Venue for Veganism?

It’s gaining popularity at IPFW despite a lack of support.

While living a vegan lifestyle may be a breeze at schools like the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, students at IPFW have far fewer vegan options.

According to Google, searches for the term “vegan” increased by 32 percent in the past year. In addition, orders for PETA UK’s vegan starter kits have increased from 14,000 in 2013 to 35,000 in 2015, according to its website.

“It’s so easy,” said Zoya Chicks, a freshman industrial design major at MIAD. “It’s hard to think about even not being able to eat vegan, especially since I’m in the city. There are so many vegan options.”

The MIAD cafeteria offers an array of vegan options, ranging from salad bars, vegan pastries, and vegan sandwiches. Chicks also said that some field trips offered only vegan options to students, and described her school as supportive.

However, this is not the case in her hometown of Muskego, Wisconsin. Chicks said being vegan was impossible, and that friends had difficulty making the dietary change too, due to the lack of options.

This same lack of vegan options is prevalent at IPFW, said Aubrey Brinneman, an IPFW senior nursing student from Fort Wayne.

Brinneman said vegan options on-campus are non-existent, making a vegan lifestyle inconvenient but not out of the question.

“I make really good food, but it’s hard to find that, especially here at school,” Brinneman said. “And I think that, from what I know, there are a lot of vegan and vegetarian students here. But no options.”

Brinneman said most vegans at IPFW are used to bringing their own food to campus, but it is hard when they are studying for long hours. She said it would be nice not to have to drive off-campus in order to find vegan choices, which is inconvenient and time-consuming.

However, Brinneman doesn’t see IPFW’s lack of options as the biggest obstacle in being vegan.

“Most of the time that we do struggle is not with eating out,” Brinneman said, “but with going to family member’s houses.”

Judy Tillapaugh, a licensed dietician at IPFW, said the majority of families in the area tend to follow a meat-based diet. Because of this, she said the smaller number of vegans in Fort Wayne compared to other areas could have to do with both social and cultural factors.

Both Brinneman and Chicks described a lack of support from their families who eat meat. However, both stated that eating a vegan diet itself was not as difficult as they had thought it would be.

Brinneman said lack of awareness probably has a lot to do with why fewer people in Fort Wayne are vegan than in other places. However, she said people have appeared interested in the diet, and often come to her with questions.

“When you teach them that there’s meals that are easy and delicious and cheap too, it’s really easy for people to make that connection and make the switch,” Brinneman said while smiling. “In the past year-and-a-half, I personally know five more people that have become vegan, and it’s definitely growing.”

 

Event for vegans and vegetarians:

  • “Where Do You Get Your Protein: Chickpea Cooking Demo”
  • For anyone wanting to add more protein and whole foods to their diet
  • 3405 Sun Valley Drive, Fort Wayne
  • From 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday
  • To learn more about the vegan community at IPFW, view the Fort Wayne and NE Indiana Vegans and Vegetarians Facebook group.

IPFW Student Senate Approves Allocation Committee’s Budget for Next School Year

The Student Senate reviewed and approved the Allocation Committee’s final budget request for the next school year.

Over the past couple months, IPFW organization members have been presenting their budget requests to the committee.

The Allocation Committee received $1,015,226.50 of requests from organizations and only had a budget of $842,412.83.

Victoria Spencer, IPSGA coordinator, said the committee did well, and were thoughtful in their deliberations.

“They went into it very frugally minded to find cost savings to try to balance the budget,” she said. “They had to reconcile more than a million dollars in requests with less than $850,000.”

Spencer said the budget has been approved by the Student Senate and it will go to the office of the dean of students, Eric Norman. It will then be passed to Chancellor Vicky Carwein, and will head to Purdue to be finalized.

“Generally, once the senate approves it, changes are not made,” she said. “This is more of a student lead process and the institution has respected that.”

The biggest budget cut was to the IPSGA student activities board. They received $200,000 total, for next school year. The budget is $24,800 less than they received this year.

Maggie Baren, vice president of programming, said as long as members know how to shop around and have people who understand the circumstances, they can still do a lot with what they have.

“We were rather fortunate this year,” Baren said. “For homecoming, we spent significantly less than what we were allocated. It goes to show that you can put on a pretty awesome event rather than to spend a substantial amount of money.”

Baren said students should not know a difference in the cut the student activities board received. The members on the board know ways to continue to give out awesome merchandise without going over the budget.

The IPSGA senate also received a cut to their budget. They will get $50,000 next school year, $14,000 less than what they had this year.

