Feb. 22, 2011 by Inside Magazine

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February 2011 | Volume 5, Issue 3

THE FREE ISSUE

VOL. 5, ISSUE 3

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sarah Hutchins ART DIRECTOR Larry Buchanan PHOTO EDITOR Zach Hetrick COPY EDITOR Brad Zehr WEB EDITOR CJ Lotz WEB REPORTERS Melinda Elston and Hannah Waltz FEATURES EDITOR Caitlin Johnston FEATURES ASSISTANT Charlie Scudder DEPARTMENTS EDITORS Rachel Stark and Stephanie Doctrow DEPARTMENTS ASSISTANT Stephanie Kuzydym EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Kamilla Benko, Caitlin Peterkin and Mickey Woods

Look at a list of the most persuasive words in the English language, and it’s not surprising to see that “new,” “love,” and “money” made the cut. What always shocks me, however, is the absence of the word “free.” On a college campus, no other word has this kind of clout. The great irony of the word “free” on a college campus is that, in fact, nothing is free (see page 24). Our “free” gym access, “free” movies, and “free” newspapers actually cost us money. Even this magazine, free to all readers, costs us $5,700 to print and staff each issue. For the Free Issue, we followed our student fees, lived on the cheap for a week, and toured a nudist camp. Along the way, we questioned the notion of freedom that comes with college life.

4 | Confessions

10 | Better You

“There have been plenty of weight loss pills and wrinkle cream.”

“... I think you’re pretty cool, but I don’t want to press my entire body up against you ...”

INDIANA DAILY STUDENT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jake Wright MANAGING EDITORS Lindsey Erdody and Lauren Sedam ART DIRECTOR Danielle Rindler WEB TECH SPECIALISTS Greg Blanton,

6 | Inside Out

12 | Know-it-all

“It’s not because they’re not smart. It’s just that it can be hard to keep up.”

“There are no UGG boots. No designer jeans. You can’t tell who might be a garbage man and who might be a judge.”

Carl Brugger, Swathi Gurram and Aparna Rao ADVERTISING SALES MANAGERS Liza Giambra and Matt Vodicka ADVERTISING/MARKETING WEB MASTERS Adam Rochford MARKETING MANAGER Melissa Sabones DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Jeanette Booher

8 | Tip Jar

30 | Essay

Here’s the reason you picked up this magazine: A big fat list of free stuff on campus.

“I surrendered embarrassment and dove to pick up wrapped mints on the sidewalk.”

CREATIVE MANAGER Brittany Miller IU STUDENT MEDIA DIRECTOR Ron Johnson NEWSROOM 812-855-0760 BUSINESS OFFICE 812-855-0763 FAX 812-855-8009 Inside magazine, an enterprise of IU

Features

Student Media, is published twice per academic semester: October, December, February, and April. Inside magazine operates as a selfsupporting enterprise within the broader scope of IU Student Media. Inside magazine operates as a designated public forum, and reader comments

Online only

Inside magazine editor will be responsible for ﬁnal content decisions, with the Indiana Daily Student editor-in-chief involved in rare instances. All editorial and advertising content is subject to our policies, rates, and procedures. Readers are entitled to a single copy of this

magazine. The taking of multiple copies of this

“When I told my grandparents I was going to Indiana, they thought I said India.”

“It’s up to us, the tired, cash-strapped, stressedout students in the process of signing up for classes. We have to take the time to check a box.”

and is subject to prosecution.

| Inside magazine The Free Issue

Cover illustration by Michael Buchanan

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Take a photo tour of the Fern Hills Club, Bloomington’s nudist camp. Learn how to give a hug. Click through our stepby-step guide to giving out free hugs. Daily Do-It: Free (or really cheap) things to do every day on campus.

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What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Answers from our survey: The majority of my college education, a pair of designer jeans I won on Twitter

CONFESSIONS

Tip Jar

Inside Out

Better You

Know-it-all

Essay

With his parents’ credit card in hand, Tyler Churchward took a risk and clicked a popup banner advertising a free iPod. After completing the requirements, an iPod arrived in the mail. Figuring it worked once, he tried again. And again. Five years later, Churchward, a senior accounting major now with his own credit card, has accumulated more than $22,000 in merchandise, gift cards, and checks from online offers. And he got it all — more or less — for free. By Kamilla Benko

king H The pop-up

A selection of swag

$1,800

$4,200

$825

$5,000

$4,707

$22,000

Tyler keeps a list of the stuff he’s scored for free. Take a peek at some of his best ﬁnds.

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| Inside magazine The Free Issue

ow did you get into this? In 2005, I was just kind of browsing the Internet and found this article online that said freeipods.com actually works. You will actually get your iPod. I looked into it more and found some online messaging boards, which are basically communities that talk about this kind of stuff. They share links and different information on offers, like which ones are scams or legitimate. So I did my ﬁrst offer, and I have been doing it pretty much ever since. What are some of the most random offers you’ve had to sign up for to get a gift? There was one called Latavi. It was a breast enhancement cream. There have been plenty of weight loss pills and

wrinkle creams. There’s been some jewelry club where you get a ring or necklace every month, but it was just the biggest piece of crap. It’s like something you’d get out of a vending machine. Tell us about some of the cool stuff you’ve gotten. Toward the end of my senior year (in high school), I found this link on a message board that was for a 42-inch plasma TV. You needed to sign up for 12 offers plus get a referral to do 12 offers. I asked some of my friends if they wanted to get a line going. We all signed up as each other’s referrals and started rotating in. I think like seven or eight people from my high school got the TV. I got a MacBook in June right before my freshman year of college, which was pretty

good because I needed a computer for college anyway. And I’ve only paid for one iPod, and I’ve had four or ﬁve. Does the effort of signing up pay off ? I mean, this is pretty much my only job. I had a couple part-time jobs in high school, but it was never for more than six months. And I haven’t had a job in college just because I’ve been able to live off of this money. But what about scams? I’ve never been scammed. I mean, I’ve not met the requirements for a program before and lost the money I had spent on the offers. And I’ve gotten charged for offers that I’ve forgotten to cancel. But it’s perfectly legitimate. You even ﬁle a W-9 form, which is sent into the Inter-

Want more free stuff ? Check out our list of free IU stuff and Lia’s list of off-campus freebies on page 8.

Could you explain how all this online free stuff works in

5 steps? Sign up for the item. Complete the offers. “Offers” are advertiser deals like Netflix or weight loss pills where you pay a small amount to get the product for a trial period. (Be sure to cancel when the trial period is up or else you will keep being charged.) Get referrals. A referral is someone who signs up under your specific link and completes offers to help you fulfill the outlined gift requirements. Wait for offers to credit and send in redemption forms. Run to the mailbox and claim your reward.

nal Revenue Service with the reported amount of the gift. So is it really free? You have to pay when you sign up for offers that are required. I’ve probably spent about $3,000 to $4,000 on the offers, but that’s over the course of ﬁve years. You put in $40 or $60 now and in two to four months you get $500 plus. So it’s not really free, but the proﬁt is huge. I pretty much view it like a business. Do you still do these offers? I did some last summer, but the last website that you could really do changed their terms around, so it doesn’t really make it worth it. And really in the last year or two, a lot of the offers just disappeared completely because of the recession.

Tired of being a poor college student, senior Lia Saunders started searching for freebies and product samples. Three years, thousands of dollars, and a bottle of free BBQ sauce later, Saunders created a blog, The Broke Student’s Guide to Stretching Your Dollar, to share her freebie-gathering tips with fellow students.

