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(03/08/05 5:00am)
At his Jan. 15 State of the State address, Gov. Mitch Daniels described Indiana's economy as being in dire straits. \n"Let me sum things up: Our state's economy is too weak, too narrowly based and too often impeded by the very state government that should be its chief advocate and promoter," he said. \nTo improve the base and size of the economy and job market, decision makers across the state are pursuing the life sciences as one of the principle paths for improving the state economy and creating jobs. To this end, IU administrators are doing what they can to "sell" IU's image as a life science power to procure more state funding. \nIU President Adam Herbert has been vocal in recent months about the importance of life sciences research at the University.\n"Gov. Daniels and the legislature are facing many difficult decisions as they craft a new state budget," he wrote in a statement on the IU media relations Web site. "Maintaining Indiana's progress as a life sciences center of excellence should be one of the easier choices they will have to make."\nThe Herald-Times also published an editorial by Herbert Jan. 30 in which he extolled the ways the state and community benefit from life sciences research at IU.\nAdministrators also seek to remind the state of the economic benefits of continuing to fund IU -- that money spent on IU will help generate economic growth statewide.\n"So part of this is to energize the economic development aspect, tell the world that interesting things are going on in the state of Indiana," said Kumble Subbaswamy, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "And also, quite frankly to make the legislature ... understand the importance of supporting higher education as part of the economic development imperative the state faces."\nThis is especially important this year because the Indiana General Assembly is voting on the two-year state appropriations for the University. State funding for IU in 2004 totaled nearly $555 million for all eight campuses -- one in four dollars of its operating budget. \nIn January, IU introduced a Web site -- www.lifesciences.iu.edu -- in conjunction with "IU Life Sciences Week," both of which sought to promote life sciences programs across the University. \nBio Crossroads, which was created in 2002 by a partnership between the mayor of Indianapolis, IU, Purdue, the president and CEO of Eli Lilly and others, seeks to stimulate economic growth and job creation in the life sciences.\n"There was a study done in 2000-2001 by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership that identified the life sciences as areas that Indiana really has a critical mass," said Bio Crossroads Spokeswoman Jenny Siminski. "We have so many assets here like Indiana University, Purdue, Dow AgroSciences and Eli Lilly."\nThe pattern of research funding also points to economic development hope for the life sciences. The Lilly Foundation, based in Indianapolis, has given two of the largest grants in IU's history for the development of the life sciences. In 2000, the foundation gave $105 million for the Indiana Genomics Initiative and on Dec. 16, it gave a $53 million grant to the Bloomington campus for the Metabolomics and Cytomics Initiative.\nThe endowment views the life sciences as one of the best ways to expand and improve jobs and education in Indiana, said Gretchen Wolfram of the Lilly Foundation's media relations.\n"I just think that the really encouraging factor in all this discussion and all these developments is that the awareness factor has been raised in the past few years," she said, "and that's half the battle." \n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(03/07/05 6:05am)
SOUTH BEND -- President Bush pitched his plan to privatize portions of Social Security Friday in Joyce Hall on the University of Notre Dame campus, where he emphasized that allowing workers to set aside portions of their Social Security tax will benefit young Americans.\nAbout 6,000 people attended the president's speech by invitation in South Bend. Among the thousands were 10 members of the IU College Republicans.\nThe South Bend stop was part of Bush's "60 Stops in 60 Days" tour to promote his Social Security plan. This comes as only 35 percent of Americans support his handling of the federal program, according to a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.\nBush painted a dreary picture of the state of Social Security in the coming years. \n"More people are living longer, getting greater benefits, with fewer people paying into the system," he said. \nIn the 1950s, 16 workers paid for every Social Security recipient, Bush said. Now about 3.3 workers pay for every recipient.\nSocial Security is a "pay as you go" system, where the money that workers pay into Social Security pays current retirees' checks. With less money coming in and more money going out, "at some point, the system starts to go into the red," he said.\nBush said the system will be in serious trouble within the next 50 years.\n"In 2027, the government will need to raise $200 billion more than the payroll taxes just to make good on the promises," he said.\nBush said Social Security will be "flat broke" by 2042. \n"It's a problem I think needs addressed," he said. "The longer you wait, the harder it is to find a solution."\nTo solve these problems, Bush proposes allowing workers to invest part of their money into "a conservative mix of stocks and bonds," getting that portion of their payroll taxes out of the "pay as you go" system.\n"I believe that as part of a Social Security reform package, younger workers ought to be able to take some of their own money," he said, "and set them aside in a personal savings account."\nBush outlined two major advantages of this system. First, recipients' money will grow faster than it does in the current Social Security system, which will help make up for cuts in Social Security pay out. In this regard, his plan will primarily benefit younger workers who invest at the beginning of their working careers and are able to let their accounts grow over time.\nBush said another advantage of partial privatization of Social Security is the promotion of an "ownership society."\nBush also quelled any doubt seniors had that his plan will affect their Social Security checks.\n"If you're relying on Social Security today, nothing will change," he said. \nAccompanying Bush on stage at the town hall-style gathering were six selected citizens who all spoke in favor of his privatization plan.\nAmong them was Jeffery Brown, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.\n"I've been studying it for about a decade now, and the good news is, it doesn't really require a Ph.D. to understand that the program is in trouble," he said.\nIU College Republicans Chairman Andrew Lauck, who attended the speech, said he agreed with Bush's plans for Social Security.\n"The details are complicated, but the problem is simple," he said. "The system is flawed."\nBut IU finance professor Charles Trzcinka, who read the transcript of Bush's remarks, said he found a number of large holes in the plan to privative parts of Social Security.\n"Privatization does not solve the problem that the charts show," he said. \nTrzcinka said he supports partial privatization of Social Security -- a plan originally introduced by President Bill Clinton -- but that there are more pressing issues in the economy. \n"The Medicare and Medicaid systems are huge holes in the federal deficits," he said. "Health care is an expense that is bankrupting the states."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(03/03/05 5:51am)
