T H E B L A C K & M A G E N T A

Tapped Trees found all around campus

Campus maple trees are being tapped for sap.

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The Black & MagentaVol. 119, Issue 23March 30, 2015

Kathryn Kellar, Editor-in-Chief

Christine HolmesNews & Managing Editor

New restaurants, retailers, office

space, and lodging are among the plans for development at the intersection of State Route 83 and Interstate 70, which would bring new jobs to New Concord.

Further development at the site is expected to move forward pending the final approval of a Type 1 Expedited Annexation from Muskingum County.

Once approved, new business devel-opment can begin at the site.

After the land is legally annexed, a conceptual site plan for the entire development can be presented to the planning commission for review on April 23.

Already underway since the fall is construction of a Wallhouse chain hotel.

According to New Concord Village Administrator, Charlotte Colley, prog-ress is being made and plumbing is be-ing installed at the site.

“Now that the weather has broke, they’re pushing hard to start building vertically,” said Colley.

Other businesses envisioned for the site will be announced during the April 23 planning commission meeting, however Colley does know of one site for certain.

“We have one restaurant commit-ted,” said Colley. “We don’t know the name of it yet, but it will have coffee, sandwiches, soups, things like that.”

Colley said the bistro-style restau-rant will have a seating capacity com-pared to that of an Olive Garden.

Colley also said one national chain restaurant is interested in opening a

new location in the village as well as an outdoor sporting good retailer.

According to Colley, the hotel will create 25 new jobs and the restaurants will hire locally, as well.

However, the village is ultimately looking to draw larger corporations into office space located at the devel-opment.

“The end goal is to have those office corporate headquarters, regional sup-port type jobs here so that we can have those opportunities for people who want to stay in the area,” said Colley.

Colley believes New Concord is an ideal location for businesses because of its location between Cambridge and Zanesville, the East Muskingum School system, and Muskingum Uni-versity. Once the annexation is official-ly approved, further development can

legally begin. A pre-annexation agreement was

passed by the Village of New Concord, Union Township, and the development property owner, Gary Rubel, last month.

All parties agreed to annex 50 acres of land from Union Township into New Concord. The Village of New Concord agreed to compensate Union Township for their loss of land and property tax by paying $500 for the next 25 years with a two percent annual increase over the term.

The pre-annexation agreement also included land use, zoning, and utility agreements.

New Concord will take ownership and maintenance responsibility for the entirety of Liberty St. under the annex-ation.

Annexation moves forward in NC

Parents’ Weekend

Annual Parents’ Weekend focuses on Muskingum student achievements. Page 2

WMCO Weekend

Radio Station hosts Animal Encounters.

Page 4

Muskingum Chemistry Professor receives awardJonnie Neuhart & Lindsey KreamerOrbit Media Reporters

Muskingum University Asso-ciate Professor of Chemistry, Lois Zook-Gerdau received the Vernier Technology award from the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) during NSTA’s conference in Chicago on March 13.

Vernier Software & Technology was founded in 1981 and creates interfaces, sensors, software, and curriculums to change how educators teach science.

Zook-Gerdau received the award for her techniques in the classroom, which included the use of spectrometers and probes that the Chemistry Department has incorporated into their curriculum.

The Chemistry Department also played a significant role in Zook-Ger-dau’s application for the award.

“I actually think that a lot of the credit goes to my colleagues,” said Zook-Gerdau. “My colleagues helped when I wrote my proposal, they went and proofread it and added some com-ments as how to improve it.”

According to the Awards Manager

for the NSTA, Amanda Upton, the Ver-nier award has been presented to one college professor nationally as well as one elementary, two middle school, and three high school teachers since 2004.

The award recognizes the innovative use of technology to gather data with computers, calculators or other hand-held devices in science classrooms.

NSTA is the largest science educa-tion association in the world, Upton said.

Upton also mentioned that being se-lected to win is very significant.

“I was very excited to have won the award,” said Zook-Gerdau. “They give out a variety of these awards every year, but only one at the college level, and considering that I was competing against people from the entire United States, that was pretty exciting.”

Upton said due to the 10 percent in-crease in applicants from last year, it gets harder to distinguish who the win-ner will be.

Despite the larger pool of applicants, Zook-Gerdau’s application stood out.

“Looking at her application, they

felt like she really raised the bar high-er this year than the other applicants,” said Upton.

Zook-Gerdau worked on leading students in the continuation of her wa-ter quality studies on the Salt Creek Water Shed, a study that observes the acidity of the water and its chemical makeup.

She was using Vernier projects to reduce the chances of contamination in the research.

“She was unanimously regarded as a leader in what she was doing,” said Upton.

The project started in 2005 when Muskie Fellows worked in conjunction with the Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District.

