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(10/18/07 4:24am)
A steady clunk of bean bags hitting wood dominated Dunn Meadow Wednesday at the inaugural “World’s Largest Cornhole Tournament,” which took place during the All Campus Celebration in conjunction with “Celebrate IU” week.\nHundreds of students and administrators were in attendance. The event included a cornhole tournament, free food, a bonfire, the unveiling of the Hutton Honors College cornerstone and music from the IU Soul Revue, Straight No Chaser and Ladies First.\nThe cornhole tournament started at 3 p.m., with 16 teams competing in the first round. Dozens of cornhole boards, some painted with campus organizations’ logos, lined Dunn Meadow.\nSophomores Brandon Liegibel and Dustin Pugh won the tournament and will choose between tickets to this weekend’s Bob Dylan concert and seats in a luxury box for an IU football game, among other options.\nJuniors Peter Wallace and Jared Chasey were cornhole partners during Little 500 week and decided to team up again, they said.\n“This is our first time playing since Little 5 week,” Chasey said. \n“My goal is for Jared to get a couple of points,” Wallace said. “Just for him to hit the board once or twice.” \nIU President Michael McRobbie threw a bag for the ceremonial cornhole toss, which knocked in two bags with one throw.\n“I’d like to say I’m an expert,” McRobbie laughed. “But that’s \nnot true.”\nHomecoming week has been in the works since the beginning of the year, said junior Heather Shindeldecker, the Student Alumni Association’s co-director of programming for special events. The Alumni Association has been focusing on cornhole specifically for the past three weeks.\nThe bonfire portion of the evening was sponsored by the Union Board and is a homecoming tradition, said Lauren Douglass, Union Board director of spirits and traditions. This year, for the first time, the bonfire event will include burning shirts from other colleges. This entails trading up to 200 shirts from different colleges for an IU Homecoming shirt. The first 10 from other colleges will be burned in the bonfire while the other 190 will be donated to the Salvation Army. \n“We got the idea, funny enough, from Penn State,” Douglass said. “It’s really a wonderful thing. It’s nice for students to get out and just have fun while at the same time doing a philanthropy event.”\nIU administrators also enjoyed the games.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig played a game of cornhole and lost 21-1, he said. \n“I have a set at home with the IU logo,” McKaig said. “This (tournament) certainly fits in with the homecoming theme. What could be better?”
(10/17/07 5:04am)
After the IU Police Department told campus administrators that the shooting situation around the 1300 block of West Arch Haven Avenue was contained, the decision was made not to send out a mass e-mail alerting students about the shooting, said IU spokesman Kirk White.\nHowever, when news began to circulate and the University received several phone calls from parents, information was put on the University Web site around 9:15 a.m. to quell the rumors, White said. \n“We started to activate limited parts of the critical incident communications system,” he said. This included an e-mail sent out to those on a system-wide listserv and also updates on various campus Web sites, including OneStart and the IUB Web site, which directed users to the campus status Web site.\nThis Web site informed visitors that there was no danger to those not in the immediate proximity of Second Street and Patterson Drive, and all activities on campus should continue as normal.\n“The entire situation was contained and there was no indication of a threat by campus boundaries,” White said. “There was no need to go to extreme measures like sending out an e-mail to all students.”\nSince the scene was contained, junior Caroline Blowers said she thinks there was no real need for IU to notify students.\n“In any situation where students are in danger, the University should make them aware,” she said. “But if it was already contained, then there was no potential threat.” \nBut some readers who commented on idsnews.com said they were not notified soon enough about the shooting incident. \nIU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said mass e-mails and similarly drastic means should only be used in cases that show a threat to students. \n“The incident took place a mile away from campus, and police had it contained,” MacIntyre said. “There was no danger and no threat in this situation.”\nWhile the new IU alert system will not be up and running for a few weeks, it will only be used in extreme conditions and probably would not have been used in this particular situation, MacIntyre said.\nHe went on to say that if the mass e-mails are abused and sent out for every incident that takes place in Bloomington, students will begin to ignore the e-mails and text messages from the University.\n“We want to use this only when we think there is a threat,” MacIntyre said. “If you see (an e-mail or text message) from IU Notify, you better read it.”
(10/17/07 4:55am)
Amidst the Homecoming week festivities is a new event for which many students have been unknowingly practicing for months.\nThe “World’s Largest Cornhole Tournament,” which will take place from 3 p.m. to about 9:30 p.m. today in Dunn Meadow, is in its first year and hopes to attract up to 32 teams, said Erin Datteri, graduate assistant for the Student Alumni Association.\n“The tournament is set up like the Sweet Sixteen,” Datteri said. “We would love to have as many teams as possible enter.”\nEntertainment and food will be provided for all who attend. The food will be served at 5 p.m. and will continue to be served until either the food runs out or 7 p.m. rolls around.\nMusic will begin at 3:15 p.m., starting with Soul Revue. Straight No Chaser and Ladies First will also be performing.\nAndrew Landau, business manager of Straight No Chaser, said the group is looking forward to the entire week of Homecoming and is excited to perform at the cornhole tournament.\n“We just want to keep it as upbeat as possible,” Landau said. “We are pleased and just feel honored to be able to participate.”\nBesides the free food and entertainment, prizes for the first place winners of the tournament include a choice of Bob Dylan tickets or football suite tickets for the Ball State game, lunch for four at the Tudor room and two $20 dollar gift cards for Barnes and Noble, Daterri said. Other prizes for second and third place include gift cards, a free day of parking at the Indiana Memorial Union and one-day A parking permits.\n“This is something we’ve been working on for a while,” Daterri said. “We wanted to do something to celebrate IU during Homecoming week.”\nAt about 7:30 p.m., a bonfire will be started and students are encouraged to bring t-shirts from other campuses to trade for new IU shirts, Daterri said. The first 10 shirts exchanged will be thrown in the bonfire, and the next 190 will be donated to charity.\n“We don’t want to see other campus’s shirts around here,” Daterri said.
