Category: News

While most Ohio Wesleyan students will spend the week of spring break working or relaxing, seven small groups of students will dedicate their time to mission, service and leadership.
Each of the seven spring break mission groups have unique goals, whether it is working for justice, engaging with other cultures or helping restore small communities.
The Chicago Group, however, has goals that are both abstract and intangible: students will be spending the week in the inner city of Chicago where they will focus on the Muslim community in America and interfaith dialogue in the midst of complex tensions.
Senior Mary Slebodnick, who is serving as the team’s reflection leader, said she is very passionate about interfaith work.
She is hopeful the trip will enrich her commitment to understand religions beyond her own.
Slebodnick said her team will be working with three pivotal organizations in the inner city of Chicago, including CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations, whose goal is to promote cooperation between all different faiths.
Slebodnick said her mission team is very different from the others.
Slebodnick said because her trip is dealing with complex interfaith issues, their goals are hard to verbalize.
“We have one of the more complicated trips because we are totally education based,” she said.
“A lot of the other trips, which are service based, such as the team aiding in Hurricane Katrina recovery or the team working in El Salvador at orphanages.”
Slebodnick attended a speech at Capital University in Columbus last fall by Eboo Patel, the founder of Inner Faith Youth Core, another group the mission team will be working with next week.
She said Patel said something that has stuck with her: “It would be nice if everyone said something they found beautiful about different religions,” he said.
Slebodnick said she grew up in a church where Christianity is the absolute truth.
“There was always that hang-up in the background,” she said.
“You feel like you are supposed to convert others to Christianity.”
She said she struggled when her younger sister, at age 15, told Slebodnick she was an atheist.
“She was dead serious, and she was not changing her mind. It was very painful for me having to think of her going to hell or anything like that.”
Slebodnick said it is the “put your money where your mouth is moments” that make the idea of interfaith more real.
She said throughout her life she has had several situations like these, where interfaith has enriched her life and her understanding of her own background.
Slebodnick’s desire to aid in interfaith mission work was reinforced when she visited the Lakota tribe in South Dakota.
“During this trip I learned how Christianity wiped out the Lakota culture,” she said.
Slebodnick said that people think the Lakotas are fine now, but the fear still lingers there.
“A lot of Lakotas still think that if they practice tenants of their original culture that it is satanic,” Slebodnick said.
“And that was really sad for me to see because their religion is so rich.”
Slebodnick said her interest in interfaith has helped her to realize the commonalities between all different religions.
“When they talked about their creator I felt like they were talking about my God,” she said.
Her personal experience understanding her sister’s desire to be atheist and spending time with the Lakota tribe that aims to suppress the Lakota tribe’s religious beliefs, motivated her to be a reflection leader on the trip.
Junior Tori Schlaudt is also a part of the Chicago Mission Team.
She said she thinks interfaith relations are incredibly important globally and locally because the world today is becoming more and more diverse.
“Many people are ignorant about the Muslim faith (myself included before this trip) and some even think that all Muslims are terrorists due to 9/11,” Schlaudt said.
“In order to have genuine, loving relationships, it is important to understand interfaith dialogue,” Slebodnick said.

As Fiji makes its strong comeback to the Ohio Wesleyan community, the excitement of solidifying their first pledge class in four years is almost complete. The soon-to-be brothers have participated in dinners at Buns, El Vaquero and played dodge ball to get to know each other.
Brett Pytel, Assistant Director of Expansion for Fiji, said over the past four weeks they have met with over 90 unaffiliated men on campus.
“These men ranged from freshman to senior status,” he said. “As of today, we have extended 24 bids which have all been accepted.”
Senior Mark Schmitter said joining Fiji is a really good opportunity because he is a senior, and Fiji was looking for upperclassmen to build a strong presence for the underclassmen to follow.
“The organization also really appealed to me in the way that members are expected to act and what they stand for,” he said.
This past Sunday, Fiji hosted a “Not for College Days Alone” invite-only dinner where 50 undergraduate candidates and over twenty graduates brothers attended at 1808 American Bistro.
This was the last event before Fiji finalized its founding father class.
Schmitter said the dinner held on Sunday night was great.
“The alums were very excited to see the new group of guys and spent a lot of time talking to us about what they had gotten out of the fraternity,” he said. “The food was fantastic as well, and it was just another great event put on by the Fiji graduates.”
