep while hitting the books, there are many who do.\n"Sometimes I look out (from behind the reference desk) and see students stretched out over a couple of chairs and I think, 'Hmm, I wonder if I should wake them up.'"\nAccording to The National Sleep Foundation Web site www.sleepfoundation.org, 53 percent of young adults admit to sleeping less to get more done. However, the Web site also says that short naps, while they don't make up for inadequate sleep, can improve student's dispositions.\nWhile many students choose to catch a few z's at the library and others stretch out in the halls of Ballantine, the Best of Bloomington "Best place to take a nap on campus" is the Indiana Memorial Union.\nWhen IMU custodial worker Ben Nix, begins his shift at 1:30 p.m. he said it is a daily sight to see students snoozing on the Union couches and chairs.\n"It's an everyday thing," Nix said.\nIt's such a popular place to catnap, alumni return to sleep at the union.\nJustin Franklin graduated in May, but he was snoozing at the IMU last week.\n"The couches are pretty comfy," he said, "but they're limited in quantity."\nWhile a student, Franklin said he was prone to taking the occasional nap on campus, and tested locations such as the library and Dunn Meadow on nice days, but decided his favorite location was the IMU.\nSome more self-conscious students might be uncomfortable with the idea of napping in public, but Franklin said that never stopped him.\n"I usually nap when I've stayed up too late the night before," he said, "and if I'm tired, it's usually in everybody's best interest if I get a nap"
(11/10/05 2:38am)
Along with having a social life, studying and sleeping rank high on collegiate "to do" lists. The University population has spoken, and the library and the Indiana Memorial Union have been ranked as the Best in Bloomington for studying and sleeping on campus, respectively.\nSitting in the lobby of the Herman B Wells Library, sophomore Katrina Babin simultaneously listens to her iPod and translates her Arabic homework as she waits for her professor.\n"I didn't come to the library at all before this semester," Babin says, "but now I come almost daily."\nShe says she attributes her change of heart to the fact that the library funnels out studying distractions such as the TV and AOL Instant Messenger, but not necessarily talking to friends.\n"I think people come here partially for the social aspect," she said, "knowing other people have the same goal of getting their work done. But sometimes I don't see a lot of studying going on."\nFreshman Devon Springer comes to the library with fellow Foster resident Hilary Shafer, but says both come with the intention of studying.\n"It's just a good place to get away and not be interrupted," Springer says.\nReference assistant Melissa Van Vuuren says the library is such a popular study spot because it offers so many options for students, such as the possibility of group work in the Information Commons and the availability of quiet solo study space up in the stacks and in the Reference Room.\nVan Vuuren, who has worked at the Wells library for three semesters, says there is a definite trend in student study habits; the library is the most crowded during midterms and finals.\n"The beginning of the semester is really pretty slow," she said, "because the reality of classes haven't set in yet."\nBut by mid-November, the reality of classes have set in for freshman Tanetta Ranson, who normally studies on the fourth floor of the West Tower, but studies her X100 textbook in the lobby as she waits for a fellow classmate to meet up with her to go over key terms for her test Monday.\nVan Vuuren said one of the library's best-kept secrets is the classrooms on the fourth floor, which are not available to students while classes are in session, but are free for students to use any other time.\nBut long hours at the library can lead to study breaks which include naps. While Babin, Springer and Ranson all said they never sleep while hitting the books, there are many who do.\n"Sometimes I look out (from behind the reference desk) and see students stretched out over a couple of chairs and I think, 'Hmm, I wonder if I should wake them up.'"\nAccording to The National Sleep Foundation Web site www.sleepfoundation.org, 53 percent of young adults admit to sleeping less to get more done. However, the Web site also says that short naps, while they don't make up for inadequate sleep, can improve student's dispositions.\nWhile many students choose to catch a few z's at the library and others stretch out in the halls of Ballantine, the Best of Bloomington "Best place to take a nap on campus" is the Indiana Memorial Union.\nWhen IMU custodial worker Ben Nix, begins his shift at 1:30 p.m. he said it is a daily sight to see students snoozing on the Union couches and chairs.\n"It's an everyday thing," Nix said.\nIt's such a popular place to catnap, alumni return to sleep at the union.\nJustin Franklin graduated in May, but he was snoozing at the IMU last week.\n"The couches are pretty comfy," he said, "but they're limited in quantity."\nWhile a student, Franklin said he was prone to taking the occasional nap on campus, and tested locations such as the library and Dunn Meadow on nice days, but decided his favorite location was the IMU.\nSome more self-conscious students might be uncomfortable with the idea of napping in public, but Franklin said that never stopped him.\n"I usually nap when I've stayed up too late the night before," he said, "and if I'm tired, it's usually in everybody's best interest if I get a nap"
(11/09/05 5:07am)
