The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
TUESDay, FEBRUARY 19, 2013
VOLUME 140 NO. 39
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1932, The Miami Student reported a story called “Vac Twists Hat Into Odd Shape, Draws Crowd, But Wins Dinner Bet From Pal.” The piece recounts
the story of Vac, who fidgeted with his hat while he waited for a friend to join him for dinner. “The brim was folded vertically upward in the front, and downward in the back. The crown was indented in four places coming to a point at the top, a-la-cowboy style,” The Miami Student reported. Vac’s friend bet him that he wouldn’t walk through the Christmas shopping crowd to East Ninth Street, five blocks away. As he walked, Vac accumulated a crowd of onlookers. By the time he reached his destination, his friend struggled to find him to settle the bet.
Windy City grounds ’Hawks in split series
CONTRIBUTED BY JEFF SABO
More than 52,000 hockey fans filled Soldier Field for the Hockey City Classic Sunday (top left). Senior forward Curtis McKenzie goes after the puck (top right). Sophomore forward Jimmy Mullin and freshman forward Sean Kuraly fight for the puck in front of the Notre Dame net (bottom left).The RedHawks lost the series 2-1.
By Joe Gieringer Senior Staff Writer
Excluding the Frozen Four, it was arguably the biggest college hockey event of the year. More than 52,000 fans attended, a plurality of which were Miami faithful. But when the final horn sounded for the first matchup in Chicago’s Hockey City Classic, the RedHawk hockey team found themselves on the wrong side of a 2-1 contest at the 50 yard line of historic Soldier Field. “It was a great atmosphere out there,” head coach Enrico Blasi said. “I think the people at Intersport did a great job of organizing the event. Unfortunately, we didn’t play our best, and Notre Dame played really well … they took it to us, and we just didn’t have an answer for it. We
weren’t ourselves because of what they were doing to us, so all credit goes to Notre Dame.” Two nights prior, the exact opposite was true. Miami, now 19-8-5 overall and 14-6-4-4 in conference play, controlled the majority of their first clash with Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) rival Notre Dame. The Red and White secured a first-round bye and second round home ice advantage in the upcoming CCHA tournament, while maintaining sole possession atop the league standings. Friday saw the No. 3 RedHawks and the No. 12 Fighting Irish duke it out in a scoreless first frame and a half until the tie was broken by senior captain Steven Spinell. The defenseman registered his first goal of the season on a laser of a shot from
the point with 6:36 remaining in the second period. Senior forward Curtis McKenzie and freshman forward Kevin Morris assisted on the play. “We weren’t getting anything
It was a great atmosphere out there. “ ENRICO BLASI
HEAD HOCKEY COACH
going in the first,” Spinell said. “We were working hard, but you get a break, the puck goes in and the building erupts.”
Just thirty seconds later, the Goggin Ice Center swelled to an even higher decibel when sophomore forward Blake Coleman looked off linemate Jimmy Mullin during a 2-on-1 rush, freezing junior goaltender Steven Summerhays as he buried his seventh goal of the year, and a beauty at that. Notre Dame cut the deficit in half with a late third period tally, but senior Marc Hagel ended any hope of a comeback with an empty net goal in the final period, securing the 3-1 victory. Freshman netminder Ryan McKay turned aside all but one of the 21 shots he faced, adding to his already-impressive numbers with win number eight of his freshman campaign. A late night bus ride ensued after the game, and a light practice in
14-degree weather was held on Saturday for players and coaches alike to take in the venue and experience. After that, it was all business as the RedHawks turned their attention to the outdoor game, one in which choppy ice and sunny conditions affected the overall tempo. “We both had to deal with [the conditions],” Blasi said of Sunday’s setup. “I think they found a way to make plays and they had better energy, a little bit more jump, if you will.” Indeed, the Fighting Irish, who ran a militant, professional practice the prior afternoon, looked fresher and more alive. They dominated play in the first two periods and adapted to the unfriendly ice surface more
HOCKEY, SEE PAGE 10
Athletic spending increases while academic spending remains flat By JM Rieger
Editor at Large
The following article reports information assessed by The Miami Student and uses Miami University data. Miami University is projected to spend more than $43,000 per student athlete, compared to more than $15,000 per general student this year, according to analysis by The Miami Student. The analysis follows a series of reports from the Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research tracking how academic spending at public and private universities has remained flat or decreased, while athletic spending has continued to rise. The Project released the reports in partnership with the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. At Miami, athletic spending increased more than 13 percent from 2008-2012, while academic spending increased 0.14 percent, before adjusting for inflation. Academic spending includes five
metrics outlined by the Delta Cost Project: Instructional and Departmental Research, Academic Support, Student Services, Institutional Support and Plant Operation and Maintenance. The projected $28,600 gap in athlete to student spending is based off Miami’s self-reported number of student athletes and the number of total undergraduate and graduate students in the university system. Athletic spending is determined by the budget for Miami’s Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA). The Oxford campus student General Fee funds much of Miami’s athletic budget. This year the General Fee is projected to make up 66 percent of ICA’s budget and the Fee has funded at least 61 percent of the budget since 2008. However, that number has fallen nearly 5 percent from 2008-2012. Oxford campus students have paid more than $900 per student each of the past three years to fund the athletic department, more than half of the total
General Fee and the highest percentage in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in 2011,
do it in a way that diminishes our ability to even be competitive in those programs,” David Creamer,
The only way to dramatically change the cost structure is to no longer compete at the Division I level, and at this point in time that’s not been a decision that our [Board of Trustees] or anyone has wanted to endorse.” DAVID CREAMER
VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE AND BUSINESS SERVICES
according to a study by Kent State University. This year students are projected to pay $950 to fund athletics of the nearly $1,800 projected Oxford campus General Fee. Miami’s athletic department lost more than $16.5 million last year and has lost nearly $60 million since 2008. “If we’re going to continue to offer Division I programs, there’s a certain cost to doing that, and we need to do that efficiently, but it doesn’t do us any good to
Miami vice president for finance and business services, said. “The only way to dramatically change the cost structure is to no longer compete at the Division I level, and at this point in time that’s not been a decision that our [Board of Trustees] or anyone has wanted to endorse.” According the Delta Cost Project’s “Academic Spending Versus Athletic Spending: Who Wins?” report, MAC schools spent more than $52,000 per athlete in 2010, four times what conference
members spent per student. The average Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school spent nearly $92,000 per athlete, more than $78,000 what institutions spent per student on average. The Southeastern Conference had the largest disparity, spending 12 times more money on athletes than on students. According to Creamer though, athletic spending will inevitably be higher than academic spending due to the resources required. “I think [the report’s] approach was reasonable, I’m not so sure the question they asked was very reasonable,” Creamer said. “It was known going in that when you have all the expenses associated with an intercollegiate athletic sport, and you associate that as spending on the student only that is participating in that, I think is mischaracterizing what intercollegiate athletics are about. It’s both for the athlete … but it’s also there for the
SPENDING, SEE PAGE 10