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(09/06/07 4:22am)
A crowd of freshman males is expected to flock to Dunn Meadow Friday afternoon to discover what it means to “go greek.”\nThe Interfraternity Council will kick off Men’s Recruitment from 5 to 7 p.m. in the meadow.\nEach of the 26 fraternities at IU will have brothers representing at the event and giving out information about their respective chapters at IU, said Mike Rosenthal, Interfraternity Council vice president of recruitment.\nFreshmen will be able to choose from the fraternities that they like and visit their houses this weekend, said Scott Bishop, Interfraternity Council vice president of communications. \nBishop said freshmen will be able to sign up for tours of every fraternity house on campus, as well as meet brothers from fraternities without houses.\nRosenthal said even freshmen who are unsure about greek life should visit.\n“Initially I wasn’t going to join a fraternity,” Rosenthal said. “I was pretty sure I wasn’t. I just think overall the leadership opportunity, the friendship opportunity and the opportunity to get involved is unlimited when you join a greek house.”\nAfter going through recruitment, Rosenthal said he went from “not gonna join” to “being in charge of recruitment altogether.”\nRosenthal encouraged freshmen to look at each chapter because they’re all different and he said recruitment is the best way to see what the greek community at IU has to offer.\nFreshman finance major Brian Horwitz said he will definitely attend.\n“All of (the fraternities) are different, so it’s important to find the one that’s right for you,” Horwitz said. “Especially if you’re going to live with them.”
(09/05/07 5:32am)
The newest addition to frat row rivals homes that would more likely be seen in MTV’s “Cribs” than in “Animal House.”\nBehind a Tudor façade and in front of a basketball court, Beta Theta Pi fraternity members will rest their heads in a $4.7-million house at 1100 North Jordan Ave., which is supposed to be finished Oct. 1. \nIt is entirely wireless, fully air-conditioned and is the only fraternity on campus with nearly all single rooms. The house, which sits on nearly $1.3 million worth of land, has three wings that include fully furnished bedrooms, a library, archives, a “great hall,” which will – upon completion – have an inside balcony from the top floor, and a dining hall that leads to the patio.\nWhile construction continued on the public areas of the house, some of the 57 live-in members opted to move into the completed residential wings of the house at the beginning of the semester.\n“It’s an incredible opportunity to live in a house that we worked years to see built,” said Greg Baumer, chapter president and senior.\nAfter losing its charter in 2001 for “vulgar” offenses, the IU Beta Theta Pi chapter recolonized in 2003. By 2005, it had enough members to recharter, and the quest for a new territory began, said Dr. Charles McCormick, the chapter’s counselor.\nBaumer said the “new faces” and “new people” in Beta would help to ensure that the fraternity would regain a better, more responsible reputation.\nThere is still a price for posh living.\nBeta Theta Pi live-in members pay about $8,300 for an academic year, which covers utilities, food and other amenities, Baumer said.\nBeta Theta Pi alum George Bledsoe said that because active undergraduates maintain “deep alumni relationships,” half of the funding was procured from donations. Baumer said that hopefully the house will be paid for entirely by alumni donation since a “critical aspect of fraternities (is) lifelong brotherhood.”\nIU Beta alumni not only paid for the house, but some even assisted in building it by participating in the House Corporation Board. Being in the house continued to strengthen alumni bonds with undergraduates.\nBledsoe also said the level of technology and the grandeur of the house architecturally were intended to raise the quality of future Greek housing on campus.\nBeta hasn’t only changed its look, but also has reshaped its outlook. Bledsoe said that in the new house, Beta Theta Pi is implementing a no-alcohol policy to “stop the ‘Animal House’ frat house living situation on this campus.”\n“We think that it’s important that young men – fraternity members – learn to live together, work together and create an atmosphere of high principles and integrity,” said James Newcomer, secretary-treasurer of the House Corporation Board. “And that can be done in the Beta house.”
