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(10/04/12 3:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students packed into the Asian Culture Center on Wednesday to celebrate the center’s 14th anniversary with games, henna tattoos and Chinese calligraphy.“This is to honor the students and to celebrate the students for their contributions to the center,” ACC Director Melanie Castillo-Cullather said. “It’s their day.”Second-year graduate student Chung-yu Fang sat at a table with calligraphy brushes, jars of black ink and students hungry to learn the basics of calligraphy.Fang, originally from Taiwan, said she spent about 10 years perfecting her calligraphy. She formally practiced the art as part of her undergraduate studies and volunteered to help others at the open house event learn. “I think people who visit the Asian Cultural Center are very interested in Asian culture ... so it’s easy to teach them,” she said.Some of the students in attendance already spoke a bit of Chinese or knew some Chinese characters, which she said was helpful when teaching them. Some struggled to properly grip the brush, which had to be held at a 90-degree angle to the paper.Sophomore Kristina Luu had never tried her hand at Chinese calligraphy, so Fang taught her several basic strokes — horizontal lines, vertical lines and dots.“You’re like, ‘That’s really simple. I’ll be able to catch on,’ right?” Luu said. “But then you do it, and you don’t realize all that goes into calligraphy.”Senior Lauren Kastner also volunteered to provide henna tattoos to open house participants. Kastner took classes about the process of henna while studying abroad last year in Hyderabad, India.The first couple weeks of her class consisted of pen-and-pencil work, Kastner said, creating and connecting intricate henna designs on paper.“We didn’t even get to touch henna for a couple weeks,” she said.It was a way for her to connect with Indian culture, she said, and ultimately bring it back home with her.Castillo-Cullather said in the past 14 years she has been with the center, the physical space hasn’t really changed.“But the number of students who have used the center — and faculty and staff and community members — has grown,” she said.The number of events has expanded since the center opened in 1998, Castillo-Cullather said. Some events, such as the “Over a Cup of Tea” series, have been successful and adopted as “signature events.”Castillo-Cullather said that in the past 14 years, the center has also worked to convince students it is not just a place for individuals of Asian descent.“We try to convey that and let everyone know in so many different ways, and I think we’ve been very successful,” she said. “We’re seeing a very diverse audience coming to use the center.”The center has not only grown on campus but off campus as well, Castillo-Cullather said.“We’ve also grown in a way that we’re no longer seen as a student center but also a community center,” she said. “It really is a testament that we have reached a population outside the Sample Gates.”
(10/02/12 3:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>This year’s Sexploration Week kicked off Monday evening with a slightly different take on the traditional speed dating event.“The speed dating is orientation-inclusive, which means GLBT, heterosexual — everyone’s welcome,” said health educator Patrick Nagel, who organized the event.After a brief ice-breaker activity, about 60 students were allotted three-minute conversations with other event-goers, during which they would briefly get to know one another and indicate on a piece of paper their interest in pursuing either a friendship or romance.Nagel collected students’ email addresses to connect participants who expressed mutual interest in a romantic relationship.“You’re going to meet people you’re not romantically interested in,” Nagel said at the start of the event. “This is orientation-inclusive. Just try to be respectful.”Last year’s Sexploration Week marked the first time IU educators organized the speed dating event. It resulted in multiple match-ups, Nagel said before Monday’s event, and he hoped this year’s event would yield similar outcomes.Senior pre-med student Jeff Tippin said he attended a speed dating event at IU before and had fun meeting new people.“I’m here to see if there’s someone here of interest,” he said. “But it’s a good study break.”If nothing else, he said, it would be good for a laugh.Nagel provided a list of questions — Where are you from? What’s your sign? — for participants who experienced difficulty getting a conversation off the ground.The room resonated with chatter in three-minute intervals, each separated by the ring of a bell that signified when it was time for participants to switch partners.Altogether, Tippin spoke with about 14 participants. He met one person he was interested in, he said, but was unsure whether it would turn into anything.“It was fun,” he said after the event. “I met a lot of really cool people, a lot who were pre-med.” He said he thought it was important for the event to be orientation-inclusive to cater to people with different preferences. It would be discriminatory, he said, to not include everyone. At the end of the night, Nagel said it was too early to tell how many romantic matches had been made. He said he would notify participants who expressed mutual interest in a romantic relationship via email within a week or so.Nagel said the event’s orientation inclusion was important and coincided with the goals of Sexploration Week: to encourage positive behaviors about things like sex, gender and sexual orientation.“I think it’s important because a lot of people have these heteronormal ideas ... a lot of traditional speed dating events are heterosexual,” he said, adding that many heterosexual individuals tend to think of relationships in terms of heterosexuality and not in terms of homosexuality or bisexuality. He said the event went well, and participants were respectful of differences in sexual preference.“There was a good mix of orientations,” he said. Last year, he said, the turnout was largely heterosexual, and participants of differentorientations felt left out.“I think it worked out well, and no one felt singled out or isolated by who they might be attracted to,” he said.
