Indiana Wesleyan University will host its first annual Easter egg hunt for students at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 13.

“The class representatives were having a meeting, collaborating on what to do [for Easter],” said Student Government Association junior class representative Danielle Hainley. “The sophomore class representative, Mike Bruce, presented his idea. Everyone seemed to like it, so we just went for it.”

According to Susan Shinkle (sr), SGA’s vice president of student organizations and university relations, this is the first time there will be an Easter egg hunt at IWU.

“The class representatives have only existed for two years now. I know that, between last year and this year, they’ve done a lot of events,” she said. “Every year so far, we try different things.”

“This is basically a test-run,” Hainley said. “We hope to do this again. We’ll see.”

Volunteers will set up for the event for an hour, starting at 1 p.m., according to Stephen Weeks (so), SGA’s vice president of public relations. Weeks said the event will last from 2:30 until about 4 that afternoon.

“Basically, we’ll have everyone meeting at the fountain, and we’ll explain the rules,” Shinkle said.

Each egg has a number inside corresponding to a different prize. The biggest prize is an iPad.

The representatives will have a table set up in the mallway of the Barnes Student Center, where participants in the Easter egg hunt will bring their eggs. Class representatives will check the eggs the students bring and dole out the prizes.

“If it rains, the eggs will be [hidden] in the Student Center,” said Hainley. “Otherwise, they’ll be everywhere, except not in the dorms.”

Shinkle said the class representative position was created to help SGA give students fun things to do while they bond.

“I really hope it becomes a tradition here,” Weeks said. “We need more tradition on this campus. And the class reps are doing a great job at trying to start traditions.”

SGA provides more information about upcoming events on Facebook and on Twitter, @iwusga.

For students looking to relax before finals, the annual Spotted Cow Music Festival will take place Saturday, April 14, with music starting at 1 p.m. The bands will perform between Hodson and Evans halls.

This year’s headliner, Remedy Drive, will play along with 10 other acts.

The lineup includes:

1:00-1:25-Stay the Shores
1:40-2:05-Sam Mosey
2:20-2:45-All Changes Apply
3:00-3:25-Davy Long
3:40-4:05-Bobbie Morrone
4:20-4:45-Ken Folk and the Neighborhood Association
5:00-6:00-Supper Break
6:00-6:25-Jacob the Brave
6:40-7:05-Rubies & Rations
7:20-7:45-La De Les
8:00-9:00-Remedy Drive

The lead singer of Remedy Drive, David Zach, explained that the band just got done with a month-long West Coast tour and will be playing 15 festivals this summer, but Spotted Cow will be a little unusual, since it’s held on a college campus.

“The typical festival is a little different in that we’re a smaller band in the setup, and we’re playing with larger bands that have a lot more national success, but really, we don’t prepare any differently,” said Zach.

“I like playing for college-age people more than anyone else,” said Zach. “It seems like someone in their 20s or late teens kind of start to take a look at the way things are in the world and realize that there’s two paths to go.”

Brian Fannin, lead singer and songwriter for Stay The Shores, played Spotted Cow two years ago when his band was called The Colorful.

“It’s an honor to play a campus that honors music so much. To us as musicians, that’s one of our favorite parts of God’s creation. One of our favorite ways to watch glory go to Him, whether it be secular or Christian,” said Fannin.

Fannin said he’s also excited to be part of this year’s lineup: “I love Remedy Drive. I’ve met them. Great guys, great music, but we’re really excited to play with such a high caliber of local talent.”

Stay the Shores will be playing music from a newly released album, “White Snow, Red River,” and Remedy Drive will be playing music from the album “Resuscitate,” due out in August.

Spotted Cow is put on every year by the Student Activities Council. Event planner Nolan Moblo (jr) said there are a number of ways that SAC books bands for the festival.

“We send out applications to let people know that, ‘Hey, we’re looking for bands,’ and people contact us or sometimes we contact other people,” said Moblo. “When it comes to headliners, we do a lot of research trying to find out who’s available, try to find bands people would like.”

Although SAC tries to find a headlining band that would appeal to Indiana Wesleyan University students, only members are allowed to vote for who will be hired.

“If [students] have a list of bands they can pick from, if their band does not get chosen, most of the time they’ll be upset and disappointed, and they won’t end up wanting to come to Spotted Cow because of that,” said Moblo.

SAC is also renting a Euro-bungee and a rock wall for students. Moblo said Spotted Cow is a great way to end the semester.

Spotted Cow starts at 12:30 p.m. with lunch on the lawn, and bands will begin playing at 1:00 p.m.

A proposal to offer a music therapy degree at Indiana Wesleyan University was approved by the Academic Affairs Council March 29.

After three years of preparation, the degree program is in its final stages of approval. The faculty senate will review the proposal on April 10 and vote on it in May, after which time the university will pursue accreditation for the degree from the American Music Therapy Association and the National Association of Schools of Music later in the year.

“We’re moving very positively through the process,” said Dr. Lisa Dawson, associate professor of music, voice and opera studies at IWU.

If the degree passes the senate, students who are interested in pursuing it can begin doing so in the fall, according to Dawson.

The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy as an allied health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address the physical, psychological, cognitive and social needs of individuals.

Put simply, Dawson defines music therapy as the application of music in a therapeutic clinical setting.

“It is interdisciplinary,” said Dawson. “We love that about this program. It [includes] a lot of existing classes between the Music Division and the psych division and, of course, gen eds.”

The degree proposal would include eight new classes: psychology of music, principles of music therapy, assessment and evaluation in music therapy, music therapy methods and techniques, research in music therapy, influence of music on behavior, music therapy with various populations and a six-hour internship.

“It’s really nice to be able to offer a whole new degree program and only have to add eight courses,” said Dawson.

