Oct 19, 2011

By: SARAH E. WARDStaff Writer

The opening scene of the play “A Raisin in the Sun” began with a stunning

set depicting the Younger family apartment. Detailing everything, down to the electrical boxes and old metal trash can, the set creat-ed a wonderful backdrop for the story to play out on. “A Raisin in the Sun” was set in Chicago during the 1950s. Lena Younger, played by Laurisa Lesure, was waiting to receive a $10,000 insurance check after her husbands’ passing. She lived in a small two bedroom apartment with her son Walter Younger, played by Victor Kamwendo, his wife, Ruth Younger, played by Tia Patrick, their son Travis Younger, played by Ian Nathaniel Coates and Lena’s daughter Beneatha Younger, played by Amorena Ruf-folo. The Younger family was a poor black family living in a time of segregation and racism which were issues touched upon quite frequently throughout the play. Beneatha was a college student struggling to find her identity and was reaching back into Afri-can culture for inspiration. Lena wanted to put some money aside to pay for Beneatha’s schooling and to buy a house. When Lena Younger received her check, the family disputed how the money should be spent. The arguments that the fam-ily had felt real and the emotion

struck a familiar nerve with the audience. The family seemed to be fall-ing apart over the money and Lena decided to purchase a big-ger home in an all-white neigh-borhood. Once the house was purchased, a white man named George Murchinson, played by Marlon Burnley, came to the Younger residence to bribe them into not moving into the

The PrefaceWednesday, October 19, 2011

“A Raisin in the Sun” at IU South Bend

IU South Bend alum, David Bell, now a prominent writerBy: SARAH E. WARDStaff Writer

IU South Bend prides itself on producing successful gradu-ates who exceed expecta-

tions. If they judge themselves on the likes of David Bell, they have accomplished their mission. Bell is a former English major at IUSB who is an author of three novels including his most recent, “Cem-etery Girl.” Bell recently came to IUSB on Thursday, October 13

to do a reading and book signing as well as a question and answer session sponsored by the English Club. This was the latest event in the Creative Writing Program’s Author Series. “Cemetery Girl” is based on a family whose twelve-year-old daughter goes missing without a trace and the family is torn apart. When Bell was asked if his stories reflected his own life, he said, “There are always pieces of

my own life in the stories but not in any recognizable way. I don’t write autobiographical stuff, but all writers put pieces of their own selves into their work.” Bell was interested in writing at a young age. He said, “I al-ways loved to read. I grew up in a house full of books, so it was a natural progression to decide to write my own stories and try to

IU South Bend’s official student newspaper

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: JOHN BATLINERLena Younger (Larissa Lesure) confronting her son Walter

(Victor Kamwendo)

The Younger family gathered around momma for gifts

Walter Younger played by Victor Kamwendo speaking emphatically

about his investment ideasSee RASIN/ Page 4

COURTESY OF: IUSBCREATIVEWRITING.WORDPRESS.COM

Author David Bell at IU South Bend on October 13 See BELL/ Page 4

The Preface 2Wednesday, October 19, 2011

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By: SARAH E. WARDStaff Writer

The Civil Rights Heritage center, located at 1040 West Washington Street in South

Bend, hosted an event on Tuesday evening called “What should we remember? Memorials, History, and Human Rights.” The discus-sion was about the emergence of civil rights memorials around the country and world.

Professor Erica Doss, an Ameri-can Studies professor and His-torian at the University of Notre Dame, talked about how Ameri-cans are very receptive to civil rights memorials but she said, “They are not comfortable with remembering and commemorat-ing what led to civil rights.” Me-morials are a way for people to re-member the past and to celebrate triumphs of oppression. She went on to talk about the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. and she said “Many people say it looks like something out of Soviet Russia.”

Dr. Kevin Lamarr James is the di-rector of the Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Natatorium which has also been turned into a civil rights memorial. The Natatorium was built in 1922 as a public swimming pool and from 1922-1936 blacks were pro-hibited from swimming there. Af-

ter persistent protests from black residents, they were finally granted limited access to the facilities on a segregated basis in 1936. The pool was finally completely desegre-gated in 1950. James said, “There were many young black children that were turned away, and that experienced some type of hurt and

rejection.” Many white children at the time had no idea what was go-ing on James says, “I’ve met many local white residents that swam at the Natatorium and learned how to swim here. They had no idea about the exclusion that was going on.” He does not want to exclude those stories because they are part of the history of the Natatorium as well. James said, “Many community meetings were held to decide how this center would represent the history or story of exclusion that happened here.” He also explained that some black residents were not happy about the idea of turning the Nata-torium into a memorial. Some felt it held to many painful memories and that it should be torn down. In the end, however, James’ vision came to life and he has hopes that the memorial building continues to hold events that help spread the stories and awareness of the pain-ful events that happened there.

