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IDS 2024 Freshman Edition
Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
INSIDE:
IU basketball legend Bob Knight dies at 83
WELCOME, CLASS OF 2028 Congratulations on getting accepted into IUBloomington and becoming a Hoosier! Starting your college career at IU is an amazing achievement, and I hope you all have a wonderful freshman experience. This is the Freshman Edition of the Indiana Daily Student, a student-run in-
dependent newspaper at IU. This issue consists of some of the best stories of the 2023-2024 academic school year. The IDS has been a part of Bloomington since it was founded in 1867. It has become an important resource for the Bloomington community and IU to keep
up to date on what is happening on campus and in the city. Everything in this paper has been produced by students: stories, photos and the design of the pages. The IDS covers a wide range of topics from local to regional news, IU sports and arts events. Stories are pub-
lished daily on our website, idsnews.com, and in our weekly free print edition in the fall that can be found at IDS newsstands on campus and around the city. Students who work for the IDS have the opportunity to cover stories that are included in this issue and more. The IDS is home to
reporters and writers, photographers, graphic designers and web designers. If you are interested in working for the IDS, feel free to reach out to editor@ idsnews.com and be on the lookout for us at student involvement fairs throughout the school year. I hope you enjoy the sto-
ries we’ve put together for you. I’m wishing you all the very best in your first year at IU!
Natalie Fitzgibbons Editor-in-Chief
Bloomington views 2024 eclipse By IDS Staff
news@idsnews.com
Some scenes have been cut for print. Read the full story at idsnews.com. 11 a.m. at Switchyard Park Switchyard Park is filled with more than 700 residents and visitors trying to find the perfect viewing spot for the total solar eclipse, set to happen in less than four hours. Parkgoers are listening to live music performances from the Celestial Spectacle as they set up tents and lawn chairs. Many families with children parked their chairs next to the park’s playground or the City of Bloomington Park and Recreation Department craft station. Tara Brooke, an events specialist for the Parks and Recreation Department, said she has been planning the craft station for more than a year. Participants can build eclipse viewers, spaceship magnets and UFO masks, and can participate in “sun printing” for free. While she plans events like the one at Switchyard Park as part of her job, she said it was hard to expect the number of people who would be at the event. Sun printing involves placing objects on top of photo-reactive paper which then projects the image of the object onto the paper after exposure to the sun. “I’m just here for the ride,” Brooke said. 11:30 a.m. on Kirkwood Avenue Anticipation is building in Bloomington. Crowds cluster around Kilroy’s, Nick’s and the Sample Gates. The morning clouds finally gave way, and a clear blue sky looms overhead. The sun casts a shadow on the street – a hint of what is to come in just under three and a half hours. Cars traveling through Kirkwood Avenue anxiously look for parking spaces, but most are filled. One man, however, cruises down the street in his car with the windows down and without a care in the world. He plays a timely song — The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” — from his radio as he passes the Monroe County Courthouse. A couple sets up a tripod in the green area in front of the courthouse. They situate it on a slab of concrete and take a seat in two lawn chairs facing the sun. The camera sits in a bag between them for now. It took a couple hours, but
Kirkwood Avenue is doing what it does best. 11:30 a.m. at Memorial Stadium A chorus of horns and booming breakbeats ring out from the grand stage as 10-time Grammy nominated R&B singer Janelle Monáe’s band soundchecks in IU Memorial Stadium. The bleachers are mostly vacant, save for the IU band who wandered in to take their seats by the end zone. They occasionally cheer for the horn section of Monáe’s ensemble. The sun beats down on the field, usually made of turf, but today covered in a gray plastic platform for showgoers to stand on. In addi-
tion to Monáe, the stadium is hosting Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to go to space, and “Star Trek” actor William Shatner. A crowd of around 10,000 are expected to flock to the stadium for the main event beginning at 1 p.m., according to Visit Bloomington Executive Director Mike McAfee. “I think it’s been just this nice steady flow of people I’ve seen. I’ve been out and about in town, all weekend,” McAfee said. “Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today I’ve met tons of people from all over the country that are that are here for it.” Some IU performing arts ensembles will also take the stage prior to the eclipse. IU’s Marching Hundred will open
the event, followed by the College of Arts and Science’s Department of Theater and Dance performing a Broadway number at 1:05. At 1:35, the IU Contemporary Dance Program will perform “Minor Bodies”, a duet choreographed by program director Elizabeth Shea. Shatner, who is performing a spoken word piece leading up to the total eclipse, will be accompanied by musicians from the Jacobs School of Music and NOTUS, IU’s Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. The accompanying piece was composed by Jacobs School of Music professor Dominick DiOrio, who will also conduct the piece during Shatner’s spoken word.
Madeline Tokman, a graduate student singing alto in NOTUS’s performance, spent her teenage years watching Shatner in films and shows as his iconic “Star Trek” character Captain Kirk. “Never in a million years would I have imagined that, first of all, William Shatner was a real person I could actually see in real life, and second of all that I would be performing alongside him,” she said. Cloud cover at the time of the eclipse is expected to be minimal, so stadium showgoers are expecting a clear view of the total eclipse at 3:04 p.m. Noon at the IU tailgate fields
Ronnie Cortopassi takes his perch at the entrance of Lot 114 in front of the IU Tennis Center, sporting a yellow vest while a travel bag sits at his feet. Cortopassi was told to expect between 25,000 to 30,000 people. He arrived at Memorial Stadium at 5:30 a.m. and moved to his spot at 7 a.m., but for an hour and a half, he watched cars come and go — down North Fee Lane, not into his parking lot. By late morning, there were only a handful of cars in the lot, which is directly behind Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and across from Memorial Stadium. To pass the time, Cortopassi played games on his phone — “Royal Match” and slot machines — and talked with his gate partner about cruises. Cortopassi and his wife, Nancy, are two weeks removed from a cruise to Jamaica. He opens his phone, which is already on the charger, and shows a countdown clock for a date 167 days away, marking he and Nancy’s next cruise. It’ll be their 15th together. The free meals. The specialty restaurants. The chance to unwind. In this moment, his mind is on the ocean — and not the near-vacant lot that sits behind him. “It was supposed to be extremely busy,” Cortopassi said. “That’s what I thought.” Alex Feldman and his family thought the same. They arrived at 9:30 a.m., setting up shop in the southeast corner of Lot 114. As the speakers blared from tests at Memorial Stadium, the lot sat quietly — except for Feldman and the family friends alongside. Given more space than initially expected, they set up a four-square board, rotating in and out. SEE ECLIPSE, PAGE 2
ALAYNA WILKENING | IDS (TOP) People look up at the sky through solar eclipse viewers. The special solar filters were passed out to filter out harmful levels of sunlight, ultraviolet radiation and infrared radiation that can harm people’s eyes. HALEY RYAN | IDS (RIGHT) A girl looks into a Unistellar telescope at Dunn Meadow on April 8, 2024. During the solar eclipse, viewers are advised to not look directly into the sun without a special solar filter. HALEY RYAN | IDS (LEFT) A family looks at the sun through eclipse glasses April 8, 2024, at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington. Bloomington witnessed more than four minutes of totality.
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