The fall semester opened with the reveal of a newly renovated food court in the Hamilton Williams Campus Center, ongoing renovations on the roof of Edwards Gym and the news of Merrick Hall awaiting restorations.
An outside design firm worked with university officials to plan the renovations to the still un-named HWCC food court. University President Rock Jones said the projectâs objective was to âcreate spaces that become destinations for students at all hours of the day.â
âThe serving area is much larger and provides an opportunity to present a larger and more pleasing selection of food choices for students and other guests,â he said.
Freshman Emily Eichenauer said she âlikes the checkouts on the side because it gives you more room to get your food, and itâs not as congested.â
Edwards Gym is currently being renovated to repair roof damage. Â According to Dan Hitchell, Vice President for Administration and Finance, once the roof is renovated, the original 1904 roof will last another 60 to 70 years.
Additionally, it was announced this summer that an $8 million-dollar donation by an anonymous couple made it possible to renovate Merrick Hall.
Erected in 1873, Merrick is registered as one of eleven locations on campus on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building, originally devoted to the study of science, will serve as an additional resource for students and faculty once it reopens.
According to Hitchell, who serves on the Merrick Hall project committee, the restoration â(will) bring a beautiful building back to life.â
Craig Ullom, vice-president for Student Affairs, said each floor of Merrick will have a specific purpose.
âThe first floor would be a resource center for connections, theory to practice opportunities, and other avenues for student engagement and learning,â he said. âThe concept for the second floor would be focused on innovative learning spaces and the third floor would be event space.â
The renovations to Merrick Hall are estimated to be completed by 2015.
According to Jones, OWUâs campus is a âlaboratory for living and learning.â
âWe are blessed by numerous historic buildings that remind us of the longstanding commitment to excellence in undergraduate liberal arts education at OWU,â he said. âBringing these buildings back to life and restoring their beauty and grandeur in ways that serve students in the 21st century allows us to claim our rich history while building the future in ways that best serve our students now and in the years ahead. It is important to provide the best possible space for faculty and students to do their work. These renovations contribute to that important goal.â
When Ohio Wesleyan students arrived back on campus after a summer away, many were shocked to hear two counselors, Drs. Colleen Cook and Eric Johnson, had left.
Cook, for former director of Counseling Services at OWU, to be the director of Counseling at Bard College at Simonâs Rock in Massachusetts, and Johnson is now the director of Counseling Services at Colby College in Maine.
The departure of Cook and Johnson left OWUâs Counseling Services office with a need to replace two full-time counselors before the beginning of the semester.
Dr. Charlie Ross retired within the past few years after working for Oberlin College for 20 years. While at Oberlin, Ross was their Counseling Center director and Student Health director. Through Cook, Ross became the interim director of Counseling services for at least one semester, while the administration is searching for a new full-time director.
Ross said his duties include âsupervising the staff, guid(ing) the department and help(ing) in the search for a new director.â
Ross said Counseling Services is currently looking for a new director, and that heâs interested in bringing in trainees from Ohio State Universityâs social work program. He also said he wants âa stable, full-time staff of at least three counselors.â
Currently, there are two full-time counselors, Ross and Julie Duhigg; one half-time counselor, Brian Ward; and two counseling interns, Sarah DelPropost â07 and Nate Sewell.
âThey (Cook and Johnson) are both excellent clinicians, and they were well networked on campus,â Ross said. âThey did a lot of things with the athletic department and other organizations. Any time you have two people who have been here for 14 or 15 years walk away, that is an impact.â
Rossâs main focus as interim director is to try to figure out how to give help to everyone who needs it. One method of doing this is referring students to outside clinicians that are located in Delaware.
âPeople who have been in counseling or some sort of therapy before they came to college, or have been in therapy for a year or two, and they would get set up with a private counselor,â Ross said.
His goal is to have more students access the services relatively quickly, because other students would be seeing private practitioners. This would allow students who need immediate attention or students who donât need as many sessions to come in to see OWU counselors without a waitlist.
Last semester, students circulated a petition advocating a change in the way counseling at OWU was set up.
In an email sent to the students who signed the petition, senior Jessica Martin said the petitionâs head committee, composed of herself, Kamila Goldin â13 and sophomore Susannah Waxman, met with administrators at the end of the last academic year. But, according to Martin, they âmade it very clear that this need for more mental health services was not a priority on our campus.â Martin declined comment on the petition or the changes to Counseling Services.
The petition also said that last semester, 10 percent of the student population were on a waitlist to seek counseling. Ross said the number was around seven percent, which he thinks is âtoo high.â
âThe goal is to operate in such a way that people are moving in here and getting attention in a briefer way,â said Ross.
Goldin said she thinks greater counseling availability has positive effects in many parts of studentsâ lives.
âStudents who feel supported are surely going to much better in school, are going to be able to support other students who need help and are generally going to be much better able to engage with the OWU community,â she said.
Waxman said she thinks the university should consider counseling as central to its mission.
âIf this school is truly to stand for the ideals of a liberal arts college, a reevaluation of the standard for student mental health services is vital,â she said.
Sophomore Kristina Wheeler said she thinks resources should be available for those who need them, even if the need is unexpected.
âOne can never be sure if or when they might need help, and despite the helpful and welcoming staff, it requires a lot of hard work which a small staff isnât always equipped for,â she said.
According to the university website, Ohio Wesleyan monitors over 120 student organizations on campus, 17 of which are Greek.
These fraternities and sororities are private organizations that commit themselves to community service, bettering their members and various national philanthropies.
While Dana Behum, assistant director of Student Involvement for fraternity and sorority life, loosely monitors Greek organizations, their respective national headquarters hold them accountable most strictly.
Because of this tie to a national or even international organization, Greek life acts somewhat autonomously within the boundaries of the university.
âThey are required to submit data at my request, but more so chapters and individual Greek organizations report to their national headquarters,â Behum said.
The type of data the university and Behum collect consists of recruitment numbers, updated officer positions and an updated roster of organization members. Any other information, such as what percentage of the campus is Greek or how much money was raised for a philanthropy in an entire year, is collected at the request of alumni or the Board of Trustees and is compiled into one lump amount, whether it is membership or philanthropy funds, to prevent the fraternities and sororities on campus from being compared to one another.
âI collect data for recruitment numbers,â Behum said. âA lot of times alumni want to know how many joined the organization, what percentage of the students on campus are Greek, things like that. I do collect, you know, how many dollars were raised throughout an entire year. Then I might publish that information in a university report, but I publish it as a total number rather than an individual because theyâre not comparable side by side.â
This additional data is submitted typically without documentation in a Google document or through email.
Ten members of the Greek community were interviewedâsome in compliance with their respective chapter, others notâand two of them believed philanthropy funds should be reported to the school. Most felt only grades and rosters needed to be reported.
One member of a fraternity said some fraternitiesâ main motivation is not to help those around them.
âSome fraternities value charity more than others and it would be unfair to force a fraternity into doing philanthropies because then it’s not charity; itâs work,â he said. âThat would really defeat the whole purpose.â
A member of Phi Psi said he believed the university should not interfere.
âI think being in a Greek organization gives you your own responsibility and in return you should be in charge and not have an outside source interfere,â he said.
One member of Delta Tau Delta agreed that Greek groups should remain autonomous.
âGreek organizations are national organizations and some are even international,â he said. âWhat they do reflects their organization on a much broader plane than what they represent to the school. Basically, it’s a self-solving issue. The school doesn’t have to enforce a status quo because that is done on the national organization. Though much more easily enforced on a local level, it isn’t necessary.â
One fraternity member said he felt philanthropy data should be reported to the university.
