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(01/22/13 4:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Nine-year-old Michael Proffer dug his hands into the fake chimpanzee dung at WonderLab Museum of Health, Science and Technology on Monday. “There’s another one,” he said excitedly as he extracted a seed from the mixture. When it didn’t match the seeds on the identification card, he moved it to the unknown pile. “This is cool,” he said.Proffer and his younger twin brothers came to WonderLab Monday for the Real Life Science: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration. The event consisted of 12 presentations by IU scientists and volunteers, ranging from geology and biology to entomology. Children touched beetles, jumped to make earthquakes, mixed solutions and dug through rocks to find fossils.“It’s great for them to have a place to do hands-on activities,” Alyssa Conner, a Lawrence County resident, said. Her daughter Vanessa, 8, learned about plants while Lili, 4, hoisted herself up using the pulley system. “We’ve had a membership since they were in strollers,” Conner said.The event also showcased the diversity of scientists in terms of gender, race and ethnicity, said Staci Radford-Vincent, WonderLab program and outreach manager.“We have done special programming for MLK day the last few years,“ she said. “As this year came around, we planned a program to interact with scientists and see the diversity of science. It’s the idea that everybody can do science. It’s about being curious and wanting to learn about the world around you.” She said many participants this year were particularly enthusiastic.“I’ve seen lots of kids interacting and becoming excited about the presentations,” she said. “And the presenters are really enjoying interacting with the families, both the parents and the kids.”WonderLab volunteer Fran Weinberg held an Australian bearded dragon to her chest. “He’s called ‘bearded’ because of all those spikes he has,” she said to a group of children. “But they are really very soft. All he can do is scare people and make them run away and not eat him.”Julie Hong, 7, reached out to stroke the lizard’s spiky skin. Hong said she felt, but softer than she expected. Julie’s favorite activity?“Climbing the leaves,” she said, referring to the floor-to ceiling structure.Eight-year-old Andrew Theriault enjoyed the pH station. He helped measure liquid and salt into a test tube.“Give it a really good shake,” said Allison Bryan, a volunteer with the IU presentation.“I want to make it like seawater,” he said as he vigorously shook the tube.Bryan showed him how to check the pH of a substance using the meter. If it’s less than seven, it’s an acid, she said. He then tested a tube of Coke and confirmed its acidic status. “This is a great experience for children to learn about science in a hands-on way,” Bryan said. “Hopefully it will install an interest in future scientists.”She said she liked the pH presentation because it allowed the kids to see the color change as they changed the pH of the substance. “They ask ‘what happened, why did it do that?’”Weinberg said she also enjoyed watching the children’s curiosity as they explored the museum.“Kids and science are really two things that should go together,” she said.
(01/22/13 3:41am)
Nine-year-old Michael Proffer sorts seeds from fake chimpanzee dung at the WonderLab Real Life Science: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Monday. Seymour wants to be a scientist when he grows up.
(01/22/13 1:18am)
Vanessa Conner,8, learns to inject bacteria into plant leaves from an IU Botany volunteer at WonderLab Museum on Monday as part of the Real Life Science: Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.
(01/22/13 1:18am)
Five-year-old Grant Knowles smiles as a volunteer from the IU Etomology presentation places a dung beetle in his hand at Wonderlab Museum on Monday.
(01/22/13 1:17am)
Seven-year-old Julie Hong watches as volunteer Fran Weinberg holds an Australian bearded dragon at Wonderlab's Real Life Science: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration. Hong was able to touch the bearded dragon, which she said felt softer than she expected.
(01/22/13 1:17am)
Nine-year-old Michael Proffer sorts seeds from fake chimpanzee dung at the WonderLab Real Life Science: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Monday. Seymour wants to be a scientist when he grows up.
