Author: TheTranscript

Professor reads from her new book

By: Katie Kuckelheim, Transcript reporter

 

Dr. Amy Butcher read from her memoir in the Bayley Room before a crowd of students and faculty. Photo courtesy of Katie Kuckelheim.
Dr. Amy Butcher read from her memoir in the Bayley Room before a crowd of students and faculty. Photo courtesy of Katie Kuckelheim.

Amy Butcher, assistant professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan, recently published a memoir about her own years as a college student, and on Sept. 17, she gave a reading in Beeghly Library.

But “Visiting Hours: A Memoir of Friendship and Murder” is not a typical campus story.

Butcher’s book details the homicide of Emily Silverstein, who was murdered by her boyfriend Kevin. Butcher was close with Kevin, and even walked home with him on the night of the murder.

Butcher’s interest in the nonfiction genre led to the writing of the book. She writes, “I’m drawn to the essay form because it allows me to step into someone else’s shoes, or perhaps to write a reader into them.”

Kevin had struggled with clinical depression his whole life. With her memoir, Butcher hopes to “add to the chorus of conversation on the often taboo topic of mental illness in America.”

When asked how the events of the book changed her life, Butcher said, “I subscribe to the belief that everything that happens to us invariably shapes us, but in this way, I feel this event shaped my everything. Perhaps I won’t feel this way years from now, and perhaps that will be a blessing, but for now, I think the easier question is to consider the ways in which this event hasn’t shaped me. I have a hard time coming with much, frankly. We are molded exponentially by what we know.”

Sophomore Hayley Mandel, said, “I read it last year. It is a piece that you think about very deeply for a long time. I think back to it often.”

Professor Karen Poremski of OWU’s English department said, “I admire professor Butcher’s ability to address difficult issues in a reasonable, calm way.”

Freshmen athletes take on the challenge

By: Katie Kuckelheim, Transcript reporter

 

A freshman year schedule can be tough to balance; it’s even tougher when you have to factor in a sports team.

But Liz Knowlton and AJ Outcalt, freshmen golf players, both agree that their sport fits well into their schedules.

“Having a fall sport helps me stay in a routine,” Outcalt said. He also added, “I feel like I’m getting my work done, but I have to use my time wisely.”

Serena George, a freshman tennis player, said that being in a varsity sport helped her make the transition to college because, “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself otherwise.”

It was clear across all sports that there is a team comradery. Cross country runner Cheyenne Hanson explains, “It’s definitely a lot of fun because we have such a close team bond.

They just accept us even though we’re freshmen.”

When asked about extra responsibilities as a freshman, Cheyenne said, “As long as you earn your place, [upperclassmen] don’t mind. As long as you run the times to be in the top 7, no one will care what grade you’re in.”

Serena said being a freshman “is harder because you have to prove yourself.” However, she added that, “They don’t have the freshmen do the busy work. Everyone helps out.”

A downside, Liz mentions, is, “it’s harder to connect with people in your hall and meet new people during your free time.”

Despite the ups and downs, Serena said, “I was stressful at first, but you feel more a part of the university.”

As AJ said, “Being a freshman is just a title.”

Welch gym consolidates equipment

By: Ross Hickenbottom, Transcript reporter

 

The fitness center located in Welch Hall has been the preferred workout location for many OWU students over the years. Lately, students have noticed missing equipment in the workout area.

Serving as a more convenient exercise facility than Edwards Gym (due to its proximity to the residential end of campus), Welch has been a favorite of non-­athletes who cannot fit a workout into their busy routines.

“After work, whether I would get off early or late, I would be able to walk over to Welch to workout very easily,” said senior Shannon Hill. “Edwards just isn’t as convenient to walk to, especially later at night.”

Although the gym has lost a significant number of exercise machines, there are plans to host small group classes in the space. These include spinning and zumba, said Kimberlie Goldsberry, interim vice president for student affairs.

“The new Simpson-­Querrey Fitness Center will also be open for all students to utilize, not exclusively athletes,” said Goldsberry.

Christopher Fink, chair of the department of health and human kinetics, does not think there should be any less opportunity to exercise in Welch, but noted that “we did consolidate some equipment so that there is more open space.”