Parking on campus just got a little easier for students.\nWhile more spaces have not been added in either of the Indiana Memorial Union's parking lots, and patrons still have to pay $1.65 per half hour (or $0.85 if the patron has a receipt from the IMU), students are now able to pay for parking with their Campus Access cards. \nThe change began at the beginning of this semester after Union Lots 1 and 2, across from Ernie Pyle Hall and adjacent to the circle, underwent an upgrade last spring that ran cables out to the cashier booths, said Rooms Division Manager Brandi Host.\n"(The booth in the lot across from Ernie Pyle Hall) didn't even have telephone cables," Host said. "To be able to run proper cabling out there has allowed us to have these capabilities. Now students' families can help them pay for parking."\nSophomore Robyn Sorley has worked as a cashier in the booth adjacent to the IMU circle drive since last summer. She said adding the possibility of paying with Campus Access Cards has made her job substantially easier.\n"It makes things faster, it's not hard and a lot of students really prefer to pay that way," she said.\nBy 5:30 p.m Tuesday, Sorley had been at work for two and a half hours and had about seven people pay with their Campus Access Cards -- make that eight as a boy in a black BMW hands her his card, then speeds through the gate.\nAnother student, junior Chris Djonlich, isn't as lucky in getting out so quickly. He sat in his Toyota Corolla and wrote a check to pay for his parking. \n"Of course I'd be interested in paying with Campus Access," Djonlich said. "I'm wasting time sitting here writing a check."\nBefore the addition of Campus Access cards, parking could be paid by cash, check or an IOU added to a student's bursar bill with an additional $10 fee to the parking cost. Host said the next likely progression in the process would be the ability to pay by credit card, but there isn't a set date as to when that might occur.\n"That would be wonderful, to be able to pay with a credit card," said Sorley, "We get so many people who ask for that."\nFor now, students will have to be appeased with the new ability to pay with Campus Access.\n"I didn't know you could pay with Campus Access," sophomore Christie Snelling said as she searched for cash in her car. "Sure, I'd do it. It would be a lot easier than digging out cash."\nOthers aren't so sure anything has really changed.\n"Campus Access is basically the same as cash right?" sophomore Mike Ferrara said as he waited for his change at Sorley's booth. "If I'm still paying with cash, I might as well pay with cash"
(11/03/05 5:00am)
Bobtown, Ind.-- The night clung to the group assembled in front of the metal farm gate, draping across their shoulders and sneaking up under their coats, making them feel the need to whisper.\n"What I'd like to do is have everybody say their name on this recorder. That way in case there is a voice on the tape, we can say it's not one of us." \nMike, one of the group's two ghost hunters, was as mysterious as the prey he looked for, dodging questions about his last name and refusing to be tape recorded unless he's hunting. Corey, the other ghost hunter, has already begun filming with his camera, pointing his unblinking red light at them -- the psychic, her husband, their friends, and the trailer's owners -- as each says his name into the recorder. \nThey all stood there, shivering in the October night, for a different reason. Mike and Corey were looking for ghosts. Jamie Cooley and her husband Eddie wanted to know more about the spirit that has haunted her family's home since they moved there in the summer of 1987. She hoped Jenny Jarboe, a psychic, would be able to give her answers to her unanswered questions about the haunting. \nJamie was nine when the family moved from nearby Ewing Street into the doublewide trailer on the old hog farm in Bobtown, Ind. and the haunting started. Small at first. Eerie feelings. Doors slamming. One day, Jamie came home from school and heard the sound of a coffee cup being placed on the counter top, even though there were no adults home.\nAs the years went by, the sounds continued, and Jamie and her mother Becky began to see shadows, cartoony blobs without dimension that floated in the air in front of their eyes, or walked through the walls next to them or dove into the mirror in front of them. The family would catch the dogs staring off, looking at something the rest of them couldn't see. Jamie complained to her mother that something shook her bed at night, and she had nightmares where she couldn't speak or scream.\n"I ran across a kid I went to high school with who was a psychic. He came out and actually went through the house and told us what had happened, and why it is the way it is. And there were things he told us that there was no way he could have known. No way. He had a whole scenario of somebody getting in a fight and never making it out of the house. And I had never told him anything. I guess it left such an imprint on that side of the house it's reenacting what it did last. And that's all it's doing, and we're just getting in the way of it. It's like a fossil in the air. It keeps going through what it's been doing all these years, and we're just getting in the way of it."\nNot only did the psychic tell the Cooleys a little about their spirit, but he offered them a way possibly get rid of it.\nJamie, then 18, sat with her family around the Ouija board. She was uncomfortable with using the board, but the psychic said it was the only way to get rid of whatever was haunting her family. The flames of the candles each family member held danced as they put their fingers to the board and began to ask questions into the silence.\n"What do you want with this family?"\nJamie felt a breeze in the room lift her long red hair from her shoulders. She looked. The windows weren't open.\n"What is your purpose in being here?"\nJamie felt someone was standing on top of her, but was too scared to look up to see if she was right.\nThe Ouija board spelled nonsense under their fingers. The breeze turned into a raging wind, but the candles' flames continued to dance. Suddenly, lyrics from Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" filled in the silence.\n"Mama, just killed a man Put a gun against his head Pulled my trigger, now he's dead Mama, life had just begun\nBut now I've gone and thrown it all away"\nIt was Jamie's younger brother's clock radio. The family collapsed into nervous laughter as he ran into his room to turn it off. Then they realized the song was about a murder.\n"We're done. This is it," Jamie's father announced to the family.\nAfter that night, the haunting stopped.
