The Gamble, USI 50th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine

THE DOWHIES / VARSITY CLUB / SCREAGLE CULTURE

The

Gamble The E voluti on 6

USI by the Map

t he p e o p l e 32

A modern look at an ever changing campus.

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Past, President & Future An in-depth look at the presidencies of Bennett, Hoops & Rice.

An Evolutionary Gamble USI’s creation through the eyes of its major players.

EDUCATING FOR THE GREATER GOOD

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t he a r t s Th e C ULTURE 10 15

TKEs and Greeks TKE, the beginning of brotherhood.

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Sculpting the Arts The legacy of Lenny Dowhie.

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Performing Arts

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Madrigal Feaste

USI Goes Abroad How campus expanded its diversity.

The c onve r s at i ons 17

Up In Smoke The evolution of USI’s controversial smoking bans.

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Peace & Knowledge How the Vietnam War inspired a peaceful protest on campus.

The changing landscape of USI Theatre.

45 years of merriment.

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the ga me 24

Varsity Club The group funding scholarships and fueling dreams.

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USI Bowling Flashback to USI’s 80s bowling team with coach Don Pitzer.

THE FIRST FRATERNITY & A LEGACY OF CAMARADERIE

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EDITOR’S NOTE

J

JOURNALISTS OFTEN GET CROSSED OFF Christmas lists.

They receive a general disdain reserved for professionals such as lawyers and tax collectors but without the perks of a sizeable salary. Journalists frequently bare the brunt of criticism, getting accused of partaking in pack-like behavior or sensationalizing content. Errors as miniscule as misspellings or typos char under the proverbial public microscope.

Hatred can quickly gestate into hellish conditions for college reporters as they stumble to find their footing. Weekly emails from critics scrutinize the neophytes, shaming some into changing majors.

True reporting requires fierce hunger and passion for honest storytelling. The Shield staff, or “Shieldsters” as we like to call ourselves, consistently powers through the strain of weekly ridicule while juggling classwork and multiple jobs. We are often asked, “Why do you put yourself through all of that stress just to enter into a dying profession?”

We scoff at these inane remarks.

The

Gamble EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert F. Shipman IV

SECTION EDITORS Bradie Gray Sarah Loesch Paola Marizan Armon Siadat James Vaughn

Many even accuse our staff of being intentionally defamatory or eagle-shaming, but that is because there is something they do not know — we love USI. On my first major assignment as News editor, I drove up to Indianapolis to cover a Board of Trustees meeting. A bundle of nerves, I shook as I plundered to take notes and live-tweet important commentary. But one comment from President Linda Bennett stuck with me amid the madness swirling inside my brain. “As a university, we can’t strengthen when we don’t know where we are weakened,” she said firmly. I realized The Shield is like that pesky person who sends emails exposing what some may perceive as minor flaws. And we do it because we care about this university and want to strengthen its foundation for the generations to come.

Our 50th Anniversary Magazine is a way to commemorate half-a-century of ScrEagle history through the unbiased eyes of journalists — showing the good, the bad and the change.

The University of Southern Indiana was a gamble from the beginning. Supporters battled legislation and opposers to establish a four-year public university in Southern Indiana — something many area people were begging for at the time. In its pages, The Gamble highlights various characters and organizations as they bet their chips and shook dice vigorously in their palms in hopes of a winning roll. From the construction of campus culture to the campus itself, risk takers placed their stakes high to build a buoyant university. Since 1965, the arts, the games , the conversations and the people at USI have melded together to create a reputable institution that has sculpted Southern Indiana by providing affordable and quality education, supporting charities and enhancing the climate of local communities. The Shield staff just wants to say, “Thanks USI!”

COPY EDITORS Gavin Gaddis Alyssa Ralph

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Amanda Brinkman PHOTOGRAPHERS Hannah Spurgeon Alyssa Smith Kyra Schmidt SECTION DESIGNERS Erin Hicks Amanda Morrison Jessica Stallings ILLUSTRATION Brian Tenbarge

SALES DIRECTOR Jonathan Stilley

DESIGN DIRECTOR Theresa Scheller MARKETING MANAGER Adam Moore SALES CONSULTANTS Austin Hoffman Anthony Ross DISTRIBUTION Ugurkan Akkaya

ROBERT F. SHIPMAN IV

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Our USI story began in 1968.

Share a USI memory with us at #USIstory

usishield.com

THE EVOLUTION

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i l l u s t r at i o n by e r i n h i c k s

AN EVOLUTIONARY GAMBLE University paves way for Southern Indiana education, growth

By B O B BY S H I P M A N BEFORE THE CURVED GLASS OF THE PERFORMANCE CENTER

reflected glistening sun rays or the stone-paved cone towered over USI’s campus, there lay only a green stretch of empty land.

A man named William “Bill” Mitchell was working on an oil field just across the road. After spotting construction machinery tending the land one day, Bill — a World War II vet from Albion, Illinois — sought an explanation from a nearby farmer.

“Oh, there’s a bunch of dumb guys that’s trying to build a college,” the farmer told him, “…and it will never happen.”

Trudy, Bill’s wife, said she’s heard the story time and again and that if the old farmer could see what USI has become, he would turn over in his grave.

Evansville had no state-supported public universities in the 1960s, and many local leaders began working to change this. At the time, the state had the lowest education achievement levels in the nation and many prominent companies in the region has closed. In 1966, D. Mead Johnson, CEO of Mead Johnson & Co., began Southern Indiana Higher Education with no money and a big dream — to better the state of higher education in Southern Indiana.

The university’s creation faced roadblocks and setbacks, and everyone involved put all their time and money on the table. “We’ve had to fight for everything. I mean there was hardly anything that went smooth,” said Bruce Baker, former Board of Trustees chair. “I think that’s what makes this university strong.”

Former Vice President of Academic Affairs Robert Reid said one of the biggest challenges in higher education was the Indiana mentality, “Well that’s a good

idea, but we’re not going to give you any money for it,” he said mockingly, “until you prove the good idea works.”

In Illinois, Reid said the state made money available for the creation of University of Springfield — where he served as dean for 4-and-a-half years.The lack of support prompted SIHE and university supporters through the

The Mitchell’s were loyal supporters of the Evansville community, having donated funds to Deaconess Hospital and Mesker Park Zoo, but after learning about a potential university in Evansville, Bill invited Rice and his wife over for dinner to hear Rice’s plans for the school. “We were very impressed,” Trudy said. The couple saw a need for an easily acces-

“We’ve had to fight for everything. I mean there was hardly anything that went smooth. I think that’s what makes this university strong.”

—Bruce Baker, former Board of Trustees chair years to rely on private donors betting their chips on the school’s success.

SIHE initiated a community campaign that raised nearly $1 million, many of those initial donors continue to give back to the university.

Placing chips Trudy and Bill Mitchell met toward the end of WWII after he was injured in the Battle of the Bulge. She was a Werdau, Germany, native. Not wanting to leave Trudy behind, Bill reenlisted as military police. Trudy eventually became one of the first “war brides” to come to the U.S. after the war concluded. The two eventually settled in Albion, Illinois, and became advocates for community growth.

When Bill met Dean David Rice, The ISUE campus had already moved from its roots at the Centennial School building across from Mead Johnson to a “barn” building donated by The Catholic Diocese of Evansville.

sible college for Albion students.

They had no idea it would see such predominant growth in size, Trudy said, “nor did anyone else.”

It’s an evolution she said has been a pleasure to witness.

Trudy continues to host annual dinners for German exchange students. Last year, ten German students attended, which is the most she said she has ever served.

“For the students to tell me how much they enjoy being here at the university, that’s what I always enjoy,” she said. “I just love to see our new students when I go out there. I just love to watch them all — for me it’s just a blessing.”

Trudy no longer has family in Germany, or locally, but said she has made many friends throughout the years who have kept her going strong, even after Bill’s death.

Shuffling the deck Rolland Eckels gave the Univeristy of Southern Indiana its name, although his wife Phyllis had to remind him of this detail.

“They were going to name it after a basketball player,” she said.

“They were going to name it all sorts of different things, but finally Rolland said, ‘Why don’t we call it University of Southern Indiana?’”

Nowadays, Rolland and Phyllis live by a picturesque park near downtown Evansville and spend afternoons with their cats and dog out on their chirping patio.

The only surviving member of the original SIHE, Rolland spent large chunks of time at the Indiana legislature trying to make their vision for a university a reality. Even though Rolland and Gov. Robert Orr were pals at the time, favoritism didn’t accelerate the process. But after a while, they were able to convince Orr to jump on the education express.

“In Indianapolis, they didn’t really want us to do anything,” Bill said. “The dean of the Terre Haute campus didn’t want USI to happen either.”

After Bristol Myers took over the company, Johnson moved to Florida. And the last time Rolland spoke to Johnson was when the former CEO called him and he said “Rolland, you’re my best friend,” he recalled. Working on USI’s creation brought them so close together over the years.

“When all this was happening it was just starting and there were only three buildings, and now it’s just unbelievable,” Rolland said.

“He would be thrilled.” Johnson died two weeks later.

While at Mead Johnson, Rolland also did a lot for integration by hiring some of the company’s first African American employees, which also helped to diversify campus culture.

“The West Side has really grown since the university’s been there,” Phyllis said proudly. “All of the student housing and all

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the building on the west side, it’s because the university’s there.

It’s had an enormous impact on Evansville. I don’t think there’s any stopping it, now” Dealing the cards The Indiana Commission for Higher Education conducted a series of regional studies in the mid-1980s to helped support its recommendation for an independent state university in Evansville. It revealed the percentage of high school graduates going on to some form of higher education fell below the state average in 28 of the 36 counties in Southern Indiana.

