UIndy News

The 1860 presidential election – which sent Abe Lincoln to the White House and stoked the fires of Secession and Civil War – is widely considered the most important in our nation’s history.

Fuller

However, the conventional focus on the campaign between Republican Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas ignores complexities in the story that reveal much about a young nation struggling with its identity, says UIndy Professor of History A. James Fuller.

With contributions from several colleagues – including fellow UIndy Professor Lawrence Sondhaus – Fuller has brought a richer version of the tale to life as editor of The Election of 1860 Reconsidered, published this spring by Kent State University Press.

“My conception of it was, let’s rethink this election and test the traditional interpretation of it,” says Fuller, who joined the university in 1999.

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Student firm director Christi Larimer and team leader Katy Watson of Top Dog Communication celebrate after Wednesday’s Pinnacle Awards.

UIndy’s student-run public relations agency, Top Dog Communication, claimed the two top student honors Wednesday at the annual Pinnacle Awards, presented by the Hoosier Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

In the programs category, which covers all the strategy and elements of an entire PR campaign, the honors went to a team led by senior Hannah Klare. The students developed a campaign to promote volunteer opportunities available through their client, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana.

The projects award, for a particular element of a campaign, went to a team led by recent graduate Katy Watson for its website work on a national campaign for Samaritan’s Feet, which provides shoes to the needy around the world.

Top Dog gives students hands-on experience in public relations while providing a service to local nonprofit organizations. The agency’s faculty adviser is Dr. Rebecca Deemer, Distinguished Professor of Service Learning and director of the public relations program in UIndy’s Department of Communication.

A UIndy forensic anthropologist and her students will spend next week in Texas exhuming graves like this one as part of an ongoing effort to identify and repatriate the remains of people who die after crossing the border.

Watch WTHR report

So many undocumented migrants are turning up dead in rural Brooks County, Texas, that the local cemetery is running out of space for them.

University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologist Krista Latham and four graduate students will be there next week, exhuming remains as part of a humanitarian effort to bring closure to grieving families.

Latham

Near the small town of Falfurrias, barely an hour’s drive from the Mexican border, 129 bodies or sets of skeletal remains were found in 2012 alone. The location suggests that the migrants, left to their own devices by smugglers paid to deliver them safely, might be trying to reach a nearby U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint and be sent back home rather than die in the countryside.

“That’s where people are running out of water, running out of food,” says Latham, an assistant professor in UIndy’s Departments of Biology and Anthropology. “A lot of them are women and children who are just coming here for a better life.” Some are from Asian countries, she noted.

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Hear Dr. Knapp on Inside Indiana Business

A professor with extensive experience in project management and information technology has been named acting dean of the University of Indianapolis School of Business.

Knapp

Karl Knapp joined the UIndy faculty in 2006 and has been serving as an associate professor of business administration. Executive Vice President and Provost Deborah Balogh said his range of skills made him a clear choice to lead the business school as the national search for a permanent dean continues.

“Dr. Knapp is a committed teacher with a demonstrated ability to think innovatively and build relationships on and off campus,” Balogh said. “His business connections and his significant management experience in industry will ensure that our academic programs maintain their relevance to regional workforce needs and economic development.”

Prior to his nine years in academia, Knapp spent 17 years in positions that included manager of information services and Six Sigma expert for Raytheon Technical Services Co. and director of information technology for Indianapolis Life Insurance Co. He also has worked, managed and consulted in strategic planning, organizational development, human resources, and mergers and acquisitions. He is a member of the Institute for Supply Management and the Academy of Management, among other professional associations.

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UIndy’s varsity athletic teams have claimed the Great Lakes Valley Conference All-Sports Trophy for the second year in a row and the fifth time overall.

Willey

The award recognizes the institution with the year’s best all-around performance in the GLVC’s 18 sponsored sports.  Points are allocated based on overall finish in the league standings and in each sport’s conference tournament.

