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(01/13/09 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As fall midterms approached, junior Ronnie Baldwin was just one among more than 40 IU students still living in a residence hall lounge. Along with other loungemates, Baldwin came to resent a lack of privacy. “Freshmen would just walk into the lounge, and people would beat on our door,” he said. “There was no privacy at all.”He discovered that he would be able to get a single room in Ashton Center on the final day of school last semester. He moved into his new room on Saturday.Like Baldwin, all IU students living in the residence hall lounges have been moved out since winter break. Residential Programs and Services had many challenges in finding the right space for students.“Older students wanted to live in an apartment or Willkie,” said Sara Ivey-Lucas, assistant director for housing assignments. “It is awkward for a 23-year-old to share a room with an 18-year-old.”Despite the hurdles, most of the students were moved out of the lounges by the week of fall semester midterms.But when more than 20 foreign exchange students arrived for a second-eight-weeks intensive English program, Ivey-Lucas said RPS was “held in a balance.”While most freshman students were moved into their regular housing space during the third week of classes, graduate and transfer students were the ones who remained roomless.When the expansion of Ashton Residence Center is complete in 2010, RPS will have an additional 750 beds to assign, Ivey-Lucas said. “We have to check with the admission office every year to make sure there is enough space,” she said. “Freshman residency halls are regularly a balancing act. This is the second time this has happened.”Typically, more than 300 students leave by the end of first semester each year, opening beds for those still living in lounges. Compared to Big Ten counterparts who also face housing issues, IU students fare well, Ivey-Lucas said.Schools such as Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State and Minnesota often keep their students in the lounges until the next semester if they are unable to move out within the first four weeks of school, Ivey-Lucas said.“Having students stay in the lounges was a challenge for the rest of the community and puts extra stress on the community,” she said. “The goal was to empty them as fast as we could.”RPS officials had to balance accommodating students still stuck in lounges and those who, for a variety of reasons, applied to change rooms. Freshman Sai Lella moved from Briscoe Quad to Wright Quad. Following a semester of roommate trouble, she applied for a roommate change first semester, requested Wright Quad and moved into her current room before winter break began.Lella and her friend, who could also not resolve roommate issues, currently live together.“We requested Wright because Briscoe was too far away from everything,” Lella said. “I love my life now.”Lella, like many other students, had her room change requests met. Five hundred students requested room changes and 234 of them were accommodated, Ivey-Lucas said.The highest number of accommodated room request changes at the semester’s beginning were for Foster Quad and McNutt Quad, with 15 new residents moving into each of the halls. Despite the room change requests there, John Summerlot, McNutt’s residence manager, said the residence hall is traditionally the highest in demand. “For every one room, five people want to live there,” he said.
(12/05/08 4:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Unity. Self-determination. Collective work and responsibility. Cooperative economics. Purpose. Creativity. Faith.Through music, food and art, organizers at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center taught the seven principles of the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa to participants Thursday night at a pre-Kwanzaa celebration.One of the main goals of Kwanzaa is to inspire individuals to reflect on their past and better themselves.“Go back to the values; reaffirm them and find ones that speak to them,” said Audrey McCluskey, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center and professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies. “Different people have different responses to certain values. If you correlate the values to your own lives, that is successful.” On Thursday, the Neal-Marshall Center’s pre-Kwanzaa event, “A Celebration of the Arts of the African Diaspora,” explained the seven principles of the holiday.Kwanzaa, which is traditionally observed from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1, celebrates one principle each day, but the Neal-Marshall event incorporated all of the seven principles so that the participants could get a taste of Kwanzaa. During the event, representatives from each of the seven student organizations explained one of the values with a quote. “The quotes represented what the principles truly mean,” said Evelyn Hamilton, graduate assistant at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. “It brought aspects of our ancestors’ thoughts and ideas as a part of the program.”The spirit of the holiday was encompassed in the variety of musical performances selected: spiritual, jazz and Brazilian jazz. The jazz music included Afro Blue by John Coltrane and songs by Stevie Wonder. The purpose of the music performances was to get audience members enthusiastic about the message of Kwanzaa. The songs were intended to connect to the seven principles.“I hope the musical performances gave people the joy of being alive. When music is gone from the earth, we are in trouble,” said Fareed Mahluli, director of the Soul Revue. “Music expresses the principle of kuumba (creativity).”The music varied in its sound and style.“We wanted to show the diversity of personal style of the African people,” McCluskey said. “African people are all over the world. We are a diverse people, but we have common values. We want our art form to display this.” The principles of Kwanzaa are common to people of African-American heritage, “but they transcend to all humanity,” said Keith McCutchen, director of the African American Choral Ensemble. The purpose of the event was to help people gain knowledge of African-American culture and inspire everyone to celebrate Kwanzaa in some form. Sachiko Higgins-Kante, administrative assistant at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, said the principles of Kwanzaa are soul-builders, and everyone should have these instilled in their character.“My hope is that from this event, people will not only celebrate Kwanzaa in December,” she said, “but celebrate it throughout the year.”
