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French film shows viewers the ups and downs of growing old

By Maddie Matos, A&E Editor

As people grow older, new challenges are presented that are hard to overcome with age.

Ohio Wesleyan University’s Tournées French Film Festival presented a film that brings the issues of age to the forefront.

The film, Things to Come, was directed by Mia Hansen-Løve tells the story of a professor, Nathalie Chazeaux, reaching her late middle ages. As she is teaching her younger students, she is overcoming the struggles she finds associated with growing older.

The Tournées festival theme is strong female leads this year. The theme allows women directors or stars to be showcased in a field that is often dominated by men. The festival theme also fits in with the lessons that French students are learning.

“My seminar is structured around various rebellious figures in French culture and literature, including rebellious women authors and characters, and the festival theme is ‘Strong Female Lead’ in recognition of the complex female characters of the selected features, as well as their female directors and script writer,” professor Ana Oancea said.

The department of modern foreign languages has hosted the festival for four years. Ohio Wesleyan shows six films, five being recent films and a classic film. The goal of the festival is to present French films to American students on college campuses and let students experience a new style of filming.

“In my experience, French films have fewer aggressively commercial elements than American films.” senior Katherine Romeo said. “More often the film seems more focused on communicating a story than say the audience leaving feeling as though they understood everything and had a good time,”

Students in the school’s French club and Oancea come together to bring the festival on campus. Oancea writes and submits a grant to the Tournées board to host and have the rights to the films.

“The grant through which the festival is made possible is nationally-competitive, so it’s a great honor to be selected,” Oancea said.

The film’s protagonist also brought the question of a liberal arts education and its importance to the film. As a professor at a university, Chazeaux teaches her students the importance of education across all mediums and reminds herself of these lessons as she matures. The films message of education was a drawing point to the people who chose it.

“This film, ‘L’avenir’ or ‘Things to Come’ in English was chosen because it deals with a very modern concern — the lesser perceived importance of the humanities,” Oancea said.

Students and staff alike enjoyed the film, and the message it gave to viewers, and showed that people across the world are all connected.

“One of the most accessible ways to access another person’s story is by consuming film.” Romeo said. “By showcasing French films, we can see more clearly the way we are distant but also the ways we are alike,”

Unique performance and songs given by a unique group on OWU campus

By Maddie Matos, A&E Editor

Performing unique pieces that appeal to everyone can be difficult, but Ohio Wesleyan University’s Choral Arts Society and Chamber Choir spring concert met the challenge.

The performance was held on Tuesday, with 100 people in attendance. Students and performers filled Gray Chapel, as the choirs performed twelve songs.

Each song was picked by director Jason Hiester, an associate professor of music. Each song is a favorite of Hiester, and each had a unique sound that stood out from each other.

“There’s no real theme to our program, if there was I guess it’d be music Dr. Hiester likes,” Hiester said.

The show began with the Choral Arts Society. The society opened the show with two songs. The spiritual tone of the songs allowed members to surround the audience as they entered the chapel and ring bells to the beat of the song.

“The bells at the beginning where they walked around behind all of us was incredible, and the chords they were singing as they moved to the stage,” attendee Alex McPherson said.

The next set of songs the society performed were more upbeat, but still gave the audience the feeling of being in a church. Throughout the performances, different members had solos including an Oboe solo by student Kathryn Lawson.

Audience members were responsive to the songs and seemingly enjoyed the beauty of the show.

“I hope the audience enjoyed our performance and got something out of it,” performer Hannah Carpenter said.

The second part of the show featured four songs performed by OWU’s Chamber Choir. The choir is smaller and more exclusive than the Choral Arts Society and performs harder songs.

The first song had a tambourine and drum component and featured solos by Hannah Carpenter and Eli Reed.

The second song was a folk song and the audience experienced “love in a small village.”

As the show progressed, the choir sang two contemporary songs. They both were well received by audiences, with applause afterwards.

The end of the show featured the Choral Arts Society again, as their last two songs closed the show.

The first song featured a soprano saxophone solo by professor Nancy Gamso and was a more jazz driven style. The final song left the audience amused, as the performers sang “The poet is a banana” the whole song.

“Our final song was definitely an interesting one and I think the audience really enjoyed it,” Carpenter said.

As the show ended, audience members gave a standing ovation the choir, applauding the hard work put into the show.

“I hope our pieces touched people in a positive way and brought them some happiness because that’s what music is supposed to do,” Carpenter said.

Too many powers, too much to handle

By Kienan O’Doherty, Editor-In-Chief

A world without design. A world on auto-pilot.
That was the bottom line of Randall Schweller’s presentation on Friday, March 9, as part of the
Great Decisions 2018 community discussion series on U.S. foreign policy.

