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(09/10/02 10:40pm)
The television inside Katie Flege's home will remain quiet today. She won't watch the hours of special programming and footage dedicated to the Day Our Nation Saw Terror. She says she can't. Her own memories are vivid enough. \n"It's important to honor the victims, but I don't want to watch the whole thing on TV," Flege says. "It would depress me too much. I just feel lucky to be here and alive."\nOne year ago Flege was working in the nation's capitol as an intern with the SPEA Washington Leadership Program, just blocks from where at 9:37 a.m. a 757-jet deliberately slammed head-on into the west side of the Pentagon. \nShe was one of 35 IU students working in Washington that day.\nFlege and her co-workers attempted to keep working even as they watched the twin towers burning on TV. But when the Pentagon was hit, everyone evacuated.\n "I had only been in D.C. for a week or two," she said. "So when it happened, I felt very scared and isolated. People were confused. It was scary. I wanted to get home so bad."\nThe scariest moments came when Flege heard that a fourth plane was somewhere in the air. Someone shouted that it had just been spotted above the Potomac River. \n"That feeling of fear that I had, I can still conjure up so clearly," she said. "Not knowing what was going on, not knowing where that plane was."\nSo instead of turning on the TV today, Flege plans to call her mom. \nMaurina Roberts feels the same way. She too was interning with the SPEA program on Sept. 11, in the policy department of the Wilderness Society, just a six-minute walk from the White House. She won't be watching the TV today, either. In fact, she hasn't watched the news in a year. \n"I no longer watch the news," Roberts said. "I avoid it because TV news is too depressing."\nIn the year since the attacks, Roberts said she has developed a new perspective.\n"It changed me, in a nonspecific way," she said. "My life after Sept. 11 has been altered."\nShe has gained a new appreciation for different cultures.\n"It was a slap in the face reminder that we are not the only people on the planet," she said. "I have a stronger empathy with people who live in places like the west bank where things of this nature happen every day of their lives."\nShe also reevaluated the direction of her life. \n"I pondered if it was worth it to continue my education and achieve my goals professionally," she said. "Is it worth it to keep fighting, if it could be all wiped out?"\nFlege has felt some of the same stirrings inside her.\nIn the days after the attacks, she went to volunteer with the Salvation Army in D.C. and was amazed by the spirit of charity. She said her reaction to Sept. 11 has made her more patriotic. \n"I felt better when I saw how our country had come together," she said. "I've felt more lucky to be an American. It was something I took for granted."\nFlege said she'll never forget that evanescent feeling of unity.\n"Everyone came together," she said. "We were all going through the same thing, even though we came from different backgrounds."\nMatt Light, now a graduate student at IU Law School, was in D.C. too. In the year since, he has drawn reassurance from his experience that day.\n"Everyone on that morning had the exact same look in their eyes," he said. "I didn't notice it at the time. They wanted to get to a safe place, they wanted to know that their families were all right. It reinforced the fact that we are all from different areas, but we are all from the same country."\nHe reminds himself of that to deal with his memories.\n"Sometimes you are rational and other times, you think of retribution," he said. "I had a hard time figuring it all out. You go through different moods."\nMarc Lame, a professor at SPEA who led the program, had the stressful task of trying to account for all 35 interns immediately following the attacks. By 4 p.m., he had contacted everyone.\nHe said all but two interns finished their jobs. \n"Brave young men and women," he said.
