Bloomington Herald-Times
October 19, 2009
IU expects ripple effect from Ostrom's Nobel Prize
By Mike Leonard
October 18, 2009, last update: 10/17 @ 8:55 pm
When Indiana University professor Lin Ostrom learned early Monday morning that she was the co-winner of this year's Nobel Prize in economics, it sparked an immediate feeling of euphoria among her friends, colleagues and members of the university and Bloomington communities.
And as the week has flown by, it's begun to sink in just how significant the impact might be as the university is linked to the freshly minted Nobel laureate and the first woman ever to claim a Nobel prize in economics.
"Certainly, there is a lot of reflected glory on the institution, and in that, we're very proud and it speaks well for the whole institution," said Mike Sample, vice president for external relations for IU. "This is not something that wears off tomorrow. It just adds to that honor roll of academic excellence we can point to. And this will still be pointed to 50 years from now and more."
That list of luminaries includes IU Ph.D graduate and Nobel winner James D. Watson, who with English scientist Francis Crick unraveled the structure of DNA; and Alfred C. Kinsey, whose pioneering work in the study of human sexuality had, and continues to have, profound social and public health implications throughout the world.
University officials are quick to point out that the award was earned by Ostrom, the workaholic, 76-year-old researcher, and that the prestige of winning an internationally famous Nobel Prize goes to her. "We're certainly not looking to step in beside her and crowd our way into the photo," Sample said.
When asked, however, President Michael A. McRobbie said on Friday, "I think there are at least five ways I can think of that this will have a ripple effect for the university. The first," he said, "is that it reconfirms to the faculty, staff and students in the strongest possible way the quality and excellence of research here. As Lin herself has said, she's worked as a collaborator with dozens of people right across the university for many years.
"The second thing is that it does something similar with the Legislature and the government, as well as with the population of Indiana more generally," McRobbie said. "We've had lots of faculty win lots of major awards and most of them are very prestigious but not heard of outside of their fields of study. Everybody has heard of the Nobel Prize."
The IU president said that point leads into his third "ripple effect" -- that having a current Nobel winner on the faculty makes university leaders and researchers across the world sit up and take notice. And that supports his fourth observation, that undergraduate and graduate school candidates as well as faculty and other researchers will view IU among the top tier institutions where Nobel Prize-winning work can take place.
Finally, McRobbie said, the prestige of Ostrom's prize could well add a little luster to other outstanding research at IU. "The selection of Nobel winners is a pretty closed process," he observed. "If you are on that map it provides a level of visibility -- it certainly can't hurt your chances in the future. But that's just speculative on my part."
Campus provost Karen Hanson said, "There's this substance behind it that really makes it something we can talk about not just with pride but as a point of attraction for students. Lin has not only done this work conceptually, significant, ground-breaking research, but she's done it with students over four decades at IU. So that goes to the message of what kind of faculty we have. It's not just that they're brilliant but they work so well with students and they mentor students."
Ostrom is legendary among faculty and graduate students for the collaborative process employed by the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. Since its founding, with her husband, Vincent, in 1973, the workshop has brought in hundreds of researchers in dozens of academic disciplines, where distinguished researchers have worked side by side with bright and energetic graduate students.
In a bit of tidy symmetry, the thrust of the work for which Ostrom won the Nobel prize was to illustrate how individuals can form groups and coordinate their efforts to have a positive impact on vital common resources such as land and water. It has been said that while her work doesn't absolutely repudiate "the tragedy of the commons," or the notion that only strong, centralized authority can preserve vital, common resources, it contributes the hopeful notion that the economics of resource management are highly complex, and "ground-up" input from the people closest to a common resource can contribute to a better outcome than either private concerns or governmental organizations acting in isolation.
