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(10/20/08 4:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Alpha Tau Omega embraced the community Saturday, welcoming Harmony School students into its home.The event – in its second year – included ATO members and parents, students and faculty of the Harmony School.ATO Philanthropy Co-chair junior Paul Callero said the day was about giving back.“We wanted to get closer to the community,” he said, “so we planned an event where (the students) would walk around campus and then come back to our house where we would have festivities such as basketball and football and a three-legged race. After hanging out with the kids for about an hour, they go back to their school and finish up with a couple activities.”Members of ATO agreed the event was beneficial to both the school and themselves.“We did this last year with the kids,” said sophomore Patrick Kilrea. “It was a lot of fun, and they all had a really fun time when they were here. It’s nice for us to give back to the community, and it’s nice for the community to get more involved with the school.”Mary Beth Roska, annual fund director for Harmony, said the event had a basis in a friendship between members of the fraternity and the school.“Somebody knew somebody who knew somebody with ATO last year,” she said, “and they worked with us and they did a phenomenal job of working with our kids.”
(10/20/08 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When Marcus Aguilar crossed the finish line Saturday morning to win the race, he said running is a habit. But this was the first time he ran the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone.This year’s Run for the End Zone included 65 teams that participated in the 5K run or one-mile walk.Aguilar, along with more than 1,250 others, ran to benefit the Jill Behrman Emerging Leaders Scholarships and Jill’s House, a second home for cancer patients in Bloomington. VIDEO: Run for the End Zone“It’s a miracle,” said Mike Baxter, a resident of Jill’s House.Baxter was diagnosed with cancer in April 2008. He came to Jill’s House as a last resort and was worried at first about the situation.However, he said he fell in love with the community and the people around him.Baxter is treated at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, one of only five of its kind in the United States. His treatment is partly made possible by the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone.Jill’s House relies heavily on donations from outside sources and the money the run raises.“The run has raised probably over $50,000 for us over the last few years,” said Peg Howard, president of Jill’s House. “It’s a lot of money. But it’s a big house to run and it takes a lot of money to run it, so we’re grateful for everything we get.”Jill’s House provides a place for patients undergoing treatment at the MPRI in Bloomington to stay. It offers its residents low-cost housing, Internet access, laundry services, kitchens and other comforts in the time of uncertainty that comes with a cancer diagnosis.“This is the event that really set us off to begin with,” Howard said, “so it’s been very important to us. It brings a lot of awareness as to the need for such a facility. I think that’s the main importance for people to understand how much this place is needed.”A group from Jill’s House took part in the walk to show its appreciation for the work that is done on their behalf.“They were very excited about the event,” Howard said, “and I think they understand that without events like this, we wouldn’t be able to support the house.”Andrea Mercatante, a second-year graduate student and chair of the student steering committee for the run, is one of the students who helped organize the event this year. Mercatante said she believes the event offers amazing opportunities to Jill’s House residents.“I think it’s fantastic,” she said. “Jill’s House is a fantastic facility. It’s basically a home away from home for cancer patients who pick up everything they own and come to Bloomington for six to 13 weeks. If you have a chance, you should really go to the facility.”
(10/17/08 5:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Students at IU might have to call some of their professors by a different title.Karen Hanson, IU provost, announced Thursday that the positions of vice provost for faculty and academic affairs and vice provost for undergraduate education are now available for faculty within the University wishing to apply.The provost of the University reports directly to the IU president and serves as the main academic officer at IU. Vice provosts act as intermediaries for the provost and help manage some of the provost’s responsibilities. Vice provost for research and vice provost for enrollment management are examples of such positions.The position of vice provost for undergraduate education is a new position to the University.“Part of the reason for that is that two increasingly differentiated foci were there in that office – one undergraduates and the other faculty and academic affairs,” Hanson said. “Because those two things were emerging as different foci, and because a lot of new initiatives on this campus revolve around undergraduates, it seemed a prodigious time to think about a vice provost in that direction who had full responsibility for the undergraduate activities.”The vice provost for undergraduate education position will encompass activities involved with the undergraduate experience, Hanson said.“The position will be where University Division advising is located, where some of the academic support centers are located, where Writing Tutorial Services will be located,” she said. “All of those things that primarily serve undergraduates.”The position will also handle transfers and the implementation of general education and scholarship opportunities.The position of vice provost for faculty and academic affairs will cover a variety of responsibilities, ranging from tenure to leaves of absence and grievances filed against the University by faculty members, Hanson said. Other responsibilities Hanson mentioned include faculty advocacy, faculty governance, new career services and a variety of celebrations for faculty and staff.The applicants need to have experience in their respective fields and be capable of leading and excelling in their positions.“We’re expecting these to be filled by full-rank, tenure-track faculty who have a track record relevant to the duties that they’ll have,” Hanson said. “On the one side, we want to see involvement with faculty affairs. The person who’s involved in the undergraduate education side should have a track record of involvement in undergraduate education.”The new vice provosts will begin their terms on Jan. 1. Applications can be submitted at vpfaasearch@oncourse.iu.edu and vpuesearch@oncourse.iu.edu.
