Imagine going to a line-dancing bar with friends and being the only ones there – besides a bachelorette party.
That was one of the memories senior Chris Marshall recounted as one of his favorites from living in Tree House.
“This place is dense with memories,” Marshall said about Tree House. “Not living here on a normal basis is going to be tough.”
Marshall, who has lived in the house since his sophomore year, will be graduating after this semester. Though Marshall said he ended up in the house by coincidence, living in a Small Living Unit (SLU) has given him something to look for in the future.
“It’s spoiled me,” he said. “This kind of living situation will be at the back of my mind when I’m thinking about living anywhere…It has made me never want to live alone.”
Marshall was not the only one who said he had fond memories. Seniors at the Women’s House started crying when talking about the experience of living in a SLU.
Senior Victoria Sellers said living in WoHo made her more self-aware.
“I’ll miss how these people live activism and feminism and open-mindedness,” she said. “They’ve taught me the difference between living activism and speaking activism.”
WoHo residents said the house will lose eight seniors after this semester, one of the greatest proportional numbers of all the SLUs.
Freshman Claudia Bauman, who will move into WoHo at the start of the 2013 fall semester, said the current members joke about who their replacements will be.
“They joke around about me filling the role of Alex Crump, but I’ve got some big shoes to fill if they’re comparing me to her,” she said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to add my own flavor to the house.”
Marshall said he wasn’t looking for his replacement during SLUsh week, but he does hope current and new members will keep the seniors in their minds.
“I don’t want them to dwell on us being gone,” he said. “I have more faith in them than I do in me. I don’t want to leave any grand legacy behind, just more, like, memories.”
Photos of and letters from former housemates decorate the walls of WoHo. Sellers said members have been considering delegating a wall for members to handprint as they leave the house.
“This house has given me so, so much,” she said. “I feel like I’m walking away with part of the house imprinted on me.”
Sellers said one of her favorite “publishable” memories took place at a Take Back the Night event when she and other members of the house spent the day “literally running around” making and lighting luminaries for the march portion. She said she cried when she saw their completed work.
“It was beautiful,” she said. “Not just because they were pretty white lights against a dark background, but because of the symbolic meaning of all the work we’d done and what it all meant.”
Marshall said his experience at Tree House “made” his OWU experience.
“I never thought I’d experience home at a college,” he said. “[Living in a SLU] has broken me out of my mold. It’s made me love being surrounded by people. It’s made me more conscientious about the sustainable lifestyle. It’s left me with some of the most indelible friendships. It’s not just Tree House. There’s no house I won’t miss.”
10 minutes make a difference for students walking home late at night.
Public Safety Sergeant Chris Mickens said the estimated 10-minute wait for SafeWalk workers to reach a student who is at any location around campus deters many from utilizing the program.
“The average is a 10-minute or less walk to get from the SafeWalk hub to where the student calls from,” he said. “But people don’t usually want to wait the 10 minutes it takes for the SafeWalk workers to get to them from the library, so they don’t call for a walk.”
Mickens said the SafeWalk program has improved over the past few years, as SafeWalk workers used to walk around campus instead of being stationed in a central location,” he said. “That became very cumbersome for the student workers because they had to be out and about for so long. Three years ago I put a station at the library and one by the Thomson store.”
Mickens said these locations were chosen because they are the most heavily traveled areas in the evenings, but now there is only one central SafeWalk station.
“It was hard to keep four people working both stations all the time, and numbers are a big part of being safe,” he said. “So we cut it to one station at the library.”
Although SafeWalk is stationed at the library and more than 90 percent of SafeWalks come from students leaving the library, Mickens said, students can call to get a SafeWalk from other areas on campus.
Mickens said there always have to be at least two students working at the SafeWalk station, because if there is only one worker, the safety element is lost.
“There’s a strict attendance policy because it’s counter-instructive to have only one person working, because then that person will walk back to the library alone,” he said.
Mickens said there have been no SafeWalk escorts yet in 2013. He said 134 students requested escorts in the 2011-2012 academic year, and 68 in the fall 2012 semester.
Mickens said if a student is off-campus and requests a ride, a Public Safety officer might be sent to pick them up if they feel unsafe or are alone.
“There needs to be an articulated safety concern,” he said. “If someone wants a convenience ride, I may do it if I’m not busy, just as a courtesy.”
Mickens said he would rather give a ride to someone who doesn’t truly have a safety concern than not help someone who asks for an escort.
“We don’t want the worst case scenario to happen, so we’d rather the bad judgment call be that we gave someone a ride when there wasn’t really a safety concern,” he said. “The ones that are hardest to judge are when students call at like 2:45 a.m. during the weekend.”
Junior Anne Frissora said she has never used the SafeWalk program because she doesn’t know enough about it.
