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INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — The Kelley School of Business at IUPUI and the Indy Chamber have launched a new initiative to help small businesses in central Indiana. The Enterprise Corps expands resources available to small businesses in Indianapolis and connects them with faculty coaches and teams of Kelley MBA students to answer questions and provide guidance. The concept arose from the early days of the pandemic when the Indy Chamber launched its Rapid Response Hub, utilizing the expertise of Kelley School faculty to help small businesses survive the healthcare crisis.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Phil Powell, associate dean of academic programs at the Kelley School at IUPUI said based on the success of the initial, informal effort, the partners decided to grow the program.

“Back in March 2020, there was always discussion of…’when this pandemic is done, let’s have a permanent infrastructure of assistance for small businesses in Indianapolis.’ And Enterprise Corps is delivering on that idea,” said Powell.

Powell says Enterprise Corps began in December with a group of ten small businesses paired with ten Kelley faculty members. They provided regular coaching and mentoring. Powell says they wanted to make sure the concept worked before expanding.

“All of these business owners have the talent and drive to build a profitable enterprise,” said Powell. “Research shows the barrier to success for many Indianapolis entrepreneurs is access to knowledge, networks and financial capital. Through Enterprise Corps, we hope to bridge that gap and become an intermediary to pool regional assistance for small businesses.”

This summer, the corps partnered 22 MBA teams with small business owners to further examine the sustainability of the initiative. The partners say the long-term goal of Enterprise Corps is to expand into a large regional network of specialized experts and coaches who can provide knowledge and analysis to small businesses that join the program.

Sarah MacInnis, director of business coaching services at the Indy Chamber’s Business Ownership Initiative, says COVID-19 forced businesses to pivot and this program further helps small business owners to learn from that response.

“Like our BOI business coaches, they are experts looking at businesses, analyzing them, and providing advice on how small businesses can stabilize, scale, and grow, so they are pivoting in the right direction,” said MacInnis. “BOI saw exponential demand for business coaching, resources, and funding in the last 18 months, and we continue to see increasing demand.”

Powell says moving forward, the Enterprise Corps is helping Indianapolis become a more competitive metropolitan region in terms of economic mobility and small business creation.

“We really rank low in terms of our small business environment. It hurts economic mobility. It hurts talent retention, and it hurts innovation,” said Powell. “At the end of the day, we’re going to have to have an infrastructure, or a superstructure, that is impacting hundreds of small businesses a year. Not in a onetime sort of project basis, or a onetime sort of support basis but an ongoing relationship.”

INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — New global rankings that assess efforts by colleges and universities to reach broad sustainability goals, as created by the United Nations, places IUPUI second in the U.S. and 28th in the world. The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are based on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.

Time Higher Education is a news and information magazine dedicated to higher education issues.

The 17 goals address a wide range of issues that impact the economic, environmental, and social advancement of communities around the world.

“I believe that there is an imperative for institutions of higher education to advance the SDGs, and I am delighted that IUPUI firmly embraces this responsibility,” said Hilary Kahn, IUPUI associate vice chancellor for international affairs. “The 17 goals address complicated challenges and inequalities that we find everywhere, in Central Indiana and across the world, and we need to work collectively and across our differences to solve these problems for a more sustainable future.”

IUPUI received high marks in several categories, including the school’s teaching on peace and justice, research on key diseases and conditions, and policies to reduce inequalities.

The list includes 669 institutions from 82 countries/regions. Click here to view the full list.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — While many students are fresh off of their spring breaks, some students at IUPUI are experiencing extreme burnout with no end in sight.

A year of exclusively online learning is starting to take a toll on some college students’ mental health. Many report burnout as their class work seems to be increasing due to the online-learning model and the loss of some much-needed time off.

Students at IUPUI are still hard at work online learning desperately waiting to turn their calendars to May so they can finally get a break. “Definitely experience a lot of burnout,” said sophomore Jacob Nevitt.

Nevitt is in IUPUI’s education program. He says it has been rough without a fall break or a spring break this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. “It is like a reward pretty much. You have done all of this work and then you finally are just done for a while.”

The online-learning model is especially challenging for students who prefer in-person, hands-on learning. Engineering major Joseph Gallagher took the semester off and is doing an internship waiting to go back to school until classes are in-person.

“I have always been the student that wants to sit in the very front of the class. I have ADHD on top of everything else so once I don’t have that physical contact with a teacher, then there was just a big mental shift and it was really hard for me to just focus in during my classes,” Gallagher said.

After students wrote to the university about how challenging the fall semester was without any kind of break, IUPUI built in two separate “wellness days” where students would not have class in place of the canceled weeklong spring break.

“Our teachers still assign us like five or six assignment that are due on that (wellness) day, so it is like we are still on our ‘relaxing day’ (and) we are still doing a lot of homework that we shouldn’t be doing because we are supposed to be getting out breather,” Nevitt said.

