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(04/21/06 3:52am)
More than 100 students gathered Thursday to demand an end to the "culture of rape" at IU and called on the University to implement a mandatory rape prevention workshop for all incoming students. The demonstration behind Woodburn Hall was the second annual "Stand Up and Be Counted" protest.\nThe predominantly female group wore black and each had a number, one through 131, the number they say is the best estimate of student rapes in the past year. \nTwenty-one students have reported rapes to the Bloomington and IU police departments since August 2005, according to a press release from gender studies professor Julie Thomas.\nThe group estimates that the actual number of rapes on campus in the past year is between 75 and 131, citing statistics that show 16 to 28 percent of victims usually file a police report.\n"I'd like to think more women are comfortable reporting rape, not that there's a higher incidence, but there's no way to tell," Thomas said.\nThe demonstration concluded with a list of three demands of the University. First, they ask that IU administration acknowledge the real number of assaults on campus each year, not just those that are reported. Second, they ask that all staff be fully trained in sexual assault prevention. The final demand is for the implementation of a mandatory first-year student rape prevention workshop, hopefully beginning next semester. \n"It's a massive project," Dean of Students Richard McKaig said. "You have about 6,500 students divided into groups of 30 and that's a challenging assignment."\nThough women made up a large part of the protest, several men also came, saying they wanted to make it clear that it is everyone's responsibility to end rape.\n"This is about the way men present their masculinity," said Nigel Pizzini, founder of the IU Men's Coalition. "This is not just a woman's problem. This affects us all"
(04/21/06 3:50am)
Sophomore Evan Holloway was shocked by the damage done to New Orleans last summer by Hurricane Katrina. But the damage he saw inspired him to help the region up close and personal.\nHolloway helped organize more than 200 students into Youth Advocating Leadership and Learning, known as Y'ALL, a group that has spent parts of the semester and spring break rebuilding areas the hurricane affected.\n"After we went down there again for spring break, we ran into some other students who said they got involved because they saw IU on TV," Holloway said.\nFor their work helping the damaged community, Y'ALL was honored with the Campus Program Award at the 19th Annual Division of Student Affairs Awards Reception Thursday afternoon in the Indiana Memorial Union.\nThe awards "recognize outstanding contributions to the division by students, staff, faculty and individuals in the Bloomington community," according to a press release.\nNancy Macklin, director of nursing at the IU Health Center, was recognized with the Shaffer Division Professional Staff Award for more than 30 years of dedication to healing students.\n"When I first came here, I'd go to events like this, and there would be people there who had been at the University for 20 or 30 years, and I'd wonder why people stay here that long," Macklin said. "Now I know because I have had that same, very satisfying experience here."\nThe Student Award was given to graduate student Danny Ambrose for his work with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender services on campus during the past two years.\n"I'm a California boy, so when I came here, I was wondering if it would be for me," he said. "But now that I'm leaving, I'm definitely going to miss it."\nSchool of Education professor Elizabeth Boling, who has worked on the campus judicial board and was described by one person who nominated her as "frighteningly well-organized," thanked the crowd of faculty and staff for honoring her with the Gordon Faculty Award.\n"I feel very privileged to talk to students during what is often the most critical part of their lives," she said.\nAn award from the dean is nice, Holloway said, but for most, it's not the end of the road. For example, Y'ALL has made a commitment to help rebuild areas Hurricane Katrina affected for at least another three years.\n"We go down there, and people wonder why Ole Miss and other places like that aren't bringing as many people in to help, and I just say it's because at IU we're badasses," Holloway said.
(04/10/06 5:15am)
Religious studies professor Mary Jo Weaver has not always been a popular figure.\nBecause of her criticism of the Roman Catholic church's positions on the role of women, abortion and birth control, religious leaders have refused to speak with her. Some of those angry with Weaver threatened to kill her. Others turned to throwing garbage at her.\nBut her colleagues' treatment of her starkly contrasted that of her detractors Friday afternoon. \n"We know her for her tireless Irish wit, humor and forthrightness," said former chair of the religious studies department Richard Miller. He introduced Weaver at her retirement lecture titled, "As Much Fun Learning as Teaching."\nThe crowd seemed to agree with Miller about the embattled instructor, as her lecture drew laughs from faculty and students.\n"She's a very unique individual," said Emily Cheney, a sophomore in Weaver's American Catholicism class this semester. "I told one of my friends I had her as a professor and he said, 'she's a pistol.'"\nJunior Emily Crouch, also in the class, said Weaver was the best professor she ever had.\n"She challenges why you believe what you believe," she said. "I wanted to be here for her send-off."\nWeaver came to IU in 1975 when the IU Department of Religious Studies was still in its infancy. Her early work dealt with Catholic reform and feminism in the church.\nShe has made no secret of her opinion that the church makes a concerted effort to keep women subservient. She titled a portion of her lecture "If you can't pee like Jesus, you can't be like Jesus."\nBut Weaver's most prominent work is the books she edited on conservative and liberal Catholics, respectively titled "Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America" and "What's Left? Liberal American Catholics."\nWeaver said that when she started teaching she noticed that most of her Catholic students were progressive and not afraid of questioning papal authority. But since the early '90s, she says, more students have come to her with old-fashioned views of the church. Some students expressed a desire to go back to a type of church service performed in Latin, common before reforms in the '60s.