The students took samples and ana-lyzed the water to help farmers adjust the chemicals they were using to keep the water quality better.

The winners received a $1,000 prize, $1,500 in expenses to attend the conference, and $3,000 in Vernier products. Zook-Gerdau also received a membership to NSTA, and a one-year subscription to one of NSTA’s journals.

The award will allow Zook-Gerdau to purchase science equipment for uni-versity use.

Zook-Gerdau plans on purchasing gas-chromatographs, machines to sep-arate and analyze a sample, which al-lows users to see what is in the sample.

Muskingum University Public Relations Office

Martin KurtzOrbit Media Reporter

Muskingum University’s annual Greek Week will be held from April 12 through April 17, featuring eight events in six days.

Greek Week is a week long event, pitting Greek organizations against other Greek organizations in contests based on physical and mental strength.

Competition will be found from the first event “Singtastico,” where stu-dents will lip sync to different songs to the annual Glutton Bowl, where the objective is to eat the food given in the fastest amount of time.

“It is also a chance to bring all the Greeks together and allow them to in-teract with maybe some other Greeks that haven’t met before or that they don’t know very well and kind of cheer

on their teams together or compete against each other, whatever it may be,” said Director of Greek Affairs, Stacey Allan.

The 2015 Greek Week will feature a theme from Disney, Pixar’s “Monsters University.”

All of the events are the same as past years, but with different names.

Senior Kayleigh Bowe came up with the idea. Allan said the implementation of a themed Greek Week is a first.

“I think we just wanted to pay trib-ute to that,” said Allan. “The theme [is] something different we haven’t done before though we let Kayleigh Bowe’s vision of that come through.”

In past years money was collected throughout the week, but this year the Greeks are co-sponsoring a pop tab collection with Rotaract Club, where Greek Organizations will try to collect

the most pop tabs to be donated to Na-tionwide Children’s Hospital and Ron-ald McDonald House.

Another new feature this year is mixed events, where Greek Organi-zations will be mixed together in cer-tain events. Allan said the idea behind mixing teams together came from oth-er universities in order to encourage Greek unity.

“A lot of schools already across the nation, they don’t have Greek Week the way we have it,” said Allan. “It’s

purely mixed teams so there’s a green team, a yellow team, a purple team.”

Allan said that even though Greeks enjoy the competition sparked from Greek Week, sometimes it gets a little too hostile.

“We sometimes see that groups are more divided then coming together,” said Allan.

Independent students can also par-ticipate by refereeing the competitions and donating pop tabs to their favorite Greek organizations.

NewsPage 2 Christine Holmes, News & Managing Editor

Lindsey KreamerOrbit Media Reporter

Parents and family members are in-vited every year to Muskingum Uni-versity Parents’ Weekend. Throughout the weekend campus hosts different events. This year Parents’ Weekend will be held April 10 through April 12.

Parents and family members can register to attend Parents’ Weekend through Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK).

ODK hosts and organizes Parents’ Weekend and the talent show each year.

Other events that occur over Par-ents’ Weekend are based on different organization and honorary inductions.

Parents’ Weekend will kick off on Friday, April 10 in the afternoon with Scholarship Recognition Day in Brown Chapel, which will honor students on the Dean’s List, students who received departmental awards, and students in the top five percent of their class.

Parents’ Weekend Talent Show will be on Friday April 10 in the evening.

“The point of [Parents’ Weekend] is to demonstrate to parents the talent that’s here at Muskingum University,” said President of ODK, Molly Can-field. “So, it’s a little bit different from the Varsity ReVue because it is the Par-ents’ Weekend talent show, which is a great opportunity for parents to see the talent at Muskingum University.”

Also during the weekend there will

be a Legacy Dinner held for parents of Muskingum University alumni.

Parents’ Weekend also includes cer-emonies and honorary inductions of students into different academic orga-nizations and scholarship clubs and or-ganizations on campus.

“All the induction ceremonies I’ve been to are really nice and very formal and professional,” said Canfield. “It’s a great opportunity to show off to your parents what you’ve done and what you accomplished. And for Musking-um to show off to parents our high academic standards. It’s not like high school where your parents are there for everything you’re recognized in, so I think that’s an excellent opportunity.”

These ceremonies and other events held on Parents’ Weekend serve as a way for students to be acknowledged for their hard work and for parents to see Muskingum University’s campus.

“I think that Parents’ Weekend does a really good job of bringing everyone together and for showing off people who might not be shown off a lot,” said Canfield. “For example athletes, there stats are out there you can see the game but if you excel in the classroom, art, or music, this is an opportunity for them to be shown off as well.”

Parents’ Weekend events are open to all students as well as their parents, guardians and family members unless otherwise specified.

