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(06/20/11 12:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Smallwood Plaza doesn’t try to deny that it attracts East Coast students with apartments named Manhattan, Soho and Carnegie.Ernie Reno, the spokesperson for Smallwood Plaza, describes the location as a Class A property that is an investment for residents who can afford to live there.At the apartment complex on College Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets, a two-bedroom apartment can cost as much as $1,250 a month, and a four-bedroom apartment can cost as much as $2,550 a month.More than 700 students live in the 223 apartments at capacity, all of which are occupied by students, creating a dorm-like atmosphere.Sydney Myers, a 2007-08 resident, said when she signed with Smallwood her freshman year, she didn’t even look at the apartments first. All of her friends signed at Smallwood, so she thought she would too. She said it was an easy transition because it reminded her of an extended dorm.But as the year progressed, Myers had to deal with the partying of other residents. She remembers falling asleep on the bathroom floor to the sound of the fan to escape the booming music coming through her apartment’s thin walls.She said she remembers the smell of alcohol lingering in the air Wednesday through Saturday nights, and the atmosphere wasn’t for her. She said you also sometimes could smell marijuana and other drugs in the hallways. “It was great having the people I was so close with a floor above me or a floor below, but I could only do a year,” Myers said.However, Reno said the party reputation that Smallwood often receives is an unfair portrayal of the building. When the owners built Smallwood in 2004, they spent $700,000 on its security system. Smallwood is lined with 156 cameras in hallways, corridors, elevators and garages. There is also a member of security personnel on duty about five nights a week during the school year, Reno said.“You’re talking about a property that has more than 700 young adults in it,” Reno said, commenting on talk that Smallwood is known for parties. “A certain amount of that is going to happen.”Rebecca Suchov, a current Smallwood resident, agreed the common areas are highly watched by security. Residents aren’t allowed to have drinks in the hallways, and Suchov said she’s been stopped by security before and told she must take her drink back to her room.Suchov’s roommate, Alyssa Mandel, said if there’s even a large group of people gathering in the hallway, security will usher them back into their rooms.Suchov and Mandel said they both chose Smallwood after their freshmen year because they didn’t want to “go greek,” and they felt it was the closest thing to the fraternity and sorority atmosphere.“It’s like a separate bubble from IU,” Suchov said. “You don’t have to go to the bars to have a party. When you’re living with sophomores and juniors, if you’re going to pregame it’s easier to do it when you’re all under one roof.”However, Reno said he thinks Smallwood’s security system slows the party atmosphere.“We do what we can to keep habitual troublemakers out of the building,” Reno said.Smallwood has a “no trespass” list of people who might have destroyed property or caused a disturbance to residents.Reno also said if the owners hadn’t made that initial $700,000 investment in the apartment’s security system, police would be lacking critical evidence in finding Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old IU student that has been missing since June 3.Reno said Smallwood has done everything it can to comply with police in their search for Lauren and at the same time, not disturb their residents. On June 7, police entered Smallwood with a search warrant. Reno said no one was at Smallwood at the time to let police in, but a property manager said he could be there in 10 minutes. However, BPD did not wait for the property manager. When the property manager arrived, BPD had already entered the building and the property manager helped them remove the hard drives and CDs police asked for.“The idea that we did not cooperate with them is baloney,” Reno said.Smallwood has allowed volunteers to use the old Copper Cup property, which is connected to the apartment building at Eighth Street and College Avenue, as the headquarters for searches. Reno also said Smallwood has complied with everything police have asked of them, including handing over information of about 4,000 key strikes in a 48-hour period before and after Lauren went missing.“Because it did happen here, we have information we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” Reno said. “It doesn’t make it any less regrettable or any less painful, but we still have the information that we wouldn’t have had.”
(06/14/11 5:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On the 12th day in the search for Lauren Spierer, the Bloomington Police Department still has no leads or suspects, but they do have a better description of what Lauren was wearing the night she disappeared.After conducting interviews with the 20-year-old IU student’s friends and analyzing video footage of her, BPD knows Lauren was wearing a white v-neck shirt with sleeves to her elbow that are in a bell or butterfly shape. The shirt also scooped at the bottom and the material was distressed. She was also wearing black leggings, and police now know they had silver zippers at the ankles.During Monday’s press conference, Capt. Joe Qualters said their attention had been brought to a vehicle in a video near where Lauren disappeared at 11th Street and College Avenue. During Tuesday’s press conference, he said the FBI is still processing the video, and he hopes he can release details about the vehicle on Wednesday. “We do have an indication of what that car looks like,” Qualters said. “If we release a generic description, we’re afraid we’ll waste resources on too many leads.”Qualters said that he believes that BPD has conducted preliminary interviews with all of the original persons of interest, and everyone has been cooperative. He also said that BPD has heard many rumors about Lauren, and they’re not disregarding anything they’ve heard.“If you close your mind off to any possibility, then you close your mind off of what could have possibly happened,” Qualters said.As of today, BPD has received about 1,000 tips related to this case, and more than 350 tips came through the tip system they set up with the FBI to handle calls after the airing of “America’s Most Wanted.”The searches continue for Lauren at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. each day starting from Eighth Street and College Avenue. Trained personnel from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are helping with the search as well as Texas EquuSearch, which left early today for searches on horseback in rural areas.Lauren’s father, Robert Spierer, said IU has made a generous financial offer to aid in their search for Lauren. Lauren’s family has also offered a $100,000 reward for her return.“Let me be firm that we’re here, we’re energetic every day, and we’re going to aggressively search until we find Lauren,” Robert Spierer said.Charlene Spierer, Lauren’s mother, once again spoke to whoever has Lauren or knows about her whereabouts that “it’s time to come forward.” She said that Lauren is a sweet, bubbly girl who, if she was here, would be doing a much better job at doing this,” Charlene said.“I start everyday thinking today will be the day, and I go to bed every night thinking I’ve failed and that I haven’t done enough,” she said as she broke into tears.For video of Charlene Spierer's statement, click here. For full audio of the press briefing, click here.
(06/14/11 1:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Lauren Spierer’s uncle called Texas EquuSearch last week, Tim Miller said he couldn’t help unless law enforcement asked him. Within a few hours, Miller received a call from police and booked the next flight to Indiana.Spierer, a 20-year-old IU student, has been missing since June 3. Community members and investigators are in their second week of searching, and Miller said he and his group are just a small part of the search.Texas EquuSearch started 11 years ago with only volunteers on horses searching for people reported missing. Slowly, people came to Miller saying, “I don’t have horses, but I have ATVs.” Now the organization has more than 530 trained members in Texas and more than 1,400 members nationwide. Each member brings their own skills with them, allowing the organization to bring dive teams, aerial searches and other technical equipment with them to make their searches more effective.“We know it doesn’t look good now, but we have to remember cases that we’ve given up on,” Miller said. “We have to remember Elizabeth Smart.”Miller has spoken with the Spierer family, and he’s been there before. His daughter was missing for 17 months before she was found dead. Police thought his daughter ran away, so she was never mentioned in the newspaper or on TV, and he felt the effort to find his daughter was lackluster.“I challenge anyone to be in my office and take a phone call when a family member is on the phone,” Miller said. “If they can tell them ‘no’ then they’re a different person than I am.”Miller and his volunteers spent Monday driving around the area, looking for rural places to search. They decided on about 50 areas outside the city that they will send search teams to early Tuesday morning.Miller said it’s essential that his volunteers don’t talk about their own lives or even theories about what happened to Lauren while on searches. It’s not a social gathering, he said. Everyone must remain focused.Miller doesn’t disclose the location of where his volunteers will be searching until right before he leaves. He said he’ll be up late into the night making maps, and his team leaders won’t even know where they’ll be searching until they are briefed at 8 a.m. Tuesday.Although Miller can’t make any promises to the Spierer family that he’ll find their daughter, he can offer experience. During the past 11 years, the organization has helped with 1,224 searches. There are volunteers helping Miller that helped him with the Natalee Holloway and Caylee Anthony cases. He has volunteers in Bloomington from Ohio, Minnesota, Texas and Missouri who have experience with these type of searches. The small airplane they have flying over Bloomington can do the job of 300 ground searches, Miller said. Its cameras can capture tire tracks and grass that has been bent down.Sharon White has been a volunteer with the organization for several years and is basically like a sister to Miller, she said. She began helping with a single search in Texas, and now she travels with Miller whenever she can.“Once you do it, you’re hooked,” White said, who only slept three hours Sunday night.Since Thursday, White said the organization recovered four bodies in Texas; three were drowning victims and one was murdered.“We’ve been very successful, but we’re only as good as our next search,” Miller said. “And Lauren is our next search.”Although the search for Miller’s daughter didn’t have a happy ending, he remembers taking a sigh of relief when she was found. He hopes he can give any type of relief to the Spierer family.“I’ve been where Lauren’s family is. It was a long 17 months,” Miller said. “I know the loneliness a family goes through.”