Ostrom, incidentally, continued working as normal last week, after delving through more than 700 media requests from around the world, and more than 1,500 e-mails sent directly to the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. "I think Lin is just starting to think about what this means for the kind of schedule she can expect to have," said Michael McGinnis, who became co-director of the workshop after Ostrom stepped down as acting director last summer. "She's always had a hard time saying no to people, and there's no dry run to be a Nobel Prize winner."
Like everyone else, McGinnis emphasized that no one works harder, is more agreeable, or more deserving of a Nobel Prize than Ostrom. All of that being said, there also was a bit of luck associated with Monday's announcement.
"The workshop was scheduled to have its external review (by the Office of the Vice President for Research) to begin on Thursday," he said on Wednesday. "It's standard operating procedure. But, by sheer coincidence, Lin just happened to win the Nobel Prize on Monday.
"I would think the reviewers would look favorably on that," McGinnis said.
Find out more on HTO's special Nobel Prize page at http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/pages/nobel.
IU to break ground on new cinema facility
By Mike Leonard
October 17, 2009
Indiana University officials will conduct a groundbreaking ceremony today for a project that will renovate the University Theater and convert it to a state-of-the-art cinema facility, while also adding classroom, rehearsal and performance space for the Department of Theatre and Drama.
The renovation will create a 300-seat IU Cinema, which will accommodate film studies courses, campus film festivals and series, student-directed works, and visits by well-known filmmakers and scholars. It also will add a small studio theater, a movement studio and other amenities for the Department of Theatre and Drama, in addition to a large loading area for the stage of the IU Auditorium.
Indiana University President Michael McRobbie and IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson will lead the groundbreaking at 2 p.m. on the steps of University Theater on the north side of the IU Auditorium at 1211 E. Seventh St. The public is invited.
"This major new project continues Indiana University's ambitious investment in the arts and humanities," McRobbie said in a prepared statement. "The new IU Cinema will be among the very finest such facilities in the country; it will be an exhibition space worthy of IU's outstanding film collections and superb reputation for scholarship in film studies. These important renovations also will provide badly needed space and amenities for the Department of Theatre and Drama."
The IU Cinema will feature a range of technologies, including projectors that convert from 16 mm to 35 mm and high-quality digital projection and sound equipment. The orchestra pit will be renovated to allow live music to accompany silent films. A national search is under way for a director of the cinema.
Gregory Waller, chairman of the Department of Communication and Culture at IU Bloomington, said the cinema project signals strong support for film studies and will help the campus recruit the best graduate students and faculty in the discipline.
"It will give much deserved visibility to IU's enormous and under-recognized collections of films," Waller said. "And with a venue this good, we'll be able to promise filmmakers that they'll never see their film look better. That's quite an incentive to get people to visit."
IU's film studies assets include the David Bradley Collection of 16 mm films, the Black Film Center Archive, the Kinsey Institute collections, and Lilly Library collections of the papers of directors Orson Welles, John Ford and Peter Bogdanovich.
University Theater was built along with the IU Auditorium and opened in 1939. Formerly used for IU theater productions, it has not been used since the Norvelle Center opened in 2002.
It features four of the historic Indiana Murals painted by Thomas Hart Benton for the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition. The murals are being restored by conservators from the IU Art Museum.
MGA Partners, a Philadelphia architectural firm, is coordinating the design. The project cost is $15 million, with $5 million funded by private gifts and $10 million from university funds.
The IU Board of Trustees approved the financing and design of the project in 2008. It was approved in June 2009 by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and in July 2009 by the State Budget Committee.
Cold, damp day can't stop IU's Homecoming Parade
By Bethany Nolan
October 17, 2009, last update: 10/17 @ 1:30 am
Chilly temperatures and drizzling rain didn't stop red-hot fans from cheering on the Hoosiers during Friday's IU Homecoming Parade, where spectators bundled up, slurped hot chocolate and coffee or snuggled with loved ones to stay warm.
School of Public and Environmental Affairs student Veronica Escobedo huddled with 6-year-old son Romeo Garcia under a sheet she'd found in her car along the low stone wall in front of Indiana University's Bryan Hall.