Schweller , a professor of political science and a social and behavioral science at Ohio State
University, is the author of many books. He also has published many articles in leading journals,
including World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and International Security.

Schweller was scheduled to talk about “The Waning of Pax Americana,” but first he clarified
what that term means.

“Another way of thinking about it is the liberal international order,” Schweller said. “The term
does get thrown around a lot, and it really means more international stability [than peace],
because there hasn’t been too much peace in the world.”

Schweller said a world record has been set for the longest period without a great-power war, and
that “Pax-Americana is peaceful if you’re just looking at the great powers.”

According to Schweller, a world populated by dozens of power centers will prove extremely
difficult to navigate and control.

“Herding a few cats is no simple task; herding dozens of them is an impossible one,” he said.

One of the challenges the world faces is the evolution of transmitting information. Schweller said
he believes people are facing entropy as well.

“Entropy is not only on the rise in the international system,” Schweller said. “Individuals, too,
are experiencing greater personal entropy, as they discover they are incapable of handling the
speed at which digital information is transmitted. Information rains down faster and thicker by
the day.”

Attendees had many questions, and some had their concerns.

“I like how clear he was with us in the beginning, saying he was a Republican,” attendee Jo
Eastham said. “I did think he was a little disorganized, and that his three main points should’ve
been handed out to us.”

Others agreed with Schweller.

“There’s an outburst of small groups in the world that are doing significant activities on a local
level,” attendee Ed Hoar said. “And altogether, they constitute a major force in changing the
world. So, he could be right in that sense.”

Great Decisions 2018 is Delaware’s free community discussion series about current U.S. foreign
policy. It runs every Friday at noon through March 23 at the William Street United Methodist
Church, 28 W. William St.

Kienan O’Doherty is a journalism major at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Student-elected professors give lectures to honor students

By Reilly Wright, Managing Editor

Within Gillespie Honors House’s first year of existence, it has welcomed both residents and
lectures for Ohio Wesleyan honors students.

The inaugural Honors House Lecture Series began in early March inviting OWU honors students
to attend lectures by student-selected professors and an easy way to see the new structure.

The most recent lecture, the second of the series, took place Wednesday, March 21 with Dr.
Lynette Carpenter, professor of english, discussing “Hollywood Doesn’t Go To War: How The
Wizard of Oz tried to keep Americans home during WWII.”

Filled with snacks, questions and “The Munchkin Land Song,” students actively listened as
Carpenter explained a different interpretation of the “The Wizard of Oz” and how the political
climate influenced the film.

Comparing the protagonist, Dorothy, to the U.S., who is unwillingly thrown into a conflict and
innocently liberates people, Carpenter argues the film’s intent to keep Americans home.

“Dorothy has landed herself in the middle of a political struggle: a fight between the witches in
the East and the West,” Carpenter said.

With the main producers of the film favoring U.S. isolationism as well as the characters praising
courage only when it is wise, Carpenter painted the blockbuster in a new political light.

“I think the lecture series is a nice opportunity for students to interact with faculty around
intellectual content in an informal setting,” Carpenter said. “They were a fun audience, very
engaged.”

OWU junior Cindy Huynh, moderator of the Gillespie Honors House, says the series came to be
when residents pointed out the opportunity for honors students to learn about subjects outside of
their majors.

“Sometimes we are often focused on the classes that we are trying to finish for our majors, but
being an honors student is about expanding our knowledge in more than one way, which is why I
believe that this lecture series is beneficial to all honors students,” Huynh said.

Sydney Douglass, a sophomore resident in the Honors House, said “I think the series is really
interesting and a great way for students to learn about things that they may never take classes
about.”

The first lecture of the series hosted Dr. Jennifer Jolley, assistant professor of music, as she
examined the relationship between politics and music.

“[Jolley] spoke about her journey of becoming a composer and how she uses her music to make
political statements,” Huynh said. “It was really inspiring to hear about; especially in today's
political climate.”

Dr. Danielle Hamill, professor of zoology, is speaking next at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 2.
Later, Dr. Shala Hankison, associate professor of zoology, will lecture at a predetermined time.

“I would definitely like to see this series grow in the future to reach more honors students and
professors,” Huynh said.

Electric car batteries create challenge for first responders

By Kienan O’Doherty, Editor-In-Chief

In a world where technology is evolving at a rapid pace, emergency response should as well.

I agree, it is a very odd combination when you first look at it. But when you see an electric car’s debris all
over the highway, you may want to see the logic behind the combination.

