News – Page 45 – The Transcript

Eleventh annual Economic Outlook Conference held

By: Evan Walsh, Transcript Correspondent

Panelist Ben Ayers. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Folks pay a lot for financial advice.

Ohio Wesleyan students who attended the eleventh annual Economic Outlook Conference on Nov. 17 didn’t have to. This Tuesday, a panel of prominent economists led a lecture and answered curious students’ questions about the future of the economy.

Students like junior Brooks Gilmore, an OWU Economics Management Fellow, were pleased they went.

“I’ve come every year I’ve been at OWU. I’ll come next year, too, because I think this is an opportunity for students to take advantage of a learning experience outside of class,” Gilmore said.

Like the name might suggest, the Economic Outlook Conference anticipates what we can expect our economy to do at a local, national and global level.

Their projections for economic success were predicated primarily on the rising levels of employment and the Federal Reserve controlling hyper-inflation to maintain the strength of the dollar.

Panelist George Mokrzan. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Each of the three panelists were genuinely optimistic about the immediate and long-term success of the economy.

However, during the question and answer part of the conference they came to a disagreement about the extent to which the economy will grow and the effects of government policy.

Senior economist at Nationwide Economics Ben Ayers, compared the national gross domestic product with changing levels of employment.

His research validated his suspicion that employment and GDP are those forces most responsible for making our economy a consumer economy.

George Mokrzan, the director of economics at Huntington Trust agreed with Ayers’s assertion that employment across the country has helped the recovery process. Still, he noted that regional improvements in the “rustbelt,” as it still mistakenly called, are actually ahead of the national average.

Panelist Mark Schweitzer. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Mark Schweitzer, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, was the last to present. He touched upon some of the previous comments with respect to the Federal Reserve policies that control the economy’s pace of recovery.

“The Volcker Rule and other monetary moves will slow inflation without hurting consumption,” Schweitzer said.

Some stuck around to speak with the panel members for their insight as professionals.

“Employment prospects for students are much higher now than they were a few years ago,” Mokrzan said. “There is still a premium on higher education, so stay in school.”

The conference, held in the Benes Room, was put together by the Woltemade Center with members of the economics department moderating.

Nobel Prize winner, OWU alum Sherwood Rowland honored

By: Ross Hickenbottom, Transcript Reporter

The Heritage Day display for Sherwood Rowland.

Ohio Wesleyan alumni all over the world have received awards in recognition of their accomplishments. Whether for sports, science research, education, politics, social activism, literature or entertainment, these awards are prestigious. But one award trumps all the rest: the Nobel Prize.

Frank Sherwood Rowland, class of 1948, received the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his cooperative “work with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and their impact on the Earth’s ozone layer,” according to Connect2OWU. In other words, he proved to the world that mankind can (and is) depleting the ozone.

During his formative years of research he was affiliated with the department of chemistry at the University of California, along with Paul J. Crutzen and Mario J. Molina, his co-winners.

The school community celebrated the 20th anniversary of Sherwood’s award on Nov. 13. The celebration was named “Noblest Achievements: Environment Echoes of Sherwood Rowland” and was held in the atrium of the HamiltonWilliams Campus Center from 12-1 p.m.

Sherwood was a member of Delta Tau Delta, the men’s basketball team and was the sports editor of The Transcript during his time at OWU. With this in mind, OWU chose junior Evan Katz, a member of Delta Tau Delta and senior Ben Miller, a journalism major, to speak on Rowland’s behalf.

In his speech, Katz shared some unknown and impressive facts about Sherwood, including the fact that “Sherwood Rowland entered the first grade at the age of 5, skipped the fourth grade, entered high school at 12 and graduated a few weeks before his sixteenth birthday.”

In an interview at the 2005 meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany, Sherwood described his post-high school graduation decision to attend OWU, “After graduation from high school in 1943, almost all of my male classmates immediately entered the military service,” Rowland said. “However, because I was still well under the compulsory draft age of 18, I enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan and attended the university year-round for the next two years. During these war years, only 30 or 40 civilian males were on campus, plus about 200 naval officer trainees and 1,000 women. With so few men available, I played on the university basketball and baseball teams and wrote much of the sports page for the university newspaper.”

