Susan Dileno, current Vice President for Enrollment Management at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, will replace Interim VP for Enrollment, Dave Wottle.
 Dileno will now oversee the offices of Admission and Financial Aid at Ohio Wesleyan University.
President Rock Jones said Dileno has been an enrollment professional for 30 years.
Prior to her job as VP for Enrollment at Baldwin Wallace, she worked as Dean of Enrollment Management at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., for four years and at Cleveland-based Case Western Reserve University for 11 years, which included a seven year term as the Director of Admission.
âIn each case, she was successful at building a strong program, increasing the size, strength and diversity of entering classes, and building an awareness of the institution among prospective students and their families as well as among high school counselors and other important participants in the college search process,â Jones said.
Dileno said she her skillset is a good match for OWU because she is nurturing and mentoring and has a collaborative style when it comes to her work.
At Baldwin Wallace, Dileno said she focused on improving first impressions for prospective students by incorporating the town around the campus and building a welcome center where Admissions is located.
âFirst impressions for prospective students and their parents could be everything,â she said.
She added that she does not have any definitive plans for OWU yet but she will focus on increasing enrollment, quality and selectivity of students.
âI hope the Admissions and Financial Aid here becomes a model for other schools,â Dileno said.
Jones said Dileno is highly respected and appreciated by her staff and faculty at the institutions she has served.
âI am confident she will bring new energy, vision, and strategy to our admission office and that with her leadership we will see Ohio Wesleyan continue to gain strength in student recruitment and in the composition of our student body,â Jones said.
Dileno said she is enthusiastic about health and physical fitness and runs as a hobby.
She said she has already started looking at TPX, platies and yoga facilities in the Delaware area. She said she is also a movie buff who loves to cook Thai, Indian and Italian food.
âAnythingâs fair game when youâre from Cleveland,â she said.
One of the major changes to be made to residential campus will be moving the SLUs on Rowland Avenue into a centralized community on Oak Hill. Image courtesy Craig Ullom
As part of phase one of the Student Housing Master Plan, Small Living Units on Rowland Avenue and Oak Hill Avenue will be replaced with apartment buildings and âconnection communities.â
Collaborative Architects Sandy Carr and Mike Dinardo, who designed the buildings, said they will be more energy efficient and have a âresidential feel.â
Craig Ullom, vice president for Student Affairs, said the process started in 2007 with the Residential Facilities Committee that worked with the Architects to develop the plan.
 âSince then we have been involved in a continual process of planning and refinement in tandem with the completion of over $20 million in improvements to student housing since 2009,â He said.
 Ullom said Mackey Mitchell, an architect firm that specializes in student housing, assessed the condition of the residential buildings last year with Lincoln Construction Company and Buildings and Grounds.
Director of Residential Life Wendy Piper said the infrastructure of the SLUs needs to be addressed in order to be a long-term investment for the university.
âA focused improvement was not enough,â Piper said. âThere needed to be replacement as opposed to repair.
âAs for the location for new construction, we are considering Rowland Avenue for apartment development and Oak Hill Avenue for a SLU neighborhood concept.â
Piper said not all of the details are set in stone, but the soonest construction could begin is in summer 2015, with the new residences opening in fall 2016. New construction would take 9 to 12 months.
âWe will continue the discussion with our Board of Trustees at the meeting next month, and the Board has indicated that they are eager to move ahead,â she said.
Piper also said where the SLU residents will relocate during construction is still being discussed.
âSome facilities could feasibly be done over the summer without disruption of student housing during an academic year, but some others would need to be offline for an academic year,â she said.
SLU – Shared Living Unit
The architects said there are two potential design plans for Rowland Avenue, where the House of Thought (HoT), Womenâs House and Modern Foreign Language House are located. Instead of SLUs, the plan is to construct apartments in the areas. There are two different design plans for the apartments, one with 96 beds in four âsix-flatsâ and the other with 120 beds in 10 brownstone buildings.
âWe want it to have a residential, urban feel,â architect Carr said.
The six-flats will have three floors and with 24 to 30 units in each flat with four beds per unit. All of the rooms will be singles, and each flat will have a full kitchen, common areas, dining, living and study rooms, and laundry room. There will be one bathroom per four students, a porch and exterior staircases to the upper floor. No elevator was shown on the plan.
