A LITTLE BIT OF CLASS
(09/01/05 4:00am)
Free Friday night? Throw a cocktail party
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Campus clocks part of longtime IUSA campaign pledge
(08/31/05 6:51am)
This summer, IU alumna Meredith Suffron, Class of 2001, came back to Bloomington to take pictures of a hole in the ground.\nNow a few months later, a red, four-faced clock fills the hole in front of Woodburn Hall and a second stands between the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and Delta Gamma Sorority with two more in the works -- tentatively planned to go in the Arboretum and on Third Street. The street clocks help students get to class on time and fulfill a campaign promise that drove Suffron's IUSA ticket five years ago.\n"I hope students who travel like I did from Ballantine Hall to psychology or business will use them," Suffron said. "I really hope it will enable students to spend more time in the different areas of campus."\nFor Suffron, the idea began in the spring of 2000 as she prepared to run for IUSA president on the Platinum ticket.\n"One of the things we ran on is the fact that all the clocks in every building were different," said IU alumnus Scott Witoszynski, Suffron's vice president of administration on the Platinum Ticket, "and you never knew what time it was."\nIn the summer of 2000, members of IUSA met with IU Foundation President Curt Simic to gain funding and write a proposal. In favor of the idea, Simic decided to get anniversary classes to sponsor each clock.\nThat's when Simic called Nancy Otte, a 1976 graduate of the School of Optometry, who became co-chair of fund raising for the clocks. Working with the IU Foundation, Otte made phone calls and sent out letters to get funding for each of the four clocks, which cost $50,000 each and feature the Global Positioning System to make them all read the same time. The class of 1976, as well as 1941 and 1942, will sponsor the clocks. The fourth will be paid for in recognition of IUSA, said Director of the IU Student Foundation Jonathan Purvis.\n"I'm one of those students who wore a watch every day," Otte said. "But I can see students using it every day."\nFirst year Ph.D. student Chris Hatch is not one of those students who wears a watch every day.\n"I noticed it this morning when I got out of my car and wondered what time it was," Hatch, standing by the Neal-Marshall clock Tuesday afternoon as rain dribbled off of his blue and white umbrella. "I had an 8 a.m. and I saw it was 7:52 and I thought, 'Well, great.'"\nThat's exactly the reaction Suffron said she was hoping for, along with the idea that the clocks, made by The Verdin Company in Cincinnati, will continue to beautify the campus.\n"They're a little bigger than I expected," said Dean of Students Richard McKaig. "But this is obviously a campus that cares what it looks like outside. I can see them becoming part of the tradition."\nSo can Simic.\n"We now have new landmarks," he said. "I can see students saying now, 'Hey, let's meet at the clock.'"\nOtte plans to visit the clock her class sponsored, which will be erected soon in the Arboretum, when she comes to campus for the IU vs. Kentucky football game in a few weeks. For now, though, she hopes students use the clocks to get to class on time.\n"The clocks will be timeless," she said.\n-- Senior Writer Mike Malik contributed to this story.
Anatomy of a drunk dial
(08/31/05 5:52am)
Standing on Kirkwood Avenue at about 2 a.m. any given night of the weekend, it's hard to miss the girls in sequined tank tops and the boys in Lacoste polos with cell phones attached to their ears engaging in one of IU's favorite drunken past times: The drunk dial. Quite simply, drunk dialing is the act of using the phone when drunk. It's a seemingly innocent situation that can turn ugly when ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, parents and bosses show up on the call log the next morning. \nOn Thefacebook.com, the IU chapter of the Drunk Dialers Anonymous group has a total of 2,177 members. Its description says, "The members of this group, under no circumstances, should be allowed around an electronic communicative device after consuming two or more alcoholic beverages." \nDee Owens, director of the IU Alcohol and Drug Information Center, said alcohol acts as a social lubricant, making drinkers more relaxed after a drink or two and easing inhibitions.\n"After a couple drinks, alcohol becomes more than a social lubricant," she said, "and that's how you get to make a fool of yourself"
IU tapped as top 'draft' pick
(08/30/05 6:16am)
On the Saturday night before classes start, the house party circuit is in full swing. \nWalking down Ninth Street, a group of girls giggle into the night as they link arms to travel from one house party toward another. At this particular party, there's a keg in the basement and a beer pong table in the living room.\nHolding a white plastic cup of beer, junior Dicky Hall stands in the kitchen with his friend, Georgetown University junior Inaki Cue chatting with a groups of girls dressed in sequins and \ngaucho pants.\n"Beer," Hall said smiling, "is an acquired taste."\n"Yes," Cue chimes in. "It's delicious."\nFrom freshman to fifth years, beer is the drink of choice for many at IU. Many bars' drink specials revolve around cheap beer, such as $0.15 beers Wednesdays at the Bluebird and $0.15 beers at Kilroy's on Kirkwood for Bladder Bust Friday nights. The drink is so popular, in fact, that The Princeton Review ranked IU as the No. 1 school for beer (and No. 6 for partying) based on surveys submitted to students across the country for its annual publication "The 361 Best Colleges." \n"I think it's funny how people make such a big deal about when IU earns a number one party school ranking or this latest 'Beer' ranking," said IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis. "You need to take it with a grain of salt because the methodology is so poor."\nRobert Franek, the book's author for the past seven years, disagrees.\n"It's a qualitative survey," he said. "It's the longest ongoing student survey in the country. One hundred thousand students can't be wrong. I'm not going to discredit their voices."\nFranek said the book's objective is to inform college-bound students and their parents about what they can expect at certain schools, for example if there is an active social scene or not.\nSunday afternoon, a few empty beer cans litter the yard of a five-bedroom house on 10th Street. A 24-count box of Bud Light bottles, now empty, sits next to the door. Inside, the house's five occupants spread out on couches and chairs in the unairconditioned living room, playing "Halo 2" and drinking Keystone.\n"It's a good replacement for air conditioning," said senior Kevin Lloyd. "It cools us on the inside."\nThe student survey is available year-round on The Princeton Review's Web site, but Franek said they officially begin distributing the survey to schools in October after getting permission to market the survey from an administrator at each school.\nDee Owens, the director of The Alcohol/Drug Information Center, said it's normal to have a drink or two when you're 21 to make you feel more relaxed, but there are problems when drinkers exceed the limit.\n"Three drinks is the maximum (number of) drinks that should be had in a sitting to make good judgements," she said. "Two drinks or more an hour is a binge drinking rate."\nFranek said he felt uncomfortable disclosing the name of his IU contact, but said it was an administrator in either the admissions or communications department. About 300 students from IU completed the survey.\n"(The number one ranking) doesn't surprise me," said senior Curt Streicher who said he drinks 18 beers on a good night. "IU is a large school in the Midwest and I can see beer being a more popular drink in the Midwest."\nJoel Sterrett, the beer manager at the Big Red Liquors on College Avenue, said between 150 and 175 kegs were bought last week. The store ordered 400 kegs for the first two weeks of school last year.\n"We're the number one school for beer?" he said. "That's awesome. This is definitely a beer community."