The Transcript

By Emily Temple

Transcript Correspondent

On Monday, Oct. 7, the Ohio Wesleyan Education Department celebrated the opening of the Short Family Multimedia Lab in Phillips Hall.

This donation was the first donation the department has received in the 14 years that Paula White, professor of education and the department’s chair, has been employed at the university.

“We anticipate this impact will have a ripple effect that results in increased PreK-12 student learning,” she said. “I plan to use the lab with students in my methods courses who are learning and developing their range of instructional techniques.”

This donation from Mary Carol and Jack Short will give education majors the opportunity to further their learning through technology.

This new lab will provide opportunities for students to develop their pedagogical technology skills. It will especially be helpful to seniors in the program who are student teaching by allowing them to use iMovie video editing software to make their videos for the edTPA, a new program that is implemented across many universities in the state of Ohio.

The lab includes ten iMacs, a printer and an Apple TV. The Apple TV allows students and professors to connect wirelessly via airplay eliminating the need for expensive projectors.

The iMacs are fully loaded with word processing software, iMovie software and much more. White said if there is something else the department wanted to add, there is always “an app for that.”

A large part of the lab is the iMovie software allowing student teachers to edit their required video for their edTPA submissions in their final semester.

Senior Bethany Mann, an early childhood education major said the resources will help her greatly in getting ready for her graduation and future career and in completing the edTPA project.

“I am extremely excited to use the lab to further my education experience and prepare for my future as an educator,” she said.

The Short family has a long legacy of producing OWU graduates that totals to 92 years, with the most recent graduate in the class of 2010.

By Sam Simon

Transcript Reporter

The latest government shutdown has ended.  But other crises loom in the future, so an examination of what happened while OWU had its fall break is interesting both in review and in a likely preview of things to come.

The current situation with partisan politicians testing the limits of their power is not unique.  Beginning in the 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the government was shut down 18 times in 19 years with the debt limits and budgets at the center of these disputes.

The most recent shutdown debate was centered on the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Republican legislators would not pass a federal budget agreement without restriction or repeal of the healthcare law.

“Elections have consequences,” said Joan McLean, professor of politics and government. “Laws have consequences. Putting the United State’s full faith and credit in play in order to pursue an agenda is not what the authors of the Constitution would consider proper use of power.”

Federal government employees were primarily affected by the government shutdown.

Senior Zoey Kramer’s uncle works in the Department of Justice’s office of attorney recruitment and is president of DOJ Pride, an organization for LGBT employees. During the shutdown he did not work and was not paid.

In the last shutdown in 1995 he was similarly furloughed.

Senior Jordan Alexander’s parents both work for the Department of Defense in a military installation in San Antonio, Texas. While neither was paid, both continued to work during the shutdown.

Students in general are affected by the cessation of various services. Ohio Wesleyan librarian Joy Gao said government websites and online government document resources OWU students and faculty use for research were shut down. Researchers could still access Beeghly Library’s print collection of government documents.

Gao said during the shutdown, there was no shipment of printed government documents from the Government Printing Office (GPO) to depository libraries like Beeghly.

She also said some government websites were completely shut down. Others were still accessible, but the contents had not been updated. The Census Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) sites were all non-functional.

Gao found that some students were unable to complete their school assignments in a timely manner because of the shutdown. Some students were asked to find imports and exports data on the Census Bureau website for a class assignment.

“Of course, with the shutdown, they were not able to do it,” she said. “However, we were able to help them find the data in Statistical Abstract of the United States, which is a database we subscribe to.”

The shutdown ended Oct. 16, as McLean predicted just before the date economists said the federal government would run out of cash to pay its debts, necessitating a raising of the debt ceiling in order to borrow more money.

The vote in the House was 285-144 and 81-18 in the Senate. The government shutdown immediately ended and government employees returned to work on Thursday, Oct. 17.

The deal makes no substantive changes to the Affordable Care Act, and provides a rise in the debt ceiling that economists believe should provide adequate funding until Feb. 7, 2014.

One measure that has been discussed in the media and amongst political pundits is secion four of the 14th Amendment, adopted to reassure foreign countries that despite U.S. involvement in war, the country would continue to honor its debt.

This has raised the question if the President can sidestep Congress and raise the debt ceiling with the executive branch.

McLean said she thinks this would never occur under present circumstances, as the President must “weigh his decisions on such matters for both the long and short term.”

She said a Supreme Court case would be needed to interpret the current circumstances as necessary to employ such measures, but Obama would most likely understand that such executive overreach on his part might be destructive to the country in the long term.

By Sarah Thomas

Transcript Correspondent

After the first half-semester of its implementation, the Ohio Wesleyan car share program has not made a large dent in its goal of reducing parking congestion.

