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(04/04/14 3:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Bloomington Faculty Council is seeking ways to increase faculty voice in University procedures and decisions.In a meeting Thursday to present the goals of the slate that will run in upcoming BFC elections, faculty discussed the lack of faculty governance at IU and how they might go about becoming more involved.“I find it a rather frustrating service that I do because the faculty no longer believes in the BFC, and the BFC no longer believes in itself,” Karma Lochrie, professor in the Department of English, said. She is the arts and humanities representative of the council. She said she was excited to see the new slate and that she hopes she can be a part of something bigger through the BFC.Lochrie pointed out that while the BFC has been very active in the past, it has been far too long since it has been active. Sara Friedman, associate professor of anthropology, said in addition to a more active BFC, there must also be improved communication between BFC and other governing bodies across campus and within the different schools. Council members said they agreed.“We in the BFC are kind of stranded in the BFC,” Lochrie said. Members at the meeting also expressed a concern that administrators are not involving faculty in decisions, but are only coming to them after the fact. “I’d love to not comply, but I don’t know how, given the fact that they’ve intentionally taken that away from us,” Friedman said of administrative demands.Purnima Bose, associate professor of English, said the bureaucratic demands administrators put on faculty conflict with the research mission of IU. IU is a Research I university, a classification based on giving high priority to research, commitment to graduate and doctoral programs and other criteria. “I find myself really anxious now that it’s not clear to me how we’re going to service this new demand to be a full-service undergraduate institution and an R1,” she said.Friedman said IU has a very top-down president, which makes faculty involvement difficult.Michael Martin, professor in the Department of Communication and Culture pointed out that the cross-school nature of the Media School would have given the BFC jurisdiction, no involvement from the BFC occurred.“It just seems to me that these are legitimate points of intervention that the BFC should’ve been involved in,” he said.Ben Robinson, associate professor of Germanic studies, said the effort has to lie in building faith in the BFC and encouraging faculty to speak up.“I think we do need to insist on more authority as is granted by the BFC constitution,” Robinson said. “It really has to be a cultural fight.”Follow reporter Anna Hyzy on Twitter @annakhyzy.
(04/02/14 2:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Bloomington Faculty Council made changes to the tenure and promotional policy for IU at a meeting Tuesday.The first reading of the changed “Principles and Policies on Tenure and Promotion” occurred during the meeting, and small changes to the document were discussed.“What this is is an effort, I think, to sort of comprehensively update the core policies,” BFC president Herb Terry said. “And we’re really bringing together policies that the faculty have adopted.”The draft includes added paragraphs to the Statement of Principles section that further elaborate on IU principles, Claude Clegg, associate vice provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, said during the meeting. A policy to revisit and revise the document every five to seven years was also added.“We imagined this document to be a living document,” Clegg said. The BFC dedicated copious amounts of time to discussing the voting practices for tenure.“Faculty members and administrators are ineligible to vote on promotion or tenure in review committees or unit meetings if they have not been substantively involved in the review process; including participation in deliberations related to the case,” the current draft reads.One faculty member said in the case of sabbatical or other academic obligations that require travel, faculty shouldn’t be penalized for missing the vote so long as they have been active participants throughout the whole process.It was suggested a phrase similar to “material engagement with the case” be added to the sentence to allow for such a person to be included in the vote.A set number has also been set for letters of recommendation for promotions. Six external letters is the minimum, Clegg said. “We’ve also opened up the range of letter writers,” Clegg said. “Typically, it’ll be expected that letter writers are from peer institutions. But there are instances that we can imagine a person not in academia who would be an appropriate letter writer.”Clegg said non-academic letters should be a rare case.Terry said they need to work out the issue out of those professors achieving tenure in a core school. A core school is a school that is on more than one campus. For instance, the Kelley School of Business has departments at both IU Bloomington and IUPUI, Terry said.Currently, a faculty member’s tenure is only valid at one campus.“If you get tenure in one of these core schools, you don’t have tenure in the school,” Terry said. “You have tenure in Bloomington or you have tenure at IUPUI.”A standard set of metrics to evaluate faculty members for tenure and promotion is included in the ballot’s wording. “Somebody said it’s a living document,” Terry said. “On the other hand, it has to be specific enough that when you’re hired to come here you know what you have to do, as best you can, in order to achieve tenure and get promoted.” Follow reporter Kathrine Schulze on twitter @KathrineSchulze.
