Ohio Wesleyan’s orientation programs undergo a makeover

By Evan Walsh, Chief Copy Editor

A series of administrative changes have been made to the orientation programs for this coming summer and fall for new students.

Brad Pulcini, assistant dean for student engagement, is organizing these programs.

He said the goal is to register students for classes while introducing them to the university on a more personal level.

Three sessions will be held. Group sessions ordinarily held in the fall will be moved to the summer. StART will now just be called Orientation Camp OWU, formerly known as FreshX, will now include Ohio Wesleyan faculty in addition to the 100 or so students Pulcini hopes will attend. Students will have more activities to choose from (i.e. ropes courses and rock climbing) that have not been offered in the past.

The school is trying to make the same effort for parents as they prepare for their child’s next four years.

“Our program for parents is going to be more involved than it has been in the past with a focus on college finances,” Pulcini said.

New to the itinerary is the first ever “Oh-Woo Welcome” which will follow Orientation. The renaming to “Oh-Woo Welcome” is accompanied by changes of its own.

As opposed to previous years’ events, this year’s will begin that Sunday, not Saturday. On Sunday, first-years and new students will have convocation followed by move-in.

The Student Involvement Office is co-ordinating with OWU’s Residential Life.

The groups will be assigned based on which dormitory first-year students will live in.

“The idea is to get new students adjusted to where they’re living and who they’re living with,” Pulcini said.

Another change to the focus of these group activities is to get students acclimated to the nuances of OWU’s academic life. According to Pulcini, the results of an incoming student’s focus group indicated that these students were not yet comfortable with online resources like Blackboard and Self-Service.

Current and returning students are encouraged to get involved, too. OWU’s Campus Programming Board has agreed to help organize several different events which will be available to the rest of the OWU community when they return later that week.

Pulcini said the orientation teams leading the students will be smaller. Applications for “Camp Leader” positions were due last week and will soon be reviewed by Student Involvement staff.

Junior Alexander Pacilio has been an orientation leader in the past. He said he believes that most of the changes will improve the process.

However, he also said that along with other orientation leaders, he was disappointed to learn that there are only going to be two orientation team leaders, instead of the usual four.

WCSA Today: Senate passes a bill to appoint archivist

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief

The Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) passed a bill to appoint an archivist at its full senate meeting on Feb. 13.

Though the archivist would be a part of WCSA, the position is a separate entity from the student government, said WCSA President Chris Dobeck, Ohio Wesleyan junior.

“Any self-respecting institution has a way to keep track of its history,” Dobeck said at the full senate meeting on Feb. 6, when he introduced the possibility of assigning an archivist.

“Unfortunately, one of the big problems we’ve discovered in this administration and administrations prior is that we can only remember what happened in WCSA as far back as we have a connection to somebody who is in WCSA,” Dobeck said.

Dobeck drafted the bill to appoint someone who would “drudge through OWU’s history” to research what WCSA has done in the past, he said.

The archivist won’t have voting powers, but can attend Executive Committee meetings. An archivist will be chosen from a pool of applicants in the near future.

Additionally, revisions were made to the Budget Committee’s budgetary guidelines to fund new uniforms for the men’s rugby team.

The rugby team requested $1,342.50 for uniforms.

Treasurer Kristen Nooney, junior, said the guidelines had to be amended because the wording stated that clubs and sports can only receive funding for new uniforms every four years.

But club sports that are defined as contact sports, like rugby, can receive uniforms after six active seasons, Nooney said.

Since the rugby team played six seasons in three years, 95 percent of the team’s requested amount was funded.

The next full senate meeting will be Monday, Feb. 20 in the Crider Lounge in Ham-Will.

Women’s basketball team falls against 15th ranked DePauw

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor

The Ohio Wesleyan University women’s basketball played the DePauw Tigers and lost by a large margin with the final score 74-46.

On Jan. 21, the women’s basketball team competed against the Tigers for the second time this season. The last time they played, DePauw won with the score 70-59. The Bishops hoped to correct the problems from the first game as they prepared for the second.

“We were pumped, motivated, excited, locked in on what we needed to do,” said OWU wing junior Hallie Sinko. “We knew they would come out strong. We were so close last time, we figured if we gave a little bit more, it would be a more matched up game, but that wasn’t the case.”

DePauw came into Branch Rickey Arena scoring 24 points in the first quarter, while OWU scored 7 points. At the half, the Tigers scored 42 points. Sinko said the team’s motivation to turn things around was apparent in the locker room at halftime. DePauw held onto their lead with the final score 74-46.

“Communication, consistency, every individual needs to be fully locked in the whole game and bring the same intensity for all 40 minutes,” Sinko said. “Just take it quarter by quarter.”

