The Miami Student | February 11, 2020

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

Volume 148 No. 13

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

The long road to sustainability at Miami

President Crawford decided to sign the PCLC. Here’s a roadmap to understand how we got here.

SAMANTHA BRUNN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Adam Sizemore sits in the dark.

Down a narrow hallway of the Physical Facilities Department, behind a heavy door wired to a buzzing lock — one that can only be opened when an administrative assistant is at the window — Miami University’s Sustainability Director leans back in his office chair.

The low afternoon sunlight comes through the blinds, dusting pieces of the room, the rest in comfortable shadow.

“I figure, why waste electricity, right?” he said.

Sizemore came to Miami in July 2018 as the sole member of the Sustainability Department. Before that, there was a push for sustainability efforts on campus beginning in 2008, when Yvette Kline was the Sustainability Director.

After she left, two years went by while Miami failed to staff the department. Multiple hiring searches came up empty because Miami couldn’t find who they were looking for to lead the department in a new direction, David Creamer, Miami’s vice president for finance and business services and treasurer, said.

The synergy built between the university and student groups on campus dwindled without a leader.

“My first two months was really just going

ILLUSTRATION BY CONNOR WELLS; PHOTO BY BO BRUECK

through Yvette’s old files and understanding what sustainability was at Miami, and that’s something that I still think I can continue to learn about,” Sizemore said back in April 2019.

Sizemore spent his first year on campus trying to pick up where the progress had left off. He initiated a battery recycling program across campus. He calculated Miami’s carbon footprint. He spent three months just submit ting data for Miami’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) report, which is used as a “transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance,” according to the reporting system’s website.

“You want to talk about the best way to learn a university, is this right here,” Sizemore said, gesturing toward his dimly-lit computer screen displaying the STARS report. “As someone that’s in this position that just has no idea where any of these things are and who all these people are, that has really helped me connect with people and network across the university.”

Despite all of the data he submitted for the STARS report, though, Sizemore said he still doesn’t know how to benchmark Miami against its peer institutions. Sizemore said Miami’s isolation among endless acres of corn makes it hard to compare to peer institutions. However, Miami certainly isn’t the only university to face this set of problems.

But the whole point of STARS is to provide a common measurement system for campuses across the country. Miami was among 126 institutions to receive a gold rating. Only five universities have achieved the highest ranking — platinum.

However, STARS is no longer widely-used in the industry. It merged with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the nonprofit known for its LEED certification system, in 2018. USGBC has faced accusations of greenwashing its ability to help corporations combat climate change and of not holding corporations to a high enough standard to face the current climate crisis.

So Miami continues to measure its sustain-

For 10 points:

Who are the hosts of Top Deck Trivia?

CARRYING ON AN ILLUSTRIOUS TRADITION, BEN AND HUNTER ADD THEIR OWN PERSONALITY TO THE ROLES OF HOST. THE MIAMI STUDENT SEKSHAM SHRESTHA

MAYA FENTER

MAGAZINE EDITOR-AT-LARGE On the first Wednesday of the spring semester, the line to get into Top Deck extended all the way down the stairs.

Inside, the bar was buzzing with people carrying pitchers of beer to their tables and teams trying to find a space to sit — or at this point, stand.

Ben Storsved, who graduated in December, and junior Hunter Wotruba stood in the back

corner of the bar, behind a laptop and sound system and under a glowing Chicago Cubs logo sign — one of many neon signs decorating Top Deck’s walls.

As the clock strikes 10 p.m., Ben leans in and speaks warmly into a microphone.

CULTURE

SPORTS

ability by a standard that no longer carries the credibility it once had.

Now, over the course of the last year, Miami has weighed whether to pursue a different standard — the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment (PCLC).

In January 2019, President Greg Crawford charged the University Sustainability Committee with determining whether the PCLC was worth signing and whether Miami should strive to become the most sustainable university in the U.S. The PCLC is a nationwide commitment pioneered by Second Nature, a nonprofit that aims to help higher education institutions eliminate carbon emissions, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with a changing climate.

By signing the agreement, Crawford would be agreeing to complete a Climate Action Plan that would include a target date for carbon neutrality, among other things, and agreeing to submit annual progress reports and pay dues to the organization.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

“Hello friends and welcome back to another fantastic week at Top Deck Trivia!”

At the beginning of the school year, Ben and Hunter took over after the previous hosts graduated and have spent just about every Wednesday night emcing Top Deck Trivia.

The two didn’t know each other before they started hosting together, but they each started going to trivia nights regularly during their sophomore years. They also both happened to know a previous trivia host —Ben met Jordan Cameron through rowing club and Dungeons and Dragons and Hunter met Alexa Patsey through Model UN. When the call for new hosts went out, Ben and Hunter both expressed their interest, then started writing some questions and helped host until they could host trivia nights on their own.

“We get along and we have similar interests,” Hunter said. “There’s been no conflict as of yet and I don’t think there will be.”

The format of Top Deck Trivia is simple: There are 14 categories, three questions per category and two categories per round. Each correct answer is worth 10 points. At the end, there’s one Final-Jeopardy-style question where teams can wager their points.

Teams can be any size and each has to come up with a team name. There are some teams who are Top Deck Trivia regulars and come back with the same name every time, like “Ikea Shark.” Hunter’s favorite names are ones that are puns on current events.

First place gets a $25 Skipper’s gift card, second place gets $10 and third place gets a free pitcher of Mind Probe or Long Island Iced Tea. There’s really only one rule: no phones.

“Friendly reminder: stay off your phones!”

Ben will say over the microphone if he sees anyone hunched over. Then the whole bar will start chanting “shame” in the perpetrator’s general direction.

Each week, Hunter and Ben write seven categories, or 21 questions each.

There are some recurring categories, such as CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

This Issue NEWS

What's it like to be laid off by your wife? page 3

In the wake of coronavirus Miami students show support and skepticism. page 9

Football is over Get ready for baseball and spring. page 10

OPINION

Feeling nostalgic?

Blame pop culture. page 12

This Week

2 FYI

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020 Named the Best College Newspaper (Non-daily) in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Things to do

SAMANTHA BRUNN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ceili Doyle Managing Editor

Sarah Grace Hays Maggie Peña Multimedia Editors

Connor Wells Design Editor

Chloe Murdock Magazine Editor

Julia Arwine Rachel Berry Erin Glynn News Editors

Maya Fenter Magazine Editor at Large

Chris Vinel Sports Editor

Bea Newberry Business Manager

Alyssa Melendez Web Designer

Wed 2/12

James Tobin Faculty Adviser

Emily Dattilo Duard Headley Culture Editors

Libraries: Black History Month Lecture

King Library

12 p.m. 1 p.m.

Stephanie Danker, assistant professor of art education, will give a lecture entitled “Art and Activism” to show students the Civil Rights Movement through photography.

Fred Reeder Business Adviser

Kate Rigazio Opinion Editor

WDJ Inc. - Bill Dedden Distributor

Jugal Jain Photo Editor

Aim Media Midwest Printer

Owen Berg Asst. Design Editor

David Kwiatkowski Asst. Culture Editor

Skyler Black Ophelia Rosales Designers

Nina Franco Social Media Director Style Editor

Love You Beary Much Thurs IArmstrong Student Center Pavilion

Bo Brueck Asst. Photo Editor

Derek Stamberger Video Producer Noah Bertrand Humor Editor

Sydney Hill Brianna Porter Copy Editors

Will Gorman Asst. Culture Editor Entertainment Editor

Briah Lumpkins Tim Carlin

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Watch the RedHawks defend the ice against Western Michigan.

Goggin Ice Center

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Fri 2/14

Date Night Moonlight Skate Goggin Ice Center

Spend Valentine’s Day with your person and skate the night away.

9:30 p.m.11 p.m.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Gov. Mike DeWine is a perfect example of Love and Honor

tune in for new episodes of this week @ tms, today and friday, hosted by co-multimedia editors, sarah grace hays and maggie pena.

VALENTINE’S PERSONAL ADS: If you’ve got a big head and a sense of humor that doesn’t amount to just liking John Mulaney too much, contact our opinion editor on Twitter or by email — she’s gonna take 3-5 business days to respond. @kmorigz rigazikm@miamioh.edu If you love podcasts and have a number of oversized flannels ripe for the stealing, contact our managing editor by email — she’s known for sending a gif or two. doyleca3@miamioh.edu If you love all things Cincinnati and wanna ride shotgun with your hair undone in the front seat of his Mustang, contact our sports editor by purchasing a commercial during an XFL football game.

If you know how to make a strong gin and tonic and wanna see the Fleabag jumpsuit in action, send our editor-in-chief a google calendar invite or DM her on Twitter with your hottest take. @samantha_brunn brunnsj@miamioh.edu

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, Miami University officials announced that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will serve as the spring 2020 commencement speaker.

This news was met with varying opinions from the Miami community. Some current students, alumni and parents threatened to boycott the ceremony and faulted the university administration for being “too conservative” on Miami’s Facebook page. Others believed that, in today’s divided climate, commencement speakers shouldn’t be political figures.

A few praised the decision, citing DeWine’s long history of public service in Ohio and his exemplification of the Code of Love and Honor.

I had the honor of interning for “Team DeWine” on his gubernatorial campaign in 2018, the summer following my freshman year. Before I started, I didn’t know what I believed nor who I wanted to become. I grew up in a conservative household, but I was hesitant to take a side when I arrived at Miami because I didn’t want anyone to label me as racist, misogynistic or anything that fits the typical (but false) Republican stereotype of today.

But, on Team DeWine, I found a campaign full of people with one mission: Create a better future for all Ohioans.

I’ve only heard hope and optimism from DeWine and his team. DeWine holds conservative values, but I never witnessed any talk of policies or actions that were solely based on partisan interest. To DeWine, it’s about every Ohioan, especially those who will inherit Ohio long after he leaves office.

Despite being on the campaign trail and serving as attorney general, DeWine took the time out of his busy days to get to know the other interns and me. Whenever I wore Miami apparel, he’d smile, shake my hand and point out the “Big M” on my chest. He’d tell me of his grandchildren who are third-generation Miamians.

As an intern, I was given valuable work that made a difference. I traveled all over the state to knock on doors, march in parades, staff fundraisers and much more.

My favorite moments were when DeWine and Jon Husted, his running mate and then-Secretary of State, unveiled wide-reaching initiatives to help Ohioans thrive. From more affordable healthcare, programs to make more college and work-

force-ready students, cleaning up Lake Erie and creating a more efficient government — Team DeWine covered it all. One year into his term, DeWine’s administration has kept these promises.

While interning in the governor’s office this past summer, tornadoes devastated the city of Dayton. Just weeks later, a mass shooting occurred in the same community, claiming the lives of nine Ohioans. On both occasions, I walked into the office to find every member of DeWine’s team working together to find the best way to solve these crises — from emergency briefings, touring the damage and reaching out to victims.

I could tell only a few things were important to them: confirming everyone was safe, getting help to those affected and ensuring that Ohioans are better protected in the future.

Throughout his nearly 45 years in public service, DeWine has been someone who’s led not for himself, but for the thousands of vulnerable Ohioans and Americans (especially children) who deserve a brighter future.

At 9 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, three hours before he took his oath of office among family and friends in his home, DeWine gathered his grandchildren in the middle of his yard. Together they shoveled through a foot of snow and then dug another couple feet into the ground to plant a buckeye tree.

“My grandfather kept planting trees up until his death in his mid-80s,” DeWine said in his inaugural address the next day.

“At that time, I thought, he’s never going to live to see those trees get very big. Yet he planted them nonetheless.”

DeWine has planted trees within me.

He’s a man with a big heart, always looking out for those who have less than him.

All the while, he works to bring people together. Someday, I hope to make the same impact. DeWine has made Ohio, and this world, a better place.

On May 16, Gov. DeWine will plant more trees by inspiring members of my graduating class to create their version of a better world.

Jordan D. Conner is a senior studying political science and strategic communication. He graduates in May. connerj7@miamioh.edu

ARWINEJK@MIAMIOH.EDU

For 10 points:

Who are the hosts of Top Deck Trivia?

FROM FRONT

“Last Night Today,” “Today in History,” which asks about events that happened on that day in another year and “Name That Tune,” where Hunter plays the first few seconds of a song and players attempt to identify the title and artist.

For the rest, Ben and Hunter get inspired from things they hear in class, on podcasts or puns from news headlines. These can produce categories from “SCUBA” (all about SCUBA diving) to “Sexy Bloodsuckers” (all about vampires) to “Professor or Porn Star” (guess if a name belongs to a Miami professor or a porn star).

It’s all about balance, both in varying the subject matter of the categories and difficulty level of the questions.

“My general philosophy on writing questions is there should be one that almost everybody gets, one that about half people get and one that only a few people get so that we can sort of spread out the teams score-wise,” Ben said.

Hosting trivia is just as much about crowd management and creating a fun, laid-back environment as much as it is about writing the questions.

“It’s a weird mix, because there’s some people that are just there hanging out with their friends and they’re not really paying

NEWS 3

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

attention and others are really focused, not even drinking, just there for the questions and the chance to win,” Ben said.

As of now, Hunter plans to host trivia again next year. Ben plans to go to graduate school, likely outside of Oxford, so they’re looking for someone to take his place.

He’s started making announcements at the end of trivia to come talk to him if anyone is interested in being a host. They’ve also reached out to people in various student organizations that they’re involved with, such as Model UN, Associated Student Government and of course, the quiz bowl team.

Candidates will then go through a similar process that Ben and Hunter went through — writing some sample categories and questions and then helping host some games later in the semester. The only thing they really look for is someone who attends trivia fairly frequently to ensure they already understand how it works.

Neither are too worried about finding someone new and they’ve already had a few people express interest.

Ben just hopes that he’ll actually be able to play a round or two of trivia himself before the semester ends. @maya_with_a_y fentermc@miamioh.edu

CITY COUNCIL TAKES STANCE AGAINST STYROFOAM ABBY BAMMERLIN STAFF WRITER

Styrofoam is no longer welcome in Oxford after Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

After nearly half an hour of debate, Oxford City Council voted 5-2 to ban expanded polystyrene, a substance used to make styrofoam.

The ordinance detailing the ban was originally meant to be voted on during council’s Jan 21. meeting. However, some counselors wanted more information about expanded polystyrene and what the ban would mean for businesses and other stakeholders.