Researcher lectures on aftermath of Japan disasterBy: ROGER TIMMSStaff Writer

Dr. Andreas Knecht, a post-doctoral research associ-ate at the University of

Washington, traveled to IU South Bend on October 6 to give a lecture to physics students in Northside. The topic was a study conducted by the Zurich native to see the spread of radioactive activity that resulted from the damage to the Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear com-plex that occurred from the devas-tating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 of this year. The study was actually a side project of Knecht. A similar ex-periment was conducted after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 that occurred in Ukraine. A mem-ber from the Institute of Nuclear Theory that worked on the Cher-nobyl study recommended an at-tempt to detect the radiation fol-lowing the Japanese nuclear plant meltdown. This, along with a concern for any possible effect on public health, prompted Knecht and his team to develop the project independent of their other duties at the University of Washington. The geographical location was perfect to detect wind patterns carrying radioactive dust,

and they were able to use the fa-cilities and equipment available on the Seattle campus. “There was no charge to use any-thing. They were all a part of other projects. Everyone at the univer-sity was happy to help,” explained Knecht. The lecture then turned to technical explanations of several different aspects of the accident. Detailed diagrams of the Fuku-shima reactors and their failsafe systems were put up and analyzed for the audience. According to Knecht, “Adequate precautions were taken. A six meter tall tsu-nami was never even expected to happen, let alone the nine meter high tsunami they had to contend with.” All precautions taken by the Japanese worked as intended, and they were considered to be well above any possible disaster situations that were predicted and modeled. The freak nature of the earthquake and tsunami on that day simply overwhelmed every-thing they had done to avoid that type of situation. The reactor meltdown released radio-nuclides in the atmosphere, and the team at the University of Washington studied the dispersal patterns of the wind that took these

particles all around the world. Over a period of three weeks, Knecht and his fellow researchers studied the level of particles in the air and were one of the first groups to rule out the possibility of any health concerns for other parts of the globe. Dispelling any threat to public safety did bring some major media attention to the project. During the three weeks they took read-ings, the team found that there was absolutely no cause for con-cern. Knecht stated, “Many ele-ments released from the explosion are used frequently. The amount of radioactive dust that was in the air was hundreds of thousands of times below the threshold where public health would be affected in any way.” Dr. Knecht then joked that once the media got there they were more interested in the odd equipment the researchers had created than the possible health consequences of their findings. Despite particles from the disaster reaching all cor-ners of the globe within a month, the Fukushima incident didn’t compare to the Chernobyl disaster. Hundreds of workers have spent the months since the Fukushima disaster trying to clean up the area.

Knecht believes that this will be a long painful process. “The lo-cation will not be able to be fully used again in the foreseeable fu-ture. It is hard to have an exact time table. Simply cleaning up the waste and wreckage will take de-cades by itself. That’s if they con-tinue to employ hundreds of work-ers solely for the job. There are still no people in Chernobyl.” Lectures like Knecht’s are a great way for students in the science programs to see the kind of im-portant work that occurs in their chosen field. The talk was brought to IUSB as part of the PHYS S-106 seminar class. Geared for begin-ning physics students, this class has several presentations throughout the year that give students ideas of how projects can come out of the multitude of abstract theories they are exposed to in class. The complexity and thorough-ness of the detail in Knecht’s dia-grams was borderline overwhelm-ing for the students in attendance. However, PHYS S 106 professor, Jerry Hinnefield, didn’t want the information in the presentation to be simplified in any way. He said, “Normally the talks