(01/18/13 4:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Terrible Awful No Good Really Bad Bike Ride might not be as awful as it sounds. Despite the menacing moniker, the seven-mile Bloomington bike ride is for the whole family, said Jacqueline Bauer, sustainability coordinator for the Economic and Sustainable Development Department.“It’s a good way to get everyone out, especially in a season when people aren’t usually biking,” Bauer said.Participants, ”both the fearful and the fearless,” according to bloomington.in.gov, should meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at City Hall. Registration is not required.The second annual ride aims to show participants biking is possible year round.“We really are trying to encourage people to think of biking as a way to get around all the time,” Bauer said. “We are trying to show people how to get out there on their own in what they might not think of as biking weather.” The route will take riders through neighborhoods and public areas, with few street crossings, Bauer said. Though the race is intended to take place in any type of weather, last year’s race fell on a sunny day.“Last year, we did it in February, and we thought by pushing into January, we would get colder weather this year,“ Bauer said.However, with forecasts in the 40s and sunny for Saturday, that might not be the case.“We might just have people out and biking on a really nice day,” Bauer said, laughing.Allen Edwards, an culinary arts instructor at Ivy Tech Community College and an IU student, is participating in the race for the first time. “It sounds like a fun way too promote cycling,” Edwards said.When Edwards worked as an executive chef at Four Winds Resort near Monroe Lake, he biked the 25-mile round trip two to three times a week. Now, he said he cycles to class and on short trips into town.“I think if anyone lives within five miles of their work place, they can make the effort to bike to work, at least a few times a week,” he said. Edwards also emphasized the environmental impact of commuting via bicycle instead of a car.“Anytime we can get cars off the street we are helping the quality off the air,” he said.Vince Castiro, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the Planning Department, said Bloomington has a higher percentage of bicycle commuters than the national average. He said he hopes the ride will encourage more residents to try transportation on two wheels.“One way, is it will reach out to the people who aren’t biking very much, or biking for transportation, and it’s important for them to feel that they are part of a community,” Castiro said. “The second thing is this ride specifically is intended to show that biking is possible even in the winter.”Bauer will be riding Saturday, and said she anticipates a turn out of about 65 people.“Almost all of us can figure out a way to get out on our bikes,” she said. “It’s a really easy thing to do.”
(01/11/13 4:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan met Wednesday at the Monroe County Public Library to discuss Medicaid expansion. The event, in conjunction with the League of Women Voters, was named “Medicaid expansion: It’s good for all of us!”Rob Stone, director of HCHP, spoke to about 75 audience members in the library auditorium. “I’m going to try to explain some things that seem really complicated, but I think they are understandable,” Stone said. “The Affordable Care Act, ACA, or Obamacare, if you prefer, was passed and contained two portions. The mandate and the exchanges have gotten all the headlines. The Medicaid expansion was really a kind of forgotten portion.”Indiana can decide to accept Medicaid expansion or opt out of the program. A decision must be made by the state legislature before it closes April 29.“My goal for 2013 is that Indiana, the legislature and the government, will take the steps necessary to initiate the Medicaid expansion and fund the Medicaid expansion,” Stone said. “It will cover roughly half of the uninsured people in the state, which is huge.”Stone said the opposition to Medicaid expansion is both political and financial. “Unfortunately, a lot of the people on the Republican side ran in one way or another in opposition to the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “That’s what kind of makes it political.”He presented financial data supporting the expansion.He said 60 percent of Medicaid is currently covered by the federal government. With the ACA, though, the federal government will pay 100 percent for the first three years. It will taper down to 90 percent “indefinitely,” he said.A study, commissioned by Gov. Mitch Daniels, determined it would cost the state $150 million to invest in the program, Stone said. He said other estimates are closer to $50 million and could be covered by the cigarette tax funding the Healthy Indiana Plan.According to a letter Gov.-elect Mike Pence wrote to Daniels last year, Pence acknowledged support for HIP but not for Medicaid expansion. While President Barack Obama’s administration granted a one-year extension to HIP, it did not permit it to substitute Medicaid.“The Medicaid program continues to be one of Indiana’s largest budget items,” Pence wrote in a letter to Daniels last year. “Its costs grow every year, and we have struggled to pay for our existing program. The Medicaid expansion would increase dependency by putting one quarter of all Hoosiers on Medicaid and could cost Indiana billions between now and 2020.”Stone said he disagreed with these claims.“For every dollar Indiana puts in, they are going to get back $11, at least, and those are conservative estimates,” Stone said,Rep. Matt Pierce, D-61, spoke at the event as well, encouraging the audience to voice opinions regarding health care.“Legislatures want to hear from their constituents,” he said. “That can really drive them to vote one way or another.”Eighty-eight-year-old Ferne Stout of Bloomington said she came to the event because her grandson, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was denied Medicaid coverage.“He can’t get anything,” Stout said. “He’s 34 years old, and he’s never had a primary care doctor. If he can get into the Medicaid program, the door opens to many things.”Former Bloomington Hospital CEO Rolande Kohr said he was there to support HCHP and Medicaid expansion.“This provides coverage to more people with very little cost to the state,” he said. Though the ACA includes cost cuts for hospitals, he said he would support the initiative if he were still the CEO today.“I’d be concerned about it, but I’d work hard to reduce costs,” he said.In the next few months, conversation will come to a close, and Medicaid expansion will be either a reality or an issue of the past. “A couple of months ago, around election time, I think I would have told you that there’s no way this could happen,” Pierce said. “If I had to make my bets now, that if we do our job, argue for our numbers and show that people want this, we can make something happen.”