Mayor Mike Smith attended the environmental commission’s public meeting to discuss the potential ban.

“I was hoping for a bigger turn out by having that meeting,” Smith said. “But no members of the public [were] there.”

Expanded polystyrene is commonly used in the packaging for take-out food such as plates, trays, cups or bowls. The ordinance requires that polystyrene be removed from national chains by Dec. 31, 2020, and local businesses

by Dec. 31, 2021. Failure to do so could result in a fine of $150 per violation.

Councilors Edna Southard and Glenn Ellerbe said they wanted more information from stakeholders, such as the Oxford Chamber of Commerce, before feeling comfortable approving the ban.

“When you don’t involve the stakeholders and allow them to come up with their own solutions and at least give them the courtesy of opening dialogue and saying, ‘This is the way we want to go, how can we help you, help us, get there?’ Ellerbe said. “You’re going to incite certain kinds of reactions you’re not ready for.”

Councilor Chantel Raghu argued against Ellerbe and Southard’s concerns, explaining that as of Feb. 4., no one had reached out to the city’s email raising issues over the ban.

“They’ve had the ability to write emails in complete private,” Raghu said. “They’ve had the ability to come to public meetings.”

Council member David Pyretherch brought the fact that the ordinance does not detail how or what expanded polystyrene could be replaced with.

“Let’s say we ban this item. Does the stakeholder know what product we want them to use and why?” Pyretherch asked. “So they don’t just phase out one thing and move to something else.”

Before voting on the expanded polystyrene ban, the council honored Oxford’s League of Women Voters for 100 years of service. Council also appointed Hueston D. Kyger, former candidate for council, to serve on the Historic and Architectural Preservation Commission.

City Council next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, in the Oxford Courthouse. bammeraj@miamioh.edu

‘It gets better after 10 years:’ RACHEL BERRY NEWS EDITOR

When he got the call, Perry Gordon was walking down Oak Street, braving the cold winter weather to write parking tickets on Miami University’s campus. This wasn’t typically part of his job as the director of parking and transportation services, a position he had held since September 2007. That day, though — Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 — was a slow one.

“You need to get to HR,” his wife, Kate Stoss, said, on the other end of the line. “You need to get to Roudebush right away.”

By the tone of his wife’s voice, Gordon could tell something was wrong, so he walked across campus to meet Stoss, the human resources (HR) director of compensation, employment and technology.

As Gordon walked into the room, he saw his wife’s boss, Carol Hauser, the senior director of HR, sitting with her, and at that moment, he knew what this meeting was about.

“We regret to inform you, due to budgetary decisions, your position as director of parking and transportation services has been eliminated,” Hauser said.

The budget cuts weren’t news to Gordon. The university had been slowly eliminating positions for about a year in the wake of the Great Recession. He had heard rumors months earlier about his position and his assistant director’s position possibly being eliminated. But he hadn’t heard anything since and assumed it wasn’t true.

Because he was married to Stoss, Gordon heard a lot about position eliminations — it was her job to carry out the layoffs. (Stoss preferred not to speak with The Miami Student for this story but confirmed Gordon’s recollection of events.)

At first, the layoffs were limited to people she didn’t know. Then, she had to layoff acquaintances and soon friends, as hundreds of positions across the university were eliminated.

And on that cold, wintery day, she sat across from her husband knowing she’d have to do the same.

Hauser told The Student that layoff meetings typically occurred between the vice president of the department or immediate supervisor, HR and the employee. She said she didn’t remember Gordon’s specific layoff.

Stoss and Hauser explained that budget cuts necessitated moving parking services, which used to be its own department based in the Housing, Dining and Guest Services office, under the purview of the Miami University Police Department (MUPD). Effective the following Tuesday, the departments would merge.

Gordon questioned why he couldn’t keep his job even as the department moved. He used to work for MUPD, both as a police officer and an administrator, and he still had a state certification as a police officer.

“So you’re just going to hand it to someone

who has neither the experience nor the desire to be the new parking head?” he asked.

Hauser didn’t have an answer. The decision had already been made.

Hauser began walking him through what the layoff would mean, explaining things like professional leave and severance pay.

“Carol, I understand you have to do this,” Gordon said. “You’ve got your routine, and I understand all that, but I think Kate can explain it to me if it’s ok.”

He could tell this was upsetting all three of them.

“It felt like shit,” he said. *** Gordon later learned the entire story behind that meeting in Roudebush. Originally, he had a meeting scheduled with Bill Moloney, his immediate supervisor, at 4 p.m. that Friday at Cook Place, on the east side of Cook Field.

Moloney said he wanted to talk about budget planning, and Gordon didn’t think anything of it.

Dealing with the department’s finances was part of his job, and he had been working with Moloney recently to figure out income and expenditures for the coming year.

Stoss heard that someone in her office had been asked to attend a meeting at 4 p.m. that same Friday at Cook Place. She thought it was strange — both that no one had mentioned it to her and that someone from HR was going to Cook Place on a Friday afternoon.

She approached Hauser, asking what the meeting was for. Eventually, Hauser told her Gordon was being laid off.

It was then that Stoss called her husband, wanting to give him the news herself.

To Gordon, the whole situation felt like “a bad mob hit.” *** That next Monday, Gordon called all his employees into the Campus Avenue Building conference room to tell them the news. He wanted them to hear it from him before rumors started circulating.

As he looked at the small staff of about 14 people who worked under him, he saw mixed emotions. Some people were teary-eyed, and some were mad.

“We thought he was joking when we heard,” said Conrad Wright, who worked under Gordon at the time.

Gordon addressed the situation, telling his staff as much as he could.

“They’re telling me, ‘It’s not me, it’s my position,’” Gordon said.

“What’s the difference?” one employee asked.

They questioned if there was anybody else from the department losing their jobs. They wanted to know who they could talk to about it.

Gordon didn’t know.

Sherry Martin Hampton, former program associate for parking and transportation services, said Gordon was a good boss, well-liked — the “dad of the office.”

Former Miami employee recounts his 2010 layoff “I think we were pretty tight-knit like a family, and we were pretty devastated to have the head of our department laid off,” she said. “It was like ‘what are we going to do?’ … There was a lot of confusion, more panic, more worry.”

The person who absorbed Gordon’s parking duties, in Wright’s opinion, “didn’t know anything about parking whatsoever.”

“We were like, ‘What’s going on?’” Wright said. “‘He’s the most competent person. And if he came back, he would still be the most competent person to take the position in parking.’” *** Within about a week, Gordon received his layoff notice and severance package. But when it came to placement assistance or job counseling, he wasn’t given much help.

Hauser suggested he speak with the Career Center, which she said was standard practice. He spoke with a man who tried to be helpful, but the center was focused on helping undergraduate students looking for entry-level jobs and wasn’t really equipped to handle someone older with more experience.

From there, Gordon was sent to Miami’s Voice of America (VOA) Learning Center in West Chester, Ohio, to speak with someone who deals with professional development.

That person gave him a copy of “What color is your parachute,” a self-help book for job-seekers, and nothing else. *** Gordon and Stoss worried about how they were going to make ends meet without his job.

But Gordon was better off than most people in his position. He and his wife both had good salaries at Miami. He taught one English class a semester in addition to his job in parking. He also worked part-time at Hueston Woods State Park, a job he would continue after his position was eliminated at Miami. He started full-time at the park in 2013 and worked there until his retirement from the position in 2017.

Later that week, Gordon approached Steve Schwein, the then-chief of OPD, and told him he had been laid off.

“I’m going to be available pretty damn soon,” he said.

Gordon asked if they had any positions available. He would do anything, from being an officer to a dispatcher to a parking enforcement officer.

On March 31, he was sworn in as a part-time officer and worked at OPD while finishing his job at Miami.

During his last few months, Gordon was supposed to help with the transition, but he said not many people reached out to him. It was business as usual.

“Everything had changed, and in a way noth-

ing had changed,” he said.

Gordon’s official end date was June 30, but Gordon had a lot of vacation time saved up and finished on June 2.

In 2012, Schwein retired, and Bob Holsworth took over as interim chief, vacating a position as supervisor of parking. Gordon was then able to return to parking work again, still working part-time at OPD. Since 2015, Gordon has worked as the property officer, maintaining inventory records on evidence. It took five years for his gross income to reach the level it was before he was laid off at Miami. *** Two weeks ago, Gordon picked up a copy of

WHEN PERRY FOUND OUT ABOUT THE RECENT LAYOFFS, HE WAS REMINDED OF HIS OWN PAINFUL EXPERIENCE. THE MIAMI STUDENT SAKSHAM SHRESTHA

The Miami Student and saw the headline, “Budget reallocations leave 39 Miami employees without jobs.” He noticed the date: Jan. 28, 2020 — exactly ten years since the day he was called into his wife’s office.

Gordon doesn’t resent anyone for what happened then.

“I don’t think there’s any villains or evildoers,” he said. “People had to make hard decisions.”

He still doesn’t know whose decision it was to lay him off. He’s doing well now, though, and he has a job that he loves.

“It gets better after 10 years.” @racheldberry berryrd@miamioh.edu

Retire, rehire: How Miami holds onto its professors MEGHNA SANTRA

THE MIAMI STUDENT Ask media and culture professor Howard Kleiman what he loves most about his job, and you’ll hear one thing: the teaching. It’s why he came into the profession in the first place.

So what happens after the job is done?

For several professors at Miami University, the answer to that question is rather simple: keep doing it.

The policy, known as retirement with rehiring, allows tenured faculty members to be reemployed within the first three academic years following their retirement. According to the Miami University Policy Library, “In order to be eligible to participate in the program, a faculty member must begin reemployment during the

academic year immediately following retirement.”

Rehired faculty members are required to take a semester off before coming back to teach in order to receive medical benefits under the Affordable Care Act. “[The policy is for] tenured members of the faculty [who], as they approach retirement, want to phase out versus just going from working fulltime to being completely retired,” Groom said.

But, rehired professors are only allowed to teach — they cannot serve the university in other ways such as leading workshops or fulfilling administrative duties. Plus, the course load cannot exceed 12 credit hours.

The policy also allows them to finish advising graduate students working on dissertations and to complete their own research.

Groom said retired faculty members have to

apply for the program at least six months before their planned retirement. Then, if their application is approved, they must inform the chair of their department of their interest in participating in this program. Next, the application is transferred to the dean of their college and ultimately to the provost for approval.

Faculty members are approved based on good standing and instructional need during the requested semester.

Once accepted into the retirement with rehiring program, teaching arrangements are determined, but not guaranteed, each academic year. Rehired professors have the option of withdrawing from the program or declining a teaching assignment after one or two years if need be.

Retired faculty members receive a salary of three percent of their pre-retirement salary per

credit hour.

Groom said that one of the biggest benefits of the program is enabling Miami to keep experienced faculty in the classroom, which can offer benefits to students.

Kleiman, who is now teaching one course a semester as a participant in the retirement with rehiring program, agrees, emphasizing the importance of being able to teach relevant courses in media law to students even after retirement.

“What I want the students to do is walk out of the class [and] for the rest of their life, hopefully, remember foundational principles that deal with free speech and free press,” Kleiman said.

“This is something I’ve been doing forever.” @meghnasantra1 santram@miamioh.edu

4 NEWS Surcharges and fees Find out what you’re paying for COSETTE GUNTER

THE MIAMI STUDENT Students in three out of the five academic colleges at Miami University find fees on their bills that students in other colleges do not. The Farmer School of Business (FSB), the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) and the College of Creative Arts (CCA) all charge students on top of their general Miami tuition.

An extra fee of $110 per credit hour is charged for the majority of the courses offered in FSB. According to Miami’s Business Surcharge FAQ, this surcharge’s purpose is to “ensure that the Farmer School can continue to provide our students with a world-class educational experience.”

Rebekah Keasling, assistant dean for administration, said the money from the surcharge helps pay the ninemonth salary base of faculty.

David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and business services, said FSB has a “very high cost of instruction” and the money “ensures salaries are at market levels.”

According to Chronicle Data, an average salary for business and management professors is $132,198. In Ohio, the average salary for a professor is $110,232.

“The faculty at Farmer have higher compensation than other disciplines,” Creamer said.

The Ohio State University (OSU) employs a similar surcharge for their business courses, but charges roughly half the amount of FSB, at $54.10 per credit hour. Professors at OSU make an average of $141,931, which is higher than Miami’s average of $124,388.

FSB requires that students take 45 hours of business courses outside of their business major requirements. If the required courses were all 3 credit hours, that would total an additional $14,850 in surcharges over four years.

The number varies with the number of credit hours and major requirements.

CCA students pay $400 in fees in four years.

Dan Moriarty, a junior economics major, recalls transferring into FSB his second year at Miami without knowing about the surcharge on classes.

“When I first started [at Farmer], I wasn’t aware of it, and when I transferred, it just showed up on my bill,” Moriarty said. “I’ve definitely gotten a good education at Farmer, but I don’t know if the surcharge is worth it. I think if they were more clear about what they use that money for, then it may be.”

FSB is not the only college at Miami that requires an extra fee to attend.

CEC instituted a semester fee in the 2013-2014 academic year that charges students in the college an extra $400 per semester. At the end of four years, students in CEC pay $3,200 extra for tuition.

“The funds created through this fee have been used to hire and retain 12 full-time faculty members,” said Micki White, director of administrative services for CEC. “This has allowed us to achieve a lower student per faculty ratio, which, in turn, enhances the quality of education for each of our students.”

Daniel Waldron, a senior engineering major, said he has experienced smaller class sizes in his program, but did look at the University of Cincinnati’s and OSU’s engineering programs before transferring to Miami, which do not require extra fees.

The CCA’s fine arts fee is for architecture/interior design majors and music majors. Carolyn DeWitthe, assistant to the dean for operations and finance, said the $50 semester fee offsets the cost of “specialized software needs in computer labs, digital music/piano equipment, studio fees, music lessons and art supplies.” CCA students pay $400 in fees in four years.

In addition to the CCA fee, art and architecture students have to purchase their own supplies and materials for various classes.