(04/01/14 3:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The new Residence Halls Association executive board will take office today.In early March, students across campus elected a new president, vice president of internal affairs, vice president of programming and vice president of student affairs.Stephanie Corona, incoming RHA President, said she thinks coming into the new roles should be a smooth transition.“It is very much a hit-the-ground-running situation,” she said. “We are jumping right into directorship selection, planning summer training and ushering in next year’s center presidents.”The first change they will make as a group is setting aside an hour each week to meet as a board, Corona said. She said she hopes this will allow them to stay on the same page and work out any issues they have as a team.With the new executive board comes new members of RHA. Corona said they will catch them up on RHA policies and duties.The other members of the executive board must also appoint directors.Mark Wise, VP of internal affairs, said the goal is to make these new members feel comfortable as a part of RHA.“Once our members begin to feel the heartbeat of RHA, there is truly no limit to what we will accomplish,” he said.Each vice president has plans for change within their committee that they hope will not only form a more cohesive unit within the organization, but ultimately serve the IU student body.“I would like to see RHA develop an identity across campus,” VP of Student Affairs Lexie Heinemann said.“The executive team for the upcoming year together holds a strong belief RHA has made progress in expanding our name, but now we need to really deepen our connections to the centers and other student organizations to bring our presence on campus out more with this upcoming year.”Heinemann said the number one change she hopes to make is expanding RHA digitally across campus.“I plan on creating a YouTube page to film and profile events so that students will not have to wonder what it is that RHA does but rather they can see it with their own eyes and at their convenience,” she said. Megan Vanpelt, the VP of programming, said before any further large-scale programs can be planned she will ensure she has a stable group of leaders.She said she wants to create a sense of family within the programming board.“Yes, we will still be putting on great programs,” Vanpelt said. “However, this coming year I plan on having a more set schedule for programs so students know what they will be working on when.”Corona said the new media strategy, as well as holding a conference for the RHA in-center leaders, will help build a network of common goals for RHA as a whole.“I want to continue to build relationships between RHA and the rest of campus, the groundwork of which was laid by the previous administration,” she said. “We really invest in our people, and having that positive energy really propels us through the year to accomplish our goals.”With each new year, the organization rebuilds from the inside out.Corona said she believes in the past year they were successful in getting RHA’s name out to students.Now, they hope students begin to see what RHA really does for them, Heinemann said.“RHA makes changes here or there to adapt to the always-developing needs of the students because each year is different than the last,” she said. “Our executive team realizes that change is a good thing and that the students are who we serve.”
(03/28/14 3:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>President Barack Obama announced in January that one in five women — 20 percent — are sexually assaulted during their time at college. Leslie Fasone wants to lower that percentage at IU.Fasone accepted the position as the new assistant dean three weeks ago for Women’s and Gender Affairs, within the division of student affairs. She will continue to advise the Culture of Care initiative, while fulfilling her new role in the Dean of Students Office.Fasone will work in the area of women’s affairs and will develop programming that relates to improving the conditions on campus for women, as well as addressing the issue of sexual assault on campus.She said her passion for women’s affairs became an important part of her life when she went to college at IU.“When I was an undergrad, I had a number of friends who were sexually assaulted,” Fasone said. “I remember some distinct experiences where they would talk to me and they didn’t realize what had happened to them until they were talking to me.”As a member of the women’s fraternity, Kappa Alpha Theta, Fasone said she became involved with the Panhellenic Association and sexual assault prevention in the sorority community at IU.After college, she traveled to different Theta chapters to work with women’s groups on developing leadership skills and risk management skills.In 2006, she returned to IU and worked in the greek community for the next six years. While she was there, she received her master’s degree in mental health counseling and worked with students at the Alcohol and Drug Office.“Those skills are very transferable to what I am doing now, especially when I work with any student who may have mental health issues or are victims of sexual assault,” Fasone said.When issues of substance abuse or sexual assault would arise, she said she noticed a pattern that may have allowed peers to intervene and help. This idea is what fueled the development of the bystander intervention program at IU.Fasone said bystander intervention is one of the four most effective strategies suggested to prevent sexual assault. “We have two programs now for bystander intervention,” Fasone said. “One is general focus to teach students ways to intervene in different situations in terms of alcohol and drug use, mental health, respect, sexual assault and hazing. Then we also have the sexual assault focused program.”Within her new role, Fasone will create programming to combat issues regarding sexual assault and make students aware of resources to help them in a dangerous situation.“I think one of the aspects when it comes to women’s issues and sexual assault — and bystander intervention, even — is that so many of these behaviors among college students are intertwined,” Fasone said. “Women who have been sexually assaulted are more likely to use greater substances, alcohol use, and they are also likely to experience PTSD — Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — and have other mental health issues.”She said student issues are all intertwined since students who are stressed may abuse alcohol in order to cope.“The way I like to approach programming for students is to be very strategic and figure out what the students need,” Fasone said. “I’m very hands on because I think students have a lot of insight into their culture, and I think that their culture isn’t going to change unless students take the lead in changing that.”Fasone said while she believes the University is good at responding to sexual assault, IU could improve on proactive programming.She said that makes sexual assault prevention programming a top priority.“Another aspect of this is really bringing the students together to be able to address this cultural issue,” she said.Fasone said she wants to help students, staff and faculty to navigate services offered at IU, such as the Sexual Assault Crisis Service. The counseling the crisis center offers is free and has room for more utilization, she said.“I strongly believe in counseling as an avenue for students and people to process and heal,” she said.By identifying what the students think are issues, she said she can better develop priorities for programming and initiatives.Associate Dean Carol McCord said the programming offered will address the needs and issues of women on campus, but students need to reach out.“We are very willing to hear from people, and Leslie will respond to anyone who reaches out to her,” McCord said.While Fasone is just in the initial stage of research and development for her new programs, McCord said Fasone is great at program development and evaluation and is looking for suggestions from students.“My goal is to figure out how to prevent sexual assaults from happening,” Fasone said.The services and programs offered by the Office of the Dean of Students are available to graduate students as well, which is something graduate students don’t always realize, McCord said.“The Dean of Students Office supports all students, but this gives us an opportunity to provide more than just responsive support, and to put more attention into looking for programming that might offset problems women students might have,” McCord Said.Follow reporter Allison Wagner on Twitter @allmwagn.
