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(01/27/06 5:26am)
In her thin fingers, Susan Eley holds up a snapshot of herself in college, taken just before she filled an auditorium with her dramatic soprano voice. Her large body was draped in a crimson gown and a powdered beehive wig sat atop her head. She points the image toward her husband, Ben, and asks if he would have noticed her then. \n"Maybe not," he replies, with a hint of hesitation in his voice.\nIt's been a slow process, she says. But in the last five years, the 26-year-old has dropped 100 pounds, going from a size 26-28 to a size four, earning her a chance to share her success story on a special edition of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" airing Feb. 8. Eley, an IU library sciences graduate student, amazed her friends Jan. 18 when she appeared on "The Tyra Banks Show." The crowd roared as a slim Eley burst through a life-sized photograph of herself at her heaviest weight. She strutted down the catwalk in stiletto heels and a form-fitting outfit. Even Banks couldn't conceal her surprise as she scrunched up her face and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness!"\n"When I see myself back then I say, 'Wow, how could I have allowed myself to go that far,'" Eley says, seated on a sofa in her sun-soaked living room. An exercise bike is pushed up against the wall and underneath her couch are two eight-pound dumbbells, a yoga mat and a home step platform. "I was always a happy person, but it's kind of sad to me now that I let myself and my fitness go."\nEley's mother, Julie Landis, says her daughter's genetics and lifestyle are what contributed to her weight gain. \n"I come from a big family, my husband comes from a big family and we made a lot of big dinners and deserts, full of carbohydrates," Landis says. "Susan just fit the mold and that's how it happened. When you're prone to it, it comes along pretty easy."\nEley was overweight for much of her adolescence. In sixth grade, she weighed nearly 175 pounds. Although her weight didn't hold her back from graduating as valedictorian of her high school, it made shopping for prom dresses a nightmare. Nothing off the rack fit, so she had to be measured at a bridal store. On one such occasion, a shopkeeper remarked, "Well, you're awful big." \nThat comment's stuck with her for years. \nBy college, Eley reached her heaviest weight of 245 pounds. As a music education major at the College of New Jersey, she spent all her spare hours in the practice rooms perfecting her scales. Exercise was the last thing she had time for. \n"College was the worst time," Eley says. "I remember eating lots of tuna salad sandwiches, heavy on the mayo, cheese pizza and pints of cookie dough ice cream from the local dairy farm." \nBut in her senior year, Eley decided it was time to change. As an aspiring opera singer, she knew it would take much more than her soprano voice to achieve her dream. And the story of Deborah Voigt troubled her. Voigt, one of the world's premier sopranos, was rejected from a role because of her weight. Eley recalls she was fired because a director envisioned his lead wearing a little black dress, one that certainly wouldn't fit around Voigt's 300-pound frame. \n"A lot of directors out there have that Hollywood mentality," Eley says. "It's amazing that you can get to the top of your field and they can say, 'No, I want a little black dress instead of you.'"\nIn 2000, Eley joined Weight Watchers because she wanted to look good on stage and feel confident during auditions. She also knew that not too far in the future, she wanted to get married. When she was heavy, it was hard enough to find a boyfriend, let alone a husband. So she committed herself to completely changing her lifestyle. \nShe says it wasn't easy, but it worked. She changed what she ate, often opting for spinach salads with orange slices for dinner instead of red meat. Even though Weight Watchers doesn't tell people what to eat -- instead recommending a maximum caloric intake -- she still avoided her weakness: chocolate chip cookies. Within a year, she lost her first 50 pounds. Soon after, she met and married Ben Eley.\nLast February, Eley and her husband moved to Bloomington to pursue their graduate studies. Still not satisfied with her image, Eley not only dieted, but adopted a rigorous fitness routine. She dedicates at least a half-hour each day to exercise, without exception. Even on Christmas, she surprised her family by bundling up and going for a run. Whether it's a 30-minute jog, power-yoga or a step class at the Student Recreational Sports Center, Eley says she is always working to keep fit. \nAfter five years, she's finally dropped 50 more pounds and reached her goal of being a size four. \n"When I went to visit Susan, I was totally surprised," says Eley's college roommate, Anne Vitale. "She was about half the size she used to be. Her face looked different. Instead of just a cheek, you could actually see the bones in her face. It was wonderful."\nEley carted all her "fat clothes" to Goodwill, to reinforce that she's never going to need them again. She no longer has her sights set on being a professional singer, but still plans to audition for small performances when she has time. Her next goal is to move back to New Jersey to become an elementary school librarian.\nShe feels proud of herself, especially for never resorting to any dangerous "quick fixes." Eley also hopes her story will be an inspiration to others battling obesity.\n"I'm a living example that you can lose over 100 pounds the old-fashioned way, with diet and exercise," Eley says. "There always will be that small fear in the back of my head that says, 'What if you gain it back,' but this time, I think I've accomplished it"
(09/14/05 5:06am)
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- The patient is stretched out on the operating table. But before Dr. Don Penny performs a rare brain surgery, he cranks up the volume on his stereo until the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" fills the operating room. \nThe louder the music, the better. Penny says it allows him to concentrate.\nThe music has aided Penny through other successful procedures. \nAfter 38-year-old Munaf Ramjohn suffered a massive stroke six months ago, he was rushed to the Gwinnett Medical Center where Penny removed a piece of Ramjohn's skull to create more room for his swelling brain to expand. Penny performed the routine procedure with Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" playing in the background.
(09/07/05 5:32am)
Both Betty Crocker and Mother Goose might be shocked if they took a stroll through The Market at the Indiana Memorial Union in search of one of their favorite cookies: the Gingerbread Man. \nThey'd find one all right, wrapped neatly in plastic with two red candy eyes peering back at them. But when they flipped the cookie over to find its price, they'd discover their man stripped of his gender, with a label reading "ginger person."\nAbout eight years ago, all the gingery treats supplied at the IMU were renamed to make the cookies more politically correct, said Mary Frohliger, an IMU employee of 23 years who works at both Sugar & Spice and Kiva.\n"I've had a lady come in and say she's glad it's called a 'person,'" said Steve Richards, retail operations director of food service in the IMU, the Wendell Wright Education building and the Herman B Wells Library. \nSome think the change is too much. \n"I thought they were kind of going overboard," said Frohliger. "And Mother Goose would not be happy. You can't go, 'Run, run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm a gingerbread person.' That doesn't work; you can't do the rhyme without 'man."
(08/31/05 5:53am)
Guzzling a few beers is a surefire way to socialize, but it makes people more likely to blurt out an unplanned "I love you" or reveal their feelings to a crush. \nPeter Finn, an IU psychology professor who studies alcoholism in young adults, explained why. \n"Alcohol removes normal inhibitions and is associated with euphoric feelings," Finn said. "So in other words, people feel really good. When we feel positive emotions, we like to talk and engage with other individuals."\nThe frontal lobes of the human brain are involved in regulating our behavior and our emotions. They inhibit emotional experience and expression. Finn said these inhibitions begin to dissolve when people consume alcohol. Alcohol also gives people courage to approach and engage with others because it unleashes dopamine in the brain, a neurotransmitter responsible for feeling pleasure and euphoria.\n"My rough guess is that 35 percent of those who are intoxicated are disinhibited," Finn said. \nWithin one hour, he estimated it would take four to five beers for a 150-pound male to become intoxicated and just three to four beers for a female of the same weight. With more alcohol, these people become less inhibited, and that's when they reach for their phones and start making calls. \n"People are much more likely to do things they wouldn't when sober," Finn said, "like unloading emotional baggage and telling people they love them. These are the reasons most likely to account for this phenomena of ... 'drunk dialing."
