Jan. 9 Online Issue

By Michael GammoStaff Reporter

Administrators addressed questions from students and the general public Tuesday about the Dec. 19 stabbing incident that left one stu-dent dead and another seri-ously injured.

In a town hall meeting at the Student Union Build-ing’s Trimble Lounge,

President Lloyd Jacobs, Police Chief Jeff Newton and Kaye Patten Wallace, vice president for the stu-dent experience, fielded questions from audience members and those watch-ing the live-streaming dis-cussion online about the in-cident that occurred at Hor-ton International House.

Both Josiah Galat, 20, of Mansfield, Ohio and Erik Littleton, 19, of Detroit were engineering students living in Academic House during the fall semester.

When police responded to the call, they found Littleton in front of the residence hall. They then found Galat dead behind the building.

Galat died due to several stab wounds to both sides of his neck, said Diane Scala-Barnett, a Lucas County deputy coroner.

She said the weapon struck Galat’s jugular, result-ing in a “tremendous amount of blood lost in a short amount of time.”

Scala-Barnett said Galat also had defensive wounds on his hands, which are caused when a victim tries to shield themselves from an attack or grab the weapon.

The only remaining part of the coroner’s investigation is a toxicology report, which will not be finished for at least a few more weeks.

Patten Wallace said

MAC play to start for Rockets / 6

Serving the University of Toledo since 1919 www.IndependentCollegian.com

InSIde

Women’s track runs a bit slower at WMU / 6

A look at this semester’s installment of ‘Crib Notes’ / 8

Gradkowski’s set to open this weekend / 8

Reflecting on December’s stabbing death at UT / 4

In brIef

UT eliminates substance abuse prevention position

STUDeNT AffAiRS

By Lindsay MahaneyStaff Reporter

On Friday, Alexis Blavos was told her job would no longer exist.

This means UT no longer has an Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Specialist, a posi-tion Blavos held for just under

three years. It follows the elimina-tion of two other key positions in the division of student affairs this academic year.

The position won’t be officially eliminated until April 3, and Dean of Students Michele Martinez said other facets of the university are

being reorganized to adjust. “We do have this position until

the beginning of April,” she said. “So it really is most of the semester and we’re going to be trying to fig-ure out how to do things differently.”

Blavos’ job involves teaching

students about alcohol and drug related issues, including holding presentations, planning substance-free events, collaborating with stu-dent organizations and overseeing substance-abuse protocols like of

CRiMe CURRiCULUM

BoB TayloR / ICUT President Lloyd Jacobs (center) fields a question during yesterday’s town hall meeting in the Trimble Lounge of the Student Union Building. The meeting primarily focused on the Dec. 19 incident in Horton international House that led to the death of Josaih Galat.

Three-year degree track offered to UT studentsBy Nell TironeStaff Reporter

Starting next fall, incom-ing freshmen will be offered a chance to earn a bache-lor’s degree in three years instead of four.

The option is to be offered at all Ohio universities and intends to help students save money by reducing time spent in school as well as al-low them to enter the career world sooner, according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education published last September.

The article also said the option is expected to encour-age degree completion rates, which currently stand at only 56 percent in Ohio public universities.

Current students will not be able to transfer into this new program.

The 24 undergraduate programs of the College of Language, Literature, and Social Sciences will be of-fering this program next fall, but that will change to 60 percent of all under-graduate degree programs by June 2014.

Rather than condense the normal program by making cuts, the program is instead set at an accelerated pace, relying on eight week cours-es for general education, al-lowing the student to focus more on the required cours-es for their major.

“The three year degree is the same as a four year de-gree with the same require-ments and same number of credit hours; it is a different pathway to the same de-gree,” said Dean of LLSS Ja-mie Barlowe in an email. “It is optional and does not re-place four-year (or longer) degree programs.”BoB TayloR / IC

Sean Coyle, a senior majoring in chemical engineering, asks a questions during yesterday’s town hall meeting.

ADMiNiSTRATioN

By Danielle GambleNews Editor

Main Campus Provost Scott Scarborough unveiled his five-year plan for the uni-versity last month, which lists several changes to the how the University of Toledo sup-ports students, faculty, staff and administrators.

Scarborough said details of the plan will take shape once the university creates several “implementation teams” around each issue to develop

action plans and discuss funding requirements.

“That’s the thing about these strategic plans – you never know which part is go-ing to be the big part,” he said. “You think you know, but the better way to look at it is to plant a lot of seeds and see what sprouts.”

Scarborough said the plan creates a “system of higher education” and should

attract more students and better serve the students who

are already here.The plan includes

several large-scale changes, such as of-fering more intern-ship opportunities for students, creat-ing a College of Communication, developing entry “portals” for new

students, expanding online resources,

rethinking teaching practices and developing a new faculty hiring plan.

Internship opportunities

One of Scarborough’s an-swers to engaging students is “experiential learning” by in-creasing opportunities for students to engage in things like studying abroad, intern-ships, service learning and undergraduate research.

Scarborough said UT is doing “pretty well” in stress-ing applied learning in cer-tain programs such as engi-neering, however, that has not translated throughout ev-ery academic program.

Scarborough said the uni-versity will be partnering with Digerati, a Michigan software developing company that will build a program to help students find

New college, faculty changes part of Scarborough’s plan for next five years

Search for new dean down to two

The national search for the new dean of the Honors College has been narrowed down to two candidates.

lakeesha Ransom, spoke at an open fo-rum yesterday and Stephanie deluse will speak at an open fo-rum on Tuesday at 11 a.m. until noon in Stu-dent Union Building Room 2591.

Main Campus Provost Scott Scarborough said a decision will be made soon after the forums.

“We are eager to start implementing our new vision for the hon-ors college and a se-lection of a permanent dean is critical to bring that to life,” Scarbor-ough said in an email.

Ransom is a visiting professor at assump-tion University of Thai-land and teaches entre-preneurship and cus-tomer relationship man-agement. She is a prin-cipal at Mariposa Glob-al and consults with Fortune 200 companies about strategic management.

Deluse is an honors faculty fellow and princi-pal lecturer for Barrett, the honors college at ar-izona State University.

“I am excited about the finalists that the committee has brought forward, each brings to the table a skill set that makes them highly at-tractive for this posi-tion,” Scarborough said. “I’m anxious to re-ceive feedback from the campus community on each.”

The current interim dean is Patsy Komuni-ecki. The former dean, Tom Barden, stepped down at the end of the last semester and will retire from UT in May.

See Degree / 3

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 94th year • Issue 17

See Layoff / 3BLAvoS

SCARBoRoUGH

Campus reacts to stabbing death

See Stabbing / 3

See Plan / 3

Purpose: To enhance the knowledge and use of the Spanish language and create further awareness of the department of foreign languages.

Leaders: Brenden Vanover, President; Cheyanne Burns, Vice President; Ariel Scaccia, Secretary; Andrew Pavelka, Treasurer; Caitlyn Witt, Historian

History: The University of Toledo Spanish Club be-gan in the Fall 2012 Semester.

Upcoming events: Meetings are held every other Wed. (unless otherwise notified) at 5 p.m. in the Memo-rial Field House Room 2440

How to learn more: Email the group at [email protected], visit them on Face-book at UToledo Spanish Club or follow them on Twitter @UToledoSpanishClub

Would your group like to be featured as The Independent Collegian’s Student Group of the Week? Email Nate Pentecost at [email protected].

What are you doing to prepare for

the new semester?

I reviewed all my course mate-rials and printed my syllabi.

Troy CrowellJunior

English

I took my place-ment tests and got enrolled in all of my classes so now I’m just settling in.

Haidr AobhranyFreshman Business

I made an eight-step list for success that I have hung on my wall.

Markus Beck Freshman

Civil Engineering

I am organizing myself with a planner and plan-ning for spring break to give my-self something to look forward to.

Kristen FischerSenior

Health Science

QUesTion oF THe weeK

rocket digestFollow us on Twitter @TheICToledo www.IndependentCollegian.com

This week in UT history

75 years ago: The university’s only professor emeritus is dead. William McK. Reed, founder of the division of pharmacy 33 years previously, died in his home Dec. 26 follow-ing a heart attack.

50 years ago: A hot second-half offensive performance on the part of the University of Toledo Rockets gave Coach

Eddie Melvin and his cag-ers a 60-56 victory over rival Bowling Green State University Wednesday night before a spirited partisan crowd of 3,800 in the UT Field House.

10 years ago: The planned renovations for the Student Union Build-ing this summer will be relocating the Candy Counter and putting a coffee bar in its current location.