(09/27/12 2:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Many of IU’s buildings are missing from Apple’s new map application, which debuted with last week’s release of the iPhone 5.The new app, which severed Apple’s ties with the previously used Google maps application, has been subject to scrutiny across the Internet and was recently the focus of a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal. This article featured side-by-side images of a Google map of Collins LLC and an Apple map of the same location, which included no trace of the residence center.Owners of the iPhone 5 complained, among other things, that many businesses and landmarks are misplaced or completely missing on the Apple maps, the Journal reported.Carl Ipsen, director of Collins LLC, said although he wasn’t sincerely angered, he did find the article amusing.“I’m outraged at Apple’s attempt to eliminate Collins from the map of Bloomington,” he said. “It’s surely a corporate plot of some kind.”An alumnus brought the article to his attention.“Of all the maps they could put on the picture, it was ours,” he said.According to the Journal, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the application was designed to improve the more people use it. She also acknowledged that features previously available with the Google app are missing, and developers would work to remedy the new app’s shortcomings.“We appreciate all of the customer feedback and are working hard to make the customer experience even better,” she said in the article.Verizon Wireless stores across the state opened earlier than usual on Sept. 21 for the release of the new iPhone.“The Bloomington store had more than 30 people in line for the iPhone 5 — three camped out overnight,” a Verizon Wireless spokesperson said in an email. “More than half of those in line were students.”Senior Mimi Nguyen purchased her iPhone 5 at 8 a.m. Friday.Although she hadn’t used the Apple map app extensively, she said there are some differences between it and the Google version. Among them, she said, is an automatic 3-D map feature and a feature to aid navigation. All in all, though, she said she loves her new phone.“It has a lot of cool stuff,” she said. “There are significant differences between the 4S and the 5.”
(09/26/12 4:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Purdue University students by and large will experience a greater return on investment when it comes to undergraduate degrees than IU students.According to a May 2011 study by the Center on Education and the Workforce, eight of the top 10 majors with the highest median earnings fall within the sphere of engineering. 21 percent of all Purdue students pursue degrees within that field.Return on investment is essentially a way to quantify the phrase, “bang for your buck.”The College Board’s latest figures approximate the average in-state IU student, without any financial assistance or scholarship, will spend about $80,264 on tuition and fees to complete a four-year undergraduate degree.Return on investment will take that amount into consideration and compare it to what a student can potentially earn at a job that degree can get him.In general, the higher a degree-holder’s earnings, the greater his return on investment.This can be affected by the trade-off between cost and value of a degree. A degree from Harvard Business School will appeal to employers, but tuition to Harvard University typically costs significantly more than tuition to IU.“Not all Bachelor’s degrees are the same,” according to the CEW report. “Earnings are a function not only of which degree you have, but also what you have majored in.”According to U.S. News and World Report, 20 percent of IU students choose to pursue degrees in business, management, marketing and related fields.In general, the median annual salary of all business degree-holders is roughly $60,000, according to the Center on Education and the Workforce.According to data from the 2012 Undergraduate Career Services Annual Report, Kelley degree-holders tend to make just short of that when first starting out, enjoying a median starting salary of about $55,000.It would take an in-state Kelley School of Business graduate making $60,000, the national median, about 1.34 years – without taking other expenses into consideration – to pay off his undergraduate education.Despite the high earning potential in the business field, U.S. News and World Report reports a degree in economics can be just as good if not better.“A lot of people talk about majoring in business ... actually, economics is even better, because you learn a lot more quantitative analysis, a lot more statistics, and things that are applicable in kind of this big data world,” Katie Bardaro, an economist for online salary database PayScale, said in an interview with U.S. News and World Report. “Similar to physics, it’s really good for salary growth overall.”Aside from degrees in engineering, degrees in computer science top the Center on Education and the Workforce’s list of highest earning majors with a median annual salary of $98,000.Degrees that develop analytical skills tend to lead to jobs with a “strong earning potential and low unemployment rate,” Bardaro said. “Not everyone is cut out for the analytical stuff,” she said. “If you are one of those people, you’re lucky, because people want to hire you.”The average starting salary for 2012 graduates of the School of Informatics and Computing was $54,000.Representatives from Kelley and the School of Informatics and Computing could not be reached for comment.U.S. News and World Report reported that not all is lost for students obtaining degrees in the humanities and social sciences, and the ability to work across different industries boost return on investment.Other popular majors at IU, according to U.S. News and World Report, include degrees in communication, journalism, parks, leisure and fitness and education.Based on a PayScale report published September 2012, the majority of IU-Bloomington alumni with an undergraduate degree in journalism earned between $28,992 and $108,194 annually. The report listed the 10th and 90th percentile for select IU degrees.The majority of IU alumni with a degree in telecommunications earned between $31,270 and $80,000. Those with degrees in communication earned between $28,590 and $123,376.Data was not available for degrees in parks, education and leisure and fitness.Second concentrations, minors and certificates also add value to a degree, according to U.S. News and World Report.“Research what skills are most valuable in the labor market … and depending on those ‘hot skills’ you can also obtain a certificate that will provide you skills that will set you apart,” Center on Education and the Workforce Communications Director Andrea Porter said.
