Author: Phoebe Christine Bush

By Adelle Brodbeck

Transcript Reporter

The Ross Art Museumis currently displaying the work of Caleb Cain Marcus as a supplement to this year’s Sagan National Colloquium (SNC), the subject of which is global warming.

Marcus’s exhibit, titled “A Portrait of Ice,” provides an artistic perspective to the ongoing problem of climate change and how it has diminished the planet’s number of glaciers. His photographs were shot around the world and show the universality of the climate change problem.

The ten photographs in the exhibit showcase glaciers from five different countries: New Zealand, Argentina, Iceland, Norway and Alaska. Marcus said the contrast between city life and rural made him want to travel more and led him to photograph ice.

“I grew up in the mountains of Colorado; living in New York City caused me to miss the silence and emptiness of nature,” he said. “I traveled down to Patagonia and visited Perito Moreno, which sparked my interest and began the project.”

Marcus said the university previously approached him to present an exhibit and it worked out that his ice exhibit would coincide with the 2013 SNC.

Craig Jackson, part-time professor of mathematics, is co-directing the 2013 SNC with Professor of Botany Laurel Anderson. Jackson said they were lucky to have the opportunity to display Marcus’s work alongside the colloquium because it is usually much more difficult to bring an artist’s collection than it is to invite a speaker to appear.

“Justin Kronewetter (director of Ross Art Museum) has to start scheduling his exhibits very early due to all the logistics of getting large collections transported to and from the museum,” Jackson said. “Caleb’s work fit extremely well with the theme of this year’s colloquium and I give a lot of credit to Justin for bringing Caleb to OWU.”

Jackson said one of the major concerns in organizing this year’s colloquium was to demonstrate the universality of environmental issues.

“The message we hope to convey is that climate and climate change are important topics that all disciplines have a stake in addressing,” he said.

Also currently featured in the museum is painter and activist John Sabraw. Like Marcus, Sabraw focuses his art on nature, but with a different perspective.

According to his artist’s statement, his exhibit, “Luminous,”  “is constructed of four distinct, yet interrelated bodies of work. (He) looks for idiosyncratic connections between things, simultaneous macro and micro events, the compression of time and distance, the glory of our universe and natural and cosmological processes.”

Sabraw’s art explores various components of our natural world, from the smallest cells to the largest oceans. As part of his environmental activism, Sabraw used raw materials as a substitute for mass-produced paint products. Through his involvement in an Ohio sustainability group, Sabraw discovered a new way to create his paintings.

“(My sustainability group) toured the area of southern Ohio and I was struck by the local streams that are largely orange, red and brown as if a mud slide was happening further upstream,” he said. “I found out that these colors were mainly from iron oxide, the same raw materials used to make many paint colors, but this iron oxide was from polluted water from abandoned coal mines. I thought it would be fantastic to use this toxic flow to make paintings rather than with imported iron oxide from China.”

Sabraw utilized local natural resources to create paintings of vast river views and larger-than-life replications of tree leaves. Sabraw’s exhibit also features a piece titled “Unified Theory,” which is a digital print composed of hundreds of tiny photographs of various objects found in nature. From a distance the print appears to be just a giant colorful circle, but up close it is immediately apparent the overwhelming amount of photographs that went into the piece.

OWU Librarian Jillian Maruskin attended the exhibits’ opening. She said she was enthralled with Sabraw’s work.

“I was absolutely transfixed,” she said of Sabraw’s paintings. “To me they looked three dimensional and I wanted so badly to touch them.”

Maruskin said she was less intrigued by and conflicted over Marcus’s ice photographs.

“There were only two that I could look at for more than a few seconds,” she said. “They were unsettling, but I can’t explain why. Perhaps that was his intention.”