Courtesy of the University of Toledo

Rocky wins Capital one write-in voteUniversity of Toledo mascot Rocky the Rocket won this season’s write-in vote to compete in next sea-son’s Capital one Mascot Challenge. The participant receiving the most votes is awarded a $20,000 scholarship toward the school’s mascot program.

eDiToRiALEditor-in-Chief Vincent D. ScebbiManaging EditorNate PentecostNews EditorDanielle GambleRocket Life EditorRussell AxonSports EditorJay SkebbaOpinion EditorZachary R. DehmDirector of PhotographyBob TaylorCopy EditorJasmine Townsend

BUsinessCirculation Manager Lindsay MahaneySales RepresentativeEddie MillerAd DesignerAdrielle HenryCollegian Media FoundationAdviserErik Gable

The Independent Collegian is published by the Collegian Media Foundation, a private,

not-for-profit corporation. ©2012

The independent Collegian staffVisit us at Carlson Library Suite 1057 Write to us at 2801 W. Bancroft St. Mail Stop 530 Toledo, OH Contact the editor at [email protected] Phone: 419-530-7788 Fax: 419-530-7770

2 | The Independent Collegian | Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The UT spanish Club

next week’s Question: What was your favorite winter blockbuster film?

sTUDenT gRoUP oF THe weeK

I want to utilize the tutoring cen-ter more oftenand start study-ing instead of going out.

Batoul ismail Freshman

Nursing

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 | The Independent Collegian | 3

“internships that lead to jobs.” He said the program will focus on finding mid- to small-sized organizations, especially those that like to hire their interns, and matching them to students.

“Engineering and busi-ness, which already have pretty strong programs, they usually have relationships with very large employers,” he said. “What this is going to do, which is something the faculty picked up on be-fore even I did, is this will help humanities’ students.”

College of Communication

Scarborough’s plan in-cludes removing the Com-munication Department from the College of Lan-guage, Literature and Social Science and creating an en-tirely new College of Communication.

Paul Fritz, the chair of the communication department, said other universities around the country have communication colleges, and he believes a UT college of communication will allow students to use more tech-nology in class and encour-age instructors to dialogue about strong curriculum.

He said he has felt very included in the development of the current plan.

“I’m really in favor of it, because it grew out of com-munication with other fac-ulty members and provosts, so it’s kind of a grass roots thing,” Fritz said.

While a timeline and other details are still in the works, Fritz said he has volunteered to be on the committee that will oversee this process.

“One of the things we’ll do in the implementation process is figure out is how to find the resources to im-plement this plan,” he said.

PortalsThe proposed portals are

“support structures” that students will enter into as soon as they enroll at the university. Scarborough said they will function more like departments than colleges, and he wants to see a differ-ent portal for well-prepared students, under-prepared and average students, online students and adult students.

“The idea is that all of the students coming into the university would come through one of these portals and then, after they declare a major, that portal college would follow the student from beginning to end,” he said. “They’ll be sticking with the student, even if they change their major, such that the advisor is get-ting you a degree plan that will get you to completion in the shortest amount of time.

Scarborough said new structuring will make ac-countability clearer at the administrative level, and will help students receive a more consistent experience.

“The reason you want them to stay with the stu-dent from beginning to end is because you want these colleges to be thinking about the educational experience that is unique to this type of

student, whether it’s appro-priate and whether it’s ac-complishing the objectives you would want accom-plished,” he said.

Underprepared students

While Scarborough said he wants to stress growing UT’s percentage of high-achieving students, he also wants to balance the re-sources provided to those who are underprepared.

The Board of Regents suggested universities begin helping underprepared stu-dents as part of their mis-sion, and Scarborough’s plan includes those ideas.

He said the term “under-prepared student” doesn’t just mean remedial students – it also includes students who are prepared for college but are behind on only one or two academic areas. Scar-borough said he will push more assessments like place-ment testing and grade com-parisons that will help dis-tinguish those students.

“The university right now serves a large portion of the population that shows a cer-tain amount of unprepared-ness when they first arrive. That will always be an im-portant part of our mission, and we want to serve those students better,” he said.

Online resourcesScarborough said he

would like to develop the universities online offerings to “expand beyond even our local geography.”

He said the new system, tentatively named UT XNET, would support all of the other colleges and their use of academic technology, similarly to how UT’s cur-rent system operates.

UT currently has the highest distance-learning enrollment rate of the 14 major state-supported uni-versities in Ohio, according to a 2011 distance-learning enrollment report of the OHTECH Division of Stu-dent Services.

“The student who is part on campus and part online and you get them engaging in the university in both di-mensions, the purpose of the UTXNET is helping to support that,” he said. “That’s where I think it’s go-ing to have the biggest and most immediate impact.”

Linda Rouillard, professor of French, said she is most concerned with the aspects of the plan that highlight competency-based learning, which assigns credit to stu-dents based on skill levels rather than hours spent in the class room.

“There are lots of ways you can fudge this,” she said. “I think you can end up wa-tering down what students need to learn. Online learn-ing doesn’t have to be com-petency based. It’s not that one needs the other, it’s that he’s combined the two.”

Rouillard said online learning has still not been perfected, and that UT should be careful while seeking to expand their on-line offerings.

But that’s not the only change. Scarborough said he wants UT to fill a “niche market” of college

experiences which includes a large offering of fully on-line degree. It’s a concept the university began to pursue this year when they offered their first batch of totally online degrees, but Scarbor-ough is envisioning some-thing much bigger for the “pure online student.”

“We have to think about in the future, those who are adult students, parents, people who work, located some-where in rural Ohio, and the only way you can get a degree is by using a pure online ex-perience,” he said. “We may not have it now, but we want to see where do we start to see if we can do this.”

Teaching practices “If you engage students at

higher levels of learning, they retain more – I think that’s something we’ve known for a while,” Scarborough said. “The idea would be in all of our academic programs to have, minimal, at least one component of those.”

Another proposal that both he and President Lloyd Jacobs have mentioned for several months now are “flipped classrooms.” The idea is to ask students to lis-ten to lectures as homework and use class time to do things they would normally do for homework, like work on group projects.

Scarborough said he re-members the first time he realized the benefits of a flipped classroom.

Before starting the first class of his first day at UT, a student asked Scarborough if his lec-ture slides were online. Scar-borough told him they were.

“Next thing I know, he’s flipped open his computer and he’s not even listening to me anymore,” Scarborough said. “Because he knows that he’ll just pull it down if he’s having trouble with the homework. That’s why when I first heard about the flipped classroom idea, I said oh, yeah – that’s what I have to do if I want anything meaningful to happen in class anymore.”

Scarborough said how teachers implement this more hands-on approach will vary widely between subjects and teaching styles, but he believes minimizing the traditional, formal lecture style of instruc-tion is good.

“It’ll be up to the professor to decide what they can create in the classroom that will real-ly enhance learning,” he said.

Rouillard said she was im-pressed by Scarborough’s de-sire to seek advice from fac-ulty, although she is very cautious about the imple-mentation of many aspects of the plan.

“I think it’s going to de-pend on the subject matter; it can’t be a one size fits all solution,” she said. “I have heard from one colleague, quite recently actually, that’s been doing that and it’s something that’s been work-ing quite well for him.”

Overall, Rouillard said the students will ultimately decide how much they want to learn.

“I think for some stu-dents, it will be the same problem that they still have with doing assignments out-side of class,” she said. “They’re still going to have

to watch the video, and the question is going to be will they take the time to do it.”

FacultyScarborough said there is a

national trend in higher edu-cation that includes fewer tenure-track faculty who are given help through teaching assistants, and more classes are being taught by non-ten-ured instructors.

“The question is am I okay with it? No. Is it reali-ty? Yes. Will we probably have to deal with that reali-ty? Yes,” he said.

Scarborough said he be-lieves future tenured positions will be reserved for “teacher scholars” and those focused on research, while the majori-ty of teaching positions will be filled by those with “a more balanced portfolio.”

He said he wants redefine the “pecking order” in higher education that he said leaves lecturers and part-time in-structors at the bottom.

He proposes a system that will separate tenured and tenure-track faculty from as-sistant, associate and full “professors of practice.”

“With the way the world is changing, we need a ca-reer path that is more attrac-tive to that professor that gets more excited about what’s happening in the classroom than anything else,” Scarborough said.

Rouillard said she doesn’t believe offering renewable contracts or changing instruc-tor titles is the final answer.

Rouillard said this decision “does not speak to valuing teaching.” A part time in-structor earns $750 an hour per a credit taught, and she believes increasing that num-ber will be the true answer to retaining good faculty.

“This plan does not make up for not hiring tenure-track professors,” she said. “That’s where we should be investing. We should be in-vesting in people who know that the university is as com-mitted to them as they are to the institution.”

How to make it work

When talking about creat-ing a budget for this plan, Scarborough believes “it’s an art, not a science. You’re al-ways balancing the bias to keep tuition and fees as low as possible with being able to provide the resources to stu-dents so they can have the best educational experience that they need and want.”

With the university under a budget crunch, almost every aspect of Scarborough’s plan involves spending money.

“Some people could ask how can we even think about spending money right now. Well, it’s because if you don’t spend money, in the future you’re going to have to cut even more,” he said. “It’s not an ‘either-or’ option – it’s an ‘and’ you’re looking for.”

Still, he said the coming years will be fiscally challenging.

“Any good administrator is going to look to the adminis-tration first to find ways to cut spending… but I’m afraid the numbers are so challeng-ing this time that everyone’s going to have to be involved in reprioritizing,” he said.

Barlowe said the stu-dents will need to be well prepared and motivated in order to succeed.

Though the program is offered to all incoming stu-dents, it is geared more for students who scored well on placement exams or earned college credit prior to attending UT.

