In an unsurprising decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, allowing the craft store chain to deny contraception to its employees based on its religious beliefs. Though I always knew the Supreme Court would rule in favor of Hobby Lobby, a part of me hoped it wouldnât.
Hobby Lobby said that they feel they donât need to provide their employees with Plan B (the “morning after pill”) and intrauterine devices (IUDs), because they think they cause abortions. Hobby Lobby is owned by the Christian Green family, and they think providing women with contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act violates their religious freedom. And apparently the Supreme Court agreed. With this ruling, it shows that SCOTUS thinks not only that corporations are people, but that they can exercise religious rights.
There are several problems with this ruling. One is that it creates a slippery slope â if employers can deny certain medications based on their religious affiliations, where will the line be drawn? Â Christian Scientists donât believe in blood transfusions and Scientologists donât believe in anti-depressants, so does that mean under this ruling, they can deny coverage for these life saving treatments?
But the biggest problem with this ruling is that it is yet another attack on women. The Supreme Court decided this verdict 5-4, and those in the majority male. The four dissenters included the three women on the bench. These men in the majority value corporations over women because, as we all know, corporations are people. Itâs nice to know that corporations have more rights than I do.
. Remind me the last time a man was asked about how being a father impacts his job performance?
This decision is a result of culmination of feelings towards women. The idea that women arenât capable of making their own healthcare decision, that women are only seen as vessels for fetuses and that women are less valuable than corporations. The Supreme Court has set a scary precedent for healthcare and women, and the future is uncertain as to what will happen to women next.
I just wish I was a white, Christian male so I would be able to make my own healthcare decisions.
The ceiling of the WCC’s dining room, which collapsed in early June.
The Womenâs City Club of Delaware, Ohio will be giving a garden tour of 8 Delaware gardens this weekend in an attempt to raise money for housing renovations, including those for its dining roomâs recently collapsed ceiling.
The nonprofit organization dedicates itself to providing women in need with low cost housing. The group consistently fundraises in order to provide the residents with low rents, which are about $60 a week per resident and include utilities. In addition to constantly fundraising to keep rents low, the WCC has to raise additional funds for the homeâs many necessary repairs. The 135 N. Franklin St. home was once an Ohio Wesleyan University fraternity house and has been in business since 1954, so renovations are not an uncommon need for the historic home.
One of the clubâs more recent fundraisers took place on Friday, April 14, 2014, when the volunteers of the WCC collected donated items for a rummage sale to be held the next day. The rummage sale was inspired by a need to make about $4,000 for renovations, but raised $900. Aprilâs rummage sale could not have predicted a need for funding beyond their goal of $4000, but in early June, the homeâs dining room ceiling collapsed. The ceiling continues to be the primary concern for the renovations and safety of the women living there. Even with insurance coverage, the WCC expects to spend a significant amount of money on the repair.
There are eight women who reside in the rooms on the second and third floor of the four-story home. Only single women are eligible to live at WCC, but women of all ages, from 20 to 90 and above, are welcome.
OWU alumna Emily Amburgey, â13, is one of those eight women, but her reasons for occupancy are different than most. Amburgey is the house monitor as well as an intern coach for the Varsity Track team at Ohio Wesleyan.
âI needed a place to live in Delaware that was cheap,â she said. âI kind of intern coach, follow my head coaches around and do what they do. I donât get paid anything.â
A former Women and Gender Studies/Sociology double major, Amburgey is applying to graduate school next year and plans to become a social worker. She said her position at the WCC helps her prepare for a future of helping others.
â(WCC) is right up my alley,â she said. âItâs interesting seeing the different mix of people that come through this house, and itâs just neat to be able to talk to and eclectic group of women and be able to help them out on their little journeys.â
As the monitor, Amburgey also acts as the houseâs resident mediator, putting out any emotional fires that may arise within the residents.
âAnything like someone gets locked out of their room or if thereâs any sort of question or dispute, thatâs what Iâm here for,â she said. âI mean itâs a house full of women, it can be difficult at times but for the most part itâs totally fine,â she said.
Kelly Abel, 21, who graduated from Rutherford B. Hayes High School in 2011, moved in about two weeks before the rummage sale.
