The Transcript

By Hannah Urano

Copy Editor

Health and human kinetics courses are integrating new technology into their classes, allowing students to get first-hand experience with fitness and health monitoring wristbands.

In the Exercise Perception course, taught by Nancy Knop, students were split into groups of four and given two bracelets to use throughout the assignment.

According to Knop, each student gathered at least two days of their own data, and will later use it to examine trends, and subsequently share their data with fellow students.

“Students will have the opportunity to research all devices relative to marketing, intended purposes, nature of the device, connectivity of the devise to different apps, embedded logic for motivation for client (i.e. notices that you have not moved in the last hour), ease of use, cost and so on,” she said.

Junior Krisite Prendergast said the goal of the assignment was to “research fitness applications and also fitness devices to find what they do, what they track and their strengths and weaknesses so we can compare them to see which is the best device out there.”

Prendergast said she used the Jawbone UP bracelet, which tracked “pretty much everything.”

The unisex wristbands come in an assortment of colors and look inconspicuous on the wearer.

According to the Jawbone website, “UP is a system that that takes a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle. The wristband tracks your movement and sleep in the background. The app displays your data, lets you add things like meals and mood and delivers insights the keep you moving forward.”

Prendergast said her wristband had a battery life of ten days and was water resistant.

“It will tell you how long you were active or sedentary, how many miles you walked and how many calories you burned,” she said.
According the Prendergast, the most impressive aspect of the wristband was that it could track sleep.

“It keeps track of how long it took you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up, and how many hours you were in light or deep sleep,” she said. “On top of that, the bracelet is set so that it can wake you up at the best time in the morning or from an afternoon nap.”

Senior Casey Helms is also taking Exercise Perception. Helms used the FitBit Flex, which has similar features to the Jawbone UP.

“FitBit Flex has so many great features; these include tracking steps, distance travelled, minutes of intense activity and calories burned,” he said. “It even has a vibrating alarm that I used every night to wake me up in the morning. The best part is, these bands sync with a smartphone wirelessly via the Bluetooth feature. Having the bracelet on is a great way to stay motivated and aware of daily physical activity.”

Based on her personal results, Prendergast said she was surprised to learn how many steps she takes in a day.

“I always thought I was pretty sedentary throughout the day because of classes, but I never realized how much I actually did walk from when I go to class, in between classes or at soccer,” she said. “It was surprising to see that I walked over 12,000 steps a day.”

According to Helms, it is recommended that individuals get at least 10,000 steps per day to improve bone health and reduce the risk for many diseases.

Like Prendergast, Helms said he exceeded this amount, but said he initially believed his number should have been even higher since he exercises for several hours each day.

“However, I thought about it and it makes sense considering as students, we attend several hours of classes daily, as well as spend significant time doing homework,” he said.

Both Helms and Prendergast agreed that this technology could be useful in everyday life and that the benefits are applicable to the average person.

“From a de-conditioned person to a health-conscious athlete, this bracelet can show people what their health behaviors are and can help motivate them to live a less sedentary lifestyle,” Prendergast said. “For me, since I knew the bracelet was counting my steps, it motivated me to move more throughout the day.”

Knop said some brands of trackers will provide better information for specific populations and she wanted her students to consider how the information gathered from these devices might increase a person’s awareness of their behaviors.

“Consider how the awareness might then lead to increased motivation to change a behavior and then support the changed behavior,” she said.

Knop also said that there is a possibility of becoming “too measured, getting too much information, not relying on your own sensibilities to determine if you need to get up and move, or becoming too dependent on monitoring systems.”

Health and human kinetics professor Christopher Fink said his Sport and Exercise Nutrition class will be using similar trackers for different purposes later in the semester.

“We will be using the trackers to examine individual energy needs, and to compare to both hand-calculated metabolic estimates of energy requirement and also to various apps and software that estimate energy needs based on self-reported activity levels,” he said.

Prendergast said she enjoyed learning about this new technology.

“I think this technology is an excellent way for anyone to make a behavior change, whether their diet, physical activity level, or sleep,” she said. “I also like that you can set your own goals so a person can get healthy on their own pace.”

By Natalie Duleba

Managing Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Sara Schneider

Transcript Correspondent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Jija Dutt

Transcript Reporter

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

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

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

Klein said the even raised $500 for JDRF.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Jamell Brown-Smith

Transcript Correspondent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Julianne Zala

Transcript Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Brian Cook

Transcript Reporter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Spenser Hickey

News Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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