Starting this year, the university partnered with Enterprise Rent-A-Car to provide rental car service for students.

By reducing the need for cars on campus, the program aimed to decrease demand for parking spaces and bring down the number of cars in order to aid OWU’s sustainability efforts.

Junior Marissa Witkovsky said the program has not made any progress on the parking lot crowding issue that she can see. She is not a member of the program and brought her own car to campus.

Director of Public Safety Robert Wood said it will take several years for the cars to make a significant impact.

The program is based on paid membership, with an initial $35 annual fee. As an incentive to sign up, members will also receive $25 in driving credits. These credits can be used toward the costs of a rental car for a specific time.

The hourly rate for weekdays is $9.50 and $10.50 for weekends. Students can also rent a car for the whole day for $60 or overnight for $40. Gas is included for the first 200 miles.

Witkovsky said she would consider joining the program if it were cheaper.

“If the costs for an hour were half the price, then I would have been much less likely to ever bring a car to campus and just use this service,” she said.

Senior Jennifer Eltringham also had an issue with the cost. Eltringham is a member of the service and has rented a car for a trip.

“I was shocked by the late return fee,” she said. “I was only five or so minutes late and they charged me $50.”

Students can reserve a car online for a specific time online. Members gain access to the car by scanning a membership card over a reader on the car. Once the vehicle is unlocked, the keys are located inside.

As part of the standard rate, there is a pre-paid fuel card located in the car. In addition, there is a 24-hour roadside assistance and member service that can be called when needed.

The car locks when the driver holds the membership card over the card reader. Once this is done, the rental has ended. When returning the vehicle, the keys stay locked in the car.

By Spenser Hickey and Breanne Reilly

News Editor and Transcript Correspondent

 

 

“It’s like a two-year-old putting on clown shoes.”

That’s senior Erika Kazi’s view on the effectiveness of the university’s current system of handling sustainability efforts; Kazi is one of two composting interns now working with concerned students and the Presidential Task Force on Campus Sustainability to carry out such efforts.

According to Professor Tom Wolber, current chair of the sustainability task force, its membership – comprised of faculty, students and staff – has not been decided yet, and they have yet to hold a meeting.

“The problem is that faculty, staff and students come and go and that we don’t know yet for sure who the representatives of the various campus entities will be for this academic year,” Wolber said in an email.

Professor Shari Stone-Mediatore, former chair of the task force, said that the university had made “some important advances in sustainability” including hiring Peter Schantz, the new director of Buildings and Grounds, who will also work to increase energy efficiency on campus.

These efforts were previously handled in part by sustainability coordinator Sean Kinghorn, who worked for the University from March 2011 to June 2013; his salary was paid for by a state grant on energy and conversation.

After the grant funds ran out, university administrators decided to rely on currently employed personnel and two student interns, rather than create a permanent coordinator position and allocate a salary for Kinghorn.

University President Rock Jones said that the Board of Trustees looks to the administration to prepare a budget for review, and so the Board had not taken a position on adding a new position at this time.

“Rather, the Board directed the administration to consider all possible avenues for addressing sustainability on campus as it develops budget models for the future, and to include in future budget reports to the Board an update on sustainability on campus,” Jones said.

Dissatisfied by the lack of a permanent coordinator, senior Karli Amstadt and sophomore Ellen Hughes led a protest last Thursday through Saturday, camping on the Corns lawn with Kazi and a number of other students.

University officials, including President Rock Jones and numerous trustees, said they were impressed by the students’ efforts and are interested in improving sustainability as the budget allows.

The Numbers Debate

While both the student demonstrators and members of the Board of Trustees said they valued improving the university’s sustainability efforts, the central matter they disagreed on was how the position could be funded.

President Jones said that the position could be funded with another grant or by reallocating university resources, but at the cost of defunding another existing staff position.

“We will explore all possibilities for advancing the sustainability agenda in the most robust way possible,” Jones said via email.

Gene Castelli, Senior Director of Dining Services, said he thinks someone from Buildings and Grounds should have responsibility over sustainability efforts so they can better communicate with the companies that handle composting. Castelli served on the sustainability task force last year and manages the two composting interns paid through Chartwells.

“Every small step gets you closer to the end of the journey,” he said. “So to that end we’re going to keep doing the small steps, we’re going to keep composting.”

Shari Stone-Mediatore, the former task force leader, said many members of the task force regret that the university doesn’t have the funds for a permanent coordinator.

“We believe that, if funds can be found to support the position, the position would be well worth the investment,” she said.

She listed advantages of it as including supporting and overseeing student-initiated projects, allow for visible sustainability activity to attract prospective students and allow for theory-practice grants on sustainability.

