In an effort to smooth the transition between student government administrations, the Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs (WCSA) amended the portion of their constitution that controls elections.
Senators unanimously passed resolution 15F07 this Monday, Oct. 19, to effect the change.
Before the resolution, chapter 5, article 44 of the WCSA constitution stated that elections should be held over three separate dates. The elections of the WCSA president and vice president, executive officers and general senators were set for the first, second and third Fridays in November, respectively.
Now, executive officers will be voted into office on the first Friday in November. General senators will elected on the second Friday in November.
The change allows WCSA to begin the new year with a fresh senate, smoothing the transition time for student representatives.
After the senators broke into brief committee meetings, another short senate came to a close.
That question guided discussion at the Oct. 19 faculty meeting, underlying many of the talking points on the agenda. With enrollment declining, departmental budgets have been cut, book orders for the library reduced, staff laid off, teaching positions remain unfilled, faculty and staff benefits changed and retiree benefits slashed.
President Rock Jones said he and the Board of Trustees discussed, earlier this month, ways to maintain OWUâs liberal arts core in the universityâs current economic climate.
âWe want to continue the conversation about the importance of our mission as a residential liberal arts institution and to discuss what strategies can help us fulfill that and whether those strategies are sustainable financially, in the 21st Century.â
âWe need to be careful,â Jones warned. âIf we were to have three or four years of classes that looked like the classes this fall, that would require dramatic action and would threaten our ability to fulfill our mission.â
Provost Charles Stinemetz followed Jones at the podium, and in theme. He told faculty he had been working on a project lately âto estimate the appropriate size of the faculty in relation to student enrollments.â
As hands began to raise, Stinemetz clarified, âThe question is, we have a decline in enrollment, how many faculty do we need to serve those students?â
Zach Long, associate professor of English, was the first to speak after this explanation. âWhereâd the idea of coming up with an appropriate number of faculty members come from? What was the origin of it?â
Long repeated the question when he wasnât satisfied with the answers he got from Stinemetz.
Chris Wolverton, chair of the University Governance Committee and a professor of botany-microbiology, tried to help Stinemetz.
âIt is the charge of the Governance Committee in the faculty handbook to look at the appropriate size of the faculty,â he said. âThis initiative was taken by the Governance Committee.â
Though the investigation is only just beginning, Stinemetz said, âWe are far away from having a final model or number. We have had some preliminary discussions with the committees involved, which have brought up some very good points.â
Those committees contributing are the Faculty Personnel Committee (FPC) and the Academic Policy Committee (APC). Suggestions or data generated by these bodies will eventually be reported back to the Governance Committee, Stinemetz said.
After the floor was turned over for committee reports, Wolverton elaborated on what Stinemetz introduced.
âThe Governance Committee is tasked with determining the appropriate size of the faculty and administration,â Wolverton said. âSo one measure taken was to assemble a working group.â
âThat group met and made the recommendation to freeze open faculty positions,â said Wolverton. âThat was the outcome. That was what we did.â
When asked by Randolph K. Quaye, associate professor of black world studies, if the hiring freeze is âtemporary or permanent,â Wolverton suggested that it remains to be seen.
âOne of the variables that has a strong impact is the size of the student body. Now we have several hundred fewer students in our student body.â But, Wolverton suggested, âI would argue that the freezing is going to be temporary.â
Wolverton stressed the importance of cooperation between committee members in making decisions about the number of faculty and administrators OWU can sustain.
âThe Governance Committee wants to see a representative of our committee and APC and FPCÂ get as many variables on the table as possible and to see how these variables interact.â
At this point, Wolverton moved to begin an executive session, a period in which all nonÂ-voting members of those present, including The Transcript and members of WCSA, had to leave the room. Wolverton said he wanted the closed meeting so faculty would feel comfortable talking about the economic issues facing the university without their views being made public. The vote to close the meeting was not unanimous.
The closed session ended in about 30 minutes.
When N. Kyle Smith, associate professor of psychology and chair of the APC took the podium, to have faculty vote on a new course and other measures, it was discovered not enough faculty were in attendance for a quorum. As a result, faculty could not vote.
Smith announced that at the facultyâs next meeting in November, he would move for a vote to make UC160, an 0.25 unit course, a requirement of all freshmen.
âOverall, UC160 has been shown to increase the retention rate, to make students more aware of possibilities available to them and to make students more engaged with the university,â Smith said.