Sophomore point guard Lisa Zeller said, “We didn’t do our best but we are all we need. We just need to be consistent.”

Senior captain Megan Kuether reached her 1000th point in her college basketball career. Zeller said she was glad to see the senior pass a huge milestone that only few have reached.

“She inspires all of us,” Zeller said, adding that Kuether and the rest of the seniors will be missed because they contribute a lot to the team’s success. She also said that being consistent is what the team needs to do for in preparation for its next game.

The women’s team have a 7-12 overall recod and are 4-6 in the NCAC.

Men’s basketball finishes sweetly and strong

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor

Seth Clark and the Ohio Wesleyan University’s men’s basketball team stayed consistent with another conference win over the DePauw Tigers on Jan. 21.

Earlier in the week, the men’s team played Wittenberg at home with the final score 76-70.

After beating their conference foe, the team’s intentions were clear heading into the game versus DePauw.

“We knew that DePauw would be tough, but we knew that we had to stay focused,” said sophomore guard Chris Allocco. “We also knew we had to strike early to set the tone.”

The Bishops never seemed to pull away from the Tigers as they trailed by 9 points at the half.

However, the DePauw Tigers tried to claw their way back in the second half, but still fell short with the final score 79-72.

“They are a good team that plays hard,” said junior point guard Nate Axelrod, who contributed 13 points to the win. “They have improved a lot since last time we played them. Their shooting guard is the lead scoring in the league so we had to put pressure on him.”

Axelrod’s performance seemed to be the key in the close win over DePauw. He played for 33 minutes of the game.

Teammate wing Law Jones said Axelrod’s ability to control the offense helped set the team up for success.

“It’s also fun to watch him play,” Jones said.

However, Axelrod was not the only factor in the win. Junior guard Seth Clark scored 31 points.

“It’s not a surprise to see [Clark] play like that,” Jones said. “It was fun to watch him hit everything on offense and lockdown on defense. I hope he will keep it going for the rest of the season.”

As of now, the Bishops are 10-2 in the NCAC and have a 13-6 overall record.

The Beat: Migos release “Culture”

By John Bonus, Transcript Reporter

“Culture” has hit the shelves explosively and could potentially see a number one spot in its first week out.

Migos have released their highly anticipated album, “Culture” and whether you like the hip-hop trio or not, you can expect to continue hearing their music in the coming months.

Migos are an American hip-hop group from Georgia formed in 2009. It consists of rappers Quavo, Takeoff and Offset.

The group have been gaining popularity since 2013 when they released “Versace”  and have since had big releases like “Fight Night” and “Look at My Dab.”

“Bad and Boujee” was the first single off the album and it is currently the number one song in the U.S. With such great success from this track and large circulation of the album on social media, the trio may see a number one album very soon.

According to projections from Hits Daily Double, the album is projected to move around 80,000 units in the first week, a huge amount of this from streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. At that rate, “Culture” could soar to the top of the charts sooner than many would have expected.

Migos are a famous name in the world of hip-hop and the featuring artists on this album definitely show that. With big names like 2 Chainz, DJ Khaled, Travis Scott and Gucci Mane on the tracklist, the album will be pulling from a variety of fanbases.

Whether the album hits number one in its first week or not, it has solidified itself as one of the biggest album releases of 2017 less than a month into the year.

Escape artist whips audience members into shape

By Liz Hardaway, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Would you trust a man you just met to whip a piece of celery in half? Would you trust him if that stalk of celery were hanging outside of your mouth?

Brian Rudo, an escape artist with Adrenaline Comedy, did just that on Jan. 26 in Milligan Hub.

Picking various students from the crowd, Rudo led students in various tasks like helping him into two straitjackets, stepping on his face and into shards of glass, and holding celery in their mouths so he could whip the vegetable in half.

“It was definitely frightening to watch. I was sitting right by him when he was swinging [the whip], and I swear he was going to hit us with it,” said Kristen Nooney, the president of the Campus Programming Board (CPB).

The members of CBP found Rudo at the National Association for Campus Activities conference. Guillermo Gutierrez, the vice president of CBP, was approached by Rudo to tie him to a chair.

“Personally, I like an artist who is engaging and who understands the atmosphere of our school…I’ve found often-times found spoken-word poets do really well with students…we’re trying to figure out what people want to see,” said Gutierrez.

Although Rudo is not a magician, he seemed quite comfortable with his dangerous and painful-looking stunts. But he did reveal the secret to getting out of a straitjacket: “Wiggle,” said Rudo.

Rudo has executed more dangerous stunts than he did at Milligan Hub, but decided to change his act as the night pro-
gressed to cater to what the crowd wanted.