According to the American Music Therapy Association, “a career in music therapy offers challenge, opportunity, and distinctive rewards to those interested in working with people of all ages with various disabilities. Music therapists are employed in many different settings including general and psychiatric hospitals, community mental health agencies, rehabilitation centers, day care facilities, nursing homes, schools and private practice.”

“The compassionate nature of Christ,” said Dr. Todd Guy, chair of the Music Division at IWU, “calls us to have that healing idea in our mind and in our hearts – that idea of helping people through discomfort and pain.”

“Evidence in studies show that music helps in so many ways in terms of healing, in terms of helping people cope with mental and physical illnesses,” Guy added, “so it does have healing power.”

“If you get on YouTube, you can see these crazy videos of brain activity related to music,” said Dawson. “It’s fascinating.”

Current and prospective IWU students have expressed interest in pursuing this degree, according to Dawson. One of these students is Jessica Alford (so).

“I have wanted to pursue music therapy as my major from the beginning,” said Alford. “But since there are only two Christian colleges that provide music therapy as an undergraduate degree, I chose to come to IWU in hope that they would get it before I graduated.”

“I have always seen myself working in a hospital, but I know I could never be a nurse or a doctor,” said Alford. “Music therapists work in the same kinds of atmospheres as nurses and doctors, but you don’t have to take science classes, and you get to use music on a daily basis. Who doesn’t love listening to music?”

Of course, as Dawson pointed out, “There are lots of places where people are careless with music.”

Because music can be used to manipulate people, it is important that people “know it and understand it and become a part of this research that we interface with music,” said Dawson.

For students interested in pursuing the potential new major next fall, Alford gives a bit of advice: “If you have a passion for music and people, and you want to work in a hospital/medical office atmosphere this might be a major you want to look into. Music therapy is as cool as it sounds.”

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments March 26-28 concerning President Obama’s signature domestic achievement: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, derisively known as “Obamacare” by its opponents.

As summarized by The New York Daily News, the 2-year-old law aims “to provide health insurance to more than 30 million previously uninsured Americans, while trying to restrain costs and prevent disruptions to the majority already with coverage.”

Opponents contend, however, that the requirement that Americans purchase health insurance is unconstitutional.

The three-day oral discussion, untelevised or broadcast in any way, started on March 26, with a 90-minute argument about whether court action is premature, since no one has paid a fine for not having health insurance yet, according to The Daily News.

The following day, March 27, covered the most controversial issue of the act in a two-hour argument upon whether requiring most Americans to have health insurance by 2014 or pay the penalty was, as the plaintiffs claim, unconstitutional.

The March 28 argument was twofold, with a 90-minute session upon whether the act could remain intact even if the individual mandate to require health insurance was taken out, then another hour apportioned to discuss the threat to cut off federal aid to states that don’t comply with the expansion of the federal-state Medicaid program for low-income people.

Although the justices aren’t expected to rule until late June, the L.A. Times sought the opinion of a few constitutional law experts to see what they predict to be the court’s conclusion.

Henry T. Greely, Stanford professor of health law and policy, stated that, from his point of view, “It looks like there are clearly four justices in favor, three opposed and [Justice Anthony M.] Kennedy somewhere in between, and Chief Justice [John G.] Roberts with leeway to go either way.”

Greely also said that he thinks the individual mandate is more likely to survive, while Adam Winkler, UCLA constitutional law professor, said that he wouldn’t be surprised if the individual mandate were struck down, but that it is “less likely that [the entire law be struck down] as that would be a clearer case of aggressive judicial activism. The law has thousands of different provisions, many of which have nothing to do with the individual mandate.”

Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, an organization described by the L.A. Times as a “libertarian think tank,” also agrees with Greely that the individual mandate is not likely to be struck.

Neither Dr. James Fuller, dean of the graduate school at Indiana Wesleyan University, nor Dr. Keith Newman, executive vice president of IWU, believes that the PPACA will have an effect on the development of the university’s health sciences initiative. The establishment of the initiative began in response to the needs of the economy, and the health care act hasn’t changed those needs, so Fuller and Newman said the school’s plans will not be affected, regardless of whether the court rules in favor of the act or not.

The Sojourn reported in October 2011 that IWU’s health sciences initiative is the planned development of a new science and nursing facility on IWU’s Marion campus, with the eventual establishment of a college of osteopathic medicine, which will not be built on the university’s Marion campus, though its location has not been determined.

“The need for nurses, therapists, and doctors is great, and it will continue to be a challenge to educate enough of these health professionals,” said Dr. Henry Smith, president of IWU, in an email. “Statistics show there are serious shortages now and will get worse in the coming years.”

With health care services making up one-sixth of the American economy, a recent study found by the Chicago Tribune stated that “more than 250,000 additional public health workers would be needed nationwide over the next 12 years.”

Michael Borowitz, senior health policy analyst for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, said the United States is “the only wealthy country that does not have universal access,” meaning that not all citizens are under a partially or fully publicly funded health system, according to the PBS “NewsHour” webpage.

According to the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine site, 57 of the 92 counties in Indiana are considered medically underserved.

Restating that the development of the health sciences initiative is in response to the needs of the economy, Newman refuted the idea that the initiative was created in response to IWU’s recent decrease in traditional undergraduate enrollment.

“I don’t think anyone looked at the health sciences initiative and said this is the magic bullet to solve our enrollment challenges,” Newman said.

Newman did say the university anticipates an increase in enrollment based on the health sciences initiative. Though IWU is only in the first phase of its 10-year plan, new programs will be offered throughout this period. Newman projected that, by the year 2020, there would be another 1,500 graduates and another 700-1,000 undergraduates at IWU.