(11/03/05 3:01am)
Bobtown, Ind.-- The night clung to the group assembled in front of the metal farm gate, draping across their shoulders and sneaking up under their coats, making them feel the need to whisper.\n"What I'd like to do is have everybody say their name on this recorder. That way in case there is a voice on the tape, we can say it's not one of us." \nMike, one of the group's two ghost hunters, was as mysterious as the prey he looked for, dodging questions about his last name and refusing to be tape recorded unless he's hunting. Corey, the other ghost hunter, has already begun filming with his camera, pointing his unblinking red light at them -- the psychic, her husband, their friends, and the trailer's owners -- as each says his name into the recorder. \nThey all stood there, shivering in the October night, for a different reason. Mike and Corey were looking for ghosts. Jamie Cooley and her husband Eddie wanted to know more about the spirit that has haunted her family's home since they moved there in the summer of 1987. She hoped Jenny Jarboe, a psychic, would be able to give her answers to her unanswered questions about the haunting. \nJamie was nine when the family moved from nearby Ewing Street into the doublewide trailer on the old hog farm in Bobtown, Ind. and the haunting started. Small at first. Eerie feelings. Doors slamming. One day, Jamie came home from school and heard the sound of a coffee cup being placed on the counter top, even though there were no adults home.\nAs the years went by, the sounds continued, and Jamie and her mother Becky began to see shadows, cartoony blobs without dimension that floated in the air in front of their eyes, or walked through the walls next to them or dove into the mirror in front of them. The family would catch the dogs staring off, looking at something the rest of them couldn't see. Jamie complained to her mother that something shook her bed at night, and she had nightmares where she couldn't speak or scream.\n"I ran across a kid I went to high school with who was a psychic. He came out and actually went through the house and told us what had happened, and why it is the way it is. And there were things he told us that there was no way he could have known. No way. He had a whole scenario of somebody getting in a fight and never making it out of the house. And I had never told him anything. I guess it left such an imprint on that side of the house it's reenacting what it did last. And that's all it's doing, and we're just getting in the way of it. It's like a fossil in the air. It keeps going through what it's been doing all these years, and we're just getting in the way of it."\nNot only did the psychic tell the Cooleys a little about their spirit, but he offered them a way possibly get rid of it.\nJamie, then 18, sat with her family around the Ouija board. She was uncomfortable with using the board, but the psychic said it was the only way to get rid of whatever was haunting her family. The flames of the candles each family member held danced as they put their fingers to the board and began to ask questions into the silence.\n"What do you want with this family?"\nJamie felt a breeze in the room lift her long red hair from her shoulders. She looked. The windows weren't open.\n"What is your purpose in being here?"\nJamie felt someone was standing on top of her, but was too scared to look up to see if she was right.\nThe Ouija board spelled nonsense under their fingers. The breeze turned into a raging wind, but the candles' flames continued to dance. Suddenly, lyrics from Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" filled in the silence.\n"Mama, just killed a man Put a gun against his head Pulled my trigger, now he's dead Mama, life had just begun\nBut now I've gone and thrown it all away"\nIt was Jamie's younger brother's clock radio. The family collapsed into nervous laughter as he ran into his room to turn it off. Then they realized the song was about a murder.\n"We're done. This is it," Jamie's father announced to the family.\nAfter that night, the haunting stopped.