Confessions of a broke blogger By Kamilla Benko How do you learn about all these free deals? I kind of pick it up everywhere. I absorb it from classes, like marketing and economics, and learn how the market works. I started researching how to get free products from companies. You can ﬁnd a lot of stuff online by just Googling and clicking around. And every time I hear about an opportunity on campus for free, I go check it out. I mean, we pay tuition, but people don’t seem to realize how much they can get for free. What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? I really love the $50 from MyPoints.com where I can spend the money wherever I want. It’s a paid-to site where they basically pay you to do nothing. You just click e-mails and advertisements and you get like 5 cents for each click. I ﬁll out surveys and play games online and I get points that I can redeem for gift cards. Usually I get a Macy’s gift card. And Restaurant.com had a promotion where a $25 gift card cost $2. I bought them for everybody’s Christmas presents.

Have you used other promotional things for gifts? For a friend’s birthday, I signed up for 50 offers and wrote 50 companies for free coupons. He basically got a present for each day of his birthday month. I took him out to dinner with the gift cards and would hand him an item, like a bottle of BBQ sauce. Random, I know, but it was nice because he wasn’t expecting anything because he knows I’m broke. What’s the most random thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Lots of random grocery coupons. I wrote every company that was on a list of companies that respond to letters and got products I had never tried — like microwaveable pretzels. They were pretty good! What do you estimate is the total amount of money you’ve made and saved in the last few years? Money from paid-to sites, about $500. As far as free products, about a value of $1,100 since I started college. And savings wise, I’d say at least $4,000 a year. I’ve been consciously saving for only about two years though, so that’s a total of $8,000. Adding everything together, I’ve saved roughly $9,600 or so since I began college. That’s a lot! Well, since I have to pay for my own stuff and I don’t have a real job, everything is more or less up to me. And it’s always nice to know there’s a check coming. Will you keep doing this after college? Oh yeah, I think so. I think I will always enjoy getting free money.

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What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Answers from our survey. An acoustic bass, a three-night stay in a hotel that was two blocks from the White House

Confessions

INSIDE OUT

Tip Jar

Better You

Know-it-all

Essay

What if... the campus rules we thought were set in stone became a free-for-all? Reporting by Kamilla Benko, Stephanie Doctrow, Rickey Iorio, and Stephanie Kuzydym

... student athletes didn’t have access to free tutors?

U Athletics provides tutoring to student athletes in their North End Zone facilities because the available campus resources don’t mesh with athletes’ crazy schedules. The department employs about 70 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and retired faculty as subjectspeciﬁc tutors for the 650 student athletes on campus. Kelly Noonan, IU Athletics assistant athletic director for academic and student engagement, says the biggest difference between this service and the academic resources offered to all students is timing. “The opportunity that we have to provide these services is tied into commitment and amount of time they spend on their sports,” Noonan says. A typical student athlete spends

| Inside magazine The Free Issue

about 20 hours per week on athletics-related activities, not including travel to competitions — add in classes, and that’s the equivalent of a fulltime job. IU Athletics tutors work around athletes’ schedules in order to fit tutoring in around early and late practices, and traveling. “Here we can catch them at nine at night, or at eight in the morning,” Noonan says. Senior Dan Galos, a member of the track and field team, says he sometimes missed two to three classes per week during the season. He got the information he missed in class from his professors, and then tutors helped him catch up when he got back in town. Without flexible tutoring schedules, Galos says atheletes’ academics would suffer. “It’s not because they’re not smart,” he says. “It’s just that it can be hard to keep up.” Without access to the North End Zone, Noonan says the athletes would have to make more use of campus resources like Writing Tutorial Services. Bottom line: Student athletes would hurt academically, and the free tutoring resources on campus would become even more competitive to use.

... greek houses didn’t exist at IU?

here are crests and symbols, bid days and formals, Big Frat Greek Weddings, and Little 500 pairs. But what if greek houses didn’t dot North Jordan, the extension, and Third Street? If all those students wanted to live on campus, they’d be out of luck. RPS executive director Pat Connor says there wouldn’t be enough housing to contain the entire greek system. But he thinks it wouldn’t be an issue, guessing that most greeks would settle off campus. “There would be more housing built in the off-campus sector of the Bloomington community,” Connor says. Sophomore Amy Pasalich, a member of Pi Beta Phi, says she would live in a house with a group of friends if she didn’t have the option of living with her sorority sisters. “I can’t imagine any girl in my

There are 747 beds in Eigenmann Residence Center It would take

Eigenmann Residence Centers to accommodate the people who live in greek houses.

house who would want to be randomly paired with a roommate anymore,” Pasalich says. But if all the members living in the 38 greek houses on campus wanted to rejoin the dorm communities, there would need to be more than 10,500 additional beds. That’s the equivalent of 10 Wright Quads. Bottom line: Our residence halls are already packed. In order to accommodate the greek community on campus, we’d need to convert the fraternities and sororities into giant residence halls.

FR EE

N G

parking tickets, those dreaded yellow slips of paper tucked under our windshield wipers allow us to park, period. During ﬁscal year 2009-10, Parking Operations wrote 53,512 tickets and made about $1.6 million in ﬁnes. According to Parking Manager Doug Porter, all of this money goes back into the departmental budget. Bottom line: Paying $50 for parking on the yellow part of the curb is a hassle, but IU Parking Operations couldn’t afford campus parking maintenance any other way.

ithout all the money we fork over for parking passes and tickets, campus parking would be a nightmare. Unregulated parking would be a total free-for-all, and there wouldn’t be enough revenue to afford parking garages. Last semester, IU Parking Operations sold 21,183 parking passes and made $2.3 million, all of which went into the operation of parking lots and garages. And while we’d love to stop paying

R PA

... parking on campus were free?

Where should I park? Parking on campus can be a painful experience. The permit system is mind-numbing, the lots are expensive, and ﬁnding a spot on the street is like striking gold. We’ve compiled a list of the best (and worst) places to park. If we’ve spoiled your secret (or you end up with a ticket), sorry!

If you don’t have a permit Metered parking spots at the School of Education, IU Art Museum, Creative Arts Building, southwest and northwest sections of the Herman B Wells Library, McCalla School, Stonebelt, Von Lee Theatre, and 801 N. Jordan. You don’t need to feed most meters from 10 p.m. Friday until 7 a.m. Monday morning.

If you have a “C”, “D”, “E,” or “F” pass

Our favorite sneaky parking spots:

Park in any NON 24-HOUR space from 5 p.m. until 7 a.m., Monday through Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday.

Jordan Avenue Garage for IU Cinema performances

Heading to the IMU, Woodburn, or the HPER? Check the HPER lot. There are several non-24 spaces.

Avoid parking ...

Avoid the metered spots at the residence halls. You need to feed the meter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

By the Noodles & Company on Kirkwood

Parking garages. These can be expensive; so don’t park there unless you can get out for free. Parking is free from 6 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Monday, and all day Saturday and Sunday.

In apartment complexes without visitor’s passes

“D” or “E” zone. Most of the time you can park your car (with or without a permit) in these spaces from 5 p.m. Friday until 11 p.m. Sunday.

On Kirkwood before 5 p.m. on weekdays

In the dorm lots if you don’t have the right parking pass On Seventh Street near Teter and Wright In the tiny Delta Gamma lot. (Yes, we said it. But even the DGs hate it.)