(10/10/07 4:26am)
Personalities weren’t the only perky things at Bloomington’s Fairfield Inn on Monday and Tuesday. \nPlayboy magazine held auditions for its “Girls of the Big 10” issue, which is due to hit newsstands in May.\n“We’ll probably see a total of about 100 girls,” said Eden Orfanos, a producer for Playboy magazine. “Unfortunately, we can only take 12.”\nAmong the 100 women were two roommates, sophomores Megan Yapo and Casey Miller, who said they thought trying out would be fun.\n“We’re kind of using this as a bonding experience,” Miller said.\nThe women were asked to fill out biographical information while they waited to be photographed. Some flipped through previous issues of Playboy that featured college girls, while others chatted about the pictorials, saying the photographs were beautifully done. \nAfter waiting for their turns, the women were called one by one into an adjoining hotel room to undress and be photographed.\n“My parents don’t know I’m doing this,” Yapo said, laughing. “They would probably just ask me if I had to work out beforehand.”\nAlthough Playboy is predominantly known for picturing scantily-clad women in its publications, the “Girls of the Big 10” issue is looking for a good personality, including someone with a lot of school spirit, Playboy spokeswoman Tina Manzo said Monday in an Indiana Daily Student article.\n“Hef (Hugh Hefner) will see photos of every single one of the girls we have chosen,” Orfanos said. “He loves it when a girl doesn’t want to just be a model or an actress. He is inspired by women who have more going on than that.”\nTwo or three women are chosen every year from the college-girls issues to become full-time playmates, Orfanos said. With that, Yapo said her ears perked up.\n“It’s something I’d maybe consider looking into if it was offered to me,” Yapo said, even though she had said earlier that this was the first time she had thought about posing in Playboy. “It’s so exciting that Hef actually sees all of our pictures.” \nEach pictorial that goes into the magazine is first approved by Playboy founder Hefner, Orfanos said. Sometimes the decision of which pictorial to include is not chosen based on beauty alone, but on ethnicity or hair color to ensure a diverse magazine. \n“I wish we would have had half of the girls here come out at Illinois,” Orfanos said. “It was so shitty there, and there are so many amazing girls that have come out here.”\nAs long as the women who choose to participate in the pictorials do it of their own free will, Carol McCord, the assistant dean of the Office for Women’s Affairs, said there is no problem with it.\n“It wouldn’t be a personal choice of many women,” she said. “But others who are comfortable with their bodies should have the choice.”\nOrfanos sees magazines such as Playboy as a way to for women to express themselves.\n“What could be more empowering to young women than expressing themselves in an artistic way?” Orfanos said. “The magazine has featured incredible female authors, artists, athletes, models and actresses. It’s absolutely empowering.”
(10/09/07 10:41pm)
Personalities weren’t the only perky things at Bloomington’s Fairfield Inn on Monday and Tuesday. \nPlayboy magazine held auditions for its “Girls of the Big 10” issue, which is due to hit newsstands in May.\n“We’ll probably see a total of about 100 girls,” said Eden Orfanos, a producer for Playboy magazine. “Unfortunately, we can only take 12.”\nAmong the 100 women were two roommates, sophomores Megan Yapo and Casey Miller, who said they thought trying out would be fun.\n“We’re kind of using this as a bonding experience,” Miller said.\nThe women were asked to fill out biographical information while they waited to be photographed. Some flipped through previous issues of Playboy that featured college girls while others chatted about the pictorials, saying the photographs were beautifully done. \nAfter waiting for their turns, the women were called one by one into an adjoining hotel room to undress and be photographed.\n“My parents don’t know I’m doing this,” Yapo said, laughing. “They would probably just ask me if I had to work out beforehand.”\n- For more coverage see Wednesday's Indiana Daily Student
(10/09/07 4:07am)
Tim Solon had worked at the Indiana Memorial Union’s Tudor Room for more than a year when earlier this month he was told to sign a new tip policy that, according to his calculations, would cost him about $3 an hour in wages. Solon said he questioned his supervisor on the new procedure, who told Solon that he could either sign the policy or quit. Solon quit.\nThe new policy took effect Sept. 24, and at least two employees have quit as a result. Still, Steve Mangan, general manager of IMU Dining Services, maintains the plan will equalize pay and make the Tudor Room more team-oriented.\nThe new policy states that two-thirds of tips given to employees of the Tudor Room will be pooled and distributed depending on the percentage of time worked by all catering service employees. The other one-third will be taken by dining services to help offset certain costs related to an increase in employees’ hourly wage, which has gone from $2.15 to $6.50, said Thom Simmons, associate executive director of the IMU.