Category: News

By Allie Le

Transcript Correspondent

This upcoming spring semester, the members of OWU Sick Steps (OSS) focus on spreading their passion for hip-hop dance throughout campus.

Their goal is to perform in Cultural Fest, Vietnamese Students Association’s Lunar New Year and Global Outreach Show this coming spring.

According to sophomore Leah Duong, president of OSS, the club focuses mainly on hip-hop. However, every member will be able to learn much from one another due to their diverse styles and different backgrounds.

“OSS’ major purpose is to promote hip-hop culture on campus and become a place for anyone who is interested in hip-hop to come and share their experience with others,” she said.

Duong said she came up with the idea of establishing the club after noticing the school did not have a hip-hop club or class for hip-hop lovers to come practice and learn.

With her fellow hip-hop lovers, Duong decided to participate in Rafiki wa Africa’s Global Outreach Show (GOS) as a dance group. As a result, OSS was formed.

The club was officially recognized on campus by WCSA and the Student Involvement Office on Oct. 11.

Sophomore Amanda Liu, one of the founding members of the club, said her experiences as an OSS member from the very beginning have been memorable.

“It is also very exciting, as we are creating history in a way at OWU, and it is very comforting to see many new members joining who also share the same passions and love for dance, and are willing to give up their own time to join the club,” she said. “After all, a club is about the people, for without the people the club would be pointless, so I am very happy to see so many people who also recognize the need for this club.”

According to Liu, the club members’ expectations are not “sky high,” since the club is fairly young. Their goal is to “establish a well-functioning club, with many interested and enthusiastic members.”

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

“I am clear as a Christian minister that in all the holy texts, (the) primary theme is to love humanity,” said University Chaplain, Jon Powers, at the end of yet another Pride Week at Ohio Wesleyan.

The week of Oct. 7 to 11 saw various activities celebrating the LGBT community being held across campus. The week began with the PRIDE members handing out free condoms, goodies and “hot-cards” in the campus center during the lunch hours.

A family dinner was held on Tuesday night, followed by an “All Gender Housing Discussion” led by Rebecca Mosely on Wednesday. Mosely is associate director of Residential Education at Oberlin College.

On Thursday immigration lawyer Bobby Thaxton spoke about the effects of immigration law on the LGBT community.

Junior Hannah Sampson, PRIDE public relations chair, said planning for the week began at the end of last year and was a “work in progress” until mid-September of this year.

“Planning the events was not terribly difficult, as our speakers and performer were very supportive of PRIDE week and incredibly flexible,” she said. “The little technical things, like being in contact with housekeeping, getting rooms reserved, and event setup were probably the most difficult parts of planning, but everything went fairly smoothly overall.”

Sampson said while the executive board planned the events, they worked closely with the Spectrum Resource Center, who helped bring a speaker and hosted the National Coming Out Day celebration at the end of the week. She also said PRIDE members were “invaluable” to the week’s success.

Associate Chaplain Chad Johns said this year’s Pride week saw a wider variety of events compared to previous years.

“This has been one of the best events this year,” he said.

Sampson said this year’s events had the highest number of attendees throughout the week compared to previous years.  Most events had about 20-30 people, while Friday night’s Pride Prom “had an incredible number of people in attendance.”

Chaplain Powers said as a university with a Methodist affiliation, “we are somewhat at odds with the church” in matters related to the LGBT community. However, he said ever since he became the university chaplain back in 1988, he has “always been supportive of people who are LGBT.”

Powers said he has always welcomed students who have come to him with personal concerns before coming out to the public about their sexuality and he has always “held them in secret.”

He said he has also received calls and met with parents who have been opposed to their child being of a different sexual orientation who have asked him to help “straighten them out.”

He said his counsel to both students seeking his help as well as parents has always been unique to each given situation, but his “response is always affirmative.”

Powers said he believes crimes towards any individual based on their race, ethnicity, religious beliefs or sexuality of any kind is a deep problem arising out of fear.

