LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Lafayette has been serving as host to the 2008 Indiana State USBC Open Championship Bowling Tournament every weekend since mid-February and will continue through the conclusion of the tournament on May 19, 2008. The event has brought nearly 5,000 bowlers and their families to the Greater Lafayette area over a 13-weekend period.

The Lafayette area hosted the tournament in 2003 and the numbers increased for the 2008 event, as well as the anticipated visitor spending to the community, which is estimated to be $500,000. According to the Indiana Bowling Association tournament history, no other city has hosted the event twice within a span of 5 years.

“These kinds of sports tournaments are a great fit for the area,” said Jo Wade, President of the Lafayette-West Lafayette Convention & Visitors Bureau, “local residents and businesses benefit financially from having these events in our community as they provide an increase in business and positive exposure.”

The large number of visitors to the area during the tournament weekends generated visitor spending to many local hotels, restaurants, shops and attractions. “As a hotel, we benefited greatly, the bowlers occupied nearly 400 room nights at our property,” said Brooke Perez of the Best Western Lafayette.

Brad Cohen, owner of Arni’s Restaurant said they certainly noticed additional business in their Market Square Arni’s because of the Men’s Bowling tournament. “This is great additional out-of-town spending that we love having here during those slower winter months and on into the spring. All of us in Lafayette could use more of these events with their spending in our community.”

The Lafayette Bowling Association (LBA) along with the Lafayette-West Lafayette Convention & Visitors Bureau (L-WLCVB) and Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski, partnered to bring the tournament to the area. The L-WLCVB worked closely with the LBA in the bid process, which included everything from putting together a presentation to the Indiana State USBC BA tournament site selection committee, to securing hotel rooms & discounted rates for the teams, arranged site visits, to putting together gift bags from local area merchants and various giveaways. Lafayette competed against Evansville and Terre Haute to host the tournament.

“From the beginning of our bidding process in 2005, to the culmination of the event in 2008, the L-WLCVB assisted in many ways to help in the planning process. We will definitely try to bid for other events like this and the CVB staff made it easier to organize,” stated Tony Peterson, President of the Lafayette USBC.

Mike Aulby’s Arrowhead Bowl hosted the Singles and Doubles events and Market Square Lanes hosted the Team events.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University students moving out at the end of this semester will have the chance to donate usable items to the eighth annual Project Move Out, which will distribute items to needy families in the area.

The event, sponsored by the Boiler Volunteer Network, will collect goods between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday (May 2-3) in the Purdue Armory.

Also, student volunteers will be out in West Lafayette’s New Chauncey neighborhood from 1-4 p.m. Saturday (May 3) to gather donations of usable household items that are left curbside for the collection and pick up trash throughout the area. Purdue Physical Facilities donated the use of four trucks for the event.

Students can donate items such as clothing, shoes, cleaning supplies, electronics, books, furniture, laundry soap, winter coats and luggage, said Harry Brown, assistant dean of students and director of the Boiler Volunteer Network.

Then, from 1-4 p.m. Sunday (May 4), low-income community members will have a chance to “shop” for free items they need.

For the first time, the Boiler Volunteer Network is working on Project Move Out with the Campus Community Partnership Committee, a group that serves to increase Purdue’s cooperation with and contributions to the surrounding community.

Volunteers are still needed to help with the program, and one-hour shifts are available, Brown said. To make arrangements or for information, contact the Boiler Volunteer Network at (765) 496-2450 or bvn@purdue.edu.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University will award degrees at five campuses and seven College of Technology locations throughout Indiana during commencement ceremonies in May.

Commencement at the West Lafayette campus is scheduled for May 9-11 at Elliott Hall of Music. An estimated 5,947 degrees will be presented in four ceremonies that weekend, including 4,560 undergraduate degrees, 229 professional degrees, 773 master’s degrees and 385 doctoral degrees.

Purdue President France A. Córdova will address graduates at each ceremony. The ceremonies will feature two large video screens above the Elliott Hall stage. The screens will display a close-up image of each graduate receiving his or her diploma.

A live feed of the ceremonies also will be available online at mms://video.dis.purdue.edu/graduation

This link will not become active until 48 hours before the first ceremony.

Each graduation candidate is guaranteed four tickets to the commencement. Candidates can request up to two additional tickets, however, extra tickets are not guaranteed. Doors open to guests 90 minutes prior to the ceremony.

