The Miami Student | February 20, 2018

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Volume 146 No. 18

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

BOARD OF TRUSTEES APPROVES $100 MILLION FOR CONSTRUCTION ADMINISTRATION

JACK EVANS EMILY WILLIAMS

THE MIAMI STUDENT

SENIORS JORDAN RICE (RIGHT) AND TAYLOR TINNIN (LEFT) GOT ENGAGED AT SATURDAY’S CHARTER DAY BALL. JUGAL JAIN THE MIAMI STUDENT

Chartering a Miami Merger: Senior proposes at the Ball

RELATIONSHIPS

ALISON PERELMAN CULTURE EDITOR

Jordan Rice left his girlfriend, Taylor Tinnin, on the dance floor. Surrounded by her friends, she barely noticed his absence.

He made his way back up to the Charter Day Ball’s coat check area where a friend was waiting, hunched like a boxer ready to enter the ring. He jumped up as Jordan approached, hyped for him, and passed on the ring box he had been holding onto throughout the night.

Jordan remembers the first few times he saw Taylor.

He first spotted her standing in the

back of a meeting for Navigators, a campus ministry. Then he noticed her walking across High Street near Benton at the same time he made his way from Porter Hall to cross-country practice. And he remembers shaking her hand three separate times at various campus events.

Taylor doesn’t remember these interactions, and despite being in Cru together and having similar friends, she didn’t register his existence until spring of their sophomore year.

She asked their friend group if anyone wanted to go skydiving with her. Jordan was the only one to respond.

Despite being scared of heights, he thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know Taylor more. They did talk, but

RESIDENCE LIFE LIMITS NIGHTTIME DORM ACCESS

it was withdrawn, and the overall situation was less romantic than Jordan had expected.

“I pictured, like, ‘Oh we’re both going to skydive out of a plane, holding hands or something,’” Jordan said. “But it ended up, she got strapped to this like 27-year-old stud, while I got strapped to a 38-year-old man who smelled like Doritos.”

After hearing that Taylor would be in Oxford for the summer, Jordan got a job at Chipotle to stay in Oxford, too, hoping for another chance. But he didn’t know that Taylor had gotten back together with a recent ex-boyfriend. He had to keep waiting.

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Court says MU may have discriminated in investigation

SAFETY LAWSUIT

RACHEL BERRY STAFF WRITER

In an effort to improve safety on campus, Miami University implemented a new policy this semester that restricts residence hall access to one door between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

“We care deeply about Miami students and want to do everything we can to keep students safe,” said Vicka Bell-Robinson, director of Residence Life. “Limiting the number of entrances into a facility, especially overnight, is one way to do that.”

Residence halls are locked 24 hours a day, and students who live in the residence hall can unlock the doors using their Miami IDs. This move, Bell-Robinson said, allows those students access to unlock only one door during those restricted hours, but any door can be used as an exit.

Other campus buildings that streamline overnight entry include the Armstrong Student Center and King Library, Bell-Robinson said.

By limiting nighttime entrances to one door, the office of Residence Life also hopes to combat dangerous alcohol incidents and sexual assault on campus, said

Miami University’s Board of Trustees (BoT) approved $100.5 million worth of construction projects for the Oxford campus at its meeting Friday.

This is the second round of major construction projects approved by the Trustees in recent months. At their December meeting, the Board voted to submit a Capital Improvements Plan to the state of Ohio, requesting $106 million for new construction over the next six years.

As part of Miami’s Housing Master Plan, $70 million will be spent to renovate MacCracken, Richard and Porter Halls. MacCracken market will also be renovated in the process.

More than $21 million will be spent on the South Chiller Plant Conversion Project. The project will transition the south half of campus from steam heating to a simultaneous heating and cooling system that will pipe hot and cold water around campus.

The plant conversion, part of the Utility Master Plan, is a “key step” toward lowering the university’s energy consumption and decommissioning its coal-fired steam systems, according to the BoT summary.

Two smaller construction projects round out most of the remaining $10 million of approved construction.

The student-favorite Starbucks at Maplestreet Station will be relocated to Shriver Center over the summer and fall of 2018 to the tune of $4.5 million.

The planned location in Shriver is larger, with room for about 80 guests at a time.

The empty space left behind will be integrated into Maplestreet Commons,

EMILY WILLIAMS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a male Miami University student who claims the university discriminated against him when he was suspended for sexual assault.

A three-judge panel on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the student had presented “a reasonable inference of gender discrimination” in Miami’s disciplinary process.

The decision, filed on Feb. 9, partially reverses a district court’s decision to dismiss several claims against Miami and university officials, while upholding several of the low-

er court’s dismissals.

The case surrounds a September 2014 incident when the defendant and a female student, referred to in the case as John Doe and Jane Doe, engaged in sexual activity after both students had been drinking. Initially, the sexual activity was consensual, according to Jane’s statement, but she alleges that John continued to engage in non consensual acts after she had stopped consenting.

However, John claims he was too intoxicated to remember what happened that night after Jane had gotten into his bed.

Jane did not report John but discussed what had happened with her friends, one of whom reported it to their RA, who informed supervisors about the incident.

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STUDENTS CAN ONLY ENTER ONE RESIDENCE HALL DOOR DURING NIGHTTIME HOURS. JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR

Maggie Laing, an RA in Emerson Hall.

“The theory is that the door that will be unlocked is right by the RA office, so we’ll be able to see if people we don’t know are coming in the building or if someone’s coming in that looks really like they need some help,” said Laing.

Effie Fraley, president of RHA, said their intentions were not to make students feel as if they are being pun-

ished or monitored.

“We don’t want the students to feel targeted,” Fraley said. “It’s more so letting them know that people are there for them.”

This policy was put in place by a temporary committee formed by Miami University President Gregory Crawford. Now that the measures have been implemented, a permanent ResiCONTINUED ON PAGE 3

NEWS P.3

SCIENCE

page 6

Kashia Ellis directs the cast of The Vagina Monologues in the Fritz Pavillion.

Their show is the first subject of the video series ‘Your Status,’ published this week online at miamistudent.net Arthur Newberry Design Editor

CULTURE P.5

EDITORIAL P. 12

MIAMI RESPONDS TO LAWSUIT

HISTORY THROUGH PICTURE BOOKS

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

The university denies any wrongdoing in paternity leave case.

New Art Museum exhibit highlights African American history.

Our project ‘Your Status’ will explore our relationships and social lives.

SPORTS P.14

BASKETBALL FALLS TO OHIO IN OVERTIME The RedHawks dropped their fourth straight game on Saturday.

2 NEWS

NEWS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Trustees approve $100 mill. for construction FROM PAGE 1

adding kitchen, service and dining space to the buffet location.

The last construction project approved involves $4.8 million of improvements to the campus entrances on U.S. 27 and State Route 73, as well as changes to several other intersections around Oxford.

While the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) finished improving the road surface along U.S. 27 South in 2016, “the impact on the nearby landscape is very unattractive and is not consistent with a major entry to campus,” reads the BoT report.

The undertaking is largely an effort to beautify those visual “scars,” as David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services, characterized the ODOT alterations at Friday’s meeting.

Additions to the intersection at U.S. 27 South and State Route 73 entrances will include walls, piers and signs “in the character of campus architecture,” according to the BoT summary.

Safety improvements including bike lanes, crosswalks and signals are planned for the entrance near State Route 73.

The board also voted to expand

Miami’s Tuition Promise program to the Middletown and Hamilton campuses. If approved by Ohio’s chancellor of higher education, students who enroll in the fall will pay the same rate for tuition for all four years.

Though many students earn two-year associates degrees at the regional campuses, the Regionals’ four-year degree programs have recently expanded, now including 19 degree programs. New students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Hamilton or Middletown will pay $2,490 per semester.

The Board of Trustees approved several other measures including: — Tenure or promotion for 37 Miami faculty members. Of those faculty, 13 gained full professorship, and one was given both full professorship and tenure. Associate professor level and tenure was granted to 20 faculty members, one faculty member received just tenure and two librarians were promoted to principal librarian status. Promotions take effect July 1.

— The addition of a career services fee for Regional students.

Students will be charged $8.34 per credit hour with a maximum fee of $100 per semester to support new plans prepared by the Regional

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MET IN THE MARCUM CONFERENCE CENTER ON FRIDAY MORNING. JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR

Campus Career Services and Professional Development Office.

— An increase in room and board fees for Oxford students. Returning students will not see increases in their room and board fees, but new students will pay 3 and 4 percent more, respectively.

— A 2 percent increase in standard tuition for graduate students

in degree or certificate programs.

— The end of Alexandra Boster’s term as a student trustee. Members of the board, as well as President Greg Crawford, thanked the senior political science major for her service on the board.

— The end of trustee Dennis Lieberman’s term. In 2009, the Miami alum (‘75) was appointed by

Governor Ted Strickland as a Miami University Trustee. Members of the board praised Lieberman’s advocacy for underprivileged students at Miami throughout his nine-year term. evansjm4@miamioh.edu willi501@miamioh.edu

New platform aims to increase volunteerism for organizations and prospective volunteers to easily reach each other. Zwahlen said this centralized tool was sorely needed.

“We [have] a newsletter that promotes community engagement events and opportunities, but there is no way to include all volunteer opportunities in it,” Zwahlen said. “With ComMUnity Connect, we now have one location where this information is stored on an ongoing basis.”

After arriving at Miami in October of 2016, Zwahlen collaborated with the regional campuses to locate an appropriate technological platform, approve it for Miami’s use and encourage nonprofits to utilize the tool to list their needs. The creation process took a little more than a year, Zwahlen said.

To access the tool, Miami students, faculty and staff can visit miamioh.edu/volunteer or search ComMUnity Connect on their MyMiami accounts. From there, they log in with their Miami Unique ID and password.

Once signed in, prospective volunteers can create a profile that includes the causes

SERVICE

EMILY FROUDE

THE MIAMI STUDENT

In an effort to promote volunteer service on campus, Miami University launched a new online tool, ComMUnity Connect, in the beginning of February.

This platform serves a dual purpose: to allow nonprofit and civic organizations within Oxford and surrounding areas to advertise opportunities for service and to enable students to locate these opportunities and track their service hours.

ComMUnity Connect is maintained by offices on Miami’s Oxford, Hamilton and Middletown campuses. The idea was conceived by Christie Zwahlen, director of the Oxford campus’ Office of Community Engagement and Service (OCES), and the launch was celebrated with a party at Hanna House on Feb. 14.

Until ComMUnity Connect was created, Miami did not have a campus-wide platform

that matter to them as well as their availability, interests and completed service hours.

The tool also allows users to directly search for a service organization and see its current needs. Volunteers can then immediately sign up for service activities and view all of their upcoming events on one calendar.

Oxford mayor and Miami professor Kate Rousmaniere shared her approval of the new platform, stating her hope that ComMUnity Connect will allow students with a desire to serve to step in where there are needs. She cited the recent snowfalls and senior citizens who require help with snow removal as an example of a work opportunity that the platform may fill.

