106 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(01/31/12 5:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As a dual-citizen in the realm of Big Ten loyalties, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, a Republican, has experience reaching across party lines when it comes to his Hoosiers and Boilermakers. He received degrees from both IU and Purdue University — but his diplomatic approach to this college sport rivalry isn’t the only bipartisan movement he preaches. Zoeller spoke at Monday’s IU College Republicans meeting about the pressing need for today’s young people to revamp the political atmosphere. “The sport of politics has changed,” Zoeller said. “The inability of people to work across parties has left legislation, our work and Congress worse off in a lot of places.”Zoeller reached out to the College Republicans in mid-January, hoping to speak to both their organization and the IU College Democrats about his bipartisan message. College Republicans Press Secretary Kristen Cobb said the College Democrats were unable to attend because their weekly meeting was going on at the same time. Zoeller said he was disappointed both groups weren’t able to come together for his visit to IU and focused his talk on the importance of finding a central purpose in politics today. “You all have to do better,” he said. “You all have to reach out and find some common ground ... I think people in my generation have ruined politics. They have so poisoned what used to be a legislative art form.” Zoeller spoke of his political background, explaining the effect of his first job out of law school. He worked with then-freshman Dan Quayle in the Labor and Human Resources Committee to lower unemployment. They collaborated with late Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democrat, to combat unemployment. Zoeller emphasized the bipartisanship they exercised to turn an $11 billion bill into a $3 billion program “instead of just throwing out the whole thing.”Zoeller was raised in a predominantly Democratic family but found he was more comfortable with the ideals of small government that embody the Republican party.When Zoeller mentioned Indiana is among the 26 states suing the federal government about the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, he received a resounding applause from the crowd of about 50 students. He said he doesn’t believe government should just throw money at programs and hope things work out, but he quickly turned the message back to one of compromise, saying “the government has a role, though, and you can’t walk away from the problems.”He spoke of his unique role in politics as attorney general and reminisced about his work with judges of both parties from across the state. “The oath of an attorney is to serve your clients’ interests above your own,” he said. “It’s almost a vocation, not just some occupation.”Zoeller wrapped up by challenging the students to invite the College Democrats to sit down, “not on opposite sides, like Congress,” to talk about the issues civilly.
(01/31/12 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With Super Bowl XLVI less than a week away, Gov. Mitch Daniels sent a message to people traveling to downtown Indianapolis that human trafficking will not be tolerated.On Monday, Gov. Daniels signed Senate Enrolled Act 4, a bill that will make it easier to prosecute and penalize individuals who engage in human trafficking.“The message we send today is ‘don’t try it here.’ Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis is where this practice ends,” Daniels said in a press release.In years past, human trafficking and child prostitution have posed a problem for Super Bowl host cities. Indiana lawmakers approved the bill, which is the first in the 2012 legislative session, in time for the 2012 Super Bowl, which will be held Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.The bill heightens penalties for individuals participating in certain types of human trafficking to a Class A felony, which is punishable by 20 to 50 years, and eliminates loopholes in current legislation that allow some forms of human trafficking to go unprosecuted.Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller was a key proponent of the bill. In summer 2011, Zoeller met with other attorney generals from around the United States in Chicago to talk about the issue of human trafficking and work to elevate and combat the issue in their home states. Zoeller came back to Indiana and reviewed the current human trafficking legislation, which inspired lawmakers to revise the current legislation.“I'm very complimentary of the legislature for resolving their differences over the past few weeks to get this passed before the Super Bowl,” Zoeller said.The new law also makes it a felony to sell or transfer custody of a child under the age of 16 for sexual conduct and grants prosecutors the ability to charge individuals who use force or fraud to promote sexual activity or the participation of children under the age of 16 in sexual activities, regardless of whether force was used or consent was given.“I am grateful to the governor for his steadfast support of this bill,” Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, said in a press release. “It is an important problem this week because of the Super Bowl, but on an ongoing basis because of its extent across the country. Now we have a better tool to fight it because of the hard work of a lot of people, and that is a great thing.”Rep. Greg Steurerwald, R-Danville, was the main sponsor in the House.Zoeller said preparation for the increased threat of human trafficking started far before the legislation was passed. Cab drivers, motel and hotel owners, and restaurant workers in downtown Indianapolis have been trained to be on the lookout for illegal activity.An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 men, women and children are trafficked illegally into the U.S. each year, according to the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking.
(01/31/12 4:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In hopes of increasing the earning capacity for residents of the greater Bloomington area, United Way of Monroe County is offering a Free Community Tax Service (FCTS) for the second consecutive year to those who qualify. “It fits right in with one of our main goals, which is to increase the earning capacity of people in our area,” said United Way Community Engagement Director Jennifer Hottell. The FCTS program, which was originally implemented by the City of Bloomington, provides free tax preparation and electronic filing of federal and Indiana tax returns for low- and moderate-income residents and students.In addition to providing general assistance to residents, all the program volunteers are IRS-trained to assist those who are eligible to receive tax refunds from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). According to the IRS website, the EITC is a refundable federal income tax credit for low- and moderate-income working individuals and families. Congress originally approved the tax credit legislation in 1975 to offset the burden of Social Security taxes and provide a work incentive. Qualifiers must meet a list of requirements and file a tax return even if their earned income does not require them to file a return.“This is not a new program. It’s actually been around since the ’70s,” said United Way Community Initiates Director Ashley Hall. “About 20 percent of people who are eligible don’t take advantage of the credit. All our volunteers are IRS-certified, so you are going to a tax site where you’re really talking to experts.”Last year, 106 people volunteered with the program and helped file more than 950 tax returns free of charge. “People should be getting all the money they are entitled to without the promise of refund anticipation loans,” Hall said. Those involved with implementing the program are volunteers who attend a two-weekend training course in tax law and software, she said. Eight tax assistance program sites are in Monroe and Owen counties for 2012. This year, a mobile site will travel to Broadview Learning Center, Stone Belt, St. Paul Catholic Center and LifeDesigns, Inc. Daniel Huntley, the FCTS site coordinator at the IU Maurer School of Law and a law student in the school, said this will be the third year he has volunteered with the program. He said his knowledge of business law has enabled him to put theory into practice and help the community at the same time. “In class, often, you are taught the theory of how taxes work and the theory of customer service and working with people, but it’s a whole different story when you sit down with Free Community Tax Service clients,” Huntley said. “A lot of these folks need the money they will get back in their tax returns, and it’s a lot of fun to help them out.”Huntley said the sites are prepared to help undergraduate and graduate students who are filing independently for the first time or who have started a family and need guidance. Super Saturday events will be geared specifically toward students from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 3 and 24 at the Kelley School of Business.In addition, services are available in Spanish through El Centro Comunal Latino.“There are a bunch of different sites all over, and a lot of them are run by students here,” Huntley said. “We are always looking for more volunteers.”
