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Big Ten Recognizes Winter Academic All-Big Ten Honorees – Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference recognized a total of 1,130 students competing in winter sports who have been named to the Academic All-Conference Team Wednesday, including men’s basketball’s Joey Brunk, Cooper Bybee, Armaan Franklin and Michael Shipp.
The list of honorees features 81 men’s and 89 women’s basketball students, 79 men’s and 114 women’s gymnasts, 189 men’s and 285 women’s swimming and diving students, 190 wrestlers and 103 men’s hockey students. To be eligible for Academic All-Big Ten selection, students must be on a varsity team, as verified by being on the official squad list as of March 1 for winter sports, who have been enrolled full-time at the institution for a minimum of 12 months and carry a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher.
The conference office also awards Academic All-Big Ten distinction in the fall and spring seasons and will present the Distinguished Scholar Award at the end of the academic year. To be eligible for selection, students must be a recipient of Academic All-Big Ten recognition in the previous academic year, must be enrolled for the entire previous academic year (two semesters or three quarters) and earned a minimum GPA of 3.7 or higher during that time. This GPA shall be calculated based on the previous academic year only, excluding summer. The Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award was established by conference Faculty Representatives as an addition to the conference’s Academic All-Big Ten program.
GIG Fund Information
Arts Midwest, a multi-state organization supporting the arts, started the new fund to serve underrepresented communities. The Grow, Invest, Gather or GIG fund is set to support projects that engage performing or visual artists. That includes in-person and virtual events. Joshua Feist, director of grant making for Arts Midwest, said the organization wants to deliberately target underrepresented communities that don’t have access to such funds.
“We have done a lot of research in the diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility space. And that’s what we really want, to make sure that this fund addresses some of those historical inequities in arts funding,” Feist said.
The application is open to non-profit organizations serving people with disabilities, Black, Indigenous and people of color, and in rural areas of the Midwest, including Indiana. View the application here, which is due May 3.
Pedestrian-Only Spaces on Portions of Kirkwood Avenue Starting 3/25/21
The City of Bloomington will again create pedestrian-only spaces on three blocks of Kirkwood Avenue, beginning March 25, 2021 and running through June 30, 2021. This timeline may be modified due to the status of the state of emergency and/or COVID-related health department guidelines should the need arise. These closures will be for the following sections of Kirkwood Avenue:
- Indiana Avenue to Dunn Street
- Dunn Street to Grant Street
- The west half of the block between Walnut Street and Washington Street
The project will repeat the efforts of the past Fall, when intermittent closures of three blocks of Kirkwood Avenue to motorized vehicles allowed for businesses in those blocks to provide outdoor seating and commerce in the street to facilitate physical distancing. The decision to reimplement these closures was made based on collaboration with Downtown Bloomington, Inc. and the Kirkwood Community Association, and with input from affected downtown businesses.
North-south cross traffic will not be impacted, and the cross streets (Indiana Avenue, Dunn Street, Grant Street, Walnut Street, and the alley between Walnut Street and Washington Street) will remain open. For the two blocks from Indiana Avenue to Grant Street, a twelve-foot safety corridor will remain open down the middle of the street in order to accommodate emergency vehicles and meet safety requirements. The Department of Public Works and the Bloomington Fire Department will implement and maintain the street closures.