The Miami Student Established 1826
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2014
VOLUME 142 NO. 04
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
WWW.MIAMISTUDENT.NET
Affirmative consent aims to combat rape culture California bill may set new standard for colleges across the country NATIONAL LANA POCHIRO
FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
FRANKIE ROSKAM THE MIAMI STUDENT
APPLE OF MY EYE Ray Arlinghaus, a local apple farmer at the Oxford Farmers Market. “It always rains when we want sunshine. The sun is always shining when we want rain.” FARMERS MARKET »PAGE 4
One in five women has been sexually assualted while in college, according to a 2014 study conducted by The White House Council on Women and Girls. Of campus assailants who admitted to committing rape or attempted rape, 63 percent said they committed an average of six rapes each. According to another study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2009, of all college women who are raped, only 25 percent describe the act as rape. These statistics highlight the rape culture that persists on college campuses. Rape culture describes a society that ignores, trivializes or accepts rape and sexual assault, excuses the perpetrators of sexual crimes and blames survivors for the attacks. In May, the U.S. Department of education named 55 colleges that are under federal investigations for violations of Title IX, a law that requires gender equity in all
federally-funded education programs. Among these colleges is Columbia University, whose case has quickly gained publicity due to one victim taking a stand and refusing to be silenced.
unambiguous affirmative consent by each participant in all sexual activity. The bill sets a new standard for universities, whose current sexual assault policies generally focus on defining what
There’s a whole segment of the population that doesn’t know what consent is...“ ANNA FELDMANN
SOCIAL ACTIVISM CHAIR, THE F-WORD
Emma Sulkowicz, along with 23 other students, filed a complaint against Columbia University this year for failing to properly address her sexual assault case. After seeking justice from the university and local police and finding none, Sulkowicz has begun a performance art piece. She has vowed to carry a dorm room mattress, like that on which she was raped, around campus until her rapist is no longer present at Columbia. Emma is not alone in demanding change. On Aug. 28, California unanimously passed the SB-967 bill, known commonly as “yes means yes,” which requires
STICK IT TO ‘EM The Miami University Marching Band drum line assembles at the football game tailgate Saturday afternoon.
constitutes not giving consent and places the responsibility on the victim The bill would require all universities in California that receive state funding to update their sexual assault policies to include that only affirmative consent, not silence nor lack of resistance, truly qualifies as consent. Many hope that the progress and awareness generated in California will spread to colleges across the United States and hit back home in Oxford, Ohio. Social activism chair of Miami University organization RAPE »PAGE 5
JALEN WALKER THE MIAMI STUDENT
Icebreaker: Rare Arctic species has researcher asking questions SCIENCE LAUREN OLIVER
FOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
Miami University Distinguished Professor of Biology Richard Lee, along with a team of accomplished researchers, recently completed the genome sequencing of a native Antarctic insect whose unique nature and processes could lead to improved methods of issues like the preservation of human organs. Lee traveled to Anvers Island, Antarctica nearly 35 years ago as a part of his postdoctoral research at the University of Houston to study the Antarctic midge fly, which has the smallest genome sequence of any insect known to-date.
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY
After studying the Antarctic midge, Lee and his team of about 45 people discovered the insect was adapted to survive various environmental stresses. The fly larvae can be frozen solid, live up to several weeks without oxygen, withstand extreme dehydration and lose 70 percent of its body weight — and still survive. In 2005, Lee, along with David Denlinger, Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University, received funding from the National Science Foundation to continue working on the project. As part of this research, Lee and Denlinger sequenced the midge’s genome, which will allow new investigations of the role of specific proteins that allow this fly to survive extreme conditions. “The genome helps us to
understand the ways that this fly tolerates these different types of stress,” Lee said.
Scientific research is never done ...” RICHARD LEE
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR, MIAMI UNIVERSITY
Nick Teets, formerly an undergraduate in Lee’s research lab, became involved with the Antarctic midge study shortly before graduating from Miami University, and then dedicated a large portion of his PhD dissertation at Ohio State to the project.
“By sequencing the genome, we now have the full complement of DNA sequence for the midge, and have annotated and described all 13,500 genes contained in the genome,” Teets said. In early 2014, the genome was finally sequenced, and not only were the secrets about the midge’s extreme lifestyle revealed, but other pertinent information about its biology, as well. “The most conspicuous aspect of the midge genome was its small size,” Teets said. “The midge only has 99 million base pairs, and most small genomes belong to parasitic insects that rely on their host for a number of functions. However, the midge has somehow lost much of its noncoding ‘junk’ DNA while still retaining a full complement of
RESEARCH »PAGE 8
In 1909, The Miami Student published a farewell letter from Dr. Guy Potter Benton, the university’s 13th president. “Miami University is my very life… its atmosphere is, to me, as the health giving breeze which blows perennial from the purified altitudes of some lofty mountain peak.”
UNIVERSITY
COMMUNITY
CULTURE
BUMPER BALL
TALAWANDA REFUND
FARMERS MARKET
KOSOVO
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genes that code for proteins.” Although Teets said he believes some may find studying a single midge species on the bottom of the world to be trivial, he maintains the information gathered from this species can benefit humans as well. “First, understanding the environmental physiology of this species can help predict how Antarctica’s fragile ecosystems will respond to global environmental change,” he said. “Second, this species lives encased in ice for up nine months a year, and understanding the mechanisms of this process could allow us to improve strategies for cryopreservation of human organs used in transplants.”
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OPINION
SPORTS
FOOTBALL »PAGE 10