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(03/18/13 8:02pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In her State of the Campus address several weeks ago, Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel announced an increase in funding for several diversity and scholarship programs on campus.The Office of the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs will receive $300,000 from the Office of the Provost so that more students may study abroad. Some of these funds can be used as soon as this semester, including for a trip to Ghana sponsored by the Hudson and Holland Scholarship Program.“The idea is that my office will have a line of support for students that primarily come from those three programs to hopefully both stimulate and create interest in study abroad opportunities,” said Edwin Marshall, vice president of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs. The three programs are the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program, Groups and 21st Century Scholars, Marshall said.The $300,000 is a part of the Office of the Provost’s budget, which Robel can give to different projects, said Munirpallam Venkataramanan, vice provost for strategicinitiatives. The heads of the schools and other offices make requests around this time of year, and then the provost decides where the money goes.The official announcement of the funding came at the Feb. 19 State of the Campus address.“I was at the State of the Campus address, so I’m aware that she committed $300,000,” said Susan Carty, director of the Office of Overseas Study. “We inquired the next day and the answer was that it was not yet outlined.”Some of the details that will be considered are policy creation, who gets the rewards and how much each scholarship will be worth, Marshall said.“By the start of the next academic year, this will all probably be organized in a more concise package,” Marshall said.Funding will be available for Hudson and Holland’s annual trip to Ghana this spring.The Ghana trip was instated in 2002 by former Hudson and Holland director Kevin Brown.“Providing more funding to HHSP will hopefully reenergize the program and allow us to continue recruiting outstanding minority students,” Allie Medellin, president of the Hudson and Holland Scholars Advisory Council, said in an email.The money will be dispersed through the Office of the Vice President ofDiversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs, which will work in cooperation with the Office of Overseas Study.“My primary focus is Groups, Hudson and Holland and the 21st Century Scholars,” Marshall said. “That’s not to say that other students will not be able to access these funds.”While Marshall’s office plans to use some of the funding to offset the cost of the Ghana trip, money will be available for personal study abroad opportunities, Marshall said.According to the latest data from the Office of Overseas studies, during the 2010-2011 school year, 2,203 IU-Bloomington students studied abroad. Additionally, IU-Bloomington ranked seventh overall among colleges for number of students who study abroad.Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy were the top three choices for study abroad locations among students. “With IU, we are always looking for great opportunities to benefit our students,” Marshall said. “And, given the world today, I believe that with the openness of our world, cross-culture learning is essential as we go about our tasks preparing leaders for tomorrow.”
(03/01/13 5:27am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students want changes to be made to academic advising, according to the IU Student Association’s VOICE report, released this week.Now, the IU administration is now taking steps to improve advising.“You have an adviser that is linked to certain majors or scholarship programs, and they may not be well-versed in other areas,” said Augustin Ruta, IUSA chief of staff. “We took all the recommendations we had and the key one is centralization of university resources. We think that if everything is taken into consideration, we’ll have one IU advising office instead of lots of small ones.”Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel is now taking two steps to respond not only to the VOICE Report but also to faculty committees, Robel said in her State of the Campus address.Those two steps include purchasing and using the Education Advisory Board’s product “Student Success Collaborative” as well as applying the framework created by Vice Provost Munirpallam Venkataramanan and the IU Leadership program at the Kelley School of Business.However, the draft of the VOICE Report she based her decision on had not included freshmen and seniors due to a technical issue, Ruta said. All grade levels are included in the final version published last Tuesday. Robel refers to the Educational Advisory Board’s product as the “Student Success Collaborative.”“The main points of the Student Success Collaborative take into account, for Indiana University, data from the past 10 years,” Samantha Mocknick, an Education Advisory Board partnership manager, said. “It prioritizes which students need assistance and how they can graduate within the next four years.”The Student Success Collaborative is not currently available to advisers.However, it is not entirely clear how advisers will be affected other than receiving data.“The framework suggests that all advising be actively involved with students,” Venkataramanan said. “If you engage the students from year one you can say, ‘Here are your potential opportunities,’ because students need to explore their options.”It is also suggested by Venkataramanan that faculty should be integrated into the students’ educational paths at different points.The suggestion is whoever is teaching the course will be able to give further guidance to the student on the different paths they can take to achieve their goals.“We cannot force the faculty or students to interact outside of the classroom,” Venkataramanan said. “But we would like this opportunity to be open.”It is with this new tool and framework that students will be better able to take part in an internship, study abroad and/or conduct research, Robel said in her address.Progress in determining what funds are needed for this endeavor is currently hindered by the fact that IU does not know how many students participate in the three areas, said Venkataramanan.“Once we measure where we are, the mechanisms needed and what students want, we can come up with a good estimate,” Venkataramanan said. “We’re going to start the benchmarking process.”There are many programs already in place. One place where a partial list of research opportunities is located is the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity’s website. These opportunities are open to all undergraduates and graduates.“We would like our partners to commit opportunities for our students,” Venkataramanan said.While these programs may not be advertised well, Venkataramanan believes students will be able to continue moving forward.“Independent study is a very big way to work with a faculty member,” Venkataramanan said. “There are literally a lot of schools and courses where you are expected to write a thesis or design your own major. The opportunities are out there.”
