108 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(12/03/02 5:46am)
The first phase of Strategic Planning, the year-long project to identify and strengthen campus academics, is complete.\nFred Cate, chairman of the project, said the planning is now moving into its "contentious" phase, as committee members wrangle over which areas of campus will receive extra funding. The first phase allowed campus deans, along with the IUB Libraries, to identify key areas where resources could be infused.\n"We are now having to take things off the table," Cate said. "Everyone's not going to find something to make them warm inside."\nFunding for Strategic Planning comes from the $1,000 freshmen fees instituted this year. Over the five-year fee program, the University will raise $28 million.\nSince October, the 25-member Strategic Planning committee has met weekly to review reports from the 15 academic deans. \nThe committee members must now decide which programs on campus will define the campus academic priorities for the future. Those programs will receive special "strategic" investments. \n"This is a truly unique opportunity," Cate said.\nMember Barry Rubin said he is surprised how congenial the committee work has been so far. \n"Rather than being parochial, people are looking at the process campus-wide," he said. \nCate said that once allocating funds begins, proceedings won't be as pleasant. Not all academic areas can be emphasized.\n"At the end of the day, it will still be a fight over money," he said. \nCate said the committee's greatest challenge is uniting the priorities in a way that reflects a "distinct vision for the campus." Though new programs may be developed, most committee work has been focused on how to strengthen existing areas. \nCate said the selection process will be based on where investments can make the biggest changes. The programs selected will be the programs that make IU unique. \nThe Strategic Planning project also includes developing the first campus mission statement. The committee intends to have a draft of plans ready for campus review by the holiday break.\nBlooming-ton Chancellor Sharon Brehm, who established the project, recommended these elements to the committee for priority consideration on the Strategic Planning Home Page: undergraduate education, diversity, engagement with the state and interdisciplinary work. \nBrehm told the IDS in October, "It will be a very interesting and serious conversation. We'll all talk about specific interests and work on finding a common ground."\nThe deadline for establishing academic priorities is March 1, 2003.
(11/21/02 5:46am)
Arminta Gunkel was still dressed in her pajamas as she dragged herself down the back stairs of the Phi Mu house at 6:30 a.m. Woken by a fire alarm, she had no idea she was walking directly toward a 2,000-pound chemical spill of ammonia nitrate. \n"We started going down the back stairway," Gunkel said. "I thought it was a fire drill. Then everyone stopped and said go out the front door. We turned around and someone said to go to Assembly Hall. I didn't have time to grab anything."\nPhi Mu housing director Linda Howard and her dog Scout were already up when the spill happened. The two were walking behind the 45/46 Bypass when they heard the sirens. Howard saw a policeman pounding on Phi Mu's front door, and she chased him down.\n"He said 'You've got to evacuate,'" Howard said. "I went inside and told the girls, 'Get your shoes if you can. Let's get out of here.'"\nPhi Mu was the first house evacuated. Up and down the Jordan extension, fire and police officers roused students out of bed and ordered them to leave the area.\nAt the Sigma Pi house, firemen walked through the hallways pounding on doors. The noise woke senior Nick Lagina.\n"The fire department said there was an over-turned truck with potential explosives that flipped over on the bypass," Lagina said. \nOne of the firemen told him, "It's behind Phi Mu, so you need to get out fast." \nPhi Mu is two houses down from Sigma Pi. Lagina said one of the brothers went downstairs and pulled the fire alarm to wake anyone that hadn't heard the pounding on the doors. \nBy 7:30 a.m. students wrapped in blankets were spilling out of their houses. They pieced together that a semitruck carrying chemicals and explosives had crashed on the bypass. \n"We didn't know what was going on," said Phi Mu junior Miriam Sheinin. "We were curious why we had to drive away. We saw lots of firemen coming to all the fraternities and sororities." \nThe police department told fleeing students that Assembly Hall would be opened. Sheinin, Gunkel and four others from the house drove to the stadium.\nAt Assembly Hall, IU administrators announced that the clean-up and evacuation would last all day. To cheers, classes would be optional. Most students found other places to go. \nGunkel and her friends left Assembly Hall and headed over to Gunkel's family's home on North Kinser Pike. \nPhi Mu Lauren Hanrahan checked IU's Campus Emergency Web site for updates. At 11:30 a.m. she read, "Hazmat crews are working at the site to remediate the spilled chemicals...no time frame for completion has been announced."\nThen at 1 p.m., "Crews are working on righting the truck and removing it from the scene. Officials on the scene still are not making an estimate of the remaining time required to complete the cleanup and reopen the area."\nGunkel made her friends sandwiches and pasta while they waited. They played a lot of monopoly and watched "Saved by the Bell" reruns and The Learning Channel.\n"It's been a long boring day," Gunkel said. "We've been checking the Internet to find out when we can go home. It's frustrating that every time we check they keep pushing it back farther."\nThe Sigma Pi's made the most of their day off. To celebrate the end of the I-Core test week, one live-out house bought two pony kegs.Several evacuees showed up at the house. \nJunior Brian Healy said that guys ended up at the house because they needed somewhere to go, and it just turned into a little party.\nAt 2:30 p.m., Gunkel received a call saying the chemicals had been cleaned up and the evacuation was over. Nine hours later and still in their pajamas, they returned to the Phi Mu house.\n"I'm tired," Gunkel said. "It's been a long day."\nSheinin missed one test that she said she would reschedule.\n"It's fun because we aren't in school, but it's a burden because of the holiday coming up," Sheinin said. "It was more of an inconvenience than people would think, you know, a day-off school."\nHoward was relieved that the crews cleaned up the toxic spill. She said IU was lucky it didn't have a catastrophe on its hands.\n"This could have been another Oklahoma City," Howard said, referring to the ammonia nitrate.\n"I'm glad everyone's safe and sound. You can throw a rock back there. It's that close."\nStaff writer Ryan Lengerich contributed to this report.
