Tag: Merrick

Time has come to pursue the dream

By Katie Cantrell

Transcript Correspondent

kmcantre@owu.edu

With our nation torn by divisiveness, college students today, more than ever, must embrace courage and be driven by a “fierce urgency” to stand up and speak out for equality for all Americans

That message was the central theme of keynote speaker Korie L. Edwards, an associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University, at Ohio Wesleyan’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on Monday.

The Pursuing the Dream event was the beginning of a plan to celebrate MLK’s legacy annually, with multicultural students leading the way, said Juan Armando Rojas Joo, OWU’s associate dean for diversity and inclusion. He welcomed students to the observance, which ran from noon to 1 p.m. on the third floor of Merrick Hall.

The celebration kicked off with a performance by OWU’s Gospel Lyres, singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Edwards began her speech with one of the most repeated lines of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he gave on Aug. 28, 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. before a massive group of civil rights marchers.

“I have a dream that little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” King had said.

While Edwards repeated many of King’s quotes, the perplexities in the joining hands line have become the essence of the entire speech, Edwards said.

“Somehow, I have a dream has morphed into simply a call for diversity,” Edwards said.

King began to follow that stirring at age 26, when he became a leader of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955, Edwards said, in conclusion.

“Perhaps today you have a fierce urgency stirring in you that the moment is now,” she said. “My hope is you won’t allow that fire to die, but that you will seize your moment, your fierce urgency in now to speak, to stand, to fight for love and truth.”

OWU junior Aliyah Owens introduced the speaker.

“She speaks in a way that is understandable to everyone, but she presents these complex ideas that you learn so much from in such a way that doesn’t feel overloading and doesn’t feel unreachable,” Owens said.

OWU Juniors Hope Lopez and Mukami Wamalwa along with sophomore Anna duSaire also said they enjoyed Edwards’ speech.

“I thought it was really informative and it explained a lot of things step-by-step, or it like unfolded a lot things that I didn’t really think about critically (before),” Lopez said.

Wamalwa said Edwards explained many concepts well.

“Like especially when it came down to white supremacy and white hegemony and like kind of breaking those down and understanding how one can lead to the other and how they kind of contribute to each other,” Wamalwa said.

The speech helped duSaire put things in context.

“I thought it was really thought provoking,” she said. “It really made me think about things I see on campus and things I’ve experienced in my life and how that relates to our history and how these patterns are still continuing, so I thought it was really good.”

Rojas Joo said his favorite quote was ‘I have a dream.’

“Why? Because I do have a dream. I do have the dream that we can become very inclusive at Ohio Wesleyan,” he said.

OWU’s MLK committee scheduled Edwards a year in advance to secure her as a guest speaker, Rojas Joo said.

Students will be even more involved in planning activities and speakers for future MLK celebrations at OWU.

“We want to integrate some of the Ohio Wesleyan students into the MLK committee,” Rojas Joo said.

Repairs and renovations around campus

By Sara Hollabaugh, Online Editor
Recently renovated and constructed buildings on campus have already received repairs this semester.

Before the repairs, steps outside of Merrick Hall were cracked and part of the Sexuality and Gender Equality (SAGE) house had a water leak in the ceiling of the newly constructed Dittrick House.

According to Thomas Wolber, associate professor of modern foreign lan- guages, it was announced in the faculty meeting on Oct. 21 that the university needs $15 million worth of repairs made to the campus.

Wolber said Ohio Wesleyan currently has $300,000 allocated for repairs to be made this year.

Merrick Hall’s renovations were nearly finished before the graduation ceremony in 2015, but was officially rededicated and opened Aug. 20, 2015.

A little over a year after the rededication, the steps cracked.

According to Peter Schantz, director of physical plant planning and operations, the contractor used a non-water-proof sealant during the construction of the stairs.

“Around the handrail posts where the posts are cored into the concrete … the sealant took on water and froze over the last winter, cracking the corners of the steps,” Schantz said.

Schantz said the contractor made the necessary repairs under warranty.

SAGE was completed before students moved back to school in August, and was dedicated Oct. 6.

Since students have lived in SAGE this semester, a shower drain leaked on the upper level, resulting in a ceiling stain.

Schantz said the contractor repaired the leak under warranty, but the ceiling stain has not been repaired.

Senior Natalie French, SAGE resident, said Buildings and Grounds told SAGE they would paint the ceiling when they were positive the leak was fixed.

Schantz said the leak was fixed over two months ago.

“We haven’t heard anything since then,” French said.

Schantz said, “We plan to repaint the kitchen ceiling over Thanksgiving break when it’s more convenient for students.”

In addition to the leak in SAGE, Inter- Faith House’s (IF) residents said outlets were not working in their part of the Dittrick House when they first moved in.

Schantz said they’ve received three work orders since students moved into the house in August and believes each issue was taken care of.

“Two of the work orders were for outlets in the upstairs bathroom, where the ground fault circuit interrupter breaker tripped,” Schantz said. “This is not uncommon in damp environments. The contractor showed a resident how to reset this breaker at the outlet when it tripped.”

Schantz said the breaker is likely to trip again, but the outlets themselves do not have any issues.

Aside from new construction repairs, there was a steam leak on the academic side of campus that affected Sturges Hall, Elliott Hall, Slocum Hall and University Hall.

On Oct. 24, Cole Hatcher, director of media and community relations, sent out a school-wide email about the issue.

The next day, Oct. 25, Hatcher, on behalf of Schantz, followed up with the campus community.

“While working to fix the steam line issue affecting Sturges Hall, we discov- ered a condensate leak involving the main line as well,” Schantz said in the email. “To enable us to make repairs, we will not be able to heat these build- ings overnight: Beeghly, Corns, Elliott, Slocum, Sturges and University.”

Schantz continued to send out updates and assured the OWU community that repairs were being made overnight.

By Oct. 28, Schantz said the repairs were complete and warned the commu- nity about potential temperature fluctua- tions in buildings surrounding the former leak.

“We know it is older and could de- velop issues again,” Schantz said. “We are reviewing options for replacing the line or installing stand-alone boilers in each of these buildings.”

“We are gathering invoices from the repair crews that worked on the steam line,” Schantz said. “The university is reviewing options for funding steam line replacement or boiler installations.”

As of now, Schantz said warranty is covering the repairs.