A publication for alumni & friends of indiana university south Bend | spring 2009
The Ideal Green Campus
foundations
A message from the chancellor Dear Friends, Sustainability is commonly defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Indiana University South Bend has been engaged in such efforts since the 1970s and is now formalizing those efforts to explore ways to create a sustainable campus community. In this issue of Foundations you will read an article from Mike Keen, director of the Center for a Sustainable Future at IU South Bend. He writes about his vision for a green campus and how it involves students, faculty, curriculum, research, and civic engagement. You may not be aware of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at IU South Bend. You will read about the research Professor Dennis Rodriquez is doing at the laboratory on Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) here on campus. Faculty members in the School of Business and Economics are being interviewed by the news media almost weekly about the economic downturn. Assistant Professor of Economics H. Lane David writes an article that puts the recession in perspective. And we are always proud to write about our alumni. You will read about Carrie Aldrich who is putting her IU South Bend education to use as an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Plus, there is the story of Isaac Torres who has turned his final project for his MBA into a specialized financial services company located in Elkhart. Students and benefactors are also highlighted for their dedication and generosity to the campus. I hope you enjoy this edition of Foundations, and I thank you for your support of IU South Bend.
Sincerely,
Una Mae Reck | Chancellor
public affairs & university Advancement Administration & Staff Vice Chancellor Ilene Sheffer Director of Alumni Affairs Cyndy Searfoss, BA’84 Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs Jeanie Metzger, BS’74 Director of Communications & Marketing Ken Baierl Writer & Editor Kathy Borlik, BA’79 Art Direction & Production Melissa Wise, BA’97 Contributing Designer Tiffany Goehring, BA’04 Photography Matt Cashore IU South Bend Alumni Association Board Members President Durleen Braasch, BGS’83 Secretary Margaret J. Ridenour, AS’99, BS’01, MPA’05 Treasurer Phil Mark, BA’84 Past President Chris Craft, BS’89 At Large Members Francois Bayingana, MS’95, At Large Kris M. Langel, BS’03, At Large Jesse Limon, BS’05, At Large Christine Pochert Ringle, MSBA’85 , MBA’88, At Large Division & School Representatives Lori Balmer BGS’99, General Studies Perla Hernandez, AS‘04, Dental Hygiene Amy Palkovich Jackson, BA’98, Arts Mike Renfrow, BGS’05, SPEA Judi A. Lykowski, BA’98, Arts John Morrison, BA’06, Liberal Arts and Sciences Norma Napoli, BSN’95, Nursing Alma Powell, BS’70, MS’72, Education Christian Velazquez, BS’01, Business Ex officio Members *Tamara Ashley, AGS’87, BGS’91 *Jeff Fullhart, BS’95 *Larry Lentych, BS’69 *Linda McDougal, MPA’84 *Doreen Pienkowski, AS’99 *Lucky Reznik, MSBA’75 *Mary Beth Ryan, BGS’99 *Ex officio members representing non-academic constituencies. Student Alumni Representative Julie Turner
FOUNDATIONS is published twice a year by the Office of Communications & Marketing at Indiana University South Bend. It is distributed to alumni and friends of the university. Please send comments, class notes, and story ideas to Kathy Borlik at kborlik@iusb.edu.
