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(04/14/05 4:00am)
There's something wonderfully hypnotic about Jason Molina's voice. It's that well balanced blend of melancholy and hope that slows you down and makes you smile. It's that you-can-listen-to-me-all-night kind of wallowing. In other words, I anoint him Neil Young II.\nAt least, he's sort of the second coming of Young. Young's influence is palpable in both Molina's voice and his guitar, but that's only part of it. Molina, whose music is based on the Secretly Canadian label here in Bloomington, has a sound that's truly his own. \nIn terms of his new release, What Comes After the Blues, you know what you're getting into by the album's cover and title: with a starkly silhouetted bird adorning the album, apparently what comes after the blues is more sadness. But the tracks are not depressing; instead, they're rich and full of an array of emotion and range, including a well placed layering of instruments. Molina's guitar, along with assistance by his band on steel, electric and acoustic guitars, is addicting. Tracks like "Leave The City" and the album's best and first song, "The Dark Don't Hide It," deserve at least a day cued to repeat on your CD or MP3 player.\nWhile What Comes After is an enjoyable slice of Molina, it isn't quite as strong as his previous outings -- audio-indie treasures like Didn't It Rain, Axxess & Ace and Magnolia Electric Co. were all released under the band's original name, Songs: Ohia. (When your music is simply good, I suppose the history of your band's name must be as convoluted as possible.) In his previous works, Molina's lyrics are balanced by his music. Here, on a track like "Hammer Down," Molina's vocals have so much strength his nearly absent acoustic guitar seems lost. Fortunately, it's the album's shortest track. \nThe record's total length is surprisingly short -- just a little over a half-hour -- but it's the old quality-versus-quantity argument. With its soft chords and Molina's gently woebegone voice, What Comes After the Blues is a quality lullaby that can send you off to a peaceful night's rest -- except it's so enchanting that, instead of sleeping, you want to stay awake and keep listening.
(04/14/05 12:43am)
Defying my critic brethren, I could not love Alexander Payne's "Sideways," a buddy road trip filtered through California's wine country for the midlife crisis crowd's palette. I liked it well enough; I wrote in this very newspaper a few months ago that it was "a good movie that wasn't THAT good." If you haven't seen it previously, don't take a chance and buy it. But it's still worth -- in this case -- the rental price. \nIf you haven't seen it, you should. Unfortunately, if you haven't, there's probably no way to escape the hype surrounding the film -- at one point this so-called art house film played in over 1,700 theaters and has cumulatively grossed a cold $70 million at the box office. It picked up a string of Oscar nods (winning Best Adapted Screenplay, which it deserved), landed on a majority of critics' top 10 lists and made such a splash that it actually affected the sales of wine. (Sorry, Merlot.) If these realities alter the way you see the movie, consider me not surprised.\nAs I said, plot-wise, "Sideways" is a grown-up road trip movie. Ambling writer Miles Raymond (Paul Giamatti in a strong performance) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church), whose wedding is a week away, on a journey through California's wine country. There they meet Stephanie (Sandra Oh) and Maya (Virginia Madsen -- bestill my heart), who help the two men explore the delicacies of life, love and friendship. The film is essentially a four-fold character study infused with wine, and the audience is exposed to extremely potent metaphors along the way (for God's sake, I get it: Miles is a bottle of pinot noir). \nThe bonus features on the DVD aren't persuasive enough for me to insist you rush out and rent or buy. There's some commentary by Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church that sounds as if they had a few glasses of wine before showing up to record it. (You might as well enjoy a few glasses yourself while they're at it.) There's also a behind-the-scenes featurette with the director and his cast, as well as a couple deleted scenes. \nFor all the hype and praise that followed the film, don't expect a knockout DVD. At least in this venue, all you're really getting the movie -- a movie that was not among my top 10 films of last year, but certainly among the top 20.
(04/13/05 4:40am)
There's something wonderfully hypnotic about Jason Molina's voice. It's that well balanced blend of melancholy and hope that slows you down and makes you smile. It's that you-can-listen-to-me-all-night kind of wallowing. In other words, I anoint him Neil Young II.\nAt least, he's sort of the second coming of Young. Young's influence is palpable in both Molina's voice and his guitar, but that's only part of it. Molina, whose music is based on the Secretly Canadian label here in Bloomington, has a sound that's truly his own. \nIn terms of his new release, What Comes After the Blues, you know what you're getting into by the album's cover and title: with a starkly silhouetted bird adorning the album, apparently what comes after the blues is more sadness. But the tracks are not depressing; instead, they're rich and full of an array of emotion and range, including a well placed layering of instruments. Molina's guitar, along with assistance by his band on steel, electric and acoustic guitars, is addicting. Tracks like "Leave The City" and the album's best and first song, "The Dark Don't Hide It," deserve at least a day cued to repeat on your CD or MP3 player.\nWhile What Comes After is an enjoyable slice of Molina, it isn't quite as strong as his previous outings -- audio-indie treasures like Didn't It Rain, Axxess & Ace and Magnolia Electric Co. were all released under the band's original name, Songs: Ohia. (When your music is simply good, I suppose the history of your band's name must be as convoluted as possible.) In his previous works, Molina's lyrics are balanced by his music. Here, on a track like "Hammer Down," Molina's vocals have so much strength his nearly absent acoustic guitar seems lost. Fortunately, it's the album's shortest track. \nThe record's total length is surprisingly short -- just a little over a half-hour -- but it's the old quality-versus-quantity argument. With its soft chords and Molina's gently woebegone voice, What Comes After the Blues is a quality lullaby that can send you off to a peaceful night's rest -- except it's so enchanting that, instead of sleeping, you want to stay awake and keep listening.
