By Karl Rybaltowski
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Hermann Hall played host to a sizable gath7
ering of students on March 10 for a student
forum on tuition increases and the financial
state of the university For an hour, President
Anderson and Provost Cramb directly an7
swered students’ questions on these and other
matters while students enjoyed a free lunch
Staff members were also in attendance, and at
a few points during the forum were asked to
step in to answer students’ questions on spe7
cific departments Though the starting topics
were financially related, questions ranged from
WiFi quality in MSV to student health to job
placement after graduation

Starting the forum off, President Anderson
offered some opening statements, admitting
that in past years the school has been running
deficits (at the time of his hiring, the budget
was out of balance by around $24 million), but
that the administration had been consistently
narrowing the deficit and the Board of Trust7
ees had just approved abalanced budget for the
coming fiscal year He also invited students to
attend a talk with John Rowe, chairman of the
Board of Trustees, on the afternoon of April
211 The floor was then turned over to the stu7
dents and their questions

Elaborating on the balanced budget (in an7
swer to the first question, regarding spending
cuts), Provost Cra.mb made clear that there
were no cuts made to student services 7 in fact,
departments such as OTS and Galvin Library

saw their budgets increasel “My thought is
that there should be no measurable impact of
any service to students in next year’s budget,"
the Provost said He also offered insight into
the process of determining tuition percentage
increases 7 examining a basket of universities
that are similar to (and compete for students
with) IIT and looking at their tuition rates in
order to determine where the university can
sit comfortably while still affording value to
students

Asked what the university was doing to im7
prove research, the strong push toward hiring
more research faculty was explained, as was
the fact that IIT is becoming a much more
research7intensive university, but that more
investment in research 7 not just financially,
but from students and faculty 7 is still neces7
sary “You’re known by the research you do,"
Anderson said

Jean Bingham, VP of Housing and Auxil7
ia.ry Services, was on hand to answer a ques7
tion about the recent switch to Connie’s pizza
in Center Court (and the associated increase
in price), while a question about emergency
services and difliculties getting walk7in atten7
tion from Student Health Services was fielded
directly by Katie Stetz, Dean of Students The
still7controversial issue of iPads came up in
another question, with Provost Cramb point7
ing out that, aside from the marketing value,
the day of the bomb threat on campus was the
perfect example of the hardware’s use: “the fact
that iitAlert popped onto the front of every
iPad, and everyone immediately knew there

(Photos byjean7Emmanuel Guebey)

was an issue on campus made that worthwhile
to me as an investment"

The last questions of the forum brought up
a common misconception 7 that the iitAlert
system sent out the bomb threat alert after the
supposed time of detonation 7 and the issues
with quality of wireless internet in the MSV
dormsl The iitAlert rumor was debunked by
Provost Cramb immediately 7 on the day of the
threat, he received the alert early enough that
he was able to commute to IIT from his home
on the north side of Chicago in time The Pres7
ident and Provost admitted that the wireless
service was sub7standa.rd, but explained that
creating a wireless system was a less expensive
alternative to re7wiring the entirety of MSV
The wireless service was installed by a com7
pany that had not fully taken into account the
construction of MSV, and this company was
now taking great pains to improve the wireless
reception at the dorms At the same time, add7
ed OTS ClO Ophir Trigalo, the university was
bringing in independent consultants to assess
the specific issues at MSV that were degrading
wireless service

After closing statements from SGA Presi7
dent Brian Kibbe thanking administration
and university staff members, the event endedl
Overall response to the event was positive, not
just from students, but from the administra7
tion as well “I think this is the best [forum]
we’ve had yet," said President Anderson “The
students asked a lot of tough questions"

technewsiit.com

Opinion 2-3
Campus 4-!
AErE 8-9

The Slipstick 10
Sports 11

Outstanding
||T women
honored with
Bevefidge
Awards

On March 10, the Julia Beveridge
Awards Ceremony took place in the
MTCC Ballroom The awards are given
to women who have made a mark on the
IIT community, whether staff, faculty or
alumnil With Elnaz Moshfeghian pre7
siding as Mistress of Ceremony, the cer7
emony opened with remarks by Teresa
Moreno (Assistant Director, Women’s
Services) and President Andersonl Af7
terward, Helen Oloroso, currently in the
administration of Northwestern Univer7
sity, spoke to the audience Following
this, the four awards for 2011 were given

The Faculty Award was presented to
Katharine K1 Baker, currently a professor
at Chicago7Kent College of Law Baker
has clerked for the Third Circuit Court
of Appeals in Philadelphia, worked as
a trial attorney for the Department of
Justice, and been a visiting professor to
such schools as Pennsylvania Law, Yale
Law, and Northwestern Law Her profes7
sorial work focuses on sexual violence
and women’s issues, and more recently
on family law issues, and she has taught
courses on topics as diverse as environ7
mental law, domestic violence, and prop7
ertylaw

The Alumna Award was given to Pa7
mela A Paziotopoulos, a 1990 graduate
of Chicago7Kent Starting out as a pros7
ecutor for the Cook County State’s Attor7
ney’s Ofiice, she was recruited in 1997 to
head that ofiice’s new Domestic Violence
Division In that role she monitored over
100,000 domestic violence cases a year in
Chicago, also creating a Career Resource
Center and “Adopt a Shelter" program to
help victims of domestic violence, on top
of many other achievements, both in the
public and private spheres

Teresa Moreno won the Staff Award for
her tireless efforts 7 not only in advocat7
ing for women and students of color, but
in pushing the initiative to bring courses
on Gender Studies and Women’s Studies
to the university She mentors various
student groups, even receiving the Staff
of the Year award from LIFE and SHPE
in 2009 and 2010 Outside of IIT, she
also teaches women’s studies and gender
studies and has lectured on women and
performance

The Students’ Choice Award went to
Joyce Hopkins, a professor in the College
of Psychology Joyce has served as the
University of Chicago Medical Center’s
Co7Director of the Parent7lnfant De7
velopment Service, and authored or co7
authored several book chapters and 25
peer7reviewed publicationsl She has also
acted as a mentor to 18 doctoral students
within the College of Psychology