BY LAUREN CERONIE CAMPUS EDITOR As the nation plunges into the 2012 presidential cam- paigns and the first presi- dential primaries loom in the not so distant future, it’s easy to forget about the elections that will take place Tuesday. When it comes to politics and elections, conventional wisdom holds that the stu- dent body at Miami Univer- sity is largely conservative. This conventional wisdom isn’t unfounded, according to the Cooperative Institu- tional Research Program (CIRP). The data collected by CIRP shows that nearly 31 percent of the student body considers themselves “conservative” while 25 per- cent of the campus considers themselves “liberal.” This is in contrast to other “high se- lectivity” public universities where 20 percent of the stu- dent body identified them- selves as “conservative” and nearly 35 percent consider themselves “liberal.” CIRP is a national survey of first-years administered annually by the Higher Edu- cation Research Institute. The survey looks at everything from political and religious beliefs to health and financial issues. The “high selectivity” public universities that CIRP compares Miami to include Ohio State University, Uni- versity of Michigan, Univer- sity of North Carolina and Texas A&M University. The latest data available from CIRP is from 2009. Representatives from both College Republicans and College Democrats said they weren’t surprised at the data. “I think that there’s a gen- eral consensus that Miami is conservative,” said Jimmy Jordan, College Democrats president. “If you talk to students, they’ll say Miami is conservative.” College Republicans Co- Chair Brie Sakach said she had expected the conserva- tive atmosphere before she came to Miami. “My mom and aunt both went here and so they told me before I came that Mi- ami had a more conservative base,” Sakach said. Miami alumni would be correct in recalling Miami as a conservative university. CIRP data shows Miami has had a more conservative stu- dent body than other similar universities since 1971. Con- servatism at Miami peaked in 2006 when more than 35 percent of the student body identified themselves as “conservative.” That same year, about 25 percent of the student bodies at comparable universities identified as “conservative.” While the terms “lib- eral” and “conservative” may seem pretty straight- forward, political science professor Ryan Barilleaux warns against taking them at face value. “A lot depends on how you define ‘conservative,’” Barilleaux said. “Socially? Economically? You have to be careful in how you define those terms, ‘conservative’ covers a broad category.” Traditionally, College Re- publicans has been a larger organization than College Democrats and Miami has fewer left-wing organiza- tions, according to Baril- leaux. The number of people on the two organizations listservs shows College Re- publicans as a larger organi- zation. The College Repub- licans listserv hosts around 1,400 people while the Col- lege Democrats listserv has around 600 members. While the listserv mem- bers show a difference in the size of the two organizations, Jordan said he didn’t feel that was an accurate way to mea- sure the groups. “It’s a misleading way to represent the organization,” Jordan said. “We all know anyone can join a listserv, it’s who actually comes to meet- ings that counts.” The CIRP survey also col- lects data on how students feel about specific issues. On most of the issues, such as, “There is too much concern in the courts for the rights of criminals,” “Realistically, an individual can do little to bring about changes in our society” and “Colleges have the right to ban extreme speakers from campus,” Mi- ami was nearly identical to comparable universities. However in issues such as abortion, 55 percent of BY TAYLOR DOLVEN ASST. CAMPUS EDITOR While parades, football games and tailgates are part of homecoming business as usual, sidewalk paint is not part of Miami’s festivities — until this year. Although sidewalk paint is not allowed on campus, mem- bers of Campus Activities Council’s (CAC) Homecom- ing committee went ahead and painted the sidewalks anyway and are now facing fines, ac- cording to Katie Wilson, di- rector of student activities. “We did not get permis- sion,” said senior homecom- ing committee member Con- nor Billing. “Members of my board decided that they were going to do it anyway.” Wilson said the group is waiting for the estimate from physical facilities to see how much it will cost to have the paint removed. “The general policy for things like this is that physical facilities will charge whoever is responsible to have the paint removed,” she said. According to the man- ager of physical facilities, Matt Hughes, the damage is very extensive. “We tried to power wash it off and it did not come up,” Hughes said. The group did not use sidewalk chalk, according to Hughes. Instead, they used inverted field paint, the same substance used to paint the foul lines on baseball fields. “We have to get someone who can use chemicals to clean it up,” he said. Billing was aware of this rule when the decision was made to paint the sidewalks. “You can’t paint on the sidewalks because it takes for- ever to get off,” Billing said. The paint can still be seen all over campus, according to Hughes. The stencils start by the Farmer School of Busi- ness, all the way up to Cam- pus Street and back down to the Shriver Center. “I’m not sure how much it will cost because of the sheer amount of paint on the side- walks,” Hughes said. “It’s basically spray paint. Unless we remove it, it will not come up.” He estimates there were between 150 and 200 stencils on campus and each stencil will cost between $30 and $50 to remove. Had the group asked for permission, they wouldn’t have been granted the ability to paint the sidewalks. Adver- tisements have been painted on the sidewalks before and the same rules have applied in the past, according to Physical Facilities. BY HANNAH STEIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER Just a five-minute drive off campus is Miami Univer- sity’s airport, which houses Miami’s very own, and rela- tively unknown, airplane. Miami’s airport, where the plane is housed, was created in 1944 during World War II. It was used as place to train students to fight in the war. “It was called Civilian Pilot Training where they would train college students to fly and then they would go off and join the military and become military pilots,” Di- rector of Business Services for Aviation Services, Paul Allen said. He said the train- ing ended about 1995. Unlike commercial air- ports like Cincinnati or Dayton, the Miami Air- port’s security is not on the same level. “Unlike the Cincinnati Airport, our security is an unlocked gate,” Allen said. The gate doesn’t even en- compass the entire premises. The airport does many things in order to make it cost effective, Allen said. There are a couple hundred acres of land that they rent out to a farmer. “We do a lot of differ- ent things to make the place cost effective,” he said. “Our main revenue stream out here is selling fuel, jet fuel and aviation gas.” The airport buys their fuel from BP Air and then resells it. In addition to selling fuel and renting out land, the airport also allows people to house their own private planes at the airport as well, Allen said. The university itself has had a plane since about the 1950s, Manager of Admin- istrative Services of Finance and Business Services, Kathy Dudley, said, although the university has only had this aircraft for about six years. According to Allen, an air- craft such as this can last up to about 30 years. “A lot of that, I think, came about just because Oxford is just a little bit isolated, where many campuses are located right in or near a major air- port,” David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services, said. Miami’s little plane, sometimes referred to as RedHawk One, is a Beech- craft Kingair 90B airplane and seats a maximum of six people, plus the pilot and co-pilot. Although the plane is a little crammed, each side has five windows and cup holders. The plane is used about two or three times a month, primarily by Miami Presi- dent David Hodge, accord- ing to Allen. “It’s primarily the presi- dent but it will occasionally be used by groups who might have the need for that type of transportation where we have several people going to the same location,” Creamer said. “It’s usually for fund- raising efforts and he [the president] uses it primarily for day trips, usually when it’s a longer trip [by car].” Whichever department does decide to use the plane pays for it out of that departments’ money. “The departments that use the plane, the President’s Of- fice and other departments, are charged for the use of it, so it’s not like we’re just pay- ing for it on airport money,” Allen said. Between fuel and main- tenance, the average annual cost of the plane is around $120,000, he said. Typically, the plane will fly to places that don’t require refueling because it adds to the time and doesn’t tend to get used again soon, Cream- er said. Rarely does the plane fly within Ohio, but to places like Chicago, St. Louis or Washington D.C. Usually, the plane is flown 200 miles or more, Allen said. When the university first got a plane, it had a pilot on staff, Creamer said. Howev- er, that is no longer the case. “There was a time when The Miami Student FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011 Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826 MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO VOLUME 139 NO. 21 In 1989, The Miami Student reported that Miami University was going to spend $4,000 to replace goalposts which were torn down following a Miami football victory over Bowling Green State University. The university said the cost of replacing the goal posts was worth the show of school spirit. University officials take to the skies aboard ‘RedHawk One’ Homecoming sidewalk stencil cleanup to cost CAC thousands Campus politics: where do we stand? ELECTIONS, SEE PAGE 9 LISA GEHRING THE MIAMI STUDENT Cleanup of stencils, sprayed with inverted field paint by the Homecoming committee, around campus will cost thou- sands of dollars.The committee will have to pay for cleanup. ANDREW BRAY THE MIAMI STUDENT Miami’s airplane, RedHawk One, is housed at the Miami University Airport when it is not soaring through the skies. RedHawk One takes University President David Hodge and other university officials across the country two to three times a month. ANDREW BRAY THE MIAMI STUDENT In RedHawk One’s cockpit, one of several rotating pilots fly around the country.The plane typically flies to fundraiser events in places like Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY Additional election coverage can be found on page 5. Full versions of candidate interviews, as well as information about Issues 2 and 3 and the Talawanda School Board are available online at www.miamistudent.net. AIRPORT, SEE PAGE 9
Transcript
By Lauren CeronieCampus editor
As the nation plunges into the 2012 presidential cam-paigns and the first presi-dential primaries loom in the not so distant future, it’s easy to forget about the elections that will take place Tuesday.
When it comes to politics and elections, conventional wisdom holds that the stu-dent body at Miami Univer-sity is largely conservative. This conventional wisdom isn’t unfounded, according to the Cooperative Institu-tional Research Program (CIRP). The data collected by CIRP shows that nearly 31 percent of the student body considers themselves “conservative” while 25 per-cent of the campus considers themselves “liberal.” This is in contrast to other “high se-lectivity” public universities where 20 percent of the stu-dent body identified them-selves as “conservative” and nearly 35 percent consider themselves “liberal.”
CIRP is a national survey of first-years administered annually by the Higher Edu-cation Research Institute. The survey looks at everything from political and religious beliefs to health and financial issues. The “high selectivity” public universities that CIRP compares Miami to include Ohio State University, Uni-versity of Michigan, Univer-sity of North Carolina and Texas A&M University. The latest data available from CIRP is from 2009.
Representatives from both College Republicans and College Democrats said they weren’t surprised at the data.
“I think that there’s a gen-eral consensus that Miami is conservative,” said Jimmy Jordan, College Democrats president. “If you talk to students, they’ll say Miami is conservative.”
College Republicans Co-Chair Brie Sakach said she had expected the conserva-tive atmosphere before she came to Miami.