(09/21/12 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Monroe County Council candidate Sophia Travis, 46, died Wednesday night in her Bloomington home.Travis’ death was unexpected, Indiana Public Media reported, and associated with a heart-related condition.“Sophia had suffered since early in the year from an undiagnosed heart-related condition and had just returned from the Cleveland Clinic where she, (her husband) Greg and young Finnigan had traveled for care,” Monroe County Democrats Chairman Rick Dietz said in an email.IU Alumni Association Director of Diversity Programs Clarence Boone said Travis was a volunteer leader with the Alumni Association and served as Asian Alumni Association president in addition to her off-campus work.“She was a delight to work with — a visionary — and always gave diligent thought to small details in programming and was able to engage alumni,” he said.Boone said he and Travis did volunteer broadcasting work, reading the news for community radio station WFHB Fire House Broadcasting.Travis served on the Monroe County Council from 2005 to 2009 and sought election once again as an at-large candidate this fall.“Sophia personified kindness — a dense gravitational kindness — and wielded a gentle strength that could move mountains. And move all those around her. And did many times over,” Dietz said.On Thursday morning, Senate Democrat Leader and Lt. Gubernatorial candidate Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsvile, also released a statement about Travis’ passing.“A public servant, she gave her time and leadership to improve the lives of the people of Monroe County,” Simpson said in the release. “As a friend, she enlightened our lives with her artistic spirit and thoughtful actions. Sophia will be missed.”Melanie Castillo-Cullather, director of the Asian Culture Center, remembers Travis’ artistic spirit. Castillo-Cullather first met Travis in 1999 when Travis came to the ACC for a Korean language class. Travis was already familiar with the language, which she learned from her mother, but sought formal instruction to polish her abilities.“Sophia’s visit to the center turned into a lasting relationship,” Castillo-Cullather said in an email.She also remembers Travis volunteering to organize concerts in the ACC as a way of attracting visitors. Travis played the accordion, Castillo-Cullather said. Despite fears the center’s limited space would cause students to not enjoy themselves, she said, they had a great time.“Sophia and her music showed us that there are no boundaries and, regardless of how small or big, we can make things happen at the center,” Castillo-Cullather said. “That experience was very telling of Sophia. She was always optimistic.”Castillo-Cullather said Travis’ optimism continued even after she shared the news of her health condition with the Asian Alumni Association.“We are heartbroken and very sad upon learning that she passed away last night,” she said. “She will be greatly missed.”
(09/21/12 3:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Outdoor Adventures will offer workshops this October to help aspiring slackliners get their feet off the ground.Slacklining is a derivative of tightrope walking, said Tyler Kivland, Outdoor Adventures assistant programs coordinator. Rock-climbers used it as a way to build core strength. Unlike tightrope walking, slacklining is performed without the use of heavy cables, and the line upon which a slackliner walks is less taut than a tightrope.Outdoor Adventures leaders-in-training sophomore Chris Sajdak and senior Devan Anhut are scheduled to lead workshops next month. The activity’s popularity is growing, Anhut said.Before slackliners attempt high-altitude feats, they have to start a bit closer to the ground on a line about two or three feet high. Even so, it’s difficult in the beginning, Sajdak said.“Your knees shake, the line shakes, and you feel like there’s no way you’re going to keep your balance,” Anhut said.Kivland said workshop instructors will “have a ‘curriculum’ of sorts dealing with balance, flexibility and techniques that will set them apart from just the average slackliner in the park.”The workshop leaders will install a “handline” above each slackline to give beginners something to hold onto. Anhut said the instructors will also help participants walk along the lines.Kivland said Outdoor Adventures might eventually offer slacklining trips in which participants could take part in challenges involving inclined or criss-crossed lines.“It’s a bit of a new horizon line for us considering the recent increase in popularity and the options it may hold for us,” he said.
(09/18/12 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Members of Young Americans for Liberty celebrated Constitution Day on Monday by exercising their First Amendment freedom of speech and encouraging others to do the same.Students involved with Young Americans for Liberty handed their peers colored chalk so they could answer the question that topped a large blackboard: “What issue is most important?”Passersby scrawled their concerns — among them the redistribution of wealth, the Ninth Amendment and both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.“We’re offering students the chance to express themselves and exercise their First Amendment rights,” said Nate O’Connor, senior and Indiana state chair of Young Americans for Liberty. “Here at IU, free speech doesn’t entirely exist.”University policy, O’Connor said, limits free speech to areas like Dunn Meadow and the Sample Gates and encourages students reserve those areas before using them.Other Constitution Day events included a panel discussion about voter identification laws at the Maurer School of Law, a forum sponsored by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs about voting policy and a forum about non-citizen access to education at the School of Education.Free copies of the Constitution were made available to students at the Herman B Wells Library.About 100 IU students, staff and faculty attended a watch party for the live stream of a National Endowment for the Humanities forum with Civil War historians in Washington, D.C.The panel included Duke University Professor Thavolia Glymph, Columbia University Professor Eric Foner, University of Richmond President Edward Ayers and President and CEO of the American Civil War Center Christy Coleman. The panelists’ discussion focused heavily on the Emancipation Proclamation, which Associate Professor of History Alex Lichtenstein said is due to the document’s upcoming 150th anniversary.Lichtenstein said the Emancipation Proclamation shaped the rewriting of the Constitution in the years following the Civil War.Coleman’s comments highlighted the same connection.“For me, (the Emancipation Proclamation) is an important document because...this is the beginning of us confirming that we will be a forever-free nation,” Coleman said. “This document led to the 13th Amendment, which will lead to the 14th Amendment, which will lead to the 15th Amendment, and that’s why talking about the Emancipation Proclamation is so important.”Lichtenstein, who offered his H106: American History II students extra credit for attending, said he would have liked to see more students attend the watch party .“I don’t think they have a clue about Constitution Day,” he said. “I think they’re interested in the Constitution, though.”O’Connor, who stood with Young Americans for Liberty from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., said he felt as if students didn’t care about First Amendment issues.“The apathy is astounding, but there have been those who have made it worthwhile for sure,” he said. “Free speech is important for those who want to exercise it.”Lichtenstein said in his classes, he tries to make the Constitution relevant to his students’ lives.“When I talk about the 15th Amendment, which is about voting rights, it’s directly connected to what’s going on now, with the efforts to decide whether these voter ID laws are constitutional or not,” Lichtenstein said. “It goes right back to what was going on in the 1860s and 1870s. I think when student hear that, they’re interested.”
