IU to commemorate WWI
One hundred years ago, nations across the world clashed in a conflict that became known as the Great War.
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One hundred years ago, nations across the world clashed in a conflict that became known as the Great War.
By Anicka Slachta
Ik-Hwan Bae, professor of music in the string department at IU Jacobs School of Music, died Thursday.
A golden CD with “DA END” written in marker sat on top of the stack of papers radio DJ Susan Tanney picked up as she headed out of the studio on the second floor of 815 E. Eighth St.
The summer heat is pushing energy usage on campus toward peak demand.
Rabbi Brian Besser stood in front of the crowd of 22 visitors Tuesday night to address the deaths of three abducted Israelis.
by Carmen ?Heredia Rodriguez
Less than a week before leaving her position, assistant director of the Office of Sustainability Emilie Rex calmly summarized her reason for resigning.
The Chabad Jewish Student Center organized a vigil to remember the abduction of three Israeli males Friday. About 20 participants congregated in the Indiana Memorial Union to show their support for the Israelis’ return.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Public education in Indiana was in the hot seat Thursday and Friday as dozens of experts dissected education policy and the possible future of a system that is undergoing many changes. The annual McCarthy Education Law and Policy Institute convened on the IU campus to discuss the state of education across Indiana. According to the press release, a version of the education seminar began in 1967 through the School of Education. Since then, the program has expanded to include the IU School Administrators Association and has been renamed in honor of Chancellor’s Professor Emerita Martha McCarthy for her expertise in education law. The program addressed variety of issues, including special education policy and teacher evaluations. Participants were able to exchange ideas and provide insight into the future ramifications of some legislation, Sandi Cole, director of the Center of Education and Lifelong Learning, said.“All of the panel discussions were ‘hot’ topics in Indiana right now,” Cole said in an email. “The panelist provided updated legal insights as well as sharing how those legal decisions are or have affected the field of education.”Hardy Murphy, research scholar at IU and IUPUI, participated in the panel regarding legal action involving teacher evaluations. As more education policy is created, teachers will need to be better educated about law surrounding the classroom, Murphy said. “Teachers are in the profession because of their passion for students and the teaching process,” Murphy said in an email. “Unfortunately, as our society becomes more complex, they will need to have more training in the area of education law for their benefit and for their students.”Funding for public education was also discussed at the institute. Cole said a lack of funds is directly correlated with many issues affecting the educational system.“I believe that all teachers face challenges today because Indiana does not adequately fund public education,” Cole said. “This results in a decrease in professional development opportunities and adequate time for professional learning communities.”In addition to a lack of funding, public education is also experiencing a surge of Latino students in the classroom. According to Excelencia in Education, a national non-profit group, the number of Latino students in Indiana public schools increased 47 percent from 2005 to 2010. Murphy said how diversity is addressed is one of the major issues public schools will need to address in order to excel in the future.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Although most are not old enough to vote, high school students arrived on campus this week to work on the most pressing issues in global affairs. The IU Model United Nations team has collaborated with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs for the Model United Nations camp at Briscoe Quad. The annual event aims to teach high school students how to participate in a Model UN competition. Students have participated in simulations that require them to lobby on behalf of the country they represent for support from other nations.“Instead of just being passive recipients of information, they become the experts, and they interact with peers from other institutions,” camp director Susan Siena said. Before the simulation, participants are given a global issue and a country. They must research the position of the country they are to represent and write a solution for the issue that reflects their country’s position. Camp counselor Landon Davison said he believes the exercises allow participants to learn more about their positions and the opposing stances through negotiation. “It gives them the skills to look at another point of view and understand it, accept it, possibly even argue for it and at the end come out knowing a lot more about themselves and about the people that they interact with on a daily basis,” Davison said. Thirty-nine high school students from the U.S. and India are participating in the week-long summer program.During the academic year, the IU Model UN program connects with high schools that have existing Model UN or speech and debate teams to attract potential participants to the camp. However, participants, regardless of their level of experience, can always learn a lesson from the summer camp, Siena said. “It’s very different in that way because you can do Model UN — you can walk in having never done it before and get something out of it,” Siena said. “Or, you can have participated in 10 conferences and still get something out of it.”Participants also attend a series of lectures discussing a variety of international issues. Among the list of speakers was Feisal Amin Rasoul Istrabadi, former UN Ambassador on behalf of Iraq. Mara González Souto, co-president of the IU Model UN team, said exposure to international affairs at an early age is essential to creating individuals that are accepting of diversity.