Category: News

By Brian Cook

Transcript Reporter

The Board of Trustees set many different objectives for the year at its first meeting of the academic year last Friday.

One of the objectives set in the meeting, according to a statement to the faculty from university President Rock Jones is to increase retention rates and graduation rates, with a comprehensive report to be prepared for the Board meeting in May 2014.

In terms of facilities, the Board wants to start the restoration on Merrick Hall, as well as fundraise for the renovation of Edwards Gym and the Pfeiffer Building.

The Board officially passed a resolution to go forward with the restoration of Merrick Hall, with construction to begin in February.

Notably, no resolution was passed to fund the position of sustainability coordinator despite student protests.

However, Michael Long ’66, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, said he was pleased with the students who showed their support for sustainability. He said he also appreciated their respectful demeanor and their useful information on the issue.

The students held signs supporting a sustainability coordinator outside the Benes rooms in a demonstration during the Board of Trustees and Faculty dinner the previous evening.

Another talking point of the meeting was the need to improve student housing. According to Jones, the Board directed the administration to bring a plan to the winter meeting about implementing what the Board calls the “Student Housing Master Plan.” Some Board members recommended the administration consider debt as a way to finance the plan as quickly as possible.

The Board also charged the administration to consider how it distributed need-based aid versus merit-based aid.

“In the coming year, we will… (c)onsider the relationship between need-based and merit-based financial aid and the impacts of each on the composition of the student body and net tuition revenue,” Jones said.

The Board said it wants to improve technology on campus, and to that end they encouraged the administration to start a campus-wide conversation about the role of technology on campus.

They commended Rebecca Eckstein for her work as Vice President for University Enrollment and Communication. According to the Board, Eckstein plans on leaving the university in November.

To that end, Jones formally announced the hiring of Dave Wottle, Eckstein’s interim replacement, to university employees.

Wottle previously worked at Rhodes College for 27 years as Dean of Admission and Financial Aid. He also won a gold medal in the 800-meter run at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, tying a then-world record. He is the most recent American to win the gold medal in the Olympics in the 800-meter run.

Jones said the Board and he both agreed that the future at Ohio Wesleyan is bright.

“Clearly, we have an ambitious year ahead, and the Board commended all of you for helping to create such a wonderful beginning,” said Jones to the employees. “The Trustees also expressed their continuing faith—as do I—that together we can achieve our strategic objectives and establish OWU as an exemplar of liberal arts teaching and learning for this century—and those to come. As always, thank you for all you do that makes us distinctively Ohio Wesleyan.”

The Board also welcomed six new trustees at the meeting: Doreen DeLaney Crawley ’91, Jason Downey ’02, Kamila Goldin ’13, Rob Kail ’71, Jack Luikart ’71, and Frank Quinn ’78. Goldin is the class of 2013 Representative to the Board.

Additionally, the Board passed a measure that formalized how the university stores critical and non-critical documents.

“The Record Retention Policy is effective immediately, and all OWU employees are responsible for following its guidelines,” Jones said in a statement to employees. “The policy reflects good practice and also allows us to answer in the affirmative an important question on IRS Form 990.”

By Ellin Youse

A & E Editor

For centuries, humans have danced for their desires. We dance for rain, for harvest, for weddings, for coming of age ceremonies, for hope, and for support. As long as there have been human communities, there has been dance. Dance is a means of expression and often, an expression of longing. Last Saturday, the world danced out its longing for peace.

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, Earthdance came to Ohio Wesleyan to benefit Main Street Delaware for their work nurturing the Delaware community. There were nine featured performances, including one student group choreographed by senior Katie Sponseller.

Earthdance is a synchronized, multi-location dance celebration aimed at raising money and awareness for various charities. Beginning in 1996, the world’s first Earthdance began, and has since grown into a planetary dance party for peace by affiliating with various international peace events, organizations and companies.

Earthdance is held in over 600 locations in 80 countries and exhibits outdoor trance parties, destination music festivals, public gatherings, concerts, campouts, flashmobs and house parties all connected via social networking sites.  The goal is to allow the music and performance genres to represent their geographic homes, and thus an Earthdance performance can be anything from a belly dance to a dubstep concert.

Despite the diversity of the total Earthdance experience, it does incorporate a Global Link-Up. The events begin with a playing of the Prayer for Peace music track at the same time for all locations, something the Earthdance website calls “a profound moment of shared intention for peace.” The website explains that the link-up is an affirmation of peace on all levels from personal, family, community and nations.

Earthdance is an annual event that has taken place on September 21 for the past 12 years. September 21 is The United Nations Peace Day, a day devoted to commemorating and strengthening ideas of peace between peoples and nations. Earthdance aligned its mission with the U.N. in 1999, and has since partnered with local peace, sustainability or social justice charity to raise profits to support their work.

“After dancing in Earthdance last year I was really excited for the opportunity to choreograph,” Sponseller said. “There are so many talented and diverse groups that represent the movement that they love at Earth Dance. The idea of showing off some of our OWU dancers alongside these groups made choreographing an easy decision.”

Sponseller said it was Earthdance’s unique combination of community and diversity that inspired her while choreographing the dance.

“All of the student dancers that were in my piece represent a different aspect of OWU’s dance community whether they are involved in Orchesis, Terpsicorps, or they just love to dance,” Sponseller said.

On a grander scale, Sponseller said the vast range of cultural performances allows the event to give Delaware an impact that exceeds the social norms of small town Ohio.

“The variety in groups that come to perform is truly incredible,” Sponseller said. “Dancers of all levels are given the opportunity to show their interests and passions through dancing which is an important and beautiful concept throughout the world.”

Professor Rashana Smith said she is grateful that “our tiny town of Delaware” is able to house an event that represents global diversity.

“Earthdance is a real opportunity to think more broadly about the concepts of community,” Smith said. “Dance is about bringing people together, and since this is an event that could have played out in the big city of Columbus, it’s great that Delaware was chosen for its location.”

Sponseller agreed with Smith, saying the OWU and Delaware communities are lucky to hold the event each year.

“I think that holding Earth Dance at OWU is slightly surprising because it has the potential to be a huge event,” Sponseller said. “However, I think that it is great for the Delaware community to hold an event like this one and it also proves that dance is everywhere, not just in big cities.”

Israeli folk dancers, belly dancers, yoga and OWU students and professors all comprised the day’s events, but Sponseller said it was the dance of a local artist that captivated her most of all.