(04/04/05 5:59am)
By the time Father Dan Atkins took the pulpit for early Sunday mass, everyone knew. By that time, thousands had filled St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, emptied it and filled it again. By that time, there wasn't a television news network that hadn't reported it.\nThe papacy of Pope John Paul II, an ecumenical world force who presided over the Catholic Church for more than a quarter century, ended Saturday, as the ailing pontiff passed away in his Vatican apartment from heart and kidney failure. He was 84.\nHis legacy will be left to inevitable and healthy debate. His total impact on the church will only be seen after years of retrospect. But for Bloomington Catholics, his death prompted a weekend of mourning and prayer.\n"For students, Catholic or not, this is a very important event, considering this is the only pope they've ever known," said Atkins, priest at the St. Paul Catholic Center, 1413 E. 17th St. "He was such a friend to young people. His passing might hit many Catholic students very hard."\nA pope's impact on a young person can be crucial, Atkins said. He referred to Pope John XXIII as "my pope, the Holy Father during my adolescence and youth, and I really look at him with great tenderness." \nIn the death of the pope, Atkins drew a correlation to the loss of a grandparent who had been very significant in a Catholic student's life.\n"In those times," he said, "they feel, in some sense, lost or disoriented when there's an empty place at the head of the table."\nSenior Katie Polei saw John Paul II in Toronto at World Youth Day 2002, a 20-year-old concept created by John Paul as an attempt to reach out to the church's younger parishioners. She noted that the loss of the pope created both sadness and joy.\n"There's joy from the Christian belief that he is in the better place, and there's sadness in the death of a leader, like the death of a president," she explained.\nPolei called John Paul II a pope of "very strict rules, very conservative," but added, "Just to see him at World Youth Day, just to see how young people reacted, was to see how much love and joy they saw through him."\nFather Don Davison of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, 2222 E. Third St., said John Paul II greatly expanded the influence of the papacy, both in the way he handled younger Catholics and how he understood the usefulness of the evolving mass media at the end of the 20th century. John Paul was a pope that understood the value of a picture, Davison said.\n"Where he grew up, in Nazi and communist Poland, what he had to contend with, he knew sometimes you only get one chance to say something," Davison said. \nUnder the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, which convened to evaluate spiritual renewal and to reconsider the position of the church in the modern world, Davison said there was a strong push to embrace media relations and the impact of mass communication.\n"He took those documents very much to heart," Davison said. The result, he added, was near "rock star" status for the pope wherever he went.\nJohn Paul was the relatively unknown Karol Wojtyla, the cardinal of Poland, when he was elected pope Oct. 16, 1978. He was the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years, and would spend the next 26 years -- the third longest tenure in the church's history -- as a strict doctrinal pope, traveling to more than 120 countries while speaking out against communism, abortion and homosexuality and speaking out in favor of peace, disarmament and human rights. \nPolei said she believes the values John Paul II professed will continue with the next pope. \n"Overall, I think you can see -- if you look at the cardinals and leaders that he's appointed -- it's going to continue in his legacy and his beliefs," Polei said. "Any time there's a different change in administration there's going to be changes, but there's a foundation there and there's a tradition."\nAtkins said he hopes the next pope will make steps toward embracing the diversity within the Catholic Church.\n"The next logical step, as I see it, would be to have a pope who's able to reclaim the great gift of diversity that's in the church," Atkins said. "There's been a push in the church toward uniformity -- and that's different from unity. We need not only an appreciation but a celebration of diversity."\nFor Davison, the type of pope the conclave of cardinals select in the next few weeks will be noteworthy.\n"There's a swing in the papacy between the 'historian popes,' that seek change, and the 'philosopher popes,' that don't feel the need to move with the times," Davison said. "Popes John XXIII and Paul VI were historians, for example, and John Paul II was a philosopher. It'll be interesting to see if the cardinals move for a historian or a philosopher, or for a caretaker in between."\nFor the lasting impression of John Paul II, who lies in state this week as funeral preparations begin, Atkins believes his ultimate legacy will be summed up by one word: solidarity.\n"I believe the great gift of John Paul's papacy has been the call to solidarity, both as a world and as a faith," Atkins said. "What the Holy Father showed all of us is that we can do great things with God's help if we just stand together. We gotta keep holding hands."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/23/05 4:38am)
The Bloomington Faculty Council approved without opposition Tuesday a revised version of the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, which includes a provision that will allow the use or possession of alcohol by of-age students in any supervised IU residence.\nThe council broke out into a round of applause following the vote, signifying relief that its role in the revision process -- a nearly two-year-long effort spearheaded by the council's Student Affairs Committee -- is now complete. The new code still needs to go to the University Faculty Council for consideration at its April 12 meeting in South Bend. If approved there, the code must be approved by the IU board of trustees by the summer before it is printed for the fall semester.\nAt nearly 15 printed pages, the revised code is considerably shorter than the original code, which is a 65-page book. \nSimplifying the code was meant to address University-wide concerns and become a broad statement that applies to all IU campuses, said Mary Popp, co-chairwoman of the Student Affairs Committee. All student rights, conduct and responsibilities were retained for the code, and the shortened length is a result of removing the legal procedures and due-process punishment sections, which will appear in a separate code.\nOne of the code's newer provisions includes a minor change to the campus's alcohol policy. Modeled after a proposed amendment by council member and telecommunications professor Herb Terry, Section 23-b of the code allows the "use or possession of alcoholic beverages by persons who are of lawful drinking age" in greek houses, residence halls and apartments.\n"However," the code reads, "use or possession under this section shall be permitted only in residences supervised by a live-in employee specifically charged with policy enforcement."\nAlcohol permission in residences is subject to approval by the dean of students.\nUnder the current code, use or possession of alcoholic beverages in most undergraduate residences, including fraternities and sororities, is prohibited. Designated housing restricted to those who are 21 or older can be approved by the dean of students. Eigenmann Hall, Willkie Quad, family housing and on-campus apartments presently allow those of legal age to have alcohol.\nAdditionally, against the urging of the University Counsel's office, the council deleted a suggested provision from the code that would have barred attorneys from participating or being present at any stage of student disciplinary procedures.\nBecause the code's procedures are only administrative, and not legal, some council members believed lawyers would be unnecessary for any proceedings.\nThe board eventually voted by a large margin in a voice vote to delete the line. Council member Robert Kravchuk proposed the deletion after it became clear that student judicial proceedings are kept on record and could possibly be the target of a subpoena.\n"Students should have comparable counsel to avoid going on the record about something that could possibly be subpoenaed," Kravchuk said. "There should be the option of having one present."\nTerry said barring any attorneys from the proceedings could prove problematic, especially if a student's parents -- who are sometimes known to attend student judicial hearings -- have a law degree, or if a professor with lawyer privileges must be present for the hearing.\nLaw professor and council member Craig Bradley said he thought the provision was "perfectly reasonable" to ensure some students who can afford an attorney do not get a different hearing than those who cannot. But Bradley said deleting the provision seemed unobjectionable considering the code still prohibits any adviser or support person from participating in the hearing, only serving as counsel.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/22/05 5:34am)
