IU News Round-up
April 7, 2010
Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center
National Cancer Institute, April 6 - The Indiana University (IU) Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center began as the Indiana University Cancer Center, receiving its NCI cancer center designation in 1999 under the leadership of the late Dr. Stephen Williams. Today, it involves a partnership between Clarian Health and the IU School of Medicine, which is the nation's third largest medical school. The IU Simon Cancer Center has significantly grown its extramural research funding base in the last decade, attracting world-class physicians and researchers and opening new patient care and translational research facilities. Full story.
Financial aid gets makeover
Post-trib.com, April 7 -- The majority of the region's colleges, including Indiana University Northwest, Calumet College of St. Joseph and Purdue University North Central, made the transition a few years ago because the shaky credit market and a reduction in subsidies forced some lenders and service providers out of the program. "Back in spring 2008, we started to see lenders leaving the program, so at that point Indiana University switched over to direct lending," said James Kennedy, director of financial aid for the university's campuses. "We didn't want to have a disruption in students obtaining loans." Full story.
IU faculty talking about giving classes a fall break
The Bloomington Herald-Times, April 6 -- Indiana University students could finally get Labor Day off and gain a two-day fall break in the future if a proposal made to the Bloomington Faculty Council continues to move through the faculty review process. The council discussed the proposals but took no action today. Full story.
Governor should look Hoosiers in the eye when he talks
By Fran Quigley
Southbendtribune.com, April 7 -- The public-speaking trick of looking directly over the heads of your audience reportedly gives the illusion of eye contact without the speaker having to actually engage with the folks in the room. I was reminded of this technique while watching Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels' press conference the day after Congress passed health care reform into law. The governor was addressing Indiana news media, but it was clear he was looking over the heads of Hoosiers to gaze longingly at the Republican donors and pundits who are sizing up 2012 presidential hopefuls. Full story.
How Likely is an Iranian Nuclear Counterstrike?
By Jamsheed K. Choksy
Insideiran.org, April 6 -- A preemptive attack against Iran's nuclear facilities by the U.S., Israel, or both nations has been on the table for quite some time. Yet because Iran has at least a dozen centers related to its nuclear activities, demolishing the program would be extremely difficult. None the less, there is no dearth of war game scenarios by think tanks, universities, government departments, even magazines in the U.S. and Israel. Iran too has conducted its own large-scale defensive and offensive scenarios -- including one last November involving actual military exercises. Full story.
Wormhole Research Suggests A Universe Within A Universe
Science Daily, tgdaily.com, April 7 -- Could our universe be located within the interior of a wormhole which itself is part of a black hole that lies within a much larger universe? Such a scenario in which the universe is born from inside a wormhole (also called an Einstein-Rosen Bridge) is suggested in a paper from Indiana University theoretical physicist Nikodem Poplawski in Physics Letters B. The final version of the paper was available online March 29 and will be published in the journal edition April 12. Full story. Full story 2.
Drinking Advice from Indiana Law
Abovethelaw.com, April 5 -- Do you know how to drink responsibly? I hope so. By the time you get to law school, I really hope that you at least know how to avoid criminal behavior when drunk. Law school administrators do too. At the Indiana University Mauer School of Law, the Dean of Students decided to send 1Ls preparing for a bar crawl a little reminder. Full story.
Electronic recycling drive starts tomorrow
The Bloomington Herald-Times, April 7 -- Electronic Waste Collection Days, a free electronic waste recycling drive hosted by Indiana University Bloomington, takes place Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The program is open to all public and private schools, universities, businesses and non-profit organizations from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday. It will be open to the general public from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Full story.
Why is it so hot in campus buildings?
Indiana Daily Student, April 7 -- IU's heating and cooling system is complex. "It's not like going to the thermostat in your home and turning it from heat to cool," said Hank Hewetson, assistant vice president for facility operations for the IU Physical Plant. The Physical Plant oversees the transition from hot air to cold air in campus buildings. There isn't one central button that Hewetson can press to switch all buildings from hot air to cold. It can sometimes take several weeks to get some buildings ready to make the switch. Full story.
Trends
Report: College Remains Elusive for Many Hispanic Men
The Chicago Tribune, April 6 -- Luis Rivera's life is a delicate balancing act -- studying at the University of Illinois at Chicago for as long as 12 hours a day, caring for his two young children and working as a research assistant at the school's College of Medicine. Full story.
UW System Unveils Goal to Produce More Graduates
Associated Press via Winona Daily News, April 5 -- University of Wisconsin System President Kevin Reilly is challenging campuses to find new ways to graduate more students as part of a long-range plan to increase the number of degree-holders in the state. Reilly said he wants the system of 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges to increase the number of degrees issued by 30 percent by 2025. That would bump the number of graduates up from the current 26,000 per year to 33,700 and produce 80,000 more graduates in the next 15 years, he said. Full story.
State Universities Tap Student Fees for Unintended Projects
Los Angeles Times, April 5 -- While California universities have faced round after round of crippling budget cuts and protests against increased fees have flared on campuses, administrators have tapped funds meant for classrooms and students to cover some extraordinary costs: losses on ill-timed real estate deals, loans to high-ranking officials and an ambitious construction project. Experts say the moves, made without wide student knowledge or public oversight, show that administrators have put aggressive business plans ahead of the teaching mission. When things go wrong, they're dipping into student fees, scholarship funds and money meant for classes to pick up the tab. Full story.
From the Chronicle
Clueless
This year is the academic apocalypse, when the prospects for and expectations of graduate students seeking to become tenured professors have changed radically from hope to despair. Especially in the humanities, the number of available tenure-track positions is down sharply, while the number of A.B.D.'s and unemployed or adjunct-employed Ph.D.'s entering the market continues to increase. At the same time, full-time, tenure-track positions are declining in relation to adjunct ones. Full story.
A President, Fighting for Every Nickel
The predicament of Southern Illinois University is plain to see in the condition of the engineering building's leaking chiller, which has been rigged up with an aluminum gutter and a couple of garden hoses for drainage. Like so many things on this campus, it is slowly deteriorating, and there is no money coming from the state to fix it. Full story.
Scholars Increasingly Embrace Some, but Not All, Digital Media
The more things change, the more they remain the same -- at least when it comes to certain aspects of scholarly behavior, such as what modes of publication researchers prize most. According to new survey findings, scholars in all disciplines are ever more comfortable using research materials online. In sharing and publishing their research, however, scholars remain most strongly influenced by their disciplines' old models of status, tenure, and promotion. Full story.
A Bottom-Line Approach That Looks Beyond the Bottom Line
For several years, a cadre of some of the savviest executives in higher education have been practically begging university administrators and trustees for the chance to advise them on a "strategic finance" approach to restructuring and planning. Until recently, they had a tough time getting college leaders even to set aside the time for a presentation on the topic -- a free one at that. Full story.
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.