“My favorite dance was performed by Francine Butler who is a teacher at Hayes [high school],” Sponseller said. “She moved beautifully and gracefully, it was a true treat to be able to see her do what she loves.”

Smith said that the emphasis on individual movement represented in Earthdance is quintessential of what dance is in a historical and social perspective.

“Dance is something that not only fixates on self expression and, it brings people together,” Smith said. “I wish more students would participate in the event as it is such a huge opportunity, but I think those students who do perform gain an understanding of what it is like to contribute to something on a global scale.”

 

 

By Adelle Brodbeck

Transcript Reporter

The Ross Art Museumis currently displaying the work of Caleb Cain Marcus as a supplement to this year’s Sagan National Colloquium (SNC), the subject of which is global warming.

Marcus’s exhibit, titled “A Portrait of Ice,” provides an artistic perspective to the ongoing problem of climate change and how it has diminished the planet’s number of glaciers. His photographs were shot around the world and show the universality of the climate change problem.

The ten photographs in the exhibit showcase glaciers from five different countries: New Zealand, Argentina, Iceland, Norway and Alaska. Marcus said the contrast between city life and rural made him want to travel more and led him to photograph ice.

“I grew up in the mountains of Colorado; living in New York City caused me to miss the silence and emptiness of nature,” he said. “I traveled down to Patagonia and visited Perito Moreno, which sparked my interest and began the project.”

Marcus said the university previously approached him to present an exhibit and it worked out that his ice exhibit would coincide with the 2013 SNC.

Craig Jackson, part-time professor of mathematics, is co-directing the 2013 SNC with Professor of Botany Laurel Anderson. Jackson said they were lucky to have the opportunity to display Marcus’s work alongside the colloquium because it is usually much more difficult to bring an artist’s collection than it is to invite a speaker to appear.

“Justin Kronewetter (director of Ross Art Museum) has to start scheduling his exhibits very early due to all the logistics of getting large collections transported to and from the museum,” Jackson said. “Caleb’s work fit extremely well with the theme of this year’s colloquium and I give a lot of credit to Justin for bringing Caleb to OWU.”

Jackson said one of the major concerns in organizing this year’s colloquium was to demonstrate the universality of environmental issues.

“The message we hope to convey is that climate and climate change are important topics that all disciplines have a stake in addressing,” he said.

Also currently featured in the museum is painter and activist John Sabraw. Like Marcus, Sabraw focuses his art on nature, but with a different perspective.

According to his artist’s statement, his exhibit, “Luminous,”  “is constructed of four distinct, yet interrelated bodies of work. (He) looks for idiosyncratic connections between things, simultaneous macro and micro events, the compression of time and distance, the glory of our universe and natural and cosmological processes.”

Sabraw’s art explores various components of our natural world, from the smallest cells to the largest oceans. As part of his environmental activism, Sabraw used raw materials as a substitute for mass-produced paint products. Through his involvement in an Ohio sustainability group, Sabraw discovered a new way to create his paintings.

“(My sustainability group) toured the area of southern Ohio and I was struck by the local streams that are largely orange, red and brown as if a mud slide was happening further upstream,” he said. “I found out that these colors were mainly from iron oxide, the same raw materials used to make many paint colors, but this iron oxide was from polluted water from abandoned coal mines. I thought it would be fantastic to use this toxic flow to make paintings rather than with imported iron oxide from China.”

Sabraw utilized local natural resources to create paintings of vast river views and larger-than-life replications of tree leaves. Sabraw’s exhibit also features a piece titled “Unified Theory,” which is a digital print composed of hundreds of tiny photographs of various objects found in nature. From a distance the print appears to be just a giant colorful circle, but up close it is immediately apparent the overwhelming amount of photographs that went into the piece.

OWU Librarian Jillian Maruskin attended the exhibits’ opening. She said she was enthralled with Sabraw’s work.

“I was absolutely transfixed,” she said of Sabraw’s paintings. “To me they looked three dimensional and I wanted so badly to touch them.”

Maruskin said she was less intrigued by and conflicted over Marcus’s ice photographs.

“There were only two that I could look at for more than a few seconds,” she said. “They were unsettling, but I can’t explain why. Perhaps that was his intention.”

Caleb Cain Marcus’ exhibit, “A Portrait of Ice”, will be on display in the Ross Art Museum through Oct. 6 and the schedule of SNC speakers can be found at snc.owu.edu

By Elizabeth Childers

Transcript Correspondent

Editor’s Note: This story was written in May, and all attributed interviews were conducted in the spring. The story was published online in June, but The Transcript’s editorial staff feels it is still relevant to the campus community. Minor changes have been made to the original story to reflect its delayed print publication. To our knowledge, all the information published is still correct.

In 2010, when Ohio Wesleyan took over ownership of the fraternity houses on Williams Drive, it was decided that there needed to be an agreement between the fraternities, their alumni, Residential Life, campus foodservice provider Chartwells and groundskeeping and housekeeping provider Aramark on what each party would bring to the table to do the best for the university and the fraternity chapters.

This memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed then, and it was decided it would be up for revision every three years. The 2012-2013 academic year was the first year in which MOU was revised, and frustrations were high in the discourse between the university and the fraternities.

“It’s a common agreement on paper,” said Dana Behum, assistant director of Student Involvement for Fraternity and Sorority Life, about the MOU. “It’s not as binding as a contract, but it is an agreement from both parties…It is a partnership between the university and fraternities.  And that includes a lot of folks.”

Behum was the “in-between” person for the fraternities in their relations with the rest of the administration involved with the MOU. Wendy Piper, Director of Residential Life, said her department was involved in the original creation and in the revision.

“There is a change in the required occupancy level,” she said.  “The 2010 MOU stated chapters had three years—until spring 2013—to reach 80 percent occupancy. The revised MOU states chapters must reach 85 percent occupancy by spring 2015 and 90 percent occupancy by spring 2017.  There is also a change for those chapters who elect to have the university operate their kitchens, which allows chapters more options. The revised MOU allows chapters to decide if they want all of their meals to be provided in the house, if they want a combination of in-house meals and on-campus food points, or if they want to close their kitchens and have members choose one of the existing on-campus meal plans.”