\nSterrett said the most popular selling beer is Keystone Light, the beer the guys on 10th Street serve for their parties.\n"If we don't want to charge people, we serve cheap beer," said senior Robbie Comer.\nComer calls beer the social drink, and while most drinking games involve cards, such as Kings, Horse Race or Screw the Dealer, Streicher decided to take beer games to the next level. This past summer Streicher made large Drinko board, modeled off the game Plinko on the TV show "The Price is Right." A three-foot staircase is attached to the back so players can drop an object through the board's 90 pegs to see how many drinks they will give out or take.\nStreicher said their house is already known for the game and that people stop by to have their picture taken with the board.\n"It's better than a puppy," he said.\nOwens said she hears students say they're young and don't need to worry about their livers so they'll drink as much as they want, but liver damage isn't the only problem caused by excessive drinking. In the past year, there were 1,400 alcohol related deaths on college campuses and between 50,000 and 60,000 documented assaults, she said.\n"If a couple nights a week you get stinking drunk," she said, "you can have difficulty making it to class in the morning."\nAt the 10th Street house, the guys said they have rarely if ever missed class as a result of drinking, and as senior business students, they said they aren't worried about the value of their degrees declining because of the No. 1 beer ranking.\n"That ranking is coupled with a Top 10 business school ranking," said Lloyd (The Kelley School of Business was ranked No. 11 by the Princeton Review). "That just shows we have a work hard and play hard mentality"
University named 'Hottest Big State School' but ranked at bottom of Big Ten
(08/24/05 6:32am)
The rankings have arrived, and IU has taken the news with a grain of salt.\nWhile Newsweek listed IU on its list of America's Hottest Colleges, calling it the Hottest Big State School, the University slipped three spots in US News & World Report's ranking of the top 100 schools to No. 74, tying with Michigan State and Minnesota as the lowest ranking schools in the Big 10. \n"Obviously (Newsweek) is an attractive ranking," said Dean of Students Richard McKaig. "But we have to take all rankings with a grain of salt."\nMcKaig said US News & World Report's ranking did not come as a surprise and that IU tends to stay in the same range throughout the years.\n"I think everyone would be happier if we went up three spots rather than down," he said. "But I'm not worried about it."\nIU is known for getting a lot out of limited resources, McKaig said, and the numbers used to rank the schools don't always factor that in.\nWhile US News & World Report's Web site says its rankings are primarily objective with 75 percent of the overall score coming from a formula that uses numeric measures such as graduation rates, Newsweek admits its list is "inherently subjective," a fact that doesn't faze McKaig.\n"It certainly brings the name to students outside the state," he said, "which is always a good thing."\nAnother positive rating for IU is the Kelley School of Business' 11th place overall ranking for business schools by US News & World Report, with top 10 rankings in specific programs such as accounting, marketing and finance.\n"I think you have to take it with a grain of salt," said finance professor Robert Jennings. "Of course a low number is better than a high, but I don't believe in a specific number."\nThe finance program was ranked seventh.\n"I'm kind of a legacy here," said freshman Mike Skopelja, who has older sisters who attended IU. "But I chose IU because they have such a big business program."\nJennings said he thinks the business school is consistently in the top 20 because it is one of the few schools that pays attention to both graduate and undergraduate programs, and that business students have a number of good jobs waiting for them when they graduate. And, of course, there's the breadth of offerings available for students.\nThe large number of opportunities for students is one of the reasons Newsweek listed IU as its Hottest Big State School, citing the University's 328 degree programs and 130 majors. It also specifically mentioned IU's embracement of wireless technology with its first place ranking from Intel for wireless connectivity.\n"I think the real key here is our strategic plan that has been implemented over the last seven years," said Sue Workman, director of user support at University Information Technology Services. "We anticipate the trends."\nWorkman said she thinks areas such as the Information Commons at the Herman B Wells Library and the fact that 90 percent of the campus is wireless makes it attractive to prospective students.\n"Rarely a week goes by that I don't get a call from another university on how we do things," Workman said.\nWhile McKaig said it's true some students look at all the lists and rankings to pick a school, he thinks there are too many other factors that influence a student's decision, such as if their parents went to IU or the reputation of a specific program.\n"I didn't just want to go to an average school," said freshman Lauren Alexander. "But I didn't look at the statistics, I based it on word of mouth."\nAlexander, who plans to major in theater, said she knew IU had a respected theater program, but she said she would go if she liked it regardless of what anyone else said.\n"I never really saw any rankings," she said, then paused. "I did see IU was listed as the Hottest Big State School though."\nSitting in an airport headed to the Stratford Festival of Canada with the IU Beginnings Art and Culture expedition, Alexander said she picked up an issue of Newsweek to find IU on its list of America's Hot Colleges.\n"I was like, 'Hey! I'm going there,'" Alexander said. "That was fun"
securing cyberspace
(04/28/05 3:59pm)
With the smell of "phishing" lingering in the air around campus, Fred Cate, IU law professor and director of IU's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, heads to Indianapolis to combat the problem that recently upset so many IU students -- cybersecurity.\nThe center, which researches computer and Internet security, in association with Purdue University and University of Notre Dame, will sponsor its second annual symposium on cybersecurity for colleges and universities today and Friday at the University Place Conference Center on the campus of IU Purdue University Indianapolis. "This gives us an opportunity to provide a sense of what works and what isn't working and how we can improve on it together," Cate said.\nIn its second year, the symposium has grown to three times its initial size with more than 200 registered participants representing 40 colleges and universities. Cate said hundreds of cybersecurity breaches occurred in the last three months, and a quarter of these were in universities.\n"Cybersecurity is important for everybody," Cate said, "but universities face additional challenges because we don't have traditional employees and have a lot of data stored such as grades, applications and financial information that makes it more challenging."\nMark Bruhn, IU chief information technology security and policy officer, said two issues pop up in cybersecurity discussions among universities. Discussion about the distribution of network devices is constant. In addition, three distinct communities -- students, faculty and staff -- work with the system, and each reacts differently. \nThe first day of the symposium focuses on high-level Internet security issues such as homeland security and features keynote speaker Amit Yoran, former director of the National Cybersecurity Division in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, discussing "Enterprise Risk Management in the Cyber World." According to an IU press release, Yoran is currently the CEO of Yoran Enterprises after stepping down as the cyber chief of President Bush's administration. The second day of the program will focus on more university-specific issues.\nCate said IU, a cybersecurity leader, will share tips on how it has improved its security in the past year. \nStill, every security issue is not as simple as running a virus scan, and Cate said he doesn't believe there will be an end for the need for symposiums such as today's anytime soon.\n"I'd love if the issue would go away," Cate said. "I'd love to be able to spend my time thinking about the great and wonderful things we can do with the Internet and not how to protect against harm. The Internet is wonderful, but it doesn't mean it's safe." \n-- Contact Senior Writer Kathleen \nQuilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