The Indiana Senate unanimously passed a bill banning human cloning Monday -- amended with input from IU researchers. The measure, proposed by Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, declares cloning human embryos to be against public policy.\nBut the proposal won't be a barrier to research at IU.\n"I'm for research," Miller, also a registered nurse, said. "I'm just not for the wanton creation and destruction of life."\nThe bill, designated Senate Bill No. 268, defines human cloning as "the use of asexual reproduction to create or grow a human embryo from a single cell or cells of a genetically identical human." The bill would prohibit any entity associated with the state of Indiana, including "state educational institutions," from participating in "human cloning activities." \nBecause IU receives state money, it would have to abide by the restrictions. Violation of the bill carries a class D felony charge -- a six-month to three-year prison sentence and up to a $10,000 fine -- and mandates that the medical license board revoke the license of any hospital or doctor found to have knowingly participated. \nMiller cited the February recommendation of a United Nations committee to ban human cloning.\n"I think people across the country and across the world oppose the cloning of human beings," she said. \nMiller said she began working on legislation to ban human cloning since Dolly the sheep made headlines in 1996. \nIU administrators are happy with the bill that passed the Senate, but were not so optimistic about the proposal in its original form.\n"It would have created a great deal of confusion about what research could be done in Indiana," said J.T. Forbes, IU's executive director of state relations.\nThe text of the original bill did not include sections defining stem cells nor did it make allowances for embryonic stem cell research already legal under federal regulations. \nBut with input from IU Bioethics Center Director Eric Meslin and associate university counsel, Miller amended the bill to include such clarifications.\n"Whenever I have a bill that has a lot of interest groups, I always try to bring them all in for drafting amendments," Miller said.\nWorking on the amendment to the bill was a delicate task, Meslin said in an e-mail.\n"Given that the bill includes a provision to put researchers in jail if they conduct prohibited research, it was important to be absolutely clear about what the bill was trying to permit and what it was trying to prohibit," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael \nZennier at mzennie@indiana.edu.\nForbes said IU supports a ban on human cloning and that the bill, if passed into law, would affect none of IU's current research efforts.\n"The bill still allows us to do stem cell research in accordance with applicable federal law," he said.\nMeslin, Forbes and Miller all agreed that the bill will help life sciences research in Indiana, rather than hinder it.\nThough the senate passed SB 268 by a 48 to 0 vote, it still has a long way to go before it becomes law. It must next go to the Indiana House and be subjected to three readings and a final vote. If the House passes the bill with no amendments, it then moves on to Gov. Mitch Daniels for approval.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(02/23/05 6:41am)
Humankind's desire to understand the way living things work dates back almost as far as humankind itself. Understanding the processes, systems and functions of every part of an organism is vital not only for understanding the world around us, but also for increasing the quality of life for humans as a species. To this end, IU has been rapidly advancing its life sciences programs for the past five years, with the intention of becoming a national and even global leader in life sciences research.\nEffective discussion of life sciences requires a definition of the topic. But, as Joann Roskoski, an executive officer at the National Science Foundation, points out the answer is not very simple.\n"The science of life, or if you use biology as an equivalent term of 'life science' then it is 'the study of life,' ... Since life is hierarchical, 'life science' includes studying everything from the atoms that make up DNA strands all the way up to the entire biosphere," she said in an e-mail.\nDavid Bricker, of IU media relations, gave a more specific definition.\nHe said the core of the life sciences is health and medical science. He said basic biology and biochemistry are also considered more core facets of the life sciences. But "life sciences" also include some of the more fringe fields such as biophysics and environmental sciences, he said.\nIn the past six months, administrative life sciences developments have been many, massive and highly visible. The foremost in all three of these respects was the December announcement of a $53 million grant from the Lilly Foundation Inc., the largest the Bloomington campus has ever received. The grant funds IU's new Metabolomics and Cytomics Initiative, known as METACyt, a conglomerate of researchers studying how cells work. \n"METACyt is the really critical initiative that sort of pulls it all together," said Michael McRobbie, the vice president for research, vice-president for information technology and chief information officer. "It really gives us a big focus, an umbrella for major new developments in the life sciences."\nStudents can see the impacts of the push for life sciences around campus, too. Nearly every day, heavy equipment drives in and out of the fenced-off construction site of the $55.7 million Simon Hall. The 140,000 square-foot building -- also called Multidisciplinary Science Building Phase I -- will house life science researchers from many fields. At its January meeting, the IU board of trustees also approved the construction of the $42.4 million MSBII. Both buildings are an effort to fill a campus need for more research space. \nThe administration has also been taking smaller steps to promote research in the life sciences. On Jan. 30, The Herald-Times published a letter by IU President Adam Herbert extolling the benefits of life sciences research for IU and for the state of Indiana. \n"Life sciences research at Indiana University has long-term benefits for mankind and benefits Indiana by creating jobs and contributing to economic growth," Herbert wrote.\nDespite all of these advances, IU still has a great deal of ground to cover in its goal of becoming a national life sciences research leader.\nIU as a whole ranked eighth in the Big Ten in 2002 for non-medical life sciences research spending -- with $179 million -- and sixth in the Big Ten for National Institutes of Health funding -- with $122 million, according to the National Science Foundation. The leader in the Big Ten for NSF life science spending was the University of Wisconsin-Madison with $410 million.\nBut life sciences is such a wide field that it allows for many leads in many different areas, said College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kumble Subbaswamy.\n"It's a really broad frontier," he said. "So in that sense, leadership doesn't necessarily mean leadership across the waterfront. There are certain aspects in which you can have a leadership role with a lot less investment."\nSubbaswamy said IU can compete with schools and states which receive much more funding for life sciences research if it plays to its strengths.\n"I think there are certain areas where we already have leadership ... for example, proteomics analysis," he said.\nProteomics analysis examines the proteins that are generated in the cell by the genome's instructions.\nDevelopments in life sciences research will also bring improvements for the undergraduate education, said Subbaswamy.\n"In all these investments we have some very exciting new programs for undergraduate students," he said. "We have several new course offerings ... not the mention research opportunities for undergraduates using really state of the art, cutting edge technologies."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(02/18/05 5:10am)
The roster of potential replacements for School of Journalism Dean Trevor Brown has been narrowed to two. The journalism dean search committee voted to send the names of Bradley Hamm and Christine Martin to IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis Feb. 11. Gros Louis and IU President Adam Herbert will recommend the candidate of their choice to the IU Board of Trustees, who have the final decision on dean hiring. But, he said, it is highly unlikely the trustees will reject whomever the chancellor and president send them. Gros Louis said he will primarily be selecting the dean candidate who best matches the culture of the School of Journalism and the culture of the campus.\n"We'll be looking for the one that understands the school the best and has a sense of the school's policies and procedures and how they were arrived at," he said.\nHamm, the associate dean of the Elon University School of Communications in North Carolina, said a lot of habits at the Elon communications school match those here at IU.\n"I think one the things we've practiced at Elon is that we built a communications school based on quality, based on class, based on scholarship, based on strong professional skills," he said. "I think that the journalism program at Indiana has always been strong on scholarship, I think it's always been know for its graduates."\nMartin, currently the vice president for institutional advancement at West Virginia University and the former dean of the School of Journalism, said she began her career in academia at IU at a summer workshop to train professional journalists.