Bloomington provides ADA transition plan for community review
The City of Bloomington Council for Community Accessibility (CCA) invites community members to review and provide feedback on the City’s ADA Transition Plan until September 30th, available at bloomington.in.gov/accessible. The feedback form is available at https://bton.in/TZArS. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted on July 26, 1990, and amended effective January 1, 2009. Title II of the ADA prohibits state and local governments from discriminating against people on the basis of their disability and from excluding people from participation in programs, services, or activities because of their disability.
Title II requires local governments to prepare transition plans. The City of Bloomington prepared its first ADA Transition Plan in 1990 and has updated it several times since then, the last time in 2014. The 2014 version is available online at bloomington.in.gov/accessible.
The City of Bloomington has designated the Bloomington Human Rights Director as the ADA Coordinator. The ADA Coordinator manages the City’s efforts to comply with Title II of the ADA and to communicate with local businesses about their responsibilities to comply with Title III of the ADA. The ADA Coordinator is responsible for investigating any alleged ADA violations by the City.
Attorney General Todd Rokita wins settlement with company over alleged deceptive emails
After filing a lawsuit over alleged misconduct, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has secured an agreement from a Nevada-based company to cease solicitations to Indiana public employees. AG Rokita alleged that PERA LLC sent more than 70,000 deceptive email solicitations to Indiana public employees giving the misleading impression that the communications came from the Indiana Public Retirement System (INPRS) or an approved INPRS provider. PERA is an acronym for Public Employee Retirement Assistance.
Under the agreement, PERA admits to no wrongdoing — but it relinquishes its ability for seven years to solicit, sell or coordinate appointments, discussions, or other similar communications to public employees on behalf of, or in connection with, third-party financial representatives in the State of Indiana.In the emails sent to public employees, PERA offered to provide consultations with financial representatives to discuss each employee’s personal retirement fund. Whenever a public employee agreed to the consultation, PERA then sold the appointment to a seller of various financial products. Neither INPRS nor any approved INPRS provider had anything to do with the emails.
In the agreement, PERA pledged to pay a $7,500 penalty to the State of Indiana, with an additional $92,500 penalty suspended conditioned on compliance with the consent judgment. If PERA chooses to resume such business in Indiana after seven years, it must advise the Attorney General of its intention to do so.
Attorney General Rokita’s Consumer Protection Division investigated this matter after receiving complaints from the Indiana Public Retirement System.
IU Bloomington launches Faculty 100 hiring initiative
Indiana University President Pamela Whitten has announced a bold initiative to recruit 100 new tenure-track faculty to the IU Bloomington campus. This latest investment in increasing the number of IU teaching and research faculty comes on the heels of the university-wide Presidential Diversity Hiring Initiative that Whitten unveiled last year.
Demand for an IU Bloomington education has never been stronger as evidenced by year-over-year enrollment growth. This fall, the campus boasts a record 47,000 students pursuing an IU degree on the Bloomington campus. IU Bloomington, widely recognized as one of the best public research universities in the world, is home to many highly ranked academic programs and award-winning faculty.
As Whitten marks her second year in office, the IU Bloomington Faculty 100 initiative comes at a time of nearly 12% enrollment growth for the campus since 2012. This vital initiative will expand the number of tenure-track faculty, increasing research impact and strengthening the student experience on campus.
IU Bloomington Provost Rahul Shrivastav will oversee the initiative by collaborating with the campus community to identify areas of instructional need and emerging research opportunities, and will share updates on the hiring effort with the IU Bloomington campus community throughout the semester.
This Week in Hoosier History
1847 – Theodore Clement Steele was born in Owen County. He studied art at home and abroad and gained fame as a member of the “Hoosier Group” of artists in the early 20th century.
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