Second Annual Hoosier to Hoosier (H2H) Community Sale, August 20, 2011

Hoosier to Hoosier (H2H) Community Sale is a reuse program that aims 1) to divert reusable items from the landfill during student move-out, 2) to prevent additional resource consumption by selling collected items to students and community members in order 3) to raise funds for local charities and other organizations. The program allows students to donate reusable items, and help out their neighbors in need at the same time.

Sat, Aug 20, 2011
Gladstein Fieldhouse, IU Campus
7:30am – 3:00pm

The second annual H2H Community Sale will take place from 7:30am – 3pm on Saturday, August 20, 2011, at the Gladstein Fieldhouse on the IU Campus. Students and community members are invited to participate in the sale by donating reusable items, volunteering, or attending the sale. H2H accepts donations of furniture, housewares, clothes, office supplies, operational small appliances, and electronics. Collection begins with a May 5 drop-off day at Gladstein Fieldhouse, near Assembly Hall on IU campus. Collection is conducted at IU dormitories as well as participating apartments and rental housing. Pickups are available upon request.

In its inaugural year in 2010, Hoosier to Hoosier raised nearly $10,000 for United Way and Habitat for Humanity, and approximately 900 people attended, including students, Bloomington residents, and residents from surrounding communities. Over 100 volunteers contributed hours on sale day, and countless others volunteered throughout the summer in sale preparations. The H2H effort intercepted reusable items from IU’s 11 dorms, two Greek houses, and roughly four apartment complexes. In addition, individuals donated items from other off-campus locations, either by dropping items off at the stadium or arranging for a pick-up. In total, the volume intercepted was equivalent to roughly five full semi-trailers.

Beyond just the immediate impact on waste reduction, the H2H effort has other important implications. First, it conserves the energy required to manufacture, transport, and dispose of manufactured goods. Second, it enhances community aesthetics by reducing the amount of waste that appears curbside. Third, it helps project a message to incoming students and all residents about Bloomington’s values. Instead of being greeted by piles of discarded but still usable items upon their arrival, incoming students are sent a clear message that Bloomington is a city that values its resources and strives for sustainability.

H2H is a partnership between the City of Bloomington’s Departments of Economic & Sustainable Development and Community & Family Resources; Habitat for Humanity; IU Athletics; the IU Offices of Sustainability and Residential Programs & Services; and United Way. Numerous local businesses also play a role. Aside from a small percentage set aside for administrative costs associated with the sale the following year, all proceeds from the sale will benefit local organizations.

For more information or volunteer registration, visit www.indiana.edu/~h2h or email h2h@indiana.edu.

Upcoming seminar for IU faculty and staff on the GRE® revised General Test and TOEFL® iBT

Please join us to hear the latest information on the GRE® revised General Test, TOEFL® internet-based test (TOEFL® iBT™), and the ETS PPI® when members of ETS’s Client Relations Team visit Indiana University. We look forward to seeing you there and invite you to forward this invitation to a colleague.

GRE® revised General Test and TOEFL® iBT Seminar
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Time: 10:30 am
Location: Indiana Memorial Union, Sassafras Room

OR

Time: 2:00 pm
Location: Indiana Memorial Union, Walnut Room

OR

Time: 4:00 pm
Location: Indiana Memorial Union, Walnut Room

Topics to be covered include:

• GRE® revised General Test – launching in 2011
• GRE Tools for Success, including the ETS PPI® and the GRE® Search Service
• The TOEFL Test Difference and New Developments
• Using TOEFL® iBT Scores in the Admissions Process

To attend, please send an email to TOEFLScoreUser@ets.org with your name, title, department, and email address. Please put “Indiana University - Bloomington” in the subject line.

Faculty, program directors, admissions officers (undergraduate and graduate) and staff are welcome to attend.

We think the following sessions will be of the most interest to the following folks:

• GRE - graduate faculty, graduate advisors, deans, graduate admissions
• TOEFL – undergraduate admissions, international admissions, international student advisers

The Client Relations Team
Educational Testing Service
Princeton, NJ 08541
Phone: 609-683-2011

The new GRE: What you need to know

By Michael Auslen | IDS
Mar. 24, 2011

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=80549

The Graduate Record Examination, required by most institutions for admission to graduate school programs, will undergo significant changes beginning Aug. 1.

Currently, the GRE consists of a general test and a series of subject tests. Only the general test will be affected by the changes.

“The test will be much more user-friendly,” said James Wimbush, dean of the University Graduate School and incoming chair of the GRE Board of Directors. “The test will measure the qualities much better for graduate school.”

Wimbush said Educational Testing Service, the company that administers the GRE, looked at years of testing data and spoke with graduate programs about the skills they think are most essential for graduate students before making changes to the test.

“Graduate programs are very keen on students’ analytical abilities and their ability to comprehend,” Wimbush said.

TEST FORMAT
The new GRE will allow students to go backward and forward within the test sections. Students will also be allowed a calculator on the quantitative portion of the exam.

The verbal and quantitative portions of the exam will now be scored on a scale from 130 to 170 in one point increments. The analytical writing section will still be scored from zero to six.

Some of the section lengths will change. The new GRE will include two 30-minute analytical writing tasks, two 30-minute verbal reasoning sections and two 35-minute quantitative reasoning sections.

QUESTION TYPES
Among other things, the GRE will no longer include antonym or analogy questions in the verbal reasoning section. However, it will include more reading comprehension questions, new text completion questions and sentence equivalence questions that require interpreting the context of a whole sentence.

The quantitative reasoning section will have some questions with multiple correct answers, all of which must be identified, as well as numeric entry questions.