âI believe administrations should be involved in organizational philanthropies, and how it benefits the community,â he said. Â âI also think it is beneficial for administrations to acknowledge (and) keep track of philanthropic contributions because it reflects well upon them when they’re able to pull philanthropic numbers for university recruitment and even national awardsâ
Communication between the university and Greek life is apparently more than a little difficult.
âAlthough some chapter leadership is required to meet with me four times in their active role, I never hear from them, they donât respond to me,â Behum said. âAnd they are required. I think that is more of a personal response than a representation of their whole group.â
Aside from leaders of the respected members of the Greek community failing to stay in contact with her, Behum said the inter-house or inter-chapter organizations of some fraternities and sororities âcan be confusing.â
âI have a list of officers and it is not accurate because they do rotate, or sometimes people do resign from their position, as well,â she said.
As positions change, Behum is not able to always keep track of who is in charge in each organization. This makes it harder for her to keep tabs on the information each fraternity and sorority is suppose to share with the school.
Fraternities and sororities being compared to each other is one thing that prevents their respected leaders and members from working with members of the press and sharing information with the public. Behum said she thinks itâs not a transparency problem, but more of members being cautious about being compared.
âItâs not that theyâre not proud of what theyâve done, itâs not that theyâre not willing to be transparent; theyâre just guarded,â she said. âI think Greek life a lot of times gets a negative, people assume that the story is going to be negative.â
Behum isnât wrong that Greek life can sometimes get a negative reputation. A March 2012 Transcript article by sophomore Noah Manskar, current editor-in-chief, addressed a sexual assault legal battle that a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon initiated charging his accusers with âlibel, emotional distress and abuse of process.â Although the man was no longer a student at OWU, it shed an unflattering light on the house. One member of the fraternity refused to comment or answer interview questions because of this article.
More recently, an email leaked to Deadspin in April by a member of the University of Marylandâs chapter of Delta Gamma has gone viral and attracted attention to the schoolâs Greek community. The email, sent out by a chair member of their chapter, demands her fellow sisters to be more sociable with the âpretty good fratâ they were paired up with for Greek Week and contains quite a bit of profanity.
One fraternity member said itâs not that Greek organizations donât want to speak with the press, but that they have restrictions on doing so.
âI don’t think organizations are reluctant to speak with press; I think that organizations have their set rules/by laws etc that establish who specifically is allowed to talk to the press on behalf of their organization, or chapter,â he said.
One OWU sorority member said any information she shares or comments she makes had to be submitted to her sororityâs national headquarters for approval because it would be representing the entire international organization. She said this is generally a two-week process.
Another fraternity member said he thinks Greek life has a problem with the press.
âThe press always seems to try to portray Greek Life in a negative light,â he said. âWhen members of the Greek community are representing Greek life, they have to be very careful and political with what they say.
Members do not have to share information with the press, and the compiling of the data Behum receives makes it difficult to decipher. Additionally, fraternities and sororities are required to send in large packets of information to the Order of Omega for the Greek Awards, which includes total philanthropy fundraising, but these packets are viewed by judges only, made of OWU faculty and staff, and are shredded once the judging is over.
The lack of actual documentation is startling to some non-Greek students.
One non-Greek student said in an email she thinks â(i)tâs alarming that fraternities and sororities donât have to provide documentation proving how much money they raised at a philanthropy event or how much that philanthropy actually received.â
Another non-Greek student said she understands why members of the Greek community are reluctant to talk to the press, but also said she thinks representatives of the Greek community need to be responsible for their actions and organization.
âAccountability is essential to the integrity of the Greek system and their student representatives,â the student said. âReputation is also important on campus and if a Greek affiliation is being dishonest it should be recorded.â
This 9/11 Memorial honors two OWU alumni who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.The local fire station flies their flag at half mast to honor the lives lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
By Spenser Hickey
News Editor
The physical signs on campus may have been few, but the grim weight of memory still sat heavy on us all.
Around campus, things were different today. The JAYWalk seemed quieter, and the time between classes seemed longer; the day as a whole seemed more drawn out, offering added time to reflect and look back on that morning, 12 years ago.
There were some reminders â not that we needed them. One student wore an NYPD shirt; another had one with the New York City skyline; the flag at the fire station on the aptly named Liberty Street hung at half-mast. I never heard anyone say what had happened verbally, but we all knew.
In what has become a memorial custom of our modern age, many took to social media to offer their reflections and commemorations for the lives lost that day; one student mourned her father, while another posted that he was pulling an all-nighter in Beeghly for the first time since the night US Special Forces killed Osama Bin Ladin.
Ohio Wesleyan was not spared by this tragic attack on America – Douglas Cherry, Class of 1985; Edward Luckett, Class of 1984; and Ann Judge, Class of 1973 were among the 2,977 victims.
They have been honored with a memorial rock and garden on the academic side, but this year there were no special services, or university-wide commemorations of the lives lost among the OWU community. Twelve years is a long time, and eventually the yearly memorials and moments of silence end.
But even without these traditional rites, even if no one brings the day up in conversation, the pall remains, as it always will. This day was the Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination of our generation, and the memories – where we were, how we found out – will never fade. That day affected all of us, not just those who live in and around New York, or Washington, or Shanksville, PA.
Since that day we have witnessed one successful terror attack at home and many more abroad, as well as a number of failed ones, and fought and ended two wars, waged in the name of those killed, and sent military troops around the world as part of an ongoing global war. Last night, the President made the case for another foreign intervention in the Middle East.
Today – or at least this piece about today – is not the place to discuss whether the war in Syria is right or wrong, or if the NSA should have the power it does, or if surveillance by federal and police authorities of the Muslim-American community has overstepped the bounds of civil rights; I mention these as ways we as a nation and a society have been affected by the tragedy.
We have become more fearful, more patriotic, more aware of global issues. The day and the years that followed changed us, changed our culture, as shows like 24 and Homeland played up our fear of terrorist infiltration and our trust in renegade government agents willing to do whatever was necessary, regardless of if it was legal.
America was at war, and when sacrifices were needed we rose to the occasion, whether as first responders on the day, or soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines in the wars that followed; we showed the world and ourselves the depth of our resolve, as we did again after the Boston Marathon, as we may have to again.
As the day winds down and we go on with our lives, let us take some time to remember the 2,977 men and women who stepped from this earth into the arms of our national memory.
In what remains of today, and on the day next year, and the year after that, take some time to remember them, and those they left behind who will never forget, because of the events of that day – this day, 12 years ago.
By Marissa Alfano, Tim Alford and Brittany Vickers
Transcript Reporters
Directly off the Delaware-Sunbury exit of Interstate 71 lies a swampy, unkempt tract of land behind a Burger King. Across the street is an undeveloped 88-acre quadrant with NorthGate signs and street lamps along the adjacent road leading to developed land. According to Delaware City Trustee Adam Fleischer, one of these plots of land will support an outlet mall by Christmas 2014.
The Simon Property Group, joined with the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers; and Craig Reality Group, joined with developer Pat Shivley are currently competing for a chance to build an outlet mall on the southeastern section of Interstate 71/Ohio 37/U.S. 36 interchange.
Simon Tanger announced their plans in November for a 350,000-square foot outlet mall that would, according to Fleischer, house more than 90 upscale brand name and designer outlet stores such as J. Crew and Van Maur. The project is expected to create 300 jobs during the construction phase, and once completed, is expected to employ more than 900 people in retail and sales. Tanger already owns the Jeffersonville outlets and Simon owns the Mall at Tuttle Crossing in Dublin.