Jamie Belanger, considered to be the youngest non-student ever to serve on the IU board of trustees, has decided he will not seek a second term when his present term ends this summer. \nBelanger -- who, in 2002, was elected by alumni only two years after he graduated IU with a degree in finance -- currently holds one of the three elected positions to the board. His decision to step aside clears the way for Trustee Patrick Shoulders, who was appointed to the board in 2002, to run for the open elected position. \nManeuvering to allow for Shoulders to run for the seat was the primary rationale for his decision, Belanger said. \nUnder state law, IU has nine trustees, three of whom are elected for three-year terms by alumni. The remaining six trustees are appointed and re-appointed directly by the governor, and all current appointees were placed on the board by Democratic governors.\nBelanger said it appeared to him as if Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, might not reappoint Shoulders or Board President Fred Eichhorn.\n"After the gubernatorial election, it became pretty clear we'd be going through quite a bit of turnover," Belanger said. "When Mitch Daniels appoints new trustees, you're going to possibly have a lot of trustees with less than one year of experience on the board."\nFormer Gov. Joe Kernan appointed two trustees last year. Daniels will possibly have the chance to appoint up to three new trustees this summer -- someone to fill Shoulders' seat, the next student trustee seat and either reappointing Eichhorn or filling his seat with someone else.\nBelanger said he believed "the University would be better served" if Shoulders or Eichhorn ran in his place.\n"Having worked with both Fred and Pat, they're just amazing trustees and tremendous assets," Belanger said. "I really felt that with all the turnover, one of them should run as the incumbent, so to speak. IU would be better served with one of them continuing."\nEichhorn said he had "no idea" if Daniels would reappoint him to the board. But he did say he believed Shoulders was very popular among alumni who will be successful in the race for Belanger's seat.\nEichhorn said he believed Belanger had been an "excellent trustee," a studious and involved board member who has "studied all the issues very carefully."\nRobin Gress, secretary to the board of trustees, said a student trustee search committee reviewed all the submitted applications and will interview 18 candidates on April 8 and 9 in Indianapolis. Ten names will be submitted to the governor, and he will select one for the board.\nBelanger, now 27 and an analyst with Proctor and Gamble in Cincinnati, said he will seek to play a more active part in the IU Alumni Association following his exit from the board. He said his decision to step aside will also provide him with more time to spend with his wife, who is expecting their first child.\n"I use all of my vacation days to attend the board meetings and various functions," Belanger laughed. "So it'll be nice that regard, but that really wasn't the deciding factor. It was well-worth the time commitment to serve the University as a member of the board."\nSuch a commitment though, Belanger said, has made his experience on the board "extremely positive." When asked to identify the most important thing that occurred during his tenure, Belanger said without a doubt it was the board's selection of Adam Herbert as IU's president. \n"It's the biggest decision we make as a board of trustees, and it was extremely humbling," Belanger said.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/22/05 5:02am)
It's taken two different search committees and a two-year nationwide hunt to find someone to replace Trevor Brown, the outgoing dean of the IU School of Journalism.\nIt won't take three.\nBradley Hamm, an associate dean of the School of Communications at Elon University in North Carolina, has been recommended to fill the shoes of Brown, who will retire at the end of this school year after leading the journalism school for 20 years.\nBefore taking the reins, Hamm still needs approval from the IU board of trustees. They are expected to finalize his appointment at the April meeting.\n"I think it's an exciting time. I'm honored that they chose me," Hamm said. "I believe that the journalism school has a tremendous future. And it has such a history." \nIU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis made the final recommendation Monday. Gros Louis said he received recommendations from both the journalism dean search committee and the faculty. On Friday, he and IU President Adam Herbert discussed the selection of Hamm.\nHamm was a co-finalist with Christine Martin, the former dean of the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism at West Virginia University.\n"Both of the finalists I thought were very good," Gros Louis said. "I guess I felt that he seemed to fit in better with what I think of as the Bloomington culture and what I think of the journalism faculty. There's just sort of a gut feeling with (who) you think and feel would fit in best."\nHamm served as interim dean at Elon's School of Communications for one year and has served as associate dean since 2001. The Elon School of Communication, which includes journalism, broadcasting, film, advertising and public relations, is roughly comparable to the size of IU's School of Journalism. Elon is the third largest private college in North Carolina, following Duke and Wake Forest.\nHamm worked as a sports writer in the 1980s for The Salisbury Post in Salisbury, N.C. After completing graduate school, he worked as a broadcast editor for The Associated Press in South Carolina, covering the 1988 election in the state.\nHamm changed paths and decided to focus on journalism education after acquiring his master's degree at the University of South Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in mass communication research from the University of North Carolina in 1996. Hamm has taught at Elon since 1989 and was appointed as an assistant professor in 1995.\nDan Drew, associate dean of IU journalism graduate studies and the chairman of the journalism dean search committee, said Hamm had strong support from the committee and alumni. He fulfilled what Drew called "a nice balance."\n"He's had significant professional experience, strong administrative experience and good academic experience," Drew said. "He had the nice balance we were looking for."\nHamm said one of the issues he plans to focus on when he arrives at IU is faculty recruitment. He said because a number of senior journalism faculty members will retire in the next five to seven years, it gives IU a chance to reel in premium professors.\nGros Louis said he hopes Hamm will be aggressive in hiring faculty, especially in bringing high profile figures in journalism to the IU program. At Elon, Hamm recruited a Pulitzer Prize winner and the president of the American Journalism Historians Association for the school's faculty. \n"He has been very successful at enhancing the diversity of the faculty at Elon," Gros Louis said, suggesting emphasis of that hiring scheme here. \nA quarter of Elon's new hires were minorities, and half were women. \nHamm also has a strong interest in international programs, which he said journalism students should embrace.\n"I think students, journalism students especially, can benefit from time in another culture," Hamm said. "There's a wonderful study abroad program at IU, and we want to be a big player in the international education of journalists."\nHamm said he hopes to bring the lessons he's learned at Elon to IU with him. Though he's leaving Elon, it will hold a place in his heart.\n"Elon -- it's a special place," Hamm said. "There's no doubt that only a place such as Indiana would cause me to move. There are very few programs in the nation that I would go to besides staying at Elon."\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/10/05 5:00am)
Wine had a stigma once upon a time.\nAnyone who drank it was seen as a pretentious, self-absorbed and erudite snob who used words like "erudite" and preferred to be called an enophile instead of what others all knew they really were: a manic lush. \nMeanwhile, anyone who didn't drink wine was seen as an ignorant, lowbrow and uncivilized fool with no appreciation for the finer things in life and who settled for cheap beer and hard liquor because others thought they were too narrow-minded to expand their tastes.\nTruth be told, that stigma still exists. But wine is, more and more, becoming less stigmatized, especially in college communities.\nOver the past 10 to 15 years, the wine scene in America has uncorked. Wineries and vineyards have sprouted up in New England and Napa Valley, in the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, including Bloomington and south-central Indiana where a current wine festival featuring the crop of seven different wineries continues March 12 and 13. \nWine-tasting and wine-drinking are expanding -- a fact that some wine lovers say is due in part to changing science and attitudes about food and cuisine. And, they say, it's probably due in part to a wine-tasting, road-trip romp that scored big with audiences last year.
