Category: News

By Natalie Duleba

Managing Editor

A professor is lecturing in class, discussing politics or microbes or gender norms, and buzzing fills the air. More buzzing follows, maybe one or two pop song ring tones join the spreading noise filling the classroom. It’s alright to look at the phone, to listen to the voicemail. Because nearly everyone at Ohio Wesleyan knows it’s an OWU Alert.

The first OWU Alert of the semester went out to every student registered on Tuesday, Sept. 4. It wasn’t an emergency; it was the standard test to make sure the system was working properly.

From now on, any OWU Alert sent out will be about an actual emergency situation near campus. The university is required by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) to “make timely reports to the campus community on crimes considered to be a threat to other students and employees…that are reported to campus security or local law police agencies,” according to the act.

The Clery Act is named after a freshman student from LeHigh University who was raped and murdered in her residential hall in 1986. The Act was passed in 1990 as the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act in response to crimes across campuses that were left unreported and the backlash that followed.

The purpose of the Clery Act is to keep students aware of potentially harmful situations and to “aid in the prevention of similar occurrences,” according to the act. Crimes that fall under the Clery act include murder, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, manslaughter, arson and arrests for liquor law violations, drug-related violations and weapons possession. Universities are also required to compile and release annual security report, a crime log and crime statistics in addition to the timely warning system.

The university uses Connect-ED, an emergency contact system to send out all the OWU Alerts. Connect-ED is used on over 150 campuses nationwide as well as for secondary education, municipalities and state and federal agencies.

OWU sends out two to three alerts a year regarding emergency situations, ranging from persons at large to nearby shootings.

It’s up to OWU to make the call regarding whether an alert should go out or not regarding a situation. Bob Wood, Public Safety director, Cole Hatcher, director of media and community relations and Craig Ullom, vice president for student affairs work together to make the decision.

“We tend to go conservative,” Wood said. “If there’s a question of whether we should send one out, we tend to send one out to be safe.”

An OWU Alert can also go out to inform students of crime trends in the area that could be a threat to students on campus.

“If it’s imminent and on-going, we would send out an alert,” Wood said. “Distance from campus also comes into play. If it’s a couple of miles away from campus, we probably won’t send out an alert. But if it’s two blocks away, we will.”

The university began implementing the program in the fall of 2007, and has been using it consistently since 2008. Students can receive an email, a text, a phone call or all three.

“It’s my hunch that most students find out about issues via text message, which is very limited in size,” Hatcher said. “We try to add more details in emails and voice messages with the text letting people know the most basic details.”

In some cases, students are asked to stay inside their building until the situation can be resolved by Public Safety or the Delaware Police Department.

“We tell people to stay inside when there’s a shooter at large or if the suspect is confirmed to be either on campus or near campus,” Wood said.

In November of 2011, a man with silver paint covering his face robbed a pharmacy near campus and his cellphone was tracked to campus. For a few hours, students were asked to stay inside while the police and Public Safety tracked down the “Silver-faced Bandit.” Last semester, an OWU Alert was sent out after a shooting occurred in a basketball court blocks away from campus.

OWU Alerts can also be sent out for weather-related reasons or to cancel classes.

“We also will use it to share weather delays or closings to help everyone know quickly of the status change,” Hatcher said.

However, classes are rarely cancelled, and OWU Alerts don’t often go out because of inclement weather.

Currently there are approximately 1,570 people enrolled in the OWU Alert program.

“Only people with OWU email addresses may enroll,” Hatcher said. “Students, for example, are able to enroll parents; employees are able to enroll spouses and partners. This means the number of people being alerted reaches far beyond 1,570.”

Parents who receive the alerts often call Public Safety after receiving one, wanting to know what the situation is.

“We got so many calls last time that DelCom (the emergency service that answers Public Safety calls after 6 p.m.) almost shut down,” Wood said. “We’re probably going to add on a disclaimer at the bottom of the next alert, telling parents not to call us about the situation, but to wait for more information.”

Students, faculty and staff can sign up for the OWU Alerts and update their information through the myOWU portal found on the OWU website’s main page.

By Sara Schneider

Transcript Correspondent

The Course Connection Fair took place on Tuesday, September 10 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00pm in Benes Room A in the Hamilton Williams Campus Center.

