Is there a team at Indiana?

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Since Carlo and Nick left, I'm not sure there's a program here at all - anyone have a contact person for a current Indiana University quizbowl team?

[jonah]

I don't believe there's a team, but John Brown is still there, and there was this post (that never came to fruition, but suggests there might be some kind of interest).

[Edward Elric]

I know Jonathan Irving also goes there but from what I have heard there hasn't been a lot of interest.

[evilmonkey]

I received some communication of interest in the ND mirror of MUT from someone at Indiana. So, I think they still have a team.

[Maxwell Sniffingwell]

Bryce, could you email me the contact info for them?

[evilmonkey]

I believe those emails were done through the club email account, which I don't have access to anymore. If you email [email protected], they should be able get that for you.

EDIT: Also, I just realized that the post linked earlier is in fact by the same person who sent that email.

[Durkheimdall]

In the interest of answering this question publicly, for anyone who might be curious:

The last tournament attended by a team from Indiana was EFT 2009, during the fall of my freshman year. I can't comment on things before that, but at least since then there simply hasn't been enough interest or dedication on the part of students to support a full-fledged program here.
The club was essentially defunct from then until spring 2011, during which we started having weekly practices typically attended by 3-4 people. I had hoped that we could attend ND's MUT mirror, but of the five people here most present at practices, only three of them were eligible undergraduates; interest was again lacking.
This past fall, I discontinued my attempt to recreate a team here.

That being said, outside of the stated problem, a number of the items important for an active quizbowl club are already in place. We own two fully functional buzzer systems, and our university-administered account contains some funds leftover from the Indiana NAQT championship tournament Carlo, Nick, etc. hosted March 2009, which could be used for travel and tournament attendance fees. More significantly, we have a very supportive faculty sponsor and active member in Stan Jastrzebski, who himself played as an undergraduate at DePauw and is now the News Director at our NPR station, WFIU.

Could Indiana have an active team again? It's certainly possible, but the interested party would have to put effort into recruitment and growing the club. I'm really not sure how receptive the uninitiated students here would be, nor what grassroots exposure to quizbowl Hoosiers may or may not have. It's probably worth noting that Carlo, Nick and myself all came from out-of-state.

For the time being, I've been the de facto contact person here, though there was never an organized transition-- I don't have access to the club email account, nor the website Carlo set up at http://www.iuquizbowl.org/ .

[dtaylor4]

If you want to figure out which future Hoosiers have played quizbowl before, get in touch with Phil Blessman at Culver Academies. He is involved with most of the tournaments in the state, which provides an opportunity to talk to high school students about Indiana. He can be reached at blessmp at culver.org.

[kjwinter]

Is there still some sort of team meeting every once in a while?
I'd totally be interested in playing and practicing if there is!
And I'm fairly certain there are others on my floor who have never played quiz bowl before but who would be interested in giving it a try.

Let me know!
- Kelsey Winter

[ValenciaQBowl]

The 2nd overall scorer at the recent CCCT, Aaron Staley of Lincoln Land CC in Illinois, told me he's going to Indiana in fall, so I hope a team can get going there.

[Durkheimdall]

Kelsey,

We haven't had any meetings since spring 2011, but if you're interested in organizing something yourself, send me an email at (without the spaces) m k w a l l a c [AT] indiana.edu, and I'll provide you with the contact info I have for the people here who might still be interested. I'm also in possession of the team's buzzer systems, which I can give to you as well.