OCES encourages Miami student organizations with a community engagement focus or service component to use ComMUnity Connect to advertise their needs.

These organizations can create a profile on the platform listing their focus, specific service opportunities and links to social media sites which will be viewable to potential vol-

unteers.

OCES hopes the centralized nature of ComMUnity Connect will motivate individual Miami students, campus organizations and staff members to become more engaged in Oxford and southwestern Ohio.

“Our goal is for the site to become the go-to place for volunteer opportunities and the identification of community needs,” Zwahlen said. “We hope that students will find it easier to sign up for volunteer opportunities and that, as a result, they’ll be more engaged in a sustained way with long-term community partnerships.”

ComMUnity Connect currently lists the service needs of more than fifty groups, and OCES has plans to reach out to more organizations in the coming months, including establishing a partnership with the Talawanda School District.

For questions about the platform, contact the Office of Community Engagement and Service. froudeec@miamioh.edu

ASG fills eight Senate seats in special elections is also a Resident Assistant (RA).

Senior Heteng Xu also won an off-campus seat. An international student double majoring in economics and arts management, Xu expressed interest in forming a stronger connection between domestic and international students.

Alex Boster, a senior, was the third student to win an off-campus seat. Boster is a double major in political science and comparative religion. Until last Friday, Boster also served as one of the two Student Trustees on Miami’s Board of Trustees and will be continuing her dual role as a student leader at Miami with her new position on ASG. After the off-campus Senate seats were filled, multiple students gave their stump speeches for a variety of on-campus seats.

ASG

ANDREW TILBE

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Miami students will see eight new representatives speaking on their behalf in the Miami University Associated Student Government (ASG). The body elected eight new Senators in a series of special elections in its Tuesday Feb. 13 session in 304 Harrison Hall.

A total of seven candidates ran for Off-Campus Senator, and three were elected.

The first elected off-campus Senator was junior Monica Venzke. She is fundraising chair of her sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma, and

EVENTS

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Junior Licheng Yu was elected as the College of Creative Arts Academic Senator.

An interactive media studies major, Yu is seeking to connect Chinese and American students with his new position.

Sophomore Worley Stidham won the 4th district on-campus senator seat. Stidham is a cross-college double major, studying theater and political science.

The next seat to be elected was the Farmer School of Business Academic Senator, which junior Erin Hays took. Hays is a finance major and her administrative experience includes being an RA. The 2nd District on-campus seat was won by sophomore Tanmay Kulraj Bedi. As an international student from India majoring in mechanical engineering, Kulraj Bedi

THIS

wants to maximize safety on campus.

Junior Connor Mallegg won the final seat of the night, and was elected as a 7th District on-campus senator. A general engineering major, Mallegg has administrative experience through participating on the executive board of his fraternity, Delta Tau Delta.

A total of eight students were elected to administrative positions throughout the meeting. The next ASG meeting will be held next Tuesday, and the group will be returning to 111 Harrison Hall while the Joslin Senate Chamber in the Armstrong Student Center is being remodeled. tilbear@miamioh.edu

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Events to catch this week on Miami’s campus and in Oxford

City Matters: Public Safety Forum

‘Before the Future Disappears’

Comedy Series: Sam Comroe

Oxford Ice Bowl: Disc Golf Tourney

Wilks Theater Wednesday, 7 to 9 p.m.

Fritz Pavilion A Thursday, 5 to 6 p.m.

Wilks Theater Thursday, 9 p.m.

Disc Golf Course Sunday, 2 p.m.

Hosted and moderated by The Miami Student editorial staff, this panel discussion will feature a mix of health, safety and government officials from Miami University and the city of Oxford. Tweet your questions @miamistudent using the hashtag #CityMatters during the event, and visit miamistudent.net later this week for coverage of the forum.

As part of the Altman Program’s series, “Urban Futures,” research professor AbdouMaliq Simone will discuss urban institutions in Southeast Asia. Simone’s research examines how a city’s inhabitants form meaningful partnerships through their use of urban systems and networks.

A reception will immediately follow Simone’s lecture.

As part of his tour, “I Got 99 Problems, But a Twitch Ain’t One,” stand-up comedian Sam Conroe is bringing his talents to Oxford. After being diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome at age 6, the Los Angeles native has used the trials and tribulations caused by the condition to inspire his comedy. The show is free, and tickets are not required.

Every winter, organizations host “Ice Bowl” events, disc golf matches with the mission of raising funds to fight hunger.

This year, Oxford is hosting its inaugural bowl, which will benefit the Oxford Choice Pantry. According to event materials, wimps and whiners are not welcome, but all others can play, regardless of age or ability.

NEWS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

3 NEWS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

A lecture of ‘Unfortunate’ anecdotes

AUTHOR DANIEL HANDLER SPOKE AT HALL AUDITORIUM MONDAY. JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR

EVENT

AUDREY DAVIS NEWS EDITOR

He was five years old when he knew he wanted to be a writer, maybe even earlier than that. But he didn’t want to write books about soccer games and summer camps with happy endings — he wanted to write “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”

Daniel Handler, who spoke at Hall Auditorium as part of Miami’s Lecture Series, has always been fascinated by stories that made him ask questions, the kind that you continue thinking about even after turning the last page.

Handler’s story isn’t one of instant success, though. His first novel, “The Basic Eight,” was rejected by nearly 40 publishers.

“I liken trying to get published to trying to get a date,” Handler said. “You want a date, but you want to have a good time together. The goal isn’t, ‘Oh, my god! I got someone to go out with me! I’ll take anyone!’ And it’s hard be-

cause when you have a piece of writing that you’re trying to sell, that’s how you feel. But, what you really want is a good relationship.”

While Handler has published several novels under his real name, he is best known for “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” written under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket.

Snicket is the mysterious narrator of the 13-part series, as well as several hybrid spin-off novels.

Handler was inspired to create Snicket, in terms of the narrator being a part of the novel, from E.L. Konigsburg’s book “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.” He also credits Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey as inspirations for his writing style and his unconventional way of storytelling.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Handler answered phones for the computer science department of City College in San Francisco. While there, he was able to read various newspapers from around the city “cover to cover.”

“I would find the most harmless articles, and then I would compose (on

SPJ to host all-female journalism panel EVENT

KIRBY DAVIS

OPINION EDITOR

This Saturday, Miami’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the journalism Writing Scholars will host an all-female journalism panel, where students can learn what it’s really like to work as a woman in media today.

The panel will feature four writers: espnW’s Kate Fagan, The Smithsonian Magazine’s Lorraine Boissoneault, The LA Times’ Kimber Myers and the Washington Post’s Jessica Contrera.

“Women & Writing: Finding Your Voice in a #MeToo World” will take place Feb. 24 at Williams Hall. After a keynote speech from Fagan at 10:30 a.m., there will be a panel with all four guests, and lunch and breakout sessions hosted by each of the writers. The event will conclude at 4 p.m., following a brief wrap-up session.

The panel and subsequent breakout sessions will give students — female and male — the opportunity to learn about professional journalism, ask the guests questions about their writing and speak candidly with them about working in media today.

Myers and Boissoneault are Miami alums and both worked for

The Miami Student during their time here. Boissoneault started penning her recently published novel as a senior.

“The Last Voyageurs: Retracing LaSalle’s Journey Across America” started as Boissoneault’s honors thesis, then she further developed it while obtaining her journalism master’s degree from Columbia.

The book follows 24 young men, who “set out to re-create French explorer La Salle’s voyage down the entire length of the Mississippi River, abandoning their modern identities in order to live like the voyageurs of the 1600,” according to Boissioneault’s website.

Fagan’s keynote address will center on her book, “What Made Maddy Run,” about former University of Pennsylvania athlete Madison Holleran, who died by suicide in 2015. The book started as an espnW story, and has since become the website’s most-read article.

All students are welcome, and journalism and English majors in particular are encouraged to sign up. Please contact Kirby Davis (daviskn3@miamioh.edu) or Mackenzie Rossero (rosserms@ miamioh.edu) with questions or to sign up for the panel breakout sessions. daviskn3@miamioh.edu

the typewriter in the computer science department of City College in San Francisco, because that’s what we had in the computer science department of City College in San Francisco: typewriters) outraged letters to the editor regarding these articles. If an official announced that street cleaning schedules had changed, I would point out that the shift from Tuesdays to Fridays was probably rooted in anti-Semitism. It was a hobby.”

The letters all had two things in common. They had the same opening sentences: “How dare you!” And they closed not with his own name, but with a name that he had devised on the phone with a right-wing political group.

“I was on the phone with a ridiculous conservative organization and a ridiculous conservative woman on the phone, asking for my name. I thought to myself, ‘don’t say your real name’ and uttered the first thing that came into my head: ‘Lemony Snicket.’”

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

“During the pause, I thought to myself, ‘That was an idiotic thing to say.’ I thought no one would buy that that was a real name.”

But Handler was wrong.

“After the pause, the ridiculous conservative woman said, ‘Is that spelled how it sounds?’ And I said, ‘yes.’ And then I asked her to read it back to me because I had no idea how it’s spelled.”

So, he wrote it down, and the name stuck.

Handler is currently working on another novel under the Snicket pseudonym called “Poison for Breakfast” that takes place in the same “bewildering” world as “A Series of Unfortunate Events” — a world where three orphans lose their home and their parents and find themselves lost in a hurricane, stuck in a lumber mill and facing a penultimate peril.

ORL LIMITS DORM ACCESS FROM PAGE 1

-dence Hall Safety Committee has been enacted, made up of representatives from relevant offices around campus, such as Physical Facilities, the HOME Office, Residence Life, Card Access, Environmental Health and Safety and the Miami University Police Department.

The nighttime entrances were chosen by examining data showing which door was most used, in addition to feedback from residents and staff.

Although the policy was implemented with the safety of students in mind, some feel it is ineffective in this goal.

Porter Hall, for instance, has chosen to lock the door across from the Rec Center that many of the students use. They are now forced to enter the door which faces the quad on the opposite side of the building.

“Personally, I think the whole reason that that door has a curfew is for safety concerns, but unfortunately I think it poses an even greater safety risk to students,” said sophomore Kristine Connelly. “If I’m coming back from the Rec, right across the street, and the lights are kind of dim...I have to walk around [the building].”

Fraley said they hear these concerns and are making an effort to correct instances where the most effective and safe door may not have been chosen for 24-hour access.

“This is always susceptible to change,” Fraley said. “If the hall comes to student affairs and says, ‘Hey, this is not the door that people are predominantly using, and we would much rather on hall consensus use this door,’ it will change to that door.”

Others have concerns about the effectiveness of the new safety measure.

“Their theory is that there will be someone at that door at all times,” said Laing. “We’re not there all the time, so that’s something we had a lot of concerns about when we first heard about the implementation of the locked doors.”

The Residence Hall Safety Committee will re-evaluate the policy at the end of the semester to determine if it is effective.

