ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2017
Volume 145 №34
Miami University — Oxford, Ohio
Two dead in Oxford after drug use
Fire destroys Oxford home FIRE
OPD warns of ‘dangerous batch’
EMILY WILLIAMS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A fire destroyed a home in Oxford last week on Wednesday, March 22. Since the fire occurred over spring break, the residents — all Miami students who were renting the property — were not home at the time and no one was injured, but the fire left the home a total loss, officials said. The Oxford Fire Department responded to the fire around 2:30 a.m., and the fire was put out in about an hour. No other homes were damaged, but some cars parked on the street nearby were damaged. The fire appeared to have started at the rear of the house, but the cause of the fire will go down as undetermined, said Oxford Fire Chief John Detherage. Though the room where the fire started was determined and a likely cause identified, it cannot be proved he said, though it does not look to be suspicious. The building was heavily involved in the fire when officials arrived, Detherage said, and footage from a nearby security camera confirmed that the fire had been well under way before the fire department was notified. The estimated damage totaled just over $300,000. Junior Zach Peterson, a resident of the home, creFIRE » PAGE 6
DRUGS
JAKE GOLD
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
RYAN TERHUNE PHOTO EDITOR
Oxford and Miami police increased their preventative and educational measures prior to and during Green Beer Day this year.
Green Beer Day goes on with amped-up police presence GREEN BEER DAY
KIRBY DAVIS ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Green Beer Day, Miami’s annual 24-hour party binge, occurred again this year. Students donned commemorative t-shirts, trekked Uptown and downed green alcohol and bagels. From 2 a.m. on March 16 to 2 a.m. on March 17, the OPD cited 66 total offenses. But both MUPD Chief John McCandless and OPD Chief John Jones reported that this was relatively ordinary. “I actually think that Green Beer Day would be a fairly non-event without media coverage from the outside,” said Jones. Miami has been heavily criticized in recent months
Ainsley Wagenseller: So ‘full of life’
OBITUARY
JACK EVANS TESS SOHNGEN
THE MIAMI STUDENT
Over 200 gathered in Oxford yesterday to celebrate the life of a radiant young woman. Ainsley Atwell Wagenseller, 23, a senior student at Miami University died in a car crash on Friday, March 17, 2017 as she was driving home for spring break. Ainsley lived in Louisville, KY and attended Ballard High School. She leaves behind her father and mother, Judson and Linda Wagenseller, and three beloved
sisters, Shelby, Aubrey and Jordan. At Miami, Ainsley studied nursing and worked at Brick Street, where she and other employees became a family away from home. Her friends and family attest that Ainsley’s passion was to care for others. She was planning to move to Washington D.C. to pursue nursing after graduation this May. Ainsley played soccer in high school and swam for a local swim team with her sister Shelby, where Ainsley excelled. Shelby fondly recalls sharing mozzarella cheese sticks and French fries with her sister at swim meets.
for its alcohol issues, after a weekend in February that saw 21 students hospitalized with alcohol-related complications. But media scrutiny did not seem to faze this year’s holiday and its participants, as the number of citations and arrests were not notably different than years prior. “From a strictly on-campus perspective, we certainly weren’t any busier [than last year],” said McCandless. “If anything, I would say it was a little less busy in terms of calls.” However, the MUPD and OPD did increase preventative as well as educational measures prior to and during Green Beer Day. “The only difference is we just tried to get out and operate a little heavier on the days
prior to Green Beer Day,” said Jones. “Our thinking is that students are preparing for the party, going out there and buying stuff, so if we can do a little prevention and deterrence there that might help.” According to a press release issued by the OPD, they arrested seven people for fake IDs in the two days before Green Beer Day. On March 15 at 11:07 p.m., the OPD also arrested a Swerve’Em Taxi driver, citing him for an open container in a motor vehicle and littering. The Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) also assisted this year, working with the OPD to establish an OVI checkpoint at the intersection of Church and North Main Street. “We do our best to provide
adequate staffing to target areas and help prevent impaired driving,” said Lt. Clint Arnold of OSHP. They made one OVI arrest at the checkpoint and four others elsewhere, but could not confirm whether those involved were students. The OPD Friday, March 17 press release detailed Oxford’s “GBD festivities” as well as their added precautions before the holiday. “The Oxford Police Department would like to thank the many students who acted responsibly and respectfully throughout the day, as well as the community members and organizations that stepped up and assisted with prevention efforts such as GREEN BEER DAY » PAGE 2
