September 29, 2022

Grad workers vote no on strike, union still goal

By Haley Ryan haryan@iu.edu | @haley__ryan

After more than three years of protesting work ing conditions at IU which culminated last spring in a weekslong strike, members of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers voted no to strike again. Since the last strike ended in May, IU has announced policy changes that address the IGWC-UE’s five main demands but has withheld union recognition.

The IGWC-UE formed in 2019 to fight for improved working conditions for graduate workers. IGWCUE began pushing for union recognition last fall, after the March 2021 fee strike. IU rejected the IGWC-UE request for a union election last February and still main tains this position.

The Coordinating Com mittee, an elected group within the coalition, recom mended Friday for mem bers to vote against the strike. In a statement, the committee expressed hope that ongoing negotiations with Bloomington Faculty Council and the Graduate and Professional Student Government, which would last beyond the Monday strike vote deadline, would lead to partial union recog nition this semester, making a strike unnecessary right now.

In May, the Bloomington Faculty Council voted in fa vor of recognizing the grad uate workers union, passing two resolutions which IG WC-UE’s Twitter celebrated

as victories. While the BFC lacks the power to recognize the union officially on be half of the university — that decision falls to the Board of Trustees — the resolutions serve as a call to action for the IU community.

The first resolution as serts the power to reappoint student academic appoin tees — graduate students who hold part-time teach ing or research appoint ments — belongs to depart ments, not the vice provost for faculty and academic af fairs or the provost, and that no SAA will risk future reap pointment for striking. Res olution 3B urged the Board of Trustees to arrange an election for union recogni tion and for IU administra tors to talk immediately with IGWC-UE.

Despite the BFC’s en couragement, the Board of Trustees refused to recog nize the graduate workers union in May in a letter to the BFC obtained by the Indiana Daily Student. The Board acknowledged work ing conditions for SAAs need improvements, but said a graduate workers union would be “incompat ible” with IU’s approach.

In July, graduate workers signed a contract to con tinue working at IU. Due to IU’s refusal to allow the workers to negotiate the contract’s terms as a union, the coalition released a pe tition stating its members were forced to sign the con tract under duress.

‘I would’ve wished for a lifetime more’: Vigil commemorates Nate Stratton’s life

By Helen Rummel hrummel@iu.edu | @helenrummel

Quinn Smith, a junior at IU, arrived at Showalter Fountain on Sept. 22, 2022, afternoon to tell his friend one more time how much he loved him.

“There weren’t many times when Nate was living with us that I got to tell him I love him,” Smith said to a crowd that had gathered. “But I’ll tell him one more time today.”

At 7 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2022, more than 200 people

congregated to remember the life of Nate Stratton, who was killed in the early morn ing of Sept. 18 by an alleged drunk driver. Amongst the crowd, people held candles and one another’s hands as friends and family shared their stories of Stratton.

His friends said Stratton always offered friendship to those around him, was al ways eager to try something new and he adored lite lem onade.

Smith and Aidan Gon

By Christina Avery averycm@iu.edu | @christym_avery

Bloomington resident Madelyn Howard, who al legedly struck and killed an IU student riding an elec tric scooter in a hit-and-run incident Sept. 18, has been charged with three felonies by Monroe County Prosecu tor Erika Oliphant.

Howard, 22, was charged with reckless homicide, alleg edly operating a vehicle while intoxicated resulting in death and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious

bodily injury or death while intoxicated. All three charges are felonies.

Nate Stratton, 20, died Sept. 18 after Howard, alleg edly driving drunk, report edly hit him with her car at the intersection of North Walnut Street and East 12th Street around 2 a.m. Strat ton had been making his way back from the Raising Cane’s restaurant. Bloomington Police Department officers responded to the scene and found a black 2012 Mercedes

IDS FILE PHOTO BY WESTON KILGORE

Then-juniors Sophie Hall and Sidd Das hold strike signs at the Chemistry Building on April 14, 2022. The IGWC-UE's coordinating committee recommended membersvote against the strike in hopes that ongoing negotiations would lead to partial union recognition this semester, making a strike unnecessary right now.

IDS FILE PHOTO BY AVERY ANTILL

Protestors gather in support of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition-United Electrical Workers' efforts to have IU recognize their union on April 14, 2022, between Ballantine Hall and the Chemistry Building. Between

IGWC-UE’s

members will virtually vote on whether to authorize another strike, which would start Tuesday.

alleged to have killed IU student in e-scooter hit and run, charged with 3 felonies

ELLA BOOZER | IDS

Family and friends of Nate Stratton share a hug during a vigil for Stratton on Sept. 22, 2022, at Showalter Fountain. Smith and Gonzalez both said that Stratton's infectious smile, fun personality and impact on the IU community will always be remembered.

IU Foundation hesitant about divestment

By Carter DeJong cadejong@iu.edu | @dejong_carter

The IU Foundation, which manages the universi ty’s $3.3 billion endowment, does not consider divest ment from fossil fuels to be in the best interest of IU.

“Operationally, divesting introduces a lot of risk,” coChief Investment Officer Jim Bergstrom said.

The money in IU’s en dowment derives from do nations to the university. Most of those donations are for a purpose the donor specifies, such as building improvements or creating a scholarship.

In addition, almost all of IUF’s investments are made through a series of other in vestment companies that are not a part of IU. IUF owns very few direct investments, Bergstrom said. The funds managed by the other com panies may include some fossil fuel investments, but IUF is not able to pull its money for only energy in vestments without jeopar

dizing the relationship with that investment manager.

IUF does not consider di vestment to be the best way to create a sustainable future and believes it would hurt its financial obligation to sup

port IU, according to an Aug. 30 statement from IUF.

Other Big Ten Confer ence schools have commit ted to divestment. The Uni versity of Michigan and Rut gers University, which has

a smaller endowment than IU, have both committed to divestment, according to a database operated by envi ronmental protection group Stand.earth.

For 15 years, IUF main

HotDrop chosen for acceleration program

By Ruth Cronin rmcronin@iu.edu | @RuthCronin6

IU senior finance majors Max Goldberg and Steven Segel launched their own app, HotDrop, in Septem ber 2021 to help people dis cover new music and artists. This venture has recently led them to being accepted into the Techstars startup ac celerator program with a $3 million evaluation.

Goldberg and Segel are taking this fall semester off to participate in a 13-week program from Sept. 19 to Dec. 15 in Portland, Maine, where they will have access to mentorship and addition al funding for their startup. Segel said the choice to take time off school for this op portunity was a no-brainer.

“I was completely confi dent in the decision,” Segel said. “We’ve always been seeking the opportunity to go full time on this and de vote every hour of the day to HotDrop.”

The Techstars applica tion process is extensive.

Goldberg and Segel said they began the process at the end of May 2022 after

receiving an email from Lars Perkins, the managing di rector of the Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator. After four rounds of interviews and pitching their product, they were accepted to the program in August.

Techstars looked for companies that were build ing a product that solves problems and revolution izes how people live and work. The program helps startups to focus on their operations while connect ing them to a worldwide network that helps entre preneurs succeed, accord ing to a Techstars press re lease.

Within a month of its release last September, HotDrop had 25,000 users and two million songs dis covered. Goldberg said that after HotDrop’s release, they received hundreds of emails with feedback from artists.

“We realized that the de mand here is to actually cre ate a two-sided marketplace or community where artists can actually upload their music to be discovered by this vibrant community we built,” Goldberg said.

Since their leave of ab sence from school, Gold berg and Segel have worked to change the app’s original structure and build some thing new, called HotDrop Studio. HotDrop Studio al lows artists to see how peo ple interact with their music through analytics, without having to pay studio pro duction costs.

“Our vision and the mis sion behind HotDrop studio is we want to enable indie artists to have the same op portunities that label signed artists have on indie bud gets,” Segel said.

While HotDrop was in its ideation stage, Travis Brown, the Luddy School of Informatics executive dean, reached out and told Gold berg and Segel to check out the Shoemaker Innovation Center at Luddy. The “shoe box” helps students take ideas and turn them into innovations, by providing mentorship, resources, and scholarship opportunities, according to its website.

Goldberg and Segel attri bute much of their success to Indiana’s entrepreneurial opportunities, from being

members of the shoebox at Luddy to having investment from IU ventures.

Goldberg and Segel also recognize that hav ing a program as strong as Jacob’s School of Music makes Hotrop’s new studio even more relevant to IU. They said they are target ing outreach and offering HotDrop’s free services to Jacob’s students.

“Our mission is about helping independent art ists and leveling the playing field, because they really don’t have a fighting chance without promotional and data services like HotDrop,” Goldberg said.

Goldberg and Segel both hope the success of their app will allow them to keep HotDrop as their full-time career going forward. Their goal is to allow people to hear new artists who aren’t available on other stream ing apps and to create suc cess stories for new artists, they said.

“If we can blow up one artist who was a nobody be fore HotDrop, this business is going to be enormous,” Goldberg said.

tained a goal to have a spe cific percentage of their portfolio invested in natural resources, which may in clude oil and gas. That goal was reduced in 2016 and eliminated in 2020, accord ing to the statement.

“It’s important to note that it doesn’t mean we are restricted from owning natu ral resources, it just means there is no longer a specific target,” Bergstrom said.

In 2006, the United Na tions developed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, a guide that in vestors can follow to main tain a sustainable environ ment and global financial system. Over 3750 compa nies, which control over $120 trillion in investments, have committed to UNPRI as of 2021.

A majority of the public investment managers that handle IUF funds have com mitted to the UNPRI, Berg strom said.

Since early 2021, Sun rise Bloomington has been leading an effort, supported

by other student groups, to push IUF to divest from fos sil fuels.

“If they divest, that could lead to a domino effect of other universities divesting,” Sunrise co-leader George Schafer said. “It would be a PR win to divest, I’m not sure what their motivations are.”

According to a statement from Matt Kavgian, director of strategic communications at IUF, the foundation be lieves they can create change by investing in sustainable assets that shift demand from fossil fuels to sustain able energy.

Through investment managers, IUF has put mil lions of dollars into compa nies that contribute to the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, according to the statement from Kavgian.

Some of those sustain ability companies include an electric delivery vehicle manufacturer, a food pro ducer that grows produce with minimal water and no fertilizer and Tesla.

Indiana sued by Satanic Temple over abortion ban

By Meghana Rachamadugu megracha@iu.edu | @nutmeginbloom

After the passage of Sen ate Bill 1 in Indiana, the Sa tanic Temple is now suing the state over the near-total abortion ban, claiming it vio lates citizens’ abortion rights and infringes on the group’s religious beliefs, according to an IndyStar article. The group claims the new law is unconstitutional because it doesn’t account for people who became pregnant even with contraceptive use.

The Satanic Temple is a nontheistic religious or ganization based in Salem, Massachusetts. The group doesn’t believe in or worship the Biblical Satan, but rather, “venerates” an allegorical Satan referenced in the epic poem, “Paradise Lost,” the article said. According to the group’s website, members follow seven tenets includ ing a belief that a person’s body is “inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”

The new Indiana law, which the religious group is challenging, prohibits abor tion operations except in cases of rape, incest up to ten weeks post-fertilization, fatal fetal anomalies or if the pregnancy poses a health risk for the mother.

IU recognized for diversity on campus

By Matthew Fort mattfort@iu.edu

IU-Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis re ceived the Higher Educa tion Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity for 2022. Accord ing to INSIGHT’s announce ment, IUB and IUPUI, along with 102 other universities, were awarded for their dem onstration of an excellent commitment to diversity and inclusion across their cam puses.

Since the inception of the HEED Award 11 years ago, IUPUI has been recognized every year, and IUB has re ceived eight consecutive awards since 2015. Addition ally, IUB was selected as a Di versity Champion, a separate award from INSIGHT given to universities for serving as models of excellence to other universities and develop

ing successful strategies and programs for diversity and inclusion.

Both IUB and IUPUI have credited their achievements to new initiatives, such as opening a Jewish Culture Center, hosting the first na tional HIV conference and launching a taskforce on Latinx staff recruitment and retention to better under stand the representation of Latinx staff at IUPUI.

INSIGHT Into Diversity is the oldest and largest diversi ty magazine in higher educa tion, striving to advance the national conversation about diversity and inclusion. In addition to the HEED and Diversity Champion awards, INSIGHT also recognizes universities for supporting minority-owned businesses and for supporting initiatives to recruit and retain women and underrepresented stu dents in STEM through two separate awards.

James C. Wimbush, Vice President for Diversity, Eq uity and Multicultural Af fairs and Johnson Chair for Diversity and Leadership at Indiana University, lauded IU’s achievement in a state ment for the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Af fairs.

“We take great pride in this diversity work — and look forward to making con tinual improvements so that our campuses truly exist as places of access, success, eq uity, and community for all,” Wimbush said in the state ment.

Opposite their commit ment to diversity and inclu sion is IU’s track record with diversity and inclusion. For some Black students, IU depicts a false image of the student population. From the University Institutional Research and Reporting statistics for 2022, 30.5% of

degree-seeking “domestic students” from across all of IU’s campuses are people of color, including Black, Asian, Latino, Indian, Hawaiian, Pa cific Islander and multiracial students.

IU is becoming more di verse, according to this same information, as the number of BIPOC undergraduate stu dents has more than doubled from 11,105 in 2005 to 24,398 in 2022.

However, an increase in student body diversity does not always reflect IU’s atti tudes, in either the admin istration or student body, toward this increase in di versity. With the recent rise in antisemitism on IU’s cam pus, anti-Asian racism expe rienced by students and the mental toll Black students experience at IU, diversity numbers increasing don’t always translate to more inclusivity experienced on campus.

According to the article, the Indiana chapter has over 11,300 members and filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the South ern District of Indiana after anonymous women from Indiana say they get preg nant despite using contra ceptives.

“All of the involuntary pregnant women who are (temple) members believe the fetal tissue they carry in their uterus – from concep tion until viability – is part of their body and not imbued with any humanity or exis tence,” the lawsuit said.

