The Miami Student | April 2, 2019

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

Volume 147 No. 22

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

‘CALL 9-1-1, I FEEL LIKE I’M GOING TO DIE.’ Delta Tau Delta pledge assaulted during mandatory hazing ritual CÉILÍ DOYLE

MANAGING EDITOR After waiting an hour and a half blindfolded and forced to listen to ominous music, one of the 24 male students who rushed Miami University’s fraternity chapter Delta Tau Delta (Delts) was taken to meet his new “big brother” and subsequently bludgeoned 15 times between his buttocks with a paddle covered in

“spikes and grooves,” on Saturday, March 16.

The student, who filed a hazing/ assault and battery report through the “Report an Incident” button on MyMiami, was a Delt pledge. He wrote in the incident report that the “paddling led to bruising and cuts,” and as he was beaten, he was forced to continuously drink alcohol and smoke weed.

During the assault, other frater-

nity members spit on the student’s face and kicked him, according to the incident report.

The whole ordeal – waiting, meeting his “big brother” and being beaten – lasted five hours. The student was very intoxicated and told his fraternity brothers, “‘Call 9-1-1, I feel like I’m going to die.’”

The fraternity members, whose names were redacted in the report, complied. The emergency squad showed up and took the student away on a stretcher.

The student spent nearly seven hours in McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital with an initial blood alcohol content (BAC) of .231, which

is nearly three times the legal limit.

He was eventually released at 7:15 a.m. the following morning on Sunday, March 17.

“IFC is awaiting the results of the community standards investigation.

Until then we have no further comment,” junior Grant Zedhner, Interfraternity Council president, wrote in a statement to The Student. “We, as a council, do not tolerate hazing and do not condone the actions of the organization outlined in the report.”

Delts is currently suspended and the fraternity is under investigation by the Office of Community Standards (OCS).

Miami’s general counsel, Robin Parker, thanked the anonymous student who came forward in a comment on the report.

“Ultimately, bringing the end to hazing will take the efforts of the students themselves and will depend in large part on their willingness to come forward, tell the truth and take a stand against hazing,” she wrote.

University President Gregory Crawford wrote in an initial email to the Miami community on Friday afternoon that, “the contents of this report are brutal and deplorable, CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Miami fires hockey head coach Enrico Blasi Mannino named interim replacement EMILY SIMANSKIS

SPORTS EDITOR-AT-LARGE Long-time head hockey coach Enrico Blasi has been fired after 20 years with the Miami RedHawks, Athletic Director David Sayler announced on Tuesday March 19.

“We owe a large debt of gratitude to Rico for all the work that he has done on behalf of Miami and Miami hockey,” Sayler said. “He built what we currently have. A lot of love and respect for that, in terms of things he has brought to this job and this community. That just makes it even tougher when the results haven’t been what we had liked them to be since we have joined the league.”

The Brotherhood’s season ended on Saturday, March 16, after the RedHawks were swept by the No. 1 St. Cloud State Huskies to finish the season 11-23-4 and 5-17-2 in the National Collegiate Hockey Confer-

ence.

The 2018-2019 campaign was the program’s fourth consecutive season under .500. The RedHawks have gone 47-81-19 (25-58-13 NCHC) in that span.

This season was marred by a 15game winless streak and nine-game losing streak. The last time Miami hockey had been winless for more than 15 games in a row was during the 1990-91 season, when Blasi skated for the RedHawks as a firstyear.

The announcement comes as a shock to much of the Miami community, and even Blasi spoke of the future the day before his dismissal while recapping the ’Hawks’ previous weekend of play.

“Moving forward, we’ve got some guys coming in that are going to address both the power play and PK, and we’re going to have to be better in certainly that area,” Blasi

said.

Blasi responded to The Student’s request for comment, but felt unprepared to make a statement at the time. Miami University President Greg Crawford declined comment, deferring to Sayler on the matter.

Sayler met with Blasi on the morning of March 19 to break the news.

Blasi spent several minutes with the RedHawks at 1:30 p.m. at an all-team meeting, before Sayler addressed the team.

“I told them to keep working hard, and I believe that we can take this program to greater heights than what it’s been in the last few years,” Sayler said. “I believe in those kids in that room, and that’s the basic message to them.”

Over the past 20 years as head coach, Blasi compiled a 398-311-76 record. He was named the now-defunct Central Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year five CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 AFTER HIS TEAM’S 4TH STRAIGHT LOSING SEASON, BLASI WAS RELIEVED OF HIS DUTIES AS HEAD COACH. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY MIAMI ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT

ARENA

Sydney Nudes holds court as a drag queen scene MAYA FENTER

first.

“I kinda knew about makeup because I was in theater and did theater in high school, so I knew how to do stage makeup and how to look like a normal person from afar,” Kraujalis said, “But drag isn’t a normal person at all, it’s like an exaggeration of what a woman looks like.”

Kraujalis would try to follow makeup tutorials from RuPaul’s Drag Race to not only help him practice putting on makeup, but also to see what types of things looked good on his own face so he could start building his queen’s

MAGAZINE EDITOR

SYDNEY NUDES SLAYS THE COMPETITION ON STAGE PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY RANDALL KRAUJALIS

Sophomore theatre major Randall Kraujalis went to his first drag show with a friend when he was 17 years old. He loved that it combined several different aspects of performing — hair, makeup, costumes — into one unique experience.

He loved it so much that he wanted to try it for himself.

He started experimenting with makeup, though he admits he was pretty bad at it at

persona.

After some trial and error, Sydney Nudes, a word-play on “Send me nudes,” was born.

“Her aesthetic, I guess, is like blonde, bitch and boujee,” Kraujalis said.

Kraujalis considers himself to be pretty outgoing, but Sydney is larger than life.

“Sydney Nudes will show up in just a bra and a pair of underwear and be like, ‘Yeah, this is my outfit; this is who I am,’” Kraujalis said. “I feel like I’m even more outgoing when CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

This Issue

Travel pages 8 & 9

Fiscal issues

Gotta give her a hand

MU faces budget cuts in the next 5 years, reallocation of academic funds

Novales strikes a balance between business and boxing

News » page 4

Culture » page 6

Is that Shaun White?

Where we go from here

Former Miami football player cuts and donates more than a foot of his hair.

Miami has a responsibility to set a higher standard for fraternity life

Sports » page 11

Opinion » page 12

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TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

‘CALL 9-1-1, I FEEL LIKE Hockey headcoach Enrico Blasi fired I’M GOING TO DIE.’

SOPHOMORES LIVING IN DELTS ARE BEING MOVED TO DORMS. JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR

and have brought us to a tipping point on this campus.”

Additionally, the fraternity’s national organization has condemned the hazing and placed the chapter under suspension while they partner with Miami to reach a resolution.

“Despite intentional effort to educate members through national resources and local volunteer guidance, chapter members chose to treat new members inappropriately,” Delta Tau Delta’s international fraternity CEO, Jack Kreeman said.

The Student reached out to sophomore

and Delt chapter president Drew Brinkman, who did not respond for comment.

Originally we listed senior Colton Rowell as Delts’ chapter president. He was the president for the pledge class of 2020. Sophomore Drew Brinkman is the current Delt chapter president.

This is a developing story, be sure to follow us on Twitter @miamistudent and check back on our website miamistudent.net for further coverage on this investigation. doyleca3@miamioh.edu @cadoyle_18

the Year in 2005-06.

Blasi was hired in 1999 as the youngest coach of a Division I hockey program.

The RedHawks played in 10 NCAA Tournament games, made two Frozen Four appearances and skated in one National Championship game under Blasi.

During the 2014-15 season, Blasi led the RedHawks to win the NCHC tournament and earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

It is the only top-half conference finish in the NCHC. “We’ve invested a lot into this hockey program, along with Coach Blasi,” Sayler said.

“Our expectations are conference championships and NCHC Tournaments, and we’d love a National Championship. Those are things we are going to strive to work towards, and I just felt the change was needed for us to move in that direction.”

There has been an outpouring of support from the Miami Athletics community on Twitter.

“It’s hard on everybody,” Sayler said.

“That’s the part about making a change like this, is it affects a lot of people and their families and that’s hard.”

First-year associate head coach Peter Mannino and first-year assistant coach Joel Beal were informed shortly after Blasi on March 19.

On Wednesday, March 27, Mannino was named interim head coach until further notice, Miami Athletics announced.

“I came here to help Miami and the players and their families, present and future, whatever the message might be,” Mannino said last week, following Miami’s announcement about Blasi.

Mannino joined Miami’s coaching staff in April last year, prior to the start of the 201819 season, and his energy has been apparent on and off the ice.

On the ice, the former collegiate goaltender helped the RedHawks’ junior goaltender Ryan Larkin become National Goaltender of the Month in October, posting an 0.83 goals against average and a .966 save percentage through six starts.

ON MARCH 27, PETER MANNINO (MIDDLE) WAS NAMED INTERIM HEAD COACH DURING THE NATIONAL SEARCH FOR ENRICO BLASI’S REPLACEMENT. CONTRIBUTED BY MIAMI ATHLETICS

First-year defenseman Derek Daschke, one of Mannino’s early recruits, finished this season with 22 (6g,16a) points — the best for a Miami defenseman since 2008-09.

Off the ice, Mannino has been a key part of four signees for the 2019-20 season — forward Chase Brand from the Madison Capitols of the United States Hockey League (USHL), forward Brett Murray from the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, defenseman Jack Clement from the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL and defenseman Alec Capstick from the Langley Rivermen of the British Columbia Hockey League and Matt Barry, a sophomore transfer from Holy Cross who will be eligible to play in the second half of the 2019-20 season.

Mannino and Beal’s contracts run through the end of this year, and the RedHawks will respond to Mannino until further action is taken. A national search for the RedHawks’ head hockey coach is still underway. simansec@miamioh.edu @emilysimanskis

Sydney Nudes holds court on the drag queen scene Sydney to be fully out there and be who she is and be bigger than life. Sydney definitely takes all of the spotlight and she’s like, ‘Look at me, I’m Sydney Nudes.’”

As Sydney, Kraujalis wears a blonde wig and a corset with a padded bra to create an hourglass body shape. She likes wearing clothes that fit tight to her body and accent her waist. Kraujalis makes many of the costumes himself, pulling inspiration from magazines and Instagram posts.

