Category: News

By Suzanne Samin
Arts & Entertainment Editor

When Grace Brown created Project Unbreakable in her dorm room at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, she did not know it would take her many places across the country, and soon the world.

On Sept. 25, Ohio Wesleyan became one of those many places. Brown set up shop in Benes A to photograph anyone who wanted to participate. – some coming from as far as Kentucky to be included in the project.

She then delivered a presentation that night.

Project Unbreakable is an on-going photo project depicting survivors of rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse holding signs with quotes from their attackers or anecdotes from their traumatic experience.

Brown has photographed people of all different ages, ranging from as young as 15 to as old as 87 and she has been featured in multiple publications such as Time Magazine and The Guardian.

Brown began her project after realizing sexual violence was closer to her than she originally thought.

“I found that I was always surrounded by survivors of sexual assault, and then one day a friend of mine just blurted out her story to me,” she said.

“Even though I had heard these stories, something about this one really got me. I went to bed that night feeling very distraught with our world and just feeling like this was just going to happen and I was just going to hear these horrific stories and not be able to do anything about them. Then the next morning, I woke up with the idea for Project Unbreakable.”

Brown said she then approached her friend and photographed her.

Soon the project launched online and grew so much that people from all over began submitting photos of themselves and asking her to visit their cities, towns and schools.

Since creating Project Unbreakable in 2011, Brown has traveled to several states and has recently announced tour dates abroad in London and Paris.

Brown said though her initial goals for Project Unbreakable were more centered on raising awareness, she also discovered a new way of healing.

Seniors Alexandra Crump and Megan Cook, both residents of the Women’s House and members of Delta Zeta, were responsible for bringing Brown to campus as their house project.

Both Cook and Crump had previous knowledge of Brown’s project because they are followers of her blog on Tumblr.

“I’ve followed Grace Brown’s work with Project Unbreakable for a long time, and when she announced a fall tour, I knew we had to bring her to OWU,” Cook said.

“It was amazing seeing all the details come together, and when Grace arrived, it was hard to believe this was all actually happening. Grace was a wonderful, down-to-earth person, and talking with her about her project and her life inspired me to think about where my passions could meet the world’s needs.”

Cook and Crump were satisfied by the turnout of both events. Many people came to be photographed, and almost every seat was taken for Brown’s presentation.

“We decided to bring Grace to give more awareness to her project and allow members of the OWU community to participate,” Crump said.
“I think it had a profound impact on the people who were photographed, just from the few people who I spoke with it seemed to be a very important experience for them.”

In her presentation, Brown shared some of the photos she had taken in the past; including ones of people close to her.

She spoke about keeping faith in humanity, keeping positive and the importance of awareness.

She urged the audience to not be people who “sit down,” but “stand up” in the face of adversity.

Cook said she felt the project profoundly affected many of those who participated and attended the lecture.

“The response from the campus and community also surpassed all my expectations. Seeing interest from people I never would have expected really drove home the point that sexual abuse and assault affect far too many people,” Cook said.

“Sitting with Grace while she photographed students and others allowed me to see the wide variety of experiences and the different stages of response and recovery different people had.”

Cook said Brown was also satisfied with the presentation.

“Grace said that OWU was one of the best stops on her tour so far. She loved how engaged the audience was, and said this was the first speech she had given after which she felt totally satisfied,” she said.

Brown’s visit also impacted Cook on a more personal level.

“She helped me realize that the limitations I place on myself because of my age, my shyness and the like don’t have to keep me from doing something with impactthe important thing is not to be perfect from the start, but just to start something at all and see where it leads,” she said.

Editor’s note: The author of this article lives in the Women’s House but was not directly involved in this project.

By Breanne Reilly
News Editor

Public Safety is investigating damages inflicted upon the Smith East and West residence halls. In the past month, the buildings have procured several hundred dollars in damages and Smith residents are paying out of pocket for the vandalism.

Most of the damages have occurred at Smith East.

According to Levi Harrel, residential life coordinator of Smith and Austin Halls, damages in the past month include a shattered door on Smith East first floor and a flood light was torn down on the fifth floor.