(01/11/13 2:21am)
State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, speaks at the Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan on Wednesday night at the Monroe County Public Library.
(01/11/13 2:21am)
State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, speaks at the Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan on Wednesday night at the Monroe County Public Library.
(01/09/13 5:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Century-old City Hall became the first Bloomington government building to become Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified.LEED is an initiative by the U.S. Green Building Council, providing third-party verification of green buildings.“It is probably the best nationally recognized green building certification,” said Jacqueline Bauer, sustainability coordinator for the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development.To earn LEED certification, a building must satisfy all LEED prerequisites and earn a minimum of 40 points on a 110-point scale in the areas of energy and water use, sustainable management practices, site management, air quality and waste reduction. Buildings with 40 to 49 points become certified, while buildings with 50 to 59 points are silver, 60 to 79 points become gold and 80 points and above become platinum.“This is a remarkable achievement for a former factory that is more than 100 years old,” Mayor Mark Kruzan said in a press release. “City Hall is a real asset for downtown Bloomington, and the fact that it’s such a great model of both sustainability and historic preservation just adds to its value.”The process began with an energy audit and cost analysis, followed by renovations.“We upgraded lighting, did upgrades to the motors that run the boilers and installed more water-efficient toilets,” Bauer said. “We also did a waste audit and began a recycling program.”The certification was pursued as part of the Green Building Ordinance. The 2009 ordinance passed by the city council requires exploring LEED certification for 15 target buildings, Bauer said. Buildings on this list include the Utilities Service Center, Bloomington Police Headquarters, Bloomington Animal Shelter and Twin Lakes Recreation Center. The Recreation Center will be assessed in 2013.The Green Building Ordinance mandates that buildings must be brought up to LEED-Silver standards, assuming savings will offset construction costs within 10 years. The GBO also requires that future city construction be built to LEED-Silver standards.Though the original goal was for City Hall to reach the silver level, Bauer said they were not able to hit the threshold necessary for silver, even with the energy improvements.“We have a number of additional improvements scheduled, so we hope to eventually hit that target,” Bauer said in an email. “We’ll need to recertify in five years, so we will shoot for it then.” The City Hall certification was made possible in part by a federal grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.“We were able to bypass a lot of the cost-benefit requirements because of a stimulus grant,” Bauer said.Because City Hall was a renovated furniture factory and then a storage warehouse before becoming City Hall in 1994, Bauer said there was a lot of work to be done to update the old building. “The certification process is quite a bit more complicated for existing buildings than new ones,” she said. “It’s a lot of kind of internal, tedious stuff, where as with new construction it’s really visible and photogenic.”Despite the challenges, the preparation for certification improved the energy efficiency of the building.“It took us about a year and a half total, from the time that we received the grant until we selected the company that would certify us,” said Barry Collins, facilities management coordinator for the Department of Public Works. “We were able to significantly reduce the energy bill here at City Hall.”Since 2006, City Hall has reduced its energy use by 46 percent, Bauer said. She said she believes the LEED changes have contributed to this reduction. “We expect that use will keep going down as we implement more improvements,” she said.