Should a fraternity chapter on campus who currently has a house is unable to meet the occupancy requirement by the deadlines set, they are at risk of losing their house to other housing options on campus who may be able to fill those houses. Behum said in that event, the fraternity can petition to stay in its house because they are not guaranteed housing in that specific house the next year.  As of spring 2013, two fraternity houses had to submit petitions to ResLife, and both have been permitted to continue living in their respective houses.

“They say, ‘We would like to petition to remain in our facility’ and Residential Life comes back and says, ‘Please share your plan to recruit more or how do you plan to correct this,’” Behum said about the petition process. “So they have a full calendar year to reach the occupancy level….They have to have a plan on paper to achieve it in the next year.”

Behum said it was not the university’s intent to remove the fraternities from their houses, because they would then have to fill them with random students. The goal, she said, was to keep the houses both filled and still in the hands of the fraternities.

Other sections of the MOU deal with how Buildings and Grounds responds to issues in the house and renovations to the house. It also outlines how the fraternity houses are cleaned.

“The gentlemen on campus asked for a lot more detail regarding cleaning the house…,” Behum said. “They requested more detail and solidity in when B&G would be responsible for repairs like a broken window or mold in the basement.”

Behum said some fraternities were more concerned with the B&G section than others.  For example, one fraternity house had sewage leaking into its kitchen—which has been taken care of—and needed other remodeling and adjustments in April. Other concerns included cracking foundations and other plumbing issues.

“The common theme our men are unhappy with is the turnaround time with large projects which need to be fixed,” Behum said.

Fraternity reactions, according to Piper, varied by the chapter and the section of the MOU they had questions about.

“The occupancy level has surfaced as a concern; however, chapters that have historically demonstrated higher occupancy seem to have found this change less objectionable than those that have struggled with occupancy,” she said. “They also seem to appreciate that occupancy will be calculated on a three year rolling average, which will allow chapters to recover from (a) ‘lean’ semester of membership. Chapters that continue to self-operate their kitchen seem overall pleased to continue to have that option.”

Behum said the hike in the house occupancy is part of a campus-wide initiative to bring OWU to full capacity. Piper said it’s a goal to use residential facilities on campus to the best of abilities.

“As a residential campus, our goal is to make use of all residential facilities on campus, and for many years the fraternity houses had occupancies that were low,” Piper said. “Under the 2010 MOU, the chapters were given three years to reach a level of occupancy equal to at least 80 percent, which we felt was a reasonable goal given that their combined average occupancy (in 2009-2010) was about 66 percent. The expectation under the revised MOU aims to bring the fraternities to an occupancy level comparable to other university residences, which has been between 93 to 96 percent over the past five or so years.”

Behum said because fraternities were not filling their houses, “the document challenged them to put emphasis on recruitment.”

She said the fraternity chapters on campus as a whole met the 80 percent occupancy goal fairly quickly, and many of them exceeded it since the original MOU was signed.

The MOU revisions also dealt with events such as the 2012 Delta Tau Delta fire that were not addressed in the original agreement.

“…Some of the actions that were taken as a result of the fire, which had not been explicitly stated in the 2010 MOU, were incorporated into the MOU to guide future actions,” Piper said. “For example, after the fire, Residential Life relocated the residents and made a concerted effort to keep them located in close proximity to one another wherever possible so that we were not in effect dissolving their community. The MOU now states that in the event of a disaster or emergency that requires students to relocate, the university will work to provide a living arrangement where chapter members are grouped as reasonably as possible.”

Behum said in her experience, the MOU is more of an open dialogue between the university and the fraternities.

“Although it may not be a perfect agreement and my not reach everyone’s needs, it is a living document that we revisit now every four years instead of three…,” she said. “If men are upset (though) we can open the document again…(I)t’s to regulate communications between the university and the fraternities.”

Behum also said there are disadvantages to the MOU in that it can be difficult for all sides to be heard conversations around it can be difficult to have.

“There are fraternities who are having a difficult time getting a response for projects that need to be dealt with, and what better way than to talk about it frequently, get all the right people in the room and get things in motion,” she said. “While there may be disadvantages to different groups…but ultimately it is a positive.”

Some OWU fraternity brothers were frustrated by what the MOU revisions. A member of one house involved in listing the revisions the chapters wanted said he felt their voices weren’t really heard or considered during the final decision. Even though many of the fraternities were not satisfied, they felt they had no choice to sign it, since refusal would give the university the right to remove them from their houses. The member requested not to be identified for fear of himself as an individual or his fraternity being singled out.

“The first time the MOU was drafted and signed, the fraternities were very apprehensive about it, but they signed in good faith,” he said. “On paper it sounded great: the school would take care of the houses and provide everything, cleaning services…However, over the past couple years it really hasn’t been done to the best of the school’s ability.”

One example he gave of the school falling short on their promises was on the renovations and plans promised three years ago. He said despite the plans to extensively renovate the houses, in reality the renovations executed were small, inconsequential things compared to the major issues the houses had. Where a house was having large and costly foundational or plumbing issues, the university would instead tear out lofts, replace old locks in the building or paint and consider those renovations, rather than dealing with the larger issues in a timely manner.

He said in the case of the plumbing issue, which eventually caused a sewage line break in Alpha Sigma Phi, the school is only now being forced to deal with it since it is considered a hazardous living condition. Another house was facing similar problems with its plumbing.

“Each house has their own unique problems, and the school really hasn’t done anything to fix them,” he said.

The fraternity member said there were some tensions over the occupancy level for each house.  The fraternities are concerned about the 90 percent occupancy because of how recruitment fluctuates.

“There was no real compromise with that, and it is frustrating because this is supposed to be a negotiation between two parties, but we’re kind of being forced into a corner because if we hadn’t signed by the deadline, the school had the right to take all our houses away, and that wasn’t something we wanted to risk,” he explained.

He said the only real compromise was the three year average for the 90 percent occupancy, even though they’re not quite sure how that will work in 2017.

The member said the decision to move the revisions from every three years to every four also put the fraternities at a disadvantage. Behum said many of the fraternity men weren’t apart or even on campus at the time of the MOU’s creation, and many of their complaints could come from the fact they see it as new information since they never had to deal with it before. Now, however, any student involved with any MOU revision will be unable to be involved in the one previous and the one after, making continuity in understanding what revisions should be requested very difficult for the houses.

“We wanted to keep it at three, so the freshmen now would have an understanding of what we went through, so they would have something to base their arguments on later,” he said. “But now, with the revision every four years, that’s not really possible.”