“During the summer, because of the pending opening of the Simpson-­Querrey facility this fall, our department and athletics took a closer look at the equipment that was available in Welch,” said Fink.

“We determined that there were quite a few pieces of equipment that were broken, and that some of the single­-joint strength machines were not being used very frequently. So, we replaced the broken equipment, and to save space we purchased a multi-­station strength machine that would do all of the same exercises as the single-­joint machines, but would create more open space for fitness programming.”

Junior Trasina Diazmunoz is optimistic about these changes, as well as the Simpson­-Querrey Fitness Center.

“I plan on using the new gym, and I’m really excited to see and use the new equipment,” she said.

Once the Simpson­-Querrey facility is open this fall, students will have more workout options than in years past, including state-of-the-art cardio and strength equipment.

Future plans include maintaining hours convenient to all students. So far, this means 6 a.m. to midnight.

Southpaw: undisputed champ, or bust?

By: Ross Hickenbottom, Transcript reporter

 

Approaching the theater to see Jake Gyllenhaal’s most recent film, “Southpaw,” I couldn’t hold back the excitement.

The typical “dude movie” about guys beating each other up always makes for an exhilarating couple of hours in a cinema seat, and with my favorite actor starring in this one, the hype was unbelievable.

We’ve all seen the “Rocky” movies, “Warrior,” “Never Back Down,” all seeming to follow the same plot line: someone fighting for a living, losing it all, hitting rock bottom, but at the end have their one shining moment and everyone lives happily ever after, right? Right.

Anyways, now I’m in my seat, popcorn practically gone after the half hour of previews, when the movie starts… BOOM, these guys are trading haymakers, blood gushing, the notorious spit and sweat showers. This movie is intense.

Intense like it’s only two minutes into the movie and I’m white knuckling the armrests. “But that’s not how a boxing match is…” I think. “You don’t just walk up to each other and throw the hardest punch you possibly can, hoping to knock the other guy out.” Boxing is more strategic than that. But not Hollywood boxing.

Hollywood boxing can be however they want to make it because at the end of the day, there’s still thousands of people paying to see Jake Gyllenhaal get the snot beat out of him and somehow still win the contest.

He loses his wife, his house and his daughter all within a week, but still comes out on top at the end of the movie. So clichĂ©, but honestly, what else was I expecting? The typical lose it all, gain it back story is one that viewers can’t resist, and “Southpaw” was just an overloaded version of all of its predecessors in that category.

By the end of the movie, I honestly just wanted to see him knock this guy out and hear some more Eminem, but overall, I can’t say “Southpaw” was a “bad” movie. It’s just not taking Movie of the Year.

Publish or perish at OWU

By: Dr. Thomas K. Wolber

 

Like many small liberal-arts colleges, Ohio Wesleyan University is first and foremost a teaching institution. The school’s Code of Regulations states, “It shall be the primary function of the faculty to instruct the students in the arts and sciences, and in all branches of liberal and professional instruction, as taught in the best universities.” And the Statement of Aims reaffirms that core mission when it says, “the University has as its preeminent purpose to be a quality institution for teaching and learning.” Wherever you turn, you will hear echoes of that sentiment. President Rock Jones says frequently, “Excellence in teaching is the hallmark of Ohio Wesleyan University today, as it has been for generations.” And OWU’s website declares, “OWU’s faculty and staff are dedicated to student success, and they demonstrate that dedication in countless ways every day in every way. Students spend time with employees not only in classrooms and offices, but also over lunch, at a Battling Bishop athletic event, or other community-building opportunity. OWU faculty members and staff become important mentors and close friends, ready to help students find their way to personal and professional success. It’s all part of the Ohio Wesleyan experience.”

Pull quote 1However, that “Ohio Wesleyan experience” is now under assault. Dedicated teachers are denied tenure or promotion and relegated to second-class citizens and obscurity. Their commitment to students and efforts to bring out the best in them are deemed insufficient and inadequate under a misguided personnel policy that increasingly de-prioritizes and devalues teaching in favor of scholarly research (or creative endeavors).

