Thursday, December 10, 2020

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020

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How racism has affected one student, p. 7

Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

FOOTBALL

4 BFD workers test positive

By Alex Hardgrave

IU stops practice due to the virus

ahardgra@iu,edu | @a_hardgrave

By Evan Gerike egerike@iu.edu | @EvanGerike

Four additional Bloomington Fire Department employees have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, according to a press release from the city.

One employee started experiencing symptoms Dec. 2 and tested positive Dec. 5.

They had last worked Dec. 1.

The second employee felt sick Dec. 2 and received a positive result Dec. 6. The employee last worked Nov. 30. The third employee started having symptoms Dec. 4 and received a positive test the next day. They last worked Dec. 3.

The fourth employee started feeling symptoms Dec. 6 during their shift and went home. They were tested Dec. 7 and had a positive result.

The four employees were not identified as close contacts to one another, according to the release.

This marks nine total fire department employees and 40 total city employees who have tested positive since March.

Before this, the most recent positive case from the fire department was announced Dec.3.

People to shop local for holidays

By Mel Fronzcek

ETHAN LEVY | IDS

Tents set up Dec. 8 sit in Seminary Park at 100 W. Second Street.

Vote allows tents to stay

By Mel Fronzcek mfroncze@iu.edu | @melissafronczek

The Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners struck down a policy change that would have prohibited encampments on any city structure or property any time of the day without a permit.

About 230 people were on the Tuesday evening Zoom call at one point in the meeting. After almost two hours of public comments critical of the policy change and its effect on the homeless community — some from leaders of the Bloomington Homeless Coalition, Hotels for Homeless and Monroe County Affordable Housing Commission — the board voted 1-3 against it.

Board members Kathleen Mills, Ellen Rodkey and Israel Herrera voted no. Les Coyne was the sole member in favor of the change.

The policy that overnight encampments require a permit still stands, though.

At least three members of the public expressed support for the policy change

using Zoom’s chat function but didn’t make public comments. Throughout multiple messages, one of them cited concerns about safety and cleanliness and promoted the idea that homelessness is a choice.

The city administration and Parks and Recreation Department were also in favor of the policy change, stating in a press release that semipermanent structures “can limit and/or discourage access” to park properties for “a broad range of users.”

A public commenter by the screen name Eli disagreed with the idea that homeless encampments prevent people from going to the parks. He said he thinks people are more likely to go to Bryan Park, the Cedars Preserve, Griffy Lake or Monroe Lake for outdoor recreation, as opposed to Seminary Square Park where many homeless people congregate throughout the day.

“They’re not likely to go to a small strip of landscaping between College and Walnut just so they can take

in that glorious Kroger view,” Eli said.

Many community members said the policy change reflected leaders’ lack of empathy for homeless people.

“I’ve watched the city and its various institutional arms treat the homeless population in the most disrespectful and dehumanizing ways.”

Jerrett Alexander, Bloomington resident

“I’ve watched the city and its various institutional arms treat the homeless population in the most disrespectful and dehumanizing ways,” Bloomington resident Jerrett Alexander said in a public comment. “I’ve seen homeless people herded from one part to another as if they’re livestock in order to get them away from the university and as far away from the university and Kirkwood as possible.”

Forrest Gilmore is the executive director of Beacon, the parent organization for the Shalom Community Center day shelter and A Friend’s Place night shelter.

He said in a public comment that the policy change was an attempt to fight the poor rather than fighting the issue of poverty.

Multiple public commenters referenced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance on how to handle homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are,” reads one of the suggestions.

“Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.”

Bloomington resident Melanie Davis, who said SEE TENTS, PAGE 4

mfroncze@iu.edu | @melissafronczek

Many Bloomington residents are choosing to support locally owned or small businesses for their holiday shopping this year, a year that has been a challenging time for small businesses nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Erin Predmore, Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, said the retail, hospitality and food sectors have been most affected. She said small businesses don’t have the same financial resources and inventory that larger ones do to get through tough times.

Another benefit of supporting local businesses is the money stays local, going toward someone’s rent or local taxes, Predmore said.

The Chamber of Commerce website has a gift guide that lists local items by categories such as food, sports, holiday, “For the Has-Everything Already Friend” and “For Bringing Home a Bit of Bloomington.”

Predmore said she’s done some holiday shopping at the Book Corner and Global Gifts on the square.

Talia Halliday, owner of Gather handmade gift shop and Oak plant shop, said shopping has become a more personal experience.

“You know the people that made it, you know the reason why they made it,” she said of local handmade items. “We have become more and more reliant on Amazon, but we’re also becoming more and more aware about where our things are coming from.”

She said she thinks the pandemic has made many people realize the difference shopping locally can make, as people’s favorite restaurants and shops have closed permanently in the past few months.

SEE HOLIDAYS, PAGE 4

Dunkin' sees successful first day

By Kimberly Smith smithkii@iu.edu

Cars lined through the parking lot and wrapped around the corner waiting to order at the drive-thru Monday morning at the opening of Bloomington’s first Dunkin’ and BaskinRobbins location.

The store, located at 300 S. College Mall Road, remained busy on its opening day, with some customers showing up as early as 5:00 a.m. However, the wait times remained fairly short. By 10 a.m. there were roughly 30 people ordering inside and 40 cars in line for the drivethru outside, with some patrons waiting less than five minutes.

Himanshu Das, the location’s manager, said the store did well on its opening day.

“We have a rough estimate of 3,700 orders for the first day,” Das said.

Customers have the choice of going into the building to order or placing orders for pickup.

Dunkin’ is also partnered with all food delivery services.

The inside of the store is spacious and well-lit, with ample seating and room for social distancing. Pops of Dunkin’s signature orange and pink colors decorate the walls. The store is currently allowing indoor dining.

Multiple display cases show off donuts as well as ice cream, and patrons can order a variety of drinks.

The store includes two counters, allowing those who have ordered for pickup to quickly drop in

IU football paused all teamrelated activities due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, according to a press release.

The team did not practice Tuesday. Coaches, players and staff underwent additional testing.

Purdue paused activities early in the day Tuesday.

“The health and safety of our students, coaches and staff is paramount,” IU athletic director Scott Dolson said.

IU has not yet made a decision regarding Saturday’s game against Purdue.

Spring semester to have 3 days off

By Kyra Miller kymill@iu.edu | @KyraLeanne_

IU Provost Lauren Robel announced in an email Friday IU has added three wellness days to the spring semester.

Classes will not be held on Feb. 16, March 24 and April 22, according to the email.

IU will also not be in session on Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Classes will resume for the spring semester Jan. 19.

The change to the spring calendar comes after hearing testimony from many students about the difficulty of the fall semester without a fall break, according to the email. The new days off will not be added onto the end of the semester. These days were chosen to break up the in-person segment of the semester almost evenly, according to the email.

The days apply to both undergraduate and graduate students, IU spokesperson Chuck Carney said.

IU spring schedule School not in session Classes in person or online Classes online Wellness day

Feb. 16

March 24

ALEX DERYN | IDS

Top A Caramel Craze iced latte sits on a table Dec. 7 inside a Dunkin’ and Baskin Robbins in Bloomington. Dunkin’ had its opening day Monday and is located on the corner of Third Street and South College Mall Road.

Bottom A Dunkin’ customer walks towards the exit door with her order Dec. 7 inside the Dunkin’ and Baskin Robbins in Bloomington. Dunkin’ celebrated its opening day with a line stretching out the door with customers.

and pick up their orders without having to wait in a separate line.

Customers inside shared their excitement.

Customer Lindsey

Bromm described the new Dunkin’ location opening as a life-changing event.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire

April 22

life,” Bromm said. “I’ll be coming every morning.”

Trinity Brown, another patron at Dunkin’ SEE DUNKIN', PAGE 4

SOURCE FALL2020.IU.EDU GRAPHIC BY CARSON TERBUSH | IDS

Indiana Daily Student

2

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Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 idsnews.com

Editors Alex Hardgrave and Sara Kress news@idsnews.com

IU experts discuss new administration

By Luzane Draughon luzdraug@iu.edu | @luzdraughon

Four IU subject experts in environmental justice, manufacturing, health care and the Supreme Court discussed policy implications of a Biden-Harris administration during a virtual panel Monday night.

This panel was the second in a series hosted by the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Shahzeen Attari, associate professor in SPEA and energy and environmental justice expert, said the Biden administration will focus on implementing green energy. She said she thinks the administration needs to mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects.

“We really need to figure out how to make sure that the folks among us who have the least are taken care of when the climate impacts start,” she said.

“And they’ve already started, especially in the United States.”

IU student Kyle Seibert asked if President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to combat climate change will be enough.

Attari said Democrats have pushed Biden to create a greater sense of urgency around climate change throughout his campaign and election. However,

Biden’s plans may not be sufficient.

“Given we’ve not had much action on climate change, we really need extremely aggressive policies,” she said.

Attari said she thinks the country needs to rethink its entire system of addressing climate change because decarbonizing every sector of the country will not happen overnight. Conservatives and liberals agree on wanting the country to decarbonize by 2050, they just disagree on the pathways to reach that goal, she said.

“If we find pathways of getting there, then we actually have a shared vision for the future,” she said.

Tom Guevara, director of IU’s Public Policy Institute and manufacturing expert, said although Biden has not directly supported the Green New Deal, some action addressing climate change is better than none.

Guevara said manufacturing affects every area of life including environmental sustainability and combating the pandemic.

The United States has vulnerable supply chains and is dependent on foreign countries for pharmaceuticals such as vaccines, he said.

Guevara said the Biden administration will use administrative action to implement regulation poli-

cies, but other policies will require legislation to pass through Congress.

Beth Cate, clinical associate professor in SPEA and expert on the Supreme Court, said she does not believe Biden will try to pack or expand the Supreme Court. However, Biden has said he will appoint a bipartisan commission to give advice on reforming the court system, she said.

Cate said Biden’s appointments to fill vacancies on the lower federal courts will have a great impact as well.

“The Supreme Court only hears about 80 cases a year, and they’re important, but the vast majority of what gets done in the federal court system is done in the lower courts,” she said.

Kosali Simon, professor in SPEA and associate vice provost for health sciences, said the Biden administration has demonstrated that strengthening the Affordable Care Act is a priority and anticipates the administration addressing health disparities.

IU student Lizi Strawn asked what the Biden-Harris administration will do to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I would expect the Biden-Harris administration to be considerably more sensitive to the interests and the rights and the

MCCSC moves to phase red

By Helen Rummel hrummel@iu.edu | @HelenRummel

LUZANE DRAUGHON | IDS

A screenshot from a panel discussing policy implications of a Biden-Harris administration Dec. 7 over Zoom. This panel was the second in a series hosted by the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

needs of the LGBTQ+ community than the outgoing Trump administration has been,” Cate said.