A publication for alumni & friends of indiana university south Bend | spring 2009
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Aldrich’s Artic Adventure by Kathy Borlik
The Ideal Green Campus by Mike Keen
Renovation Dazzles by Anne McGraw
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Kunde Stands Head & Shoulders Above by Kathy Borlik
Feeling Distracted!?!? by Cyndy Searfoss
aldrich’s Artic Teaching
Adventure
As a student at IU South Bend, Carrie Aldrich was drawn to many fields of study – education, sociology, international studies, psychology and English. Aldrich always knew she wanted to teach. She loved to write and read but she wanted to explore the world she could only read about in books. She never expected to end up nearly 3,000 miles from Indiana. She studied abroad with the IU South Bend international program, once to Mexico and another session to Ulster. “I was a kid from Mishawaka and I never dreamed of travel but studying abroad helped me to understand the world and apply my education in very exciting ways.” Aldrich continued that she “was a product of four IUSB departments: English, education, sociology and psychology. I’ve always been interdisciplinary, not falling nicely into one academic discipline.” She worked with professors such as Scott Sernau (in sociology) and Joann Detlef in the writing center. They helped bring focus to her college career. Sernau encouraged her to write an undergraduate thesis on the sociology of education. This led her to continue to study the effects that social issues have on educational attainment. In the Writing Center, she saw a wide spectrum of students and found that learning is an individual activity. The journey took her from her Mishawaka roots to the University of Alaska Fairbanks where she is the assistant professor of developmental reading and writing at the Interior Aleutian campus. UAF has nearly 10,000 students and is the only campus in the state that awards doctoral degrees. The Interior Aleutian campus services an area roughly the size of France. Her life is a mixture of breath-taking outdoor beauty and a traditional classroom setting. She sometimes travels several hundred miles to villages to teach classes and she takes snowmobile adventures from her back yard. The rustic surroundings include a waterless 16-by-24 cabin and high-speed Internet connection for the distance learning sessions. She and her husband, Ben Niedbalski, formerly of South Bend, live about three miles from the university. Water is fetched once week from town in five gallon jugs. Sink water is thrown out into the woods. The cabin is warmed with a diesel heater. But, yes they do have high-speed wireless. “Fairbanks is seriously cold. Today (a mid-January phone call) it is 10 degrees below zero and light snow. But we don’t cancel classes. We aren’t debilitated by the weather like the people in South Bend. We were there for Christmas and it was so slippery no one moved. We put on studded tires, plug in the car and keep going. We know at 20 below you wear mittens,” she said. They live in a cabin on the edge of town near a group of friends who share their interests in learning and the outdoors. “It is a fantastic little neighborhood with miles of trails right up to our door and moose walk though the area,” she said. “We can put on our skis or take the snow machine (snowmobile) and we go just about anywhere.”
Aldrich completed her undergraduate studies at IU South Bend earning a B.A. in sociology, a B.S. in secondary English education, and minors in psychology and international studies. She is also licensed to teach secondary English. In 2007, she completed an M.A. in applied linguistics at UAF. Her empirical thesis investigated perceived effectiveness in face-to-face and distance learning. “My first three years at UAF I taught traditional classes at the main campus. My fourth year, I was teaching two classes in Holy Cross, a mid-sized Yukon River village (of less than 300 people). I traveled to the village for two weeks and finished the class via distance delivery, a mixture of audio conferencing, e-mail and faxing,” she said. Sometimes the telephone lines are out and the class and teachers make do with the U.S. mail. This semester she is teaching five classes and two of the classes are intensive sessions with students enrolled in the Rural Human Services program. Two classes, an introductory composition course, and a class on writing about literature are both taught at a charter school that operates on a native calendar where they take time off for substance activities like fishing and hunting. The school also focuses on native ways of knowing and being. “This is a responsibility that is very close to my heart and I really enjoy working with early college students from across the state,” she said. The other class is taught via distance delivery to students from across the state. Some students are working toward certificate and associate degrees, others are bachelor’s candidates. The students in the Rural Human Services program are mostly “addiction counselors and they are a compassionate and hardworking group,” she said. Frequently Aldrich hears from students who have studied abroad, become Americorps Vista members and have obtained grants to continue study. She applauds their success. “My students from rural locations overcome so much every day. They participate in UAF education from very far away. I am so proud of all the students who manage to live in and contribute to their ancestral communities while also successfully completing a university education.” Her husband Ben has a MFA in creative writing. “He is currently teaching some classes for our construction trades technology program at Galena, which is about 275 miles from Fairbanks. He has traveled out there twice so far this year and will go out two more times this semester.” Aldrich said. They have privacy, good friends, long summer days, freezing winter temperatures and amazing outdoor beauty. “We truly love it here.” Aldrich said she couldn’t have written a better job description for herself. “I don’t know of very many students who finish their education and immediately get hired to do something they love.”
— by kathy borlik
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In the summer, there is a different energy. “Most people find they need less sleep in the summer and really everybody just wants to be outdoors as much as possible. We were married on June 23, on one of the longest days of the year. We had an outdoor wedding out on Stampede Trail, Healy, Alaska (on the northern boundary of the Denali National Park). I
don’t know how long we were out celebrating our wedding,” she said, “and the sun never went down.”
The Ideal Green Campus Mike F. Keen, Ph.D., LEED-AP
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The ideal green campus is one in which everyone recognizes that sustainability is a journey, not a destination. The ideal green campus is one that has turned itself into a learning organization in which every person on campus, not just students and faculty, understands the basic principles of sustainability and are putting them into practice one step at a time in their own area. The ideal green campus is one whose boundaries do not stop at the edge of campus, but whose teaching, research and service contribute to the development of a sustainable future not only for itself, but also for the community, the country, and the world.