The brownstones would have the same features but would have all single rooms and an elevator.
The second part of the plan is for construction on Oak Hill Avenue where the House of Black Culture, Interfaith House and Tree House are located. This area is intended for âconnection communitiesâ and would be the SLUsâ new location.
Each connection community would house two SLUs, separated and joined by a wall. Each half of the building would be identical and feature double and single rooms with two floors, a kitchen, common areas, living, dining, study and laundry rooms and a porch.
Senior Alex DâAmore-Braver, HoTâs moderator, said he is concerned that the grouping of different SLUs into the same building will have a negative effect on the members.
âSharing a building with another SLU would be detrimental to our unique ideas and mission, along with that other SLUsâ, because neither side would have the separate physical space to associate with their ideas,â DâAmore-Braver said.
Sophomore Emma Buening, HoT member, said being coupled with another SLU will be difficult, because different SLUs have people with different ideas.
âThose perspectives should both be respected, but I can easily see tension rising between the houses because of the closeness,â Buening said. âThe only way to mitigate that would be to assimilate, and that takes away from our individuality.â
Senior Erin Gregory said she has never lived in a SLU, but she understands the purpose of the architectâs design plan to group the SLUs together.
âThese architects are tasked with making this project as cost-effective as possible while providing SLUâs with the space necessary to maintain their individual identities,â Gregory said. âAlthough sharing a wall is not desirable, it is the most cost-effective solution.â
Fresh Face for Freshman Dorms
The architects also plan to build four-person suites in a building that would connect Thomson and Bashford Halls. This building, called the âFuture Gatewayâ would have a tunnel going through it to make passage to the fraternities still possible.
The building, like Thomson and Bashford, would be reserved for first-year students, but would not have community bathrooms.
Buening said this could cause the freshmen housed there to be isolated from the rest of OWU.
âMaking it so that they donât have to leave their dorm is not going to help the freshmen branch out to any part of the community other than the section they already exist within,â Buening said.
DâAmore-Braver said he likes the open space between the two freshman dorms where the new building will go.
âI feel that the current green space/paved path between Bashford and Thomson serves as a perfect gateway to fraternity hill, DâAmore-Braver said. âBut I also understand that there is little room for the expansion of OWUâs residential options without purchasing new land, and the tunnel idea would allow building expansion while maintaining the ability to pass to fraternity hill.â
The Cost of RenovationsÂ
According to Dan Hitchell, vice president of finance and administration, the estimated cost of phase one of the renovations is $35 million.
The cost is part of the Student Housing Master Planâs total projected cost of $80 million.
Hitchell said there is a number of different ways to finance the renovations.
He said the university could borrow the money from a bank through a private loan or issue bonds to pay for the renovations. The money will be borrowed in phases.
Ullom said the Board of Trustees asked administrators to include a policy that would make maintenance of the buildings part of the funding.Â
âThe Board doesnât want us to spend all this money and then not continue the upkeep,â he said.
After four years, the smoking debate returns to campus
The debate on Ohio Wesleyanâs smoking policies has been relit by WCSAâa Smoking Initiative Committee. This week, the Committee held an open discussion on smoking policies and effects and sent out a survey to gauge students, faculty and staffsâ opinions on the issue.
Committee co-chairs junior Lauren Holler, president of WCSA and sophomore Hannah Henderson, residential representative of the student conduct committee, said the survey will ask questions involving studentsâ opinions on designated smoking areas on campus, where students smoke now and whether an all-out ban on smoking or tobacco products should be considered.
Henderson said there are two sets of goals for the Committee. The first set, called âstretch goalsâ involve making the campus completely smoke free.
âThese are bold and probably impossible,â Henderson said.
The second set of goals, or âmanageable goalsâ involve providing alternative products for smokers, such as nicotine patches or gum at the Student Health Center and designated outdoor areas for smoking.
Henderson said the goal is to have the policies, whatever they end up being, voted on during the 2014 spring semester, adopted during the 2014 fall semester and implemented by spring 2015.
Previous attempts went up in smoke
The WCSA began the discussion of a smoke-free campus in spring 2010. At the time, the Healthy Bishop Initiative was formed to help OWU provide a healthier environment and the WCSA adopted a goal to decrease the effects of second-hand smoke.