Cate said she does not anticipate the Supreme Court reversing its previous decision on constitutional access to same-sex marriage. However, the court may try to create space for religious institutions to object same-sex marriage in other ways, such as denying foster care placement to those couples, she said.

IU student Maddy Horne asked how the Biden administration will deal with issues such as police brutality or other issues that may present themselves in the future.

Cate said lower courts may be inclined to examine qualified immunity for police officers. According to the Legal Information Institute, qualified immu-

nity protects a government official from lawsuits, only allowing suits where there was a clear violation of statutory or constitutional rights.

Simon and Attari agreed after the pandemic is under control, the country may face many emergencies and layered problems at once. The administration has to be prepared to appoint new departments to deal with those emergencies, they said.

Guevara said Biden and future presidents will need to address climate change and its effects as well as social and economic justice.

“I think that unfortunately it’s going to create instability in a lot of places around the world that, right now, we’re not in a very good position to deal with,” he said. “Particularly because of the last four years.”

The Monroe County Community School Corporation will move to phase red on Wednesday, according to a tweet from the district Monday. Students were asked to bring all learning materials home Tuesday.

Classes will continue virtually for the remainder of the year. Certain programs may vary in their learning phase depending on their needs, according to the learning status metrics determination.

Over the past week, the district has recorded around 16 COVID-19 cases among students attending in person.

This is roughly 14% of the total COVID-19 cases recorded among in-person students this semester.

The announcement comes after the district moved into phase yellow on Nov. 30, following Thanksgiving break.

After the change, middle and high school students were moved to a hybrid schedule between virtual and in-person classes. Pre-K-6 students have been attending school in person and will do so until Wednesday.

The Metrics Committee will meet over winter break to provide input on the learning phase following the break.

Homeless Coalition strives to help unhoused population

By Phyllis Cha cha1@iu.edu | @phyllischa

Bloomington Homeless Coalition was founded in early August by Bloomington resident Harry Collins to help the unhoused population in Bloomington.

The coalition is different from other resources for people experiencing homelessness because it focuses on collaboration between the unhoused population and those who want to help, Collins said.

“I am a founder and leader of it, and I’m still homeless. I’m still out here in the tents,” Collins said.

He said places such as the Shalom Community Center and Wheeler Mission may work to help those who are unhoused, but many of the people employed there may not have experienced homelessness. Conditions change constantly for people living on the streets, Collins said.

Without firsthand knowledge it may be hard to see what people experiencing homelessness really need, he said.

Goals of Bloomington Homeless Coalition The short-term goals of the coalition are to provide people experiencing homelessness with resources such as jackets and food, board member Marc Teller said. Bloomington Homeless Coalition makes these resources more accessible by taking them directly to the person in need, Teller said.

“So you don’t have to go to some brick and mortar place, you don’t have to stand in line, which is always demeaning to them,” Teller said. “You’d think they’d have all day to just walk around, but these are people that still do work.”

Resources are also made more accessible by having a no-questions-asked policy, board member Janna Arthur said. Arthur said she estimates the coalition has received more than $10,000 in money and item donations.

The longer term goals of the Bloomington Homeless Coalition are to get people off the streets and into hous-

ing, Arthur said.

Teller said one of the most important goals of the coalition is working on helping people experiencing homelessness feel like they are a part of the community.

He said the first meeting he went to, he got the feeling that the unhoused population felt like they weren’t loved by the community.

“We’re also there to let them know you are loved,” Teller said. “Unconditionally, you’re a member of this community, and you’re a part of it, and you’re a big part of it.”

Arthur said the coalition has helped people start a conversation with those experiencing homelessness.

“People that may not have ever been around people experiencing homelessness are driving straight up to the cemetery and delivering meals, they’re delivering resources, they’re interacting with people,” Arthur said. “Because at the end of the day, we’re all just people.”

What started as Collins

and others posting flyers on the streets to start a conversation with the unhoused population has turned into an organization in the process of becoming a 501c3.

Arthur said IU Student Legal Services helped the coalition file the paperwork free of charge. Having the status of a nonprofit organization will help the coalition raise larger amounts of money to get people into housing, she said.

COVID-19’s effect on the unhoused population Collins said the pandemic has made it harder for people experiencing homelessness to find employment, especially when their competition is someone living in a house.

Teller said people also have an unfair perception of people experiencing homelessness who get COVID-19.

“For some reason when a homeless person gets the same disease that a housed person has, the homeless person is blamed for being dirty, or infecting others,

when they’re not going into restaurants, they’re not going to class,” he said.

In terms of resources, COVID-19 has made social service agencies less accessible for the unhoused population, Arthur said. If someone were to get COVID-19 at one of those agencies, they would have to close down to follow COVID-19 protocol, meaning people experiencing homelessness wouldn’t have access to the services.

The pandemic has led to more people experiencing homelessness for the first time, Arthur said, putting an additional strain on social services agencies. For the coalition, there seems to be a greater need for resources, she said.

“I can’t keep donations in stock,” Arthur said. “As soon as I get a carload of blankets and shoes and clothes, I drive to one of the places people hang and they take everything from the car.”

How to help As the season gets colder, the Bloomington Homeless Coalition is seeking donations to help those who are on the streets, Collins said. He said resources they need include blankets, tents, camping heaters, blankets and other necessities that will help those experiencing homelessness stay safe.

For anyone wanting to help, they can join the Bloomington Homeless Coalition’s Facebook group and reach out to a board member with resources or skills they have, Arthur said.

The coalition is also seeking people who can help deliver resources, give material or financial donations and help with computer assistance and research, Arthur said.

“People should give yearround but if anybody has anything right now, like we have people that are going to die right now this winter,” Arthur said. “So if people have, enough, if they could just give a little to people that don’t have anything that would be helpful.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren discusses student debt relief plan

By Madison Smalstig msmalsti@iu.edu | @madi_smals

Sen. Elizabeth Warren discussed her student loan debt relief plan and answered questions about the cost of education and college accessibility Monday afternoon during a virtual press event.

The plan, which she introduced with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, outlined how President-elect Joe Biden can cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers, Warren said. She and Schumer developed the plan because about 43 million Americans have a combined total of $1.5 trillion in federal student loan debt.

“For tens of millions of borrowers, student loan debt has become an impossible burden,” she said.

If Biden were to use this plan to cancel student debt, it would save borrowers an average of about $200-$300 each month, Warren said. This extra money and smaller debt load would encourage people to make bigger purchases and contribute more to the economy, she said.

“This is the single-most effective executive action available to boost our struggling economy,” she said.

Many Democrats’ goal is to have tuition-free college, and there are many different paths that different politicians have lined up to achieve that goal.

Warren wants families with a net worth of more than $50 million to pay a 2% tax on every dollar of their net worth and pay a 6% tax on every dollar above $1 billion. Warren said this tax would help pay for things such as universal pre-kindergarten in addition to tuition-free college.

However, the more short-term goal is lessening the financial burden

of college, so people can build real wealth sooner after leaving their university.

Warren said she saw many students suffering after entering the workforce following the 2008 financial crisis and sees many of them still struggling today.

She said she wants to help the students who are now possibly going into an even more strained job market so graduates hopefully do not run into those same problems.

“Our country owes it to you, to young people all across this nation, to deliver on the promise of opportunity and canceling student loan debt is one way we can do that,” she said.

Warren said cancellation of $50,000 in student

debt would completely get rid of student debt for about three out of four borrowers. Student loan debt disproportionately affects people of color. This action would help close the wealth gap between Black and white people by 25 percentage points and the Latinx wealth gap by about 27 percentage points, she said.

Warren said she is also pushing for more federal money to be invested in historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions.

In response to a student question, Warren also said one way the federal government can lessen the burden on students going

to college is to increase the funding for the Pell Grant, which is a grant awarded to students who show exceptional financial need. Warren also said she wants to raise the level of income at which people can receive the grant.

“Pell used to cover most of the cost of getting an education. Now, Pell covers an ever-shrinking amount of that,” she said. “It ought to cover more of the cost, and it ought to cover more families.”

Although this plan can help people who have already taken on student loan debt, Warren said there are many other steps that need to be taken in order to make sure education is helping students more

than hurting them.

Warren said one of these steps is getting a new Secretary of Education because Betsy DeVos focused more on supporting for-profit administrators and for-profit colleges than supporting students.

“It’s about having people at the Department of Education that are not putting corporations first but are putting our students first,” Warren said.

She said she believes students will not only receive more help financially but also receive support from the federal government regarding campus issues under Biden’s Secretary of Education. Biden has not yet selected someone for this position.

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Group protests for Billie Allen’s release

By Helen Rummel hrummel@iu.edu | @helenrummel

The crowd of around 30 people were surrounded by the names of the eight people executed by the federal government this year. Each name was drawn onto the sidewalk with chalk by those gathered for the public demonstration Friday in People’s Park in collaboration with the Free Billie Allen movement.

Starting at 3 p.m., demonstrators held signs saying “Free Billie Allen” and “Stop federal executions” in bold paint strokes. Sanitizing wipes were spread across tables and all attendees were wearing masks.

Billie Allen has been on federal death row for the past 23 years for armed robbery and the murder of a security guard, crimes he says he did not commit. Since then, he and his family have been sharing his story with others and calling for a retrial.

Patrick Saling, who helped plan the event with Zikra Fashir and the Eleanor Roosevelt Society, said the goal is to stop executions before more happen. For many of the people in attendance, these are not executions.

These are murders. Two more federal executions are scheduled to take place before the end of the year. Be-

fore this year, there had been no federal executions for the past 17 years.

“At the very least, you can be damn sure that we will give witness to the evil and to the murder that’s taking place in our state,” Saling said. “We will also be there to say that we’re not just coming together, we are staying together. We are in this until we are free.”

Junior Shems Al-Ubaidi attended the demonstration not only to call for the release of Allen, but for the end of all federal executions. She said the Trump administration had prioritized these executions over other current issues.

“Our taxes should be going to health care and education, not to kill people,” Al-Ubaidi said.

Billie’s sister, Yvette Allen, and family have been fighting for her brother’s freedom since his conviction. She was also in attendance at the event, driving from St. Louis, Missouri.

Orlando Hall, a close friend of Allen’s, was executed Nov. 19. Allen’s friends and family are afraid Allen’s execution could be announced next.

“To know that I wasn’t there to mourn with the families that have already had their young men stolen from them it breaks my heart,”

Saling said. “And I know it breaks y’all’s hearts.”

Saling and Fashir said it was important the group do more than empathize with those affected. Fashir emphasized how educating one another about these issues can empower imprisoned people.

“The most basic thing we can do in a society is care for those who are most vulnerable,” Fashir said. “Right now, the people on death row are the most vulnerable.”

Billie Allen called the group during the demonstration to thank those in attendance and share how he has been feeling about the movement in support of his release.

“I’ve been wondering why no one seems to listen,” Allen said over the phone from the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. “Just knowing you all are here to support me means the world to me.”

