September 13, 2016 | The Miami Student

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

Volume 145 №4

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

ANGELO GELFUSO THE MIAMI STUDENT

The RedHawk’s home game against Eastern Illinois on Sept. 10 was the first time Miami University has sold alcohol at Yager Stadium.

Mentoring offered for LGBTQ students LGBTQ

KELLY MCKEWEN

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Students identifying as members of the LGBTQ community in Miami’s class of 2020 have been offered two opportunities that were not available for previous classes.

On the application for admission to Miami, an optional question was added to one

section of the application, asking prospective students if they identify as a member of the LGBTQ community.

The question was placed in a section that asked students other questions such as their affiliation with the military or with the Miami Tribe, or whether they are a first-generation college student.

As these students now enter Miami as first years, a mentoring program has been

created to help aid in their transition.

The decision to allow students to self-identify on their applications was a result of the Office of Admissions’ efforts to prioritize diversity.

The purpose of the new question was to connect LGBTQ students with resources within the LGBTQ community on campus, said Susan Schaurer, director of admissions.

“Particularly for LGBTQ students, once they got here, they would have to find those resources,” Shaurer said.

“We wanted to make certain we do a lot to provide diversity programs to those students on the frontside.”

In conjunction with the new question on the application, a mentoring program was created for all students LGBTQ »PAGE 5

Students frustrated by meal plan Miami adds two buffet locations DINING

BONNIE MEIBERS

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

After student complaints, Miami University has implemented new policies in its meal plans and dining options for this school year.

Chief among these changes is a new meal plan that allows students to purchase a set number of buffet meal “swipes” for use at dining halls, as well as a declining balance that can be used at a la carte locations. Similar to its predecessor, the new plan consists of several tiers with varying amounts of buffet swipes and declining dollars.

Brian Woodruff, director of the Housing Options, Meals and Events (H.O.M.E.) office, said the changes were made as a response to feedback from students and parents, who were unhappy about the $1,625 program assessment fee previously included as part of students’ meal plans.

The new plan offerings are structured around the buffet swipe system, and the H.O.M.E. office has consequently renovated dining facilities to accommodate the changes.

Over the summer, Bell Tower Place and Maple Street Station’s Pacific Rim were converted into buffetstyle dining halls and Red Brick Pizza, also at Maple Street Station, was replaced with The Q, a barbecue joint. Martin Dining Hall DINING »PAGE 4

Film Studies students Taylor Schenck and Hailey Hirata take in the view at the Telluride Film Festival. See the full photo story online at www.miamistudent.net

Coping with long distance love RELATIONSHIPS

MACKENZIE ROSSERO THE MIAMI STUDENT

“Sara!

Where’s your paint?”

The girl looked down — she had just arrived and didn’t have any paint yet.

Her white t-shirt stood out against the color-splattered basement of the frat house.

“It’s a paint party,” the boy, David, continued. “Here, I’ll help you.”

Before Sara could say a word, David hugged her to him. Lifting her body in the air, he spun her in circles and stained her shirt with the neon paint he had streaked across his chest.

While in the air, everything around Sara felt clearer. The music was louder and the paint was more vibrant. The arms around her felt con-

stricting, but in a pleasant way — like the tight hugs that she loved. Sara was prepared to float through the air as long as David would let her.

She thought David was perfect. He was tall and had a dimpled chin — never mind the fact that she had only ever spoken to him twice. Something about him just made her feel… good.

Like he could solve all of her problems and calm her down when life was stressful.

But, Ben. Ben, Sara’s boyfriend of four years, was beginning his sophomore year at the University of Cincinnati. He was a marketing major, working hard to maintain a 4.0 GPA and get a job with a customer science company after graduation.

Sara loved Ben. One hundred percent, she loved him.

He would be the father of her children. He would hold her hand when her beloved 92year old grandfather passed away and he would listen to her stories about the crazy residents she meets in the nursing home where she works.

They grew up together.

She had known him eight years and, in that time, his family became hers and her family became his.

But now Ben lived 47 minutes away instead of just eight. Sara didn’t have a car and couldn’t randomly visit him just because she wanted to.

Everyone was encouraging. Everyone had believed that, of anyone, she and Ben could do it. They could survive the distance and the difRELATIONSHIPS »PAGE 4

AT MU, ANXIETY THRIVES

Another kind of emergency

CAMPUS HOSTS MENTAL ILLNESS FORUM

Handling student psychological crises

HEALTH

COUNSELING

CARLEIGH TURNER

LISA TROWBRIGDE

THE MIAMI STUDENT

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Four months ago, two Miami university students sat down and began planning a way to improve mental health awareness on campus.

The result was a Mental Health Forum, occurring Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. in Wilks Theater. Ohio Lt. Governor Mary Taylor, Miami President Gregory Crawford and Oxford Mayor Kate Rousmaniere will all participate.

This event, organized by Associated Student Government (ASG) Vice President James Oaks and President of Alpha Chi Omega Christine Broda, is an effort to address a growing interest and need for mental health awareness on Miami’s campus.

“Anxiety and depression are the top two mental health conditions we have at Miami … and the one big thing that we really hope comes out of this is for people to be able to take that next step and go to Student Counseling Services or go to a professional and seek help if they need to,” Oaks said.

The forum will begin with a video depicting Miami students who have dealt with, or are dealing with mental illness, and will be followed by remarks from Taylor, Crawford and Rousmaniere, along with Student Body President Maggie Reilly and John Ward, a clinical staff member at Miami’s student counseling services.

The forum will also include a mini-resource fair where other organizations specializing in mental health issues will have tables outside of Wilks Theater. Students looking for more information about resources or where to get involved on campus will be able to engage with these

It’s a cold Sunday night in February when the Miami University Police Department (MUPD) gets a call from a student in Collins Hall.

This is the second time that night that MUPD has responded to a call about a student having a “psychological emergency.” The second time that night they had to send a student to a hospital because of it.

“Psychological emergency” — it’s a vague term used by the police department to classify different types of incidents.

These emergencies include any mental health issues that involve “the potential for imminent selfharm, suicide or harm to others,” said Kip Alishio, director of Student Counseling Services.

According to the MUPD Crime and Fire Log, there were 29 recorded incidents between August 2015 and 2016, seven of which resulted in hospitalizations. There have already been two such cases in the weeks since the fall semester began.

Alishio said that these crises can be responses to struggles such as body image or sexual assault, but are most often a product of the stressful, high-intensity college life that many Miami students live.

“The most rapidly-growing condition is anxiety,” Alishio said. “The more common concern historically has been depression, but now anxiety has caught up with depression as a major concern for students.”

Police Chief John McCandless agreed, noting that events like finals and holidays can serve as triggers for increased stress.

Twelve of the 45 incidents last year occurred in the

FORUM »PAGE 5

counseling »PAGE 5

SYDNIE REATHERFORD THE MIAMI STUDENT

Hundreds of students flocked to Mega Fair in the hopes of finding the right organization for them. A first year student describes her experience. See Pg. 2 for the full story.

NEWS p. 2

CULTURE p. 3

OPINION p. 7

SPORTS p. 8

WATER BOTTLE PROJECT REDUCES WASTE

MIAMI COMPETES FOR TITLE OF ‘MOST OUTDOORSY SCHOOL’

GRAPHIC PHOTOJOURNALISM: A MORAL DILEMMA

REDHAWKS DISAPPOINT IN FIRST HOME GAME

Eco Rep trash audits find that 30 percent of trash in dorms could have been recycled.

Miami students participate in nonprofit Outdoor Nation’s Campus Challenge.

Images of suffering raise moral questions, but their power to inform takes precedence.

Miami falls to Eastern Illinois in the season’s first game at Yager Stadium.

2 NEWS

NEWS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

A first-year’s journey through Mega Fair

SYDNIE REATHERFORD THE MIAMI STUDENT

Miami’s annual Mega Fair, known for its hectic and overwhelming atmosphere, was last Wednesday, Sept. 7 in Central Quad. Student organizations made their cases to thousands of first-year students.

CAMPUS

MAYA FENTER

THE MIAMI STUDENT

I hear it before I see it.

My RA and a group of people from our corridor have just finished dinner at Harris Dining Hall and are walking to Mega Fair together. As we approach Central Quad, our conversations are gradually drowned out by an upbeat, bass-heavy remix of a popular pop song blaring through the quad and the collective buzz of hundreds of simultaneous conversations.

And then I see it.

The picturesque Central Quad — the place I had previously only known as the backdrop of the iconic sundial photograph — is now crowded with hundreds of tables, tri-fold posters and people. I stand there for a few moments to take everything in, my eyes wide.

