Starfish to facilitate student success

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief 

An upcoming software program might be the solution to improving Ohio Wesleyan’s retention rates.

Starfish is a software meant to help students achieve success during their time at OWU by providing an interface for faculty and staff to keep track of students.

The program, which will be implemented this fall semester, will help students communicate with their professors, advisers and other student services on campus with ease, said Brian Rellinger, chief information officer and associate provost for academic support.

In addition to Rellinger, six faculty and staff members contributed to the acquisition and implementation of the software: Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success and dean of students; Brad Pulcini, assistant dean for student engagement; Lynda Hall, professor of psychology; Kirk Rustin, senior systems analyst; Josh Alvarez, systems analyst and Jim Stull, director of Sagan Academic Resource Center.

“Students are able to receive feedback from faculty on their academic performance and use the referral feature to connect with a librarian, the Academic Resource Center, tutoring and other services,” Rellinger said.

Starfish is also meant to help faculty by letting them schedule appointments with advisees or students, in taking attendance and expressing concerns.

Sixteen faculty members have been testing out the software since March and gave feedback, Rellinger said.

Larry Griffin, department chair and professor of music, was one of the early adopters of the system.

Though Starfish features components similar to Self-Service, Starfish is “a major update with more benefits,” according to Griffin.

While Self-Service provides students with the ability to register for classes, add or drop courses and view grades, it doesn’t connect students with other services on campus, such as the Writing Center or Counselling Services.

“This software is designed to limit the number of students who fall through the cracks,” Griffin said. “It’s all designed so that we can always have access to information about the progress of students.”

Faculty will also have an easier time viewing the courses students have taken.

“In the music department, I have a lot of science and music double majors,” Griffin said. “Often times, students will be more focused on the science requirements and not paying attention to the music components.

“So with Starfish, I will be able to see what they’re doing on the science side and what progress they’re making to complete their music degree.”

Though there might be a learning curve for faculty and students to figure out the system, Griffin said it is user-friendly.

Katherine Glenn-Applegate, associate professor of education, was listed as one of the early adopters of the system, but said she had been unable to access the software.

Because of the changes the music department’s curriculum underwent, Griffin said, “It’s possible our data was updated more so than other departments … so we were diligently working with IT to plug everything in. I think if the other departments on campus work with IT, they’ll be able to address any issues.”

Sagan National Colloquium to tackle global health care issues

By Reilly Wright, Photo Editor 

From the developed world to the developing, Ohio Wesleyan’s Sagan National Colloquium is analyzing the broad issue of health care around the world.

SNC Global Health Challenges for the 21st century will explore topics such as emerging infectious diseases and the impact of government health care in developed and developing nations. The event features a lineup of 12 speakers and includes a documentary.

“Speakers were selected based on recommendation by faculty members and also a careful review of scholarly work by these speakers,” said Randolph Quaye, the associate professor and director of OWU’s black world studies program. “These speakers are well renowned in their respective fields and have furthered our understanding of global health issues in our world.”

The speaker lineup includes Christopher Fink, an associate professor of health and human kinetics at OWU. Fink was selected to speak for his connections to health, but more specifically to his knowledge in prevention and dietary health.

“So many economic, social, political and personal issues are tied to health—and good health allows much more growth in each of these areas—so it has never been more pertinent,” Fink said.

“For me, issues of health equity are also more pertinent than ever.”

The topic was chosen as a culmination of previous SNC topics addressing water, climate change, waste and data use. Quaye said this focus on global health care will bring those social determinants full circle and will address problems found in global health care due to their influence.

“It is my hope that participants would be better informed about global health challenges and their role in helping meet some of these challenges through volunteering and taking courses that addresses some of the broader issues raised by the SNC,” Quaye said.

OWU is also offering a class, UC 150, which will explore concerns in the liberal arts as well as in public life. More specifically, this year, the course will spotlight the topic of modern global health challenges.