(08/28/02 7:36am)
Early figures from the Office of International Services show that Sept. 11 appears to have had no detrimental effect on the enrollment of international students at IU. \nIn fact, Lynn Schoch, associate director of the OIS, expects the number of new foreign students to increase this fall. \n"Our numbers look like they are up considerably," Schoch said. "We are pleased that we haven't seen a decline."\nAs of Monday, the OIS had over 800 international students pass through orientation, an 11 percent increase from last year's numbers. \n"It may be that people are coming to Indiana because it seems safe," Schoch said. "But we don't know that."\nSchoch said he believes many students will arrive late, delayed by a stricter student visa process adopted by the State Department in the wake of Sept. 11. \n"It has taken longer for some to get visas than in the past," Schoch said. "Reviewers are being very cautious to make sure they are dealing with reliable documents and good information."\nHe said the State Department has created a classified list of "certain profiles" that must undergo additional security checks before a visa may be approved. \nBrooke Hensley-Marschand, counselor at the Leo R. Dowling International Center, has received e-mails from students in Kuwait, Singapore, Turkey and Malaysia, complaining of an exceptionally lengthy visa process. \nThough they have been accepted to IU, most of them won't make it out of their countries in time for classes, she said. \n"It's been tough and frustrating," she said. "Even if they applied early, many are still waiting."\nExpecting a large number of late arrivals this fall, Hensley-Marschand said IU has, for the first time, set a deadline for the arrival of foreign students. Any international student who arrives after Sept. 9 will not be able to register, she said. \nChris Foley, admissions officer for international students, said his office was aware of the increased scrutiny given to student visa applicants. He said they tried to compensate by speeding up the admissions process. \n"We worked very hard getting admissions done early in the summer, so students would have a better chance of getting a visa," Foley said. "Given 9-11 and the new procedures in place, students were also more aggressive in getting visas. They did better planning."\nThe OIS has not detected a shift in where students are coming from either. The number of new Middle Eastern students has stayed relatively stable, Schoch said.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Two new buildings, a multi-disciplinary science building and a small building composed of lecture halls, will soon be constructed on campus, while the first stages of development for a humanities building have just begun. \nThe new science building will house representatives from all fields and -- for the first time -- allow for better cross-discipline research. It will tentatively be located between Myers Hall and the Chemistry Building.\n"The nature of scientific research has changed so much that many researchers and teams are working with people from different disciplines," said professor Tom Gieryn, Rudy Professor of Sociology and member of the faculty council Capital Projects Committee. "We need a space where scientists from different fields can work together."\nThe first phase of the project will cost $30 million. The second phase has yet to receive state appropriation, but it is the "highest construction priority" on campus as designated by the Capital Projects Committee. It is anticipated that the official ground-breaking ceremony will be held next April, with completion of the building estimated to be around 2006.\n"This is an extremely important project that will provide space for research in the life-sciences, biology, chemistry, medical sciences and biophysics," said Maynard Thompson, vice chancellor for budgetary administration and planning.\nA new classroom building will contain a number of large lecture halls to be used by the Kelley School of Business and the College of Arts and Sciences. It will also be the site for the largest lecture hall on campus -- with a capacity of 500. \nThe building will cost the state $10.5 million. \nThe new building will aggravate the continuous parking dilemma. It is to be located southwest of the Main Library, near the Radio and TV building -- but over part of the existing parking lot.\nGieryn said there was little choice for location. \n"The campus just faces a terrible crunch in terms of space," Gieryn said. "We've known that for years, and it's getting worse and worse."\nFreshman Will Glass said there's no need for a big parking lot at the library.\n"That thing is always packed," he said. "But people can either take the bus or walk."\nStill in its very nascent stages is the creation of a new humanities building, called the Arts and Sciences Classroom and Office building. Along with Ballantine Hall, it would be home for all the humanities currently scattered across campus.\nThe disciplines are now located in haphazard places such as Ashton, a house on Fess Street and Goodbody and Sycamore Halls. \n"It would be very helpful if we could regroup the humanities departments so units with shared intellectual interests could be located in close proximity to each other," said David Zaret, executive associate dean of COAS. \nThe new building would also alleviate the overcrowding in Ballantine Hall.\n"There is a real need to increase the amount of space for offices and classrooms in arts and in humanities -- but also to reorganize," Gieryn said. \nThe humanities building won't be constructed in the near future, Zaret said. The drastic cuts made in the state budget this biennium have stalled the project for now. By the time funding is approved and construction is underway, the building will not be complete for another six or seven years.