Shivley, who is teaming up with the Craig Reality Group, has plans for an upscale mall as well, but their project would also include a sports complex with 20 full size soccer and lacrosse fields, eight to 12 baseball fields, a 60,000-square-foot indoor sports facility and plans for a natatorium in the future.
According to Shivleyâs zoning application, the project is anticipated to be visited by over 3 million shoppers annually, who will spend in excess of $300 million in Delaware County. Over 2,000 people are expected to be employed in its shops and restaurants.
Nancy Burton, Public Information Office District 6 contact for the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), said a Traffic Impact Study is required for any developer in Ohio.
âAnytime a developer or a group or an individual wants to propose building anything that would handle large volumes of trafficâŚthe developer is required to provide ODOT and the countyâŚhow the development will move traffic in and out of their development and interchange,â she said.
She said solutions to this include stoplights, stop signs and turn lanes, and that it is the responsibility of the developers to build them. ODOT does not have a preference or any input on which developer is chosen. As long as the developer meets ODOTâs standards, the developer will get clearance.
To date, the only Traffic Impact Study received has been from the NorthGate Development Group, which Shivley is working with.
In addition to meeting this requirement, the developer would also need to go through a re-zoning process.
According to Fleischer, the current areas have been primarily agricultural for the past 20 years. It is currently zoned as agriculture and can only be used to grow crops. Both developers are interested in rezoning the land to commercial use, which would allow an outlet mall to be built there. No developer can break ground to build a mall until the land is rezoned.
Fleischer said although the outlet mall would be in Berkshire Township, he thinks it would be beneficial for the community at large in more ways than one.
âI am personally a supporter of the development, not only for the jobs and the environment, but also because of the tax revenue itâs going to bring,â he said. âThis area of Delaware County is slightly depressed relative to the rest of the county. Delaware County is the wealthiest county in Ohio right now per capita and this area is nice, donât get me wrong, but itâs not Powell. Itâs not Liberty. Itâs not Lewis Center. I think we could benefit greatly from it.â
Fleischer said he thinks development is going to occur, and he prefers that when it is done, it be done right.
âYou canât halt development, and you canât halt it for its own sake,â Fleischer said. âBut what I say to them (people who donât want the area to change) is, âWell, we canât stop it, but we can make sure it is done right.â We can make sure that density levels are correct; we can make sure that tax money is going to the township and to the community and to the county and to the state.â
There have been fears of annexation from the city of Columbus and Sunbury, which could put the outlet mall out of the cityâs jurisdiction and allow its tax revenues to flow elsewhere. Fleischer said this is always a constant threat when there is development because neighboring cities want to share tax revenue.
Berkshire Township Trustee Rod Myers told Delaware Gazette reporter Dustin Ensinger that he is in strong opposition to any development on the land. His main concern is that the property will be annexed to Sunbury, putting a gap in Berkshire Township.
âIf it does get through zoning and it comes to me, I wonât vote for this outlet mall as a trustee,â Myers told Ensinger.
Sunbury Village Administrator Dave Martin told Ensinger there has already been some discussion with Shivley about annexation; however, Shivley has not committed to anything.
Outside of annexation, Myers said he is also concerned with the increase in traffic and how a sewer service will be provided to the area.
Despite his strong opposition, Fleischer said he has never heard of an outlet mall being denied permission to build.
Delaware County Commissioner Ken OâBrien said he hopes work will be done to roads in the area if development happens, but he is in support of adding an outlet mall in general. He has not, however, taken a position to support either outlet yet because the developers still have to make a case before the county. He said he is most concerned with a sound planning process and will be supportive of the malls if they are going to be done well.
According to OâBrien, the new outlet mall should be capable of successful coexistence with Polaris Fashion Place or Easton Town Center in Columbus. He said he thinks it will draw people to the areas in general and the malls will be different enough from each other that it wonât cause too much competition.
âI donât see it as a competition to those kinds of malls,â he said. âI see it as a compliment to those malls.â
While Ohio Wesleyan is close in proximity to where these malls could be located, Fleischer said the population of roughly 2,000 students does not compare to Delaware Countyâs 160,000 residents, so it is not being taken into heavy consideration by the developers. However, these companies could look toward OWU students for retail employment opportunities and potential costumers.
Junior Casey Smiley, a Delaware resident, said she supports the idea of building an outlet mall in the area and not having to travel as far to reach the others that are currently available.
âIâm excited to get some great bargains at the new outlets,â she said. âI donât think the traffic will be bad, but even if there is some more traffic, it will totally be worth it.â
OWU students have expressed interest in the sports complex portion of Shivleyâs plan and not as much interest in the ideas of the outlet malls.
Sophomore Sam Weeks said she would be happy if the Shivley mall and sports complex was built.
âI have to drive all the way to Polaris for an indoor facility because I am on the soccer team, and if it was closer then I wouldnât have to spend as much money on gas,â she said. âAnd that would be wonderful.â
Junior Nazar Zhdan did not like the idea of a shopping mall, but being a big soccer fan, was excited about the prospect of the sports facility.
âA sports facility sounds great; a mall sounds horrible,â he said. âWe shop too much and spend money on stuff we donât need.â
Senior Carly Hallal said she thought a smaller strip mall would be better than a full-size outlet mall.
âPolaris isnât that far away; itâs only a fifteen minute drive,â she said. âAnd the area is already overdeveloped, so we donât need it.â
Junior Dre White, a varsity basketball player at OWU, is also excited about the prospect of having sports resources closer to campus.
âI need a Nike around here,â he said. âCloser outlet malls would give students somewhere else to go besides Polaris or Easton that would be so much more convenient. If students were looking for employment, Iâm sure they could work there, too.â
With both malls expected to be completed in time for the holiday shopping season, many of the decisions as to which facility will be built will be made in the coming months. At press time, the issue of annexation is still unresolved and neither developer has withdrawn from the rezoning process.
Trayvon Martin pictured with his father, Tracy Martin, before his death on February 26, 2012.
By Spenser Hickey
News Editor
In light of George Zimmermanâs acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, I am reminded of an episode of the TV series “The West Wing.”
A Latino LAPD officer shot and killed a black teenager holding what turned out to be a fake gun, and one of the characters â a Latino presidential candidate â speaks to a black church congregation about the incident; Iâve included some of his words below.
 I find myself on days like this casting about for someone to blame. I blame the kid, he stole a car. I blame the parents. Why couldn’t they teach him better? I blame the cop, did he need to fire? I blame every one I can think of and I am filled with rage.
And then I try and find compassion. Compassion for the people I blame, compassion for the people I do not understand, compassion. It doesn’t always work so well. I remember as a young man listening on the radio to Dr. King in 1968. He asked of us compassion, and we responded, not necessarily because we felt it but because he convinced us that if we could find compassion, if we could express compassion, that if we could just pretend compassion, it would heal us so much more than vengeance could. And he was right: it did but not enough. What we’ve learned this week is that more compassion is required of us and an even greater effort is required of us.
⌠I ask you today to dig down deep with me and find that compassion in your hearts, because it will keep us on the road. And we will walk together, and work together. And slowly, slowly, too slowly, things will get better.
To be fair, the similar details between the fictional case and the real-life tragedy of Trayvon Martin are superficial at best: a Hispanic man shoots and kills a black youth he thought was a threat to his life. Details aside, though, the message of the speech â compassion and the need for unity â still resonate at this dark hour.
Much of the national debate over the case centered on blame â what happened was Zimmermanâs fault for being a profiling wannabe cop; or, alternatively, Martin was a violent and possibly high punk who instigated the fight.