Student Government President Paulette Bon-gratz helped work with Main Campus Provost Scott Scarborough to help increase the appeal of the new program.

“By offering these three-year programs, it’s a fast track to then be able to con-tinue onto a higher degree,” Bongratz said.

the medical amnesty policy. “Presentations are really

important… but think about the last time someone came in and did a presentation and then you walked out and said, ‘That doesn’t really apply to me,’” Blavos said. “When we implement policies like the medical amnesty policy, now we’ve given you an opportuni-ty to say, ‘I’m scared but I want to help my friend, let me stand up and do something to make a difference.’”

Erica Hughes, a graduate student studying public health who worked for Blavos in stu-dent affairs, said the elimina-tion of Blavos’ position is “a tragedy.”

“If you think of all the sta-tistics and you think of every-thing, especially recently, that happened with all the violence and all the alcohol and drugs on campus, it is a very much needed position on campus,” Hughes said.

Martinez said even though people who work in student affairs are more, the loss of any team member has an equal af-fect on student life.

“I think there are a lot of people here on campus for stu-dents, it’s not just the division of student affairs,” Martinez said. “It’s much broader than that. Students are touched by a lot of different areas.”

President Lloyd Jacobs said substance-abuse education can be delivered in different ways more cost-effective for the university.

“Everything speaks to the budget crunch,” Jacobs said. “We have been living in a det-rimental budget situation for a decade. Everything we do is in the reflection of those budget-ary changes.”

Jacobs said alcohol is a seri-ous issue in universities that requires attention, and he is “deeply committed” to ad-dressing it.

“There’s always pros and cons to any personnel change, any organizational change,” Ja-cobs said. “All I can say is that personnel changes in no way reflect a lessening of our commitment.”

Blavos, who said she works up to 60 hours a week, said the loss of her position could cause over half of her area’s

current programs to be cut be-cause “no one will be available to run them.”

With the loss earlier this year of Jeff Witt, former assis-tant dean of students, and Dale Pelz, former retention specialist, Blavos said the stu-dents could suffer from the lack of faculty.

“I’m disappointed that they’re taking this service away from students,” Blavos said. “In order to help students it has to be done the right way, other-wise it could potentially make things worse.”

Hughes said other positions at UT that are less beneficial to stu-dents should be cut before the positions from the student affairs.

“I think students will defi-nitely lose some services as a result of this because you’re missing somebody that’s very student-centered,” said Hughes. “They need to look at the university as a whole as opposed to just cutting from student services because the university needs to be there for the students.”

According to Martinez, stu-dent affairs is developing a plan to provide alcohol and drug education to students.

“We’ll probably be using a peer education model,” Marti-nez said. “Peers will be educat-ed to go and educate their oth-er peers about these issues.”

Peer mentoring is a group of students who are taught how to educate their peers through activities like acting out scenes or leading large group discus-sions. According to Martinez, UT’s mentoring group will fo-cus on the dangers of alcohol, drugs and sexual assault.

Kaye Patten Wallace, vice president for the student expe-rience, said through a spokes-man that the peer-mentoring group will work with the divi-sion of student affairs and the counseling center.

As for Blavos, she plans to finish getting a Ph.D. and wants students to know that she is “doing fine.”

“Sometimes things that hap-pen you think are going to be bad, but they end up better for you,” Blavos said. “I’ve lived a lot of life. When I’m given bad news I know I’m going to be fine because I’ve had bad news before.”

News Editor Danielle Gamble contributed to this story.

Layoff from page 1

Littleton, who was in critical condition at ProMedica To-ledo Hospital, has been re-leased and is now recovering at home.

Administrators said nei-ther student had any prior criminal record, and the in-cident was described as un-characteristic for both of them.

Responding to a question about a third person who was arrested that night for disorderly conduct, Newton said that person was at I-House earlier and had been visiting the two men in their room, but left before the

stabbing occurred and was not involved in the incident.

Patten Wallace said the university has assigned three counselors to help students of A-House and I-House deal with their reac-tions to the event.

During the meet-ing, students asked about the incident it-self as well as the ef-fectiveness of the UT alert system, overall campus safety, possi-ble security changes and the issue of weapons on campus. Questions came both from students attend-ing the meeting and from those sending in comments and questions online.

Chief Newton said he was satisfied with the UT alert system, which was used to notify students about 40 minutes after the incident occurred, although he wish-

es the alerts could be sent out faster.

Sean Coyle, a se-nior in chemical en-gineering who at-tended the meeting, said the response was too delayed.

Administrators said they are discussing

some security changes, such as increasing the number of cameras on campus and lim-iting the hours that resi-dence hall entrances are open.

Newton said knives are not currently allowed on campus, and the weapon that was used during this in-cident was in violation. The panel said the administra-tion is investigating height-ening consequences for vio-lating campus weapon policies.

Coyle said he does not agree with further restrictions.

“I think a knife is a tool not necessarily a weapon and it doesn’t bother me that some people carry them,” Coyle said.

News Editor Danielle Gamble contributed to this story.

GALAT

Planfrom page 1

Stabbing from page 1

Degree from page 1

OPINIONSend letters to the editor to [email protected] www.IndependentCollegian.com

editorial

editorial BoardVincent D. Scebbi: Editor-in-ChiefNate Pentecost: Managing EditorZachary R. Dehm: Opinion Editor

Danielle Gamble: News Editor


University handled incident

professionally

The Dec. 19 stabbing incident on campus, in which Josiah Galat was killed and Erik Littleton severely injured, shocked and saddened our community and brought stress and fear to the university. In the aftermath, we must examine two ques-tions: how has the university handled this incident, and could the university have prevented it?

All in all, the IC editorial staff believes the university has done well in keeping the community informed on this situation through conferences, press releases and updates to the UT web-site. They’ve managed to balance keeping the community in-formed with respecting the privacy of the victims.

However, some students have expressed well-reasoned con-cerns about the speed of the UT Alerts system. The alert went out to students about 40 minutes after this violent and poten-tially dangerous event occurred. According to UTPD Chief Newton, there’s not a lot that could have been done about get-ting the message out sooner. While that may be true, we believe there should be an evaluation of the alert system to see if there is any way to speed report times. At this point, looking forward is the best that UTPD can do.

The second question is harder to answer, especially since we still know little about what led up to the events that night. Per-haps it was unpreventable. Perhaps there was some way it could have been caught. Until more details are discovered, it’s simply too soon to tell. The only thing we can be sure about is that it was tragic and UT should work to make sure it never happens here again.

With that in mind, there is another question: where should the university go from here?

The university needs to continue investigating the causes, both small- and large-scale.

However much we may want to put this tragedy behind us, the police investigation must not be the end of the discussion. If we are able to discover any deeper causes, the UT administra-tion should ask if there are any ways they can be addressed.

In the end, we hope that everyone involved will learn from this tragic experience. While we believe the administration has had the best intentions at heart throughout this painful process, they shouldn’t relax now – they should strive for ever-improv-ing communication as the story develops.

We encourage anyone affected by this event to seek help in coping. Three counselors are available right now in residence halls and the resident advisers were given special training over break to help students cope with this event. Additionally, free counseling services are always available for students at the Counseling Center in Rocket Hall Room 1810.

Finally, we wish comfort to those affected by this incident and extend our deepest sympathies to the Galat family for the loss of a brother and son.

Shouldn’t stop with investigation, but continue with prevention and healing

there is still an underlying issue

Three year degree track programs will not fix problem of

Bachelor’s degrees taking longer.The University of Toledo will introduce a new three year degree

track for certain programs, starting in the College of Language, Lit-erature and Social Sciences, moving onto other colleges. However, the benefits of this program for UT are not, at this point, clear.

It is not clear that this program will help students who want to finish with less debt. While those students will be able to move on to the workforce or graduate school sooner, at UT they will likely incur an analogous amount of student debt since they will not be taking less courses. The majority of stu-dents are commuters and their tuition will not be reduced as they will pay the same amount per credit hour.

It is not clear that this program would actually be helping any students with resources they don’t currently have. The require-ments of the program in terms of credits doesn’t appear to be different than for a four year degree. The only difference is the pressure to finish the degree quickly, taking a high number of credits per semester and working over the summer.

Students who want to graduate in three years don’t need this program in order to do so. If the new program just involves amping up one’s courseload and working through the summer, any student can do this on their own. In fact, in terms of mar-ketability, it will be more marketable for a student to be able to say they earned a four year degree in three years.

If a student wants to graduate in three years, they shouldn’t be pressured to agree to do so by the UT administration, they should just do it. It’s something they can do on their own without the university spending money to promote it.

Additionally, in light of the statistics showing that the ma-jority of UT students finish in around six years, why not im-prove the programs already in place? Why it is taking so long for students to get a four year degree?

Perhaps the university needs to address some other under-lying issue such as poor advising to struggling students, im-proving student preparedness for the course curriculum to prevent failing, and informing students from the start of the requirements of their program.

Starting an efficient streamlined three year degree program may be an innovative way to make it seem like UT is fixing the problem of completing a four year degree in six; however, it may be a false solution for a much deeper problem.

commentary

Olivia Engel. Age 6. She was known for her “infectious giggle” and her love to sail the seas with her grandfather.

