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(04/16/14 3:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jay’s backpack is black. Duct tape is wrapped in strips near the bottom and ribbons with owls adorn the sides. His rock climbing shoes hang from the side of his backpack, ready for his next adventure. There are pictures and letters from Jay’s friends and family hanging from a carabiner and stuffed inside of his backpack, but he won’t see them. Jay won’t be coming to claim his backpack. His family sculpted it to be part of the Send Silence Packing exhibit after he committed suicide. Send Silence Packing, an exhibit of 1,100 backpacks representing the 1,100 college students who die by suicide annually, was displayed Tuesday in the Arboretum. The backpacks, and the stories tied to them, are meant to start the conversation about mental health, and hopefully to save lives in the process. Sean Mahoney, junior and president of the Bloomington chapter of Active Minds, placed each individual’s backpack outside with volunteers.“Send Silence Packing is all about awareness,” he said. Active Minds is a national organization with a Bloomington-based chapter that aims to eliminate the stigma of mental illness. Though Mahoney has been working with Active Minds for three years, this is the first time he has seen the display in person. “It’s definitely very impacting for me, taking out one backpack for one college student,” he said. Mahoney said mental health is a topic that doesn’t get enough attention. He said he hopes the display will help people realize the magnitude of the situation. “We’re working to end the stigma with mental health,” Mahoney said. ***Psychology professor Irene Vlachos-Weber is the faculty sponsor for Bloomington Active Minds. She has worked with Active Minds for only about a month, but this is not her first exposure to suicide awareness. Suicide, in a way, shaped her career. “When I was a junior in high school, one of my best friends killed herself,” Vlachos-Weber said, taking a break from unloading backpacks onto the grass. Her friend Lynn was 16 when she committed suicide, and, at the time, she was dating Vlachos-Weber’s brother. It inspired her to begin studying mental health and psychology. Looking out at the backpacks, she said there is an inherent power to this kind of message. “Just looking at these stories is absolutely heartrending,” she said. Vlachos-Weber said students should not hesitate to reach out to someone they think is in need, even if they are nervous about it. “Don’t be afraid to ask somebody if they’re in pain,” she said. She explained the pain that she talks about is more psychological than anything else. “When a person’s in a suicidal crisis, they’re not thinking straight,” she said. “It’s not that they want to die, but they want the pain to stop.”She said people sometimes think suicide will not only end their pain, but will also keep those around them from suffering.“It’s very isolating,” Vlachos-Weber said, a self-described victim of depression. Very few people commit suicide selfishly, she said. They just don’t know it’s not a solution to whatever problem they are facing. The backpacks tell the stories of people of different ages. Seeing their stories on display is intended to make people realize there is a problem. “It communicates a loud message very quietly,” Vlachos-Weber said.***In collaboration with Active Minds, psychologist Chris Meno worked to set up backpacks and help run the depression screening offered at the display. “The number one cause of suicide is untreated depression,” Meno said. She said she wanted the stigma against mental health to be stopped and students to learn the signs of depression so they can help friends. Most people know of someone who has died by suicide, Meno said.Sophomore Margaret Hensley is a member of the Crimson Corps, a group at IU Health Center that uses peer-to-peer support, advocacy and outreach to promote mental well-being on campus.Depression screenings are offered about once a semester, she said, and can be for anyone, regardless of whether they’re struggling with their emotions or feeling perfectly healthy.“It screens some of the signs and symptoms of depression,” Hensley said. After participants answer 10 questions, their responses are reviewed. If necessary, participants receive literature or have immediate conversations with members of CAPS, she said. Hensley said even if you feel healthy, seeing people participating might encourage people who are unsure about being screened to step forward. She said she encourages all people to participate. As she acknowledged the people slowing down to look closer at the backpacks lining the sidewalks, Hensley said she was happy. “Everybody is stopping and looking,” Hensley said. “The main goal is raising awareness.” ***Senior Sean Vann said he saw the bags, and, since he had time, stopped.Upon realizing what he was seeing, Vann could only say, “Wow, that’s crazy.” He looked around.“Something needs to be done to stop this,” he said.He continued to stare at all the bags. “Everybody has a family, I mean, they affect the family,” he said. Brandon Doman, a member of the Active Minds National Office, travels with the display to college campuses throughout the United States. All the bags were given to the group by friends and family members of those who have committed suicide, he said. Some backpacks, like Jay’s, were the students’ actual backpacks. Others were donated. One mother sent in her daughter’s backpack with a picture and a note.The note read that her daughter, Michelle, was 23 and a college athlete at the time of her suicide. A picture captioned “Me and Mikey” sits on another pack, telling readers that Mikey killed himself two weeks before he turned 24. “Forty-four percent of college students have felt so depressed it was hard to function,” a sign near his backpack said.Of all the stories on display, Doman said he noticed a theme — friends and family rarely saw the suicide coming. They were often shocked by what happened, and generally found stigma about mental health kept the victim from talking, he said.“We want people to know that there’s people out there talking about mental health,” he said. ***Lauren Redding, communications coordinator for Active Minds, said the organization was founded in 2003 by current director Alison Malmon following the loss of her brother to suicide. What started as a kind of support group in Malmon’s dorm room became a national nonprofit after she graduated.Redding said there are currently 400 chapters nationwide.This is Send Silence Packing’s seventh tour, she said. Both fall and spring tours are completed, and next year’s tours for both semesters have already been booked. “It’s a really incredible visual,” she said. “This display really sends the message home.” She said Active Minds is constantly receiving new stories from loved ones and new backpacks to display them in, and to replace the ones that have become weathered throughout time. “We just have a constant stream of backpacks coming in,” she said. She said this kind of display is vital to suicide prevention, because most students will tell a friend, significant other or roommate before they’ll tell a doctor or even their families. Send Silence Packing is about student education, Redding said.“Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students,” she said. Redding said she hopes Send Silence Packing will lower that statistic and help keep people from suffering in silence. It has a kind of ripple effect, she said.“It is a really great conversation starter for students on campuses,” she said.
