ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2016
Volume 144 №42
Student dies after climbing and falling from Williams Hall radio tower DEATH
SEXUAL ASSAULT
Student Counseling Services (513.529.4634)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MinGi Kang, a 20-yearold university studies major from Seoul, South Korea and Beijing, China, is dead after climbing and falling from the radio tower at Williams Hall last Thursday. A Miami University Police Department officer responded to a 911 call at approximately 3:45 p.m. Thursday, March 25, according to the incident report. MUPD Capt. Ben Spilman said he could not elaborate on specifics, but the department is investigating the case as a suicide. The official report from the Butler County coroner is pending. Mike Curme, associate vice president and dean of students, declined to comment on the incident, but included a list of counseling and suicide prevention resources for students in his initial announcement to the university community. “The loss of anyone in our community affects all of us,” Curme wrote. “We hope that you will not hesitate to take advantage of any resources that you need, and take care of yourselves and each other in the coming weeks.” Claire Wagner, director of
Sexual assault survivors seek protection via no contact policy
Resources
JAMES STEINBAUER
Butler County 24 hour crisis hotline (844.427.4747) National crisis text line (741.741)
CONTRIBUTED
university news and communication, said the death of any student is a loss for the Miami community. “The loss of a student is a tragedy for us now and in ways we can’t even imagine,” Wagner said. “We will never be able to know what that student could have gone on to do.” In a 911 call last Thursday, Stephen Gordon, curator at the McGuffey Museum, told an MUPD dispatcher that someone was climbing the more than 350-foot radio tower. “He’s so far away, but he’s dressed in dark and he’s probably 75 feet up on the ladder,” Gordon said. “So I don’t know, he could be a repairman, but he doesn’t appear to be a repairman.” Steve Beitzel, the chief engineer at Williams Hall, said he had just left the building
Miami University — Oxford, Ohio
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800.273.8255) MUPD (513.529.2222) McCullough-Hyde Hospital (513.523.2111) at 4:12 and was walking past the 10-foot fence surrounding the radio tower when he heard something hit the ground. “The logical engineer in me said, ‘there’s a lot of cell antennas and transmitters up there and it has been raining all day, so something must have just gotten wet and broke off.’” Richard Campbell, chair of Miami’s Department of Media, Journalism and Film, commented on the incident, which has left many faculty members in Williams Hall shaken. “This is just a sad and tragic thing, to think that some WILLIAMS »PAGE 3
TESS SOHNGEN
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Many survivors of sexual assault may not be protected from their perpetrators on campus because they do not qualify for no contact orders. A no contact order is a legal document issued by the Dean of Students that offers interim protection measures and prohibits the perpetrator from contacting the student. It is one of the first steps Miami University takes when a sexual assault case is reported and further investigated. When a student reports a sexual assault through Miami University, he or she has three choices of action thereafter: file a complaint against a student perpetrator at the Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution (OESCR), ask for a university-led investigation through the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity or choose to take no action against the accused, said Rebecca Getson, Miami’s sexual assault response coordinator. Survivors who choose to take no action against their perpetrator cannot file a no contact order because there is no proceeding action in their sexual assault case. “The university can’t
For students, Tinder use a competition TECHNOLOGY
KELY BURNS KIRBY DAVIS
THE MIAMI STUDENT
According to its official website, Tinder is a place to meet friends, start relationships and potentially find your soul mate. But to most Miami students, it’s a game. Founded in 2012, Tinder is a dating app that presents other users in your area on which you can swipe right or left, meaning you’re interested or you’re not, respectively. On each person’s profile is their first name, a short biography and mutual Facebook friends or interests. Two people “match” when they both swipe right on each other, and from there they can send one another messages. While many opt for a simple “Hey,” others venture into riskier, or more inappropriate, territory. Things like, “Is your name Daniel? Because damnnn,” and “I’ll have your panties dropping quicker than Jeb Bush drops an election” and “You look like the type of girl who would enjoy being pinned up against the wall and fucked.” First-years Keaton Bass and Nico Katsafanas agree that the only consequence of sending messages like these on Tinder is the occasional
awkward public encounter with a match or the rare offended response. Katsafanas says his ideal first message to a girl is something relatively offensive, but funny at the same time. “It’s gotta be as dirty as possible,” Bass agrees. Katsafanas says his forward approach yields a 75 percent success rate. “There’s a surprising amount of good responses to awful things . . . I think that’s what they expect,” says Bass. Katsafanas and his friends participate in a group chat where they send each other screenshots of the ridiculous messages. They laugh over the responses and the fact that they sent the messages at all. Katsafanas is not selective in who he matches with. He simply goes back and forth between swiping left and right. Bass swipes right on almost everyone. He feels bad if he doesn’t. Both students think the best use of Tinder is for pure entertainment, and while neither has taken it seriously, they don’t think the girls they’re messaging do either. First-year Audri Johnson, who is two weeks into the Tinder game, isn’t using the app to find her soulmate. She’s just looking
