Category: News

Rowing team makes their debut

The Ohio Wesleyan rowing team made its intercollegiate debut on Saturday, competing in the Muskie Chase hosted by Marietta College.

In the Novice 4 competition, Marietta completed the 6000-meter course on the Ohio River in a time of 26:32.0. Cincinnati finished in 27:56.3, Case Reserve was third in 28:09.6, and the Ohio Wesleyan boat placed fourth in 29:56.5.

Ohio Wesleyan also competed in the 500-meter sprints, and finished second in the first Novice 4 flight. Marietta’s boat finished in 1:47.7, followed by Ohio Wesleyan at 1:52.7, Case Reserve with a 1:58.2, and Cincinnati with a 2:26.6.  In the second Novice 4 flight, Cincinnati won in 1:48.2, followed by Marietta 1:50.0, Ohio Wesleyan 1:55.4, and Case Reserve 1:58.3.

“Honestly I loved training with these group of girls. Being back on the water was a uplifting moment for me and being there with such an amazing group of girls made the experience even better.” said freshman Sana Hussain.

Head Coach Andriel Doolittle hopes to gain more rowers in the spring season so as to be able to compete in more events. With a roster of just eight OWU is not yet able to race a full eight, as an eight person boat requires nine people including the coxen.

“I’m excited to see our new rowing program finally get to be on the water in a competitive environment,” said athletic director Doug Zipp, “I know they had a great experience and it’s something to build upon, and I know they’re very excited for the spring season.”

Due to the newness of the program, it was decided to schedule one event late in the season so as to prepare the girls for competitive rowing.

“Knowing that we’re going to have a lot of new people to the sport, our goal was to have one event late in the season so that we would have lots of time to establish things, get into a good rhythm, make sure people knew how to row by the time we got to that point because the hardest thing to do is to put people that aren’t ready, out on the race course.” said Doolittle.

Doolittle explained that the Fall season is meant to be more of a training season to prepare for the primary season in the spring. It’s then, that championship events occur.

Muskie Chase completes Ohio Wesleyan’s fall schedule with the spring schedule beginning at the end of March, with several races already set for the spring.

 

OWU Increasing Parking Spaces Near Residence Halls

 

By Ashley Barno, Transcript Correspondent

 

Ohio Wesleyan plans to expand Smith Hall parking lot soon due to the minimal parking spaces available for students who have cars registered through the university.

“Now that the university has purchased the house on the corner of William St. and S. Liberty St., it will be razed in the near future and the plan is to use that space to expand the Smith Hall parking lot,” Public Safety Office Manager Bobbi Frey said. Frey added there is no limit to the number of cars allowed to be registered through the school.

According to OWU Public Safety, 633 students have cars registered for campus parking with approximately 1,250 parking spaces available. There are four parking passes offered to purchase (A, B, C and D), but they are limited to students depending on what year they are. First year students are only able to buy C and D passes, while all other years can buy any pass they prefer.

Junior Jacob Hecker has registered his car all three years he has attended OWU. He argues that the available parking spots aren’t where students need them to be, which are near the dorms.

“If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have ever registered my car through the school because there is no real way to enforce registered vehicles versus unregistered ones,” Hecker said.

Hecker bought the B pass this year, the most popular pass purchased by students, according to OWU Public Safety. The B pass is $175 and covers parking in lots all over campus: every dorm hall, all fraternities, Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, Beeghly Library and Selby Stadium.

“Parking is way too expensive for not being able to have effective parking for students,” Hecker said.

Sophomore Emily Cammeyer believes the campus parking system works effectively depending on the time of day.

“During the lunch hour or anytime after 9 p.m., good luck trying to find a spot anywhere on campus,” Cammeyer said. “I think the system is fine and is just like any other schools’, but it would be nice if Public Safety could issue warnings before actually ticketing students,”

Cammeyer mentioned there are not a lot of available spots near campus living buildings, but there are always plenty of open spaces in Selby Stadium, which she says isn’t effective.