IU South Bend has been on the journey to becoming a green campus for more than three decades. In the early 1970s, aluminum cans and newspapers were collected and taken to local collection centers. In the 1990s, a campus-wide recycling program was developed. In the spring of 2007, an ad hoc sustainability committee was formed and worked with Chancellor Reck to incorporate green building principles into the new student housing project. As a result, the new community building will soon become the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building to be built on an IU campus. The following year, the campus adopted Sustainable Communities as its campus theme. A total of 54 courses were offered during the year that included a component on sustainability. There were 27 campus sustainability events, including the Green Michiana Sustainability Fest. The year culminated with the establishment of the IU South Bend Center for a Sustainable Future. The mission of the Center for a Sustainable Future is “campus and community working together in order to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Currently the center has 17 faculty members representing every college or school. It is charged with developing a new sustainability curriculum, facilitating research in sustainability, and civic engagement to help develop sustainability action plans. The center has already completed the proposal for a new minor in sustainability studies, established several working groups on topics such as agriculture, food and values, and behavior and the built environment. It has also established collaborations with WVPE, the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce, the city of South Bend,and several local businesses including Jamil Packaging, Inovateus Solar, the Troyer Group, the JF New Company, and Optional Energy Partners. Mike F. Keen is professor of sociology and director of the Center for a Sustainable Future. He is also a LEED accredited professional. Professor Keen has won several teaching and research awards, including the IU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and IU South Bend’s Lundquist Fellowship. He has published several books and articles.
So what should a sustainable IU South Bend look like 20 years from now? While we might venture a few guesses, the only thing we can be sure of is that it will be very different from what we see today, or even are likely to expect. First of all, it is likely to be paperless. No more syllabi handed out on the first day of class. No more paper textbooks either. And the library? It will offer instant electronic access to every book in the Library of Congress, but will have reduced its hard copy collection to less than half its current size. The periodical collection and reading area will have disappeared into the ether. One, if not more of the upper floors will have been cleared of its stacks. As students, staff, and faculty look out from the top floor of the library, by then repurposed as an academic study and support center, they will no longer look down upon the closely cropped green carpet of the campus mall. Such vast expanses of chemically maintained monocultures will have been replaced by meadows of native plants which no longer require wasteful watering and energy inefficient mowing. Across the river, the campus will actually be an urban farm, where many of the seasonally fresh fruits and vegetables served in the campus cafes will be grown. And our parking lots. These will be filled with hybrids and fully electric vehicles, many of them plugged into electrified parking meters powered by racks of solar panels perched atop our parking garages and buildings. Most importantly, we will see our campus with new eyes, in which the sustainable looks normal, and the unsustainable, what we take for granted and expect today, looks out of place. But, why wait 20 years?
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Alumni Office // New Home on Campus The IU South Bend Alumni Office recently moved to its new location in the Administration Building. The office is just inside the main entrance of the building, on the east side of the lobby. As part of the first floor remodeling project completed in January of this year, the Alumni Office and the Bursar’s Office switched locations. The office number Administration Building 101. “We’re very pleased that alumni will be able to stop by our new office easily whether they want to renew their IUAA membership, pick up scholarship applications or just drop by to chat,” said Cyndy Searfoss, director of Alumni Affairs. “There’s convenient parking on the half-circle drive and they can be in and out in just a few minutes,” she added.
One third of the IU South Bend Administration Building renovation project is now complete. The results are dazzling. From the front door to the main staircase and then through the School of Business and Economics, the changes in the Administration Building are remarkable. Clean lines, new lighting and a different traffic flow welcome guests, staff and students. The newly remodeled areas include the Gateway, the School of Business and Economics, first and second floor meeting rooms, and various administrative offices, including Alumni Affairs, and the IU Credit Union. Gateway to Excellence, which is the main entrance desk, is often the first stop for many campus visitors, such as new students and parents. The transformed space is due to a donation from the 1st Source Bank Corp. The philanthropy of benefactors such as 1st Source helps the university to serve students and to successfully meet its mission. Phase I of the renovation concluded on schedule in late December of 2008 and the business school moved back into the main building from the red brick Associates Building which formerly housed Citibank offices. Built by the Associates Corp. in 1964, the Administration Building was the national headquarters for the corporation until it relocated to Texas in the 1970s. The building was purchased by IU South Bend in 1975. By 1978, the university administration, various student services offices and the School of Business and Economics occupied the building. Few physical improvements had been made over the years. The capital campaign for the renovation of the Administration Building, led by Chancellor Una Mae Reck and chairman of the Chancellor’s Advisory Board, Ernestine Raclin, began a quiet phase of fundraising in 2006 after the renovation decision was made. To date, $2.68 million has been raised in support of improvements as well as essential upgrades to the building’s infrastructure. IU South Bend alumnus (class of ’73) and donor, David Bloss said, “IU South Bend has provided opportunities for people like me in the Michiana community for many years and has impacted the lives of thousands. I felt that it was time for me to do something meaningful for the university and the Administration Building renovation project seemed to be the perfect opportunity. It is also frequently the first thing that new or prospective students and parents see as they are introduced to the school. Therefore, I wanted to be part of the effort to create an up-to-date environment that properly reflects the high standards of this fine institution.” Architect Jack Plennert, of Architecture Design Group, Inc., served as the principal architect and he was charged with creating an inviting and professional space with a “wow” factor in the lobby. The Casteel Construction Corp. was the general contractor. Renovation efforts for the three construction phases commenced in August 2007. The grand staircase leading from the lobby to the second floor was modernized with steel and tempered glass. The Associates Corp. originally graced this elegant feature with rare pecky cypress. Over the years, the surface of the wood darkened and lost its visual appeal. The architect and the construction company devised a process to restore the pecky cypress to its original beauty by planing a thousandth of an inch from the surface to remove smoking stains and the wear and tear of age. The brightened wood was sealed and used more sparingly in the stairwell and as wainscoting on the second floor.
