Category: News

The women’s studies department is being cut, but all women are being affected.

IPFW is losing a number of academic programs and departments at the end of this school year as a result of the the University Strategic Alignment Process (USAP).

The USAP recommendations propose cuts of the philosophy, women’s studies, and geology programs, along with as two dozen other majors within larger departments.

“They called it a recommendation, but as soon as they made the recommendation, they suspended admissions to our program. So you can no longer sign up for a philosophy major here,” says Charlene Elsby, assistant philosophy professor.

Elsby is one of nine female professors whose job is in danger come Jan. 1, when the preliminary cuts take place, eliminating three departments entirely. She is not directly involved with women’s studies, but these cuts affect the livelihood of herself and others.

“My dad says I can move back in with him,” Elsby says with a nervous laugh.

Laura Laudeman, a junior theatre major, is also beginning to feel the ripple within her department, one not even on the long list of cuts.

“We’ve even decided that for this upcoming season, instead of focusing on shows, selecting shows that they thought would be beneficial to students,” Laudeman says, “one of the major factors in choosing the shows was, ‘Will they make money?’”

Money seems to be a driving factor in all of the decisions that will force change on students.

In 2015, 7,106 women were enrolled at IPFW, compared to 5,703 men. Women have been the majority of students on campus since before 1985, according to the annual IPFW Statistical profile.

Janet Badia, professor and director of the women’s studies program, realizes that it’s not just her colleagues or students that are feeling the changes.

“The students who are impacted in the other majors,” Biday says, “I see them around, they go to our events, I go to their events.”

One thing is agreed upon by many: the community will change because of USAP.

Jalyn Ely, a senior communication major, says this makes her look at the university in a different light.

“There are people who care about this,” Ely says, “There are people who are genuinely affected by this, who are seeing their hopes and their dreams and their career paths destroyed.”

Ely’s family members who were previously considering attending the university have decided not to in the wake of the cuts.

Worse yet, community members feel they are out of the loop regarding the changes affecting them.

Professors like Elsby and Badia, whose jobs are on the line, have known about the changes for almost a year, but students only recently found out details about the USAP recommendation in a campus wide email blast from Chancellor Vicky Carwein.

“They keep talking about, ‘we’ve tried to be really open and communicative about this,’” Laudeman says, “but I feel that there’s been a real lack of transparency.”

Laudeman is not wrong. In fact, a freedom of information on open records request regarding details of the USAP process and recommendations has been denied by university lawyers.

The recommendations have been the central focus of campus for weeks as IPFW approaches the first leg of USAP eliminations.

The university is also undergoing Legislative Services Agency (LSA) recommendations to repurpose the Fort Wayne campus. The process will put more of an emphasis on certain departments and could possibly mean major changes to the curriculum and programs offered.

Reasons given for the LSA changes by administration are budget adjustment and best-serving the purposes of the Fort Wayne community.

Mitch Daniels is the president of Purdue University and a driving force behind the LSA recommendations.

“He has underestimated the value of our campus and all that we do here when he says that the point of a regional campus is to train our students to be good employees,” Elsby says. “That negates their possibilities to become the innovators or the good employers.”

Tensions are rising around campus as the true consequences of the recommendations come to light. Women are beginning to realize the 22 students seeking degrees in women’s studies are not the only people affected.

The recommendations started promisingly enough.

Little did faculty know, philosophy professors, among others, would lose their jobs, and students could no longer earn a degree in this and other departments.

“They are planning to cut our program and our department as of January first,” said Charlene Elsby, assistant professor in philosophy.

But philosophy is just one of the many programs IPFW plans to cut next year part of the University Strategic Alignment Process.

The Legislative Services Agency was brought in to review to programs and departments that listed recommendations they should complete by the university.

“They call it a recommendation,” Elsby said. “But as soon as they made the recommendations, they suspended admissions to our program.”

She said a month after the philosophy department received its notice, they started to change the courses based on the report.

According to the “USAP Recommendations 2.2 and 2.3”, the philosophy department is to “develop and implement a plan for attracting and retaining students from introductory courses.”

The report showed the department had a 11.6 percent graduation efficiency and an average of 27.6 graduates within the major every year, higher than many programs like biology and computer science that were not suspended.

Students affected by the suspensions and cuts were also vocal.

