January 26, 2016 | The Miami Student

ESTABLISHED 1826 – OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

The Miami Student TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016 Volume 144 №27

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

MIAMISTUDENT.NET

University reveals list of presidential hopefuls PRESIDENT

EMILY TATE

MANAGING EDITOR

REIS THEBAULT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

At least 23 applicants are vying for the position of Miami University’s next president, a Miami Student records request shows, though sources suspect these are

not the only applicants being considered by the Board of Trustees, the Presidential Search Committee and the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller.

The Student’s records request — which revealed the names, resumes and curricula vitae of each applicant — comes several months into Miami’s presidential search.

In September, the Board of Trustees announced the search would be closed, conducted away from the public eye.

The search began in the fall, and the board expects to announce the sole finalist in the spring. The Search Committee and Isaacson, Miller seek to find a replacement for David Hodge, the current

Machu Pichu, Peru

university president, who will retire in June after serving at Miami for a decade.

The presidential applications include a range of professions, levels of experience, races and nationalities.

Most applicants are in academia and hold administrative positions at their current universities, but several are chief executive officers

(CEOs), attorneys or entrepreneurs.

Of the 23 applicants, 22 are male and one is female. Each of the 22 males holds a doctorate degree, 20 of which are Ph.D.s or Ph.D. equivalents and two of which are J.D.s.

The female applicant holds a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Twenty candidates have experience in higher educa-

CONSTRUCTION

ABBEY GINGRAS NEWS EDITOR

The sidewalk between the Armstrong Student Center and Culler Hall closed Monday, Jan. 18 to make way for construction on the new east wing of the student center.

The walkway and the east entrance to Armstrong, which faces Culler, are closed permanently, pending the completion of the

IAN MARKER THE MIAMI STUDENT

Miami students pose for a group photo overlooking Machu Picchu while in Peru with KNH 402.

Nizwa, Oman

Students in REL 399 used a trip to Nizwa, Oman, to compare economies and cultures in the Middle East.

BETH PFOHL THE MIAMI STUDENT

Sophomore Laura Schorsch explores the Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy, during a free-travel weekend.

Students span the globe during break ALISON PERELMAN THE MIAMI STUDENT

Many Miami University students spent winter term catching up on sleep, watching countless episodes on Netflix and eating too much comfort food. Others took the opportunity to spend time in completely different countries — climbing mountains, volunteering with locals, touring historical sites and experiencing unfamiliar cultures.

Hiking in Peru Senior Adrienne Moncrief traveled to Peru with

the KNH 402 Health and Culture program. The group started in the capital, Cuzco, with visits to archeological sites in the mountains before heading on a six-mile hike up the last leg of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. “[The hike] was very physically challenging, but so rewarding and so empowering, too,” said Moncrief. “It just made me feel so much stronger, physically and mentally.”

Moncrief decided to go on the trip because she had always wanted to see Machu Picchu, but the experience turned out to be more than

she could have dreamed.

“I remember learning about [Machu Picchu] in school, seeing it in textbooks or on Google images, and it’s just not the same,” said Moncrief. “It’s so much more beautiful and impressive than you could ever imagine.”

The group headed back to Cuzco for a night, then took a bus to Puno, where they went on a boat tour of Lake Titicaca — visiting three of the islands and staying overnight with a host family.

Adrienne’s host family didn’t speak English, and she was the only student there who spoke any Spanish. But

she wasn’t worried at all. It was simply another challenge, another mountain to conquer.

“We all got a really good idea of what the culture is like in Peru,” Moncrief said.

“I think we were all pushed out of our comfort zones.”

The group ended the trip in Lima, where they explored markets, tried new foods and interacted with locals.

“As I see more and more of the world, I’m just so fascinated by its diversity and how each place you go, there’s a different culture, a TRAVEL »PAGE 4

Former student to be arraigned today CRIME

ANGELA HATCHER SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Jordan Benge, a 20-yearold former Miami University student and MiTech employee, is facing criminal charges for theft, voyeurism and drug trafficking.

The thefts occurred between April 15 and July 23, 2015, after the MiTech department noticed missing computers. Benge was arrested on Oct. 22. He is scheduled to be arraigned in court today.

Claire Wagner, director of university news and communications, said that although this was a major crime, it did not pose a safety risk to students and therefore was not reported on information bulletins.

The computer theft complaint was filed with the Miami University Police Department (MUPD) on July 27, 2015.

Detective Michelle Merz and Detective Walt Schneider, lead detectives on the case, began several weeks of investigation over the sum-

mer. They executed a search warrant for Benge’s offcampus residence on Sept. 4, 2015.

The search warrant for Benge’s residence included the ability to search and seize mobile devices.

“This is a commonplace practice in police investigations nowadays,” said Detective Lieutenant Jim Bechtolt of the MUPD. “So much can be stored on a mobile device.”

During the search, Detective Schneider discovered text messages on Benge’s

NEWS p. 2

NEWS p. 3

MIAMI MOURNS THREE PROFESSOR DEATHS

ROOMMATE DRAMA MANIFESTED IN DENNISON HALL

Accomplished professors are remembered by those they influenced.

A senior remembers unfortunate circumstances from her first year.

personal phone indicating Benge was selling drugs.

They also discovered marijuana in his residence, as well as scales and over 100 green plastic bags.

The police seized multiple computers, including Benge’s personal one. In his residence, there were seven stolen computers total: two were still in his possession, two others were sold, and three were given away.

The value of the computers is estimated to be $9172.

BENGE »PAGE 2

CULTURE p. 4

east wing of the student center. The university plans to open a temporary walkway between Culler and Shideler Hall early in the spring semester to reroute foot traffic in the area.

Students can also go around Armstrong on the west side, between the student center and Kreger Hall.

Director of university communications Claire ASC »PAGE 2

New rec center satellite to open FITNESS

JUSTIN MASKULINSKI STUDY ABROAD

PRESIDENT »PAGE 8

Construction begins on ASC east wing

Florence, Italy

IAN MARKER THE MIAMI STUDENT

tion. Sixteen of those candidates have held or currently hold administrative positions, including positions of dean, provost and university president. Several candidates have spent years in the business sector and two are currently CEOs. Fourteen of the 23 candi-

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Treadmills and weight machines are not for everyone when it comes to exercise. Miami University Recreation Center employees had this in mind when the university purchased the old Talawanda High School at 131 W. Chestnut St. in 2013.

Chestnut Field House will open its doors Jan. 31, from 2 to 6 p.m., for an open house.

The new rec center location is a renovated field house at the old Talawanda High School.

“Throughout the community, there was a great deal of discussion of what that might be used for,” Senior Director of Rec Center Programs and Academic Partnerships Mike Arnos said.

“I think the university did a really nice job.”

While the flyers for the open house advertise a crossfit-style gym, Arnos says that is more of a marketing strategy.

“Crossfit is a buzz term,” he said. “Functional fitness or functional movement is really what we’re talking about here. But if we go out and say, ‘This is a functional movement gym,’ people are going to think that’s really boring.”

The field house will feature two rooms: the first room contains dumbbell

racks, bumper plates, kettle bells, jump ropes and plyometric boxes. The secondary room is an open space designed for creativity and also has punching bags.

Arnos says some people are turned off by the lack of cardio machines at the new building, but those who are trying to branch out to something more than a fitness club may find a new home for health on Chestnut Street.

“It’s perfect for athletes,” Arnos said. “It’s hard to find things in [the rec] where you get explosive movements.”

Seth Cropenbaker, the rec center’s fitness director, says a crossfit-style workout is for the those who are very healthy and well-conditioned and he said he hopes the new facility will create that sort of culture.

“Hopefully what we can create over there is a mentality of community where we’re generating excitement rather than intimidation,” he said. “Hopefully we can create an environment where people feel like they’re in it together, as cooperative rather than competitive.”

Cropenbaker and student trainers will lead the workouts.

One of the student personal trainers at the rec center is the Weightlifting Club President Jake Cottingim, a senior kinesiology major CHESTNUT »PAGE 3

OPINION p. 6

SPORTS p. 10

WRITER REVIEWS NEW FILM, ‘THE BIG SHORT’

WRITERS INDICT CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

HOCKEY MAKES A SECOND-HALF SURGE

Director Adam McKay, of ‘Step Brothers’ and ‘Anchorman,’ shines.

Columnist, Design Editor express frustration with U.S. social injustices.

The Brotherhood recently swept No. 7 Nebraska-Omaha on the road.

2 NEWS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

Miami mourns professor deaths Augustus Jones

Heanon Wilkins

Andrew Cayton

NEWS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

Eldemire remembered through foundation ‘Carrying on her legacy is very important to me.’

MEMORIAL

AUDREY DAVIS

THE MIAMI STUDENT

CONTRIBUTED BY PATRICK HANEY

CONTRIBUTED BY CONSTANCE WILKINS

COURTESY OF MIAMI UNIVERSITY

Jones was a professor in the Political Science Department.

Wilkins taught Spanish, Portuguese and Black World Studies.

Andrew “Drew” Cayton was a professor in the Department of History.

DEATH

DEATH

DEATH

GRACE MOODY JUSTIN MASKULINSKI

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

BONNIE MEIBERS

GRACE MOODY JUSTIN MASKULINSKI

Augustus “Gus” Jones, a political science professor at Miami University, died unexpectedly Thursday, Dec. 3.

Provost Phyllis Callahan sent out an email to faculty the next afternoon.

“It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of our colleague,” Callahan wrote.

Jones’ career at Miami started in 1987. Jones graduated from Clark University in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts and later earned his doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis in 1980.

Jones was a well-liked and influential professor, as well as a researcher of American civil liberties, according to a memo written

by Patrick Haney, chair of the Department of Political Science.

“This is an incredibly sad day for all of us,” Haney said in the memo. “Dr. Jones was a very special person, friend and colleague-- unfailingly upbeat and supportive, a great teacher, a thoughtful scholar …”

Jones was awarded Outstanding Educator by the Miami University Alumni Association in 1999 and was named the Distinguished Educator by the College of Arts and Science in 2002.

