CMYK
THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF INDIANAPOLIS
DRAG SHOW 2011 > See Page 4
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reflector.uindy.edu
APRIL 6, 2011
Board of Trustees gains new members By Jacki Dillman EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PEKING ACROBATS
By Haley Vannarsdall FEATURE EDITOR
The Peking Acrobats performed in Ransburg Auditorium at the University of Indianapolis on March 26. The world-renowned acrobatic team from China demonstrated its skills to a crowd of students and other excited viewers. According to the group’s website, www.iaipresentations.com, the acrobats have been performing across the world and have appeared on numerous television shows and in other performances since debuting in 1986. The Peking Acrobats showcased several stunts such as balancing with one hand on stacked chairs that almost reached to the ceiling of Ransburg Auditorium, or contorting their bodies into unimaginable positions. Musicians played traditional Chinese music to accompany the acrobatics. “I didn’t remember the name [The Peking Acrobats] when I read the flyer, but after seeing the show, I vaguely remembered TV advertisements for them in years past,” said sophomore Daniel Batteiger. While traveling through Indianapolis on tour, the Peking Acrobats contacted the Office of Student Affairs at UIndy
and asked to perform. Campus Program Board and the Diversity Lecture Series also supported the acrobats’ performance. “We [UIndy Student Affairs] wanted to give students an entertaining learning experience about Chinese culture,” said Student Activities Coordinator for Student Services Stephanie Barry. “College is a great opportunity to offer students new learning experiences and this was a great fit.” Chinese acrobatic acts date back as far as the Ch’in Dynasty. Chinese acrobats continue to perfect what has become an evolving form of folk art. Chinese tradition implies that each new generation of acrobats add their own improvements and embellishments, and they are considered honorable talents. “What made The Peking Acrobats stand out is their commitment to preserving history,” Barry said. “Historically, Chinese acrobatics started between 221 B.C. and 207 B.C. and for them to be able to still perform these ancient traditions in today’s society is astonishing.” The acrobats used their own bodies for balance, agility and contortion.
Photos by Elizabeth Wheeler
> See ACROBATS on page 3
The Peking Acrobats demonstrated their centuries-old techniques to the UIndy campus community on March 26. The acrobats are known worldwide for their prowess and dedication to preserving their art.
Indianapolis community leaders Christopher Doehring, Adolf Hansen and David Resnick will join the University of Indianapolis Board of Trustees. The new members will be officially inducted into board membership the day of the board’s May 20 meeting. The 36-member board meets three times annually, in October, February and May. Members hold four-year terms. There are no term limits “The time, energy and resources that they [the Board of Trustees] dedicate to our campus really is outstanding,” President Beverley Pitts said. “They take their role at the university very seriously.” Pitts went on to explain that the board strives for balance in its membership. Gender, racial and religious diversity are valued. PITTS Board members come from a wide variety of different professions and backgrounds and offer unique perspectives. Doehring, known to his friends as Topper, will join the board from a health professional background. He is currently vice president of medical affairs at St. Francis Hospital. A Johns Hopkins alumnus, he is engaged in the Indianapolis community and currently serves on the Indiana Academy of Family Physicians Commission on Health Care Service. “Because our campus is so strong in the area of health professions, and we have so many students pursuing those majors, we like to have the voices of health care professionals on the board,” Pitts said. Hansen, who has a background in the United Methodist Church, is no stranger to the UIndy campus. He served as both an assistant professor and the chair of the department of philosophy and religion at UIndy from the early 1970s to the early 1980s.
> See TRUSTEES on page 3
CAMPUS MOURNS STUDENT DEATH
University of Indianapolis junior James Fryman passed away at his home on March 14 By Jen Miller STAFF WRITER
University of Indianapolis junior James Luo Fryman passed away on March 14, in his off-campus apartment. His sudden death was reported as accidental according to the email that Kory Vitangeli, dean of students, sent out to the campus community. Fryman was from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., and graduated from Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in 2008. He came to UIndy as an honor roll student on scholarship and was a declared business major. Jacqueline Hess, assistant professor in the School of Psychological Sciences, taught Fryman in the course Intro to Psychology.
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Hess described Fryman as an inquisi- where we can understand one another.” tive and bright individual in class with Hess also remembered that during the strong opinions. times that Fryman stayed late after class “He was very interested lecture to ask questions and in what he needed to learn discuss the class, she really and how he should study got to listen and understand for it, so he’d ask about him as an individual. Acthose things,” Hess said. cording to Hess, in the time “I appreciate those things she was able to spend with in a student.” Fryman, she was able to see Hess said that she that he had a uniquely indialways learns from her vidual way of thinking, and students, and Fryman was she realized that he saw the no exception. world differently than those “From James, I learned around him. again that if we listen well, “He was always a student we can come to a place who would stay just a few where we really begin to minutes after class, and that’s FRYMAN understand what the student time that I really found that is trying to say. So in that respect, I very by listening I could begin to hear and much appreciate that he taught me that understand what he was thinking about again,” Hess said. “When we do that, the world,” Hess said. “He really thought we’re much more apt to get to a place about a lot of different things.”
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Hess encourages everyone to appreciate the unique things about those around them. She suggests that others should try to accept the differences in each individual because we are all faced with our own challenges, but have the ability to offer something special to the world, just as Fryman did to those around him. Chitrak Banerjee, program manager in the School of Business, was Fryman’s neighbor and a family friend. Banerjee described Fryman as an extremely polite and loving person. Banerjee said that Fryman was a quiet person and had a select group of friends with whom he loved to play video and card games. He also loved to eat Chinese food at a local restaurant and was considered a regular by the owner. Banerjee said Fryman had a big impact on him just because of the person Fryman was and how he thought about the things around him.
Race for the Cure
> See Page 6
“He has impacted me very strongly,” Banerjee said. “ He was wise beyond his years.” According to Banerjee, Fryman also loved his truck more than anything and would often fall asleep in it while it sat in the driveway. “He lived in it. We would have to go and wake him up and tell him to go to bed,” Banerjee said. “He was more concerned about getting into a fenderbender with that truck than he was about anything else.” Banerjee said that he will always remember Fryman as being an extremely pure person. Services celebrating Fryman’s life were held at First Christian Church in Torrance, Calif. on Sunday, March 20. The Counseling Center and campus chaplains are available to all students, faculty and staff who wish to speak to someone while dealing with the grieving process.
Little Greyhounds
> See Page 10