The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2013
VOLUME 140 NO. 53
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1991, The Miami Student reported the story of alumna Laura Kretekos who, instead of working in an office after graduation, chose to dress up as a skunk and play a Lost Boy in Walt Disney’s World on Ice Production of Peter Pan. Kretekos said she found pleasure in her life on the road, though she admitted, “Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a show and suddenly wonder ‘What stadium is this and what city am I in?’”.
Student body lacking in economic diversity LAUREN OLSON PHOTO EDITOR
BY JM RIEGER
EDITOR AT LARGE
The following article is part two of a three-part series on education at Miami University. Despite rising racial diversity levels over the last 10 years, Miami University has continuously failed to attract economically diverse students, according to analysis by The Miami Student. As tuition outpaced the national average for four-year public institutions by more than 25 percent, Miami students’ family wealth also increased. More than 30 percent of Miami’s 2016 class reported family incomes greater than $200,000 in 2012, more than double the national average for four-year public colleges and universities and a 9 percent increase from 2002. The national average increased less than 6 percent in the same period. According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, which conducts the first-year Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) each year, the nation’s economic situation was also less likely to affect Miami students’ college choice in 2012, comparatively. This data follows a December 2012 report from the National Bureau of Economic Research tracking how universities nationwide have failed to attract low-income, highachieving students, while continuing to draw from a pool of high-income, high-achieving students. Miami has followed this trend. Miami students are more than twice as likely to report family incomes above $250,000 and more than 20 percent fell under this income bracket in 2012. Meanwhile, the median national
household income in 2011 was approximately $50,000 and fewer than 5 percent of households earned more than $200,000, according to the United States Census Bureau. Despite rising incomes, incoming students’ academic performance remained relatively constant over the last 10 years. At least one-third of incoming students graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class during that time, and more than 20 percent of Miami students in the class of 2016 had ACT scores above 30, the highest ratio since 2002. However, Miami’s four-year graduation rate decreased nearly 7 percent between 1997 and 2006, the 10 most recent university cohorts. As average family income has risen, so have the number of out-of-state students. The number of out-of-state firstyear students rose from 27 percent in 2002 to 35 percent in 2012 at Miami, compared to 8 percent statewide in 2011. This number jumps to 14 percent on universities’ main campuses, according to the Ohio Board of Regents, although Miami has enrolled the second-fewest in-state students over the past six years, behind only Central State University. Public universities have also increasingly targeted “full-pay” students, or students without financial need. According to a 2011 Inside Higher Ed survey, more than one third of all four-year institutions reported increasing recruitment efforts for “full-pay” students. These students may often be out-of-staters, according to Miami economics professor James Brock. “What I’ve noticed from the very beginning down to the present, is Miami always had a fairly significant draw from upper-middle income families or lower upper-income families,” Brock said. “That has always been a very important part of our appeal for a variety of reasons.” As out-of-state recruitment efforts have expanded, Miami has also increased its merit aid, which draws a
diverse pool of students according to Ann Larson, director of Miami’s Office of Admission. Larson said it is important to make Miami accessible to a broad range of students as a state institution. “Certainly diversity broadly defined, but you’d like diversity of thought as you read an application,” Larson said. “That is incumbent on the reviewers to look at that broad continuum and find differences.” Merit aid increased more than 22 percent from 2002 to 2012 as financial aid continued to play a larger role in students’ college decisions. Nearly 37 percent of Miami students said financial aid was “very important” in their decision to enroll in 2012, an increase of more than 19 percent from 10 years earlier, according to CIRP data. However, low cost of attendance was also significantly less likely to impact Miami students. Nearly 42 percent of all public university students said the cost of attending was “very important” where they enrolled, compared to 30 percent of Miami students. And nearly one half of Miami students reported no concern in their ability to finance college, compared to less than one third of all public university students. Larson said the university is “needblind” when reviewing applications though, and does not review a student’s economic need until receiving student FAFSA forms, even though less than two-thirds of Miami students complete the form each year. “We look at racial ethnic diversity, geographic diversity — we don’t in admission look at economic diversity,” Larson said. “We don’t have that access to a student’s financial situation; we read our applicants need blind. Do we work and strategically visit, I would say, economically depressed areas [though]? Yes … then the secondary effort to hopefully fund them with need-based aid and potentially, if they’re stronger students, with the merit-based aid money, it will make us accessible to
