Jonathan B. Bethiel – The Transcript

The worst is yet to come

The other day my friends and I were trying to recall the most embarrassing concert we had ever attended. Performers such as Lil’ Kim and the Jo Bros were mentioned before it donned on us: the most embarrassing was yet to come – Drake Bell, courtesy of the Campus Programming Board’s (CPB) Bishop Bash.

This begs the question: why Drake Bell? What has Bell done besides singing the theme song for Drake and Josh and tweet about how much he hates Justin Bieber?

Seniors may vaguely recall the Hellogoodbye debacle of the spring of 2012. The event was so poorly attended the school decided to stop bringing in “big name” performers for a while; well, until now. Until Drake Bell.

When similar small schools have concerts featuring artists like Hoddie Allen, Chiddy Bang, T-Pain and Chance the Rapper, it’s pretty obvious why a Nickelodeon has-been doesn’t bring the excitement. The thing is, some of those artists and others like them are well within our price range. Obviously Delaware, Ohio, isn’t a sought after tour destination – but hey, for $20,000 one would probably be willing to make the trip.

According to The Huffington Post, in February of last year Bell filed for bankruptcy, with his debts totaling over $500,000. In 2013, Bell made only $14,099. We are paying him $20,000, which is more than his income for all of 2013. You are welcome Drake Bell.

CPB’s treasurer Paige Springhetti, a sophomore, said the remaining $30,000 in the club’s concert fund went toward the opening act – Liberty Deep Down – and production and advertising costs.

This $50,000—granted to CPB by WCSA—is coming from the $260 each student pays per year as an “activity fee.” If you do the math, each student is paying around $28 for Bishop Bash, not including the $10 one must pay for a ticket.

It will be interesting to see if attendance is high enough to make this Bishop Bash an annual event, but if 2012 is any indication, I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic.

The students who planned Bishop Bash are passionate and committed – that is obvious if you talk to any member of CPB about the event. I just wish their choice of artist was someone our campus could support without having to channel our 12-year-old selves, especially because we are the ones paying for him.

International students pressured to find jobs post-grad

With graduation looming, seniors are beginning to feel the pressure of uncertain post-grad plans. International students—if they wish to stay in the country—must find a job within three to five months of graduation, adding extra stress to this already tumultuous transitory period.

According to the Institute of International Education, a non-profit that releases an annual “open doors” report, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the U.S. has increased by 8 percent “to a record high of 886,052 student in the 2013/14 academic year.”

“I decided to go to school in the U.S. because I believed that this country has the best higher education in the world,” said Ibrahim Saeed, a senior from Karachi, Pakistan. “However, there’s a cliff for [international students] after graduation.”

According to current U.S. immigration policy, international students studying in the United States on an F1—or student—visa have three to five months after graduation to find a job under their student visa. This work authorization under the student visa category is referred to as “optional practical training” (OPT), which allows them to stay in the U.S. for 12 months, with the possibility of an additional 17 months after graduation if their major was in STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) fields.

According to Dorota Kendrick, OWU’s assistant director of International and Off Campus Programming (IOCP), “OPT serves as a great opportunity for students to gain practical experience in the field that they have just invested the last four years of their life studying.”

“Immigration permits them to do this on a student visa without having to worry about obtaining a work visa,” she said.

Adding another obstacle to employment, international students must find a job directly related to their major. This can pose a problem for students with liberal arts degrees.

“Students from the U.S. can take any job that they are offered, and while that might not be ideal they are not restricted to certain kinds of jobs that relate to their majors,” senior Megan Buys said. “International students have extra laws that they have to follow, and I think trying to color within those lines creates a different kind of pressure for many students.”

Buys hails from Pretoria, South Africa and said she has applied to several graduate schools, hoping to extend her student status. However, Buys also has applied to several jobs as back up options, but has run into issues finding jobs directly related to her history and psychology majors.

“Even though I have a lead about a writing job with a publishing house, I might not be able to take it because creative writing is my minor, not my major,” she said. “I think this is extraordinarily unfair given the fact that I have eight writing credits on my transcript that are from all three of my focus areas, not just English.”

