CMYK
THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF INDIANAPOLIS
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New CFO, VP and Treasurer announced By Noah Crenshaw & Tyshara Loynes ONLINE EDITOR & STAFF WRITER
At the beginning of March, the University of Indianapolis announced that Indiana State Budget Director Jason Dudich would be the university’s new CFO, vice president and treasurer. Dudich will be replacing former Chief Financial Officer and Vice President Michael Holstein, who retired in December 2018. University President Robert Manuel said that he believes that Dudich will continue the fiscal leadership that was started by Holstein. He said that Dudich has previously worked with former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard’s office and Indiana University. Dudich was appointed as state budget director by Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2017, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal. Dudich said that one of his main goals at UIndy will be to keep the university financially strong and to ensure that it is able to have the resources that are needed for faculty, staff and students. He said that with his position, he hopes that he will be able to help UIndy take on new initiatives in the future. “[I want UIndy to be able to] be flexible in identifying ways that we can meet those new initiatives and new goals,” Dudich said. “I certainly want to make sure that there’s a high level of transparency. My time in government has really helped me understand that transparency is important for those who are working with—whether [that be] the state or the university—in understanding how well the institution is doing financially and [how they] can talk about financial situations that will hurt or help the institution... Because it's so vitally important to the institution and its future success.” Dudich said that he believes that finances are something that should be communicated about due to their importance in decision making and because it is a subject that many do not completely understand. He said that one of his goals is to educate students, faculty and staff about UIndy’s finances.
DUDICH “Whether that be our budget, whether that be our investments, whether that be how we set policies that impact the financial operations of the institution,”Dudich said. “To [be able to] talk to and educate individuals so that they understand when we present financial information, and when we talk about financial situations, [and] that they feel like they are on a level playing field with the financial team.” According to a press release from UIndy, Dudich will be moving into his position in June. Dudich said that he is excited and looking forward to joining UIndy as CFO, VP and Treasurer. “I welcome the opportunity to meet as many people as I can to talk about the university and learn as much as I can from people who have been there both in the short run, and the long run,” Dudich said. “I’m just very excited to get down there and take the experience that I have had over the last 18 years in the public sector and see what I can do to help UIndy out and make it successful…[I am] very thankful for the opportunity that the board and President Manuel gave me and also the opportunities the Governor gave me to work [in] this role [as budget director], but also to be able to step in to this new role [as CFO, VP and Treasurer] and do something different in higher education, which I’ve always been interested in working in.”
reflector.uindy.edu
APRIL 17, 2019
2019 Honorary Degree Recipients
Immigration policies affect UIndy Athletics By Jayden Kennett MANAGING EDITOR
Photo contributed by UIndy Speech Team
Each new presidential administration, brings new laws and regulations. Under the Trump administration, specifically, immigration regulations and restrictions have changed in a variety of ways. Managing Attorney from Indiana Immigration Law Group Clare Corado said the significant changes regarding immigration are based on several sources—the U.S. Constitution, executive orders, court decisions and others. However, Corado said, because some changes would need to be approved by Congress, the changes that have been seen are primarily due to reinterpreting existing laws and creating new procedures internally. This, she said, has caused a lot of trouble for immigrants trying to come to the United States. “One thing that many Americans are unaware of is that there not only have been significant actions taken to reduce undocumented immigration, but it has also become significantly harder for immigrants to enter United States lawfully as well,” Corado said. “We have seen every possible tactic to create additional bureaucratic delays on all case types. For example, many forms have tripled in length and their processing time has been delayed by several months or more. There are widespread requests for additional evidence on cases where all of the initially required evidence has already been submitted. Legal immigrants and their families have been significantly affected. This has also impacted many work-based visa types and hurt employers.” Since these changes, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Sue Willey said she is struggling to hire qualified international assistant coaches, who are desperately needed at the University of Indianapolis. The National Foundation for American Policy released data that found U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, has begun to increase H1-B visa denials. Willey and Director of International Services Mimi Chase have been helping international coaches to apply for the H-1B visa, which allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. They said that recently they have found their applicants were being denied and the process taking double the amount of time, whereas in the past, applicants were approved. “We currently have two head coaches that went through the process and had no problem. Now, we've had two more coaches that we want to stay here and be full-time employees, and they've been denied that right,” Willey said. “We've had coaches [who] in order to stay here had to become graduate students, although maybe they've already had a graduate degree, and now they're taking another graduate degree so they can stay and still be a part of the program.” According to USCIS, the H-1B program is a program that temporarily employs foreign workers in the U.S. in “occupations that require the theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or higher in the specific specialty, or its equivalent.” Specialty occupations include fields such as science, teaching and engineering. However, collegiate coaching is not considered a specialty occupation under the USCIS’s specifications, despite the fact that most colleges require coaches to have a bachelor's degree in any subject, according to Chase. There are other visas that coaches can apply for, such as an O-1 visa. To obtain this visa, the coach must show he or she has received national or international acclaim and recognition for achievements as a coach. While this visa was considered as a possibility, the H1-B visa maybe the only visa for which some coaches coming to UIndy are eligible for. This situation, Willey said, has left her hands tied.
