The Miami Student | April 16, 2019

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

Volume 147 No. 24

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

Ringo’s first hearing pushed back to June

WHITE SUPREMACY SIGNS FOUND ON CAMPUS

CÉILÍ DOYLE EMILY SIMANSKIS,

THE MIAMI STUDENT Senior and Miami University men’s basketball guard, Darrian Ringo’s initial plea/trial setting hearing, to plead guilty or not guilty on domestic violence charges, was postponed until 8 a.m. on Thursday, June 6 in the Oxford Courthouse.

Judge Robert Lyons agreed during Butler County Area 1 court last Thursday, April 11 to push back Ringo’s case to allow his attorney, Neal Schuett, more time to prepare for the hearing in June.

Ringo is on track to graduate from Miami in May, and the Office of Community Standards (OCS) is not actively investigating the allegations, University News and Communications Director Claire Wagner said.

OCS cannot pursue cases of domestic violence or sexual assault without a complainant, and no complainant has come forward in Ringo’s case, Wagner added.

“We are unable to investigate if there is no complainant,” she wrote in an email to The Student.

However, Miami reserves the right to retroactively review degrees if a student who graduates is found guilty of a 12-19 offense — an offense on a list of violent crimes, including domestic violence, within the Ohio Revised Code — Schuett said.

Normally, if any Ohio public university student is found guilty of a 12-19 offense, the university is required by state law to suspend the student.

The decision to potentially revoke Ringo’s degree, if he is found guilty, would be under the discretion of Miami general counsel, Robin Parker, Schuett said.

Miami Athletic Director David Sayler declined to comment until the criminal proceedings have finished. doyleca3@miamioh.edu @cadoyle_18 simansec@miamioh.edu @emilysimanskis

PATRIOT FRONT TERRORIZED CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA AT THE 2017 “UNITE THE RIGHT” RALLY. MANAGING EDITOR CEILI DOYLE

JULIA ARWINE NEWS EDITOR

At least four signs promoting a white supremacist organization have been found posted across Miami University’s campus since Friday, April 5.

Miami alumni head to the next round of ‘The Voice’ CAROLINE HAUBENSTRICKER THE MIAMI STUDENT

After singing a cover of “Closer to Fine” on the hit TV show “The Voice”, the Bundys, a trio of siblings and Miami alumni, are off to the next round of competition, with the aid of Kelly Clarkson as their coach.

Born in Cincinnati, Megan, Katey and Ryan Bundy have devoted most of their lives to singing and songwriting. Growing up, their whole lives were centered around music. Some of their idols, like John Denver, Simon and Garfunkel and Dolly Parton, greatly influenced their songwriting and encouraged them to continue singing.

This Issue

Three of the signs were found affixed to light and traffic poles near Bachelor Hall, and another was found on a public bulletin board outside King Library.

The signs endorse Patriot Front, a white supremacist group that was part of the “Unite the Right” rally and terror attack in

Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that resulted in the death of a counterprotestor.

Patriot Front uses nationalistic imagery to advocate for the preservation of “pan-European culture,” or whiteness, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit legal organization that monitors hate groups and extremists.

The signs found on campus bear slogans such as “not stolen, conquered” in reference to American territory, “keep America American” and “report all illegal aliens; they are criminals” with the phone number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Office of Diversity Affairs (ODA) received a report about the signs on April 5, and informed several administrators, who passed the information along to the Miami University Police Department (MUPD) and the Physical Facilities department, so they could be on the lookout for the signs and remove them.

Jeremy Davis, senior director of physical facilities, said on Wednesday, April 10, that staff had been informed of the report but that they had not yet found the signs.

The signs violate several regulations in Miami’s signs, posters and banners policy.

Because they are less than 11 by 17 inches, they are considered signs, not posters, and are not allowed to be affixed to light poles.

Additionally, they do not include an event or posting date.

“Signs, posters and banners must include an event date or posting date so that they may be removed in a timely manner,” the policy reads. “Any sign, poster, or banner without an event date or posting date will be removed.”

Jayne Brownell, vice president for student affairs, said the content of the signs, however, is protected by free speech laws. If they were in accordance with Miami’s signs, posters and banners policy, the university could not remove them.

“It doesn’t mean that we approve of them,” Brownell said. “We certainly can be vocal in our opposition and in condemning the message.”

ARENA

The Bundys attended Miami for their undergraduate degrees, but did not study music or songwriting. Since they were close in age, each sibling was able to experience college with at least one other sibling. During their free time, Megan and Katey would sit in Katey’s first-year dorm and sing covers together, further discovering their harmonies.

Three years later, when Katey was a senior, she and Ryan would get together and sing covers. Katey believes that college was a time for them to find themselves and learn who they were. Katey, Megan and Ryan all loved Miami and enjoyed the experiences and friendships they’d found on campus.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

THE BUNDYS TOOK THEIR TALENTS FROM OXFORD TO A NATIONAL STAGE. CONTRIBUTED BY THE VOICE/NBC

Runs in the family

Building a reputation

Deland McCullough II continues legacy as a RedHawk Tyler the threelegged wonder will steal your Starbucks

Dunkin’ On Em

The newest donut and coffee joint rolls on into Oxford.

Our Editorial Board deconstructs the commercialized architecture on campus

Culture » page 8

News » page 5

Opinion » page 12

He’s a good boy

Entertainment pages 6 & 7

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Sports » page 11

This Week

2 FYI

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019 Named the Best College Newspaper (Non-daily) in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists.

Things to do

SAMANTHA BRUNN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Ceili Doyle Managing Editor

Emily Brustoski Video Editor

Connor Wells Design Editor

Maya Fenter Magazine Editor

Julia Arwine Rachel Berry News Editors

Alyssa Melendez Web Designer

Chris Vinel Sports Editor

Bea Newberry Business Manager

Emily Dattilo Duard Headley Culture Editors

James Tobin Faculty Adviser

Ben Finfrock Opinion Editor

Fred Reeder Business Adviser

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Jugal Jain Photo Editor Owen Berg Ethan Fridman Designers Derek Stamberger Nikki Saraniti Video Producers Michael Serio Humor Editor

Will Gorman Asst. Culture Editor Bo Brueck Asst. Photo Editor

Sam Keeling Entertainment Editor Anna Minton Style Editor

Emily Simanskis Sports Editor-At-Large

Erin Glynn Asst. News Editor

Maia Anderson Madeline Mitchell Culture Editors-At-Large

CORRECTIONS POLICY

The Miami Student is committed to providing the Miami University community with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

ASG supports health center student parking ERIN GLYNN

After a struggle over a bill with no author to present it, Associated Student Government (ASG) unanimously voted to support free student parking near the Student Health Service (SHS). Senate also approved the constitutional amendment removing student court-related language and voted to support the creation of an Oxford city ordinance that would impose a five to 25 cent fee on single-use plastic bags, a range recommended

by Environmental Protection Agency.

“If the meeting had started on time, I would’ve been here to present,” -Demetre Carnot

The SHS parking resolution would make parking validation a part of the center’s check-in process, so students are more aware that their free parking is available. The resolution also supports creating SHS-designated parking spots in the South Campus garage.

About an hour after the meeting began, Secretary for Off-Campus Affairs Charles Kennick, acting on be-

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The Miami Student is published on Tuesdays during the school year by the students of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

The content of The Miami Student is the sole responsibility of The Miami Student staff. Opinions expressed in The Miami Student are not necessarily those of Miami University, its students or staff.

ASST. NEWS EDITOR

4/18

Laugh with a seasoned comic you may have seen on MTV’s Girl Code, 30 Rock, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon or Adult Swim.

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Comedy: Nicole Byer Thurs MAP Armstrong Pavilion

half of the SHS parking resolution’s author, Demetre Carnot, informed senate that Carnot was giving a presentation for one of his classes and would arrive in the chamber shortly.

Because senate had no other business to discuss in the meantime, one senator motioned to table the bill indefinitely rather than wait for Carnot, meaning that the bill would next be brought to senate April 30.

Carnot arrived about 15 minutes later, as senate was voting on whether to table the resolution.

Carnot then explained his resolution, and senate voted unanimously to approve it.

The proposed amendment to the ASG constitution removed Article III, which discussed student courts’ ASG-related duties and established a “judicial council” to review appeals to the decisions made by the Funding and Audit and Elections committees.

ASG voted unanimously to approve the amendment. It will be put before the student body for approval April 30, coinciding with the elections for off-campus and academic senators.

The authors of the plastic bag fee resolution, senators Claire Keller and Demetre Carnot, plan to work with Kennick and the City Council to institute an opt-in, nominal plastic bag fee in grocery stores, on an opt-in basis for the stores in question, intended to encourage the use of reusable bags.

Senate approved the resolution unanimously. glynnee@miamioh.edu

Sat 4/20

Oxford Farmers Market Uptown Parks Check out the seasonal produce and other goodies produced locally.

10:00 am12:00 pm

Sustainability committee to review student demand for carbon neutrality MADELINE PHABY

THE MIAMI STUDENT A petition encouraging Miami University’s administration to sign on to the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment, a multifaceted program that requires universities to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by a goal date, has circulated around campus the last few weeks.

The University Sustainability Committee will review and discuss the commitment this morning.

Molly O’Donnell, Secretary for Infrastructure and Sustainability in Associated Student Government (ASG), created the petition on Thursday, April 5. By yesterday it had 238 signatures.

According to the World Green Building Council, a building or institution that has achieved net-zero carbon emissions is “fully powered from on-site and/or off-site renewable energy sources.”

“The Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitment might be the only commitment specifically for university and college presidents about carbon neutrality,” O’Donnell said. “Signing the commitment represents pursuing carbon neutrality, whereas not signing it and just setting our own goals does not.”

The petition states that over 650 colleges and universities across the United States have signed the commitment, including Miami’s peer institutions like Ohio University, the Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati.

According to a 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), many effects of climate change, such as the total loss of coral reefs and sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, can be delayed significantly by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius per year. Human-caused carbon emissions must reach net-zero by 2050 for this to be possible.

Director of the Office of Sustainability Adam Sizemore wrote a summary of the commitment to be shared with the Sustainability Committee that did not include support for carbon neutrality on Miami’s campus, O’Donnell said.

“It is great to see Miami University students energized around, as well as communicating the issue of climate change,” Sizemore wrote in an email to The Student.

Suzi Zazycki, co-chair of the Sustainability Committee, said that the committee is still in the “fact-finding stage,” meaning the members are familiarizing themselves with all aspects of the commitment.

Once this stage is complete, the committee will outline the requirements for achieving the goals set forth by the commitment and present them to University President Gregory Crawford, who will then decide whether to sign on to it.

Zazycki said that O’Donnell’s petition will be taken into account during the committee’s discussion of the commitment.

“What the Sustainability Committee is trying to do is gather all

the information on all sides,” Zazycki said. “This includes the students’ desire. The student’s petition is a really big, important part of the story.”

Though Miami has not yet signed the commitment and therefore not set a date at which it hopes to achieve carbon neutrality, the university has set and surpassed a few sustainability goals of its own.

Miami’s Sustainability Commitments & Goals (SCAG) were originally developed in 2010 under former University President David Hodge. The SCAG were later updated in 2016, and this updated version included a goal of a 30 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to the baseline year of 2008.

As of February 2019, this goal has been realized, as carbon emissions have been reduced by 44 percent, and no coal was burned in 2017.

While O’Donnell referred to Miami’s progress so far as “fantastic,” she stressed the importance of continuing to push forward and avoiding complacency.