Scholarships can be used to cover these surcharges, but Miami awards scholarships based on general tuition rates, which do not include the program fees. Creamer described the surcharges as “add-on fees.” In both Moriarty and Waldron’s cases, their academic scholarship was not enough to cover the fees. @cosettegunter guntercr@miamioh.edu

THE FARMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS IS AMONG THREE MIAMI COLLEGES THAT HAVE FEES BEYOND TUITION. THE MIAMI STUDENT OPHELIA ROSALES

BERRYRD@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

MIKE DEWINE NAMED 2020 COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER RACHEL BERRY TIM CARLIN

THE MIAMI STUDENT Miami University President Greg Crawford named Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine the Spring 2020 Commencement speaker. DeWine is a 1969 Miami graduate who was elected as Ohio’s governor in 2018.

“Miami is very fortunate that we can draw commencement speakers from a body of distinguished alumni,” said Claire Wagner, director of university news and communications. “When you look at [DeWine’s] long record of public service, that is hard to match by anybody. So we think that in drawing from his local service, his state service [and] his fed-

eral position, he’ll be able to provide an inspirational message.”

Typically, the commencement speaker is chosen by a committee led by Ted Pickerill, secretary to the Board of Trustees and executive assistant to the president.

The committee also includes the president’s executive cabinet and student leaders. The university knew it wanted DeWine as a commencement speaker once he was elected as governor, so this year, the committee wasn’t used, and students weren’t involved in the decision, Wagner said.

DeWine is a career politician, having served as a U.S. senator from 1995-2007 and Ohio attorney general from 2011-2019. He has also held roles as lieutenant governor of Ohio and U.S. Representative.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Miami and has periodically returned to the university to teach government courses. DeWine’s wife, four of his children and four of his grandchildren also attended or are currently attending the university.

Miami’s College Republicans (CRs) are pleased with the university’s decision, Collin Finn, director of communications for the CRs, wrote in a statement to The Miami Student.

“The university couldn’t have made a better choice,” Finn wrote.

“Miami University has always been important to Governor DeWine, and we are glad that he is taking this opportunity to give back to his alma mater.”

But not all Miami students respect the university’s choice to

give DeWine a platform during commencement.

“It’s unfortunate that such a joyous and happy day is going to be reduced with Mike DeWine’s presence given his lack of respect for women and their right to choose, given his complete inaction and disregard for the lives of Ohioans,” said Omar Elghazawi, head of communications for Miami’s College Democrats.

“It’s just a shame that Miami chose to make such a great event political and degraded it for absolutely no reason other than to appease someone who is giving us money,” he added. @racheldberry berryrd@miamioh.edu @timcarlin_ carlintm@miamioh.edu

Fraternities take new steps to move past Delts hazing and build trust LEANNE STAHULAK STAFF WRITER

Before arriving at Miami University for his first year, biology major Nick Zimmerman heard about the Delta Tau Delta (Delts) hazing incident that resulted in the fraternity’s removal from campus.

He wasn’t surprised by it because he personally knows the people involved. Zimmerman grew up with former chapter president Andrew Brinkman and other Delts in Dublin, Ohio.

Zimmerman and many other firstyears aren’t worried about the possibility of hazing from the chapters they chose to rush this year.

“I really don’t think it was a fraternity issue. I think it was just a person issue,” Zimmerman said. “Probably not the chapter, just a couple bad people.”

Cliff Alexander Office Director Kim Vance expected parents to be calling her before recruitment with questions and concerns for their sons’ safety. But instead, she said parents are asking, “How can my son get involved?”

Despite expecting lower turn out this year, the Cliff Office reported that 611 students accepted bids from Miami’s fraternities this year, a 13 percent increase from last year’s fraternity rushing class.

Andy Iacobelli, a sophomore finance major who rushed Pi Kappa Phi (Pi Kapp), emphasized how the fraternities have worked to put new members’ worries at ease.

“These guys told me they’re not gonna do anything terrible to me,” Iacobelli said at a Pi Kapp recruitment event. “I trust them, and I know them.”

Vance stressed the importance of building trust and better relationships between the university and fraternity chapters so that members will be more “honest and transparent.”

“We can’t just sit in an office and make rules,” Vance said. “We’ve got to provide education and hear the voices of the students, the alumni, the various stakeholders in the community, and bring people together around common ideals. [We have to] help people focus on the fact that we’re values-based organizations, and what is it that we really value?”

The chapters themselves also took steps to establish better bonds between Greek life and the larger Miami community by creating new require-

POTENTIAL NEW FRATERNITY MEMBERS SAY THEY AREN’T CONCERNED ABOUT HAZING. STAFF WRITER LEANNE STAHULAK

ments for member recruitment. In 2018, the Interfraternity Council (IFC) partnered with the Panhellenic Association and National Panhellenic Council to establish these rules through the Honoring Fraternity initiative.

Among these rules is an increased GPA for new members from a 2.5 to a 2.75 and no more than a 10 percent drop in the member class’ overall GPA from fall to spring semesters. This is also the first rush period where members are being screened for conduct violations at Miami. Previously, only the GPA check was required before a new member could be offered a bid.

In the wake of the Delts suspension, chapters are prioritizing new member safety, vowing to be open and straightforward with new members about what to expect from fraternity involvement and the initiation period.

During that time, potential new members will have lots of contact with the new member education committee, which has been in existence for years, and is in charge of showing new members educational modules and preparing them for life within the fraternity.

“My position is important just because you need someone to lead these kids and show them what it’s like to be

in a fraternity,” said Fobe Bah, Alpha Delta Phi new member chair.

Sigma Alpha Mu Recruitment Chair Grant Johnson echoed the sentiment.

“We’ve promoted a healthy new member process. We want you to know the history of our fraternity, and we just promote having a healthy and safe environment to grow into to be a true brother,” Johnson said.

Associate Director of the Cliff Alexander Office Adam Dralle has worked closely with the IFC and the Office of Student Life to initiate a conversation around Greek life’s interaction with the community. Right before the beginning of the semester, IFC hosted a general body meeting for incoming and outgoing chapter presidents, inviting Dean of Students Kimberly Moore and Director of Community Standards Ann James to attend. The meeting took place in the former Delts house.

“It was a two-hour conversation, and it could have easily been six,” Dralle said. “I know that a big thing for the current new IFC board is to continue those conversations and to continue that transparency and trust-building, because that’s critical to moving the needle forward with the rest of the

Impeachment — then vs. now MADELINE PHABY STAFF WRITER

Miami University’s political climate has changed quite a bit over the past 20 years and, in turn, so has the way students discuss major current events, such as impeachment.

On Feb. 5, the United States Senate acquitted President Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, thus ending the lengthy impeachment process that has polarized Americans for several months.

Trump’s impeachment was set into motion in early September by an anonymous whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump had asked Ukranian authorities to influence the 2020 election in his favor. It is the third impeachment in United States history.

The first was in 1868 when Andrew Johnson was impeached on eleven different articles, but was ultimately acquitted by the Senate.

The second wasn’t until 1998, when Bill Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton, too, was acquitted by the Senate.

Richard Nixon also faced impeachment in 1974, but resigned from office before Congress could vote on his

charges.

John Rothgeb, professor of political science, has been at Miami during both Clinton’s and Trump’s impeachments — since 1985. He said that he never addressed either impeachment in his classes because they weren’t relevant to the classes he teaches ­­— onworld politics, American foreign policy and American trade policy — and that his students seemed reluctant to bring up such a contentious topic.

“I think that [students] have their opinions, but they’re hesitant to talk to faculty because they don’t want to get into an argument,” Rothgeb said.

“That doesn’t mean that I would argue with them, but they might think that I would.”

Rothgeb also said that many Miami students — and Americans in general — were somewhat disinterested in the two impeachments because of their constant media coverage.

“Today, you have 400 [television] stations, and you have news all the time, so people don’t pay nearly as much attention,” Rothgeb said.

“When Clinton was being impeached, it was pretty much the same — you had 400 stations, which kind of kills the interest.”

By contrast, senior political science and history major Bridget Dickens

said the constant media coverage simply makes it easier to pay attention and doesn’t diminish the interest.

“I get news updates from the New York Times and CNN, so that’s how I follow along with [the impeachment],” Dickens said. “I’d say that most people are paying attention, even if they think he shouldn’t have been impeached or that it was pointless.”

Christopher Kelley, another professor of political science who has been at Miami for both impeachments, agreed his students seem to have an interest in Trump’s impeachment.

However, he said that he hasn’t encountered very many partisan discussions of the issue.

“I’ve never had an instance where students are screaming that it’s the most unfair thing that’s ever happened to a president or that Republicans are so blind that they can’t impeach a guy who’s so clearly guilty,” Kelley said.

“It’s more an interest in the politics of the thing.”

However, Kelley said that the political climate at Miami was vastly different during Clinton’s impeachment and that partisanship was much more common back then.

“The campus in 1999 was far more conservative, and it was difficult to find people who were actively support-

community.”

Both Vance and Dralle agree that student leadership has felt the weight of responsibility for upholding the standards and expectations of a Miami fraternity chapter. After speaking with some of the new chapter presidents and executive members, Vance was “reassured” that they understand what’s at stake and that they won’t take the same path the Delts did.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘I’m gonna kill my fraternity brother,’ or ‘I’m gonna beat them so bad that they’re gonna require hospitalization,’” Vance said. “It creeps in over time, and then it gets out of control.”

Ultimately, Vance hopes that the chapters will remember what brought them together in the first place and honor that code.

“They’re values-based organizations. Let’s stick to the values,” Vance said. “I don’t care what their rituals say. I don’t care what their creed says.

I don’t care what their public or private motto says — none of it says hurt people. It just does not.” stahullc@miamioh.edu

ing democratic causes,” Kelley said.

“Most students were Republicans, and they wanted to see the president impeached.”

Though Rothgeb said he hasn’t noticed this leftward shift in students’ ideologies, he did say that some people seemed to react to Clinton’s impeachment differently than Trump’s because its subject — an extramarital affair — was personal for many people.

The strong support for Clinton’s impeachment observed at Miami by Kelley differs greatly from national opinion at the time. According to data from the Pew Research Center, less than 30 percent of Americans supported Clinton’s removal from office prior to the House of Representatives’ proceedings.

Kelley added that the lack of passionate discussion about Trump’s impeachment may be due to the upcoming 2020 election, which has largely overshadowed the impeachment in importance. Clinton’s impeachment was different, as it occurred nearly two years before the next presidential election.

“Even though the two [impeachments] happened in close proximity to each other, we’re still talking about two very different time periods,” Kelley said. phabymr@miamioh.edu

GLYNNEE@MIAMIOH.EDU

NEWS 5

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

‘Can I pet your dog?’:

A look into service animal training on campus

GABBI BRIGHT STAFF WRITER

CANDIDATES FOR STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT WILL NOW RECEIVE CAMPAIGN RESOURCES FROM ASG. NEWS EDITOR RACHEL BERRY

ASG changes student body president campaigning rules, elects new senators RACHEL BERRY NEWS EDITOR

Students will have fewer Associated Student Government (ASG) elections to worry about this year.

Miami University’s ASG voted to change the student body president election rules at its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

Previously, students would vote for one president and vice president in a general election the week before spring break. If more than two slates were running, and no one received more than 50 percent of the vote, there would be a runoff election.

This year, instead of having a runoff election, ASG will utilize ranked-choice voting. Rather than choosing only their preferred candidate, students will rank all candidates.

If no one slate receives the majority of the votes, the slate with the least amount will be eliminated. The ballots that ranked the eliminated slate first will then count as a vote to whoever is ranked second on those ballots. This will continue until one slate receives the majority of the votes.

Speaker of Senate Sarah Siegel said in the past, some students have been confused by the two elections, thinking they don’t have to vote in the second one because they already voted. In three of the past four runoff elections, there has been less turnout than in the general election.

Last year, 12 percent less students voted in the runoffs.

Siegel also said the rankedchoice voting will force students to do more research into all of the candidates instead of only choosing a favorite.

Previously, candidates were not allowed to use ASG resources during their campaigns. This year,

ASG will help candidates arrange tabling in Armstrong Student Center (ASC), digital screen advertisements in ASC, space for a physical banner in ASC and headshots. All candidates will have equal access to promotion on the ASG website and social media accounts.

All of these resources are free to ASG. Helping candidates with marketing levels the playing field for slates who might not have the support of as many student organizations, said Reena Murphy, a member of the ASG elections committee.

The last main change to the student body president election rules is the addition of a warning as a level of campaign violation.

Last year, there were at least three campaign violations issued, with one instance being overturned by student court.

Slates can be issued violations for things like campaigning before

has been added for “incidental” offenses that aren’t deemed severe enough for a violation.

“The better the slates campaign, the more students hear about ASG, and I see that as a positive,” Siegel said.

ASG also unanimously approved student organization funding proposals and elected seven senators at Tuesday’s meeting.

Aidan McKeon was selected as a senator-at-large, meaning he represents the entire student body.

Colin Camblin, Jermaine Carew and Hunter Wotruba all became off-campus senators. Senate also elected Jake Kravitz and Nathaniel Ike as College of Arts and Science senators and Kerrigan Grabow as a fourth district on-campus senator, representing Emerson, Tappan and Morris Halls.

ASG will hold more elections on Tuesday, Feb. 18 for a College of En-

“The better slates campaign, the more students hear about ASG, and I see that as a positive.”

A black German retriever trots up the steps of McGuffey Hall, gathering stares from other students sharing the path. Although most either ignore or smile at the dog, one student shrinks into a corner and turns their head away from her path — afraid.

Two others rush to the next corner, embracing each other as one begins to cry.

Allie Humenay, vice president of Paws for a Cause Miami (PFCM), follows closely behind to assure that her foster dog maintains her concentration and ignores the negative reactions to her presence.

Humenay has been a member of PFCM for years. The organization allows volunteers to train service dogs at a basic level. Almost 70 handlers are entrusted to teach these dogs socialization and listening skills before they advance to specialized training programs or fail to graduate.

Humenay says reactions like these are atypical at Miami University.

“When training in public, I usually get positive reactions from students and faculty,” Humenay wrote in an email to The Miami Student. “I walk down the sidewalk and just see people smiling as I walk by them.”

Humenay emphasized that her dogs rarely experience hostility from fellow students, and most faculty have been patient with the animals.

Even so, PFCM fosters sometimes face issues around campus. One common issue for trainers is inappropriate petting or interactions with the service dogs-in-training.

“You will get those random people who will reach their hands down and pet the dog as you walk by, but the majority of people know you have to ask first,” Humenay wrote.