This fair occurs once a year on the Ohio Wesleyan campus to educate students about the Course Connection program and how these connections could be beneficial to them. This year’s event was not widely attended.

The Course Connection program was introduced to OWU about three years ago when changes to the curriculum were being discussed. Other ideas that were discussed at that time that are in effect today are Travel Learning Courses and the OWU Experience.

Course Connections are cross-divisional networks of courses organized around common themes. They offer an innovative way for students to fulfill the general distribution requirements while they examine a topic of interest in-depth. This program takes several semesters to complete.

Course Connection program director Erin Flynn described the Course Connections as thematic minors.

“This network allows you to study a topic or theme through a different perspective,” he said. “It also enables students to appreciate the different approaches toward a topic and their limitations.”

There are seven different course connections currently being offered at Ohio Wesleyan: American Landscape; Crime, Responsibility and Punishment; Food; Four Corners; Modern Life and its Discontents; Poverty, Equity and Social Justice; and Silk Road and Waters: Rites and Rights.

Flynn said the three most popular course connections are Modern Life and its Discontents, Poverty, Equity and Social Justice and Silk Road and Waters: Rites and Rights.

Course Connections include different extracurricular events, trips, movies and more. Some also have activities such as walking tours of Delaware and local field trips. Depending on the course connection, these events may or may not be mandatory.

The approach of course connections also helps students understand the complexity of big issues.

Sophomore Allie France said she enjoys taking classes with a common theme under the Course Connections. She will have completed the Food Course Connection after taking one more class.

“It’s nice being able to group mandatory classes by a similar theme and having it count towards another focus,” France said.

Sophomore Mariah Konrath, who is also in the process of completing the Food Course Connection, said she thinks the program is “a great way to expand your understanding of a topic.”

 

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

Delta Tau Delta’s annual Beach Bash volleyball tournament   kicked off this year’s Greek philanthropy season Saturday, Sept. 7.

Senior Ryan Klein, president of Delt, said Beach Bash has been the fraternity’s philanthropy event for more than 10 years. All the money raised at the event supports the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Fourteen teams registered for this year’s event, and Sigma Phi Epsilon and Delta Gamma won this year’s volleyball tournament.

“We had more teams play in the volleyball tournament than we have ever had since I can remember,” he said. “For the first time, we had live music from student bands and J. Gumbo’s for food.”

Klein said the even raised $500 for JDRF.

“It was a great turnout, and we got lucky with the weather,” he said.

For sophomore Miranda Ames, a member of a sorority on campus, philanthropy is about having fun while giving back to the community.

“Service or fundraising doesn’t have to be boring or a chore,” she said.

Delt senior Jordan Grammer said he thinks the goal of philanthropy programs is “inspiring others to do good.” He said this was the best Beach Bash he has attended since his time at OWU “both in and out of the house.”

“What made this year special was that everyone came out, not just the Greek community,” he said.  “Student bands, alumni and new students all came out.”

Senior Krina Patel, who is unaffiliated, said she likes attending Greek events because it gives her the opportunity to “be a part of philanthropy without being a part of Greek life.”

“I think it’s amazing that these types of events are open to everyone because it increases awareness on campus and lets people like me contribute to great causes,” she said. “My personal favorite is Delta Delta Delta’s Up Til Dawn for St. Jude.”

Klein said Delt also hosts a poker tournament at the end of the fall semester as another philanthropy event. Their event for the spring semester is yet to be determined.

“Philanthropy is very important to us,” he said. “We are fortunate that we have the opportunity to help others while having fun.”

By Jamell Brown-Smith

Transcript Correspondent

The bike rental program has existed for years, but changes to the program this year have left students confused and left without bikes.

“I went to Student Help, and they sent me to Public Safety,” said junior Allison Patterson. “Public Safety told me they weren’t running the program anymore and to ask Student Involvement. In the end I just gave up on it.”

Patterson’s story is not unique, said junior Alicia Brown a Student Help Desk attendant. Information sessions for the program were scheduled, but representatives did not show up, leaving confused students further frustrated by hoops they were jumping through to gain access to these rentals.

The rental program is a tradition at Tree House, a small living unit (SLU) for those who are interested in, “promoting Earth’s long-term survival through responsible resource use–bike-sharing, recycling, gardening, compost; the daily things that pile up and make all the difference,” according to the SLU’s description on the university’s website.

