February 5, 2016 | The Miami Student

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ESTABLISHED 1826 – OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

The Miami Student FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016 Volume 144 №30

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

MIAMISTUDENT.NET

State greenlights LLC program no longer mandatory, effective next year Miami’s new ‘Tuition Promise’ HOUSING

SARAH KNEPP

THE MIAMI STUDENT

MONEY

AUDREY DAVIS

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Jami Langham, mother of an incoming first-year, loves the idea of Miami’s University’s new Tuition Promise. “I’m a planner, so knowing that, for four years, I don’t have to worry about the cost of college changing is amazing,” said Langham. Miami’s Tuition Promise was passed by the Board of Trustees in December and approved by the state in January. It will affect all incoming students, starting this fall. The families of prospective students will now know the four-year cost for tuition, room and board. The tuition rate will be set the first year and will not change for the following three years. Current Miami students will not be affected by the new policy. First-year Briena Breckenridge wishes the same type of system had been put in place earlier so she could have benefited from it. “I feel like I was gypped a year, but otherwise, that’s

pretty exciting,” said Breckenridge. “It kind of feels like an unfair advantage that the incoming freshmen will have. It’s like only giving computers to freshmen and leaving the upperclassmen to hang.” When told the incoming class of 2020 will be the first to benefit from the Tuition Promise, Langham felt fortunate. “I finally got lucky for once,” said Langham. “The cost of college is always changing because of inflation, so I think this is just fantastic.” The university’s website has already been updated to show information about the Tuition Promise, answering common questions that parents and students may have about the new policy. Andrew Boehm, associate director of campus visits and events, said that families are already being informed about the Tuition Promise during campus tours. “We’ve presented it a few times and always see positive looks on [parents’] TUITION »PAGE 9

FSB scholarship gives students a once-in-a-lifetime experience STUDY ABROAD

LAURA FITZGERALD SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Since arriving at Miami University’s Luxembourg campus, sophomore Benjamin Butler has visited four new countries. In just two weeks, he has seen and learned about other parts of the world, all because of the help of a scholarship grant. Jack and Rose-Marie Anderson donated $1 million last month to the Roger L. Jenkins International Scholarship fund — the scholarship that made Butler’s trip to Luxembourg possible. The scholarship is offered to all Farmer School of Business (FSB) students who are participating in semester or summer study abroad programs. The Anderson family named the scholarship after Roger Jenkins, former dean of FSB, for his commitment to study abroad. “It was really Dean Jenkins’ vision that every Farmer School student have the opportunity to study abroad,” said Kirk Bogard, assistant dean for external relations. If Butler hadn’t received the scholarship, he says he might not have had that op-

portunity, or, at least, he would have gone into debt studying abroad. He wouldn’t have been the only one. Most often, Bogard said, students don’t study abroad because they are deterred by the financial burden that comes with it. Senior Director for Communications Addie Rosenthal says about 60 percent of FSB students study abroad. This semester, the Jenkins scholarship distributed $95,000 among 17 students studying abroad in places like Barcelona, Hong Kong and Luxembourg, Bogard said. The Anderson foundation contributed its first million-dollar gift in January 2015, and the second earlier this year, according to Bogard. The third million in the scholarship fund has been contributed from multiple donors. With the newest milliondollar donation, the Jenkins fund is one of the largest scholarships available at Miami, Rosenthal said. Bogard says study abroad gives FSB students the chance to participate in the global economy, have a greater appreciation for othSCHOLARSHIP »PAGE 5

Beginning next year, incoming first-year students will not be required to choose an LLC upon enrollment at Miami University. Instead, LLCs will become optional. The LLC system started in the 1980s, according to Tresa Barlage Zianno, an associate director in the Office of Residence Life (ORL). However, students were not required to live in an LLC until 2009, the same year the two-year on-campus living requirement was implemented. “When we implemented the two-year living requirement, the research said students living in LLCs perform better, so we started the practice of requiring the living learning communities,” Zianno said. The decision to change the LLC system came last fall after a committee of students and administrators, led by a new vice president of community affairs, tried to answer the question, “Are LLCs still meeting the needs of the students?” “What we were finding was that we were having large communities that

MARY SCHROTT

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Robert Marks’ small Uptown apartment filled with muffled laughs as the afternoon sun shot through a window making the individual beer bottles lining the kitchen cabinets glitter. “I began brewing my senior year of middle school,” Marks, a senior, said from behind a kitchen counter cluttered with pipes and basins that resembled a science lab.