Student achievements to be recognized

Greek Week 2015

Greeks ready for monster-themed competitionLindsey Grafe/ Black & Magenta

Campus prepares for annual Parents’ Weekend events

Kayla Rausch/ Black & Magenta

News Page 3Kathryn Kellar, Editor-in-Chief

Village Hall hosts saleKarysa KentOrbit Media Reporter

The Village of New Concord held an “Unnecessary Village Equipment Sale” for fifteen items recently.

New Concord’s Village Adminis-trator, Charlotte Colley said that these items were either old or broken items the village didn’t have a use for any-more.

“Outdated equipment, things like that basically from our operations ga-rage, our waste water treatment plant and our water treatment plant,” said Colley. “We came up with a list of equipment things from a couple trucks,

two air compressors, motors, heaters, paint sprayers, fencing, all sorts of dif-ferent things.”

The closed bids were gathered and opened on Wednesday, March 18.

“We’ll be opening the bids and then the highest bidder will [be contacted] and they can pay us and pick up the piece of equipment,” said Colley.

The people that participated in the sale were only allowed to bid once on each item, but could also bid on all the items presented. These sales have happened a few times in the past years whenever Village Hall needed the items cleaned out, explained Colley.

This time was taken to organize and

scrap or put up for sale items that don’t have use to the Village Hall.

The bidding process started between the end of February and the beginning of March. Colley thought that other people could find use for these items.

“Any[one] who was interested in bidding can go down and look at ev-erything and check [them] out,” said Colley. “See what condition it was in before they place a bid.”

Colley insisted that there will surely be more sales in the future when Vil-lage Hall needs to make more room.

According to the New Concord Fis-cal Officer, Lynn Marlatt, Village Hall received $3,970 for all the items sold.

This is Volume 119, Issue 23 of The Black & Magenta. The Black & Ma-genta is published weekly except during school holidays. Contact (740) 826-8189 or email bandm@muskingum.edu for subscription information.

Editorial StaffEditor-in-Chief: Kathryn Kellar

News & Managing Editor: Christine HolmesSpecial SectionsEditor: Kandee FerrellSports Editor: Chris MorganOpinion Editor: Kandee FerrellWeb Editor: Josey JamesCopy Editor: Lindsey KreamerCirculation Manager: Nick LambesFaculty Advisor: Lisa Marshall

New Concord alley vacatedKathryn KellarEditor-in-Chief

An unnamed alley on High St. locat-ed north of The New Concord United Methodist Church is in the process of being vacated.

The alley currently has no owner because both owners died and the land was not inherited.

“When you are driving and you look up the hill you can’t tell that there was once a road there,” said New Concord Village Administrator, Charlotte Col-ley. “It looks like there is a lot of shrub-bery and brush and things like that and there’s the parking lot. You would nev-er know that it was an alley.”

The New Concord United Method-

ist Church wants to update and add to their property by expanding into the vacated alley. Some of the projected updates include a handicap accessible restroom and an update to the kitchen.

Currently there are property taxes on the alley that the church is working on with the Muskingum County Land Bank in order to eventually own the property.

The Land Bank will look into the alley property, work on acquiring it, and go through the legal work to clear liens, taxes or any money that is owed.

The Muskingum County Land Bank will also work on transferring the al-ley’s title to whomever is requesting it with a fee. According to Colley, the legal work will end up costing a cou-ple of thousand dollars. The process of

obtaining the property will consist of going through share of stale and ob-taining legal pieces to get everything clear the alley.

“After The United Methodist Church obtains the alley they can move forward with the vacation,” said Col-ley. “There are people here in town who remember using that as access to Liberty. So it’s one of those things that never got dealt with in the past because everyone just used it as parking.”

Colley estimated that it will take four to six months before the church gets ownership of the alley.

The Planning Commission has ap-proved the vacation of the alley, but no more work can be done with until the property ownership is determined.

After property ownership is granted the ordinance will go to a vote to The New Concord Village Council.

Muskingum University Police Crime Log

March 21- Complaint of loud party at 177 Thompson Ave. Uni-versity Police was advised by The New Concord Police Department.- Issued traffic citation for expired plate and no opera-tor’s license.

March 22- Assisted The New Concord Police Department in shut-ting down a party at 158 Montgomery Ave.s- Drug case in Memorial Hall Lot.

Throughout the week- Several calls for service for transports and lock-outs.

Listen to WMCO, Muskingum University’s radio station, on 90.7 FM. You can also catch your favorite DJs, sports coverage, and more by going to orbitmediaonline.com and clicking on “Listen Live” or by using the TuneIn Radio app.

Kathryn Kellar/ Black & Magneta

Community CornerPage 4 Christine Holmes, News & Managing Editor

WMCO raises money and awareness with wild weekend eventsKandee FerrellSpecial Sections & Opinion Editor

Over 300 people encountered a kangaroo, a penguin, and four other wild ani-mals when the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium joined WMCO Weekend on March 21.