When he was starting out with drag in high school, Kraujalis would participate in online drag races where contestants — newer queens, usually between the ages of 15 to 21 — would be given a task to complete each week and then submit a photo or video. More experienced queens would give them feedback and winners would proceed to the next race. The bottom two would have to lip sync for their life with a one-minute video of them lip syncing to a specific song. The loser would be eliminated from the race.

Sydney Nudes made her debut performance earlier this year at an open stage night at Bar 1868. She did a burlesque number to “When You Got It, Flaunt It” from the musical “The Producers.” After each verse of the song, Sydney would take off a piece of clothing, revealing the corset and lingerie she was wearing underneath.

“It was a lot of work since I’m not a big dancer, but that’s what drag is, it’s dancing to a song and lip syncing along,” Kraujalis said.

“So I had to figure out what moves I can do in six-inch heels, what can I do to make it look extravagant, what can I do that’s feminine?”

Kraujalis remembers being really nervous for this first performance since he didn’t know how the audience would react, but he thinks it’s still one of the best shows he’s ever done.

“The atmosphere is super welcoming,” Kraujalis said. “You go because you want to see it, you don’t go to be an asshole. Everyone is happy to be there, everyone is excited to be there, everyone is having a good time and appreciates it.”

Performing has opened Kraujalis to a new side of the drag community that he couldn’t get through online drag races alone.

“When you perform live and you’re in a bathroom with these people getting ready for your number, they’re not afraid to tell you, like, ‘Hey, you need to fix your hair’ or ‘That costume is not great for your number, do you want to borrow this?’” Kraujalis said. “They’re so generous to share a little bit of wisdom, especially if they’ve been doing it longer.”

Bar 1868 has since stopped hosting regular open stage nights, so Kraujalis tries to find other places to perform. Most recently, he performed at an open stage night at a venue in Dayton.

“In the drag community, it just takes a lot of open stages and going to places that offer open areas to perform,” Kraujalis said. “I’ve just been working on getting my name out there, making sure people know who Sydney

SOPHOMORES LIVING IN DELTS ARE BEING MOVED TO DORMS. JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR

Nudes is and what she’s like as a performer.”

Through drag, Kraujalis has found a supportive community, confidence and a new sense of self.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a whole new sense of who I am as a person because I found another person in myself and am able to express myself through that,” Kraujalis said. “I love

drag because I’m able to express myself in a different way. Like, I love fashion and I’d say I’m still trendy, but I’m still more on the masculine side when I’m out of drag, but when I’m in drag I’ll wear the tightest things, shorts, skirts, things like that. It’s like a whole other person.” fentermc@miamioh.edu

We miss our seniors. Production night was lonely without y’all.

4 NEWS

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TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

Miami to make institution-wide budget cuts and reallocations JULIA ARWINE NEWS EDITOR

For the first time since the aftermath of the 2008 recession, Miami University is cutting funding for certain academic programs, administrative overhead, athletic programs, building operations and services related to student life on campus. The academic funding will be reallocated to “high priority programs.” These cuts will be implemented across all university divisions and campuses for the next five years.

University President Gregory Crawford announced in a public letter to the Miami community on Feb. 7 that divisional leaders were to develop a five-year plan starting in the 2019-2020 fiscal year that would result in a 1.5 percent annual cut for administrative divisions including the President’s Office, a 2 percent annual cut for auxiliary operations including Intercollegiate Athletics and a 1 percent annual reallocation in each academic department.

“Miami University is operating from a position of strength compared to most universities,” Crawford wrote. “But the reality is clear that our current expenses are growing faster than our revenue; it is not sustainable.”

How exactly these cuts and reallocations will change programs and operations within each division is up to the deans, department chairs, divisional vice presidents and managers of each division. Their proposals for how to put the budget plan into action were due Monday, April 1 and will then be subject to review.

The total dollars cut from all ad-

the University of Akron have faced financial woes and large deficits in recent years, and Miami is attempting to avoid the same pitfalls.

The last time Miami made budget cuts was in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, with a $10.6 million reduction. This came at the end of a fouryear period in which budget cuts were made each year, often by tens of millions.

At that time, the cuts were a result of financial problems brought on by the global recession. Now, although the economy is booming according to most analysts, Miami is facing a new set of problems.

According to the resolution for the five-year budget plan passed by the Board of Trustees at its Feb. 22 meeting, “Applications from across the nation and from international students have declined for fall 2019, and this likely is only the first of many enrollment challenges as demographic changes result in fewer high school graduates in parts of the nation where Miami has historically recruited students and interest by international students wanes.”

David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and business services and treasurer, said that one of Miami’s first priorities is affordability, so one of the purposes of the budget cuts is to keep tuition from rising as well, as it did in the aftermath of the 2008 recession.

“All this is being done to better ensure [that] what we’re providing better matches what students expect today and what students will be looking for tomorrow,” Creamer said.

Auxiliary operations, such as athletics, the bus system, building operations and residence life will

“Although the economy is booming according to most analysts, Miami is facing a new set of problems” ministrative and academic units at the end of the five years is estimated to be over $17 million, or about $3.5 million a year.

The minimum amount that will be reallocated among Oxford and regional academic units is estimated to be just over $8.5 million over 5 years, or about $1.7 million a year, according to the university’s current budget plan. The President’s Office desired amount for academic reallocations is twice that, however.

Other Ohio state universities like Wright State University and

face the biggest cut in the new budget because they receive funding from other sources, like fees separate from tuition charged to students, and because academics take priority, Creamer said.

Crawford created a Strategic Planning Steering Committee to develop a “long-term Strategic Plan for Miami’s future,” which will be finalized in June of this year. The university last made a Strategic Plan in 2015, but achieved all of its goals, which included working towards a more creative and inclusive

campus environment and cultivating partnerships, before the projected 2020 finish line.

The current budget plan aligns with the new Strategic Plan’s goals to fund the university’s “most important academic initiatives,” to increase need and merit-based scholarships to attract more students and to attract and retain “high-quality” faculty and staff.

The money swept back by the cuts to administrative and auxiliary divisions will be repurposed mainly for recruitment, scholarships and aid. The reallocated funds from academic divisions will be used within other academic areas that have been deemed a higher priority to the university’s recruitment efforts.

“We want to take funding we have and invest in academics where we have the highest demand,” said Phyllis Callahan, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

Although which academic areas will receive the funding and which will be most affected is not yet determined, Callahan said she believes that the university, as a whole, is in need of a curriculum review. This would change the functioning of many academic programs and the way the curriculum is taught.

Crawford wrote in his letter that the budget reductions will likely not result in immediate layoffs, but alluded to the possibility that positions will be cut in the next five years.

“As future plans develop, some areas will grow with new investments to advance Miami’s strategic initiatives, while others may require fewer positions,” he wrote.

Another part of Miami’s plans for the future is the Boldly Creative Strategic Academic Enrichment Initiative, a $50 million dollar investment in new faculty-developed programs. Pilot programs in three focus areas have already been approved: data analytics, nursing and professional master’s programs or professionally-oriented certificates.

Nine additional full proposals for Boldly Creative have also been submitted, Callahan said, and there will be another round or two of pre-proposals in the next year. The Boldly Creative initiative is meant to attract more students to the new programs, thus increasing revenue while decreasing recruitment costs.

The proposals were solicited from faculty and staff across the university divisions.

The funds for this initiative came mainly from money put aside by the vice presidents of each division, Callahan said, and some funding could come from the reallocations if needed.

Spring brings an end to SADness RYAN DERN

THE MIAMI STUDENT

According to the American Psychology Association, 41.6 percent of college students struggle with noticeable anxiety, and 36.4 percent struggle with some form of depression. Visits to campus counseling services increase drastically, by nearly 30 percent, immediately before and after winter breaks.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, impacts about 5 percent of adults in America, four-fifths of which are women. Those affected are most likely to develop SAD in their late teens to early twenties.

Common symptoms include but are not limited to: the feeling of depression, lack of interest or motivation, low energy, mood swings, over or under eating and problems falling and staying asleep.

Megan Smith, a first-year early childhood education major, has had SAD for about 12 years.

“This is especially so in the winter because of the lack of sunlight and the inability to go outside,” Smith said.

Smith said that being depressed makes her eat more, which lowers her self esteem. SAD contributes to this.

“Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, impacts about 5 percent of adults in America” Smith also said her SAD doesn’t go away at the end of winter because of storm anxiety.

“With the stormy weather and multiple tornadoes every year, I have really bad anxiety; a few dark clouds will get to me,” she said. “I will only ever leave the building I’m in if I absolutely have to.”

Smith has begun to feel more and more comfortable as the year progresses after talking with her resident director and friends, en-

suring a support system is in place.

Robert Levitan, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and a full member at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, specializes in Seasonal Affective Disorder and other forms of “atypical depression.” Atypical depression is a depressive state with defining features, like how SAD is largely caused by the weather and environment.

“With SAD being a subgenre of MDD — major depressive disorder — we look at how it differs from your average depression and what makes it different,” Levitan said.

One of the biggest factors in differentiating SAD from MDD is how the regional weather and light exposure impacts any given individual’s depression.

“We can see that young people have been more affected by SAD than anyone else,” Levitan said, “especially due to the fact that they never have to go outside, even if they could.”

Levitan attributed this to teenagers’ tendency to spend a large portion of their time on social media.

Ryleigh Bexfield, a first-year psychology major, has had mild depression and SAD since puberty.

Bexfield and Smith share an anxiety associated with storms, a common occurrence towards the end of SAD season.

According to Levitan, this is a common occurrence for those impacted by the disorder, especially young people.

“When it’s dark, cold or thunder storming, it really kicks in,” Bexfield said. “During the dark and colder months, I just feel trapped.”

But when spring comes around and the sun shines again, SAD eventually begins to abate.

“My grades are always better once it gets warmer, and I see that happening now, that it’s starting to warm up,” Bexfield said. “When it’s cold, I just lack motivation. Everything is harder.”

Student Counseling Services (513-529-4634) are available to assist those dealing with SAD or other forms of depression. dernre@miamioh.edu

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RACHEL BERRY NEWS EDITOR

Members of Associated Student Government (ASG) have developed a plan to restructure their executive cabinet. The proposed changes would lower the number of cabinet positions from 15 to 12 with the goal of attempting to make cabinet more effective by condensing the number of positions.

