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I N D I A N A D A I LY S T U D E N T | M O N D AY, O C T. 1 3 , 2 0 1 4 | I D S N E W S . C O M

Q&A with Fulbright teacher Fiona Jeffries By Alexis Daily aledaily@indiana.edu | @Alex_Daily1

Eleven teachers from five countries are at IU for the fall 2014 semester as part of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program. Sponsored by the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs within the U.S. Department of State, the program recognizes and encourages excellence in teaching in the United States and abroad. It is part of the overall Fulbright Program, which promotes mutual understanding among people of the U.S. and other countries. The Global Teacher Programs Division of the Institute of International Education awarded $224,036 to the Center for International Education, Development and Research at the IU School of Education its first time running the program. The Fulbright grant awarded to IU was the only one given in the U.S. this year. Fiona Jeffries, an English teacher from Kapiti Coast, Wellington, New Zealand, has been teaching for 24 years. Currently, she teaches at Paraparaumu College. IDS How has your experience been as a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher? Jeffries I feel incredibly privileged and honored to be on the Fulbright Distinguished Teacher Program. Through this program, I got to experience Washington, D.C., and visit many of the Smithsonian museums and monuments. I felt like I had arrived on the set of “House of Cards.” The Fulbright Program gave me a chance to meet many U.S. Fulbright teachers in D.C., and it was a great opportunity

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 have been confronted with verbal Anti-Semitism. This is often because students tend to blur the lines between Anti-Israel remarks and attacks on Judaism as a whole, Greek Jewish Council president and AEPi brother Michael Bruell said. “There’s a difference between being critical of Israel and hatred of Jews all over the world,” Bruell said. The most effective way students combat this lack of knowledge is informing their peers directly that their words and actions have stronger consequences

for me to share ideas with those teachers going to New Zealand and to learn about the U.S. education system. Bloomington is such a great place to be, and Indiana University has made all of us feel so welcome. Dr. Patty Kubow and her team from the Center for International Education, Development and Research have made our integration process into the U.S. so smooth, even down to taking us to Target to get our apartments set up. How many professors would do that? I am really enjoying the two classes I am auditing at IU, one on content area literacy and the other on critical thinking, creativity and collaboration. Although I have been teaching for a long time, there is always a lot to learn or to re-confirm. I also enjoy the seminars we have each Friday with Dr. Keith Barton and Hope Rias where we learn about the U.S. and the development of education in the U.S. It is also great getting into local schools. I am based at Bloomington High School North but have made visits to Bloomington Graduation School and University Elementary. The teachers have been so generous in their welcome and with their time. The great thing about this program is getting a global perspective. We all live in our insular little worlds, and it is great to be part of something bigger and learning about what education is like in other places. I am also learning from my Finnish, Indian, Singaporean and Moroccan colleagues. Not only am I learning about education in their countries, I am learning to adapt to

different cultures. In fact, I have gained a new family by living in an apartment with an Indian and a Moroccan teacher. Obviously we are culturally different. We also eat different foods, but we have come to regard each other as family. We even take it global when we drink tea. Each afternoon we either have black English tea, Moroccan mint tea or Indian Chai spicy tea. It changes daily.

than they may realize, Bruell said. “People should definitely know the implications of their actions,” Bruell said. “We don’t know who did it, and we don’t know if they were trying to be very malicious or if they were just joking but a lot of people take that kind of thing very seriously.” The investigation at Emory is still ongoing and is now being handled by the FBI, Pierce said. AEPi’s first priority when pushing back against AntiSemitism and hate is the safety of its brothers. AEPi headquarters also encourages brothers not to

be intimidated by acts of anti-Semitism, Pierce said. “(We encourage them to be) proud to be Jewish, proud to be openly and publicly Jewish and not be intimidated of being openly and publicly pro-Israel,” Pierce said. At this point, none of IU’s traditionally Jewish fraternities or sororities have reported being targeted by Anti-Semitics. “At Indiana’s campus our fraternity feels safe and hopefully nothing like that would happen to us,” Cooper said. “But just the fact that our AEPi organization was targeted like this, it just brings it close to home.”

