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(12/07/09 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The third H1N1 vaccination clinic will begin today and continue through Wednesday. In addition to already reserved spaces, 860 extra vaccines will be distributed on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Steve Chaplin, assistant managing editor for the Office of University Communications.“That’s not enough to open another day,” he said. “It’s easier to make those extra available in the scheduled time frame.”Hugh Jessop, director of the IU Health Center, said the center received 8,900 doses of the vaccine right before Thanksgiving and opened the second clinic on Wednesday last week. People who had reserved spaces for Wednesday of weeks one and two were told to come in to receive the shot.“The state realized how well we did with the first clinic, so they gave us more vaccines,” Jessop said. “They called us since then and asked us if we need more.”Jessop said when the organizers of the clinic saw how smoothly the distribution went, they decided to include more people on each day of the clinic, also opening up additional spots.“I think they’re doing twice as many per hour and still getting people out of there in 10 minutes or less,” Chaplin said.Today’s clinic will distribute the vaccinations to people who reserved spaces on Monday of weeks two and three, Jessop said. Tuesday the vaccinations will be distributed to those that signed up for Tuesday of weeks one and two, and those that signed up for Wednesday of week three, as well as the extra spaces that people can still reserve, will be given on Wednesday.Reported H1N1 cases have lessened, Jessop said, but the virus has not gone away completely. The health center has seen about 1,600 reported cases since the start of the semester, he said, but there is still a large pool of people that could get the virus.“By the time we get to March, it will be a full year that the virus has been around,” Jessop said. “Ninety-five percent of our students haven’t had the disease. In the past, we didn’t have the vaccine. Now, if you make an appointment for Tuesday, you know you’re getting it on Tuesday.”The vaccine is free to all eligible IU students, faculty and staff, and the entire process takes less than 10 minutes to get through, Jessop said.“Clearly there’s no problem getting in,” he said. “But you do have to have an appointment. People walk in with the reservation in their hands and the only time they sit down is to get the shot.”
(12/02/09 5:00am)
Upon walking into the East Lounge in the Indiana Memorial Union,
students are greeted with two gleaming Christmas trees and other
holiday decorations. Wreaths hang on nearly every door in the building,
and decorations hang from the ceiling in the Market.
(12/01/09 4:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Oscar-nominated screenwriter and producer Angelo Pizzo learned to make movies in a vicarious way, reading more than 1,000 scripts before writing his first.“After six years I realized I envy the people who are out doing it,” Pizzo said. “So I went out and wrote ‘Hoosiers.’”Pizzo, who also wrote the sports-underdog movie “Rudy,” spoke to students about his career Monday night at the Indiana Memorial Union.The Career Development Center and Arts and Sciences Career Services sponsored the event, which drew about 25 people. Pizzo spoke for about an hour, including questions from the audience.Pizzo grew up in Bloomington and graduated from IU with a degree in political science. Two years later he attended film school at the University of Southern California. He said his break came when he filled out a questionnaire on campus.“They asked me to be a contestant on a game show,” Pizzo said. “They paid $5 a show. After the show, I was asked to go to work writing questions for the game show.”Pizzo said he made connections through the show and landed an internship for the final season of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Wes Erwin, senior assistant director for employer relations at the center, said it put together a program called “Art Works,” which connects students with professionals in creative industries.“Basically, we invite speakers on our own,” he said. “I’m a big fan of Pizzo’s work. The point of the event is to hear career paths from industries that aren’t usually hit on in other networking nights.”From someone he met at the internship, Pizzo received an opportunity to become a producer’s assistant and dropped out of film school to pursue the career.Books about writing screenplays get in the way, Pizzo said. If people want to be writers or directors, they should just go do it.“If you’re trying to write three-dimensional characters, then the best kind of writing comes from the inside out,” he said.Pizzo said his writing process is all screwed up.“Usually, I’m tortured when I’m writing,” he said. “A friend once said, ‘How did my life turn into a perpetual term paper due?’”Pizzo said he is mostly hired now to write scripts. Pizzo said four of five of his closest friends edit them and then he sends them to the person who hired him.“My feeling’s the same after every script,” he said. “I’m terrified.”Junior Candace Tickle said she was impressed with his talk and did not expect Pizzo to advise students to go out and make movies.“That’s the best way to get it seen,” she said. “I used to write, and now I want to go home and start up again.”
(11/30/09 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Everyone has a story, said Steve Gilbert, a bus driver for Bloomington Transit.“I’ve gotten to know one of the beggars who works on a corner,” Gilbert said. “This guy is a Desert Storm vet. Marines taught him how to kill, and they also taught him how to drink. Once in a while I’ll do something nice. I want them to know I’m not going to ignore them.“Living with your eyes wide open and with integrity is something more people need to do.”Gilbert, known to his co-workers as “Steve-O,” said December will mark his one-year anniversary of working for Bloomington Transit. A semi-retired creative professional, Gilbert said he attended film school before majoring in graphic design and commercial art at the University of Cincinnati.“My professional history was about 28 years,” he said. “I’ve probably got 300 minutes of commercials on my reel. I’ve got boxes of awards that someday I’ll hang in my bathroom.”Gilbert said he likes to mix up his driving schedule so he does not get complacent.Tom Schroeder, a fellow bus driver, said he also likes variety. Drivers’ schedules change each semester, Schroeder said, and they get to choose what schedule they want based on seniority.Schroeder has been driving for Bloomington Transit for nearly eight years and said he has been with the company long enough that he cannot use the “I didn’t know” excuse anymore.Currently, Schroeder said he drives the Route 4 bus on Monday, the Route 7 on Wednesday and Thursday and the Route 1 on Friday.“It’s not the same street I look at every day,” he said. “Not all drivers like variety. If they have seniority, some drivers stay on the Route 3 forever.”Gene Reed, who has been driving for Bloomington Transit for more than five years, said he prefers to drive the Route 6 bus every day. Reed said the route deals with college students, which he enjoys.“I would rather have students on the bus than not anybody,” he said. “Once in a while, I leave Smallwood without anybody on the bus.”Arben Cherisha sticks with the same route for a different reason. Cherisha said he has been driving for almost three years and chooses the Night Owl shift every semester. He attends classes at Ivy Tech Community College, building his class schedule mainly on the first three days of the week.“It’s a big sacrifice, but I have to go through it,” he said.Cherisha said he already has a degree in mechanical engineering from a university in Albania, but it is not valid in the United States. He said he is now working toward a degree in public affairs.The Night Owl bus differs from other bus routes because drivers have to rely on different skills, Cherisha said. Driving at night requires more attention than driving during the day and also requires drivers to change sleeping patterns, he said.“Because the hours are different, people are performing different activities,” Cherisha said. “We have more people frequenting clubs, bars, restaurants, theaters – but most importantly, we have a lot of students studying late at night.”Cherisha said he handles different situations from tired drivers to individuals riding the bus that have been out “enjoying the evening.”“Actually, ‘Night Owl’ might not be the right title for the bus,” he said. “I might say the ‘Night Care’ for students because I have the greatest sympathy for students I see studying late nights or taking the bus at 3 a.m. and they’re still going to their first class in the morning. It’s amazing to see young boys and girls committed to their education.”Reed said he also noticed a distinct difference between passengers in the morning compared to those in the afternoon. Most of the early-morning riders are female, he said, and guys tend to come out and get on the bus around 10 or 11 a.m.Conversations with passengers are discouraged, Schroeder said, so drivers can focus on their job. However, Schroeder said he has had some interesting interactions with passengers. One man he spoke with was an archery expert in the military, he said.Schroeder said he has learned that if you try to be nice to people all the time, everything runs smoother. Drivers want people to use the bus, he said, so they want to create a favorable impression.“What really annoys me is when I make a mistake,” he said. “It gets to be where I don’t even hear the chime anymore. I say I’m sorry and pull over. What else can you do?”The bus can teach passengers how to keep their composure and move through their day in a graceful way, Gilbert said. It also teaches them how to appreciate a good breath of air when they get off the bus, he said.“There are a hundred stories in every little city,” he said. “People should ride the transit first and see the community through those links.”
(11/30/09 2:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With a stack of index cards, junior Ashley Thomas sat in her residence hall working on the storyboard for the all-student production, “Only Human.” On the front of each card, a pencil sketch depicts the camera angle of one particular shot in one scene of the film. The scene and shot numbers are written on the back.Thomas and two other storyboard artists each drew more than 300 storyboards in preparation for the film.“It’s a lot of framing and knowing what’s going to be in the scene,” she said. “You have to have that eye for it. It’s all got to be in your mind.”Though the three artists lack experience in storyboarding, Thomas said it helps to get a new perspective on filming.“Filming has a tendency to become redundant,” she said. “People not in film have a completely different set of ideas.”Majoring in photography, Thomas said she has never done storyboarding before but wanted to expand her skills outside of fine arts. She said she heard an announcement about getting involved in the Bloomington Artists Agency, a student-run production and management company, at a networking night she attended and became involved in the “Only Human” production from there.Each scene of the film is broken up into shots, Thomas said. The three storyboard artists were assigned several scenes based on how many shots the scene contained, she said.“One person did not get a great deal more,” Thomas said. “Everybody does a mix of all of them.”The storyboard artists for the film went to separate meetings with the production team to discuss each shot they were assigned, said fellow storyboard artist and junior Cristina Vanko, who is also an illustrator for the Indiana Daily Student.“They would argue over the scenes,” she said, “and listen to everybody’s thoughts.”Vanko added that the producer makes the final decision, and most of the drawings are simpler than what people might expect.“You don’t need as much detail as you think you need,” she said. “I just used pencil and cardboard, nothing fancy. If I did, I’d probably still be working on them.”Vanko said she received an e-mail from a fine arts adviser and attended the first call-out meeting for “Only Human.” Interested in comics, Vanko said she decided to get involved because storyboarding is the closest thing to comics offered on campus.Vanko said the main difference between storyboard drawing and drawing for a fine arts class is students do not get the chance to make things up while they are drawing in the classes.“You get to be a little more creative with storyboarding,” she said. “You’re not just drawing an apple in front of you.”Storyboard artist and junior Alysha Balog, who is studying graphic design and is interested in comic book drawing, said she received an e-mail from an academic adviser about the call-out meeting for the film. Before the film, Balog said her only storyboarding experience came from a three-minute project she did for a class.Storyboards help actors, directors and others involved in the film get on the same page, Balog said.“They focus the film a lot,” she said. “It makes it easier for actors to see what looks they’re going for.”The cards are similar to a miniature version of what the crew is going to be seeing, Thomas said. However, the shots might still change during the filming of the scenes, she said.“I didn’t realize how much it would help,” she said. “It’s not like just anyone can draw a scene – you have to include every detail in the background. It takes artistic ability to envision and recreate the scene.”
(11/19/09 6:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A line extended from the door of the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union Wednesday as students waited to see the advance screening of “When in Rome,” a romantic comedy set to release on January 29.“I’ve never seen a movie here before,” said sophomore Abbie Oakley. “It looked like a good opportunity. You get to see the movie before everyone else.”In the movie, Kristen Bell plays Beth, a workaholic down on her luck in love. On a trip to Rome for her younger sister’s wedding, Beth steals five coins from an alleged fountain of love and is then pursued by the five guys who originally owned them.Josh Duhamel, Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, Jon Heder and Danny Devito play the parts of the five pursuers.Senior Audree Notoras, film director for the Union Board, said movie distributors contact the board two or three weeks before they would like to screen the film.“Our general philosophy is that some student is going to want to see it,” Notoras said. “And you can brag to friends that you got to see it before it hit theaters.”Most of the advance screenings fill the auditorium, Notoras said, however, less popular genres tend to leave the theater with empty seats.“Usually it’s at least half full,” she said. “But there are many times when we have to turn people away.”Notoras said she thought “When in Rome” was a great cheesy comedy.“I laughed throughout it,” she said. “I thought the sister’s wedding was really funny, the way the two main characters met. The rest was a little over the top, but good.”Junior Kristen Kolar, a campus employee for AMP Agency, handed out surveys asking students questions such as “who was your favorite character?” to get the initial idea of what people are thinking about the film.“We send them to Touchstone or Disney,” she said. “They take viewers comments to possibly change it.”Senior Rachel Elman said she thought the movie was cute. She said she heard about the advance screening through the Union Board and was interested in the film.“It’s always fun to see a sneak preview,” she said. “I loved all of the scenes from Rome.”
(11/19/09 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Health food based restaurant Kiva, located on the lobby level of the Indiana Memorial Union below Burger King, will close on Dec. 11 for finals week to begin renovations, said Steve Mangan, general manager of Dining Services at the IMU.Kiva will undergo interior renovation, update its menu and eventually add a patio. The restaurant normally closes during finals week because of a lack of business, Mangan said, and will reopen after the renovation is completed around the end of January.“We just think it’s tired,” he said. “It needs an update. We want to build a focus on fresh, local, sustainably produced products, and it’s time to do it.”Mangan said improvements to the restaurant will include changing the wall treatments, enhancing lighting and upgrading buffets, service equipment, tables and chairs. With the improvements, the flow of service will be smoother, he said. Employees will be able to prepare foods quicker and serve customers more efficiently, he said.Along with the reconstruction, Mangan said Kiva will also include new, healthy items. A goal of the renovations is to create a connection between Kiva and Sugar & Spice, which now offers more local and organic products, Mangan said.“We want to keep those salad bars stocked and healthy,” he said, “and focus on the vegetarian menu that we’ve had down there.”Construction on the patio will start in the spring, Mangan said. The current plan is to take out the row of bushes in front of the windows facing Dunn Meadow, he said, and put in a large concrete pad.“We’re trying to increase the traffic off the Woodlawn bus stop and bring students into Kiva, Burger King and Starbucks,” he said.Senior Danielle White said the changes are not going to affect her. White said she only eats at the restaurant once in a while because of high prices.“I think it will be positive,” she said. “If I eat here in the spring, I usually take it outside anyway. The patio will make it easier to study out there.”Though Kiva will not be accessible for a few weeks, Mangan said he thinks the improvements will make up for the weeks the restaurant is closed.“We’ve got some great foods available other places in the building,” he said. “I think the work will be well received when it’s done.”Junior Carrie Coon said she eats at Kiva almost every day and thinks the improvements will be good for the restaurant.“I don’t know how they can get much healthier,” she said. “I think in the long run it will improve business.”
(11/17/09 5:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It was the first and only day of the IU Health Center immunization clinic for the H1N1 virus, and IU alumna Samantha Gonzalez sat in a chair at Assembly Hall waiting for her reserved time to receive the vaccine.Gonzalez signed up for an 11 a.m. time slot on the first day of the first week of the clinic. Gonzalez said she works at the Campus Children’s Center and usually starts at noon. However, she was asked to come into work early that day.“I got here at 9:30 hoping they started the clinic at 9,” she said. “I felt like one of those silly women on the news, showing up so early.”The health center received 980 shots from the Indiana State Department of Health, enough to open up the first day of the clinic on Monday, said Steve Chaplin, assistant managing editor for the Office of University Communications.“We have no idea when or how many more we’ll get,” he said. “We want to distribute them when they’re available, as soon as they’re available.”By 10:45 a.m., more than 25 people had lined up waiting to receive the shot.Three stations were set up at the clinic in the front of the South Entrance at Assembly Hall: a ticket station, a consent form station and a vaccination station.IU students and staff members arriving at their registered time went through the first two stations before standing in a roped line to wait for an available nurse. Five tables were set up with a nurse at each one.Betsy Jones, a nurse at the clinic, said she used to work for the IU Health Center for years.“I give the shots,” she said. “And if they have any questions, I can answer them. I give the shots and comfort, for the nervous ones.”Jones said she expected as many people to show up to the clinic as shots available. Everybody has been waiting for the shots for so long, she said, that she imagined she would be busy all day.As the first group of people began to arrive, Jones set up her table, lining up the shots and opening the Band-Aids.“It’s just more efficient,” she said. “People have to get back to class, have to get back to their lives. They don’t have time to wait for me to open a Band-Aid.”Elisha Hardy, a first-year master’s student, said a professor sent an e-mail telling his class to sign up for the vaccine.“Being a master’s student, I have zero free time,” she said. “I can’t get sick.”Hardy said she was a little scared to get the shot.“Some people say it’s new so you shouldn’t get it,” Hardy said. “It’s a risk either way. I just decided it’s worth the risk.”Nurses began administering the shots about 10 minutes before 11 a.m. Gonzalez left the building a few minutes later.“It was fine,” Gonzalez said. “It was really hardly even a stick. I expected it to burn a little, but it was fine.”
(11/06/09 5:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Final exams, friend problems and stress about plans for the next school year upset Abby Borger as she walked, crying, down the overcast, polluted streets of Nanjing, China last year.On her way to unwind at an art museum, the overcast sky suddenly cleared and a flaky snow began to fall. Borger looked up and saw a Chinese monk walking toward her.Neither the monk nor Borger said a word, but when they passed, he handed her a gold-plated card. A little smaller than a playing card, it had a picture of Guanyin Pusa, the Buddha of compassion, on one side and a blessing written in Chinese on the other.“After that moment, I decided to convert to Buddhism,” Borger said. “Like, right there in the middle of the street.”The card now lies in a music shop in Tibet with the other belongings Borger left behind when she was asked to leave the country.Borger, a senior in the Individualized Major Program with a minor in Tibetan studies, asked that her name be changed for her own safety. She planned to study overseas at Tibet University in Lhasa this fall semester.Borger said she arrived in Lhasa about a year after she arrived in China and moved into the dorms at Tibet University on Aug. 28.Classes began on Sept. 16, a Wednesday. The next day, she went to renew her expired visa and was told that all foreign visitors were going to be asked to leave before Oct. 1, as the government expected outbreaks of violence during the 60th anniversary of Chairman Mao Zedong’s and the People’s Republic of China’s rise to power.“Oct. 1 is sort of like America’s Fourth of July,” said Gedun Rabsal, a Tibetan language lecturer at IU. “They want to celebrate peacefully and without interruptions. And if there are interruptions, they don’t want foreigners to see.”On Oct. 18, Borger finally arrived back in Bloomington, missing some personal items but, instead, possessing a story she feels others need to hear.“Basically, I’ve seen more than the Chinese government knows that I’ve seen,” she said.Borger witnessed beatings of monks and other natives on an almost daily basis in Lhasa.“It’s a good thing I got out of there alive and in one piece,” she said. “I didn’t want to see my friends dying.”***Five days after Borger heard of the ruling from the visa office, Tibet University informed her that classes would be canceled beginning the next day and students would need to find their own ways out of the country, she said.She obtained a temporary visa and caught a train to Lanzhou, China on Sept. 28, three days before the celebration was to occur.“In the three months before I got back to the states, I spent about a fifth of my time on trains, planes, buses and backs of trucks with loads of barley and sheep,” she said. “The only thing crazy enough to follow me around is my violin.”After traveling by two trains and a plane, Borger found herself in Thailand for two weeks, waiting to hear if the situation cleared up in Lhasa.She tried to contact her friends from Lhasa while in Thailand. Their phones would ring the first time she called, she said, but no one would answer. On subsequent attempts, it would say the line was disconnected.Borger said she is now on the Chinese government’s watch list. While in Thailand, she said she tried to send an e-mail about her experience to her family and friends. The e-mail bounced back three times, she said, and she could not access her school account for three weeks. After a friend in China eventually received her message, Borger said her friend’s phone was shut down for the rest of the day.“If people in Tibet are known to have contact with me, they might disappear,” she said.Two days after Oct. 1, Borger said the Chinese government reported at least 200 people had died in Urumqi, a city north of Tibet.“Basically what I know is this,” she said. “These four Tibetans were convicted this past week and publicly executed. Come Oct. 1, many people died when they came out to protest. It happens every year around this time.”The Chinese government cracked down on security in Tibet after demonstrations that took place on March 10 of last year, said Elliot Sperling, associate professor of Tibetan studies. The date marked the 49th anniversary of a mass protest in 1959, which eventually culminated in the capitol of Lhasa, where hundreds of thousands of people surrounded the Dalai Lama’s palace to protect him from danger. The demonstrations spread across the plateau and ultimately exploded into violence.The protests received worldwide coverage when journalists located in China to cover the Olympics spoke about the violence taking place, Sperling said.“March 10 has always been sensitive,” he said. “Tibet is under tremendously tight security this year. And if there is violence, they don’t want foreigners to see it.”In February of this year, Borger said she spent the Chinese New Year with the family of a doctor in Xiahe, China. The people of Tibet did not formally celebrate the holiday, she said, in order to honor those who were murdered during the 2008 demonstrations and those who died in an earthquake that occurred a few months previous to the celebration.Foreigners were not allowed in the city at the time, Borger said, and she was not permitted to leave the doctor’s house. Three days after New Year’s, Borger said she left the family so as not to bring them harm. She wore Tibetan clothing and a scarf shielded her entire face except her eyes, which she hid beneath brown contact lenses. Borger said she disguised herself in order to make it out of the city to a bus station unharmed.Borger arrived at the bus safely, but as it pulled out of the station, she said she saw three Tibetan men being tossed into the street from a police station. Afraid she was going to throw up the tea the family had given her, she watched as five policemen beat the men with sticks and broken bottles. By the time the bus left the station, blood covered the ground and the three men were not moving.“Do I want to be here for a full year?” Borger remembers asking herself. “I don’t know if I can handle this.”Looking back, Borger’s time in Tibet and China had many ups and downs. She found religion, she said, but she also saw acts of violence that will stay with her for the rest of her life.“For someone in my position, a 20-year-old white girl from Chicago, that’s tough for me to deal with. ... Tibet has cured me, and it has broken me.”
(11/06/09 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An online program allowing students and employees to reserve a time slot to receive the free H1N1 vaccine will be accessible through OneStart beginning Friday, said Pete Grogg, associate director of the IU Health Center.Anyone affiliated with IU can reserve a day and time for Week 1 or 2 of the clinic, which will be at Assembly Hall, Grogg said. However, the exact date the clinic will start is undecided.“The vaccine is trickling in,” he said. “We have small amounts, but not enough to schedule a mass vaccination clinic.”Access to the program can be found through the IU Health Center Web site or through OneStart, Grogg said, but the easiest way to find it is through the IU- Bloomington homepage. An icon advertising the program will be located on the left side of the www.iub.edu site, he said.Once people click on the icon, the site will take them directly to the eligibility page of the program. If someone has a serious allergy to eggs, has had a serious reaction to another flu vaccine or has experienced Guillain-Barre Syndrome – an immune disorder that affects the nervous system – he or she will not be eligible for the vaccine.The health center requires anyone receiving the vaccine to fill out an H1N1 Influenza Vaccine Consent Form and bring it with them to the chosen time, Grogg said, along with a reservation ticket they will receive through e-mail immediately after signing up.People will be able to choose a 10-minute time slot. During each available time slot, four or five nurses will administer the shots, Grogg said. The clinic will dispense about 960 shots a day and 120 per hour, he said.“We anticipate around 3,000 people a week,” Grogg said. “But we can either expand or contract the clinic based on the supply we receive.”Once the administrators at the health center know when the vaccine will arrive, Grogg said everyone registered through the program will receive an e-mail reminding each individual of their time and to bring the consent form and the reservation ticket.“The most important part of the program is making sure everyone reads the screen and does not breeze through it,” he said. WHO IS ELIGIBLE?• Pregnant women• Households with children younger than six months of age• Students and employees through age 24• Health care and emergency medical services personnel• People 25 to 64 with a chronic medical condition that creates a higher risk for complications MORE INFO Sign up at OneStart or follow the link at www.iub.edu.
(11/03/09 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy had it’s own place in Lt. Dan Choi’s home. After telling his sister he was gay, she told Choi maybe he should wait to tell their parents. Maybe until they die.“I told my mom because she was so annoying,” Choi said. “Literally, she asked me every five minutes, ‘When you marry Korean girl?’ She would say, ‘What do you want for breakfast? When you marry Korean girl?’”When he finally told his mother, she took his hand in hers and said, “I love you, but gay is not real. I don’t know any gay people, especially no Korean gay people.”Choi spoke about his recent notice of discharge from the army because of his sexual orientation Monday in the Whittenberger Auditorium.Choi, a graduate from West Point Military Academy and Iraq War veteran, announced on national TV in March that he is gay. Choi served under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for 10 years before officially coming out. Now, he and other West Point graduates are spearheading a movement to end the controversial policy, which prohibits service members from being openly homosexual or bisexual.Choi began by reciting an Arabic poem before explaining what it was like to come out to his parents. During a question-and-answer session at the end, Choi said President Barack Obama should use his executive power to repeal the policy because voters elected him to be a leader, not to get re-elected. Hannah Kinkead, public relations committee director for Union Board, said members of the Asian Cultural Center brought Choi to the board’s attention. The center was interested in bringing Choi to IU, she said, not only to represent the Asian community but also the gay community in Bloomington.On June 28, Choi said he received notice that he was to be discharged.“The military is still in the closet about what they’re going to do with me,” he said. “I’m still waiting on what kind of discharge. It’s possible it could be anywhere from honorable to dishonorable discharge, but I’ve heard honorable.”Choi said he made the decision to come out when he fell in love for the first time after returning from Iraq.“I understood the world, and it made me a better person,” he said. “Why should I lie about that?”After being asked repeatedly by friends in his unit to meet his mysterious girlfriend, Choi said he decided to tell them the truth.“They said they never would have told, but they deserve to know,” he said. “At West Point, before you do a single push-up, you learn in the honor code that you never lie.”Freshman Kyle Thompson said he heard of Choi’s story before and that he gives a good presentation.“It’s something I’m passionate about,” he said. “I definitely think the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy should be repealed. America is supposed to be the land of the free. If we can’t allow people in the army based on sexual orientation, we’re not following through with that promise.”Choi said there is a call for action from university students and members of each community. During his talk, Choi asked every member of the audience to take out their cell phones and type in the number to Congressman Baron Hill’s office. A sweet, old lady will answer the phone, he said.“All you have to say is ‘Hi, my name is Dan, and I want you to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,’” he said. “And that’s all you have to do. Call your senators every day and remind them we are their boss.”To make his point, Choi called Hill’s office, holding his phone up to the speaker. The secretary’s voice rang through the phone, asking the caller to leave a name and number.“I’m here at Indiana University,” Choi said into the phone, “and we all want you to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.”Choi held out the phone to audience members, who erupted in cheers.
(10/27/09 4:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 virus a national emergency Saturday. However, Hugh Jessop, director of the IU Health Center, said the announcement does not affect IU.“We’ve been doing all the necessary recommendations prior to it being made a national emergency,” he said. “The declaration by the president is simply noting the wide spread and the need to take the precautions seriously. I think the concern is the health center doesn’t have any vaccine.”Jessop said as of now, there have been a total of 995 reported cases of the virus at the health center since the start of school, with 310 cases reported last week. He said those numbers don’t include unreported cases.“I think one of the things we need to watch is it’s going up,” he said. “We went from 60 to 65 cases in the first weeks to over 300. But we’re hoping it’s leveling off.”Jessop said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted the H1N1 virus will peak in November.“Nationwide, visits to doctors for influenza-like-illness are increasing steeply and are now higher than what is seen at the peak of many regular flu seasons. In addition, flu-related hospitalizations and deaths continue to go up nationwide and are above what is expected for this time of year,” according to the CDC Web site. In a report on the CDC Web site that gives the status of vaccine shipment to each state, Indiana is listed as the 12th state with the most vaccines supplied with a total of 273,200. The most have been shipped to California for a total of 1,309,100 vaccines.Most vaccines are 80 to 85 percent effective, Jessop said. If people still contract the virus after getting the vaccine, he said the voracity will be less and the duration will be shorter.Jessop said the health center was told by the federal government earlier in the year that IU would receive the vaccine by the time the center’s online distribution program was set up. At this point, however, he said the center does not know when the vaccine will arrive.The online program through OneStart will allow students to register for a day and time to get the vaccine when it becomes available, Jessop said. “A student will sign up for Monday at 9 a.m. of week one,” he said. “Then when we get the vaccine, an e-mail will be sent out telling everyone who registered for week one to come to Assembly Hall. Students will have an appointment, so they won’t have to stand in line.”Once the first two weeks are 90 percent full, Jessop said the third week will be opened for appointments.The program is 97 percent complete, Jessop said, but still needs to be tested.“We’re working out the details for plugging this in,” he said. “I don’t think anyone else is trying this in the country.”Senior Dan Fer said he thinks this is the best possible system.“It’s how we do most of that kind of stuff on campus,” he said. “But once people no longer see the virus as a threat, they’ll no longer be proactive about it.”Sophomore Sarah Harshberger said she knows people who have had the virus and is nervous being around them without the vaccine. She said the online program will help prevent huge lines and chaos when the vaccine arrives.“I’m definitely going to get it when it gets here,” she said. “I think thousands of people are going to get it.”
(10/27/09 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Mountain-sized piles of clothing and toiletries covered the floors and counters of Middle Way House on Friday afternoon, blocking employees’ desks and flooding into the hallway. “When I talked to the people from Victoria’s Secret, I had no idea it would be like that,” Clara Wilson, house manager of Middle Way House, said. “We were pretty overwhelmed when they showed up with a truck that looked like a moving van. When they said they were bringing it in a truck, I thought they meant a pick-up truck.”All of the proceeds from the benefit concert put on by Victoria’s Secret on Thursday went to Middle Way House, a domestic violence and rape crisis center.Wilson said she was informed of the donation a week before the concert.“I had talked to a woman from corporate headquarters who told me what was happening,” she said. “At that point I had no idea how big it was really going to be.”Many of the items donated are perfect for the shelter, Wilson said. When women go to the shelter, they almost always come with nothing, she said, and are given a bag of toiletries.“We’ve got enough toiletries now to make bags from now ’til the next century,” Wilson said. “I spent 12 hours this weekend sorting through the stuff.”The monetary donation raised by the event will have to go through corporate headquarters at Victoria’s Secret, Wilson said. Middle Way House has not yet been informed of how much money the concert raised, she said. However, IU spokesperson Larry MacIntyre said the concert raised about $5,000.Junior Sara Lewis said she received a flyer for the concert at the beginning of the day Thursday.“It kind of shows we’re a really involved school,” she said. “It shows we get involved for all causes.”Though the concert and giveaways offered by Victoria Secret served as motivations for students to donate, freshman Ben Buddig said being able to have fun and give back at the same time was a nice part of the event.The donations reflect the IU community, Wilson said, because that is where the concert took place, and IU students are the ones who donated.“I’m not sure if there was an incentive for students to donate,” she said. “But Victoria’s Secret put a lot of money and a lot of effort into this whole thing. We were just doubly fortunate we were the charity selected for them to work toward. I had no idea it was going to be anything that huge.”
(10/26/09 2:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Before he visited, Jill’s House was the last place Mike Baxter said he wanted to stay while receiving cancer treatment at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute.“When you sign up at the treatment center, they have a list of places you can stay at nearby,” he said. “I just wanted to be alone.”Students, community members and former patients such as Baxter attended the 10th-annual Jill Behrman 5k Run/Walk on Saturday at IU’s Memorial Stadium. The run attracted 1,250 registered participants and raised an estimated $17,000, said Chris Geary, race coordinator and director of research and programming at Recreational Sports, in an e-mail. Half the money will go to Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship, which honors selected student leaders who work for Recreational Sports. The other half will go to Jill’s House. Baxter said he rented a house to live in during his two-month stay in Bloomington, but it flooded before he got the chance to move into it. On his way to the airport, he stopped by Jill’s House.“It turned out to be one of the best places of my life,” he said. “There are six photon treatment centers in the U.S., but none of them have Jill’s House.”IU student Jill Behrman went missing in May 2000 while riding her bike to work. The first race in her honor was in October of that year, Geary said in an interview.“The first year we had to keep pushing the start time back because so many participants kept showing up,” she said. “I thought the event would slowly fade off as students who knew Jill graduated, but it’s stayed universal. It’s stayed between 1,300 and 1,500 participants each year.”Jill always liked exercise and fitness, said Eric Behrman, Jill’s father. Jill was more of a cyclist than a runner, he said. She rode in the Hilly Hundred and participated in the deCycles bike ride from Bloomington to Atlanta.“I know this is something she would have enjoyed,” Eric Behrman said. “I hope it continues to go on as long as people enjoy it.”Bloomington resident Karlee Wyatt said she used to work for MPRI and treated many of the patients staying at Jill’s House. She said she has participated in the race every year but last year.“Jill’s House is close to my heart,” she said. “Jill’s House is just always going to get bigger.”Before the race, which was organized by Campus Recreational Sports and sponsored by several community organizations, participants joined in a warm-up routine. At 10 a.m., the racers lined up in 45-degree weather, ready for the start.“I recognize a few of the participants,” said Stacey Hall, program director for intramural sports, club sports and student development at Recreational Sports. “If they’re running together they push each other. The first person will probably finish around 17 minutes.”Senior Lionel Montenegro rounded the corner with a time of almost 17 minutes flat, beating the second-place runner, who came in at 17:22.Montenegro said he was not going to participate in the race, but a friend convinced him to run with him. He said the cold weather made the race less than optimal.“It was a pretty bad day, but I think I made the most of it,” he said.
(10/22/09 3:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dining Services at the Indiana Memorial Union have stopped accepting credit cards for a short period of time as a result of high merchant rates, said Steve Mangan, general manager of Sodexo, which operates the food services in the IMU.Members of the Sodexo management team decided to shut down credit card machines last Friday when the rates had become too high for the company to afford, Mangan said.Sodexo is currently renegotiating the rates through the University and expects to have a solution shortly, Mangan said.“We hope to have it resolved as soon as possible,” he said.While credit cards will not be accepted, Mangan said students can still use ATMs located at the Union as well as CampusAccess cards or Union Plus accounts.Mangan said he has not seen a significant decrease in sales at this time.“But a few students is more than I want to lose,” he said. “We’re pushing to get it fixed.”
(10/21/09 1:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU ranked in the top 10 colleges for the use of the social networking site Twitter in a recent study conducted by Universitiesandcolleges.org.“We were kind of curious and saw that Twitter was taking off and getting lots of attention,” Scott Johnson, editor of Universitiesandcolleges.org,said. “We thought it would be a good thing to look into and see how it’s utilized.”Listed as an “early adopter” in the survey, IU was ranked sixth for its number of university-affiliated accounts, fourth for number of Twitter followers and eighth for total “tweets” per day. Administrators of the survey used the top 100 colleges established by the U.S. News and World America’s Best Colleges 2010 to conduct the study.According to the study, each of the top 100 colleges has at least one Twitter account, with the majority of colleges falling into a few categories, such as official school accounts, schools and departments within universities, student services and outward-facing bodies.Filippo Menczer, an associate professor of informatics and computer science at IU, said some details are missing in the study, such as size of the university and number of students who attend each university.“If you take it at face value, the only conclusion I am able to draw is we have a tech-savvy population,” said Menczer.Johnson said organizers of the study discussed taking into account the number of students at each university and the size of the university but discovered there would be too much information to complete the report.“We tried to narrow it down a bit to see how the schools themselves were trying to use it,” he said. “Bigger schools are going to have more different departments, and that should definitely be taken into account. But it’s not a competition for who’s best.”Schools within IU and other universities are using Twitter and other social sites to reach their constituents, Menczer said.As part of the Web site redesign for the School of Informatics and Computing, Menczer said focus groups were gathered to discuss better ways of communication. During the discussion, he said some current students brought up the idea of putting information on Facebook instead of maintaining a Web site.“We analyzed student traffic, and Facebook was by far the most popular site,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’ll stop having a Web site. But if that’s where they are, then that’s where we need to be.” Freshman Sarah Orth said she does not use Twitter and feels like the site is “stalkerish.”“It’s a good way to get information out there,” she said. “But it could change from being about the school to being unnecessary.”Technology can be a good thing, Orth said, but students need to learn how to communicate face-to-face.Putting information on social networking sites instead of sending it through e-mails is less formal, Orth said.“E-mails are a more direct way to communicate,” she said. “I like to keep school separate from my social life.”However, Menczer said the trend of informing students through networking sites has already begun.“Just like 10 to 15 years ago when everyone started getting a Web site,” he said. “Now you can’t even imagine a department without a Web site. As we have a broader diversity of media, we adapt.”
(10/16/09 5:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This year the greek community is bringing back the old, forgotten tradition of lawn decorating.The tradition began in the 1970s or 1980s and was reinstated last year, said Kim Kushner, graduate assistant for the Student Alumni Association.“It had always been a big tradition in the past,” said Kristin Burt, co-director of the Greek Homecoming Committee. “Houses used to get so into it. I don’t know how they got away from it.”Each pair of houses is given the same supplies, Kushner said, including a blank banner, pinwheels and large cornhole boards that will also be used in the cornhole tournament on Wednesday.The greek community has always been involved in Homecoming Week, but with different degrees of involvement, Kushner said.“The greek values of philanthropy, spirit and tradition go along with the values of Homecoming,” she said. “We’re trying to expand Homecoming and getting the community more involved.”The greek houses will pair-up and compete for points throughout the week, Kushner said. Points will be awarded to each pair for each homecoming event they plan or attend. The top three pairs with the highest points will be recognized on the field when IU plays Illinois, she said.Katie Wickham, vice president of communications for the Panhellenic Association, said different chapters have different events to celebrate homecoming as opposed to planning multiple events as an entire community.The greek community is trying to get more involved in activities with other campus groups and project a more positive image around campus, Burt said.“Homecoming is something we look at as an entire school event,” Wickham said. “We try to participate as IU students instead of as greek students.”
(10/16/09 2:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Slackers and scholars gathered over cardboard pizza at a bowling alley to discuss essays about the major themes in the Coen brothers’ film, “The Big Lebowski,” during Louisville’s Lebowski Fest three years ago.Ed Comentale, an associate professor in the IU Department of English, took the discussions and turned them into a book about the film.Comentale discussed the book, set to come out at the end of this month, along with the film in Collins Coffeehouse at Collins LLC on Wednesday.Comentale said he hated “The Big Lebowski” when it first hit theaters. The film was the Coen brothers’ first release after “Fargo,” and in relation, he said, a lot of the comedy seemed cheap.“The Big Lebowski,” which chronicles slacker Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski’s journey to discover who soiled his rug, is a “grower,” Comentale said. The film grows on people in interest and affection with subsequent viewings, he said.Since the film’s release, it has gathered a cult following of people calling themselves “the achievers” and celebrating the “dudely life,” Comentale said.Two friends in a freelance T-shirt retail business came up with the idea to arrange a festival dedicated to “The Big Lebowski,” Comentale said. The festival has since expanded to a number of other major cities across the country, as well as in London.“It’s the laziest carnival you’ll ever be at,” he said. “But the fans do seem to work like academics. A lot of the fans at the festival were recently graduated English majors looking for something to do with their degrees.”The organizers of the festival were looking to add an academic dimension to the event, Comentale said, and invited him and fellow scholar Aaron Jaffe, an associate English professor at the University of Louisville, to give a talk about the film.“We decided to put on a conference,” he said. “We received about 200 paper ideas from people across the country and narrowed them down to about 30. We rented out a bowling alley for only 100 bucks and exchanged papers and talked about the film. It was great to deliver papers to the background of pins crashing.”After the festival, Cometale and Jaffe realized they had a lot of interesting material, Comentale said. They decided to coauthor a book presenting the material gathered at the festival to a larger audience, he said.“A Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies” includes 21 essays written by both fans and scholars, Comentale said. The book is structured around a quote from the movie, “A lot of ins, a lot of outs,” he said. The first part of the book includes essays concerning influences that went into the making of the film, he said, while the second half, the “outs,” revolves around events that surround the film.“The book is a connection between academic culture and fan culture,” Comentale said. “We want it to be fun, but not condescending. It’s difficult with fans. They think you’re destroying the pleasure of it. But academics are trained to talk it more.”Sophomore Natasha Cowan said she has only seen the film once and thought it was “OK.” She said she does not know the academic side to the film, but only the quirkiness of it.“There’s so much to the movie,” she said. “I didn’t like the ending. It was probably the worst part for me. It just ended. I need closure.”Graduate student Andrew Barrett said he would not classify himself as a big fan of the film. The first time he saw it, he said he thought it was complex and silly. However, it was interesting to see how Comentale and other scholars analyzed the film, he said.“The Big Lebowski” is a generative text for which conversation seems endless, Comentale said. The Coen brothers began with images for the film – a severed toe, homework in a baggie, a suitcase full of whites – and then think of ways to link them together, he said.“If you begin with a singing cowboy and a bowling alley, how do you connect that process?” Comentale said. “Someone e-mailed me saying they had an idea for an essay comparing ‘The Dude’ to Rip Van Winkle. I thought it was impossible, but he did it.”
(10/15/09 4:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The entire bunk bed shakes at about 3 or 4 o’clock every morning, waking up Ali.“I skipped my first class at nine in the morning once because I was woken up four times in the middle of the night,” she said.For the past five weeks, Ali, a freshman who asked to not be identified by her real name because of possible ramifications from Residential Programs and Services policies, said her roommate has allowed her boyfriend, a non-IU student, to live in their McNutt Quad room. Her roommate proceeds to wake her up each night by having sex in the bunk above her.Junior Sadie Martens’ story is similar to Ali’s. As a freshman at IUPUI, Martens said she would be banned from her room for two-and-a-half hours every other Saturday so her roommate and her boyfriend could have the room to themselves.“I would go do homework,” she said. “And if I forgot something and had to get it, she would get mad at me.”This year Martens said she lives in a triple room where she has her own space to focus.“She did it in the room I had to sleep in,” she said. “I thought it was thoroughly gross.”“Sexiling,” the exiling of one roommate so the other can partake in sexual activity, has become a common term used by students across college campuses and has recently been banned at Tufts University.Tufts’ guest policy states that students “may not engage in sexual activity while your roommate is present in the room. Any sexual activity within your assigned room should not ever deprive your roommate(s) of privacy, study or sleep time.”Laura Eads, assistant director at the Office of Student Ethics & Anti-Harassment Programs, said IU does not have a direct policy on “sexiling.”However, IU’s 2009-10 Housing and Dining Contract Terms and Conditions states: “Occupancy for more than four (4) consecutive nights more than once a semester by any other person, shall constitute a breach of this contract unless prior written consent is obtained from your residence manager.”RPS tries to prevent such behavior with the Roommate Agreement contract that every student living in RPS housing is requested to complete.Under section 3 of the agreement, “Privacy, Visitation, and Safety,” students are asked to answer the questions: “How do I feel about my roommate(s) being intimate with his/her significant other in the room? Does this need to change if I am in the room?” and “If visitors are bothering me, how will I tell them?”The agreement asks students to “sit down together” to fill it out and informs students to discuss problems with their RA.“Once you tell people how you feel, some people will take that into consideration,” Martens said. “If the other roommate is severely uncomfortable, RAs can deal with it.”Eads said resident assistants would suggest roommates begin with mediation. If the issue becomes more severe, she said it could be taken through the campus judicial system.Ali said she does not want to tattle on her roommate and hopes the boyfriend will leave before she has to say anything.“Maybe people just want to be friends with their roommates,” she said. “That’s why I haven’t said anything. I want her to like me. But she doesn’t do her homework. I think she’ll fail out, so maybe I’ll have a single.”If RPS had a policy on “sexiling,” Ali said she felt like the only people who would follow RPS rules in the first place would tell their RAs.“Most RAs don’t know what’s going on now,” she said. “There are so many rules in the RPS book, no one would know about it. No one actually reads the book.”During junior Brittany VandenBossche’s freshman year, she said her roommate would bring her “sex partner” to their room in Collins LLC after a night out drinking.“Our room was connected by a half wall,” she said. “She knew I was awake because I had a light on.”Despite asking her roommate to stop, VandenBossche said her roommate continued to bring the guy back to their room.“Eventually he came so drunk that he fell down the stairs and got arrested,” she said. “She realized he was a loser and stopped seeing him.”VandenBossche said that in a way, she is glad her roommate did not kick her out because she had no place to go.“It was inconsiderate and rude,” she said. “I don’t care how well you know your roommate.”
(10/14/09 4:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fabolous, whose debut album “Ghetto Fabolous” featured his first hit single “Can’t Deny It,” will perform as part of the homecoming celebration along with rapper Wiz Khalifa.“Right now Fabolous is the hottest he’s ever been,” sophomore Andrew Platkin, member of Sigma Alpha Mu, said. “We want this to be the official homecoming concert for IU.”In July, Fabolous released “Loso’s Way,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.Platkin said Fabolous plays well to a college crowd, a pull other artists do not have.“He plays a lot of homecomings,” said junior Jeff Safferman, president of Sigma Alpha Mu. “He has a clean act. He’s not a hardcore rapper.”Along with Fabolous, local acts, such as South Jordan, On the House and Anthony West, will also perform, Platkin said.Proceeds from the concert will go toward Sigma Alpha Mu’s national philanthropy to help the fight against Alzheimer’s, Safferman said. Portions of the proceeds will pay back the costs of the show, but the rest will go to philanthropy, he said.“Twenty dollars is the best value for seeing two national acts,” sophomore Jeremy Burke, member of Sigma Alpha Mu, said. “Our dream is to provide affordable entertainment and give back to the community.”Ticket sales have been relatively high for pre-sales, Platkin said, but more tickets are always sold the day of the event.“College kids buy stuff last minute,” he said.A street team, made up of Sigma Alpha Mu members, will deliver tickets to students who order them, Safferman said.Sophomore Amy Rosenberg said Fabolous will probably draw students to the show. A lot of fraternities compete with events during Little 500 week, she said, but she has not heard of any other fraternities planning concerts for homecoming.“It sets them apart,” she said. “But if people go and it’s really bad, it may hurt them for Little Five.”Last year, the fraternity brought Young Jeezy to perform during Little 500 week, Platkin said. Platkin added that he thinks that tickets for Soulja Boy Tell ‘em, the act sponsored by the Ice House Foundation as a Little 500 event in April, didn’t sell as well as expected because it ran simultaneously.“People are confident we’ll provide a great product,” Safferman said.Members of Sigma Alpha Mu want to continue to provide student entertainment in the future, junior Bryan Wool, member of the fraternity, said.“We want to continue bringing great shows,” he said. “There’s no reason students can’t have fun while helping out philanthropy.”