ESTABLISHED 1826 – OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
The Miami Student TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015 Volume 144 №19
Miami University — Oxford, Ohio
MIAMISTUDENT.NET
University to increase adjunct pay Adjunct Pay per-credit hour pay Adjunct professor $900
$1000
$800
Current MU adjunct pay
National adjunct pay average
New MU adjunct pay starting 2016
Miami forms Student Disability Advocacy Council ACCESSIBILITY
EMILY WILD
THE MIAMI STUDENT
The newly established Student Disability Advocacy Council is working to give a voice to students with disabilities at Miami. The organization is recruiting anyone registered with Student Disability Services. The idea is for those students to meet people with similar experiences and communicate their ideas for improving the university’s disability community.
The advocacy council comes in tandem with a new Director of Accessible Technology Miami will add to its IT department this year. Both these changes will affect more than 800 Miami students, a record high for the university. The idea for the council originated in the summer of 2014, when the disability office moved to the division of student affairs, becoming a single office known as Student Disability Services. COUNCIL »PAGE 5
FACULTY
EMILY WILLIAMS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The pay for Miami’s adjunct faculty will increase up to 43 percent when the new rate of $1,000 per credit hour takes effect next semester. The faculty members affected are part-time instructors who are paid on a credit hour per course basis. The pay raise was announced in Provost Phyllis Callahan’s October newsletter. Callahan said the idea of raising the pay for adjunct faculty has been discussed in the past. “I think it’s been on the deans’
minds for a year or two, so when I became provost we reexamined that issue in consultation with the deans,” Callahan said. “The deans were all supportive and we made the change.” According to data from the Chronicle for Higher Education’s Adjunct Project, the current average pay for Miami’s adjuncts is below the national average, with some making as little as $700 per credit hour. Next semester’s pay raise will place Miami’s rate, which will pay $3,000 for a three credit course, on par with the national median rate and slightly above the median rate
of $2,700 among Ohio universities. Miami’s rate will also exceed the median rate of $2,925 at Ohio University and $2,900 at Kent State University, but trail the median $4,300 per course at the Ohio State University, according to the Adjunct Project. Information from the Miami Office of Institutional Research indicates that the part-time faculty affected by this pay raise make up over 60 percent of the faculty at both regional campuses and about 20 percent at the main campus. All three campuses have seen a ADJUNCT »PAGE 5
Holy Halloween: A night ride on God’s Bus Oxford church provides free rides to students, with religious twist ALCOHOL
BRIAN SENTERS THE MIAMI STUDENT
It’s 11 p.m. on Halloween at the Oxford Vineyard, a non-denominational Christian church, and volunteers are gathered around in a colorful room, sharing testimony with one another and praying before their night out. Groups of volunteers gear up and prepare for the night ahead, packing water bottles, hot chocolate and business cards. That’s the way the volunteers
start every night when they operate ‘God’s Bus,’ a free ride service that provides Miami students with transportation to any location in Oxford. Chris Marsman, Oxford Vineyard volunteer and Miami alumnus who operates the call center for the God’s Bus, brought the program to Oxford in May 2014 after seeing a similar program called ‘Beach Reach.’ While on a trip to Panama City Beach, Florida during spring break with Campus Crusade for Christ, Marsman watched as
Beach Reach gave free rides to the spring breakers and operated pancake breakfasts. “Oxford has the exact same environment that’s down there, every weekend,” Marsman said, explaining one of the reasons behind this program is to get students home safely. Three volunteers operate God’s Bus. One individual, known as the ‘navigator,’ receives requests from the call center and maintains GOD’S BUS »PAGE 5
Miami groundskeepers preserve campus safety and scenery year-round CAMPUS
MAGGIE CALLAGHAN THE MIAMI STUDENT
TYLER PISTOR THE MIAMI STUDENT
Groundskeeper John Moore is one of 35 who maintains Miami’s campus.
NEWS p. 2
NEWS p. 3
MIAMI, STUDENT VIDEOS CAPTURE COLLEGE LIFE
NEW SORORITY ESTABLISHES CHAPTER
Marketing and student-made videos contrast as they recruit potential students
Forty members colonize Miami’s newest sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma
TODAY in MIAMI HISTORY
Brian Nixon begins his day like any other. The groundskeeper, who has been working for Miami University for over a year, arrives early at 6 a.m. to pick up trash, refill trash cans and clear the grounds around the Armstrong Student Center. “A lot of this job is self-pride,” said Nixon. Nixon, in his mid 40s, is one of 35 employees who works tirelessly throughout the year to keep Miami’s campus well-groomed. According to Miami University’s Physical Facilities website, it aims “to develop, operate and maintain a safe campus that is sustainable, attractive, functional and efficient.” This can be a daunting task during their busier times of year, like autumn, when leaves begin to fall. “We want the campus to have a park-like setting. When you drive up, you know you have arrived on campus,” said Jeremy Davis, the director of buildings and facilities. One way groundskeeping has become more sustainable and functional is through its leaf pick-up system. Davis said all leaf collection piles are placed in a large compost pile behind the equestrian center
CULTURE p. 4
that is then recycled into mulch and used during the spring and summer time. Groundskeepers are also encouraged to be cautious of their carbon footprint by driving around campus, which, in turn, has made everyone’s job more efficient, Davis said. However, the groundskeepers’ main priority is student safety. Nixon said the groundskeepers will
sometimes work overtime, coming in at 2 a.m. when they know a snow storm is approaching and need to salt the ground or remove snow. In times of rough weather, Davis said, the groundskeepers work to return the campus to its normal state before students and faculty even wake up. GROUNDS »PAGE 5
SEE P. 2 FOR A LOOK INTO MIAMI’S TOP-RANKED ‘DRUNK FOODS’
PRAVALI KOTHAKOTA THE MIAMI STUDENT
OPINION p. 6
SPORTS p. 10
AN APPLE’S JOURNEY FROM FARM TO TABLE
EDITORIAL BOARD BACKS BLACK LIVES MATTER
WOMEN’S SOCCER ADVANCES TO MAC SEMIFINALS
A look into the 178-year-old Downing Fruit Farm, and its seventh generation owner
Editorial Board pushes for racial equality, urges minorities to speak out
Soccer team advances after penalty kicks. In last two years, PKs sent RedHawks home
Today in 1989, The Miami Student reported that two Talawanda High School students were suspended for two weeks after donning Ku Klux Klan robes on the school’s Halloween dress-up day. Staff writer Lauren Lipnicki wrote the incident highlighted an “undercurrent” of racism present in the school.