Indiana Daily Student eEdition - Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

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‘He walked in a room, and it was like sunshine’: Remembering Michael Gray

Former IDS student media director sues IU

By Jack Forrest jhforres@iu.edu | @jackhforrest

Former Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush is suing Indiana University, alleging it violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Rodenbush was fired by Media School Dean David Tolchinsky on Oct. 14 after he refused administrators’ orders to interfere in the Indiana Daily Student’s content by restricting the Oct. 16 paper to just Homecoming content. Hours later, Tolchinsky cut the print edition entirely — a move IU Bloomington Chancellor David Reingold walked back Oct. 30 in a letter to IDS editors.

The complaint alleges Rodenbush’s termination violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process by not providing him any notice or opportunity to be heard, as well as article one, section nine of the Indiana Constitution dealing with freedom of speech. The complaint seeks judgment that IU violated the law by attempting to direct the content of the IDS paper, later cutting the print edition and firing Rodenbush.

An IU spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Rodenbush is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, for IU to restore his position and for the university to clear his disciplinary action record.

The complaint states in the months before Rodenbush’s termination, Media School Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Galen Clavio told him ad-

Jim Rodenbush sued IU after the university terminated him and cut print

“James Rodenbush was fired because he refused to toe the party line, and because he refused to force the student journalists he supervised to kowtow to the edicts of the Governor Braun installed University Trustees.”

Complaint filed on behalf of Jim Rodenbush

ministrators had expressed frustration at news appearing in the special publications. The Media School’s IU student media action plan, released Oct. 8, 2024, outlined a reduction in the weekly print newspaper to less frequent special editions during the academic year. Before the reduction, special publications had

been included as themed inserts inside the weekly paper on subjects like Homecoming or Little 500. After the reduction took effect, the IDS continued including special publications as part of a larger paper covering news.

At a Sept. 25 meeting, the complaint alleges, Clavio asked Rodenbush why there was still news in

the paper. Rodenbush said in the meeting that the directive to restrict news from the paper was the “definition of censorship” and in violation of the Student Media Charter that guarantees the IDS editors’ editorial independence. Rodenbush later met with Media School Dean David Tolchinsky on Oct. 9 to discuss a formal griev-

Possible zoning changes in Hopewell development

ance, the complaint states. He told Tolchinsky The Media School’s order violated the First Amendment. Tolchinsky said if Rodenbush would not act as a publisher who could determine content, student media would need to be reevaluated.

In an Oct. 7 email to IDS Co-Editors-in-Chief Mia Hilkowitz and Andrew Miller, Rodenbush relayed

the Media School directive, writing the paper should include “nothing but information about homecoming — no other news at all, and particularly no traditional front page news coverage.” Rodenbush refused to enforce the directive and was fired two days before the Oct. 16 publication date.

Hilkowitz and Miller decried the moves as censorship in two letters from the editors. Reingold, in a statement Oct. 15, said the decision dealt with the method of distribution, not editorial content. An attorney representing the co-editorsin-chief sent a letter to IU and Media School administrators Oct. 20 demanding they reverse course. Following Rodenbush’s termination and the print cut, Tolchinsky announced plans for a task force Oct. 20 that will make recommendations on ensuring the editorial independence and financial sustainability of IU student media. Rodenbush’s complaint also connects his firing to other recent state and university actions, including Gov. Mike Braun’s removal and subsequent replacement of three elected IU trustees in June and IU’s third-to-last spot in the latest Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression college free speech rankings released Sept. 9. “James Rodenbush was fired because he refused to toe the party line, and because he refused to force the student journalists he supervised to kowtow to the edicts of the Governor Braun-installed University Trustees,” the complaint reads.

By Grace Fridy

gfridy@iu.edu

It’s been about five years since Bloomington released its plan for the Hopewell development. The city is now looking at June next year to break ground.

But to do that, the city may need zoning changes. It’s considering some that would increase how many homes could be built in the Hopewell South development.

At an Oct. 21 kickoff event, Alli Thurmond Quinlan, the founder of the building consulting firm Flintlock LAB approved in June to work on the project, presented three proposals for the development to the public. The plans varied by average home value and what code changes would be necessary. Some would require a Planned Unit Development, a zoning district meant to create mixed-use neighborhood designs.

While PUDs can allow for flexibility in zoning codes — and sometimes allow for more units to be built on a piece of land than standard zoning — some city councilmembers see them as bad practice.

City councilmember Kate Rosenbarger said the city should move away from using the zoning type, referring to PUDs as “bad planning and zoning practices.” She said the zoning code should be improved city-wide.

The Bloomington Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2018 and last updated in June 2024, outlines land use policies and investment goals for the city through 2040. The current Unified Development Ordinance, which first went into effect in April 2020, governs the city’s land use and developments.

The zoning changes Quinlan proposed, such as allowing buildings to face alleys or splitting property lots, would be included in the development’s PUD, rather than integrated into citywide code.

Flaherty said the widespread use of PUDs in Bloomington has circumvented zoning practices and not served communities, but that updates to zoning codes in recent years have limited when PUDs could be considered.

“Specifically with the Hopewell neighborhood, a PUD seems quite strange, since we recently zoned the entire footprint precisely in line with the Comprehensive Plan and city policy aims,” Flaherty said.

Proposals for Hopewell

The three proposals for the Hopewell development included:

• Concept Plan A: 118 homes, average home value of $290,000, PUD needed

Concept Plan B: 84 homes, average home value of $315,000, PUD needed

• Concept Plan C: 28 homes, average home value of $425,000, no PUD needed

“With the PUD changes we are proposing we could create up to 118 homes,” Anna Killion-Hanson, director of the city Housing and Neighborhood Development department, said. “This is a wonderful example of how difficult and limiting our UDO can be to create new homes.”

At the kickoff event, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson said she hopes plans for a Hopewell PUD could serve as a “living laboratory” so that the city’s UDO could be changed over time.

Construction for the Hopewell development continues near the

intersection of West Second Street and South Rogers Street on Oct. 25, 2025, in Bloomington. It’s been about five years since Bloomington released its plan for the Hopewell development.

The city last updated the UDO in July.

In March, the Bloomington City Council failed to introduce two resolutions that would have begun the process to amend the city’s UDO. Rosenbarger sponsored one of these resolutions, which would have added amendments to allow for denser housing in residential zones.

Councilmembers and the mayor were divided on how to approach UDO amendments. Thomson felt that amendments should come from the administration, specifically housing and planning departments.

Additionally, Thomson said she learned about the resolutions a few days before the meeting at the same time the public did. However, Rosenbarger and Flaherty said they had been communicating with the mayor’s office for over a year.

The councilmembers who voted against introducing the resolutions cited the time between when the resolutions were added to the docket and voting as an issue.

“We should be changing our Unified Development Ordinance (UDO - our zon-

ing code) to allow for best practices throughout our city, not just in a few city blocks,” Rosenbarger said in an email. “We need alley frontage everywhere, we need smaller lot sizes everywhere.”

PUD proposals for the Hopewell development must be approved by the Plan Commission, the decision-making body for PUDs. The commission, which is also the city’s land use and development policy body, also advises the city council on UDO changes.

“The widespread use of PUDs to circumvent zoning for many years in Bloomington led to a largely unmanageable system of patchwork zoning that typically has not served the community well,” Flaherty said. “In short, heavy reliance on PUDs is widely recognized as bad urban planning policy.”

Before a PUD can be approved for Hopewell South, the site must meet PUD requirements in the UDO. The next steps, Stosberg said, would include the administration deciding when to present a proposal to the Plan Commission so it can make a recommendation to the council about the PUD.

Sycamore Land Trust restores 2 wetlands

By Ella Curlin elcurlin@iu.edu

Sycamore Land Trust announced Oct. 24 it restored two wetlands near its Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve about 10 miles north of Bloomington.

The restored areas will promote biodiversity and improve water quality, Tom Swinford, Sycamore Land Trust land preservation director, said.

The organization restores and protects nature across southern Indiana. It oversees 146 properties totaling 11,727 acres of land, where it facilitates habitat restoration, invasive plant removal and land stewardship.

Wetlands, or marshy habitats that form in frequently flooded areas, provide habitats for migratory birds and aquatic animals. Wetlands also control flooding, restore groundwater reserves and improve water quality by slowing the flow of water and allowing pollutants to settle in the soil.

Landowners or developers often remove wetlands to make room for construction or agriculture, and wetland habitats are rapidly shrinking across the U.S. Indiana has lost 85% of its wetlands in the last 200 years, according to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Wetlands connected to rivers and lakes are protected under the Clean Water Act. But in 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that wetlands not directly connected to above-ground bodies of water didn’t qualify for protection. In 2024,

Indiana’s state legislature followed suit with a bill reducing the kinds of wetlands under full state protection. Those decisions removed protections for wetlands without direct links to bodies of water, including habitats formed by groundwater, rainfall or snowfall. Christopher Craft, a former IU professor and an expert on wetland habitats and restoration, said without legal protection, Indiana’s “isolated wetlands” are often removed to make room for corn and soybean crops.

Sycamore Land Trust’s new wetland habitats sit on the Oliver Preserve and the Dan Efroymson Preserve, part of its Sam Shine Foundation Preserve complex, near the Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve. The Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve stretches across 824 acres of marshes and swampland along the floodplains of the White River. The area is home to bald eagles and several other endangered species. It has earned multiple recognitions from national environmental agencies or organizations for its importance to local biodiversity. Before Sycamore Land Trust acquired its Oliver Preserve and Sam Shine Foundation Preserve complex, Swinford said parts of the land were used for agriculture, including growing corn and raising cattle. People dug ditches to funnel water toward the creek, preventing it from pooling and creating a wetland.

SEE WETLANDS, PAGE 4

Future unclear for IU’s Hungarian and Estonian programs

By Jonathan Frey

jonafrey@iu.edu | @ByJonathanFrey

Three students conversed in Estonian under fluorescent lights Oct. 27 in IU’s Global and International Studies Building. A fourth student from the University of Arkansas tuned in via Zoom.

Long-distance students frequently attend classes virtually in IU’s rare language departments solely because IU is one of the only universities to provide them.

Senior lecturer and Estonia native Piibi-Kai Kivik guided her students through a conversation about Halloween words and traditions in the Estonian language. Though the class is titled Intermediate Estonian, Kivik taught nearly exclusively in the language. The class nodded along in understanding as she spoke, even if they didn’t yet have the tools to respond in kind.

Kivik, who wrote her doctoral thesis on second-language conversations, navigates her classes through dialogue exercises. Though memorization is important to learning any language, her students learn through experience and immersion.

“I think conversation is a primal mode of interaction, but also learning,” Kivik said, “And I believe very strongly in sort of contextualized learning of language.”

The future remains unclear for instructors like Kivik who teach less-taught languages. Though the languages fall under the Central Eurasian Studies umbrella, there has been further discussion of consolidating language programs.

IU included CEUS as one of many programs to be taught out toward elimination or consolidated to comply with House Enrolled Act 1001 earlier this year. The bill called for any undergraduate programs in public universities with less than 15 graduates per year, or graduate programs with less than 10, to be eliminated or merged.

Down the hall from Kivik, seven more students — one on call from Chicago, another in Los Angeles — chuck-

“I’m kind of scared, because this program is everything for me, but now I try to be positive a little bit, because number one, I feel that the School of Global and International School cares about us. It became very obvious that they don’t want to get rid of us. And when I feel that, I’m open to changes.”

Piibi-Kai Kivik, senior lecturer and Estonia native

led. Senior lecturer Valeria Varga had just translated the words for “Breast Day Ever” into Hungarian after senior Bianca Temesvary brought up her sorority’s fundraiser for breast cancer awareness.

Later, the class shifted focus to discussing Harmonia Caelestis, a series of classical Hungarian compositions from the 18th century. The topic wasn’t part of the syllabus; a student who studies classical music brought it to class. Varga wants her students to learn how to talk about what they’re interested in, not just what’s in the textbook.

Both classes are tightknit and the students familiar with each other and their instructor, all seeking greater mastery of a rare language.

Only about 16 million people across the world speak Hungarian or Estonian fluently. They both belong to a small language family usually referred to as the Finno-Ugric or Uralic group. Outside of Estonian and Hungarian, Uralic languages are only natively spoken in Finland, the far north of Sweden and Norway and various communities across Siberia in Russia.

Uralic languages are written with Latin characters, but their pronunciation and grammar structures are nearly alien to English speakers. Vowel sounds like ö and ü don’t exist commonly in Romantic languages like English or Spanish; Estonian and Hungarian speakers use different mouth shapes and tongue placements than most students are accustomed to.

The grammar structures, especially in Hungarian, can also be confusing to non-speakers. Hungarian phrases use suffixes to denote tense, mood, place and

other defining factors of a sentence, a process known as agglutination.

Varga and her teaching assistant, fellow Hungarian Henriett Papp, laughed as they brought up the most extreme example — the longest word in the Hungarian dictionary, “megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért.” It translates roughly to English as, “for your multiple continuous unholy deeds,” and is almost never used in regular conversation, but serves to exemplify the agglutinative process. Everything after “szent,” meaning “saint” or “holy,” is used to modify or add to the word.