(10/19/05 5:26am)
Thanks to a vote by the Monroe County Council, the Monroe County Jail won't have to scrounge around for toilet paper.\nWith less than 10 days before the jail ran out of basic cleaning and sanitary supplies, jail Commander Bill Wilson contacted his facility manager Sue Wheeler to conduct a inventory of the facility's current supplies. Wilson's order came after the Monroe County Council voted against transferring money to resolve the problem at their regular, Oct. 11 meeting. According to the list Wheeler compiled, the jail has already run out of plastic foam cups, was scheduled to run out of latex gloves today and would have run out of toilet paper by Halloween.\nWilson attributed the detailed inventory list to the reason the council's vote change.\n"I really think it was beneficial because it created some urgency," Wilson said. "They could see the problem in black and white."\nWith only one dissenting vote, the council voted to transfer funds from a surplus in correctional center personnel account -- from which personnel are paid -- to a correctional center supply and maintenance account. Fifteen thousand dollars of the total $26,000 transferred will be used for restocking diminishing supplies.\nCity Council member Marty Hawk said in an interview prior to the special session the council initially voted against the transfer because they thought the funds could come from other budgets. Hawk said the money specifically requested for supplies could have come from the sheriff's commissary fund, a fund generated from inmates purchasing items at the jail.\nCounty Sheriff Steve Sharp said he never considered using the commissary fund to pay for jail supplies because it funds other items not budgeted for, such as a new radio system and computer equipment.\n"We looked at the balance and said there was enough there," said Hawk before the special session. "(Sharp) has money he can go to. They were not going to run out of toilet paper."\nHawk voted in favor of the transfer.\nBefore Monday's vote, Wilson said the jail was readying itself for a potentially serious situation.\n"On its face it's easy to see this as an issue of personal hygiene," Wilson said, "but it's a security issue as well. Imagine trying to manage an inmate population without these things."\nSharp said this is not the first year he's had to request to transfer funds.\n"Historically, at the end of the year we've had to go into salaries to pay for supplies," Sharp said. "That's every year we've done it."\nSharp said next year's budget, passed in August, addressed the underfunding.\n"Thank god we don't have to deal with the crisis we thought we could have to deal with," Wilson said.
(10/18/05 5:01am)
An ABC News investigation revealed that the 25 colleges with nuclear reactors across the country severely lack security. Because of the report, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating five universities, including the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State University and Purdue University.\nWhile IU does not have a nuclear reactor, the campus is not free from hazardous materials. Radiation safety officer Greg Crouch said almost 450 laboratories at IU use potentially hazardous materials for research and teaching. He estimates close to 100 laboratories use radioactive materials and close to 20 use high-powered lasers. But Crouch said safety and security is not an issue at IU with these materials.\n"My job is to make sure we work with radiation safely," Crouch said.\nIU is also home to a particle accelerator at the Cyclotron Facility which accelerates particles to a high velocity for medical purposes and research. But Crouch said there is little danger of radiation with the accelerator.\n"If you compare an accelerator to an X-ray machine, there is no radiation if power is off," he said. "That's not true for a reactor -- the radiation comes off perpetually."\nTen journalism graduate students working for ABC News tested the security at the nuclear facilities by asking for tours, taking in cameras and tote bags.\n"We review our security effort frequently to ensure it meets the guidelines set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," said Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne V. Norberg. "We will continue to do so. Should the NRC suggest new guidelines, we will respond."\nAccording to the ABC News report, the Purdue facility had no guards, no metal detectors and no advance background checks. It also reported the students taking the tour were allowed to take their tote bags into the facility even though the reactor room tour policy says, "No boxes, parcels, book bags, purses or other such 'containers of volume' may be brought into the Reactor room."\nNorberg said the news story misrepresented the potential security danger. The reactor, PUR-1, is fueled with highly enriched uranium and is embedded in concrete three stories below the Electrical Engineering Building and under 17 feet of water.\n"We operate with a very small amount of fuel," Norberg said. "Anyone wanting to obtain a similar amount would find it much easier to just buy smoke detectors at the hardware store. You are in more danger from the corner gas station than you are from this reactor"
(10/17/05 4:59am)
