Red Cross donations back up
After a slow summer, the American Red Cross is back to its normal level of blood donations following low donation numbers throughout the summer.
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After a slow summer, the American Red Cross is back to its normal level of blood donations following low donation numbers throughout the summer.
Indiana’s school voucher program is expanding, with close to 30,000 student applications for Choice Scholarships this year.
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz said the Indiana Department of Education needs to go outside the classroom to meet the needs of Indiana students.
Lotus World Music and Arts Festival brings extra business to local bars and restaurants but doesn’t have the same effect on retail, according to some downtown Bloomington businesses.
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz made a stop in Monroe County Monday to campaign for a local educator-turned-General Assembly candidate.
People with a bachelor’s degree and work experience in any field will soon be able to teach that field in Indiana secondary schools after passing a content test.
The United States Department of Education announced Thursday that Indiana would receive an extension on its No Child Left Behind waiver, two months after the date it wished to renew the policy.
Decades of studies show teenagers don’t get enough sleep, but the American Academy of Pediatrics says the problem could be easy to alleviate.
Teachers and schools start teaching to a new set of academic standards and a new standardized test this year, and some educators are asking for a year to adjust.
This year’s Indiana graduating class beat the national pass rate for every portion of the ACTs, according to a press release from the ACT organization.
In time for students to move back to Bloomington for the school year, the IU Office of Sustainability and local nonprofits are working together for the fourth annual Resale Trail in Bloomington.
From IDS Reports
RTV6 investigative reporter Kara Kenney, Indianapolis Star social media editor Carrie Ritchie and Indianapolis Business Journal managing editor Cory Schouten will make up a panel to offer career advice to students at 4 p.m Thursday at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The personal data of about 146,000 IU students and recent graduates, which IU stored in an insecure location for 11 months, was accessed by webcrawlers from Google, a science-specific search engine called Scirus and a Chinese search engine called Baidu during that period, IU spokesperson Mark Bruhn said.According to an IU news release, IU officials notified the Indiana attorney general’s office Tuesday of the potential exposure of personal data, including names and Social Security numbers, for students enrolled across seven IU campuses from 2011 to 2014.Webcrawlers are automated data mining applications used by search engines to traverse the web and download files.Similar to Google, Baidu generates revenue by offering online marketing services, according to the company’s website. Scirus has been retired, according to its website. James Kennedy, associate vice president of university student services and systems, said staff members who access files in the IU system, such as the files that were exposed, are usually authenticated by the Central Authentication Service (CAS).Bruhn, the IU associate vice president of public safety and institutional assurance, said the exposure was discovered by a staff member who accessed the files and realized she had not been asked for a password. “Those aren’t files we look at every day,” Kennedy said. “She right away saw there wasn’t that layer of security there.”The files were immediately moved to a different, more secure location, Kennedy said.Bruhn said the University had logs to track access to the data for all 11 months the files were exposed. “Logging is so important for that exact reason,” he said. “The logs showed nine or 10 accesses to those files during that time period.”He said other than the accesses by Google, Baidu and Scirus, the logged accesses were department staff, authorized to access the files.Nathaniel Husted, a doctoral student specializing in security informatics in the School of Informatics and Computing, said the University would not be able to tell if a third party accessed the exposed data from a search engine’s cache unless the companies who own the webcrawlers report the data was accessed.“But we wouldn’t know without asking them if someone had found that on their search engine and downloaded it,” Husted said.Bruhn said the University submitted forms to Google and Baidu requesting the companies remove the files from their cache. He said he was unsure whether the University would receive information regarding access to that cache.“There’s more work to be done,” Bruhn said. “We’re still investigating what happened and how.”IU spokesperson Mark Land said that as part of normal University safeguards, the files were given names and file extensions that are not indicative of the type of data in the file.Husted said this would potentially make the information harder to find. “We can’t just search for ‘Social Security numbers’ or ‘IU financial data’ and have Google bring it up,” he said. “If someone got lucky and typed in some information that had shown up within the file, it’s potential that those would show up.”Kennedy said the files were saved in a zipped folder.If the files were in a zipped folder, Husted said, the information would look garbled to a webcrawler. Husted said the files would have to be unzipped before the information could be added to a search index and before individuals could see the contents.Some zipped files also require a password before being unzipped. Husted said this would mitigate the threat because a strong password would make it difficult to access the file.“If a webcrawler has accessed it, it means someone downloaded it,” Husted said. “We’re just assuming that these people are nice people and they’re not going to do anything nefarious with it. But in the end, we have released 146,000 pieces of personal information about students, and that is a problem.”Kennedy said the University will notify students who may have been affected by the exposure beginning Friday. There will also be a call center with experts available to answer students’ questions by Friday morning.“We’re deeply concerned about student information,” he said.Bruhn said there was no evidence in the University’s logs that an individual viewed the files on the University’s site and downloaded them. However, Husted said it would not be possible for the University to control what happens to the data that was exposed and cached.“In some ways, this is just as problematic as if someone stole the laptop with 146,000 names on it,” he said. “The point being, it has gotten out and into the world and like Pandora’s Box, you can’t really put everything back in after it’s been opened up ... we just have to hope nobody gets ahold of them that will use them improperly. ”Follow reporter Tori Fater on Twitter @vrfater.
