April 29, 2021 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
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Carl Ziegler was an enthusiastic teacher, caring mentor By Wei Wang daviwang@iu.edu | @WeiWangDavid23
Carl Ziegler was responsible for hundreds of students at the Collins LivingLearning Center, but former students said he always made time for every one of them. Friends and former students remember Ziegler as a caring and thoughtful mentor who took pleasure in teaching and helping his students succeed. Ziegler died April 19 in Bloomington at the age of
COURTESY PHOTO
Carl Ziegler dances at his house with Mark Helmsing and other students after a back-to-school student dinner in August 2003. Ziegler, 80, died on April 19.
80. He joined IU in 1966 as an assistant professor in Germanic studies and com-
parative literature, according to an obituary he wrote for himself, and served as director of Collins LLC from 1990 to 2004, according to the LLC’s website. He was a recipient of the Mary Burgan Distinguished Service Award and the IU Bicentennial Medal. IU class of 1984 alumna Laurie Ritchie said Ziegler’s enthusiasm for the German language and culture convinced her to take German courses in each of her four undergraduate years. “I don't know that I
would have done that if I hadn't, if not for his enthusiasm,” she said. Director of Residential Life Sara Ivey Lucas said she had lived in Collins when Ziegler was director and then worked there as a manager until 2004, when he retired. She said Collins was the only LLC at IU when Ziegler became its director, but its success showed other IU departments the value of engaging with first-year students and encouraged them to found their own living-learning programs.
Lucas said Ziegler will be missed for his legacy of compassionate and engaged leadership and for his sincere interest in enriching students’ IU experience to the fullest extent. “I think the professional lesson that Carl taught is that the work that you do as university administrators should be about empowering students and helping them find their voice,” she said. Mark Helmsing, assistant professor of education, history and folklore at
George Mason University, is an IU class of 2004 alumnus and lived in Collins for four years. He said Ziegler championed diversity and always wanted to bring in students who might not feel they had a place elsewhere on campus. He said on Sept. 11, 2001, Ziegler stayed at Collins all night consoling students while warning against anti-Muslim violence. “Some people from Indiana were saying that SEE ZIEGLER, PAGE 6
City to rename Jordan Avenue By Hugh Pebworth hpebwort@iu.edu
Mayor John Hamilton is convening a task force with IU to begin the process of renaming Jordan Avenue, according to a City of Bloomington press release Thursday. The task force will comprise seven members, including city residents, IU faculty and administrators, according to the release. The co-chairs of the task force are Elizabeth Mitchell, a journalist, filmmaker and historian of Bloomington’s African-American community, and Alex Tanford, Maurer School of Law professor emeritus of law, according to the release. The task force will review name proposals for Jordan Avenue south of 17th Street as well as the extension north of 17th Street, according to the release. Residents can submit proposals of new names for the street through this form. Jordan Avenue is named after David Starr Jordan, IU’s president from 1885 to 1891 and a professor of zoology from 1875 to 1891. Jordan was an influential member of American SEE JORDAN, PAGE 6
State vaccine effort is ongoing By David Wolfe Bender benderd@iu.edu | @dbenderpt
Community leaders provided an update on Monroe County’s COVID-19 response and the county’s social gathering guidelines at the City of Bloomington’s weekly COVID-19 press conference Friday. Walk-in appointments The Indiana State Department of Health is asking vaccination sites to allow for some walk-in appointments starting as early as next week, Monroe County Health Administrator Penny Caudill said. Walk-in appointments do not require pre-scheduled appointments online or by phone. IU Health South Central Region President Brian Shockney said he thinks this is part of the state’s push to increase vaccination rates. “It's our understanding that this is part of the push to get shots in arms and get as many Hoosiers vaccinated as possible,” he said. The Indiana Motor Speedway in Indianapolis offered a no-appointment drive-thru clinic the weekend of April 16-18. Shockney said notice about the move to walk-in appointments from the ISDH was given to vaccination sites Friday. Each site may operate differently in regard to walkSEE VACCINE, PAGE 6
ETHAN MOORE | IDS
Top left Freshman Mohkm Singh lights candles before the Sikh Student Association’s vigil begins Sunday in front of the Sample Gates. A crowd of about 35 people attended the vigil. Bottom left Indiana State Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, holds up a battery operated candle during the Sikh Student Association’s vigil Sunday in front of the Sample Gates. “I wanted to extend to the Sikh community that my heart is broken,” Yoder said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Right Sophomore Taveen Saran speaks Sunday in front of the Sample Gates during a vigil for the victims of the Indianapolis FedEx shooting. The Sikh Student Association sponsored the event.