Last Friday, a fiery crash occurred between a Tesla Model X and a freeway divider on U.S. Highway 101
in California, leaving the roadster engulfed in flames after being struck by two other cars afterward. The
crash shut down a carpool ramp and two lanes for almost 6 hours, almost twice as long as normal
accident of this type. One of the major problems was the car battery being exposed.

Mountain View’s (CA) Fire Department typically puts out a car fire in minutes. But according to an article
on abc7news.com by Jonathan Bloom, Chief Juan Diaz said this is the first time the department has had
to deal with a Tesla battery that was split open and on fire.

Fire crews arrived at the scene of the accident around 9:30 a.m. Chief Diaz said the last engine company
went back into service around 4:30 p.m. In a gasoline car fire, he said, all companies would’ve likely
been back in service within minutes.

According to the article, Tesla’s no stranger to the Mountain View Fire Department. They’ve conducted
trainings with firefighters, including some at their factory in Fremont (CA), on how to handle Tesla
batteries when they’re damaged in an accident, and how to disconnect batteries from each Tesla model.

So, why did it take so much longer?

Well first, first responders looked over many options. They considered dousing the battery with the
recommended 3,000 gallons of water, but that would’ve required stopping all traffic to run a hose
across the freeway. Another option would’ve been to let the fire burn itself out — but firefighters also
decided against that. So instead, they called on Tesla engineers to come over and help remove the
battery completely.

Being that these first responders had training to deal with this, I believe that it wouldn’t hurt for all first
responders to have more training on this issue, as this is coming to be the age of the electric car. They
need to be more prepared, as the next electric car to catch on fire could even be more catastrophic.

President Trump and his contributions to the winning of The Shape of Water

By Tung Nguyen, Online Editor

In the year of 2018, the world has seen a “fairy tale” winning an Oscar for the Best Picture, one of the most prestigious award that a director could achieve. The Shape of Water had overcome its outstanding competitors to be one of a very few fantasy film, if not the only one, to win the Academy Award, thank to president Trump.

President Trump has been a center of many comedic criticisms coming from the Hollywood’s world, if we can recall the opening monologue of Jimmy Kimmel in the last Oscar event. In this year, more than just gently mocking the president through monologue, many films, which subtly ridicule the presidency and the United States’ society after the election, were chosen to compete for the Best Picture such as Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water.

Throughout the many years of the Oscars, I have to admit that the political factors are becoming more and more important and, probably, surpassing the pure cinematic factors. To be clearer, briefly analyzing The Shape of Water is essential.

The United States’ society during the 1960s is a picture with many contradictory colors. The blue color represents the hope of a better future with massive technological and economical progressions.
The yellow color brings up the remnants of racism toward many people of minorities and red provokes the potential threats coming from the intense rivalry against the Soviet Union. With Elisa Espotito, her life is surrounded by the grey color.

Living in a dreary apartment above an old movie theater in Baltimore and working as a regular janitor in a secret government laboratory during the Cold War, Elisa only has one silver lining that lights up her life as a muted woman: her friendship with Giles, a homosexual painter, and Zelda Fuller, her colored co-
worker. Each of them represent a minority that has been suppressed in centuries by the United States’
society.

However, the color of love found Elisa when she meets “the Asset,” an amphibian-humanoid creature
founded near a South American river. In “the Asset”, Elisa sees a silent friend who shares the passion of music, of dancing and some boiled eggs with her. More than that, they are both lonely and crushed by something bigger. If “the Asset” is physically and continuously damaged by Colonel Richard Strickland, a
representative of a “higher power,” then Elisa is emotionally damaged by her co-workers’ daily complaints, who are the representatives of the United States’ society, because of her disability.

In my opinion, this particular picture is reminiscent of what is going on in the United States’ political arena nowadays under Trump’s presidency: the government stepping on the minorities to reach its own purposes. The images of President Trump constantly mocking a woman of disability as well as disdaining a journalist because of her “regular job” did enrage the public a year ago. Even though The Shape of Water had a big chance of becoming a “so-so” movie like some other movies from Guillermo Del Toro
such as Hellboy, these images from the president somehow pulled its own trigger and pushed The Shape of Water to a massive success.

The depiction of the current presidency cannot be perfect without the last suppressed group, which has been focused mostly on by the president himself: the Mexican immigrants. With his Oscar’s
acceptance speech emphasized on his own Mexican origin, let us guess who put the last puzzle piece in the panorama that subtly implies the “political incorrectness” of President Trump? The Academy Award winner: Director Guillermo Del Toro.