\nShe said her experience as the dean of the School of Journalism at West Virginia, a freestanding school, will allow her to work well at IU's School of Journalism.\nThe Dean Search Committee chose the two candidates by three major standards, said Committee Chair and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Dan Drew.\n"We were looking for professional experience, academic experience and administrative experience," he said. "We thought both of the candidates were strong in those areas."\nHamm said of these three areas, he feels he is strongest in the administration.\n"In four years, we built a communications school that now has 31 faculty and 850 majors and is one of the largest programs in the nation," he said. \nMartin said she has a hard time choosing which of the criteria in which she is strongest; she has spent nearly 10 years as a reporter, nine years as a professor and nearly six as an administrator.\n"I certainly have spent the last five years as an administrator, it is my most recent experience and I have reached a certain maturity in my career as an administrator," she said. "My career as an administrator has taken advantage of my experience as a reporter and as a teacher."\nGros Louis said the dean candidates will both be invited back to IU for another visit where they will meet with IU administrators and again with faculty. He said the decision will likely be announced shortly after spring break.\nDrew said the overriding strengths of Hamm and Martin were that they had backgrounds in both journalism as a craft and journalism research.\n"We really appreciate people who have balance," he said, "people who have respect for both practical experience and scholarship." \n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(02/08/05 5:18am)
Roughly 550 students, faculty, alumni and friends of the University from across the eight IU campuses and IU-Purdue University Columbus will add "lobbyist" to their job descriptions and majors today. The group -- about 300 of whom are IU students -- will travel to the state legislature in Indianapolis to remind lawmakers of the importance of supporting IU in state government in the Hoosiers for Higher Education's 14th annual trip to the Statehouse.\nThe trip is particularly significant this year because legislators will be passing the state's appropriations to IU for the next two years, said HHE director Debbie Sibbitt. \nThe state's contributions to IU this year totaled nearly $555 million -- almost one-quarter of IU's operating budget. \nHHE will arrange for the trip's attendees to meet with legislators from their home districts so they can thank their lawmakers in person for their continued support of IU, said HHE Graduate Assistant Ken Hussey. These IU supporters are not expected to lobby on specific issues, but they will be asking the lawmakers to support IU's biennial budget proposal. \nBringing IU supporters to the Statehouse en masse shows legislators the importance of supporting the University, Sibbit said.\n"It shows the concerted effort and support that students have for IU and the future of IU," she said.\nAlthough there might not be specific examples of votes the trip has changed or friends it has won in the legislature, it helps generate of general feeling of goodwill between the legislators and the University, Sibbit said.\nIU Student Association President Tyson Chastain will be among the roughly 50 students from the Bloomington campus making the trek to the capital. He said he will be discussing issues like campus facility improvements and tuition with the legislators.\nSibbitt said it is still not too late for students who want go to the Statehouse with HHE. Anyone who registers from 1 to 1:30 p.m. in the Sagamore Ballroom on the second floor of the Indiana Convention Center can visit the legislature. \nAfter registration, David Shane, senior adviser to Gov. Mitch Daniels for education and employment, will give a legislative briefing. The actual Statehouse visit will occur from 2:30 to 4:15 p.m. \nA reception in the Sagamore Ballroom will follow. IU President Adam Herbert will deliver his remarks at 5:15 p.m. \n"What he will say is that he is very proud that such a large number of IU students are participating and that he is very pleased that they are involved in civic discourse and leadership," said IU Media Relations Director Larry MacIntyre. The Welsh-Bowen Distinguished Public Official award and HHE Scholarship awards also will be presented at this time.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(02/07/05 6:45am)
Music from pre-Taliban Afghanistan and African-American protest songs of the 1920s are sitting in IU's Archives of Traditional Music, rapidly deteriorating. The ATM houses more than 110,000 recordings -- some on aluminum disks from the 1930s, others on wax canisters dating back to the 1890s. These media, nearly all of which are rapidly losing data, hold some of the world's only recordings of songs of the Dinka people -- long oppressed by the Sudanese government, as well as recordings of Sufi and Shi'a Islamic practices from India and Pakistan.\nFortunately, the National Endowment for the Humanities has given the archives at IU and Harvard University's Archive of World Music a nearly $350,000 grant to research the best ways to digitally transfer, store and preserve the rare media.\nBruce Cole, the NEH chairman and a distinguished professor emeritus at IU, presented the Preservation Access Research and Development Grant at 4 p.m. Thursday in the University Club of the Indiana Memorial Union. He said the grant was necessary to help preserve the media archived at IU and Harvard.\n"They have very important sound recordings that need to be preserved," Cole said. "These recordings document important areas of culture and civilizations that have been collected over the years."\nThe process of preserving the media for the digital age is not as simple as just burning it on to a CD, said Mike Casey, the coordinator of recording services at the ATM.\n"The ultimate goal is to provide for long-term storage in a way that uses standards, in a way that ensures that the content does not become obsolete, and in a way that we can exchange preserved content," he said. \nCasey said the data storage must preserve the music for generations to come.\nTransferring its archives to digital form put the ATM on the cutting edge, said director Daniel Reed.\n"This is a fundamental shift from the analogue world to the digital world, and doing digital audio preservations is very important," Reed said.\nCasey said the grant, which the ATM is splitting with Harvard's Archive of World Music, will go to hire a professional audio engineer, a project engineer and a computer programmer, all for one year. These new hires, along with the existing staff at the archives will be researching a method for safe, secure and durable preservation storage for the archived data.\nOnce a suitable storage method is found, the ATM will begin transferring and uploading their media to University servers and the data will become part of IU's Digital Library Program. The archive has already sorted through recordings and given some a higher ranking for digital transfer, Casey said. \n"We have selected pretty carefully what is the highest priority for recording," he said. "We looked at the recordings for research value and for preservation -- how quickly they're deteriorating." \nResearchers deposited many of the works in the archives after they recorded them for their own work. \nReed said ideally most of the recordings will be available to professors for use in courses. He said some of the data would also be available on the Internet. But he said the current trend prevents archives from posting much of their content because of intellectual property laws. Reed said he hoped the ATM can take a leadership role in making as many recordings as possible available to the public.\nDespite all the emphasis on the data and media, he said, the content of the recordings themselves are what most important.\n"Ultimately, the Archives of Traditional Music is not about media," Reed said. "It's about the people whose recorded history we've been given the enormous responsibility and the enormous privilege of preserving." \n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(02/03/05 6:05am)