sanction anyone without some disciplinary action,” said Susan Vaughn, the director of OESCR. “Whether it’s an investigation or an OESCR process, there has to be something that we will eventually do,” said Getson. Getson is the primary point of contact for survivors and the Deputy Title IX Coordinator. Only after reporting the incident can the survivor obtain an interim no contact order from the Dean of Students and later a no contact order after an OESCR hearing. “I think it’s a shame that they don’t offer no contact orders for these victim-survivors, even if they don’t want to go through the OESCR or police,” said Jane, a senior at Miami. Jane is a survivor of a sexual assault that occurred on a different campus before she transferred to Miami her sophomore year. Because she didn’t want to go to police or go through an investigation, she said the university told her, “You’re on your own … there’s nothing we can do about it.” Miami offers forms of protection to those who don’t have a no contact order, such as making scheduling and
residency changes for the survivor, the accused or both. Getson said this is trickier because there’s no legal action behind the university’s attempts to keep the survivor and the perpetrator separate. With no contact orders, the burden falls on the accused to change class sections or residency or to leave a location when necessary. One of Jane’s roommates had issues with a boyfriend who would become verbally abusive after drinking; he lived down the hall from them. Jane said he would bang on their door and yell at her roommate from the other side. After her roommate reported the issue, and the university moved the boyfriend to another residence hall, though the roommate had taken no legal action against him during the time he changed dorms. “I think students just don’t know what their options are,” said Jane. “You don’t have to go through the OESCR office or the police to get help from the university.” Jane now works with Getson through Women Against Violence and Sexual Assualt (WAVES), for which Getson is the advisor. “What I see more often NO CONTACT »PAGE 3
Policy on minors on campus ignites controversy POLICY
MAGGIE CALLAHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER
for a distraction and finds the messages she receives from boys amusing. “It’s just such an uncomfortable thing but it’s so funny at the same time,” Johnson says. “ I think it’s hilarious to see how desperate guys are.” Johnson humors those who dare to send her messages like “If I were a watermelon, would you spit or swallow my seeds?”, which she receives on a regular basis, but also refuses to respond to less creative ones that read “Hey” or “What’s up?” Like Bass and Katsafanas, Johnson sees Tinder as a game. On several occasions, she’s given matches directions to meet her around campus, but she never shows up. “Something came up,” she says to the boys who continue to message her. She finds it hilarious. Pick-up lines like the ones Johnson receives on Tinder are not what she would typically hear in a face-to-face
conversation. So, the question becomes: why do people send them at all? Social psychology graduate student Ryan Walker points to societal gender norms and, more importantly, personality, as potential explanations for people’s Tinder-ing tendencies. “I think a lot of it has to do with personality,” Walker says. “Tinder also makes it relatively easy to act that way. It’s such a quick and easy dating site . . . It’s all based on superficial characteristics.” It’s easy to find research conducted on social media titans like Facebook and Twitter, but little is known about the science or psychology behind newer apps like Tinder. Walker says that, while most behavior on the app can be attributed to individual personalities, gender expectations and roles are likely affecting it as well. For example, boys are generally more willing to act brash or TINDER »PAGE 3
At its Feb. 22 meeting, the Miami University Senate reviewed a bill to approve the policy for allowing minors, or anyone under the age of 18 who does not attend or has not been accepted to attend Miami, on campus. The policy, put in place by Miami University’s General Counsel, has been active for years, but was never approved by University Senate. “As far as I know, I’ve been breaking the rule for years,” said Leah WasburnMoses, a Miami professor of educational psychology who has three children between the ages of 7 and 15. Maria Cronley, secretary of University Senate, said a motion was made to remove the bill from the consent calendar to allow senators more time to review and discuss the parts of the policy. The policy outlines guidelines and rules as to how minors must be supervised on campus. According to the policy written by Miami University GeneraCounsel, no minor under the age of 14 can be left alone. Also, residents in the residence halls are not allowed to monitor minors in their rooms, but minors are allowed to ac-
company a parent to work only on a “bring your child to work” day. Furthermore, the policy suggests that children with child care emergencies should be left at home. The minors on campus policy states, “Miami is not in a position to provide emergency child care, and no university space is to be used as an alternative to child care.” The purpose, according to the policy, is to keep minors, a “particularly vulnerable population,” safe and to deter any concern. The policy was also set in place in order to protect university individuals from being falsely accused of abuse. However, for Wasburn-Moses, this policy takes it too far. “I think this stems from what happened at Penn State,” Wasburn-Moses said. “They are trying to avoid a tragedy, which is commendable, but in my opinion, don’t ban children.” In 2011, Penn State University football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused and later convicted of sexually abusing 10 young boys at a Penn State youth football camp over a span of 15 years. Penn State paid $57.9 billion in MINORS »PAGE 3
NEWS p. 2
NEWS p. 3
CULTURE p. 4
OPINION p. 6
SPORTS p. 10
ROX THE FOX PROMOTES HEALTH AWARENESS
MIAMI SWITCHES TAKE-OUT CONTAINERS
WILLIMON BUILDS ‘HOUSE OF CARDS’ TO GREATNESS
EDITORIAL BOARD DEBATES BENEFITS OF SODA TAX
NFL RED CARD RULE TO POSE NEW PROBLEM
The new mascot was created by a Talawanda Middle School student.
The previously used brown boxes were non-recyclable and non-compostable.
Kevin Spacey returns to usual political scheming in the new season of Netflix original.
A new soda tax in the U.K. prompts discussion about the obesity epidemic in America.
Columnist writes about how the new rule leaves too much up to the referees.