Shortly after the announcement, on Nov. 2 and 3, students and faculty gathered to share their frustrations, as a Teach-In was held outside of Kettler Hall. It drew 1,000 students throughout both days.

“I wanted to be out here because I am kind of passionate about this,” said Jalyn Ely, a communication major.

Ely said she is passionate about education because she enjoys learning and studying. It is important to her that other people get those opportunities also.

She is afraid of how the suspension of these programs is going to affect the community in the future. Ely is not from Fort Wayne, but enjoys it here. She is afraid the cuts will force students to leave IPFW to find a better education.

“I have three younger siblings,” she said. “At least two of them were considering coming to IPFW, and they’re not anymore.”

She explained the protest is encouraging, because students are willing to listen and talk about why they do not want these cuts to happen.

Ely said she is also skeptical with the metrics they are using to cut the programs, especially the philosophy department.

“You can’t justify cutting a foundational discipline,” she said. “They didn’t even have a good reason for philosophy.”

Steve Carr, chair of the communication department, said he does not understand why they want departments to market themselves more.

He said universities usually hire the faculty to teach classes and conduct research.

“Wanting faculty to have to conduct marketing and recruitment on top of everything else they already do seem to undermine the core mission,” he said.

He said with Indiana University and Purdue University splitting, as a result of the recommendations, it has forced Purdue to look at all the programs and make cuts.

According to the LSA study, IU will change hands with being in control of the nursing program, causing it to change from a Purdue degree to an Indiana degree.

“Purdue is going to lose a lot of money because of that,” he said. “Purdue sees a lot of small programs that either pay for themselves or make money for the university.

Charlene Elsby is not sure what is going to happen to her after the cuts have been made either. She said there has been a lack of communication between the faculty and Vice Chancellor Carl Drummond on what is to come.

“I have a contract until May,” she said. Whether that will be renewed is completely up in the air.”

Marlie Reed traveled the Pacific United States for 10 months, and in return, she received an education award for nearly $6,000.

The IPFW alumna was a part of a program called AmeriCorps, where she volunteered to aid communities and organizations in Alaska, California and Oregon while she secretly struggled with what direction to take in life.

“I was unsure of what I should do next,” Reed said, as she combed her fingers through her hair. “I had a friend who did the program and told me he gained a new perspective on himself, so I wanted to try it.”

According to the American Gap Association, interest in gap years has increased substantially. High school and college graduates are electing to take a gap year by traveling nationally or internationally.  Graduates are also volunteering or working at home before enrolling into an institution or beginning their career.

Amanda Grace, a student from North Webster majoring in office administration at International Business College, said she decided to work before continuing her education to save money and figure out what she should major in.

Through her experience, Grace said, she learned how to be more responsible, and never lost her work ethic because she finally felt like she wanted to go to school, not that she was supposed to.

Deidre Hoffman, another IBC student majoring in office administration from Norwell, said she was unsure of her plan after high school. She joined the U.S. Army, and while serving, she gained skills similar to Grace’s, such as time-management, maturity, and life-experience.

According to the AGA website, Grace and Hoffman are among the students who have shown that taking a break between high school and college renews interest and increases motivation. Another AGA study shows 90 percent of students are enrolled in a four-year institution within one year of time off from academia.

The AGA also surveyed students and found they can gain useful, job-related skills from their personal experiences during their time off.

“Employers are looking for students who have communication skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills,” said Ashley Calderon, IPFWs director of career services.

According to the AGA, the University of Colorado Denver, and the AmeriCorps website each of these options — volunteering, enlisting in the military, traveling, and working — will teach students some of the skills to prepare them for their future careers.

Students could highlight their skills on their résumés and during their job interviews, Calderon said. She also believes getting involved with these organizations are exceptional ways to network.

“It made me more self-aware and more appreciative of what I have and the family I have, even the material things,” Reed said about her AmeriCorps experience. “I am just alive and well, doing something different made me more adventurous.”

 

Service Journalism:

AmeriCorps NCCC Program:

• Available for 18- to 24-year-olds
• Must complete 10 months of service to be awarded education award
• Government pays for housing, food and stipend.
• Volunteers can choose from five different regions in the U.S. and can apply for their fall or winter cycle.