(10/17/08 3:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jill Behrman was what her mother Marilyn Behrman called a “typical college student.”“She changed her major every time she registered,” Behrman said. “She had some things to figure out, but she was headed in the right direction. She had a great future ahead of her.”That future was cut tragically short. Jill Behrman disappeared in May 2000, and her remains were found in March 2003.In her memory, the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone was formed.With about $8,000 in earnings last year, this year’s Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone, set to take place Saturday, looks to raise twice as much.“I think that’s amazing,” Marilyn Behrman said, “especially all these years later. Most of the students on campus didn’t know Jill. I think it’s really amazing. I see that the students want to be involved, not just in volunteer work, but in life in general.”This year’s run will include 65 teams. These campus organizations plan to participate in the 5K run or one-mile walk. More than 1,250 people have already registered for the run this year, compared to last year’s total of 1,101.The event took months of work and planning to organize.“We started in the beginning of the summer looking for sponsors,” said Anne McElherne, lead graphic designer and residential hall team coordinator for the event. “Then, after finding sponsors, we started putting together a lot of the marketing materials and trying to get team information out there.”The funds raised by the event will go toward the Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship and Jill’s House, an organization that provides housing for patients undergoing outpatient therapy at the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington.The run is sponsored by 22 organizations, including IU Athletics, the IU Alumni Association, the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, the Student Recreational Sports Association and T.I.S. College Bookstore. The sponsors have provided monetary donations as well as food and services, McElherne said.The event will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday with registration, she said. An emcee will be walking around raffling off prizes.Speakers for the event will include Eric and Marilyn Behrman and Mike Baxter, a current MPRI patient who currently lives at Jill’s House.There are still ways to get involved, including volunteering or registering to run on race day. Those who do not want to run can donate $20 to become Spirit Supporters.For information about registration and volunteering, the official Web site for the Run is www.iurecsports.org/jbrez. For more information on Jill’s House and the Jill Behrman Emerging Leader Scholarship, go to www.jills-house.org or www.iurecsports.org/node/247.“Everybody’s just excited about this opportunity to do something good,” Marilyn Behrman said.
(10/17/08 3:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Veterinarian Dr. Lauren Bowling said the stench was horrible.“It smelled of stool,” she said, “of dog poop and cat poop.”It was more than that. It was the smell of more than 200 animals – neglected, abused and mistreated.The Humane Society of the United States, in partnership with the Monroe County Humane Association and several other local organizations, rescued 67 animals from a puppy mill that forced more than 200 animals to live in inhumane conditions on Oct. 8. Officials said this was an isolated incident and that the mill is still in business.Despite their best efforts, due to a loophole in the laws regarding puppy mills in the state of Indiana, the rescuers could only retrieve 67 of the animals and had to leave about 150 animals behind in poor conditions through a voluntary surrender by the puppy mill owner.Officials declined to name the mill or give any information about its owner.Bowling said she thought the rescue was an exhilarating experience. “The rescue itself was almost like an adrenaline rush,” Bowling, a veterinarian at the Bloomington Cat Hospital said. “They asked me to go over to the house to help out. When we actually got on site, there were 12 or 13 cars parked outside of the house.”A majority of the animals went to the humane society in Missouri while about 20 went to an organization in Illinois who helped with the rescue. Eleven of the animals went to the Bloomington Animal Shelter for care and to be prepared for adoption. Of those, two were adult dogs without any puppies, and two others were adult dogs with litters of pups.“All of them have of course been bathed, treated for fleas, vaccinated, been looked at by a vet and are in various stages of being made ready to be put up for adoption,” said Laurie Ringquist, director of the Bloomington Animal Shelter.Rescuers were upset they could not take all the animals away.“It’s tragic,” said Sarah Hayes, CEO of the Monroe County Humane Association. “It’s very sad to have to leave any of them in that situation. We have to feel good about what we were able to do, but it’s very hard to leave so many behind.”Bowling said she believes legislation needs to be passed regarding the situation.“If the counties don’t have legislation on it, there has to be some state-wide legislation.” Bowling said. “Unfortunately, Indiana is really bad about the number of unregulated puppy mills they have.”Hayes agreed and said the loophole in the law that allows for mills that do not sell directly to pet stores to forego inspection must be corrected.“We have to strengthen the Indiana Animal Cruelty Code,” Hayes said, “and we have to instate some sort of legislation that holds these commercial breeding facilities to a higher standard.”Currently, one of the adult dogs mentioned has been spayed and is up for adoption. The two with puppies will be unavailable until the puppies have reached the point where they can live on their own. The final dog is being checked for tumors on its body that might be cancerous. Should they be found to be benign, the dog will be spayed and put up for adoption.To contact the Bloomington Animal Shelter regarding the animals, call 349-3492.
(10/16/08 4:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU students with Stafford loans have nothing to fear about losing money due to the struggling economy and the credit crunch, IU officials said.“It’s important that students remember that their federal Stafford loans come directly from the Department of Education,” said Roy Durnal, senior associate director of student financial assistance. “There is no lender involved. It’s directly from the Department of Education. Students at IU-Bloomington won’t have a problem because of the direct loan program that we participate in.”However, Durnal said, many students have to turn to private loans and parent loans to pay for the full costs of college. In these areas, students might run into trouble. “Those both go through credit checks,” Durnal said. “In the case of private student loans, that does come directly from a private lending institution, so money in those private loan areas is getting tight. Part of what the government is trying to do is make money more available for situations like student loans.“Parent loans come from the Department of Education, so again there is no intermediary or bank involved, but the parent goes through a credit check. We would expect that there would be situations where parents, due to the economy, would have a little more difficult time getting approved through a credit check.”The parent loans and private student loans are different because they come from different sources. While a private institution can increase the interest rate on a loan, the Department of Education cannot, and so the department’s loaning rates will stay constant due to the nature of their loans. Students whose parents pass the credit check for their parent loan will continue to receive the same loan they have been. However, students with loans in the private sector might see a squeeze on the aid they get.Some examples of private institutions that provide student loans are Sallie Mae, CitiBank, Chase and other banking institutions.“Students may have difficulty because some banks and some lending institutions are either getting out of the student loan business or certainly tightening their credit,” Durnal said.Essentially, the issue with the parent loans is with the credit scores of the parents. The issue with private loans is the institutions have too many loans out.Application for the parent loan, which can substitute for a private loan and, at this point, could be seen as a safer investment, is simple, Durnal said.“The student has to be a student in good standing making academic progress at Indiana University-Bloomington,” Durnal said. “The parent fills out a single-page application form. Basically, they tell us some basic information – name, address, how much they’re requesting – and we submit that information to the Department of Education, who does a credit check on that parent.”Information on parent loans can be found on the Office of Student Financial Aid’s Web site, which is www.indiana.edu/~sfa. The office can also be contacted at 855-0321.