Similar to the depreciation of an automobile, the value of every dollar in your piggy bank is deflating with each passing day. \nThe strength of the good 'ole greenback, in fact, has been steadily falling during the past several months when valued against the Euro and other world currencies, despite President George W. Bush's support of "strong dollar policies."\nThis means that one Euro is able to buy more and more American dollars each month. For example, the Euro is worth $0.254 more than it was two years ago. In January 2003, one Euro could buy $1.06; as of today, one Euro will buy more than $1.30 U.S.\nThe decline of the dollar abroad can be perceived as beneficial for the Hoosier economy despite the concern of some economists. The impact on the Indiana economy, however, remains to be seen.\nWillard Witte, an associate professor of economics, said it is good for some sectors of the economy and bad for others when the value of the dollar falls. Imports to this country, for instance, especially those from Europe, are more expensive. On the other hand, the reverse of this is also true because the dollar buys less abroad. Exports to other nations, particularly those in Europe, are more profitable to U.S. exporters. \n"It makes our goods cheaper abroad. And for exporters, since Indiana is a state that has a lot of exports relative to other states ... there's clearly some benefit there," Witte said.\nHe said manufacturing-based economies like Indiana's, as a consequence, will see a benefit from a weaker dollar as well. \nWitte said the Bush administration is probably glad to see the value of the dollar fall, despite White House claims to the contrary. He said Americans will be more likely to buy American-made goods over their more expensive imported counterparts because of the weaker dollar. \nThus, the consequences of a weaker American dollar might help reduce America's massive trade deficit. \n"Most economists would say that the ultimate cure to the trade balance deficit has to involve depreciation of the dollar," Witte said. \nThe United States had a nearly $550 billion trade deficit in 2003, according to the CIA World Fact Book.\nBut, the jury is still out on the direct impact of a weaker dollar on the Indiana economy. Many Indiana companies making transactions internationally have seen few affects of this trend. \nHaving manufacturing facilities in other countries allows Columbus, Ind. based Cummins Inc. to balance fluctuations in the value of the dollar.\n"For Cummins, foreign currency doesn't have a large affect or impact due to our operations worldwide," said Matthew Wasson, a member of the finance division of Cummins, "We balance the risks of currency naturally through our international operations."\nThe situation is similar for Indianapolis pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. \n"Since we are a global company with operations around the world, we are not significantly affected because we are not reliant on any single market," said Terra Fox, financial communications manager for Eli Lilly in a statement.\nA weaker American dollar traditionally impacts travel to European countries; because the dollar will buy a smaller and smaller portion of a Euro, American money buys less and less in Europe. \nCaroline Richards, a travel consultant for International Travel, 1120 N. Walnut St., said she hasn't seen any weak dollar impact on her business. Though things in Europe might be more expensive, she said, travelers are adapting by either staying in less expensive accommodations or by purchasing package deals. \nKathleen Sideli, the director of the Office of Overseas Study, echoed Richards' sentiment.\nShe said students are reexamining the accommodations for their stays in Europe, but the devalued dollar isn't impacting their decision to go abroad.\n"For most students," she said, "Overseas travel is such an important component of their college lives that they are just making some trade-offs in how they spend their money."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(02/02/05 3:31am)
The clock in the Student Building struck a note of discord Monday at noon as roughly two dozen students and community members used it's midday chime as a sign to begin chanting "No justice, no peace, USA out of the Middle East."\nMembers of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition and the newly formed campus group Against the Occupation of Iraq gathered at the Sample Gates to protest the U.S. military's presence in Iraq. \nThe campus protests came after the first free Iraqi election in 50 years, which was widely viewed as successful by many world leaders.\n"To have the rally the day after the Iraqi elections says 'Bring our troops home, end the occupation,'" said Timothy Baer, a BPAC organizer.\nHe said the ends of the Iraqi election do not justify the means of the war in Iraq.\n"War is never justifiable," he said. "To kill people to save people is a ludicrous idea."\nBut not everyone at the rally agreed with Baer. Holding signs with slogans reading, "How does it feel to be irrelevant?" and "College Republicans against the leftist occupation of Bloomington," between 10 and 12 members of the IU College Republicans and like-minded community members came to the rally as well.\n"We came to make sure that the College Republicans and those that support the president and his policies are represented," said Adrianne Dunlap, the activism coordinator for the College Republicans.\nShe said because Bloomington is such a liberal town, conservatives' views are often squelched. \nTensions were high between the two groups during the hour-long rally. At one point graduate student Edward Vasquez responded to a comment by a conservative protester with a harsh obscenity.\nHe said he thought the conservatives' presence was disrespectful. "They have the right to be here, but I have the right to heckle them." said Vasquez, hoarse from shouting anti-war chants.\nBut most protesters on both sides of the issue appreciated each other's right to demonstrate. \n"I do believe that this is the spirit of peace," David Keppel, a member of BPAC, said of the conservatives' turnout.\nHe said the ability for two groups to assemble and peacefully disagree is the ideal of freedom and peace.\nGraduate student David Woken said he went to the protest because he felt IU students haven't been vocal enough against the war in Iraq. "In general I'm opposed to war," he said. "Specifically I am opposed to the war in Iraq." He said the elections were an important step, but elections do not make a democracy.\nGraduate student Amos Batto, a member of Against the Occupation of Iraq, said the goal of his group is to impact the public perception of the war. \n"It is important to contest the idea that we're being fed that the election was a success," he said.\nBatto said the U.S. government removed the names of some Iraqi candidates from the ballots because they did not agree with the U.S. occupation. He also said the elections were flawed in that voters didn't know the names of the candidates before they arrived at the polls, and because of the security situation, there was no public debate of the issues each candidate stood for.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(01/28/05 7:17am)
Ashton Center is going to get a face-lift as early as next spring. The IU Board of Trustees' Facilities Committee voted unanimously Thursday in the Dogwood Room of the Indiana Memorial Union to approve designs for the new center. It is slated to replace Ashton's older buildings, such as Aley and Coulter Halls, which would be demolished to make room for the new dormitory, Bruce Jacobs, vice chancellor of auxiliary services and programs said. The buildings currently inhabited by students, Johnston, Hershey, Mason, Moffat, Vos, Stemple and Weatherly Halls, would be unaffected by the new plan. \nThe new buildings are intended to increase the number of students who remain on campus after their freshman year. \n"The plan is to build the new style of housing to retain students who want to stay on campus," said Patrick Connor, the director of Residential Programs and Services. \nRPS undertook this project in response to market analysis which suggested students wanted to live in housing more like apartments and less like traditional dormitories. The new center would be the first of this new kind of housing on campus, he said.\nThe project, which is slated to begin construction in the next ten to 12 months, still must go through a few phases of approval by the Board of Trustees before it is finalized.\n"We'll get project approval, then they'll approve the removal of the old buildings and the construction of the new buildings," Jacobs said. \nConnor said the projected cost of the project will be $56.5 million, financed through a 20-year bond.\nThe design, presented and drawn-up by Ratio Architects, calls for one six-story center building, featuring classrooms, a conference room and a convenience store. It also calls for multiple four-story residential buildings. The dorms will have an apartment-style floorplan with clusters of four-bedroom units with a shared bathroom. Ratio tried to model the new Ashton Center after some of the buildings in the older parts of campus using what's known as a collegiate Gothic exterior, said Ratio President, Bill Browne.