caRoshHashanah
Hillel Center staff covered the Holy Water fonts in the St. Paul Catholic Center with stars of David for the Rosh Hashanah services Wednesday night. The space has been used for the Jewish holiday services for about twenty years.
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Hillel Center staff covered the Holy Water fonts in the St. Paul Catholic Center with stars of David for the Rosh Hashanah services Wednesday night. The space has been used for the Jewish holiday services for about twenty years.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>President Michael McRobbie and other IU officials signed a partnership with a top-ranked business school in South Africa as part of McRobbie’s two-week trip through the continent. The delegation also announced the launch of IU’s first alumni chapter in South Africa, the third in Africa.IU previously established alumni chapters in Ghana and Kenya and offers international chapters in about 40 different countries worldwide, according to the IU Alumni Association website. Like other alumni chapters, the formation of the South African network was initiated by alumni in the region, said Mark Land, associate vice president of IU Communications. “The scale is obviously different,” Land said. “We only have about 150 to 170 alumni from South Africa.”Land said IU’s increased visibility in the region should help the University form new relationships and reach out to alumni in the area. “They serve to bring the IU family together, to encourage people to spread word about the University,” he said. During the first week of the trip, which began Aug. 25, McRobbie and Kelley School of Business Dean Idalene Kesner signed an agreement between the Kelley School and the Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa. “The goal is to look for opportunities to exchange expertise — for our faculty to get a chance to work with their faculty,” Land said. Officials also hope the partnership will encourage IU students to study abroad in South Africa and will boost IU international student enrollment from South Africa. “We haven’t had many students from there,” Land said. “The added diversity on campus makes it a more interesting and vibrant place for students.”McRobbie also met with officials at GIBS’ parent university, the University of Pretoria, and administrators from the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town.He discussed future collaboration of academic programs with South African Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande. IU has had a presence in South Africa since the days of apartheid, according to a press release. In 1986, the University was involved in establishing Khanya College, a program that assisted disadvantaged black students in seeking an education at South Africa’s best universities.A few years later, IU initiatied a legislative drafting program with the University of Pretoria. In addition to the stop in South Africa, McRobbie became the first IU president to visit IU’s Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS (AMPATH) program in Eldoret, Kenya, Sept. 3.The program has been nominated multiple times for the Nobel Peace Prize and serves a population of 3.5 million people throughout western Kenya, according to the release.The presidential tour of Africa will wrap up at the end of this week with a stop at IU’s first-ever study abroad program at the University of Ghana. McRobbie said in the release he was pleased with the results achieved during the first full week in Africa. “The relationships we have formed this past week will ensure that Indiana University continues its longstanding tradition of institution-building and educational development in this important economic region of the world,” McRobbie said. Follow campus editor Samantha Schmidt on Twitter @schmidtsam7.
IU senior Audrey Chambers eats lunch while doing homework outside the SPEA Library Tuesday. Chambers continued to see a physician and dietician occasionally but has stopped attending CAPs counseling sessions/
Senior Sara Wilson prepares posters Monday night to recruit chapter members at Tuesday's Involvement Fair. Wilson is the sole remaining member of multicultural sorority Theta Nu Xi.