Free two-hour parking on Sixth Street between Indiana and Dunn for quick stints on campus. After 5 p.m., any neighborhood street in the blocks between Woodlawn and Indiana, and between Seventh and 10th streets. Indiana Memorial Union lots. If you can wait until midnight, you can get out for free after the parking attendant leaves. But, if you go up to the ticket window at 11:30 p.m. and say you’ve been parked in there since 9 a.m. and give a sad puppydog face, they might let you out for free. Going to a music class? Park in the T.I.S. lot. It’s for customers only, but they won’t do anything but give you a warning after your sixth or seventh time.

ONLINE. We can’t give you GPS, but we can give you one of those old-fashioned parking maps. idsnews.com/inside

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What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Answers from our survey: D.A.R.E magnet, an Abercrombie & Fitch sweatshirt from the Briscoe laundry room

Confessions

Inside Out

TIP JAR

Better You

Know-it-all

Free list ON CAMPUS

Essay

Here’s the reason you picked up this magazine: A big fat list of free stuff.

T E A R O U T T H I S L I S T. P U T I T O N YO U R F R I D G E .

Shows

Comedy

Art

DVDs

Movies

Health

Showers

Festivals

While the IU Auditorium headliners aren’t free, plenty of student and community shows are. To see a list of free events, visit the Auditorium’s website. If you just have to see a headliner or traveling Broadway act, volunteer as an usher to see it for free.

Student comedy troupes — Full Frontal Comedy, Awkward Silence Comedy, HoosOnFirst Improv, All Sorts of Trouble for the Boy in the Bubble, and University tWits — perform improv and sketches at the IMU.

Opening receptions for exhibits at the School of Fine Arts are free to the public and include ﬁnger foods like cheese and crackers. Check out the Bachelor of Fine Arts Painting Exhibition, at 6 p.m. on March 25.

The IU libraries house approximately 20,500 DVDs. To search for titles and ﬁnd out where the item is located, visit iucat.iu.edu.

Each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, the IMU shows a recently released ﬁlm. Show times begin at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

The Health Center offers a free session with a dietician, free sessions to kick the smoking habit, and best of all, free condoms.

This one’s just for the ladies, but the HPER’s sauna in the downstairs women’s locker room is the best way to get through winter. And the hot, high-pressure showers help us all save cash on water.

Dorm fairs are a great place for food. Collinsfest will give away burgers, cotton candy, snow cones, and an obscenely long banana split on April 9.

Breakfast Union Board traditionally serves a breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, pastries, and breakfast potatoes in the Indiana Memorial Union the Sunday evening before ﬁnals week.

Your resume Get a little help with the job search and resume writing at the Career Development Center. Visit the website for tips and examples or drop in between 12:30 and 4 p.m. at 625 N. Jordan Ave.

Software Visit the UITS website to download free versions of popular and usually pricey software such as the Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Ofﬁce.

ON YOUR BIRTHDAY These chain restaurants will give you free food and discounts. Cold Stone Creamery: free small or medium creation Buffalo Wild Wings: free dessert or drink TGI Fridays: free dessert Outback Steakhouse: free dessert Cracker Barrel: free dessert Denny’s: free Grand Slam Arby’s: birthday discount Applebee’s: free dessert

Chili’s: free dessert Texas Roadhouse: discount

News All student publications are offered free on campus, as well as the New York Times and USA Today. You can also stop by the Kelley School of Business for a free copy of the Wall Street Journal.

Starbucks: free drink when you register your gift card online Campus Candy: free frozen yogurt Aveda: free full-sized product

| Inside magazine The Free Issue

Almost every movie in the new IU Cinema is free. Snag up to four tickets at the IU Auditorium box ofﬁce before the show. If it’s “sold out,” there are usually extra seats if you show up before the movie starts.

Workouts If you’re bored of the treadmill, check out free Zumba and kickboxing sessions, just a couple of the many free workout sessions at the SRSC.

OFF-CAMPUS FREEBIES

The Kroger near College Mall has a Mediterranean bar with little cups for sampling. Career fairs are goldmines. Most booths have piles of promotional swag, so you’re doing a company a favor by using its labeled water bottles, bags, pens, and highlighters.

You can ﬁnd free pens at almost every departmental ofﬁce on campus. That may sound boring, but when you no longer have to shell out $3 every couple of months for BICs, you’ll thank us. There are free postcards at the entrance to the School of Fine Arts

Convenience You paid for it with your student fees, but we think of the bus system and print quota as free luxuries. Read more about student fees on page 24.

Music The IU Jacobs School of Music presents about 1,100 performances each year, most of which are free. This is a great way to impress a date for nothing.

ON THE WEB

Tips from Lia Saunders (see page 5)

Sephora: free beauty item Noodles & Company: free meal

More ﬁlms

Gallery in the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts. The postcards are typically prints of the art pieces on display. Look for the Aver’s Pizza van parked on campus. (Listen for the blaring music.) Snag a free slice of pizza and sometimes a free cup and T-shirt.

Follow Baked! of Bloomington on Facebook and get discounts for mentioning wall posts. Check out the Scotty’s Brewhouse website for weekly coupons and free specials. Visit btownmenus.com for exclusive online ordering deals. Amol India offers free naan with orders more than $15. You already knew Craigslist was amazing, but check out the “free stuff” section on the Bloomington page. We saw a free treadmill, printer, and desk last time we looked.

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What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Answers from our survey: Hoosier Heights pass, love, “Kilroy’s T-shirts! They make up about half of my T-shirts.”

Confessions

Tip Jar

Inside Out

BETTER YOU

HUG I IT OUT

Know-it-all

Essay

Walk to the Sample Gates on a Friday afternoon and you might ﬁnd yourself hugging a stranger. Sound strange? Not to the founders of IU’s Free Hugs campaign.

Photos by Chaz Mottinger | Illustration n by Larry Buchanan

By Melinda Elston

| Inside magazine The Free Iss Issue suee

Meet the huggers

nches of snow rest on the ground around the Sample Gates. Three graduate students stand in below-freezing temperatures holding cardboard signs, directed at the passersby. They’re not begging for anything. They’re offering free hugs. Austin Toombs, the free hugger who started start it all, and his two frien nds hang o friends out at the intersection of K Kirkwood aand Indiana almost every Friday, offering free hugs to anyone willing to take them. “ hug are beneﬁcial to ev“Free hugs eryo one who walks w eryone by,” says Toombs, grraduate student stu a graduate in the School of Info ormatics and a Computing. “Even Informatics wh do not get free hugs the people who smile when they th walk past.” smile T st Toombs started giving free hugs n undergraduate undergra as an at Ball State Universsity. When he came to IU in Auversity. gustt, he organized organ gust, a group here and recrruited a cou recruited couple of his friends and fello ow gradua fellow graduate students, Joanna Mueeller and Grant Gr Carlile, to join him. Mueller W the have more than 70 While they fanss on their “IU Free Hugs” Facebook fan page, pag Mueller says the book quaantity of hugs hu doesn’t matter. It’s quantity the quality tha that counts. N hug-ﬁlled Friday is ever No alik ke. One af alike. afternoon several joggerss stopped to give hugs before continuing th continuing their run. A campus bus drivver someti driver sometimes announces “free huggs” over his hi intercom to his bus hugs” passsengers. And A junior Anita Betpassengers. badal says she sh got a free hug “just badal beca Fr because it’s Friday.” sa Carlile says people recognize campu as the free hugs guy. him on campus “Everyone is going somewhere,” he says about the people that pass Sa him at the Sample Gates. They all eren destinations, but have different “when they ssee us, they go there smiling.”