“I’ve been saran-wrapped in a tank underwater…padlocked on the outside, with a curtain…I’ve been hung from a bridge overpass in Alabama in two straight jackets over a pit of fire,” said Rudo.

CBP’s next event is a 1950’s Roller Skating night on Feb. 16 from 6-9 p.m. in the Benes rooms. CBP will also be announcing on March 1 their surprise musical artist for the fourth annual Bishop Bash.

“VIVA” premieres at first annual International Queer Film Festival

By Anna Davies, Transcript Correspondent

Ohio Wesleyan will screen the movie “VIVA” on Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Benes Room to launch its first annual International Queer Film Festival.

The festival is the creation of senior Ryan Bishop. Bishop said he created the festival because he was frustrated at the lack of representation queer people had in movies he enjoyed watching.

“I felt like I never see myself represented on screen as a multicultural queer man of varied interests and experiences…I think many queer people experience this moment of frustration,” he said.

Senior Meme Salazar Rodriguez, a representative of VIVA Latinx and the House of Linguistic Diversity, and junior Jason Perry, a representative of the Student Union on Black Awareness (SUBA) helped plan the festival.

“We focused on several levels of representation: regions of the world, sexual identities and gender exploration,” Bishop said about the films chosen for the festival.

“We hope to show people from various cultures experiencing their queerness – be it related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression – in various ways and in relation to different socioeconomic and religious situations,” Bishop said.

Other films being shown will focus on LGBT experiences in Iran, India, Greece, Thailand and Romania. “VIVA,” the first film, is set in a Havana slum in Cuba.

“We also tried to show different genres because as much as queer people want to see their stories represented, not every movie with queer representation has to be solely about experiences related to being queer,” Bishop said.

According to the official movie site, “VIVA” is the story of a hairdresser named Jesus who expresses himself through drag performances. Jesus’s freedom of expression is challenged when his estranged father suddenly enters his life again.

Bishop said he hopes the movie showings will foster discussions between both professors and students. He also said he hopes the event will be beneficial for both queer and non-queer students.

All movies in the festival lineup will screen in the Benes Rooms and popcorn will be provided. The festival is sponsored by People Regarding Individual Diversity Everywhere (PRIDE), SUBA, Spectrum Resource Center and the Chinese Culture Club.

Lessons in raspberry puff pastries and journalism

By Gopika Nair, Editor-in-Chief

Alongside an Everest of newspapers sits a magenta booklet on my parents’ coffee table back home. The booklet is a compilation of articles my dad wrote for his weekly column “Puff Pastry” when he was a 30-something, mustache-sporting journalist with a Walkman.

The booklet emerges only when my parents are in the middle of a spring cleaning extravaganza. Perhaps to abate my cleaning-induced griping, my mom would hand me the collection of articles when I was younger, often accompanied by the words, “Your father writes about you in many of his stories.”

Either I was too young to understand my dad’s words or too trapped in a solipsistic teenage bubble to appreciate it, because I don’t remember the stories having an impact on me until recently.

As my mom was heading to bed a little after midnight on New Year’s, she found the booklet in a box she’d unpacked. “You can get inspired,” she said this time.

Indeed, poring over my dad’s words as a listless 20-year-old at 3 a.m. sparked something that wasn’t just inspiration but also a renewed fervor for journalism.

The Transcript staff expends a considerable amount of energy and time on this publication, even though we, frankly, miss the mark sometimes (actually, according to Paul Kostyu’s critiques of our print editions, we miss the mark a lot).

So, it’s pretty easy to feel drained.

Ask any editor who was a part of The Transcript in 2016 and they’ll probably tell you this paper has been their greatest source of frustration. But maybe, they’ll also tell you it’s been a great source of joy.

We’ve designed pages until 5 a.m., written stories long after our brains had turned into mush, neglected schoolwork, fallen asleep in The Transcript office and we continued to do it all over again every other week.

I’m not going to pretend our commitment to the paper was born solely out of our passion for journalism; we’ve all thought about quitting at one point or another and sometimes, the only thing that kept us in The Transcript office until the wee hours of the morning was our obligations.

But ultimately, all those sleepless nights spent working in The Transcript office proved to be rewarding. The field of journalism isn’t a platform for self-indulgent writers (barring op-eds and columns), and that’s exactly why I respect it.

We, as editors, can (and do often) grumble about the hours we spend designing pages and writing stories only to yield mediocre results in the end. But journalism supersedes us and our petty complaints. We don’t matter; what we do is about everyone else.

The Transcript, in particular, has been memorializing the Ohio Wesleyan community since 1867 through news articles that pertains to the campus.

Over the years, we’ve covered theatre and dance productions, lectures sponsored by various departments, club events, notable achievements, the student government and faculty meetings to bridge any gap that might be created by lack of transparency. We continue to devote our energy to exactly that.

