Author: Erin Ross

Women’s Track and Field captures championship

Peter Lujan

Sports Editor

pllujan@owu.edu

It’s been a big week for Ohio Wesleyan’s women’s track and field team.

Junior Courtney Owens won the North Coast Atlantic Conference indoor pentathlon on Feb. 23 in a meet at Oberlin College, scoring 3,388 points and smashing the previous record of 3,135 points held by Emily Brown (’18).

And this past weekend the team won the NCAC championship meet at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, topping Oberlin College 175-to-167, as senior Cirrus Robinson repeated as conference champion in high jump and the 400-meter dash.  It was Robinson’s fourth straight NCAC title for the high jump.

Complete results, including the success of the other members of the team, can be found here.

Also in recognition of the team’s performances, the NCAC named coach Kris Boey “Coach of the Year,” the 30th  time he’s earned that recognition and his 10th time for coaching women’s track and field.

Boey was brimming with confidence before the weekend meet.

“This team can be a championship team,” Boey said. “We simply have to be us.”

The week started off with the record-breaking win for Owens, who was also confident about the team’s overall chances to nab championship this past weekend.

“When we are at our best, no one can touch us,” Owens said. “It will come down to everyone making the decision to be at their best, putting it all on the line for the win.”

Boey said he cautions his team never to look too far to the future and did the same with Owens before she broke the school record.

“One event at a time. After she completed the last event we knew it was enough.  We were thrilled for her,” Boey said.  “I told her that persistence pays.”

During last Sunday’s meet, Owens was informed that she would have to make some serious changes to her pace if she wanted to make history.

“My coach had told me … if I wanted to win, break the school record and qualify for nationals, I had to run a 2:30,” Owens said. “This was fairly ambitious for me because it would require me to drop 8 seconds off my time, but he believed I could do it.”

Owens embraced that belief and also won the 60-meter hurdles over last weekend. She acknowledged the support she received from her peers for all of her wins.

“I took one of the biggest risks I ever have while doing this sport and the reward made it so worth it,” Owens said. “I feel humbled and grateful that I have coaches who push me so I can push myself.”

While Owens has achieved plenty of individual success, she has also helped lead and inspire her team with her talent and by helping teammates focus on a common goal.

“Courtney is the best overall athlete in the conference as the NCAC champion in the pentathlon with a national level performance,” Boey said. “She can take her talents in those individual event components to make an impact in a wide variety of ways.  Courtney has become a leader, and is helping gather our team around a vision.”

Ross Art Museum parades faculty talent

Katie Cantrell

Transcript correspondent

kmcantre@owu.edu

Ohio Wesleyan fine arts faculty showed off their talents outside of the classroom last week, displaying their forte in the form of 3-D designs, jewelry, sculptures, oil paintings and digital prints.

The Ross Art Museum opened a new exhibit Wednesday, featuring the works of many of the fine arts faculty members. About 75 people, including OWU President Rock Jones, attended the free public reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., which included the musical stylings of the jazz group The Starliners, along with complimentary food and drinks.

The artists on display included:

  • Associate professor Kristina Bogdanov -sculptures and photo-lithography
  • Professor Cynthia Cetlin-jewelry
  • Associate professor Frank Hobbs -oil paintings
  • Professor Jim Krehbiel – digital prints
  • Professor Jeff Nilan -photographs
  • Part-time professor Jonathan Quick – sculptures and 3-D designs

Every artist works their medium differently, so the works within the exhibit took various levels of time to complete. Hobbs said his favorite piece in the exhibit, an oil painting of a bridge construction site, took only two to three sessions, totaling about six or seven hours.

Meanwhile, Krehbiels’ favorite piece, a digital print of a cold sunrise over a mesa as seen from a Pueblo shrine, took 2 ½ years.

Artists face different kinds of challenges, depending on the piece they create. Nilan’s was personal for his favorite piece in the exhibit.

“It was challenging to look back in time and trying to avoid nostalgia and to just try and see what was there,” Nilansaid about his accordion-shaped photobook, with still images from home videos featuring his two sons.

Hobbs’ challenges were more technical for his bridge construction painting.

“Any time you have a painting with this many dark colors and shadows it can be very difficult to work with,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs said he had plenty of motivation to complete the piece, however he was not trying to impart a specific message to his audience.

“My painting process is more of a soliloquy, so it’s like I’m talking to myself. I’m not interested in using art as propaganda,” Hobbs said.

Like challenges, every artist has different motivation driving their work. Sometimes, there’s an underlying message for an audience.