The UIndy Forensics Speech & Debate team posed with their medals and plaque, won at the State Championship Competition. Pictured on the far left, Craig Chigadza was a state champion in persuasive speaking and won a national championship in interviewing.
> See Policies on page 4
Lonnie Johnson • Inventor of the Super Soaker water gun • President and founder of the Johnson Research and Development Company • NASA engineer • Worked at the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory • Worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Cassini mission to Saturn and the Mars Observer project • Received the Air Force Achievement Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal • Speaking at the undergraduate ceremony on Saturday, May 4
Those who receive Honorary Degrees at the University of Indianapolis are often “individuals who are innovators, society and industry leaders, and visionaries who embody the mission of our University,” University President Robert Manuel said in a press release on March 29 announcing that NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson and civil rights activist Bob Zellner were the 2019 recipients. Manuel said that an honorary degree is one of the highest honors a college can give. “There's not many [people] receiving that honor from the university over time,” Manuel said. “There’s a prestige associated with it [and] that is the honor part of it....There's no speaker's fee here [or] anything like that. There is just coming here for the honor of receiving the degree, talking to the students and engaging our population.” Manuel said that both Johnson and Zellner were chosen because their lives can be a model to students. He said that the values they have are the values the university hopes students will leave with after graduation. “Creative inquiry, service, creativity, social justice, all those things are inherent in the life examples of both Lonnie [Johnson] and Bob [Zellner],” Manuel said. “So, when you sit in the crowd and you look at who we're giving an honorary degree to, hopefully, as a student, you'd sit there and think, 'Okay, I get what the university is about. I get how it's connected to the values that we share.'”
Bob Zellner • First white southerner to have a field secretary position for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in 1961 • Arrested 18 times for trying to challenge segregation in the South • Featured in the 2005 award-winning documentary “Come Walk in My Shoes, • Wrote a memoir, “The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement,” which is being made into a film that will be produced by Spike Lee • Speaking at the graduate ceremony on Friday, May 3
Information from UIndy360 Graphic by Noah Crenshaw
Speech team ends strong By Abby Land
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Persuasion, interviewing, extemporaneous and impromptu speeches were among the forensic skills displayed by varsity members of the UIndy Forensics Speech & Debate team on March 21-22 when the students finished their competitive season at the National Speech Competition in Detroit. The varsity team—comprised of Vanessa Hickman, Shayla Cabalan, Craig Chigadza, India Graves, Melanie Moore, Sierra Roberts, Kaylee Blum and Taylor Woods—nearly tripled the team’s average from last year at the competition. Sophomore psychology and international relations major Craig Chigadza, who placed first in persuasive speaking at the state level, emerged as national champion in interviewing. He is the first University of Indianapolis student in nearly two decades to receive this title. The university and name of the first place winner is announced last in competition and although he was satisfied with his performance and prepared not to win, Chigadza said, with each name called that was not his own, he realized
that placing first was an increasingly real possibility. “As I was standing onstage, I could see my two coaches, they were in the crowd. They were almost trying to hold each others’ hands,” Chigadza said. “And it was a really happy moment that I was grateful to experience, when something is finally confirmed...When you start something and you work towards something and you actually see it bear fruit, it’s a big moment for everyone, not only for myself as an individual but the team, for my coaches, everyone that puts an effort into making the whole machine work.” As a result of winning the national championship, Chigadza will spend the summer in China working with Learning Leaders, an organization in Shanghai dedicated to improving the debate and public speaking skills of students. Chigadza said he will work with mostly middle school and high school students there and is excited to represent UIndy overseas. For Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Speech & Debate Stephanie Wideman, the fact that Chigadza won in the experimental category of interviewing was special because it shows how the skills that are
taught by the program are applicable to everyday life. “Interviewing is that hardened skill,” Wideman said. “That's where we really test out, 'Can what we [educators] traditionally teach, transfer into something that's getting these people jobs?' And that was why it was so exciting to have one of ours do that and show that. What I think is exemplary of all the teaching that goes on the university is that we have a focus on not just what's happening in the classroom, but how does that translate into what's going to happen outside of it for the students.” The students Wideman referred to have been steadily gaining ground in the field of speech and debate over the last couple of years. For example, junior communication and English major Shayla Cabalan will have a persuasive speech from last year’s competitive season, “11 and Engaged: America’s unseen child marriage crisis” published in the 14th edition of the human communication book being authored by a professor at the University of New York. Chigazda will also have his persuasive speech, “The Biggest Healthcare Crisis you’ve never heard of: World EyeCare,” which was about the > See Speech on page 8