“Being able to look beyond one’s culture, economic and political system and see how other nations do things differently, without questioning and criticizing, is cultivating open-mindedness,” González Souto said in an email.“That is a skill students need to strengthen at a young age.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Center of Excellence for Women in Technology awarded 10 undergraduate women with the Aspirations in Computing Scholarship. Applicants were required to submit a 500-word essay detailing how they would utilize computing in their future careers. The 10 recipients received a $1,000 scholarship and a student ambassadorship position through CEWiT.According to the National Center for Women in Information Technology, women received only 14 percent of undergraduate computer science degrees in 2010. In comparison, 37 percent of undergraduate computer science degree recipients were women in 1985. Some believe the stereotypes of awkwardness and boredom associated with the IT field are part of the reason why women are deterred from studying computer science, Jenny Hertel, program manager at CEWiT, said.“I have worked in IT for almost 20 years now, and I can say unequivocally that both of those stereotypes are very far from the truth,” Hertel said in an email. “Most IT workers I know, whether they be women or men, are outgoing and fun.”The recipients represented an array of disciplines ranging from informatics to English education. Katherine Henick, a recipient of the award, said the expanding IT industry will eventually possess a variety of new jobs to accommodate any person’s interests. “I only see the network of women in IT getting bigger and expanding as the field does,” Henick said in an email. “There are an incredible amount of upcoming opportunities in IT that I know both men and women can fill.”CEWiT was created October 2013 in the efforts to increase the participation of women in all facets of IT on campus. The organization provides opportunities for women interested in the IT field to collaborate with professors, attend conferences and build connections with other women on campus who are passionate about incorporating computing into their respective areas of study. As part of the award, the 10 recipients also became student ambassadors for the new center to participate in outreach initiatives. In the position, the women have become the face of the Red Chair Campaign on the IU campus. The campaign seeks to empower females in IT at the University, calling for women to sit to take a stand for their place in IT. The initiative is an offshoot of the national Sit With Me Campaign. “Since more women are using technology and related services now, and more women are in charge of most electronic purchases for their households, it makes sense that more of them should be the ones designing and developing the technology and services,” Hertel said. Recipients of the award collaborated to create a video that celebrates women in IT. A bright red chair from the national campaign is featured in the video.Henick said she was proud to have worked with the other recipients in the making of the video. “Our group was made up of 10 amazing women who had a lot to say and who all have incredible dreams and aspirations,” Henick said. “I found it really interesting that all of us are in IT in some way, but our aspirations are all slightly different. “I think it goes to show how many opportunities are out there and how much the field is growing and is going to grow even in the next couple of months.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Lawrence M. Clopper, professor emeritus of English and former director of the Medieval Studies Institute, died Saturday evening. Raised in the rural spaces of Maryland, Clopper obtained his bachelor’s degree in English in 1963 from Johns Hopkins University. He then went on to earn his master’s and doctorate degree from The Ohio State University. The Buckeye alumnus joined the IU faculty in 1969 with intentions of working in the English department.However, he redirected his interests and his teaching toward medieval literature. Gina Brandolino, lecturer at the Sweetland Center for Writing and the Department of English at the University of Michigan, and former teaching assistant to the late professor, still remembers the first time she met him. “I met Larry pretty early on when I came to do my graduate work at IU in 1997,” Brandolino said in an email. “I was a student in two of his courses, and I also was a teaching assistant in a large undergraduate course. I feel especially fortunate to have both been a student of Larry’s and to have taught with him.”Clopper produced a series of publications throughout his academic career, including “Drama, Play and Game: English Festive Culture in the Medieval and Early Modern Period,” which won the David Bevington Award from the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society. In the classroom, Thomas Goodmann, associate professor at University of Miami, said Clopper imparted more information than content alone. “It was as much about how you learn rather than any particular information he was imparting,” Goodmann said. Clopper became director of the Medieval Studies Institute in 1991, and he served multiple terms in the position throughout the 1990s. “Professor Clopper was director of the Medieval Studies Institute during its most active and productive phase, in the 1990s,” professor emerita Sheila Lindenbaum said in an email. “His distinguished scholarship, kindly professionalism and the delight he took in his work were an inspiration to many graduate students at that time.”Both Goodmann and Brandolino were under the direction of Clopper during their graduate studies at the University. The former graduate students said they remember him fondly as both a great influence in their professional careers and a very giving man. “If there’s one word that sums up what Larry was to me and to all of us was that he was a figure of endless generosity, and we will miss him deeply,” Goodmann said.
