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(10/17/05 4:57am)
Juan Cole, a nationally-recognized scholar and commentator on the Middle East, painted a dismal picture of the future of stability in Iraq to about 75 people Sunday night in the Whittenberger Auditorium. \nHe told the crowd that the Iraqi constitution, which looked to be ratified as of Sunday night, according to The Associated Press, would only further fragment Iraq. \nCole pointed to a provision in the constitution which allowed provinces to create confederations to dilute the power of the federal government in Baghdad as potentially problematic. But he found the rejection of the constitution by most Sunni Arabs in the country to be most troubling.\n"It is a guarantee of ongoing guerilla war," Cole said in an interview Sunday.\nCole, a professor of History at the University of Michigan and the author of the popular blog "Informed Comment," came to IU to deliver the annual Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Wadie Jwaideh Memorial Lecture at the request of his longtime friend, NELC department chair John Walbridge. In the speech, titled, "Roots of Shiite Power in Iraq," Cole focused on history and influence of Shiite parities and politicians in Iraq, particularly Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.\nCole said Sistani, who survived the Saddam Hussein era by staying out of politics, emerged as a political player in the country after the U.S. invasion. Sistani played a major role in both crafting the Iraqi election and drafting the constitution. \nBoth times his recommendations have resulted in increased influence for the Shiite population. \nCole noted that much of Sistani's rhetoric in dealing the U.S.-appointed interim governor of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, was based on the work of the man Cole wryly called "Grand Ayatollah Jean-Jacques Rousseau." Sistani's views are influenced by his readings on western political thought and his trust the of Iraqi people to govern themselves, Cole said.\nThroughout the lecture, Cole pointed out numerous occasions in the U.S. occupation of Iraq where he said the U.S. government was ignorant of the history and influence of Shia Islam in the country. One of the largest cemeteries in the world is in the city of Najaf, Iraq, near of the shrine of Husain, an important figure in Shia Islam. Roughly 2 million Shiites have been buried near the holy site. At some point over the course of the armed struggles in the city, the U.S. bombed the cemetery, Cole said.\nWalbrdige, who met Cole in the 1970s in Beirut, Lebanon, when they were both studying there, said he realized Cole's influence in the world of Middle Eastern scholarship and commentary at his own wedding.\n"My father, sister and brother-in-law spent time with Jaun and paid no attention to the bride and groom," he said.\nFreshman Abdulhakim Mermer was one of only a couple undergraduates in attendance.\n"I think he presented only one part of the issue in Iraq," he said. "But he presented it very well"
(10/13/05 5:48am)
Nathan Bobay and Matt Rybka don't fit the typical image of veterans. They don't have grandchildren to regale with stories of their military service. They don't spend their evenings in the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall. \nThough these men are still completing their college degrees, they've been across the world and back in the service of their country. Bobay and Rybka, like many of their comrades who served in Iraq, count their experience in conflict as largely positive, though it changed the way they look at the world.\nBobay a senior, joined the Indiana Army National Guard to help pay for his college education. When he signed up in January 1999, he never thought he would be sent to a far-off nation and potentially put in harm's way. \n"When I joined, the national guard hadn't been called up for like 50 years. It was something that I wanted to do to get college paid for and for life in general it would be great experience," he said. "I never expected to get called up. And then Sept. 11 hit."\nIn November 2002 the military put Bobay's National Guard unit on active duty and sent him to Kuwait to support the invasion of Iraq. He and his unit provided security for an abandoned Iraqi airbase just outside the city of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq. His unit was never under fire and he describes his nine months in Iraq as a "good experience," but it was a tough time for him, he said.\n"We lived pretty much the roughest life imaginable," he said. "There was nothing there."\nHe said he lived in tents with sand floors and slept under the stars all the time. But, the worst part about his stay in Iraq was the heat.\n"It's extremely hot. We had sandstorms everyday in the summer time," he said. "It's like being in a sauna with a hair dryer blowing on you. It was literally that hot."\nThe living conditions made him appreciate the amenities of living in the United States and made him a stronger person, Bobay said. \n"When I first came home, I remember just laying in my bed in my parent's house where I'd grown up and feeling like, 'I'm finally home,' because I'd been thinking about it and dreaming about it for so long."\nHis homecoming was a happy one, he said. When his unit returned to Fort Wayne, the people of his hometown threw them an impromptu parade. That night he and his friends got together and drank beer and ate pizza, just like always.\n"Returning to civilian life wasn't that tough for me," he said.\nHomecoming has been more difficult for Rybka, a sophomore. Rybka spent more than four years in the Marine Corps on active duty and returned home in September 2003, enrolling at IU shortly after.\n"Sometimes I think I'm still adjusting," he said. "It's been a rough time. You go from such an experience where you're linked to people. These guys were almost closer to me than my actual living family."\nRybka said he still misses the relationship he had with the men in his Marine Corps unit and has had a hard time dealing with the social atmosphere at IU, where friendships are more fleeting and bonds much less strong.\n"It's really hard to adjust to stuff like that," he said.\nRybka said he, like Bobay, also views his experience in Iraq as a positive one, though the poverty he saw moved him.\n"One of the biggest things that affected me was seeing kids begging for food," he said. "You grow up in the United States, when you're a kid you go to the toy store and beg for a toy."\nBoth Bobay and Rybka said they sympathized with the families of Brett Hershey, the IU student recently killed in Afghanistan while serving in the National Guard.\n"It's really sad because somebody's losing a brother, a cousin, a son," Bobay said. "It definitely hits home."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.