“I do feel for the most part safe on campus, but I don’t feel as safe on the streets surrounding campus.”
Frissora said Spring Street and Park Avenue are example of areas where she sometimes feels unsafe.
“I definitely wouldn’t want to walk alone on those streets, especially at night,” she said.
Mickens said he hopes student start using SafeWalk more frequently and he is working on ways to make it more heavily advertised.
“We are looking for reasonable suggestions on how to get students to utilize the service more,” he said.
“We’ve thought of having maybe a raffle for people who are new to using the system and one for everyone who uses it.”
Mickens added that although Delaware is a safe place, anything could happen at any time and students should take the proper precautions of walking in groups of two or more at all times.
14 individuals were elected as Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs Residential Representatives for the 2013 calendar year, according to junior Martin Clark, WCSA President.
Also, two Small Living Unit Representatives were elected to serve on WCSA for the 2013 calendar year.
Freshmen making the cut as Residential Representatives include Whitney Weadock, Jerry Lherisson, Katie Nunner, Erica Shah, Hannah Henderson and Lily Pham.
The school’s sophomore Residential Representatives include Mike Serbanoiu, Memme Onwudiwe, Ashkan Ehktera, Alex Lothstein, Lauren Rump and Shane Gorbett.
Juniors who will serve as Residential Representatives this coming year include Sammi Heffron and Caitlin Bailey.
According to the WCSA Constitution, “Residential representatives shall be responsible for representing the general student populous residing in residence halls.”
Only people who live in a residence hall are eligible to run for the position.
One of the Representatives lives in Bashford Hall, one in Smith West, two in Smith East, and three each in Welch, Hayes and Stuyvesant Halls. None live in Thomson Hall.
Additionally, the two SLU representatives elected are juniors Ethan Hovest and Nora Gumanow.
As with residential representatives, one must live in a SLU to be eligible for election. In both instances, the representatives will only serve those who live in their specified domain.
Elections for residential representatives and SLU representatives were held on Feb. 1, which was technically a violation of the WCSA Constitution.
The body’s constitution mandates that residential and SLU representatives be elected in the second week of the spring semester.
Residential and SLU representatives are voting members of WCSA.
While residential representatives do significant work for WCSA and their constituents, their efforts can go unrecognized by students. Many students said they feel that residential representatives are basically irrelevant in their daily lives.
“I don’t know anything they do on campus,” sophomore Hannah Sampson said. She also said that she does not know any of the new representatives personally.
Sophomore Landon Erb also said that he does not have a working relationship with the residential representatives. He said that he was unaware of any of the representatives’ responsibilities.
Clark and junior Timothy O’Keeffe, WCSA vice president, ran together on a platform to increase awareness of WCSA’s role on campus.
Awareness of WCSA was discussed by all three presidential tickets.
Proposed efforts they discussed during campaigning included encouraging members to wear WCSA sweatshirts to events, particularly WCSA-funded ones.
They also discussed setting up office hours and giving non-voting WCSA positions to important student organizations.
In an article published last year by The Transcript, then-sophomore Alex Kerensky, one of the SLU representatives for 2012, said, “I’d like to make WCSA more transparent and less of a mystery. “
Kerensky is now a WCSA Representative for the Class of 2014.
Typically, residential representatives are responsible for dealing with problems exclusively in the residence halls, not SLUs or fraternities.
Both residential and SLU representatives serve terms of one calendar year.
Rabbi Jessica K. Shimberg (right), Ohio Wesleyan’s new Jewish chaplain, works with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers at Whole Foods in Columbus, Ohio.
By Rachel Vinciguerra
Transcript Correspondent
The Chaplain’s Office seeks to offer a place for students and faculty to nurture their connections to their faith on the third and fourth floors of Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.
Although Jodi Kushins was accessible to Jewish students during her time on campus from 2009 until May 2012, there has been something missing this year: a Jewish Chaplain to represent the Jewish community on campus.
The Chaplain’s Office staff welcomed a new Jewish Chaplain, Jessica K. Shimberg, to campus last Friday.
Shimberg said she is “a spiritual being, a passionate lifelong learner, and an enthusiastic leader of innovative Jewish programming.”
She said that she wants to focus on community-building and social action within the OWU community, as well as engage Jewish students on campus with their faith. Drawn to the position for many reasons, she said she has had transformative experiences on OWU’s campus, both with the Chaplain’s office and at conferences.
Shimberg said she attended a conference at OWU in 2009 “that led (her) to enroll in rabbinical school.” Since that time, Shimberg has developed the congregation she co-founded, “The Little Minyan;” served as the Rabbinic Student Intern for Rabbis for Human Rights; and begun work in Columbus with faith communities to bring attention to modern-day slavery in the agriculture industry.