"It's my first parade," she said. She'd just started taking classes again and was working to get back into the swing of things, including ramping up her school spirit. Romeo, on the other hand, was eager to see the band.
Five-year-old Sophie Scheiber -- who proudly showed an inquisitive passer-by her loose tooth -- sported a tiny cream-and-crimson Indiana University cheerleader uniform over a pair of black pants and gray hoodie to ward off the cold, while 3-year-old brother Gabriel carried pompoms.
"It's their third parade so far. We usually meet up with friends after and go out for pizza," Stacie King said. "And the kids know all the songs because we go to the women's basketball games. This is their chance to see the band and cheerleaders up close."
And parade-goers definitely got an up-close look at the Marching Hundred, who kicked off the procession with a powerful, high-stepping version of the IU fight song. Parade grand marshals and NCAA Football Hall of Fame members George Taliaferro and Anthony Thompson rode by in style, respectively, in a red MG with the top down and in a dark green Jaguar convertible.
Fraternity members gyrated wildly to the strains of Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" in a flatbed trailer being hauled by a pickup truck, while Shriners zoomed around in tiny cars. Firefighters sporting IU T-shirts and kilts over bare knees played the bagpipes, while Miss Indiana waved from the back of a pickup truck, her sparkly crown a spot of light in the otherwise dreary horizon.
When it was all over, some spectators scuttled inside a nearby restaurant or coffee shop to warm up. But others toughed it out, listening to the band and cheerleaders perform for a pep rally in honor of tonight's big game.
"It was pretty good," alum Jason Garlisch said of the parade, taking in the scene from underneath a large umbrella before admitting, "Although the weather was less than ideal."
Tailgating is a family affair
By Mike Lewis
October 18, 2009, last update: 10/17 @ 10:40 pm
The weather, at least part of the time, smiled upon the Indiana University fans who gathered for parties before Saturday's homecoming football game against the University of Illinois.
But regardless of the weather -- or the game's outcome -- there were plenty of smiles where Paul and Patty Ford set up their gear. The Heltonville residents, their family members and friends have been loyal IU fans and avid tailgaters for years.
"You've got to have the right attitude and go with the intent of having some fun," said Paul Ford, who has supported IU gridders through thick and a lot of thin during the past couple of decades. "You hope to win, but you can't get too down if you lose.
"It's all in that attitude. People can have fun, or they can hate it. We choose to have fun. It makes things a lot more pleasant."
Paul and Patty's fun is enhanced because the tailgate parties double as family reunions. They have three sons. All three, along with extended families and friends, gather outside Memorial Stadium to share food, stories and laughs before heading to their seats to cheer for the Hoosiers.
In a way, it started with son Joe, who lives in Indianapolis. A linebacker during his football days, he played at Bedford North Lawrence High School and at IU, receiving his degree in 1986. Next year, he will be president of the IU Varsity Club. The Fords came to IU games to cheer for Joe and his teammates, and they've kept coming back.
Son Jim also lives in Indianapolis but joins the family in Bloomington for football games. And son Jerry, who still lives in Lawrence County, rounds out the Fords.
"It's kind of like a little reunion when we have home football games," Paul Ford said.
"We have lots of other people tailgate with us -- people I worked with at GM (he is retired from Bedford's GM Powertrain plant) and people Patty knows through her involvement in the community. We might have 40 to 50 people at a time. Everyone pitches in, and we have a lot of fun."
There are some Ford tailgating traditions -- like Patty's persimmon pudding and the matching IU outfits the Fords have been known to wear.
"Patty is the coordinator," Paul said with a laugh. "I just put on what she lays out for me."
The link between football and family has grown to include a third generation.
On Saturday, Paul and Patty Ford planned to watch a game at Parkview Field, where grandson James plays for a Thornton Memorial Boys Club team. Then they planned to head to Bloomington for the college battle.
"We'll get to see a double header," Paul said.