\n“To a certain extent, it helps to offset the cost of the $4.35 wage increase,” Simmons said. “It also pays for the administrative cost of processing payroll.” \nThis entails the physical labor of a supervisor computing all of the tips given to servers by credit card, he said. \nBut even before the new policy took place, there were at least some administrative costs associated with processing employee pay. Because of this, other areas of the IMU, which were once responsible for covering these administrative charges, will no longer carry the costs as about 33 percent of servers’ tips will now be taken for these expenses. \n“I had a lot of questions,” said sophomore Lexi Siamas, who also quit over the policy. She and Solon talked to managers and were unhappy with the answers, so they called the Indiana Department of Labor, who in turn contacted Mangan.\nWhen asked initially, Mangan told the Indiana Daily Student there was nothing going on with the Department of Labor with regard to Dining Services’ new policy. However, he later admitted he had been contacted by a Department of Labor investigator. \nAfter talking with Mangan, that investigator told Siamas in a voice mail that the new policy was legal because the increased compensation complied with Indiana minimum wage standards.\nWhile several Department of Labor officials and legal experts said the new policy seems “shady,” the general consensus from representatives of the Department of Labor is that the policy is legal.\n“The employees are receiving over minimum wage,” said Scott Allen, an inspector at the Department of Labor. “So, quite frankly, the company doesn’t have to let them keep any of their tips at all.”\nBecause the Tudor Room is no longer claiming a tip credit, the employees are now qualified as “hourly employees,” Allen said. \nBut the new procedure is a “close question,” said David Gray, an Indianapolis attorney specializing in labor and employment law.\n“Under Indiana law, you can only deduct from employees’ wages in very limited conditions,” Gray said. “They aren’t exactly entitled to it, but they aren’t really violating \nanything either.”\nBoth Mangan and Simmons said the new policy will benefit the Tudor Room in the long run.\n“We have a goal of improving service and equalizing pay,” Mangan said. “We’re doing this to encourage a team effort.”\nWith all of the tips being pooled, Mangan said the employees will be more likely to help out their co-workers, which will lead to an overall improvement in service. \nStill, one current Tudor Room employee, who wished to remain unnamed for fear of retribution, said the new policy makes sense from an overall service dynamic, but leaves him little reason to go above and beyond when serving customers.\n“The policy does make sense,” the employee said. “But at least for me, the motivation to hustle is almost gone.”\nDespite the significant increase in wage and the tip pooling, Simmons said average hourly earnings will probably stay about the same. For the months of January to June 2007, servers earned about $8.43 in wages and non-cash tips, according to an IMU report.\nSolon said he figured he would earn about $3 less per hour when the policy took effect, but the current Tudor Room employee said since he only works one shift a week, he doesn’t think the new policy will affect him much.\n“If I was working three to four times a week, it would definitely bother me,” the employee said. “I wouldn’t have that – I would quit.”\nEssentially, the new policy will raise earnings for servers who in the past earned less in tips, while it will diminish income for servers, like Solon, who earned above the restaurant’s average in gratuity. \nAdditionally, the new policy will mostly benefit full-time employees, who work about 40 hours a week compared to students who generally work between 10 and 20 hours each week, Solon said. These full-time servers are usually not students and make up only a small number of all Tudor Room employees, Mangan said.\n“The way I figured it out based on the hours that I was working and the hours that everybody else was working, I would only be making about 4 percent of the tips I earn,” Solon said. “That leaves me with $6.50 an hour plus the change I get from the tip pool.” While Solon said he realized potential repercussions from the procedure, he believed many Tudor Room employees did not completely understand how the policy would affect their pay. \nYet for Solon, the deal was simply not worth it.\n“The Union is becoming a less and less student-run and student-friendly organization,” he said, saying the Tudor Room seems to now favor non-student full time employees as \nan example.\nStill, Simmons said this new policy will benefit the restaurant as the IMU continues to look to the future. \n“The Tudor Room is not really a money maker for the Union,” Simmons said. “But it is a part of IU’s history and tradition – it has a reputation on campus.”