Senior John Carlson said when he first arrived on campus his freshmen year, he didn’t think any of the fraternities on campus were a good fit for him.
“The philosophy and values of Fiji seem to align with my own which is why I decided to join,” he said.
Carlson said he thinks the benefits will include meeting a network of studetns he might not have otherwise been exposed to. He also said he looks forward to having the chance to be part of an international network of Fiji members.
“Students involved in Greek Life seem to have a tight knit bond with one another which I think is important,” he said.
“Next Thursday, we will host our first two official Fiji events,” said Pytel. “The founding fathers will be pledged into the fraternity on Thursday and later that evening we will host our ‘Evening with the Fijis’ reception in Benes Rooms A&B at 7:30 p.m.”
Freshman Taylor McGinnis said he thought it would be great to be a founding father for a fraternity.
“I think that being a Fiji member will be great at keeping me academically successful, while having a great social life and positive future,” he said.
Pytel said this is their formal unveiling of the founding father class and it is open to the entire OWU community.
“We will also be giving away our scholarships, awarding philanthropy money, and thanking the campus for hosting us during our time at OWU,” Pytel said.
Desserts and beverages are to be served, as well.
McGinnis said he is excited for this Thursday’s event.
“It will be really cool getting pledge in, and hopefully I’ll get a scholarship,” he said.
Schmitter said he’s really excited to have an event with everyone on campus (this Thursday night) and to have everyone there who has been so supportive of him going Fiji.
“I have already met a lot of great new people both in undergrad, and graduates,” he said. “The graduates keep pushing us to make sure we network with them once we graduate so it feels like not only are we getting this great experience now, but it will lead to even more opportunities in the future.”
Schmitter said that there are a lot of guys he knows pledging Fiji.
“Obviously some friends are already happily in other fraternities, but those who weren’t decided yet seem to be going Fiji,” he said.
Carlson and McGinnis also said that they have a good amount of friends who are also pledging Fiji.
Carlson said he thinks they have enough interested and committed founding fathers that the organization and hard work needed to make the fraternity successful will be evenly spread.
“Fiji is still in the early stages of the process, but as we move forward the decisions made to recolonize the fraternity will be consistent with the ideals and philosophy of the fraternity,” he said. “We had dinner with many OWU Fiji graduate brothers on Wednesday night where we learned more about what made the fraternity a success prior to the deactivation.”
Carlson said the founding fathers of Fiji plan to continue in the path of the graduates before them.
Join the soon-to-be founding fathers of Fiji Thursday night at 7:30 P.M. in the Benes Rooms A&B for “Evening with the Fijis.”

Ohio Wesleyan student camaraderie has found a new form on the Facebook page, “OWU Memes.”
Envisioned by sophomores Jordan Grammer and Maria Jafri, the memes on the page include random stock images with witty captions where students can express their opinions about the university.
The page, owned by both Grammer and Jafri, was created on Jan. 20. The page had immediate popularity with 350 fans within its first 24 hours. Today the page has 764 followers and is growing each day.
“We saw colleges across the country start to create these pages and we wanted to bring the fun to OWU and hopefully bring our community together over some good laughs,” says Grammer.
“I’ve seen isolated OWU-related memes pop up here and there, but it wasn’t until I saw the success of the college pages that I thought it’d be a great idea.”
And, so far it is. The reaction to the page has been a positive one.
Junior Andrea Kraus said she thinks the page is “funny and silly,” and named her favorite memes: “SLU girl and the one that says, ‘Put the flags up. Prospies are coming.’”
Senior Courtney Durham said she enjoys creating and submitting memes.
“It’s funny when people have shared humor, everyday things that we share and can poke fun at,” Durham said.
When asked what his favorite meme was, Grammer said, “I don’t have a favorite one specifically, but I really enjoy the memes the entire campus can relate to such as the amount of squirrels or Linda in University Hall, rather than an inside joke between a small group of people.”
Not everyone had good things to say about the page.
“I think it’s funny and a little exaggerated but occasionally hurtful,” said sophomore Kati Sweigard. “Some of the Greek ones are a little offensive, as an affiliated woman, because you can perpetuate stereotypes.”
Senior Jon Rux said he is not a fan of the page.
“I think it’s an attempt at OWU students trying to be funny and it’s a fail,” he said.