A personal account

ugging strangers was not on my to-do list for the day. I wasn’t in the mood for hugs. It was cold, and I was tired after a long week. But I threw on my coat and slipped on my warmest boots and headed to the Sample Gates. My plan: interview and observe the Free Huggers during their weekly two-hour campaign. I’m not a touchy-feely kind of a person. Content with keeping my hands to myself, I stood awkwardly to the side as the three campaigners embraced all willing passersby. Still, part of me wanted to see what all the smiling and laughing was about. So I set down my pen and picked up a piece of poster board. I felt my face heating up, but I took a deep breath and gave myself a quick pep talk: I’m going to give a free hug, and it’s going to be awesome. At first, I think people could tell I was a “free hugs virgin” because they seemed to gravitate toward the more experienced huggers. Right away, one girl walked toward me and made eye contact. I thought she was coming to give me a free hug. I dropped one end of my sign so I could hug her. Instead, I felt the icy sting of rejection as she chose a veteran hugger. Later, a guy came up and hugged all of us. Twice. After that, I started giving more hugs than I could count. The longer I stayed, the more comfortable I got. I hugged for the entire two hours. By the end of the afternoon, my fingers and toes were completely numb. As I was rushing off to Starbucks to warm up, I realized my stress from the week was gone. The fun I had was definitely worth fighting a little frost.

The Hug Menu

By Melinda Elston and Caitlin Peterkin Illustrations by Michael Buchanan

We all need a good hug. By Caitlin Peterkin

The A-Frame Hug

The Man Hug

The Bear Hug

Wrap-up Hug

This hug occurs when two people lean their heads into each other and wrap their arms around each others’ shoulders — their lower bodies do not touch. The A-Frame is the most common hug between people who just met and aren’t quite comfortable with each other. It says, “Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, but I don’t want to press my entire body up against you quite yet.”

This is a hybrid of a handshake and a hug. When two males greet each other, they shake hands and lean into each other. With their free hand, they pat each other on the back several times before releasing. Men use this hug to recognize and greet other men, while still asserting their masculinity by not demonstrating too much affection.

A bear hug is when the hugger wraps his arms around the huggee and squeezes with all his might. The huggee usually looks particularly strained and red in the face. You can spot bear hugs at large family gatherings, or around children with their stuffed animals. (Note: No bears or huggees were harmed in the making of this illustration.)

An advanced group hug: All huggers stand in a line holding hands. The hugger on the end starts to fold himself into the line, with everyone following, creating a human pinwheel. Resist — or embrace — the urge to sway back and forth singing “Kumbayah.”

ways to boost your hugging power

Play happy, upbeat music to create a nice atmosphere. “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles works, but “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry sends the wrong message. Dancing to it also gives you something fun to do when people are staring at you strangely.

Dress for the weather. Hugs are more pleasant when you don’t have to worry about sweat stains or frozen ﬁngers. Also, look nice. Stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself, “Would I want to hug this person?”

Smell clean and fresh. Be sure to shower and spritz a little perfume or cologne before you head outside. No one wants to hug someone who smells funny.

ONLINE. Do the “Huggle.” We’ll teach you how. It involves multiple people, yelling, and laughter. Click through our hug menu photo gallery. idsnews.com/inside

Recruit huggers of both sexes. Some girls are afraid of getting felt up by guys, while some guys are just afraid of women, period. Having both girls and guys allows everyone to hug comfortably.

Remove backpacks and bags. These make hugs awkward.

Hugs are the simplest way to deliver a powerful message. They comfort. They warm. They say “I love you.” But the benefits of hugs go deeper than just brightening someone’s day. Numerous studies have shown that the human touch provides many health benefits. Stress relief, lower blood pressure, and improved moods are all results of regular human contact. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducted a study of 100 adults to determine the benefits of hugs. Researchers found that frequent hugs release higher oxytocin levels, which can decrease anxiety and increase those good feelings. Oxytocin also lowers cortisol, the stress hormone responsible for high blood pressure and a slower metabolism. So go ahead and give those hugs. Share the warmth, show that you care, and make your heart happy.

Make colorful, eye-catching “Free Hugs” signs. You’ve got to sell your goods.

Have fun. No one wants to hug a grouch.

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What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Answers from our survey: A transatlantic ﬂight, boom box for elementary school fundraiser, “your mother,” clothes

Confessions

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KNOW-IT-ALL

Drive 25 minutes from campus and you’ll come to a spot some Hoosiers call paradise. Check your inhibitions and clothes at the door. Welcome to Fern Hills Club, a world

Playing Naked Anything you can do, they can do nude. Well, almost.

free from clothes. By Rachel Stark

| Inside magazine The Free Issue

Volleyball. These tournaments are the biggest event in nudist recreation, according to nudist Amanda Case. “You have to be careful when you fall because you might scrape things you might not usually.” Drink around a campﬁre.

ucked away in the trees with no road markers, Fern Hills Club is a hidden gem for the people who flock there in the warmer months. For now, according to a sign at the entrance, it’s “clothed for the season.” Enter the gates, and enter the world of social family nudism. The club looks like a typical campground with 72 acres of land, colorful cabins, and more than five miles of trails. A circular pool, recreation center, and playground keep campers of all ages busy. It’s not the average campground, though. The people who camp are naked. About 200 nudist members and many more visitors frequent Fern Hills from May through October. As an American Association for Nudist Recreation (AANR) club, there are rules. The most basic: no clothes allowed, with exceptions for weather, personal health, and safety. Others include no cameras, no children under the age of 14 in the pool area without a guardian, and no sexually provocative or suggestive behavior. Jawn Bauer, an IU alumnus and Bloomington resident, protects the rights of social family nudists as legal counsel for Fern Hills, AANR, and AANR Midwest. A member of Fern Hills, he feels passionate about the benefits of

Essay

Hike. Fern Hills is surrounded by 72 acres of land, which includes miles of forest trails. Just watch out for poison ivy. ONLINE Take a photo tour of Fern Hills.

Swim. Birthday suits. Grill out. Sunbathe. No tan lines. Go rafting. Ride bikes. We’d opt for a cushy seat.

Clothed for the season. It’s no surprise that Fern Hills shuts down in the winter. This shivering cherub will be the only visitor until May. Photo by Zach Hetrick

this lifestyle. “I think what draws people to nudism is the freedom. Stripping away the stress,” Bauer says. “It’s an equalizer. There are no UGG boots. No designer jeans. You can’t tell who might be a garbage man and who might be a judge.” Because of stigmas attached to nudism, Bauer, like most nudists, wants to clear up common misconceptions. For starters, nudism is not sexual, he says. “It’s amazing how quickly you realize how different nudism and sex really are,” he says. “It’s liberating to be nude in a non-sexual way.”

Of course, there is the occasional visitor who crosses the line. If someone utters a sexual remark, camp owners give a warning. Another infraction, and they ask the offender to leave. Fern Hills also has the rare visitor who crosses other lines — the physical boundaries of the camp. One time a man got lost hiking the trails and wound up naked on a public road. But these uncomfortable incidents are rare, and for the most part, the nudists feel at peace within the conﬁnes of the camp. “It’s fun to be outdoors naked and know that you won’t be arrested or hit on,” Bauer says.