The business of culture
(01/19/05 5:02am)
As their neighbors crunched salted peanuts and buttered popcorn, Rick Schrimper and Zach Posner looked out from their seats along the first baseline of Yankee Stadium and created a business.\n"I'd never been to New York City before," said Schrimper, an accounting lecturer at IU. "It was as good of a place as any to have a business meeting."\nSchrimper traveled to the Big Apple to meet with Posner, a 2001 IU graduate and former student of Schrimper's, to brainstorm ideas on how to create a talent pool for college artists to present their work to their peers and the industry. The conclusion reached at Yankee Stadium was cultureU.org.\nThe brainchild Web site of Schrimper and Posner is the perfect mesh of art, technology and business. The site lets college artists in a variety of fields like music, fashion and visual arts post their art online so it is easily accessible.\n"We took a beautiful blend of technology and successful business models to the arts and came out a winner," said Schrimper, now the Web site's CEO.\nSchrimper said he was reading about satellite radio in the early '90s and was disgusted with what he read, not believing the public would pay for music they could get over the airwaves for free.\n"I was looking at shit," Schrimper said. "The technology was great, but the content was yuck. I thought, 'There's got to be a way to get more original music.'"\nSchrimper took his fragment of an idea to Posner to help him think through the best way to connect technology with music.\n"We wanted to put Bloomington on the map as a cultural mecca," said Posner, cultureU.org's president.\nIU senior Mitch Greenfield's involvement in cultureU.org began as a class project. Schrimper, who is friends with one of Greenfield's professors, Dwight Worker, had Worker assign the creation of cultureU.org to a group of students in his class.\n"You'll never find the energy and enthusiasm you find in college-aged kids," Schrimper said. "If only you could capture that energy and motivation."\nNow Greenfield is the chief Web developer of the brightly designed yellow, red and blue Web site that was launched in mid-December and is still in its beta, or testing, stage. \n"It's never really complete," Greenfield said, "because we keep adding artists."\nClicking on the "musicians" link takes the user to a list of the artists and bands who are trying to make it big with cultureU.org. In his bio, IU senior Chris Jerles is caught mid-song with head thrown back and mouth open wide, wearing an orange Oasis \nT-shirt. His fingers grip his guitar. \nJerles said the mentality of cultureU.org is ideal for artists like him.\n"It provides what you're going after -- to create something you can share with people. This is a way you can do that," Jerles said.\nWhereas Jerles put a photo of himself on his cultureU.org profile, other artists choose different options. Instead of her portrait, IU graduate student Rachel Greenhoe chose one of her 11 paintings, "Burano Market," to represent herself.\nGreenhoe said she decided to post her work to gain more exposure as she worked on her master's degree in art administration at IU. Recently, an interior-designer friend in Chicago who is working on a freelance project designing a bar recommended Greenhoe to her clients.\n"The site provides me with an easy way to show my work to potential clients," Greenhoe said. "The owners of the bar were looking for art work to hang in their business, and the site was an easy way for them to see my work."\nGreenhoe's experience with cultureU.org is exactly the one Schrimper hopes to continue to cultivate.\n"This gives the opportunity to students at small schools, where no one knows who you are, to compete with the big names," Schrimper said. "It levels the playing ground."\nEventually Posner and Schrimper hope to have every college across the country logged on. But for now, they are focusing on three key schools where the creators have connections: Stanford University, where Posner's sister attends; New York University, "because to be in the arts you have to be in New York City," Schrimper said; and IU.\n"(IU) is a love, and it's where we are all based," Posner said. "So it gets favored the biggest."\nStill, the creators are ready to see the site move beyond its grassroots.\n"By fall we'd like to have it at 10 to 15 campuses," Greenfield said. "We don't want to throw it out there all at once. We want to try and get a few campuses going really well first."\nAlthough the site has just three primary schools at the moment, artists from other schools such as Notre Dame University, Harvard University and Columbia University have added their music and art to the site. Schrimper is banking on news of the free promotion site to travel fast.\n"College kids are so connected," he said. "Once you get college kids to use something, word travels fast."\nAlthough Schrimper has been involved in previous business ventures before, he is sure of the success of cultureU.org.\n"I wouldn't have pursued it if I didn't get strong feedback from artists in the first place," Schrimper said.\nSchrimper and Posner said they believe cultureU.org is well on the way to success. Schrimper wants to expand the Web site to include more categories, including movies and journalism. Talks are underway to pair with a major satellite radio station, and the site has paired with WIUS-AM for a site showcase in which four musicians from cultureU.org, including Jerles, will perform on the air Friday.\nSchrimper said the broadcast will be digitally recorded and aired on the Web site, where users can vote on their favorite performance. Schrimper said he is working to get the winner a gig at a local establishment and eventually a possible contract with the satellite radio station.\n"If you throw competition in there, it helps," Schrimper said.\nAlthough they admit they have big dreams, Schrimper and Posner created the site with one specific idea in mind.\n"We're not out there to make millions," Posner said. "We want to give back to the artists as much as possible. It's a fun ride that's really starting to work."\n-- Contact Features Editor Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
The legacy lives on
(01/14/05 2:07pm)
It's a simple word, but a word that started a revolution.\nWhen Rosa Parks said "no," refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. city bus, she attracted nationwide notoriety as well as the attention of the young Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. King organized a yearlong bus boycott that nearly bankrupted the bus company and spurred a movement that changed the country.\n"The bus boycott was very important because it brings all the elements of peaceful protest together," said Claude Clegg, associate dean of arts and sciences for graduate education and program development at IU. Clegg specializes in African Diaspora as well as modern U.S. social movements.\n"(The boycott) captures the essence of the movement," he said. "Especially since there was a focus on a leader, King. There's always the need to focus on an individual who captures the imagination of the country."\nClegg, along with other IU faculty members, said it would be impossible to mention the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s without its force of civil disobedience embodied by King, whose birthday will be celebrated Monday.\nClegg said without the element of peaceful protest, the civil rights movement would never have gotten off the ground. Instead, the federal and state governments would have seen the actions as a law-and-order issue, not a moral or social movement.