(06/13/11 6:19pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Capt. Joe Qualters said at least one vehicle has come to the attention of the Bloomington Police Department in their search for Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old IU student who has been missing since June 3.The vehicle or the person driving is not a suspect, Qualters stressed at Monday’s press conference. BPD is currently in the process of enhancing a video that captured footage near the intersection where Lauren was last seen (11th Street and College Avenue) so they can provide a better description of the car or cars to the public.BPD isn’t sure if it is one vehicle or two vehicles that they are looking at, and they are hoping to figure that out through the video enhancement. Once they know more about the video, they hope to release those details to the public.Qualters said the vehicle they have on video may have driven around the block because they know something or because they did something. BPD doesn’t know yet.“This is a person that very well might have information that might lead to Lauren,” Qualters said.He also said BPD is trying to provide a map or visual aid that would give the public a better understanding of where Lauren was last seen on video the morning she disappeared. They hope to have that aid complete by Tuesday or Wednesday.Qualters also said investigators flew over the Bloomington area yesterday looking at water ways, railroad tracks and roof tops. This is a secondary search to make sure BPD has covered their bases, Qualters said. The fly-over also allowed BPD to take photos and see a different view of the area. Qualters said he expects there will be additional fly overs.As investigators enter their second week of the investigation, BPD is also beginning to interview a secondary tier of individuals who might be friends or associates of Lauren.“Early on in this investigation, the number 10 was floated as the number of persons of interest,” Qualters said. “That may have been an initial number. Keep in mind that’s a number that changes every day.”A national search expert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has also joined the search. Texas EquuSearch, a national search group known for their enhanced technical equipment and use of horses, also joined the search efforts Sunday.“We feel as strong today in our pursuit to find her as we were a week ago,” Lauren’s father Robert Spierer said as he thanked the many volunteers. “We wake up each morning knowing our task for the day is to find my daughter.”Searches continue at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at Eighth Street and College Avenue. Robert Spierer reminded volunteers not to search alone and to wear appropriate clothing.“I hope and pray that you are never on this side of the camera,” Lauren’s mother Charlene Spierer told people following the search. “To anyone who has information on Lauren, what are you waiting for?”If anyone has any information, please call the Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477 or America’s Most Wanted at 800-CRIMETV.
(06/13/11 12:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Throughout the last 10 days, the search for missing student Lauren Spierer, has grown from her parents and friends searching for her to about 1,000 people volunteering each day.Community members have ridden in boats on Griffy Lake, searched woods, dug through trash and scoured residential neighborhoods for any clues that might lead to Lauren.Through this search, dedicated community members have stepped up to help. Although Lauren’s friends and family have flown in from New York, volunteers that have never even met Lauren or her family have come from around the country to offer their assistance.Robert Spierer, Lauren’s father, has repeatedly thanked volunteers and said they give him the strength to continue searching each day.“The volunteers continue to overwhelm us,” he said at Sunday’s press conference at the Bloomington Police Department. “Every resident should be proud to be a part of this community.”The Indiana Daily Student has spent time each day on these searches.. This is just a small glimpse into the people who have dedicated themselves completely to the search.* * *John Jones was told to make the trip to Bloomington on Monday, and he hasn’t left since.He’s an employee of Buckingham Properties, which owns the Smallwood Plaza property. When news spread that Lauren was missing, he was sent down to help run the headquarters. He said he’s in for the long run, and he’s not leaving until the searches end.He arrives at the headquarters at 6 a.m. each day and doesn’t leave until 8 p.m. After a long day he heads to his Hilton Garden hotel room, kicks off his shoes and falls asleep with the TV on.Jones stands behind the counter of The Copper Cup, which has been closed for three months, offering volunteers water and fresh fruit. Bananas, oranges, apples and bagels replace pastries that once sat in the glass display. All the food Jones offers has been donated. He comes in each day and plans the day’s meals. At 3 p.m. Saturday, he was already planning breakfast for the following morning.He says when people walk in after a search, they are often tense and will ignore his smile and offers of free food.“You can tell by looking at people’s faces that they’re on a mission,” Jones said. “People will come here and it will take them time to wind down.”As for Jones, he says the pressure hasn’t gotten to him. He’s brought more employees from his corporate office to help so he could send others home for the weekend.But when asked why he hadn’t taken a day off, Jones replied, “Not me. I can handle it.”* * *Richard Friedman has been camping in a tent by Lake Monroe all week. He’s an EMT from Indianapolis and has had training in ground search and rescue. He’s also the father of three children, ages 27, 29 and 31, which is why he decided to come to help.He’s been on so many searches that he can’t remember specifically where he’s been.“You try to cover something as thoroughly as you can,” he said. “You’re filling in a grid, and negative information of where she isn’t is still important. You have to think about it like that.”Around 4 p.m. Saturday, he sat in a cushioned chair in his camouflage pants, black boots and sunglasses that hung from his neck by a blue cord.Three other men he had met throughout the searches sat around him. One man was from McCordsville, Ind., and the other two were parents of Lauren’s friends who flew in from New York. They’d only met each other that morning, but they traveled together during the 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. search and planned to go out together again at 5:30 p.m.“I’ve met excellent people while I was here,” Friedman said. “I regret the circumstances, but I’ve met some very fine people.”Friedman had a couple days off work, so he volunteered to come down.“I’d like somebody to call and say we found her so we don’t have to do this anymore,” he said.* * *Don Cranfill hasn’t spent a night at home since last Wednesday. He’s been spending the night at the volunteer headquarters, so the doors are always open.“There’s an outside chance that someone might have a guilty conscience and want to come down and just talk,” he said. “I don’t want those doors to be closed.”The open sign on what used to be The Copper Cup is now always turned on. He’s been showering at Cardinal Fitness, which is only a few steps away from the entrance to Smallwood Plaza. He’s recognized by many with his goatee and white hat, and he’s often the man holding the highlighter that traces the blocks and streets on the maps the volunteers are handed three times a day.He originally came to Smallwood on Tuesday morning and just planned to attend one search, but ended up staying all night outside Smallwood before they had a headquarters. He’s been told his unofficial title is deputy director.There are about two dozen people like Cranfill who have become full-time volunteers. Although most of them don’t know the family, Cranfill said they’re all compelled because they are “people with morals.” Jennifer Mattos is another one of those couple dozen volunteers. She, like Cranfill, arrived Tuesday morning for a shift. She travels a lot for her job, and when she was in town Tuesday for work, she said she felt compelled to help.“This could have easily been me,” she said. “I used to go salsa dancing, and I’d walk home at 3 a.m.”She took Saturday off but kept calling because she was worried they needed her. Volunteering has become her part-time job.The same can be said for Cranfill and many of the other volunteers. When asked how long Cranfill plans to volunteer, he said, “As long as it takes. I’ve made a commitment, and I’m not giving up.”