WCSA created an educational campaign about the need for smokers to stand a minimum of 20 feet away from buildings and moving cigarette receptacles to the appropriate distance. These policies were in accordance with the state law.
WCSA also created a compromise in which the residential side of campus would adhere to the mandatory distance away from buildings and public areas such as the JAYwalk and academic side would eventually transition to smoke-free zones by 2013.
âThere was a push for that conversation to continue but that didnât happen,â Holler said.
Holler said that WCSA does not know if there is a âright answerâ for the issue but the Committee will hold open meetings every Wednesday.
âWeâre allowed to debate. The purpose is to understand each other and find some common ground,â Holler said
Health Concerns
Sophomore Hannah Henderson, co-chair of the Smoking Initiative Committee, said she experienced the negative effects of smoking at a young age. When Henderson was a child, her father died of lung cancer caused by smoking and the effects of second hand smoke. She said her mother has struggled with a smoking addiction and it has affected her family.
âNo one has to go through what I went through and lose a loved one to second-hand smoke,â she said.
Henderson presented statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the effects of secondhand smoke, including a 20-30 percent increase in heart disease and lung cancer risk for those who are exposed to secondhand smoke.
âIf cigarette smoking was illegal the world would be a much better place,â Henderson said.
Gene Castelli, senior director of Chartwells, said the Committeeâs decision will be supported by him and his employees, though several of them smoke.
âFrom a safety standard to a food standard, it should be eliminated,â Castelli said.
Sophomore Matt McCord said he understands the health implications behind the potential smoking ban because his family member had lung cancer.
However, he is concerned about the negative effect a ban could have on smokers.
âSmoking, for some, is a coping mechanism,â McCord said. âWhat would the withdraw effects be?â
Safety concerns
âI definitely agree with being far away from buildings,â sophomore Alyssa Jones said. âBut am I going to need to walk to Spring St. to smoke?â
Jones said since most of the buildings on campus are in close proximity to one another, she fears for her safety at night and does not want to have to go too far in inclement weather.
âIf there were smoking areas that were farther away that were covered, I would be willing to walk out of my dorm,â Jones said.
Another concern is the time Public Safety would have to spend enforcing the smoking policies. Jones said Public Safety has more important issues, especially on weekends.
âIâd rather PS focus on protecting us or doing things like breaking up fights,â Jones said.
Senior Kate Johnson, member of the Modern Foreign Language House, said she is concerned about the safety issues involved with students having to step far away from the campus to smoke at night.
âI wouldnât be opposed to having lit designated places in open areas, theyâll be fewer safety issues,â Johnson said.
Henderson said a solution for this could be the creation of smoking cabins, or open, roofed structures that would be built at least 20 feet away from campus buildings.
Henderson said schools like OSU have already adopted the idea of smoking cabins and they could be a good compromise for students here.
Potential problems of a ban
Junior Jackie Cole said although smokers will want to cooperate, an all-out ban on smoking wonât work and cause smokers to feel like their rights are being violated.
âI just recently became an actual smoker, and completely making it smoke free might make it a little more tense,â Cole said.
Cole also said she was recently at the University of Central Florida, where smoking is banned. She said the policies there are nearly impossible to follow and caused more problems than solutions for smokers.
âI feel like people couldnât follow it here,â Cole said.
Junior Liz Dickson, member of WoHo, said an all-out ban on smoking would disrupt social activities on campus.
âWe bond over smoking hookah, I would kind of be concerned that we wouldnât be allowed to do that,â Dickson said.
Dickson also said that the ban, if enforced, should not be a 24 hour ban and should at least allow smokers to smoke where they want outside at night when there are less people around them.
Professor Bob Gitter poses with his all-women travel learning course in Mexico. Photo from Jessica Sanford
Despite a desire from program directors to have more male participation, Travel Learning courses continue to be significantly more utilized by female students.
Darrell Albon, Director of International Students, said the skewed participation is a national trend.
For more than 10 years, study abroad participation rates have been consistently 65 percent female and 35 percent male.
âThis is magnified a bit at OWU by the gender distributionâ59 percent of our grads are women,â Albon said.
Albon said OWU tends to have slightly more male participants studying abroad than the national average.
He said gender distribution in the majors affects the gender distribution in programs that reach abroad.