Source: http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/americorps-programs/americorps-nccc/americorps-nccc-faqs

 

 

While most college students think nothing of a night out drinking with their friends, for one family, it became their worst nightmare.

According to 20/20, Lauren Spierer disappeared from Indiana University just over six years ago in early June after a night of heavy drinking.

The department of applied health at Indiana University defines binge-drinking as consuming five or more drinks in one sitting for men and four or more for women. Using this definition as a basis, this department concluded that a large number of students develop excessive-drinking habits during their college years.

“I am finding more and more college-aged people are beginning to drink earlier in the day,” said Pat Clancy, Fort Wayne family and individual therapist.

Indiana University also reports there are sociological consequences of heavy-drinking tendencies, such as an increased crime rate, increased number of unintentional injuries among students, as well as an increase in student assaults.

Clancy said that with more students engaging in early drinking activities, more alcohol is consumed over the course of the day, leaving a bigger window of opportunity for dangerous situations to occur, and added motivation.

Breeanna Fusselman, a junior in communication from Ossian, said drinking on college campuses is an expected activity.

Fusselman said she believes incoming freshman are at the highest risk for alcohol abuse and poisoning, due to the fact that they are unaware of their limits.

Chad Landez, IPFW and IU alumnus, said he thinks heavy drinking is a coping mechanism that many college students turn to automatically, due to the association society places between college and drinking.

Landez went on to say he believes many college students make it a goal to drink excessively when they go out on the weekends. In other words, they drink to forget.

Courtney Bourne, a Ball State junior in criminal justice from Markle, said college students tend to have a work hard, play harder mindset. They get all their work done during the week. Then come Thursday or Friday, it’s time to loosen up. Bourne said the problem with this mentality is people tend to get carried away, especially after encouragement from peers.

“They live for the weekends,” Bourne said. “There has to be a way that college students can relieve stress from the week, and most of them turn to alcohol because it an easy fix, and they like the way it makes them feel.”

According to an IU on student drinking patterns, Greek houses and college athletes are at the highest risk of engaging in heavy drinking. The department found that as athletic participation increases, so does alcohol consumption among athletes. In terms of fraternities and sororities, the department reports heavy drinking is the central activity at most social events between the houses.

Emma Browning, an IPFW freshman undeclared major from Fort Wayne, said she recently learned in her psychology class that alcohol was a more addictive substance than marijuana. Browning believes police departments should crack down on college drinking, in order to deter students from drinking so excessively.

As for the Lauren Spierer case, 20/20 reported no further progress has been made. Spierer remains amongst the many college students who have gone missing during a night out gone wrong.

The Mastodons hockey team will play Adrian University at 6 p.m. Oct. 15 at SportONE Parkview Icehouse.

“I’ve lived my whole life revolving around hockey,” Captain Derek Moss said. “All the kids that have played hockey, we’ve always had the dream of going and playing pro.”

A senior general education major from Fort Wayne, Moss said Adrian will be one of their toughest games of the year. Moss believes they are a good school because they have a feeder system, which draws many hockey players, allowing Adrian to have four hockey teams.

Senior accounting major Grant Isenbarger, who was on skates around the age of 2, said the team will need to be selfless, and trust one another when playing against Adrian.

“One of our main focuses going into this year is staying out of the box, because we have 11 skaters,” Moss said. “So we are going to have to stay to our systems, keep everybody rested and fully energized.”

After serving as captain last season, Moss returns for his senior year as captain once again.

Last season the Mastodons played teams such as Michigan State and the University of Michigan, but Moss said he believes the Indiana Tech game is their most emotional one of the year.

Others are easier to enjoy.

“Eastern Kentucky University is our funnest trip of the year. We did it two years ago, and they came to us last year, but we go down to them this year,” Moss said. “It’s called Midnight Madness. We play them at midnight. It’s a crazy atmosphere, and they draw a lot of fans.”

Moss, Isenbarger, and Brendan Lewis tied for the most goals on the Mastodons team last season, according to the Pointstreak website.

Isenbarger said they also gained a better appreciation for hockey, especially at this level, because they know it will be over soon.

Despite this, they try to have fun in the meantime, because that is what the sport is all about, Isenbarger said.

