Got Lots to Say? Do it in 3 Minutes

By Hailey de la Vara

Transcript Correspondent

hhdelava@owu.edu

In its fifth year, Ohio Wesleyan’s I-cubed lecture series drew a standing room only crowd last week just like it has in previous years.

Faculty presenters challenged the audience to think outside the box, while they stayed inside the three minutes each was allotted to teach their favorite subjects.

The Ideas, Insight and Imagination lectures this year featured students’ favorite nine professors who aimed to give insight on their expertise in their academic fields. The Benes rooms was packed.

One professor said after the presentation that it was the hardest thing she had every done.

The speakers this year included Mark Allison of English, Kira Bailey of psychology, Phokeng Dailey of communication, David Markwardt of zoology, Stephanie Merkel of comparative literature, Franchesca Nestor and Pamela Pyzza, both of politics and government, Tim Roden of music, and Chris Wolverton of microbiology and botany.

The nine speakers all aimed to give students a small insight of their own academic passions.

Senior Zhanna Caldwalder was most intrigued by Allison’s speech. “I loved Allison’s speech because I love reading, and I felt like I could relate to everything he was saying,” Caldwalder said.

Allison’s lecture, “Hitchhiking to Nowhere,” discussed how utopian societies paved a way for imagination in reading and life. Allison based his three minutes on the idea that nowhere has the best of everything.

“Utopia is the good place that is no place,” he said.

Other topics ranged from political communication to Mozart to plants growing on Mars.

Students gained new knowledge about a variety of topics.

Senior John Keller was intrigued by the variety of speakers admitting that last week’s program was the first he had attended since coming to OWU.

“I’m an English major, so I came to listen to my professor speak,” Keller said. “But after hearing all the speeches, I was very impressed by how much each professor knows and cares about their fields. It was very interesting to listen and be a part of this event at OWU.”

In the spring semester, the I-cubed lectures will feature student speakers.

Wipeout on the Jaywalk

By Katie Cantrell

Transcript Correspondent 

kmcantre@owu.edu

Ohio Wesleyan Wipeout was…well, a Wipeout. Though attendance was low Friday students enjoyed competing on a couple inflatable challenges on the JayWalk. 

The Campus Programming Board had Wesleyan Wipeout running from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. It had a particular reason for choosing this time frame according to club member Catie A. Hyatt. 

“This is the time that people have to spend to like eat lunch and then have like a few minutes before class. So it’s kind of a fun little thing they can do,” she said.

The board rented two inflatables from one of the SuperGames warehouses located in Columbus. The inflatables at the Wesleyan Wipeout were the Leaps and Bounds- Big Red Balls and the Kapow obstacle course, both a part of SuperGames’ interactive play attractions. To comply with SuperGames protocols, students had to fill out a waiver before they could participate in the activities. 

Two of the students who participated in Wesleyan Wipeout said they preferred the Kapow obstacle course. According to OWU student Alex N. Mason, she preferred Kapow because “it had more movement.” 

Mason’s friend, freshman Sara Cordle, agreed. “It was more like a puzzle-like you had to duck not duck, you know.”

Student turnout was lower than expected at the beginning of the event, but two board members said this did not have much to do with the game itself, but more to do with the weather on Friday afternoon. It was sunny and hovering somewhere between 80 to 90 degrees outside. 

The Campus Programming Board is responsible for quite a few activities that Ohio Wesleyan promotes on campus for the students. 

“Last semester we put on Day on the Jay…and we brought in one of these I don’t wanna call them blow-ups, but blow-ups or inflatables I guess, and a lot of people liked it a lot,” said club member Qiukui Moutvic. “So we decided to base an event on something like that and then we just decided to call it Wesleyan Wipeout.” 

Last fall the club took a tour of the SuperGames warehouse during one of its retreats and had the chance to try out some of the inflatables. It was from this retreat that the idea for Wesleyan Wipeout was born. 

When asked if there might be more events like Wesleyan Wipeout in the future Moutvic said, “We have staple events every year, so events like these are more of just whatever comes out of our planning retreat.”

The students definitely would not mind more events like Wesleyan Wipeout said, Cordle. “I like the inflatable events that they have and all the games, like from Day on the Jay.”

Mock Convention Kicks Off

By Anna Edmiston

Staff Reporter

aledmist@owu.edu

Planning started Thursday for Ohio Wesleyan’s long-time tradition of holding a political convention leading to the presidential election in November 2020.