Caleb Cain Marcus’ exhibit, “A Portrait of Ice”, will be on display in the Ross Art Museum through Oct. 6 and the schedule of SNC speakers can be found at snc.owu.edu

By Elizabeth Childers

Transcript Correspondent

Editor’s Note: This story was written in May, and all attributed interviews were conducted in the spring. The story was published online in June, but The Transcript’s editorial staff feels it is still relevant to the campus community. Minor changes have been made to the original story to reflect its delayed print publication. To our knowledge, all the information published is still correct.

In 2010, when Ohio Wesleyan took over ownership of the fraternity houses on Williams Drive, it was decided that there needed to be an agreement between the fraternities, their alumni, Residential Life, campus foodservice provider Chartwells and groundskeeping and housekeeping provider Aramark on what each party would bring to the table to do the best for the university and the fraternity chapters.

This memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed then, and it was decided it would be up for revision every three years. The 2012-2013 academic year was the first year in which MOU was revised, and frustrations were high in the discourse between the university and the fraternities.

“It’s a common agreement on paper,” said Dana Behum, assistant director of Student Involvement for Fraternity and Sorority Life, about the MOU. “It’s not as binding as a contract, but it is an agreement from both parties…It is a partnership between the university and fraternities.  And that includes a lot of folks.”

Behum was the “in-between” person for the fraternities in their relations with the rest of the administration involved with the MOU. Wendy Piper, Director of Residential Life, said her department was involved in the original creation and in the revision.

“There is a change in the required occupancy level,” she said.  “The 2010 MOU stated chapters had three years—until spring 2013—to reach 80 percent occupancy. The revised MOU states chapters must reach 85 percent occupancy by spring 2015 and 90 percent occupancy by spring 2017.  There is also a change for those chapters who elect to have the university operate their kitchens, which allows chapters more options. The revised MOU allows chapters to decide if they want all of their meals to be provided in the house, if they want a combination of in-house meals and on-campus food points, or if they want to close their kitchens and have members choose one of the existing on-campus meal plans.”

Should a fraternity chapter on campus who currently has a house is unable to meet the occupancy requirement by the deadlines set, they are at risk of losing their house to other housing options on campus who may be able to fill those houses. Behum said in that event, the fraternity can petition to stay in its house because they are not guaranteed housing in that specific house the next year.  As of spring 2013, two fraternity houses had to submit petitions to ResLife, and both have been permitted to continue living in their respective houses.

“They say, ‘We would like to petition to remain in our facility’ and Residential Life comes back and says, ‘Please share your plan to recruit more or how do you plan to correct this,’” Behum said about the petition process. “So they have a full calendar year to reach the occupancy level….They have to have a plan on paper to achieve it in the next year.”

Behum said it was not the university’s intent to remove the fraternities from their houses, because they would then have to fill them with random students. The goal, she said, was to keep the houses both filled and still in the hands of the fraternities.

Other sections of the MOU deal with how Buildings and Grounds responds to issues in the house and renovations to the house. It also outlines how the fraternity houses are cleaned.

“The gentlemen on campus asked for a lot more detail regarding cleaning the house…,” Behum said. “They requested more detail and solidity in when B&G would be responsible for repairs like a broken window or mold in the basement.”

Behum said some fraternities were more concerned with the B&G section than others.  For example, one fraternity house had sewage leaking into its kitchen—which has been taken care of—and needed other remodeling and adjustments in April. Other concerns included cracking foundations and other plumbing issues.

“The common theme our men are unhappy with is the turnaround time with large projects which need to be fixed,” Behum said.

Fraternity reactions, according to Piper, varied by the chapter and the section of the MOU they had questions about.

“The occupancy level has surfaced as a concern; however, chapters that have historically demonstrated higher occupancy seem to have found this change less objectionable than those that have struggled with occupancy,” she said. “They also seem to appreciate that occupancy will be calculated on a three year rolling average, which will allow chapters to recover from (a) ‘lean’ semester of membership. Chapters that continue to self-operate their kitchen seem overall pleased to continue to have that option.”

Behum said the hike in the house occupancy is part of a campus-wide initiative to bring OWU to full capacity. Piper said it’s a goal to use residential facilities on campus to the best of abilities.

