The Crazy Horse monument, under construction in South Daktoa’s Black Hills. Photo: media.npr.org
While it was completed in 1941, the iconic status Mount Rushmore has in modern American culture is a perfect image of the farce that is the common view of our whitewashed history.
In answering the question âWho made America?â Rushmore shows four white men, all presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Yes, these were influential leaders in our nationâs history, and presidents should be remembered. But they were not the pure mythic figures weâve made them into, and it was not just white men who built the United States into the democracy we see it as today.
On March 31, I had the incredible privilege of meeting one such person who risked his life for democracy, here in the United States â Rep. John Lewis.
In grade school and most of high school, my American history classes focused on presidents and legislative procedure and the just wars we fought, with the occasional film and obligatory explanation of who Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were each February.
I didnât hear about John Lewis until junior year of high school, reading Howard Zinnâs alternative history of the United States. While a lot of history books talk about the March on Washington, Zinnâs one of the few who points out the behind the scenes division between young leaders such as Lewis and federal officials in the Kennedy administration who were hesitant to take direct action to protect civil rights workers.
My education also focused on King and Parks, leaving out many of the other leaders â A. Philip Randolph, Medgar Evers, Bayard Rustin, James Lawson, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm â and almost all the martyrs.
The Black Power movement and Black Panther Party that followed the most well known years of the movement, 1963-1965, are often presented negatively without context or omitted entirely. Theyâre often criticized as being violent and advocating the overthrow of the government, but if you really read the history they had far more justification to do so than, say, some wealthy British colonists in 1775.
So yes, itâs unquestionable that the four presidents have shaped the United States (although having two slave-owning presidents and the man credited as the one who ended slavery is a problematic combination) but they are far from the only ones deserving recognition on that level.
But wherever they are recognized, it shouldnât be anywhere near the current Mount Rushmore, as I noted in the headline.
The tragic icing on the cake of our whitewashed history regarding Mount Rushmore is the fact that we stole the land itâs built on, as we or those before us stole most of the land in the United States.
In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie granted the land Mount Rushmore is now carved into to the Lakota permanently â not that we had the right to give them their own land.
Less than a decade later, we took the land by force.
I donât know where a similar monument to the heroes who fought for democracy on behalf of those who arenât white, cisgender, straight and middle class (or richer) men, and itâs not my place to say who should be on it.
But we need to do something to better remember the abolitionists (and not just the white ones), the leaders of the workerâs rights movement, the civil rights movement, the womenâs and LGBTIQA rights movement (and not just the white ones there, either), the Latin American and Asian American and Native American equality movements.
None of these movements of the 1960s and 1970s have finished their work; thereâs still a lot to be done. While we memorialize and mythicize Martin Luther King, whatâs not focused on â as one attendee pointed out following Rep. Lewisâ speech â is his final work in trying to lead a Poor Peopleâs Campaign that would draw attention to income inequality experienced by people of all races, ethnicities and genders.
As Lewis said during our roundtable discussion, the world would be a very different place had King and Robert Kennedy not been assassinated in 1968.
But they were, and itâs up to us to keep their work going.
The first step is education on our genuine and often unpleasant national history, and itâs primary sources â memoirs like Lewisâ âWalking with the Windâ and collections of speeches and writings by historians like Zinn â that really provide the perspective textbooks lack.
In preparing for my interview with John Lewis, I watched PBSâ series âEyes on the Prizeâ and a documentary by Zinn, âThe People Speak.â I highly recommend both.
While the Russian invasion of Crimea has captured the worldâs attention, media discussions on it â particularly statements made by some Fox News guests and commentators – are also worthy of attention.
This column may have been more relevant last week if thereâd been space, but itâs fitting that it runs instead during Womenâs Week â six days of programming on gender inequality.
A central aspect of the criticism by far right commentators on how President Obamaâs handled the Crimea crisis is that heâs not been tough enough, particularly compared to Russian âstrongmanâ Vladimir Putin, who takes land by force.
For example, analyst Ralph Peters, a former Army officer, said Putin was âa real leaderâ and President Obama was incapable. And in describing Putinâs actions, Ralph Giuliani said âthatâs what you call a leader.â
(Disclosure: the quotes, among others, were used in a Daily Show segment.)
But their criticisms didnât stop there â they go beyond just geopolitics into personal habits and their reflections on masculinity.
To cite a well circulated conservative talking point, Putin poses shirtless or with tigers, while President Obama wears âmom jeans.â
What exactly that has to do with international politics, Iâm still not sure. But their clear subtext is that Obama isnât man enough to face off with Putin, and itâs putting the U.S. and the world in danger.
Ironically, this is probably the only time theyâll say a black man appearing tough and intimidating those around him would be a good thing, rather than a justification for shooting him. But I digress.
In their comments on Putin and Obama, the Fox News personalities â including former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin â recycle tired narratives on gender roles.
Masculine figures such as Putin take what they want and donât care what other people say or do. Feminine ones â such as Obama â are afraid to act and are weak.
But why is this idea of masculinity a good thing? Is invading another nationâs territory at gunpoint, in defiance of international law, really something to admire? I sure donât think so.
And for all the arguments that our Presidentâs response has been ineffectual, what good would playing our whole hand of sanctions do now if Russia doesnât back down? Then weâd have nothing left but to send in troops.
In terms of American masculinity, the ideal response would have been to immediately send troops in to drive the Russians out, but in the real world weâd probably all be buried under radioactive ash if that had been done.
While there should be no question that women and those who do not identify within the gender binary are the most oppressed in terms of gender, constructions of masculinity can also stifle and wound men.
Itâs not for nothing that the maker of the award-winning documentary âMiss Representation,â about how women are portrayed in media, is now following up with âThe Mask You Live In,â about how men are portrayed in media.
Men are told to stand up for themselves, to respond to pain with anger and violence rather than any other emotion â especially not tears â and never ever be perceived as feminine (example A: âmom jeansâ).
Itâs why âb*tchâ is an insult thrown at men, and a particularly damaging one; a factor that drives homophobia and domestic (sometimes even sexual) violence; and what makes it especially difficult for male survivors of sexual violence to share their experiences.
And thatâs why the programming this week is so important, especially Take Back the Night â because while it is called Womenâs Week and these are issues that primarily affect women, patriarchal masculinity and its constructions have negative effects on all of us.
The day before their performance, Pitch Black debuted their set to students in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center. Afterwards, I sat down with several members to discuss their goals for ICCA, their nicknames and why they joined.
“Why did you choose those songs and how did you come up with the arrangements?” I ask first.
“The way that we do songs is that anyone in the group can arrange something for us and those just happened to be songs that people in the group were excited to arrange,” says junior Anna Jones, Pitch Black president. “Would anyone who arranged them want to talk about them?”
Junior Brianna Robinson and sophomore Alanna Spalsbury did the arranging, but only Robinson is there.
“I arranged âTonight Iâll Be Your Sweet Dreamâ and the reason why it happened is because I was singing ‘Tonight (I’m Lovin You)’ because I was going to arrange that for Pitch Black and my sister just started singing ‘Sweet Dreams’ on top of that,” Robinson says. “I was like, okay, so I just mashed them together.”