(04/15/14 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Legislation recently signed by Gov. Mike Pence may reduce the total amount of waste produced in Indiana by 50 percent. After much discussion and bipartisan involvement among Indiana leaders, House Bill 1183 might provide Indiana with a smaller carbon footprint, more jobs and a stimulated economy. Larry D. Barker, president of the Association of Indiana Solid Waste Management, said studies conducted by Purdue University and Ball State University determined between 50 and 60 percent of what was going into landfills was recyclable.This was determined by having trash trucks empty their collections onto tarps and having students sort through the trash by hand. “This is larger than most people realize,” Barker said. Barker said Indiana is currently falling behind many other states in the United States in terms of environmentally friendly plans such as recycling. “We have been lagging behind for years, and this now is going to move us up the ladder,” he said. He said the solid waste districts he works with were formed in 1970 because trash was being shipped into Indiana from the East Coast. Laws needed to be created to regulate solid waste in the area. “We developed 20-year plans, and all of these kind of expired in 2010,” Barker said. “They were good plans, but they all needed to be tweaked and refreshed.” Putting trash into landfills is what makes money for the waste industry, but Barker said this plan has more risks than benefits.“The waste industry is massive,” he said. “It is a multi-billion dollar industry.”HB 1183 should be environmentally friendly and provide more jobs in Indiana, Barker said. Electronic Recyclers International built a facility in Plainfield, Ind., that employs 350 Hoosiers, Barker said. He said nothing in this process is outsourced because jobs are needed here, and at times the conditions in other countries are dangerous and unhealthy. Though outsourcing this recycling job would be cheaper, Barker said this system is more beneficial overall. “It’s sad that people don’t understand the dangers they’re putting other people in to make a buck,” he said. HB 1183 will reduce the waste in landfills by pulling out all the recyclables, Barker said. “The ultimate goal is to reduce the waste stream,” he said. The recycling will either be done at a transfer station or on site at the landfill and can be accomplished in several ways, Barker said. Usually, the waste is sorted with machines such as tumblers that rotate the waste until the recyclables fall out through screens. He said there are magnetrons that pull out metal objects and eddy currents to identify aluminum in the mix. Optic sorters will use lasers to identify recyclable materials, and air currents will blow them apart from the pile of waste. Another method is for individuals on the sorting line do the work by hand, Barker said. This kind of work is already taking place in several cities across the nation, such as Sunnydale, Calif.After being sorted, the recyclables are then sent to manufacturers to make new products. Barker said Indiana Recycling Coalition Executive Director Carey Hamilton predicts as many as 10,000 jobs will be created for people in Indiana. Prices for recyclable commodities fluctuate with aluminum and fibers, such as cardboard being some of the most mobile, Barker said. Glass has been relatively stable for the past five years.“Either way you go, the waste has got to be disposed of,” Barker said. Because of this, Barker said people are either paid to take away trash or they are paid more to recycle it. “We have total support from the recycling manufacturing industry,” Barker said. He said Alcoa makes use of the recyclables collected in Indiana. The company produces everything from beverage cans to parts for jumbo jets. Barker’s main frustration is with plastics. “A lot of people don’t even understand the plastic world we live in,” he said. Plastics are made with petroleum. If they are recycled, they reduce our dependency on foreign oil, Barker said. When done correctly, the community will be more sustainable, reduce its carbon footprint and stimulate the economy, Barker said. He envisions businesses getting immediate payback. Recycling will be free, but people will pay for what goes to the landfill, Barker said. This price will virtually be cut in half if the amount of material going to landfills is also halved. This benefits residents and businesses and leaves them with money they will invest back into the community, thereby stimulating the economy, Barker said. Barker said people have been positive and receptive to the idea in Monroe County and across Indiana. There will be a meeting April 22, Earth Day, to discuss the implementation of the plan. Though plans have not been finalized yet, the goal is to remove three million tons of recyclables from the six million tons of trash in Indiana, Barker said. He said mining the landfills will probably not be part of the plan.“The whole goal of this bill is to catch it before it goes to the landfill,” he said. Critics believe start-up costs, which have not yet been fully determined, will be a setback. Barker said he can’t think of a business that doesn’t have a start-up cost. It is necessary for him. IU will also benefit from this bill as a business, saving money on trash removal. Associate Director of Residential Programs and Services Environmental Operations Steve Akers has worked on this project for the past four years, Barker said. “Steve was very vocal in having recycling containers on campus,” Barker said. Akers was a primary part of the desk-side recycling bins being placed in every office on campus. They are larger than the regular trash bins, forcing people to reconsider if they need to throw something in the trash or if it can be recycled.“We already have a goal on campus ... which is 40-percent waste reduction by 2020,” Akers said. Akers said he has been working with the Recycling and Resource Group in the IU Office of Sustainability for a while now to implement these changes. “That’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” he said. Things like recycling bins and systems in all residence halls and dining halls have been a large part of this, but Akers said he thinks education may be one of the most important factors to change the way recycling happens on campus. “The only difficulty I see would be funding,” Akers said of plans to try to purchase, label and place even more recycling bins around campus to match the number of garbage cans. Students can help by recycling on their own, Barker said and, overall, this change will greatly benefit all of Indiana.“There is no downside,” he said.
(04/11/14 2:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU students discovered Tuesday they have been exposed to hackers on seemingly secure websites since March 2012. The Heartbleed bug, an error found in some versions of the OpenSSL encrypting tool used extensively to protect sensitive information, is presenting a threat to personal online security. Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is a protocol used extensively on the Internet to protect sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers. The most common use of SSL is to protect information sent between a web browser, such as Internet Explorer, and a web server, such as Facebook. It’s a popular implementation of SSL, Chief Security Officer Tom Davis said in an email. It is used on almost every website that begins its URL with “https,” the “s” meaning it is secure. A green padlock near the URL signifies similar security.Despite this, if the website is running with OpenSSL, it may still be at risk. “Normally, users can take direct and immediate action to protect themselves against most computer security threats,” Davis said. “However, in the case of Heartbleed, it’s a little more difficult than that.”Davis said the bug can affect anybody that is using a site version of OpenSSL that has gone untreated or unfixed. Heartbleed allows hackers to read sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers directly from the server’s memory, where it’s stored temporarily so that it may complete its task, Davis said. It also allows the hackers to obtain online security keys that can let them eavesdrop on communications or even impersonate the web server a user wants to access. If a hacker impersonates the server, a user may think they are securely logging into their online banking account. But simultaneously, they are giving their credit card number, social security number and bank code directly to a hacker.Davis said the University Information Security Office has not received reports of students experiencing this. Doctoral student Nathaniel Husted of the School of Informatics and Computing said IU’s websites have checked out so far. “As far as I can tell, IU’s services have already been patched,” Husted said. The bug came out publicly Tuesday morning, and by Tuesday afternoon most websites, including websites maintained by UITS, had already patched up the Heartbleed problem, he said. Husted said patching the problem is an easy task.“It’s literally just the software update,” he said. “That’s all we need to do.” Websites such as indiana.edu seem to be secure again, he said. Despite this reassurance, Husted said he cannot confirm that any non-UITS websites have been fixed, though they should be managed rather quickly due to the nature of the situation. He said department servers may need to be patched by locals as opposed to UITS, depending on whether or not they run under UITS. Now that Heartbleed is no longer a threat to many big web servers, Husted encourages students to heighten their online security. “The important thing is to change your password after things have been patched,” he said. Changing your password before the patch can be detrimental because if the website is still unsafe, hackers will now have access to both your new and old passwords. Husted said people can check to see if a website has been patched using Heartbleed and SSL tests, available online. Students need to change all of their passwords and consider adding form authentication to as many websites as they can, he said. Form authentication is when a web server such as Google or Twitter sends a message to your cell phone number containing a code you must enter to access your account, even after you have put in a password. If a hacker does have your password, they still cannot access your information without the code that is on your cell phone. “It can buy you a little extra time to change your password,” Husted said. Davis says work is still being done to ensure students’ safety and protection online. “The University Information Security Office has been pro-actively identifying other services on the University network running vulnerable OpenSSL, and will continue to work with UITS and our departmental IT colleagues to identify, patch and appropriately respond to any that are found vulnerable,” Davis said.Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(04/10/14 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Oncourse will soon be replaced by an entirely new website, Canvas. Currently used by more than 100,000 students and faculty to check and post grades, submit and grade assignments, and send and receive messages, Oncourse has served IU for almost a decade. But Canvas will take the reins in two years. Trials have shown the replacement, Canvas, is not only accepted, but preferred by some students and faculty. “The news has been very well received, very positive,” said Anastasia Morrone, associate vice president for learning technologies.Faculty can try Canvas next fall, Morrone said. She said if they wish to use it with their students, they can begin using it then.She did point out that Oncourse has a variety of robust tools they want to keep. Announcements and resources are the most commonly used tools by faculty members, Morrone said, while the gradebook seems to be the most important aspect to students. “Students really want to be able to get to their grades,” she said. Morrone also said Oncourse’s message center is vital to students and faculty so communication is open and easily accessible. Despite these virtues of the site, Morrone and her colleagues began to look into new management systems that might have more to offer. She said they started researching during summer 2012. Through this process, sites such as Canvas, Blackboard and Desire to Learn were all considered as potential replacements for Oncourse, Morrone said. During an 18-month trial period, students and faculty were able to test some of these new systems and provide feedback. The trials saw 35 courses entered into Canvas, 25 into Blackboard and nine into Desire to Learn, Morrone said. The results of the trials are currently available online at next.iu.edu.The decisive factor, Morrone said, was seeing both faculty and students find Canvas extremely easy to use. She said those who used Blackboard found it to be less user-friendly than Oncourse, and Desire to Learn was liked the least overall. In terms of viewing grades Canvas was the best option because students can see their peers’ grades for comparison purposes, a feature not available with Oncourse, Morrone said.The transition from the old site to the new is thought to be finished by the end of summer 2016.Morrone said job creation is another perk of the change.“There will be a number of opportunities for people who want help,” she said. Though the trial results say Canvas is easy to navigate, the tech support offered will still be expansive and accessible.Throughout the transition, Onestart will not undergo any changes, Morrone said. Similarly, Oncourse will be maintained and run simultaneously until the transition is complete. “We will have both Canvas and Oncourse available during this two year period,” Morrone said. Morrone said there will definitely be a push to use Canvas as opposed to Oncourse. And though she said the outcome will be worth the change, many students will find it difficult to get used to the new system. “For a while, that will be an issue,” she said.