Senior Tammy Winkler, president of Hillel B’Nai B’rith (Hillel), said she is excited by the opportunities she thinks Shimberg will create on campus.
“We are looking forward to seeing how Jessica can help us build Jewish community amongst Jewish students and the campus at large,” she said.
Shimberg said she wants to reach across religions and denominations to make Judaism applicable to today’s students.
Judaism relevant in our 21st century lives.”
Winkler said Hillel is excited about their upcoming events, in which Shimberg will participate.
“Hillel is looking forward to some great events this semester, including the Passover Seder, Challah for Hunger, a Purim event and we are looking forward to how Jessica can contribute to that,” Winkler said.
University Chaplain Jon Powers said he thinks Shimberg will get along well with students in Hillel as well as students of other denominations.
“She was on campus all last Friday, visiting every table at the Service Fair and meeting random students in the Stuyvesant kitchen,” he said.
“It is obvious that she meets and engages students from all walks of life with ease and enthusiasm.”
Shimberg said one of the dominant reasons she decided to join the Chaplain’s Office staff was because of their commitment to social justice, which she said is “an intense and heartfelt expression of one’s faith and values.”
Shimberg said Judaism in particular has a history of being connected with social justice in agriculture.
“We began as a people of the land—responsible as stewards of the land, accountable for the treatment of other people and animals,” she said.
Shimberg said she hopes to bring more awareness to cases of victimization and slavery in agriculture to OWU’s campus.
She said she has been personally involved with the local ecological and food movements in Columbus and environmental justice issues within the country.
She will address students tonight at 7 p.m. in Crider Lounge to share information about agricultural inequities in the fields she has visited in Florida.
“I want to tell students what we can do in Ohio to effect real positive change in the agricultural industry with our awareness and advocacy,” she said.
Chaplain Powers said Shimberg’s unique skill set, connections and passions will be beneficial to the OWU spiritual community.
“Among other things her passion for social justice and environmental issues, and her deep sense of spirituality in relation to language and personal relationships are an unusual blend of gifts and graces – so OWU,” he said.
David Craig (left) and Ian Gray (right) were arrested for the bicycle thefts that have occurred on campus. Since their arrest, there have been two more bicycles reported stolen.David Craig Randall (left) and Ian Gray (right) were arrested for the bicycle thefts that have occurred on campus. Since their arrest, there have been two more bicycles reported stolen.
By Taylor Stoudt
Transcript Reporter
Over the last few months, more students across campus have experienced the shock of coming back to where they left their bicycle and realizing it was gone. Sometimes the whole bicycle was taken; sometimes only parts were missing.
For many students, reporting a stolen bicycle can be impossible. While some may know the make of their bicycle and specific physical features, an official police report cannot be filed without the serial number of the bicycle.
According to Detective Ben Segaard of the Delaware Police Department (DPD), there have been seven police reports of bicycles stolen from the Ohio Wesleyan campus.
On Jan. 9, two suspects, David Craig and Ian Gray, were arrested and charged with four counts of theft.
“These two guys initially got caught for something else, but I also got them to confess to stealing the bikes,” Segaard said.
The suspects were originally arrested for more bicycle thefts, but there was only sufficient evidence to go on with four of the charges.
All four charges were for bicycles stolen from the OWU campus. Two of the bicycles were taken from the JAYwalk, one from Smith Hall and the fourth from Welch Hall. All four were never recovered, and three were sold on Craigslist.
“The suspects didn’t keep any record of who they sold the bikes to,” Segaard said. “And on top of that, none of the victims, except for one, knew the serial numbers of their bikes, and it’s very difficult to return property to its owner without a serial number because we need to have validation that the property found was the one confiscated.”
When posting advertisements for the bicycles, the suspects also used images taken from the internet rather than taking pictures of them, making it even more difficult to identify the stolen bicycles.
Other students have also had their bicycles stolen, including junior Erika Kazi. Just before final exams in the fall semester, Kazi’s bicycle was stolen from Oak Hill Avenue. While Kazi reported the incident to Public Safety (PS), the bicycle had no identification number and therefore couldn’t be reported to DPD.
“I never found the bike,” Kazi said. “I checked on Craigslist often, but it wasn’t there.”
PS Officer Christopher Mickens said he believed this year has seen more bicycle thefts than in the past.
“Compared to other years, there has been an increase in the number of bike thefts,” Mickens said. “Theft is a crime of need. Some people need transportation, money, food, and drugs, among other things.”
Mickens suggested students register their bicycles with Public Safety.
“We can easily identify the bike as your property in the event that it is recovered after being lost or stolen,” he said.