Personal data including names, addresses and Social Security numbers of about 146,000 IU students and recent graduates is at risk for disclosure.Staff members of the University registrar’s office discovered Feb. 21 that the personal data of students enrolled at seven IU campuses between 2011 and 2014 had been stored in an insecure location for the past 11 months. IU spokesman Mark Land said the data was originally stored in the registrar system and used by student service representatives in the Office of the Registrar.Land said the insecure data was a result of human error, not software error.“The computer security is doing what it’s supposed to, it’s just that the information was unprotected,” he said.Changes to the website made in March 2013 accidentally left files unencrypted, he said. Unencrypted files were moved to a secure server when the error was discovered last week. “As soon as we realized something wasn’t right, we locked down and took steps to secure the data,” Land said. No servers or systems were compromised, according to an IU press release, and no evidence suggests the information was downloaded by an unauthorized individual. It was accessed by automated computer data mining applications, or webcrawlers. A webcrawler is programmed to browse the Web for the purpose of indexing. They are able to copy all the pages they visit so users can access information more easily. Land said while the information was likely indexed by the web crawlers and put in a search engine’s cache, IU has no evidence that the files or cache have been accessed. “Our IT folks, who are good at this sort of thing, are confident that the chances of any of it getting exposed is pretty low,” he said. “The reason we’re notifying people about the exposure is because we have no guarantee it hasn’t gotten out. But we have no evidence those files, that cache has been accessed.”Students and recent graduates whose data was accessed by web crawlers will be notified by IU beginning this week, Land said.James Kennedy is the associate vice president for financial aid and University student services, where the information was stored until last week. He said the University has policies in effect to deal with data exposures, and a call center run by experts will be available to students with questions by Friday morning. “This is not a case of a targeted attempt to obtain data for illegal purposes, and we believe the chance of sensitive data falling into the wrong hands as a result of this situation is remote,” Kennedy said. “At the same time, we have moved quickly to secure the data and are conducting a thorough investigation into our information handling process to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.” In addition to notifying students potentially affected by the exposure, Kennedy said, the University will set up a call center to handle questions from anyone whose information was potentially placed at risk. IU will supply the Social Security numbers and names of those potentially affected to all three major credit-reporting agencies. The Indiana attorney general’s office was notified of the data exposure as well.The University has posted information online with guidelines on how to monitor one’s credit report to check for any unusual accounts that may have been created. Land said as part of normal data security procedures, data are given file names and extensions that are meant to be meaningless to outside sources in order to obscure the files’ identity. He said to the best of the university’s knowledge and individuals would not be able to find the indexed data by searching for a student’s name.“We take this very seriously,” Land said. “We apologize for any concern this causes people and we will get on this to make sure this sort of mistake doesn’t happen again.”Matt Bloom contributed reporting.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU-Bloomington operations continued as scheduled Wednesday despite a “watch” travel advisory issued by Monroe County Emergency Management and a winter storm warning issued for central Indiana.A watch advisory, according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security website, means travel conditions threaten the safety of the public. The Department of Homeland Security recommended only essential travel, meaning travel to and from work or in emergency situations, and recommended emergency action plans should be implemented by schools, government agencies and other organizations.IU spokesman Mark Land said he and Provost Lauren Robel spoke with members of the facilities’ staff and the human resources department early Wednesday morning. Based on that input, Robel decided not to cancel classes or close campus.“It stopped snowing around midnight or so,” Land said. “Our guys had all night to work on it, and they had really done a nice job by five o’clock this morning.”He said the group considered the weather forecast and road conditions and received input from Emergency Management as well.