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(05/08/08 6:13pm)
Wednesday, the prevailing mood in Bloomington was one of sour defeat. While the rest of the state congratulates itself on the renewed relevance of its votes, Monroe County wanted vastly different for itself. Obama won handily around the Bloomington area, no doubt thanks to the youth movement at the core of his support, but in the end it wasn’t enough. \nThe Editorial Board endorsed Obama as the Democratic nominee weeks ago, and may still get its wish when all is said and done. But Clinton’s win speaks volumes about Indiana’s condition, and what it feels it needs for the future. \nWith one big exception, the differences between Clinton and Obama don’t focus on issues that Hoosiers seem to care about more than other states. College students have even less criteria with which to make meaningful distinctions, since issues purportedly important to our demographic (education, the environment, the war) are where Obama and Clinton seem to converge the most. Their education policy differs by what amounts to $500 and some community service; the environment, a requirement for cars with a 40 m.p.g rating; and the war, a 60-day difference on the beginning date of a massive troop withdrawl. Pundits will magnify these discrepancies, but for all the mud slung between camps, few Democrats will feel marginalized (at least due to policy) when either candidate secures the nomination. \nSo what was the difference? In Hillary’s case, it was job security. College graduates may look out on futures full of possibility, but for blue-collar workers on the verge of retirement, China and India are very real threats. And while protectionism is unequivocably harmful to society as a whole, the few who clamor for it are far louder than the multitudes who warn against it. It is unions and those in America’s increasingly uncompetitive industries that form Hillary’s base. She is willing to tell them what they want to hear, having carved a niche as the friend of the working classes. Obama is more hesitant to reject trade deals, and McCain has been famously blunt about the future of many of our industries. And while Obama may have won in our county, it was closer than one would think. What students value is markedly different from the rest of Indiana. \nEven in our back yard, a GE plant will close in 2009 and some 900 jobs will disappear. This story isn’t specific to our neck of the woods; it’s the cautionary tale of the heartland, and even if it isn’t economically optimal, protectionism is a comforting refuge. But Hoosiers will eventually have to face the facts. No matter what Clinton promises, she can’t make our failing industries more competitive. When she takes office, she will have to make the consolation that there is no such thing as a free lunch and that inefficient jobs can’t be protected forever. Bad news sounds sweeter, though, when delivered from the Oval Office. For now, Hillary rides an upswing, and the real show is about to begin.
(04/30/08 8:21pm)
In the corner of a small lounge of the intensive care unit in an Indianapolis hospital, a group of people, many unknown to each other just days before, gathered to wait and hope. \nAll are friends of IU alumna Ada Silapiruti. The journey to visit Silapiruti was the same every day: walk down a long hall with fluorescent lights, through a pair of double doors and past nurses who knew them all well by now. Then they got to Silapiruti, hooked up to a feeding tube, swollen and scratched, part of her hair shaved off so the doctors could perform brain surgery. Her best friend, IU alumna Tina Barniak, would sit by her bedside and read to her. \n“Then you’d walk back and go to that calm corner of Silapiruti’s memories,” Barniak said. “Her mom brought books of childhood pictures on the walls. Things from high school and middle school. So many little things. We’d sit in circles of strangers and become friends.” \nAfter Silapiruti’s car was struck by a drunk driver on March 2, Barniak has spent as many days as financially possible with Silapiruti and her family. After about a month in intensive care, 23-year-old Silapiruti was transferred to a nursing home but is now back in the hospital in a “persistent, vegetative state,” Barniak said. \nSilapiruti was just a week back from studying abroad in Paris for a semester when her car was hit head-on at 56th Street and Kessler Boulevard in her hometown of Indianapolis. Severe brain injuries keep Silapiruti from communicating with anyone, but her eyes remain open. \nWhile her family and friends set up court dates and battle legal issues with organizing a fund in her name, Silapiruti rests in the hospital in Indianapolis. Her mother is constantly nearby while her father works to try to support the family. \nAnother of Silapiruti’s friends, Macey Thompson, is part of the constant support provided by Silapiruti’s mother Ponsawan. Thompson compared Silapiruti’s condition to Terri Schiavo, a woman whose condition was subject to much debate after she lived dependent on a feeding tube for seven years before she died. Silapiruti is also on a feeding tube and suffers from a lot of brain damage, she said. \n“We don’t know how it will progress, if it will progress,” Thompson said. “We don’t know if she can hear, we don’t know if she can see. One of her eyes is halfway shut most of the time ... Her brain injuries are very complicated. ... She’s made some progress. It really is a day to day. No one can say.” \nBarniak, who says she can’t afford to be with Silapiruti everyday, has made the trip from Bloomington a couple times to be with Silapiruti, one which was paid for through her co-workers’ support at the Scholars Inn Bakehouse. \n“This is me working a day just to pay for a day,” Barniak said. “If I could go and spend my time just to lay next to her, I would.” \nBarniak remembers the last time she saw her best friend before the accident. It was last November, when they were both living in Indianapolis, just before they knew they’d spend a semester apart.\n“We stayed up all night sitting on the porch and talking,” Barniak said. “She never knew what to do for her family to help enough. She wanted her brothers to go to school and have it easier for them. She knew how hard it was for her to go to school.” \nFinances are another roadblock to Silapiruti’s recovery, Barniak said. Though the family wants to set up a fund in her name to get help, legal issues make that difficult and time-consuming, she said. While at IU, Silapiruti was a resident assistant in Eigenmann, in addition to working other jobs to pay her way through school. Silapiruti was planning on attending graduate school to study psychology next year. Since Silapiruti and her mother are both not working, only her father’s income is sustaining them and it’s simply not enough, Barniak said. \nSilapiruti was also involved with Y’ALL, Youth Advocating Leadership & Learning, and helped to organize one of the two trips the group took to Biloxi, Miss., for Hurricane Katrina relief, Barniak said. She quickly emphasized that Silapiruti never helped because she had to, nor for a resume-builder. \n“It was like just because they knew she needed help and she could do it,” she said. “And then she went again.” \nWith a lot of her family in Thailand and her boyfriend still living in Paris, Silapiruti rests in the hospital as a rotating group of friends wait in that small corner of the hospital lounge for her improvement.\n“If anybody could ever bring people together and have a scene like that, it was Ada,” Barniak said. “The nurses have never seen anything like it.” \nTo help donate money to support Silapiruti and her family, contact Tina Barniak at cbarniak@indiana.edu or through the Facebook group “Ada for President.”