(06/12/11 5:41pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Lauren Spierer’s mother Charlene said she wakes up every day and asks herself what do I want to accomplish today. “I want to say to the person who has Lauren or has harmed Lauren: Shame on you! In relationship to that, the person who knows this person who’s not coming forward with the information, I beg you to come forward.”She also spoke to her daughter at Sunday morning’s press conference saying, “Lauren, I love you with all my heart and soul…I am here for you 100 percent. I will never leave you. I love you with all my heart, and I need you back.”She also told her daughter that she doesn’t want her appearance of despair to mean that she’s not as strong or as determined as ever.Sunday is the tenth day that 20-year-old IU student Lauren Spierer has been missing. America’s Most Wanted aired Lauren’s case Saturday night. Although it only lasted a few minutes in the hour-long show, the Bloomington Police Department received between 30 to 40 tips from 9 p.m. when the show aired to 3 a.m. Sunday morning. BPD Capt. Joe Qualters said they expect tips to continue to come in for at least 24 hours after the show aired.“We are very hopeful we’ll finally get that phone call to find Lauren,” Qualters said.Qualters also said that every person of interest BPD has interviewed has been compliant, but there are still persons of interest that BPD has not spoken with. He said police are still in the information gathering stage, and they want to broaden who they talk to. As for the persons of interest that BPD has not spoken with, Qualters said they have indication that those people will come to them.“We’ve had our doors open for those individuals to come,” Qualters said. “There is nobody we can prevent from leaving this county. We cannot compel people to come back to us. For those that we haven’t spoken to, we believe they will come talk to us.”The Texas EquuSearch has also joined the efforts to find Lauren. The group is a national search group with the vision “to return those missing back to their loved ones,” according to its website. Qualters said they have a lot of technical equipment they can bring to the search, and they will determine what level they can help.The U.S. Marshals Service was also in town earlier this week, Qualters said, conducting a sex offender search. The sweep is complete and everyone investigated was compliant and no one was taken into custody.Lauren’s family has set up a website, www.findlauren.com, that they will keep updated. Robert Spierer also announced that the community searches for Lauren will only be at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. with no 2 p.m. search starting Monday.Robert Spierer encouraged volunteers to come to the search headquarters at Eighth Street and College Avenue at any time of the day if the search times do not work for them.Lauren’s father also wanted to remind the public that there is a $100,000 reward to find their daughter.“Anything small could be big. Speak up and help us find Lauren,” he said as he does every day.
(06/11/11 5:51pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Although there have been no significant developments in the case of missing IU student Lauren Spierer, the Bloomington Police Department said that does not mean it will lessen its investigation.Lauren, a 20-year-old, has been missing since 4:30 a.m. June 3. BPD Capt. Joe Qualters said the department’s main work is gearing up for the airing of Lauren’s case on America’s Most Wanted at 9 p.m. Saturday on Fox. One detective is in Washington D.C. and two other detectives will be in Bloomington helping the numerous personnel take extra tips that might be received after the airing of the show.“America’s Most Wanted obviously has the broad ability to get the word out there and prompt someone to make that phone call,” Qualters said.Police asked businesses Friday to turn over any video footage they might have near the area of Lauren’s disappearance. One business on North Walnut Street gave police video, but they couldn’t speak about whether Lauren was seen on it because it’s still being processed. Qualters again urged community members to come forward if they have any information concerning Lauren.“Let us be the evaluator of the quality of information you have to offer,” Qualters said. “We know people have the ability to talk themselves out of coming to us.” Throughout the investigation, police have spoken to about 10 persons of interest, but today Capt. Qualters said it’s very important not to make the leap from persons of interest to suspects.He said that there were several people who were with Lauren the night of her disappearance and they want to speak with them, but that does not make them suspects. He also stressed that the BPD is still in the information-gathering stage.Qualters also said that about 1,000 community volunteers have been helping search each day.“As long as we have people showing up and willing to help we will continue to do those,” Qualters said. Lauren’s father, Robert Spierer, thanked community volunteers as he has done each day. He said the strength of others is what gets him through day after day. He said hundreds of ponchos have been donated by IU in case it rains, and searches will continue today at 11 a.m., 2 and 5:30 p.m.Lauren’s mother, Charlene Spierer, took a moment to talk to the media as well, telling them that what she had to say was difficult.“I just want to say that as I travel throughout Bloomington, Lauren is with me everywhere. She’s here. I go down Kirkwood, I see her, I hear our conversations. I step on campus, I see her, I hear our conversations. She’s everywhere here to me, she’s everywhere, but she’s nowhere. Somebody knows where she is. She’s somewhere.”On the ninth day without Lauren, she gave a mother’s plea.“Our hearts are breaking, and this is just a continuous nightmare,” her mother said. “Lauren’s a person, and anything you could do, anything that anybody knows or could offer to help us out is extremely important, and please do so.”Individuals with information about the case can call the Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477 or the America’s Most Wanted tip line at 1-800-CRIMETV. Emails may also be sent to policetips@bloomington.in.gov.
(06/10/11 5:57pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The search for Lauren Spierer is about to get bigger.Lauren’s case will be aired on America’s Most Wanted on Saturday. The Bloomington Police Department is bringing in a tip management program because they’ve been told there is usually an increase in tips after the program airs.Lt. Bill Parker also announced that U.S. Marshals would assist in the search, but he would not say what role they would play. Although BPD has viewed video material from Smallwood and other surrounding areas, they are asking businesses between Smallwood Plaza and 11th and College to turn over any video they might have of the area.“If you have any video material, no matter how insignificant you think it is, please let the police look it over,” Lauren’s father, Robert Spierer, said.A dive team has spent the past two days searching Lake Monroe with negative results. The dive team will be sent out again today.Lt. Parker also said that Lauren's boyfriend, Jesse Wolff, was among the persons of interest in the case. BPD issued a checkpoint starting at about 3:30 a.m. Friday on College Avenue between 10th and 11th streets. About 135 cars were pulled over while BPD asked if the area is someplace they normally come through at that point of the day. Lt. Parker said the search was not intrusive and didn’t lead to any results.Although downtown Bloomington has been searched by police and community volunteers, Parker said he’ll never feel it’s completely covered.Lauren’s father said more searches will begin going outside of the town limits.“If anyone asks to search your property on horseback or foot, I beg of you to please let them,” Lauren’s father said.The Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Scholar’s Inn will be offering discounted rates to people coming into town to help search for Lauren.At the time of the press conference, there were still no suspects. BPD also said the last time they can confirm Lauren’s whereabouts on video is between 10th and 11th Streets between apartment buildings when she was heading to a friend’s residence.If anyone has information or any tips about Lauren’s whereabouts, they can contact America’s Most Wanted at 1-800-CRIMETV, and BPD can be reached at 812-339-4477 and by email at policetips@bloomington.in.gov.“We’re not losing hope. We certainly want to find her alive,” Parker said.