“It’s not enough to just pat ourselves on the back and say ‘hey, we’ve done a great job so far; we’re ahead of the pack,’” O’Donnell said.

“Miami loves to refer to itself as an innovator in all fields of higher education, so why would we not continue to innovate and set a goal of carbon neutrality?” phabymr@miamioh.edu

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WHITE SUPREMACIST SIGNS FOUND ON CAMPUS FROM FRONT

The Miami administration claims that since the signs do not contain true threats, obscenity, fighting words, incitement to imminent lawless action or defamation, they are protected as free speech. “[Freedom of speech] is a double-edged sword,” said Kelley Kimple, director of ODA. “I recognize the freedom of speech, but it’s really hard when that freedom of speech is hurtful to other people.”

Charlotte Oestrich, an English graduate student, tweeted Monday, April 8, at the official accounts of Miami University and University President Gregory Crawford alerting them to the presence of the signs. Miami replied on Wednesday, April 10, saying, “We have been working on this matter with student life for several days. If you see any such signs, please call [513-52]92222, and they will be removed.”

At press time, two of the signs had been removed: the one on the bulletin board outside King Library and one near Bachelor Hall. The remaining two near Bachelor had been written over, though they remained affixed to the poles.

“I don’t think that these groups should be allowed to be hanging these posters on our campus,” Oestrich said. “I think it is extremely detrimental to the campus community and environment in its totality because these are very hateful groups. Regardless of what they put on the poster to recruit people, their basic ideology is one of hate, and I don’t think that has a place anywhere in our institution or on our campus.”

Kimple said that incidents like this are an ongoing issue, as there have been instances of posters with hateful rhetoric in recent years.

“Clearly we, the university, need to do more,” Kimple said. “It’s a thing of figuring out what’s the best mechanism to make that happen across the campus because … we have at least 17,000 students and, on top of that, the faculty and staff who also need to be a part of that conversation, so you have over 20,000 people who need to have these different types of dialogues.

But we’ve got to figure out something quick because it’s not getting better, unfortunately.”

Additional reporting by Rachel Berry. arwinejk@miamioh.edu berryrd@miamioh.edu

Miami alumni head to the next round of ‘The Voice’ FROM FRONT

Through her entrepreneurship minor, she learned how to start and maintain a business.

The emphasis on the need for quality public relations behind a business was one of the skills that Megan eventually applied to The Bundys’ band.

“A band in itself is just like running a business: very entrepreneurial,” Megan said.

“I found advantage from my entrepreneurship minor at Miami, especially in the classes that I took.”

Ryan majored in marketing and minored in English, which furthered his writing abilities, especially when it came to composing songs, and helped find a stronger sense of self. And through marketing Ryan was able to take business classes, which allowed him to develop a skill set in branding the band in the most effective manner.

Each sibling established their individual musical careers through Miami extracurriculars. Megan and Katey sang the National Anthem for basketball and baseball games, Katey was in another band and Ryan participated in musical endeavors in his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order.

But, the trio did not discov-

er that they wanted to be in a band until they were all out of college. A year after Megan graduated in 2009, she moved to Nashville, Tenn. to further her musical career. While recording her first EP, she asked both Katey and Ryan to join her with harmony.

After recording that first EP, they realized that their voices blended well together because they had grown up harmonizing as a family.

“In that moment, we knew we had to pursue a musical career and make something of ourselves,” Katey said.

They started writing songs together and practiced singing more intensely with a new purpose. That first EP brought Katey, Megan and Ryan together to form The Bundys, an effort they’ve been taking to with enthusiasm.

Throughout the last few years, The Bundys have been perfecting their sound and produced their full-length album Louisiana Avenue in September 2015 and released their EP Before I Go in December 2017.

After “The Voice”, The Bundys hope to produce another album or even their first record sometime soon. haubence@miamioh.edu

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TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

SPECTRUM, PFLAG AND TINT MARCHED TOGETHER FOR CAMPUS PRIDE MONTH. THE MIAMI STUDENT MACY WHITAKER

Students celebrate love at Miami’s pride parade RYAN DERN

THE MIAMI STUDENT The Miami University LGBTQA+ advocacy organization, Spectrum, held their second-ever pride parade after a six-year hiatus last Saturday, April 13.

Spectrum is a student-led organization for students of all sexual and gender identities devoted to raising awareness and creating community through education and activism.

PFLAG and Tint, two student-lead organizations that also support LGBTQA+ students, Miami President Gregory Crawford, University Ambassador Renate Crawford and newly-elected student body president Jaylen Perkins attended.

The parade began at the sundial and traveled along the edge of campus concluding at the seal, where students and administrators spoke.

Hannah Thompson, the Associate Director of LGBTQA+ Services

and Spectrum adviser, recently joined the Office of Diversity Affairs (ODA). Senior and Spectrum president Hannah Abigail Clarke joined with Thompson to bring the parade back.

Before the march, representatives from Spectrum handed out the flags representing various genders and sexualities and sheets with chants for the parade. Children also participated and handed out pronoun pins.

Nearly all of the 140 participants in the march, including about 20 faculty members, a handful of community members and even some dogs, were dressed in clothing symbolizing pride.

Pride parades are first and foremost protests, Clarke said. While they do strive to be as fun as possible, the goal is to protest the mistreatment of those in the LGBTQA+ community.

Moments of silence were held for those who have died trying to fight for equality both before and after

the march.

“I go to a lot of the events that Spectrum puts on, and this was easily the best one I’ve been to yet.

Everyone is always so welcoming, no matter who you are or how you identify,” said senior Teju Ogungbadero, a Resident Assistant (RA) for gender-inclusive housing. “For a lot of my friends, having a place that they can feel safe in being who they are is really important, and I’m just glad there are events like this march that can provide that safe space.”

There weren’t any pride marches from 2012-2017 primarily due to “a lack of institutional support for the community as a whole,” Clarke said.

“My first two years here it just felt disconnected, and there wasn’t any sense of community,” Clarke said. “[Spectrum has] done a lot to try and bring that [community], and I feel that it’s been a success.”

Thompson was a driving force for bringing back the parade.

“We brought back the parade last year thanks to very strong lead-

ership in Spectrum and a lot more support from both the university and the community,” Thompson said.

Rhonda Jackson, an administrative assistant with the Women’s Center since 2002 and the co-president of 1809 LGBT alumni board — the alumni group for former students who are in the LGBTQA+ community — has been heavily involved with the LGBTQA+ community since entering her role. “[Miami was] ranked as one of the worst universities for the LGBTQA+ community when I got here, and now we are the 47th best,” Jackson said.

As the current Spectrum leadership looked to the future and the students who led the charge on bringing back the march prepared to graduate, there were doubts among them, but those doubts have been resolved.

“There will be a family of young activists who fight for our rights,” Clarke said. “I am so proud to know

that the children I have found, and the friends I have made, will continue to fight for, take care of and love each other after we leave.” dernre@miamioh.edu

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‘Shine Like Sable’ aims to bring kindness to others SARA BEY

THE MIAMI STUDENT After the sudden death of his 10-year-old sister, Sable, Miami sophomore Cross Gibson and his family wanted to create a lasting legacy for their daughter and the kindness she always shared with others.

The Gibson family started Shine Like Sable, a foundation that has helped to provide food to students in need in their hometown of Mason, Ohio.

“She was very loving, kind, [and] witty,” said Sable’s mother, Holly Gibson. “[She] had a sarcastic side, was a jokester and she was a good friend.”

Scott Gibson, Sable’s father, said he always knew their youngest daughter had a sixth sense and knew when somebody was hurting.

At Western Row Elementary School, Sable was known for hovering near the Buddy Bench, where students sit when they’re sad or need a friend.

“That’s just her. That’s who she was,” Scott said.

Sable’s passing was sudden. She suffered cardiac arrest that was related to strep throat and influenza.

“We found ourselves trying to figure out how we were going to get

NEWS 5

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

past this,” Scott said, “because this [grieving process] is not a healthy place to be.”

Holly and Scott connected with loved ones and their community in the aftermath. They wanted to thank the teachers at Western Row Elementary School by giving them donuts from Servatii Pastry Shop because they “poured a lot of life into her for years,” Scott said.

One teacher, Robyn Thomas, mentioned she planned to save the donuts for the students who get food sent home with them every Friday. The Gibsons were shocked to hear that there were 68 students who got food sent home with them every Friday in a “well-to-do community” like Mason, Scott said.

If there is no food to send, the students don’t go home with anything. After learning this, Holly and Scott wanted to find a way to help.

This led to the creation of Shine like Sable.

The tagline came from a friend of Holly’s, who made pink wristbands with the phrase while Sable was still in the hospital, Holly said.

“Our daughter really had a sense of caring for people at such a young age,” Scott said. “We’re just trying to carry that on [through] things she would be interested in, like helping others.”

Jonathan Sams, Scott’s friend

and attorney, set up the foundation with the Ohio Board of Education.

The foundation now comprises of eight people from the Mason area.

Though the foundation was officially created on March 24, there are already events set in place.

Scott emphasized the importance of “making connections.”

“So far, everything we have done has been through word of mouth,” Holly said. “It seems like everybody knows somebody who is willing to help.”

General Mills, Inc. has partnered with the foundation to donate extra cereal to Western Row for food-insecure students. Sonder Brewing is donating all proceeds of its new drink for April to the foundation. The Kendra Scott Jewelry Store in Liberty Center mall will donate 20 percent of its proceeds on April 25, and The Casual Pint restaurant will have a wine tasting on May 10.

“It’s kind of a way to redirect our grief,” Holly said. “Instead of sitting and wallowing in our grief … [we’re] trying to do what she would want us to do.”

Sable’s personality lives on through the foundation.

“When we say shine like Sable, that’s truly what we want to do,” Holly said. “Just use some of her attributes she had in her short 10 years to make us all better people.” beysc@miamioh.edu

Changes coming to historic buildings in Uptown district

45 E. HIGH ST. UPPER FLOORS ARE SLATED TO BE DEVELOPED PHOTO EDITOR JUGAL JAIN

TIM CARLIN

STAFF WRITER Redevelopment plans are in the works for two corner properties on High Street — the former 45 East Bar & Grill and the former Follett’s Co-Op Bookstore.

Oxford’s Historic and Architectural Preservation Commission (HAPC) recently approved plans for the 45 E. High St. property.

The approved plans include facade changes and the conversion of the building’s second floor into an apartment. Plans were originally submitted in 2017, but after the owner switched architects, they were required to submit new plans.

Since the HAPC is only responsible for approving the exterior of historic buildings, its approval is only the first step needed for renovations to be done to the 45 East property. The building plans must now be approved by Oxford’s Planning Commission, then voted on by City Council.

“In the [HAPC] meeting, they talked about being under a time crunch. My guess is they’ll want this done August 20,” said Oxford Economic Development Director Alan Kyger about the 45 East ar-

chitects. “In Oxford, we have one completion time. If something is not done by August 20, kiss a year goodbye.”

Kyger said that property owners usually want renovations completed by mid-August to accommodate the student population that returns to Oxford in late August every year.

As of Friday, April 12, no plans for the 45 East property have been submitted to the Planning Commission for review.

The owners of the former Follett’s Co-Op Bookstore site are in the application process for state-given permits to remove underground storage tanks on their property so that renovations can be done.

“It’s always been my understanding when they purchased the site, that they will be tearing down anything that’s non-historic and rebuilding with a mixed-use building,” Kyger said.