(12/01/08 2:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Spending the holiday season in a hospital is unpleasant, but the charity Child’s Play hopes to make this circumstance more bearable for children with its annual holiday toy drive for children’s hospitals.Child’s Play is a Seattle-based game-industry charity that works with about 60 partner hospitals worldwide, including Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis.The charity hopes to raise $750,000 (in toys and cash) this year, said Kristen Lindsay, Penny Arcade Inc.’s project manager, in an e-mail.The organization was created by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of the online comic strip “Penny Arcade.”In 2007 the charity raised $1.3 million in toys and cash, pushing its total since 2003 to more than $3 million, Lindsay said. Riley Children’s Hospital has also received $6,250 in donations, said Teresa Harper, administrative assistant for the Cheer Guild of Riley and IU Hospitals.At Riley, the games are either utilized in unit playrooms or distributed to individual patients. Those video games can help children with their recovery process, said Melissa Sexton, Riley special events coordinator.“We use video games to preserve normalcy for patients,” Sexton said. “Video games help with the recovery process. Patients start to feel better and become more active.”Lindsay agreed, saying video games provide escapism to hospitalized children.“In some cases, especially with Nintendo Wiis, games are also very therapeutic,” Lindsay said.The gamer charity has a partnership with Amazon.com, which provides a series of wish lists complete with toys, books and video games that the hospitals request. The lists also provide video games and game systems suggested by Child’s Play. Donations can be made at www.childsplaycharity.org. Child’s Play collects donations year-round, specifically cash donations outside of the holiday toy drive. The wish lists stay up year-round but are not actively maintained during the off-season, Lindsay said. “The hospitals need and use these donations year-round, but having something extra at Christmas can make a difference to families in difficult times,” Lindsay said. “Also, as a non-profit charity, donors are often thinking more about making a difference in their communities during the holidays.”
(11/21/08 4:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At the end of the semester, students are catching a bus from the library to class and even trying to fit holiday shopping in. But some students are even running to make it to work on time.Even though classes are enough to keep most students busy, many add a part-time job of 10 to 12 hours a week to their schedules, said Lou Ann Hanson, associate director of the Career Development Center.Freshman Jessica Upshaw works 14 to 30 hours a week at Center Catering Services to help pay for college and make some extra spending money.“Sixty percent of my check goes to my savings account for college tuition, and 40 percent of it is mine,” Upshaw said.Similarly, sophomore Lydia Wells, an Eigenmann Eatery employee, is trying to establish her credit score so that she can get loans to help pay for her tuition.“Without this job, I’d have to go to IUPUI,” Wells said. “I want to stay down here for my own sanity. I don’t want to live at home.”Having a job while attending college has many perks. Students make their own money and have extra cash to spend.“I pay for my material items and reward myself every so often,” said sophomore Erin Smith, an employee of McAlister’s Deli.Jobs are more than a source of income. By maintaining a job, students will learn how to manage their time, improve planning and investigative skills, assume responsibility, work better with others and gain customer service skills, Hanson said.“Even if a job is not directly related to your future goal, it can serve as a valuable reference,” Hanson said. “Customer service skills are transferable no matter what you do.”Organizations on campus, such as the Student Recreational Sports Center, Residential Programs and Services, the IU Auditorium, libraries, University Information Technology Services and the Indiana Memorial Union, all require interaction between employees and customers.“My job has made me more patient with others,” said junior Nichole Denham, an employee of Wright Food Court.The balance between work and school can be complicated, but many college students master it.Students with jobs exceed or perform at the same level academically in comparison to their non-working counterparts, Hanson said.Even though working students manage to keep on top of their classes, obstacles exist.“It’s hard to stay in extracurricular groups because I can’t always make it to the meetings,” Upshaw said. “It’s hard to see teachers during their office hours because I’m working. It’s annoying that after I’m done with work, I need to go do my homework. Also, because I have to work, I can’t go home as often as I’d like.”Working students must give up small pleasures such as watching their favorite TV shows.“I have to sacrifice watching ‘The Hills,’ and since I work on Sundays, I can’t watch the Colts,” Denham said.Even though having a job is a time commitment, many end up enjoying what they do.“The more you enjoy your job, the less it seems like work,” Hanson said. “It all depends on your attitude and perception.”