Robert Harmon, Travel Learning program director, said while the destinations of trips play a role in who applies for them, more women apply than men no matter the destination.
âGiven the wide variety of destinations, I donât think that itâs a matter of no trips going where men want to go,â Harmon said.
Harmon said that the academic aspect of the application process also has little to do with the skewed gender distribution in programs.
While GPA is taken into consideration for selection for the programs, students with a wide range of GPAs participate and men with high GPAs apply for trips at a much lower rate than women with comparable GPAs.
Harmon said faculty play a large role in Travel Learning Course promotion and recruitment and would like to see more male participants.
âAll the professors to whom Iâve spoken tell me theyâd like to have a more balanced applicant pool in terms of gender,â Harmon said.
Bob Gitter, professor of economics, said his Mexican Migration Experience travel learning course, which took place over spring break, comprised of only female students.
The cost of the trip was roughly $2,500 with students paying half of the amount and OWU picking up the balance.
Gitter said the cost may have affected the ability of some students to go but not necessarily male students.
âI think the males at OWU are missing out on a wonderful opportunity,â Gitter said.
Albon said data suggests that one of the most effective ways to increase male participation rates in programs abroad is to have a direct and detailed advising aimed at men who have shown an interest.
âIâd like to see every student have a significant off-campus experience — one that articulates well with their academic and personal goals,â he said.
Students on the Modernity & Colonialism travel learning course admire an ancient Mayan ruin while on their trip to Chiapas, Mexico. Photo by John Stone-Mediatore
Bob Gitter, professor of economics, said he suggested a trip to Mexico so students in his Mexican Migration Experience travel learning course could see why people migrate and the impact that migration has on those who stay behind.
âI wanted the students to better understand the causes and consequences of migration. It is not enough to teach the concepts through readings, videos and lectures,â Gitter said.
âGoing from Delaware to Mexico is like going from black and white to color. The light and bright colors make one feel so alive.â
Senior Sarah Hartzheim, who went on the Travel Learning Course, said the people are proud of migrants because they have to work so hard to save the money used to migrate.
âI studied the incomes and expenses of families, and finding the $2000 USD required to pay a coyote to take someone across the border is impossible for many,â Hartzheim said.
Hartzheim also said they migrate for the prospect of new possibilities such as owning businesses and land and although the people felt fortunate to have migrated to the U.S., no one she spoke with had wanted to stay in the country.
âMany said they would migrate again for a few years if it was easier to do so; but they all loved their towns and their way of life, and only went to the U.S. as a way to improve their lives in Mexico- not to stay there permanently,â she said.
Professor of philosophy Shari Stone-Mediatoreâs spring break travel learning course, âModernity & Colonialism,â examines how European Enlightenment notions of the links between European modernity and colonialism.
Stone-Mediatore said she chose to travel to a Zapatista community in Chiapas, Mexico with nine students and co-chaperone professor John Stone-Mediatore because the Zapatistas have challenged the authority of U.S. and European-dominated forms of progress.
According to Stone-Mediatore, Zapatistas are indigenous groups in Chiapas, Mexico, who own historic territories and govern their own communities. They consider the official Mexican government to be an illegal government, because the Mexican government has cancelled the constitutional amendment that protects indigenous communal land.
According to senior Jessica Brewer, the group spent the trip living as the Zapatista do.
âWe slept in hammocks, ate only what was local, cooked over open fires, used squat toilets, bathed in the river. It was a very refreshing lifestyle for the week that we were there,â Brewer said.
The Zapatistas have established their own system of local democracies across Chiapas, with ordinary men and women regularly rotating on and off governing councils and with substantial autonomy for each community.
âI believed that we can learn a great deal from the people living in Zapatista communities about democracy, diversity, and human dignity that cannot be reduced to book knowledge,â Stone-Mediatore said.
âInstead of seeking state power, the Zapatistas have called on people across Mexico to set up their own grassroots democracies, âgood governments,â to replace the official illegal government,â she said.
Stone-Mediatore said the Zapatistas are known for covering their faces with black masks or bandanas.
A reason for this is to protect their identities from paramilitary groups, who are paid by the state to terrorize and assassinate Zapatistas.
âSymbolically, it also represents the idea that the leaders can be anyone; and it provokes the question of who is really masked, the campesinos who hide their faces with ski masks, or the governments that hide behind paramilitary groups and mercenaries?â she said.