In an article published in The Social Science Journal, Jones and Peter Bishop researched the interaction of the lower federal courts and bureaucrats that assisted in the development of a “national, antidiscrimination AIDS policy in the field of education.”

Heanon Wilkins died Dec. 16 in Oxford. The former Miami professor, who retired in 1992, did not leave this world short of accomplishments.

Wilkins was Miami’s first tenured track African-American faculty member when he was hired in 1968. He went on to be promoted to full professor.

Toward the end of his career, in 1992, Wilkins earned the Benjamin Harrison Medallion. The medallion is one of the highest recognitions Miami offers faculty for teaching, research and service to the university.

“He was a man who saw teaching as service, as an obligation to help others to know, to understand and to grow,” said Larry Young, Miami alumnus and former director of Office of Minority Student Affairs, which is now called the Office of Diversity Affairs.

There is also a fellowship in Wilkins’ name, the Heanon Wilkins Faculty Fellowship. This faculty fellow has to have completed their doctorate or equivalent degree and is invited to Miami to teach for either one or two semesters with a reduced course load. This allows them to focus on research, something Wilkins did throughout his life.

His own academic journey started at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., where he earned his B.A. in romance languages. Wilkins went on to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This is where he met his wife,

NEWS EDITORS

JONES »PAGE 8

WILKINS »PAGE 8

FROM ASC »PAGE 1

ing rooms, the east wing of Armstrong will offer a new coffee shop called Cafe Lux and a bookstore outpost with day-today essentials. The space will also have senate chambers for student government to conduct meetings and hearings.

There’s also the Red Zone — an entertainment venue with games like pool and air hockey, and numerous televisions which Wilson hopes will have more channels than the current university cable offers. It will also have a small stage for performances and karaoke nights.

Construction on Armstrong began in fall 2011, and the center officially opened for students in January 2014. The old student center across the street, Phillip R. Shriver Center, now contains IT services.

Although the closed sidewalk will cause some students to reroute, Wilson said the east wing construction has been the plan all along and will benefit students in the future.

“The plans had always included Culler, but the whole building couldn’t be done at once,” Wilson said. “Securing the funding and renovating Kreger had to happen before the rest of Armstrong could happen.”

turn the former physics building into space for more offices and student organizations. The project is expected to finish before the 2017-2018 school year.

The physics department, once housed in Culler, is now primarily in Kreger Hall, which was under construction last year and opened its doors in the fall.

Katie Wilson, director of the Armstrong Student Center, believes the new wing of Armstrong is going to make the student center more useful to the student body.

“Career services is getting a central location on campus, and I think the students will be well served by that and hopefully will visit it more often,” Wilson said.

“There will also be medium-sized meeting rooms that will suit student [organization] meetings.”

Currently, Career Services is in Hoyt Hall on Western campus.

Most of the 16 study rooms in Armstrong’s current space hold four to eight students, similar to the rooms at King and B.E.S.T. Wilson said the rooms in the east wing will be more similar to classrooms capable of holding 30-50 students for organization meetings.

In addition to relocating career services and adding meetFROM BENGE »PAGE 1

The value of the computers is estimated to be $9,172.

After performing a forensic analysis on Benge’s personal computer,

Detective Schneider discovered a video recording of Benge and a female engaging in sexual acts. The recording took place significantly earlier than the beginning of the investigation and led to a subsequent

NEWS EDITORS

Andrew “Drew” R. L. Cayton, a longtime Miami University history professor, died Thursday, Dec. 17 after seven months battling cancer.

Cayton, who was 61 years old, taught at Miami for 25 years.

After his death, Wietse de Boer, history department chair, spoke of Cayton’s commitment to education and his popularity among students.

One of those pupils, Miami alumnus Scott Barkett (’12), said Cayton had a huge impact on his students.

“From the first day he really cared about the teaching aspect of his job,” Barkett said. “He really brought that passion to class every day.”

Barkett said Cayton presented class material in an interesting way and always pushed students to learn more.

“He made you feel like a million bucks,” Barkett said. “He was so talented that you wanted to seek his praise a little more.”

In a tweet Miami President David Hodge wrote: “Deeply saddened by the death of Drew Cayton, the epitome of the teacher-scholar much beloved by students and colleagues.”

Cayton’s distinguished teaching career also took him to Harvard University and Wellesley College.

This fall, Cayton moved to Ohio State University, where he was appointed the Warner Woodring Chair in Early American History.

Much of Cayton’s academic CAYTON»PAGE 8

If Rebecca Eldemire were still here today, her mother, Marlene Eldemire, thinks she knows what her daughter would say about the foundation her family created in her memory: “You go.

You go, family!”

It has been almost one year since her tragic death, but the Rebecca C. Eldemire BEEPS (Betterment for Environmental and Earth Protection) Foundation continues to grow, carrying on Becca’s legacy.

“We set it up in honor of my daughter,” Marlene said. “She was a geography and sustainability major — very passionate about the environment and all that goes with that.”

Rebecca’s family and friends have been working hard throughout the past year to continue supporting her dreams and passion about the environment.

“We’ve pretty much just been in fundraising mode,” said Marlene. “We plan to use the donated money as giving to causes that fit within Becca’s dreams and goals to make Earth a better place to live.”

Much of the foundation’s early focus was getting the 501c nonprofit status. Last summer, BEEPS was awarded this status, which means the foundation is now eligible for certain benefits, such as exemptions from state sales, property and income tax.

They did give one grant to the farm in Clarksville, Ohio, where Becca spent a summer for an internship called That Guy’s Family Farm. The farm raises certified organic produce and little bit of livestock. They also cut flowers and sell their products to farmer’s markets as well as to other wholesale vendor.

Guy Ashmore, the owner of the farm, says the farm was able to have three interns instead of two because of the grant.

For the past six years, the farm has hired only two interns who live in on-sight housing.

The interns help with all aspects of the farm: from planning to cultivating and helping with deliveries.

Ashmore said he got to know Becca pretty well during her internship, and she really seemed to enjoy her time on the farm.

“I just think [the foundation] is a great tribute to Rebecca, and it was a nice help for us and nice of them to think of us for their grant,” Ashmore said.

Marlene says they have even bigger plans for the future and many new ideas. They would love to plant vegetable gardens in urban areas where neighborhood kids would be able to help set it up and tend to it.

It was Becca who had originally pitched this idea to her family the summer before she passed away.

“I know she would want us to go crazy with it and have goals that would be very hard to achieve, but these are all things that Becca had discussed that she wanted to do,” said Marlene.

“She had lots of grand ideas.”

While Becca was a student at Miami, she spent a month at a small town in Tanzania where she helped teach English to children.

Marlene said that, at some point, they hope to install solar panels for the school in the town where Becca stayed and help with electricity and other basic needs.

Becca was also a member of the service fraternity, Phi Sigma Pi, whose current members have taken on the BEEPS Foundation as their philanthropy.

Senior and co-service chair of Phi Sigma Pi Jamie Budhan says they have mostly collected donations within the chapter to support the cause.

“We have also given gifts to support the family and remind them that we’re always thinking about Becca,” Budhan said. “By supporting her, I think it means a lot to not only me but to our entire chapter.”

Marlene says that she knows her daughter would be proud of everyone trying to continue her legacy through the foundation.

“It’s my honor and privilege to do this in my daughter’s name,” she said. “Carrying on her legacy is very important to me.”

CONNOR MORIARTY PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

The walkway between the Armstrong Student Center and Culler Hall will be closed as construction begins.

voyeurism charge.

Wayne Staton, Benge’s attorney, had no comment.

Benge is currently facing charges that include a misdemeanor for the voyeurism, a felony for the drug

trafficking and a felony of fourth degree for theft (or grand theft).

According to Detective Lieutenant Bechtolt and in accordance with Ohio criminal law, Benge could be facing a prison term rang-

ing from 6-18 months for the theft charges alone.

For the misdemeanor, Benge could face up to 60 days in prison and for the drug trafficking felony he could face 6-12 months.

NEWS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

NEWS 3

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

Roommate to roomhate: Fear and loathing in Dennison Hall STUDENT LIFE

MEGAN ZAHNEIS

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Roommates. They’re either your best friend or your worst enemy — and sometimes, a little bit of both.

Abby Smith, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, ought to know. The senior strategic communications major’s experience living in Dennison Hall during her freshman year is the stuff of horror stories.

Abby was originally randomly assigned as one of three girls in a triple. But midway through first semester, she was asked whether she’d mind if one of the girls in a triple across the hall swapped places with one of her roommates.

The girls in the other triple were having some issues getting along, but the one who would become Abby’s roommate seemed nice enough, so Abby agreed.

It was a decision she’d

but I don’t think she knew that was going to happen when she agreed to switch roommates.”

Abby’s RA was sympathetic, but the RA wound up studying abroad second semester, as the roommate issues intensified. The new RA assigned to Abby’s corridor was less understanding.

“She didn’t really care about anyone in the dorm,” Abby said.

“She was just kind of doing it for money, I think.”

That’s when Abby found herself stuck. As unhappy as she was with her situation, she never seriously considered moving out.

“I always came down to, ‘Well, do I want to move or do I want to stay where I am with everyone that I know and I like except for these two roommates?’ It was kind of like grin and bear it for the whole year.”

Voight said Abby did try to move into a spot vacated in a quad in Dennison, but was denied due to timing issues. “[Abby] was just looking out

I never even thought there would be a possibility that she would be a total psychopath.

ABBY SMITH SENIOR

come to regret.

They made the move, and soon Abby’s old roommate and her new one had become close friends.

“The first girl was totally fine [when] she was just on her own.

It was when they were partners in crime together that they became a terrible twosome. I would avoid my room at all costs, basically,” Abby said. “I had talked to [my new roommate] a couple of times and she was totally nice.

I never even thought there would be a possibility that she would be a total psychopath.”

Her roommates began bringing strangers back to their room, smoking on the balcony directly below their window, and moving furniture around.

“They were just on different lifestyles and schedules than [Abby],” Abby’s friend Maddy Voight, who also lived in Dennison, said. “That annoyed [Abby], FROM ASG »PAGE 1

Wagner said the area between Armstrong and Culler will become part of an indoor atrium for the east wing.