“And I know for ‘Can’t Hold Us’ we really wanted to do something that wasn’t really considered a woman’s piece, we wanted to add that girl power – we can rap too,” freshman Kelly Summers adds.
“What goes into arranging a song?” I ask.
“Hours of frustration,” Summers says, and everyone laughs.
“Pretty much what I do, I just listen to songs – I’m a music major, so this comes a little easier I guess,” Robinson explains. “But I just listen to the songs and I listen to the chords and put those chords into each voice part and make chords with each voice part and that’s just how it happens. Just make some different vowel sounds, like ‘doos’ and ‘jadas’ and ‘jinns.'”
“Bow wows,” chimes in sophomore Emma Sparks.
“And it ends up being what it is,” Robinson finishes.
“Experimental work,” Summers concludes.
“How much work did you have to do?” I ask next.
“It didn’t take me very long,” Robinson says.
“It doesn’t take Brianna very long,” echoes sophomore Maeve Nash, vocal percussionist.
“Brianna’s pretty quick,” adds Jones.
“She’s like (this,)” says freshman Taylor Davis, pointing to her head and then miming writing out the notes instantly.
“It depends on the person. I think that’s the best thing to say,” Robinson says modestly.
“And how motivated you are to do it,” Summers adds in.
“Were there other changes to the lyrics, besides the mashups?” I ask.
“In ‘Can’t Hold Us’ we just changed some stuff to make it personalized to us,” Nash says – she would know, she’s one of the lead soloists.
“We say ‘Return of Pitch Black’, ‘My posse’s been on the JAY’ except we’re saying ‘Broadway’ at ICCA cause I don’t think they know what the JAY is. And we say ‘Got that Beyonce dress game and diva in my style.’…Then we say ‘When OWU raised you’ and then ‘Pitch Black ICCA’ instead of ‘And all my people say.'”
I ask what expectations they have for ICCA, and get a lot of responses.
“We expect it to be awesome,” say both Robinson and Jones.
“Yeah, it’ll be so much fun,” Nash says.
“Explosions,” says senior Cara Slotkin; Davis says “Fire.”
“We’re going to have fun, and every year we’ve gotten a better score than the year before, so I think that’s our goal. As long as we do that we’ll be happy,” Jones says.
“And also, just being able to see other groups who do the same thing as us and love just being in a capella, is really, really an awesome experience for us,” Robinson adds.
“It’s really an experience,” Jones tells me.
“How did you do the other two times?” I ask.
“We did not place, but like I said each year we’ve gotten better scores,” Jones says.”…First and second move on, third is like the runner-up, and then they don’t announce the rest.”
“What has to go on to be selected (for Pitch Black)?” I ask.
“There’s an audition process, people come in and sing a few minutes of a song, and then that’s pretty much it,” Jones explains.
Junior Emma Buening adds that they also have prospective members test the vocal scale as well.
Why did you all decide to join, I ask.
“I’ve always loved to sing, and I wanted to do it in an atmosphere that everyone else had a passion for it,” Slotkin says.
“I saw Emily Knobbe (a former Pitch Black officer)…doing this acoustic set the first week of school when I was a freshman,” Buening explains. She tried out after seeing this, but didn’t make it her first time.
For Davis, coming to Ohio Wesleyan and living in a dorm made practicing her singing difficult.
“I walked on the JAY and I saw Pitch Black and I knew and I signed up (for an audition),” she says.
For Nash and sophomore Abby Hanson, their interest in Pitch Black came before they were students.
Hanson saw them perform at an Admissions event and was encouraged to try out by her father.
“I didn’t audition my freshman year but I auditioned this year and I got in and it’s super exciting,” she says.
Nash had a similar experience.
“I decided I wanted to be in Pitch Black before I decided I wanted to go here,” she says. “So I came and I already had red and black stuff just in case I got in.”
A year later, Nash was in class with sophomore Emma Sparks.
“Maeve actually told me about it,” Sparks says. “…I was like, ‘What, that’s here? Yeah I’ll do it.â”
“(I was) Pitch Black before Pitch Perfect was a thing,” says Slotkin, referring to a 2012 comedy movie about college a capella groups – it’s the source of many inside jokes.
“I am a lover of music, that’s the biggest reason,” Robinson tells me last. “Pitch Black, before I was in it, (I saw) it was so good and I saw how everyone who’s in that group just really really just loves to sing together and that’s what I wanted.”
During their performance and interview, all Pitch Black members wear group t-shirts, with their nicknames on the back; I ask about them.
“I’m Kels of Steel,” Summers tells me.
“Because I call her that,” Hanson adds.
“She was Abs of Steel, and I’m Kels, so Kels of Steel,” she finishes.
âAbs of Steelâ isn’t Hanson’s Pitch Black name, though â âLil Bowâ is.
“One time Brianna (Robinson) forgot my name,” she says. Everyone laughs, and Robinson covers her face. “I was wearing a shirt with a bow on it, and she was like, ‘Umm, bow!'”
“I am ‘Pitch Momma,’ because I’m the momma of the group, let’s be real ladies, come on,” Slotkin says.
“Mine says ‘Madam Prez’ because no one could think of something cooler,” Jones adds.
“That’s not true!” Sparks protests.
“Because we met in French class,” Buening adds. “And you’re the president.”
Davis claims she doesn’t know how she got her name, ‘Diva Hands.’
But her hand gestures while she speaks show it anyway.
“She auditioned like this,” Slotkin says, waving her hands about in a light-hearted imitation.
“Look at how she just said that â âI don’t know why, but for some reason…'” Jones adds, waving her hands around as well – everyone does, and laugh.
“Mine is Holy Maeve,” Nash says. Last year, they needed a beatbox and she gave it a try.
“I beatboxed and everybody started going, ‘Holy Maeve!'” she explains.
“Maeve was like, ‘I can beatbox’ and this is like halfway through the year,” Jones adds.
“We’re like what,” â Jones whips her head around to look at Maeve â âIt was actually Pitch Perfect before Pitch Perfect.”
“Yeah, that’s what happens in Pitch Perfect,” Nash says, remembering a similar scene.
“Exactly,” Jones says.
“My nickname is Queen Bri,” Robinson says. “…I really love Beyonce and I want to be her but I can’t be so I made it Bri instead of Be because I can’t live up to that, but still.”
“She’s close,” Jones says.
“You can call me Queen Bri,” Slotkin sings.
“I’m Em the Gem, because my last name’s Sparks, and gems sparkle,” Emma Sparks says.
“I’m Emma Honey, because I’m the lesser known Emma, and always in practice you’ll hear someone (say), ‘Emma, Emma’ and I always look and it’s never for me, ever. Very rarely,” Emma Buening explains.
“And so I was like, guys, we need to distinguish when it’s this other Emma (points to herself) because I don’t want to be ‘the other Emma’ and lovely, lovely Queen Bri said that I should be Emma Honey.”
“Her voice is like honey, it’s warm, its smooth, and that’s what it is,” Robinson elaborates.
“How long have you been practicing specifically for ICCA?” I ask.
“Since like November,” Jones tells me – but I get some less serious answers as well.