“We will continue to keep our eyes on the change and make adjustments if necessary, as long as those adjustments don’t undercut the safety of our students,” Bell-Robinson said. berryrd@miamioh.edu

Miami responds to paternity leave lawsuit LAWSUIT

JACK EVANS

MANAGING EDITOR

Answering a lawsuit filed in December, Miami University broadly denies allegations that the school forced former strength and conditioning coach Paul Harker out of a job after he took federally-protected paternity leave.

Harker worked in Miami’s athletic department alongside the football team from February 2011 until Miami refused to renew his contract in June 2017. After his wife gave birth to twins in January of 2017, he took just over three weeks of paternity leave protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

This sparked a chain of events that, according to Harker’s suit, led to head football coach Chuck Martin — Harker’s boss — telling the young trainer that “his future at Miami was in jeopardy while on FMLA leave” and asking him “whether he wanted to be a ‘football coach’ or a ‘family man.’”

The suit claims that Martin and other employees in Miami’s athletic department violated the protections of the FMLA by pressuring Harker to resign before the end of his contract, because they were

concerned about what associate athletic director Steve Brockelbank characterized in an email as Harker’s “lack of commitment and communication.”

The university’s response to these claims, which was filed Feb. 9 in Ohio’s Southern District Court, denies any wrongdoing on Miami’s part or responsibility for Harker’s situation.

Beyond the rejection of the legal claims, the response also flatly refutes most of Harker’s allegations.

The simple declaration “The University denies the allegations of paragraph [XX] of the Complaint” is repeated throughout the document, appearing 14 times.

The only claims Miami admits to in the response are basic circumstantial facts. The university confirms that Harker was hired by Miami in February 2011 as the Director of Athletic Conditioning and that Harker and his wife had their first child in October 2014, among other easily-proved truths.

Harker’s lawyer in the case, Christian Jenkins of the Cincinnati-area law firm Minnillo and Jenkins, said Miami’s broad denial is a typical early response to this type of lawsuit. It forces the plaintiff to prove each factual statement going forward.

The lawyers representing Miami, who belong to the large Midwestern law firm Frost Brown Todd, also filed a motion to dismiss the case.

They made this motion on the basis that Martin, Brockelbank and Miami Athletic Director David Sayler can’t be named as individual defendants because they were acting as Miami employees and because Miami University itself is a named defendant in the case.

Jenkins refused to comment on the specifics of the case or on Harker’s current state of mind.

“Miami has just barely answered and had a chance to really say anything about the story,” Jenkins said. “We just want to let the facts of this case come out.”

The next event in the case will likely be a scheduling conference, which will set the calendar for the process going forward. The possibility of a trial, however, is still a long way off.

“It wouldn’t be unusual for it to take a year or two between filing and trial,” said Jenkins.

For more updates on the case, keep an eye on miamistudent.net. evansjm4@miamioh.edu

CHARTERING A MIAMI MERGER: SENIOR PROPOSES AT BALL FROM PAGE 1

Taylor was called to the stage, having apparently won a raffle. She was confused.

“Our friend had bought a ton of our tickets for us and we just paid her, so I was like, ‘No ticket is under my name,’” Taylor said.

She was suspicious.

Jordan had discreetly made his way into the giant box on stage and, with the help of two escorts, was moving into place. Swoop the Redhawk took a photo with Taylor as a distraction.

Once Jordan was planted, he started freaking out. He needed to make sure he opened the ring box in the right direction, and he wasn’t in the most comfortable position — an awkward, non-athletic, half-kneel.

Huddled and fumbling with the ring, Jordan said he probably looked like Gollum from “Lord of the Rings.”

When Taylor was instructed to turn around to see what she’d won, she noted that that the white box with the red ribbon was

Jordan-sized. And when the escorts began to lift the box, she noticed his feet. *** They got to know each other more in the fall of their junior year, being in the same prayer group. Taylor and her then-boyfriend eventually ended their relationship, and a few days later, Jordan took another shot. He asked her to Cru’s dance.

They still debate whether Jordan made it clear that he meant as friends, but either way, Taylor agreed and even anticipated he would eventually ask her out on a date. After several days of awkward back-and-forth, he finally confessed his feelings for her.

Jordan and Taylor went on their first date to the Cincinnati Zoo’s Festival of Lights.

Even though Jordan was the one waiting patiently for eight months for Taylor to like him back, Taylor was the first to recognize something more.

“I remember one night…I was laying in bed and I was like, ‘What am I feeling?’” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh, it’s love!’”

Their favorite restaurant Uptown is Krishna, but Taylor hates spicy food, so they have to order the chicken curry with a spice level of zero. When they cook together at home, they argue over whose way of preparing chicken is better. They enjoy their regular car rides to Columbus. Jordan likes when Taylor sings, except when she tries to harmonize to “Chocolate” by The 1975.

They had to spend the summer apart — Jordan home in Columbus, and Taylor out in California for an internship. Being in a new place and away from the people she knew was hard, but they talked every day and took that opportunity to grow.

Jordan visited Taylor and, after spending the day at DisneyLand, he confided…

I want to marry you.

I want to marry you too, she happily replied. *** “The moment went so fast,” Jordan said.

“I couldn’t even hear my own voice, but apparently I did ask her to marry me.”

“I heard him say the words,” Taylor confirmed. “I didn’t even say yes, I just nodded, like, frantically.”

The crowded dance floor in front of them had erupted in cheers as soon as people noticed Jordan down on one knee.

“It was just so special ’cause I looked out and … a ton of our friends were all on the front row or really close by and they were getting pictures and video and stuff,” Taylor said.

“Pretty sure we have enough videos and different angles to make a panoramic video,” Jordan added.

Their friends flocked to the newly engaged couple at the foot of the stage to offer congratulatory hugs. Taylor’s parents were even there, coming down from among Millett’s dark and near-empty arena seating where they were waiting to share in the excitement.

“I couldn’t have imagined it a better way,” Taylor said. perelmak@miamioh.edu

4 CULTURE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

PERELMAK@MIAMIOH.EDU

Humans of Oxford

CURLING CLUB OFFERS GLIMPSE INTO OLYMPIC SPORT

Doug & Kathy Jenkins: They don’t even go here

STUDENTS TRIED OUT THE SPORT OF CURLING AT GOGGIN ICE CENTER MATT HECKERT THE MIAMI STUDENT

STUDENT LIFE

DUARD HEADLEY STAFF WRITER

Set to upbeat, synthetic country music left on from the preceding open skate, the Miami Curling Club hosted a “learn to curl” event at Goggin last Friday night.

Just in time to capitalize on the spectacle of the Winter Olympics, the event served to offer interested Miamians a chance to experiment with the unusual sport.

A myriad of people walked warily out onto the ice as a professional from the Cincinnati Curling Club showed them how to send the curling stones spinning down the rink and informed them of the best techniques for avoiding wiping out in the process.

I waddled out onto the slippery ice with the rest of the crowd and did my best to mimic the actions of the pro. Although I couldn’t come anywhere close to matching the fluidity and accuracy of the instructor, and my knee collided with the ice more times than I care to recall, I eventually learned how to consistently send the stone down the ice and have it end up in at least the same county as the target ring.

When it came time to learn how to sweep, the action that maintains the stone’s momentum and directs it toward the goal, we were all handed plastic “brooms,” which were really more akin to giant squeegees on long handles.

As the stone sped toward us, I channeled my inner window washer and fervently raked the broom across the sheer white surface of the ice. The action was surprisingly taxing and by the end of the night, having swept up and down the rink several times, I found myself soundly out of breath but far more confident in my ability to wield a broom like a pro.

This event was one of two that the Miami Curling Club hosts each semester, both acting as recruitment drives and efforts to bolster interest in the club.

Andrew Dudt, co-founder of the club, said he hopes to get people interested in the sport and eventually form an official team.

“My whole family curls, and I’ve been doing it for most of my life,” Andrew said.

JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR

PEOPLE

AUDREY DAVIS NEWS EDITOR

For Doug and Kathy Jenkins, thinking of what they love about each other is simple.

“He has the best sense of humor.”

“Her tennis game! She’s good. Scary good.”

They smile at each other in a way that only couples who have been together for decades do — it’s a smile that says there’s history here.

Neither Doug nor Kathy attended Miami University, yet they could still be found at Charter Day Ball.

Their daughter, Allison, was co-chair of decora-

tions for the event, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to support her.

They met at Lambeau Field during a Green Bay Packers game in Wisconsin, but now they live in Cincinnati.

“Go figure…” Doug says with a laugh.

“We’ve been married for…” Kathy says, looking at Doug.

“Married for 23 years, and been together for…”

Doug says, looking back to Kathy.

“Close to 30,” she finishes. davisa10@miamioh.edu

Jack Bellinger: Aspiring radio personality

BO BRUECK THE MIAMI STUDENT

PEOPLE

ZOEY BECKER

THE MIAMI STUDENT

It’s a quiet Tuesday in Williams Hall. Groups of students are gathered around small study tables, and the TV plays recent student media projects.

First-year Jack Bellinger walks through the lobby and up to the second floor.

His Beats headphones play pump-up music to get him in the zone. He enters the recording studio and is greeted by his three friends, who will all turn into co-hosts at 4 p.m.

He takes his place — the chair on the right side of the studio, closest to the door. He replaces his Beats with the studio headphones, grabs the mic and in 3..2..1…

It’s showtime.

Jack is the proud host of a radio show called “Doddfathers and JB.” The show is affectionately named after the co-hosts, who all live in Dodds Hall, with the exception of Jack. Jack and his three friends use their time in the radio studio to discuss pop culture topics and “anything that’s going on.” In addition to their general

rants about recent happenings, they also produce an advice segment, which is Jack’s favorite.

“I like to use my talents to help the Miami community. I help guests out with their problems and make their days a little better.”

Jack started his radio show in the first semester of the school year because he was looking for something fun and unique to do.

“How many freshmen can say they have their own radio show?” Jack said. “It makes me stand out.”

Broadcasting for an hour every week has also helped Jack develop his speaking and improv skills. A live broadcast requires quick thinking and the ability to come up with fast and relevant responses. Jack used these new talking skills during the fraternity rush process, when he had to meet new people and have conversations with them.

“Doddfathers and JB” broadcasts every Tuesday at 4 p.m. on the RadioFX app. beckerzf@miamioh.edu

His lifelong commitment to the sport was evident in his technique, as he could send the curling stone flying across the ice, well past the point that the amassed novices could reach.

Andrew co-founded the club with Kyle Armstrong, who attended a “learn to curl” event last year and became fascinated with the sport. Andrew’s experience and Kyle’s interest form a solid foundation for what they hope will be a successful club.

This is only the second year of the club’s existence and, as such, the two recruitment drives are the only events the club hosts. In lieu of formal practices, Andrew hopes the events will provide a good opportunity for people who are unfamiliar with the sport to gain some experience and have a good time.

Prior to the founding of Miami’s Curling Club, the Cincinnati Curling Club sponsored the “learn to curl” events at Miami.

The goal of the events in the past was simply to give interested participants a way to dip their toes in the water and learn a thing or two about curling.