(04/24/08 5:02am)
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ proposal to increase financial aid for in-state students might not have an impact on the IU-Bloomington campus.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig said the plan might not have as big an impact because of the attention IU has already given to lower-income families.\n“It looked like the money was intended for families of lesser income, and IU took steps to address some of that need,” he said. “It could be that it would have less impact on students enrolling at Indiana University-Bloomington.”\nOn April 16, Daniels proposed that the state pay for two years of Ivy Tech tuition. His proposal would also pay for two years of tuition at any other Indiana institution for any Indiana high school graduate whose family earns up to the state’s median income of $54,000 per year, according to a press release.\nThe plan is in response to Indiana’s extremely low percentage of adults with a bachelor’s or associate’s degree, Daniels said.\n“The gap between the jobs looking for workers in Indiana and the skill levels of the workers we have today is widening,” Daniels said at an April 16 higher education conference, according to an MP3 file on the governor’s Web site. “I view that as an opportunity.\n“I believe two things can happen if we take a step like this. First of all, we’ll go directly at the biggest challenge facing the Indiana of tomorrow to dramatically change the percentage of our adults who have training and post-secondary skills.”\nIU trustee Sue Talbot said Indiana needs to raise the number of people attending higher-education institutions.\n“One of the most effective issues of this announcement is the attention Gov. Daniels has brought to the need for increased access for all young people to higher education,” she said. “Indiana has a dismal record of post-high school graduates.”\nIU Spokesman Larry MacIntyre said he hopes Daniels will continue to move forward with this plan.\n“I think Indiana University and President McRobbie strongly support initiatives that would make higher education more affordable for Hoosiers,” he said. “President McRobbie has been doing a number of things to make it more affordable. This proposal is worth keeping with the direction President McRobbie is moving.”\nDaniels has not yet announced how he intends for the state to pay for this proposal.\n“There are a number of details to be worked out, and his staff will be meeting with experts to talk about those details,” MacIntyre said. “There’s a number of grant programs that would already be available to students and that will have to be taken into account.”\nThough his proposal is still in the planning stage, Daniels said he believes in it.\n“We have it in our power; I’m convinced. I need your help to make it real,” he said. “We can do this with your assistance and that of your fellow citizens.”
(04/15/08 5:10pm)
He is one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. On a team of nearly 90 athletes, he is one of the most important figures, and he came to IU from a country more than 6,000 miles away.\nHe is “Shinbo.” \nShinchiro Sugiura, or Shinbo as he is affectionately called, is the head athletic trainer for the IU track and field team. Even though this is his first year at IU, Sugiura has found a home with the track and field family. \n“He is very much a team player,” IU coach Ron Helmer said.\nSenior sprinter/jumper Kiwan Lawson echoed the words of his coach.\n“You can’t say track and field without Shinbo,” he said. \nGrowing up in Japan, Sugiura competed on the soccer and track teams in school. In track, he ran distance, but did not excel in the sport.\n“I was slower than the girls,” he said.\nFrequent injuries impeded his success as an athlete, but he still wanted to be involved in sports. \n“I couldn’t be an athlete, but I wanted to support the athletes,” Shinbo said.\nWith no athletic training program in Japan, Sugiura headed to Indiana State for his undergraduate degree. He stayed at Indiana State for graduate school, then moved to Maine.\nThere, Sugiura worked first at a high school, then spent four years at a Division III college before coming to Bloomington.\nWhen he was first introduced as the athletic trainer, some of the athletes thought he was demanding. \n“He seemed very strict at first,” Lawson said. \nHelmer noticed Sugiura’s tremendous work ethic, but also his sense of humor – something that is important when dealing with the frustrations of injuries. Lawson agreed with his coach. \n“With so much going on, we need to laugh,” he said. “He’s our comedian.” \nSugiura is not afraid to be critical of the athletes when he sees them slacking off in practice. He also has been known to compete against them in block starts, the high jump or even the javelin.\nSophomore distance runner Rachel Ehret has spent a lot of time with Sugiura. Ehret injured her right tibia last year and had a stress fracture to her right foot before the start of this year’s cross country season.\nEhret, who visits the training room for almost an hour a day, said she has been impressed by how much Sugiura cares about what he does. \n“He is very dedicated,” she said. “I can tell he loves his job.”\nSugiura usually comes to work every day around 8 a.m. and goes home at about 6:30 p.m. Helmer puts in a lot of work as head coach, but he said Sugiura is an extremely hard worker who makes himself available seven days a week. \n“I can’t outwork him,” Helmer said. “He’s the Energizer Bunny.” \nSugiura, in turn, praised the coaches and said they also play a large role in helping to keep the athletes injury-free. He said that while he takes his work seriously, he also knows having fun creates a more comfortable setting for treatment. \n“It’s important to have a relaxed environment,” he said.\nIn Bloomington, Sugiura has found a home, and he said he doesn’t plan to leave any time soon. The coaching staff and athletes want him to stay, too, and they said they admire his hard work and calm demeanor.\nSometimes he can be doing multiple tasks at once, but he still responds quickly when needed.\n“He’s Johnny-on-the-spot all the time,” Lawson said.