(04/24/02 6:11am)
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender support services is planning a conference at IU, the Sexual Minority Youth in the Heartland Conference, for July 19-21. It will educate teachers, counselors and principals on ways to handle sexual minority youths in their communities and schools.\nSix days later, the Boy Scouts of America will kick off its Order of the Arrow conference, an elite jamboree of camping and recreation. Nearly 8,000 are expected to attend, making it the largest gathering here this summer.\nA clash of the conferences has created a clamor on campus because of the Boy Scout's policy against admitting homosexuals. \nAlready, the announcement of the presence of the Boy Scouts this summer has some feeling uncomfortable. The anti-harassment team of the GLBT has received a number of complaints, asking IU to bar the Boy Scouts from campus. \nTo some, permitting the Order of the Arrow conference to take place here is a contradiction of IU's diversity messages. \n"The GLBT team did receive some reports from students who were upset and angered that IU was using their facilities for an organization like the Boy Scouts, whose bigotry with regard to sexual orientation issues seemed to be clear," GLBT advisor Bill Shipton said.\nUnder law, IU has no choice but to allow the Scouts to come, University counsel, Kip Drew, said. The First Amendment provides all groups with equal access to IU's campus. The University, however, does not support every group that comes here.\n"As a state entity, once we make our facilities available for use by outside groups, we can't engage in viewpoint discrimination," Drew said. "With regard to the Boy Scouts, it's certainly not consistent with diversity policy."\nIn the case of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale two years ago, the Supreme Court affirmed the Scout's right to exclude gays from its organization. \n"The University respects the concept of having groups from diverse backgrounds here at the campus," IU spokesman Kirk White said. "And just as the University hosts this group, it hosts others that have the opposing view."\nThe large presence of Boy Scouts in part influenced the GLBT decision to proceed with its own Sexual Youth Minority in the Heartland conference, which has been in the works for five years, GLBT coordinator Doug Bauder said. \nThe idea for the GLBT conference initially emerged as a result of hearing concerns from gay youths who reported feeling isolated in small communities such as Spencer, Bedford and Martinsville. The GLBT discovered that rarely do these small towns have adults who make themselves accessible to those struggling with their sexual orientation. \n"Those who turn to guidance counselors in small towns often get quoted Bible passages or get made fun of," he said. "They aren't helped at all."\nThe GLBT Youth Conference is an invitation to teachers, counselors and principals in the Heartland who want to support and help gay youth in their communities. Topics of discussion will include safe schools, the prevention of sexually transmitted disease, how to support GLBT youth and strategies of inclusion.\n"We want to encourage folks who have an interest in this issue to be open about the support they are willing to provide," Bauder said. "The hope is that more schools or communities will have at least one individual who would come forward and say 'This is a need we have to address, and I'm willing to help.'"\nThe conference is the first of its kind in the Midwest. Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders is the keynote speaker. \n"It's something IU is uniquely positioned to provide," said Bauder, referring to IU's location in the center of the traditionally conservative southern Indiana. "We relate to a lot of students who begin to address these issues after growing up in a small town."\nDespite the complaints about the Order of the Arrow conference, White said IU's commitments to diversity remain intact. \n"Many groups target (the Scouts) as an old standard that needs to be changed," White said. "The University respects the concept of having groups from diverse backgrounds here at the campus"
(04/17/02 4:43am)
A trio of calendar changes will not be voted on this year by the Bloomington Faculty Council. At Tuesday's BFC meeting, the committee tabled the proposal, or postponed action on it until next fall. \nThe proposal would have given students and faculty a day-off on Labor Day and extended Thanksgiving break for the entire week. In exchange, classes would have started a week earlier in August. \nThe issue of laboratory days and the combination of all three calendar provisions into one bill proved thorny enough to postpone the measure. The council agreed to take the provision up again next fall after revisiting the proposal's concerns. \nFor most faculty, a Labor Day holiday was appetizing. But those in opposition said a Monday vacation at the start of the semester would disrupt laboratory scheduling, which depends on week long blocks. \n"A broken week eliminates a week of lab work and has significant impact on the academic mission of all departments," BFC president Bob Eno said. \nSome council members were also turned off by the inclusion of the provision to shorten the summer by one week. The summer months are valuable for faculty research. \n"The contentious issue is having a week of classes before the end of August," member Malcolm McFarlane said. "This will heavily affect all research departments."