Though alumni of the fraternities were involved through the Alumni Inter-Fraternal Council (IFC), the fraternity member said undergraduate members didn’t have enough time to fully understand the MOU.

“We kind of knew about it—we had a draft, but we didn’t have the opportunity to argue our case,” he said. “The person we really were able to talk to was Dana (Behum).”

Fraternity members were only directed to speak with Behum and were not given the opportunity to meet with those who had the power to discuss and make changes to the MOU.

“They kind of just put on a play, saying we had a month to review it, and then never talked to us about it,” he said. “Then, a week before the deadline, they contacted us, saying, ‘Don’t forget to sign it.’”

The member said at that point the fraternity presidents got together, requested one more week to suggest revisions, and then went through the MOU line by line and listed the changes they wished to make. When they submitted the changes, they were not considered and the presidents were forced to sign because of the deadline.

“Collectively, all the fraternities didn’t want to sign, including the alumni, but we were kind of forced to,” he said. “It just comes back to the fact the school has the upper hand.”

The fraternity member said the Alumni IFC met with the university about those changes and the alumni from his chapter said they tried to make the same suggestions on behalf of the students, but the university administration still did not change the MOU.

“Students were allowed to go to the first two (MOU meetings), but then students were no longer allowed to go any more,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to argue things that affect every day life when you don’t have the perspective of someone living in the house every day. The alumni know about the huge problems but they don’t know about things like they’re not cleaning our bathrooms or picking up the trash or not taking care of things that break—things that happen every day.”

He said there was one person at the meetings representing all of the fraternities, but since it was really only one perspective and one voice, it wasn’t really heard in the decision making process.

The member said while the fraternity presidents were arguing against the changes made, they all became rather close and “a united front against a single enemy.”

“Most of the fraternities don’t like what’s going on at all,” he said. “No major negotiations were actually made.  It was more of the school saying, ‘This is what’s going to happen.’”

As to food plans, the brother said the university was trying to direct all the fraternities to use Chartwells.  The fraternities were able to decide whether or not to keep their kitchens under a separate contract—three of them have outside contracts with companies who supply them with chefs—or use Chartwells. But the MOU says that particular section can be revised annually, “meaning we’ll have to fight every year to keep our own kitchens.”

The fraternity member also said he was unsure why the university would continue with an MOU not really agreed upon by the fraternities when a large portion of donated money from alumni come from former members of the fraternities on campus.

He said the Greek alumni money is divided a certain way—80 percent to the houses and 20 percent to the university to use as it sees fit. He said he felt 20 percent should’ve gone to preventive measures in the house, such as the sewage or foundational problems, before they became an immediate living hazard. However, he said, the university refused to release their financial records of that money in light of all the renovations that haven’t been made.

“Why would you piss us off when all the money you’re getting is from our alumni?” he said.

By Sadie Slager

Transcript Reporter

Some students interpret the phrase “home away from home” a little more literally when their sibling joins them at Ohio Wesleyan.

Lucas and Lauren Janowicz, siblings from Toledo, Ohio, said they like being at the same school because they are able to spend more time together.

Lauren, a junior, said it’s been “amazing” having her brother at OWU with her so far this year.

“College is so much fun with my little brother here,” she said.  “And it’s also really comforting to have family here on campus after being here on my own for two years.”

Lucas, a freshman, said it was just a coincidence that he and his sister ended up at the same school.

“I’m a basketball player, so I was probably going to come here anyway, but her love of the university made it all the more desirable,” he said. “It’s nice having someone to show me the ropes.”

One thing the Janowicz siblings have in common is that they both play varsity sports at OWU. Lauren is on the women’s lacrosse team and Lucas will play in his first season with the men’s basketball team this winter.

Lauren, a member of Delta Delta Delta, said Lucas is planning on getting involved in Greek life as well, but they maintain their own unique interests.

“We both have our different strengths,” she said.

Lucas and Lauren agreed that attending the same school has been a positive factor in their lives.

“We can help each other when we need it and it’s nice that we can stay close,” Lauren said.

“It’s just nice to have someone to rely on at all times,” Lucas added.

Senior Anne Frissora said she feels as though she has gained a new best friend at OWU since her sister Talia started classes this year. Anne and Talia are from Westerville, Ohio.

“Now that my sister is here with me, I feel like I have another friend on campus to hang out with, grab lunch, study or whatever else we want to do,” she said.

Anne said she and Talia didn’t initially plan on attending the same school, but she knew OWU would be a good place for her sister.

“When my sister began to look at options for college I was a big advocate of OWU because of how much I love it here and I wanted her to have the same great college experience that I am having,” she said.

Talia, a sophomore transfer student, said choosing OWU was a “last minute decision.” Talia said while her sister had some influence on her choosing OWU, she felt like it was just where she was meant to go to school.

“I knew I was going to do my freshman year at Columbus State and at first I thought I was going to transfer to Ohio Dominican, Mount Union or Ashland University,” she said. “I always had OWU in the back of my head and when it came down to the time I needed to decide where I wanted to go I decided on OWU because (it’s) so close to my actual home. Also my mom works here, so the tuition was going to be better than any other school.”

Anne said she and Talia have different academic and extracurricular interests.

“My sister is majoring in sociology and I’m a history major, so we have different interests and are taking different classes,” she said.

Talia said having Anne at the same school makes her feel more at home.

“I feel a little bit more comfortable being in a place away from home knowing I have someone there to help me if anything bad were to happen,” she said. “Also it’s good to have her around if I have a question about a class or a professor because I know she wouldn’t sugarcoat anything.”

She said the best part of having her older sister at OWU is knowing she has someone who “has her back” while she’s away from home.

“If I needed something because I was having a bad day, or needed advice it’s pretty cool to be able to just walk down the street to talk to my sister,” she said.

Anne said having her younger sister at school with her makes it easier for them to spend time together.

“It’s much easier to hang out and catch up like we do at home,” she said. “Although we are both busy with class and extracurricular activities, it’s easy to make time to see each other now that we are on the same campus.”

Senior Katherine Watson said she hasn’t fully felt the impact of her younger brother, Patrick, being on campus because she is abroad this semester and it is his first year here.

“I was, however, at OWU for the first week of school with Patrick and it changed my experience,” she said. “I felt a responsibility for his well-being and happiness, which influenced my decisions.”

The Watsons hail from Independence, Ohio. Katherine said she is ultimately “very happy” her brother chose to join her at OWU.