(09/05/05 6:57am)
Professor Craig Bradley called fellow law professor Joseph Hoffmann Saturday evening with bad news. \nTheir former employer had died after a long battle with thyroid cancer. They had lost their friend and mentor. The nation had lost the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. \nNews of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist's death late Saturday left the nation wondering who will fill his position as head of the highest court in the land and how the nation -- and Court -- would change with such an influential decision maker gone. \nBut for Bradley and Hoffmann, both IU law professors and former clerks for Rehnquist, the justice's death is first and foremost a personal loss.\nHoffmann described Rehnquist's passing as "a blow." He said upon hearing the news he sat and quietly reflected on his mentor's life.\n"He is somebody who meant a lot to me and was a big part of my life," he said. "Even today it doesn't quite feel real."\nHoffmann spent 1985 to 1986 as a law clerk for Rehnquist. It was during the spring of 1986 that President Ronald Reagan tapped Rehnquist to replace Chief Justice Warren Burger as head of the court. Since Hoffmann's new faculty position at IU didn't begin until August of that year, he was able to help Rehnquist prepare for the ensuing congressional battle over his confirmation. \nLater, in September 1986, when Hoffmann had assumed his position as law professor, Rehnquist made the first of his two visits to Bloomington. Bradley, who clerked with the judge between 1975 and 1976, had asked Rehnquist to speak at the opening of the renovated IU School of Law.\nBut the justice's visit was marred by protestors, angry at Rehnquist for allegations of civil rights abuses which surfaced during his on-going confirmation hearings for the chief justice position, according to a 1986 article in the Indiana Daily Student.\nProtestors booed and heckled the embattled chief justice nominee. According to the article, before the speech then-Associate Dean of Students Richard McKaig took several anti-Rehnquist signs away from protestors outside the IU Auditorium. More than once then-IU President John Ryan stepped in and asked the 150-some protestors to leave. \nThe interruptions became so intense that Rehnquist did not even finish his speech. Ryan and other IU administrators criticized the behavior of the students, but Hoffmann said Rehnquist did not take his ill-reception personally and realized it was just part of being in politics.\nIn fact, Rehnquist had good things to say about IU, Hoffmann recalled.\n"I remember him saying to me, 'You know, I've visited a lot of law schools, but one thing about your law school is that the faculty actually seem to like each other,'" he said.\nRehnquist returned to IU in the early 1990s to preside over a mock trial at the law school, Hoffmann said. Due to health concerns, Rehnquist canceled a third trip to IU last year when he was asked to attend a conference on a book edited by Bradley regarding the chief justice's legal legacy. \nHoffmann most fondly remembers that conversation during the car ride with Rehnquist out of Bloomington following the protested address and also little things like playing tennis with his former boss. \nRehnquist, for example, liked to pass notes around to his clerks and the other justices while he was sitting on the bench -- sometimes even when lawyers were arguing their cases.\n"He loved to bet on how much snow had fallen in the past 24 hours," Hoffmann said. "It was things like that."\nFor his part, Bradley appreciated that Rehnquist -- like most lawyers -- loved to argue and didn't mind when people disagreed with him. The last time Bradley had a personal conversation with Rehnquist was about a year ago, when the two discussed Bradley's academic research on the Fourth Amendment at Rehnquist's chambers in Washington.\n"I told him that he had only voted for a criminal defendant once in 33 years on the bench in a non-unanimous Fourth Amendment case," he said, adding he wouldn't disclose how Rehnquist responded.\nAs close as Hoffmann and Bradley were to the chief justice, they recognize his legacy on the Court might not be universally seen as positive. \nBradley said Rehnquist joined the Supreme Court as a lone conservative but ended his career with a five-justice conservative majority that acquired a reputation for enforcing federalism and striking down laws they felt were over-reaching.\n"I think that the more conservative turn that the Court took under Rehnquist's leadership reflected the turn that politics in the country took," he said. "He was certainly a leader of that movement"
(08/24/05 6:32am)
Beer pong on pool tables. Keg stands in kitchens. Sink the Biz at Nick's. Porches lined with empty beer bottles. Evidence that IU students have a particular affinity to the brew is everywhere. And now it seems that the Princeton Review has taken note.\nThe Review ranked IU as the No. 1 school for "Lots of Beer" and the No. 6 party school overall in its now-famous 2006 edition of "The Best 361 Colleges." Last year, IU came in 15th for parties and 5th for beer.\nBut IU administrators are characteristically skeptical of the rankings -- as they were in 2002 when the Princeton Review rated IU the top party school in the nation. \n"I don't view it as a valid kind of poll," said Richard McKaig, dean of students. "We acknowledge that it's not a significant or statistical poll."\nBut Robert Franek, the book's author, couldn't disagree more with McKaig's assessment of the list.\n"The 110,000 student responses that I got back this year are valid and substantive because they came directly from students," he said.\nThe Princeton Review got permission from IU to publicize the survey, which students could then fill out online, he said. Franek said he did not have information on hand for how the survey was specifically marketed to students at IU, which person in the University he worked with or how many students at IU were surveyed.\nThe base for the beer ranking was students' response to a single question: At your school, how widely used is beer? The question had five possible answers, varying from "extremely" to "not at all."\nIU was ranked first for beer because students reported that beer was used more on the Bloomington campus than on any other.\nDespite making the list of the top 20 party schools in the country for many years running, McKaig said he isn't worried about IU's reputation because of The Princeton Review. \n"If you're No. 1, your name is mentioned," he said. "If you're not No. 1, you probably don't get mentioned outside of your local paper."\nThough he doubts the rankings are reflective of the beer consumption or partying at IU, it does underscore that the campus has a drinking problem, said Walt Keller, alcohol programs coordinator for IU.\n"We have in excess of 8,000 to 15,000 people drunk in a small area, every weekend," he said. "That can lead to problems."\nThe Princeton Review also reported that students ranked IU ninth for "best student newspaper" and 15th for "most hard liquor." The University of Wisconsin-Madison took home the title of "biggest party school"