(02/26/13 4:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As interim provost, now-President Michael McRobbie made increasing diversity at IU-Bloomington a campus-wide goal in 2007. Last week, Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel said in her State of the Campus address that the percentage of minority faculty has grown to 31 percent.However, minorities comprise 18.6 percent of the Bloomington faculty, according to the IU Fact Book.“That was a prepositional error,” said Elisabeth Andrews, communications specialist in the Office of the Provost. “It should have been ‘by,’ not ‘to.’”The numbers only reflect tenured and tenure-track faculty members who work full-time and who decide to answer questions pertaining to race and ethnicity when prompted by software such as OneStart, Schmitz said.Jean Robinson, executive associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the issues of student body diversity and faculty diversity go hand in hand, because in order to get the students, you have to have the faculty.“I think the importance of having a diverse faculty on staff is so that students can say, ‘Hey, there are people like me in these fields,’” said Pamela Bilo, co-president of Women in Computing’s graduate group. “Computer science is overwhelmingly male, and a lot of times there is a guy culture that is around computer science. If you see that there are only men in computer science, then you may think that it’s not for you.”However, diversity doesn’t just mean race, ethnicity or gender. It could also be how professors approach the subjects they are teaching and their diverse opinions on their topics, Robinson said.“This year, in collaboration with Vice President Ed Marshall and Affirmative Action Officer Julie Knost, I have charged the deans to look carefully at all the areas of their programs with the diversity of the faculty in mind and have revamped the strategic hiring initiative,” Robel said at the State of the Campus address.According to Robinson, the College of Arts and Sciences has several measures already in place.“When a department is hiring for a new position they have to ask permission from us to interview the three people, and if on the face it seems like it’s not diverse, I ask questions,” Robinson said. “And the Office of Affirmative Action knows the gender and ethnicities (of the interviewees) — which we don’t know — and they ask why as well.”The Office of Affirmative Action also uses federal data that looks at the number of Ph.D.s in a particular field, Robinson said. The College of Arts and Sciences then uses this data to see if faculty is taking advantage of the pool of available Ph.D.s.“Excellence comes first,” Robinson said. “Excellent teaching and excellent research, but it is these diverse perspectives that move knowledge forward by pushing the boundaries.”
(02/22/13 5:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The work of merging the School of Library and Information Science with the School of Informatics and Computing will come to fruition in July 2013, Provost Lauren Robel announced in her State of the Campus address.“Change isn’t always easy or pleasant,” Robert Schnabel, dean of SoIC, said. “But this one has been easy and pleasant.”According to Robel, Schnabel and SLIS Dean Debora Shaw, no cuts to either school’s faculty or staff are planned.“The staff from both schools are working together to look at ways to share expenses,” Shaw said in an email. “We see the economic benefits in terms of academic synergies that will provide opportunities for growth.”Both schools are planning for growth at the graduate level.“We plan on creating a master’s in data science, and we would like to be able to make a graduate certificate,” Schnabel said.According to Schnabel, students that are farther along in their student career will be unaffected by the change.“For SLIS students it opens up whole new career paths,” Robel said. “My brother got a degree from SLIS in the ’80s and he works at CISCO now. Librarians have to be data specialists, so this makes a ton of sense.”Both Schnabel and Shaw said there will also be no financial cost to IU due to this merger. “You have to realize that informatics is a growing field and we are a healthy organization,” Schnabel said.Schnabel said the merging of these topped rank schools will create one of the largest and most prestigious informatics schools in the U.S. SLIS was ranked seventh in the U.S. based on academic quality as decided by deans, program directors and faculty members in 2009 by the U.S. News and World Report. Also, SoIC was named a top IT school to watch by Computerworld magazine in 2008.“This is an exciting time for our field,” Shaw said in an email. “Adding breadth and depth by creating this larger school will help our students prepare for challenging careers that will make a difference.”
(02/20/13 3:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Men and women in suits clapped as Provost Lauren Robel took the stage to deliver her first State of the Campus address Tuesday, during which she discussed the prioritization of diversity on campus and reinvigorating academic advising.“Diversity is not an afterthought or an add-on,” Robel said. “It is central.”According to her speech, the IU faculty have a minority population of 31 percent.Still, Robel has charged the deans to explore every aspect of their programs with the intent of expanding faculty diversity.“I was impressed with what she said about the faculty and minority students,” said Lin Dai, a recent Kelley School of Business graduate.However, Dai said she was less impressed with what Robel said concerning the importance of international students.“I don’t know what opportunities there are for international alumni,” Dai said. “Maybe there should be an International Alumni Association. You always hear about successful international alumni but they never seem to come back to IU.”Robel said she also has plans to do more for undergraduates in regards to undergraduate research opportunities and internships.“IU is seventh in the nation for the number of students who study abroad,” Robel said. “I want to make a promise that every student will be able to do one of the following: study abroad, conduct research or participate in an internship.”In order to do this, Robel said she has taken two steps. The first of two steps was for IU to enter into a pilot program that will give academic advisors data going back 10 years. The second step was to use a framework created by the Kelley School of Business that would integrate the faculty at important points in students’ careers.Dai said she wondered what else would be done for career services with an international perspective.“Are there any new plans with the undergraduate career services?” Dai said. “Any new resources provided that’ll help all of us — not just international students — with our future careers?”Robel said IU needs to think “strategically.”“I promise that the future developments will be faculty driven,” Robel said.Robel said it is at the very beginning of her career as provost of IU-Bloomington and is optimistic about the future.“We undoubtedly face challenges,” Robel said. “But we are collectively more than the sum of our schools on this campus.”