Former IU student Kristin Rae Canull, 23, died Thursday after fighting Lymphoma Leukemia since 2001.\n"She was as beautiful outside as she was inside," said her mother, Kimberly Canull.\nServices will be held at 7 p.m. today at Randall & Roberts Funeral Home at 12010 Allisonville Rd. in Fishers, Ind. There will be a reception at the funeral home from 5 to 7 p.m.\nKristin began attending IU the fall of 2000 after graduating in December 1999 from Carmel High School. She intended on enrolling at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis to be closer to home after she was diagnosed, but decided not to go back to school.\nIn March 2001, Kristin auditioned to be a Colts' cheerleader and made the team, but wasn't able to keep up with the other cheerleaders and didn't understand why. The next month, Kristin was diagnosed with Leukemia.\n"She was so strong for so long while she was sick," said Megan Crain, who danced on the Carmel High School dance team with Kristin.\nIn fact, Kristin was so strong, after she was diagnosed she was given only two weeks to live. She lived another four years, going into remission three times.\nWhile at IU, Kristin was a photojournalism major, a field she randomly fell into. Because her mother had been an art major at IU, she encouraged Kristin and her brother Brian to take art classes in high school, and photography became Kristen's art of choice.\n"She loved it," Kimberly said. "She had been hired by a local photographer while she was still in school to work in his studio and made exorbitant amounts of money." \nAt Carmel High School, Kristin was a cheerleader and a member of the dance team, the Coquettes.\n"She loved to perform," Kimberly said. "I think she took as many dance classes at IU as she did for her major."\nCrain, who danced with Kristin for two years in high school, said she remembers how people were just drawn to Kristin.\n"She was drop-dead gorgeous," Crain said. "Your eyes were just drawn toward her smile."\nBut it wasn't just Kristin's beauty that Crain remembers. Crain was one of two freshman members of the dance team, and she said Kristin went out of her way to make her feel included with the upperclassman.\n"I was a nervous wreck as a freshman at Carmel," Crain said. "She would always stretch next to me and say 'Hi' if she saw me out. She just really went out of her way to make me feel included."\nKristin's attitude toward Crain doesn't surprise Kimberly, who said her daughter went out of her way to fit into many groups in high school because she didn't want to be stereotyped.\nShe was stubborn, an animal lover, a perfectionist and paid great attention to detail.\n"Most people will walk out and say 'Oh what a pretty day,'" Kimberly said. "But Kristin would walk out and notice the dew on the grass"
(10/12/05 6:05am)
Freshman Ashley Lee has been upgraded from critical to fair condition almost two weeks after contracting bacterial meningitis, said John Mills, the public affairs manager at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.\n"If another case comes up now it will be unrelated to (Lee's)," said Dr. Hugh Jessop, director of the IU Health Center. "Ten days from exposure is the most contagious time, and we are four or five days out of that."\nThe upgrade came the same day as the announcement of a computer game created by the IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis School of Informatics, which informs incoming college students of the dangers of the disease.\n"We opted for a less frightening approach, smart aleck and tongue-in-cheek," said project leader and scriptwriter Barbara Hayes, "but one that we hope (gets) past the normal feelings of invincibility that most young people have."\nThe game, "Danger in the Dorm," is interactive and leads the player on a two-minute trivia journey through the consequences of meningitis and shows how easily a vaccine can be obtained.\n"The college years are also a time when responsibility for health care passes from the parents to the young adult," Hayes said. "We are urging young adults to take responsibility for their own health care and get the shot."\nThe project began unfunded a couple years ago when Hayes, a visiting professor at the School of Informatics in Indianapolis, was approached by the staff of the Marion County Health Department's Immunization Program. Their goal was to create something to engage students while delivering an important message.\nJeff Hostetler, assistant to the director of the Informatics Research Institute, is one of the video game's narrators and admits he knew very little about bacterial meningitis before beginning his work on the game.\n"I learned that there's an option," Hostetler said. "All you have to do is go get immunized."\nHayes said Lee's contraction of the disease hits close to home since she is a parent herself.\n"My heart goes out to anyone afflicted with this terrible disease," Hayes said. "I was not aware of how rapidly the individual who contracts it gets sick and how deadly it can be. I was not aware that often, when people survive, they suffer some disfigurement. "\nAccording to the National Meningitis Association Web site, www.nmaus.org, nearly 3,000 cases of meningitis are reported every year in the United States and between 10 to 12 percent of cases are fatal. Among those who survive bacterial meningitis, approximately 20 percent suffer long-term consequences, such as brain damage, kidney disease, hearing loss or limb amputations.\nFor now, "Danger in the Dorm" is in the hands of the Marion County Health Department which is looking for funding for mass distribution.\nHostetler said he hopes the game will be an effective measure to reducing the number of meningitis cases.\n"I think many young adults experience a false sense of security with regards to their own health and mortality," he said.