But many professors did not seem to share this sentiment.
Karen Fryer, professor of geologyÂgeography, said that for high performing freshmen âwho hit the ground running, they simply donât need it.â
Carol Neuman De Vegvar, professor of fine arts, said that âbefore we even have a discussion about this, we need to be sent information about the class as it already exists. We donât really have a sense of the shape of it. This needs to be widespread knowledge before we are in a position to talk about this.â
Expanding UC160 to all freshmen would require a considerable expansion of the number of sections offered, which would mean adding to the faculty workload or hiring adjuncts to teach the sections. Given a tightening budget, faculty said they we were concerned about the added cost.
Earlier in the meeting, Jones said a current goal of his administration is to focus renovation efforts on University Hall. But assessments show that the initial estimate of $10 million for the work wonât be enough to foot the bill.
âWe need to put everything on the table,â Jones said. âWhat are the best uses of that building for the future and what is the cost of allowing that building to serve those purposes?â
Jones also announced that longÂtime supporters of the University, Phillip J. and Nancy Meek, both members of the class of 1959, recently pledged $10 million to added to the $10 million the Meek family has already donated to the University.
It came to my attention that Oct. 10 was âMental Health Day,â which was actually sponsored by the World Health Organization. My social media platforms were littered with people saying how their families and friends had supported them, or them sharing their stories. When I saw these posts, I had mixed feelings. My first thought was how happy I was with the amount of people being so open with their stories. My other thought was why did we need another âday?â I feel like we have âdaysâ for everything, and didnât understand why having a mental health âdayâ was necessary.
After some thought, I came to the conclusion as to why I felt so skeptical toward these declarations. I just wasnât used to the complete transparency people felt with whatever they were dealing with. When I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and a few other things, I felt like I was suffering in secret. When I told friends, they either didnât believe me or they treated me like glass. Then I stopped telling people for quite a while. But my time at Ohio Wesleyan encouraged me to be more open with my struggles, because people had an idea of what it was like. They didnât go through the exact struggles I did, but they were sympathetic toward me. But they didnât treat me like any less of a person.
Scrolling through my Facebook feed on Oct. 10 was almost surreal; I didnât realize how many people were suffering in silence. And I was one of them for a long time. I may have scoffed at first when hearing about a âMental Health Day,â but now Iâm ashamed at that reaction. If that day provided an outlet for someone to seek the help they so desperately needed or allowed them to feel comfortable enough to tell their friends, I am not one to judge.
Since my diagnosis, there have been such massive changes in how mental health issues are perceived. Though unfortunately, thereâs still a stigma attached, itâs not as taboo as it once was.
People are more open with their struggles, and in turn, encourage others to either confront their issues or be more willing to talk about them.
However, with the normalization of mental illness, Iâm afraid people take the terms so cavalierly. For example, someone who is neat and orderly complains they are âso OCD.â No, youâre not. Thatâs just making light of someone who actually suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Or when people say theyâre going to kill themselves over a bad test grade; to me, thatâs almost spitting in the face of someone who tried to commit suicide or to someone whose loved one did.
People need to be more careful with their language in order for more people to feel comfortable coming forward with their struggles.
Though Iâm incredibly happy about more people coming out with their stories and struggles with mental illness, I hope this isnât a fad. I hope people are taking this seriously as I am. I also hope that next Oct. 10, or whenever the next Mental Health Day is, that more people will have the courage to talk about their struggles.
Ohio Wesleyan University and the Delaware community came together on Oct. 11 to help raise awareness and funds for hunger.
The Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty (CROP) Walk, is an annual community event created to help support the Church World Service (CWS). CWS helps provide food, water and resources for people in need.
The Community Service Learning Center (CSLC) at OWU organizes CROP Walk. Students walk 3.1 miles with other community members to raise money. Sally Leber, the director of CSLC said that it is one of the larger services and advocacy programs at OWU.
For five years, student participation has dwindled, but this year it saw âmore than 250 walkers overall,â and it raised $2,273 in total, according to CSLC and CROP Hunger Walkâs website.