(01/08/13 11:20pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Century-old City Hall became the first Bloomington government building to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified.LEED is an initiative by the U.S. Green Building Council, providing third-party verification of green buildings.“It is probably the best nationally recognized green building certification,” said Jacqueline Bauer, sustainability coordinator for the Department of Economic and Sustainable Development.To earn LEED certification, a building must satisfy all LEED prerequisites and earn a minimum of 40 points on a 110-point scale in the areas of energy and water use, sustainable management practices, site management, air quality and waste reduction. Buildings with 40-49 points become certified, while buildings with 50-59 points are silver, 60–79 points become gold and 80 points and above become platinum.“This is a remarkable achievement for a former factory that is more than 100 years old,” Mayor Mark Kruzan said in a press release. “City Hall is a real asset for downtown Bloomington, and the fact that it’s such a great model of both sustainability and historic preservation just adds to its value.”The process began with an energy audit and cost analysis, followed by renovations.“We upgraded lighting, did upgrades to the motors that run the boilers and installed more water-efficient toilets,” Bauer said. “We also did a waste audit and began a recycling program.”The certification was pursued as part of the Green Building Ordinance. The 2009 ordinance passed by the city council requires exploring LEED certification for 15 target buildings, Bauer said. Buildings on this list include the Utilities Service Center, Bloomington Police Headquarters, Bloomington Animal Shelter and Twin Lakes Recreation Center. The Recreation Center will be assessed in 2013.The Green Building Ordinance mandates that buildings must be brought up to LEED-Silver standards, assuming savings will offset construction costs within 10 years. The GBO also requires that future city construction be built to LEED-Silver standards.Though the original goal was for City Hall to reach the silver level, Bauer said they were not able to hit the threshold necessary for silver, even with the energy improvements.“We have a number of additional improvements scheduled, so we hope to eventually hit that target,” Bauer said in an email. “We’ll need to recertify in five years, so we will shoot for it then.” The City Hall certification was made possible in part by a federal grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.“We were able to bypass a lot of the cost-benefit requirements because of a stimulus grant,” Bauer said.Because City Hall was a renovated furniture factory and then a storage warehouse before becoming City Hall in 1994, Bauer said there was a lot of work to be done to update the old building. “The certification process is quite a bit more complicated for existing buildings than new ones,” she said. “It’s a lot of kind of internal, tedious stuff, where as with new construction it’s really visible and photogenic.”Despite the challenges, the preparation for certification improved the energy efficiency of the building.“It took us about a year and a half total, from the time that we received the grant until we selected the company that would certify us,” said Barry Collins, facilities management coordinator for the Department of Public Works. “We were able to significantly reduce the energy bill here at City Hall.”Since 2006, City Hall has reduced its energy use by 46 percent, Bauer said. She said she believes the LEED changes have contributed to this reduction. “We expect that use will keep going down as we implement more improvements,” she said.
(01/08/13 5:25am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ben Ayers is no stranger to snow.For 15 years, Ayers has operated a snowplow for the Monroe County Highway Maintenance Department. This winter, he has a 30-mile route in the Stanford, Ind., area, roughly seven miles outside Bloomington.“It can be stressful,” Ayers said. “You are going down the road covered with snow, and once it piles up, you can’t even find the edge of the road. It makes it challenging.”A snowy winter can also be demanding for the county budget.“Our budget comes from the state gasoline tax,” said John Chambers, superintendent of the Monroe County Highway Maintenance Department. “It fluctuates year to year, but it’s right around $4 million.”The yearly budget covers street resurfacing, snow removal, fleet maintenance of all county-owned vehicles, street sweeping, dust and vegetation control, chip and sealing, grading gravel roads and sign maintenance.However, Chambers said he is not worried about lack of money for snow removal, because the department can distribute money as needed based on its budget.“We probably would never run out, due to the fact that we don’t have a snow-and-ice budget per se,” he said. Chambers said the county has stockpiles of salt and sand mixtures to spread on county roadways. “When we have big snows like we had a couple of weeks ago, with the 12 inches, what we do is plow,” Chambers said. “The plows leave salt or a salt solution in their wake.”He said the major problem with the recent snowstorms has been piling the snow that was plowed off the streets.“There’s simply nowhere to put the snow when it gets that deep,” he said.Clearing ice is even more difficult and expensive, he said.“Ice is a totally different ball game. We basically have to back through the whole area so we have traction,” Ayers said.He said he remembers the snowy winter more than a decade ago when repeated snowfall depleted their resources.“About 13 years ago, it just kept coming and coming,” he said. “We ran out of material, and we couldn’t get any in. We had to get chicken grit and put that down until we got more material.”Susie Johnson, director of the Bloomington Public Works Department, has worked to ensure Bloomington won’t have to use any chicken grit this winter. “That would be poor planning,” she said. “My goal is that that won’t ever happen.” Public Works dictates the budget for the Street Department, which maintains the city streets by paving, patching, performing sidewalk repairs and street tree maintenance and snow plowing. In 2011, the street department was allotted a $3.8 million budget, according to city controller office records. Johnson estimated $4.5 million was used by the Street Department — the extra money came from additional Public Works funds. In 2012, Public Works requested $1.2 million for asphalt and de-icing materials. The 2012 budget has not yet closed.Each year, the city government starts from scratch in determining the budget. Money is allotted based on the planned capital projects and the priority of each department and division, she said.Like Chambers, Johnson also said she does not believe a heavy winter will deplete the budget enough to prohibit the ability to afford snow plowing, though she said it could affect other projects.“The way we budget the Street Department is that snow removal, concrete and asphalt are all out of the same category,” Johnson said.“If we have an extraordinarily snowy winter, we will cut back on projects on the roads in the summer.”She said one of her first initiatives when first elected was to add a second pile of salt for snow removal. If these resources run low, she said the salt would be diluted. “If we got down to a really low stockpile, we would begin to mix that with sand,” she said. However, sand is expensive to clean up, as it would entail running street sweepers in the spring, she added. Though she said she predicts this winter will be snowier than last year’s, Bloomington is in good shape.“Some years, the snow is with you. Some years, it’s against you,” she said.