\nResidence Halls Association presidents like the idea of the new Ashton Center, said senior John Palmer, RHA president. He said he has been kept in the loop about the project and in turn has been updating the residence halls' student government.\n"I kind of wish that I was going to be staying in them," Palmer said. "They seem to have done a good job mixing the best parts of campus architecture all in one project."\nAt the committee meeting, the design for the second Multidisciplinary Science Building was also approved. The proposed location would replace a service building on Walnut Grove, between the Geology and Psychology Buildings. Terry Clapacs, the vice president for facilities, said the building is slated to cost $42 million, of which $31.5 million comes from the state bonding authority. The building will be the second erected in response to a request by science faculty for one million more square feet of new space for labs, classrooms and offices.\nThe Committee further approved the construction of the $945,000 Human Biology Magnetic Resonance Imaging Facility.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(01/18/05 4:32pm)
Nearly every international student has heard the stories: Friends or acquaintances have gone back to their home countries to visit their families and were not allowed back into the United States to continue their education.\nRendy Schrader, associate director for advising of the Office of International Services, recounted a story about a Chinese student who returned home to visit her ailing parents with one year left in her degree. When she applied to get a visa to return, officials in the U.S. embassy denied her application, citing her recent divorce and saying she had no incentive to return to China after completing her degree.\n"And she's still home," Schrader said. "And the chances of her getting a visa to come back to complete that year don't look particularly good at the moment." Schrader is not allowed to release students' names without consent.\nBecause Chinese student visas are valid for only six months, if a student returns to China for any reason, the student must apply for a new visa and again go through the rigorous and time-consuming process of obtaining the right to study in the United States. This predicament is not unique to students from China, however.\nThe result is that international students now must weigh the possibility that if they return home to visit family or for any other reason, they may not be able to get back into the United States. These circumstances effectively force students to choose between their education and their family.\nAll applicants for student visas must undergo a 90-second interview at the U.S. consulate in their home country. These interviews were implemented as a result of post-Sept. 11 security measures, and they prevent many students from returning to the United States or coming to this country for the first time.\nIU President Adam Herbert questioned the need for these interviews, especially for students retuning to this country, at his Oct. 6 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. \n"Students who have successfully received entry visas should not require the same degree of scrutiny whenever they need to leave and re-enter the country," he said.\nGraduate student Ran Zhang said she was nervous the first time she returned to China to visit her family. But she said the fear of getting rejected is not the only impediment to going back home. \n"It's very costly to renew a visa, ... and it can be time consuming," she said. "You have to plan everything before you leave the U.S. and get everything set up."\nGraduate student Faraz Sheikh wants to return to Pakistan this summer to visit his family, whom he hasn't seen in nearly two years. He said he is a little nervous about being allowed back into the United States to finish his doctorate. But, he said, if he had to choose between visiting his family and being able to finish his degree, his education would receive preference because he can communicate with his family regularly via telephone and the Internet. \nSheikh does not believe the U.S. visa policy is unreasonable, however, and urges patience among other such students.\n"It is important for international students to understand that it's for your security as well," he said. "You could just as easily be on the plane that blows up, too."\nSchrader said she has received scattered reports of students being stranded in their countries or feeling afraid to return home, but most are coping with the difficulties.\n"Scholars and students are remarkably resilient. They're seasoned international travelers," she said. "And I think they think twice now in many cases about going home, but if they want to go home, they go home."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(01/14/05 2:07pm)
Panelists stressed the need to maintain focus, attention and aid to nations and people devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami, even as months pass and media attention diminishes at a forum in the Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union Thursday evening.\nThe event, which began at 7 p.m., was designed to educate the IU and Bloomington communities and kick off campus relief efforts for the Dec. 26 disaster which has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people. \nSpeakers covered many angles of the tragedy, from the scientific perspective, to the political climate of the region, to the Indonesian view of American aid efforts. \nPatrick O'Meara, the dean of international programs, visited Thailand after the disaster for a previously planned trip and recounted his experiences in the nation which suffered more than 5,000 deaths from the tsunami. \nHe said the disaster was a "great equalizer." O'Meara said the royal palace was occupied with memorial services for the grandson of the King of Thailand who lost his life to the waves. \nHe said he hoped the world would adopt the mindset of Thai Buddhist monks who have met the disaster with "remarkable serenity, willingness to go on, graciousness and willingness to plan."\nMaria Montessori, a professor at the State University of Padang in West Sumatra, Indonesia, offered heartfelt gratitude to the American people for the aid they have contributed.\n"As an Indonesian, I am really impressed with the way Americans have responded to the tsunami," she said. \nIU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis and Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan introduced the forum.\nKruzan said despite the tragedy, hope has cropped up in the Bloomington community and around the world.\nMichael Hamburger, a professor of geological sciences, said the earthquake off of the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, which caused the tsunami, was powerful enough to register on every seismograph across the world. \n"We have to take from this tsunami as much as we can and be prepared," he said, "so that a disaster of this scope doesn't happen again."\nMargaret Sutton, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies, who has studied Indonesia for many years, said an ongoing insurgency in the Aceh region of the country, one of the most devastated, has complicated the aid effort. \nSandeep Junnarkar, a visiting Weil Professor of Journalism, said it is important to have journalists covering the disaster who understand the broader political, social and cultural situations in the region, as well. He also spoke about the importance of maintaining focus on the region -- even after other news breaks.\n"The truth is the media can be fickle. When another big story hits, the media will move on, and bring the public with them," he said.\nThe Director of the Office of Public Diplomacy Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Peter Kovach, said two major issues have dominated the extent of the U.S. government response to the tsunami. He said before aid could be delivered, the United States had to deal with issues of national sovereignty in the disaster-stricken countries. He also said the relief effort had to be an international one.\nThe Director of Emergency Services for the Monroe County branch of the American Red Cross, Maria Carrasquillo, said her organization is working on a local, national and world level to get relief to the people affected and that her branch alone has received more than $30,000 in donations.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael\nZennie at mmzennie@indiana.edu.