âStudents here at OWU have always loved participating in CROP Hunger Walk,â Leber said. âIt has grown exponentially this year, many athletic teams, Greek organizations and SLUs represented. Also, other unaffiliated people got involved.â
OWU volleyball team member Brianna La Croix, a sophomore, said, âCROP Walk was a great way to meet new people who care about raising awareness. Crop Hunger Walk was well organized. I am so happy that I was able to volunteer with my teammates and coach, and walk for such an amazing cause.â
Leber was satisfied with the turnout of students and community members. âEveryone enjoyed the weather and each otherâs company,â she said. âThey all had fun, mingled, as well as gave importance to issues surrounding hunger and food scarcity.â
âI think it is a great cause and something that many students at OWU feel strongly about,â junior Shashank Sharma said.
Junior Khayyam Zubair, a participant at the walk, said, âAs a young person I feel it is my responsibility to help bring about change, to actively participate in well being of the world.
CROP Hunger Walk is a way I can do this.â
Currently, over 2,000 communities across the U.S. join in more than 1,300 CROP Hunger Walks each year. More than five million CROP Hunger Walkers have participated in more than 36,000 CROP Hunger Walks in the last two decades alone.
Panoramic paintings of urban and rural landscapes in oil called âMatter of Fact,â an exhibition at Ross Art Museum, is a collection of paintings in plein-Âair by Todd Gordon.
PleinÂAir, according to professor Frank Hobbs in the fine arts department, is, âPainting or drawing… on site, rather than in a studio or from photographs or drawings.â
Gordon explained, âThese regions are typically overlooked as mundane …industrial, or even ugly, but, as a painter, I find them profoundly interesting visually in their wealth of various shapes, colors, textures, and spatial relationships.â
The reasoning for coming to OWU, Justin Kronewetter, the director of the Ross Art Museum, explained was, âbecause he grew up in Delaware and many of the local residents know the artist and his artwork.”
Growing up in Delaware, it is âdistant and familiarâ for Gordon to display his art outside of his New York Gallery.
Gordon is coming to OWU on Thursday, Oct. 22 to talk to residents and students alike in the R.W. Corns Buildings, Room 312, at 7 p.m. about his art. A reception follows the presentation from 8Â-10 p.m. at the Ross Art Museum.
Gordon said, âI plan to give a brief presentation about my work, focusing on my artistic process as an observational painter who makes representational landscape paintings.â
Kronewetter said, “We anticipate a large turnout.â
Gordon expressed his excitement âto share this experience with the students and faculty at OWUÂ and the local community.â
Hobbs, a pleinÂair artist himself, said, âThe work is impressive in its scope and in its honest attempt to capture a personal view of the urban environments in which the artist lives. The paintings owe a large debt to another, older contemporary painter, Rackstraw Downes, who also works on site in urban settings and takes in similarly wide angles of view.â
Gordonâs âMatter of Factâ is currently on display at the Ross Art Museum until Nov. 13.
The museumâs hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 9Â p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
Dr. Eddie Glaude. Photo courtesy of the Princeton website.
On Oct. 8, a Princeton professor visited Ohio Wesleyan to speak about one interpretation of religion in the black community.
Eddie Glaude, professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University, discussed âAn Uncommon Faith: Pragmatism and Religionâ at OWU in Merrick Hall.
The lecture was sponsored by OWUâs religion department. Susan Gunasti, assistant professor of religion at OWU, invited Glaude, her former professor, to speak at the university.
Glaudeâs talk focused on American pragmatism and African American religious history.
Throughout the lecture, Glaude referenced and quoted James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, W. E. B. Du Bois, William James and John Dewey.
â(Deweyâs) and, by extension, mine is a practical faith in ideal ends,â Glaude said. â(Itâs) a faith that lights up our imaginations and convinces us to act in pursuit of those ends.â
Freshman Jade Jin said she didnât follow all of his ideas, but liked Glaudeâs assertion that human salvation lies in our hands, not in some metaphysical realm.
Senior Kaila Johnson said Glaudeâs talk was necessary.
âHe raised a lot of good points and questions that, I think, would help facilitate more understanding about the black community, especially (regarding) religion,â she said.
Besides teaching at Princeton, Glaude has also written several books. His forthcoming book is titled âDemocracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soulâ and is a reflection on racial politics.
âIn this country, there is a value gap. And the value gap is that white people are valued more than others,â Glaude said. âTo the extent to which thatâs true, it animates our social practices, our political arrangements and our economic arrangements.â
âDemocracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soulâ will be released in January 2016.
