Ruth Lilly’s estate donates $10.7 million through IU

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The total Lilly donation is estimated near $10.7 million and will be administered and invested by the Indiana University Foundation.

About $8 million will go to the IU Center on Philanthropy, based at the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, and $2.7 million goes to the Herron School of Art and Design.

Lilly, noted heiress and philanthropist, died Dec. 30, 2009, at 94.

With part of its gift, Herron plans to support new programs, including a master’s in art therapy scheduled to launch in 2012, that will help it significantly improve its national stature, said Valerie Eickmeier, dean of the school.

The donation also will be used to pay down loans used to construct the school’s Eskenazi Hall, a $27 million project built primarily with private donations and completed in 2005.

The first art therapy faculty member comes on board this fall and will be able use the endowed donation to build the program, Eickmeier said.

Herron’s long-term goal is to be the nation’s No.

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A great career opportunity of nursing assistant

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Health agencies are often targeted by local governments to provide a high level of health services to residents of the region. In response to requests from health teams, certified nursing assistant is often part of this demand.

This is a great opportunity for those who want to enter the field of healthcare where they study for certificated nursing assistant. This study can range from college, hospital and nursing home on vocational training to online training offered by external providers of health services, such as training centers.

To follow the career of a nursing assistant, you’ll have a choice of fields you can enter that are equally rewarding to both working conditions and pay rates. These areas range from clinical care in hospital care for the elderly working in a nursing home.

Due to a shortage of health personnel, there are often many hours of work available and what is obvious in case of illness such as flu and swine flu season. Read the full post…

Field Notes: Saving Song and Dance

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I cried. It was only Babes in Arms, but the kids sang and danced as if on Broadway—and some of them actually had Broadway genes in their vocal chords and gambly arms and legs.  A lazy Sunday afternoon and I caught the last performance of the high school play.  Not being a theater person, I am always amazed by these productions, since they always seem to hang by a slender thread, plagued by scratchy mics, falling props and costumes, and, of course, forgotten lines.  But the kids efforts, backed by dozens of adults in the wings, working the lights and the sound system, playing in the orchestra,  were so innocent and energetic that Yes, you couldn’t help but get a little emotional.

But I started to get really teary thinking of the next day’s board meeting “budget workshop,” the last of a series of painful meetings in which we public servant powerbrokers stare into the sights of the budget howitzer and start firing, so to speak.  There, a few feet in front of me, playing the French Horn in the orchestra was a young Intermediate school music teacher.  With a proposal on our plate to cut 12 percent of our teaching staff, his chances of surviving the knife were slim.   

But its not just him or even LIFO. Its where music and art s

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March Madness brings welcome attention to VCU, University of Richmond

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In the business of running a university, there is nothing quite so transformative as a long run in the annual intercollegiate athletic tournament known as March Madness.

All of a sudden, “VCU” is a hot search term on Google. The University of Richmond campus bookstore is unloading truckloads of Sweet 16 T-shirts. The neighboring schools — one a private liberal arts school, the other an under-funded state university — are the toast of Richmond.

A string of NCAA victories can accomplish more in a month than a decade’s worth of promotional mailings and campaigns to build brand identity. Any upstart entrant captures a small share of the nation’s rapt attention. Progress to the Sweet 16 or the Final Four, and that attention is divided fewer ways.

“It’s literally incalculable,” said Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond.

The ride could soon end for Richmond, which plays Kansas on Friday evening, and VCU, which plays Florida State later that same night. But for a measure

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Marijuana College: Oaksterdam Focuses on Higher Education

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On the second floor of the downtown campus, a motley group of students listens to a lecture entitled “Palliative and Curative Relief Through a Safe and Effective Herbal Medicine.” Not the sexiest of topics on the face of it, but there’s a catch: this is Oaksterdam University and the medicine being discussed is marijuana. At “America’s first cannabis college,” in Oakland, Calif., the sallow-faced hippy-skater types that one expects to find sit beside middle-aged professionals in business attire, united in their zeal for the pungent green leaf. No one dares speak out of turn, until instructor Paul Armentano, a marijuana-policy expert, cites a news report that U.S. antidrug authorities plan to legalize pot’s active ingredient exclusively for drug companies’ use. “More stinking profits for Big Business,” mumbles a young man wearing a baseball cap. His classmates groan in agreement.

More than 17,000 students have enrolled since Oaksterdam opened in late 2007.

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