(01/04/13 3:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Metaugus recently expanded to Bloomington with the formation of the Natural Product Research Institute.The new Bloomington research institute will act as the principal research front for Metaugus. The company is a Food and Drug Administration-registered custom product development and contract manufacturing company.The Georgia-based parent company produces products for “chemical, nutritional, flavor and fragrance industries,” such as capsules, tablets, liquids and lotions, according to its website. “Metaugus is a manufacturer, meaning that they will make any sort of chemical nutritional product, like a vitamin, and they do that on a contract basis,” Nathan Gould, director of NPRI, said.Its products are found in “anything you could find in a GNC,” Gould said. Such products include Satisfactrim, an appetite suppressant, and Extenergen, an energy stimulant.NPRI will focus on “the dynamic and rapidly changing field of nutritional chemistry,” according to a press release.Bloomington was chosen as the location primarily because of IU, Gould said. “The proximity to IU gives us access to well-trained employees,” he said. “Also, we are able to use some of their facilities.”Gould said he hoped the company would connect with the University through internship opportunities that will also be available to students. Jay Connaughton, owner and CEO of Metaugus, is an IU alumnus. “The NPRI will allow us to bring a strong scientific arsenal to bear on the field of nutritional chemistry. We look forward to fostering a rich relationship with Bloomington, Indiana University and the local business community,” Connaughton said in a press release.NPRI is housed in an abandoned powder-coating facility at 2116 W. Industrial Park Dr.“It was basically large and empty, so it served as a blank slate,” Gould said.Gould also said he hopes the new institute will grow and hire locally.“Over the next year or two we hope to expand as the space allows,” he said. The Bloomington Economic Development Corporation classifies Metaugus NPRI as a life sciences employer. According to the BEDC website, Bloomington’s concentration of employment in the life sciences is six times greater than the national average.“On a basic level, Metaugus NPRI has renovated a vacant building,” Ron Walker, president of the BEDC, said in an email. “They have also hired approximately five employees, most of which are highly educated and highly skilled. The company will bring new business to this community, which will support the employees at the site as well as indirectly support work at other employers.” Walker, who is also the president of the Bloomington Life Sciences Partnership, presented NPRI at the December BEDC meeting. This was primarily an opportunity to introduce NPRI to the Board and give BEDC members a chance to meet NPRI staff, he said. “Dr. Gould gave a brief presentation that described the company’s work and what they propose to do in Bloomington. They were thrilled with the information and other biotech leaders in the room chose to meet with Dr. Gould after the meeting,” he said.Walker also said the wages paid at NPRI will upwardly influence the local area’s median wage and further strengthen the life sciences industry.“NPRI will not be a large employer, but they are a specialized employer that provides high-level research and development services (in Bloomington),” he said. “This type of work can attract additional investment and create new opportunities with existing life sciences employers.”
