The Transcript

By Sadie Slager
Transcript Reporter

A late-night evacuation on Halloween was among the most recent incidents in string of unplanned fire alarms in Ohio Wesleyan’s residence halls.

These alarms, particularly in Smith Hall, are attributed to substances other than smoke setting off the alert system. There have been no legitimate fires in Smith this year, but multiple alarms have been caused by fire extinguishers being removed from hallways and the contents being sprayed throughout the building.

Sergeant Chris Mickens of Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Public Safety explained the dangers of removing fire extinguishers as a prank.

He said if the pin is removed from an extinguisher and the foam is sprayed, the alarm system for a whole building can go off, forcing all residents to evacuate until the coast is clear.

“People may think the substance that comes from fire extinguishers is smoke because of what it looks like, so it can cause a panic,” Mickens said.

In the early hours of Nov. 1, powder from a fire extinguisher was found in the Smith East elevator. The extinguisher, half empty, was found in the hallway of the building’s fifth floor. While the alarms in individual rooms can be set off by common aerosol substances, Mickens said this incident was caused by the extinguisher’s foam activating a full-building alarm or someone pulling the alarm after seeing extinguisher foam in the air.

“With the detectors in Smith rooms, hairspray or deodorant can activate the alarm, but it won’t activate the full building alarm system,” he said. “When a certain amount of particles of dust or bugs block a certain part of the smoke detector in a room, it can be set off as well. However, if a substance is in the hallway, like a sprayed fire extinguisher, the whole building alarm can go off.”

Mickens said it is very difficult to find out who has removed extinguishers without hearing from someone who witnessed the incident. He said it is dangerous to remove extinguishers because they are there for a purpose and are a part of the larger fire safety system.

“Throughout my time here, we’ve only know about 10 percent of who removed the fire extinguishers, and it’s usually by luck if we can find this out,” Mickens said.

With it being such a small campus students are sometimes hesitant to report other students for such actions, Mickens said.

Mickens said the only two fires on campus this year were at Sigma Chi and Delta Tau Delta, and both were caused by a discarded cigarette.

While he can’t recall an alarm being pulled as a prank this year, Mickens said this has sometimes been an issue during his 13 years at WU. He said that for about a third of his time here, Smith, Bashford Hall and some fraternities have had frequent instances where fire alarms were pulled when there was not a fire. Some alarms could have been accidentally bumped, because some old pull stations were easily set off. Pull stations now have glass covers so they aren’t as easily set off.

Mickens said that pulling a fire alarm as a prank could lead to a charge of criminal activity as well as fines for a residence hall.

“In an event when we find out that someone is pulling alarms as a joke, they would be charged and send through the student conduct board or could be charged by the City of Delaware,” he said. “The only way an individual can be charged, however, is if we find out who pulled the alarm.”

Mickens said there may be traces of ink on a person’s hand if they intentionally set off a fire alarm, and this is a good indicator or who has pulled it.

Charges can come from Delaware’s fire department in the event of too many false fire alarms from a residence hall, Mickens said.

“With excessive false alarms, the fire department does have the ability to assess a fee to the university,” he said.

These charges, however, would be paid for by the university and not by individual students unless it was known who caused the false alarm and if they did it with malicious intent.

“The fee assessed by the fire department does not go into the same category as community damages, and students would not pay for it,” Mickens said.

Fire Inspector Charlie Cooperider said recent fire alarms have been caused by funny business as well as students having problems with microwaves.

“We are seeing a lot more students with microwave ovens in the rooms,” Cooperider said. “Also it seems that the students are easily distracted with other things like homework, Facebook and friends and they get sidetracked and forget they put something in the oven. We also still have the ones that think it is funny to pull a fire alarm so they can laugh at their friends as they are standing out in the weather.”

Cooperider, who works with the Risk Reduction Division of the City of Delaware Ohio, said there are different ways the fire department deals with false alarms.