âI was in Bowling Green, Ohio for a few months, couch hopping because things got really bad with my parents,â she said. âThey were emotionally abusive, thatâs why I left.â
Although Amburgey and Abel are both in their 20âs, most of the other residents vary in age. The WCC provides housing for single women of all ages, from 20-90 and above.
âIâm thinking that down the road I definitely want to not live here because I want to be married and have children of my own,â Abel said.
Abel said she is happy to call the WCC her temporary home, she said that she has many aspirations for her future and is currently looking for a job in Delaware.
âIâm trying to find work right now, anything that pays,â she said. âI heard possibly United Dairy Farmers.â
Like Abel, housemate Rebekah Nussbum, 32, from Orville, Ohio found the WCC after moving out of her childhood residence.
âI was ready to move out of my parents house, I heard about (WCC) and finally decided I might as well try it,â said Nussbum.
Nussbum has been living at the WCC for about 16 months. Currently unemployed, Nessbum had worked at the Columbus Zoo in season since 2003. Unlike Abel, she said sheâs not sure what she wants to do in the future.
Treasurer for the WCC, Sue Capretta, intends on raising enough money so residents like Nussbum and Abel have a safe and inexpensive place to live for as long as they wish. She said the board for the WCC is bonded by this idea.
âI think it was just the concept of what the group does, being able to allow women to be here, you know for reduced price and helping them work through their struggles,â Capretta said.
Greta Bemiller, the current Vice President of the WCC, has been a member of the board for over 10 years.
âI came in and met everyone having dinner and liked the people and got involved,â she said of her start at the WCC. âItâs a fun group we work very hard but have fun as well.â
Zuilla Way founded the WCC 60 years ago, and Bemiller said that they frequently hold events to raise awareness and funds in an effort to honor her mission: providing safe and affordable housing for women below the poverty line.
âBoard meeting is the first Tuesday of every month, and we have a dinner meetings, sometimes we go to restaurants. We usually have a potluck and we do some fun silly things,â Bemiller said. âWeâll have a chili cook off and give awards- theyâre major awards,â she added in April as she was holding up decorations for the rummage sale.
(From left to right) Senior Kelsey Gallaher, Myriem Ibourk ’14, senior Katie Butt and Chaplin Jon Powers pose with Eboo Patel, the founder of the Interfaith Leadership Institute (center). Photo:Â OWU communications.
By Spenser Hickey
Managing Editor
Senior Katie Butt didnât know her club, Better Together, had won the Interfaith Youth Coreâs national âBest Overall Campaignâ award until a few hours before the news was officially released.
âWhen I found out the first thing that I thought of was going back to when I first started this group,â she said.
OWU Better Together was founded two years ago by Butt, whoâd been inspired by an interfaith focused spring break mission trip her freshman year.
âI worked with the Interfaith Youth Core doing interfaith relations work and also learning about urban poverty,â Butt said. âAnd so that following summer I also went to Washington, D.C. for the Presidentâs Interfaith Community Service Campus Challenge and so I got really wrapped up in interfaith work.â
OWU Better Together won for their work on promoting food justice, which according to Butt is âthe idea that itâs a basic right of all humans to have access to food.â
âOut of a student body of 1850, (OWU Better Together) engaged 1,300 students in over 40,000 hours of community service,â the judges said.
A key part in their food justice campaign was the Hunger Banquet, held April 17, 2014.
âThe hunger banquet is this banquet thatâs made for 100 people and itâs meant to show food inequalities globally,â Butt said.
The banquet reproduces global food inequality by offering participants with one of three options at random, ranging from a three course meal with seats for the upper class to rice and water with no seats for the lower income class, according to Butt.
Rachel Vinciguerra â14, a member of Better Together and Interfaith House resident, said the banquet also helped combat hunger in Delaware in addition to raising awareness of national and global hunger.
âWe raised money and food points,â she said.
Butt said they donated the money to FEED, a local organization, and gave food points to students who didnât have them; in total they raised more than $1,000 worth.
