March 31, 2015 | The Miami Student

The Miami Student Established 1826

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015 VOLUME 142 NO. 44

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MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO

PHILL ARNDT THE MIAMI STUDENT

BUSTED BEER BROS Miami students pose off-campus as their Green Beer Day celebration gets broken up by the Oxford Police Department on Thursday, March 19.

ELI AUBHIL THE MIAMI STUDENT

LAUREN OLSON PHOTO EDITOR

FLY BALL The Miami Club baseball team traveled to Tampa, Florida to compete against other club baseball teams from across the country, including No. 25 University of Illinois. The team went 2-3 for the week.

BEACH BLISS Thirty-two Miami seniors pose on the beach in Punta Cana in front of a Miami “M” they made on the beach during their week spent in the Dominican Republic.

No. 1 seed Miami upset in NCAA tournament opener HOCKEY

GRACE REMINGTON SPORTS EDITOR

Three extra-skater goals within seven minutes gave No. 4 Miami University hockey a glimmer of hope as they erased a four-goal deficit and vied to keep their season alive in the NCAA East Regional semifinal against No. 15 Providence College Saturday night.

In the final seconds of the game, Miami came close to adding the equalizing goal, but junior forward Branden Tanev converted a loose puck into an empty-netter and sealed a 7-5 Providence victory.

The Friars advanced to the regional final Sunday, where they defeated No. 6 University of Denver 4-1 to earn a Frozen Four berth.

Junior left-wing Cody Murphy and sophomore left-wing Anthony Louis helped the RedHawks to a 2-2 tie at the end of the first period, but Providence exploded for four goals in the second to take

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TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY UNIVERSITY

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the 6-2 lead.

“After the second, we all went in the locker room and said ‘hey we need to figure this out, this could be the last period for some of us,’” senior center Austin Czarnik said. “‘If you want to do something special, we need to start doing the right thing and start working for every single situation.’ So I think we had the right mindset. We believed. A lot of people wouldn’t have believed … we knew that we had the right team in there to give us the best chance to come back and win it.”

Trailing 6-2 in the third period, head coach Enrico Blasi pulled junior goaltender Ryan McKay from the net for an extra attacker with 13 minutes left. The move allowed the ’Hawks to diminish the Friars’ lead to 6-5 with less than two minutes remaining.

“We decided as a coaching staff that at some point we’d start pulling the goalie,” Blasi said. “I told MEN’S HOCKEY »PAGE 9

Miami minorities struggle with racism on campus RACE

BONNIE MEIBERS THE MIAMI STUDENT

In the wake of the highly publicized video showing University of Oklahoma’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) chapter chanting racial slurs, three Greek organizations met to discuss race relations at Miami.

Though the Oklahoma is almost a thousand miles away, the racism there hit close to home for many of Miami’ minority students.

Alpha Omicron Pi, Delta Sigma Phi and Alpha Phi Alpha held the “Conversation on Race,” Monday Mar. 16.

“We do this because our mission is to try and make the community better,” Ryan Thomas, president of Delta Sigma Phi, said.

While the Conversation on Race is certainly a start, many say Miami still has a long way to go.

Students in the Office of Diversity Affairs laugh at the idea of racism being erased on campus.

“Go back to where you came from n**ger!” or “Can you speak Ebonics?” are just some of the racist remarks these students say they experience on a regular basis.

“It has become so normal to me that sometimes I forget these things happen,” Miami University senior, Stephanie Harris, said.

Both panelists and audience members expressed sentiments such as these at the Conversations on Race.

Panelists were graduate students Kristen Vega and David Mooring, Gerald Yearwood from the Office of Diversity Affairs, visiting professor Rondee Gains, Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) member Magda Orlander and Whitney Felder, Miami University junior and president of the Black Student Action Association.

The panelists examined the questions, “Is the SAE video a threat to minority students?” “What is race and how did it come about?” and RACE »PAGE 9

Reduction in tenure profs concerns faculty MONEY

EMILY WILLIAMS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The national shift away from tenured faculty positions and its potential to change the quality of higher education has caught the attention of faculty members at Miami University. The newly established Miami chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) hopes to address this concern and defend the educational mission of the university with a stronger faculty voice.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, nationally, fulltime tenured and tenure-track faculty now make up just 30 percent of all faculty in higher education.

The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges reports that in 1969, tenured and tenure-track represented 78 ADJUNCT »PAGE 5

In 2006,The Miami Student published a special report on the ongoing frustration students were facing when it came time to register for classes.

“I definitely would have been able to get out of here in four years if not for the Miami Plan,” said then senior Luke Buhrmester.

COMMUNITY

VAPE SHOP SMOKES UP OXFORD »PAGE 3

CULTURE

“HOUSE OF CARDS” WOBBLES »PAGE 4

OPINION

ESCAPISM IN PRO WRESTLING

SPORTS

SOFTBALL

»PAGE 6s

»PAGE 10

Students may register for an audition time via our website

Auditions will be held April 1st 5–8PM at Harris and April 2nd 5–8PM at Martin

MiamiOH.edu/MiamiIdol Registration will end March 31st /MIAMIDINING

@MIAMIUDINING

2 UNIVERSITY

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

New plans for North Quad CONSTRUCTION

EMILY O’CONNOR THE MIAMI STUDENT

Miami University began the preparation for a renovation project on the North Quad on March 16. Brandon, Flower, Hahne and Hepburn were the residence halls chosen for renovation, along with Martin dining hall.

The project will be similar to the East Quad renovation project currently underway.

“The new buildings will be getting HVAC so there will be a lot better temperature control inside the residence hall spaces,” Associate VP of Facility Planning and Operation Cody Powell said.

Powell is responsible for the oversight of construction on campus.

“It is a complete interior renovation,” Powell said. “Better temperature control, better finishes and the restrooms are being completely redone. The renovations are in alignment with what we have seen in Anderson and McFarland.”

Miami has chosen to do a cluster of buildings at a time so utility improvements can be made.

According to Powell, achieving the campus-wide sustainability goals, like utility improvements, is hard to do on a building-bybuilding basis. Renovating a group of buildings at a time al-

lows for a more energy efficient method of heating and cooling.

“Age is a factor as to why the North Quad is being addressed.

Also, we were trying to find the larger cluster of buildings where we could accomplish this in the most efficient and least disruptive way for the campus,” Miami’s VP of Finance and Business David Creamer said.

Along with renovations to the

plan around the declining and dead trees,” Powell said.

The trees in the project area are not going to be relocated.

“Because we have to waterproof the exterior basement walls of the buildings, the perimeter of the building must be excavated, and that means those trees must be removed,” project architect and manager Ted Christian said.

“The cost to relocate a specimen

We’ve learned that as we go into these renovation projects we do an assessment. We have to understand the impact before we begin the design process.”

CODY POWELL

ASSOCIATE VP OF FACILITY PLANNING AND OPERATION

residence halls, Miami is doing a Tree Inventory in North Quad to help ensure the life of the newly renovated residence halls.

“We’ve learned that as we go into these renovation projects we do an assessment,” said Powell. “We have to understand the impact before we begin the design process.”

According to Powell, the Tree Inventory categorizes each individual tree into 4 categories: Specimen tree, Contributing tree, Declining tree, and Dead tree.

“We have to protect the specimen tree and contributing tree as much as possible and work the

or contributing tree can be as high as $400,000, which does not fit within the financial model of the project.”

The project to renovate the North Quad was funded using tax-exempt bonds that the university issued last year, according to Creamer. The project is expected to cost 98.3 million.

According to Christian, the Tree Inventory was completed in the fall of 2014 so it could be used as a tool to guide the design process.

Miami students can expect to live in the newly renovated dorms by August of 2016.

MU lecture spurs memories, conversation on Armenian Genocide EVENT

KRISTA SAVAGE

THE MIAMI STUDENT

The remains of thousands of Armenians lay forgotten in the Syrian Desert in a place called Deir-ez-Zor, also referred to as the “Armenian Auschwitz.”

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century. In the spring of 1915, the Ottoman Empire expelled Armenians living in eastern Turkey from their homes, forcing them on death marches into the Syrian Desert.

Somewhere between 600,000 and one million Armenians were killed.

Author and expert on the Armenian Genocide, Ronald Suny, shared his research with Miami University at an on-campus lecture March 18. Suny is also the Director for the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Michigan.

they rounded up Armenian politicians, journalists and professors, and slaughtered them.

“With the muscle and the brains gone, left were women, children and elderly who were then sent on death marches through the Syrian Desert,” Suny said.

Today, the Turkish government does not recognize this genocide.

In fact, the word “genocide” is forbidden when speaking of the Armenians. Several other nations, including the U.S. and Germany, speak cautiously of the event, and avoid the term “genocide” in order to preserve ties with Turkey.

Even though there is substantial evidence and many survivors and witnesses of the genocide, the Turks refuse to take blame, often trying to provide alternative reasons for the deaths. Turks put blame on the Armenians, claiming they were the victims.

In fact, there is a museum in Turkey acknowledging Turks killed by Armenians.

“Armenians were actually loyal to the Turks, and hundreds

I am shocked more people do not pay respect to this tragedy. There is a forest of bones that lies forgotten.”

CAROLINE SCHUBE

MIAMI UNIVERSITY JUNIOR

Miami professor and member of the Genocide and Holocaust Education committee, Erik Jensen, invited Dr. Suny to speak on the Armenian genocide. The Center for American and World Cultures at Miami will host more events throughout April dedicated educating students about tragedies throughout world history.

In 1915, the leaders of the Ottoman Empire began to question the loyalty of Armenians living in eastern Turkey; they claim the Armenians were rebels aiding the Russians against them. This led the Turkish Government to take authoritative actions. First, they disarmed Armenian soldiers fighting in the Turkish army. Then,

of thousands of them joined the army. Then, they were demobilized and killed,” Suny said.

“If any Turks were killed it was purely out of self defense by the Armenians who were getting their families torn apart or were starving to death.”

Today, the Armenian Genocide isn’t covered in many history classes. It’s often overlooked, partly due to the events of WWI and the Jewish Holocaust. Some historians even claim that Hitler was inspired by the massacres of the Armenians.

“Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Hitler said during his dictatorship in 1939.W

Caroline Schube, a junior history and political science double major, didn’t know anything about the Armenian Genocide until her professor mentioned Suny’s lecture.

“I am shocked more people do not pay respect to this tragedy,” Schube said. “There is a forest of bones that lies forgotten.”

However, present-day Armenians don’t take the subject lightly. Sadie Zazian, from Allen Park, Michigan, is the mother to a staff member at Miami. She remembers in detail her mother’s stories from the Armenian Genocide.

Her mother was one of the few survivors.

Zazian’s parents lived in a city called Govdooun, in Sepastia, Turkey. They married in 1914 when her mother was 18 years old. Shortly after, Zazian’s father escaped in hopes of avoiding serving in the Turkish army.

However, her mother and aunt remained in Govdooun.

“My mother and her sister were forced out of their homes by the Turkish government,” Zazian said. “They were tortured, starved and they had to endure many tragic experiences. They were tortured. Plain and simple. My grandparents were murdered and thrown into the black sea.”

Zazian accredits her mother’s survival to the Syrians, who fed large groups of the survivors in the desert. Eventually, through efforts made by the American Red Cross Association, the survivors were rescued and brought to the United States.

“My mother told me stories of her travels every day. I always wondered why she never got sick of talking about it and she would say, ‘When you wake up next to your nephew, and realize that he had starved to death overnight, it’s hard to forget,’” Zazian said.

“At that point, I realized that you can’t ever move on from something like this.”

For the last 100 years, Armenians have struggled to raise awareness of the murders of their people. April 24 is recognized as Armenian Genocide Awareness Day. This year, Istanbul will host a large memorial service.

CAMPUS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

Students introduce ‘MU Project You’ to Campus CLUB

SARAH BUOP

THE MIAMI STUDENT

The thought of first-years feeling the need to look and act a certain way in order to fit in at Miami University struck a nerve with junior Ashton Spann. She began to imagine that a campus where all students’ qualities could prevail over the typical Miami stereotypes.

This idea inspired Spann to create Project You, a campus-wide initiative that promotes authenticity and celebrates all students’ unique qualities.

The Project You mission statement explains that this is an initiative dedicated to improving the Miami community by empowering students to believe that no matter where they come from, what they look like or how they identify, each one is perfectly unique, valuable and worthy beyond words.

“I wanted to start Project You because I felt that it was something that our campus needed,” Spann said. “There are a lot of students that come to our campus thinking that there’s one image that they need to fit into in order to find a sense of belonging, but that definitely isn’t the case.”

Project You is currently a committee within The National Residence Hall Honorary.

Throughout this spring semester, Project You has teamed up with different organizations in order to spread the word about their goals throughout campus.

The committee has also been holding a variety of events to increase awareness. These events include passing out flowers and compliments on Valentine’s Day, having students add their thumbprint to the Project You banner and holding workshops for any students who would like to participate.

Over the past two months, the committee has held various “TED Talk Tuesdays” that include a TED

talk screening and group discussion about a certain topic. Past topic discussions have included selflove, self-esteem and bullying.

On March 17, Project You held a “TED Talk Tuesday” on masculinity and gender stereotypes. To begin, the students first watched a TED Talk video about the topic. The group then gathered around in a circle to discuss how gender stereotypes influenced their daily lives.

Member of the Project You committee, David Shoemaker, facilitated the discussion on masculinity and gender stereotypes.

He feels the TED Talks are a great way for students to start communicating with each other about certain topics that affect their daily lives.

There are a lot of students that come to our campus thinking that there’s one image that they need to fit into in order to find a sense of belonging, but that definitely isn’t the case.”

ASHTON SPANN

MIAMI UNIVERSITY JUNIOR

“I think the various-themed TED Talks will provide a space for students to have critical and difficult conversations about their experiences and thoughts on improving the culture of Miami’s student body,” Shoemaker said.

This is just the beginning for Project You. The team will continue to hold events throughout the semester, including “TED Talk Tuesdays” at 7 p.m. on April 14 and 28 in Armstrong Student Center Pavilion C. “Each and every one of us is perfectly unique, valuable and worthy beyond words, and I hope that Project You can help other students believe that as well,” Spann said.

IAN MARKER THE MIAMI STUDENT

FLEXIN’ THE GOLDEN PIPES Steele Fitzwater sings at the Geoffery P. Hall undergraduate artist competition. The event, which was open to students studying an instrument or vocals with the Department of Music, was held on Tuesday, March 17.

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New bar replaces Smokin’ Ox BUSINESS

SARAH MOSBY

THE MIAMI STUDENT

A new bar just opened to a limited audience in Uptown Oxford at the former home of Smokin’ Ox. The Corner Grill and Drinkery, owned by Ted Wood, opened its doors Friday, March 13.

Wood, who also owns O’Pub, The Wood’s, Pachinko’s and Side Bar, bought out Smokin’ Ox last May and began renovations in September, after the restaurant officially closed.

According to Alan Kyger, the director of economic development in Oxford, the Smokin’ Ox had a food and full liquor permit. Corner Grill and Drinkery also has a food and full liquor permit so Oxford’s liquor permits will not be increasing with the creation of this bar.

The Corner Grill and Drinkery is a private business. The City of Oxford is not involved in private business operations other than

public safety inspections.

The Corner Bar is a unique entertainment venue with an assortment of menu items, including gourmet grilled cheeses, burgers, hot dogs, several appetizers, as well as many health-conscious

Two Greek organizations were the first-time private event holders. Delta Zeta rented it out on Friday, March 13 — its opening night — for a Mom’s Weekend event.

Hours have not been firmly established, as we are waiting on feedback from patrons and the community at large.”

JAMES WENSTRUP

MANAGER, CORNER GRILL AND DRINKERY

items. The prices will be comparable to other Uptown restaurants.

It spans two stories, including a basement with a small game room, complete with a pool table and dartboards.

“Hours have not been firmly established, as we are waiting on feedback from patrons and the community at large,” said James Wenstrup, the manager. “But, we hope to be open and serving food beginning at lunch time, and stay open until standard bar close at 2 a.m. nightly.”

Caroline Caruso, a first-year in Delta Zeta, attended the event and had a positive experience.

“I was impressed with the venue, as well as the service,” Caruso said. “They didn’t serve food, but they did serve drinks and it looked like business was great. I bet this bar will be really successful.”

The Corner Grill and Drinkery’s official grand opening is still in the works. The staff is adamant they want to make sure everything is right before they are fully open to the public.

PHILL ARNDT THE MIAMI STUDENT

Vape shop aims to fill Uptown with flavor BUSINESS

EMILY RAST

THE MIAMI STUDENT

Studio Vapes, a chain that sells a wide variety of electronic cigarettes and supplies, will be opening their sixth location March 28 in Oxford. The store, located at 111 West High St., will offer Oxford residents over 175 different flavors of e-juice.

With a large selection of brands and flavors, Studio Vapes has a juice to cater to everyone’s taste, according to Ian McLaughlin, one of the owners.

The chain, which has enjoyed success in both the Cincinnati and Southern Indiana areas, is looking to expand their customer base with the new location in Oxford. While Studio Vapes serves a huge demographic, with customers ranging from teenagers following the e-cig trend to senior citizens trying to beat an addiction, they are targeting a new market here.

“We want to focus more on the juice — it’s a cultural shift, usually very popular in college towns,” McLaughlin said.

With over 10 brands and 175 flavors of e-juice, Studio Vapes provides many options. Basic starting sets cost around $30, but more intricate sets cost up to several hundred dollars and are available for vapor enthusiasts.

The strength of the flavor, as

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well as the presence of nicotine, is up to the customer, allowing each person to tailor their own experience.

Austin Newman, an employee at the Colerain Avenue location, said this is made possible through the many combinations and setups available for Studio

the sole fact that it could potentially help current smokers quit,” McDougall said. “My only fear is that non-smokers will pick it up and that could hurt them.”

Electronic cigarettes aren’t only for formers smokers, though. Studio Vapes advertises electronic cigarettes to recre-

We want to focus more on the juice — it’s a crucial shift, usually very popular in college towns.”

IAN MCLAUGHLIN

OWNER, STUDIO VAPES

Vape smokers.

These setups allow the user to tweak a number of things about their electronic cigarette, from how much nicotine is in the blend to how big the vapor cloud is.

McLaughlin and Newman both agreed this individualized process is extremely important.

“You can get zero nicotine — no addiction,” McLaughlin said.

This adjustable nicotine setting is a redeeming factor for ecigarettes, which are banned on Miami’s campus.

“It can be really good for people trying to quit smoking,” McLaughlin said.

Christy McDougall, a junior health and kinesiology major, had mixed feelings about Oxford’s newest shop.

“I think I would support it for

ational smokers as well.

Of their nearly 200 flavors, several stand out as customer favorites.

“Blueberry and blackberry are our most popular flavors,” Newman said, of the Colerain Avenue location.

But McLaughlin said Dragonblood, a fruit mix, is the all-time best seller.

Employees work to help each customer find something to suit his or her preferences.

The owners encouraged Oxford residents to stop by the new location, even if they have never smoked or used an electronic cigarette before.

“We’re very fun with people, very outgoing and informative,” McLaughlin said. “If you’re curious, stop in.”

POLICE BEAT Colorado bust bares buds, trafficking charge

Repeat offender found in possession

On Mon, March 23, Kansas police pulled over a rental car for bearing license plates not matching the vehicle. The three occupants were not at fault, yet their innocence went up in a puff of smoke after consenting to a vehicle search. The officer identified a vacuum sealer, vacuum bags, packaging tape, rubbing alcohol, Febreze spray, a small amount of personal marijuana, hash oil and THS edibles.

Perhaps the most incriminating discovery, according to OPD, was a United States Postal Service receipt, including tracking number, for an 11-pound package sent from Frisco, Colorado to Oxford, Ohio due for delivery noon, March 25.

Kansan authorities contacted OPD, who then turned to USPS in Cincinnati. Indeed, the package was already being tracked there, and had yet traveled to the Oxford post office. The renter of the vehicle, whose sister’s name was sender on the receipt, was an Oxford resident and former Miami University student returning from Colorado with two others. OPD believes the suspect worked at Shriver.