“My mom and aunt both went here and so they told me before I came that Mi-ami had a more conservative base,” Sakach said.
Miami alumni would be correct in recalling Miami as a conservative university. CIRP data shows Miami has had a more conservative stu-dent body than other similar universities since 1971. Con-servatism at Miami peaked in 2006 when more than 35 percent of the student body identified themselves as “conservative.” That same year, about 25 percent of the student bodies at comparable universities identified as “conservative.”
While the terms “lib-eral” and “conservative” may seem pretty straight-forward, political science professor Ryan Barilleaux warns against taking them at
face value.“A lot depends on how
you define ‘conservative,’” Barilleaux said. “Socially? Economically? You have to be careful in how you define those terms, ‘conservative’ covers a broad category.”
Traditionally, College Re-publicans has been a larger organization than College Democrats and Miami has fewer left-wing organiza-tions, according to Baril-leaux. The number of people on the two organizations listservs shows College Re-publicans as a larger organi-zation. The College Repub-licans listserv hosts around 1,400 people while the Col-lege Democrats listserv has around 600 members.
While the listserv mem-bers show a difference in the size of the two organizations, Jordan said he didn’t feel that was an accurate way to mea-sure the groups.
“It’s a misleading way to represent the organization,” Jordan said. “We all know anyone can join a listserv, it’s who actually comes to meet-ings that counts.”
The CIRP survey also col-lects data on how students feel about specific issues. On most of the issues, such as, “There is too much concern in the courts for the rights of criminals,” “Realistically, an individual can do little to bring about changes in our society” and “Colleges have the right to ban extreme speakers from campus,” Mi-ami was nearly identical to comparable universities.
However in issues such as abortion, 55 percent of
By tayLor doLvenasst. Campus editor
While parades, football games and tailgates are part of homecoming business as usual, sidewalk paint is not part of Miami’s festivities — until this year.
Although sidewalk paint is not allowed on campus, mem-bers of Campus Activities Council’s (CAC) Homecom-ing committee went ahead and painted the sidewalks anyway and are now facing fines, ac-cording to Katie Wilson, di-rector of student activities.
“We did not get permis-sion,” said senior homecom-ing committee member Con-nor Billing. “Members of my board decided that they were going to do it anyway.”
Wilson said the group is waiting for the estimate from physical facilities to see how much it will cost to have the paint removed.
“The general policy for things like this is that physical facilities will charge whoever is responsible to have the paint removed,” she said.
According to the man-ager of physical facilities, Matt Hughes, the damage is
very extensive.“We tried to power wash it
off and it did not come up,” Hughes said.
The group did not use sidewalk chalk, according to Hughes. Instead, they used inverted field paint, the same substance used to paint the foul lines on baseball fields.
“We have to get someone who can use chemicals to clean it up,” he said.
Billing was aware of this rule when the decision was made to paint the sidewalks.
“You can’t paint on the sidewalks because it takes for-ever to get off,” Billing said.
The paint can still be seen all over campus, according to Hughes. The stencils start by the Farmer School of Busi-
ness, all the way up to Cam-pus Street and back down to the Shriver Center.
“I’m not sure how much it will cost because of the sheer amount of paint on the side-walks,” Hughes said. “It’s basically spray paint. Unless we remove it, it will not come up.” He estimates there were between 150 and 200 stencils on campus and each stencil will cost between $30 and $50 to remove.
Had the group asked for permission, they wouldn’t have been granted the ability to paint the sidewalks. Adver-tisements have been painted on the sidewalks before and the same rules have applied in the past, according to Physical Facilities.
By HannaH steinsenior staff Writer
Just a five-minute drive off campus is Miami Univer-sity’s airport, which houses Miami’s very own, and rela-tively unknown, airplane.
Miami’s airport, where the plane is housed, was created in 1944 during World War II. It was used as place to train students to fight in the war.
“It was called Civilian Pilot Training where they would train college students to fly and then they would go off and join the military and become military pilots,” Di-rector of Business Services for Aviation Services, Paul Allen said. He said the train-ing ended about 1995.
Unlike commercial air-ports like Cincinnati or Dayton, the Miami Air-port’s security is not on the same level.
“Unlike the Cincinnati Airport, our security is an unlocked gate,” Allen said.
The gate doesn’t even en-compass the entire premises.
The airport does many things in order to make it cost effective, Allen said. There are a couple hundred acres of land that they rent out to a farmer.
“We do a lot of differ-ent things to make the place cost effective,” he said. “Our main revenue stream out here is selling fuel, jet fuel and aviation gas.”
The airport buys their fuel from BP Air and then resells it.
In addition to selling fuel and renting out land, the airport also allows people to house their own private planes at the airport as well, Allen said.
The university itself has had a plane since about the 1950s, Manager of Admin-istrative Services of Finance and Business Services, Kathy Dudley, said, although the university has only had this aircraft for about six years.
According to Allen, an air-craft such as this can last up to about 30 years.
“A lot of that, I think, came about just because Oxford is just a little bit isolated, where many campuses are located right in or near a major air-port,” David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services, said.
Miami’s little plane, sometimes referred to as RedHawk One, is a Beech-craft Kingair 90B airplane and seats a maximum of six people, plus the pilot and co-pilot. Although the plane is a little crammed, each side has five windows and cup holders.
The plane is used about two or three times a month, primarily by Miami Presi-dent David Hodge, accord-ing to Allen.
“It’s primarily the presi-dent but it will occasionally be used by groups who might have the need for that type of transportation where we have several people going to the same location,” Creamer said. “It’s usually for fund-raising efforts and he [the president] uses it primarily for day trips, usually when it’s a longer trip [by car].”
Whichever department does decide to use the plane pays for it out of that departments’ money.
“The departments that use the plane, the President’s Of-fice and other departments, are charged for the use of it, so it’s not like we’re just pay-ing for it on airport money,” Allen said.
Between fuel and main-tenance, the average annual cost of the plane is around $120,000, he said.
Typically, the plane will fly to places that don’t require refueling because it adds to the time and doesn’t tend to get used again soon, Cream-er said. Rarely does the plane fly within Ohio, but to places like Chicago, St. Louis or Washington D.C.
Usually, the plane is flown 200 miles or more, Allen said.
When the university first got a plane, it had a pilot on staff, Creamer said. Howev-er, that is no longer the case.
“There was a time when
The Miami StudentFRIDAY, NovembeR 4, 2011
Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
miami university oXFoRD, oHIovoLume 139 No. 21
In 1989, The Miami Student reported that Miami University was going to spend $4,000 to replace goalposts which were torn down following a Miami football victory over Bowling Green State University. The university said the cost of replacing the goal posts was worth the show of school spirit.
University officials take to the skies aboard ‘RedHawk One’
Homecoming sidewalk stencil cleanup to cost CAC thousands
Campus politics: where do we stand?
eLeCtions,See PAGe 9
Lisa GeHrinG THe mIAmI STUDeNT
Cleanup of stencils, sprayed with inverted field paint by the Homecoming committee, around campus will cost thou-sands of dollars. The committee will have to pay for cleanup.
andreW Bray THe mIAmI STUDeNT
miami’s airplane, RedHawk one, is housed at the miami University Airport when it is not soaring through the skies. RedHawk one takes University President David Hodge and other university officials across the country two to three times a month.
andreW Bray THe mIAmI STUDeNT
In RedHawk One’s cockpit, one of several rotating pilots fly around the country. The plane typically flies to fundraiser events in places like Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
today in miami History
Additional election coverage can be found on page 5. Full versions of candidate interviews, as well as information about Issues 2 and 3 and the Talawanda School Board are available online at
www.miamistudent.net.
airport,See PAGe 9
New group to raise awareness about urban issues
University kicks off new ad campaign
LAUREN OLSON THE MIAMI STUDENT
BUMP, SET, SPIKETop: Lisa Beyer and Tracy Striebich celebrate one of Stribich’s kills at the home club volleyball tournament last weekend. Bottom: Katie Espeleta, Jane Nagy and Maggie Striebich officiate during the tournament.
“We live for those times when a professor’s lecture, a group project or even writ-ing a paper causes a student to have that ‘aha’ moment – that moment that changes them – and potentially de-fines them.” That’s Miami University’s new campaign slogan designed to raise awareness about Miami and its valued education. Read by a deep velvety voice, the message is spreading across the airwaves.
The ads will be shown on billboards, radio, cable tele-vision, cinema, Pandora and Facebook from now until the end of December in the areas of Cincinnati, Colum-bus, Dayton, Cleveland and Toledo and some will also be in Chicago.
“The purpose behind the ad campaign is two-fold – we hope to increase applications and to continue to increase our national reputation,” said Tra-cy Hughes, director of market-ing and creative services.
Miami has many new cam-paign projects this year. One
new campaign includes the sponsoring of the Fountain Square ice arena in downtown Cincinnati. The message Mi-ami is trying to portray to pro-spective students and parents is the transformative moment a student experiences during his or her time at the univer-sity, according to Hughes.
The “aha” moment is where the student realizes his or her capabilities and dreams.
According to Hughes, the administration began brand research two years ago and found that Miami has a very strong brand name, but not
enough advertisements to let people know about it.
Miami’s competition, Ohio State University, Xavier Uni-versity and the University of Cincinnati have all been ac-tively promoting their institu-tions for over 10 years.
“Research had shown that we had lost some of our en-rollment advantages due to that increased competition,” Hughes said.
The Miami Board of Trust-ees recognized it was time for a change, so they created the annual Brand Budget to ac-tively market the university.
A branding agency was also hired to help and a budget was decided earlier in the camping according to Hughes.
Hughes said she worked with the brand agency 160over90 to develop a clear ad to represent the university. According to Hughes, this particular campaign cov-ers six markets and costs about $500,000.
Some students feel the ad doesn’t accurately portray their experience at Miami or show the aspects that most attracted them to the school. “Miami isn’t just about the
classroom, they need to show more student life aspects, such as broomball games, study sessions or hangout sessions in the basement of a dorm,” first-year Alicia Troiano said.
The ads will be shown on television during special times on cable networks along with four spots during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to support the Miami Marching Band.
“I feel like they should show more aspects of the school, I don’t feel like it inspires me to come learn more,” sophomore Amanda Beckman said.
By MEgAN ThOBEFOR ThE MIAMI STUdENT
The Urban Leaders or-ganization is brand new to Miami University this year, but it already has big plans for the future.