(10/10/08 3:49am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Congressman Baron Hill, D-9th, will come to IU on Sunday to speak to students and hear their opinions on the major issues of the day: the economy, the war in Iraq and the election.“We’ve actually been chasing him around all over the district,” said Katie Moreau, Hill’s communications director. “He’s basically been explaining to people what happened over the past few weeks and his decision-making in his vote against the bailout packages. The intent is to see what kinds of suggestions people have for how to address our economic problems.”Hill’s discussion will mostly focus on the economy, Moreau said, while there will be some talk of the war in Iraq and the elections. She said most of the talk will be student-driven, as Hill will listen to students’ concerns about prevalent issues and bring their suggestions back to Congress.“He will listen to the concerns of the college students,” Moreau said. “And he wants to introduce himself to those who don’t know who he is.”Moreau said Hill also hopes to get the word out to the student body about his campaign and bring in some of their votes.“The student vote is important,” Moreau said. “Everyone’s vote is important. Baron does a very good job of getting around the district and talking to all of his constituents, and part of his constituency is in Bloomington with the students.”Hill will begin his tour of campus and the surrounding area at 4 p.m. at the Monroe County Democratic Headquarters, at 320 E. Third Street. After his discussion there, he will head to the Teter Formal Lounge at 5 p.m. for another talk. Following this meeting, he will leave for his “Greek Town Hall” event at 6 p.m. at Kappa Alpha Theta, 441 N. Woodlawn Ave.
(10/09/08 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Following a Federal Reserve federal funds rate cut of half a percent, banks around the world followed suit in a global effort to help the struggling economy.This global rate cut, along with the $700 billion bailout plan passed last Friday, are part of an effort to alleviate the current credit crisis and ease economic concerns. IU experts said they think the effects of this rate cut could be complicated and multi-faceted, but believe the Fed’s move could put banks in better position to lend money to individuals for car, student and housing loans, among others.“What a cut in the federal funds rate does is make it cheaper for banks to borrow funds from one another,” said Catherine Bonser-Neal, associate professor of finance at the Kelley School of Business at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. “They then have more funds to then lend out to individuals when they need to do so. It represents an increase in the money supply.”The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and central banks in Canada, Sweden, China and Switzerland all cut rates by half a percent Wednesday. The central bank of Japan endorsed the move but did not cut rates due to worries of inflation. In the United States, the Fed from 2 percent to 1.5 percent – a move that will have a wide array of effects, IU experts say. The international cuts will lower the rates banks need to pay other banks when they borrow, so banks will be more willing to borrow money for loans to other people. This will increase the money supply because banks will begin to lend money to businesses and consumers more freely. Experts think this could increase confidence in the economy.The cuts arise because the current problem in the economy stems mainly from a credit crunch – banks are unwilling to lend money among themselves and to businesses or consumers because they have a large number of defaulted and/or unpaid loans, which increased their debt to dangerous levels. By decreasing the costs of lending money, the Fed gave the banks a chance to again begin to accept loans and spur on resurgence in the economy.This cut could negatively affect inflation. Because more money is in the economy, the value of a dollar falls. But Bonser-Neal said this problem is of little concern in this situation.“Right now,” she said, “I don’t think that there are inflationary pressures as a result of the Federal Reserve action. Inflationary pressures will arise when they’re increasing the supply over and above what is warranted by the demand, but, right now, there’s just a huge demand for funds because banks are not willing to lend to each other.”The short-term effects on the economy, Bonser-Neal said, are two-fold.“The federal funds rate is the rate that banks charge each other when they’re lending out their excess reserves,” she said. “This means banks can borrow from each other more cheaply and then can send their money out into the economy. The other short-term effect is that it’s a way to increase confidence in the Fed’s seriousness and ability to address this financial crisis.”This is not to say these effects will occur. For example, on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped a total of about 200 points after the emergency rate cut. This shows confidence has not necessarily increased as a result of the rate slash, and people might see this cut as the Fed showing concern rather than the ability to address the problem, Bosner-Neal said.In the long term, however, this cut will allow banks to regain confidence and become “buyers” in the lending market again. Because people mainly look at the equity, or stock, as a market indicator, the rapid change in stocks may cause the cut to take a longer period of time to resolve economic issues, said Allen Snively, a lecturer of finance for the IU Kelley School of Business. Experts stress financial recovery will not happen overnight and that both lenders and consumers should be patient and ride out the coming struggles.“You can expect equity markets to improve before the overall economy – stocks are a ‘leading indicator’ – but the economy is going to take some time to improve,” he said.
(10/07/08 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>John Brady was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, an average student and member of the ice hockey club team. “I was your stereotypical frat boy,” Brady, 37, said. “I grew up here in Bloomington.”Then, the unthinkable happened.“My accident was in 1991,” he said. “My little brother returned my motorcycle without telling me he wrecked it. I rode it, and I couldn’t steer it. Since he brought it back, I thought it was rideable. He said that I pounded on some railing.”Brady suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma for six months. He lost his sense of taste and smell due to damage to his olfactory nerve and lost all feeling in his left leg. After nearly two years of rehabilitation, including a spinal-fusion surgery that allowed him to walk again, Brady has returned to IU to finish his associate’s degree in general studies. He currently has 12 credit hours left before completing his degree.Cori Mitchell, also 37, shares a similar story.She suffered her traumatic brain injury when she was involved in a car accident in November of 1987 in Colorado. After a month in a coma, two months in the hospital and three months of rehabilitation, Mitchell came to Bloomington to take courses at Ivy Tech Community College and IU. She maintained a C average while holding a job and dealing with her condition. “The focus of my life was what I could become, but now it’s changed,” Mitchell said. “Now it’s trying to get back what I lost.”Mitchell lost a lot, by all accounts.She now suffers from ataxia, a lack of coordination above the brain stem, which can cause tremors. In her rehabilitation, Mitchell had to learn how to breathe properly, coordinate her body, retrain her eyes to dilate themselves to light and many other functions our bodies normally perform automatically.“Breathing is number one,” she said. “I had to do this thing where my mother and father built this ladder made of wood and hung it from the ceiling of our recreation room. I had to swing from bar to bar, which helped the body build up coordination. At first, I had to have my parents spot me 100 percent to get from bar to bar, but eventually I learned how to swing and how to move. One of the hardest tasks was that.”Brady had to use a method of training on parallel bars to learn how to walk again.“I could only get, like, two or three inches, like baby steps, just to retrain my muscles to be able to walk,” Brady said. Both Brady and Mitchell now face many challenges in their daily lives that most people take for granted, the biggest of which is transportation.“I’m not able to drive,” Mitchell said. “Everywhere I go must be public transportation. I can’t just get up and go. My life is requiring much more planning and structure.”Although day-to-day tasks have become more of a struggle for Brady and Mitchell, they have decided to learn from their accidents rather than use them as an excuse to give up on life.An example of this sentiment is Mitchell’s work with abstract art, one of her passions. She enters her pieces in art contests, and, although she has yet to win, her efforts show the strength she has within herself to continue doing what she loves despite the obstacle of ataxia.“I’m very good with colors and what colors go well together,” she said. “I like to kind of be alone with my art and with my radio on.”Brady’s injury has brought him a different perspective on life.“For me, it brought a sense of maturity,” Brady said. “I grew into accepting people for what they are. I was mature enough to know what was right and wrong, but I still made those wrong choices.”The two deal with life as it comes, take each day as a blessing and face their struggles in stride. Mitchell believes that life is full of obstacles, but that you can get through them with the help of others and your own strength.“If you look around, everyone has their own set of problems,” Mitchell said. “You are not alone.”