Civil rights memorials: The Natatorium

COURTESY OF: JONATHAN RUSSELL

Dr. Kevin Lamarr James, organizer and one of the panelists

See JAPAN/ Page 4


By: MATT ZAKROWSKIStaff Writer

The IU South Bend Ti-tans volleyball team squared off against the

Purdue North Central Panthers on Thursday October 13 in the Student Activity Center. On what was dubbed Dig Pink Night and organized by Delta Sigma Phi and the Office of Student Life to raise awareness for breast cancer research, the Titans were victori-ous, taking the match three sets to one. The first set was closely con-tested early, but with the score at 4-3 Titans, South Bend went on a five point run, forcing a Purdue North Central timeout, and set-ting a tone for the rest of the set. The Panthers would come close to closing the gap, but the Titans led 17-13 late, and went on a 10-2 run to close out the first set 25-15. The second set was more of the same. The score was close early, but IU South Bend scored the last six points to seal the set 25-12 in favor of the Titans. Purdue North Central turned the tables in the third set. With the score at 12-7 in favor of South Bend, the Panthers went on an 11-1 run that gave Purdue North Central a 17-13 lead. The next point was the source of confu-sion. The Titans had trouble mak-ing a substitution, and briefly had seven players on the floor before the serve. After a Krystal Troyer kill, officials Randy Redding and Milan Vuchenich gathered for a few moments, and initially it was announced that the Panthers would take the point due to an illegal substitution. After further deliberation, this judgment was reversed and the point was re-turned to IU South Bend setting the score at 17-14 Purdue North Central. The Titans would score the next kill, but the Panthers held on to win the set 25-19, scor-ing the last four points. Purdue North Central scored the first point of the fourth set, but South Bend went on a seem-ingly unstoppable run, scoring the next 12 points and forcing

the Panthers to burn both of their timeouts. The rest of the set was much closer, but the damage was done and the Titans took the set 25-15, taking the match 3-1. Krystle Troyer led IU South bend with 20 kills, with Patrice McBee also in double-digits with

10. Chloe McCotter scored 45 of the Titans 50 assists in the match. The Titans are now 11-6 on the season, and close out the home schedule at 6-3. The Titans next seven matches will be away from the Student Activity Center.

Titans Volleyball completes home schedule with victory

create the kinds of books I loved to read.” Bell’s inspiration comes from many things but mostly he said, “Everything and everything

can provide inspiration. Things I read, things I overhear, things I make up in my own brain.” The family in “Cemetery Girl” may be different from a tradi-tional family structure but, as Bell puts it, “Of course my family is

nothing like this one, but some of the emotions are the same.” Before Bell became an author, he was a delivery driver. He said, “being a delivery driver was a great job because I was able to work alone. I could drive around

all day lost in my own thoughts. As a writer, I get to work alone and explore my own thoughts- just not behind the wheel of a van.” For more information on Bell and his work, go to www.david-

bellnovels.com. To learn more about IUSB’s Creative Writing Program’s Author Series visit iusbcreativewriting.wordpress.com.

BELL: From Page 1

PHOTOS COURTESY OF: JONATHAN RUSSELL

Andrea Clevenger returning the ball to PNC

Titans sharing a moment of victory after a point

Chloe McCotter and Taylor Armington with a block attempt

Patrice McBee with an imminent return to PNC for a kill


Scavenger hunt to win money for your student clubBy: ROGER TIMMSStaff Writer

Titan Productions will host a Scavenger Hunt that is open to all IU South Bend

clubs. The event will take place on Wednesday October 26 start-ing at 6 p.m. in the SAC lounge. It is expected to last about an hour, or however long the teams take to discover all the clues. All student organizations are welcome to take part in the event. Teams should consist of four to six members. With Halloween only a few days after the event, all participants are encouraged to

embrace the holiday and dress up for the hunt. “Clubs are welcome to wear whatever they want. We are en-couraging clubs to dress alike so that they will be recognized as being a part of the same organi-zation. However, we are not re-quiring clubs to wear costumes,” says Theron Patrick, an executive producer with Titan Productions. This will be a great way to pro-mote what your club is all about while also showing team unity. The hunt will make full use of the many buildings and hiding places scattered around IUSB.

Patrick says that the hunt will, “take place all over campus with clues and challenges being scat-tered throughout.” Teams should be prepared to cover a lot of ground during the course of their search. A thorough knowledge of campus will be a big help in your search. All of this effort will be reward-ed of course. Each of the first three teams to collect all the clues and arrive at the final destination will receive $150 for their respec-tive organizations. Anyone who has had to contend with tight club budgets will certainly appreciate

how much $150 can help. Running a successful club is expensive, so this scavenger hunt may just be what a struggling group needs to help reach their goals. Registration for the event is free, so there is nothing to lose. Titan Productions would like all clubs big and small to take part and have a great time. While everyone should come out to have fun with the event; it is still a competition. Teams should prepare ahead of time to give themselves every advantage possible. When asked for any ad-vice he would give to the teams,