(10/12/05 4:58am)
For junior Ashley Morton, the list of qualities an ideal partner must have is short and to the point.\n"Personality, smart, funny and attractive," she said counting off the attributes on her fingers.\nWhile Morton's list rings true with most people, one item on it has been the focus of scholars, academics and artists for centuries: attractiveness, also known as beauty.\n"Perfect beauty is an ideal that's unattainable, even though we believe in it passionately," art history professor John Bowles said.\nSocial psychologist and professor Eliot Smith said a possible reason for society's obsession with beauty is simple evolution.\n"When things are attractive, they are thought to be advantageous," Smith said, "with freedom from disease and good genes. We are hard-wired to respond favorably to beauty because it produces better offspring."\nSeventeenth-century Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens painted women large and curvy. Art history professor Sarah Burns said weight was seen as beautiful because it displayed wealth and because a well-fed body was thought to be strong reproductively. In Rubens' painting "Venus in the Mirror," Venus has a beautiful wide face and rolls of flesh that spill over to sit heavily on her thick hips as she gazes in a mirror.\n"Rubens was famous for celebrating super abundant flesh," said Burns. "What would be considered grossly fat today was a representation of what was ideal for feminine beauty."\nStill, seeing women who aren't stick thin as being attractive is not restricted to the 17th century. Psychology professor Ed Hirt points to sexual icon Marilyn Monroe as an example.\n"Marilyn Monroe is very pretty, but kind of chunky by today's standards," Hirt said.\nBurns said art has long given the general public an idea of what was physically beautiful in both men and women. Ancient Greek statues show the ideal male human body, Burns said, complete with sculpted muscles and chiseled features. The Renaissance male nude is also seen as an ideal of male beauty, especially through the art of Michelangelo, such as his "David" sculpture.\nBut beauty in men hasn't always been seen through muscle.\n"In the Romantic period, masculinity was identified with thoughtfulness, dreaminess and melancholy," Burns said. "These are all qualities that distinguish the artist or poet from a muscle-bound type."\nBut while there are many examples of male beauty in art, there is a consensus that more emphasis is placed on female beauty, which Hirt brings back to the evolutionary theory.\n"I think that evolutionarily there has been a selection criteria such that female attractiveness signaled reproductive success and fertility," Hirt said, "and so beauty is selected for more in women than in men."\nIn mythology and fairy tales, much of the emphasis on beauty has been on feminine beauty. Helen of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships, and Snow White was so beautiful her step-mother tried to kill her. \n"There's definitely more pressure for women," said junior Kate Canepa, as Morton nodded in agreement.\n"Boys just get up and go (to class)," Morton said. "Girls have to get up an hour early to shower."\nEven in art, the emphasis is still more on women than men, Burns said.\n"From the Renaissance on down, beautiful women as represented by men is a concept as fueled by male desires," Burns said. "Male fantasies decide what constitutes alluring women."\nHirt said terms like "beautiful" and "gorgeous" mean something more than words like "pretty" or "cute" because they evoke an extreme reaction in people and are used more sparingly.\nMorton and Canepa agree there are degrees of difference in the words used to describe someone's attractiveness.\n"'Hot' is more sexual," Morton said. "'Beautiful' is more about classic beauty."\nHowever, what actually constitutes classic beauty is up for debate. Bowles said he thinks there aren't any guidelines, at least seen in art, that can define beauty.\n"No, there aren't any timeless characteristics," he said. \nHirt said what makes someone to be considered beautiful differs between cultures and sexes. There are a few characteristics that are thought to be universally beautiful; specifically high cheekbones, big eyes and symmetrical features.\n"Look at how cartoon characters who are supposed to be attractive are illustrated, those are the features you see," he said.\nEven with all the cultural emphasis on beauty, Morton and Canepa agree that without a brain, beauty is meaningless in the end.\n"Appearance is what draws you in first," Canepa said, "but getting to know their personality is what makes someone most attractive"
(10/11/05 5:12am)