This lawsuit is the second one this month that revolves around religious freedoms, according to the article. Ear lier this month, Hoosier Jews for Choice sued the state of Indiana, claiming the abor tion law interfered with In diana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act from 2015.

RFRA states the govern ment can’t restrict a person’s ability to practice a religion without a compelling rea son to do so, and the Satanic Temple cited this law in their case against the state.

The Satanic Temple is asking that a federal judge avoid issuing criminal pen alties to those who provide abortions to involuntarily pregnant members of The Satanic Temple because it would mean up to six years imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000 for those who provided the service, ac cording to the article.

Gov. Eric Holcomb and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita are recognized as the defendants and are expected to reply to the is sued complaint.

As of Tuesday, Rokita appealed a Monroe County judge’s decision to put en forcing the law on hold last week due to possibly violat ing the Indiana Constitu tion, the article said.

OLIVIA BIANCO | IDS

The Showalter House, the home of IU Foundation's Bloomington offices, is seen Sept. 19, 2022. The foundation, which manages IU's $3.3 billion endowment, does not consider divestment from fossil fuels to be in the best interest of the university.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CORA SHAW | IDS

An IU student scrolls through the app HotDrop in search of new music Sept. 20, 2022. Recently accepted into Techstar’ accelerator program, HotDrop is a space for artists to share their music and be discovered by listeners.

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The Indiana State House sits in downtown Indianapolis. The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic religious organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, is suing the state of Indiana, according to an article from the IndyStar.

BLACK VOICES

IU employee creates petition for stronger police protections

sentative take it to a judicia ry committee where he can formally present it to 22 U.S. senators.

“It can take as long as it wants,” Washington said. “You’re gonna hear my name whether you like it or not cause I’m not going anywhere.”

What’s really behind the Black Ariel backlash?

By Sade Ajishegiri fosajish@iu.edu | @Sade84165895

In July 2019, Disney an nounced it had chosen ac tress Halle Bailey to play the leading role of Princess Ariel in the upcoming liveaction remake of “The Little Mermaid.”

reactions go beyond bor derline racism.

One person even went so far as to edit the movie trailer’s thumbnail, lighten ing her skin and changing her hair from Bailey’s locs to straighter hair. The locs are something the actress was especially excited to in clude in the film.

By Jay Upshaw jnupshaw@iu.edu

Travis Washington, Southern Illinois Univer sity graduate and current IU employee, published a petition called the Hands Up Act in December 2018. The petition, which as of this month has over 2.7 million signatures, calls for police officers who shoot unarmed citizens to serve a mandatory 15-year prison sentence.

Washington said that his ultimate goal is to have po lice take accountability for their actions and give jus tice to those who have been hurt. He realizes the rela tionship between citizens and the police is becoming fragile due to fear and a lack of responsibility for officers.

To demonstrate his point, Washington cited a 2021 NPR article that states 135 Black people have died unarmed at the police’s hand since 2015. What’s worse is that 15 of these of ficers were repeat offend ers.

“That’s an institution that needs to be destroyed, and the Hands Up Act can do that,” Washington said.

While riding the train one night in December 2018, Washington was con

templating publishing the petition. He thought of the minorities being needlessly killed by armed forces and prayed for guidance, Wash ington said he cites this train ride as the moment that inspired him to fight.

“It was a magical mo ment for me,” he said.

Over the years, the Hands Up Act has gained a lot of momentum with both political and celebrity figures. Family members of victims such as Michael Brown, Antwan Rose, Jacob Blake, Daniel Shaver and Andres Guardado have ei ther promoted the petition or reached out to Washing ton in support.

Even celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo and Sophie Turner have shared the pe tition on their social media platforms.

With so much support, Washington said the only significant challenge is him not believing in himself.

“That gave me all the confidence in the world,” Washington said. “I’m not going backwards.”

Washington said he has plans for this act to become federal law, but there are still many legal hurdles to overcome. Before his act can become a bill, he said he has to have a state repre

Despite his determina tion, Washington has faced challenges on the road to federal legislation. Though the petition has the sup port of the public, it has not been as successful in gain ing legal support. Wash ington said he has emailed all 100 U.S. senators and all 50 governors three times, but none of them have re sponded yet.

“A lot of these governors can easily just do an ex ecutive order just to show they support it,” Washing ton said. “Whether it holds weight or not, it shows that they care about people that are shot unarmed.”

Washington’s friend Yazmyne Adams is a gradu ate student at Southern Illinois University. She en couraged him to put a lot of his frustration into action and it was her who inspired him to move forward with the Hands Up Act.

“I’m extremely proud of him and very impressed with his follow-through,” Adams said. “This would strike an emotion with ev ery family that has had an incident with the police. It would inspire a lot of peo ple.”

Washington hopes his petition will lead to more trust between police offi cers and citizens. For now, his two goals are account ability and justice to police and citizens, he said. He be lieves the Hands Up Act can bring change.

“I can’t force anybody to support it,” Washington said. “But I do know that there are people in this country who definitely will.”

Some Disney fans were delighted at the idea of a fresh take on the beloved childhood story, not least of all because of the diver sity Bailey’s casting would add.

People commented and tweeted their excitement for the film and their hopes for diversity in Disney’s fu ture productions.

However, not everyone shared the same excite ment for a more progres sive remake. Many fans, claiming they wanted to protect the integrity of the original animated film — which stars a red-headed, blue-eyed, white mermaid — expressed their outrage online.

One Twitter user com mented, “Bummer. Ariel is a white redhead.”

Another user said they were sick of attempts at in clusivity.

They threatened to boy cott the film’s release, argu ing they weren’t racist, but that they simply couldn’t accept an actress who looked so different from the original 1989 Ariel.

Now that the filming has finally wrapped up, after setbacks due to the CO VID-19 pandemic in 2020, the popular excuse for the backlash against the movie is still “white nostalgia” — fans remember Ariel look ing a certain way and ex pect her live-action coun terpart to look as similar as possible.

While most comments and critiques are relatively tame — though arguably poorly masking deep-root ed prejudices — some fans’

OPINION

KEEGAN’S VIEW

For sale: Our current dystopian reality

Keegan Shoemaker (he/him) is a junior studying English.

To many, the idea of a dystopia is broad. It can be a city of neon lights, an arid wasteland or a planet scarred with burning ruins. While the possible responses to such a thought are limitless, there is a common thread that ties most, if not all, of them together: to the vast majority of people, dystopia is a condition of a fantastical future.

Dystopia isn't a facet of the future, nor is it a hypo thetical. Rather, it is the real ity of our present. According to the Merriam-Webster, a dystopia is defined as "an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives." If we disregard the "imag ined" aspect of this defini tion, we are left with a set of parameters that are frighten ingly accurate to our modern reality.

One of the most obvious examples of our dehuman ization is through the endless assault of advertisement that we are subject to on a day-today basis. According to Aeron

Davis, professor of political communication at Victoria University of Wellington and author of the book “Promo tional Cultures,” "promotion has seeped into all areas of society at the organizational, social and individual levels."

Advertisements are ev erywhere. Drifting in the periphery on web pages, stuffed between the scenes of our favorite shows, sneak ing in the backgrounds of our friends' Instagram posts. Adblockers and expensive streaming subscriptions may save us from some forms of advertisement, but beyond the realm of the Internet, we're held captive.

Some gas pumps have begun requiring drivers to watch ads before fill ing their tank. According to Slate Magazine, an online news and culture source, we might, one day, see ads on the moon. Soon, we will be left unable to spend even a single moment liberated from the seemingly omni present influence of adver tisement.

This inescapable capital ist influence reduces us from humans with control into

helpless buyers of product. According to Medium, ad vertisements have shifted from their original goal of forming connections with people into a newfound goal of convincing people to be come buyers.

While our society de mands us to buy, buy, buy, actually doing so is nearly impossible as things become increasingly expensive. The price of healthcare is in creasing, and lives are being ruined by medical debt. The price of living has gone up by 13% between 2021 and 2022. And the final nail in the coffin is that, for most Americans, wages haven't in creased significantly enough to keep up with these in creasingly exotic amenities.

So, what now? Do we let our eyes glaze and allow dystopia to take its course? Do we try to fight back? Do we even have the strength to care? Nobody knows. In the midst of all of this confusion, there is only one thing that we can hold as truth: dysto pia, in all of its boring glory, is now.

kjshoema@iu.edu

“My hair, for example — incorporating my locs into the red hair was something that was really special to me,” Bailey said in an in terview with Entertainment Weekly.

Bailey’s locs are a typi cally Black hairstyle — yet another visual difference that would-be Disney pur ists simply cannot abide.

Jekylah Smith, treasur er of Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta’s Gamma Nu Chapter, said those angered over the casting choice simply don’t understand what it’s like to be a young person of color growing up on mostly-white television.

“It can be an ignorance thing because they don’t understand how it feels to be a little girl watching Disney movies. … and not being represented in that light,” she said. “People who aren't minorities are always highly represented. … they always have some body that looks like them.”

The uproar over the new Little Mermaid’s look has nothing to do with who the character of Ariel is at her core. In fact, Rob Marshall, director of the film, was as tounded by how much of the princess he could see in Bailey from the beginning.

"It was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities neces sary to play this iconic role,” Marshall said in an official statement from July 2019.

What the backlash does

illuminate, however, is so ciety’s intolerance of noneurocentric beauty.

It seems the most anger comes when other, nonwhite standards of beauty are held up as equally or more beautiful than their white counterparts.

Smith questioned the excuses critics gave for their hatred of the movie.

“I feel like they don’t re ally have valid arguments besides ‘It’s my childhood,. It’s nostalgic,’ when the ac tual issue is because the actress in the movie is not surrounded by European skin colors (and) facial fea tures,” she said, also prais ing Bailey for being an icon non-white kids can look to so they feel beautiful.

She said it’s a struggle to feel good about yourself when you’re underrepre sented and ignored in the media.

“If you have super curly hair, it’s a bad thing. If your hair is thick, it’s a bad thing,” Smith said. If you have a big nose, if you have big lips, it’s a whole ordeal.

“It makes minority girls feel like they're not beautiful enough.”

Fast-food chains are ruining Bloomington’s authenticity

Gentry Keener (she/her) is a sophomore studying journalism and political science.

On Wednesday, Sept. 7, a new restaurant chain opened on Kirkwood Av enue. Known for its Texas toast and Cane’s Sauce, the chain, Raising Cane’s, is a fast-growing chicken finger restaurant from the south. However, this isn’t the only new restaurant that has opened in Bloomington this school year.

Gables Bagels is a new bagel location that opened off East Third Street. The owner, Ed Schwartzman, also owns the popular Buf faLouie's. Gables opened back in June 2022, along with a few others in March, such as Hopscotch Kitchen, an extension of Hopscotch Cof fee, and a new storefront for Parlor Doughnuts.

Although Raising Cane’s was highly anticipated, the reviews have been sub-par. In under just two weeks, the Bloomington Raising Cane’s has gone down to 3.6 stars. Reviews have included com plaints of half-toasted Texas toast, along with soggy, cold fries and unseasoned chick en tenders. Despite all the hype, the store isn’t living up to its name.

On the flip side of this, Gables Bagels has prevailed. There are little to no negative reviews from the students, and the online comments are phenomenal with beam ing reviews from East Coast ers verifying that the bagels are truly authentic and deli cious. Others praise the ex cellent customer service and absolute amazing flavors of the bagels. Even after being open for almost two months, the company still has a 5-star rating.

Is this really a surprise though? Most fast-food chains lack what it takes to live up to a small business. Small businesses are the owners’ dream. In a lot of ways, those businesses are their livelihoods. They aren’t multi-managing thousands of different stores, and they still have the time and energy to make sure everything is perfect. Take Ed for example. Ed works front and center of Gables every day. He goes the extra mile for the cus tomers and always makes sure they get the best prod uct they can. This storefront was his dream, and it shows through his work. You can’t find that at a chain restau rant.

Fast-food chains simply don’t care enough. I went to Cane’s on Sunday morn ing with a few of my friends. I was hoping to get some honest reviews along with strengthening my own opin ion. It was a relatively clean environment. I will give them that. However, that is where my praise stops.

The employees make it clear they don’t want to be there, making the environ ment slightly tense and un enjoyable. It takes forever to get your food, and the serious lack of organization doesn’t help. The orders are called out by name, and with the loud bustling environ ment, it can be hard to hear.

With all this piling up before I even got my meal, I was rooting for the food to be good. Unfortunately, only one of my friends thor oughly enjoyed it. The oth ers had different feelings toward their meals. Between the bland chicken and oversalted fries, the meal did not deliver as it should have. In the end, we all left feeling un

satisfied.

The beauty of Blooming ton is the small-town feel. However, as a college cam pus, it is nice to have staples such as Taco Bell and Mc Donalds. Obviously, they are going to make a ton of mon ey because college students will make a midnight run for some chicken nuggets. Yet, Raising Cane’s secured one of the top spots for a Bloom ington restaurant on Kirk wood Avenue. Wouldn’t the store space have been better used for a small business?

From the reviews of friends, coworkers and ac quaintances, the answer is yes. There are hundreds of inspiring entrepreneurs who are either attending IU or graduated and looking to start their companies up.

The small business would have boomed, and students, staff and townies would have been ecstatic to have a new establishment to try.

The quaintness of Bloom ington comes from the small businesses and unique res taurants. Places like Mother Bear's Pizza and BuffaLouie's are what make Bloomington distinctive. Why should we continue to take that away by adding sub-par fast-food restaurants that the majority of the students don’t enjoy?

Indiana Daily Student

Editors Sean Gilley, Elizabeth Valadez opinion@idsnews.com

MICHAEL CLAYCAMP | IDS

Travis Washington, the creator of the Hands Up Act petition which calls for police officers who shoot unarmed citizens to serve a mandatory 15-year prison sentence, poses for a portrait Sept. 23, 2022, outside of Franklin Hall. As of this month, Washington's petition has over 2.7 million signatures.