OPD in tandem with Butler County’s BURN unit executed a federal search warrant on the package. Authorities discovered four pounds of marijuana and hash products in the box, which the man had insured for $100. As the package’s prescribed delivery deadline passed, the sender repeatedly called the post office inquiring as to its whereabouts, even dropping by in person intending to collect it.

OPD, desiring to attempt a controlled delivery, obtained a search warrant for the receiving address on the package, an apartment in the 100 block of N. College Ave. The man was not home, so the detective left a note and tried again after the sender informed OPD, assuming the post office, to leave it on his doorstep. Officers did so, and then watched the suspect, clad in black, slowly roll down the adjacent alley in a silver truck, grab the package, duck inside and promptly leave with another male.

They were stopped by agents and the passenger immediately ran, not getting far before stopped by the net of police long in place.

Once asked about the package, OPD said the suspect repeatedly insisted he was not a drug dealer, rather, he desired to distribute the drugs to family and friends to spare them the risk of acquiring it around Oxford.

A search of the suspect’s apartment and another rented in his name yielded a scale and his laptop, still open to the USPS package tracking website.

The passenger was not charged, but the package recipient was charged with Trafficking in Drugs: containing marijuana other than hashish and Possession of Drugs: marijuana.

At 9:30 p.m., March 26, OPD responded to the Parkview Arms apartment building at 5032 College Corner Pike in response to reports of multiple gunshots fired.

As officers entered the parking lot on foot, they found a female and young boy riding bikes. The female promptly answered she had heard nothing, but the child said he heard loud bangs but couldn’t remember when.

After allowing the pair to ride on, officers noticed a Cadillac Escalade idling with its lights on and back door open. Shining their lights on the car, officers approached and found three occupants, one of who reported hearing approximately 10 gunshots from the front of the building and invited officers to search the vehicle.

A male well known to OPD — a so-called “frequent flier” — was in the backseat.

Officers asked he exit the vehicle and said they would perform a pat down in search of arms. Nervous, the man slipped his hand into his pocket, according to OPD. An officer swiftly pulled out his hand and placed it on the back of the cruiser. Before patting down the suspect, officers asked the known IV drug user if he possessed anything sharp.

He said no, and officers immediately felt a syringe in his pocket. OPD expressed dismay the suspect had lied to them, and he claimed it was a pen.

Yet, it was indeed a syringe, making it the second time in as many weeks the man had lied to OPD about possessing IV drug instruments. The syringe was sent to the crime lab.

OPD says it was probably used for heroine, as in the man’s past offenses.

OPD found no other contraband and the suspect was released in the parking lot after having been issued a summons to court on the charge of possessing drug abuse instruments. The man has another court date from a March 14 incident on the same charge.

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Police report quiet Green Beer Day Green Beer Day was calm this year, according to OPD. Unlike past years, Butler County PD was not called down.

Two DUIs were issued during the day, but OPD said the day was nothing to write home about.

# OF MIAMI STUDENT READERS WHO WILL SEE

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IN OTHER NEWS HAMILTON

CINCINNATI

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

Monroe to combat growing drug use

Portman votes left on climate change

Indiana scrambles combat H.I.V.

to

U.S., Iran negotiations enter deadline today

Monroe, Ohio, is developing a community anti-drug coalition in an effort to prevent “young people” from exploring drugs.

— Journal-News

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, voted yes this week on a Democrat proposed amendment declaring that climate change is real and caused by human activity.

— The Enquirer

The largest surge of the iunfection in Indiana’s history has ben caused in part by the recreational use of the prescription painkiller Opana.

— The New York Times

An agreement between Iran and the Western coalition looked bright on Monday, but some issues may go unresolved until late June.

— The New York Times

WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED READING

PLEASE RECYCLE

4 CULTURE

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

Colossal expectations falling flat

KIGGINLA@MIAMIOH.EDU

‘House of Cards’ series is beginning to tumble TELEVISION DEVON SHUMAN STAFF WRITER

BRITTON PERELMAN THE MIAMI STUDENT

TRAVEL GREAT BRITTON The “American” breakfast at our hostel in Rome was a pathetic attempt at scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes. We’d been given pineapple juice, which is apparently common in Italy but foreign to us, and coffee in a clear glass instead of a mug.

Everything about Rome felt like a colossal mistake. As we walked downhill after breakfast, in the direction of the Colosseum, I tried not to think about how horrible it would be to walk back uphill at the end of the day. My mind kept replaying the night before in quick flashes — the manager at our first hostel pointing off the map entirely to show us where we were; our hurried decision to leave; bartering for some of our money back; the taxi ride across town to a new hostel.

In an attempt to start the day fresh, I considered all I knew about Rome. I tried to remember when I’d first learned about the Colosseum, when it had become one of the things I wanted to see most. It must have been in middle school, though it seemed longer ago than that. I’d been fascinated by Ancient Rome — the gladiators that had fought

in the giant arena; the legends about battles and children raised by wolves and love affairs that had ruined empires.

I saw us getting far enough into the city, crossing an intersection, looking to our left, and finally seeing it — a giant testament to a civilization of the past, right down the street, looming over the buildings and the road, magnificent, like in all the pictures. We wanted the ver-

couldn’t shake my disappointment. It occurred to me suddenly that the moment I’d thought was guaranteed to happen while I was abroad wasn’t likely to happen at all.

I think I’d anticipated that just seeing the Colosseum would trigger some kind of monumental, life-changing feeling. I’d walk away wiser, having been affected simply by the sight itself. But I wasn’t. There was no

I couldn’t decide what disappointed me more — the fact that seeing the Colosseum hadn’t forever altered me, or the fact that I’d assumed it would.” sion of Rome from “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” That Rome had vespas zooming down the streets, wishes in the Trevi Fountain that actually came true, and glinting sunlight in the corner of each frame. Lizzie’s Rome had been magical.

But when we’d walked far enough on Via Cavour and it finally came into view, down one of the streets to the left just like I’d thought, something inside me was immediately let down. It wasn’t as big as I’d imagined.

Even as we got closer, nothing changed. It looked exactly like the pictures I’d seen since I was in middle school. Beautiful, incredible for the simple fact that it had been there for nearly two thousand years, but not as impressive as I’d hoped.

I stared up into the sun at the perfectly symmetrical openings and the cracked façade, but I

instantaneous feeling of realization, nothing that made me feel any different than the person I’d been five minutes ago. It was just the Colosseum.

“Just the Colosseum.” What was wrong with me? How was it possible to be disappointed by the Colosseum? More importantly, if the Colosseum wasn’t living up to expectations, was there anything in Europe that would?

As we explored the rest of Rome, dodging peddlers every 20 feet trying to sell us “selfiesticks” or knock-off sunglasses, I couldn’t decide what disappointed me more ­— the fact that seeing the Colosseum hadn’t forever altered me, or the fact that I’d assumed it would.

BRITTON PERELMAN

PERELMBK@MIAMIOH.EDU

“It Follows” scares for all the right reasons FILM JACK RYAN

STAFF WRITER

Decent horror films make you jump and scream in the theater.

Good horror films scare you while you watch them and then follow you home, effectively rooting themselves in your subconscious, creating paranoia and fear in the most innocent of circumstances. Great horror films both scare and haunt you, but also make you think about the nature of this fear, why it exists, what it really means. Simply put, “It Follows,” the sophomore release from writer/director David Robert Mitchell, is a great horror film.

The premise of “It Follows” is simple. Average college girl Jay (Maika Monroe) goes on a date with Hugh (Jake Weary), a recent acquaintance. They consummate their young relationship in an abandoned parking lot. Afterwards, as she lies across the backseat, reminiscing about youthful imaginations of romance, she is suddenly incapacitated by a rag of chloroform to the face. Not by a masked killer or a mysterious

hooded figure, but by Hugh.

Jay awakens bound to a wheelchair in an abandoned building, seemingly unharmed. Hugh is there, and he begins to explain himself. He was the recipient of a curse, where he was stalked by a shape shifting entity, only visible to him. It could be anyone, dead or alive, but it doesn’t run, scream or use complex otherworldly powers to hunt; it just walks. Slowly, but constantly.

He has transmitted this curse to Jay sexually, and she is now the sole target, until she either dies or “passes it on” as well. He is telling her because if she dies, it will come back for him.

After giving her a first glimpse of ‘it’, he takes her back to her home and abandons her.

Naturally, Jay panics. She recruits her four close friends to help her out: Paul (Keir Gilchrist), a compassionate former flame; Yara (Olivia Luccardi), a girl who constantly reads Dostoevsky off her seashell shaped Kindle (no, really); Greg (Daniel Zovatto), who bears a resemblance to Judd Nelson’s character in “The Breakfast Club”; and Kelly (Lili Sepe), another acquaintance who just seems to exist as a filled car seat. None of them can see

this monster, but they support their friend regardless.

Together, they try to find a way around this curse. The obvious answer is sex, yet she seems too empathetic to put someone else in her shoes. The morally appealing, but more difficult route is living her life on the run. As Jay struggles with these options, she and her friends move back and forth across Detroit to create distance between herself and ‘it’, and things begin to get understandably tense.

“It Follows” is guided very intelligently by Mitchell, who clearly has looked over recent jump-scare rich flicks. He frequently crescendos tension to nothing, taking control of his audience with a strong level of restraint before surprising them off-hand, usually with the creature’s gruesome forms. Mitchell also frequently uses wide shots that slowly zoom in, simultaneously creating eerily beautiful images and daring us to frantically search for something that (usually) isn’t there.

The score, crafted by Disasterpeace, is synth-filled creepiness (think 16bit Zelda mixed with “The Shining”) that looms and strikes, cementing an HORROR »PAGE 9

The thing about a house of cards is that the taller it gets, the more difficult it is to build, to find a new spot to place your next card. This seems to be what is happening to Beau Willimon and the rest of the minds behind Netflix’s series, “House of Cards.” After two seasons of having the ruthless Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey) fight his way to the top of the American world of politics, they seem to have run out of ideas of what to do with him next.

The third season of the show opens with a scene that feels cozy and familiar to fans of the show.