Kendrick also shares Buys’ discontent with the current system.

“In the decade or so I have been doing this, it has been frustrating to see some students struggle with the major specific limitation to their job search or even the limitation of not surpassing the accrual of more than 90 days of unemployment,” she said. “The transition from college life to work life is stressful on its own, and it seems unfair that additional limitations are placed on international students in this already stressful time in their lives.”

For other international seniors however, these limitations have served as motivation to begin the job search early.

Mainza Moono came to Ohio Wesleyan from Lusaka, Zambia and will be graduating with an economics major and management minor. Moono said he already has an investment banking position lined up post-graduation, thanks to an internship in wealth management he had last summer. Moono said he received this internship with the help of the economics department’s internship coordinator.

“Personally, I don’t feel the pressure,” he said. “The finance industry is very competitive, and the job application process happens very early, and very fast. The best, and most competitive positions are already filled by December, of which half were filled early in October. I got my job offer in early October 2014.”

Moono said he views the restrictions on major related positions fair.

“We spend four years studying something we think we are passionate about,” he said. “That’s a lot of time to spend on something you don’t want to eventually pursue a career in. The policy is competitive, and forces graduates to focus on a career they have the most experience in from an education standpoint.”

Similarly, Saeed—a computer science and economics double major—has accepted a technology analyst position with JP Morgan Chase, who will sponsor his work visa. Saeed attributes the experience he gained through his Summer on the Cuyahoga internship last summer with his procurement of this position.

Other seniors though, are still in the process of looking for jobs.

“There is more pressure on me to find a job than the average graduating senior because even to spend more time in this country after graduation, I need to have a job,” said senior Zain Kahn, who wants to work in the U.S. before obtaining his Master in Business Administration and returning to Kiratchi, Pakistan to start his own company.

“I do have the option of going home and working [after graduation] but the professionalism and opportunities found in this country are hard to match in Pakistan,” he said.

Ohio Wesleyan does provide resources to help international students prepare for their postgraduate plans.

International students are automatically enrolled in a mandatory course (worth .25 units) UC 99, or international student success, taught by Kendrick. Two of the seven sessions of this course are specific to F1 regulations.

“I cover, in very thorough detail, all the work authorization options including OPT,” she said. “Once per term I also hold work authorization options for F1 student workshops for those students that need a refresher or have questions. I also hold another meeting for seniors, called senior transitions, where among other topics, I discuss OPT requirements and application procedures.”

While IOCP works with international students’ visa concerns, the Office of Career Service (OCS) helps students with their job search.

Nancy Westfield, assistant director of OCS, said on a whole, international students utilize the resources OCS offers earlier in their college careers than the average student.

“Since their job search is inherently a little different, [international students] do start thinking about what they are going to be doing with their major and building up their resumes sooner than the average student,” she said.

Despite these resources, the underlying frustration with the system remains.

“As a university we are so accommodating but with Immigration it is very black and white and life isn’t black and white,” Kendrick said. “From my perspective, one of the many advantages of a liberal arts education is that it allows students to gain valuable skills and a greater depth of knowledge from multiple disciplines that will lead them to excel in an array of different fields after graduation. The major specific limitations that Immigration imposes seems counter intuitive to that purpose.”

Fundraising central topic at faculty meeting

Ohio Wesleyan has not done a great job of keeping parents and alumni involved and connected to the university, according to the vice president for university advancement Colleen Garland.

That has to change and will change, Garland told faculty at their monthly meeting Monday, if the university is to raise an ambitious $200 million over the next seven years.

“Connect today, create tomorrow” is the newly minted logo for the fundraising campaign, which the Ohio Wesleyan Board of Trustees approved earlier this month.

Garland said Ohio Wesleyan’s fundraising improved over the last few years. On average, the university receives about $15 million in cash yearly, but raised more than $22 million during the most recent fiscal year.

However, Garland emphasized emphasized that giving goes up and down.

“We have had a terrific couple of years,” she said. “We are working very hard to maintain this momentum.”