Cabinet members are paid between $3,550 and $5,835 per year. Their jobs entail heading senate committees and sitting on university committees.

The bill will be voted on at tonight’s senate meeting if it gains support from 12 senators, which is a fourth of the body. There can then be a motion to introduce it from the floor, which needs support from two-thirds of the senators to pass. By 9 p.m. Monday, they had support from 12 senators and 9 members of cabinet, making it possible to bring the bill to the floor.

The major changes include combining the Secretary for Alumni Affairs and the Secretary for Communications and Media Relations into one position. A new position called Secretary for Off-Campus Relations will combine the previous roles of the Secretary for Off-Campus Affairs and Secretary for Governmental Relations.

Additionally, there will no longer be a Secretary of the Treasury. This position will be replaced by a Secretary for Student Organizations. This person would co-chair the Funding and Audit Committee and would be in charge of communicating with student organizations, essentially taking over the non-financial aspects of the position. The other co-chair is the Secretary of Finance, who currently chairs the committee and will deal with the financial aspects of the role.

The Secretary of Safety, a position ASG voted to add earlier this semester, will no longer be a separate cabinet position. The duties of the newly created Secretary of Safety will be given to the current Secretary for Infrastructure and Sustainability, which will be renamed as the Secretary for Infrastructure, Sustainability and Safety.

The changes are led by Student Body President Meaghan Murtagh who is working with Vice President Vincent Smith, Secretary of Finance Caroline Weimer, Secretary for Academic Affairs Annika Fowler and Chief of Staff Madeline Zinkl.

Murtagh said she had been planning the changes for awhile, but it was the implementation of the Secretary of Safety that started the restructuring process.

“It’s just gotten to the point that, because cabinet has gotten so big, it’s really hard to collaborate,” Murtagh said.

The plan to restructure was first introduced to cabinet on February 19. Cabinet members were asked to provide opinions on their positions and how they see people operating in that role in the future. Murtagh presented the plans to cabinet on March 3, which then underwent various rounds of revisions after hearing input from the cabinet members.

The students initiating this change researched the cabinet structure used at other universities, which had an average cabinet size of 10 people.

While most people on cabinet agreed that some type of restructuring needed to be done, many cabinet members and senators are not happy with how the process was handled, said Molly O’Donnell, secretary for infrastructure and sustainability.

“It seems a little haphazard and, honestly, irresponsible to make changes halfway through the semester,” O’Donnell said.

Cabinet election packets will be released Sunday, April 7, so people are already vying for those seats and have been planning to run for months. Instead of making these changes right before the elections, O’Donnell said she thinks they should be done in the fall or a year in advance of when they are actually implemented.

Murtagh said voting on the bill so close to cabinet elections is not ideal, but she has been working on this for awhile and did not want to rush it.

“A lot of the positions are pretty much the same,” Smith said. “Because there’s less [sic] positions, that’s more competition … That means you’ll get better people in the roles, potentially.”

The main people involved with making the changes are members of executive cabinet, despite the fact that only senators can author legislation.

Murtagh asked off-campus senator Megan Roberts and College of Engineering and Computing senator Kiril Kolev to author the bill concerning these changes. Murtagh said she chose them because they both have experience on ASG, and she thought they would be neutral in the matter.

Both senators said they wanted to write the bill because they agreed with the premise and

NEWS 5

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

Plan proposed to restructure ASG’s executive cabinet

Explosion severely injures local boys RACHEL BERRY NEWS EDITOR

Two 12-year-old boys, Caleb and Brendon, were injured in the explosion of a modified pyrotechnic device at approximately 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19.

The boys were riding their bikes when something shiny caught their eye, said Oxford Police Department (OPD) Chief John Jones.

They stopped and got off their bikes, pulled out a lighter they had with them and tried to ignite the device, which exploded. One of the boys — Caleb, a sixth-grader at Talawanda Middle School — was severely injured, losing his left hand and sustaining damage to the other in addition to a wound on his mouth.

OPD Officer Adam Price responded to the 911 call at 131 E. Withrow St. When he arrived, he saw a group of people surrounding one of the boys, according to the police report.

He saw two males assisting a nurse, who had made a makeshift tourniquet from a shirt. Price gave them a tourniquet and helped them to apply it, said the police report.

The boy was flown by a helicopter to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where he still remains after several surgeries and the amputation of his left hand.

His friend suffered minor injuries and was treated at McCullough-Hyde before being sent to Cincinnati Children’s, OPD wrote in a press release.

Caleb’s aunt started a fundraiser on Facebook to raise money for her nephew. People can also donate at Fifth Third Bank through his name.

The incident is still under investigation.

OPD is not sure where the modified pyrotechnic device came from, but Jones said the device could have been a discarded firework or one that did not go off. berryrd@miamioh.edu

thought it would improve senate as a whole. Although some people accused cabinet of essentially ghost-writing the legislation, Roberts and Kolev said they wrote the whole bill and were involved in the decision-making process.

“The whole thing has been a back and forth open conversation between us and them,” Kolev said.

Murtagh consulted Scott Walter, the executive cabinet advisor, throughout the process, and she said he helped her to make the decision to implement the changes.

Walter declined to comment because he said it is too early in the process.

Originally, Murtagh’s plans were more drastic and aimed to eliminate five positions out of the current 15. That original plan removed the Secretary for Communications and Media Relations position and instituted “directors,” which would have been unpaid senate leadership roles. There would have been directors in charge of alumni relations, infrastructure and sustainability, and health, wellness and safety.

Murtagh said this plan was eventually abandoned because they decided to focus solely on executive cabinet, instead of changing the senate leadership structure as well.

“That’s the senate’s job to decide their leaders, and we kind of realized that we were interrupting their process, and we just wanted to focus on what we were in charge of,” she said.

Some people like O’Donnell, who were told their positions were being modified, felt like their hard work was not appreciated.

“It was just disappointing to me, honestly, and that’s since been rectified by us being able to advocate for ourselves,” O’Donnell said. “ We shouldn’t have to feel like you have to beg for your job at the end of the day.”

Without the $3,550 stipend from her cabinet position, O’Donnell said she likely would not be able to fulfill the duties of the role and would have aimed to become the president of a sustainability-related student organization instead.

“By making these positions unpaid, you’re going to limit the diversity of people who could take that position because if you have financial issues, you’re not going to be able to invest that amount of time,” O’Donnell said.

ILLUSTRATION BY CONNOR WELLS

Meissner and Meacham campaign cleared of wrongdoing

The money from the salaries of the combined positions, which amounts to $9,250, will be given to Student Activities.

“I’m a fan of getting rid of both the positions we’re getting rid of, honestly, because I don’t think they’re particularly useful,” said Charles Kennick, secretary for off-campus affairs. “But then there’s two salaries that I think we could find use for or find some other way to allocate that money.”

There was also some concern about combining positions and putting the work of two people into one.

Secretary for Communications and Media Relations Michael Zele said he is not necessarily opposed to his position being combined with the Secretary for Alumni Affairs, but he does not think they are similar enough to work well together.

“I think the two goals are not very intertwined,” Zele said. “Where I think the communications positions’ goal is just to get the message out about student government to the students, I don’t think it should be getting them connected with alumni. I think that should be its own separate entity or delegate those powers to someone else.”

On the other hand, Secretary for Alumni Relations Jasmine Adkins said she thinks it is a positive change and that there is a lot of crossover between the positions, as she does a lot of outreach and uses social media within her role.

While some people are not completely in favor of the changes, it is also an opportunity to edit the bylaws and formalize the duties of each position. Currently, many actions cabinet members carry out are not explicitly listed in the bylaws.

“We’ve had this history where things are just assumed to be a person’s duty, and if that person can’t do it or doesn’t do it properly how everyone expects it to, they get in trouble,” Zele said. “If we lay things out more properly and more effectively, people can get things done.”

None of these changes will be implemented unless they are passed at tonight’s senate meeting. Executive cabinet will not be able to vote on the legislation.

Student Court found the Gaby Meissner and Hunter Meacham student body president ticket not guilty of campaigning during a campaign ban at a hearing on Monday.

The 24-hour campaign ban was instituted from 12 a.m to 11:59 p.m. on February 25 as a result of a level-one violation of ASG election bylaws. The violation was issued because Meissner sent a Snapchat picture of her campaign buttons to two students.

During a ban, any staff member of a campaign is prohibited from “open campaigning,” such as posting online about the campaign or election, passing out promotional materials such as buttons or flyers or speaking to student organizations, according to the Student Body President Elections Packet.

Late February 25, Meissner’s roommate Taylor Liber posted an Instagram story in support of the Meissner campaign. After receiving evidence of the post two days later, the Election Committee issued an additional level-one violation to the ticket for campaigning during a ban. The ticket appealed the violation on the grounds that Liber was not a campaign staff member.

The Election Packet defines a campaign staff member as “any person engaging in open campaigning on behalf of and with a clear association to a candidate.”

The court decided that the use of the phrase “on behalf of” here refers only to an act that an individual was requested by a campaign to perform or an act that the campaign would have performed themselves.

The court found no evidence that the Meissner campaign requested that Liber post the story or that campaign members would have posted the story themselves during the ban, clearing the campaign of the violation.

berryrd@miamioh.edu

glynnee@miamioh.edu

ERIN GLYNN

ASST. NEWS EDITOR

Hillel and ASG collaborate to define anti-Semitism ERIN GLYNN

ASST. NEWS EDITOR

Students from Associated Student Government (ASG) and Hillel, the association of Jewish students at Miami, have co-written a bill to “define and condemn” anti-Semitism.

Hillel has also been working with ASG to reform the current university bias reporting system through a separate bill.

Hillel approached ASG after trying to use the bias reporting system to report an incident that president of Hillel Daniela Reuter described as part of “a long list of blatant anti-Semitic occurences” on campus.

These occurrences include the scheduling of the 2018 Career Fair on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year during which practitioners fast and visit synagogue. The other incidents include a swastika carved into the ground on Western campus, two

professors making anti-Semitic remarks in class and a derogatory note left on the Students for Israel desk in Armstrong, according to the introductory clauses of the bill.