(04/08/08 4:52am)
CHICAGO – The young caller’s voice is high-pitched and trembling.\nHer mother’s been drinking, she says. They got into a fistfight, so the girl grabbed her backpack and a cell phone and bolted, with little thought about where a 13-year-old could go on a cold night.\nHiding in an alley off her rural hometown’s deserted main street, she calls the only phone number she can think of: 1-800-RUNAWAY.\n“I just don’t feel like I’m taken care of like a daughter should be,” the girl tells the volunteer who answers the phone at the National Runaway Switchboard. She stutters between sobs and shivers.\nHer story is a common one at the Chicago-based hot line, which handles well over 100,000 calls each year, many from troubled young people who are dealing with increasingly difficult issues.\nNational Runaway Switchboard data shows the overall number of young callers facing crises that jeopardized their safety rose from 13,650 in 2000 to 15,857 last year. About two-thirds of the latter figure were young people who were thinking of running away, had already done so or had been thrown out of the house.\nFederally funded since the 1970s, the National Runaway Switchboard is regarded by people who work with troubled youth as an organization that provides one of the best overviews of the shadowy world of teenage runaways, which is difficult to track.\nThe group’s statistics showed that callers are getting younger and that 6,884 crisis callers last year said they had been abused or neglected, compared with 3,860 in 2000. That is a 78 percent increase.\nSome callers just want someone to talk to, about problems at home or with friends. Others who have already run away use the hot line to exchange messages with their families – to let them know they’re OK, or to arrange a free bus ticket home.\nSome are desperate for a place to stay, for safety, for options.\n“I’m scared of my parents, and I don’t want to go back there. Please don’t make me!” pleaded the 13-year-old girl who called this particular night.\nThe information she gave the hot line checked out. However, her name and other identifying details could not be included for this story because the National Runaway Switchboard guarantees callers confidentiality.\nIt also quickly became apparent to volunteer Megan McCormick – who has been trained to spot the occasional crank call – that this girl’s fear was real.\n“I know it must be really scary,” said McCormick, a graduate student in social work at the University of Chicago. As they spoke, she checked the call center’s extensive computer database for shelters in the girl’s hometown.\nThe closest was in a larger city, 40 minutes away. But when McCormick called, she was told they didn’t take anyone younger than 14.\nSuch scenarios are common in many regions of the country, particularly rural areas where resources for runaways are scarce. Further complicating the matter, the Runaway Switchboard has found that more crisis callers than ever are 14 and younger – 1,255 in that age group in 2000, compared with 1,844 last year.\n“The reality is, there are not always services available for kids who are calling,” says Maureen Blaha, executive director of the National Runaway Switchboard, which began as a Chicago area crisis hot line in 1971 and went national three years later. “We try to be as creative as we can be to find solutions. But there isn’t always a simple answer.”\nOthers in the youth services field concur.\nThey note that while the number of shelters and other organizations that help runaways have slowly increased over the decades, they have been unable to keep pace with the demand. Many institutions also lack the resources to deal with the severity of issues young people face today.\n“The population is much more disturbed than the runaways who were being seen 20 or 30 years ago,” said Victoria Wagner, chief executive of the National Network for Youth, a coalition of agencies that serve troubled young people. “There are more mental health issues, more substance abuse, more coming from violent home situations.”\nLong-standing government support for the Runaway Switchboard has been a vital component in addressing the problem, Wagner said. But, she adds, federal dollars for shelters and other services, also through the Runaway Youth Act, have remained largely stagnant since it first passed in the 1970s. So she and others are pressing Congress \nfor more.\nIt’s a tough sell in trying economic times. But the irony, Wagner said, is that when people are unemployed and families are struggling, young people are even more likely to have reason to run.\nThe 13-year-old girl who has called the Runaway Switchboard sounds even more anguished when McCormick tells there are no shelters in her area that will take her.\n“So there’s nowhere I can go?” she said in disbelief.\nSeveral times McCormick asks about other options, but the girl says she has none.\nShe says her friends’ parents would only take her back home. Relatives, whom she rarely sees, live out of state. And she seems even more afraid of her father than her mom, claiming that her parents divorced because he was abusive.\nEven so, she has little doubt that one or both of her parents will soon be out looking for her.\nMany communities that want to establish Safe Places are turned down because they have few or no services to offer runaways.\nNine states have no Safe Places at all. That includes the home of the 13-year-old girl who was on the line with the Runaway Switchboard for more than an hour.\nSeveral times, she adamantly refused to call the local sheriff or to get child protective services involved.\n“All this stuff that’s going on, it’s just really overwhelming,” she told McCormick, the call center volunteer. “I don’t want my mom to go to jail. I can’t do that to my family.”\nEventually, though, she changed her mind. She asked McCormick to stay on the line while she spoke with a county social worker and then the sheriff.\n“I’ve kind of run away from home,” the girl told the sheriff’s dispatch operator. “I need somewhere to stay.”\nMcCormick waited on the line until a sheriff’s deputy found her and picked her up. Finally, the girl was safe and members of the Runaway Switchboard staff looked relieved.\n“You get used to some aspects of this,” says Cori Ballew, a Runaway Switchboard supervisor who oversaw the call. “But you never get used to some of it, especially when it ends with no resolution.”\nSome runaways, like this one, find help of some kind, she says.\nOthers, faced with few choices, hang up.