A model man for many, if not all Ohio Wesleyan students, Sherwood Rowland’s contributions to the world remind us all of our potential.

Now, Delaware. Next, Oslo?

OWU student harassed, followed by unknown suspect

By: Cuckoo Gupta, Transcript Correspondent

An OWU student was briefly stalked and harassed by an unknown man who followed him from Rowland Avenue to Smith Hall on the night of Nov 3.

The man, allegedly 18 years old, is a native of the Delaware community. He yelled profanities at and physically pushed junior Andrew Smith.

“I had never seen the man before that evening,” said Smith. “He said he was disgruntled about being arrested after getting in a fight with someone.”

The man was accompanied by a friend who “looked as if he did not want to be there,” said Smith.

He tried stopping his aggressive acquaintance “multiple times.”

“Based on the victim’s report, it appears to be a case of mistaken identity,” said Richard Morman, an investigator for Public Safety (PS).

After entering Smith Hall, Smith called PS, who contacted the Delaware Police Department (DPD). PS works “closely with the Fire Department and Delaware Police to keep the community safe,” according to their website.

Smith was satisfied with PS’s handling of the situation, and said he felt “safer” once he was with them.

Director of PS Robert Wood said, “We take many steps to help ensure safety. We have a 24/7 public safety presence on campus. And we partner with DELCOM (our county’s central 911 center).”

“PS officers also provide escorts to students who are alone or have a specific reason to be concerned for their safety,” Wood explained. “We have emergency phones located at various spots on campus that can be used to reach us.”

The emergency phone has been used “very few times” in the past 10 years. The student escort system also has been seldom used.

Wood said that most of the times officer escorts are requested for convenience more than for safety.

“It is important to remember that regardless of what the PS department and administration does, individual decisions we make every day have a greater impact on our individual safety,” Wood said.

The student life webpage has a number of instructions on safety tips and measures that can be taken by the students and staff, in situations like Smith’s. The tips range from reporting any suspicious activity or safety incident immediately to securing yourself in a safe place and staying sheltered until you receive an all-clear message.

Dinner with Jones

The Honors House, located at 123 Oak Hill Avenue, houses 11 students. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

It’s not Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but it is dinner with Rock Jones.

The president of Ohio Wesleyan has either met, or is going to meet with Small Living Units around campus to talk about the SLU community.

Dinners, teas and meetings have been hosted in the past couple weeks and they have gone just as planned. Jones decided the timing was perfect because of the transition the SLU community is undergoing.

“With coming transitions in the SLU community and the construction of new buildings, I thought it was a good time for me to be in touch directly with each SLU and to experience the dynamic sense of community and purpose that exists in the SLUs,” Jones said.

One of the most recent dinners was with the Honors house. The residents of the house prepared breakfast for dinner and discussed the history of OWU. Junior resident and RA Lee LeBoeuf enjoyed the shared experience, along with Jones.

“I think he liked the food. He mentioned that his family used to have breakfast for dinner once a week,” she said. “We talked about our house’s history, how it became part of the OWU campus and about all the individual members of our house.”

Jones also recently met with the newest SLU on campus, the House of Spiritual Athletes (HSA).

HSA is located in Welch for the time being until they move into one of the new renovated houses next year. Junior Scott Harmanis, along with his housemates, talked about their current situation with the president.

“He wanted to get to know us so we all introduced ourselves and talked about our majors and what we’d like to do,” he said. “We also talked about how the year was going so far and how living in Welch as a SLU was going.”

Like Harmanis said, Jones does want to get the know the SLU community, which is a big reason for the dinners.

“The dinners give me an opportunity to visit with members of the SLU community, to hear about various house projects, to gain new perspectives on life in the SLU community and to talk about any concerns relating to transitions that will come with the construction of new buildings for the SLUs. I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations and have learned a lot about how the SLUs are functioning this year.”