“Everything that is in the bill is from personal experience and has all been presented to the university,” Reuter said. “This is not new.”

Hillel’s report led to meetings with University President Gregory Crawford, Dean of Students Kimberly Moore and ASG Secretary of Diversity and Inclusion Courtney Rose.

The university spoke to the professors in question, but no further action was taken.

“A lot of it is kind of out of their hands.

Things like tenure really play a role in it,” Reuter said. “And this is another issue. Anti-Semitism is not necessarily seen as as big of a problem as other things, so it’s not always taken in the most drastic way, and that’s also

partially why we’re doing this.”

The bill defines anti-Semitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of Antisemitism [sic] are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

This definition will be used in the bias reporting system going forward, provided the bill is passed. The bill also calls for a public report and breakdown of statistics to be published monthly.

Both Hillel and ASG hope that other organizations, such as the Black Action Movement (BAM) 2.0 and the Muslim Students’ Association, will come forward to define what constitutes hate speech and other actions so that the bias reporting system will be as ubiquitous and clear-cut as possible. The

legislation is chiefly intended to provide data on the cultural climate and inclusivity of the university, rather than to punish students for hate speech, which would be a violation of the First Amendment.

“It’s just not very convenient for students to [report],” Reuter said. “Not many students know about it, and it’s just not what we think it should be.”

The bias reporting reform bill, which was authored by Senators Brandon Small and Adrian Radilla, calls for an in-person demonstration of how to report an incident to accompany an in-person diversity training module for incoming students.

Both bills are to come before senate in late April so that other organizations have the opportunity to create their own definitions. glynnee@miamioh.edu

6 CULTURE

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

HEADLEDD@MIAMIOH.EDU

Performing for change MILO LAM

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Born from the curtains of theater and the desire for social change, The Walking Theater Project (WTP) brings a new kind of performance to Miami. Founded at Miami and originally created as a tool to advocate for same-sex marriage in the state of Ohio, the organization connects with communities through a variety of activities such as a stage reading last semester, which tackled the issue of mental health.

This year, WTP is looking to engage with the Miami community again. They’re putting on a cabaret event with fifteen different student talents who will be featured in a variety-style show. The acts, ranging from pianists and singers to a playwright, all originated on Miami’s campus.

Senior arts management and marketing major Austin Lamewona, first-year theatre major Jordan Myers, sophomore music education major Avery Pinta and junior theatre major Kyle Carson are a part of WTP’s cabaret committee leading the initiative for the upcoming event. They recently organized the auditions with one goal in mind: inclusion.

“We don’t turn down anyone, because we always want to celebrate people of diversity and strive to promote a safe and welcoming environment,” Myers said.

The committee witnessed an unprecedented

volume of eager individuals looking to make a name for themselves or simply to have fun.

Candidates performed a variety of acts, ranging from singing to reciting poetry. Interested performers simply signed up for a slot, performed their acts and received feedback from the floor.

Lamewona said there was a interesting variety of auditions.

“There was a comic from Not Very Funny, a comedy club on campus, who did one of his sets, there was a song from a girl who sings with a band called Chromatic Crew and one person who had written and performed two songs from his very own original musical,” Lamewona said. “It was fantastic, all of it.”

WTP is committed to piquing curiosity from the student body on campus. The group seeks to provide the oppressed with the means to do art, giving a voice to the disadvantaged a means of expression and a place to show their talents.

“We will be having a medium for people to showcase their expressions,” Pinta said.

“There’s piano, there’s singing, there’s comedy. Everything will be set up to be very elegant — black tie. We want to make the acts special, and for the audience to feel special coming there.”

Throughout the process of putting on the cabaret, they’ve sought to reinvent the creativity needed to put on such a production and to transform the art into a social cause.

WTP PARTNERED WITH THE FALCON THEATRE TO EXTEND ITS REACH BEYOND OXFORD. CONTRIBUTED BY WTP FACEBOOK

WTP will collaborate with Falcon Theater, an organization from Kentucky, to raise awareness around the HIV/AIDS community this year. They plan to do so with a dedicated set from the Falcon Theater and charitable donations from the event goers.

The Walking Theater Project Black Tie Cab-

Jabs and jewelry

Novales strikes a balance between boxing and business

NOVALES NOTICED AN UNTAPPED MARKET AT MIAMI AND LEAPT AT THE OPPORTUNITY. SEBASTIAN NEUFUSS THE MIAMI STUDENT

aret is set to happen at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 6 and the committee hopes to perform in the Shade Family Room in the Armstrong Student Center. lamvg@miamioh.edu

BELLA ZARLENGO

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Sophomore psychology major Kaxandra Novales began creating and selling handmade items when she was in high school.

“I guess it was just a combination of my entrepreneurial side and my artistic side,” Novales said.

She first began knitting scarves to to make extra money on the side so she could get her nails done for homecoming. The summer before her first semester at Miami, she attempted to sell handmade tie-dye pillows on Etsy, a website for handmade items, but when she came to college, her business quickly changed and grew.

“I saw this opportunity,” Novales said. “Because the girls in my hall – I kept on seeing them buy all this expensive stuff and I told them I could be making all of that for them for really cheap.”

Novales began asking her friends what they liked, and she started creating crop tops and stretchy bracelets for them. But making tops took time, and she didn’t really enjoy making the original bracelets she created.

So, after a semester of trial and error, Novales began her now-blossoming handmade jewelry company, Oxford Made.

Novales crafts earrings, necklaces, hand stamps, rings and bracelets. Oxford Made has an Etsy site, a Facebook store and an Instagram that Novales uses to sell her products.

As of last month, 15 percent of Oxford Made’s profits go to a different charity each month. March’s charity was the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“I wanted it to be different every month because I didn’t want whatever charity that we picked to be, like, the identity of the thing,” Novales said. “We’re always changing and it doesn’t always have to be the same.”

Novales said that she chose the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for March because her company had a table set up at a Dance Marathon, hosted by one of Miami’s service fraternities Alpha Phi Omega, in support of the hospital. She has also sold her products at the Oxford Farmer’s Market, and hopes to plan events with Miami’s sororities.

Currently, Novales makes all of her products on her own. But since her business has been growing so much, she will soon begin looking for permanent employees. She recently began working with AB Visuals, a brand consulting company run by Miami sophomore IMS major Alyssa Brooks.

“For content, she picks my photos, she edits them and she makes sure everything is consistent, like, aesthetic wise,” Novales said of Brooks’ contribution to her business.

Aside from running her business, Novales is also the social chair of Miami’s boxing club.

“I’m in charge of all of the social media,” she said. “I am basically everyone’s personal photographer. It’s my job to plan the social events. I also plan the parties, too.”

Since Novales is one of the club’s officers, she is at practice almost every day. On March 2, they hosted a home show, and she said their competitive team has been working very hard lately in preparation for nationals.

Novales said that managing school, her business and boxing have been very difficult but she is slowly figuring it out. And while she is a psychology and neuroscience major, she said she has many plans for after graduation that don’t necessarily involve what she is studying.

“I’ve always wanted to work with the Alzheimer’s Association for a little bit,” Novales said. “But honestly, I just want to do a ton of stuff. I know I want to be a real estate investor and I want to own a business or two.”

Novales said she also plans to continue Oxford Made after she graduates, and she would like to continue working on running it as smoothly and efficiently as possible. zarlenim@miamioh.edu

DATTILEC@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

SURVIVING THE SPRING A post-break survival guide

DUARD HEADLEY CULTURE EDITOR

Like the drops of rain in the gently-falling April showers, the minutes of spring break fell away one by one until they were gone at last.

Now, the month and a half until the end of the year looms ominously over the Miami student body like a dark and foreboding storm.

So, what can be done to break up this long and arduous stretch of school?

Despite the fact that there isn’t a single holiday that grants Miamians a day off of school between now and the beginning of summer, there are several ways that the studious slog can be circumvented, at least temporarily.

Now that the weather is warming up, and the last, icy vestiges of winter are disappearing slowly but surely, the season of outdoor recreation has finally come. For those more active and adventurous individuals, the tried and true options of going to the Rec center or taking a jog down the streets of Oxford are always available. But for anyone seeking outdoor activity, the lands around Oxford are surprisingly accommodating.

The Bluffs, a set of high, well, bluffs that can be found in Peffer Park, just off Miami’s campus provide enterprising hikers with an opportunity to escape the flat terrain of Ohio farmland. The trails that wind through The Bluffs take hikers high above a meandering creek and provide an excellent view of the lush woods and water below. For anyone looking to take a break or breather, hammocking a bit back from the edge of the cliff can be both relaxing and exhilarating.

Oxford also offers several handson activities for anyone looking to escape their house or dorm. Two places of particular interest are You’re Fired, the ceramics shop Uptown, and Oxford Lanes, the bowling alley housed in an unassuming little building just outside town.

You’re Fired gives customers the chance to paint their own ceramics;

bowls, mugs, statues and more are all on offer and can be styled and painted with any color. Meanwhile, Oxford Lanes provides lots of activity without the humidity of the outdoors.

With the approach of warmer days, the season of recreation brings with it parties and festivities.

Local bands and musicians bounce from house to house, playing concerts in garages and basements. It can be tricky to nail down the exact time a band will be playing at any one venue, but an evening of music in the smaller, more low-key locale of a house can be a great thing after a week of schoolwork and studying.

Finally, there are a certain set of spring events available only to those who own a car or can snag a ride with friends.

While many lament the lack of a movie theater here in Oxford, the Holiday Auto Theatre, a 1950s-style drive-in, is just a quick trip from Miami. The cute and kitschy theatre offers the latest movies at a venue unlike many others. On any rainy or cold nights, the city of Hamilton, a few miles southeast of Oxford, offers the AMC Classic Hamilton 8 movie theater. Tickets are $5.99 for adults, making them affordable enough, provided that any wouldbe movie goers can make the drive.

Nearby Cincinnati might take a little longer to get to than other activities, but the variety and excitement of a city can be a welcome change after weeks in small-town Oxford. From museums to restaurants, shows to shops, The Queen City has nearly everything that a fun-seeking Miamian would need to make for a fantastic weekend out.