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Michael Prater, director of facilities management at IU South Bend, said “it was the desire of the architect, the university, and the donors to preserve the heritage of the building while bringing a more modern feel. The sustainability and value of the wood also made it important to save it. Cypress can no longer be harvested in the U.S. because it is so rare.” Robert Ducoffe, dean of the School of Business and Economics, said the old area did not suit the dedicated faculty and staff. “The renovation simply created a quality environment. We are in competition for faculty and students and there is a competition for the environment. This feels so different. I appreciate it every day.”
renovation returns Luster Gift planning? contact — Anne McGraw n Director of Development n (574) 520-48o1 n admcgraw@iusb.edu
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Kunde Stands
Head & Shoulders Above At 6-foot-7, Dan Kunde is a formidable member of the IU South Bend Titans
basketball team. His coach Dennis Parks said he is a gifted offensive player. “He has made great strides this year and I am excited about coaching him for the next two years.” His height also makes him stand out in the classroom as a nursing student. Kunde is an academic junior in the School of Nursing and Health Professions working on his bachelor’s degree. Laura Hieronymus, director of the health and wellness center, agrees that he is quite a person. “There are several things that impress me about Dan. First, is how he can be such an aggressive basketball player on the court and be such a kind and caring person both personally and professionally. Also is his dedication to his new profession, nursing. He is definitely committed to his academics as well as his athletics.” Kunde, 21, is from Bridgman, Mich. There he starred for the Bees and was named to all-conference and all-state teams. Following graduation, he went to Western Michigan University for two years to focus on nursing. But he missed basketball and the competition. Playing pickup ball just wasn’t enough. Talking to friends, he found he could get his degree and still play ball at IU South Bend. “I called coach Parks and I was able to try out for the team,” he said. He is back to basketball and still concentrating on nursing. He said he can balance the two but it takes willpower. Sometimes the demands of the program calls for him to hunker down with the books on the team bus after the game blocking out the other sounds. After practice and class, Kunde lives off campus so he can control the noise and keep distractions down. Although less than 6 percent of nurses are male, that doesn’t faze him. “I like the chance to breakdown stereotypes. It is a unique challenge,” he said. He became interested in nursing after he suffered a few injuries to his back and knees. He talked with trainers, physical therapists and doctors. He was friends with his high school trainer and his wife, who is was a nurse. She encouraged him to think of nursing. Kunde started to job shadow and became more interested. The interest led to active work. He has been a nursing assistant for two years at Lakeland Hospital in Niles and St. Joseph. Nursing ultimately attracted him because of the chance to care and spend time with patients. On the court, his fellow players ask him to diagnose injuries and tape a few ankles. The nursing students also have supported their tall classmate by wearing their scrubs to ball games and cheering him on. “As a coach we try to recruit excellent basketball players who are also excellent people. Dan will be an asset to whatever community he ends up residing in,” Parks said. foundations | 9
— KATHY BORLIK
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Feeling Distracted?!?!
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory Ringing phones, people talking nearby, beeping fax machines, flashing ad banners on computer monitors, traffic passing outside the window or in the hall... the world is awash with visual and auditory disturbances.
Feeling Scattered????!!!