Krehbiel had a very specific motivation in mind when he created his digital print “Cold Sunrise in an Ancient Place,” which depicted a sunrise he watched one cold morning over a mesa from a Pueblo shrine built in the 1200s.

“It was a memory drawing of that along with some rock art and pictographs added in as well,” he said. “I wanted my audience to see the principles of mirroring and reflection in the piece, much like the sun. Movements of the sun are such as cyclical thing.”

The display of faculty art runs through April 5.

Vietnam War experiences traumatized nurses

Tiffany Moore

Transcript Correspondent

tpmoore@owu.edu

Claymore mines and booby traps blanketed South Vietnam during the war and wreaked havoc on U.S. soldiers.

Many of those young men who suffered horrifying wounds were treated in emergency setups by some of the nearly 10,000 women, a majority of them nurses, who also served in uniform. It was traumatizing for the wounded soldiers and those who treated them, said former Army nurse Mary Powell.

Powell, a Vietnam veteran, shared her storiesTuesday in the Bayley Room at a lecture titled “Our War in Vietnam,” sponsored by Ohio Wesleyan’s College of Republicans and Young Democratic Socialists of America.

Powell said she became an Army nurse when she was 23. As a native New Yorker, Powell attended Columbia University School of Nursing and graduated in 1969. During her senior year, she was unable to pay tuition. At that time, the Army needed nurses and offered to provide financial assistance with a two-year commitment to serve after graduation.

Powell became an internal medicine nurse and was stationed at the 24th Evacuation Hospital at Long Binh for a year beginning in November 1970.

Powell said she can speak about her experiences today only because she worked in internal medicine, not in emergency medicine.

“Every nurse I knew in Vietnam who worked in surgery … is on 100% disability for PTSD,” Powell said, “One of the nurses who is on 100% PTSD, my friend Nancy, was in the room next to me. The first day she was assigned to neurosurgery, she took care of a 19-year-old without a face.”

Only two percent of the soldiers admitted to emergency treatment died, but the rest were in horrifying conditions, Powell said. It was routine for nurses to avoid admitting feelings toward the soldiers and about the war.

“When we say goodbye to the guys we would say goodbye, good luck, and we’d shut down on feelings,” Powell said.

About 15 students and staff members attended the lecture. Powell avoided speaking to the audience with a traditional mic and podium and instead herded everyone into a circle to engage in a more personal conversation.

Sophomore Jacob Delight said, “I came to this event because I was interested in joining YDSA. I hadn’t heard about Vietnam on a personal level. So it was interesting to be able to put a face to it.”

Senior Amanda Hays, played a big role in planning the event.

“It was great, she was a wonderful speaker. It’s important to hear these people’s stories while they’re still around,” Hays said.

YDSA meets at 7 p.m. Saturday in Stuyvesant Hall’s Fishbowl; College Republicans meet at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Welch Hall.

“Fighting Words” focus on peaceful protests

Alex Emerson

Transcript Correspondent

aaemerso@owu.edu

“Fighting words” took on a more peaceful tone on campus recently.

That theme was a play on words for a display in the faculty-staff dining room at the Hamilton Williams Campus Center Wednesday, focused on the effectiveness of peaceful protests around the world,.

Tables at the event displayed the flags of six nations and included papers with examples of protest, along with laptops that showed a video or an article of those protests or of revolutionary poetry. The countries included the U.S., Argentina, Afghanistan, Hong Kong/China, Serbia and Czechoslovakia.

Every country had a phrase or a line of poetry that illuminated the message of a particular cause. Language and expression clearly was an integral part of those protests.

Sophomore Meg Edwards, a member of the House of Linguistic Diversity, put this display together for her house project.

Edwards said she focused on this issue because she believes peaceful protests are more effective than people think and she wanted to raise awareness of the history of effective peaceful protests.

“I’ve heard people say that peaceful protest isn’t enough and that violent protests might be more effective, but I’m a believer in nonviolent action does work,” Edwards said.

Violent protests could legitimize the oppression of the regime and lead to less support for the cause. Instead, peaceful protests are the most effective route to change, but should also be loud and hard to ignore, she said.

“In Hong Kong, there were so many people in the street that they couldn’t be avoided,” Edwards said.

Thousands of people filled the streets of Hong Kong over the past year, protesting the introduction of a bill that would have allowed for the extradition of criminal fugitives to mainland China. Many blocked roads and chanted “Hong Kongers, add oil,”which is a widely used phrased roughly translated to “keep it going.”