“As a residential campus, our goal is to make use of all residential facilities on campus, and for many years the fraternity houses had occupancies that were low,” Piper said. “Under the 2010 MOU, the chapters were given three years to reach a level of occupancy equal to at least 80 percent, which we felt was a reasonable goal given that their combined average occupancy (in 2009-2010) was about 66 percent. The expectation under the revised MOU aims to bring the fraternities to an occupancy level comparable to other university residences, which has been between 93 to 96 percent over the past five or so years.”

Behum said because fraternities were not filling their houses, “the document challenged them to put emphasis on recruitment.”

She said the fraternity chapters on campus as a whole met the 80 percent occupancy goal fairly quickly, and many of them exceeded it since the original MOU was signed.

The MOU revisions also dealt with events such as the 2012 Delta Tau Delta fire that were not addressed in the original agreement.

“…Some of the actions that were taken as a result of the fire, which had not been explicitly stated in the 2010 MOU, were incorporated into the MOU to guide future actions,” Piper said. “For example, after the fire, Residential Life relocated the residents and made a concerted effort to keep them located in close proximity to one another wherever possible so that we were not in effect dissolving their community. The MOU now states that in the event of a disaster or emergency that requires students to relocate, the university will work to provide a living arrangement where chapter members are grouped as reasonably as possible.”

Behum said in her experience, the MOU is more of an open dialogue between the university and the fraternities.

“Although it may not be a perfect agreement and my not reach everyone’s needs, it is a living document that we revisit now every four years instead of three…,” she said. “If men are upset (though) we can open the document again…(I)t’s to regulate communications between the university and the fraternities.”

Behum also said there are disadvantages to the MOU in that it can be difficult for all sides to be heard conversations around it can be difficult to have.

“There are fraternities who are having a difficult time getting a response for projects that need to be dealt with, and what better way than to talk about it frequently, get all the right people in the room and get things in motion,” she said. “While there may be disadvantages to different groups…but ultimately it is a positive.”

Some OWU fraternity brothers were frustrated by what the MOU revisions. A member of one house involved in listing the revisions the chapters wanted said he felt their voices weren’t really heard or considered during the final decision. Even though many of the fraternities were not satisfied, they felt they had no choice to sign it, since refusal would give the university the right to remove them from their houses. The member requested not to be identified for fear of himself as an individual or his fraternity being singled out.

“The first time the MOU was drafted and signed, the fraternities were very apprehensive about it, but they signed in good faith,” he said. “On paper it sounded great: the school would take care of the houses and provide everything, cleaning services…However, over the past couple years it really hasn’t been done to the best of the school’s ability.”

One example he gave of the school falling short on their promises was on the renovations and plans promised three years ago. He said despite the plans to extensively renovate the houses, in reality the renovations executed were small, inconsequential things compared to the major issues the houses had. Where a house was having large and costly foundational or plumbing issues, the university would instead tear out lofts, replace old locks in the building or paint and consider those renovations, rather than dealing with the larger issues in a timely manner.

He said in the case of the plumbing issue, which eventually caused a sewage line break in Alpha Sigma Phi, the school is only now being forced to deal with it since it is considered a hazardous living condition. Another house was facing similar problems with its plumbing.

“Each house has their own unique problems, and the school really hasn’t done anything to fix them,” he said.

The fraternity member said there were some tensions over the occupancy level for each house.  The fraternities are concerned about the 90 percent occupancy because of how recruitment fluctuates.

“There was no real compromise with that, and it is frustrating because this is supposed to be a negotiation between two parties, but we’re kind of being forced into a corner because if we hadn’t signed by the deadline, the school had the right to take all our houses away, and that wasn’t something we wanted to risk,” he explained.

He said the only real compromise was the three year average for the 90 percent occupancy, even though they’re not quite sure how that will work in 2017.