 

( Last edited on November 1st, 2018 at 4:23 pm )

Death of student brings students and staff together in remembrance

 

By Spencer Pauley, Managing Editor

sgpauley@owu.edu

The loss of an Ohio Wesleyan student to suicide caused staff, faculty and students to come together in a candlelight service in remembrance of Hollis Morrison.

Morrison’s death came unexpectedly on Oct. 2. According to an email sent out by OWU president Rock Jones, Morrison passed away while in his home in Bidwell, OH.

Morrison was an exceptional student during his time at OWU. Morrison made the Dean’s List with a 3.6 G.P.A. last year, his freshman year. However, he was not enrolled in classes for the fall semester of 2018.

Morrison also was really into basketball according to his obituary; he played guard for Ohio Valley Christian High School in Gallipolis until he graduated in 2017. His love for basketball transcended into his younger brother, Myles. Morrison’s obituary states: “[Morrison] got his little brother Myles into basketball and pushed him everyday to do his best. Myles was proud to call him his best friend and ultimately his big brother.”

The candlelight service in honor of Morrison was held at the Labyrinth on Oct. 26. OWU student Scott Hughes set up the service in honor of his best friend since first grade. Hughes talked about what Morrison meant to him.

“We talked everyday since we knew each other, from the first day of the first grade until we got to college together,” Hughes said.

Even after they started taking classes at OWU, Morrison and Hughes made it a point to keep in regular contact.

“We had to see each other at least once or twice before or in between classes,” Hughes said. “We would meet up right here [at the labyrinth] just to see each other, just to be brothers.”

But the meetings Morrison and Hughes had would become less common after the death of Morrison’s father in June and his grandmother’s death as well.

Assistant Dean Charles Kellom spoke during the service about the frustration he feels on the limitations on helping someone who is struggling mentally.

“I got to see [Morrison] in his last few days,” Kellom said. “He came by our office and as a staff person we go through all this training to help students out of these situations and it just sucks to have to hold on to the truth that there is only so much you can do.”

Psychology Professor Lynda Hall was Morrison’s adviser. Hall drove some OWU students to Morrison’s funeral service in Gallipolis on Oct. 10. She remembers seeing so many people come to pay their respects.

“It’s amazing how many people were there. I think it’s possible his entire senior class was there,” Hall said. “It’s very clear that he had connected with all kinds of people.”

Morrison’s obituary states that “Hollis was the humblest being and very outgoing, anyone that crossed his path saw Hollis with the biggest smile on his face. Hollis could make anyone laugh and was the funniest person you ever came across and was an influence on many people’s lives. Hollis will be deeply missed by everyone who had entered his life.”

Morrison is survived by his grandfather, Kenneth Calhoun, and his brothers, Tru and Myles Morrison.

 

New Exhibition Breaks Boundaries with Photography

  By Hailey de la Vara, Transcript Reporter

Photography floods the walls of the Ross Art Museum, presenting a new exhibit that displays a tension between accuracy and uncertainty within a picture.

“Double Take: Precision & Ambiguity in the Photograph” provides viewers with an abstract experience by going against the traditional sense of a photograph.  The exhibit began on Oct. 18 and will be on display until Dec. 13.

Photographs have always been known to give a sense of reality to viewers, but the techniques displayed by the photographers show a contrasting objective.

The basis of the photos implicates a scene or a subject.  Most are constructed or framed to resemble something else. There are other techniques that the photographers use such as manipulating light and shutter effects which lead to complicating the viewer’s sense of reality.

For example, “Double Take” exhibits Harold Edgerton’s “Bullet Through Apple,” in which a bullet pierces an apple and creates a surrealistic scene that is more “real” than what a viewer would see without a camera.

The photographs range in dates from early 20th century to early 21st century, with a common historical theme.

Although the exhibit has only been open for two days, there has already been positive feedback.  Aimee Duckworth, a sophomore at OWU, voiced her experience after viewing “Double Take”.

“I really liked the pictures at the Ross because they represent that things in life are more than about what meets the eye,” Duckworth said. “It also made me think about how things in the world can be perceived differently for any individual and I find that very intriguing.”