(03/09/05 5:51am)
Wine had a stigma once upon a time.\nAnyone who drank it was seen as a pretentious, self-absorbed and erudite snob who used words like "erudite" and preferred to be called an enophile instead of what others all knew they really were: a manic lush. \nMeanwhile, anyone who didn't drink wine was seen as an ignorant, lowbrow and uncivilized fool with no appreciation for the finer things in life and who settled for cheap beer and hard liquor because others thought they were too narrow-minded to expand their tastes.\nTruth be told, that stigma still exists. But wine is, more and more, becoming less stigmatized, especially in college communities.\nOver the past 10 to 15 years, the wine scene in America has uncorked. Wineries and vineyards have sprouted up in New England and Napa Valley, in the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest, including Bloomington and south-central Indiana where a current wine festival featuring the crop of seven different wineries continues March 12 and 13. \nWine-tasting and wine-drinking are expanding -- a fact that some wine lovers say is due in part to changing science and attitudes about food and cuisine. And, they say, it's probably due in part to a wine-tasting, road-trip romp that scored big with audiences last year.
(03/08/05 5:32am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- IU President Adam Herbert and the presidents of other public universities testified before the Indiana Senate Appropriations Committee Monday and pitched their arguments for why their respective schools should receive consistent funding during tight economic times. \n"We are all aware of the difficult task you and your colleagues face and of Gov. (Mitch) Daniels' emphasis on balancing the state budget," Herbert told the committee. "Our budget request is a modest, formula-driven request where we tried to balance the state's economic situation with our most pressing needs."\nAs the state tries to stall excessive spending in an attempt to balance the budget and lacerate the ballooning budget deficit, Herbert went before the committee to press what he called IU's "top priority": the full funding of the University's technological research.\n"It is important we also not forget that there is a vital role that our research universities play in this state, and we need your support to reach the aspirations you have set," Herbert testified. "Last year our faculty members brought to Indiana more research contracts and grants than ever before. We want to double our total research dollars by the end of the decade, and it's a very aggressive goal." \nHerbert testified IU has been focused on operating as efficiently as possible, including "belt-tightening" within the University.\nFifty-five percent of last year's $413 million research money came from federal agencies, Herbert said. He added that IU wants to work closer with Daniels to secure more federal funding for the state, and noted the key is consistent state funding now to help IU researchers qualify for federal money in the future\nSenate Appropriations Chairman Bob Meeks, R-LaGrange, said the Senate's budget committee, as well as the relevant committees in the Indiana House of Representatives, have heard arguments from universities pertaining to state funding. He said his committee heard arguments Monday because they wanted "to get a better feel for what their needs are." \nHerbert told the committee that in addition to the research money the University is seeking, it also has concerns about supporting enrollment growth on IU's regional campuses and repair and rehabilitation funding. \nFollowing his testimony, Herbert said if the state cuts back too far on funding it could damage the streak of success the University has had. \n"The bottom line is you lose momentum," Herbert said. \nThe implications for students, including any potential tuition increases, will not be known for another few months. \n"It's still early," said J.T Forbes, director of state relations for IU. \nThe state government's budget process should conclude in April, Forbes said. The IU board of trustees will not consider any possible tuition increases until the budget has been passed and the University knows how much funding it will receive from the state.\nThat could come as early as the trustees' May meeting. \nIU Spokesman Larry MacIntyre said about 75 percent of IU's funding comes from tuition and about 25 percent comes from the state.\nRepeating an announcement that he made at the trustees' meeting Friday, Herbert told the committee that IU will plan host a public forum April 13 in Bloomington to discuss tuition and mandatory fees for 2005-06 school year. Those interested will have an opportunity to call in or e-mail questions and comments on the tuition and fee proposals. \nThat forum will be broadcast on the Internet and will be telecast to the administration and the public at each of IU's eight campuses.\nThe focus now, however, strongly remains with securing adequate revenue for research projects and not struggle with deep problems that other states have experienced.\n"If we can move out of this without a cut, that'd be a victory compared to other states," Forbes said.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/07/05 6:05am)
The cost of Bloomington campus housing is going up again.\nConcluding its monthly meeting Friday in the Indiana Memorial Union, the IU board of trustees unanimously approved an average increase of 3.55 percent in the cost of all dorms and on-campus apartments for the next school year.\nMost housing rates will shake out at slightly more than the average increase, and some will be fall below. Forest Co-op, Ashton-Mason and Willkie Quad will feel a 2 percent increase for next year, or roughly a $75 increase. All other dorms will increase 4 percent, roughly a $161 increase.\nThe price of on-campus apartments will rise by 1 percent, but their rates vary building-to-building and an average monetary increase was not calculated.\n"While this board never likes to increase rates, we really did get a proposal that, if we at least have to raise them, there's a damn good reason why," said trustee Patrick Shoulders, chairman of the board's Finance and Audit Committee.\nAccording to a report prepared for the trustees by Vice Chancellor of Auxiliary Services Bruce Jacobs, the cost of IU's room-and-board rates is the third lowest in the Big Ten. Only Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State have rates lower than IU, and among public universities in Indiana, IU's room-and-board rates are lower than both Purdue and Ball State.\nEven with next year's increase, the document says, IU will continue to rank among the three lowest room-and-board rates in the Big Ten.\nThe cost of meal plans will also increase under the measure the trustees approved Friday. But it is the first increase in those plans in four years, prompting Shoulders to quip: "Find something else that hasn't gone up in four years."\nThe weighted average increase for meal plans will be 3.84 percent, which the report says reflects the climbing prices of "compensation, food cost per item and associated supplies and expenses."\nAdditionally, the board heard an argument from Eric Zeemering, the moderator of the Graduate and Professional Student Organization, for providing dental insurance to graduate and professional students on the Bloomington campus.\nZeemering told the board that the GPSO, which serves in an analogous role to graduate student that IUSA serves to undergraduates, has been providing Bloomington graduates with a series of "coffee talks" and workshops to address professional topics, such publishing academic books.\nBut, Zeemering added, IU can do better on its part to help provide dental insurance. IU is currently one of two institutions in the Big Ten that does not have some type of dental plan for their student academic appointees.\n"Imagine yourself as a graduate employee of this University, earning about $10,000 per year, maybe $12,000, facing the bill for a dental cleaning, a root canal and a crown," Zeemering said. "I think you would agree this huge expense would be personally and economically devastating for the student."\nTo stay competitive in the recruitment of high-quality graduate students, just as the University attempts to stay competitive in attracting high-quality faculty, Zeemering said IU must provide "attractive compensation packages."\nIU provides a basic health insurance plan for graduate and professional students, and provides health and dental insurance for faculty. Trustee Shoulders told Zeemering he thought the board should look at a proposal from IU to include dental insurance plans.\n"Don't get your hopes up, we probably can't afford it. But we should at least take a look at the cost," Shoulders said. \nThe trustees also approved the IU Foundation to lease the long-abandoned Beta Theta Pi fraternity house located between the School of Informatics and the Geology School on 10th Street.\nThe four-story, fraternity chapter house will be leased over the next 20 years at an annual rent of $155,362.\nLast month the trustees approved the IU Foundation to lease the Kappa Alpha Psi house on the Jordan Avenue extension. Lynn Coyne, assistant vice president for University real estate and economic development, has said the foundation plans to make the empty fraternities available for student housing, either through a lease to a greek organization or to Residential Programs and Services.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/04/05 6:47am)