The famous phrase was spoken in Konglish, a mix between Cantonese and English, according to information at that table.

Protest through art was a big part of this project as well. It’s effective because poetry or plays can reach a lot of people, and also they’re entertaining, Edwards said.

The Afghanistan table featured poetry translated from Pashto to English. This particular poetry was a forbidden form of expression passed around by the oppressed women of Afghanistan.

One example: “Daughter, in America the river isn’t wet. Young girls learn to fill their jugs on the internet.”

And a 22 syllable poem that women in Afghanistan create, called a landlay, is shared by word of mouth and is used to express forbidden love.

Edwards got a lot of support from her housemates who came to see her project.

Senior Sarah Gielink thought the event was important in light of the political tension in America.

“It’s important to take a step back and look back on history,” Gielink said. “And what other people have done in the face of oppression.”

Nonprofit work beckons SOAN students

Meg Edwards

Transcript correspondent

mmedward@owu.edu

Sociology and anthropology students needn’t fear a lack of meaningful work after they leave Ohio Wesleyan, the non-profit field offers many opportunities.

That message was delivered Wednesday in Elliott Hall by the Department of Sociology-Anthropology (SOAN), which hosted a lunch for students interested in nonprofit work.

The event featured guest panelists Mel Corroto, executive director of Andrew’s House and Kerri Robe, the assistant program manager for OWU’s Service Learning office. The panel was moderated by Sally Leber, the director of OWU Service Learning.

Andrew’s House, 39 West Winter St., is the former home of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. After the fraternity left in 1993, the neighboring St. Peter’s Episcopal church purchased the property.

Now, Andrew’s House is “COhatch before COhatch was COhatch” for nonprofits, in the words of Leber, describing a network of community workspaces. The community center is home to seven nonprofits and also hosts its own programs, such as legal clinics and cooking classes, and features a large mural that depicts Paul Dean, OWU’s associate professor of sociology.

Corroto and Robe each described their very different paths to working at nonprofits. Corroto graduated with a degree in English literature, but found her way into the business world working for Borders Books.

Running a small nonprofit is a lot like running a business, Corroto said.

“I have to wear many hats,” she said, adding the most important part is “fundraising, fundraising, fundraising.”

Robe said she planned on becoming a nurse from an early age, but she struggled with science courses in college and realized that “really, I just wanted to help people.”

She said she worked in direct service for several years before moving into prevention and now helps coordinate programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters and other mentorships between OWU students and Delaware schools.

Her advice for students looking to get into nonprofit work: “relationships, relationships, relationships.”

Many nonprofits are within walking distance or a short drive from campus that are constantly looking for volunteers, Robe said. Making connections in the community and building those relationships early can help students find work after graduation.

Leber drew attention to the high rate of burnout among nonprofit workers, and the stress of constant fundraising.Robe said that self-care was important.

“It’s really important to have these reflection times … so I can be the best person for these people [in need].”

Leber said it is important for anyone doing service to see it as a mutual exchange, rather than a one-way act of charity.

“I haven’t done any act of service where I haven’t learned more from the other person than I’ve given,” she said.

Senior Makaila Weir, who is on the SOAN student board, said the board decided to organize the event to educate students on opportunities after college, as many students had expressed an interest in nonprofit work.

She said she enjoyed hearing about the different tracks Robe and Corotto took to arrive in nonprofits.

“You hear about the burnout,” Weir said, and added that she is glad to hear that they are still passionate about their work so far into their careers.

The event was catered by an Ohio Wesleyan SOAN student, junior Courtney Owens, who recently started her own catering company, The O’s Catering.

AI won’t erase need for human talent

Meg Edwards

Transcript Correspondent

mmedward@owu.edu

Machines will only control the future if we let them.

That was the core message delivered by David J Staley, associate professor of history and director of the Humanities Institute at The Ohio State University, at the latest Great Decisions lecture Friday titled “Artificial Intelligence and Data: Augment or Automate?”

The 1982 Buckeye Valley graduate returned to Delaware to address a room of fifty to sixty community members, many retirees, at the William Street United Methodist Church.

Staley said the challenges which graduating students will face in the job market cannot purely be attributed to artificial intelligence.

AI “doesn’t have the consciousness to say, hmm, whose job should I take today,” he said, earning laughterfrom the audience. It will be humans, he said, who will make the decision to replace workers with artificial intelligence.

“If technology can do a job better and cheaper, technology replaces human beings every time,” he said.