(09/13/12 4:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Josh Hinger’s body hovered above a white-belt student, the balls of his feet straining against a gray mat.Members of IU’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Club sat in a circle during practice, watching as Hinger, the club’s president and head instructor, demonstrated techniques for forcing an opponent to tap out.“My hips are down,” Hinger explained. “Sometimes, if he’s being a pain in the ass, you can just drop your hip on his head a bit.”The club members chuckled. “No, I’m serious,” Hinger said, explaining that an opponent once used the move against him.After a few minutes of lessons, the white-belt tapped the mat to signify the end of the demonstration.“OK. Questions?” Hinger asked. “OK. Let’s go.”
(09/11/12 4:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Members of Volunteers in Sustainability hope their fall campaign, which aims to establish the campus’ third compost program, will allow campus food waste to be used to grow new produce for students.“We have a different campaign every semester, and this semester, we looked around IU and thought, ‘How could we improve things?’” said sophomore Vianna Newman, co-coordinator of the Volunteers in Sustainability fall campaign. “IU doesn’t do much composting right now, and we wanted to educate people about that.”Previous University compost programs have been successful since they began last school year at the Union Street Market and Collins Center’s Edmondson Dining Room, said Associate Director of RPS Environmental Operations Steve Akers.Between 30 and 50 gallons of food waste, everything except meat and dairy, are transported from Union Street to Hilltop Garden and Nature Center each week, Akers said. The waste from Collins is taken to the Students Producing Organics Under the Sun garden, located near Eighth Street and Fess Lane, where it sits in compost bins to decompose.Volunteers in Sustainability is still in the process of planning the initiative with Akers’ help. A location for the new composting program has yet to be solidified.“We think the next place is the Landes Dining Room at Read,” Newman said. She said it would follow a model similar to the program at Collins, where the staff separates the food wastes.Akers said waste is collected in 5-gallon buckets in the Union Street Market kitchen and the dish room adjacent to Edmondson Dining Room. Union Street practices pre-consumer composting, collecting the clippings from produce and bread that result from the preparation of things like salads and sandwiches.Collins, on the other hand, participates in both pre- and post-consumer collection, where leftover food from students’ plates is collected in addition to the scraps resulting from meal preparation.The process of composting, Hilltop Coordinator Lea Woodard said, allows food waste from campus dining halls to become the nutrients needed to grow produce that will be sent to RPS and food supplier Sodexo, Inc. for students to consume.“We’re trying to have a complete cycle here,” she said.Composting yields a natural and organic source of nutrients while simultaneously preventing waste from going into a landfill, she said.Akers said implementing compost practices on campus has been challenging at times, between having to find volunteers, transporting the wastes and taking proper collection procedures to keep away unwelcome pests.“You have to have an infrastructure,” he said. “It’s not always an easy thing to do.”Eventually, Akers said, the hope is to educate students and get to the point in which all students can actively partake in the composting procedure.“Right now, the mindset is not geared toward composting on campus,” Akers said. Ideally, he said, students will be able to separate food wastes themselves after each meal. Newman said in addition to trash and recycling receptacles in the dining halls, there could eventually be a container specifically for food scraps.To move closer to the goal, Newman said Volunteers in Sustainability will begin their fall campaign with programs to educate students, including a guest speaker and other conservation-focused events.“We have hope in the future to make it happen when we know the system will be successful,” Akers said.
(09/11/12 3:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The former Acacia house will sit vacant along Third Street, but only for this school year.Phi Sigma Kappa’s Alumni Housing Board members signed a lease in August, allowing the fraternity to lease Acacia’s house for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years, Phi Sig President Matt Cotton said.The chapter will have the option of renewing the lease for a third year.Acacia’s charter was revoked in May after instances of drug dealing, drug use and hazing, according to a report issued by the University.“Acacia was not notified of their removal from campus until the school year was already over,” Cotton said. “So we didn’t know either.”Phi Sig has been an off-campus fraternity for the past two years.“What we’ve done the last two years, most of the members have lived at Tenth and College in the apartments there,” sophomore member Jimmy Blodgett said.The fraternity was established as an on-campus fraternity in 1949 and stayed on campus until its chapter was removed from IU in the 1970s, Cotton said.In 2001, Phi Sig was rechartered and stayed on campus until 2011.Until 2010, the fraternity had a four-year lease for the Alpha Epsilon Pi house. When the lease ended, AEPi wanted to reclaim the house, Cotton said.“We don’t own property on campus,” he said. “When other frats are kicked off, we often become tenants in the house.”Cotton said about 60 of the fraternity’s 111 members currently live at Tenth and College. About 75 members will be able to live in the house next year.“Our alumni board is working very hard to secure a permanent location somewhere on campus in the next few years,” Cotton said.Other off-campus fraternities were interested in the former Acacia house as well. Both Blodgett and Cotton said they are excited to be moving back on campus next year.“We have a lot of respect for the Acacia guys for letting us live there,” Blodgett said.