(01/13/05 6:19am)
Although students might feel far removed from the tsunami's impact, it has sparked a longing in the IU community to comprehend the disaster.\nA forum from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. today in Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union will address the scientific, social, political and humanitarian implications of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The event, titled "Indian Ocean Tsunami and Humanitarian Response: A Campus-Community Forum," is intended to kickoff the IU relief effort for the disaster that has claimed more than 150,000 lives in 11 Southeast Asian and African nations.\nRoughly one dozen local and campus charity groups have booked tables at a reception after the forum in the Solarium of the IMU to advertise their tsunami relief fund-raising efforts. \n"The forum will be the centerpiece of the campus relief effort," said Melanie Castillo-Cullather, the director of the Asian Culture Center and one of the organizers of the event. "We think that the goal of this forum is to motivate contributions of time, money and effort over the long and short term to help the disaster relief efforts."\nThe forum will begin with opening remarks by IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis and Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan.\n"The mayor feels it is important to take part in this educational forum because the devastation caused by the tsunami is a global crisis," said Bloomington Communications Director Maria K. Heslin. "He wants to do all he can to help increase awareness locally of the tremendous need for financial donations to humanitarian organizations at this time."\nBefore discussion begins, the Rev. Rebecca Jiménez of the Center for University Ministry will lead audience and panelists in a moment of silence to honor the victims of the tsunami.\nThe forum is broken into four parts. The first section features experts who will discuss issues aimed at helping increase the understanding of the disaster.\nMichael Hamburger, a professor for the Department of Geological Sciences and one of the event's organizers, will speak about the geological perspective of the earthquake and tsunami. Margaret Sutton, an associate professor of education, will discus the social aspects of the disaster in Indonesia. \nVisiting Weil Journalism Professor Sandeep Junnarkar will talk about the media coverage surrounding the tsunami. He said his presentation will focus on the way the disaster has been covered by the media, the need to have expert journalists in the field to deal with the complex social and political issues in the affected regions and the importance of continuing media coverage in a world where its attention span is increasingly short.\nHe will also present his view that the outpouring of relief money from western nations has increased because so many western tourists were affected by the tsunami. Westerners are able to identify with the tourists more than the natives, he said. \n"That's kind of controversial, but I think it's true," Junnarkar said.\nThe final speaker in the first section will be Peter Kovach, the director of the Bureau of Southeast Asia and Pacific Affairs of the U.S. Department of State Office of Press and Public Diplomacy. He will discuss the U.S. government's perspective of the disaster response. \nA panel discussion will follow the presentations featuring Patrick O'Meara, the dean of international programs, Sumit Ganguly, the director of the India Studies Program, and Maria Montessori, a professor at the State University of Padang in West Sumatra, Indonesia.\nMaria Carrasquillo, the director of emergency services at the Monroe County branch of the American Red Cross, will speak about the things the community and students can do to help the tsunami victims. \nThe culmination of the event is the reception after the discussions where charitable groups use the momentum from the night's discussions to jump-start their fund-raising programs.\n"The end of this forum is the really important part," said Hamburger. \nHe said he hopes the event will motivate students and members of the community to get involved in relief efforts.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(01/12/05 6:51am)
When graduate Faraz Sheikh decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Islamic studies outside of his home country of Pakistan, he looked at universities in the Middle East, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. He decided to come to IU because the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department offered him the most money, and he saw the world-renowned value of a degree from the United States.\n"The higher education system of the United States is well regarded in Pakistan and all over the world," Sheikh said. "This would allow me to return to Pakistan or go anywhere in the world for future research or studies or teaching"\nHowever, the numbers of foreign graduate students who hold Sheikh's view are declining at IU. Tighter regulations at consulates and embassies worldwide, the increased cost and hassle of getting a student visa and aggressive graduate student recruitment from other nations have led to 162 fewer international graduate students enrolling at IU this year than in 2003 -- an 8.2 percent decline. \nAccording The Associated Press, the Council of Graduate Schools released a survey last year citing a 6 percent decline nationally in 2004 foreign graduate student enrollment and a 32 percent decline in such applications. The impacts of this trend could be widespread for IU, where international students comprise as much as 25 percent of graduate student enrollment.\nPolicies implemented as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks have made it more difficult for international students to gain the student visas they need to get into the United States, said Chris Foley, the director of foreign graduate student admissions at IU . He said shortly after the attacks in 2001, Congress mandated the implementation of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a database which houses information on all international students from the time they first apply through their stay in the United States. He said the quick implementation of the software -- which was up and running by January 2002 -- has led to a number of kinks, including consulates not receiving information submitted by the University. \nStudents must also answer a number of questions on the visa application. One asks: "Do you seek to enter the United States to engage in export control violations, subversive or terrorist activities, or any other unlawful purpose? Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization as currently designated by the U.S. Secretary of State? Have you ever participated in persecutions directed by the Nazi government of Germany; or have you ever participated in genocide?"\nThese security checks make the process of getting a visa very slow, President Adam Herbert said in his Oct. 6 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.\n"Despite recent U.S. State Department efforts to alleviate this problem, we continue to hear from students and scholars that the process is bottlenecked and difficult to navigate," he said. "As a result, these problems are discouraging, and they are preventing significant numbers of international students and scholars from studying and working in the United States."\nFoley said certain types of applicants must wait longer than others, as well.\n"This impacts a couple of different populations," he said, which include male Islamic students from predominantly Muslim countries, as well as students of particular areas of study such as nuclear physics. \nSheikh, who is Muslim, said it took him roughly 40 days for him to be granted a visa after he filed his paperwork. \nBy contrast, Adrian Borbely, a French citizen and public affairs master's student at IU, said he was granted his visa within two days of filing.\nFoley said another problem is that students must undergo security checks to get back into the United States if they leave the country.\n"The one example you always hear is that we always had a large number of Malaysian students," he said. "They went home and when they wanted to come back, only the women were allowed to come back." \nHerbert said the restrictions have hit IU hard. For the fall 2004 semester, international application for graduate admission dropped 21 percent, Herbert said. \nAccording to IU's Office of International Services, in 2003 foreign graduate enrollment was 1,975. Only 1,813 graduate students from other countries enrolled at IU in 2004 -- an 8.2 percent decline. \nFoley said the decline's impact on IU could be significant, if only for the sheer number of foreign graduate students at IU.\n"That's going to have dramatic economic implications on tuition if they are paying full tuition," he said. "If they're not, they are here to write grants and teach students. In many cases, they have particular skills that cannot be replaced by domestic students, necessarily."\nHerbert said the economic impact on Indiana is also considerable. He said international students contribute $326 million to the Indiana economy every year.\nBut, Foley said the damage done by visa regulations being too tight is not always directly quantitative. He said when people from other nations study in the United States, they build a friendship and an understanding of the country they would not otherwise have. Foley said understanding alone can help combat terrorism and other threats to the United States.\n"I would say that we are safer to make friends than we are to not make them," he said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mmzennie@indiana.edu.