MOVIE STILLS DATABASE Halle Bailey will star as Ariel in Disney’s forthcoming live-action remake of its classic animated movie “The Little Mermaid.”

GENTRY JUDGES

IDS FILE PHOTO BY ETHAN MOORE

The location of Raising Cane’s is seen Sept. 5, 2022, on East Kirkwood Avenue.

FROM PAGE 1

Graduate workers have signed SAA agreements with terms of employment for years, but the new con tract, announced in a letter from the provost in June, is different because it requires faculty to track graduate workers that they supervise more closely and monitor their hours as well as man dating the use of a learning management system like Canvas — conditions that not all coalition members were happy with.

In August, IU President Pamela Whitten and Pro vost Rahul Shrivastav began a series of policy changes to address issues with pay ment and fees, among oth ers, while still refusing to recognize IGWC-UE as a union.

They announced an in crease to the minimum sti pends for SAAs from $15,000 in fall 2021 to $22,000 this year, a 46% increase. They also announced IU would waive mandatory graduate student fees and coursespecific fees. In September, they announced the univer sity will waive international

student fees, improve health and wellness offerings for graduate students, improve transparency in the griev ance process, and create a Graduate Student Advisory Committee.

IGWC-UE union repre sentative Katie Shy said the raise is a one-time fix by the IU administration that aims to reduce the coalition’s momentum.

“We see this at universi ties all across the country,” Shy said. “Raises are given at crucial moments of the union campaign and know ing that context helps us see that we need to keep fight ing.”

Shy said she doubts this raise will be maintained or increased again without a stable source of funding and the pressure of a union.

On Friday afternoon, IU students gathered at the Indiana Memorial Union to rally during President Whit ten’s lunch meeting with leaders from GPSG and un dergraduate student gov ernment. Students chanted, spoke and sang with signs and noise-makers.

IGWC-UE is currently negotiating with the Bloom ington Faculty Council, Ph.D. student Matthew Ro driguez said.

“Depending on how ne gotiations go with that, and depending on how admin istration reacts to it, we may end up careening towards another strike, and I think everybody's ready for one too,” Rodriguez said.

Alex Shannon, a Jacobs School of Music Ph.D. can didate and a member of the IGWC-UE Coordinating Committee, said the com mittee is trying to guaran tee the BFC knows they are committed to the nego tiations and will act in good faith.

“If we just continue to keep threatening to go on strike, we can't do that ev ery time we want a raise, that's unsustainable,” Shan non said.

The only solution to graduate student needs at IU, said Maria Desantiago, a masters student in the Eskenazi School of Art, Ar chitecture and Design, is a union.

» VIGIL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

zalez, both Stratton’s room mates, remembered visiting one another in their dorm rooms and talking about changing their majors and watching bad reality TV. They both said Stratton was the kind of person that lift ed others up just by being around him.

“I only knew Nate for two years,” Smith said. “But I would’ve wished for a life time more.”

Gonzalez, who has known Stratton since they were in high school together in Minnesota, said there were very few times when they weren’t together.

“I can’t think of a single high school dance or event that I went to where he wasn’t there,” Gonzalez said. Smith befriended them both at the very start of col lege.

“They were a package deal,” Smith chuckled. “At tached at the hip.”

Stratton’s friends re member how he would do anything they needed when it counted. They never had to ask. Gonzalez remem bered a time recently when

the care and services you need to stay healthy at idsnews.com/health

Health Spotlight

Dr. Starr is an Indiana University Football Alum who provides pain-free experiences for all Hoosiers with IV sedation. He performs specialized oral surgery services including Wisdom Teeth Extractions, Dental Implants, Bone Grafting, and Plasma Therapy. Equipped with modern 3-D technology, he has the most up-to-date surgical skills and techniques to accomplish beautiful results with his patients. He looks forward to accomplishing beautiful results with his patients, enhancing confidence and satisfaction for all he serves.

Go Hoosiers!

We look forward to taking care of you!

Mon. - Thu.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Fri.: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. 473 S. Landmark Ave. 812-318-1023 starroralsurgery.com

Massage Therapy

Carmela Senior-Euhl, LMT Mary Stroup, LMT Rachelle Hope, LMT Sarah Gershon, LMT Samantha Willoughby, LMT Cinnamon Love, LMT Rebekah Taylor, LMT Kelly Weldon, Licensed Esthetician Bloomington Massage & Bodyworks with a new movement studio, is the longest running massage practice in Bloomington. With a passion for quality work. Celebrating 25 years in business, we provide therapeutic massage. Along with new, expanded services in Esthetics, Cupping, EnergyWork, Yoga & Movement classes. We look forward to continuing our dedication to the community and clients. Committed to helping you feel the best, because you deserve it. Visit our website: www. bloomingtonbodyworks.com

Mon. - Sat.: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Sun.: 12:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.

101 W. Kirkwood Ave, Suite 127 812-333-4917 bloomingtonbodyworks.com

Physicians

Monroe Hospital is an award winning 32-bed hospital located in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. A member of the Prime Healthcare health system, Monroe Hospital is committed to providing Bloomington and surrounding communities a choice for superior healthcare, ever mindful of each patient’s individual and unique needs.

Front Lobby: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Emergency Dept.: open 24 hrs

X-Ray Lab & Respiratory: open 24 hours

4011 S. Monroe Medical Park Blvd. 812-825-1111 monroehospital.com

Physicians

Dr. Vasquez is a Board Certified Vascular Surgeon specializing in progressive endovascular treatments. Over 20 years experience in treating varicose veins, peripheral vascular disease, aortic aneurysm and carotid disease, including angioplasty and stenting.

Mon. - Fri.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. 815 W. Second St. 812-336-6008 vascularcenterandveinclinic.com

Chiropractic

he had gotten sick with the flu late at night.

“He dropped everything to get me Liquid IV and Gatorade,” Gonzalez said. “It was 2 in the morning, and he tracked down a 24hour convenience store and went on this giant hunt just to bring me Gatorade.”

His friends remember Stratton making meals for them, just to ensure they had a bite to eat. He would listen to people’s life plans and make a point to check in on them later. Gonzalez said Stratton was gone too soon, at just 20 years old.

“There’s going to be a hole in my heart for the rest of my life,” Gonzalez said.

Stratton’s friends and family asked those who knew him to live their lives in a way that would have made him proud — with determination and kind ness.

“The best way all of us can continue to live our lives and honor him is to do the things he would have wanted us to do — do the things that we loved to do with him,” Gonzalez said.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Benz with damage to the windshield and a dam aged e-scooter nearby, ac cording to WBIW News.

A security officer that had been driving through the area told police officers they had seen the car driv ing north on Lincoln Street after the crash, and that it sounded like the car was dragging something on the ground. The security offi cer said they heard people tell the occupants of the vehicle that they were dragging an e-scooter un der the car, and bystanders helped the driver remove it prior to IU Police De partment officers arriving at the scene, according to WBIW News.

Stratton, originally from Excelsior, Minnesota, was a junior in the Kelley School of Business. Stu dents and family held a vigil Sept. 22 to commem orate him.

Howard’s initial court hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30 at the Monroe County Justice Building, located at 301 N. College Ave.

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 and vasectomy.

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

Thu.: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Fri.: 8 a.m. - 2 p.m. 2907 S. McIntire Dr. 812-332-8765 summiturology.com

Dr. Andrew Pitcher, D.C.

Dr. Crystal Gray, D.C.

A Way of Wellness Chiropractic specializes in comprehensive spinal care. We offer treatment for many different spinal conditions and problems, while also addressing the body as a whole. We provide effective chiropractic care helping patients reduce stress, improve mobility and spinal health. The quality treatment we provide is always fit to your individual needs and goals. Let us help you achieve and maintain good spinal health. We look forward to meeting you!

Mon. - Fri.: 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. 1710 W. Third St. 812-336-2225 bloomingtonchiropractor.com

Optometry

Dr. Zachary Short, O.D.

Dr. Madison Witthoft, O.D.

Welcome to Insights Optical, where quality eye care is our number one priority. Our dedicated team is ready to learn all about you and your vision needs while using innovative technology and a comprehensive care approach to take care of your eye health.

Mon.: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Wed.: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Tue., Thu., Fri.: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

415 S. Clarizz Blvd. 812-333-1911 insightsoptical.com

General Health

Sarah Tieman, MD Gregory Sutliff, MD Elizabeth Simon, LCAC Shashanka Nethi, MBBS Nubia McVey, FNP-C Theresa McClure, FNP Kristen Bunch, CNM, FNP-BC Ordonio Reyes, DDS Steven Felde, DDS

HealthNet Bloomington Health Center provides high-quality, affordable health care services to adults and children. Services include Primary Care, Behavioral Health, Dental, STI Testing & Treatment, Birth Control, Gender Affirming Care, and much more! We accept all Medicaid plans and most commercial insurance. A sliding fee scale discount is available for those who are eligible.

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

Tue.: 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. Fri.: 8 a.m. - 1 p.m. 811 W. Second St. 812-333-4001 indyhealthnet.org/locations/ bloomington-health-center

At Chapman Orthodontics, we know what you look for in an orthodontist: someone who is professional, experienced, outgoing and dedicated to helping you achieve your very best smile! We offer free consultations for children, teens and adults. Let us give you a smile you can be proud of using state of the art technology and cutting edge treatment options. We offer clear braces and Invisalign.

Chapman Orthodontics is a privately owned orthodontic practice. Dr. Josh Chapman attended IU Bloomington for undergraduate and received his Doctor in Dental Surgery (DDS) and Masters (MSD) in Orthodontics at IU school of Dentistry in Indy. Go Hoosiers!

Mon. - Thu.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. 3925 E. Hagan St., Suite 201 812-822-2489 bloomingtonbraces.com

Ryan D. Tschetter, DDS Lauren Hoye, DDS Jackson Creek Dental is conveniently located on South College Mall Road. Most insurances accepted, including the Indiana University Cigna Insurance plans as well as the IU Fellowship Anthem. Dr. Tschetter and Dr. Hoye offer state of the art dental technology such as Zoom whitening, same day crown appointments, and Invisalign. We also provide restorative, cosmetic and emergency care. We pride ourselves in giving the best care to our patients while offering a pleasant yet professional atmosphere.

Mon. - Thu.: 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. Fri.: 7 a.m. - 3 p.m.

1124 S. College Mall Rd. 812-336-5525 jcdsmiles.com

Austin C. Starr, D.D.S

Dr. Starr is an Indiana University Football Alum who provides pain-free experiences for all Hoosiers with IV sedation. He performs specialized oral surgery services including Wisdom Teeth Extractions, Dental Implants, Bone Grafting, and Plasma Therapy. Equipped with modern 3-D technology, he has the most up-to-date surgical skills and techniques to accomplish beautiful results with his patients. He looks forward to accomplishing beautiful results with his patients, enhancing confidence and satisfaction for all he serves.

Go Hoosiers!

We look forward to taking care of you!

Mon. - Thu.: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Fri.: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

473 S. Landmark Ave. 812-318-1023 starroralsurgery.com

area.

Oral/Dental Care

Dr. Josh Chapman

Austin C. Starr, D.D.S

Indiana suffers first loss of season, falls 45-24 to Cincinnati

of gameplay.

The third Bearcat touch down in the five minutes before halftime came as the result of a Bazelak fum ble, recovered by redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Dominque Perry and re turned for a touchdown. The scoop and score gave the Bearcats a 38-10 lead going into the locker room — the largest halftime deficit for the Hoosiers so far this season.

Indiana’s defense didn’t just break in the first half — it was fractured.

Bryant finished the half 17-21 with 314 yards and four touchdowns. Along with his three first-half receiving touchdowns, Scott had 158 receiving yards on just seven catches and his partner in crime, senior Tre Tucker, had 92 yards on five catches, se curing the other touchdown pass from Bryant.

Although Indiana kept Cincinnati scoreless in the third quarter, a late thirdquarter drive dwindled for Indiana after an unsuccess ful fourth down conversion in the red zone.

Defensively, Indiana sought to right its wrongs in the second half and its de fense looked vastly improved compared to the first half, holding Cincinnati’s offense to zero first downs on five of fensive drives.

Despite the rejuvenation of Indiana’s defense in the second half, the Hoosiers’ of fense stumbled over oppor tunities toward the latter half of the game and a late touch down — the lone Bearcat score of the second half — put the game out of reach.

By Jacob Spudich jaspudi@iu.edu | @spudichjacob

Indiana football’s unde feated season came to an abrupt end Saturday against the University of Cincinnati. The Bearcats exploited the Hoosiers’ defensive weak nesses and dominated the Hoosiers Saturday after noon, 45-24.

After last season’s loss at home against Cincinnati sent Indiana on a downward tra jectory in which it lost nine of its last ten games and fin ished the season 2-10, the Hoosiers were eager for re venge.

In the Hoosiers first road game of the season, they traveled to Nippert Stadium, where they were welcomed by a hard-hitting Bearcat defense and an electric envi ronment powered by the ani mated student section.

To start the game, Indi ana strung together a couple of positive yardage passing plays, but on its second of fensive drive, redshirt junior quarterback Connor Baz elak’s pass sailed into the hands of Cincinnati sopho more safety Bryon Threats.

Despite Threats return ing the interception to Indi ana’s 6-yard line, the Hoo

siers’ defense stayed true to their adage of bending but not breaking and stuffed the Bearcats’ offense to force a field goal.

After Indiana tied it up 3-3 with a field goal of its own, Cincinnati absorbed the punch and came back swing ing even harder on its ensu ing drive. Redshirt senior Ben Bryant found wide-open junior receiver Tyler Scott for a 75-yard touchdown recep tion to give Cincinnati the 10-3 lead to conclude the first quarter.