(09/07/12 3:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An application created to broaden the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction research base by allowing sexual behaviors to be reported from a user’s smartphone was pulled from the market Wednesday, the same day it launched.Kinsey Reporter, a collaborative effort between the Kinsey Institute and the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research in the School of Informatics and Computing, was removed from the market at the request of Jackie Simmons, university vice president and general counsel.The app became available for free Wednesday morning on the Mac App Store and Google Play. It had not received prior review by the Office of the General Counsel, which serves the legal needs of the University.Not every product associated with the University requires approval from the General Counsel, said Mark Land, associate vice president for public affairs and government relations.Due to the app’s sensitive nature, he said, the General Counsel requested the app be removed from the market until it could be reviewed.“We don’t have any indication there’s anything wrong with it,” Land said. He also said the legal counsel asked to review the app to ensure everything is “on solid ground” as far as privacy issues are concerned.Filippo Menczer, director of the Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research and the project’s technical lead, said the team is confident there won’t be many complications.“We feel pretty comfortable with anonymity protocols,” he said.Among other things, the app will allow users to submit information without fear of the report being traced back to them, Menczer said.University researchers on the receiving end of the data will not know the exact location of the report, Menczer said, nor will the exact time of submission be disclosed.“We do not store any type of identifiers (for) the person,” Menczer said. This includes the phone number of the device from which the report was sent.“By doing that, we cannot even tell that two reports are by the same person,” he said. “It’s impossible to know who’s submitting a certain report.”Once Kinsey Reporter is reviewed by the counsel and re-released for consumer use, Menczer said the app will allow the Kinsey Institute to fill previously existing holes in research.“We completely lack data from many, many, many countries,” he said.The app will help the institute learn about issues like rape in different parts of the world.The app could also provide insight into attitudes about birth control in areas affected by AIDS, he said.In the meantime, the review process is just getting started, Land said, and a re-release date has not been determined.“We’re doing everything that we can to work as quickly as possible,” Menczer said.
(09/05/12 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ohio State University raked in nearly $500 million after agreeing to lease campus parking for the next 50 years to a private Australian company. Three months later, IU is looking into the outsourcing option in hopes of reaping a similar profit to fund academic initiatives.“We are looking at all sorts of ways to be able to hold down tuition rates and fund different academic programs,” said Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Neil Theobald.One of the ways to do that, Theobald said, is to lease University-owned parking spaces in Bloomington and Indianapolis. Long-term outsourcing of parking operations would allow University efforts to be focused on academics instead of a non-core service such as parking, he said.“That’s not our mission here,” Theobald said.The benefits, if the University decides to follow through with privatized parking, will be similar to the up-front payment received by Ohio State. Although University officials estimate private companies won’t bid quite as much for IU parking — particularly in Bloomington, as parking revenues in IU-Bloomington trail far behind those of Ohio State — it is uncertain at this point how much the University can make.“That’s the stage we’re at,” he said. “We’re very early in the process.”At the Board of Trustees meeting in August, Theobald reported that the University would soon be finalizing requests for proposals. IU Associate Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations Mark Land said the proposals would then allow University officials to assess what sort of interest exists among companies wishing to bid for parking on either IU campus.Similar motions to privatize non-core University services occurred in July 2007 after trustees decided to lease the rights to the campus bookstore to Barnes and Noble. The 10-year lease provided the University an estimated $70 million, money trustees recommended be used, among other things, for renovations to Ballantine Hall.Theobald said outsourcing parking would be a similar situation, noting that leasing the IU Bookstore was successful because “Barnes and Noble knows more about running a bookstore than we do.”Both Theobald and Land said it is too early in the process to determine how students will be affected. The Ohio State University Transportation and Parking Services could not be reached for comment about the effects of its outsourcing.Theobald said the privatization would benefit students by creating programs that streamline the degree-seeking process, a long-term area of focus for the University.“By giving up control, the university/campus wouldn’t have much (if any) control over the price charged for parking and wouldn’t have any control over what happens to the employees that work in parking,” Land said in an email.During a phone interview, Land said it was too early to determine the exact repercussions outsourcing could have for current Parking Operations employees.Parking Manager Doug Porter said about 40 individuals are currently listed on the Parking Operations payroll, which includes parking enforcement, staff and hourly employees who operate parking garages and pay-to-park lots.Even if a change in ownership occurred, Land said, a need would still exist for workers to manage the lots and garages.“The goal would be to maintain as many jobs as possible,” Land said. “But instead of working for the University, they would be working for the vendor.”Theobald said the earliest a decision will be made is still several months away. At this time, IU has not decided which companies will be contenders for the outsourcing if the plan is carried through.In the meantime, Theobald said, University committees are meeting with constituent groups, including student representatives, and outlining the terms under which IU will agree to the privatization.“As resources get tight and we’re trying to drive down costs of attending, we need to consider all of our options,” Theobald said.