AI is quickly replacing many jobs once thought to be safe from mechanization, such as skilled labor or desk jobs like accounting and editing, Staley said.

He also recommended the audience watch videos from the robotics company Boston Dynamics, which has developed robots capable of lifelike movement, which Staley imagines could be used to replace human troops in battle zones. Robots could remove the human cost from warfare.

Combining artificial intelligence with human intelligence is one way forward. For instance, Staley said cyborg chess, in which a human and a computer play together on the same team, allows mediocre chess players to defeat both master chessmen and the most advanced AI technology.

Some things AI can’t do include tasting wine, creating original works of art, adapting quickly to a new situation and imagining something that does not yet exist, he said.

Modern education must adjust to this new world and develop not only knowledge and skills for students, but also key human attributes such as flexibility, teamwork, communication, and creativity. Such skills will be necessary for determining ethics in a world in which robots have legal responsibility and AI can increasingly make decisions too complex for humans to understand, Staley said.

“Politicians should be engaged in regulation,” Staley said, adding that in few other fields are researchers allowed to run experiments without considering the long-term costs of their findings.

In biology, for instance, researchers are asked to consider the potential impact of their experiments, while technologists are permitted to explore anything in the name of progress.

Staley cited deep fake technology, which allows for realistic manipulation of video, as an example of a technology which was created without any prior consideration of its consequences.

Staley also said those interested in foreign or domestic policy become informed about artificial intelligence and its outsized implications for society.

Becky Cornett, an OSU Wexner Medical Center employee for 30 years, introduced Staley, highlighting his work and recommending his book, “Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education.”

Delaware resident Donna Jean Savely, a former secretary at Ohio Wesleyan, said this is the third year she and her husband have attended a Great Decisions lecture.

“Sometimes they’re too long and too detailed,” she said of the talks, but she said she is looking forward to this year’s series.

Bishops’ lose last game of regular season

By Peter Lujan

Transcript Sports Editor

pllujan@owu.edu

Denison University spoiled the last regular season game for the Ohio Wesleyan men’s basketball team Saturday afternoon.

The Bishops’ lost by 16 points to their rivals, but look to turn it around with inspired play as the North Coast Atlantic Conference tournament begins tomorrow. Senior post Grant Gossard and freshman guard Jack Clement led the way, scoring 15 and 16 points respectively.

The Bishops’ struggled Saturday and never led nor tied the game. While they brought it to within two points at the 14:34 mark in the first half, the Bishops’ were down by 20 or more for the majority of the game.

Despite the loss, efficient offensive production from sophomore wing Ethan Stanislawski was a positive on a rather negative afternoon.

“It’s always nice to have a guy that you know can go get a bucket when you need one,” freshman post Grant Spicer said.

Stanislawski scored 14 points on Saturday, but he brings much more to the floor as a leader on the team, Spicer said.

“I’ve loved playing with Ethan this year,” he said. “He’s not only one of the best players in our league, but also just a great guy to be around on and off the court.”

For the Bishops, Saturday was the last regular season game for their four seniors: Gossard, Tim Keifer, Jaret Gerber and Tristan Tillman.

“The seniors are our leaders, and I would say each and every senior has put their heart and soul into this program,” said sophomore guard Curtis White, who has been sidelined due to injury for the season.

The seniors played a major role for the Bishops this year, as Gerber and Gossard were heavily integrated into the rotation and Keifer started every single game this season.

“[Keifer’s] a guy who, his freshman and sophomore year, didn’t find too much playing time, but his senior year, he has been playing his best basketball.” White said. “This year he’s probably been one of our most consistent players.”

With this loss, the Bishops’ have now lost seven of their last eight games as they head into the NCAC tournament. The Bishops will play their first playoff game at 8 p.m. Tuesday against No.5 ranked Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.

Elizabeth Warren makes history at OWU’s Mock Convention

Connor Severino and Hailey de la Vara

Transcript correspondents

cmseveri@owu.edu

hhdelava@owu.edu

Ohio Wesleyan students elected the first-ever woman president Saturday at their Democratic Mock Convention.

Voters elected Elizabeth Warren as president and Stacey Abrams as vice president. Warren secured the election after a run-off vote with Bernie Sanders and was the first woman president elected since the beginning of the convention in 1884.

Abrams secured the vice presidency following a passionate endorsement from Sally Leber, OWU’s director of Service Learning, who highlighted her record defending voter’s rights and racial equality.