IDS How does living in Indiana differ from New Zealand? Jeffries Living here in Bloomington is quite different from my home because there is no sea. I went to Lake Lemon several weekends ago, and it was the largest body of water I had seen in two months. That is one thing I miss. It gave me a nostalgic feeling for home. Every morning in New Zealand, I would walk with my husband and my dog on the beach. On warm evenings after work, we would go and swim in the sea. Living on the Kapiti Coast, and New Zealand being an island nation, you are never far from the sea. I asked some students in Bloomington if they had been to the sea, and many had not. Indiana has many things that do remind me of New Zealand, however. Wide open spaces, lots of greenery, small back country roads ... and people say “Thank you” to the driver when they get off the bus. We are known for that in Wellington, and it is nice to know it happens here, too.

Continued online Read the full interview with Fulbright teacher Fiona Jeffries on idsnews.com.

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IUDM GALA LARGER THAN EVER Attendees of IU Dance Marathon Fundraising gala look at auction items before the event begins. More than $40,000 were raised in the auction. The IUDM quilt went for the largest amount, $5,000.

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On Thursday, during the University Relations Committee meeting, the trustees approved the IU Non-Discrimination/Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy. “The trustees strongly reaffirmed their commitment to prohibit all forms of discrimination,” said Jacqueline Simmons, IU vice president and general counsel. The policy prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status, Simmons said. The policy applies to the hiring and promotion of all IU employees, including administrators, faculty, staff and temporary employees, and the recruitment and admittance of all IU students, Simmons said. Though the policy has been in effect since 1969, the trustees approved an updated version of the policy, which includes a reference to Title IX. “Title IX prohibits sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of gender or sex in any educational institution that receives government funding,” Simmons said. “Title IX is such a big issue right now.” During the Academic Affairs and University Policies

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 of her time at IU, choosing to live with two American roommates as well as another program member from South Sudan. She said that if she is in

America, she wanted to learn something new about the people who lived there. “Every week, if we want, we sit and have dinner,” she said. “It’s fun.” While Abula is enjoying her time at IU, she hopes to return to her job at Windle

Trust when she returns to South Sudan in June. She said she loves teaching and wants to help the people of South Sudan. “I am doing my research on conflict mitigation,” she said. “I feel that there is something else to be done.”

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University unit and a letter of support from the head of that unit before sending a detailed proposal to be approved by the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel, the Office of the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, the Office of the President and the Board of Trustees, Simmons said. “We needed to make sure that (the organizations) were all going through the same decision-making process to decide whether they were legitimate or not,” Simmons said. The trustees also approved a new degree for IU-South Bend: a master of science in education in educational leadership. During the Finance, Audit and Strategic Planning Committee meeting, the trustees approved two resolutions. The resolutions delegated authority from the Board of Trustees to the Finance, Audit and Strategic Planning Committee to approve the issuance of tax exempt or taxable debt, including the issuance of tax exempt or taxable bonds. The debt will be used to pay for renovations to Franklin Hall and Assembly Hall at IU-Bloomington, the Arts and Sciences Building at IUNorthwest and student housing at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, said Donald Lukes, assistant treasurer to the Board of Trustees.

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Committee meeting, the trustees approved the new University-Related Legal Entities Policy. The policy lays out a framework for establishing and monitoring Universityrelated legal entities, entities not legally considered to be affiliated with the University but commonly viewed to be affiliated with the University, Simmons said. “We have a number of entities around the university that people think of as being Indiana University,” Simmons said. “And so, because of their name or because of their relationship to the University, they may have been started by a professor or an employee or a student at Indiana University, people think of them as being Indiana University.” Simmons said that, as the number of requests for University-related legal entities has grown throughout the past year, the University’s concern about liability for these University-related legal entities has also grown. The policy defines a university-related legal entity as any organization with a legal existence separate from the University that is, nevertheless, likely to be viewed as part of the University or likely to viewed as affiliated with the University, Simmons said. Those organizations that meet this definition must receive sponsorship from a

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