UC 150 is set up to be a lecture and discussion-based series

that is led by scholars and activists recognized across the nation and globe for students.

“Students are expected to attend eight of 14 speakers and write a two to three page reflective essay on four of such talks,” Quaye said.

“This is of particular interest to students because of its interdisciplinary nature.”

From Nov. 7 to Dec. 14, the Ross Art Museum will be hosting the art exhibit Together with developmentally disabled artists from Creative Foundations. The exhibit examines the way relationships are shown through art. 

The series will kick off with speaker Anton Gunn, a health care and leadership expert, at 7 p.m., Sept. 12 in the Benes Rooms.

Marching band director to build a community of band enthusiasts

By Meina White,

Ohio Wesleyan may see the resurrection of a marching band and color guard in the near future.

Mary Kate McNally, the newly appointed marching band director, has many ideas of what she hopes for the band in years to come and she is all about tradition. 

McNally said she wants to bring back the roots of the old band. She is also hoping to have a band with at least a hundred members by the fifth year. But she does not consider size to be the most important factor.

“I want an established and polished spirit band from the beginning regardless of size,” McNally said. “You don’t have to have a big group to put on a good show.”

McNally added that she plans to collaborate with the cheer squad to open a band and spirit section in the bleachers.

McNally was hired in July of this year and took on the task of bringing spirit back to campus.

Dwayne Todd, vice president of student engagement and success and dean of students, said McNally is a perfect match because of her “energy and fever.”

McNally and Todd said they believe the addition of a marching band will attract many prospective students, especially those who played in high school.

“This is a program that is being created from interests that already existed,” Todd said.

It’s not expected that the marching band will be performing any time this year. McNally said she plans to set aside the first year for planning regarding budget, recruitment and equipment.

McNally and Todd said they are aware instruments can be expensive and do not want cost to hinder anyone’s decision to join.

Todd added that he plans to develop relationships with companies in town to rent or buy instruments and hopefully make it as affordable as possible.

“We will find a way to make sure cost is not a determining factor of participation,” Todd said.

McNally said she believes the band will open a lot of student leadership opportunities and potentially help music education majors gain experience in teaching music and conducting bands.

The last time Ohio Wesleyan had a band was back in the 1960s. McNally suggested the Vietnam War may have been a probable cause for why it was discontinued. Men were being drafted for the war and this stopped them from participating in the band.

McNally said she hopes to build a community of band enthusiasts and wants anyone who is interested to reach out with new ideas and contributions.

“This is the time to get in on the ground floor of something new,” McNally said.

New laundry service introduced for students

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief 

To most, doing laundry is a tedious chore, but for two Ohio Wesleyan students, it’s a means of making bank.

Sophomores Jack Cherry, a marketing major, and Jackson Markley, a finance economics major, have introduced Unload, a laundry service aimed at students who are pressed for time. The service can be purchased each semester for $300 or as required for $15 per load, according to Unload’s website.

Markley, who was a member of the lacrosse team as a freshman, said he found it difficult to make time for basic tasks such as laundry, especially when he was away for games and often didn’t get back to campus until late at night.

“[Laundry] was just a time consuming thing that I wished I could pay somebody else to do and my roommates were more than willing to help out,” he said. “I noticed a good majority of students here are athletes who are involved in a lot of extracurricular activities, clubs and they’re swamped because they know they have to put a lot of different things on their resume.”

Currently, three students have purchased the laundry service for a semester and five have purchased the single-load option, most of whom are athletes.

Because each residence hall includes five washing machines and five dryers, Markley said he plans to do one person’s load at a time to avoid mishaps. Students will also get their laundry done the same day the put it out.

Prior to starting the business, Markley contacted Dan Charna, assistant professor of economics, who helped them review their plan.

“He had us [devise] a business plan to make sure this is going to be something that’s profitable, that it’s going to be something that will actually be able to maintain itself and be reputable,” Markley said.

