September 2008
Vol. 2008-2009 No. 2
Election 2008: Expect the unexpected
No matter what the outcome, this year’s election will make history. Edward G. Carmines, Warner O. Chapman Professor of political science, will share his perspective on the unfolding presidential election campaign when the IU Association of Retired Faculty and Staff meets at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8. Professor Carmines’ title is “The Changing Shape of the 2008 Presidential Election: Expect the Unexpected.” The meeting will be at the IU Foundation’s Showalter House.
Professor Carmines is the author or co-author of seven books. Two of them, Issue Evolution and Reaching Beyond Race, have won the American Political Science Association's Kammerer Award for best book in the field of U.S. national policy. He is working on two book projects, one focusing on public attitudes toward Congress and the other on the importance of issues in the 2004 election.
Professor Carmines joined the political science faculty in 1975 and was departmental chairman from 1990 to 1997. He was a fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University in 2006-07 and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University in 2000-2001. He is also the research director at IU’s Center on Congress.
Mark your calendar now
Save the dates for future meetings by putting them on your calendar now:
Nov. 12 – 2 p.m., Perry Metz (radio-TV), changes coming with HDTV
Dec. 3 – noon, IU coaches and swimmers/ divers, “Reflections from Beijing”
Jan. 14 – Allan Thornton, Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute
Feb. 11 – 2 p.m., Coach Bill Lynch, IU football
April 8 – 2 p.m., TBA
May 13 – 5:30 p.m., Bob and Pat Williams, “Cole Porter in Words and Music”
We’ll meet at the Peterson Room, Showalter House, IU Foundation, with the exception of the December meeting, when we will be once again at Terry’s. We don’t meet in March because we’re on spring break.
Recapping September
In introducing Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, IU President Emeritus John W. Ryan observed, “I never thought 26 years ago that I would be introducing that year’s obstreperous, troublesome student body president to IU retirees.”
Kruzan graduated in 1982, a red-letter year, Ryan told members of the Retirees Association at their Sept. 10 luncheon at Terry’s. At that year’s graduation ceremony Ryan announced that the old 10th Street stadium would be made into an Arboretum to honor the Class of 1982.
Kruzan recalled how in 1986, his first campaign for the Indiana legislature, he used boilerplate materials criticizing then Gov. Robert Orr for proposing Statehouse renovations. “Later I found out how bad the condition of the Statehouse was,” he said, “and learned I was too smart-alecky for my own good.” In 2002 he had the opportunity to apologize to Gov. Orr for those early campaign remarks. Orr granted forgiveness by replying, “Young man, we all say things in our life that we regret.”
Kruzan applied those words to his early experiences with President Ryan. “The simplistic, short-sighted thing to have done with that space on 10th Street would have been to make it a parking lot,” he said, but hindsight has shown President Ryan’s wisdom in creating the Arboretum.
“It’s my policy to introduce anyone packing heat,” Kruzan told the group as he introduced Sheriff Jim Kennedy. The mayor acknowledged two other association members: County Commissioner Iris Kiesling and Bloomington Township trustee emeritus Jim Dawson. He thanked the Retirees Association for its leadership role in the United Way campaign, which has been hit heavily by cuts at G.E., the campaign’s third largest contributor.
Kruzan recalled that “30 years ago this past week, as a freshman from the Hammond/ Munster area, I headed out from Teter Quad for a course in Lindley Hall, ‘Don Quixote in Translation.’ I ended up at the Courthouse Square.” At that point he never thought he’d be an adjunct professor (“I tell my students that ‘adjunct’ is Latin for ‘fake’”) in SPEA.
Bloomington is now the seventh largest city in Indiana, Kruzan told the retirees, “with Fishers nipping at our heels.” Three parts of growth need to be addressed: physical growth, economic growth, and the growth in the income gap.
The $80 million invested in downtown Bloomington five years ago has paid dividends, the second-term mayor said. The downtown area has the highest occupancy ever. “The strength of Bloomington is our uniqueness,” he said. “That’s what makes our city a destination attraction.”
The income gap is his greatest concern. “While more people are succeeding, we have elementary schools where 80 to 85 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches,” he said.
Kruzan sees the promotion of arts and social services as part of economic development and wants to make sure that commerce and character are compatible. The B-Line Trail, he said, is “one of the most significant economic development projects in the city.” By the end of this year people will be able to walk the downtown portion. Next in line is the area from Rogers to Adams/Third to Grimes, followed by the Grimes to Country Club Drive area. The 22-acre old switchyard needs remediation, he said. Referring to his earlier remarks about President Ryan, he observed, “It will be my Arboretum.”
Pay your dues for directory inclusion
Those who have paid their 2008-2009 dues by Nov. 15 will appear in this year’s membership directory, which will be mailed with the December newsletter. Send your check ($10 single, $15 per couple) to Treasurer Don Weaver, IU Retirees Association, P.O. Box 8393, Bloomington, IN 47407. If, in filling out the membership form (available online at http://www.indiana.edu/~emeriti/2008_Registration_and_Reservation.pdf), you leave out your e-mail address or your telephone number, it will not be printed in the directory. Only one e-mail address can be included per entry. Questions about the directory should be addressed to database manager Gerald Marker, marker@indiana.edu, 339-0685.
There’s money in the bank
At the September meeting of the Retirees Association, Treasurer Don Weaver reported a July balance of $2,596. Since that time he’s received $3,365 for dues and September’s luncheon, making a total of $5,961. Expenses related to the Big Ten Retirees Association conference were $1,645. The September luncheon and the printing and mailing of the newsletter for the past academic year each will cost about $1,500, leaving a $1,300 balance in the checking account.