The member said the decision to move the revisions from every three years to every four also put the fraternities at a disadvantage. Behum said many of the fraternity men weren’t apart or even on campus at the time of the MOU’s creation, and many of their complaints could come from the fact they see it as new information since they never had to deal with it before. Now, however, any student involved with any MOU revision will be unable to be involved in the one previous and the one after, making continuity in understanding what revisions should be requested very difficult for the houses.

“We wanted to keep it at three, so the freshmen now would have an understanding of what we went through, so they would have something to base their arguments on later,” he said. “But now, with the revision every four years, that’s not really possible.”

Though alumni of the fraternities were involved through the Alumni Inter-Fraternal Council (IFC), the fraternity member said undergraduate members didn’t have enough time to fully understand the MOU.

“We kind of knew about it—we had a draft, but we didn’t have the opportunity to argue our case,” he said. “The person we really were able to talk to was Dana (Behum).”

Fraternity members were only directed to speak with Behum and were not given the opportunity to meet with those who had the power to discuss and make changes to the MOU.

“They kind of just put on a play, saying we had a month to review it, and then never talked to us about it,” he said. “Then, a week before the deadline, they contacted us, saying, ‘Don’t forget to sign it.’”

The member said at that point the fraternity presidents got together, requested one more week to suggest revisions, and then went through the MOU line by line and listed the changes they wished to make. When they submitted the changes, they were not considered and the presidents were forced to sign because of the deadline.

“Collectively, all the fraternities didn’t want to sign, including the alumni, but we were kind of forced to,” he said. “It just comes back to the fact the school has the upper hand.”

The fraternity member said the Alumni IFC met with the university about those changes and the alumni from his chapter said they tried to make the same suggestions on behalf of the students, but the university administration still did not change the MOU.

“Students were allowed to go to the first two (MOU meetings), but then students were no longer allowed to go any more,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to argue things that affect every day life when you don’t have the perspective of someone living in the house every day. The alumni know about the huge problems but they don’t know about things like they’re not cleaning our bathrooms or picking up the trash or not taking care of things that break—things that happen every day.”

He said there was one person at the meetings representing all of the fraternities, but since it was really only one perspective and one voice, it wasn’t really heard in the decision making process.

The member said while the fraternity presidents were arguing against the changes made, they all became rather close and “a united front against a single enemy.”

“Most of the fraternities don’t like what’s going on at all,” he said. “No major negotiations were actually made.  It was more of the school saying, ‘This is what’s going to happen.’”

As to food plans, the brother said the university was trying to direct all the fraternities to use Chartwells.  The fraternities were able to decide whether or not to keep their kitchens under a separate contract—three of them have outside contracts with companies who supply them with chefs—or use Chartwells. But the MOU says that particular section can be revised annually, “meaning we’ll have to fight every year to keep our own kitchens.”

The fraternity member also said he was unsure why the university would continue with an MOU not really agreed upon by the fraternities when a large portion of donated money from alumni come from former members of the fraternities on campus.

He said the Greek alumni money is divided a certain way—80 percent to the houses and 20 percent to the university to use as it sees fit. He said he felt 20 percent should’ve gone to preventive measures in the house, such as the sewage or foundational problems, before they became an immediate living hazard. However, he said, the university refused to release their financial records of that money in light of all the renovations that haven’t been made.

“Why would you piss us off when all the money you’re getting is from our alumni?” he said.

By Sadie Slager

Transcript Reporter

Some students interpret the phrase “home away from home” a little more literally when their sibling joins them at Ohio Wesleyan.

Lucas and Lauren Janowicz, siblings from Toledo, Ohio, said they like being at the same school because they are able to spend more time together.

Lauren, a junior, said it’s been “amazing” having her brother at OWU with her so far this year.

“College is so much fun with my little brother here,” she said.  “And it’s also really comforting to have family here on campus after being here on my own for two years.”

Lucas, a freshman, said it was just a coincidence that he and his sister ended up at the same school.

“I’m a basketball player, so I was probably going to come here anyway, but her love of the university made it all the more desirable,” he said. “It’s nice having someone to show me the ropes.”