Prior to settling on the $200 million goal, trustees asked for a “feasibility study” by an outside consultant to examine fundraising objectives.

The consultant interviewed about 50 of OWU’s likely donors at the highest potential donation levels to “test the funding objectives as well as the overall dollar amount,” while “probing each individual they interviewed for that person’s projected donation to the campaign,” Garland said.

The consultant’s report recommended a goal between the $180 million to $210 million. The report was presented to the trustees in May, but the $200 million campaign goal wasn’t settled on until earlier this month.

The report also suggested a split between types of donations, aiming for 75 percent in outright giving, with 25 percent coming from planned, or estate, donations. In the past, OWU heavily depended on estate gifts, Garland said, which was a reflection of the economy at the time. However, as the campaign proceeds, Garland said her office is looking “for something a little more aggressive” in terms of outright giving.

Garland also said in her report that there is no magic formula for determining a campaign goal, “but there are a few benchmarks you look at.”

One key benchmark is trustee giving as a percentage of the total. According to Garland, a minimum of 25 percent of the total goal should come from the Board, adding that at some schools that number is as high as 40 percent.

Garland said another important consideration is the wealth of the prospect pool. Reflecting on a screening of all of the alumni and parents in OWU’s “prospect pool,” Garland said the results are “very, very promising.”

“We feel very confident that we have the wealth in our prospect pool to raise this kind of money,” she said. The challenge will be to get people more involved and connected to the university.

“Most of these are people who have had almost no relationship with Ohio Wesleyan since their graduation,” she said.

Despite this, Garland said the trustees are very inspired from the campaign’s progress to date. According to Garland, “reach back gifts” from projects currently ongoing are included in the total funds raised, including the Merrick Hall and Edwards Gym projects. Consequently, OWU already has $47 million toward the $200 million dollar goal.

Additionally, Garland shared news of gifts that haven’t yet been booked. A couple, who wishes to remain anonymous, donated enough money to leverage up to 12 matching gifts of $250,000 or more. As of now, five of the 12 are already spoken for, Garland said. Two donors who graduated in the 2000s made commitments of $200,000 each.

“I’m not sure if that’s ever been done before,” Garland said.

Going ahead with $200 million goal over seven years will result in a three-year “quiet phase” or “leadership phase” where Garland’s office focuses its efforts on gifts at the highest levels.

“When we are ready to move into the public phase [the fourth year] we want to be at around $125 million before doing so,” she said. “If we are wildly successful, which is certainly possible, then we will reexamine that $200 million number and determine if that is the best we can do or might we reconsider.”

She said the campaign will require the hiring of five additional employees for her office for at least seven years. The university is in a hiring freeze and is even exploring whether there should cuts in the number of faculty and staff positions because of declining enrollment.

Garland said she appreciates that adding to her staff is a sensitive issue, but said funding for these positions will come from unrestricted bequests rather than the university’s operating budget.

Also at the faculty meeting:

The Faculty Personnel Committee provided proposed changes to the faculty handbook regarding promotions, tenure, probationary periods, merit pay and post-tenure feedback for faculty.
President Rock Jones highlighted admissions statistics for the year saying there’s been a slight increase in visits and applications to date, as compared to a year ago.
Jones also said newly admitted students indicated the top three categories of “most important” concern are the quality of their major, cost and outcome or job prospects of their education.
As a result, the Office of Admissions is looking at changing visiting programs to allow for more students to meet individually with faculty to help them better understand the quality of majors. In terms of marketing, there also will be a larger push to share post-graduate success stories with admitted students.
The faulty approved adding two courses to OWU’s catalog: a Poverty, Equity and Social Justice Course Connection capstone seminar, and Psychology and the Law.

Online classes on OWU’s horizon

Online courses could be the future of Ohio Wesleyan’s curriculum. This month, a faculty focus group assembled to assess the idea, focusing on the fact that offering this additional course structure could provide revenue for the university.

The ability to take courses online would only apply to the summer school sessions. According to Provost Chuck Steinmetz, the principle advantage in online summer courses is that OWU could take them without the additional cost of housing and loss of income from a summer job.