Charna said, “If they do what they say they will do (pick up in a timely manner, do a good job washing, deliver when promised), I think the student body will really support Unload.”

If the service is successful, Markley and Cherry would sell the business to a rising sophomore, who would then sell it to another student and the cycle could continue, which is something Charna said has worked on other college campuses.

Markley and Cherry also got in touch with Megan Ellis, administrative director at the Woltemade Center for economics, business and entrepreneurship, who helped their business get approved by the school to ensure they could use OWU’s washing machines and dryers.

After approving their business plan, the school also offered Markley and Cherry grant money, through which they had the opportunity to get a loan without having to pay any interest.

“So exactly what they give you is what you need to give back,” Markley said.

For more information about the Unload laundry service, visit www.unloadthat.com. 

Emeritus professor Marty Kalb discusses his art career

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief

As a college freshman, Marty Kalb planned to go into the hotel business. “I never thought I would be an artist,” he says.

But today the Ohio Wesleyan University emeritus professor of fine arts sits on a bench in the Richard M. Ross Art Museum, surrounded by pieces of his artwork, ranging from realistic depictions of tides surging ashore to abstract landscapes bustling with color.

More paintings hang in other sections of the museum, and Kalb notes the distinctions between them—some are done on paper, others on canvas. From structured geometric pieces to monochromatic images capturing the horrors of the Holocaust, the paintings featured in the museum for the “Marty Kalb Retrospective” are a fraction of the work he has done in his lifetime.

Kalb worked in hotels during high school and enrolled as a hotel management major in college. But after realizing the career was limiting in terms of lifestyle and intellectual involvement, he dropped out of the program after two weeks.

“I made up a major,” the Delaware resident says. “It was called agricultural psychology, and I said my minor was bovine counseling, and there was no such thing.”

Kalb spent the next three and a half years completing basic graduation requirements and taking courses that piqued his interest. But after being told he couldn’t graduate without a preference in a particular subject, Kalb decided he liked art and took courses to complete an art education major.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University and, under the guidance of his mentor Charles Pollock (brother of Jackson Pollock), decided to pursue a graduate degree in art.

Yale University offered him an invitation to study graphic design and, after getting a degree, Kalb attended University of Berkeley, California.

“That was very nice in the sense that it exposed me to a totally different environment than the East Coast or the Midwest and, at that point, figure painting was very well thought of in California,” Kalb says. “It was also a time that was extremely exciting politically [with the] free speech movement and Vietnam protest movements. … My life then was very much involved in making artwork.”

At the time, Kalb’s art featured political imagery influenced by Francisco Goya, the Spanish painter who created a series of images dealing with war called “The Disasters of War.”

Following graduate school, Kalb taught at University of Kentucky for a year before coming to Ohio Wesleyan, where he taught for 40 years.

“I was not a product of a liberal arts education,” Kalb says. “I went to large universities and, when I came here, I came from a much larger university. … I didn’t think I would really feel comfortable in a small setting like this, but it turned out to be the absolute best choice in my life as far as professional work as a teacher goes.”

During his tenure, Kalb posted a sign on the wall behind his desk so that when students talked to him, they read: “I like you, now let’s talk about your work.”

“The point of that sign was to say to that student, ‘I care about you as a person, and I want to share my feelings with you about what you do, and what you do doesn’t necessarily have any effect on who you are in my view,’” Kalb says.

Discussing the evolution of his own artwork, Kalb says he has continued to incorporate the same concepts—the movement of visual elements accompanied by a stable entity such as “the contrast between organic and geometric or a flow that seems accidental and then a deliberate placement of an element that is clearly something that is contemplative.”

With the 50-year retrospective exhibition, Kalb says his goal is to show the range of art he has been interested in creating. Plans for the exhibition started around three years ago, and the pieces displayed were selected jointly by Kalb and Tammy Perakis Wallace ’02, assistant director of the Ross Art Museum.

Each section of the museum features different artworks from figurative art, to landscapes and seascapes, to the Holocaust Series.

