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(09/27/07 4:00am)
After naming your album Ultimate Victory, anything less than that seems like a letdown. Chamillionaire, Houston's latest hit-maker, should have solidified his position as a rap star after mainstream success with "Ridin' (Dirty)." Alas, despite high hopes, this album stands as an admirable, preachy failure.\nOn Ultimate Victory, Cham's had enough with bling 'n' bitches and tries earnestly to inject true politicization into a genre that has only dabbled occasionally and laughably in social criticism ("George Bush doesn't care about black people," "Vote or Die," etc.). His sincerity even makes him swear off swear words and abstain from the N-word, staples of the hip-hop world.\nIt's hard not to applaud him for his attempt, but sadly, Chamillionaire's commentary can't sparkle like his more traditional party tracks, such as the album's two great collaborations with each member of UGK: the one-hand-on-the-steering-wheel of a low-rider "Pimp Mode" with Bun B and the menacing bass line Southern anthem "Welcome to the South" with Pimp C. \nIn Cham's solemn sermon on media bias (seriously) "The Evening News," he commits some rhyme atrocities to fit his nonsensical observations (Does "one" rhyme with "him?"). Despite capable beats and a neat violin hook, criminal lines such as "The White House is gonna stay white/ even though we know that Obama's black" sound terrible regardless. From 9/11 conspiracies to Flavor Flav, Cham sounds as self-righteous as a hip-hop Art Garfunkel -- "7 O'clock News/Silent Night" with a drum machine.\nAside from his unfortunately popular "Hip Hop Police," the track on the album that most epitomizes the face-plant of this audacious experiment is "Rock Star," featuring Lil' Wayne, a wailing guitar-crunk sound, the thumps of "We Will Rock You" and meaningless idiotic rhymes. At once meditative and blustery, bashing materialism while basking in its spotlight glow -- and rapping poorly -- Cham can't quite tie together this mixed bag, but damned if he doesn't try.
(06/18/07 5:10am)
Six alumni, including the son of a current trustee, an international consultant and a law student, are vying for an open slot on the IU board of trustees.\nAll alumni are eligible to vote in the election via mail until June 30, when the votes will be tallied.\nWith a new University president taking office July 1, the recent outsourcing of the IU motor pool and bookstore and an ongoing debate about raising admission standards, the trustee candidates agree this is an important election.\nTrustee Sue Talbot is seeking a third term on the board this year.\nIn an e-mail, she defended the decision to outsource the motor pool and bookstore because current University employees will be able to keep their current benefits and positions under those plans.\n“We are facing an $80 million shortfall in health care costs and $50 million in operational costs,” she said. “Our fiduciary responsibility demands that we seek out ways to provide these important benefits to our employees and students.”\nSteven A. Miller, senior vice president of Northern Trust Global Advisors, Inc. and IU treasurer for nearly 14 years, believes his understanding of University finances will benefit the board.\nOutsourcing, he says, needs to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.\n“The criteria should be whether the outsourcing provides a net long-term financial benefit to the University,” he said in an e-mail. “I feel strongly that any outsourcing arrangement should have a verifiable benefit, should do everything possible to protect affected IU employees and provide clear provisions to terminate the agreement if it does not work out.”\nTuition increases are inevitable, he said, and so IU must look to sources other than the state and students for funding.\n“The University must find other sources of revenue, including fundraising, research grants and leveraging technology to partner with industry,” he said.\nLaw student Tyler Daniel Helmond is seeking a seat on the board because he believes trustees are out of touch with the needs of students and alumni.\n“I think there is very little question that IU’s reputation has declined,” he said in an e-mail. “The Indianapolis Star has reported on an IU degree program that grants a bachelor’s degree to out-of-state community college students after only one year of IU study. The trustees have done nothing to combat diluted requirements that hurt our reputation for producing outstanding graduates.”\nHelmond said that, if elected, he will work to raise the University’s standards for achievement, which he believes would also encourage alumni to donate more money to IU.\nHe said it is too early to see what impact outsourcing will have on IU, but as a labor studies major, he has a good understanding of what such decisions can mean to employees.\n“I think the board failed to calculate the intangible costs in executing the outsourcing agreement. Book and apparel prices are likely to rise,” he said. \nRecent search committees, such as the one that selected Interim Provost Michael McRobbie as IU’s 18th president, have been criticized by groups such as the IU Student Association as lacking student involvement.\nHelmond says he will vote for all such committees to contain one-third students.\n“Students have some of the best insight and instinct when it comes to making these decisions and the current board has locked them out of any meaningful participation,” he said.\nTalbot, who chaired the presidential search committee, which was criticized by some Bloomington students for having only a grad student from the South Bend campus on it, defended that decision.\nShe noted that the grad student, Michael Renfrow, was chosen by the All University Student Association and went to all the IU campuses to get feedback from students.\n“As for the future of student involvement in search processes, when it applies to the specific campus and discipline that a student group (undergraduate or graduate) then yes, students should be considered for the committee,” she said.\nAllen Woodhouse, an international consultant, considers himself as the “only true reform candidate” for the board because he is not as closely connected to IU as some others seeking positions.\nHe said he does not oppose outsourcing that benefits IU and he also believes in more student involvement in search committees.\nPhil Eskew III, son of trustee Phil Eskew Jr., who is looking to follow in his father’s footsteps with a position on the board, has expressed concern with outsourcing in his biography on the trustees’ Web site www.alumni.indiana.edu/about/election.\nOn the page, he also said the University must remember to put students’ education ahead of monetary concerns.\nGreenfield, Ind., attorney Ray Richardson, who served on the board of trustees from 1992 until 2001, is seeking a return to reverse what he calls “several ill-advised board of trustee actions,” according to his biography on the trustees’ Web site.\nChief among Richardson’s concerns is the increasing enrollment of out-of-state students, which he claims is taking educational opportunities away from Hoosiers, according to his page.\nPhil Eskew III and Ray Richardson did not respond to requests seeking comment by press time.