The construction on the new wing, previously known as “Phase 2,” will connect Armstrong to Culler Hall with an indoor pedestrian walkway on both the first and second floors, and turn the former physics building into space for more offices and student organizations. The project is expected to finish before the 2017-2018 school year.

The physics department, once housed in Culler, is now primarily in Kreger Hall, which was under construction last year and opened its doors in the fall.

Katie Wilson, director of the Armstrong Student Center, believes the new wing of Armstrong is going to make the student center more useful to the student body.

“Career services is getting a central location on campus, and I think the students will be well served by that and hopefully will visit it more often,” Wilson said. “There will also be medium-sized meeting rooms that will suit student [organization] meetings.”

Currently, Career Services is in Hoyt Hall on Western campus.

Most of the 16 study rooms in Armstrong’s current space hold four to eight students, similar to the rooms at King and B.E.S.T.

for herself,” Voight said. “She was just going to fix everything for herself regardless of what her roommates said.”

Eventually, Abby and her two roommates rearranged their furniture so that Abby had her own private space within the room, and there was very little interaction between the three.

“By the end of the year, they just kind of coexisted with one another in the dorm,” Voight said.

Voight said she felt the situation could have been handled differently.

“I think something should have been done. Nothing was resolved,” Voight said. “They obviously ended up hating one another, probably having miserable freshman roommate experiences. But I see why the school makes you stay with a roommate if you’re just not working out. I understand that, Libraries. Wilson said the rooms in the east wing will be more similar to classrooms capable of holding 30-50 students for organization meetings.

In addition to relocating career services and adding meeting rooms, the east wing of Armstrong will offer a new coffee shop called Cafe Lux and a bookstore outpost with day-today essentials. The space will also have senate chambers for student government to conduct meetings and hearings.

There’s also the Red Zone — an entertainment venue with games like pool and air hockey, and numerous televisions which Wilson hopes will have more channels than the current university cable offers. It will also have a small stage for performances and karaoke nights.

Construction on Armstrong began in fall 2011, and the center officially opened for students in January 2014. The old student center across the street, Phillip R. Shriver Center, now contains IT services.

Although the closed sidewalk will cause some students to reroute, Wilson said the east wing construction has been the plan all along and will benefit students in the future.

“The plans had always included Culler, but the whole building couldn’t be done at once,” Wilson said. “Securing the funding and renovating Kreger had to happen before the rest of Armstrong could happen.”

you know, you can’t flipflop roommates all the time.”

When the initial switch was made, Abby and her roommates filled out a roommate agreement. Roommate agreements cut down on many conflicts by helping students spell out ground rules prior to the start of the semester, said Rob Abowitz, associate director of the Office of Residence Life.

Abby begs to differ.

“When people fill it out, it’s like, ‘What time do you think we should have lights out? Midnight?’ You sign it and turn it in.

Nobody cares,” Abby said.

Voight has a similar perception of the roommate agreement.

“They just fill[ed] out the roommate agreement because you had to,” Voight said. “And then when it became a problem that’s when [they] realized, ‘We probably should have taken the roommate agreement seriously.’”

Although ORL doesn’t keep statistics on how many roommate conflicts it mediates in a typical semester or school year, Abowitz said he only sees a few cases like Abby’s each year.

Abby agreed that severe roommate conflict doesn’t seem to be an epidemic, at least in Oxford.

“The kids who go to Miami are very homogeneous, a lot of the same backgrounds, they like the same things in high school.

People like all the same things,” Abby said.

Voight agreed, saying that some level of roommate conflict is inevitable.

“It happens to everyone, and that’s why I feel like it’s not as big a deal,” Voight said. “It does happen to everyone, and everyone just moves on from it.”

When severe roommate conflict does occur, it can have a severe impact on an individual’s well being.

Abby said that not feeling like her dorm room was a safe, comfortable place compounded the already difficult transition of moving to college.

“I was happy enough with everything else in my life that having the two roommates from hell didn’t affect me so much,” Abby said. “If other things in my life hadn’t been going great, it would have been a different story and turned out differently.”

A.J. NEWBERRY THE MIAMI STUDENT

Miami University Student Affairs banned hoverboards from campus on Jan. 12, following in the steps of more than 30 American universities.

Miami pumps brakes on popular hoverboards TRANSPORTATION

MAGGIE CALLAGHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The hoverboard trend swept the nation this fall, but if you were one of the thousands who received a self-balancing scooter this holiday season, your gift won’t be allowed on Miami’s campus anymore.

Miami University Student Affairs notified all students, faculty and staff through email on Tuesday, Jan. 12 of the immediate prohibition of using, possessing or storing hoverboards on all Miami campuses. These models include the Hoverboard, Swagway, IO Hawks and Skywalkers, according to the email.

Those who still chose to bring their hoverboard to campus will have to store their device at the Miami University Police Department’s services center on Route 3, where the hoverboards will be left unplugged.

Jayne Brownell, vice president of student affairs, said this is because most fires have occurred during or after charging.

“Recent events have demonstrated that some batteries and chargers for self-balancing personal scooters, popularly called hoverboards, can be prone to explosion, creating a substantial safety and fire risk,” university officials wrote in the email.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission sent out a report on Dec. 16, 2015, outlining its investigation into the risk of the hoverboards. Their report states there have been 28 known fires in 19 states, with 70 emergency room-related injuries.

Bans on hoverboards first made national headlines when American Airlines and United Airlines decided to ban the scooters right before the busy holiday travel season. On Dec. 26, 2015, a video surfaced of a hoverboard exploding in a busy Houston mall. Then, in the wake of the controversy, Super Bowl-bound Carolina Panthers announced on

Jan. 18 that their head coach, Ron Rivera, had banned hoverboards from the stadium and athletic facilities after watching YouTube videos of the device catching on fire.

Claire Wagner, director of communications, said talks about the ban of hoverboards began after resident directors grew concerned over stories of fires caused by the hoverboards in residence halls at other universities. Once concerns grew over the toy’s safety, university officials acted swiftly.

“We wanted to get the word out before students started to pack to come back,” said Wagner.

Miami joins a growing list of over 30 universities that have banned hoverboards on their campus due to the fire risk. Ohio University announced on Jan. 17 that students would no longer be permitted to use or store their device on campus.

Brownell said Miami felt it was important to implement these safety measures until more information is available about the fires in connection to the hoverboards.

“It is not clear which boards are safer than others,” she said.

Although the banning of hoverboards seems to be a growing trend, the city of Oxford does not plan to ban hoverboards.

Oxford City Manager Douglas Elliott said the city does not feel the need to ban the popular device since not all hoverboards are dangerous.

“We are in a different situation than Miami,” Elliott said.

“Miami owns residence halls, but the city doesn’t.”

Elliott said if a ban would come, it would be from landlords who own property in Oxford, not from the city.

Residence directors will be responsible for looking out for hoverboards in their dorms, and students who do not report their hoverboard to their resident director or MUPD will face a first offense against University Policy and will be handled by student affairs.

JENNIFER MILLS THE MIAMI STUDENT

The Chestnut Field House, a new rec center bulding designed for crossfit, will have an open house on Jan. 31 from 2 to 6 p.m.

FROM CHESTNUT »PAGE 1

who is headed to physical therapy school in Cincinnati after graduation.

When it was announced that Withrow Court would be demolished, Cottingim’s club knew it would be losing its home. The timing of Chestnut Field House’s opening allowed his club to have a space for the foreseeable future, albeit a shared one.

“There was really no other option for us, that’s what we were given,” he said. “The people who are in school now may be upset, but two or three years down the line Chestnut will be all the students know.

It’ll be what they grow into.”

The Weightlifting Club will share the space with members of the field house, who will be signing up on a first-come first-serve basis during the open house.

The logistics are tricky, Arnos says, and the building will have to go through a trial period. He says the field house will top off at about 40 people at a time.

The hours will be Monday through Friday 1-7:30 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday 4 to 9 p.m.

To prevent overcrowding, the field house will have paid memberships. The cost of the memberships

will be $90/semester for Miami students and rec center members and $125/semester for non-members.

One trial pass per person will be offered for those who are not willing to commit to a full membership just yet. The week of Feb. 1 to Feb.5 will also be free week for the facility.

The field house memberships are open to students, faculty members and community members.

Arnos is confident the field house will succeed because both he and Cropenbaker are running the show.

“This isn’t being outsourced to any of our entry-level staff,” Arnos said. “We’re going to pilot every single thing we can think of.”

4 CULTURE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

Kirua,Tanzania

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Mount Kilimanjaro

CONTRIBUTED BY ALLISON KUMNICK

Hannah Abner performs malaria tests and blood glucose tests at a mobile clinic she helped set up while in Tanzania with MEDLIFE. FROM TRAVEL »PAGE 1

way of life, different religion, different dress, different food, different music,” said Moncrief.

Studying theatre in London Senior Andrew Lynn flew across the pond to London with a program through Miami’s theatre department.

While abroad, the students took two classes and met with guest speakers, including an actor from the UK version of “The Office” and Noma Dumezweni, who was recently cast as Hermione in the upcoming play, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”

One of the features of the program was the opportunity to see seven different theatre productions. “Thumbelina,” performed with only candles for lighting,

CONTRIBUTED BY ALLISON KUMNICK

Allison Kumnick and Hannah Abner are all smiles after hiking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro while abroad during winter term.

was one of Andrew’s favorites.

Given their location, Shakespeare was a large part of the program’s content.

“We all grow up hearing about Shakespeare, so it was very interesting to go to Stratford-uponAvon and see all those historical sites and go to the new Globe Theatre,” Andrew said. “[It] brings American education full circle.”

Comparing Arabian economies When senior Ian Marker told friends and family where he was studying during winter term, he always had to reassure them that he’d be safe.

Marker traveled to Oman and the United Arab Emirates with a religion class focused on Arabian Gulf economies and social transition. While there, the students kept to a strict itinerary. They

PERELMBK@MIAMIOH.EDU

London, England

IAN MARKER THE MIAMI STUDENT

The students in REL 399 traveled to Oman and the United Arab Emirates, where they visited the Sheikh Zayed Mosque.

met with businesses, had small group discussions and kept a daily journal.