With more than 20 dining halls, dozens of restaurants and 40,000 peers, your student will not need to look very hard to find a reason to spend money.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Adults from all walks of life and educational backgrounds will experience life as an IU student through the 43rd annual Mini University this week. The five-day event allows attendees to customize a course schedule with classes from a variety of disciplines that range from arts to international affairs. Participants can take up to 15 classes. “It’s a very collegial, all for one and one for all kind of project where you see all these different disciplines coming together to spotlight IU,” IU Lifelong Learning director Betsy Watson said.Mini University began in 1972 as a summer learning program exclusively for IU alumni that included a children’s camp. While the kids’ activities have been discontinued, the program has expanded to include non-alumni. “Of the people that come, many people have sort of adopted IU as their university,” Watson said. According to IU Lifelong Learning, the program boasts a 72 percent return rate among participants.More than half the participants possessed at least a master’s degree in 2013.Marjorie Hershey, a political science and philanthropic studies professor, said she notices the difference in the level of knowledge and interest between the Mini University participants and her undergraduate students. “What my undergrads consider to be history is a part of the life experience of my Mini University students,” Hershey said. In 2013, more than 60 percent of Mini University students were 71 years old or older. Although the program is similar to an undergraduate experience, many Mini University students seek an experience that’s different from their undergraduate years, Watson said. “You know, when you’re in undergrad, there’s still so many requirements that you don’t have a lot of extra time to explore things,” she said. Professors participating in the program must present new classroom material for the students every year. Hershey said she hopes through her presentation, she can help participants think more broadly about the American political atmosphere.“The current party polarization leads a lot of adults to view people with different attitudes as being wrong or even dangerous,” Hershey said. “But when we understand the reasons for differing views, we can better offer the mutual respect that a democracy requires.” Although Mini University lasts only one week, many students continue absorbing the material presented in the classroom by independently corresponding with their professors. Jeanne Madison, director of Mini University, said the students’ passion to continue learning is at the heart of the program’s mission. “That’s what we hope for — that they will become energized and more involved and continue learning,” Madison said. “I mean, that’s what we’re all about — lifelong learning.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Angi Fiege is taking it upon herself to make sure her daughter’s death is not in vain. Doctors from the IU School of Medicine teamed up with IUB students this month to present a drug and alcohol prevention program at Zionsville High School.The workshop, titled Rachael’s First Week, is designed to help high school students cope with the transition into college and communicate the challenges they may face during their post-secondary education. “We feel that college- bound students are not aware of the significant challenges that this new social environment can bring,” Alex Rhea, coordinator of Rachael’s First Week, said in an email. Participants watched a short video documenting Rachael’s senior year of high school and the summer before she was to attend IU. Doctors and college students then led the participants in a discussion regarding safety and the resources available to use in an emergency. “By conveying real life experiences from current college students and medical relevance from resident physicians, we hope to prevent tragedies, like Rachael Fiege’s death, from occurring,” Rhea said. Angela Fiege created the program after her daughter Rachael’s death, an IU freshman who lost her life in an alcohol-related fall last year. The program was debuted at Rachael’s former high school. “A lot of the students knew Rachael personally, so the presentation hit very close to home for them,” Rhea said. “Their honest questions let us know how important this message was and how little preparation students get for the challenges of the new social environment of college.”On average, Indiana students begin drinking at the age of 13, according to the 2013 Indiana Youth Survey, a voluntary questionnaire taken by Indiana students from sixth to 12th grade. Upon entering IU, many students view the college experience as an opportunity to go wild, Mallori DeSalle, outreach coordinator at the Indiana Prevention Resource Center, said. “They see it as a bubble, where they can do anything and experience everything, and it will have no long consequences,” DeSalle said. “Though that’s not necessarily the truth. Not everyone does that. I think that many young people believe that everyone treats it the same.”OASIS, an information center designed to help