 

IPFW Hockey event information:

• IPFW Hockey Home Opener
• Location: SportONE Parkview Icehouse
• Date: Oct. 15 at 6 p.m.
• IPFW Mastodons vs. Adrian University Bulldogs.

 

Source: http://Source: http://achahockey.org/statistics/1682-ACHA-Mens?type=schedule&level=conference&id=1152&league_id=1800&conference_id=1152

This story was updated on June 24, 2016 at 9:55 a.m.

The university administration released an incomplete two-page rubric and links to a website nearly one month after a college dean, department chair, and IPFW Student Media filed open records requests for meeting memoranda, datasets, and any other documentation related to the USAP committee.

According to Rachel Hile, interim chair of the Department of Communication, she filed a record request to point out the committee’s record keeping was not “conducive to transparency.”

“In the state of Indiana, it is actually not legal for a committee to meet behind closed doors and make the decision to gut a college of a state university without any sort of accountability, without any sort or record keeping,” Hile said.

The report recommended 13 departments to be restructured, nine of which were from the College of Arts and Sciences, to save on costs. According to faculty members, the term restructuring wasn’t clearly defined in the report, and could mean merging departments together or eliminating them.

Hile also said she believes the committee is subject to the Open Door Law based on the definitions of a governing body that the Public Access Counselor provides.

“That’s why I wanted to broaden the request to call attention to the fact that there are some actual problems with the process,” Hile said. “There are a lot of people in the College of Arts and Sciences complaining about the outcome, and I think the outcome shows a clear ideological bias against a certain form of intellectual inquiry, but it’s also arrived at a process that is probably illegal.”

According to the Indiana Public Access Counselor’s Handbook, Indiana Code 5-14-1.5, Indiana’s Open Door Law, a specific amount of meeting memoranda must be kept of “governing bodies” engaged in “official action.”

The handbook also says the law requires memoranda such as date, time, and place of meeting; the members of the governing body recorded as absent or present; the general substance of all matters proposed, discussed, or decided; and a record of all votes taken, by individual members, if there is no roll call.

“The law requires you to have this specific, minimum amount of record keeping at meetings. I don’t think they have it. I know they didn’t have it when I was on the committee,” Hile said.

The code states, “Any committee directly appointed by the governing body or its presiding officer to which authority to take official action upon public business has been delegated, except for agents appointed by a governing body to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of the governing body.”

The code’s definition of official action includes six steps: receive information, deliberate, make recommendations, establish policy, make decisions, or take a final action.

“There is a lot of talk from the chancellor and the USAP committee members about how this is a very transparent process and they want everyone to know what is happening,” Hile said. “But they’re not keeping records, so that’s not even possible.”

Both Vicky Carwein, the chancellor of the university, and Barry Dupen, co-chair of the task force, said the task force did not keep minutes of their meetings, but all the other data was available online.

“We were just overwhelmed with the work. We didn’t have extra people to keep extra records,” Dupen said. “Discussions amongst ourselves were basically confidential, but the results are all completely public.”

Carwein also said there was no hidden data she was aware of. However, she also said confidentiality was maintained during the meetings in order for the members to “very openly, very candidly, and in all honesty express their views.”

“The intent of all of that is to really encourage people to express themselves freely. So in terms of some of their deliberations, to take those 24 task members and put one of them in a chair and say ‘how exactly did you vote and what was your comment?’ that wouldn’t serve the process,” Carwein said.

“In my time in higher education, this is one of the most transparent processes I have ever been involved in,” Carwein said. “There are just reams, and reams, and reams of data that they posted. The individual divisions and units actually developed their own metrics by which they wanted to be judged. There was nothing top-down about this process.”

According to the report, the recommendation was based on current enrollment trends, number of degrees awarded, and demand. Other factors such as employment outlooks and graduation rates also played a part.

Jeff Malanson, an assistant history professor and university budget committee member, said the academic departments did not come up with their own metrics, but rather USAP decided that employment outlook and graduate job placements would be used.

“While academic departments generally participated in the process of developing performance measures, it is not accurate to say that the departments came up with the metrics themselves,” Malanson said.

In response to Malanson’s claims, Carwein said, “Each of the four vice chancellors oversaw the development of metrics appropriate for and specific to the units in his or her division. Each division was able to develop metrics that were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Those metrics were then utilized by the USAP Task Force to conduct their evaluation and develop their recommendations.”