Dylan Hockley. Age 6. He had a love for trampolines, spaghetti with garlic bread and the color purple.

Grace McDonnell. Age 7. She enjoyed beaches and lighthouses.

These children, along with 17 others and six fe-male adults, will always be remembered as the victims of the Sandy Hook Massacre, the second most deadly school shooting behind Virginia Tech in 2007. This school shooting sparked an abundant amount of outrage from dis-tressed parents, teachers and adults around the country.

Due to evidence shown through this horrid massacre, gun control in the Unit-ed States should be restricted.

The implicatios of guns have become prevalent throughout our nation. Ac-cording to the National Institute of Jus-tice, nearly 500,000 people were victims of firearm crimes in 2005 alone. Like-wise, most of these murders were com-mitted by handguns, as they are so easi-ly accessible to the American public. It’s also inferred that most violent crimes involve the use of handguns.

Many individuals are beginning to change their insights on guns. For ex-ample, after the Sandy Hook Massacre, USA Today polled 58 percent of re-spondents are now in favor of stricter gun laws. This is up from 43 percent of individuals in Oct. 2011.

Sandy Hook gave people a wake up call

over the use of guns. Therefore, enforcing a stricter set of regulations so everyday Americans cannot gain as easy access to guns as they do now may in turn reduce the quantity of gun-related crimes.

Creating restrictions on guns would have a beneficial effect on humanity. There are a variety of reasons as to why civilian possession of handguns should be restricted. For one, the

amount of massacres like the school shootings would be reduced. The Vir-ginia Tech and Sandy Hook Massacre were the two most tragic and deadliest school shootings in history. If restric-tions on gun use had been suggested in earlier years, these school shootings may have been non-existent. And if not, the number of fatalities would have been significantly lower.

If stricter gun laws were put into effect, then lunatics, bullied school kids and dis-gruntled workers may not create mass casualties out of their own rage.

There is also an abundance of risks that accompany the use of guns. For ex-ample, gun ownership of an individual in a family, whether legal or not, may turn into a dangerous situation. There are always accidents to consider when discussing guns. Children may have a higher risk of getting a hold of the guns. However, the children are not to blame; they are only children. And with chil-dren, curiosity kills the cat. Children that are curious as to why their father may carry around a handheld gun or a rifle may result in a deadly accident.

Implementing stricter gun control would mean that less children would die because of a costly mistake.

The enforcement of gun control would allow a community as a whole to feel much safer about their lives. Individuals would become aware that those who do have possession of a gun are suitable candidates. There would be lower theft rates because individuals who are creating the crime would not have anything to threaten a family with.

In addition, the amount of suicides may decrease. The reason – when guns are available, it’s much easier to act immediately without fully think-ing about the negative effects of tak-ing your own life.

The Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook Massacre were devastating. Innocent lives were lost: lives of young adults who were trying to finish college and live in the real world, lives of children who haven’t had a chance to do much with their lives at all.

Shootings, especially in schools, are always tragic to witness or hear about on the television. However, with regu-lations on guns, the nation may experi-ence a decrease in deaths and crimes that were once due to shootings.

When guns have more restrictions, the only individuals handling them would be certified. Given the benefits, one can’t debate the necessity of federal firearm restriction laws.

Yasmine Ayoub is a doctoral student in pharmacy

Gun law reform is a must for safety’s sake

commentary

Nearly all humanity majors have been asked the dreaded question: “What are you planning to do with your degree?” It’s usually preceded by an awkward poker face on the asker’s part when you announced that you were indeed major-ing in English (my final college major), Art Histo-ry or another liberal arts intensive degree.

While there may not be the job offers that engineering or health care majors might receive before their graduations, humanity majors have an enormous array of post-college experiences and careers available to them.

There seems to be a general stigma at-tached to attaining a degree in the hu-manities. Perhaps, this is even exacerbated by the economic struggles our country ex-perienced in the past decade. This, along with a mix of educational interests, caused me a great deal of confusion when choos-ing my undergraduate major. I initially ap-plied to schools as an English major, as I had always loved reading, writing and dis-secting literature. Then, I chose pharmacy and the University of Toledo because I had an equal love for the sciences and, during high school, worked as a pharma-cy technician, which further piqued my interest in the field.

While at UT, I found that I couldn’t resist my desire to study literature and made english my major of choice. However, instead of abandoning my love for the sciences, I finished my pre-requisites for pharmacy school and, af-ter graduating from UT in the spring of 2012 with a degree in English, I matric-ulated into The Ohio State University’s School of Pharmacy this past fall. Some of my fellow interviewees’ jaws dropped in shock when they heard that my

undergraduate degree was English and protested with exclamations like, “I didn’t even know that was an option.”

New high school graduates are encour-aged to seek a degree that the economy is demanding, such as mathematics, sci-

ence, health care and/or technology. However, it’s a mistake to disregard the values of a degree in the humanities field. I

know that my skills in reading, writing and literature will certainly aid me in my career as a parmacist. As a result of my education, I can effectively communicate with my future patients. Humanities ma-jors with the right prerequisites can apply for any type of graduate program. They offer fresh, innovative backgrounds that these programs actually desire.

What many college students need to realize is that a humanities degree has no traditional path after graduation. You don’t automatically have to go on to be-come a teacher should you attain a de-gree in English. There are a multitude of options available to you, and they all de-pend on where your interests lie. You can have a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and go on to get a graduate degree in ac-counting, nursing or law. You can incor-porate your undergraduate degree with a graduate degree to work in a specific area of your career field.

Humanities majors can go on to be-come lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, CEOs, teachers, professors, managers, professional organizers, community lead-ers, actors and so much more. The op-tions are literally endless. The trick is simple. Know what you’re interested in, apply that to your choice of a graduate program or occupation, and let the sky be your limit. As cliché as it may sound, study what you love. It doesn’t have to be

the exact thing that you end up doing. I’ll admit that I was somewhat influenced into my current pursuits by a desire to have a comfortable lifestyle and job secu-rity, but don’t let that be the only reason you choose a major, and certainly don’t let it dissuade you from studying what you are passionate about.

Regardless of your passions in life, UT is a place where you can explore your options. Success is measured not by your degree, your salary or even your grades (though good ones certainly help), but by the zeal you exercise and the effort you put into your education and your career. Understanding yourself and what you love to learn about is all it takes to accomplish your goals.

Finally, and at the risk of sounding in-credibly overstated, there’s often more than one facet to a young college student. Students, in general, are often pushed and pulled in a million directions and yet told that they must adhere to one degree that will ‘define’ them for the rest of their adult lives. It’s essential to remember that it’s an education, not a degree, that will accompany a student further into his or her life. And it’s the many passions that a student exhibits, rather than a single one, which will truly determine the path of that student’s future.

Just remember that your degree can take you virtually anywhere you want to go, even if your destination is a bit un-conventional in respect to your degree. I’ll close with a bit of wisdom from Robert Frost:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –I took the one less travelled by,And that has made all the difference.”

Bryant Kaufman, 12, is a doctoral stu-dent in pharmacy at The Ohio State University.

Humanities major turned to health profession

Bryant KaufmanAlumni Columnist

Yasmine AyoubIC Columnist


THEME: WINTER FUN

ACROSS1. Mt. Everest,

McKinley and such6. Cleopatra’s cause of

death9. Crack in a lip13. *Hot toddy, e.g.14. Former Chinese

communist leader15. Glowed or beamed16. Pronouncements17. “___ to Joy”18. Bird of prey weapon19. Hungarian

composer Bela ______

21. *Popular winter sculpture

23. Thus far24. Greenish blue25. Former refrigerant28. *A snow____ is one

for trekking on snow30. Astronomer’s

sighting35. Miners’ bounty, pl.37. One who “____ on

the safe side”39. Start eating!40. Heaven’s Gate, e.g.41. 1:3, e.g.43. Captured in fun44. “Well-_____

machine”46. Falls behind47. Like tiny print48. Like number 1 to

hydrogen50. Cuzco valley empire52. Jack Kerouac’s

Paradise53. Pottery oven55. Everybody or

everything57. *_______ break61. Done after a trip64. Wombs65. Gas station

abbreviation67. Florida Key, e.g.69. Turf, as opposed to

surf70. Unagi71. *Heard on sleigh

ride?72. Cab blower73. *Snow falls from it74. Irregularly notched

DOWN1. Sum it up2. Where a baby goes3. Maryland Institute

College of Art4. Diary note5. *Used for gliding6. In a frenzy7. “___ but true”8. Literature in metrical

form9. Tobacco mouthful10. River islet11. Dwarf buffalo12. In the Ivy League

15. Pitted peach, e.g.20. Not the same one22. Indian restaurant

staple24. Feeling no doubt25. *Hot treat26. *Ingredient in

infamous cake27. Played by Yo-Yo Ma29. Kind of surgeon31. Marty McFly’s

antagonist32. Tangerine-

grapefruit hybrid, pl.33. Tarzan’s swing rope34. *Snow impression36. Kind of cell38. *Capricorn or

Aquarius, e.g.42. Extinct Italic

language45. Tiny antelope49. Result of

Truman’s National Security Act of 1947

51. *Kind of skiing54. Ancient Greeks’

harps

56. Lightsaber beam57. Be quiet!58. “The Simpsons”

palindrome59. Malicious look60. Ayatollah’s home61. Pre-swan state?