(03/28/14 3:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Kelley School of Business will honor six alumni at the 45th Annual Awards Gala Friday in Indianapolis.According to a March 26 press release, the six alumni were selected based on their professional achievements in the business world.Five alumni will be named to the Kelley School of Business Academy of Alumni Fellows.FELLOWSWai Keung Cheng Cheng graduated from the Kelley School in 1971 and went on to receive an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1973.Today, Cheng is chairman and managing director of Wing Tai Holdings, Ltd., Singapore’s leading property and retail group.Theodors L. KoenigKoenig, a 1982 graduate, is president, CEO and founder of Monroe Capital LLC in Chicago.Marc S. Pritchard Pritchard also graduated in 1982 and is now serving as global brand building officer of Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati.Cindy L. KonichKonich is president and CEP of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis. He graduated in 1978.Michael J. TattersfieldTattersfield is president and CEO of Caribou Coffee Co. in Minneapolis. He graduated from IU in 1987.DISTINGUISHED ENTREPRENEURScott Dorsey Dorsey, 2014 recipient of the award, is CEO of Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud in Indianapolis.The company was founded in 2000 to help organizations use email to connect with their customers.ExactTarget has grown into one of the largest cloud initial public offerings on the NY Stock Exchange.Anna Hyzy
(03/25/14 3:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Admissions Twitter account was hacked by an unknown source Saturday.Hundreds of spam tweets had been sent out to some of the account’s followers.The Office of Enrollment Management did not disclose the content of the tweets.Jackie Fernette, the director of communications for the Office of Enrollment Management, said it is unlikely that it was a student pulling a prank.She said it was probably a phishing operation of some kind.Immediate action was taken when the problem was discovered. IU social media strategist Tom Atkinson directed the Office of Enrollment Management staff on how to deal with the incident. Within a couple hours, the tweets were deleted. Account administrators also made sure the account password was changed, Atkinson said. Also, access to third-party apps was revoked, Fernette said.At 8:57 p.m. Saturday, IUB Admissions tweeted an apology for any disturbance caused.“We sincerely apologize to anyone who may have received a spam tweet in the last hour,” it said.One minute later, the account tweeted again to assure followers measures were taken to clean up the mess, and that the account’s privacy settings were reset.“We have remedied the issue and expect no further disturbances for any of our followers. Thank you for your understanding.”Monday afternoon, the Office of Enrollment Management met to attempt some additional diagnostics to determine the cause of the hack.Fernette said there is no new information to report at this time.
(03/14/14 3:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Those who want their voices heard have less than a week until the draft of the Strategic Plan is closed for public comment.After March 19, the Strategic Plan will be finalized, and public comment as it is now will no longer be available. “So far, nearly 150 students, staff members, faculty, alumni and community members have sent us their comments using the online form on the Provost’s website,” Catherine Dyar, chief of staff to the Provost, said in an email.Additionally, more than 200 people attended the Town Hall meeting last week, she said.Executive Vice President and Provost Lauren Robel has also met with many individuals and stakeholder groups, including the elected policy committees of the Kelley School of Business and the Dean of Students Advisory Board, Dyer said.“It’s been quite moving to me to see the number of people who have been involved,” Robel said at the Town Hall meeting last week. Thomas Gieryn is the vice provost for faculty and academic affairs and also co-chaired the faculty committee of the Strategic Plan. “The informal response I have heard has been overwhelmingly positive,” Gieryn said in an email. “There is curiosity about the exact nature of the Grand Challenges, but general approval with the method proposed for identifying them.” The provost’s staff usually addresses the comments from the online draft within 24 hours of its receipt, Dyar said.“If a commenter asks a question that falls outside the scope of the plan, e.g., a question about facilities, the staff is forwarding those along to the University offices that might be able to address them,” Dyar said. Robel said at the meeting she has gotten some wonderful comments, and all of them are valuable.“Some suggestions will be incorporated directly into the campus plan,” Dyar said. “Other comments and questions have focused on how the plan will be executed and will be factored into the implementation plans where appropriate.”While the comment period ends next week, relevant comments will be incorporated into the process in different ways, Dyar said.“I encourage all faculty members to take a look at the Srategic Plan as soon as possible, if they have not already done so,” Gieryn said. “The Provost’s plan charts a bold course for the future of the Bloomington campus, and quite literally, once implemented, every corner of IUB will be affected.”
(03/12/14 4:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Strategic Plan won’t be anything but a set of goals if there isn’t any money to put its initiatives into action. The plan has a financial pool of various funding resources behind it, most public of which is the Provost Fund. “Historically, the funds have been used for campus-level initiatives and priorities,” Vice Provost M.A. Venkataramanan said.The Provost Fund has existed since the 1990s. It is base funding that is disbursed to the College of Arts and Sciences and other IU schools as a percentage of IU’s annual budget process.“For instance, last year the majority of Provost funding went to the College and schools to support career services and online education initiatives,” Venkataramanan said.The fund is currently worth about $11 million, Executive Vice President and Provost Lauren Robel said in an interview last Monday.The fund hasn’t been used strategically in the past but on a case-by-case basis, Robel said.“I want to put those funds squarely behind this plan,” she said.The Provost Fund will only be a fraction of the money behind this plan, and not all of the objectives will require funding, Venkataramanan said.“Some objectives and action steps will be accomplished through rethinking or reallocating resources at the campus level,” he said. “The Provost has already asked her vice provosts to begin thinking through implementation steps for the objectives and actions steps for which they are responsible.”This will lead the Strategic Plan into the next phase of determining resources, priorities and timeliness, Venkataramanan said.External grants will be another resource for funding, he said. And it’s one of the plan’s “grand challenges” to attract grants from both government and private entities. “The Provost believes strongly that there will be outside support for a significant number of the proposed initiatives,” Venkataramanan said.For larger projects such as funding an Arts and Humanities center, he said, the Provost plans to use existing campus resources and strengths combined with external resources. There isn’t a budget for the plan yet, Venkataramanan said. That will begin after the draft has been finalized, which will be soon after the public comment period ends March 19. “The Provost specifically charged the committees with coming up with visionary ideas,” Venkataramanan said. “She did not want financial considerations or current organizational structures and systems to constrain the vision or the creativity.”