While Butt liked the work Better Together has done on food justice, she said she hopes the club will continue to promote religious tolerance when she is no longer acting as the president. Butt said that as long as religious tolerance is at the organizationâs core, she will be satisfied with whatever other directions the club might take.
âMy ultimate goal is just that in a world where religion is such a point of conflict…is to foster a community where thatâs not an issue,â she said.
â…We can create an open dialogue about this, so that hatred and bigotry isnât an issue any more. As long as Better Together is still creating a safe space for people of all religious and non-religious values, thatâs all I can hope for.â
The Family Promise house in Delaware. Photo: Facebook
Employment gaps between men and women are widening nationally, and Delaware County is no exception.
The official definition used by the U.S. Census reads, âIf a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty.â
In Delaware County there are 8,885 people living below the poverty line, with 1,818,886 of all of Ohioâs residents fall below the poverty line. Delaware holds approximately one-half of a percent of the underprivileged rate in Ohio. According to the 2014 Ohio Poverty Report, ââŠpoverty rates are higher for families with children, families without a full-time, year-round worker, and single-parent households- especially those with a female head.â
Ohio Wesleyan womenâs and gender studies instructor Rita Trimble, said she defines underprivileged people as those who are  economically disadvantaged. Trimble said she believes it âfalls disproportionally on certain groups of women.â
âPeople who donât totally fit the white, middle-class, feminine norm are at risk to be more economically disadvantaged,â she said.
According to the census data for 2011, 13.6 percent of males are under the poverty line, while 16.3 percent of females are impoverished.
In another census report from 2012, the poverty rates are displayed by age and gender. For ages 65 and over, 11 percent of women are suspected to be living in poverty, while 6.6 percent of men are believed to be living under the poverty line. From ages 18 to 64, 15.4 percent of women are underprivileged, compared to 11.9 percent of men. Ages under 18 show that 22.3 percent of women and 21.3 percent of men are living below the poverty line.
Children
Trimble said that âa big factorâ of why more women than men are consider underprivileged is the fact that âunpaid labor that goes on is done by women.â
âWe have an idea of how people should be able to pull their own weight and one difficulty for a single mother is that that unpaid labor doesnât get recognized as labor,â she said. âSo itâs hard to be recognized as pulling your own weight.â
Various organizations throughout Delaware County provide multiple services to those who fall below the poverty line, with some focusing strictly on women.
OWU senior Tasha Cruz volunteers at Family Promise, a nonprofit organization in Delaware committed to helping those below the poverty line.
âWe provide them with housing and food basically for a minimum duration of four weeks with a possible extension up to three months,â Cruz said.
Cruz said she believes a reason more women are underprivileged could be because they stay with their children.
Assistant professor of English Constance Richards defines an underprivileged person as âsomeone who doesnât have access to basic needs: education, job, adequate food, safe home.â
Richards said women living in poverty often have children, which makes escaping hardship much more difficult. She also said it can be easier for men to be absent in the parent role than it is for mothers.
âBecause we donât have a subsidized child care system in this country, women are always going to have an extra job,â Richards said. âIf we had subsidized child care â so safe, affordable child care â moms could put kids in child care then they might be better able to compete in the marketplace.â
Pay Inequalities
Trimble said there is a blaming stigma that occurs when a person is disadvantaged. Many people living below the poverty line work multiple jobs, but more often than not these workers earn minimum wage, making it difficult to achieve economic security. For women responsible for children, a minimum wage job makes earning a decent living especially difficult.  Despite their work at one or several jobs, people below the poverty line are frequently generalized as lazy.
Trimble said there is a sense of shame that the unprivileged face, as they can conform to societyâs view of their situation.
According to the Insecure and Unequal Poverty and Income Among Women and Families Report for 2010 and 2011 by the National Womenâs Law Center, âPoverty rates for all groups of women were higher than for their male counterparts.â
âThe gender wage gap persisted, undermining womenâs ability to support themselves and their families,â the report said.
It continued to show the discrepancies between men and women. Women on average make 77 cents to every manâs dollar, which for the year 2011 there was âan annual difference of $11,084 in median earnings.â African-American and Hispanic women earned 64 and 55 cents to every white manâs dollar, respectively.