Although no hard date has been set for work to begin on the Follet’s property, Kyger said he is hopeful there will be progress within the year. carlintm@miamioh.edu

THE GIBSON FAMILY CREATED A FOUNDATION TO HONOR 10-YEAR-OLD SABLE (CENTER, FRONT). PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY HOLLY GIBSON

Oxford runs on Dunkin’ RACHEL BERRY NEWS EDITOR

A new Dunkin’ opened in Oxford on Monday, April 15 to crowds of students and community members waiting for their first taste of coffee and donuts from the new store. The Oxford Dunkin’ previously opened for a limited time on Friday, April 12 for a friends and family day.

Dunkin’, formerly known as Dunkin’ Donuts, dropped “donuts” from its name to emphasize that they are more than a donut shop.

Last week during the friends and family event, students and residents poured into the storefront from 7 a.m. until about 11:45 a.m. for free donuts and coffee.

Although it was technically invite-only, Director of Operations Rob Beil said they didn’t turn anyone away and that the line was all the way out the door.

Dunkin’ had 632 customers on Friday for this “stress test,” which allowed the employees to test the equipment and to iron out any kinks before the official opening on Monday.

Dunkin’ planned to close at 11 a.m. on Friday, but there were so many people in line that they stayed open until they sold out. Eventually, they ran out of product, which Beil said has never happened in any of the 31 stores he oversees.

Monday was a “soft opening,” meaning Dunkin’ did no marketing and did not have any special discounts or giveaways. Nevertheless, Beil said the turnout was better than he expected.

“I can’t believe the lines,” said Julea Remke, a public relations representative from Journey Marketing and Design, an outside agency that handles Dunkin’s PR and marketing. “I’ve never seen the lines like this. This is crazy.”

Senior Meaghan Murtagh went to Dunkin’ both on Friday and Monday.

On Friday, she was told she and her friends were the second customers at the new store.

Murtagh began emailing people from corporate about a month ago, trying to figure out the opening date.

She eventually reached out to Beil, and after explaining to him how excited she

was about the opening, he invited her to the friends and family day.

“There’s three [Dunkin’ locations] a mile from my house back home, so growing up I was used to going there every day, and so when I came to college when there was no Dunkin’, I was distraught,” Murtagh said. “Finally, after three and a half years, they opened one.”

Oxford’s Dunkin’ is a Next Generation model.

These Next Generation stores are made to have a more inviting and intimate feel, Beil said.

Next Generation stores were designed in early 2018 in Boston, where the brand is headquartered. Now all new Dunkin’ stores will follow the Next Generation design. Out of the store’s 9500 total stores, 185 are Next Generation.

On one wall in the Oxford location hangs a sign that reads “Oxford runs on Dunkin’,” and they plan to hang a Miami “M” on another wall. Both of these signs seek to further the community feel, Beil said.

“We always call it the third place.

You have home, work and then your third place hopefully is Dunkin’,” Beil said.

The Oxford Dunkin’ also features a tap system for cold brews and a nitrogen-infused coffee.

“The nitro is a very clean, smooth,

bold flavor of iced coffee, and it’s infused with nitrogen that allows that to be sipped and enjoyed all throughout the experience,” Beil said.

This coffee was invented only a few years ago and is a unique feature of the Next Generation stores.

Another change from a typical store is that the donuts are placed in a case within the front counter instead of on the back wall, so people can more easily view their options. This is a return to how Dunkin’ used to arrange their stores.

The Oxford location also has a drive-thru and connects to the DD mobile app, which provides rewards and allows people to order ahead.

Miami University was one of factors that drew Dunkin’ to consider an Oxford location.

“We do really well with millennial crowds, and that is obviously a big portion of who you have in Oxford nine months out of the year,” Remke said.

“We’re just trying to build in places that we see have great potential and that match our target audience.”

The store is now open, on 431 S Locust Street, in the old Tim Horton’s location, from 5 a.m. - 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 6 a.m. - 8 p.m. on Sundays. There will be a grand opening ceremony in mid-May. berryrd@miamioh.edu

THE NEW DUNKIN’ IS THE 3RD STORE TO ENTER THE OXFORD DONUT MARKET. THE MIAMI STUDENT SARAH BROSSART

Eight new LLCs to be added next year LUCY GREANEY

THE MIAMI STUDENT Miami University’s Office of Residence Life (ORL) is bringing eight new Living Learning Communities (LLCs) to campus for the 2019-20 school year.

There are currently 29 LLCs on campus that range in focus from broad themes such as Academic Neighborhoods to specific themes such as Nursing. The new LLCs that will be added this fall were introduced because of student interest expressed to ORL. According to the Director of Residence Life Vicka Bell-Robinson, Miami founded its LLC program in the late 90s after the merge with Oxford’s Western College for Women. The system that existed prior to the LLC system provided pockets of learning; however, the majority of students did not participate, Bell-Robinson said.

The primary focus of the LLCs is to provide an easier transition for students into the undergraduate life and to enforce inclusive learning.

“This idea that we want to connect the inside of the classroom to the co-curricular things that are happening beyond the classroom is not a new idea,” Bell-Robinson said.

Five of the eight LLCs being introduced this fall are referred to as “Career Clusters.” Three of the five Career Clusters will be business-oriented due to the vast number of majors involving business on campus. Prior to this year there has only been one LLC geared towards business students which is the Entrepreneurship LLC. Now there will be more specialized business LLCs including “Accounting and Financial Services,” “Economics and Data Analytics” and “Management Sales and Consulting.”

In addition to the Career Clusters in business, there will also be

a career cluster called “Students Still Exploring” and one geared towards the ROTC program. Both of these will provide an idea for prospective job opportunities for students in the field of their choice.

“It’s not magic. There will opportunities facilitated by the RA or the live-in staff, and you will have the opportunity to engage in those things,” Bell-Robinson said.

The other three LLCs being added this fall include Bridges Scholars, Discovering Miami, and Film and Video Making.

Every year, the ORL asks students for feedback regarding their LLC, and they ask what they would like to see.

“A big telling of whether an LLC is successful or not is if a student knows which LLC they are in,” Bell-Robinson said.

The way to tell if an LLC is effective amongst students is if students are aware of the benefits of their LLC and if they are taking advantage of these opportunities.

First-year Colin Sellers is currently living in the LLC known as “Guys in Engineering and Computing.” He finds it to be convenient that he is living amongst other students in the same courses that he is currently taking.

“Whenever it comes to struggling in a class, chances are someone else is willing to help,” Sellers said.

There are oftentimes instances where second-year students propose their own LLC. A group of 30 students can come together with any common interest and request to live in the same residence hall.

This often leads to a future of new LLCs that have a large following, said ORL Associate Director Tresa Barlage Zianno.

“We can have all kinds of good ideas, but if it’s not something that students want, then it is not going to be a successful community,” Zianno said. greanelj@miamioh.edu

Entertainment

6

KEELINST@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

A conversation with Miami alum, screenwriter Dave Kajganich ‘Suspiria,’ ‘The Terror’ scribe shares his industry experiences SAM KEELING

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR When Dave Kajganich graduated Miami and began grad school at the University of Iowa, he would not have imagined finding fulfillment writing for film.

Instead, he was a fiction writer.

This suited him, especially in Iowa’s prestigious Writer’s Workshop.

“There was, at the time, a fairly emphatic bias in the Workshop against writing for film and television. It was a different era,” said Kajganich in an interview with The Student.

“I loved film. I just didn’t consider it a worthy pursuit somehow, which is idiotic to me now.”

It took a few particularly well-written films (Krzysztof Kieslowski’s “Three Colors” trilogy) and an attempt at crafting a screenplay to change his mind on the matter.

“I fell in love with the form, which is so simple in a way,” he said.

“Character action is the engine. It takes what can be distractingly abstract in fiction writing and strips it away.”

The barebones structure of

Sam Keeling: Going into your filmography…

Dave Kajganich: Don’t go too far back! [Laughs] There are some clunkers in there.

SK: You’ve explored many different facets of the horror genre. What draws you to horror?

DK: For me, it’s the best genre to

screenplays matches well with Kajganich’s writing philosophy: one of unfaltering attention to detail.

To him, every piece of action and dialogue should be controlled and intentional. To ignore that is to tell a poor story; to abuse it is to be irresponsible.

His films — many of which fall under the “horror” umbrella — are complex, and they never underestimate the intelligence of the viewer.

From the complicated relationships in 2015’s “A Bigger Splash” to the politically-fused horror in last year’s “Suspiria,” his well-crafted narratives are an iceberg: The meatiest bits of story often never break the surface. Discovering them alters the viewing experience, making for enthralling cinema.

After two collaborations with acclaimed director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”) and a stint as creator/showrunner of AMC’s limited series “The Terror,” Kajganich has cemented his status as a talented screenwriter. A TV series sold to HBO and an upcoming project with Ridley Scott could further cement his reputation.

But as he mentions in the Q&A below, not everything in Hollywood is a bundle of roses.

through war, by being transformed into the names of a battles. The Battle of Yorktown, the Battle of Belleau Wood, etc.

The film was a horror film, but with a war movie’s structure. It involved two brothers, one of whom was had just come home from the front lines in France before he goes missing. The film was set in the 1940s.

When Warner Brothers bought it,

DAVE KAJGANICH TAKES PART IN A PANEL AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL. CONTRIBUTED BY DAVE KAJGANICH

the film. I wanted to take my name off of it, but was told I’d make an enemy of the studio and would have to pay back my sole-credit bonus, which was covering my rent and car payments at the time. I couldn’t financially do that, so I had to swallow the embarrassment and hope the damage to my own career wouldn’t be lasting.

So, the movies that are from early in my career – I wasn’t in control

KAJGANICH WROTE THE ACCLAIMED REMAKE OF THE CLASSIC HORROR FILM ‘SUSPIRIA.’ PHOTO FROM WIKI COMMONS

take anxieties that people don’t necessarily want to consider in their daily lives and to create a safe space in which to unpack them. Horror allows you to turn up the volume up on anxiety so you can explore it more clearly.

I’m puzzled by horror films that don’t utilize that aspect of the genre.

For instance, with “Suspiria,” we did a lot of press for it, and journalists asked us about equivalencies between witches as a horror concept and communities of women as a political concept. I was so gratified by those questions as it meant the subtext of our film was landing. I don’t know why you would make a horror movie about witches if you weren’t interested in unpacking the politics of women’s power, specifically how patriarchal societies respond to women’s power. That’s what the threat of witches has long been a symbol for. To explore one without the other seems to be missing the point of what a horror movie can be or ought to be. Why evoke the symbol, but not explore the anxieties that are its antecedent?

SK: It can also be the most gratuitous genre. Is that a tricky balance to find?

DK: Of course!

I wrote a film years ago that was called “Town Creek.” Even then, I knew the studio would find that title boring.

SK: So it became (2009’s) “Blood Creek.”

DK: [Laughs] Yes. I would love to strangle the person who made that title change.

The reason it was called “Town Creek” is because I wanted a title that evoked the kind of unremarkable place names that become talismanic,

the first thing they wanted to do was modernize it. I said, “The themes and the subtext of this movie fall apart if it takes place now. It’s meant to put a lens of horror in front what happened in the years right after WWII.” They said, “We’re not going to greenlight a period horror film.” It was my first job, and I was terrified to lose it, so I thought, Well, someone’s going to do this. It might as well be me.

Unfortunately, the film ended up getting made. The director and his first AD (assistant director) rewrote the script without me and pulled all kinds of things out of it that were there to insulate the film from being gratuitous.