(01/30/12 5:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For most people walking around downtown Bloomington at noon Saturday, movement was just a means to keep warm in the brisk January cold — but about 20 locals bearing rainbow flags and a nine-member band marched through town with a more personal purpose. On Jan. 28, members and supporters of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community had their first Bloomington PRIDE Walk in conjunction with the city’s annual PRIDE film festival. Bloomington resident Keith Romaine organized the walk. He serves on the film festival steering committee and said this is something they have been wanting to do for years. Romaine, who has his Ph.D. in African Art and teaches at Ivy Tech Community College and IU-Purdue University Columbus, said his passions for LGBTQ awareness and art motivated his involvement in the PRIDE activities. “I am really committed to creating spaces for people to celebrate,” he said. “It’s in traditional African art where art is a part of the celebration.”The walkers gathered at noon at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, where the march began. One IU student, wearing a FCKH8 zip-up sweatshirt, walked hand-in-hand with his boyfriend, rainbow flags in their opposite hands. “Fuck Hate” (FCKH8 is an organized campaign dedicated to ending gay bashing.The crowd was lead by the Jefferson Street Parade Band, a group of musicians in Bloomington that plays at weddings, concerts and clubs.“We just hope to make a little noise and be seen,” Band Director Ben Fowler said. Their upbeat tunes and high-energy music drew attention of passers-by and inspired some marchers to break out in dance. The marchers walked west on Kirkwood Avenue, weaving through Showers Plaza and ending on the steps of City Hall. Couples danced while others subtly swayed to the music and talked. The group met in the City Hall lobby for coffee before heading into the cold for the trek back to the Buskirk-Chumley. Buskirk-Chumley Director Danielle McClelland said they strive to make their PRIDE activities inclusive to all people, regardless of sexual orientation.This year’s film festival theme was “The Politics of Pride,” so the steering committee thought it was only appropriate to conduct a parade in the traditional sense of a gay rights march. McClelland, who joined in the dancing at City Hall in the Showers Building, said they hoped the parade would bring more visibility for PRIDE into the already gay-friendly community. “On one hand, people may feel in their day-to-day lives that they are accepted by their friends and neighbors,” she said. “Our day-to-day existence here is protected, but that’s only a shadow of what full equal rights in the state and in the nation should be.”McClelland said she and Romaine both hope to make the parade an annual event, although it will largely depend upon weather. Following the walk, participants were invited to attend a matinée showing for the PRIDE film festival. McClelland said the festival draws in about 2,000 people every year from across the nation. This year, the festival ran from Jan. 26-29 and showed 34 films about the politics of pride. The IU GLBT Alumni Association’s Celebration Weekend happens during the film festival, as well, which McClelland said draws people from all over. She said the Bloomington PRIDE film festival even attracts participants from large cities because it is such an intimate, community-oriented weekend. A PRIDE Dance Party at the Buskirk-Chumley wrapped up Saturday’s events, although the festival continued Sunday.Couples spanning many generations took to the stage at the Buskirk-Chumley to dance late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. DJ Action Jackson played pop hits.Robin Tala, a Bloomington native who was back in town from Oakland, Calif., visiting family, marched in the walk Saturday too. He said regardless of how open-minded a community is, there can always be improvement. “I have seen many small groups with beautiful ideas catch steam and grow,” he said. “This is exactly what I love about Bloomington. This is the only place in the Midwest where something like this could happen.”
(01/26/12 5:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With phase one of the repairs and renovations on Wildermuth Intramural Center coming to a close in late February, the building is on track to open this summer. Construction crews have made a number of improvements since the roof fire in late July 2011, which caused severe smoke and water damage to the intramural basketball courts, indoor track, ceiling and interior structure. Jackie Puterbaugh, associate director of Campus Recreational Sports, said she understands the frustration of students and staff who were expecting the project to be completed by now. She said when they were forced to close the facility to repair the fire damage, RecSports and the University seized the opportunity to implement several additional renovations to improve the existing space.“This is probably the only time this is going to be done for years and years and years, so we might as well do it right,” she said. “Everyone really is working so hard to get things done as quickly as possible.”In late July, Mark Land, associate vice president of university communications, told the IDS the repairs would be complete by mid-September 2011. But the extensive water damage to the basketball courts and indoor track are forcing repairs to extend into the summer. Puterbaugh said the first phase of repairs is almost complete. Construction and repair crews have replaced the damaged roof, cleaned and repainted the ceiling and interior beams a crisp white and restored the historical yellow brick walls that frame the almost-85-year-old building. The process of installing new lights is halfway done, and the broken windows on the west wall have been filled in with an insulating foam. “It wasn’t just a simple clean-up,” Puterbaugh said. In addition, RecSports paid to sandblast the staircases leading to the upstairs gym and have begun installing 10-foot-by-20-foot panels along the north and south walls of the lower gym. These panels will feature RecSports programming and intramural advertisements.“We have been looking for a way to promote our programs and add a little color to the space,” Puterbaugh said. Once the crews finish installing the new lights, the next phase of repairs will begin. The University will replace the five southern-most basketball courts and renovate the five north courts. After the courts are finished, the crews will put a new tartan finish on the indoor track and separate the courts and track with a 5-foot clear wall. The clear wall will replace the existing white-and-red barrier, and it “won’t obscure this cool building,” Puterbaugh said.“Everyone has come together to make the best of a bad situation,” she said. “A tremendous amount of work has been done in the last six or seven months, and we have worked very hard to make sure we can still offer great programs.”RecSports has created several new intramural sports, including inner tube water polo, to give students an opportunity to participate in activities while the courts aren’t available.
