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The path back to 35

Recruitment for both men and women is not the only recent news involving Greek life on campus. An Ohio Wesleyan fraternity was given permission to move back into the place they once called home.

After seven years without a house, the Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) fraternity received approval to return to 35 Williams Drive.

Members of the fraternity approached Dana Behum, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life, and Wendy Piper, director of residential life, about a year ago to express interest in starting the procedure.

“Dana and I met with individuals from the chapter and the chapter’s advisory board in September,” Piper said. “We invited them to submit an application for Fiji to occupy a residence on campus.”

After meeting with the members, Piper and Behum provided leaders of Fiji with a housing agreement, which would eventually be signed and approved.

The process was not always easy. According to Fiji president sophomore Ben Farynowski, there was a thick stack of paperwork to complete and a lot of disagreement among insurance companies.

“The big issue we had was insurance,” Farynowski said. “OWU’s insurance and Fiji’s insurance couldn’t agree, which took two and half months to figure out.”

Fiji’s advisor Dan Bennington, who was a member of the fraternity at OWU, lived in the house when he was a college student and was helpful during the process.

“It was great to have Dan help us along with the process,” Farynowski said. “Especially because he had lived in this same house when he was a student so it meant a lot to him to get the house back.”

OWU’s president Rock Jones noticed Fiji’s past record and commended them for completing the process.

“I congratulate the Phil Delta Gamma fraternity,” Jones said. “The fraternity includes a diverse group of men who provide leadership throughout the campus and consistently are at or near the top of fraternity academic performance lists.”

After Fiji heard the news, it was time to celebrate according to Farynowski. All the members were ecstatic to get the house back and to have one place to call home.

“We we’re getting pretty down toward the end of the process because we didn’t think the insurance would get figured out,” Farynowski said. “But it all got figured out thankfully and it’s pretty awesome.”

Local politicians work the band

Rock gods and politicians seem worlds apart, but for Delaware County Treasurer Jon Peterson and State Auditor Dave Yost, music permeates all – the two have been in a band together for about 10 years.

They call themselves The Geezers, according to Peterson, who said, “We have an abundance of grey hair and a few years between us.”

The band includes other workers for the state and county, and while Peterson says The Geezers play mostly house shows and backyard barbecues, he and Yost were a part of another group who performed at the state treasurer’s conference.

For the show, they called themselves the T-Notes, a term referencing a government debt security.

Peterson says both groups cover classic rock from the 1960s and 1970s, including songs by the Rolling Stones and Tom Petty. Peterson said his instrument of choice is the guitar, while Yost plays the keyboard and bass guitar.

In addition to playing for his peers, Peterson says Yost uses his music to show who he is as a politician. Their video for “Music to my Ears,” released during Yost’s re-election campaign, features Yost, Peterson and others playing in Yost’s living room.

“[Yost] used his music to convey what he is,” Peterson said, adding, “[Music and politics] are concurrent…even during that time as an officer, that doesn’t disclude the love for music.”

Peterson pointed out connections between other politicians and music, including President George H.W. Bush’s former campaign manager, Lee Atwater, who surprised the public with his skill at the blues.

Yost has played in other bands as well. He played for The Pink Flamingos while he worked as a journalist at the now defunct Citizen-Journal in Columbus.

Ohio Wesleyan journalism instructor TC Brown, who also played with The Pink Flamingos, said the band had quite a following of other political journalists and even played at the governor’s mansion.

Peterson, who worked in the Franklin County administrative offices at the time, agreed, adding he was a part of a fan base that “followed them around.”

Brown says he, Yost and Peterson jammed together once or twice, having fun by playing covers.

According to Peterson, he likes playing guitar for the therapeutic value. Quoting the Rolling Stones, Peterson said, “It’s only rock and roll. But I like it.”

No more running out of food points

Many Ohio Wesleyan students struggle to budget their meal points throughout the semester. Can a new meal plan fix this problem?

“The new meal plans are designed to be more in line with the meal plans most universities offer,” said Gene Castelli, resident district manager for Chartwells. “They are considered a ‘traditional’ plan in that they offer a set number of meals per week as well as some flex dollars. All plans will have the off campus points as well. The difference is the new plans offer the student the confidence that they will never run out of meal at the end of the semester.”

The new plan will be available to upperclassmen who choose to participate and mandatory for this fall’s incoming freshmen.

According to Castelli, the final rate for the new meal plan has not been set. However, pricing should remain consistent with existing meal plan rates.

Leah Miza is Smith Dining Hall. Photo courtesy of Alex Gross.

As for individual food item cost, Castelli said they “work with the administration to keep pricing based on consumer price index increases and other market factors. The new plans will not have any effect on pricing going forward as they were designed to work within the pricing schedule we currently use.”