(11/20/02 2:38pm)
Gerald Bepko, the man the IU board of trustees picked earlier this month to replace outgoing President Myles Brand, spoke to the Bloomington Faculty Council Tuesday not about the administration but the Freudian subconscious.\nBepko confessed that for the 20 years he has been an IU administrator, he has had a reoccurring dream that he is the pitcher for a four-man baseball team.\nThe dream first appeared when he was dean of the IU Law School. The batters he faced were law professors, and they ran around the bases even when he struck them out. Later when he was chancellor of IUPUI, the batters became the deans. \nAs Bepko prepares to move into the role of interim president of IU at the year's end, his dream has again returned. It's a metaphor for the challenges he'll soon face.\n"This time I'm pitching in an even larger stadium, and the crowd makes a deafening noise," Bepko said. "The batters are more intimidating. They are trustees, chancellors, faculty and deans.\n"Professor (Richard) Shiffrin hit a line drive that knocked off my cap, and Dean (Kumble Subbaswamy) Swami hit a 610-foot home run," Bepko says. "The reoccurring dream has come back even more vividly."\nOn Tuesday he told the BFC that he is up to the challenge. His arm still feels good. \n"I'm going to keep on pitching," he said. \nIn an hour long speech Bepko outlined his agenda for his six-month interim term, pledging to dedicate himself to student success, research excellence, teamwork and the arts.\nAs retiring IUPUI Chancellor, Bepko paid particular interest to the importance of IU's regional campuses. He said he wants IU to be the best multi-campus institution in the country. \nBepko made it clear that his main activity will be lobbying the state legislature in the coming biennium. He said IU faces competition for money from the popular community college system. \n"I want to focus on making our case to the 2003 General Assembly," Bepko said. "Research universities are key to the new economy."\nBepko also said he would stick to the agenda set by President Brand. \nBloomington Faculty Council member Mary Popp cheered Bepko's speech. \n"He sees himself as someone keeping the fires burning," she said. "He has a wonderful reputation for listening and for looking at all sides."\nCouncil member Barry Rubin praised the choice of Bepko as interim president.\n"I don't think there was a better candidate than Bepko," Rubin said. "He is very comfortable working with the legislature and faculty, and we're very lucky to have him."\nBepko was named interim president at the Nov. 1 board of trustees meeting held in Fort Wayne, less than a month after Brand's announcement that he was leaving IU to lead the NCAA. The trustees have set July 1, 2003 as the deadline for hiring a permanent replacement. Bepko has said that he is not a candidate for the position.
(11/19/02 5:38am)
The IU board of trustees will conduct three town hall meetings today to discuss the search for a new president, including one geared directly for students. The meetings are part of an ongoing series of conversations with all academic schools.\nThe trustees will also meet today with faculty at the Law and Music Schools.\nThe student meeting will be led by Blair Greenberg, the student representative on the presidential search committee, and student trustee Sacha Willsey. It will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Sassafras Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.\n"Students are key to this process," Greenberg said. "It's important for them to come out and express their views."\nThe conversation will focus on three questions: Which qualities are necessary for the IU President? What should IU focus on in the next 10 years? And what are the qualities of a leader?\n"This is a general conversation," said trustee secretary Robin Gress. "The questions are very simple. The trustees simply sit back and listen to what people have to say."\nSeven meetings in the series have already taken place. The final six will take place this week. \nTrustees Fred Eichhorn, Steve Ferguson and Sue Talbot are attending as many meetings as possible. Eichhorn said they have been well-attended.\n"People seem to want an academic," Eichhorn said. "They want somebody who understands the Hoosier scene. They are not necessarily opposed to a businessperson."\nOn Wednesday, discussions will be held with all librarians, the Department of Continuing Studies and the alliance for Indiana's future. The final meeting will take place on Friday with faculty members of HPER.\nWillsey said today's meeting in the Union is an attempt to include students in the search process. \n"It's important students give reasons why they are looking for a certain characteristic in a president," she said.
(11/14/02 6:29am)
Another chapter in the case of Robert Knight v. Indiana University is set to begin. \nWith Knight's suit formally filed at the Monroe County Courthouse, IU will now submit its own side of the story to the court. Once received, the court will decide whether the litigation hearings will proceed. \nKnight is suing the University for $2 million he claims he was denied as a result of his Sept. 2000 firing. Knight said he would have received the $2 million from his "non-enumerated" shoe contracts, radio and TV deals and basketball camp fees. \nThe lawsuit claims these sources of income, while not explicitly spelled out in Knight's contract, were understood by IU to be part of his total compensation. \nIU claims it has already compensated the former men's basketball coach fairly.\n"The University has fulfilled all of its obligations under the contract it had with Mr. Knight. Indiana University will defend its interests vigorously," the University said in a statement.\nIf the judge allows the litigation to proceed, the next step will be to collect evidence. Based on the evidence, the judge will decide whether to summon a jury.\nPeter Carstensen, a University of Wisconsin professor and tort expert, said this stage is crucial.\n"That's often the point at which the defendants opt to settle," Carstensen said. "If the judge says, yes there is enough evidence, then the judge has made a determination that the claims are plausible."\nIU spokesperson Jane Jankowski said an out-of-court settlement is still a possibility. Knight and the University have already tried repeatedly to negotiate a settlement and had extended the legal deadline for Knight to sue until Tuesday, two months later than the original date. \nOne deal proposed by the University had IU agreeing to pay Knight provided he could convince a coalition of 46 former students to drop their suit against IU for violating the state's open records laws, according to reports.\nKnight and his lawyers mailed the lawsuit Friday to the Monroe Country Clerk where it arrived Monday.\n"The University was very seriously engaged in conversations with Mr. Knight's attorney about the matter," Jankowski said. "There were things being discussed, and those things didn't come to fruition."\nIU is currently paying Knight more than $425,000 a year for eight more years as part of a deferred compensation package. Knight's contract ran through June 30, 2002, and his annual salary was $170,000.