Next year, Mock Conventioneers will play the role of Democrats deciding on a candidate to represent the party in the general election. The Mock Convention always assumes the role of the party that doesn’t occupy the White House. It started in 1884.

Attendees meeting in Crider Lounge in Hamilton-Williams Student Center watched the third debate of Democratic candidates while eating catered food and learning about the roles students and the Delaware community will play in the Mock Convention, which will occur Feb. 21 and 22.

There were tables set up to help students register to vote, play interactive games, and ask questions of student leaders of the program.

“I’m pretty excited for the fact that (politics) will be in an attainable level and it will help with my understanding of how politics works,” said freshman S.K. Bulander.

Freshman Josie Fornara agreed. “I am excited about learning more about politics and participating in the American tradition,” said Fornara.

“Being able to be a part of something that only happens every four years and being able to work alongside such amazing people,” said sophomore ZannaLee Carling-Sprewell.

Danielle Black, vice president of Mock Convention, said, “I am most excited to be involved in the planning of it, to allow people to learn more about the politics of our country and expand their horizon.”

There is still time to sign up for Mock Convention. Also, if any person on campus is interested in registering to vote, contact Franchesca Nestor, an assistant professor of politics and government (fvnestor@owu.edu).

Bishops Battle Heidelberg in Volleyball Home Opener

By Peter Lujan

Staff Reporter

pllujan@owu.edu

The Battling Bishops women’s volleyball team has it’s first home stand Tuesday night where it faced Heidelberg University. The game is part of a string of  heavy competition for the Bishops according to head coach Kirsta Cobb, “Our first weekend was against top-25 teams in the nation.” This is no mistake either, Cobb explained, “playing tough competition early, the goal of that is to get us ready, mentally, emotionally, physically for the conference season” 

Senior captain Jordan Brandt is on the same page with her coach, as she stated, “That’s our goal; to be top 25 in the country we belong in the top two [in the conference.]”

However, junior captain Megan Schwallie, said she feels that they need to step up to the occasion “But we don’t want to settle either.” However, she does see the positives as well “ We found a lot of growth with the teams that we were playing,” Schwallie added. 

The first two sets of the match went to Heidelberg, where they won the first, 25-19, and the second, 25-16.

The third set, however, went down to the very last point. After the Bishops started off the set up 8-3. Heidelberg used momentum to go on a 14-7 run, taking a 17-15 lead in the set.

 That prompted Cobb to call a timeout and discuss things with the team. 

According to Brandt, this timeout was rather beneficial. “[Cobb] does a really good job of calling timeouts systematically.” 

After the timeout, the Battling Bishops gained some of that momentum from Heidelberg and ran with it, winning the set 25-23 on the strength of a 10-6 run, including a 46 second rally on their 20th point. 

“A big part of volleyball is the first five points, especially when you have that kind of momentum,” explains Brandt. 

Heidelberg started off the set with a 5-0 lead, and the Bishops did their best to chip away at the lead. But Heidelberg continued to score in bunches, while the Bishops missed a handful of serves. At the end of the night the Bishops missed a total of 17 serves. 

Unfortunately, that momentum did not carry into the next set, in fact the Bishops got the exact opposite start that they hoped for. 

When asked about the inability to carry the momentum from the end of the third set into the beginning of the fourth set, Brandt said, “It’s the struggle of taking that high energy and high intensity and focusing it.” 

When asked about how that many missed serves affected the tone and momentum of a volleyball game, Cobb said, “It’s really hard to build momentum and put pressure on the opponent, if we keep giving them an out.” 

Schwallie added, “That many missed serves makes up more than half a game.” 

Heidelberg finished the fourth and final set on a 5-2 run, winning the set 25-19 and the match 3-1. Bishops are now 1-6 on the season. 

Brandt explained the frustration of these early season struggles. “Unfortunately, we haven’t quite had the results we wanted to. We put a lot of emphasis into these first games, because if we want to get an at-large bid to the national tournament, winning these games is key.”

Even with this start to the season, Cobbs does not seemed worried.“We still have the ability to reach a lot of our goals…We just want to continue to progress and improve each day.”

The Battling Bishops have their next game Friday, Sept 13 at 5 p.m. against the Wilmington Quakers in Branch Rickey Arena as the Bishop Invitational kicks-off.