(06/04/07 1:55am)
While most authors might hope their books will become blockbusters, reaching thousands or even millions of people, Tom Plate wrote his latest book for one person – his daughter.\n“When she was growing up, my daughter noticed her dad was away a lot, so I thought, ‘Some day she’ll have this to look back at what her dad was doing,’” he said.\n“Confessions of an American Media Man” is the story of Plate’s decades-long career in journalism, from his college internship at the Washington Post, to the internationally-syndicated column on Asian relations he writes to this day.\nPlate doesn’t grind axes in the book. If there’s a story to be told about a former boss who he might portray in an unflattering way, he merely refers to them as a “Higher Authority,” which adds to the more casual tone of the writing.\nThough he’s currently a professor of communication and policy studies at UCLA, Plate made it clear this book is not for academics.\n“It’s written to be accessible, to be entertaining,” he said.\nHe intersperses tales of his career with thoughts about the current state and future of journalism.\nAmong his top concerns is corporate ownership of newspapers. Plate believes newspapers have special responsibilities they cannot live up to if stockholders only look at the bottom line and are willing to cut back on costs to make it.\n“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if a corporation insists on more than 10 percent profits, it should turn in its First Amendment right,” Plate said. “What differentiates newspapers from BMW, a cigarette company, a liquor company (or) a nut company is that they don’t get First Amendment protection.”\nNewspapers traditionally have much higher profit margins than other businesses. Many have 20 percent or greater returns, compared to 10 percent or less in many other industries.\nStill, Plate makes it clear he is not against newspapers making money.\n“I’m not against profits – I’m against profits at the cost of quality control,” he said.\nHe also criticizes objectivity, calling it “impossible to achieve.”\n“I’m not sure what objectivity means,” he said. “I think you can just use sources, be accurate and be fair in your reporting.”\nSubtitled “What they don’t tell you at Journalism School,” Plate’s book is also, not surprisingly, critical of journalism schools.\nPlate never attended journalism school, and after receiving his bachelor’s degree at Amherst College, went on to receive a master’s degree in U.S. foreign policy from Princeton, a degree not usually required in the media world.\nIn the book, he says the world is getting more complicated, and unless journalists become more educated about the world, they will be unable to accurately report about it.\n“Journalism school teaches you to ask the agricultural minister how corrupt he is and how long he’s been corrupt,” he said. “But the education I have teaches me ask, ‘How’s the agricultural plan going?’ and question-No. 7 I might say something about kickbacks from farmers. It’s a more professional and nuanced approach.”\nBut Plate’s book is also a cautionary tale. He warns that journalism is not for everyone, but it can be a fulfilling career for those who choose to pursue it.\n“The chances of having your heart broken are good, but try to do some good with it,” he said. “American journalism has a lot of leverage.”
(05/24/07 1:50pm)
IU’s board of trustees approved tuition increases for the next two years Monday.\nThe increase calls for in-state undergraduate tuition on the Bloomington campus to increase by 5.1 percent for the 2007-08 school year and by 5.3 percent for 2008-09 school year.\nOut-of-state undergraduate tuition on the Bloomington campus will rise by 9.2 percent for the 2007-08 school year and by 11.3 percent for the 2008-09 school year.\nThat means that for the next school year, Indiana students can expect to pay $7,837 in tuition, while out-of-state student tuition will go up to $22,316.\nAdditional increases were also approved for graduate and professional fees. \nMost of the money will go toward faculty salaries, which make up two-thirds of the University budget but are still rated ninth in the Big Ten, said IU President Adam Herbert.\n“We are in a very vulnerable position for faculty retainment,” he said.\nIn addition to fee increases for undergraduates enrolled in the Kelley School of Business and the Jacobs School of Music, the school of nursing will add a fee of $1,005 for the 2007-08 school year.\nThat fee will increase to $2,010 for the 2008-09 school year.\nSuch new fees are necessary for IU to meet the technological and facility needs of a modern research institution, said Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Judy Palmer.\n“Things are different today,” she said. “We have to realize that; we have to be able to fund that.”\nTrustee Tom Reilly agreed.\n“The nature of education is changing,” he said. “It’s becoming more expensive. Nurses need to know four times as much as they used to. Business is becoming more complicated.”\nThe tuition increase will also go toward rising energy and utility costs.\nPalmer noted that the traditional idea of universities being funded through a combination of state appropriations and tuition is changing, and IU may need to find other ways of meeting its financial needs, such as deals with business partners or greater reliance on research grants.\n“This is a dialogue that is starting to get national attention, and I hope Indiana University will be at the forefront of it,” she said.\nPurdue University voted last week to raise tuition 4.5 percent each year over the next two years, while Ball State University trustees voted to raise in-state tuition by 4.9 percent and out-of-state tuition by 6 percent for the same time period.\nThe board of trustees will next meet June 21 and 22 at IU-Northwest in Gary.