(04/21/05 10:45pm)
Years ago, Ken Gros Louis laughed at the thought of taking a job at IU, a University he imagined was tucked somewhere between the cornfields, Quonset huts and football stadiums of the Midwest. But when the New Hampshire native visited the Bloomington campus for the first time, he was immediately attracted to the relaxed atmosphere. He felt at home. \n"IU was the only place I visited where the faculty was introduced to me by their first names and not by their titles," Gros Louis said. "And IU certainly is not a place that boasts. It was just very collegial and friendly." \nHe decided to come to IU for a few years to take on a joint appointment in comparative literature and English.\nThat was 41 years ago. \n"This is just a place that people become very attached to," Gros Louis said. \nSince 1968, Gros Louis has held a variety of positions at IU. He's been not only a professor, but dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of English; then he served as vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the Bloomington campus for 21 years. After nearly four decades of dedication to the University he decided to retire in 2001. But he didn't stay away for long. \nWhen Sharon Brehm stepped down from her \nchancellorship in December 2003, President Adam Herbert recommended that Gros Louis serve as interim chancellor and senior vice president for academic affairs until a new IUB chancellor was selected, a move the IU board of trustees approved.\nSo Gros Louis returned to his spacious office in Bryan Hall, with windows overlooking the Sample Gates, to assist the campus once again. \n"Ken Gros Louis was particularly valuable to Herbert, as a relatively new president coming from another state," said Trevor Brown, dean of the School of Journalism and chairman of the chancellor search committee. "Gros Louis grew up as an administrator under Herman B Wells. He was a bridge between the university we know and the university that IU's still in the process of becoming."\nGros Louis served under three university presidents aside from Herbert: John Ryan, Thomas Ehrlich and Myles Brand. Because of this, Brown said Gros Louis had a wealth of knowledge to offer Herbert on the inner workings of IU. \n"We were very fortunate that Ken Gros Louis agreed to come out of retirement to serve as interim chancellor and senior vice president of academic affairs," Herbert said. "His unfailingly wise counsel has proved to be an invaluable asset."\n \nWhat does an IU-Bloomington chancellor do? \nSome days start at 8 a.m. Others start at 10. While there's no set pattern to his schedule, Ken Gros Louis has a lot on his plate. He's not only Herbert's right-hand man, but the second-ranking officer at IU.\nHe's responsible for overseeing all the operations on the Bloomington campus as Chancellor of IU-B. The chancellors of IU's eight other campuses all report indirectly to Gros Louis. \nBecause Bloomington is the flagship institution, Gros Louis said his job as chancellor is different than other IU chancellors in that he's not expected to be as active in various clubs or boards in the community. But that doesn't mean he's not involved in the community. Nearly every night of the week he attends various events or presides over them.\nAll the while, he focuses his attention on promoting and sustaining academic excellence throughout the IU system as senior vice president for academic affairs on all campuses -- this means making sure the student experience is as good as it can be and that faculty have the resources they need to pursue their research.\n"It's a challenging job," Brown said. "But Ken Gros Louis has spent virtually all his professional life at IU. He has a close and passionate understanding of the Bloomington campus and of the larger system of IU."\nMaintaining that 'larger system' is another part of an IUB chancellor's job -- the promotion of diversity. Gros Louis said throughout his career he placed strong emphasis on increasing undergraduate minority enrollment. He helped institute the Hudson & Holland Scholars Program, aimed at bringing high-achieving students from underrepresented backgrounds to IU. Although he feels the climate of IU is much more diverse than it once was, he said there's still a long way to go. \nHe also helped develop the idea for the Wells Scholars Program, in which each year 18 to 20 incoming freshmen are awarded full-ride scholarships based on merit. Gros Louis has been involved in the creation of or funded the creation of programs he said were "too numerous to go through."\nAs for his successor, Gros Louis feels the ideal candidate is one who can offer Herbert a breadth of experience and who can free him up on academic issues. \n"I think the chief thing President Herbert is looking for is someone who has very strong academic credentials and experience," Gros Louis said. "I think he wants someone who understands and values both faculty governance and student involvement in campus governance."\nGros Louis said he doesn't mind sticking around until the next IU-B chancellor is named. After that, he plans to return to his retirement and spend time at his condo in Santa Barbara, Calif. He said he hopes, if anything, that through his years of dedication he's shaped the university the way it's shaped him.\n"I like to think people have seen my commitment to the institution and to them as individuals, and that I've set a kind of tone I think is unique about Bloomington," Gros Louis said. "The kind of tone that doesn't boast, that's not pompous and has a good sense of humor. A tone that's concerned, but not to the point of losing sight of he balance between doing one's work and living one's life."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at By Lindsay Lyon\nIndiana Daily Student\nYears ago, Ken Gros Louis laughed at the thought of taking a job at IU, a University he imagined was tucked somewhere between the cornfields, Quonset huts and football stadiums of the Midwest. But when the New Hampshire native visited the Bloomington campus for the first time, he was immediately attracted to the relaxed atmosphere. He felt at home. \n"IU was the only place I visited where the faculty was introduced to me by their first names and not by their titles," Gros Louis said. "And IU certainly is not a place that boasts. It was just very collegial and friendly." \nHe decided to come to IU for a few years to take on a joint appointment in comparative literature and English.\nThat was 41 years ago. \n"This is just a place that people become very attached to," Gros Louis said. \nSince 1968, Gros Louis has held a variety of positions at IU. He's been not only a professor, but dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of English; then he served as vice president for academic affairs and chancellor of the Bloomington campus for 21 years. After nearly four decades of dedication to the University he decided to retire in 2001. But he didn't stay away for long. \nWhen Sharon Brehm stepped down from her \nchancellorship in December 2003, President Adam Herbert recommended that Gros Louis serve as interim chancellor and senior vice president for academic affairs until a new IUB chancellor was selected, a move the IU board of trustees approved.\nSo Gros Louis returned to his spacious office in Bryan Hall, with windows overlooking the Sample Gates, to assist the campus once again. \n"Ken Gros Louis was particularly valuable to Herbert, as a relatively new president coming from another state," said Trevor Brown, dean of the School of Journalism and chairman of the chancellor search committee. "Gros Louis grew up as an administrator under Herman B Wells. He was a bridge between the university we know and the university that IU's still in the process of becoming."\nGros Louis served under three university presidents aside from Herbert: John Ryan, Thomas Ehrlich and Myles Brand. Because of this, Brown said Gros Louis had a wealth of knowledge to offer Herbert on the inner workings of IU. \n"We were very fortunate that Ken Gros Louis agreed to come out of retirement to serve as interim chancellor and senior vice president of academic affairs," Herbert said. "His unfailingly wise counsel has proved to be an invaluable asset."\n \nWhat does an IU-Bloomington chancellor do? \nSome days start at 8 a.m. Others start at 10. While there's no set pattern to his schedule, Ken Gros Louis has a lot on his plate. He's not only Herbert's right-hand man, but the second-ranking officer at IU.\nHe's responsible for overseeing all the operations on the Bloomington campus as Chancellor of IU-B. The chancellors of IU's eight other campuses all report indirectly to Gros Louis. \nBecause Bloomington is the flagship institution, Gros Louis said his job as chancellor is different than other IU chancellors in that he's not expected to be as active in various clubs or boards in the community. But that doesn't mean he's not involved in the community. Nearly every night of the week he attends various events or presides over them.\nAll the while, he focuses his attention on promoting and sustaining academic excellence throughout the IU system as senior vice president for academic affairs on all campuses -- this means making sure the student experience is as good as it can be and that faculty have the resources they need to pursue their research.\n"It's a challenging job," Brown said. "But Ken Gros Louis has spent virtually all his professional life at IU. He has a close and passionate understanding of the Bloomington campus and of the larger system of IU."\nMaintaining that 'larger system' is another part of an IUB chancellor's job -- the promotion of diversity. Gros Louis said throughout his career he placed strong emphasis on increasing undergraduate minority enrollment. He helped institute the Hudson & Holland Scholars Program, aimed at bringing high-achieving students from underrepresented backgrounds to IU. Although he feels the climate of IU is much more diverse than it once was, he said there's still a long way to go. \nHe also helped develop the idea for the Wells Scholars Program, in which each year 18 to 20 incoming freshmen are awarded full-ride scholarships based on merit. Gros Louis has been involved in the creation of or funded the creation of programs he said were "too numerous to go through."\nAs for his successor, Gros Louis feels the ideal candidate is one who can offer Herbert a breadth of experience and who can free him up on academic issues. \n"I think the chief thing President Herbert is looking for is someone who has very strong academic credentials and experience," Gros Louis said. "I think he wants someone who understands and values both faculty governance and student involvement in campus governance."\nGros Louis said he doesn't mind sticking around until the next IU-B chancellor is named. After that, he plans to return to his retirement and spend time at his condo in Santa Barbara, Calif. He said he hopes, if anything, that through his years of dedication he's shaped the university the way it's shaped him.\n"I like to think people have seen my commitment to the institution and to them as individuals, and that I've set a kind of tone I think is unique about Bloomington," Gros Louis said. "The kind of tone that doesn't boast, that's not pompous and has a good sense of humor. A tone that's concerned, but not to the point of losing sight of he balance between doing one's work and living one's life."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu..