As both teams benefited from the short fields, they traded a pair of touchdowns.

Indiana anticipates a championship-level season

Indiana’s first and only touchdown of the half came from a connection between Bazelak and senior running back Josh Henderson to cap a short 65-second drive — cutting the lead to just 7 points early in the second quarter.

However, what followed was an offensive onslaught from the Bearcats as they scored 21 consecutive points within the last five minutes of the first half. Cincinnati’s Scott was on the receiv ing end of two of the three Bearcat touchdowns — notching a touchdown hat trick in less than 30 minutes

“Some of our best guys are getting beat one on one,” Indiana head coach Tom Al len said postgame. “Those three big pass plays were re ally the difference for us.”

The Hoosiers’ message coming out of halftime was clear.

“If we don’t believe we can win this game, then we should stay in the locker room,” Bazelak said.

Entering the second half and in search of a monu mental comeback, Indiana is given a pulse with a senior cornerback Tiawan Mullen interception. The Hoosiers used the momentum from the turnover to produce a scoring drive when Bazelak found senior running back Shaun Shivers in the end zone.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Bazelak set an Indiana football program record with 66 pass attempts in a single game, notching the record on a pass that was intercept ed. The Hoosiers ran 104 of fensive plays throughout Sat urday’s game, averaging just 3.3 yards per play.

“It’s a long season,” Ba zelak said after the game. “Every single game is going to be a dog fight. It’s going to be tough.”

What is Allen’s solution to the team’s inconsistencies between the halves? Tell the team it’s halftime prior to kickoff, Allen joked.

“It’s concerning,” Allen said. “You start developing a pattern. We have to make changes on how we are prac ticing.”

Indiana will look to bounce back next week against Nebraska at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Lincoln, Nebras ka.

Woodson has Indiana ready to compete for titles

By Evan Gerike egerike@iu.edu | @EvanGerike

Indiana men’s basketball isn’t focusing on the hype and the spotlight that comes with being a preseason favorite in the Big Ten, but it isn’t shying away from it either.

When Indiana tips off its season Nov. 7 against Moorehead State University, it will be mired in optimism surrounding the program, a level of which hasn’t been seen in years in Bloomington.

At an institution where basketball carries so much weight, the Hoosiers returned to the NCAA Tournament in head coach Mike Woodson’s first year after a five-year hiatus. With nearly all its core returning from last season, they’re an easy favorite to challenge for the Big Ten title.

Indiana basketball team than sophomore guard Anthony Leal.

Leal, who grew up in Bloomington cheering for Indiana, was still in middle school the last time Indiana won a conference title in 2016. He wasn’t even a year old when the Hoosiers made their last run to the Final Four, a national championship defeat to Maryland in 2002.

“We’ve definitely got a lot of potential, but it’s going to come down to whether or not we can gel together and play as hard as we can,” Leal said. “Every time we’re out there we just take every day, one day at a time, just keep getting better and stay competitive.”

of themselves — after all, nobody has played a game yet.

“We want to win a Big Ten championship, a national championship,” Thompson said. “In order to do that, we’ve got to come in and put the work in every day. At the end of the day, the hype is just the hype.”

Thompson will play a big role in getting the Hoosiers to live up to that hype. After participating in senior day last season, it was unclear whether he would return for his last year of eligibility. But following a successful season where he averaged 11.1 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, Thompson decided to play one more year.

By Will Foley wtfoley@iu.edu | @foles24

Indiana women’s bas ketball appeared at the pro gram’s first combined institu tional basketball media day Thursday. Head coach Teri Moren and junior guards Syd ney Parrish and Chloe MooreMcNeil spoke on the podium for the Hoosiers.

Moren was first to speak and addressed several key questions facing the Hoosiers entering the season. One per tained to last season’s lack of depth off the bench, which mandated a heavy workload for the starters.

“We talk about this. They were workhorses,” Moren said. “But I think we welcome the idea of being able to have depth, and we’re excited about it.”

Additionally, the loss of three starters to graduation and the addition of seven newcomers has dramatically changed the makeup of the team. Moren said she isn’t concerned about the roster turnover and said their goals are as high as usual.

“We’re not the same team from last year, but we do have some interesting pieces,” Moren said. “We have goals that we have yet to accom plish, like winning the Big Ten Championship.”

Moren expressed her ap

preciation for the program, which she has built from an afterthought behind the men’s program to something respectable and anticipated by Hoosier fans.

“When we arrived here we wanted to build our own tradition of winning and fill ing this place up with not just women’s basketball fans but basketball fans,” Moren said. “We certainly have changed the way people on the outside have always looked at this program.”

Parrish joins the program as a transfer after two seasons at the University of Oregon.

Prior to her time with the Ducks, she was a top-10 re cruit out of Fishers, Indiana, and recipient of the Miss In diana Basketball award as a high school senior.

The junior guard said be ing back in Indiana “means everything” to her and re vealed the importance of be ing by close friends and family again.

Parrish also talked about her relationship with Moren and her renewed interest in the program after spurning the Hoosiers three years prior.

“I’d say the winning cul ture they have right now and just what Coach Moren has done with the program,” Par rish said regarding her inter est coming out of the transfer portal.

“I think the next step is continuing to grow my game, whether it’s on offense or de fense,” Moore-McNeil said. “Our big key is getting stops, so being a one-on-one de fender is where I want to grow.”

While she is focused on improving her own game, Moore-McNeil said she is more focused on the team taking the next step this sea son and thinks its identity will be key.

“I believe the most im portant part of this year is us coming to an understand ing this is a brand new team and year,” she said. “We need to put (our past successes) behind us and focus on the pieces we have now.”

While the season’s begin ning is still over six weeks away, official practices are set to begin soon. Before the Hoosiers take the court for their first game, they will ap pear before the media once more at Big Ten Media Days on Oct. 11 in Minneapolis.

“Expectations are always going to be high,” Woodson said at Indiana’s basketball media day Thursday. “When I came in here and took the job, expectations were high. This program is built that way, and it should be that way. It’s what it is, man. I’m not going to run from it, and I’m not going to let my players run from it.”

Woodson’s goal for his time at Indiana is clear, and his players have bought in.

“I came back here to win Big Ten titles and national titles,” Woodson said. “That’s all I want.”

Woodson knows the expectations that come alongside the Indiana name and the pressure they bring. In Woodson’s senior year, 1980, the Hoosiers entered the preseason ranked No. 1, a year after he led the team to a National Invitation Tournament title. That year, Indiana bottomed out in the Sweet Sixteen with a loss to Purdue.

“Rankings are what they are. You’ve still got to play the game, my man,” Woodson said. “That’s what’s important. It’s going to be my job to get this team to play at a level every night and put them in a position to win every time they step out on the floor.”

Outside of Woodson, perhaps no one better understands the pressure and significance of a good

Leal played in limited minutes last season, and while he did earn two starts, he only averaged 1.9 points per game. Over the offseason, Leal said he worked just as hard on the game’s mental aspect as the physical one.

Leal said he’s matured a lot heading into his third year, and the experience he’s gained will help steady himself on the court. Still, there are days when staying steady mentally isn’t as easy.

“I feel like everybody does (have bad days), but at the same time I’m at home and my family’s nearby,” Leal said. “It’s definitely up and down, but I always remind myself I used to dream about wearing this jersey and now I get to wear it.”

That jersey is regaining the notoriety that goes with it this year as teams start to target Indiana as the Big Ten favorite. Although no Coaches’ Poll or AP Polls have been released yet, most predictions, like 247Sports, have Indiana No. 1 in the Big Ten.

Race Thompson, the senior forward now entering his sixth year with the program, has been one of Indiana’s leaders in setting a tone around the program ahead of this season. With everyone looking to topple the Hoosiers this year, Thompson is making sure they’re focused on the end goal. But they’re also not trying to get too far ahead

Alongside junior forward Trayce JacksonDavis, who entered the NBA Draft but withdrew before the deadline, Indiana’s frontcourt remains in the hands of its most experienced players. Indiana didn’t hide its goals during its media day. But if there’s a lot of pressure from fans and the media, Woodson isn’t going to run from it, and he doesn’t want his players to, either.

“If they’re scared of that challenge, then they shouldn’t be here,” Woodson said. “That’s kind of how I look at it. I’m not scared of it. You shouldn’t be scared of it. We’ve got to do this together as a unit. Again, I know expectations are high. I get that. That’s a good thing.”

ELLA BOOZER | IDS

Redshirt junior Connor Bazelak looks for an open reciever Sept. 17, 2022, at Memorial Stadium. The University of Cincinnati defeated Indiana 4524 on Saturday.

Joining Parrish in the backcourt, Moore-McNeil returns for her third season with the Hoosiers, having ex ponentially improved in her first two seasons. Her minutes averaged last season nearly tripled from her freshman season, and her role this sea son looks to increase again as she enters the starting lineup.

IDS FILE PHOTO BY ALEX PAUL

Indiana women’s basketball head coach Teri Moren speaks to the crowd at Hoosier Hysteria on Oct. 2, 2021, at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana’s first game will be against Kentucky Wesleyan Nov. 4 in Assembly Hall.

IDS FILE PHOTO BY ETHAN LEVY Indiana head coach Mike Woodson talks to thensophomore guard Khristian Lander during the game against Jackson State University on Nov. 23, 2021, at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Woodson enters his second year as head coach this season.

Jacobs school to premiere 'Fall Ballet' Sept. 30

he is a gifted mover,” Wroth said. “He has been exposed to modern dance training, contemporary dance train ing and ballet. So, when you watch his work unfold, you’re seeing the best of all three.”

The final piece of “Fall Ballet” is “Angels in The Ar chitecture,” choreographed by Mark Godden. The piece is heavily inspired by the Shaker lifestyle and is choreographed to Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.” The most recog nizable part of Copland’s composition is the classic Shaker song “Simple Gifts,” also known as “Lord of the Dance.”

As a contemporary dance, the choreography is inherently challenging to perform, with six couples performing difficult part nering steps. However, Wroth said the dancers are more than capable of meet ing the challenge with full dedication.

“That’s something we look at when we program a work,” Wroth said. “We look at how this will help our students grow and thrive and become edu cated in what needs they need to satisfy when they go out into the ballet world in terms of their own move ment execution.”

By Gino Diminich gdiminic@iu.edu | @GinoDiminichII

The fall season of ballet at the Jacobs School of Mu sic will open with perfor mances at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 and 2 p.m. Oct. 1. The “Fall Ballet” will feature a variety of dances showcasing the talents of old and new choreogra phers.

The first piece on display is the “Valse-Fantaisie,” a classic work originally cho reographed by George Bal anchine, an influential fig ure in the world of dance.

Sarah Wroth, professor of music at the Jacobs School of Music and chair of the Ballet Department, said she selected this piece as an opener due to its high energy.

“Dancers are bounding

across the stage and it’s a great energetic way to start this evening,” Wroth said. “The first chords of the piece are just going to wake the audience up and get them seated upright.”

The following unnamed performed piece is choreo graphed by Nicole Haskins, the trainee program direc tor for Ballet Idaho. Utiliz ing 16 female-identifying dancers and starting re

Kinsey Institute celebrates 75th anniversary with statue

hearsals close to the first week of school, Wroth re called the resounding im pact of seeing the dancers’ hard work come together.

“Its majesty in motion, it’s not bombastic power,” Wroth said. “It’s this kind of quiet grace that’s built from mature strength on stage and you get to see each dancer step into this spot light of movement.”

The third piece, also

currently unnamed, of the evening is choreographed by My’Kal Stromile, an art ist currently working with Boston Ballet. It was his work with Boston Ballet’s “The Gift” in 2020, in which he choreographed a short dance to Duke Ellington’s “Nutcracker Suite,” that led Wroth to reach out to him about the “Fall Ballet.”

“I wanted to make a space for him at IU because

But the first step is al ways in the present, and Wroth is confident that “Fall Ballet” will usher in old and new fans of ballet, with something for every one to love and enjoy while watching the latest produc tion.

“It’s an experience of wonder,” Wroth said, “So the more people we can get through the door, the more believers we’ll make.”

Tickets for “Fall Ballet” are on sale through the Ja cobs School of Music web site and are $10 dollars for students.

COLUMN: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ definitely feels like a movie

By Anne Hassfurder anhassfu@iu.edu

For the 75th anniversary of the Kinsey Institute, Mel anie Cooper Pennington, a lecturer of sculpture at In diana University’s Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design, commissioned a bronze sculpture of Alfred C. Kinsey outside Lindley Hall to commemorate his impact on the university.

Alfred C. Kinsey founded the Kinsey Institute in 1947 with the goal of better un derstanding all aspects of human sexuality through research and discussion, according to the institute. It merged with Indiana Uni versity in 2016 after being funded and supported by IU president Herman B Wells during its initial creation.

“Many people consider Dr. Kinsey’s largest contri bution to our understanding of human sexuality to be his findings on sexual diversity,” Justin Garcia, the executive director of the Kinsey Insti tute, said in an email. “His results expanded our knowl

edge of the range of human sexual behavior that was taking place in American so ciety and made people more aware of sexual minorities.”

The statue is a true-tolife replica of Kinsey cast in bronze at art foundry Bol linger Atelier, and it was created by IU sculpture lec turer Melanie Cooper Pen nington. Her students also helped facilitate the creation of the realistic sculpture.

“What I’ve tried to do with this piece is bring in a contemporary twist and also reference Kinsey’s metaphor of bringing light into dark ness,” Pennington said.

She said she created the piece to be interactive with those who view it, as Kin sey would have interacted with his 18,000 research participants. The sculpture features a sitting Kinsey with his code sheet, a set of numbers that allowed him to take notes without look ing away from the partici pant, and a chair opposite to it to allow the viewer to take the place of those he researched. The sheet and

chair are lit from the inside, allowing the sculpture to re main bright and visually in triguing even on the darkest campus nights.