“People fear the ‘other,’” he said. “It’s an ignorant reaction. It’s this human shadow that responds to fear by acting out violently.”

Sampson said one of OWU’s goals as an institution is to “celebrate diversity and allow individuals to thrive and express themselves freely.”

“I believe that this campus is very accepting of the LGBTIQA community as a whole and we have an incredible amount of ally support on campus,” she said.

A lot of people came out at this year’s National Coming Out Day; Sampson said some people also came out as allies at the event.

“Accepting people for who they are is something that is improving at OWU,” she said.

Sampson said the Spectrum Resource Center located on the second floor of the campus center is a great asset, especially for those who have concerns about coming out.

Powers said as more people get to know each other as people and don’t see them as the “other,” the less violently people will react to each other.

“A lot of the wall comes down,” he said.

His message to those struggling with coming out is simply to take care of themselves and not come out in way that might be risky to them. He said he wants them to know that OWU is a safe harbor; any place with a “Safe Zone” sign on campus has individuals who have been trained to talk. He asks them to seek a safer harbor within OWU and “know, discover and be assured” that they will be taken care of.

“It is not a political but a care issue,” he said. “We will meet you where you are.”

PRIDE meetings are held on Thursdays at 9:00pm in the Smith Piano Room.

 

 

By Emily Feldmesser

Copy Editor

What better way to raise money for charity than with food and friends? That was the idea behind the Oct. 10 fundraiser at J. Gumbo’s, benefitting the Girl Rising campaign.

Sophomore Zoe Morris, a resident of the Women’s House, organized the fundraiser as part of her house project.

Girl Rising, according to the organization’s website, is a global action campaign for girl’s education, which it says “dramatically improve(s) the well-being of (girls’) families, their communities and their countries—multiplying the impact on society.”

Girl Rising is also partnered with the World Vision organization. According to its website, World Vision is “a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to each their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.”

Morris said the organization “distributes resources to a number of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that promote the education of women in the developing world.” She said their efforts range from advocacy to the construction of schools.

Morris said being an education major was one of her motivations for this fundraiser.

“I believe strongly in education as (a) mechanism of change and social justice,” she said. “Education is, in my opinion, the most sustainable form of change there is. When people become more educated, they are better able to give back to their communities. Economies grow, health improves and peace is made longer lasting.”

Morris also said women have greatly decreased access to education for many reasons, which detracts from their communities’ well being.

“When girls are educated, they make more money, marry later, are less likely to contract HIV and have fewer children,” she said.

When planning this fundraiser, Morris thought of J. Gumbo’s, the Cajun food restaurant on Sandusky St., as an ideal venue.

“Last year, the Washington, D.C., mission trip held this type of fundraiser at J. Gumbo’s, and it was really successful,” she said. “Other than (raising money for the organization), I wanted to be able to include both the campus community and the Delaware community in this cause.”

When Morris approached Richard Upton, J. Gumbo’s owner, about holding her fundraiser at the restaurant, he gladly accepted.

“There are three reasons why I wanted to get involved with this event,” Upton said. “I agree with the need to provide education on an equal and fair basis for females and I appreciate Zoe’s passion for the project. I like seeing young people doing positive things other than personal gain and recognition. Finally, I am always looking for ways to collaborate with OWU and showcase students to the Delaware community.”

Upton said this event was the biggest turnout to date. He said students were lined up five minutes before the official start time.

Sophomore Erin Parker said she thought the event was “really fun” and agreed with its cause.

“I believe that women around the world should be offered the same opportunity of education as men have,” she said.

Adding to the atmosphere was sophomore Alex Paquet, who was performing live music for the people attending the fundraiser.

Junior Liam Dennigan said, “Overall, I had a really good time and was glad I could support the cause.”

Upton said their “Give Back Night” program gives “100 percent of tips of the day of an event go to the fundraising entity.” He said J. Gumbo’s does not pay its employees based on tips.