Cathleen Butt, ‘91, an Alumni Association representative on the Board of Trustees, said that while sustainability is important, funding and the university’s budget are the issue.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of different demands for money, and that’s the reason we have committees, to work out budget issues like that,” said West Ohio Area trustee Robert Roach, ‘68. “It’s a tough issue, but I feel that we’ll address it. I’m just not sure how it’s going to be done.”

Roach said that the issue would be addressed by the Board’s Finance and Operations Committee.

Former trustee Katherine Comer, ‘76, agreed, saying that the issue is with funding and dividing available money between good causes and determining their priority.

Non-voting life trustee George Conrades, ‘61, said that he wasn’t sure that it would be an expensive endeavor to have a sustainability coordinator and unpaid student assistants.

“I think that’s the most powerful model of all, have someone to coordinate but instead of staff use students, cause then you’ll all learn more,” Conrades told the demonstrators.

Vice President for Finance and Administration Dan Hitchell said the sustainability coordinator position came up “quite often” during Trustee meetings throughout the week.

Hitchell, also treasurer for the Board, said that reinstating it did not come up during conversations he was in, but that he was not present for all conversations.

For the demonstrators, the financial issue was very clear – hiring a sustainability coordinator would save the university money in the long run.

As proof, they point to Kinghorn’s projected ten-year report, which detailed how the university’s costs on energy and waste disposal services, among other expenditures, would be reduced by sustainability efforts.

The projected savings totaled $1,633,430, not counting a planned program in Gordon Field House that was not implemented. After subtracting Kinghorn’s $60,000 per year salary, the protesters argued, the university would save around a million dollars or more.

“He saved the University more than he’s salaried, yeah, that’s absolutely correct,” senior Karli Amstadt said. “…(The 10-year projection is) just from the savings he generated in his first two years here, so if he was actually here getting more annual savings that number would be even higher.”

“I just think that there’s no counter argument,” said sophomore Ellen Hughes. “…There’s no way you can disagree with that, you know, those are the numbers and those are the facts and that would save the university a million dollars in ten years…It just doesn’t make sense, with all the great stuff that Sean Kinghorn did for us and all the money he saved and just how inspiring he was to students…it’s just really disappointing that he’s no longer here.”

She said that it would have cost the university money at first, like anything business-related, but would soon lead to savings.

“The thing about a green program, like composting for example, that costs money to start, but think about how much waste we’ve reduced already by having it,” Hughes said.

Amstadt, too, used the compost program in particular as an example of a green program that could save money.

“As far as the composting program, it can save the university money because we pay for trash pickup by weight, whereas our compost pickup is free,” Amstadt said. “If we had 100 percent compost that would be optimal.”

Jones said in an email that he was reviewing the data on projected savings, and that it will inform his thinking about the issue.

He also said the students “are articulate in making the case for these causes, and they are very good at gathering data to support the case.”

However, he also said that that he believes existing staff members can achieve the cost reductions Kinghorn was projected to.

“It is not accurate to say that these savings cannot be achieved without a sustainability coordinator,” Jones said in an email.

Amstadt, however, was skeptical that the savings could be maintained without a permanent coordinator.

“Sean invested so much time writing grants for programs, executing programs, and some things, like May Move-Out are simply not possible without a permanent sustainability coordinator,” she said in an email.

“Giving more faculty and staff members who are already extremely busy more responsibilities is not the answer and is not a sustainable model,” Amstadt added. “It is an issue of time, coordinating all of the sustainability work on campus is a full time job-if it wasn’t there wouldn’t be so many other GLCA colleges with a sustainability coordinator… If the administration does not see the necessity of a permanent sustainability coordinator then they need a wake up call because the facts support us.”

Standing in Solidarity for Sustainability

The high point of Amstadt and Hughes’ demonstration was their ‘stand of solidarity’, which they used to bring the issue to the Board’s attention.

While the trustees ate dinner in the Benes rooms Thursday night, the students gathered in a circle outside the window and held signs, first sitting and then standing to be more visible.

“I think it was by far the best event we planned,” Hughes said in an email.

She added that the event “brought the subject of sustainability to the forefront of their minds” and that this was the ultimate goal.

“(T)hey could not ignore us so our voices were heard but it was also respectful,” Amstadt said. “Many trustee members came out to talk to us so it also opened up the doors of communication between students and trustees.”

Their signs contained messages such as ‘Sustain OWU’, ‘Let’s not fall behind’ and ‘62 percent of prospective students consider sustainability.’

It wasn’t long into the stand before members of the board came out to talk to the students, voicing respect for their efforts and listening to the concerns.

“I wanted to commend you, actually, for your activism and the manner in which you’re doing it,” Chairperson of the Board Michael Long told them when he came out to address them.