Mickens also suggested the use of bicycle locks as a way of preventing theft.
“One of the best ways to deter thieves from stealing your bike or other property is to make it difficult by securing your bike with locks that are not easily cut, such as a U-style lock,” he said. “Most locks can be defeated, but the more difficult it is to steal something, the less likely it will be that thieves will waste their time.”
Segaard suggested parking bicycles in well-lit areas and places where others may be able to identify a situation in which a bicycle is being stolen. Segaard also said knowing the bicycle’s serial number is crucial to finding a lost or stolen bike.
“Most important thing is to record their serial number so if their bike is stolen we can put it into a database,” he said. “But we can’t retrieve a bike if we don’t have the serial number.”
Bicycles can also be registered at the police station between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. There is a $2 fee and the following information must be known: bicycle’s serial number, contact information of the owner and all relevant descriptors, like make, model, color and distinct features.
“We find bikes all the time, and if we don’t have any information to match the bike with the owner we can’t return it to anybody,” Segaard said.
Unclaimed bicycles are auctioned off once a year using a cyber auction via the website propertyroom.com.
Segaard said he thinks bicycle thefts will continue.
“Bike thefts are sure to continue around the city and campus,” he said.
“They are one of the easiest things to steal because your get away method is the same as what you’re stealing. Just because these two guys were caught doesn’t diminish the threat of theft. There are plenty of guys like them who will want to make some quick cash.”
Even after the suspects were arrested, two more bicycles were reported stolen from the OWU campus.
Throughout the day on Wednesday, the temperature had dropped dramatically and it had begun to snow. Public Safety Officer Jay McCann came to pick me up at Phi Delta Theta so I could ride along with him on his night shift. “How’s it going man?” he said as I got into the car.
McCann was born in Lubbock, Texas and went to Cooper High School. He said he had the typical “Friday Night Lights” kind of high school life being the captain of the football team in west Texas. His dad was a minister and a career paramedic, which is where he got his inspiration.
“Because of Dad’s involvement with emergency services, I have always had first responder in my blood,” he said. “The first call I ever went on was with my dad. I was 10 years old.”
They responded to an automobile accident where there were 12 victims and three fatalities. “It’s just something…that it’s for some people…it’s not for some people,” he said.
We drove down by Selby Stadium as part of the first rounds to physically look around the campus. McCann has been with Ohio Wesleyan for eight years and in law enforcement and security for 18 years.
“I came across information about the 2008 fire on South Franklin Street,” I said. “From what I read, it sounds like it was a pretty intense situation.”
“Ya, we’ll go over there real quick and I’ll show you where it happened,” he said.
“Except by the Grace of God, There go I”
126 S. Franklin St. Building – site of the 2008 fire from which McCann and others rescued 14 people. “It’s a night I will never forget,” he said. “On average, there are seven calls in your career as a first responder, EMS, fire or law enforcement, that usually change your life or there’s something that sticks with you. That’s going to be one of my seven calls.”
When the Fire Department dropped tones for a potential working fire at 1:30 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 28, 2008, McCann was right across the street from the Fire Department and around the corner from where the fire was occurring at 126 S. Franklin St. He decided to go over and check it out because he said sometimes people in that building will call things in that are really not a huge deal.
We turned onto South Franklin Street and he said when he turned the corner on that night, there were people lying in the street and people running from the building. When he pulled up to the building, the large windows were filled with “thick, black smoke.” He could hear people screaming “We’re trapped! We’re trapped!”
When he walked up to the building, he said he just started yelling for people to come to his voice. McCann rescued three people before the fire department got to the scene.
“All in all that night, we had 14 rescues,” he said. “There were no fatalities.”
He said it was probably one of the most coordinated scenes he has been a part of, with himself from the university, the Police Department, five different Fire Departments, and Delaware County EMS.
“You had all of these first responders, and we all came together as one team and we did our jobs,” he said. “It was pretty amazing.”
McCann and the officers he worked with on that night received the Public Safety Hero Award from the Delaware County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He said they have “a bond that will never be broken.” McCann’s parents were able to be there to see him receive the award and he said it was a second generation thing because his dad had been recognized for a saving a man’s life at a Texas Tech baseball game who was suffering from a heart attack.
“I can’t walk away from somebody hurting or somebody in need of help,” he said. “It’s simply because ‘except by the grace of God, there go I.’ At any given moment, I may need that help, or my kids may need that help, or my wife may need that help, or my friends may need that help.”
Walking on Glass
A few weeks earlier, sophomore Eilee Foley recalled one evening she had after Thanksgiving. She was walking back to campus from downtown Delaware and made the unfortunate mistake of taking her shoes off.