(08/31/12 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Saturday, the 17th Street Red Lot, where greeks have traditionally gone before the football game, may look a bit different to tailgate veterans.After an Interfraternity Council discussion about reforming the image of the IU tailgate, the IFC President’s Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban handles, half-gallon containers of hard liquor, from the greek tailgate fields.During the first two weeks of IU’s home football season last year, Indiana State Excise issued 99 citations.IFC Vice President of Communications William Kragie said the council hoped to re-brand the greek tailgating experience by reforming some of the more dangerous tailgate practices.The initiative to clean up the tailgate grew out of a suggestion from Dean of Students Harold “Pete” Goldsmith.“It wasn’t a very positive atmosphere,” Goldsmith said of the traditional tailgate experience. “So I was asked the question of what would improve the image of the greek community on-campus.”Goldsmith said improvements in the tailgate lot would aid that effort, adding the initiative was then adopted by the IFC.“I’m very pleased with their efforts,” he said.The IFC’s overall effort to create a more positive tailgate experience is assisted by Student Life and Learning, IU Office of Sustainability, IU Police Department, IU Athletics Department and ESG Security.Enforcement of the no-handles policy begins immediately, Kragie said.“If there are any violators within the Red Lot, ESG is going to come over and try to make the tailgate compliant,” Kragie said. If the problem persists after ESG Security’s involvement, IUPD may intervene, he said.Beside the limitation on certain containers of alcohol, IFC and the Office of Sustainability are cleaning up the tailgate in a more literal sense as well.The Office of Sustainability will introduce recycling receptacles to the tailgate field, a change from the previous situation in which all trash was thrown away.“We’re trying to re-brand the greek tailgating experience at IU,” Kragie said, adding he hopes it will encourage other groups to follow suit.
(08/28/12 2:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU parent Greg Cannizzo was surprised to hear he would need to provide a credit card number in order for his daughter and her roommate to loft the beds in their Collins Center dorm room during move-in.Cannizzo’s daughter, freshman Kelsey Cannizzo, was one of many Collins residents who faced an unexpected $105 fee from Illinois-based bed lofting company BedLoft.com.“It was two people with four pins for the posts of the bed, four hands and a hammer,” Greg Cannizzo said. “I just questioned the fact that it was that amount of money for something so simple.”BedLoft.com could not be reached for comment.For the past few years, Residence Halls Association Vice President of Student Affairs Hana Horton said RHA contracted BedLoft.com to help students safely loft beds.BedLoft.com’s services were not necessary in Collins in previous years since the beds were typically lofted in preparation for students’ arrival, said Horton, a fourth-year Collins resident.However, this summer Residential Programs and Services decided to unloft beds in almost every residence center, Horton said, meaning students who wished to loft their beds would have to request the services of BedLoft.com.“A lot of returning students were really surprised,” said Horton, a fifth-year senior. “They were upset they had to pay for a service that in the past wasn’t necessary.”Horton met with RPS officials, including Assistant Director Sarah Nagy, on behalf of Collins residents, and RPS decided to offer affected Collins residents a 50 percent refund. They were notified of the refund last week via email.“It’s good that students raised the question,” Nagy said. “Having an engaged student body is important.”Although BedLoft.com had been contracted in the past, this year was different in that students were not notified the service would be necessary. “We didn’t miscommunicate as we did this year,” Nagy said. Nagy said BedLoft.com was contracted with the University staff members’ safety in mind.“We’re facing a situation where a lot of our (environmental operations) staff are not physically able to bunk a hundred beds anymore,” she said. Hiring BedLoft.com for the job also ensures residence hall facilities and furniture won’t be damaged in the process, Nagy said.She said BedLoft.com’s services were used in other residence halls, but the miscommunication only occurred in Collins.Collins residents can claim their refunds until Aug. 31 at the Collins Center Desk.Greg Cannizzo said despite RPS attempts to lower costs for students, the amount paid after the refund — $49.50 — is still too much to pay for the services provided.“For students with jobs ... $105 or even half of that, it’s a full day of work or more after taxes,” he said.From now on, students wishing to loft their beds will still be required to do so through BedLoft.com, but they will be charged $50 instead of the full amount.Greg Cannizzo said other universities, such as University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his son attended college, have students take a class on safe bed lofting procedures and offer bed lofting services free of charge.RHA will be sending out surveys, Horton said, to all residence halls to assess the option of re-contracting BedLoft.com in the future.Additionally, RPS will be working more closely with students to ensure similar miscommunications do not happen again, she said.
