Volume 120 Issue 13 Friday, December 11, 2015
News
The John & Annie Glenn Historic Site and The Natioal Road-Zane Grey Museum are holiday ready.
Arts & Entertainment
Student Senate, Board of Trustees turn page on yearbook Lindsey Kreamer Arts & Entertainment Editor Muskingum University will no longer publish a yearbook after Student Senate and The Board of Trustees voted to eliminate funding for The Muscoljuan. At the beginning of the Fall 2015 semester, organizations on campus that receive their funding through the student activity fee, money students pay toward activities on campus, were subject to budget reviews through Student Senate. The proposal was next passed by The Board of Trustees. The reviews resulted in the funding of the Muskingum University yearbook, The Muscoljuan, being eliminated, along with
several other organizations seeing decreases or increases to their semesterly budgets. There was also a proposed increase in the student activity fee from $118 to $130 per semester that was voted on by Student Senate and passed along with the other proposed changes to these organizations’ budgets, but The Board of Trustees has not voted on the activity fee increase yet, according to Executive Board Secretary of Student Senate, Claire Ardrey. The yearbook was started by a group of Muskingum juniors in the early 20th Century. The Muscoljuan Faculty Advisor, Meghan Wynne, said that the yearbook has been continously published since 1907.
The conversation about the funding and defunding of this organization started a couple years ago when students in Student Senate expressed a desire to see funding go to organizations and events that they believed would get more students involved on campus. At the beginning of this year The Muscoljuan, The Black & Magenta, Brewed Awakenings, and Student Senate, in particular, were brought up at a Student Senate meeting on Sept. 29 by Vice President for Student Affairs, Janet Heeter-Bass, because of the nature of how they receive funding. “The yearbook was costing a lot of money,” said Taylor Little, Executive Board President of Student Senate. “Things are changing
and from what we heard students would like to see their money spent in different ways that are maybe more responsible and could be shifted to programming and other activities that have a little bit more of a demand [from students] on our campus.” Little said that a lot of factors went into the decision to eliminate the funding of the yearbook. “Our goal was not to kill the yearbook but it was a large expenditure,” said Little. “$40,000 [per year], and that was in the hands of five students, and there were a lot of complaints about the quality of the yearbook. It was a big job to do for a small group.” See YEARBOOK, On Page 3
Muskingum students make Christmas possible for families in need
Martin Kurtz Orbit Media Reporter Muskingum Univeristy students, faculty, staff, and organizations gave to families and children The Muscoljuan, Muskingum in the area that are in need of extra University’s yearbook, will no longer help this season. Muskingum finished their 26th year of hosting be published after this spring. Christmas on Campus earlier this week on Dec. 7. Christmas on Campus stemmed from a previous Student Life Office gift exchange. Penny Selock, Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Organizer of Christmas on Campus, thought it would be a good idea to combine the spreading of holiday cheer along with helping out the community. “The dean at the time said ‘You know what? Let’s buy something for area people,’” said Selock, Muskie Mens Basketball “‘How can we help out in the continues to improve with a 3-5 community?’” Selock organizes and coordistart to the 2015 season.
SPORTS
Chelsea McCrae/ Black & Magenta Organizations participating in the Christmas on Campus progam deliver gifts to the Top of the Center in time for the holidays. nates the event as a whole. Once she recieves the number of families and children in need, she then divides them between the “Santas” on campus. A “Santa” could be a whole organization, a pair of roommates, or even one person. She deter-
mines which organization gets assigned to each family depending on the number of people in each organzation or group. Each “Santa” received an anonymous list that included the age and gender of the child they recieved in November.
“Santas” can give toys, money, blankets, and coats to help the families during the holiday season. “Toys are the fun thing, but if they don’t have socks and shoes, some of the conditions they live in are deplorable,” said Selock. In the last 26 years, Christmas on Campus has helped over 1,200 children. In total this year, there were 36 children from 18 families that were helped by the 28 different “Santas” on campus. Selock said that the Muskingum community, in events like this, doesn’t give itself enough credit. “We are so generous,” said Selock. “We are such a loving family, and when we all come together to do projects like this, it just warms your heart. It makes you feel good about what you’re doing going into the season.” The presents were collected Nov. 30 through Dec. 4 by the “Santas.” They were delivered to the agencies on Tuesday, Dec. 8.