(04/03/14 8:55pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It started with a bang. IU sophomore Xinya Cheng was driving north on Woodlawn Avenue in her white Mini Cooper, boyfriend Jincheng Liu in the passenger seat. He was visiting her on his spring break from the University of Delaware. Donn Hall was pulling up to the stop sign at the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue and Cottage Grove Avenue in his blue 2012 Camaro. It was finally clean, he said, because of all the rain. Hall began to drive away from the stop sign, and Cheng slammed into the front left tire of his car, in a burst of smoke. The bang echoed for blocks. Liu got out of the passenger side of the car and began yelling at Hall. “He didn’t stop,” Liu said. IU junior Vincent Rowold was walking to class with his friend and IU junior Eli Staton when the two heard the crash and turned. As they watched, the Mini Cooper began to roll backward. With Cheng still in the car, the car began to roll south on Woodlawn. She had forgotten to put the car in park. However, rather than applying the brakes, she jumped out of the moving car, and the passenger-less car began to pick up speed. Rowold ran across the street as the car veered west onto a lawn. The car’s back tires went over a stone wall, and for a moment the Mini Cooper stopped, shuddering. Then it began to do a 180-degree turn, back toward Woodlawn Avenue. As the car began rolling toward the street again, now facing south, Rowold ripped open the passenger door of the moving car. He said he was going to try to dive inside to stop the car but, before he could, the car had moved past him, brushing a telephone pole that caused the door he’d opened to slam shut. Staton ran to the intersection of 10th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, yelling at students to get out of the way, while the car continued to roll down Woodlawn Avenue. Students screamed and dashed out of the way. Cars in the way of the Mini Cooper began to reverse as much as they could. Still gathering speed, the car crossed 10th Street, through traffic, and careened over the curb on the southwest corner of the intersection of 10th and Woodlawn Avenue. Leaving tire tracks in the mud and flowerbeds behind it, the car crashed into a tree outside of Collins, causing all of the air bags to deploy. No one reported serious injuries by press time, although the drivers of both vehicles did report soreness and some seatbelt lacerations from the initial crash. Within an hour, the scene was cleaned up. Emergency vehicles had towed away the Mini Cooper, and ambulances and firemen had dispersed. However, bricks still lay scattered where the car had hit the wall, and scrapes line the telephone pole and tree where the car made contact. IUPD could not be reached for comment. Between the time of the accident and press time, BFD had not released an official statement.Follow reporters Hannah Smith and Amanda Marino on Twitter @hannsmit and @amandanmarino.
(04/01/14 3:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Indiana Weekly Student was the first news source to cover President McRobbie’s blood sacrifice before the Little 500 ceremonies began. It included pictures, direct quotes from McRobbie and a disclaimer that the article was completely fake. The Indiana Weekly Student, a satirical paper created by IU senior Kevin Tanner and friends including junior Stone Irr, has been gaining popularity for its humorous articles that are reminiscent of the Onion. It has no association with the Indiana Daily Student, but its stories take a twist on news about campus life. “We just kind of threw out all these article ideas,” Irr said.Tanner said about seven of his friends collaborated on the IWS for a few months before the website was created. “Earlier in the semester we would just get together and come up with article title ideas,” Tanner said.He said generally they come up with title concepts, quotes and small segments first.“I guess it’s a weird, backwards process,” Irr said.He said writing the articles is a collaborative process. Someone in the group would come up with a quote or a subsection idea, and others would elaborate on hypothetical scenarios and “what-ifs.”One of the original ideas came from the freezing winter, Tanner said. Tanner had joked about what would happen if there had been an article in the IDS depicting administrators staying home during the “polar vortex” while students were forced to brave the cold and go to class. Since then, the group has published a dozen satirical articles meant to address things happening at the University with stories like “IU Basketball Team Kidnapped by People from the Future” and “Man Continuously Chuckles at Reddit Articles in Jordan Hall; Class Forms Mob.” Irr said they were just poking fun at the University with their friends to start, but lately their fan base has been growing. Although they said they don’t know their exact following, 4,500 people have already viewed the website, Tanner said. “It’s also floating around on Reddit,” Tanner said. Tanner said they continue to work on additions to the website.Polls, infographics, and “horrorscopes” that predict readers’ future misfortunes are all being considered. Tanner said it’s possible the website may soon have a form where people can submit their own work to be edited and potentially posted by the IWS.“We’ve had a lot of requests for people to write articles for us,” he said. While Tanner said the group has experimented with doing video, the multimedia aspect of the site is still a work in progress. The IWS’s goal is not only to make people laugh. Tanner said their articles are stirring social commentary.“My favorite one is probably the one about the IUSA election and North Korea,” Tanner said. He said the article makes a comment about problems at IU. Tanner said it’s all lighthearted fun — no malice intended.“We definitely don’t want to offend anybody,” Tanner said. Instead of attacking any person or group, the goal is to point out the issues, Irr said. People such as President McRobbie are used because they are major figures on campus, Irr said. But the stories are so outlandish that people will know they are satire. Tanner and Irr said they hope to increase their readership through the IWS’s Facebook and Twitter pages.“I just kinda hope my mom doesn’t find out,” Irr said.
(04/01/14 3:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A group of about two dozen people gathered at the St. Paul’s Catholic Center Monday night to hear Chicago Bears board member and Senior Director Patrick McCaskey discuss his life and how faith has affected him throughout.McCaskey said that faith is a critical part of his career and his life.The Bears have mass and chapel services before every game. McCaskey said he had offered the pope $100 and two tickets to come and celebrate mass with the team before games, but so far the pope has not shown up.“I started going to Chicago Bears games when I was five,” McCaskey said, sharing memories of sitting beside the team’s bench as his grandfather coached.Though he didn’t plan on coming to IU originally, McCaskey said he was glad that he did. Upon arrival, he took up running for the track team at IU.“At the beginning of the season, I was the worst runner on the B Team,” he said. “At the end of the season, I was the best runner on the B Team.” McCaskey lived in McNutt Quad in the beginning of his time at IU. Later he moved into Alpha Epsilon Phi.Before the speech began, McCaskey reached out to his audience. As people entered the church, McCaskey shook hands and spoke with attendees. McCaskey was selling his latest book, “Pillars of the NFL,” within the church’s narthex.He has written two other books “Bear with Me: A Family History of George Halas and the Chicago Bears” and “Sports and Faith: Stories of the Devoted and the Devout.” McCaskey said he originally chose IU for its optometry school. Later, he changed his mind and his major.“I was an English major here because I wanted to be a writer,” he said.Following his speech, McCaskey held a question and answer section with his audience that turned into a conversation where people shared fond memories of the Bears and asked questions about football, faith and life.Mary Rose, a community member, told McCaskey that she was familiar with St. Joe’s College, the Bear’s former training ground.Howard Theis, another community member, announced to McCaskey that he was a Green Bay Packers fan.McCaskey replied, “Don’t be discouraged. Some of the greatest Christians start out as atheists.”Senior Pierce Cavanaugh asked why McCaskey would come to speak at IU.McCaskey spent seven semesters at IU, and he said coming back to speak after having accomplished so much is a huge honor.“I’m thrilled to be here,” he said.Cavanaugh said after the speech that McCaskey represented a plain Catholic guy in a high visibility position.He also thanked McCaskey for coming all the way from his Lake Forest home to Bloomington to speak.McCaskey said that his faith has been a huge part of his successes.“The football business is an emotional roller coaster, and God is constant,” McCaskey said.