(10/01/07 3:10am)
Before starting the Cardboard Boat Regatta Friday, Evans Scholars team members senior Jesse Burroughs and junior Karl Schaefer were holding homemade swords, axes and shields. Afterward, they were holding trophies.\nThis Regatta was Burroughs’ third and Schaefer’s second, so they said they were ready to hold more than just their weapons.\n“If we don’t win,” Burroughs said before the race, “we’ll be pillaging the other boats.”\nThe seventh annual Cardboard Boat Regatta, put on by the Council for Advancing Student Leadership, serves as the group’s sole fundraiser to furnish the 10 $500 scholarships they give out each year to the “Top 10 student leaders,” said CASL Administrator Wesley Erwin.\nThis year’s Regatta was Erwin’s first, so he did not know what to expect.\n“I don’t even think the CASL boat will float,” he said, laughing. \nErwin was correct. In the demonstration before the race, the CASL boat was submerged within seconds of being boarded. \nSome boats were more fortunate in their voyages. \nBefore the first heat, IU President Michael McRobbie said he was there to cheer on his son’s team, The Panthers. The team consisted of Bloomington High School South’s swim team.\n“Last year their boat sank halfway down the pool,” McRobbie said. “I think it’s terrific, but I haven’t the slightest idea if it will float.”\nWell, float it did, all the way to third place.\nGeoff Minger, Bloomington High School South senior and rider in the Panthers’ Star Wars Land Speeder, said the boat took seven hours, 20 rolls of duct tape and “a lot of parents’ money” to make. The boat received second place for creativity.\nThe creativity portion of the event was in part judged by Corbin Smyth, assistant director at the Indiana Memorial Union. He said the teams were judged on creativity, the overall theme and originality. \n“It’s fun. CASL does a great job with this,” Smyth said. “You guess which will sink right away, but some of these boats are built for speed and some are built for creativity.”\nFirst place in creativity went to the Evans Scholars, which followed a Viking theme. Second went to The Panthers with their Star Wars Land Speeder and third went to Team Autumn, a boat that looked surprisingly similar to a Nike athletic shoe.\nBob Allen, lead singer of Prizzy Prizzy Please, gave his creativity vote to Team Autumn. \nThe Regatta was Prizzy’s first time playing at an event like this, Allen said.\n“It feels kind of like high school pep band,” he said. “But that’s definitely not a bad thing.”\nSmyth said one of the best things about the Regatta is that it is open to the whole community, not just the college.\n“This event is really for all ages,” Smyth said. “It’s just fun to see so many people come out.”\nThe best part about the event for Minger, however, wasn’t coming to the actual event. It was preparing for it.\n“We got to have the swim team together in a garage to build this thing,” Minger said. “That was probably the most fun part, just having everybody together.”
(09/30/07 8:15pm)
Friends said Jeremy Kritzman, affectionately called “Germ,” was one of those kids who could always put a smile on your face. \n“He was the funniest kid around no matter what was going on,” said Greg Cox, a friend of Kritzman’s. “People just always wanted to be around him.”\nKritzman, an IU junior who passed away early Thursday morning, was a therapeutic recreation major and aspired to be a stand-up comedian, said senior Bennett Fink.\n“We’ve been friends since Welcome Week of his freshman year,” Fink said. “He was just a very funny, very energetic and very outgoing guy. He was one of those kids that was always happy.”\nCox said that Kritzman had been his best friend since his freshman year in high school. They hung out with the same kids and grew close.\n“He’s been like a brother to me,” Cox said. “You really couldn’t ask for a better friend.”\nEven though Cox goes to school at the University of Southern Maine, Kritzman made sure to stay in close contact despite the distance, he said. They had spoken just three days ago.\n“He had been planning to come to one of my soccer games,” Cox said. “We hung out every day this summer when he was home.”\nKritzman spent a good deal of his summer in New York City interning with the Big Apple Circus, Cox said. \n“He told me that he set up promotional stuff, but he mainly just hung out with the clowns,” Cox said, laughing. “He was more of a clown than they ever could have been.”\nCox recalls thousands of the funny memories and times that Kritzman sent classes into a fit of laughs, including as a speaker at his high school graduation.\n“He was delivering his speech and he had 500 kids laughing,” Cox said. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe he’s actually saying this at graduation.’”\nKritzman’s comical tendencies led friends to believe that he would make it in Hollywood. He was a brilliant actor, Cox said.\n“He was the next Conan O’Brien,” he said. “There’s no way he wouldn’t have made it. His talent would have been recognized.”\nKritzman and Cox had been planning to study abroad together next year, regardless of the location, he said. They had talked about going to Italy or Israel, and even though Cox didn’t particularly want to go to Israel, he said he would have made the sacrifice just to spend time with his best friend.\n“There’s no one else in the world like him,” Cox said. “He was a truly unique person. I’m just really glad that I got to know him.”
(09/27/07 4:06am)
IU announced Wednesday it has chosen the Connect-ED communication service by NTI Group Inc. to provide an alert system capable of reaching faculty, students and staff on all eight IU campuses within minutes, according to an IU press release.\nThe system is essentially a way to keep students informed about anything from administrative news to weather delays, according to the press release. More importantly, however, it is a way to notify students in emergency situations.\n“After (Virginia Tech), former President Adam Herbert and Former Provost Michael McRobbie decided to do an immediate campus service review,” said Larry MacIntyre, assistant vice president in the Office of University Communications. “McRobbie said we should find a firm as quickly as possible. There was a realization that we needed to move (promptly).” \nStudents will be able to register for the program through Onestart in the next couple of weeks, MacIntyre said. The service is part of a broader “IU-Notify” initiative, which should be fully operative by the end of the calendar year, according to the press release.\nA University-wide notification system has been in consideration since the end of 2006, said Mark Bruhn, associate vice president of information and infrastructure insurance. After the Virginia Tech shootings, however, MacIntyre said the need to find a communication firm seemed more urgent.\nFollowing the release of a report by the Virginia Tech Review Panel, MacIntyre said the University was following suit with what the report called for.\nGuidelines from the Virginia Tech Panel’s findings included how to successfully choose an alert system, according to the press release. These guidelines state that a successful system should provide multimodal communications, flexibility in registry of users, distributed data centers, dispersed messaging and flexibility in terms \nof contracting.\nBruhn, who helped head the search for a company to act as IU’s service provider, said he feels like NTI’s Connect-ED communication system fulfills the requirements that IU has need for.\n“We sent proposals to about 20 different companies that had products,” Bruhn said. “We analyzed what the companies did and compared that to what we needed them to do.”\nBruhn said there were three main reasons for selecting NTI as IU’s communication service provider, including the company’s extensive higher education experience, its ability to support a high number and wide variety of people, and all of the different kinds of communications that are included in \nthe package.\nStudents and faculty will be reached via cell phones, e-mail, text messages and PDAs, according to NTI’s Connect-ED Web site. Messages are sent within minutes after the recipients of that message \nare selected.\nIn a time-sensitive situation, multimodal communication is a smarter way to contact people because the communication is sent simultaneously to all available contact points, according to the press release.\n“I am very optimistic,” Bruhn said. “I’m very enthusiastic about the company \nwe picked.”