(11/18/08 2:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three years ago Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, but its damage disappeared from America’s focus.The problems of New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast seemingly disappeared from the public forum, which leaves many unaware that severe problems still exist, particularly for the African-American community, said Beverly Wright, director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in New Orleans and professor of sociology at Dillard University in a speech Monday. Wright’s speech was part of the Critical Issues Lecture Series held by the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center about “Race, Place and the Environment After Hurricane Katrina.”“The reason we brought Dr. Beverly Wright here is because Hurricane Katrina was a critical issue for America,” said Audrey McCluskey, director of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. “It exposed class and race divide like no other event in the last 50 years. Dr. Wright has the history, culture and policy knowledge to help bring us up-to-date with the progress and failures of New Orleans.” Wright is a New Orleans East native who lived through Hurricane Katrina. Since 1978, she has been a big part of the Environmental Justice Movement. Wright also discussed the government’s efforts for rebuilding New Orleans. “The building plan is obviously racist,” she said. “Hurricane Katrina displaced black people and did exactly what the government wanted. ... The government tore down housing projects. If you destroy housing projects, then poor people have no place to stay. They used Hurricane Katrina as an excuse, but no wind damage was even done to these facilities.” The government rebuilt areas that were not severely affected by the hurricane, including the area around the University of New Orleans, a predominantly white area, which was rebuilt even though little damage was done. Wright said the government showed blatant favoritism to the white community of New Orleans. New Orleans East, a population that is 85 percent middle class African-Americans, received zero inches of flood-level improvement while Lakeview, a predominantly white area, received 5.5 feet of flood-level improvement. The black community suffered immensely from Hurricane Katrina, Wright said. They lost the majority of their political structure, businesses, inherited wealth and black strength in votes. “If you destroy the middle class, you destroy the fabric of the city,” Wright said.To help rebuild New Orleans and its victims, Wright initiated projects to help the city get back on track. The Katrina Survivors Project responded to people’s needs and helped people who were displaced.Safe Way Back Home, awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, was a project that made efforts to get people to move back to New Orleans and feel comfort in knowing their home would be safe from pollution.The Healthy Rebuilding project trained volunteers and residents to build safe houses or how to build safe rooms because many people in New Orleans lived in mold-infested homes.Demonstration Project was a clean-up effort in which Wright encouraged her neighborhood block to participate. About 180 student volunteers from Dillard University, Motiva Company, FEMA, EPA and the American Red Cross worked together to help rid the area of pollution. Wright said she believes in the power of one and believes in young volunteers.“A lot of the progress of Hurricane Katrina has been from the bottom up,” Wright said. “Young people can make a difference. We need more young people involved.” Wright’s presentation inspired many audience members and made them frustrated with the government’s doings. “I already went to New Orleans to help rebuild,” said freshman Stacsha Manning. “The presentation showed me that New Orleans was still in a bad state. Hearing this from a native was a rude awakening. Does the government really not care? How can we function as a nation if we don’t care about everyone.”