(04/19/05 5:55am)
IU President Adam Herbert's goal was to announce the next IUB chancellor in late May. But the search to find a replacement for Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis is taking longer than expected. \nIn fact, it's only just begun. \nThe search committee released a job announcement for the position of IUB chancellor and senior vice president for academic affairs during the first week of April. Among the many qualifications listed, the best candidate is someone committed to academic excellence, understands the complexity of a higher education institution like IU, can communicate effectively and be an "articulate advocate for IU." This person must also have experience with budget preparation and must be eligible for appointment as a tenured professor in one of IUB's academic departments. Prospective candidates have until May to respond, and the committee won't start examining them until June 15, said Trevor Brown, chairman of the search committee and dean of the School of Journalism. \n"We are literally in the beginning stages of the formal process," Brown said. \nThe first reason for being behind schedule, Brown said, is timing. Typically, searches of this nature begin in August or September. This one began in January, a year after Sharon Brehm stepped down from her chancellorship and Ken Gros Louis returned from his two-and-a-half-year retirement to serve as interim chancellor. Because of the late start, the search will extend into the summer, which Brown said could cause further delays. \n"It's difficult to keep a committee going during the summer because so many are away," Brown said. "Many of the committee members are on 10-month appointments and use the summer to protect their time for their own research. They aren't on salary at that point. We're all concerned about how we can keep the search going during summer months." \nBrown said the other reason for delay was the selection of the search firm. Normally the committee has no part in choosing a search firm, but Herbert gave committee members the option of finding their own search firm to aid them throughout the process. They interviewed representatives from four different firms before reaching a decision, which Brown said was a good learning experience for committee members but which also took a lot of time.\nIf all goes according to plan, committee members will travel off campus to conduct interviews with 10 to 20 potential candidates this summer. Then, by early next fall, they hope to have narrowed down that list so they can be in a position to recommend the three top candidates to Herbert by December. That will end the search committee's job, and Herbert will ultimately decide who will serve as his right-hand adviser.\n"He or she will be someone with a deep understanding of the multiple roles of a 21st-century public research university, with strong academic credentials, a commitment to excellence in teaching, to faculty governance and to the research enterprise," Herbert said in an e-mail. "He or she will have the ability to communicate well with faculty, students, alumni, community and elected leaders." \nIn short, Herbert said the ideal candidate is someone like Gros Louis. \n"Ken has offered extraordinary service to IU and has set the bar very high for his successor," Herbert said. "He will be extremely difficult to replace for a variety of reasons. Ken has exceptional skills as an administrator and he has a deep understanding of public higher education and of IU's special culture."\nDavid Daleke, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council and member of the search committee, said he believes the faculty is looking for someone like Gros Louis as well. \n"We're not looking for a clone of Ken, but someone who has strengths in similar areas," Daleke said. \nThose strengths, according to Daleke, are the ability to deal with multiple constituencies such as faculty, students, staff and school deans; having a commitment-shared governance, to perpetuate IU's long tradition of partnership between faculty and administration for policy-making and goal setting; and a deep involvement in academia. \n"We want someone who's open and warm and can communicate well with the public," Daleke said. "We want someone leading the campus who is well-attuned to students' needs. We would like all our students to feel an ownership in this University, and one of the ways to accomplish this is to have our top administrator embrace the student body and involve them in the decision making process." \nGros Louis said he plans to go back into retirement once the search is complete, but until then he has no problem remaining at IU. \n"The virtue of staying at a place for a long time is that you grow older with people," Gros Louis said. "And probably the greatest pleasure of my job is getting to know students and staying in touch with them. I certainly don't mind my continuing until President Herbert finds the right person, in his opinion, to succeed me."\nAn open forum for faculty to give their input to the search committee will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(02/24/05 7:22am)
The American Council on Education released a report last Thursday that has sparked national debate about whether it's time for higher education to change. The report, titled "Creating Options: Models for flexible Tenure-Track Faculty Career Pathways," recommended that institutions throughout the country adopt less rigid tenure-track systems to give young faculty members a fair chance of pursuing long-term careers in education.\nWith funds from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a group of 13 research scholars and faculty from universities in the United States collaborated for more than a year and a half to address this issue. While the team did not conduct original research for the project, it analyzed a body of work others had done on faculty careers. The researchers made a number of suggestions based on the findings, one of which was to give young professors up to 10 years to earn tenure, instead of six. The report also said if universities do not make their policies more flexible, they will lose a number of women faculty, especially those who want to start families.\nLongtime IU professor and former administrator Henry Remak, who has had tenure since 1950, said he does not think the current system should change.\n"Six years gives you a reasonable basis for evaluating how that person will work out for the next 40-45 years," Remak said. "The employer has to have the right to say 'these candidates aren't right.' It would be foolish to extend the trial period because once you appoint someone for 10 years it's going to be harder and harder to tell them 'sorry.'"\nGloria Thomas, associate project director for the American Council on Education, disagrees. \n"As a result of the federal ban on mandatory retirement, faculty members are working longer, not only skewing the traditional age distribution of the faculty, but leaving fewer opportunities for younger faculty to move up the ranks," Thomas said in an e-mail. "It is critical for institutional leaders to begin dialogues regarding how best to devise and implement strategies for flexible tenure-track faculty careers now primarily because of the wave of faculty retirements that are taking place throughout U.S. higher education."\nThomas said these retirements provide a prime opportunity for the academic career path in higher education to be reshaped. Thomas finds it troubling that married women leave academia at a disproportionately higher rate than males; she said women with children under six are half as likely to enter tenure-track positions as men who have children in the same age group. Thomas also said the data showed that fewer women and minority faculty are tenured compared to white males. If faculty had more time to prepare for their tenure review and promotion, she thinks these trends could change.\n"We recommend up to 10 years for faculty who need more time due to either personal or professional reasons," Thomas said.\nIf a faculty member has a child born with health problems or a disability, for example, he or she might need time away from the busy teaching and research schedule to tend to the child's needs. Also, she said if a faculty member has the opportunity to pursue a research or consulting project for the government or industry, he or she should be able to take time out to do so while staying on the tenure track.\nAlthough it varies at different institutions, at IU the tenure decision is generally made during the sixth year of a faculty member's tenure-track appointment. To be considered, faculty members are expected to have finished a terminal degree -- the highest degree in their respective field -- and to have made achievements in teaching, research or service. Faculty who are not awarded tenure might choose to stay for a seventh year, but once that year ends so does their contract with IU.\nIU's tenure process requires candidates to first submit a collection of their best work that demonstrates their excellence in teaching, research and service to their department. After a thorough review of the candidate's file, other tenured faculty in that department vote on whether their colleague should be given tenure. The particular school or college then reviews the recommendation, votes and sends it to the dean. The Campus Tenure Advisory Committee, the dean of the faculties and the chancellor all must approve the tenure candidate. Finally, the application goes to the president, who has the authority to make the final decision. \nRemak, who served as vice chancellor and dean of faculties from 1969-1974, said he is familiar with the tenure system from both the faculty and administrative perspectives. He thinks it's true that women could potentially face a greater challenge when trying to juggle their professional and personal lives, but the system's standards for men and women still need to be equal. Remak said he is skeptical of the claims set forth in the report because they are simply too broad and ideological.\n"The whole thing is much too cut and dry," Remak said. "There is so much variety in the American higher education institutions that this kind of sweeping change is unrealistic. The truth of it is you have to go from case to case to make a decision for granting tenure."\nJeanne Sept, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and dean of faculties, said recent analyses of the last 25 years show that male and female faculty members at IU have achieved tenure at identical rates.\n"I think we have quite a fair and flexible tenure system, with many checks and balances," Sept said. "A faculty member can 'stop the tenure clock' for a period of time if they take a family medical leave for the birth or adoption of a child, although the total number of such leaves any individual can take is limited."\nOnce a faculty member has tenure, he or she is evaluated annually. IUB Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said it is expected these faculty members will continue to perform at a high level of achievement. \n"A young person who comes to a place like IU understands what the expectations are," Gros Louis said. "If done right, I believe the system is very humane."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(02/07/05 6:20am)