Underwood, now president of the United States, visits his hometown of Gaffney, South Carolina to visit the grave of his father, only to urinate on that grave when nobody is looking. This is exactly the kind of unexpected, ruthless power move viewers have come to expect from Frank.

It’s just the kind of move that makes him such a great character.

From that opening scene on, however, there is not much to quench the viewer’s thirst for Underwood’s ruthless pragmatism. For two years, we enjoyed watching him climb his way to the top, scheming and brutally taking down everyone in his path as he found his way from majority whip to vice president to the oval office. Now, he just seems lost. He’s like a dog that miraculously catches its tail after chasing it for so long.

Now that he has what he was fighting for, he doesn’t seem to know what to do with it.

It’s not just Frank’s storyline that has lost its luster now that he has no more power to gain. It’s his character. Even in the first episode, it is immediately apparent that there is something different about Frank this season. However, it has nothing to do with the presidency, nothing to do with the White House or even with politics at all. It’s actually very simple.

Frank’s gone soft.

In the first two seasons, whenever it looked like Frank had lost, he would always have some new trick up his sleeve that would put him back on top. He wasn’t afraid to use any resource at his disposal, no matter how terrible or diabolical, to get what he wanted.

This season, that side of Frank has disappeared. Now there is no reason to have any confidence in his ability to fight back. If he looks sad or beaten, it’s not because he’s using emotion to trick or coerce his enemies as we might have previously believed.

It’s because he’s a loser.

One could make the argument that this change in character is Willimon’s way of trying to bring the series in a new direction. Instead of Frank always knowing what to do and how to win, it could be interesting to see what happens when he is lost and confused now that he has nowhere left to climb.

But let’s be honest. Nobody watches this show to see Francis Underwood waver as he makes tough decisions. We watch it to see him win, no matter the cost. Without the ruthlessness of Frank Underwood, what is “House of Cards” other than a bland and somewhat exaggerated look at the world of American politics?

We want the coldblooded Frank who snapped the neck of a dog dying in the street, who threw Zoe Barnes in front of a train when she threatened to reveal too much, who whistled, “Hail to the Chief” as he walked away from his arch nemesis, Raymond Tusk.

Instead we get the Frank who cries on the floor of his office when the pressure is too much, who sheepishly walks away after accidentally breaking a statue of Jesus in a church, who asks us permission to “break a man” to get what he wants.

Really, Frank?

Despite all this, the season does have its bright spots. Lars Mikkelsen is frightening and intriguing as the Putin-esque Russian PresiCARDS»PAGE 5

‘Station Eleven’ reinvents the post-apocalyptic novel LITERATURE EAMONN WALSH

THE MIAMI STUDENT

In Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel, the reader is introduced to a cast of six characters whose world’s are turned upside down with the coming of the apocalypse.

These six characters are each given intermittent time in the spotlight as St. John Mandel moves throughout the non-chronological plot and splices chapters and sections with insights into the lives of the six.

The main characters of this novel are Arthur Leander, an aging movie star; Kristen Raymonde, a child actor who is in Arthur’s last performance; Miranda, Arthur’s first wife; Clark, Arthur’s best friend; Jeevan Chaudhary, a former celebrity photographer turned paramedic who is in the audience during Arthur’s final show; and the “prophet,” a shadowy figure who arises out of the ashes of the fallen world and interprets everything that happened as an act of God. These characters guide the plot through the new world and the old as new challenges present themselves and old issues resurface.

A warning to the reader: this is unlike any post-apocalyptic novel that has come before. There are no epic battle scenes, no ravaging hordes of vampires/zombies and no elicit love trysts. Instead, there are elements of more traditional novels, such as divorce, coming of age and family all set against the backdrop of the world’s end. This seems to be the in vogue way to do this sort of novel now and St. John Mandel’s novel appears to be the successor to such contemporary classics as Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” and Colson Whitehead’s “Zone One,” both are

post-apocalyptic novels that deal with humanity, instead of its absence.

When the story begins, it is Arthur Leander’s last performance.

The setting is a theater in Toronto and the play is “King Lear.” Arthur dies that night of a heart attack and later the next day, a mysterious illness known as the Georgia Flu becomes airborne. This is, of course, the disease that will end 99 percent of the human race, but now much is known about its symptoms. The most the reader gets is when a newscaster says that “it is like the flu, except much worse,” you feel sick in the morning, are bedridden by night, and dead the next day. Once the flu has occurred, the plot abruptly jumps approximately twenty years and the reader meets the grown-up Kristen Raymonde. Kristen bivouacs with a group known as the Traveling Symphony. The Symphony travels from settlement to settlement performing Beethoven and Shakespeare in exchange for food and temporary shelter. They view their mission as necessary and meaningful because they are stubbornly retaining part of the old culture and because they are trying to hold onto small slivers of the lives they used to lead.

Eventually, the Symphony arrives in a town called St. Deborah by the Water in an attempt to find two members of the group who absconded a year or two prior. However, the town has since been taken over by the prophet and his group of believers who are overly protective of the townspeople and extremely hostile to visitors. From here, the novel is more mystery than dystopian as increasingly tense moments leave the troupe searching for kidnapped members of the Symphony.

Interspersed throughout these adSTATION »PAGE 9

WWW.MIAMISTUDENT.NET

5

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

FROM MEN’S HOCKEY »PAGE 1

them they had to go out and leave it all on the ice. That’s kind of characteristic of our culture. Our guys did a really good job. I’m proud of them.”

Junior center Sean Kuraly, sophomore forward Devin Loe and junior defenseman Matthew Caito scored one goal apiece in the third period comeback.

The Friars had opportunities to end the game sooner in the third period, but Miami’s defensive effort put a stop to almost every play.

A minute after McKay was pulled, MU freshman Scott Dornbrock scrambled to the goalie-less net in a tight race with PC’s junior forward Mark Jankowski and blocked a potential empty-netter.

With 45 seconds remaining, Providence attempted another empty-net goal, but freshman Louie Belpedio

sprinted from his own blue line and threw his body in front of Miami’s net to prevent the puck from rolling straight in.

“We were down 6-2 and then it was 6-5 at that point,” Belpedio said. “With that last minute left in the game – a lot can happen in that minute – I just tried to hustle back and keep it out. … Every day of our program, it’s about never giving up and sticking together through it all.

Even though we lost, I think the third period says a lot about our program and the team that we have this year.”

Belpedio crashed into the end boards after the save and staggered off the ice. He said his right shoulder popped out of its socket on the play, but the injury was minor and is healed now.

“It’s just a tremendous effort,” Murphy said of Belpedio in the post-game press conference. “I just couldn’t be more proud of that type

of work ethic. Hats off to guys for giving it everything they had until the last buzzer.”

Providence outshot Miami 36-34 overall, though MU closed the gap with a 15-3 edge in the third period.

Neither team scored on the power play, as the Friars finished 0 for 3 on the man advantage and the RedHawks went 0 for 2.

Junior Jay Williams (23 saves on 28 shots) and McKay (six saves on seven shots) split the duties in goal for the Red and White. Their counterpart, junior goaltender Jon Gillies, stopped 29 of 34 Miami shots. PC’s senior forward Shane Luke led the Friars with two goals.

Czarnik’s two assists in his final collegiate game tie him with Bill Bok for fifth most points in school history (169).

“It’s probably been the best four years of my life and I’d give anything to be back here for another

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four,” the team captain said. “The situations we were put in, being able to win two championships, it’s been such a good experience. … I just want to thank Miami University for everything they’ve given me.”

Despite the early exit from the NCAA tournament, Blasi tells his players that The Brotherhood means more than national titles.

“Anytime you win a championship, especially playing in our league, that’s pretty good,” Blasi said. “I’m really proud of the team and the way we played all year. It’s probably one of the most consistent years we’ve ever had. We never really had a losing streak and the guys did a great job of staying focused.

Winning the NCHC Championship – I mean, you see how many NCHC teams are in the tournament – that’s the toughest championship there is to win. It’s probably easier to win the national championship than it is to

win the championship in our league.

So it’s quite a testament to the team and how they played all season long.

Twenty-five wins is not an easy task, going to the national tournament is not easy.”

With the conclusion of the season, Miami hockey certainly boasts a list of accomplishments: the second conference title in school history and the first as a member of the NCHC, the 12th 20-plus win season in 16 years, five shutouts, several hat tricks and potentially three seniors who will continue their careers in the NHL. “We came off a last-place season last year where we lost in the NCHC Championship game,” Blasi said.

“So for the team to turn around in a year and do what they did, that should not be taken lightly. I think when the dust settles back and everybody looks back at the season we had, hopefully people will say it’s pretty special.”

FROM CARDS »PAGE 4

we see a new, intriguing side to Doug’s character.

The final three or four episodes of the season get back to the show’s roots. Despite Underwood’s softness in the beginning, he finally becomes his ruthless self again and helps the season build to a fiery and unexpected conclusion. However, this is a textbook case of “too little too late.” A few great episodes don’t make up for the dullness and monotony of the entire season.

Willimon’s house of cards is beginning to shake. He has his work cut out for him in the fourth season if he wants to keep it from collapsing for good.

dent, Viktor Petrov. There are also some wonderful returning performances from other secondary characters such as Jackie Sharp (Molly Parker) and Seth Grayson (Derek Cecil). And as usual, Robin Wright is brilliant as the quietly cold and powerful first lady, Claire Underwood.

Perhaps the best storyline throughout the season is that of Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Underwood’s former Chief of Staff. After becoming overly creepy with his obsession with Rachel Posner in the second season, Doug becomes likeable again. Through his physical recovery and his journey back into the political world,

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6 OPINION

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

EDITORIAL@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

Comparing ourselves puts a damper on Spring Break and beyond EDITORIAL

We had one week. For one week, we lived without the urgency of classes and evening meetings and structured days. We were supposed to get a break from it all.

We traveled to southern beaches and sat poolside and breathed in warmer air and stopped worrying about to-do lists. And that should’ve been enough. Even if we were sitting on our couches in our hometowns, it should’ve been enough.

But one thing we didn’t get a break from was comparison. When we looked at our phones, we were compelled to compare our experiences to the girl or guy on a different beach or different part of the world.