Rux did admit that the meme with Boromir, from the Lord of the Rings series, saying, “One does not simply live off campus” was his one and only favorite.
Erin Sayegh, another avid follower of the page, and blunt critic, said she thinks that some of them are “very on point, but some people just aren’t funny and shouldn’t write them.”
She said she hopes the page goes on to be written by people who “understand humor and irony.”
Even with her criticism, she couldn’t wait to open the page while answering questions.
Grammer said that he receives rave reviews, but some topics brought up by the memes have raised conflict.
Some projects such as the fountain on the JAYwalk are already controversial and when they are brought up on the page, arguments often begin.
Grammer and Jafri constantly face the issue of controversy when posting the memes.
“I’ll admit that some of our jokes are more controversial than others,” Grammer said. “We always try to keep things under control and foster healthy discussion without bringing backlash to the page or the administration—and we won’t post certain things if they are just way too offensive or in poor taste.”
But for now, the page remains up with the fan base growing day by day.
With favorite feature memes such as “Good Guy Greg,” “Scumbag Steve,” “The Dos Equis (beer brand) Guy,” and “Annoying Facebook Girl,” OWU Memes also includes some of the students own creations, while still encouraging them to send more.
Submissions can be posted directly to the Facebook page or emailed anonymously.

OWU will team up with a Japanese university for a different kind of spring break.
Instead of participating in a “normal” spring break trip, 21 Ohio Wesleyan students have chosen to take part in the first ever reverse mission trip on campus.
This trip, termed Joint Service Learning, will also include 12 Japanese students from the OWU sister school Aoyama Gakuin University in Shibuya, Japan. Aoyama Gakuin is a Methodist University founded on many of the same principles as Ohio Wesleyan.
Barbara MacLeod, an OWU economics professor, said seven different countries will be represented by all of the students involved. She said the Japanese students will be arriving in Ohio on Thursday.
Instead of visiting another school or community, OWU students will be staying in Delaware and working with the students from Japan. Thus, the experience is termed a “reverse” mission trip. While on campus, the
OWU and Japanese students will build a house through Delaware County Habitat for Humanity.
On the first Sunday of the trip, March 11, OWU Chaplain Jon Powers said there will be a commemoration service for the first anniversary of the 2011 tsunami which hit Japan last March 11 at 2:46 p.m.
“We will hold our memorial service during that hour, beginning at 2 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church across the street from Chi Phi,” Powers said. “The Japanese students and their chaplain, Reverend Paul Shew, will be conducting the service, which will be open to the public.”
Powers, along with Sue Pasters, OWU director of Community Service Learning, co-founded both the OWU chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the Delaware County Habitat for Humanity in 1989.
Powers said the idea for this type of a trip came about years ago when he met with Shew to explore the possibility of a “reverse mission team.” He said it has taken this long to hit the right time for this kind of a trip.
MacLeod took a trip to Japan last year and was inspired to plan the experience. MacLeod said she met up with some of OWU’s sister schools and Shew during the trip. From there the idea became a reality.
MacLeod said the team would not have been allowed to work in Japan because of the strict building codes. Takumi Shimizu, an exchange student from Japan who is studying at OWU and participating in the trip, said a builder must have a construction license to build a house in Japan.
“We have so many earthquakes, and if you are not a specialist in constructing, the buildings won’t be able to stand earthquakes. But in the U.S., there is no such law. I thought this to be a great opportunity to do something I can’t back in my country,” said Shimizu.
Anthony Harper, a senior member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity, said he found out about the trip through Alpha Sig’s Philanthropy’s Director Guanyi Yang. He said he worked with MacLeod on another program through a Theory into Practice into Theory (TiPiT) Grant called Nicaragua: International Business. He said he thought the trip was fun and informative.
“I knew working with Professor MacLeod again would be an informative experience, especially considering that it focused on local poverty,” he said. “Plus, I’ve visited Japan before and Japanese students hosted me during my stay in Japan; therefore, I thought it would be only appropriate to return the favor to Aoyama Gakuin University students.”
MacLeod said everyone will work from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., then have some type of activity in the evening, including lectures from different service providers.
“With everyone involved, this is more of a community event,” she said.
MacLeod said this is not a typical spring break on campus, because the Japanese students and the OWU students will be staying with host families in Delaware. Powers said for the Japanese students, Delaware can serve as a solid example of a typical, Midwestern, college-town community.