Whether it's an F for the course, the risk of expulsion from IU or just a guilty conscience, the stakes are high for students who plagiarize. And because of www.Turnitin.com, now it's even easier to detect.\nTurnitin is an online service that can be used as a plagiarism deterrent. According to the Web site, it sends out what it calls "automated web robots" daily to search the Internet for essays, articles and other forms of word documents to add to their extensive database. It boasts a collection of millions of papers, and says it receives more than 20,000 in a given day. Universities and high schools in over 50 countries are currently licensed to its service. And IU could be next.\nDavid Goodrum, director of the teaching and learning technologies centers, said IU has been running a Turnitin pilot program for nearly 18 months to decide whether the university will purchase a site license. Goodrum spoke to members of the Bloomington Faculty Council when they met Tuesday to give the members a progress report. \n"Instructors from across 52 different departments have taken a look at (www.Turnitin.com) or tried it with courses," Goodrum said. "We recently sent out an e-mail to instructors who had activated an account and asked them for feedback. About 30 percent responded and they were overwhelmingly positive about it." \nGoodrum said while this percentage may seem low, feedback surveys rarely generate many replies. He said he encourages more users to voice their opinions. Goodrum said in gauging their responses, the majority of faculty use Turnitin to educate students rather than to police them.\n"There were several faculty members who said it was a good teaching tool because it helped students learn how to cite properly and promoted classroom discussion about what exactly is your own work," Goodrum said. "And that was the approach the BFC had recommended as the best way to use it a year or more ago."\nDavid Daleke, BFC president, said the council wants to hear more feedback before they encourage the campus to adopt Turnitin. \n"It's an expensive program, and that's why we're looking for this type of evaluation," Daleke said. "I'm more interested in hearing about what users' opinions are and I think most of the faculty are looking for more in-depth data before we make a decision. I think the goal is to facilitate the education process."\nGoodrum said a license for the program would cost the Bloomington campus roughly $20,000 to $26,000 a year. He estimated the expense would break down to less than a dollar a student, although not all students would use it. If licensed, Goodrum said all classes and students could submit an unlimited number of papers. \nTo use the service, instructors and students just submit electronic copies of their papers to Turnitin. The papers then get compared to everything in the system: millions of pages of books, academic papers, internet materials and even papers students have recycled for different classes. Then users can view an "originality report" for their document. Turnitin will reveal percentage of the work found in other sources. Papers with high percentages of unoriginal material are red flagged, although the system can't differentiate between a direct quote and the intention to copy. Upon a thorough review of the work in question, it is up to the instructor to interpret the results and decide whether or not the results spell plagiarism. \nIU's Turnitin pilot program will end in August. If the University subscribes, the system will be available for the next academic year. Goodrum said the BFC will probably make its recommendation before March, but before it does it is waiting on more feedback and trying to come up with solutions for some of the issues that have been brought up. Some members are concerned about the outcome of student submissions being sent to a commercial firm. \n"Turnitin is clear about their privacy policy and the papers are in an encrypted form on the database," Goodrum said. "But still, IU, from a policy standpoint, is concerned about handing over papers for use that's outside of our control."\nGoodrum said papers that are submitted generally go into an open database and stay there indefinitely. They are then used to compare against all submissions.\n"What IU council would like to see is the institution controlling its own submissions and what happens to them long-term," Goodrum said. "Particularly if we were to dissolve our contract with Turnitin, IU council desires for IU to control those submissions long-term." \nGoodrum said one solution to this problem is for IU student submissions to be kept separately. This way other institutions won't be able to compare against IU submissions and IU can request for papers to be deleted if the university decided to discontinue using Turnitin.\n"Over the course of our pilot, 3,400 students used Turnitin and nearly 11,000 papers were submitted," Goodrum said. "I think we've had a sufficient amount of usage for the university to say whether the service is worth continuing."\nHolly Stocking, who teaches a senior-level ethics course in the school of journalism, said she's been using Turnitin since last spring. However, Stocking doesn't use it to police the students. Instead she gives students access to the service so they can police themselves. She requires students to run reports on all the papers they write and then to give her copies of reports along with their papers. This way, she said, they have the opportunity to rewrite problem areas to ensure they aren't misappropriating someone else's work.\n"We know the memory works in funny ways and people can forget the source of information sometimes," Stocking said. "And this is a way to flag things that might get missed in a very innocent way."\nStocking also often invites Laura Plummer , assistant director of the Campus Writing Program, to talk to students about how they can avoid plagiarism. Her goal is for students to do work that is both technically and morally excellent. Stocking said Turnitin has provided her with the opportunity to educate students about the importance of integrity in their work.\n"It isn't just about getting caught," Stocking said. "There are lots of other reasons for why people should be honest about their work. It can damage you and can damage others. Turnitin is a very valuable tool, but if we're just using it to police, then I'm not sure we're doing our job."\nJunior Courtney Marvel said she thinks faculty would be misusing Turnitin if they only did so to police students. She is familiar with the system because two of her professors have been using it. Marvel said she believes many students get into trouble because they don't realize what does and does not constitute plagiarism. \n"Professors need to focus more on explaining plagiarism and what it means to write your own work while using sources," Marvel said. "What determines plagiarism is so broad. Although someone may use someone's work to write their own, most often they are not using the information out of spite. Rather, they simply don't understand when they have crossed that thin line."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu
(02/02/05 6:12am)
For Geno Ramage, 3 a.m. comes too quickly. \nAs soon as his fiancé Evyette shakes him out of bed, there's work to be done. It's still dark when he unlocks the wooden door to his little shop on North Walnut Street, tucked between El Norteño and the Bluebird. He flicks the lights on and sees everything still in its place; the shelves lining the room are stocked with cereals, canned goods and other items. Ramage steps behind the counter that snakes around the middle of the store and hangs his coat on a hook. He plays the messages on the answering machine, gathers all the milk orders for the day and sends Donnie Edwards, his 66-year-old delivery man, out to supply customers in town with their milk and bread. At 4:30 a.m. Faris Meat Market Inc. is open for business.\n"I do more between 4:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. than I do the rest of the day," Ramage said in what he jokingly called his southern Indiana accent.\nRamage spends the rest of the morning in the meat shop, a chilly room at the back of the store that smells a bit like blood and spearmint gum. He works for hours to fill each customer's order. Ramage shaves ham and hard salami, cuts slabs of steak and puts sausage and beef through the meat grinder twice to get the best consistency. The most highly requested meat is hamburger, and Ramage said he sells an average of 350-400 pounds of ground chuck each day. He takes pride in the services he provides to his customers, especially his guarantee that all his meat is fresh and hasn't been sitting in the freezer for more than a day. \n"Everything is fresh cut to the order," Ramage said. "If you want your steak a certain thickness, we'll cut it like that. We base ourselves more on customer service than anything else." \nAnd that's the way things have always been done, a tradition that Ramage believes has helped keep the store alive for more than 80 years. In 1923, Jude Faris and his three brothers, Tommy, Vannoy and Emil, first opened the business as Faris Market. Jude's son Bud later took over and ran the store until his death in 2002. When Ramage learned that none of Bud's five children wanted to own the market, he and his father bought it and renamed it Faris Meat Market Inc. They have kept Bud's locker the same, though; his coat and hard hat are still hanging up the way he left them.\n"My dad is 69 years old, and this is the only job he's ever had," Ramage said. "He started here when he was 15. I started in 1985. So he's been here all his life, and I've been here most of mine." \nRamage's father is now on medical leave. Ramage runs the store with the help of his mother Becky, his fiancé Evyette, Donnie the delivery man, his two young sons and Delores Bell, whom they call "Aunt Lores" and most customers call "Grandma." \n"It's like a big family here," said Bell, a small-framed woman with short white hair. "I'm not related to them, but the people I work with are all great."\nBell has been working at the market as a clerk for eight years. She knows most of the customers by name when they call and by face when they walk in the door. \n"I really like the customers, and after eight years you get to know them; you just do," Bell said. "You know their names and their families. They sort of become friends." \nHilda Stubbings, a 90-year-old Bloomington resident, can attest to that. \n"I feel like they're my friends," Stubbings said in a tiny voice. "Whenever I call, they recognize me right away. They send Christmas cards out every year, and they're signed by everyone in the store. And the man that delivers, he's very dependable. Nothing stops him. He delivers through all kinds of weather." \nStubbings heard about the market's home delivery service on the radio nine years ago. She's legally blind and doesn't drive. She thought the delivery service could take care of her problems. And it has. \n"I don't know what I'd do without them. Just about every day I order from them," Stubbings said. "I usually call before 9:30 a.m., sometimes earlier because they start up very early. And I order everything. Meat, vegetables, canned goods, fruit -- they have a good variety."\nAside from their home delivery service, Ramage said the market supplies roughly 75 other businesses in town, including some fraternity and sorority houses, with meat, produce and milk. Ladyman's Café, Nick's English Hut and Café Pizzeria all have been calling on the market for more than 40 years. \nLarry Webb, owner of Café Pizzeria, said he knows the Pizzeria has been ordering from Faris Market since at least 1962, when he first started working there delivering pizzas. Webb said he still orders from the market and plans to continue for as long as he owns the Pizzeria. \n"They've brought us what we've tried to bring over to our customers, which is quality," Webb said. "We can buy meat fresh on a daily basis without having to buy it frozen a week or even a month ahead of time. And of course they've always been friendly. They're kind of like hometown neighbors."