Professor Richard Schrimper discusses stocks and dividends with his Accounting 200 class Thursday. Schrimper is collaborating with business students to publicize his career-oriented social media website, CultureU.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>James Polk, an IU alumnus and Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, came out of retirement to work on a CNN documentary, “We Were There: The March on Washington—An Oral History.” Polk graduated from IU in 1962, during the heart of the civil rights movement. He graduated with a degree in government from the College of Arts and Sciences, and was president of his sophomore class.A former senior producer for CNN, Polk returned to the company to lead its newest documentary, which aired last weekend.The hour-long feature tells the stories of those who attended and organized the March on Washington, using their own words to express the significance of that summer day in 1963. Polk spoke with the IDS about his documentary, the march and his experiences at IU during the 1960s. IDS: What were some of your most memorable interviews?Polk: My favorite interview was a man who was 15 years old from Alabama. After Birmingham (the 1963 riots), he still has the burn scars of cattle prods. It was 1963 — it wasn’t pretty.Ten days before the march, a group of guys ages 15 to 16 said they wanted to go to the March on Washington, but they didn’t have money for the bus. So they said, ‘Let’s hitchhike.’ It had to be crazy considering all the things that happened then. They got to Washington in three nights hitchhiking and ended up working in the local office for the march, making the signs. On that Saturday before the march, the civil rights leader walked in. MLK sat down with them for about 20 minutes, talking with them about their dreams.We also found people in their early 20s who worked the office in Harlem. There were 10 phones, and they were ringing all the time. One woman was so tired when she got to the march on Wednesday that she fell asleep. She slept through all the speeches. She realized she missed, in her words, the greatest speech of the century.That’s the kind of human stories you want to find. You want to have real people telling real stories.Indiana University stories have some link to the civil rights movement. On the freedom ride to complete the journey to Jackson, Miss., one of them was an IU student president from Elkhart, Tom Attkins. He was one of the freedom bus riders who completed the ride. He carried a gun.IDS: How many sources did you interview and did you include all of them?Polk: Twenty-one individuals — we used all of them. Each of them helped tell a story.It’s like making a quilt. There’s no narration. That’s why I was brought out of retirement to do it, because we knew it was going to be hard. You don’t want the stiches and the seams to show — you want it to be natural.IDS: Why is it important for us to continue to commemorate the March on Washington?Polk: Not commemorate it, understand it. It’s part of our heritage, and this is the bad and the good.We start with what segregation was like in the South. People your age, and probably your parents, have little grasp of what an apartheid part of this country was. In the documentary, we began with samples of segregation. White and colored water fountains. If they didn’t have a colored bathroom, you couldn’t go.This wasn’t just a merry little day in the park. This was a cry for attention, and it succeeded. IDS: Did you witness segregation or racism during your time at IU?Polk: The Klan once thrived in Indiana. Indiana was not immune to the bigotry. But by and large no. I was a decent friend of the center of the basketball team who won an Olympic gold medal. Fraternities didn’t allow blacks, or sororities. But Indiana University did not feel threatened by blacks because there were so few of them. There wasn’t the exposure like there was in the South.Follow reporter Samantha Schmidt on Twitter @schmidtsam7.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Freshman Rachael Fiege wanted to become a nurse someday, just like her mother. “She liked taking care of people,” her mother Angi Fiege said. “We always joked we’d work together.” Rachael Fiege, a Zionsville High School graduate, had just moved into Wright Quad residence hall Monday. She planned to apply for the IU nursing program, and she was already training for the IU club soccer team. She couldn’t wait to rush, her best friend and IU freshman Mary Baluyut said. They planned to volunteer together and someday study abroad. Her older brother Jeremy is a junior at IU, and she grew up as a Hoosier fan, Angi Fiege said. “She was sitting there writing out all the things she wanted to do,” Angi Fiege said. “She was ready to roll.”Rachael Fiege’s plans came to a sudden end Saturday morning, when her parents and doctors removed her from life support at IU Health Bloomington Hospital. After falling down the stairs at a party, Rachael Fiege was found unresponsive Friday morning between 1 and 2 a.m. She was discovered quickly, but the other students present did not call Indiana University Police Department for six or seven hours.Angi Fiege had just gotten off work as a physician in pulmonary and critical care at IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis when she got the call. A former nurse, she had been serving a patient on life support earlier that morning. Two hours later, she would be by the ventilator once again – this time for her own daughter. “It was a nightmare to live on the other side of that,” Angi Fiege said. “You can never feel the pain of being the parent of a child dying.”While she was on the ventilator, Rachael Fiege’s parents placed a stuffed bear from her childhood in her lap. Twenty girls from Fiege’s Zionsville high school soccer team left class Friday or drove from other colleges to say their goodbyes at IU Health Bloomington Hospital. She was a defender on her high school soccer team, which won the sectional championship last year. She was always known as “Fiege” by friends and teammates, Smythe said. She always