Despite the occasional shower or blustery day, the warmth that comes hot on the heels of spring brings with it a time of excitement and activity. If the lack of days off proves too much to bear, making your own holiday by taking a personal day is perfectly valid from time to time.

Spring is a time of growth, activity, and above all else, getting through the rest of the school year.

Keep at it, Miami. Summer’s almost here. headledd@miamioh.edu

CULTURE 7

On the other side of the desk Going from university student to Miami employee MADDIE TOOLE

THE MIAMI STUDENT

AJ Searle graduated from Miami with a degree in family science in May 2015. Two months after receiving his diploma, he was back at his alma mater working as an admissions counselor.

Originally from New Jersey, Searle said it was a big jump to stay in Oxford and work for Miami.

He views life as having three different types of people: people who peak in high school, people who peak in college and people who peak later in life. Searle hopes to be the person who peaks later in life.

“I had an awesome experience here as a student,” Searle said. “I absolutely loved every second of it, but I didn’t want people to think I was afraid to hop into something else.”

After graduation, he explored several employment options and interviewed for multiple jobs. But ultimately, he felt at home in the admissions office at Miami, where he loves his job.

During his time at Miami he was a campus tour guide, participated in undergraduate research and was a part of the a cappella group Soul2Soul. He first became a tour guide the summer before his senior year at Miami, and the experience opened his eyes to all the career possibilities in higher education.

Now, as a senior admissions counselor, he is able to use his college experience as a selling point for the university.

He works with the Office of Admissions to bring in each new class of students and plays a large role in making sure people feel welcome on campus. He’s also in charge of student tour guides. He reads some of the admission applications submitted, but he works mostly with the prospective student visit center. Being a recent alum helps him answer the questions visiting prospective students and parents ask about college life and campus

A taxi ride through Havana Photo story by Jugal Jain

Life, culture and food in Havana, Cuba is very different from the U.S. The streets of Havana are filled with classic cars and cycle rickshaws.

The alleys bring out a cool vibe with the people and dogs walking and cars parked on the sides. Half of my heart is still in Havana.

culture.

One of Searle’s favorite parts of his job is feeling connected to student life at Miami. Working with 150 tour guides — all current students with different majors and backgrounds — exposes Searle to current events and happenings on campus.

“I love being a part of a community, and that’s what Miami has really showed me, even on the professional side of things,” Searle said. “I still get to be a part of the campus community and it really does keep things exciting.”

Moving from his status as a Miami student to a Miami employee has taught him a lot, and Searle says that it has showed him the uniqueness of the city of Oxford.

“Working here and creating connections with other staff and families and people beyond students,

Oxford is such a uniquely beautiful town, because it has this perfect combination of great family community but also this rich campus environment,” Searle said.

Being on the professional side of the desk at Miami has offered Searle several opportunities that he feels have shaped how he sees his future. Although he is still working on figuring out his dream job, he knows for sure that his ideal career is in higher education. He can see himself working in student activities or advising in the future.

Searle is grateful that he has this experience of working for Miami immediately after graduation.

“When you learn about what the whole career of higher education really is, Miami does it really, really well, so I got lucky to get a position like this,” Searle said. “Working in this field, with this department with this team, has given me so many professional skills that are translatable to every college campus.” toolemb@miamioh.edu

SOME MIAMIANS REMAIN AFTER GRADUATION TO WORK AT THEIR ALMA MATER CONTRIBUTED BY AJ SEARLE

Travel

8

HEADLEDD@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

Going off the beaten path in Galveston

BELLA ZARLENGO

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Six days on Galveston Island, Texas included finding the perfect beach spot, eating at all of the places recommended by a local and exploring the grounds of our hotel.

After getting to our hotel – an unusual resort that is home to water slides, golf courses and numerous pyramids called the Moody Gardens – my family and I were hungry and tired after our day of traveling. We had never been anywhere in Texas before, so we decided to go to the first restaurant that came up on our Google search. We ended up at Fish Tales, a two-story sports bar with indoor and outdoor seating located right across the street from the historic Pleasure Pier.

During our first look at Galveston, my mom and I were a little disappointed to see that the island looked like a typical spring-breaker destination. The beach was directly off a busy street and the pier was crowded. It did not look to be the relaxing getaway we were hoping for.

Fortunately for us though, our Fish Tales waitress, Wendy, was a lifelong Galveston resident who was more than happy to write out an entire list of spots for us to check out.

Our first stop on Wendy’s list was The Strand, Galveston’s historic downtown area. The Strand consists

of about three or four blocks located next to a cruise port. The area is full of restaurants, boutiques and ice cream shops. With brick roads and buildings that have somehow survived some of the country’s worst hurricanes, I felt like I was taking a step back in time.

It seems like you are pretty far inland when you’re making your way through The Strand, but at almost every building there was a little plaque, well above my head, that read “Ike water line” or “Ike flooded up to here.” It really showed how strong that little island’s bones were.

One of the first shops we ventured into was called Gracie’s. This boutique was full of jewelry, home decor, clothes and more. Another one of my favorite shops on The Strand was called Head to Footsies.

This was a smaller boutique consisting of boho sun dresses and denim shorts.

Another local staple in the downtown area was La King’s, an ice cream and candy store. La King’s was home to hand-pulled salt water taffy, old fashioned candy and chocolate covered everything. I enjoyed picking out a bag of several different jelly bean flavors and indulged in a few rich chocolate truffles.

We also made time to explore the hotel’s pyramids. My favorite of the three was the rainforest. It felt so much more realistic than any oth-

er zoo I’ve ever been to – especially because only a few of the animals were restricted to cages. Some of the world’s largest pigeons, parrots and at least ten other species of birds flew freely throughout the building.

A 13-year-old Saki monkey crawled right up to my family and me, before leaping almost 20 feet into a tree.

The aquarium was less unique but still interesting. Giant otters played with each other like toddlers, penguins bumped into each other and seals relaxed on rocks. There was even an exhibit where we were able to touch jelly fish as they floated by.

After doing some exploring of our own, my family found a completely empty beach in a tiny, out-of-the-way place aptly named Beachtown. This beach was completely free to enjoy, and we had it practically to ourselves.

Soaking in the sun by the water never got too hot because of the constant ocean breeze. We were able to sit quietly for hours and watch a multitude of large ships sail along in the distance.

After walking around The Strand or sitting on the beach or at our hotel’s pool, my family and I ended each day at a new dinner stop.

Brewchachos was a taco place with outdoor seating and TVs playing March Madness in the background. After practically inhaling some of the best chips and queso

we’ve ever had, all four of us got different tacos. Some were filled with fried chicken, some with fish and some oozing even more queso.

The taco joint also had a hefty beer menu. There were even some non-alcoholic beers made specifically for dogs. It was located on the historic Strand like many of the other destinations we’d previously visited.

Gypsy Joynt was another island staple. Admittedly, the food wasn’t anything to write home about, but it is a must-see simply for the ambiance. The ceiling was covered in dream catchers, beads, mannequin

heads wrapped in paper mache and other miscellaneous objects. It was a true hipster dive that would leave you finding new things on every inch of the walls during your entire visit.

The heavy crowd we had endured on our first day there quickly vanished after the weekend ended.

We learned that a lot of Houston residents drive down to the island and stay for the weekend. So, despite our initial trepidation, our six days on Galveston Island ended up being the relaxing getaway that my family and I needed. zarlenim@miamioh.edu

GALVESTON SEEMS LIKE A PLAIN RESORT TOWN, BUT THERE’S MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. BELLA ZARLENGO THE MIAMI STUDENT

Catching the travel bug in Punta Cana TIM CARLIN

STAFF WRITER

Last fall break, my mom handed me a tiny blue booklet. My first-ever passport had arrived while I was at school.

A smile immediately spread across my face.

Holding the small blue book in my hands, I ran my fingers over the crispness of its pages. The newness radiated from it, invigorating me with the desire to travel the entire world in that exact instant.

From the moment I got my passport, I was thinking of where to get it stamped first. After much discussion, my mom and I settled upon christening my passport on a tropical spring break getaway.

As we began planning our trip, it seemed like everyone wanted to offer their own prime destination: Cancún, Aruba, Punta Cana, Costa Rica, U.S. Virgin Islands and so many more.

After meeting with a travel agent, TIM CHOSE PUNTA CANA AS THE DESTINATION FOR HIS INAUGURAL INTERNATIONAL TRIP. TIM CARLIN STAFF WRITER

we settled on an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana called “Dreams.” We spent four nights there, but I honestly wish we had stayed longer.

The resort was like something out of a movie. The architecture and landscaping were almost too flawless to be real, and the mixture of chirping birds and rustling palm trees was like the perfect ambient noise machine come to life.

To say that I was in awe would be an understatement.

After settling into our room, my mom and I decided to enjoy the afternoon sunlight by the pool. We soaked up the rays and swam until the sun started to fade behind the tall palm trees.

We spent most of our days poolside, even when the sun was covered by gray clouds and rainstorms.

It rained three out of four days we were in Punta Cana, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying our trip.

There were always activities held around the resort that we could attend whenever we wanted. If we ever got bored at the pool, we could go to a foam party on the beach, get

cooking lessons by the bar, or watch a dance show on one of the patios.

Our travel agency also offered various excursions such as swimming with dolphins and day trips to other islands, at an additional cost. Although these were certainly tempting, we decided to stay at the resort to soak up what little time we had to spend there.

When the time came to leave our resort and return to reality, I was left wanting more. The Dominican Republic was beautiful, and even though I was only in Punta Cana for four days, I made countless memories in that time. I swam in the ocean for the first time, got some much-needed relaxation after a taxing spring semester and spent quality time with my mom.

As my first international trip, Punta Cana will always have a special place in my heart. It definitely didn’t disappoint, and I can’t wait to return. This trip gave me the travel bug, and I can’t wait to see where I go next. carlintm@miamioh.edu

DATTILEC@MIAMIOH.EDU

9

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

SPRING BREAK’S MAINE EVENT

THE WINDY COASTS OF MAINE PROVIDED AN ESCAPE FROM THE FIELDS OF OXFORD. DUARD HEADLEY CULTURE EDITOR

DUARD HEADLEY CULTURE EDITOR

As April arrives and the weather slowly but surely turns warm again, many college students seize the opportunity that spring break provides to flee to the country’s coasts and enjoy some time on the beach. I certainly did, just not to the place most people would think.