(05/22/07 8:10pm)
The IU Board of Trustees approved tuition increases for the next two years Monday.\nThe increase calls for in-state undergraduate tuition on the Bloomington campus to increase by 5.1 percent for the 2007-08 school year and by 5.3 percent for 2008-09 school year.\nOut-of-state undergraduate tuition on the Bloomington campus will rise by 9.2 percent for the 2007-08 school year and by 11.3 percent for the 2008-09 school year.\nThat means that for the next school year, Indiana students can expect to pay $7,837 in tuition, while out-of-state student tuition will go up to $22,316.\nAdditional increases were also approved for graduate and professional fees. \nMost of the money will go toward faculty salaries which make up two-thirds of the University budget, but are still rated ninth in the Big Ten, said IU President Adam Herbert.\n“We are in a very vulnerable position for faculty retainment,” he said.\nIn addition to fee increases for undergraduates enrolled in the Kelley School of Business and the Jacobs School of Music, the school of nursing will add a fee of $1,005 for the 2007-08 school year.\nThat fee will increase to $2,010 for the 2008-09 school year.\nSuch new fees are necessary for IU to meet the technological and facility needs of a modern research institution, said Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Judy Palmer.\n“Things are different today,” she said. “We have to realize that, we have to be able to fund that.”\nTrustee Tom Reilly agreed.\n“The nature of education is changing,” he said. “It’s becoming more expensive. Nurses need to know four times as much as they used to. Business is becoming more complicated.”\nThe tuition increase will also go toward rising energy and utility costs.\nPalmer noted that the traditional idea of universities being funded through a combination of state appropriations and tuition is changing and IU may need to find other ways of meeting its financial needs such as deals with business partners or greater reliance on research grants.\n“This is a dialogue that is starting to get national attention, and I hope Indiana University will be at the forefront of it,” she said.\nPurdue University voted last week to raise tuition 4.5 percent each year over the next two years, while Ball State University trustees voted to raise in-state tuition by 4.9 percent and out-of-state tuition by 6 percent for the same time period.\nThe board of trustees will next meet June 21 and 22 at IU-Northwest.
(05/21/07 12:55am)
Like many college students, senior Kelli Foster makes sure to catch the latest episodes of popular TV shows such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” each week.\nShe doesn’t, however, watch them when they’re first broadcast.\n“I DVR all my programs,” she said. “I just don’t have time to watch 50 minutes of commercials.”\nThe advent of new technologies such as digital video recorders is great for those who want to watch TV on their own schedules and without advertisements, but bad news for the networks trying to track viewers.\nThe four major networks – Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC – are \nattracting 2.5 million fewer viewers than they were at this time last year, according to an Associated Press article published earlier this month.\nThis spring, Nielson ratings are tracking homes that use DVRs for the first time, but viewings only count toward ratings if a program is watched within 24 hours of its recording.\nThat doesn’t necessarily mean people are watching less TV, however. Foster says she thinks she’s actually watching more TV now that she has a DVR.\n“It’s just more convenient to watch TV at my own pleasure instead of working around the network’s schedule,” she said.\nFurther reducing the number of TV viewers is the availability of programming online. Video sharing sites such as YouTube offer TV viewers thousands of new options from amateur directors around the world.\nIn addition, the site has been flooded with copyrighted clips of network programming, provoking a mixed reaction from the entertainment industry.\nIn March, Viacom Inc., which owns CBS and MTV among other TV networks, sued YouTube for $1 billion, claiming damages for copyright infringement.\nRather than fight such Web sites, ABC has begun offering full-length programs on its site the day after they are broadcast free of charge. The shows still contain commercials, but usually not as many as during a prime-time showing.\nJunior Ashley DeCamp gets her weekly fix of “Grey’s Anatomy” from ABC’s Web site.\n“I don’t have a TV, so watching it online is a great way to catch up,” she said.\nDecamp did say, however, that if she owned a TV, she would probably watch the shows when they air rather than catch them online.\nSenior Justin Moore continues to watch TV the old-fashioned way.\n“I just have cable and watch it two or three hours a night, if not more,” he said. \nMoore said he does not own a DVR and does not have much need to watch TV shows online.
(05/17/07 12:35am)
The Jacobs School of Music is completing negotiations that will lead to the construction of a new organ in Auer Hall.\nThe school has turned to C.B. Fisk, Inc., a world-renowned builder of organs with more than 40 years of experience, to construct the instrument that will bear nearly 4,000 pipes, according to a press release.\nChristopher Young, an organist and associate professor of music at the Jacobs School was thrilled with the announcement.\n“Their organs have grown and evolved from 40 years ago just like we hope people do when they graduate college and change based on what they have learned,” he said. “Their organs sound different than they did 40 years ago, and that’s a good thing.”\nThe proposed organ will be mechanical in nature, which Young said will allow for a greater variety of sound.\nIn electronic organs, which have grown in popularity over the past few decades, the pipe opens and closes at a set speed when the organist hits the key. However, with a mechanical organ, the player can control the rate at which the pipes open and close, Young said.\nThe organ currently in Auer Hall will be removed in August while Fisk works on the new one, set to be completed in the fall of 2010, said Alain Barker, director of marketing and publicity of the Jacobs School.\nIt will take two years to rebuild the organ and an additional year of voicing the pipes to complete the organ.\nStill, music students shouldn’t expect that much of a difference in their education over the next three years as Young said that, in its current state, the organ in Auer Hall is “deficient.”\n“We haven’t had a truly artistic and great organ in Bloomington for as long as I’ve been here, and that’s been almost 16 years,” he said. “For organists this will be a complete night and day difference.”
