Indiana Statesman For ISU students. About ISU students. By ISU students.
Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018
Indiana Statesman
@ISUstatesman
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Volume 124, Issue 18
ISU evaluating fate of Daniel Tanoos Candidates from House classroom and scholarship District 43 participate in forum at ISU Chelsea Chapman Reporter
Former Vigo County Superintendent Daniel Tanoos has been charged in Marion County Superior Court with three counts of bribery following an FBI investigation. Tanoos, an ISU alum, has a classroom in University Hall named for him along with a scholarship. A public corruption investigation was opened at Vigo County School Corporation by FBI Special Agent Joann Dowell in February of 2016 after a confidential source sent documents to the FBI supporting concerns that contracts involving certain vendors, including Energy Systems Group, were improperly awarded by the VCSC. Tanoos was charged on three different occasions with soliciting, accepting, or agreeing to accept food, beverages or tickets with intent to recommend awarding a contract or continuing business with ESG. According to an affidavit, ESG spent more than $100,000 on donations and gifts to VCSC and Tanoos over the duration of Tanoos’ relationship with Doug Tischbein, an ESG representative. Between 2000 and 2016, ESG had entered into nine contracts with the school corporation for more than $42 million. The affidavit said, Tischbein provided gifts to Tanoos and the VCSC Board. Tischbein provided Tanoos and his family and friends dinners and tickets to sports events and concerts on occasions, according to the affidavit. In an interview with federal investigators, Tischbein said it would have been harder to keep the relationship with VCSC if he had not continued providing gifts. The affidavit included emails where Tanoos requested the gifts from Tischbein, and emails from Tischbein to ESG executives requesting approval for money to provide the gifts, stating that he needed the money for client re-
AJ Goelz Reporter
Anna Bartley | Indiana Statesman
The door to the classroom of Former Vigo County Superintendent Daniel Tanoos.
tention and would stress how important VCSC was as a client to them. Tanoos continued to recommend that the VCSC enter into contracts with ESG and the school board would agree, according to the affidavit. When interviewed, many members of the VCSC board said they were unaware of the relationship between Tanoos and Tischbein. The board members said they would have liked to have known about the relationship when they voted to use ESG for developments to the school. One member of the board said she had once received a turkey thinking it had come from Tanoos. When she found out it was actually a gift from Tischbein, she told Tanoos she was unhappy he had accepted gifts from a vendor. It was also reported that Tischbein bought $250 in Starbucks gift cards for the members of the board at one time. In 2009, Indiana State University decided to renovate at the College of Education. Members of the VCSC administration approached Karen Dyer, a former ISU Foundation employee, and proposed the idea to dedicate a classroom in the building to Tanoos. The VCSC
administration was told that the dedication required a donation of $25,000. Tanoos later contacted Dyer to inform her that he had found a donor, Doug Tischbein and ESG, who wished to donate $15,000, according to the affidavit. Once the money was raised, the ISU Foundation held a celebration dinner for all donors who donated over $100. At this event it was announced that over $50,000 was raised in Tanoos’ name. Since only $25,000 was required for naming the classroom, the remainder was used to establish the Daniel T. Tanoos Educational Leadership Scholarship. This scholarship is for students who attend part-time graduate school at ISU while working with VCSC. When questioned about whether Tanoos’ name will be kept on his dedicated classroom and scholarship, ISU spokesperson Libby Roerig said they will “evaluate and consider options with regard to the named space and scholarship” as more is uncovered about the case. Tanoos’ initial court hearing was on Wednesday, Aug. 26, in Indianapolis.
On Tuesday, Sept. 25, the American Democracy Project held a candidate forum in the events area of the Cunningham Memorial Library. “The focus of this event is to create political engagement opportunities for our students. So as the election is approaching, we are hoping that our students will be engaged and want to participate in the democratic process,” said Carly Schmitt, assistant professor of political science and the coordinator of the American Democracy Project. “We are bringing the candidates to campus to facilitate that engagement.” The forum included candidates from the Indiana 43 House District, Darrell Felling (R) and Tonya Pfaff (D), and the 38 Senate District, Chris Gambill (D) and the incumbent Jon Ford (R) was originally listed as a participant but was unable to attend. The candidates fielded questions from students, social media, student organizations and anyone else in attendance. Topics included guns, the economy and education among other political topics. At the end, the candidates took feedback from those in attendance. It was a night of political discourse that is rarely seen in today’s partisan politics. It also gave students and residents of Terre Haute an opportunity to listen to legislators who will be making policy that directly affect them. “State and local politics impact students’ lives more directly every single day more than national level policy, and I think a disjuncture that students don’t understand is the role that federalism has to play in how our elections are structured,” said Schmitt. “So we think it is very critical that students are able to connect with legislators that
are creating policies over their everyday lives, such as college affordability. State legislatures make decisions about how to fund higher education and to what extent they’re funding, so we think that this is a good place for students to engage in these sorts of policy areas.” Gambill chimed in with his opinions on the event and student political engagement. “I think this is an opportunity for them to see the people, listen to them and engage with them so they know when they walk away they have a good idea of who that woman or that man is,” said Gambill. “The average voter in this district is 62. We’ll go a whole evening and not knock on an identified voter of less than 40-years-old. We need these young voters to be part of this process so that they become a part of the influence of what your elected officials do. Listen, the bottom line is that if 18 to 26-year-olds do not vote then they’re not going to influence the legislators because legislators know who the voters are.” It’s understandable that students forget about local politics. There is less pomp and circumstance, it is more small policy and students are busy with their daily lives. Schmitt spoke to the idea that students do not need to be involved in local politics due to lack of interest or thinking they will be leaving the area once they are done with school. “They are going to be citizens for the rest of their lives and so voting and political engagement is a habit and it has to start early,” said Schmitt. “Helping students understand the connection between themselves as students and themselves as citizens and the role of politics all in this is really critical. It doesn’t matter that they are going to move on, they are here right now and should be engaged in politics in this area right in this moment.”