“I like the idea of memo rializing major figures and department heads at IU,” Britta Hess, a junior in the Eskenazi School of Art, said. “It’s nice to be given a physi cal embodiment of someone who would normally just be in a picture on the wall. It lets us interact with them in a way, which is cool.”

With the addition of Al fred C. Kinsey to the group of bronze statues scattered across campus, IU recogniz es and celebrates the legacy Kinsey’s institution left be hind.

“My hope is that (the statue) is going to spark cu riosity about who Kinsey was, and I hope it creates a new destination on campus that shares a little bit more of the history of the Kinsey Institute so they can keep working,” Pennington said. “There’s so much to learn and to gather and to grow from.”

By Chloe Fulk cdfulk@iu.edu

I never thought I would see the day. Let me elaborate — I never thought I would see the day when the drama surrounding the production of “Don’t Worry Darling” wouldn’t be the only thing filling my Twitter feed; when I wouldn’t have to hear Tik Tok influencers weighing in on such a convoluted and messy subject; when I wouldn’t see a complex and private dispute reduced to a petty competition.

But, here we are: “Don’t Worry Darling,” Olivia Wilde’s sophomore di rectorial venture about a 1950s housewife, played by Florence Pugh, and her husband, played by Harry Styles, was released in the aters Sept. 23. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Pugh and Styles play Al ice and Jack, a pair of young lovebirds living in an ide alistic, cult-like company town in the desert. The only residents are other couples like them — men who work for the mysterious Victory Project and their dutiful housewives who stay at home to cook, clean and serve their husbands.

When Alice starts to experience what the town doctor calls hallucinations, she begins to suspect that the Victory Project is not what it seems, and that something more sinister is afoot.

The first act of the film is incredibly promising. Thanks to Wilde’s direction and Pugh’s incredible per formance, we’re instantly drawn into this beautifully designed world. The score is unexpectedly unique, which was a delightful sur prise. The production de sign, costume design and cinematography are vi sual eye candy. Even Harry Styles — bless his heart — was convincing in his first few scenes.

However, as the film pro gresses, it begins to decline in quality.

“Don’t Worry Darling” has a pacing problem that reveals itself in the second act. This hour-long chunk of time could have been used to develop the sup porting characters, reveal more about the criminally underdeveloped antago nist played by Chris Pine, or dive deeper into some of the mysteries of their idyllic town. Instead, the second act is spent repeating the same pattern: Alice witness es something weird, she has a hallucination, she’s told that she’s crazy, repeat. But, I was still holding out hope that the payoff in the third act would be worth it.

It was not.

The final half-hour of “Don’t Worry Darling” is so rushed, under cooked and anti-climactic that I was baffled when it cut to black. I thought there had to be more, but alas, there was not.

The themes are never

developed past the idea that men controlling women is, in fact, bad. A two hourlong film was not needed to explore such surface-level ideas about feminism and gender roles.

While Wilde’s direc tion is interesting and sharp enough to keep you engaged, the screenplay, which Wilde expressed in terest in when it was on the 2019 black list, is far too mo notonous. The film never does enough to distinguish itself from its clear sources of inspiration: “The Truman Show,” “Get Out” and “The Stepford Wives.”

Pugh carries the film on her back. She knows how to sell boring writing with her natural charisma and fierce ness. Her vulnerability and desperation are visceral and evoke empathy from the au dience. It makes sense that Wilde sought Pugh out after seeing her in “Midsommar,” because the two perfor mances are very similar.

Her scenes with Styles are jarring — having both one of the best and one of the worst performances of the year in the same scene can do that. While Styles is inherently charismatic, he couldn’t do an emotional scene if his life depended on it. His alien-like, uncom fortable presence is like a car crash that you can’t look away from.

Nevertheless, “Don’t Worry Darling” is an enjoy able film that ultimately couldn’t fulfill its own promises.

GINO DIMINICH | IDS

IU Ballet Theater students rehearse choreography for the upcoming piece by Mark Godden, "Angels in The Architecture." The "Fall Ballet" performances will feature four pieces that showcase a variety of old and new choreographers.

ETHAN MOORE | IDS

A bronze sculpture of Alfred C. Kinsey is seen Sept. 27, 2022, outside Lindley Hall. Melanie Cooper Pennington, a lecturer of sculpture at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design, was commissioned to make the sculpture for the 75th anniversary of the Kinsey Institute.

MOVIE STILLS DATABASE

Florence Pugh and Harry Styles star in "Don't Worry Darling."

Rose House LuMin- Lutheran Campus Ministry at IU 314 S. Rose Ave. 812-333-2474 lcmiu.net

Instagram: @hoosierlumin facebook.com/LCMIU

Sunday: 8:30 a.m. & 11:00 a.m. @ St.

Thomas Lutheran Church 3800 E. 3rd St. Tuesday: 6:30 p.m. Dinner & Devotions @ Rose House LuMin 314 S. Rose Ave. Rose House is an inclusive Christian community that offers a safe space for students to gather, explore faith questions, show love to our neighbors through service and work towards a more just world. Rose House walks with students to help them discern where God is calling them in life.

Rev. Amanda Ghaffarian, Campus Pastor

St. Thomas Lutheran Church 3800 E. Third St. 812-332-5252 stlconline.org

facebook.com/StThomasBloomington

Sunday: 8:30 a.m. & 11 a.m.

We are the worshiping home of Rose House Lutheran Campus Ministries. As disciples of Christ who value the faith, gifts and ministry of all God's people and seek justice and reconciliation, we welcome all God's children* to an inclusive and accessible community.

*No strings attached or expectations that you'll change.

Rev. Adrianne Meier Rev. Lecia Beck

Independent Baptist

Lifeway Baptist Church

7821 W. State Road 46 812-876-6072

lifewaybaptistchurch.org facebook.com/lifewayellettsville

Sunday: 9 a.m., Bible Study Classes 10 a.m., Morning Service 5 p.m., Evening Service

Barnabas College Ministry: Meeting for Bible study throughout the month. Contact Rosh Dhanawade at bluhenrosh@gmail.com for more information.

Steven VonBokern, Senior Pastor Rosh Dhanawade, IU Coordinator 302-561-0108

bluhenrosh@gmail.com

*Free transportation provided. Please call if you need a ride to church.

Episcopal (Anglican)

Canterbury Mission 719 E. Seventh St. 812-822-1335 IUCanterbury.org facebook.com/ECMatIU

Instagram & Twitter: @ECMatIU

Sun.: 3 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Mon., Wed., Thu.: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Tue.: Noon - 8 p.m.

Fri., Sat.: By Appointment

Canterbury: Assertively open & affirming; unapologetically Christian, we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ by promoting justice, equality, peace, love and striving to be the change God wants to see in our world

Ed Bird, Chaplain/Priest

Jacob Oliver & Lily Dolliff student workers

Unitarian Universalist

Unitarian Universalist

Church of Bloomington 2120 N. Fee Ln. 812-332-3695 uubloomington.org facebook.com/uubloomington

Sunday: 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

We are a dynamic congregation working for 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.

Rev. Connie Grant, Interim Minister

Rev. Emily Manvel Leite, Minister of Story and Ritual

Church of God (Anderson Affiliated)

Stoneybrook Community Church of God

3701 N. Stoneybrook Blvd. stoneybrookccog.org

facebook.com/StoneyBrookCCOG

Sunday: 10:30 a.m.

10:00 a.m. Coffee & Treats

Stoneybrook Community Church of God is a gathering of imperfect people learning to follow Jesus. We invite you to join us on the journey.

Mitch Ripley, Interim Pastor

Trinity Reformed Church 2401 S. Endwright Rd. 812-825-2684 trinityreformed.org facebook.com/trinitychurchbloom Email us at office@trinityreformed.org

Sunday Services: 9 a.m. & 11 a.m. College Bible Study: Contact us for more info.

"Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.'" Proclaiming freedom from slavery since 1996. Only sinners welcome.

Jody Killingsworth, Senior Pastor Lucas Weeks, College Pastor

Bahá'í Faith

Bahá'í Association of IU 424 S. College Mall Rd. 812-331-1863 bloomingtoninbahais.org facebook.com/BaháíCommunity-of-BloomingtonIndiana-146343332130574

Instagram: @bloomingtonbahai

Regular Services/Devotional Meetings: Sunday: 10:40 a.m. @ Bloomington Bahá'í Center Please call or contact through our website for other meetings/activities

The Bahá'í Association of IU works to share the Teachings and Principles of the Founder, Bahá'u'lláh, that promote the "Oneness of Mankind" and the Peace and Harmony of the Planet through advancing the "security, prosperity, wealth and tranquility of all peoples."

Karen Pollock & Dan Enslow

Inter-Denominational

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

redeemerbloomington.org facebook.com/RedeemerBtown

Instagram & Twitter: @RedeemerBtown

Sunday: 9 a.m. & 11 a.m.

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.

Chris Jones, Lead Pastor

Baptist

University Baptist Church 3740 E. Third St. 812-339-1404 ubcbloomington.org

facebook.com/ubc.bloomington

YouTube: UBC Bloomington IN

Sunday: 10:45 a.m., Worship in person & live streamed on YouTube

A welcoming and affirming congregation excited to be a church home to students in Bloomington. Trans and other LGBTQ+ friends and allies most especially welcome!

Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor Rob Drummond, Worship & Music Minister

Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

University Lutheran Church and Student Center

607 E. Seventh St 812-336-5387 indianalutheran.com

facebook.com/ULutheranIU instagram.com/uluindiana

Sunday: 9:15 a.m.: Sunday Bible Class 10:30 a.m.: Sunday Worship

Wednesday: 7 p.m.: Wednesday Evening Service

7:45 p.m.: College Bible Study

Student Center open daily, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.

We are the home of the LCMS campus ministry at Indiana. Our mission is to serve all college students with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Located on Campus, we offer Christ-centered worship, Bible study and a community of friends gathered around God’s gifts of life, salvation and the forgiveness of sins through our Senior Jesus Christ.

Richard Woelmer, Pastor

Jubilee

Jubilee is a Christ-centered community open and affirming to all people. We gather on Wednesdays at First Methodist (219 E. Fourth St.) for a free meal, discussion, worship and hanging out. Small groups, service projects, events (scavenger hunts bonfires, etc.), mission trips and opportunities for student leadership are all a significant part of our rhythm of doing life together.

Society of Friends (Quaker)

Bloomington Friends Meeting 3820 E. Moores Pike 812-336-4581 bloomingtonfriendsmeeting.org

Facebook: Bloomington Friends Meeting

Sunday (in person and by Zoom):

9:45 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., Light Refreshments and Fellowship 12:45 p.m., Often there is a second hour activity (see website)

Wednesday (by Zoom only): 9 a.m., Midweek Meeting for worship 9:30 a.m., Fellowship

We practice traditional Quaker worship, gathering in silence with occasional Spirit-led vocal ministry by fellow worshipers. We are an inclusive community with a rich variety of belief and no prescribed creed. We are actively involved in peace action, social justice causes, and environmental concerns. Peter Burkholder, Clerk burkhold@indiana.edu

Sunday: 9:30 a.m., Classic Worship & 11:45 a.m., Contemporary Worship

Wednesday: 7:30 p.m., College & Young Adult Dinner

219 E. Fourth St. 812-332-6396

jubileebloomington.org jubilee@fumcb.org Facebook: @jubileebloomington Instagram: @jubileebloomington

Markus Dickinson, Campus Director

Non-Denominational

Calvary Chapel of Bloomington

3625 W State Road 46 812-369-8459 calvarychapelbloomington.org facebook.com/calvarychapelbloomington YouTube: Calvary Chapel Bloomington IN

Sunday: 10 a.m.

Tuesday: 7 p.m., Prayer Wednesday: 6:30 p.m.

Hungry for God's word and fellowship with other believers? Come as you are and worship with us as we grow in the knowledge of His love, mercy, and grace through the study of the scriptures, and serving those in need. May the Lord richly bless you!

Frank Peacock, Pastor Alissa Peacock, Children's Ministry

Christ Community Church 503 S. High St. 812-332-0502 cccbloomington.org facebook.com/christcommunitybtown Instagram: @christcommunitybtown

Sunday: 9:15 a.m., Educational Hour 10:30 a.m., Worship Service

Jubilee 219 E. Fourth St. 812-332-6396 jubileebloomington.org jubilee@fumcb.org

facebook.com/jubileebloomington

Instagram: @jubileebloomington

Sunday: 9:30 a.m., Classic Worship & 11:45 a.m., Contemporary Worship Wednesday: 7:30 p.m., College & Young Adult Dinner

Jubilee is a Christ-centered community open and affirming to all people. We gather on Wednesdays at First Methodist (219 E. Fourth St.) for a free meal, discussion, worship and hanging out. Small groups, service projects, events (scavenger hunts, bonfires, etc.), mission trips and opportunities for student leadership are all a significant part of our rhythm of doing life together.

Markus Dickinson, Campus Director

Mennonite

Mennonite Fellowship of Bloomington 2420 E. Third St. 812-646-2441 bloomingtonmenno.org facebook.com/MennoniteFellowship-ofBloomington-131518650277524

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

We are a diverse community of Christ-followers, including many IU students, faculty and staff. Together we are committed to sharing the redeeming grace and transforming truth of Jesus Christ in this college town.

Bob Whitaker, Senior Pastor Adam deWeber, Worship Pastor Dan Waugh, Adult Ministry Pastor

Church of Christ 825 W. Second St. 812-332-0501 facebook.com/w2coc

Sunday: 9:30 a.m., Bible Study

10:30 a.m. & 5 p.m., Worship Wednesday: 7 p.m., Bible Study

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.

John Myers, Preacher

City Church For All Nations 1200 N. Russell Rd. 812-336-5958 citychurchbloomington.org facebook.com/citychurchbtown Instagram: @citychurchbtown

Sunday Service: 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

*Always check website for possible changes to service times.