(01/26/12 3:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A year after its inception, hYPe used its monthly professional development event to get local young professionals excited about non-profit involvement.hYPe, Helping Young Professionals Excel, is an initiative of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce to provide networking and professional development opportunities for people ages 21-40. “We want to help those involved further their own skills and improve their own businesses,” Chamber President and C.E.O. Christy Gillenwater said. The event Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the organization. “Get hYPed and Get Involved” was at KRC Banquets and Catering.Keynote Speaker Cullen McCarty, an IU alumnus, is the executive vice president of Smithville Communications, Inc.McCarty said it is important to get involved in the local community and find a purpose in giving back. “You have to know what your passions are, but you also have to know what your boundaries are,” he said. “You have to decide what it is you want to accomplish, and if you only volunteer for one, it’s not going to hurt you.” Shayna Martin graduated from IU in 2004 and has served on the hYPe steering committee since last January. “We want to become that go-to YP organization in the community,” she said. Wednesday’s event was IU graduate student Chad Carwein’s first experience with hYPe. Through his Service Corps Fellowship program in SPEA, he is required to participate in professional development activities. “I thought it was really well organized, and I would have loved to mingle more,” he said. “At first, to me, it was a surprise in a sense that so many young professionals decided to stay in Bloomington, but now I understand.”
(01/25/12 4:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For more than 20 years, a coalition of local advocates, prosecutors and law enforcement officers has been combating domestic violence in Bloomington. Since 1990, the Monroe County Domestic Violence Task Force has been meeting on a monthly basis. Its focus is more about creating an open forum for discussion than anything else. “Communication is always difficult across sectors,” said Toby Strout, Middle Way House executive director. “Different institutions have different ways of doing things.”Middle Way House, a domestic violence and rape crisis center in Bloomington, is one of the organizations on the task force. Strout said the task force brings the advocacy perspective to the table in meetings and conferences. “When it comes to advocacy organizations, natural tensions between enforcement and advocacy are bound to exist,” she said.But when Middle Way proposed the idea for a task force in 1990, it wasn’t necessarily because of a problem between the two entities. Strout said there was just room for improvement. “We were headed toward a coordinated effort, and a task force seemed just the way to go,” she said. “After 21 years, my evaluation of it is that it’s been good, and if anything else, it’s been keeping us talking to each other. We have a better understanding of each other now.”Beverly Calender-Anderson, director of Bloomington’s Safe and Civil City Program, serves as the administrative liaison with the task force. It meets at noon the third Friday of every month at City Hall, 401 N. Morton St. “The goal is to coordinate information, training and open communication between providers,” she said. “We knew if we all were at the same table, each agency could better explain why they do what they do. With open minds, it just made for better communication and better service to the clients.”Calender-Anderson said the group has evolved since its inception. When it was first conceived, the task force served to bring advocates, enforcers and lawmakers together to promote collaboration and communication. The task force organized annual conferences to promote awareness, working to shed light on each aspect of the problem. Last year, the task force provided lethality training for local law enforcement. “The lethality assessment tool was developed so when an officer walks into a situation, he or she has a checklist to assess the possibility of it becoming lethal, or deadly, or an even more dangerous situation,” she said. Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Brad Swain has been a member of the task force for eight years. He said it has bridged the gap of understanding between advocacy and enforcement.“I think, from my experience, it’s likely they do a good job of raising awareness that domestic violence does exist,” Swain said. “In my 26-year career, law enforcement has evolved to being proactive to prevent these things from happening.” This year, the force’s annual conference will be directed toward the city’s faith-based community because a church or religious home might be the first place domestic violence victims turn to, Calender-Anderson said. Each meeting, a different agency is responsible for creating the agenda, which Calendar-Anderson said brings different perspectives. “There have been tensions time to time over the years, but I think we have to accept tensions as inevitable in this work as long as we respect each other,” Strout said. “We could serve as a model ... our ability to hold it together. It’s easy to say, ‘This is too difficult, this is too uncomfortable.’”But Strout said this has never happened. Everyone keeps coming back. She said the force’s influence can’t be measured in numbers or crime rates because an increase in awareness usually only means an increase in reports, not a decrease in domestic violence. “People are still learning, but eventually we will be able to say, ‘Isn’t it time that we reduce it?’”
(01/19/12 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At 78 years old, John Barbour is a man made for the hills of Hollywood. His golden-brown skin, shiny jewelry and blue-and-brown pinstripe suit allude to his early pursuits in gambling, acting and stand-up comedy. But the passion in his raspy and convincing voice reveals the second half of Barbour’s life, the half consumed by conspiracy theories that have baffled America for almost 50 years.Wednesday, Union Board presented Barbour’s 1992 documentary “The JFK Assassination: The Garrison Tapes,” followed by a question-and-answer session with Barbour. The film features Barbour’s exclusive interviews with late New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who was ridiculed for his investigation into the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The questions surrounding who shot Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, are infinite, and Kennedy-themed literature has lined bookshelves for decades. But Barbour dismissed these accounts; in his opinion, there is no such thing as conspiracy theories, only an abundance of facts. And he said the facts that convinced him came from Garrison’s book: Lee Harvey Oswald was involved with members of the CIA, and the CIA killed Kennedy. In 1970, Gallop polls indicated that more than 80 percent of the public believed Oswald didn’t act alone, if at all. But only 22 percent thought there should be another investigation, Barbour said. “How do you say your mother’s not a virgin? It just sounds ugly,” Barbour said. “How do you say your leaders are murderers? It just sounds ugly. When it’s obvious, it sounds ugly.”Garrison published “Heritage of Stone,” a book that spelled out what he found during his investigation into the CIA. In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that four shots had been fired at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, vindicating the potential for conspiracy theories. In 1980, Barbour invited Garrison to come on his hit NBC show “Real People,” Garrison was on film for three hours, and Barbour said it was “… the most frightening, exhilarating, terrifying three hours I have ever spent in my entire life.”When Barbour tried to make a documentary, critics ran amuck, and he lost “Real People” in the early 1980s.Finally, in 1992, Barbour released the documentary. It won the 1993 San Sebastian Film Festival award the same day Garrison died.Since then, Barbour has traveled the globe, answering questions about the documentary at film screenings. However, his documentary has never aired on public television in the United States.But Barbour said he is less concerned by money and more motivated by educating people about what he thinks truly happened in 1963.Barbour talked about the injustice of the 24-hours news coverage of recent wwmurder cases, involving Casey Anthony, O.J. Simpson, Laci Peterson and Natalee Holloway.“Those murders were tragic,” he said. “But they only affected one person. The murder of John Kennedy changed the economy, changed our foreign policy, changed our political structure. … I guarantee you, if we had cell phones or the Internet on Nov. 22, 1963, there would be at least a dozen prominent Americans hung or shot for the murder of John Kennedy.”