\n"If they had violated the law using violence, the movement would have lost the moral force that gave it strength," Clegg said.\nAssociate Professor of Sociology Fabio Rojas said it was this moral high ground that gave the movement the strength it needed to succeed.\n"The key tool in a peaceful protest is a moral argument," Rojas said. \nAlong with a strong moral tug to American heartstrings, the media helped peaceful protests succeed by showing the protesters as average middle class Americans, an image the majority of America could identify with, Clegg said.\n"Don't discount the power of TV," Clegg said. "The TV showing Rosa Parks and people holding hands and singing all looked very American and very middle class."\nRojas said he thinks violence is usually not the answer, even though it is often the first reaction to conflict.\n"Peaceful protest is underestimated," Rojas said. "The hard part is getting people to believe it will work. Even within the black community (during the civil rights movement), it's hard to believe (peaceful protest) will help."\nPart of the reason some might find this method so difficult to stomach is because sometimes peaceful protests end in violence, and protesters are told not to fight back.\n"It sends a message to those oppressed of 'don't defend yourself,'" Clegg said. "Tactically, it's the only way to go, but how psychologically good is it to do nothing when someone is throwing bottles at you constantly?"\nClegg said it's a hard idea to grasp because it's a natural act to try and minimize the damage and defend yourself if someone is attacking you, making the act of peaceful protests seem passive.\nHowever, Rojas said peaceful protests are actually an aggressive tool.\n"Nonviolence is not random," Rojas said.\nProtests, like King's March on Washington in 1963, are extremely organized, and protesters even practiced how they would react if police came.\n"They were taught not to lose their cool and fight back," Rojas said. "It was actually very strategic. They knew people were watching."\nInspired by prominent peaceful protesters in the past, civil disobedience is still a popular method of gaining attention for a cause.\nYogesh Simmhan, graduate student and president of Association for India's Development, organized a rally in Dunn Meadow in early December to protest a chemical spill that killed thousands in Bhopal, India in December 1984.\nSimmhan said AID and its volunteers have always been inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi who showed 60 years ago that nonviolence can be a strong weapon in the hands of the masses.\n"This brought about the Indian independence," Simmhan said. "MLK did the same with his civil rights movement, inspired by Gandhiji," referring to Gandhi. "With such great precedents set for us, it was obvious we follow in their footsteps."\nBecause peaceful protests are confrontational in a civil way, they have the ability to change the mentalities of large masses.\n"The stakes were high," Clegg said. "People were being asked for a fundamental rethinking of race relations."\nBut the power of peaceful protests was never in question.\n"We've changed for the better, and we're not going back," Rojas said. "It wasn't an easy fight, but we won."\n-- Contact Features Editor Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Student vigil commemorates 20th anniversary of disaster
(12/07/04 4:38am)
As the sun set over Dunn Meadow Monday, supporters of the Association for India's Development, stood at the corner of Seventh Street and Indiana Avenue, and quietly sang over the traffic, remembering the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster.\nIn early December 1984, 27 tons of lethal gases leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. Though death tolls vary, 3,000 people were killed immediately following the accident, and as many as 20,000 people have died because of the chemicals contaminating the soil and water since that date.\nYogesh Simmhan, president of AID and graduate student, organized Monday evening's quiet rally after a Dec. 3 viewing of the documentary "Bhopal: The Search for Justice" about the 20th anniversary disaster.\n"It was so moving," he said. "We felt we had to do something; we were moved to something more."\n"The toxins have passed from generation to generation. Some children are born with cleft lips and webbed fingers," Simmhan said.\nEarly Monday evening, the group gathered in Dunn Meadow, holding signs asking the Dow Chemical Company, the company which bought Union Carbide, to clean up the site.\n"I came today because I'm Indian," said graduate student Tanvi Lal as she held a "Dow Clean Up Bhopal" sign, "It's so heart-wrenching."\nAs pedestrians wandered through Dunn Meadow, members and supporters of AID handed out information sheets and talked about the chemical spill. While many took the paper and continued walking, some stopped to listen.\nAfter listening to Simmhan speak, Kelly Wherley, facilities coordinator at the Mathers Museum, signed a petition to be sent to Dow's CEO.\n"I read about the 20th anniversary on some of the Weblogs I frequent," Wherley said. "I think corporate responsibility is a pressing issue. If we want to sustain the standard of living we have now they need to be held responsible."\nSimmhan said he wanted the protest to be a quiet but effective one.\n"We're trying to keep it quiet because it was a somber event," he said. "Also, we're just starting and we don't really have a mass of people to have a rally."\nHowever, he hopes one day he will. Simmahan said one of his main goals from the protest and candlelight vigil was to raise awareness on campus to become a more powerful protest force in the future.\n"People need to be aware of the fact that people are still suffering," said graduate student Rupali Patwardhan.\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Off-campus students have lunch with McKaig
(12/03/04 7:44pm)
Carrying his black skateboard, sophomore Patrick Ward walked into the nearly empty Georgian Room at 11:45 a.m. Thursday to find Assistant Dean of Students Suzanne Phillips organizing name tags at the front table.\n"Can I put you to work?" she asked Ward, inquiring if he could move the coat rack to the front of the room as she placed purple programs detailing the services and programs offered by the Division of Student Affairs on each of the clothed tables.\nWard joined almost 80 other randomly selected students Thursday to have lunch with Dean of Students Richard McKaig and talk about issues affecting students who live off campus.\n"We want your insight and advice," McKaig said at the beginning of the lunch. "What are we not doing that we ought to be doing?"\nMcKaig said the lunches occur four times a year, each one about a different topic. Thursday's lunch was geared toward off-campus sophomores and juniors.\n"Anytime I told anyone that I was having lunch with the dean of students, they were like, 'What did you do?'" Ward said, laughing.\nWard joined juniors Valerie Ray and Erin Poe, as well as, Hugh Jessop, director of the IU Health Center, to discuss a list of questions about off-campus students' perceptions of student services.\n"Usually I improvise," Jessop said as the three students went to the buffet to get their lunch. "I find out what the students are interested in and discuss those issues. It's more fun when they talk about something they want to talk about."\nJessop started with the easy questions, such as year, major and hometown, before moving into the main topics. \n"Ah, here's one I'm interested in," Jessop said. "Have you seen any advertising about the Health Center, and if so, where?"\nAfter covering the Health Center and the Counseling and Psychological Services' Web site, Poe looked up from her plate as McKaig sat down next to Ward at the table.\n"Well, now you have the dean right here," Jessop said. "I'm volunteering him for questions."\nMcKaig ate lasagna and nodded as the three students discussed problems with parking and getting around downtown Bloomington.\nMcKaig said after the lunch, that each table leader, who is a member of either the Division of Student Affairs or city officials, reports their findings to McKaig, who addresses the issues.\n"They aren't statistical findings or high research findings, but they are helpful," he said.\nAfter cleaning his plate and addressing the issues that interested the three students at Jessop's table, McKaig wiped his mouth with his napkin and got up from the table.\n"It's been nice talking with you," he said.\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Forum addresses terrorism