This year, seniors Melissa Guziak and Sam Sonnega are running the program. Guziak is handling the administrative duties and Sonnega maintaining the bikes. Some of the bikes are as much as three years old, according to Guziak.

Most of their inventory consists of bikes handed down from the earlier days of the program and others donated by students and Public Safety’s stock of bikes left in storage for over a year.

To rent a bike, students will need to contact Guziak via OrgSync or through her email in order to be added to a system hosted in the Hobson Science Library. After that, a waiver will be signed, making the student who checked it out responsible for their bike and any damage that may happen.

Rentals are made from Hobson where the student is assigned a number, which corresponds to one bike, lock and key. Helmets are also available in the library but are not required to check out a bike. Rented bikes are due back to Hobson before it closes on the second day of the rental.

There are about twenty bikes available at this time for rental and if they have all been checked out when a student is returning their bike, the student must wait twenty-four hours before placing another rental.

There will be a booth set up at next semester’s club fair for those who want to get into the bike system through regular channels, but Guziak said anyone interested can contact her personal email to be added outside of those official meetings. Tree House does accept donations of helmets, bikes and student time to help out with maintaining the bikes during free time.

With more bikes, Guziak hopes that they will be able to expand the program to a location closer to the residential side of campus, but until then, anyone interested will have to hike to Hobson.

By Julianne Zala

Transcript Reporter

Sean Kay, professor of politics and government, is the new director of Ohio Wesleyan’s Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs.

As director, Kay plans to create new avenues to share information with students, faculty, staff, and the general public. He said he feels the position is “a very exciting opportunity.”

The institute has begun work on a new webpage, which Kay said will serve as a “place for non-partisan information, research, and other information for people who are interested in public policy at the local, state, national, and international level.”

Kay also plans to compose brochures that will outline the semester-long Wesleyan in Washington internship program for interested students.

Former director of the institute Dr. Joan McLean said she thinks the institute will grow with Kay’s guidance.

“Under Professor Kay’s directorship, students will be challenged to think more about how to fulfill this pledge internationally as well as domestically,” she said

Kay’s goals as director include “see(ing) the Arneson Institute focus on the opportunities for liberal arts in America and to take a lead role in demonstrating the value of the liberal arts educational experience in the United States and globally.”

Kay said he plans to continue the traditional directors’ practice of combining interests in theory and practice in programming, mentioning a possible travel-learning course that would investigate ways in which Washington D.C. operates.

Kay also wishes to expand interest in the Wesleyan in Washington program.

“While it’s nature for social scientists to gravitate towards this great experience, Washington, D.C., is rich for places like the National Endowment for the Arts, the Smithsonian, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and NASA—to just name a few places where people with interests in the arts, humanities, and sciences might wish to expand their ability to shape the agenda of practical politics in America while building their professional resume at the same time,” he said.

The Arneson Institute was founded in 1947 by professor and chair of the politics and government department, Ben Arneson.

During his time at OWU, Arneson handed out pledge cards to students every year that read, “With a view to serving the public interest and regardless of the nature of my future vocations I pledge that, upon leaving college, I will devote a portion of my time to active and definite participation in public affairs.” Since then, the pledge has become a ritual among majors in the department.

“The institute has come to embody the university’s long-standing commitment to theory and practice in local, state, national, and international issues,” Kay said.

This is not the first honor Kay has received in relation to the university. Previously, he has been awarded the Bishop Francis Kearns award for exemplary teaching at OWU, and was the first recipient of OWU’s Libuse L. Reed Endowed Professorship.

In the 1960s, OWU had higher representation in the Peace Corps than any other college in the country. Today it is recognized that at least 68 percent of Ohio Wesleyan alumni have followed the pledge they made before graduation by continued participation in civic affairs.

On campus, the institute hosts guest speakers, facilitates the Mock Convention every four years and organizes the Wesleyan in Washington program.

Sean Kay is currently on sabbatical working on his new book, but he encourages any interested students in the program to attend the information meetings on Thursday, October 3rd at 12 noon and 4:10 in Elliot Hall 205. Kay also serves as the chair of the interdisciplinary international studies program.

By Brian Cook

Transcript Reporter

No matter what the class of 2017 ends up achieving, it has already made history at Ohio Wesleyan.