(01/17/12 3:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The diverse crowd that gathered at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington Monday night represented a dream come true for the man who inspired the event. In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the City of Bloomington sponsored “Affirming the Legacy,” a program laced with messages of community service and colored with tones of soulful praise. IU Professor Keith McCutchen accompanied the crowd on piano as they opened with the first and last verses of the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”Lee Hamilton, keynote speaker and director of the Center on Congress at IU, spoke of his personal encounters with King in the early 1960s, recounting his memories of King’s modest appeal and charismatic personality. “Because of him, this country is more free, more fair, more just,” Hamilton said. “He stirred our conscience as very few have ever done. He became the single most auspicious figure of protests and hope this country has ever produced.”Hamilton then challenged the audience of students, community members and political representatives to delve deeper into what King’s legacy truly means. “He was a far more complex person than I have at least understood,” he said. “There is a danger in remembering him that we lose the complexities of the man and his interdictions.”Representing the Monroe County Board of Commissioners, MCBC Vice President Iris Kiesling asked those in attendance what legacies they were leaving and challenged all to start a new service legacy in the name of King. Music was woven throughout the program with performances by A Men, a local all-male a capella group, which sang “Round Midnight” by Thelonious S. Monk and “Blackbird” by the Beatles. Fifteen members of the IU African American Choral Ensemble performed pieces they have been working on in class, including “I’ve Been Buked” by Hall Johnson. “It’s really special because we don’t just have vocal performance majors, but all sorts of majors,” said doctoral student and ensemble member Johanna Moffitt. Although Mayor Mark Kruzan could not attend due to illness, Beverly Calender-Anderson from the City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department presented the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award to Chancellor John Whikehart from Ivy Tech Community College. Whikehart was honored for his efforts in civic engagement at Ivy Tech in Bloomington. “John Whikehart does not only talk the talk, he walks the walk,” Calendar-Anderson said. IU President Michael McRobbie offered remarks about the University’s continuing efforts to promote diversity on campus, but said “we must acknowledge there is still much to be done.”
(01/13/12 2:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Chad Roeder is making recycling even more eco-friendly for downtown Bloomington residents.His 4-year-old business, Bloomington Pedal Power, has partnered with the City of Bloomington and the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District to open the Downtown Recycling Center located at City Hall.Roeder started Pedal Power in 2007 to make recycling easier for downtown businesses because the city does not offer curbside pick-up for buildings with more than four units. He and three part-time employees pedal across town, picking up recyclable goods and delivering them to drop-off stations.Their goal is to facilitate sustainable living through eco-friendly pedaling. In the past three years, Pedal Power has collected over 700 tons of recycling in Bloomington.“If just a few guys riding bikes can make that big of an impact, what could 100 do?” Roeder said. In an attempt to answer his own question, Roeder is now presenting his “experimental approach to recycling” to residents, pedestrians and cyclists of Bloomington through the Downtown Recycling Center. The city provided the space for the business, which occupies part of the west end of the Showers Plaza parking lot, near 10th Street by the B-Line Trail. On the 80-by-35-foot plot is a small office powered by solar panels, a utility shed to hold supplies and four 8-by-22-foot roll-away recycling bins. Many downtown businesses and apartments lack easy access to recycling, which city Sustainability Coordinator Jacqui Bauer said is a drawback of recent downtown improvements.“It really has become more practical to help our downtown residents live more sustainably,” she said. The center is still under construction but has been up and running for about a month. Although Pedal Power has been successful, with an average of 100-150 drop-offs each week, Roeder said the cooperation between agencies is notable. Roeder and his co-workers take metal and aluminum to Bloomington Iron Metal. BIM drives the remaining recyclables to Hoosier Disposal, where the paper is shipped to paper mills and plastics and glass are shipped to Indianapolis. “It’s as if we are inverting the paradigm of recycling hauling,” he said. Roeder said a downtown recycling center has been a goal of Pedal Power since its inception. One group that both the city and Roeder hope to reach is the IU student population living in off-campus housing. Roeder said the student population in downtown Bloomington has increased during the last eight years. Roeder said he believes many students come from communities where recycling is built into the infrastructure and expect the same programs from Bloomington.Sophomore human biology major Jared Opoien said, in his hometown of Fort Wayne, his family recycles regularly. In Bloomington, he lives in the Colonial Crest apartments west of Memorial Stadium. Neither the city nor his landlord provides recycling services.“I am all for recycling. Any chance I get, I do,” he said. “The first step is being informed, and I will totally drive mine downtown now that I know.”