Muskingum University students and community members gathered in John Glenn Gym. They watched as the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium staff interacted with the animals and explained their unique features.

Five organizations including, WMCO, NCAARD, Student Senate, The Wilds, and of course the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium came together to make the event happen.

The event was spearheaded by WMCO’s Community Calendar Director Kary-sa Kent with help from News Director Martin Kurtz and the rest of WMCO’s staff.

They began planning for this event in January. Kent said that planning the event was part of the fun. “It was amazing experience,” said Kent. “Just to sit down and think of what

the audience members would enjoy and how we could interact with them. We as a staff thought about what would really make them happy.”

The event intended to bring furry fun to the campus but WMCO Weekend was created to raise money for the American Red Cross, The Muskingum County Animal Shelter, and Operation Feed in 2008. The radio station has given to these charities for eight years.

Kurtz explained why WMCO strives to give back to the community. “The community has given to us in various ways and we have a very good

relationship with the people in New Concord, Zanesville, and Cambridge,” said Kurtz. “It shows through having programs like NCAARD and The Wilds coming to Animal Encounters.”

WMCO also raffled off prizes during the event including gift cards, zoo tick-ets, and fish tanks. At the end of the event audience members were allowed to pet the penguin and look at the sloth up close. Many people left the building excited about their experience.

“I take my three children here to see the animals,” said Nicole McFarland of Zanesville. “I am very happy to get a chance to learn about animals…they made me want to take [my children] to see the animals at the Columbus Zoo again.”

The event was considered a success and it wrapped up the eighth annual WMCO Weekend, which also included the Shave to Save event and an Obstacle Course for Muskingum Students. Partial proceeds from Shave to Save benefited CancerCare.

In total, WMCO Weekend raised $670.00 and139 pounds of food were collect-ed. The 2015 WMCO Weekend raised the second highest amount of money in the eight years of event history.

Christine Holmes/ Black & MagentaAudience members find joy in petting a penguin following the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Animal Encounters event during WMCO Weekend on March 21.

Marty Kurtz/ Black & MagentaA Palm Civet eats a banana out of its handler’s hand during WMCO Weekend on March 21.

Marty Kurtz/ Black & MagentaAbove: 1) A cougar was among some of the animals during WMCO Weekend. 2) Anchovy the penguin was a crowd favorite. 3) An African serval takes in the crowd gathered in John Glenn Gym.

Lifestyle & CulturePage 5Kandee Ferrell, Special Sections & Opinion Editor

Skateboard Diplomacy: US and Cuba bettering relations in the streetsDaniel BarrPolitical Columnist

A few months ago, I discussed the potential results of the diplomatic talks between Cuba and U.S.

I spoke mainly about the ability to travel to Cuba.

As talks wrapped up earlier in March, the relationship between both countries looked brighter than it has since the U.S. placed the embargo against the island in 1960.

These new breaks in the embargo with a U.S. Embassy being placed in Havana, Cuba on April 10 will hope-fully allow American humanitarian or-ganizations such as Cuba Skate.

Lauren Bradley and Miles Jackson, graduates of the University of Mich-igan, created Cuba Skate after they studied abroad in Havana, Cuba.

During their study abroad, they be-came good friends with the local skate-boarder community in Havana.

These skaters shared tricks and tips with each other to become better skate-boarders, but were unable to gain the equipment to keep up their boards.

This is where Cuba Skate comes in. Formed in 2010 in Washington by Bradley and Jackson, the mission of Cuba Skate is to “support and grow the Cuban skateboarding community by providing access to skateboarding equipment that is otherwise unavail-able on the island.”

This is done to help these young Cubans to continue this important part of their lives while also improving the U.S. and Cuba’s relationship to one an-other through this diplomacy of sports-manship.

One of Cuba Skate’s greatest plans

Punxsutawney Phil got it right

is to create a skate park in Havana. Un-til these talks this was little more than a pipe dream due to the embargo restric-tion on U.S. citizens.

With restrictions finally starting to be lifted, Cuba Skate will hopefully be able to build a skate park for these Cu-bans. If anyone tells you that foreign diplomacy is full of boring paperwork and even more boring meetings, be-lieve them, but also know that it does not have to be that way.

The actions of this non-profit have made a difference abroad. Muskingum students, let me ask you a question. If this small non-profit organization can help these skaters to build a skate park in Cuba, what could more than 1,000 students do for their community?

While politics may not seem like the place for such a question, remember that both Republican and Democratic politicians’ mission is to help people debate in different ways.

In the end, politics are about people and how they treat each other as na-tions, parties, and individuals.