(11/15/04 4:17am)
As U.S. troops raided Falluja Friday afternoon, IU students gathered at the Indiana Memorial Union to dissect terrorism and the war on terror.\n"I know it was a bit ambitious," said David Baker, forum co-coordinator and graduate student. "But I wanted to see what IU students had to say on these issues, whether they were apathetic or not."\nBaker and the forum's other co-coordinator freshman Mohamed Yunus Rafiq broke the discussion into three panels on broad topics such as public discourse on terrorism, America's security consumption and consequences and international perspectives.\n"Since he is a Christian American and I am a Muslim African, we thought we could present some interesting angles," Rafiq said.\nAbout 1 p.m., Baker approached a microphone at the front table of the Frangipani Room, looked out into the room and welcomed the sparse audience of just fewer than 20 people for coming. After a few opening remarks, the forum began.\nBaker said he and Rafiq obtained their panelists by e-mailing various departments and student organizations that might have had an interest in the topics, but only students, either graduate or undergraduate were allowed onto the panels.\n"When you get an expert, there is really no discussion," Rafiq said. "With a student thing you can go from the bottom up."\nThe forum's panelists offered a variety of views on multiple aspects of the war in Iraq and terrorism, from personal army experience to how other countries view the United States, and its actions against terror. \n"How come we don't think of the U.S. as a threat to other securities?" asked graduate student and panelist Paritosh Srivastava.\nSome panelists simply wanted to have the audience question their way of thinking.\n"I really wanted to get people to think about how emotional the topic of terrorism is," said graduate student and panelist David Schwab. \nThe topic of terrorism proved to be emotional for some audience members who compared President George W. Bush to former Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, and who conveyed their frustration with the panelist's viewpoints.\n"What makes the United States think it can get on its high horse and tell Iraq what to do?" Zaineb Istrabadi, a professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Iraq who attended the forum because she had multiple students speaking, asked the third panel.\nAnother panelist, graduate student Jonathan Sauer said while he was happy to participate in the forum, he wasn't sure how effective it was.\n"I kind of feel like I'm preaching to the choir," Sauer said. "The people looking for alternative perspectives are already here. We're not reaching the people who need to hear this; the people who are dead set in their ways."\nAlthough Baker was pleased with the afternoon, he was disappointed with the student turnout. \n"Americans and IU students need to recognize their role in legitimizing the War on Terror," Baker said. "It's unfortunate that people aren't being more proactive."\nThe total number of audience members throughout the four and a half hour forum was almost 100, Baker said.\n"It's really important to turn off the video games and talk about democracy," Schwab said.\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
IU panel predicts modest 2005 economic growth
(11/11/04 4:43am)
Economists with the Kelley School of Business predicted an expanding economy for 2005 last Thursday, but at a slower rate than in 2004.\nThe Business Outlook Panel, a group consisting of four economic experts from IU, is an annual forecast which predicts the economic activity for the world, nation, state and city for the upcoming year. This year's panel included R. Jeffery Green, co-directorof the Indiana Center for Econometric Model Research and Business Economics and Public Policy professor; William Sartoris, professor of Finance; Jerry Conover, director of the Indiana Business Research Center and Thayr Richey, president of the Strategic Development Group.\nGreen said 2004 was a decent year for the U.S. economy, citing increases in real output, consumer spending and exports as well as low inflation and unemployment numbers. However, he warned the economy is still struggling.\n"Despite that good news, an awful lot of us have real concerns about the economy and where it's going," Green said at Thursday's panel discussion in Indianapolis. "The reason we have those concerns is even though the economy grew at a fairly robust rate, the stresses and strains on the economy grew at least as fast."\nGreen said he believes oil prices will continue to climb in 2005, which will lead to an increase in inflation, causing higher interest rates. He also predicted the trade deficit and federal deficit are going to put pressure on both the interest rates and the exchange rate of the dollar. All of these factors will lead to a slightly slower economy.\nHowever, he stressed the U.S. economy is not in any serious danger in 2005.\n"Now we aren't expecting a recession and we aren't experiencing a gloom and doom scenario for next year," he said.\nIn looking at financial markets, Sartoris said he was impressed with the way they have held up in the face of a variety of troubling situations over the past three years, such as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the corporate bankruptcies such as Enron and most recently ATA.\n"The bad news is there's still lots of major challenges facing the markets as we look ahead," Sartoris said.\nSartoris said he remained optimistic about the upcoming year in terms of financial markets, citing a strong demand for housing and continued foreign interest in U.S. securities.\nSpeaking specifically on Indiana's economy, Conover said the economic factor Hoosiers were the most interested in was employment. He said since 2003 the state has gained 28,000 payroll jobs. \n"That's very slow growth over the past 14 or 15 months, but at least it's growth, which is something refreshing given where we've been for a while," Conover said.\nStill, Conover said the state has seen nine consecutive months of higher employment than it had a year earlier. One of the state's growing employment sectors is construction, and Bloomington has been directly a part of this growth.\n"It's like walking out and seeing giant mushrooms after a spring rain. There are these brand new buildings in downtown Bloomington where did they come from?" Richey said, who spoke on Bloomington's economy. "It's a great sign of vitality. It's obviously a manifestation of the long-term plan of the city of Bloomington and it really has lots of promise for a more vital Bloomington economy."\nAlthough there was growth in construction and other sectors, including education and health, government and business services, Indiana's main sector, manufacturing, accounts for 19.4 percent of employment, but Richey said that number will continue to drop as companies continue to outsource and improve productivity.\n"We will continue to lose manufacturing jobs," Richey said.\nStill, Conover said he expected another year of increased employment in Indiana.\n"We're expecting a modest upturn in Indiana by this time next year, forecast an increase in employment by about .5 percent, that's about 15,000 jobs," Conover said.\nThe unemployment rate is predicted to remain stationary at 4.8 percent.\nThe panel is scheduled to speak around the state through Nov. 23.\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Alumna killed in car accident
(11/10/04 6:17am)