The ceremonies for the West Lafayette campus are:

• May 9. 8 p.m. Colleges of Education and Engineering. Rebecca Lynn Hurst of Troy, Ohio, who will receive a bachelor’s degree from the College of Education, will provide the class response.
• May 10. 9:30 a.m. College of Consumer and Family Sciences, School of Management and College of Science. Elizabeth Anne Proctor of Libertyville, Ill., who will receive bachelor’s degrees from the colleges of Science and Liberal Arts, will provide the class response.
• May 10. 2:30 p.m. Colleges of Agriculture and Liberal Arts. Cody Elyse Cheetham of Zionsville, Ind., who will receive a bachelor’s degree from the College of Liberal Arts, will provide the class response.
• May 11. 9:30 a.m. College of Technology and schools of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences. Akshay Thomas of Chennai, India, who will receive a bachelor’s degree from the School of Health Sciences, will provide the class response.

Commencement videos for each school will be available. A DVD costs $30, and order forms are available at Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse box office or by calling (765) 494-3933. Order forms can be submitted both before and after each commencement ceremony.

Commencement times and locations at other Purdue campuses are:

• Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. 7 p.m. May 14 at the Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Center, where 420 Purdue degrees will be conferred.
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where 963 Purdue degrees will be awarded on May 11 in two ceremonies in Halls A-B-C of the Indiana Convention Center. The first ceremony, at 10 a.m., will include the schools of Dentistry, Education, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Informatics, Law-Indianapolis, Medicine, Nursing, Physical Education, Tourism Management, Public and Environmental Affairs, Social Work and the University Graduate Schools. The second ceremony, at 3 p.m., will include the Kelley School of Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering and Technology, Herron School of Art and Design, Journalism, Liberal Arts, Library and Information Science, Jacobs School of Music, and Science.
• Purdue Calumet. 1:30 p.m. May 18 at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, where 687 Purdue degrees will be conferred.
• Purdue North Central. 7 p.m. May 19 in the Athletics-Recreation Center at Valparaiso University, where 285 degrees will be conferred.

College of Technology commencements at locations around the state are:

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s School of Veterinary Medicine will offer free eye exams May 12-16 for active working dogs.

The exams will be available at the Small Animal Hospital to service dogs for the blind, assistance dogs for the handicapped, police dogs and specially trained search-and-rescue dogs. Dogs must be active “working dogs” in their service area and certified through a formal training program or organization to qualify for the free exam.

Jean Stiles, associate professor of veterinary ophthalmology, said exams are being offered nationwide through the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists and Merial, a pet health product manufacturer.

Dog owners can qualify their dogs for an exam by preregistering at http://www.acvoeyeexam.org. Owners are required to complete a short form online and must call the Small Animal Hospital at (765) 494-1107 for an appointment. Printouts of the form must be taken to the hospital or another participating veterinary ophthalmologist for an appointment.

“Most dogs do have good vision, but there’s a lot of eye disease in dogs, especially with many purebreds,” Stiles said.

Cataracts and retinal degeneration are common in dogs, but unlike humans, inherited eye diseases dogs experience can occur from their first year through old age, Stiles said.

Service dogs also require other veterinary care, she said.

“They certainly should have, even at the very minimum, a yearly examination by their primary care veterinarian,” she said.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A record number of students have enrolled in classes the past two semesters at the Purdue University College of Technology’s location at Lafayette, officials have reported.

Jon Aull, location director for the College of Technology at Indianapolis and Lafayette, said enrollments reached all-time highs in both the fall 2007 and spring 2008 semesters. In the fall, 268 students were enrolled, up 23 percent from fall 2006. This spring, 210 students were enrolled, up 14 percent from spring 2007.

Michele Summers, assistant director of the Lafayette location, said the increase in enrollment is due to increased marketing efforts in addition to strong partnerships with local employers.

“We are open to all students but are focused primarily on nontraditional students who are working but want to further their education,” she said. “We offer classes at night and at their workplaces, so we are making every effort to meet the needs of the people of Lafayette.”

The College of Technology at Lafayette is located at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive facility on Indiana 38 and also offers classes at Wabash National Corp., Fairfield Manufacturing Co. Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and in Frankfort.

The Lafayette location offers certificate programs, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees in industrial technology and organizational leadership and supervision.

For more information about registration and degree programs offered at the College of Technology at Lafayette, call (765) 496-6886, e-mail techlafayette@purdue.edu or visit http://www.tech.purdue.edu/lafayette/