Forming this September, the Urban Leaders created the goal to raise awareness of urban issues on campus and to build a commu-nity for people interested in social justice in urban areas. The organization has already invited urban Cincinnati community members to campus for an event Friday called Voices of Homelessness. Also, the Urban Leaders are collabo-rating with Guiding 100, the NAACP and Adopt-A-School to bring Steve Per-ry, a speaker on educational reform, to campus at a date to be announced during the spring semester.
Haliee Gibbons, a 2008 Miami graduate and cur-rent advisor to the pro-gram, originally thought up the idea for Urban Leaders while working as a gradu-ate assistant for the Urban Teaching Cohort. The Ur-ban Teaching Cohort has worked with high needs schools in the Cincinnati area for the past two years.
According to Tammy Schwartz, founder of the cohort, “[The Urban Teach-ing Cohort is] a community
based approach to educa-tion in urban areas.”
Their goal is to give fu-ture teachers the knowledge and skills necessary to help urban students succeed.
Mary Milchen, a junior middle childhood educa-tion major and a member of the Urban Leaders said she agrees it is important to have more than educa-tion majors involved with Urban Leaders.
“The poverty experi-enced by the students cov-ers more than just educa-tion issues,” Milchen said. Gibbons founded the Ur-ban Leaders organization with an understanding of the urban issues surround-ing the schools supported by the Urban Teaching Cohort. She realized a real change required a more holistic approach, which education majors could not do alone.
Gibbons also said she believes it is a great oppor-tunity for people with simi-lar passions to unite.
“At Miami, we are so focused on our majors that we forget there are other people who share our pas-sions but are addressing the issues in a different way,” Gibbons said.
The Urban Leaders or-ganization hopes to create global leaders in society to change the current system of poverty.
MU to hold open sessions for cAS dean candidatesBy MATT LEvySENIOR STAFF WRITER
With the end of the fall semester coming into sight, members of Miami Uni-versity’s Associated Stu-dent Government (ASG) are preparing for some big changes to come in Miami’s future. Much of Tuesday night’s meeting focused on two of the largest changes to come: the search for a new College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) dean and the university’s upcoming switch from paper to online course evaluations.
According to Secretary for Academic Affairs Tyler Sin-clair, finalists for the position of CAS dean will be coming to campus over the span of two weeks in mid-Novem-ber. Steve Howe, depart-ment head of psychology at the University of Cincinnati, will be coming Nov. 7 and will be in the Bystrom Room of the Shriver Center. Phyllis Callahan, the CAS interim dean, will be available Nov. 10 in 1 Upham Hall. Robyn Hannigan, chair and profes-sor of environmental, earth and ocean sciences at the University of Massachu-setts- Boston will be on cam-pus Nov. 16 in 2 Upham. All times will be 5:15-5:45 p.m.
“It’ll be a time to talk and get feedback,” Sinclair said. “They’ll be meeting with
every constituency a dean could have and one of those constituencies are students.”
According to Sinclair, more than 120 candidates applied for the position, hail-ing from all over the U.S., as well as from locations in China and Scotland.
Sinclair said while the meeting times with the final-ists will be rather brief, he would like to see as many students as possible in at-tendance. He said it might be difficult for every student to get their questions in during the time allotted, and asked that students interested in attending and asking ques-tions of the candidates com-municate with him first to ensure efficiency during the meetings.
Sinclair also introduced a bill supporting online pro-fessor evaluations during Tuesday’s meeting.
In Miami’s current course evaluation system, students fill out paper evaluations of their professors and their courses in the final days of
the semester, which take months to return and cost what Sinclair estimates to be over 70,000 sheets of paper and potentially over $200,000 per year.
“Those estimates are actu-ally very low,” Sinclair said. “I chose pretty conservative estimates. The estimates the university is using are 89,000 sheets of paper and $250,000 a year.”
According to Sinclair, Mi-ami is addressing this prob-lem by instituting a system wherein students will fill out their course evaluations on their own time electroni-cally. The advantages of this system, according to its supporters, are that students could have more time to craft thoughtful responses, stu-dent anonymity is ensured, massive amounts of paper and money will be saved and the results are available im-mediately to professors and students alike.
“If you go through the process of how paper evalu-ations are done, teachers are given a printout of every course they teach and it takes a couple months to get back to them,” Sinclair said. “Teach-ers who teach in the summer can’t restructure their classes before fall, and teachers who teach in the fall can’t re-structure their classes before spring semester.”
One of the main points of
debate in Tuesday’s meeting was how to give students incentives to fill out evalu-ations if they are not doing so in a classroom. According to Sinclair, small incentives such as bookstore gift cards, Starbucks gift cards and box seats at a Miami hockey game could be used to en-sure students still fill their evaluations out.
According to Sinclair, other schools that have made the move to online evalua-tions have found on average that their student response rates drop around 10 percent. To combat this, Sinclair elaborated on some of the incentives possible.
“Early access to your grade is something (the university) has thought of,” Sinclair said. “Instead of waiting for the day the university chooses to release the grades, you’d get them as soon as the pro-fessor completes the grade-book. You could have it so you’d get bonus points for filling the evaluation out, but that’d be on a professor by professor basis.”
Another feature Sin-clair said he hopes to see would be an in-house ver-sion of the popular profes-sor evaluation Web site ra t emypro fe s sor. com. Students would be able to
New MyMiami site will take shape in two phasesBy ALLISON McgILLIvRAySTAFF WRITER
Miami University plans to transition to the new MyMi-ami portal in two phases in order to best utilize feed-back from students, faculty and staff.
Randy Hollowell, senior communications and web coordinator for IT services, said getting this feedback help make the new MyMiami worthwhile for people.
“I think once we get an ini-tial version in place then we will probably go out to the uni-versity community and look for some things that we can improve on for phase two,” Hollowell said.
According to Hollowell, one of the reasons for the switch to CampusEAI from BlackBoard was because CampusEAI provides the ability to make changes and improvements.
“If we wanted any big changes it was very difficult to work with BlackBoard to get that done and I think that was one of the reasons why we were investigating what our options were,” Hollowell said.
Anjli Jain, the executive director of CampusEAI, said via email that schools can decide how to implement all of the features provided by CampusEAI.
In phase one, Miami will
implement the basic structure of the portal.
“With the first phase that we are rolling out this fall, the hope is that what we pro-vide with MyMiami will be very similar to what we have
now, so there won’t be a lot of changes to the basic structure,” Hollowell said.
Meghan Wadsworth, vice president for student organizations, agreed.
“They really aren’t rear-ranging stuff for the most part,” Wadsworth. “For the most part, everything is in the same location.”
The new portal will also offer some new features that were different or unavailable with the BlackBoard model.
Wadsworth is part of a com-mittee that has been evaluating what sort of features would be
worthwhile for MyMiami.There will be a single sign
on to various links like Nii-hka, Gmail and BannerWeb, and there will no longer be information available to us-ers before they log in to the new MyMiami.
There will also be links to social media sites such as Fa-cebook, Twitter, Linkedin and The Hub.
According to Wadsworth, there will also be an employ-ment at Miami and career services bar.
Wadsworth also said she had an idea for a “community help bar” to offer “things that students can use that aren’t really presented to them in any one home page in one central source.”
The help bar will offer links for counseling services, the health services web-site and a link to sign up for campus alerts.
Another new feature that the new MyMiami will offer
are communities, which are similar to BlackBoard organization sites.
Any person can request a community site and it will be set up for you.
Community sites allow users to determine what features of their site they want to be public and what features they want to have password access only.
Community sites also al-low users to set tasks for the members of the community, upload and share documents, communicate through dis-cussion boards and blogs and create slide shows from uploaded images.
According to Hollowell, the communities feature will allow Miami to continue university announcements.
“You can send announce-ments and e-mails within your community,” Hollowell said. “We will set up the whole uni-versity as a community to get the main announcements.”
Communities may offer more opportunities to certain student organizations with spe-cial requirements than what is provided on The Hub.
“I don’t anticipate too many organizations wanting to create a community site because The Hub has a lot
I think once we get an initial version in place then we will probably go out to the university community and look for some things that we can improve in phase two.”
RANdy hOLLOWELL SENIOR cOMMUNIcATIONS ANd WEB cOORdINATOR
ASg,SEE PAGE 9
MyMIAMI,SEE PAGE 9
This is part of a series about the new
features of MyMiami.
3 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011www.miamistudent.net
By Justin D. Reash Community eDitoR
Tuesday, the Oxford Com-munity Choice Pantry for-mally asked the Oxford City Council to include $7,200 in next year’s budget to be allo-cated to them to help reduce a mounting deficit.
Throughout 2011, the Ox-ford Choice Pantry has expe-rienced a deficit of $11,500 according to Steve Dana, member of the pantry’s board. Dana also said this deficit has occurred due to many factors, including monetary donations being down 8 percent, food prices up 58 percent and 128 new families to serve since the
beginning of the year. The pantry is a non-profit
organization that promotes healthy eating while caring for the most basic need of any human. It is a unique pantry because it allows customers to choose whatever they want off the shelves according to their income-based criteria.
Since the economic down-turn, however, the pantry has experienced an increase in families to feed while trying
to battle rising food costs at the same time, according to Director Mike Johnson.
“In order to have a vari-ety of foods, it has required us to make additional pur-chases, which caused us to lose more money,” John-son said. “We serve over 320 households, including graduate students.”
These two increases are the most costly ones for the pantry, but the lack of overall funding has under-mined the organization.
“We have also experienced a reduction of USDA allocation, which pro-vided free, nutritious food like peanut butter, spaghetti
and vegetables. This federal allocation was cut back tre-mendously,” Johnson said.
Amidst these setbacks, however, the pantry remains Butler County’s highest rat-ed choice pantry, according to Dana.
Since its inception five years ago, the pantry has worked with numerous fraternities and sororities, other local organiza-tions and university groups to create food drives targeted as
specific foods.“I have always thought
the Oxford area community is awesome, but it is tough times here and some fami-lies are suffering quite a bit,” Johnson said.
Asked if he is optimistic in receiving the funding from City Council, Johnson said,
“We understand that there’s a tremendous cut back of fund-ing programs, but we will see in two weeks”.
Joe Newlin, City of Oxford Finance Director, reiterated Johnson’s statement.
“This is a brand new re-quest from the pantry, but it is up to Council to decide.