(11/06/02 6:58am)
IU Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm reemphasized her commitment to the hiring of a provost at Tuesday's Bloomington Faculty Council meeting, one day after announcing that the search would be postponed until next year. \nBrehm's decision to delay the provost search comes in light of President Myles Brand's decision to leave IU. She said faculty distress over the hiring of two top level administrators at the same time convinced her to sit on the provost plan for a year. \n"I feel very strongly that this new position is needed," she said. "If this sort of reorganization does not occur, this campus will not make the progress it needs."\nThe IU provost under Brehm's plan will absorb many of the Chancellor's academic duties to free up time for fundraising, legislative and alumni activities. \nSome of the faculty said they aren't convinced that's the direction the campus should take.\nProfessor Bennet Brabson asked Brehm to "keep open the possibility of maintaining the present circumstances."\n"I imagine a world where Brehm becomes absorbed by the legislature and fundraising, and I'm afraid we're going to lose (her) as part of us as a faculty," he said. \nProfessor Barry Rubin said he worries the provost will add "another layer" of bureaucracy, making it more difficult to access the Chancellor.\nBrehm will meet informally with faculty next semester to discuss the implications of the plan. She said the provost is part of a broader movement to centralize campus organization, starting with strategic planning. \n"If we don't operate as a campus, we won't be effective," she said. "The most obvious place is undergraduate programs, (which) aren't nearly as well coordinated as they need to be." \nThe expansion of the Chancellor's roles at the same time as the hiring of a new president has sparked a reexamination of University administrative structure. BFC President Bob Eno, also a member of the presidential search committee, said the search will begin with defining the role of the president, which has historically been very strong. \n"We may want to move toward a new system," Eno said. "That's an ongoing job for the search committee."\nThe Faculty Council discussed the administrative models at Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota.\n"I don't see any of those models fitting us here," Eno said. "We have to do a home-grown model."\nBrehm originally announced her intentions to add a provost at the Oct. 1 BFC meeting. She said some applications have already been received and will be sent back.
(10/30/02 5:06am)
One of the 45 plaintiffs suing IU over the firing of Bob Knight revealed Monday that the University asked the former men's basketball coach to persuade the fans to drop their lawsuit. \nIn exchange, IU would settle with Knight out of court. \n"They wanted Knight to convince us to dismiss our lawsuit," plaintiff Robert Nemanich said. "They put a condition on the settlement. It looked to me like a form of extortion."\nIU spokesperson Jane Jankowski said she had no comment.\nKnight and IU officials have been negotiating since early September, attempting to settle Knight's claim that he suffered $7 million in damages related to his firing by IU President Myles Brand in September 2000. \nNemanich said Knight's beef with IU has no bearing on the lawsuit he and others filed in April 2001. They contend that Brand and University trustees violated the state's Open Door Law by holding two secret meetings the day before Knight was dismissed.\nIU attorneys have argued the meetings were legal because at no time were a majority of the trustees together.\nNo court date has been set. Depositions are scheduled for Nov. 7.\nNemanich said he spoke with Knight Friday, the day after the coach's attorney informed Nemanich of IU's offer. He said Knight rejected the offer, and the fans agreed it was unacceptable.\nGojko Kasich, the lead Bloomington lawyer representing the fans, said his clients would not be swayed by Knight.\n"They must think Bob Knight controls us," Kasich said. "Him settling his case has nothing to do with the issue that IU trustees violated the Open Door Law. If they thought we were going to cave in because Bob Knight said so, that's not something my clients will do."\nKasich, who has been in contact with Knight's lawyer Russell Yates, said the IU proposal would give Knight "basically what he is asking."\nIn a separate offer, Kasich said his clients would consider dropping their lawsuit provided IU agrees to never hold that type of meeting again. \n"We are contemplating a settlement with IU where they wouldn't be forced to admit that what they did was wrong," Kasich said. "Our lawsuit was filed to prevent the serial meetings from happening in future. If they agree to submit attorney fees to the court and agree to never do this again, my clients would accept that kind of solution."\nYates could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
(10/29/02 5:06am)
Campus View Apartments will undergo a two-year renovation beginning this summer. Each of the three wings will be shut down separately for remodeling, beginning with the East Wing. \nResidents will be forced to find other housing during their wing's construction.\nTo discuss the project, there will be a meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight for all residents in the Campus View Activities Room. \n"We want to inform the residents about the renovation plan and answer their questions about what options are available for getting relocated," said Patrick Connor, director of Residential Programs and Services. \nConnor said RPS will work closely with the affected residents to help them find other housing arrangements.\nCampus View Housing Manager Stephen Rolfe said RPS will try to relocate residents to other University-sponsored apartments but stressed "it could be anyplace."\nTwo-bedroom housing in the University-sponsored apartment system is limited already. Campus View is the only building with entirely two-bedroom quarters.\nAssociate Director of Apartment Housing Tim Stockton said RPS will limit the number of new applications it accepts next fall to accommodate the displaced residents elsewhere.\n"We do anticipate having enough two-bedroom housing," he said. \nConnor said many of the Campus View residents are families that need two-bedrooms. Those families will most likely relocate to Tulip Tree or Evermann. \nCampus View has 250 rooms split between three wings, which means about 80 rooms will be affected at a time. \nRolfe said tonight's meeting will help RPS determine what the residents want to do during the construction.\n"There is a lot of stuff that needs to be done to a building that is 40 years old and hasn't had a rehabilitation before," Rolfe said.\nThe remodeling will include upgrading the bathroom and kitchens, water system and heating and cooling.\n"It's really going to improve the quality of life," Connor said.