As we scrolled through our Instagram feeds or Snapchat stories, we were flooded with a whirlwind of sunny images, big-city adventures and hundred dollar meals.

Perhaps the images that hit the

The following piece, written by the editorial editors, reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board. hardest were those seemingly perfect, tanned swimsuit bodies. We scrolled through scores of those. We saw that girl’s flat stomach or that guy’s six-pack and no matter our vacation location, we were instantly somewhere else. We were in comparison land or in self-loathing land.

We were thinking about our own flubby stomachs or less-than-ideal weight or how big our legs looked in that picture.

And suddenly, our experiences weren’t enough. We weren’t enough.

A part of us just wanted to look like everyone else. Even during those days far away from Oxford, we couldn’t take a break from the need to fit in and compare.

This need, for many, reigns at Miami and Spring Break is a big, bold sign of that. We are conditioned to pose for the same pictures and to look skinny and to visit that exotic beach on our parents’ dime. Even

this week, as we exchange stories of our adventures, we compare stories and try to win the “who has the best tan” battle.

Miami is home to plenty of uniform faces, wardrobes and body types. Our campus is pretty extreme when it comes to trying to fit in. For girls, it’s all about being skinny, or maybe more about not being overweight or even average weight. Pick any “hottest college girls” list on BuzzFeed or a similar site and Miami is usually near the top. That can be a really scary title to live up to when you see the competition and when you don’t feel like you measure up.

Some students work extra hard to simultaneously party and stay skinny, despite the two so clearly contradicting each other. Students hit the Rec during the day in order to justify eating three slices of pizza at 2 a.m.

Soon, maybe they would rather drink

their calories than eating full meals.

Like many collegiate-style tendencies, this isn’t a healthy viewpoint.

For many, working out is not about perform physically at their best, but to fit into a double-zero pair of shorts at Lululemon. It’s all about looking like everyone else and keeping up.

What does all of this say about us as a college? Wouldn’t we rather be a college of strong young women and men? Wouldn’t we rather be a collection of individuals and build each other up just as we are? Wouldn’t we rather work out because we want to run a marathon or play a sport or because we enjoy it?

This kind of atmosphere is possible here. It may seem far off, but it’s possible here. Maybe it takes not cringing when you see a body “better” than yours. Maybe it takes listening to “All about that bass” a few more times. Maybe it takes growing up and leaving college habits behind.

Or maybe it takes something like MU Project You, a new initiative on campus that’s challenging the need to fit in. It’s pushing students to believe that “no matter where they come from, what they look like or how they identify, each one is perfectly unique, valuable and worthy beyond words.” It’s a beautiful sentiment, but blatantly absent over much of Miami’s campus. Project You is about individuals. It’s about breaking that “everybody is the same” stereotype. It’s about reversing the culture that Miami is breeding left and right.

Maybe we need a heavy dose of something like that.

This group won’t shift all of Miami’s stereotypes, but it might start the conversation. It might get people to think twice before feeling badabout their uniqueness. It might champion the idea of standing out instead of fitting in. And for now, maybe that’s what we need.

Wrestling taps into my need for make-believe reality

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Bishop Woods has unseen value Today I walked into Upham Hall. I took the entrance near Bishop Woods. I saw the throngs bustling along. I saw people focused on their cell phones and engrossed in their conversations.

I saw an empty bench facing the Upham Arch looking solemnly across the large manicured lawn. It reminds me of an empty pew in an old church. I find it ironic that the Bishop Woods sit behind this pew.

Of course, my mind goes to the recent debate over how the Bishop Woods should be treated and I think of the many baptisms of “the Bishop”. I think of its origins. I think of the shack that the poet in residence Percy MacKaye lived in at the center of Bishop Woods while he penned “The Trees of Miami”. I think of the many times Miami University Presidents have named the goals of preserving the natural beauty of the area.

Ellen Blevens quoted President Shriver as saying “We wanted the paths, as long as they were inconspicuous and didn’t disrupt too much plant life.”

I think of purpose in what we do and what the Bishop Woods preach to us at Miami, and what our handling of the woods would tell of us.

I see the Botany Graduate Students with undergraduates in tow periodically on campus, sharing the life history and characteristics of the campus plants. They focus on the native trees in a dendrology course or impress upon students the way natural growth and succession would work. Bishop woods is the last asylum for this type of community on campus.

Now, I think of how far I have to walk to find a natural area on campus. I think of the logistics to get a group of students out to any natural area even the Bishop woods, as close as it is, perhaps fifteen minutes of class time between meeting in class and walking there, maybe more, but worth it. These students do see the woods. They see it intimately and in all its minute and immense glory. Bishop woods is a place for learning about a subject that, on this campus can only be taught in Bishop Woods.

Let us compare the value of these woods to more sidewalks, seating and mowable areas. I see the throngs walk past the woods, on their phones and engrossed in conversation. They do not see the woods. They are not looking for a place to sit in the woods. I challenge those in charge to weigh the costs of paying for installation and maintenance of seating areas and mowing of the proposed grasses into perpetuity, against the lost learning objectives. Take the time to consider the portion of the syllabus dedicated to these topics and multiply by the students enrolled in all these classes. I challenge them to survey the seating that sits empty around campus on beautiful days like today. What do we need?

What do the students need? What values do we hold in our hearts?

Where do the needs of our unique students lie?

LENO DAVIS

DAVISAO2@MIAMIOH.EDU

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Story about La Piñata showed racism on campus I am writing to express my concern about the March 17th article, “Breaking open La Piñata: Mexican restaurant a hit in Oxford” by Juanita Gonzalez Valencia. The article praises La Piñata and its employee, Giovani Febus Rodriguez for the delicious food and warm atmosphere. However, the strongest message I got from the article was not about the restaurant, but about the writer’s and editor’s casual racism and gross lack of thought. In the first sentence of the article, Gonzalez Valencia stating that ‘many’ people describe Rodriguez as “the friendliest Mexican in town.” This immediately strikes me as careless and completely avoidable racism.

It is not okay to reduce someone to their ethnicity. Rodriguez might, in fact, be a very friendly person. He

TMS

ONLINE

might even be the friendliest person in town--but this does not warrant referring to him completely by his ethnicity, not by his personhood.

This is a completely preventable mistake. Gonzalez Valencia does not even take this from a direct quote, but rather as something people have said some time. Whoever edited the article could have easily asked the author to remove it, which would highly improve the quality of the article. It may seem petty to take offense to one phrase, but I am afraid that if I don’t speak about this short phrase, others will stretch and expand the racism permitted in this article. I expect more from the Miami Student.

ANNA LUCIA FELDMAN FELDMAA4@MIAMIOH.EDU

MIAMISTUDENT.NET

LIFE

MILAM’S MUSINGS There’s a Latin phrase attributed to Roman satirist, Petronius, which goes, “Mundus vult decipi, ergo d e c i p i a t u r, ” meaning, “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.”

I gravitate toward fiction in all its forms – books, television, movies and comics – to buy into the fiction. The great tapestry of fiction is that “buy in,” the escapism.

When I read Harry Potter, I step into his magical, angst-filled shoes.

When I read a Jack Reacher novel, I become 6’6 with a chiseled chest, get the girl and kick ass.

It can be that simplistic or it can go deeper; it can become an organic, living, breathing art that helps us to realize we’re not alone. More than just escapism, it becomes a coping mechanism for the Big Questions of life. I find that connection of togetherness in Virginia Woolf’s writing or an Edgar Allen Poe poem.

Likewise, I find that escapism in a form of entertainment and art that is much maligned in the mainstream culture: professional wrestling.

Somewhere, many eyes just rolled, groans came forth and someone said with snark, “You know it’s fake, right?”

I’ve been a fan of this odd-ball amalgam of sport and entertainment for some twenty-odd years.

Unlike my friends, I didn’t “grow out of it,” after childhood. I still watch the weekly television show, Monday Night Raw. I still watch every monthly pay-per-view. I even embrace the full realization of my geekiness and analyze its ups and downs with fellow wrestling fans on message boards and Reddit.

Despite the fullness of my investment, it’s still something that you hold back from mentioning on a first date. Or from telling people, generally, because they just won’t “get it.” My many wrestling t-shirts remain hanging in the closet on most days. The fandom is compartmentalized as this weird thing that occupies much of my time.

I know all the arguments against it; that it’s fake, that it’s low-brow, that it’s misogynic, racist and more

plainly, stupid. And yes, it has been and sometimes still is, all of those things.

But when it’s great, it’s unlike any other form of escapism that I know. When it’s great, it is art manifest. I know that’s shocking to outsiders, “Dude, it is two oiled up men rolling around in their underwear.”

Us wrestling fans know it’s fake – to the extent that it’s scripted and the two combatants aren’t actually trying to hurt each other – but that doesn’t matter. Just like I know Norman Reedus on The Walking Dead doesn’t really carry around a crossbow. Or that Robert Downey Jr. isn’t actually Iron Man. However, when I watch those, I buy in because it’s fun.

As I write this, WWE, probably most known to outsiders as their former name, WWF, is going to present their biggest show of the year, WrestleMania. Some 70,000 fans will pack inside the new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara for

found my seat.

Then I looked out to the crowd of over 80,000 screaming, wacky weirdo wrestling fans. And everything was okay. I made it. I was there in the moment. I get chills just thinking and writing about it now.

I was fortunate to attend my second one, WrestleMania 29, in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium with another grouping of 80,000 fans and breathtaking replicas of the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building on the stage.

I’m letting my freak wrestling flag fly. Wrestling fans are analogous to the wizards in Harry Potter.

They live and exist in this otherworld where they have to hide their fandom. Because it’s embarrassing to be an outed wrestling fan, right?

It’s not a guilty pleasure to me; it’s just a pleasure. We all have things we geek out on. Professional wrestling is just mine.

David Shoemaker of Grantland, perhaps the most elegant writer about professional wrestling, gets

That’s why I love it. The wrestlers exist in this odd dichotomy where what they do quite literally breaks down their bodies, but to most people, it’s just make-believe.”

the 31st edition of the event and I’ll be watching from home, marking out — a wrestling phrase similar to geeking out.

