ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
Volume 150 No. 10
Miami university — Oxford, Ohio
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2022
In this issue
A Provost’s legacy:
College Jason Osborne’s three years in office Republicans’ recent tweets spark controversy
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY Many students change their major in college: Here is how Miami University is helping - page 5
LEXI WHITEHEAD CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Recent posts from Miami University’s College Republicans (CRs) Twitter account have caused controversy among some in the Miami community. -
ENTERTAINMENT May the 4th be with you
- page 7 FOOD A brief history of Miami University dining halls - page 9
MIAMI UNIVERSITY PROVOST JASON OSBORNE RESIGNED AFTER LESS THAN THREE YEARS IN HIS POSITION. PHOTO COURTESY OF MIAMI UNIVERSITY
LUKE MACY STAFF WRITER
SEAN SCOTT STYLE A fashion mirage: MUF&D's oasis - page 10
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR A pandemic. Unionization. Remote learning. A new Strategic Plan. Provost Jason Osborne’s tenure any Miami University provost. But all that has come to an end. Osborne announced his resignation April 11. His last day will be June 30, just less than three years after he
SPORTS Jonathan Brand has shoved his way to success this season - page 12 OPINION The World Is Ours - page 15 PHOTO STORY Descending - page 16
on Aug. 1, 2019. Since then, the university Osborne entered has fundamentally changed and may be on the brink of further transformation. Osborne resigned days before the All-University Faculty Committee for Evaluation of Administrators was set to publish its three-year review of his tenure. The review takes input from
faculty members across the university to create its evaluation. As The Miami Student works to acquire records related to his review and resignation, the publication has decided to examine, over the course of multiple stories, his time at Miami, the impact he had and the university’s trajectory now. COVID-19 Osborne was at Miami for less than eight months before the uniCOVID-19. For the next two years, he would be tasked with leading the university through the pandemic. “There’s no place I’d rather have been during this time, and there’s no other team I would rather have met these challenges with than the folks at Miami,” Osborne said. “It’s just been an amazing team.” Before coming to Miami, Osborne was dean of Graduate Studies at Clemson University and a department chair at the University of Louisville before that. When he came to Miami as Provost, the position was a new level of responsibility.
While Osborne said the job is unimaginably large, he’s surrounded himself with capable people who are allowed to disagree with him. “This is really a team sport,” Osborne said. “Any success we’ve had is due to the entire team.” Several COVID-19-era policies under Osborne’s administration have proved controversial to students and faculty. In Jan. 2021, the university reverted to its pre-COVID-19 credit/no credit policy, shortening the window for students to change to just two and a half weeks after classes begin. After backlash and a student petition, the university extended the deadline to three months. For the 2021 spring semester, Osborne announced Miami would not have a spring break in order to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. Instead, the university spread the as “wellness days,” which debuted with mixed receptions. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Where is Oxford’s movie theater? lor-made for aspiring recording artists. One option is conspicuously absent, though: a movie theater.
to Oxford’s loss of the Princess, which closed in 2014. “The theater had, at times, wonderful management that, if you said you wanted to see a movie they would bring it here,” Prytherch said.
of West High Street and North Beech Street sits an otherwise nondescript building of student apartments. Nondescript apart from the lighted arch THE FORMER PRINCESS THEATER IN OXFORD NOW SERVES streaking along its top. AS STUDENT HOUSING. PHOTO BY REECE HOLLOWELL The passage of time REECE HOLLOWELL may have concealed the STAFF WRITER history of this building to many of Miami University’s current students, Uptown Oxford provides a few but Oxford natives know it well: here places for students looking to do any- lies the late Princess Theater. thing other than going to bars. Future David Prytherch, professor of geGreat Comics caters to comic book ography at Miami and Oxford City lovers, and Oxford Originals is tai- Council member, said there’s a sting
Princess; it was a wonderful asset in our community.” as the Oxford Theater, becoming the Princess in the 1980s alongside a size expansion. Elizabeth Mullenix, dean of the College of Creative Arts at Miami and long-time Oxford resident, said having a movie theater in town meant a lot as a parent. “I thought it was really smart that during the school year they had movies that students would like, but in the summer it was a lot of family movies,” Mullenix said. “My kids would ride their bikes to the Princess
and watch movies, we’d go as a family, my husband and I went as a date night, we went all the time.” In 2012, the Princess’ parent company Alliance Entertainment sold the majority of its properties to Regal Cinemas, excluding the smaller Oxtion to the city, but city council at the time turned it down. “There was a golden opportunity for this movie theater to be given to the community, and the city leadership hesitated,” Prytherch said. “When the company that owned the movie theater sold the theater, they den everyone knew in town that the Princess was closed.” Local property owners quickly honed in on the building. After a bidding war, a private ownership group seized control in late 2013, reopening CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
RedHawks move on to the NFL JACK SCHMELZINGER SPORTS EDITOR Have you ever heard of the Texas Longhorns? One of the greatest programs in college football history had zero players taken in this year’s NFL Draft. Miami (OH), on the other hand? One. Read it and weep Longhorn fans: you want to know how to produce NFL talent? Come to Oxford and take notes. Dominique Robinson was the lone RedHawk selected this weekend. The freakishly athletic edge rusher went to the Chicago Bears with the #174 overall pick. Robinson has only played defense for a couple of years. He started his Miami career as a quarterback, and he got switched to defensive line.