(05/19/11 12:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Erick and Omar Gama moved from Mexico to Indianapolis when they were 11. They didn’t know the language, they didn’t have documentation and they were often made fun of at school because of their lack of English skills.The two brothers aren’t sure how they passed that year of fifth grade when they look back at their transcripts and see only D’s and F’s. But by the eighth grade, they were moved out of the English as a second language program and were accepted into the Magnet program, which is for advanced students in Indianapolis Public Schools.As it came time to graduate from Arsenal Tech High School, they worried about applying for college like most seniors. However, they were concerned that their illegal status would hold them back.They applied to the University of Indianapolis and Erick was offered a full ride, but he had to turn it down because he’d never been assigned a social security number. When they applied to IU, they were also accepted.“Once we got accepted, we were like, ‘Oh my god we made it, we’re in college,’” Erick said. The Gamas were nervous when attending IU’s orientation because they knew the University would ask for their visas or passports, but when they said they didn’t have either, it wasn’t a problem. They even qualified for in-state tuition because IU’s requirements say that in order to be an Indiana resident, one must reside in the state for at least 12 months. The Gamas will be juniors in the fall, and in their minds, they have been Hoosiers since they were 11. But now the law tells them differently.Gov. Mitch Daniels signed HB 1402 into law May 10 which states that undocumented students will be required to pay out-of-state tuition. For the Gamas, that means a tuition increase of about $18,000 each.Since they are undocumented, they can’t fill out the FAFSA, and they don’t qualify for scholarships, except for a few private ones. Growing up, both brothers were offered the 21st Century Scholars Program, but without documentation they couldn’t accept it. They also don’t qualify for loans or the Pell Grant. When their bursar bill arrives, they each have to pay out of pocket.As far as they’re concerned, they’re Indiana residents.BECOMING A LEGAL CITIZENErick has read that it’s easy to become a legal citizen, and he’s had people ask him, “Why don’t you just apply for the documents?” But it’s not that easy.The brothers talked to an immigration lawyer about a year ago, and he said that they don’t qualify for legal status based on how their parents arrived in the U.S. They were told that their best bet is to wait for immigration reform.Before coming to Indiana, their parents tried to apply for a visa, but they were denied at least five times.“People say it’s easier to stay illegal, and I’m like ‘No, it would be easier to be legal.’ But there’s not a way to do it,” Erick said. Omar said he hears people say “Go to the back of the line,” but that wait can be years. He said he’d rather do what they’re doing now than wait because Indiana is already his home.He also hates hearing people say their tax dollars are paying for illegal immigrants. The Gamas parents pay property taxes on two houses and they pay sales taxes like everyone else, they said.There are four ways to qualify for legal status, and many immigrants don’t fall into one of those categories, Maria López, a law professor at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, said.The popular forms of immigration are family-based, meaning an immigrant is sponsored by a family member that is already a citizen, and employment-based, but that usually only applies to highly-skilled workers, for which many immigrants don’t qualify. Some people also qualify for refugee immigration, but that’s for people living in political, racial or religious hardship. An economic hardship doesn’t qualify, Lopez said.There is also a lottery visa, which usually applies to countries that don’t have a lot of immigrants.For most children of illegal immigrants, it’s very difficult to get legal status, Lopez said, because they don’t fall under any of the four categories. She said she worries that people are trying to make life here so difficult that the children of illegal immigrants will leave.“If you think you’ll make their lives bad that they’ll go back,” she said, “then you should see the conditions in their own country.”She said the best thing for children to do is get educated because life in the U.S. is all they know.“If you put obstacles on their education,” she said, “what can they do?”A NATIONAL DISCREPANCYWhile Indiana passed legislation saying undocumented students must pay out-of-state tuition, Maryland recently passed a law that said undocumented students can now pay in-state tuition.By doing so, Maryland joined 11 other states that allow in-state tuition.This discrepancy among states to pass immigration legislation is mostly because of frustration caused by the federal government’s failed attempts to pass legislation on the subject, Marshall Fitz, director of Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress, said.What the country is seeing, Fitz said, is an increased activity in statehouses to pass legislation not only about tuition, but about the rights of illegal immigrants in general. However, Fitz said, immigration is not an issue that can be resolved at the local level.“I think states making decisions does nothing but add fuel to the fire,” Fitz said. “I think people know that we’re not going to have 50 different state immigration laws.”In order to pass immigration reform, Congress needs bipartisanship, Fitz said, and it’s a time when bipartisanship has become increasingly scarce.“I think there are a lot of politicians who think it’s easier to ignore the issue,” Fitz said. Fitz also said he worries that politicians are scared to support immigration reform because moderates in a moderate state can no longer feel safe that they’ll be re-elected. Even Sen. Richard Lugar has declined to be a part of the bill, and he’s known to support immigration reform.“Even a guy who has a 70 percent approval rating is clearly spooked by the viciousness of attacks that were sent at the moderates in the 2010 cycle,” Fitz said.Until then, the Gamas plan to continue to support the DREAM Act, which would qualify the children of illegal immigrants for conditional nonimmigrant status if they graduate from a U.S. high school, are accepted into college or earn their GED.THEIR FIRST NIGHT IN JAILAs Gov. Daniels drew closer to signing HB 1402, the Gama brothers became more desperate. They had been e-mailing and calling his office for weeks trying to set up an appointment with him to tell their stories of how, without in-state tuition, they wouldn’t have an education at all. But they received no response.So they went to the statehouse May 9, the day before Daniels was to sign the legislation, and sat outside his office with three other students in their graduation gowns. “They said, ‘Well he’s not going to be here because his agenda’s full and you don’t have an appointment.’ So we said we could wait, that’s fine,” Erick said.After being warned several times, the group was arrested. Going into the protest, the Gamas knew arrest was a possibility. They discussed it with their families and decided they had nothing to lose. They wrote profiles to send to the media and created YouTube videos so people could know their story if they were arrested.It took a stop at Wendy’s for an officer to order some nuggets and about 24 hours at the processing center before the group even reached the jail. Once there, they went on a hunger strike, which they said wasn’t hard to do.They were served some tacos with cold tortillas, a little bit of lettuce, packets of sauce and rice “that tasted like water and beans,” Erick said. “It wasn’t hard to put them down.”The group didn’t find out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a hold on them for possible deportation until a deputy briefly mentioned it.They will return to court June 14 for Class A trespassing and Class B disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. They could be sentenced from zero to 365 days for the Class A charge and up to 180 days for the Class B charge. However, they said they’re more concerned about whether they will be able to return to school than about their punishment.IU spokesperson Larry MacIntyre said the University must comply with the new legislation, and the University is doing a review of how that will be done. The state law will go into effect July 1.With the tuition increase, Erick said they’ll have to be part-time students, maybe only taking two classes at a time. However, they said they have every intention of graduating. Indiana is their home and it’s where they want to live after graduation.“We’re going to continue no matter what,” Erick said. “It’ll probably take forever to graduate, but we’re going to graduate.”
