Author: Courtney Dunne

Class of 2017 trustee elected

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Cheif

The seniors have voted and the votes are in.

Current senior Daud Baz was elected to be the Class of 2017 trustee. Other candidates who ran included Lee LeBoeuf and Shashank Sharma.

Each year the graduating class elects a member to the Board of Trustees. The class of 2016 elected representative is Emma Drongowski.

During his time at OWU, Baz has served in multiple other leadership roles in diverse organizations across campus including president of Horizons in his sophomore year, Treasurer of Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs and philanthropy chair and corresponding secretary of his fraternity Phi Gamma Delta. He also serves on the senior class council and the Student Conduct Board.

“I have been at OWU for four years and when I started off, I never thought I would be so involved because coming from Afghanistan, there aren’t a lot of opportunities,” Baz said. “I never thought I would do anything this big in school.”

Baz said he wants to continue to imporve his leadership skills while bringing new ideas and change to the table.

“I am not going to change OWU overnight and I am not going to change everything, but I want to be a small drop of water in a big pond,” Baz said.

“Throughout my time at OWU, I saw leadership opportunities and I needed to grow and I saw the Board of Trustees position as an opportunity to do that.”

He will be a full voting member participating in discussions and making decisions alongside seasoned trustees.

“As a young student, I am voicing concerns of students and what they want to see changed,” Baz said. “I have learned a lot at OWU and I can take that home and do something bigger.”

Baz has also worked with the Embassy of Afghanistan on women’s rights. Completion of his internship pushed him to join more organizations on campus, as well as take on some leadership roles.

Baz said he would like to improve the dining services for students by trying to bring back options like the Library Cafe and Trattoria.

After receiving news that he would be the Class of 2017 trustee, Baz posted on his personal Facebook, “Someone once said, ‘Little drops of water make the ocean big.’ Thank you for entrusting me to be part of something bigger.”

“I wanted to take the time to express my appreciation to all those who supported my journey in being elected as Class of 2017 trustee. I am humbled to serve as a vessel of progress and unity for the OWU community. When I have the decisions to make, I will choose action, I will strive to always wear my values, to work diligently knowing you have placed your faith in me. Last but not least, I must acknowledge the candidates, Lee LeBoeuf and Shashank Sharma, in running a competitive race. Thank you once again.”

“I want to leave a position in better shape or at least the same shape,” he said.

Baz has already received messages from trustees congratulating him, which he said surprised him at how fast news spreads.

These are not the clowns you see in the circus

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Chief

As an employee in the admissions office, I get the question, “Is your campus safe?”

In my three and a half years here, my answer has always been “yes,” but recently, if I am honest to prospective students and their families, I would say I no longer feel safe.

What probably started as an innocent joke has turned into something that has brought a sense of fear over students as well as people in town.

I first heard about the “clowns” in Delaware when I was at Big Brothers, Big Sisters meat Willis Elementary School where they were talking about a clown who had chased them in the park.

When I heard that, I was concerned, but I thought, “Oh, it’s just kids being kids around Halloween.”

A few weeks later, I heard that a 13-year-old girl had been chased down Spring Street and the report said the man tried to grab her, but the girl ultimately freed herself. The girl never should have been chased in the first place.

This was just the beginning.

After, it was reported that someone broke into the Delta Delta Delta sorority house on Winter Street and multiple students have seen people in clown masks lurking around campus.

As many sororities head over to Winter Street for chapter on Sunday nights, there was a report that one woman was chased on her way to chapter, which sent a red flag to all the women walking back to campus from that street.

The fact that these commonly used areas are not well lit and not well populated creates a danger for all students on campus.

According to Facebook, I am not the only student who has opinions on this issue.

Sophomore Faith Best posted on her Facebook, “I have always felt safe in this town. I grew up here. I go to college here. I practice caution.

“Yet, I have always felt safe walking from the library to my dorm at 10 p.m. on any given day. I always felt safe walking the block between my sorority house and dorm after chapter.

“That was until yesterday. Last week, we heard reports of a man in a clown mask chasing a 13- year-old girl near campus. Followed close after were reports of attempted break-ins at a sorority house.

“Yesterday, students were chased by masked men. Another was followed by a hooded man on a bike.

“Two men in clown masks were reported being seen outside my residence hall. A group of men came running toward another student outside a sorority house last night. Suddenly, caution doesn’t feel like enough.

“Why do I have to feel terrified to walk a half a block by myself? Why does my mom have to worry that I might get attacked?

“Why do my roommates have to prepare to call the police if one of us isn’t back to the room when they say they will be? Why does everyone have to hold their keys between their knuckles when they walk from their cars to the doors?