Some students say their workload and schedules are more rigorous now that classes are online. “So in the end, we really had to go through probably about three times as much lecture time just for one course,” said Gallagher, making that time off more important now than ever before.

“When you are in class you have a week or at least a long weekend that you can relax you don’t have to worry about assignments,” Nevitt said.

Students who spoke with News 8 are looking forward to the fall when IUPUI plans to return to in-person classes as well as a regular schedule that includes spring and fall breaks.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — How do people’s sexual behaviors change in the middle of a pandemic?

It’s a question sociologist Devon Hensel and her team have been studying since the coronavirus pandemic was declared in March. 

Hensel, an associate professor of sociology at IUPUI, told News 8, “We were curious because we’re all living in this in vivo petri dish. But it’s certainly interesting to be historically where we are now with everyone on the ground floor and what people are experiencing when it comes to relationships.”

Previous research shows pandemics including those involving MERS, SARS and Ebola had negative impacts on sexual behaviors, she writes in the paper, by reducing access to sexual and reproductive health services and supplies and increasing sexual violence.

But Hensel was more interested in couples’ desire to participate in sex and if these activities are different compared to non-pandemic times. She and her team conducted an online, nationally representative survey of 1,010 respondents, ages 18 to 94, from April 10-20 to assess reported behavior changes in those coupled and non-coupled. Behaviors assessed included hugging, kissing, holding hands and engaging in intercourse.

Nearly half of respondents reported a change in intimate behavior, mostly a decrease. Close to 23% said hand holding and the number of hugs and kisses decreased over the study period compared to 19.7% who reported an increase. No change was reported by 57%.

Intercourse decreased in 18.1% of the sample compared to 10.2% who reported an increase while 72% reported no change. 

Shutdowns and quarantines have forced couples to be in close quarters for extended periods of time. So, why the decrease? One possible answer, Hensel said, could be that people are actually feeling more lonely and depressed these days despite having a companion. 

“Not unexpectedly depression and loneliness are heightened for a lot of reasons. But also because our normal habits have been so upended and interrupted,” she said. “We can’t get out. We can’t go to our favorite places. We can’t see our favorite people. And so the idea that two people can live in the same place that you can be close by, but still lonely is not unusual in this context.”

Hensel also points to the heightened stresses of day to day life. The stress of marriages, e-learning, working from home, economic uncertainty and not seeing other family members can spur feelings of despondency and impact mental health.  

“I think a lot of people assume we have a couple of days of cold weather and people don’t want to go outside and there will be a baby boom nine months later. But I think this pandemic will lead to a baby bust. In times like these, people are more likely to control fertility efforts.”

News 8’s medical reporter, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Gillis, D.Ed., is a classically trained medical physiologist and biobehavioral research scientist. She has been a health, medical and science reporter for over 5 years. Her work has been featured in national media outlets. You can follow her on Instagram @reportergillis and Facebook @DrMaryGillis.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — According to Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Back on Track plan to reopen the state, most outdoor recreational facilities can open Friday, with the exception of sports arenas.

Westfield officials would like to get Grand Park Sports Campus open sooner rather than later.

The fields are green and the grass has been mowed, but no one is playing anything on the Grand Park sports fields. Westfield Mayor Andy Cook wants these fields open … and soon.

“As you well know, this has been devastating to the hospitality industry. Right here in Westfield, our industry is hospitality,” Cook said.

The effects on the hospitality industry have totaled more than $80 million.

Cook along with IUPUI’s Sports Innovation Institute want to know people’s expectations are when the park reopens.

David Pierce, the institute’s director on Wednesday told News 8, that the Hamilton County city and IUPUI have put together a survey for parents, spectators, coaches and league officials to help set the top priorities for reopening and playing games safely.

“It will tell us what our people comfortable, with what things are they see as a ‘must see,’ like, ‘Yes, this is fundamental (and) we have to have it for us to participate.’ It will show where people are resistant to that adaptation and it will show where people just don’t care, it just doesn’t matter,” Pierce said.

Some of the questions: Are you OK going through a screening process? Would you prefer that no spectators attend games? How would you feel about sitting in the stands next to someone who has not been screened? Should the fields be cleaned after use?

IUPUI and Westfield officials had expected 600 people to take the survey but, at last check, more than 10,000 people have participated.

The survey will wrap up this weekend, and the data could help drive how large recreational parks operate in a post pandemic world.

There are less than 50 questions. Once the survey is compiled, it could have a huge impact on how youth sports programs operate once the state opens up.

Opening outdoor recreational fields is more than taking the locks off neighborhood tennis courts. In Westfield, youth sports are an industry that generates income, jobs and tax revenue.

Pierce said, “Just to get events played, there is just a lot of money. It’s like in any of the professional sports, there is an incentive to get games played.”