Patrick stated that they should have, “a good knowledge of past and future Titan Pro events!” Deadline for registration is to-day, Wednesday October 19. All clubs wanting to participate need to send an email to [email protected] to confirm their place in the scavenger hunt. So, any struggling organization on cam-pus in search of a lifeline should start brushing up on their campus knowledge and Titan Pro events to prepare.

neighborhood. The play seemed to be a fair portrayal of the unfortunate reality for black families of the time and white families’ percep-tions of them. Walter, on the other hand, wanted to invest in a liquor store and become a successful business owner. The family ar-guments became progressively more tense until Lena gave in to Walter’s request. Walter was supposed to put aside Beneatha’s school money but instead gave it to a friend to invest. His friend ran off with the money and the family was devastated. The Youngers eventually began to realize that it is family that cre-

ates happiness, not money. And without family, one is truly poor. During the play, many con-troversial issues are touched upon including racism, abor-tion, religion, woman’s rights and alcohol abuse. When Ruth Younger found out she was preg-nant amidst the financial strug-gles, she considered having an abortion. Her husband did not make an effort to deter her from this idea while Lena was totally against it. The actors put on a perfor-mance to remember, and the sto-ry was very powerful. This play got to the heart of a lot of issues that families still face to this day. There was drama and comedy throughout the play’s entirety, which sent the audience on an emotional on a roller coaster.

RASIN: From Page 1

Visit iusbpreface.comCOURTESY OF: JOHN BATLINER

Walter Younger played by Victor Kamwendo


are from the faculty, but two or three times a semester we bring in speakers from outside IUSB who are doing real work in the field. We want the students to

see exactly the kind of work that is possible to do with a degree in physics.” “Most of the stuff you find in textbooks was written long ago, and this talk helped students to see what modern physics is like and what can be accomplished with it,” Hinnefield added.

The students may not have understood exactly what Knecht was describing, but they gained valuable insight into how experi-ments are run and how diligent you have to be to find opportu-nities to conduct them.

JAPAN: From Page 2

Engineering Nano-switches of protein function: A lecture by IU South Bend Alumni Dr. Shahir RizkBy: JONATHAN RUSSELLStaff Writer

On Monday, October 10, Dr. Shahir Rizk, who graduated from

IU South Bend in 2000 with a degree in Biology and minor in Chemistry, presented some of his research on engineering na-no-switches to an attentive stu-dent group in Northside Hall on IUSB’s campus. The core aim of the research seems to lie in its ability to treat diseases through a fully reversible option that seeks out the specific mutated proteins in the body in order to modify them. While the procedure is still in its infancy, Rizk and his colleagues at the University of Chicago are explor-ing the methods with encourag-ing results. An IUSB senior majoring in biology and chemistry, Denisse Hernandez noted that the lecture was, “really, really good ... [Rizk] simplified everything so that stu-dents of any level could manage it piece by piece, grouped it to-gether.” Simple connections, such as referencing “natural binding pro-teins” as being antibodies, dem-onstrated how Rizk’s research was connected, and perhaps inspired by, the natural body processes. His, along with his colleague’s

work with Synthetic Antigen Binders, or SABs, were explained as being predictable, controllable and confirmation specific, versus working with natural binders, which can be unpredictable. When asked what to share with average readers, Rizk stated, “ ... So, what we’re interested in ... is being able to ... dynamically change protein function. Be-cause, of course, proteins carry out all kinds of jobs within our bodies and if we can manipulate that, we would be able to make, potentially, drug molecules that can fix broken proteins, if you will. Proteins that have problems, we can be able to reactivate them if they have a mutation, restore function to mutant proteins.” In further questioning, he conveyed that, while the team is working with some diseases in the lab, they are only in the meth-ods development stage. He cited potential uses in work-ing with “enzymes that are mu-tated in certain cancers” and also “hereditary diseases or genetic disorders.” He is also hopeful that nano-switch engineering may be used as an alternative to gene therapy. Sharing some of the problems the team is facing, Rizk said, “One of the [biggest challenges], is really having good scientific

data to support the link between a certain mutation and a certain disease, a cause and effect rela-tionship, right. You can find an association, but it’s not necessar-ily the cause, so ... a disadvantage

of this is that we would be chasing after the wrong target. According to Rizk, there is no predictable timeline for when the research will be ready for clini-cal trials or as an approved form

of treatment. So, while the idea is very intriguing and provides a very optimistic potential for fu-ture treatment options, one will not be able to utilize this method in the immediate future.