“You’ve gotten the trustees’ attention, you’ve gotten my attention,” he said. “ We understand your cause and you’ve got some empathy on the Board for your cause. And Rock Jones is working on these issues, as you probably already know.”

Daniel Glaser, a trustee-at-large, joined the protesters for a photo. He said that his daughter, a senior in high school, was very interested in sustainability and he hoped seeing the event would persuade her to apply.

Glaser said that concerns over sustainability are taking place worldwide, so he wasn’t surprised by the demonstration.

“I actually find it encouraging, I certainly believe student activism is a positive rather than a negative,” he said. “…At the end of the day, do people have to be engaged with taking steps to make a more sustainable planet? Absolutely, and we have to do that not just as a school but in our home lives as well, you know, so ultimately I think it’s an issue for every citizen of the world.”

Trustee Chloe Williams, ‘11 and a representative of the Alumni Association, said she thought having a forum like this was “the coolest thing about OWU.”

“Students are so engaged and standing up for something they believe in,” she said.

Williams said that the university had taken a lot of important steps on sustainability recently and that was to be commended, but didn’t have a comment on she thought the protesters would consider the loss of the position a step back, as she was still learning about the issue on campus.

Freshman Haven Wallace, one of the protesters taking part in the stand of solidarity, said she was “definitely surprised” by the administration and trustees’ response.

“A lot of members were very supportive of our efforts and even came out to shake our hands and thank us for what we were doing,” Wallace said in an email. “I assumed there would be more tension and resistance.”

Senior Ashley Taylor, a protester, treasurer of Environmental and Wildlife Club and Tree House resident, said she thought the reactions were “super positive.”

“Protests don’t have to be violent or obnoxious to have our message be heard,” she said.

Freshman Reizo Prakash said the trustees were open to discussion and asked their own questions.

“(T)hey ensured that everyone knew what they were talking about and actually wanted it,” he said in an email.

Some protesters had initially worried the stand of solidarity would be seen as disrespectful by the trustees, but Chairperson Long assured them it was not.

“You’re not being disrespectful,” he told them. “You’re students and you’re trying to advocate a cause and there’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing.”

‘Tent City’

While it may have been the most noticeable part of the overall protest to the trustees, the stand of solidarity was only one part of the events.

They began at 7:30 that morning, setting up tents on the lawn between the Corns building and Beeghly library; and they slept there Thursday and Friday nights before taking them down Saturday after the Trustees left.

“I think (camping out overnight) makes a bigger impact,” Hughes said. She said that they weren’t sure they’d be able to sleep there overnight and considered staying there during the day, leaving at night, and coming back the next day at first.

Amstadt said she got the idea to sleep out in tents while reading old yearbooks in the library one night and read about a similar event aimed at persuading the trustees to divest funds from business operating in South Africa due to apartheid in the 1980s.

“Students did the same thing and students successfully won over the university so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again,” she said.

She added that she hoped the tents would show the trustees their strength in numbers.

“We’re hoping a lot of people will turn out, and I think it shows what a priority it is, that we have the commitment to put this whole protest together and stay out overnight,” Amstadt said. “I think that shows a lot of commitment to the issue and shows that’s it’s top on the students’ priority list.”

Senior Erika Kazi, E&W president  and Tree House resident, also said that students at other colleges had held similar events to put pressure on their administrations to create a sustainability coordinator position.

“The schools always respond really well, but the other schools have implemented full-time staff members,” she said.

Kazi and Amstadt started planning the event in the spring and then Hughes got involved during the summer.

“The idea started floating around last spring, but we decided that the timing wasn’t right,” Amstadt said. “So we tried to approach the issue by being more cooperative with the administration back then, but after those efforts seem to have failed and sustainability continues to be on the backburner, we decided it’s time to take more direct action.”

President Jones said that he was “impressed” by the students’ initiative and their positive expression of their convictions.

“Our students are passionate and committed to important causes that matter to them and that matter to our campus and to the larger world,” he said in an email. “…We need more civil dialogue about issues that matter greatly, and our students have offered a wonderful example of how to initiate such civil dialogue. I commend the leaders of this effort and all who participated in it.”

The ‘tent city’ aspect of the protest also attracted attention from trustees and students, as many came over to find out what was going on.

Thomas Tritton, ‘69, an at-large trustee and Vice Chair of the Board, was one of those trustees who came over to learn more, as was former trustee Kathy Comer.

Comer said she’d been unfamiliar with the issue, having missed the trustee’s May meeting, but thought the campout was a good start.

“Homecoming weekend and Trustee weekend is a great time to do it,” she said.

Tritton spoke to the students and said that “sustainability is an issue on a lot of college campuses, even for prospective students visiting (there).”