Fire extinguishers have been sprayed on two different occasions, one of which caused a building-wide evacuation.

Vomit has also been found along with a smashed bottle of alcohol in the #3 Smith East stairwell.

In Smith West, a Rec Room door window was shattered on the second floor. Twelve bulletin boards have been ripped down in both buildings.
According to Harrel, the cumulative cost for the September damages is not currently known, but he said the damages have been expensive to repair.

For example, according to Ramon Walls, public safety officer, the repairs needed to fix the shattered door on the Smith East floor cost $216.

Harrel said when damages like these occur, those responsible for the damages have to pay for repairs.

However, the investigation is ongoing and no one has stepped forward to claim responsibility.

So the university has had to pay for cleanup and repairs and then recollect the money through community damages.

According to Harrell, “when no one takes responsibility that cost is passed on to the entire Smith community.”

Sophomore Jack Sussman, a resident in Smith East, said it is unfair that each student is billed for the damages, but he understands the repairs have to be paid for.

Sussman also said he was charged for community damages last year when he lived in Thomson Hall.

“When no one fesses up to it, there is no other logical way to pay,” Sussman said.

According to Andrew Peterson, assistant director of Residential Life, students last year paid up to $35 in community damages, depending on where they lived.

The university does not charge students for community damages that cost less than one dollar per student.

Still, most students are charged $5-10 in community damages each year.

Peterson also said the per-student cost appears to be “reasonably small.”

However, there are approximately 1,500 students on campus.

“When the cost per student is multiplied 1,500 times you can see that a very small number of students are causing everyone to pay a collectively giant sum of money for senseless destruction,” Peterson said.

Freshman William Boaz, a resident of Smith West, said he agrees the destruction does not make any sense.

“I think it’s ridiculous and immature, I really don’t see why people do that,” Boaz said.

According to Richard Leavy, professor of psychology, like most behaviors, vandalism has many sources.

“Those who vandalize may be more impulsive, enjoy risk-taking and exercise less self-control than most people,” Leavy said.
Leavy said environmental factors can play an important role.

For example, adolescents who vandalize property are more likely to come from families where the parents do not closely watch their children’s actions.

They are also more likely to be antisocial.

He said vandalism can be classified as a “peer norm.”

If a group participates in destructive, defiant, and deviant behavior, adolescents who join will adopt that behavior.

“Vandalism is likely when, as with most kinds of undesirable behavior, there are infrequent or minimal negative consequences for the behavior,” Leavy said.

Part of the problem is that those responsible for the vandalism cannot be identified because they have not been caught in the acts.
“Vandalism is most likely to occur in the late night or early morning when few people are awake to see or hear what has occurred,” Peterson said.

He said students who witness the vandalism or who know the party/parties responsible for the damages should contact their RA, RLC or Public Safety immediately.

They can also email reslife@owu.edu and be directed to the proper person.

Boaz said the Smith community has a responsibility to prevent the vandalism and to find the people who caused the damages.

“People should take it upon themselves to contribute to a good atmosphere,” Boaz said.

Sussman said those responsible should remember that their actions are costly for everyone.

“They should think twice about what they do,” Sussman said. “If they have violent tendencies, they should talk to someone about it.”

By Jacob Beach
Transcript Correspondent

After just five weeks of classes, students are starting to settle in their rooms and grow comfortable with their course load. But for some parents, five weeks is the longest time they have been away from their children.

Parents and families arrived last weekend for Family Weekend and were able to attend a number of school-sponsored events, including a football game and Stuyvesant Open House and ceremonies.

Junior Olivia Gillison said she enjoyed going to the game with her family.

In her three years here, they have yet to miss a game.

“(We) always go to watch the football game no matter what,” Gillison said.

“Last year we sat out in the cold, wet rain just because it’s what we do.”

Many families that visit do the same thing every year and call it a tradition.

Sophomore Thomas DeHaas, greeted both of his parents this year, just as he did last year.