“We can offer not only a Habitat build, but also the number one zoo in America (Columbus), a typical shopping mall (Easton), a visit to Amish country, and exposure to a major U.S.-Japanese partnership (Honda),” Powers said. “Plus (we can offer) family home-stays for each student, exposure to Dr. John Durst and his lecture about poverty in middle America, and exposure to some key poverty-related service agencies in Delaware like the Salvation Army, Common Ground Free Story, Family Promise, People in Need, Domestic Violence and Help Line, Vineyard Food Pantry and Andrew’s House.”
Harper and Shimizu both said they were excited for the trip.
“Getting to know and become friends with the Japanese students is what I’m most excited about,” Harper said. “I’m also very excited to help with Habitat’s mission statement and build houses, learn more about local poverty, and learn more about the family I’m helping out.”
“Since this is my last semester at OWU, I want this project to be the most memorable experience at OWU, and I am really looking forward to it,” Shimizu said.
An information page detailing the experience was used as background for this article.

President Rock Jones and Residential Life have recently approved the House of Black Culture to become a themed house, bringing pride to both current residents and alumni of the house.
As a themed house, the House of Black Culture (HBC) will no longer be required to apply for renewal, a process for all Small Living Units (SLUs). HBC will be ensured a permanent presence on campus.
HBC is currently a SLU with Heritage House status, meaning the house has functioned and contributed to the OWU community for an outstanding period of time. Senior Samantha DeJarnett, HBC moderator, said Heritage Houses are SLUs deemed by the university to have mission statements that are important to keep on campus both in the present and in the future.
The HBC’s mission statement focuses on creating a safe haven for all students on campus and promoting African American culture and awareness through programming and discussion.
“This is a very positive transition for the HBC and myself, and our members are extremely excited that the university sees our house as important enough to always have around,” DeJarnett said.
Dejarnett said the only other change to the HBC is that the house moderator’s title will be changed to Resident Assistant (RA).
Vernita Johnson (’95), a former HBC resident, said she was “pleasantly surprised” to hear of the house’s new status.
“I have never imagined OWU without the house,” Johnson said. “I’m surprised to hear the news because I never considered the possibility of OWU not having the house on campus.”
Johnson said she sees the HBC as an important living option because it was her “home away from home” and provides residents with a strong sense of connection to one another.
“My freshman year was kind of awful,” she said. “A lot of the white students had never been around people of color, and then when I came home from class, I felt I never had a break from teaching white people about being black,” she said.
Dan Sturkey (’84) said life was different during his years at OWU, and he appreciates the social progress that both the HBC and campus have made since he graduated.
Sturkey’s wife is also an HBC alum (’83). During their years at OWU, the house was not co-ed, and male and female residents took turns living in the house every other year.
“I think it’s great to see it co-ed,” he said. “You would never see diversity or co-eds in one building. Things have changed, and I don’t think that would have happened if OWU wasn’t so open and liberal in thought.”
Sturkey said he believes the HBC’s new title of a themed house is an honor because it exemplifies OWU’s true commitment to diversity.
“Looking back, there was a separation between blacks and whites on campus,” he said. “Now that has dissolved, but the house still has the capability to bring people together. I think it is a living example of a social evolution.”

Staff and students at Ohio Wesleyan are working hard to put together a permanent art collection at the Richard M. Ross Art Museum.
The Ross Art Museum is now displaying works from Picasso, as well as the most recent addition of William Wegman’s photographs.
William Wegman’s work is called Letters, Numbers, and Punctuation. All three displays were done as silver gelatin photographs using dogs to form the entire alphabet, numbers and a large display of punctuation marks. These three selected works consist of multiple frames and were created by Wegman in 1993.
What students, staff and professors are most excited
about is the development of a permanent collection to be available at the museum for the campus community.
Taurey Overturf is one of the students who has been working with the displays and was excited for the new collections.
“I am currently enrolled in a gallery management class so I work with Justin Kronewetter and help install the shows,” she said. “We actually have a ton of really neat paintings, prints and photos in the permanent collection. The goal is to get pictures so that the professors will have access to the artwork and use in the classroom.This is the first time that there had been a permanent exhibition show. Justin Kronewetter has built this museum permanent collection up from the beginning.”
Overturf is also familiar with the other artwork in the museum.