In 1985, only one-third of high school graduates in Southern Indiana went on to higher education. But 20 years later, the study shows that 78 percent of the high school graduates were enrolled in higher education — a higher percentage than those enrolling at both state and national levels.

Former Vice President of

Academic Affairs Robert Reid said the increase is related to the university’s growth. “You can’t attribute all of that to USI, but it’s helped bring an awareness in education to this community, that together with Ivy Tech, has made college-going much more a part of the whole community experience,” Reid said.

Reid, who worked for the university for more than 29 years, didn’t come in at the beginning.

Unlike Rice, he wasn’t walking on construction planks when he arrived. Instead, he walked onto a campus with facilities and about 3,000 students. At the time, people were posing the question, “What kind of institution is this going to be?” Reid said an argument could have been made for ISUE to remain a two-year institution that fed into its main campus. “Community leaders, from the beginning, had a vision for this place to be more than that,” Reid said. “Not only more than that, but it sort of inculcated a sense that one day the university

was going to become independent.” And as more and more degrees began to pop up in biology, history, psychology, economics, business and education, Reid said the questions behind every step the university took were, “What do the students need? What does the community at large need?

What kinds of programs are vital to a metropolitan community?”

Anytime the university did analyses, Reid said he could point to the fact that USI was the largest metropolitan community in the country without Master’s degree programs. It was easy to build an argument for things that needed to be developed because Evansville had been so lacking in that area, he said.

“Over time, there’s been greater and greater awareness of community service on the part of higher education and we were, I think, a leader in that because (Rice) — coming here, knowing the needs of the community — made certain that we reached out.”

As health professions evolved the university began adopting programs like respiratory therapy and nursing by partnering with Deaconess. The university also began to take on big responsibilities, one of the most notable being its collaboration with Historic New Harmony. “The state saw a need to help move some of its programming into a cooperative arrangement with the university,” Reid said. Now there are many services available in New Harmony such as the tourism program, New Harmony Theatre and the Gallery of Contemporary Art. Another program started was Historic Southern Indiana, which brings together many cultural and community-based organizations across the state to work in ways of promoting local tourism and culture. “I think the university, in some ways, was an early role model for other institutions, with all of the things we were doing and continue to do in the community,” Reid said. “I think that was ingrained in the institution.

‘Gamble’ on Pg. 23

REMEMBER WHEN... A 1981 aerial view of the ISUE campus shows how much the university has expanded over the years.

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Photography courtesy of University archives

THE CULTURE

i l l u s t r at i o n by b r i a n t e n b a r g e

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TandKEs

Greeks

T h e f i r s t f r at e r n i t y a n d a l e g a cy o f c a m a r a d e r i e

BY PA O L A M A R I Z A N I P H O T O G R A P H Y BY H A N N A H S P U R G E O N DURING THE VIETNAM WAR,

social interaction at the university was limited to on-campus recreation, and the atmosphere often felt bittersweet and gray.

One day a group of college boys were hanging out on campus when ISUE Dean David Rice approached them with a proposition. He asked them to start a fraternity to uplift the college atmosphere and promote integration and brotherhood on campus.

Pat Ziemer was among the group of boys. “We wanted to do it,” he said. “It gave us a cohesive group environment.” Sigma Tau Epsilon — today TKE — was locally established in 1969 and was the first national fraternity at the university. Three brothers were selected to pledge and take the fraternity to national recognition.

Their identities were kept secret until initiation day: President Pat Ziemer and brothers Steve Engbers and Dan Ausenbaugh.

The lack of social activity on

campus inspired Rice’s idea. The commuter school had less than 2,000 students, some of those drafted to war before starting their college education. “Getting a college degree was not as important as staying out of the Vietnam War,” Ausenbaugh said.

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Basketball games were held at Robert Stadium, which Ausenbaugh said looked like a ‘ghost town’ when only a small audience turned out to the 10,000-seat stadium.

As more fraternities and sororities began to pop up, bas-

“We have a lot of dedication when it comes to (helping others),” - Brandon Edwards, TKE president

THEN AND NOW Former Sigma Tau Epsilon President Pat Ziemer (left) and current Tau Kappa Epsilon President Brandon Edwards, (right).

ketball game attendance started to increase. The participation of Greek life inspired changes in fan behaviors at sporting events such as people painting their faces with school colors.

STE eventually bought a twostory house covered in large windows and a spacious front porch in Downtown Evansville at a rate of $300 a month. “Money was a struggle. It cost people more to be a member and everything was so new,” Ziemer said. “We had to deal with finances and bills. A lot of guys learned about their capabilities. It’s like training ground (for the future).”

The fraternity then began to host social gatherings and initiate new members. “The university turned their heads on a lot of things and we kind of got away with it,” Ausenbaugh said.

Hazing was popular among fraternities. New pledges were welcomed with activities like the “Happy Apple”, where a blindfolded pledge is asked questions

Photography courtesy of University Archives

about the fraternity and if they fail they have to bite the apple, which was actually an onion. “You can’t do anything like that anymore,” Ausenbaugh said. The university banned hazing and every fraternity had to sign a non-hazing statement .

Ausenbaugh said at the time it was how the fraternity bonded.

“No one was hurt and no one got arrested. It was college fun then,” he said. “Today it may not be.”

Hazing has been a sensitive topic among fraternities and sororities across the nation since their foundation and has resulted in chapter closings, punishments and even deaths, like Chico State University student Matthew Carrington who died after being forced to drink five gallons of water, had iced water poured over him and endured physical trauma while answering fraternity related questions as a pledge, according to

the College Parents of American association.

A brighter side of Greek Life is that it forms bonds between brothers but also the community by holding events such as TKE’s Sluggin’ for St. Jude. “We have a lot of dedication when it comes to (helping others),” said TKE Presiden Brandon Edwards.

TKE was heavily involved with college varsity sports too. Greek Week became an important component of the fraternity life. With games like Tug o’ War and flag football, fraternities took the competition serious, making Greek Week a staple cultural event for the college life.

STE sister sorority, Tau Omega — now Tri Sigma — was composed by STE girlfriends. Ziemer and founder of Tau Omega Debi Devual (Ziemer) remain together.

Fraternities and sororities have multiplied on campus since 1969,

incorporating the Greek life with the on-campus community. Anna Jackson, president of Sigma Sigma Sigma, said Greek organizations form an important part of campus and the Evansville community, involving everyone in their philanthropies. “Tri Sigma serves children,” she said. “We go to hospitals and play with the kids. We have so much diversity and we like to help and be friends with everyone on campus.”

Today the university has 13 Greek organizations — seven sororities and six fraternities.

Tanner Gellinger, president of Kappa Alpha Order, said Greek organizations also help individuals become better people. “We are an order,” he said. “We identify and search for men with our same values and build them upon that.

We become better and help others become better and make brothers in the way.”

USI GREEK LIFE SORORITIES ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA ALPHA SIGMA ALPHA ALPHA SIGMA TAU DELTA SIGMA THETA DELTA ZETA GAMMA PHI BETA SIGMA SIGMA SIGMA

FRATERNITIES KAPPA ALPHA ORDER LAMBDA CHI ALPHA PHI DELTA THETA SIGMA PI SIGMA TAU GAMMA TAU KAPPA EPSILON

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity brothers recreate a pose from an old photograph of TKE brothers. Right: A Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority sister piggybacks a child.

ENDED TRADITIONS

EAGLE GRAND PRIX IT’S THE 1970S AND THE EXCITEMENT is building up. University students and faculty prepare to compete in one of the most popular activities on campus : The Eagle Grand Prix. The first race in 1972 created more than just a biking competition: it became a tradition. The Grand Prix lasted until 1997 when it took a three-year hiatus and then resumed in 2001 only to cease again in 2004. After 25 years of fun and camaraderie the race lives on only as a memory, though the path still runs throughout campus. Photo courtesy of University Archives/1987

THEN & NOW

Human Rights BY pa o l a m a r i z a n i p h o t o g r a p h y by a lY s s a s m i t h

NO HATE IN OUR STATE LEFT: Social work majors protest Indiana’s proposed Religious Freedom Restoration Act in USI’s Free Speech Zone on campus. RIGHT: Univerisity employee Angie O’Nan legally married her partner, Kristi, of 11 years on campus in 2014.

THERE WAS NO PLACE ON CAMPUS for LGBT students in

the 1980s. The lack of an LGBT presence made the few openly gay students stand out, said Alumni and Tri-State Alliance Vice President Kelley Coures.

“Gay” was a taboo, therefore some straight students didn’t want to be associated with the gay underground subpopulation.

“There was such a stigma to it. It was an overpowering thing,” he

said. “I was out, but you didn’t wear it on your shirt sleeve.”

LGBT students were often the target of abuse. Many were faced with stereotypical comments and constant isolation. The HIV/ AIDS outbreak of the 80s sparked an increase in violent acts against the LGBT community.

The organization Spectrum — now Safe Zone — began in the 90s on campus, and worked to integrate the gay community.

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They created the policy that provided same-sex benefits for university staff that was signed by H. Ray Hoops.

Assistant professor of psychology Amie McKibban started Safe Zone Training on campus in 2010. “When I first arrived in 2009, I didn’t see a lot of opposition to this idea of being gay, lesbian or bisexual, but I also didn’t see any support per se,” she said.

Students began to form various

activities and friendly protests such as the Day of Silence in 2010 that was attended by more than 600 students. McKibban said that finding areas of support and inclusivity at USI has become much easier in the past few years.

On June 26, 2015, SCOTUS ruled in favor of marriage equality for all 50 States but university couples were already enjoying the fruits of progress.