The group compared their two destinations, analyzing each by the influx of money and the presence of oil.

“My favorite part was seeing the transition between the really cultural and traditional Oman to its neighbor country, UAE, that is just this economy of corporations and money,” Marker said.

While in Dubai, the group was given a free day, but had to remember that the laws were completely different.

“It was interesting to learn how to control yourself and not just think you’re in America and do what you want or say what you want,” said Marker.

Volunteering in Jamaica

BETH PFOHL THE MIAMI STUDENT

A theatre program took students to London, where they took rides on the London Eye in between guest meetings and seeing live shows.

Being in Jamaica for winter term felt like home to senior Tola Adedipe, whose family is from Nigeria. She traveled abroad with a political science class studying globalization and development in one of the world’s most underdeveloped countries.

The first half of the program was spent working one-on-one with Jamaican locals before visiting the more tourist-heavy areas.

“We fell in love with the real Jamaica before we saw all the familiar stuff,” Tola said.

The students volunteered at a retirement home, spent time with students at a local school and built houses for people in need. The experience made Adedipe reconsider what she might want to do after graduation. “[It] just really opened my eyes

to the amount of help different individuals actually need and it made me feel like I want to do something more — especially with my major — something that can give back to these people or at least help them build better schools, better roads, something that will help the people advance in their society,” Adedipe said.

Adedipe learned a lot from a Jamaican woman who benefited from the housing-development program. This particular woman was driven and worked hard to fulfill her dreams — dreams that, to Americans, might seem very simple.

“I think my favorite memory was just watching her talk about how she’s supporting her four kids and how she is basically triumphing in this battle,” said Adedipe.

‘The Big Short’ is depressingly hilarious FILM

JACK RYAN

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

“The Big Short” is the story of a few men who predicted the 2008 financial crisis — an event that ruined hundreds of thousands of lives and nearly destroyed the world economy — and proceeded to bet millions against the United States economy. It’s also one of the funniest movies of the year.

Beginning with Michael Burry’s (Christian Bale) discovery of the housing bubble, “The Big Short” follows the intertwined actions of three groups of investors who individually begin to unravel the enormous corruption surrounding the housing market. As they continue to search, the magnitude of the inevitable market crash grows, simultaneously reassuring the chances of their gamble and, subsequently, the end of the financial world.

The most surprising attribute of “The Big Short” is its director,

Adam McKay, who has directed nothing but Will Ferrell movies to this point — granted, they have been some of Ferrell’s best (“Anchorman,” “The Other Guys”).

While still making a laugh-outloud quality comedy, McKay also pulls off the directorial equivalent of acting off-type, creating dramatic scenes that effectively silence the hilarity of the film.

McKay also manages to shine as the film’s co-writer (alongside Charles Randolph), adapting Michael Lewis’ complex book and making it not only coherent, but also enjoyable for the average viewer. McKay and Randolph fill the film with interesting devices to keep the viewer aware. A Jenga tower becomes our mental visualization of the housing market, and actress Margot Robbie, who isn’t a character in the film, explains the futility of subprime loans from the comfort of a bubble bath (no, seriously).

The cast works their openly flawed characters to perfection,

creating humor and sentiment out of their unabashed egos. Christian Bale, the human chameleon, is, once again, like you’ve never seen him before as Burry, an eccentric glass-eyed hedge fund manager.

Bale perfectly mixes a misunderstood nature with Burry’s self-absorption and adamancy to create a dislikable character that still manages to command our pity.

On the other end of the spectrum is Steve Carell’s Mark Baum, a hedge fund manager who really doesn’t care if you like him or not.

Carell’s strong dramatic streak continues here, as his general fury and annoyance pushes the film forward for much of the runtime.

Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt also give less accentuated, but equally strong performances as Jared Vennett, a young trader, and Ben Rickert, a retired banker, respectively.

Although these four actors are top-billed for promotional purposes, “The Big Short” carries a strong ensemble cast at its core, backed both by young up-and-

comers Finn Wittrock and John Magaro, as well as seasonable veterans Marisa Tomei and Melissa Leo in supporting roles.

“The Big Short” brilliantly mocks the “based on a true story” genre that continues to populate December theaters and garner Oscar nominations. Multiple times in the story, Jared Vennett — our narrator — will nudge the audience’s shoulder via voiceover and remind us that this actually, truly happened, or in some cases even throw the screenwriters themselves under the bus by unraveling the fictionalized segments of his own story.

This powerful dramedy is greatly reinforced by the Oscar-nominated editing of Hank Corwin.

Corwin’s editing is quick, accessible and effective, blending conventional and shaky cam shots to create a vérité feel. Perhaps Corwin’s strongest contribution comes in the form of time-passing montages that detail the events of the early 2000s, serving as a reminder

of the recent reality of these events less than 10 years ago.

Although it does begin to drag in the final 15 minutes, “The Big Short” is the kind of movie that makes you grind your teeth in disappointment but smile at the hilarity you have just witnessed, the hallmark of a bittersweet film.

When “The Big Short” is juxtaposed with its fellow modern biopic “Spotlight,” it’s like looking at two brothers that bring out the best in each other. “The Big Short” is enjoyable, yet nauseating; “Spotlight” is nauseating, yet enjoyable, each more so because of the other. Corruption is still alive and well in the world today — go see for yourself.

“The Big Short” is nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

‘Okay, then.’ Second season of ‘Fargo’ is brilliant TELEVISION

DEVON SHUMAN

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As a reviewer, I try to avoid the term “perfection.” It’s my duty to critique shows, to analyze what was done well and what was done poorly, and to ignore the latter would be a direct violation of my job description. Even TV masterpieces, such as the first season of “True Detective,” can be combed over to expose minor faults and missteps.

However, with 10 episodes of brilliantly crafted television, the second season of Noah Hawley’s “Fargo” managed to successfully avoid my meticulous red pen. Every aspect of this show was nothing short of spectacular. Given its utter domination of everything from writing to cinematography, it’s a shame “Fargo” didn’t run the table at this year’s Golden Globes (it earned a meager three nominations.)

While the events of the first

season took place in 2006, this time around the show jumps back to 1979 when Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson) was still a young police officer in Luverne, Minnesota. The once dominant Gerhardt crime family is dwindling in size and power. Sensing weakness, a Kansas City corporate crime syndicate moves in to try and take over. A quiet local couple, Peggy and Ed Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons), inadvertently get dragged into this turf war after Peggy accidentally runs over the youngest Gerhardt boy and makes a panicked decision to not report it.

With the inclusion of so many different characters and storylines, Hawley runs the risk of creating a plot too confusing to follow. However, this is never the case. While other shows, such as “American Horror Story” often get bogged down in their own complexity, “Fargo” manages to tell an intricate tale in a clear and simple way.

Brilliant writing, coupled with terrific acting performances, creates for a slew of superb characters. Only Patrick Wilson and Kirsten Dunst earned themselves nominations, but everyone who appears on screen manages to develop a persona that fits snugly into the show’s dark and quirky universe.

Ted Danson adds some warmth to the snowy landscape as the calm and compassionate police chief and father-in-law to Solverson. Jeffrey Donovan provides comic relief as the headstrong, misogynistic Dodd Gerhardt.

Zahn McClarnon somehow portrays the deep inner struggles of Dodd’s Native American henchman Hanzee Dent without so much as 10 lines of dialogue.

But, if there is a standout, it has to be Bokeem Woodbine as the chilling Kansas City gangster, Mike Milligan. Like Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo in season one, Milligan inspires fear not through physical aggression,

but with unsettlingly calm monologues. No matter how mundane the conversation, Milligan is able to create an ambiance of terror.

Like a rattlesnake ready to strike, he makes it clear that he has the ability to make everything turn deadly at any moment.

Ultimately, what separates “Fargo” from other great shows is its focus on tone. Hawley’s universe is quite distinct, marked by funky accents, a snowy, barren backdrop, and an emphasis on the absurd. Everything that happens is strange and bizarre, often even ridiculous. This is a world where a mobster can walk into a donut shop, shoot a patron in the face, and then walk up to the counter and utter, “Lemme get a chocolate glaaaaaazed.”

It only works so well because the show is aware of its own absurdity. An unannounced spaceship used to further the plot might be too out of place in other shows, but here it serves as a physical embodiment of

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the idea that, while we can look for meaning in this nonsensical world, at the end of the day, that’s all it is – nonsense.

Of course, while all of this was present in the first season, what makes the second that much better is its incorporation of setting – not just place, but time, as well.

Taking place at the end of the 1970s, this season is all about the changing of the times. The expansion of corporate America is mirrored by the individual storylines of the characters, all of whom face major changes in their lives and relationships. Only those who choose to embrace these changes will be able to survive.

With all of this in mind, and despite my reluctance to use this word, I have to declare that the second season of “Fargo” is nothing short of perfection.

WWW.MIAMISTUDENT.NET

5

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

Blood drive Open to All Miami Students & Faculty!

Wednesday, February 10 11:00 am – 5:00 pm Heritage Room - 3rd Floor Shriver Center

Please use the stairs on the East end of Shriver (Patterson Avenue side) to reach the Heritage Room on the 3rd floor.

Sponsored by: Delta Epsilon Mu Pre-Health

Profession Fraternity, Miami Equestrians, Miami M.E.D., Miami Quidditch, Pre-Physician Asst.

Club, Sigma Tau Delta, Soc. Of Women Engineers, Theta Tau, Zeta Phi Beta

Free Lov e Your D onor t-shirt w hen you register to donate b lood!

Make Your Appointment to Donate Today!

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Eligibility Questions? Email: canidonate@givingblood.org Bring a friend and save more lives!

Proudly serving Miami University and the Oxford Community since 1969!

New & Used Vehicle Purchasing Service A Free Credit Union Service Since 2001

No time to Car Shop ?