IU alumna Katharine "Kate" Bridget Comiskey, 24, of Bloomington was killed in a car accident on North Walnut Street Tuesday as she traveled to work.\nComiskey, a 2002 IU alumna and teacher at Indian Creek High School in Trafalgar, Ind., was traveling northbound on North Walnut at approximately 7:05 a.m. when a southbound vehicle driven by Bryan Gooldy, 45, of Bloomington, crossed the center line, resulting in a head-on collision, according to a Bloomington Police Department press release.\nAfter being transported to Bloomington Hospital, Comiskey was pronounced dead from injuries acquired from the accident.\nGooldy was also taken to Bloomington Hospital where he was treated for accident-related injuries.\nAccording to the BPD press release, prior to the accident, a motorist on Indiana 37 contacted Monroe County Central Dispatch to report a vehicle weaving in and out of its lane. Officers were dispatched to locate the vehicle, which was later identified as Gooldy's, but were not able to do so before the accident.\n"It was a hectic morning," said BPD Capt. Joe Qualters. "We know the roads were closed for at least a few hours."\nComiskey's mother, Nancy Comiskey, an IU journalism professor, said Kate Comiskey had truly found her calling teaching high school freshman English.\n"She loved every one of her kids, and they loved her, too," Nancy Comiskey said.\nNancy Comiskey said her daughter idolized her father, Steve Comiskey, who is also a teacher, and wanted to follow in his footsteps, devoting her life to education. But a desire to teach was not the only similarity the father and daughter shared.\n"She got her dad's sense of humor," Comiskey said. "She was so funny. I believe people will remember that after they forget how beautiful she was."\nDescribed by her mother as a tall knockout, Kate Comiskey was an animal lover, a lover of the Brown County woods and a lover of fashionable three-inch heels.\nWhile she was a student at IU, Kate Comiskey worked at Michael's Uptown Café where she was close to much of the staff.\n"She had so many friends here," said Melinda Danielson, a manager at Michael's Uptown Café. "She was one of the best spirits I've come in contact with, and I can see the loss is affecting a lot of people here."\nAccording to the BPD press release, the accident remains under investigation with pending toxicology results.\n"She was beautiful on the outside and on the inside," Nancy Comiskey said. "I'll miss her every day for the rest of my life."\nServices for Kate Comiskey are pending.\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
IU Foundation elects new members
(11/04/04 4:43am)
The IU Foundation announced the election of Gregg Summerville and Kathryn Booth to its 48-member board of directors this week.\n"One of the Foundation's strengths is its board of dedicated, volunteer directors," said IU Foundation President Curt Simic in a press release by the University.\nAccording to the press release, the IU Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation whose goal is to raise private funds and serve administrative duties in partnership with the University.\nBoth Summerville and Booth have a history of previous board experience. Summerville served on the Columbus Regional Hospital Foundation, and Booth has served on the board of directors of Bear Stearns & Co., Inc, her current employer in New York.\n"We like to say we recruit our board based on work, wisdom and wealth," said Barbara Coffman, executive director of strategic planning and communication. "This is a working board who works very hard."\nSummerville, managing director and partner in Kirr, Marbach & Company, LLC in Columbus, Ind. said he was introduced to the board when he was approached a few years ago to help with the board's investment committee. \n"I had a lot of familiarity with the board already," Summerville said. "That made it a lot easier to say yes (to the position)."\nSummerville said as government funding decreases for the University, he sees private funding as being more important in the future. However, he said he doesn't think the University will have a hard time receiving that funding.\n"When people get to (a certain) age, you give back to the things you care about," Summerville said. "IU opened a lot of doors for me. I'd like to help the next Gregg Summerville."\nAnother reason Summerville said he was happy to accept the board position is the camaraderie he feels among board members. \n"We all have the same interests and the same passions," he said.\nCoffman said the board attempts to have its directors located geographically similar to where the University's students are from. Booth, director of global research at Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. in New York, helps to serve east coast students.\nBooth could not be reached by press time.\n"A lot of people give up a reasonable chunk of time for the board," Summerville said. "They participate and really dig in; it's not a cocktail hour."\n-- Contact staff writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Monroe County Democrats watch numbers
(11/03/04 7:20am)
At 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Bob Molnar and his wife Anna Bednarski sat at the last of 12 tables watching the 144-square-foot TV broadcasting election results at the front of the room.\n"Sometimes it feels lonely," Bednarski said, "being a Democrat in Indiana."\n"Yeah," Molnar said. "Monroe County is the only beacon of hope in the state."\nMolnar and Bednarski had no reason to feel lonely Tuesday night as they joined their fellow Democrats at the Democratic Election Night Party at AMVETS Post 2000 to watch the election results unfold and celebrate the Democratic victories.\nEarly into the party, newly elected Monroe County Auditor Sandy Newmann said she was nervous when she arrived because local elections don't have polls. Newly elected County Counselor At-Large Michael Woods echoed Newmann's concern.\n"Because I'm at the local level, I have no access to polls of any kind," Woods said. "But if the response I've received is any indication, I feel confident."\nIn the room's back corner, a group gathered around a dry erase board covered with the names of candidates and their tallies.\n"With 38 percent of precincts reporting, it looks like (Monroe County Commissioner candidate Iris) Kiesling and (judicial candidate Stephen) Galvin will win. The others are too close to call," one of the women writing on the whiteboard yelled over the crowd to loud cheers.\nA woman wearing a blazer covered in Democratic campaign buttons turned away from the crowd around the dry erase board and dialed a number on her cell phone.\n"I'm here at AMVETS," said Cathy Hughes, a volunteer for local Democratic candidates, to her daughter who had to stay at home with her son, "I thought you might like to know it looks like Galvin will win."\nCandidates weaved in and out of the crowd that congregated around the buffet, tensely smiling and shaking the hands of their supporters.\n"So far so good," said District 40 State Senator Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington. "I've run before, and that helps. But on election day, the minutes just crawl by."\nBy 9:05 p.m., attention was focused on the TV at the front of the room where the channel had been switched from coverage of national elections to local races. The crowd cheered as the numbers changed in favor of many of the Democratic candidates with over 80 percent of precincts reporting. Monroe County Democratic Chairman Dan Combs introduced the newly elected officials, who thanked the group for their energy and support.\n"I will do the best I can for this county," said newly elected Judge Mary Ellen Diekhoff as she handed the microphone back to Combs. "I need to quit talking before I cry."\nCombs said while the results weren't yet official, he was confident in the majority of the races.\n"Before I get too cocky, there are absentee ballots that still need to be counted," Combs said. "But I will say it's a good day to be a Democrat and it's a good night to be a Democrat."\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen \nQuilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Experts: Students should pay attention to local election
(11/01/04 4:51am)