(05/18/11 10:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Theresa Ochoa walked up to a food cart during her lunch break in her red high heels and examined the workers wearing T-shirts that read “Happy Pig.” She looked at the empty grill at the corner of Indiana and Kirkwood avenues before asking, “What are you selling?”“Pork belly and grilled asparagus,” said the man in the Happy Pig T-shirt.“Is that all?” said Ochoa, who works at the IU School of Education.“Well, we sold out of everything else.”After hearing it would cost $6 and only take two and a half minutes to prepare, she said, “Do it.”The Happy Pig Street Food company was an invention of two former chefs at Restaurant Tallent, a local establishment known for its gourmet food. Tony Cooper and Eric Sjaaheim have taken their kitchen to the corner of Indiana and Kirkwood avenues every Wednesday and Thursday since February, and they already have regulars.IU Junior Chris Lewe calls himself an avid Happy Pig eater. He’s even bought a shirt. “I haven’t had anything I didn’t love from this place,” Lewe said as he bit into his chili mac sandwich. “It’s not the most vegetarian friendly food, but it’s what I love. I love pork belly.”Lewe said he often catches up with the cart on the weekends when it’s parked outside of Atlas Bar or by the courthouse square. The Happy Pig tweets its location, and Lewe uses his phone to follow.Sjaaheim said the weekends are their busiest times, usually serving between 80 and 100 people on Friday and Saturday nights. Often, people will see them on the corner for lunch and only then remember that they ordered their food on a previous late-night adventure.IU alumna Mandi Jacobs smelled the Happy Pig one night after stumbling home from the bars. Sjaaheim calls her an OG — original — and Cooper often tells her to go home because she’s been to the Happy Pig about 15 times.“I’ll have the chili mac,” Jacobs said as she read off the menu.“We don’t do that,” Cooper said in an attempt to make her go away.She ordered the chili mac sandwich because it’s the only thing on Thursday’s menu that she’d never had. Jacobs said she has converted many of her friends to Happy Pig lovers.“This dude makes the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had,” Jacobs said as she pointed to Sjaaheim.Jacobs is from southern Indiana and said the biscuits and gravy are hard to top there. But when she orders it from the Happy Pig, she licks the foil clean every time.“It’s gourmet food on a budget,” she said. “They’re from Tallent, and the food is the best food you’ve had, but it’s cheap and you can hold it in your hand.”Cooper and Sjaaheim use all local food. They order their pork from Gunthorp Farms in LaGrange, Ind. They said working at Restaurant Tallent helped them meet the local farmers because the restaurant serves all local food.“You guys don’t sell hot dogs do you?” asked a possible customer.“No. We’ll probably never sell a hot dog,” Sjaaheim said.Their menu constantly changes, Cooper said, but whatever is on the menu is usually based off what Cooper and Sjaaheim like to eat. One Thursday menu offered the crispy pork belly, the chili mac sandwich made of pork sausage and white cheddar cheese and the pulled pork sandwich with barbeque and slaw.Until a few weeks ago, both Cooper and Sjaaheim were still working at Restaurant Tallent part time. But now that business has picked up and they’re serving people about 20 hours a week, they’ve made the Happy Pig theirfull-time job.Business is slower now that most of the students are gone, but they said they expected that. However, Sjaaheim said they are now getting a lot of first-time customers and more permanent Bloomington residents.“Our crowd is definitely changing,” Sjaaheim said. “People that work around here are starting to come around, a lot of law school people.”The cart’s name is based off the idea that a happy pig makes better bacon, which makes happier patrons. Customers are always waiting in line from the moment Sjaaheim writes the menu on his chalkboard until they run out of food before closing time.“Thanks, I’ll see you next week,” said a customer as he grabbed a paper towel.
(04/26/11 4:18am)
For the students at Aurora, high
school at Bloomington North or South wasn’t just difficult; it was a
nightmare. They dreaded school dances, hated the cliques and didn’t
bother to attend homecoming. The students at Aurora were students who
were bored at North and South, the drop-outs, the junior with only nine
credits and the student who the guidance counselor said would never
graduate. The system had failed these kids and most had lost hope in
graduation. Aurora Alternative High School, a small building tucked away
on the corner of North Fairview and Ninth Streets, was their last
chance.
(02/15/11 5:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As part of Black History Month, the Indiana Daily Student talked to seven black student leaders from across campus. Here is a snippet of how these leaders impact the University each day.Aaron BarnesGrowing up in Kokomo, where the black population is less than 11 percent, junior Aaron Barnes found a weekend at IU refreshing.He attended the Men & Women of Color Leadership Conference one weekend during his senior year in high school and said he’d never been in the company of that many other black men who were also forward thinking.“Everyone was like, ‘I still have a good time, but I know how to put business before pleasure,’” he said. “It gave me justification for what I was doing in Kokomo.”When Barnes came to IU, he co-founded the Men of Color Leadership Institute, which helps support the conference and creates a home for men who want to better themselves. Although he said the conference was awesome when he attended, he wanted to make it even better for future students.Ever since deciding to attend IU, Barnes said he has been fascinated by the transition period students go through between middle school and high school and the process of choosing a university.By helping with the intensive freshman seminars and working for the Office of First Year Programs, Barnes spent two years selling IU to high school students.Barnes and his fellow brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity are planning a weekend for middle school students in April during which they will stay in the Forest Quad lounges and attend social events, tour the campus and learn about admission standards.At the end of the weekend, the students will receive neck ties donated from students so they can look the part professionally.Barnes said the University does a good job targeting high school students, but especially with black students, the fraternity wants to plant seeds early.“We’re trying to reel them in during middle school,” he said. “Which is when you can often lose them.”Michael Coleman When senior Michael Coleman looks out his window at the IU Student Association office, he can see the Groups office, the program that brought him to IU.As an incoming freshman, Coleman was president of the Groups program, a seven-week program that orients first-generation students to IU.Now as IUSA president, the experience was the first of a long list of leadership positions for Coleman. Before becoming IUSA president, he was vice president of Teter Quad his freshman year, president of Teter Quad his sophomore year and vice president of internal affairs for Residential Halls Association his junior year. He was even one of the students chosen to have lunch at Pizza Hut with Michael McRobbie on his first day as IU president.Running for IUSA president was grueling, Coleman said. During campaigning, Coleman was told he wasn’t a good representation of the greek community even though he’s a member of the historically black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.“It was interesting that someone would say that Michael Coleman wasn’t going to represent the greek community,” he said. “That person apologized, and we put it behind us.”Now as president of IUSA, Coleman receives about 50 e-mails a day, and he said he has to dress up more times than he would normally like. His office is home to a photo of President Obama from when the latter visited campus; a photo of zipcars, which IUSA funded; a map of Israel; and a jar of sand from his fraternity. He said it’s tradition to hand over the sand when new members are inducted.His time is filled with three to five meetings a week, and even though he doesn’t have classes on Friday, he’s often in his office from noon to 6 p.m.“The best way to simplify it is I’m the person who gets all the e-mails and makes sure we’re on it,” he said.Jasmine CollinsSenior Jasmine Collins was elected president of Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority only a month after she was inducted.“I think the biggest thing I was worried about was people wouldn’t listen to me because I was new, but that’s not true,” she said.Two years later, Collins has stepped down as president, and she’s facilitating the transition of the new president who is also a new member. She said she wanted to step down as a senior so she could offer support to the new executive board and show them the ropes before she graduates.This past week, the sorority put on events each night that represented a different tenant of the sorority: scholarship, service, sisterhood, leadership and multiculturalism. The group donated books to Midwest Pages to Prisoners Projects and worked a three-hour shift and organized a panel discussion between Hillel, the Muslim Student Union and the Impact Movement. The tough part: the sorority only has four members.“Putting on seven events in a week with only four members is pretty time-consuming,” she said.But Collins said she likes being in such a small organization because she’s grown to know her sisters well.“I really like that they uphold the tenants, and they’re very accepting,” she said. “They don’t expect you to change who you are to join.”Esther UduehiWhen asked what takes up the most of her time, senior Esther Uduehi didn’t say her presidential internship or the Board of Aeons — she said “Glee.”The Rhodes Scholar watches a lot of television. She starts the year with a list of about 30 shows, and 10 usually get canceled, but this year, few were canceled.“It’s starting to get a little ridiculous,” said Udeuhi, who also loves “Modern Family” and “The View.”Uduehi’s addiction to TV is like her addiction to school activities. She’s currently the presidential intern, a Board of Aeons member, co-founder of the IU Photography Society, president of the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, tour guide for the IU Art Museum, chemistry researcher, and the list goes on.Uduehi said she’s always been a very involved student, staying at her high school until ridiculous hours. She said she often has a hard time saying no to new organizations.