Jones wants to do this with the whole student body.

“I hope to find a way to replicate this experience with other student groups beyond the SLU community.”

WCSA discusses where to spend rollover funds

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

Elections have closed for all positions on the Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs (WCSA) except treasurer, and applications are still being accepted.

Senior Jerry Lherisson, president of WCSA, began the Nov. 16 meeting by offering his congratulations to the new position holders.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys can do,” Lherisson said.

The next president will be Jessica Choate, the vice president will be Sam Schurer and the secretary will be Caroline Anderson, all juniors.

Freshmen Nick Melvin and Caroline Hamlin have been elected as the class of 2019 representatives, sophomores Kaden Thompson and Mallory Griffith as the class of 2018 representatives and juniors Andrew Stock and Jo Meyer as the class of 2017 representatives.

Elections for the full senate are this Friday.

Senior Emma Drongowski, vice president of WCSA, encouraged senators to keep working hard as winter break approaches.

“We still have three weeks in our semester and we still have time to do good work here,” Drongowski said.

The next order of business was to discuss how rollover funds would be spent.

“The funds come from pots of money that weren’t used at the end of the semester or events that were cancelled,” Drongowski said.

The executive members would like the funds to go toward three areas: safety, sustainability and residential affairs.

“We really want to spend this on things that will impact the students in the best way possible,” Drongowski said.

Safety items include adding a crosswalk on Oak Hill Avenue in the area between Welch and Smith and the “Let There Be Lights” project, which aims to add lights to dimly lit areas on campus.

Sustainability items include adding a community garden near Stuyvesant Hall and developing post-consumer composting.

Residential affairs had the most items, and these include replacing the carpet and seating in the Hamilton-Williams atrium, getting wireless printing in the Welch and Hayes Hall computer labs and purchasing swipe cards to track campus involvement and attendance.

Drongowski said all of these ideas were viable, but there was no guarantee every single idea would be accomplished.

The exact amount of rollover funds won’t be known until the end of the semester, but Drongowski said it will be “a substantial amount of money.”

Faculty shuts students out of their November meeting

In an unprecedented move, student representatives from the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) and The Transcript were denied access to the Nov. 16 faculty meeting.

For the short period of time that students were outside Merrick Hall’s third floor meeting space, the monthly gathering of OWU faculty and staff simmered with controversy. Following the usual invocation, Provost Chuck Stinemetz moved to allow the student guests to enter the room.

After the motion was seconded, professor Bart Martin of the geology department raised his hand with a comment.

Citing the recent publication of Transcript articles in the Delaware Gazette reporting on faculty business, Martin asked that his colleagues consider barring student entry to the Monday meeting in the interest of confidentiality.

Martin’s speech was immediately condemned by an impassioned Paul Kostyu, an associate professor in the journalism department. He reminded the faculty that “we are members of the Delaware community,” and that “they have a right to know what goes on here.”

Kostyu also added that the faculty serves the students and that everything discussed at the faculty meeting “becomes public eventually.”

Professor Chris Wolverton of the botany department stood up to rebut this claim. “It is not unreasonable for faculty members to be allowed to make comments without fear of it being published in the newspaper the next day,” he argued.

As the tension grew between colleagues, one non-faculty member weighed in on the controversial motion. Deborah Peoples, head of collection services for Beeghly Library, said she supported Wolverton’s sentiment.

“I am thinking we deserve a place to air our feelings in relative safety where we are not feeling that it is going to be on the front page the next day,” Peoples said.

Peoples continued, suggesting that, “there are ways to make The Transcript widely accessible to every student and faculty member on this campus in its online form without having to make it accessible to the whole community.”

Sensing the emotion driving both sides of the argument, professor Thomas Wolber of the department of modern foreign languages noted that the issue at hand was indeed contentious.

“We have to find the right balance between transparency and valid argument,” Wolber reasoned, “but we also need to protect the integrity of the institution and the privacy of faculty.”