According to Malanson, the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Carl Drummond, solicited input from academic departments for possible performance measures, but the measures proposed by the departments were largely ignored.

Eric Link, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, sent a request to the task force asking for a variety of documents related to the recommendation to restructure departments.

The following day, Link was informed he would have to file an open records request in order to receive those files.

According to Link, he filed an open records request on May 11, asking for minutes, data sets, rubrics, scoring sheets, graphs, charts, or other instruments or data visualizations in order to see how the committee came to their conclusions.

“When the dean of the college that is targeted for the vast majority of cuts has to file an open records request to get information so he can defend the college against those cuts … this is a catastrophically bad situation,” Steve Carr, an associate professor of communication said. “USAP has been a deeply divisive initiative that has caused needless controversy on this campus. It’s pitted people against each other. USAP, as a whole, has destroyed moral. In the end, what do we have to show for it?”

IPFW Student Media filed a similar records request in person with the university on May 16 by hand-delivering the request to Christine Marcuccilli’s university mailbox. Marcuccilli, the university’s compliance officer, said she never received the request. A reporter filed another request in person May 24.

Marcuccilli’s office sent a two-page “Data Decision Making Grid” in response on June 10, 25 days after the initial request. The grid, which included five factors that would assist the committee in making decisions for each department, was not filled out.

The office declined to disclose meeting memoranda and recordings. While state agencies are free to disseminate such documents, they are permitted to withhold documents under state statute.

“It would seem to me if those two pieces of paper are the only thing that were provided to him, then the request was either unfilled, there was a whole lot of denial of the request, or documents no longer exist,” said Andrew Downs, Director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. “The length of the request should result in more than two pieces of paper.”

Marcuccilli said the committee’s “working records,” which include items such as filled out grids or data sheets, were not retained.

“A university is a state agency, and therefore it’s important for the constituents, whether be alumni, faculty, administrator staff, students, understand what is going on within the university, in terms of decisions that its making and moving forward,” Barb Smith, an associate professor of communication, said.

According to Smith, Indiana has a law that allows a public agency “to refuse disclosure of requested records if the advisory or deliberative materials express opinions and are used for decision making.”

“If the minutes that were requested, or the reports that were requested, or the certain part of the rubric was requested are based on advisory or deliberative materials that expressed opinions of the group, and those opinions are used for decision making, those can be exempt if IPFW chooses to make them exempt,” Smith said.

“In the case of USAP, the task force made recommendations about things that should happen on the campus, not just in academic affairs, but in student affairs and athletics,” Downs said. “If those recommendations are to be taken seriously by the administration and by the campus more generally, then obviously there should be some way for people to try to get to the same conclusion that USAP got to.”

Both Hile and IPFW Student Media filed complaints with Indiana’s public access counselor.

James Burg, the dean of Education and Public Policy and chair of the USAP Facilitation Team, did not return requests for an interview by deadline.

A copy of the records request response can be found here: Data Decision-Making Grid.

An IPFW report recommends the university restructure 13 departments, nine of which are in the College of Arts and Sciences, to save on costs. According to Steve Carr, an associate professor of communication, the report recommendations will “damage the Fort Wayne community.”

“IPFW is the only public university, I believe within a 100 mile radius that offers defined programs in the liberal arts and humanities. If we follow USAP to its logical conclusion, IPFW is not going to be able to offer those programs any longer,” Carr said. “We are going to lose an important service that this university makes to the area.”

The term “restructuring” wasn’t clearly defined in the report, according to Jeff Malanson, assistant history professor and budget committee member. Various sources have also said restructuring could either mean simply merging departments or eliminating programs altogether.

The University Strategic Alignment Process Task Force recommended the university restructure its departments of anthropology, economics, fine arts, geosciences, history, international language and culture studies, master of business administration, philosophy, physics, political science, sociology, visual communication and design, and women’s studies.

“The programs that have not been targeted are going to lose out. Being a faculty member in communication, I want my students to be able to take classes in women’s studies. I want my students to be able to take classes in German and French. I want my students to be able to take classes in anthropology. I want my students to be able to double major. That makes for a better education,” Carr said. “USAP and various other proposals that are being floated are going to compromise the quality and depth of education that students get here.”

