Daily IU News Round-up
April 9, 2009
Hutton's legacy lauded during dedication
Indiana Daily Student, April 9 -- The dedication of the new Hutton Honors College building celebrated the Honors College's new home while remembering the loss of the college's biggest friends and donors. Edward Hutton was scheduled to take part in the ceremony, but his death March 2 at age 89 changed the tone of the event. "Hutton made and continues to make an impression at IU with his time and his spirit," President Michael McRobbie said during the opening of the ceremony. Full story.
Plane-side TSA searches aren't worth the trouble
By Fred H. Cate, distinguished professor and director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University.
USA Today, April 8 -- Just when air travelers thought they were free of overly aggressive airport security checks, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently announced new plans to increase searches of passengers and their carry-on luggage at the gate. Searches during the boarding process were tried after 9/11 but abandoned in 2003. Why? Airlines and passengers complained vociferously about delayed flights, the embarrassment at having luggage opened, and being wanded or patted down plane-side while other passengers filed past. And then there was the final indignity: being allowed to board only to discover that overhead bin space was full. So why now? Why again? According to the TSA, the renewed policy is not the result of any specific threat, but rather just another layer of security. The idea, transportation security experts speculate, is to keep potential terrorists guessing. Full story.
Senate reveals budget proposal; calls for sustained IU funding
Indiana Daily Student, April 9 -- Indiana Senate leaders released a budget proposal Wednesday, calling for sustained IU funding even as the state is faced with diminishing tax revenue. IU's funding, according to recommendations made public Wednesday afternoon, will flat line during the next two years. The Senate proposed using the federal stimulus package to help prop up institutions in danger of budget cuts. "They have invested in trying to keep education whole," said Tom Morrison, associate vice president for public affairs and state relations, referring to senators. Full story.
IU up in number of applications, down in deposits
Indiana Daily Student, April 9 -- The economy is down, students are poor and the Office of Admissions is behind on enrollment deposits. IU is trying to combat this problem by attracting students with scholarships and more financial aid funding. Roger Thompson, vice provost of enrollment management, said in terms of institutional dollars, the money IU puts in for scholarships and merit and need-based aid has increased, although the state has cut back on financial aid and grants. The money for need-based financial assistance comes from the Matching the Promise fundraising campaign and tuition-generated revenue. Full story.
Officials plan to admit fewer freshmen this year
Indiana Daily Student, April 9 -- Every year floods of applications from high school seniors around the country and the world pour in, but now more than ever, admission is getting tough. With a 2008 freshman class of more than 7,600 students, the largest in IU's history, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management Roger Thompson said IU will need to make some cuts. Thompson said a big problem the University faced concerning the current freshman class was a shortage of room in the residence halls. The University wants to keep the fall's incoming freshman class at about 7,000 students. With the amount of freshmen being reduced by the hundreds, admission requirements are getting more strict. Full story.
Norm Clarke column
Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 8 -- Sad news: Bill Fry, the "mystery man" who allowed a homeless teenage blues singer and her father to inhabit a luxury condo he owned, has died. Fry, 72, died Sunday in Carmel, Ind., after suffering heart problems on Friday. Fry, who owned a group of radio stations in Shreveport, La., before moving here about five years ago, turned over his Turnberry condo to Louisiana singer Sarah Todora and her father, Phil, for six months in 2006 to help her start her career. He also made a $250,000 donation to the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth to build a housing facility. Last year, Fry donated $15 million to the Indiana University Kelley School of Business to fund an undergraduate scholarship program for financially challenged students. Full story.
IU library opens Rubik's Cube exhibit
Chicagotribune.com, April 8 -- Indiana University has opened a new exhibit devoted to one of the best-selling puzzles of the 1980s -- the Rubik's Cube. The "Revolutions and Solutions" exhibit opened Wednesday at the Bloomington campus' Lilly Library and includes hundreds of examples of the multicolor cube it deems "the World's Most Iconic Puzzle." Full story.
Artists grow beyond prison walls
Post-Tribune, April 9 -- Gallery honchos are not exactly beating down the door to exhibit their work. But inmates from the Indiana State Prison have creatively broken free from their claustrophobic four walls, if only for a moment, to display their vivid work in a special exhibit. "Artists Within" features 72 works of art created by 16 inmates from Michigan City. Arranged by Indiana University Northwest and South Shore Arts, the exhibit is housed in Substation #9, a former NIPSCO substation that has been transformed into an art space. This is the first time Indiana University Northwest has partnered with the Indiana State Prison to feature the work of incarcerated artists. Full story.
A loss for educational equity
Indiana Daily Student, April 9 -- The next several years might see a decline in the availability of financial aid due to the hit many university endowments took last fall. An endowment is money or property donated to a university. When in the form of money, most endowments are invested. The principal, or the money given to the university by a donor, usually goes untouched. Instead, it's invested, and those investment revenues go to pay for the endowment's stipulated purpose (financial aid, an endowed professorship, etc.). IU endowments are no exception. IU's endowment portfolio declined by 26.7 percent during the last six months of 2008, said Gary A. Stratten, vice president and chief investment officer of the IU Foundation, in an e-mail. The Foundation manages University endowments. Full story.