“Three years,” from Kelly Summers; “Forever,” from Abby Hanson, and “Yesterday,” from Brianna Robinson.
“So, November, three years or yesterday?” I ask, and everyone laughs.
“November,” Jones says.
“Officially, November. We’ve been preparing our whole lives for this moment together,” she says, and everyone laughs again.
Sparks was ready to sing from her very first moment. “I came out wearing black and red (the colors of Pitch Black,)” she says, and everyone laughs.
“This is getting out of hand,” Robinson says. “Are there any other questions?”
One of the microphone starts to fail as soon as they begin their performance. But that doesnât stop them.
They are Pitch Black, OWUâs all-women a cappella group and this is one of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA)âs five Great Lakes Quarterfinals, at Centerville High School.
It is Saturday night, Feb. 22, and in almost an hour the results of the competition will be announced, with Pitch Black taking third place.
Technical Trouble
But right now sophomore Emily Slee has to use a microphone that keeps switching on and off.
âIt happened in the middle of my solo, and I could tell the mic had cut out,â Slee says afterward. â…With show business, you just have to keep performing.â
In the audience, freshman Alyssa Clark is not happy to hear the microphone fail.
âWhen the mic cut out a little piece of my heart shriveled up and cried in a corner,â she says.
They only have twelve minutes to perform their three song set, and as far as ICCA is concerned, everything hinges on those twelve minutes.
Theyâve been working toward this for the past four months, but they didnât prepare for technical difficulties. No one thought this would happen.
They power through it, but when it comes to song two, things only get worse.
As soon as they start, spreading out across the stage, the MC tries to hand a new microphone to junior Emma Buening – but hers is fine.
Itâs another junior, Brianna Robinson, whoâs holding the microphone that doesnât work – and sheâs a lead singer for song two.
She also has no idea thereâs anything wrong.
âBecause the sound on the stage compared to the sound in the audience is so different, I only knew when I had the microphone in my hands that it was turning on and off,â Robinson says afterward.
Halfway through the first verse, it switches to full power. It looks like everything is fine; the audience cheers.
But as soon as they quiet down, it cuts out again, then comes back on.
Soon, one of the judges is at the base of the stage waving his arms. Robinson stops, is handed a new microphone and a chance for a fresh start.
Five minutes on stage, and they have to go into their starting arrangement and begin again.
But this is not a setback.
âHaving them interrupt the performance lit a fire in each of us and only made us come back stronger and more fierce in the second round,â says Pitch Black president Anna Jones, a junior.
For Buening, the second shot is appreciated but not critical to their eventual success.
âI think we would have still rocked it, just not as loudly,â she says.
Junior Anna Jones (left) and sophomore Maeve Nash (right) solo on âCanât Hold Usâ while sophomore Emma Sparks (middle) helps out with the beat. Photo by Spenser Hickey
Inside Arrangement
All their songs are arranged by group members, a process that requires turning the instrumental background beats into vocal sounds.
And when they sing, they are anything but static.
They walk all over the stage, sway back and forth and use synchronized gestures to match the music.
While the choreography requires a lot of practice – it took ten hours, and involved the help of junior dancer Buzzy Biddinger – the music is still number one.
âThe judges look for choreography that emphasizes certain aspects of the music but does not take away or distract from the song,â as Jones explains it.
âThe most important thing is energy and I think we were able to use the choreography in addition to our individual personalities to put on an energy-filled performance.â
At the end of âTonight Iâll Be Your Sweet Dreamâ they cluster together, all looking up at Emily Sleeâs arm pointing to the ceiling.
Their âWrecking Summertimeâ mashup closes with Robinson and Jones lowering their microphones, looking at each other in the center while the rest of the group stands to either side.
But âCanât Hold Usâ is where they all get moving.
The catchy rap tune by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, featuring Ray Dalton – all three independent stars from Seattle – is well-suited for choreography.
Stomping and clapping are a natural simulation of the beat, and the group uses them and other arm and leg movements to accompany the singing of sophomore Maeve Nash.
Buening and Robinson spit lyrics too, particularly on the chorus, but Nash is the one who leads it off and carries the most.
At the end, they all strike poses, with Jones, Buening and sophomore Maddie Stuntz pointing into the crowd.
Choreography isnât the only addition they bring to their rendition – theyâve personalized the lyrics too.
âReturn of Pitch Black,â is how Nash starts off, replacing the original âreturn of the Mack.â
They also add in a Beyonce reference and call out âPitch Black ICCA,â but their most popular change – whether here or in shows on campus – is to say âthatâs what you get when OWU raised you!â
Members of Pitch Black react to the announcement that the group placed third in their category at ICCA. Photo by Spenser Hickey
Breaking Through The Ceiling
For the women of Pitch Black, choosing the song itself is a statement as well.
âWe really wanted to do something that wasnât really considered a womanâs piece,â says freshman Kelly Summers the night before. âWe wanted to add that girl power – we can rap too.â
Lead singer Nash expands on this.
âWe wanted to do the song because we wanted to take a song to ICCA thatâs like, women can rap and do cool songs too,â she says.
This sentiment makes its way into the introduction they tell the MC to read before they come on stage – that they are âbreaking the glass ceiling, one song at a time.â
Buening, the other lead singer of âCanât Hold Usâ, says she was motivated to add that in by their song selection.
â(Canât Hold Us) is an empowering (song) for us because weâre women,â she explains. âIt was kind of our secret weapon, I think, because it showcased that we can pull off a challenge…Female groups are at risk of being confined to doing they are expected (to do), which is too limiting for the amazing talent in our group.â
Third-Place Triumph
The competition is enjoyable for everyone; as awards announcer Matt Shirer, ICCAâs Great Lakes producer, says – this is about being with people who love a capella.
First, they start with individual awards, and Best Vocal Percussionist is up first.
âFor outstanding vocal percussionistâŚMaeve Nash of Pitch Black,â Shirer announces.
All of Pitch Black crowds around her after sheâs given her certificate. Shirer goes through the other individual awards, and before you know it heâs on team awards.
âFor third place, Pitch Black,â he announces again.
They go wild; jaws hit the floor and arms fly in the air.
âI was speechless!â says Brianna Robinson. âI didnât expect it at all. Not because of any doubts I had about Pitch Black but because of the enormous talent that ICCA sees every year.â
They credit a key source of their success to support from their friends and family in the OWU community; students traveled over an hour and a half each way to see them compete.
Freshman Abby Soeder was one of them.
âI decided to go to the a capella competition because it sounded like the TV show Glee, and it was a lot like it,â she said.
The presence of so many students fueled Pitch Blackâs fire, especially after the microphone debacle.
âIt meant more to us than we can ever express to have support from our friends and family,â Jones says.
âHaving them cheer us on from the audience truly motivated us to put on a good show and definitely added to the energy in the room.â
Robinson says she was overwhelmed by all the support.
âIt is an amazing feeling to know that Pitch Black is not just a club that the 13 members just go to every week,â she said.
âIt is something that we and the people who support us love dearly.â
While reading about the tragic death of Denison senior David Hallman, I found another troubling story on The Denisonianâs website.
A news story and letter to the editor posted last week describe how a three-page letter, filled with racially charged remarks against President Obama, was shoved under the door of Denisonâs Black Student Union last December.