62. Greek muse of history

63. Party casks66. Expresses mild

alarm or surprise68. “___ End” by The

Doors

Last Puzzle Solved

classifiedsTo place a classified ad, go to independentcollegian.com and click on the “Classifieds” tab. You can also call Lindsay Mahaney at 419-530-7788 or email classifieds@independentcol-

legian.com. Ads must be received by 5 p.m. Monday to be in Wednesday’s issue.

Last issue’s solutions

Looking for roommates, 2 rooms for rent cheaper than one person apart-ment, $450 each including utilities, Kenwood Gar-dens, about a mile from campus. If interested call/text (330)321-8058.

For rent

RooM foR RenT.Completely furnished

with cable. Wireless inter-net. Private family room. Shared bath. Shared Kitchen. one block from UT in private family home. Safe, Clean, and Quiet. 325.00 month, everything included. 419-531-3213

HeLP Wanted

Mystery Shoppers needed to perform work for a top tier marketing research company by visiting designated local places of business (banks, gas stations, restaurants, etc.) and evaluating customer service, product quality and store presentations to receive up to $35 per completed mystery shop! for more infor-mation and to submit a pro-file, visit us at: www.maritz-mysteryshopping.com.

Special education, Social Work and Psychology Majors:

- PT positions $8.75hr- 18+, high school diploma

or GeD, valid drivers license, auto insurance, clean driving record & criminal background check

- Afternoon/evening/over-night and weekend availabili-ty required

- Working in residential set-ting with adults with Develop-mental Disabilities

- Assistance with participa-tion in community outings, meal preparation, medical appointments, home mainte-nance, etc.

- Interested applicants please contact 419-255-6060 or apply online at www.team-rms.com, choosing the north-west (Toledo) Region

Phonathon Program hiring Student Callers!

Help us raise over $250,000 for UT student scholarships and funds by contacting UT alumni.

$8.00 an hour to start, with additional incentives! Work hours from 5:45pm to 9:00pm, Sunday through Thursday. Students are re-quired to work at least two shifts per week and at least one Sunday per month. May work up to five shifts a week.

fill out an application at the Driscoll Alumni Center , Room 2024, located at the corner of Bancroft and Uni-versity Hills Blvd. The dead-line to apply is Thursday, January 17th, by 12pm.

Questions? Call the Phon-athon Program at 419.530.4402.

BARTenDeRS WAnTeD!Make up to $300/day. no

experience necessary. Train-ing available. 800-965-6520 ext. 224.

automotiveneeD A CAR?

See someone you can trust! I’m a 2011 UT grad-uate and I understand your needs. Call Aaron Marcum at Brown Honda, 419-841-2222 or [email protected].

HeLP Wanted

Lost Iraqi passport: Aso Rasool. If found, contact 419-764-1559.

LoSt & Found

Make 2013 everything it can beHello, my fellow students,

and welcome to a brand new year and semester back at school. it seems like the holi-day break is shorter every year and like only yesterday we were cramming for a final exam or presentation to end another crazy fall semester. But now, it’s back to the winter and spring months where the bitter cold of Toledo slowly melts into a mild, yet unpre-dictable spring season.

This year’s holiday break was a very memorable one. last week, i moved for the very first time into an apart-ment with a friend. it took me almost four days to move 75 percent of my belongings from my old room to my new room. Now, i buy my own groceries, make dinner and pay bills. i’m officially on my own with my new roommate — except for the occasional trip home to do laundry.

This transition to a new living arrangement only dis-tracted me from the horrify-ing semester i have coming up, which will include lots of hours at work as a marketing intern, taking five classes as a senior, graduating from col-lege and hopefully finding a full-time job. it’s exciting to think about, but it’s also terri-bly intimidating.

every semester, i seem to think it’ll be difficult before it

even starts. i’ll tell my friends and family, “i just won’t have time. i need to be able to fo-cus.” But every semester, i’ve

pulled through. i’ve pushed myself to earn that 3.7 GPa and to persevere.

This is the point in my life where i just have to push a lit-tle further to get to the finish line. i’m in the home stretch.

My final semester as a se-nior marks another chapter in my life that requires my faith to know everything will work out as it should. i saw my boyfriend and his friends do so this fall when they applied for jobs during their final se-mester. at times, i could tell they were frustrated with the multitude of interviews and resumes clouding their sched-ules. But eventually, they all found what they were looking for — a job, and a reassur-ance that their hard work in college paid off.

Now, it’s my turn. during the next few months, i’ll be pushing myself with writing my thesis, passing my class-es, finishing my work proj-ects and searching for a job ... oh, and not to mention actually having a life.

despite my complaining, i’m actually excited to gradu-ate. it’s sad to say, but school is actually my life. i’ve been an academic achiever for as long as i can remember. it’s actually a bit scary thinking i

won’t have to go to class in four months. i’ll have so much free time ... well, not re-ally, but school does take up lots of our time.

a new year and new se-mester is a chance to start over — a clean slate and a new beginning. i’m sure most of you don’t make New Year’s resolutions any more, but if you had to think of one, what would it be? What’s some-thing you want to see happen in your life this year? it can be an academic goal, a profes-sional goal or even something in your personal life. it’s all about what you want to achieve and where you want to see yourself in 2013.

With the supposed “end of the world” far behind us, 2013 is open for many pos-sibilities and milestones, and mine will be my college graduation and stepping in-to the real world. i’m sure it won’t be the only milestone i have for 2013, but it’s the biggest one i know of so far. i look forward to many cra-zy and happy memories this semester and this year, and i hope yours is filled with just as many milestones and wonderful memories. say goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013 and prepare for an exciting year.

Megan Gross is a senior ma-joring in marketing and minor-ing in communications.

Low expectations of a class can be overcomedon’t get me wrong, i love

UT. i think it’s a fine school. i’ve had some great classes with great pro-fessors, but also some that weren’t so great. i’ve been think-ing lately about what makes a class enjoyable and worthwhile and i’d like to share a couple of my ideas.

first, someone might have the idea that a class will only be interesting to those who are already interested in the course’s subject. i hope most students will have a counter example to this idea; this is supposed to be one purpose of elective classes. Personally, as a math and physics major, i wasn’t particularly interest-ed in sociology. But upon taking a sociology elective, i found myself engrossed with the subject as i listened ac-tively to the lectures.

On the other hand, one might also suppose that any class on the topic of a student’s interest will be an intriguing one. i suspect that like myself, this hasn’t always been true for many students. i’ve had some math classes that were just ex-ceptional and some that were not so much. i think that while students’ interest in a subject plays a large role in what they receive from a class, i think there are larger factors that make an enjoyable class.

i suppose the phrase “enjoy-able class” is a very subjective term. What i mean isn’t that

the class is always fun and games, but that it’s overall an enriching experi-ence. after think-ing a long time

about why i’ve enjoyed certain classes and not others, i be-lieve the biggest factor is the professor’s enthusiasm. an en-thusiastic professor makes lec-ture something i look forward to rather than dread. enthusi-asm is also very contagious and can make students inter-ested in a subject they never cared about before.

enthusiasm is great at grab-bing a student’s attention, but what makes a class an envi-ronment where students can learn and grow? looking back at the classes i believe i’ve ac-tually learned the most in, i can say that their professors had the highest standards. i believe i always should have the obligation to myself to ex-ert my best effort in every class, although admittedly this doesn’t always happen. But sometimes, a professor comes along who shows me that i can actually do more than what i thought was my best. as i near the end of my time here at UT, these classes are the ones i will always remem-ber fondest.

To conclude, i have a

few exhortations. first, if you’re a professor

reading this, please let your enthusiasm be present in the classroom. although, strictly speaking, your job doesn’t re-quire you to motivate stu-dents, realize that you have a captive audience and you may as well do your best to make the class interesting. You don’t have to do anything fancy; simply allow yourself to be fully present in the class you’re teaching and let your fascina-tion with the subject shine.

also, if you don’t have clear expectations for the class, your class probably won’t meet them. although setting high standards for the class will inevitably leave some students behind, it will further motivate those students who work hard and will teach them more about their ability to learn.

fellow students, if you’re in a difficult class, just do your best. even if you don’t get an “a” in a hard class, you’ll prob-ably learn more in a class you worked hard in to get a “B” than an easy “a.” and if you have an enthusiastic professor, don’t be afraid to indulge in their spirit. You might come to love a new subject you never before cared about.

Luke Kwiatkowski is a senior studying physics and mathematics.