“I walked on glass with no shoes on,” she said. “The feet I guess specifically bleed a lot, so I couldn’t really walk back.” Her feet were bleeding onto the sidewalk, so Foley had no choice at this point but to have a friend try to carry her back.
A bicyclist happened to be coming by, and it turned out to be McCann. He stopped immediately to see if Foley was okay.
“I’m fine. Like just a few Band-Aids and I will be okay,” she said.
“No, no. I insist. Please let me come help you,” he said.
After calling Public Safety to bring a car to where Foley was, McCann cleaned and bandaged her feet up and gave her a ride back.
“He went out of his way to make sure I was fine when I clearly could’ve just gone back and taken care of myself,” she said.
“Coming to Work is Enjoyment”
“Dealing with the intoxicated person?” he said. “Sometimes it can be absolutely comical, sometimes it can be a gigantic pain in the butt, sometimes it can be very dangerous, sometimes it can be very dangerous for the person intoxicated.”
We turned in the parking lot by Stuyvesant Hall, continuing the first rounds. He said dealing with intoxicated people can get frustrating, but he has a different filter because he has a 12-year-old son that is severely autistic and non verbal.
“I will tell you,” McCann said laughing, “there’s not too many things that I cannot filter based on the amount of patience I have had to learn as a father and being a parent of an autistic child.”
He said that his life at home can be somewhat stressful living with a child who is autistic.
“So, strangely enough, I come to work to de-stress,” he said. “To be honest with you, work is kind of my getaway. For me, coming to work is enjoyment, it’s not really work.”
He said it can get frustrating when it’s the same people getting in trouble every weekend and there is the repetitive person who can’t handle alcohol. We turned around the corner of the Hill over by Sigma Chi. He commented on how much he dislikes it when the residents of Sigma Chi leave their door open at night as we passed by.
The day before, I talked to Bob Wood, the Director of Public Safety. He said his view on Public Safety is they are not there just as the bad guys to catch students doing things wrong, but to also help and guide students. He said that there are officers that tend to be a little bit more lenient and others that tend to be more enforcement oriented. The officers that are more enforcement oriented tend not to do as well as those who approach students in more of a parental way.
“Under the classification of more lenient or parental to more ‘I’m going to write you up,’ where would you classify Officer McCann?” I asked.
McCann in Welch’s Fitness Center at closing time. “On the far side of lenient,” Wood laughed. “And I think of him like that, but you know I’ve been with him where he’s like no nonsense. That’s a violation. You know better than that, give me your ID. He tries to be fair…and when you get a point where you could go this way or that way, he tends to go ‘let’s give somebody a break’ and ‘let’s help somebody’ as opposed to writing somebody up.”
McCann drove the car down Oak Hill Avenue toward Stuyvesant. He said students’ perception of Public Safety tends to change over the years in that many freshmen and sophomores believe Public Safety is just out to get them. Juniors and seniors, on the other hand, come to the realization that someone else was fed up with their behavior so they called Public Safety.
Generally, Public Safety is called with a complaint and they are asked to investigate it. Part of their responsibility is to then document who was responsible. He said that they do use “the magic word” discretion and good common judgment to decide whether students need to be written up or given a ticket for certain actions.
We turned into Welch Hall to go in and lock up the fitness center. Seniors Chelsea Dipman and Sophia Rose were in the fitness center finishing their workout. “How are we doing?” he said to them as began shutting off the machines.
“The 800 Pound Gorilla”
We drove out by Sanborn Hall and Austin Manor, where McCann pointed out a parking lot behind Sanborn that is owned by the university but rarely gets used. He said community gardens are usually put in the area. It’s not advertised as an available parking lot because a lot of people just think its “creepy and weird” back in that area of campus.
I asked what he thought has changed about the university over the years.
He said as far as the academic, facilities and fiscal aspects of the university, he thinks this administration has a really solid grasp on it. He said sometimes it can be difficult for students and staff members though.
“We sometimes feel left out of that scenario simply because it’s sometimes not things that we’re a part of,” he said. “I mean they try to include us and they really do and we’re always well informed. But as far as the business academia part of university, I think they’re doing a great job and they’re on the right track, but I just think sometimes staff feel like we’re left out of that a little bit because we kind of deal in a different way as far as student life goes.”
As far as the social scene, he said he sees things where he would like to see improvements and he hears from students all of the time where they would like to see improvement.
We made our way over to Park Avenue, passing many of the houses students live in off campus.
“There aren’t that many off-campus parties going on anymore,” I said.
“No,” he said. “Trust me, I have seen a huge down tick.”
He said there is really no place for anybody to go. We drove down to Sturgis Hall and Slocum Hall and passed Elliot Hall, checking for anything out of place on the academic side of campus.
“Do you think that not having as much off-campus housing has hurt a little bit of the social life?” I asked.