BY PA O L A M A R I Z A N | I L L U S T R A T I O N BY A M A N D A M O R R I S O N

IT ALL STARTED WITH 30 INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS LOOKING for a better educa-

tion in a different country. The University of Southern Indiana opened its doors to a new understanding of the world’s diverse cultures. Students from all over the globe became an important part of USI culture, averaging more than 250 international students per semester. In the late 1990s the university began growing its international population with the goal of creating a widely receptive and welcoming campus.

Heidi Gregori-Gahan, assistant provost for International Programs and Services, arrived at USI in 1998 to lead the international program. The university has been deliberate in growing this program not only to enrich the culture but to bring knowledge and a different approach to their vision for a better world.

Provost Ronald Rochon said campus is a mixture of cultures, races, religions, languages and knowledge. Preconceived notions of who you are based upon your zip code are not predominant.

“Without question, when you bring students from across the Pacific and Atlantic to the Midwest to share their culture, their language, their belief systems, their traditions, their philosophy, their overall interpretation of our community, it just makes our environment richer,” he said.

“It makes us stronger. It makes us better, as teachers, as scholars, as students, as community members and also as new neighbors.”

International students came to campus to share and explore their richness with us, but they also came to teach us an important friendship lesson, GregoriGahan said, which explains why making friends as an internation-

al student can be a different experience. “I think we Americans tend to write somebody off if we think we’re not going to understand them,” she said. “We’re such a changing society because people move around so much that I think we’re use to making friends quickly, superficially or not making friends at all.” Opening campus’ doors to International students has impacted every aspect of human development in local students, helping them see things through different eyes.

Rouna Oghene Erife, a mechanical engineering junior from Nigeria, said his experience has been great at USI. “I like it. It’s different from my country,” Oghene Erife said. “I miss my country and my friends. I guess, there’s no place like home.”

Oghene Erife said he has witnessed the growth of diversity on campus. “When I first came not really, but recently, like (in) this

past year, I feel like there’s a lot of people from different places,” Oghene Erife said.

He said his years at USI have been exciting and he had the opportunity to meet some great people.

That is one of the goals of USI’s International Program. “We know so little about the people we sit next to,” Rochon said. “When we began to take a chance, to extend a hand, to extend a friendly greeting, it’s amazing the possibility of developing a friendship, a new relationship and also a new knowledge base about people.”

The university sees its students as ambassadors of change, Rochon said, creating new experiences, new paradigms and new policies for the students to come, who should “Pick up this baton and really understand (their) place in this history.”

“It makes us better as teachers, as scholars, as students, as community members and also as new neighbors.”

— Ron Rochon, University Provost

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THE CONVERSATIONS

BY a r m o n s i a d at i p h o t o g r a p h y c o u r t e s y o f u n i v e r s i t y a r c h i v e s WHEN ISUE MOVED TO ITS NEW CAMPUS, it inherited its

first model of smoking restrictions. While smoking was allowed everywhere on the old campus, lighting up at the new campus was restricted to hallways, lounges and offices. It was almost 20 years later, however, before the university received its first official policy that restricted indoor smoking to hallways, restrooms, lounges and designated areas of the University Center Snack Bar and University Center Dining Room. After Indiana became the 42nd state to have smoking restrictions, cafeteria workers at USI were having trouble enforcing the 1986 policy.

After receiving petitions from various students, the smoking committee eliminated lighting up in bathrooms and hallways, but every building still had an indoor designated smoking area, which didn’t last very long. In 1992, the USI Administrative Council approved an indoor smoking ban because the areas endangered the health of passerby’s breathing in sidestream smoke.

The university tightened the reins more than a decade later by implementing a ’30-Foot Rule,’ which prevented smokers from lighting up within 30 feet of entrances to buildings. Five years later, President Linda Bennett recommended USI become a

tobacco-free campus. Eventually, USI became one of the last tobacco-free Indiana campuses.

The university began encourag-

ing students, faculty and staff to kick the habit by attending cessation programs.

LIGHTING UP Two classmates enjoy a cigarette in their ISUE classroom.

The university smoking policy permitted smoking in classrooms until the 1980s and on campus until 2009. Today campus is smoke-free.

Bo Haile ’76 sophomore

David Poettker ’76 sophomore

Scott Warpenburg ’76 senior

Joyce Pollard ’76 freshman

“Sure, smoking should be allowed. Everyone has a right, but I understand how non-smokers feel. My advice is that non-smkoers should stay away from smokers.”

“People that don’t smoke are concerned about petty pollution. Why don’t they put some effort into water pollution?”

“Yes, it should be permitted. I guess that’s because I smoke. If they ban it, I’ll smoke anyway.

If they take away ashtrays, I’ll put it out on the floor.”

“Well, I smoke, but I feel that there should be a certain area for smoking.”

COLLEGE MEDIA PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE in the every day life of campus culture.

Many have referred to the university as a “small town.” In order for such a community to function it needs an unbiased medium that strives to seek the truth and report it.

Here is a timeline of those outlet’s creations and their changing faces.

1968

The first student literary magazine, “The Moving Finger” was published and...

USI’s first official newspaper, “The Spartan Shield,” was published.

USI’s first underground newspaper, “The Roach,” was published.

1966 1980

“The Moving Finger” becomes “The Aerie.”

820 AM, which had been on air since 1947, was given to USI and WSWI, the student radio station, went on air.

Channel 12 becomes SETV12 and is turned over to the Communications Department.

2001

“The Aerie” becomes “FishHook.”

2008

1969

“The Spartan Shield” becomes “The Shield.”

1981 1999 Cable Channel 12 begins programming into student housing.

2007 WSWI becomes The Edge.

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PEACE

&

2

KNOWLEDGE

Students protest Vietnam War with education.

By A R M O N S I A D A T

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1. Teach-ins were occurring all

over the United States during the height of the Vietnam War, and USI’s political science department sponsored one on October 15, 1969.

Dr. Donald Pitzer, one of the teach-in’s moderators, said the intention of the event was to educating students through opposing communist China and promoting democratic ideals.

Police were present at each entrance, not to shut it down, but to ensure it was an academic event and remained peaceful and respectful.

Pitzer said he was proud of the

students. “They weren’t violent, they were concerned,” he said.

Audience members questioned why America was in Vietnam and what we were doing there, concerned with the amount of lives lost on both sides and the budget for the war, and questioned America’s place in the world. “We as a people, with free speech, can influence democracy,” Pitzer said.

Pitzer called the teachin a “defining event for campus” with “every discipline coming together and putting forth knowledge the best they can

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during a crisis situation.”

2. Some of the moderators and audience members, consisting of faculty members, students from ISUE and U of E, high school students, priests, reporters and photographers, wore black armbands with “PEACE” written in chalk.

“We do have a dark side,” Pitzer said. “But we have to be our better selves.”

Audience members were given blank pieces of paper and were “urged to write not to state, but to national legislators” to show that our democratic process does work, Pitzer said.

Pitzer wrote a letter to Roger Zion, an Indiana representative and “outspoken advocate of the (Vietnam) policy in place.”

Pitzer got a response from Zion that said, “Write a letter to Vietnam.” After the war ended, Pitzer invited Zion to speak in Forum 1 — an invitation Zion accepted.

3. Rick Winters graduated from USI in 1977 with a degree in political science.

The University Archives

houses letters he wrote home while serving in Vietnam.

The letters began as Winters describing how beautiful the country is and how much he liked it there before becoming letters describing the horrors of the country and the death and destruction he witnessed.

David Young, also a USI alum, served in Vietnam.

A paratrooper, a green beret, and a Purple Heart, Young returned to USI in the 1990s to speak about his experiences.

“Peace doesn’t come out of the barrel of a gun,” Young said.

Young believes that the U.S. should use it’s soft power and use other opportunities before sacrificing lives.

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THEN & NOW

WOMEN’S LIBERATION 1971 1. Ralph Kent, senior “Women shouldn’t try to invade male organizations such as male colleges, fraternities or men’s clubs. They should have an equal chance for jobs if they are qualified, but shouldn’t do things to obstruct the daily lives of others, by demonstrating, etc.”

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2. Mike Herron, sophomore “I think it’s silly. Why would women want to be liberated when they don’t have it bad now?”

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3. Sharon Calhoun, Secretary of Humanities Division “There are certain jobs that weren’t meant for women, such as various factory jobs, etc. Women were meant to be feminine.”

2015 4. Danesha Shelton, junior “I believe that women’s liberation is in a state of motion right now as of the last few years. It’s now becoming a part of the mainstream. There are more celebrities who have great influence and are causing people to pay more attention and speak out about these gender-based injustices. I think it is wonderful and as a feminist, this makes me really excited that change is possible and we will get there sooner than people think.”

4

5. Nick Mathis, senior 5 6

“I’ve been doing some reading lately and the third wave (of feminism) is on the upswing right now, and true equality is a good thing. It’s the right thing to do. I’ve read a lot about the debate between whether it should be called ‘feminism’ or ‘egalitarianism’ or whatever else, but the root of it — making sure everyone is equal — is the best part of it.”

6. Whitney Anderson, senior “People are intimidated by powerful women but respect powerful men. As a feminist, I’m looking forward to having the day where power is not associated with gender but with personal achievement and success. I believe that we still have a ways to go with the movement, but we have also made a lot of progress. As the fabulous Hillary Clinton once said, ‘Women’s rights are human rights.’ I look forward to the day that women and girls are held to the same societal standards as men and boys.”

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CONVERSATION STARTERS

50 years ago...

A loaf of bread cost $0.21

The first can of Spaghetti-Os was sold

421

Cassius Clay became Muhummad Ali

Students enrolled at ISUE

A Hershey’s Bar cost $0.05

A movie ticket cost $1.25

Rolling Stones’s “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” topped the charts

A gallon of gas cost $0.24

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” premiered

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‘Gamble’ continued from Pg. 8 It was never intended to be solely interested in scholarly research.”