(09/24/07 3:54am)
Soggy cardboard and duct tape will be thrown into the IU Outdoor Pool this Friday, in hopes that it will function as a boat and get two people across the body of water. \nThe event is called the Cardboard Boat Regatta, and it is the Council for Advancing Student Leadership’s sole fundraiser.\n“The event has a reputation on IU’s campus,” said CASL Administrator Wesley Erwin. “It’s on campus and for campus, but everybody in the community can participate.” \nAll of the money is donated to CASL’s scholarship fund, which awards 10 $500 scholarships for the “Top 10 student leaders” on campus. Students may start applying for the scholarships in the spring.\nAlayna Herr, vice president of CASL, said the event is a fun way to raise money for the scholarship fund, and hopefully with more participation in the Regatta, more money may be allotted to each scholarship winner. \nThis year’s Regatta will feature free food and a performance by Prizzy Prizzy Please, a local band, Herr said.\nRegistration for the Regatta ends Wednesday at 5 p.m. Students may visit CASL’s Web site or drop by the IU Tennis Center to register.\nEven though the Regatta has been going for seven years, CASL’s main function as an organization is to train the student leaders of IU and “recognize and promote student leadership on campus,” Erwin said. \nCASL hosts two speaker series events per semester, he said. In recent years, State Rep. Peggy Welch and former IU Football Coach Terry Hoeppner spoke for the series. \n“Everything we do is related to helping other organizations with leadership,” Herr said. “We want to reach out to as many different organizations as possible.” \nOne way the group “reaches out” is through training workshops, which are specific to the different aspects of leadership. They can range anywhere from tips on how to recruit new members to ways to retain members.\nCASL itself is constantly looking for new members, Herr said. As of now CASL has about 70 members, and the group hopes to get at least 60 more, Herr said. \n“Before CASL, I hadn’t found a group that I wanted to spend a great deal of time with,” Herr said. “We do a lot for the IU community, but we also have a lot of fun social activities.” \nThere is a call-out meeting for CASL from 8 to 9 p.m. Monday in Ballantine Hall room 109, Erwin said. For more information, visit \nwww.indiana.edu/~casl/.
(09/21/07 3:55am)
Although it might not be the biggest problem that global warming has produced, increased dandelion strength and reproduction is another thing to tack on to a list that proves global warming is real, said Todd Royer, an assistant professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. \nA study recently published by IU-Purdue University Indianapolis ecology professor Xianzhong Wang found that with the increased carbon dioxide levels now present in the atmosphere, dandelions’ reproduction and seed dispersal properties are changing. \n“The current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 360 ppm (parts per million),” Wang said. “That’s compared to 270 ppm just 150 years ago. By the end of the century, it could increase up to 700 ppm.” \nAccording to the study, a portion of the dandelions were tested in an elevated carbon dioxide environment of 730 ppm, producing seeds that were heavier and had a higher germination percentage, proving that more carbon dioxide produced more plants. \nRoyer said he sees this as a potential problem in conjunction with other climate changes.\n“Dandelions by themselves are probably not that big of a deal,” he said. “But it’s an indication that rising carbon dioxide levels can effect the distribution of plants.” \nThese plants, he said, may appear where they never grew before, or disappear from a place that they have always grown.\nPhilip Stevens, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said that the recent study conducted by Wang isn’t necessarily new information. \n“There have been lots of studies in the past that show plants increase their growth with increased carbon dioxide environments,” Stevens said. “However, the long term conditions are not known.”\nWang chose to focus the study on dandelions because of how widespread they are. \n“(Dandelions) are a cosmopolitan weed,” Wang said. “You can find them on almost every continent.” \nAccording to the article recently published in Weed Science Journal by Wang and graduate student Tamara McPeek, the dandelion is especially a problem because of its “negative effects on crop yield and the large amount of herbicides used for its control.” \nStevens, however, does not view dandelions as a weed and allows them to grow in his yard.\n“It’s not a problem to consider in comparison with the other issues,” Stevens said. “There are so many other issues with global warming that require our attention.”