Tuition and fees will take on a 3.8 percent composite increase next academic year. Photo: Email from Dan Hitchell.
Tuition for the 2014-15 academic year will increase 3.5 percent from $40,250 to $41,660 according to an announcement from Dan Hitchell, vice-president for finance and administration and treasurer.
Additionally, room and board costs will increase from $5690 and $4980, to $6050 and $5160, for a total 3.8 percent composite increase in costs.
According to President Rock Jones, the increase will cover compensation adjustments for faculty and staff.
It will also address an increase in utilities and equipment expenses and a desire to provide exemplary education.
âProspective students are told to anticipate increases in these fees during their time at Ohio Wesleyan,â Jones said.
Jones said he and the universityâs vice presidents compile a recommendation for tuition costs after consulting with the University Governance Committee.
The Committee meets with Jones on a weekly basis.
Afterwards, their recommendation is taken to the Board of Trustees, which then sets the tuition.
In his announcement, Hitchell said Ohio Wesleyan is committed to providing need-based and merit-based aid along with donations from friends and alumni for studentsâ education.
Jones also said a study is being conducted to determine how to help students handle the increase in costs.
âWe are beginning a process to explore the possibility of increasing the availability of financial aid for returning students in the future because we do not want tuition increases to adversely affect retention,â he said.
Last year, tuition increased 3.5 percent from $38,890 to $40,250 because of a rise in fixed costs for lights, heat, power, facility and technological maintenance, and library expenses.
âStudents and parents generally understand that our costs increase annually and that this requires an annual increase in tuition,â Jones said.
Jones said OWU has been at or near the bottom of the Great Lakes College Association (GLCA) institutions in terms of percentage increase in tuition.
âWe expect this to be the case again this year, as we do everything possible to contain the cost of an OWU education,â Jones said.
Construction workers continued stage three of the renovations on the JAYwalk on Tuesday, March 18. Construction across campus has been stalled due to the extreme winter temperatures. Photo by Jane Suttmeier
Maintenance work and repairs to buildings have stopped cold while the winter weather caused damages to campus grounds.
Peter Schantz, head of Buildings and Grounds, said the weather limited the number of days exterior repairs could be made.
He also said the above average number of snowfalls and subsequent plowing has damaged some walkways and grounds.
âWe have been inspecting these areas for damage as the snow melts,â Schantz said.
President Rock Jones said the delayed repairs are being addressed as needed by Buildings and Grounds.
âWe have developed a lengthy list of deferred maintenance needs and have prioritized those needs according to the potential risk to the building and those who work and study in each building,â Jones said.
Jones said the annual budget for deferred maintenance is limited but a long-range budget model is being developed to provide more support for deferred maintenance.
Schantz said the renovations at Edwards Gymnasium, Elliott Hall, Merrick Hall and the student residential facilities will make a significant reduction in the campus backlog of deferred maintenance.
Jones said the cold weather revealed a vulnerable aspect of the fire suppression system design in Elliott Hall.
The suppression system has since been renovated and other buildings have been under inspection.
âWe continue to monitor all of our buildings in an effort to do everything possible to avoid the kinds of damages suffered in the Elliott flood,â Jones said.
Schantz said there is a silver lining to the extremely cold temperatures because there have not been many leaky roofs on campus.
âMost of these problems occur in late winter when repeated freeze -thaw cycles cause ice dams. For the most part, it got cold and stayed that way all winter,â Schantz said.
Ollendorff met with Pope John Paul II in 1999 as part of his organizationâs Menorah Project. Photo from The Ollendorff Center
When he was an infant, Stephen Ollendorff and his parents escaped Berlin on Kristallnacht. Their landlord warned the family that their apartment would be raided and his maternal grandmother got them airplane tickets to England. The rest of his family â his grandparents, aunt and uncle â did not survive the Holocaust.
Ollendorff and his mother sought refuge in Delaware with Dr. Guy Sarvis, OWU professor of sociology and economics, while his father worked in New York as an ophthalmologist.
On May 11, Ollendorff will return to OWU and be the keynote speaker at the 170th Commencement Ceremony.