Take advantage of: • Our extensive dealership network

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• Pre-arranged dealer • Our vehicle shopping expertise visits • No loan payments for 90 days • Discounts on new and used vehicles • Free CARFAX vehicle history report

Miami University and Community Federal Credit Union 5120 College Corner Pike To apply go to muccu.org Oxford, OH 45056 or call (513)523-8888 513-523-8888 • www.muccu.org Call for complete details on the above product offering. APY, Rates, Terms and Conditions are subject to individual credit worthiness, subject to daily change without notic. MUCFCU is not a legal entity of the University. Federally insured with the NCUA.

Call Kristine at 513-523-8888

WRITERS WANTED

The Miami Student Is looking for beat writers and reporters.

For more info, e-mail eic@miamistudent.net

Page designers wanted.

Paid position (hourly) available for students proficient in Adobe InDesign.

Contact the design editor by email at haydenka@miamioh.edu.

6 OPINION

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

EDITORIAL@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

Tapping into the Millennial generation’s unused political potential EDITORIAL

At 85 million strong, Millennials are now the largest demographic of the U.S. population, surpassing Baby Boomers by almost 20 million.

With the 2016 presidential race in full swing and the Ohio primaries less than two months away, Millennials, specifically those on college campuses like Miami’s, are poised to have a significant say not just in who our next president is, but in the direction the U.S. political system takes.

Twenty-two year-olds now make up the biggest chunk of the U.S. voting population. Yet, the U.S. political system seems to be lacking in the generation’s voice. Millennials determine the trends in culture, technology and fashion, so why not government?

A survey by Harvard’s Institute of Politics suggests that part of the reason is Millennials are distrustful of traditional forms of political engagement — i.e. democrats vs. republicans and, apparently, voting in general. Fifty percent of Millennials define themselves as independents

The following piece, written by the editorial editors, reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board. and 43 percent of Millennials ques- traditional presidential candidates Something that seems to be lacktioned said it did not matter who is have been kicked out of the spotlight ing, at least on Miami’s campus, is elected president because “Washing- by independent and anti-establish- the number of students who are inton is broken.” ment ones, what can we do different- volved in political campaigns.

There is a common view held by ly? Why and how should Millennials Anecdotal accounts seem to show Millenials that electhat Millennials tions have been less want politics to about policies and work instantly more about how (whether this much money a Local governments could benefit from more can be attribcandidate can raise. uted to the 21st Millennials have a millennial involvement as well. Everybody century menhard time identify- worries about the presidency, but they don’t tality of instant ing with either of everything, i.e. the dominant po- care about who is sitting on their city council. fast food, fast litical parties in the internet and United States befast devices, is cause very few Milup for debate). lennials have stakes An outcome of in high-profit institutions that support realize the stakes are high for them as this is that, while Millennials are incandidates and are, conversely, sup- well, and that they do have a say in vested in one, widely advertised poported by candidates. This feeling of the government? litical seat, they forget about the more alienation among the Millennial genAccording to the 2015 millennial important seats at the congressional eration creates the notion that their impact report, Millennials are more and state levels. opinions and votes “don’t matter.” likely to donate, volunteer and parThis can be seen in Millennials’ This begs the question though, ticipate when recruited or influenced lackluster turnout for the midterm what about 2016? In a year where by their peers, not their elders. elections in comparison to the wave

‘Making a Murderer’ indicts U.S. justice system POLITICS

MILAM’S MUSINGS

BRETT MILAM COLUMNIST

When considering the U.S. criminal justice system, one of the first things we ought to do is dispense with the notion that it has anything to do with justice.

If you were like me, you spent your holiday break binge-watching Netflix’s 10-part documentary series, Making a Murderer, and subsequently breaking anything in sight at the blunt display of injustice on the screen.

Making a Murderer tells the story of Steven Avery, a man wrongfully convicted of a rape in 1985 in Wisconsin and freed 18 years later after DNA evidence exonerated him. But that’s only the beginning of the series and his story.

I’ll refrain from spoiling for those who haven’t seen it, but the documentary series is about more than its central character in Avery. It is, in fact, a larger indictment of the criminal justice system.

It’s an indictment of a system where prosecutors, police, judges, politicians and the like work together to ensure convictions and continue to fill our prisons. It’s a system where if the government accuses you of a crime, especially if you’re a poor, marginalized person, you’re virtually powerless to stop it.

William Young, a judge in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, aptly observed this back in 2004.

“The focus of our entire criminal justice system has shifted away from trials and juries and adjudication to a massive system of sentence bargaining that is heavily rigged against the accused,” he said.

Our system is about convictions, not discovering the truth. That is why 97 percent of convictions in federal courts come as a result of guilty pleas. In state courts, it’s 94 percent.

We all like to think we wouldn’t plead guilty to a crime we didn’t commit, but when standing up against the weight of the government — its prosecutors, its judges, its police and its myriad laws — people, perhaps rightly, make the

calculation that they’d rather plead guilty and face a lesser sentence than risk going to trial and facing a much harsher one.

One stark representation of this is the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that helps exonerate wrongfully convicted people.

In about 10 percent of the cases in which the Innocence Project proved someone was wrongfully convicted, those individuals plead guilty. These individuals did so, as mentioned, to avoid a harsher sentence or worse, the death penalty.

It’s one thing to take a plea deal if you’re innocent and avoid a lon-

Our system is about convictions, not discovering the truth.

ger sentence, but what about actually confessing to a crime you didn’t commit? Again, according to the Innocence Project, 25 percent of people wrongfully convicted and later exonerated by DNA evidence made a false confession or an incriminating statement.

Most of us have also never dealt with experienced police detectives and prosecutors determined to win convictions.

It’s especially easy to coerce a confession out of juveniles, the mentally ill and those with low IQs, as they are even more susceptible to suggestion and conforming to the will of an authority figure.

This presents another fiction we ought to dispense with: that the police are always good. Public confidence in the police since Gallup started tracking it in 1993 has remained anywhere between 52 percent and as high as 64 percent.

Only the military and small business, respectively, poll higher.

Another fiction is the infallibility of science in convicting someone. In 154 out of 325 DNA exonerations from the Innocence Project, those wrongful convictions came about due to invalidated and/ or improper forensics. Forensic science is less about science and more about conviction.

Consider the bombshell revelation

from last year: the FBI acknowledged that for a two-decade period prior to 2000, 26 out of 28 examiners in the FBI Laboratory’s microscopic hair comparison unit gave false testimony in 95 percent of the 268 trials reviewed. Of those cases, 32 involve defendants sentenced to death. And of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison.

Radley Balko at the Washington Post did a series on the flawed “science” of bite mark analysis. The Innocence Project again: 24 exonerees were convicted based on flawed bite mark testimony. Estimates suggest hundreds more are still in prison due to bite mark testimony, including 15 awaiting execution.

Geoffrey Mearns, the co-chair of the National Academies’ Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community, testified before the U.S. Senate in 2011 that “forensic odontology (bite marks) is so far from scientific validation that it is not worthy of research funding.”

As it stands now, too much of the system rests upon false assumptions about the good will of police and prosecutors to do the right thing and an erroneous faith in science to help adjudicate.

All of these assumptions are upturned by Making a Murderer, so after you finish reading this, start binging.

So while it’s true that if the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial was exercised in more cases in the United States, it would likely crash the system, perhaps the system needs to be crashed.

Dean Strang, one of the defense attorneys in Making a Murderer, gets at the real moral problem plaguing our criminal justice system.

“Most of what ails our criminal justice system lies in unwarranted certitude on the part of police officers and prosecutors and defense lawyers and judges and jurors that they are getting it right. That they are simply right. Just a tragic lack of humility in everyone who participates in our criminal justice system,” Strang said.

Humility is a good rule of thumb in general, but especially so when dealing with a fallible human institution which not only has the power to strip someone of their civil liberties, but potentially of their life.

MILAMBC@MIAMIOH.EDU

that helped re-elect President Obama in 2012. Millennials are happy to post a Facebook status or tweet about how broken Washington is, but we’re not so enthused about voting in the midterm elections that ruined any chance of giving the candidate they were crazy about a cooperative congress.

Local governments could benefit from more millennial involvement as well. Everybody worries about the presidency, but they don’t care about who is sitting on their city council — a governing body that holds much more sway in our daily lives. That is left up to the ‘older people.’

Presidential candidates make promises they cannot keep without the help of Congress and local governments. Voters can’t focus on something for one day of the year and expect the political culture to follow suit for the other 364 days.

Political involvement requires constant engagement.

We just need to get involved.

Global impacts of dirty energy demand strong local attention ENVIRONMENT

energy to generate electricity, but it was making progress until the TO THE EDITOR: state legislature froze the AlternaI was very impressed by the two tive Energy Portfolio Standard that stories on coal mining and electric- we passed in 2008. That law manity generation on the front page of dated that by 2025, at least 25 perthe Dec. 4 Miami Student. James cent of Ohio electricity must come Steinbauer’s story was a well from alternative energy resources, crafted piece that traced our cam- including at least 12.5 percent from pus electricity, step-by-step, back renewable sources such as wind to the coal mines of West Virginia, and solar, with annual steps towards and the environmental impacts those goals. This encouraged inof various steps in this process. vestment in wind farms, including Reis Thebault described social the Blue Creek Wind Farm, which and health impacts of coal mining has 152 turbines, in northwest Ohio and the closing of mines through between Lima and Fort Wayne. But the life and times of a man from last year, the legislature froze this Kayford Mountain, West Virginia. standard, and indications are that the I’d like to point out that a retired current legislature is more likely to professor from Miami was very repeal it than to allow it to resume. involved in publicizing the envi- In August of this year, the fedronmental impacts of mining coal eral government finalized its Clean via mountaintop removal. Orie Power Plan, which sets goals for Loucks, emeritus Eminent Scholar each state to reduce greenhouse gas in Ecology and Professor of Zool- emissions from electricity generaogy, was one of the authors of an tion. While states have flexibility essay published in Science maga- in how they will reach these goals, zine in 2010 that documented the they will involve some combinamassive environmental impacts of tion of phasing out coal combusmountaintop removal, and argued, tion, expanding renewable sources “Damage to ecosystems and threats and improving efficiency. Unfortuto human health and the lack of ef- nately, Ohio is one of 24 states that fective mitigation require new ap- have sued the Administration over proaches to mining regulation.” the Clean Power Plan. Just last Readers may also be interested month, the U.S. Senate voted 52-48 to know that most residents of Ox- for a “resolution of disapproval,” ford get their electricity from wind saying that the Clean Power Plan energy, thanks to the City’s “Elec- “shall have no force or effect.” tric Aggregation Program.”