“I don’t think our goal would be to generate more revenue as much as make it easier for students to complete their degree in four years,” he said.

Steinmetz said there is interest among the faculty on hybrid learning, which would allow classes to incorporate both online and in-class participation, and some professors on campus have already begun offering hybrid classes during the academic year. Online summer courses are designed to enhance the experience of OWU students needing to catch up on course work.

“My goal in offering on-line courses in the summer would be to help students who have fallen behind in their academic plan and allow students to complete more than one major during their four year period,” Steinmetz said. “This is consistent with our philosophy behind offering the summer school option.”

According to Richard Leavy, professor of psychology, this would allow students who, for a variety of reasons, cannot come to campus for classes to “benefit from our knowledge and pay for the privilege.”

Since online courses require little infrastructure from the university, “the cost of offering them may be rather little,” he said. “The number of people registering for an online course could conceivably be greater than in one of our classroom courses, so on balance, it would be financially beneficial, although it depends on how much the student pays and how many enroll.”

Online classes are not unique, but they would usher in a new era for the university. Large state schools have been offering internet-based distance learning as an education option for years. In fact, beginning in the early 2000s, it was possible to earn an entire degree online. However, Denison, Oberlin, Wittenberg, Kenyon, Wooster – have yet to incorporate these types of classes into their program.

However, according to President Rock Jones, technology is reshaping much of American higher education.

“Technology has changed every aspect of the way we communicate and the way we gather information and grow our knowledge base,” he said.

Students and faculty alike seem torn between the pros and cons of online courses.

“In general, I agree with those who say that we should focus on doing what we do best: provide an excellent educational experience in the classroom,” said Lynette Carpenter, professor of English.

“We have a strong faculty of classroom teachers, and those kinds of teaching skills don’t necessarily translate into good online teaching.”

Leavy agreed stating quality as his main concern.

“If the knowledge gained by students is the same, if faculty members derive the same outcomes including: pay, student relationships, and their own intellectual growth from offering online courses, there is no appreciable downside,” he said.

“What I don’t know is how to insure such a level of quality.”

Ohio Wesleyan students currently have the option of taking online courses from other institutions and transferring the credits – a process junior Bridget McQuaide described as “a huge hassle.”

In this respect, students would benefit from having the option to take OWU sanctioned online courses. According to Jones, introducing online courses as an option for students wishing to take classes over the summer is also an option.

“Some have suggested the benefit of summer course offerings utilizing technology so that students can complete OWU coursework while participating in internships, completing undergraduate research, offering volunteer service, or engaged in other important activities while scattered across the country and around the world in the summer,” he said.

McQuaide added she believes this option would provide opportunities for students to take courses over the summer who are at risk of not graduating on time and need to re-take a class from home.

The main concern related to online courses is that the format could detract from the OWU experience.

“I believe that the OWU experience includes the personal treatment with faculty, the residential halls communities and other aspects that would be missed through online classes,” said junior Lautaro Cabrera, who has taken online courses in the past and said he had difficulty finding them engaging.

Both Leavy and Carpenter said, while they believe their courses could be translated to the online platform, they are hesitant to do so.

“I’m not motivated to transform them into online courses,” Carpenter said.

“I’m still working to improve my ability to stimulate good in-class discussions and devise good active learning opportunities, especially through group problem solving.”

While the idea of offering online courses is still in it’s infancy, Jones said he believes it deserves full consideration.

“I remain convinced that the residential liberal arts experiences finds its greatest value in the direct interaction among students and between students and their teachers,” he said.

“Technology can support that fundamental interaction, but it cannot replace it.

“Ohio Wesleyan has the opportunity to explore innovative ways for utilizing technology to enhance teaching and learning on our campus, and I am eager to see where the conversation leads.”

Delta Gamma does a week of good

Students around campus focused on giving back last week as part of “Do Good Week” presented by Delta Gamma (DG).

Delta Gamma’s motto is Do Good and Delta Gamma nationally encouraged chapters in the US and Canada to Do Good during the Week of September 15.