pushed herself in soccer, and loved making wide runs up the field. “She was ferocious,” said former teammate and IU sophomore Anne Smythe. “Pushing through sprints with her we’d all want to stop mid-practice and she’d be pushing us to go faster.”She also helped coach younger soccer teams, and volunteered with a peer mentoring program for students with special needs, Angi Fiege said. “Those kids loved her,” Angi Fiege said. “Her teachers loved her. That’s the kind of person she was.”She was always extremely close with her family, Angi Fiege said. Her father is also a soccer coach, but he never coached his daughter’s teams. “He knew better than to coach her,” Fiege said. “She was like his co-coach.”Rachael Fiege and her mother had grown closer than ever while getting her ready to move in to IU, Angi Fiege said. “We just talked and talked moving her down as if we wouldn’t have another conversation again,” Angi Fiege said. “It turned out it was true.”Rachael Fiege was a dedicated student and player, but she always knew when comic relief was necessary, Smythe said. “She was definitely very strong, and just goofy,” Smythe said. IU freshman Annie Smith played soccer with Fiege for years, and attended an IU soccer camp with her in middle school. She remembers hiding in the Briscoe dorms together, making funny faces into their cameras. “We could start laughing and not stop for hours,” Smith said. “People always said how funny she was. She had a crazy personality. I don’t think there were many people that didn’t like her.”Some of Smith’s favorite memories with Rachael Fiege were the sleepovers they had together in middle school. “She had Bratz dolls,” Smith said. “For some reason, we found it entertaining to play with them, but we didn’t tell people.”Smith had lost touch with Rachael Fiege, her best friend since elementary school, after she moved high schools. By chance, Smith ran into Fiege on campus two days before her death. It was the first time the friends had seen each other in two years. “I honestly think it was so we could say goodbye,” Smith said. “She was really excited about going to school. We were finally back in the same place.”Within hours of her death, it seemed as if the entire town of Zionsville had heard the news, Angi Fiege said. Several flags in town flew at half-mast. Her high school soccer team posted a Facebook message mourning her death. Friends, family and people Rachael Fiege didn’t even know were Tweeting about her, using hashtags including #zionsvillestrong. They grew up in a town with one high school, where everybody knows everybody, Smythe said. “When anything happens in Zionsville, our entire community backs each other up,” she said. Even after graduating high school, Smythe and Baluyut said they kept a close bond between their soccer teammates, and they all plan to sign their names on Fiege’s arm prior to her burial. About one-fourth of her Zionsville graduating class attends IU, Baluyut said. Everyone is shaken up by her death, she said, but it has given the freshman class a new perspective. “I appreciate the chance I’m getting now,” Baluyut said. “It makes me more thankful that I’m here. I’m going to experience it through her.”Rachael Fiege’s mother said her daughter’s death has given her a new outlook on her work as a doctor. “Hopefully this will give me the right words to say to people because I’ve sat in their chair,” Angi Fiege said.She hopes to start a fund in her daughter’s name in order to help other families going through similar tough times, she said. Rachael Fiege is also helping others through her death. Fiege donated her liver, kidneys, aorta and heart valve, her mom said. Because of the cardiac arrest that occurred after her head injuries, her other organs were too vulnerable to donate, Angi Fiege said. “She would’ve given her whole body if she could,” Fiege said. “She even took care of people in the end.”Follow reporter Samantha Schmidt on Twitter @schmidtsam7
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU freshman Rachael Fiege, 19, was taken off of life support and pronounced dead Saturday morning at IU Health Bloomington Hospital after suffering injuries from falling down a staircase early Friday morning.Fiege's parents and doctors determined she had no brain activity at about 3:30 p.m. Friday, Associate Vice President of IU Communications Mark Land said. She was placed on life support, and an organ donation process was initiated soon after.Fiege's death was announced by Dean of Students Pete Goldsmith at 8:06 a.m. Saturday, IU Police Department Interim Chief Laury Flint said. Officials have not yet determined the exact cause of death, except for the result of injuries sustained in the fall, Flint said. Fiege was found unresponsive Friday morning between 1 and 2 a.m. at the bottom of a staircase at a house on the 800 block of North Park Avenue, Flint said. The student who found her called IUPD at 7:48 a.m., and Fiege was transported to the hospital by ambulance at 7:52 a.m.Fiege, of Zionsville, was a pre-nursing major living in Wright Quad. She was at a party when she fell down the stairs. She was discovered quickly, Flint said, but the other students present did not call IUPD until several hours later.“The thought initially was probably that the injury was not as serious as it was,” Flint said.A student found her at the bottom of the stairs and took her to a different location in the house to lie down. After checking that she was unresponsive, the student called IUPD. Alcohol was present at the house party, Flint said, but results from Fiege's toxicology report have not yet returned. No criminal charges are anticipated at this time, she said. Although the house on North Park Avenue is not owned by IU, IUPD responded to the incident because the house is close to campus. IUPD has interviewed other students present at the residence during the incident.“Because we weren’t called until 7:48, we’re trying to backtrack,” Flint said."At this time it's just awful," Flint said. "If there's anything we can learn about this situation is to call for help as soon as something happens."