City Church is a non-denominational multicultural, multigenerational church on Bloomington's east side. 1Life, our college ministry meets on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m.

David Norris, Pastor Sumer Norris, Pastor

United Methodist

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Evangel Presbytery

CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING POLICIES

AD ACCEPTANCE:

HOUSING ADS:

REFUNDS: If

date, the IDS will refund the difference in price. A minimum of one day will be charged.

COPY CHANGES:

PAYMENT:

Elders Journey, voted number one home health care agency, is hiring! If you are a dynamic per son, Elders Journey is for you! We offer flexible

CLASSIFIEDS

COPY ERRORS: The IDS must be noti ed of errors before

rst

date of

ad. The IDS is only responsible

errors published on the rst insertion date. The IDS will rerun your

1 day when noti ed before noon of the rst insertion date.

ONLINE POSTING: All classi ed line ads are posted online at idsnews.com/classi eds at

What

To place an ad: go online, call 812-855-0763 or stop

p.m. Monday

Hall 130 from 9 a.m. -

Hi!

Thanks

Have

Stoneybrook Community Church of God Free Ham & Bean Dinner with Rocky Branch Bluegrass Band Oct. 8th, 4 ‑ 7 3701 N. Stoneybrook Blvd Bloomington, IN 47404

IDS is now hiring Delivery Drivers. $15/hour + mileage. 3‑12 hours/week

Deliver the print edition of the IDS each Thursday to newsstands in Blooming ton and the IU campus. Driver should be available between 4‑9 a.m. each Thursday. Deliver special publications and posters.

Drivers must have own vehicle & pass a motor vehicle records check & IU background check. Complete an I‑9 form.

Email jmrodenb@iu.edu

Grant Properties

Monroe County Parks & Recreation now hiring part‑time youth recreation leaders. Must be available T/Th 4‑5:30 pm. $15/hr.

Contact Beth at bcossairt@co.monroe.in.us

Horoscope

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Today is a 9 - You’re irresistible. Your luck improves, with Venus in your sign for the next month. Get a new haircut or style. Soak in the love.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Today is a 7 - Savor private productivity, with Venus in Libra. Indulge in quiet time this month. Consider dreams and possibilities. Make plans and preparations. Enjoy beautiful rituals.

St. David’s Episcopal Church, Bean Blossom, IN Seeks pipe Organist/Choir Director. Experience as a church organist and famil iarity with liturgical worship desired but not required.

EOE Inquire at 812‑988‑1038 or jobposting@stdavidsbb.org

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Today is an 8 - Enjoy the spotlight. You’re especially popular for the next four weeks, with Venus in Libra. Social activities benefit your career. Collaborate for shared passion.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Today is an 8 - Put love into your work, with Venus in Libra over four weeks. Demand rises and so does cash flow... as well as status and influence.

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Today is a 7 - Travel, exploration and investigation beckon over the coming month, with Venus in Libra. Set educational goals. Study, write and research. Make beautiful discoveries.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)

Today is an 8 - Increase your shared assets. The next month is good for saving money, with Venus in Libra. Budget expenditures and set up automatic payments.

Aries (March 21-April 19) Today is an 8 - Partnerships blossom over the next month, with passionate Venus at home in Libra. Love is the game and the prize. Support each other.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Today is a 9 - Put your heart into your work, with Venus in Libra. Passion energizes your performance over the next month. Practice grows skills, stamina and strength.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Today is an 8 - Discover extraordinary beauty. You’re especially lucky in love for a month, with Venus in Libra. Creative and artistic ideas flower. Share and connect.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Today is a 7 - Beautify your love nest. Home renovation projects produce satisfying results, with Venus in Libra for four weeks. Nurture yourself and family. Savor domestic arts.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)

Today is a 7 - Listen to your heart. Learn voraciously, with Venus in Libra this month. Satisfy your insatiable curiosity. Creative expression blossoms. Write and share your views.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Today is a 9 - Your work is in demand. Instill it with beauty and love. The next four weeks can get especially lucrative, with Venus in Libra.

©2022 Nancy Black. All rights reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

How to play:

so

3x3

through

repeating a number

or

any one

Times Daily Crossword

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

© Puzzles by Pappocom

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

BLISS HARRY BLISS

Lotus Festival brings global culture to Bloomington

Lotus in the Meadow kicks off weekend of events

By Ellie Albin and Haripriya Jalluri arts@idsnews.com

Dogs, children, college students, townies and Char lie Bird of Bloomington — perched on a bike — gath ered on the night of the au tumn equinox.

Donning blankets and sweatshirts, an array of peo ple attended the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival opening night in Dunn Meadow. The 50-de gree temperatures and breezy air didn’t stop attendees from exploring the event, though, like Bloomington resident Diego Aca and IU sophomore Araceli Cuazitl.

It was the hot air balloon ride — which was organized by IU Union Board — that caught their attention. But Aca and Cuazitl soon noticed a mass of people and made their way toward the stage, following the sounds of unfa miliar music.

“This is definitely experi mental,” Aca said, regard ing the music by Thursday’s headliner Matixando, a Latin fusion group. “Something different.”

Amid a sea of swaying concertgoers, IU sophomores Kate Mindak and Lauryn Adamski provided a visual juxtaposition, jumping up and down to music that they — just like Aca and Cuazitl — had never heard before.

“I listen to pop,” Mindak said. “I listen to a lot of, like, Taylor Swift.”

Mindak and Adamski said they were having a stressful night, so they were out on a walk — and they just hap pened to stumble upon the hot air balloon. Even though they deemed the wait for the balloon too long, they decid ed to continue through the meadow to the glowing stage, which improved their mood.

“We were not having a good night before this,” Ad amski said.

“This has been really help ing,” Mindak added on.

While Mindak and Ad

amski danced the night away in the heart of the concert, Bloomington native Macau lay Ward sat under the dark ness of the trees lining Dunn Meadow’s sidewalk, as she took in the concert.

Ward isn’t new to Lotus. She said she’s been to Lo tus approximately 75% of the 28 years she’s been alive, and that she was “slowly ex posed” to other cultural val ues her whole life because of it. Being from the Midwest, she said it’s something that opened her eyes up.

“There are other things out there,” Ward said. “And I’ve never traveled abroad, so it’s been a source of culture and information for me.”

The music itself is some thing Ward has grown to ap preciate. She loves hearing her friends play music, such as the members of Matixan do, who she’s heard in clubs around town and has gotten to know. She said she wants to understand people and cultures.

“Even if you can’t under stand the words at first, you can feel the beat, right? And the rhythm?” Ward said. “And eventually — if you’re inter ested enough — you’ll start learning some of the lan guage.”

Ward actively looks into music from other countries, using apps like Spotify to ex plore music from outside the U.S., she said.

“Like, I don’t know much about Latvian culture at all,” Ward said, providing an example. “But I’ve found their music on Spotify, and it’s cool, right? I’m enjoy ing something that’s part of somebody else’s culture that they cherish.”

Working at Player’s Pub, attending Lotus and becom ing friends with performers have all contributed to music becoming an important part of Ward’s life — and her love of it comes down to a simple reason.

“It connects people,” Ward said.

People of Lotus: Meet two performers of the 2022 music and arts festival

By Haripriya Jalluri hjalluri@iu.edu

On Friday night at the 29th annual Lotus Music and Arts Festival, attendees were greeted with rainy, autum nal weather. Echoes of mu sic could be heard from the Sample Gates all the way to the courthouse in the heart of downtown Bloomington.

A variety of people could be found throughout the streets of the college town, including — but not limited to — a master traditional Vietnamese musician and the ring leader of a Torontobased band.

Master traditional Vietnamese musician

Van-Anh Vo

As a San Francisco-based Vietnamese composer and master traditional musi cian, this is Van-Anh Vo’s second Lotus Festival. Vo tours and performs primar ily with three instruments: the dan Tranh (zither), dan Bau (monochord) and dan T’rung (bamboo xylophone).

“I came here eight years ago and this is the second time I have been at the fes tival,” Vo said. “I am invited to be back here, so definitely the festival’s organizer want ed to present something with more cultural diversity.”

Her father was the reason Vo started to perform, she said. Originally from North Vietnam, her father had to either enlist in the army dur ing the Vietnam War or de fect.

“He didn’t like to hold guns to shoot people, so he signed up as a guitar player,” Vo said. “He played very ter rible guitar at the time, but he got away. His risk was to rush into the battlefield right after the two sides stop

shooting, and he had to play music to cheer up the sol diers.”

Vo’s father witnessed his friend and fellow bandmate get fatally shot by a sniper during the war. After the war, Vo said her father learned music at the national conser vatory. When she was 4 years old, her father began to teach her how to play. Vo has been playing the dan Tranh ever since she was 6 years old.

Playing music has helped Vo express her emotions with people around the world from different cul tures, she said.

“It helps me to meet with new people,” Vo said. “It helped me to connect with different cultures, under stand the differences and share the differences of our culture.”

Like music has helped her to express emotions and connect with culture, Vo hopes that her audiences at the Lotus Festival are able to connect with Vietnamese traditional music and cul ture.

“I hope that people can learn and take home a little bit about Vietnamese cul ture and the beauty we have, the traditional heritage we have,” Vo said. “Maybe one day they will come to visit Vietnam, and this is maybe a good start for them to know about a new culture.”

Ring leader Mark Marczyk

Mark Marczyk is the leader and co-founder of Toronto-based Balkan folkpunk brass band Lemon Bucket Orkestra. The group, described as a 12-member guerilla-punk-klezmer band in the Lotus Festival guide, has members from all over the world and many with Ukrainian roots.

While the members all have different backgrounds, they are all inspired by the Balkans and Slavic countries.

Marczyk’s experience living in Ukraine, where he got to experience different kinds of music from different parts of the world, has specifically influenced Lemon Bucket Orkestra’s direction.

The group was founded 12 years ago by Marczyk and a couple other people who all fell in love with traditional Ukrainian culture and folk culture, Marczyk said. The

Lotus Festival invited select performers this year to show support for Ukraine, accord ing to the festival details.

“So much of our music is Ukrainian and so much of the message and the energy that we carry is positive-fac ing,” Marczyk said. "We do a lot of political work and we do a lot of fundraising.”

Marczyk said that with his wife and fellow band mem ber Marichka Marczyk, they have raised about $500,000 in fundraising projects for Ukraine. Lemon Bucket

Orkestra feels it is important for the band to perform and give a voice to Ukrainian cul ture to keep everyone aware of what is happening.

“We feel it is really im portant to play music that reminds people of all the positive parts of Ukrainian culture that is under attack essentially right now,” Marc zyk said. “The freedom to be together and make our own choices, to celebrate life and tragedy and stories together.”

The colors of the Lotus Festival, from the annual

shirt to the pamphlet de sign and the glow bands at concerts, all show Ukraini an support. Lemon Bucket Orkestra performed at Sat urday’s Festival Parade and attendees were able to pick up a flag or mask from the Arts Village to show their support.

“We know that no matter who the audience is, people come to listen to good mu sic and be moved,” Marczyk said. “You come with an open heart, so it’s bound to be a good experience.”

OLIVIA

Lemon Bucket Orkestra plays Sept. 24, 2022, at the Sixth Street Tent at the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. The group is a Balkan folk-punk brass band from Toronto.

ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS

Emmy award-winner Van-Ahn Vo smiles at the audience after her set Sept. 23, 2022, at Trinity Episcopal Church. Vo weaved her personal experiences into her music and told stories of her life in Vietnam between songs.

ELLIE ALBIN | IDS

Mark Marczyk, ring leader of Lemon Bucket Orkestra, looks out into the crowd Sept 23., 2022, at the Sixth Street Tent. Marczyk is both a vocalist and violinist.

Lotus Festival brings Bloomington together

“You might be standing still right now, but you won’t be for long.”

A Lotus World Music and Arts Festival volunteer in troduced Forgotten Tribe, an Indianapolis-based hip-hop, soul and reggae band to an eager audience on Saturday. On the third day of the 29th annual Lo tus Festival, bands from all around the world gathered in Bloomington to share music and culture with the community.

At the Lotus Local Stage on the corner of Kirkwood Avenue and Lincoln Street, listeners gathered in the intersection to hear from Indiana bands. Forgotten Tribe — who performed at the Local Stage — was met with cheers from Blooming ton natives, IU students and families as they crowded into the blocked intersec tion. Some sat on curbs and on the edges of flowerbeds, while others stood around and danced.

Cathy Rountree swayed and bobbed her head to the beat. Rountree lived in Bloomington between the ‘60s and the ‘80s, but now she lives in Nashville, Indi ana. Still, Rountree said she returns every year to visit the Lotus Festival — and plans to come back for as long as she can.

“It's just so awesome to see so many different kinds of people,” Rountree said. “Different nationalities, dif ferent ages. I mean, look at this age range.”

Older couples danced along to the reggae and ran into friends. Nearby, a young mother tried to  keep up with her 3-year-old daughter as she weaved through the audience. For Rountree, it’s this diversity that makes Lotus Festival beautiful.

“I feel like if we could all just listen to each other's music, that all the problems of the world would go away,” Rountree said.

Nearby, families gath ered on Sixth Street at the Lotus Arts Village. Visitors were able to walk through the Archaeopteryx, an arch sculpture with lights that debuted at the Burning Man Festival in 2019. Hula hoops and sidewalk chalk were scattered around the pavement for kids. Women Writing for (a) Change led a crafting and writing activ ity in one tent. In another tent, the Bloomington Piano Project invited guests to decorate a white piano with markers and stencils.

IU graduate student Tom Agger volunteered with the Piano Project, which places decorated, donated pia nos around public spaces in Bloomington to make musical instruments ac cessible to everyone. Ag ger explained the project to visitors and helped decorate the piano with them.

“It's an awesome proj ect,” Agger said. “I love being in a train station or something when there’s a piano there and just hearing a random person playing it. I hope to see more of that in Bloomington.”