\nThe proposal has good merit but deserves more careful consideration before a deciding vote can be cast, he said.\nThe council will address the faculty concerns and present a more palatable proposal come fall. \n"Yes, I want Labor Day off," Ellen Andersen said, "but there needs to be a provision on what to do with the labs because that issue was not well dealt with."\nOther faculty members thought Tuesday's decision was a spoiled opportunity to finally give IU a respite on Labor Day. \n"My feeling was that this has come up over and over again, and tabling it didn't resolve anything," Elin Jacob said.\nJacob supported the proposal to establish a symmetry of days between the fall and spring semesters. Currently, the first semester has two fewer class days than the second semester. \nSteven Watt affirmed that the council was not giving up on a Labor Day holiday. \n"The message (Labor Day classes) sends is negative," he said. "We should have the resolve to come back and revisit this issue"
(04/10/02 5:17am)
In response to allegations of workers' rights abuse, IU has terminated its licensing contract with the New Era Cap Company. The termination came as a result of New Era's repeated refusal to cooperate with the Workers' Rights Consortium, a labor rights watchdog that represents IU and other universities. \nPresident Myles Brand sent a letter to New Era in early March threatening to terminate the contract unless the company complied with the Workers' Rights Consortium investigation of a New Era factory in Derby, N.Y. New Era did not meet Brand's deadline for compliance.\nThe lack of responsiveness by New Era and IU's concern for the continuing disregard for labor rights prompted president Brand to terminate the contract, Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations Bill Stephan said.\n"There has been significant time given to New Era to make some headway, but there wasn't the progress we had hoped for," Stephan said. "There were some concerns about health and safety issues in particular, and the (sweatshop advisory committee) determined that there was some legitimacy to these concerns."\nJunior Megan Hise, member of the IU chapter of No Sweat!, said New Era has not shown respect for either its licensing contract with IU or the rights of its workers. \n"They have had ample time to comply and have given us significant reason for concern," Hise said. \nNo Sweat! represents students on the IU sweatshop advisory committee and fights for improved labor conditions worldwide. \nThe Workers' Rights Consortium and universities work in conjunction to improve labor conditions in factories where university apparel is manufactured. The consortium monitors labor conditions for universities, and universities use their licensing leverage to force improvements. \nThe consortium first released an expose of the Derby factory in August 2001, claiming that more than half of the New Era employees there had been diagnosed with a musculo-skeletal disorder. The report damned New Era for not implementing even "minimally adequate occupational health and safety protocols."\nIn a follow-up report released in February, the consortium charged New Era with evading the accusations and refusing to cooperate with further investigations.\nA meeting between the consortium and New Era has been scheduled for April 16. Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Damon Sims is hopeful there will be a constructive dialogue. \n"We have indicated that if they do comply finally and move in the right direction, then we will reconsider our relationship with them and perhaps consider renewing the contract," Sims said. \nBut Hise doubts New Era's sincerity in addressing the workers' rights issues, calling it just another stalling ploy.\n"This is just a beginning of mediation with the company, and if they aren't willing to be cooperative, then that doesn't say much for our hope for them to remediate the serious labor rights allegations," she said. "Until the WRC says they have made significant steps and have finished their investigation, I don't think we will be renewing the contract."\nTad Segal, spokesperson for New Era, defended the company, saying the allegations of poor working conditions are "just outright not true," and that the company is committed to its workers.\nThe April 16 meeting between New Era and the Workers' Rights Consortium should satisfy IU's conditions for compliance, he said. \n"The meeting is an effort to sit down with the Derby facility, to provide a full review of working conditions and to allow the Workers' Rights Consortium to take a look for themselves that this is a well run company that respects workers," he said.\n"We hope IU will take another look," Segal said. "We've had a good relationship in the past, and we hope to continue it."\nWith the decision to terminate its licensing contract with New Era, IU joins a small group of other universities including Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. \nStephan said the contract was worth "several thousand dollars"
