The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 139 NO. 44
tuesday, february 28, 2012
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1930, The Miami Student reported that the International Relations Club would bring Hungarian statesman and journalist, Tiber Eckhardt, to campus to speak to students at Wells Hall. Eckhardt was an attaché of the High Commissioner for Transylvania during World War I and later became one of the principal organizers of the Hungarian National Army.
Hidden costs of vandalism burden budget by Lauren Ceronie and Jessica Tedrick FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
For months, a list of “Things that make me happy” was scribbled on one wall of the women’s bathroom in Harrison Hall. The list included mittens, cuddling and oatmeal. On Campus Avenue, a peace sign is etched into the sidewalk. Red paint is smeared across a bench on South Quad. These remnants of vandalism and criminal mischief dotted around Miami University’s campus may seem inconspicuous, but they can cost the university a surprising amount. By law, vandalism is property damage that costs over $1,000, Miami University Police Department (MUPD) Chief of Police John McCandless said. While Miami sees plenty of vandalism cases every year, cases of criminal mischief are
more common. Criminal mischief is damage that has a lower cost and punishment is no more than 60 days in jail or a $500 fine. Damage that some students may think is criminal mischief may classify as vandalism, however. One act of vandalism that has a surprising cost is the common practice of writing in wet cement. While the act may seem like an innocent prank, the cleanup can cost thousands of dollars. A male student arrested by MUPD for signing a patch of wet cement had to pay nearly $5,000 in restitution, according to MUPD Det. Sgt. Jim Bechtolt. “That student paid five grand just to write his name in the sid0ewalk,” Bechtolt said. On Feb. 19, about a dozen acts of vandalism were spotted around Miami’s campus, according to Bechtolt. The vandalism included swear words and other phrases spray
Miami’s spirited students: ‘going green’ since 1952 by Lauren Ceronie Campus editor
Green Beer Day. The one day of the year when Miami University students are happy to wake up before dawn. The one day of the year students aren’t judged for having green-stained lips and wildly inappropriate shirts. The one day of the year that gives faculty and staff at Miami and law enforcement officials in Oxford a headache worse than the hangover students will experience March 2. To many students, Green Beer Day is a holiday that is as set in stone as Thanksgiving or Independence Day. However monumental Green Beer Day seems to students now, it was not the original greenbeverage holiday at Miami. The first mention of greencolored beer at Miami was in the March 14, 1952 issue of The Miami Student in reference to St. Patrick’s Day. “Monday, Oxford restaurants will mark the anniversary of his [St. Patrick’s] death by selling the traditional dark green beer which is sold all over America on this holiday,” The Student reported. According to reporting in The Student, students 50 years ago were just as zealous in their pursuit of green beer for St. Patrick’s Day. “Somehow directions for getting uptown to that green beer always appear on slant walk,” the March 17, 1964 issue of The Miami Student said. “One year a green stripe up the walk led the way and last year shamrocks miraculously appeared as guideposts for the thirsty.” A few years later, The Boar’s Head, a bar in Oxford at the time, ran an advertisement in The Student saying it would open early to, “combat the infamous Monday morning blahs” The Purity, another bar in Oxford at the time, also ran an advertisement saying they would open at 6 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day. Even in 1969, Oxford officials called the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations a “huge headache.” The first time students celebrated with green beer before spring break was in 1977. In the March 8 issue of The Student that year, The Purity ran an ad saying, “It’s already time for St. Patrick’s day at The Purity and the College Inn… a wee bit early due to spring break.” The ad also said the bar would open at 5:30 a.m. to sell green beverages. In the 1970’s, the university
This is part of a series The Miami Student is running about the University Archives. All information in the following article was obtained from the University Archives with the help of University Archivist Bob Schmidt. switched from quarters to semesters, causing St. Patrick’s Day to fall over spring break on a regular basis. Not to be deprived of the greenthemed holiday, students began celebrating St. Patrick’s Day early. But, the celebration wasn’t called “Green Beer Day” until the 1980’s. In the March 9, 1982 issue of The Student, CJ’s bar had an ad for “Green Beer Day.” Miami’s disapproval for the day remained even though the holiday underwent a name change. The 1986 Recensio reported on the university’s disapproval. “If Miami’s administration has their way, Green Beer Day 1986 will be the last of the early morning celebrations,” Recensio reported. The university sent out requests to the bars asking them not to open at 5:30 a.m., but the bars refused to comply. So, while the tradition of drinking green beer was solidly in place by the mid-1980’s, other traditions didn’t spring up until later. At that time, green doughnuts and green SDS pizza was the food of choice, not green eggs. Students also didn’t begin selling t-shirts to commemorate the day until the mid-1990’s. In 2000, Miami put out a public notice saying, “Miami University does not support Green Beer Day in any way.” The day was also met with disapproval from the Irish American community at Miami who thought the day, “fueled stereotypes” about the Irish. In a letter to the faculty, former Provost Jeffrey Herbst said, “Like you, we have no patience with the bars that sponsor the events or the media that typically makes this event a regional news story.” They also discouraged professors from canceling classes on Green Beer Day. While Green Beer Day may not be a tradition Miami University embraces, the holiday remains close to the hearts of many students.