However, this year he was joined by his sister, freshman Heather DeHaas in celebrating the activities.

“Generally I just really appreciate my parents taking time out to come and see me on the weekend and spend time with me, that is what this weekend is all about,” Thomas DeHaas said.

“My parents usually only come for the Homecoming/Family Weekend which is split in two weekends this year.”

“I was only expecting them to come for one of the weekends, but they surprised me.”

Many students use the time to catch up with their parents and to take a break from campus food.

Gillison said she has gone to Bob Evans the past two years with her family.

DeHaas spent at least one meal out with his parents as well.

“My sister and I drove to meet our parents at a restaurant close to their hotel where we all enjoyed a very tasty brunch.” Thomas DeHaas said.

Students also tend to receive praise from their parents and compliments about the school.

DeHaas said this “moral boost” is beneficial.
“They like the positive and welcoming atmosphere and enjoy exploring the beautiful campus as the trees begin to change with the onset of fall,” DeHaas said.

Parents visiting campus had the opportunity to attend a number of events with their children and had time to explore the campus before heading home at the end of Family Weekend.

“I think that they like the school a lot but they like it even more because I’ve been able to thrive so well here and be comfortable even though I’m pretty far from home,” Gillison said.

DeHaas said the only part that was stressful about Family Weekend was the he had “to straighten up the room so that it looked presentable.”

Later this fall, parents will have the opportunity to return to campus alongside alumni for Homecoming Weekend in October.

By Marilyn Baer
Transcript Correspondent

Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity is one of the newest additions to the Greek community at OWU.

Fiji officially gained its first pledge class on March 8 of last semester after their national headquarters facilitated their new charter and recolonization. Fiji had been an active fraternity on OWU’s campus previously, but had their charter revoked in March of 2008 due to financial issues and declining membership.

Members of Fiji are a part of many organizations on campus such as the Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs (WCSA), tennis, basketball, soccer and lacrosse teams.

It is this diversity that senior Paul Hendricks, president of Fiji, sets his fraternity apart from the rest.

“A lot of the fraternities have kind of stagnated and settled into a stereotype, and I think we are very different in that sense because we have guys who are literally coming from almost every single organization on campus,” Hendricks said.

Sophomore Philippe Chauveau, a member of the philanthropy and brotherhood committee and the pledge education committee, echoed this same feeling.

“We are a pretty diverse group of guys,” Chauveau said. “Some fraternities you can look at and say oh, they are football players and they are basketball players, but not us. We have soccer players, lacrosse players, tennis players, baseball players, ultimate Frisbee players, we have WCSA members, and all other organizations.”

Fiji is also different than other OWU fraternities because they do not have a house.

That doesn’t seem to hinder their appeal to potential new members however, as Chauveau said they just signed on seven new pledges.

Not having a house may not always be the case, though. Chavauveau said he speculates they may get a house his in the next year or two.

“This is just speculation, but what I was told was that, by either my junior or, latest, my senior year, we will be getting our old house back or some other house on campus,” Chauveau said.

One thing the men of FIJI said they expect to add to the Greek community is gentlemanly behavior.

“We are trying to have the image of the nice guys I guess,” Cheaveau said. “Just being gentlemen, always helping out, and being an active member of the community by doing a lot of community service and also by being very sociable.”

Another thing that the self-proclaimed Fiji gentlemen plan to add to the Greek community is a higher grade point average.

“We will also definitely bring a higher GPA to the Greek community. I believe we had a 3.0 last semester, so we lost by like a decimal to Alpha Sig. I think we will get the whole GPA up,” Chauveau said.

Although the fraternity is no longer being run by the graduate brothers who, during the six week transition period Hendricks said “held our hands” and “showed us the ropes, ” the brothers aren’t completely alone.

“I actually have biweekly correspondents with our top graduated adviser, our purple legionnaire, to talk about things,” said Hendricks. “We also have a board of colony advisors which represent every single area of our fraternity; one for recruitment, one for philanthropy etcetera and those guys are in contact with our committees regularly.”