(04/04/02 5:44am)
Faculty and students share the same perennial gripe each fall: Why are there classes on Labor Day? It's not unusual for IU to receive over a thousand complaints about this one calendar issue in a year. \nThe Bloomington Faculty Council heard a proposal Tuesday that would grant students and staff a day off on Labor Day and week-long vacation over Thanksgiving.\nIn exchange, however, summer vacation would be a week shorter to accommodate the extra days. The fall semester would also be two days longer. \nThe BFC will open the vote on the proposal to all IU faculty members in a rare campus-wide faculty referendum. The final tally will be counted May 3. \nBFC member Barry Rubin said there seems to be a consensus for a Labor Day holiday among the faculty. They "consistently" don't like to bother with classes on the holiday, he said.\nBut Rubin was not convinced that lengthening the first semester in exchange would pass a council vote. He conducted his own informal survey of faculty in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and found opinion to be equally divided.\n"About half thought it was wonderful," he said. "The other 50 percent have a variety of good reasons to oppose it." \nHe said adding an extra week will impact the time usually reserved for freshman orientation. Also, it means one less week for faculty research, which is typically done in the summer. \nBFC member Abhijit Basu said the changes will interfere with laboratory scheduling in the science departments. A Labor Day respite occurring during the second week of school will make lab requirements difficult. \n"It is not the extra days, but the interruption," he said. "It breaks up the continuity of the weeks, and we won't have meaningful labs." \nBasu also noted the proposal forces the physical plant to squeeze its repair work of classrooms and residence halls into fewer days.\nAssociate Dean of Faculties Kim Smith explained some of the proposal's benefits to the BFC members. Many students leave early for Thanksgiving and skip the Monday and Tuesday before break, she said. Giving students the full week off would alleviate this problem. Because Labor Day is a national holiday, much of the campus services are limited as well. \nThe 2002-03 and the 2003-04 academic years are set to begin on Labor Day. Any changes in the academic calendar will not go into effect until fall 2003.
(04/02/02 6:40am)
When the news broke that auditing agency Arthur Andersen shredded Enron-related documents, the company's demise was supposed to be imminent. When Andersen was indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, when clients like Delta defected, and when the C.E.O. resigned, its demise was supposed to be swift.\nBut so far it has been neither, in part due to strong ties to places like IU and the Kelley School of Business.\nAndersen has maintained "thoughtful and informative" contact with the Kelley School since the first stages of the company's crisis began to unfold, said accounting professor James Pratt. The mishandling of documents in the Enron case should not be indicative of the performance of the entire company, he said.\n"I don't want to discount the severity of the situation," Pratt said. "But the unfortunate situation that occurred in one office is not necessarily representative of the people who work on another audit."\nAndersen employs over 85,000 people in 84 countries and 28,000 people domestically.\nAt the Kelley School of Business, Arthur Andersen is the number one recruiter. In 2001, company officials made close to 85 trips to the Kelley School for career fairs, orientation programs, roundtables and interviews. \nAccording to statistics on the Business Placement Office Web site, notable changes occurred in recruiting patterns this year. Andersen hired only 25 IU students this year, compared to 40 last year. \nThis is coupled with a surge in recruiting experienced by one of Andersen's biggest rivals, Deloitte & Touche. It hired 41 students, compared to only 22 last year.