“This has been my home with friends for three years and it’s very separate from my home with my family, but now the two have kind of merged,” she said.

Her brother will make his OWU experience unique from hers, Katherine said.

“We have really different interests academically, so I’m sure he will carve out a very different path than the one I have,” she said.

 

Katherine said she looks forward to seeing her brother on campus when she returns for spring semester.

“I think it will be cool to see him in this new element,” she said.  “And also I suppose if there’s ever something I want to talk about that only family would understand, it would be comforting that he’s so close.”

Senior Martin Clark said while he was sure he wanted to come to OWU, his twin brother Malcolm was initially “on the fence,” but it worked out well that they ended up at the same place.

“It’s always nice to have a familiar face around, especially because we’ve been together for so long,” he said.

Clark said he and his brother have pretty similar passions and participate in the same types of extracurricular activities. While Martin studies politics and government and Spanish, Malcolm majors in politics and government and English. Martin is president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs and Malcolm is president of the Interfraternity Council.

Martin said he and Malcolm have a younger sister who has not started the college search process yet, so it is unclear whether or not she will make OWU her college choice.

For senior Tim O’Keeffe, having his younger sister Claire, a freshman, at the same school as him allows them to share new adventures together.

“It is also great because when you are at home you can try to describe your friends or your school as much as you want, but you can never do it enough justice, so I am glad she is also experiencing first hand all of the stories I have tried to relay to her,” he said.

O’Keeffe said that while he and Claire never planned on coming to the same school, he is glad to have his sister here to be able to spend more time together.

“I think the best part is having another shared connection, and at home we are always on different schedules,” he said.

Claire said once she saw OWU for herself, she realized it would be the right place for her too.

“At first I was against coming here because he was here, but when I experienced it for myself I fell in love with it,” she said. “I knew it would help having him here and having that person that I know I can always go to.”

Claire said she and her brother have different OWU experiences because of their involvement in a variety of clubs and organizations.

“He is more involved with student government and I am more involved with Sisters United and SHO,” she said.

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

“Battling” isn’t usually the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word “Bishop”—unless you go to Ohio Wesleyan.

Coined in 1925, the term “Battling Bishop” was the winning nickname selected through a contest held by the Phi Delta Epsilon journalism fraternity. Prior to that, OWU sports teams were called “The Red and Black,” or “The Methodists,” according to the athletics department’s website.

Director of Athletics Roger Ingles said he likes the Battling Bishop a lot.

“It gives a sense of history of the Methodist relationship of the college and it evokes a tone of a feisty athletic team,” he said.

Cole Hatcher, director of media and community relations, said the name is “definitely the opposite of ordinary.”  He said he finds it interesting to see where OWU ranks in the polls “that look at unique school mascots.”

“In 2012, Chester Cheetah included OWU among Cheetos’ Top 25 Cheesiest Mascots,” he said. “We were No. 6. We lost to the Fighting Pickle of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.”

The August 26, 2010, issue of the Connect2OWU newsletter talked about the change in the Bishop costume. The article said that the new Bishop would have a “more determined expression.”

Hatcher said the current Bishop is a “little more buff than some of his predecessors, representing his tie to the OWU athletic program.” He said the mascot used to be more “friendly-looking” to appeal to children.

“As someone who has escorted the Bishop at events aimed at children, I understand that logic,” he said. “But OWU sports fans wanted a more determined Bishop, and we tried to meet that need.”

Ingles said then-President Tom Courtice bought the original costume. The friendlier successor was purchased during Mark Huddleston’s presidency, and the current Bishop came after the inauguration of University President Rock Jones.

Senior Jake Stang, quarterback for the Bishops football team, said the costume makes him proud to be a Battling Bishop.

“Our mascot is different, so I like it a lot,” he said.

Freshman Trenton Williams said when he initially heard about OWU’s mascot he found it funny, but he likes it because it’s red, his favorite color.

However, for senior Olivia Gillison, a member of the swimming and diving teams, the “Battling Bishop” is a strange notion. She said she had never really thought of the Bishop as a mascot before.

“Most sports teams have some type of animal or bird (or the like) as their mascot because there’s a sense of symbolism behind that animal,” she said. “Here as a battling bishop the mascot has never really taken on a meaning for me. He’s just been a figure used for promotion.”

Gillison said she is glad to have had the opportunity to be a Battling Bishop and represent OWU throughout the NCAC conference. But she said the role is “something I’ll just have to accept and perhaps never really understand.”

The Bishop is usually seen at most OWU sports games and events such as the Day on the Jay that bring the whole community together.  Hatcher also said he arranges for the Bishop to be at the Main Street Delaware’s “Mascot Madness” First Friday celebration.

“The event brings mascots together from lots of local/regional organizations to meet the community, take pictures, give hugs and high-fives,” he said. “It’s always a lot of fun.”

Ingles said the criteria behind selecting who gets to be the Bishop is simple: willingness to do it.

“We look for students who want to play the Bishop, have a good sense of humor, likes to entertain and who often will entertain more when no one knows who they are versus people knowing it is them,” he said.

Senior Jordan Grammer said he served as the Bishop during his freshman year.

“It always looked cool on TV, and I had a lot of school spirit freshman year,” he said. “Best part was hanging out with cheerleaders and the worst part was the constant heat, no pay, I couldn’t use the Facebook page and I couldn’t tell people who I was.”

Nancy Bihl Rutkowski, assistant director of Student Involvement, said the committee is currently in the process of making a lot of changes to the selection process of who gets to serve as the Bishop. She said it is usually done very informally, but in about a month’s time she will be able to give more information on it after the changes take affect.

Hatcher said if he had to come up with another mascot for OWU, he likes the sound of the “Ohio Wesleyan Warriors.”

Ingles said he wouldn’t want to be anything but a Battling Bishop.

“I was once a worthless nut (Buckeye) and the Bishop has way more meaning,” he said.

By Sara Schneider

Transcript Correspondent

Talk to the Hand, Ohio Wesleyan’s American Sign Language club, gives students the ability to learn a skill not offered in a class.

During the meetings, students have the opportunity to learn about deaf culture and expand their signing abilities.

In addition to weekly meetings, the group attends interpretive plays where the actors use ASL as a part of their production.  Other events include Sign and Talk Happy Hours and a Silent Weekend. The happy hour is an event where members go out to eat and use their sign language as much as possible. The Silent Weekend is a camping trip where the students cannot talk until the last day of the trip.