\nWebb's wife Sharon, who is in charge of the soup and sandwich kitchen at the Pizzeria, added that she likes ordering from Faris Meat Market because she knows she's ordering from a business she can depend on and trust. \n"They do their own meat cutting, and I just feel like it's a safer product," Sharon said. "Plus, it's good. It's darn right good."\nRamage said he tries to buy his supplies locally whenever he can.\n"We try to keep the money around here as much as possible, but sometimes that's not feasible," Ramage said. "We get daily deliveries of produce out of Indianapolis, and our steaks are grain-fed out of Iowa. They aren't pumped full of steroids."\nAs of now, Faris Meat Market Inc. is never open for more than eight hours a day because it and all other markets of its kind are under state inspection. Ramage said the state has a rule saying he can't produce past the eight-hour mark unless he pays the inspector $24 an hour for every hour overtime. Incurring overtime costs would not be financially smart in the long run, he said.\nBut Ramage has wanted to extend the hours of the store for years. He said he and his fiancé complained enough that the state has decided to waive the rule in their case. Beginning in February, the market will stay open until at least 6 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays.\n"Now we can stay open later and catch some of the downtown and afternoon traffic," Ramage said. "More students can order steaks, we'll cut 'em and they can pick 'em up on their way home." \nAt about 12:30 p.m., when Ramage's workday is almost through, his two sons, Steven, 10, and Sheldon, 6, run into the shop and jump on their dad. Steven puts on Bud Faris' old hard hat and grins; he wears it whenever he helps out in the meat room. But Steven said he doesn't plan to run the store when he's older. \n"I'm gonna play baseball," Steven said, "for the Yankees."\nFor Ramage, it's worth it to work during the early morning hours. Although he has seen 10 p.m. only a few times in his life, his heart, he said, has always been here at the shop. \n"This place is my life," Ramage said, gazing through his glasses at the white molded ceiling that has stayed the same all these years. "I'm working for me and the good of my family. I love being a part of the Bloomington tradition, just being here at the Faris Market doing what I do."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(01/24/05 5:42am)
As the search to replace School of Journalism Dean Trevor Brown inches closer to a decision, faculty and students have begun expressing their expectations for whoever is chosen to replace him. \n"It will be difficult for anybody to follow Trevor," said journalism professor Betsi Grabe. "I think he's been an amazing dean and he's really put the school first, above and beyond his personal interest. That's why I think it's important that everyone affiliated with the school give whoever is chosen their full support."\nGrabe said the new dean should appreciate the diversity of the word "journalism." \n"I do think we need a little bit of guidance in development of convergence of different media," she said. "It's not that we haven't thought about it, but we need someone who understands the academe and who understands journalism as a profession in all its areas and nuances. That includes public relations and advertising."\nJunior Chris Sommerfeld agreed. He said he is not pleased with the journalism school's efforts to add public relations and advertising into the curriculum. As someone who plans on having a career in advertising, Sommerfeld said he is frustrated that nearly all the core classes deal strictly with print journalism.\n"Yes, the journalism school was founded on training students for traditional writing and reporting careers, but the media is changing," Sommerfeld said. "Students in advertising and public relations aren't being given the level and number of classes they are going to need to succeed along with their superbly prepared traditional journalist peers."\nSommerfeld said the new dean needs to help the school become a school of mass communications. When Sommerfeld was a freshman, a survey was conducted in his J110 class demonstrating that nearly half of the incoming J-school students were not interested in traditional journalism careers. Still, he said the school only offers six or so classes in public relations and advertising.\nBut that's not the only issue the new dean will have to deal with. If Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget plan goes into effect, there will be a two-year freeze on state funding for IU. Journalism professor Jack Dvorak said a major component of the new dean's job will be to keep the journalism school in good financial footing.\n"We're depending more and more on tuition dollars and outside funding for the school," Dvorak said. "Trevor has been very good at fund raising and has provided well for the environment. He gets equipment for the teaching and learning process and has done a good job of building up the school's foundation account." \nDvorak said the new dean will need to be just as good at allocating funds for the school.\nThe three candidates -- Christine Martin, Sandra Braman and Bradley Hamm -- will visit IU in the next few weeks, and students, staff and faculty will all have the chance to speak with them. Dvorak said the faculty will then vote on their top choice. The search committee will look to whom the faculty choose, and then Interim IU-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis will make the final decision.\nGrabe said she has absolute confidence in the selection process and that she will give her support to whoever is chosen. \n"The new leader should have a vision that matches the sensibility of our school. We have the structures in place," Grabe said. "This person will just have to walk the walk."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsey Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(01/11/05 6:11am)
For years, students have left their homes in countries across the globe to study at IU and other universities in the United States. Because of recent legislation, IU President Adam Herbert and other university officials fear this traditionally large international student population could decline significantly.\nAt the invitation of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., President Herbert went to Washington, D.C. last October to ask Congress to loosen its regulations for granting visas to students wishing to study in the United States. He testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Lugar is the chair, that post-Sept. 11 visa procedures were causing problems for international students. \nDespite his testimony, Congress passed a major security bill just before Christmas preventing U.S. consular officials from waiving the 90-second personal appearance interviews, which became part of the visa application process after Sept. 11. \nChristopher Viers, associate dean for International Programs and director of the Office of International Services, said these mandatory interviews have resulted in bottlenecks at U.S. embassies and consulates, making it difficult for international students and scholars to travel to and from the United States. He said IU advocated allowing officials to waive the interviews in low-risk cases. Viers said an example of a low-risk case would be a current student who has been in the United States for a while with no status violations, has returned home for a visit and must apply for a new visa to return. \n"Unfortunately, the new legislation takes this discretionary authority away from consular officials and mandates an interview for all visa applicants, irrespective of their previous history with our country," Viers said. "In many countries, this means that students and scholars must now make three personal visits to the embassy to apply for a visa, often having to travel extremely long distances to do so."\nThis procedure also creates delays. Lynn Schoch, senior associate director of International Services, said embassies are overwhelmed with requests for interviews. \n"It can take a very long time just to get your five minutes with an officer," Schoch said. \nSchoch said students often have to make their requests months ahead of time, which leaves no room for last minute decisions and admissions. Some students who face the decision to put off their educations for a year opt to study elsewhere. \n"As it becomes harder and harder to be a scholar in the U.S., other countries are making it easier, so we are seeing an increasing number of students going to Australia, Canada and Great Britain," Schoch said. "I fear that the long-term effect will be to discourage international students from studying in the U.S."\nSchoch's fear may soon become a reality. This year was the first in more than a decade in which IU saw a decline in international students, said Larry MacIntyre, IU's director of media relations. There are 4,455 international students currently enrolled at all eight IU campuses combined, which represents a 4.2 percent decrease from 2003, when IU had 4,647. He said the decrease in the number of international applicants could become a potential problem for the University and other schools across the nation.\nMark Helmke, a senior staff member for Sen. Lugar's Foreign Relations Committee, said things need to change. Helmke said Sen. Lugar is working to improve the situation by holding a series of roundtable forums in D.C., which assemble representatives from universities throughout the country, senators and representatives from the Departments of State and Homeland Security. These forums aim to discuss ways to strike a fair balance between national security concerns and the preservation of international students' access to a U.S. education. Helmke said there are at least three forums scheduled for upcoming months.\n"The law is the law. We still don't want foreign terrorists to come to the U.S. disguised as students, as has happened," Helmke said. "But the U.S. wants foreign students here. We want to see a change in attitude (about the process) because right now these students are being treated as guilty until proven innocent."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(11/19/04 4:16am)
Have room for more at the table?\nWith Thanksgiving approaching, students are leaving campus to return to their homes all over the country. But there are some who can't. \nBecause it's such a short break, international students often times don't have much choice but to pay $25 to stay in Eigenmann Hall during the recess. That's why for more than 50 years Bloomington Worldwide Friendship, Inc. has been helping these students find families with which to spend the holidays, and they are now seeking volunteers. \n"Given the distance associated with travel, many students who are with us from around the world are not able to be with family over the holiday," said Chris Viers, associate dean for International Programs and director of International Services. "Students enjoy the opportunity to spend time with Bloomington families while taking a break from studies and staying in a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere."\nLast year, about 40 families volunteered, said Basil Wentworth, chair of BWF's Holiday Hosts Committee. But Wentworth said they need hosts now more than ever.\n"I'm desperate for community hosts," Wentworth said. "The sooner they get to me, the happier the students will be."\nStudents say they benefit from spending time with American families. \nJaromir Paril, a graduate student from the Czech Republic, has been at IU since August. Although he has studied in the United States before, he has never spent an entire school year away from home. But Paril said he plans to spend the break with his BWF family.\n"Some people can enrich or change students' lives, attitudes or future," Paril said. "The knowledge that there are people from BWF who are open to foreign cultures helps me to learn more about life here. The shared excitement of learning is the best part of being together with Americans for me."\nKimberly Ruff, public relations and committee chair of BWF, has been a host for seven years and will be hosting Paril this year. Ruff, who lived in Germany for five years and England for nine, said she always appreciated when families invited her to stay in their homes while she was overseas.\n"It gives me a lot of pleasure to do it and see they appreciate it," Ruff said. "There is nothing like opening up your house and having your family members being a part of it, too. It's really a broader kind of sharing, and it means a lot." \nRuff said the BWF's key program, however, is the Friends Program, for which they will recruit this month. For a semester, international students are matched with families or adults who are interested in having friendships with them. Students do not live with volunteers, but they meet with their new friends four to five times a semester where they often have meals together, go to plays or even take trips to Brown County. \nMany families who have participated in the Friends Program have maintained their friendships with students for many years, and have even flown overseas to be in their weddings or to visit their home countries. \n"It's a nice way to have friends all over the world," Ruff said. "It makes life more interesting and worthwhile.\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(11/16/04 5:12am)