Tammy Wallace, assistant director of the Ross, explained her excitement for the exhibit and why it was chosen to be displayed.

“The exhibit is faculty curated by Jeffrey Nilan, who is a professor of photography here at OWU.  There was a collaboration between the photography department and English department to interact both departments and show viewers both sides of the spectrum,” Wallace said.

Furthermore, the museum label states how Nilan grouped the images by formal properties, encouraging viewers to discover the elements that connect the groups.  The exhibit provides a challenge to consider the sense of artistry that was crucial to the capture of these photos.

 

 

Students fired up for OWU iron pour

Ohio Wesleyan University continues to offer unrivaled opportunities as being one of three schools in Ohio that bring together students and alumni for its biannual cast iron pour.

The cast iron event is the result of weeks of preparation and camaraderie between current OWU students, alumni and experienced metal-smiths.

OWU sculpture professor Jon Quick heads the iron pour and has been working on it’s development since its inception.

“The process is fascinating, there’s always more information you can learn about it and there’s a lot you can get from other schools when you go to different places and conferences. The body of information is just so immense, it’s always an adventure,” Quick said.

For both sculpture and 3D classes, the better part of a semester is spent preparing for the pour. Students are taught the process of mold making whether it be with sand or ceramic shell.

The process of making a mold requires an object or form to occupy a space in the mold before it’s coated in sand or ceramic shell. In the case of sand molds, once the sand hardens it’s split in two and the form in the middle is taken out leaving a negative space in the shape of the object.

The mold is put back together before cast iron is poured into the top, and after a short drying period, broken into two again to reveal the iron casting in the center.

The students that created molds are involved in every aspect of the process so as to experience creating your piece from start to finish.

The body of work casted at the pour not only includes the work of students, but the work of graduates and professors as well.

After a six hour preparation period, the fuel and iron is added to the top of the furnace to begin the heating process. Once the furnace is up to temperature, pieces of iron and additional fuel are gradually added through the top. As the iron melts, it collects around a tap at the bottom of the furnace. When enough iron is melted, the tap is opened and the molten iron flows into a ladle to be poured into molds.

Westin Short, a 2019 OWU alum has joined the group of graduates who venture back to Haycock Hall to take part in the time honored tradition. As a part of the pour crew, Short handles the iron directly and is tasked with filling the molds.

“You get to control the iron, you are the one making the art. The artists themselves make the molds and create the form, but the one who pours the mold is actually the one who puts in the substance and creates the art itself, we put the actual being in the body of it,” Short said.

The culmination of time and effort put into each individual piece of art as well as the prep for this semester’s iron pour can be described perfectly as a well choreographed team-effort.

Junior sculpture student Mo Meehan says,“ It’s really cool that we’re using a scrap material, it’s a relatively low cost to the students but it’s cool foundry experience. It’s pretty unique and not found at most other institutions or art departments.”

Phi Delta Theta at OWU suspended

The Ohio Beta chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Ohio Wesleyan has been suspended for three years, effective immediately, according to an email sent out by Dwyane Todd, vice president for student engagement and success. The “Phi Delt” house is being vacated, and the current occupants will be relocated to other campus housing facilities. The 32 active members will be designated as alumni members.

The decision was made following careful deliberation among  the fraternity’s international staff and officials, local alumni advisors, and University personnel.

According to Ohio Wesleyan president Rock Jones, numerous attempts were made to correct the pattern of misconduct, but to no avail.

“Numerous conduct meetings were held with members of the chapter’s executive officers in an effort to address concerns, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Seeing a pattern of misconduct and a declining commitment to the values expected of members, the decision was made by the national fraternity, the alumni advisors and the university to suspend the Ohio Beta Chapter for three years,” Jones said.

 

Climate change report explained by OWU professors

By Spencer Pauley, Managing Editor

sgpauley@owu.edu

Much is being made of the fifth assessment report that has come from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) regarding an urgency to limit our planet’s increasing global warming, professors at OWU have been studying the effects of an increasingly warming climate.

This report is drawing more attention than previous ones coming from the IPCC because it puts a date of 2030 to 2040 on costly changes to our way of living and focuses on what it means to have an overall 1.5 degrees Celsius warming of our planet. 