Alexander Sanderson, vice president of legislation, said he is not really happy, but understands what they received such a large cut.

He said about one-sixth of their budget went to programs requesting money. This year the student senate set an amendment which lowers the funding cap for an organization based on the money they received the last couple years. This prevents the senate from losing most of their funding to support organizations.

“It should not affect anyone trying to start a program,” Sanderson said. “In regards to funding, programs can still ask but the cap will be less. We hope this will get programs to be a little self-efficient.”

James Hoppes, vice president of finance, said the IPSGA is always the first branch to make sacrifices in terms of the budget.

“When it comes to the IPSGA budgets, they tend to ask for more money, with the mindset that they will be getting cut down,” he said. “All three go into it asking for more just so they can get cut and hopefully get a number that they actually need.”

Hoppes said with the decrease in the budget, they will have less flexibility with spending and helping assist programs. Just because an organization’s budget dropped does not mean they disapprove the program. It is because they do not have enough money.

Hoppes said there are a lot of unknowns about the budget for next spring.

“It is hard to say because of the whole university split,” he said. “It could be higher or it could be lower. It also depends on banded tuition because it may effect student fees. It is just too early to tell.”

More Americans Turn to Social Media as a News Source

Forrest Voss rarely found himself on social media until he moved over 500 miles away.

The 23-year-old from Fort Wayne moved to Syracuse, New York, with his boyfriend and their dog. Consequently, he uses Facebook more often to communicate with people from his hometown.

“Facebook becomes more important as a catalog for what you’re doing and for staying in touch with people,” Voss said. “I can’t walk up to a friend and say, ‘Look what we did today.’ So instead, I have to put it on Facebook.”

While social media continues to keep people like Voss easily connected, now it is also used as Americans’ primary news source.

According to Pew Research, 62 percent of U.S. adults get their news on social media. The study was conducted in 2016 and shows Reddit, Facebook and Twitter have the most members who consume news.

Pew Research also reported 64 percent of social media users are more likely to get their news from one site which is most commonly Facebook.

Voss said he sometimes gets news from Facebook, but only if it is posted directly from a news organization he trusts.

IPFW graduate student Samuel Wiesenberg said he consumes news from the radio and Facebook. He spends roughly two hours every day reading articles from news organizations that he follows.

According to Pew, Wiesenberg is among the 67 percent of users who regularly spend at least one hour per day reading news on Facebook.

Voss and Wiesenberg both said they are unlikely to read any article seen in their news feed because they recognize fake news circulates, especially during this past election season.

“It was very obvious that a lot of the statistics people were posting in support of one candidate or the other were just blatantly false and not credible at all,” Wiesenberg said.

Since the presidential election occurred, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, was called to action to prevent the spread of fake news on the social media platform.

Through a Facebook status, he said his network is not to blame for the election results because over 99 percent of Facebook’s content is authentic. But it will do more to prevent fake news from spreading.

According to the Facebook for Developers website, its Network Audience Policy was recently updated to prohibit advertisers from displaying fake news.

Wiesenberg said he agrees with Zuckerberg’s decision to eliminate false articles, because Facebook has a powerful voice across the U.S.

Andrew Casey, a 21-year-old from Fort Wayne, counters this argument.

He said deciphering real and fake news should be based on the viewer’s discretion, not a national incentive.

“My answer is almost always keeping the rights of individuals and corporations as open as possible and making individual responsibility a greater importance,” Casey said, glancing at his phone to see a Facebook notification.

Although, from his experience with the latest election, Casey said, he does want people to keep their political conversations private by discussing the topic in person or in direct messaging.

However, Pew Research Center reported 40 percent of social media users believe online platforms are places they can discuss political issues and current events that they would never say in person.

Kimberly O’Connor, an assistant professor at IPFW, researches the relationship between employers’ social media policies and their employees. Her findings are similar to Pew Research.

A survey conducted for her fieldwork reported undergraduate students are generally unaware or choose to disregard university and employer’s social media policies.

“It’s one of the ways we communicate that’s probably here to stay,” O’Connor said, referencing social media, “and so, because of the widespread major of its use, it undoubtedly impacts peoples’ employment.”

Overall, the way people use Facebook has changed over time.  Pew Research reported between 2013 and 2016, 19 percent more people got their news from Facebook. Another study shows 44 percent of U.S. adults said they learned about the recent election from social media.

“Facebook and its purpose have been pretty clear, people share the things they are going to share,” Casey said. “It’s a platform for people to, within reason, share ideas and stay connected to their friends.”