The remarks described the Affordable Care Act, a signature law of the presidentâs administration, as âthe noose that hangs America,â made repeated references to President Obama as âboy,â an epithet with strong racial implications for the African-American community, and said that all Muslims are terrorists.
Reading this was especially troubling for me, both as an officer in Sisters United, an umbrella organization of the Student Union on Black Awareness, OWUâs equivalent group, and as someone who only a few weeks before the incident had been at Denison, working with students from there and around the area on how to challenge racism on college campuses.
Given our clubâs focus on challenging racism and sexism, I am especially sickened by the letterâs use of rape language, which I will not repeat here.
This incident, much like the incidents of racist violence and vandalism at Oberlin last spring, are yet another wake-up call that racism still thrives in the United States, even at liberal arts colleges like our own.
Overlooking it or thinking that it only happens at other campuses accomplishes nothing and only perpetuates racism â or sexism, homophobia, and countless other forms of oppression.
While this incident is frankly mind-boggling to me in its ignorance and cowardice, itâs no laughing matter.
No one knows how many African-Americans were killed by lynching from the 1860s to the 1960s, but the Tuskegee Institute estimates it was around 3,500.
Most lynchings, which peaked in the late 1800s, were a community affair â mobs of white men would kidnap the victim, followed by a large crowd who watched as they were either hung on the spot or tortured first.
In one case in 1893, a former slave accused of killing a policemanâs daughter after being attacked by the policeman was tortured for almost an hour before being burned alive. A crowd of 10,000 spectators cheered as it all happened.
While some prominent cases of lynching, like this one, involved extra judicial punishment for alleged crimes, many lynchings were carried out to enforce white supremacy in the South.
It should be pointed out that lynching as an overall American phenomenon has been used against many ethnic minorities in many parts of the United States, and against white men who were either accused of crimes in the Wild West or of helping challenge the white supremacist systems of the South.
But in the context of how this letter tried to twist the African-American experience against President Obama and his supporters, lynching was chiefly a means of maintaining Jim Crow laws and disenfranchisement of African-Americans, in subversion of the post-Civil War amendments aimed at protecting the rights of freed slaves.
Even into the civil rights era, murder and terrorism was used by the Ku Klux Klan, their allies in the police and other white supremacists to try to maintain Jim Crow; guns replaced rope but many killers were never caught.
Last week, I penned a graphic on some of the many heroes and martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement; here are some of the fates of those who challenged racism and paid the ultimate price.
While the images of police brutality and Klan beatings are common images of the movement, the fates of these brave men and women have largely been forgotten.
Herbert Lee, who worked to help African-Americans reclaim their voting rights, was killed by a state legislator in Liberty, Miss. The legislator was never charged.
William Moore, a white man who went on a solo march challenging segregation, never finished it. He was shot and killed in Alabama on April 23, 1963.
Two months later Medgar Evers, state director for the NAACP in Mississippi, was assassinated.
Dozens of other activists, black and white, and many uninvolved black men, women and children were killed by bullets, beatings or bombs in the violence of the 1960s.
To combine this imagery of nooses and racist murder with the nationâs first African-American president is indeed âtroublesome,â as Lester Harris, president of the Denison Black Student Unionâs Freshman Foundation, said in an interview with The Denisonian.
âI was extremely uncomfortable with what I was reading,â Harris said in the interview; he was one of the first to see the full letter after it was found.
Denisonâs Campus Security worked with an outside company to determine the level of threat the letters posed; they were deemed a low-level threat.
Director Garrett Moore said in an interview with The Denisonian that the letters werenât threatening, but âinsensitiveâ and contained âa lot of political ramblings.â
He said they believe the letter may have been written by a member of the Granville community rather than a Denison student, as they refer to old songs and radio statements by Glenn Beck.
The full content of the letter has not been released at the Black Student Unionâs wishes, but the group provided information in its letter to the editor and interviews with The Denisonian.
Black Student Union members started a committee to address the incident, and hope to hold larger discussion with the campus community about issues of racism and everyday microaggressions.
As a Sisters United officer, I hope to use this unfortunate event to hold similar discussions here, and show our solidarity.
As youâve seen, there have been some changes to The Transcript, especially if youâre reading online.
This semester, our weekly standard black and white print editions will be supplemented by web-based color copies, available via email on computer, tablet and smartphone.
In addition to the online subscription, The Transcript will increase the multimedia news reporting begun over the past two semesters. We will also offer monthly commentary on the activities of your student government and green initiatives on campus, courtesy of our guest columnists.
These steps are an exciting change for The Transcript, as we adapt to the evolving media market and expand our work into new forms.
While we grow digitally, though, our staffâeditors, reporters and photographersâwill continue, as always, to follow the ethical standards and traditional techniques of professional journalism.
In the last few weeks of last semester, we as an editorial board were tested; we faced the kind of hard news stories that rarely occur on college campuses.
Two students hit by police cruisers while legally crossing the street, six days apart. The news that a now-former student had reportedly made threats against the university, and the decision whether to identify him after he was arraigned, knowing the controversy it would cause.
These stories may continue to develop over the next few weeks, and there may be similarly troubling news stories to come. As the new editor I would like to say that I support the decisions made by my predecessor, and they were in line with the high standards of professional journalism and quality news reporting we all aspire to.
At the same time, though, Iâd also like to emphasize that as student journalists, we donât enjoy having to report on stories like this occurring in our community.
The hardest article Iâve written was last spring, interviewing students whose friends and family avoided the Boston Marathon bombs by half an hour or less. I really didnât want to write up that story, but it was breaking national news with significant OWU implications; someone had to do it. I told myself that would be my last story of the semester, that I would take the last three weeks off, and then the campus was on lockdown following a fight-turned-shooting three blocks away and I had to do one more story again.
So I just wanted to say, especially since thereâll probably be more serious news stories to come, that our attitude in covering these stories is not one of joy at how good itâll look on our resume, but more âif not us, then who?â
We are Ohio Wesleyanâs journalists, the staff of the universityâs paper of record, and itâs not a job taken lightly. Our duty is to report the truth and the OWU communityâs public interest, not to the stories that groups on campusâor even the majority of studentsâwant us to talk about, or not to talk about.
While we rely on the university for funding, decisions on what to print are not made by the administration, the trustees, faculty, fraternities and sororities, WCSA or any other student organizationânot even the professors of the department of journalism can kill a story that isnât potentially defamatory if we are committed to running it.
Thatâs not a challenge to any of the groups mentioned, but an explanation of how an independent newspaper operates on a college campus.
We as a staff pursue the stories we believe best serve the public interest and the tenets of ethical journalismâseeking and reporting the truth accurately and fairly, minimizing harm, acting independently and being accountable.
For example, many among us may not enjoy the harsh reality expressed by President Obama last week, when a report released by the White House said the American college environment puts women at the greatest risk of experiencing sexual violence. Itâs not a pleasant thing to be reminded of, whether briefly on national news or in the pages of this paper. But we have a duty, as expressed in our staff editorial, to report on this, and bring it into the spotlight, as servants of the public interest.