“The exhibition with all the paintings is from an artist in Cleveland. He uses no reference, all his works are purely from his own imagination, there tends to be a dystopia in the overall feeling from his art work,” she said. “The clay pieces in the middle gallery are a great break up from the rest of the two dimensional work, and the artist finds her inspiration from nature with its organic forms.”
“A passion of mine is art and I recently went over to the Ross Art Museum to see some of the paintings and photographs that are on display right now,” said sophomore Katherine Watson. “I was very impressed with the collections the museum had out because I had never been in that building before.”

Hal looked like a regular sixty-something white male, but underneath this average looking façade was a lifetime of not-so-average experiences. He was an alcoholic until he was 50. One of the biggest regrets of Hal’s life was that he did not sober up young enough to enjoy all of the mental and physical health benefits that come with sobriety. He now works to help ensure no young people dealing with addiction will wait until they’re 50, like Hal did, to get clean. Hal is the main person responsible for bringing Never Too Young To Be Sober, a branch of Alcoholics Anonymous, to Ohio Wesleyan to help students suffering from addiction and alcoholism find help and relief. AA is a national program for those who struggle with alcoholism and addiction. According to AA’s website, the program is based on a fellowship of men and women working together to solve their common problems and help others recover from alcoholism as well. AA is anonymous because it disciplines the fellowship to govern itself by principles rather than personalities. AA strives to be a safe haven for those to receive treatment without fear of being judged or called out. Never Too Young To Be Sober is designed specifically for young adults, typically between the ages of 14 and 35 who struggle with addiction. The program started at OWU on account of troubled student Nate, who was sent to court on a charge that involved alcohol. While awaiting the court appearance at the Delaware Police Department, Hal who was Nate’s AA sponsor at the time, met Chaplain Jon Powers. The two men talked and decided that a Never Too Young To Be Sober meeting on campus could help provide students with addiction issues information about how to get clean and sober. Never Too Young To Be Sober at OWU helped students like Nate find relief on their own campus. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Addiction, 31 percent of college students meet the criteria for a diagnosis of alcohol abuse and 6 percent for a diagnosis of alcohol dependence; Nate was part of the 6 percent. Nate was a typical student athlete at OWU. He played lacrosse for OWU all four years and hung out with his friends daily. Nate was extremely social and known throughout OWU’s campus for being a hard partier on the weekends, but most people were unaware of the serious addiction to alcohol Nate was developing. Even Nate himself struggled to truly grasp the idea that he was becoming a habitual drinker. Nate said drinking made him feel like he was on top of the world and without a care or worry. “I thought I had it all made when I drank; I thought I was the coolest thing ever,” Nate said. Part of Nate’s punishment for his offense was mandatory AA meetings, specifically the Never Too Young To Be Sober meeting at OWU. The program became a safe haven for Nate to help him fight his addiction. “AA saved my life,” Nate said.
Never Too Young To Be Sober currently meet in the Hamilton-Williams Center on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. The meeting typically has around 20 participants and the ages of the attendees range from 20 to 52. Some of the people attending the meeting bring their children along, and others bring friends who they know could use the wisdom and strength the program provides.
Sherri was a 52 year-old women at the meeting. She is a binge drinker and will drink for three or four days straight, stopping only when she passes out. She has been in and out of the AA program since she was 17; she is now in her late 50s and still fights every day to stay sober.
Sherri attends a meeting every day of the week and attends the Never Too Young To Be Sober meeting to support a young friend of hers who also struggles with addiction. She describes AA as if it were a gift given to her by a higher power.
“AA truly is the only thing that works,” Sherri said.
After having been in therapy and rehab multiple times, she believes the only way to stay sober is through AA. She believes it is crucial to attend meetings, read the literature and give your burdens to a higher power in order to become sober.
Sherri isn’t certain that she won’t relapse, but she is certain that if she does, AA will be there to help her pick up the pieces and move forward on the path to sobriety.
The Never Too Young To Be Sober meeting at OWU was full of peace, hope, and community. All are welcome to participate freely or simply just listen to whatever insights others may provide.
The meetings are on campus to provide students with the ability to seek help without having to go far. Students at OWU do not have to struggle down the path of sobriety alone, The Never Too Young To Be Sober meetings can provide a safe haven to help those who struggle with issues associated with addiction.