While Iâm personally more inclined to see more validity to the first assertion than the second one â and I admit I hadnât watched all of the trialâs nonstop coverage â the case was more than just two competing assertions.
Why did Zimmerman think Martin was suspicious? As far as I know, he hasnât spoken to this, and many have asserted he was assuming Trayvon was a criminal because of his appearance â a black teen in a hoodie. The details of the altercation that left Trayvon dead and Zimmerman apparently bloodied were fiercely contested, but even if Martin did start the fight, as Zimmerman claims, I can appreciate why he would have done so.
Thinking of this reminds me of a time, not too long ago, when I was walking late at night and saw an unknown man following me, as Trayvon did that tragic night. It was the last night of fall semester, and I was with several friends going up the JAYwalk when we saw someone trying to pry open the doors to the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center. He saw us, stopped, and began to follow us. We grouped together, called Public Safety. He vanished as soon as they showed up, and that was the end of it.
I had the safety of numbers, and as a white man did not have a deeply ingrained and often justified mistrust of police, as many black men do. And yet I still remember the fear and adrenaline I felt that night, and how I became conscious of the glass bottle I held, and thought of how I might have had to use it had I been alone, had PS been elsewhere. And so even if Trayvon were the instigator of the fight, I have an understanding of why he would have done so, not knowing who this man was â Zimmerman had been following him for awhile, first in a vehicle and then on foot.
I donât know why George Zimmerman did what he did, and I likely never will; none of us know what was in his mind as he approached Martin. And because the case is so muddled, Iâm not surprised there was an acquittal. After all, the only man who saw everything and is still alive was the one on trial.
Despite the acquittal, I still see in this case some progress in how racially-charged killings are handled.
Had this happened several decades ago, Zimmerman would almost certainly have gone untried, and Trayvon Martin would be just one of the scores of black men who never had a chance at receiving justice.
Look at the cases of Emmett Till, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Medgar Evers and the dozens of other martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. All were killed, either by members of the Klu Kulx Klan or police (or both), who were acquitted despite clear evidence of their guilt and of their racist motives.
In the Zimmerman trial â where the motive and evidence is nowhere near as cut-and-dry, but very muddled and disputed â the trial represented a legitimate attempt at prosecution, even if it was deeply contentious.
And so, I think back to the speech from âThe West Wing,â and how relevant the lines on blame are; they could easily be adapted to fit this real tragedy. We can blame George Zimmerman for following Trayvon Martin; we can blame Trayvon Martin for starting the fight â if he did indeed do that â and we can blame George Zimmerman for shooting to kill. But blame will not bring Trayvon Martin back, and it will further divide us and may lead to even more violence, which none of us want.
I also think of the lines on compassion, and how it is my own community who needs to show compassion now, especially those of us who think that Zimmerman should have been acquitted, that the claims of racism were overblown.
Regardless of what we think of the specific details of this one case, all of us must, show compassion and solidarity for the black community, as they mourn the tragic loss of another one of their sons, and feel justice was withheld. They still struggle for equality, and we should support them.
My heart goes out to the Martin family and the black community, especially as I remember that this trial is not the sole example of racial strife present in todayâs America.
There are many other issues that need to be acknowledged, but the coverage of the trial has pushed them out of the national consciousness.
The Supreme Court just gutted the Voting Rights Act, and now southern states rush to pass voter identification laws once blocked for being too discriminatory.
Urban police departments are defending their stop and frisk tactics, and people of color are much more likely to be convicted and incarcerated longer than whites accused of similar offenses.
The North Carolina NAACP has had to return to civil disobedience and stand-ins in their Moral Mondays protests; just in the past few weeks, there were reports of KKK fliers being distributed in several states.
These are just some of the more prominent examples of racial discord that continues to plague our nation.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), who has authored a bill to change the way the United States military tries sexual assault cases. Photo from gillibrand.senate.gov.
By Spenser Hickey
News Editor
Since World War II, as many as 1,000,000 men and women have gone into the service, eager to serve their country, only to be sexually assaulted by their comrades. Most never reported it and only a very few that did saw their assailant be convicted and thrown out of the service.
The number of military sexual assault survivors is greater than that of servicemen and women killed in action in every conflict the U.S. has taken part inâcombined.
According to recent testimony by Marine Commandant James Amos, 85 to 90 percent of sexual assaults remain unreported in todayâs military, despite twelve months of efforts by the top brass to effect change.
Now, after so many decades, Congress is planning legislation to fight the problem, either by putting control of sexual assault cases at the highest levels of military authority (as Ohio Rep. Mike Turnerâs bill advocates) or removing it from the militaryâs control all together (what Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is calling for).
Under the current system, an officer in charge of the case can change the verdict on a whim, even without being present at the trial, because the alleged rapist is a husband and father, and itâs thought they donât do that sort of thing. Itâs happened.
Ultimately, thatâs the problem with any system that tries to handle sexual assault cases in-house â it creates a recipe for potential injustice. Look at the Catholic Church or Penn State; look at the allegations of failures in reporting and violations of survivorsâ rights at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill or Dartmouth College.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff have balked at Gillibrandâs call for sexual assault cases to be overseen by civilian prosecutors, saying it would undermine unit discipline and trust.
âThe role of the commander should remain central,â said U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey. âOur goal should be to hold commanders more accountable, not render them less able to help us correct the crisis. The commandersâ responsibility to preserve order and discipline is essential to effecting change.â
But itâs not essential, though, as several nations have proven.
In the militaries of England, Canada, Australia, Germany and Israel, for example, unit commanders do not have control over sexual assault cases, and their militaries arenât falling apart.
When asked about the methods foreign militaries use to combat sexual assault, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said theyâd âlook into it,â so maybe thatâs why theyâre convinced commanders need to retain their control â they arenât actually aware there are other systems that actually work better.
Military commanders have frequently claimed social change is a threat to unit discipline and order in response to government pressure, whether it was for racial integration, allowing women to serve in active duty or overturning âDonât Ask, Donât Tell.â And now itâs being marched out again, hopefully to the same lack of success as in the past.
While congressmen and women from both parties have been united in their pressure on military officials to carry out effective changes, one took the opportunity to put his foot in his mouth and make one more misguided statement about the causes of rape.
âThe hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur,â said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), in a statement that bumbled him into the realm of Todd Akin and so many other politicians â from both parties â who have made callous or misguided remarks about sexual assault.
While his statement was slammed in the media, conservative news site RedState posted a strong defense of Chamblissâs remark, claiming âthe liberal mediaâ was deliberately ignoring the context of the statement, and that the context excuses it.
The whole six-and-a-half-minute speech Chambliss gave, the âcontextâ RedStateoffers, has nothing to do with hormones, but with how the military has failed to create an environment that makes men too afraid to commit rape; instead theyâve created an environment that explicitly or implicitly permits it.
But then Chambliss made his claim, wholly unrelated to the speech he just made, that itâs the natural hormones that make this possible.
As RedState writer Erick Erickson puts it in his defending piece, itâs because 17-23 year old men are âhornyâ and a commander was âencouraging soldiers to hook up on base as much as possibleâ â and when these base impulses are added that to a broken system of reporting and prosecution, rapes are going to happen.
(Side note: if Ericksonâs name is familiar, itâs because he, along with Lou Dobbs, recently lost a heated on-air debate on gender roles and sexism with Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly â and I doubt heâs learned much from it.)
Hereâs the thing though, Sen. Chambliss and Mr. Erickson â hormones, as you put it, are ânatural.â That means we all have them â so if all the men in the military have these hormones and many are in these systems where they can get away with rape, why donât they all do it? And why are some of the alleged rapists outside that 17 to 23 age range?