COmmentary

Luke Kwiatkowski

ic columnist

COmmentary

The layoff of Blavos was a huge mistake Recently due to budget cuts,

one of UT’s finest, alexis Bla-vos, was laid off from her po-sition. for those of you who do not know, lexi is the alco-hol, Tobacco and Other drug Prevention specialist, but that may not be how you’ve seen her. lexi is all over campus most times of the day, whether it’s setting up for a prevention fair she has organized, training people for new positions with an alcohol and drug training, writing grants or setting up for Rocket landing tailgates. and it doesn’t stop there.

i personally had the plea-sure and honor to work with lexi this summer as i interned in her office as many public health students have. i know first-hand that her job requires intelligence, leadership and or-ganization, which she displays greatly. another intern and i were struggling to keep up with her daily work schedule attending meetings, doing presentations, working

on research on our campus population of alcohol and drug usage and more. clearly this position is an enormous commitment and certainly not anyone can do it.

This was a huge mistake made by the UT administra-tion. if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting lexi, i encourage you to do so. Not only has she been a role model, mentor and one of my ”UT Moms,”, she truly cares about the students. she knows so many of us (by name) and strives to make this university better and most importantly better for the students. if UT truly cares about a ”student-centered” university, then this was liter-ally the worst move they could have possibly made. Not only is she one of the most hardworking people i’ve ever met, but she is extremely knowledgeable and even na-tionally known (Gamman of the Year in 2006, multiple presentations at national con-ferences and more).

clearly UT has restructur-ing to do, but removing the most beneficial prevention program we have on campus is ludicrous. Her programs

literally have changed stu-dents’ outlook on drugs and alcohol and most important-ly, saved students’ lives. can you imagine all the lives saved based on the Red Watch Band Training Pro-gram? Or even the Medical amnesty Policy? Just think. she has made these changes in a little less than three years of working here. lexi has gra-ciously taken on the tremen-dous task of preventing the destruction of students’ be-havior and, based on the sta-tistics from surveys within her department, her presence has improved the health of our students drastically.

in conclusion, i am deeply saddened and disappointed in UT for this decision. i don’t think the administra-tion realizes how much of a necessity lexi is to students, faculty and staff here at UT. lexi is a joy to work with, an excellent friend and a beauti-ful person inside and out. i hope that she finds a position somewhere where she is ap-preciated and valued for all of her amazing attributes.

— Karen Grajczyk, senior majoring in public health

Letter tO the editOr

Megan Grossic columnist


sportsFollow us on Twitter @IC_Sports www.IndependentCollegian.com

In brIeF

Campbell on a recruiting roll

The Toledo football pro-gram picked up three more commitments over the holiday season.

Defensive tackle Rob Zimmerman (Dec. 19), athlete Delando Johnson (Dec. 28) and running back Kareem Hunt (Jan. 4) all pledged to play at Toledo recently, according to Rivals.

Zimmerman — transfer from Hutchinson Commu-nity College in Hutchinson, Kan. — is rated three stars by Rivals and was able to sign a National Letter of Intent due to his junior college status.

Johnson (Towson, Mary.) is also a three-star prospect and held offers from several schools in-cluding Illinois, Ohio and Boston College. He is ex-pected to play safety for the Rockets.

Hunt (Willoughby, Ohio) picked UT over many oth-er schools, most notably Minnesota, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

Toledo has 18 known commitments in the class of 2013 and should have room for one or two more. National Signing Day is Feb. 6.

Fatinikun seeks additional year

UT has filed a petition to the NCAA asking them to grant senior defensive end T.J. Fatinikun a fifth year of eligibility, accord-ing to a report from the Toledo Blade.

Fatinikun is citing medi-cal hardship after suffering season-ending injuries in each of the last two years.

He played in six games before injuring his elbow in 2011 and just five be-fore tearing his Achilles in 2012.

Men’s basket-ball begin MAC play tonight

Head coach Tod Kowal-czyk and the Rockets (4-7) will open Mid-American Conference play tonight when they travel to Kent State to take on the Gold-en Flashes (9-5).

Tonight’s matchup will feature the league’s two leading scorers.

Junior Rian Pearson has been rock-solid all season for the Rockets, averaging 19.2 PPG in his second season after trans-ferring from UW-Green Bay. He is also averaging 6.4 rebounds per game, eighth-best in the conference.

Kent State is led by senior forward Chris Ev-ans, who averages 16.5 a game. Evans is pulling down 7.6 RPG, third in the MAC.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Memorial A & C Center.

Toledo golfer to compete for Team Ireland

UT men’s golfer Chris Selfridge was chosen Monday to represent Team Ireland in a pair of events next month against other top amateurs from around the world.

The sophomore from Castledawson, Northern Ireland will play in the South Africa 10 Nations Cup at Kingswood Golf Club Feb. 6-9.

He will then compete in the South African Amateur Stoke Play event at Oubaii Golf Club Feb. 12-15.

“This is an unbelievable opportunity for Chris to represent his country,” said UT golf coach Jamie Broce. “He had a great fall semester both on the course and in the class-room, and this is a great reward for his hard work.”

Selfridge won the MAC’s Freshman of the Year award and captured his first college tournament ti-tle at the Georgetown In-tercollegiate, UT’s final event of the 2011 season.

WoMen’s bAskeTbAll

FILE PHOTO BY vINCENT D. SCEBBI / ICsenior guard naama shafir’s return from an ACl injury that ended her 2011-12 season has been a big reason for UT’s success. The Rockets look to make it an even dozen wins in a row tomorrow night when they host CMU.

Women’s team falls short at W. Michigan

TRACk And FIeld

Rockets riding 11-game winning streak, begin MAC play Thursdayby Jay skebbaSports Editor

the University of toledo isn’t listed in either top 25 women’s poll, but that could be changing shortly.

the rockets are in the midst of an 11-game winning streak and have a 12-1 record to boast as they begin confer-ence play thursday night.

Head coach tricia Cullop’s players will be well-rested, as they wrap up a 10-day layoff.

“We gave them the week-end off this past weekend, but if you ask them, practices have been pretty normal as far as length and intensity,” she said. “It’s been a bit lon-ger of a break, but I think it’s given us a chance to fine-tune things.”

It would appear not much needs to be corrected.

Ut’s only setback of the season occurred back on Nov. 14 when they dropped a tough 79-76 decision at Day-ton after holding a lead in the second half. the Flyers started the year 12-0 before getting drilled 65-40 at Bowl-ing Green Dec. 30 and were ranked as high as 14th in the UsA today Coaches poll.

Cullop and the rockets have been firing on all cylin-ders since.

their win streak includes an impressive 82-71, come-from-behind victory on the road at Marquette, along with four in-season tourna-ment crowns.

those tournament experi-ences are already paying divi-dends for the rockets.

“In a short amount of time, you’ve got to be able to adapt to a different style of play and know how to defend it,” Cullop said. “I feel like our players have gotten better and better at taking some in-struction and applying it in a short amount of time.”

Not only did those tourna-ments improve the team on

the court, it also brought them closer together away from it.

two were played away from home in reno, Nev. and Atlanta, Ga. Cullop stated spending a few days on the road as a team brought a closely knit group even closer.

“I’m a big believer that if your team truly cares about each other off the court, a lot of things on the court take care of themselves,” Cullop said. “We really do have strong team chemistry and I think that’s played a big part in our success.”

And as far as being left out of the rankings despite so much success, don’t ex-pect the rockets to pay much attention.

“there’s not a whole lot that we can do about that,” Cullop said. “the most

important thing is that we stay focused on what we can control. I’m a big believer that if you take care of the lit-tle things, big things happen.”

the preseason MAC favor-ites are peaking at the right time as they gear up for con-ference play, which brings its own challenges.

one huge factor that bodes well for the rockets is having senior guard Naama shafir this season.

shafir was set to leave the program after her senior sea-son last year. However, a torn ACL in early November 2011 forced her to miss the re-mainder of the year.

After mulling over her de-cision, she eventually decided to apply for a fifth year of eli-gibility, something Cullop is certainly glad she received from the NCAA.

“You always want to take a

positive out of an obstacle,” she said. “Last year — even though it was difficult to play without her — what re-ally helped is a lot of our other players had to step up and grow and get better, and they did.”

shafir’s 12.8 points and 5.4 assists per game are team highs as she has paired with junior Andola Dortch (10.8 ppG, 3.7 Asp) to form what is likely the MAC’s best back-court. that would not have happened had shafir not de-cided to come back for one last shot at a MAC tourna-ment title and NCAA tour-nament appearance, some-thing that Ut hasn’t accom-plished since 2001.

Ut begins their conference slate tomorrow night when they host Central Michigan. the Chippewas (6-7) love to play up-tempo and have no

problem making it a high-scoring affair.

“they’re one of the most athletic teams in our league,” Cullop said. “they run the dribble drive offense, they’re going to shoot a lot of threes and they love to shoot early in the shot clock.”

Just three days later, Ut will travel to Bowling Green to take on the 9-4 Falcons who are coming off that 25-point throttling of Dayton.

As usual, Cullop expects the rival Falcons to provide both a great challenge and atmosphere.

“they’re a team that you have to consistently prepare for because they have a lot of tradition and their players expect to win,” she said. “It’s always fun to go play in a hostile environment and see how your team responds.”