“When you walk in and experience all of this, you get a pretty good representation of what I’ve been about,” Kalb says. “Is it the best representation of that work? I don’t know. I suppose I’d have to do five or six of these things to figure out which one is the best. But it does have work I’m proud of.”

Many of Kalb’s paintings are from locations he’s photographed while traveling in the United States, Caribbean, China, Japan, and South America. His next planned trip is to Scotland and, though his work hasn’t used references to that country yet, he notes that the ocean plays a significant role in the culture of island countries.

“I think the things that are interesting to me most now are the seas and oceans and the way waves move with the effect of wind and crashing on rocks,” he says. “So wherever I go, I take photographs of things that relate to that.”

Though Kalb says he has been fortunate to travel broadly and see artwork from different cultures, traveling to faraway lands isn’t the only way to find inspiration. Kalb has a group of paintings based on walking by the Delaware Run and another piece inspired by what he saw within half a mile of his house.

“It’s a question of opening your eyes and asking yourself, ‘How beautiful is that?’” he says.

The “Marty Kalb Retrospective” will be on display from Aug. 18 to Oct. 8 at OWU’s Richard M. Ross Art Museum, 60 S. Sandusky St.

Netflix series “White Gold” reminiscent of “The Wolf of Wall Street”

By Meina White, Arts & Entertainment Editor 

British star and former Gossip Girl bad boy Ed Westwick takes on a similar role in the new British Netflix series White Gold.

In the six, 30-minute episodes of season one, Westwick plays a window salesman named Vincent Swan who will do absolutely anything to make sure he finalizes a sale.

Swan crosses many lines to see more cash flow in his life. Things including, but not limited to, cheating, lying, stealing, tax evasion and fraud.  Though, who’s anyone to keep a bad boy down?

Westwick’s co-stars James Buckley and Joe Thomas also take on important roles and could be described as intolerable sidekicks and sometimes questionable friends, but their characters add a bit  of spice to the already inappropriately funny show.

While watching the show, I couldn’t help but notice its similarities to the notorious film, The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Both productions are riddled with monologues in which the star speaks solely to the audience.  There were even smaller similarities such as the clothing, cars and the way these men handled business. 

The Wolf of Wall Street was based on the life of businessman Jordan Belfort.  In his prime, Belfort schemed investors out of millions of dollars by selling them worthless stocks and instilling false hope in them. However, White Gold replaces stocks with windows and millions with thousands.

There is a scene in White Gold where one of Swan’s coworkers persuades a customer to buy new windows, claiming the windows she has previously purchased were “defective.” However, her windows were perfectly fine and though she was told she would be getting new windows, they simply took the old ones out and put them right back in.  Scandalous, but he then turned a 100 percent profit.

Though the similarities in White Gold and The Wolf of Wall Street concerned me a bit, both were impeccable.  If you have the time, I recommend you set aside three hours to watch White Gold this weekend. It is both hilarious and devious and will have you hooked within the first five minutes.

Football team kicks off summer in Spain

By Spencer Pauley, Copy Editor 

For nine days this summer, 30 members of the Ohio Wesleyan football team traveled to Spain to view local attractions, embrace the culture, enjoy the beaches and play football.

The itinerary for the trip included tours around various parts of northeastern Spain. For seven of those days, the team was in Barcelona and for the other two, they spent time in the beaches in Costa Brava. Tom Watts, head football coach, said he believed the trip overall was a success.

“It was a chance of a lifetime,” Watts said. “I’ve traveled quite a bit and seen a lot of different places but Spain was really gorgeous. We could have been there for another nine days.”

From the players’ perspectives, they got to experience a place unlike home. Junior Chicho Rodriguez, defensive tackle for the Battling Bishops, is from San Clemente, which is part of coastal California. How do the beaches of Spain compare?

“Spain beaches are a lot more packed with people,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a lot more around the beaches than what I’m familiar with. From volleyball, to muscle beaches, to restaurants. They had it all.”