Chamblissâs and Ericksonâs statements presume that if a young man is in a room with a woman heâs physically attracted to, and thereâs little chance of punishment involved, heâll have sex with her whether she wants to or not, because the hormones take over.
Itâs a disgusting premise for us young men, that we all have some repressed rapist on our shoulders; and itâs one that completely ignores the gender dynamics of rape survivors in the military (more men have been raped than women, according to DoD estimates) and the more common reasons most rapes occur in the military.
As with any crime, the motives behind these rapes differ from case to case, but ânatural hormonesâ are one of the least common factors. Military sexual assault, like prison rape â another systemic failure of reporting and justice â is primarily a crime of predation and power rather than passion, targeting the people offenders see as weaker and subjecting them to what they consider to be the worst humiliation.
Itâs not about sexual desire, but establishing and reinforcing power and control, and sadly the military already has a power-based hierarchal system that is being exploited by sexual predators who target their subordinates in the ranks.
In addition, rape â often against women and children â has been one of the oldest weapons militaries use against their enemyâs populations to further subjugate them and weaken their morale. Itâs seen in ongoing regional wars around the world; in the invasions of the Germans, Soviets and Japanese in World War II; and in hundreds of other conflicts going back to before ancient Rome and Greece. War and sexual violence have been entwined since the first groups of humanity took up arms against their neighbors.
In the case of our current military, I see some of these assaults as a violent physical expression of a broader attitude infecting the services â that women are weak and good only for sexual subjugation. Itâs part of a last-ditch effort to keep the military exclusive to men, and sexual assaults are an unseen salvo in this mostly undeclared war.
When itâs not directly about power, itâs because men think they have a right to use women or men for their own sexual gratification, regardless of their wishes. While Chamblissâs solution â that the military stop rape by making men fear the consequences too much do it â might work sometimes, itâs still not the right solution.
Instead, the military, and our entire society, need to teach men to treat people with respect and dignity, and to value the consent of their partner. Thatâs how we take back the military and end the invisible war.
But enough of Chambliss, Erickson and their wildly off-kilter perspectives on the causes of rape, which thankfully have been slammed by politicians on the left and right â letâs look at something else in this debate, something favorable a politician said.
“I cannot overstate my disgust and disappointment over continued reports of sexual misconduct in our military,â said Arizona Senator John McCain, a Navy veteran. âWeâve been talking about this issue for years and talk is insufficient.â
He recently said that he could no longer recommend to women in his constituency that they join the military, due to the rampant sexual assaults.
Itâs a bold move for a politician to tell citizens not to join the military, and I applaud McCain for doing so. But he missed one particular statistic about rape in the military: over half of survivors are men, not women.
Itâs not that surprising, when you consider that there are six times more men than women in the military; and men are less likely to report assaults than women, due to the aggressive hypermasculinity of military culture, which portrays being assaulted as the ultimate weakness in an environment where power is paramount. Like I said, this is about power, not passion.
âThe biggest reasons men donât come forward (with sex assault reports) are the fear of retaliation (from fellow troops), the fear of being viewed in a weaker light and the fact there are very few, if any, services for male survivors,â said Brian Lewis, a Navy veteran and rape survivor, in an NBC News interview.
In light of this, Iâd say everyone, regardless of gender, should think about the risks before enlisting in the military. I know I wonât enlist as long as the problem continues. Not just because of the danger, but because I refuse to be part of an institution where rape is an occupation hazard.
Thatâs not hyperbole, not a slick phrase I made up â itâs an actual judgeâs words, based the number and frequency of assaults, from a 2011 lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.
âIf they actually had systems of accountability that prosecuted and imprisoned perpetrators, you would get rid of the rapes right away,â said attorney Susan Burke, who represented the plaintiffs â 28 veterans who were raped during their military service â in the 2011 lawsuit.
I donât know that Iâd go so far as to say a new system would end rapes entirely â it should be based off the civilian criminal justice system, and sexual violence is still a serious issue outside of the military. But it would certainly be better.
The current system has failed most veterans who turned to it at every step of the way.
Itâs failed at preventing assaults; itâs failed at offering comfortable reporting of them; itâs failed at prosecuting assault cases; itâs failed at punishing those convicted in accordance with their crime; and itâs failed at treating survivorsâ mental and physical scars as a result of their military sexual trauma.
The civilian criminal system is not without its flaws â look at the absurdly lenient sentences of the Steubenville rapists, or the grotesque case of the Central Park Five (teenagers of color wrongly convicted in the 1989 rape of a white woman).
But itâs still an improvement over the current military system, and itâs long past time for the military brass to swallow their pride and adopt a new system â or for the government to compel them to do so through legislative mandate.
Each day last year, an average of 38 men and 33 women in our armed forces were sexually assaulted by those they served with.
Theyâd each made the noblest choice an American can make â stepping up to risk their lives in our defense.
Iâm hard-pressed to think how their commanders, as well as our collective response to the problem, could have let them down more.
For an in-depth view into this crisis, watch âThe Invisible War,â available on Netflix Instant.
Iâm going to try to be funny, but I canât promise anything because I canât stop crying. I cried five minutes ago making notes for this column. Maybe thatâs funny to you. Iâm a mess and I need cake.
Iâve been crying about the Tonys every day for the past week. The Tony Awards recognize the greatest achievements of the Broadway season. Some have said the Tonys are like the Super Bowl for theatre nerds. I canât comment on the accuracy of that comparison because Iâm not familiar with the Super Bowl.
I am vaguely aware of Super Bowl commercials and the fact that a minute of advertising time costs millions of dollars because ratings are so high. So I guess the Tonys are not like the Super Bowl at allâratings for the Tonys are laughably low and every few years executives threaten to pull the telecast from network television. PBS could pick it up, but then Republicans would threaten to defund PBS just to block my gay rights.
I do know that a Super Bowl trophy canât help you get an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).
Iâve mostly been crying because of âKinky Boots,â a new musical about a drag queen named Lola (Billy Porter) who reinvigorates a shoe factory with sparkling stilettos. Based on that plot description, I avoided the show while in New York for spring break with my mother and aunt. They were perplexed. The flashy billboards all over Times Square boasted a creative collaboration between esteemed playwright Harvey Fierstein and pop-rock sensation Cyndi Lauper.
One afternoon my mother came right out and said, âI walked by the theatre where âKinky Bootsâ is playing. Why arenât we seeing that?â
âOh, trust me, itâs not going to do well,â I said.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a lesson in why you should only trust me sometimes. âKinky Bootsâ now has the most Tony nominations of the season, 13 in total, and is a major contender for Best Musical, the nightâs top prize.
The Tony campaign for âKinky Bootsâ has been vigorous and tugs at the heartstrings. My heartstrings are no exception, resulting in tears of regret, shame, and sorrow for not seeing it when I had the chance.
Every time I went to broadwayworld.com this week, the same âKinky Bootsâ ad would pop up and I would cry because: a) I canât stand that the guy doing the voiceover emphasizes the wrong syllable of âKinkyâ at the beginning of the video and b) I pompously thought the musical was unworthy of my time. I hadnât even heard a full song from the show, yet the ad left me sobbing uncontrollably, a part of me hoping that âKinky Bootsâ would sweep the Tonys even though I actually saw (and loved) its strongest competitor, âMatilda.â
Let me be clear: I am not an authority on the Tony Awards. Iâve only seen three of the nominated productions. The rest is merely (obsessive) conjecture. First I saw âMatilda,â based on Roald Dahlâs classic novel. With a book by Dennis Kelly and score by Tim Minchin, the musical tells the story of a five-year-old girl who loves books and mischief, but the adults in her life try to stifle her intelligence. Four actresses alternate in the title role (I saw the dynamite Milly Shapiro), and tonight they will receive Special Achievement Tony Awards for their performances.