“I would recommend we not make a quick motion on this issue,” Wolber concluded. “I think somebody should study the issue carefully, weigh the pros and cons and come up with a decision that is rational and logical and that we can defend to the public.”

But professor Carol Neuman De Vegvar of the fine arts department objected to the idea that the faculty’s already precious time be further diminished. And if the faculty open the meeting to students, she argued, the entire Delaware community should be invited to sit in.

“Why don’t we just open the meeting to the entire township,” De Vegvar said. “Why don’t we put it on video and immediately broadcast it as it is happening. The answer is plain: we have business to do as a faculty, we admit people on vote. It is not a matter for the entire community.”

During the brief pause in debate that followed De Vegvar’s suggestion, Stinemetz interjected with a call for remaining comments. When no faculty members raised their hand, he requested a vote.

The faculty were at first asked to speak “yea” or “nay” on the motion to allow student representatives into the meeting, but with the sides being so close, a vote-by-hand was required.

After a silent minute, the motion to allow students into the faculty meeting failed.

With that announcement, Kostyu collected his coat and hat and walked out of the meeting.

As he left the building, Kostyu said his “principles prevent me from being a part of this.”

For the members of WCSA in attendance, the decision to bar their entry was a disappointment.

Junior Jessica Choate, president-elect of WCSA, hoped that her future “communication with the faculty can be open.”

Seniors Emma Drongowski, vice president of WCSA, and Jerry Lherisson, president of WCSA, reported similar feelings.

Speaking on both of their behalf, Drongowski said, “I am very disappointed that students were not granted access to the faculty meeting today. We believe that it is important for students to fully understand decisions that faculty members make, as it directly impacts us as students and as members of the OWU community. We sincerely hope that we, as students, will be included in these meetings and conversations in the future.”

Calling all artists: the OWL

By: Ross Hickenbottom, Transcript Correspondent

Do you love writing? Do you want others to see your writing? The OWL is your answer.

The OWL is Ohio Wesleyan’s annual literary magazine and is published during the spring semester for students to showcase their creative writing pieces.

Pieces submitted to the journal include poetry, journalism, fiction, nonfiction and art, making the OWL open to anyone wanting to create.

Robert Olmstead, assistant professor of English and adviser to the OWL, assures students that “anyone can make a submission.”

“Like Ohio Wesleyan, the possibilities for the OWL are endless,” Olmstead added.

The OWU English department funds the magazine and encourages any “satisfying piece of writing and art” to be submitted. In the past, faculty interviews, academic essays and even music have been selected for its pages.

The magazine is put together by English department students. This year, there are six students on the staff, who have been looking at submissions from last year’s literary awards and collecting submissions via email.

Julia Stone, a senior who just joined the OWL this year explained the selection process.

“Each member of the staff reads the piece and says yes, no or maybe,” Stone said. “If a piece gets two nos, it is cut out of the running. If there is a tie between yes’s and no’s then we discuss as a group to decide whether we include the piece in the OWL or not.”

The OWL receives around one hundred submissions each year, and with nearly 2,000 students on campus, that is not much.

“I want people to look at The OWL and see something substantial and not something disposable,” said Olmstead.

The OWL is currently taking submissions and reminds students that they can only be limited by their imagination and energy.

Card office does more than give student IDs: just ask Nancy Tumeo

Nancy Tumeo. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

Need a hug? Just go to the card office in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

Most students, faculty and staff probably know Nancy Tumeo as “the card office lady,” but Tumeo does a lot more than generate student IDs and track food points.

In nearly 20 years at Ohio Wesleyan, Tumeo has held her position in the card office and in the hearts of students. She has plenty to share about the struggles of adjusting to college, dial-up technology and the power of 47 cents.

Q: So how long have you been working at OWU?

A: I started fall semester 1997. They hired me for three months and I’m still here. They were going to change the position, which they’ve never done. Actually, I went home that summer and my boss came and asked me to come back, and I said, “No, I don’t want to come back.” But, he begged me to come back, and so I did. And, I have to tell you, it’s probably one of the most rewarding jobs, not because of what I do but because of the students.