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dozens of transfer students stepped into the bowling alley Thursday toting old college t-shirts. They left holding cream-and-crimson alternatives. About 80 students gathered at the Indiana Memorial Union Back Alley for the Transfer Student Bowling Night organized by the Office of First Year Experience Programs. Holding her brand new IU shirt, sophomore Chantel Pitts, a transfer student from the University of Iowa, said Welcome Week has made her feel like a freshman again. For junior Eri Rolland, a transfer student from Grand Valley State University in Michigan, it’s helped her find a social campus where she finally feels welcomed, she said. For all students, it’s a time of transition. At a Transfer Student Kick-off meeting Wednesday night, one student asked if the FYE program offered any other events throughout the year specifically for transfer students. The presenters, including sophomore and former transfer student Taylor Millner, encouraged the group to join the Transfer Student Advisory Board that meets every two weeks. But the presenters noted that no other transfer student social events were planned throughout the year — it would be up to the students to get involved on campus. “I came in from a really small school. I was extremely nervous,” Millner said. “Freshman year is when everybody finds each other. That was the biggest challenge.”When sophomore Ari Feldman transferred to IU at the end of last year’s first semester, his biggest hurdle was transferring credits, he said. Feldman used IU’s online Credit Transfer Service to determine which classes would transfer into IU credits. The program reported that all but one of his classes would count as credits toward his major. But once he began registering for classes, he said he realized about 11 credits wouldn’t count toward his major. “It definitely put me back a bit,” Feldman said. “I think the University should do a much better job identifying what those classes actually mean ... It can be very misleading, in my opinion.”Vice Provost of Enrollment Management David Johnson said IU uses a streamlined process through the Credit Transfer Service to articulate to students which classes they should take. “I’m sure some students experience some difficulty, but we want to work to ease their transition,” Johnson said.Feldman, originally from the Chicago area, transferred to IU after last year’s first semester from the University of Miami in Florida. He had loved the natural sciences program and scholarships offered by his former university but wanted to return to a school in the Midwest. As a transfer student, Feldman said he was unable to be admitted directly into the School of Public and Environmental Affairs or the Huttons Honors College until after he completed a semester. Feldman said he was also unable to apply for most IU scholarships because he was a transfer student. Incoming transfer students are ineligible for automatic merit scholarships most freshmen apply for. Although the Office of Scholarships offers a few external scholarships with separate applications, these are highly selective. The only scholarship catering specifically to transfer students, the Phi Theta Kappa Transfer Scholarship, offers a limited number of selective awards for Indiana residents. “For scholarships it kind of sucks to be a transfer student,” Feldman said.Johnson said many transfer students may have chosen to transfer from a less-expensive degree program to save money to come to IU.“We don’t offer as much aid in terms of scholarships as a transfer-in,” Johnson said. “The automatic merit scholarships are focused on our freshmen cohorts to keep them here for four years.”Feldman’s best advice for this year’s class of transfer students is to reach out to advisors within specific degree programs, he said. “They know those specific programs inside and out” Feldman said. “The university won’t necessarily set you up like that.” Associate Director of First Year Experience Programs Emily Arth said her team aims to cater to transfer students’ distinct concerns when they arrive on campus. “The things we talk to freshmen about at orientation, they already heard that at their old school,” Arth said. “Instead they need to know how to do it at IU.” For the last two years, the Office of FYE has implemented an initiative to support the transition process by offering transfer student events aside from new student orientation. “Most people assume it’s just traditional freshmen but almost a thousand transfer students enroll every year,” Arth said. “Their experience is different. They have different needs.”During Welcome Week, transfer students have a Welcome Week assistant to help guide them around campus. The FYE office has also set up times and locations for transfer students to meet to walk to events such as IU Traditions and Spirit. In addition to the bowling night and Transfer Kick-Off Meeting, transfer students have connected through a Facebook group with 199 members. The office also encourages students to meet other transfer students through its mentor program and Advisory Board. This will be the first year the program will offer a campus chapter of Tau Sigma National Honor Society, which is designed specifically for transfer students, Arth said. One of the hardest aspects of transferring is not knowing what questions to ask while going through the process, Feldman said. “It takes a lot of confidence in the decisions you make,” Feldman said. “If you’re at one university, you’re used to their bureaucracy and their way of doing business. You have to really do business for yourself.” Feldman said he was lucky to have friends on campus when he transferred, thanks to his older brother who previously attended IU. “I don’t know if I’d be open to it without knowing people that went here,” Feldman said. Despite his hurdles with credits, Feldman expects to graduate on time. He found his place on campus in the spring racing with the Indiana Cycling team in the Little 500. He also found a group of roommates on the IU classifieds to live with this year. Feldman said he has no regrets with his decision to move to IU, and he doesn’t think this year’s transfer students should either. “Transferring is great,” he said. “Just don’t look back. It’s never a good idea. Just keep moving forward.” Follow reporter Samantha Schmidt on Twitter @schmidtsam7.