I’m sure they are in financial straits like a lot of agencies are at this point, but it will be decided next meeting,” Newlin said.
The next City Council meet-ing, at which this proposal will be officially voted on, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Oxford courthouse.
By Lisa ReymannFoR the miami stuDent
Nestled between Hallow-een frights and the giving spirit of Christmas, Thanks-giving commemorates a gathering of people around a table of food to offer up praises of good harvest. Although Halloween can-dy and Christmas cookies are aspects of the holiday season to relish, the time of November especially is ideal to reflect on the issue of hunger that plagues peo-ple all year long, all around the world. This Saturday, Oxford United Methodist Church will host its ninth annual ‘Empty Bowls’ event from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., to provide hunger relief for the Oxford Community Choice Pantry.
Connie Malone, who is in charge of the event, said ‘Empty Bowls’ got
its start in Michigan by an art teacher in the early 1990s. His hope was to as-sist a local food drive in a creative way, and now two decades later, the idea has expanded into a worldwide project, which generates millions of dollars to reduce world hunger.
Participants of ‘Empty Bowl’ give $10 to the orga-nization and receive a ce-ramic bowl of their choice, made and donated by Miami University art students and local potters for the lunch. Guests then pick from a va-riety of food and drinks pur-chased by the Miami Uni-versity Community Federal Credit Union.
“It is my belief that the more people who are in-volved, the greater the short term support for the event and the greater its chance of long-term survival,” Malone said.
Miami junior Sami Doupnik found out about the lunch through fliers that had been circulating around campus.
“It sounds fantastic,” Doupnik said. “The col-laboration of students and members of the commu-nity to make this possible is so inspiring.”
Additionally, featured artwork will be on display during the lunch by Mary Hessling and the Art De-partment’s “Saturday Art” program, Diane Stem-
per’s “After School Art” program at the Oxford Com-munity Art Center and Liz Woedl’s McGuffey Foun-dation School art students.
Malone also said that the event will feature ceram-ics by the university stu-dents of Dennis Tobin and Jim McWilliams.
“What the fliers can’t convey,” Malone said. “Is how much fun the luncheon is, how good the food is, how beautiful the bowls are, and how wonderful it is to know that your presence
makes a difference in the lives of those served by the food pantry.”
All proceeds go to the Oxford Community Choice Pantry, which prides itself on being a resource of the five main food groups in which people can select items based on the quantity of their fam-ilies. The event generated about $5,000 for the pantry last year alone, according to Malone.
The holiday season is a time for students to step back and reflect on the good-ness of the world, and also a time to make a change in the community.
“As Miami students, we forget that we aren’t the only ones here,” said senior Kristen Krempp who volun-teered last year. “But it was so cool to see the communi-ty and several organizations come together to support a common cause.”
LiZ haeRinG THE MIAMI STUDENT
oLD FashioneD hoeDoWnCountry star Justin Moore rocks the roof Wednesday night at Brick Street Bar and Grill
We serve over 320 households, including graduate students.”
mike JohnsonDiReCtoR, oXFoRD
Community ChoiCe PantRy
‘Empty bowls’ fill hungry stomachs
it is the policy of The Miami Student to pub-lish corrections for factual errors found in the newspaper.
in the nov. 1 issue of The Miami Student, it was mistakenly re-ported that Carolnie County came to ox-ford for homecoming festivities. in fact, Caro-line County came to Zeta tau alpha’s Breast Cancer awareness Ben-efit Concert held at the oxford memorial Park on Friday, oct. 28.
CORRECTION
oxford community pantry asks city council for funds
It was so cool to see the community and several organizations come together to support a common cause.”
kRisten kRemPPemPty BoWLs VoLunteeR
Around 2 a.m. Oct. 28, a female resident in the 1200 block of Toll-gate called the Oxford Police Department be-cause there was a male outside her apartment for awhile. The female told officers the man was either drunk or on drugs. The man was screaming the name Chris and trying to en-ter the house. When people told him Chris didn’t live there, he still stood outside. The male then went into the woods calling the name Chris and then walked all the way to Community Park. The male then walked to the Miami University Airport continuing to yell Chris. Once the male got to the airport, he tried get-ting into the control tower, according to police reports. Miami Univer-sity police met Oxford police and they identi-fied the male as Miami University sophomore Denny Miller, 20. Miller said he was looking for his friend, Chris, and he had no idea where he was. Miller told police he thought he was at his friend’s house. Officers smelled alcohol on his breath and he had slurred speech. Oxford po-lice charged Miller with underage intoxication.
male attempts to climb into miami airport tower
ELECTIONS 5 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011www.miamistudent.net
Three candidates running for one open seat.
Township trustees are responsible for general ad-ministration of the town-ship, upkeep of physical and emergency services, parks and cemeteries.
Questions:1. What are some ways for
Miami University students and Oxford Township to col-laborate?
2. What is your approach to land use and conservation in Oxford Township?
3. How would you ap-proach working with the City of Oxford?
4. What makes you the best candidate?
John KinneIT Consultant, Director, Enterprise Systems and Operations at Miami University
Question 1: “If students want to do anything to im-prove the township, there are opportunities available, such as through churches and civic organizations. I really like seeing students and the community coming together. I’m very enthusiastic about the student population here, I think Oxford Township ben-efits immensely [from it].”
Question 2: “I would like to see the land use in the town-ship remain static and in good balance and harmony with conservation goals. I think the township has some wonderful
farming land, some very good ecological features, some nice wildlife and I’d like to see it preserved well into the future.”
Question 3: “Miami and the city and township all need to have a balance with one another, I don’t think any of them does well without the other … I really think there’s a synergy between these three entities.”
Question 4: “I am the best-qualified candidate be-cause of my enthusiasm for the position and my excep-tional experience. I can do the job, I want to do the job and I am going to stay in Oxford Township for the rest of my life. Where else could I want to be?”
G. Coe PotterReal Estate Broker/Appraiser, Incumbent Township Trustee
Question 1: “If the stu-dents that are inclined to be involved in some of the con-servation areas, that would be a great way for them to be involved; to volunteer for conservation and that sort of thing.”
Question 2: “I’m on the county planning commis-sion and we have worked with the township … we came up with a cutting edge, pretty comprehensive land use plan, which is much more organic in nature than it is geometric in nature. What we’re trying to do is conserve all of the natural areas, a big step toward pre-
serving our way of life and making it sustainable.”
Question 3: “I think that collaborative efforts are very important, particularly in a time of shrinking revenue. This collaboration is really between the township, the city and Miami University.”
Question 4: “Experience. I’m a lifelong resident in the township, served on the rural zoning commission, served on the county plan-ning commission, served on the land-use steering committee and am a past president of the commu-nity improvement corpora-tion. I have years and years of experience in dealing with the county, city and the university.”
Daniel Umbstead Detective Lt. for Oxford Police Department
Question 1: “I think we need to collaborate more as a community: the township, city, university, student popu-lation and school district. We [in the township] tend to think one way. When you get young minds involved, you can get some creative ideas.”
Question 2: “Develop-ment should be well thought out [and] should compliment the community already in Oxford Township. Nobody wants to see sprawl, but nobody wants to become isolationist [either].”
Question 3: “ There’s been an issue of trust over the years between the city, university and township. Not universal-ly, but there are pockets of po-litical power that tend to have territorial issues, and I think we really need to promote the idea of one community work-ing together. Particularly in these economic times, it only makes sense to share common resources and collaborate as one community rather than three heads of the beast.”
Question 4: “My 30 years working inside local gov-ernment gives me a unique perspective on how that machine works.”
By ADAM GIffISEnIOR STAff WRITER
The Miami University College Democrats and the Miami University College Republicans have weighed in on the year’s biggest issues, their efforts to get out the vote and early predictions for next year’s presidential election.
For both organizations, it is all about the issues in 2011.
Chelsea Kiene, the com-munications chair of the Col-lege Democrats, said her or-ganization encourages Miami students and Oxford residents to vote no on all three state issues, with the biggest push for Issue 2.
“Issue 2, which I’m sure you’ve seen a lot about on YouTube commercials, deals with Senate Bill (SB) 5 and makes it illegal for nurses and other health care prac-titioners to demand more staffing in hospitals, so now what we are seeing is
understaffing,” Kiene said. “Then with emergency re-sponders, firemen and police-men, it’s a lot harder to ne-gotiate for better equipment and better training. So voting ‘yes’ would hurt a lot of the services we take for granted until we need them.”
Kiene said college stu-dents should also be inter-ested in voting no on Issue 3 because, according to her, this will allow young adults to stay on their parents’ em-ployer’s health care plan until they are 26.
Meanwhile, Co-Chair of the College Republicans Briana Sakach said they advocate a “yes” vote on all three issues. Sakach said the organization is most adamant about Issues 2 and 3, looking at both from a much different angle.
“In regards to Issue 2, we believe that it is time for public sector employees to pay their fair share that pri-vate sector employees al-
ready do. It’s time to lift that burden off of tax payers,” Sakach said. “With Issue 3, we feel that health care has been in the hands of bureau-cracies and that the decision for Americans to choose their health care plan should be left between them and their doctors.”
Kiene said the College Democrats have made a big effort to get people to vote. From Oct. 31 to Nov. 4, the organization ran “Progressive Week,” where each day they hand out a different sheet to students on issues. Monday, they handed out a flier de-signed to pitch one last time a “no” vote on Issues 1 through 3. Kiene said they have also grouped with other off-cam-pus organizations. She feels her organization has made a better effort when compared to that of the College Re-publicans due to a focus on student interests.
“I think within their group,
the College Republicans are very informed,” Kiene said. “But I don’t think they un-derstand that a lot of students who aren’t as big into politics don’t necessarily understand why these issues are prevalent to them.”
Sakach said the College Republicans have been phone banking to rally support for these issues multiple times a week, tallying up over 9,500 total calls, attending rallies and going door to door to talk with immediate residents, as well as those in the Cincin-nati area. Next week, they are hoping to hand out fliers with information on their beliefs about the three issues. Sakach said the College Republicans have taken note of the efforts of the College Democrats.
“We commend their po-litical activism,” Sakach said. “But we feel that the College Republicans have gone above and beyond to get the facts out there.”
College Elephants and Donkeys on the issues
Oxford City Council
Township Trustees
City Council members serve four-year terms. Coun-cil decides on city policy, approves the city’s budget and holds meetings twice a month.
