The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 140 NO. 14
FRIday, OCTOBER 5, 2012
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1953, The Miami Student reported that the Mclure-Hinle bill had passed the Ohio General Assembly and the desk of Gov. Lausche and permitted Miami to fund the creation of a new student center. The article began, “Members of the incoming Freshman class will be one of the first to enjoy the University Student Center toward which Miamians have been working for many years.”
Student impresses with summer research
CONTRIBUTED BY ALEX MCFARLAND
By Emily Glaser Senior Staff Writer
Note to professors: most students dread sharing interesting facts about their summers with the rest of the class on the first day of school. But this year, Miami University junior Alex McFarland had a good one; he researched orangutans in Borneo. McFarland participated in Earth Expeditions, a Miami program that has courses in 12 countries around the world that is offered mostly to master’s degree candidates and teachers, but accepts select undergraduate students, like McFarland. Earth Expeditions is part of Project Dragonfly, a program created by Miami faculty and students in 1994 that supports community engagement in science. McFarland was accepted into the
Earth Expeditions program in Borneo, a tropical island near Malaysia, where the course focused on primate conservation. He used his trip as the basis for his research for Miami’s Undergraduate Summer Scholars (USS) program. He wanted to compare orangutans in the wild to orangutans in captivity at the Cincinnati zoo. While in Borneo, McFarland observed some key traits of orangutans. “Orangutans spend about seven years with their moms,” McFarland said. “They spend that time period learning skills for survival, how to build nests, what foods to eat and such.” The orangutans McFarland observed at the Cincinnati zoo spent more time on the ground than orangutans in the wild do, according to McFarland. They also do not build nests,
whereas wild orangutans build a new nest every night. According to McFarland, this could be because of lack of materials in captivity or because they were born in captivity, so never learned to nest. McFarland said about 85 percent of Borneo’s forests have been logged for use in palm oil plantations, limiting the orangutan’s natural habitat. “The problem becomes, with such a rapid increase in habitat loss, the influx of orphans into rehabilitation centers is considerably higher,” McFarland said. “The people who work at the centers are typically local people who are donating their time. They are not trained to work with orangutans.” Through his research, McFarland hopes to discover a unified plan for how to approach
orangutan rehabilitation. “If we look at how they behave in captivity, what works and what doesn’t work for them, and their mental and physical health, then we can use that as a model for rehabilitation centers in the wild,” McFarland said. McFarland’s research was a formative experience for the undergrad. Scott Suarez, assistant professor of anthropology at Miami and McFarland’s research mentor, said he thinks the trip was very important for McFarland. “I think he came back transformed from this trip,” Suarez said. “He left with an interest in primates, but he came back so motivated. You can’t get this kind of knowledge from a book.” McFarland said he was inspired by the villagers’ affection
for the orangutans and their efforts to conserve them. “One guy said something that really stuck with me,” McFarland said. “He said, ‘Mallotus’ who is a young orangutan, ‘is the same age as my daughter, and when my daughter grows up, I want her to be able to share the forest with Mallotus.’” Chris Myers, Miami zoology professor and founder and director of Project Dragonfly, said community engagement is one of the benefits of the program. “It is a long running, successful program at Miami that supports community engagement in science and conservation,” Myers said. “… It gives people the chance to be a part of making a social or environmental impact with some of the most critical and inspiring projects and sites worldwide.”
CONTRIBUTED BY ALEX MCFARLAND
McFarland’s summer research on the island of Borneo sought to find a way to improve wildlife rehabilitation for orangutans.
Fledgling ‘Hawks have big skates to fill Professor studies cancer education, decision making By Tom Downey Senior Staff Writer
After losing one of the greatest senior classes in Miami University hockey history, Head Coach Enrico Blasi and the rest of the coaching staff have brought in yet another impressive freshman class. This 11-person class will be counted on to help replace the departed seniors. “It is first and foremost a good group,” Blasi said. “They are players that we recruited to a certain culture and they fit in real well. They’ve got some talent and some grit, all the things that you look for in a big class.
The only thing they lack is experience and the only way to gain that is to play the game. All in all, I think it’s a pretty solid group.” The RedHawks will need to replace two of the greatest goalies in Miami history with the departures of Connor Knapp and Cody Reichard. The Red and White will rely on a pair of talented freshman to do so. Freshman Ryan McKay will likely be the No. 1 goalie to start the year, after performing extremely well in the United States Hockey League the past few years. However, the pressure of replacing a pair of greats does not worry McKay.
“As a goaltender, you worry about yourself and you get the job done yourself,” McKay said. “If you add extra pressure, you don’t get the results you want ultimately.” Fellow freshman Jay Williams is also a talented goalie, and Blasi said he is just as good. Freshman forward Sean Kuraly is arguably the gem of the class. Kuraly has the bloodlines every player dreams of and was drafted in the fifth round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks. Kuraly
HOCKEY, SEE PAGE 5
CONTRIBUTED BY JEFF SABO
The new Brotherhood recruits will open the season 4 p.m. Sunday in an exhibition against Western Ontario.
By Megan Thobe Staff Writer
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and as charity events and awareness drives gain momentum across the country, one professor at Miami University has stepped in to lend an academic hand to the question of genetic breast cancer testing. Psychology professor Chris Wolfe is currently conducting a research project with a grant from the American Cancer Society to develop a technology that will help women understand the benefits and drawbacks of genetic breast cancer testing. Wolfe is utilizing the program AutoTutor-Lite, which is an intelligent tutoring system that interacts with people in natural language. According to senior Mandy Withrow, a member of Wolfe’s research team, the AutorTutor program will help women make more educated choices. “It’s an alternative to having women just go online and stare at a website,” Withrow said. “Especially for something as sensitive as breast cancer, having something
that women can interact with can be really helpful.” The technologies for AutoTutor have been developed within the past ten years and Wolfe’s project will be the first of its kind in the health care field. “Some of these technologies are getting to the point where you really can have a conversation with them,” Wolfe said. “I really think that we can use so much of it to help people learn in these different settings.” Interaction between the program and the subject is key. The AutoTutor presents information about genetic breast cancer testing in a process similar to a Power Point Presentation. The program asks the subject questions that they must answer before they can move on to new information. According to Wolfe, this process ensures the subject learns the material fully. The program also connects to a database containing definitions and explanations of breast cancer terms
CANCER, SEE PAGE 5