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Campus Recreational Sports facilities have undergone several renovations in preparation for the new semester. Woodlawn Field has now reopened after a $500,000 construction project that began in June 2012. The former gravel track surrounding the field has been converted to an asphalt running track. The construction process included the installment of new sod, an irrigation system and lighting for both the east and west sides of the field. In the past, only the west side was lit. “It allows us to play later in the evening because we have lights,” said Campus Recreational Sports Associate Director Jackie Puterbaugh.The irrigation system and new lighting will allow for a better playing field for the eight to 12 club and intramural teams that use the space, including soccer, ultimate frisbee, lacrosse and field hockey, Puterbaugh said. “If we didn’t have rain, the fields would just be ruined,” Puterbaugh said. A limestone wall was also constructed around the field on Woodlawn Avenue and 10th Street to make the area look like the rest of campus, said Deputy Vice President of Capital Planning and Facilities Paul Sullivan. This summer, the Wildermuth Intramural Center completed the installment of a new running track surrounding the facility’s ten basketball courts. Graphic panels have also been added to the walls around the track, displaying the different programs offered by Campus Recreational Sports. Epoxy flooring has been installed in the north entrance and racquetball courts, and lighting has been upgraded in the strength and cardio room. In the Student Recreational Sports Center, the roof has been replaced and renovations are wrapping up in the facility’s pools. Due to deterioration over time, pool tiles have been re-caulked during a six-week construction period. The Olympic-size pool will open Monday, and the diving well will open Sept. 2, Puterbaugh said.Renovations have taken place in two basketball courts due to water damage during the summer, Puterbaugh said. Repair costs were covered by insurance. “There was a terrible storm overnight after hours, and water got in,” Puterbaugh said. “A portion of the wood had to be replaced, and those just reopened yesterday.”Several future construction projects are also in the works. Within the next year and a half, renovations are planned for the concrete terrace on the north side of the SRSC. The facility’s locker rooms are also set to be upgraded in order to offer students larger storage space, Puterbaugh said. “We have done a lot of work over the past three years to improve the facilities,” Puterbaugh said. “I think they’re in the best shape they’ve ever been.”Follow Samantha Schmidt on Twitter at @schmidtsam7.
The SAE Indiana Gamma chapter fraternity house opened it's doors Wednesday. Located on North Jordan, the house is designed to look like the fraternity's original house, which burned down in 1969.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity alumni, charter members and construction partners celebrated the unveiling Wednesday of the new Indiana Gamma chapter house on North Jordan Avenue. The house opened on schedule, after 18 months of construction and more than two years of fundraising $1.4 million, said Doug Cassman, an alumni and member of the chapter’s housing corporation. Mark Diedrich, the building’s architect, modeled the limestone house design from the fraternity’s original Jordan Crest Gables house, which opened in 1926 at 108 N. Jordan and burned down in 1969. The theme of the construction campaign, as well as Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, was “rising from the ashes,” representing the rebuilding of both the house and the chapter.In 2002, the chapter closed due to hazing and alcohol violations, and in 2005 the fraternity’s empty house caught fire and was demolished. The chapter received its new charter in 2009 and began the house construction campaign in 2011. Casmman began the ceremony’s speeches, which included comments from national and local construction campaign leaders, as well as from Gamma Chapter President and IU senior Patrick Fagan and Assistant Dean of Students Steve Veldkamp. The active chapter made a construction pledge of $75,000, including contributions from members who would be unable to live in the house, Cassman said. The chapter has more than 100 members and only 68 will be able to live in the house. The living room offers chapter members a fireplace and an 80-inch television, which cost $3,200, said Michael Rodgers, director of the SAE Financial and Housing Corporation. The house also includes a dining room with 85 seats, a basement fitness room, a back balcony dining area and a rear patio.The house is designed in a suite configuration, with four to five beds and one bathroom in each suite. A few projects remain unfinished, Rodgers said, including the addition of a gas fire pit on the back patio. Two marble-carved lions, modeled after a famous library in Vienna, will be installed shortly at the front entrance, along with landscape lighting. Fagan, the chapter’s president, said he believes the house will help SAE continue to grow its involvement and presence on campus. “We’ve been back for a while,” Fagan said. “We’ve known we’ve been back, but I think this is us announcing it to campus. We’re ready to be leaders in the Greek community and we’ve got a platform to do it now.