(10/17/02 5:46am)
While freshmen at IU continue to report a high level of academic challenge, seniors are telling a different story, according to the National Survey of Student Engagement.\nCompared to national norms, freshmen are challenged at a rate better than 95 percent of similar-sized colleges surveyed. Seniors reported being challenged at a level 56 percent better than the national average.\nThe results of the 2002 survey were released to the public at Tuesday's Bloomington Faculty Council meeting.\n"I worry a little about the level of academic challenge in the senior year and wonder if we might be able to do a little more," said George Kuh, the chancellor's professor of higher education and director of the NSSE.\nFreshmen also reported levels in active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction and supportive campus environment that were better than 80 percent of the nation. For seniors, those levels were all below 70 percent. \nThe NSSE is a student survey that annually evaluates the college experience for freshmen and seniors at over 600 schools. It was created to be an alternative to the mainstream college rankings of U.S. News and World Report and Time magazine.\nIU Student Association vice president Judd Arnold said the data may be misleading. Upper level classes aren't necessarily less challenging. It's just that many seniors eschew 300 and 400 level classes to take general education classes, he said. \nBloomington Faculty Council President Bob Eno agreed that the data needs a closer examination.\n"Possibly it is the structure of our curriculum that allows students to front load and take lower level classes their senior year," Eno said. "Or it may be the result that they aren't challenged as they should be."\nEno said the freshmen responses validate IU's commitment to the first year. \n"We've put a lot of effort into the first year," he said. "When we focus on an issue, we produce excellent results."\nTime magazine named IU College of the Year in 2001 for its freshmen orientation programs. \n"Overall the first year is quite strong on campus," Kuh said. "The campus has for the last five or six years focused on it. \nKuh said he is not sure when students begin to be less challenged. The NSSE survey only polls freshmen and seniors.\n"The challenging and supportive environment tends to soften up a bit," he said. "We can't tell when that is exactly because the measurements come at only two points. Maybe it starts in the junior year. We don't know."\nKuh said surveying all four classes in the future may help IU understand the scope of the problem. He said IU may decide to examine the data on a school to school basis. \n"If you break it down among schools, then there will be more responsibility and ownership," Kuh said.
(10/14/02 6:08am)
With two and a half months left before IU President Myles Brand leaves, University officials aren't worried about the "lame duck" effect. \nTrustee Peter Obremskey said it's still business as usual for IU. He doesn't expect Brand to slow down.\n"Knowing the person he is, I would expect Myles to keep the pedal to the metal," Obremskey said.\nThe phrase "lame duck" is used to describe presidents who are serving the remainder of a final term in office. Before they leave, "lame ducks" often become weak and ineffective.\nBrand said that won't happen to him.\n"I will be at IU until Dec. 31, working hard on the job until the last minute," he said.\nTrustee Stephen Backer said Brand's announcement won't disrupt IU's agenda. In addition to finding Brand's replacement, the University is committed to the search for a chancellor for IUPUI and to push forward with the life sciences initiative, he said.\n"The University is like a giant super tanker. It takes a lot to get it to change direction," Backer said. "There's a lot going on right now, and things will continue."\nHe said Brand's agenda will go on.\n"He has a good staff, and he's done a good job laying a foundation," Backer said. "Will it make things more difficult to get done? I don't think so."\nBrand knows the next two months will be especially tough, said IU spokesman Bill Stephan. He doesn't want the news of his sudden departure to overshadow the University's mission. \n"There's a certain element about being a lame duck he recognizes," Stephan said. "He recognizes once you make that announcement, you don't have the effectiveness and ability to forge ahead as you might otherwise.\n"He is confident the faculty and administration will continue to look after the institution," Stephan said.\nBrand's final task as president will be preparing IU for the upcoming legislative session, Stephan said.\n"Knowing him and his work ethic, I don't think he'll slow down at all," Stephan said. "He feels good about this decision. He has done his best for IU in charting a course." \nStephan said he "would be surprised" if the search for Brand's successor interferes with the search for a replacement for IUPUI Chancellor Gerald L. Bepko.
(10/14/02 4:33am)
Voters at Thursday's Monroe County Council candidate forum focused their questions and concerns to each candidate about shoring up the county's limping economy while still protecting the environment. \nThe candidates varied in responses, each pressing their own issues to get their ideas out to the public.\nNine candidates from the four districts shared their positions on tax abatements, income taxes and economic growth in a 90-minute televised forum at the Monroe County Public Library.\nTrenton A. Jones, Republican candidate for the second district, said he supported the limited use of tax abatements to draw new business into the county. \n"We must be receptive to new business," he said. "We want young college grads to stay here and develop their ideas."\nHis opponent is Julie Roberts, a Green Party candidate and public school teacher. She said she supports tax abatements for new businesses but said the county should look at redevelopment first.\n"In 30 to 40 years, we will be out of green space in this county," she said. "Our unused property needs to be reused." \nDistrict Four Republican candidate Dexter Luck, former police officer, said more business is good for the county economy because it creates more jobs and more tax revenue. \n"We should bring more jobs into the county to collect more taxes," he said. "Then we can give county employees a raise."\nHis opponent Mark Stoops, a Democrat, said he is skeptical of the county's ability to "magically attract new jobs." He said he would rather see a .0025 percent increase in the income tax.\n"Do we want to cut ambulance service? Do we want to cut animal control?" Stoops said. "We're going to have to have a tax increase. I'm not afraid to say it."\nDemocrat and District One candidate Lucille Bertuccio, said she is leery of how the council can attract new business without compromising the "clean air, clean water, and clean soil" of the county. She, too, said she would like to see an increase in the income tax.\n"It's like sacrificing just two meals at McDonalds," she said. "It's a small increase, and a shoe-in way to get funding for county services."\nSusan West, District One candidate and Republican, said she does not support the tax increase, but will work for county growth instead.\n"We can get savings in other places," she said. "Growth means more jobs, and I think we're going about it with the right motive."\nBill Hayden, democrat and District Three candidate, said he thinks growth hasn't always been good for everyone.\n"We need to balance economic development with the environment," he said. "When you've got too much traffic, you may have too much growth. When you have wetlands developing in front yards, you may have too much growth."\nDistrict Three candidate Robert Lentz, Democrat, had a family obligation and did not attend.\nHis opponent, Republican Martha "Marty" Hawk, is a two-term incumbent.