On Saturday, 20 different performers took the stage at venues across Bloomington. Musical styles spanned from Champeta and Highlife to nu-folk and Afropop. Artists performed traditional Co lumbian, Indian, Romani, Balkan, Venezuelan, Viet namese and Arabic music, among several others. The Lemon Bucket Orkestra, the Toronto-based folk-punk ensemble, led this year’s Lo tus Festival parade Saturday night starting in the Lotus Arts Village.

The festival closed out on Sunday afternoon with per formances by Feddersen,

Gourley and Miller along with Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash at the BuskirkChumley Theater. Tradi tional Celtic musicians Fed derson, Gourley and Miller took the stage first. Laura Feddersen, a Bloomington native, is based out of Bos ton today, where she and Nathan Gourley perform as a fiddling duo.

On Sunday, the band played traditional Irish and Scottish tunes and bantered with the audience about the song’s histories. Brian Miller, the group’s guitarist, joked that the protagonist of traditional Celtic song “Lovely Annie” is more antisocial than romantic, despite the song’s reputa tion. Throughout its perfor mance, the trio stomped its

feet in unison with the up beat, high-spirited music.

Next, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash performed classical Indian sarod. The brothers are part of the sev enth generation of musical lineage from the Senia Ban gash School.  On Sunday, the pair performed with per cussionist Avirodh Sharma.

The musicians explained that classical Indian mu sic doesn’t follow a written score but is rather built on improvisation. Throughout the evening, the perform ers looked at each other to sense the rhythm, or closed their eyes to focus on the sound of the music.

“Whatever happens, happens right here, right now,” Ayaan Ali Bangash said.

He began by dedicating the performance to Gandhi and his message of nonvio lence and peace, which the musician said is needed in the world today.

“Bloomington always feels like homecoming,” Ayaan Ali Bangash said, “It's always wonderful to be back in this beautiful town and this wonderful festival.”

Yaël Ksander, Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design communica tions director welcomed the audience to the per formance, saying it was a pleasure to have the Lotus Festival at its fullest capac ity after the pandemic put a damper on recent years’ events.

“It's such a high to be gathered here together in

person again, for that irre placeable experience of live music,” Ksander said to the audience. “I hope you leave with wonderful memories and great music in your heart, as well as on your Spotify playlist.”

Ksander asked the audi ence to raise their hands if they’d been to all 29 years of the festival – five audience members held their hands high and were met with roars of encouragement from the crowd. Many of the audience members raised their hand to show they had been going to the festival for at least a decade.

“It’s special to bring the world to Bloomington,” Ksander said. “And to bring our special Bloomington to the world.”

COLUMN: What reporting on the Lotus Festival taught me as a journalist

By Ellie Albin ealbin@iu.edu | @EllieAlbin1

I’ve had professors who say journalists look for the bad. Every time I hear that — and it’s been multiple times at this point — I wish I’d had the nerve to speak up and say something in class.

So, maybe this is my chance.

For me, I don’t think a journalist should actively look for that — the bad, I mean. Sure, if you stumble across a wrongdoing, it needs to be covered. That is a necessary service in any community. But when you’ve predetermined that, at the fork in the road, the path you’ll take — without fail — involves looking only for the negative?   I can’t accept that. Not for my journalistic career, any way. And I hope I never will.

At the 29th Annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festi val I felt — for the first time in a long time — I was just

breathing. Taking it all in. I felt like I was somehow at the epicenter of calmness, even when I was surrounded by bright, unparalleled en ergy, complete with strobe lights, amplifiers, screeching concertgoers, wailing sing ers and bass reverberating through every bone in my body.

I was seeing clearly.

The event itself brought so much joy to so many people. And, with our coverage, I hope we conveyed that hap piness.

Even with all this celebra tion, though, there are still aspects of Lotus that hit me with a tinge of sadness, like how the festival relies heavily on older generations to sup port it — and there’s fear that the younger ones won’t want to help it continue.

Jill Bird, Bloomington resident and artist hospital ity committee member, has volunteered at Lotus for 25 years. She feels the festival is struggling to grow and reach

more people, even with kids scattered throughout the fes tival’s grounds.

“We just need new blood,” Bird said. “If it’s going to have a future, that has got to hap pen.”

I didn’t set out on the streets of downtown Bloom ington in late September looking for bad news, though. I set out to cover the Lotus Festival — in all its nuances and complexities — with whatever emotions and sto ries that came about from its attendees. And, from what I learned, a festival that brings so many people together is an exercise in exactly that: complexity.

The bad news? Fear that the next generations will have no desire to continue this Bloomington tradition.

The good news? There are people still willing to try and put on a fantastic festival ev ery year.

So, to all my professors who have said they actively look for the bad, maybe don’t

do that. And maybe don’t say that. As a fellow journal ist who, yes, is wildly inex perienced compared to my professors, I just can’t believe that is the most effective les son to share with students.

Because, when I was out in the field and letting my mind be as open as it could be, which is what I believe a journalist should strive for, I saw life in all its complexity. It’s like the festival was a liv ing, breathing human being that has its struggles, but is also fighting year in and year out to put on an impressive show.

I’m glad I think the way I do. I may never be known as a journalist who always busts the bad guys or conducts months-long, groundbreak ing investigations. But I will promise to never just look for the negative. The world is so much more complex and in teresting than that.

Your world is big, kids, and you deserve better ad vice than “look for the bad.”

Tory Basile vlbasile@iu.edu | @torybasilee

ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS

Musician Joanna Hyde plays for the crowd with bandmate Tadhg O Meachair on Sept. 23, 2022, during the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. Hyde has studied Irish music since she was little, and now plays in an Irish Traditional band.

ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS

Audience members TJ Bloomfield and Adriana Caro-Gomez dance to the rhythm of traditional Middle Eastern music Sept. 23, 2022, during the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. Members of Salaam, an Arabic band, have performed across the nation spreading a message of peace.

OLIVIA BIANCO | IDS

1. Members of Flying Balkan Laikas perform Sept. 24, 2022, at the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. The group is a Slavic folk and rock group.

ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS

2. A member of the Nyansapo Highlife Band plays the trumpet Sept. 23, 2022, in the Sixth Street Tent during the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. The group has over 30 years of experience and has been nominated for the Best African Highlife Band several times in the Chicago Music Awards.

OLIVIA BIANCO | IDS

3. A member of LADAMA sings Sept. 24, 2022, at the Fourth Street Tent at the 29th annunal Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. LADAMA is a group consisting of four women who describe themselves as "sisters in song, rhythm and spirit."

ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS

4. Members of the Volo Bogtrotters perform Sept. 23, 2022, at First Christian Church during the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. The ensemble played old-time fiddle music from the American Midwest.

ELLIE ALBIN | IDS

5. Saxophonist Davi Ruiz performs on stage at the Sixth Street Tent on Sept. 23, 2022, as part of the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. The festival opened on Thursday and ran through Sunday.

ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS

6. Salaam band founder Dena El Saffar plays the oud, a traditional Iraqi instrument, Sept. 23, 2022, during the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival. El Saffar founded the band while studying at the Jacobs School of Music.

OLIVIA BIANCO | IDS

7. Amman & Ayaan Ali Bangash perform as part of the 29th annual Lotus World Music and Arts Festival on Sept. 24, 2022. They both play the sarod — a staple in Indian music.

VOTER GUIDE

MONROE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES

By Emma Uber emmauber@iu.edu | @EmmaUber7

Monroe County voters will elect new school board members Nov. 8. The county’s two school districts, Monroe County Community School Corporation and Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation, both have multiple school board seats up for election this year. The IDS has compiled everything you need to know about local school board elections before you vote this November.

Monroe County Community School Corporation

MCCSC is the larger of Monroe County’s two school corporations. Covering the majority of Monroe County, the school corporation contains seven districts. The MCCSC school board is composed of one member from each district, with three districts up for election this year. The MCCSC school board’s recent decision to alter district start and end times exemplifies how school board decisions can impact families’ daily lives.

District 7: Parts of Bloomington

District 1: Benton Township, parts of Bloomington

Erin Wyatt is one of three candidates running to represent District 1 on the MCCSC school board. Wyatt’s three children — an elementary school student, a middle school student and a high school student — all currently at tend MCCSC schools.

Brandon Shurr is run ning unopposed to repre sent District 7 on the MCC SC school board. As the only MCCSC incumbent candi date, Shurr has been a mem ber of the school board since 2018. Prior to his 2018 vic tory, Shurr lost a close race in 2014 after earning 49% of the vote. He currently serves as the MCCSC school board president.

Shurr declined to be in terviewed by the IDS and said readers should focus their attention on the races with multiple candidates.

Wyatt has experience serving as an MCCSC health services employee in 2017 and 2018. As a reg istered nurse of 20 years, Wyatt worked at Temple ton Elementary School, where she said she wit nessed the school corpo ration’s need for improved health services. She aims to increase the number of full-time registered nurses employed by MCCSC, as the school corporation does not meet the Ameri can Academy of Pediatrics recommendation of at least one registered nurse per 750 students.

Wyatt said Templeton, a Title 1 school, opened her eyes to the impor tance of the Whole Child

Approach. Title 1 schools have high percentages of low-income students and receive extra government funding. While work ing at Templeton, Wyatt planned the first Temple ton Healthapalooza to connect families with health services. She said the event helped parents find health insurance cov erage for their children and taught basic com munity health skills such as how to treat head lice or cook affordable and healthy meals.

Now an IU School of Nursing Ph.D. candidate researching marginalized and vulnerable popula tions, Wyatt said meet ing students’ basic health and safety needs is the best way to achieve aca demic success. Her cam paign platform focuses on teaching the whole child by following the As sociation of Supervision and Curriculum Develop ment’s Whole Child Ap proach. Instead of relying

District 3: Perry Township, Van Buren Township

From bus driver to main tenance worker to sports an nouncer, Jon Hays has worn many hats for MCCSC over the past 21 years. Through out all these roles, Hays kept score for the Bloomington High School South basketball teams. He said his roles in transportation, maintenance and athletics give him insight into the daily operations of MCCSC.

If elected, Hays said he will focus on improving MCCSC transportation. The school corporation experi enced a bus driver shortage and failing routing software at the start of this school year, resulting in major bus delays.

Hays said he understands the common sense and logistical issues behind transportation and maintenance problems in a way other candidates do not. As a blue-collar worker, he feels the school board only operates in the interest of certain privileged students and he wants to give students from a variety of backgrounds a voice, he said. He plans to solve this issue through in

creased board transparency and parent involvement.

According to his cam paign website, Daniel O’Neill is a lifelong learn ing enthusiast. He gradu ated from Bloomington High School North in 1999 and was immediately hired by Tri-North Middle School as the Science Olympiad Coach at just 17 years old. O’Neill continued to work in MCCSC at Tri-North and later Bloom ington High School North while earning a degree at IU. O’Neill eventually left MCC SC to teach at IU for 10 years and now serves as the chair of the Anatomy/Physiology and Physical Science Depart ment at the Bloomington Ivy Tech Community College campus.

O’Neill applies his expe rience to his campaign plat form, which focuses on the educational content being taught in MCCSC schools. O’Neill feels public schools must prepare students to be responsible citizens in our participatory democracy by teaching critical thinking, ac

cording to his platform. Ad ditionally, O’Neill’s platform states public education must equip students with the skills to earn a dignified living while also being happy and healthy.

O’Neill said these goals cannot be met without curri cula tailored to students with a variety of learning styles and needs. O’Neill’s platform emphasizes the importance of developing remediation programs to aid students who have fallen behind while simultaneously ensur ing the existence of a rigor ous curriculum to challenge high-achieving students. His platform notes that program ming tailored to high achiev ing students must be avail able to all students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds who have been historically overlooked for such programs.

O’Neill is a strong ad vocate for the MCCSC ref erendum. He served as the principle campaign manager for the 2016 Yes for MCCSC campaign to rally voter sup

on test scores, Wyatt said school board members should ensure students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported and chal lenged.

A mother to MCCSC students, Tabetha Crouch is running to represent District 1 on the MCCSC school board because she is concerned about school safety. If elected, Crouch said she will revamp the school corporation’s Stu dent Resource Officer program. Instances of MCCSC students bring ing guns to school, which happened as recently as last week when a Batch elor Middle School stu dent brought a gun on the bus, have Crouch and other parents concerned about safety protocols.

Crouch aims to arm SROs, saying armed offi cers are the most effective response to active shooter situations. In addition to arming officers, Crouch said her vision for the SRO program includes in

creased diversity amongst MCCSC officers and a stronger partnership with the Bloomington Police Department.

Beyond school safety, Crouch said she decided to run for school board because she has spoken at MCCSC school board meetings in the past and felt her voice was not heard. Elected officials should value community feedback, Crouch said. If elected, she said she will use her experience as a communications pro fessional working with multiple stakeholders to increase communication and transparency be tween the school board and parents.

Byron Turner is one of three candidates run ning to represent District 1 on the MCCSC school board. Turner could not be reached for comment. He ran for the District 3 MCCSC school board seat in 2018 but lost to incum bent Martha Street.

port for the referendum. He continues to support the 2022 referendum.

Ashley Pirani said she hears teachers’ pleas for in creased funding and support as president of the High land Park Elementary Par ent Teacher Organization. If elected, Pirani said she will prioritize supporting teach ers and other staff in hopes of increasing retention and combating the Indiana teacher shortage.

Additionally, Pirani hopes to reassess school district boundaries as she said they have not been changed in almost 30 years — in which time Monroe County’s pop ulation has increased sig nificantly. She said people don’t realize boundaries are an equity issue because dis tricts that fail to account for the population can cause re source strains for overpopu lated schools.

With regards to school safety, Pirani wants to keep guns out of school — which includes not arming Student Resource Officers. Instead of

arming SROs, Pirani supports addressing gun violence at the root cause by providing quality mental health ser vices.