One thing the Janowicz siblings have in common is that they both play varsity sports at OWU. Lauren is on the women’s lacrosse team and Lucas will play in his first season with the men’s basketball team this winter.

Lauren, a member of Delta Delta Delta, said Lucas is planning on getting involved in Greek life as well, but they maintain their own unique interests.

“We both have our different strengths,” she said.

Lucas and Lauren agreed that attending the same school has been a positive factor in their lives.

“We can help each other when we need it and it’s nice that we can stay close,” Lauren said.

“It’s just nice to have someone to rely on at all times,” Lucas added.

Senior Anne Frissora said she feels as though she has gained a new best friend at OWU since her sister Talia started classes this year. Anne and Talia are from Westerville, Ohio.

“Now that my sister is here with me, I feel like I have another friend on campus to hang out with, grab lunch, study or whatever else we want to do,” she said.

Anne said she and Talia didn’t initially plan on attending the same school, but she knew OWU would be a good place for her sister.

“When my sister began to look at options for college I was a big advocate of OWU because of how much I love it here and I wanted her to have the same great college experience that I am having,” she said.

Talia, a sophomore transfer student, said choosing OWU was a “last minute decision.” Talia said while her sister had some influence on her choosing OWU, she felt like it was just where she was meant to go to school.

“I knew I was going to do my freshman year at Columbus State and at first I thought I was going to transfer to Ohio Dominican, Mount Union or Ashland University,” she said. “I always had OWU in the back of my head and when it came down to the time I needed to decide where I wanted to go I decided on OWU because (it’s) so close to my actual home. Also my mom works here, so the tuition was going to be better than any other school.”

Anne said she and Talia have different academic and extracurricular interests.

“My sister is majoring in sociology and I’m a history major, so we have different interests and are taking different classes,” she said.

Talia said having Anne at the same school makes her feel more at home.

“I feel a little bit more comfortable being in a place away from home knowing I have someone there to help me if anything bad were to happen,” she said. “Also it’s good to have her around if I have a question about a class or a professor because I know she wouldn’t sugarcoat anything.”

She said the best part of having her older sister at OWU is knowing she has someone who “has her back” while she’s away from home.

“If I needed something because I was having a bad day, or needed advice it’s pretty cool to be able to just walk down the street to talk to my sister,” she said.

Anne said having her younger sister at school with her makes it easier for them to spend time together.

“It’s much easier to hang out and catch up like we do at home,” she said. “Although we are both busy with class and extracurricular activities, it’s easy to make time to see each other now that we are on the same campus.”

Senior Katherine Watson said she hasn’t fully felt the impact of her younger brother, Patrick, being on campus because she is abroad this semester and it is his first year here.

“I was, however, at OWU for the first week of school with Patrick and it changed my experience,” she said. “I felt a responsibility for his well-being and happiness, which influenced my decisions.”

The Watsons hail from Independence, Ohio. Katherine said she is ultimately “very happy” her brother chose to join her at OWU.

“This has been my home with friends for three years and it’s very separate from my home with my family, but now the two have kind of merged,” she said.

Her brother will make his OWU experience unique from hers, Katherine said.

“We have really different interests academically, so I’m sure he will carve out a very different path than the one I have,” she said.

 

Katherine said she looks forward to seeing her brother on campus when she returns for spring semester.

“I think it will be cool to see him in this new element,” she said.  “And also I suppose if there’s ever something I want to talk about that only family would understand, it would be comforting that he’s so close.”

Senior Martin Clark said while he was sure he wanted to come to OWU, his twin brother Malcolm was initially “on the fence,” but it worked out well that they ended up at the same place.

“It’s always nice to have a familiar face around, especially because we’ve been together for so long,” he said.

Clark said he and his brother have pretty similar passions and participate in the same types of extracurricular activities. While Martin studies politics and government and Spanish, Malcolm majors in politics and government and English. Martin is president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs and Malcolm is president of the Interfraternity Council.