(11/13/08 4:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior Lizzie Millis has been skating since she was four years old and has been skating competitively since she was seven years old. Even though Millis had a lot of skating experience, the vice president of IU’s intercollegiate skating team had never competed in synchronized skating prior to coming to IU. “In synchronized skating, you need to have a different mind-set,” Millis said. “It was difficult for me to rely on people. I am not a huge team sports person. If someone is doing something wrong, you can’t control it ... you have to get along with people. You don’t want to nag.”Millis exemplifies the idea that one must overcome personal obstacles to become successful in skating.Not only has Millis overcome challenges in her skating career, but the IU figure skating club as a whole has gone through many hardships to reach its status of ranking second nationally in intercollegiate skating and sixth in synchronized skating.The IU figure skating club is composed of the intercollegiate skating team, synchronized skating team and recreational division. There are 30 members in the club, but 18 compete in synchronized skating while 14 compete in freestyle.The Frank Southern Ice Arena, the rink the club uses, is not a standard rink and is not owned by the University. It costs $140 per hour of ice time, which limits the amount of time the club can practice. The team practices for an hour twice a week. The synchronized skating team practices four hours a week on the ice and two hours a week off the ice.The synchronized skating team practices more often than the intercollegiate team and is stricter about missing practices. “Synchronized skating is extremely team-oriented. Everyone has to be a big team player,” said junior Rachel Mark, vice president of the synchronized skating team.It is hard for the club to find IU students with experience in synchronized skating because there are virtually no synchronized skating teams in the state of Indiana, and due to IU’s tuition, it is difficult to recruit out-of-state students, members of the club said. Members said it is also a challenge to recruit students who can hold up to the skill level of what a club member needs to exhibit.The figuring skating club lacks the facilities, equipment and privileges varsity figure skating teams receive. The only varsity skating teams are at the University of Michigan and University of Miami at Ohio. The IU club competes against both teams even though they lack the same resources.“Varsity programs have a lot of things paid for,” Mark said. “They get to skate for free and get to train way more.”Another handicap for the figure skating club is that the Frank Southern Ice Arena closes a month and half before the intercollegiate nationals in April. In order to get ice time, the team must travel to Columbus or Indianapolis.“Before nationals last year, I only practiced about two times prior to the competition,” said junior Meg Farrell, secretary of the figure skating club.Even through all of these obstacles, the figure skating club has given IU the reputation as a “skating school.”“I came here because the school had a good skating program, and I wanted to help the IU skating program become even better,” Millis said.IU alumna Katie Laughner formed the club six years ago during her freshman year and recruited people she knew. The club has grown not only in size, but also in its competitive level.The IU figure skating club hosted the Hoosier Challenge, an intercollegiate skating competition, Nov. 8. at the Hamilton Ice Arena in Columbus, Ind. IU finished in first place with 116 points, while Miami of Ohio placed second with 76 points. Sixteen members of the club competed in the Hoosier Challenge.
(10/22/08 4:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Volunteering services on the IU campus not only give students a chance to gain off-campus experience, but a chance for them to learn more about Monroe County and its social issues.Senior Daniel Watts serves as an Advocate for Community Engagement (ACE) at the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center. The ACE volunteering program has allowed him to witness social issues such as women’s rights, poverty, hunger and homelessness.“It gives students a chance to step off the campus and get out of that college bubble that you can get caught in during your time at IU,” Watts said. “It gives students a chance to see real issues that affect Bloomington and other communities in the U.S.” ACE is not the only organization that focuses on community service on the IU campus. The Volunteer Students Bureau offers volunteer opportunities to students like the ACE program does; however, these two programs meet different needs of the community. When the VSB participated in the Student Involvement Fair, the organization incorporated the ACE program as a means to get students involved. “ACE and VSB help each other. We bridge opportunities to collaborate,” Rose said. Developed in 2000, the ACE program works with the Office of Service-Learning. An ACE helps faculty members implement community service pedagogy into their coursework and connects the courses with community partners. Each ACE works for a particular organization, and the ACEs research for courses that could meet a need at his or her particular agency. The ACE identifies possible projects in which a class can partake. “ACEs help manage the extra work that service learning can create for faculty,” said ACE coordinator and grad student Colleen Rose. “They do a lot of the middle management and the management work that would take faculty members or coordinators at the various organizations a lot of extra time.”The VSB has been at IU for about 35 years and has constantly changed its mission and approach, Rose said. VSB used to be an organization where students went to find information on how and where they should get involved, she said.The VSB’s mission is to focus on several events during the year and actively try to get students involved in volunteering. Unlike VSB, many of the ACEs must pave the way for their organizations because they are small, relatively new and first-year participants in the program.“An ACE must be an advocate for their agency. ... It is a very grassroots process,” Rose said. ACEs, depending on their organization, must be up to the challenge of meeting various demands.“Week-to-week, my duties are changing,” said senior Jennifer Jameson, Hoosier Hills Food Bank ACE. ACE is more beneficial for those who know what type of volunteer activities in which they would like to partake. Prospective volunteers can contact the ACE of a particular agency that appeals to them, and the ACE could help them set up volunteer hours.VSB offers a wide array of volunteer events that assist students in getting more involved in the community. If a student is unsure of what they are truly passionate about, VSB is the place to start, said junior Qian Liu, president of VSB and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore ACE.Whether it be ACE or VSB, community service is a prominent and unique aspect of the IU campus.“Most IU students want to be a part of the community,” Jameson said. “It’s just a matter of getting out of their comfort zone. Once students know Monroe County is one of the poorest counties in Indiana they want to keep coming back and helping out. It’s neat that we focus on this mobilization here at IU because it is clearly a desire of many students.”