It feels like the first day of school. The air is filled with optimistic tension, as the women and one man sit in a circle and smile awkwardly at each other, waiting. \n"Hi, everybody," said instructor Mary DePew as she bustled into the lounge of the Leo R. Dowling International Center. "I'm sorry I'm late. I got caught in a traffic jam just like in Seoul, Korea, or Tokyo."\nA few faces in the circle break into smiles in recognition of the crowded cities.\n"It normally takes me 15 minutes to get to work, but today it took me 30," DePew said as she got her papers in order. "It's the American way to start earlier -- I'm not a good American."\nThat statement is debatable in the eyes of DePew's 21 students for the evening. All are spouses of international students who met for the second time Monday night at the International Center's International Spouse Circle, a group organized by the International Center to help the spouses make friends and improve their English language skills.\n"I'm really feeling good about this group," said the International Center Director and the group's creator Sandy Britton. "I see it as a support group. I know many of them are sitting bored at home."\nThe tension is broken as each member introduces herself, their English coated in thick, musical accents.\n"I'm Nashwa Bassiouny. I'm from Egypt. I came to Bloomington last spring. I'm a graduate student in the School of Education."\n"I'm Saroj Kashwan. I'm from India. I got my master's in economics, and my husband is getting his Ph.D. in (the School of Public and Environmental Affairs)."\n"I'm Ann. I came from Korea with my husband. He's getting his MBA at the Kelley school. I graduated from art school."\nDePew, a former third grade teacher from Washington D.C., moved to Elletsville in 1990, and after a brief period as a photographer, began teaching English classes to international students.\n"Everybody was an eager beaver," DePew said. "Eager to learn. I couldn't believe I could live in Bloomington and meet people from all over the world."\nDePew passed out papers detailing American etiquette in various situations, such as how to talk on the telephone, personal space and social visits. Like in DePew's third grade classroom, each person read a different paragraph, stopping in between for questions.\n"If someone answers the phone and just says 'hi,'" said Xiu Deng, "I don't know if you are Mary or Mary's daughter. What do I say?"\n"People in my neighborhood are very friendly," said Ravit Sarraf. "Strangers say 'Hi, how are you?' How do I know when to say hi?"\nA woman in a red sweatshirt pulls out a silver pocket dictionary and translates the few words she doesn't understand, then softly repeats them to herself, "Hold on please. Hold on please."\nBritton said the group's first meeting had only eight people, so Monday's large number surprised but pleased her. The group's next meeting is 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at the International Center.\n"I never thought it would expand this quickly," Britton said. "It's a place where they can talk about practical things and practice their English, which is what I think makes them feel so isolated."\nThe lounge no longer feels like the first day of school, but the last, as the discussion concludes and the group breaks off into small groups exchanging e-mails ready for the group's next meeting.
(10/05/05 5:08am)
Tucked into a dusty folder on the second floor of Bryan Hall in the Offices of the IU Archives is a simple letter from a great man about an ambitious idea.\n"The development of a retirement apartment building here is still very much alive," former Univeristy President and IU-Bloomington Chancellor Herman B Wells wrote in 1971 to Josephine K. Piercy, a retired IU English professor. "I am well aware of the fact that there are many who wish such a facility. My own interest in it is not without personal motivation as well."\nIn his 1962 State of the University address, Wells detailed his dream of a retirement community close to campus to serve retired alumni and faculty. In 1980, his dream became a reality in the form of Meadowood, a retirement community just north of the football stadium where, today, 80 percent of the residents have an IU connection either as a retired professor or alumni. \n"There's a vibrancy," said Executive Director of Meadowood Susan Bookout. "They're energetic."\nOriginally founded as IU Retirement Community, Meadowood celebrates its 25th birthday this year, and although Meadowood officially separated from IU and became an independent corporation in 1989 because of financial difficulties, the connection to IU is still strong.\nLike clockwork, Jim Walden, a former professor of education, wakes up every morning at 6 a.m. and goes downstairs from his apartment to work out on the stationary bikes \nbefore heading back upstairs to read the newspaper. He moved to Meadowood for the 66-bed health pavilion almost two years ago after his wife Leola fell ill. \n"There's such a variety of people here," he said. "I've met a commercial airline pilot, a medical doctor -- I never sit at the same table twice."\nAccording to a Meadowood community newsletter from 1982, Meadowood's first residents, doctors Mark and Louise Dick, moved into their home in 1981. Resident Cornelia Vos Christianson followed soon after.\n"It's the Hilton," Vos Christianson said in the newsletter.\nAt that time, the community was scheduled to have 92 garden apartments, 92 apartments in the main community building and a 25-bed health care facility, according to a December 1981 issue of Construction Digest. Currently, Meadowood has 92 garden apartments, 88 apartments in the community building and a 66-bed health care facility.\nWalden moved to Bloomington in 1963 to teach at the School of Education. While he was a professor, he traveled to Pakistan and Iran to teach and evaluate their schools.\nOn Mondays, Walden and others from the community volunteer at the football stadium folding letters to send out to prospective athletes. \n"Did you see the Kentucky game?" he said. "That was a fun afternoon."