(10/07/08 4:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>They come to room 018 of the Speech and Hearing Center on the first Monday of every month. They come with their burdens, their personal tragedies and their faults. They come with fears, doubts and uncertainties. But they also come with something greater. Something powerful. They come with their stories.The Brain Injury Support Group (BISG), founded in 1999 by Laura Karcher, a clinical associate professor, and several other members, was designed to be a place where people with Traumatic Brain Injuries could come to tell those stories, to share their experiences and to create a support system to help them get through their situations.“It was started by myself, a girl who at the time was working on her master’s degree in social work and a brain injury survivor,” Karcher said. “The three of us started the group.”The group attracts anywhere between six and 15 members per meeting. They come from all walks of life; as clinical associate professor Rebecca Eberle put it, “brain injury doesn’t discriminate.”“We have people who are in their late teens, early 20s. We have people that are in their 60s,” Eberle said. “We have people who haven’t pursued higher education. We have people who have Ph.Ds.”So they come, and they tell. They tell, and they listen, and they learn. Sometimes they cry. Sometimes they laugh. But they all share.“They really derive a lot of information and support from each other,” Karcher said. “We’re there to facilitate. We’re not lecturing. It’s a collaborative group.”Within their stories there is tragedy, triumph and power. They tell them so they can be heard, so others might find within themselves similar characteristics and be inspired by their struggle to continue to fight on. Eberle said she believes this communication between members facilitates a great support system.“One of the things I find powerful in the group is how their own personal experiences can help another person understand their own circumstances better,” Eberle said. “I can’t tell you how many times someone comes into the group and someone starts sharing an experience. And there’s this epiphany and somebody else going ‘That’s just how I feel. I didn’t think anybody else felt like that. I thought I was the only one.’ I think those moments are beautiful, and I think that’s why people come back to the group.”The impact of BISG goes beyond how it affects those who have suffered a traumatic brain injury. It also affects those who learn from their stories, who listen and see how they develop and grow despite their circumstances. Caitlin Ufer and Anna Sonner, both second-year graduate students, work with the members of the group, and they have shared a number of different experiences through BISG.“I’ve learned that everyone has something to give,” Sonner said. “That people may come feeling depressed or frustrated with their injury, but they’re still able to arrive at therapy and give an insight or a technique to the others that they’ve found useful.”The members of BISG have learned to live with their injuries, and have even found ways to shed a positive light on them.“They talked about finding the positives,” Ufer said. “Nobody wants a brain injury, but you have to find a positive outlook. You have to find the positive spin. You have to find the good things in life. They talked about learning new things about themselves and just finding little things in life that make you happy and being satisfied with what you have. Being glad that you can walk and that you can talk and see. Just being grateful for what you do have as opposed to being ungrateful for what you don’t and what has been taken away.”The group will meet next at 6 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Room 018 of the Speech and Hearing Center. For more information, Karcher can be reached at 855-6251.
(10/07/08 3:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s safe to say freshman Seungyeob Kim is a little out of his element.Hailing from South Korea, Kim came to IU hoping – if he had a roommate – to bunk with someone from a different culture and find a new home away from home.“I hoped to meet some Americans because I need to improve my English,” he said.Kim never got that chance.When it came time to find out who his roommates were, Kim learned that he was going to be living with three other students from South Korea, which he said bothered him.He also learned he would be living in the fifth floor lounge of Curry Hall in Read Center.IU’s freshman class is its largest in history, which means for the second year in a row many students living in residence halls will sleep in lounges instead of rooms. At the beginning of the year, 143 students were assigned to live in residence halls, and 41 still do, said Sara Ivey-Lucas, assistant director of housing assignments for Residential Programs and Services. The majority of students living in campus lounges are either graduate or international students.IU faced the same problem two years ago when it took four weeks to get about 80 students out of lounges, Ivey-Lucas said.This year’s problem was almost twice as bad.Students living in lounges only have to pay 80 percent of the costs of living in an actual room. But Kim said there are few other benefits of living in such a space.“I think some people didn’t recognize us as living here,” Kim said. “We are kind of isolated in this room. I’m not a very active person, and the culture is different, so I don’t know how to hang out with the Americans.”Kim was also bothered by other factors of lounge life.“Other people from around this room kind of bothered me because they thought this was a lounge and would open my doors many times,” Kim said.Luckily for Kim, some spaces opened up, giving him the living situation he wanted at the beginning of his term at IU.“A week ago, my roommates left,” he said, “and now I’m pretty good because I have a big room, and it’s alone as I always wished.”In order to correct these problems, Ivey-Lucas said the campus administration has been working on long-term goals, such as renovating residence halls and building new housing for students.RPS will start construction later this year to replace buildings that were formerly part of the Ashton complex, said Patrick Connor, executive director of RPS. The new apartment-style housing is scheduled to open in fall 2010.For this year, Ivey-Lucas said she hopes, come spring semester, all of the students in lounges will have found new homes in the residence halls.However, Kim said he feels comfortable in his new element, and he wishes to keep living where he is.For some students, lounge life is not as glamorous as the one Kim leads now. However, as finals come and go and students leave campus, the 41 remaining students living in lounges will probably find a new home in one of IU’s 10,000 on-campus housing options.However, Ivey-Lucas said she believes this problem will not go away anytime soon.“My personal opinion is that our freshman class will always be around 7,000 students,” she said, “and that will always put RPS in the position where we could have overflow housing.”
