Posts Tagged IU Hoosiers
Finding a Common Purpose
Posted by Adam in Indiana Daily Student 2000, Newspaper Columns on September 21, 2000
If bad things happen in threes, IU is due for another catastrophe.
The University has already lost two prominent men in the year 2000, and neither experience has been pleasant or pretty.
The first catastrophe was the death of a man who meant much to IU — Herman B Wells. Wells defined IU. He built the University from an average state school to a world-class institution known around the world.
The second catastrophe, of course, was the firing of former coach Bob Knight. Knight defined IU to the rest of the world. Without him, it is likely IU would be a world-class school with the low profile of St. Olaf or Dartmouth, unknown outside the state.
Without either of these men, IU would be a vastly different place.
Wells, during his tenure at IU (starting in 1921), built up the University, setting a number of precedents that put IU at the forefront of higher education. As a strong supporter of the School of Music, Wells made a concerted effort to ensure IU had one of the best music schools in the world.
He also made IU a good campus, where students could live and study comfortably. For example, as University president he helped oversee the expansion of the Indiana Memorial Union. In 1957, under Wells’ leadership, the IMU remodeled the bowling alley and the Commons.
Wells also left a strong natural legacy by creating a beautiful campus. He consistently opposed cutting down trees in Dunn Woods and building over the Jordan River.
He made important strides in integrating the campus, putting African Americans and other minorities in the classrooms together with non-minority students. IU was the first University in the Big Ten to have African-American athletes because Wells thought it should be so. If we remember Wells for only one reason, it ought to be this one.
The linkage between Wells and Knight was the library. In five years, IU will no longer have the Main Library, but instead the Herman B Wells Library. It’s a fitting tribute to a man who requested money be donated to “The Herman B Wells Acquisition Fund” for the libraries instead of flowers for his memorial.
Bob Knight supported the libraries as well, making donations each year and by creating “The Bob Knight Library Endowment,” which has more than $1 million.
Ironically, Knight’s firing allowed IU to remove one more major racial barrier at IU. Mike Davis has become IU’s first black head men’s basketball coach. This is a significant step in the integration of the IU campus, and something of which Wells would be proud.
The loss of these two men was bad for the heart and soul of IU, whether you liked either one. One clearly represented the heart and soul of the University to those of us here, while the other represented the vibrant image of the University to the world. One was key in making IU a world-class institution, while the other made sure people all across the United States knew IU existed.
It is important for universities to have somebody or something to rally around or about. Everybody rallied around Wells — I remember telling my friends about the first time I was in the same room with him. Everybody rallied around Knight, debating whether he should be our basketball coach and whether he was good for the University.
To lose both of these prominent men in the same year is an unfortunate thing. It means we are left without our beloved University chancellor and an irascible general.
Right now it appears IU doesn’t really have anything to rally around. In a few months, once the furor over Knight has completely died down, we will have neither of these strong figures. We will be left looking for common ground.
It will be difficult to find: Myles Brand does not endear that same kind of support. Neither does the retiring Kenneth Gros Louis.
There doesn’t appear to be anybody who can fill the role both Knight and Wells performed so well. There are no burning issues for students on this campus to rally around or debate in a meaningful way. One can hardly call the campus parking problem, for example, a burning issue.
Until we can again find that unity in a prominent leader or on a particular issue, the IU community might be a bit aimless in its purpose and direction.
Without that sense of purpose, we are lost.
A Love Hate Relationship
Posted by Adam in Indiana Daily Student 2000, Newspaper Columns on September 5, 2000
I have a love-hate relationship with Bloomington. I hate the heat and humidity of this quiet Midwestern town, but I love the vibrancy and spirit this city has. It’s the latter that keeps me happy. And it’s going to be a September to remember in this place I now call home.
It started Friday with a trip to the Live it Up Late Nite at the Indiana Memorial Union, where I got a wonderful character sketch by a local artist, free with a student ID. She managed to capture me perfectly, and I now have an awesome present for my parents, although the parental units will probably only get a copy. I like the original too much to give it away.
I wandered next door and watched Full Frontal Comedy, a group of IU students who do comedy sketches about life in the world and at IU. It’s the latter that is particularly impressive. Friday night in a discussion of Napster, the group managed to get several sacred IU cows ‘ including Myles Brand ‘ in compromising positions.
The group is Bloomington’s best and brightest star on the improv comedy circuit. Its willingness to take on hot potato issues makes members leading cutting-edge observers of the city and campus. They outdo all the columnists in The Herald-Times and the IDS, so go see them before you leave this campus.
During the weekend, I wandered downtown for another Bloomington event: the Fourth Street Festival, an annual arts festival held every Labor Day Weekend. This particular festival reminds me of how far I have to go in life.
My apartment is filled with the typical trashy furniture and bad poster art you would expect from a college student. But at the festival, I discovered real art that I want on my wall, starting cheap ($50 for a photograph) and soaring to the expensive (thousands of dollars).
But even at the cheap end, this art is beyond my budget. I’m at a stage in which $50 is better spent on my electric bill or trips to the grocery store. But it was free to look and free to enjoy. My favorite items were the huge, hanging glass ornaments, so huge that even if I could casually drop a few hundred dollars for one, I wouldn’t have a place to put it in my apartment.
What’s particularly impressive about all of this is that this is only the first weekend of September. There is more to come, with the best coming the last weekend of the month.
Saturday, we can enjoy the first IU football game of the season. IU will be host to North Carolina State. Women’s soccer will also compete in two games next weekend.