(02/18/13 3:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Board of Trustees voted to raise room-and-board rates 3.48 percent at a meeting Friday, as well as to extend President Michael McRobbie’s contract until 2020. “The turnover of college presidents happens quickly,” Chairman of the Board of Trustees William Cast said. “So, there’s a lot of headhunting for people that are already in place, but because of his performance and IU’s bicentennial, his contract has been extended through 2020.”Another item that will affect the Bloomington campus was the decision to raise residence hall rates.“The housing rates were raised different amounts for different housing,” Reilly said. “There were several reasons for that: One, there has been inflation in costs of upkeep. The second thing was the dormitories have been the object of some programs to bring University services into the dormitories. The final thing is that RPS, which owns all of the housing, has been going as fast as it can to rebuild all of the dormitories.”The renovations using the 3.48 percent increase also include the building of the Rose Avenue Residence Hall, as well as the Third and Union Apartments. New developments arose during the update on classroom utilization, which will delay any actions being taken in the near future.“The understanding that classrooms are not used on Fridays is not entirely accurate,” Cast said.According to reports given by various University groups and personnel, including chancellors from various campuses and the Provost’s office, Friday is a time for meetings and other activities different from traditional classroom usage.“The Bloomington campus presented data that would indicate that the Friday utilization was down considerably compared to other days and that lower level classes are taught on Fridays,” Reilly said. “It was also pointed out that overall, across the university, and at Bloomington, we have plenty of capacity.”While the IU administration is not looking to recruit a greater number of students, the classrooms may end up being used by different groups of students.“I presented that there is going to be increasing pressure for non-traditional students, say that work full-time, that are going to take Friday and Saturday classes and online classes to get a degree,” Reilly said. “But there’s no need to build more capacity.”
(02/15/13 6:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Board of Trustees discussed increasing residence hall rates, among other topics, during its Thursday meeting at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis’s Campus Center. The Finance and Audit Committee, Facilities Committee and External Relations Committee facilitated open discussions and an executive session took place behind closed doors.“You have a room situation where the cost of the dorms at the universities is going up and we’re renovating and borrowing as we go,” said Thomas Reilly, chair of the Finance and Audit Committee.According to the Residential Programs and Services website, residence hall rates for 2013-14 will not be available until spring of 2013.“They’re requesting to raise the rates,” Reilly said.The trustees will also consider whether to replace the roof of the School of Public Health, as well as some mechanical systems in the School of Optometry. If approved, these projects at IU-Bloomington would be added to the ongoing construction of the Jacobs School of Music Studio Building, which is costing $44,000,000.As to whether or not faculty, staff and students should be worried about the School of Public Health’s roof, Philip Eskew, chair of the Facilities Committee,said, “VP Morrison has everything under control.”Although not on the official agenda, the trustees also discussed the possible state legislation that would penalize universities that allow students to enroll in less than 15 credit hours.“When one looks at student debt, those most severely affected are those who either do not graduate or those who take very long to graduate,” William Cast, chairman of the IU Board of Trustees, said. “Efforts of many kinds are being considered to make the best use of time while enrolled and to promote graduation in three or four years. In my view, a student is penalized in less obvious ways by taking light loads.”Reilly denounced the possible legislation.“I’m not pleased with this line of thinking that the state has come up with,” Reilly said. “I don’t think the state should be sticking their neck in and the University should do something about it.”Reilly brought up whether or not universities, including IU-Bloomington, will have room for every student to take 15 or more credit hours.The findings of an analysis of classroom utilization on Fridays, which Riley pushed for, will be discussed at Friday’s Academic Affairs and University Policies Committee meeting.“Is the four-day week appropriate?” Reilly said. “Why is there a four-day week? Does it facilitate education? Does it facilitate faculty to do research? That’s why I asked the question. You can shoot a canon through the classrooms on Fridays.”However, Reilly said there are differences between decision makers and the student body that may partially affect the views of those in the administration.“There’s a generation gap here,” Reilly said. “Any board member over 50 went to class on Saturdays as well as during the week.”
(02/12/13 4:41am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nassim JafariNaimi presented a lecture about digital simulations of democracy Monday as part of the School of Informatics and Computing’s Colloquium Series.JafariNaimi is a visiting professor in the digital media program at Georgia Institute of Technology.“She is a candidate for a position in the School of Informatics and Computing’s HCI/Design program,” said Jeffrey Bardzell, IU professor and member of the Human Computer Interaction/Design hiring committee. According to the flyer put out by IU’s School of Informatics and Computing, JafariNaimi grew up in Iran, where she received a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran.“My interest comes from growing up in Iran and my experiences,” JafariNaimi said.During the lecture, JafariNaimi discussed some of the pitfalls of creating and studying democratic environments through simulations similar to computer games. One of the cases she has studied is the alternate reality game “World Without Oil.”“World Without Oil is an online simulation of, well, a world without oil,” JafariNaimi said. “In order to study this simulation I looked at three things: the voice of designers, the voice of the products and the voice of the participants.”In JafariNaimi’s lecture, there were many issues with the simulation. The game was advertised on hardcore gaming forums, due to the fact that the developers were video game designers. This created a skewed population with above average levels of literacy and overwhelmingly liberal reactions.“There is a strong rhetoric of democracy in the game, but it has a flat hierarchy,” JafariNaimi said. “Everyone has a voice. There was no way to show opinions from authorities or experts.”According to the lecture, it also didn’t help that some of the designers participated in the game and only positive or “cool” responses were rewarded. “The question is, how do you define democracy, and what are you going for? You cannot generalize,” JafariNaimi said.