(03/12/14 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As Bryan Brown kayaked down the Colorado River, a family of American otters ran the rapids with him. Unfortunately, because of the current strain on the environment, Brown said many people might not have the same opportunity in the future. “They’re precious little animals,” Brown said. After conducting a record-breaking 100-day trip down the Colorado River, IU graduate Brown spoke at the Indiana Memorial Union about his trip and all of the environmental distress he noted along the way. Along with American otters, Brown saw other endangered animals, such as clapper rails.“There are maybe 400 left of these in the U.S.,” Brown said. Brown said the environment is suffering greatly because of urbanization and environmental ignorance. He noted that Lakes Mead and Powell are losing water and are in danger of suffering permanent damage. “I saw exactly zero turtles,” Brown said, explaining that the animals are unable to live in environments that have been severely polluted. The pollution in some areas was so severe that Brown suffered injuries. The skin on his feet was burned off five times by a combination of pesticides, fertilizers and mining runoffs.“It’s a serious problem,” Brown said. “My feet were so bad ... they were sticking to my boat. I had to peel them off.” Brown, a leave-no-trace traveler who makes sure not to leave any impact on the environments he travels through, said there is a nuclear waste dump near Moab, Utah, separated from the water by dirt. Brown suggested ways to combat these issues on an individual level. “We have to start now,” Brown said. ”We can make minor, minor changes that can save animals.”Aware of people’s general negative response to the concept of global warming, Brown said people could be approached by talking about urbanization’s role in influencing the environment. Making buffers to protect wildlife and holding oneself personally responsible for taking care of the environment are just two small steps that people can take to help save wildlife, he said. Dustin Smucker, leisure programs coordinator of IU Outdoor Adventures, said he feels there is something healing about the outdoors.Both men shared sentiments that people need to get outside and appreciate nature, and they weren’t the only two. Native Hoosier Lonnie Bedwell completed a kayaking trip across the Grand Canyon despite his blindness. He was assisted by guides from Team River Runners, an organization that helps disabled veterans to heal through paddle activities like kayaking. “We see the purpose to do it,” Bedwell said. “Putting it in words is hard because it is above words.” Though Bedwell cannot see where he is going and appreciate the visual beauty of nature in the way that Brown does, the descriptions of his trips from people around him coupled with what he felt and heard along the way help him paint a picture in his head. “It was what the river did to me itself,” Bedwell said. Brown encouraged the audience to try and find ways to experience nature like he does, but on their own level. “It’s a privilege,” he said.
(03/10/14 3:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Lesya Romanyshak knows her food. From potato salad to stuffed cabbage to pierogis, the owner of the Euro Deli has a knack for cultural dishes. Romanyshak also knows the meals she made during the weekend are only a small contribution to a far larger effort to help provide medical care to people that have been injured during protests in Ukraine. The Euro Deli, along with Runcible Spoon and Bloomington’s Ukrainian community, organized a benefit Saturday where people could experience Ukrainian culture and donate money to Maidan Medical USA.They raised more than $3,000 through the event, said Sofiya Asher, an IU lecturer in the Slavic Languages Department and one of the event’s organizers. “I just feel so bad,” Romanyshak said, becoming emotional at the thought of the suffering occurring in Ukraine. “I just want everything to be OK.” IU graduate student Shaun Williams served in the Peace Corps in Ukraine from 2008 to 2012. “I have a lot of friends over there,” Williams said. These connections made Williams decide to reach out to Maidan Medical, a Chicago-based organization providing aid to the victims of violent protests and victims’ families.Williams said donations made at the event and online are the easiest way for people to get involved and help. “A lot of people are going to be in the hospital for a long time yet,” Williams said. Maidan Medical USA is not an incorporated organization, Williams said. It has worked directly with doctors and hospitals in Ukraine since the originally peaceful protests turned violent.“The crisis is evolved into this brink of war situation,” Williams said. “We all feel pretty helpless. I hope that there won’t be more injuries. I hope that there won’t be a war.” Since Ukrainian hospitals are not fully equipped to deal with gunshot wounds and burn victims, people have been sent to places like Poland and the Czech Republic, Williams said. Williams said Americans should appreciate how the Ukrainians stood up for Western values in an attempt to make a change for the better and improve their quality of life. Their grassroots efforts have spread to the Bloomington Ukrainian Club, which discusses Ukrainian language and culture weekly in Runcible Spoon. Runcible Spoon owner Matt O’Neill overheard his customers’ distress about the Ukrainian situation. Though he often overhears conversations happening in a variety of languages in his restaurant at what he called language tables, he took notice of this one because of how visibly upset the group was. “All I could do was provide the space,” O’Neill said. O’Neill spoke to attendees, saying this is a global situation and his thoughts are with Ukrainians. Williams described the benefit as a kind of party where people would be exposed to and learn about Ukrainian culture, music and food. Dressed in a traditional embroidered Ukrainian shirt, Williams played folk music on the accordion and tsymbaly, an instrument consisting of many metal strings and pins.Some of the group’s friends were protesters before things became violent. IU graduate student and Ukrainian Club member Damon Smith said many people have been killed and 259 are missing. The protests began after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided to avoid conflict with Russia and not sign an agreement with the European Union. During the past 100 days of protesting, things have only been escalating, Asher said.Though the government originally ignored the protesters, violence erupted as the people demanded their rights be expanded.Natalie Kravchuk, a member of the Ukrainian Speaking Club, prepared food for the event, which she said was put together in less than two weeks. After living in Ukraine about 20 years ago, Natalie and Robert Kravchuk made friends in the country. Natalie said she hasn’t heard from their friends recently. “I’m getting kind of concerned about what’s happening to them,” Natalie said of a family whose daughter shared Barbie dolls with her own. “Even two weeks ago, this would have been a different conversation,” Natalie said. “Russia is showing its true face now.” Robert, director of the Master’s Program in Public Affairs at SPEA, said politics have overtaken dialogue of concerns for Ukrainians.“Things have sort of shifted,” Robert said. “Putin is a very bold player.” Vitaliy Kyryk learned about the benefit from his cousin, IU student Serhiy Vernei, and traveled down from Indianapolis to show his support. “It’s been difficult,” Kyryk said, “watching the news.” Kyryk said he was disappointed that even though people were speaking out as individuals in a way that Americans should appreciate, the news didn’t cover the protests until things turned violent. Svitlana Melnyk, a part of Bloomington’s Ukrainian community, said she was grateful for the small but active community rallying around Ukraine.“I’m really happy to see so many people are here,” she said. Romanyshak said she hopes that the benefit will help at least a little bit, and though it cannot bring peace by itself, that is what she hopes for the most.