Junior Jerry Leherisson, Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs president, believes the new meal plan is “a great way to ensure that students are able to utilize the money they paid at the beginning of the semester.” Leherisson did mention that he will choose to use the current meal plan system for the fall semester.

According to Castelli, during their first year, “Freshmen are negotiating their new world of classes, self-directed studying as well as the social environment our university has. In the past they also needed to worry about budgeting their points so they last the entire semester. This will help them in that they will not run out of meals.”

Junior Mira Singhal said the new meal is “a great idea. Hopefully it will help students who normally run out meal points allocate their swipes more efficiently.”

OWU radio returns

OWU radio equipment. Photo courtesy of Alex Gross. — Old OWU radio equipment from Slocum Hall. Photo courtesy of Adelle Brodbeck.

After a nearly two-year hiatus, Ohio Wesleyan online radio makes its return.

There has been no school radio since the spring semester of the 2012-2013 school year. At that time the station was ran from the third floor of Slocum Hall with outdated equipment.

The new station is located on the main floor of Phillips Hall. In a move away from traditional antenna broadcasting, OWU radio streams digitally.

The reemergence of OWU radio can largely be credited to Paul Kostyu, associate professor of journalism, Provost Charles Stinemetz and to The Transcript‘s media adviser Jo Ingles. The station also received financial backing from the office of the dean of academic affairs.

Conor Golden, who serves as the station’s general manager, has been very enthusiastic about getting it up and running. “I have been asking about the radio ever since it was shut down the spring of my freshman year,” Golden said.

A lot of progress has been made since then. An outside contractor was hired to do electrical work, heating and painting. Those updates alone took a few months. Further delays came in the form of computer software and streaming issues.

Professor Kostyu helped by salvaging what equipment he could. That equipment was moved from Slocum to Phillips, and included old, sound-proof insulation that now lines the station walls.

“We want to make sure it is professional and fun,” Golden explained. “There will be a lot more of a variety in regards to shows.”

Junior Conor Golden explains how the radio equipment works.

While most shows will be music oriented at first, the goal is to add public affairs reporting in the coming semester.

Golden even hinted at a show possibly being hosted by Public Safety officer Jay McCann. Until then, music ranging from hip-hop to classical to hipster rock can be heard on OWU radio. And anyone can DJ.

“Anybody on campus can have a show on this station…and that’s a new thing,” Kostyu said.

“We’re really excited about the fact that students are excited and are joining in. It’s kind of a different feel than what it was my freshman year,” said junior Billy George, who like Golden was a former DJ for the station. George will be working as the station’s program director. Students will be able to listen to OWU radio at radio.owu.edu.

Fresh faces bring fresh ambitions to WCSA

WCSA crest. Photo courtesy of the owu website.

The Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) kicked off the year with more new members than last semester and with new goals for the future.

First on the Feb. 2 meeting’s agenda was the appointment of several senators, a title that reflects the recent name-change of WCSA Full Body to WCSA Full Senate.

“This year’s Senate has a lot less juniors on it then we have typically had in past years,” President Jerry Lherison said.

That swing from the norm has led to the majority of WCSA members serving their first-ever term. There are still at least 10 members who have previous WCSA experience, and with the blend of veteran members coupled with renewed enthusiasm, there should be a lot of positive energy and things to come, Lherison said. That energy will be focused, among other things, on two goals: a bottle-free initiative and gender-inclusive housing.

“We are starting the discussions of trying to eliminate bottled water on campus and being completely renewable in that regard,” junior and senator Scout Trogstad-Isaacson said. A resolution that supports efforts by the Spectrum Resource Center to introduce gender inclusive housing to Ohio Wesleyan University was read as well, and will be introduced next week.

Resolutions and bills must go through a several week-long process of readings at full Senate meetings, followed by time to debate the issue at hand and make amendments. Once they successfully complete this process, the Senate can pass legislation.

Resolutions were not the only thing introduced. The executive committee welcomed new personnel to their side of the table. Graham Littlehale was approved as the Senate’s treasurer. Sophomore Andy Lowenbaum was welcomed as a senator, filling the vacancy left by junior Matt McCord’s resignation.

“I realized that the current administration and I had a fundamental difference of opinion regarding the way forward for WCSA’s structure, and so I decided to refocus my energies to better serve the organization and its constituents,” McCord said.

“Matt is still involved with what we do, it just won’t be on a week to week basis,” Lherison said. That involvement will center around work on the WCSA website. According to Lherison, the site is very outdated and is a project that the executive committee has wanted to prioritize.

According to Lherison, this first meeting was a positive start to the term and serves a great indicator of the potential that this year’s student government will show.

Seniors guide men’s lacrosse into another hopeful season

After a successful 2014 season, the Ohio Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team is looking to build off of experience and momentum.

The team went 12-4 last year, finishing second in the NCAC behind Denison University. OWU is returning a total of 10 seniors from that team.