(10/07/08 1:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With a turnout of more than 600 students last year, this year’s Law Day event boasted similar numbers as students took time to learn about opportunities offered by 108 law schools across the nation.With only 192 law schools in the country, according to the Law Day informational Web site, IU brought more than half of the law schools in the nation, such as Cornell University, Duke University, Northwestern University, Columbia University, New York University and the University of Connecticut.“It’s a good event,” said Gabriel Rosenberg, director of admissions at the University of Connecticut School of Law. “It’s always very valuable.”Students said they believed the event offered many opportunities to network and find out more about law schools.“I just wanted to get to know what some of the schools offer and talk to some of the recruiters to see what they are looking for in students,” said sophomore Paulina Rabell. “I’m just trying to make up my mind if I really want to go to law school or not. I’m a political science major, so I might want to do something in that field. I’m not sure.”Other members of the IU community said they thought the event was a great idea and that it was very helpful.“I’m kind of getting off to a late start,” said junior Arielle McAlpin. “So I just wanted to get a feel of the schools I was interested in and talk to the people who represented the school. I think it just helps (students) keep their options open.”With the competitive nature of law school, firms are advising students to start looking early.“I had an internship at a law firm last summer,” said sophomore Justin Shukas, “and they said to start looking at schools now and get ready for when you apply.”The event offered students the ability to look at regional or national options.“I looked at a lot of Midwest schools because I’m from Chicago,” said sophomore Sara Rebmann.“We’re Connecticut,” Rosenberg said. “Not a lot of people that go to Indiana are from the East Coast, but a lot of people are interested.”The event showed recruiters the strength of IU’s pre-law programs.“It shows that you have some really interested students,” said Lurlene Barry, assistant director of admissions at the New York Law School. “I’ve seen at least 20 students already. They’re asking really good questions, and they’re not just coming and picking up information. They want to know about the programs, our locations, what we offer, and I really like that.”Members of Phi Alpha Delta, a pre-law fraternity, and the Legal Studies Club were also present.“We’re definitely looking to increase our chapter size,” said junior Kelley Gordon, a member of Phi Alpha Delta. “Aside from the enormous alumni network, we give students an opportunity to get involved with community service, professional events, social events and fundraisers. Anything you want to get involved with, we offer.”The event offered students an opportunity to get ahead of the game and allowed them to potentially find where their future could lead.“I think it’s just a great way to bring all of the law schools here and personally talk to people from the admissions and just getting more information for starting out my process of looking at law schools,” Rebmann said.
(10/06/08 5:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As floods of people went to watch the one-mile kid’s run at the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer event on Saturday, one group stayed put. They were Team Geno, a team of runners formed in memory of a family member, Geno McAfee, who died from brain cancer.“He fought the battle that most people fight with cancer from March of 2001 until 2005,” said Sarah McAfee, Geno’s sister. “He lived a lot longer than most people. He was still alive the first race we ran. It’s a great thing to get all these people who have been fighting the same battle and a lot of people struggling with that same kind of loss of a loved one.” In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, members of the IU Foundation partnered with various businesses across Bloomington to sponsor Hoosiers Outrun Cancer, an event aimed at bringing digital mammogram technology to Bloomington.Geno McAfee was a state champion wrestler from Bloomington High School North, and he wrestled at IU for four years.“He was just a healthy, athletic, good-looking guy,” Sarah McAfee said. “It’s a real tragedy.”Many schools and associations, including Bloomington North, Bloomington High School South and the IU Alumni Association, along with members of the IU women’s basketball squad, participated in the event. IU President Michael McRobbie was also present. He said he believes the event does a great job of increasing awareness and was delighted the University could support it.“As my wife said,” McRobbie said, “we lost both of our first spouses to cancer, and we both have three children. We know what it’s like to go through that, so we want to be as supportive as we can to all those people who are contributing their time and resources to it.” Women’s basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack spoke at the event, and the band Straight, No Chaser sang the national anthem. The event included the 5K run and walk, one-mile kid’s run and one-mile family walk.Legette-Jack gave an inspirational speech, telling the crowd that one person at a time, they could overcome this disease.“I can tell you, passionately, with all of my faith and all of my desire,” Legette-Jack said, “that just one day, we’re not going to see a 6-year-old have cancer. One day, we’re not going to have someone take our breath away, because we’re going to fight.”As for Team Geno, they went in memory of their lost loved one, and gained some memories in return.“He was a great person,” McAfee said, “and a person we want to celebrate and remember.”