(12/10/12 3:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A lone ebony piano gleamed under blue lights Dec. 7 at the IU Auditorium.The audience erupted in applause as rhythm and blues singer John Legend strode onto the stage and immediately began to play.The acoustic show put on by the nine-time Grammy winner felt more like an intimate conversation than a concert.“I love you, John Legend,” someone in the audience yelled.“I love you, too,” he replied, smiling into the microphone. Legend began with the song “Prelude.”“There’s something new for you to see,” he sang. “Come on and go with me.”Freshman Brenda Amwayi knew the words to every song. “It’s a John Legend concert, so it’s calm, but it’s also a sing-along type of atmosphere,” she said. The performance was presented by the Union Board. Though the auditorium was not full, Union Board public relations director Brad Domash said the goal was to focus on quality of the show rather than quantity of attendees. “If we had more time, I think word would have spread a little more,” Domash said. “But everyone was very happy about the show.”Legend took the audience back a couple of decades as he began to play Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.”“You guys are pretty young, so I should tell you that’s a Bruce Springsteen song,” he said to the audience, who laughed in reply. “I first played this song with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots.” He said he didn’t hear for months if Springsteen liked his R&B rendition. Legend said he recently received an email asking him to play the song at a concert honoring Springsteen.“After months of insecurity, I know now Bruce approves of what I did with his song,” he said.The smooth atmosphere continued as he played “Save Room” and “Again.” For his next piece, he called on the audience to help. “I’m up here all alone, no background singers, no band, no auto-tune,” he said. “I need this auditorium to be my background singers, is that OK?”The crowd responded by singing the chorus as he played his very first single, “Used to Love U.” A glowing orange background accompanied his rendition of “Here Comes the Sun.” “That was the Beatles,” he said to the crowd.The mood turned seductive as he performed “Good Morning,” a song from his third album, “Evolver.”Lance Howard drove from Indianapolis with his mother to see the show, his second John Legend concert. “It was one of the best shows I’ve been to in ages,” he said. “‘Good Morning’ was about to make panties drop in there.”Legend continued with “PDA,” something Legend said is “so obnoxious when other people are doing it, but when you’re doing it, it’s awesome,” and Kanye West’s “Blame Game.” He displayed his range of talent as he played the hit “Tonight” and “All of Me,” his favorite song from his upcoming album “Love in the Future.” The stage background turned green as the beginning notes of “Green Light” floated from the piano. Legend recruited the audience to sing backup for this song and for his hit “Ordinary People.”“It’s good to be in the Hoosier state,” Legend said. “I grew up next door in Ohio. I hear you guys have a pretty good basketball team this year. I wish you well, except against Ohio State. I still love you, though.” Legend bowed and left the auditorium to a standing ovation – then reemerged to thunderous applause to play one more song.He played “So High,” singing “Let’s go to the moon, baby.”The audience was ready to follow him. “To the moon!” someone in the crowd shouted.Sophomore Kelsey Carlisle won the Union Board video contest to score free VIP tickets to the show, including a meet and greet with Legend. “He was just smiling the whole time at everyone,” Carlisle said. “He was really polite. You kind of see on stage, he’s also really goofy.”She said she could see his face from her seat in the second row.“It seemed like he always tried to make eye contact with the audience, which isn’t that easy to do when you’re playing the piano,” she said.The atmosphere was one of sophomore Gabriel McHaffie’s favorite parts of the concert.“I thought it was like he was playing in my living room,” McHaffie said. “Very intimate and personal.”
