The Banner production system which hosts Native Banner and interacts with the Self Service modules available through the myUSI Start page (www.usi.edu/start) and myUSI portal (my.usi.edu) is going to be UNAVAILABLE throughout this weekend due to a scheduled update of its software and a move to a new server.

This migration will take all weekend, during which time Native Banner and Self Service access will be UNAVAILABLE.

Other systems available through the myUSI Start page and the myUSI portal, including the portal (my.usi.edu) itself, such as Lite Mail, myUSI Mail, and Blackboard will be UNAFFECTED by this migration. You will still access these services as normal during the migration window.

The Banner downtime will begin at 5pm on Friday, February 12, 2010 and is expected to continue throughout the ENTIRE weekend until Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 8am.

If the Banner system will not be available after 8am, Monday, you will be notified through the channel that you received this original message. Namely, the Scheduled Downtime section of the myUSI Start page, the Announcements channel on my.usi.edu, the myUSI Support Team’s Twitter account (twitter.com/myusi), and the myUSI Announcement’s blog as well as other communication channel as authorized by the Director of Computer Services as circumstances warrant.

Satellite parking offered first three weeks in January

During the first three weeks of the 2010 spring semester at the University of Southern Indiana, off campus parking will be available for university employees and students. Vehicles can be parked at the paved lot by the vacant building that housed WalMart. The lot is located along University Drive, the access road located between Rosenberger Avenue and N. Red Bank Road. A shuttle bus service running every 15 minutes to and from campus will pick up and unload passengers at the bus stop near the Orr Center.

The bus service will be offered from 7 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday beginning January 11. On Fridays (January 15, 22, and 29) the buses will run from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The bus will not run on Monday, January 18, the day observed to honor Martin Luther King Jr., because no classes are scheduled that day.

The service will end on January 29.

Typically parking space is at a premium during the first weeks of a semester when students are on campus longer to buy books, pay fees, change class schedules, and reunite with friends.

Park and ride

Students, faculty, and staff can arrive and leave campus from the Orr Center. You’ll leave and arrive at the satellite parking lot in close proximity to your vehicle. And for the first week of the service, free hot chocolate, coffee, and donuts will be available for early commuters in a protective tent set up at the lot. Employees who participated in the bus service on Inauguration Day in October will be familiar with the food, the tent, and the bus ride.
New Image Travel will provide two travel buses during the three-week service.

Pass along the bus service information to other USI colleagues and students. The commute will offer opportunities to meet and talk with fellow students, faculty, and staff and time to relax, check your smart phone messages, or read.

The bus service is free of charge.

 Questions about the satellite parking and the bus service can be directed to the USI Security Office, 464-1845.

SCOLA Annual Student Essay Scholarship 2009

SCOLA’s mission is to help the people of the world learn more about one another; their cultures, their languages, and their ideologies. SCOLA emphasizes the importance and effectiveness of modern information technology as a tool in overcoming barriers to global understanding and will remain at the forefront of its application.

ESSAY TOPIC
How has SCOLA positively impacted you in the learning of language and culture?

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Submissions must be from students enrolled in a degree-granting program at a university or college, elementary or secondary school, or at language school which is a SCOLA affiliate in good standing at the time of the submission.

CONTEST REGULATIONS
DEADLINE: All essays must be submitted on or before January 29, 2010. Entries will not be accepted after this time.
Each essay must be original work prepared by one (1) author.
Only one (1) essay may be submitted by each contestant.
Each contestant must complete and attach a student entry form.
A faculty member from the student’s school must be willing to certify that to the best of their knowledge, the work is original.

ESSAY REQUIREMENTS
No literary form other than an essay will be accepted.
Essays must be typed.
Entries must be in English.
Documents may be written in the body of the email or may be submitted as an attachment written in Microsoft Word, Text, or PDF.
The essay text must not exceed 500 words for students in grades K – 12, 1000 words for those in institutions of higher education.
Each essay must include a title page, not considered text, with the following information:
Essay title
Author’s name
School name
School address
School telephone number
The title of the essay, but NOT the author’s name, must appear on the top of the first page of essay text.
References should be included and clearly identified.
Entries may be submitted online to scola@scola.org with the subject line “Essay Contest,” or by post to the address listed on the Student Entry Form.