According to Rebecca Eckstein, vice-president of Enrollment and Strategic Communication, this year’s incoming class is more diverse than any of its predecessors.

“We are proud that this freshman class has the highest percentage of ethnic domestic diversity in the history of the university and we have increased our international enrollment over last year,” Eckstein said. “However, to us, diversity extends beyond race.”

Eckstein said the freshman class ranks near the previous class academically, although one statistic for evaluating an incoming class was not provided due to its decreasing popularity among high schools.

“Since the majority of high schools no longer rank its students, GPA is a better measurement,” Eckstein said. “This class average is a 3.4 while the previous class average was a 3.5, while the average ACT of 25 remained unchanged.”

In the Sept. 16 faculty meeting, University President Rock Jones said the current freshman class’s academic profile is less competitive overall than that of the current sophomore class. In addition to a lower average GPA, the former has a lower average SAT score than the latter.

In terms of enrollment, Eckstein said OWU has set itself up well for the future financially and educationally.

“The target number for all U.S. and international freshman as well as transfer students was 590,” she said. “We have enrolled 572, which is the second consecutive year that OWU has enrolled a class with an increase in net revenue, which enhances the budget for all educational purposes.”

However, Eckstein said OWU isn’t looking to drastically increase its enrollment because of its desire to educate students in a small-school environment.

“OWU is committed to providing a liberal arts education in a small, residential community,” she said. “Residence Life is currently at 99% occupancy so I expect the size of future classes to remain approximately the same.”

Eckstein said the freshman class “carries the same philanthropic spirit and desire for service as previous classes,” but acknowledged there is no official way to quantify this because the Common Application does not require students to record a specific number of service hours.

Freshman Liam Keller said he enjoys the diversity in culture, something he didn’t experience much in high school.

“Coming to OWU was a breath of fresh air because I can experience so many different cultures and lifestyles,” he said.

Freshman Ashley McAdam said OWU is much more diverse than her high school even though the two have the same number of students.

Keller said he also appreciates the “family sense” that’s present at OWU.

“In my high school everybody stuck to their group and didn’t stray from that path,” he said. “At OWU there are so many groups and clubs to be a part of that you end up meeting a variety of people and get to immerse yourself in different groups and activities no matter what your background is.”

Keller said the programs set up to help students succeed at the university could use some improvement.

“There was a lot of information that had been given in our groups by our Orientation Leaders that was then given again at unnecessary information sessions,” he said. “I think that the Orientation Leaders did a fantastic job giving us strategies to help us succeed, but many people were driven away from the meetings because they were long and repetitive.”

McAdam, however, said she felt the university did a good job of preparing incoming students during Orientation and StART to handle the OWU experience.

“I have friends back home that didn’t have the same kind of programs and as soon as classes started they were totally stressed out,” she said.

McAdam said coming to OWU was not something she wanted to do initially, but eventually came to appreciate what the university had to offer.

“Well, my mom wanted me to go here, but I was pretty against it for the longest time, and then I found out they offered a major in genetics and we came up to visit and I fell in love with it,” she said.“I just kind of knew it was the right place for me.”

By Spenser Hickey

News Editor

“School children of today do not know that we are living on lands that were taken from a helpless race at the bayonet point to satisfy the white man’s greed,” said retired private John G. Burnett in 1890, in reference to the forced removal of five Native American nations during the 1830s.

In the Trail of Tears, as it came to be known, the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole nations were driven from their lands by the American military, despite a Supreme Court ruling preventing it. Burnett was one of the soldiers pressed into service to lead the Cherokee to Oklahoma.

This October, junior Felicia Rose will lead students in a reenactment of the event at Camp Joy in Clarksville, Ohio, as part of her Theory-to-Practice (TiPiT) grant titled “Leading and Learning Through Diversity.”

“I’m very interested in history and the way it can influence our actions,” she said.
Since her freshman year, Rose has worked with Terree Stevenson, director of Multicultural Student Affairs, to plan the grant and the events. She led students in a similar re-enactment event last fall as part of the project, exploring the experiences of slaves on the Underground Railroad.

“It’s important to learn about American history and learn as much from it as you can,” Rose said. “With this activity students get an interactive, once-in-a-lifetime experience that they weren’t looking for. It’s informative and allows students to interact and learn from new people.”