(08/27/12 3:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sophomore Jake Wood and his girlfriend, sophomore Chelsie Hafler, didn’t expect to walk away from Saturday’s Office of Parking Operations bike auction with so many bicycles.“We came to find me a bike,” Hafler said.The couple stood next to a line of 21 bikes — some in good condition, some coated with mud and others in need of repair — leaning against the concrete wall of the Jordan Avenue parking garage.“When I realized how cheap some of them were going for, we just decided to buy a bunch because it’s easy to flip,” Wood said. “I have a friend who actually has a bike business, and if I can’t sell any of them, he’ll take the parts and sell those.”His entire haul cost him about $200. The most expensive bike he bought, one for Hafler, cost $55.“If anything, I can sell them all for $10 and make my money back,” he said.Twice a year, Parking Operations auctions bikes collected during the previous semester.Some bikes were impounded after being parked against a tree, handrail or light post, Parking Manager Doug Porter said.Porter said he believed most of them were abandoned on purpose, as they often have grass growing around the tires or are missing a quick-release wheel or seat.Parking Operations employees remove the bikes from the racks and allow owners a 60-day grace period to claim their bicycles. The ones that go unclaimed go into storage and are sold at the auction.“If we didn’t clean out the racks, the racks would slowly just accumulate bicycles more and more and more,” he said.Saturday’s sale included about 190 bikes collected during the spring and summer 2012 semesters, almost twice as many as were sold at the spring auction in May.Like many other auction-goers, German exchange students Maria Gerth and Sarah Ludwig-Dehm said they attended with hopes of finding cheap bikes. They each found one: a white Trek for $45 dollars and a mountain bike with a flat tire for $50.The auctioneer, who Parking Operations hired to make the event more professional, Porter said, started most bids at about $20. Participants sometimes drove the bids higher. Often, particularly toward the end of the auction, the auctioneer accepted bids for much less than the starting price.A Diamondback mountain bike sold for $15. A Trek mountain bike sold for $10. Wood acquired multiple bicycles for only $1.“The money goes into the Parking Operations budget, and we’re usually the ones who are putting in new bike racks around campus,” Porter said. “We spend more on the bike racks than we make in the bike auction, so the money basically goes back to bike parking.”Porter said he won’t be surprised if he sees some of the bikes sold Saturday at future auctions.“We might pick up some of these bikes again,” he said. “Some of these people might ride it for a while and say, ‘I bought it for $25 at the auction.’”
(08/24/12 4:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana State Excise Police issued a record 258 citations during 2012 Welcome Week. This is more than what was handed out during last year’s Little 500 weekend.“It is also on par with Little 500 weekend last April, when a record 256 citations were issued,” according to a statement released by Indiana State Excise Police.The citations, issued from Aug. 15-18, included 177 for illegal possession or consumption of alcohol.However, an increase in student drinking might not account for the spike in citations. Instead, excise officers in Bloomington during move-in week worked as part of the Intensified College Enforcement program, which “aims to reduce underage access to and use of alcohol” at various campuses around the state, according to the statement.Excise police are also working with Ball State University, Butler University, Indiana State University, Notre Dame University and Purdue University as part of the ICE program.“Historically, the weekend before the start of the academic year has resulted in high numbers of arrests and tickets for alcohol offenses,” the statement said. “But this weekend surpassed any previous Welcome Week at IU.”During 2011 Welcome Week, excise officers issued 191 citations. In 2010, 138 citations were issued.IU’s number of citations far surpassed the number issued at other schools included in the ICE program. During move-in weekends at Ball State and Notre Dame, which occurred last weekend, excise police issued 57 and 16 tickets, respectively. ”This weekend, excise officers encountered numerous young people with dangerously high intoxication levels,” excise police Superintendent Matt Strittmatter said in the statement. “We will continue to enforce Indiana law to ensure the safety of students and local residents.”
(08/23/12 3:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU is one of the nation’s top 25 most GLBT-friendly colleges, according to a list released Wednesday by the nonprofit organization Campus Pride and the Huffington Post.“I’m not entirely surprised because we work very hard at making this a friendly campus, and we get lots of support,” said Doug Bauder, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services coordinator. He added that Executive Director of Campus Pride Shane Windmeyer is also an IU alumnus.Bauder remembers working with Windmeyer in the late 1990s while Windmeyer was completing his master’s degree in education. “But that doesn’t put us in a higher position,” Bauder said. “He’s tougher on all of us.”Because of Windmeyer’s work, Bauder said, other colleges and universities have shifted focus to their own GLBT support services.“We were one of the first schools to have an office like this,” he said. “Over the years, I bet we have consulted with at least 200 colleges around the country about how to establish a service like this.”The Gay-Straight Alliance Network and similar programs have gained traction in high schools in recent years, in conjunction with an increasing number of students coming out during high school. Because of this, many students take into account a campus’s GLBT programs when selecting a college, Bauder said.Sophomore Jeffrey Hunnicutt, an office assistant at GLBT SSS, said he partially considered IU’s programs when choosing a school.“I knew that I wanted to go to a school that was accepting, and there were services to help people struggling with that issue,” he said.Hunnicutt works to plan programs like the ones that contributed to IU’s title as a GLBT-friendly campus, such as Friday Night Bagels at Bloomington Bagel Company.Bauder said an important factor in the office’s success has been its collaboration with other cultural centers, academic departments and student groups. Later this year, for example, GLBT SSS will partner with the Department of Sociology to bring author and lecturer Chaz Bono to campus.Despite IU’s recent recognition, Bauder said there are still issues the campus can improve upon, particularly those involving University interaction with transgender students.This includes issues of living accommodations, which Bauder said the University is just beginning to address, as well as gender-neutral bathrooms in campus buildings and quicker updates of records for students who undergo a gender transition during college.“We’re still learning,” Bauder said. “But this is a great place to do that.”