As for football, the Battling Bishops played the Badalona Dracs, the recent champions of the Spanish national football league (LNFA). The Battling Bishops won the game 68-8.

Even though there’s not too much of a football culture in Spain overall, players noted what the sport meant to those who are a part of it. Sophomore guard Ryan Rhodes saw firsthand how big football was to those fans.

“Everyone went out, their side of the stadium was packed just to watch us play,” Rhodes said. “They’re really passionate about it.” 

This isn’t the first time OWU football has traveled as a team. Four years ago, the team traveled to Italy. For this year, the team decided on a trip to Spain over the alternative, which was Ireland.

The Battling Bishops play their first game of the season this Saturday at 7 p.m. against Otterbein University at Selby Stadium. 

Men’s soccer team travels to Germany

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor 

The Ohio Wesleyan men’s soccer team traveled to Germany this past summer to compete against local German clubs while also experiencing a culture different from the U.S.

This is not the first time the OWU soccer team has taken trips overseas. John A. Martin, the head men’s soccer coach, said the trip to Germany was his 13th trip overall while at OWU.

Over the years, the team has been to many places in Europe with the goal of playing good talent.

Twenty-six players went on the trip along with Martin, his wife and two assistant coaches. Martin said only four or five of his current players had been to Europe before.

Players on the team were able to fundraise for the trip and some had to pay out of pocket.

“[Americans] are behind when it comes to soccer,” Martin said, adding that he encourages his team to play up to any level and that an opportunity like this was a good way for the team to prepare for the upcoming season.

One major improvement was the team chemistry, which Martin said was one of his goals.

“They are more skilled and are more organized,” said senior Scott Harmanis who plays center back for the soccer team. “Soccer [in Germany] is a social event.”

The soccer team visited a small town in Germany called Baumholder. According to sistercities.org, Baumholder and Delaware, Ohio became sister cities in May 2011. But the two cities’ history goes back 20 years.

“Baumholder and Delaware have had a relationship for more than 20 years, thanks to the Ohio Wesleyan University men’s soccer team,” stated sistercities.org.

During the team’s visit, members of the team got to live with the citizen of Baumholder and stayed their for the majority of the trip. They also visited places like Trier, Heidelberg, Munich and Neuschwanstein. The trip was a mix of sightseeing and competition but Martin had a clear objective.

“My goals go far beyond the soccer field. It’s a cultural trip,” Martin said. “The relationship between our team and the people of Baumholder is very, very strong.”

The team played four German professional teams and also organized a clinic for the people of Baumholder. This experience gave the OWU men’s soccer team a feel of what it is like to play at a professional level, Martin said.

“This trip was probably the best trip we ever had,” Martin said. “The competition across the board was the best we have faced.”

The last two times the teams traveled to Germany, they won the NCAA National championship the following season. They went to Germany in 1997 and won the NCAA National Championship in 1998. The team went again in 2010 and won the championship in 2011.

Martin said the team this year is very young. Thirteen players of the team graduated in May and since then, OWU has recreuited eight freshmen who Martin said “are really good.”

“We are already better than where we were last year,” said Martin

Harmanis said he has high expectations for the team.

“We hope to win the NCAC,” said Harmanis.

This upcoming season will test the Bishops as the team’s schedule includes three top five teams that also made the NCAA tournament.

The OWU men’s team plays Calvin,who made the NCAA tournament last season, on Sept. 2.

The New York Times’ mistake brings attention to diversity issue

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief

That flimsy, yellow square blanketing your McDonald’s burger patty? It’s supposed to be there, despite how unnatural it may look.

But everyone knows that.

The “blobs” in your bubble tea, on the other hand? A much stranger concept, at least according to a recent article published in the The New York Times’ entrepreneurship section on Aug. 16. The original headline, the one that appeared in print, read, “The Blobs in Your Tea? They’re Supposed to Be There.”