(10/10/02 6:57am)
In the remotest provinces of Afghanistan, universities have only names. The classrooms, dormitories and libraries lie mostly in rubble. \nAfghan Minister of Education Sharif Fayez says the 20 Afghan universities are in a "crisis."\n"We don't have infrastructure. We don't have capacity," Fayez said. "Our budget is not more than $400,000, which is not enough to even repair a building. We are not prepared for (the future) unless we can receive help."\nFor the first time in 25 years, though, that future looks bright. \nThe Taliban have been purged from the country. Afghan refugees from around the world are returning to their villages. Women are shedding their veils and gaining new freedoms. \nFayez said the number of Afghans enrolled in higher education is expected to double from 26,000 to 52,000 next year. But damaged by years of neglect during the Taliban regime and ethnic fighting since Sept. 11, the universities are not ready to support the sudden changes. \nOn Sunday and Monday, a group of 35 Afghan leaders and scholars gathered at IU to find a solution to the country's ailing university system. Minister of Education Fayez said the discussions identified three areas of need for the country: obtaining financial support for rebuilding, reforming curriculum and organizing a league for historical review. \n"The conditions are in such a state of ruin," Fayez said. "Our first priority must be buildings, classrooms and teaching materials."\nUnlike Afghan president Hamed Karzai who dons a traditional Pashtun cape called a chapan, Fayez dressed in a suit and striped orange tie. \n"We are quite fortunate there is a great deal of interest with American universities," he said after the conference. "Afghanistan was isolated during the Taliban regime. Now we think we are part of the world."\nThe Minister said he would like to establish a partnership between IU and universities in Kabul and the American University of Kharzikstan. \nCharles Reafsnyder, associate dean for international research and development, said Afghanistan is interested in building its own U.S.-style university with help from IU. \n"These discussions are very preliminary," he said. "If we can get some external funding, we'll help the minister of education develop the concept."\nReafsnyder also said the IU School of Education and Fayez talked about sending faculty to Afghanistan to teach English. The school will meet later this week to further explore the proposal. \nThe Minister of Education made the cross-continent voyage from Kabul to the Midwest to meet with one man: IU Professor M. Nazif Shahrani. \nShahrani is an Afghan-American who grew up in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, Afghanistan, where his family still lives. He has dedicated his life to an anthropological study of his native country, and he arranged and organized the education conference. \n"The ministry really needed some kind of help," he said. "The conference provided a blueprint for a plan for higher education there."\nHe said the IU gathering was the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Other organizations have stepped in and helped the Afghans design a plan for rebuilding. Shahrani said this was the only conference led and attended exclusively by Afghans.\n"There have been other plans from the World Bank, USAID, the Germans and many others," he said. "But they were not the Afghan people's own plans."\nHe said the results of the conference will give the Afghan government leverage when negotiating for financial support.\n"Now that we have a concrete blueprint, the government can say, these are our needs, these are the projects we'd like to do," Shahrani said.\nBeginning in the 1950s, IU has played a role in the region. Under the leadership of President Herman B. Wells, an administrative exchange program was set up with Kabul University. Shahrani said it had an enormous influence on the way Kabul University operated.\nHundreds of Afghans also received Master's Degrees in education and administration at IU. \nThe program was terminated after the communist coup in 1979, but many of the Afghan scholars returned to IU for the education conference.\n"A lot of this is really about human contact and personal friendships," Shahrani said. "Once the Afghanistan program started, Wells certainly took special interest in it and made friends with the Chancellor of Kabul University." \n"IU has a deep intellectual and teaching interest in the region," Dean for International Programs Patrick O'Meara said. "Wells helped to build up the University of Kabul, another of his great legacies."\nO'Meara said the future of Afghanistan rests on U.S. help in rebuilding the universities and the cities. \n"If we don't assist them to provide opportunities and help reconstruct, the discontent might emerge, and there might be a very open situation again for radical groups," he said.\nShahrani said the Afghans are "a patient and resilient people." A little help from the United States will go a long way, he said.\n"It is a daunting but not impossible challenge," he said. "The Afghans have already survived a quarter century of war."\nThis summer he traveled back to his country, spending two weeks in his home village where his seven brothers and sisters still live, and exploring universities in the northern provinces. It was the first time he had returned to Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power in 1996. Much has changed, he said.\n"It was depressing to see places I remembered as standing to be all in ruins," he said. "But there is a great deal of new talent in the country. People are flocking back in"
(10/09/02 5:39am)
The campus will undergo a mammoth internal evaluation called "strategic planning" to clarify its mission, values and priorities, IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm said Tuesday. \nThe 18-month project will be led by a 25-member committee of students, faculty and administrators appointed by Brehm.\nBrehm said the strategic plan will create the first written mission statement defining campus direction.\n"We don't have an overall written goal," said Brehm, entering her second full year as Bloomington chancellor. "And it is important we do."\nLaw professor Fred Cate, who will head the committee, said his team will develop a mission that will be a "single brief statement saying what the campus has set out to do." \nThe committee is also charged with setting academic priorities campus wide. Cate said the priority discussions will involve student scholarships, attracting premier faculty and integrating instructional resources. \n"I think the notion is to find out what we can do to advance the quality and standing of the campus academics," Cate said.\nThe projects generated by the strategic plan will be funded by a $1,000 fee applied to freshmen for five years starting next fall. All-totaled, Brehm said she expects to collect nearly $28 million over five years, designated as the school's Commitment to Excellence.\nThe money will be allocated to new programs and projects provided the University can cover its general operating budget through tuition, private and public funds.\nIf University costs exceed revenues, the University would use the Commitment to Excellence funds to make up the difference, Brehm said.\nAll deans will submit their own version of their priorities to the committee, which will then address them as a whole. Brehm has instructed the deans to base their priorities on the following: enhancement of undergraduate education, diversity, engagement with the state, interdisciplinary potential and funding. \nBrehm said the polemic process must be completed by Feb. 1 in time for budget planning. \n"It will be a very interesting and serious conversation," she said. "We'll all talk about specific interests and work on finding a common ground." \nCate said evaluating all areas of the campus will be a cooperative task.\n"Some priorities will seem very obvious, but I think there is no question that getting into less obvious priorities is going to take a lot of consultation," he said. \nOnce the priorities are set, the deans will devise new programs to carry them out. Brehm said the final priorities made by the committee will be reevaluated yearly. \n"The plan changes over time," she said. "It drives the activities and is responsive to the activities."\nSarah Mac Gill, undergraduate representative on the committee, said the group will probe the campus interior. \n"It's important that the University have very, very high academic standings," she said. "We want to take it to the next level and improve on the solid foundation we have."\nPresident Myles Brand and the trustees will be consulted throughout the planning stages. The committee will release periodic statements to keep the rest of campus up-to-date.