Sikh students decry hate at vigil By Wei Wang daviwang@iu.edu | @WeiWangDavid23
When IU freshman Mohkm Singh learned eight people were shot and killed in Indianapolis April 15, he immediately thought of gun violence, racism, and most of all, hate in the United States. “Four of them were my Sikh brethren,” he said. “Unfortunately, hate is something that exists far too much in our world.” About 30 people, mostly IU students, held candles up high to mourn the victims of the Indianapolis mass shooting Sunday evening at Sample Gates as a bouquet of orange flowers lay next to the cream and crimson tulips. The Sikh Student Association organized the vigil. A gunman identified by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department as Brandon Scott Hole killed eight people and injured five at the FedEx Ground Plainfield Operations Center be-
fore dying by suicide. This was the third mass shooting this year in Indianapolis and the deadliest in the city in at least 15 years. Four of the eight people killed were members of the local Sikh community, according to Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. The eight victims were: Matthew R. Alexander, 32, Samaria Blackwell, 19, Amarjeet Johal, 66, Jasvinder Kaur, 50, Jaswinder Singh, 68, Amarjit Sekhon, 48, Karli Smith, 19, and John Weisert, 74, according to an IMPD press release on April 16. The New York Times reported that three Sikh victims’ family and friends provided different spellings of names and ages for Amarjit Sekhon, 49, and Jaswinder Kaur Singh, 70. Ravleen Ahuja, co-president of the Sikh Student Association at IU, said the shooting brought “confusion, shock, trauma and anger.” “An attack on any mar-
ginalized community is gutwrenching and heartbreaking, and as a Sikh in Indiana, this event particularly hit close to home,” she said. Ahuja said members of the Sikh community must stay strong, speak out against hateful attacks and stay in “chardi kala,” or relentless and eternal optimism. “We hold the power to create a safe and productive space for our friends and family, a place that the victims of the shooting did not have, unfortunately,” she said. Attendees bowed their heads in silence after Ahuja read the eight victims’ names. SSA co-President Taveen Saran said the mass shooting underscores a pattern of violence against the Sikh community in the U.S., referencing the 2012 mass shooting in which a gunman killed six people in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
“I think hate creates a monster, and the accessibility to guns allows for that monster to act upon that hate and those feelings of bigotry and pure hatred towards others for no reason,” she said. SSA Freshman Representative Mohkm Singh said the root cause of gun violence in America is hate, something inherently inhuman. “The way to combat hate is through love, through revolutionary love,” Singh said, referencing the Revolutionary Love Project by Sikh-American activist Valarie Kaur. Indiana State Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, attended the vigil. She said there is much work to do to fight gun violence. “We need to do our jobs to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to combat gun violence,” she said. SSA Vice President Angad Singh said learning about the Indianapolis
shooting was a tough experience. He said he was confused how Hole could legally obtain the rifles he used in the mass shooting after police had confiscated his shotgun in 2020 and the FBI had interviewed him after discovering he had been browsing white supremacist websites on his computer. “We do need stricter laws,” he said. “A gun, it gives someone who has a lot of hate an easy method to kill a lot of people in a short amount of time.” Singh said he was 10 when the 2012 Sikh temple shooting took place and remembered feeling confused about why Sikhs were subjected to such violence. He said he now understands more about gun violence and hate. “I was confused by it and I couldn’t understand it, and now I fully understand what's going on,” he said. Ethan Moore contributed reporting.
Sikh students comment on Indy mass shooting By Swarna Gowtham sgowtham@iu.edu
On April 15, eight people were shot and killed at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis. Four of the individuals were Sikh people. According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 150 mass shootings have already occurred in 2021. Officials at the Indianapolis shooting speculate the incident to have been racially motivated. The shooting occurred during the week when Sikhs celebrate Vaisakhi, a holiday marking the birth of Sikhism as a faith. IU junior Ravleen Ahuja, who is co-president of
the Sikh Student Association, said she was shocked and confused when she first learned about the shooting. “My initial reaction was before I was upset or before I was angry, just shocked and confused as to what triggered this person to want to do that, why would they inflict such violence,” Ahuja said. According to its Instagram page, The Sikh Student Association was founded in 2019 as a space where Sikh students can feel welcome and safe. Ravleen was one of the founders of the association along with sophomore Taveen Saran, co-president of the
Sikh Student Association. “Some members of our community were just doing their daily routine,” Saran said. “It's just scary to know that they were just going into work or they're leaving work and then they were targeted and killed at their workplace.” This isn’t the first time there has been a violent attack against Sikhs in the U.S. In 2012, six people were shot and killed at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. “My sister and I were talking about how we didn't understand the whole concept of why someone would do this, but now that we're older we do understand and it's just truly
heartbreaking,” Saran said. The Sikh Coalition, a Sikh-American advocacy group, has received hundreds of reports of violence and discrimination against Sikh-Americans since 9/11, according to a factsheet written by the coalition. The FBI reported that from 2017 to 2018, hate crimes against Sikhs rose from 20 to 60 in the U.S. “Right now I'm really upset and it's a really horrible thing, especially because nothing is particularly being done about it,” Ahuja said. “There's nothing being done in terms of gun reform.” The Sikh Student Association and the Sikh stu-
dent community as a whole took some time to process and mourn, Ahuja said. The Sikh Student Association offered a vigil Sunday for the victims of the shooting. Saran said that the vigil wasn’t just for the Sikh victims but for the other victims who were injured or who had lost their lives. “This vigil is for everyone, so this is also for the entire state of Indiana that felt the same pain that we have felt because their fellow Hoosiers were brutally shot for no reason,” Saran said. Sikh senior Simran Darar said it’s important for SEE SHOOTING, PAGE 6