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Charter schools leader tackles new role: Mayor chooses Harris to launch broader public education program

The Indiana General Assembly’s decision in 2001 to hand Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson the keys to the city’s new charter schools initiative marked the first time in the nation that a municipal leader had been given the authority to grant charters. The unusual approach to improve educational opportunities here has earned the city several accolades, including last month’s prestigious Harvard University Innovations in American Government Award. Now the mayor wants to expand upon the program’s success and launch a not-for-profit…

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Lean manufacturers take stock of accounting innovation: Fishers company optimistic movement will gain favor

The leanest aspect of lean manufacturing is moving from the shop floor to the accounting office, where a new recordkeeping system is gaining a following. Proponents of so-called lean accounting say it’s better than traditional accounting at measuring the cost savings and efficiencies of lean manufacturing, a business-improvement strategy that shortens the time between customer order and shipment. Instead of simply looking at inventory levels and sales numbers as traditional accounting does, lean accounting measures things such as worker productivity…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Simplistic ideas get in way of efforts to increase wages

To the small cadre of economists who have worked their entire professional lives trying to understand the complexities of how and why the labor market rewards some skills, occupations and people more than others, the popularity of the idea of a government-mandated minimum wage must be depressing. But it shouldn’t be surprising. The notion that complex market outcomes can be explained by simplistic notions like greed or discrimination-solvable by the stroke of a lawmaker’s pen-will probably always have a superficial…

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IU hires consultant for business plan overhaul

Taking a page from Purdue University’s playbook, Indiana University has quietly put its economic-development efforts under review. IU hired Chicago-based Huron Consulting Group this month to examine its process of economic development and evaluate whether it matches Gov. Mitch Daniels' business-first agenda.

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Programmers make lousy site designers

Many, perhaps most, Web sites are hard to use. That applies to commercial sites, personal sites, almost any kind of site. In the early days of the Web, nobody was surprised at this, because the Web was a dancing bear. The wonder wasn’t that it danced gracefully, but that it danced at all. Today, visitors are much more discerning. In fact, there is a cottage industry in lambasting poorly designed sites. One of my favorite places to go on the…

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SPORTS: A grim look at what the city’s future could hold

I was having a fitful time trying to sleep. For some reason, the word “priorities” kept running through my mind. Then, suddenly, I felt as if I were awake, standing in downtown Indianapolis. I caught site of a calendar in a storefront window. I blinked and shook my head. It read August 2026, but the city didn’t look 20 years more modern. If anything, it looked 20 years older. It was as if time had passed by the Indy I…

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State’s Medicaid goal: better, cheaper care: FSSA says new approach will boost efficiency

Better care through better management. That’s the mantra behind the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s push to limit Medicaid’s cost growth to 5 percent annually. The state entity announced this month that it awarded $4.4 billion in contracts to three managed care organizations to provide coverage for pregnant women and children under its Hoosier Healthwise program. Next, Indiana wants to hire care managers to monitor the well-being of every Medicaid recipient in its aged, blind and disabled category. That…

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Professor reinvents classroom: Improving interaction reason behind DyKnow

Dave Berque knew his first college teaching assignment couldn’t get any worse when a fire in the overhead lights barely got a reaction from his students. “I was in a room with more than 100 people and only seven noticed it,” said the chairman of DePauw University’s Computer Science Department. “They were spending all of their energy copying notes and couldn’t think about what was going on.” The experience as a graduate student in the mid-1980s at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute…

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BRIAN WILLIAMS Commentary: The heat will hurt more next winter

Geopolitical instability and increasing worldwide demand for fossil fuels have caused high energy prices. Indiana tax policies in support of the creation of ethanol and biodiesel production facilities are part of an effort to help wean our transportation infrastructure from fossil fuels. While ethanol may be a poor alternative to fossil fuels, Hoosier entrepreneurs’ and policymakers’ efforts in this area reflect a broad awareness that we need a sensible, comprehensive energy policy. A corollary to $3-per-gallon gas is increasing home-heating…

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NOTIONS: Preventing the pain that triggers bombs and bullets

A few weeks ago, my 18-year-old son, Austin, said he was in the mood for a movie. His friend, Jon, had been to see “Miami Vice.” Jon said it was “cool.” I said that the old TV version-which began airing before Austin was born-had been “cool,” too. So based on that trans-generational cool factor, we grabbed dinner at Chili’s and went to see America’s most celebrated vice cops, Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, do their undercover thing. On the big…

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IU to seek $80M from state for massive life sciences push

Indiana University leaders believe their researchers can spawn 100 new companies, pump $2.4 billion into the state's economy, help create 14,000 jobs, and generate a $2.25 return for every dollar spends if the General Assembly will invest in their bold life sciences strategy.