When I saw what was happening, I wrote the director an email saying, “I know this is out of my hands now, and I know you don’t have to listen to me, but here’s a short list of things I care very much about that I hope you’ll respect.” One of them was that even though a main character is based on an actual historical figure from the Third Reich, I didn’t show a swastika in the script. It’s a powerful symbol and there was no reason to use it in the story. To use one would have the effect of seeming cavalier about what it stood for and I wanted the director to respect my choice of not decorating the story with them. Months later, when I saw the poster for the film, I felt quite sick about it: It was the back of Michael Fassbender’s head with a swastika carved into it.

It was humiliating, and a problem for me as I was the only credited writer. And that’s simply not accurate.

That’s happened to me other times, as well. The Wachowskis rewrote (2007’s) The Invasion, but didn’t take credit for it, likely because they saw the damage they had clearly caused

of. I’m sensitive to issues about gratuitousness in horror and the kind of reckless exploiting and exploding of certain social mores. I was never interested in doing that. But I happen to have a few things in my early credits that are absolutely reckless due to other people’s choices. But there’s no real forum to correct the record.

My point is: horror movies are

loses battles with the director. In television, though, the writer almost always wins. It’s one of the main reasons I’ve started working in television as well as features.

SK: What are your good and bad experiences with that dynamic?

DK: Well, this experience with “Town Creek” ... I still feel bruised by it. With “The Invasion,” it wasn’t the director so much as the lead producer who second-guessed things at the 11th hour and hired a whole new team to do reshoots. It wasn’t the sort of film he knew how to make, and you just couldn’t give him any help. He was too triggered.

In another case, I wrote a script called “True Story,” for which I did years of research. It was about an actual family that had been murdered, and how those murders were used as the subject of a disgraced journalist’s book. I wanted for it not to be a sensationalistic film. It didn’t have to be.

The script I wrote was about the journalist agreeing, in a queasy way, to empower a man who was convicted of killing his wife and children, in order to rehabilitate his own career. To me, it was a story about a dance between two narcissists, and it was dark.

The director rewrote the script and threw much of that narrative out, replacing it with a narrative about the creative impulse and the artistic process. I didn’t understand it at all.

It was the director’s own obsession grafted onto a story where it didn’t

it. He never spoke to me once. I never got a call or an email. And the film was a disaster, saved from complete disgrace only by the work of the excellent editor Christopher Tellefsen.

That’s just the way it can work.

Being a writer in features is risky in that regard. You get to control the narrative, but only to a point. Past that? If you’re working with a director that wants your collaboration, then you’ll still have influence on the final film. If you’re with a director who is insecure – and there are many – then you’re out on your ear.

SK: Is there a way to know how much control you’ll have before working with a new director?

DK: Not in features.

What you can do – and what I do now – is contact writers who have worked with that director before to go in forewarned and forearmed. And with a few successful productions under my belt, I have more control now over who I say “yes” to and where I set up my projects.

The director I’m about to work with for the third time is the Italian director Luca Guadagnino. We couldn’t have a better collaboration.

If I want to, I can be on set every day – or in the editing room, or for casting conversations, production design meetings, etcetera. Luca leaves all those doors open because he only works with people he respects, and whose intellects he finds interesting.

It’s a true partnership, devoid of ego.

“Being a writer in features is risky ... You get to control the narrative, but only to a point.”

-Dave Kajganich a risky proposition from a screenwriter’s point of view. There are all kinds of ways to trigger an audience’s anxieties. Some of them, I find them responsible, and some I don’t. But when you’re only the screenwriter, and not also the director and/or a producer on the film, your control over those things typically gets taken away very early in the process.

SK: That alludes to the fact that there can be a volatile relationship between writer and director…

DK: There can be, absolutely. In features, the writer almost always

belong. I still grieve about that film because I promised so many people in my research for it that I would protect them, that I would protect their story from being sensationalized. I wouldn’t show the murder of the children, for instance. I wouldn’t create out of the case a redemption story for a journalist who exploited a familicide for personal gain.

The film – through no fault of mine, but nonetheless – broke those promises. It was a terrible experience.

I begged the director to talk with me, to read my research. I was willing to put it in my truck and drop it off so at least he would have the benefit of

So, I’ve had some horrible experiences, but I’ve had incredible experiences as well.

I just worked on two projects back to back with Ridley Scott, who is everything one could hope he’d be: humane, wickedly funny, intellectually a force and collaborative as hell.

Unfortunately for a lot of young feature writers, it’s just blind luck that dictates who they end up working with first. It can be sublime, or it can be ridiculous. [Laughs] Luckily, I’ve had my ridiculous experiences, and now I’m on to the sublime ones. keelinst@miamioh.edu

KEELINST@MIAMIOH.EDU

ENTERTAINMENT 7

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

‘GAME OF THRONES’ SEASON 8 PREMIERE A game of reunions and awkward stares ROSS TAGUE

THE MIAMI STUDENT Warning: This article contains major spoilers.

Sunday night marked the long-awaited return to Westeros with the season eight premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” The season opener was fittingly titled “Winterfell,” with most of the episode taking place within the walls of the titular northern castle as the Starks work to assemble the noble families and prepare for the approaching onslaught of the Night King and his army of the dead.

The episode was shorter than many fans expected at only 54 minutes, following reports that the condensed, six-episode season would consist of longer episodes that felt more like films. Despite fewer episodes, the budget for the eighth and final season is the highest it’s ever been — which was noticeable in the premiere with an expanded Winterfell set and a lengthy CGI dragon race.

Following a revamped title sequence, the episode begins with former King in the North, Jon Snow, riding into Winterfell alongside his queen/ lover/aunt Daenerys Targaryen and her army of Unsullied and Dothraki.

It’s a beautifully done sequence that is reminiscent of the 2011 pilot episode that featured Robert Baratheon riding into Winterfell to meet the Starks. We see the army march in through the eyes of a small child struggling to see the convoy, harkening back to Arya Stark running between the legs of the crowd and Bran Stark climbing a building to see the Baratheon army in season one

of the show. Arya now stands in the front of the crowd, made older and wiser by the years, and we’re reminded of just how much has changed in Westeros since the beginning of the series, and how much the characters themselves have grown.

There were many connections in the episode to the seven-season history of “Game of Thrones,” and it feels overwhelmingly like a culmination for the series. Characters who we never imagined uniting are now squeezed under the same roof in Winterfell, and characters who have been apart for seasons come back together in either heartwarming or awkward reunions.

The surviving Starks are finally all together (if we count Jon), Arya has an encounter with both the Hound and Gendry, Sansa and Tyrion rehash the end of their ill-fated marriage and Theon Greyjoy makes amends with his sister Yara. The beginning of the end has been set in motion, it seems.

This is the first time we’ve seen a number of characters in the northern setting, and it becomes a clash of two very different worlds. We quickly pick up on the northerners’ uneasiness in welcoming a foreign queen, which will presumably be one of the primary conflicts over the final episodes. Daenerys remains rigid and commanding in her ruling style, which doesn’t win over the hearts of Sansa Stark or the other northern families.

They aren’t too happy with Jon, either, for giving up the title they had bestowed upon him. This is an issue that could prove difficult to fix before the Night King arrives at Winterfell’s doorstep in only a few short episodes.

Bran wastes no time in reminding everyone about the impending danger of the dead, interrupting the reunions with news of the fallen wall and the Night King’s new dragon. He also doesn’t hesitate to make people uncomfortable with his knowing stares and spends the episode making his rounds in Winterfell with, as Sam Tarly puts it, “whatever Bran has,” referring to the young Stark’s eerie abilities.

We do leave Winterfell for King’s Landing during a few scenes in which Cersei Lannister watches her hired Golden Company army arrive (without elephants, unfortunately) and later gets a start on the “arrangement” she’d made with Euron Greyjoy. Her big

SAM KEELING

Imagine that you’re remaking a movie. It has an avid, if relatively small, fan base. It was made by a beloved director. The fans are unsure if this new version could ever live up to the original. What do you do?

I’m no expert, but I would try and establish an identity completely different from the original.

In some ways, Neil Marshall’s “Hellboy,” which was released just 15 years after Guillermo del Toro’s acclaimed take on the half-demon hero, does distinguish itself. However, Marshall and writer Andrew Crosby also had the audacity to recreate the story of Hellboy’s creation in a scene remarkably similar to del Toro’s vision.

It doesn’t go well.

This scene opens the 2004 version. In it, a squad of Nazi paranormal troopers collaborate with the ancient Russian sorcerer, Rasputin, to summon a demon from the depths of hell. It’s a remarkable spectacle of gothic fantasy meshed with war imagery, a meshing of the modern and fantastical that would define del Toro’s vision.

The 2019 version uses strikingly similar set design, and even Rasputin and his underlings seem to pay homage to the original. But here, the goal seems not to evoke a sense of wonder or otherworldliness, but to set the stage for action. Rasputin is turned into Swiss cheese in seconds, and the rest of the Nazi squadron is gunned down in a dizzying barrage of blood and broken bones.

One scene seemed to grasp the true joy of Hellboy’s universe: mythologies and folklore combine with new twists, all anchored down by the titular character, whose hulking demon body hides a true desire to do good.

The other? Well, it has some gore.

Thus defines the rest of “Hellboy,” which spills buckets of blood and piles of intestines – literally – on the screen, but forgets to include a

The ender of all (good) things spirit, heart or brain.

It’s hard to place the blame on the man behind the shaved horns, David Harbour. The actor, of “Stranger Things” fame, has the right demeanor and delivery to make it work. It’s not hard to be a walking, grumbling makeup display.

However, there is almost no characterization to be had in this film. Whereas the first screen incarnation loved cats, candy bars and an unstable pyrokinetic woman, this one does nothing but drink and say a few corny catch phrases after a fight.

Take away all the quirks that make the character sympathetic, and the viewer is left with nothing to, you know, care about.

This issue extends to the rest of Hellboy’s team. In the originals, Abe Sapian was a delightfully idiosyncratic fish-man whose ability to recognize other people’s feelings let him pull back Hellboy’s gruff exterior and find his mushy interior. Meanwhile, Liz Sherman felt her relationship with Hellboy kept her from living the peaceful life she wanted. Also, she could catch on fire.

Who do we have this time around? Well, there’s Ben Daimio, a special operative with a dark secret and a penchant for getting in minor quips with Hellboy. We also have Alice Monaghan, a young woman whose past with Hellboy is explained in shoddily paced flashbacks. As a medium, her purpose in the movie is to let dead people speak, becoming a mouthpiece for other characters, rather than a well-defined one of her own.

You might be thinking, “Is it fair to judge this simply by the merits of the original?” That’s a good point. It annoys me when fans of the source material shy away from any deviations. Unfortunately, examining the merits of “Hellboy” on its own will not yield better results.

From the first scene’s voice-over

taguera@miamioh.edu

G.O.T PROMO MATERIAL HINTS AT THE BLOODSHED TO COME IN THE EPIC FANTASY’S FINAL SEASON. PHOTO FROM HBO

‘Hellboy’ review ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

battle has yet to arrive, but she doesn’t have to worry about that until its likely occurrence at the end of the season.

Perhaps the biggest moment of the episode involves Sam revealing the truth about Jon Snow’s parentage to Jon in the Winterfell crypts, a wonderfully ironic setting for a scene we’ve been waiting for since the finale of the seventh season nearly two years ago.

It will be exciting to see Jon come to terms with his newfound claim to the throne and how it will relate to his relationship with Daenerys.