(12/06/12 4:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Senior Brett Markowitz likes Bruce Springsteen. Sophomore Elise Ruff wants to see John Mayer.The Union Board concerts committee has the task of catering to both their interests and those of their tens of thousands of peers on campus. “Students don’t really understand the process,” Union Board President AJ O’Reilly said. “It’s tough, but I think the board does a really good job.”The first step in concert selection is polling the opinions of students, Union Board Concerts Director Sam Shechtman said. He places surveys at events such as the Student Involvement Fair.At Shechtman’s weekly meetings he discusses the results of the surveys and what genres students want. The meetings are 7 p.m. every Tuesday in the Indiana Memorial Union Board office and are open to all students.“Hip-hop, rock and country are the top three,” he said.From there, he makes a big list of popular artists from these top genres. He looks at feedback for their past performances and ticket prices, then starts contacting agents. Planning concerts is all about the availability of the artists, he said.“We have these strict time lines,” he said. “If you don’t plan a show ahead of time, you don’t get the artists you want.”Little 500 requires advanced planning since it falls around the last week of April each year.Concert planning continues while the 2013 Union Board replaces the 2012 Board. “It’s kind of a gray area,” O’Reilly said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to line up a Little 500 concert before this term ends. If we don’t get anything done, we’re not going to push it just to push it.”Shechtman is optimistic. “We are working on the Little 5 concert as we speak,” Shechtman said.Bringing Lil’ Wayne to campus for “the greatest college weekend” at IU in 2011 was one of the high points of the board, O’Reilly said.“What happened with Lil’ Wayne was like a miracle for us,” he said. “It was like catching lightening in a bottle.” For Markowitz, it was the only Union Board concert he paid attention to.“I know Lil’ Wayne came here, but I don’t know much else about their concerts,” Markowitz said.Last year, Union Board brought Sublime with Rome for Little 500.Shechtman said that, because past Little 500 concerts had been hip-hop and pop shows, the board felt it was important to bring in diverse artists and appeal to the entire student population.The student reaction was admittedly different than the announcement for Weezy.“It wasn’t negative,” Shechtman said. “It just wasn’t as exciting as Lil’ Wayne. That’s tough to beat.”Ruff believes Union Board accomplishes its objective of bringing in different artists.“Overall, they’re pretty good,” Ruff said. “They bring a wide variety.”Friday, Union Board will present rhythm and blues singer John Legend at the IU Auditorium. Tickets are still available for purchase.O’Reilly encourages students to voice their suggestions or opinions to Shechtman or the 2013 concerts director, who will be decided on in January.“We love suggestions,” said Shechtman, “We are here for the students.”
(11/29/12 4:42am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the year draws to a close and students prepare for finals and winter break, the IU Auditorium keeps things rolling with three final performances. Aside from this weekend’s musical, “Rock of Ages,” and the annual “Chimes of Christmas” performance, rhythm-and-blues artist John Legend will make his way to Bloomington for a Dec. 7 performance.Legend spoke with reporters from the Indiana Daily Student, Indianapolis Star and Bloomington Herald-Times about his upcoming performance.“I’m absolutely excited to go and be at IU, especially for someone who grew up watching sports,” Legend said. “It’s such a famed and fabled place.”Legend’s performance will preview his upcoming album “Love in the Future,” set to release in early 2013.“The inspiration for making it is telling stories about life and love, things that are personal to me, things that people can relate to,” he said. “The things that will be meaningful and connect with people’s lives.”Legend said he will perform his new favorite song, “All of Me,” from the upcoming album. The Bloomington audience will be the third to hear this song.The show will be an acoustic performance, which Legend explained will allow the audience to feel each note he hits. “There’s no cluster and clutter around it,” he said. “Musically, it’s very pure. It’s really me as a songwriter communicating the song as it’s written.” Legend hopes to convey his passion to the students attending his performance. “I feel like I have advice for people who want to do what I’m doing as well, as any career in general,” he said. “Part of being successful is learning through experience. Everybody starts out by trying to be great at what they’re doing.”“When I get the opportunity to try to inspire young people to do great things in life it’s always a good thing for me,” he said.Legend’s influence was one of the reasons Brad Domash, Union Board public relations director, said the board asked him to perform at IU. “He has a great message in his songs,” Domash said. “He is a nine-time Grammy-winning superstar.”Domash hopes the concert will be a fun atmosphere for students to take a break from studying. PhD student Nalette Brodnax is worried about attending the concert right before finals but said she is still considering buying tickets for her first John Legend concert.“I have all his albums,” Brodnax said. “I really want to go.” Students can purchase tickets at IUauditorium.com, the IU Auditorium Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations.