With the recent advent of Miami’s club, the Cincinnati Curling Club has partnered with Andrew and Kyle to hopefully create a more lasting curling scene at Miami.

The club’s second event is held on Green Beer Day, and despite the seemingly apparent clash of interests on that day, Andrew said that the second event has been the more popular of the two in past years.

Sarah Walton, a Miami student who previously attended the Green Beer Day event and last Friday’s event, spoke as to why she came back for a second exposure.

“It looks kind of funny when you’re just watching it,” she said. “But once you start playing, you want to keep going.”

Despite my initial hesitation to give the sport a try, by the end of the evening, I completely agreed with Sarah. Like grasping the basic concepts of a new language, learning the fundamentals of curling felt like piecing together a puzzle that was previously shrouded in mystery.

It’s that mixture of curiosity and enjoyment that the Miami Curling Club hopes to foster in coming years. headledd@miamioh.edu

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CULTURE 5

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

The New Golden Age of Latin Music lights up Hall Auditorium MUSIC

MAIA ANDERSON STAFF WRITER

The stage in Hall Auditorium was filled with an assortment of instruments that most of the audience hadn’t seen before.

The vocalists sang in Spanish, so most people listening were not able to understand the lyrics. The eclectic mix of classic Latin music and modern pop was foreign to their ears.

Despite how unfamiliar it all was, the audience was dancing and clapping along the entire evening.

The Performing Arts Series, under the direction of Patti Liberatore, hosted The New Golden Age of Latin Music last Thursday. The event was sponsored by globalFEST, a nonprofit world music festival and service organization aimed at spreading diversity through music. The night featured two bands with Latin origins whose unique blend of music can’t be classified under just one name. The program given to audience members described the music as “Alt-Chicano, Indie Mambo,” which hints at the unique style.

The first band to take the stage called themselves Las Cafeteras and shared the mission of telling the stories of migrant life in Los Angeles. The musicians, all either Native Americans or Mexican migrants, played the bass and guitar with Latin instruments such as the jarana and requinto, Latin guitars.

The band members each played multiple instruments and took turns singing lead and backup vocals. They also took turns performing Zapateado, a style of dance from Mexico similar to tap dancing. They were high-energy from the second they took the stage and had the audience clapping and singing along through their whole set.

THE PERFORMING ARTS SERIES HOSTED THE NEW GOLDEN AGE OF LATIN MUSIC LAST THURSDAY JUSTIN MASCHMEYER THE MIAMI STUDENT

Their songs were sung in both Spanish and Spanglish, including an original version of the classic folk song “This Land is Your Land.” One band member told the audience about his indigenous heritage and how the song had special importance to him and his family as they would sing it at their reunions. While it started off slowly, their rendition quickly changed back to the high-energy music they are known for. Two girls in the front row began dancing and soon inspired the rest of the audience to join them.

While most of the set was reserved for fun and dancing, they took a moment after “This Land is Your Land” to discuss the state of the U.S. and the issues immigrants, Dreamers in particular, are facing in the current political administration.

During the next song, they added an element of hip-hop into their music as one

band member rapped about the rise of gun violence in the U.S. in recent years.

The band implored the audience to always take action against injustice and corruption.

After the brief period of seriousness they returned to to their easy-going energy until the end. They finished their set with the classic “La Bamba” which was a hit with the audience.

The second band, Orkestra Mendoza, took the stage next. Sergio Mendoza, the bandleader, grew up around the Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico. Along with him there were five other band members, some original members and some longtime friends of Mendoza playing with him for this specific tour. The band mixed a variety of musical styles and instruments to show what can be achieved through cultural

exchange.

Playing guitars, an electric violin, an accordion, a synthesizer, an upright bass and a variety of percussion instruments, the band seamlessly blended instruments that most people wouldn’t think belong in the same piece of music. The band, while not quite as upbeat as the first, had the stage presence of rock stars that have been touring for decades.

Each member was skilled at their instrument and knew how to work the stage to keep the audience fully engaged.

Each musician was an equally important piece of their band and it was hard to pick just one to focus on.

The audience danced throughout Orkestra Mendoza’s set, and people flocked to the front row once again to be closer to the action. At the end of their set, the members of Las Cafeteras joined them for their final piece. They all bowed together to uproarious applause from the audience.

Liberatore, the director of the Performing Arts Series, says she decided to bring globalFEST’s tour to Miami as part of their commitment to presenting diverse cultural arts events.

“Part of what we do in the Performing Arts Series is partner with Dr. Crawford in his project for inclusivity, so it made a lot of sense to include it in the broad spectrum,” said Liberatore.

This is the second time globalFEST’s tour has been at Miami and Liberatore hopes to bring them back for their next tour.

“We think it’s really important that the Performing Arts Series play a role in presenting a broad variety of cultures through performance,” Liberatore added. ander198@miamioh.edu

A people’s history through picture books ART

KRISTIN STRATMAN THE MIAMI STUDENT

This semester, the Miami University Art Museum opened “Telling a People’s Story,” the first-ever exhibition of artwork found in children’s books about African American history.

The exhibition features about 130 original illustrations created by 35 African American artists.

Due to the scale of the exhibition, it fills three galleries of the Art Museum. The walls are lined with oil paintings, graphite sketches and even some three-dimensional mixed media pieces. Shelves below the artwork hold all of the books that the illustrations come from so visitors can peruse them at their leisure while resting in comfy chairs placed throughout the galleries. The books included in the show are written for children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Sherri Krazl, marketing and communications coordinator at the museum, said that the subject matter of the exhibit is very salient in America’s current political and social climate.

“For me it’s a really pertinent topic,” Krazl said. “The timing is incredible with what the

country is dealing with, with so much division between races, so I think that it’s very important.”

Jason Shaiman, the exhibit curator, has been coordinating the exhibit for three years, although the idea to create an exhibit of this nature came to him about a decade ago. Most of the pieces are borrowed directly from the original illustrators or from the book publishers.

“I think, in many ways, people have a hard time talking about sensitive topics such as slavery or segregation,” Shaiman said, “and these books don’t make light of those topics, but they do provide the textual and visual understanding of those historical periods in a way that is more approachable.”

The exhibition provides a timeline of African American history from times of slavery to present day, and includes a biographical section of artwork covering the greatest sung and unsung heroes in African American history. The educational exhibit is designed for all audiences — from children, to history buffs, to curious Miami students and members of the Oxford community.

Caroline Bastian, a senior at Miami majoring in art history and art management, did re-

THE ART MUSEUM’S NEWEST EXHIBIT INFORMS AND CAPTIVTES GALLERY-GOERS ERIK CRAIGO THE MIAMI STUDENT

search and planning for “Telling A People’s Story” in its early stages, which included paring down the original 600 possible books to a little under a hundred.

“No museum has ever exhibited children’s illustrated literature as a means of conveying African-American cultural identity,” said Bastian.

“Because of this, and also the

racial injustices still seen in today’s culture, I believe an exhibition of this nature is vital in continuing on as a society.”

Krazl has formed a Facebook group in connection with the exhibit called “Telling A People’s Story: African-American Children’s Book Explorers,” which is meant to spur discussion about the subjects brought up in the books.

A conference will be held April 20-21, in which involved illustrators and faculty members will hold lectures discussing the topics covered in the exhibition.

“Telling a People’s Story” is free and open to the public and will run until June 30. stratmkc@miamioh.edu

Too many roommates?

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Stop by, contact Carolyn at 513-659-5671 or Home - The Courtyards of Miami for more info. http://www.thecourtyardsofmiami.com

Science

6

NGUYENM3@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Tickets on sale for Science Friday EVENT

MORGAN NGUYEN SCIENCE EDITOR

On April 21, radio and television journalist Ira Flatow will host his public radio show “Science Friday” live on campus. The program is broadcast weekly on Public Radio International to an audience of 1.8 million people, and, according to the show’s website, offers listeners “a lively, informative discussion on science, technology, health, space and the environment.”

In addition to Flatow as host, the Science Fri-

day event at Miami will feature a special lineup of interview guests, to be announced in the coming weeks.

The most recent episode discusses the physics behind an ice skater’s perfect spin and highlights how artificial intelligence is making it hard to tell real news from fake.

For his live show at Miami University, Flatow will focus on science news and stories local to southwest Ohio. Flatow has been sharing science with the public for over 35 years: Before he started hosting Science Friday in 1991, Flatow was the science correspondent for National Public Radio

(NPR) from 1971 to 1986. He has reported from the South Pole, Kennedy Space Center, Three Mile Island, Antartica and, soon, Oxford, Ohio.

Professors are encouraged to involve the Science Friday event in their curriculum, and students of those who do so will receive discounted $5 tickets. Tickets are currently on sale to all students for $10 and to adults for $20. They can be purchased online or in-person at the Box Office in the Campus Avenue Building. nguyenm3@miamioh.edu

JUGAL JAIN PHOTO EDITOR TOP: GRADUATE STUDENT LONNIE FLETT USES HIGH-POWERED IMAGING TECHNOLOGY TO LOOK FOR POLLUTANTS THAT LONG AGO INGRAINED THEMSELVES IN TREE BARK. RIGHT: A SAMPLE OF TREE BARK FROM THE SPOKANE INDIAN RESERVATION IN WASHINGTON STATE WHERE HER FATHER AND GRANDPARENTS GREW UP.

Pollutant research hits home RESEARCH

KATIE EUDY

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Last November, Lonnie Flett traveled to Washington State to collect tree bark. Flett planned to use the bark samples to answer a question: Had uraniam polluted her family’s tribal reservation?

As a first-year geology master’s student under the mentorship of Mark Krekeler, Flett uses geochemistry to study pollutants in the environment near the Spokane Indian Reservation. Geochemistry utilizes chemistry to understand geological systems.

Flett’s interest and passion for geochemistry and environmental safety clearly showed as she discussed her research.

“I am really interested in environmental and geochemical work, so I would like to be in some sort of environmental research field,” Flett said. “I’ve also really gotten interested in microscopy this semester, so I wouldn’t mind doing something like that professionally.”

From the 1950s to the 1980s, Midnite Mine, a uranium mine, was in operation near Spokane, Washington. The mine opened before the era of safety and environmental protection standards. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it has caused higher incidences of cancer, kidney disease and other diseases on the Spokane Indian Reservation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s website, the mining site’s groundwater, surface water and sediment are polluted with several harmful elements and isotopes, including Uranium 234 and Uranium 238.

Isotopes are atoms with a different number of neutrons than the standard element.

When the nuclei of the isotopes are unstable, decay occurs, emitting radioactivity.

Exposure to certain amounts and types of radioactivity is harmful. Uranium 238, the most prevalent uranium isotope, emits alpha waves and weak gamma waves, causing it to be toxic if inhaled or ingested in high concentrations. The company that owns the mine has been ordered to continue cleaning the water at the site.

While the EPA studies the effect of soil and water pollution from the mine, Flett has based her research on the belief that there is a much wider spread of pollutant effect from windborne particulate pollution.