Nathan Phillips, secretary of PFCM, described similar experiences.

“Most of the time the [negative interactions] I get happen with non-students,” he said. “An older man accused me of having a fake ser-

vice dog … There are ‘drive-by’ pats at [hockey] games, and people give [the dog] popcorn … I had one person rationalize it as, ‘I do this for my dog at home.’”

Phillips emphasized that not only does inappropriate contact with a service dog interrupt the animal’s training, but it also impedes the handler’s ability to control the dog.

“Due to [inappropriate touching], sometimes dogs will break their commands, and we have to make them understand they’re still working,” he said. “We have to get [the dog] to understand the difference between being pet by a normal person and by a handler as a signal.”

Humenay emphasized the need for dogs to become comfortable around crowds of humans while forming positive associations with their community.

“The entire socialization process is about giving as many positive experiences to the dog as possible so that he or she is confident,” she wrote. “So, when the dog is in a negative situation, they become less confident and it becomes more of a struggle to get them over that hump.”

Although both handlers emphasized that they wanted people to be considerate of the dogs’ training process, they also clarified that there are acceptable ways for the public to interact with the service animals-in-training.

“Even though our dogs in Paws for a Cause are in training, it is important to treat that dog like it is working to help it practice [to ignore] distractions,” Humenay wrote. “You may ask to pet our dogs to help them get used to different kinds of people.”

“If you’re ever unsure if you should approach the [service dog-intraining], ask the handlers and keep their opinions in mind,” Phillips said.

“They know a lot about service dogs.

Don’t assume that you know what’s right. Just ask.” @gabbiabri brightga@miamioh.edu

-Sarah Siegel the beginning of the campaign period, damaging another campaign’s materials or issuing bribes. Based on the severity of the offense, there are three levels of violations that determine how the campaign will be punished — usually it’s a ban on campaigning for a certain period of time.

This year, a warning category

gineering and Computing senator, a 3rd district on-campus senator and five senators-at-large. Petitions to run for these positions are due at 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 16 in ASC 2012.

@racheldberry berryrd@miamioh.edu PAWS FOR A CAUSE MEMBERS TRY TO EDUCATE PEOPLE IN THE CORRECT WAY TO ACT AROUND SERVICE DOGS. THE MIAMI STUDENT KELSEY WARNING

How social media has changed the way we view death

ILLUSTRATION BY MIN KIM

SARA BEY

STAFF WRITER Nov. 15, 2016.

4:17 p.m.

I was a junior in high school, waiting around after school for the jazz band rehearsal to start. I decided I’d kill time by going to the cafeteria and buying a chocolate chip muffin and a pack of Sour Patch Kids, my go-to after school snack.

I ran into one of my friends sitting

at a table, scrolling through Instagram on their phone.

“Did you hear that somebody died?” they asked me.

I assumed they meant someone from our school. Totally shocked that someone as young as us could die, I asked them who it was.

They showed me a photo, and I felt an instant heaviness in my chest.

The world stopped. It felt like all the heat had left my body.

It was my friend, Maya.

The girl who I shared a best friend with. The girl I saw every day in French class.

She had just turned 18 two weeks prior.

It’s impossible to prepare yourself to hear about death, but something about finding out about it on social media rather than in-person is much more chilling.

“It feels distant,” said sophomore public health major Arianna Mack, “even if I knew the person.”

Mack said she has grieved many loved ones and has found out about people’s passing in many different ways, from in-person conversations to text messages and social media posts.

“Whenever I see these posts, it’s like, ‘Oh, this person that I’ve seen my whole life or grown up with is gone,’” she said. “This person is no longer a person, just a figure.”

In the hours, days and weeks following Maya’s death, it was difficult for me to scroll through Facebook or Instagram without seeing her face smiling up at me through my screen, accompanied by many paragraph-long goodbyes from friends and family.

It still didn’t feel real.

When Mack was 16, she got a text message from her boyfriend saying her friend, Alec, had passed away.

“I genuinely thought it was a joke at first,” she said, recalling the initial memories. “It doesn’t feel real. It felt like I was in a simulation of some sort.”

For Mack, processing the loss took longer because the news was delivered over text. “It was impersonal, because I felt like the words didn’t hold enough worth,” Mack explained. “[The information] didn’t carry as much weight as virtual words as it

would in person.”

I agreed. An “RIP” Instagram caption or a text message – although posted or sent with genuine intentions – feels different than having a sit-down conversation to break the news of death to someone.

Through videos, tweets, photos and boomerangs, social media is used to showcase the best side of life. We scroll through our feeds to see the faces of friends, family and celebrities accompanied by loving or witty captions.

But after someone dies, their social media accounts immediately become time capsules.

“Instagram is just this snapshot of someone’s life,” Mack said. “Then it’s just – suddenly seeing that life stop and going back [through their account] to see all of what you’ve lived through with them only for it to indefinitely end.”

Sometimes, I read through Tumblr and Instagram exchanges between Maya and me and remember where I was when they were happening.

I was sitting on my school’s patio when she texted me on my 16th birthday, congratulating me for upgrading from a cracked Android to an iPhone.

“Welcome to civilization,” she wrote, accompanied by a kissing face emoji.

I was laying in bed when she made a burner Instagram account just to comment “Hey, girl, you got kik?” under a few of my posts.

“I couldn’t bring myself to unfollow his [social media] pages,” Mack said of Alec. “But I also couldn’t bring myself to go on them for at least six months after his death. Even after, I felt like I was being hit by a truck.”

When birthday tributes come up,

or when she reads old exchanges, “it makes the emotions raw again,” Mack said.

But not all is lost when it comes to how death and grieving is handled on social media.

“There is a sense of solidarity that death magnifies,” Mack said.

A lot of her friends have “For Alec” in their Instagram bios. A lot of my

“It’s very easy for people to feel alone,” -Arianna Mack

friends put yellow ribbons in their bios to represent the sarcoma cancer Maya had.

“It’s very easy for people to feel alone,” she said, “but social media is also a source of ‘We’re not forgetting.

We won’t forget.’” @sara_bey beysc@miamioh.edu

SUSTAINABILITY

6

DOYLECA3@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

THE LONG ROAD TO SUSTAINABILITY AT MIAMI FROM FRONT

“[The charge] simply asked us to evaluate the commitment and what [carbon neutrality] would mean under the commitment,” Sizemore said.

So, Sizemore said, the committee spent six months compiling information on the PCLC and carbon neutrality. But on the question of whether Crawford should sign the pact, it didn’t make a recommendation.

The committee’s report was delivered to Crawford’s desk on June 1, 2019. *** Since then, Miami’s commitment to sustainability has been hanging in the balance while Crawford weighed whether to sign the PCLC. In the meantime, the administration touted the university’s exitisting sustainability measures through a dedicated webpage, which explains Miami’s commitment to sustainability through its “academic programs, physical campus and operations, and university mission by promoting environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic viability for current and future generations.”

The university promotes photos of students and a professor examining water for a biology lab; people installing an array of solar panels; students inspecting vegetables grown at the Institute for Food, Miami’s sustainable farm. Two of the three photos feature the Institute for Food as the pinnacle of Miami’s sustainability efforts, though its financial support from the university has been unpredictable year-by-year.

Crawford even mentioned Miami’s sustainability efforts in his December 2019 commencement address, saying Miami “more than a decade ago dreamed of moving away from coal and its harmful emissions, to clean, geothermal energy.

Now, after significant investment, we celebrate reductions in energy, our carbon footprint compared to our peers, and we haven’t burned coal for nearly three years. We are building on that for a carbon neutral future.”

As a student who has taken a number of sustainability-focused classes, and as a journalist who has heard more than a few sustainability-related campus rumors, I wasn’t sure this was the full story.

So I set out to find it.

I spent several months interviewing key stakeholders, hoping to discover what Miami’s sustainability efforts look like in action, rather than in its advertising. *** In September 2019, Miami students held a climate strike outside the Marcum Hotel and Conference Center. Crawford and the Miami Board of Trustees (BoT) were confronted by hun-

dreds of students asking the university to do something about climate change.

At that time, Crawford insisted the PCLC was not the only answer.

“The goal is that we think of [the PCLC] as the minimum of what we want to do … It’s not what if, it’s how you get there,” Crawford said then.

Around the same time, Crawford charged the Sustainability Committee with another task: to “further research and explore additional details that could shape an internal plan for Miami University to achieve carbon neutrality,” according to a copy of the charge provided to The Miami Student.

The charge included objectives such as providing case examples of other higher education institutions in their search for achieving carbon neutrality, specifically including the University of Michigan and American University; comparing the proposed internal plan with that outlined by the PCLC; and discovering ways to produce carbon offsets.

After the climate strike, director of university news and communications Claire Wagner emphasized that Miami was not putting off its sustainability decision.

“While we explore these options, we continue to surpass many of our goals and set higher ones.

We will continue our numerous commitments for sustainability,” Wagner wrote in an email to The Miami Student.

The Sustainability Committee had to deliver a drafted recommendation between the two pathways to Crawford’s desk by Jan. 1, 2020. The final report was submitted a month later, wherein the committee recommended Crawford sign the PCLC. *** “[The initial charge] kind of took my attention for the remainder of the whole semester,” Sizemore said of the latter half of his first year on campus.

Despite that high-priority task, Sizemore also found time to re-enter Miami in the 2019 Recyclemania competition.

“You’re probably going to laugh at this, but to do that, I went dumpster diving for eight weeks every day,” Sizemore said, grinning. “I went to every dumpster. I didn’t, like, dig through it, but I eyeballed it.”

He’d then estimate what percentage of the dumpster was full. Ultimately, Sizemore guessed Miami throws away about 18 pounds of recycling per capita, ranking the university 39th out of 215 schools in how much waste is recycled.

He turned his computer screen toward me to proudly display the Recyclemania results.

“I’m a little lost,” I said.

As I looked at the screen, the numbers didn’t

seem to add up. Miami may recycle a lot of waste. But that means it could create more waste — it’s

not an automatic measure of greater sustainability.

“Even though we recycle more of it, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re being more sustainable,” I said.

Sizemore paused, clicking around his screen for a moment before shrugging.

“Yeah, that’s a good catch. I mean, you know, obviously I want people to recycle as much as possible, but I think the important thing is to find ways to reduce in the first place,” he said, pausing.

“But that was the nature of the competition, so I couldn’t do anything about that.”

As the only full-time staff member in the sustainability department, Sizemore said there were a number of things he didn’t have the bandwidth to do anything about. Two graduate students now each work 22 hours a week for Sizemore. One of them primarily works on Recyclemania.

With all of the budgetary issues Miami currently faces, it’s no surprise the department is understaffed.

“Miami may come around,” Sizemore said, wincing and correcting himself. “Not come around — be interested in — having more staff … I think Miami has a really strong dedication to sustainability.”

mitigate that.”

Her students reviewed literature on how other universities have dealt with organic waste. They

also reviewed data and case studies to inform how they’d replicate their findings on Miami’s campus.

But, when it was time to go into the dining halls and university catering operations to quantify food waste at Miami, the students hit a wall.

At first, Davis said, Dining Services was receptive to the students’ efforts because they wanted to optimize their systems as part of Miami’s “Lean” program.

Lean is a university-wide “systematic method” for the elimination of waste, in all senses of the term, that was first implemented in 2009, according to the Miami Finance and Business services webpage. It’s basically a way to streamline everything to eliminate excess — especially excess spending.

Of course, the humane response to excess food should be to give it to those who need it, Davis said.

But she said that’s not why Miami was interested — the university just wanted to minimize costs.

Davis’ students were told they

SIZEMORE HAS LED MIAMI’S SUSTAINABILITY DEPARTMENT FOR JUST OVER A YEAR AND A HALF. ASST. PHOTO EDITOR BO BRUECK

Sizemore entered Miami in Recyclemania for the 2020 cycle, again.

The push is more visible on campus, with stickers on coffee sleeves proclaiming “Let’s recycle more than Ohio University!” in Cafe Lux, on-campus Starbucks locations and Uptown in Kofenya. Sizemore put those stickers there himself, with the help of his wife and one of his student assistants, Cecil Okotah. Okotah has been spotted driving a utility golf cart around campus sporting a Recyclemania banner exclaiming the same thing.

couldn’t come in and measure the food waste.

When they asked if dining workers could put the food waste in a separate receptacle for the students to collect, they were told they couldn’t do that, either.

“Students tried hard. But we never cracked that nut,” Davis said.

Davis grimaced, remembering how hard her students tried to get the data they needed to complete the project.

“Having support from the university when you’re doing a project for them, you know, I thought was a given,” Davis said. “So it was defi-

There’s even a Recyclemania “gameday” scheduled for Friday, March 6. *** Last spring, Sizemore wanted to know how much organic waste is created at Miami, so he went to Amelie Davis’ Sustainability Practices Service Learning Course for help.

Davis is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability. She keeps her office lights off, but the windows let in the breadth of the afternoon sunlight, dappling the carpeted floor.

“I’m sorry it’s freezing in here,” Davis said, laughing. “I don’t think they’ve turned

nitely eye-opening to me to be like, ‘Okay, we’re not gonna play nice with each other, despite being at the same institution and, I think, having the same goals.’ So I don’t know how frustrated the students were, but I was frustrated for them.”

But the students wouldn’t have been in that position had Sizemore, as their client, not asked them to do this project in the first place.

“So, based on the fact that he was asking for this project, why was dining pushing back?” I asked.

Davis took a moment to think. She tapped her fingers along the side of her face, then set her hands on her desk.

“Well, that, I suppose, is a question that should

“Even though we recycle more of it, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re being more sustainable.”

the heat on yet, so we’ll just be chilly for awhile.”

Davis felt the service learning course was an opportunity to solve real-world sustainability problems in a single semester. So she assigned a group in the course last spring to tackle Sizemore’s task.

“We were interested in looking at how much food waste there was on campus,” Davis said, “and then finding the greenhouse gas emissions associated with that food waste and finding ways to

be posed to the president of the university, really,” Davis said.

When asked, Crawford said he was not aware of the obstacles Davis’ students had faced.

Davis said at the time that her students went to Sizemore for support, letting him know that Geno Svec and Brent Mason in Dining Services had not welcomed their questions.

“I don’t recall a problem in the data collection,” Sizemore said.

Neither Svec nor Mason returned repeated requests for comment.