“It also enables chapters to encourage others on their campuses to adopt Doing Good as a way of life, as we Delta Gammas have done,” said Mariah Bockbrader, the president of the ___ chapter of DG.

The sisters of Delta Gamma primarily used social media to promote ways for others to do good and get involved, as well as giving examples throughout the week of how they have given back to the community.

“We Delta Gammas strive to live by the motto of Doing Good, and are happy we have an entire week dedicated to helping OWU strive to live by the same motto,” Bockbrader said.

DG’s Vice President of Foundation, Ali Phillips helped to plan the majority of the week’s events and stated “Do Good week differs from a normal philanthropy event because it’s focus is more on bringing awareness to our motto, which is Do Good. This week really highlights what we as Delta Gamma’s stand for and we used this week to bring awareness to the OWU campus.”

Since the focus was primarily awareness, DG did not raise money throughout the week, Phillips said.

Examples of volunteer work DG’s participated in throughout the week include: bingo at Willow Brook Nursing Home and spending time with the Miracle League in Columbus. Senior Abby Reynolds event donated her hair to Locks of Love, as her act of good for the week.

“I’ve done it once before so it had kind of been in the back of my mind until do good week came around,” Reynolds said. “I knew I wanted to do something good, and I thought this would be the right thing.”

Additionally, members tabled in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center and had a sheet for the campus community to sign with examples of how they chose to Do Good throughout the week. The table also had a large glass bowl filled with ideas of how to pay it forward and Do Good throughout the rest of the semester.

Senior Lauren Moore said this week helped her to realize “how committed DGs are to service.”

Mobile Food Market provides fresh produce to Delaware disadvantaged

Colleen Lilly packs her car with food she collected for three households who could not provide their own transportation to the church. Photo by Hannah Urano

“Numbers 93 to 100,” called Sister Sandy, over a din of muffled voices. “Numbers 93 to 100, you are up.”

The numbers refer to the order of individuals waiting to collect food during Mobile Food Market, held at Highpoint Church in Delaware.

Andrews House, a non-profit organization in Delaware, partners with the Mid-Ohio Foodbank twice a month to, “bring fresh food and groceries to individuals and families in communities where food access is limited,” according to the Andrews House Website.

Liz Bowman, the operations manager at Andrews House, said each Mobile Market attracts around 200 families.

“Our largest turnout was in November of 2013, where we served 304 households at one market,” she said. “In 2013, we served a total of 5,087 households and data collected at sign in was used to determine that based on the number of individuals in the households, we served 13,213 people in 2013.”

Visitors at each Mobile Market are asked to sign in by noting their name, address, the total number of people in their household with a breakdown of their ages (0-17, 18-59, 60+).

They are then given a number based on the order they arrived in, and asked to wait in the church’s recreation room.

Each Mobile Market, families begin arriving at the church hours before the noon start time.

Sister Sandy, an active community volunteer, calls out the numbers at the April 7 market.

“I do it because these people are just like me,” she said. “They are hungry, just like me. I don’t want anyone to slip through the cracks.”

Community members collect food. Photo by Hannah Urano

As a whole, Delaware is a relatively affluent county, with only 4.7 percent of households classified as living below the poverty level in 2013 (the lowest poverty rate in the state.)

However, Melinda Corroto, executive director of Andrews House, said around 18,000 people in Delaware County “have hunger as an issue.”

“It could mean they miss a meal a day, or a meal a week,” she said.

“But in general, food security is an issue for them and we see that as a great need for our community.”

Many visitors indicate that they would not be able to make ends meet without the help they receive from the Mobile Market and other similar services.

Jerry Henderson and Ann Lesieur said they visit the Mobile Market twice a month.

“Since they reduced my food stamps to $15, I rely pretty heavily on this food,” Lesieur said.

“Also, I’m diabetic and they make sure they have special food for me here.”

David Braumiller, a self-proclaimed “Delaware landmark,” said he comes twice a month to collect food for himself and his wife.

“The price of food makes it hard to get by,” he said. “When a gallon of milk is more than a gallon of gas it’s hard to chose which one to buy. I shouldn’t have to chose.”