Phasing out the combustion of Earlier this year, the City negoti- coal for electricity would not only ated an agreement with AEP Ener- stop the environmental impacts of gy to provide all consumers (except mining, washing and burning coal, those that choose to opt out) with but it would help reduce emissions renewable energy. It is my under- of the greenhouse gases that are standing that the negotiated rate is warming the Earth. slightly lower than the current rate The Obama Administration Duke Energy charges those in our brought substantial commitments area for electricity generated almost towards this goal to the U.N. Clientirely from coal combustion. mate Summit underway in Paris Last week I received a letter docu- and has encouraged efforts by menting that the electricity sold to China and other countries to make Oxford residents by AEP Energy strong commitments. But at the over the previous several months same time our federal and state repwas 100% from wind energy from resentatives are blocking sensible Texas. However, Miami Univer- policies that move us in the right sity’s purchase of electricity does direction. Those of us who are not fall within this Aggregation Pro- concerned about local, regional and gram, so if you live or work on cam- global impacts of energy generation pus, you are using electricity from need to make our voices heard. coal, as Mr. Steinbauer reported.

Ohio lags behind states like GORCHOVDL@MIAMIOH.EDU Texas and Iowa in utilizing wind

Lost & found: Military bracelet inspires gratitude MILITARY

In picking through our department’s lost and found bin, I came across something that humbled me and gave me a flush of gratitude. It also left me anxious for someone I don’t know.

I found a bracelet memorializing a loved one. It reads: SPC Michael J Potocki MD, Army Iraqi Freedom 26 July ‘06 KIA. This person gave his life in the service of

his Army brothers and sisters and for his country. My country. Your country. He was a doctor and a soldier and he lived and died in the spirit of giving to others.

I am deeply grateful I live in a world and a country filled with people like this. He showed me that I can do this too, at least in small ways, every day. Thank you, Specialist Michael Potocki.

I am grateful to live in his debt and the debt of all those like him

who help others. They provide guiding lights when I lose my way in self-pity and pettiness.

I hope that this bracelet finds its way back to the owner. In the mean time, it touched my heart and reminded me of all the good in the world.

Anyone wishing to help reconnect the bracelet and its owner should contact Miami’s Biology DeSTEVENMH@MIAMIOH.EDU

TMS ONLINE M I A M I S T U D E N T. N E T

EDITORIAL@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

OPINION 7

TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

Student support is necessary in making ‘I am Miami’ mantra a reality RACE

TO THE EDITOR: What does “I am Miami” mean to you?

To some, “I am Miami” is a paradox; it’s a way of life that many cannot get behind because they do not feel as though they ARE Miami. When many students feel some form of oppression — racism, sexism, ableism, classism, heterosexism or any other system of oppression — on a daily basis, it is hard to be “Miami.” A campus climate like that is bound to foster resentment, hurt and frustration.

Of course, we are not the only university with problems like this, given the recent events at the University of Missouri. It is important to recognize that racism and other issues are alive at Miami, too. There are, however, many students who have made an effort to show solidarity with students of color at Mizzou and on our own campus.

This is the meaning of “I am Miami.”

“I am Miami” is not what each student at Miami is, rather, “I am Miami” is what each student at Miami is trying to become. We want to encourage students to be accepting, responsible, caring individuals. “I am Miami” is a mantra to describe a standard and set of values that the university as a whole

strives to become.

In light of recent events, it is easy to critique student activists because they disrupt the status quo and challenge people to reflect on difficult topics. However, student activism has

“I am Miami” is a mantra to describe a standard and set of values that the university as a whole strives to become. been the catalyst for many movements and helped to bring about significant changes in our nation and on our campus alike.

Take Freedom Summer of 1964, when students trained in our very own Oxford, Ohio, at Western College for Women, and traveled down to Mississippi to gain voting rights for African Americans. While Miami may not have supported the initiative at the time, it is something that the university has grown to embrace. The current focus on systemic racism and other problems in universities across the nation presents a unique opportunity for Miami to stand on the right side of history.

Imagine looking back on this time and

thinking about your stance on these issues.­­ Were you actively against student discrimination? Were you actively showing solidarity?

Or simply going through the motions with no opinion at all? “I am Miami” exemplifies a solidarity with people of all identities.

Our hope is that, together, we can bring inclusion to the heart of Love and Honor and respect student activists in their efforts. There are so many aspects of Miami University to celebrate and we, as the I Am Miami student committee, want every student to be able to share the opportunities that Miami can bring.

Unfortunately, that cannot be a reality unless we are all on board. To those who are already involved, thank you for fighting against oppression and progressing towards over-due changes. To those that want to engage but aren’t sure how, here are some action steps: Stay informed. Get information about campus issues and current events from multiple sources. Talk to student activists to hear their perspective.

Call out the problems. This can be done in a variety of ways, including sharing an article on your Facebook page or calling out a friend for offensive comments.

Support initiatives. If you hear about protests, dialogues or other related events, do your best to show up. Using your body to

demonstrate solidarity goes a long way.

Support people. If you see people taking a stand on an important issue, let them know you appreciate their efforts and that they are doing a good job.

Respect. Miami University should be a place where students feel comfortable expressing their discontent with current issues. Even if you disagree with a viewpoint, try to listen to the whole perspective and show empathy. It can be very intimidating and even dangerous to challenge systems of oppression, so simply demonstrating respect for individuals that do can make a difference.

Miami University is a scholarly community whose members believe that a liberal education is grounded in qualities of character as well as of intellect. We respect the dignity of other persons, the rights and property of others and the right of others to hold and express disparate beliefs. We believe in honesty, integrity and the importance of moral conduct. We defend the freedom of inquiry that is the heart of learning and combine that freedom with the exercise of judgment and the acceptance of personal responsibility.

IAMMIAMI1809@GMAIL.COM

Our criminal justice system, a scourge to democracy POLITICS

KYLE HAYDEN DESIGN EDITOR

During winter break, several people I attended high school with from my hometown were arrested as part of a larger ‘bust’ of almost two-dozen people involved in drug trafficking in Sidney, Ohio.

This is not uncommon. Three years ago, a good friend of mine who graduated at the top of our high school class withdrew from The Ohio State University and ended up in jail within nine months for breaking and entering. He was trying to steal valuables from a stranger’s home in order to make money: to buy heroin and cocaine. My cousin, Brad Willie died as a result of his addiction to heroin in Jan. 2012.

Brad was given a bad cut of heroin mixed with another street drug that induced cardiac arrest. He was 34 years-old.

These people are not objects.

They are not criminals. They are the products of a society that refuses to help them when they need help most. They are the products of a society that punishes them harshly for their condition. Above all, they are the result of a socio-economic arrangement that excludes and punishes them for their condition.

Commonly, traffickers in Sidney are pushing heroin brought in from South America and Mexico and then further distributed out of Dayton. The ease of transporting out of Dayton is enabled by the intersection of Interstates 70 and 75.

In my hometown, the possibility of employment is scarce, and not returning anytime soon. After waves of deindustrialization took jobs overseas, a lot of people have been left wondering what’s next for their community.

Those arrested in late December were people I knew who dabbled with marijuana in their high school years, and by no means am I peddling the myths of drug addiction and marijuana or ‘gateway drug’ mythology. But what language do I use to explain how one of my good friends, whom I haven’t seen in three years, ended up in witness protection? How do I explain how his profligate partying lifestyle mixed him with people who didn’t care about his well-being? He ended up addicted to heroin and cocaine, then in jail — but exchanged information about certain others for a plea deal, protection and rehabilitation.

It saddens me that I have related these stories to many of my friends at Miami, many of whom know others who have been snared by the disastrous War on Drugs.

Our generation has been ex-

cluded from the programs of mass luxury and wealth that sodefined the previous generation.

The building of suburbia, cheap fuel, abundant economic growth and jobs for every hand (except when African Americans and migrants were excluded from purchasing land, homes or participating in unionized labor efforts after the end of institutionalized slavery) are over and we haven’t yet come to terms with what’s next. Hardly anyone wants to think about it. The wealth, power and control lie in the hands of a couple hundred. It’s a very exclusive club and we aren’t in it.

All of these things were disastrous for the environment, as well as the social and spiritual fabric of the country, but they created the illusion of happiness and prosperity for about 60 years.

Author and social theorist Zygmunt Bauman calls young people (Millennials) “the Zero Generation”: zero hope, zero jobs, zero future. Wealthy industrialists and corporate wealth mongers in a profligate campaign to amass as much wealth as possible in the shortest amount of time borrowed against our future without wane.

So too have our political venues gone by the way of corporate influence and corruption.

We will experience adverse effects as the system collapses.

There is no disputing this fact, and the evidence shown in the financial world (imagine the 2008 housing bubble) should be apparent, with the subsequent ransacking of the treasury and the bailout of banks and the automobile industry — I won’t spend any time detailing it here. The only problem is, as impossible as the real estate bubble seems, no one seems to notice the next bubble about to burst: student loan debt.

Now, with college educated folks leaving the university with over a trillion dollars in collective debt, deindustrialization and an entire built environment that requires heavy investment both fiscally and physically (home, car, insurance, fuel, time) to enter, young people face a massive financial and economic barrier to enter “real life.” Maybe this is why we are branded as failures, entitled slackers and whiners.

Someone stole the future.

Above our young people float the infinite unattainables of a bygone way of life: the home in the suburbs, a high paying job and the ability to provide for a family. Below them exist the unapproachable vacuum of politics that used to give us the tools to navigate our world and make it a better place for everyone. Any program involving the word “public” is considered dead JUSTICE »PAGE 8

A.J. NEWBERRY NEWBERAJ@MIAMIOH.EDU

In memoriam: An alum’s thanks to Dr. C ayton DEATH

TO THE EDITOR: Nearly five years ago, I sat in a dusty Upham Hall classroom and glanced over the syllabus of “Hamilton and the Creation of the Republic,” which I had decided to take on a whim.