Reid said that he couldn’t recall a single day he didn’t enjoy coming to work at USI. “I never saw it as a gamble because of the quality of the people I met and the enthusiasm,” he said. “It all was a very impressive package and there was enough here that you could see the future was going to be very bright indeed.”

A winning hand Bruce Baker served on the board of trustees during the search for Rice’s replacement, which led to the hire of H. Ray Hoops. And in Bruce’s 18 years on the board, more than $240 million worth of buildings were erected. He said every time a new building went up it truly impacted campus by increasing student

size and helping to expand different majors like nursing, which is now one of the top ten in the nation. “I think every building that has been constructed has had a great need. The Liberal Arts

that has really been a huge benefit for this institution.”

Baker said they always expected the university to see growth — in the beginning they predicted they would eventually

“I never saw it as a gamble because of the quality of the people I met and the enthusiasm.

It all was a very impressive package and there was enough here that you could see the future was going to be very bright indeed.”

—Robert Reid , former VP of Academic Affairs needed to expand. The College of Business and Engineering was put together in a new building so that they could work together,” he said. “That’s the kind of planning

enroll 1,500 students. “We had many dreams and we wondered just how big this university would get,” he said. The university now has enrollment nearing 10,000.

“We’ve had three great presidents in 50 years and each one of them has been here at the right time.”

One day, Bruce contacted the “sprinkler guy” to come out to the university. While chatting it up, the man revealed he was a Screaming Eagle graduate from 1997.

Bruce told him to look at his diploma when he got home and “you’ll find my name.”

The sprinkler guy replied, “I don’t have to it’s right on my wall and I see your name, Bruce H. Baker, every day,” Bruce said. “I felt proud that he was working for the city.”

Bruce said Southern Indiana would not be the same if USI didn’t exist. “The tri-state has just wrapped their arms around this university and that’s what’s made it successful.”

THE GAME

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY Varsity Club thriving, continues to give back to USI

BY S A R A H L O E S C H IF THE VARSITY CLUB were a Disney movie it would be “Cinderella.” The club is like the fairy godmother to student athletes, but instead of dressing them in ball gowns, they give them the chance to put on a college athletics uniform.

The Varsity Club was founded in 1970 by a group of men who thought it was time to give back to the university. “They were dream makers,” said current Varsity Club Chair Don Powers.

“They made the dream come true.”

Powers was a letterman at ISUE in baseball and after graduating in 1974 he felt joining the organization was something he should do. He knew the gentlemen who were starting the club, who he referred to as “highly re-

spected,” and having grown up in Evansville he had a connection to not only the university, but the city too. Since joining he has discovered that the club is more than just a money making organization. “It’s not all about dollars, its about the camaraderie,” Powers said.

The Fun in Fundraising One way the club creates relationships among members, coaches and athletes is with various fundraisers throughout the year — the most successful being the Steak Fry Auction held each September. The event has both silent and live auctions and members of the baseball team serve the food. The success of the baseball team in recent years has also had an impact.

Evansville’s West Side Nut Club Fall Festival also helps bring in the big bucks. The Varsity Club has six days to interact with the public and with the various athletes from the university. Each day you can find varsity club members working elbow to elbow with athletes from the different teams on campus to serve food the festival-goers.

Jeff Neidlinger, a former university soccer player and current graduate assistant for the athletic department, remembers those times in the booth fondly. “You work with them, you learn about them,” he said. “They aren’t afraid to tell you who they are and what they came from.”

Belief in what they do Openness and a belief in what

STEAKS AND CHOPS The line outside the Varsity Club’s booth at the 1993 Fall Festival grew long as workers hurridly tried to serve the eager eaters.

they do make the Varsity Club so successful. “They just love it here,” Neidlinger said. “They love the athletic department and I mean they really care for the student athletes.”

Neidlinger did not make his decision to come to the universi-

OLD FRIENDS Varsity club members (L-R) Dave Baumeyer, Dan Powers, Robbie Frank, Brian Gerth gather for the annual Golf Scramble.

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Photography courtesy of photography services

ty solely because of a scholarship opportunity, but it did have an impact. “I knew I wanted to go to school and I knew if soccer was a possibility I would have done it for no money,” he said. He knew college soccer could be a gateway for him and felt USI was the right fit.

The stands at university meets, matches or games always hold some portion of the Varsity Club because members attend just about every sporting event- interacting with the athletes and showing support. The university’s size is helpful because at a Division I school individual relationships would be more challenging to cultivate. “When the Varsity Club member and the athlete interact, it makes the experience here really special,” Neidlinger said.

Athletic Director Jon Mark Hall said the club was one thing that made him excited to come to USI. Hall said relationships between athletes and Varsity Club members were easier to cultivate in the 70s and 80s when NCAA regulations were not as strict.

If an athlete needed something a member could get them that item. As the regulations changed it became more difficult to build relationships, but that did not deter the Varsity Club from developing a repertoire with athletes.

The way it was done may have gone through changes, but the base of the relationships they were building stayed the same and the family atmosphere remained.

Membership comes and rarely goes There are currently 297 members of the Varsity Club. The organization really has two obstacles when it comes to finding new members or having current members renew, but it really comes down to one uniting factorage.

Powers said new members come after they have graduated, but often times it depends more on establishing themselves in the professional world. The second

half of the issue comes when the older members find themselves in retirement with less funds than they used to have.

Overall, memberships are renewed quite frequently and members continue to do what they can to attract new people.

Make it or break it The funding that the Varsity Club provides for athletic scholarships is key in having student athletes play for the various university teams. “I think the Varsity Club has a huge impact on the athletic department and what they are able to do,” Neidlinger said. “I know we would not be able to have some of the student athletes that we have because of funding” Hall said he could not overstate the importance of what the Varsity Club does. They are a vital part to athletics and they give their time and support. The overall feel of the Varsity Club is something that Hall said makes them unique from other support systems for Division II athletics.

With this large of an impact the Varsity Club does have to develop a relationship with the University and members of the athletic department like Hall.

He said what helps the relationship is that both entities are working toward the same goal and understand how critical of a relationship it really is.

The Varsity Club has provided athletes with the chance to play college sports — opportunities they have given athletes like Neidlinger, which he said will last him far beyond four years.

If the athletes are Cinderella and the Varsity Club is the Fairy Godmother then scholarships are their ball. While they may have a time constraint, student athletes reap the benefits of their education for the rest of their lives. “I know it’s cliche, but I think more people should realize what the Varsity Club really does,” Neidlinger said. “The Varsity Club makes student-athletes dreams come true.”

THE STEAKS ARE HIGH Club members gather to prepare steaks for the annual Fall Festival fundraising event.

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1978-79 THE FOLLOWING TIMELINE

recaps some of the major awards won by ISUE and USI athletes.

Men's Basketball player Cortez Collins becomes first All-American

1993-94 Men's Basketball player Craig Martin is the first USI athlete to earn GLVC Paragon Award Volleyball player Sheri Kaiser becomes USI’s first Academic AllAmerican (third team)

2013-14

2011-12

2004-05

Baseball player Matt Chavarria named Most Valuable Player

Record five Academic All-American athletes: Soccer player Susan Elsperman, Tennis player Ben Boesing, Softball's Kristin O'Haver, Cross Country runner Jackie Henderson, and Cross Country's Brendan Devin.

Laura Ellerbusch named second volleyball AllAmerican, earned AVCA honorable mention honors

Laura

1994-95

1995-96

Men's Basketball player Stan Gouard named National Player of the Year

Softball player Amber Huse is first female to win the GLVC Paragon Award

2002-03

1996-97

Men's soccer player Duncan Bray named Academic AllAmerican and NSCAA Scholar All-American

Elly Rono, men's cross country, named NCAA II Runner of the Year

ENDED TRADITIONS

USI BOWLING

BY S A R A H L O E S C H IN 1979, PROFESSOR DONALD PITZER was approached

about helping a group of students start a bowling team on campus.

When interviewing to teach at USI, being the advisor for a bowling team was not an opportunity that Pitzer ever considered. He was drawn to USI for the history of New Harmony and the attitude surrounding the university.

Pitzer said the optimism surrounding USI, at the time ISUE, was magnetic. He was excited to get in on the ground floor of the institution and be able to help build up.

The same type of situation surrounded his opportunity to be the faculty advisor for the bowling team. There was an uncertainty, but also a chance for Pitzer

to be there at the start of something new.

Pitzer, who taught history, said he was not the best bowler, but was assured by team members that they could teach him.

Jeff Crowley was the student who approached Pitzer and who really wanted to have a team created. “(Crowley) was the sparkplug that got the team going,” Pitzer said.

The team had plenty of interest over the years and traveled to tournaments, while also hosting some of their own. The bowlers practiced at Franklin Lanes and events and were coached by bowling alley staff members.

Pitzer was always involved, but he was more of an advisor than a coach.

THE STRIKE David Baumeyer watches his ball roll down the lane at the Pabst National Collegiate Bowling Championship Sectional Competition.

Pitzer saw this as a chance to be a mentor to students who were “diamonds in the rough.”

The team had a vast array of student interest, but Pitzer said it really was a place for students who maybe did not feel like they belonged anywhere else. It was very inclusive and, with teams for both men and women, pretty

THE JACKET Coach Don Pitzer models the team’s jacket that he has kept throughout the years. The design on the jacket was created by a member at the time who was also interested in art. The basis of the design was to have an eagle, the mascot, holding a bowling ball with his talons.

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much anyone who wanted to join could. This mix of people did not stop the teams from developing a strong camaraderie between practices and traveling for tournaments.

The trophies the team won could not compare to the fun they had winning them. Traveling to the events always had an element of unexpectedness and excitement. “We truly had fun together, you just never really knew what was going to happen,” Pitzer said.