(02/12/13 4:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This year’s 25th annual Paul V. McNutt Lecture was given by Timothy Mitchell, a professor in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.Mitchell’s lecture, titled “Carbon Politics: Coal, Oil and the Sources of Democracy,” covered the influence these carbon fuels have had on the development of democracy.Winston Churchill initiated the use of military force to break up coal workers in England due to their ability to control the flow of energy. These crossroads for energy flow were the reason why coal workers were able to band together in the first place, not because they were socially grouped in a concentrated area, Mitchell said.With oil’s ability to be easily collected and moved, this new fossil fuel affected democracy again.“The flexibility of oil industry’s ability to deliver through the use of pipelines and tankers weakened the collective organization of energy workers,” Mitchell said.Mitchell said the United States began looking for a way to recycle the money it spent on buying oil from countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia due to the economic practice of measuring wealth by monetary transactions.“The U.S. sold weapons,” Mitchell said. “It’s easy to become saturated with the small and expensive objects. Take the fighter jet, for example, they cost tens of millions of dollars.”The entirety of the lecture, Mitchell said, was based on his book “Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil,” which was published in 2011.This lecture was part of a series of annual lectures that began in 1988 to honor McNutt, former dean of the IU School of Law, Peter Guardino, Chair of the Department of History, said in an email. “The series revolves around a series of interlocking themes linked to the professional life of Paul McNutt,” Guardino said.McNutt served as Indiana’s governor during the New Deal era as well as in FDR’s government.
(02/08/13 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thomas Reilly will chair the Finance and Audit Committee next Thursday during the IU Board of Trustees meeting.According to the meeting’s agenda, items such as 2013-2014 residence hall rates will be discussed. Reilly has financial experience as the president and chairman of the board of Reilly Industries, as well as the president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, according to the board’s website.Reilly’s experience in trusteeship and higher education is also extensive.“Tom has been a wonderful trustee to The Children’s Museum over many years,” said Jeffrey Patchen, president and CEO of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. “Tom’s expert advice and counsel, especially with the Museum’s Investment Committee, is strategic, thoughtful and greatly appreciated.”Reilly was also selected to chair Butler’s Commission on the Future in 1984, according to George Waller’s book “Butler University: A Sesquicentennial History.”“I had been on the board maybe a year, and they said they wanted to form a commission to make people with a lot of money feel like they were a part of Butler and then spend on it,” said Reilly. “I raised my hand and said, ‘It’s not going to work because it’s a mediocre program you’re running.”This prompted James Baker, co-chair of the Indiana Government Efficiency Commission, to invite Reilly to serve as chair of the commission’s Subcommittee on Higher Education, Reilly said.“We got some grants and I hired the best gurus on higher education and economics,” Reilly said. “We had all the presidents in and legislators and consultants, and we wrote a report about higher education in Indiana, which we thought was going in the wrong direction.”Reilly said he believes his time spent on the subcommittee is why former Gov. Mitch Daniels asked him to become a trustee at IU.After he began his retirement back in 2004, the challenge of being an IU trustee sounded like the perfect next step, Reilly said.He said he spends a lot of his time reading about governance and how to manage the IU Foundation’s money.“I think Mitch sort of liked the idea of having someone on the board who had no knowledge of IU, had no emotional contact,” Reilly said.
(02/05/13 3:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>William Cast, a retired head and neck surgeon, is the chairman of the IU Board of Trustees, which will be meeting at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis’ Campus Center Feb. 14-15. Cast was appointed by former Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2005 and reappointed in 2008, according to the board’s website and a 2009 press release. Cast was reappointed by Daniels in 2011. Cast was nominated and appointed to be the chairman of the board until at least 2013.“The opportunity to serve is not only an honor, it is a very stimulating opportunity,” Cast said. “It’s really a rare opportunity. It is not so much work as it is stimulation and enjoyable.”Cast earned his M.D. from IU in 1962. He then went into the military, Cast said.“I finished my residency and then I served in the Army as a specialist,” Cast said. “It was in the years ’68 and ’69, and I was working out of Fort Jackson as an ear, nose and throat surgeon where I did a lot of trauma surgery and worked with the aerovac.”Cast has also worked with various companies, medical organizations and schools throughout his professional life. According to Cast’s resume, he was the director of the American Council of Otolaryngology from 1976-78, the publisher and editor of the Medical Business Review from 1980-91 and is a director of both the IU Health System and the IU Foundation, among several other organizations.Cast was also the founding chairman of the DuPont Hospital from 2002-05 in Fort Wayne, and the founding president of the K-12 Canterbury School. He was the president of the foundation from 1983-2011.“A hospital was what was needed,” Cast said. “The school — I had three children and it was my wife’s idea to start a new school. We weren’t happy with how the school system was doing things, so we decided to do it ourselves.”According to Cast’s resume, he is currently a director of Octamer Biotechnology Company, Indiana Health Information Exchange, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Fort Wayne Medical Surety and the CEO of NoMoreClipboard, as well as a board member of its parent company Medical Informatics Engineering.Cast said his postion is similar to the other trustees. “There’s no real difference between the chairman and the other trustees,” Cast said. “The chairman or the vice chair are going to make some committee appointments as a matter of reality. A lot of what the trustees are going to do is going to depend on their talents.”Cast said he has a busy professional life.“I’m old,” he said. “I’m not a young guy. I’ve been a lucky guy.”
