Bloomington Herald-Times articles
May 5, 2006
IU cutting 47 jobs on campus; Move is necessary to pay for staff, faculty pay raises, keep top faculty here, officials say, citing tight budget, pressure to limit tuition increases
By Steve Hinnefeld
May 4, 2006
Indiana University is cutting 47 jobs on the Bloomington campus to balance its budget and pay for salary and benefit increases, IU officials said.
A majority of the jobs will be eliminated through attrition, but there will be some layoffs, Michael McRobbie, the Bloomington interim provost, told IU trustees today.
"No one welcomes having to make these decisions," he said.
Staff will get pay raises of between 2.5 percent and 3 percent. For Bloomington faculty, salary increases will average 4 percent — boosted by $1.4 million allocated to keep top faculty from leaving for other schools.
"These would be our very best faculty: top research performers, national academies members, people we can't afford to lose," McRobbie said.
IU officials said the cuts are brought on by reductions in state funding and political pressure to limit tuition increases. Undergraduate tuition and fees for IU Bloomington will rise 4.9 percent this year. Graduate and professional students face steeper increases.
IU officials explained the $2.32 billion university budget for 2006-07 Thursday to the trustees' finance and audit committee. Trustees are expected to approve it at their business meeting today in the Indiana Memorial Union.
Judy Palmer, the IU vice president for finance, said it's a tight budget that forces campuses to find savings and in some cases to rely on reserves.
"We've drawn the safety net a little tighter," she said.
McRobbie said results at IU Bloomington will include:
• More classes will be taught by part-time faculty.
• Maintenance spending will be cut by $400,000 at a time when many buildings are showing their age.
• An adult fitness program is being eliminated, saving $200,000.
• The Law School froze spending for admissions and career services.
• The School of Education shelved plans for a P-16 education center.
• The Optometry School cut its equipment budget.
Administrators said they're trying to manage the budget without hurting research and teaching, but trustees said across-the-board cuts will work for only so long. Trustee Tom Reilly said IU may have to look at eliminating programs — as well as increasing tuition.
"You're talking about double-digit tuition increases no matter what you do, but that's not all you do," he said.
Pat Shoulders, another trustee, said state officials shouldn't expect universities to fuel the knowledge economy without money. "We ought to flat-line their expectations," he said.
But Reilly said government leaders "really think we're on the fat side" and are likely to cut deeper in the budget the Legislature approves in 2007.
"The footnote is, the party's over after this budget," he said.
Early start of garage meeting called illegal
by Steve Hinnefeld
May 5, 2006
Buff Brown left work early Thursday to hear the Indiana University trustees talk about building a parking garage south of campus.
But not early enough. The trustees, without giving notice, started the meeting of their facilities committee at least a half-hour earlier than scheduled.
By the time Brown arrived, the panel had approved the garage at the corner of Atwater and Fess avenues. The full board is scheduled to vote today.
Brown, an opponent of project, was miffed.
"I think that they have an obligation to the public to notify them of these decisions and to make the decisions when they say they will," he said.
IU officials said the trustees finished an earlier meeting sooner than expected, and board president Steve Ferguson convened the facilities committee to save some time. The meeting was posted to start at 4:15 p.m. It apparently started by 3:45.
Steve Key, counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, said what the trustees did violated the state Open Door Law, which requires that the time and place of public meetings be posted 48 hours in advance.
The trustees don't routinely take public comment, and garage opponents wouldn't have been allowed to speak. But Key said that doesn't matter.
"The idea is, you give people an opportunity to observe and record" the meeting, he said.
Key said people could challenge the changed meeting time in court. They could ask a judge to order IU to not violate the law again. They could even argue that any action resulting from the meeting - such as final approval today of the parking garage - is illegal.
IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said that if the meeting wasn't legal, it was an innocent mistake.
"It certainly was inadvertent," he said. "It only happened because the board was trying to work a whole lot of things into one day, including a bus tour of some university facilities."
Trustees discussed the garage and heard objections from Elm Heights residents in November, when they approved its design. The $10.9 million, 5 1/2-level structure will provide space for 560 vehicles and IU Parking Operations offices. Officials want to start construction this summer.