Donations can be made to help families affected by federal executions and death row through Venmo @ eveallen and on the group’s GoFundMe page. The movement will make its way to Indianapolis on Saturday to demonstrate at University Square at 11 a.m. Afterward, the group will travel together to the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute.

ETHAN LEVY | IDS

Patrick Saling speaks at a #FreeBillieAllen public demonstration Dec. 4 in People’s Park. Around 30 people attended the event.

DAVID WOLFE BENDER | IDS

A screenshot from the IU Student Government congress meeting Dec. 6 over Zoom. The IUSG congress has been meeting online all semester and will continue to do so for the time being.

IUSG plans for upcoming months

By David Wolfe Bender benderd@iu.edu |@dbenderpt

As many students leave campus until February, different facets of student life will move off campus. But for IU Student Government, not much will change.

The IUSG Congress has been meeting online all semester and will continue to be until further notice.

“We are going to still be meeting online,” Garrett Wright, speaker of IUSG Congress, said. “Of course, we’ll examine what happens over Christmas break.

We might meet, but I’m not sure, just because that’s not during the semester. We haven’t come to a final decision about that yet.”

IUSG President Rachel Aranyi said the executive team is continuing their work online as well.

“We’ve been using these online tools for a while now,” Aranyi said. “We’ve been conducting online cabinet meetings for the last few months. That won’t change.”

Aranyi said a lot of the executive committees have also been online rather than in person due to risks associated with COVID-19.

“A lot of the committees within exec have already been meeting online,” she said. “The interns were never all in Bloomington, so we’ve had virtual interns since the beginning. Not much will really be changing for exec.”

Aranyi said she wants ev-

eryone to know IUSG is still working despite this break.

“We’re continuing to work hard, and we want to hear from students,” Aranyi said. “We are continuing to fight for student needs. That will never change.”

The move off campus for many students doesn’t mean important issues won’t be discussed, Wright said. IUSG Congress will soon continue debate on some pressing issues.

“The biggest thing that seems to be in Congress right now is a constitutional resolution that was introduced at our last meeting,” Wright said. “The bill basically restructures the seating in Congress.”

The bill would add 31 seats to IUSG Congress’ current 62-seat body, a substantial increase. Similar legislation has been presented to the body before, but it has failed to garner enough support in prior sessions.

“The bill adds multicultural seats to Congress to represent historically underrepresentedor disadvantaged communities,” Wright said. “It would be appointed by apolitical student organizations, so they wouldn’t be elected.”

The bill was authored

by IUSG members Rebekah Amaya and Brian Hancock, and IU student Lindsey Batteast. The Committee on Government Oversight and Reform has jurisdiction over the bill.

“The current IUSG Con-

gress does not provide adequate representation for minority students, and this has been the state of affairs since its inception,” the bill states. “In hopes to ameliorate egregious disparities in representation, we bring forth this resolution to provide multicultural groups representation in Congress.”

Wright said he personally has not formed an opinion on the bill, but there are some parts of the bill that could concern members, such as the number of added seats proposed.

“There are a lot of things here that are concerning to some people,” he said. “This is not a cut and dry, pass it and move on type of bill.

A lot of people may be uncomfortable adding seats constitutionally for specific ethnic groups or minorities, not so much they don’t want them to have seats but more so because those are seats defined specifically for a race or culture. There are tokenization concerns.”

The bill is still early in the legis lative process and will likely hear debate over the next few months. Nevertheless, the standards for constitutional resolutions are intentionally high. It will require a two-thirds majority of IUSG Congress and a two-thirds vote of the student body’s voters to be enacted.

Editor’s note: Rebekah Amaya and Brian Hancock write for the IDS opinion desk.

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» DUNKIN'

» HOLIDAYS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

and an IU junior, shared Bromm's enthusiasm.

“I’m excited,” Brown said. “I think it’s a lot better than Starbucks and saves me a little bit of money.”

IU students will receive a 10% discount at the new Dunkin’ location, said Abbey Bobzin, an account executive for the Dunkin’ advertising agency Maclyn.

The new location originally offered a 10% discount to IU students and faculty for the month of December only, but has since extended the discount.

Students will now receive the discount for as long as the location is open, said the location’s Instagram account.

“10% off for all IU students… FOREVER!” The location said in an Instagram post.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “It’s really important for us to continue supporting our local businesses during this time all the time, but especially right now because we’re all in a very difficult position,” Halliday said. “Your actions and your shopping make a difference to these people.”

Many local businesses have started offering online shopping in recent months, Halliday said, so people can shop local in a more convenient, safe way. Some of her favorite local businesses include Goods for Cooks, Lola gift shop and Global Gifts.

Halliday said if people don’t have the money to do much holiday shopping, they can also support local businesses by sharing on social media and talking with friends about them.

Bloomington resident Stephanie Austin, 46, said she likes to gift chocolate truffles from The Olive Leaf, cook-

ware from Goods for Cooks, gift cards to local cafes and pet supplies for her 2-year-old terrier mix, Wilee Surefoot, from Mad 4 My Dogs or Pawsome Pets.

“I swear by my local businesses,” Austin said. “I can walk into a local business that I’ve shopped at for a while and they say, ‘Hi, Stephanie,’ and if I’m with my dog they say, ‘Hi, Wilee.’ It's more personal.”

She said she likes to avoid Kroger, Walmart and other big companies as much as possible. Local businesses seem more in tune with Bloomington issues, she said, and she appreciates that many give back to local nonprofits such as the Boys & Girls Clubs.

IU human biology senior Jordyn Vowels-Duce said she likes to shop at T&T Pet Food & Supply instead of Petco or PetSmart because she prefers buying the higher quality food available and likes that the store helps get stray cats get adopted.

“I prefer to try and support

companies that are willing to really give back,” she said.

Vowels-Duce also plans on getting toys for her cat Jabba and dog Scallion. Jabba likes mouse toys and anything dangly and shiny, and Scallion loves stuffed animals.

Gather gift shop is another place Vowels-Duce said she might shop for gifts. She said it would be a good place to look for smaller gifts for someone who likes art. Vowels-Duce said she likes that the shop’s website has filters for queer-owned or Blackowned brands’ products.

“There is a certain privilege to being straight, cisgender and white,” she said.

“While I would never stop myself from buying items from someone who has these qualities, I do like to know who I am buying from when I can. I know that Black and queer people have a harder time establishing businesses because of prejudices that are held in society, so I want to try to counteract that if I can.”

» TENTS

them,” she said. “I want everyone here to remember that we’re all a lot closer to being homeless than we are to being rich.”

Many public commenters used the words “villainous,” “immoral” or “cruel” to describe the policy change.

“I’m just really ashamed that this is even up for debate, it almost feels like a ‘Parks and Rec’ episode,” Bloomington resident Savannah Pearlman said. “If it weren’t so tragic it would be laughable.”

Some said rejecting the policy change was the least the board could do.

“I think it’s time to think about the next step, and that next step is explicitly allowing tents in our parks, maybe only temporarily, maybe only until we come up with some other resources, but certainly right now,” community member Martin Law said.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 she previously experienced homelessness in Indianapolis, said Bloomington’s response to homelessness has been lacking no matter the time of the year.

“This isn’t about just the time of the pandemic, this isn’t about just winter or Christmas,” Davis said. “This is a question of responsibility to our fellow citizens.”

A few community members spoke about Ian Stark, a homeless man who was found dead in an apartment complex stairwell in December of 2013, according to the Herald-Times.

Alessia Modjarrad, College Democrats of Indiana president, said she notices an “us versus them” dichotomy in discussions about homelessness.

“We’re acting as though they are some piece of dirt on our beautiful little town and that they are other, and they’re not us and they're

Editor's note: Jerrett Alexander has previously worked for the IDS opinion desk.

Connect with members of many diverse faiths at idsnews.com/religious Paid Advertising

Non-Denominational

Quaker Bloomington Friends Meeting

H2O Church Fine Arts Building, Room 015 812-955-0451

h2oindiana.org facebook.com/h2ochurchiu/ @h2ochurchiu on Instagram and Twitter Sundays: 11:01 a.m.

Small Groups: Small group communities meet throughout the week (see website for details) H2O Church is a local church especially for the IU camus community to hear the Good News (Gospel) about Jesus Christ. We are a church mostly composed of students and together we're learning how to be followers of Jesus, embrace the Gospel and make it relate to every area of our lives.

Kevin Cody, Pastor

City Church For All Nations 1200 N. Russell Rd. 812-336-5958

citychurchbloomington.org facebook.com/citychurchbtown/ @citychurchbtown on Instagram Sunday Services: 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

Mon. - Thu.: 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

City Church is a multicultural, multigenerational, and nondenominational Christian Church. In addition to our contemporary worship experiences on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m., we also have a college ministry that meets on Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. We would love to welcome you into our community.

David Norris, Senior Pastor Lymari and Tony Navarro, College ministry leaders

High Rock Church 3124 Canterbury Ct. 812-323-3333

highrock-church.com Facebook: highrockchurch Instagram: highrockbtown

We are currently meeting

by Zoom only; email us at bloomington.friends.website@gmail.com to request our Zoom link. fgcquaker.org/cloud/bloomingtonmonthly-meeting Facebook: Bloomington Friends Meeting Sunday: 9:50 a.m. Hymn singing 10:30 a.m. Meeting for worship 10:45 a.m. Sunday School (Children join in worship from 10:30-10:45) 11:30 a.m. Fellowship after Meeting for Worship 12:15 p.m. Often there is a second hour activity (see website) Wednesday (midweek meeting): 9:00 a.m. Meeting for worship 9:30 a.m. Fellowship after Meeting for Worship

Our religious services consistof silent centering worship interspersed with spoken messages that arise from deeply felt inspiration. We are an inclusive community, a result of avoiding creeds, so we enjoy a rich diversity of belief. We are actively involved in peace action, social justice causes, and environmental concerns.

Inter-Denominational Redeemer Community Church 111 S. Kimble Dr. 812-269-8975

redeemerbloomington.org facebook.com/RedeemerBtown @RedeemerBtown on Instagram and Twitter Sunday: 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

Scott Joseph, Lead Pastor

West Second St. Church of Christ 825 W. Second St. 812-332-0501

facebook.com/w2coc

John Myers, Preacher

Unitarian Universalist Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington 2120 N. Fee Lane 812-332-3695

uublomington.org facebook.com/uubloomington Sundays (currently): 10:15 a.m. via livestream Sundays (when in person): 9:15 a.m. & 11:15 a.m.

We are a dynamic congregation working towards a more just world through social justice. We draw inspiration from world religions and diverse spiritual traditions.

Our vision is "Seeking the Spirit, Building Community, Changing the World."

A LGBTQA+ Welcoming Congregation and a certified Green Sanctuary.