The professor strolled in and easily commanded the room with a warm touch. He had that wonderful mix of evident expertise and quick wit that makes for a great teacher. There was a humility in his approach that made him entirely accessible despite the extensive knowledge and experience gap between him and us. I knew within minutes that I had stumbled into another wonderful course at Miami University, and it ended up being one of the best that I took during my four years.

Dr. Andrew Cayton, who sadly passed away this weekend, was the wonderful professor teaching that Hamilton class.

Over the course of that semester, I learned that Dr. Cayton was a renowned scholar of Early American History and one of the most prized feathers in Miami University’s professorial cap. The impact of his work stretched far beyond Oxford,

Ohio. In fact, I learned of his passing this weekend through a friend studying Early American History at Boston University who never met Dr. Cayton, nor stepped foot on Miami University’s campus.

This is a loss that is felt by historians far and wide. His impact cannot be understated; he was truly great at what he did. While the scholarly community will doubtlessly do a wonderful job of honoring Dr. Cayton for his research and writing, it is important to also take a moment to honor him as a wonderful teacher.

Throughout that spring 2011 semester, I practically skipped across campus to class. Dr. Cayton’s lectures were always entertaining, informative and funny. He’d act out famous quotes as he told stories, and he had a wonderfully seamless way of shifting from lecture to discussion and back on the fly that made each class feel organic.

His feedback made us better writers and researchers. A compliment from Dr. Cayton felt akin to receiving a championship belt, and when he offered one it only pushed us to work harder. I will never forget the class that he pulled up an episode of Drunk History to show us the Hamilton skit they had done. Here was this legendary scholar of great es-

teem giggling with glee at Michael Cera’s version of Hamilton.

Dr. Cayton showed us that it was okay to openly have fun with your work. He loved Early American History, and his passion rubbed off on all of us. Dr. Cayton’s deft touch turned a class into a club, which is to say that the work never felt assigned; we wanted to learn more, and he gladly showed us the way.

My thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time. I hope they are able to take comfort in the knowledge that Dr. Cayton lives on through all of us that had an opportunity to learn from him and with him. We honor his memory best by matching his passion in our own work and infecting others around us with it. I am humbled to have known him for a few months one spring, and I know that, like so many other great Miami professors, his mark will not soon fade from those of us he touched. For proof of this, one need look no further than the walls of my bedroom where one solitary painting hangs: Alexander Hamilton at his desk drafting a letter.

Thank you Dr. Cayton. You will be missed.

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FROM CAYTON »PAGE 2

work focused on the frontier age of the United States.

In 1996 Cayton authored a book titled, “Frontier Indiana” where he focused on the lifestyles and world views of the people in Ohio’s neighbor state during the frontier period.

Cayton also wrote about Ohio in the “The Frontier Republic: Ideology and Politics in the Ohio Country, 1780-1825.” He coedited, “The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia” with Richard Sisson and Christian Zacher in 2007.

The Garamond Agency, a fullservice literary agency, states Cayton wrote essays and reviews that appeared in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, the Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review and The Journal of American His-

FROM JONES »PAGE 2

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FROM JUSTICE »PAGE 7

weight and positioned for elimination. The Town Halls have been sold off. The State Houses have been sold off. Forget about the federal officials.

Some — like my friends and acquaintances from Sidney — have dropped out. They have dropped out of participating in society, because society has told them they are not selected to win. The results of enabling casino capitalism and flagrant speculation by a neoliberal cabal of profiteers has thrown young people overboard before they were even schoolchildren.

Because our inhumane ‘criminal justice’ system protects the assets and investments of the rich and powerful while shaming and trapping the poor in a cycle of criminality and retribution, they will never participate in the legal economy again, and if they do, they will make minimum wage.

Which currently doesn’t even provide the majority of Americans with a family a suitable living arrangement.

One of the painfully bitter reminders the world doesn’t care

about them is that while in prison, someone will actually be making profit from their imprisonment.

We all know how criminal justice works in the United States, but we are too afraid to discuss it. We are locking up so much human potential. Imagine the unintentionally illiterate geniuses wasting in a concrete cell. Imagine the children who will grow into adults behind bars, angry at the world. Eugene Debs in “Walls and Bars” wrote, “Capitalism is responsible for the prisoners it creates.” Debs understood this in 1920. This is why in this century, we have more prisons than universities and colleges because it’s easier to exploit and punish than it is to empower and educate. The ruling financial minority does not want educated, critical thinkers.

That’s not in their interest.

To my estimation, our criminal justice system parallels the logics of a 13 year old playing a violent video game: kill me, kill you; kill me, kill you. Over and over. We may never realize that no one wins.

HAYDENKA@MIAMIOH.EDU

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This article, published in 1990, was titled, “Policy making by the lower federal courts and the bureaucracy: The genesis of a national AIDS policy.”

Jones had another article published in The Social Science Journal in 2007 with Michelle D. Deardoff titled, “Implementing affirmative action in higher education: University responses to Gratz and Grutter.”

According to the abstract, this academic article focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions on two cases on affirmative action’s place in higher education.

In the case Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the University of Michigan Law School, allowing them to use race as one of many admission considerations, as it could lead educational benefits through a more diverse learning environment.

The second case in Deardoff and Jones’ article, Gratz v. Bollinger, also featured the University of Michigan, but this time the claim was that too much of the admission decision was focused on race.

This time, the Supreme Court concluded the University violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In the article, Deardoff and Jones found schools in the Fifth Circuit (southern) do not consider race when making admissions decisions, while the schools the Sixth Circuit (Midwestern) do.

Jones also looked at the two cases in his 2006 work titled, “Splitting the Baby: Media Constructions of Grutter v Bollinger and Gratz v Bollinger.”

According to Miami’s Department of Political Science website, Jones most recent work focused on President George W. Bush’s civil rights record, specifically regarding affirmative action, education and voting rights.

Haney said Harrison Hall wouldn’t be the same without Jones. He will be missed among Miami students and faculty.

“This is an incredibly sad loss,” Haney said. “Gus was a great teacher, friend and colleague.”

President David Hodge tweeted about Jones’ death on Friday.

“Deeply saddened by the unexpected death of Dr. Gus Jones,” Hodge wrote, “beloved professor of political science and constitutional law, mentor, and friend.”

Many former students and colleagues responded on Twitter.

“Absolutely, without a doubt, one of the most influential professors I ever had,” one response said.

Haney said the department administration is distributing final grades for Jones’ students.

Haney said the significance of this loss is hard to describe. He is working with other political science faculty to organize a way to honor Jones’ memory.

Jones is survived by two children, Juanita and Augustus Jr.

FROM WILKINS »PAGE 2

Constance. Both were working on degrees in Spanish.

In his time at Miami, Wilkins taught all levels of Spanish, but focused most on conversation and language courses. Both his and his wife’s specialty was Medieval Spanish Literature.

Constance and Heanon were married for 45 years.

“We always had adjoining offices—not necessarily because we asked for them,” she said. “It was handy to borrow each other’s books.”

Heanon was asked to set up an Equal Opportunity Office in 1969, around the time of the Kent State shootings. The office’s purpose was to encourage minority students to come to Miami. According to Constance, many minority students would not have been successful in academics without her husband.

“He started a lot of the early efFROM PRESIDENT »PAGE 1

dates received all of their higher education in the United States, while seven indicated that they had earned degrees both domestically and abroad. Two candidates received all of their education outside of the United States. Candidates graduated from universities in Canada, Egypt, Iran, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

Two applicants stand out for their years working in the White House, while another applicant may be hoping to distance himself from his past.

Before assuming his current position of visiting professor at Georgetown University, James Baker devoted much of his career to the U.S. government.

Most recently, Baker served 15 years as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces — for four of those years, he was Chief Judge. He spent much of the ’90s advising President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, as well as members of the National Security Council.

Baker has also worked as an attorney-adviser for the U.S. Department of State and is an advisory board member for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Oliver McGee, another Miami presidential applicant, served as a senior policy analyst for the White House Office of Science and U.S. deputy assistant secretary of transportation for technology policy, both during the Clinton Administration.

Today, McGee is professor of mechanical engineering for Howard University.

Tony Atwater, however, was terminated from his position as president of Norfolk State University (NSU) in 2013, according to the Virginian-Pilot news agency. In the article, which cites problems in completing audits as one of the reasons he was fired, Atwater is quoted calling the reasons for his dismissal “subjective.”

He applied to be president of Kent State University several months after he was fired, the same newspaper reported, but today, Atwater remains a professor for the Department of Mass Communications and Journalism at NSU. Several candidates have decades of experience in academia, including years spent in senior administrative positions.

As of July 2015, Cecil P. Staton has held the position of interim presi-

tory, among others.

Cayton’s most recent project was a volume in the Oxford History of the United States, in which he and Fred Anderson were telling the story of pre-Revolutionary era.

“To the History Department, the College of Arts and Science, and the entire University, he gave tirelessly of his wisdom and warmth … A scholar’s scholar, a teacher’s teacher, a colleague, a friend, and a mentor: We will always remember Drew and what he gave Miami,” de Boer wrote in a history department memo.

Cayton is survived by his wife Mary Kupiec Cayton, who also worked in Miami’s history department, and their two daughters Elizabeth and Hannah.

A memorial service for Cayton was held at the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Oxford. forts to diversify this campus,” said Dr. Charles Ganelin, a Spanish professor at Miami, Altman fellow and friend of the Wilkinses.

Heanon later became the director of Black World Studies. He was instrumental in hiring other AfricanAmerican faculty and encouraging minority students to attend a Miami that had little diversity at the time.

“He believed in his field and believed in his teaching,” said Ganelin.

Those who knew Heanon described him as a warm, gentle person. He was a beloved professor and had an impact on countless students.

“He made you a friend immediately,” Ganelin said. “He’s missed, you can tell… there is a void in the world.”