(05/10/07 12:31am)
The IU School of Dentistry has disciplined nearly half of its second-year class for cheating, said the school’s dean, Dr. Lawrence Goldblatt.\nOut of 95 students in the class, nine have been dismissed from the school, 16 have been suspended for various lengths of time and 21 have received letters of reprimand.\nThe alleged cheating came to the school’s attention in February when a student reported that several others in one class had gained unauthorized access to test materials, said Diane Brown, Assistant Media Relations Director for IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.\nFor the class, students received password protected e-mails containing photos of mouths or radiographs for use with test questions. Students received the password to open the images at the start of the test, but some students opened the images earlier using commercial password cracking software, Goldblatt said.\nOthers correctly guessed passwords from past semesters. \nWhen the student came forward, officials interviewed all students in the class. Officials announced their findings Friday.\nIt appears as if several different groups of students worked independently to crack the images, rather than in one large group, Goldblatt said.\nIt is a common practice in the IU School of Dentistry to e-mail the images before an exam to avoid technical difficulties with Web sites or projectors on test day.\n“The method of encryption has been changed so that now those images will be extremely difficult to open,” Goldblatt said.\nStudents were punished based on their level of involvement in the cheating. Some students were found to have cheated only once, while others cheated on multiples exams. The students who received letters of reprimand were found to have violated the school’s code of conduct by having knowledge of the cheating and not reporting it.\nThose found to have cheated have received failing grades in the class. All the students have until Friday to appeal the decisions.\n“I would be naïve to think cheating has never occurred here before, but nothing of this magnitude has ever occurred before,” Goldblatt said.\nThere is no evidence of such cheating in past classes, he added.\nSuch cheating is not without precedent at other dental schools, however. Last year the University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey found that 18 students out of a graduating class of 84 had been involved in a cheating scheme.\nTen students were also suspended from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’ School of Dentistry last year for using a faculty member’s password to verify they had performed clinical rounds they had not.\n“Students, faculty, staff and others are very disappointed this happened,” Goldblatt said. “We wish everyone the best, but these folks made a very serious error that has cost them our trust.”
(05/10/07 12:14am)
The IU Archives of Traditional Music has received a grant of more than $300,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitally preserve the field work of researchers going back to the 1930s. \nThe archives hold hundreds of thousands of hours of music from cultures around the globe on a variety of recording formats, some of which are rapidly deteriorating.\nThe collection is second in size only to the traditional music archives in the Library of Congress.\n“This is very highly valuable field work,” said Daniel Reed, archives director and assistant professor of folklore and ethnomusicology. “Many of these collections are quite old.”\nOver the next 18 months, the current digitization efforts will focus on collections from American Indian tribes and African communities. One collection was gathered over the course of 15 years.\nThe entire set of works makes up several hundred hours of audio.\nThe audio is digitized through a process that ensures a perfect, high resolution copy is made. \nReed estimates that about 1 percent of the entire collection has been digitized so far, which has already taken about 1.7 terabytes of space, which is the equivalent of 34 dual-layer Blu-ray discs, the largest capacity disc commercially available.\n“People want to be able to get as close as possible to the original recording to experience it,” Mike Casey, associate director of recording services, said in a press release . “Because we are an archive, we can’t provide them with access to the original recording, but we can provide them with information that helps them understand more deeply the recording and its original format and condition.”\nThe long-term goal for the archive is to eventually digitize the entire collection, which Reed admits is a daunting task.\n“We currently have 2,000 field collections,” he said. “And each collection can be just a few tapes or hundreds of tapes, discs and files.”\nThe archive is in the process of procuring more funding for the project, but in the next few years they hope to make at least parts of the archive easily accessible to students, researchers and the general public.\n“We are sitting on a mountain of unique cultural heritage we have been charged with preserving,” Reed said.