COURTESY OF: JONATHAN RUSSELL

Dr. Shahir Rizk delivering the lecture on engineering nanoswitches

Titan Productions presents comedian, Jeff DyeBy: LYSA WINSTONStaff Writer Comedian Jeff Dye will be en-tertaining IU South Bend for free on Wednesday, November 2 in the main auditorium of North-side at 8:30 p.m. This event has been moved from Northside room 128 to the main auditori-um due to the large turnouts that Titan Productions’ events have received so far this year. According to comedians.jokes.com/jeff-dye, Dye has hosted shows like MTV’s “American Id-iot” and “Numbnuts.” He is also the host of MTV’s new series,

“Money from Strangers.” “Dye was a finalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” which also let him perform in a fifty city tour. He has recently been named King 5 TV’s Best Local Comedi-an and one of the Hot Comedians of the Year by Campus Activities Magazine,” as stated on comedi-ans.jokes.com/jeff-dye. Dye also has a comedic album entitled “Jeff Dye: Welcome to My Brain.” To find more information on Jeff Dye, follow him on Twitter @JeffDye or find him on Facebook at facebook.com/JeffDye.

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IUSB Preface


Sustainability and Wellness Club active and committed to environmentBy: MARIA HUBBARDStaff Writer

The Sustainability and Wellness Club, although only a few months es-

tablished, has already proven to be enthusiastic and active. Sev-eral projects are scheduled or planned, including methods to boost recycling and support local agriculture. Myles Robertson, the presi-dent of the club, hopes to imple-ment ways to promote a “green” lifestyle on campus. The club was informally created during the summer of 2011. Before then, students worked with the Center for a Sustainable Future. The club will still work with them, but also will have student-led activities. The club is currently event-based without regular meetings. There is an e-mail group and Facebook page. Several projects are located in or around student housing. Rob-ertson said that, “housing is on board with the plans.” He noted that the trash and recycling bins in housing are eas-ily confused. “The signage is re-ally poor. They can get mixed up. Awareness is a big thing. Aware-ness can make a difference so stu-dents know their options.” Building G, now formally known as Creek Building, will be sustainability-themed. Robertson said that each suite has its own electric meter. He plans to moni-tor the amount of energy each suite uses. Then, a contest will be held to see which suites can re-duce their electric bill the most. “It’ll be like “The Biggest Loser” with prizes.” The club is also considering ways to place a receptacle on campus for printer cartridges, batteries and cellphones. It will be an on-going “Tough Stuff ” recy-cling project, a miniature of what was done in the spring. According to the Center’s web-site, www.iusb.edu/~csfuture/events.shtml, during the 2011 event, approximately 275,000 pounds of electronics were col-lected. The materials filled 11 trailers. Robertson explained why the event was so important. “These are harder to recycle, harder to find places that will take them. With items like these, the benefits are really high. They are valuable materials and often bad for the environment.”

One of the largest on-going projects is the expansion of the campus gardens. Robertson said that next year, the gardens will be removed from their boxes, which were made from salvaged wood, and be on the ground in larger plots. The club planted many variet-ies of produce, including leeks, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and spices. The tomatoes were heir-loom. “The tomatoes are non-determinate, meaning that they continually grow. The cages were too small so they spilled over. Hopefully next year we’ll use big-ger ones.” In the fall, peas, garlic and lettuce were added. Another possible project is a contained compost pile. “It’ll have three chambers so all stages can be rotated. It might even hap-pen as early as [the weekend of the 13th.]” Robertson hopes that the gar-den could help with food servic-es. Leaf lettuce, which is already in the garden, is a favored pos-sibility since it is abundant. The club has already donated some produce, especially lettuce, herbs and tomatoes, to the Shelter for the Homeless, an action that Rob-ertson identified as “a big part of