\n"I've come to the conclusion that the default mode of religion is conservative and any progressive liberal movement within is generally aberrant," she said.\nIn the last few years Weaver has received even more national attention for teaching the course titled "Star Trek and Religion," borne from a joke she made at a faculty meeting. The class is quite successful, she said, introducing students to religious studies who might otherwise avoid such classes.\n"I show students a video about this pre-modern primitive Vulcan religion and say it has something to do with (famous 18th century philosopher) David Hume," she said. "They believe it because I'm old. I give them 25 pages from this dreadful argument 'From Design,' give them a quiz about it and it works."\nFormer students from as far away as California came to the lecture, something Weaver said speaks louder for her teaching ability than any award or grant she has received.\n"I invited 70 former students and 60 of them came," she said. "Their presence here is the single best statement I can make about myself"
(04/06/06 5:02am)
Hundreds of students wandered through the Indiana Memorial Union Wednesday for the summer job fair and blood drive, but few if any knew that in that same building, the IU board of trustees was holding an open forum to discuss raising tuition next year.\nOf the roughly 60 people who attended the meeting, less than 10 were students.\n"I think most students are resolved to the fact they're going to raise tuition," said Charles Shrode, a medical student who came to the meeting from IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. "I realize that they have to increase fees. I'm just looking for some kind of reprieve."\nMedical students at IUPUI are looking at a proposed tuition increase of 11.3 percent, the highest of any graduate or professional program at IU's seven campuses.\n"I find myself thinking every day, what is the advantage of me staying in Indiana when I could go to school in North Carolina, attain residency within a year, pay less tuition and go to a better ranked school?" Shrode asked the board.\nShrode, however, was the only student in attendance at Bloomington who had any kind of comment to make to the board. Via satellite hook-up, the situation was similar with only students from IUPUI and IU Southeast asking any questions.\nFor several weeks, a Web site has been set up where students could send questions to be answered for the forum, but midway through the 45-minute forum, IU's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Judy Palmer announced that not a single e-mail had been received.\nTrustee Clarence Boone said that there are two ways he views the lack of student participation at the meeting.\n"Apathy is the first thing that comes to mind," he said. "But another way to look at things is that if you analyze our rates, they aren't so bad."\nDuring the meeting, the trustees noted that Indiana and other nearby states are having great budgetary difficulties. Universities in Kentucky for example, have been forced to increase undergraduate tuition by as much as 13 percent.\nBy comparison, the Bloomington campus has proposed increasing out-of-state tuition by 4.9 percent for next year. An increase of 4.9 percent was already approved for in-state students as part of a two-year package.\nBut those figures give little consolation to people like medical student Maria Spector.\n"A lot of students feel helpless," she said. "At no point during the meeting did anyone say, 'I understand what students are going through.'"\nThe board of trustees is expected to vote on the tuition proposals Friday as part of its monthly meeting held at IU Southeast in New Albany.
(04/05/06 6:38am)
The clock is ticking for IU students to let their voices be heard on tuition increases for next year.\nThe IU board of trustees will meet at 3 p.m. today in the Dogwood Room of the Indiana Memorial Union for an open forum about several proposed increases for next year.\nAnd though students have been asked to voice their opinions about tuition increases via e-mail for several weeks now, both Trustee President Steve Ferguson and Trustee Vice President Pat Shoulders said they had not received any e-mails regarding the forum.\nStudent Trustee Casey Cox, however, said that he feels he can give the board a good view of student reaction to the proposed increases.\n"I've often joked that we need to take into consideration whether or not I'll get beat up on campus after we decide (whether) or not to raise it," he said in an e-mail. "When we do raise tuition we spend that money with responsibility and accountability always on our minds."\nOn the Bloomington campus, the current proposal calls for a total increase of tuition by 4.9 percent for all non-resident undergraduate students, the same amount that was approved last year, according to IU Information Web site.\nThis increase in tuition was previously approved for in-state students as part of a two year plan.\n"I think most people understand costs go up," Ferguson said. "Most people know that state support has decreased. The only other place we have to look for additional funding is with tuition."\nWhile undergraduate tuition increases look to remain steady, several graduate and professional programs on the Bloomington campus proposed smaller tuition increases than last year.\nAt the Bloomington campus, only graduate programs in the Kelley School of Business have proposed the exact same increase as last year. The business school is looking to increase tuition by 6.9 percent for resident and 6.7 percent for non resident graduate students. \nThe IU School of Law plans to increase tuition for in-state grad students by 10 percent. Law school tuition for non-resident students is proposed to rise 6.7 percent, down from an approved 9.7 percent increase last year.\nThe Library and Information Science program has proposed a tuition increase of 7.2 percent for resident graduate students and 8 percent for non-residents. Last year, the trustees approved increases of 9.6 and 8.9 percent, respectively.\nThe School of Public and Environmental Affairs, the School of Optometry and all other graduate programs also have smaller increases on the table.\nAll regional campuses are hosting teleconference sites and there will be a live Internet broadcast at http://broadcast.iu.edu.\nAll proposed increases for all campuses are available at http://newsinfo.iu.edu/pub/libs/images/usr/1432_h.pdf.