Indiana law requires some state institutions to conduct background checks on their potential or current employees. Whether IU is one of these institutions, no one really knows right now.\nThat ambiguity was a particular sore spot Thursday afternoon as the IU board of trustees took up the issue of criminal background checks for IU faculty and staff on the first day of its monthly meeting.\nThe board reached no consensus, but IU board of trustees President Fred Eichhorn said he thought the proposal was "clearly a work in progress" that would require more discussion and more clarification.\nHe was unsure if the trustees would consider it at their next meeting or at a later date.\nUnder Indiana law, performing background checks is dependent on whether a state institution is defined as a "body politic" or a "body corporate." In the first case, the state requires background checks; in the latter, it does not.\nIU is defined as a body politic, but some other state universities -- Purdue and Ball State, most notably -- are not. Others still are defined as both a body politic and a body corporate, and some IU officials question whether universities were ever meant to be included in the background check law in the first place.\nIU has required system-wide background checks on staff and hourly employees since July 2004. William Plater, the dean of faculties for IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, told the board that his campus has gone further and has been conducting comprehensive criminal background checks on all new academic employees, in addition to staff and hourly employees.\nPlater said IUPUI requires background checks for medical, nursing, education and social work faculty members because they work in close proximity with "vulnerable populations," such as children or the elderly.\nDorothy Frapwell, IU's legal counsel, said there is disagreement with defining the University's position within the statute. But the more important issue now, Frapwell told the board, was determining whether IU wants to consider conducting background checks on one of three levels -- checks on all faculty and staff, limited checks on faculty and staff or no checks at all.\nSome trustees expressed support for the measure.\nTrustee Steve Ferguson said he feels the background checks are part of an obligation a university has to its student body. \n"I think we all have a responsibility to every child that steps on this campus and to every parent to make sure they are safe, and a responsibility not to hire somebody that isn't," Ferguson said. "I think the reputation of the University on the whole is to require that safety."\nTrustee Sue Talbot said she strongly believes before the board makes any movement to consider background checks, there needs to be a clear definition of the law. She also expressed her concern for student safety on campus.\n"I do think we need to be very clear with what we're doing," Talbot told the board. "I also think we have a definite obligation. All students are vulnerable, I don't care what age. Whenever they're having one-on-one office hours, trust me, they're vulnerable."\nBloomington Faculty Council representatives David Daleke and Ted Miller emphasized that faculty are not against background checks but would rather see criminal checks performed for "only those positions where it is appropriate."\nAdditionally, aside from the costs of the checks -- estimated by University officials at $150,000 a year for the Bloomington campus alone if the checks included associate instructors -- the BFC representatives said there was also a concern that exhaustive background checks might create a negative perception about working at IU.\nToday at their business meeting, the trustees will consider whether to lease to the IU Foundation the abandoned Beta Theta Pi fraternity house, 919 E. 10th St., which was tabled at their meeting last month. A tentative agenda also includes approval for the IU-Bloomington residence halls housing rates for 2005-06, which was debated Thursday by the board of trustees' Finance and Audit Committee. \n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/03/05 3:07pm)
Four depositions filed Tuesday in Monroe County Circuit Court suggest that as early as May 2000 the IU board of trustees were prepared for former men's basketball coach Bob Knight to be fired, but former IU President Myles Brand resisted and convinced them otherwise. \nBrand would go on to fire Knight in September 2000 for violating a "zero tolerance" behavioral policy when Knight angrily grabbed a freshman by the arm. Still, in his sworn testimony, Brand said at the beginning of the May meeting most of the trustees were leaning toward termination and told him the final decision on Knight's future was Brand's.\n"The trustees said, 'It was your decision,'" Brand testified. "They expressed opinions about what the decision should be, but in the same breath, they said it was my decision." \nThe deposition by Brand -- dated June 18, 2002 -- and the depositions of former IU trustee Peter Obremsky, current trustee Steve Ferguson and former Director of IU Police Department James Kennedy -- all taken Nov. 2, 2004 -- are part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by 46 IU basketball fans alleging Brand violated Indiana law when he consulted with the trustees privately before firing Knight.\nAt issue are two different meetings. The first, an executive session held May 14, 2000, occurred following the incident when Knight was accused of choking a basketball player after practice. Brand said in his deposition at the beginning of that meeting many of the trustees wanted Knight canned.\nBut, Brand said, he explained to the trustees his idea to suspend Knight for three games and create a zero-tolerance policy to rein in the coach. The next day Brand publicly announced the policy.\nBrand, now the president of the NCAA, said in his testimony that he had "no recollection whatsoever of a vote" by the trustees at the May meeting about terminating Knight, only individual opinions from the trustees.\nIn court documents, the plaintiffs allege such a vote might have taken place.\nBrand consulted the trustees again during a football game weekend, held Sept. 9, 2000, a few days before their monthly board meeting scheduled to take place in New Albany, Ind. Brand said he decided not to wait for the trustees' meeting because of increasing media attention and because he wanted the board to learn about former IUPD Director Kennedy's investigation.\nThe plaintiffs believe state law was intentionally skirted at the September meeting.\nIndiana's Open Doors Law defines a public session as a meeting of a group's majority. IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said the University continues to hold its position that because the nine-member board met with Brand in two groups of four trustees, with no majority present at either meeting, the meetings were not considered public, and therefore the law was not broken.\nBrand testified that he knew of the state's Open Doors Law, that he knew a meeting with five or more trustees would constitute an abridgement of the law and that he sought the advice of IU counsel Dorothy Frapwell. He admitted he instructed the trustees to come in two separate groups "to exclude any impropriety with respect" to the law.\nA Bloomington attorney representing the fans, Roy Graham, said the plaintiffs contend IU "illegally fired Bob Knight" in the private meetings. Graham said he also believes Brand's testimony about Kennedy's involvement in the meetings seems to contradict the accounts from Ferguson, Obremsky and Kennedy.\n"They violated the Open Doors Law," Graham said, "and the behavior that they have admitted to in their depositions is the exact same behavior that the Ohio Supreme Court said was illegal." \nGraham noted Ohio has an Open Doors Law similar to Indiana's.\nBased on the depositions, Graham confirmed that he and leading prosecuting attorney Gojko Kasich have requested a supplemental summary judgment of the case in which the judge might rule in their favor before a trial begins.\nSpecial Judge Cecile Blau, of Clark county, was appointed to the case by the chief justice of Indiana Supreme Court in 2000. Blau will either grant summary judgment or continue to preside over the case if it is scheduled a hearing.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/03/05 5:00am)