Pitzer remembered one instance where he went to check on the team in their hotel room and they had wrapped one of the players in toilet paper. David Baumeyer, built like a football player, was wrapped like a mummy sitting in heir hotel room. Another instance was when they would yell “equipment check,” and the driver would turn on the radio, lights and windshield wipers.

All of this culminated into a closeness that still last to today.

Members of the group still get together sometimes to bowl and spend time together. Unfortunately Pitzer does not get to bowl anymore due to an injury, but said he is still in touch with many of the players.

THEN & NOW

ARCHIE THE EAGLE Photography courtesy of University archives IN THE BEGINNING, WHEN USI WAS STILL ISUE and athletics were still in their early years, a nameless eagle was introduced into the community.

The eagle made its first debut during the first game of the 1970-71 men’s basketball season. It was not until 1978 that the student body decided to name the eagle. The naming process was done in a way that would bring the interest of the student body. The Activities Planning Board, Student Government Association, and The Shield held a contest to decide the name. The final decision named the eagle Archibald T. Eagle, where the T. stands for “The.” As the years continued the name shortened and is most often referred to as “Archie” now.

The Archie costume has changed a few times throughout the years since 1970, but the biggest change came in 2014. There was a branding change done to his look, but not to what he represents. Much like the early naming decision, this decision was brought about from the community of USI. There were focus groups put together before finally the new look was put to a vote.

Close to 5,000 voters decided they wanted to see a mascot that was stronger and lacked that “cartoonish” 1970 look. This led to the Archie that now represents the school, keeping the original color scheme while adding a fierceness that was not there before.

From 1970-2015, Archibald T. Eagle has been synonymous with USI spirit and out in full support at athletic events.

1995

1979

ARCHIE THROUGH THE YEARS The 1979 version of Archie poses during a photoshoot in the gym showing off his then Indiana State University Evansville apparel.

2014

THE PEOPLE

BY J A M E S VA U G H N | P H O T O G R A P H Y BY k Y R A S C H M I D T

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LINDA BENNETT

Educating for the ‘greater good’

STUDENTS FILL THE WRIGHT ADMINISTRATION building

everyday. They eat lunch and chat with their friends at the tables situated across from the university’s new 50-year timeline. They study and knock out homework assignments in the tablet arm lounge chairs on the second floor. They speed past the art displays in the McCutchan Exhibition Space.

But behind that space, nestled in the back of the administrative offices, is President Linda Bennett’s space.

A floor to ceiling bookcase stands prominent upon entering her office. Knick-knacks, memorabilia and gifts from fellow staff members adorn the shelves. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James — one of Bennett’s favorite novels — rests there, as well as a slew of books about government, representative of her career as a political science professor. u s i s h i e l d.c o m | T H E G A M B L E | 3 3

Bennett put her teaching shoes back on in the fall of 2014 to lead a UNIV 101 course, a freshman seminar introduced to the university’s core curriculum. “I think it’s wonderful to connect with students and get them acclimated with the university,” Bennett said when The Shield sat down with her in February for a one-on-one.

“I hear differently in that setting than I do in a formal setting as president.”

But she doesn’t rely solely on her time in the classroom for input. Bennett makes sure she gets out and about on campus. “It is hard for me to sit in one place for a long period of time, but I do do that sometimes just to freak people out,” she joked. “People come by and they’re like, ‘What is she doing there?’”

She wanted an ‘upstart’ When Bennett first heard about USI, she was a dean at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Rodgers Redding, an individual she loved working with when she was a department chair at Northern Kentucky University, was a dean at NKU. She kept telling him she wanted to get back to a place like that, she said, but he wasn’t taking the hint. NKU was founded in the late 1960’s — around the same time USI was — and Bennett said she loves the fact that both schools are “upstarts.”

Bennett spent the first 13 years of her career at Whitenberg University — a private liberal arts college in Ohio. When she left Whitenberg to take the job at NKU, she had students coming to her office asking, “You’re going to ‘No Knowledge College?’

Once she got there, she loved it. “I always told my dean after I went on to Appalachian State, ‘You know? Appalachian State is a great place, but Northern Kentucky has that Wild West feel,’” she said. “This place was vibrant, raw, young and on the make. You had to work overtime, but there was such an excitement.”

Redding never asked Bennett

to come back to NKU. He did, however, notify her of a job opening at USI when he saw an ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education for provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Bennett recalls Redding saying, “You’ve always said you want to go back to a place like NKU. I’m telling you, this place — they’re in our conference — they are exactly like NKU. This will

had a scholarship to get through college and she was determined to do so.

Bennett, who was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, said her parents couldn’t have afforded private schools, so she wouldn’t be where she is today without public education. “My mother didn’t even know what tuition was,” said Bennett, a first-generation college student.”

“I remember just sweating — I just had this anxiety that I would get to my senior year and they would tell me, ‘No, you can’t have that degree because you didn’t take this course.’” work for you.”

Bennett said she had never heard of USI until that moment.

“I came in for the interview, and it was just a fit,” she said with a smile on her face. “I enjoyed the people — people actually made eye contact on campus.”

She accepted the position in the winter of 2003.

‘I just kept on being a student’ Bennett was an undergraduate at the University of Cincinnati from 1970 to 1974, and the times were intense, she said. She started college the same year Kent State University shut down after the Ohio National Guard killed students during a protest.

When she entered the university that fall, she began working for a group called Cincinnati Experience, which provided support for heroin addicts. “That was really eye-opening in terms of the drug culture and what was going on,” she said. “A young man that I had had this great crush on all through high school showed up as a heroin addict, and his life had just collapsed.” It wasn’t a carefree time, Bennett said. “It just didn’t feel that way.” But she-

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She didn’t have an adviser either. “They didn’t care if you made it or not,” she said. There was no support system for college students at that time. “I remember just sweating — I just had this anxiety that I would get to my senior year and they would tell me, ‘No, you can’t have that degree because you didn’t take this course,’” she said. “It took a long time to get rid of that anxiety. I kept checking everything and double-checking everything.

Did I have the right math? Did I do everything right?”

Even with that anxiety, Bennett excelled in school. “I was really good at being a student,” she said, chuckling, “so I just kept on being a student. They said, ‘Do you want to be a graduate student?’ I said, ‘Well sure.’”

Going into college, Bennett planned on becoming a lawyer.

Even her high school bus driver knew that. “One of the bus drivers used to call me Perry Mason because I was just so convinced I was going to be a lawyer,” Bennett said. “To this day if you ask me if I had not become a professor at a college, what is the occupation I would have chosen? Two. Either a lawyer or a psychologist.”

Visions of ‘swagger’ When she became president in 2009, Bennett said her vision hadn’t changed much from when she arrived at the university, but it had expanded. She wanted a connection with the local business community because she wanted to really understand what was going on in the surrounding area.

She wanted to make sure the university was engaging the needs of the community because, she said, that’s what both David Rice and Ray Hoops did as presidents.

Bennett is a member of the regional Chamber of Commerce, a position Hoops passed down to her. “For a year or so, I just sat and soaked it in and listened,” she said. “That was incredibly helpful.”

Bennett sat in on a meeting earlier this year where a woman told her son, who wanted to pursue a creative writing degree, that he couldn’t get a job with that degree and that he would major in something else. “The CEO of Fifth Third Bank responded, ‘We need writers,’” Bennett said.

“That coming from him was more powerful than it coming from me.”

THE FIRST SELFIE Linda Bennett is social media savvy. She posted her first selfie to Twitter during the unveiling of the university’s new logo in April of 2014. She also uses social media to follow the conversation among the student body, and said it has given her a heads up about a variety of issues. Follow Bennett at @USIPrez.

Going into the 2015 budget process and legislative session, Bennett said she hammered to legislators the importance of USI. The university educates largely Hoosier students, which Bennett says is worth supporting.

She said the university has had to adjust to the changes in the academic landscape, and that’s something she’s been dealing with for years. Heavy teaching loads and strained resources has been a problem at every institution she’s been at, she said.

USI’s campus literally shifted under Bennett’s rein with the development of the quad. Not only did the campus physically shift, the conversation shifted, too. Bennett, however, was quick to say that it wasn’t just her who changed those perceptions throughout the state. It took a team of dedicated individuals, she said. “What we’ve been able to do is raise the visibility of the good work that’s here,” she said.

“I tell people the quality on this campus didn’t arrive when I arrived here — it’s been here.”

During one of Bennett’s first strategic planning sessions in 2009, a man who used to work at the university said, ‘You know?

We’ve got to get a little swagger.’”

“I have held onto that,” she said.

“And we have gotten a little swagger.”

“One of my best days?” Bennett said moments later, looking away from me as if to hide her tears. “There have been a lot of good days.” She said having both Rice and Hoops on stage during her inauguration was fantastic.

She’s also a big fan of commencement, which was brought back to campus during her rein as president after years of being hosted at Roberts Stadium. “I remember the last commencement we had a Roberts Stadium — three and a half hours. It was an endurance test,” she joked. “This was a huge organizational task for our team, to suddenly try to re-conceptualize.”

But Bennett said she appreciates the ceremonies a lot more now, even though there are four in one day, because she gets to see the students up close and personal, and the graduates get to hear someone relatable speak at each one. “I love that we do that, by the way,” she said about having alumni keynote the cer-

emonies. “I was at a university that paid big bucks to bring in major names — actors, politically prominent folks — but there was nothing individual about it. I like that we bring back alumni to say, ‘I was sitting out there just a few years ago and this is what I’ve observed.’ These people are authentic. They know us.”

Public education: ‘a greater good’ Bennett is disappointed in the public language surrounding public education as a whole because, she said, people have to remember why the community invests in the common goal of providing education to as many people as possible. “We as a community — as a nation — invest in public education for a reason — for a good reason,” she said.

A degree is about more than the salary outcome attached to it, she continued. “It’s for a greater good. It has to be,” Bennett said.