of high school was from Miami, was expected to go sometime in the third round. Especially after an electric combine performance, where the 6-foot-5 253 pound Robinson ran a 4.72 second 40-yard dash and ends with 25 bench press reps and a 41 inch vertical jump. “It’s just a blessing to be able to get picked,” Robinson said in his introductory press conference. “I’m just ready to play football … I’m ready everybody that I am who I say I am. That I will be a great player.” It’s the third straight year a Miami alum has been drafted to the NFL. In 2020, the Los Angeles Rams drafted kicker Sam Sloman in the seventh
player selected in three straight years since the turn of the century. Robinson was the only Miami alum drafted this weekend, but he wasn’t the only one to get an NFL shot. Mike Brown, Cedric Boswell, Sterling Weatherford and Jack Sorenson all signed free agent deals shortly after the draft ended Sunday. Brown signed with the Minnesota Vikings, Boswell with the Detroit Lions, Weatherford with the Indianapolis Colts, and Sorenson, a fan favorite, with the hometown Cincinnati Bengals. Brown, Boswell and Weatherford, three defensive backs, were all key cogs in Miami’s defense last season. Sorenson, who started his the RedHawks. He had his best year in 2021, and it earned him all-Mid-
season with 76 catches for 1406 yards and 10 touchdowns. a good chance of making the Bears’ roster. The other four will have an uphill climb to dressing on Sundays, but they can remain on NFL practice squads for up to three years. And it’s not too rare to see undrafted players break out; just ask Antonio Gates, the greatest ever undrafted MAC player. Gates, a tight end who wasn’t selected out of Kent State in 2003, will enter the hall of fame as one of the greatest players ballot in 2023. schmelj2@miamioh.edu @jackschmelznger @sports_TMS
silent protest against Ohio House Bill 616. The tweet expressed support for the bill, saying “HB616 prevents predatory teachers from grooming students and pushing woke gender ideology on young children.” Another tweet from April 26 commended the university for an email sent to Hillcrest Hall residents asking that men not use the women’s restrooms. The tweet that received the most attention and controversy, however, was posted on April 25 and read “There are only two genders.” As of May 2, there have been 46 quote tweets in response to it, mainly consisting of negative feedback. The tweets were not signed by an only if the organization could preview this article before its publication, a condition The Miami Student does not grant. After communicating The Student’s policy on prior review, CRs did not immediately respond to reporters. architecture history, political science and women’s gender and sexuality studies triple major, is concerned about how CRs’ language can be harmful. trans people or gender non-conforming, gender diverse people in danger, in harms way, and that’s putting a target on their back,” Harvey said. “I realat Miami, but it’s already been happening elsewhere.” Being transgender and queer themself, Harvey said the language in the tweets made them feel unwelcome on campus. “Being trans and queer at Miami, seeing the tweets from College Republicans — it’s been really painful and isolating because I already feel marginalized and excluded as is from the nation already,” Harvey said. “Seeing makes those feelings worse.” Although they agree that CRs deserves to have a place on campus, Harvey thinks Miami administrators should reach out to the organization. ready, would engage in conversations about why what they’re saying can be harmful,” Harvey said. Cristina Alcalde, vice president for institutional diversity and inclusion, wrote in an email to The Student that Miami believes in upholding freedom of expression. “As a public university, Miami recognizes the First Amendment right to free speech. That protection includes social media comments that some may Alcalde wrote. “It’s important to note that our commitment to free expression is not an endorsement of such content.” Public universities must abide by the First Amendment, which means that if Miami were to respond to CRs, its response would be limited. In 2019, the organization Speech First sued University of Michigan (UM) over its bias-response team, claiming it had the potential to deter certain forms of speech on campus. The suit led to UM doing away with the team. Alcalde wrote that the university is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. “LGBTQ+ community members are valued Miami community members, and our goal is to ensure every member of the Miami community feels valued and supported,” Alcalde wrote. Alcalde also pointed out Miami’s several educational programs, such as Safe Zone Training, which is optional and open to all students through the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion. @nwlexi