“But it was [Sizemore’s] first year on the job,” Davis said. “I think he probably didn’t know who to contact yet, or how much to push back on things, or what he gets to ask and not ask — you know what I mean? … Honestly, I didn’t expect the pushback.”

Mason, Davis explained, told the students that the dining halls were severely understaffed, so it would be impossible to collect the data they needed.

Davis reasoned that it ultimately comes down to an institutional change.

“Would it cost a little money? Yeah, but when a carbon tax comes, that’s gonna cost a lot more money,” Davis said.

Davis’ students considered dumpster diving for the informa-

tion they needed.

“You’d take the bags out, sort it, and see what’s food waste and what’s not,” Davis said, grinning. “You’d wear gloves, two sets if you have to, and measure it and find the volume.”

“Wait, did you guys actually do that?” I asked.

No, they didn’t.

They would have needed “all sorts of approvals,” Davis said, and by the time they got them, the semester was over.

While Dining Services wasn’t willing to provide the data or the means to collect it, other departments on campus were more forthcoming with data on the organic waste they generate.

Davis’ students used that, combined with their assumptions of what our food waste looks like, to put together what they could for their report to Sizemore.

The students used generalized data on food waste per swipe and combined that with what Dining Services did provide them — the number of swipes per week — to roughly estimate what the results might have been if they had been able to measure the food waste themselves.

“You hear from some people, ‘Oh, Miami should be a leader in sustainability,’ but not everyone is on board,” Davis said.

“But you need everyone on board. It’s great to have that vision, but you also have to have follow-through, and you also have to have cooperation. And we’re not there yet. And we need to be.

And I don’t know how you get there. But we need to think about how you get there because otherwise we’re gonna miss that boat, really.”

Davis laughed and then shrugged. She does the best she can, she said.

“I personally think the university could be doing more,” Davis said. “Just sitting here, looking around. Why aren’t our parking lots covered in solar panels? Why can’t we do it? Explain that to me.

Why, every time I walk past a trash bin, are there a bunch of recyclables in there? Are people confused? There are certain things that do baffle me.” *** The sun beat down one late afternoon in September, pushing the heat close to 90 degrees. The

Institute for Food spread out before us, crops wilting in the heat, the sandy dirt rising in clouds of dust as we walked. Southwest Ohio was in the middle of a drought, and it showed.

“Come stand over here, try to keep to the shade if you can,” Charles Griffin said. As the director of the farm’s production and operations, he knows a thing or two about keeping cool in the late summer heat.

“This is why I always wear baggy, light colors,” Griffin explained, fanning himself. “I may look a bit ragged, but that’s what working in the dirt does to a person.”

Everything the farm produces is organic and sustainably produced. There’s a compost bin near the entrance to the farm and an array of solar panels to propel the watering system set up near the farthest end of the field.

“This is the only place on campus that composts, and we have the only solar panels at Miami,” he said, gesturing toward the small solar array.

Everything is hand-planted and harvested by the farm’s three-person full-time staff with the help of Miami students carted out to the farm in a rickety and rusted red Dodge van every semester for various science courses.

As a student in IES 278L: Introduction to Food Systems and Food Studies last fall, I often found myself at the farm.

Griffin briefly explained how the farm can’t

sell its produce at the local farmer’s market, and the university doesn’t buy it, either. Local farmers banded together to protect the market from the university-run farm, because they thought it would threaten their ability to do business.

So, because the farm’s budget from the university is reset every year, and there’s no guarantee how much they’ll get each time, the farm had to look to another avenue for supplemental income.

Community members can purchase a commu-

DOYLECA3@MIAMIOH.EDU

nity-supported agriculture subscription, buying themselves seasonal produce delivered weekly while financially supporting the farm. The Institute for Food heavily relies on this support to keep the farm going.

“It’s a shame, though, that the university doesn’t use our produce on campus, but that’s a long story,” Griffin said. *** Peggy Shaffer has run the Institute for Food since the farm’s beginning. She’s a professor of history and global intercultural studies at Miami.

Shaffer said when the farm began in 2015, Dining Services was closely involved in the interview process for the farm manager. Dining Services also worked with the farm to put their salsas into Miami’s marketplaces.

“We were hoping early on that it would make sense that Dining Services would just buy our produce, and they could incorporate it in,” Shaffer said.

That didn’t happen, though.

A few years ago, Miami catering was planning President David Hodge’s retirement dinner. They asked the farm to grow some greens, radishes and potatoes to be served in the meal. But after the farm delivered and received payment for the produce, the partnership fractured.

“The rumor that we were told was that the President’s Office decided not to use it,” Shaffer said. “So I don’t know if it actually got used because I wasn’t there. But that’s what came back to us.”

Miami uses no produce from the Institute for Food except the packaged salsas made with the farm’s produce and sold in MacCracken Market.

But it looks like that may change soon.

Shaffer said David Creamer, Miami’s senior vice president for finance and business services and treasurer, recently reached out to see if the farm might be able to work with Dining Services once again.

Shaffer was optimistic that, with this offer from Creamer, the farm might be able to have a larger role on campus after all this time.

Shaffer said the farm’s pilot program will, by the end of this semester, provide around 25 pounds of mixed lettuce a week to Dining Services. Its first harvest was delivered to Dividends on Wednesday, Feb. 5.

“I read a recent story that was talking about vertical farming,” Creamer said, explaining why he was inspired to rekindle the relationship. “It just prompted me to want to get the group back together again with some of these ideas.”

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

— so they had a slow start growing the lettuce for the pilot program.

Also, there’s no way to produce kitchen-grade produce that’s triple washed without

SUSTAINABILITY 7

report, 49.8 percent of Miami’s electricity comes from coal. And, according to Miami’s sustainability page, the university has reduced carbon emissions by 44 percent, but Sizemore said that isn’t

THE INSTITUTE FOR FOOD SUPPLEMENTS ITS UNIVERSITY-GRANTED BUDGET WITH CSA SUBSCRIPTIONS. ASST. PHOTO EDITOR BO BRUECK

a certified kitchen — and that would cost the university money to construct.

In effect, it’s an inescapable cycle unless something — or someone — gives.

“I think if students care about these things, then the university will move on them,” Shaffer said. “And I know it’s really hard when students are trying to fulfill all sorts of requirements … But we’re at a critical moment.” *** The greenest technology on Miami’s main campus — touted on nearly every sustainability page on the university website — is geothermal heating and cooling.

Ten buildings on Miami’s Western campus use the system, which is housed in the Geothermal Plant on Western Drive. That equates to about half a million square feet of facilities. The building is encased by windows on every side so passers-by can see the curlicue red, blue and green pipes that overhang the main atrium in a mess of piped spaghetti.

But when you walk inside, you realize there’s an order to everything.

“This is kind of like my kingdom,” Larry Davidson said. “People call it my McDonald’s playland.”

accurate, and it’s closer to 51 percent.

Regardless, while coal may not be burned directly at Miami, and we no longer have a 7,000ton pile of coal set aside for a rainy day, coal is still powering our campus — and the impact of burning that coal is still happening, just to a community we can’t see.

STARS reports that only 4.19 percent of energy consumed by Miami’s campus comes from clean or renewable resources.

Davidson took the time to painstakingly explain to me how geothermal works, pulling out all the stops to do so — light-up diorama and powerpoint included.

“Oh, wow, that’s a lot,” I said as he pushed a button to demonstrate the underground coldwater flows represented by glowing tubes built into a replica of Western campus.

“They always say the customer is number one at Miami — and it’s the students,” Davidson said, gesturing to the little bathroom shower replica on top of the diorama. “So I gotta make sure they’ve got their hot water for their showers, you know, and stuff like that. So, just making sure they’re getting what they’re paying for. I really like the job.”

He pulled up the powerpoint and explained how Miami PFD lives and dies by the kBTU, or

AFTER PRESIDENT DAVID HODGE RETIRED, THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE INSTITUTE FOR FOOD FRACTURED. ASST. PHOTO EDITOR BO BRUECK

“I think if students care about these things, then the university will move on them.”

-Peggy Shaffer

Shaffer said the biggest obstacle the farm has in partnering with Dining Services is volume: there’s no way the farm can produce enough without receiving more support from the university.

The farm doesn’t have electricity or classroom space and uses well water for everything. One of the greenhouses the Institute for Food was given to meet the lettuce demand of the dining halls this semester was initially out of commission

Davidson is Miami University’s Hydronics Systems Operations Manager. The pump system hums loudly inside the plant, but his southern Ohio twang rings clear above it.

“I definitely feel ownership, you know, I figure it’s my house,” Davidson said. “People tell me I’m a neat freak. But when people show up, I don’t wanna be worried that I need to get it cleaned up.”

That sense of ownership is due in part to the fact that Davidson has been with the geothermal plant from the start in 2014. It’s also just a function of who he is.

“I like to keep things clean,” he said as he led me to the main office. The whole place was pristine.

Miami plans to add five more buildings to the geothermal system by 2026, including Shideler Hall, Kumler Chapel, Peabody Hall, McKee Hall and Thomson Hall.

Miami’s geothermal system could immediately adapt if Miami were to move to a green electricity source, like solar or wind, Davidson explained.

“Geothermal is just exchanging energy from the ground loop temperature,” he said, so it always needs to be powered by the grid in some capacity to run.

Miami hopes to have about 40 percent of all campus buildings on the geothermal system by 2026. There will eventually be a wellfield under Millett’s parking lot to connect that half of campus to the system.

“I think there’s a study out there on campus, it would take 200 acres of solar to

thousand British Thermal Units, on campus. It’s a way to measure the amount of heat needed to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

Or, put more bluntly, it’s how much energy Miami spends money on.

“It’s all about the dollar,” Davidson said. “Miami is a great place. I’m just amazed on what they do, how they really watch pennies. I mean, you got to, I guess. Watching them say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do everything we can.’ You know, Lean, they really stress that. Being as Lean as possible. They love processes.”

So does Miami aim to save energy or to save money?

“If you don’t save the energy, you don’t save the money,” Davidson said. “I’d say they’re prioritizing saving energy so they can save the money.”

He paused for a moment, then added, “It’s definitely all about energy.” *** Across campus in Roudebush Hall, David Creamer is the one who weighs finances versus clean energy calculations at Miami.

“The financial piece — it’s always a tradeoff we have to be willing to consider … Some of the initiatives can add costs, so we have to weigh that in regards to other priorities at the university,” Creamer said.

As for sustainability versus finance, Creamer said, “I don’t see one as being prioritized over the other. I’m asked to deliver on both, and I do.”

One of those calculations is whether Miami can afford to move toward solar power.

But it turns out the cost is only one of the ob-

power the campus,” Davidson said. “I really believe Miami would look at that capability if someone stepped up and said, ‘Hey, we’ll assist,’ or whatever … It costs money to save money … people say ‘Oh, look how much it costs.’ Well, yeah, but look at your payback.”

Until then, Miami will continue to rely on natural gas and coal power, despite the repeated assertion that the university has not burned any coal since 2017.

According to Miami’s 2019 STARS

stacles. It also comes down to continually-evolving technology and finding enough space for the panels themselves.

“We have to ask ourselves — can we estimate where we’ll be in the future and when the right time is to jump in?” Creamer said.

Ultimately, Creamer said, Miami will eventually move to solar in some capacity. It just might be awhile before we find the space on campus to do so.

“We don’t have a lot of large, flat roofs where

we can locate the panels because the nature of our buildings makes it that way,” Creamer said.

“Changing our buildings hasn’t been part of the assumption at this point. The reality is, it would pretty dramatically change the appearance of our buildings and that’s a conversation that would need to occur with the board and others about some long-standing architectural design commitments.”

But even if Miami moves to solar in some form, Creamer said he doubts Miami will ever be carbon neutral.

“In reality, there’s probably not a strategy that would lead to carbon neutrality today without some further innovation,” Creamer said. “While we can go out and purchase carbon offsets, the reality is we’re still sitting here drawing our power from energy sources that are not carbon neutral.”

He said he hopes that may change some day at Miami. Until then, he’ll keep weighing those calculations. *** At the same meeting in January 2019 where Crawford charged the University Sustainability Committee with evaluating the PCLC, university

administrators debated whether Miami should aspire to become the most sustainable university in the U.S. In April 2019, Sizemore was reluctant to explain what his position is on the matter.

“You’re the person clearly in the position to know the most about sustainability here,” I said.

“What is your personal recommendation? It doesn’t have to reflect the committee; it doesn’t have to reflect anyone else. What do you believe?”

Sizemore leaned back in his chair again, sucking in air as he considered his answer.

“Um, so there’s a lot of other stakeholders that are involved in that,” he began. “I don’t want to bias the conversation one way or another … I think when you’re talking about a commitment and asking the university to sign something with specifics, then you have to be that neutral person. And that’s what the entire committee did. We took both sides of this commitment.”

I tried again. “Are you eventually going to provide a personal recommendation?”

“No, we are not going to,” Sizemore said, folding his hands on his desk with finality. “I can’t speak for the administration.” *** On Feb. 5, the President’s Office released Crawford’s decision to sign onto the PCLC — parts of it, at least.

“The President’s intent is to sign, on behalf of Miami University, the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments – and do so on April 22, 2020, the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day,” Ted Pickerill, executive assistant to the President and secretary to the Board of Trustees wrote in an email to The Miami Student.

Crawford expressed his excitement to sign the commitment in an interview with The Student.

“We’ve acted bold in the past, and I think we can do that in the future as well,” Crawford said.

“We set it for Earth Day, which it is a nice symbol, but we also need that time to pull all these pieces and parts together.”

One of those parts that still needs to be sorted out is the fact that Crawford has not yet decided which parts of the PCLC he will sign onto.

The commitment is broken into three parts: Climate, Carbon and Resilience. The Climate and Carbon commitments involve carbon neutrality, while the Resilience commitment does not.

If Crawford were to sign the Climate or Carbon commitments, the university would have three years to conduct research and analysis and set up a task force to begin moving Miami toward carbon neutrality. If he were only to sign the Resilience commitment, Miami would not be committing to carbon neutrality. Rather, it would be a watered down version of the other two commitment levels.

Other members of the University Sustainability Committee said that despite the remaining decisions to be made, they’re confident in the President’s decision to sign the PCLC. “We wouldn’t be signing it if we didn’t think it was doable,” Helaine Alessio, co-director of the University Sustainability committee, said.