Maria ConforteOrbit Media Reporter

Pennsylvania´s most famous ground-hog, Punxsutawney Phil, predicted six more weeks of winter when he saw his shadow on Feb. 2.

Seven weeks later the prediction came true with what it looks like the end of the winter with temperatures of 45 degrees and higher.

This year the groundhog predicted the future of the winter in front of a thousand people, and according to his predictions the cold weather was going to be over by the third week of March.

After a cold winter the temperature is rising and spring is showing.

“In this spring weather I enjoy the fact that I don´t have to wear a coat anymore and I enjoy tank tops,” said Muskingum sophomore, Dylan Parker. Muskingum University students felt this increase of the temperature, and are enjoying the warmer weather.

“I´m really glad that [it’s] spring outside, because the weather is warm and the sun is out,” said Muskingum student Isabella Weber. “It is awesome to wake up and know that it is not that cold and you can go for a walk.”

The spring weather also helps the students that play sports to practice outside. The spring is officially here due to the Spring Equinox, and not only is the temperature rising but the sun is out longer, making this semester more pleasant for many students and professors at Muskingum.

Tapped trees found around campus Buckets and spigots catching maple sap Sarah ListonOrbit Media Reporter

Some of the maple trees on the Muskingum Univer-sity campus have been re-cently outfitted with buckets and spigots, just one of many signs that spring is arriving.

These devices, gaining at-tention across campus, were actually for the collecting of tree sap and production of maple syrup.

The tapping of trees for their sap is an annual proj-ect conducted by Associate Professor of Biology Amy Santas, and has recently con-cluded.

“This is something that I’ve been doing as a project,” said Santas. “We’ve been do-ing this for about 10 years.”

The process of tapping tree sap is an event that is only available to take advantage of during this time of year, when the days are warm but the nights are cold.

This weather brings into motion the sap that travels up the roots of trees to the branches and feeds the leaves.

A hole is drilled in the trunk of the tree, and sap can be harvested on the

way to the leaves and collected in a bucket.

From there, the collected sap is boiled to get rid of excess water.

What is left is a fraction of what was there in the beginning, and is maple

syrup. The trees har-vested from are known as sugar maples.

“I think it’s interest-ing,” said Santas. “This is a very natural way of generating sweetener, a great natural sweetener, maple syrup. It’s com-monly done through-out Northern America, especially in Ohio and some of the northern states within the U.S., and very prevalent in Canada. It’s a common process and instead of just grabbing that bottle of maple syrup off the shelf, you have an idea of how it’s actually gen-erated.”

The project also al-lows elementary school students from the East Muskingum School Dis-trict to learn the process of making syrup from tree sap.

“We’ve also had several elementa-ry school children come and check out the operation to understand that this is a method that was used prior to when the settlers were arriving in the U.S., this was a method that was used just to

generate sugar,” said Santas.The tree tapping began as a project

driven by Muskingum students. It originally was under the direction

of Coach Donna Newberry, who died in November 2010.

Sarah Liston/ Black & MagentaPatton Hill maple tree being tapped for syrup.

Sarah Liston/ Black & Magenta

Four years ago I was at a completely different stage in my life. I was enter-ing college, a fresh start.

Now here I am nearing the end and looking at another fresh

start, an adult life. I knew that even-tually I would get here, but it always

seemed so distant, like I would never get to where I am.

Yet here I am with a deer in the head-lights look on my face and a pounding heart.

In my life, I have played it safe. I never wanted to get in trouble. Rules were my “comfort zone.” I feel like I have spent so much of my life regret-ting what I have done or said.

I have been afraid of embracing my frequent awkward moments.

I have dealt with girl drama and the constant fear of failing college, of not getting a job, and many more things.

This is a note to me four years ago, the girl who was 18 years-old and just entering college.

College will mess with you. There will be times that you reach what you think is your breaking point only to discover that it’s not it.

You are capable of so much. Don’t doubt yourself and your abilities. You are talented, determined, and uniquely you. You think that you have felt stress, heartache, fear, and sadness, but you haven’t.

You will endure a lot of ups and downs in college, but you will become so incredibly strong.

What makes college hard isn’t al-ways the classes, real world problems creep in too.

Friends will come and go and that’s not always bad, it’s just life. People don’t care as much as you do, so don’t feel bad when others are mean.

Money will be something that you need to learn to spend frugally.

You can’t buy that new movie that you want all of the time.

Your determination will make you successful. Remember to keep your head up and eyes focused on what you deserve.

Sleep becomes less of a priority the older you get. Regret is a waste of time.

The time that you spend regretting something is a moment that could have been spent on something else.

You have to live your life. The worst that can happen is that it didn’t work out or that you will have to try again. Determination builds character, and you have a lot now.