Just as warmth was working its way back into the Ohio air, I thought to myself, “Ah yes, the perfect time to travel to the northernmost continental state.” So I packed up my car with my two friends, Julia and Alyssa, and set out on a road trip to Maine.

The United States is big. I think that sometimes Americans take this fact for granted.

In Europe, people balk at the thought of having to travel for more than a few hours to get anywhere. The concept of driving 11 hours one day then six hours the next might sound a little outlandish to them, but that’s exactly what we did.

The first leg of the journey took us right

into the heart of New York City. Being the tourists that we are, we stayed more or less on the beaten path while wandering amid the skyscrapers. We visited the Museum of Natural History and marveled at massive dinosaur skeletons – sure to point out every exhibit that had a cameo in Night at the Museum along the way – and we ate classic NY-style pizza, paper thin and absolutely dripping with grease. Pretty standard stuff.

Being the frugal college students that we are, we stayed with one of Alyssa’s friends on the floor of their college dorm. I awoke to find a pattern of bumps and ridges imprinted onto my back after a night of sleeping on a yoga mat.

Leaving the cosmopolitan heart of America behind, we set out once more for the great white north. After we’d added a few hundred more miles onto my car’s odometer, a sign that warned us to watch for moose on the roadways heralded our arrival into Maine.

I’d visited the state before with my dad around eight years ago, and it was one of the

Viva la Cancún!

MILO LAM

THE MIAMI STUDENT

As the plane took off at 8:25 a.m. sharp on a Wednesday morning, my girlfriend and I were thrilled to begin our new adventure traveling together for the very first time. We felt like newlyweds, jetting off together for the unknown.

Last fall, I flew to see my girlfriend, Sarah, in Boston where she lives. By planning ahead, I was able to secure a flight for the meager price of $200, an unlikely scenario for many college students.

This semester, the week leading to spring break couldn’t have felt any longer – until my girlfriend texted me one night. The text read: “We

are going to Cancún. I got a deal.”

And thus, the journey began.

Two Asian lovers going to Mexico for the very first time. It was the ultimate nightmare for our tiger parents.

In our minds, Mexico was filled with scorching heat, humid air and hustling vendors, but Cancún really wasn’t like the picture on the postcard. It was an inviting, windy city whose main attraction that drew tourists from around the world was one thing: a gradient Caribbean ocean.

The water was beautiful, clear and close to the horizon. It was a dark mysterious blue that slowly faded into a youthful sky hue that finally hit the shore as a majestic tur-

quoise. The locals were courteous and respectful, although they could be cheeky from time to time. Upon arriving at our hotel, my girlfriend and I were greeted with a peculiar greeting – “Welcome home.”

We were surprised to see no college students in sight, relieved that our romantic trip would be relaxing after all.

By the end of the night, we reserved a nice steak dinner to celebrate Sarah’s 20th birthday. Our server, Arturo, knew how to get the party going with a complimentary bottle of Moet and surprised Sarah at the end of our dinner with a special warm cake dessert and a heartfelt birthday song sung by the staff.

Cancún was kind to us. Its peo-

best vacations of my life. I’ve never been one for tropical climates and sun-bleached shores, but the stark beauty of the northern coastline captured my heart like nothing else. The scent of salt and brine in the cold air coupled with the picturesque lighthouses and harbors conveyed a sense of maritime magic. This part of the country was simple and pure, and I loved it.

And now, back in Maine again almost a decade later, I wasn’t disappointed.

We stayed in Portland, a city just big enough to have a bustling charm while not being as chaotic and overwhelming as somewhere like New York. It provided an excellent base of operations while we explored the wilderness of the self-proclaimed Pine Tree State.

Just north of the city, we stopped at a stretch of coast called Popham Beach. A Civil War-era fort sat crumbling nearby, and the tide washed over miles of sandy shores. Aside from a few couples out walking their dogs, we were the only ones on the beach. The water was freezing, and the icy waves lapped gently against the empty shoreline. It was barren, solitary and utterly peaceful.

We visited several lighthouses, one thing we don’t have too many of in Ohio. One in particular, separated from the shore by haphazard path of massive rocks, seemed like something ripped straight out of a postcard or stock photo. It was surrounded on all sides by ocean, and to its left, you could see Portland houses on the coast in the distance. The rocky path, the gentle waves and the piercing blue sky perfectly framed the tower.

All around us, at every stop and at all times on the drive through Maine, nature was abundant. Whether it took the form of a pine treeadorned mountain, a sparkling blue river, a vast and murky swamp or the clear, pristine coastline, the variety and splendor offered by the Maine wilderness was magnificent.

Even when populated by quaint houses and kitschy seafood restaurants, the landscape of Maine exuded tranquility and beauty in a way unmatched by any Ohio locale I’ve ever visited.

Before making this trip, my friend Alyssa had always enjoyed the hustle and bustle of a busy city. But passing through the winding roads of the northern countryside, even she couldn’t deny its charm.

“I never really understood why anyone would want to come to Maine,” she said, her eyes fixed on the quiet, idyllic town we were driving through. “But I get it now.”

ple, culture and beauty all scream passion.

The next morning, we took a cruise trip to Isla De Mujeres – a gem by the Cancún hotel zone strip.

Isla De Mujeres is a vibrant town with people yelling either “Free tequila and A/C” or “Go-Karts,” trying to get passersby to purchase something, anything. The crew blasted 80s music as we lay our heads on the front of our boat, Victoria.

On our way to the island, we stopped by to do some snorkeling and the leading swimmer led us to see the remarkable underwater museum. It was comprised of large, bronze sculptures of human palms forming as a circle, closing on their index and middle fingers.

headledd@miamioh.edu

On one sunny afternoon, my girlfriend opted to play Sudoku in a wood cabana, and I laid on our beach recliners, looking at the yellow parasail chute above the colorful beach.

I don’t yet know how to tell my mother I went to Mexico, she was never privy to the plan, but if there’s one thing for certain, never in a thousand years did Sarah and I believe that this small city was going to take up such a big piece of our hearts.

When we left, it felt like leaving our own home behind. lamvg@miamioh.edu

A SPONTANEOUS TRIP TO THE TROPICS LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF A HOME AWAY FROM HOME. MILO LAM THE MIAMI STUDENT

Sports

10

VINELCA@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

Deja vu for Stephens sends Miami past Eastern Michigan for second at 5-1 with Central Michigan.

Miami doesn’t face the Chippewas until the last weekend of the regular season.

Miami gets national attention Hayden’s ballclub is making its way up the national rankings, as the team is 31st of 299 in Division I baseball with a .295 batting average. The team also is 32nd in on base percentage at .399. The bullpen sits in 54th, but leads the MAC in team ERA (3.66).

Starting pitcher Jack Corbell ranks 24th in the NCAA and leads the MAC with a 1.21 earned run average. The senior is 4-0 in his seven starts with 26 strikeouts, while holding opponents to a .207 batting average.

Kyle Winkler holds the 59th position in all of Division 1 with a .490 on base percentage. Winkler hits .321 on the year, has 16 RBIs, and is a perfect 11-11 in stolen bases.

Landon Stephens = clutch

FRESHMAN PITCHER TYLER BOSMA DELIVERS A PITCH. BOSMA LEADS MIAMI WITH THREE SAVES THIS SEASON. ZACH REICHMAN THE MIAMI STUDENT

BENNETT WISE STAFF WRITER

To put it simply, this team is good.

Before Sunday’s walk-off single by junior third baseman Landon Stephens, Miami baseball came into the day with the best start in school history (20-5).

This feat was accomplished only one other time in Miami’s history (1972).

The sweep over Eastern Michigan (5-22-1, 0-6 MAC) was the fourth this year, which equals the same amount as the last two season combined.

The majority of the RedHawks’ offense came in the latter half of games, with 13 runs scored in the sixth inning or later.

The Eagles led 2-0 after three innings on Friday before freshman designated hitter Cole Andrews delivered his third home run of the year. Andrews tied the game in the sixth with a sacrifice fly that scored junior left fielder Kyle Winkler.

The two teams traded runs until the ninth, when EMU relief pitcher Thomas House hit two RedHawks to start off the inning. This brought up Landon Stephens, who singled to left-center field, scoring sophomore Cristian Tejada to end the game.

On Saturday, Miami led 4-0 after two innings before scoring eight unanswered in the last four innings in a 13-3 rout. Junior catcher Cal Elvers led the

Ken Griffey Jr. reflects the spirit of his hometown BRADY PFISTER STAFF WRITER

Cincinnati, Ohio. An ordinary city in an ordinary state.

Except to a native of this Midwest metropolis, there is nothing ordinary about the Queen City.

This place is home. Always has been, always will be.

Skyline Chili will forever taste like home. Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chip ice cream is the undisputed finest dessert this side of the Mississippi. Fall Friday nights belong to the Elder Panthers, the Colerain Cardinals and the St. Xavier Bombers. Major League Opening Day, like last Thursday, will always be a city-wide holiday.

And, for better or worse, we will always back our Cincinnati Reds.

The Redlegs have a long history of taking in hometown ballplayers.

in Seattle, Griffey collected only one such season in Cincy. As time wore on, the days of flashy catches in center field faded into the past as Father Time took his toll.

My personal memories of Griffey date back only to the mid-2000’s, far past the climax of his electric career.

Yet, The Kid remains my favorite Cincinnati Red to ever play.

Why? In an era that saw superstars such as Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire tarnish baseball’s record books, Junior crushed his way to 630 career homers the clean way.

Like many other kids at the time, I would spend hours in front of the mirror in an upright position emulating Griffey’s swing, the most majestic the game has ever seen.

I will never forget listening to

“But more than any of these reasons, Ken Griffey Jr. is a Cincinnatian.”

From Joe Nuxhall of Hamilton to Pete Rose of Western Hills or Barry Larkin of Moeller High School, this baseball town develops big league studs and watches them turn into legends on the banks of the Ohio.

The biggest of such stars? “The Kid” himself, Ken Griffey Jr. When the Hall of Famer successfully requested a trade to the Reds from the Seattle Mariners in Feb. 2000, Cincinnati welcomed a bona fide superstar who drew comparisons to Willie Mays for his power and defense combination.