Deciding to sign the PCLC is just the beginning, and members of the University Sustainability committee see the possibilities the commitment makes possible.

“I see it as exciting research and analysis that we can do to see all the avenues that are available,” Susan Zazycki, co-director of the University Sustainability committee, said. “We have so many people here on campus that are so aware of the issue and energetic … I hope that everyone is seeing it as many opportunities and evaluating which

ones work best for us.”

Crawford said a big part of the decision lies in how much the city of Oxford wants to pitch in to the efforts.

“We have to get their buy-in,” Crawford said. “But I always wanted to commit; it was just a matter of how we’d do it.” *** In the end, it sounded like signing the PCLC is a way for Miami’s administration to get everyone on campus on the same page when it comes to our sustainability measures.

“We can all be informed,” Zazycki said. “There are misinterpretations sometimes. Sometimes it’s the telephone game … We now have this opportunity with the PCLC, with forming a task force, to get the word out.”

And, after all, this story was written as an effort to get everyone in on the conversation. @samantha_brunn brunnsj@miamioh.edu

8 CULTURE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

HEADLEDD@MIAMIOH.EDU

Sharing the stage leads two Miami students to find their own paths JENNA CALDERÓN

THE MIAMI STUDENT On Tuesday nights, two very different styles of music can be heard emanating from a basement bar on High Street.

Nestled underground on West High Street is Bar 1868, a laid-back lounge with an atmosphere that makes Brick Street’s bustling dance floor seem all the more hectic. The bar has pool tables, biweekly drag shows and, every Tuesday night, live music performed by Miami University seniors Karen Mayet and Zach Vanderink.

“It’s an interesting clash, I think, with the bar scene and what we do,” Mayet said. “But it works.”

The two students grew up together in Granville, Ohio, but were never really close until their second year at Miami when Vanderink took a shot in the dark.

“He reached out and was like, ‘Hey, do you want to play [music] with me?’” Mayet said. She agreed, and the duo was formed.

Music had been in their lives forever, but it wasn’t until they started performing Uptown that it took on such a prominent role.

“Before college, it was just choir performances. We did the occasional competition at local wineries,” Vanderink said. “But up until 1868, nothing significant.”

During the fall of their junior year, the pair stumbled upon the gig.

Vanderink was hanging out at 1868 one day and happened to run into the owner.

“I told him that I played music, and I had a friend that I played music with,” he said. “It kinda came out of nowhere from there.”

Both play guitar, sing and put on a unique show on Tuesday evenings. They sing together and individually, and self-admittedly, have very different styles.

“It varies a lot. I’ll play some rock and roll and loud stuff,” Vanderink said.

“I’ll do, like, Billie [Eilish] and King Princess and stuff like that,” Mayet said. “I personally throw in some ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘Drake & Josh’ ... they love it.”

For Vanderink, the duo’s time at 1868 is just for fun. The supply chain and operations management major doesn’t see much music in his professional future.

“It’ll still be something that I do for fun, maybe for work on the weekends,” he said. “Maybe I’ll be that guy at the campfire.” Mayet jokes that perhaps Vanderink can play at office parties.

But for Mayet, performing is her future.

Last semester, the international studies and Spanish major decided she wanted to change course completely to actually pursue a career in music. She started devoting more time to singing and even quit her job to make it possible.

“I felt like quitting my job would let me have a lot more time to write music and produce it,” she said. “It’s been really rewarding.”

Over winter break, she began working with a producer to record her own original songs.

She notes that playing at the bar has pushed her to realize her passion and helped her improve at the same time.

“People are very vocal about whether they like [our performance],” Mayet said.

While 1868 didn’t shape Vanderink’s career path in quite the same way it has for Mayet, he does say it helped him build a lot of confidence.

“We were both definitely nervous the first time around,” he said. “But now we’ve done, like, 50 performances.”

Vanderink plans to keep enjoying his string of 1868 gigs while continuing to devote his time to going to class and pursuing his majors.

Mayet will be dropping her first single under the stage name “Kae Riviera.” Her song, titled “You Got Me,” will be available on music streaming platforms in mid-March. calderjm@miamioh.edu

THIS MIAMI DUO BRINGS A MIX OF MUSICAL STYLINGS TO THE BASEMENT STAGE OF 1868.

INSTAGRAM @BAR_1868 _.

NOTES OF NOSTALGIA

Thanks, Tinder KIRBY DAVIS COLUMNIST

One night two Novembers ago, I was debating which pair of black leggings was appropriate to wear to my first date with a guy I’d met on Tinder.

We’d FaceTimed the night before because his texted assurances that he wasn’t a serial killer just weren’t doing it for me. My expectations were low, because while he seemed cute and funny over FaceTime and our conversation had lasted hours, we had met over Tinder. And I had not, previously, had any luck with the app.

My name is Kirby, as my byline mentions. So most messages I received were ones wondering if that was my real name (yes), was I named after the cartoon character (no), and did I know that Kirby the cartoon character’s power was the ability to suck things? (Unfortunately, yes, thanks to Tinder).

Only one of my interactions on the app turned into a sort-of

relationship. I wouldn’t say we dated, exactly, but we definitely were talking for a few months when we were both in Cleveland for summer break. It wasn’t a love connection, but I was upset when he ghosted me regardless.

I was much more apathetic by the time he broke up with his new girlfriend and shot me the classic “How’ve you been?” text over Thanksgiving break.

But back to two Novembers ago.

My expectations were low. But I wanted to be wrong because I liked Zach. He hadn’t messaged me about my name; he’d opened with, “Are you my appendix? Because my gut’s telling me to take you out.”

I replied, “Your bio says you’re a writer. Do better.”

He did, and we kept talking.

We planned a date, at his place, to watch “The Haunting of Hill House.”

I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. I had recently taken a medical leave of absence from

school to be treated for severe depression and anxiety and I was bored. When I wasn’t in therapy, I was reading or sleeping and all my friends were at school. So I’d re-downloaded Tinder.

I also didn’t, at the time, subscribe to the belief that you find someone when you’re not looking. I still don’t, because if no one actively pursued anyone else, ever, half of my friends in relationships would not be.

I’d also sort of accepted, at the time, that I might never find someone who was willing to date someone quite so depressed and anxious — not in a self-pitying way, just in a practical way.

But, at the risk of sounding horrifically sappy, I found that in Zach. As promised, he was not a serial killer, and we made it Facebook official two months after our first date.

Thanks, Tinder.

“My expectations were low. But I wanted to be wrong because I liked Zach.”

@kirbdavis daviskn3@miamioh.edu

Sixteen and smitten LEXI WHITEHEAD

THE MIAMI STUDENT

“We were swaying to a crappy song we didn’t know when I looked at him and wanted to kiss him.”

High school dances may be a cesspool of sweat and hooligans, but one dance I went to will always hold a special place in my heart.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my school held a masquerade-themed Winter Formal. Traditionally, it was a girlsask-guys dance, but I went with a few of my friends.

I wore a makeshift dress: a maroon cropped shirt and a long pink tutu. I tied it all together with a mask covered in gold sequins that I’d glued on, one by one, the night before.

Shortly after arriving at the dance, I ran into the boy I’d had a tiny crush on a few months earlier. We went to homecoming to-

gether in September but stopped talking afterward.

We made small talk for a bit.

He told me his date ditched him to dance with her other friends. I felt bad for him, so I stayed and we kept catching up with each other.

After a lot of convincing, he gave in and danced with me in the gym. Still resistant, I grabbed his hands and made him reluctantly bob around with me.

When we walked over to get punch and cookies, I asked him to put my phone in his pocket.

He did, but also questioned why girls’ clothes never have pockets.

I responded quickly, as this had been a source of my frustration for a long time.

“Capitalism!” I explained. “By giving us no pockets, it forces us to buy purses.”

I think he fell in love with me

after that.

Back on the dance floor, he seemed to be enjoying himself more as the night went on. He asked me to slow dance, which we continued to do even after the DJ started playing rap music again.

There was a moment when we were swaying to a crappy song we didn’t know when I looked at him and wanted to kiss him. I didn’t, because I was afraid it might ruin how things were going. I wasn’t sure if we were on the same page.

But before I could even finish my anxiety-induced thoughts, he kissed me. Not to sound like a cheesy YA novel, but everything else around us, the crowd and the music, seemed to disappear.

The next day, I wrote all about it in my diary. whitehan@miamioh.edu

CULTURE 9

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

DATTILEC@MIAMIOH.EDU

MISINFORMATION, DISTRUST AND FEAR:

Exploring the coronavirus stigma

Oxford Magazine hosts Spring Street Reading ERIN GLYNN

NEWS EDITOR

EMILY DATTILO WILL GORMAN DUARD HEADLEY

THE MIAMI STUDENT When Miami University junior Liangjie Li experiences racism, he has two choices: ignore it or respond.

“It depends how I feel at the time or how I was feeling that day,” Li, a software engineering major from Beijing, said. “If I’m feeling so bad and I was messing up, I might fight back because I was just mad.”

Li didn’t get to travel back to China over break, but when he started classes this semester, he was asked multiple times where he was from, and whether or not he was from Wuhan (the center of the coronavirus outbreak). But that doesn’t bother him very much.

“I’m scared as well, so I totally understand why they ask that,” Li said.

But Li has faced some difficult encounters the past few weeks, especially while playing online games. The online environment offers some form of anonymity, and though Li tries to explain the truth about the coronavirus, he says the people he interacts with online still trash-talk and use racial slurs.

“They don’t need to take any responsibility for it,” Li said. “Nobody knows who they are.

They’re not scared of anything.”

Junior Emily Hays isn’t Chinese. She is, however, online. Scrolling through various social media websites, she’s seen both the best and worst sides of students responding to the rumoured outbreak.

“I don’t think most students have gone through a health emergency like this before, especially so close to home,” Hays said. “I think many acted out of fear online, while in classrooms the atmosphere felt calmer and less fearful.”

But not everyone reacted with Hays’ level-headedness.

In response to a tweet from Hays directed at Miami’s student body urging students to resist any urges to act in biased ways, many posts featuring xenophobic and racist sentiments emerged. Some were written with hygienic and proactive sentiments in mind. Others were more vitriolic.

“I intended the tweet to only be a gentle reminder to be kind to fellow students,” Hays said. “Responses to the tweet varied from support to outright racist memes and comments with more misinformation.”

Some parents and students expressed disoncertion regarding the health and safety of Miami’s domestic students. A few went so far as to argue for conditions similar to a quarantine.

These online fears contributed to an environment at Miami already thick with tension.

Senior kinesiology major Diwen Chen explained that underlying tension is present on campus within the international community itself this semester.

“I would say there are moments that I feel a little bit tense when I interact with my Chinese friends, actually,” Chen, a student from east coast China said. “They are a little bit nervous, and they are really, really trying to be protected.”

Face masks represent one form of protection, but Chen says in China, masks are worn to protect against pollution so the action is normalized. And though Chen hasn’t experienced racism personally, he has observed instances of prejudice in regards to mask use.

“I see a lot of international students who wear masks going out, and then that kind of brings forth the image of the stereotypical Asian students: They are the sources of the

acknowledged that the Miami community’s efforts to include international students are far from perfect.

“I think Miami’s cultural acceptance of international students, in general, is pretty high, but there’s definitely some underlying issues that some students have experienced,” Hays said. “For example, some students will often try to avoid being grouped with international students due to communication issues or something along those lines.”

There are no active cases of coronavirus in Oxford. But for the brief moment when two students were suspected of contracting the disease, tensions flared. Surgical masks sold out across town. That, in addition to the slew of offensive memes and posts shared on the internet, made it clear the Miami community was unnerved.

Now, a week after the all-clear announce-

“I don’t think most students have gone through a health emergency like this before, especially so close to home.”

- Emily Hays

virus, and if you see someone wearing a mask, you should stay away from them,” Chen said.

Though there are multiple international student organizations, Li wishes there were more events on campus to familiarize domestic students with other cultures. If an event like the coronavirus panic were to occur again, the Miami community would then be more informed, unified and understanding.

For Li, although his English is sufficient for his academic studies, he says it can prove both intimidating and a bit discouraging when he’s unable to follow casual conversations full of American phrases.

“Sometimes we’re a little bit shy to talk,” Li said. “So even though we want to talk with [domestic students] about something, we just don’t know how to start.”

Hays agreed. As a domestic student, she

ment, there’s still distrust and xenophobia, both online and in-person.

But in the wake of the panic and negativity, Hays found something to focus on going forward.

“If there’s anything good to come out of this, I think that it started a conversation amongst some to help protect and prevent hateful statements and acts from occurring and approaching them with zero tolerance,” Hays said.

Additional reporting by David Kwiatkowski. dattilec@miamioh.edu gormanwm@miamioh.edu headledd@miamioh.edu kwiatkdm@miamioh.edu

Meet, greet and eat at Spring Street Treats BELLA ZARLENGO

THE MIAMI STUDENT Across the titular street from the Oxford Fire Department, the lime-green ice cream shop used to be home to a drive-through bank, but now features bright colored walls, shelves full of knick-knacks for sale and quite a few customers who stop by regularly for pints to bring home.

Spring Street Treats opened up for its eighth season in Oxford on Feb. 1.

“Business has been really good,” said Kayleigh Swatzell, Spring Street Treats’ assistant manager. “The college students were excited that we were back so they’ve loved it, but even the townies have been here constantly.”

A playground invoking nostalgia sits next to the store, attracting Oxford’s younger population and Miami students, even graduate students, who can be seen enjoying their ice cream on the teeter-totter.

“I went there with my skating team after a late-night practice and we ended up eating

SPRING STREET TREATS CATERS TO HUMAN AND CANINE CUSTOMERS, OFFERING ICE CREAM, DOG TREATS AND MORE. PHOTO EDITOR JUGAL JAIN.

our ice cream on the playground like we were kids again and it was just so much fun,” junior Megan Szwanck said.

The shop closes every year around Thanksgiving and reopens once the spring semester starts. With most students away and the cold keeping people inside, Swatzell said it’s a good break.

Catering to a wide audience, the store features a lactose-free soft serve as its main product, while monthly and seasonally-rotating flavors like pumpkin and peppermint make brief appearances. Swatzell said the ice cream served at Spring Street Treats is also lower in sugar than most other versions of the dessert, and gluten-free cones and toppings are also available.