Fiji has had a few issues getting up and running, which is why their presence is more dominant this year than the last. One of those main issues, according to Hendricks, was organization.

“The committees didn’t know who to report to, and lot of the people didn’t know who to report to, so just creating that structure has been my top priority as president and now people are starting to hold each other accountable and we are starting to get things done,” Hendricks said.

Not all the problems have been bad however, according to Hendricks.

“One of our slogans is ‘not for college days alone’ so I am constantly being contacted by graduate brothers asking if they can get involved and what they can do to help,” said Hendricks. “It’s almost to the point that I don’t know what to say to them because we have so many people volunteering but that’s a great problem to have.”

The men of Fiji are well underway this semester and already have several events in the works that students can look forward to Hendricks said.

“We are hoping to hold a Wittenberg soccer run with the Fiji chapter there to increase school spirit for the soccer game and we are also hoping to get some kind of signature philanthropy event on campus, maybe a fundraiser or two for the USO and our national philanthropy the Red Cross,” Hendricks said.

By Taylor Stoudt
Transcript Reporter

Women’s bodies are a hot topic in Washington D.C. these days and last Monday, the conversation came to Ohio Wesleyan.

Kate Chapek, National Women’s Vote Director for the Obama campaign, spoke to students and faculty about issues effecting women from abortion rights to the Fair Pay Act.

“This is the first campus that we’re doing this kind of conversation with,” said Chapek. “But this type of setting is modeled after what we’ve been doing for our women’s program all over the country. Really starting to have conversations with women about what’s at stake in this election.”

No time was wasted in building the connection between the people in the room and the relevance of the topic at hand.

In his introduction to the event, Michael Deininger-Bell, a member of the Obama campaign working specifically with Ohio Wesleyan, emphasized Ohio’s role in the election.

“Ohio is the number one state in this upcoming election,” Deininger-Bell said. “Really how this state goes, that’s how the election is going to go. So your voice and your vote are really more important than you can imagine.”

As a swing state with 18 electoral votes, winning Ohio will be a significant victory for the presidential candidate who wins the state. Democratic voters were also warned of the significance of their vote in such a conservative county as Delaware.

Besides the impact of political party, the influence women have on the outcome of the election was also discussed. Women make up a majority of the United States population as well as voters.

“The president can’t win the election without the women’s vote,” Chapek said. “He won the women’s vote in 2008. Women are the majority in this country, we are the majority of the electorate. We decide elections. So that means the women in Ohio are that much more important.”

Winning the women vote may pose a problem for Obama though. While in 2008, Obama support among the women of the country was 56 percent, that support dropped to 48 percent in 2010. Also, in 2010 republican women had the highest electoral presence in the last 30 years.
This, however, does not mean that Romney has gained female support. In a survey conducted by Quinnipiac University, Obama was shown to lead Romney with 56 percent to 38 percent of female voters.

Chapek also spoke about the power women have on influencing one another, saying women trust and rely on women like themselves to determine how they will vote.

“So not only does that mean we decide elections but we influence the outcome of elections based on the relationships we have every single day,” Chapek said.

Throughout the lecture, several issues that effect women were touched upon, many surrounding economic issues, such as fair pay. The issue recognized by the audience as the most pressing, however, was healthcare.

“Our healthcare as women is about our economic independence,” Chapek said. “It’s about our reproductive choices and freedoms. It’s about our lives.”

While insurance companies may charge up to twice as much for women to be covered by insurance, Affordable Care has provided 2.1 million Ohio residence with free preventative services like mammograms, cancer screenings, and immunizations freeing people from having to make the decision between getting the health services they need and other necessities like food because they can’t afford both.

However, despite the casual and energetic atmosphere of the lecture, the topic that stopped the laughter and seemed to provoke a sense of desperate urgency was the issue of a woman’s right to make decisions for herself concerning her body.

“The republican party has promised that they will overturn Roe v. Wade,” Chapek said. “They put it on their republican platform saying that they will ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and here’s the big piece, regardless, of the life of the mother. That’s what’s at stake here, and it’s terrifying.”