(08/23/07 3:00am)
IU’s ROTC showed a complete about-face from past years when it placed fourth out of more than 272 programs from across the country at this year’s Leadership Development and Assessment Course.\nThe course is a 33-day mental and physical training event at Warrior Forge in Fort Lewis, Washington and is considered to be the most important and potentially most difficult training for an ROTC cadet.\nCadet and senior Nathaniel Tiffany was an enlisted soldier in 2003 before he decided to come to IU. He said he joined the ROTC because he missed the military life. Even after being in the military, Tiffany said Warrior Forge still had plenty to teach him.\n“Since you’re training to be a leader, you always want to put yourself in a leadership position,” Tiffany said. “But to be a good leader, you have to be a good follower. That’s something I improved on at Warrior Forge.”\nMajor Todd Tiniusfrom the Department of Military Science said that before last year, the ROTC at IU was mediocre, always placing in the low-middle range of scores at the Leadership and Development and Assessment Course. He said the cause for this year’s turnaround new leadership in the form of Lt. Col. Eric Arnold.\n“(Arnold) is younger, engaged, enthusiastic and pushes the kids to the limit. If they do well, he’s the first guy to pat them on the back and tell them it’s a great job,” Tinius said.\nWarrior Forge tested cadets’ decision-making, physical stamina and leadership. Aside from grade point average, performance at the course is one of the greatest determining factors in whether a cadet receives the job he wants in the military when he gets out of school. \nArnold doesn’t take all the credit.\n“I set high goals, but still attainable,” Arnold said. “My goal wasn’t to be fourth in the nation. My goal was just to be better. It was a perfect event – I had the right kids. Students who come to Indiana University are definitely a cut above the average.”\nTo help cadets prepare, Arnold installed an extra two weeks of physical training in May as well as tightening discipline and responsibility. Tiffany said Arnold and all of IU’s other professors of military science were always available for help.\n“(The results) actually demonstrate that Arnold was on the right track,” Tinius said.\nWhile only about 23 percent of cadets receive “excellent” ratings nationally, 62 percent of IU cadets earned those scores. Arnold applauded the dedication of his cadets, citing that students usually show up to class even when attendance isn’t graded, and that ROTC depends upon the military ideal of being “in the right place at the right time all the time.”\n“Sometimes groups have a personality,” Tinius said. “This class had a tough one.” \nThough proud of the performance of the cadets, Arnold wants the ROTC to waste no time “resting on its laurels.”\n“Next year?” Tinius asked. “It’s going to be hard, but we’re going to try our best to follow suit.”
(04/27/07 4:00am)
Some people can juggle four clubs at a time. Some can hold their breath for several minutes. Others can use a fork with their toes. Junior Jon Coombs can put more than 44 rubber bands on his face in one minute, and it might earn him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. \nBefore IU’s “All Sorts of Trouble for the Boy in the Bubble Sketch Comedy” gives its final show of the year, member Coombs will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for “Most Rubber Bands Put on One’s Face in a Minute” at 9:45 p.m. Saturday in the State Room East of the Indiana Memorial Union. \n“I’m very confident I can do this,” Coombs said. “It’s so stupid I have to be able to do it.”\nIf Coombs succeeds, this will be the second world record members of “All Sorts of Trouble for the Boy in the Bubble Sketch Comedy” have broken in six months. Last semester, Aaron Waltke, IU graduate of ‘06, broke the record for “most T-shirts worn at once.”\nCoombs said Waltke has been like a coach for him, guiding him through the three-month-long paperwork process and assisting him in deciding what record to break.\n“Don’t be afraid to aim low,” Waltke said about picking a record to beat. “Don’t be afraid to aim weird.”\nCoombs said that when he flipped through the Guinness Book of World Records the first time, he initially chose to try and break 70 bananas in half in one minute, but then he realized they had to still have the peel on them. After watching a tape of the body builder who broke the record, Coombs decided against it.\nWaltke said holding the most eggs in one hand was also considered. The previous record was eleven, but Coombs did it and said it was not difficult enough.\nWith the help of Waltke, Coombs finally settled on putting at least 44 rubber bands that are less than four-inches in diameter on his face in less than one minute.\nCoombs said he picked it because it was one of the most “feasible” records to break and because he “really wants to put it on a legitimate resume.”\nWaltke stopped by Office Max and picked out two types of rubber bands, giving them to Coombs.\nFor the past two weeks, Coombs has practiced once or twice a day. Waltke said that, unofficially, Coombs has already fit 55 rubber bands on his face in a minute.\n“I’m aiming to shatter the record,” Coombs said.\nOn Saturday, Waltke will be taping the event and sending it to the people at Guinness to make Coombs’ record official.\nSeveral people, including Coombs, thought it would be funny if one member of “All Sorts of Trouble for the Boy in the Bubble Sketch Comedy” broke a record each semester, and he is trying to keep it up.\nFreshman Courtney Crary, a theatre major and fellow group member, said she hopes members will continue to try to break world records, even if they are a little risky.\n“I was kind of worried,” Crary said. “I don’t know if you can die from rubber bands, but I thought Aaron was going to die when he was wearing all those T-shirts.”