“I’m incredibly proud of our student-athletes and coaches for their success over the past two seasons and excited that the GLVC All-Sports Trophy will remain in our trophy case for another year,” Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Sue Willey said. “Our success on the field and in the classroom is no accident because of the dedication our student-athletes have to embrace and excel in the complete NCAA Division II experience.”

Greyhound successes this year included conference championships in football, men’s indoor track and field, men’s and women’s golf, and men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, with strong finishes in several other sports.

Read more at the Athletics Website.

Dresslar

David Dresslar, executive director of UIndy’s Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning, was invited to to write an opinion column for the latest Indianapolis Business Journal about Indiana’s debate over Common Core education standards.

“Controversy over education policy is normal and healthy for the Indiana General Assembly, but this session’s pointless rancor over Common Core State Standards has only hindered progress in teaching our children and building our communities,” he wrote.

IBJ subscribers can read the full item here.

Sam

Just wrapping up his first year at UIndy, international student Henry Sam has received a $1,000 boost in his quest to become a physician and work for the betterment of his native Ghana.

A biology and chemistry double major with a pre-med concentration, Sam landed the scholarship money by placing second in a national essay contest sponsored by student insurance provider LewerMark. The theme: “How will an international education help me make a difference in the world?”

Sam’s essay notes the disparity in educational opportunities between the U.S. and his home country.

“The availability of state-of-the-art teaching equipment, improved and better teaching methods which I lacked in my juvenile education, has to a great extent given me the impetus to climb the academic ladder to the best of my ability,” he writes.

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UIndy’s Hiroshima Peace Study group visits the Atomic Bomb Dome, a stark remnant of World War II’s destruction.

Associate Professor of English Kyoko Amano will be honored this month while on a Spring Term tour of Japan.

Amano

The current trip, with faculty colleague Greta Pennell and 12 students, is Amano’s third travel course focusing on global peace efforts and the aftermath of the World War II atomic bombing of Japan. Funded by a $34,500 grant from the Japan Foundation’s Japan-America Collegiate Exchange Travel Program, the group will spend two weeks hearing stories from A-bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and lectures at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, the Hiroshima Peace Institute and the Radiation Effect Research Foundation, among other activities.

On May 19, the mayor of Nagasaki is scheduled to present a certificate to Amano marking her induction as a Nagasaki Peace Correspondent, a select affiliation whose 15 current members include artist-activist-Beatle widow Yoko Ono. The designation recognizes people from various nations and disciplines who are involved in raising awareness about peace initiatives and the continuing nuclear threat.

UPDATE: Hounds advance to Super Regional

The Indianapolis Star has a story about the UIndy softball team, still ranked No. 1 nationally as it prepares to host NCAA Division II Midwest Regional action this weekend at Baumgartner Field.

Senior Jennifer DeMotte (UIndy Athletics photo)

Writer Mark Ambrogi talks to senior pitcher Jennifer DeMotte, sophomore outfielder Casey Williamson (Conference Player of the Year) and head coach Melissa Frost-Fisher, who says her team has its sights set high.

“Our goal is to win a national championship,” she says. Read the story here.

In the first round of the regional, the top-seeded Greyhounds (50-6) will face No. 8-seed Wayne State at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Tickets for the games, which continue through Sunday, are $10 per day for adults and $5 per day for senior citizens and children 12 and younger. They’re available online here.

UIndy junior Addelyn Ratcliff has claimed first prize, a $2,500 scholarship, in a national video contest sponsored by Cengage Learning.

Ratcliff is a music major with a concentration in technology and recording, as well as a performing musician under the name Addie Kosten. She just left on a UIndy Spring Term trip to Cuba, but her mother, Amy, said the family hopes to reach her tonight with the good news.

Cengage’s MindTap Slice of Your Life contest invited college students across the country to submit short videos using the process of peeling an orange to illustrate a point about learning. The opportunity was perfect for Ratcliff, who coincidentally had become known on campus for quirky folk-art pieces made from orange peels. Read more about her “Peel of the Day” project here.