“Is this supposed to be funny? Is that really the world we live in where it isn’t a practical Halloween joke to chase women and girls with knives?”

I am hoping that these incidents are isolated and are people just trying to pull some horrible Halloween pranks. I have also noticed how dark parts of campus are at night as I have been hyper aware on my walks home.

Students join in national protest

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Chief

The House of Peace and Justice (P&J) is doing its part to help national issues.

Izzy Taylor, a member of P&J, organized a bake sale on campus to raise funds for the Sacred Stone Spirit camp, which consists of people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is an oil pipeline that was approved by the Army Corps of engineers and the Sioux Tribe in North Dakota is claiming they did not go through the proper procedures to dig up the land the pipeline will go into.

The Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the Army Corps of engineers earlier this year. The lawsuit alleges that the Corps violated multiple federal statutes, including the Clean Water Act, National Historic Protection Act and National Environmental Policy Act when it issued the permits.

According to the legal defense fund for the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp funding page on FundRazar, the Camp of the Sacred Stones is located between the pipeline’s proposed crossing of the Missouri River and the water intake valves for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The Camp was established on April 1 to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

One of the biggest concerns the Sioux people have is the contamination of the Missouri River if the pipeline ever leaks. The Missouri River is Sioux’s main source of water as well as an area of great cultural significance that holds sacred site and burial grounds.

“We are having a fundraising bake sale to bring awareness to the Dakota Access Pipeline that is going to cut through ancestral lands of the Sioux nation and potentially dirty their water,” Taylor said.

The Dakota Access Pipeline has been a source of controversy across the country and has recently been in the headlines as people have been arrested for protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Photo courtesy of Shailene Woodley's Facebook page.
Photo courtesy of Shailene Woodley’s Facebook page.

One of the most recent arrests made was Divergent star Shailene Woodley, who was arrested for trespassing with other protesters at the access pipeline’s site. She streamed the whole arrest and claimed they were arresting her because she was famous.

“The Dakota Access Pipeline is putting indigenous issues on the map that haven’t really been discussed,” said Emma Nuiry.

As of Oct. 18, the Legal Defense Fund has raised $511,531 for their cause. Their goal is to raise $700,000 for the Legal Defense Fund, which has been running since Aug. 9.

“It is important to decolonize our perceptions around the U.S. and realize that we are on taken land from indigenous people and 500 years later, we are still doing … It doesn’t just affect the Sioux nation, it affects all of us,” said Taylor.

The idea for the bake sale originally stemmed out of Columbus Day. Taylor said Columbus Day is not necessarily something to celebrate since Columbus came in and took the lands that indigenous people already inhabited.

Following the bake sale, Taylor and other members of P&J continued to raise awareness, was arrested Oct. 10 while protesting the Dakota for the Dakota Access Pipeline in a water rites ceremony, which brought water from their local bodies areas and resulted in an interfaith ceremony where they prayed over the water and then poured all the water into the Delaware Run.

Bread & Puppet Theater feeds Gray Chapel

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Chief

The Bread and Puppet Theatre made a stop at Ohio Wesleyan Oct. 17 to do its most recent performance of Underneath the Above Show #1 (inspired by the forthcoming elections in the greatest country in the history of the universe).

The theatre group, started by Peter Schumann in the 1960s to protest the Vietnam War, has been coming to OWU about every other year for the past eight years to perform their shows that make large statements on current events in the U.S.

When asked what people should take away from the political commentary they make, actor Josh Krugman responded that he couldn’t say because like the bread shared after the show, it should be chewed on in order to release the nutrients.

After the show, the company shares the ‘bread’ part of the Bread and Puppet Theatre. Schumann makes bread everyday for the company and he believes that is what should fill people up.  At the end of every show, the cast offers the audience some bread to share within the community.

“The show is skeptical of this kind of state power and its capitalist and superficially democratic manifestation and that suspicion of the  illusion that everything will change with the next election, it highlights the life in the understory, the life of the people,” Krugman said.

The founder Schumann makes the puppets out of cardboard and according to Krugman, expired latex paint.  The company puts on shows with recycled cardboard, wood and uses noisemakers from the dollar store to produce the score for the show.

The Bread and Puppet company is ending the show soon because  the king character that represents the current presidential candidates cannot be removed from the story.

The company offers apprenticeships for students of all trades interested in changing the world through a theatrical setting at their sustainable compound in Vermont. Many of the performers who performed at OWU started in the apprenticeship program and were invited to join the fall tour.

Marcus Fioravante, a new member to the company, said, “I had never heard of the Bread and Puppet Theatre and a friend told me about it and I had always had an interest in puppetry and a love [for] social activism and this seemed like the perfect fit, so I applied to the apprenticeship, which is where I started with the Bread and Puppet Theatre.”