(05/08/07 9:37pm)
The IU School of Dentistry has disciplined nearly half of its second-year class for cheating, said the school’s dean, Dr. Lawrence Goldblatt.\nOut of 95 students in the class, nine have been dismissed from the school, 16 have been suspended for various lengths of time and 21 have received letters of reprimand.\nThe alleged cheating came to the school’s attention in February when a student reported that several others in one class had gained unauthorized access to test materials, said Diane Brown, Assistant Media Relations Director for IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.\nFor the class, students received password protected e-mails containing photos of mouths or radiographs for use with test questions. Students received the password to open the images at the start of the test, but some students opened the images earlier using commercial password cracking software, Goldblatt said.\nOthers correctly guessed passwords from past semesters. \nWhen the student came forward, officials interviewed all students in the class. Officials announced their findings Friday.\nIt appears as if several different groups of students worked independently to crack the images, rather than in one large group, Goldblatt said.\nIt is a common practice in the school of dentistry to e-mail the images before an exam to avoid technical difficulties with Web sites or projectors on test day.\n"The method of encryption has been changed so that now those images will be extremely difficult to open," Goldblatt said.\nStudents were punished based on their level of involvement in the cheating. Some students were found to have cheated only once, while others cheated on multiples exams. The students who received letters of reprimand were found to have violated the school’s code of conduct by having knowledge of the cheating and not reporting it.\nThose found to have cheated have received failing grades in the class. All the students have until Friday to appeal the decisions.\n"I would be naïve to think cheating has never occurred here before, but nothing of this magnitude has ever occurred before," Goldblatt said.\nThere is no evidence of such cheating in past classes, he added.\nSuch cheating is not without precedent at other dental schools, however. Last year the University of Medicine and Dentistry at New Jersey found that 18 students out of a graduating class of 84 had been involved in a cheating scheme.\nTen students were also suspended from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas’ school of dentistry last year for using a faculty member’s password to verify they had performed clinical rounds they had not.\n"Students, faculty, staff and others are very disappointed this happened," Goldblatt said. "We wish everyone the best, but these folks made a very serious error that has cost them our trust"
(04/20/07 4:00am)
It’s no secret to those of us in the School of journalism that finding a job in print media when we graduate is no easy task.\nCirculation numbers are shrinking, and newspapers are cutting back as more and more people turn to the Internet to get their news. Some go so far as to say newspapers are dying.\nAnd why not go to the Internet first? Whereas the newspaper can be outdated by the time it hits newsstands, Web sites can update instantaneously. But I don’t think that means newspapers are dying; the time has come for a medium that has gone largely unchanged since its creation – during the colonial era – to evolve and embrace new technology. And to offer content above and beyond what is available in print.\nWhat that has meant for us at the Indiana Daily Student this past semester is making a conscious effort to include more video and audio with our stories. \nOur reporters did a great job covering the search for missing Purdue student Wade Steffey the past few months. But if you didn’t read the stories on idsnews.com, you missed out on exclusive video interviews with Steffey’s parents and a video report shot on Purdue’s campus the day he was found.\nOver the summer, we plan to expand our video coverage by posting at least one major video report per issue.\nBut just because we’re adding more multimedia content doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about the written word either. This semester we have added hyperlinks to many of our stories. So let’s say this weekend you’re looking at one of our many Little 500 stories – clicking on a word in the story might take you to another Web site with even more in-depth information on the rich history of the race.\nWe have also tried to provide more background on major campus events by adding blogs such as our baseball blog, Inside Pitch, and our Little 500 blog, Blogging Away. In addition, the managing editors’ blog, Deadline, provides periodic updates on how controversial decisions are made behind the scenes at the IDS.\nIn the next few weeks we plan on adding two opinion blogs by our columnists, one focusing on local issues and another debating the 2008 presidential election.\nOne of the greatest advantages of the Internet is how it allows instant communication between the reader and author far beyond what a letter to the editor page could ever accomplish.\nOur most ambitious plan for the summer is the launch of a new page of our Web site dedicated to the Orienter magazine we publish every summer. This magazine has done a great job of informing incoming students about what to expect from IU over the years. But we plan to take our Web content to the next level with the addition of a message board and blogs from incoming freshmen detailing their thoughts and questions as they prepare for life at IU.\nIf all goes according to plan, this should launch in conjunction with an IDS MySpace page, so that when you’re staying in touch with friends all over the country this summer, you still stay in touch with the news at IU by adding us as a friend.\nNo, newspapers are not dying. In fact, they’re alive and kicking harder than ever online, so thank you for continuing to pick up the paper every day. But afterward, make sure to log on to idsnews.com to get the rest of the story, and if you any comments or questions about our Web content, feel free to e-mail me at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(03/02/07 5:00am)
Though the IU board of trustees enthusiastically endorsed Interim Provost Michael McRobbie as the next president of IU, students seemed to greet the news with a collective apathetic groan.\nEarly Thursday, the University sent out e-mails to students and faculty with information about where to view the announcement of IU’s 18th president. Along with the option of viewing the trustee meeting online or on campus TV, a room was set up in the Radio -TV building for people to view a live feed of the event.\nThree retired faculty members showed up, along with three members of the media who said they were expecting a bigger crowd. That could be a sign that students looked online to view the announcement – or that many just weren’t paying attention.\n“I didn’t even know the president was being elected,” senior Jennifer Hubacher said while eating lunch in the Indiana Memorial Union.\nSenior Valerie Davis said she was not paying attention to the announcement because she was focusing on her schoolwork.\n“I’m not concerned with it – I’m concerned with midterms,” she said while studying in the IMU. “Normally I would be more concerned with it.”\nJunior Kyle Smeehuyzen said he didn’t find out IU was announcing its next president until around noon Thursday, when he received the e-mail sent to students and faculty. He said he was largely unaware of the responsibilities of the University’s president and what President Adam Herbert had accomplished.\n“It’s just not out there,” he said. “There’s not signs out there with what he’s planning to do.”\nHe suggested that McRobbie have signs posted around campus with his plans for the University and updates about his tenure.\nJunior Ari Letwin said he was not familiar with the specifics of McRobbie’s background, but he agreed with the choice.\n“Compared to the last president, he definitely seems like he’s off to a good start,” he said.\nLetwin said he hopes McRobbie will review the teaching habits of professors to better engage students in \nthe classroom.\nSenior Dawn Rodney said she met McRobbie at a Dean’s Advisory Board meeting and came away with a positive view of the next president.\n“He seemed like a nice person, friendly and approachable,” she said. “I don’t know his background, but he seems like a nice guy.”\nIUSA President Betsy Henke wasn’t surprised with the lack of student engagement in the presidential selection. She said some of her friends were confused whether the administration was searching for the University president or the student-body president.\n“Even people in my own sorority were saying, ‘Is this the person who’s going to replace you, Betsy?’” she said.\nHenke’s IUSA administration fought for a Bloomington student to be on the search committee, which recommended McRobbie for president. But it was repeatedly denied by the IU administration, which said a graduate student from IU-South Bend was suitable representation.\nHenke clarified that she was not disappointed with the selection of McRobbie, but rather the process, which she said discounted Bloomington students.\nWhile she received e-mails from many students concerned with the selection of the next president, she said, the majority of the comments came from those affiliated with campus groups such as the Residence Halls Association, the IU Student Foundation and IU Dance Marathon. And she said she still doesn’t think it’s a matter of students not caring about the University’s leadership.\n“I don’t think they’re apathetic – I think they just don’t have knowledge of the process,” she said.