“Every Hungarian knows that without stopping,” Varga said. “Am I right, Henny? Let’s do it again.” The two recited the colossal word in unison three times in a row.

Of the students in Estonian and Hungarian classes Oct. 27, the majority came or transferred to IU at least in part due to its impressive and obscure language offerings.

Ryan McCrea, a 23-yearold graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in the Russian and Eastern European Institute, originally transferred to IU from Texas Tech University due to its robust Russian language program. He was swayed by a mini lesson taught by Kivik at the Language Fest in September.

“I thought, okay, if I’m going to go work in the federal government or something, which is the normal career path after getting just an MA, I’m like, okay, I probably might want an adjacent language, something that’s Eastern European,” he said. “So I’m like, Estonian’s close, right? No. Not even close.”

And it’s not all business for some language learners. REEI doctoral student Brittany Janosi was pleasantly surprised to learn about the Hungarian program after she transferred from the University of Connecticut. Most of her family is Hungarian, she said, and learning the language brought her closer to home.

“I decided to pursue that because I’ve always wanted to formally learn the language,” she said. “I only grew up speaking it. I never learned how to read or write it.”

IU also boasts the Summer Language Workshops program, an eight-week intensive course dedicated to achieving basic proficiency in a language. McCrea said IU is known among academics as a top school for language learning in large part due to the summer programs. Estonian and Hungarian were offered last summer and will be two of the 25 languages offered in 2026.

Despite its reputation, IU has put several small languages on the chopping block in response to the state legislation. In addition to CEUS, many programs containing smaller languages like India Studies and Middle Eastern Languages and Culture are on the teach out toward elimination list.

“We’re very much struggling with the idea that the university both wants to offer the less commonly taught small languages and also puts pressure on individual instructors and the departments to show unrealistic enrollment numbers,” Kivik said.

But some faculty, like Varga, remain cautiously optimistic about the future of her program.

“I’m kind of scared because this program is everything for me,” she said. “But now I try to be positive a little bit because number one, I feel that the School of Global and International School cares about us. It became very obvious that they don’t want to get rid of us. And when I feel that, I’m open to changes.”

Interactive learning makes science accessible at IU’s annual Science Fest

By Natalie Chan nkchan@iu.edu

Students from various science departments prepared hands-on and familyfriendly activities including slime-making and virtual reality scuba diving at Indiana University’s 12th annual Science Fest on Nov. 1.

In a message addressing Science Fest’s return, Rick Van Kooten, the executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the festival’s purpose was to give the community an opportunity to experiment with different scientific fields.

Students across all grade levels at IU gathered to showcase their areas of expertise through booths with interactive labs and games.

Sam Jacobo, a third-year graduate student studying organic chemistry, helped organize the booth “Chemistry Quest: Revealing the Unseen.” There, visitors learned how to extract various shades of chlorophyll from leaves by using a mortar and pestle. The pigments were then visualized on strips of paper and developed with an alcohol solution to capture the color of the leaf.

Jacobo said he wanted to demonstrate the practicality of chemistry, noting that he was particularly drawn to organic chemistry because its theoretical concepts are universally applicable to everyday objects.

Other students presenting at Science Fest focused on the intricacies of objects seemingly unrelated to science. An overarching theme among students was a desire to make science accessible to the public.

Kingsley Bortey, a fourthyear doctoral chemistry student, described the science behind slime-making in his booth. He explained that slime is created when polymer chains in glue form bonds by interacting with borate ions from Borax, a household cleaning agent.

“Sometimes people hear about polymer and may think that that is something abstract, but Science Fest gives them the opportunity to see it experimentally,” Bortey said. “The beauty of it is to demonstrate to those who are curious.”

Morgan Familo, a fifthyear doctoral student studying evolution, ecology and behavioral studies, was motivated to volunteer at her booth for similar reasons.

“Outreach is kind of the reason we do science; if we do all of the science and we don’t try to share it with others and make it accessible to everyone, what’s the plan?” Familo said.

In IU senior and research assistant Josey Mentzer’s case, bringing exposure to the underwater sciences program was a priority. Mentzer stressed the importance of Indiana’s maritime archaeology and underwater heritage despite the state being landlocked.

Mentzer’s booth had a virtual reality headset simulating an underwater scuba dive, which brought attention to IU’s expansive resources. The university offers students access to scuba diving courses for introductory exploration and advanced certification programs for research.

Festivalgoers — whether recurring or first-time at-

tendees — highlighted the success of these students’ initiatives for community outreach. Some said the diverse range of STEM activities provided visitors with freedom to explore science at their leisure.

Alexis Roberts, a thirdtime attendee, decided to celebrate her 10th birthday at the Science Fest, inspired by the uniqueness of each of her visits.

“Every time that we enter, they always have some, like, cool stuff that we get to do,” Roberts said.

She particularly enjoyed the chemistry section of the festival, called the “Reaction Pathway,” for its interactivity.

“My favorite part about that was probably the sugar part where we got to tastetest two different types of sugar,” Roberts said.

The booth she attended used the taste-testing to showcase carbohydrates as key nutrients for the body.

Danika Roberts, who was attending the festival alongside her sister Alexis, said she enjoyed booths that blended creativity and chemistry, particularly the henna lab hosted by Hoosier Henna. She said she liked how Science Fest catered to people of all ages.

“My favorite part is the henna because everybody’s really nice, and they are really good at what they do,” Danika Roberts said. “We got to look through books and see like, different designs and what they meant, and that was really fun.”

Eli Bennett, a freshman at Louisville Male High School in Louisville, Kentucky, said he wanted to attend Science

Weekly astronomy nights at Kirkwood Observatory

By Natalie Chan nkchan@iu.edu

Every Wednesday night as the sky grows dark, the Kirkwood Observatory opens its doors to the public. Available from the end of spring break to the beginning of Thanksgiving break each year, the observatory provides an opportunity for visitors to stargaze in Dunn’s Woods. The facility was built in 1900 and posthumously dedicated to Daniel Kirkwood, a mathematics professor at Indiana University, in 1901. He is best known for discovering Kirkwood gaps, which are sparse regions within the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.

Although the observatory was formerly used for research, it is now used for outreach and instructional programs. Visitors can climb a flight of stairs to the observatory’s second floor, which holds a 12-inch refracting telescope for public viewing.

Caty Pilachowski, a professor in IU’s astronomy department, said the refracting telescope comprises two 12-inch lenses of different types of glass separated by the thickness of a postage stamp, which help visualize celestial bodies.

“When you have a glass lens, different colors focus slightly in different positions,” Pilachowski said. “But if you use two different kinds of glass and put them together to make a doublet lens, so two lenses together, then you can correct for that change in what’s called the change in refraction.”

Fest because it sounded like an interesting experience. He especially enjoyed the physics area of the festival, where he attended booths involving the mechanics of acoustics and sound waves.

“This would be very helpful for young people that want to learn to pursue these kinds of things,” Bennett said.

In addition to providing education and community engagement, faculty overseeing Science Fest highlighted the acquisition of funding behind the science and research at IU. The university suspended more than 100 academic programs to comply with state budgeting laws this year. Programs within the College of Arts and Sciences, such as atmospheric science, were amongst those impacted.

Despite these cuts, faculty continue to advance research and learning by earning grants from the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office and the federal government.

Alex Georgescu, assistant professor of chemistry, said he wanted to emphasize the $1.8 million federal grant awarded to IU researchers who developed small-molecule, ionic isolation lattices (SMILES), the brightest fluorescent material. SMILES made an appearance at the booth “Fun with Fluorescence,” which Georgescu oversaw.

“I just want them to know more about the different branches of science that we do here at IU, and you know the funding we get and so on, and how it’s important to keep our research going,” Georgescu said.

According to Pilachowski, this mechanism improves the color response of the telescope and helps light focus at the bottom end of the telescope, which has an eyepiece that provides magnification for viewing planets and binary stars.

“One of the favorite targets for everybody is the moon,” Pilachowski said. “Bloomington city lights are so bright that it’s difficult to see a lot of the faint nebulae there and galaxies that we would love to be able to show the public. So, we’re pretty much stuck with planets and binary stars and the moon, but it’s still fun to look at.”

The observatory also contains a solar lab equipped with a solar telescope and Hydrogen-alpha camera, which are open to the public and used for academic instruction. The Hydrogen-alpha camera displays the outer layers of the sun’s atmosphere, Pilachowski said.

The observatory’s enduring presence has made it a cornerstone for exploratory astronomy in the Bloomington community.

“We get grandparents who come to the observatory and bring their grandchildren, and they tell us that when they were little, their grandparents brought them to the observatory,” Pilachowski said.

“We have a long, long history and just deep roots in the Bloomington community. We’re proud of the observatory. We’re proud that we can continue to share it with the public and we take the best care of it we can.”

The observatory’s proximity to Kirkwood Avenue, a hotspot for IU students,

helps attract people outside of the astronomy department. Aida Melgarejo, a Spanish linguistics student, said she came across the observatory on the way to her next class and promised herself that she would visit later.

Melgarejo was traveling with her friend Clara Herrero, a first-year doctoral candidate.

“We were just walking by, and we saw the lights, and we suddenly wanted to get inside, you know, so that’s why we came today,” Herrero said.

Despite having limited experience in astronomy, both Herrero and Melgarejo said that they found the observatory interesting.

“I think it’s a worthwhile experience for every Wednesday,” Melgarejo said. “I have never had something like that.”

Third-year doctoral candidate Anika Goel said she began volunteering at the observatory as a requirement for her graduate program, but she keeps going back because she enjoys talking to others about astronomy and answering their questions.

“It often makes me think about our field in a different light because the questions we ask in scientific fields (are) different than the questions that the public asks,” Goel said.

While astronomy is increasingly accessible as technology continues to develop, Goel said she believes the observatory provides a unique experience.

“I think a lot of people nowadays have access to advanced telescopes in their backyard that they can buy and look at all of these objects in the night sky, maybe with much better resolution than Kirkwood,” Goel said. “But this is how astronomy started, and this observatory connects us with our history in a way that your new telescopes don’t.”

Robbie Mailliard, a senior studying astronomy and astrophysics, said he believes the observatory is a good place for introducing astronomy to the community. He spends his time in the solar lab, where he can study the sun, eclipses and space weather.

“We actually get a very good mix of locals, people coming from out of town and students coming all together,” Mailliard said. “And I do think we have nights where it’s really slow, we have nights where it’s really busy. We kind of like the ebb and flow of the busy-ness.”

According to the IU Department of Astronomy, the observatory’s solar lab will be open from 1-3 p.m. Nov. 8 and Nov. 15 to view sunspots, dark spots on the sun’s surface caused by intense magnetic fields. Pilachowski said the lab’s Hydrogen-alpha camera will allow visitors to see solar prominences which are eruptive clouds of plasma formed by magnetic fields; prominences appear as bright-red loops protruding from the sun. Public viewings will continue every Wednesday until Nov. 19 and will resume after spring break. Due to varying weather conditions and the end of daylight-saving time, the opening timetable will be adjusted accordingly on the observatory’s website.

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To restore the wetland habitat, Sycamore Land Trust filled in the ditches and hired contractors to dig out a shallow basin. The land stewardship team planted all 10,000 trees by hand with help from a tractor borrowed from The Nature Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit.

By removing some of the soil used for agriculture, Swinford said they decreased the elevation of the area, allowing groundwater to drain into the basin.

They planted native trees suited to the wetland habitat, including oaks and sycamores, around the wetland at Oliver Preserve.

Land Stewardship Assistant Gabriel Wahl and Sycamore Land Trust’s land stewardship team used a specialized drill called an auger to lay out grids of holes 2-3 inches deep on the dug-up land. Then they planted 2,200 “plugs,” or tiny seedlings grown in small balls of dirt.

The seedlings were native plants suited for marshy habitats, like rushes or sedges.

Over the next few years, as rain starts to saturate the wetland, Swinford said those plants and trees should grow and spread across the area.

“You know, the thing they say about tree plant-

ings, of course, is ‘first year they sleep, second year they creep along, then the third they will leap,’” Swinford said. “Everybody likes that.”

Earlier this year, Wahl left the U.S. Navy to pursue his master’s degree in environmental policy and natural resource management at IU. He said he’s always wanted to work in nature, and helping to restore the wetland at the Oliver Preserve felt like the fulfillment of that dream.

“Constructing wetlands that are going to benefit the local area for us, like, humans, but also the biodiversity of wildlife and vegetation, and seeing that kind of in-real-time change, is

something really, that is really impactful on me,” Wahl said.

Wahl said he also looks forward to seeing the wetlands develop into habitats that promote biodiversity.

In 2022 and 2023, Sycamore Land Trust completed two different wetland restoration projects at its Sam Shine Foundation Preserve complex. The area has attracted river otters, migratory birds, beavers and endangered Kirtland’s snakes.