Yoga. Paint bodies. “It sounds erotic, but it’s actually very funny,” Case says. Run free, literally. But some girls must wear sports bras, for obvious reasons. Sail the seas on a nude cruise. Dance. Attend events like Nude Stock. Basically a big college party sans clothes. Music provided by the Nudie Blues.

4 3

The Crossroads of Nudism Other AANR nudist clubs in Indiana

101 121 205 212

1 Drakes Ridge Rustic Nudist Retreat — Bennington miles from Bloomington Bloomington

3 Lake O’ The Woods Club — Valparaiso miles from Bloomington 4 Sunny Haven Recreation Park — Granger miles from Bloomington

Just accept it. The ﬁrst time at a nudist camp will be nerve-wracking. As the daughter of one of the owners of Fern Hills, Stephanie Duval grew up around nudists. She suggests coming for a big function, where you will be one of 150 people. In a sea of nakedness, you’ll be more focused on the crowd and the excitement than your own body. Or that’s the hope, anyway.

Nudists aren’t just hippies from the ’60s anymore. By Rachel Stark

2 Sunshower Country Club — Centerville miles from Bloomington

Thinking about baring it all?

Land of the free, home of the brave

DO IT!

At 21 years old, Amanda Case went nude and never turned back. Her love affair with nudism started three years ago, when the Ball State University student ventured to a nudist camp with her boyfriend (now husband) for the ﬁrst time. Today, she and her husband are leaders in a revolution for young nudists. They lead the Midwest division of Vita Nuda, a national nudist group for people ages 18-35. The organization is tied directly to AANR, but aims to attract a population that is dying off in the nudist realm. “They found that they were losing people in their late teens to early 20s, when people become confused about their bodies,” Case says. “We’re getting young people back and getting them involved like the generations above us have done.” Vita Nuda’s website encourages

viewers to “join the Nudist Revolution.” Photos show young men and women on the beach, hula hooping, eating sushi, all in the buff, and a pop-up message urges visitors to “please respect the nudists.” The site addresses touchy questions honestly: “Doesn’t seeing all that nakedness ruin your sex life?” They consider themselves the young adult movement within the larger movement of nudism. Case helped organize the first big meeting in the Midwest last year, which included a meet-and-greet in the pool, drinks around a bonfire, and a movie night. This year, they’re amping it up, adding a water volleyball tournament, body painting, and a yoga session to the schedule. So what’s the appeal to all this? “Being young certainly is a time of learning, a time of freedom, a time of maybe having less inhibition,” Bauer says. “A lot of people who try it fall in love with it.” Bauer estimates that Fern Hills has about 40 members between the ages of 15 and 27. “Is it a huge college hangout? Absolutely not,” he says. “Would we like to welcome more people? We certainly would. If you just want to chill out and get a sun tan, read your textbook, that’s fine.”

We come to college to earn our degrees and — hopefully — prepare ourselves for our chosen career. But classes and homework are only part of the battle. As freshmen, we’re given the key to independence the day we hug our parents goodbye. At some point between parties and pizza runs, the reality sinks in and we realize freedom sometimes isn’t as glamorous as it sounded when we were grounded on that one Friday night in high school. ¶ The four students we proﬁled come from different cities and backgrounds. Whether they’ve been here for one semester or for four years, they each have developed different answers to the question “what is freedom?” In the end,

freedom isn’t hard to obtain; it’s knowing what to do with your freedom that can be a struggle.

Welcome to

COLLEGE

E S T. 2 0 1 1

Freedom By Caitlin Keating | Photos by Zach Hetrick

16 16

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The Sorority Girl Clare Libbing, freshman

COLLEGE

E S T. 2 0 1 1

Fort Wayne, 19 years old

lare Libbing walks into a mansion with tall ceilings, golden chandeliers, and large couches with pillows that are there more for show than for comfort. Clare, a 19-year-old freshman, recently received her bid at her ﬁrst choice sorority, Alpha Xi Delta. Clare is conﬁdent she’s found her new home on campus, but admits she’s still slightly nervous around her new sisters. “Right now I’m acting a little different because I know I’m trying to impress them, but every week I feel more and more relaxed and like myself,” Clare says. It’s coming up on 9 p.m., and Clare isn’t checking her watch for the time. The concept of a curfew disappeared when she left high school. “Now I can do whatever I want, when I want.” Clare’s older sister is a junior in the same sorority. But as much as Clare loves having her sister around, she’s also trying to make a name for herself. “I’m trying to have the sorority girls get to know me not so much as Sarah’s little sister,” she says. Freshman year gave Clare the freedom to decide how she spends her time, but she is still learning how to budget everything from her stress to her bills. She is responsible for half her tuition and all of her spending money. “I’m free, but still dependent on my parents for advice,” Clare says. “I can always call them, and they’re just a short car ride away.” Clare doesn’t seem concerned about any freedom she

Clare Libbing left behind high school curfews and parental supervision. Freedom, she says, is living in a house with 100 sisters. might lose by moving back into a house where she isn’t completely in control. “You have less freedom of where you should go and what you should say to people. You’re not just speaking for yourself, but you’re speaking for 100 other girls that live with you,” Clare says. “I am much more aware of what I do now and how I portray myself.” Though she’s still taking it all in, Clare knows she wants to be involved in Alpha Xi Delta. “It will be like living on a dorm room ﬂoor with people that will be your best friends.” She takes a deep breath. “I hope.”

At Freedom University, we suggest our freshmen take: 1. H103 | Self-reliance: A Survey of Ralph Waldo Emerson 2. P104 | Topics in Physics: The Science of Beer Pong 3. B105 | Conﬂict Management and Dispute Resolution: Roommate Cold Wars

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n Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights, Andrew Lysaught stands behind the long red counter at the Crimson Creamery in Gresham Food Court. Scooping ice cream for hungry students isn’t the sophomore’s calling, but he puts on the plastic gloves and red uniform for 10 hours a week to earn spending money. “It gives me the ﬁnancial freedom I want,” he says. Andrew, a history and economics major, has had a job since he was 13, when he started working as a bus boy at a Naperville, Ill., restaurant. Now he works for the money that pays for his ﬁnancial freedom. Andrew owes his father $10,000 for his room and board and plans on paying him back by “working and working and working.” He even plans on selling his $2,000 coin collection and a $500 guitar. Selling his prized possessions, he says, is like giving up part of his childhood. When his Crimson Creamery shift ends at 8 p.m., Andrew walks across the street to his dorm room in McNutt. Even in a residence hall with an RA, Andrew appreciates the opportunity he has

to live and think on his own. “It’s not just physical freedom I lacked in high school,” he says. “I didn’t have much mental freedom either.” Going to class, working and enjoying college has forced Andrew to learn how to manage his money and his time. “Freshman year I really screwed up,” he says. “I didn’t have my parents on my back, so I stayed up late, went out late.” A year later, he’s beginning to ﬁgure it out. “It’s all about balancing your time,” he says.