what we do.” Some canning has also already taken place on campus and Rob-ertson said that some salsa made from the garden’s tomatoes has been taken to events. The projects often rely on the number of volunteers. “A lot of students think that expanding the gardens is a good idea, like a lot of things, but they need to get active to get work done.” He explained why having a local garden helps the environ-ment. “Sustainability isn’t only about, oh, you want to eat organic because it’s healthier. It’s also about buying locally. When you don’t buy locally, the food in Cali-fornia or wherever has embodied energy. Energy was used to create and to ship it other places.” When the food is local, there is less en-ergy used. The Center for a Sustainable Future and the club are teaming up to get other local farmers to speak on campus. For instance, a presentation is planned that will include a speakers from community supported agricul-ture, known as CSA. In this case, representatives from the Purple Porch, a local co-op, will come. Robertson explained why CSA

is the most sustainable form of farming: “I look at it as at the bot-tom level, there is the supermar-ket—Walmart, Meijer, Martin’s, whatever—and a step above that is the farmers’ market where you can talk to the farmer and get some local produce. However, our market isn’t all local. Some stuff comes from other places, like Ohio, and in the winter, some gets shipped in from Florida. Ev-erything from the Purple Porch is grown within a 60 mile radius of South Bend.” Another large project is the wetland restoration. This is under the direction of the Center, but the club helps provide a work-

force. On the 15th, the Club raked and pulled invasive species. “Invasive species are pretty har-dy, and there are two ways to get rid of them: herbicides or manu-ally pull each one. Herbicides are too harsh and a lot of people feel they are bad so we prefer manu-ally pulling.” Robertson encouraged students to come to the club. “People who care about sustainability are some of the most fun people to hang out with. They are open-minded, lively and care about the environ-ment.” For related links, visit www.iusbpreface.com.


Members of the Sustainablity and Wellness Club working to restore the IUSB Wetlands

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By: MANDI STEFFEYColumnist

This semester, I’m taking a telecommunications class. Everything we talk

about as a class is very interesting, but something that was said this week especially poked my brain. I don’t remember what we were talking about, but we got into the discussion of what the word “media” meant to us and what it might mean for people in other countries. Have any of you thought about this before? Dictionary.com de-fines “media” (as in the plural of ‘medium’) as a means of commu-nication, in the forms of radio, television, newspapers, maga-zines, etc. Many people think of “media” as a way that they get their information. To some people, that’s the nightly news. To others, it’s a new compilation CD for an activist group that they support. “Media” is such a diverse subject that can hold such differ-ent meanings to different groups of people. In the United States, we have things like free speech and free press, which pretty much allows the citizens of the US to not only access, but distribute any kind of information they want. Some

people feel that we have too much freedom and fight for censorship of sensitive material on television and in music. While some topics today could be viewed as racy or offensive to some people, others could argue that banning such topics from being watched, lis-tened to or read is a violation of our rights as Americans. In fact, this issue is probably debated every day. Have any of you ever thought about what it would be like if restricting certain topics by way of censorship wasn’t the only thing the government was doing in the world of media? This is the case in many countries. Let’s use YouTube as an ex-ample. Many countries, mostly in the Eastern hemisphere, have YouTube blocked or have had it blocked before from being viewed by their citizens. Some countries, like Brazil, have banned YouTube once for a singular video being especially offensive to observers. According to a mashable.com article, other countries like UAE and Iran have simply blocked YouTube due to a standard cen-sorship of offensive material. Can you imagine not being able to be let into a site like You-Tube? I can’t. I think the growth and dissipation of information

(not just information viewed as being “important”) is a very posi-tive thing for a nation to have. In some countries, even speech is

Free media: Don’t take it for granted

By: ELIJAH DURNELLColumnist

Good day all! Wel-come to one more installment of

“Take My Word for It” that will shed a light, albeit a dim, almost non-existent one, on the mysteries of student life, relationships, the universe and why pud-ding develops that film on top so quickly. This week we will be tackling the subject of grades – the good, the bad and the ugly. That’s a movie reference. If you’re too young to know it, Google it or Tweet it or whatever you young’uns do on the interwebs to get your information. Any-way, here we go…Dear Take My Word for It –“My friend, who has previ-ously been a good student, is having some difficulty this semester keeping their grades up. Any sug-gestions that might help in this area?”Sincerely,Hoping to HelpDear Hoping to Help – Well, far be it from me to lead the young stu-dents of IUSB astray, but I do have couple of sug-gestions. First of all, your “friend”? Really? Does your “friend” like Fruit Roll-Ups like you do and watch Power Ranger re-runs like you do and look back at you in the mirror? It’s okay. We’re all friends here. Okay, secondly, my suggestion is, and this is a little unconventional, just two words. Mad. Men. Have you SEEN this show?!? It’s awesome! The clothes and the plot twists and the haircuts… fantas-tic. “What does that have to do with my grades?” you ask. You always did ask too many questions… once you lose yourself in the Mad Men world you will come away with your