\nMeadowood resident Nevin Raber received his bachelor's degree from Purdue University and came to IU in 1946 to start a master's degree in history. After serving in the U.S. Army for four years, he returned to IU in 1951 to receive a masters in library science. Then, he became an employee of the University in 1962, eventually becoming head of the business library. Raber said the rivalry between the two universities was as strong then as it is now, but he feels a relatively equal allegiance to both.\n"It's about even now," he said, "even though I spent more than 40 years here and only four years there."\nAfter he retired in 1983, Raber would continue to visit the business library several times a week. Since he moved to Meadowood almost three years ago, the visits have dwindled to once a week.\n"The way libraries operate now is a substantially different operation," Raber said. "I know the basics, but there's a lot of new technology being used these days, and I'm not up on it."\nWhile Raber has left the business library, the librarian in him has not disappeared. Since his retirement, the history of food and eating has consumed his interest. \n"I've collected 500-plus books on the subject," he said, smiling. \nOf course, all of his books are catalogued and annotated.\nBob and Shirley Hart are part of the 20 percent of residents not affiliated with IU before their move to Meadowood.\n"We'd never been to Bloomington before we moved here," Bob Hart said with a smile.\nBut the attraction of Meadowood for the Harts, both former school teachers from Libertyville, Ill., was its proximity to IU and the learning opportunities available from living in a college town. After living in Bloomington for 17 years, Shirley Hart said the two consider themselves a part of IU, attending arts performances and football games.\n"We have to keep our mouths shut at Homecoming, though," she said. Both are proud graduates of the University of Illinois.\n"I think folks here want to be engaged," Susan Bookout said. "They're not rocking away their older years"
(09/14/05 6:10am)
For the campus and the community, it's a matter of balance.\nResidents of campus-adjacent Elm Heights neighborhood were appeased by IU President Adam Herbert's decision yesterday to delay the IU board of trustees' vote on a four-and-a-half-level parking garage, proposed for the southwest corner of campus.\n"We want to facilitate a conversation between the administration and the neighborhood over concerns they have voiced about the proposal," Herbert said in a press release.\nThe trustees were scheduled to vote on the building in a business meeting Friday.\nElm Heights Association President Jenny Southern said she first heard about the proposed 600-spot garage a little more than a week ago. \n"I was kind of alarmed that something had popped up and no one had seen the plan for it," she said. "That got people very nervous. It will be good to get some factual information to clear the air."\nIn the summer of 2003, then-IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm created a committee to look at ways to improve parking on campus. The committee created five recommendations for the campus, one of which was to build a new garage on the south and west area of campus.\n"The previous four recommendations will provide some relief to this portion of campus, but the committee believes that even with these steps problems will remain in this area," the committee's final report says. "Therefore, the committee endorses the proposed construction of a parking garage near this part of campus."\nIU Architect Bob Meadows said he looked at seven or eight different schemes before deciding the corner of Fess Street and Atwater Avenue was the best fit for the garage.\n"It was the only place along there a garage would fit comfortably," Meadows said, specifically citing the garage width.\nSouthern said she wasn't surprised when she first heard about the proposal since she had been watching the University buy up property between Atwater Avenue and Third Street for some time.\n"I was concerned the whole area would become a bathtub ring of parking garages," she said.\nThe garage also worries the neighborhood residents because of an increase in traffic in their neighborhood, where Southern said many of the residents walk everywhere.\n"Of course, living close to campus is conditional with having traffic," said Elm Heights resident and IU law professor Robert Fischman, who walks to work daily. "But we're concerned with the balance."\nThirty-seven-year Elm Heights resident Suzann Owen said she is not only worried about the additional traffic concerns, including what she considers a faulty exit plan for the garage on narrow Fess Street, but the aesthetics of the garage as well.\n"It would be a very ugly entrance to campus from that direction," she said. "The first thing people will see is a very ugly building and that's inconsistent with the rest of the University."\nMeadows said the garage plans have taken the campus' aesthetics into consideration. The garage will be tucked away between existing trees and the building will be made of as much limestone as it can, allowing only for ventilation.\n"It will have a much more residential feel," Meadows said.\nFischman, Southern and Owen all said they are pleased the University is taking the time to communicate with the neighborhood about the garage through meetings, currently unscheduled, which will be overseen by Terry Clapacs, vice president and chief administrative officer.\n"I've worked on a lot of faculty-appointment searches," Fischman said, "and part of the attraction of IU is the lifestyle. One aspect of that is Elm Heights, and that's important for the University to maintain"