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IU News Round-up

July 21, 2010

Law Professor John Robertson Given Lifetime Achievement Award
Utexas.edu, July 20 -- ASLME awarded the Jay Healey Teaching Award to Eleanor Kinney of the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis for her dedication to teaching and the field of health law. Kinney founded the Hall Center for Law and Health at Indiana University and is co-director of the center. "Eleanor has devoted the last 25 years to health law teaching and has made major contributions to her students, to research knowledge, and to public service," said UT Law Professor William M. Sage, who hosted this year's conference and also is the vice provost for health affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Full story.

Beyond Petroleum Case Makes Pitfalls of Greenwashing Crystal Clear
Commentary by John Maxwell
Eponline.com, July 19 -- John Maxwell is a professor of business economics and public policy at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and co-author of an analysis of the economics of greenwashing. "Greenwash makes sense from a business perspective as it's logical to emphasize the positive outcomes and stay away from problem areas," Maxwell said. "However, as BP demonstrates, if the public comes to view a company as 'green,' there will be a high price to pay if it discovers it has been duped -- especially if the public suffers in a major way from ruined ecologies, job losses and other economic problems," Maxwell added. Full story.

4 join the ranks of Living Legends
The Indianapolis Star, July 20 -- The newest inductees are William and Rose Mays, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker and Maestro Raymond Leppard, who served as music director of the ISO for 14 years and has earned the title "Commander of the British Empire" from Queen Elizabeth II. Attendees cracked up when Rose Mays, professor emeritus at the Indiana University School of Nursing at IUPUI, suggested that her husband would be too long-winded for the acceptance speeches' time guidelines of several minutes. Full story.

Moving away from oil dependency will help Hoosiers
By Lee Hamilton
Journalgazette.net, July 20 -- Over a period of decades, the great failure of American foreign policy has been the absence of an effective energy policy. In the short term, our dependence on fossil fuels results in sending billions of dollars to countries that are not always friendly to the United States. Our oil spending sometimes puts us in the position of funding both sides of conflicts and complicates our fight against terrorism. The volatility of global fuel prices further increases our economic vulnerability and makes it more difficult to compete with the rest of the world. Full story.

IU's new campus tour is a spirited event for the incoming freshmen
The Bloomington Herald-Times, July 21 -- Unique. Awesome. Cool. Inspiring. Those are words used by Indiana University students and incoming students about the Campus Legends Tour that has been added to summer orientation. Small groups of IU students-to-be carrying red glow sticks have been getting an after-dark look at the campus, complete with commentary from a variety of university and Bloomington leaders about what makes IU unique. Full story.

Remembering Roses
Pal-item.com, July 21 -- Indiana University's 1967 football season was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Hoosiers who experienced it. Jay Fry remembers the 1-8-1 year that preceded 1967, and the two-win season before that. But the former IU assistant coach also vividly remembers winning the Big Ten title in 1967, followed by IU's first and only trip to the Rose Bowl. "The first couple of years we might have won one ball game," said Fry, who coached at IU from 1965-69. "All of the sudden we go 9-1 and are invited to the Rose Bowl. It was a great experience for all these guys." Full story.

IU voices in the news

Indiana's unemployment rate increases marginally
Newsandtribune.com, July 21 -- The jobless mark climbed .1 percent last month to 10.1 percent. That's down from June of 2009, when the unemployment rate was 10.6 percent in Indiana. But the number of jobs that existed in Indiana climbed by 38,200 slots from the previous June. "Despite the little change in the unemployment rate, Indiana saw one of the largest year-over-year gains in employment," said Uric Dufrene, Sanders chair of the Indiana University Southeast school of business. Dufrene predicted at the end of the 2009 that Indiana would see positive year-to-year changes in jobs during the second half of 2010. But from May to June, Indiana lost about 4,700 jobs including nearly 4,000 in the professional and business services sector. Full story.

Loose lips as tool of rank and file in work settings
Chron.com, July 20 -- Tim Hallett's study points to the role it might play in organizations outside the official chain of command. Understanding gossip can illuminate hidden power structures created by the exchange of information and rumor. Hallett, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, observed and videotaped a regularly scheduled meeting of teachers at a middle school in the Midwest. The school had recently changed administrators, which was causing turmoil in the ranks. The study defined gossip as "unsanctioned evaluative talk about people not present." In the school meetings, the negative evaluations outnumbered the positive ones 25 to 22. The study also identified different kinds of workplace gossip. Full story.

From the Chronicle

Outsourced Ed: Colleges Hire Companies to Build Their Online Courses
Michael Tricoli was a middle manager looking for a leg up in his career, so he got an online M.B.A. from Northeastern University. Well, not only from Northeastern. Much of his college experience was outsourced to a private company. The company, Embanet, put up millions to start the online business program. Its developers helped build the courses. Its staff talked Mr. Tricoli through the application. It even pays -- and, in rare cases, refers for possible hiring -- the assistants who help teach students. Full story.

E-Mail: the Third Shift
Many academics have a love-hate relationship with e-mail. We know it has made communicating with colleagues in our own departments and around the world far, far easier. But we are also aware that e-mail is devouring a great deal of our time. For faculty members, it is not just e-mail messages from professional associates, friends, family, and spammers that demand our attention. Students, sometimes by the dozens, e-mail their instructors daily, seeking an immediate response. Full story.

Educating Imams in Germany: the Battle for a European Islam
In the snow-swept courtyard of the white-marble Sehitlik Mosque, Berlin's largest Islamic prayer house, the resident imam greets the faithful with handshakes and embraces. A slightly built, cordial man wearing an open parka, Mustafa Aydin is a Turkish civil servant on a four-year posting abroad, as are many of the Islamic preachers in Germany, where the Muslim community is overwhelmingly of Turkish heritage. Aydin understands basic German, which he's been learning, but he communicates with me through a Turkish-to-German interpreter. The services' prayers are in Arabic, he says, but his sermons and chats with congregants -- including those born and schooled in Germany -- are in the language of their parents' Turkish homeland, and that, he assures me, is perfectly adequate for his parish's needs. "We don't have any problems with Turkish," he says. Full story.

Negative Credit Ratings Reflect Financial Strain on Small Colleges
More than a dozen private colleges have had their credit ratings downgraded since the start of 2010, most of them tuition-dependent, less-than-selective institutions facing the challenge of attracting students in a bad economy and a competitive market. For one, Birmingham-Southern College, the fiscal strains have been compounded by financial mismanagement of the student-aid budget, which last week prompted the college to slash its $49-million annual budget by 20 percent. The Alabama institution announced it was laying off 51 staff members and leaving 14 other positions vacant, cutting salaries by an average of 10 percent, suspending contributions to retirement plans, and ordering two-week furloughs for all employees. Full story.

News Round-up is distributed to faculty and staff at IU, and it contains a short review of media coverage relating to IU administrative and student news, federal and state legislative policy, and trends and issues in higher education. Prepared by the IU Office of, University Communications, the Daily IU News Round-up is not an all-inclusive gathering of news featuring IU faculty and staff. To subscribe to the Daily IU News Round-up list or to have your name removed, please contact Susan Williams, Office of University Communications, sulwilli@indiana.edu.