Too many cadavers? Indiana considers sharing
Jconline.com, April 9 -- While it's not often publicized, a program that allows Hoosiers to donate their bodies to science after their death has been gaining participants in recent years. The Indiana Anatomical Education Board, run by the Indiana University Medical School, registers donors and then arranges for the cadavers to be used for medical student training across the state, including at Purdue University. The program has been getting roughly 225 donors in each of the past couple of years, which is an increase from the 150 it averaged years earlier, said Dr. David Burr, chairman of the Anatomical Education Board. Now Indiana wants to share the extra cadavers it has available with medical school programs in other states. And a measure being considered by the legislature this spring would allow the state's program to do so. Full story.
Cube puzzle masters visit IU
The Bloomington Herald-Times, April 9 -- Puzzle experts Jerry Slocum and Wei-Hwa Huang demonstrated cube-solving techniques to a packed room at Indiana University's Lilly Library Wednesday. The presentation coincided with the publication of their new book, "The Cube: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Bestselling Puzzle: Secrets, Stories, Solutions." Slocum admitted he can't solve all the puzzles he's collected. That collection includes 30,000 puzzles, which he has been donating to the library over the years. Hundreds of them are on permanent display in what is now dubbed the Slocum Room. Full story.
IU voices in the news
Fighting to Keep Your Home in Indiana
AARP Bulletin Today. April 1 -- Experts point to several causes for Indiana's high foreclosure rates, including lost factory jobs, stagnant income, and generally low education levels that make it difficult for many laid-off workers to find new jobs. "We generally don't have a housing problem, we have an income problem," said David Reingold, associate dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington. Home values in the state have been flat, so when homeowners got behind, they couldn't tap their home equity to catch up. Indiana also was hit hard by risky mortgage products, including subprime and interest-only loans -- and by mortgage fraud. Full story.
From the Chronicle
Maximum Tuition and Fees To Be Paid Under New GI Bill Program Go Way Up
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has released its final list of state-by-state tuition and fees caps that help determine the amount of benefits veterans can receive under the new GI Bill, and the maximum fees that the new aid could cover skyrocketed in several states from the numbers that were first posted in February. The final figures exacerbate concerns that had already been raised about how much the program will cost the federal government, but they also bode well for veterans and the private colleges they may wish to attend. Full story.
Colleges Sharpen Tactics for Resolving Academic-Integrity Cases
Professors sometimes get strikingly similar essays. When they do, it's easy to assume that a weaker student copied from a brainier classmate. Matthew Coster says Central Connecticut State University kicked him out on that premise -- until a court ruled otherwise. Mr. Coster swore that he had not cheated. Sure, he had missed a couple of Western Civilization classes, and his grades were mediocre, but he says he wrote his own paper on the Holocaust. His professor, reading it after a nearly identical one by an A student, suspected otherwise. "Almost from the get-go," Mr. Coster says, "he was accusing me." Full story.
AAUP Urges Faculty Role in Protecting Workers' Rights at Overseas Campuses
The American Association of University Professors and its Canadian counterpart jointly issued a statement on Wednesday calling on colleges with campuses abroad to protect the rights of overseas workers and give their faculty more say in planning foreign programs. The statement, adopted by the AAUP's committee on academic freedom and tenure and the Canadian Association of University Teachers' Executive Committee, urges such colleges to take steps to ensure academic freedom and shared governance for professors abroad, and to adopt codes of conduct governing the workplace conditions of all nonacademic employees at such campuses, "especially if these workers are employed directly by a local contractor." Full story.
One University's Strategy for Keeping International Projects Running Smoothly
The University of Washington has serious global ambitions. But, too often, administrative hiccups have brought its overseas projects down to earth. Over the years, the university has been tripped up by all sorts of hurdles familiar to colleges that work abroad. How do you set up legal registration in a foreign country? How do you transfer large sums of money to remote research sites? How do you adapt a health-care package meant for an HMO-frequenting office dweller to the needs of new hires in a developing nation half a world away? "What people don't realize," says Stephen E. Hanson, vice provost for global affairs at Washington, "is how much doing work overseas has to do with labor law in China or hiring in Mozambique." Full story.
Rising Toll From Italian Quake Includes 8 University Students
At least eight students have died from the collapse of a dormitory at the University of L'Aquila in central Italy, following a powerful earthquake that struck early Monday. Blue-helmeted rescue workers were still searching on Wednesday for two or three students who remained missing amid the rubble, but after more than two days, hope for their survival was dim. A series of aftershocks, especially a 5.3-magnitude tremor on Tuesday night, caused the structure, called the Casa dello Studente, to collapse further. Full story.
Daily IU 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.