Wilkins was born in Neville Island, Pennsylvania, but lived most of his childhood and adolescence in Washington D.C. The Wilkinses lived at The Knolls of Oxford, and Constance will continue to live there.

dent for Valdosta State University in Georgia.

At the same time, he has continued to act as vice-chancellor for extended education for the University Systems of Georgia, which encompasses 30 colleges and universities throughout the state, including the University of Georgia, Georgia State University and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Staton also spent about 10 years as a Georgia State Senator, serving from 2004-2014.

Andrew Rogerson is currently the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University. In the past, he has held dean positions at California State University and Marshall University.

Ronald Brown is the associate vice chancellor of academic affairs for the University of North Texas System.

He recently served as the president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, from 2013-2015.

Other applicants and their current or most recent places of employment are: Mohamed Abousalem, CEO at Tecterra; Ali Cyrus Banan, executive vice president of education, research and medical affairs at the University of Windsor School of Medicine; Robert C. Beatty, dean of the business school at Florida Gulf Coast University; David Bejou, dean of business and social sciences at West Virginia State University; David P. Dauwalder, interim president of Woodbury University; Sanaz Ghaderi, president and chairwoman of the board for Fondation Tournesol et Amour; Hilary Inyang, president and CEO of Global Education and Infrastructure Services; Paul Jarley, dean of the college of business administration for the University of Central Florida; Walter Johnson, chairman of mathematics and computer science department at Coppin State University; Hadi Salavitabar, chief strategy officer for the International Academic Alliance; Donald Siegel, dean and professor of management at the school of business, State University of New York in Albany; Ronald T. Spriggs, an attorney at Spriggs Law Office; Scott Stoddart, associate provost for the college of criminal justice at the City University of New York; Osama Sadik Tayeb, president of King Abdoulaziz University; Scott Testa, assistant business professor at State University of New York-Delhi; Jim Weese, professor and dean of health sciences at the University of Western Ontario.

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2016

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The Brotherhood recovering after sluggish start to season HOCKEY

HARRISON SCHWARZ STAFF WRITER

After a disappointing first half of the season, the Miami University men’s hockey team (9-11-3) is starting to have success.

The RedHawks have won four of their last seven games with back to back wins last weekend against seventh ranked University of Nebraska- Omaha (15-8-1) on Jan. 22 and 23.

MU beat Omaha 3-1 in the first game and 7-3 in the second.

Head coach Enrico Blasi is seeing lots of progress for his team this season.

“It’s kind of been our story all year of taking a step forward then staying in neutral or taking a half step back,” Blasi said. “We’re still a team that’s growing. We keep working hard. The attitude is really good and the energy has been good. It’s just a matter of executing and making sure that we stay focused and pay attention to detail the entire game.”

The ’Hawks opened the second half at home on Jan. 2 against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (13-7-6) and split a two game

CONNOR MORIARTY PHOTO EDITOR

Miami’s men’s hockey team posted a 4-2-1 record during the winter break.They play at home this weekend. series, losing the first 3-2 and winning the second 4-2. The University of Minnesota- Duluth (8-10-5) came into town the next weekend on Jan. 9 with the opening game ending in a 1-1 tie and Duluth winning the next 5-2. Next, Bowling Green State University (15-7-5) arrived in Oxford on Jan. 16 for a

one game series that Miami won 2-1. Junior forward Anthony Louis scored the game-winning goal with two seconds remaining in the final period.

Senior defenseman Matthew Caito believes part of the ’Hawks new found success can be attributed to a new mindset for the team.

“It’s playoff hockey,” Caito said. “We just have to play like that. Team defense is really important for us and that’s what we’ve been focusing on in practice the last few weeks.”

Senior goaltender Jay Williams has been particularly good in the new year. In 2015, Williams was 0-2, had a 5.35 GAA,

and had an .812 Save%. In 2016, Williams is 4-0-1, has a 1.12 GAA, and a .956 Save%.

MU has been changing up their lines to improve the team’s performance.

Freshman forward Josh Melnick believes his new line with junior forward Anthony Louis and senior forward Alex Gacek is working well.

“I think we were really comfortable out there,“ Melnick said.

“A lot of communication which has helped a lot. The last week of practice we kind of clicked a little bit. We gelled together really well.”

Miami’s freshmen came into the season with a lot of expectations and they have delivered.

MU’s six freshmen have 46 of the teams 123 points this season (37.4%) with freshman forward Jack Roslovic (18 points) and Josh Melnick (13 points) ranking first and third on the team in scoring.

The red and white play on national television in Oxford against Denver in a two game series next weekend at 7 p.m.on Friday and 7:05 p.m. Saturday.

While you were gone: Happenings in the world of sports COLUMN

JACK REYERING

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Welcome back to our beloved Oxford. For most of us it has been six weeks since we were last here, and in that time a lot has gone on in the sports world. Here’s a brief look at some of the big sports stories from the past month and a half.

Hirings and firings in professional sports: As happens every year at the end of the NFL regular season, some coaches lose their jobs and former assistants take over the helm. Not surprisingly, Mike Pettine lost his job in Cleveland. But somewhat surprisingly, Cincinnati offensive

ooordinator Hue Jackson took the job almost immediately. Jackson was in line for and had interview with other teams but decided to take the Cleveland job. Although none of us know how this will pan out for both Jackson and the Browns, I happen to think this is a pretty good place for him if the Browns are willing to give him the time he needs to build a program.Jackson worked magic with an fairly average quarterback in Andy Dalton in Cincinnati and if they can get a decent quarterback who is willing to be coached up, Cleveland could have found the answer to their coaching prayers.

Staying in Cleveland, the Cavaliers have also fired their coach.

David Blatt, who led the Cavs to the NBA Finals last year and who held the best record in the Eastern Conference, was ousted and replaced

by Tyronne Lue. This move left me scratching my head. Yes, coaching is about more than just wins and losses, but it’s a pretty fair measuring stick when considering whether or not said coach should keep his job. None of us have been in the huddle with Blatt and so we don’t know the relationships that he had with his team.

But the guy is an experienced winner which is exactly what you need when you face the ultimate winners like the Spurs or the Warriors in June.

Parity in college basketball: It has been a season of ups and downs in

college basketball. There have been five different teams ranked number one so far this season. Oklahoma University currently sits atop the AP poll. Duke sits at No. 24 after dropping three straight games. for the first time since 1968-69 season.

All of the stories surrounding college basketball claim that there is no great team this year. That’s just not true. Yes, Kentucky was clearly the best team last year and they were great. But the greatness label in a college basketball pro-

gram shouldn’t just be reserved for teams that (almost) go undefeated.

There are plenty of teams that are great this year. All of them have lost, but they are still great teams.

So believe it when the media tells you there is not one great team in college basketball this year, because they are right. There are actually several. It just makes the action all the more exciting.

REYERIJW@MIAMIOH.EDU

A Super Dilemma: Manning or Newton?

COLUMN

JUSTIN MASKULINSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The matchup is set for Super Bowl Sunday. The one seeds will collide as Peyton Manning’s Broncos take on Cam Newton’s Carolina Panthers.

Both teams have stellar defenses, but the face of both franchises is undoubtedly under center. Both Manning and Newton have led their teams to Santa Clara in very different ways.

Newton threw for 35 touchdowns and rushed for another 10 in the regular season and has not missed a beat in the playoffs.

Manning started nine games in the regular season, missing some due to injury, and threw interceptions to touchdowns in a near 2:1 ratio (17:9), according to NFL.com.

Newton and the Panthers had a near perfect season, only stumbling to their division-foe Atlanta Falcons in week 16 by a touchdown.

Manning’s Broncos came out atop the AFC thanks to efficient work from Brock Osweiler and continued excellence from the No. 1 defense in the NFL, which allowed just 199.6 passing yards per game in the regular season in an era that is dominated by passers.

Now, on to the dilemma: Who

do I root for?

As a Buffalo Bills fan, I face this decision every January. Which team will I pull for in the playoffs? The last time my team played a meaningful game after week 17, I was six years old. I graduate in May (application pending) and I still don’t have a Bills playoff game in my memory.

Usually I can root for a good game in the earlier rounds, hoping the game is decided via a Hail Mary or a strong overtime drive (see the Green Bay Packers and Arizona Cardinals last round), but by the time the Super Bowl shows up, I have to pick a team.

That task is difficult this year because of how likeable both franchise faces are. On one hand you have the Sheriff, Peyton Manning, who has a great chance at a career in comedy after his playing days come to an end. On the other hand you have Cam Newton, who looks like a 6’5” little kid on the field and is clearly having the time of his life and dabbing all over the place along the way.

If you are Rosemary Plorin, the Tennessee mother who scolded Newton via a letter to the editor in the Charlotte Observer back in November for his, ‘egotism, arrogance and poor sportsmanship,’ your decision is easy: root for Man-

ning.

If you are a normal human being who sees that Newton is having a great time and agrees that if other teams do not want him dancing, they should stop him, you’re in a pickle.

Peyton Manning is debatably the greatest regular season quarterback of all time, but his postseason stats are constantly in question. He has a 1-2 Super Bowl record and has thrown four interceptions to three touchdowns in those games.

Any fan of the game would love to see Manning potentially go out on top (he’s 39).

Cam Newton is in his first Super Bowl at 26 years old.

One would think this Panthers team has at least one more postseason run in them, but nothing is promised in the NFL. The team has an unbelievable amount of fun, or as Ms. Plorin calls it, ‘arrogance,’ and the amount of dabbing that would occur after the game would break the Internet.

A tie is impossible in the big game and rightfully so. Two weeks of deliberation might not be enough to choose one over the other. I’d say I’ll skip the Pro Bowl to dwell on it more, but I don’t watch that anyway.

The same question, the same super dilemma stands: Who do I root for?

CONNOR MORIARTY PHOTO EDITOR

During the Winter Break, Miami’s women’s basketball team went 3-8.

.954

STAT OF THE DAY

Senior goaltender Jay Williams’ save percentage in his last five appearances. The RedHawks are 3-1-1 in those games.