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THE
REFLECTOR FEBRUARY 6, 2008
VOL . 86/ ISSUE 7
Students to benefit from new Lugar Center By Sarah Haefner STAFF WRITER The University of Indianapolis, in conjunction with Senator Richard G. Lugar’s office, announced the conceptual development of a proposed Richard G. Lugar Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders on campus on Dec. 8, 2007. The official launch of the new program is scheduled for the summer of 2008. Proposed by UIndy President Beverley Pitts in October 2007, Sen. Lugar quickly approved the Lugar Center. According to Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Mark Weigand, the center’s mission is to stimulate and inspire the next generation of public leaders through permanent establishment of the Lugar Symposium for Tomorrow’s Leaders. The center will include programs that emphasize the study of Sen. Lugar’s life and the qualities and values that shaped him as a leader. “The idea for the center has been floating around for a long time,” Pitts said. “We approached Sen. Lugar’s staff, and they were very supportive. We’ve held the Lugar Symposium for more than 30 years now, but it wasn’t institutionalized. We felt like we needed something more permanent to build programming to develop leadership and a partnership with K-12 schools.” The Lugar Symposium celebrated 31 years in operation last December. Since its creation, the center has drawn 15,000 students to the symposiums. Each year, Indiana high schools pick two juniors to attend the symposium and experience programs, seminars and speakers to learn the importance of civic responsibility, engagement and leadership. Debates are held about current issues, and representatives of each perspective of the issue are given the opportunity to speak. Sen. Lugar also attends, meets many of the students and gives a speech in Ransburg Auditorium. The senator has never missed a Lugar Day.
“The Lugar Center will take the existing symposium and build more opportunities, structures, networks and programs to support the core mission,” Weigand said. “It will provide experiences for high school and college students that will expose them to leadership opportunities, as well as the value of leadership and service to others, [and] issues of ethics, integrity, leadership and the qualities of strong leadership.” The center will not be academic- or curriculumbased, but will include mentorship programs for students, as well as training programs for student -government leaders. “We need the next generation of public leaders,” Pitts said. “The center is designed to produce just that.” The center is currently a broad concept, but Pitts said she has an optimistic outlook. “We may have to do some trial and error, but the world is at our feet,” Pitts said. The next developmental tasks are already underway. The search for a director to hold the position for two years is in progress, as well as for members of an advisory board to build a business plan that will outline the manner in which funds will be accumulated for each program incorporated in the center. A staff member in Sen. Lugar’s office also will be on the advisory board to ensure that the senator is comfortable with the activities. Each program will have its own funding from grants, as well as contributions from members of the community and alumni. “We hope to engage folks from within the campus and surrounding communities to help develop these programs for leadership,” Weigand said. UIndy students may get involved in the center by linking with high school students through mentoring and volunteering, which in turn will provide a glimpse into careers in public leadership.
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PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Senator Richard Lugar shakes hands with University of Indianapolis President Beverley Pitts. UIndy announced the creation of the Lugar Center on Dec. 8, 2007.
UIndy selected for Campus celebrates MLK Day Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship By Sami Shelton NEWS EDITOR
Members of the University of Indianapolis community came together to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 21 in Ransburg Auditorium. The program featured guest speaker and UIndy alumnus Samuel Pieh. Pieh traveled to Indianapolis from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to share his story with the UIndy campus. Pieh is a direct descendant of the late Sengbe Pieh, a man who started a revolt on the slave ship The Amistad in 1839 to lead his fellow captives to freedom. Preceding the Martin Luther King Jr. Day program, Steven Spielberg’s “The Amistad: Timeless Values in the Footprints of History” was shown in Ransburg Auditorium on Jan. 20. Samuel Pieh worked as a dialect coach for the film and played a small role. According to Anne Mejia Downs, assistant professor in the Krannert School of Physical Therapy and a member of the UIndy Multicultural Committee, Pieh traveled to UIndy early in order to be at “The Amistad” showing. He and Black Student As-
By Kim Puckett STAFF WRITER
DAN FRIEND/THE REFLECTOR
The UIndy Voices of Worship gospel choir performs at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day program Jan. 21, 2008.