(08/08/05 10:17am)
The IU Police Department is investigating the disappearance of $20,000 worth of musical equipment at the School of Music. Graduate student Kim Hellgren told IUPD Thursday evening that her viola, bows, case and strings had been stolen from her locker on the second floor of the Music Annex sometime between 6 p.m. Wednesday, when she left the music school, and 6 p.m. Thursday when she returned.\nHellgren said she "is pretty sure" she locked her instrument in her locker with a combination lock after she finished playing in an adjacent practice room Wednesday. She went about her daily activities and returned to the locker. When she came back to the building to practice Thursday, her viola was not in where she left it.\nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said the locker had no sign of forced entry. Hellgren said it is possible that the lock was not completely secured. \nWhen she realized that her viola was not in her locker, she searched the nearby practice rooms and asked janitors, faculty and staff members who frequent that part of the Music Annex. Her search yielded nothing. \nHellgren was shocked when it finally looked like her instrument was gone. \n"I just couldn't believe it," she said. "I always have my instrument. I never leave it anywhere." \nAll of the missing items are very distinct and unique, Hellgren said.\nThe viola is a Swedish-made Italian Ballestreri, bearing the name of its builder, Peter Vvesterlund. It is roughly 17 inches long, looks "very thin for a viola." The viola also has a dark, rich brown color which makes the instrument look older than it really is. \n"It looks like it hit a tanning bed for instruments," she said.\nHellgren estimates that the viola is worth between $13,000 and $14,000.\nTwo bows were also in the case with the instrument. One of the bows was made in Germany by Gregor Vvalbrodt and is worth roughly $5,000. The other is a less valuable French bow.\nThe case itself is black and rectangular -- relatively typical for a viola case. However, it has bright brown leather backpack straps and a metal nametag attached to in the shape of Playboy bunny bearing Hellgren's name and contact information. \nOnestart now features a "Lost & Found" ad that details the missing equipment and lists Hellgren's e-mail address in the contact information. \nThe instrument is insured and Hellgren is confident she will get money for a new viola, but is more upset about the time it took her to find her beloved viola and bow.\n"It took me years to find an instrument that fit me correctly and sounded right," she said. \nIn September 2004, a student reported that a $600 violin had been stolen from the Musical Arts Center. In May 2004 police arrested a School of Music janitor for the left of a $25,000 violin and several thousand dollars worth of electronics. \nIUPD is planning on stepping up patrols around the School of Music, because of the reported theft. \nGwyn Richards, the dean of the School of Music had no comment because police are still investigating whether the viola was stolen at all, said Jennifer Naab, Richards' administrative assistant. \nIn light of this incident and past thefts, Hellgren said she would like a more systemic security upgrades in music buildings than simply more police patrols.\nBut, in the meantime, Hellgren just wants her prized viola back,\n"It's so mean to steal an instrument," she said. "It's not just the money -- there is a whole life to it"
(08/08/05 9:37am)
Bloomington Police have arrested a suspect in the July 18 robbery of Old National Bank. \nOfficers took Bloomington resident John F. Harlow, Jr. into custody Friday afternoon near the 1200 block of Chestnut Court. He faces a \npreliminary charge of robbery, a Class C Felony that carries a two- to eight-year sentence and up to a $10,000 fine. \nOfficers nabbed Harlow, 32, after a bank employee and police identified him in a surveillance video taken from the robbery, according to a BPD press release.\nHarlow allegedly walked into the bank at 121 E. Kirkwood Ave., handed the teller a note demanding money, and fled the scene with an unknown amount of money. The robber did not display a weapon and there were no injuries. Witnesses told police that the suspect was wearing latex gloves during the robbery. BPD officers found a box of unopened latex gloves in Harlow's vehicle after his arrest Friday, according to the release. \nBPD still has not made an arrest in either of the July 13 or July 27 armed robberies at Key Bank on College Mall Road. Both Key Bank robberies were conducted in a similar manner, with the suspect, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, running into the bank, demanding money and fleeing to the west. The July 27 heist took place two weeks to the hour after the first incident at Key Bank.
(08/08/05 9:22am)
Three vehicles were broken into Wednesday night in the parking lot of the Campus View Apartments. All three had similar methods of entry, said IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger. The cars all had windows broken and marks on the dash from where the thief apparently attempted to pry the stereos out. The cars had significant damage but very little was actually stolen, Minger said. A small amount of change was reported stolen from one car and a cell phone was stolen from another. \n"This didn't look like a very experienced thief, but you never know," he said. \nIUPD is stepping up patrols in the area since it appears that one perpetrator committed the crimes. \nMinger urged anyone who heard or saw suspicious activity Wednesday night to contact IUPD at 855-4111.\nJuvenile reports sexual assault near Ashton\nA 17-year-old black male reported to IUPD that he was sexually assaulted Thursday evening between Read Center and Ashton-Mason. The young man, who is at IU attending a conference, was approached at roughly 5:30 p.m. by a middle-aged white male and asked obscene questions. The man then pulled down his pants and reached out and grabbed the victim on the buttocks. At which point the victim told the man, "I'm only 17," said Minger. The perpetrator then laughed, pulled up his pants, and walked away. \nIUPD is evaluating all known sexual offenders in Bloomington to see if their behavior matches that of the Thursday assault, but officers have no specific suspect yet, Minger said.\nThe perpetrator is described as a white male between 30 and 40 years of age, roughly 6'1" tall and a stocky build. He had a blonde goatee and wore faded blue jeans and sun glasses and a dark leather cap. \nThe man approached the victim from the east, from the area near the Wright Education Building. \nAnyone with information about the assault is urged to call IUPD at 855-4111 to report it.