“The entity will also receive at least 10 percent of food, beverage and other sales, while 50 percent of ice cream sales go to the entity,” he said.

Morris said the money raised will be given to the 10×10 Foundation and will be distributed to its affiliated organizations, such as Room to Read and Girl Up. Part of the proceeds will contribute to bring a screening of the film “Girl Rising” to OWU.

 

By Toria Reisman

Transcript Correspondent

 

As the month of October is coming to an end, so is the opportunity to experience people selling produce and other goods on the streets of downtown Delaware.

Main Street Delaware’s downtown Farmer’s Market will be stopping for the 2013 year after Saturday, Oct. 26.

Every Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning, Sandusky Street has been lined with vendors selling their products.

“There are always delicious free samples and I can’t help but want to buy something every time I go,” said sophomore Jessica Demes, who said she has visited the market frequently.

Vendors are able to participate for a $10 table fee each week and can reserve a table for the whole season, which begins in late may and runs through the last Saturday in October. Every Wednesday between 3 and 6 p.m. and Saturday mornings between 9:30 and12:30 p.m. vendors are able to showcase their products to anyone walking by.

Fred, a vendor from South Marion, Ohio, said he sells all homemade products, including traditional chocolate chip and pumpkin cookies, a variety of breads and pies, kettle corn and others. Fred said he sold around 1,100 pies last year and believes he has reached that mark for the 2013 season.

Buyers are welcome to taste some of the Sallie Sloboda products when they walk by. Fred typically has free samples of his products sitting out on his table for customers to test.

Another table, selling fresh produce, has also been participating in the farmer’s market for the entire 2013 season. Working at his mother’s stand, Curtis said his favorite part about the market is meeting new people.

Not all of the vendors consistently attend every Wednesday and Saturday; however, there is always a variety of products being sold. The market will start back up in the 2014 season after it closes for the year on Saturday.

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

Members of various Greek organizations on campus dedicated their afternoon on Sunday, Oct. 13, to raising over $500 for the children of St. Jude’s Children Hospital.

Sigma Chi fraternity and Delta Delta Delta sorority held, for the first time, a joint fall philanthropy event.

“(We) decided to work together because we both wanted to do a kickball tournament,” said junior Elise Pitcairn, Tri-Delta’s philanthropy chair. “Both philanthropies would support St. Jude, and Sigma Chi and Tri-Delta have always had a solid bond of friendship.”

For the past two years, Tri-Delta has held a twister competition as their fall philanthropy event.

Pitcairn said her main goal in planning philanthropy events is to ensure the sorority can raise as much money and awareness about St. Jude as possible and “that everyone has as much fun (as they can) while doing so.”

A total of 10 teams participated at this year’s kickball tournament. While most had Greek affiliation, the Delaware Fire Department was a special addition to the list of teams that participated.

Delta Gamma won among the participating sororities, while Phi Gamma Delta won among the fraternities.

Pitcairn said she thought the event’s first time was a huge success.

“There was an overall energetic and enthusiastic atmosphere,” she said.

Adding to the spirit on Fraternity Hill, where the event was held, was the appearance of Dan’s Deli.

Pitcairn said “a lot of Dan’s Deli was consumed” during the event and the money they raised by partnering with the food cart has not yet been added to the total money raised.

Senior John Bieniek, president of Alpha Sigma Phi, said his favorite part of the event was being able to play alongside his brothers and cheering them on as they participated.

He said the fact that a fraternity and sorority co-hosted the event was a plus, since it “probably encouraged more teams to participate.”

Sophomore Jen Luckett, a member of Tri-Delta, said she felt the event was a success and teaming up with Sig Chi “was a cherry on top of that.” She said she thought it was great that the Delaware Fire Department could come out in support of a philanthropy event on campus.

“It just shows the sense of community in Delaware,” she said.

Pitcairn said to her, philanthropy means, “being selfless.” She said it is an opportunity to give back and make an impact that goes beyond OWU.