We’re left with a shocking last few minutes of the episode, as survivors of the Wall come across one of the Great War’s first victims, courtesy of

the White Walkers in their terrifying, cryptic style. We also see a certain one-handed rogue brother come face to face with “an old friend” in Winterfell, which could be bad news for him, especially when he’ll have to answer for his crimes of killing Daenerys’ father in the next episode.

There are still a few characters (and direwolves) that have yet to make their promised appearances and showdowns that have been seven seasons in the making, so there is much to look forward to in the final five episodes of “Game of Thrones.” We’ll have to hold our breaths until we are finally able to answer the question of who wins and who dies in this ever-changing fight for the throne.

narration of the bad guy’s origins, the story is just a collection of scenes in which characters explain what’s happening. Sometimes, they explain it to the audience, then take the time explaining it to each other. It explains to us the conflict between humans and monsters when the screenplay takes no time to let it naturally manifest. Before you know it, the climax hits, and the characters explain the otherwise-nonexistent stakes.

The film’s villain, The Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich), gets nothing to do. That is not an exaggeration.

Though her body count starts to climb towards the finale, the character herself is static on the screen.

What was meant to be mythical and enchanting comes off as exceedingly dull.

And the music? Oh, man.

A vicious heavy metal soundtrack would’ve at least added some much-needed character. Instead, we get mind-numbingly bland radio-rock. It wants to sound like a rock-n-rolling monster hunter, but instead reminds me of those beer commercials with a bunch of guys being bros in a bar.

How do you ruin a fight scene between Hellboy and three massive giants? Set it to the tune of “Psycho”

by Muse.

At the end of the day, all that “Hellboy” has to offer is incredibly brutal violence. Unless you’ve never seen blood before – or if you like seeing blood a bit too much – then this is not interesting. Director Marshall handled such gruesome content much better in his 2005 film “The Descent.” In fact, that film did just about everything better.

There I go again with the comparisons. It’s just that sometimes, when something has no personality, you have to find something else to talk about. keelinst@miamioh.edu

HELLBOY MIGHT LOOK FAITHFUL TO HIS COMIC COUNTERPART, BUT IT ISN’T ENOUGH TO SAVE THE FILM. PHOTO FROM MARK ROGERS

In bestselling memoir, a compelling case for college KEVIN VESTAL

THE MIAMI STUDENT In light of 2019’s college admissions scandals, with all its rigged SAT centers and doctored water polo pictures, it is tempting to cast aside higher education as a reinforcement of power, designed to ensure the rich and mighty stay exactly where they are.

Since its release in Feb. 2018, another equally dramatic education story has held tight to the New York Times Best Sellers nonfiction list. In “Educated,” Tara Westover’s authorial debut, the 32-year-old memoirist chronicles her journey from a haphazard homeschooling — where she and her siblings spent more time in the scrapyard than with any textbook — to her BA from Brigham Young University and an eventual PhD from Cambridge.

In a way, Westover’s story represents higher education at its most idealized: as a gateway to opportunity.

At the same time, it paints a frightening family portrait of the life Westover sacrificed for her newfound knowledge.

At the head of the survivalist Westover clan is “Gene,” a pseudonym for Tara’s father. Gene is a paranoid man who distrusts the government, believes modern medicine is an assault on natural cures (“God’s pharmacy”) and views college campuses as the Illuminati’s indoctrination grounds.

Because of this, Westover is born without a birth certificate or classroom education, spending much of her childhood preparing for apocalypse.

In the memoir’s early chapters, Westover makes the most of the genre in her interplay between the childhood pride in living off the land, compared to her modern misgivings about the way she and her six siblings were raised. In graphic detail, Westover describes car crashes and work accidents that were directly caused by Gene’s stubbornness.

Still, given the sheer volume of outlandish anecdotes that Westover includes, Gene comes across as complex character, capable of loving his family members while putting them in harm’s way.

Equally complex is Westover’s mother Faye, another pseudonym, who acts as the family’s submissive arbiter and resident herbal healer. While Faye is willing to occasionally defy her husband (for instance, going behind his back to support a young Tara’s brief stint as a dancer), she repeatedly folds in the face of confrontation, making for Westover’s most inconsistent ally.

Of course, Westover’s interest in education creates the first rift in her relationship with her father.

“I would remain a child, in perpetuity, always,” she writes, “or I would lose him.”

Inspired by an older brother who

WESTOVER’S PURSUIT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IS A GATEWAY TO OPPORTNITY. PHOTO FROM PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE

convinced their didactic dad to let him give college a try, Westover teaches herself trigonometry as she studies for the ACT. Once admitted to BYU, she quickly finds herself woefully overwhelmed by the world outside her Idaho upbringing.

Here, Westover’s identity is torn.

Although she feels out of place at school, she begins to fear her family visits, particularly the physical abuse she has suffered at the hands of Shawn, her violent older brother and former best friend. In this portion of the memoir, Westover describes her past self with enough distance to both sympathize and chastise her choice to bury her trauma.

If there is anywhere “Educated” falters, it is in the final leg when Westover the writer and character become one. Once Tara achieves full independence from Shawn, who also received a pseudonym, and her parents, she can’t help but try to salvage her family ties, even after she is excommunicated for stirring the pot by standing up to her father and brother.

One wonders if more time to marinate on her banishment would have benefited the caliber of Westover’s writing in the final stretch. Waiting for the fallout to settle may have imbued the memoir’s ending with a better understanding of Westover’s deep love and pain, one that she still seems to be waiting for herself.

Nevertheless, Westover demonstrates a clear care for accuracy, admitting to the reader in footnotes where her memory slips or differs from the accounts of the two brothers on her side of the family schism. Ultimately, the level of reflection and critical thinking that Westover employs in her writing is a telling measurement for how far she has come. While she may have lost her loved ones, the freedom she gained from her education shifted her story toward a better life, one she has chosen to share with the world. vestalkc@miamioh.edu

8 CULTURE

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

HEADLEDD@MIAMIOH.EDU

75 percent legs. 100 percent a good boy.

A new sound for Tyler brings sunshine with him the steel pan wherever he goes MAYA FENTER

MAGAZINE EDITOR Every Thursday at 6:30 p.m., the members of Chromatic Crew gather at Joe Atkinson’s house in Cincinnati for band practice.

For current Miami students Jen Clemens, Eva Reyes-Smith and Callie Miller, this means driving an hour from Oxford. For Atkinson and Taft Marsh, both Miami graduates, this means shifting their focus from their day jobs — Atkinson as a substitute teacher and Marsh as a botanical specialist — to the band.

The group is comprised of five members — Atkinson on drums, junior Eva Reyes-Smith on bass, junior Callie Miller on guitar, senior Jenny Clemens on lead vocals and Taft Marsh on steel pan.

Marsh, a steel pan player for about nine years, conceptualized the band back in November, hoping to create a new musical space for the steel pan to exist.

“With Chromatic Crew … I had a vision of putting together something different for steel pan,” Marsh said. “I wanted to do something different with it, not just play the standard island music.”

Their sound is rooted in funk music, drawing inspiration from artists such as Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder and the band Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. None of the members would claim their musical background to be in funk music, but it’s a style that they have all come to love.

“That seems to be the kind of music that makes people feel good and gets people up and dancing,” Atkinson said.

Their setlists comprise mostly covers thus far, with songs such as The Jackson 5’s “Blame it on the Boogie” and Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie.” In addition to letting the audience hear something familiar, covers also give the band a chance to play around with their sound. “[Our sound] is still evolving,” Marsh said.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to really land on a super specific sound. We’re always experimenting with new ideas and new concepts.”

The group has gone through several different members before finding the right mix of people.

Atkinson was the first person Marsh brought on board. The two met during Atkinson’s junior year at Miami, and they have played together in the past. Marsh and ReyesSmith have also had experience playing together in Just Dandy, another Oxford-based band, so he asked her to be a part of Chromatic Crew as well.

Clemens and Marsh have dated on and off for over a year, so he was able to convince her to try singing with the band. She never really pictured ever joining a band, and the music style isn’t what she was accustomed to singing, but she ended up falling in love with it.

“I just love the people and being there and it, you know, it’s very fulfilling to get to play music with a group of really rad people,” Clemens said.

Miller was the most recent addition to the band when they realized they were in need of a lead guitarist. She has been looking for musical outlets since coming to Miami that she doesn’t get with her studies in biochemistry and French.

The end result is a group of musicians who are dedicated to growing their band while also bonding both musically and socially.

“We don’t have any ego problems or any of the typical band issues really,” Reyes-Smith said. “We all mesh really well together.”

In the months that Chromatic Crew has been active, they’ve played house shows in Oxford, at Top Cats, a bar in Cincinnati, and at Top Deck on Green Beer Day. Their goals for the future include writing original songs, making recordings, booking more shows in Cincinnati and simply playing together as much as they can.

“It’s a good band now, and it’s gonna keep being a good band as we’re still playing and still passionate about it,” Miller said. “We just have to see where it takes us.”

For more information and updates on Chromatic Crew, visit their Facebook page, @ ChromaticCrewBand. fentermc@miamioh.edu

EMILY DATTILO

CULTURE EDITOR Tyler rests underneath a table on the Armstrong patio, his tail wagging constantly, his mouth hanging open in a wide smile. Sunlight reflects off his black fur, and a red and grey braided leash snakes upwards into the hand of Eastyn Newsome, Tyler’s owner, who is dressed in a navy blue shirt and leggings, her short dark hair pushed back with a wide black headband.

Eastyn, a senior and botany major from Springboro, Ohio, found Tyler a couple years ago at the Cincinnati Lab Rescue and immediately fell in love with him. Tyler injured his leg in a car accident, but his previous owners didn’t take care of him, so he ultimately ended up having one of his legs removed.

Eastyn’s mother was hesitant to let her adopt Tyler at first, considering the family already had three dogs at home and had never taken care of an animal with such a significant handicap, but after some convincing, Eastyn got her family to agree.

She said that her favorite memory with Tyler was when her family took all four dogs to a local dog park. She walked Tyler over to one of the agility courses and watched him race across it, picking up the skills easily, completely uninhibited by his missing leg.

Eastyn said someday she’d like to get Tyler into agility training, just for fun.

Eastyn said that she’d “like to say he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but he likes to try and eat flies.”

He even tries to play with her horse, named T, but that doesn’t really work out, because her horse is about ten times his size.

She said that sometimes, during walks, Tyler will stop in front of someone, waiting to be petted because he’s so used to happy reactions from passersby.

Tyler, now three years old, absolutely adores kids and being outside, taking his sunshiney temperament with him on all of his adventures. Eastyn calls him the “cool, outdoorsy frat guy.”

Tyler also has a Starbucks addiction. His go-to order is one of the Starbucks “puppuccinos,” which is whipped cream in a cup.

Eastyn said one time, Tyler tried to steal a Starbucks drink right out of a girl’s hand, so anytime the pair walk near a Starbucks, Eastyn tells others to look out for their drinks.

She isn’t certain of Tyler’s exact birthday, so she chose to celebrate his birthday on the day she adopted him: May 27.

Despite his cheerful demeanor, Eastyn said that Tyler didn’t used to like giving kisses. But, as time went on, he began to show more of his personality, and finally learned that it was okay.

He also didn’t really know how to chase until Eastyn taught him how. She says he’s very wiggly, because his front and back legs aren’t evenly matched, but this doesn’t stop him from enjoying the outdoors and taking hikes.

Eastyn doesn’t bring Tyler to class, but says she has thought about training him to

TYLER AND EASTYN ARE ATTATCHED AT THE HIP, THE BEST OF FRIENDS. CONTRIUBTED BY EASTYN NEWSOME

be a therapy or service dog. She eventually decided that she’d rather have him be “a free spirit,” but said that maybe, when he’s older, she’ll train him.