(08/04/05 2:15am)
Junior Lindsay Kerrigan wants to see more women involved in politics. \n"A lot of women trap themselves in the secretary role," she said. \nBut, despite campaigning for the empowerment of women, Kerrigan, who is also a columnist for the Indiana Daily Student, is no cookie-cutter feminist. She is the president, and one of the founders, of the new IU Republican Women's group. This organization, along with a similar one at Purdue University, is the first club for Republican women on a college campus. \n"What we're trying to do is get women involved in all forms of government," Kerrigan said.\nBut, even as this group forms, its members realize that among public perception, it is the Democrats and liberals who are normally seen as championing women's empowerment.\n"We are starting this group for that very reason," said junior Julia Aud, the group's vice president. "We need to debate that common idea that if you're a female, you should have liberal ideals. We wanted to give the women of this campus a different avenue for leadership." \nThe group caters to conservatives who want more women to serve in public office and more women involved in politics, but who disagree with many of the ideals of "modern feminism." \n"The feminist movement is over-concentrated on reproductive rights," she said. "But the feminist movement is really about women's suffrage."\nKerrigan, who describes herself as a "traditional feminist," is a conservative in the most academic sense of the word -- her groups primary focus is getting more women involved in politics and in political office, the initial goal of the feminist movement, as she sees it.\nSome of the specific issues which the Republican women's movement about are housing, education, opposition to same-sex marriage and health care, she said.\n"These are the hot-button issues that females have a lot of compassion toward," Kerrigan said. \nConservative women already have several good role models in Indiana government, like Secretary of Commerce Pat Miller and Lt. Governor Becky Skillman.\nOn July 28, Kerrigan and five other members of the new group traveled to Indianapolis to help jump start their organization. They met with the vice-president of the National Federation of Republican Women, the president of the Indiana Federation of Republican Women, and their six colleagues at the Purdue University Republican Women's group. They also attended a convention for young conservative women where Skillman spoke. \n"She was really proud that these groups were forming," Aud said. "She talked about how many women she and Governor (Mitch) Daniels had appointed to positions in Indiana government."\nIn Indianapolis the six-woman delegation from IU voted on the group's bylaws and officers. They chose to adopt all of the bylaws of the IFRW -- their parent organization -- with one notable exception.\nThe IFRW requires that all of their members voted for the Republican presidential candidate in the most recent election, but the IU women decided not to include this rule.\n"I'm very very proud of our girls for deciding to do this," Kerrigan said. "We realized that as college students we are all still developing our political ideas"
(08/01/05 3:24pm)
Bloomington police arrested IU sophomore Todd A. Munson Wednesday night around 10:30 p.m. for operating a vehicle while intoxicated after the car he was driving struck and injured a bicyclist. The cyclist, Justin Holman, suffered an "incapacitating injury" to his hip or upper leg when Munson's 2002 Ford Expedition hit him, police reported. \nHolman was transported to Bloomington Hospital for treatment. As of Thursday afternoon, Bloomington Hospital logs did not show that Holman was in the hospital's care, said Jonna Risher, media and community relations manager for the hospital.\nMunson was traveling southbound in the left turn lane on Kinser Pike, turning on to 17th street, when his car struck Holman, who was traveling northbound on Madison Street, according to the police accident report. Holman was knocked from his bicycle after the left front tire of Munson's car hit him. The "pedalcycle," as the report called it, did not have lights on it, but did have a white reflector on the front and pedal reflectors.\nWhen police arrived on the scene, Munson was standing at the northeast corner of the intersection, smoking a cigarette. He had a "blank look in his eyes" and appeared to be intoxicated, according to BPD. When he failed several dexterity tests, officers arrested Munson for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. When police administered him an alcohol Breathalyzer at the station, Munson's blood alcohol level registered .26. Police took the suspect to Bloomington Hospital to be examined because he had such a high BAC before transporting him to Monroe County Jail.\nMunson was arrested one year before -- nearly to the day -- also for OWI. Munson therefore could face a class D felony in court, which could carry a jail sentence.\nIn addition to his legal troubles, Munson could also face disciplinary action from the University. When a student is convicted of a crime which IU deems harmful to the University community, that student is usually put through the IU judicial system, said Richard McKaig, dean of students.
(07/28/05 6:09am)
An armed man robbed the Key Bank on College Mall Road at approximately 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. The same bank was robbed two weeks ago to the hour by a man with a description similar to Wednesday's robber. \nThe suspect possibly armed with a sawed-off shotgun, robbed the bank and fled west, said Bloomington Police Department Captain Joe Qualters. The man ran, weapon in hand, down the service road between the bank and the Osco Drugstore and into a car waiting in the parking lot behind the two buildings, said eyewitness Dan Carpenter.\n"He was carrying a white plastic bag and a long, black object," said April Sievert, who also said she saw the robber escape. "I'm hoping it was an umbrella, though I doubt it."\nNo one was harmed in the robbery and an undetermined amount of money was taken, Qualters said.\nBloomington Police officers converged on the area but were unable to find the suspect.\nThe robber is described as a white male with a thin build, in his early 20s and between 5'8" and 5'10". He has light colored hair and was wearing a dark shirt and a mask during the robbery.\nCarpenter said the man had a black ski mask and black gloves.\n"It looked like he had earmuffs over his ears as he was walking in and I thought it was odd that he would wear that this time of year," he said. "Then he pulled the mask over his face and ran into the bank."\nThough the suspect has a similar description to the man who robbed the bank July 13, BPD officers haven't determined with any certainty the two robberies were related, since police haven't caught a suspect yet. This is the third bank robbery in Bloomington in as many weeks. On July 18, a man robbed the Old National Bank on Kirkwood Ave.\nBPD will be beefing up security around banks as a result of the recent incidents, Qualters said.\n"There will be increased patrols and heightened awareness due to the number of bank robberies in the last three weeks which is atypical for this community," he said. \nSenior Brandy Tolley banks at the College Mall Key Bank. She said the robberies don't bother her terribly because her money is insured by the FDIC and she does most of her banking online. But when she went into the bank branch after it was robbed the first time, she was she was a bit apprehensive.\n"I looked in all the cars that were parked outside and looked around every corner," Tolley said.\nTolley said she does not plan to switch her bank, but would like to see some increased security.\n"A lot of people that work there are very nice and I would hate to see anyone get hurt," she said. "But if this keeps happening, that increases the likelyhood"