(04/25/07 4:00am)
Dr. Adewale Troutman, director of the Louisville Metro Health Department and associate professor at the University of Louisville, will speak about health care inequality and the need to universalize health care.\nTroutman will lead an interactive discussion at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center today from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. He will give a speech at the Monroe County Public Library at 7 p.m.\nThis event is presented in conjunction with the fifth annual “Cover the Uninsured Week,” which started April 22 and runs through April 29. “Cover the Uninsured Week” was created to promote awareness of the national health care problem and action to help solve it.\nSince Troutman is an associate professor at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, he has an extensive background in public health advocacy.\n“Dr. Troutman’s experience will speak for itself,” said Karen Green Stone, communications director for Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan.\nThe U.S. Census Bureau reports that the United States has more than 44.5 million residents who are uninsured. Indiana has more than 860,000 residents who are uninsured. This does not include any numbers on people who are underinsured.\n“Right now, just in the ninth district of Indiana, there are about 90,000 uninsured Hoosiers,” Stone said. “(‘Cover the Uninsured Week’) brings attention, sets a conversation and hopefully will find a solution.”\nAlthough health care is a concern on a national stage for most of the year, Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan hope to localize it by creating this special Bloomington event.\nWhile Troutman appreciates the light that the week shines on health care, he said “the issue itself is what’s most important – the rising number of individuals and families with no health insurance” and those who are underinsured.\nThis “inequitable distribution of resources with health and health care … indicate lack of social justice with basic provision of the right to health,” Troutman said.\nHe said universalized health care alone would not be the answer to America’s health care problems since “universal coverage doesn’t guarantee universal access,” but it would be a major step in the right direction.\nTroutman said people typically affected by either being uninsured or underinsured are the poor, blacks, Latinos, American Indians and “others that are traditionally marginalized.”\nPushing for universal coverage with universal access and a single standard of high quality health care is key, Troutman said. He is expected to highlight this topic in his speech.\nMusic graduate student Elizabeth Borowsky, a founding member of Students for a Commonsense Health Plan, said she decided to get involved in the cause after taking a health psychology course with IU professor Barbara Walker.\nAfter meeting with other students who also were interested in Indiana’s health care “crisis,” they banded together to form Students for a Commonsense Health Plan. The organization was responsible for the “Cover the Uninsured Week” kickoff benefit concert.\n“I think that the primary goal of ‘Cover the Uninsured Week’ is to raise awareness within this community about the large amount of uninsured and underinsured people,” Borowsky said.\nA Horizons of Knowledge grant from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Dean of Faculties and donations from IU’s departments of public health, social work, psychology, optometry and the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions helped bring Troutman to Bloomington.
(04/19/07 4:00am)
Only nine months after WIUX went FM and abandoned our tiny AM signal, a country station in Columbus, WYGB, wanted to expand. Because WYGB was a full-power station, it received our same signal; this process is called encroachment.
Now, more and more low-power (LPFM) radio stations nationwide have fallen victim to encroachment. Recently, Prometheus Radio Project, a nonprofit organization fighting for LPFM stations, asked for WIUX's help in the case of fellow station KDRT in Davis, Calif. Like WIUX, a full-power station has threatened KDRT's existence, but it has no way out. KDRT and WIUX have begun grassroots campaigns to combat the The Federal Communications Commission's dismissal of this injustice.