While the section editors (News, A&E, Sports and Online) have control over their specific content, ultimately the final sayâand accountabilityâover our content is with me, your Editor-in-Chief. I take responsibility for what we publish this semester, and I welcome any inputâpositive or negativeâyou wish to offer in the form of letters to the editor, which can be submitted to owunews@owu.edu.
Iâll be back home in about 50 hours, and the main thing I have to worry about before then is my paper due Friday at 1. After that, Iâll be free to relax and enjoy Thanksgiving with my family and think about everything I have to be grateful for.
But, itâs easy to forget that not everyone has those things.
I got a reminder of that today at noon in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, when I saw senior Gus Wood taking a silent stand to commemorate Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors those killed because of their gender identity.
The day began 15 years ago after the murder of trans woman Rita Hester, and is observed to remember those who have been killed each year and remind communities that trans lives are valuable.
I didnât know that until after I saw Gusâ demonstration and did a Google search for more info. Had I not seen it, I probably wouldnât have known today was the Day of Remembrance, or that such a day existed, and Iâm sure many others on this campus wouldnât either.
The most basic thing Iâll have to enjoy over break is my parentsâ house, something I take for granted, and yet homelessness is one of the biggest problems facing LGBT youth in America.
While only three to five percent of the U.S. population self-identifies with the LGBT community, up to 40 percent of its homeless youth do, as they are often driven from their homes by families that do not accept who they are or who they love.
With the lack of shelter comes increased rates of depression, drug use and prostitution. Violence against members of the LGBT community is also a major issue, one exacerbated by the discrimination many members receive from police, who are supposed to protect them.
For someone who likes to identify as an activist for social justice, Iâm often blind to transgender issues until theyâre pointed out to me.
Iâd never even considered the concept of preferred pronouns until we were asked to introduce ourselves by them, if we were willing, at the first meeting of my spring break mission team (one of its aims is transgender advocacy, so I have a lot to learn by then). I didnât know about todayâs remembrance, and I hadnât even thought of the reasons behind the push for gender-neutral housing until a meeting on it during Pride Week.
I grew up in a small town, attending Catholic private schools that were steeped in cisgendered, white, middle-to-upper-class privilege. Sure, we talked about the civil rights movement (though mainly by watching dramatized adaptations like âMississippi Burningâ that focus on anachronistic white heroes) and the womenâs movement received some attention, but issues of sexual orientation received little discussion, and gender identity even less.
After two and a half years at OWU, though, thatâs not much of an excuse for continued unawareness. At the risk of sounding preachy, everyone can do more to learn about the struggles other groups face, and I definitely have a lot more to do.
Jerry, one of the preachers, debates with freshman Aletta Doran, while sophomore Lane Bookwalter (center left) and junior Sally Stewart (center right) hold signs in the background. Stewart and sophomore Katie Berger started the protest. Photo by Spenser Hickey
By Spenser Hickey
News Editor
Christianity was caught in the middle as two groups took to the Sandusky Street sidewalks to voice opposing views on the LGBT community Wednesday, Oct. 23rd.
The protest began after two street preachers came to campus around noon to speak against what they considered sexual immorality, homosexuality in particular. The two preachers were brothers and only one, Jerry, would provide his first name. They brought large signs about Godâs judgment, Bible verses condemning homosexuality, anti-abortion statements and salvation through Jesus Christ.
Junior Sally Stewart and sophomore Katie Berger responded by printing out signs and holding them up in silence as they stood opposite the preachers.
âGod is indifferent to sexual orientation,â read Stewartâs sign, while Bergerâs said God is love, âno exceptions.â
The preachers argued that God would not love a murderer or rapist, but Stewart said that those examples were not related to sexuality, the issue they were representing.
At first, they did not directly engage the preachers, but stood and sang Leonard Cohenâs âHallelujah.â
Stewart and Berger received hugs in support from several students, including freshman Evan Hively.
âThis is what we need to support,â Hively said.
By 3 p.m., twenty students had joined the original two, writing their own messages of acceptance on notebook paper; shortly afterward, the university Chaplainsâ office sent large poster boards to the counter-protesters.
Stewart said she thought a few students would stand with them, but wasnât expecting the large response; she credited the Chaplainsâ office for providing signs.
âIâm so proud,â she said. âYou know, this started out as a friend and I deciding that we were going to stand up for something we wanted to do and next thing I know there are people holding notebook paper signs and yelling and singing together and that was incredible, and next thing I know weâve got posters and Iâm just â Iâm so proud.â
With messages like âHonk in the name of loveâ and âGod is not fear God is loveâ they spread across the sidewalk, waving to cars driving by, many of which did honk in support.
Senior Shelby Thompson, an intern with the Chaplainâs office, was one of the counter-protesters; she brought the poster boards from the office to the other demonstrators.
âAs long as theyâre out here saying whatâs wrong, Iâm going to be out here saying whatâs right,â she said. ââŚThis just isnât fair, this isnât right â theyâre making people upset, theyâre hurting people, and that is not anything I believe in as a Christian LGBT member.â
Senior Karli Amstadt said she considered the preachersâ message hatred; she held a sign saying that love was greater than hate.
âOWU is all about love,â she said.
The preachers said their message was not one of hate; one said that he was just there as a messenger preaching the word of God and didnât hate anyone.
The other, Jerry, said if they didnât warn someone that they were on a path to hell they didnât love them; he used the metaphor that someone who did nothing while a blind man walked off a cliff could be charged with negligence.
Senior Anthony Peddle, however, said they were misinterpreting the Bible with their preaching, and that they were âpicking and choosingâ specific verses and rules to follow and use as examples.
He said the studentsâ response showed him how supportive the community is of students regardless of faith, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Senior Naomi Abrams, a Christian and resident of the Interfaith House, said she thought the preachers were missing the point of how good and merciful God is.
âI think that shows, to me, that they donât understand how big God is and that God is so much better than the simple message that theyâre offering to people,â she said. âI think if they truly trusted God more, and if we all truly trusted God more, then we would say the good things about God and the good things about his love.â
Several students, in addition to holding signs, debated with the preachers on topics including their treatment of the LGBT community, womenâs rights, evolution versus creationism and theology.
At one point, freshman Alexis Baker challenged Jerry on whether he agreed with a statement his brother made that women who were raped may be partially responsible.
After a long pause; he replied, âsometimesâ; Baker said she found his statement âsickening.â
âJust cause a man couldnât control himself, that makes it the manâs fault, not the womanâs,â she said.
While sexual assault can and does happen with all genders represented as survivors and perpetrators, the vast majority â in the United States and throughout the world â occur with a male perpetrator and a female survivor.
The rape of 14-year-old Daisy Coleman by 17-year-old Matthew Barnett in Maryville, Mo., has captured the nationâs attention.
Barnett wasnât charged with statutory rape. According to Missouri law, the victim has to be younger than 14 or the perpetrator older than 21. Barnettâs family is also politically influential in the area.
Ever since the rape, Coleman and her family were driven out of their home. Her mother was fired from her job and their house was burned down in retaliation for coming forward with these allegations. But Coleman is staying strong and speaking out against her attacker.
I feel like these kinds of stories are a constant mainstay in news media. Itâs nothing newâevery year, assaults and attacks happen and go unreported.