(01/12/12 4:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Lilly Endowment Inc. has presented IU with a $33 million grant to expand the Kelley School of Business and renovate the existing facilities, President Michael McRobbie announced Wednesday. This is the largest grant the Kelley School of Business has received in its 92-year history and one of the largest ever received by IU. The grant from the Lilly Endowment, along with nearly $27 million in private donations from alumni and strategic partners, will allow expansion construction to begin shortly after graduation in May 2012. The building will be named after IU alumnus James Hodge for his $15 million donation to the project. “The project will be paid for without a single dollar from tax dollars or student money,” McRobbie said. The new area of the existing building will feature 20 new classrooms and study areas designed to facilitate technology-based learning and collaboration among students and faculty. These new spaces will contribute 71,000 additional square feet to the pre-existing 140,000-square-feet, 46-year-old structure. The additions will wrap around the current building, jutting out about 40 feet toward 10th Street, with a new entrance area at the corner of 10th Street and Fee Lane. Upon the addition’s completion, classes will move to the new facility, and renovation will begin one floor at a time on the current structure, McRobbie said. Planning for the project began in 2005, and both the expansion and renovation are expected to reach completion within three years. Kelley Dean Dan Smith gave the opening remarks at the press conference to a crowd of students, faculty and the renovation team, commenting about the importance of education and philanthropy. He also spoke about IU’s appreciation for the Lilly Endowment, saying the University cannot find anywhere else where “generosity is more visible than in our partners at the Lilly Endowment.”Sara Cobb, Lilly Endowment vice president for education, also spoke at the conference.“We are pleased that the new facilities funded by this grant will help secure the Kelley School’s standing as one of the nation’s leading schools of business,” Cobb said. Since 2000, the Lilly Endowment has donated $775 million to IU, including gifts to the Maurer School of Law, the Jacobs School of Music and the IU libraries.Gifts have also been donated to many educational areas, including student scholarships, information technology, philanthropy and economic development, McRobbie said.Smith said the expansion and renovation is not about bricks and mortar. The building is an enabler for future student learning and economic development across the state, she said.Smith said the goal is to create a “highly engaged and technology mediated learning environment.But the brick-and-mortar aspect of the project will give Kelley the space to accept 400-500 more students once the renovation and expansion is complete. The 20 additional classrooms will feature collaboration areas in the back of the room for after-hours study and planning time.It will provide state-of-the-art technology for Kelley students, including real-time video chat capabilities with guests from across the state, country and world. In addition to the extra classrooms, the expanded area of the building will feature a room overlooking the Arboretum for teleconferences and rooms designated specifically for out-of-class work time. These collaboration rooms will have 40 high-tech conference tables. The Indiana Business Research Center, which is currently housed above the Chase Bank in the square downtown, will be relocated to the new space as well. “We expect this building to be used and used heavily,” Smith said. “We want to see this building used almost 24/7.” Student representatives from leadership organizations and committees within Kelley were invited to attend the highly anticipated press conference. Sophomore Julia Lamorelle, a direct-admit marketing and international business major at Kelley, attended the conference as a representative from the school’s volunteer organization Civic Leadership Development. Lamorelle said she loves Kelley and already views it like a home where she feels comfortable studying and collaborating with classmates. “I definitely think being able to come here 24/7 will make it a lot easier to collaborate with students internationally. It seems like it will be like a second library,” she said.
(01/10/12 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WFHB-FM Community Radio created the radio show Hola Bloomington, a volunteer-powered program broadcast completely in Spanish, 10 years ago in an effort to tune the city’s Latino population into local happenings. “We wanted to look into developing forums that are under-represented or misrepresented by the mainstream media,” WFHB General Manager Chad Carrothers said. “We wanted to develop what we call diversity-based programming.”Hola Bloomington is a news and public affairs show that features a weekly wrap-up of local news, a guest interview, information about local events and volunteer opportunities and short segments that vary by week. The show broadcasts live from 6 to 7 p.m. every Friday on FM channels 91.3 and 98.1 in Bloomington, 100.7 in Nashville, Ind., and 106.3 in Ellettsville, Ind.Carrothers campaigned for the creation of the show in 2002 as the station’s news director and helped establish the collaboration between the City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department and WFHB Community Radio. Hola Bloomington, like the other shows on WFHB, is volunteer-driven. It’s recorded by a committed rotation of 10 to 15 volunteers, including IU and Ivy Tech Community College students, retirees in the community and working professionals. Melissa Britton, the Latino outreach coordinator in the Community and Family Resources Department, is the show producer who writes and translates the script for each broadcast. Hola Bloomington “serves as a bond of communication and cooperation within the service agencies and Spanish speakers, with the goal to promote participation and integration throughout the Bloomington community,” according to its mission statement. However, Britton said their main goal is to produce an entertaining and informative show that is relevant to their audience. As the producer, Britton said she strives to meet this goal by incorporating the thoughts and suggestions of the volunteer hosts. In July 2011, the group paused the show for a month to revamp its structure, adding additional short segments. “We cater to the short attention span these days,” Britton said with a laugh. The segment topics include Latino pop culture, health, an EcoReport and a sports report called “Luis v. Luis.” The weekly hosts also have a call-in segment in which four attorneys from Indianapolis answer listeners’ legal questions about immigration, power of attorney, family law and visas. In addition, they conduct interviews with special guests during the program. A recent guest was Martha Montoya of Los Kitos Produce, who travels all over the country advocating for a range of people and organizations, from small farmers to large grocery chains such as Wal-Mart Inc. In the future, Britton said she hopes to gain more listeners, call-ins and high-school student contributors, as well as to work with the IU Spanish Department to use Hola Bloomington as part of the cultural learning curriculum. Those who miss the live show can listen at wfhb.org/news/holabloomington. On average, the show gets around 400 podcast downloads, and Britton said she would like to see the show syndicated statewide.“I would love for other Indiana radio stations who don’t have a Spanish speaking show to pick up a half hour of our show,” she said. “It’s really informative, and only a part of it is geared toward our local audience only.”Since she became the show’s producer five years ago, Britton said she has already seen a shift in the way Hola Bloomington caters to the community, a sign she said she thinks is indicative of a new mix of Latinos in Bloomington. “We aren’t telling our listeners where to go to get clothes or food anymore, but what businesses to invest in,” she said. “It’s not just migrant workers anymore, but students and families and working adults. It’s a new mix now.”The most recent census reported that there were 4,000 Latinos living in Bloomington, and there was an 80 percent increase in Latinos living in Monroe County in comparison to the previous census. “We are seeing people of Hispanic heritage are becoming less of a minority and are coming from all different walks of life,” Carrothers said. Britton said the show wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of the volunteers and the support from the City of Bloomington and Mayor Mark Kruzan. “Mayor Kruzan’s administration is really about diversity and inclusion,” she said.
(01/06/12 5:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU and universities across the country have started buying .xxx web addresses associated with their names, logos and mascots. The .xxx domain typically signifies that a site contains pornographic material and was approved in early 2011 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. “The last thing we want is people to go to what they think is an IU site and get an adult site instead,” said Mark Land, associate vice president for IU Communications.The new domain name creates an opportunity for “cyber squatters” to purchase the rights to web addresses containing words such as “Indiana University” or “Hoosiers” for a low fee and then keep them ransom in hopes of extorting the University for more money. During a two-month grace period in fall 2011, the ICM Registry offered trademark holders the first opportunity to purchase websites containing their trademark, charging $200 per address for a one-time blocking fee that prevents individuals in the pornography industry from buying the site to host adult content.Both IU and Purdue took advantage of the opportunity, as did Michigan, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas, as reported by USA Today. Land said IU purchased 11 sites during the grace period, spending a total of $2,200. "It’s a reasonable expense to pay to protect the dignity and value of our trademark and name,” he said. “We obviously aren’t going to use them, but we don’t want anyone else to use them either.”IU bought the rights to the sites for all seven of their campuses, such as iub.xxx and iupui.xxx, as well as hoosiers.xxx, iuhoosiers.xxx, indianahoosiers.xxx and indianauniversity.xxx.Land said this isn’t necessarily a new concept, and IU has an interest in obtaining as many website domains as possible that are associated with its trademark. However, he said purchasing the .xxx domains is even more important because the school doesn’t want the IU brand associated with adult content. “We have been pretty proactive in staying ahead of that,” he said. “The IU name has a lot of value, and we want to protect that name.”