(04/06/07 4:00am)
Charity is often considered to be a rewarding experience, but who knew that someone could see 19 bands perform just for donating two canned goods and $3?\nThe Union Board’s 21st annual Club Night, part of Live From Bloomington’s campaign to support local bands and the Hoosier Hills Food Bank, featured 19 bands at Max’s Place, Blue Bird, Uncle Festers and Jake’s on Thursday. A donation of $5 or a combination of $3 and two canned goods got patrons into all participating venues for the night.\nRhino’s and Landlocked will host an all-ages Club Night on Friday that will feature select bands (which have yet to be announced) for the same price.\n“Music is such an intrinsical part of college students’ lives,” said Megan Tsupros, a Union Board member. “It really allows the college community to get into the local music scene and gets food to (Hoosier Hills Food Bank).”\nAll the bands are local or were formed in Bloomington.\nThe following bands are slated to perform: Alexander the Great, BIGBIGcar, Husband & Wife, Prizzy Prizzy Please, Totally Michael, Trio in Stereo, The Delicious, Kentucky Nightmare, Butterfly Toungz, (x) tet, The Alarmists, Alex M. Clark, Ali One, e.p. hall, Push-Pull, Muzaic, Sprickets, 2 Mics & A Kit and The Giggles.\n“From Club Night itself, 1,000 pounds (of food) are generally generated, but from the whole Live From Bloomington drive, it’s over 8,000 pounds,” said Stephanie Solomon, Hoosier Hills Food Bank volunteer coordinator.\nShe also said that because the programs are scheduled for the weekend of Easter, student volunteers will be in demand.\nThe Hoosier Hills Food Bank has dispersed over 19 million pounds of food through six of Indiana’s poorest counties since 1983, but 2005 statistics showed an increase in the demand for food, according to the food bank. Hoosier Hills serves an estimated 20,000 people a month by dividing the food between shelters, food programs, day cares, youth programs, soup kitchens and other such places in Indiana.\nStudents wishing to volunteer for Hoosier Hills Food Bank or Live From Bloomington should e-mail volunteer@hhfoodbank.org or call 334-8374.
(03/28/07 4:00am)
When people think of the word “sexy,” animal-rights advocacy doesn’t usually come to mind.\nBut members of Revitalizing Animal Well-being, a new activist group on campus, hope to change that.\nMany animal-advocacy groups focus on the actual cruelty and torture of animals. Co-presidents and founders Courtney Wennerstrom and Deborah Strickland knew that to attract students, they would have to take a different approach. Wennerstrom said they set out to make animal advocacy seem fun – and even sexy – with events, such as this year’s Canadian love-letters campaign or next year’s planned Kissathon, to address seal slaughter off the coast of Newfoundland.\nIn an attempt to stop the killing of baby seals for their fur in Canada, members of Revitalizing Animal Well-Being are sending boxes of chocolates and a love letter to Canada’s prime minister in hopes that flattery will persuade the bureaucrats.\nRevitalizing Animal Well-Being members started collecting signatures on Valentine’s Day in Ballantine Hall and the Indiana Memorial Union. They now have collected about 800 signatures and plan to mail the letter this week.\nAccording to the letter, its intention is to render the prime minister “so overwhelmed by our love that (he) will immediately stop this senseless slaughter” of seals.\nThe group says that every year about 350,000 baby “white coat” seals are killed for their fur. \n“A year ago, I learned about the seal slaughter, and I was horrified,” Wennerstrom said.\nWhen Wennerstrom decided she needed to fight seal slaughter, she attempted to join an animal-activism group on campus. \nBut, as she soon found out, there wasn’t one. She said she couldn’t believe that 30,000 students did not care about the treatment of animals. So Wennerstrom and Strickland this year co-founded Revitalizing Animal Well-being.\nMembers of the group want “sexy” to be fun without objectifying women, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’s recent ad campaigns featuring photos of scantily clad women, Wennerstrom said. She said that to make any kind of advocacy sexy, it must “revitalize the way we think about intellectual life.”\nThe IU group’s community coordinator, Kara Kendall, said the group was good for anyone who cared about animals and wanted to have fun. She said not to expect the stereotypical animal-advocacy agency.\n“The most important thing is that RAW aims to be very inclusive,” Kendall said. “You don’t have to be a card-carrying vegan.”\nRevitalizing Animal Well-being was not formed to deal only with the seal slaughter issue, but also local animal rights issues and human-animal relations. Wennerstrom said a common misconception of animal advocacy was that animal advocates do not care about the needs of humans. To denounce this rumor and spread good-will, the group has partnered with Middle Way House to connect victims of domestic violence with their pets after the victims have left their homes.\nRevitalizing Animal Well-being will hold a meeting to recruit new members at 7 p.m. Thursday in Ballantine Hall 006.