At Freedom University, we suggest our sophomores take: 1. A211 | Intermediate Graphic Design: The Art of the Fake ID 2. G201 | Gender Studies and You: Bromance 3. M221 | Investment Basics: From Minimum Wage to Millionaire

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The Musician Max Newman, junior

COLLEGE

E S T. 2 0 1 1

New York City, 20 years old

Max Newman couldn’t ﬁnd freedom at school, so he dropped out. Now he spends his days living through music.

ome people know exactly what they want to do in life before they even complete kindergarten. Max Newman is one of those lucky few. He grew up in New York City, a place that screams freedom. It’s a city people move to because they want independence, or in Max’s case, a place you leave to get away from it all. Max grew up playing the cello, studying at Juilliard in high school. Music became his life. After he graduated, he left the chaotic skyline behind to study classical music at the Jacobs School of Music. “If I think about it, no matter how much freedom music gives me, in a way it was chosen for me from such a young age,” Max says. By freshman year, he says, he was frustrated with memorizing classical compositions. He made major changes to his career path, hoping to ﬁnd something personally meaningful. He switched from cello to guitar, dropped out of the music school, and after sophomore year, decided to take an entire year off. Freedom from classes has given him time to focus on his music. However,

this decision also came with the ﬁnancial burden of paying his own way. Max might not be free from responsibility, but when it comes to his music, nothing can hold him back. “There is such freedom in music itself. It’s the freedom of expression,” Max says. “No one can take this freedom away from me.” Some students are free because they’re physically on their own, and others are free because they ﬁnancially support themselves. Max is free because he doesn’t see anything stopping him from succeeding. Taking a semester off from school didn’t hold Max back; it pushed him forward. “I couldn’t see myself as a student,” Max admits. “I want to be passionate with everything I do.” Max values his freedom because he works for it. “You have to study the scales, the masters that came before you,” Max says. “This is freedom that you earn. Improvisation isn’t just playing what you want. It really does strike a chord in people and makes them feel free too.”

At Freedom University, we suggest our juniors take: 1. R331 | Social Dancing (class held Friday through Sunday at Kilroy’s Sports Bar) 2. W302 | Letters Home: How to Tell Your Parents What You Want Them to Think You’re Doing 3. D416 | Epidemiological Case Studies: Curing Senioritis

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COLLEGE

Natalie Azhdam, senior

E S T. 2 0 1 1

Beverly Hills, Calif., 21 years old

Natalie Azhdam knows freedom’s worth ﬁghting for, even if it means going against your family.

ollowing graduation, Natalie Azhdam will go back to the home she fought to leave. Natalie moved to a Persian-Jewish community in Beverly Hills, Calif., right before her junior year of high school. After years of being told she couldn’t have sleepovers or go to summer camps, she was ready to make her own decisions. “My level of freedom shot from zero to 100 when I came here,” she says about her move to IU. Getting to Bloomington wasn’t easy. In the Persian-Jewish community where she was raised, Natalie says, women go to University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, or a community college. For Natalie, that was not an option. “I had to scream and kick,” Natalie says about her choice to come to Indiana. “Everything I could do to convince them to let me come, I did.”

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At Freedom University, we suggest our seniors take:

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she says. “I want to have the freedom to ﬂy to Vegas with my friends for the weekend, or go to Mexico for spring break.” Graduation in May will present a whole new challenge for Natalie and her family. While her parents have come to understand her decision to leave, she’s prepared to give up her newfound freedom. “After college, I am moving home, only for them.” Going away for college, her parents told her, was a fouryear deal. Though the political science major says she wants to work in sales, she’ll have to spend some time back in California before she makes her way out to either Chicago or New York. She wants to please her parents as much as she wants to be on her own, and as she looks back on college these past four years she says, “I feel like I went from being one to 30 years old.”

VA N

Natalie didn’t just want to leave home; she wanted to leave the state. She craved the freedom to be on her own. The freedom to hang out with whomever she wanted, travel wherever she wanted, and most importantly, the freedom to attend a “real university.” When Natalie decided to leave Los Angeles, her whole family put up a ﬁght. “When I told my grandparents I was going to Indiana, they thought I said India,” she says. “I just tell people now I go to school in Chicago because most people in my community don’t even know where Indiana is.” After four years of living on her own, Natalie has learned that freedom comes with a cost. Fifteen to 20 hours a week, Natalie makes cold calls for mojopages.com, a business directory site. It’s one of the numerous jobs she works to maintain her lifestyle. “I would never ask my parents to pay for the extravagant things I do,”

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Welcome to Indiana University, land of free workout centers, seemingly endless scholarship money, and constant opportunities to ﬁnd free funds. Every economist will tell you “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” so Inside looked into the price students pay for “free perks” on campus. Here’s what we learned:

Nothing is free.

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BY STEPHANIE DOCTROW, SARAH HUTCHINS, CAITLIN JOHNSTON, AND MICKEY WOODS

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MANDATORY STUDENT FEES

You paid for it. We don’t have a choice when it comes to paying student fees, but in theory, the money we spend comes back to us in the form of free services. Inside followed the money to see exactly how our mandatory student fees are being spent. By Stephanie Doctrow Mandatory per-semester fee categories for undergraduates taking 12 or more credit hours

ACTIVITIES $84.97

TRANSPORTATION

HEALTH $111.34

$58.16

TECHNOLOGY $197.28

TOTAL $451.75/SEMESTER Mandatory Health Fee for 2010-11

Activity Fee for 2010-11 Allocated To

Covers reduced rates for medical clinic ($20/visit)

Percent

Campus Day Care

$0.39

0.5%

Graduate and Professional Student Organization

$1.06

1.2%

IU Auditorium

$3.30

3.9%

IUSA General Fund

$1.31

1.5%

IUSA Readership

$1.25

1.5%

Transportation Fee for 2010-11

IUSA Student Organization Support Fund

$4.75

5.6%

Total revenue (99% of this comes from student fees):

IUSTV

$0.82

0.9%

Indiana Memorial Union

$2.81

3.3%

Outdoor Adventures

$0.62

0.7%

Rec Sports

$53.37

62.8%

$9.83

11.6%

Student Legal Services Union Board

$4.98

5.9%

WIUX

$0.48

0.6%

Prescheduled visits to a gynecologist are free Two free Counseling and Psychological Services appointments Free nutritionist visit, contraception, tobacco cessation programs

$4,525,902 Of this, $1,867,030 (41%) is spent on salaries and wages. An additional $2,630,431 (58% ) goes to supplies and expenses. This includes diesel fuel and gasoline, insurance, computing services, printing and duplicating, repairs and maintenance, advertising, and promotions.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Technology Fee for 2010- 2011: Most recent data available, as of 2010: IUB Student Technology Use Fees, 2007- 2008

What, exactly, is a funding budget and how does it beneﬁt students? We decided to ﬁnd out.

Allocated To

EXAMPLE 1

Percent

Operating, maintaining, and upgrading Student Technology Centers (STCs)

20%

Consulting in STCS

19%

Software in STCS

19%

Consulting and services from the Support Centers (online, email, phone, person)

12%

Printing in STCs

10%

Ritmos Latinos Indiana event

Club Budget

IUSA Funding Board

STEPS workshops (through UITS)

Accounts on central systems and for Dial modem access

Research computing

Instructional publications

Maintenance

We pay $4.75/semester to IUSA as part of mandatory activity fee. EXAMPLE 2 Free computers to use at Teter NST

UITS operating budget EXAMPLE 3 Free condoms from Health Center

| Inside magazine The Free Issue

Health Center budget

We pay $111.34/semester as part of a student health fee.

We pay $197.28/semester as part of a mandatory technology fee.