(01/31/13 7:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Black Student Union kicked off its semester with its State of the Black Student Union and a discussion of black representation on campus.“The University needs to create a system of accountability for the Board of Trustees and President (Michael) McRobbie’s decision to retain and increase the number of black students,” said Ronald Gilbert, Black Student Union president at Wednesday’s meeting at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. Gilbert said this particular “mass meeting,” as it’s called, is a way for the presidents of the Black Student Union to bring up issues that they believe should be addressed by the union’s members throughout the current semester.Racial discrimination at IU wasn’t brought up by Gilbert nor the panel of students. Gilbert said exclusion was more of a problem.“The problem is you don’t feel like you’re supposed to be here,” Gilbert said. “Some of the events and programs are not inclusive and create an overall feeling of not belonging if you’re of African-American descent. Other races feel that way, too.”Many of these events are school-wide, and their target audience is supposed to be all students, Gilbert said. “A good example is the Little 5 bike race,” Gilbert said. “Historically it’s not an event that black students flock to. It’s more of a greek event.”Other events discussed were those put on by the Union Board, where minorities are not always represented in an official capacity.However, not all students said they felt that way.“I’ve never felt like I didn’t belong,” said junior Aigner Hart, Black Student Union education chair. “But I felt like I had to stand up in my diversity class, where I was one of three blacks, and I had to tell them, ‘I don’t speak for the black community. I don’t know how she feels or what he thinks.’ The professor understood that, but I don’t think I should have to feel like I have to stand up and explain that.”Besides mobilizing members to address certain issues that are important to the black community, Black Student Union members engages in one community service event per month, among others.One such event will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 21 and is a collaboration with the African Student Association. The event is titled “Same Color, Different Race” and is meant to educate people on the differences between what it means to be African American and African. No location has been set at this time.Gilbert explained what the Black Student Union means to him.“I think it’s an umbrella organization for all black students, wherever they come from. It brings black students together and is a platform for black students to come together in fellowship.”However, Gilbert said the Black Student Union is not just for students of African-American descent.“The Black Student Union is open to anyone with an interest in African-American culture and issues,” Gilbert said. “Students have power, but there is power in numbers, more so than any one student. Now more than ever, all students need to unify and work together.”
(01/30/13 5:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jenna Moore, a cadet in the IU ROTC program, said she is unphazed by the decision Thursday to lift the ban on women in combat roles. She does not desire a combat position. But she knows women who are ready.“I am excited for them,” Moore said. “My twin sister would love to go into a combat role.” Moore’s sister is currently attending the Naval Academy at Annapolis in Maryland. In 1994, the U.S. Department of Defense implemented a policy to keep women out of ground combat. They were not allowed to serve in units smaller than the brigade level — a shift from earlier legislation enacted by Congress that effectively banned women from all combat roles, according to the Congressional Research Service.The decision to remove the ban was supported by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a letter written by its chairman, General Martin Dempsey, and sent to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta 15 days prior to Panetta’s announcement.However, it is unclear whether this was politically motivated by an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, the next bullet point on the list of legal reforms related to the military or strictly a military decision. “I kind of always figured it was inevitable,” Cadet Angela Bowman, a junior, said. “First, women in the military were allowed to join at all and then open gays and lesbians started serving.”Cadet Battalion Commander John Keenan, a cadet in his senior year, had a different perspective.“I didn’t hear any rumors in the six years I served previously because we were so busy with operations,” Keenan said. He joined the Army National Guard six months before 9/11 and was part of the Iraq invasion force before qualifying to join the Special Forces.“We kept an ear towards politics, but we have no effect on policy,” Keenan said. “I can tell you we did occasionally work with women in the military that were involved in civil services and humanitarian projects.”Lt. Col. Michael Ogden is the officer in charge of IU’s ROTC program.“I think that people have realized already over the past 10 years that they’re going to be in combat,” Ogden said. “What happens when they (women) come to me is they want to become leaders and know what it takes to get there. They don’t ask if they’ll be in combat.”Even for those women in the military that are not affected by the changes, many opportunities will be opening up.A defense official from the department’s Press Operations Center said approximately 230,000 positions will be open to women by Jan. 1, 2016. These positions will be in areas such as artillery, armor, infantry and special warfare.As for female civilians, it is unclear whether they will have to register for Selective Service in the future. According to the Selective Service System’s website, the main reason why women were not required to register was because they could not be involved in ground combat.Blake Johnson, communications director for Rep. André Carson, D-Ind., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a statement saying Carson’s office has yet to receive or review legislation that would require women to register for the draft.“The perception is probably that after 10 years of being at war that it’ll be hard for me to find people,” Ogden said. “I have more people coming than I have slots for, just like Coach Smith probably has more players wanting to join IU’s baseball team than he has room for.”This surplus of applicants is evident not just to the command but to cadets, as well.“It’s definitely becoming a competition of quality over quantity,” Cadet Casey Flynn, a senior, said. Flynn ranks in the top 10 percent of cadets in the country according to her ROTC assessment scores. These scores measure scholastic, athletic, and leadership abilities, Ogden said. Senior year ROTC cadets go through what Ogden calls the “Army combine,” a 29- day evaluation that is roughly 30 percent of their overall assessment as cadets. Most of the female cadets at Monday’s physical training session were not concerned by the lift on the ban because they have already dedicated themselves to their selected positions. But freshman Aryn Morrison, who is still unsure, considered taking advantage of these new openings.“When I heard it was an opportunity and you could be the first (woman in combat), I think I wanted to do it for the challenge,” Morrison said.Morrison was the only female cadet the IU ROTC sent with the 10-cadet team this fall to the Ranger Challenge, an intense competition between the ROTC programs across the country.“You’re a student first,” Ogden said. “The ROTC is something you do above and beyond your bachelor’s degree.” IU’s ROTC has open enrollment for freshmen and sophomores and offers classes for leadership and physical training, even for those not interested in joining the Army.