While reviews for âKinky Bootsâ were only lukewarm, critics loved âMatilda.â New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley called it âthe most satisfying and subversive musical ever to come out of Britain.â
In an attempt to compare the two musicals, I listened to the cast recording of âKinky Bootsâ since many consider Cyndi Lauperâs score the showâs strongest element. I was underwhelmed. Maybe all the hype has to do with Jerry Mitchellâs direction and choreography, but I found nothing in Lauperâs songs particularly brilliant. Tim Minchinâs music and lyrics for âMatildaâ are much more substantive and sophisticated.
The other two nominated productions I saw were both plays. Christopher Durangâs âVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeâ is a family comedy about three middle-aged siblings whose parents named them after Chekov characters. Hilarity ensues when Masha (Sigourney Weaver), a B-list movie star, returns home for a visit, yet there is great heart and depth amongst the chaos of this farce. Kristine Nielsenâs uproarious turn as Sonia should earn her the Tony for Best Actress in a Play, but she will probably lose to veteran Cicely Tyson in âThe Trip to Bountiful.â
Tom Hanks will likely take the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut in longtime pal Nora Ephronâs play âLucky Guy.â The play was an utter disappointment for me, even though I desperately wanted to love it. Ephron, one of my favorite writers, died last summer and âLucky Guyâ is her final completed work. A bio-play about controversial tabloid journalist Mike McAlary (Hanks), âLucky Guyâ is a tribute to New York City and the dying form of print journalism, two of Ephronâs greatest loves. Unfortunately, she tried to infuse journalism in the structure of the play, telling us the story via a chorus of reporters instead of showing us the action. The technique proved boring and the entire play suffered as a result.
Voters could go the sentimental route and award Ephron a posthumous Tony, but her problematic script makes this highly doubtful. Expect Christopher Durang to nab Best Play instead, or even Richard Greenberg for his complex drama âThe Assembled Parties.â
Hereâs a summary of who will probably get each award, who I think should get it and who might surprise us and take it home.
Best Play
Will Win: Christopher Durang, âVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeâ
Should Win: Christopher Durang, âVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeâ
Possible Upset: Richard Greenberg, âThe Assembled Partiesâ
Best Musical
Will Win: âMatildaâ
Should Win: âMatildaâ
Possible Upset: âKinky Bootsâ
Best Revival of a Play
Will Win: âWhoâs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?â
Should Win: âWhoâs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?â
Possible Upset: Harvey Fierstein, âKinky Bootsâ
Best Original Score
Will Win: Cyndi Lauper, âKinky Bootsâ
Should Win: Tim Minchin, âMatildaâ
Possible Upset: Tim Minchin, âMatildaâ
Best Direction of a Play
Will Win: George C. Wolfe, âLucky Guyâ
Should Win: Nicholas Martin, âVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeâ
Possible Upset: Pam MacKinnon, âWhoâs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?â
Best Direction of a Musical
Will Win: Diane Paulus, âPippinâ
Should Win: Diane Paulus, âPippinâ
Possible Upset: Matthew Warchus, âMatildaâ
I didnât realize how hot this race was until I looked up the nominees for this category! âMatildaâ was one of the most magical nights of my theatergoing life, but based on video clips alone, Diane Paulus deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award for her reconceived, circus-themed revival of âPippin.â Hereâs another clip to show you what I mean:
Best Actor in a Play
Will Win: Tom Hanks, âLucky Guyâ
Should Win: Tom Hanks, âLucky Guyâ
Possible Upset: Nathan Lane, âThe Nanceâ
Best Actress in a Play
Will Win: Cicely Tyson, âThe Trip to Bountifulâ
Should Win: Kristine Nielsen, âVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeâ
Possible Upset: Amy Morton, âWhoâs Afraid of Virginia Woolf?â
Actor in a Musical
Will Win: Billy Porter, âKinky Bootsâ
Should Win: Bertie Carvel, âMatildaâ
Possible Upset: Bertie Carvel, âMatildaâ
Best Actress in a Musical
Will Win: Patina Miller, âPippinâ
Should Win: Patina Miller, âPippinâ
Possible Upset: Laura Osnes, âCinderellaâ
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Will Win: Danny Burstein, âGolden Boyâ
Should Win: Danny Burstein, âGolden Boyâ
Possible Upset: Courtney B. Vance, âLucky Guyâ
This is Danny Bursteinâs fourth Tony nomination, and he deserves this one solely for losing last year for âFollies.â
Best Featured Actress in a Play
Will Win: Judith Light, âThe Assembled Partiesâ
Should Win: Judith Light, âThe Assembled Partiesâ
Possible Upset: Shalita Grant, âVanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeâ
Though I loved Shalita Grantâs performance, Judith Light (âWhoâs the Bossâ and âUgly Bettyâ) is poised to win her second consecutive Tony in this category. I cried for her last year and Iâll cry for her again.
Best Featured Actor in in a Musical
Will Win: Terrance Mann, âPippinâ
Should Win: Gabriel Ebert, âMatildaâ
Possible Upset: Gabriel Ebert, âMatildaâ
Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Will Win: Andrea Martin, âPippinâ
Should Win: Andrea Martin, âPippinâ
Andrea Marin, best known as crazy Aunt Voula in âMy Big Fat Greek Wedding,â is set to win her second Tony for her role as Pippinâs grandmother, Berthe. In her six-word Tony nomination story, which can been seen here on Facebook, she writes, ânever too late to start living!â Weeps people. Weeps.
The Tonys will air live tonight, Sunday, June 9 on CBS at 8 p.m. eastern. For my live blog of the telecast, follow @ryanjhaddad on Twitter or weepingonwheels.tumblr.com.
In 2010, when Ohio Wesleyan took over ownership of the fraternity houses on Williams Drive, it was decided that there needed to be an agreement between the Fraternities, their alumni, Residential Life (ResLife), campus foodservice provider Chartwells and groundskeeping and housekeeping provider Aramark on what each party would bring to the table to do the best for the university and the fraternity chapters. This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed then, and it was decided it would be up for revision every three years. This year was the first year the MOU is to be revised. However, there has been some discourse between the administration and the fraternities, and frustrations have been high.
âItâs a common agreement on paper,â said Dana Behum, Assistant Director of Student Involvement for Fraternity and Sorority Life, about the MOU. âItâs not as binding as a contract, but it is an agreement from both partiesâŚIt is a partnership between the university and fraternities. And that includes a lot of folks.â
Behum was the âin-betweenâ person for the fraternities in their relations with the rest of the administration involved with the MOU. Wendy Piper, Director of Residential Life, said her department was involved in the original creation and in the revision.
âThere is a change in the required occupancy level,â she said. âThe 2010 MOU stated chapters had three years â until Spring 2013 â to reach 80 percent occupancy. The revised MOU states chapters must achieve 85 percent occupancy by spring 2015 and 90 percent occupancy by spring 2017. There is also a change for those chapters who elect to have the university operate their kitchens, which allows chapters more options. The revised MOU allows chapters to decide if they want all of their meals to be provided in the house, if they want a combination of in-house meals and on-campus food points, or if they want to close their kitchens and have members choose one of the existing on-campus meal plans.â
Should a fraternity chapter on campus who currently has a house is unable to meet the occupancy requirement by the deadlines set, they are at risk of losing their house to other housing options on campus who may be able to fill those houses. Behum said in that event, the fraternity can petition to stay in their houses because they are not guaranteed housing in that specific house the next year. As of spring 2013, two fraternity houses had to submit petitions to ResLife, and both have been permitted to continue living in their respective houses.