The Princeton Review’s 2012 survey on college admissions found that 62 percent of prospective students considered a school’s environmental commitment to some degree in their decision to apply; this finding was the basis of the protesters’ ‘62 percent’ sign.

In addition to and during their camp out, the protesters also gathered signatures on a petition in support of a permanent sustainability coordinator.

“(The petition) was a great idea to show that we have a lot of student interest in this even though we might not have as many (students camping out),” Hughes said.

They began circulating the petition two weeks before the demonstration began and gathered 300 signatures in the first 24 hours, according to Kazi.

By the time they presented the petition to President Jones outside the camp around 4 p.m. Thursday they had more than 900 signatures, just under half the student population.

Not all signers were students, though – life trustee Andres Duarte, ‘65, signed the petition after visiting the tents and talking to protesters.

Amstadt said before ‘Tent City’ began that their goal was to get 1,000 signatures but she didn’t know if they’d meet it.

When asked afterward if the petitioning worked well, Hughes replied “yes and no.”

“I think it would’ve gone better if we had had more time, but we got over 900 signatures in 2 weeks, so I’d say it was pretty well circulated.”

They will have time to gather more signatures, though – after reviewing the petition Thursday, President Jones returned it for them to continue circulating and gathering more support.

Freshman Miranda Wilde signed the petition in Welch as members of the protest went door to door seeking signatures.

She said she hadn’t heard about the petition beforehand but decided to sign because she liked the steps that Kinghorn had put in place and wanted them to continue.

‘A Bandage on the Situation’

During his two years at Ohio Wesleyan, Sean Kinghorn accomplished a number of successful green projects, according to many of the protesters.

Erika Kazi worked as a StAP (Student Assistantship Program) intern with Kinghorn last year and worked with him on a number of projects, including starting the composting program, OWU free store, ‘Green Week’, recycling and lighting surveys and installation of more-energy efficient lights around campus.

In addition to having Kazi as a StAP intern, Kinghorn also worked with two recycling interns, Sarah Alexander and Reed Callahan, both graduates.

The three intern positions also lost funding after the grant ran out and are no longer active, leaving only the two composting interns and the sustainability task force.

Amstadt also listed the hydration stations in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, expanded recycling, installation of water-efficient toilets, and the controversial low-flow showerheads, which she said saved the university $75,000.

“You have to determine if it’s worth it, and I think the answer is yes,” she said.

Hughes said that in addition to his work spearheading projects around campus, Kinghorn was also “a great mentor” who listened to student’s ideas and helped act on them, and its hard now without someone filling that role full-time.

She said she wasn’t involved in these efforts as much as she wishes she was last year as a freshman.

“He (Kinghorn) did some great stuff and he started some awesome programs,” she said.

Amstadt and Kazi both echoed Hughes, saying Kinghorn had helped in classes as well.

“(He) worked with a lot of students on projects related to their classwork,” Amstadt said.

“He was a mentor,” Kazi said. “In my environmental geography class, he came in and he helped every single student – there was a class of like ten students – he helped every single student on their project that was designated to help make this campus more sustainable.”

She added that he also worked with all the Tree House projects and other SLU house projects focused on sustainable efforts and helped WCSA and the Service Learning Office in other efforts.

“He was a huge advocate of sustainability being more than just the techno-buzz of building, you know, a green building,” Kazi said. “…It’s more than just that, it’s about creating a community and educating people through conversation and through experience and through digging through compost together.”

Senior Ashley Taylor, a protester, E&W treasurer and Tree House resident, said that the coordinator position also “becomes the connection that students and faculty need to promote and actually make sustainable projects a reality.”

Kinghorn now works as a sustainability coordinator at Otterbein University. Despite this, the protesters still said that sustainability is an important thing to strive for, both in college and in the world.

“To me, and I feel like to a lot of other students and faculty, the position is the number one priority at this point,” Hughes said.

She said that in the absence of a full-time coordinator, many of the responsibilities were delegated to other personnel to balance with their official role.

Kazi said that not even 20 faculty, staff or students, handling sustainability efforts part-time in addition to full-time work, could fill Kinghorn’s role.

Amstadt said that the current group of students and staff are doing the best they can but are fighting an uphill battle.

“Does it make up for the loss of the position?” she asked. “Of course not and we never thought it would, but we’re just trying to basically put a bandage on the situation, (and) hope things will change for the future.”

‘You Have Not Seen the Last of Us’

Both Amstadt and Hughes said they considered the event a success at achieving awareness, but Amstadt said getting a coordinator would be a more long-term process.

“It will only be announced if they decide to get a sustainability coordinator position, which could be written into the budget in spring,” Amstadt said. “If they do not they will not announce it they will simply ignore the fact, that is why we have to hold the university accountable.”