The department changes are designed to help make up for a $2 million projected deficit based on a projected decline in enrollment by 2 percent, according to Malanson.

The College of Arts and Sciences, which houses the majority of the departments slated for restructuring, generated about $7 million for the university in the last academic year.

According to the report, the recommendation was based on current enrollment trends, number of degrees awarded, and demand.

Rachel Hile, interim chair of the Department of Communications and the former USAP Task Force co-chair, said she believes the recommendations are not about saving money, but making the institution more focused on vocational training.

Hile said the committee was biased toward cutting programs from the liberal arts, which is reflective of a national trend.

“There has been a drumbeat of conversation across the country about how the humanities are a luxury and we don’t need them,” Hile said.

According to Hile, the strategic alignment committee recommended restructuring or possibly cutting academic departments that generate revenue for the university even though athletics and university housing lose money each year.

“You just got a sense that there was a bias towards liberal arts when all of the examples anyone ever uses are about departments in the College of Arts and Sciences,” Hile said. “When there is such a focus on job outcomes and an educational path leading to a specific job, it’s a very narrow view of the purpose of education.”

Malanson said the recommendations don’t reflect a complete understanding of the university’s budget.

“Some versions of restructuring could just be merging two departments, and so eliminating a department chair position,” Malanson said. “If that’s all restructuring takes, I’ve seen estimates from saving anywhere from $80,000 to $200,000 a year.”

While Malanson said those numbers are not insignificant, he said they would not enable substantial changes to a university.

“One of the most difficult, mathematical things to think about is every single one of those departments on that list makes money for the university,” Malanson said. “For the nine College of Arts and Sciences departments listed in the proposal, in the last year that performance measures were made available for, they generated over $7 million in profit for the university.”

The task force, commissioned by the university’s chancellor, included 24 volunteer members from numerous academic and staff divisions. The group is responsible for making recommendations to campus leaders to help the university meet its strategic plan by 2020.

According to Malanson, this year’s USAP report addressed less than half of the 91 metrics and goals in the university’s strategic plan.

“We’re two years into the process. We’re two years into the Strategic Plan,” Malanson said. “None of their reporting at this point, none of their work at this point that has been publicly released says anything about how we’re doing towards accomplishing the Strategic Plan.”

Rick Sutter, the department chair of anthropology, said the USAP Task Force was based on the Dickeson Model, which recommends regional universities prioritize more successful programs.

Within that model, only the most elite students should be able to study liberal arts at flagship campuses, according to Charles Murray’s book, “Real Education.”

“No matter where it has been applied, it’s always small liberal arts programs that are targeted,” Sutter said. “That’s in part because the metrics and the data that are used are skewed very heavily against liberal arts programs.”

“What this is about is accessibility to higher education, which is why our campus was founded,” Sutter said. “This campus represents a vital part of the economy as well as upward mobility for a lot of people who can’t leave Northeast Indiana.”

The university’s chancellor, Vicky Carwein, said there was nothing “top-down” about USAP’s process. In an open letter to the campus community, she denied having any role in the committee’s recommendations.

“It’s a process we’ve never engaged in before, so it’s scary for people, I think,” Carwein said. “I understand that reaction, and I appreciate it. But if they would just stop and think for a moment, and actually read the plan. Everybody is focused on this one recommendation, but there’s a whole bunch of other stuff there as well that we need to consider.”

Barry Dupen, associate professor of mechanical engineering technology and co-chair of the USAP Task Force, said instead of cutting departments, USAP came up with the recommendation to merge departments in order to save money.

“If you can figure out a way to save women’s studies, which we have the only program in all of Northeast Indiana, if you can save it by merging it with English or sociology, why not?” Dupen said.

Eric Link, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said he didn’t feel his college was being attacked, but doesn’t think closing the departments would be in the university’s best interests.

Link said he wants IPFW to continue to provide a wide range of programs and also wants students to know the college is still in business.

According to Carwein, the decisions and changes won’t happen overnight, and could be a “multi-year kind of process.”

“They are nothing more than just recommendations at this point in time,” Carwein said.

The next steps include meetings between her the vice chancellors of the university over the summer. According to Carwein, they will look over each recommendation in the report. By the fall, they will have a plan that will be sent out to the entire campus.