Although there continues to be poverty, the report stated that poverty has stabilized between 2010 and 2011 after it had been increasing in the prior years.
In another report by The National Womenâs Law Center, the center focuses on inequality of pay in Ohio.According to census data, women in Ohio earned $35,284 full-time to menâs $45,859 earnings in 2010. Additionally, 15.2 percent of Ohio women were in poverty to Ohio menâs 11.6 percent.
Local Organizations
Located in the middle of the Delaware community are three organizations that aimed to help those in need: Family Promise, he Andrews House and the Womenâs City Club.
Family Promise volunteer Cruz said Family Promise works to take in and provide for low-income families. There is an on-staff social worker to help the families find work and housing for when they leave the organization.
Andrews House, located at the corner of North Franklin and West Winter Street, is a community center with offices that provide assistance to the underprivileged and works on programs to better lives.
The center includes offices for legal, financial, child care, health and food services. There is a full kitchen for the bi-monthly community dinners. Director Mel Corroto said about 40 to 90 people show up for each dinner.
Andrews House also works with other food programs like the Mobile Food Market with Mid-Ohio Foodbank and the Summer Lunch Program for children under 18Â when they are not in school.
Every Wednesday the Andrews House offers free Medical services with its Grace Medical Clinic, and once a month the Delaware Bar Association offers free legal advice through a clinic.
Corroto said she does not necessarily see more women than men come in for the services offered at the Andrews House. However, the Andrews House is beginning to work with the program Support Through Empowerment and Partnerships (STEP), and she said she has seen more women through this program than men. Corroto said that last year the STEP class had eight students, seven of whom were women. Corroto said this year’s class is all women.
The Womenâs City Club of Delaware focuses its attention specifically on women. Greta Bemiller, the club’s vice president, said the club offers housing for underprivileged women with a small rooming fee. All of the house’s nine rooms are currently occupied, and more women are on a waiting list to move into the club.
Bemiller said she believes there are more women in need than men because of “the glass ceiling” that prevents women from achieving the same successes of working men. She said it’s common for women to have less access to education, which can result in fewer job opportunities.
The Women Cityâs Club works as a transition place for the women to get them back on their feet. The club is able to stay afloat with government grants and fundraising events. The 37 members of the club are all volunteers.
Both Corroto and Bemiller said they have had Ohio Wesleyan students come and volunteer. Cruz said she hopes students can become aware of what is going on around Ohio Wesleyan.
âIt would be so easy for a student to step outside off campus a little bit,â Cruz said. âThey would be able to see that these are people.â
Danielle Adkins, a recovering heroin addict and Delaware native, is approaching her second year sober.
âWhen an oxycodone cost $80 and 30 milligrams of Percocet is $30 you canât afford to sustain that habit for long. I told my dealer I couldnât keep spending $120 a day, so he suggested I try his pure white heroin. Like that, I was hooked,â said 35-year-old Delaware native and recovering addict, Danielle Adkins.
Heroin originally became popular in the 1960s, but after four decades, it is now back funneling through U.S. streets at a high rate. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, from 2007 to 2012 the number of Americans using heroin increased from 373,000 to 669,000.
Steve Hedge, executive-director of Delaware Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services, said heroin is their No.1 problem.
âHeroin and opioids are some of the most addictive drugs you can take. Youâll hear former abusers say I got hooked the first time I injected it,â he said.
The narcotic analgesic directly depresses the central nervous system causing an intense high. Heroin can be naturally derived from the opium poppy or formulated synthetically in a lab.
Adkins said she had to learn how to hide her addiction from her husband, child and friends.
âWhile I was slamming (injecting through the veins), I shot up in my lower extremities, in between my toes, and in the veins on my breasts,” she said. “I always made sure the lights were off when I made love to my husband so he would not know my secret.â
The country-wide epidemic has severely affected. Ohio In 2011, there were 1,765 unintentional drug overdoses, according to the Ohio Department of Health. That means nearly five Ohioans died every day from unintentional drug overdose that year.
Judge David Sunderman of the Delaware County Municipal Court said heroin addicts are not worried about overdosing.