(10/02/02 5:19am)
IU is embarking on a national search for a provost, a sign that Chancellor Sharon Brehm, with one year under her belt, is eager to carve her own identity into campus.\nBrehm said the provost will be a "beefed-up" version of the vice-chancellor of academic affairs and the dean of faculties and will work closely with the chancellor and academic deans. \nIt will be the first provost in the school's history.\nThe addition of a provost will alter the traditional role the chancellor has played at IU, Brehm told the Bloomington Faculty Council Tuesday, a move she not only endorsed but pushed. \nBrehm's predecessor, Kenneth Gros Louis served as chancellor for 21 years. A University audit conducted at the time of his retirement showed that the chancellor's office under his helm had taken on an enormous amount of tasks, Brehm said. \nGros Louis knew everything and everybody on campus, and it was natural for him to do it all, she said. That legacy has made it very difficult for Brehm to take on new responsibilities, especially in activities outside Bloomington.\n"Ken did a fantastic job, and he is not going to be replicated," Brehm said. "But he was not terribly interested in external activities. That was his choice, and I greatly respect it." \nA provost, Brehm said, will give her more time to pursue those external activities -- engaging the community, meeting with legislators, visiting alumni clubs and helping with fund raising. \n"I need someone who can be a very adept partner," she said. "It would allow me to be a CEO with a strong commitment internally and externally."\nFaculty Council member Elizabeth Lion said the chancellor's office was due for reorganization.\n"I think it will be efficient and effective," she said. "The personal communication lines were very well set at the end of (Gros Louis') 21 years, and that doesn't work so well anymore."\nIU was the only Big Ten school without a provost, which is actually a British word meaning "jailkeeper."\n"It's an odd term that has a kind of military jailing quality," Brehm said.\nAt Tuesday's meeting, some faculty members shared concern that they would be losing a powerful ally in the present dean of faculty. The position is currently held by Moya Andrews.\n"Many people are worried about the provost model that does not emphasize faculty development," BFC president Bob Eno said. "The dean of faculties has been a feature of this campus that we've been able to preserve against the grain."\nBrehm said those duties will be absorbed by an associate provost, who would most likely be a faculty member.
(10/01/02 5:27am)
Most people really do try to speak nicely of Ballantine Hall. But it can be tricky.\n"Ballantine is a very vertical building," Vice President of Administration J. Terry Clapacs says. \n"It's uncongenial to say the least," says Bloomington Faculty Council President Bob Eno.\n"I spent a lot of time in the building as an English major and have fond memories," Trustee Pat Shoulders says.\nCome on.\n"The building is a sore thumb sticking up from the ground," Shoulders says.\nNow, that's better.\nSince it was completed in 1957, 10-story Ballantine Hall has been the "ugly duckling" of campus architecture. Some feel the building is too tall, too concrete, the stairs too steep. Others have claimed with "tongue in cheek" that it's the biggest classroom building in the country.\nNow 45 years later it's also in desperate need of internal repair, said history chair John Bodnar.\nBodnar, who has an office on the seventh floor, said there is not enough air-conditioning, the elevators break down and power-outages are all-too common.\n"It heats up like an oven, and one of the elevators is always down for repairs," Bodnar said. "There have been some minor improvements, but it still has some real drawbacks that need to be addressed."\nClapacs said Ballantine has problems that now go beyond its design. \n"It's not just a matter of looking bad; it doesn't work well either," he said.\nIn addressing the Ballantine breakdown, the Bloomington Capital Projects Committee debated whether to demolish the building and build a new one in its place. \n"If we had the opportunity, would we scrap it? The answer is yes," Clapacs said. \nAlthough support for demolition was strong, the committee settled on renovation. The committee concluded that the replacement of Ballantine could not be undertaken because there would be nowhere to move the classrooms during the project.\nThe committee proposed that a new humanities building be built to house half the Ballantine refugees at a time during two separate stages of renovation. \n"A new humanities building will have to be constructed before," Eno said. "It will receive people from Ballantine one-half at a time, as it is remodeled from top to bottom."\nThe Humanities building will also decrease the number of classrooms in Ballantine. The recommendation was sent to the chancellor's office. \nWith the state in the midst of a financial crisis, Eno said both projects won't be underway anytime soon.\n"Capital funds from the state have dried up," he said. \nShoulders said the multi-disciplinary science building is a bigger priority than the Ballantine project.\n"It's hard to know where Ballantine would fit in terms of campus priorities," he said. "There are other pressing needs."\nMeanwhile, Eno said the snack bar on the bottom floor of Ballantine was changed to a faculty-only lounge this year to mollify its increasingly unhappy occupants.\n"It was a recognition that faculty are living in conditions that are subpar, and they are under increased stress," he said.\nClapacs said construction on Ballantine will not begin in "the foreseeable future."\n"We need to do our best to keep it in good repair," he said. "It's all we have at the moment"
(09/25/02 5:43pm)
In his annual State of the University address Tuesday, President Myles Brand unveiled a long-range plan to strengthen IU's research programs. \nHis vision involves attracting top-notch faculty, juggling administrative roles and seeking more money from the state. \n"IU is proud of its commitment to research and of its achievements," Brand said. "We will not rest on our laurels, however."\nDuring the 1990s, sponsored research at IU tripled from $113 million in 1990 to $397 million in 2001. The high point came with a $105 million grant from the Lilly Endowment supporting the Indiana Genomics Initiative. \nBrand said IU has received little from the state in the way of research initiatives. \nThis year he is joining with the Commission for Higher Education to lobby the legislature for money to add one million square feet to the IU Medical School, replace or repair Ballantine Hall and move forward with the construction of a new science building. \n"The Hoosier state needs to take immediate steps," Brand said. "It has not funded its research universities competitively."\nAt the same time, Brand named Vice President for Information Technology Michael McRobbie the new vice president for research. In addition to overseeing research University-wide, McRobbie will unite and streamline the information technology and research divisions.\n"McRobbie is an absolutely outstanding researcher," said Bob Eno, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council. "We should achieve some massive efficiencies." \nBrand said he hopes the strategies will "enable new research initiatives" for IU. \nRichard Shiffrin, who has conducted research in cognitive science at IU for over 30 years, said he was energized by Brand's speech. He called it "far-reaching" and "forceful." \n"I am encouraged to hear the president speak up on a subject that at times in the State of Indiana, administrators have been fearful of addressing," Shiffrin said.\nShiffrin said the speech is a good sign that Indiana is finally beginning to appreciate the importance of research. \n"This is a very apt time for Myles to give his vision," he said. "Maybe the climate is changing. I'm hopeful that IU will pull itself up by its bootstraps and make strides in research."\nBrand also hinted at change in his speech.\n"Now more than ever before, research is a collaborative activity that transcends geographic barriers, crosses disciplinary boundaries and scales the ivy covered walls that previously separated the academy from the private sector," he said.\nBrand said breakthroughs in research at IU will enhance the quality of life and economy for Indiana citizens. He cited the medical school's work in studying tooth decay, heart attacks and testicular cancer. \nBrand wants to increase the number of programs like the Science, Technology and Research Scholars program, which allows students to take part in four years of research with faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences. \nHe said he sees student participation in research projects as a future hallmark of an IU degree. \n"Engagement with faculty members in research provides the best opportunities for learning," Brand said. "If we proceed thoughtfully over time, we can affect the culture of the university"