Swinford said restoring the wetlands around Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve should increase habitat for a host of animals, from snakes and turtles to

bald eagles, and provide an area for endangered bats that live nearby to forage.

“There's going to be all kinds of animals coming

IU students concerned about safety at crosswalks

The City of Bloomington implemented new safety features at 17th Street and Eagleson Avenue

By Sofía Rodríguez sr73@iu.edu

Two Indiana University students were struck by a car Oct. 18 at the crosswalk at 17th Street and Eagleson Avenue, leading to injuries that sent them both to the hospital.

In the days following, the City of Bloomington’s Public Works Department installed new pedestrian crossing signage to “boost visibility and calm traffic while larger design changes are being evaluated,” Desiree DeMolina, the city’s communications director, said in a statement.

The design changes will align with the Safe Streets for All Plan, which describes the city’s approach to road safety and outlines data collected from injuries, crashes

and feedback from the community.

While the city and IU continue to try to make roads safer, some IU students still feel unsafe crossing roads on campus.

“I would say by Greek row is where I feel most unsafe, I think because people do go faster,” sophomore Sophia Revesz said.

The Oct. 18 crash occurred near the fraternity and sorority houses on Eagleson Avenue, a spot that has been the site of multiple crashes. In November 2024, two IU students and two other pedestrians were hit by a car and sustained injuries.

In response to the crash last month, IU senior Hannah Kajor started a petition to improve the safety at that crosswalk, mentioning

the lack of lighting and stop signs.

“Implementing a well-lit environment, accompanied by clear traffic control measures such as a stoplight or stop sign, is essential to prevent potential accidents,” the petition stated.

The petition has more than 7,900 signatures as of Nov. 3 and was recognized by Bloomington City Council President Hopi Stosberg.

“I have previously identified this intersection as a safety concern,” Stosberg said in a comment on the petition website. “This intersection has been prioritized by the Planning & Transportation and Engineering departments as part of the Crosswalk Improvement Plan as a Phase 3 project.”

For drivers, as well as

students, crosswalks can be dangerous.

“People just cross without looking, so you just have to make sure people aren’t going when you’re driving,” freshman Mason McConney said. “Even if it’s not just walking, safety-wise, when you’re driving around these intersections, especially the one by Wright and Wells, it’s tough sometimes.”

Revesz said the 10th Street and Fee Lane crosswalk is safer due to its electronic pedestrian signals, unlike the crosswalk at 17th Street and Eagleson Avenue.

“The one outside of McNutt, where the bus stop is at Foster, is unsafe because the cars don’t stop; they just keep coming,” freshman Evan Bell said. According to crash data

from the City of Bloomington, 329 pedestrians and 219 bicyclists were involved in crashes from 2019-24.

East and West Third streets and South Walnut Street were listed as the top three high-frequency streets for pedestrian crashes, according to the crash data from the city.

“I feel like IU could put speed bumps in front of them to make them safer,” Bell said. While some students said IU could add more safety measures, others said they feel the areas are safe enough.

DeMolina said the city owns 17th Street while IU owns Eagleson Avenue. The two entities were scheduled to meet the week of Oct. 26 to coordinate improvements for the crosswalk before the crash occurred.

The city did not respond to a request for comment about the outcome of that meeting by time of publication.

“We always welcome community feedback to make our city safer,” DeMolina said. “Many of the changes people want to see—like improved crosswalk visibility, signal timing, and trafficcalming—are already part of this coordinated, long-term strategy.”

“I wouldn’t ever say unsafe, but I do think some of the intersections could definitely be put together better,” McConney said. McConney suggested adding more lighting on the streets and sidewalks at night because it can be difficult to see pedestrians.

GUEST COLUMN: A letter from former journalism faculty members

By Jessica Gall Myrick and Danielle Brown

The mid-October news that Indiana University abruptly fired the Indiana Daily Student newspaper adviser and subsequently canceled its print Homecoming edition sparked a familiar feeling of disappointment and dread within us as former faculty members in the IU Media School. These actions by administrators were a stark betrayal of the principles journalism education should embody: factseeking, providing context and encouraging dialogue.

What happened to the IDS is not an isolated incident; it is part of a pattern, a shift away from the foundational principles of journalism and journalism education that can be seen at many universities across the United States. Even as IU has now reversed course to allow the IDS to print again, Chancellor David Reingold denies any censorship occurred and points to yet another task force as the best way forward. These words fall short as even a first step toward rebuilding trust and a revitalization of the principles upon which journalism schools typically strive to operate.

What the journalism faculty and students at IU have experienced is a window into the future of journalism education beyond Bloomington, one of reduced faculty governance and not just unchecked, but uncheckable administrative power. The current IU journalism faculty has weathered more than a decade of disruptions to the journalism school model. We, for a shorter amount of time, weathered them, too, but ultimately sought shelter elsewhere.

There were warning signs. Red flags indicating a shift away from a commitment to the principles of journalism at Indiana began years ago. The IU School of Journalism, which once stood independent in Ernie Pyle Hall, was restructured as a unit of journalism within the newly created Media School in 2014. With the move from school to unit, a tangible shift in autonomy and resource accessibility followed. First came restricted resources, then several other inequities. Then came the fleeing of faculty, primarily women and people whose work focused on the intersection of media and social justice. Then came even more turnover in management and a void in true leadership.

Then came corporatetinged administrative arguments about journalism’s contribution to college budget deficits — a chord we imagine resonates with J-school faculties across the United States. IU administrators argue financial constraints forced them to cut off the publication of an IDS issue days before it was slated to run, chock-full of paid advertisements. As Interim Journalism Unit Head Suzannah Evans Comfort pointed out in an interview, the operational deficit claims do not take into account the other ways in which student media enrich the campus. The awardwinning student publications help recruit top high school journalists to spend their tuition dollars at IU. The student journalists go on to report at some of the top news agencies in the country. Alumni later donate back to IU and to the program, helping sustain scholarship, innovation in the field and the overhead costs associated with being a unit in the university system. Studentled media coverage provides a sense of community and identity across the entire student body — a service that is impossible to type into a spreadsheet.

Importantly, not every unit within an educational institution will always be profitable. That’s why the university is not a for-profit corporation (and why partners, like Mark Cuban, have time and again donated to support causes like studentled media).

Without independent student media that can effectively sell advertising, there is an imminent risk for further deficit. A collection

of IU press releases will not be read online or in print as often as a product with interesting, enterprising and independent news would be. And advertisers are less keen to pay for something that is less viewed. That’s not just a challenge for IU. In this era, journalism schools around the country are facing similar dilemmas.

While there are no definitive answers to the best financial model for student media or for journalism programs at large, the silver lining of this crisis is the opportunity to reimagine how the essential principles of journalism — commitments to truth-seeking, diversity of viewpoints, fostering dialogue, monitoring the powerful — can be reimagined to better fit a political moment where verified content created by people devoted to the truth is as vital as ever.

While the principles are longstanding, the path to revitalizing journalism education is not backward. Nostalgia for the days of Ernie Pyle will not save us. We recognize that many journalism schools and their associated student publications harbor fond memories of late nights, hard work and meaningful change brought about by their reporting. What those who are upset about the recent situation at the IU Media School may not realize, though, is that their longing for “golden days” of the IDS, unencumbered by modern financial realities, was not a bastion for all.

Exclusion in J-schools often mirrors and is intertwined with the exclusion we see in the industry. Sexism, racism, classism and ableism have long structured the demographic representation

of both spaces — even during eras with multifaceted efforts to diversify faculty ranks and create more inclusive environments. As former journalists, some of the challenges we faced in the newsroom reappeared in academia in recognizable ways that affected the student experience. For both of us, the biases of caretaking and motherhood affected the opportunities we were afforded. In academia, our identities structured the perceptions of our commitment to our work, the mentorship we received and the classes we were (or were not) encouraged to teach. Our experiences were also shaped by internal critiques that our research and teaching agendas were not serious enough. Our drive for media research, in particular, to have an impact beyond the ivory tower did not align well with the reward system of traditional academia that held sway during our time at IU. Those in administration who held “views from nowhere” used their power to minimize identity-conscious work and belittle the battles to defend vulnerable students (undergraduate and graduate). And those are just our experiences — many like us have similar stories. Each experience resulted in the loss of the invaluable currency of time, resources and social capital for faculty and students.

While it may not be a focus of much of the discussion around free speech and censorship this fall, we want to point out that media research that better describes the realities of our multicultural society is an important benefit to journalism stu-

dents who attend schools like Indiana. Having faculty who teach journalism students not only how to report but also why their reporting affects society is a key part of reimagining journalism education for the present moment. A system that drives away faculty who conduct that kind of research does not help student journalists learn the broader psychological and societal implications of their craft or to become the fully-informed, critical thinkers that we need in newsrooms across the country.

The path forward for journalism education should start by addressing the inequities that strain the profession and the academy still today. This process can start by incorporating bold recommitments to truth-seeking, diversity of viewpoints, fostering dialogue and monitoring the powerful without feeling beholden to doing it within the traditional power structures and confines of an outdated model of academia and student media. That is, we caution against doubling down on the past as a bastion of free speech. Nostalgia for the days of traditional media and the days of abundant funding will not be able to overcome some of the systemic, nuanced issues currently impeding journalism education and student media.

Despite our concerns, we retain a spark of hope for the future. One of the biggest barriers to progress is silence — silence from administrators, silence from colleagues, silence from others who don’t want to lose social capital, silence in the form of avoiding conflict and confrontation, silence

IU must do more to hold fraternities accountable

from using delay tactics to quiet vocal alumni who get (reasonably) distracted as the months go by. Students at IU, though, should be encouraged; your faculty have courage. During our independent journeys at IU while dealing with administrators, other vocal faculty were our lifelines. Tiny tips toward justice occurred both during and after our departures. And, now, we are witnessing an IU journalism faculty, as well as the expanded Media School faculty, more united than ever in their voice and capacity to act. These faculty members are working diligently to support their distressed students, try to find answers and connect with concerned constituencies. This collective allyship is long overdue and is encouraging to witness. Their work now is a lesson for us all. Our voices are vital for rallying a critical mass of people who care about freedom of speech and journalism education. As administrators maintain they must wait for the next task force to complete its work, it is up to all of us to keep free speech and inclusive journalism education in the news. There were times in the past that collective action might have helped change the trajectory of journalism education and scholarship at Indiana (and elsewhere). The fight has begun, and we commend the faculty and students pressing their administrators to do the right thing and rebuild trust at IU. However, for the rest of us who care about IU and the broader system of journalism education in this country, now is not the time to sit back and wait for old patterns to repeat. It’s time to keep talking and start building something new.

Jessica Gall Myrick, PhD, received her Master of Arts in journalism from the former IU School of Journalism in 2007. She also wrote (briefly) for the IDS during her time as an IU student. From 2013 to 2017, she was on the faculty, first of the IU School of Journalism and then at the IU Media School. She is now a Senior Clinical Scientist at Cook Medical. Danielle Brown, PhD, served on the faculty of the IU Media School’s Journalism Unit from 2017 to 2020. During that time, she served as an advisor for the school’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). She is now the 1855 Community & Urban Journalism Professor at Michigan State University.

Ainsley Foster (she/her) is a senior studying elementary education.

Editor’s note: This story includes mention of sexual violence or assault.

When Jeanne Clery was looking to attend college in fall 1985, there were no statistics about crimes on university campuses. She decided on Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A few days after Jeanne returned from spring break in 1986, the 19-year-old freshman was asleep in her room when a sophomore student, who did not live in the building, entered her dorm through a series of three doors that had been propped open by pizza boxes. Whatever you’re imagining happened next, it’s worse. It was only after Jeanne’s rape and murder that her family learned there had been 38 violent crimes, including rapes, robberies and assaults, on the Lehigh campus in the three years prior to her death. The family then sued Lehigh for $25 million, alleging university officials “knew of the escalating crime rate and knew the dorm doors were being propped open but didn’t take action.” The family and the university settled for a private amount.

In response, Congress passed the Jeanne Clery Act in 1990, requiring federallyfunded colleges to record

and publicly report campus crime data and safety policies. To adhere to the Clery Act, IU must disclose crime in a variety of ways, including a daily crime log. The public log includes the date, time, nature and general location of each crime reported within the past 60 days.

Jeanne is the reason IU students receive an email or a text when certain crimes considered “serious,” or to be a “continuing threat,” are committed on campus.

Prior to the fall 2021 semester, Indiana University included the general location of a reported sexual assault in its public daily crime log, such as identifying one of the more than 20 campus residence halls or 40 Greek chapter houses. However, The Herald-Times reported later that semester IUPD had largely reported locations under three broad categories: “on-campus residential,” “all other fraternity/sorority” and “all other campus buildings.”

By the end of the fall 2021 semester, IU saw more rapes reported to IUPD than it normally sees in an entire year, including a “string of sexual assaults at fraternity houses,” one report from Fox 59 stated. To address this, all Greek activities were suspended indefinitely, only to be resumed a short time later. Unfortunately, the numbers have clearly shown that didn’t solve the problem.