ISU President Curtis gives first fall address Tristian Major Reporter
Yesterday at the Tulson auditorium President Deborah J. Curtis had Indiana States first annual fall address. “This is a time to celebrate,” said President Curtis. Indiana State’s President reminds us that we are making an impact; especially for low-income students. This year incoming freshmen are composed of 19 percent 21st century scholars, 50 percent first generation students, 51 percent Pell Grant Eligibility, 35 percent minority campus, 78 percent of students from Indiana, and 31 percent having a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and over 1000 plus honor students. These percentage show how divers Indiana State
is becoming. As President Curtis continued her address she mentioned having a sit down with Indiana’s governor Erick Holcomb who expressed his approval for ISU. In fact his approval is so high that he’s “sending more employers to the ISU campus,” said Curtis. President Curtis defined student success at ISU with one word, “degree”. She believes that the man goal of the ISU is to “get graduates to walk across the stage.” She followed her ideas with a video of an ISU student speaker during last year’s graduation. In the video, the student explains how ISU has transformed her into a self-motivated, determined, obstacle conquer. Two more videos of ISU alumni were
shown. One showed a graduate working for rolls Royce, while the other worked for a successful news station. After the video, President Curtis was proud to say ISU has met all of its preforming measure’s. This means ISU has achieved a 34 percent degree completion, which is a 8.6 percent rise since last year. She reminds us that ISU graduates have a bright future ahead of them; with 94 percent of graduate’s with job placement, seven out of 10 graduates work in Indiana, and the average starting salary for graduates being $47,600. The true character of ISU was expressed when President Curtis announced that ISU is nationally recognized for its community service. With over 23,000 hours of community service in university engage-
ment activities alone, but that’s just the icing on the cake. Over 6000 students have made just over 900,000 hours of community service in just a year. This includes partnerships with organizations such as Red Cross, P.E.O, Guys Who Care, and Riley Hospital. Following this information was that of the status on ISU construction projects. We are told that the fine arts building will be complete by 2019. Students can expect a renovation on the sycamore dinning and possible other buildings on campus in the future. The address was ended with a quote from a very successful sycamore alumnus, in a new alumni video series, in which she reminded young students to “do what you love.”
TED Talk-like conference deemed successful Chelsea Chapman Reporter
Voted on by the students of Indiana State University, six faculty members each gave a seven-minute TED-type talk at University Hall on Monday, Sept. 24. Dr. Namita Goswami, Dr. Malynnda Johnson, Dr. Myung-Ah Lee, Gabrielle Miller, Dr. Edward Pease, and President Curtis were invited to speak on a subject of their choice. Each speech was meant to inspire and educate the attendees. One of the speakers, Dr. Malynnda Johnson, a faculty member in the communication department, was very pleased to be invited to speak at this event. “I was really, really, really excited,” said Dr. Johnson. “I had gotten the email and the fact that it was student nominated, I was just beyond the moon. I mean, just awesome. To hear that the student panel and committee picked my proposal was just the coolest thing ever.” Dr. Johnson’s ‘TED-style’ talk
compared life to a video game. She asked the audience, “Are you ready to press start?” “I wanted to do something that students, on a broad range, could probably connect with,” said Dr. Johnson, “and since I’m an uber nerd, I kind of immediately went to the metaphor of video games. It literally has been something I’ve turned to again and again in my own life. This is just one more level, it’s just one more challenge, how would I approach it if it were a video game and take that same mindset if I’m experiencing something in life.” Joseph Twitdy, a senior studying psychology, was one of the several students introducing the speakers before they gave their talk. “I’m a speaker for SGA so I thought it would be a good opportunity to help facilitate and work on academic affairs,” said Twitdy. “This was a really great chance for freshman to get a head start and figure out what they should and shouldn’t do and to help them adjust to their new college life.”
Twitdy loved the messages in the talks and how they could help the attendees in their own lives. “I took a little bit of something from every speaker, like mental health is important, the different types of stress, good stress and bad stress, how to handle that stress. Making that decision to start your college career even though there are obstacles and there might be a professor here or there that you don’t always agree with, you always have to keep trucking along with it. If you have problems, find someone to be your mentor, find a friend, always have someone in your corner rooting for you because things do get tough and you always need a support system.” Blaine Armstrong, a freshman studying general studies, came to the event for faculty advice. “I came out to this event to hear what the faculty and alumni have to say about what I could do to succeed in college,” said Armstrong. “I’m a first generation student in my family and it’s a whole new experience for my
Kayla Laseter | Indiana Statesman
Students enjoy the recently renovated fountain area as part of Week of Welcome festivities.
family and me.” Armstrong was inspired by each speaker and will use the information he learned through his college career. “I was very inspired by what [the speakers] said,” said Armstrong. “It’s a lot of information to take in, but they said a lot of
inspiring things. Especially the one that said not to worry about the stereotypes and the status quo and the professor who talked about stress management and trying to ease tension. There were a lot of inspiring things going on.”