“Small dust particles can travel miles and miles beyond what they have estimated,” said Flett. The purpose of her research is to analyze tree bark to detect airborne particle pollutants that have become embedded within the bark, such as uranium, arsenic and lead. Long-term exposure to arsenic can lead to cancer and heart disease, among many other health issues.

Having recently returned from a sample collection trip, Flett is ready to use inductively-coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for analysis. ICP-MS will detect metals in small concentrations, allowing Flett to pick up on unusually heavy metal accumulation in the tree bark. She’ll use SEM to determine if uranium particles are embedded in the bark, as well as to determine the particle size.

Particle size is particularly important, Flett says, because particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers can be breathed in, posing a health hazard.

While Flett certainly has career interests in environmental and geochemical work,

she also has personal ties to this research.

Her father and grandparents grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Her father told her stories about the health problems on the reservation, which are anecdotally linked to the uranium mine. By proving that the affected area of pollution is much larger than the EPA estimates, Flett hopes, her research will not only cause an increase in the area of the EPA clean-up effort, but also result in action for those who suffered or lost loved ones because of the pollution.

“I would hope that there could be some sort of responsibility or liability for the health problems that we have on the reservation,” said Flett.

The uranium mining company involved, Dawn Mining Company, was half-owned by two individuals from the reservation and half-owned by Newmont USA Limited, one of the largest mining conglomerates in the U.S. Even though gaining the initial funding to begin her project was frustrating for Flett, and the reason behind her research is somber, she’s enjoyed visiting the reservation to collect the samples.

“It’s been fun to go back, and it’s a really beautiful reservation, so the fieldwork is actually fun,” said Flett.

For more information about the clean-up effort, visit epa.gov/enforcement/case-summary-cleanup-agreement-reached-former-uranium-mine-spokane-indian-reservation.

If you are a graduate student who would like to be featured in the research spotlight, or if you are a faculty mentor who would like your student featured, please contact Katie Eudy at eudyk@miamioh.edu.

NGUYENM3@MIAMIOH.EDU

7

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Fitness and the First Family

Science News Round-Up MORGAN NGUYEN SCIENCE EDITOR

Corn Storm

ILLUSTRATION: CONNOR WELLS

The Great Plains of the midwestern United States yield 10 billion bushels of corn a year. According to a new study on regional climate change at MIT, the Corn Belt produces more than its name suggests: It also makes its own weather. While the rest of the world is experiencing a warming trend, this fertile region’s summer temperature dropped a full degree Celsius, and the rainfall spiked 35 percent – more than anywhere else in the world. The Corn Belt stretches from Texas up to North Dakota and east to Ohio. The research team suspects agriculture increases rainfall through a mechanism connected with photosynthesis that releases more water into the air.

Pollution Culprits

(TOP LEFT) GREG AND RENATE CRAWFORD TAKE A WALK AROUND CAMPUS. JUGAL JAIN (TOP RIGHT) THE CRAWFORD’S DOG, IVY, OFTEN JOINS THE COUPLE FOR WALKS AND FITNESS EVENTS. HEATHER MCCOWAN (BOTTOM) THE CRAWFORDS HAVE HOSTED SEVERAL ‘SPIN-IN MOVIE’ EVENTS AT THE REC CENTER. RENEE FARRELL

FITNESS

JULIA ARWINE STAFF WRITER

It would not be out of place to see Greg and Renate Crawford, the president and ambassador of Miami University, exercising in the Rec Center. Renate could be found doing strength training in the weight room, or Greg might be spotted on the rowing machine. And there is a good chance one might pass them running Uptown, on the nearby nature trails or up and down the stairs in Yager Stadium. They will likely be accompanied by their dog, Ivy, or by a group of Miami students.

Physical activity is at the core of the Crawford philosophy: The duo believes that exercise benefits both mental and physical health. Greg prefers bicycling; Renate loves to run. Greg exercises in the early morning to clear his mind and prepare for the day. Renate draws inner strength from exercise, especially on days where she teaches or attends big meetings. A workout is her “second cup of coffee,” she said.

The Crawfords have hosted several fitness events since their arrival at Miami, an idea that stemmed from Renate’s passion for physical activity. As an ambassador for the university, making Miami a healthier and more active campus is one of the pillars of her platform.

“It’s always better to work out with friends,” Renate said. “It holds you accountable, and it’s just more fun. I figured [hosting events] would be a great way to connect with students and the rest of the Miami University and Oxford community.”

Although Renate spearheads the effort to promote health and fitness on campus, Greg does not hesitate to participate.

“Renate and I are a team, so we support each other’s passions,” he said.

Each semester, the Crawfords host at least one Late Night Miami event. The past couple semesters, they have collaborated with the Rec Center to put on “Spinning With the Crawfords,” a program in which Miami students watch a movie while riding spin bikes alongside the Crawfords. This event has, so far,

been President Crawford’s favorite.

“I absolutely love the spinning and the movie,” he said. “I am an avid bicyclist, and I love watching a good movie.”

The event also sticks out in his mind because of the dedication he witnessed from the Rec’s students and staff. Before the event, they had to move 70-80 spinning bikes out to the basketball courts and set up the movie. After it was over, they had to break it all back down. Still, they did the job with enthusiasm and positivity, he said.

“They are all so passionate and dedicated to Miami and to promoting the best activities for our students,” he said.

Once a month, in the backyard of Lewis Place, the Crawfords host M.O.V.E., which stands for Miami & Oxford Value Exercise. This is a fitness bootcamp taught by Rec instructors for Miamians and Oxford residents of all ages and skill levels.

This year, many of the M.O.V.E. Bootcamps are put on in collaboration with student groups and have unique themes. Last Veteran’s Day, campus ROTC units and veterans helped put on the bootcamp, and on May 12, there will be a graduation-themed camp, the Seniors/ Graduates Send-Off. A favorite fitness memory of Renate’s is tied to one of the first M.O.V.E. Bootcamps.

“It was March and 20 degrees – thank you, Ohio weather – and we were working out in our frozen backyard,” she said. “It was also Greg’s birthday and we had an eight-year-old with his mother, students, faculty, staff and community members, including friends from the Knolls, all working out and simultaneously celebrating Greg’s birthday together.”

It was, she said, just what she had envisioned M.O.V.E. to be.

Sometimes on Sundays, the Crawfords take a group of people, usually students, on a three-mile morning run that includes the natural trails in the woods around campus. After the run, everyone returns to Lewis Place to eat breakfast together, family-style. At these

breakfasts, nothing is catered, and nothing is fancy. The Crawfords and their running crew of the day cook, eat and share stories together.

These special Sundays usually come about by groups directly reaching out to Renate: fraternities, sororities, student government, alumni and clubs have all spent a Sunday morning or two running with the Crawfords. Some groups make it a regular event, such as the Delta Chi fraternity, who make sure to come by at least once a semester.

Renate puts out an open invitation for people to reach out.

“If you’re interested,” she said, “just email me and we’ll find a Sunday.”

In the summer, while most of Miami’s students are away, Oxford continues to promote healthy habits. The Coalition for a Healthy Community’s Oxford branch holds “Yoga in the Park” every Saturday of the summer. It’s either in Uptown Park or, as was often the case this past summer, in the Crawfords’ own backyard.

There are several motivations for putting on these events open events, Crawford said: building camaraderie and community, meeting with students, hearing students’ stories and collaboring with other people on campus and in town.

The Crawfords show no signs of stopping in their quest to make Miami a healthier campus. Renate works closely with students and organizations to come up with new ideas and collaborations.

“We’d love to have suggestions and feedback from the community to set up future events and initiatives,” she said.

One example of a possible future event is a showcase of all the health and fitness clubs, groups, initiatives and events that Miami has to offer.

It would be a format similar to Mega Fair and could be called “Mega Fit,” Renate said.

The Crawfords encourage anyone to attend their future fitness events, and to embrace an active lifestyle.

“Let’s make Miami the healthiest campus in the country,” Greg said. arwinejk@miamioh.edu

ILLUSTRATION: CONNOR WELLS

Researchers examining volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have found that paints, pesticides and other consumer products produce more than double the pollution that cars do.

VOCs react with air to create ozone and also contribute to haziness.

How Fish Grew Limbs

ILLUSTRATION: CONNOR WELLS

Land animals evolved from aquatic ones approximately 400 million years ago. Scientists have new postulations on what may have prompted this change: very strong tides. An astrophysicist at the University of Oxford found the tides were stronger at the time the evolutionary change occured because the moon was 10 percent closer to the Earth. He proposes that these stronger tides stranded sea animals in tide pools, prompting them to develop limbs as a way to move and escape back into the sea. nguyenm3@miamioh.edu

8 FYI

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

NEWS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

COURT SAYS MIAMI MAY HAVE DISCRIMINATED IN INVESTIGATION FROM PAGE 1

Named the Best College Newspaper (Non-daily) in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists.

An Administrative Hearing Panel heard the case on Oct. 7, 2014, and found John responsible for violating the university’s sexual misconduct policies.

John was initially suspended from the university for eight months but, on appeal, his suspension was reduced to four months. When Miami’s appeals process affirmed their original ruling, John filed suit on Sept. 15, 2015 against Jane, Miami University and several university officials involved in the disciplinary process, including OESCR director Susan Vaughn, who served on the Administrative Hearing Panel.

John voluntarily dismissed his claims against Jane, and the two reached a settlement, though he

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penalty kill unit was on the ice, it was effective in maintaining the three-goal differential. Seven minutes later, after a handful of shots from both teams, UMD went back on the power play. The RedHawks worked to block shots and junior forward Ryan Siroky even managed a short-handed shot.

The period marched on, but was ultimately uneventful before the horn sent the RedHawks into the second intermission down 3-0.

The third started out livelier than the second, and the RedHawks took to the power play less than a minute into the final frame. The ’Hawks peppered Shepard with shots and junior forward Kiefer Sherwood almost found the back of the net, but his shot rang off the post.

Miami escaped harm during another UMD power play with 14 minutes left in the game. The Bulldogs secured the win with a goal just before the halfway point of the third when freshman defenseman Louie Roehl put his team up 4-0.

For the rest of the period, the RedHawks managed four shots but couldn’t beat the Bulldogs.

UMD outshot Miami 35-16 as Shepard had 16 saves to earn the shutout, and Larkin had 31. The Bulldogs blanked the RedHawks on the man-advantage -- as it went 0-for-4 -- and the Bulldogs’ man-advantage went 1-for-4 on the power play.

“I thought last weekend we played not so inspired on Friday,” Blasi said. “But, I thought our guys came back and played a really good hockey game on Saturday and showed the character we have in our locker room.”

Saturday’s more inspired hockey was reflected on the stats sheet, as the RedHawks would go on to outshoot the Bulldogs 34-22 -- notably limiting UMD to one shot in the second period, while generating 14.

Larkin turning away UMD’s early shots gave the RedHawks momentum to go the other way and pester Shepard. Freshmen forwards Phil Knies and Ben

Heather McCowan Justin Maschmeyer Kat Holleran Macy Whitaker Rakhel Brewster Videography Staff Emily Brustoski Jack Barteck Chandler Williams

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John also referenced his own case as evidence of gender discrimination, since the university initiated an investigation against him but not Jane.

