Wednesday, January 15, 2013
95th year • Issue 18
6» UT’s MLK Day celebration www.IndependentCollegian.com
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INSIDE
CAMPUS FACILITIES
Cold causes flooding as pipes burst in 23 buildings By Samuel Derkin News Editor
Hometown heroics Freshman guard Jordan Lauf of Napoleon is fresh out of high school, but he’s leading the Rocket men’s basketball team in offensive rebounds (27) and ranks third in total rebounds (65). SPORTS / 3 »
Reel in the new year The UT Department of Theatre and Film will host a two-day event with artist and filmmaker Johanna Dery this weekend. COMMUNITY / 6 »
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“Unfortunately, even openly talking about masculinity is going against male norms, because to talk about and question masculinity indicates that a guy is not very secure in his own.”
MATTHEW EVANS New student group on campus: Men for Equality OPINION / 4 »
Women’s swimming and diving team falls The University of Toledo women’s swimming and diving team floundered at home last Saturday, losing to No. 16 Ohio State 206.593.5 at the UT Student Recreation Center. SPORTS / 3 »
IN BRIEF Sexual assault reported Jan. 12 near campus Toledo police are investigating a woman’s report of sexual assault in the restroom at Chasers, 529 Dorr St. The report was made at 2 a.m. on Jan. 12. The University of Toledo Police Department issued a bulletin Jan. 13 notifying students of the report and reminding them that “sexual assault is non-consensual sexual activity, ranging from unwanted sexual touching to forced intercourse.” Anyone with information can contact Toledo Police Crime Stoppers at 419255-1111. To report a sexual assault on campus, call UTPD at 419-530-2600. To report sexual assault occurring off campus, call 911.
During last week’s record cold snap, 23 buildings on the University of Toledo’s Main Campus and Health Science Campus suffered water damage when pipes burst. “Due to the extreme cold temperatures and wind chills, we’ve experienced a number of situations where we’ve had frozen pipes and equipment on campus which have included fire suppression lines … plumbing lines, those types of things,” said Jason Toth, assistant vice president of facilities. The buildings affected had a mixture of old and new equipment, Toth said, but even the newer equipment was not designed for the below-zero freeze Toledo saw last week. “In this region, normal See a full design is not set up for the list of extreme temperatures that affected we’ve experienced,” Toth said. buildings “We had a number of failures that primarily occurred during on PAGE 5 » those cold evenings of Monday night and Tuesday night.” Toth said the water damage was due to a “trickle-down effect” with several systems failing, starting with air intakes, which backed up to the buildings’ heating systems, which are primarily steam-powered. “There isn’t any one thing that caused the catastrophic failures that we’ve had,” Toth said. “It’s a series of things that occurred.” Toth said UT is still assessing the damage and he doesn’t know how much repairs will cost. “We’re still in the process of trying to gather all that information with the significant amount of damage as far as getting quotes, getting estimates as to what the repair cost would be. We’re working with risk management and our insurance company on those issues,” he said. See Flooding / 5 »
COURTESY OF KRISTIN KIRSCHBAUM
Kristin Kirschbaum, director of Bowman-Oddy’s instrumentation center, said pipes in the fire sprinkler system burst last week in the workshop room (pictured above). This location is in one of 23 buildings — 17 on Main Campus and six on the Health Science Campus — that were damaged during a record-low cold snap. Jason Toth, assistant vice president of facilities, said UT doesn’t know yet how much these damages will cost.
STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
PERSONAL SAFETY
UT’s Student Activities Fair moved to Jan. 28 By Samuel Derkin and Samantha Rhodes News Editor and Associate News Editor
Stalking Awareness Month inspires campus events By Samantha Rhodes Associate News Editor
Stalking is a serious issue — one that affects 6.6 million people in the United States in one year. Because January is National Stalking Awareness Month, the University of Toledo’s Sexual Assault Education and Prevention Program (SAEPP), part of the UT Counseling Center, aims to raise campus-wide awareness about stalking-related matters and prevention. “Stalking is a crime in all fifty states,” said Teresa Lopez, an intern at the UT Counseling Center and a master’s student in the social work department. “Our society often uses the term ‘stalking’ very loosely or in a joking matter. This makes it hard for many people to take stalking seriously when survivors are in danger.” The SAEPP will host two stalking awareness events
on UT’s main campus on Jan. 15 and Jan. 29, both at 7 p.m. in the Student Union’s Ingman Room. Talking on Jan. 15 will be survivor advocate Debbie Riddle, who will share the story of her sister, Peggy Klinke, who was killed by a stalker. Anne Murray will speak on Jan. 29 about her work as director at the Stalking Unit, Director of the Domestic Violence and Stalking Unit at the Richard C. Pfeiffer Columbus Attorney’s office. Stalking, as defined by the Stalking Resource Center and the National Center for Victims of Crime, is “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.” The center reports 1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men stalking to the point that they have feared for their life. “Most women killed or almost killed by an intimate
UT’s Stalker Awareness speakers Jan. 15: Debbie Riddle, who will share the story of her sister, Peggy Klinke, who was killed by a stalker. Jan. 29: Anne Murray, Director of the Domestic Violence and Stalking Unit at the Richard C. Pfeiffer Columbus Attorney’s office.
partner were stalked in the year before the attack,” Murray said. The majority of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know. The Stalking Resource Center states that a current or former intimate partner stalks 66 percent of female victims and 41 percent of male victims. See Stalking / 5 »
The University of Toledo’s Student Activities Fair has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Jan. 28 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union South Lounge and Ingman Room. Because all classes before noon were canceled for UT students on Jan. 8 due to the snowstorm, the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) rescheduled the fair for a day when students could come in. As of now, OSI program manager Rudy Taylor said there are about 75 student organizations signed up to participate. Taylor said one game that will be played is bingo. But this isn’t just any bingo — it’s UT student organization bingo. “It’s a way for us to drive people to the tables, so that they’re hopefully getting more engaged,” Taylor said. According to Taylor, every student that attends will be given a bingo card, each card with five rows divided into specific organizations: academic/honors, special/political, sports, religious/culture/service, and Greek. Every organization is categorized as one of these and will be given a sheet of round labels to give to students that visit their table. To find which organizations fit which categories, visit the OSI webpage and see the list of student organizations. Students will be given one entry into the OSI drawing for each bingo line they complete (12 possible per card – horizontal, vertical and diagonal). The 18 prizes given away will include Rocket Dollars and gas cards. Each prize will be a $10 value. On the day of the event, Taylor said all student groups will be given 108 stickers to start with to give out as they wish. For more information, contact Taylor at cory.taylor2@utoledo.edu.