sociation President Elisha Smith led a question-and-answer session afterward. On Jan. 21, the MLK Day celebration began with a performance by the UIndy Voices of Worship gospel choir. Paul Washington-Lacey, career services senior associate, led the audience in a welcoming prayer in which he said he hoped that the love, learning, service and tenacity of Dr. King would live on. UIndy President Beverly Pitts spoke of Dr. King as the “most important and influential iconic figure.” Pitts referred the audience to a YouTube.com video by Mavis Staples entitled “We’ll Never Turn Back”, and explained why she believes that racism still exists in the world today. “For example, look at Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team,” Pitts said. “Race can still divide us if we let it, even 40 years after the assasDAN FRIEND/THE REFLECTOR sination of Dr. King.” Director of Human Resources Stant Clark UIndy alumnus Samuel Pieh speaks questioned the audience about his role in the Christian Health about what Martin Luther Association in Sierra Leone.
King Jr. Day means to them. He also spoke of ridding America of social and economic injustice. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Clark said. Downs recognized all the people who made the event possible before introducing Pieh to the audience. “It was an honor to introduce the speaker,” Downs said. “He is doing so much for Sierra Leone by taking his education from UIndy to make a difference.” Pieh used his speech to tell of his current role as assistant director of the Christian Health Association in Sierra Leone. He spoke about the missions of health and sanitation in the CHA and about the living conditions in Sierra Leone, which left the audience wondering what it all had to do with The Amistad and MLK Day. “This all ties together through friendship,” Pieh said. “Friendliness accomplishes big things.” Pieh ended his speech with Dr. King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Smith was asked to speak about what MLK Day means to her as a student’s perspective to the program. She recalled her own visit to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Dr. King was assassinated. Smith also recited a poem
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The University of Indianapolis has been selected as one of four Indiana universities to pioneer the Woodrow Wilson National Teaching Fellowship, an initiative to improve teacher education in the United States. The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation selected Indiana as the first state to begin its national teacher recruitment program. The fellowship’s mission encourages college seniors and graduates who hold a degree in math or science seeking a career change to choose teaching as a career. As the only private school chosen to participate, UIndy will be collaborating with Ball State University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Purdue University. The fellowship seeks to prepare teachers for middle and high school classrooms. The Woodrow Wilson Foundation will provide a $30,000 stipend for a 12month master’s degree program to each fellow selected. Selected applicants will meet a benchmark grade point average and have a strong background in math or science. In the first year, 80 participants will be selected by the foundation. After completing the program, each participant must teach math or science at a high-need Indiana school for at least three years. Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Deborah Balogh will oversee the project at UIndy, which involves cooperation between the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences. “We want to develop new models of teacher preparation that enhance student learning,” Balogh said. “This is the first step in a much larger revolution for education nationwide.” According to Balogh, one of the reasons UIndy was chosen to participate was because of its existing education-based initiatives such as the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning. Lynne Weisenbach, dean of the School of Education and executive director of CELL, said the collaborative relationship between the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education was a determining factor in UIndy’s selection. “Our departments work closely together,” Weisenbach said. “You can walk through the Schwitzer Center and see our faculty having lunch together. That kind of collaboration just isn’t present at a lot of other universities.” Angelia Ridgway, associate professor of teacher education, has been coordinating the task force, which is developing the program’s courses of study, experiences in the field and connections with area public schools. Ridgway also coordinates the Master of Arts in Teaching program at UIndy. “This is another excellent opportunity to prepare secondary [school] teachers for today’s schools,” Ridgway said. The Lilly Endowment Foundation Inc. will fund much of the Indiana-based program with a $1 million contribution, according to a- New York Times article on the foundation’s recent endeavors. According to its own Web site, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation is a fellowship created to recruit exceptionally able men and women for careers in high school teaching. With its programs, the foundation seeks to prepare fellows to teach in low-income communities and high-need schools. Ohio will be the next state to participate in the Woodrow Wilson National Teaching Fellowship.