Each of the five candidates
for City Council were asked the following two questions:
1. Why did you decide to run for City Council?
2. What do you think is the biggest issue facing Ox-ford in 2012?
Charles fordOwner, Songbird Environmental LLC., Chair, Environmental Commission.
Question 1: “It’s good timing. I just got out of grad school last August. I’m starting a local environmen-tal consulting business.”
Question 2: “There don’t seem to be many crushing issues this time around. We need to continue the really
good job of budgeting and planning that the current elected officials have been doing. We need to take ad-vantage of synergy that’s [between the city and uni-versity] to bring people to the city. We also need to market the town to other segments of society that want to live in what’s really a unique small town. I think we can do a better job of marketing the city on both those ends.”
Richard Keebler (incumbent)Current Mayor and member of Council, retired from Oxford fire Department and Miami University.
Question 1: “I’ve enjoyed my first four years. Council has eight-year term limits and I feel obligated in some ways to finish out my term.
I think it’s important to have continuity.”
Question 2: “The budget. We have to keep making sure we’re dealing with de-creased revenue. Tax collec-tion is down because proper-ty values are down. We have a balanced budget, but keep-ing it there is a challenge.”
Sean KrauseAdvertising creative for airlines, universities and non-profits. Father of twin five-year olds, three-year Oxford resident.
Question 1: “When I heard Kate Currie was step-ping down, a red flag went off in my head. She was a voice of common sense and a parent of a school age kid. I’m the guy who’s going to be the voice who stands up for Oxford families and brings new, fresh ideas to the Council. I’ll bring
creativity to a council that’s grown older and out of touch.”
Question 2: “Nobody’s angry about one specific issue. I want to rebrand the city of Oxford. Oxford definitely needs to come up with a new identity.
We’ve mastered the art of putting cheap beer in plastic cups and greasy pizza up-town. I want to bring more family oriented businesses. Why can’t we have the ser-vice and the retail that some other college towns have?” Kate Rousmaniere
Chair, Miami University Department of Educational Leadership.
Question 1: “At exactly the same time I decided to step down as department chair, someone told me there would be openings on City Council and a friend from the League of Women Vot-ers encouraged me to run. It feels like a sort of natural trajectory. I’d be moving myself from university ad-ministration work to more community work.”
Question 2: “There are going to be economic issues, but it’s going to get more se-vere in the next year because the state is withdrawing money for local govern-ments. I see a real strength in Oxford; it’s a natural paradise. Part of the [Miami University environmental sustainability] proposal in-volves working with the city to develop environmen-tal sustainability. I like bike paths that connect the uni-versity and city and trans-portation that connects city and university.”
Steve SnyderServed on City Council and as Mayor in 1980s, Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Board of Trustees at Miami University.
Question 1: “I was on City Council for nine years in the 1980s and enjoyed it very much. I was mayor for three years. I think I have a lot to of-fer to the community with my experience with the city and
the university. I’d like to put my skills back to use. It would be an honor to return to City Council. I would really like to continue my public service. I’m running on experience.”
Question 2: “Shrink-ing resource base, cutbacks from the state, the economy, continued downturn of the economy. Budget and service delivery issues are going to be ongoing issues in the years to come.”
Breaking down
the issues
State issues:
Issue 1Issue 1 is a state con-
stitutional amendment that would increase the maximum age at which a judge could be ap-pointed or elected. Cur-rently, judges cannot be appointed or elected after age 70. Issue 1 would increase that age to 75. This issue would also repeal parts of the Ohio constitution that allow the state’s General
Assembly to establish courts of conciliation, as well as parts that allow the Governor to appoint a five member Supreme Court Commission.
Issue 2Issue 2 is a referen-
dum to repeal Ohio Sen-ate Bill (SB) 5. A yes vote is to approve SB 5, while a no vote would repeal the law. The bill is written to limit the collective bargaining rights of public unions including teachers, fire-men and policemen, health care professionals and other government
employment contracts.
Issue 3Issue 3 is a state con-
stitutional amendment that would allow the state of Ohio to opt out of federal healthcare laws. The language of the amendment says that Ohio would not compel any person or employer to purchase healthcare. A yes vote is for approv-al of the amendment, while a no vote is against the amendment. If a pproved, the amend-ment would go into effect 30 days after the election.
Local issues: Butler County has
a renewal tax levy on the ballot with Issue 11. This renewal would be for the operation and maintaining of mental health facilities by the Butler County Mental Health Board. This is a five-year, one mill levy, meaning it would cost 10 cents for every $100 dol-lars of valuation.
Fairfield Local Schools and the Lakota School District both have school levies on the ballot, as well as College Corner schools.
Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
The Miami Student
Editorial Board
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rule of thumbredhawk oneThe university’s airplane will fly high in the sky with Miami pride.
Basketball winning their exhibition gameLet’s hope the winning ways carry over into the regular season.
miami’s ad campaignThis new, promotional TV commercial will be more than just a Miami Youtube sensation.
Voting in the electionEven though it’s not a Presidential election, get out there and vote!
midterm stress lasting a long timeGroup projects, papers and tests never seem to end.
Cracks in the sidewalksWatch where you’re walking or you might be up one second, down the next.
Editorial
defying chalk ban with paint, CaC makes the worst of a bad policy
The following piece, written by the editorial editors, reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board.
This semester, the Home-coming committee decided to advertise the weekend festivities by spray painting sidewalks across campus. Miami University bans all forms of paint or chalk on sidewalks and grass on cam-pus. Members on the Home-coming committee were aware of the university pol-icy but, with blatant disre-gard, painted the sidewalks. Moreover, the committee selected inverted field paint for the stencils, thus leaving permanent marks through-out campus. Currently, the committee is facing high costs for the removal of the nearly 200 stencils, which are estimated to cost be-tween $30 and $50 each to remove.
The editorial board of The Miami Student recognizes the Homecoming com-mittee’s intent to reach the student population through viral marketing. However, the actions of the committee
show a lack of maturity and respect for the university. Choosing to paint on the sidewalks while knowing the university’s stance on sidewalk paint was a bold move. Likewise, the com-mittee used inverted field paint instead of chalk. They should have known that such a substance would be difficult to remove, since it is what is used for painting baseball field foul lines.
It is commendable that the university is reprimanding the Homecoming commit-tee’s actions. Yet, this board suggests the university re-evaluate its sidewalk chalk policies. Advertising events on campus is a large part of Miami’s student life. Dur-ing the 2006-2007 academic year, sidewalk chalk was allowed on campus, but the following year a ban was im-plemented. If the university is upholding this rule, main-taining the beautification of the campus cannot be the
motivation. The university allows student organizations to advertise on campus with painted bed sheets. Hang-ing bed sheets blowing in the wind, soaking wet is not enhancing Miami’s beauty. Another reason could be the university is trying to eliminate outlets for hate speech, crude or lewd writ-ing. But these reasons do not seem reasonable for a complete ban.
Instead, the university should restructure the rule by allowing student organi-zations to reserve time slots at a designated location for sidewalk advertising.
Additionally, the uni-versity should only allow the use of sidewalk chalk or sidewalk chalk paint. The Homecoming com-mittee’s disregard for uni-versity rules reflects poorly on student organizations, but the university needs to reevaluate why this ban was established.
lEttErs to thE Editor
A first hand account of Reid Hall murder
I found your ‘Spooky Miami’ story interesting, since I was a freshman in Reid Hall and was watch-ing TV with Roger Sayles (not Sales), my resident assistant (RA), in the rec room on the ground floor shortly before he died.
I lived on the second floor and returned shortly before the shooting. You are correct in the fact that there was an argument be-tween Herb Lucas and Jim-my Walker who lived down the hall. At that point, Rog-er was not even around. There was a shot. Herb Lucas shot Jimmy, the bul-let passed through Jimmy Walker’s neck, lodging between the window and the screen. Roger Sayles at that moment came up from watching TV and entered the second floor corridor. Lucas ran past our dorm room, we had slammed the door at that point. An-other two shots and Roger died instantly.
Roger Sayles died in-stantly on the spot in the middle of the hall, not near a dorm room door where there could be a handprint. No one saw the actual shooting of Roger. He was
honored as an RA who died in the line of duty.
My guess is, when he turned the corner to enter the hall he probably put his hand up to slow down Lu-cas who was running from the first shooting. Roger could not have heard the first shot, as he was not up there yet. Herb Lucas was at that point desperate and would have shot anyone in his way. Roger was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The police borrowed my extension cord to take pic-tures of the crime scene. The next day, the two fa-thers of the boys, Mr. Lucas and Mr. Sayles, met in the hall and Mr. Lucas apolo-gized to Mr. Sayles for his son’s actions.
I know there is sup-posed to be a bloody hand-print in the archives, but if there is, I do not believe it is Roger’s. That was Mother’s Day weekend. I lived in that room for the rest of the semester, there were no ghosts or bloody handprints. That shoot-ing was on a Friday night. As a freshman, I had six 8 a.m. classes.
Saturday, on the way to
class, there were police with weapons at the inter-section of various cam-pus paths. Shortly after 8 a.m., one of the women in the class who knew the woman that Lucas was up-set about, came running in and said that they found Lucas in Ogden Hall in a phone booth where he had shot himself.
Herbert Lucas lingered for a number of days be-fore he died. The only sur-vivor in this tragedy was Jimmy Walker, who Herb Lucas attempted to kill, but he missed so many classes that he dropped out of school. That is the real story of what happened in Reid Hall.
I left the dorm for that night and stayed with my parents who had come down for the weekend. I guess you could not blame me. A Catholic Chapel in the Sesquicen-tennial Chapel was later dedicated to Roger Sayles.
editorial does not tell full story about university software program
In Tuesday’s editorial “University should support cheapest software option, free” you state, “IT Services only promises to service the computers and software that the University supports.” That is an accurate state-ment, but does not tell the complete truth.
First, all Miami Note-book computers come with LibreOffice loaded on them, so all students who purchase one of those computers have that free option provided. And Google Apps, includ-ing Google Docs, is part of the Google student email package. So IT Services provides both of the main open source (free) produc-tivity software options to students now.
Many students still choose to purchase Micro-soft Office. Many are com-fortable with it. Some feel it is important to be famil-iar with the tools currently used in the profession they are pursuing.