(02/06/07 10:01pm)
The well-funded campus of Princeton University might not be the best example of educational inequality. But it was there that Wendy Kopp first became aware of the disparity in achievement between students who grow up in poorer urban areas and those in other regions.\n"Where you're born has a lot to do with your educational prospects as well as your life prospects," Kopp said. "That doesn't seem right."\nKopp decided to do something about the problem she saw by founding Teach For America, a nonprofit organization that recruits recent college graduates to teach in low-income areas for two years.\nBy fourth grade, many students in urban and rural areas are already three years behind where they should be and only have a 50 percent chance of graduating high school, Kopp said.\nSince 1990 more than 17,000 people have participated in the program, which now encompasses 25 regions, according to the group's Web site.\nCorps members do not need to be certified teachers, but they can instead receive alternative certification if accepted into the program. There are several characteristics the group looks for in new recruits, however.\n"It's a combination of a commitment to ensuring kids have the opportunities they deserve as well as perseverance in the face of challenges," Kopp said.\nSenior Brittany Cohen will begin working at an elementary school in New York City for Teach For America in the fall.\n"I was attracted to Teach for America because of their motto," Cohen said in an e-mail. "I believe in what the organization stands for and I want to be part of the movement to help educational inequality.\nCohen is an education major, but feels she can contribute much more to teaching as a corps member.\n"I have always wanted to teach and I am actually an elementary-special education major but I feel Teach For America is so much more," she said. "I will always have the opportunity to teach but I will not always have the opportunity to help reduce educational inequality."\nThere has been some debate as to just how effective Teach For America teachers are, however. A June 2004 study by Mathematica Policy Research found that while students of corps members score higher in math on average than those receiving instruction by other teachers, there is no significant difference in reading scores.\nKopp said that internal studies have shown Teach For America has a greater impact, however, and because of changes in training corps members she expects future studies will show greater achievement in students.\nKwame Griffith, director of Diversity Initiatives at Teach For America, will be on campus today to discuss the achievement gap and why the number of black, Hispanic and Asian students drops sharply in the transition from K-12 to college and what IU students can do to help.\nThe lecture will be at 12:30 p.m. in the Dogwood Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.
(12/07/06 5:13am)
Girls Inc. of Monroe County will hold its annual Holiday Hoopla event this Saturday at the Fountain Square Mall.\nFor $5, guests will be able to check out the kids-only boutique, a hot pancake breakfast and a 1 p.m. showing of the animated movie "The Polar Express" at The Cinemat, among other activities at the all-day event, said Amanda Smith, development intern for Girls Inc.\nKids will also be able to get their pictures taken with Santa.\nThe event is expected bring in about $7,000, which will allow the group to continue providing local youngsters with after-school activities, field trips and scholarships, Smith said.\nStory times are scheduled throughout the morning at Howard's Bookstore.\nLive entertainment will be provided by Jack Carpenter, Beth Garfinkle, Kaia and others.\nMore than 600 girls in Monroe County take advantage of the Girls Inc.'s services, according to its Web site.\n"We provide educational, semi-structured activities for girls ages 5 to 18 from all over our community," said Lucy Berger, a center-based programs specialist for Girls Inc.\nAll of the group's volunteers are IU students on work-study, and often faculty members from departments such as chemistry come in to show off science experiments, she said.\nFor tickets or more information call 336-7313.