(07/22/05 5:27pm)
Junior Rishi Verma thinks pop-ups are "annoying as hell." So, he was already looking for an alternative Web browser to Microsoft's traditional Internet Explorer when he found out about Mozilla Firefox. Firefox boasted increased security, a built-in pop-up blocker and new features -- all for free. Verma jumped at the chance to use it and has been a die-hard fan ever since.\nVerma is part of an increasing group of students, departments and universities which are dumping Explorer for Firefox and other browsers, or at least offering alternatives to the Microsoft stand-by.\nPennsylvania State University and the University of Florida are among the colleges increasingly favoring Web browsing alternatives, according to a July story in the Chronicle of Higher Education. For its part, IU is not ready to make any official switch but Firefox and other browsers are available to students, faculty and staff across campus.\nThe Student Technology Centers offer Firefox and other browsers in addition to Explorer and Netscape. Many departments including the Schools of Informatics and Journalism and the Computer Science department have Firefox installed on their computers, as well. \nThe added features and increased practical security are top reasons for some users to switch, but a majority of people still just stick with Explorer, Mark Bruhn, chief information technology security and policy officer said in an e-mail.\n"Savvy computer users are likely to look at different browsers, but the normal user is likely to use what came standard on the computer they purchased," he said.\nEight percent of Web surfers worldwide use Firefox, according to the story in the Chronicle.\nFirefox is also becoming more popular, if not dominant among Apple computer users as well, Lloyd Jones, a hardware support manager for the Computer Science department.\n"On the Macintosh side, I can definitely say that Firefox is the browser of choice," said Jones, who uses Firefox himself.\nJones said he likes the Mozilla browser because it offers features which Explorer doesn't, like tabbed-browsing and a pop-up blocker. Bruhn, who primarily uses Firefox, cited similar usability reasons for switching.\n"The security of course is always a big concern, too," said Jones. \nBut, Bruhn isn't convinced Firefox has more built-in security than Explorer.\n"It is true that IE has more reported problems and the user base is certainly vastly larger, and so those problems are magnified," he said. "If another browser exceeds IE in user-share, it is likely that the bad guys will target that browser also or instead."\nInformatics Professor Steven Meyers named another possible concern about Firefox. Firefox uses what is open-source, meaning anyone can view and download the code for the application. Normally this is seen as a good thing, because any of the application' users can look at the program from security flaws and bugs. But, this can also be \nharmful.\n"Just because anyone can look at the code, doesn't mean people who can find errors are the ones who do look at the code," Meyers said.\nHe said while Firefox depends on its users to look through the application for themselves, Microsoft pays computer scientists to sort through Explorer's code for flaws. That said, Meyers is a Firefox fan, too.\n"I use Firefox on all my machines," he said.
(07/21/05 2:44am)
While political partisans across the nation weigh in on President George W. Bush's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, two IU law professors have a more personal view of John Roberts. Professor Joseph Hoffmann describes Roberts as "a good legal mind and a good person." Professor Craig Bradley has similar opinions.\n"I gather that he is well liked in Washington," Bradley said. "He certainly doesn't come across as an extremely political person or a right-wing firebrand."\nBoth Hoffmann and Bradley are former clerks for current Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, as is Roberts. The two professors said they have met Roberts on several \noccasions at the annual reunions for former and current law clerks for the judge. \nBradley said Roberts, who grew up in northern Indiana, is widely known to be a conservative but has a feeling that he will likely mitigate some of his conservative opinions.\n"I expect him to be a conservative in the tradition of a conservative who respects precedents and the rule of law," he said.\nBut Hoffmann cautioned against making predictions about what sorts of decisions Roberts will make as a justice, if he is confirmed by the Senate.\nHe said people often judge Supreme Court nominees too closely by their rulings in lower courts. Roberts, who is currently a federal appeals court judge, often had his hands tied in rulings because he had to stick with U.S. Supreme Court precedent. \n"When the Supreme Court has just been active in an area, lower court judges generally are not free to say what they want," he said.\nInitial indications are that Roberts will be more conservative than Sandra Day O'Connor, the justice he was nominated to replace. But the odds are against any predictions about how Roberts will rule on the bench, if confirmed, Hoffmann said.\nAnd though the confirmation battle in the Senate over Roberts will likely be fierce, Hoffmann said he thinks that Roberts will be confirmed.\n"I suspect that there is going to be a political fight over this," he said. "Not necessarily because of who he is personally, but because of who he is \nreplacing."\nThere is a lot at stake since Roberts would have the power to break the five-to-four majority on many major issues for which O'Connor was the key swing vote. \nBut Law Professor Charlie Geyh, who studies Constitutional law, said Roberts will likely ultimately get through.\n"I think that Bush has made a pretty smart pick in the sense that he has chosen someone whose credentials are pretty clearly above reproach," he said. \nSince Roberts has not made many rulings on truly divisive issues which liberals could rally behind to block his confirmations, Geyh called him "bulletproof."\nBut beyond any partisan mudslinging over his Senate confirmation, Bradley still remembers Roberts when he first met him as a 27-year-old law clerk for Rehnquist.\n"He certainly struck me as a bright guy," he said. "And his subsequent career has provided him terrific qualifications for being a Supreme Court justice"
(07/18/05 9:55pm)