Silent lunches take place once a week in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

Senior Thomas Liwosz, the club’s president, said members “tell stories through signing, learn songs and learn about deaf culture” during meetings. They also go over the ASL alphabet and numbers.

Liwosz, who has been the president for the past two years, said his involvement with the club came out of a desire to build on the base knowledge of sign language he had when he came to OWU.

Sophomore Emma Weber said she wanted to learn ASL, but it wasn’t offered at her high school.  She said she likes being able to sign because you can communicate with a wider range of people.

Liwosz said the club has helped him improve his signing abilities and expand his knowledge and appreciation for the deaf community. Ten to 15 students attend the meetings every week, though more students have expressed interest in the club.

Liwosz said he wants the university to “bring signing classes to campus and (make them) available for students to take for a language credit.”

According to the ASL website, “the role of deaf culture in society might come as a surprise to the hearing world”—the language is the third-most used in the country.

The club meets once a week from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday in the Willa B. Player Black Resource Center in Stuyvesant Hall.

By Rachel Vinciguerra

Foreign Correspondent

People in Pune, India, support the recent death penalty verdict for the defendants of the Dehli rape case, but don’t believe punishment alone will solve larger problems of violence against women in India.

On Dec. 16, 2012, a 23-year old physiotherapy student and her boyfriend boarded a bus in the Indian capital of New Delhi after seeing the movie, “The Life of Pi.”

Behind the tinted windows of the bus, five drunk men from the Ravidass Camp slum beat the boyfriend and raped and tortured the 23-year old student for just under an hour as the bus made several stops en route to the Delhi International Airport.

After 45 minutes the couple was thrown out of the moving bus onto the side of the road where they were later discovered.

Although the 23-year old student was quickly transported to a hospital in Singapore, she suffered extreme internal injuries and died two weeks later. Her name is being withheld for legal reasons but the Indian press refers to her as Nirbhayaa, a Hindi word for “fearless”.

Anurekha Chari Wagh, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pune, said this case is not unique in India and it is not the first time such a case has mobilized the population to demand an end to violence against women. She said what was unique and “astonishing” was the media attention

“I think the trigger was the torture and use of metal instruments to hurt (the girl) and the fact this was happening when the bus was travelling all over Delhi,” she said. “People wanted a catalyst to challenge the complacency of the government and this incident just rocked them.”

Rajeev Shah, a Pune resident, agreed that the crime itself wasn’t exceptional, but its treatment by the public was.

“Because it happened in the capital city and because the girl was on her way to becoming a doctor it became a very high profile case,” he said.

According to the New York Times, a typical rape case tried in India could take as long as nine years, but because of the international attention this case garnered, the verdict was reached in nine months.

Chari Wagh said the case moved so quickly because of the media attention it drew. She said similar cases are not often treated the same way.

“(We) need to recognize that there are many such gruesome cases present in fast track court which run into the thousands where justice has not been delivered,” she said.

On Friday, Sept. 12, the Times of India reported the punishment for the four remaining adult defendants of the Dehli case: Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Sing.

Yogesh Khanna, Saket district court judge, sentenced the four men to death by hanging as punishment for a crime, which he said “shocked the collective conscious of India.”

The verdict must still be confirmed by India’s High Court and the defendants may appeal the case to the Supreme Court or ask the president for clemency before the sentence will be final.

The fifth surviving defendant, 17 at the time of the crime, has been sentenced to the maximum of three years imprisonment warranted for a juvenile. Now the Indian Supreme Court will reexamine whether juvenility can be determined on a case-by-case basis and evaluated according to the defendant’s maturity level and the severity of the crime.

“The verdict should have been stronger for all involved,” Shah said. “And the juvenile should have gotten the same treatment. I think the court is recognizing that now.”

Priyanka Khair, a 22-year-old Pune resident, said the judge delivered an appropriate punishment for the four adults but worries the death penalty will not change deep-seeded problems of violence against women in India.

“The punishment won’t change the situation,” Khair said. “Basic morals should be stronger and women should be treated as equals.”

A woman asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of this topic in India agreed that violence against women in India is a complex problem, but said she thinks the punishment may be the first step towards a solution.

“I’m against killing,” she said. “But I wonder now what is the right way. There has to be much more fear. And in some ways I think killing will help because it will create fear. But, of course, only one thing will not solve the problem. It has to be a lot of things together.”

Chari Wagh said the verdict may encourage more women to report assaults but she does not believe the verdict will deter future crimes against women.

“The people who commit crimes will now kill women so that they won’t be able to testify,” she said. “Fast and effective dealing in court is important, but most crucially I think we have to address the patriarchal set up, which means dealing with schools and education systems.”

Chari Wagh said only education would change traditional perceptions of rape in India.

“There’s this idea that ‘good girls’ do not get raped in India, and if you get raped you are not a ‘good girl,’” she said.

Because of this perception, Chari Wagh said, women are usually given some or all of the responsibility for violent crimes committed against them.

Both Khair and the anonymous source said women’s actions could play a role in the violence inflicted on them in India.

“There were problems on both sides of this case,” Khair said. “Women should be respected physically and emotionally, but the girl and her boyfriend shouldn’t have boarded the bus in Dehli with tinted glass.”

The anonymous source said that have to take precautions to ensure their safety in India today.

“The most important thing women can do is dress decently because they know what kind of people are outside,” she said. “People think they can do anything they want today. They see a girl and think she’s free property.”

Because of perceptions like this, Shah said he doesn’t think the verdict of the Dehli case will curb future violence against women in India.

“The public memory is too short,” he said. “This will surely also be forgotten.”

Shah said he knows these incidents are occurring across the country and very few are going to press. He said he worries things are getting worse rather than better.

“I have a daughter and I feel things are becoming more unsafe for (girls) to move around safely in cities,” he said.

It should be noted that Shah’s views on the case are liberal from the perspective of men in India. A male hotel employee in Mumbai was asked to comment on the case and declined the interview, claiming he had not heard of the Dehli rape. Shah was the only male who agreed to take part in an interview on the subject.

The anonymous source said although she doesn’t think the death penalty alone will stop violence against women, she hopes it will have some impact.

“These men need to be shamed so that women do not continue to be harassed, so they feel safe being on a train,” she said. “Something has to scare them.”

By Noah Manskar

Editor-In-Chief

Ohio Wesleyan’s top administrators proposed several “conversations” about the university’s future at the Sept. 16 faculty meeting.