Today, Ollendorff, an attorney, is president of the Ollendorff Center for Human and Religious Understanding. The Centerâs main goal is to increase awareness of the fundamental issues facing the Jewish people today.
Last year, Ollendorff pledged a five-year, $100,000 donation to fund the Dr. Guy Sarvis Endowed Travel/Research Grant which funds research and travel for students exploring different cultures.
Ollendorff said he plans to deliver a speech that is inspiring to students entering the unknown.
âI thought I would discuss my experiences in meeting the many challenges and opportunities that I faced during my lifetime,â Ollendorff said. âHopefully, my experiences will assist the graduating class in its decision making process in these very exciting and uncertain times.â
Ollendorff said he was compelled to accept the invitation to speak at commencement because of his appreciation for the university.
â I feel a very special connection to Ohio Wesleyan because, by establishing the Dr. Guy Sarvis travel/research and award programs, Ohio Wesleyan is reaffirming its proud tradition of cross-cultural understanding and tolerance,â he said. âProfessor Sarvis, who has been one of the great influences in my life, was a true pioneer in social justice at a critical time in our countryâs history.â
According to Julia Hatfield, senior class council advisor, Ollendorff also donated $2 million to the economics department. She said while his contributions have deepened his connection to the university, they are not the only reason he was selected as the keynote speaker.
âIt really depends on what the senior class is interested in,â Hatfield said. âOne priority was to get someone who is not necessarily well-known but is known for their work with human rights and global issues.â
Speaker Selection
âWe try to get someone who will connect with the senior class,â Peddle said.
Peddle said he met with President Rock Jones several times over the summer to discuss the commencement speaker.
He said he originally wanted someone famous from Hollywood, like Chris Pine or Ellen DeGeneres, but because of schedules and fees, most candidates were not viable for the role.
âTraditionally, the commencement speaker receives no payment or honorarium,â Peddle said. âThe university only pays travel fees.â
Peddle said he was often under pressure because he had to keep it a secret. He said once they had information about Ollendorff, people reacted positively when the keynote speaker was revealed on Feb. 13.
President Rock Jones said he is thrilled that the leadership of the senior class selected him as their Commencement speaker.
âHis longstanding personal relationship with a member of the OWU family and his commitments to human and religious understanding give him much to say of interest and importance to our graduating seniors,â Jones said.
Looking ForwardÂ
Senior Aara Ramesh, Senior Class Council vice president, said the Council found out the same day as the rest of the students. She said she became excited about it when she learned about his connection to the university, his survival of the Holocaust and the organization he founded.
âThis is the history major in me talking,â Ramesh said. âI think heâll bring an element of resilience and faith in a global society.â
Peddle said several students reacted negatively to last yearâs commencement speaker because he did not deliver a positive message to the graduates. He said Ollendorff can share a story of success and connect with the graduates.
âI donât want to hear Iâm not going to find a job,â Peddle said. âHe (Ollendorff) sought refuge in Delaware, Ohio of all places and overcame a lot and is successful.â
Ramesh said she hopes for a positive message for the graduates.
âLeaving comfort is scary,â Ramesh said. âI hope heâll get us excited about whatâs on the other side of the ceremony because that day, everyone is both scared and pumped.â
Ollendorff earned his B.A. from Columbia University and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. Today, he is an attorney with K&L Gates LLP.
When I heard Josh Radnor, also known as Ted Mosby from âHow I Met Your Mother,â was coming to campus, I was stoked. Since Iâm a fan who has faithfully followed his plights and shenanigans through all nine seasons, I jumped in line on Monday night at 6 p.m. to get my ticket.
After waiting for 20 minutes, Campus Programming Board (CPB) told me no more tickets would be distributed today and that I had to come back at noon the next day to âtryâ to get a ticket. The tickets that would be handed out would be given to those who were first in line, and the rest had to try again another day.
I had a random flashback of when I was little, and I saw âCharlie and the Chocolate Factoryâ for the first time. Willy Wonka went a little crazy and stuffed five golden tickets into five random candy bars and sent them off into the world. Millions of small children wanted those five little golden tickets and so everybody started buying his candy just so they could have a chance. Willy Wonka was an asshole.
So as I walked away on Monday, ticketless, I felt like little Charlie after he opened the first candy bar after paying for it and found no golden ticket.