She said that while the event started a conversation she is focused on results, and the result they want is the creation of a permanent sustainability coordinator.

“I am very pleased with how the protest went, in fact it couldn’t have gone much better, but I do not think we should start celebrating victories we haven’t achieved yet,” Amstadt said in an email.

Hughes said the sooner the position was written into the budget the better, but she didn’t know when that would be.

She said the protest still had the impact they wanted it to, showing that students consider sustainability a priority.

“The Board members were wonderfully impressed and told us how supportive they were of our efforts,” she said. “I don’t think that the Board of Trustees knew how much sustainability meant to the students of this school until now.”

Amstadt and Hughes also said that the event attracted increased numbers of student support. During the stand of solidarity, several students who were holding up signs had not been active in the events beforehand.

Freshman Reizo Prakash was one of those who joined in for the stand.

“I was returning to my dorm, eating dinner on the way when I saw the event,” he said in an email.

Prakash added that he decided to join because the university needs a coordinator to spread awareness and be a resource for information and management; he joined the campers after the stand of solidarity and slept there both nights.

Hughes said she was “totally swept away” by the amount of student involvement in the event.

“It was awesome because we actually recruited a few students who didn’t know about the sustainability coordinator before Tent City,” she said.

She said the tents were “a great visual message” because they got the attention of students walking by on the JAYwalk.

“Many students were unaware of how much money the position saves the school, what an asset he was for student’s academic pursuits, and the fact that an overwhelming number of GLCA schools have this position,” Amstadt added. “I would say it was extremely well received.”

Hughes said that she thought it would be better to work with the administration now that the event had raised awareness of the issue and the level of student support.

“They were fairly accommodating throughout the Tent City planning process and I think that they are feeling more pressure to improve our school’s sustainability efforts,” she said. “That said, if no progress is made whatsoever for this issue, I’m sure more direct action will be taken.”

Amstadt, however, was more insistent on keeping the possibility of direct action open. “(T)his is our university and as students we should have a voice,” she said in an email. “If we continue to be ignored then we have no choice but to take direct action. As soon as we take pressure off the university, the issue will fall into oblivion.”

She said they were still determining action moving forward.

“I can guarantee that you have not seen the last of us,” she said. “We won’t stop until we have a full time permanent sustainability coordinator and we will not settle for anything less.”

Hughes said that she, Amstadt and Kazi were heading up the protest but weren’t the only ones who wanted it to happen, and so Amstadt and Kazi’s graduation at the end of the academic year would not diminish efforts for “a greener and more sustainable school.”

“I’ll just say that we have plans to continue this if it doesn’t work, but again, I’m optimistic that it will,” she said.

By Spenser Hickey

News Editor

Twice a week, a small group of students gather in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center by the mailroom, and walk through a maze of hallways to the garage. These students put on a pair of thin gloves and dig through trash bags of food scraps, dirty plates and cups and spilled soda and condiments, occasionally finding flies or maggots living in the bags. Several of them do this weekly work; only two of them are paid – a stipend of $250 a semester each for their overall work, regardless of the hours.

Even if they weren’t paid, they’d still do it.

“We’re doing it anyways and it’s just an incentive,” said senior Erika Kazi, one of two composting interns working with Chartwells dining services.

According to Gene Castelli, senior director of Dining Services, composting is part of a cycle in which leftover food is divided into what is compostable and is then sent to a mulch facility. The mulch is then sold at a high discount back to the university for use in the student garden; Chartwells then buys the produce at market price from the garden.

“To me sustainability isn’t only about saving stuff,” he said. “It’s about coming to a 360 process and that’s probably the best.”

Sending food to be composted turns it into organic matter for plant growth, according to Kazi, an environmental studies major.

“Carbon is trapped in the soil and that can be used by plants to grow,” she said explaining that, in a landfill, the food would rot and carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere.

Each week, they usually sort through “20 to 30 bags of compost” according to Kazi and separate out two to three bags of garbage and one to two of recycled goods.

Sophomore Ellen Hughes, the other composting intern, was offered the position because she’d worked sorting through compost last year; like Kazi she would be doing it even without the stipend.

“I would be doing it anyway, so it’s just sweet that I’m being paid for it now,” she said.

A lot of their work comes from non-compostable items being placed in the bins by mistake; part of the interns’ job is to design signs listing what is and is not compostable.

“If there is more than five percent of contamination, which is non-compostable items, in the compost, (the University) gets fined for it,” Hughes said.

Kazi said two weeks ago the compost bins were picked up earlier than expected, before any students could sort out the waste, and the university would have been fined $100 if there were the 5 percent of contamination.

Hughes said she digs through the compost as a way to clear her head if she’s having a bad day.