This topic is what turned the lecture into a conversation between Chapek and the audience. Members of the audience began to chime in about bill proposals sentencing women to life sentences for receiving abortions and mentioning the lack of governmental support for women once giving birth to her child.

Audience member senior Carly Shields said, “We don’t want to go back to years before when women were going underground and bleeding to death and dying from infections.”

Just as the speech was opened, Chapek closed her speech by reinforcing the relevance of the issues at hand with the members of the audience.

“You need to be thinking about what you want your life to look like when you step off this campus,” Chapek said. “Do you want to have a good job, do you want to be paid fairly for being a women doing equal work, do you want to have affordable access to healthcare, and do you want to be able to choose how and when you have a child?”

September 24-30

Sept. 24 3:15 p.m. – Public Safety dispatched to the Jaywalk after a report of a suspicious person. A search of the area failed to locate the subject.

Sept. 24 6:15 p.m. – an injured Smith Hall resident was transported to Grady Hospital by Public Safety.

Sept. 25 9:35 a.m. – a resident of 30 Williams Drive reported his bicycle missing from the house storage room. The bike was later recovered from the Stuyvesant Hall bike rack.

Sept. 25 3:30 a.m. – ARAMARK housekeeping personnel reported the theft of money from vending machines in the Science Center restrooms. Investigation is ongoing.

Sept. 27 1:55 p.m. – a Welch Hall resident reported the theft of his bicycle from the Welch lawn area.

Sept. 28 1:20 p.m. – Public Safety dispatched to the Hamilton Williams Campus Center after complaints of an older white female yelling at students. The individual was issued a no trespass warning.

Sept. 30 4:18 a.m. – Public Safety dispatched to Bashford Hall on a report of suspicious persons in the building. A search of the building failed to locate the individuals. The subjects had caused minor damage to the building. Investigation of the incident is ongoing.

Sept. 30 2:40 p.m. – Public Safety dispatched to 9 Williams Drive on a report of damage to a parked vehicle.

By Noah Manskar
Transcript Correspondent

The Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs and the Student Involvement Office has recently streamlined the process through which they officially recognize student organizations.

Dana Behum, assistant director of Student Involvement, said student organizations must apply for recognition by the end of the second week of each semester.

The application requires a roster with at least 10 members, a list of executive positions with descriptions of their respective duties, a constitution and bylaws, and a form signed by a university adviser.

Behum said the requirements and application deadlines for recognition are now better publicized and more predictable than before.

The administration also created a packet of forms for applicants to complete that did not previously exist, including a template for a constitution and bylaws.

She said the administration tried the changes in the spring and fixed the “hiccups” before this semester.

“Getting a schedule to the process has made it easier,” Behum said.

Behum said applicants often receive follow-up questions from a committee, composed of a member of the WCSA Finance Committee, a general WCSA representative and a Student Involvement representative, asking them to clarify certain pieces of their application.

Upon recognition, organizations receive benefits from the university, including WCSA funding, space reservations and university van usage.

Senior Iftekhar Showpnil, who is going through the process to register Ohio Wesleyan’s Better Together club, said his organization received such questions regarding their executive positions and the club’s name.

He said he thinks the process is “pretty straightforward,” but puts the majority of the burden on the organizations.

“It’s mostly on the organization to write out the constitution, define the executive positions and elect the executive board,” he said.
Showpnil said he was still unsure of the application deadlines, so he thinks the university could communicate them more successfully to new organizations.

“There is not much information unless you actually go and look for it yourself,” Showpnil said. “I think it is reasonable, because if you’re passionate enough to start a club, you should be motivated to go look up all the details and stuff that is necessary.”

He also said he thinks a rolling application process would be preferable to a single deadline each semester, since it would allow new organizations more flexibility.

“For it to be a rolling process, I do realize that it has to be a little bit more work on (the administration’s) part, but it would be better for student organizations in general,” he said.

Sophomore Avery Winston, president of OWU Freethinkers, said getting recognition “can be kind of tedious,” but the process is fairly simple.