I figured that it was called “Mega Fair” for a reason, but that reason was not apparent to me until now.

“Let’s stick together,” one of my friends from my hall says, nudging my arm. I quickly nod, relieved that I won’t have to navigate this alone.

We haven’t even visited one table before a girl begins to make an announcement from the stage set up on one end of the quad. “Welcome to Mega Fair!” she exclaims, the speakers amplifying her voice, making it nearly impossible for us to hear anyone trying to talk to us.

We pass by tables trying to lure us in with free food and other goodies, and others with representatives trying to work the crowd.

“Are you interested in making money?” one club’s members ask us. The club doesn’t interest me whatsoever, but the idea of making money is undoubtedly tempting.

Even more tempting, though, is

the 4 Paws for Ability booth, which has a dog sitting in front of the table ready to be petted. Predictably, the canine draws much more attention than the human club members. While 4 Paws is another club I’m not particularly interested in joining, obviously, I have to stop to pet the dog. You can’t just pass by a dog.

When I do find a student organization I’m interested in, business cards, flyers and a computer to collect my email and UniqueID are immediately thrust in my direction. “Just put your name down! It’s OK if you don’t end up joining!” the club members coax.

Not knowing how else to escape, I fill out various clubs’ spreadsheets with my information, thinking only about how many emails I’m going to receive later.

About halfway through our endeavor, a guy steps directly in front of us, stopping us in our tracks

quite literally. “Are you pro-life?” he asks, trying to hand us a brochure for a pro-life club — a very aggressive approach for such a sensitive subject. We offer him a tentative smile and shrink away.

Not too long after, we encounter tables offering free condoms, to which we also politely decline.

By chance, we run into another one of our friends from our hall.

She asks us if we’ve seen the FWord table, and we point in the general direction of where we thought we saw it. Clearly confused, she says, “That’s OK, I’ll just check the map.”

“There’s a map?” my friend and I ask in disbelief. Apparently they were handing them out at the entrances to the quad. That would have been helpful.

Later, I spot another girl with a dog. Seeing the dog with its tongue out and begging for attention, I figure that the owner is advocating

for an animal shelter or a pre-vet club. “Are you interested in playing rugby?” she asks instead. I’m tilting my head, missing the connection between dogs and rugby, when two girls swarm to the dog, squealing, “Ohmigosh, can I pet him?!” (Again, it’s impossible to pass by a dog.)

After weaving through almost all of the tables, seeing everything from Business in Space to Highland Pipes and Drums to Club Quidditch, my friend and I decide we are overwhelmed.

As we turn onto the sidewalk back to the dorm, carrying bags full of papers to sort through later, the girl onstage begins shouting again, announcing something about someone losing their ID card. As we get farther from the quad, the chaos fades back into a hum, disappearing altogether before we hear the girl announce the name of the owner of the missing ID.

Eco Reps aim to decrease use of plastic water bottles on campus ENVIRONMENT

ELIZABETH HANSEN ASST. CULTURE EDITOR

Sifting through trash is not a glamorous job. In fact, the only time it seems socially acceptable is when Krispy Kreme throws away perfectly good donuts at the end of the night. Like those Krispy Kreme dumpster divers, Erin Graves knows that not all trash is trash.

But what she seeks to save is not that perfectly glazed donut — it’s the environment.

Graves is the president of Eco Reps, an environmental organization focused on promoting sustainability throughout residence halls.

Eco Reps perform “trash audits,” in which they sift through the garbage in residence halls to pick out the recyclable items students mistakenly throw away. Recently, they found that 30 percent of what was thrown away in residence halls — not including the bathroom — could have been recycled.

It was during one of these trash audits that the Eco Reps found a trend in the trash.

“We found a lot of disposable plastic water bottles that people just threw away. They didn’t even recycle them,” Graves said. “So we

said, ‘We should offer some nice alternative to these plastic water bottles.’”

In hopes of meeting this goal, the Eco Reps set a goal: Raise enough money through sponsorships to purchase 500 water bottles to be distributed at Mega Fair.

“Our goal with the Water Bottle Project is to get every first-year student a nice reusable water bottle so

Environment and Sustainability, said. “There are a lot of problems involved with buying bottled water: There’s a lot of energy involved with its production and transportation.

There’s a huge CO2 footprint. The irony is that water coming out of the tap here in Oxford is safe and is regulated more strictly than bottled water.”

The enormous support Eco Reps

Project as twofold.

Awareness, Abowitz said, is first on the docket. “[We want to] raise awareness of the problem that disposable water bottles create, raise awareness about the Eco Reps and raise awareness for the other sponsors [of the Water Bottle Project],” said Abowitz. “Our second goal is to reduce the number of plastic water

“The irony is that water coming out of the tap here in Oxford is safe and is regulated more strictly than bottled water.”

JONATHAN LEVY DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

when they get here they don’t have to go purchase them or the disposable water bottles,” said Graves.

After hearing about the Water Bottle Project at Earth Fest last semester, many environmentallyminded organizations at Miami, including the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, immediately supported the campaign.

“I would really like to see people around here stop buying so much bottled water,” Jonathan Levy, director of the Institute for the

received from Levy and others allowed them to raise enough money to purchase 1,000 water bottles — twice their original goal.

“We had a table and a big sign that said ‘Eco Reps’ and ‘free water bottles’ [at Mega Fair],” Graves said. “People just flocked to it. We were [out] within an hour. It was awesome.”

Rob Abowitz, Eco Reps advisor and associate director of Miami’s Residence Hall Association, sees the purpose of the Water Bottle

bottles that people are using. It’s a goal, but it’s hard to measure.”

Sophomore Monnett Hamilton supports the Eco Reps’ initiative to curtail waste.

“My environmental [studies]professor explained that it takes 17 million barrels of oil each year to make water bottles for the U.S. market.

I have been reusing bottles ever since,” said Hamilton.

But not all students will be quick to change their old habits. Levy said it will take time for the effects of the

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Water Bottle Project to manifest.

“I was shocked when I went to Kroger the other day. I saw so many students just buying huge packages of bottled water,” said Levy. “But if we can provide some good, environmentally sound water bottles, and if we do provide them for free, then it will just encourage more of this [responsible] use.”

The Eco Reps’ next step is to find ways to get the students and RAs living in the residence halls more involved.

“If we can get more people involved and get more Eco Reps from every building, I think it would have a bigger impact,” Graves said.

“That’s what we’re going to work on this year — getting ourselves out there and getting more people and power.”

But for now, Abowitz is proud of the Eco Reps’ efforts to bring the Water Bottle Project to fruition.

“Quite honestly, I was skeptical [of whether it could be done],” Abowitz said. “But this leadership team did a great job of following through with the project, finding funding, and showing up before school started to unscrew the bottles and put all the inserts in.

“The Eco Reps leadership team really came through.”

SHUMANDB@MIAMIOH.EDU

CULTURE 3

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

Not your average alien movie: Adams shines in “Arrival” MOVIES

HAILEY HIRATA

THE MIAMI STUDENT

There’s something in Amy Adams’ eyes.

About an hour and a half into her new film “Arrival,” there is an overhead shot that captures Louise Banks (Adams) as she stares up at her alien visitors, coming face-to-face with the foreign entity for the first time. As she speaks to them, the camera remains motionless, glued on the close-up of Adams’ face.

This is the moment when the film begins to reveal itself, when it asks the audience to take a massive leap and blindly trust its somewhat casuistic logic. It is the part when the aliens’ purpose on earth and Louise’s singular role in it is revealed, where we learn the reason for her sporadic memories and the point of their cryptic communications. It is the part where the film could fall apart, the last wooden brink being placed atop a wobbly Jenga tower.

Luckily for the audience, the film does not fall apart. The Jenga tower remains intact and the saga continues, for it is in the hands of the magnificent Amy Adams and her illustrious eyes. For as the film pours on the space-time continuum logic and ideas of fate and destiny, we see the shot of Adams’ eyes, eyes filled with wonder, curiosity, love, fear, confusion, admiration and conviction. In this one singular shot, Adams’ eyes command us to believe. And luckily

A.J. NEWBERRY THE MIAMI STUDENT

NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY: Miami’s Film Studies students await a screening of the upcoming Amy Adams picture, “Arrival,” at the Telluride Film Festival over Labor Day weekend. Filmmakers often sat in on premieres and gave Q&As following. for us, we do.

