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Independent Collegian IC The
www.IndependentCollegian.com 91st year Issue 57
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Serving the University of Toledo since 1919
SG gives student address By Casey Cheap IC Staff Writer
Study links Facebook to narcissism By Megan Gross IC Staff Writer
Student Government President Matt Rubin and Vice President Jordan Maddocks gave the annual State of the Students address on Tuesday night. The 20-minute speech regarding SG’s previous academic year was given during the Student Senate session. Both Rubin and Maddocks took turns making points about SG accomplishments. Rubin said over the last year, SG was able to get better representation by running ads in The Independent Collegian and investing time into the campus radio station, WXUT-FM. Over the summer UT President Lloyd Jacobs helped fund costs of repainting and refurbishing the SG Office. “I encourage you to head up to Student Union 3512 and take a look,” Maddocks said. Maddocks said SG was able to cut hundreds of dollars per month in costs by eliminating several unused phone lines in the re-modeled SG office. Rubin explained
Social media has come a long way since it first caught the attention of Internet users. From the introduction of MySpace in 2003 to the explosion of Facebook shortly after in 2004, sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and other profile builders have become common to many college students. Pitt Derryberry, associate professor of educational psychology and human development at Western Kentucky University, and Meghan Saculla, a Flagler College adjunct professor, teamed up to research how social media has changed the behaviors of college students over the years. Derryberry and Saculla concluded from their research that technology is the reason empathy in college students has decreased as student narcissism increased. “It’s not as much about the usage as about the attitudes,” Saculla said. Earlier this month, their research was presented at the 2011 American Educational Research Association conference. The project’s goal was to find a relationship between narcissism the individual’s use of technology. To begin the study, the researchers first observed a total
— Address, Page A5
— Facebook, Page A2
Photo Illustration By Nick Kneer / IC
According to a study done by professors at Western Kentucky University and Flagler College, the use of Facebook can make students more narcissistic and less empathetic. Students were observed to express self-absorbed behavior by posting large numbers of pictures and continually updating statuses about themselves in the study.
LGBT magazine refused publication Students get back to their roots For the IC
Printers refuse to print the spring edition of Fusion, a Campus Progress-sponsored LGBT magazine at Kent State University due to profanity and imaging citations. The issue includes an eightpage spread featuring crossdressing models with the headline “Gender Fuck” written in large print above. Freeport Press Inc., Hess
Print Solutions, and Davis Graphic Communication Solutions refused to publish this edition of Fusion. David Pilcher, vice president of sales and marketing at Freeport Press said, “We actually asked them to adjust the content of Fusion based on the fword and on what we’re calling some graphic material, which involved some pictures of genitalia, and we’re just not comfortable producing that type of
content.” Fred Cooper, Hess’ chief financial officer said the images in the magazine were acceptable, but the use of several explicative words that “refer to alternative sexuality” were not. “That’s offensive to folks,” Cooper says. “If you’re running the press and you happen to be of that persuasion, you may feel offended.” — LGBT, Page A2
Courtesy of Todd Crail / IC
Todd Crail has a garden of Butterfly Milkweed at his residence on Sherwood Avenue in Toledo, OH. Crial and other University of Toledo students will be transplanting the garden of Buttefly Milkweeds onto UT’s Main Campus.
Plants originating in Lucas County to be brought to UT with native gardens By Vincent J. Curkov IC Staff Writer
Lucas County has the largest number of rare plant species in the state, and UT students such as Todd Crail are hoping to maintain them. The graduate student majoring in ecology has grown a native plant garden, a garden composed entirely of plants innate to Lucas County, at his home at 2348 Sherwood Ave. in Toledo. He has been transplanting these plants onto campus with the help of other UT students, since last Friday. “They might appear like weeds to some but they have a low impact on the campus’ ecosystem,” Crail said. These native plants gardens are a part of an effort put forth by Ann Krause, assistant professor of Ecology, the Department of Women and Gender Studies and the UT Garden Committee. One native plant garden will become an extension of the Teaching Garden located near the Ottawa River and the Carlson Library, which had been planted to give students interested in environmental studies a hands-on experience. The other garden will be located beside the Center for Performing Arts. “It is a great way to get involved on campus,”
said Colleen Nagel, a junior majoring in environment studies, who has helped lead the native plant garden initiative. “There are all these endangered plants and it’s important to keep the native ones.” According to Crail, there are about 1,800 species of plants that are native to Ohio; 1,300 of them can be found in
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There are all these endangered plants and it’s important to keep the native ones.
Colleen Nagel Junior, Environmental Sciences
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Lucas County. “We have a very diverse plant community historically,” he said. “Lucas County has the largest number of rare species of plants in the state.” If UT’s campus was never built and still retained an untamed nature, it would be populated by Ash and Elm trees as well as large numbers of flowering plants, Crail said. When farmers use fertilizer or home owners use MiracleGro to kill the weeds in their gardens they add nitrogen and phosphorous elements to the soil. These gardens are able to soak up excess nitrogen and phosphorous in the
lakes and rivers of Lucas County as well as protect the endangered plants in the area. Crail said, these chemicals also wash into area rivers and lakes when it rains, causing rapid algae expansion similar to what has happened in Lake Michigan. “Once they get into the river you are never going to get them back and they are detrimental,” Crail said, “This causes algal blooms in the lake [which] are toxic and unsightly.” By soaking up nitrogen and phosphorous, the native plants gardens will decrease these algal blooms. “[Native plant gardens] are a sustainable way to approach landscaping,” Crail said. “They require no watering fertilizing [or] anything like that.” These gardens also form their own miniscule ecosystem through their ability to attract many insects and birds, Crail said. “[It’s] really good for pollinators like bees and there is little risk to students who are allergic,” he said. “The bees are so drunk with pollen you can literally tap them on the head.” Anyone interested in getting involved with the native plans gardens can contact Colleen Nagel via email at Colleen.Nagel@rockets.utoledo.edu.