Through the combined efforts of the House of Peace and Justice, the English department, Wesleyan Council for Student Affairs, PRIDE and the Chaplain’s Office, the Bread and Puppet Theatre was able to come and showcase their latest show.

Women wow on campus during leadership forum

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Chief

On Sept. 16 and 17, the alumni office reminded women they are not just Ohio Wesleyan women for four years, they are an Ohio Wesleyan woman for life.

The inaugural Women of Wesleyan Leadership Forum attracted more than 100 alumni and current students to share in the success of OWU women.  

The idea was planted just six months ago to bring back a targeted population.  There were six decades worth of alumni represented at the forum.

Panels throughout the weekend included Women Leading the Way, Charting her own path for women entrepreneurs, as well as a philanthropy panel of women working for nonprofits.

Ashley Biser, a professor in politics and government, led a study in recent years that proved that the women on OWU’s campus have historically been more involved on campus than the men.

Biser, who sat on the Women of Wesleyan Leadership committee, put together a student panel for alumni to hear from current women of OWU.

“I think I am a leader first, then I am a woman … being a woman here has allowed me to discover my own power,” senior Jess Choate said. “There are so many different areas  where women come together to support each other.”

At the end of the panel, during the Q&A session, one of the questions asked to students was, “Do you think this panel is representative of all Ohio Wesleyan women on campus.”

The panel said since they all came from different backgrounds and social groups on campus, they summed up the feelings of women on campus pretty well.

Diane Petersen ‘66 opened the weekend as the first keynote speaker. Petersen spoke about her time at OWU as a transformative period, as she was the first African-American woman in the country to join a traditionally white sorority.

Petersen’s journey was not as smooth as others in college in the 60’s in order to become a sister of Delta Delta Delta (Tri-Delta) sorority. In Petersen’s years at OWU, ‘62-’66, she saw OWU move from conservative to a little more liberal.  

Tracie Winbigler ’87 was brought on the board because she has had experience leading women in the workplace as she currently serving as the CFO of the national retail company REI and previously served as the CFO of National Geographic. She co-chaired the event with Colleen Nissl ’72, the executive vice president and global general counsel for NetJets Inc.

Winbigler and Nissl were co-chairs of an external committee to organize the event, while Katie Webster, the Director of Alumni Relations helped lead the internal committee on campus.

They not only brought these women together to celebrate but also to learn from each other.  

Students who attended the forum were able to network with alumni and learn what recent grads are doing to become successful.

“My daughter is a freshman at Wesleyan, so partly she is gone and I have more time and she is going to Wesleyan and I went to Ohio Wesleyan and I thought this was a good opportunity to reconnect,” said Janet Gross, ‘81.  

Martha Noreault ‘66 said, “Diane Petersen is a member of my class and she did such a wonderful job at speaking at our reunion that I wanted to hear her speak again.”

The alumi office has sent out surveys to get feedback to find out what they can do better for Women of Wesleyan 2017.  “In the future, we hope to include even more students and faculty in the event and do some mentoring through the forum,” said Webster.

Title IX coordinator explains his role at OWU

By Courtney Dunne, Editor-in-Chief

OWU took the initiatve last spring to hire multiple associate deans to cover specific areas of development within the univeristy. Dwayne Todd was hired as the vice president of student engagement and success. This is not his only role. He has also taken on the role of the Title IX coordinator at the university to ensure that Title IX policies are followed and enforced. The Transcript corresponded with Dwayne Todd to learn more about what this position entails.

T-Script: What should students know about this position?

Dwayne Todd: Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits sex or gender discrimination in colleges and universities.  Title IX guidelines apply to all aspects of an institution’s programs or activities and provides protections to all persons, including students, faculty, and staff, from sex or gender discrimination, harassment, or violence.

The Title IX Coordinator is responsible for ensuring that the university is taking effective measures to prevent sex or gender discrimination within the campus community, reviewing and revising policies and protocols related to Title IX matters, responding appropriately to Title IX issues, ensuring that victims of Title IX violations receive appropriate support, and providing leadership to OWU’s coordinated Title IX efforts.

T-Script: What do you plan to do to improve awareness/enforcement of Title IX?

Dwayne Todd: I’m in the process of learning what has been done in the past at OWU to ensure we are complying with Title IX guidelines and using best practices in this area, which will help me in developing a plan for the future.  It is very important that students, faculty, and staff understand what protections are offered by Title IX, how to support a university community that does not tolerate sex or gender discrimination and violence, and how to bring concerns to the attention of the appropriate individuals on campus so that they can be addressed.  We will do this through public messages, awareness campaigns, individual and group training, policy review and revision, and more.