1413 E. 17th St. 812-339-5561 • hoosiercatholic.org

Facebook: Hoosiercatholic Twitter: @hoosiercatholic Weekend Mass Times Saturday Vigil: 4:30 p.m.

Sunday: 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. (Spanish), 5:30 p.m., 9 p.m. (During Academic Year) Korean Mass 1st & 3rd Saturdays, 6 p.m.

Episcopal (Anglican) Canterbury House Episcopal (Anglican) Campus Ministry at IU 719 E. Seventh St. 812-334-7971 • 812-361-7954

ecm.so.indiana.edu twitter.com/ECMatIU • facebook.com/ECMatIU @ECMatIU on Instagram

Sundays: 4 p.m. Holy Eucharist with hymns followed by dinner

Weekday Mass Times Monday - Saturday: 12:15 p.m.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Thursday: 9 p.m.

Bible Studies and Music Services: See our Social Media

Independent Baptist

Director of Campus Ministry Rev. Dennis Woerter, O.P. Associate Pastor Rev. Reginald Wolford, O.P., Associate Pastor

Ricardo Bello-Gomez, President of the Board Corrine Miller, President of the student organization

Lifeway Baptist Church 7821 W. State Road 46 812-876-6072 • lifewaybaptistchurch.org

Facebook: LifewayEllettsville College & Career Sunday Meeting: 9 a.m.

Sunday

Sunday Worship: 10 a.m. & 6 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study: 7 p.m.

Lifeway Baptist Church exists to bring glory to God by making disciples, maturing believers and multiplying ministry. Matthew 28:19-20

Barnabas Christian Ministry Small Groups: Cedar Hall 2nd Floor Common Area, 7 - 8 p.m., meetings start Thursday, Sept. 5.

We will meet every other Thursday during the school year.

Steven VonBokern, Senior Pastor Rosh Dhanawade, IU Coordinator 302-561-0108, barnabas@indiana.edu barnabas.so.indiana.edu * Free transportation provided. Please call if you need a ride to church.

Lutheran (LCMS) University Lutheran Church & Student Center 607 E. 7th St. 812-336-5387

indianalutheran.com facebook.com/ULutheranIU Instagram: @uluindiana Sunday: Bible Class 9:15 a.m.

Divine Service 10:30 a.m.

Tuesday & Friday: Morning Prayer 8 a.m.

Wednesday: Midweek Service 7 p.m.

LCMSU Student Fellowship 7:30 p.m.

Thursday: Grad/Career Study & Fellowship 7:30 p.m.

University Lutheran is the home LCMSU at Indiana. Our on-campus location creates a hub for genuine Christ-centered community that receives God's gifts of life, salvation and the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.

"We Witness, We Serve, We Love."

Rev Richard Woelmer, Campus Pastor

Reverend Mary Ann Macklin, Senior Minister Reverend Emily Manvel Leite, Minister of Religious Education and Congregational Life

Catholic St. Paul Catholic Center

Jason Pak, Pastor

Rev. Patrick Hyde, O.P., Administrator and

Wednesday Bible Study: 7:00 p.m.

We use no book, but the Bible. We have no creed, but His Word within its sacred pages.

God is love and as such we wish to share this joy with you. The comprehensive teaching of God's Word can change you forever.

Sunday: 10:30 a.m.

Friday: 7 p.m.

Saturday: 6 a.m.

Chris Jones, Lead Pastor

Sunday Bible Study: 9:30 a.m.

Sunday Worship: 10:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

5019 N. Lakeview Dr. 812-327-7428 mybkbc.org facebook.com/mybkbc/

Praise the Lord! Do you need a True Friend? Come and worship the almighty God together with us on Sunday, Fellowship included. We are a Korean community seeking God and serving people.

Students and newcomers are especially welcome.

We aspire to offer a safe and welcoming home for all people. We are a blend of people of different ages, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and countries; we are students, faculty, staff and friends. We pray, worship and proclaim the Gospel.

We also promote justice, equality, inclusion, peace, love, critical thinking and acting as agents of change in our world.

Redeemer is a gospel-centered community on mission. Our vision is to see the gospel of Jesus Christ transform everything: our lives, our church, our city, and our world. We want to be instruments of gospel change in Bloomington and beyond.

Sunday: 11 a.m.

We are a Bible-based, non-denominational Christian church. We are multi-ethnic and multi-generational, made up of students and professionals, singles, married couples, and families. Our Sunday service is casual and friendly with meaningful worship music, applicable teaching from the Bible, and a fun kids program.

Bloomington Korean Baptist Church

3820 Moores Pike 812-336-4581

Check

St. Paul Catholic Center is a diverse community rooted in the saving compassion of Jesus Christ, energized by His Sacraments, and nourished by the liturgical life of His Church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Latter-day Saint Student Association (L.D.S.S.A.) 333 S. Highland Ave. 812-334-3432

myinstitute.churchofjesuschrist.org Facebook: Bloomington Institute and YSA Society Currently restricted hours: Wed nights for class, 6:50 p.m. to 8:40 p.m.

(Subject to change based on COVID-19 developments) The Insistute building is a place to gather on campus for a break from academic rigors.

Small library for quiet study, kitchen area for snacks and eating lunch, room to socialize, come play pool, ping pong or foosball. Games and puzzles available as well. A place to feel spiritually recharged and learn more about the Savior, Jesus Christ. Parking available when enrolled and attending a class. Church meets 11:30 on Sundays, at 2411 E. Second Street.

David Foley, Institute Director Lyn Anderson, Administrative Assistant David Baer, YSA Branch President

Southern Baptist Bloomington Korean Baptist Church 5019 N. Lakeview Dr. 812-327-7428

mybkbc.org facebook.com/mybkbc/ Sunday: 10:30 a.m.

Friday: 7 p.m.

Saturday: 6 a.m.

Praise the Lord! Do you need a True Friend?

Come and worship the almighty God together with us on Sunday, Fellowship included. We are a Korean community seeking God and serving people. Students and newcomers are especially welcome.

Mennonite Mennonite Fellowship of Bloomington 2420 E. Third St. 812-646-2441 bloomingtonmenno.org • Facebook

Sunday: 5 p.m.

A welcoming, inclusive congregation providing a place of healing and hope as we journey together in the Spirit of Christ. Gathering for worship Sundays 5 p.m. in the Roger Williams room, First United Church. As people of God's peace, we seek to embody the Kingdom of God. John Sauder mfbjohn@gmail.com

United Methodist Jubilee 219 E. Fourth St. 812-332-6396

jubileebloomington.org Instagram: @jubileebloomington Twitter: @jubileebloom facebook.com/fumcbloomington 10 a.m. Sundays: Classic Worship via Youtube Live 11:15 a.m. Sundays: Interactive Bible Study via Zoom 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays: Virtual + InPerson Meeting at First Methodist Jubilee is a Chrust-centered community open to all people. We offer both virtual and in-person community events on Wednesdays for a free meal, discussion, worship and hanging out. Small groups, service projects, and events are all a significant part of our rhythm of doing life together and avoiding isolation.

Email: jubilee@fumcb.org Markus Dickinson, Campus Director

Jason Pak, Pastor

the IDS every Thursday for your directory of local religious services, or go online anytime at idsnews.com/religious For membership in the Indiana Daily Student Religious Directory, please contact ads@idsnews.com.

Your deadline for next week’s Religious Directory is 5 p.m. Monday.

Indiana Daily Student

OPINION

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 idsnews.com

Editors Kyle Linder and Allyson McBride opinion@idsnews.com

5

BRENNER BEING BLUNT

Joe Biden needs to implement better immigration policies this time around JP Brenner (he/him) is a senior in political science and geography.

As the Trump administration finally starts to cooperate more with the transition process, it’s time to seriously think about what a Joe Biden presidency means for immigration policy.

Looking back to the Obama-Biden years, the White House left a mixed legacy on immigration policy.

In June 2012, the Department of Homeland Security announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. While multiple criteria had to be met to qualify, this Obama administration initiative garnered protection from deportation for more than 800,000 migrants brought to the U.S. before the age of 16.

However, even though recipients could get work authorization and identification from DACA, according to the DHS memo, “deferred action does not confer lawful status upon an individual.” DACA failed to provide a pathway to citizenship, leaving Dreamers vulnerable for repeated Trumpian attacks on their limbo-like legal status.

The Obama-Biden administration also shifted immigration enforcement priorities. The executive branch made a point to gear enforcement toward criminal threats to the country instead of those deemed to be “easy targets.” Former

President Barack Obama effectively terminated the workplace raid practice used under the Bush administration.

That being said, Obama deported more people than any other president in U.S. history, removing more than 2.7 million people from the country. Immigrant rights activists labeled him “deporter-in-chief” and called him out for failing to hold true to his campaign promise of immigration reform.

To make matters worse, during the eight years Obama and Biden were in the White House, there was a huge influx in Central American refugees. Instead of viewing this increased displacement as a humanitarian concern and expanding asylum and legal protections, the administration rushed removal hearings, refused to take cases seriously and provided little to no legal assistance in navigating the archaic asylum framework.

Biden now has a chance to follow up on his past administration’s shortcomings. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris may provide the needed sway to enact more progressive migrant protection.

Harris often broke rank with the Obama administration over deportations and has been a leading voice in the Senate opposing Trump’s xenophobic immigration policies. But Harris doesn’t have a perfect record on immigration. As at-

torney general in California, she supported a San Francisco policy that facilitated the transfer and deportation of young people.

Biden and Harris outlined a plan for “securing our values as a nation of immigrants” on their campaign website. The major focus of the proposal is to reverse Trump’s damage. Biden has already announced the creation of a task force to reunite the families still separated at the border by the Trump administration, a situation that did in fact occur under Obama and Biden, but with less intentionality and frequency.

The Biden-Harris plan also vows to modernize immigration infrastructure, welcome immigrants, recommit to the asylum system and tackle the root causes of irregular migration.

These are all actions that must be taken to move in a more welcoming direction.

However, even after all these steps, the nation would be right back where it was under Obama. And as we’ve seen earlier, there are a lot of flaws with this position.

Biden and Harris must do more to ensure the protection of the undocumented living in fear of deportation.

“The work is not done,” said Evelyn Sanchez, copresident of Latinos Unidos at IU. Biden is not a lifesaver.

Immigrant activists need to continue to make their voic-

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

A guard watches inmates fold clothes at the ICE detention center April 23, 2015, in Bakersfield, California.

es loud, continue to fight for equal protection and reception into their communities.

Kiki Lin, an immigrant case worker and former Integration Programs intern for the National Immigration Forum in Washington D.C., said she believes the Biden team needs to first address immigration in the context of the pandemic. It only makes sense to halt removal proceedings in order

to limit the spread of COVID-19.

“People shouldn’t be leaving during the pandemic,” Lin said.