There’s a chance that our planet could increase temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius

As of now, our planet is at 1 degree Celsius over pre-industrial levels. The report says there is almost no way of avoiding 1.5 degrees at this time, and to keep it to that requires major efforts politically, economically and socially.

Professor of mathematics, Craig Jackson, is not confident that our planet will limit its increasing global warming to 1.5 degrees.

“I’m not optimistic and the reason why is because this is a really, really hard problem. It’s not the problem that can be solved by one or two or three powerful nations. Every nation has to be involved in this,” Jackson said.

Professor of botany and microbiology, Laurel Anderson, teaches courses that all deal with climate change in one way or another. She too is not optimistic of a limit of a 1.5 degree increase in temperature.

“We have the technology to make this change, but we lack the political will. I don’t think it is impossible, but we need to take a radically different approach to generating and using energy than we do right now,” Anderson said

Large issue may arise from a global warming of 1.5 degrees: food security, drought and floods, poverty and coral ecosystems. These problems can be even more devastating at an overall warming of 2 degrees Celsius.

Coral loss is a big issue currently because they are being threatened right now due to ocean acidification. With a global average of 1.5 degrees increase, the IPCC is expecting a 70 to 80 percent decline in corals worldwide. And if the planet gets to 2 degrees warmer, it could be up to a 99 percent decrease of coral ecosystems, which could cause mass extinction events.

“Corals are a huge part of certain ecosystems, they are the reef builders. These corals build the habitats for many other fish and drive huge tourism to places like Australia and various islands in the Pacific as well as fishing in many places,” Jackson said. “There’s kind of a domino effect on losing these corals.”

Geography professor Nathan Amador Rowley focused his research throughout his collegiate years on polar climate. With his background on polar climate, Amador Rowley has seen an increase in temperatures in the polar regions.

Amador Rowley teaches a class on climate change in the Geography department at OWU in which they look at the IPCC reports. Their papers come together on what we know currently regarding. Amador Rowley tells students that weather is happening day to day, climate change is a 30 year average.

“When we’re talking about climate change, one thing to keep in mind is that it’s not a specific event, it’s not a hurricane, it’s not landslides. This is a 30 year average,” Amador Rowley said.

Ohio and the midwestern states invest heavily in agriculture and in the short term are benefitting from this because farmers now can start growing crops earlier and harvest longer. Parts of midwest have 2 growing seasons which means more food, but this is only seen as a short term benefit. Over long term, growing season will grow northward. By 2100 this will not be the case anymore.

What may be confusing is that the increase of 1.5 degrees is not uniform, that number represents an average increase in warmth across the globe. Amador Rowley puts this in an example students may be more familiar with: OWU average GPA’s go from 3.4 to 3.5 but there can be more students with 1.0 GPA’s but are offset by the increase in people that have 4.0’s. The same thing is happening with our planet’s climate. So 1.5 is very global. The tropics are already hot so it won’t get much hotter, but the arctic is very cold so it’s easier to transfer energy outward.

“The magic number when it comes to arctic climate is zero degrees. Anything below zero degrees Celsius, you have ice. Once you’re above zero degrees, you start melting.” Amador Rowley said.

Amador Rowley also cautions people on the alarmism that comes with a rise in sea level Water expands when warmer. Coastal locations in the United States such as Florida are not close to Greenland but melted ice will increase water levels in between the two regions. However, it would take over 500 years for Greenland to melt and for Florida to be completely flooded.

“I’m not necessarily worried with sea level rise because Greenland’s melting, but yes, every little inch of ice melting matters,” Amador Rowley said.

PSA: Phishing Emails Targeting OWU

By Tiffany Moore, Online Editor

tpmoore@owu.edu

Phishing emails continue to find their way into student, faculty, and staff member inboxes at Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU). The biggest questions are who are they coming from and why haven’t we caught them?

According to Mike Rue, OWU’s IT help desk communicator, sometimes the culprit is never found. Phishing emails arrive on campus almost every day. People don’t always report them. In an interview, Rue said people generally send phishing emails either to gain access to an account, send spam from that account, or send out more phishing emails.