(03/24/06 4:28am)
If Iran attains nuclear weapons, it could lead to a new arms race in the Mideast and the end of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, said Bradley Gordon, an expert on the region at a lecture Thursday night.\n"If Iran gets nuclear weapons, I wouldn't want to bet the farm that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and other countries wouldn't want them, too," he said. \nGordon, who has previously worked for the CIA and as a policy assistant to a U.S. senator, is currently director of policy and government relations for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.\nThe committee is "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," according to a brief description on its Web site.\nGordon recounted efforts over the past several years by the United States, European Union and Russia to halt Iran's nuclear program, all of which have been rebuffed.\nHe also made a point of saying that nuclear weapons in Iran is a much more serious prospect than weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.\n"This ain't Iraq and the CIA," Gordon said. "All of this has been verified by UN inspectors on the ground."\nAnother key difference between Iraq and Iran is that Iran has put many of its nuclear facilities underground, often next to schools and hospitals. Complicating a possible military strike even further is the chance that Iran could cut off a good portion of the world's oil supply, Gordon said.\nIn the second half of the presentation, Gordon discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.\nHe said negotiations were going well as late as 2000, but the Palestinians' recent election of Hamas and the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharonsuffered have been major roadblocks.\n"We are in as much of an uncertain period now as we have ever been in the last 20 years," Gordon said. "So my advice is to sit down, buckle your seatbelts and put your trays in the upright position because it's going to be a bumpy ride."\nMost of the audience members were receptive to the lecture.\n"It was good to have someone speak who's been directly there as opposed to the news, which can be so biased," junior Amanda Dudley said.\nHer friend, junior Sarah Kaplan, echoed that sentiment.\n"I was struck by his honesty since he's been in intelligence," Kaplan said. "He didn't seem biased by any political stance"
(03/23/06 5:46am)
Several hundred people gathered in the Whittenberger Auditorium Wednesday to hear Peter Bondanella give this year's Distinguished Faculty Research Lecture about his studies and critiques the work of acclaimed Italian director Federico Fellini. Bondanella is a distinguished professor of comparative literature and Italian at IU. \nBondanella has drastically changed scholarship on Italian cinema, according to a press release announcing the lecture. \n"His publications on Fellini alone represent a most important body of criticism dedicated to this pivotal figure," the release said.\nFellini has never been well-known outside of his native country, Bondanella said, yet the dream-like worlds he put on film have had a strong influence on highly regarded filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Terry Gilliam.\n"The reproduction of wonder is something Fellini always aims for," Bondanella said. "He tries to make you see something as if you never had."\nFellini, who began his career as a cartoonist and columnist for Italian magazines, was different from many other filmmakers of the 1960s and '70s in that he took much of his inspiration from popular culture, paintings and his own dreams.\n"A journalist friend once asked him what his 50 favorite films were," Bondanella said. "He laughed and said he had never seen so many films in his whole life."\nIn his opening remarks, IU Interim Provost Michael McRobbie said he wished the study of directors such as Fellini, as well as advances in technology, would spark a renaissance in art house film in Bloomington.\n"It is my hope to one day see Bloomington art house cinema revived with a digital twist," McRobbie said. "Art houses are to cinema what art museums are to sculpture."\nMuch of Bondanella's presentation featured the magic marker drawings Fellini often made in his dream book and influenced some of his most memorable scenes.\nMany originals of these drawings, similar in style to the early 20th-century comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland" can be seen at the Lilly Library on campus.\nBondanella showed how these drawings took on a more erotic twist near the end of Fellini's life.\nShortly before his death in 1993, Fellini presented his mistress with about a dozen magic marker sketches of her posing in the nude with several comically large penises.\n"That certainly tells us what he was thinking about before he died," Bondanella joked.\nPer tradition, McRobbie revealed that next year's Distinguished Faculty Research Lecture will be given by psychology professor Meredith West.
(03/10/06 5:22am)
Though the number of law school applications nationwide are on the decline this year, applications to the IU School of Law are up dramatically.\nAcross the country, applications have fallen to 60,397, down from 66,000 at this point last year, a decrease of 8.5 percent, according to a Feb. 9 article in The New York Times.\nLast year, the number of applicants nationwide dropped 4.5 percent.\nBut at IU, the law school office has received 2,450 applications so far this year, up from 2,200 total last year -- an increase of about 11 percent. Assistant Dean for Admissions Dennis Long said he anticipates another 200 applications to the law school by July.\n"This year we've had a considerable increase in applications from out of state," Long said of a possible reason for the higher number.\nLong said he has spent more time at other universities promoting the IU law school this year.\nAnother possible explanation is the law school's jump in rankings in U.S. News and World Report from 40th to 36th, but Long is the first to admit there is no one clear reason.\n"Everybody is asking the same question, but I haven't heard anything really defensible," he said.\nAnother theory is that the number of people interested in entering law school is \ncyclical.\n"The general consensus among pre-law professionals is that law school applications go in cycles," James Calvi, professor at West Texas A&M University and chairman of the Pre-Law Advisors National Council said in an e-mail. "What causes the cycle no one knows for sure, but one factor seems to be the general health of the economy. When the economy is down, many students see law school and graduate school as a way of postponing entry to the job market."\nA significant increase in medical school applications is another possibility for the national decline in applications.\n"The decrease in law school applications and the increase in med school applications may be related," Calvi said. "Both professions attract bright students and so the decline in law school applications may mean the brighter students are trying to get in to medical school."\nA downturn in the Indiana economy could also draw more Hoosier students to the IU law school, Calvi said.\n"It may also be that a local economy in the vicinity of your local law school may not be as good as the national economy," he said. "That would explain why your law school is seeing an increase in applications while nationally they are down"
(02/23/06 4:40am)