Senior Kyle Foster. Photo courtesy of the battling bishops website.

One of those seniors is captain and midfielder Kyle Foster.

“We’re optimistic about the season, we know what we need to accomplish,” Foster said.

Foster was named to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division III All-America team as an honorable mention last season. Battling Bishop goalkeeper Ryan McMahon, who is also a returning senior, was named as an honorable mention as well.

“Personal accolades are nice but at the end of the day that’s not why you play, you play for the guy next to you,” Foster said.

OWU opens the season with a home game on Feb. 14 against Augustana College at Selby Stadium. A week later the team will go on to play Roanoke College in Virginia.

Senior Tommy Minkler. Photo courtesy of the battling bishops website.

The Battling Bishops are looking to take it one game at a time, but it is hard for them not to have their sights set on surpassing Denison and the NCAC championship.

“For us to win the NCAC this year, we are going to have to maintain a level of consistent play that we have never had here before, which means that we cannot afford to take any days off,” said senior attacker Tommy Minkler.

Until the opening game against Augustana, the Battling Bishops will continue to practice out in the cold and brave the winter climate of Ohio.

“Every day, our goal is to improve from the day before,” Minkler said. “If we have that mentality all season long the team will be very successful in the NCAC and NCAA.”

Career Services teams up with student volunteers

A past OWU CareerFest in the Benes Rooms. Photo courtesy of Facebook. — A past OWU CareerFest in the Benes Rooms.
Photo courtesy of Facebook.

Career Services wants to enhance job preparation for Ohio Wesleyan students. The career development team is meant to do just that.

“The career development team is an initiative to increase student access to the office’s services and resources via highly trained career associates,” said career development team advisor Alison Himes.

“The career development team is designed to help student volunteers to develop their skills in communication and planning; specific responsibilities will be based on interest, such as event planning, giving presentations, and working with students during one-on-one advising,” she said.

Himes said the career development team is “An initiative that the whole office wanted to get started, so I took the lead on the planning. I looked at other institutions relative to OWU to see if they had teams like this and did a lot of research to plan exactly what we wanted our team to look like.”

The one-on-one peer advising offers resume critiques, cover letter critiques, interview etiquette critiques, job and internship searching assistance, sharing networking advice and much more.

A CareerFest from last year in the Benes Rooms. Photo courtesy of the career services webpage.

According to sophomore Brenda Gonzalez Santillano, “If students are looking for quick advice they can come in during our drop-in hours or they can make an appointment to meet one on one with a staff member to discuss interview tips, resume dos and don’ts etc. We have a room where we will conduct mock interviews and film it to help provide students with the best feedback possible.”

The career development team is currently working to get students to register for the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges CareerFest, which is being held on Feb. 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Aladdin Shrine Center in Columbus. According to Santillano, the career festival “is a great networking opportunity for students looking for jobs or potential internships with employers.”

Senior Allison Smith said she has visited Career Services. “As a graduating senior, I am stressed about finding a job,” Smith said. “The career development team gave me informative and useful advice for the upcoming CareerFest.”

Other programs the career development team has advertised and promoted are The Summer on the Cuyahoga and The Great Lakes Career Ready Scholarship.

Survey on sexual assault sent to students

OWU logo courtesy of owu.edu.

On Jan. 19, President Rock Jones emailed Ohio Wesleyan students asking them to complete a survey on sexual assault, which included questions about how safe students feel on campus and their confidence in school officials.

According to the email, the survey is anonymous and takes about 15 minutes to complete.

The results will be used to inform and improve campus policies, practices and support services.

It also stated the reason for the survey was to gather information about “students’ perceptions of OWU’s climate on unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault, students’ perceptions of how OWU addresses and responds to sexual assault, and whether and how often students have experienced unwanted sexual contact or sexual assault.”

Jones said the administration is “deeply committed” to providing a safe campus for everyone and has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct.

“We believe this information will help us understand where there may be need for better education and processes and procedures used in response to sexual misconduct,” Jones said.

Dean of Students Kimberlie Goldsberry said a team met over the summer to discuss the many federal guidelines and agencies that share information about sexual assault. A “key initiative” from that team was a campus climate survey, which a subgroup then began to work on.

In the fall, the team discovered that the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium was working on a similar survey designed for small, residential, liberal arts colleges, so the team shared their information and a final survey was created.

“OWU was a given a window of time to offer the survey,” Goldsberry said. “We chose to do it now hoping that it being earlier in the semester might yield greater responsiveness from the community.”

She said everyone on campus has a role in addressing sexual violence issues. Some of the faculty and staff’s responsibilities include being familiar with OWU’s policies and what it means to report issues of sexual violence.

Goldsberry said students also need to do their part with education, intervention and accountability.