Then there are long meetings that no amount of PowerPoint slides can make interesting – it’s easy to mentally wander off into the distance. But for people with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder or ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) blocking out those disturbances or staying focused on the task at hand can even be more challenging than it is for the rest of the population. IU South Bend Professor Dennis Rodriguez, an assistant professor of psychology, is studying these disorders in the campus’ Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. Rodriguez explains that researchers over the last 30 years have identified three separate neural networks or regions of the brain that comprise what those of us outside the scientific community would call “paying attention.” The first is the network that alerts us, that tells us something is going on that needs to be identified. The second orienting network is responsible for shifting our attention to those things identified by the first network that are relevant. The third is the executive control network or the network that advises what stimuli should be acted upon. Rodriguez’s study tracks which neural network respond to a series of computer-generated stimuli in a control group of people without ADD or ADDH and in those who have been diagnosed with one or both of the disorders. ADD and ADHD are currently diagnosed and treated similarly; Rodriguez’s hypothesis is that perhaps ADD and ADHD are in fact two distinct disorders occurring in different neural networks and that they should be treated in different ways. As he states, “let’s say we have two people who are sick. One has a cold and the other has a stomach ache. We wouldn’t give them both Nyquil.” According to Rodriguez, approximately 3 to 8 percent of the population has been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. “Some people will self diagnosis themselves when they look at list of symptoms, ‘oh, yeah, I lose my keys all the time,’ but most people don’t truly have the disorder, they have some of the symptoms. The disorder is diagnosed only when it interferes with someone’s performance in an academic setting or on the job, for example.” And what about gender? The stereotype of a person with ADD/ADHD is the elementary school boy who disrupts class or can’t sit still. According to Rodriguez, more boys are diagnosed in children – at a 4-to-1 ratio – but in adults, the ratio is 1-to-1. “Boys can, and do outgrow the disorder as they grow older,” Rodriguez noted, “while girls who go undiagnosed as children may find, in college or on the job, that they are having difficulties focusing.” One of the most challenging aspects of the study for Rodriguez has been to recruit participants with ADD/ADHD. If you have been diagnosed with either disorder and would like to participate in the study, you can contact Rodriguez at (574) 520-4396.
— Cyndy Searfoss
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The debate over how best to diagnose and treat ADD/ADHD has made headlines in scientific and popular literature for years. Rodriguez hopes that his study will contribute to the body of work on these disorders and ultimately assist those with them to function more easily in a world full of distractions.
Alumnus Masters the Business of
Money Transmission
Intercambio Express, in the process of relocating its Elkhart County headquarters from Goshen to downtown Elkhart, is a money transmitting company that specializes in wiring money to Mexico, Central/South America, and the Caribbean. The company also provides check cashing, bill payment and other financial services. Its customers include those who need to send money to family members in their home country as well as those who need to send money to family members vacationing or studying aboard, make overseas donations or make a timeshare payment overseas. The company, founded by Isaac Torres in 1999, owes its existence an IU South Bend master’s level Marketing Management class final term project. Torres, a native of Mexico City, Mexico, received his BS in accounting from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He began his career in Mexico, working for PriceWaterHouseCoopers as asenior auditor before moving to Hoechst AG, a large German chemical group, where he was a controller. He came to the United States in 1995 to learn English and later began his MBA at IU South Bend. The class was charged with developing a business plan based on comprehensive research of the market the business was looking to penetrate as well as realistic goals that could be met if the company was ever to be formed. Torres’ plan included very attractive exchange rates and superior services in Spanish. Even better, there was no competition in northern Indiana. On April 29, 1999, Intercambio Express was born. Torres’ research led him to take an existing business model and improve it. He had found that industry leaders, such as Western Union and Moneygram, used expensive, systems. His business model was Internet based, which gave the company a competitive advantage. With the dot com bubble in full flower, the price of expensive systems greatly decreased, opening a window of opportunity. Intercambio worked with a California-based software developer to customize a top-notch application specifically designed to serve the Hispanic communities in the Midwest. This technology, added to the company’s customer service focus, made it a major player in Indiana. The passage of the Patriot Act, following 9/11, imposed a number of new compliance regulations on Intercambio Express and other money transmitting companies. This led to increased costs, which forced smaller companies out of business. In addition to compliance regulation, state awareness also increased, which led companies to hire well-known, larger independent firms that were focused on providing quality service. These changes led to a consolidation of the industry in which Intercambio was positioned to be a survivor.