“They first acquire others email accounts to do their dirty work,” Rue said. “sometimes three to four emails to make it hard to track.”

When a phishing email is sent and reported, there are two routes that the university takes in tracking who it came from. One is to secure the users account that it was sent from. The other route is to block the web link that comes in the email. This only works if it’s on campus.

Senior systems and security analyst, Jason Cocks, says most phishing emails come from mail servers around the world. Phishing messages can be sent through text messages and social media as well.

Cocks says that there are two types of phishing messages, spear phishing and general phishing. Spear phishing is when the target of the message is individually selected for an attack, in which that target will have a specific reason for being attacked. In those cases, Cocks says they are typically targeted for their status or the information that they have. General phishing emails are sent out to a group of people in hopes to persuade at least one person to giving up their information.

Educating people about phishing emails is preferred over going through victims’ emails to find the origin of the phishing email, says Cocks.

“If there is official communication coming from the university through email there will always be contact information in that message,” Cocks said.

Life before and after Castro; why there’s no going back

By Tiff Moore, Online Editor and John Bonus, Transcript Correspondent

Mario Sanchez is never going back to Cuba, and he still has nightmares about being trapped in the communist country.

Sanchez has a unique perspective on life in Cuba before and after Fidel Castro’s communist takeover of the government. He attended law school with Castro at the University of Havana.
Sanchez was the son of a Cuban Supreme Court justice. Because of his father’s status in the government, he was able to live comfortably and focus on his education. However, this all changed when his father died. With no government pension from his father, Sanchez had to drop out of law school and get a job as a school inspector to provide for his family.

Around this time, Castro was beginning his rise to power. He drew inspiration from revolutions in countries such as Nicaragua, and decided that the only way to fight corruption was to overthrow
the government of Fulgencio Batista. After Castro’s takeover, everything changed for the people of Cuba, and the Sanchez family felt the effects almost immediately.

Dr. Michael Flamm, a history professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, said the Sanchez family could have been singled out by the Communist Party because of their connection to the Batista
regime.

“Since this man’s father was a Supreme Court justice under Batista, it’s possible that he was seen as someone who may be disloyal to Castro,” said Flamm.

Castro ended the public school system in Cuba as part of his plan to re-educate the people. That meant that Sanchez and his wife, Josefina, were both out of work. To survive, Sanchez took a job working at the Havana harbor.

It was while he was at this job that the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion took place, an attempt to overthrow Castro carried out by exiled Cubans sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Whether you had experience or not, Sanchez said, everyone at harbors were given guns to fight off the attackers.

“They gave me a .45-caliber machine gun… They told me to shoot anyone who tried to get past the gate,” said Sanchez. “I had never used a gun in my life.”

After the invasion failed, Sanchez decided it was time for his family to get out of Cuba.

He applied for a visa to enter the United States in 1961. It was at that moment the Sanchez family became enemies of the state.
At the time, the Committee of the Defense of Revolution was watching everyone. The private buying, selling or trading of items was prohibited. To enforce this policy, the CDR took inventory of everything.

On April 29, 1962 Sanchez, his wife and two children arrived at the Havana airport with tickets for a one-way flight to Miami.

Everyone leaving the country had to be approved by officials at the airport to get on a plane. It was all going smoothly until it was Sanchez’s turn. He was stopped from boarding the plane because he had sold his car, a green 1951 Ford, instead of turning it over to the government.

Elsie, Sanchez’s daughter, still remembers hearing her brother screaming for their father as they sat on the plane without him.
Sanchez could not join his family in the United States until his car was in government hands.

Because of his family connections, Sanchez had a friend in the military who was able to track the new owner of the car. He bought the car back for more than he sold it and handed it over to
the government.

It was at this point that Sanchez realized he had another problem. During the complications at the airport, he ended up with his child’s passport and not his own. Without that passport, he would never be able to fly to America.