IU students with drug related issues, utilizes prevention strategies such as motivational interviewing to empower students to make their own decisions regarding their consumption of drugs and alcohol. “I talk to students a lot about living intentionally and not just passively,” OASIS Director Jackie Daniels said. “So, if they’re intentionally living in college, that means that they are making decisions about what they want to accomplish in college, instead of coming on campus and going with the flow.” Next year, Rachael’s First Week will aim to expand to other high schools in the Indianapolis area. Rhea said he hopes students who participate in the workshop come away with the importance of caring for others. “No matter the dangers of alcohol or any other challenges college students have, we need to make sure that students know the importance of watching out for each other,” Rhea said.“If a student is worried about a situation or a friend, they should know they have resources that are available to them to make sure we don’t have another tragedy like Rachael’s death.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Office of Sustainability has partnered with Hilltop Gardens and Nature Center to create free gardening workdays for the public. It is part of the Campus Green Initiative, a program with a mission to foster a conversation of sustainability through interactive work spaces, according to its website. The program was created in 2011 by Stephanie Hopkins, a former intern at the Office of Sustainability.Emilie Rex, assistant director for sustainability at IU, said student awareness was the driving force to bring the project to fruition. “There was a lot of passion surrounding food production among the campus and a lot of interest among the students,” Rex said. Currently, the initiative is directed by the Edible Campus Steering Committee, a group that oversees all the land in use by the program. The subcommittees —academic engagement, food production and volunteer outreach and marketing — work together to organize the group. “We really wanted a campus space that was owned by the institution that would allow students to experience first-hand through gardening to learn about the food system,” Rex said. On average, the site attracts about five to 30 volunteers.At the end of the session, the initiative allows volunteers to take some of the produce grown in the garden.This year, more than 400 pounds of food were donated to Residential Programs and Services, Office of Sustainability intern Audrey Brinkers said. “It’s a mixture between what we should be growing because the dining facilities want to see that and what the students want to be eating,” Brinkers said, referring to the variety of food grown at the garden. Currently, the initiative is working to reach out to students from other disciplines to work within the garden.Brinkers said she believes gardening is a great tool to bring diverse academic backgrounds together and train young adults to live a sustainable life. “Sustainability is definitely a message about the future,” Brinkers said.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students and faculty from the School of Informatics and Computing have developed a tool capable of detecting bot-controlled Twitter accounts. The software, called BotOrNot, is capable of evaluating more than 1,000 aspects of the user, like contacts and news feed content, according to a press release.It then processes the information to determine whether a bot or a person manages the Twitter account.The program began in 2012 with a $2 million grant and the collaboration of James Caverlee, professor in the informatics and computer science department at Texas A&M University, the release says.The technology was created from a larger endeavor called the Truthy Project that aims to track misinformation on social media. “One of the tools used by persuasion campaigns is to use software to programmatically post content, i.e., social media bots,” said Clayton Davis, informatics Ph.D. student and web interface developer for BotOrNot.Bot-automated accounts are frequently used to spread false information across social platforms, which can result in suppressed discussion among users. Although BotOrNot was initially designed to recognize automated accounts on social media, researchers said they believe the tool can be used by other businesses to maintain credibility among consumers in online forums.“A less obvious application would be for detecting fake reviews on e-commerce sites like Amazon,” Davis said. “For instance, company X might use several bot accounts to leave positive reviews for their products and negative reviews for the competition.”In the future, Prashant Shiralkar, an informatics graduate student and member of the Truthy Project, said he believes BotOrNot can help empower consumers to question content and maintain credibility in the online social sphere.“Considering this and the ease with which online fake accounts could be created to inject false information, gain collective attention or simply to mislead people, it is natural for real users to question the authenticity of the users they interact with in an online social environment,” Shiralkar said. “That is where this tool comes in handy.”
