IUSA

HPER offers more than just basketball courts

It's more than a place to work out or shoot hoops with friends. The School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation building is filled with hidden secrets. The HPER contains the old fieldhouse, now called the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center, where HPER Assistant Dean David Skirvin said legendary NCAA championship teams of 1940 and 1953 played under the coaching of Branch McCracken. Bill Garrett, the first black basketball player in the Big Ten, also spent some time playing in HPER's fieldhouse.

CAMPUS QUIZ

Grad student interning at Kennedy Center

Graduate student Katherine Goliver knows that more goes into the performing arts than meets the eye. Goliver is interning at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The Kennedy Center is known internationally for being a leader in performing arts and arts education. As host for more than 3,000 performances each year, the center seeks to showcase the talent of national and international artists as well as to provide opportunities for budding artists and performers, according to the Kennedy Center's Web site. Interns within the Kennedy Institute for Arts Management -- like Goliver -- do not work to improve performance skills but receive hands-on experience as managers of the arts.

IU ranks 9th in private sector fundraising

A recent report by the Council for Aid to Education listed IU as ninth in the nation in private sector funding for all colleges and universities. The $301 million in donations from private sources in 2005 put IU at second in the Big Ten and second highest for all public universities. "This is a clear reflection of the respect and affection our friends and alumni have for this special institution," IU President Adam Herbert said in a press release. "It will enable us to advance further the frontiers of knowledge, provide IU students with the best education possible and discover new ways to solve the problems that make life difficult for so many of our fellow citizens."

BUSINESS IN NORTH KOREA

Record hurricane losses, surge in claims cut State Farm profits

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - State Farm Insurance Co., the nation's largest insurer, said Friday that profits fell 39 percent last year as claims soared during a record hurricane season that battered the Gulf Coast and other Southern states. The Bloomington, Ill.-based insurer posted earnings of $3.2 billion, down from $5.3 billion the year before, despite a flurry of major hurricanes including Katrina, the costliest disaster in U.S. history.

Local food pantry reopens with fresh look, more space

Mother Hubbard's Cupboard in Bloomington re-opened its doors Jan. 30. After nearly a month of remodeling, the food pantry offers its patrons more than just a new floor plan. The pantry had not been updated since its opening in 1998. According to director Libby Yarnell, the food pantry went from 600 to 1000 square feet. "Everything is new," Yarnell said. "We have new electrical work, walls, floor, plumbing, heat and air conditioning." The Perry Township Trustee is responsible for the cost of the pantry's renovation because it owns the property.

DANCE WORKSHOP

ARTIFACTS

Local business honored for promoting films

Local law firm Mallor, Clendening, Grodner, and Bohrer received the 2006 Arts Leadership Award in business Feb. 22. This award, presented by the Bloomington Area Arts Council, recognizes businesses that have shown outstanding support of the local arts scene. "We wanted to recognize a business that supported the arts through more than just financial giving," said Danise Alano, assistant director of economic development for the city and member of the selection committee. "(The firm) has donated countless hours of pro-bono legal work for various causes."

Voice-over major performs both on airwaves and stage

If you have ever listened to WIUX on 100.3 FM, you've heard the catchy promos, a wide range of University information and a taste of the diverse variety of music. You've also heard the luring voice of junior Zach Pollakoff, which appears on the station at least every 20 minutes. Pollakoff writes and edits his own on-air spots and records the promos, the station identifications and the public service announcements. This isn't just something Pollakoff does in his spare time. This is his major, and he created it himself.

Our Town

Cody Fosdick swings a baseball bat backstage before rehearsals for the opera version of the Thornton Wilder play, "Our Town." Fosdick, a performance diploma candidate in the Jacobs School of Music graduate program, is one of two students sharing the role of George Gibbs. "I know it's stupid," he said as fellow cast member and second-year graduate student Liz Baldwin laughed at his admission, "but I'm supposed to be a baseball player."

Actors shine in 'Our Town'

A boy threw up on the stairs of the school bus on my fourth-grade field trip to see "Our Town" at Indianapolis Civic Theatre. I remember the teachers didn't want the rest of us walking over his pile of vomit, so they opened up the emergency exits on the bus and made us all crawl out into the streets. To this day, that is all I remember about the play. But after watching the world premiere of Ned Rorem's opera, "Our Town," Friday night at the Musical Arts Center, I realized it's perfectly OK if that's all I remember. Because those little moments in our lives, "ticking clocks and shoes and socks," according to J.D. McClatchy's libretto, are the most important parts of life.

U.S. dances away with 25 medals

TURIN, Italy -- Across 16 topsy-turvy days in Turin, the U.S. Olympic team teetered somewhere between torment and triumph, each step up to the medal stand tempered by one step back somewhere else.

Around the game

Softball falls despite no-hitter Excellence in the pitching circle is becoming quite common for the IU women's softball team this season.

Angry White Sox GM lashes back at Frank Thomas

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Angry and disgusted with the latest comments from former slugger Frank Thomas, Chicago White Sox general manager Kenny Williams fired back Sunday, calling the two-time MVP "an idiot."

Hoosiers drop 3 straight in opener

The IU baseball team opened its season by dropping a three-game set to the Charlotte 49ers, with the final game slipping out of the Hoosiers' grasp after 14 innings.

No bye for IU in Big Tens

With a Big Ten Tournament seed on the line, the IU women's basketball team fell at Iowa 79-70 Sunday afternoon in its regular season finale.

Hoosiers Big Ten champs once again

For the first time since 1985, members of the IU men's swimming and diving team can call themselves Big Ten Champions.

Davis gets last Assembly win

On Sunday afternoon, the emotion in Assembly Hall was thick enough to hold off even a late Spartan surge. IU fought out a 78-71 victory against Michigan State to make its coach's final stint on Branch McCracken Court a memorable one. The No. 16 Spartans contended with an inspired Hoosier team that was battling for its place in the NCAA Tournament, honoring its four departing seniors and recognizing the achievements of its 1981 national championship team.