There are only 300 total âfreeâ tickets to see Radnor on March 19. More than one hundred of the tickets were given away at CPBâs showing of âLiberal Artsâ in the Milligan Hub last Saturday and approximately 60 are set aside for what I assume are Radnorâs guests, members of CPB and prospective students.
Iâm no mathematician, but that means there are approximately 140 tickets left. And, minus the one hundred students who received tickets at last weekendâs screening, there are potentially 1,700 students who want these 140 tickets.
Houston, we have a problem.
Arguably, not everyone will want to see Radnor and not everybody watches âHow I Met Your Mother.â But undeniably, the show has a huge fan base and the main reason Radnor was invited to campus is because the show is so popular. And undeniably, all 1,800 students, whether they get a ticket or not, have paid the student activity fee of $260. So, although the tickets are advertised as free, they were paid for through the activity fee.
The cynic in me wants to remind everyone that nothing is free. Supposedly, it cost $24,000 for Radnor to come to campus. Thatâs about $13 per student or $100 per ticket, since only 240 tickets are available. So, unless CPB is only deducting $100 from the accounts of students who actually get tickets, everyone is paying for less than one-sixth of the student body to see this celebrity.
Thereâs more to it. Radnorâs visit was not paid strictly through this yearâs activity funds. Money was left over from previous years. So students who have been here in previous years, and who donât receive a ticket, pay even more for nothing.
Howâs that for legen-wait for it-dary?
Iâd also like to point out that the student body pays for celebrities such as Radnor to come to campus but does not vote on who visits campus. The decision is made by few who should take the entire student body into consideration before their own wants. If they thought only 240 students would want to see Radnorâs performance, they should not have used $24,000 of the studentsâ money to bring him here.
My recommendation is this: move the show from the Chappelear Drama Centre Main Stage to Gray Chapel. Although the Main Stage is a beautiful and appropriate setting for a celebrity, it canât fit all of the students who have paid the activity fee and want to see Radnor speak. That way, every student who wants to see him and who canât get a ticket has an equal opportunity.
When you were a kid and someone triple-dog-dared you to do something you had to do it. There was some unspoken code that held you to it or, well, you sucked.
The newest online drinking game, NekNominate, thrives on this code. Players are dared to consume excessive amounts of alcohol with 24 hours, or they lose. Once the bottle, boot or toilet bowl (literally) is empty, the drinker passes the dare to another person, who then must drink whatever mix of booze he or she is told to drink. The dare is recorded and posted on YouTube or Facebook as proof for friends or future bosses.
There are more than 50,000 videos on YouTube and multiple Facebook pages devoted to NekNominate. In one video, a ten year old boy chugs a glass of vodka, Nandoâs sauce, cream and mayonnaise. In another, a man adds a dead mouse to his brew before he chugs it. Expectedly, these drinkers become violently ill during or after the recording.
The game started in Australia, where to âneckâ is to drink something all at once. Since it went viral on Facebook and YouTube and spread to the U.K. and parts of the U.S. in January, the game has killed five men, all younger than 35.
Earlier this month, 20-year-old Bradley Eames of the U.K. became the fifth known casualty. He downed two pints of gin and died four days later from alcohol poisoning complications.
Iâm going to spare the sermon about surrendering to peer pressure. Weâre adults on a college campus, and weâre responsible for our own choices. But before this goes viral in the U.S. and is copied by people closer to home, Iâm going to give a disclaimer NekNominate doesnât provide.
A lethal dose of alcohol is one that puts an individualâs blood alcohol content at .40 percent. BAC varies by weight, gender, genetics and how much food one has eaten; but generally speaking, 10 to 15 drinks in one hour is lethal.
The gameâs initiators donât consider this, but they should. Since Eamesâs death, drinkers who dare friends to take on lethal challenges could face manslaughter charges.
If youâre nominated for the game, Iâm wonât lie â there are probably plenty who will mock you for not wanting to slug back two pints of gin in under a minute. Perhaps thatâs what the five dead players worried about before they died. But if they hadnât cared about what other people thought, theyâd probably all be alive. And the people they nominated would not be immortalized online as violently ill and obviously stupid.
Nobody our age drinks without knowing alcohol in excess can have be fatal. When drinking is a game of Russian Roulette, nobody wins, no matter how many âlikesâ you get.