ANNE GARDNER THE MIAMI STUDENT
Graffiti found on Swing Hall Feb. 19 is one instance of vandalism that has increased property damage costs for Miami University.Vandalism cases are defined as incurring costs in excess of $1,000. painted on buildings, benches and fences around campus. The more obscure cost of vandalism comes from the labor that goes into cleaning it up, McCandless said. “The thing that’s tough to calculate is the cost of cleaning,” McCandless said. “There is a true cost to cleaning that up.” When vandalism or criminal mischief is spotted, the Physical Facilities department is in charge of the repairs.
Cody Powell, assistant vice president of operations in the physical facilities department, said that the students who are found responsible for the vandalism are held accountable and have to pay to fix the property. “[The vandals] are frequently caught and expected to pay for anything from broken windows to spray paint,” Powell said. He did say, however, that many criminal mischief cases, including bathroom stall writing -- the most
common form of criminal mischief -- do not usually result in any party being found responsible. In cases where no party is held accountable it is up to the university to fund the repairs. “There is part of the university’s budget that goes towards that,” Powell said. “[The money used] is not directly from student fees.” Bechtolt confirmed that most criminal mischief cases are not solved but said MUPD catches about 75 percent of perpetrators in vandalism cases.
Proposal calls for use of quotas in hiring By Allison McGillivray SENIOR STAFF WRITER
By reinterpreting affirmative action, the US Department of Labor may soon change hiring practices at Miami University. In Dec. 2011, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) proposed changing a section of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a law associated with affirmative action to prohibit discrimination of people with disabilities when applying for a job, to require employers’ applicant pools to include at least 7 percent persons with disabilities. Douglas Ledford, associate director of the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity (OEEO) for compliance at Miami University, said he is against these proposed changes on the basis of requiring a quota. According to Ledford, the quota system the OFCCP is requesting is against the law. The idea that current affirmative action hiring policy is a quota system is a misconception, Ledford said. “A lot of folks think that [affirmative action] is quotas for minorities or females, but in actuality the law states that you must hire the most qualified employee,” Ledford said. “The idea is to get a very diverse pool of very qualified individuals and select the best qualified person for your position.” Contractors of the OFCCP, like Miami’s OEEO, were allowed to comment on the proposed changes from Dec. 9, 2011 until Feb. 21, 2012, Ledford said. “All of us as contractors get to write responses to that of what we think about it and of course we are all responding: don’t go with this set figure because how can you say that every job group we have there is 7 percent availability of people with disabilities,” Ledford said. Now that the comment period has ended, the contractors must wait to hear if there is a policy change, Ledford said. The Columbus District of the OFCCP said they could not comment on the proposed changes to the sections. Affirmative action is valuable to students, Ledford said. “We want to try to diversify our faculty and staff as much as we can, because in the end that’s very valuable
to our students; it’s valuable to our existence as a university,” Ledford said. Senior Annalea Thompson said she is against affirmative action because it characterizes a person based on something they cannot control. “I think you need to evaluate people based on skill and what they have to offer rather than a somewhat trivial characteristic that is effectively a lottery in birth,” Thompson said. Junior Justine Furbeck said that affirmative action is good in theory, but may have complications when it is practiced. When there is an open position at Miami, OEEO looks at the other members of the staff in the job group that that position falls under to determine if that area is ‘underutilized,’ meaning there are fewer women
the most qualified candidate. The department will then recommend that candidate for hire. Once the department makes its recommendation, the OEEO reviews the process to make sure that no qualified candidates were discounted due to discrimination. If no discrimination can be found, then the OEEO will support whoever the department decides to hire, Ledford said “It doesn’t matter if that’s a white 30 [year-old] male; if they are the most qualified they’re the most qualified,” Ledford said. “However if you have a pool full of diverse candidates you will probably have to really prove that to us.” Thompson said she thinks that candidates should be hired blindly. “It just makes me think how
We want to try to diversify our faculty and staff as much as we can, because in the end that’s very valuable to our students; it’s valuable to our existence as a university.” DOUGLAS LEDFORD
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF EQUITY AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
and minorities who have been hired who are capable of working in that discipline, Ledford said. When underutilization occurs, the OEEO and the department with an open position begin a search with hopes of attracting a diverse pool of applicants, Ledford said. Thompson said there should not be set percentages for applicant pools. Furbeck said she thinks 10 percent of applicants in any applicant pool should be non-white, non-disabled, non-veteran males. “I think there should be a set percentage of people who aren’t male or white but to say you have to have so many disabled people, women and other minorities does make it more likely that someone will be the token minority and getting a position because you are a minority is the same thing as not getting the position because you are a minority,” Furbeck said. Once that pool is developed, the department with the open position narrows the applicant pool down to
certain teachers at Miami, they grade their tests blindly without knowing whose tests they are,” Thompson said. “I think that’s a really wonderful thing because I think that’s equal when you are not evaluating by one standard.” Another proposed change would put more focus on hiring veterans. If a veteran applies for a position with an employer and is found to be unqualified for that position, this change would require the employer to search through all of their available open positions to determine if that veteran is qualified for any other open positions, Ledford said. “This is the exact opposite of what they do for minorities and females,” Ledford said. Currently, in order for a person to be considered for a position they must apply for that position, Ledford said. Ledford said even though there are some problems with the proposed changes, it is important to help veterans and those with disabilities find employment.