An acquaintance, who shall remain nameless because I value his privacy as much as I can't remember his last name, saw David O. Russell's so-called existential comedy "I Heart Huckabees" upon my eager recommendation. Long story short, he didn't like it. Afterward he and I had a heated discussion in which he blamed me, among other things, for "talking it up too much, like you did with 'Lost in Translation.'"\nIt's a hard and fast rule of film criticism that anytime you recommend to someone that they see a movie, you run the risk of talking it up too much and perhaps setting the bar too high. I thought my exaltation of "Huckabees" was neither unwarranted nor excessive, especially since it had such a chilly reception from most audiences across the country. \nIt'd be tempting then to tell you how much I hated "Huckabees" so you weren't to feel as if I'm raising your expectations. But I cannot: this movie, one of the 10 best of last year, is simply too original, too audacious and too funny for me to hold back any blessings.\nThere's no clean way to summarize the unpredictable nature of the film. Its main character, a fraught environmentalist played by Jason Schwartzman, is seeking the guidance of "existential detectives," played with humorous grace by Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman. Along the way his crisis intertwines a disenchanted post-Sept. 11 firefighter (Mark Wahlberg, in a fantastic performance) and a gloss-covered corporate executive (Jude Law). Of all the charges levied against "Huckabees," perhaps the most puzzling to me is that it's an elitist film demanding to be over-analyzed. Of course there's a lot of complex philosophy in the movie, most of which would only be discussed in the presence of a bong, but the film laughs at this philosophy -- the overcomplicating of life's simple things. It's only "elitist" if you don't want to watch movies that make you at least think a little. \nI suggest if you're going to buy the film, buy the two-disc special edition instead of the regular edition. It costs a little more, but the goodies on the special edition are extensive: one commentary by director Russell and another commentary with Schwartzman, Wahlberg and Naomi Watts (who plays Law's supermodel girlfriend); a segment of "The Charlie Rose Show" with discussion about the movie; 22 deleted and extended scenes and a music video of Jon Brion's "Knock Yourself Out," that catchy song from all the film's advertisements. \nBut if you're not going to buy the film, at least rent it -- even if you have to take the chance that I've talked it up too much, it's still worth your time.
(03/02/05 6:46am)
The Bloomington Faculty Council overwhelmingly approved a resolution Tuesday for a three-year renewal of IU's subscription to the plagiarism-detection service TurnItIn.com. Both BFC undergraduate student representatives voted against the measure.\nIUSA Vice President of Operations Scott Norman and Vice President of Administration Jesse Laffen were among the few "nays" in a voice-vote Tuesday afternoon. Their opposition stemmed from the absence of what they called "stronger language" in the resolution supporting the educational usage of the service and explaining the rules of citation and plagiarism.\n"We sincerely believe using TurnItIn without strong educational provisions is like posting speed limits without giving students speedometers," Laffen said.\nIn an attempt to alleviate concerns, the BFC's Educational Policies Committee adjusted the proposal to include a provision stating that the Dean of Faculties office should notify all instructors each semester of their responsibilities regarding academic integrity and the prevention of cheating and plagiarism.\nBefore the vote, William Wheeler, chairman of the Educational Policies Committee, read numerous faculty testimonials from the service, all of which praised TurnItIn as helpful for grading and as an effective way to lessen the temptation to plagiarize. \nAccording to statistics released at the Feb. 15 BFC meeting, 88 percent of faculty who used and evaluated the service rated it positively.\nGraduate students were also pleased with TurnItIn. Eric Zeemering, one of the council's graduate student representatives, said the testimonials he received from fellow associate instructors were favorable.\n"All of the respondents were enthusiastic about continuing the TurnItIn service," Zeemering told the council. "Not just to catch cheating, but to help students learn."\nBoth Laffen and Norman said they want to preserve academic integrity and restrict plagiarism. But because IUSA wanted stronger language inserted into the bill to stipulate the service's educational use, they were left disappointed with the measure.\nNorman said IUSA isn't too concerned that the service will continue without any educational provisions introduced further down the line, yet TurnItIn won't be a cure-all.\n"TurnItIn isn't going to fix academic misconduct," Norman said. "Educational programs will." \nThe three-year lease to TurnItIn, paid in yearly installments with the potential of university discounts, will total about $74,300.\nThe BFC also began discussion surrounding the streamlined IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct. Bradley Levinson, co-chairman of the Student Affairs Committee, said his committee had hoped to have a vote taken Tuesday on the entire code, but numerous unresolved issues arrested such a move.\nA vote to adopt the code, which if passed will then go to the University Faculty Council and eventually the IU board of trustees, is scheduled for the March 22 meeting.\nAmong the more contentious segments in the code were an amendment to redefine alcohol possession in on-campus housing and the phrasing involving restrictions on faculty-student amorous or sexual relationships.\nAn amendment by telecommunications professor Herb Terry would allow the use or possession of alcohol by students of legal age in places of residence -- including greek houses -- but only when supervised by live-in employees, for example Residential Programs and Services-supervised dorms such as Willkie Quad, which allows alcohol use and possession. \nCouncil members neither voiced adamant opposition nor outspoken support for the amendment. Dean of Students Richard McKaig said the amendment "may extend University liability and authority further than is institutionally prudent" and could create a "large burden" on an enforcer.\nBefore such a clause is adopted, council members agreed there would have to be fairly clear guidelines.\nThe council also voted 17 to 15 to retain a sentence in the suggested wording of the relationships clause of the student code. That sentence -- "All amorous or sexual relationships between faculty members and students are unacceptable when the faculty member has direct professional responsibility for the student" -- sparked debate about whether there would be a universal understanding of what is direct or indirect and what kind of relationships would be allowed. \nThe relationships clause references students to the IU Code of Academic Ethics, which governs faculty-student relations. The council recommended the Student Affairs Committee possibly consider inserting the specific language from that code into the student code of rights for accessibility.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams ajsams@indiana.edu.