She and Stevenson plan to get as many students involved as possible, but said she would love to have “around 20” students involved, twice the number of participants as the Underground Railroad event.

Junior Jeunesse Jacobs participated in the Underground Railroad re-enactment and said she’d love to take part in the Trail of Tears event.

She said the Underground Railroad re-enactment was “a great experience” and very eye-opening.

“My biggest take away from this was that not just the African-Americans had something to be scared of, so did those who choose to help them, and that it took a very brave person to take that chance of being killed if they got caught,” Jacobs said in an email.

She said her experience as an African-American in the re-enactment motivated her not to take things for granted and be grateful for all her opportunities.

“People fought long and hard so that we can have the freedom that we have today,” Jacobs said.

Freshman Brittiany Andears said she heard about the program in the OWU Daily and plans to take part in the Trail of Tears re-enactment event.

Andears said that such events are important because they provide “a new view” on the Native American experience.

Students participating will leave OWU around noon on Oct. 26 and return the night of Oct. 27. According to Rose, the program’s details are kept secret to surprise participants.

During the Trail of Tears, forcibly relocated Native Americans had to walk over a thousand miles, from southern states such as Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Alabama to their government-designated homes in Oklahoma.

It is unclear how many Native Americans died during the marches ordered by President Andrew Jackson. Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” gives some information from contemporary news accounts of deaths from specific incidents, but does not list an overall total. Even before they began marching, Zinn writes, nations were moved from their homes into stockade camps where hundreds died of starvation.

In “The New Nation,” part of her 10-volume series “A History of US,” Joy Hakim said one in four Cherokees who started out died because of exhaustion, starvation and the elements.

Russell Thornton’s “Ethnohistory” estimates that as many as 8,000 Cherokee died in the marches; but the lack of population records for Native Americans makes it hard to be certain.

Much of the U.S. government’s treatment of Native American groups during the 1800s meets the United Nations’ criteria for genocide.

The UN defines genocide as “acts such as deliberately inflicting conditions of life aimed at destroying a national, racial, ethnic or religious group and forcibly transferring children of that group to another group, when these acts have the intent of destroying that group, partially or completely.”

According to Alan Taylor’s “American Colonies,” the indigenous population of North and South America dwindled from 50 million in 1490, two years before Columbus’s arrival, to 1.8 million in 1890, the date of the Wounded Knee massacre, the last major conflict between the U.S. government and Native Americans.

 

By Philippe Chauveau

Ohio Wesleyan welcomed Dr. Martin J. Eisenberg as the new Dean of Academic Affairs this summer.

Eisenberg earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in economics is joining the OWU administration after working at Truman University for 12 years. At Truman he served as interim dean of the School of Arts and Letters, associate provost and associate professor of economics. Prior to his work at Truman, Eisenberg was at Knox College for 13 years.

With a background rich in experience from working at a number of different liberal arts colleges, Eisenberg said he is hoping “to hit the ground running” at OWU.

“I believe deeply in the liberal arts education system,” he said.

While at Truman, Eisenberg was part of a team that developed an empirical model for identifying students who had a higher possibility of needing tutoring and extra help.

Although it wasn’t exact, Eisenberg said it gave administrators “some further understanding” on the subject.

According to Eisenberg, it is “too early to tell” whether he will develop a similar system for Ohio Wesleyan, but shared what he believes are the strengths and weaknesses of the current system.

“I really appreciate the student-faculty interaction, and the working environment is great,” he said. “But of course the first thing people talk about is the accomplishments and skills that OWU alums have.”

Eisenberg said one of his biggest challenges in the future is the retention rate of students.

“The retention rate is what we would like to improve on,” he said. “It isn’t bad, we would just like it to be higher.”

Eisenberg said he thinks interaction and communication will help him do his job to the best of his abilities. He said he is planning on working with the faculty to adapt the curriculum, among other things, such as academic space issues and conflicts over university policies.

“I play a major role in Academic Affairs, and work with faculty and students,” said Eisenberg. “There are a lot of logistics involved.”

According to Eisenberg, his initial plan is to “primarily listen, learn and meet people.”

By Sara Schneider

Over 70 clubs were represented at last Wednesday’s Fall Club Fair from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the JAYwalk.

Each semester the Student Involvement Office hosts a club fair to provide an opportunity for students to learn about the different activities they are able to get involved in around campus throughout the year.