Ohio Wesleyan professor returns with history

By Jesse Sailer, Sport Editor

One of Ohio Wesleyans hidden gems, Robert Olmstead, was welcomed back after a semester’s leave on a book tour to do a live reading of his newest novel Savage Country.

The live reading in the Benes Room was the kickoff event of the spring semester orchestrated by faculty of the English department. He was introduced by English department chair Zach Long and OWU literary magazine member Laura Heaney.

Before holding the current position of director of creative writing at OWU, Olmstead served as senior writing in residence at Dickinson College and as director of creative writing at Boise State.

Olmstead is the author of nine published works including Coal Black Horse, Far Bright Star, and The Coldest Night.

While most of his books are works of fiction, Stay Here With Me is his sole autobiography and takes a look back on his early life living on his grandfather’s New Hampshire dairy farm.

Savage Country follows the lives of Elizabeth and her brother in law Michael in Kansas of 1873. Elizabeth is forced to deal with her husband’s accumulation of debt after his passing and embarks on a buffalo hunt that could be her last chance to save what she has left.

KIRKUS’ review remarks Savage Country as “Another gorgeous, brutal masterpiece from a great American writer.”

“Two things compel me, one has to do with my own curiosity, wanting to know and the other is the child in me is always up for a great adventure,” Olmstead said in response to what inspired him to write this novel.

“He has such a way with words and the images he’s able to paint in your mind are absolutely breathtaking,” junior Mona Lynch said.

When it comes to his research process into the content of his next book, he likes to look at late nineteenth century yellow backs. Yellow backs were cheap novels with yellow cloth binding that included “sensational fiction” and adventure stories.

Olmstead has always been intrigued to see what captures the reader’s attention in those books and he tries to bring that into his work as much as he can.

Writing historically accurate fiction novels and westerns has also opened his eyes to many of the truths of American history. A large part of Savage Country focuses on wild buffalo and the hunt of wild buffalo.

Olmstead spent some time educating the audience on the reason behind the massive extinction of buffalo during the 1980’s and it was because the industrial revolution and the demand for buffalo hide.

“There is such amnesia about that, we’re made to think they disappeared due to gluttony and sinfulness but it couldn’t be further from the truth,” Olmstead said.

Faculty: 1, The Transcript: 0

Matt Cohen, Editor-in-Chief

Areena Arora, Managing Editor

After more than 35 years, faculty meetings will no longer be open to reporters.

On April 18, Ohio Wesleyan faculty members voted to disallow The Transcript, the school’s independent student newspaper, from attending future faculty meetings.

Bob Gitter, professor of economics and a member of the faculty’s Executive Committee, presented the motion. Faculty asked the Executive Committee to reconsider the issue of banning The Transcript’s attendance, according to the faculty meeting agenda.

Gitter read the agenda and said, “Faculty meetings will not be open to reporters and a new mechanism in the form of a faculty meeting summary will be made available to the public within 24 hours after the end of the faculty meeting.”

Gitter then called for executive session, which was supported.

The vote was 47-21 in favor of the motion.

“It has a chilling effect on what people are willing to say if they feel the comments are going to be published in the newspaper,” he said.

The length of the meetings was also one of Gitter’s concerns.

“The fact is, too often, going into executive session, the meetings are lasting much too long,” Gitter said. “Here it is 7:30 p.m. I had to stay and count balance, but the meeting didn’t get over until just a few minutes ago.”

“There’s a number of reasons, but not everybody that supports a motion supports it for the same reasons.”

Paul Kostyu, chair of the journalism department and associate professor of journalism at OWU, opposed the motion.

“I had a lot more questions and I wasn’t allowed to ask them,” Kostyu said. “I would not call it a debate. It was a series of questions and statements from various faculty.”

Thomas Wolber, chair of the Executive Committee and associate professor of modern foreign language, said he agreed with Kostyu.

“Kostyu was the first one to stand up and ask a number of questions. which were not satisfactorily answered,” Wolber said.

He also said there was inadequate discussion during the meeting.

“I was not given a chance to speak and to voice my opinion,” Wolber said. “The discussion was truncated and that I found unfortunate.”

Kostyu also said he believes OWU is being ironic.

“Nationally, there is more of effort in higher education to be more transparent. It’s ironic we’re going the other direction.”

“We are restricting freedom,” Kostyu said. “It’s ironic and hypocritical that our speaker for commencement is Greg Moore, who opposed this policy. But yet, we’re inviting him, who may have actually covered these meetings as a student.”

Moore is the former editor of The Denver Post and a 1976 graduate of OWU. He will speak at commencement this year on May 8.

Previously, The Transcript was denied access to a faculty meeting on Nov. 16, 2015.