The appeals court upheld several of the dismissals made by the district court, including John’s Title IX hostile-environment and deliberate indifference claims.

“While several claims in this case were dismissed, we are disappointed that others were not,” said university spokeswoman Claire Wagner of the decision. “What hasn’t changed is that Miami University has been and remains committed to a fair and impartial student disciplinary process and denies any bias in that process.” willi501@miamioh.edu

Miami blanked by Bulldogs

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still pursued his claims against the university.

The Feb. 9 decision does not conclude that Miami violated Title IX or made decisions with an anti-male bias. However, the decision asserts that either may have happened, reversing the district court’s previous dismissals.

“Discovery may reveal that the alleged patterns of gender-based decision-making do not, in fact, exist,” wrote Judge Karen Nelson Moore in the decision. “That information, however, is currently controlled by the defendants, and John has sufficiently pleaded circumstantial evidence of gender discrimination.”

According to the decision, John asserted that every male student accused of sexual misconduct in the Fall 2013 and Spring

SOPHOMORE FORWARD JADE MILLER LOOKS FOR THE PUCK IN FRONT OF SOPHOMORE GOALTENDER RYAN LARKIN. DAVE HARWIG UMD ATHLETICS.

was as good of a period as you’re going to play, we still held them to one shot. We did everything but score a goal.”

The second period was all Miami and UMD was less effective in blocking shots. Shepard was tested 5-on-5 before seeing four shots on Miami’s power play two minutes into the period.

The RedHawks generated the first 12 shots of the period and prevented the Bulldogs from generating any chances until halfway through the second frame. That shot at 10:35 would be UMD’s lone chance during the second period, even as the Bulldogs went on the man-advantage twice in the later stages of the period.

Blocked shots and improved offense left the score 1-0 after two, but the shot count 19-10 in favor of the ’Hawks.

The RedHawks took to the ice

Lown forced Shepard to smother their close-range shots and stop play.

After 10 minutes of back-andforth play, UMD broke the stalemate and senior forward Jared Thomas beat Larkin on a breakaway to put the Bulldogs up 1-0.

Undeterred, the ’Hawks played on to earn the game’s first power play. Sherwood again generated a scoring chance for his team, but it was Shepard’s weekend and he was determined in turning away the RedHawks’ chances.

True to the ever-changing momentum, the Bulldogs then got a power play and appeared to score with 6:12 left in the period.

The officials determined the goal was a result of goaltender interference and the score stayed 1-0 for the rest of the period.

“We came out on Saturday night and played pretty inspired hockey,” Blasi said. “We got pucks to the net -- second period

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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READING

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9

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Miami loses OT heartbreaker FROM PAGE 12

throws and sent the game into overtime -- where the RedHawks would ultimately fall to their bitter rivals.

“For the first two possessions, we score or we have a lead but then after that, there’s just some errors that allow the other team to score,” Owens said. “From there, we somehow settle down and fight our way back into the game and find a way to make it interesting down the stretch, but we just didn’t finish the games.”

Despite leading in overtime 85-81 with 3:06 left, Miami went cold and the Bobcats ended the game with an 11-2 run.

Sibande had a standout performance, recording his first career double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Junior guard Darrian Ringo became only the second player in program history to record 200 assists in a season, and is well

on his way to breaking Eddie Schilling’s record of 214. With four games left in the regular season, Ringo sits at 202 assists on the year.

“The one thing Nike did was his will to win is there,” Owens said. “He’s one guy you can count on, when the shot’s not falling, to be able to influence the game.”

Next on the schedule for Miami is the Buffalo Bulls, who will enter Millet Hall on Tuesday boasting a Mid-American Conference-best 20-7 record (12-2 MAC).

Earlier in the season, UB defended their home court against the RedHawks, winning 82-66. Since that game on January 13, Buffalo has won eight of their last 10. Both losses for the Bulls were on the road, and by three points or less.

In order to have a fighting chance against Buffalo, Miami will have to run its offense

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

for the third period and picked up where they left off -- outshooting the Bulldogs 6-1 in the early going. The third period was penalty free, however, and Miami threw pucks at the net to try and break Shepard’s wall.

Though incessant in their attack, the RedHawks caught an unlucky break when sophomore defenseman Nick Wolff threw a puck through traffic with 6:13 left to play. The shot hit freshman defenseman Alec Mahalak’s skate and bounced past Larkin to give UMD a 2-0 lead.

“That puck can go anywhere,” Blasi said.

“Why it’s going in the back of our net? I don’t know.”

Frustrated but not defeated, the RedHawks played 6-on-5 hockey after Larkin was pulled with 3:41 left to play. The ’Hawks’ shots hit Bulldogs bodies and the ones that made their way to Shepard were dutifully turned away.

Sophomore forward Joey Anderson sealed the deal with an empty net goal and crushed the RedHawks’ hopes of a comeback with 23.8 sec-

through Ringo, while also limiting his turnovers. Ringo had seven against Ohio, and a key turnover down the stretch in overtime.

The ‘Hawks first 18 points against Ohio came from six 3-pointers, however the offense stalled shortly after.

With 12:49, up 18-17, Miami only managed to score six points. The Red and White will need to establish its ability to score from behind the arc, and maintain it throughout the game if it hopes to beat Buffalo.

Streaky offense has plagued the RedHawks this season.

However, the team should be encouraged by its ability to fight back into the game against Ohio. When trailing at halftime, Miami are now 1-10 this season.

The matchup against Buffalo tips-off tonight at 7 p.m. in Millet Hall. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.

onds left in the game.

With the RedHawks outshooting the Bulldogs 34-22, Shepard was forced into making 34 saves on Saturday for back-to-back shutouts and Larkin made 19 to keep his team in the game. Both teams were unable to convert on the man-advantage.

On night two, the RedHawks also held an impressive advantage in the faceoff circle -- winning 64 percent of the puck drops -- undoubtedly contributing to Miami’s ability to control most of the game.

“Real good response on Saturday,” Blasi said.

“Unfortunately, the results weren’t there, but the effort and the care-level in our locker room is still pretty high.”

The RedHawks host No. 12/12 North Dakota this weekend. Puck drop is 7:35 p.m. on Friday and 7:05 p.m. on Saturday. The series is Miami Hockey’s last home games of the season, and Saturday night will honor the RedHawks’ three seniors. Friday’s game will be broadcast on NCHC. tv and Saturday’s game will be broadcast on NCHC.tv and Fox College Sports Network.

Varsity League of Legends starts out strong FROM PAGE 12

them and take the W, and it’s a cherry on top for a lot of special memories I have within this program.”

He racked up an impressive 20.5 KDA (Kill/Death/Assist).

With its usual roster back for Week Two, on Friday January 26, Miami easily brought down North Dakota State University with another 2-0 win.

In game one, North Dakota didn’t get any kills on Miami’s entire team as the ’Hawks’ kept strong control of the lanes. Although North Dakota had a few kills in game two, they were unable to take any of Miami’s towers (the main defensive structure protecting a team’s side) and fell quickly to the RedHawks.

Unlike their first two weeks, Miami finally experienced their first tough opponent when they faced the University of Northern Iowa Panthers on Saturday February 3. Although they have had easy matchups so far, the ’Hawks started their game slower than expected.

“At the end of the day we are pretty confident that we are almost always going to win, but it was just slower and wasn’t as cleanly executed,” Miller said.

Although there were a few unexpected deaths in the top lane, Miami was able to hold it together and control the rest of the map to secure the 2-0 sweep.

Week Four brought back a similar feeling for the Hawks’ as they came away with a quick 2-0 victory over the

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Wayne State Warriors on Saturday February 10. With dominate mid-lane play by Miller, who had an impressive average 18 KDA and strong map presence from Jungler Riley “DoodSalad” Hayes, the Warriors were unable to take any towers and only had two kills in game two.

Needing only one more win to advance to playoffs, Miami took on the University of Manitoba Bison on Saturday February 17. In game one, the Bison came out strong and took the 1-0 series lead. However, coming back quickly, Miami won game two. In game three, the Bison’s ability to maintain control of the map and keep up strong bottom lane pressure lead them to defeat the ’Hawks 2-1.

Throughout all five games, one of Miami’s key aspects of their game has been their strong presence in the jungle due to the efforts of Hayes. Acting as the team’s main shot caller, he has been a key difference maker for the ’Hawks.

“He’s played an essential role in our team’s success having the highest average kill participation, as well as being influential in helping our team improve week in and week out,” team analyst Haitham “Fleed” Al Gbouri said.

With one last chance to qualify for playoffs, the Miami Varsity League of Legends team will compete next Saturday February 23. The game will be streamed and casted at Twitch.tv/MiamiUniversityOH.

N

Baseball splits season-opening series FROM PAGE 12

tom of the seventh inning.

Miami scored its lone run on a Hall sacrifice fly in the third inning.

Junior starter Bailey Martin (L, 0-1) struggled with command, walking four batters and giving up four runs in just 3.1 innings.

The Sun Devils kept rolling to start the series finale, scoring on an RBI single to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

Struggling and in need of momentum, MU caught a break, scoring two on a Sun Devil throwing error in the top of the second to steal back the lead.

This started a RedHawk rally that plated eight runs. The inning was capped off with a grand slam by sophomore third baseman Landon Stephens (1).

Both teams scored one run each in their halves of the third before the offenses calmed down. They played scoreless baseball until three MU wild

pitches gifted the Sun Devils three runs to make it 9-6 in the sixth.

The ‘Hawks responded when Redshirt sophomore designated hitter Kyle Winkler ripped a two-run single into left field, giving them some much need breathing room.

They held on for a 16-8 win and a series split in Tempe.

Junior reliever Andy Almquist (W, 1-0) got the win after pitching two innings of one-run baseball out of the ‘pen.

ASU leads the all-time series between the schools 4-2. It had won the only two previous meetings before this series.

The RedHawks will travel to Buies Creek, N.C. to participate in the Campbell Invitational Tournament this weekend. They’ll take on Western Michigan in their tournament opener Friday, with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.

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10 OPINION

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

HATCHEAM@MIAMIOH.EDU

Rise up, RedHawks: Let’s talk about sex The following reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board.

Sex in college is a mess.

You’ve probably heard your parents or professors or some journalist refer to our sex lives as “hookup culture.”

In most contexts, it’s negative and implies that we are constantly “hooking up” with one another, even though the term “hookup” can mean something vastly different to each person.

It can range from making out to over-the-jeans groping to actual sex. Using it to talk about our encounters — however sexual they are — gives us the false sense that we’re being open about the subject. In reality, it lets us continue to dance around a subject that affects most of us, even if we’re not “hooking up” with anyone. And if we can’t have open, honest conversations about sex, then we can’t speak frankly about anything related to it — namely, consent.