One major issue was student retention. In his report to the faculty, University President Rock Jones said retention from the first to second year is the lowest it’s been in six years, down from 83 percent to 80.1 percent. Second-to-third year retention increased 3.5 percent from 71.2 percent to 74.7 percent; but third-to-fourth year retention underwent the largest change, decreasing 4.3 percent from 71.5 percent to 67.2 percent.

Jones said the administration has started a data analysis initiative headed by Dean of Institutional Research Dale Swartzentruber to “understand the characteristics” of students who left. Administrators are also testing a “student success guides” program to help students get involved, gain “better awareness” of their academic struggles and increase intervention with those on academic probation.

Provost Charles Stinemetz said he and his office aim to provide “necessary support” for student success to improve retention.

“We do that by offering special programs that contribute to academic success and support bringing our campus community together as a community through a variet(y) of venues (lectures, performances, athletic events, etc.),” he said in an email.

Senior Erika Kazi, who attended the meeting as the chair of the Wesleyan Council of Student Affairs’s Academic Affairs Committee, said she thought the administration’s public reports on the retention problem didn’t address its central issues. She said she will take the retention figures to WCSA so it can work on its own solutions.

“It didn’t seem like it was a big deal to them, and I think it should be a big concern, especially if—they threw this word out a lot and it really grinds my gears—if you’re trying to build a sustainable institution…,” she said. “You can’t just add more infrastructure if you want to keep students on campus. You have to find out what the dividing cause is.”

Kazi said her experience dealing with the administration through WCSA indicates building a “full campus community” isn’t a priority for the university, which she thinks damages retention. She cited the absence of a SpringFest event last year as evidence.

“When students don’t have an opportunity to celebrate with all other students, they start to look at other schools who do, and that’s when they’re like, ‘This sucks,’” she said.

Kazi said she thought the faculty meeting was less open and more hierarchical than WCSA proceedings. She left early because “everyone looked really bored” and she “just kept rolling (her) eyes at everything.”

Kazi also said she noticed a departmental “segregation” among the faculty, which she thinks isn’t conducive to academic or institutional unity.

“I feel like our education should be integrated, so our faculty should be integrated across disciplines…,” she said. “In reality, we’re just going through the motions.”

Jones also reported statistics about the new freshman class.

The class of 2017, he said, has a lower academic profile than its predecessor. The average SAT score is down 28 points from 1151 to 1123.

The class is more diverse—28.3 percent of the 572 new students are domestic multicultural, up 5.55 percent from last year and 10.8 percent from 2011.

With this demographic shift came changes in the incoming class’s financial aid profile. While Jones said many multicultural students come from families with fewer resources and require more aid, the tuition discount—the average university financial aid as a percentage of tuition—decreased just over one percent from the previous year to 60.9 percent.

Additionally, net tuition revenue increased $477,000 and the university received $6,423,000 in cash donations to the endowment over the summer. Both funding areas provide part of the financial aid pool.

OWU’s tuition discount in the 2010-2011 academic year was the second-highest among a list of 40 comparable schools, according to data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the National Center for Education Statistics. Jones said the current discount remains one of the highest among peer institutions, which means the university has fewer funds for programs other institutions can more easily afford, like a sustainability coordinator.

To Jones, the question of how to balance the university’s “obligation” to help students who need financial aid and attract good students with scholarships with its other budgetary needs is crucial.

“I wouldn’t want to have a zero percent discount because that would mean we’re not helping needy students,” he said. “Now, our discount is too high, but where it really ought to be—that’s a good question.”

In his report Jones said he wants a conversation about the “values” of OWU’s financial aid structure, which he said has prioritized merit scholarships over need-based aid for the past 30 years.

“The question is, do we continue to do that in order to attract the best students possible, or do we feel an obligation to meet more of the need of our neediest students so they don’t have to have as much debt?” he said in an interview. “And ultimately it’s a balance, but the question is, where is the balance for us?”

In her report as chair of the Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, Barbara MacLeod said there had been such a conversation between her committee and the administration. She said they discussed giving more need-based aid to the second and third tier of financial aid recipients in order to admit more students and decrease the discount rate.

Student housing and facilities were another major focus of Jones’s report. He said housing is over capacity everywhere but fraternity houses, for which he commended Director of Residential Life Wendy Piper.

Jones said the “dirty little secret” of OWU’s housing structure is that it historically hasn’t reinvested room revenue into residential maintenance, which has allowed between $50 million and $60 million in deferred costs to accumulate. He advocated ending this strategy.

He also said the administration has launched a capital campaign to fund the Edwards Gym renovation and other facility repairs. The university has consulted with Mackie Mitchell, an architectural firm from St. Louis specializing in student facilities, to develop a scheme for completing the Student Housing Master Plan, a long-term renovation project. Jones said a preliminary report from the firm would come this week; the final report will be presented to the Board of Trustees early next month, but the Board won’t take action on it.

An overarching theme of Jones’s and Stinemetz’s reports was the challenges OWU faces as a liberal arts institution.

Jones listed nine external factors the university needs to consider in order to sustain itself; among them were the changing role of technology in education, decreasing funds from the government and individual families and a shift toward learning through hands-on experience like internships and study abroad.

According to Jones, the changing profiles of high school graduating classes is another major factor OWU will face in planning for its future. “Knocking at the College Door,” a 2012 report by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, found high schools will produce fewer graduates in the coming years.

Additionally, the classes’ racial demographics have a propensity for diversity. The report predicts the number of white graduates produced between the 2008-2009 and 2019-2020 academic years will decrease by 12 percent, while 41 percent more Hispanic students, 30 percent more Asian and Pacific islander students and “just under two percent” more American Indian and Alaska native students will graduate. The number of black graduates is projected to decrease by nine percent.

Jones said he thinks OWU’s readiness for increasingly diverse classes will be crucial to its success, as it will be for its peers.

“Certainly schools who are not very welcoming to multicultural students are going to have a very difficult time, and Ohio Wesleyan’s in a very good position there,” he said in an interview.

The administrators also said the public perception of a liberal arts education’s value is declining. Stinemetz attributed this to students’ and families’ desire to ensure a college education is economically valuable job training, which he said is “understandable.”

“In the liberal arts we provide people with the necessary intellectual skills to succeed in a number of professions,” he said in an email. “So, to some it may seem like we aren’t directly training the person for any job, but on closer examination we are providing them with something more important the ability to succeed in life.”