(09/19/07 4:58am)
Even before Tom Chorny recognized that running would be his vice, he knew that he wanted to be in the Olympics.\nHe’s gotten extremely close – closer than most Americans ever dream of. \nAnd with two Olympic trials already under his feet, he’s ready to make the team. \n“I wouldn’t bet against me,” said the ‘99 IU graduate confidently, his lean and toned muscles discernible through his clothing.\nAthletes with talent and accomplishments like Chorny’s are hard to come by. However, former IU track and cross country coach Robert Chapman has found 15 such individuals, ranging in age and skill, and has brought them together to compete as Team Indiana Elite.\nChapman started the group in January, hoping to provide a chance for advanced athletes, many of whom live in the Bloomington area, to make it to the Olympic trials. Two of these athletes, Scott Overall from England and Mario Macias from Mexico, left their native countries to train at IU with Chapman. \nHe said without the opportunity, most runners would be done pursuing their careers as athletes. With only about nine months before the 2008 Olympic trials, Chapman hopes to qualify as many runners as possible and help prepare those who have already qualified.\n“None of them had the support to keep them training,” Chapman said, who also is a lecturer in the kinesiology department. “If they didn’t have this opportunity, they could all very well be out of the sport.”\nAgainst the clock\nThose that haven’t qualified yet are running races for their respective events, trying to hit the Olympic trials qualifying times and run those races fast enough to rank in the top 30 to 40 runners in the country, Chapman said. \n“Sometimes the challenge is head-to-head,” he said. “But sometimes it can be against the clock.”\nOne problem with running competitively is actually getting sponsored for a race, but this is where Chapman comes in.\n“Before joining the team, I tried to contact race directors who wouldn’t call me back,” said Jessica Gall, a member of Team Indiana Elite, who finished graduate school at IU this spring. “Chapman and the team have helped me with all of that. Race directors call back, and even offer me money to come run in some of those races.”\nAside from the professional advantage, Chapman said athletes gain a competitive advantage from being in the group as well.\n“The value is the ability to train with similarly talented athletes in a group setting,” Chapman said. So he brought them assistance in the form of access to IU athletic facilities, a sponsor by Brooks – a running shoes and apparel company that pays for equipment and travel expenses – and free housing at IU. \n“It’s a win-win situation,” Chapman said. “The athletes need the support, and from IU’s standpoint, the housing was empty anyway.”
(09/18/07 3:11am)
The U.S. Department of Education has donated $1.5 million to the IU School of Education. \nAccording to a press release, the grant will fund a collaboration between Indianapolis Public Schools and the School of Education at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, promoting better preparation for teachers involved in the English Language Learners program. \nChuck Carney, director of communications and media relations for the School of Education, said that the number of ELL students has “boomed” over the last 10 years. According to the press release, the Indiana Department of Education reports IPS had 3,244 ELL students during the school year 2005-06, compared with only 257 ELL students just a decade earlier.\n“The state was not preparing enough teachers,” Carney said. “These IU programs are vital for an issue that is only going to grow.”\nThe grant promotes five years worth of services, a revision of university curricula, evaluations of teacher effectiveness and preparations for more secondary teachers for IPS schools, according to the press release.\nCarney said that in order to accomplish these tasks, money is vital. The $1.5 million will be distributed over five years, with a goal of training 75 “master teachers” by the end of this time. The teachers will then be prepared to mentor new teachers entering beginning ELL teaching, according to the press release. \nProject Director Annela Teemant said in the press release that the program will help to build on the good work that teachers are already doing.\n“The important thing to remember is Bloomington has a huge program turning out ELL teachers,” Carney said. “This will make it easier to get the quality instruction that we need to train this growing group in Indiana.”
(09/13/07 4:29am)
Jake was just two weeks past his 18th birthday when he had consensual sex with a 13-year-old girl he had been seeing casually for a few months. Soon after, she accused Jake, now an IU junior, of rape.\nThe pair had been at a party together when it happened. They talked afterwards and Jake –\nwho asked his real name not be used because of the sensitive nature of his situation – said he told her they couldn’t maintain an intimate relationship. \nLittle did he know that the phone call he received a couple days later would change his life forever. It was the girl’s parents informing Jake they were accusing him of raping their daughter.\nThe party turned out to be his saving grace since “witnesses” to the intimacy testified that there was no aggression or violence involved. Although rape charges were later dismissed in court because the testimonies suggested the encounter was nonviolent, Jake was charged with second degree sexual assault – a Class A misdemeanor in Kentucky, landing the previously clean-slated citizen behind bars.\nThough the legal issue is clear-cut, the moral implications of a situation like Jake’s are not so clear. Many argue that emotions and youth can be a dangerous mixture without knowledge of the laws that govern new-found adulthood. And now, more lenient laws outlining punishment for adults who have consensual sex with minors have been implemented in certain states, including Indiana, bringing this debate to society’s forefront.