(02/26/14 5:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU senior lecturer Christine Von der Haar and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Feb. 19 against Sherlana Lieba and a man referred to only as “Mr. Combs.” Von der Haar said she felt her right to privacy was violated when she and a friend were detained at the Indianapolis International Airport.U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained Von der Haar when the two went to pick up some of her friend Dimitris Papatheodoropoulos’ items June 8, 2012.That day, the senior lecturer in the IU Department of Sociology and Papatheodoropoulos were detained from about 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Papatheodoropoulos was visiting from Greece. Von der Haar said she soon realized what appeared to be a misunderstanding was much more complicated. She said they questioned her twice.Von der Haar said the border protection agents first questioned her for about 20 minutes, and then again for a shorter period of time about a half hour later.She said she did not see Papatheodoropoulos until he was released at about 3:30 p.m. In addition to the detainment and interrogation, Von der Haar discovered the agents had knowledge of personal email correspondences between her and Papatheodoropoulos. The agents asked if she and Papatheodoropoulos were planning to be married.Von der Haar denied the allegation. At no point did Von der Haar feel she was able to leave or choose not to answer a question, she said. The lawsuit filed stated one of the agents stood blocking the door to the windowless room where she was interviewed. Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury of the Electronic Frontier Foundation reviewed Von der Haar’s case. He said he had not seen that specific track pattern before or such an aggressive line of questioning about seemingly irrelevant information.“You don’t see a lot of situations like that,” he said.Van der Haar said she hired an attorney and contacted senators and congressmen.She worked the entire summer to try and find out what had happened at the airport. She also contacted the American Civil Liberties Union in mid-July and has been working with them since. Von der Haar said she has also used the Freedom of Information Act to request the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security release any files they have on her. All of the files are public record. She said the FBI has told her they do not have a file on her. “I’m doing this for the American public,” she said. “We need more transparency.” Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandamarino.
(02/06/14 4:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Matt Myers, vocalist and guitarist for band Houndmouth, said the band’s philosophy is to always focus on their craft. “We don’t have a lot of spectacle to distract from the music,” Myers said.The band will perform 9 p.m. today at the Bluebird Nightclub to kick off their winter tour. With a style that combines components of folk and rock, Myers said the band tells stories through their songs.“We have a lot of influences from a lot of different areas of music,” Myers said.The band will play original songs as well as covers, Myers said. He said he thinks the performance will be fun for both the band and the audience because of the music and the environment.Myers, Katie Toupin, Zak Appleby and Shane Cody formed Houndmouth in November 2011. Myers said the band members knew each other from New Albany, Ind.Although they went to different high schools, the four were close and bonded because of their musical interests. “We’re all friends from high school,” Myers said. Houndmouth also knows about the Bluebird because of their Indiana roots.“The Bluebird is special to us,” he said. Myers and Appleby played in cover bands together for years prior to the formation of Houndmouth, according to the band’s biography. Toupin and Myers worked together for three years as an acoustic duo. Cody and Toupin went to high school together before Cody moved away to study audio engineering. When Cody returned from New York, Myers said they started the group. Appleby joined to play bass, and Cody became the drummer. At this point, Myers said they were still looking for another strong vocalist which led them to Toupin. As the band came together, each member became equally a part of the creative process, Myers said. Each of them will sing lead at times because they do not have a specific lead singer. “Usually whoever sings the song wrote it,” Myers said. “We try to keep it as far from a dictatorship as we can.”Each member helps keep the others in check and provides constructive criticism. The band doesn’t invest any time in reading reviews because no good comes from it, he said. Myers said the band is looking forward to performing at the Bluebird because it is a good performance space. The intimate setting is far better to the band than any impersonal stadium full of people, he said.
(01/31/14 7:31pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>John Schmersal, Rick Lee and Joey Galvan, members of Los Angeles trio Crooks on Tape, couldn’t predict their band’s future when they first started playing music together in 2010. “We just started playing and recording,” Schmersal said. “The process was pretty natural.”Crooks on Tape will perform at 9 p.m. Sunday at the Bishop Bar. Admission to the show is free but restricted to those who are 21 and over.The best part of rehearsals were improvised, Schmersal said. Crooks on Tape began to log hundreds of hours of recordings because of this. Schmersal said he and Lee would bring in instruments like guitars, basses, synthesizers and mixers. Galvan worked to stage the improvised sessions together with drums and other forms of percussion. “We all have our roles,” Schmersal said. “I tend to be the organizer.”Sometimes the group had an obvious rhythm to draw from within the session, and other times it did not, he said. Schmersal said the improvised sound can be looped and sampled. Outside of that, anything can happen. When the band got together to record, they would enter a room filled with equipment that was set up.The room constantly changed as new machines and instruments were moved in and out during recording sessions. Schmersal said that Lee would go get seltzer water and they would make cocktails and just start playing.“Whatever happens, happens,” Schmersal said. “We started getting pretty good at what we’re doing.”Schmersal said that in the beginning, they weren’t really expecting to create anything cohesive. As they got better, they found that there were longer sections of recordings that they liked. “It’s more a spontaneous journey,” Schmersal said. “There isn’t really a code for what you’re doing.” Sometimes things turn out great, and if not, they can be edited later on, Schmersal said.“We didn’t really make any limitations for ourselves,” he said. After about two years of recording, Lee moved to New York, temporarily ending the regular sessions. Although no new work was being created, their album “Fingerprint” was gaining popularity.Between the three members, Crooks on Tape listens to music from the 1960s to the 1980s and beyond.“We’re really big lovers of music, and I feel like that really comes through,” Schmersal said. Though the band takes music very seriously, he said the band has a lot of fun. “We enjoy what we do,” he said. “To us, it’s justmusic.”Dave Obenour, the tour publicist for Crooks on Tape, said it’s interesting to see how the audience is responding to the band’s first tour. Obenour said what excites him about getting to see them perform is that they take some of the elements of a jam band and combine them with an indie rock sound. Schmersal said that though they are influenced by the sounds of their recordings, they try to stay spontaneous in their live performances. That is where a lot of the excitement comes from for them. He described a feeling of camaraderie that comes from the first time a person is in a band with his high school buddies playing in a garage. After a person has been playing for a while, that feeling is hard to find again. With Crooks on Tape though, Schmersal seems to have rekindled that joy.“It’s more than just the music,” he said. “It felt like that all over again ... It didn’t matter if anyone heard it.”Obenour said people have been very receptive.Schmersal said the band wants that kind of a wide audience though, and that he loves to see his friends posting on Facebook that their kids love his music. Music has to cover all people of all ages, he said.