The waiting area is filled with community members of all ages. Several individuals, also waiting for their numbers to be called, nodded in agreement with Braumiller.

Colleen Lilly, who used to work at the Thomson Store at Ohio Wesleyan, said she was collecting food for three families in addition to her own.

“Some of my neighbors just don’t have transportation,” she said.

“So I like to help out when I can.”

According to their annual report, in the fiscal year 2013 the Mid-Ohio Foodbank distributed 48.6 million pounds of food and groceries, including 17.4 million pounds of fresh produce, among with the 20 counties and 550 organizations they serves.

Besides the Mobile Market, Corroto said Andrews House provides several additional services to the disadvantaged in the area including: a free summer lunch program for children; Grace Clinic, which offers free medical care for the uninsured weekly; and, a legal clinic, which provides free legal service for those who qualify.

“My favorite part of my job is getting to know the people in the community, from the volunteers to the people we serve and everyone in between,” Corroto said.

New NCAA ruling on athlete unions will not affect OWU athletes

A Labor Relations Board hearing commenced last Wednesday, in response to a group of Northwestern football players who signed a petition to seek union protection; the outcome of which could have historic implications for college athletics.

The petition is the first step in the union certification process. With this action, players are hoping to gain union access, essentially making them employees of the university.

Players told local press that they feel they have no say in their lives in relation to their sport.

According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, “those players want the College Athletes Players Association to act on their behalf by collectively bargaining with the NCAA, the governing body of college sports.”

Union representation would afford athletes a say in matters that truly affect them as athletes, as a union’s main goal is to collectively bargain for benefits in fair terms with management.

The article explains the goal of these athletes is not to receive payment, but “for players representation in discussions on medial issues, due-process rights, scholarship increase and guarantees, and the creation of an education fund.”

Northwestern is a Division 1 school, and part of the Big Ten athletic conference. However, like Ohio Wesleyan, Northwestern is a private university, because of this they have pull a state school wouldn’t have.

The NCAA however, is claiming that these individuals are students and not employees, and there are other ways to address their concerns.

Athletic director Roger Ingles said, “The lawyers for the unions believe the athletic scholarships are payment for the players performances.”

“Under this logic, all academic scholarships winners would also be able to unionize as their scholarships could be deemed in payment of their academic performances,” he said.

Ingles said he believes this action could potentially disrupt the balance of academics and athletics on a college campus.

“While I am not in favor of this approach, I do think it should make everyone sit down and reflect where our priorities are when it comes to collegiate athletics, especially at the major Division I level,” he said.

“The purpose of this group is to give the athletes a place at the table in discussions about things directly affecting them.”

According to Ingles any decision will lead to negative implications on all college athletes.

Ingles said it is unrealistic for Division III schools to pay athletes since the programs are not self-sustaining in their own right.

“In fact, very few Division I or II programs make a profit,” he said. “Division III has no athletic scholarships and generates very little revenue. Our major impact will a result of filter down legislation should the NCAA lose this case.”

Weighing the

Positives and

Negatives

There are some positives that could come from union representation.

Junior lacrosse player Matthew Sommi said he thought their petition seemed impractical at first, but he sees the merit in their case.

“Northwestern academics are extremely demanding,” he said.

“By gaining union power Northwestern athletes could see benefits such as a class schedule that revolves around a select sport, special tutoring, increased scholarships to athletes, and special networking opportunities.”

Sommi said the negatives that arise could outweigh the benefits for certain athletes. A union is predicated on equal opportunities for its members, which could, in turn, negatively impact certain individuals.

“In the case of Northwestern athletics you could possibly see the amount of full scholarships awarded to athletes decrease to increase the amount of scholarship money geared towards all sports and team members,” he said.

Ingles agreed stating, “the NCAA believes this movement by the union to unionize student athletes undermines the purpose of college and that is to get an education. Student athletic involvement is voluntary and the NCAA represents all student-athletes and not just those who want to professionalize.”

According to president Rock Jones, OWU doesn’t have to worry about a decision on this action affecting OWU athletes.