Back on the Armstrong patio, after being distracted by a scooter and a couple squirrels, Tyler is offered a quick sip of water by Eastyn, who uncaps a Gatorade bottle, carefully pours some water into the cap and offers it to him.

After a few capfuls of water, the pair begin to make the walk back home, and the sight of Tyler hopping next to Eastyn – happy, energetic, and entirely uninhibited by his missing leg – adds a hint of innocence and hope to the early spring evening. dattilec@miamioh.edu

STEM:

Science, technology, engineering and music?

KELLY MCKEWIN

THE MIAMI STUDENT Three hours of chemistry homework might be a typical afternoon for a STEM major, while three hours of rehearsal is the usual for a music performance major. But for Grace Drawe, who chose to double major in both music performance and a STEM field, managing her musical schedule and schoolwork becomes a juggling act.

For Drawe, that balance of music and science is a fine line of time management and getting into the right mindset.

BETWEEN PRACTICING MUSIC AND STUDYING SCIENCE, EVAN AND GRACE RARELY HAVE A FREE MOMENT. THE MIAMI STUDENT SEBASTIAN NEUFUSS

“It’s a different part of your brain that you use for music than you do with the sciences, so it’s kind of weird to be switching between them all the time,” Drawe said. “You have to be really creative and musical for a lot of things and then switch to being super analytical and math-minded, which is weird, but it works.”

Though her passion for her majors makes it worth it, Drawe said she is busy nearly all day. She practices her cello alone for about two hours every day, but also attends over four hours of practice a week for the symphony orchestra and three hours a week for her chamber group.

That in combination with classes, homework, meetings for her sorority and fitting in time for friends, Drawe said she needs to spend every free second being productive to stay on track. This becomes even more challenging before performances, when extra rehearsals and practice time become necessary.

The music performance major also requires Drawe to take a number of smaller classes to meet all of her requirements. As a result, she’s enrolled in 10 classes this semester. While some are only one or two credit hours, each music class comes with its own repertoire of music to practice and memorize.

“Everyday I try to work on all the main pieces I need to focus on that week,” Drawe said. “I usually prioritize one piece of music over the others, but I still try to hit all the things.”

Evan Danielson, a first-year music performance and chemical engineering double major, also found that the amount of time he needs to spend practicing his instrument more than made up for the lighter workload of the music performance major in comparison to his engineering classes.

Danielson doesn’t play in any of Miami’s orchestras like Drawe does, but he does play the piano for a local church and participates in the Collegiate Chorale. He spends three to four hours a day practicing music for church and for class, though he said the music he practices for church is “more casual,” as he doesn’t have to worry about his technique.

“I always focus on what I’m least comfortable with and target the parts of pieces that are giving me the most trouble. There’s also working on technique and ways to express emotion through the music,” Danielson said.

Drawe said that she realized quickly that having a solid support system of friends and professors helped keep her motivated to tackle so many classes, as well as maintaining her passion for both music and science. She knew she would be taking on a heavy workload when coming to college, but couldn’t imagine her Miami experience without both music and the sciences playing a large role in it.

“I’ve grown up playing cello and I love it and couldn’t give it up,” Drawe said. “I knew in college I really wanted the chance to practice all the time and play in all these groups and do things you couldn’t do if you’re not a music performance major.”

For Danielson, keeping up with a rigorous schedule always becomes worth it when he realizes he’s improved, whether its on an individual piece of music or in his piano skills in general.

“Seeing the result of improvement really excites me to work more to improve,” Danielson said. “It’s kind of like people who work out, when they see they’re getting stronger and getting better results, they want more of that immediately.” mckewikm@miamioh.edu

DATTILEC@MIAMIOH.EDU

CULTURE 9

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

Bat Boy to make an appearance at Miami MILO LAM

THE MIAMI STUDENT It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Bat Boy! Born half-human, half-bat, Bat Boy was a creature brought to life in 1992 in an issue of the Weekly World News, a fictional news tabloid infamous for its satirical tone.

Bat Boy has found his way to Oxford as the star of a musical created

by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming that looks at his fictitious origin story.

According to the tabloid, he was found in a cave in West Virginia, weighing 19 pounds and was two feet long.

The character was originally created by the tabloid’s editor Dick Kulpa and writer Bob Lind. Through his representation in Weekly World News, Bat Boy has been active in the public eye for years. In 2008, he endorsed John McCain and later former President Obama.

Worley Stidham, a sophomore theatre major with an arts management co-major and music theater minor, plays the lead role. Stidham believes that the character is someone people could relate to, and that the musical is an important one for anyone who sees it.

Bat Boy desperately struggles to not be an outsider, and Stidham thinks that most people have had a point in their lives where they also yearned for acceptance into a community.

“Today, there’s this idea of public opinion that’s radically shifting and people turning against each other, especially with the political climate that has built up over recent years,” Stidham

FROM A CAVE IN WEST VIRGINIA TO THE STAGE AT MIAMI, BAT BOY’S BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK. BETH PFOHL THE MIAMI STUDENT

said. “We are inspired by this, and we try to help people connect to a story of people who have good qualities … having others turn their backs on them.”

Junior Kate Herman, also a theater and arts management double major with a minor in music theater, is another leading cast member in the show.

Herman plays Meredith Parker, Bat Boy’s adoptive mother. The character is portrayed as a very sophisticated woman with many emotional layers. Herman was eager to get into her role and

does not shy away from a challenge.

“She’s a lot, for sure, but I don’t think of this as pressure. It’s more like an exciting challenge where I get to explore these different dynamics,” Herman said. “She’s a really fun character to play with that has a huge heart and always puts herself last to take care of others. The reason why these characters are complicated is because humans are complicated. To me, the act of being able to break this [complexity] apart and portray to an audience is really

great.”

The musical features heavy social commentary and complex characters, so actors like Stidham and Herman face a lot of challenges in delivering a quality performance. Preparation includes weekly rehearsals and vocal exercises. Herman is even involved in a voice class with the faculty from her minor program.

The production team has encountered numerous obstacles along the way, the toughest of which are duo roles

Listening for peace with the Oxford Friends Our writer reports on faith and fulfillment in Oxford’s religious groups in a new series ERIN GLYNN

ASST. NEWS EDITOR As one might suspect from the Religious Society of Friends, the Oxford Quakers were incredibly friendly when I visited their Sunday worship meeting.

The “church” was a ring of eclectic furniture inside the Interfaith Center: odd wicker chairs that resembled nests, cushioned folding chairs and two sizable squashy couches. In the center of the circle sat a coffee table with a Bible.

In true guilty-Catholic form, I selected a folding chair.

The first hour of a Quaker meeting is spent in silence. The idea is that participants meditate in the silence and listen for the Divine Spirit or the light of God, a force that goes by different names that can be particular to individual Quakers. If the spirit calls to an individual during the meeting, they will speak or read or pray aloud.

This only happened once at the meeting I attended, when long-time Oxford Friend Cecilia Shore stood up. She said she had been thinking a great deal about the U2 song “Grace” in the past week, and read aloud some of the lyrics.

“What once was hurt/ What once was fric-

tion What left a mark/No longer stings Because Grace makes beauty/ Out of ugly things.”

The lyrics were punctuated with murmurs of agreement from the other Friends, and then we lapsed back into the silence.

It stretched on until the week’s designated Head of the meeting signaled the end of worship by shaking hands with everyone in the circle. The hour after worship is for conducting business. This week, the Friends discussed the yet-to-be released 2019 statement from the Friends Committee on National Legislation, an organization that lobbies on behalf of approximately 76,360 U.S. Quakers.

I visited the Oxford Friends meeting out of a curiosity to see faith beyond the Catholic masses that bookended the weeks of my childhood.

“What do you get out of the silence?” I asked Shore after the business had concluded.

“There’s a different answer for everyone,” she said. “Some people, especially busy people, really appreciate the opportunity to be in silence, and a silence that is warm and welcoming. No one is expecting something of them.

They find it an oasis in their week.”

Shore explained that some participants spend the time in prayer, going around the

circle of Friends and offering prayers for each one. Some use it for mindfulness practice or journaling.

“People ask, ‘Why do I need to do this in a group? I can meditate in my dorm room.’

But we believe that, kind of like a prism, each person refracts the light of God differently so you’re able to see that in a group,” Shore said.

This idea that the light of God is inside everyone is the Quakers’ central belief. Though the religion is traditionally associated with Christianity, Friends can come from a myriad of faith and philosophy backgrounds.

Shore was raised as a Southern Baptist and her husband an Episcopalian. They met in

or where one person plays multiple characters. These require cast members to perform costume changes in a matter of seconds to fulfill their roles.

Assistant production manager Megan Hayes alluded to an interesting production aspect that audiences can look forward to while breaking down one of the most intricate technical production in the musical: puppetry.

“Without spoiling too much, there’s a portion of the show involving puppets, and there was a lot of work put into the process,” Hayes said. “The production team has had to create right lighting and learn how to handle them to make them as realistic as possible, for them to come to life, almost.”

In addition, the director and production team have put in efforts to carry out the original musical with their own personal touches, working to bring a story set in the 90s into modern day.

They expect to give audiences a quality theatrical experience, filled with dark humor and critical social commentaries.

“I love coming to rehearsals because the cast and the production team and the director are amazing,” Herman said. “It’s a dream team and I couldn’t ask for more. They are so loving and I am just having so much fun. I hope the audience will have just as much as fun as we do when they see this.”

The musical comedy will be open at 7:30 p.m. from April 25-27, at 7:30 p.m. from May 2-4 and finally at 2 p.m. on May 5 at 2:00 p.m in the Gates-Abegglen Theatre. lamvg@miamioh.edu

graduate school and began going to meetings together. They were married under the care of a Quaker group. There is no officiant at a Quaker wedding because they believe only the Divine Spirit can marry a couple, and this works through the members of a meeting.

The variety of religious backgrounds means that the Friends’ beliefs are not always homogenous when it comes to sacred texts and the afterlife. Many Friends read the Bible, but largely they believe the word of God should come from within, not from books or rituals. Similarly, the Friends focus on their experience of heaven in their lives today and believe that what comes after death is for our good.

I left the meeting with a slice of carrot bread and sense of peace. glynnee@miamioh.edu

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SUMMER @ SINCLAIR GET AHEAD. TAKE YOUR GEN ED CLASSES IN THE SUMMER! Make the most of your summer: take classes at Sinclair Community College. Check out available courses and ask your advisor how Sinclair courses can transfer back to Miami University. Take 12-week, 8-week or Flex classes at one of our convenient locations or online.

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Sports

10

VINELCA@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH MEGAN DUFFY LEAVES MIAMI FOR MARQUETTE EMILY SIMANSKIS

SPORTS EDITOR-AT-LARGE

After leading the women’s basketball program to back-to-back 20win seasons for the first time since the 1980s, head coach Megan Duffy accepted a head coaching position at Marquette University, Miami Athletics announced last Wednesday, April 10.

Under Duffy, the RedHawks finished 44-20 overall and 25-11 in Mid-American Conference play.

The ’Hawks competed in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament and earned Women’s National Invitational Tournament bids.

Duffy was part of a historic turnaround for the women’s basketball program. Before her arrival, the RedHawks finished 12-21 and hadn’t played in the MAC semifinals in 10 years.