Based on Ted Chiang’s short story “Story of Your Life,” “Arrival” follows Louise Banks, an American linguist who is called upon by the United States army (led by a raspy Forest Whitaker) to establish communication between one of the 12 alien space pods that has mysteriously landed on Earth. Rounding out the team of Americans is Jeremy Renner who plays Ian Donnelly, a mathematician tasked with deciphering the extrater-

restrial technology.

Stepping into the theater, one might be tempted to think that they have been here before. The mysterious aliens invade the planet, the world goes on high alert, explosions ensue and a group of Americans save the day.

However from “Arrival’s” opening minutes, director Denis Villeneuve makes it clear that this is new territory. Unlike films such as “Independence Day” and “War of the Worlds,”

Villeneuve’s film is quiet, imbued with a poetic quality as it slowly peals back the elaborate elements of its narrative.

With a creative and well thought out head-scratcher of a plot, the film does something not many science fiction films do — integrate the human with the other. While it devotes a good chunk of time puzzling the brain with talk of space-time and threats of nuclear war, the film also weaves in moments of subtle and

quiet humanity that work to remind the viewer of what is at stake.

What develops is an interesting dichotomy, one that creates a suspenseful intensity, grounded and based in human emotion that continuously swells with each high stakes decision before exploding in the film’s game-changing climax (which will both boggle the mind and break the heart).

Aiding its effectiveness are both the film’s original score (an ambient drone-filled symphony penned by Jóhann Jóhannsson, an Icelandic composer whose arrangement of sounds is epically operatic) and its cinematography (handled exquisitely

by Bradford Young).

However, the film’s greatest asset is its central character, Louise Banks, and her portrayer, Amy Adams.

Breaking with normative convention, Louise is refreshingly more than just a tick on the gender equality box. She is smart, caring, witty, broken, strong and most importantly deeply developed by screenwriter Eric Heisserer.

Much like the fictional world it presents, the film rests heavily and almost completely on the shoulders of Adams and particularly on her ability to engage the audience in the existence of the extraterrestrials while simultaneously grounding them in the humanity that she is trying to save.

In a performance that is equal parts nuanced and expressive, AdARRIVAL »PAGE 9

Get off the couch: Miami takes on the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge STUDENT LIFE

KELLY BURNS

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Miami University is proving that an Ohio school can be adventurous by taking on the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge.

Outdoor Nation is a not-forprofit organization that works toward encouraging people to get outside and enjoy nature.

The group founded the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge. The Challenge is described by the organization as a “March Madness style” competition where universities compete to prove they are the most outdoorsy school.

This year, the Challenge runs from September 4 through October 15 and includes 90 schools.

As of Monday, Miami was ranked 14th out of the 90 schools.

Assistant Director of the Outdoor Pursuit Center, Tim Posey, was instrumental in bringing the

Challenge to Miami but was surprised by the response he received.

“It really spiraled into something much larger than I was anticipating,” Posey said. “I just thought it was a neat opportunity to get some of our classes and students to go outside.”

Along with Posey, Director of the Outdoor Pursuit Center Jen Siliko decided to bring the challenge to Miami and enlist Miamians to get outdoors.

The Challenge isn’t limited to students, however. Faculty, alumni and community members can participate as well and the Challenge has already drawn attention from others in the community, including President Crawford.

“We reached out to President Crawford who were really jazzed about participating and proving that a Midwest school can be outdoorsy,” Siliko said.

Anything from hiking to hammocking can earn points for par-

ticipants.

“It’s not just going out and kayaking or something that’s inaccessible, but something as simple as walking to class instead of driving,” Posey said. “It’s something that everyone can participate and do.”

“Not just the ‘outdoorsy folk,’” Siliko added.

Students and faculty need only sign up on the Outdoor Nation app to start earning points for Miami.

Whether it’s running in Hueston Woods or walking to class, participants can snap a picture of themselves with the app and accumulate up to 50 points a day.

Those points add to the university’s score as a whole and the individual’s score.

There is a new highlighted activity everyday of the week and if a participant logs time in the activity they are entered into a sweepstakes to win prizes like $100 gift cards or merchandise from the sponsors.

This year, sponsors include REI, The Northface, Adidas, Chaco and others.

Kailee Tateman, president of Miami’s Outdoor Adventure Club, thinks the Challenge provides a great opportunity for Miamians to get out and enjoy nature. Tateman thinks the Outdoor Adventure Club is well suited for this Challenge.

“We have like 15 trips that go through an entire weekend,” she said “That’s gonna add up to a lot of hours.”

Trips like canoeing, white water rafting, backpacking and mountain biking provide OAC members and Miami students with opportunities to rack up points and boost Miami’s standing.

But Tateman knows that the Challenge doesn’t only focus on big adventurous trips.

“It honestly doesn’t take much,” she said. “I hammock maybe twice a week and that’s considered an

outdoor activity.”

Posey and Siliko hope that more and more Miamians will participate and that the Challenge will become a yearly occurrence. They and the Outdoor Pursuit Center have events and classes planned that will hopefully draw in more participants and log more hours.

Tateman is also on board and recognizes the importance of what the Challenge and Outdoor Nation is trying to accomplish.

“I just think it’s really important to try to get outside especially with being so busy with school,” Tateman said. “You’re stuck on a laptop or sending emails to profs and it’s really nice to take that hour to yourself and just be in nature.”

She thinks that everyone should participate, even if they don’t consider themselves an outdoorsy person.

“It’s college,” she said. “Explore a little bit. Do something that you’re not used to.”

Miami launches arts management co-major ARTS

HANNAH FIERLE

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Whether looking for a way to explore the business side of the arts or pursuing a creative outlet for a traditional business degree, students at Miami can now participate in an immersive fusion of arts and business.

This semester, Miami is debuting its new arts management co-major.

Arts management — the business operations behind arts organizations — is a broad field that covers everything from the management of individual artists or performers to the management of larger institutions like museums, galleries and music venues.

Whether or not their accompanying major is within the business school, students participating in the program are able to take a variety of business core classes combined with creative arts classes.

“The arts management co-major offers a creative perspective to business and opens up opportunities for students wanting to gain an understanding of how arts organizations work in a professional sense,” said Todd Stuart, director of Arts Management and Entrepreneurship for the College of Creative Arts.

Stuart, now in his third year at Miami, was hired to evaluate the arts management minor and see what changes could be made. In accomplishing this task, student feedback

was most important to him.

Since students voiced their desire to take more specific arts management classes without having to declare a business major, the arts management minor was reformed to a co-major. Students must declare a primary major along with the co-major, which is comprised of 30 credits.

With the program’s flexibility, students of any major are able to delve into the business world of creative arts, even if they are not an artist or musician. Classes in the co-major include arts management, arts marketing, strategic planning and arts entrepreneurship.

“Art is an important way of connecting the world and sharing our experiences and perspectives, so even if you’re not a creator, you can still engage in the arts through this program,” said Addie Schneider, a first year in the program with an interest in international business.

The co-major has appealed to many students already enrolled in the business school who were looking for a creative outlet and courses specific to the arts.

“The classes in the arts management co-major are a great creative outlet for my business major. They’re obviously very different from business classes, so it’s good to learn to think in both ways,” said Abigail Stall, a junior marketing major.

In addition to enhancing business majors with an affinity for the arts, the arts management co-major

offers real-world experience for students majoring in creative arts.

Senior Allison Dykes was able to easily declare the co-major because it had overlapped with so much of the curriculum for her art and architectural history major.

“This is a valuable program because it adapts along with the art world and provides the real-world perspective in classes like strategic planning that isn’t always possible when studying art history,” said Dykes, who is pursuing a career as a curator for museums and galleries.

For students involved in performing arts like theatre and music, arts management offers additional opportunities to students in an increasingly competitive industry.

“From the business end, there are so many jobs in the arts that you wouldn’t expect,” said Caroline Avolio, a sophomore theatre major. “Arts management is a great way to expand career opportunities in the entertainment industry. Having business experience makes arts students incredibly marketable.”

As director, Stuart hopes to see growth in the program, which currently has 70 students in various majors and fields of study.

“Our goal for this year is 100 students in the program,” said Stuart.

“My hope is to expand the program and class offerings, hopefully bring on some new faculty and make progress on the students’ ideas and innovations.”

SYDNIE REATHERFORD THE MIAMI STUDENT

Students and Oxford residents enjoyed fresh-squeezed juice at Saturday’s Farmer’s Market.

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FROM ARRIVAL »PAGE 3

ams completely immerses herself in the character created for her by Villeneuve, turning out a performance marked with subtlety as throughout the film she brings Louise’s internalized emotions to the precipice of expression before finally, in the film’s closing moments, allowing them to flood out of her, washing over both the character and the audience she has enchanted.