Grad student Loyal Miles remembers the shock he felt when he watched the second plane hit one of the Twin Towers on his TV screen. He knew he was watching history unfold but he recalls feeling there was no way to know in that moment what the long-term effects of Sept. 11, 2001 would be.\n"I had to balance my own personal shock of seeing something so horrible on TV with knowing it was going to have a historic effect for years to come," Miles said. "There was really no way to say in that moment what it meant, but I knew it was going to mean something big."\nThese feelings have stuck with him ever since. Miles came to IU in 2000, and has been working to earn an MFA in creative writing. As a part of the MFA program, students like Miles get the chance to teach. After instructing several creative writing classes offered through the English Department, the Wichita, Kan., native had his own idea. \nHe learned through a friend that the Collins Living-Learning Center welcomes instructors who have created their own classes to apply to have their courses offered at the LLC. So he designed a course called, "Writing Historical Fiction," in which students would use the events of 9-11 to write their stories. \nHe said he wanted students to research all angles of Sept. 11 by reading both national and international perspectives on the terrorist attacks, and also learning about the issues concerning the redevelopment of Ground Zero. But he wanted their primary preparation for writing their stories to be a field trip to New York City so they could experience the aftermath of the events as best they could. \n"They need to be there, they need to see how big the space of ground zero is," Miles said. "They need to see the buildings and the city so they'll have a deeper understanding to start from when they are writing what the events were really like."\nThe Board of Educational Programming at the LLC approved his course last year, so Miles and his students flew to NYC where they spent the past weekend trying to piece together their own conceptions of 9-11 and its aftermath. They met with Lee Ielpi, the vice president of the 9-11 Widows' and Victims' Family Association, and with Anthony Gardener, the president and founder of the World Trade Center United Family Group. Both men lost loved ones that day. Miles' students learned from them what both the people trapped in the buildings experienced during the attacks and what firefighters did in their attempts to rescue them.\nMiles and his students also visited several museums that featured 9-11 exhibitions, and, Sunday morning, they walked through Ground Zero. It was not what many of them had expected.\n"More than anything, it was just a hole," freshman Jake Ruby said. "In New York, there's so much life and to have an absence of life six acres wide and six stories deep was really awkward. It didn't seem like something like that would be possible in New York City."\nJunior Chelsea Stroup also could hardly believe what she saw. She said there were so many buildings around the site that it was hard to imagine something so big fell without doing more damage. After visiting Ground Zero, Stroup said she felt self-conscious about discussing her reactions to the site in public. While the rest of the students were talking about the visit on the subway, the Kokomo, Ind., native sat in silence.\n"I was afraid to talk to people in our group about it because I didn't know if someone sitting next to me had family or friends who were in the towers," Stroup said.\nBut Stroup was most moved after she listened to Gardener speak. She said Gardener has had arguments with members of the New York Port Authority and various politicians including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton about the redevelopment plans for Ground Zero. She said Gardener is upset about Port Authority's plans to fill in the places where the towers stood, called the footprints, with a bus depot among other things. Stroup said she feels the footprints should be preserved, not commercialized. \n"A lot of times family members like to stand on the footprints because to them it's like standing over their families' grave," Stroup said. "The Port Authority is filling them in without consulting the family members."\nBoth Stroup and Ruby, who is from New Carlisle, Ind., said they feel the trip will help them write their final stories because they have had the chance to see and experience everyday life in New York. They said they have seen the result of the attacks and also how New Yorkers have continued to live their lives after the tragedy.\nMiles said he was pleased with the trip, and knows his students will have plenty of ideas for their stories. \n"I want my students to be charged up after having this opportunity to interact with history and fiction writing about such an important topic," Miles said. "They are beginning to make sense of Sept. 11 and Ground Zero."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(11/15/04 5:13am)
As musicians set up their instruments and tuned their guitars, Mitch Rice stepped up to the microphone and spoke Saturday night to a crowd of Bloomington residents who filled the seats of the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.\n"The corporate forces are not taking over here in Bloomington," Rice said in a southern drawl. "We can't let highways define our way of life. We're not going to let them pave us. Help us fight this thing."\nThe sound of many clapping hands filled the theater. \nRice was referring to Interstate 69, an interstate highway the Indiana Department of Transportation plans to construct in years ahead that would connect the south side of Indianapolis to Evansville. While numerous state government officials support the proposed plan by former Gov. Evan Bayh in 1990, there has been a flood of citizen opposition in Bloomington and neighboring communities. Thirteen bands and local musicians performed at the Buskirk-Chumley to celebrate the release of a collaborative CD titled, "Save It, Don't Pave It: Music to Save our Communities," in an effort to increase awareness of the monetary, environmental and personal consequences of I-69.\nMarc Haggerty, one of the musicians and a life-long resident of Bloomington, said he thinks he can impact people through his songs.\n"I hope my songs will reach a spiritual place in the person who hears them. I hope they will touch their hearts," Haggerty said. "It motivates people when their hearts are touched."\nOthers, like Brian Winterman, said they participated because they feel strongly for the cause.\n"I'm from Evansville. I love the fact that there are about 15 different two-lane highways I could take to get to Bloomington," he said. "I don't really care that an interstate could shave off 15 minutes of my time."\nThe effort to put this CD together began in January of 2003, said Michelle Henderson, who helped organize the event. The money made from CD sales will be used to fund Citizens for Appropriate Rural Roads Inc., a grassroots organization working to protect the forests and farmlands that could be damaged by the construction of I-69. Henderson herself will be affected if the highway is built.\n"Our house was built in 1870 and is 400 feet off the center line of I-69," Henderson said. "This means our house will be destroyed. It is really sad, though, to know our house is one of hundreds of houses that will be affected, and I'm sure are all of them are very beautiful."\nHenderson said there will be many other negative consequences for the state if the highway is built. The new-terrain I-69 would cost Indiana taxpayers an estimated $1.7 billion, which she said means less money would be available for education and health care. She said taxes will also likely increase because the Indiana Department of Transportation will need adequate funding to get the job done, and the money that is supposed to go towards paving and maintaining rural roads will end up being used for the highway.\nSandra Tokarski, a member of the CARR Steering Committee, said she thinks INDOT should upgrade existing roads instead of creating the highway because it would cause far less damage to the environment. Tokarski suggested these upgrades should include putting in 8-to-10-foot shoulders, softening harsh curves and creating more passing and turn lanes to make the roads safer. She said this is a better solution than I-69.\n"The real issue is that we can't keep the roads we have in good repair, we don't need to be adding to the road system," Tokarski said. "And we can not continue to pave over farmland, not just because it is beautiful, but because it sustains us."\nSome feel differently about the issue. Joshua Claybourn, a law student at IU Purdue University-Indianapolis, said he drives on those two-lane Southern Indiana roads often. He said not only does he find them to be confusing, poorly maintained and slow, but dangerous too.\n"Consider the wasted gas and fuel, along with time and safety," Claybourn said. "On average, over the past 25 years, 10 deaths and 450 serious injuries per month have taken place on Southwestern Indiana's archaic, curvy, two-lane highway system. Thousands of IU students travel between IU and Evansville each year, and they deserve better." \n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(11/11/04 5:04am)