(03/11/14 4:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>New majors and minors are likely in the near future for IU. The provost’s Strategic Plan is seeking to make interdisciplinary education more accessible with the creation of unique academic programs.Interim Vice Provost for Education Dennis Groth said students seek to enhance their undergraduate experience by pursuing second majors, minors and certificates.“I’m looking at ways that we can investigate the paths that our students have already taken,” he said.In the process of creating interdisciplinary majors and programs, Groth said he has begun to look at data that shows the most popular major and minor combinations.“I would hope that it would identify either the potential for new joint majors, or just the potential for new services and programs to help students be aware,” he said.Jonathan Elmer is a professor of English and chair of the committee for integrated programs in humanities and arts for the Strategic Plan.He said the model upon which the College of Arts and Sciences is founded is essentially a model of interdisciplinary learning. “The idea behind it is simple,” he said. “Learn a lot about a few things, but some about a lot of things.”The initiative Elmer is part of in the Strategic Plan seeks to incorporated this model to the entire campus, he said.Larry Singell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said he sees a demand for it.“Much of interesting and important problems and the skills to solve these problems sit at the border of disciplines,” he said.Singell said both the Media School and the School of Global and International Studies are examples of an effort to provide students with necessary skills by taking a more interdisciplinary approach.Currently, Groth is working to aggregate data he can send on to individual academic units.“Some programs already build a type of interdisciplinary thinking,” he said.He pointed out that units such as the School of Journalism require students to gain at least a concentration in something outside their major.Groth said he is hopeful that once the data is collected, the initiative can work to create intellectual diversity and make students more aware of interdisciplinary options.One way of doing this would be providing students in each major a list of the top five ranked second majors or minors, he said.Still, Groth said the initiative to create these new majors and programs is very much in the conversation stage.“Everybody would love it today,” he said. “I would too, but we know the reality on these is that we have to take and approach that helps up to be successful in the long-run.”
(03/07/14 5:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Campus driving service Safety Escort might soon incorporate some of SafeRide’s most popular features.IU Student Association proposed that Safety Escort include later hours of operation, picking up drunken students and driving to off-campus locations. The recommendations were based on ridership data from SafeRide, IUSA’s pilot program that began in summer 2013 and ended last weekend. Director of IU Parking Operations Doug Porter approved the policy changes, but they still need to be approved by the dean of students and the provost to be implemented successfully. IUSA President Jose Mitjavila said Safety Escort responded well to the proposed changes. “When Safety Escort received the SafeRide proposal, I think they had open minds and ears,” Mitjavila said. Students used SafeRide most frequently between midnight and 2 a.m., according to the SafeRide data and the 2013 VOICE Report. Though this was the most popular time for students to call for a ride, Safety Escort currently does not operate during this two-hour window. According to the proposal, 23 percent of students who used SafeRide were under the influence of alcohol. But more importantly, the proposal said drivers cited no operational complications as a result of these intoxicated passengers. IUSA proposed Safety Escort pick up intoxicated students as a result of these findings. “To me, the most surprising results of the data were that the majority of students who utilized SafeRide were not intoxicated and were not requesting rides from bars,” Mitjavila said. Director of Safety Escort Kelsey Timmer said Safety Escort traditionally hasn’t picked up drunken students because the service is reserved for academic purposes. Eighty percent of students were not on campus at the time they requested transportation, according to the SafeRide data. Because the majority of students needed this service when they were off-campus, IUSA recommended that Safety Escort expand their geographic area. Though Safety Escort will drive off campus, either the drop-off or pick-up location must be a building on campus.Safety Escort is currently trying to figure out the logistics, feasibility and timeline of implementing the proposal, Timmer said. She said Safety Escort will most likely extend weekend hours, but they are still working out the details of other proposed changes. She said Safety Escort hopes to incorporate some version of the proposed changes by the beginning of this fall semester.
(03/07/14 3:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Khala Granville is mixing traditional recruitment with a new brand of outreach to bring more underrepresented minorities to IU.In keeping with its goal to increase the number of underrepresented minorities on IU’s campus, the Office of Enrollment Management has hired a new associate director of admissions to be based in Indianapolis.Granville, who began last week, is the first full-time, Indianapolis-based recruiter for IU.“Coming from a strong community development and engagement background, I get to go into places where IU has not traditionally had access,” Granville said. “For example, religious spaces and community centers. I get to share IU with these audiences in a much more relational way than traditional recruiting.”She previously worked as an undergraduate as a student recruiter and mentor in Diversity Recruitment at the University of Louisville, Granville said. She has also been involved with multiple community organizations in Indianapolis, according to a Feb. 27 press release. Granville said her job is dedicated to recruiting and expanding IU’s messages in Indianapolis.Her job is part recruitment in high schools and college fairs and part widening IU’s brand to underrepresented minorities in the Indianapolis area, Granville said.Vice Provost of Enrollment Management David Johnson said the OEM was able to create Granville’s position when Mary Turner, who worked in admissions, became director of the Groups program at IU.“We were able to re-deploy her position in Indianapolis full-time,” Johnson said.Granville’s position is part of a restructuring of the OEM, and a focus on what Johnson calls the “six C’s.”These include community organization, counselors in high schools, campus, competitions, churches and community colleges.“What we’re looking to do is deepen our engagement and really shore up our commitment to recruiting diverse populations, underrepresented populations of students,” Johnson said. Johnson said Granville has hit the ground running, and has already met with several community organizations in Indianapolis.“We’re putting her to work already,” Johnson said. “When we see significant improvement in the number of underrepresented students on campus, then we know that our strategy was successful.”The OEM is also looking into hiring a senior associate director position, he said. “In society, we give of our time, we give of our money,” Johnson said. “So putting resources — giving money and a person behind something ?— really, I think, will hopefully not just make a strong statement, but help us move forward in our recruitment goals.”Granville said that diversity is one of her core values.“Diversity isn’t just black and white or straight and gay,” she said. “It’s the recognition that everyone is unique and deserves to be seen, heard and valued,” she said.“As it relates to recruitment and higher education, diversity is extremely important because college is one of the few opportunities that allow you to be exposed to new ideologies.“That exposure will not only create rich student experiences that you will carry for the rest of your life, but it will prepare you to be a great leader in the workforce.”