Last year, after amassing a 21-11 overall record, Duffy became one of four first-year head coaches to win 20-plus games, and she was the only woman of that group. She was the second-fastest to 10 wins of any coach in Miami history in their first year, and ranks second in total win improvement.

This year, Duffy and her RedHawks continued to rewrite the record books, as Miami won 11 games throughout the months of January and February. The streak ranks fifth in Miami program history.

“I’m excited about the foundation we have built with our women’s basketball program over the past two

seasons,” Athletic Director David Sayler said in the announcement.

“The success our outstanding student-athletes have shown on and off the court makes this a very attractive job.”

After two years with the RedHawks, Duffy signed a six-year contract with the Big East school and was introduced in Milwaukee at 3:15 p.m. CT last Wednesday.

“I look forward, similarly to what we did at Miami, to building this and growing together and pushing each other at all different ways to stay at this level,” Duffy said.

The Golden Eagles lost their head coach Carolyn Kieger to Penn State on April 3, a week before Duffy’s departure.

“Megan is a tremendous fit with the Marquette family and the University’s values,” Marquette Athletic Director David Scholl said in an announcement. “I have watched her career ascend for several years and have seen her achieve tremendous success at the highest levels as a player and coach. She coaches for the right reasons, utilizing basketball to help develop the women in her program and position them for success, both on and off the court.”

Miami Athletics said a national search to replace Duffy will begin immediately. Busy with the search, Sayler could not be reached for comment. simansec@miamioh.edu @emilysimanskis MEGAN DUFFY INHERITS A MARQUETTE TEAM THAT POSTED A 27-8 OVERALL RECORD IN 2018-2019.

MIAMI ATHLETICS SHELBY FRIESZELL

Baseball RedHawks write same story of dominance

Lack of black players in MLB trickles down to tee-ball CHRIS VINEL

SPORTS EDITOR

JUNIOR THIRD BASEMAN LANDON STEPHENS READIES TO THROW AGAINST ST. BONAVENTURE ON FRIDAY, MARCH 15.

THE MIAMI STUDENT ZACH REICHMAN

CHRIS VINEL

SPORTS EDITOR

Another three games and another three wins.

Miami baseball traveled to Bowling Green and swept the Falcons (12-19, 5-7 Mid-American) this weekend, giving the RedHawks their fifth sweep in nine series this season. They’ve won 11 of their last 12 contests and hold a 29-6 (10-2 MAC) record.

The RedHawks breezed through Friday’s game 12-4, before pending inclement weather forced Sunday’s game to be pushed up to Saturday afternoon and gave Miami its sixth doubleheader of the season.

It won game one 15-2 and game two 10-8.

With the victories, the RedHawks cracked the top 30 teams in the Collegiate Baseball Poll, checking in at No. 28.

Dinger derby Well, the weather is heating up, folks.

Scientifically-speaking, a baseball travels farther in warmer temperatures than cooler ones, and the RedHawks took advantage of that this weekend.

Homers, nukes, tanks, bombs, dingers, big flies – it doesn’t matter what you call home runs. Just know Miami hit a lot of them against the Falcons.

In 35 games, the RedHawks have

hit 26 home runs. Five of those came against Bowling Green.

Junior catcher Cal Elvers established a firm affinity for the fences, going yard once in each of the three games.

He upped his season home run total to five, claiming sole possession of the team lead in that category. He rests ahead of junior third baseman Landon Stephens and redshirt junior outfielder Kyle Winkler, who each have four.

Winkler and sophomore right fielder Parker Massman were the two other RedHawks to join Elvers in the longball barrage, as each hit one home run.

Miami continued its season-long offensive explosion by combining for 37 runs this weekend. The RedHawks have averaged more than eight runs per game in 2019. They put up an average of 5.5 last season.

Spencer Mraz flirts with a no-hitter Through seven innings of Saturday’s first game, junior starter Spencer Mraz proved to be literally unhittable.

The only two baserunners he allowed had reached on walks, and he had already struck out 12 Falcon batters.

After returning to the mound to pitch the eighth inning, Mraz surrendered a leadoff double to shortstop Neil Lambert to end the no-hit bid. It was Bowling Green’s only hit of the game.

Mraz allowed a walk before striking

out his 13th victim of the afternoon.

Sophomore reliever Logan Schmitt then came on to end Mraz’s day of work.

Though Mraz left two runners on base for Schmitt, leading to two earned runs later in the inning, he had fallen just six outs short of Miami’s first no-hitter since 1980.

Mraz (W, 5-2) got his fifth win of the season for his efforts.

Almost home With another road game slated for tonight at 6 p.m. against Cincinnati (16-19, 7-5 American), the RedHawks won’t return home to Hayden Park until Friday, marking more than two and a half weeks since their last home game.

The first series back, against the Ball State Cardinals (23-12, 7-3 MAC), will kick off at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Their last homestand ended with a 7-3 victory over Northern Kentucky on April 3, making this Miami’s longest road trip of the season.

While a home ballpark is typically referred to as “friendly confines,” it hasn’t mattered where the RedHawks have played this season. They’re a perfect 14-0 at home and 15-6 away or at a neutral site. vinelca@miamioh.edu @ChrisAVinel

I felt nervous as I waited in line to meet Brandon Phillips in December of 2007.

With a 30-home run, 32-stolen base season as the Cincinnati Reds’ second baseman, Phillips established himself as a rising African-American star in Major League Baseball (MLB). He was cool, charismatic and consistently flashed the brightest smile I’d ever seen.

I planned the exact words I wanted to tell him. “Hello, Mr. Phillips.

It’s nice to meet you, and congratulations on your 30-30 season. Will you sign my baseball?” eight-yearold me would say.

He was one of my heroes.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many black Major Leaguers to look up to anymore. There aren’t many African-Americans in baseball, period.

In 2018, African-Americans made up 8.4 percent of Opening Day rosters. That’s down over 10 percent from the number’s peak of 18.7 percent in 1981. The figure hit single digits in 2005 for the first time since 1961 and has remained there for the last 14 years.

Jordan Stephens and Nick Stringer, the only African-American baseball players at Miami, don’t like this trend.

“I think it’s bad [for the sport],” Stephens said. “It would be nice to see more African-American athletes get into it.”

Even more worrisome, the current African-Americans in the big leagues aren’t stars.

When I fell in love with baseball around 2006, icons like Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds and Frank Thomas were still active. Others, like Ryan Howard, CC Sabathia and Jimmy Rollins were all in their prime years.

Now? Mookie Betts and… um….

Andrew McCutchen? If it was 2014, yes.

Khris Davis? Eh, not really.

Matt Kemp? Nope.

The 2019 list starts and stops with Betts.

Stephens misses the African-Americans he grew up watching.

“Back in the ’90s, you had Bo

[Jackson], Deion [Sanders] and Rickey Henderson,” he said. “It was exciting.”

Stringer didn’t let Stephens leave out Griffey Jr., the man both of them chose as their all-time favorite player. But, Griffey retired almost a decade ago.

“I haven’t really picked [a new favorite], right now,” Stringer said. “I don’t have one.”

For MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, that’s a huge problem for his league. How is baseball going to draw young, black players if there aren’t many African-American professionals for them to look up to?

“Baseball isn’t lit enough, I guess.”

-Jordan Stephens Answer: It won’t.

The shortage of African-Americans picking up a bat and glove goes all the way to the tee-ball level.

I played baseball for more than a decade. Through Little League and high school, I never had an African-American teammate.

“I only had, maybe, one or two other African-Americans on my teams,” Stringer said. “In high school, I was one of two.”

Stephens was the only African-American on his high school team.

The rest played football or basketball. Stephens and Stringer almost chose one of those sports before concluding baseball gave them the best chance to earn a college athletic scholarship.

“Baseball isn’t lit enough, I guess,” Stephens said.

Stephens and Stringer said they remain hopeful but don’t think the number of black players will drastically rise anytime soon.

That makes me nervous. vinelca@miamioh.edu @ChrisAVinel

VINELCA@MIAMIOH.EDU

SPORTS 11

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019

Deland McCullough II is meant for Miami CHRIS VINEL

SPORTS EDITOR

Deland McCullough II turned down the University of Southern California.

He rejected Kentucky, dismissed Indiana and refused Rutgers.

Practically drowning in big-time, Division I football scholarship offers, McCullough II said, “no, thanks,” to every single pigskin powerhouse that pursued him.

Instead, he chose Miami University, tapping into a decade-old dream and continuing the legacy of his father, Deland McCullough, and his grandfather, Sherman Smith — both of whom played collegiate football in Oxford.

“You’ve got to deal with the glamor of USC and all those schools like that,” McCullough II said. “You’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, [this is great].’ But once I sat down and really thought about it, Miami was the best for me.

The 19-year-old McCullough II had been thinking about it for more than a decade.

While his mom is a Tiffin University graduate, his dad used to bring him to RedHawks’ football games, starting before McCullough II can even remember. When he was eight, his dad signed him up for a Miami kids football camp.

“After that, I was pretty set,” McCullough II said, grinning. “I always wanted to go here. My dad always talked about how nice it is. But, I don’t think it really hit me that I really wanted to go here until my junior year [of high school], when I really started getting into the recruiting process.”

Miami was the only official recruiting visit he took.

“Yeah, we were nervous that we weren’t going to get him, but at least we knew he had some people at home who had come here and had unbelievable experiences,” Miami head coach Chuck Martin said.

“That’s better than I can do in recruiting. His dad and his granddad can say, ‘I went there, and not only did I love being a student-athlete at Miami, but it set me up for having a lot of success.’ That gave us a better chance. Otherwise, we probably had no chance.”

Once McCullough II picked his school, he decided to speed up the process of getting there, finishing high school half a year early and arriving on campus in January for the current semester.

“To be honest, it was more my dad’s idea than mine,” McCullough II said. “But, I’m older for my grade.

I’m like a year older than everyone, so I kind of felt that, too, and kind of wanted to get out.”

He doubled up on his high school course load, taking extra classes throughout the summer and fall to fulfill the necessary graduation requirements.

“During the school year, I did two English classes,” McCullough II said. “That was awful because we did the same things at the same time. I couldn’t write about the same thing for two different classes, so try doing two research papers on the same thing at the same time. It was ridiculous.”

He won’t go to his senior prom, and he won’t walk with his high school classmates at graduation in May. “I’m alright with it,” McCullough II said.

The switch from high school to college is difficult, especially for McCullough who arrived half way

through the year. He had to use some tricks to get around campus.

“I remember, the first week, walking around with my phone in my hand, Google Maps going on,” McCullough II said. “I didn’t know where I was going ’cause no one told me where I was going. They just told me I was going here, so I had to look it up.

“My Google Maps were pretty accurate. The only time I got lost, I was rushing to get to class, walked into the wrong building and couldn’t find the class number to save my life. Then, I realized I was in the wrong building, and I was like 10 minutes late to Microbiology 131.

Now, I’ve completely just blanked on what the buildings are called. I just know where to go, now.”

In place of prom and small classes of less than 30 students, he’s majoring in sociology and already taking 100-person lecture classes.

“For me, it’s always been what my life is going to be like past football,” McCullough II said. “I knew academics [at Miami] are very strong, and football-wise, I knew I’d have a great opportunity to play here, while I’m young. I decided this is what’s best for me other than going to a big school and sitting for two or three years.”

While it’s still early, it sounds as though he will get the opportunity to play soon. He’s still nursing a torn meniscus suffered in the fall, but is on the verge of being fully cleared.

Martin said McCullough II’s role for the upcoming season will be determined in fall camp.