batteries totally recharged. Especially if you’re behind on some episodes. Netflix those bad boys and veg for a couple of hours. It does a body good. Once you step away into 1964 for an hour or two you will totally be ready to tackle that chemistry homework that has been kicking your butt. You may even do it with a scotch and a just-a-bit-too-tight suit. That’s up to you. I guess my suggestion is to step back and chillax and things will look clearer. Then again I could totally be wrong. Your “friend” could just be super lazy, wasting time with knitting or cane carv-ing or whatever it is you kids do for fun. I’m go-ing to assume not though. I’m going to assume that finding a bit of perspective will do wonders in bring-ing the grade to where it should be. And who bet-ter to help you find that perspective than Don Draper. These have (obviously) been my opinions. If you want your question answered in “Take My Word for It” e-mail me at [email protected]. Thank you and good night.

Take my word for it:Better grades through television

Elijah Durnell

Mandi Steffey

See MEDIA/ Page 8


a restricted medium—the cen-sorship of speech is so severe in some countries, that if you talk negatively about your country or its leader, you will be imprisoned or even killed. I’m so glad that as citizens of a fairly reasonable country, we are

able to enjoy media, because me-dia can help us in so many ways—to learn, be entertained, to share and to create. If I lived in a coun-try that restricted certain types of media, I might not be able to be doing what I’m doing right now, which is simply just writing my opinion on entertainment and media in general. I’m also thank-ful to have a job doing this and to have readers to read not only

this column, but this entire news-paper. Sometimes I think that we lose sight of how much we have and how much we are able to do. The next time you turn on your TV and are able to choose what to watch, or go to the bookstore and choose what to read, remem-ber how lucky we are to be able to decide such things.

By: MATT ZAKROWSKIStaff Writer

The IU South Bend wom-en’s basketball team went 21-9 in the 2010-11 sea-

son, but after losing five seniors, including top scorers Katie Hacker (now an assistant coach) and Kimmie Hummer, the Ti-tans have a much younger group of players leading the squad this season.

Head coach, Steve Bruce, ac-knowledged the losses while looking to the future, saying, “We lost five great seniors. All of them are very good leaders, un-derstood our program, how to go about doing things, work habits, etc. So we’ve gone from being a veteran team to being a young team with two seniors, two ju-niors, four sophomores and four freshmen.” While the Titans had success on the court going 21-9 overall, the team suffered a disappointing four-point tournament loss to St. Francis, who they had defeated just three days earlier by thirty points. “I tried not to let that carry too much weight in a nega-tive way, because we really had a good year,” said Bruce regarding the loss. The Titans also had success off the court, finishing 9th in the na-tion in grade point average, with a 3.43. Looking forward to the 2011-12 season, Bruce expects young-er players to step up and fill the shoes of last year’s seniors. “We have a very talented group of freshmen,” Bruce said, “prob-ably the most talented group of freshmen we’ve ever had, and they’re going to be a big part of things in terms of minutes and playing time. They’re skilled and they’re all four guards, but they’re skilled guards. I think that our guard play is going to be really good because of them and be-

cause of our veteran girls.” “Our post play, we’ve had kids playing behind Katie Hacker and Brooke Daugherty, and all of a sudden they’re going to have a chance to play now. Our new post kids are more traditionally taller, bigger and probably more athlet-ic, so we’ll see what that brings to the table,” Bruce said. Coach Bruce was hesitant to put numerical goals on the table for the team this season, saying, “Last year we had some numeri-cal goals and this year we’ve taken the John Wooden philosophy. We want to make the full effort to be the best that we can be, whatever that potential happens to be. Now, I do think that if we do that we

have a chance to be right in the hunt for our conference champi-onship.” Bruce also emphasized his desire for continued success in the classroom for his team this season.

The Titans open the season on the road on October 29 at Grace College. They then face local ri-

val Holy Cross on November 1

at 7:00 p.m. The team’s home de-but is against Bethel College on November 8 at 7:00 p.m.

Titan women look to continue winning ways with young nucleus

MEDIA: From Page 7


Ashley Carson, 25

Lizzie Stapke, 4, looking for her opening to pass

Free throw practice

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Oct 19, 2011