During spring this year, a number of illegal actions

by fraternities occurred. Beta Sigma Psi was placed on cease and desist Feb. 28 for alcohol and endangering others after IUPD reported three incidents of aggravated battery and underage drinking at the fraternity that same day. The chapter was already on elevated disciplinary probation from Aug. 23, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2025, for alcohol, controlled substances, endangering others, hazing, sexual harassment and lewd conduct.

Sigma Chi was placed on cease and desist in November 2024 for hazing. Alpha Kappa Lambda entered a similar agreement Feb. 27 to April 10, 2025, to resolve an alcohol-related violation.

The Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association’s response to these

abuses? A less than three week pause on social events. Frankly, it’s pathetic.

Last week alone, two fraternities, Alpha Epsilon Pi and Phi Kappa Psi, were placed on cease and desist following hazing incidents that hospitalized at least two people and resulted in at least three people needing medical attention, respectively. In response, IU suspended their organizational activities.

The problem with suspensions and cease and desists is that they take place only after students have been assaulted or hospitalized. Where are the proactive measures to protect students before this happens? How long will this cycle repeat itself before we see real change?

IU students deserve better; clearly, placing these fraternities on cease and desist does nothing to address the heart of the problem. By establishing and enforcing meaningful repercussions, IU could set a clear tone on sexual assault and endangering students. To give credit where credit is due, IU takes proactive measures seriously. All firstyear, transfer, and incoming international undergraduate students must complete a series of prevention education online courses, including “Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Training” within their first semester. Additionally, first-year and transfer students must attend an in-person “It’s On Us: Bystander Intervention Workshop.” Students in Greek Life are required to complete specific training modules, which may include the Prospective Member Orientation and Event Monitor Training. These are important, but if there is no meaningful follow-up when fraternities violate IU policy, these required trainings are reduced to busy work for incoming students. Education alone can’t change a culture that lacks accountability; until IU consistently enforces consequences to address deeper issues within Greek life, required prevention programs will remain symbolic rather than substantive.

The fact that repeat offenders like Sigma Chi were

placed on suspension June 13, 2025, for “dishonest conduct, endangering others, hazing, and physical abuse,” less than a year after being put on cease and desist in November 2024 for the same violations, shows just how ineffective these temporary measures are. Clearly, putting these fraternities on cease and desist isn’t preventing them from endangering students. Real accountability would mean stronger, lasting consequences, such as expelling chapters, increased oversight of social events and transparent reporting of violations. Right now, we are in a period on college campuses known as the Red Zone, a time of “statistically heightened instances of sexual assault that happens during the first semester of college,” The “Red Zone” spans the start of the fall semester through Thanksgiving break when more than half of all college sexual assaults are occur.

The degree to which IU protects students against sexual assault and endangerment is directly impacted by this administration’s willingness to hold accountable organizations that consistently and flagrantly disregard student safety. IU’s refusal to act leaves so many students, especially women, vulnerable at the exact time we are most at risk. History is repeating itself, and the IU administration is failing the open book test.

COLUMN: ‘Bugonia’ is full of manipulation, aliens and genre-bending

Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film makes you want the manipulative billionaire to succeed

By Steven Leatherwood sjleathe@iu.edu

Absurd, to worrying, to horrifying: “Bugonia” becomes more and more terrifying the longer you watch. One of the most surprising and soul-crushing movies of the past year, director Yorgos Lanthimos delivers his newest bloody blue ribbon alongside Emma Stone. In the film released Oct. 31, a conspiracy-ridden beekeeper, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), and his neurodivergent cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), decide to kidnap a billionaire CEO, Michelle Fuller (Stone), because they think she is an alien. Michelle tries to manipulate the men into freeing her by both feeding into their delusions as well as turning them against one another. Throughout the film, you feel compassion for different characters at different times. At the beginning, we see the relationship between Teddy and Don; a relationship which I thought was sweet and brotherly. Teddy seemed to really care about Don, and vice versa, leading me to believe the film would be an absurdist comedy buddy movie about these two.

However, as the film progresses, and we see flashbacks to Teddy’s childhood, we learn that he is a bit more than a tin foil hat conspiracist. It’s at this realization that I began pitying Don and Michelle.

In Michelle’s story, we get a glimpse into her work life before she’s kidnapped. She seemed to be a cold yet

efficient boss. So, when she was kidnapped, I honestly did not feel too bad for her, especially since it seemed the police would be able to free her soon after her disappearance.

But when it’s clear that the police are powerless in this situation, Michelle begins her manipulation tactics. She switches between admitting she is an alien and offering them mental help.

Despite Michelle exploiting the mental instability of the two men, you still root for her to succeed.

Perhaps I rooted for Michelle throughout the movie because of her “girlboss” behavior, but I also just genuinely wanted to see her escape the horrible basement.

I also started to pity Don as the film went on. While I thought Teddy and Don were charming at the begin-

ning, I soon realized how manipulative and controlling Teddy was toward his cousin. Teddy practically brainwashes Don into believing everything he says, and Don is easily coerced to follow this mindset.

The genre of “Bugonia” is about as fluid as water.

By the time Michelle is imprisoned for two days, the genre entirely changes. As I mentioned earlier, while

the beginning seemed to be a buddy-style dark comedy, halfway through the movie is more akin to a suspenseful thriller. This genre-bending progresses even further as we reach the last third of the movie, when it shifts from a suspenseful thriller to disturbing and gory horror.

I always applaud a film for stepping outside of a single genre and exploring a more diverse composition

of feelings. The film itself surprised me not only with its narrative but with its delivery. The acting in this film was also incredible, especially from Plemons. He captures the madness so acutely that I don’t think I’ll be able to watch another one of his films without thinking he’s secretly insane. Plemons’ co-stars also played intriguing characters. Stone brings quite a strong performance in the film: charismatic, bold and decidedly glowing without hair. It was hard to look away. And Delbis is heartbreakingly charming in his breakout role. I instantly grew attached to him and became fiercely defensive. As the reviews roll in, I have seen some discourse online about the awards season when it comes to this film. Lanthimos is an Academy Awards staple by this point, with his other films like “The Lobster” and “Poor Things” both receiving Oscar nominations. However, with films like “Sinners,” “Wicked: For Good” and “One Battle After Another” being highly favored, it may not make its way into as many categories as Lanthimos’ previous films. Awards season aside, I think “Bugonia” will most likely become a cult classic for the enjoyers of the macabre and disturbia. Its most horrifying scenes will likely live in my mind for the foreseeable future, especially since I think I will see it a second time when it comes to streaming.

Hellenic Dance Troupe celebrates Greek heritage

The troupe meets biweekly to share its passion for dance and continues to welcome new dancers

By Addison Jacobey agjacobey@iu.edu

George Koultourides and his twin, Vasili, grew up performing traditional Greek dance with their family at church, weddings and other celebrations. During their freshman year at Indiana University, they weren’t able to find a designated group of students who shared this passion.

So, the Koultourides brothers decided to take action. In 2024, the twins’ sophomore year, the Hellenic Dance Troupe became an official IU student organization under the advising of Franklin Hess, who oversees the Modern Greek Program.

Though it started off with six members — the Koultourides brothers, IU juniors Alex Emmanoilidis, Constantine Stefanidis, Anastasia Earth and Joanna Kouros — the troupe has expanded to have about 15 active dancers. The original six now serve as board members for the organization and are all second-generation Greek Americans.

Within the past year, the troupe has furthered its out-

By Hope Bernard hbernar@iu.edu

reach to gain more members.

“I think more people know who we are,” Emmanoilidis said. “We just kind of just came out of the blue.”

The American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association is the oldest American Greek heritage grassroots membership organization. Next year, the troupe said it will perform at AHEPA’s grand convention in Chicago, the date of which is still to be determined. Earth said many people will attend the convention and it will be an important event for the Hellenic Dance Troupe.

The Hellenic Dance Troupe’s mission is to learn and explore traditional Greek dance from all regions and share its culture and traditions with everyone.

George said this love of sharing traditional Greek dance was his main motivator for forming the troupe.

“I think people enjoy watching this type of stuff,” he said. “And they also want to learn about stuff.”

Each region of Greece has its own type of dancing style, and the troupe tries to cover different types to share their entire country’s dance culture, not just the specific

region where their families are from.

The troupe’s next performance is at 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at the IU World’s Fare, which will feature over 17 cultural dance associations.

Their performance will be about eight minutes long, featuring traditional Greek dances of Ikariótikos and Tsamikos. With both being living dances, a dance still performed in its place of origin, the group decided these would have the highest engagement, since they are time-honored traditions that audiences may recognize.

“I think we can stay true to our culture and our tradition, while also picking more exciting dances,” Stefanidis said.

Ikariótikos originates on the island of Ikaria, a Greek island north of the Aegean Sea. It is an open circle dance, where dancers move in a counterclockwise direction, connected by their intertwined arms on each other’s shoulders — leading the dance to become an energetic and lively expression of Greek culture.

Tsamikos, on the other hand, is commonly danced in central Greece. Tsamikos

is originally danced almost exclusively by men, but, as time went on, the dance adapted. Today, the dance is popular at weddings, festivals and celebrations.

Tsamikos follows a pattern of 10 steps, featuring some of the tricks that catch attention.

“Masculine roles are very

big in Greek dancing — traditional roles,” George said.

“So, the men you’ll see do more exaggerated steps. All the women do more gentle steps, less exaggerated. And then some dances specifically have those gender roles for the way that they’re supposed to be lined up.”

For more information on the Hellenic Dance

meeting dates and performances, check the troupe’s social media, BeInvolved or email George at gkoultou@ iu.edu. The troupe is always looking for new members.

“We’re very adamant about how this is for everyone,” George said. “No matter their background.”

Rise Yoga & Events brings goat yoga to Bloomington

As people practiced yoga in the third-floor courtyard of the Graduate Hotel, baby goats headbutted each other while another climbed on an attendee’s back. The tranquility of vinyasa flow yoga met with the hectic nature of baby goats Nov. 2 at “Goat Yoga at the Graduate,” hosted by Rise Yoga & Events. Attendees were guided through various yoga poses while surrounded by goats and had the chance to feed the goats and interact with them up close.

Rise Yoga & Events, established in 2018, brings animal yoga to locations across central Indiana. Host

Erin Peckinpaugh held her first animal yoga event in 2018 at the Broad Ripple Farmers Market with 75 attendees. She got an official certification to teach yoga after she discovered a growing interest for animal therapy combined with yoga.

Peckinpaugh specifi-

cally chose goats because she believes they keep yoga lighthearted and add to the welcoming environment she wishes to establish.

“They are quirky but sociable like dogs, and it is fun for people to do something that is completely different,” Peckinpaugh said. Part of Peckinpaugh’s mission is supporting nonprofits. This event specifically focused on Red Frazier Bison in Spencer, Indiana. Peckinpaugh has donated a portion of her proceeds to nonprofits since 2018, and has always focused on organizations that highlight issues including food insecurity and animal welfare.

“If you do an event that serves a good cause, everyone feels better about it and it gives purpose to this project and makes it bigger than just an event,” Peckinpaugh said.

Another goal of goat yoga, Peckinpaugh said, is to reduce the intimidation of looking good in front of others while doing poses. When the animals are there,

she said people can take it less seriously and are not as in their own heads.

Peckinpaugh’s approach introduces those who are not familiar with yoga to the basics. Attendee JangHo Cha had never done yoga before but always had a passion for all things animal-related.

“I think it is great that you get to really interact with the goats and it is hilarious seeing them,” Cha said.

Janice Gatliff and her husband came from Indianapolis to honor the 10th anniversary of their daughter’s death. Like others in attendance, it was the couple’s first time doing yoga. Gatliff wanted to come somewhere she knew would spread positivity.

“For us, animals are a big source of love and hope,” Gatliff said.

The Nov. 2 event was just one of the 125 total yoga events that Peckinpaugh has held since her start in 2018. She also hosts puppy yoga, which gives adoptable

‘Wizard of Oz’ collection highlights Lilly Library’s historical artifacts and physical media

By Abby Whited abwhited@iu.edu

The Lilly Library is a trea-

sure trove of rare artifacts, books and manuscripts in the heart of IU’s Campus. From a first-edition copy of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” to one of the only Gutenberg Bibles still in existence today, the library’s archives provide endless knowledge and history.

Part of that history includes a collection of “The Wizard of Oz” artifacts, which is free for members of the public to enjoy, especially ahead of the Jacobs Live at the Movies performance of “The Wizard of Oz” opening Nov. 7. The collection consists of about 120 items including books, film scripts, toys and merchandise related to “The Wizard of Oz.” Erika Dowell, the associate director and curator of modern books and manuscripts at the Lilly Library, said the story is an “icon” of literature for children.

“It’s a true American fai-

rytale,” Dowell said.

One of the oldest artifacts in the collection is a firstedition copy of the original “Wizard of Oz” book written by L. Frank Baum, with illustrations by W.W. Denslow. Published in Chicago in 1900, the edition features printing techniques, illustrations and coloring that were innovative for their time.