“You get enough people, get your paperwork filled out, have an adviser and you’re pretty much set to go,” he said. “That’s pretty much the basis.”

Behum said the process is so thorough because WCSA wants to ensure new organizations have a good foundation before giving them funds.

“WCSA members are cautious to make sure that people are well intentioned with a club and that they’re not just forming a club to receive funding,” she said. “They want to make sure that the organization has a more broad approach than just spending money. So it’s a thorough partnership, I’d say.”

Winston said procuring WCSA funds can be challenging but he understands why the process is in place.

“Obviously you’re getting money to spend on your club and they obviously want people to be responsible with it,” he said. “It seems tedious, I guess, but at the end it’s pretty important to go through certain processes to know what you’re doing.”

Showpnil said receiving funding is one of the most crucial benefits of recognition for organizations such as Better Together because they need funds to plan projects and host events.

According to Behum, organizations must meet certain requirements after recognition to remain in good standing with the university.

These include attending a seminar on using OrgSync, the university’s form sharing and organizing site, attending university leadership events like OWU Summit and GoOWU and each member of the organization maintaining a GPA of at least 2.0.

Behum said WCSA regularly reviews organizations to ensure they’re meeting these requirements and decide how much funding to give them.

“They do a significant amount of review and I think they do a good job of disbursing funds evenly amongst groups, but being a group doesn’t necessarily equal a guarantee of funds,” she said.

Winston said being in good standing with the university makes it easier for to get funds, and the requirements are beneficial to both the university and students.

“They try to help you out with being a leader, and knowing what you’re doing with your funding and knowing how to keep track of people in your group,” Winston said. “It helps you out with learning how to plan events and everything else that a club really entails.”

Showpnil said he thinks the biggest obstacle for new organizations is finding a strong member base.

“The most challenging part is to get people excited and involved so that you can have a governing body, which would allow you to register your organization,” Showpnil said.

“The process requires you to have some sort of member support, some sort of body already set up, so that they know that it wouldn’t fail right away if they approved it. I think that’s a good thing, because it pushes us to get more structured and more organized than just a one-man club.”

Winston, who took over Freethinkers last spring, said it’s been hard for his club to rebuild a member base.

“It can be stressful if you have a hard time finding a good base of people,” Winston said. “You really want to get it off the ground, but if you don’t have the numbers you won’t be able to do it.”

By Emily Hostetler
Transcript Reporter

While global economics surpass world boundaries through the internet and social media, economic success may lie in picking the right problems and finding solutions.

Last Friday, Clark Winter ’73, president and founder of Clark Winter enterprises, spoke about making sense of global economics in his lecture “The Global Economy Going Forward: Making Sense of Apparent Nonsense,” as part of the 2012 Robert L. Milligan Leaders in Business Lecture series.

According to Winter’s website, he has worked internationally as an investor and commentator on global financial markets and as a chief investment strategist and spokesperson for global investment firms.

Winter said boundaries determine trade and commerce which have migrated to the internet. When people want to buy things or check a price, they go online rather than to a catalogue or store.

“New boundaries have been determined by something absolutely unprecedented,” Winter said.

“Social media has cut across all known boundaries of empowerment and authority.”

He said when boundaries move, there can be amazing disaster or opportunity.

“Some things are wrong, some things are right,” he said. “Be aware of picking the right problem. Too often you get accustomed to answering a problem simply because you have an answer.”

Winter said a lot of the losses the U.S. has had in the last five years are from the unwinding of minor profits from assets.

Singapore, Korea, most of China, Google and Apple didn’t play the minor assets game and they are free of debt.

“The clear path to prosperity is excess leverage. They (Singapore, Korea, China, Google and Apple) congregated talent,” he said. “Leverage is still wildly available on the planet. It’s not just of money but, it’s of people.”

He said that Google gathered special talent to take society’s inevitable money-makers that were dysfunctional for a number of reasons and then make those systems functional.

“Pick a problem that’s comprehensible, that’s simple, that makes sense,” he said.

Winter said it is important to have clarity, purpose and understanding of how you reallocate size of inevitable cash-flows.