If Biden and Harris really cherish our nation of immigrants, then they would work to provide citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented people living in the country. Doing so would not only provide a seismic boost to the econ-

omy, but it would also validate the longstanding vision that paints the U.S. as a land of opportunity, open to be enjoyed by anyone.

It is imperative as Americans that we hold this next administration accountable for the fate of the millions of migrants who help define the soul of the nation. The world is watching. jpbrenn@iu.edu

MAGGIE’S MUSINGS

Your morning coffee runs could be exposing you and others to COVID-19

IDS FILE PHOTO

The Starbucks on Indiana Avenue, a popular place for students to pick up coffee or a snack, closed at least once this semester due to COVID-19 cases.

Maggie Mulligan (she/her) is a sophomore in recreational therapy and theater.

Starbucks is a beloved study spot for IU students.

With delicious coffee and a typically tame atmosphere, it’s the perfect place to disappear into a final review guide.

Even though there are new

COVID-19 guidelines, they might not be genuinely keeping their customers and employees safe.

Starbucks receives dozens of orders a minute from the drive-thru, walk-ins and now GrubHub orders. The workers are constantly moving from order to order without much downtime.

“We are so busy and understaffed,” said Sam Foster, a Bloomington Starbucks worker. “We don’t have someone to watch positions allowing people to even go wash their hands.”

Although encouraged to wash their hands and sanitize, employees are moving so quickly that it is often over-

looked. Not to mention the tiny space behind the counter is not near big enough to social distance.

Starbucks does require its customers to wear a mask.

Some customers are impatient to drink their morning coffee before work or school and forget or ignore this requirement.

“We still have customers that lower their masks to talk to us and those who will touch our hands in the drivethru. They will reach around barriers to touch made drinks that aren’t theirs and stand super close to the bar while we are making them,” Foster said.

Multiple locations across Bloomington didn’t even provide face masks to their employees right away and made them use coffee filters and plastic wrap as masks.

Some employees were forced to make extra masks out of aprons.

Starbucks implemented these COVID-19 guidelines just for show. By overworking their employees and only implementing weak policies, it is hard to believe they genuinely care about keeping everyone involved in the franchise COVID-19 free.

This would not be the first time Starbucks changed protocol throughout the franchise to appeal to the public.

When the Black Lives Matter movement had more protests over the summer, the employees at Starbucks were not allowed to show their alliance.

“We weren’t allowed to wear BLM attire when the protests were first starting, claiming it was against the dress code. After receiving backlash online, they allowed us to wear it and even paid to have shirts made,” Foster said.

If Starbucks received the same backlash online about their COVID-19 precautions, would they be willing to put money into making a safer environment for their workers and billions of customers?

“This format is just really hard to maintain, and when large crowds of people start collecting waiting on their mobile order and cafe orders during rushes, it is highly unsafe, and it makes us even more stressed,” Foster said.

Instead of going to large coffee chains, supporting local Bloomington coffee shops would be a safer alternative. As exciting as the new Dunkin’ opening is, keeping in mind how little another billion-dollar company cares about its community should be a warning to all of those rushing to get in the drive-thru line. maggmull@iu.edu

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Here’s why students deserve guaranteed multicultural seats in IUSG Madeline Dederichs and Lindsey Batteast are members of The Rainbow Coalition at IU.

In the next two weeks, the IU Student Government Congress may bring to the floor two bills that will address multicultural representation.

Constitutional Resolution No. 1 and Bylaws Amendment Bill No. 1007, co-authored by Rebekah Amaya, Brian Hancock and Lindsey Batteast, will allow for the entry of historically marginalized voices into IUSG’s Congress. The frameworks for these legislative proposals were constructed through insight gained in a monthslong process of collective meetings with con-

cerned students from multicultural organizations such as Black Student Union, Latinos Unidos at IU, Asian American Association at IU, Muslim Student Association, Women of Color Leadership Institute and more.

This is not the first time IUSG’s Congress has considered similar bills guaranteeing seats for underrepresented students. Members of Congress in both 2009 and this past summer session introduced legislation that would have put IUSG in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — Title 52 U.S.C. Section 10304(b).

However, the 2009 bill failed, and this past summer’s amendment never made it out of committee for a vote.

The current academic

and residential voting blocs in IUSG have minimized the voices of students from underrepresented backgrounds through the minority voter dilution techniques of cracking and stacking. The former being a division of minority voices among different constituencies, and the latter a device to dilute a relatively large group of minority students within an even greater white student population center.

On top of that, only greek organizations belonging to the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Association are given representation. The Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council are not.

This — at its base — is dis-

criminatory.

Growing support from members of IUSG’s new congressional coalition ReImagineIU and the Rainbow Coalition at IU have resurrected this effort. The bills are now in a joint committee between the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Oversight committees for review.

Despite these two amendments being widely celebrated by diverse campus communities as a tangible diversity, equity and inclusion effort to constructively transform the student government, IUSG has been slow to get on board.

Everyone should be concerned about the current apportionment of seats minimizing the importance of marginalized students’

voices. The standing policies directly go against the IU community’s principles and values of diversity, equity and inclusion.

A letter of endorsement supporting the unanimous passage of the two bills encourages the general public, alumni, faculty, staff and students to sign on in favor of adding 31 voting congressional seats apportioned specifically to represent 11 different multicultural and underrepresented constituencies.

These additional seats will not tokenize underrepresented students. These prospective congressional seats will create space for standing collective bodies such as the Black Student Union, Latinos Unidos at IU, Crossroads at

IU or Filipino Student Association to send representatives to Congress. They will voice the concerns of organizations and students already integral to the elevation of marginalized students’ perspectives and experiences on campus.

It is time for IUSG to move past its historical precedent of exclusion and inequity by guaranteeing adequate representation for students from a diverse body of underrepresented backgrounds in its legislative processes. Please consider signing this letter of endorsement and attending IUSG Congress meetings at 7:30 p.m. on Monday to voice support. mdederic@iu.edu lnbattea@iu.edu

LETTER TO THE EDITOR POLICY The IDS encourages and accepts letters to be printed from IU students, faculty and staff and the public.

Letters should not exceed 400 words and may be edited for length and style. Submissions must include the person’s name, address and telephone number for verification.

Letters without those requirements will not be considered for publication.

Letters can be mailed or dropped off at the IDS, 6011 E. Kirkwood Ave. Bloomington, IN 47405.

Send submissions via email to letters@idsnews.com.

Call the IDS with questions at 812-855-5899.

Indiana Daily Student

6

SPORTS

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 idsnews.com

Editor Caleb Coffman sports@idsnews.com

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

FOOTBALL

IU blows late lead in loss to Kentucky

By Audrey Hausberger auhaus@iu.edu | @AudreyHausberg1

No. 13 IU women’s basketball will head back to Bloomington with a lot of “what ifs” after a 72-68 loss against No. 11 University of Kentucky at Memorial Coliseum on Sunday night.

IU controlled the first half, but head coach Teri Moren said there was not enough stability in the Hoosiers’ game.

“We were not consistent enough,” Moren said. “We need to be aggressive for 40 minutes, and we didn’t do that.”

The Hoosiers started the game off strong, ending the first quarter on a 12-0 run following five turnovers from the Wildcats. Kentucky’s star junior guard Rhyne Howard ran into foul trouble early in the quarter, but IU wasn’t able to take full advantage as senior guards Ali Patberg and Jaelynn Penn shortly followed suit getting into foul trouble of their own.

While all three guards faced had to be mindful of their fouls for the remainder of the game, they continued playing for significant minutes for both teams.

“You lean on your wisdom of trusting your kids,” Moren said about keeping Patberg and Penn in. “Ali, she is somebody who knows she has to be on the floor for us. Jaelynn, the same thing. I give them credit for being able to not foul out. That was the challenge, to stay in the game.”

Hoosiers named Big Ten players of the week

By D.J. Fezler djfezler@iu.edu | @DJFezler

PHOTO COURTESY OF IU ATHLETICS

Sophomore Mackenzie Holmes fights for a rebound Dec. 6 against the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. IU lost 68-72.

72-68 The Hoosiers carried the momentum into the second quarter with Penn scoring a team high of 11 points, and junior forward Aleksa Gulbe grabbed a team high of eight rebounds in the first half. The Hoosiers led 36-23 going into halftime.

In the second half, IU’s struggles came to the forefront while Kentucky slowly chipped away at the lead, slowly building momentum and finding

the energy they seemingly lacked in the first half.

The fourth quarter began instantly with both Howard and Patberg picking up their fourth personal fouls. Soon after, junior guard Danielle Patterson was called for a charge, turning the ball over to the Wildcats who proceeded to cut IU’s lead to six points.

Down the stretch, the Hoosiers lost their offensive touch, unable to make a shot as Kentucky closed out the last six minutes on a 17-2 run.

With less than two minutes left, IU was called for a five-second violation on the inbounds, giving the ball back to Kentucky. “[It was a] huge momentum turner,” Moren said. “It gave them life.

It gave them energy. It gave them momentum.

I am disappointed and by all accounts that is inexcusable to not be able to get the ball in.”

Following the turnover, the Wildcats took the lead after Berger fouled Kentucky sophomore forward Dre’una Edwards, sending her to the

free-throw line where she sunk both shots.

The Hoosiers were never able to recover as Berger later fouled out with four seconds remaining, allowing the Wildcats to seal the win with two final free throws.

“As much as I wanted to come out and play sound and solid for 40 [minutes] tonight, that just did not happen,” Moren said. “We struggled from the outside.

I am very disappointed in us defensively in the second half because that is not who we are.”

Following IU football’s 14-6 victory over No. 16 Wisconsin on Dec. 5 in Madison, two Hoosiers were recognized Monday by the Big Ten for their performances.

Junior linebacker Micah McFadden was honored as the Big Ten Defensive Player of the week after tying a careerhigh two sacks and recorded a team-high nine tackles against the Badgers. He led an IU defense that held Wisconsin to its lowest point total against the program since 1992.

McFadden claimed the first Defensive Player of the Week honor of his career.

He was also named the Walter Camp Foundation National Defensive Player of the Week on Sunday for his performance.

Graduate punter Haydon Whitehead was also honored as the Big Ten Co-Special Teams Player of the Week, alongside Ohio State senior punter Drue Chrisman. Four of Whitehead’s punts were downed inside the Wisconsin 20-yard line, including two inside the 10.

Whitehead placed a punt at the 1-yard line and did not allow Wisconsin to return any punts. He totaled five punts for 201 yards and 40.2 yards per punt.

It’s also the first time in his career that Whitehead has been named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week.

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Physicians

Chiropractic

Precision Eye Group specializes in comprehensive vision health. We offer examinations and treatment for a wide array of eye diseases, conditions, and problems, with advanced diagnostic and vision care technologies. We help our patients achieve and maintain good eye health for life. You can shop our wide variety of designer frames including Lindberg, Lafont, Ray-Ban, Tom Ford, Maui Jim, Oliver Peoples and many more! Schedule your appointment now, by calling the office or online at our website, and see your world with the best vision possible. Now providing care in both the Bloomington and Bedford communities!