“Oh without a doubt, without a doubt,” he said. “I mean, I’m not really sure what students are doing…It’s been a very strange year.”
He said he has talked to students from every culture, concept, clique, social group, “you name it,” and 80 percent of them say they want to live off-campus their junior and senior year.
The number one reason students say they want to living off-campus is so they have the opportunity to live independently.
“It’s not necessarily just to hold parties,” he said. “They would just like the opportunity to rent and start learning the behaviors of being independent. And I personally think that’s healthy.”
Since OWU is going to be a 100 percent residential campus, McCann thinks there is only one solution, which he calls the “800 pound gorilla” in the room that nobody wants to talk about.
This gorilla is an on-campus club. He said if he had his way, the club would be in Pfeiffer Natatorium since the pool has been shut down and only a few classes held in the building.
The location of the natatorium would provide students with direct access from the Jay Walk and there are no houses nearby, so the loud music would not be a problem.
“It’s a no brainer as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “But, I gotta find somebody with money to listen to me.”
We turned into Smith Hall and walked into the Public Safety office.
The first part of the night shift was over.
Mother’s Day
“What I really love about this job is on Mother’s Day, when I’ll have students walk up to me and go ‘Jay, you gotta meet my parents,’” he said. “Or, ‘Jay, if it hadn’t been for you that night,’ or, ‘You made an impact,’ or, they come back and go, ‘One of the best things I remember was that night we went and we talked.’ That’s what makes this job cool.”
Rafiki Wa Afrika (Rafiki), Ohio Wesleyan’s African and Caribbean culture club, is preparing for the Feb. 15 date auction, its first fundraiser of the semester.
The auction’s proceeds will go to the Ghana Student Education Fund (GSEF).
“GSEF is a charity organization started by two OWU students that helps pay for a student’s education in Ghana, (west) Africa,” said junior Alisa Nammavong, president of Rafiki.
According to the GSEF website, the fund was founded in 2006 by Ghanaian students Stan Osei-Bonsu ‘09 and Nick Oteng ‘09. Rafiki receives funding through the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs, so all of the money raised at their events can go to the GSEF.
Freshman Osami Garba, Rafiki public relations chair, said she is excited for the date auction and raising money for GSEF.
“I think it’s a good cause and we are helping students in need,” she said. “I’m also excited to see who is going to buy who.”
Garba said she is hoping to have at least 20 date auction participants, 10 women and 10 men.
In 2006, Oteng and Osei-Bonsu organized OWU’s Global Outreach Show to educate the community about the genocide in Darfur. The benefit show made over $1,800 that was split between Darfur and establishing the GSEF.
According to the GSEF website, “The fund believes that sponsoring a brilliant but needy child with leadership potential from primary education all the way to the end of their tertiary education (university) will make a greater impact than providing a one year scholarship.”
Rafiki raises money for the GSEF through the Global Outreach Show and other events.
“Last year we rose over $500 for two girl students to attend school,” Nammavong said.
According to Nammavong, the money goes toward uniforms, school supplies and anything else the students might need.
“This is something we intend to keep alive because it is so important for the people,” she said. “We pay for their education.”
Although the events have been largely successful in the past, senior Jacqueline Osei-Bonsu said the club might vary some of its events.
“We are trying to change around and adapt some events for our audience in the hope of more people being present at them, because we really would love it if everyone did come and enjoy what we have to offer,” she said.
While Rafiki’s philanthropy may be one of its largest responsibilities, Garba said the club is like a second family.
“Everyone is really nice and really want us freshmen to feel at home,” she said. “They are all open-minded and heartwarming. I know it’s cliché, but it’s true.”
Garba said there are people from Vietnam, Jamaica, Ghana and other places around the world in the club.
“I’m Nigerian, so I thought it would be really good to be friends with people who have the same background as me,” she said. “It’s not just knowing where I’m from but, others too.”
Rafiki allows students of all backgrounds to attend meetings and events dealing with African culture, and to raise awareness for the GSEF.
Nammavong said Rafiki’s members gain a sense of family and purpose.
“Rafiki is a way to connect to people who are already from there,” she said.
“It helps people adjust to living in the states by meeting people who understand what they’re going through.”
Osei-Bonsu said she hopes the student body understands Rafiki’s message of family.
“To me, Rafiki Wa Afrika, apart from its original meaning–‘Friends of Africa’–in Swahili, means family,” she said. “They are people who are open to new ideas and are accepting and very loving.”
Jan. 29, 2:49 a.m. – Public Safety was dispatched to Beeghly Library on an alarm housekeeping advised they had set off.
Jan. 29, 11:51 a.m. – Student reported missing bicycle from the Thomson Hall bike rack.