This is not to say that “Arrival” is without its flaws. As with most science fiction films, the viewer leaves with more questions than they began with and there are

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instances where well-written dialogue and character development are sacrificed for studio-tested, audience-approved clichés (the storyline of a very vanilla Renner being the most obvious).

However, none of this prevents “Arrival” from being a great film.

It’s poetic and cyclical, venturing into the world of the unknown but tied tightly to a distinctively poignant human quality. It is a rare film that harmonizes the known and unknown and one that no being, terrestrial or otherwise, should miss.

was also reopened after being closed for construction last academic year, doubling the number of buffets on campus from three to six.

Jon Brubacher, interim director of dining services, said that Bell Tower Place and Pacific Rim were made into buffet dining locations to ensure that there was buffet dining conveniently located near students in those areas. Although Bell Tower Place is no longer an a la carte dining option, a “grab-and-go” area was added to the front of the building where custom-made sandwiches and wraps, as well as a variety of packaged items, are available for purchase.

“Much thought and planning was put into ensuring that we offered convenient locations for buffet dining,” Brubacher said.

But students say the increased reliance on the buffet swipe system is a hindrance. “[The change] makes getting quick food more difficult,” said sophomore Sydney Brinck. “The old [meal plan] allowed for more flexibility.”

Students who were familiar with the previous meal plan find it less convenient to use while on campus.

“It’s annoying,” said junior Emily Morgan. “You can’t just run into Bell [Tower Place] and grab a salad anymore.”

Other students have complained that because buffet dining has become one of the only options for students to choose from on campus, that dining halls have become too crowded at peak times.

“Dining halls can’t handle the capacity,” Brinck said. “They’re too

ferent colleges. They had already been together for so long — their relationship was strong. Yet, each day it grew more difficult to be apart and Sara began to wish that she had someone nearer to miss.

Long distance was hard.

Last fall, Sara could not have imagined going a day without seeing Ben. Now, it was routine.

After all, Ben was far away. David was not.

Sara hadn’t cheated on Ben. She couldn’t. But a small part of her wondered what it would be like to be with someone else. Someone other than Ben. Someone like David.

Weeks later, Sara returned to that frat house.

She wore a striped cotton dress and braided her hair into a bun. Red solo cup in hand, Sara sought David out.

When she finally found him, when she finally made eye contact, David ignored her. He looked her up and down and turned the other way. He did not wave. He did not say “hi.” Instead, he approached a different, more scantily clad girl on the other side of the room. He didn’t even offer Sara a second glance.

And, then, almost as quickly as Sara’s infatuation had started, it was over.

She had been stupid: stupid to come, and stupid to entertain the thought that this boy was anything other than what he was. David wasn’t perfect. Yes, he was cute and had flirted with her that one time.

Yes, he was charming and charismatic and somehow simultaneously quiet and confident. But he was not perfect.

He wasn’t Ben. Sara turned to leave. Ben was waiting on her phone call.

crowded.”

Sophomore Gabe DeBiasi agrees.

“This year the buffets have been packed because freshmen have fewer options, so it’s been tough to get a quick meal at the buffets,” he said.

Lack of transparency is also among the concerns cited by students regarding the new dining options.

“I feel like the new meal plan is another example with how the university struggles with transparency,” DeBiasi said. “It is an, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,’ type of a deal and at the end of the day they did it for the bottom dollar, not to help the student.”

Price of food under the new plan is also a concern for many students.

“If I want to go in and grab an apple from Garden Commons, it’s the same ‘price’ as a stir fry with a salad and fruit bowl with a Starbucks coffee,” said first-year Carly Nash.

Students were so unhappy with the changes to meal plan that a petition, written by ASG senators, was circulated around campus last semester to show the student body’s opposition.

Current ASG Secretary for OnCampus Affairs James Oaks said that the petition was a major step in the right direction.

“Ever since Dining presented the new version of the meal plan to us last year, we have heard tons of feedback on both sides of the issue,” he said. “The most common thing I’ve heard is that the declining balance-only meal plan from last year fits the lifestyles of our students better and was much more flexible.”

Oaks said that none of the physical changes to dining facilities, like

the changes to Bell Tower Place and Pacific Rim, were shared with him until this summer.

ASG is still working with Dining Services to improve the meal plan by meeting with them regularly Oaks also said.

The Q was born from oversight.

Miami University Dining learned early last spring that a company on the West Coast already owned a national trademark for the name, Red Brick Pizza.

Miami agreed to stop using the name at the end of the academic year.

While brainstorming for a new name, Brubacher said, the idea of a complete menu revamp was thrown into the mix.

“Based on feedback and requests over the past several years, we knew there was a want from students for more barbeque on campus,” he said.

Miami Dining bought a commercial smoker and now offers barbeque and new side dishes at The Q. “The initial feedback has been very positive,” Brubacher said of the changes to on-campus dining.

“Based on the feedback thus far and the increase in customers at our buffet operations, we are optimistic that the change to the plans will be a good one.”

If not, Brubacher said, Dining Services and the H.O.M.E. office will remain committed to meeting students’ needs.

“We will continue to analyze these decisions to ensure that we are providing the best service we possibly can to the greatest number of students at each dining operation,” Brubacher said.

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5

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

FROm forum » PAGE 1

organizations directly, as well as talk to someone if they need to immediately seek help.

“One of the things that is going to be key in this forum is getting people to recognize the resources we have and the resources we need to improve the mental health landscape here [at Miami],” Oaks said.

Broda said the idea for the forum came when she became president of her sorority and began to notice the extent and depth of mental health issues on Miami’s campus.

“I felt like everyone around me

FROM COUNSELING » PAGE 1

two weeks preceding winter break, more than any other same-length time span throughout the year.

When an incident does occur, it takes a collaborative effort between resident advisors and directors, MUPD, and Student Counseling staff to help the student and make sure they are safe.

The process of how these incidents are dealt with varies with each case, but usually follow a similar pattern: The student’s friend, roommate or even the person themself notifies someone of the problem — be it an RA, the police or a student counseling professional — who then tries to evaluate the situation and provide help.

If the person has attempted suicide or otherwise harmed themselves, they are sent to McCullough-Hyde Hospital to be treated for their injuries. If their problem is more severe than what Miami’s staff is equipped

was struggling at one point,” Broda said. “I was like, something has to happen, there needs to be a change.”

It was when Broda brought up the need for mental health awareness on campus at an ASG meeting that Oaks took notice and the pair decided to collaborate.

“Our hope for this all is to really expand the services that we offer at Miami and then making [those services] accessible for all students,” Broda said. “Students shouldn’t even have to think twice about getting help. We want to break the stigma.”

Broda and Oaks were also thrilled

to have the support of Taylor, who Oaks said has always been a champion for mental health awareness.

“I am looking forward to discussing this important topic at the upcoming Mental Health Awareness Forum and encourage all Ohioans to get educated about mental health. As a state, we need to get past the stigmas associated with mental health issues and understand that these symptoms, such as depression and anxiety to name but a few, are treatable. You don’t need to deal with this alone,” said Taylor in an email.

Miami students struggling with

mental illness are certainly not alone.

Over the past five to seven years, the prevalence of students with anxiety at Miami has doubled from 10 percent to 20 percent, according to the director of Miami’s Student Counseling Services, Kip Alishio.

Although Student Counseling Services can and has put on events to help increase mental health awareness, a student-organized event could be more effective, Alishio said.

“There’s been an increase in mental health-related events in recent years, but the students taking

the initiative is an entirely different level of investment and awareness on the part of the student body,” Alishio said. “I am quite gratified that students are aware enough of mental health issues and interested enough to be doing these things on their own.”

The forum will will begin at 7 p.m., with the resource fair continuing as long as it needs to, said Oaks.

“I can’t stop smiling ear to ear from seeing this coming to fruition,” Broda said. “I just can’t believe that a conversation we had in one of our meetings is going to have an impact on Miami’s campus.”

to handle, they are sent to Fort Hamilton Hospital for an in-depth evaluation.

While some cases are handled initially by RAs and friends of the person experiencing the issue, all involve MUPD in some way.

“The police are kind of a catch-all for all kinds of problems, so I think when people call us, they’re not sure why they’re calling us except for the fact that someone that they care about is not acting the way that they normally see them act,” McCandless said.