Clubs at the fair represented a variety of themes, including academics, politics, culture, faith, fine arts, fraternity and sorority life, leadership, health and wellness, literary publications, community service, spirit, and sports.

The fair is held mainly to help the new freshman class get involved on campus and explore the different options available. Most clubs represented had a sign-up sheet for people to leave their information. This year, to draw more people to the Club Fair, free ice cream was provided for all the students in attendance.

Sophomore Sophia Apostolou is a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and was attending the fair to support the organization. She said she thinks the event is good for new students.

“The club fair is a great opportunity for freshman and other students to get involved in the OWU community,” she said.

According to sophomore Jennifer Luckett said she thought the fair was “a great representation of all the different opportunities Ohio Wesleyan has to offer to get involved.”

Sophomore Emma Merritt said she thinks the Club Fair exposes students to opportunities that could be beneficial for them.

“It’s great to get involved in different activities on campus because you gain experience for different things outside the classroom and therefore when you graduate and start working, you will be more prepared,” she said.

By Sadie Slager

A string of on-campus bike thefts has left several students without their preferred mode of transportation or sense of security.

Senior Erika Kazi said she knows of at least 10 bike thefts that have occurred on campus recently.

“The bike owners could have been inside a house or out of town,” she said. “Both have happened.”

Kazi said some bikes were locked up at the time they were stolen, but others were not. She said many bike thefts she has heard of occurred behind the Tree House, Citizens of the World House and The House of Peace and Justice.

“That area seems to be the prime area for bike theft,” she said. “It also is a main location of people who use bikes most frequently.”

Kazi said she thinks peoples’ motives for stealing students’ bikes are probably “to make a quick buck.”

According to Kazi looking for stolen bikes is “hopeless” and said those who have had their bikes stolen have not found any evidence leading them toward the perpetrator, so they are opting to buy new bikes instead.

“Occasionally people are lucky and will see young members of the Delaware community in town with a stolen bike,” she said. “But from my knowledge that has only happened once.”

One victim of recent on-campus bike theft is junior Kristen Krak. Her bike was stolen from outside COW House while she was sleeping. While her bike wasn’t new, Krak said it was special to her.

“It was my grandpa’s, so it holds much more of a sentimental value than a monetary one,” she said.

Krak said she didn’t have her bike locked up as securely as it should have been.

“It was locked up, but only to itself by the front wheel,” she said. “I absolutely know it should have been locked to something else, and I should have been using a thicker lock. I thought I was going to use it later that night, so that’s why I locked it to itself.”

Krak said she was “incredibly sad” to find her bike had been stolen.

“I was shocked,” she said. “I looked around the house to see if I had put it somewhere else, or if someone moved it to get their car in the driveway.”

According to Krak, every person she knows who has had a bike on campus has had it stolen within the last year, “especially during the spring and summer.”

Being an “incredibly busy person,” Krak said her bike made it easier for her to get around.

“My bike helped me get to where I needed to be on time, especially on days where it’s just one thing after another,” she said.

Krak said although these thefts have occurred, the OWU community is a “wonderful place” where she feels safe.

 

“We have to keep in mind that we’re not in a bubble,” she said. “We do live in a populated town, so that’s important to remember.”

Kazi said she thinks differently about OWU’s campus safety after the string of bike thefts.

“It’s unfortunate that I can’t trust that my private property will be safe in my home away from home,” she said. “I don’t think members of our campus are stealing the bikes either, which makes me a little more concerned. We love our bikes. We use them. Our lifestyles depend on them.”

Junior Colleen Bodee uses her bike to get around campus every day and said she was not aware of recent bike thefts on campus, but she always takes precautions in locking it up.

“I almost always lock it unless I know I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” she said. “I think now I’ll probably be more careful about locking it up all the time.”

Bodee said she is not really surprised by recent bike thefts.

“I’m really paranoid about my bike getting stolen, so sometimes I almost expect it to be gone once I’ve left it somewhere for a while,” she said.

Bodee, who spends many hours in Haycock Hall on the easternmost side of campus, agreed that it would affect her lifestyle if her bike were stolen.

“I use it to get almost everywhere so when planning my day I’d have to start taking into account the fact that I would have to walk,” she said. “I also have to spend a lot of time in the art studios at night and I feel a lot safer taking my bike at night than I do walking.”