Jan. 30 8:47 a.m. – Student struck by vehicle declined treatment and said she did not want the driver cited for the accident.
Jan. 30, 1:44 p.m. – A fire alarm was reported in zone 11 at Stuyvesant Hall.
Jan. 30, 5:20 p.m. – Public Safety discovered a vehicle with two parking permits belonging to two different students.
Jan. 30, 6:33 p.m. – Public Safety was dispatched to Bashford Hall for a possible gas leak/odor of gas. Delaware Fire Department gave an all-clear.
Jan. 31, 1:26 a.m. – Suspicious person ran from a vehicle at John Street and Elizabeth Street towards campus. Suspect ran from officers and was apprehended at 10 Williams Drive.
Feb. 1, 1:44 a.m. – Public Safety was dispatched to Welch Hall on a welfare concern.
Feb. 1, 5:40 p.m. – Public Safety was dispatched to 4 Williams Drive to talk to witnesses of a hit-skip incident in the Stuyvesant Hall parking lot.
Feb. 2, 1:05 a.m. – Public Safety was dispatched on a student concern about a roommate using marijuana.
Feb. 2, 2:20 a.m. – Public Safety was dispatched for vandalism at Bashford Hall. An OWU student had broken two windows on the third floor hallway.
Feb. 2, 3:30 p.m. – A HWCC Housekeeper reported the theft of personal property while at work. A report was filed with Delaware Police.
Feb. 2, 3:30 p.m. – Phone received from the mother of an OWU student saying her son had been involved in a traffic accident. The student was located and mother contacted to confirm safety.
Feb. 3, 12:43 a.m. – Public Safety dispatched to 15 Williams Drive on a fire alarm.
Feb. 3, 1:21 a.m. – Public Safety was dispatched to 9 Williams Dr. on a fire alarm.
Feb. 3, 2:51 a.m. – A DPD unit radioed that three or four people were running from them near Noble Street and the bike path. The suspect ran onto OWU property from Henry Street. One arrest of a possible guest of an OWU student was made.
Black Men of the Future provides a safe space for students of color to discuss common issues and works to educate the community about problems of racial inequality and stereotyping.
BMF was founded during the 1992-1993 school year, a time when African-American men were under-represented on campus, according to senior Andrew Dos Santos, co-president.
“[BMF’s] primary goal is to provide education and opportunities for engagement about issues concerning African-American men,” said Terree Stevenson, director of Multicultural Student Affairs.
Despite its name, Black Men of the Future is open to male students of any race, as long as they show “a sincere interest in the positive upliftment of black males socially, culturally, academically and politically,” according to their OrgSync page.
Sisters United, a similar group dedicated to promoting women’s issues, works closely with BMF, and members of SU often attend BMF’s meetings. Both groups are part of the larger umbrella group called the Student Union on Black Awareness (SUBA). SUBA includes other groups such as House of Black Culture, Rafiki Wa Afrika, Gospel Lyres and VIVA LatinoAmerica.
“SUBA serves as a larger institution, a larger part of representing minorities on campus, than these clubs,” senior James Huddleston, BMF co-president, said.
Huddleston said each club within SUBA serves a specific minority community.
“Our role is to work with male minorities, to be a support system, be an outlet, be a safe zone for males of minority,” he said. “It’s important for (minority communities) to work together, to support each other,” Dos Santos said. “We’re all, at the end of the day, going to be talking about mostly the same things, and hearing all sides doesn’t only elevate us as a group; it helps us educate other people.”
In its weekly meetings, BMF discusses a variety of issues including gun reform, racism on campus, upcoming events and “anything that’s on our minds, that we’re feeling that day,” according to sophomore Garrison Davis.
To help develop their discussion, members begin the meeting by listing the good and bad parts of their week.
At last week’s meeting, high points and low points included tests, studying, the weather and changing relationships.
In addition to providing a place for students of color to speak openly about the struggles they face as members of minority communities, BMF also works to educate the OWU community and provide positive role models for African-American youths entering college.
BMF regularly holds a presentation on Martin Luther King Day about the life of Dr. King. While it was well-attended in the past, this year’s presentation–BMF’s third–was not.
Senior Andrew Wilson, a speaker at the event, estimated that between 50 to 80 students actually paid attention to the presentation, which took place in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center’s atrium.
Sophomore Mariah Powell, president of Sisters United, said that “there were posters everywhere; people knew the event was going to be that day.”
Dos Santos said he believed the general feeling on campus was that the holiday wasn’t very important.
Members were divided on whether OWU should cancel classes on Martin Luther King Day so students would pay more attention to King’s legacy.
Freshman Aaron Cameron said he thought OWU should be more proactive about the day.