(04/02/08 2:37am)
The Indiana State Police will hold its annual youth summer camps in June and July at campuses across the state.\nThree camp sessions will be available to children grades five through 12: Career Camp, Lions Law Camp and Respect for Law Camp. Various universities in Indiana host the camps, including Vincennes University, University of Notre Dame, University of Indianapolis, Anderson University, Hanover University and the University of Southern Indiana.\nEvery morning, campers will get up, make their beds and do physical training before they can experience the rest of the day, which includes speakers and demonstrations.\n“It really depends upon what the director has lined up regarding speakers and demonstrations,” state police youth service worker Carole Mayer said. “There will be fun activities mixed in as well.”\nMayer said the camp is a chance for particpants to be around state troopers and to see what they do. Each police specialty group comes in to show the children what its unit is all about.\nTroopers, detectives, sergeants and others have the opportunity to be directors for the camp.\n“Directors schedule their own events,” Mayer said. “There are different aspects of the state police and law enforcement in general that come in, like the canine unit.”\nChildren who participate in the camp will learn about safety, including Internet and fire safety, Mayer said.\nAs a director for the camp, In. state police Sgt. Sherri Frobetter said demonstrations will include the Explosive Ordnance Disposal bomb team, cyber safety, SWAT teams and fire safety.\n“We have such a good time,” she said. “I like being with the kids. It’s a positive experience on both sides.”\nAt the end of the camp, campers will have a graduation ceremony where they can show what they have learned, Mayer said.\nAlthough each child is supposed to attend the camp for only two years, some kids come an extra year because they love it so much. \n“I went through the camp when I was in elementary school,” said former camper Jacob Greene. “This past year I helped out with the camp by keeping the campers in line and making sure they were all there.”\nGreene said his favorite part of the camp when he was a camper was when they brought the bomb squad in and the campers all got to yell, “Fire in the hole!” \n“I had a blast,” Greene said. “It was always so much fun.”\nJacob Greene’s younger brother Josiah had his first experience at camp last summer.\n“You get to bunk with your friends,” Josiah Greene said. “My favorite part was when they brought the fire truck and taught us about fires and what to do. They even sprayed water in the air.”\nBetween 700 to 800 children attend the camp every year, Mayer said. Camp fees range from $95 to $225 depending on the camp and how many days the event runs.
(04/01/08 4:45am)
When you fly into Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, one of the first things you see as you walk off the plane is a poster encouraging you to report governmental corruption. As a country formerly under the rule of communism, which rewards loyalty to the ruling bureaucracy rather than integrity and competence, corruption is one of the biggest problems facing Croatia. As my friend Spencer snapped a photo of the anti-corruption sign I remarked “We’ll have to start putting up signs like that in America if the Clintons take back the White House.”\nI travelled to Croatia over spring break with a class I’m taking in the business school called “Emerging Markets.” We visited several companies, as well as the Croatian Chamber of Economy and a post-graduate business school, to learn about how the government and the private sector are working to be more competitive in the global economy. But I think I learned the most through observation and conversations with individual Croatians.\nI’ve traveled to several countries now, and I’m starting to notice a trend that sets the U.S. apart. In the U.S., we have a strong consumer culture; we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure customers are happy and continue to spend money at our businesses. But in Croatia, I’d often walk into a restaurant or a store and feel like an intruder. I didn’t feel like a welcome guest; I felt like I was interrupting the employees’ otherwise leisurely day.\nPart of the disparity in service undoubtedly comes from our custom of tipping wait staff. I worked as a server and bartender for three years, and the primary reason that I always wanted to provide excellent service is because nearly my entire income depended on it. In other countries where tipping is uncommon, or where perhaps a flat service fee is charged at every meal, there is no incentive for servers to do a good job. We did have a few servers in Croatia that were fantastic, and I always made it a point to tip them well and thank them for their good service.\nI had a chance to talk with a Croatian MBA student working for a major pharmaceutical company. He spent much of his life living in the U.S., and he laughed knowingly when I talked about my experience in Croatian stores and restaurants. He said he missed being a consumer in America, where “the customer is always right.” Emphasis on consumer satisfaction rather than workers’ rights is one of the factors that has made the U.S. so strong. When you focus on the consumer, everybody benefits – including the worker, whose job depends on the company’s success.\nCroatia is a beautiful country, and they’ve made tremendous economic progress in a very short time. But I think they would do well to adopt a mindset that doesn’t view workers and consumers as competitors. As an international studies major, I think it’s fascinating and vitally important to study and appreciate other countries. But we shouldn’t forget to appreciate our own culture and heritage or the principles and traditions that have made the U.S. such a great country.
(03/28/08 6:10am)
IU freshman Ying Lao’s first word in Shan, her region’s native tongue, was “independence.”\nTo her, it was a foreign-sounding word whispered discretely among the villagers in her small community in the Shan state of Burma. Ying Lao, who learned Burmese at an early age, heard an older man murmur the Shan word “kornkaw” when she was in 10th grade.\nThe first time she heard the word, she asked her father, the headmaster of a primary school, about the meaning of “kornkaw” and why everyone was afraid to utter the word above the level of a whisper. \n“It means ‘independence,’” her father said.\nA divided country\nYing Lao has been working to secure independence and a constitution in her home country since she discovered the meaning of “kornkaw.”\nAfter joining youth and women’s groups in Burma, she began helping to draft a new constitution in the ethnically divided country. She received the Burmese Refugee Scholarship and is now a freshman at IU. She believes her education in the U.S. will help her learn from the past and prepare to return home to Burma.\nBurma is made up of the ruling Burmese majority and a handful of ethnic minority groups, including the Shan. Tired of inequality, brutality and human rights violations, the Shan people decided to break away with the hope of becoming an independent Shan state.\nGrowing up, Ying Lao questioned why she had to study the Burmese language, a language she did not associate with herself or her community, instead of the Shan language her friends and family spoke. There were books in her house she couldn’t read, conversations she couldn’t understand. \nSomething is wrong, she thought.\nIn 1988, when Ying Lao was 3 years old, her father was arrested in an uprising for supporting the democractic movement and illegally teaching villagers the Shan language. Soon, the lessons began.\nEvery night after dinner, Ying Lao sat behind her father as he rode his bicycle around the village and taught her the Shan language.\nA curious and talkative child, Ying Lao continued to ask her parents about the strange events occurring in her village. She learned that the military forced villagers in nearby Shan states to flee their communities because they supported the democratic movement. They sought refuge in Thailand, where many became illegal migrant workers.\n“It was more dangerous to keep living in our own town because our villages are all gone,” Ying Lao said. “The economy is going down and down. At the same time, women are raped every day and we heard the news that people were killed because of suspicions that they are supporting the rebel group.”