(03/02/05 4:46am)
An acquaintance, who shall remain nameless because I value his privacy as much as I can't remember his last name, saw David O. Russell's so-called existential comedy "I Heart Huckabees" upon my eager recommendation. Long story short, he didn't like it. Afterward he and I had a heated discussion in which he blamed me, among other things, for "talking it up too much, like you did with 'Lost in Translation.'"\nIt's a hard and fast rule of film criticism that anytime you recommend to someone that they see a movie, you run the risk of talking it up too much and perhaps setting the bar too high. I thought my exaltation of "Huckabees" was neither unwarranted nor excessive, especially since it had such a chilly reception from most audiences across the country. \nIt'd be tempting then to tell you how much I hated "Huckabees" so you weren't to feel as if I'm raising your expectations. But I cannot: this movie, one of the 10 best of last year, is simply too original, too audacious and too funny for me to hold back any blessings.\nThere's no clean way to summarize the unpredictable nature of the film. Its main character, a fraught environmentalist played by Jason Schwartzman, is seeking the guidance of "existential detectives," played with humorous grace by Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman. Along the way his crisis intertwines a disenchanted post-Sept. 11 firefighter (Mark Wahlberg, in a fantastic performance) and a gloss-covered corporate executive (Jude Law). Of all the charges levied against "Huckabees," perhaps the most puzzling to me is that it's an elitist film demanding to be over-analyzed. Of course there's a lot of complex philosophy in the movie, most of which would only be discussed in the presence of a bong, but the film laughs at this philosophy -- the overcomplicating of life's simple things. It's only "elitist" if you don't want to watch movies that make you at least think a little. \nI suggest if you're going to buy the film, buy the two-disc special edition instead of the regular edition. It costs a little more, but the goodies on the special edition are extensive: one commentary by director Russell and another commentary with Schwartzman, Wahlberg and Naomi Watts (who plays Law's supermodel girlfriend); a segment of "The Charlie Rose Show" with discussion about the movie; 22 deleted and extended scenes and a music video of Jon Brion's "Knock Yourself Out," that catchy song from all the film's advertisements. \nBut if you're not going to buy the film, at least rent it -- even if you have to take the chance that I've talked it up too much, it's still worth your time.
(03/01/05 5:27am)
The first thing you might notice when you pick up the proposed revisions to the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct is that it's shorter.\nMuch shorter. Fifty-one pages shorter. \nAnd for Mary Popp, chairwoman of Bloomington Faculty Council's Student Affairs Committee, it's taken a long time to get it that way. \n"The last time we tried to revise it, really in earnest, was about 1 1/2 to almost two years ago," Popp said. At that time, the IU board of trustees ratified chiefly cosmetic changes to the code regarding the increased presence of technology on campus. \n"But the code has gotten too long and too unwieldy," she added, "so we decided to make it shorter so that someone will actually read it."\nThe new 14-page code -- IU's skeletal outline of the basic rights, responsibilities and expectations of all students and student groups -- takes its first step toward adoption today, when the BFC will be the first organization to debate potential changes to the code.\nSome potentially topics are particularly likely to draw attention at today's meeting. The council is expected to discuss sections of the code addressing off-campus misconduct, information about cheating and plagiarism, a recommendation to allow alcohol to be consumed by legal drinkers in campus living areas and word choice in a provision defining amorous relationships between faculty and students. \nThe BFC is scheduled to vote on the entire code at its March 22 meeting. After that, the University Faculty Council and the trustees will have to approve the code by the end of this summer so it can be printed and distributed for the fall semester. Simplifying the code is meant to address multiple system-wide concerns, Popp said. The committee wants to ensure the code is intended to be a broad statement that applies to all IU campuses, not just branch campuses following Bloomington's lead.\n"One of the things that complicates our code is it has to be written for all of the campuses," Dean of Students Richard McKaig said. "The level of complexity you get on the Bloomington campus frankly makes no sense at all on the Kokomo or Southeast campuses."\nThe drafting committee would like each campus to develop its own procedural code for student complaints and student discipline to fit its size and necessity. These due process procedures diagram the course of action a student must take to file a complaint related to any violation of the code, as well as disciplinary action against a student.\nPopp said she was unsure whether the procedural code would become available in separate printed documents for students or whether IU might utilize a Web-based interface.\n"We don't want it to be more like a tax code than a student code," McKaig said. "I think it will be an improvement when all is said and done, but if I have any anxiety at all in the process of simplifying, it's that we not lose something for student rights and not make it more difficult for students to find out what their rights are."\nIn eliminating the procedural process, another Big Ten school's code -- the University of Michigan's -- served as a guiding tool.\n"What I noticed in studying the University of Michigan code," McKaig said, "or what they call the code in Michigan, is really only a portion of what we were calling a code. The procedures sections were not in their code and were in separate documents."\nRemoving the legal procedures sections considerably shortened the code and allowed the committee to clarify its language.\nTo achieve this clarity, they sought student input, spearheaded by IUSA. Scott Norman, vice president for the IUSA Congress, said the Congress spent 2 1/2 hours going through the proposed revision, almost line-by-line.\n"We don't know when the code is going to be revised again," Norman said. "Any changes that students want to be made need to be done now."\nBrian Clifford, chief justice of the Student Body Supreme Court, said it wasn't feasible to get all the students to submit concerns or comments regarding the revisions, so IUSA surveyed the larger student groups to catch a narrowed glimpse of campus-wide concerns. \nStudents have responded, Clifford said, but not overwhelmingly to provide input on what he called "perhaps the most important document for students in the University community."\n"Your right to protest, the student government, whether you can drink on campus, issues of academic misconduct -- anything about student life that isn't related to class or your grade -- is going to be contained in this document," Clifford said.\nNorman said students voiced concerns about racial and political discrimination, the campus's alcohol policy, double-jeopardy off-campus behavior policies -- in which a student can be penalized by both the University and the city of Bloomington -- and strictly defining plagiarism and paraphrasing. And students can continue to give input all the way up to consideration by the trustees this summer, Clifford noted.\n"It's a process. The fact of the matter is the University and the administration set a lot of the policies, but the students have a lot of power, too, because they're the ones paying the tuition and the professors," Clifford said. "I think IU is unique in the weight they give to the student voice. They really look at the comments students have and student government has. They look at it as if it's another administrator talking to them." \n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(02/24/05 5:00am)