News 8 talked a representative of the Mayor’s Office in Westfield on Wednesday afternoon. The hope is to open Grand Park on Friday, but officials are waiting for more specific information. The governor is expected to release an updated Back on Track plan on Thursday.

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The NCAA Division 2 Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships kicked off Wednesday at the IU Natatorium on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.

A total of 340 swimmers and 66 divers will be competing over the course of four days. Preliminary rounds will take place at 10 a.m. each day. Final rounds will be at 6 p.m. each evening.

NCAA.com planned to livestream the Thursday, Friday and Saturday sessions.

You can find more information on the championships at indianasportscorp.org.

DETROIT (AP) — Antoine Davis broke Stephen Curry’s freshman 3-point record early in the second half and finished with 20 points, leading Detroit Mercy to an 87-85 win over IUPUI on Thursday night.

Davis swished a 30-footer from the right wing for shot No. 123 beyond the arc to surpass the mark Curry set at Davidson 12 years ago. The feat was celebrated briefly in front of a sparse crowd at Calihan Hall, where the public-address announcer informed the crowd history was made while a graphic was shown on the video boards to recognize Curry’s record was broken.

The Golden State Warriors superstar says he has heard about Davis, adding he wasn’t aware he was still holding the Division I record for 3-pointers made by a freshman.

The 6-foot-1 guard matched Curry’s mark with a 3-pointer in the first half. Davis was 7 of 20 from the field, 4 of 12 on 3-pointers and had six assists, including one to set up Josh McFolley’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 45.5 seconds left. He is coached by his father, Mike Davis, a former Indiana coach.

McFolley scored 25 points for the Titans (11-18, 8-9 Horizon League). Camron Justice had 22 points for the Jaguars (16-13, 8-9).

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Bill Wampler led a balanced attack with 16 points and Wright State posted a 79-74 win on Sunday when IUPUI went cold down the stretch.

The Jaguars had a 57-54 lead when they went cold. Loudon Love’s layup started a 17-5 run that led to the Raiders’ win. The Jags briefly regained the lead on a free throw but Alan Vest and Cole Gentry had back-to-back 3-pointers and a layup by Wampler made it 71-62 with 1:07 to play. IUPUI was 1 of 13, missing five 3-point attempts, and even went 3 of 7 from the foul line.

In the last minute, the Raiders (13-11, 7-4 Horizon League) were 8 of 12 from the foul line, enough to keep IUPUI close, but the lead never got down to a single possession.

Gentry, the nation’s leading foul shooter (95.7 percent), made three free throws to run his streak to 46 in a row before a miss with 37.2 seconds left. It was just his fourth miss of the season (70-74). Gentry was 10 of 10 from the line when Wright State won the first meeting 72-64.

Camron Justice scored 22 points, his 23rd straight game in double figures, for the Jaguars (14-10, 6-5), who had a three-game winning streak snapped. D.J. McCall had a career-high 16 rebounds.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Camron Justice and D.J. McCall scored 18 points apiece and IUPUI held on to defeat Oakland 73-71 on Thursday after blowing a double-figure lead with barely two minutes remaining.

Jaylen Minnett, who had 13 for the Jaguars (13-9, 4-4 Horizon League), knocked down a 3-pointer for a 67-56 lead with 2:19 to play.

Then Jaevin Cumberland knocked down a 3 and followed with another after IUPUI made just 1 of 2, trimming the lead to six.

Xavier Hill-Mais had a layin to make it a five-point game and then his dunk cut it to three. IUPUI again went 1 of 2 from the line, then had another turnover, but Oakland couldn’t hit a 3 and McCall made two free throws with 9.7 seconds left for a 72-66 lead that sealed it.

Evan Hall had 11 points and 11 rebounds for IUPUI.

Tray Maddox Jr. had 21 points and Cumberland 18 for the Grizzlies (9-12, 5-3).

ASHWAUBENON, Wis. (AP) — D.J. McCall had 18 points to lead five IUPUI players in double-figure scoring as the Jaguars beat Green Bay 76-70 on Thursday night.

Camron Justice added 16 points for the Jaguars. Jaylen Minnett chipped in 13 points, and Elyjah Goss and Evan Hall added 11 apiece. McCall and Goss each grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

Sandy Cohen III had 22 points and eight rebounds for the Phoenix. JayQuan McCloud added 18 points and Tank Hemphill had 11.

Minnett hit a 3-pointer and Justice made a layup to give IUPUI a 69-65 lead with 2:50 remaining. Green Bay pulled within a point twice but couldn’t take the lead as the Jaguars closed on a 5-0 surge in the final 47 seconds.

IUPUI (11-8, 3-3 Horizon League) plays Milwaukee (8-11, 3-3) on the road on Saturday. Green Bay plays Illinois-Chicago (9-10, 3-3) at home on Saturday.