And with the prevalence of social media, even the victims do not retain their privacyâThe attacks in Maryville and Steubenville, Ohio, were both filmed.
But thatâs another issue itself. What I want to talk about is rape. Itâs a scary word with horrible consequences. But itâs a real issue.
Instead of teaching women not to get raped, we need to teach men not to rape. I laugh as I say this because to me, itâs common sense. I donât understand why we would need to teach common sense, but I guess itâs necessary.
When I go out, Iâm always conscious of what Iâm doing, how I dress, how I dance and how I act. I donât want to âenticeâ the men around me to âmakeâ them do something I wouldnât want them to. Because, you know, men canât control themselves around a woman dancing in a bar. Right? Itâs the womanâs fault for wearing a short skirt, for drinking a bit too much or for dancing too provocatively. Right?
No. Itâs not the womanâs fault. She should act however she wants to. She should be able to walk home safely at night.
But she canât. She has to be aware of the men out there who donât respect women. She has to be careful of the men who grab and grope at her at the bar. She has to watch out for the guys who catcall her while sheâs walking to work.
Iâm sick of it. Why do people have to tell me how to dress, who to hang out with, when I can go out or how to live my life? I cannot and will not live for someone else.
Women are in control of their own bodies and their own lives. They can choose whom they sleep or donât sleep with. A woman saying no doesnât mean âtry again.â It means no. If women want to walk home by themselves at night, they should be able to without constantly checking over their shoulder to see if someone is following them.
Women should be able to feel safe, no matter where they are or whom they are with. Women should be respected and cared for in the community.
A student signs the petition for a new sustainability coordinator By Spenser Hickey
Tent City demonstrators hold signs along the JAY walk By Spenser Hickey
âItâs like a two-year-old putting on clown shoes.â
Thatâs senior Erika Kaziâs view on the effectiveness of the universityâs current system of handling sustainability efforts; Kazi is one of two composting interns now working with concerned students and the Presidential Task Force on Campus Sustainability to carry out such efforts.
According to Professor Tom Wolber, current chair of the sustainability task force, its membership – comprised of faculty, students and staff – has not been decided yet, and they have yet to hold a meeting.
âThe problem is that faculty, staff and students come and go and that we don’t know yet for sure who the representatives of the various campus entities will be for this academic year,â Wolber said in an email.
Professor Shari Stone-Mediatore, former chair of the task force, said that the university had made âsome important advances in sustainabilityâ including hiring Peter Schantz, the new director of Buildings and Grounds, who will also work to increase energy efficiency on campus.
These efforts were previously handled in part by sustainability coordinator Sean Kinghorn, who worked for the University from March 2011 to June 2013; his salary was paid for by a state grant on energy and conversation.
After the grant funds ran out, university administrators decided to rely on currently employed personnel and two student interns, rather than create a permanent coordinator position and allocate a salary for Kinghorn.
University President Rock Jones said that the Board of Trustees looks to the administration to prepare a budget for review, and so the Board had not taken a position on adding a new position at this time.
âRather, the Board directed the administration to consider all possible avenues for addressing sustainability on campus as it develops budget models for the future, and to include in future budget reports to the Board an update on sustainability on campus,â Jones said.
Dissatisfied by the lack of a permanent coordinator, senior Karli Amstadt and sophomore Ellen Hughes led a protest last Thursday through Saturday, camping on the Corns lawn with Kazi and a number of other students.
University officials, including President Rock Jones and numerous trustees, said they were impressed by the studentsâ efforts and are interested in improving sustainability as the budget allows.
The Numbers Debate
While both the student demonstrators and members of the Board of Trustees said they valued improving the universityâs sustainability efforts, the central matter they disagreed on was how the position could be funded.
President Jones said that the position could be funded with another grant or by reallocating university resources, but at the cost of defunding another existing staff position.
âWe will explore all possibilities for advancing the sustainability agenda in the most robust way possible,â Jones said via email.
Gene Castelli, Senior Director of Dining Services, said he thinks someone from Buildings and Grounds should have responsibility over sustainability efforts so they can better communicate with the companies that handle composting. Castelli served on the sustainability task force last year and manages the two composting interns paid through Chartwells.
âEvery small step gets you closer to the end of the journey,â he said. âSo to that end weâre going to keep doing the small steps, weâre going to keep composting.â
Shari Stone-Mediatore, the former task force leader, said many members of the task force regret that the university doesnât have the funds for a permanent coordinator.
âWe believe that, if funds can be found to support the position, the position would be well worth the investment,â she said.
She listed advantages of it as including supporting and overseeing student-initiated projects, allow for visible sustainability activity to attract prospective students and allow for theory-practice grants on sustainability.
Cathleen Butt, â91, an Alumni Association representative on the Board of Trustees, said that while sustainability is important, funding and the universityâs budget are the issue.
âUnfortunately, there are a lot of different demands for money, and thatâs the reason we have committees, to work out budget issues like that,â said West Ohio Area trustee Robert Roach, â68. âItâs a tough issue, but I feel that weâll address it. Iâm just not sure how itâs going to be done.â
Roach said that the issue would be addressed by the Boardâs Finance and Operations Committee.
Former trustee Katherine Comer, â76, agreed, saying that the issue is with funding and dividing available money between good causes and determining their priority.
Non-voting life trustee George Conrades, â61, said that he wasnât sure that it would be an expensive endeavor to have a sustainability coordinator and unpaid student assistants.
âI think thatâs the most powerful model of all, have someone to coordinate but instead of staff use students, cause then youâll all learn more,â Conrades told the demonstrators.
Vice President for Finance and Administration Dan Hitchell said the sustainability coordinator position came up âquite oftenâ during Trustee meetings throughout the week.
Hitchell, also treasurer for the Board, said that reinstating it did not come up during conversations he was in, but that he was not present for all conversations.
For the demonstrators, the financial issue was very clear – hiring a sustainability coordinator would save the university money in the long run.
As proof, they point to Kinghornâs projected ten-year report, which detailed how the universityâs costs on energy and waste disposal services, among other expenditures, would be reduced by sustainability efforts.
The projected savings totaled $1,633,430, not counting a planned program in Gordon Field House that was not implemented. After subtracting Kinghornâs $60,000 per year salary, the protesters argued, the university would save around a million dollars or more.
âHe saved the University more than heâs salaried, yeah, thatâs absolutely correct,â senior Karli Amstadt said. â…(The 10-year projection is) just from the savings he generated in his first two years here, so if he was actually here getting more annual savings that number would be even higher.â
âI just think that thereâs no counter argument,â said sophomore Ellen Hughes. â…Thereâs no way you can disagree with that, you know, those are the numbers and those are the facts and that would save the university a million dollars in ten years…It just doesnât make sense, with all the great stuff that Sean Kinghorn did for us and all the money he saved and just how inspiring he was to students…itâs just really disappointing that heâs no longer here.â
She said that it would have cost the university money at first, like anything business-related, but would soon lead to savings.
âThe thing about a green program, like composting for example, that costs money to start, but think about how much waste weâve reduced already by having it,â Hughes said.
Amstadt, too, used the compost program in particular as an example of a green program that could save money.