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana University researchers have found a link between tweets and electoral votes in a breakthrough study released Monday. The team examined the percentage of votes for political candidates in the 2010 and 2012 U.S. House of Representatives races, and found election results could be predicted by the percentage of tweets mentioning those candidates. Tweets about a candidate did not need to be positive to correlate with winning votes, said Fabio Rojas, associate professor of sociology and a lead researcher in the study.The researchers were able to correctly predict the winner in almost all of the races they studied, Rojas said. The results were based off 537 million tweets, stored in a database at the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research at IU's School of Informatics and Computing, and date back to 2010. The database is the largest sample of tweets in the world available to academic researchers, according to a press release. The system collects random samples of tweets as they are being written, but cannot access tweets that are privacy protected.For the United States and other democratic nations, the results could lead to an alternative to polling, which is expensive and takes a minimum of two or three days, Rojas said.“There’s been only one way to study elections: in polls,” Rojas said. “You only get a snapshot of what people think ... Now anybody who can program a computer can collect tweets while they’re being written. They can sort it and analyze it and make their own snapshot of an election.”The team began the study in September, after Karissa McKelvey, a co-author and doctoral student with the Complex Networks and Systems Research, approached Rojas with the idea.“It’s really quite striking that a 22 year can change the world of polling,” Rojas said. “It’s exceptionally rare.”Other co-authors include Joseph DiGrazia, a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and Johan Bollen, an associate professor in the School of Informatics and Computing.DiGrazia presented the research at the 108th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, which began Saturday and continues through Tuesday. Rojas said he hopes to continue to use IU’s database to compare twitter data to polls.“We’re really going to try to explore this as much as we can, as fast as we can,” Rojas said. “Indiana will become a central focal point for the study of social media.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana University researchers have found a link between tweets and electoral votes in a breakthrough study released Monday. The team examined the percentage of votes for political candidates in the 2010 and 2012 U.S. House of Representatives races, and found election results could be predicted by the percentage of tweets mentioning those candidates. Tweets about a candidate did not need to be positive to correlate with winning votes, said Fabio Rojas, associate professor of sociology and a lead researcher in the study.The researchers were able to correctly predict the winner in almost all of the races they studied, Rojas said. The results were based off 537 million tweets, stored in a database at the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research at IU's School of Informatics and Computing, and date back to 2010. The database is the largest sample of tweets in the world available to academic researchers, according to a press release. The system collects random samples of tweets as they are being written, but cannot access tweets that are privacy protected.For the United States and other democratic nations, the results could lead to an alternative to polling, which is expensive and takes a minimum of two or three days, Rojas said.“There’s been only one way to study elections: in polls,” Rojas said. “You only get a snapshot of what people think ... Now anybody who can program a computer can collect tweets while they’re being written. They can sort it and analyze it and make their own snapshot of an election.”The team began the study in September, after Karissa McKelvey, a co-author and doctoral student with the Complex Networks and Systems Research, approached Rojas with the idea.“It’s really quite striking that a 22 year can change the world of polling,” Rojas said. “It’s exceptionally rare.”Other co-authors include Joseph DiGrazia, a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology and Joan Bollen, an associate professor in the School of Informatics and Computing.DiGrazia presented the research at the 108th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, which began Saturday and continues through Tuesday. Rojas said he hopes to continue to use IU’s database to compare twitter data to polls.“We’re really going to try to explore this as much as we can, as fast as we can,” Rojas said. “Indiana will become a central focal point for the study of social media.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A group of third grade students wearing cream-and-crimson-striped sunglasses danced in the center of the Assembly Hall basketball court Thursday afternoon. The group of 33 students from the Cold Spring Environmental Magnet School in Indianapolis gave their own rendition of the “This is Indiana” song, gesturing to the five banners on the far wall. They visited the IU campus for a day-long tour organized by third grade teacher Kathryn Sullivan. The students experienced a scavenger hunt tour around campus, ate a complimentary lunch with IU football players, toured the athletics facilities and finished the day with a visit at WonderLab Museum. Since September, Sullivan’s class has been discussing the importance of a college education as part of a college preparation curriculum required in the Indianapolis public school district. Each grade was instructed to choose a university to focus on and Sullivan, a 2012 IU