(09/23/02 10:49pm)
When he was a freshman, Patrick Mitchell chose to live off-campus at Brownstone Terrace apartments. A junior now, he said he has no regrets about missing dorm life his first year.\n"I think it was much better for me to live off campus," he said. "Academically, it kept me from being influenced by some of the negativities of the dorm. And I'm a pretty outgoing person, so I tend to meet a lot of people anyway."\nMitchell avoided the dorms mainly to save his family money. Rent at his apartment was about $100 less a month than the dorms, and he didn't have to buy a meal plan.\nBut starting next year, freshmen will no longer have the option of off-campus living.\nAt the board of trustees meeting Friday, the board approved a plan requiring all freshmen to live on-campus.\nMitchell thinks the policy will hurt students like him who want to save money by living off-campus. The dorms are not cheap, and tuition is always rising, he said.\nSophomore Adam Peeples, who lived in Read his freshman year, doesn't see it that way. Though most upperclassmen tend to move out of the dorms, Peeples decided to come back -- and stay in the exact same room.\n"I had a great experience," Peeples said. "I would have missed doing activities with my floor and getting to know people if I had lived off-campus."\nHe said he had no problem with the policy change.\n"Living in the dorms has only helped me to enjoy campus and get more involved," he said.\nThe change will potentially affect about 400 freshmen, Chancellor Sharon Brehm said. As the driving force behind the new policy, she compiled a five-page study explaining the benefits of residential housing, which she presented to the trustees.\n"The first year is the hardest year of college," she said. "Living on campus provides stability for the student."\nFreshmen who live on-campus have higher grades and a higher retention and graduation rate than those who live off-campus, the report said. And freshmen who live on-campus are 6 percent more likely to return for their sophomore year.\n"Living in an apartment is a terrible way to enter college," she said. "How do you get connected to the campus? I really do believe this is the best way to start one's college career."\nTrustee Pat Shoulders backed the plan.\n"This policy seems to have great merit in educational experience, student retention and campus involvement," he said. \nThe plan also had the blessings of the Bloomington Faculty Council and IU Student Association. \n"Students adjust more quickly academically and socially when living on campus," IU Student Association president Bill Gray said. "I think it's a good idea."\nSome exceptions to the policy will be made for students who live with their parents, married students and students with medical conditions.
(09/10/02 10:40pm)
The television inside Katie Flege's home will remain quiet today. She won't watch the hours of special programming and footage dedicated to the Day Our Nation Saw Terror. She says she can't. Her own memories are vivid enough. \n"It's important to honor the victims, but I don't want to watch the whole thing on TV," Flege says. "It would depress me too much. I just feel lucky to be here and alive."\nOne year ago Flege was working in the nation's capitol as an intern with the SPEA Washington Leadership Program, just blocks from where at 9:37 a.m. a 757-jet deliberately slammed head-on into the west side of the Pentagon. \nShe was one of 35 IU students working in Washington that day.\nFlege and her co-workers attempted to keep working even as they watched the twin towers burning on TV. But when the Pentagon was hit, everyone evacuated.\n "I had only been in D.C. for a week or two," she said. "So when it happened, I felt very scared and isolated. People were confused. It was scary. I wanted to get home so bad."\nThe scariest moments came when Flege heard that a fourth plane was somewhere in the air. Someone shouted that it had just been spotted above the Potomac River. \n"That feeling of fear that I had, I can still conjure up so clearly," she said. "Not knowing what was going on, not knowing where that plane was."\nSo instead of turning on the TV today, Flege plans to call her mom. \nMaurina Roberts feels the same way. She too was interning with the SPEA program on Sept. 11, in the policy department of the Wilderness Society, just a six-minute walk from the White House. She won't be watching the TV today, either. In fact, she hasn't watched the news in a year. \n"I no longer watch the news," Roberts said. "I avoid it because TV news is too depressing."\nIn the year since the attacks, Roberts said she has developed a new perspective.\n"It changed me, in a nonspecific way," she said. "My life after Sept. 11 has been altered."\nShe has gained a new appreciation for different cultures.\n"It was a slap in the face reminder that we are not the only people on the planet," she said. "I have a stronger empathy with people who live in places like the west bank where things of this nature happen every day of their lives."\nShe also reevaluated the direction of her life. \n"I pondered if it was worth it to continue my education and achieve my goals professionally," she said. "Is it worth it to keep fighting, if it could be all wiped out?"\nFlege has felt some of the same stirrings inside her.\nIn the days after the attacks, she went to volunteer with the Salvation Army in D.C. and was amazed by the spirit of charity. She said her reaction to Sept. 11 has made her more patriotic. \n"I felt better when I saw how our country had come together," she said. "I've felt more lucky to be an American. It was something I took for granted."\nFlege said she'll never forget that evanescent feeling of unity.\n"Everyone came together," she said. "We were all going through the same thing, even though we came from different backgrounds."\nMatt Light, now a graduate student at IU Law School, was in D.C. too. In the year since, he has drawn reassurance from his experience that day.\n"Everyone on that morning had the exact same look in their eyes," he said. "I didn't notice it at the time. They wanted to get to a safe place, they wanted to know that their families were all right. It reinforced the fact that we are all from different areas, but we are all from the same country."\nHe reminds himself of that to deal with his memories.\n"Sometimes you are rational and other times, you think of retribution," he said. "I had a hard time figuring it all out. You go through different moods."\nMarc Lame, a professor at SPEA who led the program, had the stressful task of trying to account for all 35 interns immediately following the attacks. By 4 p.m., he had contacted everyone.\nHe said all but two interns finished their jobs. \n"Brave young men and women," he said.
