97th year • Issue 9
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Look for the weed leaves next to stories about marijuana and the recent legislation about it. www.IndependentCollegian.com
Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919 FEATURE
INSIDE
By Amanda Pitrof Editor-in-Chief
In the swing of things The women’s golf team won first place at the Mid-American Conference preview. SPORTS / 6 »
What’s green, looks a little like oregano and gets powdery when ground up? Marijuana. This pungent plant is more than just part of the local drug culture. It is part of a not-so-secret market that brings together buyers from all walks of life. “It is a business — but in the grand scheme of things, it’s networking,” said a fourthyear communication student. The student, who wishes to be anonymous, sold marijuana for about a year while at the University of Toledo. He started in 2013, and never
saw dealing as out of the ordinary. To him, it was not much different than working at a fast food restaurant for a few extra bucks. “I was just starting small; I never got huge or anything, but I was only starting with half an ounce at a time,” he said. “Went to an ounce, then a few ounces … it was enough to smoke and bring in a little extra cash.” In his peak, he brought in between $300 and $500 a week.
How it started
He started smoking weed in high school, but didn’t start selling it until college when his dealer asked if he
A dealer’s perspective on the highs and lows of selling marijuana
was interested in making some extra cash by dealing. “I was always the one to buy it. I never thought I’d sell it until he asked me,” the student said.
“I was always the one to buy it. I never thought I’d sell it until he asked me.” After thinking it over for a couple of days, he agreed to do it. He said it would be easy money because it’s all about who you know. “At first, when you start
UT members will be performing in Henry V.
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COMMUNITY / 7 »
“The amendment would create a statewide marijuana monopoly through its finely printed rules.” EDITORIAL Weed can wait
OPINION / 4 »
Ordinance sued
The attorney general filed a lawsuit against Sensible Toledo for conflicting with state law. NEWS / 3 »
CAP hold’s first comedy night Students can gather for jokes, laughs and good times Oct. 21 for a show featuring Jeff Dye and Mike Paramore. COMMUNITY / 7 »
UT wheels out a new bike sharing program
Making the sale
When people came to his house, most of the time they “matched” him. They bought half the weed to take with them and shared the other half with the dealer, who would roll the blunt for them. “Someone always has to teach somebody how to roll a blunt,” he laughed. He never kept a count of how many buyers he served, but it was at least 50 people, and most of those deals happened at home. See Dealer / 5 »
MORE ONLINE
Consultant hired to help boost UT’s enrollment By Riley Sproul Staff Reporter
By Emily Schnipke Staff Reporter
A six-year effort came to fruition on Monday, Oct. 12 when the new University of Toledo bike share program called Rocket Wheels was unveiled in a ceremony at Rocket Hall. The bike share program is a project that the UT Student Government has been working towards since 2010. The idea was the brainchild of then-SG President Matt Rubin, who gained inspiration from programs at the Ohio State University and cities across the country. UT’s Complete Streets Committee began to research and help develop the bike share program. “When I was a student leader on campus, the number one issue, and I’m sure it’s the issue now, was parking,” Rubin said. “Everybody was looking for a solution to make parking more convenient and it seemed to be the biggest hassle that students face in their lives.”
smokers to dealers. After a while, he said, the “clients will come to you.”
ENROLLMENT
BIKE SHARE
Bringing words to life
selling, you’re like, ‘Hey, I got some bud. Hit me up if you need some,’ or something like that,” he said. “But after you do it for awhile, you don’t have to do that anymore. They already know.” When he started looking for more clients, sometimes he would “smoke someone out” — let them smoke some weed for free. He encouraged the test drivers to buy from him in the future. That wasn’t as necessary once he built a reputation. He said everyone who smokes marijuana knows someone else who smokes, because it creates a network of people that links
ALLIE RAY / IC
(Left to right) SG senator Benjamin Lynn, SG president Cody Spoon, Rocky and SG vice president Ian Michalak were all present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the program on Oct 12.
Rubin said he and SG began to search for a proactive and creative approach that would help to get people on board. They started with bike lockers, bicycle lanes, air compressors for bike tires, and eventually started to form the bike share program. “It was the best way that we could combat parking,” Rubin said. “It was something that was
good for the environment; it was something that promoted public health.” After years of analysis and working out the logistics of the plan with funding from UT’s provost office, Rocket Wheels was finally created. “It’s something that you may not see the payoff right away,” Rubin said, “but the
The University of Toledo announced early this month that President Sharon Gaber signed a $430,000 contract with consultant firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz to correct UT’s steadily declining enrollment rate. RNL is a firm that focuses on working with higher education facilities to improve their enrollment and fundraising strategies, according to their website. James Mager, the Interim Administrator of Enrollment at UT, has been reorganizing and optimizing the enrollment process from within the university, but agreed that RNL is the best choice. “Ruffalo Noel Levitz is a leader in enrollment management services with
an excellent track record of getting results that benefit the university,” Mager said. “From my perspective, UT will benefit from the vast experience of Ruffalo Noel Levitz assisting many colleges and universities.” The number of current students decreased last semester by 1.46 percent, and has been on the decline for the last five years. Shortly after taking office, Gaber promised to make enrollment and retention one of her first priorities. Gaber has seen the effect RNL has had on other universities in the past and thought they would be a good choice to help UT with this issue. “I knew their work from when I was at Auburn University. So I called a guy I had worked with previously and I said, ‘Tell me what you can do.’ And he said, ‘We
Finish reading this piece online at www.IndependentCollegian.com
See Bikes / 5 »
CAMPUS SAFETY
UTPD report assesses crime on campus
By Ashley Diel Staff Reporter
The University of Toledo’s annual security report for 2014 was released on Tuesday, Sept. 29 and details the amount and types of crimes committed on and near campus. The report lists all the offenses committed for the designated time period and the number of each type committed. The offenses themselves are then broken down by how they’re handled: arrest or judicial referral. There was also a separate section dedicated hate crimes, and there was only one hate crime committed during 2014. Mary Martinez, Student Conduct
Officer and Deputy Title IX Coordinator, said judicial referrals are a process by which the university itself handles the problem, as opposed to getting the police involved. This process is separate from arrests, which the report showed were used to resolve issues less often than judicial referrals. According to the report, there was a significant increase in judicial referrals for liquor and drug law violations during the 2014 school year, Referrals for liquor law violations on campus jumped from 245 in 2013 to 430 in 2014 while the drug law violation referrals more than doubled from 163 to 360. Despite the increases in judicial
referrals for the offenses, the number of actual arrests on campus due to liquor or drugs and all other offense categories on the report has remained about the same between the 2013 and 2014 school years, with 31 total arrests made for liquor and drug violations in 2014. Jeff Newton, UTPD chief of police, said while there has been an increase in judicial referrals, it is not necessarily a bad thing. “The increase has been more on the conduct side,” he said. “I think it can be a product of more education and training in residence life and different enforcement strategies. Instead of calling the police to handle it criminally, it
is handled more throughout a conduct process.” Jessica Lang, a third-year English major, said she believes the increase in judicial referrals should actually make students feel safer on campus. “Referrals are not the same as arrests,” Lang said. “All those numbers show is that RAs and the police are doing their jobs better and making sure that criminal activity doesn’t occur here. They are stopping things before they have the potential to turn into something that is actually bad.” See Report / 5 »