Faculty we have talked with are divided: some cite that using standard software reduces issues when sharing electronic documents, some feel students should use the software they will most likely use in their careers and some feel that students should use whatever op-tion is best for them. Choice is important.
Right now, most Miami University students, fac-ulty and staff use Micro-soft Office as their primary productivity software.
Because that is what is being used in our environ-ment, the IT Services Sup-port Desk has significantly more knowledge about that product and “promises” support for those tools.
That does not mean that the Support Desk turns away anyone with questions about LibreOffice or Google Apps. Because these prod-ucts are developed in a dif-ferent model and because the use of them is more limited, the “promise” of support is not currently the same as the branded product. However, support is provided to any-one requesting it.
The same is true for op-erating systems. Windows computers come with the Microsoft Windows OS and Apple computers come with the Macintosh OS. Anyone can choose to replace the na-tive OS with an open source alternative. Wikipedia lists 26 different open source op-erating systems, including Linux. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_source_operating_systems.
At this time, we see few students making this choice, and most who do are highly knowledgeable and able to navigate the challenges of working with an alternate operating system. We feel the Support Desk is offer-ing the appropriate level of support for Linux users, given their limited number and generally high level of knowledge.
The implication that by supporting free software alternatives we could avoid future staff cuts is a faulty assumption. IT Services pays $179,000 annually for Microsoft Windows and Of-fice licenses for all universi-ty-owned computers, which are more than 8,550 com-puters. This license package also allows students, faculty and staff to purchase steep-ly discounted licenses for personally owned comput-ers at no additional cost to
the university. IT Services regularly con-
siders open source alterna-tives, for example the recent choice of Sakai for our col-laboration and learning en-vironment and the move to Google for student email.
As we have learned, while open source products may have little or no licensing costs, often they have sig-nificant support and train-ing costs that may or may not be as much licensing a commercial product. In the end the full cost of running any application (licensing, maintenance, hardware, support, training, etc.) must be balanced against the ben-efits that application may provide to the university.
So students should feel free to use whichever pro-ductivity software or op-erating system they wish. In making that decision we suggest they consider the demands of their academic program and their own comfort with non-standard technology. IT Services will help you, whichever choice you make.
Moreover, I have one cor-rection to add. In speaking with Hannah Stein, I indi-cated that Miami’s license with Adobe did not include reduced prices for purchas-es for personally owned computers. I was wrong. Students, faculty and staff can purchase Adobe soft-ware at significantly re-duced prices at the Miami University Bookstore in the Shriver Center.
Cathy mCVEysr. dirECtor, stratEgiC CommuniCations and
We reserve the right to edit for length, content and clarity.
thanksgiving is around the cornerLess than three weeks till a homecooked meal, football and Black Friday!
7FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2011 OP EDwww.miamistudent.net
ORIANA’S OBSERVATIONORIANA PAwlyk
Concerning today’s population ... have we grown too much?
There’s a saying, “Too much is never enough.” If you’re following the news lately or are just a Twitter junkie like me, you would have seen that the world welcomed its seven bil-lionth person earlier this week. Now having a pas-sive thought, seven billion is just a number. But wait, isn’t it more?
Seven billion people on this planet holds a lot of weight on the world’s shoulders. Back in the 1920s, countries were just getting themselves back together from World War I when World War II showed up.
It meant reconstruction was in order, and thus the Baby Boom was born.
Yet now we are in a population overload. Ac-cording to a TIME article, “It’s Raining Babies,” Larry Doyle suggests the world isn’t ready to sustain as many people as it has. Doyle says it’s because we haven’t had overbear-ing wars with casualties, plagues, etc.
He ridicules a Wall Street Journal article saying, “[WSJ thinks] that 7 billion people is not that big of a deal, despite the famine, disease, pestilence, etc., because American-style capitalism will figure ev-erything out, and that we won’t get much past 10 billion anyway because
rich people have fewer children and as the rich get richer the poor will also get rich and stop having so many goddamn kids, a theory that makes perfect sense if you haven’t been paying attention.”
But Doyle’s solution isn’t exactly rational either. His theory outlines that we need to be rid of a few bil-lion people just to sustain our economies, food sup-ply, pollution control, etc. It’s completely understand-able: less people equals more resources to sustain those remaining.
Going back to this sum-mer, NPR did a special on pregnancies, calling it “The Baby Project.” The series followed around a group of expectant mothers awaiting their delivery date, but oth-er stats were thrown into the mix. The L.A. Times hinted at another NPR article from 2009 that tied into the proj-ect, reporting, “Half — yes, half — of all U.S. pregnan-cies are unintended.” This Op-Ed, “The world’s big-gest problem? Too many
people,” also highlighted something most people do not consider: women are encouraged to have chil-dren (plural, children) but how to support these chil-dren is not an issue until af-ter the child is born. Is this a cause or effect of the un-fortunate state of the U.S. public education system? Take your pick.
Yes, we’re lacking in certain departments, say economic status, educa-tion, etc., and yes, it may be “raining babies,” but what’s there to do? Popula-tion control? Didn’t some people already try to do this (I don’t know about you, but for me Stalin comes to mind) and weren’t they highly deposed, ridiculed, jailed or even killed? They were called dictators. Sure population is a huge prob-lem, but we can’t just kill each other off now, Mr. Doyle. There wouldn’t even be the slightest moral way to draw the line on that one. I’m already fighting for a job, now I can’t be fighting for a right to live.
University should have comprehensive plan for the future of technology
Since day one of my life as a Miami University student, I have found myself disap-pointed and aggravated with technology as related to the university. Exemplification of this was an article in The Miami Student on Tuesday explaining how “Miami of-fers discounted software, but overlooks free options.” General message? Don’t lock your students into certain plat-forms, especially when it’s an economic decision. Missed opportunity for a message? The university is in dire need of a central and cohesive tech-nology plan. While the IT de-partment exists (even though I can’t confirm for myself hav-ing never once visited), why isn’t there an option for a real lesson on what is available for students at orientation? This doesn’t exist because the uni-versity’s focus on technology seems to lack. This non-exist-ing centrality with the univer-sity’s technology allows for the features that already exist to go to waste.
While the editorial board lobbies for better support of free programs, I’m going to take this a step further. The university should be includ-ing this in the education of all students. There ought be a class with my orientation that explains the benefits of this service to me. There should be someone guiding me through Niihka explaining the ben-efits — as it’s been so far, I’m left to discover these things on my own. While there are workshops each semester for Niihka (and appointments ac-cording to the site), the site
only shows that it’s merely “there,” neither organized nor focused around students. It’s to say, “Sure it’s there, you know, so don’t expect anymore from us.” It seems worse for professors, based on class experience, that they also just stumble upon the use of it as well.
This isn’t to say that the university doesn’t provide; it’s to say what does exist is of poor allocation due to the non-cohesiveness of, if any, a plan for integrating technolo-gy. Simple yet brilliant things are included with our Google accounts and all of them are based on web connectivity. All of the documents, spread-sheets, drawings, etc., can be a product of group work, with-out the group ever meeting. No need to schedule a time, and do it all at once; parts can be assigned and completed without that silly wasteful trip to a King Library study room. But how many people do this or even know that they can?
The same thing boggles me every time someone pulls out a paper calendar. If you don’t have a Smartphone, it makes a little more sense, but such a population is rapidly dwin-dling. I input something on my phone, and it’s now on each item I use to check my calendar. The phone, tablet and laptop all get that infor-mation. The same goes for documents. I wrote this in Google Docs at home, proof-read on the way to class and mailed it to the editor via my iPad. This allows capacity for productivity to exist con-stantly and based on my time.
That’s how technology is in-tended to function. I no longer need to print out extra articles because I should be able to access them on Niihka and pull them up on what I take to class.
But oh wait, my professor thinks technology as a distrac-tion outweighs it as a boon. This type of thinking has to go. You might think it is the professor’s discretion that’s the issue here, but I disagree. It’s left to the professor’s discretion because a policy otherwise is nowhere to be found.
The most common ob-jection to issues of a school providing, or the education to use it, are funds. But this type of thinking is losing ground rapidly. Even so, Google/Nii-hka are existing services, and they’re free. Yet pricing to further the availability of such technology to students is rap-idly decreasing. The Kindle Fire comes in at $199, and if the university beefed up its on-campus Wi-Fi, data plans are almost irrelevant. Stu-dents already pay a technolo-gy fee. But what if nearly half of a general student fee didn’t automatically go into athlet-ics? A coherent plan would undoubtedly support better technological integration for each student, professor, and classroom. Miami can’t do what large universities like In-diana University can do when it comes to negotiating tons of free top-notch software to students. In that light, it’s high time policies come to reflect it: a model for the future, not for the past.
Yes, we’re lacking in certain departments, say economic status, education, etc., and yes, it may be “raining babies,” but what’s there to do?
Terrifying costumes vs. sexy: where does America stand?ESSAyAlICIA [email protected]
What were you for Hal-loween? I chose not to participate in dressing up for Halloween this year because I wasn’t sure how the holiday would be cel-ebrated here in Cyprus. Unlike in America, there weren’t pumpkin patches or carvings or even packaged candies. Instead of signs about this holiday, there are greetings of Christmas with trees, ornaments and dancing Santa’s.
Through my program, we ventured off to another city in Cyprus called Ayia Napa, which is deemed the “Party Capital Of Cyprus,” for the “closing” week-end. Because we weren’t stressing about what
costumes to wear and how to consume as much alco-hol as possible, many of us forgot that it was actually Halloween weekend.
As we travelled through the town Saturday night, we stumbled into a club that was having a costume con-test. It was pleasing to see them dressed in intensely horrific costumes, male and female alike. As the night went on, we saw more girls dressed in horror costumes than males, and not in typi-cal costumes like the dead bride or vampire. Although I wasn’t expecting for peo-ple to be completely dressed up, it was refreshing to see Westernized ideas imple-mented in a country over
5,000 miles away. On the drive back to the
main city in Cyprus, the group found ourselves dis-cussing what we would do to celebrate Halloween. The conversation ended up drifting to the realiza-tion that we spotted no sexy or skimpy Halloween costumes. Because this is my first time experiencing
Halloween outside of the country, it’s hard to gener-alize that they don’t wear sexy costumes.