(11/28/06 3:31am)
With control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the hands of Democrats for the first time since 1994, Hoosier Congressmen have begun plotting a new course for the country.\nRepresentative-elect Baron Hill, D-9th, plans to introduce legislation in the first few weeks of the next session that will overhaul the House Ethics Committee.\nHill has called for a new committee to be made up of former members of Congress rather than sitting members as is now the case, which he says will free the committee from the influence of lobbyists and other special interests.\n"It's picking up support," he said. "A lot of other members of the House are liking the idea."\nThe 110th Congress will mark Hill's fourth term in the House. Hill served as the district's representative from 1998 until 2004 when he was defeated by Rep. Mike Sodrel, by fewer than 1,500 votes.\nHill and Sodrel faced off again this year in one of the closest congressional races in the country, which Hill won with 49 percent of the vote.\nHill's seniority will carry over to this term despite his two-year absence from the House.\n"That means you get a quicker choice for office selection and better options for what committees you want to serve on," he said.\nHe said he will seek a position on the Commerce and Energy Committee to investigate energy independence.\nIn addition, Hill said he will support initiatives the Democratic leadership plans to address in the first 100 hours of Congress.\nReportedly, in those first few days of the new session, Democrats, under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, will seek to pass legislation which reduces the influences of lobbyists, enacts the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour and lower the interest rates on student loans.\nKatie Nee, spokeswoman for representative-elect Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, said he doesn't plan to introduce any new pieces of legislation immediately but will support most of the ideas the Democrats have already put forth, especially Medicare reform.\n"Washington is not working for the people right now," Nee said. "It's putting special interests first."\nDonnelly, along with Hill and representative-elect Brad Ellsworth, D-8th, made up three of the 29 seats Democrats gained in the Nov. 7 midterm election.\nEllsworth's campaign manager Jay Howser would not discuss any legislation Ellsworth is planning on introducing or committees he might serve on but said Ellsworth was aware of the local and federal concerns voters had brought to him during the course of the campaign and planned to address them.\n"The agenda of the party is clear," Howser said. "We're going to work to raise the minimum wage and make sure American jobs stay in America. There's a whole host of stuff on the agenda to talk about in the coming weeks"
(11/13/06 3:54am)
A representative from Microsoft came to campus Friday to provide a sneak peek of the software giant's latest game programming tool.\nMicrosoft XNA Game Studio Express will make it easier for aspiring designers to make homemade programs because a lot of the coding is already available in the Express program. \nThe final version will be available to download for free before the end of the year, but there is an annual $99 charge in order to get the games to run on an Xbox 360.\n"This is nothing revolutionary in terms of technology," said Krishna Kumar, a Microsoft academic developer. "The biggest advantage is that it lets amateur programmers target a hitherto closed platform."\nDuring a 90-minute presentation at the School of Informatics, Kumar showed how he could create a basic grassland to explore or a highly detailed gun that could be rotated around the screen with a few clicks.\nAs long as the content is original, programmers will be able to sell their games online or possibly even through Microsoft's downloadable Xbox Live Arcade service if they become popular enough, he said.\n"We're hoping to see smaller games for the whole audience," Kumar said. "We're looking for everything from little kids' games that help them with counting."\nIf the games are highly successful, they could be ported to other consoles as well since all rights remain with the creator, which pleased sophomore Scott Gill.\n"If you have a lot of success with it, I'd hope you would be able to port it to other systems," he said.\nThe software has a lot of academic potential as well. The program could be used in some IU classes next year. Other universities plan to use it for 3-D modeling of complex structures such as DNA, Kumar said.\nR.J. Smith, an Informatics graduate student and a graduate of the video game programming school Digipen, said the software is a good way to get young people interested in game design, but it's not for the inexperienced.\n"To really use XNA, you have to learn how to program," he said. "You have to be able to do math and have the logic. You need to be able to think like a programmer."\nSmith also took issue with the wide-open framework of XNA on Windows, which could allow hackers to plant viruses in community programs.\nNo such problems should exist with the Xbox 360 version.\n"I worry about the Windows component not requiring a signature or being secured," Smith said. "Other programs, like Java, run in a sandbox (a security measure in the Java development environment) in the so other programs can't get on to your hard disk."\nMore information and a free beta version of XNA is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/xna/.
(11/10/06 7:11am)
I-69 will not be made into a toll road, but a new road proposed by Gov. Mitch Daniels could be.\nThe governor's office announced plans for the Indiana Commerce Connector Thursday, an outerbelt tollway linking six interstates through Morgan, Johnson, Shelby, Hancock and Madison counties.\n"We have the chance to create six tremendous new job zones without a penny of borrowing or a tax increase," Daniels said in a statement. "We've talked to leaders in communities across these counties, and they are enthusiastic, so I want to move quickly to measure the transportation marketplace interest in building this road with private funds while paying the state money we can use to help complete I-69 and other critical investments in our future."\nSimilar to plans announced last year for I-69, the Indiana Commerce Connector will be built and operated through a private-public partnership.\nThe exact route for the connector has not been determined, but it is expected to be about 75 miles long. The state will own the road, but the company building the road would determine where construction would begin and when to open certain segments of the road.\nThe Indiana Department of Transportation is currently investigating how much the project will cost, and in the next legislative year Daniels will ask the general assembly to transfer the tolling authority from the proposed I-69 plan to the connector. \nI-69 will now not have any tolls, according to a press release.\nTom Tokarski, president of the local anti-I-69 group, Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads, was critical of Daniels' latest plan.\n"They haven't even picked a route or done a study to know if it's feasible," he said. "They just keep making the same mistakes over and over again."\nCARR was one of several groups that sued the state last month in an attempt to block construction of I-69.\nThe proposed $2 billion road would directly connect Indianapolis to Ellettsville. Part of what is currently Route 37 would become part of I-69. The state plans to break ground on the project in 2008.\nTokarski believes the extension of I-69 to Ellettsville would negatively impact the environment of southern Indiana and divide many rural communities. He also said the real reason I-69 is not a toll road is because the state could not find a company to invest in what he calls an "economically risky" venture.\n"The tollway made a bad project even worse," he said. "It makes no economic sense. They couldn't even get a corporation to buy into it."\nThe governor and INDOT claim the highway will rejuvenate the Hoosier economy and bring more large companies to the state, generating job growth.\n"The first thing those companies ask us is if there's an interstate nearby," INDOT spokesman Gary Abell said in an October interview. "This will be a key piece in getting economic conditions moving forward in Indiana"