“We do have a city ordinance that allows us to charge for alarm malfunctions,” he said. “If a fire alarm is activated due to overcooked popcorn, steam from a hot shower, or even someone pulling a pull station just for kicks, those alarms would be false alarms and not alarm malfunctions.”

In the case of alarm malfunctions, Cooperider said fees can be charged to the residence which houses the faulty alarms.

“If we determine the alarm keeps going off due to a malfunction, after the third time we can charge a $50 fine,” he said. “And that fine will escalate each time the alarm malfunctions until the alarm is fixed.”

If an alarm does its job correctly, he said, no one will be fined.

Cooperider said the fire department is thinking of limiting the number of microwave ovens in dorm rooms or not allowing them in order to eliminate some issues with fire alarms. Another way to deal with this, he said, is to cite student for “inciting panic due to carelessness.”

By Liza Bennett
Transcript Reporter

Three new hydration stations have been added on campus as one of the many sustainability efforts that various members of the Ohio Wesleyan community have done to increase sustainability on campus.

The new hydration stations will be placed throughout campus in Edwards Gym, Schimmel/Conrades Science Center and the second floor of Beeghly Library. The stations should be up and running within the next few weeks.

The initiative was funded through the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs.

Junior Erika Kazi said that after the first hydration station was such a success, they knew they needed to place more stations throughout campus.

“We discussed locations and allocated funds to B&G to pay for the hydration stations,” Kazi said. “Since it was desired by many people, it was a simple process, we all wanted these on campus.”

Senior Melissa Guziak, president of the Environment and Wildlife Club, said they were extremely excited to get more hydration stations placed throughout campus.

“The interest of E&W and WCSA, along with motivated individuals is what makes these projects possible,” Guziak said.

The Environment and Wildlife club has been engaging in multiple initiatives, like the hydration stations, to help increase environmental awareness on OWU’s campus. According to Kazi, these initiatives include composting in the student food court of the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center.

“We are also working on revamping the recycling program and are working with local businesses in a ‘green’ survey,” Kazi said. “We are always looking for ways to make this campus more sustainable. Simple things like switching light bulbs, to even bigger things like the hydration stations, we’ve got a lot of plans in action.”

Guziak said the E&W club was also merging with the Tree House to provide even more sustainability programs to students and members of the OWU community.

“Other sustainability projects going on right now include the Bishop Bike Movement, Veggie Meal, No Throw Away Week and a showing of ‘TAPPED’ the documentary,” Guziak said.

“Next semester E&W is going to be working on the community garden, further promoting the Bishop Bike Program, working on a ‘Lights Out’ campaign in the science center and creating a ‘Green Room’ program, to inspire students to make changes in their dorm rooms to live more sustainably.”

Sean Kinghorn, energy conservation and sustainability coordinator, said they are looking at ways to incorporate renewable energy on campus, and they are looking to use student’s input to help them continue their efforts.

“We’re continuing to focus on energy efficiency and conservation and waste reduction. Anyone interested in being involved or has ideas should feel free to contact me,” Kinghorn said.

The Environment and Wildlife Club meets Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. in Welch Hall.

By Heather Kuch
Sports Editor

“Talk to the Hand” is the Ohio Wesleyan American Sign Language (ASL) Club which gives students the opportunity to learn a new skill in a variety of creative ways.

The club meets weekly to learn ASL, to gain an understanding for the deaf culture and to improve their signing abilities.

According to the ASL webpage, “ASL is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and is one of several communication options used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.”

Junior Thomas Liwosz, the president of Talk to the Hand, said the club uses different techniques to help members learn sign language and to expand on the topics they know.
“At club we learn sets of signs and practice them,” Liwosz said.

“For example, we may pick the topic food or countries and the vocab will focus on that for the week. There is usually a game or activity that helps us learn and practice. We also may just practice conversation skill through story telling.”

Junior Stephanie Toole, treasurer of Talk to the Hand, agreed with Liwosz and said the club tries to cover a variety of areas of interest when they study ASL.