(03/27/08 3:58am)
“After Hours at the Almost Home,” is author and IU alumna Tara Yellen’s first novel, and it shows.\nIt revolves around the lives and circles of friends of co-workers who work at the Almost Home Bar and Grill in Colorado. We are first introduced to JJ, a college graduate who has moved from job to job, only to end up as a new trainee waitress at the Almost Home. We also meet Lena, the smart-mouthed, controlling, so-called “bitch” of the staff who dates the handsome bartender Denny, as well as Colleen and her daughter Lily, who at 13 rebels against her mother and attracts older men. We are also introduced to Keith and Marna, who are romantically involved and hope to leave Colorado for bigger and better things.\nThe book has a slow start and no real plot. After reading only the first couple of pages, I felt like I was reading something based off the 2005 film “Waiting” starring Ryan Reynolds. The novel holds the same idea as the film; people who work in a lousy bar and want so much more out of their lives than what their present situation affords them. Yellen’s novel is like “Waiting” turned into a soap-opera/drama, yet with no emotional investment in the characters.\nYellen tries to do in-depth character analysis into the inner-workings of each Almost Home employee, but her attempt fails. I didn’t care about the characters in this novel and that made it hard to want to read on. Although it is a short novel at 259 pages, it seemed to drag on and I couldn’t care less about what happened to the characters by the end. Maybe it’s just me, but I like to read novels that capture my attention and really engage me with the characters, but I didn’t get that from this book. It certainly was not a substantial or enlightening read by any means. Perhaps the only part of the book I found interesting was when the employees sit around on the Fourth of July and play the famous game from Nick’s, Sink the Biz!\nSo if you see this novel in the bookstore and really want to read it – I just want to give you fair warning about its lack of plot and character development. It was a nice attempt at a first novel, but for me it failed to become an engaging read. It was just plain boring.
(03/18/08 4:00am)
On Dec. 6, 1977, 200,000 members of the United Mine Workers Union went on strike after contract negotiations with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association failed. As the strike surged into 1978, coal supplies began to vanish, pushing a university largely dependent on its coal supply to the nail-biting edge. State officials declared emergency energy cutbacks, and IU administrators had no choice but to close the school, giving students the first three-week spring break in IU history – and leaving the campus in the dark. Thirty years later, IU still remembers.
(03/03/08 5:28am)
SOUTH BEND – Activist-actor Martin Sheen will be honored by the University of Notre Dame with its Laetare Medal for his humanitarian work, the school announced Sunday.\nSheen, who starred as a U.S. president who was a Notre Dame graduate in NBC’s “The West Wing,” is to receive the medal at the school’s May 18 commencement.\nSince 1883, the Laetare Medal has been awarded annually to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”\nRecipients include President John F. Kennedy, former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and former U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr.\nSheen has used his recognition as an actor to help others, said the university’s president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins.\n“He has used that celebrity to draw the attention of his fellow citizens to issues that cry out for redress, such as the plight of immigrant workers and homeless people, the waging of unjust war, the killing of the unborn and capital punishment,” Jenkins said.\nSheen, 67, describes himself as a Catholic peace activist. He has been arrested for taking part in nonviolent demonstrations against various U.S. military policies, and has donated money and time to such causes as the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, human rights for migrant workers and environmental protection.
(02/26/08 8:05am)
Dominatrix Keva I. Lee selected a crowd member from the more than 400 people in the Whittenberger Auditorium Sunday night. She used the volunteer as a prop in her performance, whipping him and forcing him to act like a dog and a pony.\nIt was all just part of the Sex Workers’ Art Show, at which audience members gathered to laugh, be shocked and, most of all, learn about the people behind the sex industry.\nThe cabaret-style show featured eight performers from various areas of the sex industry, ranging from Amber Dawn, an ex-prostitute, to world-famous burlesque dancer Dirty Martini, who performed a striptease to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” while dressed in the American flag. Each of the performers shared stories of their experiences working in the sex industry.\nThe night of festivities was hosted by event founder and director Annie Oakley, who kicked the night off with some laughs.\n“I am really freaked out because I heard there was nudity in the show,” Oakley said at the show. “I am totally not comfortable with that.”\nThe first performance of the night came from The World Famous Bob, a burlesque dancer who entertained the crowd by mixing a martini with her cleavage. She also told stories of her youth as a stripper and a dominatrix struggling to find a career.\n“It was really good; I thought it was going to be a bunch of ladies up on stage bringing up depressing topics,” junior Nick Branch said. “But instead, it was a bunch of ladies up on stage sharing the joys of their career, and that is really what I wanted to hear.”\nEach performer discussed openly their various jobs in the $12 billion-a-year industry, giving the audience a new perspective on the people behind the product. Lorelei Lee, a pornography performer, read an excerpt from her book about her day-to-day life, both inside and outside the industry. Also, performance artist Erin Markey gave a side-splitting performance, complete with song, on turning to stripping after graduating college and not knowing what to do with her degree. \n“The show could not have gone any better,” said Stacy Konkiel, event organizer and graduate assistant for the Office of Women’s Affairs. \nKonkiel said the positive response to the show proved how open IU was to issues of intellectual freedom and sexual expression. \nThe show’s grand finale, fireworks included, came from internationally known performance artist Krylon Superstar. He flirted with the audience, sang a song and bathed nude in a kiddie pool full of glitter. \n“The show was unlike anything I have ever seen before,” said sophomore Ben Morse. “It was cool; very funny and culturally diverse. I would definitely go again.” \nOakley started the show in 1997 to disprove common stereotypes about sex workers. This is the first time the tour has made a stop in Bloomington.