(11/09/06 5:28am)
Political science professors are divided as to the meaning of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's surprise resignation Wednesday, though they are pleased President George W. Bush nominated an IU alumnus to replace him.\nBush nominated Robert Gates, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and current president of Texas A&M University to replace Rumsfeld.\nGates, who has a Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University, received his master's in history from IU in 1966.\nIU professor emeritus of history Charles Jelavich recalled having Gates in class.\n"He took three midterms and a final, and he was an 'A' student," Jelavich said. "He was a first-rate student."\nBush announced Rumsfeld was stepping down just hours after Democrats won the majority of seats in the House in elections Tuesday. Democrats also won a majority of seats in the Senate, as candidate Jim Webb beat Republican Sen. George Allen by about 7,000 votes Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.\nPolitical science professor William Thompson said he believes Rumsfeld's resignation was several weeks in the works.\n"My guess is that the resignation was prepared ahead of the elections and probably would have happened regardless of the outcome," Thompson said in an e-mail. "Rumsfeld is a clear negative drag on Bush's approval ratings and Republican electoral chances in the next presidential election."\nLetting Rumsfeld resign before the elections might have sent the wrong message to voters that the president was about to change his "stay the course" policy in Iraq, Thompson said.\nOn the other hand, political science professor Sumit Ganguly said he believes the seats Democrats won in the midterm elections and possible investigations into the actions leading to the war in Iraq were deciding factors in Rumsfeld stepping down.\n"Certainly with Democrats in control of the House, there are going to be calls for investigations into Iraq," Ganguly said. "They would probably subject him to rough questioning on conditions in the Iraq war and conditions in the war on terror. ... I doubt that would go down very well with him." \nIn addition, Ganguly said Rumsfeld, 74, might have wanted to step down because of his age and the stress of the job.\nThompson said he thinks other shake-ups in the Bush administration are a possibility, especially involving Vice President Dick Cheney.\n"It would probably serve Bush politically to get rid of Cheney as well, but the Bush administration may not be willing to go that far, or at least not on the same day as Rumsfeld gets the ax," he said.\nGanguly, however, said he believes it is unlikely that Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, will step down unless a medical condition forces the issue.\nHe said it is much more likely that Cheney will attempt other routes to avoid congressional questioning about the Iraq war.\n"I think he's going to try to invoke every real or imagined constitutional provision so not to be flayed over the coals," Ganguly said.
(11/08/06 6:48am)
SEYMOUR, Ind. -- Hoosiers have brought back Baron.\nAfter months of tough campaigning in one of the closest races in the country, The Associated Press projected Democrat Baron Hill as the winner in the 9th District congressional race Tuesday night, with a lead of more than 2,000 votes and 77 percent of precincts reporting.\nAfter greeting some of the dozens of supporters who came to Hill's victory celebration at the Dakota Ridge restaurant and amidst cheers of "Baron is back" and "Take a hike Mike," the representative-elect raised his fist in a sign of victory before taking the podium and letting out a loud sigh.\n"The people of the 9th District are going to get the change they deserve," he said. "If you want change, if you want an independent voice for southern Indiana, you've got him tonight."\nHill previously served as the district's representative from 1998 until 2004 when Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel, defeated him by fewer than 1,500 votes.\nLibertarian and IU-Southeast economics professor Eric Schansberg also sought the seat this year.\nBoth Hill and Sodrel have accused each other of running negative ads despite signing a clean campaign pledge in August, which Hill addressed.\n"I'm tired of this nasty negative advertising, and I want it to stop once and for all," he said.\nHill reiterated his campaign promises of expanding health care for Americans, balancing the budget and setting timetables for withdrawal from Iraq.\n"We're not going to cut and run, but we need to get out of there sooner rather than later."\nAs of late Tuesday, The Associated Press projected that Democrats will gain control of the House. \n"When you've got one-party rule for too long, trouble starts," Hill said. "We're going to clean it up."\nIva Gasaway, the Democratic Scott County Chairwoman was among the hundreds of people who came out to support Hill Tuesday night.\n"I think Baron is one of the most wonderful men I've ever met," she said. "He has a lot of family values ... I think he's the independent voice we need in Washington, D.C."\nRoger Brewer, of Vallonia, Ind. said he has always considered himself an independent with some Democratic leanings, but he was upset with the direction Republicans and the Bush administration have moved to in recent years and felt it was important to come out and support Hill.\n"I'm tired of Republican rule," he said. "It's worse than (former Iraqi President Saddam) Hussein's rule"
(11/06/06 8:24am)
Indiana's 9th District is one of the closest House races in the country. Though the district traditionally leans Republican and President George W. Bush received 59 percent of the vote here in 2004, Democrat Baron Hill served as its representative from 1998 until 2004, when current Rep. Mike Sodrel, R-9th, defeated Hill by fewer than 1,500 votes. They first faced off in 2002 with Hill receiving 51 percent of the vote to Sodrel's 46 percent. \nAfter millions of dollars, hundreds of negative ads and dozens of campaign stops with other representatives, senators and even presidents -- current and former -- showing their support for each candidate, the stage is now set for another close election. The nonpartisan political Web site The Cook Report calls the race a "toss up."\nNew to the race is Libertarian Eric Schansberg, an economics professor from IU-Southeast who bills himself as the only fiscal conservative in the race and a solid alternative for those who dislike both Hill and Sodrel\nDon Mantooth is an independent write-in candidate for the 9th District seat. Mantooth, a World War II veteran and retired Indianapolis police officer, participated in the second and final debate last week in Jasper, Ind.\nHe believes there is no solid victory plan in Iraq, and until that is established, the war will not be successful.