(03/06/14 3:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU-Bloomington has the highest on-time completion rate and the highest total student completion rate of all colleges in Indiana, according to the College Completion Rates for Indiana report released Feb. 18.Sophomore Emma Hamann, a student at IU, said she believes it is important to graduate on time.She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and said she will take summer classes in order to graduate on time.“I think it’s important because people need to start their actual careers and not continue to go into more debt,” she said. Dennis Groth, interim vice provost for undergraduate education, said the University’s goal is on-time degree completion for all students. He said the University always looks for new ways to reach this goal and improve overall student success.Overall, only 30 percent of students finish their four-year degree on time, and only 50 percent finish the degree in six years. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education implemented new programs and financial incentives to achieve its goal of 50 percent on-time completion rates.Right now, on-time completion is the exception in Indiana rather than the norm. Only 32.6 percent of Ball State students and 37.6 percent of Purdue students graduate on time.Hamann said she thinks the low amount of students graduating in four years is because some students aren’t prepared for college or its requirements.“There is a large amount of required classes, a lot of people change their majors and other students decide college isn’t for them or start their careers without a degree,” Hamann said. At IU, about 50 percent of students complete their four-year degree on time, according to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education report.“Each student case is potentially unique, and completion time frames are within their control,” Groth said. “Students may stay longer in order to complete a second degree, or even a graduate degree.”About 24.5 percent of students complete their degree late, and 9 percent transfer or complete college with another degree. Hamann said there is a strong support system at IU, including professors and academic advisors, which she thinks helps students graduate on time.“There are also a lot of summer school classes offered at IU and we have great peer tutoring,” she said.Groth recommended that in addition to speaking with advisors, students can check their Academic Advising Reports to stay on track. “We are committed at IUB to student success,” he said.
(03/05/14 5:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A lone undergraduate, a handful of graduate students and faculty and staff showed up to the town hall meeting Tuesday to voice their concerns on the strategic plan face-to-face with the provost.The meeting took place in the middle of the public comment period of the draft and was in the IU Auditorium. Of the roughly 50,000 people either enrolled in or employed by IU, only 80 have commented on the online draft, Robel said. Their comments ranged from complaints about salads to broader questions on the plan. The plan isn’t one for addressing specific issues, but broad goals for the campus, Robel said.“It’s not a strategic plan for the College of Arts and Sciences,” she said. “It’s not a strategic plan for the Maurer School of Law. It’s not a strategic plan for the School of Informatics. It’s a plan for the campus.”The provost went through the Strategic Plan by the sections, briefly describing each committee’s intentions and then opening the room up to questions — and there were many.An academic adviser for undergraduate students expressed his concern at IU’s lack of explanation of the value a liberal arts education can have and the absence of resources in the advising department. “I think the University has frankly failed to explain this from the get go,” he said.He earned a smattering of applause when he emphasized that IU wasn’t a vocational college, but a liberal arts college. “We have to be absolutely firm in being able to explain and to justify and to extol the importance of a Liberal Arts education degree,” Robel said. “We have to, because it’s true.” She said, in the last year, the campus has put money into the technological infrastructure of advising that will help students and advisers make the most use of their time.Robel said there haven’t been broad changes on the academic side yet.A staff member in the School of Public Health asked how staff could stay involved with the plan past the public comment period.“As we move into the next several weeks, and I hear more from staff and faculty members of all kinds, there will be some changes,” Robel said. “And those implementation steps will be very transparent and we will absolutely need you.”Maria Bucur-Deckard is associate dean for international programs and part of the “international initiatives: programs and facilities” sub-committee of the strategic plan.She asked Robel, in light of the idea of building new programs of an experiential nature, like overseas studies programs, if there was a discussion about how Responsibility Centered Management units might be incentivized and held accountable to allocate more funds for overseas opportunities.“I think if we knew where we were, and we knew where we wanted to be, we would have a compelling set of programs to put in front of potential donors,” Robel said. “I think we can get a long way by figuring out where we want to go, and which of those ideas are really compelling for external support.”Master’s student Niki Messmore asked Robel how student support services fit into the undergraduate life section of the Strategic Plan.“That is a place where the campus has been reallocating towards additional staff,” Robel said. She said a new assistant dean for gender affairs has been hired to focus on that area.Although Messmore said she probably has follow-up questions on supporting social needs of underrepresented minorities, Messmore said she left the meeting satisfied.“I felt like my questions got answered,” she said. The town hall meeting was meant to run until 2 p.m., but Robel cut questions off at 1:30 p.m. The public comment period of the Strategic Plan ends March 19.