Petting zoo comes to OWU

Students were welcomed back to Ohio Wesleyan University by some furry friends.

The Campus Programming Board brought several types of animals to the JAYwalk between 11 p.m.-1 p.m. for students to interact with. The animals included mini zebu, alpacas, mini sheep, kangaroos, camel, goats and a large tortoise. The animals helped to mark a new semester and school year for students and staff alike.

 

Updated Aug 22

Interim Chaplain announced

By Maddie Matos

Editor-in-chief

mrmatos@owu.edu

With the sudden retirement of Ohio Wesleyan University’s previous chaplain, the school has appointed Chad Johns to the role.

In an email from July 18, President Rock Jones told the campus community of the new position for Johns.

Johns will be taking the role over from Chaplain Jon Powers, who retired on July 31. Powers had worked at the university for 43 years.

Johns is an OWU alumnus who majored in psychology. Johns then earned his Master of Divinity in 2005 from the Boston University School of Theology and his Doctor of Ministry in 2015 from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

After returning to OWU in 2005, Johns has played a major role on campus.

“He (Johns) participated in mission trips as a student and now directs our Spring Break Interfaith Service Week,” Jones said. “In addition, he advises or co-advises student organizations including PRIDE and the Chi Phi fraternity. Chad also is in his second term on OWU Staff Council and is a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council. He has taught UC 160 as well as courses on the theological exploration of both leadership/power and speculative fiction.”

Johns began the position on Aug 1.

 

Updated August 22. 

Campus construction work to begin soon

By Maddie Matos

Editor-in-chief

mrmatos@owu.edu

Ohio Wesleyan University’s construction plans are set to begin this fall semester.

In an email sent out by university president Rock Jones, the school announced that the renovation projects for residential side of campus are to begin in the upcoming weeks.

The project was previously announced in the spring, with new senior apartments for seniors and a complete renovation of Smith Hall.

“As of this writing, we’ve begun construction to renovate Smith West as part of a two-phase makeover to transform Smith Hall into a vibrant, community-oriented environment housing all of our first-year students,” Jones said.

Workers already have created a construction yard west of the building. Renovations will begin fully starting in September.

Smith parking lot will be spit, with access from West William Street to one side and from South Liberty Street to the other. Throughout construction, all students will continue to have 24/7 access to Smith Dining Hall.

Smith West is scheduled for completion in August 2020. Afterwards, renovations for Smith East will begin.

 The completed building will open in fall 2021.

Jones also said when the new senior apartments will begin.

“In October, we expect to break ground for the new Village Apartments,” Jones said. “When completed in fall 2020, the first building will feature 126 beds within four-bed, six-bed, and eight-bed units that include kitchens, two full bathrooms, large living rooms with lots of natural light, and individual air-temperature controls.”

As the first apartment building are being built, workers will make a construction site on South Liberty Street. Walkways will be made for students to access Bashford Hall, Thompson Hall and Frat Hill.

Paul E. Kostyu, Recipient of the Adam Poe Medal

Dr. Paul E. Kostyu is retiring at the close of the 2018-2019 academic year after serving on the Ohio Wesleyan faculty since 1990. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he learned to play the piano, trumpet, baritone horn, and trombone, though he was not particularly good at any of them.

Dr. Kostyu attended Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio, where he became involved in numerous campus organizations. As a runner, he set school records in the mile, three-mile and 3,000-meter steeplechase. In his sophomore year, he founded the college’s cross-country program. He graduated with the school’s top award for his contributions to Heidelberg life.

Dr. Kostyu later coached the cross country and track teams at Heidelberg and the cross-country program at Tiffin University. Hired in September 1973 by the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune, Dr. Kostyu honed his skills as a reporter, editor, and photographer. He covered President Gerald Ford’s Ohio campaign and the Great Blizzard of 1978. During this time, he earned a master’s degree in Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University.

In 1978 he joined the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, working as a reporter, bureau chief, copy editor, and page designer. During his tenure there, he received a Journalism Fellowship to study in Wales, where he studied Welsh culture and traveled extensively throughout Europe. After returning to the U.S., he led another bureau for the Greensboro paper until his return to Ohio in 1985. Dr. Kostyu earned a doctorate in Mass Communication at Bowling Green State. His dissertation about the federal Freedom of Information Act was cited in a 2015 book about the public’s right to know. His study of media ethics won the national Carol Burnett Award for Ethics.