âThey say, âWe would like to petition to remain in our facilityâ and Residential Life comes back and says, âPlease share your plan to recruit more or how do you plan to correct this,ââ Behum said about the petition process. âSo they have a full calendar year to reach the occupancy levelâŚ.They have to have a plan on paper to achieve it in the next year.â
Behum said it was not the universityâs intent to remove the fraternities from their houses, because they would then have to fill them with random students. The goal, she said, was to keep the houses both filled and still in the hands of the fraternities.
Other sections of the MOU deal with how Buildings and Grounds responds to issues in the house and the renovations to be made to the house. It also outlines how the fraternity houses are cleaned.
âThe gentlemen on campus asked for a lot more detail regarding cleaning the houseâŚthey requested more detail and solidity in when B&G (Buildings and Grounds) would be responsible for repairs like a broken window or mold in the basement,â Behum said.
Behum said some fraternities were more concerned with the B&G section than others. For example, one of the fraternity houses had sewage leaking into their kitchenâwhich has been taken care ofâand needed other remodeling and adjustments in the past month. Other concerns include cracking foundations and more plumbing issues.
âThe common theme our men are unhappy with is the turnaround time with large projects which need to be fixed,â Behum said.
Fraternity reactions, according to Piper, varied depending on the chapter and on what section of the MOU they had questions about.
âThe occupancy level has surfaced as a concern; however, chapters that have historically demonstrated higher occupancy seem to have found this change less objectionable than those that have struggled with occupancy,â she said. âThey also seem to appreciate that occupancy will be calculated on a three year rolling average, which will allow chapters to recover from (a) âleanâ semester of membership. Chapters that continue to self-operate their kitchen seem overall pleased to continue to have that option.â
Behum said the hike in the house occupancy is part of a campus wide initiative to bring OWU to full capacity. Piper said it is a goal to use residential facilities on campus to the best of abilities.
âAs a residential campus, our goal is to make use of all residential facilities on campus, and for many years the fraternity houses had occupancies that were low,â Piper said. âUnder the 2010 MOU, the chapters were given three years to reach a level of occupancy equal to at least 80 percent, which we felt was a reasonable goal given that their combined average occupancy (in 2009-2010) was about 66 percent. The expectation under the revised MOU aims to bring the fraternities to an occupancy level comparable to other university residences, which has been between 93 to 96 percent over the past five or so years.â
Behum said because fraternities were not filling their houses, âthe document challenged them to put emphasis on recruitment.â
She said the fraternity chapters on campus as a whole met the 80 percent occupancy goal fairly quickly, and many of them exceeded it since the original MOU was signed.
The MOU revisions also deal with events such as the Delta Tau Delta fire that were not addressed in the original agreement.
ââŚSome of the actions that were taken as a result of the fire, which had not been explicitly stated in the 2010 MOU, were incorporated into the MOU to guide future actions,â Piper said. âFor example, after the fire, Residential Life relocated the residents and made a concerted effort to keep them located in close proximity to one another wherever possible so that we were not in effect dissolving their community. The MOU now states that in the event of a disaster or emergency that requires students to relocate, the university will work to provide a living arrangement where chapter members are grouped as reasonably as possible.â
Behum said in her experience, the MOU is more of an open dialogue between the university and the fraternities.
âAlthough it may not be a perfect agreement and my not reach everyoneâs needs, it is a living document that we revisit now every four years instead of threeâŚif men are upset (though) we can open the document againâŚitâs to regulate communications between the university and the fraternities.â
Behum also said there are disadvantages to the MOU in that it can be difficult for all sides to be heard and can be a difficult conversation to have.
âThere are fraternities who are having a difficult time getting a response for projects that need to be dealt with, and what better way than to talk about it frequently, get all the right people in the room and get things in motion,â she said. âWhile there may be disadvantages to different groupsâŚbut ultimately it is a positive.â
Some fraternity members at OWU are frustrated by what the MOU revisions. A member of one house involved in listing the revisions the chapters wanted said he felt their voices really werenât heard or really considered during the final decision. Even though many of the fraternities were not satisfied, they felt they had no choice to sign it, since refusal would give the university the right to remove them from their houses. The member requested not to be identified for fear of himself being singled out, either as an individual or a fraternity.
âThe first time the MOU was drafted and signed, the fraternities were very apprehensive about it, but they signed in good faith,â he said. âOn paper it sounded great: the school would take care of the houses and provide everything, cleaning servicesâŚHowever, over the past couple years it really hasnât been done to the best of the schoolâs ability.â
One example he gave of the school falling short on their promises was on the renovations and plans promised three years ago. He said despite the plans to do rather extensive renovations on all of the houses, in reality the renovations executed were small, inconsequential things compared to the major issues the houses had. Where a house was having large and costly foundational or plumbing issues, the university would instead tear out lofts, replace old locks in the building or paint and consider those renovations, rather than dealing with the larger issues in a timely manner.
He said in the case of the plumbing issue, which eventually caused a sewage line break in Alpha Sigma Phi, the school is only now being forced to deal with it since it is considered a hazardous living condition. Another house is facing similar problems with their plumbing.
âEach house has their own unique problems, and the school really hasnât done anything to fix them,â he said.
As to the occupancy level for each house, he said there were some tensions. The fraternities are concerned about the 90 percent occupancy because of how recruitment fluctuates.
âThere was no real compromise with that, and it is frustrating because this is supposed to be a negotiation between two parties, but weâre kind of being forced into a corner because if we hadnât signed by the deadline, the school had the right to take all our houses away, and that wasnât something we wanted to risk,â he explained.
He said the only real compromise was the three year average for the 90 percent occupancy, even though theyâre not quite sure how that will work in 2017.
The member said the decision to move the revisions from every three years to every four also puts the fraternities at a disadvantage. Behum said many of the fraternity men werenât apart or even on campus at the time of the MOUâs creation, and many of their complaints could come from the fact they see it as new information since they never had to deal with it before. Now, however, any student involved with any MOU revision will be unable to be involved in the one previous and the one after, making continuity in understanding what revisions should be requested very difficult for the houses.
âWe wanted to keep it at three, so the freshmen now would have an understanding of what we went through, so they would have something to base their arguments on later,â he said. âBut now, with the revision every four years, thatâs not really possible.â
Though alumni of the fraternities were involved through the Alumni Inter-Fraternal Council (IFC), the brother said undergraduate members didnât have enough time to fully understand the MOU.
âWe kind of knew about it â we had a draft, but we didnât have the opportunity to argue our case,â he said. âThe person we really were able to talk to was Dana (Behum).â
Fraternity members were only directed to speak with Behum, and were not given the opportunity to meet with those who had the power to discuss and make changes to the MOU.
âThey kind of just put on a play, saying we had a month to review it, and then never talked to us about it,â he said. âThen, a week before the deadline, they contacted us, saying, âDonât forget to sign it.ââ
The member said at that point the fraternity presidents got together, requested one more week to suggest revisions, and then went through the MOU line by line and listed the changes they wished to make. When they submitted the changes, they were not considered and the presidents were forced to sign because of the deadline.
âCollectively, all the fraternities didnât want to sign, including the alumni, but we were kind of forced to,â he said. âIt just comes back to the fact the school has the upper hand.â
The brother said the Alumni IFC met with the school about those changes and the alumni from his chapter said they tried to make the same suggestions on behalf of the students, but the university administration still did not make the changes to the MOU.