“Cat Person,” a fictional New Yorker story that went viral a few months ago, illustrates the nuances and complexities of Millennials’ sexual relationships — particularly emphasizing how they are complicated by technology. It follows a college sophomore who enters a flirty relationship with a 30-something guy over text, which culminates in ambiguously consensual, but nonetheless upsetting, sex.

The story concludes with the girl deciding to stop responding to his texts, or to “ghost” him. The friendliness and “nice guy” aura she’d experienced from him over their short relationship ends abruptly with a short, accu-

ILLUSTRATION: ARTHUR NEWBERRY

satory text from him: “Whore.”

Readers identified with the disconnect the student felt between the person she knew over text and the man she met in real life.

The more ways in which we have to communicate, the more difficult it is to express how we really feel and what we actually want.

How often do you send a screenshot of a conversation to your friends? How many times have you opened the Snapchat map to see where your hookup is? How often do you download, delete and re-download Tinder?

The ways that we start relationships, develop relation-

ships and end relationships are entirely different from the ways our parents did. And that’s okay.

Choosing to casually hook up with people is not necessarily a problem. Some people enjoy it. Others find it empowering. Not everyone is seeking a Miami Merger, or even an exclusive relationship. That’s the point: Our generation accepts a wider range of relationships, from your average pair of high school sweethearts, to your “it’s complicated” set of friends who kiss sometimes, to your weekend fuck buddies.

However, most people aren’t going home with someone every night.

Sociologist Lisa Wade writes in her book “American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus” that, statistically, we’re having less sex than Gen-Xers did at our age. By the time they graduate, most students have “hooked up” eight times while at school, Wade cites. And for one-third of students, that number is zero. Also, Wade says, many recall their sexual relationships as “traumatic” or “difficult to handle.”

While we can’t pretend that misconduct isn’t an issue, we can’t begin to unpack all the problems related to sex if we can’t even talk about sex itself.

We at The Miami Student want to speak candidly with other students through the paper’s new documentary video project, “Your Status,” which will explore sex, relationships and social lives.

Whether you’ve told your story to a hundred friends or to no one, we’d like to hear what’s on your mind. You can share your thoughts with us at miamistudent.net/ whats-your-status.

MIAMI SHOULD RE-RELEASE GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS VARUN RAGHURAM COLUMNIST

There comes a time in one’s collegiate life where the realization sets in — learning is not the most important part of college.

While administration and faculty members preach about the analytical and problem-solving skills that come with a liberal education, students come to realize that attaining a higher grade point average is far more advantageous. While the two can coexist, one is far more valuable than the other.

The responsibility of the university administration is to best prepare their students for success in the next phase of their lives, whether it be in further education or the workforce. This is undoubtedly achieved through allowing students to learn while earning their highest possible grade, and this is where the administration has strayed.

During the 2016-2017 academic year, Miami decided to remove student access to course grade distributions. The original reason behind removing access was due to privacy concerns, but that assertion is simply ridiculous. In classes where there are over 20 students, there is no conceivable manner in which a particular student’s grade can be deduced.

The distributions allowed students to decide which courses best suit their intellectual and academic interests. They provided the courses that were taught by each professor and how many students achieved each grade, culminating in an aggregate grade point average.

In total, it provided greater information for students to become informed about the courses being offered.

The counterargument to releasing the distributions is that students will avoid courses, and professors, where other students have not performed well, and taking that action is precisely within the student’s best interest. It has not been demonstrated that, in courses that provide many professors teaching the subject, there is a greater amount of learning in classes where grades tend to be lower.

In many cases, the low average is due to an antiquated view of academic procedure where only a certain number of each grade can be earned, or to the professor simply not teaching well.

Under which circumstances is it within the best interest of the student body to take classes that are unnecessarily hard?

There is also a recognition that many courses and subjects are very difficult, and that is re-

flected in the grade distribution charts. In many classes there are more failing grades, than A’s or B’s, and that is understandable.

What cannot be understood is the phenomenon of classes in which the average of one section is far greater than that of another. There are few, if any, legitimate reasons for such a discrepancy.

Viewed pragmatically, it appears the university is attempting to hide information that would divert students from taking classes from certain professors. But what they are really accomplishing is putting some students at an advantage over others. There are many students who still have access to the distributions, all of which were previously downloadable.

Since the fall of 2016, which was the last distribution that was made available, few courses and professors have changed. The students who still have access to the distribution are able to choose courses and professors fully informed, giving them a considerable advantage over other students.

The administration has taken an implicit view that the student body as a whole will seek out the easiest classes and avoid classes where the grading is less “generous.” In reality, what they are achieving is taking individual choice away from the students under pretenses that have not been proven to be true.

Furthermore, when applying for employment or graduate school, the two most important factors are grade point average and standardized test scores.

If Miami does not provide full transparency to students regarding the realities of certain classes, they are putting the student’s future in a precarious situation.

Miami should re-release grade distributions to the student body. They have taken decision-making power away from us over matters that should be solely within the discretion of each student. They have forced their preconceived notions onto each student within the university, when simply allowing for a full understanding of the circumstances surrounding one’s education is in no manner harmful to Miami’s integrity. They have unnecessarily put students, especially first-years, into a precarious situation of being disadvantaged from many of their peers. The remedy for this is clear — grade distributions should be released to students before the start of the upcoming academic year. raghurv@miamioh.edu

ILLUSTRATION: ARTHUR NEWBERRY

America and capitalism: A complicated relationship MAXWELL MATSON COLUMNIST

Money. We all want it. We want the comfort that it brings. The things that it can buy rarely matter more than when there isn’t enough money to cover their cost. And while money might not buy happiness, it certainly can buy peace of mind. And even if that peace of mind is as paper-thin as the currency traded in for it (and often, it is), every now and then, it’s all that stands between the “us” that we know and the “us” that would do anything to get more of it.

We, as Americans, have a love affair with capitalism. We love it when it works, and hate it when we fuck it up. But somewhere between the Uncle Sam-withan-M16 vision of free trade and the applied math of academic economics lies a strange pseudo-ideology rife with misunderstanding and misattribution.

At some odd point in American history, the word “capitalism” became synonymous in the average American brain with a billowing flag, the word “freedom” floating abstractly in the background.

There’s a strange, juvenile quality with which we view our national trade system, somehow constituting more than the simplest and most efficient system of trade discovered thus far. Capitalism is, of course, by no means easy to quantify; there’s a reason that those with the best understanding of the markets always seem to be doing the best in them. But there’s also a reason that almost every short-seller inevitably makes the wrong bet and every world-renowned economist fails to predict a major market reset. This is where the illusion gets shattered.

Capitalism, as it turns out, is not a religion to be worshiped in the temples of Keynes and Marshall,

but a complex and sometimes wholly abstract grouping of billions of transactions occurring every day, the sum of their parts painting a picture that looks a lot like an invisible hand if you squint your eyes and tilt your head.

Of course, where capitalism is brought up, communism isn’t far behind. Marx and his followers will not be brought up once in your average Econ 101 lecture, and for good reason. Marx, though undoubtedly a brilliant and noteworthy mind, would not be recognized by modern economists as a colleague. He belonged to the early era of economics, back when the term was indistinguishable from its philosophical roots. Marx and his Communist Manifesto were a treatise on humanity, not efficiency. Whether his thoughts on class relations were right or wrong, only time will tell. But his theories, and the ideology they spawned, are ironically the origin of the love with which we view our own trade system.

Back in the 1950s, income and wealth inequality were, in aggregate, lower than they ever had been or would be in the U.S. A new type of wealth became available to white Americans, the type of wealth that could be invested in homes, in savings funds. The average white American began to live an unfathomably luxurious existence in comparison to the rest of the WWII-ravaged world. Things were good in the homes of the middle-class families which began to populate the suburbs en masse, but there was danger on the horizon. Halfway across the world, and just close enough should it ever develop nuclear capabilities (they would shortly thereafter), the Soviet Union was playing bully ball to establish itself as Europe’s new greatest power. Two decades ago, this wouldn’t have been much

of an issue for the scrappy, isolationist Americans, but times change. The Soviet Union, with its stark vision of a future driven by and for the proletariat (at least in theory), represented an existential threat to the power newly held by the U.S. In American homes, the red demon of communism became disembodied from the ideology it originally stood for. The threat of nuclear holocaust came to define the childhood experience of an entire generation. Yet, the Soviets were still represented in American propaganda as the successors of Hitler, a fresh premise until the day it wasn’t anymore. The Soviets just weren’t a good/bad guy. Then came Rand, an ex-Soviet writer with the same spirit of “leave me the fuck alone” as the cowboys on the television sets that began to occupy more and more free time in the average American home. All of a sudden, the Soviets weren’t mini-Nazis anymore, they were automatons. What’s scarier than a red wave of mindless, thoughtless robots dead-set on crushing your way of life?

Of course, no red dragon is complete without a knight in shimmering red, white and blue armor to chop off its head or get thermo-nuclearly annihilated in the process. So that’s what our politicians, Hollywood executives and culture-makers set out to do. In response to the “collectivist” wave, we became “objectivists.” It was an efficient tactic, turning the thoroughly gray Cold War into a prize fight between freedom and mental slavery. It also turned communism and its little cousin, socialism, into dirty words, and it associated capitalism with everything from Jesus to baseball to hot dogs. matsonrm@miamioh.edu

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

DAVISKN3@MIAMIOH.EDU

OPINION 11

ARTHUR NEWBERRY NEWBERAJ@MIAMIOH.EDU

Cookies sweeter when sourced sustainably JILL TEITELBAUM COLUMNIST

How can you justify your addiction to Girl Scout cookies? By knowing that you’re saving orangutans.

Girl Scout cookie producers have pledged to sustainably source palm oil, which will help save orangutan habitats. Boxes made by these producers have either a GreenPalm logo or Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) logo, which “signifies that 100 percent of the palm oil used in this product has been certified by the RSPO. This supports farms that are growing palm oil using sustainable practices, respecting human rights and preventing deforestation,” according to girlscouts.org.

This is critical, because the forests where palm oil is grown are home to orangutans who have suffered significant habitat loss. “In Indonesia, the palm oil sector was the single largest driver of deforestation between 2009 and 2011, accounting for about a quarter of the country’s forest loss.

Orangutans face extinction in Borneo due to habitat clearing, which is underway across Indonesia and Malaysia,” according to a 2013 Greenpeace article. If unchanged, 75 percent of Southeast Asia’s forest cover will be gone by 2030, according to the Unit-

ed Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Girl Scout cookie producers who have committed to sourcing sustainable palm oil are doing their part in protecting the home of orangutans.

Therefore, by supporting these business, we are supporting their cause. It may even inspire more companies to do the same.

Girls Scouts of the USA first blessed Americans with their cookies in 1917. Over one hundred years later, it’s hard to imagine life without them.

A viral tweet written by Ally DiCesare and shared by Buzzfeed captures this sentiment: “There are five seasons: Winter, Spring, Girl Scout Cookie season, Summer and Fall.”

Considering the Girl Scout cookie season is so short, their success is mind-boggling. According to Business Insider, Girl Scout cookies rake in an average of $800 million annually, with Thin Mints accounting for the majority of sales. They sold about 1.6 billion cookies in 2013.