I attended my first WrestleMania, WrestleMania 23, when it was held at Ford Field in Detroit.

My father and I thought we left the hotel to head to the stadium at a good time. We did not. Unbeknownst to us, the geniuses in Detroit only allowed one exit lane to get to the stadium.

I was losing my mind in the passenger seat, afraid I’d be late and miss the biggest show of my life; the culmination of my fandom.

Somehow, we made it through the exit and to the stadium. My dad let me out before he even parked.

I turned into an Olympic runner, running through the hall of the stadium, panicked, breathless trying to find my seat. In that moment, I have no doubt I’d have shoved past an old lady with a walker or hurdled a baby stroller.

Just as Aretha Franklin began her rendition of “America the Beautiful,” a throwback to when she did it 20 years prior at WrestleMania 3, I

at what’s really fake and great about professional wrestling.

“It’s the story of a mythology populated not by gods, but by real men, fallible mortals who served as vessels for a larger truth, men who lived the lives of kings and who suffered to be our idols. This is the ultimate fakery of wrestling — that the emperor has no clothes, that the gods are mortals,” he said in his book, “The Squared Circle.”

That’s why I love it. The wrestlers exist in this odd dichotomy where what they do quite literally breaks down their bodies, but to most people, it’s just make-believe.

But I want to be made to believe.

Just like I want to believe Hogwarts is an actual place or that Clark Kent is bailing some hay in Kansas.

It taps into my childhood and embracing adulthood shouldn’t mean the total abandonment of the former. We need to be reminded from time to time of that wideeyed, still wondering, still curious, still fun kid inside of us.

BRETT MILAM

MILAMBC@MIAMIOH.EDU

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR In response to the adjacent letter by Anna Lucia Feldman, I feel compelled to point out, as the story itself did, that Giovani Febus Rodriguez is actually Mexican. Just because the writer refered to him as “Mexican,” does not mean it’s racist. It’s not like he’s from Venezuela and we called him Mexican. He’s actually from

Mexico. Would you be calling it racism if the article were to say “friendliest Canadian in town?” I think not. This was not a careless inclusion of ethnicity to demean or undermine him.

The article is about a Mexican restaurant and the people who work there. It’s not like the subject matter was unrelated to the country Mexico. Your letter is an

overreaction. If you bristle at the word “Mexican” you may be reacting to some sort of stereotype engrained in your mind. Your implication that labeling him Mexican (which, yes, is his nationality) is demeaning could itself be considered racism.

REIS THEBAULT NEWS EDITOR

EDITORIAL@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

OPINION 7

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

A. J. NEWBERRY THE MIAMI STUDENT

Abolish ‘nerd’ from your vocabulary LIFE

I’ll be the first person to admit that I’m a total nerd. I’d rather keep up with Congress than the Kardashians. I listen to podcasts more often than music. I’m one of the few people in this world that will admit to enjoying solving math problems, which is especially rare for a journalist.

I came into Miami as an undeclared major and was lucky to have a wise and experienced University Studies advisor who helped me figure it out. In one of our first meetings he asked me about my interests, my goals and the AP credit I had for calculus. I had passed with flying colors, testing out of college calculus.

“I’m kind of a nerd,” I explained, “but I actually really like math.”

“Greta,” my advisor said, shaking his head. “You’re in college now. It’s not nerdy; it’s called having interests.”

At the time, I didn’t realize how much his words would stick with me. This sentiment, being proud of your major and the things you like to do, has stayed with me in my three years here.

But, and there’s always a ‘but,’ isn’t there? It isn’t easy. All too often, I find myself hiding my passions from my friends, downplaying my thoughts on Obama’s budget to obsess over the results of BuzzFeed quizzes.

When I do talk about the latest vote in the Senate, I’m defensive. I laugh, admitting that I’m pretty nerdy for paying attention to politics. Usually my friends tease me, too.

These aren’t isolated incidents limited to my friends making fun of me. I’m not the only person who has defended their passions under the lens of being a geek.

We throw shade at our friend when she speaks Spanish around the house; she’s an education major and wants to teach the language.

We tease our friend in an engineering fraternity; she has a really cool co-op lined up for next semester partially through the connections she’s made through the organization. We roll our eyes when our friend talks about her business organization even though she planned their recruitment and now has hundreds of talking points for future interviews that will someday land her a dream job.

Our quickness to make fun of each other’s interests comes from our own self-deprecating attitudes.

We preface talking about what we’re learning in school with a disclaimer about how nerdy it is.

How silly is that? We are here for an education, after all. We should be excited about our classes. It’s our job to expand our cranial horizons and find something to be passionate about. When we graduate, those passions become fulfilling careers.

Sure, watching C-SPAN makes me a dork. I’ll own up to that one.

Paying attention to what’s going on in Washington doesn’t. Someday, it’s going to be my job to report about what Congressmen are doing. It won’t be something to feel defensive of, but rather part of my daily routine as a journalist. I’m not going to regret enjoying math classes when I have to analyze campaign finance data or complex budget bills.

My adviser was correct when she said our interests are just that — interests. Passion is nothing to be ashamed of or disguised under the mask of being nerdy. We should take pride in the fields that we’re studying. We should have conversations about the issues we find interesting. Instead of teasing each other, let’s ask questions.

Let’s learn more.

And please, let’s stop referring to ourselves as nerdy, especially when talking about something that excites you. As soon as I finish writing this, I’m cutting the word from my vocabulary.

Be proud of your passions. Talk about them often. Read the latest post about the Top Gifs of Ryan Gosling (I know I will.) But remember to discuss your academic interests, too. And do both equally with excitement and pride.

GRETA HALLBERG

HALLBEGM@MIAMIOH.EDU

RULE OF THUMB

When you are finished reading: please recycle!

Tweets of the Week

BISHOP WOODS NO MORE The fences are up, and the trees are coming down fast. Possibly the last remaining piece of campus that wasn’t landscaped and manicured is disappearing with each cut down tree. Adding insult to injury, our convenient walking paths are blocked off while the work is being done.

OVER THE SEMESTER HUMP With Spring Break come and gone, we’re officially over halfway done with the semester. Some of us are ready to be finished and start summer, but others (ahem, seniors) are clinging to their last few weeks of college. Either way, we’re going to enjoy the last few weeks.

PROFESSIONAL VACATION PHOTOS Throw away those selfie sticks, because now we can hire our own photographers to follow us around on all our trips.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Professors should be required to take education classes Without a doubt Miami University’s classes are taught by some of the most brilliant minds in the country. However, when you go to sites such as www. ratemyprofessor.com, all too often the site is flooded with comments from students who feel that their professors are brilliant and great people, but the professor hindered their student’s experience due to a lack of knowledge about education.

As a senior in The College of Education, Health, and Society, we are taught and given many chances to experience that in order to get students to really learn and be able to think critically about information, it takes more than just a “professor” of knowledge and a student to sit there and soak it all up.

I often hear that students should be able to go to class to get content and take the learning

upon themselves at a collegiate level. Maybe this is true, but high schools today are trying to prepare students to be able to thrive in college. By doing this high schools aren’t creating learners or thinkers, they are creating memorizers and regurgitators that do really well in college. It is scary to think that tomorrow’s professionals are only learning to repeat what the professor wants to hear.

I am not saying that beginning to enlighten more professors in the United States on the latest in education theory is going to fix the entangled web of problems that the nation faces in education, but we have to start somewhere and maybe it will have a trickle down effect.

ASHLEY BALDWIN

BALDWIAE@MIAMIOH.EDU

8 FYI

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

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FROM RACE »PAGE 1

and how did it come about?,” and “How does race play a role at Miami University?”

Most panelists agreed the video itself is not dangerous, but attitudes represented in the video are.

“Nobody on that bus stood up and said ‘this isn’t right,’” Orlander said. “If we don’t resist the racism, we participate.”

The lack of diversity at Miami University is no secret. White students make up more than 80 percent of Miami’s campus, according to the university’s website.

Social media, like the anonymous Yik Yak, can serve as a catalyst for both positive and negative remarks on racism. After the December die-in on campus, in which students of all races laid on the floor of Armstrong Student Center to protest police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri, there was much backlash on the site.

Posts like “I think they’re really protesting the 3/5 reduction of the pulley menu,” and others that downplayed the importance of what the protesters were doing and received numerous “upvotes” following the die-in.

“One time someone asked me, FROM BASEBALL »PAGE 10

ball into the outfield, and McKinstry reached third base as Borglin scored.

The back-to-back errors allowed Central Michigan to take a 3-0 lead.

Powers surrendered another error in the fifth on another bunt, which brought another Chippewa home.

Powers allowed six runs (three earned) and totaled six strikeouts in six innings pitched.

Sophomore southpaw Nick Deeg was stellar on CMU’s mound.

Deeg threw a complete game and a four-hit shutout.

The RedHawks jumped out in front 3-1 Saturday, but couldn’t hold onto the lead.

The contest was tied 6-6 after the sixth inning, but the Chippewas took the lead in the seventh after a RBI single from senior Pat MacKenzie. In the ninth inning, the Red and White had two on with two out, but could not drive in the tying run.

On Sunday, Miami scored first for the first time all series after a pair of CMU errors provided senior Ryan Elble a chance to score.

After trading one-run innings and four-run innings, Miami led 6-5 after the fifth inning.

Central Michigan plated three runs in the sixth after senior Clay Cinnamon plunked the first two batters of the inning and sophomore Ryan Marske allowed a single. Senior Tyler Huntey added a two-run double for CMU. Senior righty Nathan Williams FROM MASKULINSKI »PAGE 10

nas Enroth, Brian Flynn, Michal Neuvirth, Torrey Mitchell and Chris Stewart.

The Sabres are in a rebuilding phase, and the addition of Eichel or McDavid would help the process.

Let’s go back to the tank debate. During last Thursday’s loss to Arizona, there were many cheers following Arizona goals.

The game was in Buffalo, and there were still more pro-Buffalo cheers, but it was impossible to avoid the pro-Coyote voice.

Sabres defenseman Mike Weber did not know what to think after hearing the pro-tank crowd.

“I’ve always spoken extremely high of our fans. I don’t even know if disappointed is the word,” Weber said in a postgame interview on Sabres.com. “They score that first one, our fans our cheering. A late penalty, they cheer. They cheer when they score to win the game. I don’t even know what to say.”