If you received an e-mail from the chancellor's office in the past few weeks, don't worry. You're probably not in any trouble.\nIn fact, your input on the survey linked to the e-mail will help improve the University.\nMore than 7,000 freshmen and seniors at IU are chosen randomly each year to participate in the National Survey of Student Engagement, a document that questions students on their classroom and social experiences.\n"It's taken seriously," said Rachel Boon, IU research analyst for budgetary information. "I know that several departments come back the next year and ask for the results."\nFeedback from the survey is mostly used by deans to better shape courses, but RPS also analyzes the data to see how academic experience differs between students living on and off campus.\nOne person very interested in the results of this year's survey is first-year School of Journalism Dean Bradley Hamm.\n"We've actually not used the data, but we will," Hamm said. "The great part of the NSSE data is that it shows you what happens to students over four years. You can study what changes to make in a program to make it better."\nThe survey is given to hundreds of universities throughout the country each year, but Hamm said he feels it may not be used to its maximum potential at IU.\n"The NSSE data offers all universities across the nation a remarkable tool," he said. "Perhaps people at IU don't realize how other universities use this. The university I came from looked forward to getting this data."\nHamm was previously an associate dean at Elon University in North Carolina.\nIn comparing IU's responses on the survey to other large research institutions, IU appears to offer more challenging course work.\n"For reading and writing we tend to do better," Boon said. "Our students tend to write a lot more."\nEarly results also look optimistic for the School of Journalism.\n"Our initial look shows students scoring higher on the questions we want them to score higher on," Hamm said. "It reveals our program is challenging."\nOne problem with the survey, however, is actually getting students to respond. Those who don't take the survey in the first e-mail will get several more reminders between now and the end of March, and even then they have until at least June to complete it.\nTiffany Yoder, a senior majoring in journalism, said she ignored the first e-mail she received.\n"I didn't think anyone would actually pay attention to it or read it," she said. "But if they're actually going to be paying attention, I'll probably fill it out. It just seems like a lot of the time no one really pays much attention to what students have to say"
(02/16/06 3:31am)
There was more than love in the air at the Indiana Memorial Union Tuesday afternoon, with the electronic hum of dozens of gadgets on display for the annual UITS Information Technology Fair, "Making IT Happen!"\nMore than 1,000 people wandered through the Frangipani Room to check out some of the latest products from Apple, Dell and Microsoft, shoot the breeze with UITS consultants, or just play a quick game of "Call of Duty 2" on Xbox 360.\n"We want to make students more aware of some new and ongoing services available to them here," UITS Events Manager Diane Jung said.\nOne new group that attended this year's fair was the IU Gaming Club, which had an Xbox 360 and several high-end gaming PCs on display.\n"We're mostly PC players, but some console too," said the club's Vice President Aaron "Scopes" Sarazan. "We're trying to get the word out about our 200-person LAN events every semester."\nBut the IT Fair wasn't all fun and games. Several students from the School of Informatics were on hand to show off the projects they've been working on all year -- some of which could be worth big bucks after graduation.\nSenior Erik Johnson helped put together the Web site for Baron Hill's upcoming congressional campaign, which has opened several doors for him in Washington, D.C.\n"If he gets elected we've made a lot of connections," Johnson said. "People in Washington are coming up to him and asking him who put his site together."\nSenior Brad Weismann created a program called Net Defender to better help parents control what their children view online.\n"Something like Net Nanny blocks specific Web sites and it's difficult to use for parents who aren't so net savvy," he said. "Net Defender blocks the Internet at certain times if you don't want your kid online at 3 a.m."\nWeismann is also working on giving parents remote control of the program, from work -- for example -- in case their child arrives home early and they don't want him or her online.\n"There's a lot of parents interested in this," he said. "If someone wants it I'd be willing to sell the code."\nAttendees were impressed with the sheer variety of technology on display.\n"I just came to look at the Apple stuff in between classes, but a lot of this stuff is pretty tight," freshman Marc Momcilovich said.\n"Making IT Happen!" will be held at each of the other IU campuses starting this week and running until the end of March.
(02/10/06 6:18pm)
Pictures of a 19-year-old sophomore enjoying an alcoholic beverage have caused her father's congressional campaign to heat up just days after he announced his candidacy.\nPhotos posted on Facebook and Webshots of sophomore Andrea Ellsworth, daughter of Democratic challenger for Indiana's 8th Congressional District, Brad Ellsworth, surfaced on former IU law student Joshua Claybourn's political blog, followed by comments pointing out the student's underage drinking. Those photos were then picked up by the Evansville media.\nThe pictures have since been removed from Facebook and Webshots.\n"She deserves her privacy," reads a statement from Ellsworth's campaign manager Jay Howser. "Brad will deal with this privately, as a family matter. And like President Bush, who also had to deal with issues like this with his own college-age daughters, Brad realizes no one is perfect."\nClaybourn said he does not know who posted the comments on his blog, but said the comments came from an IP address that originated off-campus in Bloomington.\n"I did not seek out or find the pictures," Claybourn said. "The very public pictures were left as a very public comment by someone else."\nClaybourn is a registered Republican and said he worked on a campaign for incumbent 8th District Congressman John Hostettler six years ago, but has no \nconnection to him now.\nThe Evansville Courier & Press wrote a story about the photos after Claybourn submitted his original blog post to them and noted "interesting comments" followed the post on his blog.\n"As an irregular contributor to the opinion pages, I frequently share columns, information and pieces with the newspaper's staff," he said.\nStill, Claybourn said too much has been made of something so common as underage drinking.\n"No election, particularly not one of the few competitive House races in the entire United States, should be decided by such a story," he said.\nIncriminating Facebook pictures, particularly those involving underage drinking, have been used by several universities as evidence to punish students, but this might be the first time they have become an issue in a political race.\nThe University of North Carolina previously charged 15 students with underage drinking because of their Facebook profiles, and in November 2005, four students from Northern Kentucky University were fined for party pictures they posted on the site, according to campus newspapers.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig said Facebook is becoming a bigger issue at meetings he has attended involving representatives from other campuses, but said IU is not looking to punish students for what they post online.\n"Facebook-related issues" have been involved in a handful of judicial cases and discussed at several others, he said.\n"Realistically if you go to a movie and see someone in the movie killed, you don't believe that person was actually killed," McKaig said. "Pictures on an Internet site are not something actionable. They raise questions, but a picture doesn't really prove anything."\nAndrea Ellsworth did not return phone calls by press time.
