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[ K. Christopher ] Hi. This is October 24th edition of IUPUI’s The Spot. I’m Kaitlyn Christopher.

This past Monday IUPUI hosted its first ever Cornhole Bowl and Colts tailgating party to benefit the United Way. The single elimination tournament featured an appearance from the Colts cheerleaders and had a grand prize of two tickets to the Colts vs. Jacksonville game. The Spot spoke with Stacy Ruffino the coordinator for the United Way campaign about the event.

[ S. Ruffino ] Welcome to our first annual cornhole tournament. We have 32 teams in the tournament this year. They enrolled and their registration fee went to the United Way. And, also, we have WZPL, 99.5 radio station, here today, as well as the Colts cheerleaders. The winner of the tournament today gets to win Colts tickets and also the second place wins a cornhole Colts set as well. We have food, a cookout, today, and it’s a great way to get the students and faculty and staff involved and promote the United Way campaign from an awareness standpoint and fundraising as well.

[ K. Christopher ] Are you undecided about your major? If so, you will want to sign up for our of four exploratory Jag Days where you can learn more about programs within health professions, law, biological and life sciences, education or engineering and technology. To register or for more information see the website.

The first phase of a series of historical markers have been placed on campus this summer and fall. The markers were selected by the campus’s history committee and represent everything from past businesses and buildings to professors and neighborhoods. Associate professor Paul Mullins filled us in on the project.

[ P. Mullins ] I’m part of the Campus History committee and we were interested in placing historic signage on campus. We just wanted to establish a physical presence for heritage on campus. You look around the neighborhood right now and it’s a flat expanse. If you and I had come here in 1820, there would’ve been wetlands to the west, low spots, high points, lots of forest. We wouldn’t have seen anything like what we see now. What Europeans did when they came here, they settled it in. First, they filled in low spots to build houses, and eventually we filled it in to build “E” lots. But that’s not visible to you and I when we speed into campus every day looking for a parking space. There’s no standing historic architecture, we don’t see any of the topography today, and one of the things the signs do is just show us that there was a neighborhood here before IUPUI.

The most important thing is that you and I will walk around campus, we’ll see the signs, we’ll know we’re part of the history. We stand on the University College quad – this was a neighborhood. There was a street running right down the middle of the quad in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s. There was a theatre 50 feet behind us from 1914 to 1929. It became a church and the congregation is still in town. There were houses up and down that street. But you and I can’t see that today.

So one of the things we want us to do is to understand that, even though we can’t see that stuff, we are the stewards of that history. It’s our responsibility, it’s a heritage we should be proud of, and we should remember, actually, that lots of people who lived here, that left this campus, are still living in the city. Some of them are elder folks, some of them are not-so-elder folks. They feel a bond with this place. This is a chance for us to build relationships between the campus community and all of these folks that once lived here.

[ K. Christopher ] The Dracula Blood Drive, which is presented by the IUPUI Staff Council, takes place Tuesday October 30th. To donate blood, visit the Bloodmobile between 9am and 3pm outside University College or between 12 and 5 pm on Barnhill.

In sports, the women’s volleyball team lost to Western Illinois 3-0 this Saturday. Also on Saturday the men’s soccer team defeated Western Illinois 2-1; they take on Butler tonight at Michael Carroll Stadium on campus.

That’s the spot for this week. Check out the new episode starting each Wednesday on our podcast at jagtv.iupui.edu. See you later!