âI had a guy in court recently that was on probation, and he was a heroin user. His best friend and girlfriend had both died from an overdose. I mentioned to the court that he had tested dirty even after that occurred,â said Sunderman. âI said, âA logical person would conclude that once you see someone close to you die, youâre just not going to use again.â He responded, âJudge to be honest, thereâs no logic involved in this. I know that is how I should think, but when youâre a heroin addict you donât care about that. There are times Iâd be happy dead anyways.â
Adkins, a former registered nurse at Ohio State Universityâs Wexner Medical Center, said the addiction is extremely strong.
âI would go to work high, inject myself while I was at work, and then get high when I got home. I still feel very guilty for taking an oath as a nurse to care for the sick, not to hurt them,â she said.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, from 1997 to 2011 the amount of unintentional drug overdose death rates and distribution rates of prescription opioids showed a strong relationship as both are currently at all-time highs.
Prescription opioid pills such as OxyContin and Percocet are the gateways to heroin. These prescription pills can be obtained from a pharmacy with a valid prescription or from âpill millsâ where patientâs leftover prescription medication is distributed illegally.
Delaware Police Chief Bruce Pijanowski said the source of addiction is doctors over-prescribing opiate pain medication to some of their patients.
âMy daughter just had very minor knee surgery, and she got a 30-day supply of Percocet when she only needed a one-day supply. Part of the problem is the left-over pain pills are just sitting there and they get diverted,â he said.
Dr. Andy Lee of the Smith Clinic said heroin addicts are solely worried about where the cheapest fix is coming from.
âAs the supply of prescription opiates has dried up, theyâve become more and more expensive and more difficult to get. Simple economics dictates that Iâm going to buy whatever is cheapest,â he said.
Addicts often resort to burglaries, shoplifting and home invasions, selling or pawning their stolen goods for their next cheap fix. Judge Sunderman said desperate addicts will do anything for a balloon of heroin.
âSince we are the municipal court, we see a tremendous amount of shoplifting cases,â he said. âBig shopping areas such as Polaris, all the stores down on Route 23 and stores in town are unfortunately convenient places for people to go get items. Their plan is they steal merchandise worth $300, to go get enough money out if it for their next fix.â
After months of being consistently using heroin, Adkins had a scare and decided to finally admit her addiction to her husband. He immediately took her to inpatient rehabilitation where she endured withdrawal.
Adkins then was admitted to outpatient rehabilitation at Maryhaven, a rehabilitation and addiction recovery care center in Delaware. Adkins has been clean for almost two years, and she said the road to recovery is rewarding.
âWhen I was high, my body was there, but I wasnât,” she said. “Maryhaven saved my life, and I am now a more attentive mother to my child and better wife to my husband.â
Adkins said she is now pursuing her bachelorâs degree online to become a social worker to help other addicts and get her story out. Adkins explained she has learned one major lesson through her journey.
âI had a great family, nice house and a good paying job, but I still became addicted,” she said. “If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.â
Last week, as the far rightâs spin machine revved up to try to create a controversy out of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahlâs return from Taliban captivity, one particular statement stood out for itâs ridiculousness.
Allen West was a member of the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013; before that he was a US Army Lieutenant Colonel until he left the service after his subordinates beat an Iraqi policeman for information and West threatened to shoot him, according to his own statements in military trial proceedings.
West is now a contributor on Fox News and a prominent Tea Party personality, and through that capacity heâs spreading the strangest aspect of this manufactured Bergdahl controversy — in addition to five Guantanamo prisoners, this trade cost the United States the White House.
Last Monday, West said heâd been sent a âbombshellâ email by a friend who was a CIA officer. During the press conference, Bob Bergdahlâs first words were in Arabic, West writes, even though even the video West provided shows he began in English before switching to Arabic, as his son has difficulty with English after five years in captivity.
âBismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim,â Bergdahl said; in English it means âIn the name of God, the gracious, most compassionateâ and is a common saying in Islam, kind of like âOur Father, who art in heaven.â
Thatâs what it means, but thatâs not what Allen West thinks. No, this was an apparently motiveless ploy by Bob Bergdahl to âclaim and sanctifyâ the White House for Islam, and he pulled it off, apparently with the Presidentâs knowledge. (Surprisingly, The Onion had no part in this idea — hereâs a link to see for yourself: http://goo.gl/3shHds.)