Partying that Monday of Halloween was quite a humorous escapade. Other American students from my program decided to go out in sexy costumes, only to be greeted with abnormal looks. Was it inappropriate
to wear a sexy costume on Halloween? The responses from the locals were ask-ing, “Why are you dressed that way? It’s Halloween you’re supposed to be scary, not sexy.”
The response pushed me to think, when did dress-ing up provocatively for Halloween arise? In Amer-ica, it’s an unconscious decision, and the infamous phrases from Mean Girls also further the notion. Hal-loween may just be the one day in the U.S. where you can dress like a total slut and receive a pass.
Subsequently to reading an article on CNN, “Avoid-ing sexy costumes for kids,” I realized that it is our
generation that potentially started the new wave of Halloween and marketers have no option but to fur-ther it. If there were more seductive costumes adver-tised and sold in the U.S., I still don’t believe that as college-aged students we would buy them because of the images we’re shown in popular culture.
With Westernized ideas being marketed and con-sumed worldwide, it’s in-teresting to see when cul-tures overseas will begin the adopting American im-ages. It’s important that as a highly watched culture that we also are aware of the im-ages we portray and put out for others to mimic.
Food and water supply will deteriorate as population risesESSAyIAN [email protected]
On Oct. 31, history was made in alarming num-bers: the world’s popula-tion passed seven billion people. The question re-mains: how can we face the problems presented by overpopulation?
In an article written on MSNBC.com, Paul Eh-rlich, professor in popula-tion studies and biology at Stanford University, pre-sented one major problem overpopulation is causing and will make worse: world hunger. Currently, one bil-lion people are going hun-gry and that number will only increase.
Aklog Birara, for-mer World Bank econo-mist, listed another huge problem: water.
In Ethiopia alone, the population is projected to
grow from 90 million today to 250 million by 2050, and Birara notes how regional war is already make some control water more than others; unfortunately, these wars will only increase as time goes on. And the wars do not stop in Ethiopia.
The World Water Council concludes that 1.1 billion people are without access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people worldwide live without access to sani-tized and clean water. What will it cost to bring clean water to people worldwide?
In one presentation at CRU last Christmas, a vid-eo was presented citing that it would take over $10 bil-lion to install clean water to people who lack access. It felt hopeless to my $20 bill in my pocket until they
revealed that each Christ-mas, Americans spend $450 billion on gifts and presents.
Former Reverend Dick Farris told me that after he and his wife went to sub-Sahara Africa, the numbers became reality.
“Thirty years ago, when we saw the devastation of drought, we were crushed. And even today, we use buckets outside to catch rainwater and use it for flushing the toilet, and wash-ing dishes,” Farris said.
As extreme as it sound-ed, he is doing more than I am to tackle one of the problems caused by overpopulation.
“It is interesting because some of the problem of overpopulation seems to be linked to poverty. When
impoverished people have their income substantially increased, the birth rate goes down,” he said.
Rev. Farris does not have $10 billion in his back pock-et, but he has a heart willing to change his blessed life for deprived lives that desper-ately need it.
If I had more than 700 words, I could shell this article with more statistics on the gravity of the situa-tion. It would be great to not think about the enormous problem it presents. Igno-rance will not be bliss when we can no longer feed the very lives we are willingly bringing into existence. Ig-norance is no longer bliss when billions of people cannot be fed or met with proper water sources. I do not merely write this as a
guilt column (although I myself have been plagued with guilt just scratching the surface on research-ing it), and even though I do not intend to somehow solve these issues, it would be interesting if not compel-ling to see everyday people conversing about everyday possible solutions.
It is very easy for the numbers and statistics to seem cold, hard and dis-tant. Billions in poverty and 26,000 children dying in the next 24 hours from starva-tion or preventable diseases is impossible to wrap our heads around.
Dr. David Platt wrote in his book Radical, “When we dodged piles of human feces that littered the ground as we walked on the outskirts of the Indian community…
As I saw their faces, I real-ize that I have a choice. You and I both have a choice. We can stand with the starv-ing or with the overfed.”
My challenge is for us to go experience it like Rev. Farris and Dr. Platt did. That can be the only way it will impact and change the lives we live out. How will we come together as human beings to love and provide selflessly for other humans? I am convinced that the gravity of the prob-lem overwhelms most of us so we ignore it because we think cannot do anything to change it. And granted if we thought about it all the time, we would drive ourselves insane. But if our attitude is thus, we have already lost the battle, and certainly lost the war.
The responses from the locals were asking, “Why are you dressed that way? It’s Halloween you’re supposed to be scary, not sexy.”
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view randomly-selected respons-es from other students who have taken courses previously, allowing them to make have more informa-tion about the class and professor at their disposal.
“Miami would (still) have some leverage over what students can see and rating the accuracy of the information,” Sinclair said.
To further encourage students to take their evaluations, links to evaluations will be highly visible both on the online MyMiami portal and on Niikha, as well as through email and paper flyers.
Sinclair said the university has already tested the evaluation sys-tem by having students who have already completed sprint courses
this semester take them. At the close of the fall semester, 10 de-partments within the university will offer the online evaluations and it is hoped the new evaluations will be fully integrated into all of Miami’s classes by fall 2012.
According to Sinclair, integra-tion of online course evaluations will happen regardless of ASG’s input into the matter.
“This bill is asking that this process be incentivized and Mi-ami creates this in-house rate-myprofessor,” Sinclair said. “Without this bill, those things will not happen. They will not take place unless students stand up and say ‘this is something that we want, this is something that needs to happen.’”
The bill will be further reviewed during next Tuesday’s meeting.
of the functionality for a lot of the groups that I’ve talked with but I can see it being a great tool for some groups,” Wadsworth said. “There is a music group who is talking about how they would re-ally like to keep their community site because they actually upload mp3 files and that’s how they
practice their music and so that is something that wouldn’t be available on The Hub.”
Jain agrees that communities can be used to suit special needs for student organizations.
“We give community administra-tors the ability to log in and change the communities to suit their needs,” Jain said via e-mail. “The community in-terface is a very simple way to create, edit and approve new content.”
Miami students thought it should be legal while nearly 65 percent of students at similar universities thought it should be legal.
While Miami’s campus may seem politically polarized, 38 percent of students consider themselves “mid-dle-of-the-road.”
Jordan said he felt Miami is less conservative than some might assume.
“Sometimes I think it’s over exag-gerated,” Jordan said. “It’s depicted that everyone is a Republican but I run into plenty of people who are lib-eral or Democrat.”
Stacey Skotzko, former editor in chief of The Miami Student and cur-rently a senior researcher of member information research at Congressio-nal Quarterly, said she remembers Miami as more moderate.
“When I was there (in 2006), I think that Miami students were pret-ty moderate,” Skotzko said. “Even if people were Democrat or liberal, they were moderate and if they were Republican or conservative, they were moderate. I think that everyone has that midwestern sensibility.”
Determining what Miami stu-dents’ political beliefs are is relative-ly straightforward. Determining why Miami students believe what they do politically is a little trickier, accord-ing to Barilleaux.
“I would be very cautious of any deterministic kind of answer,” Baril-leaux said. “Just because someone fits X profile doesn’t mean anything. There are a lot of factors that go into someone’s political ideology.”
However difficult determin-ing why someone believes what they do politically is, multiple par-ties interviewed thought parent’s ideology was the biggest factor in student’s beliefs.
“Most people tend to reflect the views of their parents,” Jordan said.
Sakach agreed and said many of her fellow College Republicans look to their parents for guidance on political issues.
“Sometimes we look to our par-ents, they’re out in the real world and they know what’s really going on,” Sakach said. “As college students,
we don’t know what it’s like to pay property taxes or income taxes or anything like that.”
Students do take political cues from their parents, but they also have the ability to make their own decisions politically, according to Skotzko.
“There’s a lot of assumption that kids will follow their parents ideo-logically,” Skotzko said. “I think stu-dents are smarter than that but it does matter what conversations you had around the dinner table.”
Skotzko said she thought the re-sults of the survey might be different if CIRP collected data from seniors in college instead of first-years.
“Not that freshman aren’t aware politically, they develop political views as they go,” Skotzko said.
Barilleaux agreed that the results of the research might be different if students were surveyed later in their college careers.
“People in your age group are still exploring their political ideas,” Barilleaux said.
One facet of the reason for Mi-ami’s conservative student body may be where the university pulls students from, according to Rich-ard Campbell, director of the journalism department.
“Maybe it has something to do with the area of Ohio we’re in,” Campbell said. “This is a more conservative area and we at-tract a lot of students from that conservative base.”
Campbell also suggested that the high percentage of students who identify themselves as Roman Cath-olic (37 percent compared to 24 per-cent at comparable universities) and the number of students who come from higher socioeconomic back-grounds (20 percent of Miami stu-dent report their families make over $250,000 a year while 11 percent of students at similar universities report the same family income) may have something to do with the political atmosphere at Miami.
While a myriad of reasons are be-hind Miami’s political atmosphere, both Sakach and Jordan said their goal with their respective political groups is to get students thinking about this very subject and develop-ing political ideas of their own.
ELECTIONS, FROM PAGE 1
the university had full-time pilots but what we do now is when there’s a flight we have a list of people who [we pick from],” Creamer said. “That gives us a little more flexibility with the cost, so when the plane’s not being used then we obviously aren’t incurring the cost of the pilots.”
When the plane is flown some-where, it is usually flown into a com-mercial airport and stays there until it’s time to return.
“It depends on the location,” Creamer said. “They’ll identify what’s the most convenient airport for them to access and then it’s just at the gateway there for the time they’re waiting on those who were
on the trip to come back. The pilots will simply stay at the airport and wait on the group to return.”
Because the university has a specific maintenance person of the plane, the annual cost between fuel and maintenance is able to stay be-low average, Allen said. Some stu-dents agree that they think the idea of the university having a plane is a good one and is beneficial.
“I was not aware that Miami had a plane,” sophomore Caitlin McCoy said. “As long as the plane is put to good use and increases efficiency, then the investment was worth it because the benefits from having the plane exceed the initial cost.”
The next time there’s a plane fly-ing over Miami’s campus, it could be RedHawk One.
AIRPORT, FROM PAGE 1
ASG,FROM PAGE 2
MYMIAMI,FROM PAGE 2
By Jordan KoleticFor the MiaMi Student
The Miami University men’s swimming and diving team traveled to face the Pur-due University Boilermak-ers Oct. 28. The RedHawks went into the meet with a solid 28-10 point lead from the past week’s diving com-petition. Senior Jimmy Beres placed first on both one and three meters followed by teammates Chris Hoppler and Mike Grainger to secure to 18-point lead.