OWU’s Perkins Observatory Photo courtesy of the OWU website.
Itâs better than the Ivies’.
Recently, OWUâs Perkins Observatory was listed 15th on âCollege Rankâsâ 35 Best College Astronomy Observatories list thatâs above Harvard, MIT and the US Naval Academy.
According to its website, âWhen the observatory was completed in 1931, the Perkins Telescope was the third largest in the world. Perkins had one of the best Astronomical Libraries of the day, as well as facilities to accommodate visiting astronomers from all over the world.â
Though the 69Â-inch telescope once housed in Perkins not longer belongs to OWU, the observatory is a staple of OWUâs academic life.
Senior Mark Chalmers, an astrophysics major, is indebted to the Perkins Observatory for all his research.
âI take Observational Astronomy and do summer research,â Chalmers said. âFor one project we go to Perkins (when the weather permits), take images of an eclipsing binary W Ursa Majoris and make light curves with the data.â
And though Chalmers did not know about Perkinsâs recent ranking, he was not surprised.
âPerkins is an amazing place,â he said. âIt’s not only an observatory, but a library. And the basement is full of scientific demonstrations. There is also a workshop where people make telescope lenses.â
When asked if prospective students should see Perkins as part of their visit to OWU, Chalmers was emphatic.
âI would tell them to definitely check it out,â Chalmers said. âProfessor Harmon [in the astrophysics department] is very willing to give prospective students and their families tours. It’s a beautiful building full of history and not taking the time to see it while you’re here is a missed opportunity in my opinion.â
But Perkins is for more than just prospective and current OWU students. Thomas Burns, director of Perkins Observatory and a professor of English, says there is a lot going on almost every night.
“The observatory hosts a variety of public activities,â Burns said, âincluding two lecture series, our regular Friday night stargazing sessions, and day- and night- Âtime programs for groups of all descriptions; fraternal organizations, daycares, senior groups, scouting organizations, and school classes from kindergarten to college ages. We’ll do in excess of 100 public activities this year, both at the “O” and at various locations around central Ohio.â
One recent event held at Perkins was an installment of the “Astronomy And…” lecture series.
The talk featured Donald Lateiner, professor emeritus of the OWU classics department. On Oct. 8 he spoke on “Astronomy and Astropoetry: The ‘Stars’ of Ancient Greek & Roman Epic and Lyric.”
If you ask students what makes OWU special, many will say the community; the lasting bonds they have formed with people, in and outside the classroom, who have humanized their experience here. And many will say that staff people are a vital part of that community. In addition to keeping the university running in so many crucial ways, staff people have hosted international students for Thanksgiving, served as (official and unofficial) advisors, guided student clubs, ran sound systems for student bands, and offered understanding ears when students needed someone to listen.
Unfortunately, for various reasons, many dedicated staff people recently have had their positions eliminated. And many have been terminated after years of service, without the campus community having had a chance to recognize their contributions or thank them for their service.
Patricio (Pachi) Plazolles is one such staff person who, in his 26 years here, touched many people across the university, but whose position was recently eliminated. For many of us, Patricioâs abrupt departure left a gap in the OWU community. Some of us would like to thank him and recognize the many ways, above and beyond his duties at the Woltemade Center, that he contributed to campus life.
Students and alumni remember Patricio as both a mentor and friend, who invested his time in students and the community. Patricio was the advisor of the OWU Marketing Group (OMG) for the groupâs entire existence, said a past president of the group, and he helped many of us to get practical work experience through the groupâs projects. He guided us in succeeding academically and professionally, other students and alumni emphasized, but success was not enough; he wanted us to succeed with integrity, excellence, and a sense of service to others. One successful alumna identifies Patricio as the reason why is she is where she is today.
Patricio always knew what to say and how to connect with people, remembers one student.
When he walked around campus, people always approached him as if he were a great friend they hadn’t seen in awhile. Another alumna remembers visiting Patricioâs small homestead farm and remembers how his dreams to better the world inspired her in her sustainability work. A faculty member echoed these views, describing Patricio as one of the most sincere and honest human beings he has met. Patricioâs departure is truly sad and disappointing, they agreed, as Patricio had so many skills and virtues, and he truly represented the Ohio Wesleyan spirit.
Another student identified Patricio as an âincredible role modelâ and one of the key reasons she majored in economics. I never once saw him give up on a student or a student project, she says.