While using of the example of Sony and Apple, Winter demonstrated how simplicity can be useful in order to keep the economy moving forward through job creating exercises.

Sony has hundreds of products that can’t hook up to each other while Apple has only a few products that can intercommunicate and have different horsepower options.

“Think about how many things don’t work and think about being a solution provider, and bringing the efficiency to that,” Winter said.
Winter explained how people would spend much more money on lottery tickets if they could be online instead of having to physically walk somewhere to buy tickets.

This would once again remind future entrepreneurs how valuable the Internet can be.

Senior Rachel Piskos, an economics management major, said she agreed with a lot of what Winter said.

“I learned how important technology is when crossing boundaries,” she said.

Winter emphasized how important it is to realize opportunities even if it doesn’t seem like an opportunistic time.

“Change occurs when disaster strikes or when opportunity subtly screams,” he said. “It’s when the passive verb tense takes over, there’s a lack of accountability.”

He said that it is this lack of accountability that is occurring in the current election period.

Senior Laura Finkler, an economics management major, said she appreciated Winter’s use of politics in his lecture.

“He said he didn’t want to talk about politics, but when he did, he made sure to say something about both parties,” Finkler said.

Winter said that the job of politicians of the western world is to see the nation’s economy as a finite amount of resources. He compared this with sharing pizza.

He said people want to try to give and take slices out of a set number of slices of pizza which is much more complicated than making the pizza in the first place.

“Would you rather bake pizza, or divide pizza? You want to bake pizza. It’s a much better to own a pizzeria than to try to divide the pizza,” he said.

“That’s what China did. They said they wanted to own the means of productions rather than divide.”

Winter’s relatable analogies and frequent jokes allowed students, faculty and visitors to become engaged in his lecture on “apparent nonsense.”

“It was good for a Friday afternoon. I got extra credit for my senior seminar in corporate strategy, but the lecture was entertaining and better than some other lectures I’ve attended,” Piskos said.

As a B.F.A graduate, Winter understands the importance of the liberal arts and urges people to think of what mathematics, art, science and all of the subjects have in common, rather than how they are different.

“Some people walk into a messy room and see a golden opportunity,” he said.

“Some people see golden opportunities and only complain. What’s the rhythm, what’s the harmony, what’s the unanimity?”

While Winter’s lecture was based on the global economy, he included other topics and lessons that could correlate with global economics.

“I thought he would talk more about economics, but he didn’t. He didn’t ramble and it was a nice change,” Finkler said.

By Carly Shields
Transcript Correspondent

Bryant Terry, a food activist, “eco-chef” and author, spoke in the Benes Rooms on Sept. 24 about “Food Justice at the Intersection of Food Politics, Poverty, Public Health and the Environment.”

Terry grew up in Memphis, Tenn. with a family that had the privilege of having nice food and homegrown vegetables all the time.
His grandfather had an urban farm where he grew fruit trees, vegetable plants, spices and herbs in the back yard.

But when Terry went to high school, he didn’t want to be the one kid bringing in fresh produce for lunch every day so he was peer pressured into eating fast food for every meal.

“I quickly became lethargic, overweight and had uncontrollable acne,” Terry said. “I didn’t want to have anything to do with my family.”
It was not until a friend of his showed him a song, “Beef” by Boogie Down Productions, that raps about fast food and processed meat in this country that everything changed for him.

Terry became a vegan at that point in his life and began his “life calling” of teaching people how to eat and cook healthy food.
Terry was inspired by African culture and the relationship food has with culture.

“Food is such a powerful tool to bring people together,” Terry said. “The goal of my work is unity.”
Terry focuses his food activist in urban cities and on African Americans in the U.S.

Terry is also interested in “sustainable, fair, clean food systems” and justice for farmers and the consumers.

“Look at yourself, look at what you want out of your life and embody that through your diet,” Terry said.

Terry said that about 30 percent of Americans are obese.

Terry became very attentive to food and the importance of healthy food when he realized that the younger generation would die sooner if we continue this unhealthy pattern.