“You’re digging through this gross bag of trash and junk and maggots, really gross smells, ketchup, all this stuff…even though what’s left in the bag is really gross, you’re taking out all the trash,” she said. “…What you have left in the bag is pure compost, which will be made into soil which can feed plants and create gardens.

As gross as it is, I kind of enjoy it, because its just really rewarding because when you finish you’re feeling kind of gross but you can shower and wash your hands and you’re like, ‘yeah, I just created a bag of compost.’”

 

Sophomore Cecilia Smith started composting recently and has only done it twice but said she’ll probably do it regularly.

“I heard about it through the (Environment and Wildlife) club, which I am a part of,” Smith said. “Both Erika and Ellen have sent out emails and mentioned it during meetings.”

She said she thinks composting is worth it because it diverts waste that would otherwise go to a landfill and helps provide for the student garden.

“Overall, I do the composting because I want to do my part and I value sustainability and taking care of the environment,” Smith said. “By sorting through the compost, I’m doing something tangible to realize these ideals.”

Freshman Olivia Lease, another composting volunteer, said that composting can help add nutrients, while traditional waste products can negatively affect the soil and animals.

“The production of plastic, Styrofoam and other man-made materials has a great negative impact on the environment,” she said. “We burn fossil fuels to help power the factories that produce these materials.  So producing these things contributes to the rise in carbon emissions and further disrupts the Earth’s climate system.”

Many of the participants said that their biggest challenge is consistently finding the wrong items in the bags meant for compost; they’ve even found metal silverware among the compost on occasion.

Smith, though, said that sorting through compost has taught her about some of the intricacies of what is and is not compostable. For example, paper Coke cups are compostable, but the plastic lids and straws often left on them when they’re thrown away aren’t.

“You have to pay attention to the little things because they can add up in both percentage of contamination and in someone else’s time in trying to get everything out completely,” she said.

“Everyone can increase sustainability by taking part in the little things that count,” added Lease. “Everyday things like recycling whenever possible and composting.”

Freshman Cindy Hastings said that she thought the issue was that students weren’t aware what was and wasn’t compostable, rather than deliberate throwing non-compostable items in the bins.

“When composting this year was first started up, we found around 50 pizza boxes (which are not compostable) in the compost bags,” she said. “Signs were then put up that the pizza boxes belonged in the trash, and this past week we only found a few in the compost.”

Hughes, though, was less optimistic about the success of the signs.

“There was definitely a lot more (non-compostable items in the compost bins) at the start of the year, honestly I haven’t noticed a huge, huge improvement,” she said. “It kind of fluctuates, some weeks it’ll be really great and some weeks it’ll be terrible, so it’s hard to tell if it’s actually getting better.”

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

Early morning on Sat., Oct. 5, brothers of Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji), along with other students and members of the Delaware community participated in a 5k to raise money for charity.

Approximately 60 people participated and $450 was raised for Andrews House, a community services center in Delaware.

The run, (and walk) started from the Selby Field on South Henry Street, located on the east side of campus.

“This was a one mile walk and a 5k run”, said senior Saar Rajpuria, vice president and treasurer of Fiji. “It was our first (one), we are looking forward to making it a regular thing or maybe organizing our own marathon in the future.”

Junior Katherine Campbell said did not deter her from participating.

“I chose to participate because I hadn’t run a 5k in a long time and wanted to see how well I could still do it,” she said.  “My favorite part of events such as these is the running and the feeling I get when I have finished (and) done well.”

Senior John Bieniek, president of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity said being a part of a close knit community like Delaware is one of the best parts of going to a small school like OWU.

“Philanthropy is most effective when it is done for local organizations that have an exact idea of the needs, ideas and opportunities for positive change in the community,” said Bieniek. “Additionally Greek organizations holding events for local groups (helps) strengthen the ties between the university and rest of the community which makes living here an even more pleasant experience.”

Rajpuria said that the main reason for choosing a local organization as philanthropy is “down right support.”

“(This way) we can help (our) community and make a difference around us,” he said.

The Fijis will also host a soccer tournament in December as another philanthropy event.

By Julianne Zala

Transcript Correspondent

On Saturday, Oct. 5, Yumi Kurosawa and Deep Singh offered Ohio Wesleyan students, faculty and Delaware residents an opportunity to experience traditional Japanese and Indian music in Jemison Auditorium.

Yumi Kurosawa played a 20-stringed variation of the koto, a traditional, 13-stringed Japanese instrument similar to a harp. The koto originated from China, and was then adapted to Japanese culture well over 1,000 years ago.

According to Kurosawa the koto, originally served as religious spiritual music, which was later adopted by monks, monarchs and eventually the general society.