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The company has a history of double-digit growth, which Torres credits to its ability to offer services to the specific communities. “In contrast to our competitors, we take our knowledge of our customer’s culture and go out of our way to provide for their needs,” he noted. “Every region that Intercambio is a part of has specific roots. Here’s an example – northern Indiana has a number of central Mexico natives, Indianapolis has a number from southeastern Mexico, Minnesota from Ecuador and Northern Kentucky from Guatemala. We provide paying agents and correspondent banks to service those specific areas,” he added. Torres also notes that the company has a strong network of professionals such as bankers, certified public accounting firms, colleges and universities with whom it works. In the end, it’s the people who make the biggest difference. Torres said, “Our customers have showed immense loyalty to our service, which marked the beginning of our success. They gave us a great deal of comfort and confidence as we moved along with our expansion plans. And the greatest asset to our company is our employees. Elkhart County has proven that there is no need to struggle when trying to find knowledgeable people who are highly educated with the necessary skills. As we continue to grow it gives us confidence that we will have the strongest staff, all located in this area.” — Cyndy Searfoss
student alumni
association profiles Jose Magallon Temples fall, statues decay, mausoleums perish, eloquent phrases declaimed are forgotten, but good books are immortal. - William Vernon
Jose Magallon is a freshman at IU South Bend and a member of the Student Alumni Association. He is also secretary of the Latino Student Union. “My first experience with SAA was on a trip to Bloomington that we made last semester for the first Latino Alumni Association gathering. We were able to spend time with the alumni and other students and network with them,” Jose said. Jose has been very active in recruiting student participants for IU South Bend’s “Get on the Bus” trip to the Indiana Statehouse and will be joining other SAA members and students on the trip. “I love to help out and the SAA gave me the opportunity to help others and be an active IU South Bend student,” he noted.
Wolfson Press awarded a $5,000 grant In response to a growing interest in public writing, the Master of Liberal Studies (MLS) Program recently launched the Wolfson Press, which is named for longtime IU South Bend Chancellor Lester Wolfson. The Press serves the university and the region by publishing books about the history, culture, politics, and literature of our area.
Julie Turner
The Press recently received a grant of $5,000 from the Arts Everywhere Fund of the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County.
Julie Turner, a junior majoring in international marketing, has been president of the Student Alumni Association since August 2007.
Ken Smith, associate professor of English and director, MLS Program currently directs the operations of Wolfson Press. About the mission of publishing local and regional history, he says, “Our public university serves the people of the region with its programs and courses, its public events, and with the research and outreach of its faculty and staff, and Wolfson Press extends that service by publishing books about the history of the region, the lives of leaders and cultural groups, along with their struggles and achievements. The present doesn’t make as much sense as it should without history, and the future we seek eludes us when we don’t know how we have arrived where we are today. There are affirming stories that instruct us and buoy our spirits and others that stand as cautionary tales about the extremes of our history. Wolfson Press publishes this history in attractive, well-written, inexpensive books that speak to the people of our region.”
“The best part about being a member of SAA is the networking and socializing between alumni and students. We coordinate and support family events for IU South Bend faculty and staff, visits to the Statehouse, community service events, and special events for our members such as “Speed Networking” and etiquette dinners to help develop students’ skills in areas outside of what is taught in the classroom. Our most popular event this year was “Finals Survival Kits,” which were passed out during finals week and included a coupon for a free coffee or soda on campus as well as pencils, candy bars, and other goodies,” she said.
The press printed its first two books in late 2007, And Now, Michiana Chronicles and Kurt Simon: Businessman and Benefactor. Wolfson Press is working with the historian and renowned campus and community leader, Les Lamon, on a series of local history books that will include personal stories and remembrances from the area’s civil rights leaders. “I agreed to take on the editorship of this new series because our community has an important story which has never been told -- a story important to its future as well as to a better understanding of its past. The history of race relations and the evolution of a strong African American presence in South Bend and greater Michiana has been at best overlooked and at worst denied. This series will help us move forward through the 21st century with a strong sense of who we are as a community.” — dina harris
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She also noted that community service is another important aspect of SAA. “We conducted a food drive this past December and volunteer for various community events such as ‘Rebuilding Together.’ Finally, with over 130 members, we are the second largest SAA behind Bloomington.”
Unlike more academic university publishers, Wolfson Press aims for a general audience of readers who will enjoy and benefit from well-written and carefully researched books. The Press seeks to enrich and deepen the university’s relationship with the region and to extend the teaching and research mission of the campus through its book series. It is the hope that wider knowledge of the region’s history will help us all become more thoughtful and appreciative active citizens.