Well, damn. Guess we shouldâve taken last yearâs âInvasion of the White Houseâ movies more seriously, huh? Who knew all it really took was one phrase being spoken on the White House grounds? The President, apparently — thanks, Obama.
Except thatâs where, even if you believe the âObama is a Muslimâ extremist conspiracy which seems to be part of this latest one, it doesnât make sense. What good is placing a secret Muslim in the White House if he has to wait five years to bring someone else to claim it for Islam? Youâd think, in this capture-the-flag-esque world West seems to believe we live in, Obama couldâve just taken the oath of office in 2009 and then immediately dropped this magic phrase and outlawed Christianity or something. Checkmate, freedom.
But of course, this is all ludicrous. Arabic, while a beautiful language to listen to, doesnât have magic powers. President Obamaâs not a Muslim, not thereâd be anything wrong with him if he was, and as far as I know neither is Bob Bergdahl. Heâs just a father who wanted to bring his son home and try to understand why he was in captivity.
And while Westâs wild theory would be hilarious, itâs really one of the more unusual manifestations of our cultural Islamophobia thatâs festered throughout the War on Terror.
And that brings me to another recent news story, one that did not make national news. As Colorlines and a Virginia ABC affiliate reported last week, the Fairfax County Muslim-American community is outraged after an alleged hate crime on May 20.
The accused man, Patrick Sullivan, who like the victim works for the government, became outraged because the victim dared talk on the phone with his wife in his native Bengali, rather than English like he was apparently supposed to. Sullivan then allegedly attacked the man — whose name was not included in the news reports — and threatened to throw him from the train they were on. When a conductor tried to intervene, Sullivan said he thought the man might have had a bomb. All this because of the language the man spoke.
So while Westâs preposterous theories about Arabic having magical powers to claim buildings for Islam may sound funny at first, they can have serious implications. A future hate crime perpetrator, for example, could easily say he was defending the train from being taken for Islam.
Similar arguments were used to block an Islamic cultural center from being built in New York City, on the grounds that it would be a disgrace to those lost in 9/11 — even though there already was a mosque closer to Ground Zero, and it wouldnât have been a disgrace to them anyway.
Yes, we lost almost 3,000 people on 9/11, but the real way to disgrace those lost would be to use their names and memories to oppress and target innocent Muslim-Americans who had nothing to do with the attacks. Sadly in many cases thatâs what happened.
Hate crimes against Muslim-Americans and those perceived to be Muslim-American spiked in the months after 9/11, profiling and targeted surveillance became accepted practices, and in the most well-known example of religious and racial xenophobia six Sikh-Americans were murdered in August 2012 by a white supremacist whoâd discussed a coming âracial holy war.â
Targeting Americans who are lumped in with foreign enemies abroad is a long-standing unfortunate national tradition – it happened to German-Americans in World War I; Japanese-Americans in World War II; Russian- and Eastern European-Americans in the Cold War and Asian-Americans during Korea and Vietnam. But if we really want to use such lofty terms as âland of the freeâ or âgreatest nation on earthâ we must do better than allowing that fear and intolerance.
While we fight a global war on terror, we must not allow terror to be accepted here at home, and thatâs what statements like Westâs can encourage, by demonizing and other-ing Muslims and Arabic speakers as having these bizarre powers to claim buildings — ridiculous though that idea may be, it still needs to be challenged.
No matter what faith, if any, we have we must stand together against these forces of bigotry and fear that threaten a community because of who they are, their beliefs or their language. Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim, I hope that all Muslim-Americans, as well as the Bergdahl family, can find peace and acceptance in this country, which is their nation as well.
Spenser Hickey is a member of Ohio Wesleyanâs Unitarian Universalist community.
The Delaware Police Department (DPD) arrested Nicholas Corey Lee Eber, 23, of Delaware, OH on charges of attempted murder and felonious assault against senior Anthony Peddle.
Eber is suspected to have stabbed Peddle the morning of Saturday, May 3.Peddle was asleep in his bedroom at the Chi Phi Fraternity house on 216 N. Franklin St. when attacked.
