Category: Features

Friday.

The day most people long for. The start of the weekend, usually much overdue from the long work week. However, for me it’s quite a different story.

At 4 p.m., on a Friday my serving shift begins. I started prepping for the busy night. Cut lettuce, tomatoes, limes and lemons. Filled the cheese, butter, and sour cream. Made sure everything was ready to go.

At 4:30 p.m. I heard the bell that signals the first customers have walked through the door. I assumed it was an older couple, because they tend to eat dinner early.

“I’m going to need beer for fish batter,” the cook said.

Two hours passed and the dinner crowd began to flood in. I walked up to a table.

“May I get you started with something to drink?” I asked.

“Do you have Coke or Pepsi?” the customer replied.

“We have coke.”

“I will just take a water.

I then went to other tables to get more drink orders.

“Two cokes, three waters, sunlight, and a flirtini,” I sang to myself as I walk back to the kitchen.

After all my tables had their drinks, I started taking food orders. One table asked me a question concerning gluten-free appetizers. I let her know we have potato skins, but they are cooked in the fryer so, it just depends on how severe her allergy to gluten was.

“I am highly allergic, so that won’t work,” she said.

I proceeded on and took their dinner order, starting with the woman who had the gluten allergy.

“I will have the lime city sirloin, burnt, very well done,” she said. “And for my sides I will have green beans and the macaroni and cheese.”

I chuckle inside, smile, and go on to the next person at the table.

After that I stepped back to look over all of my tables. In my head, I go over the to-do list. I needed to make salads for table 101. Table 103 looked like they needed refills, and I still needed to take table 111’s order.

“I sat you six at 107 love,” my boss said.

Great.

Ok, I go take their drink orders, refilled drinks at my other tables, and start dinner orders from another.

“I will have the cobb salad, but light on the cobb,” a customer said.

I said alright and started writing it down. The table then began to laugh. I then forced a nervous laugh, because I didn’t get the joke, or maybe I just didn’t find it funny.

Back in the kitchen I had food up. As I read the ticket I realized I forgot to take their salads.

Crap.

Hurry made salads, delivered them, ran back to the kitchen and took their food. As I handed out their dinner I apologized for not getting their salads out sooner, blaming the cook for being too quick tonight. Followed by some more fake laughter.

After that was over I noticed one of my tables had finished eating. I cleared their plates, and asked if there was anything else I could get for them.

“No thank you, just our carryout order and the check please,” they replied.

Crap.

I rushed back to the kitchen and with a soft, sad voice I said the cooks name. He gave me a sharp annoyed look, knowing that good news was not about to come out of my mouth. I then proceeded to tell him the carryout order I had forgot to ring in along with 100 apologies.

Now another table finished eating.

“How was everything tonight?” I asked.

“Oh, it was just awful can’t you tell,” the customer replied as he handed me his squeaky, clean plate.

I move on, drinks, food, refill, clean and repeat for the next four hours.

Finally, the night came to an end. Silverware rolled, tables cleaned, and floors swept. I run my server report, take my cash, and go home. My shift was over, until tomorrow

November is usually a time to reflect on what you’re thankful for – the opportunity to have a quality education, for one, combined with two of the top universities in the state.

However, for some students at IPFW that was taken from them, by defunding liberal arts and humanities courses.

On Nov. 2 and 3 of 2016, students and faculty gathered in protest of the USAP recommendations, following the announcement of a split between Indiana and Purdue. Certain programs, such as women’s studies and philosophy, would be cut.

These reforms are in correlation with those across the nation. Universities in New York andIllinois have made cuts to humanities courses in recent years, while Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky was quoted by Inside Higher Education in September saying, “Public universities should consider cutting programs that don’t graduate students who are able to fill high-paying and in-demand jobs.”

According to some professors on campus, that is exactly what the university did following the USAP report.

“The focus here is on employability directly after graduation,” said Charlene Elsby, director of the philosophy program. “There is a long standing history of which kind of knowledge is more valuable and the professional degrees versus the liberal arts degrees.”

Elsby came to IPFW after finishing her Ph.D. in Canada back in 2014. She was on the tenure track here before the academic cuts took place. She was told tenured and tenure-track professors would not be affected.

“If I can determine excellence in teaching, research and service then I should be able to get tenure,” Elsby said. “However, I have received some communications to the effect that I should not expect for that to happen.”

Sophia Ulmer, professor of English and women’s studies, has only been at IPFW since the spring semester of 2017. She immediately saw the impacts of realignment.

“Of course I teach in women’s studies, so obviously people were very unhappy,” Ulmer said.

Ulmer said she feels extremely proud to work alongside Dr. Badia, who took a pay cut in order to keep the department running. But she’s less proud of working at IPFW, saying that after the decisions made last fall she is not impressed by the university.

“The first women’s study programs were in the early ‘70s and IPFW followed shortly after that,” Ulmer said. “It was special, it was cool, and I just wish that it was in a culture that valued women and the study of us.”

While women’s studies was able to resurrect itself with the sacrifices made by Professor Badia, the philosophy department was not so lucky.

Elsby said the faculty got a notice that some programs were on the chopping block in May of 2016. When the USAP report came out, there was a list of programs up for restructure.

“Last year was a shit show,” Elsby said.

Both professors Elsby and Ulmer are concerned about more cuts being made. Elsby pointed out the university can justify cuts when they see it appropriate and hopes they learned their lesson the last time.

“Hopefully, they will not only realize that these cuts were not well thought out,” Elsby said, “but that if they continue on this path it will continue not to be well received by our students and the general public.”

Women’s studies professor Ulmer said, that if the cuts keep happening it will begin to tarnish the reputation the school has built by offering Indiana University and Purdue University degrees.