“IU offers so many activities, but being able to navigate through them is the hardest part,” she said.However, Uduehi said if she wants to do something new, she finds a way to fit it in, even if that means watching less television each day.But her work ethic is what earned her the Rhodes Scholarship.Uduehi studied in the University of Oxford for a semester during her junior year, and she said she can’t wait to be back. In Oxford her pace was slower. She rode her bike everywhere and didn’t worry about the responsibilities that awaited her at IU. She was able to relax.She also grew close to many of the first-year students, and when she returns in the fall, she’ll be able to reunite with them.Heather SavageHeather Savage said the largest frustration of being president of the Black Student Union is keeping people coming back.One week 50 members will attend a meeting, and another week 15 people will show up. “It’s hard to plan events and find that support when the numbers change so drastically from the second to the fourth week,” she said.But Savage said she cares for the Black Student Union and has been involved since her freshman year, moving her way up from helping with a fashion show to education chairwoman, vice president and now president.“I had a vision for BSU,” she said. “I wanted the African-American population at Indiana University to be more recognized for something other than being African-American on a predominately white campus.”Savage is also a chaplain for the IU Voices of Hope Gospel Choir. She’s been singing since she was about eight years old in her school and church choirs.“I stopped for awhile to play sports, but I realized my niche is in singing,” she said.The choir travels to Richmond, Ind., and to Purdue University and has semester concerts.“Our purpose is to be a beacon of light on campus and serve the IU community in song,” Savage said.Tyun FombySophomore Tyun Fomby said he probably has the best job on campus.As a Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence Advisory Board member, Fomby has six students that he tries to meet with once a week, often freshmen and transfers.“Coming to IU is a bit of a culture shock, so we try to make that transition easier,” Fomby said. Fomby said he texts or calls his students when he’s free, and they chat about life and classes or go to a basketball game. As a freshman, Fomby had a mentor of his own, and they are still in contact.“At the end of the day, they’re not mentees, they’re just friends. It’s not work anymore,” he said.Fomby is also president of the Men of Color Leadership Institute. As a first generation college student, Fomby didn’t know what to expect, but he said the men in the institute became mentors to him and helped him pick his major.“Say you want to be an education major, but you don’t know much about it,” he said. “We have members who are education members who can help them and tell them what classes are like.”Fomby said that many students have a difficult time getting involved on campus, so the institute offers community service so students have something to put on their résumés.“It’s not about escaping but finding people that look like me and face the same issues,” he said.Britney McTushJunior Britney McTush is used to having girls knock on her door and tearfully ask her for advice.She’s a peer instructor for the Atkins Living-Learning Center, which is for residents interested in African-American history. She is also a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America, the National Association of Black Journalists and Xi Alpha Epsilon Honor Society, and she is a former IDS staff writer.A few weekends ago, one of McTush’s residents had a birthday, and she said she usually never gets to do anything fun because it’s always cold. McTush made sure she was able to have dinner with her friends by offering to drive.“There are times when you can tell you’re making a positive difference,” she said.As a peer instructor, it’s also McTush’s job to teach a class to the residents of her floor on Mondays. She teaches different aspects of black culture and professional development.“It’s given me not only leadership but also public speaking skills,” she said. “It also has helped my organization because if I’m not ready, it messes up the whole class.”McTush lived on the floor as a freshman because she knew there wasn’t a large black population on campus and she is usually the only black student in her classes. By living on the floor, she said she knew she’d be surrounded by women with whom she had things in common.“I wanted to stay in Atkins because I wanted to maintain the relationships,” she said. “It’s interesting to know that was me when I was a freshman. I can see where they need to grow.”
(04/02/10 3:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Although the runners in the Little Fifty might not prepare by shaving their legs and arms as Little 500 riders do, it is still a part of the Little 500 tradition.“The reason Little Fifty was created in the first place was to make the event more accessible,” said Pam Loebig, IU Student Foundation race director. “To buy a bike and gear is a little intimidating. We wanted an event that is accessible to anyone on campus.”Qualifications, which took place at Bloomington High School North, narrowed the competition from 29 teams for both the women and men to 25 teams for each. During the race, each member ran 800 meters. Each team will divide to conquer 50 laps during the race on April 22. Until then, each team has schedules to stick to and sprints to practice.Alpha Chi OmegaLast year, the team competed with only three girls when one girl had to drop out just days before the race. They learned their lesson, and this year they have an alternate.“I’m like the coach on the sideline,” said freshman Sara Waters.The team earned ninth place last year, and they plan to gauge their qualification time to help them figure out their training schedule.The girls practice every Tuesday and Thursday at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and they run outside on Sundays.“It’s a sprint and then stretch, sprint and then stretch,” Waters said.The girls’ sisters patted them on the back when they were done, placing their hands on an already outlined handprint that said “pat me” on the back of each runner’s shirt.Kappa Sigma“Dude, my legs are on fire,” said junior Alex Purcell as he walked off the track.“Me too,” sophomore Rudy Ellis said.Although qualifications is a good speed test, it’s nothing like the real race, sophomore Drew Morris said. During the official race, instead of sprinting two laps, each member of the Kappa Sigma team runs one lap, then rests three.“Qualifications is just a good chance to see everyone else. It’s a good benchmark,” Ellis said.During the Little 500, teams don’t exchange often because it slows them down. However, when running, exchanges don’t hurt a team, so it’s smart to exchange as often as possible and give runners a break, Loebig said.The team practices four times a week doing interval training at a quick pace. They also strength-train three times a week.Ellis said he might join the fraternity’s bike race next year because the team is losing two seniors, and “it might be my turn to pass the torch down.” Until then, he’ll stick with running.“It’s fun to run,” Ellis said. “Running in circles is like NASCAR.”
(03/03/10 6:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior Stephanie Foreman was at a club listening to Justin Timberlake blare through the speakers when she began to feel the ground shake below her. At first she thought the vibration was from the people around her jumping, but soon she realized nobody was jumping as the ground began to increasingly tremble.“A minute later I felt the floor shake left and right, rumble up and down and growl horrifically,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I knew this wasn’t normal, yet I had never experienced an earthquake before, so I was unaware of what was possible.”Foreman is the only IU student currently stationed in Chile through the Office of Overseas Study, said Kathleen Sideli, associate vice president of Overseas Study. Another student, Kristen Miller, is supposed to be in Valparaiso, Chile, but she’s currently on break in Costa Rica. Miller left mid-January to travel through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama. She is supposed to fly back to Chile on March 6, but she said she highly doubts she’ll be boarding that flight.A third IU student was supposed to leave for Valparaiso, but his trip is being postponed until the city is stable enough for him to travel.Sideli was contacted about Foreman’s whereabouts early Saturday morning from the Council on International Educational Exchange program.Programs usually locate their students by staff calling or phone trees in which students contact each other. When terrorists attacked commuter trains in Madrid in 2004, Sideli had to contact students at 5 a.m. and report back to their respective universities so they could inform the students’ parents. In Foreman’s case, she contacted her parents in Champaign, Ill., at about 10 a.m. Saturday.“I had zillions of notices on my Facebook about worried friends and family but knew that calling my parents was the most important thing on my list,” Foreman said.IU also has students in Japan and Australia that were on alert for possible tsunamis.“Those warnings were so widespread and universal,” Sideli said. “We knew our students were being warned by authorities and the government.”Sideli said she’s been at IU for about 30 years, and she can’t remember the last time the program had students locally affected by an earthquake.“Life has inherent risks to it,” she said. “We live in a time where people think of terrorists as the biggest threat, but it’s not for study abroad students. The riskiest things are car accidents, drinking and being assaulted.”Cristian Medina, a geologist at the Indiana Geological Survey and a Chilean himself, remembers participating in tsunami drills in grade school. After hearing the sound of a bell, the school would go out of the building in order and stand in designated spots where things were less likely to fall on them. Then they’d walk to the hills.