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(05/31/11 10:01pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU Board of Trustees has approved a 5.5 percent hike in tuition and fees for IU Bloomington— a two percent higher increase than what was recommended by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.IU President Michael McRobbie announced May 20 that in-state students would pay the commission’s recommendation of a 3.5 percent increase for in-state students, but he recommended an additional fee be included.This fee would help cover the cost of repair and maintenance work for IU’s 900 buildings and associated infrastructure across all IU campuses. Altogether, it is a backlog of more than $600 million in repair and maintenance projects, according to a press release.The approval came soon after a 40-minute hearing Tuesday where the public was invited to voice their concerns.IUSA President Justin Kingsolver attended the hearing, telling the board that he had several problems with the proposal. “First among them,” Kingsolver said, “there was very little student input into some of the cost cutting measures we could take.”He also said that separating the fee from the tuition increase is deceptive, because students and their parents are concerned with the “bottom line.”The two amounts have often been separated in university press releases and official comments. There will be a 3.5 percent tuition and fee increase, as recommended by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, and then a separate “repair and maintenance fee” of $180 for the 2011-2012 school year, and a fee of $320 the next year.The 5.5 percent increase is the total sum of both approved fees.“Is this increase adequate?” asked trustee Pat Shoulders. “We all want to achieve accessibility and affordability. Its about excellence. We want to make sure IU is one of the best.”After the hearing, Kingsolver said he was still concerned about how little input students and parents had in the decision and how the University is spending its money.“Why are we not making the decision?” Kingsolver said. “We are footing 1/7 of the bill. Why are we not asked?”Trustee Thomas Reilly said that Kingsolver’s comments were valid and they made him think of how the community needs to take a step back and examine its priorities.“I think the question is, ‘are we spending money on the right things?’” Reilly said. “The campus as a whole should be looking at priorities and cost. We can’t look for the state to provide more money."He does back the hike, however, he said.“Students won’t like the increase but it will benefit them in the future,” Reilly said. Student trustee Abbey Stemler said she understands the pain of paying the continually rising cost of tuition. “It’s never easy to raise the cost of education,” Stemler said. “I paid for tuition and it hurts, I just think it’s just reality.”
(04/22/11 2:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Soul Revue members will be grooving to the sounds of everything from Prince to Brandy on Saturday at the Burskirk-Chumley Theater. IU Soul Revue is one of three ensembles of the African American Arts Institute, which celebrates the African-American culture through the arts. Infusing the sounds of classic R&B with soul, funk and contemporary music, IU Soul Revue plans to take the audience on a walk down memory lane. For its last concert of the year, the ensemble’s theme is the “basement party.” IU Soul Revue Director Nathanael Fareed Mahluli reminisced about old-school basement parties, saying that at a basement party, friends and family “take turns setting the groove and letting everybody know what the real hip song used to be.” Terrence Dennie, instrumental coach and drummer for Soul Revue, said he is ecstatic about the concert. “I like being able to express myself on drums through music because I’m known mainly as a keyboard player from church but I’m also a good drummer,” Dennie said. “That’s what I started off with, and I’m just excited about being able to play that instrument.” He said he hopes the audience gains an experience through real music and compares music from then and now, enjoying raw talent and not just music that seems computerized nowadays. Peyton Conners, a freshman and vocalist for IU Soul Revue, said she and the group are practicing hard to make sure the music is relevant to the potentially diverse audience. “Our vocal coach polishes it, basically, and we just rehearse, rehearse, rehearse — that’s all we can do,” Conners said. “We do exercises so we know what the song is about and how the song is supposed to be portrayed, the emotion behind it and know the history behind the song.” Conners talked about the difference between just singing and singing from your soul, which is what the group plans to do.“When you get up there and you are singing and everybody is sitting down and watching you, it doesn’t feel as good as when you get up there and you’re singing your soul and the audience is singing with you and they’re standing up and they feel the music,” Conners said. “You know you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.” The IU Soul Revue spring concert starts 8 p.m. Saturday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children and IU students with a student ID. Tickets are available at the Sunrise Box Office. “You can expect some laughs, you can expect some great music, some great chemistry and energy and a great performance,” Conners said.
(04/08/11 1:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>“To be or not to be” is arguably one of the most famous lines in the world of theater. But if one sings “mein herr,” less people would recognize what play it came from, let alone what it actually means.Bloomington High School North theater students are hoping to change that with the production of “Cabaret,” a musical that takes place in the 1930s in Berlin. They will perform “Cabaret” at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and April 14-16 and at 2 p.m. Sunday. The musical tells the story of the Kit Kat Klub’s performers and customers as Hitler and the Nazi Party rise to power in a period of desperation and ambiguity. The musical will delve into the issues of that time period, including anti-Semitism. “The ‘Cabaret’ has a darkness to it,” said Francesca Sobrer, director of BHSN’s theater program.The news of the “Cabaret” musical at BHSN reached the IU campus. Bill Rasch, the chairman of the IU Germanic studies department, encouraged his students in his course on the Weimer Republic — a period between 1919 and 1933 in Germany that eventually led to the rise of Hitler in 1933 — to attend the musical for relevant historical context. “One thing I do know is that North puts on really great productions,” he said. BHSN’s theater program is no little theater troupe either. More than 100 students are in the program, all taught by Sobrer.The students went to the Globe Theatre in London and participated in a workshop on Shakespeare acting. They then went to Scotland, where the students attended a workshop with Scottish theater students, performed in Church Hall and saw the One Night Stand improv group.Jonathan Michaelsen, the chairman of the IU Department of Theatre & Drama, acknowledged Sobrer and the BHSN theater program. “We think highly of what they do. Francesca has to put it all together herself,” he said. “I think the students at a high school do it all. They learn great skills for life and the programs they have are very strong.” Just like the IU theater department, Sobrer said she believes the BHSN productions stand out above others.“It’s not about the role, it’s about the whole play, and that’s what makes our productions stand out,” she said.Tickets can be purchased at BHSN’s bookstore or through Black Box. Tickets are $10 for high school students and senior citizens and $15 for the general public. For reservations, call 330-7724, ext. 50235, or email norththeatre@yahoo.com.