FREE!

OPTIONAL STUDENT ACTIVITY FEES

The future isn’t free. We’re forced to pay for activities, health, transportation, and technology. But when it comes time to fork over our money for safety and sustainability, it’s easy to just say no. By Sarah Hutchins

e’re hustled near the arboretum, chased down near the steps of Ballantine, and aggressively stalked with clipboards near the Sample Gates. “Sign a petition,” we’re begged. “You don’t have to give any money.” So we sign and walk away feeling good (albeit slightly violated by their persistence) that we declared our commitment to the cause of the day. Few petitions circulated around campus get enough signatures to reach their ﬁnal destination: a small check box on OneStart’s “optional service fees” page during class registration. As a result, we rarely have to decide whether or not we want to cough up $5 for the cause we proudly signed our name in support of. And who can blame us for holding onto our money? We scrimp and save and take out loans for ever-increasing tuition. Then we’re faced with $451.75 in mandatory student fees that go to activities, the Health Center, transportation, and technology. So when it comes to volunteering our hard-earned dough for “optional service fees,” it’s easy to just say no. In fact, it’s difficult to think of a reason to say yes. But it wasn’t always easy to look the other way. Before the 2005-2006 school year, students had to select “yes” or “no” for every optional fee. When registration technolo-

IU Bloomington Optional Service Fees Arbutus 2011 yearbook $69 Dance Marathon beneﬁtting Riley $5 HPER Locker Rental (one term) $20 IU Student Alumni Association Dues $15 IUSA Rape Crisis Fund $3 Little 500 2011 All Event Tickets $25 Live@the MAC Sampler-Flex Pass $60 Norvelle Theater Center Flex Pass $48

gy changed, so did the yes/no option. The default choice became no, and students had to check a box only if they wanted to pay for an optional fee. Sarah Robinson, IUSA director of women’s affairs, organizes the optional Sexual Assault Prevention Fund (formerly the Rape Crisis Fund). She says the fund prospered before the system change. After the technology changed, the fate of optional fees wasn’t hard to predict. As former Dean of Students Richard McKaig warned the Indiana Daily Student in 2005, “We’re making it too easy to ignore the check-offs.” As predicted, donations to the Sexual Assault Prevention Fund plummeted. The fund steadily declined ever since. Today, getting a cause on the optional fees page is about more than raising money. Op-

tional fees require student involvement (gathering 10,000 signatures and, once on the list, allocating the money). They ask that students make an investment in the future of the University. For the past two or three years, student groups have rallied to collect enough signatures to get a sustainability fund on the menu of optional fees, says Jacob Bower-Bir, logistics chair of the Student Sustainability Council. Every time, their efforts failed. This fall, however, a group of 19 student organizations on campus came together under the Student Sustainability Council to achieve this goal. Starting next fall, students will have the option to donate $5 toward campus sustainability initiatives. Just getting the signatures is a milestone, Bower-Bir says, but it’s only a small part of the recipe for a fund’s success. Students not only need to donate, but they need to get involved in the process of spending the funds. “You’re not buying absolution,” Bower-Bir says. “You’re buying responsibility.” It’s easy to donate $5 to a cause and then relax knowing that someone else will solve the problem. But that’s not what a student fund is about, Bower-Bir says. Students propose and organize student funds. If students think the University See FUTURE on page 29

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FREE!

SCHOLARSHIPS

Your free ride ... isn’t. Aim high. Don’t forget to say “thank you.” Count your blessings. Since you were a kid, you’ve probably heard one or all of these phrases from your parents. And when you go off to college, the sentiment behind those statements doesn’t change. By Mickey Woods

atchphrases like “exceptional,” “high level of success,” and “traditions of excellence” accompany some IU scholarship program descriptions. So what’s the common denominator tying the exchange of money and expectations of success together? You, the student. No matter where you stand, whether your parents have you covered or you work 40 hours a week at Subway, the concept of “nothing is free” has never rang more true. Here is the story of three students who understand that a good education sometimes comes with a price tag.

Hillary Anderson

Jordan Vanlandingham

A Load of H’s When freshman Hillary Anderson opened her nomination letter for the Herbert Presidential Scholar program at IU, she didn’t even know what it was, or more importantly, how she got it. “I just know it sounded really fancy,” Anderson says with a laugh. “My mom and dad rudely didn’t answer my phone call, so I told my grandmother. It was a great day.” Anderson, a graduate of Carmel High School in Indianapolis, says she receives about $10,000 a year in scholarship money. In addition to being a Herbert Scholar, Anderson is backed by the Hudson and Holland Scholars program and the Hutton Honors College. Anderson was excited about the additional support, but intimidated by the “load of H’s.” However, she was assured that

| Inside magazine The Free Issue

Luke Pacold

there were no required meetings or other explicit requirements for a Herbert Scholar. For Hudson and Holland, however, Anderson says she has to do a volunteer activity each semester lasting from four to six hours. Last semester, she volunteered with the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington to produce Teter Treat, a Halloween gathering for all ages in the Teter Residence Center. In the fall of their admission to IU, Hudson and Holland scholars are also required to take a course on education. This all seems overwhelming, but it was integral to Anderson’s decision on where to study after high school. The

load of H’s validated Anderson’s hard work. “It is so nice to know that IU wants me to be here,” Anderson says. “That’s a very important decision in deciding where you want to go to school.” Though Anderson’s parents can afford to send her to school, scholarships certainly help offset costs. She can live anywhere in town, and at the moment, doesn’t have to worry about ﬁnding a part-time job. Though she faces the drudgery of GPA requirements, the most pressure she faces might come from herself. If Anderson did have a rough semester and was in jeopardy of losing her scholarship, she says her worries would be fewer thanks to a supportive family. “My mom, she’d love me no matter how I did in school,” Anderson says. “Ultimately with everything I do in school or otherwise, she just wants me to be happy and healthy.”

Money Can’t Buy Happiness Freshman Jordan Vanlandingham is Anderson’s future roommate. And though Vanlandingham’s parents pay for most of her schooling, she had to take out a $5,000 student loan to help pay the difference. Over the summer, Vanlandingham works full-time as a waitress and hostess at Le Peep Restaurant in her hometown, Indianapolis, to save a bit of money. It’s the least she can do to help her parents, she says, but also the least she can do to help herself. “I feel like where I can help, I’m obligated to,” Vanlandingham says.

The expenses she is currently paying for include groceries, books, and ink for her printer. With Vanlandingham being able to chip in a bit ﬁnancially, she says her parents don’t harp on her about school. Vanlandingham is an adult, after all. “If I fail a test, that’s on me,” she says. “But, who wants to be here in school longer than they have to be? I don’t.”