(08/28/02 7:36am)
Early figures from the Office of International Services show that Sept. 11 appears to have had no detrimental effect on the enrollment of international students at IU. \nIn fact, Lynn Schoch, associate director of the OIS, expects the number of new foreign students to increase this fall. \n"Our numbers look like they are up considerably," Schoch said. "We are pleased that we haven't seen a decline."\nAs of Monday, the OIS had over 800 international students pass through orientation, an 11 percent increase from last year's numbers. \n"It may be that people are coming to Indiana because it seems safe," Schoch said. "But we don't know that."\nSchoch said he believes many students will arrive late, delayed by a stricter student visa process adopted by the State Department in the wake of Sept. 11. \n"It has taken longer for some to get visas than in the past," Schoch said. "Reviewers are being very cautious to make sure they are dealing with reliable documents and good information."\nHe said the State Department has created a classified list of "certain profiles" that must undergo additional security checks before a visa may be approved. \nBrooke Hensley-Marschand, counselor at the Leo R. Dowling International Center, has received e-mails from students in Kuwait, Singapore, Turkey and Malaysia, complaining of an exceptionally lengthy visa process. \nThough they have been accepted to IU, most of them won't make it out of their countries in time for classes, she said. \n"It's been tough and frustrating," she said. "Even if they applied early, many are still waiting."\nExpecting a large number of late arrivals this fall, Hensley-Marschand said IU has, for the first time, set a deadline for the arrival of foreign students. Any international student who arrives after Sept. 9 will not be able to register, she said. \nChris Foley, admissions officer for international students, said his office was aware of the increased scrutiny given to student visa applicants. He said they tried to compensate by speeding up the admissions process. \n"We worked very hard getting admissions done early in the summer, so students would have a better chance of getting a visa," Foley said. "Given 9-11 and the new procedures in place, students were also more aggressive in getting visas. They did better planning."\nThe OIS has not detected a shift in where students are coming from either. The number of new Middle Eastern students has stayed relatively stable, Schoch said.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Mary Lan often thinks about her home in China. Sometimes at night, she can't get to sleep, she is so overcome with longing. She thinks of the river that runs near her parents house. She thinks of her father, who is old and not always well.\nBut what Lan, a visiting scholar in the department of Communication and Culture, thinks about most is that she won't be returning anytime soon.\nIn April her father called and said to her simply, "do not come back."\nMany things in China can't be explained over the phone for fear of government wiretaps.\nShe didn't need an explanation though. Lan knows it's because she and her father are members of the Falun Dafa -- a small but rapidly growing spiritual movement inside China. Originally an apolitical group, the Falun Dafa is bent on improving the lives of its members through meditation and daily practices. \nThe communist regime in China, though, sees the numbers of the group as a threat and has instituted a severe crackdown on all practitioners. Since the end of last December, the number of Falun Dafa followers who have been killed by the Chinese government has tripled and over 50,000 people have been put in labor camps, Lan said. \nLan is discouraged by the situation in her home, but as she has learned from the Falun Dafa teachings, she is not angry.\n"Before, whenever I encountered conflict, I easily got depressed," she said. "What I learned is to be strong in handling it and to open my heart."\nUntil the situation improves in China, Lan will work to try and raise awareness on the struggle while she is at IU. A visiting scholar studying communication and culture, she arrived last December on a grant from the U.S. Foundation. In the eight months she has been here, Lan has already started a free meditation session at 6 p.m. every Saturday in the heart of campus at the IU arboretum.\nLan will hold a callout meeting from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today near the Biddle Continuation Center at the Indiana Memorial Union for anyone interested in learning more about the Falun Dafa. Lan will give a demonstration of the five exercises.\n"We want to introduce the practice to more people and draw attention to the crisis in China," Lan said.\nThe Falun Dafa formed in 1992 by Li Hongzhi in China. Drawing upon ancient Chinese traditions and customs, the goals of the movement are self-improvement and increased energy levels. \nIts practitioners are encouraged to live according to three major disciplines: truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Members also take part in five daily exercises that are said to strengthen one's energy and one's mind, especially when done in a group. \n"The cultivation practices will improve one's nature and raise one's moral standards," Lan said. "The exercises are very simple and very gentle."\nRuby Huang, a Taiwanese-born student studying information sciences at IU, credits the Falun Dafa for improving her life. \n"I use to be very headstrong and liked to fight and be on top," Huang said. "When I learned the teachings, my mind became really peaceful. It gives me a positive perspective in my life, and I feel happy and free."\nThe simplicity and holistic effects preached by the group have attracted over 100 million followers in more than 40 countries -- a new age movement reaping the benefits of new age technology, Lan said.\nThe rapid diffusion and popularity of the Falun Dafa has startled the Chinese government. Total membership in 1999 likely exceeded the entire membership of the communist party, according to Compassion, a Falun Dafa journal.\nIt was in 1999 that the Falun Dafa was banned outright in China and declared a "counter-revolutionary group." Anyone caught doing the practice now faces internment in labor camps, torture and death, Lan said. The government crackdown is nothing short of an all out war, Lan said.\n"The head of the government is determined to eliminate it because it is so different from Communism," she said. "They are torturing people and things keep getting more and more serious. The people just want to practice by themselves. They just want peace."\nFalun Dafa callout\n• Demonstration of the five excercises of the Falun Dafa at the Biddle Continuation Center at the IMU.\n• Demonstration goes from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Contac Mary Lan, 857-2175, for more information.