When sophomore Joanna Totten got the California absentee ballot in the mail, she easily recognized the presidential candidates' names that have been repeated in the news for months. However, when she got to the races for local elections, Totten barely recognized any of the names.\n"There were a whole lot I didn't know," she said. "There were some names that sounded familiar, but that was about it."\nMany student voters are faced with the dilemma Totten discovered when she got past the presidential election: trying to choose among local candidates about whom they know nothing. \nAssistant Professor of Political Science Michael Ensley said the problem of knowing little about local races is not one unique to students or absentee ballot voters.\n"Many people, and in particular young people, do not pay attention to politics," Ensley said.\nMike Wagner, an associate instructor of American politics, said it is in a student's best interest to pay attention to local politics because the decisions those elected make will affect them.\n"In a lot of ways, local elections have more impact on day-to-day life than federal elections," Wagner said. "Federal elections are a lot about dispersing funds to state and local offices, and the people we pick to fill those offices often have a great deal of influence over how those funds are spent."\nEnsley said the majority of the American public is not informed about local elections because many races are uncompetitive. He said about 10 to 15 percent of incumbents do not face a challenger from the other major party. \nMonroe County Auditor Barbara Clark is running unopposed for Monroe County treasurer.\n"This is the first time I've had this luxury," said Clark, who was county treasurer for 10 years before she was elected to the auditor's office eight years ago.\nClark said the city passes laws about issues directly involving students, such as landlords and parking. Therefore, it is in the student's best interest to take notice and get involved.\n"The districts where students live, both in University housing and apartments," Clark said. "Those representatives are very interested in what students have to say. However, if students don't take interest, the representatives may only listen to the permanent residents."\nHowever, students like Totten who vote absentee don't see the direct effects of their local officials. Wagner said candidates realize this and don't campaign to student voters.\n"It's typically smarter not trying to reach students," Wagner said. "It's a waste of some resources."\nWhen Totten saw names she didn't recognize, she researched many of the candidates online.\n"Some candidates had more information online than others," Totten said. "I was frustrated with the ones that didn't have a lot."\nPart of the reason candidates don't cater to students is the fact that many students haven't voted in the past.\nOnly 25 percent of eligible voters from 18- to 24-years-old voted in the election of November 2000, according to the Population Resource Center Web site.\nWagner said voter registration for students is up this year because of the public interest in the presidential election, which will increase voting in local elections as well. A fact Clark said she finds encouraging.\n"My feeling is students should take an interest in politics," Clark said. "They need to vote, either here or at home."\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
School of Medicine to hold AIDS conference at IUPUI
(10/25/04 5:41am)
The numbers are staggering.\nMore than 3 million people died from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in 2003 and 5 million were infected by the virus worldwide, according to www.cnn.com. Almost 38 million people worldwide carry the virus, some unknowingly. \nWith no end to AIDS/HIV in sight and the numbers of infected increasing each year, IU has decided to combat the virus with education.\nThe IU School of Medicine will sponsor a conference Sunday at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown hotel to discuss what is and isn't working in fighting AIDS/HIV.\n"This conference will allow people on the ground and those at a policy-making level to have a thoughtful discourse on what is working and what is not," said Craig Brater, dean of the IU School of Medicine and the mastermind behind the idea of the conference. "Hopefully that learning can then result in the next stage of addressing this \npandemic so that we do an even better job."\nThe conference speakers include a wide range of those knowledgeable on AIDS/HIV issues including Ambassador Randall Tobias, U.S. Global HIV/AIDS coordinator; James Morris, executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme and Debrework Zewdie, director of the Global HIV/AIDS Program, The World Bank.\n"The potential to learn from one another is enormous," Brater said.\nAllen Anderson, IU visiting associate professor of public health, said he plans on attending the conference. Many of the issues being addressed at the conference deal with issues Anderson discusses in his SPEA special topics course "International Disease."\n"So many diseases know no boundaries," Anderson said, "It's not just developing countries anymore."\nAnderson said his course focuses on health management and has students work to try and solve the problems policy makers face, called a system planning exercise.\n"In this exercise we had to develop a health system within a certain budget from an entire developing country," said sophomore Laura Holmes, a student in Anderson's class. "I've never done anything like that before and I really enjoyed it."\nAnderson, who has worked in China for the last 15 years, studies HIV behavior in the country. While he said the current number of those infected with HIV in China doesn't compare to many of the heavily infected African countries, there is the possibly of a large increase in a short period of time.\n"The sheer numbers (compared to African countries) are not there by far," Anderson said. "The problem is in China you will see an absolute explosion, from 1.5 million to projected 10 to 15 million through projections and behavioral trends."\nExplosive numbers, like China's, are exactly what the conference is designed to fight.\n"My personal interests are humanitarian." Brater said. "I believe that all physicians have a social responsibility. Therein, it is our mandate to help where help is needed."\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Congressional votes impact policy
(10/19/04 5:23am)
The presidential election may be getting all the press this year, but Nov. 2 also brings voters important local elections.\n"Generally, both the general public and students don't pay much attention to Congressional elections," said Edward Carmines, a political science professor. "The presidential and even gubernatorial elections receive much more attention."\nWhen voters cast their ballots Election Day, it is in their best interests to know as much about all the candidates as possible. Monroe County is at the bottom of the 4th District in Indiana, where three candidates face off for election into the House of Representatives.\nDemocratic candidate David Sanders, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University, said he is uniquely qualified for Congress because of his background in biological science. He said many of the important issues Congress faces today, such as defense against biological weapons, weapons of mass destruction and stem cell research deal directly with subjects where he has had extensive training.\n"Unfortunately a lot of our congressmen don't have the ability to understand (these issues) on a firsthand basis," he said. "They have to rely on lobbyists to tell them what to think about the issues. I understand these things."\nSanders is running against Republican candidate Steve Buyer and Libertarian candidate Kevin Fleming.\nCarmines said it's important for voters to pay attention to Congressional elections because Congress is most often the place where policy is made, and many issues might have a direct effect on students, such as taxes, education funding and the war in Iraq.\nBoth Sanders and Buyer said they were against the possibility of reinstating the draft.