The last weekend of the month will bring us the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival, arguably the best festival in Bloomington all year. This event is five days of musical performance by groups from around the world, capped on Friday and Saturday nights by live performances at seven stages around downtown. This is a great way to learn about bands from around the world, such as Wimme from Finland, Lila Downs from Mexico and Dhagha from India. This might not be the Backstreet Boys or Madonna, but you will appreciate the difference.
That brings me back to the beginning: my love-hate relationship with Bloomington. I hate the Midwestern heat and humidity. But the vibrant life that exists here makes this one awesome place to live. The trick is balancing the school books with the festivals, and that’s no easy feat.
Women found on sidelines
Posted by Adam in Indiana Daily Student 1999, Newspaper Columns on January 29, 1999
Once upon a time, the female half of the human race was considered the inferior sex. Women, considered so frail they were not allowed to do a an’s job, were left barefoot, at home and in the kitchen. Further, they were encouraged, not in reality but in theory, to bow down to mankind. while this tale might sound medieval, there is presently a place on this planet where women actually get on their knees and bow down to men.
Until I arrived at IU, I never would have guessed that women literally bowed down to men in the United States of America.
Seventeen-thousand witnesses cheer on an event in the second half of every men’s basketball game that serves only to degrade and demean women.
Yes, and only the most progressive of organizations, the cheerleaders, carries out this pitiful dance in which women are reduced to bimbos at the alter of strong and powerful men who form a human pyramid and beat their chests in support of the Hoosiers.
This is not, of course, how the numerous fans in attendance view the event.
They view it as the penultimate moment of the second half when everybody, except those cheering for the visiting team, stands up and makes enough noise to carry the Hoosier basketball team on to victory by the resulting adrenaline.
The fans are, of course, absolutely correct in their assessment of the situation. The whole song, dance and parade of flags spelling out “Indiana Hoosiers” is a wonderful moment and I certainly come away feeling energized, certain my Hoosiers will carry the day.
It’s not so wonderful when you contemplate the effect it could have on young girls in the audience. The subtle message is young girls should aim to be cheerleaders when they grow up, and they will need to bow down to men.
“It sets up and epitomizes a hierarchy,” Dean of Women’s Affairs Jean Robinson pointed out to me.
“It’s not the specific postures of being a cheerleader, it is being on the sidelines leading cheers,” Robinson added. She believes young girls should “aim to be a player.”
That said, it is important to remember that cheerleaders are, and will continue to be, an integral part of IU sports. Their presence adds significantly to the enjoyment of hoops games. All I am asking for is for cheerleaders to eliminate their more damaging routines. In this case, keep the flags that spell out “Indiana Hoosiers” and dump the women bowing down to a pyramid of men.
Women are not inferior to men. They are equals.
IU not consumer-oriented
Posted by Adam in Indiana Daily Student 1998, Newspaper Columns on October 1, 1998
IU needs to focus on becoming more consumer-oriented when it comes to services on this campus. As an incoming graduate student, I have had experience at two other universities and, while neither was perfect, both were far better at providing parking, athletic tickets and student ID cards than IU has been.
Last summer I visited Bloomington twice to find an apartment and to become oriented to the IU experience. While visiting the campus, my greatest challenge was not actually parking, but getting the visitor parking permit. Once I got to parking services, I had to tell them my name and my license plate number, as well as which building I was planning to visit. In exchange for all the information I gave the folks in the office, I had to pay $3 for a visitor parking permit that was good for only one day.
One would think that IU would be interested in welcoming visitors to campus and to make a positive impression to those visitors. The current method of giving out visitor parking permits surely fails this test.
Another place where IU fails to be consumer-oriented, both to visitors and to students alike, is the athletic ticket office. When one of my friends and I decided that we wanted to see one of the upcoming football games, I called the ticket office. One minor hitch — if I wanted to buy student tickets, I had to go to the athletic ticket office. So I went to Assembly Hall and parked my car, only to discover that I had parked on the wrong side of the building.
After walking around the building I entered the north doors looking for the ticket office. The sign indicated that I needed to go to the elevators, but did not say what floor I needed to visit. It turns out the athletic ticket office is located in the basement of Assembly Hall. The elevator doors didn’t open for me when it finally creaked to the basement — I had to press the “Open Door” button.
To top it off, the athletic ticket office held an inquisition that made parking services look like a bunch of amateurs. In order to get two football tickets, I had to supply my name, address, phone number and social security number. I guess it was not enough for me to show my friend’s and my student ID cards.
Why does IU make its students go find some office in the basement of Assembly Hall, when they could sell student tickets in the Indiana Memorial Union? Wouldn’t that make a tremendous amount of sense? Perhaps a one-stop ticket office for all sorts of tickets could be put in the Union, thus making at least that aspect more consumer-friendly for both students and visitors alike.
I could rant and rave about the registration procedures, the worst I have encountered at the three universities I’ve attended, but I will not. Instead I want to say something about the inconvenience of the placement of the registration office vis-a-vis the campus ID office.
As a new graduate student, I got to register in Franklin Hall the Thursday before classes began. My next priority was to obtain my student ID at Ashton Center.
It makes absolutely no sense to put these two offices a mile and a half apart. Well, maybe they’re not quite a mile and a half apart, but it sure is one heck of a long walk on one of those hot and humid days that seem to characterize August in Bloomington.
Please, couldn’t IU at least put these two office in relatively close proximity? Now that would be consumer-friendly.