(04/10/12 10:59pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If you ever wanted to break the law and get away with it then you should have read USA Today’s weekend paper. The article titled “If y’all come to get me, bring body bags” talks about felony suspect John Joe Gray and his family compound in Texas, a self-sustained fort.The subtitle claims that this “Texas standoff is emblematic of the nation’s growing anti-government sovereign movement.” I say the Texas allowance of criminal groups to stay at large is “emblematic” of the nation’s backward thinking. Gray and his gun-toting family have outlasted three sheriffs in office and are on their fourth. Oh, by the way, there is no standoff. Police don’t have the woods and the compound surrounded, and members of the Gray family have had photos taken of them leaving the area when they’re not on armed patrols of the property. These so-called “sovereign citizens” are no more than criminals living with impunity. Sheriff Nutt, the current one, said, “I’m reluctant to talk about it much” and “I just don’t want to stir things up.” The authorities in Texas are suffering from Waco syndrome. They’re afraid that going after zealots who are armed and in a prepared position will wind up leaving those inside killed or cause harm to the officers. Maybe they need to pull from the CIA and military’s Anwar Awlaki playbook and treat them as military targets, the children not included, obviously.The number of “patriot” and “militia” organizations are growing and with them these anti-government and anti-law groups. There’s an estimated 100,000 ardent sovereign citizens, 200,000 sympathizers and 1,274 militias in the United States, most of which are armed and believe they are immune from any legal action or law enforcement. We’re all super worried about terrorists thousands of miles away when you have people with automatic weapons, explosives and a warped view of reality in your backyard.I’m totally fine with people being unhappy with the government and turning against it in various ways. Our country gained its independence, as did many others, by fighting revolutionary wars and/or protesting. It is too dangerous, however, to have people believing they are above the law and could cause physical harm or death to innocent people.Here’s an idea: Maybe the FBI, local authorities and the actual military should get involved to remove these groups from threatening civilization and innocent people. Do your job, Trinidad, Texas, law enforcement. — nsobecki@indiana.edu
(03/20/12 10:52pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s been a long time since I’ve heard about Puerto Rico. Wait, I can’t remember when I’ve ever heard Puerto Rico mentioned during either parties’ primaries. So why all the hype about the primary results of a U.S. commonwealth? There shouldn’t be. It is trivial. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Ricans can vote in the primaries but are unable to vote for the actual president. That hasn’t stopped Mitt Romney from trying to make last Sunday’s primary look like his key to the White House. CNN quoted Romney saying, “Those people who don’t think that Latinos will vote for a Republican need to take a look in Puerto Rico. Hispanic voters are going to vote for Republicans if we stand for something.” Funny how an island that doesn’t have to pay federal income tax represents Latinos in the 50 states. It’s also funny how the Republican Party is trying to gain support from Puerto Rico with a “low-tax” message. One thing Puerto Rico did was shed some light on a few of the candidates’ backward thinking.Rick Santorum was almost run off the island when he said that Puerto Rico’s principal language needed to be English before it could be admitted to statehood. Romney, on the other hand, is showing off his “I can say conflicting things and get away with it” skills, much like President Obama did when talking to Alabama and Florida about offshore drilling when he ran.The day after Santorum said what he did, Romney’s spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said Romney “would not, as a prerequisite for statehood, require that the people of Puerto Rico cease using Spanish.” Notice the discrepancy? They’re saying the same thing as Santorum, only Romney’s camp is saying it in a roundabout way. In January, Romney said at a CNN debate, “English should be the nation’s official language,” which would make it a prerequisite for any entity seeking statehood. The only problem is that the majority of Puerto Ricans don’t want to be the 51st state. A bill in 2010 to require a vote for statehood to be brought to Puerto Ricans took a bipartisan slam.Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said these referendums would allow 2.5 million Puerto Ricans living in a U.S. state to cast their votes, which is absurd. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, called the bill and referendums a means to “impose” statehood on people who “have repeatedly rejected the idea.” Not listening to constituents is nothing new, which needs to change, but making English the official language of the U.S.? Hogwash.¡Viva la ensalada mixta americana! — nsobecki@indiana.edu
(02/29/12 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I thought I’d heard it all when my editors and fellow opinion columnists informed me Virginia had tried to pass legislation to vaginally probe pregnant women seeking abortions. Apparently, I was mistaken.The madness continues with Nebraska and Iowa. Both have bills that could allow for people to claim “justifiable homicide” as a defense if they kill an abortion doctor or a “family planning worker.”South Dakota had a similar bill not too long ago, but they “shelved” it after protests were made by the public. Did they think it’d be received in any other way?It’s incomprehensible. How can the killing of someone who, by law, isn’t doing anything wrong be placed in the same category as self-defense? It can’t, or at least it should never be allowed.Back in 2011, South Dakota state Rep. Phil Jensen, R-District 33, stated this interpretation of the bill he sponsored was “absurd.”However, this is exactly what some murderers have claimed as defense after being arrested for killing abortion providers.Todd Miller, a criminal defense attorney in Des Moines, Iowa, said the combination of these bills could lead to “startling” ramification, such as the implicitly legalized killing of abortion providers.The bills he mentioned are extremely similar to the nearly identical Nebraska and South Dakota bills, so his findings are applicable to them as well.So, why can’t a state legislator, who is in charge of creating laws to better all of our lives, not see what a lawyer is able to see?And it’s not just other lawyers who are able to see how these bills will be used to protect murderers. Law enforcement and others are concerned about the repercussions as well.David Baker, deputy chief executive officer of the Omaha police department, also testified against the bill in Nebraska. He stated, “(The police) share the same fears ... that this could be used to incite violence against abortion providers.”Melissa