(02/06/06 3:49am)
The prominence of a business school might determine a graduate's salary more so than the quality of education it offers, according to a new study from the University of Maryland.\nThe study found that soon out of college, the highest salaries went to students who graduated from well-known universities with top rankings in national magazines and have well-respected faculty, even when recruiters believe lesser known institutions offer better programs.\n"What we find is that the set of schools that are most prominent in the minds of recruiters is not the same as the set of schools they evaluate as producing the highest quality MBAs," Violina Rindova, assistant professor of strategy at Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business who co-authored the study said in an email.\nSuch studies have little effect on IU's Kelley School of Business said Dan Smith, dean of the school.\n"I believe we have the strongest business curriculum in the nation delivered by the most committed faculty in the nation," he said in an e-mail. "But ... We would be nothing without high-caliber students." \nStudents, he said, decided much of their own fate in school and in the job market.\n"The quality of the education provides a foundation, but a student's success depends on their intellect, motivation, and overall attitude they bring to the program and their jobs after graduation," Smith said.\nSenior Brandon Carder said he believes Kelley offers a good mix of both high prominence and high-quality education.\n"I think Kelley gives you a great opportunity with its distinguished faculty and recruiting services it provides its students, he said. "Fortune 500 companies are in Kelley every day sponsoring events, interviewing, presenting, and hiring the students."\nIn the Maryland study of 107 business schools with which, 1,600 recruiters were asked to answer questions about any three business schools they were familiar. The schools named the most were considered the most prominent.\nWhen comparing the difference in salaries between a school of higher prominence and one of average prominence, the survey found that graduates of a school of average prominence earned about $12,200 less annually than graduates of schools in the top 30 percent.\nHow recruiters ranked the prominence of schools was not released.\nThe study did not review if this gap closes as time goes on, Rindova said.\n"As for the higher salaries, these reflect the value companies associate with graduates from a given program based on their years of experience recruiting at that school," Smith said. "Companies are simply willing to pay more for a graduate that delivers high overall value and Kelley students deliver incredible value."\nSmith said studies comparing rankings to salaries might not accurately represent the job market for business-school graduates. Students in business schools near major financial markets -- like Columbia or Wharton -- tend to major in investment management, allowing them to enter into jobs within those markets, he said. Such jobs pay better than jobs in consumer brand management -- a major many students in Midwest business schools attain. \n"There are clearly alternative explanations for the findings of such studies," Smith said.
(10/18/05 5:30am)
Lisa, a junior, and Melissa, a sophomore sit in a Bloomington hotel room wearing low cut "boob shirts," as Melissa calls them, in hopes that the next few minutes could launch them into a successful modeling career.\nThe pair, who asked their last names not be used to protect their privacy, are auditioning for Playboy's "Girls of the Top Ten Party Schools" issue scheduled to hit newsstands in April 2006.\n"I heard about this from my friends so I figured I'd take advantage of the opportunity since it doesn't come along very often," Melissa said. "Great things might come from it."\nLisa echoed that sentiment.\n"I've always been into modeling and I competed in the Miss Indiana pageant," she said. "This could be a great opportunity."\nAfter an interview in the afternoon, both women had been photographed topless by the afternoon, an experience that bothered neither of them.\n"I was nervous before, but when I got here I felt fine," Lisa said.\n"They do a great job of making you feel comfortable," Melissa added.\nEach of them, however, expect different reactions from their families should they be selected. Lisa said her mother has always been behind her modeling career, but Melissa doesn't expect her parents to be as enthusiastic.\n"I'll only tell my mom if something comes out of it," she said. "I don't even want to think about what my dad will say though."\nWhen asked exactly what kind of women Playboy is looking for at IU, producer and makeup artist Cynthia Kaye replies "cute girls like (Lisa and Melissa)."\n"There's not one specific look," said Playboy Publicity Manager Theresa Hennessey. "Blondes, brunettes, redheads. We're just looking for girls that are college students. That could be the girl next door."\nThere is no age limit either. At another school, Playboy photographed one woman in her 30s for the spread, Hennessey said.\nThough IU has tried to shed its "party school" image since first being named the No. 1 Party School by The Princeton Review in 2002, Hennessey points out the list is not meant to be taken seriously.\n"Just because we include these 10 schools doesn't mean they aren't good universities," she said. "It's more of a fun list."\nHennessey said the universities on the list, which also include Ohio University at Athens and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, were selected for their social scenes as well as what campus representatives said about the schools.\n"IU is a great college town with not much else to do but socialize and party, so we do it extremely well," said former Playboy representative and IU alumnus Brent Coyle. "It also is home to some of the most beautiful college undergrads in the nation, many of which I would gladly mention by name if I could, and they are definitely Playboy material."\nMore than 20 women showed up for auditions Monday, a number Playboy only expects to increase for today and Wednesday's auditions before photographing for the issue begins Wednesday night and continues through the weekend.\n"We haven't had any problems finding locations," Kaye said. "We've had a bunch of frats and bars offer their places already."\nStudents who appear in Playboy likely will not be investigated by the University, unlike recent on-campus adult celebrities such as Teen Keira in 2004 or students who appeared in "Shane's World Volume 32" in 2002.\n"When students have posed for Playboy, the University does not condone the activity, but it is also outside the University to control it," said Dean of Students Richard McKaig in an April 13, 2004 article about Teen Keira.\nAt least one woman from IU will be included in the issue, but previous spreads have included as many as 14 from one college.\nAny woman 18 or older currently enrolled at IU interested in an audition can call Playboy's hotline at (312) 401-7341.