In István Szabó's "Being Julia," Julia Lambert is England's favorite stage actress of the 1930s. She has style, she has grace, she's an outlandish diva closing in a bit reluctantly on middle age -- you know the drill. The plays she performs in are pretty bad, which is okay because everyone is consistently reassuring her that her adoring public comes not for the play, but her. \nIt's all remarkably fitting, because Annette Bening -- one of my favorite actresses, "the thinking man's sex symbol" as she has been called -- is absolutely sensational as the glowing diva. "Being Julia" however, much like Julia's plays, is still pretty bad.\nWatching Bening play Julia, who feeds on the London limelight in sort of the same way a plant feeds through photosynthesis, is a treat. She's energetic and tortured, extended and confined, broken and glued-together. It's no wonder she picked up an Oscar nod for Best Actress, and if she wins, it'll be a sweet reward for her worthy career.\nBening's supporting cast falls by the wayside next to her shining performance. Only the elegant Jeremy Irons stands out as a supporting character in his role as Michael, Julia's manager and husband in their open marriage. Shaun Evans plays Tom, Julia's American love-interest who revitalizes her life and her acting, although Evans is so bland and painfully vapid it's hard to believe he could light up a bathtub while holding an electric hairdryer. Both Bruce Greenwood, as Julia's friend, and Michael Gambon, as Julia's former acting instructor in apparition-form, are grossly underused and should have been given larger roles.\nAs the film progresses, the parallels between "Being Julia" and the 1950 aging-actress classic "All About Eve" become unavoidable. Tom's new fling is an upcoming actress who by today's standards belongs in laundry detergent commercials. Naturally Julia is scorned, and sets everyone up for a final act trap of revenge that is both sly, wicked and unexpected.\nFive years ago, as a budding film critic, "Being Julia" would have been the kind of movie I'd begrudgingly recommend for the performance. The first 20 minutes are rather enjoyable, and the last 30 minutes are deliciously vindictive. There's just the matter of addressing the lousy hour that lies between the two endearing portions of this movie. \nOverall, it's a pleasure watching Bening, but, as movies are concerned, one thing is for certain: bitchy was better in "All About Eve"
(02/23/05 5:08am)
In István Szabó's "Being Julia," Julia Lambert is England's favorite stage actress of the 1930s. She has style, she has grace, she's an outlandish diva closing in a bit reluctantly on middle age -- you know the drill. The plays she performs in are pretty bad, which is okay because everyone is consistently reassuring her that her adoring public comes not for the play, but her. \nIt's all remarkably fitting, because Annette Bening -- one of my favorite actresses, "the thinking man's sex symbol" as she has been called -- is absolutely sensational as the glowing diva. "Being Julia" however, much like Julia's plays, is still pretty bad.\nWatching Bening play Julia, who feeds on the London limelight in sort of the same way a plant feeds through photosynthesis, is a treat. She's energetic and tortured, extended and confined, broken and glued-together. It's no wonder she picked up an Oscar nod for Best Actress, and if she wins, it'll be a sweet reward for her worthy career.\nBening's supporting cast falls by the wayside next to her shining performance. Only the elegant Jeremy Irons stands out as a supporting character in his role as Michael, Julia's manager and husband in their open marriage. Shaun Evans plays Tom, Julia's American love-interest who revitalizes her life and her acting, although Evans is so bland and painfully vapid it's hard to believe he could light up a bathtub while holding an electric hairdryer. Both Bruce Greenwood, as Julia's friend, and Michael Gambon, as Julia's former acting instructor in apparition-form, are grossly underused and should have been given larger roles.\nAs the film progresses, the parallels between "Being Julia" and the 1950 aging-actress classic "All About Eve" become unavoidable. Tom's new fling is an upcoming actress who by today's standards belongs in laundry detergent commercials. Naturally Julia is scorned, and sets everyone up for a final act trap of revenge that is both sly, wicked and unexpected.\nFive years ago, as a budding film critic, "Being Julia" would have been the kind of movie I'd begrudgingly recommend for the performance. The first 20 minutes are rather enjoyable, and the last 30 minutes are deliciously vindictive. There's just the matter of addressing the lousy hour that lies between the two endearing portions of this movie. \nOverall, it's a pleasure watching Bening, but, as movies are concerned, one thing is for certain: bitchy was better in "All About Eve"
(02/18/05 6:13am)
Former IU President Myles Brand and two current high-ranking IU officials will testify next week at a court hearing to decide whether the University must release, under the state's Access to Public Records Act, a report that led to the termination of former men's basketball coach Bob Knight.\nFormer IU board of trustees President John Walda and current trustees President Fred Eichhorn are scheduled to give testimony Wednesday regarding the roles they played in investigating an incident and preparing a report that ended with Knight's firing.\nIU counsel Dorothy Frapwell is also scheduled to testify.\nBrand, now the president of the NCAA, fired Knight in 2000 after the former coach violated a "zero tolerance" behavior policy when he grabbed then-freshman Kent Harvey by the arm.\nBrand installed the "zero tolerance" policy after former player Neil Reed accused Knight of choking him after a basketball practice.\nBrand asked Walda, now the executive director of federal relations for IU, and Eichhorn to investigate the incident. They released their findings in summary form, but the University refused access to notes pertaining to their investigation.\nThe Indianapolis Star filed a lawsuit under Indiana's APRA, which gives both agencies and individuals the right to observe public documents. The Indianapolis Star contends the Walda-Eichhorn report is a public document and is currently seeking its disclosure.\nIU contends Walda and Eichhorn were acting in their capacities as attorneys for the University when they prepared the report for Brand. As the product of attorney work, their notes are privileged information, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said.\nMacIntyre added the hearing will be "very simply that, to examine the issue of whether or not this is the work product of an attorney and whether or not it's privileged."\nDennis Ryerson, current editor in chief for The Indianapolis Star, said his newspaper disagrees with that view.\n"We think the records we're seeking should be available," Ryerson said. "This is a university official who was fired, and we think it's important for the public to know what happened, what the nature of the investigation was and that's why we're in court."\nRyerson, who was not the editor in chief when the lawsuit was filed, said the newspaper feels it can be "easy for public institutions to keep information from the general public that they serve."\n"They can always come up with another dodge," Ryerson said. \nThe Associated Press reported that Morgan County Judge Jane Spencer Craney will preside over the hearing. All Monroe County judges have recused themselves from the case. \nCraney ruled in November 2001 that IU did not have to release the documents related to Knight's firing because they were "education records," which contained information about students that must be kept private under federal law.\nThe Indianapolis Star appealed, and the Indiana Court of Appeals sent the case back to Craney on a technicality, saying IU may have to turn over the Walda-Eichhorn report if they were acting as trustees and not attorneys.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.