(01/06/12 3:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The City of Bloomington Volunteer Network is accepting nominations through Feb. 1 for its annual Be More Awards.Awarding volunteers has been an integral part of the network since its inception in 1980. The awards grant Bloomington community members and IU students 10 $500 awards in a variety of categories: arts and culture, college student, youth and lifetime of service, plus two awards in the general category.“I encourage residents to nominate their friends, family and colleagues who are engaged in the community,” Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan said in a press release. “They are an integral part of making Bloomington the great place that it is to live, work and play.”The award money comes from the Community Foundation of Monroe County, and the recognitions are cosponsored by the IU Credit Union, United Way of Monroe County and WTIU Public Television. Representatives from these organizations sit on the panel that selects the volunteer award winners. The cash awards do not go to the volunteer recipient, but rather benefit the organization for which they volunteer. “People are shy about receiving the award, but it’s neat to them because they are basically earning a grant for the organizations where they volunteer,” Volunteer Network Director Bet Savich said.Savich said nomination forms are available at the Be More website, bloomington.in.gov/bemore, and she can answer questions at 812-349-3472 or volunteer@bloomington.in.gov.Last year, Pi Kappa Phi won the volunteer award for the college student category for its work with Stone Belt, which assists individuals with disabilities. “Students really carry the ball in the community in terms of contributing their time to local nonprofits, and it’s important for them to be recognized, too,” Savich said. “They put in a lot of time and effort, and we never want to forget how important IU students are to our community.”The Be More Awards ceremony will be from 7 to 8 p.m. April 3 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The event is free and open to the public.
(12/08/11 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A recent study by the Indiana Business Research Center in IU’s Kelley School of Business wielded telling results about the work outcomes for the state of Indiana’s public college graduates. Using data collected from 2000 to 2005, the study, “How Education Pays: The Work Outcomes of Indiana’s Postsecondary Graduates,” found that Indiana’s public colleges produced 220,974 graduates. The majority, 55.3 percent, received bachelor’s degrees. Among those with bachelor’s degrees, 59.1 percent remained in the state for work one year after graduation. Five years post-graduation, 43 percent were still working in Indiana. “Further analysis of remain-rates by degree for the 2000 to 2005 time frame presents a telling pattern,” author Tanya Hall wrote in the report. “Certificate and associate degree recipients are more likely to still be in the Indiana work force one year ... after graduation than any other degree — 81 percent and 81.7 percent, respectively.” Although the results “do not correlate 100 percent with the context of what’s happening in the current economy,” because it has been six years since the second round of data for the study was collected, Hall said her findings “solidified what we had assumed has been occurring.” Hall said this assumption was that students are leaving Indiana for jobs elsewhere, and the study represents the first official data set analyzing graduate retention and work outcomes. The study also found that the manufacturing industry had a dominant presence among the top five industries to award the most jobs to college graduates of all degrees. In addition, the education and health care industries hired the most college graduates during the time period studied. “I think that this is to look at the wages that a person can expect to earn in a particular industry and keep that in perspective to what they want to do,” Hall said. “The study, more than anything, shows where our students are going to.”
(12/08/11 3:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Professor Brad Heim has defined the 1 percent, the target of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread across the United States. Occupy protests by the 99 percent are springing up locally, and the backlash from last week’s sit-in at the Kelley School of Business has inspired even more discussion concerning what the Occupy movement is about. Heim, an economics associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said one talking point should be defining who exactly falls into the 1 percent category. “The top 1 percent is more varied than people might think,” he said. “I think it’s important to realize and understand who is in the top 1 percent and what it takes to make it to the 1 percent.” Heim, with co-authors Adam Cole from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Jon Bakija from Williams College, released a study in November 2010 called “Jobs and Income Growth of Top Earners and the Causes of Changing Income Inequality: Evidence from U.S. Tax Return Data.”Heim formerly worked as a financial economist in the Office of Tax Analysis for the U.S. Department of the Treasury from 2006 to 2010. During his time there he collected data from tax returns to map out what defined these presumed “1 percenters.”By analyzing tax returns from the highest earners in the country, Heim and his co-authors discovered the occupations of the 1 percent based off an occupation check box on the forms. New York Times columnist David Brooks mentioned their work in an article he wrote last week, calling it “the most authoritative research on who these top 1 percenters are.”The study determined that roughly 31 percent started or manage non-financial businesses. Approximately 16 percent are doctors, and 14 percent are in finance. Eight percent are lawyers, 5 percent are engineers and 2 percent are in media, sports or entertainment. Heim said that, judging from the protests, the occupiers are opposed to people who work at investment banks and make a lot of money. But he was quick to point out that only 14 percent of the 1 percent works in finance. The other 86 percent are employed elsewhere. “It really applies to one hundredth of one percent,” he said. “To be in the top one percent you don’t have to be a hedge fund manager.”Heim said that to qualify for the 1 percent, you have to make $300,000-400,000 per tax unit. This means that if each member of a married couple makes $150,000 a year, they would be considered 1 percenters. “That’s still a lot of money, but that could include doctors, lawyers and even professors on this campus,” he said. Heim said there is a growing gap between not just the first percentile and the 99th percentile, but also between the 10th percentile and the 90th percentile. And to go one step further, as Brooks wrote in his Times article, there is also an equality gap within the 99th percentile between those who have a college degree and those who do not. The data that used to define the 1 percent was from 2005, so Heim and his colleagues plan to update the report in January 2012.