(03/05/14 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hutton Honors College might take on a larger role if Provost Lauren Robel’s draft of the campus strategic plan is approved. Increasing interdisciplinary education and opportunities is an idea highlighted throughout the strategic plan under many objectives.One particular piece of this effort is the establishment of Hutton Honors College as a “central hub for interdisciplinary curricula.”Students from almost all schools on campus and the College of Arts and Sciences take courses through the Honors College, Dennis Groth, vice provost of undergraduate education and co-chair of the undergraduate life committee, said, and the College has an opportunity to create curricular offerings that explicitly accomplish interdisciplinary learning.“We see tremendous interest and value in providing pathways for students that go beyond the standard major,” Groth said.With many students pursuing multiple majors or multiple minors, an environment that fosters interdisciplinary learning is something IU needs, he said.“It will support students who wish to find ways to tie together their multiple passions and interests within their academic experience,” he said.A value for interdisciplinary and multifaceted knowledge is present in the Hutton Mission Statement.“We strive to ensure an enriched academic and social experience for our students and to create an environment that fosters active, innovative learning,” the document states.While Hutton will certainly become a large part of the push for interdisciplinary learning, Groth said he expects new opportunities forged between the College and the other schools at IU will also create opportunities for non-honors students.Groth said enhanced interdisciplinary education was asked for by students, faculty and staff.“We heard this very clearly during our exploration of the undergraduate experience,” he said. “In other words, students, faculty and staff said it was important. We heard them loud and clear and are eager to pursue this theme.”
(02/28/14 5:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Student debt might get a little lighter if the initiatives outlined in IU’s Strategic Plan come to pass.The plan, released last week, primarily focused on improving students’ awareness of financial aid information.The initiative in the Undergraduate Life section recommends increasing the visibility of scholarship and financial aid information for students. IU’s goal is to create a comprehensive database of all the scholarships available and applicable to students, M.A. Venkataramanan, vice provost for strategic initiatives, said. One of the concepts behind this initiative is to have a pool of funds, predominantly through philanthropic efforts, to further help students financially, he said.In addition to scholarships, the plan also recommends expanding financial literacy programs in place at IU. “We’re expanding upon it to help the students know that you don’t have to borrow that much money,” Venkataramanan said.In addition to making the scholarships visible, the database would also include all of the criteria needed for each individual scholarship, Venkataramanan said.The Strategic Plan also includes an initiative that proposes to “reduce the burden for every financially disadvantaged student admitted to IU-B.”They would do this through a combination of increasing the amount of financial literacy education, scholarships and fellowships that would cover a percentage of financial need calculated by FAFSA for all undergraduate students.“I think that the provost’s reason in this, is she believes that there is huge philanthropic support base available outside (the University), which we really want college students to experience so they can graduate at less debt as possible,” Venkataramanan said.The Plan also included initiatives to increase financial aid and a potential new scholarship. “When we chatted with students, at times the students felt that there weren’t enough scholarships throughout their four years in addition to when they’re coming in as a freshman,” he said.A potential four-year Provost Scholarship was outlined in the plan. It would be awarded to students who enter IU already having completed 24 credit hours. Students could then enter a pathway program to graduate credentials.The scholarship will be linked to the pathway programs, which are programs for students to attain graduate or undergraduate level certifications or a master’s degree in four years.“What we are finding out in the nation right now, at IU especially, more and more students are coming in with advanced credits,” Venkataramanan said. Various sources of funding are being looked into, he said.“So the Provost’s scholar goal is to take the students from both professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences to leave this place with additional credentials so they become life-long learners as well as have fulfilling careers,” Venkataramanan said. Kathrine Schulze
(02/28/14 2:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As part of the recently reorganized IUB admissions team, the IU Office of Enrollment Management recently appointed an Indianapolis-based associate director of admissions. Khala Granville was hired to focus on diversity-oriented recruitment and outreach in the Indianapolis area. She graduated from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis with a Master of Divinity degree and has interned and volunteered with community organizations in Indianapolis, according to a press release. “Khala Granville is a welcome addition to our recruiting team,” David Johnson, vice provost for enrollment management, said in a press release.“She will hit the ground running as she is already located in Indianapolis and has strong relationships with community-based organizations,” he said. “With Khala as part of our diversity recruiting team, we have an even greater opportunity to make personal connections with prospective students, their families and school counselors, helping them to see IU-Bloomington as a place where they will flourish and go on to successful careers.”Granville will lead efforts to assist IU to meet its enrollment goals with a focus on outreach through community organizations, counselors in high school, campus, competitions, churches and community colleges. Granville and four Bloomington staff members make up the IU admissions team that will concentrate its effort on recruiting prospective students for IU from underrepresented minority populations.Larry Gonzalez is leading the team on an interim basis as senior associate director of admissions.Kathrine Schulze