The arrest follows the warrant DPD received Monday for Eber’s electronic devices. Although the Transcript had access to Eber’s identity, his identity was protected as he was not yet identified as a suspect in the case.  According to the warrant, Eber received a ride to the fraternity house from an Ohio Wesleyan University student. The student was compliant in working with DPD and has no further affiliation with the case.
In an email to the OWU community, President Rock Jones expressed his appreciation for the Delaware Police Department.
“I am pleased to share with you the announcement from the Delaware Police that they have made an arrest in the case of the stabbing incident last weekend,” he said. “Our records show that the person arrested, Nicholas Eber, has never been associated with Ohio Wesleyan University.”
Director of Public Safety Robert Wood said OWU Public Safety worked closely with DPD on the case as well as to ensure the safety of students on campus. Wood said the details of the added protection cannot be disclosed for security reasons.
“We have protocols and when events of this kind happen, we always look how and if we can add any additional security,” Wood said. “We have been in very close contact with DPD- several times a day, every day. We’ve been so fortunate to work with them, they have been working on this 24 hours a day since the attack.They have been instrumental in this process”
Wood confirmed Eber was consistently suspected to have no affiliation to the university.
“All our indications were that this person was not connected to the university.”
Peddle is the president of the senior class, and Director of Media and Community Relations, Cole Hatcher, confirmed to the Transcript on Tuesday that Peddle will be speaking at Sunday’s commencement ceremony.
Senior class Vice President, Aara Ramesh, said on Monday that she was confident an arrest would be made soon.
“It was really jarring to me to learn that this attack was not randomized, but rather a targeted one,” she said. “I am positive that the perpetrator will be caught and a suitable punishment will be doled out.”
Chi Phi president TJ Clark said Peddle asked the members not to discuss information about the case to the media.
Delaware Police Detective David McQuigg, investigator in Saturday’s stabbing of senior Anthony Peddle, received a search warrant Monday morning for a smart phone and other electronic devices that may contain evidence related to the crime.
The warrant, signed by Detective McQuigg, says that the devices in question belong to a Delaware resident who matched the physical description of Peddle’s assailant and with whom Peddle had “a long-standing feud.”
The warrant also says that an Ohio Wesleyan student had seen the person of interest less than an hour before the incident occurred and that he was wearing a green hoodie; witness descriptions of the assailant said he wore “a blue or green hoodie.”
The student declined to comment.
At this time the person of interest has not been charged with a crime and no suspects have been named in the incident. The incident has been classified as a felonious assault and the case remains open and under investigation.
As senior class president, Peddle was scheduled to speak at commencement Sunday May 11. Vice President Aara Ramesh said she did not know if Peddle plans to speak at commencement or not. If Peddle cannot speak, she will take his place during the commencement ceremony.
“My hope is that Anthony will be able to make it; he has been working on this speech for months and deserves something nice after this terrible incident,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh said that in times like these, seniors should remember that OWU has taught them to be strong and resilient.
Sophomore Jerry Lherrison, vice president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs and a member of the Greek community, said WCSA would like to extend its “warmest wishes” to Peddle and the members of Chi Phi.
” I know without a doubt that Anthony has (a) strong support system from both the Class of 2014 and the OWU community as a whole,” Lherrison said.
Following the news that Peddle had been attacked, the Chaplain’s Office and Counseling Services made themselves available to students, particularly members of Chi Phi.
“In times of crisis or tragedy, we strive to be a supportive presence, someone students can simply sit with quietly or provide a few words of encouragement and peace,” said Associate Chaplain Lisa Ho.
Following the attack, University Chaplain Jon Powers met with Peddle and his family at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center while Associate Chaplain Chad Johns supported the other members of Chi Phi. Johns, a graduate of the Class of 2002, is a member of Chi Phi fraternity. Ho stayed in touch with Peddle via phone, and he was visited by other chaplains as well.
Powers said the brightest point he’d seen following the attack was after Peddle’s surgery, when Powers “saw the sparkle in his eye again.”
He also credited seeing what he called “the outpouring of the mature care of people in the community.”