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EYE ON THE PIE: Novel ideas from Pat and Beurt

Pat Bauer is a longterm member of the Indiana House of Representatives from South Bend. A Democratic majority in the lower house will make him again the speaker of the House, one of the few powerful voices in the state’s governing structure. Some do not view Bauer as the progressive sort of leader the state needs today. Yet his ideas are based on an experienced and solid reading of public sentiment. Beurt SerVaas is retired from a productive career in…

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Butler juniors to stay on campus next year: University wants to boost campus, fill apartments

Butler University underclassmen got what some saw as very bad news last week: Starting in the fall of 2007, juniors-like freshmen and sophomores-will be required to live on campus. The university claims the new rule will make for a stronger on-campus community, but the change coincides with Butler’s struggle to fill a new 500-bed apartment facility, where rents are higher than offcampus rental houses. Butler President Bobby Fong said a change has been underway for years to try to align…

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School races past capital campaign goal: University of Indianapolis raised $76 million in first-ever comprehensive funding drive

When Michael Ferin took over the University of Indianapolis’ fundraising operations in 1997, he inherited a limp effort ill-equipped to support exponential enrollment growth “The institution did not have a very strong record of reaching out to the community or keeping in touch with their alumni,” Ferin said. “This place was behind by a number of years.” No one could say that now. The private college affiliated with the United Methodist Church has just wrapped up a six-year capital campaign…

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NOTIONS: A suburban pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later story

Longer ago than I’d like to admit, my parents were expecting their first child (me). And they wanted their little guy to grow up in a nice, safe neighborhood. Mom and Dad weren’t earning much. But they borrowed a down payment from Grandpa, took out a whopping $80-per-month mortgage, and purchased a tiny, newly constructed house on the outskirts of Lafayette. My parents had grown up in the established parts of Lafayette. They knew well the old homes, old streets…

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IUPUI’s tourism department luring hundreds of students: City’s convention industry, program’s focus on meeting planning make department fastest growing on campus

After Kelly Sernau earned an associate in arts degree in hospitality at Michigan State University, she began researching schools that offered a bachelor’s degree in the field. She considered staying in her home state, then researched schools in Chicago and other places. Ultimately, she opted to transfer to IUPUI’s Department of Tourism, Conventions and Event Management within the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management. “I wanted to focus on meeting planning, [but] most programs focus on the hotel aspect…

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Moving lessons from classrooms to boardrooms: MBA students get firsthand experience with startups

No matter how many bold and italicized words scholars cram into textbooks, nothing compares to students rolling up their sleeves and testing a theory themselves. For years, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business has offered its Bloomington MBA candidates real-world experience through so-called “academies” focused on specific industries. Now Kelley Indianapolis’ evening MBA program is set to launch a scaled-back version for its students. This fall, it will offer three such “enterprise” programs, including one with an entrepreneurial emphasis. The…

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VIEWPOINT: Indiana ripe for new breed of auto industry

Landing the Honda plant is a great coup for Indiana. Gov. Mitch Daniels deserves congratulations. Not only will Honda employ an estimated 2,000 Hoosiers, it appears the governor secured the facility at a bargain price for Indiana’s taxpayers. While the plant brings much-needed employment, future wealth created from Honda’s production accrues to its primarily Japanese shareholders. This is only fair, as Japanese automakers have innovated, invested and expanded over the past 30 years. They have earned their success and deserve…

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TAWN PARENT Commentary: In defense of daydreaming

In addition to standbys like Little League and Girl Scouts, our children have the opportunity to learn sailing at Geist Reservoir, strut their stuff at the Jewish Community Center’s Broadway camp, or try medieval fantasy drawing at the Indianapolis Art Center. With such an appetizing array of choices, it’s hard to resist serving our kids a heaping plateful. Most of us want to give our children advantages we were not afforded, and “Mixed Media for Preschoolers” certainly qualifies. Besides, who…

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Indiana encourages agri-tourism efforts:

For Cliff Carley, Sept. 11, 2001, is a date of great personal significance unrelated to tragic events. That’s the day the construction company owner bought a pair of Rocky Mountain elk and began raising the large deer on his northern Hamilton County property near Atlanta. Nearly five years later, Carley Elk Farm hosts Saturday tours for which visitors pay $5 to roam the rural acreage and help feed a herd that numbers about 50. On the way home, they can…

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