\n"The only ones talking about the draft are Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards." Buyer said. "In fact, the sponsors of the recently defeated legislation are Democrats. They are simply using scare tactics to ignite a campaign fire. The Congress has spoken and there is no support for reinstating the draft."\nHowever, Buyer said he thought security, both national and economic, was the most important issue facing the 4th District.\n"I will continue to provide those who sacrifice to protect and defend this nation with the tools they need," Buyer said.\nSanders had a different idea of the issue that was most important to the district, saying he heard residents asking him more about health care than any other subject.\n"Are people interested in Iraq? I'm sure they are, but that isn't what they ask me when I travel around to county fairs or when I meet veterans," Sanders said. "They're interested in health care."\nSanders said he would like to bring universal access to affordable, high quality health care to residents.\nEven with their differences in policy, the candidates emphasized the importance of voting.\n"It is important for all Americans to take part in the electoral process," Buyer said. "The worst mistake anyone can make, including students, is to think that elections don't matter (or) that their vote doesn't count."\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Band raises funds for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
(10/08/04 6:22am)
Graduate student Abby Cooley knew it was going to be a good night when the box office told her the show was sold out.\n"They sold 600 tickets," she said. "That's how much the theater can hold. So if each person donated $1, I'd have $600."\nCooley joined the band Umphrey's McGee at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Thursday night to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In conjunction with the Team in Training endurance program, Cooley made a personal goal to raise $3,500 for the society and will run a marathon Oct. 24 in San Francisco.\nCooley said she knew Umphrey's McGee keyboardist Joel Cummins through her older brother and began talking with the band about helping her fund-raise the next time they came to Bloomington.\nAs fans began to drift into the theater Thursday night, Cooley greeted them at a table next to a woman selling Umphrey's McGee T-shirts and CDs.\n"Would you like to donate to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society?" she asked a group of tie-dyed shirted fans holding cups of beer. \nAfter digging around in their pockets, each donates a dollar, except for the last one, who opens his wallet and shakes his head.\n"I've got a fishing license," he offered.\nCooley said she got more donations before the concert than she did canning outside of Kroger last weekend, but she admits she doesn't like asking people for money.\n"It's the rejection," she said. "It's a little like dating: You never know who will say yes."\nBackstage before the show, guitarist Brenden Bayliss and bassist Ryan Stasik warm up in one of the theater's dressing rooms.\n"We're doing this more and more," said Bayliss about shows that benefit a cause. "Especially now that we have more influence."\nBayliss, Stasik and tour manager Don Richards begin to discuss a boy from Cincinnati who is a fan of the band and has a brain tumor.\n"We put the phone down during practices and he can request songs," Bayliss said.\nThe band said they always enjoy coming back to Bloomington and that having a specific cause makes it that much better.\n"Bloomington was our first major place to travel to," Bayliss said. "Except for Chicago and South Bend, we haven't played more anywhere else."\nBy 8:55 p.m. the four buckets at Cooley's table are filling up with loose change and dollar bills and the lists labeled "In Memory" and "In Honor" have grown.\nCooley said she asked if people knew anyone who had leukemia or lymphoma when she sent out letters asking for money when she began the program. If they did, she added them to the list of people for whom she was running.\n"It seems like everyone knows someone who knows someone who has had it," she said. "I didn't realize how many people had it," she said. "It's not something you can take vitamins for and avoid."\nA cheer erupted from the audience behind Cooley as the band walked out onto the stage. Bathed in red light, they began to play. \n"I think I did pretty well here," Cooley said. "It would be fabulous if I made the rest of my money tonight, but I'd be happy if I only made $100."\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
Umphrey's McGee to perform at benefit concert
(10/07/04 4:22am)
Standing just inside the Kroger on College Mall Road, graduate student Abby Cooley holds a purple Nalgene bottle covered with stickers that's beginning to fill up with assorted loose change and sets in for a long evening.\n"Hi, would you like to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society?" she asks a woman whose shopping cart is piled high with groceries. "This is my least favorite fund-raiser," she says after the woman passes.\nCooley has committed herself to raise $3,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through the Team in Training program and will run in the Nike 26.2 mile Marathon for Women in San Francisco Oct. 24. With only about two weeks left before the marathon, Cooley is still $1,000 short of her goal, but full of confidence.\n"I'm going to make it," she said. "The generosity of the people here is amazing."\nAlong with canning at Kroger, hosting Tupperware and Pampered Chef parties and organizing Pizza Hut nights, Cooley has organized a benefit concert with the band Umphrey's McGee tonight at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.\n"I just contacted the band like any fan," she said, "and we bounced e-mails back and forth until we came up with something."\nJoel Cummins, Umphrey's McGee keyboardist said now that the band is becoming more well known, it's gaining influence along with a fan base.\n"If there's someone we can help out through our music, we will," Cummins said.\nFor Cummins, tonight's concert is important because Cooley is a friend as well as a fan.\n"Abby's been a friend of mine since back in high school," he said. "We love to help out our friends. She's done a lot of good things."\nCooley said when she was an undergraduate at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, she participated in a variety of philanthropies with her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, so when she got a flyer in the mail announcing a Team in Training meeting she decided to go check it out.\n"I decided it was the perfect thing at that time," Cooley said.\nAmy Zolman, a campaign coordinator for Team in Training, said participants raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and then participate in one of a variety of endurance events, like Cooley's marathon in San Francisco.\n"It's the largest endurance program in the country," she said. "It gives participants the opportunity to be part of a team. We have professional coaches to help along the way."\nCooley said she has found the training program and its coaches incredibly helpful, since she has never run in a marathon before.\n"I've never done anything like this before," she said. "But I'm very comfortable. I'm in good shape."\nZolman said all of the money raised by Team In Training, about $500 million, goes toward research and patient aid in Indiana.\nCooley is running for patient honoree Karen Thomas, a 16-year-old from Lyons, Ind. \n"I have to run 20 miles tomorrow," Cooley said. "I think of her when I'm doing it. It puts a face with it."\nCummins said the show will be like any other concert for the band, which comes through Bloomington a few times a year.\n"If you haven't seen the band before," Cummins said, "come and have a great time dancing and be challenged by the cause."\nCummins said he is proud of his friend, both with the fund-raising and the marathon.\n"I'm excited to be helping her and helping others," he said. "I can't even tell you the last time I ran more than 10 miles."\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.