OWU’s faculty is evaluated on the basis of the quality of their teaching (60 percent), research (30 percent), and service (10 percent). In theory, this sounds reasonable although, parenthetically speaking, the Code of Regulations does not mention an obligation to conduct research at all. It is also interesting to note that the U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program, for which OWU recently nominated three individuals, requires “a scholarly approach to teaching and learning,” but no significant research record. The problem of OWU’s faculty personnel policy lies in its implementation. It has become so formulaic, draconian, and punitive that it has lost all sense of proportion and decency. In the past, if you were a passionate teacher you were assured success if you showed “evidence of scholarship” and provided dedicated service to the University. Not so now. Under the new standard of “significant scholarship” more and more faculty are denied tenure, and countless others are bypassed for merit and promotion.

I have seen this happen at other institutions. At top universities around the world, it’s “publish or perish.” The pressure to focus on publications is so great and all-consuming that there is little or no time for teaching and service. If you happen to be a dedicated and accessible teacher who cherishes spending time with students and in the classroom, it can mean the end of your academic career. Consider that every tutorial or independent study taught in addition to the regular course load means a diminished scholarly output. Every conversation with a prospective, current, or former student means another unread article. Every concert, exhibition, play, or sports event you go to because you want to support the students can be a distraction and disruption of your schedule as a researcher. Every letter of recommendation requires a level of care and time that may compete and conflict with scholarly endeavors. Helping students become better writers is a challenge when the quality and quantity of your own writing is very much at stake.

Pull quote 2

This is what I meant earlier when I wrote that OWU’s teaching mission is under threat. The pressure to publish or perish has finally reached this institution, too, and as a result teaching no longer has the unquestioned primacy. There is diminishing incentive to do so. The faculty-personnel committee has created a hostile work environment for people whose primary devotion is to teaching and a climate of fear for those who don’t conform to its norms. Teaching ranks low. Research is where the grants and resources, merit and promotion, fame and fortune are.

We are already seeing the deleterious effects of this misguided policy. Faculty in significant numbers refuse to serve on committees; many do not attend admissions events; some even show no interest in helping with student retention. After all, there is no money in sitting down with an advisee and point her in the right direction. I cannot blame these colleagues for acting rationally and in their own best interest. It is not their fault. They are reacting logically to a system that no longer puts students front and center. In a research-centered environment students are, to put it bluntly, little more than a nuisance and a bother.

As this unfortunate trend continues, disengaged faculty will spend less and less time with students. They will teach their classes and hold the requisite number of office hours, but that may well be it. Admission and retention efforts will suffer, the quality of advising will diminish, and students in need and distress may not get the full attention they deserve. This is not an apocalyptic doomsday scenario. The downhill trend is already in evidence, exacting a heavy toll. Ohio Wesleyan is currently experiencing difficulties meeting admission and retention targets. It may be an inconvenient truth, but I submit that this is, in part, a direct result of a flawed faculty-personnel policy that de facto elevates research over teaching, forcing teachers to make the difficult choice of putting students on the back burner. This wrongheaded approach undercuts OWU’s historic mission and has already done incalculable damage. The focus on faculty research has gone too far and is no longer an asset. Instead, it has become a risk and a liability that imperils the future of the college. OWU has strayed from its ethos and legacy. We need to recalibrate our values and priorities and find a better balance. Students and faculty, administrators and trustees must step up and demand that Ohio Wesleyan return to what it has been for almost 175 years – a premier teaching institution.

 

Dr. Thomas K. Wolber is an associate professor of German at Ohio Wesleyan.  He teaches all levels of German language, literature and civilization. In addition to those subjects, he specializes in comparative literature and environmental studies.

On Agent Orange and war veterans

Dr. Thomas Wolber

From 1961 to 1971, vast areas of Vietnam were sprayed with Agent Orange herbicides. The purpose of the defoliants was to destroy the food sources of the Vietcong and to deprive them of canopy cover. Up to 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to the toxin. The effects are still virulent today, resulting on tens of thousands of annual premature deaths and severe birth defects, even in second and third generations.

The Vietnamese are not the only ones suffering from the consequences of this toxic legacy. Some 2.6 million Americans served in the war, and many of them also became disabled after being exposed to Agent Orange. The Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes some fifty chronic diseases linked to Agent Orange, including Hodgkin’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, leukemia, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, and several cancers.