Oral/Dental Care

Smile Doctors is offering COMPLEMENTARY consultations for children, teens and adults. Our Orthodontists offer braces and Invisalign®. Visit Smile Doctors and you’ll see how we make you Smile Happy from start to finish.

Mention seeing us in the IDS directory for a special discount.

Flexible monthly installment plans make budgeting stress-free. We accept most insurance plans and most major credit cards.

In-office or virtual appointments.

Hours: Clinic hours can vary. Please call to speak to a Team Member.

857 S Auto Mall Rd #5 812-333-1051 smiledoctors.com

precisioneye.com Bloomington Eastside: Mon. - Fri.: 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sat.: 9 a.m. - noon

Matthew L. Rasche, D.D.S., M.S.D. Certified, American Board of Pediatric Dentistry

Brian Logue, M.D. Eric Smith, M.D. Dave Elkins, P.A.C. Board certified physicians with over 70 years combined experience.

Services include: kidney stones, urinary tract infections, urinary incontinence, prostate problems, same day emergency appointments, vasectomy.

Mon. - Wed.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Thu.: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Fri.: 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

2907 McIntire Drive 812-332-8765 summiturology.com Or visit us at our other location.

Dr. Warren L. Gray 2200 John R. Wooden Drive Suite 207 Martinsville, IN 46151 765-342-8427

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Dr. Mary Ann Bough Office Manager: Megan Hammer Chiropractic Assistants: Shaphir Gee, Stephanie Gregory, Korie Jacobs Discover Chiropractic for the entire family! We are a stateof-the-art chiropractic facility using computerized analysis and adjustment techniques. We specialize in gentle “no-TwistTurn” adjusting of infants to seniors! We are close to campus and near major bus routes. New patients are welcome and most insurance plans accepted. Call today and find out how you and your family can stay naturally healthy with chiropractic care.

Mon., Wed., Fri.: 8:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Tue.: 12 - 5 p.m.

3901 Hagan St., Suite C 812-336-7552 drmaryann.com

the IDS every Thursday for your directory of local health care services, or go online anytime at idsnews.com/health

322 S. Woodscrest Drive 812-332-2020

Dr. Brandt Finney Dr. Finney is committed to providing excellence in dentistry.

He uses the latest in dental techniques to provide you with a beautiful and healthy smile.

Additionally, Dr. Finney believes strongly in education to prevent oral health problems before they occur.

Because of this philosophy, we have designed our practice for the best experience and results, from wallmounted televisions in treatment rooms to our state-of-the-art 3-D imaging. Our office is located near the College Mall and accepts most insurances including the IU Cigna plans, as well as the IU Fellowship Anthem plan. We look forward to meeting you!

Bedford: Mon., Tues., Wed., Fri.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Thu.: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sat.: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

3343 Michael Ave. 812-279-3466 Bloomington Downtown: COMING SOON! 101 W. Kirkwood Ave.

Chiropractic

Mon. - Thu.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Fri.: by appointment 828 Auto Mall Road 812-333-KIDS (5437) sipediatricdentistry.com

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Southern Indiana Pediatric Dentistry with Dr. Matt Rasche specializes in providing comprehensive dental care for infants, children and adolescents, including those with special needs.

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All insurance plans and private pay accepted. Our office is located near College Mall in Bloomington, at 828 Auto Mall Road in Bloomington. 812333-KIDS. Call today!

Dr. Crystal Gray Dr. Andrew Pitcher

Formerly known as the Back and Neck Pain Relief Center, we provide gentle, effective chiropractic care helping students reduce stress, fatigue, and improve spinal health.

We have treatments that will fit your individual needs. We accept most insurance plans.

Give us a call today!

Mon., Wed., Thu.: 9 a.m. - noon, 2 - 6 p.m.

Tue., Fri.: 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.

For membership in the Indiana Daily Student Health Directory, please contact ads@idsnews.com. Your deadline for next week’s Health Directory is 5 p.m. Monday.

The Health Directory is your guide to health and wellness in the Bloomington area.

1710 W. Third St. 812-336-2225 bloomingtonchiropractor.com

Timothy J. Devitt, D.M.D. We provide a full scope of oral surgery procedures in a caring and comfortable manner. Our services include dental implants, IV sedation and wisdom teeth removal.

We’re a provider for most insurance plans, including IU and Medicaid.

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Indiana Daily Student

ENTERPRISE

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 idsnews.com

Editor Caroline Anders investigations@idsnews.com

7

By Lilly St. Angelo lstangel@iu.edu | @lilly_st_ang

S

he sat on her bedroom floor that Monday morning with her eyes closed in meditation.

Alice Aluko’s face turned toward the November sunlight streaming through her windows as she said silently to herself: You are healthy, you are smart, you are equipped, you are protected.

The next day was Election Day, when the country would decide whether to reelect President Donald Trump. Rumors were flying online about white supremacists targeting people of color during election week, but Alice tried not to think about that. She knew being positive all the time was not a realistic goal, especially for a Black 21-year-old woman in a country where being Black takes a daily mental toll. But she could manage eight minutes of pure positivity.

The rest of the morning unfolded as most Mondays did. She opened her computer and Zoomed through her ecology and environmental law classes. Then she headed out the door to get a matcha latte from Starbucks, feeling inside her purse for her pink taser like she always does.

She never thought she’d own a taser, but then again, she never thought a lot of things would happen.

When Alice was little, she wanted to be the president of the United States. She was obsessed with President Barack Obama. He had a white mom and an African dad just like her. She wrote the president letter after letter in elementary school, telling him about her life and the issues facing her community such as homelessness.

When the time came to choose her college, Alice knew she wanted to stay close to her Indianapolis home. At IU, she’d be surrounded by people from her high school, and she’d be in a good program for environmental management. It seemed like the best bet.

“The way it was sold to me was that Bloomington is super liberal and open and aware,” Alice said. “And I mean I guess. But … ” She rolled her eyes and let out a small laugh. * * * Two years ago, when Alice started at IU, she was excited to make new friends and study what she was passionate about. She knew she was going to be a minority on campus, but she could never have imagined that she would experience two blatant acts of racism during her freshman year and countless other smaller instances on a regular basis.

Two years and an election later, the fear has not gone away. Neither has the feeling of betrayal.

IU boasts about its diversity. According to the university, the number of minority students on all of IU campuses combined has nearly doubled since 2007. But while there are now 3,080 Hispanic students and 2,973 Asian students at IUBloomington, there are only 1,982 Black students.

Ten percent of college-aged Hoosiers are Black. But on the IU-Bloomington campus, Black students make up only 5.2% of the student body.

IU was one of the first universities in the nation to create a way of reporting and responding to racism 32 years ago when the Racial Incidents Team was created.

Cedric Harris, director of bias response at IU, said racism is one of the most prevalent forms of bias on campus.

He said he reads all reports submitted by IU students through the bias reporting system and responds to each one, asking if the student would like to talk through anything or take further action. But he knows there are many incidents that go unreported.

From 2018 to 2019, the annual number of bias reports more than tripled from 50 to 163. More than 200 reports are predicted to be reported in 2020 based on the amount received so far. The number of reports does not always equate to the number of incidents since multiple students may report on one incident.

Harris, 57, attributes some of the recent increase to the fact that he was hired in 2019 to specifically address bias reports as his full-time job. He said his quick responses to students and the time he has

What wasn't said How racism has shaped one IU student’s college experience.

ALEX DERYN | IDS

Junior Alice Aluko poses for a portrait Sept. 15 at the corner of Third Street and Indiana Avenue. Aluko was verbally attacked two years ago while she was waiting for the bus.

taken to spread the word about bias reporting may have led to more reports. But he wonders if other factors are at play, like the nation’s political climate.

Harris said cases most often involve student-onstudent bias, but lately there have been more cases of bias in the classroom. There was one instance when an instructor reportedly told students to share their family heritage but told them not to talk about slavery. Harris said it’s especially tricky when an instructor is involved due to power dynamics. Students and assistant instructors often wait to report bias perpetrated by a professor until after they receive their final grade or are finished working with the instructor.

Although Harris’ job is to respond to bias incidents, he is limited in his power to stop the incidents from happening or punish those who commit them. The reports he gathers offer valuable data, but they do not offer a concrete solution to the university’s age old problem of racism. * * * In the weeks before she started her freshman year in Bloomington, Alice started getting warnings from Black people who would come through her line at Office Depot and ask about her school plans. There’s some racist stuff that happens down there, they’d tell her.

She brushed off the comments, thinking they probably just were saying that because IU is predominantly white. Alice was confident about being around white people. She was half white herself. Growing up, she’d visit her mom’s family in rural areas such as Mooresville and Whiteland, Indiana. She had plenty of white friends. She knew how to act around white people, she told herself.

But growing up in a diverse community affected Alice more than she thought. Pike Township, where she went to high school, is majority Black with a significant Hispanic population. Having a father who was Nigerian and a mom who was white was not unheard of in her community.

The Alukos attended St. Monica Catholic Church every Sunday and every holy day without fail. St. Monica’s, one of the most diverse Catholic churches in Indianapolis, is a tight-knit community where Alice witnessed the importance of compassion in the church’s efforts to help refugees. Her parents loved and protected her. Alice knew what it felt like to be looked at too long or given dirty expressions, but overt racism was never a part of her life until she moved to Bloomington.

Alice’s freshman year started off well. She was making friends and having fun.

But she and Massa Massaley, her freshman roommate who is also Black, immediately noticed the sea of white faces and the Blue Lives Matter and Confederate flags on trucks at gas stations. Massa would wonder why the university hadn’t recruited more students from

Black communities.

“Very often, our main friends who were students of color, they were all here at IU through the same scholarships we were on,” Massa said. “Very often, we had to think, is this just a quota that the university has to fill when it comes to their measurements of diversity?”

In classes, Alice and Massa would sometimes be ignored, interrupted and excluded by other classmates. They’d double check themselves before raising their hands and doubt themselves afterwards.

Did what I just say make sense? Did I perform as well as my white peers? Did the professor understand me? Did I come off as aggressive? Did I come off as friendly?

On the way to one class where she was routinely interrupted and dismissed, Massa would shake from anxiety. She felt like her Blackness stood out when she walked into the room. It made her want to hide.

“Being Black is like being very hyper visible but at the same time being invisible,” she said.

In mid-January of her freshman year, Alice walked from the last class of her day, U.S. Policy and Administration in Rawles Hall, to the law school bus stop on Third Street. She usually walked with two friends from her class, but that day, they weren’t there.

A crowd of 50 to 60 students stood around her at the bus stop. Alice heard a commotion coming from down the street and people began to turn and look at her. All of a sudden, a white, middle-aged man with red hair, a beard and worn clothes lunged a few inches from her face.