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the economy for dummies by lane david, assistant professor of economics
As a member of the Economics Department at IU South Bend I am often asked to participate in panel discussions concerning current affairs or requested by the media to comment on business and economic topics. It is a part of my job that I take seriously, as I believe that the University has responsibilities to the community at large as well as to its students. Despite what many people apparently think when I tell them I am an economist (even my wife did!), the focus of economics is not money, banking, investing, or how the economy is organized. Rather, economics is a social science concerned with the study of how people behave and why they behave those ways, and as such it includes all of the aforementioned topics and many more. When I am asked about the state of the economy I think that the expected answer is supposed to go something like “We had a meltdown in the subprime mortgage market because unscrupulous lenders helped people buy homes they couldn’t afford and then prices quit going up; the mortgages had been packaged and then split up into financial assets (a process known as loan securitization) that lots of banks and financial institutions bought and these investments went bad when homeowners started losing their homes; credit markets froze up as a result of the losses on the securitized loans so consumers and firms could no longer borrow so we entered a recession.” There is truth to that story and I could tell it in much greater detail. Certainly our nation is currently experiencing a serious economic slowdown. Output is down, unemployment is surging, falling home and equity prices have led to a massive losses of wealth, states are facing huge budget shortfalls while the federal government incurs deficits of a magnitude unseen before. Some describe it as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
To mangle the old phrase, what goes up too far, must come down. With these bubbles, market corrections serve a useful role in driving out bad practices and actors. Unfortunately, corrections can be painful and prices may even overshoot in their downward slide to more appropriate levels. It will take a while for our economy to work off the consequences of the housing bubble and loan securitization. The second point is that expectations are important. Consumers account for about 70 percent of all economic activity in our economy and if they begin to cut back out of concern about the future that impacts the economy. If people become convinced that bad economic times are on the way, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Expectations also play an important role in credit markets and this goes a long ways towards explaining why, despite massive injections of capital by the Treasury and Federal Reserve into financial institutions, credit is still scarce. All this leads to the question of “What should be done now?” To answer I would add a corollary about human behavior: incentives matter. For example, bailing out an ailing industry, whether it be banking or autos, does not do any good in the long run if it permits the recipients to continue doing business as they were before. The recession is likely to run its course over the next year, possibly two. Thus, fiscal policies undertaken by the federal government in response to the recession should be able to be implemented quickly. These policies should focus on creating a better business environment (e,g, updated banking regulations and improved incentives for businesses to invest), allow for real adjustments in industries such as autos and steel that are no longer internationally competitive, and improve opportunities for Americans to work and save.
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Before we fall into terminal mental depression (pun intended) over this, however, I want to state unequivocally that civilization as we know it is not coming to an end. A knowledge of history matters. We must remember that recessions are a natural part of the economic landscape. We’ve had 11 just since 1945. The business cycle is not dead.
But back to my story about our economic situation. The causes of recessions are many, but two broad ones that deal with human behavior are particularly relevant. The first is that markets such as housing and stocks are subject to what former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan referred to as “irrational exuberance.” Speculative bubbles, such as the one seen in rapidly rising housing prices over the past decade, are driven by actions of participants that are neither wise nor, in some cases, ethical.
Class Notes Please submit your class news to kborlik@iusb.edu. 70s Ronda S. Beck, BS’78, was recently named controller of the University of Kentucky. Ronda, and spouse John R. Beck, MS‘80, reside in Lexington, Ky. Janet A. Fye, BA’74, Sociology, is employed by the South Bend area Indiana Small Business Development Center as a regional director. Jane Ister Kaufmann, BS’73, lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is the science coordinator for Scottsdale Unified School District. She is president-elect for the board of the National Science Education Leadership Association and is working on international science education reform.
80s
16 | foundations
Marilyn Agee BS’80, Education and MS’85, Education, is a school counselor from Concord East Side Elementary School. She was named one of the top ten school counselors in America for 2009. More than 400 were nominated nationwide. The program is presented by Naviance and the American School Counselors Association.
William Jay Cochrane, BGS’96, is the executive director of Mosaic, located in Osceola. Kirby Dipert, AS’92, BS’95, Business, MPA’07, has been employed by Johnson Controls in South Bend for six years. He is currently the chiller team manager. Tracy Eaves, BS’93, Business, is CFO of J.L. Powell Apparel in Three Oaks, Mich. Tania Harman, M.S.’96, Education, completed an ESL endorsement at IUSB in 2006 and teaches bilingual first and second grade at Warren Primary Center in South Bend Community School Corp. She was named the 2008 Teacher of the Year for the South Bend Community School Corp. and is the 2009 Teacher of the Year for Indiana. “My excellent education at IUSB has served me well.” Jeffrey T. Klaybor, BS’99, SPEA, Management, has been promoted to president of Stouffer Industries, Mishawaka. Stouffer is a worldwide manufacturer of medical imagining quality control devices.