(09/13/07 4:22am)
In a large, inconspicuous box covered in flower wallpaper, messages of support and concern accumulated precluding the death of IU psychology professor, Bob Weiskopf. \nHundreds of cards were left in the box, said James Brown, an academic advisor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Those cards meant so much to Weiskopf in the months leading up to his death, Brown said, which occurred on June 25 in Weiskopf’s Bloomington home.\nWeiskopf, who according to James Craig, a chancellor’s professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, was easily the department’s most popular instructor.\n“He was a great asset to the department,” Brown said. “A lot of students claimed psych as their major solely because of his 450-person lecture for non-majors.”\nBrown said Weiskopf was popular at teaching that he almost always filled 8 a.m. lecture classes. He went on to say that sometimes students joked that they couldn’t keep up with taking notes because they were focused on his animated lectures and off-the-wall teaching.\nWeiskopf began having problems with reading and simple calculations back in September 2006, said his daughter Emma Weiskopf. After begging him to go to the emergency room and get his problem checked out, Weiskopf finally submitted. The diagnosis came back; he had brain cancer.\nAfter teaching for about 25 years in the department, Craig said Weiskopf was consistently a favorite teacher year-in and year-out. \n“Some students took every single class that he taught,” Craig said. \nWeiskopf was on the Student Choice Award for Outstanding Faculty list in 1992 and 1997. His son, Dan Weiskopf, said his father’s greatest success was his teaching, and he was proud of the numerous awards he won as a result. \nWeiskopf had a great enthusiasm for learning, but an even greater passion for passing on that enthusiasm to his students. \n“He made you feel like you were part of a group working together, even if that group was a giant lecture hall,” said graduate student Lyuba Bobova.\nPerhaps an even more surprising way he engaged students was by pretending to be a patient and acting out the disorders the students were learning about, Craig said. \n“He would demonstrate a patient’s qualities long enough that it would bother the students,” he said. “But he would say, if you’re working with someone with that disorder, then they can’t just snap out of it.”\nEmma said that the cards Weiskopf received only affirmed the great love his students had for him. \n“It doesn’t seem likely that we will be able to find one person that can do everything that he did,” Craig said. “He’s just not replaceable.”\nA memorial for Bob Weiskopf will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. in Woodburn Hall 100, a room where he spent many years teaching psych courses, Craig said. \nThe Weiskopf Award for the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant has been established in his name to honor one student in the department annually. Donations can be made to the IU Foundation, P.O. Box 500, Bloomington, IN 47402.
(09/12/07 4:56am)
Aside from being deemed the smartest IU has ever seen, the class of 2011 is also the largest. \nThis year’s record number of freshmen only helped contribute to IU-Bloomington’s record enrollment, a total of 38,990 students, which is a 1.9 percent increase from last year. This is the second largest University enrollment on record.\nRoger Thompson, the vice provost for enrollment, attributed this increased number of students to a greater amount of applications, which were up 18 percent from last year’s 24,169 hopefuls, he said.\nOut of the 28,528 applicants this year, about 70 percent were offered admittance. The competition for admission has increased, Thompson said, since last year approximately 80 percent of the students who applied were admitted.\nEven with the record number of 7,208 freshmen, IU officials have seen few problems with on-campus housing, Thompson said. \n“Last year there were problems with fitting everybody into the dorms,” he said. “They talked about making sure it was better for the next year and planned ahead.”\nThis planning ahead included offering less double rooms as singles, said Cedric Harris, the Teter Quad manager, a dorm that housed about 40 to 50 students in floor lounges for weeks last year.\n“We want upperclassmen to come back to the residence halls,” he said. “We try to offer double rooms as singles. Only problem is, with the large freshman classes, there isn’t enough room to offer a lot of those.”\nThompson credits a lot of the successful tactics this year to all of the professionals on campus who helped cope with the record numbers. Thompson also applauds IU’s academic advisors for finding enough course availability to correspond to the demand from the many students.\nNext year, however, Thompson hopes to cut down the size of the incoming freshman class, which would require admission standards to strengthen. \n“More students came than planned,” Thompson said. “And that’s not a bad thing, but you can only plan for so many.”
(09/06/07 3:54am)
Students walking around the Indiana Memorial Union on Tuesday could easily read the minds of the Indiana Public Interest Research Group members stationed near to the elevators.\n“What’s your plan on financial security” and “what’s your plan on global warming” were two of the thoughts emanating from students’ heads, both figuratively and literally. \nThe Indiana Public Interest Research Group is an organization dedicated to improving the environment and promoting citizen involvement. The group took pictures of 47 people, including IU Dean of Students Dick McKaig with thought bubbles next to their heads to compile a visual petition that will be sent to the 2008 presidential candidates. The petition is part of INPIRG’s “What’s your plan?” campaign. \n“It asks the presidential candidates about issues that effect our generation,” said INPIRG president Brett Kokot. “It’s going to show them that the 18-24 demographic is a group worth paying attention to.” \nThe college-aged demographic will be making an impact on other things as well, Kokot said.\nThe four major campaigns INPIRG will be focusing on this year are the New Voters Project, “What’s your plan?”, Hunger and Homelessness and Campus Climate Challenge. \nFor the Campus Climate Challenge, Kokot said that INPIRG is trying to organize a Focus the Nation rally. According to Focus the Nation’s Web site, the rally aims to coordinate teams of faculty and students at thousands of colleges, universities and K-12 schools all over the nation. \nFor IU’s rally, Kokot hopes to secure senators, representatives, University administrators, faculty and the mayor as speakers.\nINPIRG will be hosting a membership drive during the week of Sept. 13, when they will petition students to join their group by walking around campus, setting up a table outside of Ballantine Hall and posting fliers around the University, Kokot said. \nIsabel Estevez, media coordinator for the Hunger and Homelessness campaign, said INPIRG provides an extraordinary opportunity for students to get involved on a local, national and eventually, a global level. \n “It’s an easy way to make a difference,” she said. “It doesn’t require a great time commitment – a few hours can go a long way.”\nStudents looking to get involved with INPIRG before next week can sign up on the group’s Web site, www.inpirg.org.
