FRIDAY, DEC. 12, 2014
IDS
Freshman AnthonyWilkerson remembered as genuine, smart By Amanda Marino ammarino@indiana.edu | @amandamarino
INDIANA DAILY STUDENT | IDSNEWS.COM
COURTESY PHOTO
Anthony Wilkerson, a former IU student who was aiming to study biochemistry, passed away Nov. 20 in his hometown of Indianapolis.
Senior Elizabeth Haviland walked into Mother Bear’s to take a picture of some writing on the wall. She said she, along with her mother, Amy Davis and her brother, freshman Anthony Wilkerson, dined together at Mother Bear’s earlier this year. At the table, Wilkerson wrote his initials, AJW, and the year he enrolled at IU. She had written a reference to Wilkerson’s nickname, “Anfernie,” which stemmed from her being unable to pronounce Anthony when she was younger. Haviland said everybody called her brother Fernie, but she liked to use variations of it, like Fernace, Inferno and Fernesuela. “I love referring to him in weird ways,” she said, recanting stories of the brother she recently lost. She said those initials were important to her because they were something she could go and see, a piece of her brother still on campus. Anthony Wilkerson died Nov. 20. Despite that, Haviland said she and her family believe Wilkerson’s life is what was really important. Wilkerson was living in Read Residence Center with two suitemates and considering majoring in biochemistry, she said.
He was always very science-oriented and knew IU was a great research university, she said. “We both kind of had a similar mindset about going to IU,” Haviland said. Their father, Matt Davis, is a huge fan of IU, and it was both close enough to and far enough away from home, she said. Haviland said Wilkerson’s academic prospects were exciting to her since she is a biology major. Wilkerson used to tell Haviland he was going to cure cancer, something she said she fully believed he would be able to do. She said the loss of their grandmother to stage IV lung cancer in April had a major effect on Wilkerson, who was very close to her. “People always told me I was smart in high school, but I knew he was always so much smarter than me,” she said. On campus, Haviland said Wilkerson was outgoing and quick to make friends like he did in Chi Alpha, a Christian fellowship organization. She said he worked with several other men at retreats and on community service projects and loved it. At home in Indianapolis, he had four younger brothers, Taylor SEE WILKERSON, PAGE 2
IU grad, Pulitzer winner dies at 58 From IDS reports
IU alumnus and Pulitzer Prizewinning photojournalist Michel du Cille died at the age of 58. He was on assignment for the Washington Post when he collapsed after suffering an apparent heart attack, according to the Post. He recently covered the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Du Cille graduated from IU in 1985. He had since won three Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Columbia’s Nevado Del Ruiz volcano and crack cocaine addicts for the Miami Herald, and of treatment of wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the Washington Post. Du Cille visited IU on Jan. 22 to present to journalism students in a class about Pulitzer Prize winners. While at IU, du Cille served as photo editor of the Indiana Daily Student. “We are all heartbroken,” Martin Baron, executive editor at the Washington Post, said in a release. “We have lost a beloved colleague and one of the world’s most accomplished photographers.” Born in Kingston, Jamaica, du Cille had also worked for the Louisville Courier as an intern and for the Gainesville Times in Gainesville, Ga. in high school. He received his Master of Science in journalism from Ohio University.
NICOLE ROBINSON | IDS
Linton Mayor John Wilkes comforts Sparks in the final moments of the campaign. Twenty-six miuntes later, the race for the next House Representative for Distrcit 62 was called for Sparks’ opponent, Matt Ubelhor. The final vote tally was 41 percent for Sparks and 55 percent for Ublehor. The margin of defeat was greater this campaign than in Sparks’ previous challenge to Ubelhor two years earlier in the 2012 election.
Sparks, but no fire Principal runs for state representative to give teachers a voice By Tori Fater vrfater@indiana.edu | @vrfater
Emily Ernsberger
FOOTBALL
Coleman receives national honors From IDS reports
IU junior running back Tevin Coleman was named first-team AllAmerican by the Walter Camp Football Foundation, the organization announced Thursday. Coleman is IU’s first All-American since Antwaan Randle El in 2001. Anthony Thompson was a Hoosier the last time IU had a member on the first team. The recipients of the award are selected by the head coaches and sports information directors of the 125 FBS schools each year. “Once again, we had more than 80 percent of the FBS schools participate in this year’s voting,” said James SEE COLEMAN, PAGE 6
Election Day is cold and rainy. The sky goes from overcast to drizzling to full pouring rain in Greene County as the last voters leave the polls. At the Linton, Ind., headquarters of District 62 statehouse candidate Jeff Sparks, supporters and family have gathered to wait for the election results. Campaign treasurer Terri Neighbors checks news sites for vote tallies on a borrowed laptop. Polls closed more than three hours ago and Sparks is restless, picking up empty soda bottles and cups and crossing the room to throw them out. He pulls at his neck while a volunteer speculates about votes in Monroe County. No update yet. His phone rings. Sparks answers to greet his campaign manager — “Hello, Jon” — and disappears around the corner into a dim storage room. He stands and listens, his reply inaudible over volunteers’ chatter. His back is to them, his profile just visible over his shoulder as he turns his head toward the phone. He hangs up and walks back into the brightly lit room. “Well, that’s it.” Sparks, principal of Linton-Stockton Junior High School, was one of a handful of educators in 2014 running as Democrats for state office to give teachers a louder voice in Indiana education policy. Since 2012, the Republican governor and Indiana General Assembly have pushed to expand a controversial voucher program that cost the state millions last school year, and created, by executive order, a state agency that appropriated some Department of Education funds and control of the State Board of Education.
“I kinda feel like I’m in a Peanuts cartoon and Lucy’s holding the ball,” said Sparks, whose opponent’s voting record doesn’t display support for public education funding. The Pence-created Center for Education and Career Innovation was dissolved this month, partly to dispel controversy over its perceived partisanship. In Indianapolis, State Superintendent of Education Glenda Ritz and Gov. Mike Pence fight for control of Indiana schools, a battle that’s reflected across the state and in Sparks’ home of Linton, Ind. In District 62, Sparks and Republican incumbent Matt Ubelhor competed for a Statehouse seat. Across the state, educators, lawyers and businessmen fought each other in the midterm elections for General Assembly votes and control of public education in Indiana. “I think a lot of people were making decisions that don’t know education at all,” Sparks said. “We need to listen to more people who know what’s going on in schools.” * * * Sparks gives up his weekends for the campaign, going to spaghetti dinner and pancake breakfast fundraisers all over the district. At a Hendricksville, Ind. chili cook-off two and a half weeks before the election, Sparks, Greene County Recorder incumbent Stuart Dowden and sheriff candidate Josh Goodman talk about surprises of campaigning, like how much money it takes to win. Ubelhor, the District 62 incumbent and Sparks’ opponent again this year, spent about $134,100 in the 2012 election, according to campaign finance reports. Sparks, an unknown, spent about $30,500. SEE SPARKS, PAGE 6
Election breakdown District 62 overview Indiana District 62 House districts Includes: Daviess, Greene, Martin and Monroe counties
Total number of residents: 65,143 49,797 Population 18 and older 15,346 Population under 18
How they voted: 9,429
7,038
685 Jeff Sparks (D) Ashley Qualkenbush (L) Matt Ubelhor (R) SOURCE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU AND IND. SECRETARY OF STATE GRAPHICS BY SYDNEY LIU | IDS