Students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education are likely to see bigger class sizes, more graduate student-taught classes and smaller classes nixed altogether, said Neil Theobald, the vice chancellor for budgetary administration and planning.\nThe two schools cut 35 faculty positions to make up for a more than $11 million budget shortfall at the Bloomington campus. \n"Basically (the School of) Education and the College were in a position that the only way they could balance budgets was to not replace all of the faculty that left," Theobald said.\nTheobald said the deans and University administration tried to make the budget cuts as far away from students as possible so that a majority of them would not feel the affects of the crunch.\n"The questions of whether students were primary in the discussions -- absolutely. That's why financial aid wasn't cut, that's why summer school wasn't cut, that's why the student technology fee wasn't tapped," he said.\nNo faculty were forced to leave, but during the 2004-2005 academic year, 23 faculty members in COAS and 10 in the School of Education either retired or got jobs outside of IU. Facing the budget deficits, COAS Dean Kumble Subbaswamy and School of Education Dean Roberto Gonzales cut those positions rather than finding replacements for them. The decision saved the School of Education more than $1 million and COAS more than $2 million.\n"We are cutting out classes with low enrollment. We are going to rely more on adjunct and associate instructor positions," said Gonzales. "We'll have to economize wherever we can." \nIn an e-mail Subbaswamy cited similar solutions to the reduced faculty for COAS.\nThe financial woes that caused the faculty reduction came from a pair factors. The state of Indiana, which provides roughly one-quarter of IU's budget, gave IU-Bloomington $4.5 million less in appropriations than it received last year. \nAdditionally, problems with the PeopleSoft software prevented IU from sending out financial aid awards.\n"So we were 600 freshman short in last year's class," Theobald said.\nThat cost IU another $6.6 million because it was expecting tuition from those 600 students, he said. \n"Another problem with that is that it's not a one year problem because even though we've increased the number of transfers, this year we're a lot of sophomores short," he said. "This is a four year problem that's going to have to work its way through the system."\nBecause the low 2004 freshmen enrollment is a longer-term problem and because the state also cut IU-Bloomington's appropriations for the next year as well, Theobald said IU is likely to have tough economic times in the coming year, as well.\n"We're being very cautious," he said.\nGonzales said the budget forced the cuts.\n"We really don't have much flexibility," Gonzales said. "The amount of money that was cut from the budget could not be made up anywhere else but through personnel reduction."\nPayroll budget accounts for 80 percent of the School of Education Budget and 90 percent of the COAS budget. Sixty percent of the budget campus-wide goes toward paying faculty and staff salaries, Theobald said.
(07/14/05 4:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>If "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" has fans waiting anxiously, it has booksellers salivating hungrily. With more than 1.4 million copies pre-ordered on www.amazon.com alone, the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is shaping up to be the most hyped and long--awaited of the best--selling books.
The Bloomington Barnes & Noble store has received 700 pre-orders for the book, and received more than twice that many books in its initial shipment, said Carol Rodda a Barnes & Noble employee. Howard's Bookstore ordered 250 copies of "The Half-Blood Prince," twice as many as for the last Potter book, said Mike Burns from Howard's. Burns said he has taken 50 names for pre-orders, but some people want more than one copy of the book so that everyone in the family can read it at once.
Most local bookstores are staying open late so that customers can pick up their copies of the book at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday morning and many have release parties planned for fans who come early. Some of these stores have hosted late-night parties for the release of previous Harry Potter books, but are expecting more customers than they got for book five. Rodda said Barnes & Noble is expecting 25 percent more people to come to its Harry Potter release party than in years past.
The Bloomington Borders is also expecting an increase in attendees, said Dulcie Holtz, the general manager.
Following the accidental early release of a few copies of the book, local bookstores are keeping their copies under lock and key until Saturday. Barnes & Noble is keeping their books secure with an alarm system, Rodda said. Holtz wouldn't give any details about how Borders is keeping Harry Potter in the box, but said, "We've been communicating as a company as to best practices in ensuring that all the books stay off the shelves until the release."
Margaret Taylor of The Book Corner is hoping she receives her book in time.
"There are so many deliveries to be made, I am really hoping that they'll be here," she said.
But many bookstore employees aren't just awaiting "The Half-Blood Prince's" release for the massive sales it promises, they appreciate Harry Potter's ability to get kids reading and stir excitement about books.
"To see eight, nine and ten-year-old kids just salivating over a 750-page book that they can't wait to get home to read ... it's like 'OK something is going on here,'" Burns said.
Local bookstores hosting pre-release Potter festivities.
(07/07/05 4:09am)
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court has caught the attention of the entire nation and her decisions on key rulings affect all communities across the country, but she has had a special impact on IU and Indiana as a whole.\nIU Law Professor Joseph Hoffmann, who served Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist as a law clerk in the mid-1980s, had a unique experience with O'Connor.\n"There is a practice in the Supreme Court that the law clerks have the opportunity to invite any of the other justices who they aren't clerking for to lunch," said Hoffmann.\nNear the end of their term he and the other Rehnquist clerks received a message that O'Connor was "really mad" that she hadn't yet been asked to lunch.\n"We, of course, did and she, of course, turned us down flat," he said.\nO'Connor also wrote the majority opinion for the Supreme Court's 2000 ruling against the Indianapolis Police Department. The decision struck down the IPD's practice of setting up narcotics roadblocks to catch drug traffickers.\n"We cannot sanction stops justified only by the generalized and ever present possibility that interrogation and inspection may reveal that any given motorist has committed some crime," she wrote.\nThe high court's final ruling in the case was six-to-three, but O'Connor was known for her swing vote in controversial decisions, often casting the key fifth vote in a court split on partisan lines. \nBut, it is for her 1992 vote in the five-to-four Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey which she will be best known, suspects Craig Bradley, an IU law professor who clerked for Rehnquist in the 1970s.\nBradley said O'Connor's resignation will likely have little immediate impact on the court since key issues like affirmative action, on which she was the decisive vote, will likely not be brought to the high court's attention again for some time. \nHe said the Bush administration would probably like to appoint a very conservative judge to replace O'Connor, but will likely have to pick someone more moderate who can get the required confirmation of the Senate.\n"I am anticipating that somewhat reluctantly they may propose someone who is not extremely conservative," Bradley said. "They may end up with someone who is like O'Connor, even though that is not their dearest wish."\nHoffmann said the nomination battle over any successor will have "very, very high stakes" because most of the potential replacements are more conservative than O'Connor.\n"Unfortunately, I am afraid that we will be in the heat of a contentious battle," he said.\nBut all of the candidates who are being floated by the media who take the newly vacant seat are experienced jurists, he said.\n"The names that I've seen are the names of serious judges, all of whom would seem to be well qualified for the Supreme Court," he said. \nBradley favors John Roberts, who is currently a justice for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and formerly a Rehnquist law clerk. The two met at one of the regular reunions of former clerks for the current Supreme Court Chief Justice. \nHoffmann said he knows Roberts as well as another contender, J. Michael Luttig, who also serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.\n"I think they're both very good people," Hoffman said. "I think they would make very good justices"