**Failure to follow any of these rules may lead to disqualification from the contest.**

REVIEW AND EVALUATION
Entrants will receive a confirmation email within 24 hours of their submission. entries will be judged by SCOLA employees. Decision of the judges is final.

AWARDS
Awarded to the winning student entries in the categories of K – 12 and Higher Education.

K – 12: $500

Higher Education: $1000

Winners will be notified by email by February 15, 2010. In addition to monetary prizes, the winning essays and others deemed to be noteworthy will be posted on the SCOLA website www.scola.org with the announcement of the winners. The winning students’ schools will also be notified.

Terms and Conditions
By submitting an entry you agree to and accept all the rules of the contest.

Additional Terms: By participating, applicants agree a) to the Official Rules, and the decisions of the SCOLA judges, which shall be final in all respects; and b) to release, discharge and hold harmless SCOLA, as well as their respective officers, directors, and employees from all claims or damages arising out of their participation in the Contest. By accepting a prize, winners or, if minors, their parents or legal guardians agree, where legal, to the use of their names and/or likenesses and essay response with this Contest and its promotion without any additional compensation.

Your entry, regardless of whether it was valid or won our contest, gives SCOLA the right:
To reprint your entry in part or whole in future promotions and news media

To exclusive copyright to publish your entry for display within the Internet, search engines, and any such publication we may wish to promote your entry in

General Conditions: SCOLA reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/ or modify the Contest, or any part of it, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor beyond SCOLA’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Contest, as determined by SCOLA in its sole discretion. SCOLA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or to be acting in violation of these rules or those of any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, SCOLA reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. SCOLA’s failure to enforce any term of these rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

By receipt of any prize, the winner agrees to release and hold harmless SCOLA and the respective subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, distributors, advertising/ promotion agencies, and prize suppliers, and each of their respective parent companies and each such company’s officers, directors, employee and agents (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any claim or cause of action, including , but not limited to, personal injury, death or damage to or loss of property, arising out of participation in the Contest or receipt or use or misuse of any prize.

Publicity: Except where prohibited, participation in the Contest constitutes winner’s consent to SCOLA’s and its agents’ use of winner’s name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions and/ or hometown and state for promotional purposes in any media, worldwide, without further payment or consideration.

Limitations of Liability: The Released Parties are not responsible for : (1) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest; (2) technical failures of any kind, including but not limited to malfunctions, interruptions, or disconnections in phone lines or network hardware or software; (3) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Contest; (4) technical or human error which may occur in the administration of the Contest or the processing of entries; (5) late, lost, undeliverable, damaged, or stolen mail; or (6) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant’s participation in the Contest or receipt or use or misuse of any prize. If for any reason an entrant’s entry is confirmed to have been erroneously deleted, lost or otherwise destroyed or corrupted, entrant sole remedy is another entry it the Contest, provided that, if it is not possible to award another entry due to the discontinuance of the Contest, or any part of it, for any reason, SCOLA, in its sole discretion , may elect to judge entries from among all eligible entries received up to the date of discontinuance for any or all of the prizes offered herein. No more than the stated number of prizes will be awarded.

Disputes: Except where prohibited, entrant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the United States District Court for Nebraska. (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Contest, but in no event attorneys’ fees; and (3) under no circumstances will entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and entrant hereby waives all rights to claim, indirect, punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these rules, or the rights and obligations of the entrant and SCOLA in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by the, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of Nebraska without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules (whether of the State of Nebraska or any other jurisdiction), which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other that the State of Nebraska.

Welcome!! Hola! Bonjour! Ne Hao! Benvenuto!

Basic Affiliation Plan provides limited licensing rights to all programming, for viewing, taping, recording, downloading, ARCHIVING; replaying; and for embedding in assessment tools, coursework and courseware for internal use by faculty, staff and students.