Local museums decorate for an old-fashioned holiday season
Brenna Busby Editor-in-Chief
The Christmas spirit has arrived at The John & Annie Glenn Historic Site and the National Road-Zane Grey Museum as they are decorated for the holidays. The inside of the Historic Site is decorated in an “old fashioned Christmas” feel. John Glenn’s own childhood old fashioned train runs around the Christmas tree adorned inside the living room of his boyhood home. According to the Director of Brenna Busby/ Black & Magenta Lindsey Grafe/ Black & Magenta Operations at the John & Annie The National Road-Zane Grey Museum is filled with holiday trees. Glenn Historic Site, Debbie Allen- Rudolph stops outside of the John & Annie Glenn Historic Site. der, the decorations don’t usually The Zanesville-Muskingum holidays this year. The John & Rudolph was originally written The staff at the John & Annie change on the inside of the house County Chamber of Commerce Annie Glenn Historic Site chose in the 1940s channeling the oldGlenn Historic Site has been decfrom year to year. has asked area businesses to recRudolph The Red Nosed Reinfashioned Christmas theme to the orating for the Christmas season “That’s what makes it special,” reate a storybook theme for the deer for the outside of the house. outside of the house. for 14 years. said Allender.
Student-athletes give back to Muskingum community
Katie Meddings/ Kayla Rausch Orbit Media Reporters The Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) is an organization dedicated to strengthening the bond between student-driven activities and athletics at Muskingum University. According to it’s OrgSybc portal, its mission is to enhance the total student-athlete experience by “promoting opportunity for all Brenna Busby/ Black & Magenta student-athletes, protecting studentMuskingum University’s Chinese Club helped decorate and place the athlete well-being, and fostering a positive student-athlete image.” Christmas trees for the National Road-Zane Grey Museum. They also attempt to mainEditorial Staff Follow Orbit Media tain the Division III philosophy Editor-in-Chief Brenna Busby News Twitter @Orbit907News according to the organization’s Assignment Editor Christine Holmes Sports Twitter @Orbit907Sports OrgSync portal. A&E Editor Lindsey Kreamer Music Twitter @Orbit907Music “We’re the voice of athletics, Sports Editor Chris Morgan Facebook Facebook.com/Orbit907News Copy Editors Kayla Rausch SoundCloud SoundCloud.com/Orbit907 like the student council for ath Rachel Schlarb YouTube OrbitMediaTV letes,” said senior indoor track Circulation Manager Aaron Eno Instagram @Orbit907 and field athlete and President of Faculty Advisor Lisa Marshall Periscope @Orbit907News SAAC, Alison Gillilan. Orbit Media Newsroom (740) 826-8379 Website OrbitMediaOnline.com
To show their appreciation forMuskingum’s athletes, SAAC will be hosting an awards ceremony in the spring of 2016. There will be several awards such as the “Spark Plug” award, which will be presented to an athlete that has shown good sportsmanship to their teammates in the 2015-2016 season. SAAC isn’t just about the athletes, but also the idea of helping out a variety of groups. “They told us when I got the position [of president], to show appreciation to the athletes, and try to give back to the community and try to be a well-rounded group,” said Gillilan. Members of SAAC have been volunteering at the local elementary school to connect with people in the local area. “Just reading to [the kids] is kind of awesome, because they
want to talk to you about your sport, but at the same time you’re there to tutor them, but they love it,” said Gillilan. The group is also a visibile entity on campus. These athletes could be found throughout the semester on Mondays passing out popcorn from 12-1 p.m. for “Muskie Mondays” in The Recreation Center Atrium. Currently SAAC is working with Muskingum students by creating a growing student section at various sporting events. “Filling up the bleachers is something we’ve wanted to do, just trying to get the students to come support the Muskies [each game],” said Gillilan. The Muskingum University Student Athletic Advisory Committee meets with other OAC SAAC groups to vote on legislation and share ideas from their campus.
Muskingum University Theatre brings Ah,Wilderness to campus Derek Strouse Orbit Media News Reporter
An adaptation of the popular American Playwriter Eugene O’Neil’s comedy, Ah, Wilderness, is coming to the Sandra Wolfe Thompson Theatre at Muskingum University. Ah, Wilderness premiered first on Broadway in the Guild Theatre on Oct. 2, 1933. “It is still one of the most beautifully written American plays
about the American family that exists even to this day,” said Jimmy Bohr, Instructor of Theatre at Muskingum University. Bohr, who will direct the play, chose Ah, Wilderness for its distinguishing quality among other Eugene O’Neil plays. “He is considered the Shakespeare of America, and is a prolific and profound playwright,” said Bohr. “He’s written hundreds of plays, and Ah, Wilderness is his only comedy.”
The play is being produced to broaden students’ horizons in the academic setting here at Muskingum University. “He’s one of our best, premiere playwrights, and I’m sure being able to do a play like Ah, Wilderness is truly doing the kids a good service,” said Bohr. “And, they’re terrific roles, that I’m sure any actor would be willing to play.” The cast is made up of eight male parts and six female character parts.
