Duke, 91 IU, 81
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017
IDS
For photos and more coverage, see idsnews.com.
Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
Holiday magic ‘The Nutcracker’ returns to the Musical Arts Center on Nov. 30.
KATIE FRANKE | IDS
Juniors Anna Grunewald and Darren Hsu dance the rolls of the Snow Queen and the Snow Cavalier. The Nutcracker will be shown Nov. 30 through Dec. 3. By Clark Gudas ckgudas@iu.edu | @This_isnt_Clark
T
oy dolls, soldiers and mice dance alongside fairies, dewdrops and flowers in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” Composer Tchaikovsky’s ballet, “The Nutcracker,” will premiere at the Musical Arts Center on Nov. 30 and run through Dec. 3. “The Nutcracker” tells the story
of a young girl, Clara, and her magical Christmas Eve adventure with the help of her magician uncle, Herr Drosselmeyer. “This production is based on the original,” choreographer Michael Vernon said. “Its really developed into the story of a young girl who aspires to be the Sugar Plum Fairy as an adult.” The production features a range
“This is definitely a family ballet, in terms of the Christmas spirit and in terms of learning about ballet.” Michael Vernon, IU professor and choreographer
SEE BALLET, PAGE 6
Graduate students demonstrate Fraternity opinions against GOP proposal’s ‘grad tax’ clash over suspension By Christine Fernando
By Jaden Amos
ctfernan@iu.edu
jamamos@umail.iu.edu | @jadenm_amos
IU graduate students flooded the three stories of staircases leading up to President Michael McRobbie’s office in Bryan Hall on Wednesday afternoon. “Hey hey, ho ho. This heinous bill has got to go,” they chanted as they marched there from the Woodburn Hall clock tower. When McRobbie stepped out, students walked up one by one up to tell him their stories, and the crowd went silent. The demonstration was part of a national walk-out Wednesday afternoon. The walk-out voiced student concerns about a new tax plan introduced by the House of Representatives earlier this month that would tax graduate students for tuition waivers. Walk-outs took place across 32 states at 57 campuses, including Michigan State University, University of Kentucky, Harvard University and Caltech, according to the Action Network, an online organizing platform. IU graduate student Abby Ang stood on the stone fence surrounding Woodburn Hall clock tower with a megaphone in hand before the march. “When education is under attack,” she started. “We fight back,” a crowd, stretching from the tower to Bal-
The suspension of social and unsupervised new member activities for Interfraternity Council fraternities was the council’s decision, IFC President Andrew Cowie said. “There was no external pressure from IUSA or IU administration on this,” Cowie said. “We saw an opportunity to take a proactive stance to correct a problem we see active within our community.” There was not any certain event that led to this disciplinary decision, but Cowie said the trend of other universities’ temporary suspensions of greek activities played a role. “Universities are holding greek life to a higher standard and expecting them to take more accountability for themselves,” Cowie said. “This is the standard that we can hold ourselves to.” After the IFC decided to temporarily suspend unsupervised new member activities and social events with alcohol for all chapters, many students took to Twitter. “I hate you for suspending fraternities and will remind you of this every day until March 1st @IUHoosiers,” Sigma Pi member Jonathan Murphy tweeted. In an interview over Twitter direct messages, Murphy said he believes the IFC was forced to choose between suspending themselves or being suspended by IU officials. “This suspension is just bad,”
STEVEN LIN | IDS
More than 100 grad students from all areas of study march from Woodburn Hall to Bryan Hall to deliver a petition to President Michael McRobbie to publicly oppose a House of Representatives bill taxing graduate students’ tuition waivers.
lantine Hall, roared back. Ang, a graduate student and associate instructor in the IU Department of English, said $14,500 of her tuition is waived each year. If the waiver is taxed, her taxes would jump by $200. For some, she said the tax spike would be by 400 percent. With a salary of only $13,000, she said she, like many others, would have to drop out of graduate school. Before the demonstration be-
gan, Ang circled the clock tower with a clipboard in hand. The clipboard held a petition asking McRobbie and Indiana senators Todd Young and Joe Donnelly to oppose any tax bill including the graduate student tax. The petition was signed online by more than 500 people, but Ang said she was doubtful Young and Donnelly would vote against SEE WALKOUT, PAGE 6
Murphy said. “IU is just out to get us. They’re jealous that we have more fun than them.” Several tweets, like Murphy’s, claim IU hates greek life, and the University is trying to end greek organizations on campus. Cowie said IU has provided the IFC with resources and support, and he does not believe the other claims. Within the next week, Cowie said the IFC and Lori Reesor, vice provost for student affairs, will create a plan to set and achieve goals for IFC chapters within the next three months. Spring recruitment will still happen, but all new member events must be supervised, Cowie said. Members of IFC executive board serve for a calendar year, so during this suspension, there will be a change of leadership. Cowie said he believes the new executive board, led by incoming president Jackson Laterza, will uphold the same standards. It will be helpful to have double the amount of people solving problems. Junior Jake Olson, former Phi Kappa Sigma president, said he remembers incidents of fraternities being suspended when he was a freshman and believes IFC has drastically improved since then. He said he remembers when Alpha Tau Omega was suspended by both IU and its national chapter in 2015 after a video of a member performing a sex act in front of other members surfaced. He also SEE IFC, PAGE 2
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