Along with bringing their two forms of identification, bar crawlers can bring two cans of food to Kilroy's Sports Bar tonight.\nIn collaboration with three students in the IU School of Social Work, Kilroy's Sports Bar will play host to an event benefiting the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. People who bring two canned food goods will not only save a dollar on their cover charge, but they'll also help feed the hungry of Monroe County. \nThose who choose not to participate will pay the $3 cover, and at the end of the night Kilroy's Sports will count what was made. The bar will donate half of the remaining cover charge to Hoosier Hills, an organization that collects and distributes food to needy families of various counties in southern and central Indiana.\n"Kilroy's has been an establishment in Bloomington for a long time now," said Katie Painter, event coordinator for Kilroy's Sports Bar. "We try very hard to give back to the community in every way we can. We thought this would be a good way to raise consciousness about hunger."\nHunger is an issue of mounting concern to this community and to all of Indiana. According to facts compiled by the Hoosier Hills Food Bank, Monroe County has the highest poverty rate in the state, with nearly 20 percent of residents living at or below the poverty level. Similarly, Indiana has the third highest number of food stamp participants in the nation, and the number of children under 18 who are living in poverty is growing each day.\nSenior Jennifer Spalding, one of the students in the School of Social Work who organized the event, said many of the families who rely on food stamps or cash assistance find, at the end of the month, they don't have the money they need to buy groceries. Spalding said these people have no other way to eat except through the food Hoosier Hills distributes to various agencies.\n"If it wasn't for Hoosier Hills Food Bank, many of these families would go hungry and would be at risk of being torn apart," Spalding said. "This issue affects many different populations of people and it takes a community to come together to help serve those in need."\nAnd help they can. For every dollar donated to the food bank, five meals can be provided, said senior Jaclyn Siegel who worked with Spalding on the event. Agencies pay 14 cents per pound of food they receive, Siegel said, so the more people who bring canned goods Thursday, the better. \n"If you have it in your kitchen, donate it." Siegel said. "If you're going to go out and buy it, it might be nice to buy something that you yourself would eat, but we welcome anything people are willing to give."\nSiegel, Spalding and senior Cara Cellini collaborated on an assignment for their social work class, in which they were instructed to organize an event that would bring the community together. They found hunger was an important issue to address because it's a basic need of every human being. It was no accident the event was scheduled for November, Siegel said, because around the holidays people tend to be more interested in getting involved in philanthropy. All three said they hope for a big student turnout because they want to open students' eyes to a problem they may not know exists.\n"We planned this event to make students aware that there is a community outside of the campus," Spalding said. "We wanted to provide them with an opportunity to contribute to an important cause." \n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(11/09/04 5:47am)
Every day he teaches, 88-year-old Henry Remak leaves his house on Maxwell Lane and walks nearly a mile to campus, cranking his weight from side to side with a large shoulder bag and a look of contentment on his face. He takes it slow, using this time to appreciate his surroundings and to chat with the people he meets.\n"I haven't driven a car since 1962," Remak said while laughing out loud. \nRemak, IU's oldest professor, usually climbs the stairs to his office on the sixth floor of Ballantine Hall. He's been teaching at IU for 66 years, and a student once told him that because of this, he has a protected status as a historical monument. \n"It's just amazing how much he knows about books, and how much insight he gives about the time period and the history," said senior Abhishek Khemka, a former student of Remak's. "The class would be about a book, but then he'd go off on a big tangent."\nFor Khemka and others, Remak's class is unique because he has so much life experience to draw from, always a personal story to tell that would add a little something to a discussion. After all, he's been around for nearly a century and has seen history unfold with his own eyes.\n"I think for the students, it's interesting to learn from a person who has lived history. I feel I can make things more alive because I can connect them to my own experiences in dramatic times," Remak said.\nThinking, he closes his eyes tightly and begins to speak of his past. Remak runs his thin hand over his head. He's nearly bald, but still has a few wisps of white hair. \nRemak was born in 1916 in Berlin amid the tumult of World War I. And although his family was German, they were of the Jewish faith, which he said became problematic. When he was a toddler, he remembers playing with his brother in a room in his house that overlooked the street below and hearing gunshots, a sound he came to regard as normal.\n"I was very used to conflict," Remak said.\nHe went to the only French high school in Berlin, which prepared him well to emigrate once Hitler came to power in 1933. Remak went to France to study for more than two years, earning the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. \nRemak sent letters all over the world in an attempt to get a job, but he said no one wanted to hire someone whom they couldn't meet face-to-face. Then, while at the University of Montpelier, in France, his luck changed. Walking down a hallway, he saw a poster on the wall from the International YMCA that said all persecuted people should have a chance to emigrate to a country where they could get a job. It said anyone who felt eligible should send an autobiography. So he did.\nThe YMCA wanted to help Remak and told him they would try and place him at a university in a free country. \n"The YMCA learned that America had fraternity and sorority houses," Remak said. "So they had a practical idea, and decided the thing to do was to get me to be invited by a fraternity."\nIU's chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu responded. The alumni invited Remak to stay with them for free. \nHe spent his first day in Bloomington finding a way to pay for his tuition. With the help of his 35 fraternity brothers, he went to William Lowe Bryan, IU's president at the time, and asked him for free tuition. Bryan, who had himself spent time in Berlin studying abroad, took a liking to Remak and granted his request.\nWith most of his major worries aside, Remak was free to explore the campus. He felt anxious when his friend took him on a tour of the campus because there were so many trees and flowers around. This sight was different from his idea of a college campus, which in Europe consists mostly of tall stone buildings. \n"I remember distinctly saying to myself that I am never going to leave this paradise," Remak said.\nBloomington has remained Remak's anchor, so that no matter where he has traveled, he has always returned to this town he calls home. \nRemak enlisted in the Merchant Marine during World War II, and he has been a visiting professor in Wisconsin, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Germany, France and India. He got his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and in 1946, he was offered a full-time professorship at the IU-Bloomington campus, where he has taught Germanic comparative culture and comparative literature, and was among the founders of the West European Studies Program. He became the Vice Chancellor of the University in 1969, retiring from that post after five years.\nBut he didn't retire from IU entirely. The Honors College wanted him to be a member of its faculty; he is now an emeritus professor within the HC and teaches historical seminar classes.\nSenior Andrew Remak said he's very proud to be Henry Remak's grandson because of how loyal he's been to the University. He admires his grandfather's love for his students, and doesn't think his grandfather will ever want to stop teaching.\n"I don't think he's ever going to retire. I think he'll stop teaching when they kick him out, or when he can't walk or talk anymore," Andrew said.\nHenry Remak holds up a gold trophy in his hands that tend to shake. The American Comparative Literature Association sent it to him recently as an award for lifetime achievements in comparative literature, the first and only award of its kind. \n"So you see a negative thing may have positive consequences. If Hitler hadn't come to power, I may have studied in Germany and never come here to become a professor of languages and comparative cultures." Remak said. "I love teaching, I love students and I feel I've had a very lucky life."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(11/01/04 4:46am)
She sat, waiting for her English lecture to begin when a classmate turned around and pointed a finger at her "My Man Mitch" T-shirt. \n"I heard his daughter goes to school here," he said.\n"Yea, I heard that," she said, laughing to herself.\nA few days later, she tapped him on the shoulder and said she was that daughter.\nMaggie Daniels is like most freshmen at IU -- except her father, Mitch Daniels, is Indiana's Republican gubernatorial candidate in a race that will come to a close in a matter of days. She supports her father on campus by wearing shirts bearing his campaign slogan, participates in rallies, and even rode in the back of a red 1967 Mustang with a banner saying "Vote for my dad Mitch" in the IU Homecoming parade Friday. \nBut Maggie Daniels doesn't feel she's any different from her peers.\n"I'm just like a normal college student," she said. "I'm not the one everybody cares about. I'm just related to him. I don't broadcast it." \nShe rolls out of bed most mornings at 8 a.m. and shakes awake her roommate, who often sleeps through the alarm. She leaves Teter Quad and heads to the Kelley School of Business, where she takes classes required for her major. She devotes some evenings to being involved with both IU College Republicans and Campus Crusade for Christ. Recently, Maggie Daniels went through sorority rush because she said she thought it would be a good way to meet people at such a large university.\nLike other daughters of politicians, Daniels is mindful that her behavior could be used in a public forum against her father, but she doesn't feel her social life is inhibited. Her longtime friend and roommate, freshman Kait Behan, said they discussed this issue before coming to IU.\n"She doesn't worry about her image affecting him at all because her father doesn't expect for his family to change their lives for him," Behan said. "Her father never asks them to support whatever he does. Whenever you see them out in public, it's always because it's their choice to be there supporting him."\nThe toughest thing for Maggie Daniels, though, is hearing personal criticisms of her father either in the media or when she catches bits of people's conversations on her way to class.\n"Honestly, I have no problem with anyone who disagrees with his policies because that's the nature of politics," Maggie Daniels said, "but the really hard part is when they attack his character in ways I know are inaccurate."\nShe referred to the recent issue of Indiana Power and Light Company. Her father and other IPALCO board members voted to sell the Indiana company to Virginia-based AES, which resulted in the loss of money for many retired employees. Gov. Joe Kernan has used this issue in his campaign, running TV and newspaper ads questioning his opponent's character for his role in the sale. Maggie Daniels said this has been the worst case of "below-the-belt slander" against her father because the ads have gone beyond being attacks against his policies. \nMaggie said she's learned to tune-out these criticisms.\n"I've never been in this kind of situation before; I'm just a teenage girl," she said. "I don't have the thick skin that's required for politics. With the personal attacks that have been made, the best thing for me to do is to turn off the TV or put down the newspaper. I think sometimes people forget that we're real people just like everybody else."\nSophomore Justin Rumer, Maggie Daniels' boyfriend of two years, said he admires the way she has dealt with things.\n"I think she is handling everything surprisingly well. I think it would be really hard, especially the way the campaign's been going. It's been really dirty," Rumer said. "I've watched TV with her or been with her when she's read something negative, and she feels it's personal -- it's her father. I can't even imagine what I would do if I heard people say bad stuff about my dad."\nSometimes things get hard for Maggie Daniels, but she has her four older sisters and her parents just a phone call away.\n"When everything feels like it's crumbling, I call my mom or my dad," she said.\nWhile she has enjoyed being involved in the race, Maggie said she'll be glad when everything has cooled down. This experience has opened her eyes to the possibility to pursue politics, not as a career, she said, but more as a way to give back to society what's been handed to her. After she graduates, she plans to be in the Army Reserves.\n"I feel called to do that. It's my duty as a citizen," she said. "I've been brought up to believe that our citizenship in the U.S. is a precious gift that others have laid their lives down to defend. I want to risk my life to defend it as well."\nBut for now, Maggie Daniels is focused on school and, of course, the race.\nOn Election Day, she'll leave IU straight from class and drive to Indianapolis where she'll vote, quickly get her hair done and head to a family friend's house to wait for the precincts to be shut-down and the results to be counted. She will then go with her family to the Hinkle Fieldhouse, she said, hopefully to celebrate. Around 2 a.m., she'll drive back to IU and get up for her early morning Wednesday class.\nDaniels said she has faith in her father.\n"I'm confident, but I know whatever is meant to happen will happen," she said. "I'm very comfortable with that."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(10/27/04 5:04am)