Kathy Fledderman, BS’82, was recently made a senior staff in the enterprise solutions department of Crowe Horwath, LLP, in South Bend.
Julienne Lawson, AS’96, BS’02, Criminal Justice, is a warden for the St. Joseph County Police Department, working for the Jail Division in South Bend.
Sandy Holderman Warner, BS’88 Business, is employed by Onan Indiana in Elkhart where she is controller.
Rebecca Pugh, BS’92, Education, MS’97, Education, is instructor of Education, Polk Community College, Winter Haven/Lakeland, Fla.
Jay R. Howard, BA’88, Sociology, professor of sociology, was named interim vice chancellor and dean at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus effective July 1, 2007. The Columbus campus serves more than 1,500 IU and Purdue students. In August 2008, he was honored by the American Sociological Association’s Hans O. Mauksch Award for distinguished contributions to undergraduate education. Howard also served as the 2006-07 North Central Sociological Association president and is the deputy editor of the American Sociological Association journal, Teaching Sociology.
Gary Rhodes, BGS’94, received a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Wayne State University in 2004. He is a licensed therapist and a certified advanced addiction counselor. Along with clinical responsibilities at the WSU University Psychiatric Centers’ Jefferson Avenue Research Clinic, he is director of clinical services.
90s
00s
Todd S. Beall, BS’99, Business, recently joined the board of the St. Joseph County Chapter of the Indiana University Alumni Association.
Jason M. Cadwell, BS’03, Business Administration and BS’03, Accounting, received his CPA license in 2008 and is co-owner of Cadwell Psychological Services, Plymouth.
Marietta Tyks, AGS’94, BGS’97, MLS’08, is employed by IU South Bend as the midnight building service manager. She is also the treasurer of the St. Joseph County Blue Star Mothers, Indiana Chapter #6.
Anthony L. Byler, BS’91, Political Science, is the managing partner of Byler & Blaker, LLC, a construction, real estate and business law firm, in Philadelphia
Austin Carpenter, BS’08, Business, is in sales and marketing at Sweet Water Interiors/Clear Creek & Associates, Goshen.
Jenny Closson, BA’94, Business, MBA’00, is director of customer logistics at Bayer HealthCare.
Tonya Demeke, BS’07 Nursing, is a case manager at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo.
Paulette English, BGS’02, is a quality improvement specialist with Verde Valley Guidance Clinic, Inc., Cottonwood, Ariz. Mindy L. Gradeless, MSW’07, is employed by Specialized Alternatives for Families & Youth of Indiana (SAFY), of Fort Wayne, as a family and youth specialist. Jason Horein, BS’07, Business, works for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. as a trade marketing representative.
Craig Youngs, MS’07, Management Information Technology, works at Notre Dame Federal Credit Union as an assistant vice president of information technology. Karen Maes, MWS’08, is a family consultant/therapist with Lifeline Youth and Family Services, Fort Wayne. She is also the Region 2 representative for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Teresa Hayes-Santos, BFA’08, Fine Arts, joined the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame as an art coordinator.
David N. Joroge, BS’07, Business, is the owner of David, Basic Landscaping. His website is www.basicyard.com. Martha Knepper, AS’04, BS’07, Business, is the executive director at Riverview Adult Day Center in Elkhart. Amadeo Marino, MBA’07, Business, is a finance manager at City County Credit Union, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Megan Murnane, AS’07 Business, is employed by Memorial Health System in South Bend as a credientialing representative. Sai M. Rathi, MBA’03, is assistant controller – finance and accounts at Metadyne, Inc, Towanda, Pa. He married Meghana from Aurangabad, India in 2006. Traci E. Rice, BA’ 04, Sociology, was recently promoted to an account manager in the Medical Practice/ Home Care Business Unit at Press Ganey Associates, Inc., in South Bend. Vince Sgambelluri, BS’07, Business, is an audit associate with McGladrey & Pullen, LLP Austin N. Simmons, BA’02, Psychology, is a chiropractor and owns Simmons Chiropractic Clinic in Granger. Caycee Smith, BA’07, Mass Communications, is an assistant meeting planner with MBM Productions International, Lincolnshire, Ill. Naomi Tankersley, BA’07, Political Science, is a career specialist with Inspiration Corporation in Chicago. Josephine M. Thomas, MS’06, Management of Information Technology, is employed by CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, as a consultant. Teresa Townsend, AS’02, Radiography, is currently working full-time in a hospital.
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