“It’s as healthy as ice cream can get,” Swatzell said.

Once upon a time, the owner, Allen Ansorg decided to use a lactose-free product because his wife and daughter have dietary restrictions, and he wanted to be able to serve as many people as possible. The decision struck a chord with customers and it’s been available ever since.

Swatzell said the business is working to connect more with the community and other local businesses. This season, the shop decided to sell Barkery Treats by Layla, a local student who is baking homemade dog treats in order to raise money for a trip to space camp.

Swatzell said they will also begin to work on new merchandise this season for customers to purchase as another attempt to increase local connections.

This month’s limited-time flavors include strawberry cheesecake swirl, peppermint and coffee. Some customers stick to the classic chocolate and vanilla twist, but most are open to trying something new.

One customer, convinced by Swatzell to try the strawberry cheesecake, quickly decided he needed to add that flavor to his pint order. He left with four pints.

“He’s a regular.” Swatzell said, “He’ll be back next Thursday for his weekly pints.” zarlenim@miamioh.edu

The rain drizzling outside the windows harmonizes with the first few notes of “Piano Man” a student plunks out on the old piano at the front of the room.

As another student draws the words “Spring Street Reading” in bubble letters on a large whiteboard, students and English professors trickle in slowly, helping themselves to the coffee, lemonade and cookies laid out on the back table and settle in to hear their fellow students’ stories.

Oxford Magazine hosted its first Spring Street Reading of the semester at 7:30 p.m. last Wednesday in Bachelor Hall Room 337. The reading featured the work of three Miami University MFA students.

The scent of coffee was discernible before even entering Room 337, which the sign next to the door declares it Bachelor’s “English Reading Room.”

The cozy room was filled with rows of comfortable armchairs. One wall was lined with dark wooden bookshelves, another with cabinets filled with porcelain.

At the front sat a vintage-looking couch, a small piano and a podium.

Cody Smothers, a student getting his Ph.D. in English, said he appreciates the readings because they expose him to creative writing. As a student in the composition rhetoric program, his own writing is more research-based.

“I come out to these things because I still enjoy hearing people read their creative stuff,” Smothers said.

At half-past seven, the “Piano Man” player walked to the podium, introduced himself as Sam Gutelle, the editor-in-chief of Oxford Magazine, and welcomed the nearly 20 audience members.

“Ox Mag,” as its staff refers to it, is run by creative writing MFA students and sponsored by the Miami University Press. It publishes art, poetry, fiction and nonfiction pieces twice a year.

The first student to read was Chris Murphy, a graduate student from New Jersey who specializes in fiction writing.

Murphy read a short story he had written titled “Hungry Heart,” inspired by his love for Bruce Springsteen.

The room grew absolutely silent except for the sound of Murphy’s voice as he recounted the story of Rat, a talented guitar player and devoted fan of the Boss auditioning to impersonate him in a hometown parade.

The story ended with the parade organizers rejecting Rat for being too into Springsteen.

“The truth is, son, I think this matters to you too much.”

Gutelle next introduced Louisa Pavlik, a writer who mainly focuses on creative nonfiction about her mom.

Pavlik read two pieces: “The Barter Economy” and “Junkyard Estuary.”

“The Barter Economy” explored her mother’s tradition of giving Pavlik and her sisters rings every year, which Pavlik said was her mother’s way of giving her daughters something to barter should they fall on hard times financially.

Pavlik described herself as the “daughter of a mother whose resilience is too often tested,” but with a sense of humor that had the audience chuckling and nodding along with her pieces.

The final reader was Sara Baxter, a poet. Baxter read a number of short pieces with titles such as “Maternal,” “Carpe Diem” and “Conspiracy Theories.”

The poems were snapshots from everyday life — moments like changing her cat’s litter or watching an ant crawl across her kitchen floor — that made her pause and contemplate her place in the universe.

Dylan Eckers, a second-year MFA student, has been to “about a dozen” Spring Street Readings.

“I actually thought tonight’s was probably one of my favorites that I’ve been to, mostly because it felt really wellpaced,” Eckers said. “Everyone had their best work to read and they were really confident in it – there were just good vibes.”

The next Spring Street Reading will be at 7:30 p.m. on March 11 in Bachelor Room 337. glynnee@miamioh.edu

“I come out to these things because I still enjoy hearing people read their creative stuff.”

- Cody Smothers

Sports

10

VINELCA@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

MIAMI HOCKEY LOOKS TO TURN ITS SEASON AROUND AFTER A WEEKEND AWAY FROM THE ICE, THE REDHAWKS ARE BACK IN ACTION THIS WEEKEND, WHEN THE WESTERN MICHIGAN BRONCOS COME TO THE GOGGIN ICE CENTER. THE MIAMI STUDENT ZACH REICHMAN

MICHAEL NAMORATO THE MIAMI STUDENT

It has been a season filled with highs and lows for the hockey RedHawks so far.

After the RedHawks had last weekend off, it seems appropriate to take a look at how the season has gone so far and preview what lies ahead.

If you were to take a quick glance at Miami’s record, one could reason the season has been underwhelming. That’s true.

But, while an overall 6-16-4 record is not what any fan, player or coach strives for, there are a lot of underlying aspects that help explain the RedHawks’

less-than-stellar performance.

Miami plays against some of the best collegiate hockey programs in the nation on a weekly basis, due to being in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). The last four national champions hail from the NCHC, and Miami is tested against the country’s best on a weekly basis.

Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to being successful in the NCHC, and that is one of the main low points the RedHawks have faced as a team this season.

First-year head coach Chris Bergeron highlighted some of his thoughts on what the team needs

to do to become more consistent on Jan. 28.

“It’s a team learning how to win knowing that we are playing against a really good opponent,” Begeron said. “We cannot give them things.

They are going to earn enough on their own. We cannot give them opportunities. We just cannot get away from that. It has been an obvious Achilles heel for our team.”

As the season progresses, it will be interesting to see how the team combats inconsistency. Bergeron came to Oxford expecting a long rebuilding process, but establishing consistency will be the main piece of the puzzle that can help the RedHawks turn things around.

While Miami has struggled to be consistent, several standout players are proving that the RedHawks are not giving up just yet. Senior forwards Gordie Green (10g, 17a) and Karch Bachman (8g, 17a) lead the team in total points with 27 and 25 points, respectively.

Senior leadership has also gone a long way in the crease with senior goalie Ryan Larkin. Larkin became the school record holder for most career saves this season. He has made 468 saves this season, resulting in an .897 save percentage. While he would like to see that percentage increase, Larkin has shown his quality and skill throughout the season.

The rest of the season presents

a chance to improve for the RedHawks. With a little more than a month until the start of the NCHC playoffs, the RedHawks still have time to turn things around and enter the postseason playing consistent, confident hockey. With two series against Western Michigan and one more series each against Denver and Omaha, there is still a chance to prove they are not out of the fight yet.

The RedHawks are back in action Valentine’s Day weekend, when they host Western Michigan at Goggin Ice Center. Friday’s and Saturday’s game will start at 7:05 p.m. namoramc@miamioh.edu

Embarrassed and vowing to improve, the RedHawks hit the court CHRIS VINEL

SPORTS EDITOR Jack Owens repeated himself six times.

“We have to be better. We have to get better,” Miami’s third-year men’s basketball coach said Monday at his weekly press conference, two days after his RedHawks were embarrassed by rival Ohio University.

He offered some variation of the phrase four more times in six minutes but for good reason.

The Bobcats dominated Miami from the opening tip to the final buzzer.

In a historically bad first half, the

RedHawks scored 11 points. They shot 10 percent (3-of-29) from the field and flailed through nearly 17 minutes without a field goal.

Despite Miami playing a little better in the second, Ohio still cruised to a 7746 victory.

The RedHawks have lost eight of their 10 games in 2020 — all against Mid-American opponents — leaving Owens and Co. searching for answers.

They sit at 9-14 overall.

“We’ve just got to get better. We have to get better and stay the course, and obviously, we have to play with confidence,” Owens said. “No one likes going through what we’re going through, but this is part of it. All I know

is, we have to keep working, and get better and keep doing our job.”

Lately, the RedHawks haven’t been doing a good job on offense or defense.

Miami’s defense ranks last in points allowed per game in the MAC, while the offense shoots less than 41 percent from the field, second-worst in the league.

No individual RedHawk stands out either.

Junior guard and top Miami scorer Nike Sibande averages only 12.5 points per game against in-conference competition.

Freshman guard Dae Dae Grant scores 11.5 points per game, but he shoots 37 percent from the field.

No one else averages double digits, and the lack of offense hasn’t been rectified on defense.

Miami’s Tuesday opponent, Toledo, is facing similar struggles.

The Rockets have lost five straight straight after splitting their first six MAC games. Coincidentally, their last win came against Ohio last month in Athens.

For Owens, it doesn’t matter who his team is playing. His message remains the same.

“Every day and every game is an opportunity to get better and improve our situation,” he said. “I’ve been in situations where one game can turn things around from a confidence standpoint and get us rolling. We have eight opportunities here before the conference tournament starts. We’ve got to get better, and we have to continue to work and find ways to win games.” @ChrisAVinel vinelca@miamioh.edu

SCOUTING REPORT The Game Tipoff ������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 p.m. Tuesday at Savage Arena TV/Radio............................... ESPN+, Miami Sports Network from Van Wagner

MIAMI REDHAWKS Record ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������9-14, 2-8 MAC Offense ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������71.9 ppg Defense ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72.5 ppg

PROJECTED LINEUP Player �����������������������������������������������������������������������������(position, height, key stat) Dae Dae Grant ����������������������������������������������������������������������(guard, 6’2”, 9.6 ppg) Nike Sibande ����������������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 6’4”, 13.3 ppg) Myja White ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 6’1”, 2.6 ppg) Dalonte Brown ������������������������������������������������������������������(forward, 6’7”, 11.3 ppg) Bam Bowman �������������������������������������������������������������������� (forward, 6’8”, 6.5 ppg)

TOLEDO ROCKETS Record ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11-13, 3-8 MAC Offense: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 75.8 ppg Defense �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������70.8 ppg

PROJECTED LINEUP

DALONTE BROWN ATTEMPTS A LAYUP AGAINST WRIGHT STATE ON NOV. 11 AT MILLETT HALL. BROWN SCORED 14 POINTS IN MIAMI’S 88-81 LOSS. THE MIAMI STUDENT ZACH REICHMAN

Player �����������������������������������������������������������������������������(position, height, key stat) Marreon Jackson ���������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 6’0”, 19.5 ppg) Keshaun Saunders ���������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 6’5”, 7.8 ppg) Spencer Littleson ���������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 6’4”, 10.5 ppg) Willie Jackson ������������������������������������������������������������������(forward, 6’6”, 12.0 ppg) Luke Knapke ������������������������������������������������������������������� (forward, 6’11”, 16.1 ppg)

VINELCA@MIAMIOH.EDU

SPORTS 11

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

RedHawks attempt to continue recent hot stretch against Northern Illinois LUKAS NELSON

THE MIAMI STUDENT A lot has changed since the last time the Miami women’s basketball team suited up against Northern Illinois.

On Jan. 8, the RedHawks beat the Huskies, 66-64, at Millett Hall, giving them their first win in the Mid-American Conference.

It would be almost a month before they’d get another one.

After picking up the home win against the Huskies, Miami proceed-

ed to lose five games in a row. During the losing streak, the RedHawks gave up 76.8 points per contest, while scoring only 64.6 points per game.

A victory against Bowling Green gave Miami its first MAC win in more than three weeks. Following the victory, the team won two of its next three, all in the friendly confines of Millett Hall.

The recent stretch of games has moved the team into fourth in the MAC East with a 4-7 conference record.

The offense turned things around for the RedHawks. In its previous four games, the team has scored 82 points per game, including a season-high 92 in its win against Toledo last Wednesday.

In their last meeting with Northern Illinois, senior forward Savannah Kluesner stepped up for the RedHawks. Kluesner had 19 points, eight rebounds

and three blocks, leading the team in all three statistics. Coming off a career-high 35 point performance against Central

Michigan on Saturday, Kluesner should be ready to go against the Huskies. @LukasTheDream nelso156@miamioh.edu

SCOUTING REPORT The Game Tipoff............................................ 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Convocation Center TV ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ESPN+

MIAMI REDHAWKS Record ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11-12, 4-7 MAC Offense �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������72.0 ppg Defense �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������72.4 ppg

PROJECTED LINEUP Player ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� (position, height, key stat) Lauren Dickerson ��������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 5’3”, 16.7 ppg) Peyton Scott ������������������������������������������������������������������������(guard, 5’8”, 12.6 ppg) Kenzie Schmitz �������������������������������������������������������������������(guard, 5’10”, 2.6 ppg) Abbey Hoff ������������������������������������������������������������������� (forward, 6’0”, 45.9 3pt%) Savannah Kluesner ����������������������������������������������������������(forward, 6’2”, 15.2 ppg)

NORTHERN ILLINOIS HUSKIES Record ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7-14, 3-7 MAC Offense �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������65.5 ppg Defense ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������71.7 ppg

PROJECTED LINEUP Player ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� (position, height, key stat) Courtney Woods �������������������������������������������������������������(forward, 6’0”, 18.4 ppg) Myia Starks ���������������������������������������������������������������������������(guard, 5’4”, 7.2 ppg) Gabby Nikitinaite ����������������������������������������������������������������� (guard, 5’11”, 7.7 ppg) Ally May ������������������������������������������������������������������������������(forward, 6’2”, 5.9 rpg) Riley Blackwell ��������������������������������������������������������������������(forward, 6’1”, 6.1 ppg)

MIAMI HUDDLES BEFORE A 99-87 LOSS TO CENTRAL MICHIGAN ON FEB. 8 AT MILLETT HALL. THE DEFEAT SNAPPED THE REDHAWKS’ THREE-GAME WIN STREAK. THE MIAMI STUDENT DAKOTA SKINNER

Miami baseball developing ‘killer instinct’ to open 2020 season LILY FREIBERG

THE MIAMI STUDENT

CRISTIAN TEJADA TAKES A HEARTY CUT AT A PITCH. HE FINISHED 2019 WITH A .339/.453/.497 SLASH LINE AND 26 RUNS BATTED IN. THE MIAMI STUDENT ZACH REICHMAN

’Hawks Talk

⁃“We ⁃ need them.”