The men came into the duel meet with a “winning mindset, we were all still energized from the previous weeks win,” senior Brendan Melling said. “But there is still a lot we need to work on in practice to become the team that I know we can be.”
The outcome of the meet evened the men’s team sea-son to 2-2 with Purdue win-ning 170 to 127 points.
Melling, as well as junior Anderson Whipp swam out-standing races, placing first in their respective events. Melling put up fight in the 200-yard breaststroke, com-ing out on top of his com-petitors by touching the wall with a time of 2:11.77.
Whipp tied for first in the 100-yard breaststroke stop-ping the clock at 59.92. Other point placing finishes came from seniors Chris Gunnels and Ryan Neff, junior Dan Nemeth and sophomore Mike Kline.
Beres earned Diver of the Week and Nem-eth was named Athlete of the Week.
The women’s swimming and diving team came out on top in their meet against the University of Akron Satur-day. Looking to stay on their trend from last week’s meet against Xavier University, the ’Hawks only gave up one first place in the 14 events swam.
The meet resulted in an astounding 63-point win against Akron 179 to 116.
“Sometimes it’s hard at the beginning of the season to work as team since there is a whole new freshman class,
but the team really came to-gether this weekend,” senior co-captain Lauren Wallace said. “It was amazing to see how many double wins we had.”
Junior Leah Thornton out touched her competition in the 100 and 200-yard back-stroke, followed by junior Maegan O’Connor in both 100 and 200 yard butterfly. Junior Bekka Westrick also won two of her events, the 50 and 100-yard freestyles. Sophomore Kayla Scott won both the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes with times of 1:06.19 and 2:23.57, respec-tively. Finally, one of the new members of the team, fresh-man Courtney Collet took first in the 500 and 1,000- yard freestyle.
The points did not stop there. Senior Chelsey Bruin-gton came out on top in the 200-yard freestyle. Runner-up finishes came from diver Nikki Craft on the three-meter board and teammates Kelsey Mallon, Jenny Warmolts and freshman Katie Bootsma.
The men return to action on Friday, Nov. 11 when they host Ohio State University. The women travel to north-ern Ohio this weekend when they visit the University of Toledo.
Miami men take eighth at Mac meet, women place third
it was amazing to see how many double wins we had.”
lauren WallaceSenior co-captain
’Hawks gear up for Alaska
JeSSi thorneTHe MiAMi STUDenT
Freshman Tyler Biggs tries to put the puck past lake Superior State University goaltender Kevin Kapalka in the lakers’ 3-2 victory oct. 27. Biggs and the RedHawks head north to take on the University of Alaska at Fairbanks this weekend.
By roSS SiMonFor the MiaMi Student
This weekend, the Miami University ice hockey team (2-6-0 overall, 0-4-0 Cen-tral Collegiate Hockey As-sociation) hope to bounce back from a tough stretch as they face off against the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Nanooks (3-3-2, 0-2-2) on Friday and Saturday in Fairbanks, AK. in this CCHA derby. Miami has lost five straight and is currently winless in CCHA conference play.
Over the weekend, the Red and White fell to the Lake Superior State Uni-versity Lakers in a 3-2 overtime thriller and a 5-3 heartbreaker. In the Thurs-day game, Miami was led in net by Cody Reichard who
made 18 saves while fac-ing 21 shots and in the box score by Cameron Schilling who had a goal and an as-sist. In the Friday game, Miami sent Connor Knapp out to try and stone the Lak-ers, but after giving up four goals was pulled from net in favor of Reichard. Miami nearly erased a 4-0 deficit in the third period, crawling to within an inch of tying it up as Reilly Smith had a shot deflect just wide after hitting the post. On Fri-day, Will Weber the senior co-captain and leader of the RedHawks defense was benched throughout the sec-ond and partway through the third period for poor play.
The RedHawks on the whole are playing in a manner not usu-ally expected from the
faithful of the Goggin Ice Center, undisciplined.
“It just seems like every time we make a mistake right now, we are paying for it,” Head Coach En-rico Blasi said. “There’s no real good explanation on why this keeps happening, but we need to continue to work hard and try to play through it.”
As the members of Ri-coville know, the ’Hawks split the series last year with the Nanooks with strong play from Reichard, who recorded a shut out, and the now departed Carter Camper. The Nanooks were led with stellar play in net from Scott Greenham, who will be starting in goal this weekend.
Over the weekend, the Nanooks were shut out by
the Ohio State University Buckeyes in Columbus. UAF was blanked in the Saturday game, 6-0, and lost the Friday game in a shootout.
The Nanooks have the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish to look for-ward to after the series with the ’Hawks, while Miami comes back to Oxford to face the University of Mich-igan Wolverines. It looks to be a “must win” series for both teams as they both have ground to make up in the CCHA if they want to still be playing in March and April. The RedHawks must respond strongly to this string of adversity if they expect to still be sniff-ing for Tampa, Fla. where the Frozen Four will be held this year.
One of the toughest chal-lenges an athlete ever faces is having to walk away from their sport. Whether from injuries or the inevi-table pull of age, all ath-letes have to accept their mortality at some point and move on. Most are forced to do so, leaving the sport before they are ready. The curtain on their career falling before their grand finale. Sport at all lev-els is a siren song, calling athletes to come back for “one more year,” only to lead them crashing into the shoals of retirement. Many, especially the greats, are unable to let it go, and play well past their prime in pursuit of one more shot at a championship.
Jerry Rice retired as a member of the Denver Broncos, Michael Jordan finished his career with a stint on the Washington Wizards and the jury is still out on whether Brett Favre will come back and play. However, with every rule there are exceptions. There are those who are able to go out at the top of their game with no regrets. The stars who ignore the pleas of the fans and criticisms of the pundits and leave on their own terms. But they are few and far between.
Tony LaRussa, the man-ager of the St. Louis Cardi-nals, is one such case. He was able to walk away after coming all the back from 100-1 odds and 10.5 games down in September to win the World Series. And after the champagne had been sprayed and the confetti was cleaned up, LaRussa announced he was retiring. There were no gimmicks, no hints at returning and no scandals to escape from. He simply said, “It’s just time to do something else.”
LaRussa leaves behind a Hall-of-Fame-worthy
resume and nearly impos-sible shoes to fill in St. Louis. Since he started with the ‘Cards in 1996, he won three National League Pennants and two World Series Championships. These were in addition to the three pennants and one World Series title he won with the Oakland Athletics from 1986-1995. He retires with 2,728 victories, which is the third most victories of any manager. LaRussa needs only 36 victories to move into second place, but once again he did not seem to be phased by this. Like Odysseus, LaRussa must have stuffed his ears with wax to avoid hear-ing the song of the Sirens, beckoning him to return for one last hurrah.
His remarkable achieve-ments as a coach over-shadow those as a player — five seasons in the major leagues with a batting aver-age just under the Mendoza line (.199) — and bring to mind the phrase, “those who can, do, and those who can’t, coach.” But LaR-ussa’s contributions to the game go beyond that of a good manager. He is credit-ed with creating the role of the closer, a pitcher who is only required to come out for one inning, with Den-nis Eckersley in Oakland. And even though a faulty telephone connection to the bullpen nearly derailed his Cinderella story, he was known as one of the great tacticians in the game.
While a return to base-ball certainly looks doubt-ful for LaRussa, one can never say never in sports. He may never find the rush that comes from managing when he’s in the outside world, but he can take sol-ace in the fact that he left at the top of the game on his terms. And that in itself is quite an accomplishment.
By JoSh northFor the MiaMi Student
The Miami University men’s and women’s cross country programs competed at the Mid-American Con-ference (MAC) champion-ships Saturday at Ball State University. The women’s team finished third and the men’s team finished eighth out of 12 teams.
Junior Jarrod Eick led the RedHawks with a first team All-MAC performance. He finished fifth with a personal-best time of 24:38. No other ’Hawk finished in the top 20 in the race, and Head Coach Warren Mandrell believed that inexperience played a huge role.
“We had four guys running in their first MAC meet,” Mandrell said. “Physically, we were ready to run, but we just got nervous. We had a real difficulty with the lack of experience.”
Mandrell also believes that the teams’ health affected the way the team ran all sea-son. Junior David Eichen-berger, who placed fourth in the MAC meet last year, hasn’t been able to run for a month and is one of the few RedHawks who have ran in the MAC championships.
Eichenberger tried to run this week, but placed 74th while running with the injury.
Sophomore David Wing, who has also been injured this season, ran a personal best 25:05 and finished 21st as the second RedHawk to score. After Wing, redshirt sophomore Matt Marol fin-ished 50th in 25:43. Junior Brett Wagner and sopho-more Daniel Garleb, running in their first MAC meet, fin-ished 53rd and 55th respec-tively to round out the scor-ing for the Red and White.
Mandrell believes the ex-perience gained this week will help the RedHawks compete better at the Re-gional meet Nov. 12 in Toledo, Ohio.
The women’s team faired a little better, but the team remains disappointed with their performance after coming in hoping to win the race.
“They ran as individuals and not as a team,” Head Coach Kelly Phillips. “They have to put themselves into the race and risk failure.”
Two RedHawks were able to earn second team All-MAC honors, however. Senior Maggie Bingham, who has led the ’Hawks three times this season,
finished eighth with a time of 21:20. Bingham has made second team All-MAC three consecutive seasons.
Freshman Jessica Hoover also earned second team All-MAC honors by fin-ishing 12th with a time of 21:34. Hoover believes that the team learned a lot from this experience.
“I would say we will learn to be more confident and fearless going on,” Hoover said. “We need to know we belong at the top.”
Freshman Alex Chitwood finished 19th in a season-best 21:50 while redshirt junior Jillian Dickman was a half a second behind in 20th as Mi-ami’s fourth finisher. Senior Kelley Miller, a second team All-MAC performer last year, rounded out Miami’s scoring five by finished 24th with a time of 21:58.
The team will look to im-prove on their performance at the regional meet as well. Phillips is confident that they can do so.
“Right now we are seed-ed eighth out of all of the D1 schools in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and In-diana,” Phillips said. “If we can go there and bet-ter our seeding, that would be great.”