Two non-student Ohio residents died on Saturday, likely due to an overdose on a “particularly dangerous batch” of cocaine in Oxford, though no cause of death has been released yet. The Oxford Police Department believes that this batch of cocaine may be laced with another substance, but it’s unclear what. “The cause of death in both of these cases is not known and will likely not be released for weeks until toxicology results are revealed,” a press release from OPD says. “Police believe that cocaine use may have preceded the deaths, but again the investigation is ongoing.” On March 25 at 12:30 p.m., OPD took a call to the 300 block of W. Vine Street. A 24 year old woman, Megan Dawson, who lives in Oxford, was found dead in a bathroom. Soon after, OPD was dispatched to the corner of S. Main Street and Chestnut Street. A 23 year old man, William Vollmer, resident of Hamilton, was being given CPR. The police determined that Vollmer was deceased. “There could be a parCOCAINE » PAGE 2
A letter from the new Editor-in-Chief EMILY WILLIAMS
THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
I remember the moment I decided to become a journalist. It was in December of my senior year of high school, and I was driving to the library. Or maybe the bank. Wherever it was it was somewhere close, but my 10 minute drive turned into a meandering 30. It was raining, as it does on most of my favorite days. Nelson Mandela, former South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary, had just died. NPR’s entire program was dedicated to Mandela and the vigils held worldwide in his honor. I don’t remember anything in particular that was said or who the journalists interviewed, but I remember that I started crying as I looped around and around the city block, not able to turn off the radio. I wanted the opportunity to do what those journalists were doing — to take that confusion, that grief, those memories, that admiration and make sense of it, to make a narrative that says, “This is important. Don’t forget it.” The first week at Miami, I joined The Miami Student with one goal — to become a better writer. Within a few weeks, I had another goal — to be the editor-in-chief someday. Well, readers, I am happy (and, to be frank, nervous) to say that day is here. An extremely condensed version of
my resume: Junior. Majors in journalism and marketing. Native of Dayton, OH. Three years with The Miami Student, in writing and editing positions. Twenty-one years a relentless optimist. My hopes for the following year are high, maybe imprudently so, but I cannot stress enough to you, as a reader, how deeply I hope to do this thing well. It’s not difficult to find find critics of journalism, especially in 2017, but the sentiment isn’t new. Hell, even Gandhi didn’t like journalists. “I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers,” he said. And I get it. Journalists don’t always get it right, but, I believe, there is a key difference between the journalists that Gandhi resented and the journalists I try to emulate. That difference? Earnestness. To be earnest is to show sincere and intense conviction. Both elements are equally important: to be entirely free of pretense and to put one’s full effort and energy to the task. The journalists who do both, I believe, though they may make mistakes, are truly in the practice to better lives. It’s a huge responsibility. To publish a news article is to say that you have amassed quotes and facts and figures and photos and observations and crafted them into a digestible collection of paragraphs that represent, as Carl Bernstein put it, “the best obtainable version of the truth.” It almost
sounds crazy. Maybe it is. But that’s something that I love about journalism — the audacity to try to make sense of the things that are going on around us every day. The Miami Student is no stranger to criticism. Though we hold ourselves to professional standards, I urge readers to remember that The Miami Student is a living, evolving classroom. Regardless of the age of our publication, even the most seasoned members of our current editorial staff are still neophytes in the realm of journalism. We’re students who aren’t removed or immune from the events and issues which we write about on our pages. We live them and feel them and experience them, too. But we are earnest. We are eager. We are open to criticism and open to learning. Our office is on the third floor of the Armstrong Student Center, room 3018. If you have something to share, something to tell us — a critique, a story or just a hello — please, come see us. Sure, you can comment on our Facebook, but nothing can compare to a face-to-face conversation. Though I cannot guarantee that I’ll never make the wrong call or overlook an error, I can guarantee this: I will listen. I will be open. And I will be earnest. Contact Emily Williams at eic@miamistudent.net.
OBITUARY » PAGE 8
NEWS p. 2
CULTURE p. 4
TRAVEL p. 6
EDITORIAL p. 12
OP-ED p. 12
SPORTS p. 14
A CHANGE IN YOUR SCHEDULE
A LIFETIME OF WATER BOTTLES
SPRING BREAK TRAVELS 2017
A GOOD HARD LOOK AT HARD DRUG ABUSE
BUDGET THREATENS GREAT LAKES
WOMEN’S HOCKEY BACKTO-BACK CHAMPS
MU’s registrar is implementing changes in class times, scheduling.
“I don’t remember any water bottles I carried before it...”
From Icelandic glaciers to a mountaintop in Appalachia, our travels.
Two deaths in Oxford this weekend remind us of the severity of cocaine use.
Livelihoods and ecosystems depend on these waterways.
Team celebrates its third National Championship title in 4 years.