Pirani said she chose to run for school board after hearing some alarming ideas about book banning and white-washing history. She said she aims to stop those beliefs from gaining a foot hold within MCCSC.

As a current Beacon Inc. board member, a previous Beacon Development Com mittee chair and a The Per sisterhood Workshop advi sory board member, Pirani devotes much of her time to serving on boards of local nonprofits. Yet, Pirani said one of her most important qualifications is her expe rience as a mother to two MCCSC students, including one with an Individualized Education Program. IEPs present their own benefits and challenges to navigating the school system, some thing Pirani said gives her a different perspective than many MCCSC parents.

MCCSC candidates discuss safety, equity during forum

By Emma Uber emmauber@iu.edu | @EmmaUber7

The Monroe County Com munity School Corporation School Board Candidate Fo rum on Monday night began with a quote:

“There is no power for change greater than a com munity discovering what it cares about.”

Moderator Lisa-Marie Napoli read this quote from author Margaret Wheatley because she said the MCCSC school board candidates were gathered at Tri-North Middle School to do just that — field the public’s questions, explain their campaign platforms and ultimately define the major community issues on the bal lot Nov. 8.

Topics such as school safety, the upcoming MCCSC

referendum and racial equity dominated the conversation.

The Indiana Coalition for Public Education–Monroe County invited all six candi dates running to represent District 1 and District 3 — the two contested MCCSC school board seats up for election.

Six MCCSC school board candidates showed up — but not necessarily the expected ones. District 1 candidate By ron Turner’s reserved seat sat empty on stage all evening, while District 7 incumbent candidate Brandon Shurr watched from the audience as he is running unopposed.

Candidates answered questions from the ICPE and audience, with the following topics emerging as priorities:

Safety While all candidates cited

safety as a major concern, they disagreed over whether School Resource Officers should be armed. District 1 candidate Tabetha Crouch and District 3 candidate Jon Hays supported arming SROs.

The MCCSC school board voted to disarm SROs in May 2021, but some community members have been asking the school board to reevalu ate in response to incidents of weapons brought inside MCCSC schools.

A Batchelor Middle School student was arrested after bringing a gun onto a school bus Sept. 13. In May, a 17-year-old boy was taken into Bloomington Police De partment custody for post ing a Snapchat video waving

Brandon Shurr

Erin Wyatt

Jon Hays

Tabetha Crouch

Daniel O’Neill

Bryon Turner

Ashley Pirani

IDS FILE PHOTO BY ALEX PAUL

A sign for the Monroe County Community School Corporation Administration Offices is seen Sept. 2, 2021, during the afternoon dismissal at Bloomington High School South. MCCSC school board candidates explained their campaign platforms at a forum Monday.

VOTER GUIDE

MONROE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES

Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation

R-BB Richland DistrictR-BB Bean Blossom District

The current R-BB school board president, Dana Kerr is running for his fifth term representing the Richland District on the board. Kerr has been a school board member for four terms and currently serves as the board president. He said his ex perience means he under stands the intricacies of the school board’s procedures. When asked why he wants to continue his work on the school board, Kerr said he sees an opportunity to ex pand and improve initia tives he helped begin, such as the Ready Schools pro gram and R-BB preschools.

Ready Schools focuses on innovative learning, ca reer preparedness and com munity engagement by pro moting life skills and proj

ect-based learning. Kerr said R-BB needs to set students up for success after gradu ation, whatever that may look like. A proponent of the Ready Schools program, he wants to continue funding science, technology, engi neering, art and math re sources. The Ready Schools program also offers career experiences including local internships and a studentrun coffee shop. Kerr said success does not look the same for all students and he wants to continue support ing Ready Schools to help students understand their wide array of career options.

Preschool is another pro gram Kerr wants to develop. R-BB opened a new pre school facility designed to house 100 students in March

2022. Enrollment filled up in about 20 minutes. Kerr said the significant demand for a larger preschool system is something he noticed and aims to prioritize if reelected for school board.

A full-time father to four R-BB students, Karl Boehm said he has more incen tive than almost anyone to ensure students receive a quality education. The R-BB school board needs a stron ger parent voice, he said.

Boehm said he decided to run for school board after witnessing the detrimen tal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and e-learning on education. Boehm volun teered as a substitute teach er when R-BB experienced a dire substitute shortage during the pandemic. Dur

ing his time teaching, he said he learned children do not retain information well through e-learning. One moment that stands out to Boehm is when he taught a class basic subtraction on the white board in mere minutes after many students had spent weeks struggling to learn the concept through Chromebook activities.

Laptops should not be used as babysitters or tools for classroom management, Boehm said. If elected, he said he plans to advocate for the students who fell be hind during the pandemic. Boehm said he supports a return to traditional in struction without Chrome books or other technol ogy to promote classroom engagement.

What are they talking about?

Ahead of the midterms, there are several key issues Monroe County Community School Corportation school board candidates are talking about in their campaigns. The IDS identified some of these major talking points to help you catch up before the election Nov. 8.

By Emma Uber emmauber@iu.edu | @EmmaUber7

Monroe County Community School Corporation Safety Referendum Indiana legislation

The Monroe County Community School Corporation school board voted to disarm Student Resource Officers in May 2021. Since then, there have been three incidents of guns on MCCSC property. Guns were found inside Bloomington High School South on two separate occasions at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year. Most recently, a Batchelor Middle School student was arrested after an SRO confiscated a gun the student brought on the bus. These events, as well as the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, have been a topic of discussion throughout the school board race. Concerned parents advocating for or against rearming SROs dominate the public comment portion of MCCSC school board meetings. A recent study by Poynter Institute found no connection between the presence of armed officers in schools and the deterrence of violence. While candidates against arming SROs have referenced similar studies, proponents argue it is impossible to gauge how many school shootings armed SROs have prevented because they never happened.

the idea. Wyatt also proposed educating families on how to safely store their weapons.

Voting for school board candidates is not the only MCCSC-related vote Monroe County residents can cast Nov. 8. The school corporation is asking voters to approve a new referendum, as the funds levied by the 2016 referendum will expire this year. The proposed MCCSC referendum asks Monroe County residents to contribute 18.5 cents to MCCSC for every $100 of assessed property value. Referendums allow the public to vote directly on an issue. Indiana allows three types of school referendums — one for operational costs, one for construction projects and one for safety features. MCCSC is seeking an operational referendum, meaning the funds will be allocated to daily costs including teachers’ salaries. Considering the Indiana teacher shortage, MCCSC plans to devote 87% of referendum funds to competitively compensate educators. Teachers will receive a $4,500 raise, while support staff on hourly pay will receive a $2.25 per hour wage increase. The remaining $1.2 million per year is slated to fund special educational services, performing arts programs and STEM programs. All MCCSC school board candidates support the referendum.

tive school system.”

a handgun and threatening a school shooting at Bloom ington High School South. A gun was found in Blooming ton High School South on two separate occasions last year.

Crouch said recent inci dents involving MCCSC stu dents bringing weapons to school demonstrate the need for a robust SRO program.

In addition to arming SROs, Crouch said she wants to pro vide additional mental health support to students, hear stu dent perspectives on safety and develop a partnership be tween SROs and the Bloom ington Police Department.

“We know there are guns in our schools,” Crouch said. “It’s evident. We need to be more proactive in figuring out how to stop this from happen ing.”

District 3 candidate Dan iel O’Neill said he does not have a firm position regarding arming SROs. His opponent Ashley Pirani said she is firmly against arming SROs and ad vocated for addressing vio lence with increased mental health services.

District 1 candidate Erin Wyatt expressed doubt about arming SROs but said she’s open to discussion as long as there is research to support

“We know it didn’t work in Uvalde. It didn’t work in Park land,” Wyatt said. “By having policy in place involving so cial workers, mental health professionals and perhaps law enforcement, we can end the cycle of violence before it starts.”

Referendum

Candidates found them selves all in agreement after an audience member asked if they support the MCCSC referendum. The answer was a resound yes from all parties.

O’Neill acted as the cam paign manager for the 2016 “Yes for MCCSC” Referen dum Campaign. He began his opening remarks Monday night by encouraging the au dience to vote in favor of the referendum and continued to advocate for the referen dum throughout the evening. O’Neill also said he does not like that Indiana public school funding relies so heavily on referendums.

“Public schools properly supported are the greatest engine of social justice and upward mobility that exists,” O’Neill said. “We flat out need this. It’s not an add on or a bo nus; it’s a crucial part of our ability to remain a competi

The rest of the candidates all said a referendum provides funding necessary to pay MCCSC teachers competitive wages and combat the Indi ana teacher shortage.

“If it doesn’t go through, we lose a lot of teachers,” Hays said.

In addition to paying teacher salaries, Pirani said she supports the referendum because it allocates funds to MCCSC special education programs. As the parent of a child with an Individualized Education Plan, Pirani has continuously advocated for special education funding.

“I’ve been in tune with MCCSC for the last decade,” Pirani said. “Whether that’s working on school board campaigns, showing up at school board meetings to speak, or canvasing for refer endums, I’ve been there.”

Racial Equity

An audience member asked candidates their goals for addressing racial equity in MCCSC schools. Pirani cited equity as one of her main pri orities. If elected, she hopes to reimagine MCCSC’s districts to ensure diversity within all schools and equal opportuni ties for all neighborhoods.

Pirani also said she appre ciates MCCSC’s strategic plan

and its efforts to eliminate bias in disciplinary actions, something Pirani hopes to continue focusing on.

“We must continue to ad dress the disciplinary discrep ancies we have with our mar ginalized population,” Pirani said.

O’Neill said he devoted two decades to increased minority student access to medical school, an experi ence he said prepared him to advocate for equal academic opportunities for MCCSC stu dents. Now the Chair of Anat omy/Physiology and Physical Science at Ivy Tech–Bloom ington, O’Neill helped found the IU Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students.

“I’ve made meaningful inclusion an important part of my career from the start,” O’Neill said.

Controversial Indiana Legislation

The ICPE asked candi dates their thoughts on how the district should address teaching concepts of race, history and gender in light of the controversial education bills that were shot down in the Indiana legislature. For instance, Indiana Senate Bill 167 would have banned teachers from teaching divi sive concepts, but it died in the state senate after the bill’s

The Indiana Legislature proposed controversial educational bills during its 2022 legislative session. While some of the most contentious bills did not pass, some MCCSC school board candidates said their proposal sent a message of hostility towards Indiana teachers. Indiana House Bill 1134 and Indiana Senate Bill 167 incited the most public outrage, both aiming to stamp out “critical race theory” in schools. HB 1134 would have forbidden school employees from teaching divisive concepts and required teachers to publish their lesson plans a year in advance in order to allow parents to review the content and opt their children out of certain lessons. The bill passed through the House but died in the Senate. A similar bill, SB 167, died after a clip of the bill’s author, suggesting teachers should remain impartial when teaching about Nazism, went viral. Although these bills died, the discussion they sparked over how schools teach topics of race, gender and history persists.

author said teachers need to remain impartial when teach ing about Nazism.

Crouch, O’Neill, Pirani and Wyatt all expressed con tempt for the bills. Pirani said she feared the bill would have gone further if not for back lash against the viral Nazism comment.

Wyatt said teaching stu dents the United States’ com plete history, although it may not all be fun or easy, is crucial to creating functioning mem bers of society.

“We would be remiss not to recognize the history of our country,” Wyatt said. “There’s a saying ‘Those who don’t re member history are doomed to repeat it.’”

Hays did not express a firm opinion on this topic.

“I don’t know what you guys are talking about, I apol ogize,” Hays said. “I’m not up with the legislative bills.”

Book Banning

Another audience ques tion asked candidates to ex plain how they would respond if a group claiming to repre sent parent interests asked the board to remove certain books from MCCSC libraries.

All candidates reached a con sensus on this matter — they would all hear the group out during the public comment portion of a school board

meeting, but none of them support book banning.

Crouch, whose platform includes increased parent in volvement and school board transparency, said it is im portant to respect the public’s right to speak at school board meetings. However, she op poses removing books from MCCSC libraries due to par ent complaints.

“I would also listen and seek to understand, but in general, I don’t support ban ning books from libraries,” Crouch said.

Charter Schools

The unanimous agree ments between candidates ended when an audience member asked the candi dates’ thoughts on how char ter schools and vouchers im pact public funds.

Pirani and O’Neill took the firmest stances against charter schools, both liken ing the use of taxpayer dollars towards charter schools to “taxation without representa tion” due to the lack of pub licly elected governing body.

Crouch took a more sym pathetic perspective. She said she needs to do more re search, but she supports par ents’ right to make the right educational choice for their child without money acting as a barrier.

Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation, sometimes known as Edgewood Schools, encompasses two northwestern Monroe County townships: Richland and Bean Blossom. The R-BB school board consists of five seats, with two up for election this year.

Angela Jacobs is an in cumbent running unop posed to represent the Bean Blossom District on the R-BB school board. Jacobs did not respond to IDS re quest for comment about campaign priorities.

Dana Kerr

Angela Jacobs

Karl Boehm

Step right up to

your new home.

10 a.m. - 4 p.m. • Wednesday Oct. 19 IMU Alumni Hall

Meet with the following local vendors:

Atla s on 1 7th

The Avenue on College

BioL ife Pla sma Services

Brawley Property Management

Cedarview Management Tenth & College

Current at Latimer Square

The Dillon

Elkins Apartment s

Evolve Bloomington

Granite Student L iving

Cit y of BloomingtonHousing and Neighborhood Development

Hunter Bloomington Properties

IU Student Legal S ervices

K irkwood Property Mgmt .

The Monroe Olympus Properties Park on Morton

Relato Apartment s Reserve on Third St ageyard & Urban St ation St ate Bloomington

The Quarters at Bloomingto n Varsit y Properties Verve Indiana

The Village at Muller Park Woodbridge Apartment s of Bloomingto n

For more information and for the current vendor list , visit: idsnews.com/housingfair