Service:

 

Social Media Users Participation with News in 2014:

  • 50 percent shared news stories, videos or images.
  • 46 percent discussed a news issue or current event.
  • 14 percent posted photos they took of a news-related event.
  • 12 percent posted videos they took of a news-related event.

Source:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/

IPFW Police Department Keeps Their Focus on Safety Amid Budget Cuts

Budget cuts and a smaller staff are not hindering the IPFW police department’s focus on safety, says IPFW Police Chief Steven Kimbrough.

“There’s been a pinch across campus,” he said, “but we still have officers working 24/7.”

The campus police department’s salaries and wages budget has decreased by more than $225,000 since 2012.

Dr. David Wesse, IPFW vice chancellor of financial and administrative affairs, is currently working on the IPFW budget. He provides budget information for 12 different IPFW department heads.

Wesse’s biggest financial change, most recently, has been the Purdue University realignment. With the realignment and budget cuts, Wesse said this year balancing the budget this year has been a challenge.

“You gotta’ go backwards to meet the budget,” Wesse said.

Wesse said the IPFW police department felt the pain of this year’s budget cuts. In order to keep costs low, IPFW Police Department did not hire replacements for their most recent retirees. Instead, Kimbrough’s previous position as lieutenant to chief has yet to be filled.

“You manage your time,” Police Chief Kimbrough said. “You manage your staff to make sure needs are being met.”

He described the extra hours required after budget cuts as “peaks and valleys,” with managers and directors rising up for a time until things settle down.

Kimbrough said he and Wesse have started conversations about additional expenses for safety, including defibrillators in every squad car and electronic door locks.

IPFW currently has over 800 security cameras on campus. Wesse and Kimbrough are interested in obtaining body cameras for IPFW officers, said Kimbrough.

“The world has changed. If people can’t see it, it doesn’t exist-it just doesn’t,” Kimbrough said.

When Kimbrough requests things outside of budget, it’s up to the IPFW budget and planning director, Walter Soptelean, to request the needed funds. Soptelean reviews the budget and records the data so funds can be allocated to the requested expenses.

Soptelean said the budget is not a fixed number when it comes to safety and that both Wesse and Kimbrough review the previous year’s expenditure and request more funds as need be.

Things like squad cars need to be replaced every three to seven years, Kimbrough said.

“Every year it’s a new living document. What can we do to provide safety to the campus,” Soptelean said.

Wesse and the chief are also looking for a new location for the IPFW Police Department, somewhere more accessible, they said.

“People should really know, ‘where’s the police,’” Wesse said.

More information about the IPFW Police Department can be found at: https://www.ipfw.edu/offices/police/

 

The Power of Peace – People for the Common Good Hosts Peace Rally

People for the Common Good coalition hosted an Our Promise Peace Rally and March on Jan. 21 at the Allen County Courthouse Green, followed by an informational fair at the downtown Allen County Public Library.

“We wanted people to be able to leave that day knowing that they can volunteer or donate,” said Sarah Hyndman, founder of the event and coalition.

The rally began at 3 p.m. under sunny conditions. It featured five community leaders speaking outside the courthouse. As people listened and held signs or flags, cars drove by honking in support of the protesters, although some seemed in opposition.

rev-bledsoe

Fort Wayne resident Marsha Wallace said she thinks it is important that the world hears people want equality and justice for everyone.

“We have to stand up to make sure people know we’re not going to shut up about it,” Wallace said, smiling.

Another rally attendee, Ron Tutwiler of Fort Wayne, said he showed for various reasons, but felt more empowered surrounded by others who had similar opinions about past and current events.

Hyndman said over a 1,000 people attended the rally, and she was extremely pleased with the turnout. But the main goal of the day was to give people opportunities to make their community a better place, something she hopes she accomplished.

protestor

After the rally, protesters marched to the library to attend an informational fair where they could learn how to participate and volunteer with local organizations.

Hyndman said approximately 35 organizations were set up in the library. People had various groups they could connect with, everything from advocating for the environment to supporting refugees in the community.

James Cary, a representative at the fair from a local business, Friends of the Third World, said he felt excited about the interest and diversity on display that day, especially in the younger people who attended.

Hyndman said she titled the event Our Promise because she wanted to send a message that showed people are going to do more than just talk about critical issues. Instead, they are promising to do something about them.

flags

“We’re all here to put our actions where our hearts are, Hyndman said, “and we promise to do more.”