“There really is no comparison between athletics at a Big 10 School and athletics at Ohio Wesleyan,” he said.

“Our commitment is to the integrated experience of a student athlete, where student athletes receive no scholarships related to their academic talent, and where we remain fiercely loyal to concept of amateurism as a defining characteristic of the college student athlete.”

Sommi shared Jones’ attitude that the ruling of this case would not have any affect on OWU, stating that OWU athletes have no reason to start a union, “on the sole fact that our sports don’t generate any revenue stream for the university.”

Jones said, “Our student athletes are well served by their academic advisers and their coaches, and I cannot imagine a reason why a place like Ohio Wesleyan would benefit from union representation for student athletes.”

Swimming team falls, but solo students rise to success

Sophomore women's swimmer Tirion Sheafor (closest to camera) dives into the pool for the 100-meter freestyle during the Saturday meet against Denison. Sheafor finished the event with a time of 1:00.04. — Sophomore women’s swimmer Tirion Sheafor (closest to camera) dives into the pool for the 100-meter freestyle during the Saturday meet against Denison. Sheafor finished the event with a time of 1:00.04.

Freshman Anne Edwards set a school record at last weekend’s swimming and diving competitions, but the men’s and women’s teams still lost to Denison University and Kenyon College.

The two dual meets were their last preconference meets of the season, and they had a few first place individual finishes, showing they remain competitive against the Division III’s top two teams.

At the Saturday morning meet against Denison, Edwards set the school record in the 1000 yard freestyle with a time of 10:55.82, placing third in the competition.

The previous record was 10:59.00 and was set by Whitney Snow in 2006.

Edwards, who previously broke school records in both the 500 and 1650 yard freestyles, said she feels like she has accomplished her immediate goals, but still strives to swim faster.

Overall, Edwards said she has been pleased with her season.

“As a freshman, on the swim team, it’s hard to adapt to new people and the training that you’ve never experienced,” she said. “However, now I feel like a member of the team and have contributed my share of work for the team.”

In terms of diving, senior Anthony Peddle scored 249.75 points in the 1-meter competition.

The men’s team also had some impressive swims at Denison. Senior Sean Anthony placed first in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:13.16, and freshman Greyson Goodwin earned the first place spot in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 4:53.48.

Junior Matthew Mahoney placed second after Goodwin with a time of 4:57.82.

Mahoney said he was pleased with his time, and said he thinks the season has been successful for the team as a whole, “given all of the season and personal bests everyone has been getting in their races.”

“All the extra yards and practice we have put in this year are really starting to show and pay off at this point in the season,” he said.

“Everyone has been going out faster in the beginning of their races while being able to close and finish their races at a fast pace. Overall, everyone seems pretty excited to compete at conference and show the rest of the league how much we have improved since last year.”

The Bishops are part of a notoriously fast conference of Division III swimming, and hope to improve their rank from previous years.

“My strategy going into conference is to rely on the techniques that have been practiced and drilled all season long,” Mahoney said.

“This, in combination with the increased endurance from our more challenging practices this season, will help me avoid any feelings of nervousness and focus on swimming my races to the best of my abilities.”

Edwards said she is nervous about her competitors, but plans to focus on personally improving her times.

“My strategy is to swim my own race,” she said. “To me, it’s more rewarding to see a best time than placing in an event. It’s also my first experience at conference, so I want to have fun and take in the full experience.”

At the meet Friday night against Kenyon, senior Katie Helfrich finished first in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:29.76, out touching Kenyon’s Meaghan McLaughlin by almost four seconds.

Other standouts for the Bishops included sophomore Emmalee Nerantzis, who took second in both the 1000 yard freestyle and the 200 yard butterfly, and senior Olivia Gillison, placed second in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles.

On the men’s side, senior Taylor Smith finished second in the 200 yard IM with a time of 1:59.99, falling short of first place by just over a tenth of a second.

This year the conference meet will be held on Feb. 12-15 at Denison University’s Trumbull Aquatic Center.