TAKING THE TEST IN THE FALL
The new version of the GRE will be administered beginning Aug. 1. Students can register for the new test now.

Because scores for August and September administrations of the GRE will not be available until November, Wimbush said students planning on attending graduate programs beginning in the fall should not take the new test in August, and those looking at spring programs should contact their schools.

Students who take the test in August and September will receive a 50 percent discount as well.

GPSO Announces Spring 2011 Travel Award Winners

IU GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ORGANIZATION (GPSO)

Released March 23, 2011

Each semester the GPSO offers a competitive, financial award for graduate and professional students to help support academic travel. The award covers expenses for events that promote academic and professional development, such as conferences, workshops, competitions and auditions. Funds may be used for registration fees, presentation materials, transportation costs, lodging and per diem expenses. The recipients are selected through a competitive, merit-based process in which an independent panel of fellow graduate and professional students review and assess anonymous applications. The GPSO would like to congratulate the following award recipients:

Spring 2011 GPSO Travel Award Winners:

Shingo Hamada, Anthropology
Viridiana Benitez, Psychology
Alexander Tatarinov, Music Strings
Philip Haralam, Fine Arts
Daniel Yurovsky, Psychology
Jennifer Jones, Communications and Culture
Jillian Rickly-Boyd, Geography
Nicholas Hersh, Music Conducting
Sarah Dees, Religious Studies
Gwen Arnold, SPEA
Olga Rass, Psychology
Joseph Harsh, Education Curriculum and Instruction
Chelsea Hamm, Music Theory
Nzingha Kendall, African American and Africa Studies

The GPSO Travel Awards are made possible by generous support from the University Graduate School. More information about travel awards can be found at http://www.iu.edu/~gpso/travel-award.php. The Graduate and Professional Student Organization is the formally recognized government for graduate and professional students at Indiana University Bloomington.

Contact Information:
Angela Jones, GPSO Communications Coordinator
gpso@indiana.edu
812-855-8747
803 8th St , Bloomington, IN 47408
www.iu.edu/~gpso

IU named a Bicycle Friendly University

IU's campus

March 21, 2011

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/17767.html?emailID=17767

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University Bloomington has been named one of the first Bicycle Friendly Universities by the League of American Bicyclists.

The league announced the designations recently at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. IU earned a "bronze" award for its bicycle friendliness, valid from 2011 to 2015.

The League of American Bicyclists recognized 20 universities that "create exceptional environments where bicycling can thrive," according to an announcement from the group. Universities were cited for their efforts on everything from exceptional bike parking facilities to incentive programs for students and staff.

"University life shapes students' habits for the future," said Bill Nesper, director of the league's Bicycle Friendly America program. "They have long served as incubators for developing bike-friendly cultures and practices, and that has a big impact on the expectations that students bring to the workplace and beyond."

IU received the award on the basis of an application submitted by the Office of Sustainability, which included responses to 93 in-depth questions evaluating five categories of bicycle friendliness: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation and planning.

Questions ranged from quantitative details, such as how many bicycle parking spaces are provided compared to the university population, to more expansive themes. In response to a question about signature bicycling events, IU provided information about the annual Little 500 bicycle race.

As a result of filling out the application, the IU Office of Sustainability has gained more recognition of cycling-related campus shortcomings. It is working on quantifying the bike-ability of roads on and near campus and on prioritizing needs based on the areas most in need of attention. These studies will be included in the University's Comprehensive Bike Plan, due next spring.

"This national recognition adds momentum to the recommendations in the Campus Master Plan to enhance bicycle transportation pathways and amenities on campus," Director of Sustainability Bill Brown said. "We look forward to working with campus and community to continuously improve IU Bloomington bicycling to make it a more safe, convenient and fun experience for everyone.

"We are forming a Bicycle Friendly University steering committee," Brown added, "and I urge interested parties to contact our office to get involved."

Since its inception in 1880, The American League of Bicyclists strives for better cycling throughout America. It hosts a variety of programs including National Bike Month, National Bike Summit, Share the Road Campaign and Safe Routes to School Program, all aimed to strengthen cycling in the U.S. For more information, see http://www.bikeleague.org.

For more information about IU participation in the Bicycle Friendly University program, contact Office of Sustainability transportation intern Amy O'Shea at akoshea@indiana.edu.

'U.S. News' gives high marks to IU programs in nursing, law, business, education, medicine

March 15, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University graduate programs in business, education, law, medicine and nursing were again ranked among the top programs in the nation in the 2012 edition of U.S. News and World Report magazine's Best Graduate Schools rankings, released today (March 15).

The rankings are available today at http://www.usnews.com. Detailed information will be available in the 2012 Best Graduate Schools publications, which will be available this week at Amazon.com and the U.S. News store.

Read more about these highly ranked programs:
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/17756.html

Chronicle: Keep the Laptop, Give Back the Dissertation

March 13, 2011
By Don Troop

Jessica Osuna does not consider herself an emotional person, but when she came home one afternoon last December and found that someone had smashed in the door of her Albuquerque home and taken the laptop that contained her dissertation—six years of work—she wept.

"I just broke down," she says. "That was like to lose a child."

A doctoral candidate in ecological sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, Ms. Osuna was not naïve about safeguarding her work. She ran automatic backups of her 15-inch MacBook Pro onto a small external hard drive. Then every other day or so, she copied her work onto a one-terabyte hard drive that she kept locked in a safe, in case of fire. But whoever burglarized her home busted open the safe and took that drive, too.

Read the entire article:
http://chronicle.com/article/When-a-Thief-Takes-Your/126679/