Gratitude Is Free Luke Pacold is on a full ride. Opportunities fall into his lap due to his merit, yet he is constantly appreciative of what he’s been given. The senior from the Chicago area has a dad from the Czech Republic and a mom from Indonesia, who have encouraged him to expand his horizons in college. His experience as a Herman B Wells Scholar have allowed him to do just that. The program, which covers full tuition and fees, nominates those in the highest percentile of their graduating high school classes. As a result, Pacold is expected to perform well in college, academically and socially. Pacold says there isn’t a cookie cutter scholar. “But Wells is a serious name to carry around. You don’t want to dishonor that name.” Wells Scholars must maintain a 3.4 cumulative GPA and take two seminar classes. In addition to his classes, he is a coordinator of WAVE (Wells Activism and Volunteer Effort). For about ﬁve hours a week, he helps plan and execute

FREE! charity functions for organizations ranging from Middle Way House to Pages to Prisoners. To him, the payoff for doing well in school — he’s studying in the multidisciplinary Liberal Arts and Management Program, also known as LAMP — is the wealth of opportunities being a Wells Scholar, and simply being a Hoosier, affords him. Pacold has volunteered in Calcutta, worked in New York City and sat in on economics discussions with Nobel Prize laureates. Plus, Pacold says he loves being around other Wellsies —fellow scholars with eccentricities and interests that excite him. Once he graduates in May, Pacold is going to be involved with the Bank of Montreal investment bank in Chicago this summer, and then after that, who knows. For now, Pacold plans to enjoy what’s left of his free ride, though he says there is no such thing. “Most economics majors would tell you that nothing is free,” Pacold says. “To me, though, the word ‘free’ implies gratitude. If you are given a gift, you have to be thankful for that gift. The greater the magnitude of the gift, the better the display of your gratitude.”

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FUTURE, continued from page 27 needs solar panels, that’s where the money will go. While a quarter of the student population backed the petition to add sustainability to the optional fees list, Bower-Bir knows that even the best funds can quickly lose momentum. Need proof? The $3 sexual assault prevention fund once collected $27,500 a year. The technology change, coupled with a lack of awareness, caused the balance to drop to $12,041 by 2011. In the end, it’s up to us, the tired, cash-strapped, stressed-out students in the process of signing up for classes. We have to take the time to check a box. The $3 or $5 we give to a fund might not manifest in something as tangible as a yearbook or gym locker. But what we get in return, Bower-Bir argues, is much greater. “The $5 investment will pay way more than $5 in dividends.” So what do we get for our money? We get the satisfaction of knowing our friends are learning how to prevent sexual assault. We get the satisfaction of knowing that our campus will be a better place for the next generation of students. And we get the satisfaction of knowing we invested in the future of our University.

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HOUSING

The cost of convenience Do the savings of off-campus living outweigh the beneﬁts of living close to class? Inside tried to ﬁnd out.

n-campus versus offcampus living — the classic undergraduate debate. One key argument RPS throws at us every year is the simplicity of a single lump fee. One bill for everything you need. And all the free stuff, like movie rentals and work out centers, that goes with it. Inside took a look at the expenses for the new Union Street Center, and compared it with other four-bedroom apartments around Bloomington. Turns out residents are paying a heavy chunk of change for a single bedroom in the center’s four-bedroom apartments. Part of the price jump is accounted for by the included fees most off-campus apartments separate out: utilities, cable, water, Internet, and trash pickup. Though things like utilities technically aren’t free, there are other,

Union Street Center 4 BR, 2 bath apartment $7450 per person for 9 months $7450/ 9 = $827.78 per month Utilities included

Varsity Villas 4 BR, 2.5 bath apartment $1820/month for 10 months $1820/4 people = $455 per month Utilities average $50/person, so total = $505 per month

less-tangible benefits. Center staff handles all maintenance issues, and USC residents have access to a private fitness center and an RPS store and library. USC residents also have the option to break their contract mid-year without being charged or having to find a sub-letter. Looks like the key argument in the debate rests in the individual student. The real freedom lies in the ability to choose.

What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free? Answers from our survey: 24 donuts, a three-course meal at a really nice restaurant, a skydiving trip

Confessions

Inside Out

Tip Jar

Better You

Know-it-all

ESSAY AY

Living money-free By CJ Lotz

he assignment: Live free of money for a week. I could cook with groceries purchased during a normal shopping trip the week before, and I could bargain, haggle, dumpster dive, and beg for food and rides. But no cash could leave my pocket or checking account. ¶ I live a comfortable college life. I drink coffee like it’s my job and I’m seeking a raise. I meet my friends on Fourth Street rather than cooking dinner, even if I have enough groceries at home to throw something together. I’m careless about parking tickets. ¶ When I don’t see money, I don’t see how quickly it leaves. I’m not wealthy and I don’t live on my parents’ money, but I’m forgetful enough that I cringe each time someone swipes my debit card: Do I have any money in my account? ¶ I wanted the third week in January to be different. ¶ Sunday morning, I grabbed a few crumbled bills on the way out the door to church. As the offering plate passed from pew to pew, I remembered the assignment and tucked them back in my pocket. ¶ I couldn’t spend any money, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t pay. Here’s what my week cost: Attention. There is so much free food on this campus that it’s amazing we shell out for anything during the first few weeks of a semester. With all the callouts, information sessions, and open houses, there are enough pizzas and veggie platters to feed a small country. Or a large campus. I looked at Facebook and fliers to find events with free food. I attended a “Taste of the Union” event where vendors gave away samples of their products. I ate little cups of pasta salad, pico de gallo, and wolfed down half a cheeseburger, even though I haven’t eaten red meat in months.

Creativity. I ran out of toothpaste on Thursday. I scrounged in my bathroom for travelsized tubes from past trips.

When I used those up, I dusted my brush with baking soda. You can use that stuff for anything.

An open friend tab. Allowing someone else to provide me dinner when I didn’t know where else I would get food was a beautiful and humbling thing. When my friend Laura cooked me beans, rice, roasted squash, and goat cheese, I told her I wanted to pay her back. She said to put it on our friendship tab, and I like that idea. There’s no official accounting. We just make each other food or pick up the bill for a coffee date from time to time. We don’t keep a record, we just know when it’s time to take the other out.

Community. Every Thursday, the

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Hillel Center on Third Street gives out free pancakes. I stacked a plate with apple-butterscotch and chocolate chip-banana pancakes. My friend Rachel has been trying to get me to learn about her Jewish faith for a year, and she tempted me to Hillel with free food. I walked throughout the building with her, and she even showed me the beautiful Torah scroll. Hearing her read from it made me realize how much she cherishes her faith. I came for pancakes, she came for God and fellowship. We ate and left nourished.

Time. I valued my schedule more when I had no money. Every morning, I woke up early enough to play with my dog and make breakfast, two things I forget about

when I rush around. I brewed coffee and poured it into a thermos instead of sleeping late and hitting Starbucks ﬁrst thing.

Lessons. I spent more moments saying grateful prayers over food. I surrendered embarrassment and dove to pick up wrapped mints on the sidewalk. I planned my time better, tried new recipes, and carved out more time for friends — especially when they cooked dinner. Sunday morning, my free week was over. I dropped a few dollars in the offering plate. I took my boyfriend out to breakfast at the Runcible Spoon. I drank coffee, savored the reﬁlls, told him to get whatever he wanted, and then paid for it.

My favorite freebies Soup delivery. The Hillel Center stocks a freezer of Matzah Ball soup. When you’re sick (or broke), give the front desk a call and a staff member will deliver you a frozen block of comfort food and a get well card. Just heat the soup on the stove. Date night. The IU Cinema offers free tickets to most of its movies. I saw “Fort Apache,” a John Wayne western. Sugar. Campus Candy handed out free coffee and hot chocolate this winter and became one of my favorite stops. Money you’ve already spent. I never thought about how many points I racked up at T.I.S. College Bookstore. I checked it out and earned a gift card to the Copper Cup coffee shop, as well as a free pint of ice cream from Bruster’s. You might have enough for a Stromboli at Nick’s English Hut.

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