\nJob offers are made in January, said director of the Business Placement Office Randy Powell, so students were aware of accusations of document shredding at the time of their hiring. \nBy Powell's standards, Andersen had an off-year in recruiting. He said they consistently have hired 30 to 40 students for the last 15 years. \nDespite the apparent drop in recruiting, the strong relationship between Andersen and the Kelley School has been reinforced since the Enron scandal was made public, Powell said. Contact has increased with the faculty who generally defend Andersen's position. And students who have been hired by Andersen also have stood up for the company, he said. \n"They put a lot of energy and effort in this school," Powell said. "Andersen is doing a good job of staying in touch with faculty in e-mails and personal visits. They've been down here and met with all the students they made offers to. It has made (the relationship) a little bit stronger."\nThe stronger relationship assumes Andersen survives its indictment for obstruction of justice by the SEC. And even if it does, it may be radically transformed. The Volker proposal in front of the SEC would create a new management team at Andersen in exchange for dropping the charges.\nJohn Hill, professor of accounting, said although the indictment doesn't look good for the future of Andersen, it's not all grim news. \n"It certainly doesn't look good," he said. "From the standpoint of students, I don't think in the long run they are going to be hurt at all. Interest in accounting is up as a result of the Enron thing. Students see all this controversy and it's kind of exciting. If accounting has the potential to be this problematic, then that's kind of interesting."\n Powell has kept in touch with IU alumni who work at Andersen all over the country. They have called him regularly to say the company is still afloat. \n "Alums are still calling me to say it's a great company," he said. "They are extremely distressed that a few could destroy the image of their great company. I don't know what is still going to happen."\n At the moment, everyone is waiting to see how the SEC indictments will pan out.\nLast spring, IU hired Arthur Andersen's consulting division to lead a task force for a massive Review of Non- Academic Administrative Services. The task force made 16 cost-effective recommendations that are now in the stage of being implemented.\nJudy Palmer, chief financial officer at IU led the task force. She was "pleased" with the report Andersen did.\nPalmer said it would be impossible for her to speculate on whether Andersen would be hired by IU in the future, but that "all these factors would certainly come into play."\nGraduate student David Kibiger is president of the accounting fraternity Beta Alpha Psi and the Student Accounting Society. He said the company has always been one of the most active and most visible to work with.\n"Andersen has been wonderful working with us and keeping the relationship alive," Kibiger said. "We don't know what's going to happen to the company. That is still up in the air. Andersen has been awesome in the past."\nKibiger said the document shredding and the since-maligned reputation would not alone sway his decision to seek an auditing job there. \n"The people I've met at Andersen and the type of work they do are excellent," he said. "They are one of the best companies I have seen. Yes, they have problems, but I see it more as a blip on the radar screen." \nA rash of defections from Andersen has been steady. Delta airlines, Sara Lee and Calloway Golf are among the 50 companies who have left the auditing agency. The Hershey Corporation is among those who have decided to stay.\nDick Culp, director of administration for the Indianapolis office of Andersen, downplayed the mounting problems his company faces. "The quality of the company has been called into question by some people looking in from the outside," he said. "But the quality of the company is not in fact questionable. This kind of event could have happened to any of a number of large companies."\nProfessor Pratt spoke differently.\n"It's a very serious situation," he said. "There is a fair amount of uncertainty about what will play out in the end"
(03/27/02 4:17am)
Brooklyn don and hip-hop star Fabolous will bring his signature sneer to IU in concert April 17. The show is sponsored by Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and is part of the Little 500 festivities.\nIt will be held outdoors in the fenced-in yard behind the ZBT house at 1500 N. Jordan Ave. Tickets are on sale there for $20. The show starts at 6 p.m.\nAt 22, Fabolous is one of the hottest upstart rappers in the country. His debut album, Ghetto Fabolous, made it to No. 4 on the Billboard charts last September. It has been propelled by the "holla back" single "Young'n" and "Can't Deny it" with Nate Dogg. \nThe young'n also lent verses on the R&B hits "Peaches and Cream," by 112, and "Superwoman Pt. 2," by Lil Mo. \n"We decided to get Fabolous because rarely does a hip-hop artist come to the Little 5," ZBT external social David Jacobson said.\nZBT internal social Steve Gold thinks IU students will enjoy the show. He said he expects about 2,500 people to pack the backyard to see Fabolous. \n"He's up-and-coming, he's getting big, he's on MTV and BET and we just thought it would be a great show," Gold said. \nLocal hip-hop group Holistic will open for Fabolous.
