Category: News

By Spencer Pauley, Copy Editor 

Students at Ohio Wesleyan will start spending a little more money out of pocket next year because of a 2.4 percent increase in tuition.

Recently, it was decided at a Board of Trustees meeting that OWU would increase the yearly tuition from $44,430 to $45,500. They looked at the consumer price index of all urban consumers, which went up by 1.9 percent.

They also looked at OWU’s competitors, which includes private universities that students have applied to in addition to OWU.

OWU and its competitors saw college pricing go up by 3.6 percent on average last year.

Lauri Strimkovsky, vice president for finance and administration and treasurer, said the university has been trying to limit tuition increase over the years.

“Over time, we have really tried to keep the percentage increase as low as possible,” Strimkovsky said. “But the world around us changes and so the things we’re paying for go up around us, so it’s not possible to keep tuition static.”

Increasing tuition at OWU is not new for the university. But President Rock Jones said this year’s increase is small compared to ones in the past.

“This year’s increase is one of the smallest in the last 40 years and reflects the impact of inflation on our ability to provide the educational experiences our students and their families expect,” Jones said.

Junior Masai Tate said he is frustrated about the decision.

“I’ve struggled paying for college the past three years here,” Tate said. “I’m left wondering if this increase will prevent me from continuing studying [at OWU] next year.”

With the tuition increase, the Financial Aid staff plans on making sure students can afford to study at OWU.

“The Office of Financial Aid will continue to work with students and families to assist with their financial planning and their needs for financing an OWU education,” Jones said.

By Reilly Wright, Photo Editor 

The Gillespie Honors House, Ohio Wesleyan’s newest $2 million campus addition, houses 27 honors students, a variety of educational events and countless opportunities.

Located at 81 Oak Hill Ave., the house opened in August to sophomores, juniors and seniors part of the Leland F. and Helen Schubert Honors Program, who applied in the spring to reside in the new house.

The Gillespie Honors House was officially dedicated Thursday Oct. 19 during Ohio Wesleyan’s 2017 Homecoming and Family Weekend. President Rock Jones, Honors Program Director Amy McClure and the Gillespies were in attendance to speak at the crowded dedication.

The Gillespie Honors House moderator, junior Cindy Huynh, also spoke at the event showing her support for the house and its donors. As moderator, she works with housemates and the Honors Board to plan and host events at the spacious house.

“I believe that the Honors House is very unique and different from the other themed houses,” Huynh said. “We all have different backgrounds, perspectives and passions, which allows us to learn from each other. We all motivate and support each other to be the best that we can in order to reach our academic goals and aspirations.”

The student residence was built with funding from alumni Robert W. Gillespie ‘66, a key player in Cleveland banking industries, and his wife, Ann L. Wible Gillespie ‘67.

Both are still deeply involved in the university. Ann is a strong legacy, and Robert is an OWU Life Trustee and a board member of University Advancement, Finance and Operations, and Investments committees. Both are also members of the Founders’ Circle for their more than $1 million contribution and were involved in their 50th class reunions.

“Mr. and Mrs. Gillespie and their family are very passionate about students and their experience here at OWU,” Huynh said. “Their vision was to build and cultivate a community with the university’s best and brightest minds from now and for many more generations.”

In addition to their $2 million contribution for the house, their gift included another $500,000 for the Ann Wible Gillespie Endowed Scholarship, the Jack Dawson Scholarship and the Ohio Wesleyan Fund to sponsor campus operations.

In Ann’s dedication speech, she told of her grandson questioning their major donation to the university when there were programs such as cancer research to support.

“I think I said something like ‘You know, it seems to me that all real progress starts with education … for the most part, this is the core for getting our country and the world where it needs to be,’” Robert said.

By Alameina White, Transcript Reporter

Ohio Wesleyan sophomore Raissa Kanku was one of four college students worldwide selected to participate in a New York Times global democracy forum held in Athens, Greece.

From Sept. 10-15, Kanku was exposed to many influential leaders around the world, including the prime minister of Kenya, Amina Mohammed and Annika Savill, the executive head of the United Nations Democracy Fund.   

Though only four hours were spent at the forum a day, Kanku said she was networking 24 hours a day with the people she was being exposed to.

Kanku was given the opportunity to sit on a panel with Kerry Kennedy, the president of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; Irina Bokova, the director of General UNESCO; and Brian Smith, the president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa Group and the Coca-Cola Company.

On the panel, they were given the topic of “bridging the generation gap” (elders against the youth).  On another panel where Kanku sat with European journalists, they discussed climate change.

Kanku said she did not believe that the way the organization leaders answered the question were representative of people from different regions. Instead, she said they based their answers on what they had personally done.

But Kanku said she enjoyed the opportunity to network with people who understand her passion for helping child soldiers within the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo integrate back into their community.

“It was a platform for me to express how I felt about organizations and for me to network with people who could help me further my ideas,” Kanku said.

In the process of networking, Kanku and other students from around the world observed that the representation of minorities was less. Kanku noted that while there were students from Pakistan, there were no leaders from Pakistan at the forum.

“You have this forum that’s supposed to represent the whole world, but it didn’t really,” Kanku said.

The students discussed topics like these and their perspectives of what they’d heard when they returned to where they were staying, the American College of Greece, in discussions led by Richard Detweiler, president of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance.

The Global Liberal Arts Alliance sent a general call to politics and government professors across campus.

Ashley Biser, associate professor of politics and government, was familiar with Kanku’s Theory-to-Practice Grants and nominated Kanku to apply.

Biser nominated Kanku because of her spirit and energy, unique background and desire to make democracy stronger.

“I think that she is someone who cares a lot about the world and trying to make it a better place,” said Biser.

In the evenings, Kanku had the chance to explore Greece and toured the Acropolis Museum where she learned about how much Greece developed in terms of government.  Kanku also said she  enjoyed the architecture and the gyros.

“You could walk downtown and still see how everything was styled in Ancient Greece,” said Kanku. “There was so much history.”

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor 

Attorney Joe Mas visited Ohio Wesleyan to give a lecture about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on Sept. 27.

DACA is an immigration policy that is meant to let children, who were brought into the U.S. illegally, to stay. The policy was established under an executive order passed by President Barack Obama in 2012 and has since been challenged by current President Donald  Trump.

“Many of us are afraid of change, having discussions on diversity, equity and inclusion is not easy, which is why we invited Joe Mas to share with our campus and town community his expertise on DACA,” said professor Juan Armando Rojas.

Mas is an attorney and an immigration specialist. He also served as director of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic and Latinx affairs in the 1990s. The organization is a state agency that focuses on issues in the Hispanic community. Mas has also been an attorney since 1979.

“I got to testify in front of the House of Representatives and the Senate frequently,” Mas said. He continued to say that his experience alerted him to the issues of Hispanic people who are living in the state of Ohio.

“Since that time, we have had a very active political discourse here in Ohio concerning language issues and immigrant issues,” Mas said.

With a very diverse and experienced background, Rojas said he felt that Mas’ knowledge was something that OWU students and faculty should hear.

“Joe [Mas] has invested much of his efforts and time supporting and legally advising immigrants and underrepresented people that usually don’t fit in with the traditional bureaucratic categories,” Rojas said.

Mas said his main goal of the lecture was to give attendees a history on DACA and to provide an opportunity for the audience ask questions.