(02/27/14 5:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The personal data of about 146,000 IU students and recent graduates, which IU stored in an insecure location for 11 months, was accessed by webcrawlers from Google, a science-specific search engine called Scirus and a Chinese search engine called Baidu during that period, IU spokesperson Mark Bruhn said.According to an IU news release, IU officials notified the Indiana attorney general’s office Tuesday of the potential exposure of personal data, including names and Social Security numbers, for students enrolled across seven IU campuses from 2011 to 2014.Webcrawlers are automated data mining applications used by search engines to traverse the web and download files.Similar to Google, Baidu generates revenue by offering online marketing services, according to the company’s website. Scirus has been retired, according to its website. James Kennedy, associate vice president of university student services and systems, said staff members who access files in the IU system, such as the files that were exposed, are usually authenticated by the Central Authentication Service (CAS).Bruhn, the IU associate vice president of public safety and institutional assurance, said the exposure was discovered by a staff member who accessed the files and realized she had not been asked for a password. “Those aren’t files we look at every day,” Kennedy said. “She right away saw there wasn’t that layer of security there.”The files were immediately moved to a different, more secure location, Kennedy said.Bruhn said the University had logs to track access to the data for all 11 months the files were exposed. “Logging is so important for that exact reason,” he said. “The logs showed nine or 10 accesses to those files during that time period.”He said other than the accesses by Google, Baidu and Scirus, the logged accesses were department staff, authorized to access the files.Nathaniel Husted, a doctoral student specializing in security informatics in the School of Informatics and Computing, said the University would not be able to tell if a third party accessed the exposed data from a search engine’s cache unless the companies who own the webcrawlers report the data was accessed.“But we wouldn’t know without asking them if someone had found that on their search engine and downloaded it,” Husted said.Bruhn said the University submitted forms to Google and Baidu requesting the companies remove the files from their cache. He said he was unsure whether the University would receive information regarding access to that cache.“There’s more work to be done,” Bruhn said. “We’re still investigating what happened and how.”IU spokesperson Mark Land said that as part of normal University safeguards, the files were given names and file extensions that are not indicative of the type of data in the file.Husted said this would potentially make the information harder to find. “We can’t just search for ‘Social Security numbers’ or ‘IU financial data’ and have Google bring it up,” he said. “If someone got lucky and typed in some information that had shown up within the file, it’s potential that those would show up.”Kennedy said the files were saved in a zipped folder.If the files were in a zipped folder, Husted said, the information would look garbled to a webcrawler. Husted said the files would have to be unzipped before the information could be added to a search index and before individuals could see the contents.Some zipped files also require a password before being unzipped. Husted said this would mitigate the threat because a strong password would make it difficult to access the file.“If a webcrawler has accessed it, it means someone downloaded it,” Husted said. “We’re just assuming that these people are nice people and they’re not going to do anything nefarious with it. But in the end, we have released 146,000 pieces of personal information about students, and that is a problem.”Kennedy said the University will notify students who may have been affected by the exposure beginning Friday. There will also be a call center with experts available to answer students’ questions by Friday morning.“We’re deeply concerned about student information,” he said.Bruhn said there was no evidence in the University’s logs that an individual viewed the files on the University’s site and downloaded them. However, Husted said it would not be possible for the University to control what happens to the data that was exposed and cached.“In some ways, this is just as problematic as if someone stole the laptop with 146,000 names on it,” he said. “The point being, it has gotten out and into the world and like Pandora’s Box, you can’t really put everything back in after it’s been opened up ... we just have to hope nobody gets ahold of them that will use them improperly. ”Follow reporter Tori Fater on Twitter @vrfater.
(02/25/14 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Board of Trustees amended this February the tobacco-free policy implemented in 2008. The genesis of the IU policy can be traced back to February 2007, when former IU president Adam Herbert introduced a potential non-smoking policy to the Board of Trustees. “In spring 2007, President Herbert issued a directive that all campuses adopt a non-smoking or tobacco-free policy,” said John Applegate, IU’s executive vice president of University Academic Affairs. The policy, which took effect Jan. 1, 2008, prohibited the use or sale of tobacco products on University property and in University vehicles. Four years later, Indiana enacted its first ever statewide smoke-free air law, which prohibited smoking within 8 feet of a public entrance to a public place or place of employment. Indiana’s Smoke Free Air Law stimulated discourse among IU’s administration to modify its existing tobacco-free policy. “It seemed like a good time to clarify what’s covered in the policy, and since we have this uniform state law and these campus policies which were more or less the same already,” Applegate said. The current policy condenses the different IU campus policies into a single policy that complies with the state law and is uniform, Applegate said. In addition to adopting components of the state law that weren’t in the pre-existing policy, the current policy extended its ban on tobacco to include electronic cigarettes, hookah-smoked products, pipes, oral tobacco and nasal tobacco.“I think the e-cigarette ban is a little too far,” one IU senior, Tyler Howell, said. “There is little to no smell with most of the e-cigarette options, and the smoke doesn’t linger like normal cigarette smoke.”Despite the revamped tobacco-free policy, Applegate said he believes the policy will be enforced through a community effort. He acknowledged the Indiana University Police Department’s role in enforcing the policy as well. “With the state law, we’re required to give citations for it,” Applegate said. “If IUPD finds people smoking, they must follow state law.” IUPD Chief Laury Flint said all IUPD officers are familiar with the disciplinary protocol if someone is found violating state law or University policy. “IUPD is responsible for enforcing state laws as well as University policy,” Flint said. “Those who are found smoking within 8 feet of a public entrance to one of the buildings on campus will need to be identified and issued an infraction citation for prohibited smoking. Those persons issued a citation for this violation will be required to pay court costs in addition to the standard fine.” These people will also need to be identified and referred to the Dean of Students if a student, or Human Resources if an employee, Flint said.Jerry Minger, University Director of Public Safety and the person responsible for coordinating police operations on all IU campuses, said he fully expects IU police officers to regulate state law and University policy. However, Minger pointed out the potential limitations of strictly policing the tobacco-free policy. “It’s something where you usually aren’t avidly patrolling,” he said. “We don’t have enough officers to be absolutely everywhere all of the time.” Since July 7, 2012, the day the Indiana Smoke Free Air Law went into effect, IUPD received 31 complaints, and seven citations have been issued, Lt. Craig Munroe, IUPD public information officer, said.Instead of violating state law and University policy, Applegate said he urged smokers to access smoking cessation programs. ”We have for faculty, staff and students various smoking cessation programs that are available,” Applegate said. “A smoking cessation program is a far more preferable way of dealing with this than punishment, because you get a long-term benefit to the individual.” IU’s tobacco cessation services offer support, counseling and free nicotine replacement therapy. Applegate said he believes this policy can have a positive effect on the IU community as time goes on.“I think in the long run, this is a matter of changing the culture,” he said.
