IDS Thursday, October 3, 2024
Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
INSIDE:
IU ALUMNUS EMIL WAKIM JOINS SNL CAST
McCulley leaves IU By Daniel Flick
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALAYNA WILKENING
danflick@iu.edu | @ByDanielFlick
Senior receiver Donaven McCulley is leaving Indiana’s football team, an Indiana Athletics spokesperson told the Indiana Daily Student on Tuesday. McCulley is entering the transfer portal, the spokesperson said, and has been removed from the Hoosiers’ roster. The 6-foot-5, 203-pound wideout caught two passes for 21 yards and a touchdown in four appearances this season. A native of Indianapolis, McCulley attended Lawrence North High School. He arrived in Bloomington before the 2021 season, starting his collegiate career as a quarterback before transitioning to receiver in the spring of 2022. In 2023, McCulley led the Hoosiers in receiving, catching 48 passes for 644 yards and six touchdowns. He was named an All-Big Ten honorable mention. McCulley initially entered the transfer portal Nov. 27, 2023, one day after Indiana fired head coach Tom Allen. But after entering talks with new head coach Curt Cignetti, McCulley returned three weeks later. The 21-year-old McCulley drew criticism this spring from Cignetti, who said McCulley needed to pick up his play in practice. McCulley performed well over the final two weeks of spring ball but failed to regain his starting spot this fall. McCulley suffered an upper-body injury in the Hoosiers’ season-opening 31-7 victory over Florida International University on Aug. 31 and missed the following game. He returned Sept. 14 against UCLA. But McCulley’s role in Indiana’s offense has been minimal. Cignetti said in a press conference Sept. 23 that McCulley was still trying to get back in the swing of things after his injury. McCulley caught a 12-yard touchdown in the Hoosiers’ most recent game, a 42-28 triumph over Maryland on Sept. 28, which marked his first reception since Week 1. Barring a change of heart, that grab appears be the last of McCulley’s 66 in the cream and crimson. Indiana, without McCulley, returns to action at 3:30 p.m. EST Saturday against Northwestern at Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium in Evanston, Illinois.
'You have a right to say no' Former Crazy Horse employees allege sexual harassment By Eva Remijan-Toba
eremijan@iu.edu | @remitoba
Editor’s note: This story includes mention of sexual assault, sexual harassment, verbal abuse and vulgar language. Elizabeth Spaulding and Jewels Nelson breathed a sigh of relief as they stood before Crazy Horse. The women entered the Bloomington restaurant standing tall, prepared to end the cycle of sexual misconduct they had endured for months. They would soon discover the culture of silence engulfing Crazy Horse, and the owners’ suppression of anyone who dared to break it. Spaulding, 25, and Nelson, 26, approached the establishment's owners July 24 for a meeting about general manager Joseph “Jay” Brink’s sexual harassment. Before they could speak, Crazy Horse owners Ron Stanhouse and his wife Liz Stanhouse immediately presented the women with documents for a one-week suspension. The Stanhouses told Spaulding and Nelson they were being suspended for standing on the bar and swearing at Brink, which Spaulding and Nelson said never happened. They believe the story was a preemptive move to suspend them before they could bring allegations against Brink to the owners. Spaulding and Nelson refused to sign the suspension papers. They passed their own document to the Stanhouses detailing the sexual offenses Brink allegedly committed against them and their female coworkers. There were accusations from nine women on the list. Nelson said the Stanhouses appeared surprised to hear of such behavior and said they had never received any complaints about
Brink, 40. Even after hearing the numerous cases against the general manager, Ron Stanhouse said there was nothing he could do. Nelson said Ron insisted more women needed to come forward because they depended heavily on Brink. The next week, Nelson and Spaulding were taken off the schedule and removed from the employee software system. They text messaged Ron Stanhouse on July 27 to ask why they couldn’t work. "It’s best if you don’t come in for any reason,” the owner responded. *** The Indiana Daily Student spoke to four sources, including Nelson and Spaulding, who said Crazy Horse ownership and management fostered a culture of sexual harassment and abuse for at least three years. The IDS reached out to the Stanhouses for comment on the accusations of negligence and fostering an unsafe work environment. Ron initially agreed to an interview over the phone, but later rescinded his agreement. “Our company policy at Crazy Horse is not to make statements regarding current or past personnel,” he said in an emailed response. In a later email, he added, “We have many staff that have worked with us for 10, 20, and even 30 years and they are the backbone of our operation.” The IDS also reached out to Brink over the phone and by text for comment. He did not reply. *** Spaulding started serving at Crazy Horse during summer 2023. She said her initial experience was positive but quickly changed when she began working night shifts
supervised by Brink. He often made comments toward Spaulding including, “I want to bite your nipples off,” or “You look so good I want to jizz on you.” She said she hit her breaking point when she heard Brink make similar disturbing remarks about an 18-year-old employee. Spaulding’s relationship with the owners did little to make her feel safer at work. In June, Spaulding forgot to tip out the kitchen at the end of her shift. The next day, she said Ron Stanhouse yelled at her in the middle of the restaurant and threatened to fire her. Later that week, Spaulding called a meeting with Liz Stanhouse, who manages the schedule, to address her husband’s intimidation. When Spaulding asked for an apology, Liz Stanhouse refused to reply according to an audio recording of the meeting. Unsatisfied, Spaulding left the meeting. The following week, Spaulding and Nelson, who typically had two to four shifts per week, were given only one each. Although Nelson was not involved in the confrontation with the owners, she felt she was punished due to her friendship with Spaulding. The two women felt increasingly powerless, and they feared the consequences of speaking out. “Are we actually doing something wrong or is it the fact that we’re speaking up and saying something about this treatment?” Nelson said. “Every time we tried to change something to make it a safer environment, we were always punished.” Spaulding said Ron and Liz Stanhouse’s tactics to repress women employees protected them and Brink from accountability. At least 10 female employees have accused Brink of sexual harassment be-