âStudents were allowed to go to the first two (MOU meetings), but then students were no longer allowed to go any more,â he said. âItâs kind of hard to argue things that affect every day life when you donât have the perspective of someone living in the house every day. The alumni know about the huge problems but they donât know about things like theyâre not cleaning our bathrooms or picking up the trash or not taking care of things that break. Things that happen every day.â
He said there was one person at the meetings representing all of the fraternities, but that since it was really only one perspective and one voice, it wasnât really heard in the decision making process.
The member said while the fraternity presidents were arguing against the changes made and attempting to have their voices heard, they all became rather close and âa united front against a single enemy.â
âMost of the fraternities donât like whatâs going on at all,â he said. âNo major negotiations were actually made. It was more of the school saying, âThis is whatâs going to happen.ââ
As to food plans, the brother said the university was trying to direct all the fraternities to use Chartwells. The fraternities were able to decide whether or not to keep their kitchens under a separate contract (three of them have outside contracts with companies who supply them with chefs) or use Chartwells. However, the MOU states that particular section can be revised every year, âmeaning weâll have to fight every year to keep our own kitchens.â
The brother also said he was unsure as to why the university would continue with an MOU not really agreed upon by the fraternities when a large portion of donated money from alumni come from former members of the fraternities on campus.
He said the Greek alumni money is divided a certain way â 80 percent to the houses and 20 percent to the university to use as they see fit. He said he felt that 20 percent shouldâve gone to preventative measures in the house, such as the sewage or foundational problems, before they became an immediate living hazard. However, he said, the university refused to release their financial records of that money in light of all the renovations that havenât been made.
âWhy would you piss us off when all the money youâre getting is from our alumni?â he said.
Trying to decide what movie to see last week, my friend and I were left with few options. I am not a Trekkie. I donât do superheroes. I love Robert Downey Jr., but not when he âs covered in iron. And while I adore Jay Gatsby, I cannot bring myself to watch his demise for a third time in three weeks.
I canât handle that Gatsby has more beautiful shirts in his bedroom-within-a-closet than I could fit in my entire house.
I canât handle that Iâm attracted to Tom Buchanan even though heâs an absolute tool.
I canât handle that a poorly timed summer release has cost Leonardo DiCaprio his long-overdue Oscar.
I canât handle that I am so much like Gatsby, always reaching for the unattainable green light CGIed at the end of the dock.
We settled on âMudâ starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon (well, not starring Reese Witherspoon). I knew nothing about this movie. I presumed it was a small-scale indie getting a (sort of) wide release because of the names attached. Cinematic offerings are generally devoid of intellect in the summer months, so I was hungry for even the tiniest morsel of something truly good.
Last summer I went into âBeasts of the Sothern Wildâknowing absolutely nothing and emerged drowning in a sea of tears. The masterful meditation on nature and youth took me by surprise, and from the first shots of âMudââtwo young boys riding down a riverâit seemed the two films might be similar.
The boys, Ellis and Neckbone (yes, that is his name), stop on what appears to be a deserted island and climb up to what appears to be an abandoned boat hoisted in the branches of a tree.
A boat in a tree. How did this boat get to the top of this tree? Who put it there? Did the person swim off the island? Did this person drown? Did this person disappear into the ground? These questions do not enter the boysâ minds as they rummage through porn magazines in the magical boat.
I can already tell that the five-year-old girl in âBeasts of the Southern Wildâ is smarter than both of these boys combined, and theyâre more than twice her age. The actors, Tye Sheridan as Ellis and Jacob Lofland as Neckbone, are strong, but the same cannot be said for the material theyâre given. Things are going downhill quickly.
Suddenly Ellis notices a bag of recently purchased food in the boat and exclaims, âSomebody lives here!â
So they leave. Not because theyâve just broken into someoneâs boat, but because âit takes twice as long to ride upstreamâ and they canât be late getting home. Oh. Okay.
But thenâsurprise! They find eerie boot prints in the sand and discover the mysterious Boat Man standing on the shore, eyeing their boat. Boat Man is Matthew McConaughey, and his name is actually Mud.
Mud, as a name, lies somewhere between Boat Man and Neckbone in terms of plausibility. We never learn why he is called Mud, but covered-in-dirt-because-why-bother-to-bathe-in-the-river McConaughey lives up to the name. Though he makes a valiant effort to disappear into his character through all the grime and sloppy speech, he is still Matthew McConaughey, gorgeous as ever, much more so here than in last yearâs Magic Mike, a movie better-suited for his attractiveness.
We are introduced to Mud via a technique used too often in writer-director Jeff Nicholsâs screenplay: putting together characters whoâve never met and throwing buckets of exposition at the audience. With no apparent creativity, we are spoon-fed character backstory and description, left with nothing to glean for ourselves about the people onscreen. Intellect? What intellect?
Mud asks the kids to bring him back food, and they do. They donât ask him why heâs on the island, how he plans to get back to the mainland, or why they should help him; they just accept a promise for his boat-in-a-tree in exchange for their assistance. Sometimes Ellis rides out to Mud by himself in the middle of the night, which doesnât appear any less stupid in the movie than it sounds here. Weâre meant to infer that Ellis is endearingly innocent, but itâs difficult to root for a protagonist who just seems dumb.
Not only is a boat Ellisâs main source of transportation, but he lives on one, too. The houseboat is a major component of his fatherâs livelihood, but his mother, who technically owns the property, wants it torn down so she can move into town because she âneeds a change.â Literally, thatâs all the justification she gives for breaking up her family. Ellis expresses his angst by slamming doors and punching walls, all the while riding off to visit Mud, unbeknownst to his so-important parents, in order to escape his crumbling home life.
Mud is far from a stable influence on this child. In fact, Mud is wanted for murder. This surprises Ellis, but I wouldnât call it a spoiler because, hello, the man is hiding away on an island.
Donât worry, Mud did it all for Juniper, the love of his life. Mind you, her story is awful and tragic and Mud had every right to defend her; but murder is a bit extreme, and murder causes other people to want to murder you. Specifically the father of the man you murdered, who is wealthy and powerful and scary and says things like, âLetâs have a prayer circle for the death of my sonâs killer.â
Neckbone is skeptical about helping Mud escape the police. This redeems his character a bit because it demonstrates that, unlike Ellis, he has some semblance of a brain in his head. Ellis is determined to help Mud find safety. He respects Mud. He idolizes him. Most importantly, he thinks anything done in the name of love is worth fighting for. He agrees to bring Juniper to the island so she and Mud can escape together, and Neckbone helps because he wants to protect Ellis from, you know, death.
Never mind that Juniper is only onscreen for three seconds. Never mind that she is Academy Award-winner Reese Witherspoon and has about as many lines as a mime in a silent movie. Never mind that her character is so underdeveloped itâs impossible to sympathize with her. And never mind that she doesnât actually care about Mudâs feelings at all.
Ellis has jumped on the love train, in the name of Mudâs love for Juniper, in the name of his own love for a high school girl way too old for him (I canât even bring myself to delve deeper into that awful subplot), and in the name of the love lost between his parents Everything is about love. Love. Nothing else matters. Not even when youâre being followed by murderers.
In this sense, Ellis reminds me of Jay Gatsby. How come I so strongly identify with Gatsby, yet I canât connect with Ellis at all? Gatsbyâs one great love, Daisy Buchanan, has broken his heart, but Ellis is far too immature to know what love means. Though the adolescent has never felt real love himself, he is willing to put his life in harmâs way. We just donât care. Gatsby has earned his delusional dreams. Ellis and his uneven screenplay have not.
âMudâis now playing in select theatres nationwide.