(06/23/05 2:50am)
Across the bypass, on the south side of the massive IU technology complex, three men work in a concrete-floored garage. The workbenches and desks here, strewn with the innards of disassembled computers, would suggest business as usual in this workshop. But for these men, the employees of IU's Computer Service Group, it's not business as usual. \nOn June 1, Kevin Reynolds and Mike Hoffmann received Reduction in Force notices -- letters from IU telling them that their jobs were being cut for "reasons of reorganization." The third man, Mark Harris, was notified that his position was being cut but was offered a position in another department at the University which he said he will reject.\n"It's not something you like to hear," Hoffman said.\nThe CSG, which offers on-campus computer and printer repair services to students, faculty, staff and departments has been running a $70,000 to $80,000 deficit per year and, after several years of absorbing the cost, the Physical Plant can no longer afford to support the service, said Physical Plant director Hank Hewetson. \n"It just didn't seem to be cost effective," he said. "It just couldn't hold its head above water."\nWhen the Physical Plant took over control of CSG roughly ten years ago, there were very few businesses in Bloomington which offered warranty and computer repair services. But today, retailers offer warranty and non-warranty repair for most major computer manufacturers. And though University administers are still considering on-campus alternatives to the CSG, as it stands now, most of the services the group provides will be outsourced to businesses outside the University, said Hewetson. \nBut, all of this came as a shock to Reynolds, Hoffman and Harris.\n"It would have been good to know ahead of time that there was a problem so that we could have tried to find a solution," said Reynolds who has worked at IU for 20 years. "I know for myself it would interest me more to take some kind of pay cut and try to find a solution than eliminate the job \naltogether." \nBut, even as their August 1 severance date is rapidly approaching, all three men said they bear no bitterness towards IU and would still very much like their jobs back.\n"I would love to stay here, just the way it is, or in a similar fashion," said Hoffman, who has been at IU for nearly 27 years and is two and a half years away from getting retirement benefits.\nThough the CSG employees are remaining optimistic, Hewetson expressed little hope that CSG would remain in \noperations.\n"It's not going to be a win-win," he said. "We just do not have enough repair work coming in to justify three people doing that."\nAccording to their work requests records, the three men did nearly 1,800 repair jobs for members of the IU community last year in an 11-month \nperiod.\nReynolds, Hoffman and Harris said they have received tremendous support for their service from professors and staff members who regularly use their service.\nThomas Mathiesen, a professor of music, called the University's decision to close CSG "extremely ill-advised and foolish."\n"It seems to me that it makes very little sense to consider closing entities on campus that directly support the faculty in its capacity of research and teaching," he said.\nHe said keeping the service on campus makes repairs convenient to faculty and allows a more personalized touch in handling equipment which can contain vast amounts of academic research.\nGeorge Fowler, a professor of Slavic languages and literatures, said outsourcing the work CSG does will actually cost the University more money because professors and departments will have to pay market price for repair work, rather than the significantly lower rates of CSG.\n"They are saving money on a service they provide to the University, but the University is still going to have to pay for that work piecemeal," Fowler said.\nBut, Hewetson said the lower cost to departments is precisely why CSG has been running a deficit.\n"By doing that, the Physical Plant is subsidizing these departments to the tune of $80,000 per year," he said. \nAfter examining the issue, the University determined that for CSG to break even, the group would have to charge more than the current market rate for repairs, said Hewetson.\nBut Hoffman said he's still hoping he can get his job returned back.\n"Right now it's kind of a wait and see," he said. "We're in a holding pattern"
(06/23/05 2:50am)
IU vice president and chief administrative officer Terry Clapacs said he does not foresee the University being forced to cut jobs to make up for budget cuts. He also said that concerns among staff employees and unions around campus were not justified "at this point."\n"What we're doing is simply going through a typical management review of our operations which, frankly, organizations do regularly," Clapacs said. "There is no predetermined outcome to this review."\nClapacs also downplayed his remarks on outsourcing to the board of trustees at their April meeting. He said that the board asked whether his office was doing all it could to cut costs through outsourcing. \n"I thought my answer was yes," Clapacs said.\nThe point of his remarks was to underscore that the University was already outsourcing many jobs and services, not that it is needed to outsource more of them, he said.\nClapacs' report to the trustees, where he named Guy DeStafano his staff's "outsourcing czar," has made many service employees at IU nervous, said Dallas Murphy, president of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, Local 832.\n"People right now are on pins and needles about their jobs," Murphy said.\nTalk of cost cutting comes as the University is facing a $4.7 million cut in state appropriations. But Clapacs said IU isn't always looking for the cheapest way to provide non-academic services.\n"It is not just a matter of the lowest price," he said. "It is a matter of the best service and sometimes the best service doesn't always come at the lowest price."\nFor example, Clapacs said, IU employs some of the best craftspeople available in Bloomington and the University has no reason to change that.\nIU's examination of outsourcing also works both ways, he said. The University will also be examining whether services it is currently outsourcing are as efficient as providing the services in-house.