“There’s a majority here!” she remembers him yelling.

“Do you understand me? Do you understand me?”

She stared at him, frozen and stunned. He turned to two white students who stood nearby who were laughing.

“You think it’s funny?” he asked them. “You’re the ones who should care.”

Then the angry man turned and charged down the sidewalk, continuing to yell.

Ten minutes later, she boarded the bus, still stunned. It wasn’t just the

horrible things the man had said or the way the two other students had laughed. Not one person in the crowd at the bus had said anything to the yelling man, warned Alice he was approaching her or asked if she was OK afterward. Although the shouting man was scary, the lack of action from the other students was what stuck with her. She felt completely invisible.

Alice immediately texted Massa when she sat down on the bus.

Massa had known Alice since they were in high school where they became fast friends in choir. Her friend sang everywhere she went, was funny, independent and down to earth.

When Alice walked through the door to their dorm room at Eigenmann Hall that afternoon, she was not at all herself.

“When Alice had the situation on Third Street, it broke her heart,” Massa said.

Massa understood how upsetting these incidents were.

A stranger had called her the N-word in Eigenmann’s lobby one day, and a woman had demanded she prove she was a student one night when she was studying in the Indiana Memorial Union. But as upsetting as these overt attacks were, Massa and Alice agreed that the everyday, less obvious experiences of racism cause even more emotional harm than overt racism.

They happened so often, they started to ignore them: people giving them dirty looks, workers or even other customers following them around in stores, always being checked on by a worker at the selfcheckout, not being offered help when in obvious need of help. And they’re often gaslit if they bring it up.

Later on the night of the bus stop incident, Alice saw in the Black IU GroupMe that other Black students had encountered the man too. A video began circulating on Twitter the same day of the man walking and yelling, “I’ll kill your children. You’d better recognize there’s a majority around here.”

She called her mom to tell her about what happened. Her mom cried. You can transfer to IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, her mom said, urging her to report the incident to

the police. After her dad heard about the incident, he had trouble sleeping.

When Alice texted her parents to tell them she was being interviewed for an Indiana Daily Student story about the verbal attack, her dad advised her: Don’t say anything that will make people target you. Be calm and collected.

She was later told by police that the man who yelled at her was experiencing homelessness and hadn’t been taking his medications. An administrator said if police found him, he would be advised of trespassing.

Alice quickly saw the incident as a rite of passage, something many Black students experience at IU. This is your first experience, she told herself. It probably won’t be the last, and it probably won’t be the worst.

Three months later, she was leaving Herman B Wells Library one evening in the dark, waiting to cross Jordan Avenue.

A man coming from North Jordan in a shiny, white pickup truck with a noisy engine yelled the N-word at her out of the passenger window. There was nobody else at the intersection.

The feeling of shock came again, rooting her to the sidewalk. Unable to process what was happening, she didn’t catch a license plate number and the tinted windows hid the man’s face.

In the weeks after the incident, she saw the shiny, white pickup with the loud engine multiple times on Jordan Avenue. Each time, she couldn't seem to catch the plate number. She never saw the driver’s face.

She reported both the Third Street incident and the incident

by Wells Library to the school, the first through the IU Police Department and the second through IU’s bias reporting form. Cedric Harris, director of bias response, emailed her in response to her report about the white truck, as he always does when students report.

Hello Alice, Your bias incident report was received. It is unfortunate that you had to experience this incident as you were leaving the library. Reporting incidents of bias, hate, harassment or discrimination via this re-

CLAIRE LIVINGSTON | IDS

Aluko shows the pink taser her boyfriend bought her after the second incident. They can only see each other once a month, so he tries his best to protect her in any way he can.

porting system helps to create awareness to influence change on campus.

He went on to ask if she wanted to meet to talk about the incident and determine if she wanted to take further action. But Alice was too tired from processing the bus stop incident to think about trying to take action on the shouted slur. She didn’t think the school could do anything about the mysterious white truck, but she thought reporting it was important. Maybe if it happened to someone else, they could connect the dots.

After the turbulent second semester of her freshman year, Alice wondered if she had made the right choice in attending IU. It would have been hard to leave, though. All of her friends were at IU. What happened to her could happen anywhere, she reasoned. Any predominantly white institution was a little racist. But most of all, Alice didn’t want the fear to prevail.

“I’m just letting these people win if I leave this school,” she said. “That’s what they want.” * * * IU and the City of Bloomington have always had a problem with racism. Black students couldn’t eat at most Bloomington restaurants until 1950 when Herman B Wells demanded restaurants serve them. The KKK still drops off flyers around town and gathered publicly in nearby Madison, Indiana, for a cookout last year. Only in the past two years has the university stripped names off of IU buildings and landmarks of people who had openly racist views.

In 1988, Pam Freeman, former assistant dean of students, and Bill Shipton, a former director in student services, created the Racial Incidents Team and other teams were later added for other types of bias. The creation of the teams didn’t come without pushback from some university leaders.

“People thought if you do these teams, it’s going to bring attention to these incidents, which is going to make IU look bad,” Harris said.

Harris worked for IU’s Residential Programs and Services for 24 years and was on the racial incidents team before the school decided to streamline all the bias reports to the position he holds now.

Over his years of reading reports, Harris said the cases haven’t changed much. Swastikas drawn on dry-erase boards, people shouting slurs down streets and careless mentions of slavery in classrooms — racism on campus is somewhat predictable to Harris.

Sometimes, Harris has to shift administrators' gazes from incidents that go viral on social media to cases in classrooms that can be much worse. Every two weeks, Harris meets with his supervisor, Kathy Adams Riester, associate vice provost for student affairs, about recent reports. If incidents are extreme enough, they are reported up to SEE ALICE, PAGE 8

8

ENTERPRISE

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

» ALICE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 other administrators.

Student narratives are a way for administrators to visualize how systemic racism manifests on campus, Harris said. He hopes, at minimum, the stories spark conversations among the school’s leaders and influence their decision making.

Harris recounted how IU President Michael McRobbie has written multiple times that there is no place for racism on campus, most recently after the killing of George Floyd. He shrugged. The reports of bias have not stopped.

“It’s hard to enforce that strong statement, ‘We will not tolerate it,’” Harris said. “That means we won’t tolerate it, period. But we don’t operate that way unfortunately because it’s more difficult in practice than to say it.” * * * After the two incidents, Alice’s happy-go-lucky approach to socializing that she had started the year with was gone. The summer after her freshman year, her boyfriend bought her a pink taser for her birthday. He, like her parents, was worried about her safety.

She only went to Black parties, Black events and only made an attempt to make friends with Black students in her classes.

What was the point in trying to make new white friends, she thought. She knew not all of them were racist, but it was too much of a risk. She didn’t want to be hurt again.

The pain hit her hard when she started her sophomore year. She felt isolated, even though she lived with three roommates. On campus she still felt invisible. Her apartment windows faced an alley, and it was always dark inside.

She needed light.

She started going to therapy and felt comfort in having a Black woman as a therapist who could understand her day-to-day life. She began to be more intentional about mindfulness and prayer. She hung out with friends who understood what it felt like to often be the only person of color in a classroom.

But this past summer was another blow to her mental

health. She saw the news of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, but for her it all started with Dreasjon Reed, a 21-year-old who was shot and killed by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Dejoure Mercer just down the street from her parents’ home.

She didn’t know Reed personally but knew people who did. He was shot just outside her church, the library she grew up going to, her little brother’s old Montessori school and the taco truck where she’d go with friends on late summer nights.

The night he was killed, the sirens didn’t stop.

Alice went to protests in Indianapolis and was inspired at first by the energy of activism.

But she soon got emotionally burnt out and annoyed with white people for going to protests for the wrong reasons and posting on social media just to look good. She overheard white people at one protest say they were looking forward to breaking windows.

Every time Alice drove past the place where Reed was killed, she saw his shrine in the library parking lot. The area that felt so familiar now felt eerie.

Unrest also brewed in Nigeria, where some of her dad’s family remained. People took to the streets to protest the Special Anti-Robbery Squad or SARS, a police force notorious for its brutality. Police opened fire on protesters Oct. 20. She messaged family members in Lagos. The government had called for everyone to stay inside. They were scared.

As a summer of unrest faded into a fall of election anxiety, rumors flew about white supremacists planning killing sprees during election week. The NAACP said the rumors were baseless, but Alice’s Twitter, TikTok and group chats were still filled with instructions from her Black peers: Don’t go out past sundown, stay in groups, pack a safety bag in case you need to leave quickly.

Alice’s cousin who lives in California and is also multiracial texted Alice to check in.

She was stocking up on groceries and gas and was worried about Alice. She sent money through Venmo to Alice so she could fill her tank. She mapped out a route for Alice to get

CLAIRE LIVINGSTON | IDS

Aluko crosses her legs and sits in the corner for her meditation. Aluko perfers to listen to music while she meditates rather than do a guided meditation.

home to Indianapolis without going through Martinsville, a town notorious for racism.

Her parents vowed to move to Europe if President Donald Trump was reelected. Her little brother is only 10, but her parents are already worried about him living in a country where young Black males are so often the target of police violence.

Neither Alice nor her cousin knew what was going to happen the next day or the days after, but they braced themselves for the worst. * * * Harris can easily feel overwhelmed by his job if he doesn’t take time to step away.

Even though he feels like he’s doing something important by giving students a space to share their story and be believed, the feeling of powerlessness sometimes creeps in. He can help students file police reports, report faculty and staff bias to their supervisors, but he can only do so much for the many students who don’t know the identity of the person who did the bias act.

But he knows the worth of the data the reports create. His ultimate goal is to post monthly updates on the school’s website with general data about bias reports he receives as well as semesterly and yearly reports that give a bigger picture of numbers and trends.

Reports like this used to be put together every semester by the administrators who started the bias response teams in the

late 80’s. But when Freeman and Shipton retired in 2012, the reports stopped because of a lack of initiative, Harris said.

Harris hopes to have his first report ready within the next year. He sees transparency as the next step towards making campus a safer place for Black students.

Harris got his bachelor's degree at Stanford University. Diversity was a part of the culture there, and when he came to IU for law school, he didn’t see that. There were Black, Latinx, Asian and other ethnic and cultural groups on campus, but they didn’t mix often.

“You could tell everything was separated,” Harris said.

“There were all these little pockets.”

A part of Harris’s job is to talk to students who are accused of committing acts of bias. The school takes an educational approach to most incidents of bias when only students are involved. Once, when a Black student was yelled at by a man in a car with an IU parking sticker, they were able to identify the man as a contracted employee and he was fired by his company. But Harris said it is difficult to expel students for bias.

“A lot of this stuff is just someone’s opinion or their impression or they say some horrible word, and in the United States you can say horrible words,” Harris said. “They don’t feel good when you hear them, but you can say them.”