(02/26/08 4:47am)
Northern Illinois University students returned to campus Monday ready to get on with their semesters, even as the deadly shooting rampage of 10 days ago weighed heavily on their minds. Students wearing red lapel pins in honor of their school colors returned to lectures and labs as classes began for the first times since the Feb. 14 shootings, in which former NIU graduate student Steve Kazmierczak opened fire on students – killing five and wounding 16 – before committing suicide.
(02/21/08 7:08pm)
Strippers, dominatrices, porn stars and more will descend on the IU campus this Sunday for some raunchy fun – and to educate about the sex industry – at the Sex Workers’ Art Show.\nThe Sex Workers’ Art Show is a cabaret-style variety show featuring nine performers who work or have worked in some area of the sex industry. The artists will perform a blend of music, spoken word, performance art and more. The show will be held 7 p.m. Sunday at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union. \n“I saw the show two years ago when I was an undergraduate at the University of Delaware and I was blown away,” said Stacy Konkiel, a graduate assistance for the Office of Women’s Affairs. “A performance that I thought would be titillating, at the most was really thought-provoking.”\nThe diverse lineup of talent on this year’s tour includes Miss Exotic World 2004, Dirty Martini, an internationally-known burlesque dancer and Chris Kraus, an ex-stripper who now teaches writing at the University of California, San Diego. Kraus will be reading an excerpt from one of her published works, including “I Love Dick” and “Aliens & Anorexia.” \n“The idea is to show people what is behind the product,” said Annie Oakley, founder, director and curator of the show. “It humanizes them and presents the sex workers as real people.” \nOakley created the show in Olympia, Wash., in 1997 to disprove common stereotypes about the sex industry while entertaining the audience. After five years of performing a successful yearly show in Washington, Oakley decided to bring the show to a wider audience. She decided to take the show on the road and has been doing country-wide tours every year since. \nRepresenting the porn industry on the tour is Lorelei Lee. She described the Sex Workers’ Art Show as “incredibly entertaining, while still being smart and political.”\nLee has performed in porn films for more than six years and is also a student of creative writing. On the tour, Lee will read an excerpt from her autobiographical fiction novel about working in the porn industry.\n“Being on the tour has been an incredible experience,” Lee said. “I never thought I would have the chance to have so many people hear my writing. The response has been overwhelming.”\nAlthough recent stops have been sold out and responses for the show have been generally positive, the tour has sparked some controversy.\n“Just the idea that sex workers would make art is so disturbing to some people,” Kraus said.\nA recent visit to the Claremont Colleges was canceled because the administration was concerned about controversy the tour might bring with it, Oakley said. The controversy surrounding the show peaked in Williamsburg, Va., at the College of William and Mary, where the college fired its president after he refused to cancel the show. Oakley said the controversy surrounding the show is created by the parents of students and members of the religious right who have no idea what the tour is really about.\n“This is not a strip show,” Oakley said. “It is much tamer than a lot of things you can see or do on campus.”
(02/11/08 5:11am)
While bleeding green as a student at Michigan State, Stacey Phillips was certain she would become a head softball coach in the Big Ten someday. \nPhillips told her head coach Jacquie Joseph, who still manages the Spartans today, she would also be giving steal signs and calling suicide squeezes for a living one day.\n“I want to coach, Coach,” Phillips said, recalling the exact conversation she had with Joseph at Michigan State. “Yep, that’s what I want to do.” \nPhillips’ statement, which Joseph thought was comical at the time, became reality when IU named her the head coach of the Hoosiers softball program in 2006. \nAt Michigan State, Phillips excelled in many fronts of the game. A four-year letter recipient in East Lansing, Phillips was an offensive machine and still holds several records at her alma mater.\n“It’s funny because any of my records that still stand are probably going to be broken in the next five years,” Phillips said. “I just don’t want anybody to break it when we play them.”\nDespite hanging up her Spartan jersey in 2000, Phillips wasn’t ready to leave the game for good. \nThe then-recent graduate, who holds a bachelor’s degree in audiology speech sciences, started her coaching career as an assistant with the University of Detriot-Mercy. Around the same time, she was drafted professionally. \nPhillips was the No. 1 pick for the San Antonio Armadillos of the National Pro Fastpitch League. \nEven though San Antonio drafted her, the team failed to form and the Akron Racers redrafted Phillips the following year, but she never played. \n“I was drafted a bunch of times professionally, but never played,” said Phillips. “But I like picking the brains of some of these Hall of Fame coaches who were drafted as well.”\nTwo years later, Phillips became the head coach of the Hoosiers.\n“Coach Phillips’ enthusiasm and passion for the game of softball serves as a source of strength for our program,” said Chris Reynolds, IU’s senior associate athletic director, in an e-mail. “She is a tireless worker and genuinely cares about helping our student-athletes reach their full potential on and off the field.”\nPhillips said recruiting will flourish thanks to the IU Varsity Club’s plan to build a new $6 million stadium for the softball squad.\n“We are going to secure the talent that matches that $6 million stadium,” Phillips said. “In particular, the kids who are in our program now are worth $6 million plus.”\nPhillips said she loves being a part of IU softball because her players are always looking to improve their play on the field. \n“Our players are great kids,” Phillips said. “They had made a commitment and continue to remain loyal to this program.”\nAs for the upcoming season, Phillips said her team is ready for challenges ahead due to its mix of experience and youth.\nThe Hoosiers return senior catcher Tory Yamaguchi and senior infielder Jennilee Huddleston – the two top batters from last season. \n“Tory and Jennilee are both great leaders for this ball club,” Phillips said. “They both represent pictures of toughness and have a lot of passion for \nthe sport.”\nAfter hitting .335 at the plate last season, Huddleston has high hopes for the team this year.\n“We’ve had a good and productive off-season and are feeling very confident in where we are headed this season,” Huddleston said in an e-mail. “There’s no doubt in my mind that this will be a successful season for us.”\nAnd when the time comes on April 20, Phillips will stand in the opposite dugout of her former coach Joseph, ready to bleed red instead of her \nformer green. \n“I might still have some green blood in me, but now I’m all about the crimson,” \nPhillips said.