Trustees told to spend in order to double minority students
IU's Nelms says trustees should spend $14.3 million over eight years
by Steve Hinnefeld
May 5, 2006
Indiana University should spend $14.3 million over eight years to double the number of underrepresented minority students at IU Bloomington, an administrator told trustees Thursday.
Charlie Nelms, vice president for institutional development and student affairs, called for a comprehensive strategy that includes more financial aid, better recruiting and marketing and increased support services.
He challenged the trustees, who have said they want a more diverse student body, to support the plan.
"I want to know exactly what direction you want to go," he said. "And whether the resources will be there to support it."
Currently, blacks, Hispanics and American Indians are 6.8 percent of IU Bloomington students.
Under Nelms' proposal, $8 million would go for financial aid, including doubling the size of the Hudson & Holland Scholars program, targeted to high-achieving minority students.
He also proposed more funding to:
• Market IU and provide pre-college experiences for minority high school students.
• Make the Groups Program independent of federal grants. It provides support and an early start for minority and first-generation college students.
• Hire more minority faculty and staff, who serve as mentors and role models.
• Enhance academic support services.
Nelms said providing more need-based financial aid is a key to doubling minority enrollment.
"You can't do it by recruiting more people who can't afford to be here," he said.
According to data from Vic Borden, associate vice president for planning, research and accountability, black and Hispanic students are more likely than others to rely on financial aid. But 90 percent of the aid that IU provides from its own funds is based on academic merit, as opposed to financial need.
Courtney Williams, president of the Black Student Union, said a lack of need-based aid is a problem for minority students, as is the perception that IU is a white school where they won't fit in.
"The reality is, many students of color know the money to pay for college will run out after one or two years," she said.
Williams, a junior from Gary, said the tougher admissions requirements IU has adopted may keep away minority students whose high schools don't prepare them well for college.
She said IU should increase scholarships, hire minorities for the financial aid office and do more to make students feel welcome.
"These aren't recommendations," she told trustees. "They are things we expect you to do ethically."
ISU senate votes no confidence in president
Associated Press
May 5, 2006
TERRE HAUTE -- Indiana State University's Faculty Senate voted 37-1 Thursday to approve a no-confidence resolution over the leadership of school President Lloyd Benjamin.
The vote followed a decision by the school's Board of Trustees last week to grant Benjamin a $25,000 pay raise - making his salary $221,000. Students and faculty members have protested granting the pay hike at a time when teaching and staff positions were going unfilled because of budget troubles.
Some of those speaking during Thursday's meeting said the salary increase was the final straw following questions about Benjamin's effectiveness since he became president in 2000.
The senate's vote is advisory as the school's trustees have sole authority on hiring a president. The senate did not approve another resolution that called for Benjamin's "immediate resignation or termination."
Trustees President Mike Alley defended the pay increase, saying the board needed to make Benjamin's pay competitive with other schools while ISU is seeking to increase its enrollment of about 10,500 students and begin a major fundraising drive.
Alley asked the Faculty Senate to withdraw the no-confidence resolution and said afterward that the vote would not change the board's support for Benjamin.
ISU budget officials said last week that the university must make $4 million in cuts next year because of declining enrollment, a reduction in state funding and other factors.
Faculty Senate chairman Steve Lamb said Thursday that many at the school were "awed that our president was willing to place the welfare of the institution second to his concerns about personal market parity."
Benjamin issued a written statement thanking the trustees for their support and expressed a desire to move forward with efforts to strengthen the university.
Streaker strikes IU classroom; Man faces public nudity charges after being detained by prof during criminal justice exam
By James Boyd
May 5, 2006
Public nudity can be defined as:
A) A new Finnish rock band.
B) Paris Hilton's favorite extracurricular activity.
C) A person who intentionally appears nude in a public place.
Students taking their final exam in Indiana University assistant professor William Pridemore's criminal justice class probably answered "C."
The exam Wednesday was interrupted by streakers.
According to police reports, Pridemore tackled Blake Guingrich, 21, as he ran naked through the classroom in Ballantine Hall at about 5:15 p.m.
IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said Pridemore struggled with Guingrich until a part-time officer with the campus police department — who was in class taking the exam — helped detain the streaker.
With only a blue bandanna around his neck, Guingrich, along with another nude man, stormed the classroom. The second man, who had a video camera, got away.
Guingrich had the phrase "School Sucks" painted on his chest and a blue mustache painted on his upper lip, Minger said.
Guingrich told officers he and others had decided to streak the building "to blow off some steam," Minger said. There were no other reports of streaking Wednesday.
Guingrich is not a student in the class.
Guingrich was preliminarily charged with public nudity. He had to be verbally identified, as there was no place for him to carry a piece of identification.
Pridemore reported having his prescription glasses broken while detaining Guingrich.
Interfaith baccalaureate ceremony is set for today at IU Auditorium
H-T Report
May 5, 2006
Indiana University will have an interfaith baccalaureate ceremony today for members of the Class of 2006, their parents, families and friends.
The 45-minute ceremony begins at 5 p.m. at the IU Auditorium, following a graduation send-off at Bryan House, the IU president's residence. Both are free.
Ken Beckley, who plans to retire in January 2007 after five years as president of the IU Alumni Association, will give the baccalaureate address on "Serving the World with Goodness."
"Baccalaureate is an opportunity for graduates and their parents to pause, reflect and give thanks for academic efforts and achievement at the end of a very special stage of their lives," he said in a statement.
The ceremony comes on the eve of commencement ceremonies, which will be at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday at Assembly Hall.
IU has held a baccalaureate for at least 166 years, according to records. A campus committee restructured the ceremony in 2002 to draw on diverse faith traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.
Graduating students take a vow of ethics; Students part of a growing movement to consider social, environmental consequences of jobs they take
By Steve Hinnefeld
May 5, 2006
Hannah Gardi is taking the pledge — along with a small but growing group of her fellow Indiana University students.
They're part of a movement in which college students promise to consider the social and environmental consequences of jobs they take after graduation.
"I feel this is a great opportunity. It makes you conscious you can choose to make a difference," said Gardi, who will graduate Saturday and will move to Uganda with the Peace Corps in September.
At IU, the Leadership, Ethics and Social Action program in the political science department has invited 2006 graduates to fill out graduation pledge cards.
Joelene Bergonzi, coordinator of the program, said more than 20 students picked up the cards from her office despite a late announcement, and others were being distributed at the Kelley School of Business.
"We see this as a beginning," she said by e-mail.
Students sign cards that say, "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organization for which I work." At commencement, they will wear green ribbons on their robes as a sign of their having made the promise.
The graduation pledge started at Humboldt State University in California and has grown to include more than 100 schools. It's coordinated from Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind.
Gardi, 22, from East Lansing, Mich., saw the pledge as a natural extension of her studies at IU, where she devised her own individualized major in community development and social change.
She is involved in American Humanics, a certificate program for nonprofit professionals. She co-founded Friends of Middle Way House, a fundraising and advocacy group for a local domestic violence shelter. And she was matched for 3‰ years with a local girl through Big Brothers Big Sisters.
"What is so good about my major," she said, "is that I've been able to get involved in the community and really feel part of Bloomington."
Gardi and student Renee Tetrick organized IU showings of "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a film about the abduction of children in a civil war in northern Uganda. More than 500 people, most of them students, showed up.
"My generation is definitely interested in social change and being involved," she said. "I think it's a matter of making that applicable to their lives and their lifestyle."
Peg Stice, the American Humanics director, said Gardi stands out among the hard-working, organized and selfless IU students involved in community activities and volunteerism.
"Personally, professionally and globally she has the highest ethical standards I've ever seen," she said.
Stice, a former Monroe County United Way executive director, expects the number of students taking the graduation pledge will grow as more people learn about it.
"Students are clearly making a statement to us that they want to be — and already are — civically engaged and they want the skills and opportunities to do more with that," she said.
Graduation pledge
"I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work."
For information:
• IU Leadership, Ethics and Social Action program; Woodburn Hall Room 210; 855-6308.
• Kelley School of Business Civic Leadership Development program, Business Room 234; 855-8066.
• On the Web: http://www.graduationpledge.org