Devices allow students to track vital signs, fitness

By Hannah Urano

Copy Editor

Health and human kinetics courses are integrating new technology into their classes, allowing students to get first-hand experience with fitness and health monitoring wristbands.

In the Exercise Perception course, taught by Nancy Knop, students were split into groups of four and given two bracelets to use throughout the assignment.

According to Knop, each student gathered at least two days of their own data, and will later use it to examine trends, and subsequently share their data with fellow students.

“Students will have the opportunity to research all devices relative to marketing, intended purposes, nature of the device, connectivity of the devise to different apps, embedded logic for motivation for client (i.e. notices that you have not moved in the last hour), ease of use, cost and so on,” she said.

Junior Krisite Prendergast said the goal of the assignment was to “research fitness applications and also fitness devices to find what they do, what they track and their strengths and weaknesses so we can compare them to see which is the best device out there.”

Prendergast said she used the Jawbone UP bracelet, which tracked “pretty much everything.”

The unisex wristbands come in an assortment of colors and look inconspicuous on the wearer.

According to the Jawbone website, “UP is a system that that takes a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. The wristband tracks your movement and sleep in the background. The app displays your data, lets you add things like meals and mood and delivers insights the keep you moving forward.”

Prendergast said her wristband had a battery life of ten days and was water resistant.

“It will tell you how long you were active or sedentary, how many miles you walked and how many calories you burned,” she said.
According the Prendergast, the most impressive aspect of the wristband was that it could track sleep.

“It keeps track of how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up, and how many hours you were in light or deep sleep,” she said. “On top of that, the bracelet is set so that it can wake you up at the best time in the morning or from an afternoon nap.”

Senior Casey Helms is also taking Exercise Perception. Helms used the FitBit Flex, which has similar features to the Jawbone UP.

“FitBit Flex has so many great features; these include tracking steps, distance travelled, minutes of intense activity and calories burned,” he said. “It even has a vibrating alarm that I used every night to wake me up in the morning. The best part is, these bands sync with a smartphone wirelessly via the Bluetooth feature. Having the bracelet on is a great way to stay motivated and aware of daily physical activity.”

Based on her personal results, Prendergast said she was surprised to learn how many steps she takes in a day.

“I always thought I was pretty sedentary throughout the day because of classes, but I never realized how much I actually did walk from when I go to class, in between classes or at soccer,” she said. “It was surprising to see that I walked over 12,000 steps a day.”

According to Helms, it is recommended that individuals get at least 10,000 steps per day to improve bone health and reduce the risk for many diseases.

Like Prendergast, Helms said he exceeded this amount, but said he initially believed his number should have been even higher since he exercises for several hours each day.

“However, I thought about it and it makes sense considering as students, we attend several hours of classes daily, as well as spend significant time doing homework,” he said.

Both Helms and Prendergast agreed that this technology could be useful in everyday life and that the benefits are applicable to the average person.

“From a de-conditioned person to a health-conscious athlete, this bracelet can show people what their health behaviors are and can help motivate them to live a less sedentary lifestyle,” Prendergast said. “For me, since I knew the bracelet was counting my steps, it motivated me to move more throughout the day.”

Knop said some brands of trackers will provide better information for specific populations and she wanted her students to consider how the information gathered from these devices might increase a person’s awareness of their behaviors.

“Consider how the awareness might then lead to increased motivation to change a behavior and then support the changed behavior,” she said.

Knop also said that there is a possibility of becoming “too measured, getting too much information, not relying on your own sensibilities to determine if you need to get up and move, or becoming too dependent on monitoring systems.”

Health and human kinetics professor Christopher Fink said his Sport and Exercise Nutrition class will be using similar trackers for different purposes later in the semester.

“We will be using the trackers to examine individual energy needs, and to compare to both hand-calculated metabolic estimates of energy requirement and also to various apps and software that estimate energy needs based on self-reported activity levels,” he said.

Prendergast said she enjoyed learning about this new technology.

“I think this technology is an excellent way for anyone to make a behavior change, whether their diet, physical activity level, or sleep,” she said. “I also like that you can set your own goals so a person can get healthy on their own pace.”