In 1990, he joined the faculty at Ohio Wesleyan. At OWU, Dr. Kostyu advised The Transcript and taught media law, fundamentals of journalism, data journalism, senior seminar, journalism history, and editing & design. In 1999, he accepted a fellowship in the photography department at National Geographic Magazine. In 2000, he returned to journalism as a political reporter for Copley Newspapers, GateHouse Media, and Gannett Media, but continued to teach part-time at OWU.

During this time, he received a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize for his investigation of corruption in Ohio’s teacher pension system. He won numerous national and state awards for his investigations, use of public records, breaking news, and feature writing. His stories led to changes in Ohio law and a number of convictions. He covered two national GOP conventions and interviewed presidents and presidential candidates. He appeared on ABC, CBS, MSNBC, among others, and was profiled by ABC’s “Nightline” and Agence France for his expertise on Ohio politics.

Dr. Kostyu returned to OWU in 2013 as chair of the department. In 2017, he led the effort to add a major and minor in Communication. During his tenure at OWU, he co-authored two texts, Reporting for the Media and Communication and the Law, and contributed chapters to Trade, Industrial and Professional Periodicals of the United States, and Women’s Periodicals of the United States. His stories were published U.S. News & World Report and News Photographer magazine. Dr. Kostyu held a Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Affairs Journalism at The Ohio State University. He presented at numerous conferences and published in the Newspaper Research Journal, American Journalism, and Journalism of Mass Media Ethics. His photo coverage of the January 2017 shooting at the Fort Lauderdale Airport went worldwide.

Dr. Kostyu helped rewrite racial and sexual harassment policies for OWU; co-directed several Sagan National Colloquiums; gave the Vogel Lecture; and, in the words of a former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, “was a pain in the ass” for politicians, college administrators, and some faculty colleagues.

A staunch believer in and advocate for freedom of speech and the press, as well as student rights, Dr. Kostyu is most proud of the success his students have achieved in journalism and other careers. He plans to write stories, books, and plays, while making time for his other passions: Hemingway, old typewriters, woodworking, and golf. He and his spouse, Regina, are proud parents of Kurt and Eva.

Mary T. Howard, Recipient of the Adam Poe Medal

Mary was born in Columbus, Ohio. She graduated from St. Mary of the Springs Academy and later earned a B.A. in sociology from St. Mary of the Springs College, but not before studying nursing for two years at Georgetown University.

Mary married shortly after graduation and moved to Lansing, Michigan, where she worked as a psychiatric social worker for a year, and where she and her husband, Tom, started the first half-way house in Michigan for deinsititualized mentally ill men. Over a two-year period, they supported 36 men in finding work and housing in the community.

In 1970, Mary earned her master’s degree in anthropology from Michigan State University, after which she and her husband left to conduct research in East Africa. While in Tanzania from 1970 to 1975, Mary participated in a number of year-long research projects as a member of the public health program in the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, including a follow-up study of families whose children were malnourished. In Tanzania, she gave birth to her first son, Matthew. Her younger son, Christopher, was born in Kisumu, Kenya.

Upon her return to Michigan and after a divorce, Mary took a job as a live-in house manager and later case manager in a group home for 16 mentally disabled adults. She reentered graduate school in 1978 and received her doctorate in anthropology in 1980. Her dissertation, “Kwashiorkor on Kilimanjaro: The Social Management of Childhood Malnutrition,” later became her 1997 Routledge publication, Hunger and Shame: Poverty and Child Malnutrition on Mt Kilimanjaro.

In 1985, after spending a year in Bolivia with her sons and her anthropologist brother, Mary returned to Ohio and began teaching at Ohio Wesleyan. She was hired into a joint position, directing Women’s Studies while also being half-time in Sociology and Anthropology. As director of Women’s Studies, she oversaw the first campus climate survey for women students, which contributed to the development of OWU’s sexual harassment policy.

In 1989, Mary became a full-time faculty member of the SOAN department, where she taught a wide range of courses including cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, demography, Perspectives on Africa, self and society, feminist theory, Queer Lives in World Cultures, Amish and Appalachian Peoples and Cultures, applied sociology and anthropology, and ethnographic and documentary film and filmmaking.