Sometimes, that’s all there is to it — someone is worried that their friend may be having trouble, when in reality there is no deeper psychological issue at hand. This still falls under the umbrella of psychological emergencies in police records, but, according to McCandless, the term doesn’t always indicate a serious, threatening problem.

None of the MUPD officers are specifically trained to deal with psy-

chological issues, so, in some cases, they call SCS to the scene to evaluate the situation. However, McCandless said he is confident in the ability of the police department to respond to these emergencies.

“Most all police officers, by virtue of the basic training, are prepared to, if there’s an immediate problem, figure out the best way to take care of it,” he said.

Anderson Hall resident director Cory Duchesneau is equally confident in his team’s ability to help students through their psychological problems. RAs must go through a two-week training period before the school year starts, while RDs have a more in-depth, six-week training process that covers a multitude of problems they may face, including those associated with mental health.

While Duchesneau thinks this training is usually enough to prepare the residence hall staff for any situation they might encounter, he admits that it’s not a perfect system.

“You can’t solve all problems, even if you have all that training. I think we could always do more, of course, but I think we have enough training so that we usually do pretty well with it,” said Duchesneau. “I think some of the most important training is the identifying piece, because sometimes you have to just notice something going on. They don’t always tell you.”

Students under emotional duress are encouraged to meet with SCS routinely in the weeks following a psychological emergency in order to ensure that they are improving.

Additionally, MUPD routinely conducts what they list in their Crime and Fire Log as “welfare checks,” which are quick check-ins the police make with students after a concerned friend or family member suspects a problem.

McCandless said that the vast majority of these welfare checks are uneventful. Police ascertain that the student is emotionally healthy and that no action needs to be taken.

However, welfare checks are still an important preventative measure taken by MUPD. Alishio said that Miami is working actively to prevent psychological emergencies and other mental health problems from occurring so frequently. In an effort to raise awareness about how to address mental health issues, he noted, the university has has implemented over 250 programs on the subject in the past few years.

One of these is an “At-Risk” program offered as part of the first-year UNV 101 course. This online module focuses on how to identify when someone is struggling and how to approach them and refer them to SCS. However, some members of Miami’s staff recognize that there is still work to be done when it comes to helping students in need.

“People are still going to fall through the cracks.” Duchesneau said. “I think it’s something we can always do better on.”

FROM LGBTQ » PAGE 1

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who self-identified on their application. The mentoring program partners first year LGBTQ students with professors and other faculty to help them connect with other members of the community.

Most students involved in the program have not yet met with their mentors and know very little about what the mentoring relationship will entail. Some students, such as first-year Ryan Jago, expressed concern over being paired with a mentor just for self-identifying on the admission application.

“I really don’t see a huge reason for me to have a mentor, and I hope they didn’t just assume I needed one because I’m LGBT. But, I do see a benefit in getting to know a professor on a personal level and not just a student-teacher level. I see the benefit in knowing that there is someone I can talk to, even if I never do,” Jago said.

In future years, including for the class of 2021, the Office of Admissions plans on adding another question to the application to address concerns like Jago’s. In the future, if a student chooses to identify as an LGBTQ student on their application, they will also be asked if they would like information about the resources available to them.

First-year Austin Zimmers believes the mentoring program will help make Miami a more inclusive place.

“I think that having this program is going to contribute to a more inclusive environment because it’s a step that is being taken to help a community that has struggled to feel included in the past, feel welcome at Miami.

People struggling with their gender identity or their sexuality will have a resource to help them, and students who are comfortable with themselves will have a connection that can hopefully allow them to help others who aren’t comfortable yet,” Zimmers said.

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6 OPINION

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

EDITORIAL@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

At best, true crimes should educate, at worst, they entertain The following piece, written by the editorial editors, reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board.

L

ast week, our Managing Editor Emily Williams wrote a piece on the murder of Miami graduate Elizabeth Andes. The murder, which occurred in Oxford back in 1978, was never officially solved and recently piqued the interest of the Cincinnati Enquirer, who has taken the liberty of creating a “Serial”-esque podcast to see if they can solve the decades-old mystery.

The emergence of this new podcast is yet another example of the decidedly-American obsession with murder and violence in the media. From series like “Making a Murderer” and “Serial” to “Forensic Files” and “48 Hour Mystery,” the true crime genre has taken Netflix and podcasts by storm and, by the looks of it, is here to stay.

This is not new. The natural pull of such programs has a history.

Horror film fans and Stephen King fans alike have been obsessing over the thrills of murder mysteries for decades, and TV stations

run month-long marathons for programs that have been around for over 15 years, like “Law & Order: SVU.” And it’s not for nothing: people watch them. Whether the draw stems from the excitement of unveiling the murderer at the show’s conclusion or from the steadily paced shocks throughout, fans continue to flock to their TV screens for violence. The question is: is it okay to enjoy, even crave, violence?

For some, the argument is that it is just a side effect of our natural animal instincts and desires.

“New research on mice shows the brain processes aggressive behavior as it does other rewards,” Livescience.com reported in 2008.

“Mice sought violence, in fact, picking fights for no apparent reason other than the rewarding feeling.”

Is our tendency towards murderous shows a visceral one, an instinct that we allow to direct our interests? Is it something pre-moral? Or can we even use that as an

excuse, seeing as we are so far from our pre-civilization selves?

Mychal Denzel Smith, the author of the book “Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education,” is quoted on a similar matter — watching videos depicting police

Is our tendency towards murderous shows a visceral one, an instinct that we allow to direct our interests?

shootings — in The New York Times.

“I was exercising a level of privilege others don’t have access to,” he says. “…This is a lived reality for people, and how dare I separate myself from it as if this doesn’t af-

Learning to expect the unexpected LIFE

GRAHAM VON CARLOWITZ OPINION EDITOR

“Herumph,” I pondered to myself. “Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer?” Those were the names I landed on when I told myself it was a good — no, a hysterical idea to scribe some serial killer names onto any of the dozens of dry-erase white boards that flooded my freshman year dorm hallway.

“Dahmer, of course,” I concluded, nervously scribbling the toddler-quality letters barely visible to even the most well-trained eyes.

But the deed was done, and back to my room I scampered, closing the door behind me and shaking in a guilt-ridden fit for the next 30-some minutes.

The goal wasn’t to frighten anyone, just to instill enough curiosity to get people talking, which, well, was my goal that year. They would

said coldly. Before I could think of a rebuttal, Chris took his dry erase marker from my hand and slammed his door. His sentiment, though terse and straightforward, sounded prophetic, as if he knew that the second I stopped the serial killer scrawls, we would become friends.

This is what I have come to take as the norm with Chris throughout the few years I’ve known him — that is, to expect the unexpected. I understand this sounds dangerously close to a surprise, which infers at least an ounce of unforeseen material, but a surprise is one event, like learning for the first time that you aren’t the only one who conceals an ever-growing affinity for the smell of gasoline. Or accidentally baiting your mom into telling you that no, she did not do cocaine back in the day because something called “714” was all the noise she cared to listen to (and because cocaine “can do

To expect the unexpected, on the other hand, infers a habitual reliance on surprises.

see the name and wonder if this would be the room’s weekly gift to the dorm — that is, a “Whacko of the Week” set-up. Of course, the room’s inhabitants would see the peculiar graffiti and immediately erase it, offering a suspicious — albeit necessary — message in its stead. “We do NOT approve of Dahmer’s work and furthermore abhor anyone who does.” If they were talented enough, an angry “smiley” face with a disapproving finger wag would accompany the memo and that would be that.

The next day, though, the board had returned to its natural marshmallow hue with no rebuttal in sight. I originally intended to prey upon the next message board en route to inciting a dorm-wide detective game. “Who’s the psycho behind this all?” people would ask during those brutally honest toilet talks in the community bathrooms.

Instead, my natural reaction was to scribble a name yet again — Charles Manson — before anyone else tried to steal my thunder. In the three seconds it took to uncap the marker and start writing, a short, hobbit-like, yellow-haired kid approached my work and approved.

“Pretty funny, dude,” he said.

Then, without waiting for any follow up from me, he tilted his gaze up at mine and dropped the act.

“I think you should stop writing on other people’s boards,” he

some serious damage to your sinus cavity!”).

To expect the unexpected, on the other hand, infers a habitual reliance on surprises. Once I became Chris’s roommate the following year, this reliance surpassed even my unabashed addiction to coffee.

As roommates, it was generally understood that we did three things together: complain about our neighbors’ loud, weirdly sexual curses; complain about our neighbors that smoked and therefore tainted all our clothing with a tobacco-laden scent unbearable to the nose; and eat, especially dinner, since neither of us knew what breakfast really was and lunch just happened to be a funny word to rhyme with munch.