National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend is Feb. 23 to Feb. 25, so treat yourself to an extra box of guilt-free Thin Mints. If your cardiologist asks, tell them the orangutans are grateful. teiteljh@miamioh.edu

Students wonder which type of fry Pulley Diner will serve today SATIRE

KIRBY DAVIS

OPINION EDITOR

Students anxiously formed a line around the cash register in Pulley Diner on Saturday, Feb. 17, wondering which type of French fry they would be served that night.

Sophomore Rebecca Ingram said she never knew whether to expect the normal ones, the slightly thicker ones or the inexplicably peppery ones.

“Seriously, what’s with all the pepper?” said Ingram. “Have you ever met anyone, ever, who puts that much pepper on their fries?”

Her boyfriend, Luke West, said a knot of anxiety forms in his stomach each time he cautiously orders a meal at Pulley with a side of fries, because “you really never know what you’re going to get.”

“I’m a busy college student,” said West. “I need some semblance of stability in my life. And if I can’t have that at Pulley, where can I?” Their friend, sophomore Sadie Mitchell, fell asleep at the table after ordering and was half-carried home by her housemate, who said Mitchell felt very strongly about Pulley French fries and would definitely want to comment had she not consumed two Trashcans at Brick Street.

Ingram and West continued to furiously rant as they waited for their food at a sticky red booth around the corner from the register.

“Even the sporadic waffle fries in Western Dining last year were more consistent,” said Ingram. “At least they usually had those on Thursdays, and sometimes on Sundays.”

ILLUSTRATION: KAT HOLLERAN

“God damn it,” said West upon receiving his food. “They’re the peppery ones.”

Ingram lowered her head onto the table in defeat, too disgusted to eat a single, pepper-coated fry.

Mitchell said in an email interview the next morning that she realized if she really wanted consistent French fries, she knew she could just drive to the McDonald’s on Locust Street, approximately four minutes away, but Pulley was “just easier, TBH.” In addition, McDonald’s only takes “real money.” daviskn3@miamioh.edu

Sports

12

SIMANSEC@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Miami loses OT heartbreaker to Ohio

FRESHMAN FORWARD DALONTE BROWN BLOCKS OHIO SENIOR GUARD MIKE LASTER AT THE CONVO IN ATHENS (LEFT). MIAMI’S HEAD COACH JACK OWENS STANDS AT THE SIDELINE. CONTRIBUTED BY BLAKE NISSEN THE POST

MEN’S BASKETBALL

BEN PANZECA

THE MIAMI STUDENT

The RedHawks dropped their fourth straight game Saturday, losing to conference rival Ohio University 92-87 in overtime. It was Miami’s sixth straight loss to

Ohio in “The Battle of the Bricks.”

Despite overcoming what was once a 15-point deficit in the second half, the ’Hawks (13-14, 6-8 MAC) couldn’t close out the game against the Bobcats (11-14, 4-9 MAC) in Athens. In three of its last four games, Miami has lost by five points or fewer.

“I think the guys are compet-

ing, they’re putting forth the effort,” head coach Jack Owens said at his weekly press conference.

“We just have to learn how to close the game.”

The RedHawks found themselves behind in the second half, down 61-46 with 12:46 left. A pair of threes from freshman forward Dalonte Brown sparked a 10-2 run

in favor of Miami, bringing the deficit to single digits.

The teams traded baskets until sophomore Bam Bowman made an incredible steal in the backcourt, and dribbled the length of the court to finish in traffic to bring the ‘Hawks within one, at 78-77.

On the following possession, Ohio hit a free throw. Down two

Hockey blanked by Bulldogs HOCKEY

EMILY SIMANSKIS

with 10 seconds left, the RedHawks attempted a three, which caromed off the rim. Freshman guard Nike Sibande grabbed the offensive board, got fouled and was sent to the line to shoot two.

Calmly, Sibande sunk both free throws and sent the game into CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

Varsity League of Legends starts out strong

SPORTS EDITOR

After disappointing 4-0 and 3-0 losses to No. 11/12 University of Minnesota Duluth this weekend, Miami hockey’s losing streak extends to five games. The RedHawks have now been shutout for three straight games -- the longest the team has gone without a goal in its recorded history starting with the 1998-1999 season.

“I’m not sure in my 25 years of coaching that I’ve seen a team go through some kind of adversity in such a short period of time,” head coach Enrico Blasi said at his weekly press conference.

The ’Hawks (10-17-3, 5-132 NCHC) fell into a two-goal hole after the first period on Friday night, and the Bulldogs (16-13-3, 10-10-0 NCHC) finished with a two-goal third period on Saturday night to take the National Collegiate Hockey Conference series.

Miami’s recent inconsistency and inability to come from behind, coupled with facing hot goaltenders, has led to the five-game slump and the RedHawks’ record to stand at 2-91 since the New Year. In the nine-team NCHC, the ’Hawks sit ninth with 17 points, trailing Omaha with 24 points.

The Bulldogs broke a threegame losing streak with its two wins over the RedHawks and are now tied for third with 30 points in the NCHC. Statistically, the RedHawks are not likely to move from

JACEY “DEATHHAWK” MILLER DOMINATES MID-LINE PLAY AT THE E-SPORTS ARENA IN KING LIBRARY. JUGAL JAIN THE MIAMI STUDENT

E-SPORTS

MICHAEL STEMMLER THE MIAMI STUDENT

JUNIOR FORWARD JOSH MELNICK BATTLES SOPHOMORE FORWARD JOEY ANDERSON FOR THE PUCK AT AMSOIL ARENA IN DULUTH. CONTRIBUTED BY TERRY NORTON UMD ATHLETICS

their last place spot in the conference. With two series remaining in the regular season, however, the ’Hawks have an opportunity to gain momentum before the post-season begins on March 9.

“We have to focus on the things that we’re doing well,” Blasi said. “We’re working hard, we’re trying to execute the things that we’re doing and we’re doing pretty good when we’re focused and involved.”

On Friday, Miami would be outshot 13-4 by UMD in the first frame, though the game started uneventfully with the teams trading shots at either end of the ice. A power play allowed the Bulldogs to go up 1-0 at 8:19 of the first, as freshman defenseman Mikey

Anderson beat Miami’s sophomore goaltender Ryan Larkin with a point shot.

Two minutes later, junior forward Billy Exell’s pass went off a RedHawk player and into the back of the net and he was credited with the goal that put his team up 2-0 only halfway through the first.

Miami man-advantages with eight minutes and then two minutes left in the game proved fruitless as the RedHawks retreated to their locker room trailing the Bulldogs 2-0 after 20 minutes of play.

In Miami’s previous series against St. Cloud, the RedHawks had strong second periods on both Friday and Saturday night, though the ’Hawks didn’t start the second

period on time in Duluth.

The Bulldogs took advantage of Miami’s inability to start a comeback and scored only 3:15 into the period to go up 3-0. Sophomore forward Jade Miller’s third goal of the season spelled trouble for the uninspired RedHawks.

Seconds later, Miami earned a man-advantage but only managed a couple of shots as UMD’s sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard turned away Miami’s chances.

A 4-on-4 interrupted Miami’s power play, though neither team would score during the stretch.

For the minute Miami’s penalty kill unit was on the ice, CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

Baseball splits season-opening series against ASU BASEBALL

CHRIS VINEL STAFF WRITER

Miami baseball kicked off its season with a 2-2 series split at Arizona State this weekend. After travel complications pushed Friday night’s game to Saturday, the RedHawks played back-to-back doubleheaders and won the first and last games of the series 4-2 and 16-8, respectively.

This marks the first time Miami has won two of its first four games since 2012.

Miami struck first in game one Saturday, when a one-out double by junior catcher Hayden Senger drove in sophomore outfielder Cal Elvers to give MU a 1-0 second-inning lead.

The Red and White tacked on two more on an RBI single by designated hitter

Grant Hartwig in the top of the fifth.

Arizona State finally cracked the scoreboard on a throwing error in the bottom of the fifth. Down 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Sun Devils inched closer on a sacrifice fly.

The ’Hawks responded in the top of the eighth when junior outfielder Dallas Hall doubled in a run to push the score to 4-2.

It would stay that way as Miami junior pitcher Jack Corbell pitched a scoreless final 1.1 innings and slammed the door on Arizona State.

Junior starter Nick Ernst (W, 1-0) was stellar in his 2018 debut, allowing only one run on four hits in six innings of work. He tallied six strikeouts to secure the victory.

The victory marked the first time Miami has won its season-opener since 2007.

The Sun Devils jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the second game, but the RedHawks fired back -- first on a Hall RBI

single, and then a two-run home run by Redshirt senior first baseman Ross Haffey (1) to make it 3-1.

Arizona State knotted it at 3-3 with back-to-back solo blasts in the bottom of the fourth. Two innings later, ASU took a 6-3 lead after an MU throwing error plated two and a suicide squeeze scored another.

The Sun Devils added one more on a seventh-inning RBI single and won 7-3 to split Saturday’s double-header.

MU junior pitcher Zach Spears (L, 0-1) recorded the loss after surrendering four runs on eight hits in five innings.

Arizona State carried its momentum into Sunday morning when they run ruled the RedHawks 11-1 after seven innings.

ASU drove in two runs in the first and never trailed in the contest. It reached the run rule by plating five runs in the botCONTINUED ON PAGE 9

With the formation of the first collegiate Division I Varsity E-sports program last year, League of Legends, the most popular game worldwide, has been a staple of Miami’s team. After a disappointing semi-final finish last year, the Miami Varsity League of Legends team is out for revenge. Competing for the second time in the College League of Legends (cLol) tournament, the RedHawks have gone 4-1 through their first five weeks of regular season play.

In cLol, hundreds of teams across the country compete in four separate regions, along with teams from the Big Ten and the Peach Belt conferences. After six weeks of competition, teams with a record of 5-1 or better advance to the playoffs, where last year Miami was eliminated earlier than predicted. Each match is a draft, best-ofthree format.

This year, Miami’s team is looking to have a strong performance in the North Region and, so far, they have done just that. While retaining a majority of their roster from last year, the ’Hawks’ main strength is their team dynamic. Their ability to discuss problems within the team and fix them shows their growth throughout the program’s existence.

“If you want to go far you can’t have the same issues reoccuring,” Mid-lainer Jacey “DeathHawk” Miller said.

Although there were mistakes during the early part of their season, now many of the team’s mistakes are one time occurrences.

In their first match on Saturday, January 20, the ’Hawks’ had a dominant 2-0 victory against the Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats. With their main ADC (attack, damage, carry) gone, one of the founders of the varsity E-sports program, Matthew “Cubbyx” Samuelson, got to sub in as the main damage role. As a student, he recognized the need for a varsity program on campus, and through years of hard work, he finally achieved his goal.

“I never wanted to play because I didn’t want to take a spot away from someone who needed a home in the program,” Samuelson said. “It meant a lot to me that my teammates trusted me to sub in with CONTINUED ON PAGE 9