(01/29/08 3:40am)
While most IU students spend their Wednesday nights studying, hanging out with friends or catching up on their favorite TV shows, senior Sara Deckard passes the time a different way: as a line dance instructor at the Bloomington Adult Community Center.\nDeckard’s classes, Beginning and Intermediate Line Dance, are two of the classes offered this spring at the center. Run by Bloomington Parks and Recreation, the classes vary from ballroom dancing to poetry writing workshops. Deckard said they are a great way to meet people and stay in shape. \n“I danced for years and years,” Deckard said. “I knew a girl who taught here before and she graduated, so she asked me if I would be interested.”\nDeckard said the classes offer benefits for people of all ages, including college students.\n“It’s close to campus, it’s fun and it’s a good exercise,” said Deckard, who started teaching in the fall. “They’ve got a great facility, and it’s just nice to have once a week.”\nThe exercise element is a key reason for many participants to sign up, such as 19-year-old Ashley Morris, a participant in Beginning Line Dance. She and a few co-workers signed up for an opportunity to work out and learn a new talent.\n“Country line dancing’s kind of random, so we all wanted to do it,” Morris said. “It’s good exercise and a lot of good laughs. It’s nice to get everyone together. Someone showed us the brochure and we thought it was neat, so we signed up.”\nMichael Simmons, adult program specialist at the center, said classes at the center are for adults 18 and older, but the median age is between 35 and 45.\n“The classes are affordable so they are available to the whole community,” Simmons said. “They’re a great way to facilitate the sharing of information.”\nHe also said anyone seeking to learn more about Bloomington and make new friends should take advantage of the classes.\n“You take away not only skill, but also a sense of the Bloomington community,” Simmons said. \nHe said the classes are successful and often have waiting lists, but some classes still have space. Contact the cemter for more information or visit the Parks and Recreation Web site at www.bloomington.in.gov/parks.
(01/25/08 5:05am)
A study conducted by the IU Kelley School of Business shows that the Hoosier economy is greatly influenced by libraries throughout the state.\nLibraries supply countless jobs throughout Indiana communities, according to the study. For example, the Herman B Wells Library contributes $136 million dollars into the Indiana economy. But Indiana libraries contribute much more than just economical development throughout the state. \nTimothy Slaper, the Indiana Business Research Center director of economic analysis and co-author of the Kelley School report, said that besides the direct economic benefits of providing jobs and state revenue, libraries indirectly help local communities by helping money recirculate.\n“Libraries help people get what they need more quickly to advance themselves on the worker front,” Slaper said.\nMary Strow, head of the reference department in the Wells Library, said people know about many “obvious” positives that libraries provide, including providing resources for schoolwork, social gathering areas and careers. But she said there are more subtle benefits of libraries, and as she puts it, they are “the fabric of democratic societies.”\n“Librarians have known for years the benefits of libraries,” she said. \nLibrary staffs are specialists in many different areas, and this expertise, Strow said, is invaluable because of the wealth of information libraries have. \n“Library staff act as the bridge between students and information,” Strow said. \nStrow also stresses that all resources cannot be found on the Internet, and that some credible and historic texts must be sought out. \nPatricia Steele, interim Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries, said the Wells Library is striving to evolve to be relevant to the needs of its users in a new electronic life. For the Wells Library specifically, this means appealing to undergraduate, graduate and faculty members. \nAccording to the IU Bloomington Libraries 2006-07 annual report, “libraries were once defined by their walls,” meaning they were only as useful as the books they physically held. \nSteele questions, “How can we use technology to evolve?”\nA study conducted by the Benton Foundation in 1996 demonstrated the 18- to 24-year-old demographic was less likely to utilize library resources. But after listening to users and making changes in the ways they organize and operate, 18- to 24-year-olds are now the largest group to frequently take advantage of library resources.\nThe response to make necessary changes to break traditional library boundaries involved thinking about the library as a community in order to make it aesthetically pleasing and comfortable, as well as valuable.\n“Libraries must acquire, provide access and preserve,” Steele said.\nSteele said IU is fulfilling this responsibility with a contract with Google, and in a partnership with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which would make tens of millions of digital copies of resources available on the Internet. The committee includes all of the Big Ten schools, plus the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. \nThe committee encompasses 78,898,605 bound volumes alone, according to the Association of Research Libraries. \nThe benefits of the Wells Library are not confined to Bloomington; anyone in the state can borrow books from the library, Steele said. \nOne benefit that still remains within the physical walls of libraries, specifically the Wells Library, is the collaboration of students and libraries. Steele sees this as a partnership, and said the library must “understand students’ discipline in order to help them.”