Q: How did you get your start in the card office?

A: There was an ad in the paper… I was in the process of buying a new house and the bank said, “You’ve got to have a job.” I saw this position and so I came in and I got hired. I really had no intentions of coming back [after the three months], and here I am going on my nineteenth year.

Q: What has kept you at OWU for so long?

A: The flexibility in my job. I have a lot of time off and can carry my medical benefits year around. But again, it comes back to the students. While I furnish reports to every department and everybody on campus, I deal mainly with the students. Everybody has to come through here to get a card, and that way I get to know all the students and get to know all the faculty and staff.

Q: What is it about interacting with students that makes you enjoy your job?

A: I’ve adopted many students. Bought hats and gloves for them in the wintertime. Approached professors to help a student. I’ve gone to see if the student was properly coded for what they’re being charged. Students talk to me. They tell me a lot, and that’s the reason I like my job.

Q: What part of your job do most students not know about?

A: Not only do I make ID cards, I control everything [students] do with that card: security, their food points—on-campus, off-campus—accounting, their debit money, library card, replacing the cards. Not only helping the students, but also speaking to their parents. The accounting depends on all my records for balancing accounts. Anything you use that card for has to come through here, and I control all that with this equipment… The equipment is very, very old. It’s still dial-up. The only thing I’d wish for is to have newer equipment.

Q: Are there any weird or crazy ways a student has lost their ID?

A: I have probably heard every excuse. And I think two years ago there were two girls in a race. One had replaced her card 27 times and one 28 times, and I went at them just like they were my own kids: “Do you know how much money you’ve spent on cards?” Some kids just leave their cards in their dorms and they just don’t want to go back and get them, and I yell at them like their parents because I can give them a charge card to eat on, but I can’t get them back into their dorm without a card. Lots of different excuses why they’ve lost them. Dogs chewed them up. Put them in the dryer. Just can’t find them.

Q: What is the most difficult part of your job?

A: Maintaining the old equipment, especially offcampus. I’m still using dial up communications and we now have seven restaurants off-campus [where students can use food points]… When the registers go down on campus the cashiers call me. Every time the electric flickers off and on this old equipment goes down.

Q: Do you have any thoughts or advice you’d like to share with students?

A: I kind of see students blossom in their sophomore year, and I see them laid-back as freshmen. They’re scared to go get somebody to eat with them or afraid to walk up to the table to sit down with strangers. Some of them have a hard time introducing themselves with others and they’ll come in and talk to me. I’ve had so many kids come back and talk to me and thank me upon graduation. One student stood in front of me as a freshman and he just had tears in his eyes every day, and I made him come in and give me a hug me every day. And upon graduation he said, “I would never have stayed if it hadn’t been for you.” Comments like that are why I like my job so much. And I still stay in touch with some of the international students that have moved on… Their parents have invited me to many countries, but I won’t go. There’s a girl that graduated in 2010 and she’s studying to be a doctor, and I went up to Johns Hopkins [University] in Baltimore to spend the day with her. It’s just fun to stay in touch with the students and have them come back. I get many hugs. I can’t explain how wonderful it is because I’ll do a lot of little favors for kids. I know how to help them. And they’re like my own kids… They tell me lots of secrets, and I keep them. A little girl came up the other day and she was practically in tears and she wanted to buy a blue book…and she didn’t have any money, so I dug out 47 cents and said, “Go get your book.” I just ask them to do a good deed for somebody else. Now, 47 cents isn’t much money, but she needed that blue book and if I can help somebody for 47 cents and make them happy, it’s made me happy. One year school started and a father called me and he said, “My daughter’s standing in the middle of the university outside.” I asked him what building she’s facing, and he told me, and I said, “Tell her not to move.” I ran out and found her. She was lost. She didn’t know where to go. It amazes me. I always said they should have higher classmen out there with a sign: “Ask me. Are you lost?” Because the freshmen are always lost… It’s just a job that I come to every day and I just take it as everyday work. Other people may not find it so interesting or fun, but I enjoy the interaction with the students.