(02/03/11 1:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Famed talk show host Oprah Winfrey recently reconnected with her long-lost half sister who was adopted at birth. However, many adoptees from across the country never reconnect with their biological families because the laws withhold access to the adoptee’s background.Only some states offer fully open access to adoptees’ birth certificates, according to the Adoptees Rights Demonstration website.In Indiana, the process to find pieces of one’s identity is long and difficult. Adult adoptees must have been legally adopted before Jan. 1, 1994, in order to file a written consent along with their birth parent, but even that can get complicated. “The registry really doesn’t help anybody because it’s not advertised,” said Pam Kroskie, the American Adoption Congress Midwest Regional director. “People don’t know about it. It’s called a passive registry, and the only problem with that is if the person (birth parent) is deceased they’re not going to register. And if they don’t know about it, they’re not going to register.” Pam Kroskie has experience with the system as an adoptee who has been reunited with her birth mother and sisters for 21 years. “I found my birth mom when I was 22 years old,” she said. “From that day on, I decided that I would help adoptees and birth parents. That’s kind of how it started, and I became part of the American Adoption Congress later on.” Kroskie and the American Adoption Congress are keeping their fingers crossed for Senate Bill 469, which will be heard by Indiana’s judiciary committee Feb. 9. If the bill is passed, starting on July 1, 2012, it will give adoptees the right to their identifying information (unless the birth parent has filed a non-release form) regardless of when the person was legally adopted, according to the Indiana General Assembly. “Adoptees (born in) 1941 and previous and adoptees (born in) 1993 and forward have the ability to have access to their identifying information,” Kroskie said. “But the adoptees between those years don’t have access to their identifying information or their original birth certificate. That’s what this bill is going to change.” Kroskie said some adopted parents want the adoptees’ records sealed because they fear that the birth parent would take the child back. She said that doesn’t exist, and it’s very rare that it would happen. There are circumstances when the reunion between the birth parent and adopted child is a celebrated one. Sara Martindale, a birth mother who gave her child up for adoption, was reunited with her daughter a few days before New Year’s Eve. She said she had to go through a tough process to find her daughter and realized there were many faults in the system to find a biological family member. “If she would’ve hired a CI (Confidential Intermediary) to come look for me, they wouldn’t have been able to give her anything if I didn’t agree to it,” Martindale said. “Both people have to agree to it, which in a sense to me, isn’t right either because that is still denying her legal rights. We are all born with an identity and the children who are placed under adoption are denied their original identity if both parties don’t agree.” Martindale sought to send her daughter’s personal background information, including medical records. “It’s things that people take for granted because when you’re born to somebody, you always know your medical history,” she said. “But when you’re born and then you’re given for adoption nobody knows anything about you. I filled out all this paperwork, and I thought it was going to be given to her parents so at least they can know her medical history.”Martindale said she kept pictures from when her daughter was a baby so she could show them to her one day.“I had the pictures of her from the minute she was born,” Martindale said. “I actually have a book that I kept of her and her footprints and all these little things that people don’t think too much about. I kept a hold of all that so I could show her and she can say, ‘Oh, I did exist before I was 1 month old because my (adopted) parents don’t have that missing piece.’ But I do. I have the beginning of her life.” Even though at times the process proves to be time-consuming and complex, the ultimate benefit is in finding the missing piece of identity, offering closure. “By finding her at least I have that closure and that peace of mind now,” Martindale said. “I can at least know that I did right by her.” To find more information about adoptees’ rights in Indiana, contact Pam Kroskie at gus4809@yahoo.com.
(01/13/11 3:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>College students know the feeling of going to class unprepared. They know they haven’t studied as hard as they would like, and they are stressed about it.Stress can cause mental illnesses. Mental illnesses include anxiety disorders, which a large number of college students suffer from, said Alexandria Hayat and Rachel Agin, co-presidents of the IU chapter of the Active Minds Organization. “People don’t like to talk about it,” Agin said. “Our goal is to make people comfortable enough to talk about it.”The organization’s IU chapter works to raise awareness of mental illnesses to students. The group also stands as a liaison between students and mental health advisers.“We’re trying to stop the stigma,” Hayat said. The National Active Minds Organization was originally started in 2001 after University of Pennsylvania junior Allison Malmon lost her older brother Brian Malmon the previous year due to suicide. He was a senior at University of Pennsylvania who had experienced depression and psychosis for three years but never told anyone. He later found out that he had schizoaffective disorder and a year and a half later, he committed suicide. Allison Malmon then recognized that, just like her brother, not many University of Pennsylvania students were talking about mental health issues and many had them. She decided to take initiative and start the Active Minds Organization to inform and educate students about mental illnesses and to put an end to the dangerous stigma that it is not okay to talk about mental illness. What started off as just an initiative to combat the stigma of mental illnesses at University of Pennsylvania in 2001 grew into an organization represented at 304 chapters spread throughout colleges nationwide.