(06/13/05 1:10am)
Facing a cut in state appropriations of $4.7 million over the next two years, IU is examining outsourcing support services such as food service and maintenance as one possible way to cut its costs. \n"A key part of being efficient is to always consider a decision whether or not we provide a service or purchase a service," said Terry Clapacs, IU vice president and chief administrative officer at the April meeting of the board of trustees. \nThis means the University could cut non-academic staff positions in favor of hiring outside companies to do them at a lower rate.\nBut, IU is not swinging the ax just yet, said Guy DeStefano, whom Clapacs deemed the "outsourcing czar" at the meeting.\n"At this stage we are simply asking what are we doing, why are we doing it, who are our customers?" DeStefano said. \nHe said he and his staff are surveying all of IU's support organizations with the goal of determining what they do and whether they can be made more efficient. DeStefano said he would also examine whether the administration is structured efficiently in a way that allows the various offices to communicate effectively as possible. \nDeStefano, who is retiring at the end of this year from a 36-year-career in the purchasing department, said the job of reevaluating the efficiency of the University would take much longer than his one remaining year at IU.\nHe also said he is not out to get people's jobs.\n"I'm trying to make everybody comfortable," he said. "My role is not to sharpen my axe."\nIU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said it's reasonable to look at outsourcing jobs as a cost cutting measure.\n"But, having said that, we have to factor in what the impact is on the employees and the faculty, students and staff that takes advantage of whatever service we are outsourcing," he said. \nClapacs said it could frequently be cheaper for the University to outsource than do services in house because the University provides benefits and competitive pay which outsourcing companies do not. \n"Because of the kind of people we hire and the culture itself, our benefit program is a very expensive program," he said. "We have lots of paid time off; we have very good health care benefits; we have very good retirement benefits."\nClapacs pointed out that this is not the first time the University has looked to outsource service jobs. Roughly 20 percent of all non-academic services are currently outsourced. This includes major architecture and construction projects like the new Simon hall.\nIU employs 11,500 non-student support personnel, with more than 5,200 on the Bloomington campus alone. Many of these men and women are worried about their jobs said Dallas Murphy, president of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, Local 832.\n"Right now they're very frustrated and very upset," he said. \nHe said the union considers Clapacs' proposal a "definite threat" to union employees who work staff IU.\nBut, IU Trustee Patrick Shoulders offered some comfort to these employees concerned about their jobs.\n"I hope that outsourcing does not become the primary tool because I think along the decimal points and dollars signs," he said, "you have to consider the affect that it has on people and the community"
(06/06/05 1:36am)
Zoning and occupancy restrictions might be the last things on students' minds when they sign their first lease, but if the city finds that there are too many people living in a residence, it can mean big legal trouble for both the landlord and the renters.\nFortunately, as director of Housing and Neighborhood Development Susie Johnson explained, there are a number of things which students can do to make sure that they do not violate rental occupancy restrictions.\nHAND, which is located in Suite 130 of City Hall at 401 N Morton Street, keeps records for every rental property in Bloomington. Johnson encourages prospective renters to look at the records for their property before they sign their lease. Each property's file contains the housing occupancy permit which details the maximum number of adults allowed to live in the residence. The city requires landlords to also post copies of the permit in each rental property.\n"You can find out a lot of other information about a property just by coming in before you sign the lease and reviewing the rental occupancy file," she said he file also has when the city last inspected the property, whether there are any variances on the property and a record of any complaints about the property which previous tenants filed with the city, Johnson said.\nBut, most over-occupancy complaints which the city receives are a result of tenants being "just bad neighbors," she said.\n"Typically I would say that the complaints start because the offenders have loud parties, they let their trash pile up, they leave litter in the their front yard or they park on their yard," Johnson said. "I don't ever remember receiving an over-occupancy complaint when the yard was neat as a pin and everybody was a considerate, caring neighbor"
(06/02/05 1:21am)
An IU student could end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the copyrighted music he or she shared with other university students across the country. The person, who is yet to be identified, is one of 91 students at 33 universities whom the Recording Industry Association of America announced May 26 it was suing for illegal file-sharing over the high-speed educational network known as Internet2. \n"As long as students continue to corrupt this specialized academic network for the flagrant theft of music, we will continue to make it clear that there are consequences for these unlawful actions," said RIAA President Cary Sherman in a press release.\nThe RIAA did not actually know the name of the student when they filed the suit, but identified him or her through the student's Internet Protocol address. They also determined that IU was hosting the student on its network. In order to find who the student is, they must issue a subpoena to the University, legally ordering IU to turn over the name, address and other personal information of the individual who is registered to the IP address. Such lawsuits are termed "John Doe" suits.\nIU has not yet received the subpoena, but expects to comply with the order after University legal counsel reviews it, said Merri Beth Lavagnino, the deputy information technology policy officer for University Information Technology Services in an e-mail.\nA record provided to the U.S. District Court by the RIAA lists hundreds of copyrighted songs which the student is accused of sharing, including songs from artists Nelly, Kenny Chesney, Lil Wayne and 50 Cent. But according to court documents, record industry attorneys said he was caught sharing thousands of files. \nDuring an April 13 online news conference, Sherman said the court can award up to $750 per song in damages to the record industries, though they usually don't collect that much.\n"We routinely settle these cases at far less -- on average in the $3,500 to $4,500 range -- for those who work with us to resolve these cases quickly," he said.\nThe RIAA is heralding the two newest waves of lawsuits as a crackdown on file-sharing over Internet2. An RIAA press release called Internet2 "...increasingly the network of choice for students seeking to steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale."\nIndeed, the file-sharing application i2hub was designed to specifically make use of the much faster Internet2 lines connecting universities. But, students who share files with people on other campuses connected by Internet2 must use the educational network, said Lavagnino.\n"A user of the IU network doesn't get to choose what network their communications will travel over," she said.\nIn March 2004, the RIAA announced that it was suing five IU students for copyright infringement. By July, three of the students had settled the suits for an average of $3,000 each. Lavagnino said that UITS has turned over the names of seven IU students to copyright holders since 1998.