(03/05/07 5:00am)
Rebecca Dresser, a professor of law and ethics at Washington University in Saint Louis, urged students and faculty to confront the myths about dying that the Terri Schiavo case brought to America’s forefront in 2005. \nDresser said that the Schiavo case should make Americans examine the response to the need of seriously ill patients and families, better allocation of health care resources and the reasons the United States should give attention to its medical-law policy issues.\n“What’s wrong with our myths?” Dresser asked a crowd of about 50 faculty and students. “I think they impose harm and promote pre-existing denial of death. … They distract from the meaning of the death of patients and unresponsive medical institutions.”\nDresser said there are three basic myths regarding death in American culture: living wills are infallible, the idea of the quality of life and the life extension.\nDresser, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, has recently gone through radiation therapy for a tumor in her mouth. She understands that each myth is “comforting, but false.” She encouraged debate and discussion that would lead to more concrete policy in America, saying that it wasn’t up to the experts, but to the people.\nDresser used books by author Joan Didion, journalist Marjorie Williams and futurist author Ray Kurzweil, and texts from the President’s Council on Bioethics to assist in showing the many ways myths form about death and treatment for life-sustaining treatments.\nFuturists, like Kurzweil, believe that humans will “transcend” biology and that “(disease and death) are problems to be overcome.” \nDresser was skeptical, saying it would be “unwise to buy into” Kurzweil’s vision. She admired those writers, thinkers and experts who realized the “ambivalence and uncertainty” that end-of-life treatment is inherently connected to.\nWith the baby boomers reaching their elderly years, Dresser said that America’s problems with death would only be exacerbated. She also said that cases such as Schiavo’s will not be uncommon because many of the elderly patients with medical problems such as dementia will not be able to make their own decisions. Again, Dresser stressed the need for more national debate.\nThe audience stayed for 20 minutes after the speech to ask Dresser questions ranging from ideas about universal health care and insurance policy to organ donation, and comfort in death. When asked about death with dignity, she talked about her own experience going through radiation treatment for her tumor. She said that in her case, treatment with dignity was “to be treated with respect as a person, not as a unit.”\nThe audience seemed to appreciate Dresser’s thoughtfulness and the ideas presented in her speech.\n“I thought it was an unbiased and objective speech,” said Smita Das, a freshman microbiology major. “It was about important questions that at least I hadn’t thought of about Terri Schiavo and myths about death.”
(02/21/07 5:00am)
Students who plan to pursue careers in medicine and health-related fields can start making connections at the Health Programs Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today in Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union.\nThere will be information on every field from allopathic medicine and athletic training to health information administration and social work. Assistant Director of the Health Professions and Pre-Law Center Rachel Tolen said that even though doctors and nurses are familiar roles, there are many more fields in health and life sciences to explore.\nAdmissions representatives from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, IU’s School of Medicine and School of Dentistry, the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and many more will attend to tell students what their schools are looking for in applicants.\n“It is very important that (students) come and talk directly with people who make decisions about who is admitted and get their perspective,” Tolen said. “Admissions (representatives) are very eager to talk to students from freshman to senior level.”\nAccording to the Health Professions and Pre-Law Center, only about one out of every two applicants gets accepted into medical school, and volunteer work can help make an applicant stand out from the crowd.\nHealth-related clubs and volunteer organizations, including Bloomington Hospital and he new Volunteers in Medicine, will attend the fair to inform students of local opportunities to gain experiences that they can add to their resumes.\nIU academic departments also will have representatives at the fair to talk to students about majors and classes that will make their backgrounds for different health-related careers stronger.\nFreshman Madhavi Singhal, a biochemistry and pre-med major, plans to attend the Health Programs Fair.\n“Med schools are really competitive, and I think it would help getting advice from the people who actually deal with the applications,” Singhal said.