(11/28/12 3:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Briscoe and Third and Union Apartment residents need no longer wait for their whites and colors to finish washing.The latest addition to the IU Mobile application titled ”Laundry Availability” allows students to track the cycle time and availability of washers and dryers at these locations. David West, a residence assistant in Briscoe, heard about the application from University Information Technology Services. “It would be cool to have just so you don’t have to walk to the laundry room,” West said. He also believes it will help prevent people from throwing others’ laundry out of the machine when it’s finished.“Our hope is that if everything goes OK this year, we will implement the app in other centers next summer,” said Ranji Abraham, director of Auxiliary Information Technology, the organization that created the laundry application. AIT develops new technologies for departments across the Bloomington campus. The idea for the laundry app came from a consultation between Residential Programs and Services and graduate students at the Kelley School of Business a few years ago, Abraham explained.“We took that request to try to develop an app to show students the status of machines,” he said.The laundry application was released Sept. 28, but RPS did not announce the app to residents until Monday through their “In Touch” e-newsletter. “We just put it out there, and there it was on the home screen for the Bloomington campus,” said Nate Johnson, manager for the Enterprise Services Presentation and Delivery team that created the IU Mobile application.He estimated that IU Mobile, which includes information such as bus routes, dining schedules and sports updates, has been downloaded to more than 50,000 iPhones. The laundry app is just the latest addition to a growing list of resources. “We add lots of features to IU Mobile all the time,” Johnson said.Implementing the laundry application meant installing “laundry alert wiring” to the machines, allowing a transfer of information to the app. The information updates about every 20 seconds, Abraham said. AIT has had to collaborate with the third-party vender who runs the laundry machines.Lexi Newton, a sophomore living in the Third and Union Apartments, tried using the application before doing her laundry but wasn’t impressed. “The timing is not quite right,” she said. “Usually, I just set an alarm.” Johnson said IU Mobile strives to fix this kind of issue, and he suggested students give feedback through the icon on the IU Mobile home page.Both he and Abraham mentioned several in-progress additions to IU Mobile. Johnson suggested improving the bus route application to make it more user friendly. Abraham said AITS is working on a package-tracking application for next year.“We always have lots of ideas,” he said. “It’s just a question of resources.”
(11/16/12 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When the results of the Union Board election were announced Nov. 14, it was revealed the 2013 board will include six new directors and two returning faces.Erin Brown, current director of design, and Eric Farr, current director of debates and issues, were re-elected as directors.Kellie Boberek, Kelsey Padgham, Alexis Parrill, Marco Pineda, Asher Wittenberg and Paul Zuradzki were also elected to the 104th Union Board.In addition to the eight directors elected by the student body vote, student leaders from several campus organizations will select another eight through interviews on Dec. 1, creating a total of 16 board members.Hearing the news she was elected surprised and excited Boberek, a freshman.The voting ended at 8 p.m. Nov. 13, and Boberek learned the results from a phone call only a half-hour later.“I was in the middle of class and I had a minor freakout,” Boberek said. “I went into a little bit of shock. I was very, very surprised. As a freshman, I didn’t think I had any chance of being elected.”After all 16 members of the board have been chosen, they will embark on a retreat and undergo an initiation process. At this point, executive and committee positions will be selected.Committee titles can change from year to year, though core committees, such as the concerts committee, have stayed in place for years.“The reason we do that is because our mission as the board is to represent the student body,” Brown said. “Since their needs are constantly changing and evolving, we adjust to represent them.” The training period will allow the board members to become comfortable in their new roles.“Right now, I have to figure out the ins and outs of being a director,” Wittenberg said.The board will make the official switch Jan. 19.Zurazdki explained the main goals for the new board.“I think in general, across the board, we want to try to engage more students,” he said.He suggested one way to do this is through providing more interaction during events.“The tradition of bringing in well-known and thought-provoking speakers will continue,” Zurazdki said. “But I think we can try to make it less one-sided and let the students discuss with them.”Wittenberg also stressed the importance of student involvement with the new board.“Union Board doesn’t serve much of a function unless students are actively involved,” he said. “The more people have a say, the more we can cater events to their interests.”Brown also said she looks forward to spreading student awareness about the existence of the board. She said she knows what it is like to come into the board as a new director with this goal in mind, having been in that situation a year ago.Now, she said looks forward to working with the new board.“They have pretty big shoes to fill,” she said.
(11/14/12 4:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Union Board elections for directorship positions ended at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Of the 21 candidates who ran for the positions, eight were chosen by the student vote.Students chosen:Kellie Boberek Erin Brown Eric Farr Kelsey Padgham Alexis Parrill Marco Pineda Asher Wittenberg Paul Zuradzki “I just wanted to say that we were very impressed with all of our candidates,” Riley Voss, Union Board vice president of programming, said in an email. “We saw a great deal of creativity and believe that this first eight is reflective of the student body and their wishes for the future of Union Board.” An additional eight directors will be selected by student leaders form across campus. All candidates that did not finish in the top eight of the election along with students who only desire to partake in the selection process will gather Dec. 1 for one-on-one interviews with the selection board.“On behalf of the 103rd Indiana Memorial Union Board, we want to welcome and congratulate the eight director-elects and wish the selection candidates the best of luck on Dec. 1,” Voss said.