Dowell said the book’s unique art style of its text being printed over pictures and color was a new technique for the time it was published.

“Baum and Denslow got together to talk about making a really beautiful book that was pretty much unlike any other children’s book that had been published at that time, and that is for a couple of reasons,” Dowell said. “The quality of the storytelling is part of it, but the production of the book is too, because it took advantage of innovations in color printing of the time.”

Additionally, the collection includes a “Wizard of Oz” themed board game

from 1921, which features some of Denslow’s original illustrations. The game was purchased by the library from American bookseller Justin Schiller, who deals in rare children’s books.

The Lilly Library also owns a photocopy of a prompt book from a 1902 stage play of “The Wizard of Oz.” The show premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House 37 years before the popular film adaptation was released.

Although these objects are just a few within a much larger collection, the other “Wizard of Oz” artifacts are readily available for members of the public to view.

However it’s not just “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia that can be found in its archives. The Lilly Library houses over eight million manuscripts, about half a million books and various other collections of artifacts, including comic books and puzzles.

The Lilly Library is noncirculating, meaning the materials in its collections

must never leave the library; however, students are free to request an appointment in the library’s Reading Room, where they can choose to view or interact with any collections or items they wish.

While materials can be requested for any purpose, students often request to view certain collections when researching specific subjects. Whether students are interested in the original typed manuscripts of “James Bond” with Ian Fleming’s handwritten edits or a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s rejection letters, the library’s vast archives include a wide variety of materials related to certain topics.

Michelle Crowe, the assistant dean of engagement, strategic partnerships and communication for IU Libraries, encourages students to devote themselves to at least one research project during their time at IU and use the library’s resources to enhance that learning experience.

“We want it to be as easy as possible for students to

come and look at the materials and use them to turn any assignment into something really special,” Crowe said.

“The Lilly Library is a collection of collections, and it is just waiting for students to dig in and find things.”

Appointment requests require a user account in order to access the Lilly Library Request System, and visits must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance.

Library attendees can search for specific items or collections on IU’s online library catalog or Archives Online. This access to such an abundance of rare books and items is not exclusive only to IU students but is available to anyone interested.

“We have one of the greatest rare book libraries right here in Bloomington,” Crowe said. “And even better than that, we have access that is unlike what most rare book libraries provide. We are here for anyone who is curious.”

Despite a revival of materials such as vinyl records in the past couple of years,

physical media is not nearly as popular as it once was. CDs are replaced with Spotify playlists, physical books are traded for e-readers and demand for physical media items has become a niche interest. Nevertheless, these materials still exist and can add depth and value to the way people interact with the stories we love, like “The Wizard of Oz” and so many more. Joel Silver, the director of the Lilly Library, emphasized the benefits of handling physical media in comparison to digital interactions.

“There’s something special about seeing and handling these original objects,” Silver said. “In the case of the first edition of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ no matter how many times you see the illustrations from it reproduced or see an online facsimile of it, it’s not at all the same as seeing and viewing the original three dimensional object and being in the presence of it. There’s a certain magic to it.”

Dancers unite at Windfall’s annual cabaret showcase

By Lexi Bunting lexbunti@iu.edu

Cheers echoed through the audience at the annual “Windfall Cabaret” showcase Nov. 2 at the Switchyard Park Pavilion. Hosted by Windfall Dance Company, the evening brought together a diverse lineup of performers, including Dark Side Troupe, One2One Team K-Pop, Bette Lucas Belly Dance and Flamenco, UNi.SON, InMotion and Ballet Folklórico de IU, all sharing the stage to celebrate movement in its many forms.

Founded in 1978, the Windfall Dance Company is a modern dance collective and nonprofit that embraces a wide range of ages and artistic styles, fostering creativity and connection within Bloomington’s dance community. The organization offers classes, community performances and rental studio spaces for Bloomington dance groups.

Windfall Dance Company has staged the annual production for 10 years, welcoming a variety of groups to share their work. Virginia Hoeges, a longterm member of Dark Side Troupe, said she values that all ages can be preform in “Cabaret” productions. Dark Side Troupe has performed at Windfall’s “Cabaret” since its inception and regularly rents rehearsal space from the nonprofit. “I think, when you get older and you’ve never danced before, it can be very intimidating, but there’s no age to start dancing,” Hoeges said. “If it’s something that you want to do, you should just try it, and Windfall is the perfect environment for that.”

Windfall also promotes a wide variety of styles and cultural traditions. This year’s showcase featured performances ranging from Egyptian-inspired movement and Mexican folklore to K-pop choreography and

modern dance.

In-Motion Dance Company President Lora Simakova said she values the mutual support and collaboration among the different groups each year.

“I think that it’s very important to have a wider breadth of knowledge and experience of dance and style,” Simakova said. “I know even just today, I’ve learned from another dance organizations, and I hope that they’re able to learn from us.”

Windfall’s company coordinator, Utam Moses, helps organize performances like “Cabaret” that welcome groups from across southern Indiana. Moses said cost can often be a barrier for dancers and organizations, but events like this one help remove that obstacle.

“There’s a barrier, especially for dance putting on a show because it’s so expensive to rent a space and the cost of rehearsal spaces,”

Moses said. “But if we put it on, then invite groups that wouldn’t be able to rent a space on their own and just offer these spaces for art and performance to happen in our community without, like, this barrier of entry.”

While performing, each group received its loudest

applause from the other dancers in the audience.

Kay Olges, president of the board of directors for the Windfall Dance Company, has been involved with the organization for more than 30 years and said she especially enjoys the “Windfall Cabaret” for its sense of

community and connection from different dance groups.

“All the groups ignite each other; dance and movement are forms of communication,” Olges said. “It allows us to speak the same language. It makes people more aware of others in the community.”

‘Our Dear Dead Drug Lord’ dissects 2008 political culture

By Adison Jacobey agjacobey@iu.edu

Editor’s Note: This story includes mention of potentially triggering situations, such as abortion.

Master of Fine Arts directing candidate Samwell Rose showcased “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 in the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center, attached to the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, selling out all three nights. The play follows four teenage girls living in Miami, Florida, during the 2008 presidential election. In the play, the girls were part of the Dead Leaders Club, which had been permanently suspended because of their fixations with controversial political leaders, such as Pablo Esobar and Sadam Hussien. Unknown to parents and other students, the DLC takes a different approach to studying these figures by sum-

moning their ghosts. The director of “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,” Rose, is in their second year of their Master of Fine Arts program at IU and working toward a degree in directing. This show served as one of their required directing credits to be completed each term.

“It’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read of a play, ever,” Rose said. “I really like how it flirts with realism and mysticism, and it’s a really dangerous play in a really juicy way as a creator.”

Rose handpicked the small group of four cast members, plus someone to pull off a sneaky appearance from Escobar. They hoped to create a safe environment for actors to build trust together.

“I reached out to all of these individuals, not just because they’re extremely talented human beings, but also because I knew that they were really empathetic, warm people who are collaborative,” Rose said.

These four students — sophomore Hassena Shabazz, junior Brynn Schwartzman and seniors Isabella Galloza and Natalie Nuñez — spent 90 uninterrupted minutes in front of the audience.

Galloza, who played Kit, said she is proud of the production because it is the first time she has acted since she was 13, rekindling her love for acting.

“I was pretty heavily bullied in middle school for being in theater, so I was not super strong willed at that age. So, I let that get to me,” Galloza said. “I quit, and I know I quit something that was really important to me. So, to be able to come back and to do something that I was really passionate about and was good at is really important to that person inside of me still.”

This was Shabazz’s first play, and she was recruited by Rose because she took their Introduction to Acting class last semester. Shabazz

played the role of Squeeze.

“For it to be my first role, I think it furthers my comprehension skills and being able to understand people in different perspectives, and the idea that even if you are from different backgrounds, there’s some kind of common ground,” Shabazz said. Shabazz views her role in the play and the experience she gained in a positive light. She plans to audition for more plays within the theater community in Bloomington.

“I’ve done something that I’ve never thought I could honestly do before,” Shabazz said.

Although these four actors had all once been teenage girls, they were not in high school in 2008. Now, 17 years later, “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” dissects the political landscape of that time — mentioning gay marriage, Sarah Palin and the 2008 presidential election.

Megan Gray Lederman, working toward a Master of

Fine Arts in dramaturg at IU, served as the dramaturg for the play and guided the cast through the political and pop-cultural references the script contained. Her role as dramaturg was to be a historical consultant for shows.

Specifically, she helped the actors gauge why Escobar was the man who held the DLC’s affections and why they would choose to summon him.

“Pablo Escobar is, like, hot, and it’s a conversation that comes up. We went through a lot of reasons on why or why not?” Lederman said. “He has this power about him, which is very sexy but also scary.”

Additionally, Lederman guided actors through the emotional ties to events that happened in 2008. From references about the London metro attacks in 2005 to “I can see Russia from my house,” she gave guidance on which references were mocking and which were to be taken seriously.

“In 2008, there was this real feeling of hope and change,” Lederman said. “That was the whole thing that Obama ran on, this idea of hope.”

With the help of Lederman, the actors attempted to convey the references to their audience of IU students. On a deeper level, Rose said they wanted to help audiences connect with the DLC, hoping that they saw themselves reflected on stage. The actors collectively stated they wanted to make the audience feel something.

Terrence Ampey, a theater major, frequently attends and acts in IU Theater Department productions. He attended the performance to support his friends in the cast.

“I was literally in shock the entire time,” Ampey said. “What stood out to me was the abortion scene. I was like, this can’t be... they aren’t about to... then they did it.”

‘He

walked in a room, and it was like sunshine’

Remembering Michael Gray

By Ursula Stickelmaier

ustickel@iu.edu

Jay Kincaid sees parts of his friend Michael Gray everywhere in Franklin Hall.

When he looks at the 13-foot-tall hanging screen in the commons, he thinks of Michael, who spent about eight months working to get the feature installed. He sees him in the Ken and Audrey Beckley Studio, or Studio 7, which exists thanks to Michael’s engineering and construction. And when he sees Media School students grappling with lighting for their projects, he’s reminded of his friend who once did the same as a student at Indiana University.

Michael’s dedication to helping those around him, Jay said, is evident in every aspect of The Media School.

“You could tell that group of people [students] that were going to be something special,” Jay said. “And Mike was part of that group.”

Michael was diagnosed with Stage 4 Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, in August, but started having health issues as early as January. After several months battling cancer, Michael died peacefully Oct. 10, surrounded by family.

He is survived by his mother, Yvonne; two sisters Patricia Velasquez and Rebecca Shultz; two sons Kanye Roberts-Gray and Cole Gray; his brother-in-law David Velasquez, niece Zoe Velasquez and nephew Jakob Velasquez.

Michael was born Jan. 4, 1976, in Hamburg, Germany, and moved to Bloomington in September 1982 at age six.

As a kid, Michael loved playing soccer. His sister, Patricia, said he hoped to continue playing in college. That plan changed, however, when he tore his ACL in a game during his senior year at Bloomington High School North, ending his season.

Michael went to physical therapy and rehabbed at home to aid in recovery. Throughout every session, Patricia was right there with him. It was those sessions that sparked Patricia’s interest in physical therapy.

“I actually ended up going to school to be a physical therapist assistant because of that memory with him,” she said. “I like to give him the credit for that love that I have for physical therapy.”

When deciding where to attend college, Michael picked IU — not only because of his mother, who worked at the Jacobs School of Music,

but because growing up in Bloomington made Michael an avid IU sports fan. As kids, Patricia said she and Michael would attend many IU soccer and basketball games.

Jay met Michael when he was still a student at IU majoring in telecommunications with a minor in business. During most of his four years as a student, Michael worked on the student crew, which Jay helped manage, at the Radio-Television Building on campus.

Along with his job on the student crew, which produced multiple shows throughout the school year, Michael also balanced the life of a full-time student and manager at a local Pizza Hut. Despite Michael’s busy schedule, Jay described him as someone who was always so clearly dedicated to his work.

Michael graduated in May 2007. Shortly after graduation, he started working with IU as the lighting and studio manager for Radio and television services, a job Jay recommended him for. He was later hired as the assistant director of facilities and building manager for The Media School. In this position, Michael helped manage several projects. Jay described Michael as a “jack of all trades.” When it came to his job, there wasn’t a project Michael couldn’t accomplish.

But for Michael, it was about more than just good engineering; it was about building something that would last and help all the students who used it. Jay said almost everything Michael touched or built in the building had that same clear dedication to it.

It was that determination to learn and grow — which was evident as a student — that made Michael so good at what he did in Jay’s eyes.

Emily Fox, a junior at IU, worked closely with Michael. She first met him when she was a freshman in fall 2023, and they worked on a wide variety of projects with IU Student Television.

Last year, Emily helped produce a Little 500 show — a stressful situation amplified by continuous technical problems. Michael was the first person she turned to for guidance.

To Emily, Michael was more than someone who could give a quick answer to her questions. He was a calming presence in the studio. He truly cared about making sure students understood the work they were doing.