At the time, Junior played the game at a level few others could keep up with. The Moeller graduate came home to Cincinnati after a dominant decade of the 1990’s, collecting ten straight All-Star appearances, nine Gold Gloves and an MVP award.

After being traded back home, injuries plagued Griffey. Despite six seasons of 40 or more homers

Reds play by play commentator Marty Brennaman call Griffey’s 500th career home run on Father’s Day. But more than any of these reasons, Ken Griffey Jr. is a Cincinnatian.

Sure, his best playing days were as a Mariner, but I truly believe Junior spent plenty of nights sleepless in Seattle, dreaming of returning home to wear the same uniform and number as his father.

Beneath the smile, the swing and the charisma was a Cincinnati boy with the same dream of every kid in Hamilton, Warren and Butler county: play for the Reds.

He came home. To anyone whose phone number doesn’t start with 513, that doesn’t make sense.

We don’t expect you to get it.

That’s alright. It’s a Cincinnati thing. pfistejb@miamioh.edu @brady_pfister

way, going 3-for-3 with four RBIs. Winkler also had a day, hitting 4-for-6 and driving in one run.

Sunday felt like deja vu for Landon Stephens, as he stood in the right side batter’s box with two outs and two on.

Tied at six, Stephens slapped a single to the same spot in left-center to score redshirt freshman first baseman Reid Norberg and claim the victory.

Norberg, in just his seventh start, went a perfect 4-for-4 with one RBI and one walk.

While the offensive firepower remained constant, the defense for Miami struggled, registering nine errors on the weekend and six on Sunday alone.

“It was probably the worst defensive effort of the season so far,” Miami head coach Danny Hayden said. “It was a tough day to play baseball. It was cold, windy and I give our guys a lot of credit.

They didn’t come in making any excuses, no one was really thrilled with the way we were playing baseball, but our guys knew this was going to be a dogfight and found a way to win it.”

Second in MAC, but remain the best Although Ball State sits atop the Mid-American Conference (MAC) standings at 4-0 in league play, Miami holds the best overall record in the conference at 21-5. The RedHawks are tied

All three of Stephens’ walk-offs have come when the game is tied at 6. His first came on March 16 versus St. Bonaventure. The junior’s four home runs rank second in the MAC, while he sits seventh in RBIs with 23.

This isn’t the first time a RedHawk has had three walk-offs in a season, as catcher Hayden Senger did that last season. Senger now plays in the New York Mets farm system for its Single-A Columbia Fireflies.

“He [Landon] was joking around that we had Hayden Senger who hit a bunch of walk-off hits last year,” Hayden said. “We like trying to get [Stephens] to the plate with the game on the line.

If we can get him to the plate with the go-ahead run on, he seems to come through just about every time.”

The RedHawks return to play Wednesday at Hayden Park versus Northern Kentucky University. Miami took down the Norse at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex 16-1 on March 13.

First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. wisebm@miamioh.edu @Bennettmwise

HERE’S WHAT YOU MISSED OVER SPRING BREAK… FRIDAY, MARCH 22

TUESDAY, MARCH 26

SOFTBALL

BASEBALL

Central Michigan ���������������������� 4 Miami ........................................... 1

Louisville ������������������������������������ 6 Miami ........................................... 1

TENNIS

SOFTBALL

Miami .......................................... 3 Akron ........................................... 4

GAME 1 Miami .......................................... 6 Wright State ������������������������������� 0

SATURDAY, MARCH 23

BASEBALL GAME 1 Miami .......................................... 3 Kent State ����������������������������������� 2

GAME 2 Miami .......................................... 4 Wright State ������������������������������� 2

FRIDAY, MARCH 29

BASEBALL

GAME 2 Miami .......................................... 2 Kent State ���������������������������������� 12

Eastern Michigan ���������������������� 6 Miami .......................................... 7

SOFTBALL

TENNIS

GAME 1 Central Michigan ���������������������� 4 Miami .......................................... 3

Ball State ������������������������������������ 3 Miami .......................................... 4

GAME 2 Central Michigan ���������������������� 3 Miami .......................................... 7

SUNDAY, MARCH 24

BASEBALL Miami .......................................... 5 Kent State ������������������������������������ 1

TENNIS Miami .......................................... 4 Buffalo ......................................... 3

SATURDAY, MARCH 30

BASEBALL Eastern Michigan ���������������������� 3 Miami ......................................... 13

SUNDAY, MARCH 31

BASEBALL Eastern Michigan ���������������������� 6 Miami .......................................... 7

TENNIS Northern Illinois ������������������������ 1 Miami .......................................... 6

VINELCA@MIAMIOH.EDU

SPORTS 11

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019

MIAMI HOCKEY FIRES HEAD COACH ENRICO BLASI

How his team found out

ENRICO BLASI TOLD HIS TEAM OF HIS DISMISSAL AS HEAD HOCKEY COACH AT A TEAM MEETING ON MARCH 19.

CONTRIBUTED BY MIAMI ATHLETICS

EMILY SIMANSKIS

SPORTS EDITOR-AT-LARGE

Tuesday, March 19, started like many other postseason weekdays had – after losing in the first round of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Tournament, Miami hockey’s season had ended and a postseason meeting was scheduled for the afternoon.

The RedHawks filed into the locker room to talk about summer workouts and plans for next season. The gath-

ering happened at 1:30 p.m., a time during the season reserved for film, meetings or practice.

Senior defenseman and co-captain Grant Hutton was skating on Tuesday around 1:30 p.m., preparing for the next steps in his hockey career. He wasn’t needed at the meeting, as he was leaving Oxford and the Brotherhood soon.

But someone called him off the ice before 1:30 p.m. and encouraged him to head to the locker room.

“It’s not hard to read the emotions and facial expressions,” Hutton said.

“I definitely knew something was up.”

All of the seniors had been encouraged to attend.

So, Hutton sat in his locker stall and waited with his teammates.

Head hockey coach Enrico Blasi is known for being punctual, and his pregame speeches are routinely an hour and a half on the dot before puckdrop.

At 1:30 p.m., he addressed his team.

“It was his goodbye,” associate head coach and Blasi’s interim replacement Peter Mannino said. “He was extremely choked up, really couldn’t talk.”

Miami “Shaun White” look-alike clips hair to help cancer patients CHRIS VINEL

SPORTS EDITOR

As soon as Jack Alpert heard the click of the scissors, his heart dropped.

At the Rose Room Salon in Oxford, Alpert sat with a black cloth draped over him. His orange hair, all 15 inches of it, was parted in the middle and separated into two pigtails that extended down his back.

His barber, Kiki, stood behind him and grabbed her clippers. She snipped off the first pigtail and, with it, his identity for the last two years.

“Oh, my goodness,” Alpert said, recounting the moment. “I lost my breath for a second. I just looked into the mirror in disbelief, like, ‘here we go.’ There’s no backing out at that point.”

Alpert, a former Miami football player who graduated with a master’s degree in December, had earned the nickname “Shaun White” because of his resemblance to the Olympic snowboarder. It began with a spur-of-the-moment decision he made two years ago.

Back in his hometown of Cleveland during a school break, he met his mother’s nurse. Alpert’s mom, Sarah, has multiple sclerosis (MS), so a nurse regularly visits her to make sure she’s doing OK. While the same nurse had been to the Alperts’ house multiple times, she had never seen Jack because he was always in Oxford for school and football. “[The nurse] said, ‘Oh, wow, you

have such beautiful, bright orange hair. You should grow it out and donate it for cancer patients,’” Alpert said. “And, it was something I had never even considered previously.

I had always had short hair. And, I looked at her and just thought, ‘you know what, I’m going to do it.’”

At the time, Alpert styled his hair in a short fade. But after that day, he didn’t cut it for two years. He only trimmed it to get rid of split ends and knots.

“It was kind of tedious to have to deal with it,” Alpert said. “Maintaining such long hair, it’s a lot to take care of.”

A new collection of hair brushes, gels and sprays littered his bathroom. Due to football practice, he had to wash and condition his hair twice a day. He learned how to fix it up into ponytails and knots. He started wearing hair ties on his wrist, but quickly shifted to wrapping them around his thumb. They were too tight on his muscular arm.

Through the hair-growing process, he picked up that nickname.

“A lot of people, not just in football but all around Oxford, would call me ‘Shaun White’ everywhere I went,” Alpert said. “I got used to that. [My football coaches] called

Blasi stood at the front of the locker room and started with a soft delivery of the harsh reality: “This is the last time I’ll be talking in this spot.”

The Student reached out to Blasi for comment, and he said he felt unprepared to make a statement at this time.

And he reiterated his love for the program and his love for the shocked, blank faces staring back at him.

“It was very emotional,” junior forward Gordie Green said.

“He said,” Green paused, “how he loved every one of his players that had played for him and that he loves us,” Green paused again and took a breath, “and that he’s always a phone call away for us.”

When Blasi was done, he went around and gave each player a hug.

Mannino and assistant coach Joel Beal watched their boss, still reeling from the decision, even though they had known since 9:30 a.m.

Blasi had sent a text to his staff’s groupchat asking them to meet him at his house.

There had been rumors about the status of Blasi’s job, especially after the RedHawks finished this season 11-234 and 5-17-2 in conference play.

But, even after the program’s fourth consecutive season under .500, the team’s staff – Mannino, Beal, director of hockey operations Dean Stork, equipment manager Andy Geshan and assistant athletic trainer Drew Ruckelshaus – was shocked when Blasi told them the news.

was probably the toughest part of the day, being there with him post-meeting because it’s the freshest part of the decision. It was very personal.”

They sat in Blasi’s home with his family, often in silence.

“We were the group that went through it, and we just had to be there with each other,” Mannino said.

The players, the other part of this year’s group, sat in a similar silence after Blasi’s announcement at the allteam meeting.

“The locker room is such a special place,” Beal said. “The emotion in that place is real. For me, and I know for Rico and for Peter, it’s that there’s things that are happening inside of that locker room and there’s emotions that are coming from a place outside the locker room.

“The first thing I know that Rico is thinking about is the 20 years of players and families that he’s gotten to know. He’s thinking about his own family. He’s thinking about, the way it is with Rico is, he’s thinking about my family and he’s thinking about Peter.