Fortunately, Sanchez had a cousin who was a pilot. He was able to arrange for another pilot to fly back to Havana with Sanchez’s passport and deliver it to him. He was finally able to leave Cuba, with only the clothes on his back and a single dime.

Sanchez arrived in Miami and met up with his family. He had trouble finding work, so one of his best friends invited his family to stay with them in Columbus. They have been in central Ohio
ever since.

Sanchez worked a couple different jobs in Columbus until he found what would become his career at Columbus Pest Control in 1965.
“In Cuba, I was afraid of bugs,” said Sanchez, “but I loved this job and driving to different cities in Ohio.”

Sanchez worked for Columbus Pest Control for 47 years before retiring in 2012. Sanchez has no interest in going back to Cuba, and refuses to travel there while it is under communist rule. However, his daughter Elsie feels differently and traveled to Cuba three years ago. She said she had wanted to go back all her life.

“People asked me why I wanted to go and just see destruction,” said Elsie. “It doesn’t matter, it is my land.”

Elsie is an artist, and went to Cuba through a program with other artists. She went back to her home, expecting it to be run down. However, the family that currently lives there took good care
of the house and fixed it to look brand new.

Elsie stood outside the house taking pictures and wanted to go inside. The family was hesitant at first because they did not know who she was. Elsie showed them a picture of her in front of
the house with the nanny who lived in the home after the Sanchezes left. The family then let Elsie in because they recognized the nanny. Once she was in the house, she could not believe how nice it looked.

After visiting her old home, she walked around the neighborhood talking to the locals. Some people told her, “This is hell, we’re hoping things change.”

Elsie said that if she didn’t become an artist she probably would’ve been a doctor. She received inspiration from her dad, who used to draw pictures at his job, and tried to draw what he drew.
She took night classes at Ohio State University, and it took 12 years to get her degree because she was working at the same time.

Elsie said her art is abstract. “I try to put all the emotion in the artwork without depicting anything.”

The Sanchez family still resides in central Ohio. While Elsie plans to travel to Cuba again soon, Mario said he “will never set foot in Cuba.”

Ohio Wesleyan, City of Delaware and Delaware County Show Collaboration with Entrepreneurial Ideas

By Kienan O’Doherty, Editor-In-Chief

A new chapter for the future has already been written for Ohio Wesleyan, the city of Delaware and Delaware County with the latest grand opening.

The Delaware Entrepreneurial Center at Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) opened its doors for the first time to the public with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony. The center, which takes the place of the old Stewart Annex, was completely remodeled to provide a home for those that are looking to venture into the business world.

With an industrial and modern theme, the center includes two floors filled with offices, open presentation floors, and small rooms where people can brainstorm and expand on ideas.

One of those offices already has an occupant. Jack Foley ’22 is the founder of ReYuze Cases, a company that creates and sells cellphone cases made of plastic recycled from the streets, canals, and landfills of Haiti. He believes that the opening of the center provides a bright light for students seeking entrepreneurship.

“A lot of students can get internships with companies here, like myself,” Foley said. “For any student at OWU that has a business idea, it allows them to collaborate with not only people in Delaware, but also via the OWU Connection, and this building represents that. It’s connecting OWU students with the community and entrepreneurial spirit.”

The center also featured many other student-founded businesses throughout the center, including Sweet Lizabella’s, a toffee company founded by Elizabeth Knowlton ’19, which prides itself on using four ingredients.

During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, OWU President Rock Jones stated that the opening of the center is the first of its kind in the nation.

“We are not aware of another place in the country where city, county and university have come together on the university campus to do what’s happening here,” Jones said. “That is extraordinary, and it’s a reminder of the good fortune we all have to live in a community where the town and the county and university collaborate with one another, value one another, and want to create experiences with one another.”

The Delaware Entrepreneurial Center also provides a hub for residents as well, as City of Delaware Mayor Carolyn Kay Riggle sees more possibilities.

“Unfortunately, Delaware has been a bedroom community for quite a while,” Riggle said. “I would love to see more businesses stay here so that you’ll live here, [but] also work here and play here, so that we can offer everything, and I think this entrepreneurial center provides that opportunity.”