“I’ll tell you for sure, we’re not thinking about a demographic when we’re making music,” Schmersal said. Crooks on Tape tries to stay spontaneous in their live performances to keep things interesting, Schmersal said. Both Schmersal and Obenour anticipate an exciting show to debut what Crooks on Tape call their first pop record. Schmersal said the audience will be assaulted, insulted, laughing and crying. It’s like a wedding invitation with a funeral announcement on the back, musically speaking, he said. “So far it’s been a lot of fun,” Schmersal said.Crooks on Tape will head to Europe at the end of the month.Schmersal said the band doesn’t look at reviews or previews of their performances so they don’t get too wrapped up in what is said about them. “We’re gonna put on the show we put on regardless of any of that stuff,” he said. Follow reporterAmanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(01/30/14 8:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>John Schmersal, Rick Lee and Joey Galvan, members of Los Angeles trio Crooks on Tape, couldn’t predict their band’s future when they first started playing music together in 2010. “We just started playing and recording,” Schmersal said. “The process was pretty natural.”Crooks on Tape will perform at 9 p.m. Sunday at the Bishop. Admission to the show is free but restricted to those who are 21 and over.The best part of rehearsals were improvised, Schmersal said. Crooks on Tape began to log hundreds of hours of recordings because of this. Schmersal said he and Lee would bring in instruments like guitars, basses, synthesizers and mixers. Galvan worked to hold the improvised sessions together with drums and other forms of percussion. “We all have our roles,” Schmersal said. “I tend to be the organizer.”Sometimes the group had an obvious rhythm to draw from within the session, and other times it did not, he said. Schmersal said the improvised sound can be looped and sampled. Outside of that, anything can happen. When the band got together to record, they would enter a room filled with equipment that was set up.The room constantly changing as new machines and instruments were moved in and out during recording sessions. “Whatever happens, happens,” Schmersal said. “We started getting pretty good at what we’re doing.”Schmersal said that in the beginning, they weren’t really expecting to create anything cohesive. As they got better, they found that there were longer sections of recordings that they liked. “It’s more a spontaneous journey,” Schmersal said. “There isn’t really a code for what you’re doing.” Sometimes things turn out great, and if not, they can be edited later on, Schmersal said.“We didn’t really make any limitations for ourselves,” he said. After about two years of recordings, Lee moved to New York, temporarily ending the regular sessions. Although no new work was being created, their album “Fingerprint” was gaining popularity.Between the three members, Crooks on Tape listens to music from the sixties to the eighties and beyond.“We’re really big lovers of music, and I feel like that really comes through,” Schmersal said. Though the band takes music very seriously, he said the band has a lot of fun. “We enjoy what we do,” he said. “To us, it’s just music.”Dave Obenour, the tour publicist for Crooks on Tape, said it’s interesting to see how the audience is responding to the band’s first tour. Obenour said what excites him about getting to see them perform is that they take some of the elements of a jam band and combine them with an indie rock sound. “A lot of people have been very receptive,” Obenour said.Crooks on Tape tries to stay spontaneous in their live performances to keep things interesting, Schmersal said. Both Schmersal and Obenour anticipate an exciting show to debut what Crooks on Tape call their first pop record. Schmersal said the audience will be assaulted, insulted, laughing and crying. It’s like a wedding invitation with a funeral announcement on the back, musically speaking, he said. “So far it’s been a lot of fun,” Schmersal said. Crooks on Tape will head to Europe at the end of the month.Schmersal said the band doesn’t look at reviews or previews of their performances so they don’t get too wrapped up in what is said about them. “We’re gonna put on the show we put on regardless of any of that stuff,” he said. Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(01/27/14 9:42pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana have some of the highest obesity rates in the U.S., according to the United States Centers for Disease Control. To help alleviate this epidemic, IU’s Indiana Institute on Disability and Community and Ewha Womans University, in Seoul, South Korea, have developed the Healthy, Energetic, Ready, Outstanding, Enthusiastic Schools initiative study.“We have data to suggest that changes in schools’ wellness environments are greater when individual schools, rather than entire districts, plan and implement policies and programming based on the needs of their specific students, staff and families,” said Mindy Hightower King, principal investigator for the study and an evaluation manager with the Indiana Institute’s Center on Education and Lifelong Learning, in a press release. The study focuses on schools in Southern Indiana, Northwestern Kentucky and Southeastern Illinois. According to a press release, the study worked to create programs that would reduce the number of overweight children in elementary, middle and high schools by modifying their diets and physical activity schedules. There are eight main activities associated with this change: health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling, psychological and social services, healthy school environment, and health promotion for staff, family and community involvement, according to heroesinitiative.org.Each month, the HEROES home page features a spotlight school that is participating in the initiative. This month, the focus is on Wood Memorial High School in Oakland City, Ind. WMHS was chosen for its expanded breakfast and lunch menus offering healthy choices and its physical education class and after school “Fit Club.”According to the study published by both participating research programs, after 18 months of influence, not only did the number of obese and overweight students decrease, but the number of underweight students decreased as well. This means that the healthy activities encouraged by the HEROES initiative were not only helping children to lose weight, but also to become healthier overall. “These changes include, but are not limited to, healthier foods available in classrooms, concession stands and fundraisers, as well as opportunities for physical activity outside of dedicated PE classes,” King said.
(01/24/14 6:59pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Not many people can say they have danced to the sound of a dripping faucet.But when Henry Steinway — also known as DJ RL Grime — heard dripping water, he managed to turn it into part of a popular trap soundtrack, fellow DJ and IU graduate Jake Marsh said.Based in Los Angeles, Calif., Steinway will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at the Bluebird Nightclub.Tickets are $20. Doors open at 8 p.m.Steinway produces trap music, which Marsh described as electronic infused with hip-hop. “Trap is pretty much the new dubstep,” Marsh said. “It’s gained quite a lot of momentum in the past few years.” Since dubstep died off because of over-saturation, trap music faces the potential of meeting a similar fate, Marsh said. Steinway gained popularity after developing a track with his producer Salva based on the song “Mercy” by Kanye West.“It lit the Internet on fire,” Marsh said. Following that success, Steinway spent the summer of 2013 performing live and gaining even more popularity. His EP, “High Beams,” debuted at No. 8 on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic albums and No. 1 on iTunes Electronic charts, Marsh said.Marsh, who will be performing with Steinway on Saturday as the Dub Knight, said he has worked with Keepin’ It Deep, an Indianapolis-based club promotion company, before. Keepin’ It Deep has worked since 2002 to promote popular electronic dance music like trap.After getting his start in Bloomington, Marsh met Slater Hogan, who offered him work with the company. “He asked me if I was willing to join Keepin’ It Deep,” Marsh said. “Slater’s been very supportive.”Marsh said he and Steinway are good counterparts because of their unique styles.Steinway provides a darker, more melodic sound and uses a variety of different sound samples that most musicians would never think to use — like the sound of a dripping faucet. “He is just very creative,” Marsh said. Marsh performed in a show with Flosstradamus in April 2013, and he expects the coming show will receive similar attention. “That place was packed wall to wall,” Marsh said. “This is essentially our sequel to the Flosstradamus show last year.” Featuring both the Dub Knight and RL Grime, the event will include music from Shy Guy Says and Salva. This performance will also be the first official party for the Twitter feed “IU Parties,” a page working to bring the party reputation back to IU. “Without a doubt ... this show is expected to be a lot of fun,” Marsh said. “All signs point to another sellout.”Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(01/22/14 5:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When a student was shot and killed on its campus Tuesday, Purdue University’s emergency response systems were put to the ultimate test.Alerts, calls and tweets flew through airwaves, and a suspect in the shooting was arrested within minutes of police response.But despite preparation, training and protocol implemented to deal with scenarios like the shooting at Purdue, IU’s Director of Emergency Communications Services Susan Williams said there is no way to prepare for such a tragedy.