The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 139 NO. 56
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1991, The Miami Student reported over 100 students and faculty gathered at the Hub to demand the installation of condom machines into residence halls. The Student reported the crowd shouted, “Give us condoms or give us death!” in response to a recommendation from Myrtis Powell, vice president of student affairs, to veto legislation to install the machines.
Students rush to find off campus housing By Andrew Grant and Amanda Vankoski For The Miami Student
Looking for housing months ahead of time is common practice for Miami University students, but this year students have begun signing leases for houses and apartments up to 18 months in advance. “I felt rushed into signing,” junior Evan Deaton said. “My friends and I signed early in September last year and if we had to redo things, I’m not so sure we would live here again.” Miami students are required to live on campus for their first two years, with the exception of sophomores who are allowed to live in fraternities that meet certain criteria. Before this requirement was implemented three to four years ago, many first-year students immediately signed leases for their sophomore year three weeks after starting college, according to Bobbe Burke, Miami coordinator of off-campus affairs and Miami
Tribe relations. Since the change, lease signing has occurred even earlier. Many students looking for housing experience this perceived housing “rush,” believing there are not enough housing options. “The process felt rushed, but I understand the competition,” junior Josh Eldemire said. “Living off-campus is what you do as an upperclassman; I’m just glad we got a house.” Deaton and Eldemire are living in the same house this year with two other roommates. Their situation is not uncommon for many students at Miami. “In most other markets, students sign leases for the following school year in the spring,” Senior Associate of Cardinal Group Management, Mike O’Brien said. “So the months of March and April are the most important for our properties in other markets.” But is there an actual competition between students and housing companies? “There are approximately 7,200 beds on campus and there aren’t enough beds to go around,” Burke
said. “There are many, many more places to live than for people to live off-campus.” Keeping sophomores on campus allows for one more year of maturity, according to Burke. First-years Tommy Vance and Kasey Stone have experienced this “rush.” “Honestly, I am not sure what my plans are for junior year, so I am not ready to sign a lease,” Vance said. “But, with so many people signing leases, I am worried that it is going to be hard to find a place to live if I wait any longer.” Stone said she felt the pressure to sign for junior year when she started to look at housing in early March. “We spent a couple of weeks house hunting before we signed, but I think that it is really dumb that everyone is signing this early when they don’t know what they’ll want two years from now,” Stone said. “For instance, you don’t know if you’ll have the same friends or will still like the house this far in advance.” Some university officials share
these sentiments. “It is just not a process that is good for students,” Burke said. “They are frazzled before it’s happening, they’re frazzled while it’s happening and then they wonder, ‘did I make the right decision?’ It’s unfortunate.” According to Sherri Bowling, assistant director of housing and meal plans, students want to live off campus because of the comparable cost to living in the residence halls and because there are no resident assistants, no quiet hours and absolute freedom. “Miami doesn’t have a perception related to the appeal to live off-campus,” Bowling said. “My personal perception is the ability to live with a group of friends and not have the supervision of the live-in hall staff and rules associated with living in the halls.” According to Eldemire and sophomore Kelsey Gamble, who signed her house at the beginning of April, the restrictive nature of residence halls has fueled competition for the “best” houses off campus. “When we were signing for our
house, we were sitting at the table and there were people banging on the door yelling that they would pay double,” Gamble said. “That was crazy. And I know that people have called already for the 2014 -2015 school year on our house.” The housing companies are aware of this competitiveness, according to O’Brien. “Miami is very different from other markets in this regard,” O’Brien said. “About 60 percent of our leases are signed in August and September. There is a rush to grab houses at the beginning of the school year and students are fearful they will not have a good place to live if they do not sign quickly.” While the process may be difficult for students, it is not easy for housing companies either, according to O’Brien. “The rule that Miami University enacted a couple of years ago to force sophomores to live on campus made filling all of our places much more difficult,” O’Brien
HOUSING, SEE PAGE 4
Study finds disordered eating prevalent at Miami By Allison McGillivray Campus Editor
Dining hall chatter about that piece of cake, “you just should not have eaten” can actually be a sign of a new ideology about food that might encourage disordered eating among college students, according to Cameron Hay-Rollins, Miami University associate professor of anthropology. Hay-Rollins, Rose Marie Ward, associate professor of Kinesiology and Health and three former students, Sarah McKasson, Michelle Fakler and Francesca Cheli, have been working on a study about how female college students approach eating and whether social comments on their eating habits lead to disordered eating or eating disorders. The authors will likely publish the study within the next year. An eating disorder is a diagnosable syndrome, according to HayRollins, whereas disordered eating is eating curtailed for social, physical or cultural ends, and can fall anywhere between dieting too much and stress eating. Junior Caitlin McGillicuddy said disordered eating is not publicized enough. “I think [disordered eating] is really underpublicized,” McGillicuddy said. “It should be addressed because