Senior Lauren Rump, an intern in the Women’s Resource Center, said when she received the email about the survey on sexual assault she was “surprised and impressed” that it came from Rock Jones.

When administrators don’t take these issues into their own hands, the responsibility for educational programming “falls on the shoulders of students,” Rump said.

She gave an example from last semester. The Women’s Resource Center was compelled to host a panel discussion about Title IX and its impact on campus because they had so many unanswered questions and thought other students would too.

“I definitely hope more education and stronger campaigns for consent will come out of this,” Rump said.

Rump added that the survey “shows initiative” and she hopes everyone takes it.

“It’s important that they hear from all types of people, but especially those who have had to go through that (sexual assault).”

The email will be sent to students two more times before the March 2 deadline.

Movie series begins with “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Movie poster for "Guardians of the Galaxy." — Movie poster for “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Photo courtesy of schmoesknow.com

Chris Pratt battled to save the human race alongside Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana, a sarcastic raccoon and a slightly anthropomorphic tree on Thursday, Jan. 29 in the Milligan Hub.

Not that the human race was particularly at risk, but the 30-some students who attended the Campus Programming Board’s screening of The Guardians of the Galaxy felt the excitement as it played out. Students snacked on popcorn and soda while the movie was projected on a screen onstage and the classic song “Hooked on a Feeling” looped in the minutes leading up to the showing.

Guardians of the Galaxy was the first of three movies to be screened for the CPB’s Popcorn and Pix series. Maleficent and The Lego Movie will follow, on the 13th and 17th of Feb. respectively.

The event's audience shortly before the move began. Photo courtesy of Alex Gross. — The event’s audience before the move began. Photo courtesy of Alex Gross.

Levi Harrel, co-advisor to the CPB, said the movies were chosen by a CPB internal vote, and the goal was to pick movies that are “current and fun.”

“This is a unique event at OWU because every time a movie shows on campus, it’s related to a class or a cause,” Harrel said. “This is just fun.”

Sophomore Maddie Oslejsek, the director of entertainment for CPB, said the idea of Popcorn and Pix was to create a night everyone could enjoy.

“We’re running around 24/7 (at OWU), so it’s nice to have a night to relax,” Oslejsek said.

While Harrel said he hoped more students would have turned up for the first movie, he said he thinks the series will pick up speed as more students hear about the event.

In addition to giving students free access to some of last year’s hits, CPB will be handing out two tickets to Bishop Bash, a concert to be held March 28. The first tickets were awarded after the Guardians of the Galaxy showing, during which students were encouraged to tweet space puns.

Harrel said this would be the first concert at OWU since 2011.

The next CPB event will be held Thursday, Feb.5, in Milligan Hub. Students will be able to enjoy coffee, tea and pastries while watching performances by musical duos Adelee, Gentry and Two Worlds.

New housing means fewer options

When Phi Delta Gamma (Fiji) takes back their house next semester, juniors and seniors will be left with fewer housing options than in the past.

There are 32 rooms in 35 Williams Drive, one of the junior/senior living options, according to Levi Harrell, Residential Life Coordinator (RLC) at Ohio Wesleyan. There are approximately 390 students in the incoming senior class, according to Dale Swartzentruber, of institutional research at OWU.

Jill Auxter, another RLC at OWU, said 35 Williams has mostly single rooms, with only two or three double rooms.

“By senior year, most students don’t seem to care where they live, so much as they get a single room,” Auxter said.

Wendy Piper, director of residential life, said aside from fraternity houses and small living units (SLUs), seniors can apply to live in any residential hall on campus.

“Students can choose from Stuyvesant Hall, Smith Hall, Hayes Hall (which is female only), Austin Manor, as well as Welch, Thomson, and Bashford halls,” Piper said.

Rising juniors and seniors will still be able to apply to live in 4 Williams Drive.

“Both rising juniors and seniors can apply to live in both 4 and 23 (Bigelow-Reed House) Williams Drive, however priority will be given to seniors,” Harrell said.

Auxter said there are 31 rooms, mostly all single, in 4 Williams.

One misconception about Bashford and Thomson is that only first year students can live there.

“Any student can apply to have a single room in Bashford or Thomson,” said Auxter. “It’s the same application process as it is to live in Stuyvesant Hall, Smith or Welch.”

Auxter said there are 12 single rooms available in Thomson and Bashford halls.

“The housing process will be exactly the same this year,” said Auxter. “Rising seniors will come to the senior housing night, where they will line up and select a room from the floor plan.”

Senior housing night will be on March 19 at 7 p.m. in Stuyvesant Hall.

“We are expecting (35 Williams) to be completely filled once Fiji moves back into their house next semester,” Auxter said.

After Fiji lost their house in 2008, Auxter said it was renovated and reopened in the fall of 2010.

“32 students will be missing out on one of their potential first choices for housing, however, we’re hoping they’ll be understanding,” Auxter said.