(01/10/05 6:08am)
Flags across the IU campus and the nation flew at half-staff last week as the United States honored the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The disaster, which has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people in Asia and Africa, has motivated Americans to help the devastated region.
(01/10/05 5:31am)
The Lilly Endowment gave IU-Bloomington an early Christmas present Dec. 16 -- a grant for $53 million to fund the new Metabolomics and Cytomics Initiative (METACyt), the largest the campus has ever received. \nMETACyt will focus on the research of metabolism and the inner workings of cells. \n"The largest goal of all this is the understanding of how a cell works," said Ted Widlanski, Associate Dean for Research and Infrastructure of the College of Arts and Sciences and the new CEO of METACyt. "If you understand how a cell works, you can understand how it can break down."\nWidlanski said the impacts of the grant are enormous. He said because of the new money, IU will hire between 100 and 150 new scientists. He said hundreds more would benefit from and use the new facilities on campus. \n"It's going to enable us to build up substantial new facilities and programs," said Michael McRobbie, the vice president for research, vice-president for information technology and chief information officer. "This campus has been struggling to keep up with the kinds of scientific infrastructure that you need to be competitive in the life sciences."\nWidlanski said a grant of this size will also benefit not just the sciences but the University at large.\n"Money makes money," he said. "And this will enable us to get a lot more money from the government."\nHe said grant money allows the University to increase its revenue while helping to keep tuition increases at a minimum. \nWidlanski said the grant will help the community.\n"It's often said that for every million dollars of funding we bring in, we create 50 jobs," he said. "Three hundred to 500 jobs will be created because of this grant. That's a huge economic impact on a town the size of Bloomington."\nSara Cobb, the vice president of education at the Lilly Endowment said, at a Dec. 16 press conference announcing the grant, that METACyt will help further the goals of the Lilly Endowment.\n"This bold, forward-looking METACyt initiative will significantly advance the Endowment's efforts to build the intellectual capital in our state, which we believe is so vital to the future prosperity of Indiana," she said. \nThe Lilly Endowment was founded in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family. The endowment's priorities are education, religion, and community development in Indiana. Since 1958, it has given IU nearly $448 million. In October, the Endowment gave IU $26 million for the recruitment and retainment of intellectual capital in Indiana. In 2000, the medical school in Indianapolis received nearly $105 million for the Indiana Genomics Initiative.\nIncreasing the number of Hoosiers with a college degree is a top priority for the Lilly Endowment, said Gretchen Wolfram, communications director for the Lilly Endowment. \n"Right now we stand between 43rd and 48th in the country," she said. "This will not suffice in the future."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(11/12/04 5:16am)
Panelists and students will discuss some of the many facets of terrorism at a forum titled "Terrorism & War on Terrorism" from 1 to 5:30 p.m. today in the Frangipani Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. The forum will center around three moderated panel discussions, each addressing a different aspect of terrorism.\nThe first panel, "Public Discourse on Terrorism," will deal with the ways Americans look at and talk about terrorism. Panelists on the second panel, "America's Security Consumption and Consequences," will discuss the role civil liberties play in the war on terrorism and the effect war has on American life. The final panel, "International Perspectives," will deal with the way terrorism is seen and dealt with internationally.\nGraduate student David Baker and freshman Mohamed Yunus Rafiq organized the forum because they felt students needed an outlet for intelligent discussion of terrorism.\n"My colleague and I shared thoughts on these things, and we noticed a lot of discussion on campus of long-term solutions to either terrorism or the war on terror," Baker said. \nStudents organized the forum; the panelists are all students; and the forum is moderated by students. No professors or other "experts" on terrorism were invited to the forum, Baker said.\n"The average student doesn't listen to experts, and the experts assume you have a certain level of knowledge of terrorism," he said. "We wanted to speak to students at their level and leave assumptions out of the forum."\nBaker said he contacted all of the IU departments and student groups that have an interest in terrorism to find panelists for the event. \nRafiq said he hopes students who attend the forum walk away with a better understanding of the relationship between the Muslim world and terrorism.\n"I would like (students) to see that within Islam there are people who hate and abhor this kind of senseless killing of human life," he said. "These acts are committed by a few people who are crazy."\nGraduate student David Schwab, who will be both a panelist and a moderator for the forum, said discourse on terrorism is important because it is such an emotionally charged and important issue.\n"Terrorism is a very polarizing issue, and it's very difficult for people to talk calmly about it," he said. \nGraduate student Adrian Borbely, a panelist and a French citizen, said looking at terrorism from an international perspective is also important.\n"The information we get in Europe is too one-sided. The information over here is one-sided, too," he said. "It's interesting to look at how people feel in the international perspective on terrorism."\n-- Contact nation & world editor Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(11/09/04 6:11am)
With thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops assaulting the Iraqi insurgent hotspot of Fallujah, few people at IU have the same perspective as junior Brian Nordhoff. Nordhoff served in south-central Iraq as a corporal in the Detachment Communications Company of the Headquarters Battalion of the Fourth Marine Division. He said Fallujah had a reputation of being a dangerous city.\n"I just know that it's always mentioned that it's one of the worst cities," he said. "It's one of the key cities where terrorists are located."\nNordhoff said he knows his unit is currently somewhere near Fallujah and that it, and some of his good friends, might be involved in the assault on the city.\n"I wish I was there with them right now," he said. "I'm glad I'm not with them just to wait around and be mortared. But when we have certain missions that we go on, I wish I was there with my guys."\nNordhoff said Marines are taught that urban combat, which troops will see in Fallujah, often has a 75 percent casualty rate. \n"My guess is that they are probably a little worried," he said. "They're probably a little excited to see some real action, you know, instead of waiting for mortars to come in and things like that."\nThe U.S.-led assault on the city will bring the fight to the Iraqi insurgents, rather than the other-way around, Nordhoff said. \n"All we do right now is ride on in convoys and wait until we get hit by the enemy and then fight back," he said. "(The assault on Fallujah) is actually going in and finding the enemy and eliminating them."\nDespite seeing this operation as necessary, Nordhoff still has anxiety for his comrades still in Iraq.\n"I pray for them every night," he said.\n-- Contact Nation & World editor Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(11/04/04 5:03am)
