Dear Frosh...

With the final week of freshman year classes over, it’s amazing how quickly this year went by. For as much as people warn you it will, you don’t realize how quick it went until it’s over. The people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had remind me why I chose IU in the first place. From the first day of classes, the home-opener football game, first snow, to today’s Frisbee game, this year has been full of good times with great new friends. To those of you who read on a consistent basis, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed my posts. To any incoming freshman, this is for you…

           

Dear Incoming Frosh,

            Congrats! I hope your freshman year is as amazing as mine. Meet new people, experience new things, and maybe learn a thing or two. To the workaholics, skip class every once in a while so you don’t drive yourself insane. To the procrastinators, get up for your 9 a.m. and actually GO to class. To both, keep up on your work, life sucks when you’re knee deep in papers and can’t have any fun.

            Get to know professors and upperclassmen; they’re a great resource both for learning academically and learning about the surrounding area. They know the town; make use of their knowledge. They’re not as scary as you think.

            Don’t lock yourself in your dorm room, it gets claustrophobic and boring; get outside and enjoy the beauty of IU’s campus. Find your favorite places to get away, and the quite places where you can think. Learn the campus from north to south, east to west; don’t lock yourself into one region of campus. Eat everywhere, you WILL get sick of eating at the same dining hall every single day; explore your options!

            Experience Bloomington. Take a trip into town and find it’s hidden gems. Bloomington is an amazing town with great food, nice people, and its own unique culture. Take a walk through town and strike up a conversation with a stranger.

            So don’t waste your freshman year. Meet as many people as you can and get your feet planted in IU’s society. It’ll be over quicker than you think.

-Dan

Lucky Streak

With Little 5 over, things quieting down around campus, and Easter right around the corner, I can tell that the school year is wrapping up. Preparations for finals have begun and my to-do list for the year is getting shorter. My last packages of the year came in featuring the most addicting cookies ever from my sister, and common Easter basket treats from the “Easter Bunny” (thanks parents!) My newfound love for Vitamin Water has replaced my former addiction to Arizona Ice Tea, and I just registered for fall classes. I thought my luck for the year had burnt out.

WOOHOO! I WON! Or at least so said the email I received last Sunday. Back in January I took the National Survey of Student Engagement or NSSE. The survey is given each year with a goal to determine the level of student involvement in activities and academics. This year IU was one of 761 schools polled and I was one of 4,419 IU students to participate (393,630 total).

            IU was smart about the survey, leaving it completely optional. They did however automatically enter you into drawing for any one of numerous prizes from an IPod Touch to free movies if you participated. Funny how fifteen minutes of my time that I took during my physics class (yay multitasking!) resulted in free stuff!

  I opened up the email to find I won five wooden nickels at Bloomington Bagel Company.  I had no idea what a wooden nickel was, absolutely none. Turns out they’re “coupons” for a free naked (without cream cheese) bagel, or 95 cents off your total order. I love bagels and go to BBC way too much, so this was the perfect prize! I’ve got a wooden nickel! (and yes, it's better than a golden ticket...) :D

The Times Are a Changing

             Just as the weather has started changing, so have things around campus. Things are getting fixed or built, and campus will look quite different when everyone returns in the fall. Here’s an update on renovations happening on campus.

 

Showalter Fountain is being repaved. The cement circling the fountain is being removed and replaced.

The first half of the Briscoe Quad renovation is nearly complete. The newly done Shoemaker (west) tower will re-open next year, while the Gucker (east) tower will close down to undergo similar renovations. You can see a 3-D representation of the new building here (http://www.rps.indiana.edu/briscoevid.cfml).

 

The Jacobs School of Music just held its groundbreaking ceremony for its newest building. Located on the corner of 3^rd & Jordan where the West University Apartments used to stand, a new building containing practice rooms and teacher studios will be added. Also included in the project is an extension onto the backside of the MAC, adding another large rehearsal room and an audio control room. You can read more about the project here (http://info.music.indiana.edu/news/page/normal/17875.html).

 

Finally, the HPER building is being refurbished this summer. The roof of the upper basketball courts (room 293) is being replaced!

Keep a look out for the changes next fall!

This is Classified

The Classified Listings.

Need to dump off a pair of basketball tickets? Sublet an apartment? Sell everything because you just graduated and don’t need it anymore? Then the IU Classifieds are just the place for you. Hosted on IU servers, the classifieds serve as Indiana University’s very own version of Craigslist!

  The classifieds can be found by logging into OneStart. On the left side of the page under the “Most Popular” section is the link. Once you reach the classifieds homepage, you will be asked to pick a category such as Books, Electronics, or Tickets & Events. Pick a section and start searching. Look for deals such as cheap electronics, used musical instruments, or even your next job! Departments such as Sociology and Psychology consistently post ads looking for test subjects, as do local businesses looking for an extra hand.  

Classified Category Screen.

  The classifieds are the perfect place to look for carpools and sublets. There’s an entire thread just for rides. Put up an ad or scroll through what’s already posted and you might not have to take Bloomington Shuttle Service back to Chicago next break.  If you’re going away for a semester or need to cover rent put up your location and price; you might just find your next roommate! 

A common classified ad.

  Take use of this great resource. Snag some cheap tickets to the next home basketball game, find a job, sell your old iPod, or find a ride home. The classifieds serve the perfect medium for getting into contact with anyone of the 43,000 students on campus!

Angles of Art

By day, the IU Art Museum looks like just another building surrounding Showalter Fountain. Occasionally confused with the MAC due to a common red sculpture outside, the museum becomes one of IU’s most iconic buildings by night thanks to the light totem.  The totem projects colors down the wall that illuminate it and pop in the night sky. Students are constantly found lying on the ground looking up the wall, reliving their youth imagining they are once again racing on Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 64. While the buildings main attraction is its nighttime lights, within the museum is a collection of works worth seeing.

 Lucky for you the museum is free! That’s right, free to everyone! Closed on Mondays, the museum is open every other day until 5 opening at 10 AM (noon on Sundays).  Housed within the museum are works by Picasso, Matisse, Pollack, and Monet. Also, the museum brings in special exhibits that rotate throughout the year; currently on display is a collection of works by Andy Warhol. The museum however, is a work of art itself. The building contains no straight lines. Nowhere in the building, except the stairs, is there a right angle. 

 

          Within the museum is Angles, a coffee shop that doubles as the museum gift shop. Offering free trade items and merchandise directly related to the museum’s exhibits, Angles is a hidden gem on campus. Not many people know about it, and the coffee is outstanding. Stop by and grab a cup, then feel free to take a stroll through the galleries!