(08/29/05 5:06am)
It wasn't quite wandering the desert for 40 years, but wandering around FaithFest in Dunn Meadow Sunday afternoon might have felt just as hot.\nSeveral hundred students turned out throughout the day for the annual informational festival of mostly Christian faiths sponsored by the campus religious leaders group.\n"People who come here have some interest in coming," said Ken Larson, director of the Christian group The Navigators, who helped organize the event. "We're not here to twist arms. We're not looking for membership so much as friendship."\nFaithFest debuted about 10 years ago as a means to give new students information about the Bloomington branches of their religion in addition to several new options. \n"Freshmen come down here after going to their home church for so many years and usually have an idea of what they want to join, but they're always welcome at another church as well," said Wes Burton, a FaithFest volunteer for the Reformed Presbyterian Church.\nLarson echoed that sentiment.\n"When people come down to IU, they have some desire to connect with people of their faith," he said. "This way we can get many groups together in a fun environment."\nFaithFest is also a great opportunity to learn more about the history of Bloomington and how its churches fit into it.\n"The Reformed Presbyterian Church is actually one of the oldest in Bloomington," Burton said. "It was also involved in the Underground Railroad."\nFreshman Nick Branch was one such student who came to FaithFest with a church already in mind.\n"I'm definitely looking for a Baptist church," he said. "I've been to Methodist and Lutheran churches, but the Baptist churches are loud. They have all this singing. They're full of energy."\nHe also found it pretty convenient to have all the different Christian faiths in one place.\n"I didn't feel like getting up this morning to try and find where the Baptist church was," he said. "But this is much easier. I'll definitely be there next week"
(04/19/05 4:06am)
American Catholics are an odd lot, stuck in the tough position of following a conservative, monarch-style church but living in a liberal democratic society.\nAn article in last week's National Catholic Reporter highlighted this problem. Though more than 90 percent of American Catholics saw Pope John Paul II as an effective leader, according to a recent Zogby International poll, the majority disagreed with him on the subjects of marriage in the priesthood, birth control and stem cell research.\nMaybe a lot of Catholics, such as myself, spent too much time in a Catholic school.\nI pretty much rejected most of the Church's teachings when I was in eighth grade, and the pastor came in and showed the class a video about how much God loves everyone's genitals.\nBut I'm actually more than willing to give it another chance as the Church's cardinals gather together this week to select a new pope.\nOn one hand, John Paul II did a lot of good fighting for the rights of the developing world, and he played an incredibly active and positive role in international politics.\nOn the other hand, some of his ideas seem rather archaic to the modern American who is well-informed about sex and believes women have a place outside of the kitchen and bedroom.\nNow, I know from my eighth grade Catholic sex education class that God loves my genitals as much as the rest of me, but once I'm married, why is it so bad to want to use a condom?\nThe whole denouncing of birth control only brings up visions of Monty Python's "Every Sperm is Sacred" song.\nAnd what about those Catholics who want to touch their beloved genitals with someone of the same sex? That doesn't seem all that bad to me as long as it's consensual and the two people involved care about each other.\nIn 1958, a Gallup poll showed that 74 percent of Catholics attended church weekly. In 2000, a Fordham University professor showed that number had dropped to 25 percent. I think a big part of such a steep decline is the Church's refusal to accept birth control and gay men and lesbians.\nThen there's the issue of women in the church. The old folks in charge simply refuse to o rdain them or let priests marry, yet the Church loves to preach equality. \nBecause of this, the number of newly ordained priests keeps decreasing. By 2020, there will only be 31,000 priests in the United States, and less than half of them will be under 70. Something needs to be done to attract more priests if the Church is to continue to thrive in this country, and the answer is greater acceptance of women.\nAnd maybe if priests could marry, many wouldn't have the urge to be Michael Jackson impersonators (and I'm not talking about impersonating his singing).\nCertainly any real religion has a duty to promote morals, but as technology and culture change, some morals do as well. For instance, persecution and rejection of gay men and lesbians, once accepted in most cultures, is now seen as little more than hate-mongering.\nThe Catholic Church hates to change. It was only under John Paul II that it finally apologized to Galileo for denying that Earth revolved around the sun. If the Church doesn't modernize its views about birth control, gay men and lesbians and women soon, it's going to lose much of its American flock.
(04/06/05 4:24am)
So last week I got a tattoo, which, in itself, isn't too unusual. Lots of people get tattoos in college. The difference, though, is that this tattoo will probably end up in a video game at some point in the future.\nThat's because I joined a small but ever-growing legion of people willing to sell off small portions of their body in the name of advertising.\nLast Thursday, I got a rather modest tattoo on my right shoulder blade of the Electronic Arts logo. EA, the world's largest video game publisher, is responsible for such hit titles as "The Sims," "Need for Speed" and the Madden football series.\nSince then, I've gotten a lot of crap from my friends about selling out and becoming a "corporate whore," and it's pretty hard to deny those charges. But I'm still going to try to explain myself as best I can.\nI love video games. I've been a huge gamer since I could hold a controller, and I plan on playing until my hands are too achy with arthritis to even mash buttons. \nSo when Brent Coyle, the EA campus rep, offered me a chance at immortality by appearing in a future EA game introduction, I accepted. From my point of view, that of a hard-core gamer, I'd be stupid to turn it down.\nThe stigma here just seems to be that the tattoo is the logo of a major corporation, like that somehow makes me soulless for making my body a billboard. \nWhen people think of corporations, they almost automatically stereotype them as evil and greedy -- and there are a lot of companies out there involved in some shady dealings, such as Enron and Halliburton. Huge corporations are a shining beacon of all that a capitalist economy can accomplish. Being successful does not automatically make one evil or a "little Eichmann," as University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill recently put it.\nThe fact is that companies make tons of money by putting out great products consistently. If they don't, they fail. The one exception is MTV. There must be a pact with Satan involved to keep that drivel on the air.\nHeck, if it weren't for another corporation, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, giving me an academic scholarship, odds are I wouldn't even be in college right now. So not everything corporations do is bad -- they just have a ton of money to throw around.\nStill, I'll admit there's quite a difference between accepting a scholarship from big business and getting a tattoo from them.\nThere aren't many people out there with a company logo tattooed on their bodies; quite a few people have tattoos of characters such as Superman, Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse.\nAll those characters represent corporations just as much as the logo I now have on my back, and I don't see anyone calling those people sell-outs.\nBesides, whether most people want to admit it or not, they "sell out" on a daily basis. Whenever someone gets up in the morning to pour a bowl of Kellogg's cereal, puts on those Abercrombie & Fitch clothes with the store's name written all over them and walks to class listening to the latest "American Idol" CD, they're "selling out" to corporations.\nBut I'm not judging. We all do it because they keep putting out stuff we enjoy. It's impossible to avoid.\nIf there's a company out there that puts out stuff you really enjoy and has a cool logo, I would even recommend getting a tattoo of it if you can work out a deal with them to make a profit.\nIt doesn't hurt that much, and the only difference is that you wear it under your shirt instead of on it.