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With her straight, steel grey tresses, ruffled blouse and black jacket, Cathy Wyatt, an ex-smoker, now looks the picture of polished health. Last week, the United States Surgeon General released a report chronicling the past 50 years of the cigarette in America. And while some states have started to withdraw from the trend of smoking, the Centers for Disease Control say a quarter of Hoosiers are still lighting up.Wyatt, health educator and community outreach at IU Health Center, said the grip of the habit can be traced far back into the user’s mind.“Most of the people we interview will tell you, ‘I remember my first cigarette,’” Wyatt said. “They’ll tell you where they were, who they were with and where they got it.”After 26 years of living tobacco-free, Wyatt can still remember her first taste of tobacco when she took it from her father’s ashtray. The phenomenon of tobacco use within the U.S. is as old as the nation itself. Grown as a cash crop in the Southern colonies, the commodity soon became a source of economic profit for the developing country. Despite its deep historical roots, the recent wave of restrictions regarding tobacco use renewed the conversation about the harmful effects of tobacco and its place in mainstream culture. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana remains one of the top consumers of tobacco. In 2011, more than 25 percent of the state population was reported to smoke cigarettes. Wyatt identified the undereducated and impoverished as populations among the most at-risk of using tobacco. “The tobacco industry knows where to target populations, where there are no policies,” Wyatt said. Since 1965, the U.S. government mandates all cigarette boxes contain a health-warning label to advise consumers of the product’s harmful effects. Today, the American Lung Association recognizes thousands of chemicals and 70 carcinogens — cancer-causing agents — found within one cigarette. IU sophomore Maxwell Mills does not consume tobacco, but said he understands firsthand the effect of tobacco on its users. “I’ve now had three members of my grandfather’s generation diagnosed with cancer,” Mills said. “Two of them have passed away.”Among the members of Mills’ family diagnosed with cancer was his grandfather. After finding the motivation to quit through his grandchildren, Mills’ grandfather was diagnosed with lung cancer years after living without tobacco. “A big thing that did it was having three grandchildren, influenced by our parents, run up to him like, ‘Okay, please, we love you. We don’t want you to get hurt,’” Mills said. “We took his cigarettes from him, flushed them down the toilet or buried them in the backyard.” His grandfather’s cancer is now in remission.Despite its adverse effects on the body, tobacco continues to attract potential consumers to its products. Wyatt said she believes the motives prompting individuals to use tobacco are individual to each consumer.Daniel Benge, a senior who uses tobacco, views the broader appeal of the product as part of his motive behind consuming the substance.“It has the image of being rebellious or the outsider,” Benge said. “There are moments to it where it’s just glamorous. It’s just sleek.” Benge concedes that media portrayals of tobacco use have also played a role in glamorizing his perception of the substance. He said he began consuming tobacco in high school after his best friend offered him a cigarette at his Fourth of July party. “I thought it was okay,” Benge said. “I didn’t really think one way or another. But then I started hanging out with friends who tended to smoke. Then, I quickly developed a habit. Then, everyone else seemed to quit and I’m the only one who hasn’t yet.”In recent years, anti-tobacco activism has emerged in mainstream media to combat the phenomenon and communicate the harmful effects of tobacco use.However, both Benge and Mills consider the activism to fall short of communicating to its targeted youth audience effectively.“What happens when people are shown an extremely scary situation saying, ‘This is you,’ a defense mechanism kicks in and we start denying because we’re so afraid psychologically, we put up a wall against it,” Benge said. For Wyatt, the new wave of anti-tobacco activism must continue educating to quell the influence of tobacco companies. “I think we have a powerful industry on the opposite side, fighting with everything against what we would try to do,” Wyatt said. “They have a lot of money behind them. Anything we’re seeing that’s coming out right now and all the efforts are so much needed.” In 2008, University administration implemented a tobacco-free policy across all IU campuses prohibiting the use of tobacco products on University property. But Mills feels the University policy has not been effective in achieving its intended purpose. “I remember walking out of a classroom yesterday and right outside the door, five feet to the left, somebody was sitting in the lawn smoking,” Mills said. “Its hard to find an area where you wouldn’t see someone smoking.”The tobacco-free policy also created tobacco cessation services at the IU Health Center in Bloomington. Students and employees have access to professional support equipped with nicotine supplements at no extra charge. After 51 patients entered the program last fall, Wyatt said she hopes the service will continue to expand, providing participants with a way to overcome their use of tobacco permanently. “This addiction is considered absolutely one of the hardest,” Wyatt said. “I say this to myself, as an ex-smoker, the mantra I put over myself was if I never smoke the first one again, I never have to quit again.” Follow reporter Carmen Heredia Rodriguez on Twitter @caheredia21.