So one day, when Chris said he had to drive an hour away for a family dinner at his grandparents’ house, I really had no say in the matter, though free food was a comforting perk. As it turned out, the extended family had gathered for an uncandid stock photo with a red barn and woods backdrop. For some reason, the zany 60-year-old photographer, complete with goose egg eyes and an outstretched smile, had me help out with the lighting.

After using her “lighting equalizer” — what I determined to be an oldfashioned mirror — to brighten the family’s pictures for a strenuous half-hour, zany lady turned to me, her eyes pulsing and aimed at me.

fect me as well, as if it couldn’t one day be me on that video?”

But do the 5 million subscribers to the “Serial” podcast have the same inner conflict? Do they deliberate with themselves, asking if they should take a moral stand and stop feeding into the addiction?

“Hey you, yeah you, get on in there! Come on, what the hell!” she said, quite unexpectedly, I might add.

For some reason, no one in the family protested her executive decision and, looking like a crazy person who wondered out from the woods, I successfully marred the Keck family photo with my patented smile, both wide and creepy as zany lady’s smile.

Not two weeks later, I truly did find myself out in the woods, this time a few miles outside of my campus in southwest Ohio, what some designate as “nowhere.” It was in this area of “nowhere” that I expected to find a bookstore, as promised to me by my phone’s map. Instead, after trekking past a few unexciting corn fields and fleeing over a onelane bridge, I was led to a forsaken brick house and what I’m pretty sure was the home for two packs of raccoons.

Sunken into a sullen daze, I smacked myself in the face for being so foolish as to believe DuBois Bookstore would have an auxiliary branch 3 miles away from its home base. On my way back, to no one’s surprise yet still to the surprise of both of us, I came across Chris, only the fourth person (cars included) to have crossed my path for the past two hours.

As he approached me, he removed his raisin-sized earbuds and shook his head. “Why are you out here?” he wanted to know.

“Oh, yeah…well I thought there was a bookstore back there. Turns out, there isn’t.” I said.

As if to say, “Of course that’s why you came out here,” Chris nodded his head and continued his weekly run, knowing to expect nothing but what he cannot expect.

Chris is now undergoing basic training for the army, but before he left, his parents threw a going away party for him. As was par for the course, the event showcased a lifesized Connect Four, Jenga played with 2x4’s and, as unexpected, a deck of playing cards the size of a toddler.

“Is this deck for old people with decaying vision?” I said as I scanned the party scene in Chris’s backyard.

Sitting behind me was his grandmother, the only person to laugh at my bad joke. I turned to her to show my appreciation for the pity-laugh and engaged in conversation. As it turns out, she has a son whose aunt is younger than him and somehow considered his sister. The son — another Chris — raised his beer bottle on cue and added, “Now tell me that’s not messed up.”

Actually, considering how unexpected the story was, I don’t think it was messed up. It was strangely normal.

VONCARGH@MIAMIOH.EDU

The surplus spinoffs and copycat podcasts would suggest otherwise.

The cycle perpetuates. At the cost of (and with disregard for) the real lives these shows document, viewers and listeners engage in vi-

carious entertainment. They experience the murder story, but they don’t languish amid true horrors.

To make matters worse, studies show that consumers of the genre can transplant the horror into their own lives, assuming that such violence is prone to arise in their backyard. This creates an environment of false paranoia and diminishes the real experiences and work that goes into solving these cases, grieving as families, and trying to make sense of the world after losing someone.

At best, the true crime genre can inform us of the possibility of such heinous crimes, perhaps teach us how to prevent such happenings and, when applicable, how to protect ourselves. But the appeal of true crime has little to do with learning how to approach a serial killer. Rather, it entertains through the distanced lens of the actual murder, thus numbing the audience to the emotional reality of it all.

Homelessness: an issue worth redefining LIFE

TESS SOHNGEN COLUMNIST

Children raised in suburbia and wealthy neighborhoods are taught one lesson on how to interact with the inner-city homeless: don’t. Don’t look. Don’t stop and talk. Don’t buy anything from strangers. But the more dangerous lesson is the one deeply embedded in our culture: those experiencing homelessness are in that situation because of a mistake (or many mistakes) they made.

But when 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness each year — over 11,800 individuals in Cincinnati in 2015 (according to The Partnership Center) — with approximately 15 percent experiencing chronic homelessness, the problem of homelessness is not simply a personal problem but a larger public issue.

While issues of alcohol and drug addiction are most often associated with causes of homelessness, those who experience a drug or alcohol addiction make up only 26 percent of the national homeless population. Twenty-nine percent were severely mentally ill, 22 percent were physically disabled, 17 percent were victims of domestic violence, and 12 percent were veterans, according to a 2013 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness.

However, the two largest trends responsible for the increase in homelessness over the past 20 years are the decrease in affordable housing and the increase in poverty. Those who experience poverty and those demographics most at risk of poverty are also most likely to be homeless at one point in their lives, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Despite the trends that show public issues like poverty and lack of affordable housing, many still attribute the cause of homelessness to be the fault of the individual. In Julie Cronin’s thesis Perceptions and Misconceptions: The Relationship Between Education and Understandings of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness, she argues that people’s stereotypes and ignorance of homelessness are major impediments toward solving social issues like homelessness.

Perhaps the greater reason why people attribute homelessness as an individual problem is our culture of individualism. American culture insists that if an individual sets his mind and his efforts toward a goal, he can achieve that — the American Dream.

But with the American Dream comes its sibling value: a personal failure or chronic struggle is due to a personal flaw, which the individual can fix.

Applying these beliefs to homelessness is a mistake when two public issues, poverty and lack of affordable housing, are the two most influential factors that lead to homelessness

across the nation. These are not issues which the individual can fix; therefore, homelessness is not a condition which the individual can fix.

When this stereotype of homeless individuals as well as other misconceptions of homelessness are overcome, then the community can address and reduce homelessness to what it really is: a public issue.

Researchers from multiple universities call for public policies to respond to homelessness after analyzing data from New York City’s homeless population that has steadily aged for the past 30 years, according to their 2013 article in The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition engages with communities to address the stereotypes of homelessness and the need for public policies to respond to homelessness through programs like Alternative Breaks: Cincinnati Urban Experience, Shanty-Towns, and Voices of the Homeless Speaker’s Bereau that educate young people through participation and storytelling.

Outside of GCHC and other organizations, individuals can break down the stereotypes associated with homelessness on their own. One important response is for people to increase their knowledge about homelessness and those who experience it, either through individual research or more advocacy and awareness campaigns. Another way to fight back against the stereotypes is to engage in positive interactions with those experiencing homelessness. Cronin and other researchers have found that those who have positive interactions with the homeless or those who are more educated on the issue “are much less likely to hold a stereotyped view,” according to Cronin’s thesis article.

The simple act of saying hello to someone on the sidewalk can impact someone’s day. Bonnie Neumeier, a long-time resident of Over-theRhine and organizer for The People’s Movement, has acquainted many new and long-time residents through her advocacy work and by greeting people on the streets.

“It’s a way of showing the person ‘you’re not invisible,’” said Neumeier.

Going further, she said by showing an individual that he or she is seen and appreciated despite their homelessness, that individual feels that he or she matters and is a part of the community. It is a way of breaking down the stereotypes of homelessness as well as bringing individuals together within a community.

When more children are taught to greet passerby on the sidewalk rather than ignore what our culture has long tabooed, our communities will foster a better understanding and compassion for our homeless population.

SOHNGETM@MIAMIOH.EDU

EDITORIAL@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

New swipe-for-food meal plan cause for commotion SATIRE

JOEY HART

ASST. OPINION EDITOR

The ID swiping mechanism at Garden Dining Hall was rendered out of commission last Thursday when an unidentified child ran up to the front table and shouted “Swiper, no swiping.”

Sophomore Zachary Jameson, who witnessed the scene, described the moment as “shocking.”

“One minute everybody is swiping their ID cards to get into the buffet and everything is normal,” Jameson said. “Then, for some reason, when that girl yelled at us to stop swiping, we couldn’t. It was weird.”

The culprit, who remains at large, was described as a female of Hispanic decent between the ages of 8 and 12 and was wearing a purple backpack.

This year’s new meal plan, which is based upon a set number of swipes for buffet meals that on-campus students pay for at the beginning of each semester, has come under criticism recently for contributing to overcrowded dining halls and reduced access to food.

This incident exacerbated the issue, as dozens of students were forced to go elsewhere for their evening meal.