“This is a university’s worst nightmare,” Williams said. “I would really want to go ahead and extend our thoughts to people at Purdue. Above all, our thoughts go out to them.” Williams said IU’s emergency response relies heavily on IU-Notify, a service that sends messages to students and faculty through text messages, emails and phone calls. “If somebody didn’t get it in one way, hopefully they would get it in another,” Williams said. These messages come from the police as soon as they are received, then are transferred to people on campus immediately.Deb Fletcher, director of emergency management and continuity, said faculty members are responsible for their classes.IU spokesman Mark Land said the main goal is to help receive information and get students to safety. During a possible crisis, Williams said the police would handle the situation while students sought safety and shelter. Students would be asked to stay where they were if they felt safe and lock or barricade doors as necessary. “The best thing to do really depends on the room,” Fletcher said. “Any room could be a sheltered location.” “Our plan is to try to keep in contact with people through IU-Notify every half hour or so,” Williams said. Fletcher said they can tell students what to do for a fire or weather disaster. With a shooter, everything depends on location. “We suggest that you don’t leave unless you have to,” Fletcher said. “People need to be aware of their surroundings.”Similar to the knife incident in October 2013, all actions were taken to ensure the safety of students and faculty until there was no longer a major or unknown threat.Since the University had not yet fully assessed the extent of the threat, they chose to err on the side of safety. Land said the best way to avoid this unrest is constant contact and updates, even if nothing has changed. Because that event took place during off-hours, Land said it was easier to simply lock students into dorms and apartments. There was no need to worry about locking lecture halls.During busy hours, though, no one can lock lecture halls. “That’s why we try to explicitly tell students to stay put,” Land said. After the police establish there is no longer a major threat, an IU-Notify will issue an all-clear. All faculty and students are added via email to IU-Notify, but they are also encouraged by Land to update their cell phone numbers at protect.iu.edu so they can be reached.IU-Notify can accept parent phone numbers, which is valuable because they are another way of getting in touch with students, Land said. Students can also help with efforts during emergencies, though Land stressed the importance of not placing oneself in harm’s way to do so. Through tweeting to IU and using other social media, students can help to track issues from where they are. “Students can be really helpful in that respect,” Land said. Williams said that IU’s emergency plan is similar to those implemented at other schools across the nation.Land said the important thing is student safety. “I can’t imagine for the students and faculty members in that classroom in particular,” Land said. “It’s fun to compete with Purdue, but at the end of the day, we’re all in this together.” Follow Reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(01/21/14 5:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At about 3:30 a.m. Friday, a man drove a 2004 Nissan Murano onto IU’s campus and around buildings near Franklin Hall, including campus sidewalks.Lt. Craig Munroe of the IU Police Department said police do not currently know how 21-year-old Drew Alan Mendez managed to get onto campus, but they have an idea of the route he took.“We know he was at the southeast corner of Franklin Hall,” Munroe said. “How he got there, I don’t know.” Reports say Mendez drove between Franklin Hall and the Student Building before drawing police attention and exiting out the Sample Gates.He was pulled over and arrested shortly after on Indiana Avenue, where it was discovered that his blood alcohol content was more than two times the legal limit of .08 percent. Mendez was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident, which was the act of driving on school property.Munroe said damage estimates to both Mendez’s vehicle and the campus range between $10,000 and $25,000. “We try to provide an estimate,” Munroe said. “I know his car was pretty banged up.” Mendez is not currently in custody, and sources at the Monroe County Jail were unable to disclose how long he was held. Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(01/21/14 5:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While students, professors and business owners took a day off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Protective Order Assistance Partnership celebrated “A Day On! Not a Day Off” at City Hall.Linda Robbins, Monroe County clerk and a partner of POAP, co-founded the organization three years ago with Prosecutor Chris Gaal.Their goal was to support victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse and stalking, she said.Robbins said she draws from her experience working at the clerk’s office, where domestic work is handled similarly to the Department of Motor Vehicles.“I really understand how humiliating it is to admit this is going on, much less ask for help,” she said.Robbins and Gaal created POAP as a safe, confidential option that allows victims to seek help and support.POAP is a collaboration between the Office of the Monroe County Clerk, the Office of the Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney, Middle Way House, the IU Maurer School of Law’s Protective Order Project and the IU School of Social Work, according to a press release.Middle Way House is a place where women can go for temporary housing, counseling and — if necessary — the creation of an exit strategy, Robbins said.Robbins said an abusive relationship is at its most volatile when the victim leaves his or her abuser.“That’s why protective orders are so important,” she said. Representatives from each of the agencies involved will work on site at Middle Way House to make people feel comfortable and provide them with the services they need.Sarah Hunt, a senior in the IU School of Social Work, worked with POAP on “A Day On! Not a Day Off” to raise awareness about these issues.Hunt created the event as a social justice project that she was required tocomplete for class.“I work one-on-one with survivors petitioning the court for protection,” Hunt said.Inspired by the national “No More” movement — which includes celebrities declaring “no more” to domestic violence — Hunt said she decided to get people talking about the abuse that so often is forgotten or ignored.National organization members want more local groups to get involved, Hunt said.“We are growing and evolving,” Robbins said. “We’ll be having some things on campus later.”Hunt has become so involved in the program at IU that she has events planned each month to help keep domestic violence from being ignored, Robbins said.“This is one of those societal problems where the victims become invisible,” Robbins said. “Nobody wants to talk about it.”Hunt also acknowledged the lack of communication when it comes to domestic abuse and other forms of violence.“Really, we don’t talk about it,” Hunt said. “(A Day On! Not a Day Off) is to get people sort of speaking about it in an empowering way.”Throughout the day, a variety of activities and interactive stations allowed for people to understand that talking about abuse is necessary to prevent it and help survivors.People entered the building, signed in and went to the “No More” station.At the station, they read facts and statistics on domestic violence, sexual abuse and stalking, both nationally and within Monroe County.For example, the Bureau of Justice reported that in 2007, an average of three women per day are killed by a current or former intimate partner nationwide.After reading these facts, visitors were encouraged to write their own “No More” statement to be hung up in the atrium’s gallery.Visitors could hold their statement and take a photograph for the “Monroe County says No More” Facebook page.Next, visitors were directed to a web browsing station where they could view the Monroe County public service announcement created under Hunt’s direction.The video can be accessed on the “Monroe County says No More” YouTube page.In the video, facts similar to those at the first station are displayed as well as messages from local and state politicians and volunteers about why they say “no more” to domestic violence.“No more ‘It’s none of my business,’” Senator Mark Stoops said in the video.Executive director of Middle Way House Toby Strout and Gaal also spoke in the video.At the final station, visitors could decorate bags to be filled with women’s warm winter socks, women’s and children’s winter gloves, hats and scarves to be brought to Middle Way House.Hunt said donations are still welcome and appreciated.The activities are meant to address the topic of domestic violence in an approachable way for all ages, inspiring them to take an active role in helping friends and family members who are suffering, Hunt said.Hunt will talk to children and teens in future projects.“Hopefully, they’ll carry on the conversation when they leave,” Hunt said.Hunt said it felt good to try to do something that would make people feel empowered and move this issue out of the margins.Society has come a long way, but this is not nearly enough, Hunt said.“It’s certainly a very large issue,” Hunt said. “It touches everyone. Violence in our society affects all of us. It isn’t something that just happens to other people.”Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarino.