graduate, decided to teach her class about IU. “We started talking about college and what it takes to get in,” Sullivan said. “I decided to introduce them to the ‘This is Indiana’ song. During my four years at IU I felt that my life revolved around that song.” The class became hooked on the song, she said, and they began listening to it every day for four months. “I thought it would be a one-time thing, but it turned into a morning routine,” Sullivan said. “It was a motivational song for them about college.”In January, Sullivan decided to film the class performing their own parody of the song, with the help of Mika Brown, a freelance camera operator for networks such as ESPN and Fox Sports. Daniel Weber, one of the two creators of the original song and video, helped promote the students’ video on Twitter and other social media networks. It has received 41,000 views on Vimeo and almost 1,500 views on YouTube. The group received donations to help fund their trip to IU, and they used their video to spread the word. When the IU Athletics Department, including Coach Tom Crean, saw the video, they decided to work with the Office of the Provost and the IU Visitor Information Center to help bring the class to campus, Assistant Athletic Director Jeremy Gray said. “We understand people are excited about Indiana sports, but to see it inspire a group of kids like that to go to college, it moved a lot of us,” Gray said. “I got a little misty the first time I watched it.”Upon arriving on campus, the students were welcomed at the Sample Gates by Provost Lauren Robel.Later in the day, the students ran into senior Jordan Hulls walking on campus. The students took a picture with the basketball player, and they were ecstatic, Sullivan said. The group wore matching t-shirts with the words “collegebound2022” written on the backs, representing the grade’s graduation date from high school. Amillian Easley, a student in Sullivan’s class, said her favorite part of the day was walking through the Sample Gates. Easley said she would love to attend IU someday. She hopes to get a degree and a job to support her future family, she said. “I want to be a kid’s doctor, a pediatrician I think it’s called,” she said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Linda Smith, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, was awarded the 2013 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, one of the highest honors for scientific achievement by psychologists. Smith is one of three scientists in the nation receiving the annual award, and the third IU faculty member to be given the honor. Richard Shiffrin was the last IU faculty member to receive the award, in 2004. William Estes won the same honor in 1962. The APA is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the U.S, according to a press release. The award, introduced in 1956, recognizes senior scientists for distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology. The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences announced the award Wednesday, but Smith said she first heard the news in December. “I had not known I was nominated, so it was a surprise,” Smith said. “I had already been announced as the Rumelhart Prize winner for 2013, so it was a bit of feeling that I was definitely having a good run.”Smith is only the second woman to earn the Rumelhart Prize, a $100,000 award honoring research in human cognition. Whereas the Rumelhart Prize is strictly for cognitive science, the APA award is for research in psychology, Smith said. Smith was also featured in an inaugural TED-style video talk for a new APA video series by major figures in the field, according to a press release. Her book, “A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action,” has become an influential piece of literature for today’s generation of cognitive scientists, according to the release. Robert Goldstone, also a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences nominated Smith for the award, he said. “Dr. Smith is one of our local treasures at Indiana University,” Goldstone said. “Her research on the development of cognition has transformed both developmental and cognitive psychology.” In their cognitive lab, Smith and her team of researchers have invented engaging tasks that allow toddlers to demonstrate what they know and how they know. The researchers also attach small cameras to the heads of toddler subjects, of ages 1 month to 2 years, in order to observe his or her visual environment. Smith’s findings indicate that a baby’s point of view changes dramatically with development, filtering what the baby learns, she said. “All my work is trying to understand this process, the pathways in which development builds on itself, particularly with respect to those very human abilities related to language,” she said. Other 2013 recipients of the award are Stanford professors Ian Gotlib and Robert Sapolsky. A formal announcement of the award will appear in the April 2013 issue of the American Psychologist and the May 2013 issue of the APA Monitor.The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences faculty and staff are thrilled to have Dr. Smith’s accomplishments recognized by the APA, Goldstone said. “We’ve known for several decades now how important Dr. Smith’s research is,” Goldstone said. “It’s good to see other national and international groups recognizing this too.”
High school senior Tim Mei participates in a daily fitness hour at The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University. Mei will be a freshman at IU in the fall and hopes to apply to the Kelley School of Business.
High school students at theThe Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University participate in their school-wide daily gym class. IU has seen an increase in applicants from similar international high school programs, Director of International Admissions Matt Beatty said.