“It cost(s) over $1.5 million a day to run St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, so every penny we raise is crucial,” she said.

 

By Sara Schneider

Transcript Correspondent

Faculty and staff at OWU have created the Internship Circle to discuss expectations concerning internships.

The group, sponsored by the Office of Academic Affairs, meets every second Tuesday of the month at noon in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center in room 304; the meetings are open for all to attend.

Professor of Politics and Government James Franklin, who organizes the meetings, said they are a “forum for faculty and staff to meet and discuss issues pertaining to internships.”

In March of 2013, a workshop took place to inform people about internships on and off campus. Following the workshop, faculty and staff said they believed follow-up meetings were needed. The Internship Circle was then created and the first meeting took place in September.

Several different academic departments already offer internships to students, but the Internship Circle encourages additional departments to create internship positions and promote internship opportunities for students off campus.

“Internships allow students to learn about careers in ways that is not possible in the classroom,” Franklin said.

Students have the ability to work alongside professionals in a field that interests them. These internships can lead to quality recommendations and possible future jobs.

According to the Career Services web page, internships are valuable for “building skills and acquiring an understanding of the demands of a particular career field.”

Career Services highly recommends that students complete at least one internship during their college careers.

Senior Chris Litzler has completed three internships with commercial real estate investment funds. He said he thinks they are “opportunities for students to extend classroom learning in a professional setting while preparing students for a meaningful career.”

“These internships have given me a better understanding on the industry and make me a very strong entry level candidate in the real estate space,” he said. “Students cultivate interests in classrooms and internships are avenues for students to test their interests to determine if they are passions.”

By Emily Temple

Transcript Correspondent

On Monday, Oct. 7, the Ohio Wesleyan Education Department celebrated the opening of the Short Family Multimedia Lab in Phillips Hall.

This donation was the first donation the department has received in the 14 years that Paula White, professor of education and the department’s chair, has been employed at the university.

“We anticipate this impact will have a ripple effect that results in increased PreK-12 student learning,” she said. “I plan to use the lab with students in my methods courses who are learning and developing their range of instructional techniques.”

This donation from Mary Carol and Jack Short will give education majors the opportunity to further their learning through technology.

This new lab will provide opportunities for students to develop their pedagogical technology skills. It will especially be helpful to seniors in the program who are student teaching by allowing them to use iMovie video editing software to make their videos for the edTPA, a new program that is implemented across many universities in the state of Ohio.

The lab includes ten iMacs, a printer and an Apple TV. The Apple TV allows students and professors to connect wirelessly via airplay eliminating the need for expensive projectors.

The iMacs are fully loaded with word processing software, iMovie software and much more. White said if there is something else the department wanted to add, there is always “an app for that.”

A large part of the lab is the iMovie software allowing student teachers to edit their required video for their edTPA submissions in their final semester.

Senior Bethany Mann, an early childhood education major said the resources will help her greatly in getting ready for her graduation and future career and in completing the edTPA project.

“I am extremely excited to use the lab to further my education experience and prepare for my future as an educator,” she said.

The Short family has a long legacy of producing OWU graduates that totals to 92 years, with the most recent graduate in the class of 2010.

By Sam Simon

Transcript Reporter

The latest government shutdown has ended.  But other crises loom in the future, so an examination of what happened while OWU had its fall break is interesting both in review and in a likely preview of things to come.

The current situation with partisan politicians testing the limits of their power is not unique.  Beginning in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the government was shut down 18 times in 19 years with the debt limits and budgets at the center of these disputes.

The most recent shutdown debate was centered on the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Republican legislators would not pass a federal budget agreement without restriction or repeal of the healthcare law.

“Elections have consequences,” said Joan McLean, professor of politics and government. “Laws have consequences. Putting the United State’s full faith and credit in play in order to pursue an agenda is not what the authors of the Constitution would consider proper use of power.”

Federal government employees were primarily affected by the government shutdown.