The majority of time, Harris thinks students are changed

by the discussions he has with them. He tries to help them understand the pain they’ve caused the other student.

Many times, he thinks just the act of meeting with students makes them take the incident seriously — he can see it in their faces. * * * As Alice and her roommates drove to get gas the day before the election, they talked about what was going to happen. Alice voted by mail because she was registered in Indianapolis. They all wanted to go home and be with their families on election night, but jobs got in the way. Alice’s roommates promised to pick her up the next day after her shift at the Graduate Hotel ended at 8 p.m.

She turned on her taser so that it would be ready to use and put it in her pocket like she always does at gas stations. She asked her roommates to come into the building with her to pay. Between the Trump flags on trucks and people giving her nasty looks, Alice never feels safe getting gas.

The next night, Alice and her roommates stayed up watching the results come in, but it was soon clear the night would be anticlimactic.

She went to bed anxious. She prayed quietly while she got ready for bed, thanking God for protection and moments with friends that day and asking him to watch over her, her friends and her family for the

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rest of the week.

For the next four days, life was in limbo for all of America as votes were counted. Alice thought Trump had a high chance of winning. She had resigned herself to more mental exhaustion, more disappointment. But as more votes were counted, her hopes for Joe Biden winning increased.

On Saturday morning, news notifications went off on cell phones across the country: the Associated Press had called Biden as the winner. Alice was relieved. She watched Twitter explode and people on TV celebrate. She saw Black CNN commentator Van Jones break down in tears on-air.

“This is vindication for a lot of people who have suffered,” Jones said. “You know the ‘I can’t breathe,’ that wasn’t just George Floyd, that was a lot of people that felt they couldn’t breathe.”

She knew exactly what he was talking about. If the past year had taught her anything, it was that racist people had become very comfortable openly showing their beliefs.

A week later, a grand jury announced that Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Dejoure Mercer would not be charged for the shooting of Dreasjon Reed from lack of evidence. Alice was once again disappointed but not surprised. She thought of the little shrine for Reed in the library parking lot.

Over the past year, the country has been faced again and again with a harsh reality: Racism is still embedded in American society. During her time at IU, Alice has come to the same realization.

To Alice, racism at IU cannot be stopped only by bias reports or trainings. She doesn’t know the solution and neither does Harris. Both think the university could do more to prevent racism and educate incoming freshmen about race.

Above all, Alice will always think about the white students who stood silently aside as the red-haired man screamed at her at the bus stop.

“There was so many chances they had to talk to me, at least one person, and no one did,” she said. “And that, to me, was just a clear indication: There is no unity here. You’re on your own.”

Indiana Daily Student

ARTS

Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020 idsnews.com

Editors Claudia Gonzalez-Diaz and Joe Schroeder arts@idsnews.com

9

ZACH’S RANTS

Warner Bros. may have struck gold with new HBO Max streaming deal Zach Hsu is a sophomore in media.

You don’t need to be an industry insider to know 2020 was not the best year for movies, from just about every standpoint. Audiences were left without many of the major blockbusters they were expecting to be released this year, and executives had to cope with the fact they had lost out on millions of dollars in revenue.

The major studios have found themselves backed into a corner. While a vaccine does seem to be in our future, it’s impossible to know if people are going to be returning to movie theaters. Theaters might not recover for months, if not years, even once the vaccine has been widely distributed. So, what’s a studio to do?

Stuck in this situation, Warner Bros. made a radical decision. They decided all their 2021 releases will begin showing in theaters and be put on HBO Max the same day. After 31 days, the films will leave HBO Max and be exclusive to theaters, but for one whole month audiences will be able to choose where they watch new releases.

The language used to describe this new release strategy has been intense, and not unjustifiably. This is completely unprecedented, and no studio has made a move nearly as drastic as this.

Even Netflix has been giving its films short theatrical runs before they premiere on the streaming service, and its

MOVIE STILLS DATABASE

Actress Margot Robbie sits down in the movie “Suicide Squad.”

films are rarely of the same scale as the big-budget fare Warner Bros. is releasing.

Just look at some of Warner Bros.’ upcoming releases.

“Dune,” “In the Heights,” “Godzilla vs. Kong,” “The Suicide Squad” and even sequels to “Space Jam” and “The Matrix” are being given the HBO Max treatment. There is the very real possibility they’re flushing billions of dollars down the drain. What Warner

Horoscope

Bros. is doing here is — put simply — absolutely insane.

But it might also be brilliant.

The fact is, not that many people will be going to movie theaters next year, regardless of what happens with the vaccine. The ones who will be going to theaters are those really annoying people you know who keep talking about how important the “theatrical experience” is. For the

To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Today is a 7 — Your imagination flourishes. Get creative and productive in peaceful privacy. Recharge your spirit with a walk in nature.

Savor favorite rituals and soothing practices.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Today is an 8 — Keep your professional objective in mind. Huge advances are possible, by aligning communications and actions for your goal. Mix in passion. Acknowledgement comes from afar.

Aries (March 21-April 19) Today is a 9 — Take advantage of favorable conditions to make your move. Both love and money flow with greater ease. Collaboration bears fruit. Make hay while the sun shines.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Today is an 8 — Your team gets a lucky break. Collaborate with friends for a power boost. Share support, inspiration and motivation. Pull for a heart-felt victory.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) Today is an 8 — Fortune favors your educational advancement.

Teach as you learn. Breakthroughs and discoveries await. Align words and actions toward passion. Launch your most excellent adventure.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Today is an 8 — Partnership, collaboration and romance flower naturally. Share a mutual attraction. Someone’s saying something nice about you. Support and rely on each other. Give and take.

BLISS

HARRY BLISS

record, I am one of those people.

I like going to theaters, and once I get the vaccine you can bet I’m gonna be buying a ticket to see whatever’s coming out next. And you know, the ability to stream those movies probably won’t get me to stay home. I don’t want to watch “Dune” on my computer — I want to watch it on the biggest screen I can find.

This is the audience War-

ner Bros. is going to get no matter what. But they can’t guarantee anyone outside of this specific demographic will go to theaters next year. So, how can they get money from people who won’t be going to theaters?

The answer: HBO Max. While the decision to just toss new releases onto a streaming service people are already paying for sounds stupid, it actually isn’t as dumb as it

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Today is an 8 — Grow your heart strength with exercise and a healthy diet. Align words and actions to break old records. Launch your physical performance to new heights.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) Today is an 8 — Family matters take priority. Share invitations, proposals and possibilities. Domestic activities produce satisfying results.

Cook up something delicious. Fill your home with love.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Today is a 9 — You plus a significant other equals passion. Pursue fun and happiness. You’re drawn to love like a magnet. Reconnect and get playful together.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Today is a 9 — Speak out and take action for what you love. Write, publish and broadcast. A lucky break can propel your initiative to long-lasting benefits. Get creative.

su do ku

Crossword

ACROSS How to play: Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 grid contains the digits 1 through 9, without repeating a number in any one row, column or 3x3 grid.

Answer to previous puzzle

© Puzzles by Pappocom

BREWSTER ROCKIT: SPACE GUY!

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Today is a 9 — Take advantage of favorable financial conditions. Invest in your business. Push beyond old limits. Shatter a glass ceiling.

Stash away the surplus. Rake it in.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Today is a 9 — Use your power responsibly. You’re especially persuasive, charismatic and charming.

Personal magnetism works in your favor. Motivate action for a good cause. Advance a passion.

L.A. Times Daily Crossword

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

Difficulty Rating:

zrhsu@iu.edu

© 2020 By Nancy Black Distributed by Tribune Media Services, INC. All Rights Reserved

Publish your comic on this page.

The IDS is accepting applications for student comic strips for the fall 2020 semester. Email five samples and a brief description of your idea to adviser@indiana.edu.

Submissions will be reviewed and selections will be made by the editor-in-chief.

sounds. The thing about HBO Max is it doesn’t have too many subscribers right now.

As of October, there were 57 million people subscribed to HBO and HBO Max — way behind their competitors. For reference, Disney+ currently has more than 73 million, and Netflix is approaching 200 million subscribers.

If Warner Bros. can get people subscribed to HBO Max, there’s the possibility this will actually be a financial success. Seventeen brand new releases coming out next year would be a pretty good incentive for people to subscribe, especially since the $15 monthly subscription fee is less than a trip to the theater for a lot of people. Gaining 10 million subscribers could net HBO $150 million more every month, a number many executives would be pretty happy with.

But this is all entirely speculative. Something like this has never been done before, and it’s entirely possible the gain in subscribers will be much lower. There are also a number of variables currently up in the air. How are the Academy Awards going to react? Are theaters going to boycott their movies? Will other studios follow their model?

It’s impossible to know.

This is an incredibly risky move that could change the landscape of film distribution forever, and whether it’s for better or for worse remains to be seen.

1 Arizona locale for MLB spring training fans 5 __ breath: bouquet filler 10 Human rights lawyer Clooney 14 Enthusiastic 15 Crush the final 16 Nosh 17 *Bovine that doesn't waste words?

19 Class struggle?

20 Court events 21 Glitz 23 Central Park tree 24 *Dog that had a few too many?

27 Approach evening 30 __ Canadiens: Montréal team 31 Stenographer's stat 32 Big Ten sch.

33 "I __ had!"

34 *Sheep that can't see over the pasture wall?

37 Choice cut 40 Fair treat 41 *Insect that caught some rays?

42 Scatter, as seed 43 Having one sharp

44 45 46 48 52 53 54 58 60

62 63 64 65 66 67

Morning hrs.

Downed Tests for future OBs *Weasel-family critter wearing clothes?

2019 event for Pinterest, briefly Legal wrong Ultimatum words Border Leave one's car unlawfully ... or where you might expect to find the creatures in the answers to starred clues?

Mudville number Exclusive, as a community Pop singer Sands "Meet the Press" moderator Perfect places Talk back to

7 Disco trio with a Grammy Legend Award 8 Cedes the floor 9 Guitar band 10 Prez on a penny 11 Eclectic art technique 12 In the least 13 "I wanna!"

18 SpaceX CEO Musk 22 Links machine 25 Have in mind 26 Links event 27 Without a clue 28 Bangkok locale 29 React to a missed exit 33 Clever one 34 "Holy moly!"

35 Habit 36 Breakfast fare 38 Moussaka meat 39 Start 40 Like some dorms 42 Law 45 Visiting Vietnam, say 46 Scant 47 Breakfast fare 48 Colossal 49 Sitcom set in a H.S. science class 50 Duck 51 Desired medals 55 Etna output 56 Hindu titles 57 Scrapes (out) 59 "Ideas worth spreading" conference 61 Folds of music

Answer to previous puzzle

DOWN 1 "The Simpsons" creator Groening 2 "Did you __?!"

3 iPhone assistant 4 Source of website revenue 5 Low voice 6 Take steps

TIM RICKARD

Indiana Daily Student

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