Students at the international program at The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University take part in their daily fitness hour. Ten students from the high school applied and were admitted to IU this year.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>BEIJING — About 500 students wearing matching blue sweat suits stood in even rows, side by side, facing the instructor at the front of the football field. They turned right, then left, perfectly synchronized, as the work-out instructions were spoken through a megaphone. It was 10 a.m., the daily fitness hour for all students at the Beijing high school, The Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University International School. The international program, called the Project of Global Access (PGA), is a boarding school for students planning to attend universities in English-speaking countries, primarily the United States.Tim Mei, a senior at the high school, will be a freshman at IU in the fall. It will be his first time in the U.S. He discovered IU while researching business school rankings online. He visited the Kelley School of Business website, liked the look of the campus and decided to apply. He has no connections to IU and has not spoken with anyone from the University. Students like Mei often feel uncomfortable with the application process for American universities. Although high school college counselors provide some seminars and assistance, 50 percent of students at the PGA program rely on third-party organizations to help them apply to U.S. universities, Paula Zhou, a college counselor at the high school, said. These students will pay institutions thousands of dollars to translate their essays from Chinese to English and submit them directly to their “dream school,” Zhou said. This trend has been apparent at IU, Director of IU International Admissions Matt Beatty said. He said the University recognizes international applicants will often rely on institutional consultants to help them submit their applications. An IU policy created in February 2011 prohibits the use of commission-based agents “for the purpose of recruiting or enrolling international students.” IU is not allowed to make financial contracts with these agents for recruitment, but international students are allowed to pay institutional consultants for their services, according to the policy. “We hold a neutral stance; we know students will do it,” Beatty said. “It’s difficult to monitor and enforce. Students living overseas might not have a college counselor. It’s a cultural component.”Zhou said she wishes her students didn’t have to rely entirely on rankings, websites and third party organizations in their college search. She said these institutes might misrepresent their PGA program, grading or curriculum to universities. “We can just give them the general information about the University, but students may trust people from universities more than us,” Zhou said. “We want to invite more universities to our school. Our students are desperate to know more.”IU freshman Han Wu graduated from the same boarding school last spring. He came to IU hoping to gain admission to the Kelley School of Business and hired an agent to help him apply. He paid the institution $5,000 for its services and said many of his friends paid agents up to $10,000 in the hopes of being admitted to a top-50-ranked university. “Most students don’t know the process for how to apply and how to write the essays,” Wu said. “We wanted professional people to help.”Wu said he regrets using a third-party organization to apply to college. He wasn’t admitted to his dream school, University of California-Santa Barbara, and he said he now realizes it is a process every student should complete. “I think it is a way to know myself more,” Wu said. “It is a skill that we need to learn, not something someone else can do for us.”Of his friends from China who chose to study abroad, Wu said about a fifth of them attended an international program in high school similar to the PGA program in Beijing. Ten students from the PGA program applied and were admitted to IU this year, significantly more than last year, Zhou said. But IU has not recruited at this specific Beijing high school, which enrolls students from some of the wealthiest families in Beijing. Beatty said the University has seen an increase in Chinese applicants who have studied in similar bilingual high school programs. “A stronger number of those students complete the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and college preparation requirements to study overseas,” Beatty said. The PGA program gives students a foundation in both the required Chinese courses and Global Assessment Certificate (GAC) courses, taught by foreign teachers from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia, Zhou said. The GAC courses aim to model a Western-inspired curriculum, emphasizing verbal English skills and moving away from the traditional exam-based Chinese structure. Students graduating from the program might take half the time to adapt to the U.S. classroom as students from regular Chinese high schools, Zhou said. The nature of the boarding school also helps prepare students for the adjustment. “They have to learn how to share dormitories with other students,” Zhou said. “Their parents are overprotective so they have to learn how to take care of themselves.” If more international students graduated from such programs, Wu said, they would be more prepared for the U.S. academic environment. His practical classes in English, such as business classes, helped prepare him for the culture of U.S. classrooms, he said. But even for students from international high schools, the transition to college life in the U.S. isn’t easy. In the first week of his Introduction to Business class, Wu struggled to keep up with his professor. He would use his phone to record lectures and listen to them later, translating unknown words and pausing when necessary.After one particularly confusing lecture, Wu went to his class period a second time. He needed another chance to understand the material, he said. The challenges are part of why he wanted to study abroad, Wu said.“In China, all we do is answer questions,” Wu said. “That is not what I want. I want to experience more.”