âAs far as the composting program, it can save the university money because we pay for trash pickup by weight, whereas our compost pickup is free,â Amstadt said. âIf we had 100 percent compost that would be optimal.â
Jones said in an email that he was reviewing the data on projected savings, and that it will inform his thinking about the issue.
He also said the students âare articulate in making the case for these causes, and they are very good at gathering data to support the case.â
However, he also said that that he believes existing staff members can achieve the cost reductions Kinghorn was projected to.
âIt is not accurate to say that these savings cannot be achieved without a sustainability coordinator,â Jones said in an email.
Amstadt, however, was skeptical that the savings could be maintained without a permanent coordinator.
âSean invested so much time writing grants for programs, executing programs, and some things, like May Move-Out are simply not possible without a permanent sustainability coordinator,â she said in an email.
âGiving more faculty and staff members who are already extremely busy more responsibilities is not the answer and is not a sustainable model,â Amstadt added. âIt is an issue of time, coordinating all of the sustainability work on campus is a full time job-if it wasn’t there wouldn’t be so many other GLCA colleges with a sustainability coordinator⌠If the administration does not see the necessity of a permanent sustainability coordinator then they need a wake up call because the facts support us.â
Standing in Solidarity for Sustainability
The high point of Amstadt and Hughesâ demonstration was their âstand of solidarityâ, which they used to bring the issue to the Boardâs attention.
While the trustees ate dinner in the Benes rooms Thursday night, the students gathered in a circle outside the window and held signs, first sitting and then standing to be more visible.
âI think it was by far the best event we planned,â Hughes said in an email.
She added that the event âbrought the subject of sustainability to the forefront of their mindsâ and that this was the ultimate goal.
â(T)hey could not ignore us so our voices were heard but it was also respectful,â Amstadt said. âMany trustee members came out to talk to us so it also opened up the doors of communication between students and trustees.â
Their signs contained messages such as âSustain OWUâ, âLetâs not fall behindâ and â62 percent of prospective students consider sustainability.â
It wasnât long into the stand before members of the board came out to talk to the students, voicing respect for their efforts and listening to the concerns.
âI wanted to commend you, actually, for your activism and the manner in which youâre doing it,â Chairperson of the Board Michael Long told them when he came out to address them.
âYouâve gotten the trusteesâ attention, youâve gotten my attention,â he said. â We understand your cause and youâve got some empathy on the Board for your cause. And Rock Jones is working on these issues, as you probably already know.â
Daniel Glaser, a trustee-at-large, joined the protesters for a photo. He said that his daughter, a senior in high school, was very interested in sustainability and he hoped seeing the event would persuade her to apply.
Glaser said that concerns over sustainability are taking place worldwide, so he wasnât surprised by the demonstration.
âI actually find it encouraging, I certainly believe student activism is a positive rather than a negative,â he said. â…At the end of the day, do people have to be engaged with taking steps to make a more sustainable planet? Absolutely, and we have to do that not just as a school but in our home lives as well, you know, so ultimately I think itâs an issue for every citizen of the world.â
Trustee Chloe Williams, â11 and a representative of the Alumni Association, said she thought having a forum like this was âthe coolest thing about OWU.â
âStudents are so engaged and standing up for something they believe in,â she said.
Williams said that the university had taken a lot of important steps on sustainability recently and that was to be commended, but didnât have a comment on she thought the protesters would consider the loss of the position a step back, as she was still learning about the issue on campus.
Freshman Haven Wallace, one of the protesters taking part in the stand of solidarity, said she was âdefinitely surprisedâ by the administration and trusteesâ response.
âA lot of members were very supportive of our efforts and even came out to shake our hands and thank us for what we were doing,â Wallace said in an email. âI assumed there would be more tension and resistance.â
Senior Ashley Taylor, a protester, treasurer of Environmental and Wildlife Club and Tree House resident, said she thought the reactions were âsuper positive.â
âProtests don’t have to be violent or obnoxious to have our message be heard,â she said.
Freshman Reizo Prakash said the trustees were open to discussion and asked their own questions.
â(T)hey ensured that everyone knew what they were talking about and actually wanted it,â he said in an email.
Some protesters had initially worried the stand of solidarity would be seen as disrespectful by the trustees, but Chairperson Long assured them it was not.
âYouâre not being disrespectful,â he told them. âYouâre students and youâre trying to advocate a cause and thereâs nothing wrong with what youâre doing.â
âTent Cityâ
While it may have been the most noticeable part of the overall protest to the trustees, the stand of solidarity was only one part of the events.
They began at 7:30 that morning, setting up tents on the lawn between the Corns building and Beeghly library; and they slept there Thursday and Friday nights before taking them down Saturday after the Trustees left.
âI think (camping out overnight) makes a bigger impact,â Hughes said. She said that they werenât sure theyâd be able to sleep there overnight and considered staying there during the day, leaving at night, and coming back the next day at first.
Amstadt said she got the idea to sleep out in tents while reading old yearbooks in the library one night and read about a similar event aimed at persuading the trustees to divest funds from business operating in South Africa due to apartheid in the 1980s.
âStudents did the same thing and students successfully won over the university so thereâs no reason why we canât do it again,â she said.
She added that she hoped the tents would show the trustees their strength in numbers.
âWeâre hoping a lot of people will turn out, and I think it shows what a priority it is, that we have the commitment to put this whole protest together and stay out overnight,â Amstadt said. “I think that shows a lot of commitment to the issue and shows thatâs itâs top on the studentsâ priority list.â
Senior Erika Kazi, E&W president  and Tree House resident, also said that students at other colleges had held similar events to put pressure on their administrations to create a sustainability coordinator position.
âThe schools always respond really well, but the other schools have implemented full-time staff members,â she said.
Kazi and Amstadt started planning the event in the spring and then Hughes got involved during the summer.
âThe idea started floating around last spring, but we decided that the timing wasnât right,â Amstadt said. âSo we tried to approach the issue by being more cooperative with the administration back then, but after those efforts seem to have failed and sustainability continues to be on the backburner, we decided itâs time to take more direct action.â
President Jones said that he was âimpressedâ by the studentsâ initiative and their positive expression of their convictions.
âOur students are passionate and committed to important causes that matter to them and that matter to our campus and to the larger world,â he said in an email. â…We need more civil dialogue about issues that matter greatly, and our students have offered a wonderful example of how to initiate such civil dialogue. I commend the leaders of this effort and all who participated in it.â
The âtent cityâ aspect of the protest also attracted attention from trustees and students, as many came over to find out what was going on.
Thomas Tritton, â69, an at-large trustee and Vice Chair of the Board, was one of those trustees who came over to learn more, as was former trustee Kathy Comer.
Comer said sheâd been unfamiliar with the issue, having missed the trusteeâs May meeting, but thought the campout was a good start.
âHomecoming weekend and Trustee weekend is a great time to do it,â she said.
Tritton spoke to the students and said that âsustainability is an issue on a lot of college campuses, even for prospective students visiting (there).â
The Princeton Reviewâs 2012 survey on college admissions found that 62 percent of prospective students considered a schoolâs environmental commitment to some degree in their decision to apply; this finding was the basis of the protestersâ â62 percentâ sign.