“We learn about different topics at each meeting, ranging from the alphabet and numbers (near the beginning of the semester), to classes and majors, as well as holiday-themed signs, like Halloween, for instance,” Toole said.

The club plans a variety of events throughout the year for members and OWU students. Liwosz said they have worked to share and improve their sign language skills though the use different art forms.

“So far this year we have attended a event at OSU to watch the performance of a deaf poet, and we learned to sign ‘Call Me Maybe’ to perform at Culture Fest,” Liwosz said. “We plan on learning another song this year, and there are other possible events, but nothing has been decided yet.”

Toole said the club does volunteer work in addition to hosting events to educate the campus community about the ASL.

“In the past, we have attended a basketball game at a deaf school, which we are hoping to do again this year,” Toole said. “We also participate in CultureFest each year to teach the OWU community more about deaf culture.”

Toole said the club has helped her to better understand the deaf community and to improve her signing abilities.

“I joined Talk to the Hand because speech and hearing is my sorority’s (Delta Zeta) philanthropy, so I was very interested in learning more about the deaf and hearing impaired and sign language,” Toole said.

“I have gained more knowledge about sign language and communicating with the deaf and hearing impaired since I joined, and I have also been able to meet some wonderful people through being a member of the club.”

Sophomore Megan Keppler agreed with Toole and said she joined the club because she has an interest in studying ASL.

“I joined the ASL club because I love learning new languages and knew that ASL could be quite interesting and useful,” Keppler said.

“What I am getting out of it is that I get to learn about a whole ‘nother culture that most people don’t think about and I can meet new people who I wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Liwosz said he joined the club because of his prior interest in ASL. He agreed with Toole about the club improving his signing abilities and said the club has taught him other skills as well.

“My interest in Talk to the Hand started because my mother taught me some signs and I took a course on sign language during my senior year of high school,” Liwosz said. “I have gained some leadership skills from ASL.”

He said the opporunity to take on a leadership role started two years ago.

“At the end of my freshman year, I was elected public relations officer and last year I was elected as ASL president. ASL has also helped me become a better teacher because I have been planning the meeting lessons, and sign language is being used more and more in education.”

Liwosz said the club has helped him to find new ways in which he can use sign language, which come in handy in his daily life.

“When I am struggling with studying for an exam, I sign my notes to myself and it always sticks better when I do that,” Liwosz said.

“Needless to say, when I am at a party with music blaring, it is easier to sign to my friends than to yell things at them they will never hear.”

The club meets on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Welch TV lounge. Liwosz said all students are welcome to come regardless of their experience with sign language and attending meetings is not a requirement of membership.

“The important thing to remember is members can join at anytime and are always welcome,” Liwosz said.

“Even if they know no or little sign language or are advanced, everyone is welcome. We usually have between 5-10 members at a meeting, but there are a large number of students who follow club event and do not come to meetings because of other commitments.”

By Margaret Bagnell
and Spenser Hickey
Transcript Reporter and Correspondent

Last Friday, juniors Martin Clark and Tim O’Keeffe were elected the next president and vice president of the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs.They defeated two other candidate pairs: juniors Ariel Koiman and Anthony Fisher, and junior Andrew Paik and sophomore Memme Onwudiwe.

Clark and O’Keeffe will be joined on the executive committee by their two sophomore running mates, Maria Urbina and Lauren Holler, who were elected secretary and treasurer.
Urbina ran unopposed, while Holler defeated juniors Peter Reveles and Saar Rajpuria.

Clark said the decision to reach out and meet with campus organizations benefitted his campaign.

“(Meeting with organizations) put us in a good position to win,” Clark said.

He also attributed their success to their social media and word of mouth campaigns, as well as getting the freshman class involved.

Paik said while the result wasn’t what he’d hoped for, he wasn’t surprised by who won the election.