(01/22/08 5:13am)
A 2007 study by CareerBuilder.com and Harris Interactive found that 87 percent of hiring managers and human resource professionals believe that employees age 29 and under “(exhibit) a sense of entitlement that older generations don’t.”\nThis includes expecting a higher salary, a more flexible work schedule, more benefits, more vacation time and company-provided technology.\nThe survey, conducted among 2,546 employers in the United States, quantifies some common complaints among employers regarding “born 1980-95,” a term used to describe people in their teens and 20s. But some students and faculty see these expectations as perfectly reasonable.\n“We put a lot into our education,” said senior Matt Wint, an informatics major, “so we expect to get some of it back.”\nThe price of attending a public university has risen an average of 4 percent a year since 1987 after adjusting for inflation, according to CollegeBoard.com.\nEconomic uncertainty also plays a role, says Patrick Donahue, director of the Career Development Center.\n“This generation has seen parents downsized, watched the Internet bubble burst and perhaps had family members lose stock funds in Worldcom or Enron, so wanting to build a sound financial base is to be expected,” Donahue said.\nMany recent college graduates believe they deserve a higher salary because they come into the workforce more prepared than their older counterparts, mostly because of a meteoric rise in the popularity of internship programs. A 2006 study by Vault, Inc. reported that 62 percent of college students planned to take an internship in 2007, compared with just 41 percent the year before. \n“It used to be that internships were of secondary importance to students, right behind finding a job as a beach lifeguard or bartending,” Donahue said. “Now, internships are not only strongly encouraged, but they are often required by academic departments.” \nSome companies appear to be making concessions to their “Generation Y” employees. According to the CareerBuilder.com and Harris Interactive survey, 15 percent of employers “changed or implemented new policies or programs to accommodate Generation Y workers.” Some of these changes included access to state-of-the-art technology, more flexible work schedules, and, to a lesser degree, increased salaries and bonuses.\nPut in historical context, young job seekers have reason to expect higher starting salaries than those who entered the workforce decades before them. The average household income has risen steadily in the United States as the economy has grown. It hovered around $15,000 in the first two decades of the 20th century, and reached $33,338 in 1967. It is currently at $43,318, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. \n“Each generation expects higher salaries and better benefits than the generation before them had, so that’s not unusual,” Donahue said.
(01/14/08 5:54am)
Starting Jan. 7, Bloomington Transit buses began offering longer hours for weekday nights as new schedules were introduced.\nRoutes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be affected by this change. The routes affected will run until 11:10 p.m., except for routes 2 South and 5, which will run until 10:40 p.m. Previously, most city buses stopped service by 9 p.m.\n“(The hour expansion) is to provide more flexibility and mobility options whether (our bus riders) go to school, work or go shopping,” said Lewis May, general manager for Bloomington Transit. “Now with the late-night bus service, you will be able to use the bus as (your) primary source.”\nMay estimated that about 9,000 people use Bloomington Transit on a typical weekday during the school year.\n“I have to ride the Bloomington Transit,” IU graduate student Sara Conrad said. “It’s always difficult to get on and off campus on a good time.”\nBloomington Transit also increased its bus fares starting Jan. 7, but the fare increase has nothing to do with the service expansion, May said. And the increase in bus fares will have no effect on the amount of IU student fees that are paid to Bloomington Transit, May said. The increase is due to the fact that the cost of living has gone up and the increase will help cover the new costs, he said.\nThe weeknight hour expansion was made possible through grants from the Federal Transit Administration and the Indiana Department of Transportation, May said.\nMay said hopefully Bloomington Transit will be able to acquire more grants in the future so it can expand the weekend night routes, too.\nSophomore Tara Thornburg, a frequent bus rider, said she hopes Bloomington Transit will have more buses running because the route she takes only comes every 30 minutes.\nFor now, May said he hopes the expansion of nighttime hours will be only the start of an improved bus system.\n“We are going to help the community — not just the workers, but students will be able to use these routes to get to and from the campus,” May said. “We think it is going to be a really good thing for the community.”
(01/11/08 5:35am)
Despite fears of recession on a national level, Indiana’s economy continues to add new jobs including 22,600 this year, according to an Indiana Economic Development Corporation press release. The number represents commitments from over 150 companies, including some located out-of-state and a number of international companies that have divisions in Indiana, to invest in creating new jobs in the state by 2012.\nThe report showed that state employment goals have been met and surpassed for a third year running. Since the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s creation by Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2005, nearly 500 companies have invested more than $14.57 billion in their Indiana operations, according to the press release.\nIndiana workers are also averaging higher salaries. The average wage will increase to $20.56/hour, compared to the current average of $18/hour.\nIndiana Economic Development Corporation spokesman Mitch Frazier said that Indiana’s current economic environment continues to play a large role in attracting businesses to invest in the state. \n“The great story here is we’re talking about incentives,” he said. “For most jobs committed last year, the total incentive dollar total went down 20 percent. What that’s telling us is we have a great environment here in Indiana and we don’t have to offer as many incentives.”\nThose incentives range from cash reimbursements for training new employees to tax credits, as well as various industry-specific grants including the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund.\nInformation technology is the fastest growing sector of Indiana’s economy, and investing in those companies helps keep local graduates in those fields working within the state, Frazier said.\n“When companies that have ideas have sought all the money they can from people they know and ... there’s a gap, what we do is bridge that gap with funding,” he said. “It keeps the talents of our universities employed here in Indiana.”\nNathan J. Feltman, Indiana Secretary of Commerce and CEO of the board of directors for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, said despite the intensely competitive environment between states for attracting business, Indiana continues to do well.\n“We’re always battling another state, (but) we provide infrastructure assistance, we pay for some of the cost of training the employees,” Feltman said. “What set us apart and why we’re doing better is if you look at surrounding states in the Midwest, we have the lowest unemployment and the lowest taxes. We’re outpacing all states in the Midwest when it comes to new companies.”\nSome companies are opening branches in Indiana for other reasons as well. Medco, the nation’s largest mail-order pharmacy, has promised to create 1,306 jobs and will open its third distribution center in Whitestown, Ind., because of Indiana’s central location in the nation. \n“We did an exhaustive search across the country [because] we needed a central part to relocate to. We narrowed it to Louisville and Indiana and we needed excellent transportation access, a location near an airport, near a post office as well as access to UPS, FedEx, as well as quality of life considerations for our employees,” said Ann Smith, director of public affairs for Medco. \n“It was crucial to be near a very strong workforce to tap into, especially pharmacists, and there in Indianapolis we had Indiana University-Purdue University and Butler, so those were key components,” she said.