Courtesy of Toledo Athletics

the toledo women’s track and field team fell to Western Michigan in the Ice Breaker dual meet on saturday at WMU’s read Fieldhouse.

the rockets could only gather 55 points while the Broncos won 11 of the 14 events for a total of 92 points. Ut earned most of its points in the distance events, led by junior Kaylin Belair and freshman Brooke tullis who topped the Mid-American Conference list by finishing first and second in the mile with converted times of 4:57 and 4:58, respectively. they were followed by freshman Liz Weiler in third with a time of 5:11.84.

“overall it is a nice start to the year,” Ut Director of track and Field Kevin Had-sell said. It’s very early and we have some hard work ahead to win our first confer-ence championship.”

Belair and tullis also took second and fourth place in the 800-meter with times of 2:17.57 and 2:21.19, respectively.

Ut took second and fifth place in the 3,000-meter run with redshirt freshman sharon Morgan finishing second with a mark of 10:38.02. Freshman stephanie Ingraham took fifth with a time of 10:48.08.

Junior Amber Brown had

strong performances in the 60-meter and 200-meter dash. Brown won the 60-meter in just over seven seconds, while breaking the previous Ut re-cord of 7.66 held by Amanda Kaverman (‘11). Brown also took third in the 200-meter with a final mark of 25.62.

Freshman Lexis Willliams finished third (7.94) in the 60-meter dash and fourth (25.69) in the 200-meter. Al-so, freshman Ciara Dickerson placed fifth in the 200-meter with a time of 26.14.

Ut took second place in the 400-meter and the long jump events as well. Junior sarah Woodrum finished second in the 400-meter with a final time of 58.28, and senior Kiah Douglas leaped 18 feet , one inch in the long jump. Douglas also claimed third place in the triple jump after jumping 35 feet, 10 inches. Fellow senior Kate Bollin jumped one inch shy of her for fourth place.

Junior Jillian sledge was the only rocket to run the 60-meter hurdles and she finished third overall with a time of 9.02.

Freshman Alexa Jarrett won her first-collegiate pole vault competition with a jump of 11 feet.

toledo will compete next saturday in Bowling Green at the BGsU opener.

COURTESY OF DAN MILLER / UT ATHLETICSFreshman linebacker Trent Voss tackles Utah state running back ker-wyn Williams during the Famous Idaho Potato bowl dec. 15 in boise, Idaho. The no. 18 Aggies beat the Rockets 41-15 and outscored them 28-9 in the fourth. Williams ran for 235 yards and three touchdowns.

rockets defeated in potato Bowl


Series from page 8

Role from page 8

Restaurant from page 8

Gradkowski hopes his restaurant will not only draw students, faculty and staff, but those in sur-rounding communities, such as Ottawa Hills, Syl-vania and Maumee.

The Pittsburgh native and his wife Miranda met at UT and recently bought a house in Maumee where they reside in the NFL offseason.

“I had a great experience at college and the city of Toledo was so good to me,” Gradkowski said. “[Miran-da and I] enjoyed it so much so we just wanted to call Toledo our home. Es-pecially with the restaurant going up on campus, we couldn’t be more excited about how everything has worked out.”

Neither party recalls who approached who, but Matt Schroeder, vice pres-ident of real estate and business development at the UT Foundation is confident the venture will benefit both Gradkowski and the Toledo community.

“It’s really an opportunity to not only showcase the collegian and professional sports through a restaurant, but over the next decade and beyond, it could really be-come integrated into the UT way of life, the UT family, and become the go-to venue, for all things university-re-lated,” Schroeder said.

The Gate-way Project is currently home to Barnes & Nobles, Great Clips, Jimmy John’s, Rice Blvd., Star-bucks, Wire-less Zone, Yogurt U. and the Lofts at Gateway. Three empty spots remain in the development, but ac-cording to Schroeder negoti-ations have been wrapped up for two of them. He be-lieves the addition of Grad-kowski’s will help other busi-nesses on the storefront.

“It was a decision generated

not only by returns but also ancillary benefits of the stu-dent experience and how a tenant like Gradkowski’s helps other tenants with ancillary business, spillover, or ripple effect, if you want to call it that,” Schroeder said.

Gradkowski’s was origi-nally slated to open in Au-gust, but the restaurant’s

partners and developers felt that construc-tion would have to be rushed in or-der to meet the deadline. With the res-taurant’s new opening date and his return to Toledo for the offseason quickly ap-

proaching, Gradkowski is excited to join in the buzz surrounding his business.

“I’ll be there pretty much every day, on campus and en-joying the atmosphere,” Grad-kowski said. “I’ll be commu-nicating with the people that

made this happen and that’s the community of Toledo, the University of Toledo and ev-eryone who has been there through my career. I look for-ward to getting in contact with the people that have been University of Toledo lov-ers for years.”

Gradkowski still has close ties to neighboring Pennsylvania, and with his younger brother Gino now playing center for the Balti-more Ravens, there is plen-ty of room for the former Rocket to expand the Gradkowski brand if this venture goes well. Like ev-ery good quarterback though, he is concentrating on the task at hand.

“This is going to be the main operating base and hopefully there will be many more in the future. I’ll get my brother involved and maybe put one in Pittsburgh next,” Gradkowski said. “But right now we’re focused on the one at the university because Tole-do is my home. We’ve really hit on all cylinders at this res-taurant, so I’m really excited to give back and help make it a place everyone can enjoy.”

Performing Arts Holly Monsos serves as Glacity’s executive director; Vice Provost for Academic Pro-gram Development Benja-min Pryor co-founded the theatre company; Chair of the Theatre and Film De-partment James Hill has designed sets, sounds and lights for many Glacity productions; and Lingan brought on Toledo film and theatre alumus Megan Aherne as the assistant ar-tistic director.

Lingan said content sepa-rates the two theatre entities.

“There are some kinds of work that I could do at Glacity that I would prob-ably not attempt to do in the UT Department of Theatre and Film. So GTC is a great outlet for doing the sort of work

that I would not get to do otherwise,” he said. How-ever, he described the at-mosphere as “very similar in both places.”

“At both GTC and the UT Department of The-atre and Film (and I em-phasize here that GTC is not affiliated with the UT Department of The-atre and Film) the

collaboration is very free and open. My colleagues in both GTC and UT are wonderful to work with!”

Lingan has worked on productions in both the U.S. and Canada, but credited his 15 years of theatre experience in New York City as great prep work for his new role at Glacity. He added that his jobs at the university and Glacity compliment each other very well.

“My position [at UT] keeps me working con-stantly as a theatre direc-tor, and by practicing my art I am more prepared to think holistically about the practice of theatre in GTC,” he said.

Glacity Theatre Collective will perform “Circle Mirror Transformation” Jan. 17-19 and 24-26 at St. Paul’s Methodist Church. All shows will start at 8 p.m.

Residence hall directors have a special incentive this year: the hall director with the most student at-tendance at the end of the semester will win a special prize.

The 2013 spring semes-ter Crib Notes schedule is as follows:

“Lighten Up: Getting Results with your New Year’s Resolutions,” hosted by Darci Ault, Thursday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m. at the Stu-dent Recreation Center.

“Healthy Brains — The Science of Alcohol Con-sumption,” hosted by Youssef Sari, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m. at Ottawa East, Multipurpose Room.

“In Search of Lost Times — How Music and Literature Can Define You,” hosted by Jim Zu-bricky, Thursday, Jan. 24, 7 p.m. at Carter Residence Hall, Carter Huddle.

“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Oprah,” hosted by Michele Martinez, Monday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m. at Crossings Residence Hall, Multipurpose Room.

“It’s Time to Get Your Search On! New ideas for web surfing,” hosted by Tom Atwood, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 6 p.m. Location to be determined.

“Bullying at the College Level / UT Anti-Bullying Task Force,” hosted by Lisa Kovach, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m. at International House, Multipurpose Room.

“A Visit with the Woolf Pack — Petting Awesome Friendly Dogs,” hosted by Deanna Woolf, Thursday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m. at Carter Resi-dence Hall, Carter Huddle.

“Study Abroad: Open your Mind and Explore the World!” hosted by Michelle Ploeger, Thursday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m. Location to be determined.

“The Pleasures of Run-ning,” hosted by Amelia Acu-na, Wednesday, March 13, 6 p.m. at Ottawa East, Multi-purpose Room.

“Under the Influence of Your Parents and Their Music,” hosted by John Ad-ams, Monday, March 18, 7 p.m. at the Crossings Resi-dence Hall, Multipurpose Room.

“Diversity Awareness,” hosted by Emily Hardcastle, Monday, March 25, 7:30 p.m. at McComas Village. House to be determined.

“4 Kids, 3 Vans and 23,000 Miles of Fun,” hosted by Martin Ohlinger, Wednesday, March 27, 7 p.m. Location to be determined.

A yet-to-be-announced topic, hosted by Monica Holiday, Monday, April 8, 6 p.m. at the Crossings Residence Hall, Multipur-pose Room.

“The Benefits of Quiet-ing One’s Mind Through Meditation and Yoga,” hosted by Yoga Mike, Wednesday, April 10, 6 p.m. at Parks Tower.

Information provided by Jennifer Rockwood, director of the First Year Experience.