(03/25/02 7:41pm)
The storm has not yet passed. Despite weathering over $100 million in budget cuts this year, IU is bracing for another round this week. \nGovernor Frank O'Bannon is expected to announce more cuts Thursday to bail out the beleaguered $1.3 billion deficit projections.\nDon Weaver, IU's representative at the state house, doesn't think IU can take much more pounding. \nThe state has brought down the ax enough on IU, he said. \n"Anything additional at this point will be very harmful to the institution," Weaver said. "We are very leery of what might be coming still."\nKirk White, director of Hoosiers for Higher Education, predicts more of the same in cuts this week. O'Bannon still has several hundred million left to plug, he said.\nWhite and Hoosiers for Higher Education sent an e-mail Thursday to alumni to inform them of the latest budget cuts and to encourage them to write letters to O'Bannon in defense of higher education. \n"Further reductions will limit access for students and place faculty hiring and retention gains at risk," White wrote in the letter. "Now is not the time to make further cuts to the higher education budget."\nThe nearly $100 million in funding that IU will not receive next year has translated so far into cuts in the technology division, renovation and repair projects, layoffs at the physical plant and administrative expenses, as specified by contingency plans President Myles Brand announced in December. \nWhite said future cuts to education may ultimately put pressure on trustees to raise tuition. Ball State University announced a 10 percent tuition increase Friday for summer enrollment. \n"What does this mean for tuition?" White said. "There comes a time when you have to say when do these budget cuts impact student's ability to stay in school or come to the University in the first place."\nKaren Adams, vice president for information technology, said cutting technology funding again will set back one of the strongest university technology programs in the nation. \nUniversity technology has already been crippled by losses of over two-thirds of its budget due to previous state cuts. In a field that changes as rapidly as technology does, the cuts will do irreparable damage, she said.\n"The ongoing budget cuts are going to continue to jeopardize our IT initiatives," she said. "No one wants to see that happen in terms of the success we've had."\nServices such as student technology centers, classroom equipment and the support structure will have to be scaled back, Adams said. \n"Any compromise in the funding is going to jeopardize (these services) for students," she said. "We are really going to have to reprioritize and slow down some initiatives, while others may stall out completely."\nIU was rated one of the top ten most wired campuses by Yahoo!. Maintaining that elite status may not be possible now.\n"There's simply no way for us to stand still and maintain what we've achieved right now," Adams said. "We're going to quickly be overtaken by other universities if we're not able to quickly press on."\nMaynard Thompson, vice chancellor for budgetary administration and planning, said these cuts and future ones are "really going to affect our mission." \n"Each one gets more difficult to cope with," Thompson said.