Q: So do think you’ll stick around in this position?

A: I hope to. I hope so.

Sigma Chi now closed on campus

The Sigma Chi flag. Photo courtesy of Sigma Chi's website. — The Sigma Chi flag. Photo courtesy of Sigma Chi’s website.

This story updated on 11/12/15

Late Wednesday, Nov. 11, the Ohio Wesleyan University community was alerted that the Sigma Chi fraternity is being closed immediately.

According to the email sent to students and faculty, the international headquarters of the fraternity were the ones to make the decision, due to “declining membership and commitment to the fraternity’s historic mission.”

The press release sent by Sig Chi’s headquarters said, “The Fraternity looks forward to maintaining a positive relationship with administrators at Ohio Wesleyan University and returning to campus after its current members have graduated.”

Dana Behum, the assistant director of student involvement for fraternity and sorority life, said OWU was alerted of the fraternity’s suspension Nov. 5. After a discussion with the fraternity’s international headquarters, they decided to tell the members on Nov. 11. The Executive Director of the fraternity, Michael Church, made the announcement to the members in person.

Directly after the announcement, the administrators had time to discuss staff resources and housing accommodations.

Behum said Residential Life is working with each member to identify his next step in housing. 30 Williams Drive, the Sig Chi house, will likely be closed for the remainder of the 2015-2016 academic year. Currently, there has been no discussion to the future use of the building. The current members are now considered to be Alumni members of the organization.

Kimberlie Goldsberry, the interim vice president for student affairs, said, “I do believe and have observed that in times of challenge, sadness and change there can be great demonstrations of empathy, strength and defining opportunity.”

Behum said, “Our Greek community…are surprised and heartbroken. I believe that the students in the OWU Greek community will continue to include our new Alumni Members of Sigma Chi in their campus interactions, social opportunities and identity group.”

We have attempted to reach out to current members of Sigma Chi. We have either received no response or a decline to comment.

Religion and classics expert visits OWU

Professor Heidi Wendt. Photo courtesy of the OWU website.

A triple threat comes to Ohio Wesleyan: religion, philosophy and classics professor Heidi Wendt spoke to students Nov. 2 about religion in the Roman Empire.

Wendt, from Wright State University, delivered her lecture, “Judaism and Christianity as Religion in the Roman Empire: The Case of the Apostle Paul,” to a packed room in Slocum Hall.

She received an A.B. in religious studies from Brown University. She returned to Brown to complete a PhD in religious studies and an A.M. in classics.

Senior Ashley Vassar, a classics major, was glad to hear an interdisciplinary perspective.

“This talk was one that married a religious topic with a classical one,” Vassar said. “This means that students from both the classics and the religion department were able to learn more about their particular areas of interest. The topic was also particularly fascinating because Christianity is so widespread.”

Wendt’s visit was made possible by classics professor Lee Fratantuono. Fratantuono said having a speaker like Wendt “exposes students to other areas of specialties within classics. In the classics department, we have a small number of faculty and a large number of students and the speakers help mitigate the number of faculty.”

Every year, the classics department has a speaker series, which brings four to six speakers to campus. When selecting speakers, the department aims to choose people whose studies connect to the material discussed in class.

Wendt researched topics focused on the Roman Empire and the activities of freelance religious experts and their significance for the emergence of Christianity. She has worked throughout Turkey, Greece and Italy.

Throughout her presentation, Wendt discussed the evolution of both Christianity and Judaism.

She also pulled passages from the bible to support her research.

Senior Rachael Nicholas, another classics major, said that she learned a lot from Wendt.

“I gained a fuller knowledge of early Christianity in Rome,” Nicholas said. “Before this point, I knew very little of that particular subject. Now I understand how early Jews and Christians interacted with the Roman Empire.”

Wendt is in the process of completing a book titled “The Religion of Freelance Experts in the Early Roman Empire.” According to Wendt’s web page, the book “examines evidence from the imperial period for selfauthorized religious experts, including Judean and Christian actors.”