Another thing that has Ulmer agitated is the $80,000 spent on the company Simpson Scarborough, who works with higher education institutions from its base in Alexandria, Virginia, that the university had brought in to help with the rebranding process.

Ulmer said she is grateful for the knowledge the liberal arts and humanities courses provided her with when she was earning her degree. Yet, she understands the other side of the topic.

A change to the campus that might affect the future of the philosophy department lies in the hands of the new Chancellor, as Elsby has high hopes for reinstating the philosophy program.

“What is a university without a philosophy program, like literally everyone who works here has a Ph. D. which stands for doctor in philosophy,” Elsby said. “It seems kind of contradictory to say that we do not teach philosophy here.”

The 20th Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavor Symposium took place March 29 in the Walb Ballroom.

The symposium was open to all undergraduate and graduate students from different fields of study. Participants came from the social sciences, humanities, visual arts, business, nursing and more.

Cheryl Truesdell, who has judged the event for many years, said the top-three contestants were chosen based on points awarded by judges for their effort.

“We’re trained to look at the discipline itself,” Cheryl said, “and to actually base it primarily on, not only the writing, but if they express the research so that anyone can understand it.”

Cheryl, also the retired dean of Helmke Library, said in 2013 the symposium committee changed the symposium format, to draw more interest from students and faculty.

Cheryl said a group of people involved with the symposium decided to make it poster-oriented, because they felt like it was more interactive and visually appealing.

Along with Cheryl, Stephen Buttes is a returning judge. He said IPFW is a comprehensive university and the symposium gives people the chance to see that. The Spanish professor feels the event gives students the opportunity to show what they are learning here at IPFW.

“It’s exciting to learn about the projects that they’ve produced,” Stephan said. “And it’s an opportunity to celebrate students’ success.”

But they don’t work alone.

Each participant was given the opportunity to research with an IPFW faculty member, and many others chose to work with peers as well. Gabriella Romo, a senior IPFW student majoring in biology,  did just that, collaborating with others on her project.

“We needed a big group because we had to collect 99 samples,” Gabriella said. “And that’s why on my poster I have them recognized, and I put all their names, because I couldn’t just say it was all me.”

For Gabriella’s project she researched cyanobacteria. She became interested because other students were researching it as well. Gabriella said there’s so much research to do on this specific bacteria because it does a lot for humankind.

“Fun fact, they are the reason why we’re here,” Gabriella said. “And what I mean by that is that they’re the ones who allow the Earth to have oxygen. So if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.”

Cyanobacteria was a popular at the symposium. To gather what they needed, Gabriella and five others traveled to the Indiana Dunes this past summer to collect everything for their research.

They spent countless hours digging up soil, covering over a quarter-mile of land, to make their projects possible.

Gabriella said even though they all used the same samples,  people did different studies, and found different outcomes.

Gabriella gives credit to everyone on her team. She said without them, she wouldn’t have been able to finish her research and compete in the symposium.

“Just imagine one person trying to do all of that. There’s no way!” Gabriella said. “I can’t imagine doing it all alone. You need people.”

More than 90 students gained the skills necessary to present research in a professional atmosphere as they participated in the 20th Annual Student Research and Creative Endeavor Symposium in the Walb Classic Ballroom on March 29.

Stephen Buttes, assistant professor of Spanish and symposium judge, said there are three awarded winners in each division, and student has the opportunity to turn their projects into a professional platform.

IPFW Visual Communication major Paige Robertson is one such student. Robertson’s research focused on special education for deaf children and incorporated pieces of her original photography. Being deaf herself, Robertson has first-hand experience with her topic.

“I went through it myself. I’m a deaf student, and I have been a deaf student ever since I have been going to school,” Robertson said, “and so I really put my own knowledge into it.”

Associate Professor of Sociology and Symposium Judge Donna Holland reached out to Robertson after seeing her presentation to ask if she would be willing to present it in class.

“She actually wants me to present my poster for her classroom,” Robertson said. “She has some experience talking about people with disabilities, and she was always looking for someone who could be an example. I did my poster and she was really excited about it.”

Not only will Robertson be presenting her research in the classroom, but she was also invited to share some of her photos in a showcase in Indianapolis this June.

Another resource that symposium participants have is IPFW’s online scholarly repository, Opus.

Susan Anderson, director of Library Academic Resources, said the students have the option to archive their poster and abstract onto Opus for future use.

“What that means for the students is it becomes a permanent url, and they can list that on a cv or on a grad school application and say this an example of the work I did,” Anderson said. “So it’s a real polished way to present that kind of work.”

Former Dean of Helmke Library and Symposium Judge Cheryl Truesdell said the event also provides the opportunity for undergraduate students to conduct their research with Ph.D. professors.

“You cannot replace that with any kind of money,” Truesdell said.

Truesdell also said working directly with Ph.D. faculty is rare in other universities.

“I’ve been to R1 institutions, IU and Purdue, and you don’t get in the lab,” Truesdell said. “You don’t get to work with Ph.D.s until you’re a graduate student.”

In addition to help from faculty, another resource these students have is Studio M. John Nicklin, Studio M Coordinator, conducted workshops to teach students how to present their research in a visually appealing way.

“It was designed for students who weren’t familiar with graphics programs to give them a framework and ideas on how to create a poster that is more visually captivating,” Nicklin said.

Nicklin said he thinks it is valuable for a participant to have a well structured poster, but what is most important is the quality of a student’s research and presentation.

While the Student Research and Creative Endeavor Symposium has been showcasing student projects for 20 years, Nicklin said this is the third year that Studio M has been involved and he looks forward to the years to come.