Bishops Claw Their Way to First Win

          By Spencer Pauley, Managing Editor

Sometimes it never hurts to just kick the field goal, as is the case for the OWU Battling Bishops who pulled out a win against the Wooster Fighting Scots with a game-winning field goal.

The Battling Bishops held their first home game of the season on Sept. 15 and had it dedicated to Coach to Cure MD, a partnership dedicated to raising awareness of the muscle disorder called Duchenne. Despite the offense not scoring a touchdown the whole game, OWU won 9 – 7.

All of the Battling Bishops’ points came from Kicker Philhower. Philhower went 3-3 with the 27 yard game-winning field goal with only 18 seconds left. Kickers need ice in their veins for high-pressured kicks like that and it seemed like Philhower had it for the entire game.

“When you go out there, your legs get numb, a lot goes through your head, you just gotta kick it.” Phillhower said.

OWU Quarterback Jax Harville had a moderately successful game despite getting sacked nine times by the Wooster defense. He completed 63 percent of his passes for a total of 216 yards. However, the offense’s biggest plays came from receivers Deji Adebiyi and Aaron Fields II. Both receivers combined for 107 yards and some key plays of theirs lead to the game-winning field goal.

Adebiyi would end up going to the hospital after the game due to dehydration. What will he do to improve for the next game?

“Drink a little more water, avoid cramps for sure,” Adebiyi said.

The OWU defense was able to limit Wooster to only seven points for the whole game. Sophomore Cody Streit lead the Battling Bishops with 11 total tackles.

Head Coach Tom Watts was satisfied with how the game went, especially his players’ effort.

“A win’s a win. It’s awesome. I’m proud of the guys, they played their hearts out,” Watts said. “They played four quarters, you couldn’t ask for much more.”

When it comes to the yearly matchups with Wooster, Watts sees a consistently competitive game every time.

“It’s always a good game between us. It’s always back and forth,” Watts said. “It’s the fun part about playing in the NCAC.”

The Battling Bishops (1-2) will travel to Meadville, Pennsylvania on Sept. 22 to play the Allegheny Gators (1-2).

Rafiki hosts first ever Caribbean Carnival

By Tiffany Moore, Online Editor

tpmoore@owu.edu

Funnel cakes, a steel pan musician, and Samba dancers were some of the many attractions that got over 150 students and staff to come to Ohio Wesleyan’s (OWU) first ever Caribbean Carnival.

Rafiki Wa Africa collaborated with Black Student Union (BSU), and Black Men of the Future (BMF), to host their first Caribbean Carnival on the JAYwalk on Sept. 14.

During an interview, Oshane Tackore, vice president of BMF said, “The food was amazing, the dancers are really good, the music was really good too, I don’t set high expectations but I think it turned out great.” 

Steel pan musician Ken Greene, from Cleveland, Ohio, started off the carnival with some Caribbean beats. Daniela Black, who is originally from Trinidad and current president of Rafiki, shared how the steel pan is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago and is used in many of the songs during carnival.

Two Samba dancers from Chicago taught attendees a few Samba dances for the remainder of the Carnival. Samba is a Brazilian dance with origins in Africa. Students and faculty were able to follow along with step by step instructions given by the Samba dancers. At the end of the Carnival, students participated in the Trinidadian tradition of J’ouvert by throwing powder paint on one another.

Freshman Grace McDonald won $46.50 from the 50/50 Raffle.

“We definitely drew a crowd of different cultures. I don’t think OWU has ever had an event like this with this type of food. People really enjoyed it,” BSU president Jenelle Collier said.

Students and faculty had a chance to watch and learn about the musical culture in the Caribbean in addition to tasting food and drinks from Trinidad and Jamaica. The menu included curry chicken, jerk chicken, chicken stew with white rice and peas (rice and beans), plantains, mac’n’cheese, beef patties, funnel cakes, ginger beer, and Jarritos.

Freshman Miah Katalenas said that she heard about the Carnival through a friend and was really pleased with the food.

Black says that the purpose of having the Carnival was to expose the OWU community to a slice of Caribbean culture and cuisine.

“Caribbean people on this campus are underrepresented and this is something that has never been done on this campus and it was great to share it with a place many of us call home for four years,” Black said. 