income families,” Gustin said. The study began with a semesterlong observation of student behavior in dining halls. Hay-Rollins said the authors looked at what students were eating, how much they were putting on their plates and even if they were, “getting pieces of cake and hiding it under bread so that people won’t make comments.” Hay-Rollins said these observations helped the authors develop a survey, which they distributed to first-year females. This allowed the authors of the study to gather quantitative data, which was then analyzed by Ward. After this data was gathered the authors of the study, especially McKasson and Fakler, observed how students talk about eating, according to Hay-Rollins. “We were looking at how people talk about those things and on this campus, at least from our findings, people are talking about these kinds of issues a lot,” Hay-Rollins said. Hay-Rollins said having both statistical data and qualitative data allowed the authors to gather more conclusive results. According to Hay-Rollins, student talk about eating is pervasive but not necessarily a preoccupation. The results of the study show disordered eating is neither specific to particular groups of people nor an “epidemic”
Statistically if you look at the socioeconomic background of our student body ... there’s statistically a higher[er] risk factor in some socioeconomic high income families.” TAMMY GUSTIN
STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES NURSE PRACTITIONER
I’m sure that everyone I know has gone through a point where they don’t eat enough calories throughout their day.” According to Tammy Gustin, nurse practitioner at Student Health Services, Miami students have a higher risk factor for eating disorders because students are between the ages of 18-23 years old, the campus is 55 percent female and because many Miami students have high socioeconomic status. “Statistically if you look at the socioeconomic background of our student body, these are all generalities because it could happen to anyone, but there is statistically a high[er] risk factor in some socioeconomic high
on campus. “It seems to be pervasive in the sense that you would bump into to conversations where people are talking about eating or dieting or stress eating,” Hay-Rollins said. “I’m not sure I’d call it a preoccupation.” According to Rollins this “everyday,” “casual” talk is evident of a moral ideology among collegeage women that people should eat a particular way. Female Miami first-years are concerned with issues such as body image, McGillicuddy said. “I feel like freshmen probably deal
EATING DISORDER, SEE PAGE 8
LAUREN OLSEN THE MIAMI STUDENT
YOU FOUND ME
The Fray perform Wednesday night at Miami University’s Millett Hall as a part of Miami’s Performing Arts Series. The band, brought in by Miami’s Campus Activities Council Concert Board, played songs off their new album, Scars and Stories, as well as their old hits.
Farmer School of Business credit hour fees set to increase over next two years By Rebecca Peets Staff Writer
A plan to raise fees for business classes is raising fire among business students. The plan includes a surcharge per credit hour on all business courses for business majors and minors, according to Rebekah Keasling, assistant dean for admission in Miami University’s Farmer School of Business (FSB). This charge will increase by $25 per academic year. For the current school year the charge is $50 per credit hour, but will increase to $75 then $100 in the next two years, according to Keasling. First-year Sydney Powell said she is not happy about the fee. “That’s a lot of money when you really think about it,” Powell said. “Yes $25 to $50 seems understandable but $75 to $100 seems a bit ridiculous per credit hour when the business school is as good as it is now without overcharging its students.” Alan Oak is the assistant dean of external relations in FSB. “The driver for this action has to do with our ability to attract and retain top quality faculty,” Oak said. “We have to offer salaries that are
in line with those available at other business schools in Ohio and beyond Ohio.” David Creamer, vice president of Finance and Business Services, explained the benefits of the fee to students. The funds generated by the increase in surcharge will be used specifically for business students to enhance their educational experience, Creamer said. In addition to faculty salaries, the extra fees will provide services to students such as advising, career services, internship opportunities and international opportunities, “so students are effective leaders going forward,” Oak said. Most business schools such as Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Toledo have a similar differential model to Miami where they charge their students a fee beyond basic tuition, according to Oak. “We also compete against Indiana University and the University of Michigan and this program is the typical practice,” Oak said. “Our tuitions and costs are in line, even attractive relative to other programs.” The fees are obviously larger in the business school than any of
the other colleges in the university, Creamer said. “This is driven by the higher cost of business courses,” Creamer said. “Salaries for faculty are higher. Experience students can receive is the highest we can provide.” FSB established a $25 per credit hour fee for all business courses in 2006, according to Oak. In spring 2010, the Board of Trustees approved an increase in the premium from $25 to $50 moving to $75 and then $100 in the next two years, Oak said. The current policy applies to all business courses and graduate courses except the professional program (PMBA) and premium tuition rate programs, Keasling said. The fee does not apply to students taking business classes through a business workshop, internationally or in Luxembourg. It does not apply to the Miami Plan foundation courses or BLS 235, which is a Mock Trial course. It also only applies to students taking courses at the Oxford campus, according to Keasling. Once the fee is fully implemented the annual average additional cost to
FSB,
SEE PAGE 4