(09/05/07 5:33am)
Steve Mangan, general manager of Indiana Memorial Union Dining Services, said he is not afraid of hiring convicted criminals and empowering them with a second chance. In fact, he has done just that on multiple occasions – both knowingly and unknowingly.\nMangan and the supervisors that fall under his jurisdiction do not conduct background checks on all new employees, only those that the University absolutely requires them to. According to IU’s policy, only specified hourly employees are required to have their credentials checked, which is a business practice that Bloomington Police Department Capt. Joe Qualters suggested might be unwise.\n“It’s a matter of erring on the side of caution,” Qualters said. “Businesses could get burned because they haven’t taken what seems like an easy step.”\nEven though most University sectors take that “step,” Dining Services in the Union sometimes leaves the door open for hiring potentially dangerous convicted criminals.
(09/02/07 5:24pm)
The votes are in and the tallies have been counted: IU’s students (almost) never study. They are too busy being the eighth-best party school with the fifth most amount of hard liquor, which may also be why IU’s students are the 16th-happiest.\nThe Princeton Review, a company unrelated to Princeton University, puts out a publication called the “Best 366 Colleges” once a year. The 2008 edition gave IU these rankings.\nThe publication ranks everything from academics to the social aspects of college. \nAdrinda Kelly, a senior editor of the “Best 366 Colleges” guidebook, said with 120,000 students between 366 schools, about 325 students per college campus participate in the survey. \nThe survey, according to Kelly, is self-selective, meaning the students have to find the survey themselves and then choose to participate in it.\n“Even though it is self-selective, there is a lot of validation from the students,” Kelly said. After the results are out, students are asked to go online and rate how accurate the rankings are, she said.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig said that the results of a self-selective survey, such as the one put out by “The Princeton Review,” are skewed. \n“A lot of universities question the validity of the information,” McKaig said. “I don’t put a lot of stock in it.”\nSenior Erin Bond finds fault with some of the Princeton Review’s claims as well.\n“My friends study,” Bond said about the “their students (almost) never study” ranking. “People I know take their classes seriously.” \nMcKaig said he doesn’t think that freshmen would base their college choices on the Princeton Review alone. \n“It doesn’t truly reflect IU,” he said.\nBut freshman Tyler Conaway, who looked at “The Princeton Review” online, said it played a part in his decision to come to IU. \n“I was actually planning on going to the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville,” Conaway said. “I was going to visit IU anyway, but the Princeton Review made me more interested in coming here.”\nAs a prospective journalism major, Conaway said that it was the newspaper’s ranking – 13th in the country – that made him more interested in attending IU. \nMcKaig said he’s not sure how the Princeton Review can actually evaluate a matrix that makes IU a party school, or any other ranking for that matter. \n“Everyone I talk to says IU is the most beautiful campus they have ever seen, but it’s not even in the Princeton Review’s top 20,” McKaig said. “That makes me question the accuracy.”
(08/27/07 3:23am)
As Bloomington City Clerk Regina Moore held up a quilt donated to Middle Way House, she noted that the freshmen participating in IU’s New Student Service Day were similar to the patches on the blanket.\n“We’re kind of insignificant on our own,” Moore said. “But all together, we can make some sort of a difference.”\nTwo-hundred-fifty freshmen turned up to 22 different locations Saturday in Bloomington to volunteer in the second annual event put on by the IU Office of Orientation.\nStudents went through a brief introduction at 9 a.m. before setting out to locations across town, from United Way to the Shalom Community Center. Freshman Janelle Phillips helped paint a stage and stairs while volunteering at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, a non-profit organization that showcases work by local artists. \n“I think it’s important to be a part of the community that you are going to be living in,” Phillips said. \nOther students who volunteered at the Bloomington Playwrights Project washed the floors and windows, pulled weeds and bagged sand that was used in a play last year.\n“We’re not really doing anything theatrical,” said Sonja Johnson , the board president of the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s board of \ndirectors. \n“What’s important is that the place is clean,” she said.\n Floors weren’t the only thing that needed cleaning Saturday.\nAt the Bloomington Animal Care and Control, student volunteers bathed the shelter’s puppies and cleaned their crates and a play room where prospective adopters play with the animals.\nFreshman Courtney Strother , a non-profit business major, said she loves to work with animals. \n“With Welcome Week, (I’ve) been busy every day and had a lot of late nights, but it’s worth it,” Strother said.\nKathy Obrakta , volunteer program director at Bloomington Animal Care and Control, said it is nice to have as many helpers as they did during New Student Service Day, but volunteers are needed on a consistent basis. \nWith the program in only its second year, Paul York, one of the coordinators of the event, said they didn’t really have any expectations concerning turnout. Although only half of the students who made reservations to participate in the event actually showed, up, York said there were more than enough volunteers to go around.\n“We’re just glad that we are able to provide all of the organizations with a group of people,” he said. \nThe number of students who participate in Student Service Day is thrilling, said Emily McCallister , an assistant director in the IU Office of Orientation .\n“We had an excellent crowd,” York said. “It’s a great introduction for new students to service at IU.”