“Martin and Tim were the front runners from the start,” Paik said. “They had a very large base of supporters, and coupled with the support they’d get from Maria and Lauren’s supporters, we had (our) work cut out for us.”

Although Fisher said he was surprised by the outcome, he has confidence in Clark and O’Keeffe’s abilities.

“The students voted on who they felt will do the best job and work for them,” said Fisher. “I know Martin and Tim will do a good job.”

Paik, Fisher and Koiman said they thought the new system started by Clark and O’Keeffe—combining their campaign with those of secretary and treasurer—should not continue.
Paik said he was unaware of Urbina and Holler’s plans to run with Clark and O’Keeffe until they started campaigning, but if he’d known beforehand he’d have created a joint campaign of his own.

Paik said running against a joint campaign without having one was a “competitive disadvantage.”

Koiman said having the joint campaign was “an uphill battle” to compete against and “shut out” Rajpuria and Reveles, who weren’t endorsed.

Both Paik and Fisher said future joint campaigns would also hinder diversity among the WCSA executive committee.

Fisher said regular divided campaigns were beneficial to the campus because it allows for greater diversity.

“(Divided campaigns allow) more people from other social circles of campus a chance to be a part of WCSA,” he said.

Clark said he is not sure if the joint campaigns will continue. He said he, O’Keeffe, Urbina and Holler were already “very close” before they decided to run together.
“It was only natural that we decided to do this together,” he said.

WCSA candidates spent weeks campaigning their platforms to the student body and held a forum debate in the atrium of the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center on Nov. 7.
The debates were overseen by the current WCSA president and vice president, seniors Anthony McGuire and Carly Hallal.

Candidates were asked about what improvements could be made on campus and what changes could be implemented quickly. Clark and O’Keeffe claimed they wanted to be more active in the government and reach out to students to make a positive change in the university.

O’Keeffe ran for the position of vice president with a campaign strategy that reflected how OWU is a proactive community and Holler said she has already thought of ways to help club spending.

“I want to see the accountability for these clubs and make sure they do meet the guidelines by and checking up on the groups,” Holler said.

Junior Elise Pitcairn challenged the candidates once the forum opened up to the students.

“How are you all involved on campus already, and how do you plan to get more involved?” questioned Pitcairn.

The candidates were given the opportunity to respond by listing their accomplishments and involvement in other clubs.

SophomorePhilippe Chauveau also questioned the candidates during the debate.

“The majority of the students don’t know what the WCSA positions are running for and there is not very much publicity for the students to understand what you’re all about,” said Chauveau.

With the debates over, and the outcome of the election determined, students can expect to see the student government take a more active role in the community.
However, McGuire said only 24.9 percent of students voted in the election.

This number is a decrease in voter participation.

In 2011 25.3 percent voted, while 52.5 percent voted in 2010, the first year of online voting.

This drop came despite increased campaigning by all candidates, particularly via social networking and the candidate debate.

McGuire said the low number of voters was unexpected.

“I got the feeling that this campaign season was more passionate and fierce than last year’s or the year before,” McGuire said.

He said the drop may have been caused by internet problems; users of Google Chrome in particular reportedly had difficulty voting on their J/CX accounts.

The new WCSA governing body already said it has plans in motion to help the OWU community change for the better.

“We have already started to brainstorm on how to get things done properly in office. This semester I’d like to see a lot of changes made especially with housekeeping and the food on campus. Those are the two main issues we would like to make improvements on for the students.

We’re also going to start going to clubs bimonthly for their meetings and make ourselves more well known in the OWU community, especially to the many clubs on campus,” said O’Keeffe.

By Chrissy Wesney
Transcript Correspondent

The weather was nice, the music was loud and the soccer balls were flying as students and faculty played soccer for CARE.

The second annual Ohio Wesleyan University Soccer for Food competition took place on Nov. 10 and 11 at the practice field across from the Meek Aquatic and Recreation Center.