Creative cooks, delectable dishes
Retirees enjoyed each other’s culinary masterpieces at May’s potluck dinner. Audrey Beckley asked for two recipes to be printed in Newswatch. Thanks to the generosity of the cooks, here are the recipes for your file, along with their creators’ comments.
Mary Rose’s Nutty Barley Bake
1 C barley (I use quick-cook barley)
½ C margarine (can use a little less)
1 medium onion, chopped
½ C sliced almonds
1 5-oz. can water chestnuts, chopped
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
2 C beef broth
1 8-oz. can sliced mushrooms, or 5 to 7 medium fresh mushrooms, sliced
In a glass casserole, melt margarine. Add rest of the ingredients. Bake in 325 or 350-degree oven until done. You can add water if necessary to cook barley, but I find with the quick-cook I usually don’t have to add any. This will easily serve 8.
Helen Gibbons’ Scalloped Pineapple
½ C softened butter
1 C sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 20-oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
3 C bread crumbs
1 C miniature marshmallows
Cream butter and sugar until well blended and then add eggs. Mix. Add undrained pineapple, bread cubes, and marshmallows.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees in a greased 1½-quart casserole. Serves 6-8. Can be used with meat or as dessert.
Hint: I break the bread into small pieces as though I were making stuffing. Packed bread crumbs make it look like bread pudding. When I double the recipe for a crowd, I reduce the sugar and bake it in a 9”x13” pan. There’s no need to increase the baking time.
Emeriti House: It’s a happ’nin’ place
The Emeriti Center, at 1015 E. Atwater, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Emeriti House programs are free and open to all IU faculty and librarian retirees and all members of the Association of Retired Faculty and Staff.
Mon., Sept. 29, 4 p.m. - Charles Franklin, Institute for Advanced Study Branigan Lecturer,
“Public Opinion Polling and the 2008 Election”
Wed., Oct. 1, 4 p.m. - Charlotte Zietlow, Middle Way House
Wed., Oct. 8, 4 p.m. - Peter Bailey, “Jazz at the Spirella: The Piano in Yesterday's Britain”
Wed., Oct. 15, 4 p.m. - Kelly Boatman and Phaedra Pezzullo, “Toward a Greener Bloomington: Initiatives and Activities of the City of Blooming-ton Environmental Commission”
Thu., Oct. 16, 3 p.m. - Life-writing session with John Woodcock
Fri., Oct. 24, TBA - Edoardo Lebano, Italian cooking demonstration
Wed., Oct. 29, 4 p.m. - Daniel Callison et al., “New Ventures in the Virtual World with IU Continuing Studies”
Retirees support United Way
The 2008-2009 United Way Campaign began officially on September 17, and your letter from us should have reached you by now. We look forward to another successful year for the Retirees Campaign because of your unwavering generosity in supporting the 26 certified United Way agencies that work all year to alleviate the hunger, homelessness, and other adversities many people in our community face. At our October meeting we will hear a brief message from a representative from one of the United Way agencies.
The United Way Campaign slogan this year is “Live United.” It gives each of us the opportunity to help make our community a better place for everyone. Our ambitious campaign goal this year is $90,000. We ask you to consider increasing your pledge this year and perhaps joining the 45 Retiree Vanguards of last year. Each of them gave $1,000 or more to further the important work of United Way agencies. Thank you for your help, and please let one of us know if you have questions or concerns. Retirees Association co-captains are Doris Burton, 336-7184, burtond@indiana.edu; Wain Martin, 336-4913, ewmartin@indiana.edu; and Harriet Pfister, 339-3364, pfisterh@indiana.edu.
- Harriet Pfister
Big Ten conference offers big picture
Because IU will be hosting the Big Ten Retirees Association conference in 2010, IU Retirees Association President Bob Ensman stated Sept. 10 that nine people from IU attended this August’s meeting at the University of Illinois to gather pointers. The group included Ann and Jim Allen, Dick and Rosemary Dever, Bob and Joann Dodd, Bob and Judy Ensman, and Judy Schroeder. Dates for the conference already have been set – Aug. 20-22, 2010 – and rooms reserved at the Indiana Memorial Union.
Ensman also announced that the Retirees Association executive committee met this summer with various IU administrators: then IU Foundation President Curt Simic, Vice President Terry Clapacs, Associate Vice President for Human Resources Dan Rives, andBloomington Provost Karen Hanson. The purpose of the meetings was to acquaint the administrators with the association’s plans to expand membership, outreach, and mission in order to strengthen the relationship between retirees and the university.
Some of our sister organizations within the Big Ten – Purdue, for example – include all retirees within their membership and charge no dues. They receive funding from the university and support from Human Resource Services.
While all the Big Ten retiree associations meet regularly to hear speakers, many have expanded their organizations’ scope. Retirees at Wisconsin, for example, adopted an at-risk public school, where many members serve as tutors and mentors. The Michigan Retirees Association holds an annual Health Day, and the University of Iowa Retirees Association, together with the Emeritus Faculty Association, sponsors a Senior College. The Ohio State Retirees Association worked successfully with Human Resources to increase the death benefit, and the Illinois group established a survivor assistance program. Several associations produce a brochure outlining retiree benefits and activities, a project Doris Burton is investigating for IU, and several have their own endowment.
Nor is the Bloomington campus alone in forging a relationship with retirees. IUPUI’s Senior Academy, for retired faculty and staff, is at least 14 years old. It gives a free one-year membership to new retirees and, in addition to its programs and social events, supports an active scholarship program.
The future of the IU Association of Retired Faculty and Staff has yet to be written, but Chapter 1 certainly has begun.
- J.S.