(12/06/11 2:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Internships pay off, but college students are discovering that a willingness to pay tuition to work without pay could be necessary to reap the benefits.Sixty percent of college students said their school requires an internship experience to graduate, according to research firm Intern Bridge’s website.That educational currency is represented by space on a resume rather than dollar bills in a bank account.“No one is really debating the merit and value of internships, just the cost of unpaid internships,” said Patrick Donahue, director of the IU Career Development Center and Arts and Sciences Career Services. “It is an absolutely vital thing to get done. This is one of the most pressing topics in career services.”At IU, the chance of securing a paid internship correlates directly with the student’s major or area of interest, Donahue said.Of the 653 students who received internship credit through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 2010, 415 of them, or 64 percent, were unpaid, according to SPEA’s 2010 Undergraduate Internship Report. Business and science students are more likely to land paid internships, Donahue said.David Dyer, associate director of student services at the Kelley School of Business, said on average about 80 percent of their students earn paid internships and 20 percent of students work at unpaid internships.The U.S. Department of Labor has established six criteria that determine whether an internship is considered legal according to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The list states internship experiences must be “for the benefit of the student” and the intern “does not displace regular employees.”Donahue said the Department of Labor’s list has been criticized for being too broad. The National Association of Colleges and Employers has defined an internship as “a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting.”NACE released an additional list of criteria for an experience to be defined as an internship. The list includes routine feedback by a professional supervisor, clearly defined learning objectives and a goal that is not to simply advance the operations of an employer.For-profit companies and organizations that claim they cannot afford to pay interns require students to receive college credit to remain in compliance with labor laws.In response, IU and other higher education institutions have created academic opportunities for students to earn credits that count toward academic degrees. But there is a catch.Students pay tuition fees for their credits — $263.45 per credit hour for Indiana residents and $889.03 per credit hour for out-of-state students — and many departments place a cap on the number of credits that can count toward a degree.Donahue said the new summer 2012 tuition rates were partly in response to the University’s recognition of the problem. In-state students will pay $197.59 per internship credit hour, and out-of-state students will pay $823.17. Essentially, students who work multiple unpaid internships in their college career could pay for credits that cannot count toward their degree.Students have to weigh the benefits of the internship against the sacrifices they have to make to work it, such as not working a paying summer job or trying to intern and work a paid job at the same time.“Students have to consider the benefit and try to make it work by getting more creative with finances,” said Mark Case, director of career services at SPEA. “They are just going to have to find a way to make it work.”Students might try to draw a connection between the struggling economy and scarce opportunities for paid internships, but Donahue said it is unlikely the trend will be reversed any time soon.But he said there are several steps students can take to gain that real-world experience in an affordable manner.Donahue said there is no IU policy he knows of that requires students to receive more than one credit for their internships. Essentially, students could only pay for one credit to avoid breaking the bank.In addition, if a student’s individual major or program does not offer an internship for credit course, students can enroll in Q398 through the Career Development Center.Students can also enroll in W498 or W499 through the Career Development Center. These courses are for zero credit, but reassure employers their interns are students without students having to pay for the credits. But Donahue said internship sites still have the right to deny a student’s request, to avoid the possibility of any legal repercussions.Donahue also wrote a grant for $50,000 that the IU Parents Fund approved last year, allowing him to establish the Parents Fund Internship Housing Grant that provides a $1,500 housing stipend for economically disadvantaged students. Dyer said he has had several students during the past several years explore receiving internship credit through a community college, such as Ivy Tech. Exploring this route, he said, could save students a substantial amount of money. However, he said it required a lot of time and extra work the students found overwhelming. Dyer said students can apply for an abundance of scholarships and grants through the IU Foundation and the Hutton Honors College.“What you’ll find at IU and Kelley is that there are innumerable scholarships. We just don’t do a great job at making that information transparent to students,” Dyer said.All three career advisers agreed the students who have the most success sifting through the complexities of the internship arena are those who work closely with their advisers.“Students that navigate the challenge are the ones who are coming to their career counselors and really have meaningful conversations with them,” Dyer said.
(11/21/11 1:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>More than 60 faculty and students crammed into a small classroom in Ballantine Hall on Friday to hear renowned linguist Lindsay Whaley speak about endangered languages. Whaley, a professor of linguistics and classics at Dartmouth College, presented the lecture, “What We (Still) Don’t Know About Endangered Languages.” He spoke about studies and research that examine the shrinking number of languages used across the globe. He then analyzed several topics he thinks linguists and anthropologists need to address to make the conversation surrounding the topic more effective and accurate. “Right now, we sit at one of the most pronounced demographic shifts in history,” Whaley said. “We’ve really reached a place where we can bring a much greater degree of rigor to the debate.”Whaley addressed three key issues in his lecture. He said predictions about the number of endangered and disappearing languages need to be reevaluated and attributed to a source because numbers commonly are declared without proper attribution. He said many academics and researchers base their work on the findings of linguist Michael Krauss in 1992, but the language demographics have changed since then. “We need to be a little bit more careful about using these statistics if we want to make progress,” Whaley said. “We need more taxonomy (classification) and more fine-tuned studies. Globalization, colonization and industrialization do not have the same impact everywhere.”Krauss’s numbers reveal that 600, or 10 percent, of the world’s languages are safe, and 2,400, or 40 percent, are endangered. But 3,000, or 50 percent, of the world’s languages are moribund, meaning they are no longer being taught to children and therefore will not survive the next generation. Whaley also questioned what actually is lost when a language disappears. He said it isn’t just the language but also a list of cultural and historical aspects tied to the language that can only be communicated through the native tongue. “We are trying to make the case that endangered linguistics is not just a phenomenon, but a bad phenomenon,” he said.The last issue he addressed was whether endangered languages are like endangered species. He said although the analogy gives the general public a way to understand the issue, it really doesn’t accurately portray the problems at hand. The loss of one language does not put others at risk for extinction, and the survival of a language does not depend on its suitability in a particular region. Whaley said bringing change to the field of endangered languages is hard to do from afar.“It is hard to affect change from a distance because these are cultural, social, political and ethnic issues, not just linguistic issues,” he said.Nate Sims, a sophomore linguistics major raised in the Sichuan Province in South China, attended the lecture. He said while growing up, he noticed minority groups in China did not value their languages and pushed their children to learn Mandarin.“The challenge is trying to convince native speakers that language diversity is valuable,” he said.Kevin Rottet, associate professor in the Department of French and Italian and adjunct professor in linguistics, said the purpose of the lecture was to bring together students and scholars who share a passion for the endangered languages but haven’t heard of each other’s work.The lecture was sponsored by West European Studies, the Department of French and Italian, Department of Second Language Studies, Department of Germanic Studies, Department of Linguistics and Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