BoB Taylor / ICGradkowski’s was still under construction when The Independent Collegian visited in mid-December. Now com-pleted, co-owner Mike Graber said the restaurant will feature a warm, friendly atmosphere with nine 55-inch flat screen televisions and a wall of fame filled with signed photos of Toledo athletes and celebrities.

“There are some kinds of work that I could do at Glac-ity that I would probably not at-tempt to do in the UT Department of Theatre and Film.”

EDMuND LINGaNassistant Theatre Professor,

Glacity artistic Director

“We’ve really hit on all cylinders at this restaurant, so I’m really excited to give back and help make it a place everyone can enjoy.”

BRuCE GRaDkowSkIUT alum,

Co-owner of Gradkowski’s

rocket lifeFollow us on Twitter @IC_Arts www.IndependentCollegian.com


CAlendArCAlendAr

releAses

Wednesday11 a.m.: Student Ac-

tivities Fair, Ingman Room, Student Union Building.

5 p.m.: The Meeting of Moral responsibil-ity, hosted by The Young Americans for Liberty, room 2562, Student Union Building.

Thursday4 p.m.: Lecture, lumi-

nescent Manipulation of sunlight for Photo-voltaic Cells, by Crhis Giebink from The Penn-sylvania State University Department of Electrical Engineering, room 1005, McMaster Hall.

FrIday9 a.m.: Exhibit, The

nexus: exploring the link Between Art and science, Main Gallery, Center for Visual Arts.

MOnday4 p.m.: LGBTQA Sup-

port Group, room 2579, Student Union Building.

7 p.m.: Meet The Greeks, hosted by Na-tional Pan-Hellenic Coun-cil, auditorium, Student Union Building.

Tuesday4:30 p.m.: Meeting,

Building a Profes-sional You: Financial Management, hosted by The Women’s Student Development Network, room 3100, Stranahan Hall North.

7 p.m.: Lecture, The History of Islam in Toledo, part of Common Dialog Day and MLK Untiy Week, room 2591, Student Union Building.

COMICsrepossessed #1 of 4,

by JM Ringuet. Published by Image. Available Wednesday.

superior spider-Man #1, by Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman. Published by Marvel. Available Wednesday.

Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles: secret History of the Foot Clan #1 of 4, by Mateus Santolouco and Chris Burnham. Pub-lished by IDW. Available Wednesday.

Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood, by Brian Azarello and Cliff Chiang. Published by Marvel. Available Wednesday.

MOVIesGangster squad,

starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling. Out Friday.

A Haunted House, starring Marlon Wayans and Essence Atkins. Out Friday.

struck By lighting, starring Chris Colfer and Rebel Wilson. Limited release Friday.

Zero dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Mark Strong. Wide release Friday.

BOOKsThe Fault in Our

stars, by John Green. Available Tuesday.

My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor. Avail-able Tuesday.

Private: #1 suspect, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Available Tuesday.

standing in Another Man’s Grave, by Ian Rankin. Available Tues-day.

CdsAlter egos, by Sean

Lennon. Available Tues-day.

CrMnl HYGne, by Criminal Hygiene. Avail-able Tuesday

Goldenheart, by Dawn Richard. Available Tuesday.

Mystical Weapons, by Mystical Weapons. Avail-able Tuesday.

More onlineFor further coverage,

breaking news and enter-tainment reviews, follow the IC Rocket Life on Twitter and Facebook and check the IC’s website.

By nate PentecostManaging Editor

three storied years as the University of toledo’s starting quarterback propelled Bruce Gradkowski to his on-going Nfl career. Now, the rockets football legend is returning to his adopted home with a new business venture.

the latest establishment to hit Ut’s Gateway Project, Gradkowski’s, a sports-themed bar and grill, is set to open its doors to the public friday, Jan. 11.

“it’s honestly a dream come true to know that the universi-ty has worked with us to make this happen,” Gradkowski said. “to think that i can give back to the university and bring something cool to the commu-nity is great. i think we’re in a great location for the nearby areas to enjoy and it means so much to me that we can all share in it together.”

the cincinnati Bengals quarterback is partnering in the venture with Mike Graber, a former managing partner at Biaggi’s in levis commons, and Singh Grewal, part owner of Arnie’s at levis.

Graber, who has partici-pated in opening over 25 restaurants, is in charge of day-to-day operations, while Grewal, a toledo football player during the

’90s, was instrumental in the restaurant’s design. Gradkowski is, of course, the figurehead of the oper-ation but according to Graber, the signal caller is interested in educating himself in all aspects of the restaurant.

“He’s going to be a spokes-man in our commercials [and] he’ll be on our website, but he wants to learn the business as well,” Graber said of Grad-kowski, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business marketing and management in 2005. “He’s trying to set him-self up for life after football so he’s asking a million questions [because] he’s never had any-thing to do with the restaurant business before.”

the menu is American with an italian influence, a nod to Gradkowski’s heri-tage. Dishes will be freshly prepared and made-from-scratch, including over a dozen appetizers, hand-cut steaks, select pastas, spe-cialty pizzas, high-end burgers and desserts.

“our food is cooked with love,” Gradkowski said with a laugh. “it’s not always going to stay the same, we’re going to change, but it’s going to be food that isn’t often around the area that people will be able to come and enjoy. We’re really

going to have it all and i’m ex-cited to bring that to campus.”

far more than the college bar some anticipated when the project was first an-nounced, Gradkowski’s will also have an extensive wine list, chosen from small, care-fully tended vineyards in ita-ly, california, oregon and ohio among other locations.

Handcrafted specialty beers will be on tap and prohibition cocktails with a contemporary twist will also be available. De-spite some of the more upscale dishes and drinks, Graber reit-erated that items “are going to be priced where everyone’s able to enjoy them.”

the atmosphere will be co-zy, featuring natural woods, detailed stonework, and warm, neutral colors. the restaurant’s “Ut Hall of fame” wall will tout signed photographs of Ut players and local celebrities, while its media wall will boast nine 55-inch flat screen televisions.

“the beauty of it is on a fri-day or Saturday night when you go out with your wife or on a date, nobody wants you staring at the game, so we can hit a button and turn that wall into a beautiful fireplace or a winter wonderland scheme, for example” Graber explained. “it’s going to be very cool.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSEPH HERR / TOLEDO FREE PRESS now an nFL quarterback, Toledo alum Bruce Gradkowski will open his namesake restaurant Friday at the university of Toledo’s Gateway project. Gradkowski’s will feature american-Italian food and an extensive wine list.

former Ut standout returns to open restaurant on campus

BOB TAYLOR / IC

COOKInGaT

hOMe

See restaurant / 7

By IC Staff

Unique topics and raffle prizes highlight this semes-ter’s “crib Notes lecture Series.”

“crib Notes” is a lecture discussion series where Ut faculty and administration members speak in the resi-dence halls about personally selected, non-academic top-ics. the discussions are open to both commuter and on-campus students.

Discussions typically run for 45 minutes and food will be served at each program.

Additionally, raffle drawings will be held at each program. Prizes in-clude gift cards for films, theater shows, food and beauty salons.

By russell axonRocket Life Editor

edmund lingan, assistant professor of theatre, was re-cently appointed as the ar-tistic director for the Glaci-ty theatre collective.

“the primary responsibil-ity of the artistic director is to enhance the overall artis-tic quality of the work that the company does,” lingan said in an email interview.

He has been with the company since 2007. He was nominated after the previous artistic director, cornel Gabara, stepped down to focus on acting and directing.

lingan also retained his position as Glacity’s drama-turg, who functions like a consultant or researcher for a theatre company. He also plans to act in and possibly direct future productions.

Glacity was founded in 2007 with the goal of pro-ducing and showcasing “more experimental, non-traditional” works at vari-ous venues, while providing local theatre talent profes-sional opportunities close to home, according to the company’s website.

lingan wants to continue this tradition.

“i have been very im-pressed with Gtc’s dedica-tion to producing interesting works that people in this area would otherwise not likely get to see,” he said.

Glacity’s upcoming show is “circle Mirror transfor-mation,” a play about five individuals connecting with one another through theatre and improv games. Written by Annie Baker, it was voted one of 2009’s top ten plays by “the New York times.”

With his film and theatre background, lingan said he brings a lot of energy to the position and that he plans to expand Glacity’s reper-toire and presence.

“the idea i am most ex-cited about is that of main-taining the sort of quality work we do, and, at the same time, adding to that a wider range of artistic activ-ities that move beyond tra-ditional theatre and creater broader opportunities for collaborating with toledo artists,” he said. “By con-tinuing and broadening our line of work, i think opportunities for innova-tion will emerge.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANGELA RIDDELedmund Lingan, assistant professor for the theatre department, was appointed as Glacity Theatre Col-lective’s artistic director in december.

Professor brings innovation and experienceto new role in local theatre company

aLuMnI

TheaTre CaMPus LIFe

lingan’s other plans for the company include in-creasing their visibility, establishing a permanent location and recruiting more members.

Although Glacity and Ut’s theatre and film de-partment are not profes-sionally connected, there is

some overlap of their re-spective community members.

Gabara is an associate professor of film and the-atre at the university; As-sociate Dean for the col-lege of Visual and

See role / 7

Unique topics, prizes highlight spring ‘Crib Notes’ series

See series / 7

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