“No matter how long it took, he was going to sit with you and make sure that you understood,” Emily said. “He was the first person I went to for help, because I needed a ton of technical stuff (for Little 500). And I went to him, and I emailed that man back and forth. I was like, ‘Girl, please, like, please help me.’ And he was like, ‘Take a deep breath. You’re gonna be okay.’ And he really got me through that. I was very proud of that show, and it was all him.”

Michael was a mentor and confidant Emily always felt comfortable around. And it’s that supportive and calming presence she hopes all students, even the ones that never met him, feel every time they walk into the studio.

“He walked in a room, and it was like sunshine,” Emily said. “I just genuinely think that his presence and attitude and just pure demeanor is what made an impact on so many people. He was just so supportive, and I think he would want to be remembered that way as being the kind, genuine, compassionate person that he was.”

Though Emily will graduate next school year and leave The Media School, she strives to take some of Michael’s positivity, dedication and passion for engineering into her own projects.

“I wish he could teach me more now, because I want to keep learning how to be an engineer,” Emily said. “I was just truly in awe of how nice of a person he was, no matter the situation. It could be like The Media School was on fire, and he would be complimenting you on your shoes.”

Even in his professional life, Michael never stopped learning and growing his skill set. During his career, Michael participated in lighting workshops and freelanced for many companies, including CBS and the NFL Network.

One of the organizations he worked with was the Winter Guard International World Championships, which he had been participating in since 2009.

John Flower, an IU alumnus and executive producer for the show, worked with Michael for years and witnessed the dedication he had for his role as center floor camera operator.

Last April marked Michael’s 15th consecutive year working the WGI World Championship,

the world’s premier organization for indoor color guard, percussion and winds competitions. John described Michael, who was generally soft-spoken, as having the ability to draw people into whatever he was saying.

Though their time working directly together was limited to during the competition, John felt Michael had a comfortable and calming demeanor regardless of the situation.

“You were like, ‘Okay, Mike’s here now. Everything’s gonna be calm, everything’s going to be cool,’” John said. “He was just a sturdy thing that was there every year, just positively impacting our entire crew. And that’s what made him such a unique guy. Very few people can handle that pressure in such a positive, uplifting way.”

In the past 15 years they had worked together, John said there were very few times he’d seen Michael take a break. He never complained, never gave his job or the kids performing less than his full attention. And he always did it with a smile.

John said Michael showed others the right way to be a caring professional and “the right way to be a human being” in general. It’s a personal mantra John keeps in mind while he’s working, though he admits he doesn’t think he does it as well as Michael.

“There should be more Mikes in this world, not less Mikes,” John said. “If I ever really needed something, I could call Mike. No question about it. If I was ever like, ‘I’m in a real jam here. Who could I call?’ I know I could call Mike.”

While his freelance work often took him on work trips around the United States, those close to him him know Germany was his favorite place to travel.

Michael was 6 years old when he and his family moved to Bloomington from Hamburg, Germany. Despite moving at such a young age, Michael kept his German heritage very much alive. In his adult life, he went back for many trips, oftentimes with his mother, Yvonne.

Whether it was visiting family or exploring a new town, travel and a love for the country he spent most of his formative years in was a core part of who Michael was.

“He was my overseas travel partner,” Yvonne said. “We traveled to Germany about every, in recent years, every two to three years apart. We spent time with family in Germany and traveled to places we had

never been before. So that was our special thing.”

Yvonne later joked the two had been ready to move back to Germany many times before deciding the occasional visit would probably be enough.

Michael also had a close relationship with God and regularly attended his church, fxchurch. His sister, Patricia, emphasized how important this relationship was and how it helped guide him through some of the toughest times.

Patricia always considered one of Michael’s most admirable qualities to be how he followed through on everything he did no matter how difficult the decision was.

“As he got older, he really demonstrated how it is to walk with Christ,” Patricia said. “He owned up to his choices, and he took responsibility for them. He didn’t try to blame anyone else, and he took responsibility. He didn’t run away from stuff, you know.”

Everyone who worked with Michael knew his greatest love in life wasn’t his job or travel. It was his family.

His sons, Kanye, 20, and Cole, 16, were two of the most important people in Michael’s life. Those who spent time with him often heard stories of him, his sons and their weekend plans.

“He was very supportive and protective of them as children, and even as they got older,” Patricia said.

“Even with me and my kids, it’s like he made it a point to make sure we had family time together, and our kids got to spend time together and grow up together. And he just, he was around. He made it a point to be around with family.” While much of his weekend was spent with his sons, Yvonne said Michael would often drive to Indianapolis to visit her or Patricia. His out-of-the-blue visits to lend a helping hand were at the cornerstone of who Michael was.

The trips became even more important after Yvonne was injured in a car accident last year, leaving her in a neck brace and unable to drive for three months. While a lack of mobility stranded her at home, Michael would visit Yvonne to help her get outside and attempt to escape the “cabin fever.”

That’s just who Michael was. Yvonne remembers her son as someone who was dependable and always took care of others. It’s a feeling

she knows is shared with all who met him.

“If you go to the obituary on the funeral home site, and you see all those comments, people loved him and it’s because he was such a loving person, and that’s what he’ll be remembered for,” Yvonne said. “He was always willing to have a lending hand, a listening ear. He would be there for people, even if it wasn’t convenient for him. If somebody needed his help, he was there to help.”

But his caring nature extended past just helping someone with a problem. Michael strived to make people laugh every day. Patricia remembers her brother fondly for his humor. Whether it was being hyper specific about what time it was or taking silly photos on someone’s phone without them looking, Michael’s jokes brought smiles to people’s faces — even if they didn’t catch on right away.

“He’d take a picture, and he’d kind of sneak his face into the picture,” Patricia said. “And you didn’t even know what he did until later on, and you’re looking at the photos, and you see the very first one. It was him with a silly face.”

It’s been more than three weeks since Michael died, and Jay said faculty, students and staff are still reminded of him all the time.

Michael didn’t just care about keeping the studios running and the equipment working, Jay said. He cared about turning students into professionals and doing it the right way.

Michael took no shortcuts, Jay said. He didn’t put tasks off until later or do them quickly and easily. There was the right way of doing things, and that’s what he wanted to teach students. It didn’t matter how long it took; Michael was dedicated to answering any question a student would ask. Always with a smile and laugh.

Jay said even though the studio has to move forward without Michael, his team continuously feels the lack of his presence.

“Every morning we’re on Slack, and every morning you say ‘good morning,’ and then there’s just a lot of shit that’s just banter back and forth,” Jay said. “And Mike was always a part of that, and that’s how we communicated – through Slack. And it’s weird, his icon’s still there, and there’s just no more ‘good mornings.’ There’s no more and we all kind of, we feel that and we miss that.”

Veteran, advocate, ‘chaos goblin’: Caleb’s fight for Bloomington’s homeless community

By Emerson Elledge eelledge@iu.edu

Editor’s note: This story contains mention of potentially triggering situations, including violence and slurs.

Caleb Hoagland gets in his car and drives the block from his house on Third and Grant streets to the field across from First United Methodist Church. Normally he would walk. But today he needs to transport a 20-liter pitcher of cold brew coffee.

It’s just before 8 a.m. Sunrise is approaching. People around Caleb — some coworkers, some waiting for breakfast to begin — compliment him on his woolen poncho, a cream color dappled with stitches of green and maroon.

“Thanks, it’s alpaca,” he replies. Sack lunches, granola bars, bananas and dayold cookies from Baked sit in separate boxes on a folding table just up a small slope in the field.

Breakfast is open to anyone who wants or needs it, but Bloomington’s homeless community is especially appreciative. There are no barriers to the breakfast. No code to scan or paper to fill out. No name to give or chance for a warrant to be scanned.

“Can I get another one of those?” a man asks after he finishes his first meal, gesturing to the sack meals.

“We’ve gotta save some for the others, maybe later,” a volunteer tells him.

Caleb’s coffee is put to good use. “It’s not warm coffee, but it’s coffee,” Caleb says to a volunteer. The Chobani pumpkin spice creamer next to the station empties within half an hour.

An hour or so into the meal, Caleb pulls out a stack of shiny green bus tickets. He hands them out to anyone who asks, chatting up patrons in a good mood.

He lived in Bloomington for a few scattered periods during his childhood and college. Now, he’s been here for three consecutive years, after he looked to dig his “spurs in.”

Even in such little time, decades-long volunteers say he’s leading the charge for homeless advocacy in the city.

“I’m the poorest I’ve ever been, but I get to go to bed and like ‘I fed people today, you know, and the day’s not even over yet. Who knows, we might do some more good,’” Caleb said.

His official title is outreach director at First Christian Church in Bloomington, but he keeps himself busy. He helps run the Bloomington Severe Weather Emergency Shelter from November through April, when temperatures are below freezing.

Some days he carries clean syringes and hands them out. Some days he just provides companionship.

“Make it their effing home”

On the night of Sept. 26, Caleb saw videos of a group attacking a homeless man outside The Upstairs Pub on Kirkwood Avenue. He saw the video about five minutes after the attacks first happened. He called his pastor and said “I’m going to the church and I’m getting the first aid kit and I’m going down.”

It would soon come out that the main target of the attack was Bobby Ballard, a homeless man who has spent a decade on the streets of Bloomington. Ballard was assaulted to the point of serious bodily injury. Onlookers took videos of the attack and posted them to social media sites, but few jumped in to defend Ballard.

Caleb arrived while tensions were still high. Ballard was missing three teeth but refused to be touched.

Caleb gave him antibiotics and took care of the four other homeless people who had been also been targeted during the attacks.

Amber, one of the four, got spat on. Caleb took her and seven other homeless people in the area back to his house to protect them from the high tensions until the bars had their last call at 3:30 a.m. The group of nine sat

around Caleb’s living room eating Kroger Neapolitan ice cream sandwiches, which he purchased on sale for $1.99.

Police arrested four people in connection with the assault. The trials for the alleged attackers haven’t yet happened, but Caleb isn’t optimistic.

“I guarantee you it won’t be as permanent as Bobby not having front fucking teeth,” he said.

Caleb makes it a habit to check the crime log on the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s app every night before bed. He looks for names he knows and recognizes from his advocacy work. If he sees a name he knows, it usually comes with an accompanying trespassing charge. He soon saw Ballard’s name on the app, two weeks after the publicized attack on Kirkwood, with a battery charge attached. Ballard has since been released and has returned to his typical routine.

Caleb fears this is just the start of heightened tensions between Bloomington and the homeless people living in it. He feels inaction in the city has caused people to dehumanize homeless people. To see them as “other.” And winter, the worst season to be living on the streets, is fast approaching.

“Everything sucks worse during the winter, and it’s already sucking worse now,” he said. “I’m really nervous about this…People are gonna die because there’s just, there’s not enough shelter beds. Period. So even if everyone was at capacity, people are still gonna be out in the cold.”

Caleb thinks the “solution” to homelessness is simple — affordable hous-

ing. Everything else that is done to counteract the problem is just a Band-Aid, he said. Caleb also uses the term homeless, not unhoused, when talking about the people he works with.

“I love it when people push back and it’s always like, Bloomington liberals that push back and say, ‘Oh well Bloomington’s their home.’ Well then, make it their effing home,” Caleb said. “It’s not.”

“Still the weird, queer adopted kid”

Caleb was baptized at First United three years ago.

“I don’t look like your mother’s Methodist, now do I?” Caleb said while drinking brewed coffee out of a styrofoam Big Gulp gas station cup. When he has time, he makes rounds across Bloomington to pick up whatever businesses are willing to give — usually a free sleeve or two of cups for the free breakfasts or the winter shelter to shut him up.

He’s wearing faded blue overalls with two buttons reading “BIG MAC” keeping up the straps.

“I swear, I’m loud, I’m tattooed, I’m queer,” Caleb said. “I’m all of this and unapologetic about all of it.”

He’s got tattoos on every limb, some professionally done and some he did himself with stick-and-poke techniques.

Caleb was born to a 16-year-old mother in 1986. His great-grandparents raised him until his dad adopted him at age 7. That’s when he first moved to Bloomington.

His parents kicked him out when he was 16.

“I was a handful, for sure,” Caleb said. “But does

any kid deserve to get kicked out? I don’t know.”

He spent the next two years finishing high school two hours away from Bloomington in Plymouth, Indiana. He chose Plymouth High School because of its speech and debate program.

Then he graduated. He wasn’t ready for college, so he joined the army.

“I’m a chaos goblin, trauma junkie,” Caleb said. “This is where I’m comfortable in a crisis, but other people aren’t.”

Caleb Hoagland

“I thought that this was like, would make it so I wasn’t the weird queer adopted kid and we’d have something in common,” he said. “And I was still the weird queer adopted kid, I just now have a traumatic brain injury and PTSD.”

Caleb served two tours in Iraq from 2004-09.

The U.S. military’s official policy for LGBTQ+ members was “Don’t ask, don’t tell” during his service. Caleb was out anyway.

He served in the infantry and quickly rose in rank.