(10/06/08 5:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the credit crunch worsens and people continue to lose confidence in the stock market and the economy as a whole, a controversial saving grace appeared for the affected financial institutions Friday in the form of a 263-171 vote in the House of Representatives.Though IU professors know the $700 billion bailout plan passed by both the House and the Senate will involve intervention into private financial institutions such as banks and lenders, they are unsure of the impact it will have on the country.These loans will remove what clinical associate professor of business economics and public policy Andreas Hauskrecht called “toxic assets” – those assets financial institutions had in their portfolios that failed in the market, such as real estate loans and stocks.“If the plan works how they think it will work, then the negative impact from the financial sector problems on the real sector will be smaller,” Hauskrecht said. “In other words, the recession, if we get one, will be not as bad and probably shorter.”However, Hauskrecht also said this bill is laced with several problems.“If the price that this fund offers to buy those assets is too low then those financial institutions are not willing to sell them, because if they sell it too low, they have to realize it in their balance sheets and they have to write off too much,” Hauskrecht said. “If the fund buys those toxic assets at a high price, then the risk that this fund will end up with huge losses that the taxpayer has to come up with will be very big.”The fund is paid for by taxpayer dollars, and the banks are trying to capitalize on the situation in order to compensate for the losses they developed through their holdings of toxic assets, Hauskrecht said. In looking at the situation, banks might see an advantage in trying to sell high in order to get rid of their toxic assets at a higher price than they got them for, thus gaining from their losses rather than suffering from them. However, this problem is resolvable, Hauskrecht said.“One way to deal with the incentive problem will be that the fund, by buying toxic assets from those institutions, gets some preferred stock in exchange,” he said. “In other words, the fund will benefit from an increase in the stock value of those institutions, and therefore the taxpayer will benefit from that.”This bill could have several positive results, said professor of finance Bob Jennings.“Banks are getting very unwilling to lend to each other and lend to businesses and individuals,” he said. “If the government can establish a market for these securities (toxic assets) and get some of these securities off the books of the banks that are holding them, then the banks will in fact resume more normal lending. That will allow the businesses to continue in business and will allow consumers to continue to borrow.”However, as far as incentives go, it could also have negative effects.The idea among many economists, Hauskrecht said, is that this bailout is what’s called a “moral hazard,” meaning it is setting a precedent for allowing institutions to fail and then rescue them once things get messy. Setting such a precedent could give banks more of an incentive to delve into riskier prospects of lending and other activities in the hopes of making money with the federal government behind them to catch them if they fall.Whatever way the bill shapes up, Hauskrecht said, it is the job of the next president to make certain the economy gets back on track. In fact, he said he believes the measure of the next president’s success will be his ability to deal with the onset of this economic crisis and with the biggest problems in this country – Medicare and social security – in economic terms. However, there might be little hope on this front.“Given the budget situation, the next administration is paralyzed,” Hauskrecht said. “They will not have the funding or the resources to tackle the two biggest problems that we have. I could be cynical and say it doesn’t matter who becomes president anyway because they will spend the next three to five years cleaning up this crisis, and that’s the real tragedy behind it.”
(10/03/08 4:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As Sen. Joseph Biden prepared for the debate of his life, his fans prepared to hear him. In a small, cramped room with a creaky wood floor strewn with chairs, they gathered.They met to see a debate.What they got was a performance, as they said Biden sent Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin down a “bridge to nowhere” during Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate.“I think Senator Biden is strong,” said senior Anna Strand, president of the IU College Democrats. “I think he makes great points. He’s had a few verbal stumbles, but those will happen in these kinds of situations. I think he was extremely strong.”Each candidate had 90 seconds to respond to each question, and members of the IU College Democrats said they believed Biden did a solid job of covering the topics, while Palin struggled.The debate began with coverage of the economic problem, a situation that is a big focus of this election. Some of the topics were tax reform, the source of the credit crunch, health care and deregulation of business.“I think that Biden is doing a better job of defining what’s happened under Wall Street while Governor Palin has been trying to cover up the fact that the deregulation Senator McCain supports are part of what got us into this problem,” Strand said.The two also discussed topics ranging from climate change to gay marriage.“I think that Governor Palin keeps saying her area of expertise is energy policy,” said sophomore Laura Carlson. “I think that’s the only issue she has any idea about, whereas Senator Biden, just over his entire career, has a good idea on every issue. His strengths are his expertise. I think he understands each issue and the history of it. He’s worked really hard on legislation. He actually understands the issues, whereas Governor Palin is just reciting lines.”As the debate went on, they moved to discussions on the war in Iraq. While Palin argued for no timeline for the war in Iraq on the basis of not losing the war, Biden suggested the troop numbers in Iraq need to be cut back.They also discussed a nuclear Iran and war in Pakistan. Members of the IU College Democrats said they believed Palin showed her lack of expertise in the field through her responses.“Governor Palin has zero international experience,” Carlson said. “She hasn’t focused on the Iraq war. She really has no idea about international policies.”Strand said she thought Biden did a good job of keeping his image consistent with how he portrays himself in the media – as an experienced and well-spoken senator – while Palin looked, at times, foolish.“I think she’s proved she doesn’t know what’s going on in America today,” Carlson said. “She’s been focused on her interstate issues. She doesn’t understand national or international issues. When asked a question she doesn’t know the answer to, she’s just going to her talking points.”
