The Transcript

By Spenser Hickey
Assistant Copy Editor

The House of Black Culture serves as a focal point for educating the Ohio Wesleyan community on Black history and issues, as well as a meeting place for the African-American community.

Named after Butler A. Jones, the University’s first African-American professor, the House of Black Culture was founded in 1970 by Pete Smith and Barbara McEachern Smith.

Smith and McEachern also started the Student Union on Black Awareness.

In 1970, there were only around 40 African-American students at Ohio Wesleyan, according to a Connect2OWU article on the Smiths.

HBC, known then as the Black House, was a “safe haven” for African-American students, said junior Lehlohonolo ‘Lucky’ Mosola, HBC’s Resident Adviser.

“Now, though, it’s used much more as a community meeting place for students in general, but specifically students in the African-American community,” Mosola said. “It’s certainly a focal point for the community now more than any kind of a protection.”

Terree Stevenson, Director of Multicultural Student Affairs, said she thought it has “the same [role] today as it was historically, and more so.”

She said it still serves as a safe haven for students to feel physically, emotionally, mentally, culturally and spiritually safe, as well as a programming space and historical reference for alumni who lived there.

“I think it’s a symbol of a long-standing opportunity for the university to create and support a place for students of color,” she said.

Mosola, currently in his second year at HBC, said he joined the House because his high school program provided little contact with other African-American students, something he wanted to make up for at OWU.
“After my freshman year, I got to know somebody who lived here, and I joined BMF (Black Men of the Future), which is a student organization I met a lot of people here through,” he said.

Freshman Jerrell James, who applied to live at HBC next year, said he sees it as “a common ground” where he can be himself.

Aaron Cameron, also a freshman, said he thinks it’s “a place where people can meet and converse and basically just have a good time, live life.”

Senior James Huddleston, HBC resident and co-president of BMF, said he sees the house as a place where he can let his guard down.

He credited living there with encouraging him to focus on academics.

Junior Shelby Alston said her sister, a graduate and former HBC resident at the time, introduced her to the house.

“I just instantly fell in love with this house,” she said. “It’s just this atmosphere is so welcoming and so open.”

She said many residents, past and present, are “big influences on this campus” as upperclassmen and African-Americans making “an impact and a difference.”

Junior Madeleine Leader said she’s excited to join HBC and live with people who “practice what they preach, and who live for what they’re passionate about.”

At the same time, she acknowledged that there is “a struggle” identifying with the African-American community as a white person, offering her Residential Life application to live at HBC as an example.

She said she’s been involved in activism for racial equality her whole life and is a member of SUBA and Vice President of Sisters United at Ohio Wesleyan.

“Being around people like this, you realize what you’re fighting for and why it’s so important to celebrate our differences and come together and keep fighting for them,” she said.

Leader said she identified with “being attacked for the person you are at your core” since she was ridiculed as a child for being a Jew.

She said there is “zero awareness” of how often students use racially-charged words.

“I’ve heard plenty of white students say the n-word to each other,” she said. “It’s just the obliviousness to what this community is about, especially on this campus, because they’re fighting for something, but the only thing they ever think about for BMF or the house is their parties. That’s offensive to me.”

Alston said being the House of Black Culture carries a certain stigma among the general community.
“I’ve heard people saying they’re afraid to come here, or will they get hurt if they come here [or] all we do is party,” she said.

“It hurts to see that this house has such a rich and unique legacy, and people only focus on the negative stuff or the stuff they see us for, like, ‘Oh, they throw awesome parties,’” she said.

“Well, what else have we done, besides parties, because we’ve done so much, and do you forget the events we’ve put on?”

Events they’ve held, she said, included a lecture by Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African-American high school students who initiated desegregation by attending a formerly all-white Arkansas school. Alston said Roberts “captivated the audience.”

While HBC was formed as a SLU, it made the transition to being a heritage theme house this year.

Mosola said the change came due to the SLU renewal process.

Each year, SLUs must apply for and earn renewal from the university or be shut down; however, Mosola said “the school said pretty much unequivocally that they weren’t going to shut the House of Black Culture down.”

This made it unfair for HBC, which wouldn’t be shut down, to be in the same category as houses that could be shut down. This distinction led to unnecessary work for HBC members.