“I’m not gonna lead men based on a lie. And no one cared. It was not an issue anywhere in my unit,” Caleb said. “They cared that when we got shot at, I shot back; I got casualties out and I could do first aid. That’s what mattered.” It was hard for Caleb to adjust back to life outside a warzone. After returning for the last time from a 15-month deployment in 2009, a grocery trip for his mom proved too much.

“I walked and I turned

“Sometimes it’s easier just to get called a motherfucker.”

The sun is up at Sunday breakfast. About 20 people who have already received breakfast eat, sitting on the sidewalk against the chainlink fence or across the street against First United’s walls. One woman starts to enter the gate. She’s accompanied by a black and white medium-sized mutt named Sophie. Caleb tells her animals can’t come inside the fence per the church’s rules.

“That dog’s my life,” Red, the woman, says to Caleb. She leaves down the block, dog in tow, out of sight. Caleb doesn’t dislike dogs. He knows Red and has bought her dog, Sophie, food many times or held her leash on occasions like these. But First United asked that no dogs come onto the field because of potential parasites they could carry. Caleb knows Red’s having a hard day. She probably just woke up. She’s one of the many homeless women who choose to sleep on the street rather than in a shelter.

“You have to think of it from a de-escalation standpoint. So, just let her go off and storm off,” Caleb said. “You have to kind of think about those things when you’re trying to de-escalate or solve situations. So sometimes it’s easier just to get called a motherfucker.”

He’ll find her later and give her food. He’s used to it; people lash out at him all the time. He’s been called a lot of words. Motherfucker. Bastard.

Dick.

But he said nobody has ever called him a “faggot.”

“They all know I’m queer,” Caleb said. “But that’s never been an issue.” It’s not personal and he knows it. Being sworn at has somehow always been an occupational hazard for Caleb.

“Between my mother and the United States Army, I’m the Michael Phelps of getting yelled at,” Caleb said.

“A chaos goblin, trauma junkie” Caleb returned to Bloomington for Indiana University. He earned free college after enlisting and wanted to study political science.

“I wanted to focus on international political economies, so I went from Iraq to a lecture hall of 300 18-yearolds talking about Iraq,” Caleb said. “And it was brutal.” He carried a gun with him at all times. He’d wake up and do perimeter checks.

down the aisle and I saw all the bread. And my brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening,” Caleb said. “I was like, ‘That’s so much bread.’” Then a box hit the floor and Caleb hit the ground. He was back in Iraq. He started crying in the middle of Kroger.

He found ways to cope. Caleb got in a routine of getting his groceries at 2 or 3 a.m. at Kroger. He would wear headphones and listen to gangster rap — lots of Freddie Gibbs, especially “Str8 Killa No Filla.”

“I was young, I was poor, a bunch of my friends had been getting shot,” Caleb said. “I could relate.”

His nocturnal shopping routine lasted about four years — as long as his original enlistment contract.

COVID-19 flipped a switch for him. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — which provides the free health care he’s entitled to — expanded eligibility for non-VA mental health treatments. His PTSD hadn’t improved. He had just taken a new job as a wine expert, but between the pandemic and downsizing, he knew he was going to get laid off. He quit instead and booked 10 months of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, a treatment known for its ability to effectively treat severe trauma, including PTSD.

It’s been four years since the treatment, and Caleb still feels the positive effects of it, though he’s likely due for more soon.

“There’s still rough days,” Caleb said. “That’s where I just give myself grace and a bottle of whiskey and cry a lot.”

“I was a mess,” Caleb said. “I was like Lieutenant fucking Dan.” But today, Caleb has managed to find a silver lining with his PTSD — nothing phases him at all.

“For a long time people would be like, ‘How’s your day going?’ I’d be like, ‘No one shot at me, must be a good day,’” he said. It makes him good at his job. The shelter only had one drug-related emergency last year and he was able to get the person the help she needed.

Caleb has become an expert at dealing with other people’s crises. The tattoos on his right calf are proof. Most of them weren’t done by trained artists; they were given by his friends or others in crisis. It started two years ago, when Caleb’s now-good friend Katie was having a mental health crisis.

“I could not cheer this person up, I could not get through to them,” Caleb said. Then he had an idea.

“How about you tattoo me?” he asked. Five minutes later, Katie was holding a needle. Soon after, Caleb’s leg was adorned with a smiley-face tattoo.

“I’m a chaos goblin, trauma junkie,” Caleb said. “This is where I’m comfortable in a crisis, but other people aren’t.”

Caleb thinks the real harm in any crisis is the lack of power and control the person feels.

“So you just say, ‘Hey, here’s a tattoo needle. Go at it. You’re putting something on me that’s gonna be on me until the day I die,’” he said. “And it just stops the

right there.”

Football dismantles Maryland, earns another victory

By Dalton James jamesdm@iu.edu | @DaltonMJames

Curt Cignetti stood at the red IU trident-emblazoned wooden podium inside the Don Croftcheck Team Room at Memorial Stadium. It was Oct. 27, and the second-year Indiana football head coach opted to begin his weekly press conference just as he did the week before.

Except this time, Cignetti praised Maryland even more than he did UCLA. He spoke 329 words in two minutes and 12 seconds.

Judging from Cignetti’s assessment, it’d seem as though his team was tasked with playing the University of Miami in 2001 or Louisiana State University in 2019. Not Maryland, which entered with a 4-3 record and on a three-game losing streak.

But in the early stages of the contest Nov. 1, No. 2 Indiana didn’t appear to be on its way to another road beatdown. Instead, the game “didn’t start out great” in Cignetti’s eyes.

However, over the next 45 minutes of game time, Indiana thrashed Maryland en route to a “really good” 55-10 victory, Cignetti said, inside

SECU Stadium in College Park, Maryland.

Redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza began the contest with an interception on the Hoosiers’ opening possession just as he did a week prior against UCLA.

“I mean, I put the defense in a tough situation to start the game with the turnover,” Mendoza said postgame. “Tough situation. I can’t turn the ball over, especially in that situation.”

The Terrapins’ offense was already at the Indiana 12-yard line, but the Hoosiers’ defense didn’t break — they surrendered a field goal — as the hosts took a 3-point lead.

On the Cream and Crimson’s second drive? A threeand-out with a sack and redshirt senior Roman Hemby getting decimated on a draw in the backfield.

It appeared Indiana was headed toward a difficult game on the road, which is often the case in the Big Ten. The key, Cignetti said, was his team’s response to the sluggish start.

“We got, on offense, a lot of guys have played a lot of football,” Cignetti said. “And

really, the same on defense. So, chances are, all these guys have been in this situation before, right? And they know how to respond or not react, so to speak.”

Mendoza then led the charge on the Hoosiers’ ensuing possession, as he ran up the middle into the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown.

Leading 7-3 after the first quarter, Indiana had an 8755 advantage in total yards. But in the second quarter, the Hoosiers seized complete control.

Although the Cream and Crimson’s offense settled for field goals on two of their final three first-half drives, Mendoza eventually found redshirt junior receiver Omar Cooper Jr. on a slant and go for a 22-yard touchdown.

The halftime story was far different than the one from just 15 minutes before. In the second quarter, Indiana outgained Maryland 203-31, outscored it 13-0 and picked off freshman quarterback Malik Washington twice.

It was the definition of “complementary football,” said redshirt junior linebacker Isaiah Jones — who stepped into the coach-to-

player communication role in senior linebacker Aiden Fisher’s absence.

“Playing on the road is always hard, no matter who you’re playing,” Jones said. “So, just settling in, letting the offense know the defense got their back, and vice versa. We feed off when they (the offense) go down and drive down and score.”

Although the Terrapins notched a 55-yard touchdown on their opening drive of the second half, the Hoosiers began to break their will, as they have so frequently under Cignetti.

First, it was sixth-year senior running back Kaelon Black’s touchdown.

Then, it was sixth-year senior defensive back Devan Boykin forcing Washington to fumble on third down and returning it 32 yards for a somersaulting touchdown.

Next, it was freshman defensive back Byron Baldwin Jr. — a Baltimore native — recovering a fumble on the ensuing play. Redshirt senior running back Roman Hemby, who spent the last four seasons at Maryland, found the endzone two plays later.

The Hoosiers led by 31 points halfway through the

third quarter. The Terrapins’ will was shattered, joining nearly all the previous eight teams Indiana defeated this season. Sixth-year senior defensive lineman Mikail Kamara said that because the Hoosiers had experience with drubbings last season, they know what it takes.

And with some newcomers — like University of Notre Dame transfer center Pat Coogan — coming from winning programs, they too are seasoned.

“So, from the first play to the last, you got to keep the pedal to the metal and keep going non-stop, nonstop, non-stop,” Kamara said. “‘Cause at some point, they’re going to break, and it’s not going to be us.”

The Terrapins, in fact, broke. They entered the contest with just five turnovers all season — one of the best turnover ratios in the country. Indiana notched five takeaways Saturday to double Maryland’s previous total.

Mendoza took just one snap in the fourth quarter. Indiana threw only three passes to 14 rushing attempts in the fourth quarter with numerous reserves on

the field. In total, Nov. 1 was another will-breaking win the Hoosier faithful have become so accustomed to seeing from Cignetti’s squad. From the first play to the last, Indiana played as though the score was knotted at zero. It’s the mentality Cignetti has instilled in his players, who sound more like his disciples as the season continues.

While reaching historic 2001 Miami and 2019 LSU levels are almost certainly unattainable, Indiana is focused on being 2025 Indiana. It’s a team whose coach stares at the scoreboard — which often displays a significant Hoosier advantage — with a frown. It’s a team that dismantles others weekly and promptly turns its focus to which squad they’ll pummel next.

“Now, it’s about winning the championship, it’s about winning the Big Ten championship and then trying to win a natty,” Kamara said. “So, I just think we just understand every single week, we have to attack it like it’s any other game. So, I think that’s just the mindset every single time.”

Richards’ Report Card: Indiana posts honor roll performance

By Quinn Richards qmrichar@iu.edu | @Quinn_richa

Keen-eyed Indiana Daily

Student readers may have noticed there wasn’t a traditional postgame column written after Indiana football’s 55-10 rout of Maryland on Nov. 1. While my growing tendency to leave my keys anywhere but my pockets would have you believe otherwise, no, I didn’t simply forget.

I didn’t write a column because I didn’t have anything to say. After their 30-20 win over Oregon on Oct. 11, I said the Hoosiers claimed the crown of college football. Having only posted dominant wins since, that esteemed item remains firmly in their custody. Truth be told, it’s going to take a Louvre-level heist to remove Indiana’s prized possession. Too soon?

While I completely understand my traditional column will be greatly missed, I will attempt to fill the void with my weekly obligation of grading every Hoosier position group. Here’s another honor roll-worthy edition of Richards’ Report Card.

Quarterbacks

Grade: B

Explanation: After he threw an interception on the third play from scrimmage, redshirt junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza bounced back with a solid performance. The Heisman Trophy hopeful accounted for a pair of touchdowns — one with his arm and another with his legs — and

eclipsed 200 yards through the air. While Mendoza’s performance looks mundane in comparison to some of his other stat-stuffing showings this season, he managed an offense that posted 55 points and 588 total yards — the second-most yards a Big Ten team has posted against in a conference matchup this season. I also need to do something that I forgot to do last week and talk about the other Mendoza. Redshirt freshman Alberto Mendoza completed both of his pass attempts, one of which was a touchdown, and tacked on an explosive 53-yard rush while taking over for his older brother in the fourth quarter.

Running Backs

Grade: A+

Explanation: For the second straight week, Indiana’s rushing attack was the highlight of its offense. I could probably write 780 words describing at length just how dominant the Hoosiers’ backs were against the Terrapins. Fortunately, my cowriter Conor Banks saved me some time and did just that. So, in the most selfless act of my life to date, I’ll advise you to read his story if you haven’t already to see why this group earned a perfect score this week.

Receivers Grade: B+

Explanation: The biggest takeaway from the Hoosiers’ receiver room was how it fared without senior Elijah Sarratt, who left the game early in the first quarter

with a hamstring injury and didn’t return. While the good news is that head coach Curt Cignetti’s decision to keep Sarratt out was precautionary, the even better news is how Indiana played without him. Redshirt junior Omar Cooper Jr. stepped up with a team-leading seven receptions for 86 yards and scorched a defensive back with a route-running masterclass for a touchdown. In total, eight different Hoosiers caught passes against

the Terrapins. Still, Sarratt’s absence likely played a factor in offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan’s decision to rely more heavily on the run game.

Offensive Line Grade: A

Explanation: Indiana’s starting offensive line allowed two tackles for loss in its first six plays on the field. It didn’t allow any more after that. Despite a new-look front that saw redshirt senior

tackle Zen Michalski fill in for an injured redshirt junior left guard Drew Evans, the unit commanded the trenches. If the running backs have an A+, it’s pretty self-explanatory that those blocking for them will have a similarly respectable grade. My only gripes were the initial struggles, some of which can be attributed to poor play calling, and a trio of penalties. It’s nitpicky, I know, but it’ll cost the offensive line a pesky plus sign this week.