The competition raised money for CARE, a humanitarian aid group in East Africa. The organization is for famine relief that also helps with medical supplies, families and orphanages.

Senior Sarah Johnston said she got the inspiration for this event after she studied abroad in Tanzania for wildlife conservation two years ago.

“I want over for the animals, but I think I fell in love with the people more than the animals,” Johnston said.

Johnston said that she would play soccer every day with the children while in Tanzania and was inspired by how happy they war.

“I learned Swahili, but the only words that I can remember are the soccer terms,” Johnston said. “It was kind of like soccer became the universal language that we didn’t have to understand each other, per se, to play together.”

After she came back, she discussed with friends what they could do to help the children in Africa.

“(The kids) wouldn’t be playing with shoes; they wouldn’t have eaten that day. Just worst case scenario, typical stuff you see on commercials. But you never really know until you see it, and you’re so affected by it,” Johnston said.

Johnston said the whole point of the competition was that she didn’t want to “beg people for money, or show pictures of dying, starving children, but to recreate when (she) got to out and play soccer.”

Senior Magdalena Jacobo said she decided to participate in the event this year because she heard about the competition last year, but was unable to attend.

“I think it’s a good event because besides different organizations coming together for a cause, there is a fellowship among the participants even if the matches become sort of competitive,” Jacobo said.

This year, 11 teams participated in the competition, which is less than the 16 teams that participated in last year’s event.

“We have a few less teams this year because of sports tournaments, and fraternity and sorority events,” Johnston said. “That’s unfortunate, but we still have a great amount.”

Last year, the competition raised around $1500, and Johnston said that this year’s goal is to get just over that amount.

Johnston said one thing that is amazing about this year’s competition is the prizes for the champions.

“Last year, we had a prize for the champion, but it was just shirts because we didn’t have any additional funding,” Johnston said. “But this year we’re having medals and Amato’s donated $100 in gift cards, bringing other people to donate as well.”

Johnston thanked the volunteers who helped her run the event.

“It’s really cool that we get faculty members to participate and students from (different clubs),” Johnston said.

By Margaux Erilane
Transcript Correspondent

With turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, family, friends and pie just around the corner, how could anyone not be jumping for joy at the prospects of the upcoming holiday season?

The excitement could be put on hold for those planning to fly home.

It’s not news that the days before and after Thanksgiving are the most travelled days of the year.

But according to Airlines for America, 150,000 more people are expected to travel by air this Thanksgiving than did in 2011.

So you can say goodbye to the possibility of having an empty seat next to you. And good luck finding room in the overhead compartments for your carry-on.

With nearly 24 million passengers, A4A projects flights will be 90 percent full on top travel days (Wednesday, Nov. 21, Sunday, Nov. 25 and Monday, Nov. 26.)

Sophomore Ashkan Ekhtera said he lamented the news that his flight back to Chicago is likely be full.

“I’m 6’2” and I already feel cramped on planes,” he said.

“If my flight is full and I can’t spread out and get comfortable, I’ll be very grumpy when I get off the plane.”

Space isn’t the only thing there will be less of. Ticket prices have also increased due to rising jet fuel prices.

Ekhtera said his flight was $420 – more than he’s ever paid for a flight home before.

A4A stated that despite the 5.6 percent increase in traveler revenue, fuel prices have risen 6.2 percent.

This leads to only a 0.2 percent profit margin (approximately 50 cents per passenger), hence the increased prices.

Sophomore Mike Serbanoiu, a native of New York, said he won’t be flying home this Thanksgiving break.

“I’m really lucky that I live close enough to drive home because a round trip ticket to JFK costs about $500 right now,” Serbanoiu said.

Although today’s prices appear high to consumers, A4A said, with inflation, airfare is actually 16 percent cheaper this year than it was in 2000.

Ekhtera said he hates dealing with all the airline hastle when trying to go home for holidays.

“I kind of wish I could just teleport home,” Ekhtera said. “That way I could avoid the lack of space and the cost.”