“Because if it’s not, then we are failing.”

She said if an individual decides college isn’t right for them, then that’s fine. It’s their decision.

“Some of the public language today drives down expectations.

Not everyone has to go to college? OK, I agree with that,” she said. “But who’s going to decide?”

She gets worried when the public gets so caught up in talking about the fact that not everyone has to go to college that they begin to act as if they’re the ones who get to decide who does, she said, and she fears who will get selected and who won’t. “I can’t tell you the number of stories I’ve heard of some of our own students who have been told, ‘You’re just not cut out for college,’” Bennett said. “Sometimes they’re told that by teachers; sometimes they’re told that by family members. And yet they’ve come and what a remarkable persistence, that in spite of all of that, they’re here.”

‘I still can’t talk about it’ “I can tell you immediately one of my worst days,” Bennett said, tears welling up in her eyes. “Getting a call at 10 o’clock at night that Jeron Lewis had collapsed on the basketball floor. That was crushing…” Bennett paused and wiped the tears from under her glasses…

“Still can’t talk about it,” she mumbled, and changed the subject.

Lewis, a senior post player for the Eagles, collapsed on the court at the Owensboro Sportscenter in January of 2010 during a game against Kentucky Wesleyan. Lewis was pronounced dead at Owensboro Medical Health System 47 minutes after he collapsed.

It was later determined that the player, who had just welcomed a son, had heart problems.

THE GOOD DAYS Linda Bennett laughs while talking to The Shield during an interview in February.

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RAY HOOPS Building a foundation for success TOOLS OF THE TRADE USI’s second president, Ray Hoops, works at his in-house woodshop on children’s toys he donates to local charities.

TUCKED AWAY ON A BACK ROAD just northwest of Universi-

ty of Southern Indiana’s campus, “at the bottom of the third large dip,” as Ray Hoops would say, is a two-story, steel barn. Inside Hoops’ home away from home is a door that leads to a room full of toy cars, handcrafted by USI’s former president. “It’s a weird hobby to have, I know, especially for a man who has no kids in his life whatsoever, but I enjoy doing it,” Hoops said standing inside the barn on a cold February afternoon.Dressed in worn out jeans, a flannel, an oversized jacket and white tennis shoes, you wouldn’t be able to tell the man ran a university for 17 years.

But looks aren’t everything, and it becomes obvious talking to the 75-year-old that he’s spent much more time in a suit than anything else.

Hoops took the reins from David Rice in 1994 after spending much of his career bouncing around the country, from the University of Michigan to North Dakota State, then South Dakota State, and finally, before settling at USI, he spent six years at Ole Miss. He envisioned growth, mostly in terms of the programs that were offered. But he never could have imagined what USI would become — what it is today.

So much more has grown.

‘It was all wrong’ “I don’t think anyone could have predicted it,” Hoops said, sitting on a sofa in an apartment he helped build onto the second

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floor of the barn. Above him, a computerized oil painting of he and his wife, Linda, hangs on the wall. The portrait was taken just before he retired in 2009.

Before his retirement, he saw the entire campus shift before his very eyes. “There wasn’t much there,” he said about his first visit to the university. The USI Performance Center was the last of the buildings approved under Hoops’ administration. The quad didn’t even exist until just before he left, which is something he really didn’t expect to see. “I would have bet you the farm,” he said about the possibility of it. “But it did get done.”

Inside the modest apartment, various other pieces of art from places like Italy adorn the walls.

The aroma of coffee filled the tiny space as Hoops pulled a red USI mug from a cabinet and filled it up. He drinks his black.

His initial five-year plan didn’t include construction of buildings, but rather, construction of programs. “It was all wrong,” Hoops said about his vision. By the time he started, word had spread around the state that USI was a great place to get an education, but the market had changed, he said. “In anything you do, you meet needs,” he said.

“And there was a need for more options in this region.”

One of the programs he is most proud of is engineering.

“No one wanted it, but Purdue wasn’t serving this area,” Hoops said. The major was opposed on all sides, he continued, but most of the opposition stemmed from the Commission for Higher Education. “Pure stubbornness,” he said.

The community rallied sup-

port for the program, and in 2002, the Commission finally approved it.

The university outgrew every vision he ever had, and it continues to do so, he said. “USI is what it should be. It’s meeting the needs of the region, and it’s grown — not just in size,” Hoops said. “I had pretty lofty goals, but it’s so much more.”

There was a pattern to it Hoops’ relationship with the Commission was a rocky one.

“My biggest regret is that I was never able to build a relationship with the Commission,” he said, shaking his head. “USI is a truly remarkable place and I just couldn’t get them to see that.”

Current President Linda Bennett has done a much better job at strengthening it, he said.

Hoops’ greatest fear is that the community will start to take the university for granted given how well it’s doing now. “It can slip from the public’s consciousness,” he said. But that support is always going to be needed. Community involvement has been a big part of the university’s growth, and it’s something Hoops stressed as president, and still does as a member of the community.

One of his main goals when he accepted the position was to tie the university to the community in a way that hadn’t been done yet. “There are a lot of things to be done at a university and there are a lot of things to be done in a community, so I thought we could help each other,” Hoops said.

He started Volunteer USI during his tenure as a way to get more students and faculty involved. Now, it records more than 32,000 hours of volunteer work annually.

He served on a number of boards during his tenure as well, including Deaconess Hospital’s Board of Directors, the Southwest Indiana Economic Development task force and as chair ‘Hoops’ on Pg. 46

THEN & NOW

A President’s Home THE UNIVERSITY HOME, located across Reflection Lake at 9201 Arlington Avenue, was built in 1983. David and Betty Rice were the first to occupy it. But for the first 20 years of Rice’s presidency, the couple lived in a much more modest abode. “We lived across the highway in a little three bedroom house that was perfectly normal for a family of four,” Mrs. Rice said during an interview March 19.

The Rice’s would play host to prominent community members. Mrs. Rice would cook and place name tags on tables situated throughout the house, including the unfinished basement. The goal was for people to mingle and get to know each other, she said. “Somebody — and I won’t mention names — came up the stairway at our old house and said, ‘My dear, it’s such a disgrace to have a home like this for a university president.’”

“You know who I’m talking about,” Mrs. Rice whispered to her friend Sherrianne Standley, who proceeded to tell a story of a conversation between the woman’s companion, Richard Meier, and President Rice. “Meier said to

P h o t o g r a p h y by A ly s s a S m i t h

THE TALE O F TWO HOMES Above: The president’s home.

Below: A current look at David and Betty Rice’s residence prior to the completion of the president’s home.

President Rice when he left that (same) night, ‘I have suffered the indignity of being entertained in your home for the last time. We’re going to build a proper home for you,’” Standley said.

They started work on it the following day.

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A 64-year-old love story HOW THE RICE’S CREATED TWO FAMILIES

DAVID AND BETTY RICE’S JOURNEY BEGAN more than six

decades ago. It’s a journey that culminated in two families: their own and the university’s. It’s a journey that began in a dorm room at Purdue University and continues near their daughter’s home in Pennsylvania and on a 1,400 acre campus in Southern Indiana.

Dr. Rice, USI’s first president, is now 86. He is doing as well as he can, Mrs. Rice said March 19, before USI’s special 50 Phenomenal Women program, which she was honored during.

Dressed up and wearing a university pin on her cardigan, she rested in a chair inside a private — but open — room outside Carter Hall. The trek to the second floor had taken quite a bit out of her, especially considering she was determined to take the stairs from the parking lot outside the Liberal Arts Center to the back entrance of University Center West, even though

there is a ramp that would have made things a lot easier. “I wish she wouldn’t do that,” said Sherrianne Standley, a close friend of the family’s, as she looked down from the second-floor window as Mrs. Rice and her daughter Denise arrived. “That’s just like her.

She’s so stubborn.”

Once we were seated for the interview, which I was promised 10 minutes for, Mrs. Rice was continuously interrupted.

The family she and her husband played a big part in creating wanted a moment with her. Individual after individual peeked their head into the room to wave or offer a nice, “Hello.” Even so, Mrs. Rice gave me nearly 30 minutes of her time. But her answer to the one question that’s on everyone’s mind was subtle, as was Standley’s. “He’s just getting old.”

A 64-year-old love story Dr. and Mrs. Rice have been married for 64 years. They met

1969 RICE & RANKIN David Rice, dean of ISUE, and Mrs. Rice (left) discuss plans for the schools third year program with Alan Rankin, Indiana State University president, and Mrs. Rankin.

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through mutual friends in college at Purdue University; she was a freshman, he was a sophomore. Dr. Rice needed a date for a dance in the spring, so one of his friends took him over to Mrs. Rice’s co-op dorm to meet her without calling first. “She was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor in the dining room,” Standley said Mrs. Rice told her.

“But in spite of the circumstances, he invited her to the dance.”

Standley said Mrs. Rice told her, “He was such a brain, he wasn’t bothered with girls.” They later learned that their parents lived within 10 miles of each other, but in different counties. Back then, people didn’t cross county lines, she said. Dr. Rice grew up in Montgomery County, while Mrs. Rice grew up in Putnam — both just west of Indianapolis in central Indiana.

Then, in 1951, just one year after they married, Dr. Rice was drafted to serve as an infantryman in the United States Army during the Korean War. When he returned home from the war, he taught high school agriculture for a couple of years in Wallace, Ind., before Purdue University came a callin’. The university promised Rice if he came back he could have his Masters and his Doctorate degrees within two years.

He started working at Ball State University in 1958, where he supervised student teachers.

He later became the director of research. “He’s a person who always met a challenge — wanted a challenge,” Mrs. Rice said. “Every job he’s had has been a challenge.

He’s always about 10 miles ahead of all of us in what we were going to end up doing.”