Smiling is the best thing that you can do for yourself and others. Every-one is different.

Don’t be someone else to fit in. Studying and doing homework on the early end of a weekend doesn’t make you a nerd.

It makes you someone who cares about their education.

But doing homework on a Saturday is not something that you can frequent-ly do.

With everything that you, do be pas-sionate.

If you do things that make you pas-sionate, you will be happier and it will show to others, which is a major ad-vantage.

Love who you are and the rest will come. Don’t be afraid to be adventur-ous and to step out of your comfort zone.

You never know where life will take you so go with the flow and accept that things take time.

That doesn’t mean on your time. Your world may revolve around you, but the rest of the world doesn’t.

Enjoy every moment, because life can change in a minute. Don’t forget to be proud of yourself.

I couldn’t deny it any longer that I’m going to have to work for a living.

This was the saddest reve-lation I have ever made. So I went on the foggy search

for jobs on the Internet.

Here’s what I learned: I am unpre-pared. I am lazy. I am FREAKING OUT.

First of all, I had no idea it would be so important to know the exact date that I worked at McDonald’s that one time three years ago.

I didn’t think anyone would care

that I passed greasy food out of a win-dow, but they do.

They need to know everything. Also, they asked me what my preferred salary was… um… one million dol-lars please? What is the answer to that question?

Of course I want to make a lot of money, but I don’t think they will take kindly to my greediness, so do I put something really low, or something re-ally high? I have no idea.

I just put a number that seemed rea-sonable and moved on, ashamed at my ignorance of the application process. Then there are the questions like, ‘are you willing to work with a team?’ … well I worked with a group on a project once and I hated it, so… yes of course I am willing to work with a team!

I love teams. Teams are my favorite. Please give me a job.

Kandee FerrellSpecial Sections/ Opinion Editor

Kathryn Kellar Editor-in-Chief

OpinionPage 6 Kandee Ferrell, Special Sections & Opinion Editor

Letters to the Editor The Black & Magenta staff encourages Letters to the Editor. All letters

must include contact information and a name to be considered for publication. Letters will not be published anonymously.

Letters must be 200 words or fewer to be considered. The staff reserves the right to edit for style, grammar and space.

We will not publish any letter that we consider potentially libelous. If you have questions or would like to see how The Black & Magenta is put together, please e-mail bandm@muskingum.edu.

This is a student publication. Opinions expressed in the editorials, columns are those of their authors and do not necessarily opinions of The Black & Ma-genta or Muskingum University.

Senior year as told by Kandee Do you think ‘holding everything in until I have a breakdown’ is considered a special skill?

Top 5 favorite Spots to Cry on Campus

1. In the girls bathroom. You can shuffle around and cover up the sound of your sniffles.

2. My car. No one can see you through that clear windshield for sure.

3. The shower. Water on your face equals tears that don’t count.

4. Class. Everyone likes a scene every once and a while.

5. At the end of a sad movie. “No I’m not crying about my life in shambles. I just don’t see why those two couldn’t end up together.”

To the girl I was four years ago, I hope you had fun... because it’s time to go.

The whole process just reminded me that I am a hot mess with no idea where I’m headed.

I couldn’t even decide on what to set the location setting to, so I just left it at ‘anywhere’ and looked at jobs in Lon-don and Hong Kong.

It was not helpful. Then there are the jobs that just say ‘submit links of work through email’ and I had to come up

with an email on top of figuring out what they mean by ‘links.’

All and all I applied to about 3 jobs and lost all hope for the day.

I will start again one day… hopeful-ly soon since I’ll be without a place to live or any money in a short amount of time.

To the rest of you out there in my position, God speed.

March Mad-ness is in full swing! Upsets are in the air, top seeds are fight-ing to advance and the num-ber one overall seed, Kentucky, is attempting to cap off a perfect

season with a na-tional title.

Lost in all the madness though, were the National Championship matches for Division I wrestling.

For anyone that didn’t know, Ohio State came away with the first team title in program history. Ohio State has had a wrestling program for 94 years and have gotten close to the title a couple of times under Head Coach Tom Ryan, finishing as runner-up in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

Now Ryan and the Buckeyes have captured the elusive title that they’ve been chasing for so long.

Want to talk about upsets? The Buckeyes had three wrestlers vying for individual titles at the end of the na-tional tournament. Two of them had to come up with big time wins over high-er seeded wrestlers just to get there.

Nathan Tomasello came up with a huge win over the number one seed at 125 beating Alan Waters from Missou-ri in the semifinals.

Tomasello then got a win in the fi-nals to become one of two individual champs for the Buckeyes.

Kyle Snyder also got a big upset win in the semifinals at the 197 pound

weight class. Snyder beat number one seed and defending national champion J’den Cox from Missouri.