There are many different ways to look at this situation.

One is the Sabres have an opportunity to get a future star, so embrace the tank and cheer for the other team.

Opinion 2: Yes, the tank can bring good things. But you are still a Sabres fan, so smiling after a loss is okay, but you do not

9

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

‘Why do [racist comments on Yik Yak] matter if you don’t know who it is?’” Harris said. “It matters because it is representative of the atmosphere on Miami’s campus.”

University of Oklahoma president, David Boren, responded to the fraternity’s chant by calling their actions “reprehensible” and the students “disgraceful.” He then cut all ties between Oklahoma University and SAE. Reactions like this one, while necessary, are also inadequate.

One reason that racism persists in today’s society, is the nature of these reactions, Ifeolu Claytor, DAC vice president said.

“It is never, ‘let’s promote positive culture,’ it is always ‘let’s fight back on this negative issue,” Claytor said.

Most agreed that racism remains because of lack of education and openness as well as only “reacting” to incidents like the Oklahoma SAE video and “ghetto parties” held on college campuses. Most also agree that the future does not have to be so bleak, but it will be an uphill battle.

“I see a point where we will all blend together, but we’re not there yet,” Taliaferro-Baszille said. lasted only 4.2 innings due to an elbow problem. He allowed four earned runs.

“He wants to do as much as he can,” Hayden said. “We can’t leave him out there as long as we’d like to sometimes because that thing will start barking on him.”

After Cinnamon and Marske lasted only 0.3 innings each, senior Will Schierholz threw 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball.

“He’s got the most guts in either dugout,” Hayden said. “We knew we needed to keep the lead where it was and that was our best shot to do it.”

Gary Russo brought in his first RBI of the year with a fifth-inning solo homer.

“With as strong as he is and as good of a hitter as he is, it’s only a matter of time,” Hayden said of Russo.

Senior outfielder Matt Honchel finished the weekend with four hits, placing him in a tie for third-most hits in Miami baseball history (261).

“He’s been incredible,” Hayden said. “He’s a good example of when you work really hard, you end up being a pretty good player.”

Miami travels to University of Louisville Tuesday and hosts Marshall University in Oxford Wednesday night.

“We’re going in both of those games expecting to win,” Hayden said. “A couple of wins would get us ready for Bowling Green on the weekend.” have to cheer.

Opinion 3: Root for the Sabres, but understand the good that the tank can bring. You are not openly rooting for a loss, but you are not too upset when it happens.

Opinion 4: You should never want your team to lose, so cheer for them to win. If that means missing an opportunity at the McEichel sweepstakes, so be it.

Currently, I fall somewhere between opinions two and three on the tank continuum. Twitter is a great platform for (mostly uneducated) sports debate, and there are a huge number of people who are in full support of the tank. At the same time, there are some Sabres supporters who truly hold the fourth opinion.

When the official Sabres Twitter account tweets about Buffalo has scoring a goal or taking a lead, instant replies of “no” and “stop” answer the tweet. These are people who hold opinion one.

Regardless of how the remainder of the season plays out, it seems likely the Sabres will earn the number one pick in the draft.

And regardless of where fans fall on the tanking continuum, they will be happy to cheer on Eichel or McDavid next season.

JUSTIN MASKULINSKI

MASKULJE@MIAMIOH.EDU

percent of faculty at colleges and universities.

Tenured professors are the faculty members with the most job security. Those offered tenure-track positions must earn tenure within six years of being hired are then considered full-time continuing faculty.

The AAUP, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, is a national organization designed to promote academic freedom, professional values and economic stability for students and faculty at higher education facilities.

In its mission statement, the AAUP has identified the decrease in support from state funding for public universities, the incorporation of corporate culture and strategies in university administration, and an increased reliance on non-tenured faculty as the main issues infiltrating college campuses nationwide.

Miami is the 15th school in Ohio to bring the AAUP to its campus, following other peer schools like the Ohio State University, Ohio University, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Dayton which already had their own chapters of the faculty advocacy group.

Karen Dawisha, a political science professor and co-president of the new Miami chapter of the AAUP, expressed her concern that the shift toward fewer tenured faculty positions could threaten the quality of education offered to students. She stressed the importance of establishing relationships with students that last throughout all four years of their undergraduate education.

Such relationships can be difficult to establish for adjunct professors who are paid per credit hour and are not always offered the same amenities as other full-time faculty, such as offices where they can meet one-on-one with students.

It can be particularly challenging

to form relationships with students and colleagues for the 17 percent of adjuncts who the AAUP reports teach at two or more institutions.

“They drift like ghosts in between campuses,” said Dawisha.

Keith Tuma, an English professor at Miami who will serve as a co-president with Dawisha, said the chapter wants to ensure that when students are being taught by non-tenured faculty, those instructors are being well treated and fairly paid, citing the importance of the faculty in fulfilling Miami’s high educational standards.

“We are the people who deliver the core mission,” Tuma said.

Tuma expressed the need to develop two-way communication with the administration on these concerns, which directly influence faculty and student well-being.

“The Board of Trustees is always thanking us, but they’re not talking with us,” he said.

Nationwide, 51 percent of the faculty at higher education institutions hold part-time positions, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Based on data from the 2013-2014 school year, only 40 percent of Miami’s faculty is part-time.

Richard Campbell, the Chair of Miami’s Media, Journalism and Film Department, has helped many faculty members move from adjunct teaching to full-time positions which offer benefits and more job security.

“If you’re going to hire somebody to teach three sections of a class, you should hire them full time, not pay them per credit hour,” said Campbell. “That’s where Miami, I think, does a better job.”

The percentage of part-time faculty does differ between the Oxford and regional campuses, with 45 percent making up the Hamilton and Middletown campuses’ faculties and only 31 percent at the main campus.

Full-time faculty includes traditional tenured faculty as well as visiting assistant profes-

sors, lecturers, clinical or professionally licensed faculty and some instructors.

In his 36 years teaching at Miami, economics professor James Brock has seen a shift in the emphasis placed on research for traditional tenure-track faculty. Brock said the expectations for research publication for tenure have steadily increased during his time as a tenured faculty member.

“That’s a very powerful signal that if you want to be tenured and you want to stay here and be promoted that you better spend a lot of time on research and not as much time on teaching, especially undergraduate teaching,” said Brock.

According to Brock, this leaves students essentially paying twice for faculty — once for the tenured faculty members and again for the non-tenured faculty whose primary role is to teach undergraduates. Brock said he has seen this emphasis on research discourage new tenured faculty from focusing on teaching.

“It’s undermining an important balance that got Miami into its third century,” said Brock.

“You want faculty to be scholars. You want faculty to be active. I’m for a balance between research and teaching.”

Matthew Gordon, a history professor at Miami who will serve as the AAUP chapter’s treasurer, emphasized the need for a strong faculty voice when addressing any issues that affect the quality of education at Miami.

“The priority is the educational mission,” said Gordon. “That’s what we’re so concerned is being lost.”

Miami’s AAUP chapter will be hosting an event on April 29 in Upham Hall Room 001 to announce its presence on campus. Rudy Fichtenbaum, the president of the national AAUP, will be present, and university president, Board of Trustees and Provost, as well as any faculty and students interested, will be invited to attend.

FROM HORROR »PAGE 4

FROM STATION »PAGE 4

uncomfortable and claustrophobic tone.

Regardless of a few minor flaws, “It Follows” is truly a great horror film because of the unorthodox way it invests fear in a viewer. The amorphous nature of ‘it’ makes fearing a symbol, like in “Halloween,” impossible. “It Follows” puts you on the edge of your seat while you’re in the theater, makes you watch your back on the way to the car, and forces you think to about it late into the night, equally from fright and intrigue. David Robert Mitchell has successfully melded genuine fear and the anxieties of youth, making the first horror movie in a very long time to admit that the scariest part of death isn’t in the brutal ways in which it can occur, but the gut-wrenching reality of mortality itself.

venture scenes in what used to be Michigan, St. John Mandel weaves the tales of Arthur Leander’s previous life which includes Miranda, Clark, and Jeevan. The reader sees the personal drama that unfolds in each of their lives as they interact with Arthur and how they dealt with the plague and it’s outcome. It is easy to see in these interwoven stories the genius of St. John Mandel’s writing.

Her prose is dreamlike in quality and her attention to detail is expertly evidenced when she speaks about ordinary things that are extraordinary in this new, ravaged world.

She writes, “There was a moment on Earth, improbable in retrospect and actually briefer than a moment in the span of human history, more like the blink of an eye, when it was possible to make a living solely by photographing and interviewing famous people.” Not only is St. John Mandel an expert at making the future look bleak, she is also superbly skilled at rendering the present as meaningless in comparison.

The only problem I had with the novel was the way that death was casually glossed over, as if the author was brushing away flies. This is the new, post-modern way of writing this kind of novel now; there is no long passages of lament, death is written with an ineffable quality.

St. John Mandel writes about character’s dying with the same urgency as a grocery list. Characters are described as dying “three weeks later on the road” or “of exposure outside of Quebec.”

Shortlisted for the National Book Award and longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, “Station Eleven” is a novel that is absolutely worth all of the attention and honors it has garnered. St. John Mandel writes with a subterranean energy that catches the reader offguard and keeps them coming back for more. Hopefully, the young author has plenty of similar novels in the future.

FROM REMINGTON »PAGE 10

“I mean I’ve never played the game,” Amendolara said. “There’s plenty of guys who have never played the game but still have credibility … if somebody says you don’t know what you’re talking about because you’re a woman, that’s stupid, because how many guys are saying that who have never played the game beyond a high school level?”

“It takes a while to grow accustomed to something that you’re not already accustomed to,” Jennings said. “A lot of the angry emails I get are from middle-aged white men who maybe became sports fans when they were six, when every single person they saw or heard looks like their dad … for me to be saying the same things but looking so different, I think sometimes it’s hard.”

How can the door be propped open, so that aspiring female reporters are no longer left to pry at it?