An unwavering vision Charles Hardaway, who was a vice president at Indiana State University in Terre Haute and a friend of Rice’s, called him one day during the mid 1960’s and asked him if he’d like to run a university. The two men worked together on a legislative committee tasked with figuring out if Indiana should have a community college system.

Rice’s initial vision for the institution was 15,000 students, Mrs. Rice said, chuckling. The couple’s vision today is for the university to “just keep going.”

And it has. Though the university has yet to reach 15,000, up until a couple of years ago, USI’s enrollment continued to climb. The university credits its increasing academic standards to its decline in students. “He’s a really humble man,” Standley said about Rice’s accomplishments as president.

He would say his greatest accomplishment was recruiting a faculty who transformed the institution into what it is today. “I know that’s what he would say,” Standley said. “But I think his greatest accomplishment was that he had a very early vision of what this institution could be and he never really wavered from that vision.”

That vision was all data-based in his mind, she said. He knew the statistics for the southwestern part of the state, from college-going rates to where the population centers were, and he knew there was potential in Southwestern Indiana for an institution to serve the unserved needs of the area.

“It was his vision,” Standley said, “and we’re still following it today.”

19 6 7 BLAST FROM THE PAST From left to right: David Rice, daughter Denise, Betty Rice and son Mike pose for a family photo.

Inset: David and Betty Rice, who met during college at Purdue University, have been married for more than six decades. Of the three presidents, Dr. and Mrs. Rice were the ones who did the most side­-by-side.

‘No two days were ever alike’ Sherrianne Standley worked with Dr. Rice for two decades and she and her family remain close to the Rice’s today.

Everybody in the early years — we were all like brothers and sisters,” Standley said about becoming close to Dr. and Mrs. Rice’s family. “Part of it was their style. Every fall, they opened their home on Mels Drive to all the faculty and their spouses for a welcome back party. So when you have that kind of welcoming ‘I care about you enough that I open my home to you’ kind of spirit, everybody got close. If you go back and look at the faculty who were there in the early years, we are all still great friends. We all keep in touch, and if somebody gets sick, we’re there with hot soup.”

“When you’re working so hard for a common goal and finally you get to see it, that’s a bond that people have that really can’t be broken,” she continued.

Standley was hired as director of publications in 1976 and served as adviser to the student publications, which included The Shield, literary magazine and yearbook, as well as oversaw all institutional printing and was

editor of USI Magazine. Eighteen months later, Rice asked her to serve as administrative assistant to the president, which she accepted gleefully. Then in 1986, as Standley’s job duties continued to grow, Dr. Rice recommended she be named Vice President for university relations, which later became advancement. She retired in 2007, but continues to have close ties to the university.

“One of the things I used to kid him about was he wouldn’t even let us savor the moment of an accomplishment before he was already talking about the next thing that had to happen,” Standley said. She said she remembers telling Dr. Rice outside one day that Joe O’Daniel — one of the university’s founding visionaries — had won a national volunteering award for his work on providing student housing. “Dr. Rice never skipped a beat. He said, ‘Now we’ve got to nominate Jon Pruce for this other award,’” she said laughing. “He was just thinking of the next thing. Always.”

Everybody was expected to do the best they could, Standley said. “We don’t make mistakes,” she said, and that was a guiding principle for the people who worked with Dr. Rice. “You did work with him. You didn’t work for him,” she said. “He made

partners of everybody in the enterprise.”

“This was not a man who ever had to use forceful language with anyone,” Standley said. “The strength of his vision and his own… he pushed himself pretty hard, and everybody wanted to be right there with him to help him carry the load.”

Dr. Rice, along with his team, improved the educational attainment level of southern Indiana residents, impacted the local economy and brought innovative faculty together. The Science Center, Wright Administration Building, the library, University Center West, the Technology Center, the Orr Center and the Physical Activities Center were all erected during his administration. “When you’re the new kid on the block, you need those things that are evidence for other people of your quality,” Standley said.

Independence Day “The day the bill was signed making us our own state university was just a joyous day for everyone,” Standley said. “Nobody was really against this.”

Standley said the event organizers, including herself, had arranged for the Mid-America Singers to entertain the crowd while they waited for Gov. Robert Orr to arrive at the Physical Activities Center and sign the bill.

About 1,500 people, including a group of community supporters who had dubbed themselves “Free the Eagles,” watched from the stands.

Standley said once the show choir got started, she walked outside to wait for Orr to arrive.

He had flown into Evansville Regional Airport and was being

P h o t o g r a p h y f r o m t h e E va n s v i l l e C o u r i e r c o u r t e s y o f t h e R i c e ’ S .

transported by Indiana State Police to the university. He arrived late, Standley pointed out, and after the car drove up the sidewalk to the PAC and Orr stepped out, she said, “We’re ready for you, sir.”

“We walked in together — I can hardly tell this without getting emotional,” Standley said, her voice shaking. “When he walked into that floor, that place exploded.” She said the crowd jumped to its feet screaming and cheering. “I think that the governor — if he ever had a second thought about this being the right thing to do, it was gone then forever,” she said about that moment. “He realized the community spirit and the community support for this. It wasn’t just our students that were in the stands; it was every mover and shaker in Evansville — in southwestern Indiana.”

“That is the one event in my mind that really stands out from 31-and-a-half years.”

Side-by-side: The story of USI’s first First Lady Mrs. Rice said she’s most proud of the university’s growth, but also the experiences she had as First Lady. “I had a ball the whole time,” she said. “I loved it.

Now I don’t even know how…” she paused. “I used to keep 50 bowls in the air. Now I can’t even keep one in the air, which is very disturbing to me. I haven’t accepted that yet.”

“She won’t brag on herself, but I will,” Standley cut in. “Mrs. Rice was really instrumental in things that she won’t tell you about. She made so many connections with community organizations and community resources that we needed.”

Mrs. Rice was instrumental in helping found a sorority system at the university. She started the Women of ISUE, which brought together faculty and staff in social situations so they could build community at a new university.

“It was really important because we had a lot of work to do and nobody was paid really well,” ‘Rice’ on Pg. 46

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THE ARTS

Sculpting THE ARTS

BY B R A D I E G R A Y | P h o t o g r a p h y by A ly s s a S m i t h LENNY DOWHIE IS A NAME ANY STUDENT IN THE ARTS at

USI is familiar with. The name has traveled from Manhattan to New Jersey to Arizona then ultimately to southern Indiana to teach at USI by 1978.

Dowhie is the longest serving ceramics professor at this university, teaching for 33 years and being chair of the Arts Department before he retired in 2011.

Not only has he given USI 33 years of his time, he has also, along with his wife, Anne, given the university $1 million to provide ongoing support for the ceramics program.

Dowhie said giving the money to USI was an easy choice to make.

“We don’t have any kids so we had to do something with it and the arts are historically underfunded while they are appreciated,” Dowhie said. “It’s one thing to appreciate it, it’s another to find funding to make the department continue. I figured donating a million bucks to the Art Department would drive some people crazy.”

As for how Dowhie acquired such funds, he said he is a “very smart investor.”

“I created some businesses in Chicago; some of the largest art expos in the world which we started with very little money and sold them to places in England for a lot of money and I had about 18 percent of it and that money got reinvested into other

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things and more investments and we started another art expo in Chicago,” Dowhie said.

“So business, art, sales, robbing banks,” he said then quickly took back as he “could never rob a bank due to his appearance.”

Dowhie said him and some of his other colleagues in the art department were very fortunate with getting other people to donate in the past.

“We had been given many opportunities through connections that we built,” Dowhie said. “But now that our

ARTIST AT PLAY Lenny Dowhie works on his version of the Last Supper, a piece he says will “offend everyone.”

time has gone, these people replacing us don’t have those connections. So this will help future professors bring in artists and specialty equipment.”

Dowhie said a host of things made him stay at USI for three decades. Initially, it was because he was one of the very few art professors the university had.

He said he taught 8 or 9 different subject areas when he first started out, much like many of his colleagues. He said they “covered all the bases.”

“I think just being able to participate in something and making it grow and evolve is a good thing,” Dowhie said.

He also credits his extended stay in the Midwest to the “small, ugly farmhouse” with three acres that he purchased with his wife in 1978.

“Once you get locked into something like that, it’s difficult to find that kind of environment any place else. I could have applied for other jobs but we weren’t unhappy,” he said. “We felt there

could always be improvements in everything, but back then you could go to lunch in the old union and sit with President Rice and have lunch with him and if you had a plan or something you could just talk directly to the president or vice president.”

He said that although we still have a certain level of interaction with the administrators, there is still a bureaucracy, which is “just a shame.”

Despite retiring, Dowhie still works with ceramics everyday.

The time he once used to spend teaching is now filled with the work it takes two run two of the largest art expos in the world and still create ceramic pieces.

With so many years of creating, one may wonder how the ideas for more art keep coming.

“I tell students that once you learn to see, its hard to un-see.

Ideas are not the problems, it’s the time to make all the pieces that is the problem and as you get going you realize the idea of hiring people,” he said. “I mean had

HOME GROWN Anne and Lennie Dowhie discuss their next firing activity in front of their home kiln.

I known how much more I could have done hiring people 20 years ago, I probably would have done more. Now I can assign things to other people and leave and get things done outside of the studio.”

“My context of social awareness has been one of the outsider looking in and a lot of my work has a little of that,” he said.

Dowhie continues to create unique art everyday.

“I’m a late owl so I tend to sleep in a little later than normal and go to bed three or four in the morning. I get up and go to the studio which is attached to my house, throw the cats off my chair and get to work.”