Grant, a Planned Parenthood employee, also testified before the Nebraska legislature, stating Planned Parenthood is worried about the safety of not only their employees, but also the people they serve.This is due to the fact that the bill is in defense of the fetus, and it could be interpreted that a woman seeking an abortion is attempting to cause harm to said fetus.I guess there’s no one else to blame but ourselves, the voters, and the intelligent, compassionate and globally minded people who don’t run for office even though they are qualified. That’s the reason why narrow minded people get into these positions of power, right?It’s time we the people started paying attention to politics at the local, state, federal and/or global level. We can’t rely on a few whistleblowers or watchdogs forever. We, as a nation, need to realize that what our public officials do represents us and reflects on us.Some may claim, “But I didn’t vote for them,” or, “I didn’t vote at all.”This can no longer be seen as an excuse. I don’t want to vote either because I see voting in our wonderful country as trying to pick the lesser of two evils. Which person is bad and not horrendous?As my brother put it while I was ranting about this to him, “You can still love your country without liking your government.”And I, as someone who wants to work in international law and possibly politics, can’t see how anyone could like a government that forgets about its constituents and makes the obviously horrible decisions ours has been making recently.— nsobecki@indiana.edu
(02/16/12 11:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The international studies program at IU is a mixing bowl for students looking to globalize their education.Now, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Larry Singell is looking to turn this program into its own school, according to a task force report disseminated by Robert S. Ellis of the Student Advisory Board for the International Studies Program.A better approach would be to expand it into a department. However, an “international studies task force” was set up to begin planning for this new school around Aug. 29, 2011, and had a report ready to be sent to the “President and ultimately the trustees and potential donors” by Nov. 18 of the same year.Nowhere does it mention including Professor Daniel Knudsen — chair of the 2001 curriculum committee charged with creating the major and director of the program since 2003 — in the talks or the task force. It would seem that you’d want the person with the most intimate knowledge of the program on your team, unless you were attempting a coup d’état.The report from the task force states that “consultation with the faculty, students, and administrators affected ... is an important first step in beginning to identify the short-term challenges and opportunities, as well as longer-term possibilities for growth and adjustment.” However, the point of the task force was to begin looking into this with feedback coming from students and faculty in the spring semester.Because neither the task force nor the report have been made public knowledge, in either the IU News Room or the Indiana Daily Student, I doubt whether feedback will be readily available to most of IU who is in the dark.Supposedly, “two town hall meetings — one open to all faculty, another to students and staff — ... will be held in the spring semester,” although no dates have been set and the meetings haven’t been publicized. Are people expected to show up on intuition alone?The report is lacking in many areas and doesn’t provide any evidence as to why a full-fledged school would be better than a department. In fact, some of the propositions would never work out (i.e., “The program should be able to work across schools [outside of the College of Arts and Sciences]”).Anyone who has tried to double major between two schools, or colleges, knows it isn’t allowed unless you make one a B.A. and the other a B.S. I was told last year that the University doesn’t change policy, but now they’ll warp half of the College of Arts and Sciences? The administration knew what they wanted before gathering any evidence.This horrendous idea is a speeding train on a fast track, and students and faculty from all schools, departments and fields need to look into the matter and demand information and participation.— nsobecki@indiana.edu
(02/03/12 3:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When President Obama said last week in his State of the Union address that he would “take no options off the table” to “prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” he was stating a truth about international politics and diplomacy that is, for some, hard to bear.The use of force, whether a politician or some other person says it’s force or isn’t, is always a possibility. As long as people threaten the peace and impede on the rights of others, forceful military action will continue to be a legitimate means to stop them.The Iranian leaders’ nuclear weapon policy is one such instance.According to a Bloomberg Businessweek article, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran attempted to “shrink a Pakistani warhead design to fit atop its ballistic missiles” and “some activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device continued after 2003.”This blatant disregard for international treaties and opinions does nothing but destabilize the region, international relations and world economics. Think about the Pakistani-Indian nuclear arms race surrounding Kashmir but with a huge chunk of the world’s known oil reserves.If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabian politicos, namely prince Turki al-Faisal, have said they would consider producing their own nuclear weapon.And who could blame them for not wanting to be the only kid on the block without a big stick? After all, most analysts believe that Israel also has multiple nuclear weapons.A nuclear arms race in the Middle East would be akin to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, triggering a large-scale conflict.Most of the rising oil prices, in recent years, have been the outcome of the volatile situations in the Middle East. Professor Kent Moors, an oil policy expert, estimates that gas prices in the U.S. alone would go up “about 30 cents to 40 cents on the gallon almost immediately” if the Strait of Hormuz is closed.So, what would happen if the same country, which continues to edge closer to a waterway protected under International Maritime Law through which 20 percent of the world’s oil is exported, also has nuclear weapons to deter the international community from attacking it in prevention or retaliation to the strait’s closing?While the IAEA has not explicitly said Iran has a nuclear weapons program, the evidence continues to point to the fact that Iran continues to not cooperate with inspectors. The fact they built airstrike-proof nuclear facilities is also damning evidence.And if the U.S. and NATO don’t step in, who will? China? Russia?The world would suffer more if the U.S. reinstituted a policy of isolationism without the international community and its institutions (e.g., the United Nations) being able to use forceful intervention effectively.— nsobecki@indiana.edu