He is encouraging while also challenging people to do their very best. When she had an idea for TiPit grant to study social entrepreneurship and microÂfinancing, Patricio was immediately on board, helped her and others to design a workable project, and reached out to friends in Peru to make the project a success. It was a great honor, she said, to travel to his home country with him and see the tremendous respect that his friends, family, and local professors have for him.
Patricio and others who recently have lost their positions here will be missed.
Signed,
Lautaro Cabrera, former president of OMG, Class of 2015
Billy George, Class of 2017
Erika Kazi, Class of 2014
Reilly Reynolds, Class of 2016
Juan Armando Rojas, Associate Professor of Modern Foreign Languages
Sarah Sanders, former vice president of OMG, Class of 2015
The sign over the Jay Walk says it all. â#1 in Ohio, #17 in America!â
Shortly after being ranked No. 17 in the nation among âAmericaâs Most Entrepreneurial Colleges 2015â by Forbes magazine, Ohio Wesleyan University announced that the department of economics will add a business administration major in fall 2016.
OWU has offered business related courses since 1921, but a businessÂ-specific major has never existed. Barbara A. MacLeod, chair of the economics department and professor of management, believes this change will make a difference.
âProspective students donât understand the management economics major has some business,â she said. âThis business administration major is more clear, not just in the name, but in content itâs a full business major.â
According to admissions data, many prospective students show interest in having the word âbusinessâ in their majorâs name.
OWUâs business administration major will encompass coursework in management theory, human resources management and behavior, marketing and strategic decisionÂ-making.
Along with the business coursework, the new major will work with other departments within OWU to establish related speakers, projects and ideas that can span across many academic fields.
âOur students will not only be taking the other distribution courses, but we hope to be doing a lot of cooperating with other departments on speakers, ideas and projects,â MacLeod said. âThe key aspects of a liberal arts are ideas like critical thinking, analysis, the ability to think effectively and write effectively and those are all under the program that we have proposed.â
MacLeod sees more schools like OWU heading in the same direction in their near future.
âSince it has been approved, I have heard from other schools in our area, in the North Coast Athletic Conference and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference that they are also looking into how to expand into business,â she said. âI think in 10Â15 years weâre going to see a very different landscape of all the liberal arts colleges in Ohio.â
Nick Norman, a junior on the economics board, agrees with MacLeod.
âI think it will help with marketing for the school and especially help increase enrollment in the next few years,â Norman said. âI think a lot of students choose to go to schools with a business school or major.â
Freshman Anna Day was in that position not long ago.
âIt was a little unclear coming in as a prospective student if there was exactly a business major,â Day said. âI know a lot of my friends are interested about business and are happy that they can focus on what they want to do.â
Donald Trump announced he was running for president three months ago, and has been in the news ever since. Photo courtesy of businessinsider.com.
As the 2016 presidential election approaches, political debates are beginning to heat up. This is expected. Something that was not expected was one of the wealthiest real estate moguls in the country entering the race. Thatâs right, Iâm talking about Donald Trump. Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 election on July 16. Many people believed that his campaign would not last long and that his abrasive personality would force him to drop out. However, it has been three months and not only is Trump leading air-time, but he is also leading the Republican polls by about 11 percent. Trump has no doubt encountered some bumps in the road. For example, his feud with Fox Newsâs Megyn Kelly during the first Republican presidential debate. Yet he has only gained more publicity from events like this and it has made him stronger in his campaign. Regardless of the political party you affiliate yourself with, there is one thing Donald Trump has done in the media. With all the different things going on in the world, many people, mainly millennials, can find themselves bored with politics. Donald Trump has grabbed the attention of many of those who typically turn their heads away from politics.  Heâs not the only one that has done this recently. During MTVâs  2015 Video Music Awards on Aug. 30, celebrity rapper Kanye West accepted a Michael Jackson Vanguard Award. During his acceptance speech, he announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential race. According to recent studies, the majority of people who vote in presidential elections are above the age of 45. Whether Westâs announcement is legitimate or not, he too has turned the heads of the demographic of people that follow politics the least. I say legitimate because West has been said to have decided to run seconds before he made the announcement and implied that he was high at the show. November 2016 is a long ways away. If the 2016 election hasnât already caught your attention, there is a good chance that it eventually will. Â