(10/01/08 9:36pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While the Lotus festival fuels interest in international music around Bloomington, students more interested in film might be wondering how they can experience the town’s international culture offerings.Long a multicultural campus, IU’s focus on international popular culture is reflected in its frequent foreign film series and foreign film studies classes. International film study is now prominent among students and faculty in classrooms across campus, said Department of Communication and Culture assistant professor Stephanie DeBoer. Because of that, students should start taking advantage of the multiple opportunities for viewing of international films available to them, she said.On campus and in Bloomington, there are many opportunities to see films from outside the U.S. or films that link the U.S. to the world, DeBoer said, mentioning the Ryder Film Series. She also said many area studies programs sponsor film screenings, such as the East Asian Studies Center’s biweekly East Asian film screenings on campus during the spring and fall semesters. Circolo Italiano, the Czech Club and the Scandinavian Film Series also have events coming up in October.If students’ cosmopolitan curiosity isn’t satisfied just by watching movies from across the globe, they can get involved in international film studies classes. Kevin Tsai, a second-year faculty member in the Department of Comparative Literature, will be teaching C291: Studies in Nonwestern Film in the spring and has studied international films and literature through his work in the departments of Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Cultures.Students’ interest in international film and an increased interest in professional research in the field has led to the near completion of a new minor at IU, known as Global Popular Culture, and film will be a major part of the minor, Tsai said.“I think it’s a little bit different from the regular pop culture studies (that are) basically limited to popular culture in the United States,” he said. As a curiosity about other cultures takes hold and students remain curious about international film, organizations like Ryder and the University itself will continue to offer opportunities for them to try something new and different.“What’s interesting to me about international film is that it gives you this immediacy,” Tsai said. “It gives you this chance to look into the lives of people of a different culture. With written works, there is a bit more of an effort required to see what other people in other cultures are like, but with film it’s right in front of your eyes. It enables us to see the common humanity between us all.”Information spotlightRyder Film Series What: The VisitorWhen: 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3Where: Upstairs at the School of Fine ArtsWhat: Son of RambowWhen: 7:45 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3Where: Downstairs at the School of Fine ArtsWhat: The Foot Fist WayWhen: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4Where: Upstairs at the School of Fine ArtsMore information can be found at www.theryder.comEast Asian Film Series What: RepatriationWhen: 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11Where: Woodburn Hall 101What: The Blood of Yingzhou District; Please Vote for MeWhen: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25Where: Woodburn Hall 101More information can be found at www.indiana.edu/~easc/programs/index.shtmlMore information on other departments’ international-film screenings can be found at www.events.iu.edu/iub.html
(10/01/08 4:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As he walked into the room, ducking his 6-foot-9 frame under the door with his 19-month-old son Jacob in his arms and his wife Maxine trailing behind him, 35-year-old Alan Henderson knew he was the big man on campus, just as he was 13 years ago when he played for IU.A former IU men’s basketball player with 12 years of NBA experience, Henderson was inducted into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday night.Henderson, the son of a physician, began playing basketball as a team sport when he was 7 years old. He hails from Morgantown, W.V. – though he graduated from Brebeuf Jesuit in Indianapolis – and said he came to IU because of its rich basketball history and then-coach Bob Knight.“At the time, they had a really good team,” Henderson said. “It was just a really comfortable fit. It was close to home, and I just thought we’d be really successful.”In his time at IU, Henderson had three 40-point games, a feat that places him in the top five all-time at IU in that category, said Bob Hammel, a former Herald-Times reporter who was also inducted into the Hall of Fame on Friday. However, his best memory from his time at IU has little to do with scoring.“I’d say the highlight (of my career) was in my freshman year when we advanced to the Final Four by beating UCLA, a team that had beaten us earlier in the year by 18 or 20 points,” said the Hoosiers’ 1995 team MVP. “They beat us in the first game of the year, so coming back to beat them in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four, that was a big victory for us.”Henderson also broke a variety of records during his time at IU, placing him in the record books in many different categories.“When I graduated,” he said, “I had the career record for blocks, I had the career record for rebounds, and I was in the top five for scoring, steals and assists.”In February 1993, Henderson suffered a crushing knee injury just before the NCAA Tournament. Prior to his injury, the Hoosiers were widely regarded as a championship contender.“We were No. 1 in the country. We were by far the best team in the country at that time in that season,” Henderson said. “It was just unfortunate. I tore my ACL in practice and I wasn’t able to play the way I needed to play for us. “Many Indiana fans remember that team and remember that injury. It’s kind of one of those things where every time I see a fan they’ll say, ‘Oh, if you hadn’t gotten hurt that year we would have won the championship.’ Of course, I don’t know how things would have turned out, but I know we would have had a great shot at it.”Henderson then went on to become the 16th overall draft pick in the 1995 NBA Draft, selected by the Atlanta Hawks. Henderson said his early years in Atlanta were some of his best experiences in the NBA. In his first season, the Hawks, coached by Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens, went 46-36 and advanced to the playoffs, making it as far as the Eastern Conference semi-finals before losing to the Orlando Magic in a five-game series. “My first season in Atlanta, we had a real good team,” Henderson said. “I’d say the first four years in Atlanta were a good time.”In following seasons, Henderson played alongside Dikembe Mutombo, a well-known center. He also went on to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers.In 2004, Henderson married his wife Maxine, the two now proud parents of 19-month-old Jacob. As for basketball, Henderson retired in 2007 after his final year with the 76ers. Over his 652-game NBA career, he averaged 7.8 points, five rebounds per game and 0.5 blocked shots per game.In his return to IU for induction into the Hall of Fame, Henderson made his presence known once again – it’s hard not to, being the biggest man in a room of 300 people. And with his induction, there will always be a spot in the hearts of IU fans for Henderson, who is now ingrained forever in the history of IU athletics, as are the other members of the Class of 2008 Hall of Fame inductees.
(09/30/08 4:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite a plunge of 777 points Monday, experts at IU say that the drop-off of the Dow Jones industrial average is not a major reason for concern or panic.“The drop in the Dow itself is not necessarily going to affect the economy,” Allen Snively, a finance lecturer, said Monday. “Certainly the psychological impact of a drop like we had today certainly can affect people’s behaviors in terms of their ability or willingness to spend money, but the economy isn’t affected by a single day like this.”Lawrence Davidson, an IU professor of business economics and public policy, said a stock market cycle must be studied over a long period of time in order to understand the strength of the market.“What happens to the stock market over a couple of years or even a decade could give you a measure of how strong or weak an economy is,” he said. “What happens over the course of one or two couple days or even over the course of several weeks could be driven by psychological factors that change and reverse themselves and, therefore, don’t tell you anything about anything that is more lasting.”But they caution against dismissing Wall Street’s woes.Following Congress’ rejection of a $700 billion bailout bill Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average suffered its greatest ever one-day point loss. The bailout plan would have brought forth a number of measures that could have been beneficial to the economy, said Timothy Williams, student advisor of the Financial Club at IU.“What the government plan will do is to absorb some of the bad debt that may eventually default and allow our lending to go on more normally than is currently possible,” Williams said. “This is essential for our economy, otherwise almost everyone will have very few means of financing.”Without financing, the economy will be unable to support research and development, capital expenditures and business growth, he said. “The plan also contains many components that deal with oversight and regulation, so none of this has to happen again,” Williams said.The Dow Jones industrial average has been swinging violently during the past several weeks followed by slight recoveries. But Monday’s rejection of the bailout bill resulted in the Dow’s largest percentage drop since 1987, Davidson said. There are several causes of the problem, but there is one fundamental problem, said Randall A. Heron, an IU assistant professor of finance.“There’s a credit crunch right now and a stumble in the housing market,” he said, “and a lot of leverage and quite a few things coming together. I think that it’s an indication of a big problem and concern that steps are not being taken quickly enough to address it.”It is hard to come up with one sweeping solution, Heron said. He said he believes the bailout plan is important to economic success.It is unclear where the market might head in the next few days. Even so, it is important to understand this is a time where market values are going to fall, and that, eventually, things will get better, Snively said.“Certainly lots of things have to happen,” he said. “Probably at least until we get confidence from the bailout package, it will take a good year or so to kind of let this slide through the system. We also have a global issue we have to deal with, and that is the belief by international investors and other countries that the U.S. is a safe place to invest in again. That may take a while. I would suggest that we have at least 12 months from whenever we get this thing passed.”But there are no guarantees a bailout plan will work, leaving many wondering what life will hold with a struggling economy.“If the stock markets are collapsing, then people’s wealth is declining,” Davidson said. “One immediate effect is that it may influence how much people are spending. Spending in the United States has leveled off or is not growing, so this can’t help there. If people aren’t spending, then firms are going to have trouble with their revenues, so then there may be some cutbacks in business activity as well. “It could be a serious thing if it keeps up.”