(11/18/11 3:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 10, IU unveiled the Center for Research in Extreme Scale Technologies, a scientific facility created to address the developing challenges of the supercomputing world. CREST is a unit of IU’s Pervasive Technology Institute established in 2008 through a $15 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. It is affiliated with the School of Informatics and Computing, University Information Technology Services and the Office of the Vice President for Information Technology. Andrew Lumsdaine and Thomas Sterling will serve as director and co-director of the center, respectively. Both are professors in the School of Informatics and Computing.CREST began when Lumsdaine and Sterling presented individual projects at a National Security Agency meeting and realized they were attacking the same set of problems from two different directions. Two and a half years ago, PTI Executive Director Craig Stewart worked to recruit Sterling to come to IU from Louisiana State University. In August 2011, Sterling arrived on campus. “Andrew is one of IU’s leading scientific computing researchers, and Thomas is known the world over,” Stewart said. “I am personally thrilled to have Thomas at IU. It has certainly been a banner year when IU has demonstrated and redoubled its commitment to solving these problems.”Sterling said there is a “critical challenge facing the world of supercomputing,” and CREST will explore possible solutions to the problems. A supercomputer is a computer that processes mass amounts of data for a particular purpose.“CREST represents a very bold initiative into the frontiers of large-scale computing. Dr. Lumsdaine and Dr. Sterling are at the forefront of thinking about what’s possible as science goes into a new scale in terms of the size of data previously unimagined,” said Brad Wheeler, IU vice president for information technology and CIO. “IU is well positioned to lead in this effort, and we are lucky to have the backing of the Lilly Endowment in creating the pervasive technology institute.” Sterling said as technology continued to improve throughout the years, their individual processors were able to keep up, but that is no longer the case. Due to power constraints, technology improves, but the performance of an individual processor does not. He said the only way to fix the shortage is to use more and more processors, which would lead supercomputers to use 1,000 more processors by the end of the decade. The center will also develop a new run-time system to increase energy efficiency for regular technology applications, which currently use 10 percent efficiency. Sterling said the energy cost of the machine would eventually exceed its original cost.“This is not a small research activity,” he said. “This is a challenge at the national and international level that CREST is undertaking.”CREST is housed in the new Cyberinfrastructure Building.“The center is anticipated to exist indefinitely. We are tackling problems that cannot be done today, but we are going to create the means to do it,” Sterling said. “This is revolutionary, and this revolution is going to occur in the next three to seven years. Indiana University is at the forefront, and that is not an exaggeration.”
(11/15/11 3:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy raised concerns about Indiana’s new teacher evaluation policy in its report released last week. The brief, “Revamping the Teacher Evaluation Process,” examines the implications of Senate Enrolled Act 001, or SEA 1, legislation passed by the Indiana General Assembly that requires school corporations to establish a teacher performance evaluation model or adopt one recommended by the state. “What this law hopes to do is make teacher evaluation more rigorous and make it apply to all teachers,” said Rodney Whiteman, a graduate research assistant at CEEP and a Ph.D. student in education policy studies at the IU School of Education. “If it’s implemented as intended, it would be what we call a system-changing policy instrument.”What is SEA 1?The SEA 1 was signed into law April 30 and took effect July 1. It was conceived during the 2011 legislative session as part of a public education overhaul in Indiana. All school corporations, charter schools, schools governed by multiple localities under interlocal agreement, special education cooperatives and joint career and technical education programs are required to establish a more stringent teacher evaluation process beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. They have several choices for adopting an evaluation process. Schools can implement one of several models prescribed by the state or contract with outside vendors or create their own model that meets the law’s following requirements: annual (or more frequent) evaluation for all certificated employees, objective measures of student achievement and growth, rigorous measures of effectiveness, annual designation of each certificated employee in four rating categories (highly effective, effective, improvement necessary and ineffective), explanation of the evaluator’s recommendation for improvement and the time in which improvement is expected or a provision that a teacher who negatively affects student achievement and growth cannot receive a rating of “effective” or “highly effective.”By Jan. 31, 2012, the Indiana State Board of Education must establish: criteria defining each of the teacher ratings (highly effective, effective, improvement needed, ineffective), measures used to determine academic growth, standards defining a teacher’s negative impact on student achievement and a training program for evaluators.What does the report recommend? In the report, Whiteman and his co-authors Dingjing Shi, graduate assistant at CEEP, and Jonathan Plucker, CEEP director, outline a list of concerns they have with the broad and unintended implications of the teacher evaluation policy. “Rethinking teacher evaluations is necessary,” Whiteman said. “The question is how and in what time frame.”Whiteman said he is worried that the stringent requirements and short time frame force teachers and administrators to put together an insufficient plan and sacrifice instruction time in the process. “This represents a checklist of requirements that require teachers to teach specifically to standards, which will change the teaching dynamic, and I think that is problematic,” Whiteman said. “But we do need to figure out ways to revise the system. This law gets that conversation started, but it does so in a very quick and prescriptive way.”As a former teacher, Whiteman said one of his main concerns is that the burden to implement these new policies will fall upon administrators and teachers who already have a full docket. Although schools do have the option of hiring outside help, Whiteman said many don’t have the extra money to do so, and if they decide that is their best option, they will then have to deal with deciding what to cut from their existing budget. “Something will have to give,” he said. “Schools will have to be forced to choose how they allocate their time, and some of it will inevitably be directed away from student instruction and classroom time. I just don’t think personally that schools are going to have enough time to implement this correctly.”CEEP continues to be a source for policy makers and educators across the state, CEEP Associate Director for Education Policy Terry Spradlin said. “We are just one source, but I believe we are an influential voice in public education policy in Indiana,” he said. School of Education Dean Gerardo Gonzalez said there are short-term and long-term consequences for the students pursuing an education degree, as well. During the implementation process, schools have been reluctant to take student teachers while they figure out the implications of the new evaluation process. However, in the long-term, schools have a strong interest in the development of future educators. But he is concerned that an inconsistency in statewide evaluation processes will pose multiple issues. “A policy that mandates implementation of untested evaluation systems for high-stake decisions about teachers and schools can have very serious, unintended consequences,” Gonzalez said. “I would recommend that the policy be amended to provide for an evaluation of the evaluation systems mandated. Teacher performance evaluation is a complex matter and should not be done in the absence of solid research.”