“There is a stigma with those who are obese,” said Terry. “They are blamed by the media and others when a lot of (obesity) is genetics.”
A 2005 Berkeley College statistic reports that America spends one million dollars every hour on ads that sell unhealthy foods and beverages.

“38.2 million African Americans between the ages of two and 19 are obese compared to Caucasians of the same age,” Terry said. “It’s a lack of access to healthy food.”

Food deserts, which are districts that have limited access to healthy foods but instead, have access to fast food restaurants and corner stores are the villains to large rates of obesity in African American society Terry said.

In the late 1960’s in urban cities in America, affluent Caucasian Americans were fleeing from the cities to the rural areas of the country, taking super markets and health stores with them.

Corner markets, liquor stores and convenient shops served as grocery stores for those who were left behind, which were mostly African Americans.

Corner markets still remain as the dominant markets for most people living in non-affluent areas of cities today.

These markets also charge people 50 percent higher prices than super markets because of the limited access to lower prices.

Terry got his graduate degree in history at New York University and focused on black civil rights. The Black Panthers from the Civil Rights movement believed communities should be self-reliant.

As a result they fed over 10,000 people every day in cities so kids would have breakfast before going to school.

“It bothered me that there was a kind of apartheid in the food system in New York City,” Terry said. “If you lived in wealthier parts of the city, like Soho, you had opportunities to 15 different olive oils but if you lived in poorer areas of the city you had nothing.”
Terry also spoke about the importance of eco-friendly food and how to grow it.

Terry hosts a television show called “Urban Organic” where he interviews friends and teach the viewers about sustainable agriculture in urban cities.

A topic they have discussed is aquaponics, which is a sustainable way to grow food by combining aquaculture and hydroponics together by growing your produce in water tanks and getting its nutrients through the fish waste.

This sustainable way of farming does not require a lot of space and materials, making it a easy way to farm in urban cities.

Terry is also very active and interested in local farming for local communities.

He says this will increase healthy diets and decrease food deserts.

Senior Grace Wallace said Terry helped her realize how local food can combine local people’s talents to can create healthy diets and new opportunities for communities.

“Local food is important because the people can come together and implement their own skills (for example, someone who is a skilled gardener partnering up with an irrigation specialist to devise an organic garden),” Wallace said.

“The more people who combine their efforts towards a nutritious diet, the more alternatives they will have.”

Terry also started an organization called “Be Healthy” which teaches people how to cook sustainably and easily.

Terry said he found it important for college students to know how to cook when they are forced to cook on their own and how important it is to know what they eat and how much of it they eat, like processed food, sugar and fats.

“An important way we can dictate the health of our food is to cook it ourselves,” Terry said.

Terry has three cookbooks that teach people how to eat healthy by using less meat and more vegan diets.

“People have this idea that vegan and vegetarian food is bland and boring,” Terry said.

Junior Katie Buckingham changed her mind on vegan diets because of Terry’s lecture.

“I think his take on ‘vegan soul food’ is really interesting and makes healthy, vegan food much more accessible and appealing to people,” Buckingham said.

“When people are talking about healthy, clean food I normally only see thin, blond, white women, but I liked that his video featured a community garden and restaurant which was ran by people from mixed cultures.”

Terry’s cookbooks are a blend of soul food, African American food, organic food and vegan recipes.

“To reduce African American food to slave food is inaccurate,” Terry said.

“Soul food is only one part of African American’s diverse food… Foods are culturally relevant to people, that is why I put a lot of emphasis on African American cuisine.”

Not only is Terry a chef, author and show host, but he is also a food activist, who is curious and interested in the way food policies work in this country.

Terry said the country needs to be more invested in change, including farmers, community members and the consumers.

“What I find exciting are local policy changes,” Terry said.

“We need to be driven by the people who want the change, who are the local farmers and local community members.”

“They are the ones who know what’s best for local communities, not the people who come in with no ties to the community and act as if they know what’s best for them.”

“The people in the community are running the projects and their goals truly reflect what’s being done in their community,” he said.