“Everything has to be quick,” he said. “That’s why we practice.”The rule of thumb is if you feel an earthquake and you live on the coast, you have 10 minutes to run, Medina said. And in the case of Chile’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake, there was a tsunami. The coast is filled with small towns and fishermen, Medina said, and because people are in isolated areas, many people were trapped and killed. Waves as large as 200 meters hit the coast of Chile, including the resort town of Pelluhue, Chile, according to The Associated Press. Although street signs pointed toward tsunami evacuation route, about 20 bodies have been found and about 300 homes destroyed. However, most of the coast aligning central Chile saw the waves of the tsunami.“They say it doesn’t matter how many sirens you have, people won’t get out until they have the concept in their head,” Medina said of the effect of tsunamis.He said he believes the next effort to prepare for earthquakes will be tsunami awareness.Medina, who has contacted all of his family and said they are safe, was living in Santiago in 1985 when the last big earthquake hit Chile with an 7.8 magnitude.“You see the whole land and houses moving like in waves,” Medina said. “You can hardly stand. One of the big things is the panic. People don’t want to go in their homes or be under roofs.”Following the 1985 earthquake in central Chile, the country revised their building codes, making the infrastructure throughout the country more able to withstand earthquakes. The building code in Chile is the best in South America, Medina said, which is why the damage isn’t as devastating as in Haiti.The earthquake happened at 3:34 a.m. Saturday, compared to the 10:47 p.m. earthquake in 1985. Unlike Foreman, many were asleep when the ground shook beneath them, which reduced the number of deaths. At the same time, people on the coast were sleeping and might not have heard the warning signs telling them to head for the hills.Other factors make a difference, like the season. In Chile, it’s summer. If an earthquake hits in the winter, flooding and landslides are more likely because the ground is saturated.Chile is supposed to receive an earthquake every 15 years because of their magnitude. Although it’s been 25 years since the last major rumble, Medina fears there will soon be a big quake in the North near where his family grew up in Arica, Chile.“As scientists, we cannot predict this,” he said. “The only thing we know is there is a range of time. All we can do is alert authorities and have a prevention plan.”Foreman will spend the next five months in Chile. At the moment, authorities in Santiago are telling people not to leave their homes unless it’s an absolute emergency. Although Foreman’s home has water, power, electricity, gas and access to food, she noticed many things during a run Monday, including that every gas station had a line down the street and every convenience store was crowded. In Chile, people don’t often fill up their gas tanks, but instead put in about $2 on a daily basis to get them through. In times of crisis, people crowd gas stations because they can’t run their cars.“It’s going to be really devastating for me to start classes next week,” Foreman said, “and pass by all the crumbled homes on my way. ... I wish there was something I could do. But I’m just an American student waiting to attend class, and I feel useless to the crisis.”
(02/22/10 1:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Parents, students and alumni of Aurora Alternative High School stood in a circle around principal Chuck Holloway after the school board confirmed that their school would close.“We have until they change the locks on the building,” Holloway said. “We’ve got people we don’t know we have. ... We worked our butts off for a week. Take the weekend to relax, and we’ll come back together Monday.”Holloway received the news at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 12 that the consolidation of Aurora, a school of choice for 80 academically at-risk students, was recommended to help offset the Monroe County Community School Corporation $4.5 million in budget cuts.Feb. 12 was a Friday, and Holloway’s students had already left for the weekend, many going home without knowing their school would be consolidated.Students met at Aurora the next day to plan a strategy to save their school. A Facebook group was started called “HELP SAVE Aurora Alternative High School!” After a day, it had nine members. Now it has about 300.Although their classes had been canceled, students gathered last Monday at the courthouse with posters in hand to rally for their school.Students also attended about four-hour school board meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to speak their minds about why their school should stay open. They organized another rally on Thursday before the decision was made Friday.When the snow had melted and classes resumed Wednesday, Aurora had a record low attendance with 24 students missing. Holloway said he couldn’t tell how much of the attendance was because of weather and how much of it was because students didn’t want to come to school after hearing the news about the possible consolidation.“As significant as any, the reason students come to Aurora is that they felt that they don’t matter,” Holloway said to the school board on Tuesday night. “Please don’t send that message to these kids that they don’t matter.”Fighting for the schoolJessica Barger came to Aurora three years ago as a sophomore, but the school didn’t work for her. She ended up dropping out and having a child. When she saw her best friend graduate as Aurora’s 2009 valedictorian, she knew she had to go back. Now she’s a junior and plans to graduate.“Never in my life have I felt so welcome in such a small community,” she said to the school board Tuesday.Senior Lindsey Smith said she came to Aurora simply to get her parents off her back. She was technically a junior at the time, but she only had nine credits. Although she’s now a senior, she doesn’t have enough credits to graduate, and she’ll need to come back to Aurora.“Before I came to Aurora I knew for a fact that I was a future high school dropout,” she said Tuesday.Social studies teacher Tim Fick stood up at Tuesday’s school board meeting and invited attendees to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on May 28 for Aurora’s 15th graduation ceremony.“I’ve always told our kids that the community values them,” Fick said at the meeting. “The other kids get their own football field and pool. Our kids get their own school. Please don’t take that away from them.”Many alumni also spoke at the school board meeting, including 2005 Aurora graduate Heather Boltinghouse. She received all Fs except one D her first semester as a freshman at Bloomington High School North. When she switched to Aurora, she was on honor roll. Although it took her several years after graduation to enroll in college, she says Chuck pushed her, and she’s currently enrolled at Ivy Tech Community College.“Would I walk back into North? No, I’d run the other way,” she said.Aurora students are not the only ones being affected. There are changes being made throughout the corporation to offset the budget cuts. For instance, it was approved that media specialists will be reduced, Batchelor Middle School’s pool will close, middle school foreign language teachers will be reduced, the Elementary Strings program will no longer exist and the list goes on.“This is not an isolated problem, and it is happening to almost all school districts in the state and the country,” MCCSC superintendent J.T. Coopman said. “And this is where I get emotional. I hate it for public schools and the children we serve. I fear that public education will never be the same again. I also think this won’t be the end.”The cuts come from reductions in state funds, and the board stressed that they see more budget cuts to come in the next few years. The board encouraged people to send letters to Gov. Mitch Daniels.“I want you all to know I know it’s bad,” said school board secretary Vicki Streiff. “I don’t think there’s a way to cut $4.5 million out of our budget without damaging our school district. I don’t think we’re doing good things. I think we’re doing terrible things because we’re stuck.”They still have hopeDuring the 15 years since Holloway founded Aurora, about 300 students have received their diplomas.By closing Aurora, the school corporation will save about $300,000. In about two days, Holloway and a few other teachers put together a four-step proposal that was submitted to the school board.“Basically, we need to come up with $300,000 and say ‘use this and save our school’,” Holloway said. “It’s obviously not that simple.”Aurora receives grant funding from the state because it’s an alternative school. Holloway proposes to use the grant money to pay a teacher’s salary instead of using it to pay for other expenses.The corporation also receives money for each student enrolled in the district. By keeping Aurora open, Holloway proposes that the corporation will be able to keep these students in school and keep this money. If Aurora closes, these students could drop out, and the corporation will lose funding anyway. The problem with this part of the proposal, Holloway admits, is that it’s based on speculation.The corporation also plans to save money by not having a custodial worker. To offset this, Holloway is proposing that the school do their own custodial work, which is what the school did during its first couple years of operation.Holloway is also offering to get rid of the school’s art teacher. Aurora’s current art teacher is only there for one class period a day, and she has another job in the corporation.This proposal, if the school board accepts it, would save the corporation $394,414 total, a figure debatable because it rests on speculation of how many students Aurora keeps from dropping out.Now that the decision has been made, Holloway worries about the rest of the semester.“It is reasonable to be concerned about what students’ actions will be,” he said. “It remains to be seen what students attitudes and morales will be the rest of the semester.”Although Holloway admits he doesn’t know what the school’s next step is, he knows the goal is to find the money to keep the school open. Holloway doesn’t know how the school corporation will consolidate Aurora with the two main high schools, but he does know it won’t be the Aurora that students currently know.“Our goal is to keep them in school no matter what down the road,” he said. “I will encourage kids to get their diploma. Based on what I hear from their mouths, it’s very unlikely that will happen.”Holloway told students and parents to relax this weekend, but he has kept a pad of paper and pen next to him all weekend, jotting down ideas as they come to him.“We’ve got work to do,” Holloway said to a school board member following Friday’s decision. “We’re not done.”