Senior Zoey Kramer’s uncle works in the Department of Justice’s office of attorney recruitment and is president of DOJ Pride, an organization for LGBT employees. During the shutdown he did not work and was not paid.

In the last shutdown in 1995 he was similarly furloughed.

Senior Jordan Alexander’s parents both work for the Department of Defense in a military installation in San Antonio, Texas. While neither was paid, both continued to work during the shutdown.

Students in general are affected by the cessation of various services. Ohio Wesleyan librarian Joy Gao said government websites and online government document resources OWU students and faculty use for research were shut down. Researchers could still access Beeghly Library’s print collection of government documents.

Gao said during the shutdown, there was no shipment of printed government documents from the Government Printing Office (GPO) to depository libraries like Beeghly.

She also said some government websites were completely shut down. Others were still accessible, but the contents had not been updated. The Census Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) sites were all non-functional.

Gao found that some students were unable to complete their school assignments in a timely manner because of the shutdown. Some students were asked to find imports and exports data on the Census Bureau website for a class assignment.

“Of course, with the shutdown, they were not able to do it,” she said. “However, we were able to help them find the data in Statistical Abstract of the United States, which is a database we subscribe to.”

The shutdown ended Oct. 16, as McLean predicted just before the date economists said the federal government would run out of cash to pay its debts, necessitating a raising of the debt ceiling in order to borrow more money.

The vote in the House was 285-144 and 81-18 in the Senate. The government shutdown immediately ended and government employees returned to work on Thursday, Oct. 17.

The deal makes no substantive changes to the Affordable Care Act, and provides a rise in the debt ceiling that economists believe should provide adequate funding until Feb. 7, 2014.

One measure that has been discussed in the media and amongst political pundits is secion four of the 14th Amendment, adopted to reassure foreign countries that despite U.S. involvement in war, the country would continue to honor its debt.

This has raised the question if the President can sidestep Congress and raise the debt ceiling with the executive branch.

McLean said she thinks this would never occur under present circumstances, as the President must “weigh his decisions on such matters for both the long and short term.”

She said a Supreme Court case would be needed to interpret the current circumstances as necessary to employ such measures, but Obama would most likely understand that such executive overreach on his part might be destructive to the country in the long term.

By Sarah Thomas

Transcript Correspondent

After the first half-semester of its implementation, the Ohio Wesleyan car share program has not made a large dent in its goal of reducing parking congestion.

Starting this year, the university partnered with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to provide rental car service for students.

By reducing the need for cars on campus, the program aimed to decrease demand for parking spaces and bring down the number of cars in order to aid OWU’s sustainability efforts.

Junior Marissa Witkovsky said the program has not made any progress on the parking lot crowding issue that she can see. She is not a member of the program and brought her own car to campus.

Director of Public Safety Robert Wood said it will take several years for the cars to make a significant impact.

The program is based on paid membership, with an initial $35 annual fee. As an incentive to sign up, members will also receive $25 in driving credits. These credits can be used toward the costs of a rental car for a specific time.

The hourly rate for weekdays is $9.50 and $10.50 for weekends. Students can also rent a car for the whole day for $60 or overnight for $40. Gas is included for the first 200 miles.

Witkovsky said she would consider joining the program if it were cheaper.

“If the costs for an hour were half the price, then I would have been much less likely to ever bring a car to campus and just use this service,” she said.

Senior Jennifer Eltringham also had an issue with the cost. Eltringham is a member of the service and has rented a car for a trip.

“I was shocked by the late return fee,” she said. “I was only five or so minutes late and they charged me $50.”

Students can reserve a car online for a specific time online. Members gain access to the car by scanning a membership card over a reader on the car. Once the vehicle is unlocked, the keys are located inside.

As part of the standard rate, there is a pre-paid fuel card located in the car. In addition, there is a 24-hour roadside assistance and member service that can be called when needed.

The car locks when the driver holds the membership card over the card reader. Once this is done, the rental has ended. When returning the vehicle, the keys stay locked in the car.