(03/30/05 5:08am)
Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. This is my first confession. I have only one sin to confess, but it's less socially acceptable than admitting to watching "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour."\nFor you see, I am an Internet dork. \nWhen I wake up, between classes and even before bed, I spend almost all my time on message boards, specifically those on a local site called http://thehoosierweb.com. And if I'm not on there, I'm on http://thefacebook.com or other assorted sites, or just goofing off on AOL Instant Messenger. If the Internet were crack, I'd be long dead.\nYou might not think that's too bad. Lots of college kids spend more time than they should on the Internet. But it gets much, much worse.\nNot only do I go to these sites, but I meet people from them; in fact, now when I go somewhere, it's almost exclusively with people that I met from Web sites. I study with them, I have dinner with them, and I even go out and get drunk with them. \nHeck, next year, I'm living in a house with four other guys, and I met three of them -- you guessed it -- online. And we refer to each other by our screen names.\nI even met my girlfriend through AOL, and she wasn't the first, but certainly, the least creepy.\nI know, I know it's terrible! But please let me defend myself before judging me too harshly.\nSince the dawn of computers, those who use them have been stereotyped as big, fat dudes who sit there all day eating junk food, watching porn and avoiding all human contact.\nOK, I'm a big, fat guy who sits at his computer, eats junk food and watches porn, but I'm using the computer to meet people, not avoid them. \nBeing underage and not having a fake ID to go to the bars, meeting new people at IU can be a pain in the butt. Most classes are too big to actually get to know anyone, and I've lived in some very anti-social dorms. You don't exactly make friends for life at drunken house parties, either (though you can still meet some great friends for a night).\nBy communicating with people online before meeting them, you can really get a feel for their personality, and if they're boring or just plain weird, you don't have to ever meet them. \nI've found that when I meet people from the Internet in person after chatting with them for awhile, it's almost like I've known them in person for that long because I have so many stories and jokes in common with them.\nI know a lot of people have a fear that the person they're talking to online might be some kind of pervert, but after meeting more than 100 people from The Hoosier Web or AIM, those fears seem unfounded. Most people are incredibly normal and down to Earth. They just think the Internet is a great way to meet people.\nStatistics for how many people use the Internet to meet people are hard to come by, but in 2002 Internet dating sites had attracted 2.5 million people, according to the informational Web site http:///howstuffworks.com. That number is expected to double by 2006.\nSo far, the worst that's happened is that I've agreed to go on a couple of bad dates. Sure, that's unpleasant, but it's hardly the end of the world.\nThe whole idea of making acquaintances on the Internet seems to freak out a lot of people whether it be because of the anonymity or the social stigma, but it's really not that bad. And as the world gets bigger and more impersonal, I think a lot more people are going to start using it as the main way to meet new people.
(03/25/05 4:18am)
With its one-way streets, bustling public transportation system and thousands of out-of-town motorists, driving around Bloomington can be a chore for even the most experienced drivers, and the site of damaged vehicles pulled off to the side of the road is a common one.\nUnlike some cities and towns that have certain streets or intersections known for a high number of accidents, Bloomington traffic can be treacherous anywhere.\n"They happen all over," said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Bill Parker. "Mostly fender benders, but every so often one is severe or even fatal."\nJunior Lauren Mailloux was the passenger in one such severe accident in November and is still dealing with the consequences.\nWhile crossing the intersection of Liberty Drive and 45, the vehicle she was in was sideswiped.\n"The medical bills are outrageous," Mailoux said. "I know I am still receiving mine. My friend suffered from a separated shoulder. I had a dislocated rib cage. We are both still seeing doctors because neither one of us is completely at 100 percent."\nStill, there are several precautions Parker recommends to avoid such accidents.\n"Watch other traffic," he said. "Look ahead to see if someone is doing something out of the ordinary."\nParker also advises those in an accident to call the police even if there is not much damage to the vehicles to avoid problems with insurance companies in the future.\nFor accidents where damage appears in excess of $700, contacting the police is required by law.\nBack on campus, traffic accidents are somewhat more predictable.\nIn 2004 there were more 700 car accidents reported to the IU Police Department on the campus alone according to IUPD reports.\nOf those, more than half occurred on or around Jordan Avenue and its various intersections.\nMore than 100 occurred on 10th Street, either west or east of Jordan. That figure may seem high, but IUPD Lt. Jerry Minger emphasized that most of those accidents involved little damage and no or minor injuries because of the slow speed of traffic.\nHe also offered a rather simple explanation as to why most of the accidents occur around Jordan.\n"That's just where the traffic goes," he said. "More traffic means more accidents."\nMinger also said that most accidents are due to simple driver \nnegligence.\n"The number one indicator is often driver inattention," Minger said. "People might be on their cell phones and just not notice a traffic light."\n -- Contact Staff Writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.