It took an epic battle with the VA, but today most Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange (except sailors) qualify for help and treatment, at least in theory. But the waiting lists can be long, and many have died without ever being seen, examined, and treated. However, there is still no help for their descendants although Agent Orange is expected to cause continued health problems for veterans and their children for at least five to seven generations.

The list of possible birth defects is long and includes things like congenital heart disease, clubfoot, cleft lip or palate, his dysplasia, and numerous diseases that most of us have never even heard of. The VA provides compensation for many severe birth defects among children of female veterans who served in Vietnam, but there are no equivalent benefits for the descendants of male veterans, who constitute the vast majority.

Anyone who believes that the Agent Orange issue is not something that affects the Delaware or Columbus community is mistaken. We have hundreds of veterans of foreign wars in our midst. One of them is Joe DiGenova, a Vietnam War veteran and the longest-serving City Council member in Delaware’s history. He is very concerned about the transgenerational effects of Agent Orange and has urged Ohio politicians such as Andrew Brenner and Pat Tiberi to support legislation that would extent help for victims of Agent Orange to children and grandchildren of male war veterans.

An article in the Columbus Dispatch last year (5/12/14) profiled John E. Pistick, 71, who lost his left arm due to soft-tissue sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that has been found in Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Two of his three children developed brain tumors during childhood. They are adults now, but because of their inability to live independently they still reside with their parents.

The brave men and women of the armed forces deserve our admiration and gratitude. Society owes them the best care available. They and their children should not have to worry about whether or not to receive medical help. The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2013 merits bipartisan support. It is a broad piece of legislation – perhaps too broad because it also includes assistance to Vietnamese nationals and environmental remediation. If it does not pass, then perhaps a more narrowly defined law that specifically addresses the needs of the American descendants of Vietnam War veterans needs to be introduced.

 

Dr. Thomas Wolber is an associate professor of German at Ohio Wesleyan.  He teaches all levels of German language, literature and civilization. In addition to those subjects, he specializes in comparative literature and environmental studies.

Well-known improv group visits campus for Slice of Life

By: Holly Krampitz, Transcript correspondent

 

Photo courtesy of missionimprovable.com.
Photo courtesy of missionimprovable.com.

If one were to enter Stuyvesant Hall on April 19 he or she would probably hear German accents, adults acting like dinosaurs and lots of laughter.

Campus Activities Magazine’s entertainers of the year, Mission Improvable, performed at Ohio Wesleyan on Sunday as a part of Slice of College Life for prospective students.

Mission Improvable is an improv group that has been traveling all around the world for the past 15 years. These comedians act as agents and incorporate the audience as co-agents for their “missions.” There are four main agents who travel around that switch out every few years.

Mission Improvable was brought to OWU along with mentalist Chris Carter, for the Slice of College Life events. Both acts were recommended by the Student Involvement Office, according to Laurie Patton, senior associate director of admission and events coordinator for the Office of Admission.

“It seemed to me that students really enjoyed the performances,” Patton said. “The acts were professional, entertaining, funny, and engaging.” Students on campus helped agents identify unspecified objects, act out an unwritten Shakespearian play and make up scenes for the agents to act out.

Prospective student Katie Paull attended the show and said it was the highlight of her weekend. “I couldn’t stop laughing during the show,” she said. Students were encouraged to actively participate in the show and a few even got a chance to be on stage with the performers.

The actors in Mission Improvable seemed to have a lot of energy and are very conformable being on stage. One of the agents, Sherman Edwards, joked that his biggest fear is having his pants fall down.

“It’s better to be confident and wrong than shy and right,” Edwards said. Edwards originally wanted to be a doctor and even took pre-med classes. He eventually realized he just wanted to wear a lab coat and decided his real passion was in comedy. Another agent, Matt Garard, always knew he wanted to be an actor.

“Odds are we won’t see our name in lights, but just the fact that we get to do what we love for a living is very cool for me,” Garard said. The actors in Mission Improvable chose improv because they like how spontaneous it is and that anything can happen.

“It is never the same twice,” Garard said. “You never know what is going to happen, which is kind of a thrill for me.”