“Oh man!” Jameson remarked, snapping his fingers as he recalled

OPINION 7

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

the event.

The culprit, who remains at large, was described as a female of Hispanic decent between the ages of 8 and 12 and was wearing a purple backpack. Some witnesses said they also saw a monkey on her back, but this fact could not be verified.

“Before she said ‘Swiper, no swiping’ I could have sworn I heard her talking to no one, like she was speaking to a camera but no one was there,” Jameson added. “How weird is that?”

Many wondered why a girl of such a young age would be out and about without supervision. Freshman Dorothy Ann, who works in food services at Garden, said that the girl’s legal guardians should have been present.

“I don’t know what sort of parents just let their children run amok out in any environment,” Ann said.

“This is a terrible example to set for all other children.”

This incident comes in the wake of a string of odd occurrences on campus. The previous week, several students complained about an alleged green creature living in a campus trash can in North Quad, described by many as “grouchy.”

Additionally, sightings of a large, purple dinosaur roaming the campus have plagued the student populace in recent months.

“I haven’t seen anything this weird since elementary school when my teacher and her pet lizard tried to take my class to weird places on this special school bus,” Ann said. “I think she was on meth.”

HARTJT@MIAMIOH.EDU

Photojournalism immoral, or required to inform?

POLITICS

MADDIE LAPLANTE-DUBE OPINION EDITOR

In August, a photo and video footage of a Syrian five-year-old named Omran Daqneesh surfaced after a deadly airstrike hit his home in Aleppo.

The footage shows Omran, dazed, dusty, shocked and bloody, sitting quietly in the back of an ambulance.

The ambulance is fluorescent and he sits in an orange chair, wordless, breathing through his nose. He lifts his hand to his bloody forehead, wipes it and then looks at his palm with something like surprise or bewilderment. He wipes the blood off on the seat.

This footage follows another, equally devastating and viral photo of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, the boy who washed up dead on a beach in Turkey after he and his family tried to flee Syria to Greece.

When I watched the footage of Omran blinking, dazed, all I could think was, “Why are they just zooming in on him? Why are they leaving him alone like that? What are these cameramen doing for him?” A photographer squeezed himself into the shot, clicking pictures of Omran, stretching his arms into the back of the ambulance to get a better angle.

All the while, this five-year-old boy is sitting there, bleeding.

Situations like this beg the question: is this kind of journalism moral? If you’re not helping these people, whose primary prerogative in the moment that these shots are being captured is to stay alive, then what are you doing? We know that shots like this are newsworthy, but are we capturing newsworthy content at the expense of the safety and

comfort of people who are dead, dying or will be permanently traumatized?

Throughout history, journalists ­ — especially photojournalists — have been confronted with this question. Whose instinct is it to first snap a picture of a dead threeyear-old on a beach before going to see if he is alive? Is that even okay?

Just recently, Facebook restored a post they had deleted of the iconic photo taken by Nick Ut of a naked girl screaming and running through a street in Vietnam, fleeing from napalm (it was, ridiculously, censored for nudity). That photo won a

to a third-party vote. For many people that means voting for Gary Johnson. Or it means voting for the Green party’s Jill Stein, who was just charged with a misdemeanor for spray-painting a bulldozer during an environmental protest in North Dakota. But a vote on a third party is not going to stop either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton from becoming the next president.

Nor is it the smart vote, as evidenced by the above information.

The U.S. is in a tight spot right now and we need to examine our actions closely as we approach this upcoming election in terms of

We know that shots like this are newsworthy, but are we capturing newsworthy content at the expense of the safety and comfort of people who are dead, dying or will be permanently traumatized?

Pulitzer Prize. Is it okay for Nick Ut to enjoy achievement and fame for a photo that depicts real suffering?

My first answer to all of this would be that yes, these images and the way they are being sourced and prioritized is immoral and reflective of our cultural obsession with viral visual content that distances us from the real problem.

But then Gary Johnson, the 2016 Libertarian Presidential candidate, asked what Aleppo was during an interview last Thursday. That was when it became obvious to me that this work was necessary not only for an informed public, but also for informed leaders.

This year at the polls, many people are saying they will default

smart, humane foreign policy. The reality is that Omran and his family were not blasted by a domestic bomb. The airstrikes that destroyed Omran’s home were Russian. And while Omran can try to wipe the blood from his hands, the U.S. and Russia will never be able to get theirs clean. The candidate that the United States needs is someone who will not blast ISIS out of the water, nor is it someone who is in Putin’s back pocket. Be smart with your vote this election, because there are journalists out there doing this job to help you stay informed to do so.

LAPLANMM@MIAMIOH.EDU

“Me Before You” misrepresents living with a disability DISABILITY

SARAH CAMINO

GUEST COLUMNIST

“Me Before You,” based on Jojo Moyes’s novel of the same name, is now available for streaming — tears, that is. Will Traynor, an independently wealthy man with quadriplegia, employs his uniquely endearing brand of bitterness and macabre preoccupation with his uninjured body to not only win over his caretaker Louisa and the audience, but those who administer death itself.

However, the disturbing lack of reciprocity between the movie’s ethical dilemma regarding assisted suicide and the real experiences of disabled people reminds activists and critics

Being told, especially as a young child, “Death is preferable to your life,” makes a movie like “Me Before You” particularly hard to swallow.

of narrative’s influence in constructing disability.

In the interest of full disclosure: I am disabled, and I wish I could count on one hand the number of times I have heard, “If I had arthritis, I would kill myself,” but I would run out of swollen fingers and probably aching toes. Being told, especially as a young child, “Death is preferable to your life,” makes a movie like “Me Before You” particu-

larly hard to swallow.

Those who tell me they would commit suicide if they had my disability obviously do not wish me dead, nor do they probably think I would be better off so; but they do imply they could not “settle” for the life I lead. They imply that I am diminished, that this is in some sense unbearable, and that I can only make the best of a life of pain, rather than live, love and thrive in my body as much as anyone.

Even ignoring classist stereotypes attributing the idea of preserving Will’s life to Lou’s working-class, intellectually stunted family, while her journey to accept assisted suicide is seen as one of moral, social and intellectual enlightenment, “Me Before You” hides its assumption that the disabled body is useless and contemptible behind the apparent personal strength of the disabled character to leave it behind.

Such a message insults the disabled community because it valorizes the presupposition that disability is a physical and a personal problem surmounted by virtue and strength, while the nonconformity of an individual is culpable for his struggles, rather than society’s rigidity. When able-bodied people commit suicide, no one emphasizes their “choice” or their dignity. However, by treating the body of a disabled person as a villain, an obstacle or a worthless shell that the “normal” person inside should overcome, our culture fails to see his death as an equally profound loss.

The under-diagnosis of depression in people with disabilities contributes to this misconception.

According to the Medical Journal

Do you have opinions?

REBECCA

A.J. NEWBERRY NEWBERAJ@MIAMIOH.EDU

of Australia, people with neurological disorders like Will’s experience a 20-55 percent rate of depression. Yet unfortunately, these mental health problems are rarely addressed and instead treated as a logical response to disability or secondary to physical symptoms.

In Moyes’ novel — notably the movie never substantially addresses Will’s mental health — a court confirms Will’s competency. No one finds any evidence of mental illness.

Yet such evidence abounds, not only through his own statements, but others’ characterization. Lou describes him as “determined not to look anything like the man he had been” and “always a few steps removed from the world around him.”

She confirms the myth of his deficient quality of life by saying “I realized that his condition was not just a matter of being stuck in that chair…

? ? ?

but a never-ending litany of indignities.” For his part, Will assumes his personhood is irreconcilable with his new physical form and separates himself completely, saying he does not want happy memories “erased by the struggle.” “Me Before You” seems to say, and fans certainly concur in online comments, that disability changes a person beyond the point where they can have a fulfilling sense of self.

Simi Linton, a scholar with paraplegia, provides a contrasting disability perspective. She recalls in her memoir how anxious she was to be fitted for a wheelchair and regain a sense of mobility after her accident. She was not “stuck” as Lou so eloquently says. Furthermore, when Linton did feel alone or helpless, it was not the fault of her chair or her body, but the “unnavigable terrain.”

Thus, the issue in “Me Before

You” is not that the event of the character’s death implies that his life is worth less, but rather in the environment that surrounds him in both his story and the response to it: an environment composed of detrimental stereotypes about disabled people, unnavigable terrain and inequity.