To access SCOLA, just click on the links in the SCOLA channel in myUSI.

As a current SCOLA Affiliate USI has access to these online services:

SCOLA Online Services included in basic affiliation are:

• SCOLA International Radio: A growing library of radio broadcasts from hard to find languages such as Tausug, Dari, and Pashto. These amazing broadcasts can be downloaded for immediate use or to save in a personal archive.

• SCOLA Foreign Text: An online library of newspapers, magazines, poetry, children’s books and more from around the world for on-line reading, download or easily printed for translation exercise, and other learning uses. Copyright Cleared!

• SCOLA People and Places: An extensive album of pictures submitted by SCOLA friends from around the world. These select images are available for use at home or in the classroom for cultural enhancement. Copyright images available for use by SCOLA affiliates.

• SCOLA “On the Street Videos”: Are clips of everyday people speaking about everyday things; unrehearsed, native vernaculars, dialect specific. Language as it really is!

USI’s add on services include SCOLA World TV Online and SCOLA Week in Review with 1 Year Free trial of Specialized Word Video Search and all services are accessed through the SCOLA World TV online link within myUSI:

SCOLA World TV Online offers:

Live Videostream of all 7 channels of authentic foreign language
programming; news, entertainment and documentaries from over 100 countries in 95 languages;

• Channel 1 – Features programming mainly from the countries of Europe.

• Channel 2 – Featuring Spanish and Portuguese from 13 regions mainly of Mexico, Central and South America.

• Channel 3 – Educational and cultural programming in Mandarin Chinese from The Peoples Republic of China.

• Channel 4 – Programs mainly from the countries of Asia.

• Channel 5 – Features programming mainly from Africa.

• Channel 6 – Programming from the Middle East.

• Channel 7 – Programs from Southeast Asia.

SCOLA Week in Review:

A library of audio and video clips available from the last 6 days programming, ready to download to your laptop, desktop or mobile device for your on the go convenience.

SCOLA Insta-Class:

• Each SCOLA Insta-Lesson consists of a video and audio clip of a segment of native language news broadcasts that have been transcribed and translated.

• Our new on-line lesson format allows you to watch the video playback while viewing a transcript, translation, quiz or vocabulary window.

• Additionally, the lesson text is available in a convenient PDF format for viewing online or downloading for later study.

• The individual weekly Insta-Lessons are available to SCOLA affiliates via the SCOLA website and are ready to use in the classroom as an addition to your current study program.

• The combined use of the SCOLA programs, the video and audio clips available on the individual Insta-Class pages and instructional materials enhance language training through the use of current events.

• It is ideal as a textbook supplement and suitable for use by an individual or a class to extend vocabulary, grammar, reading and comprehension skills.

• Many of the language lessons are available in the SCOLA Insta- Class Archive featuring more than 2 years of transcripts and translations.

• SCOLA Insta Class audio and media clips can be downloaded to a personal video recorder (PVR) or mobile device, such as IPOD, for on the go use.

Weekly Transcripts and Translations available in 27 Languages

Specialized Word Video Search provides the user with the ability to search for and play video clips that contain usage examples of specific words sought. It offers an extensive database of word pairs (English/Native words) that are mapped to video clips containing the word being used and separate audio bytes of the words being pronounced. The user enters a word and receives a list of video clips with the time of when the word occurs noted.

SCOLA Affiliates enjoy the freedom to archive, embed, record, copy and re-play all of the programming and other specialized SCOLA services which set SCOLA apart from later conceived foreign language networks.

SCOLA Programming is highly utilized by many educational institutions and government sectors for the breadth of programming content with a special emphasis on the cultural aspect of learning languages, and getting individuals ready to re-locate or be in the global market place.

SCOLA would like to support your schools need for authentic foreign language audio and video on the campus cable system, in the language lab, in the library, and to the desktops of each faculty member, staff, and student who is committed to language and cultural learning.

SCOLA is a non-profit educational organization.