OWU alumna Valorie Schwarzmann, permanent chair of the convention’s committee, said, “Hoping as a country we have a sense of whom to be and who we want to lead us, I hope we can figure it out.”

The convention, begun Friday, always focuses on a political party and this year’s event simulated a Democratic Party nominating convention, with the theme “The Future is Ours.”

William Louthan, a politics and government professor, led the invocation for the event, animating the crowd with his introduction of “Welcome to the party of the people.”

David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, presented the opening message, encouraging students to get involved in the upcoming presidential election and to register to vote.

Alaina Shearer, a candidate from Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, rallied the crowd by stressing the importance of this year’s election. Proceeding her speech was a performance by the acapella group OWtsiders, who set the mood for the remainder of the convention.

Also speaking was Alex Moscou, a senior and survivor from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018, addressed the crowd about gun violence, earning enthusiastic recognition for his courageousness and leadership.

The convention’s atmosphere was filled with energy and optimism throughout both days and seemed to unify students.

“There was a higher level of energy and a deeper engagement of issues, compared to the last Mock Convention,” OWU President Rock Jones said.

Drama was on hand, too, when security escorted out sophomore Hamzah Malik, the state chair for Ohio, after he refused to leave the microphone in defense of Vermin Supreme for vice president. Supreme is a performance artist and perennial Democratic candidate.

Malik had collected enough signatures to nominate Supreme, but the executive committee ruled the move invalid on the grounds Supreme is actually an Independent candidate.

Throughout, students delivered addresses about issues such as climate change, student loan debt, equality and healthcare. A vision for an equal and ecological friendly economy coincides with the interests of Warren and runner up Sanders.

Students represented their home states and with their votes, Warren surpassed runner up Sanders 111-to-52. The remaining candidates came in a close third place, with each having around 30 votes.

“It was so exciting because not only is this OWU history but country history being the first time we’ve had all women,” junior Alexis Greene said.

The convention concluded with scores of balloons and cheers.

Transcript correspondent Meg Edwards contributed to this report.

Forget the myth, English majors can do well with their degree

Alex Emerson

Transcript Correspondent

aaemerso@owu.edu

Turns out majoring in English has earned a bad rap.

That generally accepted impression is a myth, according to a couple of Ohio Wesleyan English professors who pinched hit for a missing speaker scheduled to lead a Thursday discussion titled “What Did I Do with My English Major?”

The event’s focus aimed to help students understand what they can do with an English major after graduation, as well as pointing to the resources OWU has available for them.

Nancy Comorau, an associate English professor and Patricia Demarco, an English professor, led the conversation after OWU alumna Kristina Wheeler (’16), who was going to preside, was unable to attend for personal reasons, according to Comorau. Wheeler, who has an English degree, is an editorial and production assistant at The Ohio State University Press.

The discussion was informative despite not going as planned. Comorau and Demarco talked about paths for English majors, including graduate school, professional school and career paths.

There’s a myth that majoring in English is a bad idea, which isn’t really true.

“There’s this idea that when you say you’re majoring in English, people say ‘OK, well are you going to teach?’” Comorau said.

English majors have an advantage with careers in communications because they know how to write and many internships are available in any field that involves writing, Demarco and Comorau said. Demarco talked specifically about the writing and editing experience involved in a political internship.

“Working in politics is great editorial work. Even in local politics, nothing gets released without going through lots of revisions and edits,” Demarco said.

For the English major interested in creative writing, or in graduate school, a Master of Fine Arts degree is an option, which involves rigorous coursework. A master’s is typically necessary in order to teach a subject like creative writing at a university, Comorau said.

OWU offers English majors resources that give students real-world experience. An example is the Sagan Academic Resource Center where students help other students edit writing assignments.

Not only that, the Sagan Center also improves the people skills of students working there because they interact with people all day, said senior Brandon Stevens, a member of Sagan.

Other helpful organizations include the Sturges Script, a student-run blog made by associate English professor Zackariah Long, The OWL, OWU’s literary magazine and The Transcript.

If you’re an English major worried about how much money you’ll make, you could have the wrong idea about that as well.

“English majors tend to outpace other majors in terms of money … English majors make less at first and more money later on,” Demarco said.

Boardgame Club hosts game night

Photos by Erin Ross

Online Design Editor

emross@owu.edu

Ohio Wesleyan University students gathered in the lobby of Stuyvesant Hall to participate in Boardgame Club’s casual game night on Wednesday. The Boardgame Club hosted the event to provide students a way to relax amongst the stress of the spring semester, according to the post in OWU Daily.