When news organizations began announcing President George W. Bush the winner of Tuesday's presidential election late in the night and early Wednesday morning, junior Michael Schuler was extremely happy.\n"My first thought was that it was a great day for President Bush and for the American people," said Schuler, who advocated the president's re-election in a story appearing in the Oct. 26 issue of the Indiana Daily Student.\nOn the other hand, senior Shaunica Pridgen, who supported Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the same story, felt saddened by the election results.\n"I think the best way I can put it is that I had a profound sense of disappointment," said Pridgen, who interned since June with Indiana Governor Joe Kernan. Kernan lost last night's election to Mitch Daniels.\nThe campaigns leading up to Tuesday's election were some of the fiercest in recent history. Though Kerry briefly disputed the results of polls in Ohio, the nation avoided the election controversy witnessed in Florida in 2000. In the end, the dust settled relatively quickly and it looked as though Bush had won and Kerry was drafting his concession speech.\n"This is a big celebration for Republicans," said Angel Rivera, chairman of the IU College Republicans. "The President will continue his plan to strengthen the American consensus and working on those things that will improve the quality of living for Americans."\nThe results of the Presidential election did not surprise Schuler, who thought the President would likely win the election by 3 to 5 percent. \n"The American people realize that we are going to need a great leader to take us through the domestic and foreign problems that we are going to face," he said.\nPridgen was still unconvinced by the president's leadership abilities.\n"Maybe once he starts bringing people together, being a uniter and not a divider, I can gain some faith in him," she said. "I think it's going to be difficult, though. It's going to require a lot of diplomatic sensitivity."\nRivera did not fault Kerry for trying to extend the election by contesting initial reports Bush had won Ohio. Mandy Carmichael, president of the IU College Democrats, said it was important Kerry was sure he had lost the election before he conceded it.\n"So many states were so close, not just Ohio, but many," she said. "I don't think it was unreasonable to wait until it was certain."\nRivera said the next four years looked optimistic with Bush at the head of the nation.\n"They're going to make the tax cuts permanent, they're going to pass health care reform, social security reform and win the war on terror or at least continue to make forward progress on it," he said.\nPridgen does not look to the future with such optimism.\n"I foresee more of the same. George Bush has not indicated any change in direction," she said.\nDespite the Democrats losing the presidential race, eight U.S. congressional races and the Indiana gubernatorial race, Morgan Tilleman, the financial vice president for the College Democrats said his party must move forward.\n"There is another election in two years, a presidential election in four," he said. "There is a government to be run, there is lots of work to be done."\n-- Contact nation & world editor Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(11/01/04 4:44am)
For graduate student Kevin Makice, neither Republican President George W. Bush nor Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry present good choices for the presidency. For this reason, Makice is a strong supporter of third parties. \n"I'm not voting for Bush because he's a horrible president," he said. "I don't have any confidence in John Kerry, either."\nThough the strongest presidential candidate outside of Bush and Kerry, Independent Ralph Nader only has between 0 and 1 percent support, according recent polls posted on the Real Clear Politics Web site, there are still voters who see room for more candidates than those the Republicans and Democrats present.\nThird party and independent candidates in the United States at the presidential level are not necessarily in the campaign to win the office, but more to influence the policies of the two major party candidates, said Mike Wagner a political science associate instructor. \nRudy Professor of Political Science Edward Carmines said third parties predominantly exist to address issues that other candidates don't.\n"Their role has been to introduce new ideas and issues into American politics."\nNader hopes to shed light on a collection of such issues, said John Broze, a regional coordinator for the Nader campaign. \n"(Nader) is not just running to win, he's running to expose the issues the candidates aren't talking about," he said. \nThe primary issues for Nader are the institution of a living wage -- $8.15 per hour, universal health care, no federal income tax for low income families and a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Broze said. \nHe said accusations that third party candidates and others like Nader steal votes from the Democratic party are bogus.\n"The only person that is going to take the elections away from John Kerry is John Kerry," Broze said.\nHe also said Nader mobilizes people who normally wouldn't vote at all. \nCarmines said he doubts Nader will impact the outcome of the election this year. Much of his voting base, who would rather see a more liberal candidate in office than Bush, are afraid to vote for a third party or independent candidate. In the 2000 election, the 1 to 2 percent of the vote Nader got in Florida may have been a factor that allowed Bush to win the state.\n"I ultimately think Nader may have an impact, but this has been an odd year because of the experience of 2000," he said.\nNader is only on the ballot in 35 states this year and did not make it on to the Indiana ballot, according to the candidate's Web site. \nDespite this, there is room in America for third parties and independent candidates said Brain Vargus, a professor of political science at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis.\n"They have the freedom to advance these new ideas," he said. "They frequently run on something that is a very strange idea but, later on it gets incorporated."\nVargus said minimum wage, an eight-hour day and social security were all first introduced by third parties. \nSophomore Matt Beck, IU's campus coordinator for the Nader campaign agrees. \n"We need some sort of third-party representation," he said. "With the two party duopoly, many voices aren't being heard."\nBut Wagner defended America's two-party system, which provides clear differences for voters, he said.\nThe Secretary of State race of the previous election is a big determining factor for which parties get on the presidential ballot in Indiana, said Dale Simmons, co-general counsel of the Indiana Election Division. \nHe said any political party which receives more than 2 percent of the popular vote in the Secretary of State elections automatically gets the name of the candidate they select on the ballot. \nFor this election cycle in Indiana, the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties all have a candidate on the ballot.\nIndependent candidates and parties that get less than 2 percent of the vote in the Secretary of State elections must collect signatures totaling 2 percent of all the votes cast in the Secretary of State elections. Simmons said this year that is 29,552 signatures. \nThree candidates will appear on the Indiana presidential ballot: Bush, Kerry and Libertarian Michael Badnarik. \nCandidates who don't collect the required signatures can submit a declaration of candidacy, which will make them write-in candidates. Voters who write in the names of a declared write-in candidate will be counted; other write-in votes will not be counted.\n"We've seen some pretty funny write-in votes," Simmons said. "People have voted for Mickey Mouse, Frank Zappa and Jeb Bartlet."\n The only counted write-in votes for president this year are Independents Lawson Mitchell Bone and Ralph Nader, David Cobb of the Green Party, Walt Brown of the Socialist Party, and John Joseph Kennedy, listed as Democrat but not endorsed by the party. \nMakice's vote, which will actually be a write-in for California congresswoman Barbra Lee, will not be counted. But, for him the idea that he is not contributing to the two-party system is enough.\n"Whether my vote counts or not is irrelevant," he said. "I have a commitment to myself and my family to vote for someone who I think will be good for the country."\n-- Contact Nation & World editor Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.