Latest Posts

Latest Posts

A Sense of Place and Time

A Sense of Place and Time

Today, in the summer, the halls of IU East are unnaturally quiet without students.  Physical Plant has just waxed the floors, and the whole place seems to glow.  The grounds outside are lush and green and verdant.  In six months’ time, though, the weather will be cold and the trees bereft of leaves.  The floors will be scuffed and stained with salt.  In 1972, the land was a construction zone; with Whitewater Hall just beginning to be erected.  It was again in 2015, as work began on the Student Events and Activities Center.  A few centuries’ ago, Miami Indian explorers ranged north from the Whitewater River, seeking game here, surrounded only by trees and grass.  Things change, and a place … Continued
Expand Your Research: The Creative Commons Certificate

Expand Your Research: The Creative Commons Certificate

This past spring, Assistant Librarian of Access and Technical Services Beth South enrolled in the Creative Commons for Librarians certificate course with fellow librarian Peter Whiting from University of Southern Indiana and Instructional Designer Shannon Barnes from Earlham College. All three applied for a scholarship offered by Academic Libraries of Indiana’s (ALI) Affordable Learning Committee and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) to participate in the rewarding experience. The Creative Commons (CC) started as a non-profit in 2001, and by 2002, created a set of open licenses that allowed content creators and researchers world-wide to openly share their work with the public, proactively giving people the ability to use the works to further their own creative and educational pursuits within … Continued
Celebrating African-American Music Month

Celebrating African-American Music Month

June is African-American Music Month, intended to celebrate the important contributions of African-American entertainers in the music industry.  Most American popular music is rooted in Black music traditions dating to the founding of the country, a fact not always acknowledged in society, and these traditions range from instrumentation to musical style to vocalization.  This blog highlights a handful of influential African-American musicians whose work is part of American collective social memory. Gladys Bentley Openly lesbian and among the first well-known drag king performers in American history, Gladys Bentley (1907-1960) was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and grew up in Philadelphia.  She left home at 16 to perform in jazz clubs in New York, under her own name but dressed in formal … Continued
Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Awareness Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and although society is becoming more open to discussing mental health, it can still be challenging to know where to begin when it comes to taking care of your own mental well-being. Several national groups and government organizations provide resources for all your mental health needs. Mental Health America offers a downloadable toolkit with information, posters, and DIY tools. The National Institutes of Health explores topics such as anxiety disorder, borderline personality disorder, and suicide prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides direct support for those suffering from mental illness. Online counseling sessions are available for all students via Timely Care. IU East students also have access to Chat with a … Continued
Student Protester Resources

Student Protester Resources

As protests for many causes crop up on college campuses across the country, students are grappling with strong feelings on important issues, and where and how to express them.  Recent protests, including at Indiana University itself, have controversially led to arrests.  Students may question what rights they do and do not have, and how they can assert them, whether they plan to join a protest, organize one, or document one (such as with video). The right to protest is enumerated in the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably … Continued