Defensive Line

Grade: A+

Explanation: The Hoosiers held the Terrapins to just 37 rushing yards — the fewest they’ve had in any game for the past two seasons. That success starts with the defensive line. In a similar fashion to the other side of the football, it was all Indiana up front, and it showed. While skill position players line the box score with eye-opening numbers, blowouts in college football start up front. That was the case against Illinois on Sep. 20 and UCLA on Oct. 25, the trend continued against Maryland. The Cream and Crimson won those three games by a combined margin of 174-26.

Linebackers

Grade: A-

Explanation: No Aiden Fisher, no problem. With the star senior leader on the sidelines, Indiana’s linebackers continued to excel. Sophomore Rolijah Hardy recorded a team-high six tackles and redshirt junior Kaiden

Turner earned his first career interception. While at times the unit missed Fisher’s dynamic pass coverage in the middle of the field, the effort still warrants another quality grade. I also wanted to highlight redshirt junior Isaiah Jones, who earned the green dot, commanding the Hoosiers’ stout defense in Fisher’s absence.

Secondary

Grade: A-

Explanation: I’m genuinely unsure how to approach this grade. Indiana allowed 256 passing yards and five receptions of 20 or more yards Nov. 1 — a performance that on paper seems mediocre at best. The Hoosiers’ defensive backs also forced four turnovers. Those takeaways will do some heavy lifting this week and serve as extra credit to help cover up some noticeable lapses in coverage. In addition to the turnovers, Indiana’s secondary posted 2.5 tackles for loss against the Terrapins.

Special Teams

Grade: A-

Explanation: Senior Mitch McCarthy’s lone punt went just 36 yards, but I’ll give him some leeway considering it was from his own end zone. Aside from that, redshirt sophomore kicker Nico Radicic nailed both of his field goal attempts and converted each of his extra points. The Hoosiers haven’t missed a kick since the first game of the season against Old Dominion University on Aug. 30.

Indiana sweeps head coach Steve Aird’s alma mater

By Savannah Slone

srslone@iu.edu | @savrivers06

As Indiana volleyball took the floor Nov. 2 at Rec Hall in University Park, Pennsylvania, it was looking to achieve something it had never done before — defeat Penn State in the Nittany Lions’ home gym. In 63 total meetings since 1982, Indiana has defeated Penn State once. Under former head coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan, the Hoosiers took down the Nittany Lions in four sets during the 2010 season in Bloomington.

A lot has changed since that 2010 season, from the hiring of current head coach Steve Aird to the addition of the transfer portal to collegiate athletics. But through the series, Penn State’s

dominance over Indiana has been a constant. That was until Nov. 2.

The Hoosiers have been swept by the Nittany Lions 17 times since 2010, but Indiana flipped the script Nov. 2. It marked the Hoosiers’ first win in Pennsylvania and second all-time over the Nittany Lions. And not only did the Cream and Crimson defeat Penn State, but it largely dominated the contest. The Hoosiers found early leads in the first two sets that were insurmountable for the Nittany Lions. Penn State took its first lead of the match in the third set, but Indiana continued to overpower its opponent for a three-set victory.

Aird, who is in his eighth season at the helm of the

Hoosiers, struggled to put into words what the win meant to him and his program on the Big Ten Network broadcast after the match, in part because of his history with Penn State.

From 1997-2001, Aird was a member of the Penn State men’s volleyball program. In his four-year playing career with the Nittany Lions, Aird and his teammates made three NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances.

However, Aird’s time with Penn State didn’t stop at being a player. After assistant coaching tenures at Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati, Aird became an assistant coach with the Nittany Lions for the 2007 season and won a national championship.

Aird stepped away from collegiate coaching for a brief period before returning to Penn State as an assistant coach once again from 201213. In 2012, the Nittany Lions made a Final Four appearance. In 2013, Aird and Penn State won another national championship.

Maryland hired Aird as its head coach ahead of the 2014 season. After four seasons with the Terrapins, Aird replaced Dunbar-Kruzan after an unsuccessful 2017 season in which the Hoosiers went 1-19 in conference play.

Under Aird, the Hoosiers haven’t been a dominant force in collegiate volleyball, let alone the Big Ten. Indiana’s lone conference record over .500 in Aird’s tenure was in 2023 when it went 11-9

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

to finish tied for sixth in the conference.

Now, in Aird’s eighth year at Indiana, his squad is becoming a powerful team in collegiate volleyball and continues to break program records.

While the players were elated with the win — storming the court and cheering with one another — it was a bittersweet moment for Aird.

“It’s maybe not joyful, you know, it’s a program that made me,” Aird said on the broadcast, his voice breaking from holding back tears. “It’s hard right now. I’m emotional.”

Aside from the program’s first win at Penn State, the victory over the Nittany Lions was the Hoosiers’ eighth road win of the season, which marks the program’s record. After defeating thenNo. 17 USC and then-No. 24 UCLA, Indiana reached its highest ranking in program history at No. 20. It already surpassed its 2024 season win total by three matches with eight contests remaining this season. The Hoosiers started Big Ten play with five straight wins — the best conference start in program history. So, when Indiana defeated Penn State, it celebrated its head coach. After Aird shook hands with the Penn State staff, senior opposite hitter Avry Tatum — who is in her third season under Aird — ran up to Aird and congratulated him. Afterward on the broadcast, Tatum said her and her teammates wanted to win the match for Aird.

‘Just playing basketball’: Socka-Nguemen powers Indiana

By Savannah Slone srslone@iu.edu | @savrivers06

A season ago, Indiana women’s basketball lacked a dominant inside presence. Forwards Lilly Meister and Karoline Striplin showed flashes of powerful play in the paint, but the duo largely struggled to be physical consistently, especially in conference contests. Over the offseason, Striplin graduated from the program while Meister transferred to the University of Kansas. In response, the Hoosiers brought in Zania Socka-Nguemen from UCLA.

On Nov. 4 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, the sophomore forward showed Hoosier fans the type of inside power she can be.

Socka-Nguemen scored 19 points in the Hoosiers’ 80-46 win over Lipscomb University. She missed just one of her 10 total shot attempts from the field — a jumper almost three and a half minutes into the sec-

ond quarter. She also recorded six rebounds and one steal in the contest.

After her performance, Socka-Nguemen shook off the impressive stat line like it was an expectation for herself.

“I was just playing basketball,” Socka-Nguemen said after the win. “There’s not really much that I have to say. I’m just happy to be in this position, very grateful. I went 9 for 10, sadly I missed that one.”

Indiana head coach Teri Moren noted that confidence — which stems from the work she has put in — as one of the aspects of SockaNguemen’s game that allowed her to be aggressive and score for the Hoosiers on Nov. 4. Moren said even when Lipscomb started to double team Socka-Nguemen and put more pressure on her, she handled herself “beautifully.”

The 6-foot-3 SockaNguemen displayed a similar accuracy in the Hoosiers’ lone exhibition contest against Missouri University of Science and

Technology on Oct. 27. She recorded 8 points on a perfect 4 for 4 from the field.

However, Socka-Nguemen’s minutes were limited after she found herself in foul trouble less than halfway through the third quarter. That was an area Moren and the staff worked on with Socka-Nguemen leading up to Nov. 4’s contest, and it paid off.

Socka-Nguemen picked up one foul with just under eight minutes remaining in the first quarter, but she didn’t record another. After the contest, Moren stressed how important having an aggressive Socka-Nguemen on the court was and will be for the Hoosiers, especially in contests later in the season.

Throughout the offseason, Moren has complimented the athleticism of her team — especially Socka-Nguemen. She’s played an important role in Indiana’s ability to get up and down the court with more tempo and intensity.

The UCLA transfer saw limited playing time dur-

ing her lone season with the Bruins. She played in just 16 games last season, partly because of an injury that kept her sidelined for eight of UCLA’s early season games. She also saw little action because of the players she was under, like center Lauren Betts, who was the 2025 Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year.

While the Silver Spring, Maryland, native’s performance Nov. 4 was against an Atlantic Sun Conference team, which is different compared to the likes of the Big Ten opponents Indiana will face later, it was a glimpse at what she might be capable of come bigger, more physical opposition.

“We’re very grateful that ‘Z’ (Socka-Nguemen) picked Indiana, and tonight was just a little bit of what she could do,” senior guard Shay Ciezki said. “There’s a lot more, and it’ll be exciting to see as we get to it, but just her ability to run the floor, grab boards, finish at a high level. You don’t see every post doing that, so we’re grateful she’s here.”

COLUMN: Indiana builds much-needed chemistry in dominant win

By Sean McAvoy semcavoy@iu.edu | @sean_mc07

Indiana women’s bas-

ketball’s new faces have been talked about time and time again this offseason. Six transfer portal additions and two freshmen joined the program.

Even with fresh names, Indiana got crucial minutes together from its starting five. The Hoosiers banded together to open the 202526 campaign 1-0 in an 80-46 win over Lipscomb University, but Indiana will have to clean up screwups on either end of the floor.

“I do think that this is a group that’s still learning to play with each other, learning to build chemistry,” Indiana head coach Teri Moren said postgame.

It was the same starting lineup for Indiana on Nov. 4, as in the Hoosiers’ preseason exhibition win over Missouri University of Science and Technology. The continuity will help Indiana later in the season if Moren keeps the same five out on the floor to open more games.

Every starter played over 21 minutes, with sophomore guard Valentyna Kadlecova having the lowest time on court with 22. Senior guard Shay Ciezki and freshman guard Nevaeh Caffey reached 30 minutes, something that the 12th-year head coach has a habit of doing.

Last season, four starters had 30 or more minutes played per game. That has been the magic number for Moren-coached squads. Two seasons ago, the starters averaged 30, and in 202223, they averaged the same total minutes.

It would take until 3:45 left in the game with a 31-point lead before Moren made a hockey-style line change to bring in players further down the bench.

“I wanted to see a bigger fight from those starters,” Moren said. “We wanted to give those guys those reps to figure out some things defensively.”

Ciezki was the only holdover from last season’s starting lineup. She finished the contest with 22 points on

an 8-of-17 shooting performance, but her contribution was also seen off the court.

Ciezki was involved in leading the pregame talk before the Hoosiers took the floor for the first time in the regular season. Moren watched intensely from outside the huddle, but she knew the second-year Hoosier could relate to her teammates.

“I take a lot of pride in that,” Ciezki said postgame. “I think we’re all very vocal leaders. I think coach just put that on us very early to be a high-level communication team, and I think you’re just going to see more and more of it.”

Sophomore forward Zania Socka-Nguemen and redshirt sophomore guard Lenée Beaumont were the other two starters for the Hoosiers. Socka-Nguemen finished the contest with 25 minutes played, and Beaumont was in for 29.

Some of those minutes were surprising for Beaumont after she picked up her fourth foul of the contest with 8:06 left in the game.

Even though Indiana was leading 67-39, it would take Moren until 3:45 on the clock to pull the Lisle, Illinois, native out of the game.

It makes sense, as the time together on the floor for four out of five starters was more important than the sizable advantage. Freshman forward Maya Makalusky — who finished the game with 14 minutes played — was in the game for Kadlecova.

The starting five did their job on the court, as they jumped out to a 19-6 lead halfway through the first quarter before Moren made her first change. Caffey and Kadlecova were out, Makalusky and sophomore guard Phoenix Stotijn were in.

It looks like Stotijn will be the first one substituted in for the guard group, Makalusky for the forwards and junior forward Edessa Noyan for the bigs. Stotijn played 20 minutes, scoring 6 points, while Noyan had 2 points in 14 minutes. Moren does not like going deep into her bench for important minutes, so the trio will have

to contribute in their limited time on the court.

Going back to the starting group, the scoreboard shows it was a dominant performance, but they still must clean up their mistakes. Indiana football has the Richards’ Report Card, but Moren didn’t need any outside help to grade her team’s performance: “I would give us a solid ‘C’ tonight defensively,” Moren said. “We have a lot of work to do still on that side of the ball.” The Hoosiers forced 18 turnovers and limited Lipscomb to 29.8% shooting from the field and a 4-of-23 performance behind the 3-point line. The Bisons had a turnover percentage of 18.9% last season, and Indiana jumped that number up to 25.7%.

However, the Hoosiers will have to clean up miscommunications when switching on screens and letting opposing players cut to an open basket. Lipscomb’s largest unanswered scoring run was 7 points in the third quarter, but many

teams will take that performance when playing an opposing program that finished with 20 wins last season. On the other end of the floor, Indiana’s offense needs to improve its 3-of15 mark from behind the 3-point line if it wants to compete against more athletic teams. Although it is good to know that the Hoosiers can find ways to score when their shooting from deep is not connecting; Indiana finished the game with 56 points in the paint and 23 fastbreak points. “It takes time to learn to play with one another,” Moren said. “I think it’s just some growing pains that we’re going to have to watch.”

Those growing pains can be figured out in the Hoosiers’ next two contests against the University of Illinois Chicago on Nov. 7 and Marshall University on Nov. 11. However, Indiana does not have a lot of time, as Florida State University on Nov. 16 can pounce on any remaining issues.