(09/29/08 4:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Twenty-five members of the IU College Republicans hooted, hollered, clapped and cheered as Sen. John McCain made his case for the presidency at a debate they weren’t sure was going to happen.Some of the issues members wanted to hear about were the theme of the night – national defense – along with perhaps the biggest issue of the election following the fall of the Dow Jones & Co. in the previous week: the economy.Justin P. Hill, political director of IU College Republicans and chairman of IU Students for John McCain, said he thought the debate hinged on McCain’s ability to come out strong and present his argument well. BLOG: The Politiker“He’s always been a person that’s been tentative to speak up on the economy and what he feels is strongest for the economy,” he said. “He must have a commanding voice.”Hill said he thought the debate was important for several reasons, the main one being that it could set the tone for the upcoming debates and give McCain control over the way the next debates will run overall. “I’d also like him to set up for Sarah Palin in the October 2 vice-presidential debate,” Hill said.McCain did not disappoint his IU constituents, and, as the debate went on, his comments were met with a smattering of applause, smiles, laughter and cheers from the members of the IU College Republicans, who said they thought McCain displayed more poise and presented his platforms in a more effective manner than Sen. Barack Obama.“I feel it’s been going pretty well for Senator McCain,” said member Taylor Wingo. “I feel like he’s stating his piece. He’s done a little bit of mudslinging, but, for the most part, he’s done a pretty good job of just stating the facts. I respect that.”Other members of the group agreed.They also said they thought McCain did a good job of defending against Obama’s criticisms during the debate and of proving his main points. However, they also said they thought McCain could have done a better job in some areas.“He needs to be more assertive when answering questions,” said member Ashley Freije. “He needs to be more on the offense instead of just defending what Obama is saying against him.”As the debate came to a close, members said they thought McCain proved himself to undecided voters and had effectively won.“I feel like Obama’s been on the backtrack most of the time,” said member Jacob Quinn. “McCain keeps attacking so Obama has to defend himself for most of the debate so far. He’s laid out his policies well. Some people don’t know exactly about his policies, so I think he did a good job of that tonight.”
(09/26/08 4:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU ties for the lowest-ranking school in the Big Ten for sustainability, according to a report card issued this week.The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental standards and practices, gave both IU and Northwestern C+ grades, making them the lowest Big Ten schools on the scale for the 2009 report. This is still an improvement for IU from last year’s D-range grade, said Sustainability Task Force Co-Chair Michael Hamburger. While IU ranked above average in the “investment priorities” and “student involvement” categories, it was average in areas such as “administration,” “climate change and energy,” “food and recycling,” “green building” and “transportation.”First-year graduate student in environmental studies and Sustainability Task Force member Elliot Hayden said, from his point of view, the administration got off with a better mark than they should have.“Frankly, I think that that C+ gave IU a little more credit than it deserves,” he said. “It really needs to be put into perspective.”Hayden, who has studied the system, said the actual grading was far less quantitative than it seems.“It’s not very scientific,” Hayden said. “For example, it’s not as if they’re going around and doing greenhouse gas inventories at the universities and then comparing them to other peer institutions and then saying, ‘Well, this university’s doing pretty well.’ It’s not like that at all. It seems to me to be a pretty sophomoric quantitative assessment.”There are several steps IU could take to improve its grade. Hayden said the University needs to sign a commitment making sustainability a priority, such as the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment. After that, the administration needs to begin providing funding for the office of sustainability, he said.“(IU President) Michael McRobbie basically gave a mandate saying, ‘We are going to create an office of sustainability, but we’re not going to give any funding for it,’” Hayden said. “‘That funding is going to have to come from not my office, but it’s going to have to come from elsewhere.’ It’s basically just a front. It’s a cover.”However, the administration maintained that it has put an emphasis on sustainability.“We all endorse the sustainability effort,” said Sue Talbot, a member of the board of trustees. “We feel very strongly about that and have been encouraging it for several years as a board of trustees.”The administration has taken some steps toward greater sustainability, Hamburger said.“The administration’s agreement to move forward with hiring of an interim director and launching of a sustainability office will add some much-needed energy into the program,” Hamburger said. “Now, I think we need to move forward from the stage of defining broad goals and a few pilot projects into broad implementation efforts. And we need to publicize the successes of our efforts. There’s a lot of good work going on at IU that deserves some attention.”Despite progress in the grade books and movements to improve, Hamburger said IU still has to continue to work toward keeping the campus sustainable and maintaining high standards for itself.“Our modest grade is a reminder that we have a long way to go,” Hamburger said.