“People stepped up and took care of each other,” Powers said. “It illustrates how strong we are.”
Ho said she was inspired by seeing community members change their Facebook profile pictures to ones of them with Peddle.
“I observed the very best of Ohio Wesleyan displayed in the very worst of circumstances,” she said. “Everyone from the Chi Phi brothers, to Public Safety, to the administration has reached out to Anthony during this time.”
Susan Dileno, current Vice President for Enrollment Management at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, will replace Interim VP for Enrollment, Dave Wottle.
 Dileno will now oversee the offices of Admission and Financial Aid at Ohio Wesleyan University.
President Rock Jones said Dileno has been an enrollment professional for 30 years.
Prior to her job as VP for Enrollment at Baldwin Wallace, she worked as Dean of Enrollment Management at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., for four years and at Cleveland-based Case Western Reserve University for 11 years, which included a seven year term as the Director of Admission.
âIn each case, she was successful at building a strong program, increasing the size, strength and diversity of entering classes, and building an awareness of the institution among prospective students and their families as well as among high school counselors and other important participants in the college search process,â Jones said.
Dileno said she her skillset is a good match for OWU because she is nurturing and mentoring and has a collaborative style when it comes to her work.
At Baldwin Wallace, Dileno said she focused on improving first impressions for prospective students by incorporating the town around the campus and building a welcome center where Admissions is located.
âFirst impressions for prospective students and their parents could be everything,â she said.
She added that she does not have any definitive plans for OWU yet but she will focus on increasing enrollment, quality and selectivity of students.
âI hope the Admissions and Financial Aid here becomes a model for other schools,â Dileno said.
Jones said Dileno is highly respected and appreciated by her staff and faculty at the institutions she has served.
âI am confident she will bring new energy, vision, and strategy to our admission office and that with her leadership we will see Ohio Wesleyan continue to gain strength in student recruitment and in the composition of our student body,â Jones said.
Dileno said she is enthusiastic about health and physical fitness and runs as a hobby.
She said she has already started looking at TPX, platies and yoga facilities in the Delaware area. She said she is also a movie buff who loves to cook Thai, Indian and Italian food.
âAnythingâs fair game when youâre from Cleveland,â she said.
Every year the National Science Foundation awards Graduate Research Fellowships to outstanding young scientists.
This year, three Ohio Wesleyan students, senior Mary Ann Lee and alumni Brad Turnwald (â13) and Kristen Lear (â11), were honored in receiving the award.
Over 14,000 applications were submitted, 2,000 of which were selected.
With the award comes a $32,000 per year stipend and $12,000 per year to help pay tuition costs directly for three years.
âThe fellowship will enable me to not have to TA for 3 years out of five years of my PhD, which will free up a lot more time for me to put into research,â Lee said.
All three described the application process to obtain an NSF Fellowship as difficult and lengthy.
âThe application process was really taxing, because one of the essays basically asks you to design a PhD thesis, which I had no idea what I was going to write about or had not enough knowledge about the topic,â Lee said.
Turnwald echoed similar sentiments, adding simply completing the application alone was valuable experience.
Applications were submitted in early November, at which point they each were sent to three independent panelists, who judged the applications based on intellectual merits as well as the broader impact it would have for the scientific community.
Both Turnwald and Lee earned Goldwater scholarships last year, while Lear earned a Fulbright scholarship as a senior.
âReceiving the NSF fellowship is rewarding because it hinged on obtaining very positive reviews from established senior scientists that anonymously evaluated my research proposal,â Turnwald said.
 For Lee, doing research at OWU was instrumental in helping her think like a scientist and shape her as a scientist overall.
She expressed joy about the opportunities an NSF Fellowship provides.
Originally she had not planned to apply, but Dr. Downing strongly encouraged Lee to send in a proposal, structuring a directed readings to guide her along.
Turnwald has begun to study at Stanford University on a Graduate Fellowship.
Both Lee and Lear will start their studies next year at the University of Arizona and the University of Georgia, respectively.
Lear said she felt her time and research experience at OWU played a big part in her success.
âI have no doubt that my research experiences at OWU have opened many doors for me,â she said.