(08/22/12 3:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Driving isn’t the only thing being complicated by on-campus construction.About 100 parking spaces have been lost due to construction near the new apartments at Third and Union Streets, Residential Parking Manager Andy Tellas said.The parking spaces currently affected by the construction are mainly D spaces located near Forest Quad, Read Center, Willkie Quad and Mason Hall.“Residence halls are selling permits based on seniority in the system,” Parking Operations Manager Doug Porter said. “So when they sell out, they’ll offer them an E permit and put them on the waitlist for a D.”Porter said he expects a spike in the number of parking passes purchased in E parking lots in the vicinity of Memorial Stadium.The loss of spaces affects only Residential Programs and Services residents, as students living off-campus are ineligible for D passes.Students can purchase E permits at any point in the semester, he said, and a two-week grace period is currently in effect for parking in designated E spaces near the stadium.Parking enforcement will not ticket until Sept. 4 to allow students time to purchase the appropriate passes, which can be ordered online or at the Office of Parking Operations on Fess Avenue.E passes are $57.76 for the fall semester or $110.88 for the school year. F passes, which allow students to park in designated areas from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., are also available, costing students $27.92 for the fall semester or $55.44 for the year.Tellas said students have largely been understanding when it comes to the shortage of residential parking.“They realize construction is an issue,” he said. “I want to thank students for their patience.”For more information about campus parking, visit parking.indiana.edu.
(08/20/12 3:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When people think of the opportunities IU offers, breakdancing typically isn’t one of them.The Breakdance Club at IU, which began in 2004, is preparing for a new season. The first practice of the year kicks off from 7 to 9 p.m. today in racquetball court one at the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center.Senior and club president Michael Roach said the experience level within the club ranges from as little as six months to as much as two years. Roach, who transferred from Purdue University last year, said he was introduced to breaking, as it’s referred to in breakdance culture, about five years ago after having experience with different styles of dance.For those with no experience breakdancing, Roach described the rehearsal space as informal but structured.Members of the club take turns breaking in a designated space, called a cypher.“It looks kind of informal but with new dancers that are getting into breaking being taught by me or more experienced members,” he said.Members of the club perform throughout the year on and off-campus, and they travel for jams battles and other breakdance events.“We all love to do it,” Roach said. “It’s a good recreational activity.” No experience breaking? No problem.Here are a few basic moves you might learn at tonight’s practice if you’re a “newbie.”THE BASIC POP ROCK“This is good if you decide to go to parties and you want to at least look normal in a dancing scenario,” Roach said.FLOORWORK“This separates breaking from other styles of dance,” Roach said. Basic floorwork consists of learning a “one- through 12-step,” which involves using the hands and feet in a pattern. These basic moves allow dancers to eventually be more creative with their movement.THE “BABY FREEZE” “It’s the very first and most commonly recognized freeze that b-boys and b-girls use,” Roach said. In the “baby freeze,” both the dancer’s hands are placed on the floor, with the elbow of the dominant hand supporting the abdomen. Weight displacement is involved, allowing the dancer to hoist his or her legs into the air.
(08/20/12 3:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The University can now add “Mars” to the list of places to which IU professors have contributed research.Geology professors Juergen Schieber and David Bish are contributing to the work with Curiosity, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration rover that touched down on Mars on Aug. 5.Although Schieber and Bish work with different instruments, both scientists have similar goals to help analyze data the rover sends back to earth.Schieber and Bish work in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena, Calif.“We came to the Jet Propulsion Lab the night of the landing,” Bish said. “It was a popular place to be.”The mission’s science team watched the landing on wall-sized projection screens in a room containing between 300 and 400 people, he said.“No one on earth had a real-time picture because there’s a delay between Mars and Earth, but we had a real-time picture from the mission control room,” Bish said.Bish is part of the CHEMIN, or chemistry and mineralogy, team.The instrument he works with uses a technique called X-ray diffraction, which allows scientists to analyze how the X-ray beam interacts with solid materials on Mars.“An ordered arrangement of atoms scatters X-rays in a specific way, depending on the arrangement of atoms,” Bish said. He said the interaction is somewhat like a fingerprint in that every mineral diffraction has a unique diffraction fingerprint. He used the difference between graphite and a diamond as an example.“If we only analyzed chemistry, they would look the same because they’re both carbon,” he said. “But if we use mineralogy ... we can tell the difference very easily.”This ultimately allows scientists to identify different minerals found on Mars. Bish said the University does X-ray diffraction at various IU locations, including some of the laboratories in the geology department.Schieber works with cameras, which sit on a robotic arm on Curiosity, that send images back to Earth. The images allow scientists to analyze the rocks on Mars, he said.His schedule and that of the other scientists is dictated largely by whether there is sunlight on Mars for the rover’s operations.“We are on Mars time, which means our schedule shifts forward about 40 minutes,” Schieber said. “If the shift starts at 8 a.m. one day, it will start at 8:40 a.m. the next day.”This is because a day on Mars is about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth, Bish explained.The science team at the Jet Propulsion Lab is scheduled to be there a total of 90 sols, or Mars days. Bish and Schieber will then return to IU and continue their work with the rover remotely.“It’s incredibly exciting to be working on this project,” Bish said. “It’s hard to imagine a scientific experience being better than this.”