In the first set of the performance, Kurosawa played solo on her koto. Selections included “Rapture 3,” which she wrote for the independent short animated film “Rapture.”

She also performed “Midare—Disorder,” written by Kengyo Yatsuhashi, one of the most well known composers in koto history.

The piece emphasized the concept of “ma” (間), which junior Marisa Lucian, a Japanese major, defined as “the sound (or lack of sound) that follows a movement or action.”

“It’s a ‘felt’ experience and not measurable, similar to meditation,” she said.

Kurosawa also played “Inner Space,” her first ever composition, inspired from looking at shrines in Japan.

Tied into the concept of “ma” are the traditional movements Kurosawa used as she played.  These movements symbolized grace, purpose and respect as she played, remnants from the traditional origins of koto.

Deep Singh, a tabla drum performer, joined Kurosawa after the intermission. A native of northern India, Singh works as a composer, producer, Hindustani vocalist and engineer. He also plays many different percussion instruments, harmonium, keyboards and bass guitar. Singh has toured the globe with artists such as Hariharan, Anup Jalota and George Harrison.

The two performers met five years ago, and their paths have crossed frequently since then. They first collaborated a year ago, and plan to tour Brazil together later this year.

The pair opened with a piece called “Enchantmentica,” which demonstrated a mix of their two cultures. They then performed “The Harvest Moon,” a piece featuring electronic sounds inspired b y Kurosawa’s image “Looking Up At the Sky.” Kurosawa said as performers they can “pray and move forward.”

Singh played on two drums: the small dayan and the larger bayan. The drums, made from taut goatskin, produce a high pitch. The drums had a black spot in the center, made from fine iron mixed with rice paste, to make the sound resonate. As he demonstrated the rocking movement his hands make to play the instruments, Singh described the sounds as a spoken language, which translated into the drumbeats.

Junior Marisa Lucian said she thought Kurosawa and Singh’s performance was a manifestation of differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

“The Japanese put great emphasis on order, silence and peace in many forms of art and music,” she said.

The east Asian studies and music departments co-presented the performance as the final event in the fall season of OWU’s Performing Arts Series.

By Adelle Brodbeck

Transcript Reporter

After a last minute change of location, Ohio Wesleyan’s best known student band with no name played a successful show for fellow students in the basement of the Chi Phi fraternity house.

The band is comprised of OWU seniors Erika Nininger, Michael Cormier and Sam Sonnega and junior Connor Stout. The quartet has been playing together since Stout’s freshman year.

The band had originally scheduled to play in the largely unused “amphitheater” located near the Benes room. But when they realized that the weather reports called for thunderstorms, they were forced to change their venue.

“You can’t be mad at the weather,” said Cormier, the band’s drummer.

Despite the last minute rearrangement, attendance was still relatively high. The band had scheduled to begin performing at 8:30 p.m., but in true rock star fashion, did not actually begin playing until 9 as Cormier warned on the event’s Facebook page.

Most students trickled in and out of the concert as the night progressed, however there was a solid line of enthusiastic audience members dancing in the front throughout the show.

“We’ve played in Chi Phi before,” said pianist/vocalist Erika Nininger. “And the last show we did here had a great turnout.”

The band said they had not planned a back-up location, but bassist/vocalist Stout volunteered Chi Phi as the new venue, and his fellow brothers were willing to open up the house to the band and their fans.

The venue allowed for the band to have a more complex setup then they are usually accustomed to. Chris Hinshaw, a technician for OWU’s Building and Grounds Department, helped set up a more professional and fully equipped sound system.

In addition to the more elaborate sound setup, there was a light show that colored the whole room in blue, red and yellow hues. The room exuded a tranquil and hip aura, right down to the candle carefully placed on Nininger’s keyboard and Sonnega’s t-shirt that said “I came to get down.”

Throughout the three years they have been together, the band has played in many venues, including J. Gumbo’s and Tree House, but they have yet to settle on a name despite a mutual desire for one.

According to the band, it has been very difficult to choose because they have come up with so many different names. Cormier said they keep a list of all of the ones they have thought up in the past.

Currently they refer to themselves as Vladimir Tootin’s Theory of Everything, but Sonnega said it’s a bit of a mouthful. After some debate among the members they said that the name they were using previously was Twitch, but they weren’t satisfied with that either.

“I mean, would you go to a Twitch show?” Nininger said.

Their flexibility with the name also transfers into their song choices. According to Cormier, the band always changes up its set list based on their moods or the environment or the attitude of the audience. The band said they tend to play a lot of covers in addition to their own original pieces.

The band said they hope to continue to play at OWU throughout this year, as well as after they graduate.

“It’s all we’ve got going for us,” Cormier said between laughs.