tween the compiled document and a police report filed by Nelson. Ranging from vulgar comments to forceful sexual advances, the women subjected to Brink’s harassment said he has engaged in inappropriate behavior for years with no punishment. “You just dreaded going to work every day,” Spaulding said. “It became normal to walk in and know, ‘I’m going to get harassed today.’” After Spaulding was told not to come back to Crazy Horse, she asked her coworkers to come forward about Brink’s harassment. At least two other employees sent text messages to Ron Stanhouse with the compiled document of Brink’s offenses, which were ignored. When more employees showed the same document to Ron and Liz Stanhouse in person, they claimed to have never seen it before. “We were all so frustrated because now there’s proof of multiple people coming forward, and they’re lying saying they had never heard anything about this,” Nelson said. “Nothing was being done.” Nelson began serving around the same time as Spaulding. Both women said they regularly experienced unwanted touching from Brink on their buttocks and waist. When they told him to stop, Brink said it was an accident. “I could always tell he had an interest in me,” Nelson said. “I tried to brush it off like it was no big deal.” After a month of working at the restaurant, Brink attempted to kiss Nelson twice without her consent. Nelson said she told him no, but Brink persisted. “I tried to be respectful about it because he was the
general manager, the highest manager, and I didn’t want to offend him in any way,” she said. “It’s difficult to assert yourself because he’s a higher-up.” Zoe Peterson, director of the Sexual Assault Research Initiative at the Kinsey Institute, said power dynamics are a key factor in harassment cases. “In workplace environments where there is a pretty big power differential, consent almost loses its meaning,” she said. “People don’t have the power to say yes or no.” Peterson said restaurants and bars are high risk spaces for sexual misconduct because employees often struggle to identify inappropriate harassment, or they dismiss the behavior. Hourly workers are especially vulnerable, as they fear losing their jobs and can be easily replaced. As general manager, Brink supervised the entire Crazy Horse staff when the owners weren‘t in the restaurant. Every woman Brink sexually harassed worked under him. In November 2023, Nelson said Brink spread a rumor that the two of them had sexual relations in the restaurant’s bathroom. “It was humiliating,” Nelson said. When she asked the managers for help to stop the rumors, they told her to “brush it off.” “Whenever we try to talk about those things, it’s like they’re uninterested,” Nelson said. SEE CRAZY HORSE, PAGE 4
IU ends Intensive First-Year Seminars School shooting threat By Madelyn Hanes
By Chloe Oden and Isaac Perlich news@idsnews.com
Indiana University announced it will discontinue Intensive First-Year Seminars (IFS) in an abrupt end to the over 30-year-old program. IFS was a transition-tocollege program for first-year students which began a few weeks before the start of the fall semester, according to the IFS website. Prior to their start to college, incoming freshmen could participate in a threecredit course, working with faculty and participating in an academic forum that would help connect them to
IU’s resources and prepare them for college, according to the IFS website. IFS had courses specifically tailored to students with scholarships like Hudson & Holland and 21st Century Scholars, as well as students in the Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Experience. At the Bloomington Faculty Council (BFC) meeting Oct. 1, one member asked Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Vasti Torres for clarification about whether or not Torres made the decision to end IFS. “I made the decision to reallocate resources,” Torres said.
According to Torres, the role that IFS had is being “transformed and redesigned” for all students, but she did not give specifics. Impact of IFS Some courses for the 2024 program were “Arts of War,” taught by professor Marco Arnaudo; “Blood, Babies, and Chainsaws: Gender in/ as Horror,” taught by Jennifer Maher, clinical professor and director of undergraduate studies for gender studies; “Queer Activism and Public Issues” taught by associate professor A. Freya Thimsen; and “Happy Hoosiers: Exploring Nature, Heritage and Health,” taught by lecturer
Brian Forist. “There’s just a different kind of bond that you can build in (the intensive format),” Thimsen said. “It allows you to build knowledge in a different way.” Thimsen said she has observed “life-changing impacts” in her IFS class. Most students in the class, she said, identify as part of the queer community and come from places that aren’t supportive of or are aggressive toward their identities. The class taught them about the history of queer politics and helped them “build community with each other.” SEE IFS, PAGE 3
mrhanes@iu.edu | @madelynrhanes
The Project School, a public charter school in Bloomington, canceled school for students in grades three through eight Oct. 2 after a written threat was found on a bathroom wall Oct. 1. The written threat said, “School Shooting, 10/2/2024,” according to an email from The Project School Principal Lori Ihle and Superintendent Catherine Diersing sent to families. They wrote in the email they evacuated the classroom building the afternoon of Oct. 1 around 2:15
Bloomington's 7 Day Forecast
p.m. The school enacted its safety plan and had all students and adults away from the building due to the anonymous threat written on a second-floor bathroom wall. The school’s K-2 Field Day at Yard Dogs Farm would proceed as planned Oct. 2, according to the email. Bloomington Police Department Captain Ryan Pedigo said in an email that a detective responded to the Project School at approximately 2:15 p.m. regarding a threatening message that students found written on the wall of a bathroom stall. SEE SHOOTING, PAGE 3
SOURCE: ETHAN CHOO | EHCHOO@IU.EDU GRAPHICS BY: ALAYNA WILKENING
Thursday Oct. 3
Friday Oct. 4
Saturday Oct. 5
Sunday Oct. 6
Monday Oct. 7
Tuesday Oct. 8
Wednesday Oct. 9
75° 47° P: 0%
78° 53° P: 5%
79° 55° P: 0%
80° 62° P: 15%
67° 49° P: 0%
67° 46° P: 0%
67° 44° P: 0%