(02/19/02 6:15am)
The high-speed Internet connection at IU that links scientists throughout the U.S. with those in Japan, Korea and Singapore, has just become eight times faster. This international Internet hookup, called TransPAC, makes it possible for researchers separated by thousands of miles of water to share data in real time. \nThe monumental increase in bandwidth was announced last week. Vice President of Information Technology Michael McRobbie said the improvements will make long-distance collaboration even more successful. \n"It will provide a very significant enhancement of the global digital infrastructure that underpins e-science collaboration between the United States and the Asia Pacific," McRobbie said.\nThe TransPAC Internet connection was founded in 1998 with a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation and the Japan Science and Technology Corporation. This is the first significant speed increase in its brief existence.\n"This has brought IU great international visibility," said Dennis Gannon, chair of the department of computer science. "For the students, it has given them a chance to get to work with their counterparts in Asia. TransPAC has put Indiana on the Pacific rim."\nThe upgrade created two 622 megabytes-per-second connections to replace the single 155 Mbps pipe, an eightfold improvement.\n"This is a tremendous increase in capacity and resiliency because there are now two separate links," said Steven Wallace, director of the IU advanced network management lab. "The ability to do science over great distances has vastly improved." \nThe operation of TransPAC at IU has removed geographic barriers that once slowed scientific research. Scientists in San Diego and Japan can now simultaneously control and view images from remote electron microscopes via the Internet. Researchers in Seattle can jointly analyze nucleic acids with those in Japan or share data on matter and antimatter. \nThis digital science revolution, known as e-science, is being spearheaded in part by technology at IU. \n"IU is the lead institution for this particular program," Wallace said. "It provides network operation services, designs links and operates it in conjunction with the network operation center in Tokyo."\nThe faster lines will not be more costly to the University.\n"Technology is rather fluid, so as time goes on, you get more for less," Vice President of Telecommunications Brian Voss said. "This year we discovered that it was the right moment to get a significant amount of increase in capacity without spending any more money."\nVoss explained that the heavy use of the link and specifically 3-D graphics and video were congesting the TransPAC connections and beginning to impede the exchange of information. \nThis upgrade should alleviate that problem, Voss said. \n"As you widen these pipes, you make it possible for more advanced research to take place and more researchers to work simultaneously," Voss said.
(08/30/01 5:34am)
Professor Richard Shiffrin has been named the 2001 recipient of the David E. Rumelhart award, the equivalent of the Nobel prize for the field of psychology. He will be presented the award in recognition of his life-time accomplishments in the study of human memory.\nIn addition, he will receive $100,000 in prize money.\nShiffrin's research involves developing models of human memory that can be used to simulate and predict how memory functions. He is the director of the Cognitive Science department, the Luther Dana Waterman professor of Psychology and has worked at IU for more than 30 years. \n"It's very pleasing and a bit of an accident to be chosen from among so many scientists," Shiffrin said.\nDespite his modesty, he is far from unknown. Shiffrin's pursuit of working models of human memory have been accepted by researchers all over the world.\n While still in graduate school at Stanford, Shiffrin was establishing himself as one of the leading figures in cognition. He created a new model of short and long term memory called the "modal model" of memory. It received immediate acclaim and is still used today. \n He has also been a pioneer in the areas of skill development, memory association and memory recall. Most recently, he developed a model dubbed REM, for 'retrieving effectively from memory.'\n Professor James McClelland of Carnegie Mellon University, chair of the prize selection committee, said Shiffrin's work during the years in human memory "represents a progression similar to the best theories seen in any branch of science."\n IU has always been a breeding ground for psychological activity. In the 1880s, William Lowe Bryan founded what is now the oldest continuing psychology laboratory in the U.S.\n "This is one of the strongest programs that exists," Shiffrin said. "Good students and colleagues make it an excellent place to work."\n The University's enduring reputation in psychology is due, largely, to Shiffrin's research. \n "Dr. Shiffrin has been instrumental in the development of Indiana University's reputation as a leader in the areas of cognitive science and informatics," IU President Myles Brand said. \nShiffrin is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received a Warren Medal from the Society of Experimental Psychologists and a MERIT from the National Institute of Mental Health. His finding have been published in more than 70 journals.\nThe second recipient of the David E. Rumelhart prize, Shiffrin will receive his award at the next conference of the Cognitive Science Society. It will be held at George Mason University in 2002.