Social Advocacy Met Sewing At OWU

By Maddie Matos

Arts and Entertainment Editor

mrmatos@owu.edu

Advocacy and art combined and took new form at the most recent installation on campus.

The Social Justice Sewing Academy debuted its gallery inside Beeghly Library at Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday, Sept. 8.

Open to the Ohio Wesleyan and Delaware communities, the gallery consisted of a presentation and workshop for participants.

The exhibit is part of the university’s 2018-2019 Sagan National Colloquium (SNC). The focus for this year’s SNC programing is how art can impact the world.

The Social Justice Sewing Academy was founded in 2017 by Sara Trail. Trail wanted a creative way for students to portray their ideas about social justice and what it means to them.

The academy teaches children to sew and use those skills to create a block of fabric that will later be incorporated into a quilt. The blocks can be about any issue that the artist cares about.

“It gives youth the forefront in issues,” Trail said in a video message to the audience. Due to a cancelation in her flight, Trail could not make it to the program, which had an audience of over 15 people.

The program started as a post collegiate endeavor, but the idea for it has always been in Trails’ mind.

“My dream is to open a non-profit to teach people to sew,” Trail said.

Social advocacy was a huge factor for Trail when creating the program. She has hosted workshops in underprivileged areas across the United States, such as Chicago and Berkeley. These areas allow Trail to reach out to students to educate them.

“I want to give young people the tools…to understand,” Trail said.

The work the academy has done has been featured across social media and news outlets. Trail herself was already well known in the sewing community for her previous collaborations with Simplicity, a well-known fabric and sewing company. Throughout her career, Trail felt that sewing could do more for people than they realize.

“Sewing is more than a hobby,” Trail said.

The presentation was well received, with over half of the audience staying for the workshop. The experience allowed people to learn new skills and see what an impact their art and voice has in the community.

“Workshops like this make it look possible and doable,”  junior, Miah Gruber, said.

Cafe Space Plans Have Been Set

 

 

    By Spencer Pauley, Managing Editor

 

Due to the Stewart Annex being repurposed, the cafe space in Beeghly Library will now be the temporary meeting space for the Honors Program of Ohio Wesleyan.

Planning for the space will be done throughout the fall semester and the renovation will be done during the mid-semester break to minimize disruption. At some point during the spring semester, the space will finally be ready for the Honors Program to use.

The Beeghly Library was chosen for the new Honors Program location mainly because of its 24/7 access for students. Amy McClure, a member of the Honors Board and professor of education, is looking forward to a designated space for the program members.

“We are looking forward to having the space walled off so that it is truly a designated space,” McClure said. “The space will be used for quiet studying, honor society initiations, meetings, small group discussion with speakers who come to campus and other honors-related events and activities.”

Various locations on campus were being considered, but the Beeghly Cafe was chosen in the end. Brian Rellinger, associate provost for academic support, says that with all the changes of services going on at OWU, the staff members of the libraries, Honors Program and others deserve credit for making the transitions seamless.

As for the cafe itself, Rellinger says that there are solutions in place:

“The Bashford Lounge, which is attached to the cafe, will still remain accessible 24/7 to all students and all equipment and services available in the cafe have been shifted to the lounge,” Rellinger said. “New vending machines have also been added to the space for all to use.”

The change to the cafe space is not the only renovation Beeghly Library saw. During summer break, a meditation and reflection space was added to the third floor, the front steps and patio were repaired, a quad of Apple computers were added, and the restrooms received a fresh coat of paint. The library will also have its cooling towers replaced during mid-semester break.

Dividers for the cafe space will be put up in Beeghly Library later this semester.

The Passing of a President

By Jesse Sailer, Sports Editor

The death of Ohio Wesleyan University’s (OWU) 12th president provides an opportunity to look back and acknowledge the adversity faced and dedication required when it comes to shaping a place of higher education such as OWU.

Dr. Thomas E. Wenzlau died Aug. 1 at the age of 91 in Colorado Springs.

Wenzlau served for 15 years as Ohio Wesleyans 12th president from 1969-1984 and was honored in 1985 with an alumni award for his accomplishments as Ohio Wesleyan’s president.

His career at OWU was marked with change and progress and the oversight of campus growth.

Wenzlau saw the creation and completion of the $33.5-million XIVth Decade development program as well as the establishment of the need-based system of grants and funding that allowed students to pay for college and university.