(03/23/05 4:23am)
For those of you not in the know, Terri Schiavo is the Florida woman in the midst of a now-national legal battle between her husband and parents over her right to life or death, depending on what side you take.\nSchiavo's case has gained much attention because it's hard to say just what state her mind is in. Her husband and court-appointed doctors say her brain is basically mush, and it's best to remove a feeding tube -- the only thing keeping her alive anymore.\nHer parents, however, believe there is still hope for their daughter because she responds to various stimuli, a phenomenon that the same doctors say is just reflexive.\nMeanwhile, somewhere in the United States, a rabbit named Toby has a death sentence.\nAccording to the Web site http://savetoby.com, "Toby is the cutest little bunny on the planet. Unfortunately, he will DIE on June 30, 2005, if you don't help ... I am going to eat him. I am going to take Toby to a butcher to have him slaughter this cute bunny ... God as my witness, I will devour this little guy unless I receive $50,000 into my account from donations or purchase of merchandise."\nThough some might doubt the sincerity of the Web site, the webmaster claims the site is serious, according to a Mar. 17 article in The Washington Post. At the very least, this is a sick joke. \nThe site seems to be working, as of a Monday update, the anonymous Webmaster posted his bank account total as $19,762.15. PayPal has suspended more donations for now, but there's still plenty of merchandise for sale, which also goes toward saving Toby. \nThere are no statistics available on who has donated to the "Save Toby Web site, but I have to wonder how many people care about that rabbit more than another human being. \nThere are a lot of people who have never met Schiavo who think it is their business to say she should die, but when confronted with a cute cuddly animal facing certain doom, they break down and shell out money, when human life is certainly much more valuable than any animal.\nI'm definitely not the type of nut who would march around with a billboard of an aborted fetus, but even I have to stand back and wonder how much we've come to devalue life.\nWe've come to the point, now, where some of us respect human life even less than animals, just letting them die as soon as they become an inconvenience. They become bargaining tools for legislation.\nThis is a slippery slope. There's little to stop someone now from starting a Web site threatening to pull the plug on a relative or threatening to have an abortion if not delivered money by a certain date. \nEven if it's a joke, it's an awfully sick one that many people will buy.\nIt's true we don't know Schiavo's mental state, but I have to think it's better to err on the side of caution, especially because her parents are more than willing to care for her. Her husband can walk away at any time, and I don't think many people will judge him poorly for it.\nThere's certainly a time and place for death. If it were Schiavo's will to have her feeding tube removed in a situation like this, I don't think many people would object to that, but this is not an appropriate time. \nWhere do we put a value on any life, whether human or animal?\nDeath, quite frankly, is God's business.
(03/09/05 4:15am)
Maybe I've played too much "Grand Theft Auto," but when I think of the color red, I think about blood. \nAnd when I think of the letter "J" I think of the word "joint." \nInstead of conjuring images of a drug deal gone wrong, leaders of the School of Journalism think red banners with a giant "J" on them will get people to think of "media careers that matter" as part of their new branding campaign. \nJournalism school Dean Trevor Brown believes such a campaign is necessary to bring more students and better faculty to the school.\n"Brown said that both within and outside of the University, competition for students, faculty and resources has increased. To keep up, other schools and programs have been aggressively marketing themselves with slogans, brochures and commercials. The J-School asked Hirons & Company Communications, a Bloomington-based advertising agency, for help with a comprehensive branding project," according to a post on the J-school's Web site.\nI applaud the J-school's lofty goals, but I have a problem with the commercialization of education.\nCatchphrases are for fast-food joints, not higher education. The journalism school is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 in the country. That should be more than enough of a reason to attract students.\nHeck, it's what attracted me. I had to go to school in-state, and I briefly considered Ball State and Purdue, but when it came right down to it, I chose IU because of its high ranking.\nDoes the J-school even really want students so easily hoodwinked by banners and free pencils and T-shirts with a new logo? Shouldn't they want future journalists who aren't so easily bribed?\nAnd why on Earth should they be so obsessed with pure numbers? I would much rather go to a journalism school with lower enrollment and higher requirements, similar to the Kelley School of Business, than one that lets in any schmoe with a 2.20 grade point average. \nThen there's the matter of the catchphrase itself.\nBecause the J-School has now adopted the phrase "media careers that matter," are we to assume that for the decades before it was just pumping out graduates to do work that doesn't matter?\nThe whole thing just confuses me, and I wish they would put more time into improving the classes, which is a matter that also needs some consideration.\nWhat bothers me the most about this whole branding campaign is that the J-school had to outsource the advertising project to Hirons & Company Communications.\nI hear a lot of complaints from people in the J-school who are royally ticked off because they want to do public relations yet are stuck in almost exclusively traditional journalism classes until their junior year.\nWhy couldn't a class have been set up where these PR students could have worked in several groups to come up with a new label for the J-school? It would have been a lot cheaper; they would have gotten some great real world experience to put on their résumés, and I'm confident they could have come up with something that wouldn't make people think of marijuana whenever they walk past that giant "J."\nThat lack of forethought just confirms that those in charge of the J-school care more about pushing out as many graduates as possible rather than giving them a quality education.\nEditing ideas and making them as cohesive as possible is a major part of journalism, but that philosophy seems to have been put on the backburner in favor of whatever gimmick will get more people to enroll.