YOUR AD THE INDEPENDENT BELONGS C LLEGIAN HERE Wednesday, October 25, 2017
99th year • Issue 10
Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919
INSIDE
ENVIRONMENT
Professor speaks about threats to local lakes By Samantha Gerlach Staff Reporter
Toledo rolls over Akron on Saturday SPORTS / 5 »
Philippine Culture Night
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COMMUNITY / 6 »
“The issue is that professors should be decent enough not to hit on their own students and abuse their position.”
MORGAN KOVACS Dismantling the Ivory Tower
OPINION / 3 »
Chloe and the Steel Strings releases its first album
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www.IndependentCollegian.com
As threats of algal blooms and species of foreign Asian carp invasions in the Great Lakes and nearby rivers are on the rise, so are the concerns of their effects on the ecosystem. Christine Mayer, professor of ecology in the University of Toledo Department of Environmental Sciences, spoke Oct. 19 at the UT Lake Erie Center about these concerns in her lecture titled, “Swimming Upstream: The Importance of Western Lake Erie’s Rivers to Fish Populations.” Her lecture highlighted the value of healthy rivers for fish in the Great Lakes and focused specifically on the Maumee, Sandusky and Detroit Rivers, according to a UT press release. According to the press release, as concerns about algal blooms increase, fish deaths and invasive Asian carp spawning are being closely watched in Lake
Erie Tributaries. Occurrences of the capture of some Asian carp species, such as the silver carp, have been reported as close as the Illinois Waterway below T.J. O’Brien Lock and Dam, approximately nine miles away from Lake Michigan, on June 22, 2017, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune. According to a U.S. News Report, Asian carp being this close to Lake Erie signals a threat to the lake – where the Asian grass carp has been spotted – and to the fish in the lake and its tributaries. “There wouldn’t be as much an issue if they ate the algae present in our nearby lakes and rivers,” said Timothy Fisher, professor of geology and department chair in UT’s Department of Environmental Sciences. “Grass
carp feed on aquatic vegetation essential for habitats and spawning grounds of native fish.” Grass carp eggs were discovered in the Maumee River, according to Fisher. The fertilizer runoff from farmlands is the main cause of algal blooms in the Great Lakes and nearby rivers. Farmers are aware of this problem, but only some are doing everything they can to decrease the amount of runoff going into rivers and the lake, Fisher said. “Buffer strips that trap sediment before it runs off into the lakes and rivers
LECTURE
CALLIE STATON Halloween: Exerting white privilege OPINION / 3 »
offer a tremendous amount of help in reducing the runoff, as well as underground tiles placed in the fields to collect groundwater drainage,” Fisher said. According to the City of Toledo’s website, under the division of water treatment, the water quality laboratories at the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant are responsible for the collection and analysis of samples of water, which will ensure that the water being distributed meets or exceeds the criteria of the Safe Drinking Water Act for local citizens. The Collins Park Water Treatment Plant has quadrupled the treatment capacity for algal blooms, said Janet Schroeder, manager of the City of Toledo’s Department of Utilities. “Everything will be ruined if we don’t see a positive effect from the measures we’re taking to treat the algal blooms
“Everything will be ruined if we don’t see a positive effect from the measures we’re taking to treat the algal blooms invading our lakes and rivers...” THOMAS BRIDGEMAN UT Professor of Limnology
invading our lakes and rivers, from the beaches to the vegetation to the fish,” said Thomas Bridgeman, professor of limnology in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UT. “I personally fear that Lake Erie itself will become a dead lake.”
INCLUSION
The role of the humanities By Olivia Rodriguez Staff Reporter
The University of Toledo hosted Michael Bérubé Oct. 19 in the UT Law Center to talk about the future and importance of the humanities field. Michael Bérubé is an Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University. He has written ten books including “Life As We Know It,” “The Secret Life of Stories,” and “What’s Liberal about the Liberal Arts?” The academic organization, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the training company Heart of the Matter were asked by Congress what political entities, universities and people should do “to achieve long-term national goals for our intellectual and economic well-being for a stronger, more vibrant civil society and for the success of cultural diplomacy in the 21st century.” According to the Heart of the Matter report, funding was cut by 41 percent in four years to support international education
and STEM teachers in kindergarten were less welltrained than history teachers in the same grades. In the same report, the Heart of the Matter concluded that these pieces of evidence suggest a problem and a pattern that will have long-term consequences for the nation.
“There is a zombie myth that the humanities are declining, and I cannot get people to believe that they are not.” MICHAEL BÉRUBÉ Professor of Literature at Pennsylvania State University
Bérubé said there is not a decreasing number of people going into humanities. “There is a zombie myth that the humanities are declining, and I cannot get people to believe that they are not. When I finally had people believing
me, the myth was true,” Bérubé said. Bérubé briefly discussed an article he wrote about an essay by William Chace, professor of English emeritus at Stanford University. In his 2009 American Scholar essay, “The Decline of the English Department,” Chace noted that English accounted for 7.6 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in 1970-1971 but only 3.9 percent in 2003-2004. “But by 2003-2004, when, as Chace lamented, English accounted for only 3.9 percent of bachelor’s degrees, that number was almost 54,000. Why was no one writing about how the number of English majors had grown by 20,000 over 20 years—almost a 60-percent increase?” Bérubé wrote in an article. The humanities can help solve the ethical problems of technology, social contentions and other major global challenges as well, Bérubé said. “The humanities turned See Arts / 4 »
COMMUNITY / 6 »
“...showing genuine interest in its values and liking the look of an Indian belly dancing costume because it’s ‘sparkly and cute’ is not the same thing.”
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Songs on the steps PHOTOS BY MEAGAN O’HARA
(Below) The UT Men’s Choir sings on the steps of the Student Union Oct. 10. They sang from a selection of songs to promote their upcoming concert. (Right) Director Bradley Pierson conducts the choir in singing the UT Fight Song.
MIKE MILLER / IC
A Safe Place sticker hangs outside of an office in Health and Human Services building on Main Campus.
UT holds Safe Place Training By Emily Lorton Staff Reporter
The University of Toledo is offering a new approach to the Safe Place Training program, created by the Office of Multicultural Student Success and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. A Safe Place is anywhere the LGBTQA+ community can expect to feel welcome
on campus. This training has been available for staff and faculty in previous years through lecture-style. However, the new technique aims to make the training more interactive. The Safe Place Training program was also offered last spring. It has since been reorganized to be more inSee Program / 4 »