The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 138 NO. 14
Friday, October 8, 2010
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
In 1993, The Miami Student reported Oxford City Council tabled an ordinance that would forbid all recreational activities on the roofs of Oxford residences. The ordinance was tabled in order to clarify the language about what constituted a roof.
Letter from the editor To all of our readers, Today marks the end of an era. It’s the last day Amusement will be published as part of The Miami Student. The decision was made not only based upon student feedback, but due to the fact Amusement was never meant to be part of our newspaper. For those who don’t know, Amusement was its own publication until September 2008. At that time, a “House Ad Issue” was printed, an issue that talked about “sterilizing the gays” and claiming on the Infamous Top 7 List the No. 1 thing Miami University should protest is diversity. Immediately afterward, Amusement was suspended as an independent publication and put in The Miami Student as a two-page spread every Friday. Since then, Amusement has essentially been the entertainment section of our newspaper. As time has gone on, we have begun to push our limits more and more when it comes to Amusement’s content. As we do so, feedback becomes more and more negative. Yes, we have our First Amendment rights, but we’re a student newspaper for the students and by the students. We’re here for our readers and we want to put out the content our campus wants to read. The feedback we’ve gotten about Amusement since my tenure as editor in chief began in February and has been overwhelmingly negative. We don’t want to leave our readers unsatisfied. If you have any further comments or questions you would like to share with us, please e-mail eic@ miamistudent.net. If you wish to submit a letter to the editor to be printed in our paper, send documents to editorial@ miamistudent.net. Thanks for your readership, Catherine Couretas Editor in Chief
Hodge addresses Miami
By Amanda Seitz Campus Editor
Miami University President David Hodge’s annual address focused on the fate of the university’s previously mentioned goals. The address, delivered on the stage at 4 p.m. Oct. 7 in Hall Auditorium, tackled issues concerning retention rates and enhancing the undergraduate experience. Hodge said the university could not improve its main goals without elevating its status in rankings. “It’s difficult to talk about getting better without addressing our status in rankings,” Hodge said. Hodge said he would like to further experiences that stimulate critical thinking through high-impact activities. One way to achieve this, according to Hodge, is to increase global perspectives. Hodge suggested continued commitment to reach a 50 percent study abroad rate on the Oxford campus. “At the top of our list of high impact activities is study aboard,” Hodge said. “Clearly a global perspective is critical to our future success.” Hodge also noted the importance of student research. “We have very significantly researched the number of students directly involved with a faculty member, staff or a graduate student in research projects,” Hodge said. “We need to look at our curriculum through the lens of research.” With these goals in mind, the university will strive to increase the current graduation rate of 83 percent to 85 percent, Hodge said.
CAMPUS, page 2
By Amanda Seitz Campus Editor
Miami University has a little helper to assist in hacking away at its budget. For the 2010-11 fiscal year, Miami’s Oxford campus will lose $4.25 million. The state said this loss in funding will just be a temporary problem. Miami will miss out on its June 2011 payment but be reimbursed for the money in July, said David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services. Regional campuses are also getting stiffed for the month of June, as Creamer said a payment of $926,000 will be delayed. Creamer does not expect any repercussions this year for the lapsed payments. “I believe that at least for the moment we can operate without any immediate reductions in the budget,” Creamer said. Creamer said he is slightly concerned the state may default on its loan. After electing a new governor in November, Ohio will approve its biennial budget in 2011. According to Creamer, that budget is currently facing somewhere between a
$5 billion to $8 billion deficit before talks have even started. “If they have not been able to meet the obligation, how are they going to meet it with an $8 billion shortfall in the next biennial budget?” Creamer asked. The hits go deeper than just Miami.
BY THE NUMBERS Loss in funding for Miami’s Oxford campus for 2010-11 year
$4.25
MILLION
According to Ohio’s constitution, the state can’t operate with a negative budget. “In essence, the state’s budget is out of balance,” Creamer said. To return to the positive, immediate reductions have to be made statewide, resulting in $800 million in cuts. Ohio higher education took home one-eighth of these cuts totaling $127 million. Every institution took a cut proportionally missing
BOO!
Sat
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Some Miami students are hoping to break a world record.
FEATURES, page 4
SCARE FEST
SEE YA, WEEKEND!
Get the scoop on haunted houses in the surrounding area.
Sun
out on one June payment, or 6.8 percent, according to state documents. Higher education institutions were a natural choice for the state to utilize in sustaining its budget, according to Rob Evans, press secretary for the Ohio Board of Regents. “The funding, particularly when you consider for the institution, it’s easier … clear swings in enrollment at large and financially complex organizations and their ability to move payments around while avoid impacting services while this lapse occurs,” Evans said. “Given it’s a three week lapse and you have institutions that have budgets of millions of dollars, it’s different.” Evans said he is confident in the state’s commitment to higher education and repaying the loans. “Given the strong support from the governor and the general assembly, we’re completely confident that repaying of the lapse will be timely and full,” Evans said. “What we can know for certain is that at every opportunity, whether is was the first budget between the governor and the second budget which was in the
HOPEFUL LEGEND
Say goodbye to Friday and Saturday.
AMUSEMENT, page 5
COMMUNITY, page 3
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behavior and contribute to students leaving Miami because the penalties for poor performance are too high?” Hodge said. Hodge said these standards at Miami would be re-evaluated. Hodge ended his address to a crowd of more than 150 members of the Miami community with a nod to the future. “The future is uncertain but we must have the confidence to act decisively and purposefully to chart a course that will lead to our future success,” Hodge said.
State delays funding to universities
THE
The WMSR studio has gotten a makeover.
Enhancing the advising services Miami offers will be a priority for the university to further develop retention rates. “Although we’ve made significant improves in advising in the Oxford campus … student surveys suggest that we are not at the level of peers,” Hodge said. To further assist in the achievement of retention rates, Hodge hopes to encourage budding and influential relationships between students and faculty. “I ask, do we inadvertently deter that
CAMPUS
INSIDESCOOP
UPGRADE
CAROLINE BUCK The Miami Student
President Hodge makes his Presidental address Thursday evening in Hall Auditorium.
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middle of a very giant economic time, we saw, obviously, no increased funding but instead a commitment of protecting our education funding.” While the state’s current budget for higher education has been protected under Gov. Ted Strickland, it has also declined and stayed stagnant over the past 10 years. In 2001, the Oxford campus received approximately $72 million from the state. Today it generates $62 million, according to Creamer. The reduction Miami and other Ohio universities face may take a crystal ball to predict. “I think any kind of questions, any kind of visions of the (Ohio biennial) budget is very preliminary in the stage,” Evans said. “It’s just not something that’s close enough in time to make a firm picture.”
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WWW.MIAMISTUDENT.NET CAMPUS: SKIPPING CLASS? A new website helps students determine if they can skip class smartly.
SPORTS: FALL SPORT BONANZA
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Check out the sports section for a variety of columns, previews and recaps.