LAWSUIT

MAGGIE CALLAGHAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A.J. NEWBERRY THE MIAMI STUDENT

After several years as a required on-campus housing program, “Living Learning Communities” will become optional for Miami students next fall. were general focus and that’s where most of the students were going,” said Zianno. These “general focus” LLCs are akin to the RedHawk Traditions LLC and the Explore Miami LLC, before it was removed this past fall. With the removal of Explore Miami, an even larger number of students chose to live in RedHawk Traditions. Next year, instead of requiring students to choose an LLC, ORL will be offering a “general housing” option to accommodate this trend. The general housing option does not mean that incoming first-year students

get to choose the exact residence hall or room they will live in. Those placements will still be up to the ORL. “What we find is that if we assign a community and we say what hall it’s going to be in, suddenly people are choosing a hall instead of a community,” Zianno said. Sophomore Megan O’Connell has a good understanding of the LLC system because of her job as a campus tour guide. She said she liked the premise of the system. “I think the concept of LLCs »PAGE 9

Beer-brewing students pull out all the ‘hops’ PROFILE

Miami settles lawsuit with former student

“So, in eighth grade,” senior Garrett Gust jokingly responded to Marks, sliding behind him quickly to grab a clear glass tube from the mess of instruments. Marks’ first brew looked very different from the “hoppy wheat ale” he and several friends were working on Monday in Gust’s apartment. “I had bought my dad a ‘Mr. Brew’ kit as a joke, but he doesn’t read instructions so I ended up doing everything,” Marks said. Marks’ early start in beer brewing brought him to the

Western Program at Miami, where he is majoring in sustainable brewing practices. Miami’s Western Program “is dedicated to developing students as independent thinkers” and students have the opportunity to create their own majors, according to the program’s website. While Marks has been brewing for nearly eight years, he only started brewing with Gust, whose senior project for the Western Program is a study of the craft BEER »PAGE 8

MARY SCHROTT SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Seniors Lucas Wagner (left), Robert Marks (center) and Garrett Gust (right) enjoy a cold, homemade beer in their brewing laboratory, located in Marks’ Uptown apartment.

Miami University has settled a lawsuit with Aleeha Dudley, a former student who alleged the university did not accommodate her disability. The settlement with Dudley, who is blind, will pay the cost of her tuition, books and room and board at Ohio State University, which is estimated to total $108,000 for a five-year education. In addition, Miami will cover $142,000 in unpaid loans for Dudley, although the university does not claim any wrongdoing. “While Miami continues to deny any liability, the settlement avoids the costs of litigations and permits Dudley to pursue her education elsewhere,” said the university in its statement. Dudley, a zoology major from New Paris, Ohio, filed the lawsuit against the university January 2014, as a junior. The lawsuit claimed the university denied her adequate tools and equipment to succeed in the classroom. It also specifically stated that her course material on Niihka and her Degree Audit Report (DARs) — both essential tools for learning — were inaccessible. “I had issues from day one. I just couldn’t learn the same way as my peers without the proper resources,” said Dudley in a June 2015 interview with The Miami Student. In May 2015, the United States Department of Justice announced that it, too, would intervene in this case, stating the university had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Justice Department said Miami failed to provide students with proper software and required them to use inaccessible websites. Jane Smith, who asked to have her name changed, knows all too well the struggles that Dudley endured on Miami’s campus. Smith, who is disabled, has followed the Dudley story and feels just as frustrated with the ways in which Miami treats disabled students. “It’s immoral and inhumane,” said Smith. “We take our obligations under the American Disabilities Act very seriously,” said Claire Wagner, university spokesperson, in a June 2015 interview with The Miami Student. “Miami provides extensive resources and accommodations for our disabled students, and will continue to do so.” LAWSUIT »PAGE 5

NEWS p. 2

NEWS p. 3

CULTURE p. 4

OPINION p. 6

SPORTS p. 10

4 PAWS FOSTERS WELCOME NEW PUPPIES

STUDENTS DISCUSS THE PROS, CONS OF ‘GOING GREEK’

OXFORD TO CELEBRATE CHINESE NEW YEAR

BOARD DREAMS UP IDEAL CAMPUS TOUR ROUTE

MIAMI PENS 21 RECRUITS ON SIGNING DAY

After “puppy pick up” last week, fosters adjust to their new companions.

In light of recent events, Greek members and unaffiliated students consider the system.

Confucius Institute recreates Chinese New Year festivities on Miami’s campus.

Editors reflect on favorite campus spots, from Western campus to Bachelor Pond.

Miami 2016 recruiting class ranks second in the MAC, according to Scout.com.


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February 5, 2016 | The Miami Student by The Miami Student - Issuu