Snyder lost in his finals match but still took second and finished as the na-tional runner-up.

Then came the highlight of the night, the main event, if you will. Number one seed at 141 pounds and three-time national champion Logan Stieber wrestled in the last match of the night against second seed Mitchell Port of Edinboro, looking to join the elite fraternity of four-time national cham-pions. Stieber got the decision 10-5 and became part of college wrestling immortality.

I’ve had the honor of watching Stie-ber wrestle since grade school.

He went to a rival school his whole career and one of my best friends wres-tled against him several times.

Taking from his experience, this has been a long time coming for Stieber.

With the win Stieber finished off a perfect season with a 29-0 record and became only the fourth wrestler all-time to win four national titles.

That list includes, Pat Smith of Oklahoma State, Cael Sanderson of Iowa State, and most recently Kyle Dake of Cornell.

As a fan of the Buckeye wrestlers, it was very good to see them finally win that team title, and even better to see a local kid from my home area accom-plish his life-long goal of winning four national titles.

So in a month dominated by college basketball, it’s easy for me to say that this time college wrestling deserves the

Sports Page 7Chris Morgan, Sports Editor

Chris MorganSports Editor

Ashley Adams/ Black & MagentaTucker Haas gets ready for a face-off in the game against Franciscan March 4.

Mens Lacrosse starts perfect at homeAshley AdamsOrbit Media Reporter

The Muskie Mens Lacrosse team is 3-2 so far on the season, but when they have home field advantage, they remain undefeated.

Since their inaugural game on March 4, the Muskies have defeated Franciscan with a final score of 4-3, Calvin with a final score of 15-7, and Defiance with a final score of 13-3, all in their home stadium.

“It feels good,” said junior attacker David DeGood. “It feels like the team is stirring up some buzz around cam-pus so that’s always cool.”

DeGood has six points so far this season, with three goals and three as-sists.

“We have played together well at home,” said first year defender Andrew Ward. “Hopefully we continue to com-municate and play as a unit.”

Ward is third on the team in ground ball pickups with 10.

“I think a huge part of our success

has come from our recent team bond-ing and how close we’ve become as a team,” said DeGood.

The team has been steadily learning the basics as the season has advanced.

Their improvements have been a key contributor to their success this year.

“The entire team has improved fun-damentally,” said Ward.

The Muskies ended their winning streak on March 21 when they lost at Trine University with a score of 9-2.

The depth of the Muskie roster has been on full display this season with all but three players listed on the roster re-ceiving time on the field.

“We have a lot of talented lacrosse players who could easily play for any team in our conference,” said DeGood. “Once we start getting used to playing together, we’re going to be a dangerous team.”

The Muskies will continue to work on gelling as a team as the season pro-gresses, hoping to improve as they make their way further in the season.

Captain’s QuartersLost in the ‘Madness,’ Buckeye Wrestling delivers first National Championship

spotlight for a bit too.

Upcoming Mens Lacrosse ScheduleSat. April 4 @ Transylvania @ 1 p.m.Wed. April 8 @ Otterbein @ 7 p.m.Sat. April 11 vs. Capital @ 1 p.m.Wed. April 15 vs. Mount Union @ 7:30 p.m.Sat. April 18 @ Wilmington @ 2 p.m.Wed. April 22 vs. Baldwin Wallace @ 7 p.m.Sat. April 25 @ John Carroll @ 7 p.m.

Muskingum University Youth Football ClinicThe Muskingum University Football pro-

gram invites the public to participate in a football youth clinic on Saturday, April 11.

The clinic is open to boys currently in 3rd grade through 7th grade and is free to all par-ticipants.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. at McCo-nagha Stadium on the campus of Muskingum in New Concord. Camp will conclude at ap-proximately 12 p.m. in the Muskie Football

locker room with a certificate of participation given to all. Each camper will be given a Muskie Football T-Shirt at regis-

tration. Please wear molded cleats, plastic cleats or tennis shoes. To register please contact Muskingum Coach Luke Summers at

(740) 255-6309 or by e-mail at lsummers@muskingum.edu.

jeltovski/morgueFile

SportsPage 8 Chris Morgan, Sports Editor

Muskies “keep the fight” in home opener sweepChris MorganSports Editor

With a single swing of the bat, Melissa Maiorano gave the Muskie Softball team their first home win of the young season in the home opener against Ohio Wesleyan March 21.

Maiorano drove a pitch into deep right field, where the ball hit off the fence to give the Muskies the walk-off

win 6-5 over the Battling Bishops in game one of their double-header.

“When [Maiorano] hit that ball off the top of the fence I was [like] some-one should’ve eaten their Wheaties this morning,” said Head Softball Coach Kari Winters jokingly. “She does a nice job of lifting the ball and adding some distance with that left-handed swing.”