“It’s a holiday for a reason, and it should be celebrated,” he said.
Davis said he thought students still wouldn’t pay much attention to the purpose of the holiday, even without classes.
“I can’t blame the school, and to some degree I kind of agree with the school that we shouldn’t have the day off, ’cause kids really would misuse it,” he said.
Dos Santos said he would like to see OWU allow students to participate in community service during part of the day rather than attend classes, but doubted it would happen.
“That’s just me dreaming,” he said.
In addition to their frustrations over the presentation’s poor attendance, BMF members also questioned whether the overall community realizes they do other events, too.
“I think that a lot of these people on this campus are unbelievably oblivious to what the minority groups on this campus do,” said junior Madeleine Leader, vice-president of Sisters United.
Dos Santos said students forget the importance of minority organizations once their events are over.
“Any time you have an organization that does anything with food, that’s their event,” he said.
BMF, in addition to their Martin Luther King presentation, recently held a presentation on human trafficking, and will be holding events as part of Black History Month. The group has not yet released a schedule of those events.
In the past, Wilson said, BMF did “some huge events,” including a Teacher Appreciation Day and a lecture by Herman Boone, a high school football coach whose story is the subject of the film “Remember the Titans.”
“We made our presence known on campus, that we are an organization and that we do actually care about the institution itself,” Wilson said. “We’re still in that same (mindset) today.”
BMF also works in the “It Takes a Village” program, meeting and mentoring African-American students preparing to go to college.
“I feel like that falls directly under BMF’s role on campus and at large, just to give a nice black male perspective, which is not always seen or presented,” said senior Nginyu Ndimbie.
Huddleston said being in BMF has allowed him to get as far as he has in college.
“Coming into college, my priorities weren’t where they should be as a college student, and the older guys in BMF left a mark on me, made me want to focus on academics,” he said.
Steve Hofstetter performed at Ohio Wesleyan University on January 28, where he commented on student related issues. While he received a big turn out, a few students found a few of the things he said offensive.By Emily Feldmesser
and Sara Jane Sheehan
Transcript Correspondents
Nothing was off limits at Steve Hofstetter’s Jan. 28 comedy show, hosted by Campus Programming Board (CPB) and Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep).
The show opened with a performance from Pitch Black, Ohio Wesleyan’s women’s a cappella group. They performed three songs fresh off their set list from their International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) competition the previous weekend.
Hofstetter came on stage for about an hour of stand-up. Hofstetter’s website says he practices “comedy without apology.”
According to his website, Hofstetter is an original columnist for College Humor. His comedy videos have millions of YouTube views, and he’s written three books and made many television appearances. Hofstetter performs at over 100 schools every year.
During his OWU performance, Hofstetter joked at many issues related to students. From the city of Delaware to drugs to airports to the media, nothing was left uncovered in his show.
“It was the kind of humor where you didn’t want to laugh because he was harsh,” said sophomore Kristen Puckett, CPB president. “But everyone was laughing the whole time, which I was happy about.”
According to some members of the audience, though, Hofstetter was not as funny as they expected.
“Some perceived him as offensive, which I completely get, but that comes with the territory,” Puckett said.
Pucket said she was really happy about the turnout at the show. She said about a hundred people showed up, one of the largest crowds they’ve gotten in a while.
Puckett said they got Hofstetter to come through Sigma Phi Epsilon. Hofstetter is a brother of Sig Ep and the OWU chapter reached out to CPB to bring him to campus.
Junior Jake Miller, president of Sig Ep, said he was nervous about the turnout due to a late start advertising the event.
“Hofstetter has spoken at the Sig Ep National Conclave (a national Sig Ep event) before, so we knew what to expect in his show,” Miller said.
The brothers of Sig Ep had an opportunity to personally meet Hofstetter.
“It was really cool to meet another Sig Ep, and Hofstetter likes to meet different Sig Eps at his shows,” Miller said.
Sophomore Kelly Rand, CPB vice-president, said organizations like CPB go to the National Association for Campus Activities conference every year to see and book entertainment.
“[CPB’s] purpose is to bring fun entertainment to campus,” she said.
Puckett and Rand said they are really looking forward to the events they have coming up in the spring.
Puckett said this event is not a replacement for Crossroads or Springfest, but “there was not a good turn out for the amount of work we put into for Crossroads or Springfest.”
Rand said their next event is the Roller Rink on Feb. 15, which will include a skating rink in the Benes rooms, free food and a photo booth.
Puckett also said CPB has OWU’s Got Talent and Dakaboom, an event with comedians, coming in March. CPB also hosts Day on the Jay in the spring.
Rand said CPB is always open to suggestions from students about events should be held on campus, but there are no guarantees an event will be held. To contact CPB, see their Facebook page.