THEN & NOW

The Performing Arts

OUT OF THE BOX After many years of minimal acting space, USI Theatre held its final performance at Mallette Studio Theatre, or the “little black box” as many referred to it. The show was “Lysistrata,” a sexual comedy adapted by USI’s Elliot Wasserman. Photo by Bobby Shipman/The Shield

ROOM TO PLAY The Performance Center opened in February 2015 with the production of ‘Picnic’. Actors in the performance said they loved having a larger space to perform and practice their craft. Photo by Erin Hicks/The Shield

TOPPING IT OFF Two construction workers guide the final beam of the Performance Center into place to complete the theatre’s frame following a topping off ceremony. Photo by Jimmy Pyles/The Shield

BACK IN THE DAY In 1971, ISUE bought a playhouse that once housed the Catholic Theatre Guild. The house became prop storage after the university moved its performances to Helen Mallette Studio Theatre in 1999.

LEADING LADIES Three ISUE students run lines before a spring production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” at Playhouse Theatre in 1973. Above photos courtesy of University Archives.

ROCK THE BOAT USI actors Craig Belwood and Nolan Spinks act out a scene from USI Theare’s production of “Spring Awakening,” a musical about teen angst and bad parenting.

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A feaste for the ages

BY B R A D I E G R A Y | P h o t o g r a p h y by A ly s s a S m i t h a n d c o u r t e s y o f u n i v e r s i t y a r c h i v e s THE MADRIGAL FEASTE is the university’s longest-standing tradition, debuting 45 years ago with the choral combination of the ISUE Mid-American Singers and the University Singers.

The feaste is a four-night event where the USI Chamber Choir dresses as characters from a 15 century Irish royal court and sings classic holiday tunes while treating guests to a meal for kings.

“This was a project that was to show the campus off to the community,” said Chamber Choir Director Daniel Craig. “To invite the community in to see what USI was doing in its early stages.”

Craig witnessed the performance’s growth during his 24 years as director.

Some of prop pieces from the debut production still remain in use such as the banners and costumes.

“The menu, of course, changes from season to season, so we’re not using Yorkshire pudding anymore,” he said. “We do change some things out from time-to-time to meet more modern pallets.”

Although the traditional songs stay the same, much of the music changes from year to year as well.

“The music is stirring, beautiful. The audience gets to participate in two dances through the evening,” Craig said. “We have a ton of absolutely beautiful music in our concert. Everything from the Middle Ages to some more

“The music is stirring, beautiful.”

-Daniel Craig, Chamber Choir director “You have to evolve with the changing face of your campus and the changing face of those who are enrolling in the courses,” Craig said. “There are a few differences from the old days, but there are also a lot of similarities.”

modern pieces as well.”

Selections include old English Madrigals and Irish traditional folk music.

“During this time period most of the country was being run

by British Royalty and we have a gathering of a lord and a lady

A KISS FOR LUCK At the 45th annual Madrigal Feaste, “wenches” served food and kissed any bald heads they come across. Above: Chamber Choir Director Daniel Craig coaches the 24th annual Madrigal Feaste performers.

in a manor hall in West Coast County Clare and invited all of the people from that area to come in,” he said.

The money brought in from the Madrigal Feaste helps to support the choir’s International travel and operating budget.

The Chamber Choir has traveled to Carnegie Hall in New York and performed in castles, cathedrals and concert halls in Ireland, Poland and Germany.

They have done seven shows in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, sang at the larg-

est Cathedral in the world in Gdańsk, Poland and at the largest castle in the world Malbork, Poland.

“To see a student’s marvel at the beautiful scenery in Ireland, to see a student be amazed at the acoustics in a grand cathedral and understand that we are privileged to have the opportunity to perform in that cathedral is one of the highlights for me,” he said. “International travel is a life changing occurrence in the life of a student.”

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1993 1990 1995 THE USI JURIED STUDENT ART EXHIBITION showcases university student’s artwork crafted throughout one school year. The pieces are chosen by an expert — who is different each year — selected by university art faculty to assure each work of art is fairly chosen. Local companies and private individuals donate funds for the awards, which are given in the form of Merit Awards, Purchase Awards, scholarships and certificates for art supplies. Each year senior art students are given the opportunity to deisgn a poster marketing the event and one is slected. This timeline features various designs selected through the years. Photos courtesy of University Archives.

2004

2014

2009

2006

2007 2013

HOW LAWRENCE LIBRARY CAME TO BE

BY A R M O N S I A d at I P h o t o g r a p h y by a ly s s a s m i t h TUCKED AWAY IN THE CORNER OF THE LIBERAL ARTS

Building’s lower level is a simple, brown door that doubles as a gateway to the ancient world.

Housing the university’s only collection of ancient artifacts, the Lawrence Library features rotating exhibitions curated by students. In August 2014, Paul Foley set up the Library’s first student-led exhibition before embarking on a semester abroad.

His exhibit showcases Middle Eastern and Mediterranean artifacts donated by alumni John Lawrence.

Surrounded by walls adorned with handwritten pages of scripts from Iran and freestanding cases of pottery from Syria and Istanbul sits a glass-encased black and gold Greek krater atop a custom pedestal, an artifact Josephina

Kiteou calls the “star” of the exhibition. “For me, the prized possession is the krater. It’s pretty remarkable,” she said. Acquired by Lawrence in the 1960s, the krater is believed to have originated in the mid-fourth century B.C. from the Apulia region in southeast Italy, circa 350 B.C. The only thing that impressed the instructor in humanities and international studies more was that Lawrence donated it to USI, calling him “pretty generous.” Lawrence graduated from USI in 1973 with an accounting degree and has gone on to open his own firm.

Enraptured by humanities, he started his collection in his early twenties, buying single pages of illuminated manuscripts while an undergraduate at USI. After amassing a grand collection of artifacts from the ancient world,

BOOKING IT Lawrence Library, which is located in the lower level of the Liberal Arts building under lock and key.

he donated some of the pieces to the university, including a red clay vessel from ancient Greece circa 600 B.C., the Library’s oldest artifact. In his spare time, he still travels the world and collects. In addition to Lawrence’s collection of ancient artifacts, the Lawrence Library is also home to a copious amount of Japanese scrolls and artifacts donated by Michael Aakhus, dean of the college of liberal arts, which weren’t a part of Foley’s display.

Without a full-time faculty member in the Lawrence Library, it’s up to student workers to plan and set up new exhibits. “We’re not really big enough, as far as volume, to change the exhibitions that often,” Foley said. “We have a lot of things, but to really provide diversity — it’s hard to change out the exhibitions pretty frequently.” The Library’s second one is currently being prepped to open winter 2015.

‘Rice’ continued from Pg. 41 Standley said. “You did all this stuff out of the back pocket of your pants,” she continued, smiling at Mrs. Rice.

Of the three presidents, Dr. and Mrs. Rice were the ones who did the most side-by-side. “It was very important to him,” Mrs. Rice said. John and Aline Emens, Ball State’s president and first lady from 1945 to 1968 mentored both her and Rice. “I just was fascinated by all that (Aline) did. I

did lots of the things she did.”

Dr. Rice wasn’t only raising a university during his tenure as president; he was also raising two kids. “They were ignored,” Mrs. Rice said, laughing. It was the kind of laugh that made it clear she was joking — for the most part.

Mrs. Rice was also involved in many outside organizations, which took up a lot of her time as well, such as Girl Scouts and the

‘Hoops’ continued from Pg. 38 of WNIN’s Board of Directors.

“I had a pattern to it, see,” Hoops said. “I would serve a board appointment for two years and then pass it on to another administrator.” It was his way of getting the university involved long-term.

‘I build everything from scraps’ Hoops, who lives in a condo in downtown Evansville, continues to make it out to the university often. He’ll sometimes enjoy a cup of coffee in the gazebo on Reflection Lake, which he said is his favorite spot on campus.

He also attends basketball games from time to time and “tortures” Information Technology with his computer problems.

He said he’s been blessed with few tribulations in his life. He’s been married to Linda, a retired consultant and educator in hotel and restaurant management, for 48 years, and said he’s never had any “angst” with his daughter, Victoria, who works in sales for MetLife Investors.

If Hoops hadn’t gone into academia, he said he would have gone into law. “I had no idea what I wanted to do,” he said about starting college. He didn’t pursue law because Eastern Illinois Uni-

versity, where he spent his undergrad years, didn’t have a pre-law program. So by the recommendation of one single person, he pursued audiology and speech sciences, which he eventually earned three degrees in. He later went back to school to earn an MBA. An athlete, Hoops played basketball and baseball at Eastern Illinois. “I partied way more than I probably should have,” he said.

“My grades were good, but not great.” Today, the only parties he’ll be going to are the university’s 50th anniversary shindigs.

He plans to attend all of them, he said.

Hoops said he spends about three days a week at the barn working on his toys. “I like to hack my way through things,” Hoops said, as he lifted the wooden bulldozer on a small, handcrafted construction truck.

“I build everything from scraps — it’s all just 2x4s and pallets.”

Sawdust is scattered about in the toyshop, where loads of machinery rests under florescent lights. Handcrafted picture frames and a log inscribed with “R. Hoops” hangs amongst the shelving. As for the toys, they go to his wife’s friends’ grandchildren or charity auctions.

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Gardening Club. She also owned a Garden Center located near Hogue Road and Rosenberger Ave., which she bought from the Peckenpaugh’s.

On campus, she was instrumental in starting the madrigals, said Denise, 60, the Rice’s daughter. “She used to make all of the plum puddings,” Denise said.

“Yes,” Standley chimed in. “Betty used to do all of the catering for all of these events.”

“There was no food service on campus,” Mrs. Rice said. “Someone had to serve the meals.” Mrs. Rice said. Dr. Rice had one hobby during his professional career, and it was work. Now he and Denise do woodworking together.

“We make a good team,” Denise said. At that moment, she shot her mom a smile, which Mrs. Rice returned. “Yes you do.”

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