“We get input on what the road conditions are in the city, what other local governmental agencies are doing,” he said. “Ultimately it’s the provost’s decision, but she gets a lot of input before she makes it.”Monroe County has been under a watch advisory two other days in 2014 — both during the so-called polar vortex in early January.IU President Michael McRobbie closed all IU campuses during the polar vortex. According to protect.iu.edu, IU-Bloomington was closed 9 p.m. Jan. 5 to 5 p.m. Jan. 7, with only essential personnel required to report to campus.Land said it was simpler to close campus at that time than it would be when classes were in session, because there were few campus events scheduled, and many IU employees and students had not yet returned to campus. He said the decision to close campus also took into account the dangerous weather conditions at the time.“No one’s saying that it’s not snowy and slow and sloppy, but there’s a difference between inconvenience and if it’s safe to come to class,” Land said. If classes were canceled, Land said, students and faculty would receive an announcement from IU Notify.Yesterday, when there was no change in the status of campus operations, IU Communications announced on Twitter that campus would remain open and classes would meet as scheduled.Monroe County was downgraded to “advisory,” the lowest local travel advisory status, at 11:56 a.m. Wednesday. An advisory status means routine travel may be restricted or hazardous in certain areas.“There’s a lot of discussion,” Land said. “Obviously we don’t want to put anybody at risk, but at the same time we have a responsibility to educate students.”Follow reporter Tori Fater on Twitter @vrfater.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Congress’ performance won’t make the Dean’s List any time soon, according to a report from IU’s Center on Congress.A group of academic experts asked to assess Congress gave it a C minus for a subpar performance in 2013.Political scientist Edward Carmines, director of research for the center, said the majority of the experts questioned for the center’s research gave Congress a failing grade.“We asked, ‘Overall, how would you assess the legislative record of Congress over this past year?’” Carmines said in a press release. “Eighty percent gave Congress either a D or an F.”Seventy percent of respondents expected no change in Congress’ performance, he said, while 12.5 percent predicted the situation would be worse in the future.The Center on Congress is a non-partisan institution supported in part by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at IU-Bloomington. It was established in 1999 to improve citizens’ understanding of Congress.Data from the survey was collected after the 113th Congress’ first session ended, according to an IU news release. Forty academic experts on Congress were asked about Congress’ decision-making process.The legislature consistently received poor grades on each facet of its performance. “Congress is increasingly seen as a venue for the expression of competing ideological viewpoints,” Carmines said. “The experts think that many members of Congress are so driven by ideology and special interests that there is no room for experts or data or evidence to influence decisions.” Sixty percent of respondents gave Congress a D or an F on the use of facts and data to reach decisions, and 54 percent said Congress deserved a D or an F for its lack of reliance on the opinions of recognized experts to reach decisions.“If you’re looking to Congress to confront and deal with major social and economic problems, and to compromise in a way that leads to action on them, then Congress is a great disappointment,” Carmines said.In the eight years the Center on Congress has conducted this survey, Congress has never scored higher than a C plus in 2008 and 2010. Experts gave Congress another C minus in 2011, and a C in 2012.Lee Hamilton, director of the Center on Congress, said the survey is meant to evaluate Congress’ potential.“Our interest is not to dwell on past shortcomings, but to develop a sense of what areas are most in need of improvement,” he said.— Tori Fater
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A controversial bulletin board display was removed from Foster Quad Monday after it was brought to the University’s attention via social media.The display was titled “Can Santa Claus be a black man?” and depicted a man dressed as the character and playing a saxophone.Questions posted on the board included “If Santa Claus is a black man, wouldn’t all the presents be stolen?” and “If Santa Claus is a black man, wouldn’t he only visit the ghetto?” A blank paper was stapled beneath for students to write responses.The display was removed from a bulletin board in Foster Harper at about 10 p.m. Monday, said Mark Land, IU’s associate vice president of public affairs and government relations.IU found out about the bulletin board through Twitter, Land said. Several students tweeted comments and an Instagram photo of the display at the official University twitter account, @IUBloomington.Land said the board was created by members of the Community Education Program, a diversity education program serving IU residence halls.“The board was created to provoke a discussion about racial stereotyping,” Land said. “The idea was good — the intent to create a forum for discussion — but the execution was off the mark.”A Residential Programs and Services representative at Foster Quad declined to comment.“The nature of the messages was such that we knew we didn’t want that up there, even in the context that they were trying to use it,” Land said. “Everyone agreed that while the idea was good, that was not the right way to do it.”