The Transcript will celebrate its 150th anniversary Oct. 1, 2017. Before then, my aim is to improve the overall quality of The Transcript. I’m prepared for the all-nighters ahead of me and the gray hairs I’m inevitably going to find by the end of my term as editor-in-chief. I’m prepared for the highs of working with and learning from the new editorial staff and the lows of egregious typos we won’t catch. I’m prepared for failures and successes and more failures. I’m prepared for everything that might come The Transcript’s way because as much as this paper has been the greatest source of frustration in my life, it’s also given me the most joy.

Press-ing Trump on the truth

By Evan Walsh, Chief Copy Editor

I’ve been called a lot of bad things, but it seems now, in this “post-truth” era, that the thing I should most want to avoid being called is a “journalist.”

While reporters such as Bob Woodward and Ida Tarbell were once celebrated for defending our democratic standards of transparency, the press is now suddenly an inconvenience.

That is a problem.

No individual or institution is as responsible for this as President Donald J. Trump and his new administration. From the beginning of his unlikely run for the presidency, Trump initiated the antagonistic relationship with the press that he has worked hard to maintain even now as sitting president.

Nobody expects the press and government to have a particularly cozy relationship, but that does not excuse the treatment reporters have been given. It also doesn’t excuse the gag rules which have been imposed on senior members of his cabinet—First Amendment be damned.

Relegated to White House basements where they are asked to make sense of 140 character tweets (about who knows what), reporters are feeling their president’s scorn. And they’re not taking it well.

The Columbia Journalism Review issued a statement on Jan. 12 that rather than compete with each other, the media are ready to work with each other to cover Trump’s administration and to hold it accountable.

Pete Vernon, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, put forth that statement, saying, “Journalism is a competitive business, but it’s not a zero sum game.” That cohesiveness—grounded in a commitment to truth telling—is refreshing.

But with this particular administration there appears to be no limits … and the back and forth continues. In the words of Steve Bannon, senior adviser to Trump, “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while … The media here is the opposition party. They don’t understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States.”

It’s not entirely unreasonable to understand his criticisms when we consider the internal bleeding of credibility that has taken place as a consequence of publishing “fake news.”  

Fake news delegitimizes the credibility of real news and makes Tomi Lahren, a pundit for TheBlaze, look informed. If, however, Trump continues to send news teams to their graves, then that’s who we’ll be left with.

In another telling example of the fight Trump has picked with the media, this time over “fake news,” Trump shot down CNN’s Jim Acosta as he was preparing to ask a question related to claims of Russian interference in last fall’s election. That question deserves a serious answer, but because BuzzFeed followed up the story that CNN had originally published with unsubstantiated reports of their own, Acosta never got the serious answer he deserved.

The Trump Administration and fake news are doing their best to sabotage truth. So if being a “journalist” is what it takes to get the truth, then everyone from Fox to MSNBC should want to be called that nasty name.

Ohio Wesleyan students attend Donald Trump’s inauguration

By Evan Walsh, Chief Copy Editor

Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty made the trip to the nation’s capital to watch the swearing in of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

The school provided transportation and supervision to and from the event for the 17 students who went.

Some chose to attend to observe and take part in the transition from one administration to the next, while others spent the whole weekend there as demonstrators.

Each student had different motivations for going, but the historical significance of the event remained critical to the experience.

Senior Sam Schurer did not originally plan on going to the inauguration and had planned instead to participate in the marches.

“I had a lot of discontent that I wanted to voice and I thought that this was the best platform for that,” Schurer said.

Schurer, a politics and goverment major at OWU, eventually changed his mind about the inauguration and made arrangements to attend that, as well.

Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success, along with Public Safety Officer Chris Mickens organized the trip.

Todd explained why he feels like Ohio Wesleyan has a responsibility to give students this opportunity.

“The idea is that we are fulfilling our institution’s mission of engaging in the world outside our university… we’re not doing our job if we don’t engage with these ideas and stand outside of the process,” Todd said.

A big reason why Todd thought the trip was a success was because the group going was so diverse and represented the political interests and demographic makeup of OWU.

He described it as a “good cross section of our student body”

Whether or not the university will make this a tradition remains to be determined.

According to Todd, the last time OWU sponsored an inaugural trip was in 2009 for the first of Barack Obama’s two terms.

The university made the decision not to go back in 2013 when Obama was re-elected.

“The idea is that we are fulfilling our institution’s mission of engaging in the world outside our university…we’re not doing our job if we don’t engage with these ideas and stand outside of the process.” Dwayne Todd, vice president for student engagement and success.

Todd said he has entertained the idea of bringing students to each inauguration, but thinks it is more likely that the trip will only be offered whenever someone new takes office.