Participants in the second-annual Ramadan Fast-a-thon gathered in the Forest Greenleaf Cafeteria Tuesday to break their one-day fast with a plate of date fruits and a dinner of traditional Middle Eastern dishes. \nThe IU Muslim Student Union organized the event, and with the help of about 200 non-Muslim students and numerous sponsors, they raised $550 for the Bloomington Community Kitchen, a local agency that provides warm meals six days-a-week to the hungry. \nThe event was held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims all over the world don't eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. \nImad Rahman, president of the Bloomington Islamic Center, said this event not only gave students the experience of fasting, but also the opportunity to understand the feelings of the impoverished. \n"If you've not eaten for a few hours, things are really put into perspective," Rahman said. "You never stop and appreciate what a blessing a dry piece of bread or a glass of water is. You'll never look at it like that if your stomach is full."\nVicki Pierce, Community Kitchen's executive director, said she was pleased with the outcome and that the money would be nearly enough to provide a day's worth of meals at the kitchen's two local sites. \nShe said she always thinks it's good when there is an opportunity to educate people about hunger in the community, since Monroe County has the highest poverty rate in the sate. She also feels it is especially for students, who may not be aware of the magnitude of the problem.\n"Sometimes ... we can get isolated and not realize the poverty that exists in this community," Pierce said. "I know because I was an undergraduate here. A whole lot of people are interested in helping doing something to alleviate hunger in our community once they realize it exists. So by educating them, this tends to happen more and more."\nRahman said in the U.S., approximately 33 million people live with the daily reality of hunger. Pierce said 12 percent of the children in Monroe County live at or below the poverty level, which is why it is so important to educate and mobilize people to fight hunger. \nSome local sponsors who made donations to the Community Kitchen include Turquaz Café, Runcible Spoon, Bombay House as well as individual professors' contributions. \nSenior Rafael Davis said he learned about the Fast-a-Thon from a friend and wanted to participate because he heard the proceeds would go to those living in poverty. \n"You fast, and it helps you understand how people in poverty feel," Davis said. "I understand that struggle."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(10/26/04 4:39am)
A journalist found himself in a tough position when he got a phone call. On the other line, an FBI agent told him he and two other reporters would be put behind bars if they failed to hand over 12 hours of interview tapes with a key witness to a terrorism trial. Weeks later, a U.S. District Judge issued the official order saying that by 9:30 the next morning the tapes must be given up. So he did what he felt was right. \nAbdon Pallasch told his two young sons he might be going to jail.\nPallasch, a Legal Affairs reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, was greeted by a wave of applause as he stood before a room of J300 students Monday at Ernie Pyle Hall. \nHe was invited to speak to Anthony Fargo's Communications Law class about two instances in which he was asked to give up information he acquired while writing controversial stories. Pallasch has become one of a number of journalists involved in what seems to be a legal trend against reporter's privilege, or the right journalists often declare they have to keep all information they acquire in the newsgathering process confidential, including notes, tapes, photographs and the identities of their sources.\nLike Pallasch, other reporters have threats of jail sentences looming over their heads currently. Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter, was found in contempt of court Oct. 8 for refusing to divulge information to a grand jury that would aid in the investigation of the leak of a CIA agent's identity to the media, and faces up to 18 months in jail. \n"I'll go to jail before I give up my source, and I mean that," Pallasch said. "People are afraid of the press and they shouldn't be. We as journalists should be able to interview, click to record the information, and a source should trust it's not going to be used against them."\nWhile many states like Illinois have written reporter's privilege into law, federal law does not recognize this privilege. Judges look to the 1972 Supreme Court case Branzburg v. Hayes when ruling on these issues, in which the majority reasoned that journalists have the same duties as all citizens to appear when called to give evidence. \nHowever, Justice Potter Stewart recognized that journalists should have a "qualified privilege," meaning the government cannot just swoop down and take their information without good reason because it would interfere with the free flow of information to the public.\nJournalism professor Anthony Fargo said he does not think a law protecting journalist's privilege will be passed anytime soon.\n"I'm not optimistic," Fargo said. "Do I think they'll be proposed, yes, but passed, I'm not so sure. I think for some reason the government has come to the conclusion that it's ok to make reporters into investigators for the government."\nPallasch and Sun-Times colleague Robert Herguth wrote a series of stories about David Rupert, an American trucker whom the FBI recruited to infiltrate the Irish Republican Army, a terrorist group thought to be responsible for the 1998 Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland that killed 29 people. \nPallasch and Herguth linked up with Chicago Tribune reporter Flynn McRoberts, and with the cooperation of Rupert, who was and still is in the witness protection program, they taped hours of Rupert's account of his experience. Rupert discussed his relationship with Mickey McKevitt, the alleged head of the IRA. McKevitt was facing a sentence of up to 20 years in prison after the Irish government charged him with "directing terrorism." Rupert was the main witness against him. \nWhen McKevitt's attorney learned of their interview with Rupert, he insisted the judge give the three reporters an official order to give up their tapes which were key components to the cross examination of Rupert. \nAfter much thought and persuasion from their lawyers, Pallasch and his colleagues gave up the tapes. They realized if they appealed to the Supreme Court, it would probably be overturned and they would be doing more harm to the cause than good, Pallasch said, because then an opinion would be written that could hamper journalist's privilege in all 50 states.\n"I really hated giving up those tapes, but we'd still be in jail, and the law would be just as bad," Pallasch said. \nIn one such other case, Pallasch and Sun-Times rock critic, Jim DeRogatis, broke the news that singer songwriter, R. Kelly, had been having sexual relations with girls as young as 15. They had the tape to prove it. They were issued a subpoena to hand the tape over to the Chicago Police Department, which they did because it was a crucial piece of evidence in the investigation.\n"We possessed evidence of a felony," Pallasch said. "We concluded we had a legal obligation to turn it over."\nJunior Rebecca Taxman, a student in Fargo's class, said that if she were in Pallasch's shoes she would have done what he did. However, she said she finds it troublesome as an aspiring journalist that the government is trying to control the press.\n"If journalists keep having to give up their sources then people aren't going to want to give up information because they will feel threatened," Taxman said. "If you don't have reporters reporting the facts, then it's going to cause a breakdown in our system."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.
(10/22/04 6:14am)
Students interested in finding new ways to promote diversity in Bloomington focused on strengthening the relationship between the Jewish and black communities on campus in a discussion Thursday. To this end, the members of the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center met for the second annual Diversity in Bloomington dinner and discussion. \n"This program was set up to be a round-table discussion about how individual groups on campus can help each other meet their goals," said senior Laura Siegel, the student coordinator of the event. \nSiegel said the two groups need to work together through cooperative programming to target the Bloomington community at large rather than specific audiences. \nRepresentatives of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center expressed their frustrations when they have offered events to promote leadership, inviting people of all races and religions to attend, but still mostly blacks show up. This might be due to the misconceptions students have of the exclusiveness of various cultural centers on campus, participants said. \n"The venue has to change," said senior Jennifer Gubitz. \nGubitz suggested offering programs at the Indiana Memorial Union, a neutral building, so students would not feel uncomfortable about attending events. \n "I'm Jewish. I wear it on my sleeve," Gubitz said. "Everyone in this room is proud of who they are and from where they've come. But what do we do about those people who don't feel a connection to other people?"\nThe best way to promote diversity, Gubitz said, is to have a common ground like a philanthropical organization. This organization would not be based on religion or race; it would just be a group of people helping those in need. \nRabbi Sue Shifron, Hillel director, said she was pleased with the discussion's turnout, but she hopes to see even more students attend future events.\n"I think there are more people who would be happy to do something if there was a comfortable way to do things. It is up to us to get people comfortable and used to doing things."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu
