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(02/04/04 5:53am)
Fifty years ago, the United States was "separate but equal." Schools, restaurants and hotels opened their doors to one race. \nFifty years ago, Bloomington resembled the rest of America's segregated cities. Barbershops and social facilities throughout the city denied access to families who had lived here since the Civil War, and the only school black children could attend was Banneker Elementary.\nFifty years ago, IU did not have a single integrated fraternity, and black student athletes had to stay in separate hotels at away games. \nFifty years ago, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the country went from "separate but equal" to equal.\nThe doors to Banneker Elementary closed.\nOn May 17, 1954, the court ruled in favor of Oliver Brown and his daughter in their struggle for integrated schools. The suffering and sacrifice of Brown's family and their two lawyers finally set right the suffering and sacrifice of people like them for ages past. It was on that day segregation was supposed to drop from America's vocabulary and integration would flourish.\nWith the court's decision, Thurgood Marshall, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's lead lawyer, delegated school segregation would be eliminated within five years. But 50 years later, Marshall's prediction has yet to come true.
(02/02/04 5:57am)
The board of trustees approved Blaise Cronin as the new dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences Friday. This decision comes exactly one year after Cronin originally stepped down from the dean's position. \nCronin served as SLIS dean for 12 years and brought the program national recognition during his tenure. Last January, he decided to take a year-long sabbatical but remained a member of the faculty.\n"I don't think it's unusual for deans to take leave of absences," trustee Patrick Shoulders said in a previous Indiana Daily Student article. "There are those that sometimes tire of administrative duties and go back to the classroom for awhile."\nCronin, an author of more than 300 research articles, was expected to return to his dean's position eventually after making SLIS into one of the nation's finest information science departments and expanding the number of masters and Ph.D. degrees. \nCronin has traveled to more than 30 countries, working with companies like World Bank, UNESCO, British Council, Her Majesty's Treasury and Hewlett-Packard.\nIU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis made the recommendation to the board of trustees after a four-person advisory committee from SLIS recommended Cronin for the role. Gros Louis told the trustees that despite the decision not being "unanimously popular," the majority of the faculty wanted Cronin to come back.\nCronin will officially become the SLIS dean July 1, with several important decisions waiting for him. One of the largest issues he will face relates to the relationship between SLIS and the School of Informatics. The faculty recently voted not to participate in the merger between informatics and computer sciences, but the advisory committee still feels that Cronin is best suited to negotiate relations with the schools, Gros Louis said.\nRelations with the School of Informatics won't be the only issue on Cronin's plate, as faculty appointments are also scheduled for the near future.\n"We are right now engaged in a search for two faculty positions, and I think he will be instrumental in getting the best possible faculty hired for those positions," Interim SLIS Dean Deborah Shaw said.\nShaw will officially lose her title of interim dean June 30 but will remain in the department as a faculty member. \n"Blaise has had plans to talk to me after the trustees' decision," Shaw said, "so we haven't really discussed what my responsibilities will be."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(02/02/04 5:54am)
The board of trustees ended its first meeting of 2004 in a fashion like never before as members paid tribute to men's soccer head coach Jerry Yeagley and the rest of the national championship winning team. \nIt was the first time the trustees had ever called in the entire team for recognition, Yeagley said.\n"I think it is great that the trustees did that because they are here for the students and most of the time the students don't even know who the people are," Yeagley said. "We also wanted to thank the board of trustees, as I did on behalf of the team, for providing a championship caliber experience."\nThe ceremony, which featured a large cake and personal handshakes from the trustees to each of the players, concluded a two-day stretch of committee hearings and approved proposals.\nFriday's conferences featured several important committee meetings, including the Academic Excellence Committee, which set up parameters on IU's conflict of commitment and conflict of interest statements. The policies basically establish guidelines pertaining to faculty and staff's involvement with the external community and looks to keep people's interests with IU instead of outside agencies, IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said.\n"This board of trustees encourages our employees to engage in their communities and these policies are in no way aimed at curtailing those activities, they simply are there to set the parameters and the borders for the manner in which we encourage them to participate with their communities," trustee Patrick Shoulders said.\nIssues pertaining to graduate students, recruitment of high-ability students and the budget were also discussed Friday. Kathy Smith, associate director of IU state and federal relations, presented to the external relations committee that 998 bills have been filed in congress in this non-revenue, non-budget year, of which 445 have been followed up on by IU. The discussion of work being done at the capital also brought up the state house visit which will be made by a number of students, and other administrators to help in the petitioning process.\nThe final topic on the agenda for the board of trustees was to make all the appropriate appointments and reappointments for each of the IU campuses. Headlining those from IU was the reappointment of Blaise Cronin to dean of the School of Library and Information Science. Cronin will take over for Interim SLIS Dean Debora Jane Shaw effective July 1, 2004. The move comes after Cronin stepped down from the dean's position last year.\n"The faculty had just voted not to participate in the proposed merger of computer science and informatics," Gros Louis said. "(The advisory committee) believes that Blaise is the right person to negotiate the relationships between informatics and library and information science because there is some overlap."\nThe board of trustees will next meet Feb. 26 and 27 in Bloomington.\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(01/28/04 5:54am)
Beginning Feb. 2, The New York Times, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star will be available to students at eight different campus locations.\nThe IU Student Association is sponsoring the pilot program, making all three papers available to students and staff five days a week. The trial will last until Feb. 27, when a committee of students, faculty and Indiana Daily Student representatives will discuss whether or not to allow the papers to have a permanent presence on campus.\nIU participated in a similar pilot with The New York Times alone last year.\n"We have been talking with the faculty and students, and students want to have more options on campus about what to read and where they want to get their news," IUSA Vice President Grant McFann said. "We feel like the faculty is interested in raising the level of academic discourse in classrooms."\nThe pilot program is being funded entirely by USA Today. But like the pilot, these funds are not permanent, and once the trial period ends, the committee will have to search elsewhere for funding. When the committee meets sometime in March, it will then decide how to fund the additional papers should it choose to make a permanent deal with the three newspapers. A possible venue for funding would be to request a portion of the activity fee from the Board of Trustees that would amount to roughly $2 per student.\nBut the three national papers would not benefit everyone, as the free papers would threaten the campus paper, the IDS. Currently, readership for the IDS is nearly 90 to 94 percent of the student population, which benefits the ad driven paper, said IDS Associate Publisher and General Manager Don Cross.\n"The IDS is funded by advertising -- that is how it is free," Cross said. "Advertisers pay for readership, so if numbers go down, then we may have to lower rates, which means we would have less money."\nAnother query many had concerning last year's pilot program with The New York Times was that most bins were empty by 9 a.m. With professors, staff and graduate students gathering up most of the free papers, undergraduate students were left out in the cold. Not to mention no surveys were taken to measure the responses from students.\nTo combat those problems, IUSA has increased the number of papers from last year's 400 papers per day to this year's total of 3,000. On the first and last days of the trial run, surveys will be placed with each paper to get some feedback from those who pick up the newspapers.\n"Last year no surveys were taken during that program, there wasn't anything that was really gained out of it, so this should be more productive," McFann said. "It is similar, just on a larger scale."\nThe papers will be made available in two locations in the Indiana Memorial Union, the Kelley School of Business, Ballantine Hall, Woodburn Hall, Gresham and Wright food courts and the Main Library.\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(01/21/04 5:27am)
In IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis' first time back heading the Bloomington Faculty Council since June 2000, IU President Adam Herbert sat down for an hour and a half discussion about administrative and budget issues.\nGros Louis announced administrative changes first, as he brought the BFC up to speed on the search for Dean of Faculties Moya Andrews' replacement. Gros Louis received a list of possible search committee members and should have a final search committee compiled within the next few weeks. One point made very clear, however, was the search would be strictly internal.\n"We will look for someone with a faculty point of view because the Dean of Faculties has always been seen as an advocate for the faculty," Gros Louis said. "It's an office and a person they can turn to with promotional issues, or just problems in general. Since the position was created, they were always someone from the Bloomington campus."\nAndrews is set to retire from IU at the conclusion of this school year. The replacement will take a role where faculty interaction is key, and the ability to listen plays a major role, Andrews said.\n"It takes a broad knowledge of the University and requires knowledge of the faculty council," she said. "It is helpful if the person has good people skills. The only real power that the position has is the power of persuasion, so they have to enjoy working with other officers and groups."\nPresident Herbert spent the rest of the two hour meeting discussing budget and funding issues for all walks of life around the IU campuses. Herbert made sure the BFC was caught up on legislative issues that could affect IU, including the state's higher than expected budget and proposed bills that could limit tuition increases significantly.\nAnother area highly stressed by Herbert was the appropriation funds IU will be asking for from the government. This past year, IU received $8 million in appropriations, but Herbert has set his sights on trying to gain closer to $30 million through creative and strategic proposals.\n"What I want to do is to ensure that we are asking for dollars that further enhance what it is we are trying to do in building better academic strength within the university," Herbert said.\nMany faculty members were able to speak directly to Herbert and get their individual questions answered. The discussion allowed BFC members to clear up inquiries about the different areas of the University they represented.\n"We have a very large structure at Indiana University and there are other faculty-based committees that deal with the issues that (Herbert) addressed today," BFC President Dave Daleke said. "I think it is very helpful for a broad-based faculty group like the faculty council to sit down and have an hour and a half long, very in-depth discussion about issues that are important"
(01/15/04 5:45am)
As questions of the budget and state relations swirl through campus, the University's strongest link with the Indiana state legislature is out of the picture. \nFormer Director of State Relations Don Weaver retired in October, leaving a team of vice presidents and other experienced staff members to carry IU's relationship with the General Assembly this session.\nThe task of lobbying for IU has been shifted to several staff members in the state's capital. Associate Director of State Relations Kathy Smith-Andrew has stepped up, along with IU Spokesman Bill Stephan, Chief Financial Officer Judith Palmer, Former House Fiscal Analyst John Grew and Former Deputy Budget Director Mark Brown. \nIU President Adam Herbert assembled the group and will assume a fair amount of the lobbying himself. The group will be responsible for lobbying for the University as new bills and questions arise.\n"As (President Herbert) settles in, he will be working with more of a team approach," Stephan said. "There are a number of vice presidents with experience in the state house and staff with experience there as well. So we are trying to work in that fashion and use that experience that exists in IU to advance with the legislature."\nThe most important element for the new state relations team at IU will be establishing fresh relationships, Weaver said. The group will look to quickly build rapport with the legislators as Weaver takes his more than 40 years worth of relationships back home with him.\n"For higher education, the history has been that we need to establish good relationships and good contacts within legislation," Weaver said. "I would think that the time would be best spent building those relationships."\nAs IU stands now, all hopes are the budget will not be opened up during the upcoming session. Despite having only one month since July where IU met its forecasted financial goal, it is anticipated that the budget should remain closed, said State Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington. If it were to be opened up, the university would lose money, Weaver said.\n"At a time when the economy has stalled in Indiana, the state has made a lot of investments in higher education, and we are very appreciative that Indiana has been investing while other states are cutting," Stephan said. "Our interest is to ensure that those investments remain in tact."\nWeaver's separation from IU sends each in separate directions. IU's goals contain phrases like "cost efficiency" and "dollar stretching," but Weaver will be focusing more on volunteering at church and traveling. Either way, Weaver will certainly be missed in the upcoming months.\n"Don was respected and respectful, and he treated everyone the same," Welch said. "He is a kind, courteous man who did his job and did it well ... he will be a hard man to replace."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(01/14/04 6:03am)
Heartwood and the Indiana Forest Alliance will be holding a benefit concert this Thursday to raise money in the fight to save Indiana's state forests.\nBoth groups are dedicated to Indiana's forests. Heartwood is an "association of groups, individuals, and businesses dedicated to the health and well being of the native forest of the Central Hardwood region, and its interdependent plant, animal, and human communities" according to www.heartwood.org, and the Indiana Forest Alliance was created "to coordinate efforts of existing forest protection and conservation organizations and concerned citizens," according to www.indianaforestalliance.org.\nThe show for people 21 and over will be held at Vertigo, 107 W. Ninth St., and will start at 7:30 p.m. The musical acts are scheduled to include Grey Larsen, the White Lightning Boys, Drew Laird, Benjamin Del, members of Alma Azul and Bill Whitefeather. The Woodland Theatre will also perform an "eco-awareness" play to educate the audience through humor.\n"This is a great way to bring people into the forest community and get students and kids educated on issues in the area," said performer and Heartwood member Drew Laird. "It will be a good time, and at the same time you are doing something for the environment."\nWhile the organizations aren't charging the guests at the door, they are asking for a five dollar donation to help support their future initiatives. Much of the money will go toward a lawsuit the Indiana Forest Alliance has filed against the state of Indiana that would force the latter to comply with a 30 year-old law requiring agencies to do an environmental assessment before performing any work that would affect the environment.\n"They claim that logging has no impact on the environment, when it obviously does," IFA Treasurer Mike Englert said. "The lawsuit would force them to comply with their own law."\nIt is the goal of the organizations to put an end to commercial logging in state forests, said Joanna Gras, the Coordinator for Heartwood and the Indiana Forest Alliance. Englert added only one to two percent of logging for the state of Indiana come from state forests, so leaving those forests wouldn't hurt the industry.\nPrevious concerts put together by IFA and Heartwood began drawing too many people for their old venue, so they have moved the show over to Vertigo in hopes of attracting even more supporters. \n"The concerts were previously held at Upland, but we were getting bigger to around 100-150 folks," Gras said. "Two hundred would be a great goal, especially to check out the Woodland Theatre group."\nThe play, written by Stan Clark, will spoof the government logging program from the perspective of children and forest creatures. The night also features Grey Larsen, who approached Heartwood in the fall to perform at a benefit concert. Newcomers Laird and Del both come from Michigan and will be making their first performance in Bloomington. White Lightning Boys will be coming from Brown County and will bring a bluegrass sound to the show.\n"It is really just a great excuse to get people together to get motivated about bettering the community," Gras said. "Hopefully we can get some people to volunteer time to work on community issues in the future."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(01/12/04 5:52am)
The New Year always brings resolutions involving weight, exercise or quitting a nasty habit. For Ken Gros Louis, however, the resolution is to end the year with a balanced budget.\nAs the New Year rang in, Gros Louis officially took over the role left by former IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm on an interim basis. Although the role as chancellor is not scheduled to be long-term for Gros Louis, that doesn't mean his short amount of time will be lacking crucial campus issues.\nThe issue that has been thrown to the forefront of IU operations lately has been the budget. With the state facing deficit issues of its own and funding for IU becoming a major question, IU will be forced to start assessing areas in which money can be saved.\n"With rare exceptions, every school is in a very tight financial situation and looking at a negative balance," Gros Louis said. "We are looking at ways of cutting costs. They will be postponing things until after July 1 that they were hoping to do this year. Also, a lot of faculty members are doing extra work in teaching an overload of courses."\nThe biggest hope from Gros Louis is that the state doesn't ask for money back from the university. IU, however, is not the only university being affected by state deficits. The Committee of Institutional Cooperation released in a recent report that schools throughout the Midwest are facing similar troubles, Gros Louis said. Schools such as the University of Minnesota have cut up to 15 percent of their budgets, which totals up to nearly 184 million dollars.\n"The improvement of the economy really depends on a better educated work force," Gros Louis said. "It is an irony that many Midwestern states are cutting their university budgets when it's the universities they look to to train the workforce which is going to improve the economy."\nIUSA President Casey Cox has been meeting with Gros Louis over the past few weeks and has devised an initiative to try and convince student groups to write Indiana Legislators to disprove the apathetic stereotype of college students. They also plan to establish a group of students to go to the capital and visit with different legislators and express their feelings on the lack of university funding.\n"As student leaders, we want to keep tuition as low as possible and we want the state to give us as much money as possible, but we also want to maintain our status as an excellent research university and allow the quality of our diploma to stay where it is at now," Cox said. "We want to try and find that median."\nNot everything for Gros Louis will revolve around the budget in the upcoming semester. In fact, the two goals that he has for the near future are simply getting caught up with what he missed over the past two years and working on the focal issues established by IU President Adam Herbert.\nHerbert has asked Gros Louis to take a look at salary policy and practices and make any recommendations. Gros Louis will also work with Vice President for Institutional Development and Student Affairs Charlie Nelms on IU-Bloomington's mission differentiation project, a part of Herbert's plan to establish mission statements for each IU campus. \nOther matters facing the chancellor in the near future include overseeing the review of the School of Continuing Studies and discussing the move of the School of Computer Science into the School of Informatics. Through it all, however, Gros Louis will maintain one major focal point during his term as interim chancellor.\n"I have always focused a lot on the students and interaction with the faculty, and I'll do that because I have always done it," he said. "They are probably the two most enjoyable parts of the job." \nThe next semester still boils down to facing the budget issue, and while Gros Louis will focus primarily on the Bloomington campus, Indiana Associate Commissioner for Research and Academic Affairs Ken Sauer said he feels Gros Louis can be a vital resource on and off the campus.\n"IU is not just getting somebody who only has a Bloomington perspective; I think by virtue of his position as Vice-President of Academic Affairs he has a very good knowledge of the IU system as well as our state system of higher education," Sauer said. "I think that is an important context to take into consideration."\nGros Louis will work very closely with Herbert during his tenure. The two will work on shaping the university for the future, and they hope to accomplish that by the time a permanent chancellor steps in, Gros Louis said.\n"I like the president very much, and we get along very well," Gros Louis said. "I am looking forward to working with him and helping him accomplish the things he wants to get done."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(01/09/04 6:21am)
As NASA's Spirit rover relays information back to Earth from the surface of Mars, several IU professors will be right there to receive it. Geology Professor Lisa Pratt is the director of a NASA Astrobiology Institute research project that includes four other faculty members.\nPratt and fellow Geology Professor Edward Ripley head the scientific area of the IU-based project, while Ruth Droppo, Douglas Pearson and Michael Jasiak work more on the digital media end of the operation. \nWorking from Bloomington, Pratt and Ripley have been studying mines in South Africa and Canada to try and simulate some of what occurs on the Martian subsurface. They will then analyze the information sent back from the Mars rover and attempt to detect signs of life.\n"Our role is to look for isotopic signatures, which can indicate past life," Ripley said. "Microbacteria reduces sulfur from sea water and can then be incorporated with iron to make pyrite...The samples are returned, the pyrite can be analyzed and then determined whether bacteria was there."\nThe Mars rover will be on the planet for about 90 days, but the studies are scheduled to last up to five years. NASA will fund the studies at IU with $5 million over the five year time frame.\nThe studies done by Pratt and Ripley will be interpreted into graphic images by the other three members of the team. The five-man IU team will also be working in conjunction with scientists at Princeton University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Toronto as well as Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest and Lawrence Berkeley laboratories.\n"We all have ideas, and the resources at IU are very strong, but we have still yet to meet," Droppo said. "We will be meeting as a group this weekend in Dallas."\nThe Spirit landed Jan. 3 after a seven-month journey. Its twin rover, Opportunity, is scheduled to reach the opposite side of Mars and land on Jan. 25. Spirit landed in Mars' Gusev Crater, where the large amounts of open area offer plenty of room for the roamer to maneuver.\n"NASA's hope was to try and find water," Ripley said. "This may be the place where it may have been preserved."\nThe work being done by IU scientists may be a small percentage of the overall mission, but nearly 80 percent of the research done for the rover mission has come from university professors and students said Ron Greeley, an Athena Science Team member from Arizona State University. Greeley is working with several other scientists from multiple universities at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. \n"All those working on the mission are a part of the Athena package, and they sign agreements to collaborate together so it is contractually set," Greeley said. "Most teams are very collegial so there is a common interest and objective."\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(01/09/04 5:40am)
As the four-year mark of the PeopleSoft software implementation draws near, some of the expected glitches in the system have surfaced. \nThough those who work closely with the system feel it is, for the most part, working well, several problems came up last fall. Most recently, the Financial Aid Office has had trouble transferring current fall-spring loans over to summer-fall loans. The first type of loan covers the entire school year, while the second allows the student to transfer financial assistance to the following year. \nPeopleSoft is the world's second largest enterprise application provider, according to the company's Web site. IU uses PeopleSoft for financial management, such as financial aid and payroll.\nAndrew Redd, a graduate student who was hoping to conduct such a loan switch, is now faced with a serious problem. When Redd asked the Financial Aid Office to transfer over his loan, a problem was discovered within the PeopleSoft system that would not allow for the loan to be carried over, unlike the old system. \n"I have to go and confirm what was said to me and make sure there is no alternative," Redd said. "Otherwise I will have to start looking for a paid internship or a private lender."\nThe dilemma for the Financial Aid Office will be how to fix the system before students start to plan for next year. Possible options are talking to the government or other federal officials to work something out or going to PeopleSoft and trying to get things to function like before, Redd said.\n"I had heard some mention of a problem related to financial aid, but the feeling was that it wasn't too serious," said Chris Haynes, an associate professor in the computer science department. "It should either be short-lived, or people just aren't working with it right."\nThe Financial Aid Office hasn't been the only department to find glitches in the PeopleSoft system. Many other departments have also come across other types of problems, several of which deal with payroll issues.\n"We have had problems, but very few here in the journalism department. But I have heard of some bigger problems in other departments," Accounting Representative Vicky Myers said. "With such a big implementation there is no way to put it all to use at the beginning. You have to expect problems up front."\nDespite PeopleSoft hitting a few snags along the way, the overall consensus seems to be on the positive. The system has streamlined more of what used to be done, and though it has forced people to think a little further ahead, it seems to be no more or less frustrating than the old system, Myers said. \n"The big picture that I have is that (PeopleSoft) is doing remarkably well on a limited budget without any serious problems," \nHaynes said. \n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(12/15/03 7:01am)
Beginning Jan. 1, IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm will step down from her position to make way for former IUB Chancellor Ken Gros Louis to serve as her interim replacement.\nGros Louis has already begun taking the necessary steps toward filling the interim chancellor position by meeting with Brehm and other future colleagues.\n"Chancellor Brehm and I have already met and she filled me in on some of the things to know," Gros Louis said. "I met with the Bloomington Faculty Council and they filled me in on what was going on with them. I also will be meeting individually with the deans of the different schools."\nGros Louis will not have much time to settle in as several important issues will quickly be thrown on the interim chancellor's plate. Gros Louis will be in charge of addressing issues raised in the Commission on Higher Education's blueprint for higher education, heading various position searches and dealing with merger discussions between the School of Library and Information Sciences and the School of Informatics.\nPerhaps the biggest issues Gros Louis will face involve dealing with the budget for next year and working with Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Judith Palmer on developing an annual report to track the Commitment to Excellence funds. Commitment to Excellence funds are made up of money from the $1,000 "freshman fee."\n"We have to go through a determination process with the additional tuition and figure out the distribution of those funds," Gros Louis said.\nDespite the looming workload, Gros Louis said there are definitely bright spots to his upcoming position. \n"I am looking forward to getting to know some of the student leaders, I really enjoy working with the students," Gros Louis said. "I also look forward to working with the president. I like him very much."\nGros Louis served as chancellor at IU for 21 years before retiring in 2001, allowing Brehm to take over the role. With only two years having passed since Gros Louis last worked on the campus, several IU officials have had plenty of experience with him in the past.\n"I worked with (Gros Louis) in the past and it will be wonderful to work with him again," Dean of Students Richard McKaig said. "I know he will be very good in the role."\nAs for Brehm, she will start researching women in higher education for her role as senior adviser to Herbert. In the new role, she will work with Donna Shavlik, a founding member of the National Council for Research on Women. Brehm described her as someone who may be "the single most knowledgeable person in the field of women in higher education." Shavlik will come in mid-January and work with Brehm on researching other institutions around the country, finding areas that need more attention and looking into the interests of IU faculty and students, Brehm said.\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(12/11/03 6:09am)
The Greek Judicial Board has made a recommendation to Dean of Students Richard McKaig to punish the fraternity Sigma Nu for a hazing incident that occurred last year. \nMcKaig said he will make the final decision about the fraternity's fate sometime next week. McKaig declined to reveal the punishment the judicial board recommended until he makes his final decision. \nEarlier this year, on Feb.13, a Sigma Nu pledge was hazed at one of the fraternity's events resulting in cuts on and around his wrist. He was later taken to the Bloomington Hospital by a member of the fraternity. A few days later, the student called the IUPD about the situation, and an investigation was conducted.\nMcKaig will now wait for word from an Associate Fraternity Advisors meeting that will be attended by Stan Sweeney, the associate director for greek life, and Steve Veldkamp, assistant dean of student affairs and director of student activities.\n"They will attend a national convention for directors, staff and students," McKaig said. "I will ask them to talk to some of the national Sigma Nu people and then report back to me."\nThe national convention offers IU a good opportunity to have face-to-face discussions with national chapter presidents for different fraternities. After a conversation with the Sigma Nu national president, Veldkamp and Sweeney will bring information home to McKaig to aid him in making his decision. \n"The biggest thing the judicial board usually looks at are the priors for a fraternity," Interfraternity Council President Evan Waldman said. "If it is a small violation and they have a clean record, usually the punishment is not as big scale. They are more likely to take a harsher action if the records develop a pattern of judicial board appearances."\nThe prior record of Sigma Nu was assessed by the judicial board, but from this point, all that will be considered will be their recommendation and the national chapter president's advice.\nThe other recent case involving hazing at a fraternity involves the Kappa Sigma fraternity and is still at the appeals level. The primary element behind deciding cases related to hazing, lies in the severity of the incident, McKaig said.\n"It depends on the nature of the hazing," he said. "Hazing can range from making students clean or a personal servitude type, to something that results in personal injury. This instance involved personal injury, so it is being viewed as more serious."\nSenior Casey Holsapple, president of the Sigma Nu house, said he had no information on the judicial board's decision.\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(12/04/03 5:10am)
The holiday season brings joy and anticipation to people all across the country, but for many it also brings high fevers, headaches, body pains and extreme fatigue. \nAs the flu season begins, U.S. health officials fear the country could see a more severe flu season than normal. \nA primary reason for this concern lies in the fact that four fatalities have already been reported in Colorado where children of 21 months, two, eight and 15 have died from the virus.\n"The flu can lead to pneumonia and that is a serious condition," said Anne Reese, director of Health and Wellness at the IU Health Center. "The flu doesn't actually cause the deaths, but it can lead to serious secondary problems."\nEach year about 114,000 Americans are hospitalized with the flu, and about 36,000 of them die from secondary problems, Reese said. Most fatalities come from elderly patients over 65 or infants under the age of two. Last year, 1,206 people over the age of 65 died from the flu in Indiana alone.\nThe particular strain of flu doctors have been identifying in patients this year is another cause for worry. The H3N2 Fujian strain originated in China and was responsible for severe outbreaks in the United States in the 1990's.\nUnlike the common cold, the flu can affect a person severely for three to four days and then linger for up to a week after that. Health officials are urging residents to protect themselves by getting a flu vaccine. \n"We encourage people to get shots in October or November and even into December and January," Reese said. "It's certainly not too late."\nIU students can walk in or make an appointment to get their vaccine between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Health Center. Students who paid a health fee can simply charge the $10 directly to their bursar bill.\nCollege students are certainly at risk due to the high amounts of exposure to other people. Sneezes and coughs are enough to transfer the airborne virus, which can also be spread by contaminated objects such as door handles in common spaces.\n"I got the flu and it caused nothing but problems," freshman Pat Cape said. "I've been really tired and groggy all week, and I just never feel like I am getting over it."\nSome good precautions to help steer clear of the virus are hand washing, keeping your hands away from your nose, eyes and mouth, and simply staying healthy, Reese said. But getting a flu shot is by far the most effective way of making it through the entire flu season symptom-free, she added. Reese urged students to remember to try and get sleep and to keep their stress levels down as finals approach so they can stay healthy. \n"I am starting to notice a lot of people missing in my classes and getting sick on my floor," freshman Dave Tendering said. "My work load is going up and I am getting less sleep because of all the work, so I am afraid that the flu could be in my near future."\nStudents are strongly encouraged to get flu vaccines and if they notice flu-like symptoms of high fever, aches, pains and high levels of fatigue, they should go to the Health Center. More information on influenza can be found on the health center's Web site at www.indiana.edu/~health. \n-- The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(12/03/03 6:04am)
"That was important for us to hear," said BFC President David Daleke. "(Oncourse) is used by many faculty. There is a high student demand for it, and it looks like there is going to be a possibility that it will be expanded in the future and that it will become even more functional for those students and faculty."\nWheeler also commented on UITS' plan to implement the "Pure Message" anti-spam system in the upcoming months. The system would block spam e-mails from being sent to IU Webmail accounts. \n"The system will send you a note at the end of the day, saying 'here's the list of all the messages I thought were spam,'" said Associate Vice President of Telecommunications Brian Voss in an article Monday in the IDS .\nIU is planning to spend $300,000, and the project should be completed by February 2004.\nOne of the last topics for the day's meeting was a follow-up on the strategic plan and mission statement that was led by law professor Fred Cate. After being sent through the long-range planning committee, the BFC's Strategic Planning Committee looked to make a change to a statement that had been added. The mission added was to "guarantee academic freedom for all University community." This statement was changed to say that the University will "promote open discourse and respect for academic freedom."\n"Academic freedom is sort of a legal term that faculty and librarians have, but not all members of the University community," Cate said. "So we thought it was important to have a statement in there that didn't just apply to faculty but had meaning for students, staff and everybody."\nThe council discussed whether or not the change weakened the statement as a whole. The majority felt that it did not, as the change was passed when it came up for vote. \nThe strategic plan and mission statement revisions, initiated by IU-Bloomington Chancellor Sharon Brehm and approved by the BFC last spring, were begun to identify and strengthen campus academics. Brehm said previously that the statement was to be revised every year.\nThe statement can be found at the Bloomington Faculty Council Web site www.indiana.edu/~bfc under the Dec. 2 agenda.
(11/24/03 5:41am)
Former IU-Bloomington Chancellor Ken Gros Louis could have relaxed this coming winter in Santa Barbara, Calif.\nInstead, he will be back in Bloomington, serving in his old post.\nIU President Adam Herbert announced Friday he is recommending Gros Louis serve as interim chancellor beginning Jan. 1.\nGros Louis will also serve as interim senior vice president for academic affairs. IUB Chancellor and Vice President for Academic Affairs Sharon Brehm announced her resignation Oct. 29.\nGros Louis, who retired in 2001, returns to the position with 21 years of experience.\n"I have great fondness for the University," Gros Louis said. "It's been my life. It's not only my vocation, it's my avocation."\nHerbert said he will continue to reassess the role of the Bloomington chancellor, and Gros Louis will play a significant part before Herbert begins his search for a permanent replacement next fall. \nPart of Herbert's reassessment is the addition of the senior title to the vice president of academic affairs.\n"What this title would convey is that the senior vice president for academic affairs is the No. 2 officer in the University and the academic mission has primacy over all the other portfolios in the University," Herbert said.\nThe IU board of trustees will discuss the role of the chancellor and vote on Herbert's recommendation at its monthly meeting Dec. 5 in Indianapolis. Gros Louis is expected to be in the position for about 12 to 18 months.\nBoard of trustees President Fred Eichhorn said he would not predict how the board will vote, but said that "our attitude is to support the president's decisions." \nResponse from the community has been supportive of the president's choice.\n"I think he'll do a great job," Brehm said. "He's been with the University for many years. I think he's the appropriate choice."\nAlthough not every student remembers when Gros Louis served as chancellor, his impact is still known on campus.\n"I am thankful that I am going to have the opportunity to work with him after hearing from so many past student leaders about how great an individual he was to work with, and how caring he was for student's needs and student concerns," said IU Student Association President Casey Cox.\nIndiana Associate Commissioner for Research and Academic Affairs Ken Sauer said Herbert and Gros Louis will be great partners.\n"Ken has been associated with the campus for a long time," he said. "I think President Herbert has the outside perspective, and Ken can obviously provide a good inside perspective. Between the two of them they should be able to get a good perspective of how the campus wants to develop in the future."\nGros Louis came to IU in 1963 after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in medieval and Renaissance literature. He worked as a professor and then as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences before being named chancellor in 1980. Gros Louis served as IUB chancellor through the presidencies of John Ryan, Tom Ehrlich and Myles Brand.\n"I don't know anyone who is better informed about the culture and traditions of IU," said Dan Dalton, dean of the Kelley School of Business. "He will be a terrific choice."\n-- Campus editor Adam Aasen contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(11/21/03 5:47am)
Former IU-Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis will be named interim chancellor today when IU President Adam Herbert makes his recommendation to the board of trustees.\nGros Louis will take over the role Jan. 1 from Chancellor Sharon Brehm, who announced her resignation Oct. 30.\nIU Trustee Jamie Belanger said the president is expected to make his recommendation today and it will be discussed by the board of trustees at their Dec. 5 meeting.\nBrehm's resignation came as a part of Herbert's restructuring plans. Since the announcement, Herbert has been working with faculty groups such as the Bloomington Faculty Council to name an interim chancellor to hold the position into next year, said Dan Rives, associate vice president of Human Resources.\nOnce Gros Louis officially steps in, he will aid Herbert and others in assessing the role of chancellor as a part of the restructuring plan.\nThe search for a permanent chancellor is expected to begin in the fall of 2004, with a final decision coming sometime in the late fall or early spring of that school year. \nGros Louis came to IU in 1963 after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a Ph.D. in medieval and Renaissance Literature. He worked as a professor and then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences before being named chancellor in 1980.\nGros Louis stepped down in 2001 and was replaced by Brehm. Since then, Gros Louis has served as chancellor emeritus.\n"Ken has provided outstanding leadership for the Bloomington campus for an extraordinarily long period of time," said former President Myles Brand following Gros Louis' retirement in 2001. "He is a man of deep learning and human compassion and someone who has represented the best values of the academy."\nGros Louis served as IUB chancellor through the presidencies of John Ryan, Tom Ehrlich and Brand, and was a close friend of Herman B Wells.\nPresident of the board of trustees Fred Eichorn said in a previous IDS article that Gros Louis was a definite candidate.\nGros Louis also commented in the article on his planned approach toward the position should he be selected.\n"I would want to be more involved with insuring that our University with several campuses remains just that, a University with several campuses," he said. "It's important that the University does not become fragmented."\nAt the November BFC meeting, Herbert made it clear that he would be looking for someone who either holds, or previously held, a faculty appointment on the Bloomington campus as a senior level administrator. He also planned on that person having significant knowledge of some of the history, traditions and organizational structures of IU. \n"My impression is he's made a carefully thought-out decision," Law Professor Fred Cate said.
(11/18/03 5:59am)
They may not carry proton packs or have a member named Egon, but the Ghost Trackers of Indiana are truly not afraid of ghosts. In fact, ghosts are more of a hobby than a fear for the founders and members of this organization.\nGhost Trackers started almost four years ago in northwest Indiana when Mike McDowell got a small group together to look into some of Indiana's oldest and scariest myths of the paranormal. From there, people from all over Indiana and Chicago began to express interest in the group. Ghost Trackers is now nine chapters strong with nearly 250 members.\nThis past March, the Ghost Trackers made their way into Bloomington, as a chapter was opened by Trisha Koenig.\n"We started with about 10 to 12 members, and we have grown really slow, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing," Koenig said. "The core of people needed to be trained and given a good base. We can't educate until we know our stuff."\nWith a college that has been around as long as IU, a great deal of folklore and myths build over the years and that is exactly what the trackers look for. Several locations in the Indiana Memorial Union, Read Center and the Latino Cultural Center are just a few of the on-campus locations the Ghost Trackers have looked into.\nThe legends from IU come in bunches for the trackers, ranging in location and type of paranormal activity.\nThe IMU is rumored to be haunted in many places. On the top floor, lights are turned on and off; in the Federal Room, an old woman from a painting has been seen walking around; legend even has it the kitchen staff has been haunted by a little boy. Myths have come from La Casa where a woman has been seen walking around, and people who work there at night have heard their names shouted to them from upstairs.\n"The Bloomington area is so rich with urban legends and folklore that people should be more inquisitive," Koenig said.\nBut the investigating hasn't stopped at city limits. \n"There is a hotel about an hour south of IU where we took some tours," said Steven Kuhn, public relations director for the Bloomington chapter. "We saw shadows moving along the walls, then go into rooms and disappear. We also saw a full apparition of a woman dressed in black walk across the lobby, go into a bathroom then disappear."\nJoining the group is not as simple as just expressing interest in the undead. Potential members have to undergo a series of classes and other training before going out on a ghost hunt.\n"Members have to go through a training seminar where members go through a sort of 'Ghost Hunting 101,'" McDowell said."Then they move on to an advanced session, then they have a psychic protection class and finally they move on to actual field work."\nThe trackers try to catch the ghosts on film and audio tape, Kuhn said. After conducting extensive amounts of research on the myth and its location, the group will utilize several tools for catching the ghosts. Thirty-five millimeter cameras, video cameras and tape recorders all try to pick up spectral evidence that doesn't appear to the naked eye.\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(11/12/03 6:07am)
He bashed the record companies and couldn't, for the life of him, remember who signed an autograph for his daughter. It was Britney Spears.\nGass had been trying to get Mellencamp to talk to the class for some time, and the "war of attrition" finally came to an end on Tuesday when Mellencamp finally took the offer.\n"He was able to give an insight that no teacher can give," Gass said. "It is like having Beethoven come out in a music appreciation class. It's amazing, really. And the fact that he has got such a social conscience and moral authority he can talk about things beyond celebrity and fame. I think you really gain a unique perspective."\nGass started the class with a quick video tribute of some of Mellencamp's music videos and a segment from a CBS story on the singer/songwriter. Mellencamp then took questions from the students and was able to give his opinions and perspective on a wide range of topics.\n"I don't know that I really relate to them on any particular level because I am very up front, very blunt, so I don't know if they are used to that in a college situation," Mellencamp said. "In life I think they are used to it, but in a college situation, it might not be the best form for me."\nWhile portions of the discussion were just fun Mellencamp yarns, he also delivered several underlying messages to the students. Mellencamp told students that songwriting is something everyone can do, and he urged them to go home and start doing it. His messages ranged in topics from politics and MTV to lessons in life.\n"There are going to be thousands of people in life who will tell you that you can't do something," Mellencamp said. "It is important to realize that you've got to believe in yourself no matter where your dream leads you."\nMellencamp stressed the importance of students being flexible with their dreams, but never giving up on them. He said many people quit too early, and that if they would only stay with it, they could accomplish anything.\n"I thought he was totally down-to-earth, and really spoke from his true heart," junior Gwen Rosenthal said. "He is very straight-forward and says it like it is. He gave a lot of information to people looking to get into the business and really gave a lot of input on his past experiences."\nEven though the class was able to get a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Mellencamp would have probably preferred the tables to have been turned.\n"I would have rather been able to ask them questions and learn something from them rather than have me shoot my big bazoo off about what I think," he said. "Everybody already knows what I think"
(11/11/03 5:00am)
The Beta Theta Pi fraternity has officially kicked off its return efforts after the chapter was closed down in September 2001.\nA recolonization team has been brought to IU to begin the recruitment process for a set of "founding fathers" for the fraternity, and eventually form the fraternity into an even stronger member of the greek community. \nThe team put together an interactive informational meeting Monday night where interested students were able to gather information about the returning chapter.\n"The national organization is in town for recruiting purposes (to) kind of get the organization back on its feet and make sure they are recruiting the best men possible," said senior Evan Waldman, president of the Interfraternity Council. "From there on, it's history."\nThe new Beta Theta Pi fraternity will operate for roughly 18 months without a house, holding meetings in the Indiana Memorial Union and having social functions through third party vendors, Director of Expansion Ethan Braden said.\nBeta Theta Pi had previously existed at IU-Bloomington, but was put under review by the national organization in 2001. This led to the eventual closing of the Beta house due to accounts of hazing incidents. \n"We typically give it two to three years for those negative feelings to dissipate -- for the reputation to go away -- and it gives us the opportunity to come back two or three years later with a fresh start and to recruit with nothing more than the value of the organization," Braden said. \nStarting over gives students a rare opportunity to act as a founding father to a fraternity. As opposed to stepping into an already established and structured chapter, the students who are looking to join Beta Theta Pi have the chance to establish their own fraternity from the start with the assistance of the recolonization team.\n"The big thing is having the opportunity to do something on your own," said sophomore Mike Wade, who is one of 15 students already to receive a bid. "With a lot of fraternities they say, it's about values and it is about friendship and all that stuff, but a lot of them miss the mark. With this one we have the opportunity to make it the way we want it to be, and we won't have to deal with a lot of those guys that kind of lost their focus."\nThe preliminary plans for the new colony are to expand upon the current list of 15 extended bids and get numbers up to 40 by Nov. 20. The students will work under Casey Gomes, from the recolonization team, and the advisory board until they begin to function on their own. \nBraden described the whole process as quite an easy one.\n"We come on campus. We become very visible. We take our message to all the sororities and student groups, and then we are just having value based discussions with good men as we meet them, as they are recommended, as they come by the table," Braden said.\nThe existing Beta property will most likely be sold to the University by the alumni, Braden said. The proceeds from that sale, along with an alumni driven capital campaign, will then be used to build a brand new, state-of-the-art chapter home.\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.
(11/10/03 6:14am)
The IU women's volleyball team was finally able to snap its 11-game losing streak after defeating Ohio State University Saturday 31-29, 30-18, 14-30, 30-20. \nOhio State brought last year's Big Ten player of the year Stacey Gordon, who had hit for an unheard of 41 kills the day before. Stopping Gordon was a major priority to being able to win the game.\n"I thought (IU assistant coach Ryan Theis) did a really nice job with the game plan in terms of who to serve to," IU coach Katie Weismiller said. "We have seen a lot of people serve Stacey, but we kept the ball away from her a little bit tonight and limited her opportunities. And the blocks, they did a nice job of getting some early blocks and taking her out of rhythm." \nThe Hoosiers set the season-high in blocks recording 32 block assists as junior middle blocker Katie Pollom led the way with nine blocks, also a season high. Pollom and senior outside hitter Monique Pritz tag-teamed on four blocks in the first game alone, and Pritz ended the game with six block assists to go with her nine kills. IU's all-time block assists leader, senior middle blocker Melissa Brewer, also got into the act with seven of her own to compliment her team-high 16 kills. \n"When I'm blocking, I really concentrate on closing the block," Pollom said. "I have got to give credit, especially on block assists, to the outside blockers, the right side and the left side because all I have to do is close. They set it up, and we just try to shift over and hope that we block the ball."\nOn the night that Gordon became Ohio State's all-time leader in kills, the Hoosiers were able to contain her to just 14 kills, hitting 15 percent from the floor. The win was a major victory for the Hoosiers considering the 41-kill match Gordon had the day before.\nFreshman setter Tasha Arsenych made only her second start and nearly recorded a triple-double in the win. After the entire team only had 29 assists in their loss to Penn State Friday, Arsenych was able to record 47 assists against the Buckeyes as well as eight digs and six block assists. \n"It's extremely encouraging to look at (the IU offense) and know even if the set is not perfect they are still going to do something with it," Arsenych said. "It helps you out a lot as a setter; it gives you confidence that even if it is not a perfect set, they are going to do something with it."\nThe weekend saw many of IU's younger players seeing some action and attempting to contribute with the chance they received. Freshmen Arsenych, outside hitter Katy Jo Mroski, defensive specialist Lindsay Cochrane, and defensive specialist Sarah Diehl all saw significant amounts of playing time over the course of the weekend.\n"I really look to the older players," Diehl said. "They help me out a lot, and I want to help them and do my best at staying consistent by passing and digging and just doing what I need to do to get the job done."\nDiehl was one of three Hoosiers with double-digit digs against Penn State. Penn State beat IU in three straight games 30-16, 30-15, 30-28.\nThe Hoosiers hit the road again this weekend as they travel to Iowa and Minnesota, the last two teams the Hoosiers had defeated before their win over Ohio State.\n-- Contact staff writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.