In addition to and during their camp out, the protesters also gathered signatures on a petition in support of a permanent sustainability coordinator.
â(The petition) was a great idea to show that we have a lot of student interest in this even though we might not have as many (students camping out),â Hughes said.
They began circulating the petition two weeks before the demonstration began and gathered 300 signatures in the first 24 hours, according to Kazi.
By the time they presented the petition to President Jones outside the camp around 4 p.m. Thursday they had more than 900 signatures, just under half the student population.
Not all signers were students, though – life trustee Andres Duarte, â65, signed the petition after visiting the tents and talking to protesters.
Amstadt said before âTent Cityâ began that their goal was to get 1,000 signatures but she didnât know if theyâd meet it.
When asked afterward if the petitioning worked well, Hughes replied âyes and no.â
âI think it would’ve gone better if we had had more time, but we got over 900 signatures in 2 weeks, so I’d say it was pretty well circulated.â
They will have time to gather more signatures, though – after reviewing the petition Thursday, President Jones returned it for them to continue circulating and gathering more support.
Freshman Miranda Wilde signed the petition in Welch as members of the protest went door to door seeking signatures.
She said she hadnât heard about the petition beforehand but decided to sign because she liked the steps that Kinghorn had put in place and wanted them to continue.
âA Bandage on the Situationâ
During his two years at Ohio Wesleyan, Sean Kinghorn accomplished a number of successful green projects, according to many of the protesters.
Erika Kazi worked as a StAP (Student Assistantship Program) intern with Kinghorn last year and worked with him on a number of projects, including starting the composting program, OWU free store, âGreen Weekâ, recycling and lighting surveys and installation of more-energy efficient lights around campus.
In addition to having Kazi as a StAP intern, Kinghorn also worked with two recycling interns, Sarah Alexander and Reed Callahan, both graduates.
The three intern positions also lost funding after the grant ran out and are no longer active, leaving only the two composting interns and the sustainability task force.
Amstadt also listed the hydration stations in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, expanded recycling, installation of water-efficient toilets, and the controversial low-flow showerheads, which she said saved the university $75,000.
âYou have to determine if itâs worth it, and I think the answer is yes,â she said.
Hughes said that in addition to his work spearheading projects around campus, Kinghorn was also âa great mentorâ who listened to studentâs ideas and helped act on them, and its hard now without someone filling that role full-time.
She said she wasnât involved in these efforts as much as she wishes she was last year as a freshman.
âHe (Kinghorn) did some great stuff and he started some awesome programs,â she said.
Amstadt and Kazi both echoed Hughes, saying Kinghorn had helped in classes as well.
â(He) worked with a lot of students on projects related to their classwork,â Amstadt said.
âHe was a mentor,â Kazi said. âIn my environmental geography class, he came in and he helped every single student – there was a class of like ten students – he helped every single student on their project that was designated to help make this campus more sustainable.â
She added that he also worked with all the Tree House projects and other SLU house projects focused on sustainable efforts and helped WCSA and the Service Learning Office in other efforts.
âHe was a huge advocate of sustainability being more than just the techno-buzz of building, you know, a green building,â Kazi said. â…Itâs more than just that, itâs about creating a community and educating people through conversation and through experience and through digging through compost together.â
Senior Ashley Taylor, a protester, E&W treasurer and Tree House resident, said that the coordinator position also âbecomes the connection that students and faculty need to promote and actually make sustainable projects a reality.â
Kinghorn now works as a sustainability coordinator at Otterbein University. Despite this, the protesters still said that sustainability is an important thing to strive for, both in college and in the world.
âTo me, and I feel like to a lot of other students and faculty, the position is the number one priority at this point,â Hughes said.
She said that in the absence of a full-time coordinator, many of the responsibilities were delegated to other personnel to balance with their official role.
Kazi said that not even 20 faculty, staff or students, handling sustainability efforts part-time in addition to full-time work, could fill Kinghornâs role.
Amstadt said that the current group of students and staff are doing the best they can but are fighting an uphill battle.
âDoes it make up for the loss of the position?â she asked. âOf course not and we never thought it would, but weâre just trying to basically put a bandage on the situation, (and) hope things will change for the future.â
âYou Have Not Seen the Last of Usâ
Both Amstadt and Hughes said they considered the event a success at achieving awareness, but Amstadt said getting a coordinator would be a more long-term process.
âIt will only be announced if they decide to get a sustainability coordinator position, which could be written into the budget in spring,â Amstadt said. âIf they do not they will not announce it they will simply ignore the fact, that is why we have to hold the university accountable.â
She said that while the event started a conversation she is focused on results, and the result they want is the creation of a permanent sustainability coordinator.
âI am very pleased with how the protest went, in fact it couldn’t have gone much better, but I do not think we should start celebrating victories we haven’t achieved yet,â Amstadt said in an email.
Hughes said the sooner the position was written into the budget the better, but she didnât know when that would be.
She said the protest still had the impact they wanted it to, showing that students consider sustainability a priority.
âThe Board members were wonderfully impressed and told us how supportive they were of our efforts,â she said. âI don’t think that the Board of Trustees knew how much sustainability meant to the students of this school until now.â
Amstadt and Hughes also said that the event attracted increased numbers of student support. During the stand of solidarity, several students who were holding up signs had not been active in the events beforehand.
Freshman Reizo Prakash was one of those who joined in for the stand.
âI was returning to my dorm, eating dinner on the way when I saw the event,â he said in an email.
Prakash added that he decided to join because the university needs a coordinator to spread awareness and be a resource for information and management; he joined the campers after the stand of solidarity and slept there both nights.
Hughes said she was âtotally swept awayâ by the amount of student involvement in the event.
âIt was awesome because we actually recruited a few students who didn’t know about the sustainability coordinator before Tent City,â she said.
She said the tents were âa great visual messageâ because they got the attention of students walking by on the JAYwalk.
âMany students were unaware of how much money the position saves the school, what an asset he was for student’s academic pursuits, and the fact that an overwhelming number of GLCA schools have this position,â Amstadt added. âI would say it was extremely well received.â
Hughes said that she thought it would be better to work with the administration now that the event had raised awareness of the issue and the level of student support.
âThey were fairly accommodating throughout the Tent City planning process and I think that they are feeling more pressure to improve our school’s sustainability efforts,â she said. âThat said, if no progress is made whatsoever for this issue, I’m sure more direct action will be taken.â
Amstadt, however, was more insistent on keeping the possibility of direct action open. â(T)his is our university and as students we should have a voice,â she said in an email. âIf we continue to be ignored then we have no choice but to take direct action. As soon as we take pressure off the university, the issue will fall into oblivion.â
She said they were still determining action moving forward.
âI can guarantee that you have not seen the last of us,â she said. âWe won’t stop until we have a full time permanent sustainability coordinator and we will not settle for anything less.â
Hughes said that she, Amstadt and Kazi were heading up the protest but werenât the only ones who wanted it to happen, and so Amstadt and Kaziâs graduation at the end of the academic year would not diminish efforts for âa greener and more sustainable school.â
âIâll just say that we have plans to continue this if it doesnât work, but again, Iâm optimistic that it will,â she said.