YEARBOOK Continued from page 1 Other students saw the amount of yearbooks being left around campus as being a waste to the student activity fee. “Some of the people had seen boxes of yearbooks from the past years and saw that not everyone was taking them and so they thought, ‘Nobody wants them,’ which wasn’t really the case,” said Summer Setliff, Editor-in-Chief of The Muscoljuan. “We just over purchased them [in the past].” Over the past couple of years the yearbook has been cutting down on the amount of yearbooks produced as they saw this problem with overproduction arise. Last year the yearbook only had 2-3 boxes (with 15 per box) of untaken yearbooks, equaling out to about 30-45 yearbooks. The yearbook coming out this spring will only be printing 600 copies, 300 of which are going to seniors who graduated last May. On Oct. 6, Student Senate held a meeting regarding the funding of this organization and others funded by the student activity fee. The changes were voted on as a whole, and includes an in-
Chris Morgan/ Black & Magenta The Muscoljuan, the Muskingum University yearbook, will no longer be funded through the Student Activity Fee. crease from 33% to 43% for the Muskingum Programming Board, and The Black & Magenta’s budget is going from 11% to 7%. The Senate Weekly Activity (Brewed Awakenings) budget rises from 7% to 15%, and the Student Senate main account from 6% to 7%. The increase proposed also includes a $12 increase in the student activity fee, which would be seperated into four uses if approved by The Board of Trustees.
If approved, the Big Concert Fund would recieve a $5 increase, $3 would go toward the Residence Halls and First Year class funds rates, and $1 to the intramural funds rate. The remaining $3 would go to the Post-Capitance Pool Percentage Mandated Transactions, which are the organizations that are funded through Student Senate. Senate had representatives vote individually with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ with the total coming to 23 yes votes, 9 nos, and 4 abstaining.
Bohr is looking forward to helping the actors in Ah, Wilderness work on developing their characters in this play. “Always for me, especially when directing in an academic situation like this, is working with the actors, watching how the actors grow, and watching how they [the actors] define the character,” said Bohr. Bohr expects Ah, Wilderness to be quite popular next semester, even when performing the six-
decade-old play because of the themes that are seen throughout the play and how universal they are even in today’s society. It follows the adventures of the Miller family, but focuses in on the 16-year-old son, Richard on the Fourth of July, 1906. In 1935, the play was made into a film of the same title. Then, in 1948 it was turned into a musical production, called Summer Holiday. Ah ,Wilderness will hit the stage at Muskingum in February.
After the discussion and voting in Senate, the topic went to The Board of Trustees for their ultimate decision on what to do with the funding of these organizations and the increase of the student activity fee. The Board of Trustees then approved the budget part of the proposal during Homecoming Weekend but they have not approved the increase in the student activity fee as of yet. “So after this yearbook is handed out [in the spring] there will be no more handed out after that,” said Setliff. “Unless we do something about it in the future, but that probably won’t happen for at least a year or two.” The yearbook staff wants to produce a shorter Organization Handbook, a small booklet that includes pictures of each club, for students next semester. The staff would have to request the funds through the Senate Remainder account to receive funding. In order for The Muscoljuan to be able to be considered for funding in the future, Student Senate and the Administration wants to see all hands on deck. “They want a big full force,” said Setliff. “If we want the year-
book back they want everyone behind it and they want to make sure that it’s going to be a full go.” There are mixed feelings on campus about the defunding of the yearbook, some seeing it as a chance to expand other programs at Muskingum. “Some of the places where we are starting to shift some of this money [is] giving more money to the RAs for programming in halls,” said Little. “This proposal also shifts some money over to intramurals which is becoming a strong component of our programming on campus.” Others felt the process of examining the funding for The Muscoljuan was a quick process that could have been handled better than it was and the process could have been longer. “I kind of felt that it was unfair because Senate is only 40-something people where as the school is over 1,000 students, and there was no poll put out asking if these representatives had asked their people [that they’re representing] whether or not they wanted a yearbook,” said Setliff. The changes that were approved by The Board of Trustees will go into effect in Spring 2016.