He oversaw campus projects that furnished facilities such as the Chappelear Drama Center, the expansion and remodeling of Sanborn Hall and the construction of the Branch Rickey Arena.

When it came to academics, Wenzlau created the Reach for Quality Program, which aimed to reinforce the university’s tradition of educational quality and its commitment to intellectual achievement.

The Reach for Quality program, and its commitment to academic excellence, caused a disconnect between the Ohio Wesleyan student body and the president. The program resulted in reducing enrollment from its high of 2,500 to 1,800 by the fall of 1985.

Although the student body believed Wenzlau had taken the wrong risk in reducing enrollment, the university claimed its best freshman class in five years with a number of freshmen commitments from the top one-fifth of their high school class climbing 5 percent, and test scores increasing exponentially.

Some such as Edward B. Fiske, a New York Times reporter, seemed to side with the Ohio Wesleyan student body.

“The administration at Ohio Wesleyan says that it is looking for students interested in a wide range of nonacademic options,” Fiske wrote, “but it seems to have collected a student body interested mainly in a good time.”

In an interview with OWU Magazine, Wenzlau shared his thoughts on leading the University through the 1970s, calling the era “a decade of important causes, of students pursuing the rights and recognition of young adults, of the black minority and female majority seeking equality of opportunity and elimination of double standards, of concern for the environment, and of students focusing on careers and employment opportunities.”

Wenzlau was the choice of an Ohio Wesleyan trustee selection committee, assisted by faculty and student representatives after screening more than 150 candidates.

Commenting generally on the appointment of a new president for a small liberal arts school, and specifically on his move to Ohio Wesleyan, Wenzlau said,“A new man coming in is more likely to bring fresh ideas, although it does take some time for him to become acquainted with the functions of the institution,” to “learn what makes it tick.”

Prior to becoming Ohio Wesleyan’s 12th president, Wenzlau taught at Wesleyan University, Kenyon College, and Lawrence University, where he served for a year as associate dean of the faculty before returning to his alma mater.

A 1950 OWU alumnus, Wenzlau received his Bachelor of Arts degree with departmental honors in economics. He was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served as president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

Wenzlau’s success extended into athletics as he lettered in track, basketball and football, captaining the team in 1949 as a pass receiver and kicker.

He set multiple records as kicker including highest punting average in a single game, as well as the season record and career record, earning him an induction into the Battling Bishop Hall of Fame in 1972.

Wenzlau is survived by his daughters, Kathy Wenzlau Comer and Janet Wenzlau Von Kraut and sons, David and Scott Wenzlau.

In Remembrance of John McCain

By Kienan O’Doherty, Editor-In-Chief

As the world watched an emotion-filled service yesterday for late U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) remembers the passionate politician.

Sen. McCain came to OWU twice, both in 1997 and again in 2010, to serve as the keynote speaker for  commencement addresses.

McCain died on Aug. 25 after deciding not to continue medical treatment for glioblastoma, a form of brain tumor.

McCain will be remembered for his 22 years in the U.S. Navy and 36 years in both the U.S. House and Senate. McCain also made headlines as he ran for president twice.

His memorial service included two former presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, as speakers. Two men who ideally conflicted with McCain’s political views, but had an ultimate of respect for the Arizona Republican.

“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse, can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult, in phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” Obama said in an New York Times article. “It’s a politics that pretends to be brave, but in fact is born of fear. John called us to be bigger than that. He called us to be better than that.”

Many people watched as Obama and McCain went toe to toe in the 2008 presidential election, but it was McCain’s graciousness toward his opponent that wowed the country, defending Obama on multiple occasions.

That tone of graciousness and positivity carried over during his visits to OWU, encouraging students during the 2010 address to appreciate freedom and to make a positive difference in the world.

Attached below is the transcript of his 2010 commencement address, as OWU and the world remember Sen. John McCain:

U.S. Senator John McCain
May 9, 2010

“Thank you. It’s an honor to be here, to join in the chorus of congratulations to the Ohio Wesleyan Class of 2010, and to share your pride and celebration. This is a day to bask in praise. You’ve earned it. You have succeeded in a demanding course of instruction from a fine university. Life seems full of promise. Such is always the case when a passage of life is marked by significant accomplishment. Today, it must surely seem as if the world attends you.