those students.” According to Diversity Affairs Council President Jonathan Wheeler though, economic and racial diversity are equally important and rising tuition makes it impossible for Miami to be economically diverse in the future. “[Most colleges] have to sacrifice low income students and the benefit of low income students oftentimes, for the security of knowing that the university … will be able to pay its bills; that is something that Miami has to navigate,” Wheeler said. “The numbers don’t lie. The white, upper middle class … often suburban student has those resources, and so that’s what’s going to make its way to Miami.” Despite economic diversity concerns, Miami’s racial diversity has grown over the past five years. More than 11 percent of Oxford campus undergraduates were racial minorities last year and Miami will welcome its most racially diverse class ever this fall. Miami has expanded recruitment efforts nationwide and internationally, including hiring an assistant director of urban outreach in 2012 and implementing the Miami Access Initiative in 2006, which covers tuition costs for low-income students. However, increased international recruitment, including a 43 percent
increase in the number of Chinese applicants over the last two years, has raised questions among some. “Increased [international] diversity is an easy way to justify everything,” Brock said. “I’m not so sure that we have cultural diversity or just sort of isolated islands of cultural differences that don’t really interact with the others.” But according to Nick Miller, incoming president of Student Senate, diversity is important because of its academic contribution. “We’re not looking for increased diversity on campus just to get specific checkboxes and fulfill rankings,” Miller said. “It’s because diversity adds something to the academic culture of the institution.” Scan this code to view a video with more on economic diversity at Miami University.
Fan of the tan: Students ignore the risks BY AMANDA HARR STAFF WRITER
LAUREN OLSON PHOTO EDITOR
HERE COMES THE SUN Students take in the sun as they walk past new blooms in Central Quad.
Women and men who use tanning beds more than once a month are 55 percent more likely to develop malignant melanoma, the second most prevalent form of cancer among women aged 20 to 29, according to Miami University’s Health Advocates for Wellness Knowledge and Skills (HAWKS). Promoting indoor tanning safety at Miami, HAWKS educates students with facts like these to reduce unsafe tanning practices with their “Tanning: Don’t Get Burned” program. Tanning is at its peak at Miami the week before spring break. Uptown tanning salon, Miami Beach, earns 60 percent of its profit over the duration of the second semester, according to owner Jim Eveslage. “In the last few years, we’re
sold out from 8 a.m. through 10 o’clock at night from that seven-to-nine-day window before spring break,” Eveslage said. Following spring break, he said students continue to use the tanning beds weeks after to keep up their tanned appearance. “The tanner the better,” firstyear Maddie McCallie said. Maintaining a sun-kissed glow artificially has its consequences, according to the assistant professor of kinesiology and health, Rose Marie Ward, who said the base tan students chase after is not advantageous. “It looks better now, but the tanning researchers will let you know that all the burns and tanning that you’ve done before the age of 20 is directly linked to the amount of wrinkles later,” Ward said. According to her, whether someone burns or not, the body is still releasing chemicals as the
result of UV ray damage. The UV lights in tanning beds are even more intense than rays from the sun, according to Ward. “The UVB ray you’re getting at such intensity and high doses of it is like putting yourself in the oven,” Ward said. “Would we do that? No. Think about the intensity of rays that you’re putting your body in.” Assistant Director of the Office of Student Wellness Leslie Haxby McNeill said she agrees the UV rays are dangerous. “There’s really no such thing as a safe ray,” McNeill said. According to her, UVB rays are most associated with sunburns and UVA rays do result in a tan, but also causes premature aging and damage to nerve and blood vessels. Students said these hazards do
TANNING, SEE PAGE 8