(02/21/14 5:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The estate of IU alumna Patricia K. Fehl will donate about $3.4 million to IU’s School of Public Health and to the School of Education.The two schools will split the gift evenly, and the donation will fund new education programs and student recruitment in each of the schools. “It couldn’t have happened at a better time,” said Mohammad Torabi, School of Public Health dean. “We are very fortunate.”Since 2012, the School of Public Health has been a newly established institution on the Bloomington campus and is planning on using Fehl’s gift to build new infrastructures for advancing research, creating new scholarships and fellowships for recruiting students, and generating external funding for recruiting and retaining faculty.Currently, the School of Public Health is in the process of transferring the donation gift to an IU endowment fund, which will then be invested. “We estimate that the proceeds of the endowment will begin benefiting students within a year or less,” said Charles Rondot, director of marketing and communications for the School of Public Health. The School of Education is dedicating the donation particularly toward graduate students in the form of graduate fellowships. The plan is to create an endowment, and the proceeds will go toward recruiting the top graduate students in the country, said Gerardo Gonzalez, dean of IU’s School of Education.“One of the most difficult things to generate is money for graduate fellowships,” Gonzalez said. “And I feel very fortunate that Dr. Fehl made this kind of gift and left it up for us to decide how we could use it best.”The Dean’s Fellowship Fund will provide graduate students with greater opportunities and financial support. It will take action immediately and will begin rewarding graduates in the incoming class in fall 2014.Fehl received both her master’s and doctoral degrees from IU. She was dedicated to education and health and served on the faculty and as the department chair at West Virginia University’s College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences until her retirement in 1990, Gonzalez said. “Her life’s work was in physical education and recreation,” Gonzalez said. “I think she followed her passion, and she obviously recognized that her School of Education experience made a great difference in her life and her ability to succeed, so she split the gift for the two areas she cared deeply about.”Fehl also donated to West Virginia University’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. Fehl was a member of the Hall of Fame at the college’s school of physical education. She also received an appointment in 1986 to the U.S. President’s Commission on American Outdoors Review of Land Resources, was the president of the American Association for Leisure and Recreation, and was on the editorial board for Leisure Today. “Dr. Fehl’s donation was a very pleasant surprise,” Rondot said.Fehl’s donations to both schools will maintain and continue the distinguished programs in both the School of Education and the School of Public Health.“Her investment in quality will ensure that we will be able to maintain that quality,” Gonzalez said, “and over time people who benefit from that will go on to have a major impact in their own chosen fields, and they will know their support was made possible by Dr. Fehl’s gift.”Follow reporter Kylie Ayal on Twitter @kylieayal.
(02/14/14 6:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Recent school shootings and treacherous weather have IU administrators focusing on campus safety. The Bloomington Faculty Council and the Office of Emergency Management and Continuity discussed the facility, security and safety master plan last week, which is currently in development. In 2010, a new emergency management and continuity planning department was created at IU. That works to better prepare the school for a variety of emergency scenarios, from school shooting to severe weather.“The plans are not specific to individual hazards, to specific hazards,” Mark Bruhn, associate vice president of public safety and institutional assurance, said at the Bloomington Faculty Council meeting Feb. 4. “So, while we do spend a little bit more time on tornadoes and have spent a little bit more time over the last year and a half on active shooters, the plans are designed to address all hazards. That is, they’re flexible enough to sort of amoeba-like change.”The department follows the federal framework for emergency preparedness, Bruhn said at the meeting. By organizing the department under federal guidelines, it’s easier for IU responders and city responders to work together in a crisis situation, Bruhn said.“They all use the same terminology, they all use the same practices, the same operating procedures, and if there has to be joint command — one from the fire department at Bloomington and one from campus — they know how to speak to each other, and so all of that is coordinated,” Bruhn said.Staff training for emergency situations has three stages: a workshop that goes through every scenario, a table top exercise in which they run through a specific scenario and a larger, hands-on exercise. “You can imagine, a campus this size, if we’re going to have anything of significance in the exercise that is something that would test sort of all the moving parts adequately, it has to be a pretty large production,” Bruhn said.“We have to have theater and drama students with bottles of ketchup, and it has to be as realistic as we can make it while people still know that it’s going to happen, right?” These sorts of exercises are less frequent because of the amount of planning it takes to coordinate such a training event, Bruhn said. In addition to training some staff members in emergency preparedness, each building that has academic classrooms or offices with 10 or more people in it has an emergency control committee. “We’re really trying to build the partnerships so that those folks are empowered to be more involved for any kind of an emergency incident that may occur within their building,” said Debbi Fletcher, IU-Bloomington director for emergency management and continuity, at the meeting.The facility, security and safety master plan, which was discussed at the meeting, will work through the physical security aspects in buildings on every IU campus.“We look at new technology, new methods and new information all the time so we can make sure we are giving the best information in the most effective and efficient manner possible,” Fletcher said. One change they are considering is installing locks so classrooms lock from the inside, an idea tested at Ballantine Hall when locks were installed in almost every classroom door.The locks in Ballantine have been installed over the past couple of months, Fletcher said.Bruhn said it cost $380,000 to put locks in.While an emphasis is put on faculty training, it’s just as important for students to keep themselves informed individually on what to do in any type of emergency situation, whether it’s a fire, an active shooter or a tornado, Fletcher said. “We spend a lot of time and effort to make sure our campus is prepared, no matter what happens,” she said. “It’s important that students do their part to make sure they know what they can do.”Follow reporter Kathrine Schulze on Twitter@KathrineSchulze.