(01/21/14 3:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Artist Martin Beach’s sculpture, “Grazing Arch,” was made of granite and limestone, some of which he actually found on the side of the road.He said he saw the block of granite and simply picked it up to take with him. 100 hours of work later, his sculpture was complete, and the $1,000 Chapter Career Award was his. “I take these stones ... and infuse life in them,” he said. “I work pretty quickly when I get in the zone.” Beach’s piece was one of 12 that received awards from the National Society of Arts and Letters Visual Arts Competition this weekend.The Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center, where the competition took place at 2 p.m. Saturday, is now home to 25 pieces of art that made it to the final round. Twelve pieces received prizes in the form of NSAL donations and gift cards supplied by Pygmalion’s Art Supplies. IU students and alumni between the ages of 18 and 29 were invited to submit their artwork to the competition.Though most of the contestants are from IU, several come from colleges across the state.The competition has been hosted by the Bloomington chapter of the NSAL since 1966, and event coordinator Catherine Johnson-Roehr said the competition has become increasingly intense. “With each year, we’ve been getting more submissions,” Johnson-Roehr said. “It’s a very mixed media.” Even with the growing number of submissions, it is important for more artists to get involved, she said. This is why they are continually trying to make people aware of the competition through email and word of mouth.Reaching young people still in school is far easier than reaching those that have graduated, judge Robert Kingsley said. Professors often help to spread the word to their students.Kingsley said it is really to the benefit of the young artists to submit their work to this competition because it allows them to showcase their talents to not only a different panel of judges every year, but also to an art-appreciating crowd that could help to advance their careers.Johnson-Roehr said that about 50 applications came in this year, but only 25 entries were selected to proceed to the gallery to be judged. According to Kingsley, this decision was made several months ago. Johnson-Reohr said the compeition is a nice opportunity for NSAL members to get involved and help people.“The idea of the NSAL is to support young artists,” she said.Kingsley agreed, stressing the importance of helping the artists grow and learn how they want to present their work to the public. “It’s a step towards professionalism,” he said.The awards were also meant to support the artist’s development. A total of $5,450 was divided among twelve awards, to help artists purchase art supplies and travel abroad, seeking inspiration. “Artists need support,” judge Dale Enochs said. “This kind of venue allows artists to get their feet wet in a non-threatening environment.” With no entry fee, the competition is accessible to artists of all backgrounds.However, judges agreed that determining the winners was no easy task, but that it was definitely an exciting one. What the judges are looking for is very concrete and easily identifiable, Kingsley said. It’s not one individual item or concept, though.Kingsley said each judge will look for the intention of the artist and then decide how well they felt the artist reached that goal. With three judges working together and comparing their thoughts, Kingsley and Enochs both said they had fun and were able to consider a variety of perspectives because of their varying backgrounds in art. “I was really excited just to be in the show,” alumna Megan Posas, who has a BFA from IU, said.Her two entries, “A Dazzling Manipulation” and “Portrait of a Pin Cushion,” were oil paintings inspired by traditional feminine crafts such as sewing and knitting. Standing next to a painting that took her a month to complete, she said she loves to paint from still life. Posas draws inspiration from these images as well as colors that reflect off each other to create different hues. On April 13 in the Ivy Tech Waldron Auditorium, winners from this competition, as well as from a variety of performance arts, will receive their prize money and once again be able to showcase their artwork.“Having it here at the Waldron is a huge benefit,” Johnson-Roehr said. “It’s really an amazing thing.” Follow reporter Amanda Marino on Twitter @amandanmarin.
(01/17/14 5:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Paddling alone, Bryan Brown admired the breathtaking scene surrounding him on all sides. He dragged his kayak onto the shore and pulled out a small bag filled with ashes.Pinching a small clump between his fingers, he sprinkled the ashes onto the water. They were the ashes of Bruce Brown, his brother.With Bruce’s help, Brown made a pioneer’s dream come true. Four lost toenails, two lost fingernails, a broken rib and severe tendonitis in his left forearm didn’t stop 57-year-old Brown, an IU almnus and Indiana native. He said he would take the trip again, exactly as it was.“The injuries were a pain in the tail, but they never really got me to the point where I would stop,” he said.Brown completed a 2,400 mile journey, traveling from Green River Lakes, Wyo. to the dry wash end of the Colorado River near Yuma, Ariz. and then back up to Moab, Utah. He is the first person ever to complete the journey alone and unsupported.Along the way, Brown took the time to honor his younger brother Bruce, who lost a difficult battle with muscular dystrophy in late 2012, and saw some of the darker side of environmental destruction.He said what he saw disturbed him. The DamageThe first leg of Brown’s journey ended in Yuma, Ariz., where the river dries up. On the Colorado River, the first two dams built in Yuma were equipped for fishing, because there used to be a salmon run in the area, Brown said. Now, the water has dried up, and fish no longer pass through. “We have made an incredibly negative impact on our environment,” Brown said. “There are clear signs that areas that have been abused in the past and are trying to recover.” He found the land between these national parks has suffered the most abuse and received the least attention.Brown said he believes this damage is due in part to the compartmentalization, or stark divisions of the area amongst federal agencies. These divisions were a major hindrance to his trip, he said. “The rules regulating travel in this watershed are not codified,” Brown said.Navigating bureaucracy None of the federal agencies with territory along the Colorado River have the same land protecting regulations. “It is hugely fragmented, and the left hand and the right hand don’t communicate,” Brown said. Brown said there are five big, white water venues in the watershed, and each requires boat and equipment inspections. To further complicate matters, each venue has different rules that must be upheld to pass through the area. For example, even though Brown is a strict “leave-no-trace” traveler, meaning he doesn’t disrupt nature on his journey, he had to carry each required fire pan and an 8-pound welding blanket to place underneath it by law.In order to appease every agency whose jurisdiction he entered, Brown had to purchase all the fire pans, mail them to himself at different stops, and pick up the materials before his kayak was inspected again. Brown also needed two life preservers and two helmets with him at all times, despite the fact that it was a solo journey, because there are no regulations for a solo trip. Brown said because no one else has completed the entire trip alone before, and agencies believe traveling alone is an unnecessary risk, there’s no reason to make specific regulations. “It totally does not make sense,” Brown said. “The policy comes down from the agency and you have to deal with it.” A Clapper Rail and his brother’s tale Brown said he was also able to experience many moments that most people will never encounter firsthand. “I realized what I was doing was, you know, unique,” Brown said. “There were a few moments of sheer epiphany.”When Brown first put his kayak in the water, it was turned around by the current. He saw the land around him and thought that view would be as beautiful as his trip could get.One incredible encounter, he said, was with a Clapper Rail, an endangered bird that most humans have never seen in person. “That one singular moment was worth whatever it took to get there,” he said. It also took a community who rallied around a family in need, he said.The adventure was originally inspired by a book that Brown and his younger brother, Bruce, bought on a childhood trip to New Mexico. The book was written by John Wesley Powell, the first man to record his travels in the Grand Canyon. Standing at Desert View, a site in the Grand Canyon, the brothers decided they would take the same journey. “We said that’s what we’ll do, we’ll retrace John Wesley Powell’s steps,” Brown said.He said they had no idea how to begin, but the idea was planted. The idea stayed dormant for several years, he said, until tragedy shook the Brown family. When Bruce was diagnosed with an adult form of muscular dystrophy, Brown revived the plan. He said he hoped that asking Bruce to develop plans for the journey would keep his mind off the crippling illness.He said though it became obvious his brother could never make the trip, planning it gave Bruce something to live for.Bruce lost his battle with muscular dystrophy in October 2012. That was when the men’s journey became reality.Carrying a small packet of his ashes along the way, Brown brought Bruce to places he was never able to see. He scattered the ashes throughout the journey. “Brother Bruce ultimately got to visit all the places we read about,” Brown said. Along with Bruce’s spirit, Brown said he felt he traveled with his entire family. “Everybody who had seen what he had wrestled with was with me,” he said. “There was a community there with me.”By the end of the journey, Bruce’s ashes had been scattered over 2,400 miles.“Brother Bruce wound up where Brother Bruce needed to be,” Brown said. “Serendipity dropped the Grand Canyon on my lap.”Setting the record Brown is the first person to travel the 2,400 miles of treacherous water by himself in a kayak, and this record might secure a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Guinness rejects about 99 percent of the bids that they received on a daily basis, Brown said. After supplying Guinness with a thorough packet of information detailing his trip, Brown is about three months through what may be up to a six-month wait to see if Guinness will accept his adventure. By the end of the journey, Brown said he felt an extraordinary sense of accomplishment in what he had done. He not only honored his brother, but he discovered places that the government can reform its policies on natural parks and the land near it.“There is an immediacy that has a power that is nearly beyond words,” Brown said about his feelings towards the outdoors and his travels. “If people will just get out and see things as they are,” he said, “They will become more conscious of what is critically important to all of us.”