Mary’s efforts have left their mark on Ohio Wesleyan and OWU students in numerous ways. In 1995, she began discussions with Butler A. Jones to develop a speaker’s series to honor him as OWU’s first African American faculty member. For most of its 26 years, Mary oversaw the Butler A. Jones Lecture Series on Race and Society, identifying and/or inviting speakers and getting co-sponsors from around campus. Her documentary filmmaking course, co-taught with Chuck Della Lana, director of the Media Center, has led to over 75 student documentary films and 15 student film festivals. Mary initiated a program to teach the Sociology and Anthropology capstone course at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, integrating OWU students and inmates into the weekly class. She co-taught this course with John Durst for three years.

Long before the advent of travel-learning courses, Mary exposed students to other peoples and cultures. From 1987 to 1992, she accompanied students on trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Over the years, Mary has accompanied OWU students on trips to Mexico, China, Tanzania, Kenya, India, Bolivia, Peru, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

In addition to her publications in East Africa, she has published in The American Anthropologist, Social Science and Medicine, Adult Residential Care Journal, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly. She also has created and produced three documentary films on poverty and homelessness in Columbus Ohio – Cloud People, Outreach, and Swept Out – and several promotional films for The Open Shelter.

For her teaching and activism at OWU, Mary has been awarded numerous well-deserved recognitions, including the Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for the Encouragement of Teachers, the Andrew Anderson Campus Community and Conscious Award, the first (2007) President’s Commission on Racial and Cultural Diversity Award, and the 2014 President’s Commission on Racial and Cultural Diversity Award.

Mary will retire to a home on 32 acres north of Granville and will spend time with her son, Matthew, and his family in New York and with her son, Christopher, and his family in Guatemala.

Lynette Carpenter, Recipient of the Adam Poe Medal

Dr. Lynette Carpenter – educator, novelist, scholar, activist, and animal lover – is retiring after serving on the Ohio Wesleyan faculty for 30 years.

A native Texan, Dr. Carpenter received her B.A. from the University of Texas and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University, where she also minored in Film Studies. Before coming to OWU, she taught in the English Department at the University of Cincinnati while serving as Associate and then Acting Director of Women’s Studies at the same institution.

A versatile teacher, Dr. Carpenter offered courses in expository and creative writing, 19th- and 20th-century American literature, women’s literature, the Gothic, and film. Her scholarly works include two books on women’s ghost stories (with Wendy Kolmar) as well as essays on American film, on authors such as Edith Wharton, Shirley Jackson, and Edna O’Brien, and a pathbreaking study that identifies the girl detective as a lineal descendent of the Gothic heroine. She also wrote for Ms., the highly influential feminist magazine, and published an art book with photographer (and OWU faculty member) Jeffrey Nilan, The Road Home / The Home Road.

In an appropriately Gothic twist, Dr. Carpenter adopted a second identity shortly after arriving at Ohio Wesleyan. Under the pen name D.B. Borton or Della Borton, Dr. Carpenter has published 11 mystery novels in two series: the Cat Caliban series and the Gilda Liberty series.

More recently, she expanded her literary repertoire by publishing a work of comic science fiction, Second Coming, as well as two new mysteries, Smoke and Bayou City Burning. While compulsively readable as whodunits, Dr. Carpenter’s novels are typically characterized by precisely rendered historical settings, resourceful heroines, and a puckish sense of humor.

Dr. Carpenter’s pedagogical, scholarly, and literary accomplishments have not prevented her from being a dedicated colleague, a generous mentor for students and junior faculty, and an engaged citizen within the University committee.

Dr. Carpenter has served as the Chair of the English department, the Secretary of the campus chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, and the Faculty Advisor of the OWL literary magazine.

As the head of the Film Studies Program, she was the driving force behind the creation of Ohio Wesleyan’s Film Studies major. Dr. Carpenter also has served on numerous faculty committees, perhaps most memorably as a long-serving member of the labor-intensive Faculty Personnel Committee.

Somehow, she also found time to study and practice aikido, gardening, pottery, third, fourth, and fifth languages, and Healing Touch for animals.

While Dr. Carpenter’s accomplishments are substantial and her retirement richly deserved, her colleagues in the English Department and friends across the University secretly hope that her career has one more Gothic twist in store.

She is welcome to take up secret residence in the attic of Sturges Hall, to haunt the backstairs and basement passageways, and even to disrupt class meetings with eerie noises or mysterious lights. Whether Dr. Carpenter accepts this invitation is finally immaterial: either way, her presence on campus will be felt for decades to come.