UIndy News

UIndy’s Center for Aging & Community is known for its research, advocacy and education on issues related to aging, but this spring CAC is delving into the new field of … musical theater?

Yes, as part of the center’s ongoing 10th anniversary celebration, it has commissioned an original stage production by the Phoenix Theatre. Forever Sung: A Celebration of Age in Song runs May 18-26 and June 1-3.

Described as “a live musical concert that celebrates every age of our lives,” the production explores the seasons of life through the music of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Nina Simone, John Mayer, Taylor Swift and many other popular recording artists.

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Now that the Super Bowl excitement is long over, the air-supported dome at UIndy’s Athletics & Recreation Center can move on to its intended purpose as a facility for field sports and a range of campus activities.

This week, a crew began the process of removing the artificial turf football field installed by the city’s Super Bowl Host Committee and trod upon by the victorious New York Giants in the week preceding the February game. The turf will be reinstalled at Arsenal Technical High School, one focus of the committee’s near-Eastside Legacy Projects.

The first step — before rolling up the carpet, so to speak — is vacuuming up the sand and rubber-crumb mixture that serves as simulated dirt in today’s artificial turf fields. As seen in these photos, the grit is being loaded into large bags for transport.

The new flooring in the dome will be a multipurpose rubbery surface suitable for sports and fitness use.

Clark

Student volunteers led by Dr. Brenda Clark, director of UIndy’s music education programs and Pep Band, are hosting a special concert on campus tonight featuring young musicians from the Indianapolis Public Schools.

Students from Stephen Foster Elementary School No. 67 and bands from Harshman Magnet Middle School and Arsenal Technical High School will perform at 6 p.m. in Ruth Lilly Performance Hall at UIndy’s Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center. The free concert is part of the Performance Plus Series, which Clark founded this year as an outreach program to familiarize public school students with the university experience.

For the finale, the combined Harshman and Tech bands will premiere a piece commissioned in honor of Harshman student Justice Renee Holifield, who died last year in a traffic accident.

Watch Dr. Frantz’ WRTV interview

Richard Mourdock’s defeat of six-term Sen. Richard Lugar in Tuesday’s Republican primary closes an eventful chapter in Indiana history and opens up interesting possibilities for the fall election, says a historian at the University of Indianapolis. 

Frantz

“Few Hoosiers under 40 can remember a time when Richard Lugar didn’t represent them in Washington,” Associate Professor Edward Frantz says. “With his defeat, Indiana has lost all of its experience and seniority in the Senate.”

Frantz is interim director of UIndy’s Institute for Civic Leadership & Mayoral Archives, which is being developed around a four-decade collection of official documents and other materials dating to Lugar’s tenure as mayor of Indianapolis and architect of the Unigov consolidation.

“Residents of Indianapolis are particularly in Lugar’s debt,” Frantz says. “His leadership helped to transform a sleepy Midwestern community into a city with the resources and self-confidence to host a Super Bowl.”

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For the third year running, the UIndy men’s and women’s track and field teams swept the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships on Saturday at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer.

The teams also claimed four of the eight individual postseason awards. Senior criminal justice major Matt Royer, a thrower from Avon, was named male Field Athlete of the Year. Business administration major LaTisha Martin, a sprinter from Indianapolis’ east side, was named female GLVC Freshman of the Year. And head coach Scott Fangman took both the men’s and women’s Coach of the Year awards.

Read more at the Athletics website.

Preparing for Saturday’s commencement ceremony, graduates gather as Melia Knapp of the Registrar’s Office provides safety pins and advice on the complexities of commencement gowns and accessories.

Watch the Undergraduate Commencement here.

Commencement hoopla ruled the weekend at UIndy’s home campus, where diplomas were awarded to more than 1,200 graduate and undergraduate students on Friday and Saturday.

Featured speaker at Saturday’s undergrad ceremony was Dr. John Lechleiter (left), chairman, president and CEO of Eli Lilly & Co., who offered a mix of inspiration and self-deprecating humor.

“The relative importance of my role hit me when I tried to remember who gave the address at my college graduation,” he quipped.

Lechleiter noted that his own generation, entering the job market in the late 1970s, faced a world of economic uncertainty and international tension, just as today’s graduates do. After listing several examples of community service projects undertaken by UIndy students, he expressed confidence that this generation also would succeed and make positive contributions to society.

“You did not hesitate to look for solutions, roll up your sleeves and make a difference,” he said, urging the graduates to ”do as Ghandi implored: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’”

The Indianapolis Star has a gallery of photos from Saturday’s event here. 

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UIndy saluted its graduating seniors with a host of student awards recently at the fifth annual Recognition Banquet.

Among them were the Senior Leadership Awards, presented each year to as many as 10 students who have distinguished themselves through sustained involvement in academic, social and service activities during their undergraduate years.

This year, however, classmates, faculty and staff nominated more than 50 students for that honor. Due to the high caliber of the nominees, 11 awards were presented, said Dan Stoker, executive director of Student Services.

The recipients were:

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Johnson County’s Daily Journal newspaper ran a story Wednesday about UIndy senior Donovan Drake, the standout pitcher for the Greyhound baseball team who looks to be headed for the big leagues.

The finance major and Whiteland Community High School grad is “arguably the No. 1 pitcher in NCAA Division II,” sports editor Rick Morwick wrote. Drake has a 1.02 earned-run average and was just named GLVC Pitcher of the Week after his conference-record 18 strikeouts in last week’s 8-0 rout of Southern Indiana. Head Coach Gary Vaught is confident Drake’s name will come up in next month’s major-league amateur draft.

The 34-12 Hounds, now leading the Midwest Regional rankings, travel next to Kentucky Wesleyan for a four-game series that starts at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Daily Journal subscribers can read the story here. Non-subscribers can read the text below:

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Professionals working with older adults often find themselves in the middle of tense family debates, but a May 15 workshop will offer strategies to make those discussions more productive.

“Helping Professionals Help Families Have Difficult Conversations” is hosted by UIndy’s Center for Aging & Community. The event is scheduled 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 15 at the Indianapolis Senior Center, 708 E. Michigan St.

The workshop will be led by Wendy Lustbader, a medical social worker at Seattle’s Pike Place Medical Clinic whose books include Taking Care of Your Aging Family Members and Counting on Kindness: The Dilemmas of Dependency. Her presentation will explore ways to avoid taking sides and guide productive communication as families discuss and make decisions about medical, financial and caregiving issues.

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