Raugh returns to wrestling, reflects on time missed with injuries Barrett Fitzgerald Orbit Media Reporter Junior Jon Raugh made his return to Muskingum University Wrestling to join his teammates for the 2015-2016 season after some time away. Raugh, a native of Bluffton, Indiana, began his wrestling career in middle school after a friend told him that he should join. Raugh eventually agreed and his career took off, ultimately leading him to wrestle at the collegiate level. “I actually thought for sure that I was not going to wrestle in college,” said Raugh. “It is pretty tough and after high school I thought I was done with it, but
then I took a year off and realized how much I missed it and came back [after transferring in 2013].” Raugh began college at Tennessee Technological University, but transferred to Muskingum in 2013 because the school did not have a varsity wrestling program. Many different injuries can occur when wrestling. Raugh has suffered countless injuries during his career, including scrapes, cuts to the head, and skin infections. He has learned that the sport of wrestling is not an activity for the weak-hearted. One of Raugh’s most recent injuries was a concussion that he sustained while playing lacrosse in 2014 as he attempted to become a two-sport college athlete.
The concussion also forced Raugh to withdraw from college for the semester to allow the injury to properly heal, keeping him off the mat for the season. “After my concussion I realized that this is serious and it has to be taken care of properly,” said Raugh. “I attempted to go through classes with my concussion, I tried to focus, but there was no way I could go through school with this concussion.” On top of the concussion, Raugh later found out from his physician that he had damaged his inner ear and faced a lot of compound factors that came along with the symptoms. The injuries have made him become more cautious as a wrestler this season.
Skylar Quarles/ Black & Magenta Junior Jon Raugh wrestles at the 149 pound weight class as a Muskie. “I think that it does need to be Raugh posted his first win taken seriously, and the recent de- since returning from injury on velopments have really improved Nov. 19 with a 6-4 decision over our skills of finding concussions D.J. Grindle of Waynesburg at the and treating them,” said Raugh. 149 pound weight class.
Mens Basketball improving in season Captain’s Quarters, The Browns need a quarterback, who knew? Rachel Schlarb Orbit Media Reporter The mens basketball team has had its ups and downs during the season, going through a new head coach that brought in a new system for the team to learn and things to improve upon this year. “We had three fairly large wins and four games we didn’t play particularly well for 40 straight minutes, but we fought, scratched and clawed and we couldn’t get over the hump of our four losses, so for the most part we played very hard and we continue to get better,” said Head Mens Basketball Coach, Travis Schwab. The Muskies have three main players contributing to the improvement of the team this year, first year Jalen Page, and juniors Josh Glass and Josh Keyes. Schwab believes that the team overall is becoming stronger.
“We have gotten better, we need to continue to get better on the defensive end, in the games we won we played particularly good defense, along with rebounding the ball,” said Schwab. Schwab thinks the team could get even better by practicing a little on rebounding and making shots, but that overall the team is working hard to get their wins for the season. “The guys are working extremely hard, everything my staff and I brought here has been new to everyone, so it’s definitely been a growing process, but our guys, [to] give them credit, they embraced everything we brought and continued to work hard every day,” said Schwab. The Muskies currently sit at 3-5 in the 2015 campaign. The team will be back in action on Saturday, Dec. 12 when they host Baldwin Wallace.
Once again, the Cleveland Browns have a new quarterback. Shocker, right? After new starter Josh Chris Morgan McCown went Sports Editor down with yet another injury against the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 30, the team has tabbed Austin Davis as the starter for the remainder of the 2015 season. In reality, this decision was an easy one to make for the team. It was either Davis or turning back to Johnny Manziel, who has proven once again this year that he simply cannot be trusted to be a true professional. Obviously Manziel is still very young. He wants to have fun. He wants to be successful as a player, but he can’t have both worlds at the same time.
Look at the best quarterbacks in the league. You don’t see Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or any other proven quarterback going out to clubs partying at any hour of the day or night. They spend their time watching all the game film, preparing for their next game whenever they get the chance. That’s what Manziel has to do if he wants to become a good, legitimate quarterback. So far, it doesn’t seem like he wants to do that. If he’s unwilling to change, then the Browns will have to move on and find someone who can be what they need. Maybe Davis will be that guy, or maybe they have to draft someone again. Michigan State’s Connor Cook, or maybe even Stanford’s Kevin Hogan come to mind as that kind of player.
The team could even stray away from the signal-callers that went to schools in power five conferences, and take the best QB available according to ESPN’s NFL Draft Insider, Mel Kiper. That QB is Paxton Lynch from Memphis. Lynch is a junior, but is widely expected to forego his senior year and make the jump to the NFL. California’s Jared Goff and USC’s Cody Kessler could also be good fits. Both have big arms and see the field very well. All of these quarterbacks mentioned possess some or all of the tools to be a solid player. In reality, there are a lot of different options waiting for Cleveland. They just have to be smart. Regardless of what the team does in the future, it still seems at this moment that the revolving door at quarterback for the Browns is never going to stop.