After both teams failed to put up a run in the first two innings, the Battling

Bishops opened up the scoring in the top of the third inning, putting up three runs. The Muskies didn’t take long to respond, scoring two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 3-2 after three.

“We kind of have a saying this year about ‘keeping the fight,’” said Win-ters. “I think that’s something they re-ally focused on the entire game.”

The Muskies then took control in the fourth, putting up three runs and build-ing a two run lead 5-3. Leftfielder Amy Clark drove in two of the runs with a long single to left field. Clark finished the game with four RBIs, going 3-4 at the plate.

The teams went scoreless in the fifth inning before the Battling Bish-ops fought back, tying up the game in the sixth off RBIs from Sarah Flint and Erin Ferguson.

Starter Sarah Browning held off the Battling Bishop attack in the top of the seventh to give the Muskies a chance to win the game in the bottom half.

Rightfielder Amber Bova came to the plate to start the bottom of the seventh and belted a long line drive to right-center field for a leadoff triple to set up the Muskie offense. Maiorano then came to bat looking to drive in the

winning run. Maiorano tipped the first pitch of the at bat foul then turned on a high fastball in walk-off fashion.

Browning was credited with the win firing a complete game surrendering five runs on nine hits and striking out six.

The win moved the Muskies to 6-7 overall going into game two.

The Muskies then came out and got a mercy-rule win in game two by a score of 11-3 after five innings.

The Battling Bishops got three runs off starter Haley Dotson in the top of the third, but then the Muskies took over.

The Muskies scored 11 unanswered runs, featuring a three-run home run from shortstop Kelly Martin.

Martin’s blast was the first home run by the Muskies this season and the sec-ond of Martin’s career.

“Our offense is really clicking right now,” said Winters. “When they got up by 11 I think they felt like they could play with a little more comfort.”

Junior Kristin Gill was credited with the win after firing three innings of three-hit relief, striking out four.

The win brought the Muskies to the .500 mark on the season with an 8-8 record.

Christine Holmes/ Black & MagentaSenior Hannah Reese waits for a pitch against Ohio Wesleyan on March 21.

Taylor Maurer named All-OAC Honorable MentionRachel SchlarbOrbit Media Reporter

Senior womens basketball player, Taylor Maurer, was named All-OAC Honorable Mention for the 2014-15 season for her performance and leader-ship throughout the season.

Maurer has been playing basket-ball for the Muskies for two years and didn’t expect to be nominated for the recognition.

“At first honestly I was surprised,” said Maurer. “Just because it’s my sec-ond year for basketball and didn’t ex-pect anything out of it.”

The Ohio Athletic Conference has a specific process for selecting which players to recognize as All-OAC.

“We nominate our top ranking play-ers on a yearly basis after the season is complete, after that there is an open conversation with the OAC coaches then after that the coaches do the nom-inations,” said Head Womens Basket-ball Coach Beth Fox.

Maurer didn’t think she was going to get the award due to the other lead-ership on the team.

“I was really happy,” Maurer said. “I was a little sad because I thought other players on the team deserved the award too.”

Even with her own performance throughout the season, Maurer said that she had help along the way.

“In the end I could have never done it without my team,” said Maurer.

Multiple players from each OAC team can be recognized, but Maurer was the only honoree for the Muskies.

“It’s a prestigious honor and we hope to get one plus a year,” said Fox.

Maurer was considered one of the top players for the Muskies, starting every game and leading the team and conference in 3-point field goals made. Maurer also ranked seventh in the na-tion in 3-point field goals made.

“She was consistently our outside threat, she’s usually our defensive player on the team, but was a huge player on both ends,” said Fox.

Maurer tried not to focus on her own play during the year, choosing to focus on the team instead.

“I never realized how well I played till the end of the year,” said Maurer. “During the season in the games I don’t really think about it.”

Fox was not surprised when she found out Maurer won the award.

“We nominated her in hopes she will get the votes, we were pleased,” said Fox.

Maurer was quick to point out the success of the team before looking to her own individual recognition.

“I’m overall proud of my team and I’m glad I got the experience of the two [seasons] I did,” Maurer said.

Maurer is set to graduate from Muskingum University this year, but didn’t rule out continuing her basket-ball career if she returns for graduate education.

“It is a question up in the air, but we’ll see where I end up at,” said Maurer.

Maurer has one year of NCAA eligi-bility remaining if she chooses to pro-ceed with her career.

Brenna Busby/ Black & MagentaTaylor Maurer looks for a pass against Ohio Northern on Feb. 14. Maurer av-eraged 10.7 points per game while shooting 40.2 percent from 3-point range en route to an All-OAC Honorable Mention selection in her senior season.