Charlie Ross, interim director of Counseling Services, updated the faculty on changes to his office.

Ross came out of retirement from his position at Oberlin College to head Counseling Services while the university conducts a search to replace former director Colleen Cook, who left in August for a position with Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Mass. Full-time counselor Eric Johnson also left to work at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Ross said the Counseling Services structure has changed to accommodate immediate, short-term needs and eliminate the wait list. Students with long-term needs will be referred to outside clinicians rather than receive treatment within the university.

Ross said he used this model at Oberlin—the office there “had a lot of business,” but couldn’t take care of everyone. He said OWU’s previous model was “not sustainable.”

“If we try to do everything in the counseling center, we will not give everyone the level of care (they need),” he said at the meeting.

In his time at Oberlin, Ross said, he recruited private counselors to open practices in the area so his office could refer students to them. In his experience, most university counseling doesn’t require long-term therapy, but some students do come with “significant” mental health histories and need more care.

The faculty committees followed Jones, Stinemetz and Ross to report their news to the faculty and administrators.

Faculty Secretary Thomas Wolber led elections for open committee positions. Professor of Religion Blake Michael was elected to the Academic Policy Committee; Ramon Carreno, associate professor of zoology, won a position on the Reappointment Appeals Committee; and Professor of Psychology Richard Leavy was elected to the Faculty-Trustee Liaison Committee.

Chris Wolverton, chair of the Committee on University Governance (UGC), said there is a “high need” for faculty involvement in conversations on retention, financial aid, facility renovations, the upcoming capital campaign and other major issues.

Wolverton said UGC will hold office hours twice a month to address questions from faculty. He also said the committee will now receive more timely budget information after meeting with Jones and Dan Hitchell, vice president for finance and administration and treasurer.

Fielding a question from Professor of History Michael Flamm,Wolverton said the university’s health care plan is in a “good position” to meet new coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act, according to the school’s insurance broker. The ACA will will begin implementation in January of 2014.

Dale Brugh, chair of the Faculty Personnel Committee, said FPC met over the summer and produced an “ideal system” for faculty evaluation, which he said is not the “consensus” of the committee but is “appropriate to discuss.” The document will be released for faculty feedback.

Brugh said FPC has a new website with all relevant public information about the current personnel system. He also announced part-time faculty can be considered for promotion if qualified, whether they teach both semesters or only one.

By Hannah Urano

Copy Editor

Health and human kinetics courses are integrating new technology into their classes, allowing students to get first-hand experience with fitness and health monitoring wristbands.

In the Exercise Perception course, taught by Nancy Knop, students were split into groups of four and given two bracelets to use throughout the assignment.

According to Knop, each student gathered at least two days of their own data, and will later use it to examine trends, and subsequently share their data with fellow students.

“Students will have the opportunity to research all devices relative to marketing, intended purposes, nature of the device, connectivity of the devise to different apps, embedded logic for motivation for client (i.e. notices that you have not moved in the last hour), ease of use, cost and so on,” she said.

Junior Krisite Prendergast said the goal of the assignment was to “research fitness applications and also fitness devices to find what they do, what they track and their strengths and weaknesses so we can compare them to see which is the best device out there.”

Prendergast said she used the Jawbone UP bracelet, which tracked “pretty much everything.”

The unisex wristbands come in an assortment of colors and look inconspicuous on the wearer.

According to the Jawbone website, “UP is a system that that takes a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. The wristband tracks your movement and sleep in the background. The app displays your data, lets you add things like meals and mood and delivers insights the keep you moving forward.”

Prendergast said her wristband had a battery life of ten days and was water resistant.

“It will tell you how long you were active or sedentary, how many miles you walked and how many calories you burned,” she said.
According the Prendergast, the most impressive aspect of the wristband was that it could track sleep.

“It keeps track of how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up, and how many hours you were in light or deep sleep,” she said. “On top of that, the bracelet is set so that it can wake you up at the best time in the morning or from an afternoon nap.”

Senior Casey Helms is also taking Exercise Perception. Helms used the FitBit Flex, which has similar features to the Jawbone UP.

“FitBit Flex has so many great features; these include tracking steps, distance travelled, minutes of intense activity and calories burned,” he said. “It even has a vibrating alarm that I used every night to wake me up in the morning. The best part is, these bands sync with a smartphone wirelessly via the Bluetooth feature. Having the bracelet on is a great way to stay motivated and aware of daily physical activity.”

Based on her personal results, Prendergast said she was surprised to learn how many steps she takes in a day.

“I always thought I was pretty sedentary throughout the day because of classes, but I never realized how much I actually did walk from when I go to class, in between classes or at soccer,” she said. “It was surprising to see that I walked over 12,000 steps a day.”

According to Helms, it is recommended that individuals get at least 10,000 steps per day to improve bone health and reduce the risk for many diseases.

Like Prendergast, Helms said he exceeded this amount, but said he initially believed his number should have been even higher since he exercises for several hours each day.

“However, I thought about it and it makes sense considering as students, we attend several hours of classes daily, as well as spend significant time doing homework,” he said.

Both Helms and Prendergast agreed that this technology could be useful in everyday life and that the benefits are applicable to the average person.

“From a de-conditioned person to a health-conscious athlete, this bracelet can show people what their health behaviors are and can help motivate them to live a less sedentary lifestyle,” Prendergast said. “For me, since I knew the bracelet was counting my steps, it motivated me to move more throughout the day.”

Knop said some brands of trackers will provide better information for specific populations and she wanted her students to consider how the information gathered from these devices might increase a person’s awareness of their behaviors.

“Consider how the awareness might then lead to increased motivation to change a behavior and then support the changed behavior,” she said.

Knop also said that there is a possibility of becoming “too measured, getting too much information, not relying on your own sensibilities to determine if you need to get up and move, or becoming too dependent on monitoring systems.”

Health and human kinetics professor Christopher Fink said his Sport and Exercise Nutrition class will be using similar trackers for different purposes later in the semester.

“We will be using the trackers to examine individual energy needs, and to compare to both hand-calculated metabolic estimates of energy requirement and also to various apps and software that estimate energy needs based on self-reported activity levels,” he said.

Prendergast said she enjoyed learning about this new technology.

“I think this technology is an excellent way for anyone to make a behavior change, whether their diet, physical activity level, or sleep,” she said. “I also like that you can set your own goals so a person can get healthy on their own pace.”