But spare a moment for those who have truly attended you so well for so long, and whose pride in your accomplishments is even greater than your own – your parents. When the world was looking elsewhere, your parents’ attention was one of life’s certainties. And if tomorrow the world seems a little indifferent as it awaits new achievements from you, your families will still be your most unstinting source of encouragement, counsel and often—since the world can be a little stingy at first—financial support.

So, as I commend the Class of 2010, I offer equal praise to your parents for the sacrifices they made for you, for their confidence in you and their love. More than any other influence in your lives, they have helped make you the success you are today and might become tomorrow.

I thought I would show my gratitude for the privilege of addressing you by keeping my remarks brief. I suspect that some of you might have other plans for the day that you would prefer to commence sooner rather than later, and I will not to detain you too long.

It’s difficult for commencement speakers to avoid resorting to clichĂ©s on these occasions. Given the great number of commencement addresses that are delivered every year by men and women of greater distinction, insights and eloquence than I possess, originality is an elusive quality.

One clichĂ© that works its way into hundreds of addresses before graduating classes from junior high schools to universities is the salutation: “leaders of tomorrow.” Like most clichĂ©s, it represents an obvious truth. You and your generational cohort will be responsible for the future course of our civilization, and much of the course of human events in your time. But will you, with all the confidence and vitality you possess today, assume the obligations of professional, community, national or world leaders?

Many of you have already given your hearts and talents to causes greater than yourselves. I know it is a point of pride for this university and for many of you individually that Ohio Wesleyan received a Presidential Award for Excellence in General Community Service, one of just three schools to be so recognized. It’s an impressive distinction, and an encouraging one for those who hope your generation’s contributions to the progress of humanity will exceed the contributions of previous generations, and your leadership of causes and communities, our country and the world will surpass the achievements and correct the deficiencies of my generation’s leadership.

When you reach my age, experience with failure and a humbler appreciation of your achievements is as difficult to avoid as hardened arteries. When you’re young, or when I was young, anyway, it seems natural to doubt time’s great haste. But eventually most people come to understand how brief a moment a life is. That discovery does not, however, have to fill you with dread. You learn you can fill the moment with purpose and experiences that will make your life greater than the sum of its days. You learn to acknowledge your failings and to recognize opportunities for redemption.

No one expects you at your age to know precisely how you will lead accomplished lives or give your talents to the worthy causes of your time. You have time before these choices and challenges confront you. It’s been my experience that they reveal themselves over time to everyone. They are seldom choices that arrive just once, are resolved at one time, and, thus, permanently fix the course of your life. Many of the most important choices you will face emerge slowly, sometimes obscurely. Often, they are choices you must make again and again.

Once in a great while a person is confronted with a choice, the implications of which are so profound that its resolution affects your life forever. But that happens rarely and to relatively few people. For most people, life is long enough and varied enough to overcome occasional mistakes and failures.

You might think that I’m now going to advise you not to be afraid to fail. I’m not. Be afraid. Speaking from considerable experience, failing stinks. Just don’t be undone by it. Failure is no more a permanent condition than is success. “Defeat is never fatal,” Winston Churchill observed. “Victory is never final. It’s courage that counts.”

For twenty years a woman of astonishing courage and grace, Ang San Suu Kyi, has voluntarily endured imprisonment, threats to her health and life, the loss of loved ones, and all manner of cruelty at the hands of tyrants who resist her every effort to liberate her country from the iniquity of their rule. And the millions of Burmese people who love her, and who lawfully elected her their leader, have risen time and again in peaceful opposition to the regime, and to claim their natural rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They have been imprisoned, tortured and murdered. When it isn’t looking the other way, the civilized world has often given them little more than rhetorical support, and the imposition of inadequate and porous sanctions against the regime that oppresses them.

When Ang San Suu Kyi’s husband was dying of cancer, the Burmese junta refused him permission to travel to Burma to bid his wife a last good-bye. Instead, they told Suu Kyi she could leave the country to visit him. But she knew that were she to leave, she would never be allowed back, and the inspiration she provides by sharing the struggle and suffering of her people would be lost to them. So she stayed under arrest, deprived of contact with her people and the world, and suffered her heartbreak alone.