⁃⁃ Men’s basketball coach Jack Owens on possible spectators in the Millett Hall crowd for this week’s upcoming games

It’s far from spring in Oxford.

Last weekend, it snowed on and off, but the Miami RedHawks will still play baseball this upcoming weekend.

After a 37-19 (15-11 MAC) finish in 2019, Miami ranks No. 33 in the 2020 Preseason National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll. The RedHawks are the only Mid-American Conference team listed in the top 35.

Vanderbilt, Louisville and Texas Tech are the top three schools. Ohio State is just one slot above Miami at No. 32, and Texas A&M, Miami’s first opponent this season is ranked No. 21.

To get ready for the Aggies, the RedHawks have focused on two things: switching their mindsets and handling the baseball with care.

“We’ve got to develop a bit of a killer instinct,” head coach Danny Hayden said following his team’s first preseason practice on Jan. 24. “We’ve got to have that feeling when we’re up a run, we’re going to keep it, and when we’re down a run, we’re going to tie the game or get back to the lead.”

During practice, Hayden and his team have focused on “taking care of the baseball,” meaning they are making sure no defensive errors occur on the field.

“We have to be very confident that we can take care of the baseball, no matter what happens,” Hayden said.

Whereas “taking care of the baseball” is easily practiced in training, a “killer instinct” is an attitude that continues to develop. It will hopefully begin to take shape when the team starts playing games against other teams.

Players, old and new, are showing their talent, as they are staying motivated to pursue the MAC Championship — something they haven’t won since 2005.

Star infielder Landon Stephens is returning for his senior year. His batting average was .310 in 229 at-bats last season, an improvement from his 2018 batting average.

Nick Urbantke, Shane Smith and Cole Gnetz led the team in earned run average last season, but they all graduated. Miami will be tasked with finding suitable arms to replace those players on the mound.

Sophomore Sam Bachman had the fourth-lowest ERA among the starting pitchers. He finished with seven wins, one loss and 75.2 innings pitched.

There are also some new players who, like last season, have the chance to impact the lineup.

Hayden said the competition on the field has motivated the players to win their desired spots.

“We’ve got some really young, tal-

@lilyfreiberg freibell@miamioh.edu

SCOREBOARD WEDNESDAY

SATURDAY

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

SOFTBALL

Toledo...............................................83

Miami.................................................2

Miami...............................................92

Western Illinois................................. 1 SOFTBALL

FRIDAY SOFTBALL

Miami.................................................7

Miami................................................. 1

IUPUI..................................................3 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Evansville...........................................2 SOFTBALL

Miami...............................................87

Miami...............................................10 Loyola Chicago..................................8 TENNIS Check out The Miami Student’s sports podcast, Press Box Thoughts. Each week, Patrick Geshan and Josiah Collins will review the week in Miami sports and talk to a RedHawk player, coach or TMS sports writer.

ented players that are creating tremendous competition at positions [and] tremendous competition on the mound,” Hayden said. “That’s what you want as a baseball team.”

Hayden hopes that returning players, like Stephens, will help the new players carry the success of the team into the future. “[Players] want to have great players develop other great players,” Hayden said.

With strong players like Landon Stephens and Sam Bachman returning, new players coming in, the “taking care of the baseball” training and the “killer instinct,” the mood of this baseball season is hopeful.

And with Miami alum Adam Eaton contributing to the Nationals’ World Series win, it could drive the motivation and team performance to an even higher level.

“We are not going to lose to anybody,” Hayden said. “We’re going to take the game to whoever we’re playing.”

Miami starts its season at Texas A&M on Friday, at 7:30 p.m. The RedHawks round out the weekend with a 3 p.m. game Saturday and 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday.

Central Michigan............................99

SUNDAY SOFTBALL

Miami................................................ 4

Miami................................................ 0

Cincinnati..........................................3

Omaha................................................8

Opinion

12

RIGAZIKM@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2020

STAFF EDITORIAL

This commencement speaker wasn’t democratically elected The following reflects the majority opinion of the Editorial Board.

Miami University announced last week that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will be the 2020 Spring Commencement speaker.

The decision has divided the campus and put politics at the forefront of graduation — an event meant to celebrate the achievements of the students walking across the stage.

Miami extended the invitation to speak at graduation to DeWine shortly after he was elected as Governor, Secretary of the Board of Trustees (BoT) Ted Pickerill wrote in an email to The Miami Student. In previous years, Miami has consulted a committee made up of students, faculty and staff led by Pickerill before selecting a speaker.

This year, however, no students were consulted before DeWine was selected.

Quite frankly, it isn’t surprising but is nonetheless disappointing that just after we got done telling everyone to demand more from this institution and ask Miami to fight for students, Miami chooses someone who

actively works to take away the rights of at least half of the student body.

Our staff is frustrated that Miami is giving DeWine yet another platform when we should instead be celebrating our fellow students, which has absolutely nothing to do with politics — left, right or center.

But, our deeper resentment lies with the university’s conscious choice not to consult students, demonstrating (once again) that Miami does not prioritize its students’ opinions.

Student leaders should always be consulted on the selection of a commencement speaker. It is a way for university leaders to gauge campus climate and ensure they are selecting a speaker that will inspire a majority of students.

By sidestepping students in the selection process, Miami is reflecting how willfully out of touch the administration is with our campus.

Our staff does not think any active politician, no matter what their party or position is, should serve as a commencement speaker — because graduation is not a partisan

Maybe it’s okay to forget?

WILL GORMAN

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR I have to wonder if the writers of “The Office” knew what they were doing when they wrote their series finale.

The easy answer here is that they obviously did; Google “the office finale” and you’ll find think piece after think piece about how perfectly NBC’s hit sitcom concluded. My actual question lies within a specific quote.

Did the writing team know that “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them” would wind up plaguing yearbooks and Instagram captions for (probably) decades to come?

It’s a nice quote, and as someone whose self-admitted tragic flaw is sentimentality, I can see why fans of “The Office” cling to it like a treasured family heirloom.

That being said, I still haven’t seen “The Office,” and as such, all this quote represents to me is that American media and its audience are really far too obsessed with nostalgia. We’ve got chronic sepia-colored glasses on at all times, and it’s bogging down our ability to gaze toward the future.

Part of the charm of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” has always been its retro aesthetic. It’s a well-written, well-acted and well-produced show, yes, but it wouldn’t even be remotely the same if it wasn’t presented through a 1980s filter. It’s a show that evokes the spirit of a “simpler” time – before the internet, before the impending threat of climate change, etc.

When the Jonas Brothers came back with their 2019 smash hit “Sucker,” the buzz around the return of the former teen heartthrobs was so powerful that it catapulted the song to the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100.

And as a “Survivor” fan, I’ve never seen or felt more fan hype than right now in the days leading up to the premiere of “Survivor: Winners at War” in which 20 past winners from the past two decades of the show will return to compete again.

It’s like “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” in real life — but instead, it’s with people I grew up watching and none of them are dying.

Sentiment sells. Familiarity is a hit with audiences. But I feel like we’ve become too gullible and too susceptible to it — and now we’re paying the price.

As enticed as I am by Disney’s reboot of “Lizzie McGuire,” I can’t help but feel that it’s a cheap ploy to get millennials to subscribe to Disney+.

Even Spotify’s personalized playlists are investing in your nostalgia. Every summer, a new update of “Your Summer Rewind” is delivered to my music

feed as a collection of songs that I’d previously listened to during past summertimes. It’s a nice idea, but it’s something that once again buys into the idea that we’re dying to relive our glory days.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing inherently bad about a nice throwback. Posting a “#TBT” – an abbreviation for “throwback Thursday” – has been a popular social media trend for the better part of the last 15 years. For the most part, that’s harmless fun.

And I’m not admonishing the idea of appreciating old media – I still listen to albums I loved in high school, like Lorde’s “Pure Heroine,” and rewatch old “Survivor” seasons more often than I’d like to admit. These pieces of media hold meaning for me and I adore them, but I’m not writhing in agony that Lorde hasn’t released “Pure Heroine 2.”

There’s a difference between appreciating the past and dwelling on it. As a society, we’ve started overdwelling and it’s shaping how pop culture interacts with us.

Current events have never moved more quickly than they do right now. With the rise of social media and the vicious rapidity of the modern news cycle, information about the world around us (and how it’s dying/burning/etc) is flying across airwaves at frightening speeds.

And with media streaming services streamlining content creation more efficiently than ever, loads of new content are tossed to the wayside.

Instead of talking about HBO’s upcoming reboots of “Grease” or “Gossip Girl,” we could be talking about HBO’s “Euphoria,” a creative new show set strikingly-well in modern America.

We’re living in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it timeline. We can’t afford to only be looking behind us right now. We ought to seek to tell – and hear – new stories to help us navigate new issues.

And we’ve really gotta let some sleeping dogs lie.

“Fuller House,” Netflix’s not-really-desired reboot of late-20th-century classic “Full House,” banked on the idea that audiences were starving for a new taste of John Stamos. It didn’t pay off critically; Vox called it an “inescapable nightmare” and in a remarkable feat of wordplay, the Washington Post compared its brand of nostalgia to necrophilia.

Everywhere you look, something old is being repackaged and presented as a new product. It’s become this normalized process of cultural regifting and it’s getting tacky.

It’s not 1999 anymore, and hindsight is 20/20 – so can’t we look ahead instead? gormanwm@miamioh.edu

event.

Politicians lead with agendas and their words, often penned by a speechwriter who is only trained in that politician’s talking points, promote that agenda in some capacity.

There is no perfect commencement speaker, but, in choosing a politician, Miami has inherently alienated half of the graduating class.

We encourage the university to find a speaker that celebrates a wide array of perspectives — values Miami has consistently advertised as each incoming class becomes more diverse. We urge Miami to seek speakers that inspire soon-to-be graduates on a human level — not a political one.

During the December 2019 commencement, former Media, Journalism and Film chair, Richard Campbell, addressed the graduating class of 2019 and compelled them to find deeper meaning — in their future personal and professional lives — through the power of storytelling. He advocated for graduates to pay attention to the narratives they all will play a part in creating,

and inspired graduates to recognize how interconnected all of our stories truly are.

And, we can look toward former students for inspiration. In fact, there’s no shortage of notable alumni from which to choose commencement speakers.

Every year, Miami presents the 18 of the Last 9 award to 18 successful alumni from varying fields that graduated from Miami within the last nine years. The recipients offer a diverse array of perspectives, career paths and stories. Plus, they’re closer in age to the students they’re speaking to.

Choose one of those recipients.

Choose a woman! The last time Miami had a female speaker at their spring commencement was in 2015.

Choose an alumni that has devoted their career to lifting others up, rather than working against the rights of those less powerful than themselves.

Choose someone that will represent the students and the campus they are leaving behind today, not the campus of past generations that so poorly reflected the diversity we now have.

‘On Valentine’s Day, open your heart, not your wallet’ AMES RADWAN

THE MIAMI STUDENT Last week, I was chatting with some friends about how I prefer not to celebrate Valentine’s Day. A few of my friends agreed with me that it’s become more about spending money and showing off and less about love, but most of my friends seemed shocked that I wasn’t going to do anything for my significant other on Friday.

It isn’t just with my friends, but with my family, too. My grandparents send me annual Valentine’s Day cards. Even my mother said to me on a call, “Maybe you should think about doing something this year.”

But why?

Let’s start off with the obvious: Valentine’s Day is no longer wholly about love.

Instead, it has turned into one of the most capitalistic, money-grubbing holidays of the year, outdone only by Black Friday, Christmas and (to some extent) Halloween. When one of the best things about a holiday is the sales during or after it, you’re not really celebrating the actual idea behind it.

On Amazon, it can cost up to $200 to buy a 91-inch teddy bear for your sweetheart.

Russell Stover sells 24-ounce boxes of chocolates normally priced at $20, plus shipping.

A “classic rose royale” arrangement from Oxford Flower Shop costs nearly one hundred dollars, and on their website a warning reads in large red print how busy they are on Valentine’s Day. Everyone is buying flowers for their darlings, so much so that the Flower Shop doesn’t deliver anywhere except workplaces on Feb. 14.

And now we have Galentine’s Day, a holiday from the TV show “Parks & Recreation” during which you’re supposed to celebrate your best female friends. That’s a whole other set of people for whom specific gifts and cards are being created. “You are an opalescent tree shark!” “Fries before guys!” “No boyfriend, no problem!” read Galentine’s cards being sold online.

But wasn’t Valentine’s Day supposed to be about celebrating everyone in the first place? Not when adding another holiday will rake in more cash.

Is it really a holiday about love if you are forced by social expectations in Western sub-

culture to celebrate your significant other and the other important people in your life?

Flowers, candies, overly-large stuffed animals. Seeing adorable Snapchat stories of your friends and their significant others.

Half-priced chocolate the day after. There are many great things about Valentine’s Day, but have we ever stopped to consider the implications?

It is so ingrained in our culture that we must celebrate the folks we love on this one specific day, Feb. 14. We must buy them chocolates and/or flowers and/or comically large bears, and if we don’t do so … well, then, obviously we must not love them enough.

Some argue: why can’t we celebrate everyone at random times of the year? We can.

That’s not the issue. If you want to take your significant other out on a very nice date at a fancy restaurant on Sept. 4, or send your parents a bouquet of red roses in late April, you can.

The issue here is not that we as humans don’t celebrate those we love enough, it’s that we feel the societal pressure to celebrate them in a few specific ways on a very specific date.

We spend more time showing off and spending money on Valentine’s Day than we do actually caring for our loved ones.

But it’s ingrained in our society — businesses want to make money, and they will jump on any crazy fad that comes their way in order to do so. (Take gender reveal parties, slime, short video apps and freakshakes, just as a few more recent examples.)

Some like to say “if you build it, they will come,” and that applies here: if businesses sell it, people will buy it. And if someone posts it on social media, then even more orders will come a-flooding in.

So celebrate Valentine’s Day, but instead of the stereotypical fancy dinner or box of chocolates, however, maybe do something that doesn’t buy into the money-making machine this year: handwrite a love letter, cook a meal (if you’re not in a residence hall) or go out on a date where you try to do 10 things and only spend less than $10.

Show the people you love, instead of the corporations, that you care. radwanat@miamioh.edu

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