T-Script: How did the university go about finding someone to fill this position?

Dwayne Todd: I was recently hired to be the new Vice President for Student Engagement and Success and Dean of Students.  It just so happens that I am also certified as a Title IX Coordinator, served in that capacity for five years at my last college, and have continued to receive annual training for that role.  With the departure of the individual currently serving as OWU’s Title IX Coordinator, who was in an interim role with his main responsibilities here, President Jones turned to me to step into the role given my training and experience in it.

T-Script: As President Jones stated in his email, you were previously the Title IX Coordinator at the Columbus College of Art and Design, what did the position entail there?

Dwayne Todd: The Title IX Coordinator responsibilities there were the same that they will be here:  to ensure the institution is taking effective measures to prevent and respond to instances of sex or gender based discrimination, harassment, or violence to people within our campus community.  That requires my leadership with regard to relevant policy creation and enforcement, education efforts across the institution about Title IX topics, appropriate investigation and adjudication of Title IX complaints, and more.  When there is an alleged Title IX violation, my responsibility is to ensure that the university uses a fair and equitable process to review the complaint, determine whether a violation did occur according to the standards prescribed by Title IX guidelines, and address its effects on individuals and the community.  Those processes can be complicated and difficult for all parties involved, so we will continue to work on efforts to support those individuals properly along the way.

T-Script: What did you learn from being the Coordination at CCAD?

Dwayne Todd: My experience as the Title IX Coordinator at CCAD taught me that having a cohesive process in place, led by properly trained individuals, is key to ensuring that we respond effectively to Title IX concerns.  Students need to know to whom they should report concerns if they want action taken and/or support provided, and they need to be clear about what’s going to happen in the process.  My experience also taught me that the campus community, including faculty and staff, are very committed to supporting a campus free from such discrimination and violence, and just need to be provided with the right tools and knowledge to do so.

T-Script: What do you think OWU could do better or different in order to best implement Title IX?

Dwayne Todd: I am still learning what OWU has done in the past regarding Title IX compliance and education, but I am already actively working with others on campus on these issues.  For example, the Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Education recently provided guidance pertaining to the application of Title IX protections to transgender individuals on campuses.  OWU’s Title IX coordinating team met a couple of weeks ago to review that guidance and discuss what it means for our campus community.

As I continue to review our policies, protocols, and education efforts, I will gain a much clearer picture of where we have been excelling and where improvements should be made.  I greatly appreciate the work of John Sanders, our outgoing Title IX Coordinator and Interim Director of Human Resources, as well as the team of others who had helped lead OWU’s Title IX efforts in the past, and look forward to working with those individuals and others to ensure OWU becomes of model campus of best practices in the area of Title IX.

Black lives matter demonstration at OWU

Trent Williams holding his sign in the Hamilton-Williams dining hall. Photo by Courtney Dunne.
Trent Williams in the Hamilton-Williams dining hall. Photos by Courtney Dunne.

Courtney Dunne, Copy Editor

Sitting at the lunch table chatting with friends, eating Chartwells and talking about weekend activities makes for a normal day at Ohio Wesleyan.

On Wednesday, Feb. 17, that routine was broken as many OWU students walked into Ham-Will and held an unexpected demonstration to raise awareness for Black Lives Matter.

Students were subtle, but their voices were strong as they held signs that said, “Stop police brutality,” “Unapologetically black… Deal with it,” “Queer black lives matter” and “Black disabled lives matter.”

Students were spread throughout the dining hall, the Bakery, the Ham-Will Atrium, the Bishop Cafe and Beeghly Library.

Junior Caitlin Burton-Dooley stood up in the Zook Nook and asked if everyone could stand in solidarity with senior Reilly Reynolds, who silently held a sign to raise awareness for black lives. Everyone in Zook Nook fell silent.

The Student Union on Black Awareness (SUBA) organized the demonstration to educate the campus on the intersectionality within the African-American community.

Hayden Knisley participating in the demonstration. Photo by Courtney Dunne.
Hayden Knisley participating in the    demonstration.

Throughout the demonstration, students were seen having different reactions.

Some ignored it and kept on with their daily routine, some gave a nod in acknowledgment while others others, like Burton-Dooley, were vocal of their support.

“It was nice to see people taking it from Facebook into real life [and] doing what they say they want to do,” said senior Cecilia Smith.

Senior Mili Green said, “It’s good to see people taking action. They planned it well to coincide with the Butler A. Jones lecture on Race and Society.”

Junior Trent Williams said, “My sign “Stop police brutality” was as simple as it could get. Police brutality of any kind against any human being is unacceptable in general and should not be tolerated from any police district at all.”