“We need more diversity of every kind,” Amendolara said. “And that includes women in spots that are not traditionally filled by women. I think we need African Americans, and Asian Americans, and Latin Ameri-

FROM ADJUNCT »PAGE 1

Chantel Jennings said. “Those are personal attacks.”

Russini experiences more of the same.

“Sometimes it’s not even vocal judgment, it’s their body language,” Russini said. “You get a look like ‘what do you know about football?’”

An excuse commonly heard is that women have never played the game, so they can’t possibly understand the sports on which they report.

“If we looked at all journalism in that light, the only people who could commentate on how President Barack Obama is doing right now is George W. Bush,” Jennings said. “Do you believe that would be an accurate way to write about politics — if the only people who could write about presidents are people who have been president? Is that actually something you’d want to read?

Is that actually something that you think would be educated?”

Daman Amendolara, host of “The DA Show” on CBS Sports Network, echoes the sentiment.

cans. The big problem is that sports media has been dominated by old white guys for a long time,” Neilson reports that in 2013, at least one third of TV viewership was female for all NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, MLS and NCAA football and basketball broadcasts. ESPN reports that their ratings have grown 12 percent overall among women since 2010.

It seems logical that the media outlets should reflect those demographics. But, as female journalists wait for sports enthusiasts to acknowledge this shift, they continue facing unfairness.

“The key is to address those things when they happen,” Jennings said.

“If someone writes me a mean email I always respond … I don’t believe in being silent all the time.”

Progress is continually made in this way, but the ultimate goal line is distant. When this distance is covered with trust in and enthusiasm for female talent, then, and only then, will the door to the sports world freely swing open, and women can breathe a sigh of relief.

10 SPORTS

TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2015

SPORTS@MIAMISTUDENT.NET

RedHawks sweep EMU in conference opener SOFTBALL

JORDAN RINARD

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

LAUREN OLSON PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Junior righty Amber Logemann winds up for a pitch against Eastern Michigan University. Logemann has a 1.83 ERA in 107.0 innings pitched.

Women in sports media: how far we have (not) come COLUMN

GRACE REMINGTON SPORTS EDITOR

When a woman knocks on the door of the sports world, she is often met with snubs and doubts.

After Lesley Visser entered through this rigid door and blazed a path for the first class of female sports reporters in 1976, hundreds of women have broken through the barrier of the historically male-dominated industry.

However, “how far we’ve come” does not equal how far we need to go. Though women have climbed their way into locker rooms and behind sports desks, they still struggle to gain acceptance and respect.

“For as far as we’ve come, it’s still not what I think people believe it to be,” Dianna Russini, sports anchor for NBC4 Washington, said.

“I think because so many people see women on the sidelines, they assume that it’s an even field. But if you watch any pregame or postgame show of the analysts and the people calling the shots on the panels, it’s very rarely women.”

Indeed, sidelines are frequented by female reporters, while a playby-play or color commentator or an analyst of that gender is a rarity.

“It’s untapped territory right now,” Russini said.

According to the Status of Women in U.S. Sports Media 2014 report released by the Women’s Media Center, 85.4 percent of staffers in sports print media are male.

Cited data from the Associated Press Sports Editors shows that 90 percent of sports editors are male.

Dana Jacobson of CBS Sports Network is the only woman among the 184 sports talk radio hosts featured on Talkers magazine’s 2013 “Heavy Hundred,” which lists the most important sports talk radio hosts in America.

These statistics beg the question: why aren’t there more women sports journalists?

Taunts, judgments and abrasive comments from viewers and readers greet a woman when the door is finally opened to her. Moreover, the negative remarks have nothing to do with her actual writing skills or performance.

“I get hate mail about how I dress, how I look, how I interact with male athletes,” ESPN writer REMINGTON »PAGE 9

67

STAT OF THE DAY

The approximate number of feet freshman defenseman Louie Belpedio skated before diving to block a Providence shot from sliding into Miami’s empty net.

After winning three of its four games over spring break, the Miami University softball team began Mid-American Conference play with a road sweep of Eastern Michigan University 9-7 and 9-4 this weekend.

“With the games against Central Michigan being cancelled, we had to turn around quick to take on Eastern,” junior pitcher Amber Logemann said. “On Saturday, we came out strong, got some runs but we let off the gas a bit. We finished strong and we came out really strong in the second game. We have to clean up our defense and our pitching, but it was nice to get two wins.”

The offense had a strong showing against EMU with 22 hits over the weekend, but the pitching staff struggled, allowing 17 hits.

“We had our games against Central Michigan canceled due to weather, even though we felt pretty good about going up there,” head coach Clarisa Crowell said. “We played well against Eastern, especially offensively; we’re very pleased with our hitting. Amber had a great weekend, but we need to get her more help and production from the other pitchers. Our defense also had a good weekend. This was the first

time since I’ve been here that we’ve swept Eastern, so we feel good about that.”

Miami (18-11, 2-0 MAC) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning Saturday when senior third baseman/pitcher Remy Edwards and junior outfielder Tanya Busby each brought in a runner. The team racked up four more runs in the third as Edwards and senior outfielders Bree Lipscomb and Tiyona Marshall each recorded an RBI. Junior designated player/ outfielder Taylor Shuey found her way home on a wild pitch.

After a two-run homer by Eastern Michigan (8-18, 0-2 MAC) in the bottom of the sixth, Lipscomb pushed the lead to 7-2 with a RBI double in the seventh. However, the Eagles knotted the game up at 7-7 with three-run and two-run hits in the bottom of the inning.

Senior shortstop Kylie McChesney scored on an EMU error to reclaim Miami’s lead.

An RBI from sophomore second baseman Eryn McCarver broadened MU’s lead to 9-7. Logemann forced two EMU strikeouts and a groundout to seal the win.

Lipscomb was 3-4 with two RBIs, while Edwards and McCarver registered two hits each on the day. Logemann pitched 6.2 innings and struck out 12 in her 13th win of the season.

The Red and White continued their offensive onslaught in the first inning Sunday. Miami took a 4-0 lead when senior designated

player Shanyn McIntyre scored on a wild pitch. McCarver and freshman third baseman Kat Lee each added an RBI. Despite generating nine hits on the afternoon, the Eagles were unable to recover from the deficit. The RedHawks tallied nine runs on 10 hits.

Busby went 3-5 with a RBI, while Marshall and Shuey totaled two hits each. Edwards allowed four runs on seven hits in 3 innings, but Logemann allowed only two hits in 4 innings of relief work.

The ’Hawks return to action 6 p.m. Tuesday when they host Eastern Kentucky University.

“Now we have to turn our focus to Eastern Kentucky,” Crowell said. “They’re a good team that’s well-coached, and we have to get back to work this week.”

The Colonels limp into Oxford, having lost six of their last nine games. Senior pitcher Sarah Fobbs, senior third baseman Shannon McQueen and freshman catcher Sarah Jackson run the offense, as each player has 20 or more RBIs this season. On the other hand, the pitching staff allows opponents to hit .294.

“We haven’t won a lot of extra inning games, but we showed that we can keep fighting and never settle for less,” Logemann said. “For Tuesday and the rest of next week, we have to maintain our energy and our momentum and just play our game.”

Miami baseball winless at home BASEBALL

DANIEL TAYLOR STAFF WRITER

The Miami University baseball team had a tough weekend, as it lost every game in its three-game series against Central Michigan University.

The RedHawks (4-19, 2-4 MidAmerican Conference) lost 11-0 Friday, 4-3 Saturday and 8-7 in the Sunday finale.

“We make too many mistakes,” manager Danny Hayden said.

Despite the sweep, Hayden’s expectations remain high for the team.

“The message is we need to come out to the field the right way every day,” Hayden said. “We’re not winning a ton of games right now, but that’s not going to change my expectations.”

The 11-0 loss on Friday featured five errors by the ’Hawks, including three by senior pitcher Ryan Powers.

“Central is a good team,” Hayden

LAUREN OLSON PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Senior pitcher Ryan Haynes warms up before Sunday’s game with 13-yearold Tyler Holliday, the baseball team’s newest member. Tyler joins the team via the charity Team IMPACT. Haynes serves as Tyler’s advocate. said. “They put a lot of pressure on you defensively, and certainly Friday we did not do a good job of handling that.”

The Chippewas (18-10, 5-1 MAC) had a runner on third when sophomore Alex Borglin tried a sui-

cide squeeze. Powers mishandled the ball and couldn’t get the out.

In the next at-bat, CMU freshman Zach McKinstry attempted a sacrifice bunt. Powers threw the BASEBALL »PAGE 9

The Buffalo Sabres and tanking ethics COLUMN

LINSKI’S LIST The National Hockey League’s season is winding down and many eyes are fixed on the upcoming playoffs. Suddendeath overtime, the #bucciovertimechallenge, and hard-nosed hockey will soon be among us.

The fans of the Buffalo Sabres are not focused on the playoffs. After last Thursday’s loss to second-worst Arizona, the Sabres’ record fell to 20-46-8, giving them a six-point cushion for last place in the league.

For those who are embracing the tank, last place is important because it guarantees the first or second overall pick in the NHL Draft.

In other words, it guarantees Jack Eichel or Connor McDavid.

Eichel is preparing for the Frozen Four with Boston University and is the favorite to win the Hobey Baker Award. Eichel has 67 points (24 goals, 43 assists) in 38 games this season.

McDavid plays in the OHL with the Erie Otters, and his stats are even more eye-opening. After 47 games, McDavid has 120 points on 44 goals and 76 assists. His plus/ minus rating is plus-60.

Given the top two picks of the upcoming draft, there is a fair argument for tanking if your team is close to that last-place spot.

The Sabres players have said they are not tanking, and it is believable. Hockey is not a quitter’s sport, and players will do what they can to try to win every game.

Some, if not most, of the Sabres fans are pro-tank. The Sabres are in new hands with General Manager Tim Murray, and he means business.

Since Murray was announced as GM in January 2014, Murray has traded the following players: Ryan Miller, Steve Ott, Matt Moulson (now back with the Sabres), Cody McCormick (also back with the Sabres), Jaroslav Halak, Brayden McNabb, Jonathan Parker, Luke Adam, Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford, Joel Armia, Brendan Lemieux, MASKULINSKI »PAGE 9

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