Despite the change, Mosola said, practically it’s “very much similar,” but the house does less programs now, since not all members are required to plan individual events.

By Cecilia Smith
Transcript Correspondent

Imagine going to a line-dancing bar with friends and being the only ones there – besides a bachelorette party.

That was one of the memories senior Chris Marshall recounted as one of his favorites from living in Tree House.

“This place is dense with memories,” Marshall said about Tree House. “Not living here on a normal basis is going to be tough.”

Marshall, who has lived in the house since his sophomore year, will be graduating after this semester. Though Marshall said he ended up in the house by coincidence, living in a Small Living Unit (SLU) has given him something to look for in the future.

“It’s spoiled me,” he said. “This kind of living situation will be at the back of my mind when I’m thinking about living anywhere…It has made me never want to live alone.”

Marshall was not the only one who said he had fond memories. Seniors at the Women’s House started crying when talking about the experience of living in a SLU.

Senior Victoria Sellers said living in WoHo made her more self-aware.

“I’ll miss how these people live activism and feminism and open-mindedness,” she said. “They’ve taught me the difference between living activism and speaking activism.”

WoHo residents said the house will lose eight seniors after this semester, one of the greatest proportional numbers of all the SLUs.

Freshman Claudia Bauman, who will move into WoHo at the start of the 2013 fall semester, said the current members joke about who their replacements will be.

“They joke around about me filling the role of Alex Crump, but I’ve got some big shoes to fill if they’re comparing me to her,” she said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to add my own flavor to the house.”

Marshall said he wasn’t looking for his replacement during SLUsh week, but he does hope current and new members will keep the seniors in their minds.

“I don’t want them to dwell on us being gone,” he said. “I have more faith in them than I do in me. I don’t want to leave any grand legacy behind, just more, like, memories.”

Photos of and letters from former housemates decorate the walls of WoHo. Sellers said members have been considering delegating a wall for members to handprint as they leave the house.

“This house has given me so, so much,” she said. “I feel like I’m walking away with part of the house imprinted on me.”

Sellers said one of her favorite “publishable” memories took place at a Take Back the Night event when she and other members of the house spent the day “literally running around” making and lighting luminaries for the march portion. She said she cried when she saw their completed work.

“It was beautiful,” she said. “Not just because they were pretty white lights against a dark background, but because of the symbolic meaning of all the work we’d done and what it all meant.”

Marshall said his experience at Tree House “made” his OWU experience.

“I never thought I’d experience home at a college,” he said. “[Living in a SLU] has broken me out of my mold. It’s made me love being surrounded by people. It’s made me more conscientious about the sustainable lifestyle. It’s left me with some of the most indelible friendships. It’s not just Tree House. There’s no house I won’t miss.”

By Sadie Slager
Transcript Correspondent

10 minutes make a difference for students walking home late at night.

Public Safety Sergeant Chris Mickens said the estimated 10-minute wait for SafeWalk workers to reach a student who is at any location around campus deters many from utilizing the program.

“The average is a 10-minute or less walk to get from the SafeWalk hub to where the student calls from,” he said. “But people don’t usually want to wait the 10 minutes it takes for the SafeWalk workers to get to them from the library, so they don’t call for a walk.”

Mickens said the SafeWalk program has improved over the past few years, as SafeWalk workers used to walk around campus instead of being stationed in a central location,” he said. “That became very cumbersome for the student workers because they had to be out and about for so long. Three years ago I put a station at the library and one by the Thomson store.”

Mickens said these locations were chosen because they are the most heavily traveled areas in the evenings, but now there is only one central SafeWalk station.

“It was hard to keep four people working both stations all the time, and numbers are a big part of being safe,” he said. “So we cut it to one station at the library.”

Although SafeWalk is stationed at the library and more than 90 percent of SafeWalks come from students leaving the library, Mickens said, students can call to get a SafeWalk from other areas on campus.

Mickens said there always have to be at least two students working at the SafeWalk station, because if there is only one worker, the safety element is lost.

“There’s a strict attendance policy because it’s counter-instructive to have only one person working, because then that person will walk back to the library alone,” he said.

Mickens said there have been no SafeWalk escorts yet in 2013. He said 134 students requested escorts in the 2011-2012 academic year, and 68 in the fall 2012 semester.