(02/01/12 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The sun is shining through a window of your small home as the birds call out from the canopies of the dense jungle. Your neighbors’ voices, who, like you, are Kachin, rise and fall as they discuss the new Chinese hydropower plant being built in the north. The birds go silent, replaced by the clack-clack of AK-47s spitting death into your family and friends.If you can picture this, then you are able to see a possible scenario in the ongoing “ethnic civil war” in Myanmar (formerly Burma), which is being fought between the Burmese military, under the central government, and the Kachin ethnic group’s military.At this point you’re probably thinking, “Ethnic civil war? That sounds like a vague statement made by politicians avoiding the ‘G’ word.” You would be correct. I would throw “ethnic civil war” in the same pile as “ethnic cleansing,” which sounds so much better than genocide. Have a growing Kachin infestation? Is their desire for autonomy getting on your last nerve? Wipe them out with ethnic cleansing (or at least push them into China).This ongoing problem, which was reignited after a 17-year ceasefire, is another example of how the ambiguous definitions of genocide allow for international organizations and governments to avoid intervention in areas where massive human rights atrocities and war crimes are being committed.Let’s say for a minute that it’s actually a civil war, and not the Burmese government’s way of eliminating an ethnic group. It would still be genocide, because the Kachin are an ethnic group that the Burmese government is, even if inadvertently, destroying in whole or in part.Also, where genocidal action is taking place, there are generally other human rights violations occurring. A human rights expert at the United Nations submitted a report in March 2011 to the U.N. Human Rights Council calling for an investigation to take place in Myanmar. He stated that basic freedoms are not being allowed and that “political opposition parties and ethnic minorities were excluded from (last year’s general parliamentary elections).”Oh, did I mention that President Thein Sein, “Myanmar’s first civilian president in nearly 50 years” following military rule, is a former general.Notice a pattern?Such discrepancies in relation to definitions inhibit governments, such as the U.S., to make decisions regarding other states and what their policies should be in regards to such states which willingly violate international law.Either a less ambiguous definition needs to be written or the international community needs to move swiftly to investigate allegations of genocide and other human rights violations.This is clearly a case that is pushing for an international community that can respond quickly and aggressively to such instances or be empowered to prevent such atrocities from taking place. Such a move would deeply involve the U.S., seeing as how it is a powerhouse in the U.N.— nsobecki@indiana.edu
(11/03/11 3:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Her fingers flew across the keyboard with machine gun-like chatter as she typed another email and sent it to one of many allies. Professor Stepanka Korytova, a visiting scholar-in-residence at IU’s Center for the Study of Global Change, combats human trafficking.“It’s a crime that doesn’t have enough coverage,” Korytova said. “If there’s any coverage, it’s sex trafficking and it’s usually about some really violent cases.”Human trafficking is “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction” and other techniques to gain control of a person and exploit them, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. “But I think it’s more than that,” Korytova said.Korytova said she is passionate about the study of immigration and the migration of undocumented workers. She started a multi-disciplinary faculty study group, The Many Faces of Trafficking, which has met at least twice. Associate Professor Lynn Duggan, who has a Ph.D. in economics and studies class, race and gender in the workplace, is one of Korytova’s recruits for the study group.“She is a versatile person,” Duggan said. “She’s very interesting and well-organized. Being from Eastern Europe she is even more knowledgeable because there’s a lot of human trafficking there.”Korytova is from the former Czechoslovakia and lived through the Soviet Union takeover. She then moved to England and then the United States. She has also taught in all three countries.Korytova is the 2011 recipient of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies Zirin Prize, awarded “in the hopes of encouraging and supporting her study of sex trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe, and recognizing her past scholarly accomplishments,” according to a College of Arts and Sciences press release.“I think they all sort of appreciated that I’m academically active,” Korytova said.She has written a chapter in a book titled “To Reap a Bountiful Harvest: Czech Emigration Beyond the Mississippi River, 1850-1900”. Her chapter is about Slavic emigrants and another book about Slovaks’ ties to the Homeland. Korytova will travel to Washington, D.C., to pick up the award for her book on Nov. 19.“I’m very happy about it,” Korytova said. “It’s not only a personal award, but it’s also a tribute award for letting me teach this course.”Aside from getting published and starting a study group, Korytova is much more active as a leader.“I’ve formed a closer relationship with her, as a professor, this semester than any other professor,” said Justin Kingsolver, president of the Indiana University Student Association. “She is passionate, interested in her students and engaging.”Kingsolver is a student in Korytova’s international studies course.“She has caused me to see beyond (the United States’) boundaries,” Kingsolver said. “I’m a very American-centric person, but now I’m more globally minded.”Korytova has been invited to teach another class during the spring 2012 at the IU campus. Korytova said she will teach here as long as faculty members continue to invite her to do so. However, she said she wants to start a research center at IU that would focus on compiling statistics and reports about human trafficking in all of its forms. One of her ideas is for the center to take a look at trafficking in the Midwest.The center would involve several IU departments as well as undergraduates and graduates to establish internships and raise awareness in Bloomington.“It’d be a great thing to do,” Duggan said. “I think Indiana needs that center and Bloomington would be the obvious place.”Korytova has brought different leaders together to combat human trafficking. These individuals include Rachel Irby, the executive director of the nonprofit Unchained Movement, as well as Peggy Welch, District 60’s representative in the Indiana House of Representatives. Korytova and her students will assist Welch in writing a new human trafficking law for Indiana, which will appear before a committee and in hearings sometime early next year.