But she and her people persist in their righteous cause. No defeat has undone them. No defeat ever will. The tyrants who try to silence and terrorize and destroy them will not outlive the moral courage that resists them. I have always believed, no matter how long it takes, how many setbacks are suffered, how resilient the forces of injustice, the righteous will prevail. I believe that for the people of Burma and Iran and Sudan and anywhere where darkness prevails for a time and inflicts its terrible miseries on the innocent, before the light of human conscience extinguishes it forever. We won’t all live to see it, but I cannot accept that the day won’t come eventually, when a blessed generation will see the triumph of good over evil in the last, dark corners of the world.

I have seen a lot of things in my life—a lot of things, like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Cold War that I doubted I would ever witness in my lifetime. Though I see a lot of gathering storms on our horizon, I remain optimistic about the promise of our world, and the day of reckoning that will eventually come for those who sought worldly glory by denying the inherent dignity of others. And much of that optimism is based on my faith in your generation’s character.

I have faith that you understand that assaults on the dignity of others are assaults on the dignity of all humanity. You will not look upon tyranny and injustice in faraway places as the inevitable tragedy of mankind’s fallen nature. You will see them as a call to action – a summons to devote your time and talents to a just cause that is greater than yourself, the cause of human rights and dignity. Make this your legacy, and 20 years from now, maybe longer, you will be able to know that you made history, and made our country and world better. Not perfect, but better.

I believe American leadership in opposition to human rights abuses is the truest expression of our national character. The United States, since its founding, has embraced a set of moral duties, among which, I believe, is the obligation to respect the God-given dignity of every human being, and to experience assaults on anyone’s dignity as an assault on our own conscience.

It is surely right to say, first and foremost, the United States has an obligation to set a moral example in the world, and we failed that duty when we used torture to interrogate captured terrorists. That moral failure has made it harder for us to encourage other nations to respect the dignity of their citizens or to rally world support for the cause of the oppressed. But it hasn’t relieved us of the responsibility.

No, we are not a perfect nation. We did not act on reports of the Holocaust. We ignored the slaughter in Rwanda until it was too late. We have not made enough of an effort to stop the atrocities in Sudan and Burma and elsewhere. For too long, we refused to respect the full civil rights and dignity of Americans whose skin color was a shade darker than others. We mistreated enemies in our custody. But with each failure, our conscience is stung, and we resolve to do better. Each time, we say, never again, and fall short of that vow again. But whatever our flaws, whatever dangers we face, however sharp our debates, we must remain a country with a conscience. And we must feel ashamed when we ignore its demands.

All Americans share in the obligation to stand with those who are denied the rights we too often take for granted here. Even if you are never elected to any office or never meet a foreign policy professional, a responsibility remains. If the defense of human rights abroad is a concern of the American people, it will remain the concern of our elected officials. And if it is a concern of our government, the world will take notice.

It is your responsibility, your good fortune, to be expected to do better than your predecessors have done to advance our ideals; to live in your own time the authentic character of a country that was founded not to preserve tribal or class distinctions, but to defend human dignity. I envy your opportunities, and I regret the occasions when I failed to make the most of mine.

Twenty years, ago, I watched on television as the Berlin Wall came down, and it called to mind a quote from William Faulkner. “I decline to accept the end of man,” Faulkner said in his Nobel lecture. “I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”

That faith has cost many lives, but liberated many more. It is the faith that tears down walls and builds bridges between peoples. It is the faith that made our nation the hope of mankind. And it is the faith we now rely on you to strengthen and advance. Take good care with it.

Not all of us will bear arms for our country. Few of us will ever rush into burning buildings to save the lives of strangers. Not many will devote their lives entirely to the well-being of others. But we do have an obligation to be worthy of our ideals, and the sacrifices made on their behalf. We have to love our freedom not just for the autonomy it guarantees us, but for the goodness it makes possible. We must love freedom for the right reasons, and on occasion our love will need courage to survive.

We are all afraid of something, whether it’s failure, or dispossession, or mortality, and the sacrifice of time that becomes so precious to us. But we should not let the sensation of fear convince us we are too weak to have courage. Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. No one is born a coward. We were meant to love. And we were meant to have the courage for it.

Congratulations, again. Thank you for inviting me and for the privilege of addressing you, to whom history, and the dreams of mankind, will soon be entrusted.”

New seal provides new identity

By Kienan O’Doherty, Editor-In-Chief

With a new executive board comes a new seal.

The Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs (WCSA) officially approved their new seal at Monday’s full senate meeting, which occurred after the scheduled Town Hall. The approval came after weeks of voting and approval of language describing the seal.

Many people believed the old seal was too like the seal of Ohio Wesleyan.

“Although the old seal of WCSA was not the exact same as the seal of the University, many often confused the two. Therefore, this seal differentiates WCSA from the University,” senator, chair of the Student Inclusion Advocacy committee and seal designer, Cindy Huynh said. “In addition, as part of the Executive Board, we believed that we wanted to set a new tone for and improve the culture of WCSA and establishing a new seal was one of the ways to do that.”

In her design Huynh kept the “Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs” in a circle, which represents the circle of life–the past, present, and future–of WCSA. She also kept “1973” because she believed that our establishment of student government at OWU is very important. There is a “W” that is flanked by laurels, which represents achievement.

Senator Gretchen Weaver, who is also co-chair of the Public Relations committee, believes that students will see this seal solely as WCSA’s.

I believe the seal represents WCSA’s individuality as an organization committed to the student body, “Weaver said. “The seal is simple, yet strong that is easily recognizable from other seals or symbols to organizations on campus. r voice and bring about change.

Gifts given a plenty to largest campaign in history

By Reilly Wright, Managing Editor

Recent gifts and pledges have pushed the largest campaign in Ohio Wesleyan history, the $200 million “Connect Today, Create Tomorrow” campaign, forward for students.

The campaign has had the spotlight in recent university efforts and, according to President Rock Jones, gifts and pledges have totaled to more than $150 million to date. This puts the campaign a full year ahead of the projected schedule.

The raised money is aimed toward improvements campus wide; whether need-based scholarships, the OWU Connection or capital improvements, such as renovating Branch Rickey Arena.

Colleen Garland, vice president for University Advancement, says campaigns begin with a university strategic plan that resonates with donors and has the biggest impact at Ohio Wesleyan. The campaign’s progress is fueled through gifts by OWU alumni and friends.

“The largest single objective [of the campaign] is $50 million for student scholarships,” Garland said. “There’s the OWU Connection endowments, there’s capital improvements, like the new SLUs
 all of those have been funded with gifts from the campaign.”

Earlier in March, Garland announced recent major gifts contributing to the campaign.

Dr. James F. Morris ’44 Endowed Scholarship: Estimated to be the second-largest scholarship at OWU, it is expected to total to more than $4 million with preference toward students with financial need. It is named after the late Dr. James F. Morris, an alumnus who received a full scholarship from OWU before becoming a pulmonologist.

The Sloan House, 94 Rowland Ave.: The currently unnamed Small Living Unit, the blue and brown building holding the House of Linguistic Diversity (HOLD) and House of Peace & Justice, will be named the Sloan House. Due to a $500,000 commitment from Tim and Lisa Sloan, members of the Campaign Leadership Committee, the Sloan House reception will be held during Reunion Weekend on Friday, May 18.

David P. Miller ’54 gift for online summer classes: After two successful summers of pilot online summer courses at OWU, Miller, who financially contributed for its launch, agreed to provide an additional $819,000 for the next three years of course development. Summer enrollment has increased due to the classes’ success and now the number of online courses has doubled each year. For information on the 2018 summer session, visit https://www.owu.edu/academics/summer-session/.

“Each and every gift is important to this campaign,” Jones said. “The gifts announced recently reflect the wide-ranging impact of this campaign
  Each of these gifts directly impacts our students and their experience here.”

Garland says campaign gifts are being closed almost every week and she plans to remain transparent in sharing these donor stories with the campus community.

“My intent is once every four to six weeks or so to send a similar update to the campus to highlight specific gifts because if we only talk about the dollars it’s hard to understand the donor story behind the dollar and what it’s actually going towards,” she said.

The University Advancement staff combined with the Campaign Leadership Committee, co-chaired by Kevin and Nancy McGinty and John and Kathie Milligan, has led campaign support. But Garland also says students and faculty help inspire alumni and friends to give as well.

“Whether that’s students writing thank you notes to donors if they receive a scholarship to faculty continuing to innovate and add new programs like the new majors, all of that gives us things that donors get excited about and want to invest in,” Garland said.

To view updated campaign progress, visit owu.edu/campaign.