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the business world, the art of fashion is not relegated to fabric.The Center for Education and Research in Retailing at the Kelley School of Business partnered with consulting firm Kalypso and website CollegeFashionista to develop a new marketing tool designed to gauge emerging fashion trends among the college consumer base.The Fashion Innovation Index, or FINdex, analyzes information collected from the student population and identifies the most popular trends in apparel. The study has obtained data from CollegeFashionista, which features blog posts from hundreds of student contributors that document the latest trends on college campuses.“I think there’s a notion that college campuses are a fertile ground for new ideas and innovation,” said John Talbott, associate director of the Center for Education and Research in Retailing. “We wanted to see if we could see what they thought and see if they lead the general population in terms of perception of trends.”The partnership will run the index four times per year to coincide with fiscal quarters. According to a press release from the IU newsroom, a representative sample of CollegeFashionista’s 600 “style gurus” will provide survey data each quarter based on trends they see on their campuses. “Our style gurus capture and report on trends at their universities,” Amy Levin, CEO and founder of CollegeFashionista, said in the release. “Many of them are studying product development or design at their schools, so they are uniquely positioned to report on fashion innovation that appeals to the college-age population. In the aggregate, I think we can really put our finger on the pulse of college fashion.”The results will be released shortly before businesses disclose their quarterly earnings. Consumer spending is by far the largest portion of the U.S. gross domestic product, said Steve Riordan, partner at Kalypso. “As goes the consumer, so goes the economy,” Riordan said. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, the recession of the U.S. economy in 2008 cut American consumer spending by more than 50 percent. Because the last five years saw slow growth in consumer spending, retailers are searching for innovative means of motivating customers to purchase merchandise, Riordan said. “Innovation is a competitive must for retail,” Riordan said.Retailers are already adopting new marketing strategies through the use of social media. Software such as Instagram is emerging as a popular tool among marketing strategists because of its photo quality and widespread use within the college consumer base. Should the FINdex prove effective, retailers will have the ability to pair the two instruments to gauge the wants of the consumer. “I think what we’re always trying to do is not necessarily revolutionary but evolutionary,” said Theresa Williams, director of the Center for Education and Research in Retailing. “The more we can provide insight to our partners and to our students studying business, I think the more that they’ll be able to provide better solutions for customers.”According to a press release, the index will also track relative perception of key brands over time and identify emerging brands that are attracting the attention of fashionistas.During the next several years, creators of the FINdex will track the results of the instrument to analyze whether a correlation exists between retail profit margins and consumer opinion. Although the FINdex is currently used to track trends in fashion, the creators said they see fashion as more than apparel. “I use the term fashion to reflect innovation,” Williams said. “To me, the word fashion describes that motivation to purchase because it embodies innovation. It’s not just about apparel. It’s not just about ‘Project Runway.’ It’s a concept that applies to every product category.”Follow reporter Carmen Heredia on Twitter @caheredia21.