Candidates are listed in alphabetical order, with their year, major and excerpts from their personal statement explaining why they want to be a Union Board director.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three students in vintage IU T-shirts stood facing Assembly Hall.About 10 others ranged behind them on the grass, awaiting their cue.“Action!”Film producer and adjunct lecturer Jo Throckmorton stood with a small crew under tents filming the extras as they strode toward Assembly Hall.Throckmorton worked with IU’s Office of Communications and a small cast and crew Thursday to tape a television commercial promoting IU.Throckmorton said it will air on the Big Ten Network, in Indiana cable markets, as well as on CBS during men’s basketball games.The commercial is the second of a series featuring famous IU graduates, Throckmorton said.Ailyn Perez, a soprano opera singer, starred in the first.Filming began at 8 a.m. Thursday and continued into the afternoon. Although the shooting schedule called for up to 150 extras for some scenes, few students showed up to take part in the morning’s filming.IU junior Katie Hammett of Ellettsville said she came to the set after a friend texted her that the production needed more students.She said she’s interested in the filmmaking process and thought it would be fun to participate.Extras were paid $75 for their participation.Throckmorton pointed her and another extra to a small clump of students standing outside the Assembly Hall doors.Local Bloomington actor David Blackwell was cast as a young Mark Cuban, IU graduate and owner of the Dallas Mavericks.The commercial shows Cuban as he arrives on campus, goes to class and basketball games and begins his career as an entrepreneur.After a few takes of Blackwell and other students walking into Assembly Hall, the cast and crew moved inside to film a scene in the bleachers.The actors in the stands cheered for an imaginary basketball team, the Cuban character punching the air as an actor in a familiar red sweater and white polo shirt paced the court.Throckmorton said although the crew had hoped more students would participate, low attendance wasn’t an unusual circumstance given the weather and the time of the shoot.“We didn’t want to hire people from out of town, we wanted students,” Throckmorton said. “What’s important is that we gave them that opportunity.”Throckmorton said they were able to film the shots they needed and composite editing would make up for the small quantity of extras.The final scene of the commercial was taped last summer in Dallas and shows the real Mark Cuban thanking IU for his success.Throckmorton invited about 10 students, including senior telecommunications major Dan McCullough, from his T436 Advanced Production Workshop to work on the production as production assistants.“I thought it would be cool to watch and help out in any way possible and get some experience before I graduate,” McCullough said.Despite the rainy weather, Throckmorton said most of the scenes were completed.“We shot between raindrops,” said Jack N. Green, cinematographer and director of photography.Green has worked on films such as “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Twister” and “Girl, Interrupted.”The cast and crew will film the final scenes Saturday morning, and they are scheduled to finish filming by noon, Throckmorton said Throckmorton said the project is staffed mostly by people who have a connection to IU.For example, screenwriter Angelo Pizzo, who also wrote and produced the film “Hoosiers,” grew up in Bloomington. “It’s hard to get someone of that caliber on the job,” Throckmorton said.He said they hope to create more commercials for the series but production will depend on the availability of key crew members such as Green and Pizzo.“We’re talking about doing as many as 10 more,” he said. “There will be more opportunities for students.”Telecommunications students are already making connections in their chosen field as a result of the productions, Throckmorton said. “Those students get hardcore, on-the-job training,” he said. “We’re showing the professionals that come out of IU, and students are making connections.”Follow reporter Tori Fater on Twitter @vrfater.