If the message of “Me Before You” is truly “live boldly, push yourself, and don’t settle,” then as a society we should push ourselves to better understand and represent disability, and we should acknowledge the disabled community should not settle in the meantime. Media featuring disabled characters ought to be forthcoming, but also ought to keep in mind that disabled people can be empowered by love, but cannot be disempowered by pain.

CAMINOSJ@MIAMIOH.EDU

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8 SPORTS

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

SPORTS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

MIAMI DROPS HOME OPENER 21-17 REDHAWKS COME UP SHORT AGAINST FCS OPPONENT EASTERN ILLINOIS FOOTBALL

SIDELINE

COBURN GILLIES

ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

The Miami University football team saw a potential victory fall by the wayside Saturday evening, as the RedHawks came up short against the visiting Eastern Illinois Panthers 21-17. Miami fell to 0-2, while E. Illinois improved to 1-1.

Despite out-gaining their opponent by 86 yards, 402 to 316, the ‘Hawks still found themselves on the losing end for the second straight contest. The rain delayed loss was viewed by 17,369 fans at Yager Stadium.

Head Coach Chuck Martin believes that to find victory in the future, his team needs to improve at finishing close games.

“For me, again, we gotta figure out how to win games,” said Coach Martin. “Sometimes you have penalties that hurt you more. Sometimes they hurt you less. Again, that’s part of playing winning football.”

Coming off the season opener at Iowa when Miami had only three penalties, the RedHawks appeared to unravel on Saturday as the team was penalized 12 times for 89 yards. EIU, on the other hand, only received the yellow flag three times.

These numerous penalties were a major contributing factor to the loss. Among the 12 yellow flags thrown against the ‘Hawks, one included an ejection for targeting.

Redshirt senior J.T. Jones, one of the leaders of this young ‘Hawks defense, was ejected for targeting at the 1:12 mark in the fourth quarter. He is now due to miss the first half of next week’s game against the Western Kentucky.

“The telltale sign for us today is the penalties. We had three holding penalties that stopped offensive drives. Two after huge plays, huge plays. We had a huge screen pass for a first down called back, and we ended up punting. We had another

MLB REDS

3

BREWERS

0

NFL STEELERS

38

REDSKINS

16

ANGELO GELFUSO THE MIAMI STUDENT

Senior wide receiver Sam Martin just misses a pass against E. Illinois. Martin finished with two receptions totaling 27 yards.

huge play in the first half called back,” said Coach Martin.

Sophomore starting quarterback Billy Bahl seemed to continue his development in the right direction, completing 13 passes on 22 attempts for 250 yards and two touchdowns.

The blemish on his record, however, is the one throw that got away from him, one that would set up an EIU touchdown.

“That pick was bad. I just didn’t read the right guy,” Bahl said. “I still have to cut down on all of the mistakes and put our team in a better position to win.”

Miami got the scoring going first, scoring 10 unanswered points to start the game. This scoring was capped off by a 51-yard Bahl touchdown pass to fifth-year senior Rokeem William.

Williams, who many consider the best player on this RedHawks

offense, left the game at halftime.

Coach Martin declined to comment on the cause of Williams’ early exit.

The Panthers came roaring back with a touchdown of their own to end the first half, as quarterback Mitch Kimble and tight end Addison Bounds connected for a threeyard score.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the ‘Hawks looked to be in control of the game, leading 17-7.

But, despite the odds, the previously winless Panthers scored a touchdown with 56.3 seconds left, sealing the improbable victory.

Junior linebacker Paul Moses led the Miami defense with a forced fumble and seven total tackles.

The ‘Hawks will look to right the ship at home next weekend as they play Western Kentucky University.

Kickoff at Yager Stadium is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

SPORTS BRIEFS SOCCER DROPS NON-CONFERENCE FINALE TO TEXAS

FIELD HOCKEY FALLS TO OSU IN OVERTIME

In Sunday’s first-ever meeting between Miami University and the University of Texas women’s soccer programs, the Longhorns left Oxford with a 2-0 victory. Texas scored less than five minutes into the game and never looked back, adding another goal in the 74th minute. The Longhorns finished with a 13-6 advantage in shot attempts. This loss came in Miami’s final game before MidAmerican Conference play begins.

The RedHawks open their MAC season Sept. 23 against Akron at Miami Soccer Field.

Despite scoring first and outshooting their opponent, the Miami field hockey team lost in overtime, 2-1, to host Ohio State University. Sophomore midfielder Paula Portugal beat the OSU goalkeeper with a reverse shot in the 45th minute, earning her tenth goal of the season. The RedHawks dropped to 3-4 on the season, while the Buckeyes improved to 3-3. The RedHawks return to action 1 p.m. Sunday against second-ranked Duke.

Volleyball wins Auburn Invitational Miami defeats Jacksonville, Auburn and Memphis VOLLEYBALL

KYLE STEINER

THE MIAMI STUDENT

The Miami University volleyball team captured the championship in their third and final preseason tournament of the season. The RedHawks knocked off Jacksonville University, Auburn University and the University of Memphis en route to the tournament title. The Red and White are now riding the momentum of a five game winning streak, improving to 6-4.

The tournament began with a dominating victory over the outmatched Dolphins. The ’Hawks easily captured the first two sets but found themselves in a tight battle during the third set. Up 23-22, a kill from senior outside hitter Maris Below and an ace by junior right side hitter Courtney Bemis secured the sweep for MU in their opening match.

In the first game, many players contributed for Miami as 13 different players saw action. Sophomore

outside hitter Stela Kukoc led the team with 10 kills. Junior middle hitter Meredith Stutz had nine kills and four solo-blocks, a personal best.

Below started the tournament strong with 15 digs and eight kills, while senior setter Krista Brakauskas finished with a double-double, recording 17 assists and 10 digs.

Next, the RedHawks faced their stiffest challenge of the tournament, the hometown Auburn Tigers.

After losing the heartbreaking third set 26-28, the ’Hawks found themselves down 2-1 and on the edge of elimination. Yet, facing defeat at 21-24, the Red and White came charging back in the fourth set. Back -to-back kills by Below, two Tiger service errors and a dual block by Below and senior middle hitter Paige Hill led the RedHawks on an improbable 5-0 run that pushed the game to a fifth set.

Miami took an early lead in the fifth set and held on tight the rest of the way. A combo block by Stutz and junior outside hitter Olivia Rusek gave MU an incredible 15-11 win,

sending them into the title match.

Below finished with a careerhigh 18 kills while also recording 15 digs. She was joined in double-digit kills by junior right side hitter Katie Tomasic, who tallied 16 on the day.

Junior libero Maeve McDonald finished with 26 digs, while setters Mackenzie Zielenski (32 assists and 15 digs) and Krista Brakauskas (22 assists and 13 digs) recorded doubledoubles for the match.

The championship game proved to be anti-climactic, as Miami dominated from the start in a 3-0 blowout victory. After being tied 15-15 in the first set, the RedHawks would outscore Memphis 60-40 the rest of the way. Tomasic led the team with 10 kills and five blocks, while Zielenski led the team in both assists (18) and digs (16).

Below was named Tournament MVP, totaling 36 kills (3.27 per match) over the course of the weekend. She also tallied 37 digs and six blocks for the tournament.

“It was a really awesome feeling, especially being a senior and having

ANGELO GELFUSO THE MIAMI STUDENT

Senior outside hitter Maris Below goes for a kill against Xavier University. Below has 89 kills with a .217 attacking percentage through 10 games. it be my last preseason tournament.

I could not have done it without the great play of all of my teammates,” Below said.

Tomasic and McDonald joined Below on the all-tournament team. Tomasic finished the weekend with 32 kills and an impressive .338 hitting percentage.

McDonald led MU’s defense with

53 digs, averaging 4.32 per set. “The tournament win will help people see we are a really good team. It will put a target on our back, which will just motivate us even more to win the MAC title,” McDonald said.

The RedHawks return to action 7 p.m. Wednesday in Cincinnati against archrival University of Cincinnati.

Headlines beyond Oxford: Thanks to Mike Nugent’s 47-yard field goal in the final minute, the Cincinnati Bengals escaped the New York Jets with a 23-22 victory Sunday. Andy Dalton threw for 366 yards and a touchdown, but was sacked a career-high seven times. A.J. Green snagged 12 passes for 180 yards, dominating future Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis. The one-point win was partially thanks to a Jets’ missed extra point, the first in Nick Folk’s nine-year career (311/312). Jeremy Hill added 31 yards and a touchdown on the ground for the Bengals. Cincinnati plays archrival Pittsburgh this week, the first meeting since the Steelers eliminated the Bengals last season.

SPECIAL DINNER

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016, 5–8PM