(02/19/10 5:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“How many days do you have?”“Two days of practice!”Members of IU’s Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority responded to their coach as they prepared for Saturday’s competition at the Sprite Step Off national finals in Atlanta.And it all started in September, four days before regional qualifiers were to be at IU. A mass e-mail was sent out to all members of Alpha Kappa Alpha stating that if they wanted to step, they should show up at Forest Quad that evening. Ten women showed up and stayed.During those four days, the women practiced in the basement of the quad starting at 9 p.m. and ending at 3 a.m.The team placed first out of three teams, earning them $5,500, which is $550 split 10 ways, and a chance to compete in Chicago for the regional finals.On Jan. 23, the team placed first out of four teams in Chicago, earning $21,500 and a trip to Atlanta to compete in the national finals.“I think we all knew we’d get to Atlanta,” senior Shayla Hines said. “We just kind of told ourselves we’d make it, and it happened.”Now the group has less than one day.The women will board a plane at 2 p.m. Friday to compete against five other teams for the first place prize of $100,000. That money, $10,000 for each woman, will go directly to their Bursar accounts.“Can we smile?” asks one sister during a practice Wednesday in a School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation racquetball room.“Might as well, we’re having fun.”“Well, none of that dumb cheese.”Every step has to be right. Every clap has to be in unison. Every smile or serious look has to be perfected.“No, no, none of that! None of that!” yells IU graduate James Bigsbee, the team’s coach and choreographer, as several of the women break into cheesy grins in the middle of a practice set.Bigsbee is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, which has won the Little Five Step Show every year since 2006. “They tell me what they want and I make up something, and they tweak it,” Bigsbee said. “I’ll do things they say are too masculine, and then they put in their own feminine touch.”Bigsbee is at every practice, and he’ll be in Atlanta as well.“When we’re being really catty, he’ll say ‘I know you’re all females but we got to do this,’” junior Jasmine Starks said.The routine has a “Law and Order” theme with a video that plays in the background where Starks lip syncs some of the dialogue. The routine debuted at seven minutes when it was first performed at IU, but it’s now a 10-minute workout.The women yell out chants throughout the performance, including spelling out “Tau,” which is their chapter, and yelling “This is a serious matter.”At one point the women lined up, bent to a 90 degree angle, propped their right leg on their sister’s back and stepped on one foot.“You can look pretty all you want,” Bigsbee yelled, “but you’ve got to make those steps.”About an hour and fifteen minutes into practice, junior Aleah Bouie walked to the corner of the room, took off her boots and began to rub her right ankle. Last week, she said she thinks she tore a muscle in her foot.Since she couldn’t make it through the entire practice, she sat in the corner, tapping her black sock-covered feet and clapping her hands on her yellow Victoria’s Secret sweatpants in unison with her sisters.Both Bigsbee and Bouie agreed she will see a doctor on Monday, but right now she has to make it through Saturday.“It hurts, but after a certain amount of time it’s just pain,” Bouie said. “It’s all for the team.”Alpha Kappa Alpha is made of 38 women, and about 15 of them are planning to travel to Atlanta to watch their sisters.Monday is also the one-year anniversary for the sorority to have a chapter on campus. If they win, it will be “amazing.”“I’m gonna step like I’m not gonna lose,” Starks said.
(02/16/10 5:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“Smile and look happy. Look smart. Look intelligent,” Chuck Holloway joked to his students. However, the signs saying “Save Aurora” and “Doesn’t Our Education Matter?” that principal Holloway’s students held up at the town square Monday were not something to laugh about.Aurora Alternative High School might close because of the Monroe County Community School Corporation’s $4.5 million budget cuts.Aurora is a choice for students who decide the traditional high school setting doesn’t work for them. Many students left Bloomington High School North and South to attend Aurora.Aurora freshman Ashley Hartgraves wrote letters to school board members, Gov. Mitch Daniels and President Barack Obama asking them to save her school.“I tried my best,” she said of her effort to save Aurora. “It makes us feel important and accepted. It’s done a lot for us because at Bloomington High School North and Bloomington High School South, it would be so much harder for us to get by.”Although the corporation told Holloway it will consolidate the school, Holloway said the building will essentially be moth-balled, and students will be sent to Bloomington North or South. The corporation also recommended cutting media specialists from the elementary and middle schools and programs such as the Teen Learning Center that help at-risk students.Holloway heard the news on Friday and shared it with his staff. About 20 students met at the school Saturday to organize Monday’s protest.“Hey, do you guys know we don’t have school today?” one student yelled at the protest.“Do we get extra credit?” another student screamed in response.As cars honked as they drove by, Hartgrave said if Aurora closes, she will most likely be home-schooled.“It’s a big concern for me because I think a lot of these students would go back to North or South and be unhappy,” said Levi Hovis, a 2009 Aurora graduate. “If I was going to Aurora and this happened, I wouldn’t have continued my education. I wouldn’t have hope.”Chuck Holloway started Aurora 15 years ago. The school now has an enrollment of 80 students and has five full-time and two part-time teachers. The students call him Chuck, and he treats them like family, saying “Love you, man” to one student as he left the protest.“I feel like he sees his students as people and equals instead of inferior,” Hovis said. “I think a lot of administrators feel they have an authority that isn’t really there. I think Chuck Holloway understands he has limited authority.”If Aurora closes, Holloway said his teachers and students will be distributed throughout the school district.Tim Fick, a social studies teacher, has been teaching at Aurora for 13 years, and he’s afraid that if Aurora is closed, it will be 10 to 15 years before there’s another alternative school.The school board will meet Friday to decide whether they will close Aurora.“They’re looking to cut more next year,” Holloway said. “It’s not going to be a pretty picture for a long time.”Although the group planned to protest from 4 to 6 p.m., Holloway called it quits at 5:20 p.m. because of frozen toes and red noses.After all, they have until Friday.“You just have to believe in it,” said Michelle Wenk, Aurora’s study hall aide. “I think if people were aware of it, they’d believe in it.”
(02/10/10 6:07am)
Part two of a series investigating the day care system at IU and in Bloomington.
(02/09/10 5:10am)
When it comes to day care in Bloomington, three nationally accredited IU centers offer 165 spots for children
ranging from birth to 5 years old. Two co-ops add an additional
18-20 spots. But the wait list to obtain one of these spots is more than
100-names long.
(02/05/10 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>About three dozen faculty members from IU campuses received New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grants for 2010.The awards allow faculty to expand their work into new disciplinary or interdisciplinary areas.The program began its second five-year cycle with funding from the IU President’s Office during the 2009-10 school year. The grants have overall supported more than 400 projects by IU faculty.“Since its inception, the New Frontiers program has fostered ground-breaking research, scholarship and creative activity in the arts and humanities,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in an IU press release.Funding will be provided for projects such as “Tendrils: Modular Organic Systems,” the design of interactive building systems for constructing sculptural objects. Another project is “Disappearing Acts: The End of White Criminality in the Age of Jim Crow,” by Khalil Muhammad, assistant professor of history. The book examines political and cultural shifts that affect how “native-born white and European criminality transformed black male criminality.”