Mickens said if a student is off-campus and requests a ride, a Public Safety officer might be sent to pick them up if they feel unsafe or are alone.

“There needs to be an articulated safety concern,” he said. “If someone wants a convenience ride, I may do it if I’m not busy, just as a courtesy.”

Mickens said he would rather give a ride to someone who doesn’t truly have a safety concern than not help someone who asks for an escort.

“We don’t want the worst case scenario to happen, so we’d rather the bad judgment call be that we gave someone a ride when there wasn’t really a safety concern,” he said. “The ones that are hardest to judge are when students call at like 2:45 a.m. during the weekend.”

Junior Anne Frissora said she has never used the SafeWalk program because she doesn’t know enough about it.

“I do feel for the most part safe on campus, but I don’t feel as safe on the streets surrounding campus.”
Frissora said Spring Street and Park Avenue are example of areas where she sometimes feels unsafe.

“I definitely wouldn’t want to walk alone on those streets, especially at night,” she said.

Mickens said he hopes student start using SafeWalk more frequently and he is working on ways to make it more heavily advertised.

“We are looking for reasonable suggestions on how to get students to utilize the service more,” he said.
“We’ve thought of having maybe a raffle for people who are new to using the system and one for everyone who uses it.”

Mickens added that although Delaware is a safe place, anything could happen at any time and students should take the proper precautions of walking in groups of two or more at all times.

By Brian Cook
Transcript Correspondent

14 individuals were elected as Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs Residential Representatives for the 2013 calendar year, according to junior Martin Clark, WCSA President.

Also, two Small Living Unit Representatives were elected to serve on WCSA for the 2013 calendar year.
Freshmen making the cut as Residential Representatives include Whitney Weadock, Jerry Lherisson, Katie Nunner, Erica Shah, Hannah Henderson and Lily Pham.

The school’s sophomore Residential Representatives include Mike Serbanoiu, Memme Onwudiwe, Ashkan Ehktera, Alex Lothstein, Lauren Rump and Shane Gorbett.

Juniors who will serve as Residential Representatives this coming year include Sammi Heffron and Caitlin Bailey.

According to the WCSA Constitution, “Residential representatives shall be responsible for representing the general student populous residing in residence halls.”

Only people who live in a residence hall are eligible to run for the position.

One of the Representatives lives in Bashford Hall, one in Smith West, two in Smith East, and three each in Welch, Hayes and Stuyvesant Halls. None live in Thomson Hall.

Additionally, the two SLU representatives elected are juniors Ethan Hovest and Nora Gumanow.

As with residential representatives, one must live in a SLU to be eligible for election. In both instances, the representatives will only serve those who live in their specified domain.

Elections for residential representatives and SLU representatives were held on Feb. 1, which was technically a violation of the WCSA Constitution.

The body’s constitution mandates that residential and SLU representatives be elected in the second week of the spring semester.

Residential and SLU representatives are voting members of WCSA.

While residential representatives do significant work for WCSA and their constituents, their efforts can go unrecognized by students. Many students said they feel that residential representatives are basically irrelevant in their daily lives.

“I don’t know anything they do on campus,” sophomore Hannah Sampson said. She also said that she does not know any of the new representatives personally.

Sophomore Landon Erb also said that he does not have a working relationship with the residential representatives. He said that he was unaware of any of the representatives’ responsibilities.

Clark and junior Timothy O’Keeffe, WCSA vice president, ran together on a platform to increase awareness of WCSA’s role on campus.

Awareness of WCSA was discussed by all three presidential tickets.

Proposed efforts they discussed during campaigning included encouraging members to wear WCSA sweatshirts to events, particularly WCSA-funded ones.

They also discussed setting up office hours and giving non-voting WCSA positions to important student organizations.

In an article published last year by The Transcript, then-sophomore Alex Kerensky, one of the SLU representatives for 2012, said, “I’d like to make WCSA more transparent and less of a mystery. “
Kerensky is now a WCSA Representative for the Class of 2014.

Typically, residential representatives are responsible for dealing with problems exclusively in the residence halls, not SLUs or fraternities.

Both residential and SLU representatives serve terms of one calendar year.