Martin said he and Malcolm have a younger sister who has not started the college search process yet, so it is unclear whether or not she will make OWU her college choice.

For senior Tim O’Keeffe, having his younger sister Claire, a freshman, at the same school as him allows them to share new adventures together.

“It is also great because when you are at home you can try to describe your friends or your school as much as you want, but you can never do it enough justice, so I am glad she is also experiencing first hand all of the stories I have tried to relay to her,” he said.

O’Keeffe said that while he and Claire never planned on coming to the same school, he is glad to have his sister here to be able to spend more time together.

“I think the best part is having another shared connection, and at home we are always on different schedules,” he said.

Claire said once she saw OWU for herself, she realized it would be the right place for her too.

“At first I was against coming here because he was here, but when I experienced it for myself I fell in love with it,” she said. “I knew it would help having him here and having that person that I know I can always go to.”

Claire said she and her brother have different OWU experiences because of their involvement in a variety of clubs and organizations.

“He is more involved with student government and I am more involved with Sisters United and SHO,” she said.

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

“Battling” isn’t usually the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word “Bishop”—unless you go to Ohio Wesleyan.

Coined in 1925, the term “Battling Bishop” was the winning nickname selected through a contest held by the Phi Delta Epsilon journalism fraternity. Prior to that, OWU sports teams were called “The Red and Black,” or “The Methodists,” according to the athletics department’s website.

Director of Athletics Roger Ingles said he likes the Battling Bishop a lot.

“It gives a sense of history of the Methodist relationship of the college and it evokes a tone of a feisty athletic team,” he said.

Cole Hatcher, director of media and community relations, said the name is “definitely the opposite of ordinary.”  He said he finds it interesting to see where OWU ranks in the polls “that look at unique school mascots.”

“In 2012, Chester Cheetah included OWU among Cheetos’ Top 25 Cheesiest Mascots,” he said. “We were No. 6. We lost to the Fighting Pickle of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.”

The August 26, 2010, issue of the Connect2OWU newsletter talked about the change in the Bishop costume. The article said that the new Bishop would have a “more determined expression.”

Hatcher said the current Bishop is a “little more buff than some of his predecessors, representing his tie to the OWU athletic program.” He said the mascot used to be more “friendly-looking” to appeal to children.

“As someone who has escorted the Bishop at events aimed at children, I understand that logic,” he said. “But OWU sports fans wanted a more determined Bishop, and we tried to meet that need.”

Ingles said then-President Tom Courtice bought the original costume. The friendlier successor was purchased during Mark Huddleston’s presidency, and the current Bishop came after the inauguration of University President Rock Jones.

Senior Jake Stang, quarterback for the Bishops football team, said the costume makes him proud to be a Battling Bishop.

“Our mascot is different, so I like it a lot,” he said.

Freshman Trenton Williams said when he initially heard about OWU’s mascot he found it funny, but he likes it because it’s red, his favorite color.

However, for senior Olivia Gillison, a member of the swimming and diving teams, the “Battling Bishop” is a strange notion. She said she had never really thought of the Bishop as a mascot before.

“Most sports teams have some type of animal or bird (or the like) as their mascot because there’s a sense of symbolism behind that animal,” she said. “Here as a battling bishop the mascot has never really taken on a meaning for me. He’s just been a figure used for promotion.”

Gillison said she is glad to have had the opportunity to be a Battling Bishop and represent OWU throughout the NCAC conference. But she said the role is “something I’ll just have to accept and perhaps never really understand.”

The Bishop is usually seen at most OWU sports games and events such as the Day on the Jay that bring the whole community together.  Hatcher also said he arranges for the Bishop to be at the Main Street Delaware’s “Mascot Madness” First Friday celebration.

“The event brings mascots together from lots of local/regional organizations to meet the community, take pictures, give hugs and high-fives,” he said. “It’s always a lot of fun.”

Ingles said the criteria behind selecting who gets to be the Bishop is simple: willingness to do it.