He cares so much about everybody else. That’s why it becomes really emotional.”

After Blasi hugged each of his players, he left the front of the locker room and walked away from the helm of Miami hockey. simansec@miamioh.edu @emilysimanskis

“It was tough,” Mannino said. “It

me ‘Shaun White’ just as much as they called me by my actual name.”

On Dec. 3, 2018, one day after he and his RedHawk teammates found out they weren’t invited to a bowl game, Alpert decided to cut his hair.

He booked the appointment for Dec. 13.

At first, he was nervous. The hair had become one of his signature characteristics. But, as Kiki kept chopping and hair kept falling, his thoughts changed.

“It was mission accomplished,”

Alpert said. “It was a crazy process.

It was rewarding, in the end, to feel like you helped people out.”

Alpert’s hair, which went to Wigs For Kids, was enough to make two wigs for cancer patients. When he walked out of the salon, Alpert was rocking a short fade.

He was back to looking like his true self, and helped two kids get back to looking like theirs. vinelca@miamioh.edu @ChrisAVinel

BEFORE HIS HAIRCUT IN DECEMBER, JACK ALPERT HADN’T CUT HIS HAIR IN TWO YEARS (LEFT). JACK ALPERT HOLDS 15 INCHES OF HIS HAIR FOLLOWING HIS CUT (RIGHT).

CONTRIBUTED BY JACK ALPERT

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Opinion

12

FINFROBD@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019 STAFF EDITORIAL

It’s time Miami held fraternities to the same standards expected of sororities The following reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board When Miami students, parents and faculty members received an email last week from university President Gregory Crawford that addressed what he called “a serious and credible report of dangerous hazing” of a new member pledge that occurred at Miami’s fraternity chapter of Delta Tau Delta, the collective groan of a disappointed campus could be felt to your very core.

Crawford took the opportunity to outline that his disappointment is leveled not only at those who are responsible, but at the entirety of Greek life on this campus.

“Let me be clear, hazing is not tolerated on our campus,” Crawford wrote. “The administration will take swift, stern and appropriate action in handling any and all cases of hazing … I have asked University leaders to review the allegations in the context of our larger Greek community and to make recommendations that can be implemented immediately across all fraternities and sororities. Nothing is off limits in this evaluation.”

Our Editorial Board believes this review will, ultimately, fail to correct the root problems at the center of fraternity life if the university does not change its approach.

First and foremost, this kind of egregious behavior at the hands of three male students wielding power over another is a brutal assault.

To refer to this incident as hazing is to diminish the severity of the situation. A pledge was not forced to do someone’s laundry or mow the lawn – this was a sadistic attack.

Three Delt brothers chose to take the pledge to his “Big Brother’s” room, where they chose to bludgeon the student 15 times between his buttocks with a spiked and grooved paddle to the point where he thought he was going to die.

They made the choice to hide behind the cover of the fraternity as a whole to carry out actions that can only be described as despicable.

There are two popular conceptions of justice. There’s the kind of behavior where older members feel they need assert their dominance and control over their pledge because they themselves were tormented when they were inducted. Then there’s the kind of behavior where members strive to make sure the treatment they experienced never happens to another person, because they wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. Retributive versus restorative justice. We here at The Student believe in re-

storative justice, and we implore Greek organizations on this campus to do the same.

The toxic masculinity fostered in environments like that bedroom of boys in Delts is an issue which the fraternity system as a whole must address, and it is one that must be a central part of any investigation into Greek life. But we must be careful not to place blame at the feet of the entity as a whole, because that fails to account for the larger picture.

It’s irresponsible to drag sororities into this conversation, when their recruitment standards are enforced to a T while men are shuffled around in “unofficial” recruitment proceedings and are asked to answer provocative questions and are subjected to humiliating conditions.

Each year we watch as Miami women comply with each restriction and policy imposed by Miami’s Panhellenic Association during recruitment. Potential new members are encouraged to purchase multiple outfits

To refer to this incident as hazing is to diminish the severity of the situation... this was a sadistic attack. for each day’s theme, spend hours in the Armstrong Student Center waiting to cast votes or be interviewed by older sorority members and create carefully-formed answers during questioning rounds.

Women are expected to put their best foot forward to get into their desired sorority. They warn one another about forbidden conversation topics while waiting in between rounds: no boys, booze or drama. Any woman who doesn’t follow it will be judged accordingly.

Girls are weeded out for “rushing for the wrong reasons,” like joining solely to party or meet guys.

Meanwhile, fraternity recruits undergo an extremely different process. Pledges are passed among frat houses to meet with each one and are subjected to conversation topics radically different from the ones asked of sorority recruits.

Instead of small talk about majors, student org in-

Trump can’t campaign on “No collusion”

BEN DEETER AUDIO EDITOR

Special Counsel Robert Mueller ended his investigation and turned his report over to Attorney General William Barr last week. As that news hit inboxes and Twitter feeds, the world of American politics buzzed with internal panic and held its breath in anticipation of Mueller’s findings.

Two days later, Barr delivered a fourpage summary to Congress. The letter said Mueller found no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, but drew no conclusion as to whether the president obstructed justice.

Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, both Trump appointees, cleared the president on obstruction of justice, claiming a lack of sufficient evidence.

We shouldn’t be comfortable with two political appointees making such a consequential decision, especially when we haven’t seen the underlying report.

In fact, one of the few quotes directly from the Mueller report stated that “while this report does not conclude that

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the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

Nonetheless, we keep hearing something very different from the president and other Republicans.

“No collusion, No obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!” the president tweeted.

He said more of the same at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan this past Thursday .

“After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead,” the president said. “The collusion delusion is over.”

The president is right. The collusion delusion is over. And if he wants to win in 2020, he ought to stop trying to campaign on his supposed “exoneration.” That kind of campaigning didn’t work for the 2018 midterm elections, and it certainly won’t work in a general election.

Independent voters in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – the states that handed Trump the presidency – won’t be persuaded by the “no collusion” finding.

Questions remain about other dubious behavior from the president, including his business practices and hush money payments. Democrats will continue their own investigations, keeping that behavior in the new cycle.

Swing voters also aren’t likely to care about the Mueller investigation as much as the president’s base or hardcore Democrats. Polling aggregated by FiveThirtyEight shows the public’s approval for Mueller has become more polarized since his appointment in May 2017.

Republicans’ approval of Mueller trended down over time to below 25 percent in January 2019. Democrats’ ap-

volvement or why they decided to rush, men are subjected to to invasive questions about their sex lives and drinking habits. If the pledges’ answers aren’t what the frat is looking for, they’re passed over.

Many frats on campus have worked to move away from this system and attempt to foster a positive environment free from hazing. We commend those efforts, but believe more needs to be done to improve fraternity recruitment across the board.

Proving yourself is the common denominator in both fraternity and sorority rush. The difference is the metrics by which men evaluate one another in comparison to the way women value their peers.

Interfraternity Council (IFC) should expect their recruits to undergo a similar process to that of sororities. They should have to put their best foot forward and prove that they are rushing to support the ideals of leadership and philanthropy with which Greek life affiliates itself.

This isn’t the first time Miami has used a specific issue within a frat to look into Greek life as a whole. But if Crawford’s administration is serious about preventing these incidents from happening it needs to take a hard look at the kind of culture it has been complicit in maintaining.

Holding a double standard in how women rush on this campus is an act of deafening complacency. Miami can’t afford to pretend to be surprised by deplorable conditions in some fraternities when the university hasn’t even bothered to set expectations of fraternity life. Relying solely on the frats and individuals who act in good faith to recruit honestly, with integrity and without hazing, to set an example is lazy. They’re doing the right thing, but Miami isn’t.

It’s also irresponsible to level a threat of investigation into all of Greek life without outlining what that looks like. The university should provide a clear timeline for the proceedings, culminating in a conclusion by finals week this semester. It must be transparent about the avenues of changes it is pursuing, and must consult student leaders from across campus to inform any decisions that are made.

When the men who are responsible for this assault are formally charged, Miami has the responsibility to expel them for their actions. We hope the university does the hard work of restoring justice in a situation that sorely lacks it, and hands down their judgement with the nuanced understanding this situation calls for.

proval of him trended up to more than 50 percent over the same period.

In addition, Republicans are significantly less likely to view the special counsel’s investigation as “fair.” Pew Research Center found 54 percent of the country is “somewhat” or “very” confident in the fairness of the investigation, compared to 39 percent of Republicans.

Removed from the Mueller investigation, negative campaigning didn’t work for the president in the 2018 midterm election. This was particularly evident in the failure of his immigration and migrant caravan rhetoric to prevent a Democratic takeover in the House of Representatives.

From Oct. 16, 2018, to Election Day, the president sent 45 tweets referencing

publican, ranked immigration as the most important issue facing the country.

However, far more people (41 percent of voters) ranked health care as the most important, showing how responsive the public can be to campaigning that is centered on policy. Further polling from Pew shows that health care is second only to the economy among Americans’ top policy priorities.

Health care is far from a central issue for the president. Despite his recent call for the Republican Party to become “the party of health care,” the president’s actions on the issue prove that he and his party are the furthest thing from being champions of health care.

This is most evident in his White House’s backing of a Texas judge’s ruling

If he wants to win in 2020, he ought to stop trying to campaign on his supposed “exoneration.” the “border.” Between Oct. 16 and Oct. 31, he sent nine tweets referring to the “caravan” of migrants. For at least a week after the election, he sent no such tweets, illustrating that drumming up fear of the caravan was a blatantly political ploy.

Republicans at large also relied on negative campaigning, mostly in the form of attack ads. A CNN analysis found that

by September 2018, nearly 60 percent of Republican ads were negative.

The Democratic net gain of 40 seats in the House illustrates the failure of the ploy and the attacks.

Exit polls did show that 23 percent of voters, 75 percent of whom voted Re-

that would kill the Affordable Care Act. But rather than spend any time trying to explain why he thinks it’s a good idea to take away health care from more than 20 million Americans, the president spent much of the last week gloating about “total exoneration,” despite the actual facts of the situation.

The president won’t and shouldn’t be re-elected on “no collusion.” The investigation is too partisan and too far removed from policy issues. The president might say such negative messaging works – but he’s too delusional if he does. deeterbj@miamioh.edu

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