Writing headlines isn’t everyone’s forte—I get it, no judgement—but the Times’ initial headline warrants a brash question.  Did anyone in the history of ever actually wonder whether the black tapioca pearls in bubble tea were inedible?

Despite the questionable headline, the article brought attention to a much larger issue.

Frank Shyong, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, tweeted, “This NYT boba piece, despite being comically late and breathtakingly stupid, is exactly why we need diverse newsrooms.”

Backlash over the article prompted the Times to change its headline. This time, the title was, “Bubble Tea, Long a Niche Favorite, Goes Mainstream in the U.S.” An improvement on the first headline, but the revised version carries the implication that bubble tea has only just gone mainstream, which people were quick to point out.

Julia Wong, reporter for The Guardian U.S., tweeted, “Does anyone who works for the New York Times live in New York?”

For the final time, the Times changed the article’s headline, which now reads, “Bubble Tea Purveyors Continue to Grow Along With Drink’s Popularity.” But it wasn’t just the headlines that drew criticism from the readers; the original article itself described the drink in a manner that made it seem odd and exotic.

Times’ business editor Ellen Pollock addressed the criticisms the article drew, chief among the statements being, “readers thought we described the drink, which was created in Taiwan, as strange and alien, and especially took us to task for the use of the word ‘blobs.’”

One reader, Bo Hee Kim, was quoted in the editor’s note as saying, “The language used in this article, from ‘exotic’ to ‘Far East’ and the unappealing nature of the word ‘blob’ to describe a drink well-known to many Asian and Asian-Americans unintentionally alienates this population from reading this article.”

Noting readers’ complaints, the Times revised the language used in the article. Changes were made, mistakes were addressed, but the harm was done.

Whether people like it or not, the U.S. is an amalgamation of different cultures. Now more than ever, different perspectives matter, be it in the media we consume or the media we create.

The news media, especially internationally-recognized publications such as the New York Times, have to take caution not to alienate or exoticize things that aren’t American.

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor

At a young age, we are taught that school is something that you have to do to succeed, but it is not the most important part of gaining knowledge.

This past summer, I had the opportunity of working for a local television news station in Seattle. My work days started at 3 a.m. Another aspect of my internship was that I lived more than 3,000 miles from my family back in New York.

Sound fun? Well, I was not there to have fun. Last New Year’s, I told myself I needed to go out and gain experience working in a professional environment. It was a goal of mine to also gain confidence as a writer, reporter and above all, a good journalist.

Living by myself was just one aspect of the journey I took. Another was getting up in the morning and getting to work on time.

Life moves a bit faster when you start out not knowing what to do. And that’s what happened to me.

I found myself having high anxiety and had a hard time staying confident. I was scared to ask questions and get in people’s way. I was talking with people who have been in television broadcasting for years and even decades. I dealt with people who had personalities that towered over mine. It was scary to say the least, but then I remembered why I wanted an internship.

I soon became a thorn in people’s sides. I constantly asked questions, followed reporters when they went out in the field and started casual conversations.

I would always ask myself if I was doing enough. That is what made me stand out from the other interns. I wanted to get feedback and keep improving.

If I didn’t convince myself of those things, I would not have gained the experience and knowledge that could help me later in my career as a journalist. We all hope for success, but the road is filled with bumps.

During my time in Seattle, I was also fortunate enough to be on live television.

This was a moment of choice for me. I got a call in the morning on one of my days off and was asked if I was comfortable with being on live television.

It happened so quickly that I didn’t have time to make a sound decision. So I said yes. And I now know that if I had said no, that I would have regretted it. I got comfortable with being uncomfortable.

All because of this internship, I was able to learn more about myself while gaining knowledge and experience in the field I want to work in.

Internships bring more to the table for young minds. It makes people more productive while also slowly going through each aspect in a way that is productive. School does serve a purpose, but getting real-life experience and knowledge is more beneficial than simply sitting at a desk and taking notes.