“We look for students who want to play the Bishop, have a good sense of humor, likes to entertain and who often will entertain more when no one knows who they are versus people knowing it is them,” he said.

Senior Jordan Grammer said he served as the Bishop during his freshman year.

“It always looked cool on TV, and I had a lot of school spirit freshman year,” he said. “Best part was hanging out with cheerleaders and the worst part was the constant heat, no pay, I couldn’t use the Facebook page and I couldn’t tell people who I was.”

Nancy Bihl Rutkowski, assistant director of Student Involvement, said the committee is currently in the process of making a lot of changes to the selection process of who gets to serve as the Bishop. She said it is usually done very informally, but in about a month’s time she will be able to give more information on it after the changes take affect.

Hatcher said if he had to come up with another mascot for OWU, he likes the sound of the “Ohio Wesleyan Warriors.”

Ingles said he wouldn’t want to be anything but a Battling Bishop.

“I was once a worthless nut (Buckeye) and the Bishop has way more meaning,” he said.

By Sara Schneider

Transcript Correspondent

Talk to the Hand, Ohio Wesleyan’s American Sign Language club, gives students the ability to learn a skill not offered in a class.

During the meetings, students have the opportunity to learn about deaf culture and expand their signing abilities.

In addition to weekly meetings, the group attends interpretive plays where the actors use ASL as a part of their production.  Other events include Sign and Talk Happy Hours and a Silent Weekend. The happy hour is an event where members go out to eat and use their sign language as much as possible. The Silent Weekend is a camping trip where the students cannot talk until the last day of the trip.

Silent lunches take place once a week in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

Senior Thomas Liwosz, the club’s president, said members “tell stories through signing, learn songs and learn about deaf culture” during meetings. They also go over the ASL alphabet and numbers.

Liwosz, who has been the president for the past two years, said his involvement with the club came out of a desire to build on the base knowledge of sign language he had when he came to OWU.

Sophomore Emma Weber said she wanted to learn ASL, but it wasn’t offered at her high school.  She said she likes being able to sign because you can communicate with a wider range of people.

Liwosz said the club has helped him improve his signing abilities and expand his knowledge and appreciation for the deaf community. Ten to 15 students attend the meetings every week, though more students have expressed interest in the club.

Liwosz said he wants the university to “bring signing classes to campus and (make them) available for students to take for a language credit.”

According to the ASL website, “the role of deaf culture in society might come as a surprise to the hearing world”—the language is the third-most used in the country.

The club meets once a week from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday in the Willa B. Player Black Resource Center in Stuyvesant Hall.

By Rachel Vinciguerra

Foreign Correspondent

People in Pune, India, support the recent death penalty verdict for the defendants of the Dehli rape case, but don’t believe punishment alone will solve larger problems of violence against women in India.

On Dec. 16, 2012, a 23-year old physiotherapy student and her boyfriend boarded a bus in the Indian capital of New Delhi after seeing the movie, “The Life of Pi.”

Behind the tinted windows of the bus, five drunk men from the Ravidass Camp slum beat the boyfriend and raped and tortured the 23-year old student for just under an hour as the bus made several stops en route to the Delhi International Airport.

After 45 minutes the couple was thrown out of the moving bus onto the side of the road where they were later discovered.

Although the 23-year old student was quickly transported to a hospital in Singapore, she suffered extreme internal injuries and died two weeks later. Her name is being withheld for legal reasons but the Indian press refers to her as Nirbhayaa, a Hindi word for “fearless”.

Anurekha Chari Wagh, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pune, said this case is not unique in India and it is not the first time such a case has mobilized the population to demand an end to violence against women. She said what was unique and “astonishing” was the media attention

“I think the trigger was the torture and use of metal instruments to hurt (the girl) and the fact this was happening when the bus was travelling all over Delhi,” she said. “People wanted a catalyst to challenge the complacency of the government and this incident just rocked them.”

Rajeev Shah, a Pune resident, agreed that the crime itself wasn’t exceptional, but its treatment by the public was.

“Because it happened in the capital city and because the girl was on her way to becoming a doctor it became a very high profile case,” he said.

According to the New York Times, a typical rape case tried in India could take as long as nine years, but because of the international attention this case garnered, the verdict was reached in nine months.

Chari Wagh said the case moved so quickly because of the media attention it drew. She said similar cases are not often treated the same way.

“(We) need to recognize that there are many such gruesome cases present in fast track court which run into the thousands where justice has not been delivered,” she said.

On Friday, Sept. 12, the Times of India reported the punishment for the four remaining adult defendants of the Dehli case: Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Sing.

Yogesh Khanna, Saket district court judge, sentenced the four men to death by hanging as punishment for a crime, which he said “shocked the collective conscious of India.”

The verdict must still be confirmed by India’s High Court and the defendants may appeal the case to the Supreme Court or ask the president for clemency before the sentence will be final.

The fifth surviving defendant, 17 at the time of the crime, has been sentenced to the maximum of three years imprisonment warranted for a juvenile. Now the Indian Supreme Court will reexamine whether juvenility can be determined on a case-by-case basis and evaluated according to the defendant’s maturity level and the severity of the crime.

“The verdict should have been stronger for all involved,” Shah said. “And the juvenile should have gotten the same treatment. I think the court is recognizing that now.”

Priyanka Khair, a 22-year-old Pune resident, said the judge delivered an appropriate punishment for the four adults but worries the death penalty will not change deep-seeded problems of violence against women in India.

“The punishment won’t change the situation,” Khair said. “Basic morals should be stronger and women should be treated as equals.”

A woman asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of this topic in India agreed that violence against women in India is a complex problem, but said she thinks the punishment may be the first step towards a solution.

“I’m against killing,” she said. “But I wonder now what is the right way. There has to be much more fear. And in some ways I think killing will help because it will create fear. But, of course, only one thing will not solve the problem. It has to be a lot of things together.”

Chari Wagh said the verdict may encourage more women to report assaults but she does not believe the verdict will deter future crimes against women.

“The people who commit crimes will now kill women so that they won’t be able to testify,” she said. “Fast and effective dealing in court is important, but most crucially I think we have to address the patriarchal set up, which means dealing with schools and education systems.”

Chari Wagh said only education would change traditional perceptions of rape in India.

“There’s this idea that ‘good girls’ do not get raped in India, and if you get raped you are not a ‘good girl,’” she said.

Because of this perception, Chari Wagh said, women are usually given some or all of the responsibility for violent crimes committed against them.

Both Khair and the anonymous source said women’s actions could play a role in the violence inflicted on them in India.

“There were problems on both sides of this case,” Khair said. “Women should be respected physically and emotionally, but the girl and her boyfriend shouldn’t have boarded the bus in Dehli with tinted glass.”

The anonymous source said that have to take precautions to ensure their safety in India today.

“The most important thing women can do is dress decently because they know what kind of people are outside,” she said. “People think they can do anything they want today. They see a girl and think she’s free property.”

Because of perceptions like this, Shah said he doesn’t think the verdict of the Dehli case will curb future violence against women in India.

“The public memory is too short,” he said. “This will surely also be forgotten.”

Shah said he knows these incidents are occurring across the country and very few are going to press. He said he worries things are getting worse rather than better.

“I have a daughter and I feel things are becoming more unsafe for (girls) to move around safely in cities,” he said.

It should be noted that Shah’s views on the case are liberal from the perspective of men in India. A male hotel employee in Mumbai was asked to comment on the case and declined the interview, claiming he had not heard of the Dehli rape. Shah was the only male who agreed to take part in an interview on the subject.

The anonymous source said although she doesn’t think the death penalty alone will stop violence against women, she hopes it will have some impact.

“These men need to be shamed so that women do not continue to be harassed, so they feel safe being on a train,” she said. “Something has to scare them.”