For the last two months, McCullough II has participated in the team’s spring football workouts as a safety. He added 16 pounds of muscle within the first four weeks.

“I know from talking to his dad, too, that he believes [McCullough II] hasn’t even really hit his spurt, yet,” Martin said. “His dad says, ‘Hey, I was the same way. I went to college, and I was good, but I kind of got there on athleticism. I hadn’t really filled out yet.’”

Hitting a growth spurt in college did wonders for Deland Sr., who’s

DELAND MCCULLLOUGH II (LEFT) AND HIS DAD, DELAND MCCULLOUGH, POSE NEXT TO A PICTURE FROM DELAND SR.’S MIAMI PLAYING DAYS. CONTRIBUTED BY DELAND MCCULLOUGH II

now the running backs coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. He ranks ninth in Mid-American Conference history in rushing yards and went on to play in both the National Football League and the Canadian Football League.

McCullough II’s grandfather, Sherman Smith, also had a distinguished Miami career, quarterbacking the then-Redskins to a 33-1-1 record and three MAC Championships in his final three seasons. He, too, played and coached in the NFL. The two, who didn’t realize they were related until 2017, were featured in ESPN The Magazine and E:60 for the story of how Deland Sr. found out Smith is his biological father. Both are in the Miami Athletics Hall of Fame.

He doesn’t see himself being profiled in any ESPN documentary.

Right now, McCullough II could’ve been eating in a high school cafeteria with all his buddies or practicing at the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as a USC Trojan.

But, he chose Miami. He tells his friends back home that it’s, “the Harvard of the Midwest,” and he’s proud of it.

He’s been dreaming about, and training for, his current life in Oxford for a long time. vinelca@miamioh.edu @ChrisAVinel

TUESDAY

BASEBALL Wright State ���������������������������������������������������� 6 Miami ��������������������������������������������������������������� 7

WEDNESDAY

BASEBALL Miami ������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Cincinnati �������������������������������������������������������� 8

SOFTBALL Bowling Green ������������������������������������������������ 0 Miami �������������������������������������������������������������� 2

FRIDAY

BASEBALL Miami ������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Bowling Green ������������������������������������������������ 4 DELAND MCCULLOUGH II HAS ADDED 16 POUNDS OF MUSCLE SINCE JANUARY. ASST. PHOTO EDITOR BO BRUECK

’Hawks Talk “People would be DM-ing me, just saying they watched my dad’s little story. Just random people who watched the story and were saying how happy they are and how heart-touching it was. Then, I had people who would DM me thinking I was my dad because we have the same name. They’d congratulate me on finding my dad, and that’s not me.”

Deland McCullough II on the reaction to the ESPN story about his dad’s journey to find his birth parents.

—

For some, following in the footsteps of greatness can lead to a lot of pressure. For McCullough II, he doesn’t mind.

“I don’t feel the pressure,” McCullough II said. “There might be pressure, but I really don’t feel it.

I’m just out here, trying to do my own thing. I really don’t think about it a whole bunch, that my dad and grandpa are Miami legends. I’m going to play how I play. But, of course I’m going to try to keep on the legacy.”

As for his future, McCullough II doesn’t let his mind go there often.

He said he’d love to play professional football, but considers that Plan B. “Graduating is my No. 1 goal,” McCullough II said.

SOFTBALL Miami �������������������������������������������������������������� 0 Kent State �������������������������������������������������������� 3

SATURDAY

BASEBALL GAME ONE (DH) Miami ������������������������������������������������������������� 15 Bowling Green ������������������������������������������������ 2 GAME TWO (DH) Miami ������������������������������������������������������������� 10 Bowling Green ������������������������������������������������ 8

SOFTBALL GAME ONE (DH) Miami �������������������������������������������������������������� 4 Kent State �������������������������������������������������������� 3 GAME TWO (DH) Miami ������������������������������������������������������������� 16 Kent State �������������������������������������������������������� 3

TENNIS Miami �������������������������������������������������������������� 4 Bowling Green ������������������������������������������������ 3

Opinion

12

FINFROBD@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019 STAFF EDITORIAL

What does Miami stand for?

The following reflects the majority view of the editorial board When prospective students go on campus tours, they are often told that the famous poet, Robert Frost once called Miami’s campus, “the most beautiful campus that ever there was.”

But sadly, the campus that Frost stepped foot on decades ago looked significantly different from today’s.

If Frost were to walk around Miami’s campus today, he would see a campus with construction around every corner.

New, modern buildings like Armstrong Student Center, which just added its East Wing a couple years ago, and the Farmer School of Business have both changed the landscape. Miami even knocked down some academic buildings to make way for Café Lux and Redzone.

While university landmarks like MacCracken Hall have undergone extensive interior remodeling, historic buildings like Wilson Hall meet their demise under Miami’s campus plan.

Miami cannot continue to claim that the campus is historic while removing some of the iconic buildings that defined a university founded in the early 1800s — one with a rich history, yet plenty of alumni who can no longer recognize the place in which they “led such a life.”

Our old buildings provide substance and history to Miami’s campus. They help current students to connect with the past

and for alumni to reconnect with the memories they made here. Getting rid of these buildings, without first attempting to preserve their character, shows a clear lack of respect for the university’s history.

At other “public ivies” like the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, current students can look at old photos of the campus and find that, aside from the makeup of the student body, the campus looks mostly the same.

This constant renovation of our image makes it hard to for students to connect to alumni who shared a different experience. The ability to connect with the history of your campus is a quintessential part of college, and it is one that is not afforded to Miami students.

Are we just building new things to cater to prospective student demands?

Other historic universities manage to anchor renovation to the historical integrity of the university, but it seems Miami has given in to the PR ideal of a campus, rather than one that fosters school spirit and a sense of importance.

James Brock, a former economics professor who retired last year, said Miami has embroiled itself in a “facilities arms race” as it competes to outspend other universities to beautify our campus architecture.

“Of course, in the end, no one wins,” Brock said. “And the loser is the students who have to pay the cost of all of this stuff.”

Democrats need to beat Trump above all else

BEN DEETER

AUDIO EDITOR I try to read the news every day. My collection of email newsletters, daily podcasts, free New Yorker articles (I have two left this month) and student subscriptions give me an array of viewpoints and content to consume.

I say “try to read” because some days it’s just too much. Some days, I’ll focus on the things that actually make me happy. Such activities include reading books, going outside or anything else that will stop me from remembering that Donald Trump is the president.

That is what the members of the Democratic primary electorate need to remember. We need to remember the longest government shutdown in history. We need to remember the attempt to take away health care from millions of people, and the latest revival. We need to remember family separation at the U.S. - Mexico border.

We need to remember that getting him out of office is the number one priority. This means the ability to win and broad general election appeal ought to be the most important metrics.

The candidate we choose has to be able to do that, and right now the field is over-crowded with candidates who have absolutely no shot and are just wasting everybody’s time. High-quality polling has shown that Democrats want a candidate who can beat the president more than one who’s ideologically pure.

The focus must stay on candidates that will have broad appeal.

Much like President Barack Obama built a coalition of diverse young voters along with party elites, the eventual nominee needs to not only appeal to progressives, but also to moderates and conservatives disillusioned with the president. Especially considering the latter two represent a larger portion of the general electorate.

A candidate that at least comes off as moderate has greater potential to be a uniting force and help improve our politics in broad strokes.

For instance, Ohio only has one Democrat holding statewide office right now (Sen. Sherrod Brown) and is quickly becoming a less hospitable place for the more liberal among us (see the heartbeat bill).

The moderate-to-conservative Ohio electorate that brought us to this place won’t be convinced to get rid of private insurance or make other sweeping changes, and the Republican rhetoric painting Democrats as “radical” is already working. Appealing to those voters with measured messaging and digestible policy proposals is the path to victory and a more cohesive politics.

While progressives might control the conversation on social media right now, they’re overrepresented on those platforms.

Moderates will ultimately deliver the election to the Democrats. This is why Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, isn’t the choice. Even though he has an upcoming Fox News town hall, he’ll be preaching to a audience of baked-in partisans whose nightmare fuel is the word “socialism.”

The candidates that represent the ability to win and appeal broadly are Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.

Biden hasn’t declared yet, but that hasn’t stopped him from topping most primary polls. He represents the most potent challenge to the president. The combination of his experience in politics and his more moderate politics will attract the coveted Obama-Trump voters and other moderates in Midwest states that handed Trump the presidency.

The recent inappropriate touching controversy might prove problematic once he actually enters the race. But it’s not clear how this will affect him, given that he has strong support among older Democrats who aren’t likely to be persuaded by #MeToo arguments, especially in a case that wasn’t overtly violent or sexual.

O’Rourke has a track record of broad appeal. In his run to unseat Ted Cruz from the Senate, projections put him as many as nine percentage points behind. He finished within three points and garnered more than 4 million votes in a historically red state.

In addition, he raised more than $6 million on the first day of his campaign, more than all of his Democratic competitors.

This speaks to his caliber as a candidate that inspires people. He plays largely on hopeful and optimistic rhetoric, encouraging people to put aside division and come together. In the face of such a negativity and division from the president, his message is welcome to voters in early primary states.

Harris exists in an interesting gray area.

She’s closer to Bernie than Biden ideologically, but that hasn’t kept her from being an establishment favorite. She has a strong individual donor base and has effectively courted larger donors for a first quarter fundraising total of $12 million.

She also exists in a class with Biden and O’Rourke that is particularly feared by the president. Trump advisers have told Axios that the president hasn’t figured out an easy way to engage and dismiss Harris. If he sticks to his usual style, he could easily slip and say something blatantly racist or sexist to Harris.

Not really something you want to do with a former prosecutor.

Buttigieg is on a roll. Ever since his CNN Town Hall, he’s had a lot of momentum.

Similar to O’Rourke, his optimistic messaging about taking back “freedom” and intergenerational justice appears to resonate with an array of voters. It also doesn’t hurt that his husband, Chasten, has become a social media darling with an incredible sense of humor, refreshing honesty and pictures of the couple’s dogs.

These four, a former vice president, an all-star Senate candidate, a former prosecutor and a millennial mayor, represent the best hope for the party moving forward.

Whittling down the field to a few candidates who have broad appeal and the ability to win is the best option.

If we really believe that President Trump must go, it’s the only option. deeterbj@miamioh.edu

Across the country, state funding for higher education is down. States have collectively cut almost $9 billion in higher education funding. Ohio is in the same sinking boat.

In the 1970s, Miami received as much as 65 percent of its annual budget from the state. Now, that figure has dipped below 10 percent.

These cutbacks make alumni donations increasingly more important. But will alumni be willing to donate to a university that has replaced many of the touchstones that held their collegiate memories? Will those donations be used to restore the dorms and buildings in which they lived out their Miami experience, or will that money be used to tear them down and build new ones?

If Miami values the historical significance of our school and what these buildings represent, then it needs to preserve the character and integrity of the campus from the inside out.

Wilson, Harrison and Alumni Halls are old and outdated, but they add character that many students would be sad to see go away. Even old dorms like Emerson Hall still have historic meaning on campus, and should be preserved and refurbished rather than destroyed.

It’s hard to find a sense of what Miami means without our history. Going for style over substance is counter to what Miami has always claimed to stand for – just look to the old university motto. It’s time Miami took a hard look at the commercialized nature of the culture on campus, and return to its roots.

Why shouldn’t Kim Kardashian West be a lawyer?

KIRBY DAVIS

MANAGING-EDITOR-AT-LARGE Kim Kardashian West told Vogue, for the magazine’s May cover story, that she’s studying to become a lawyer. Some people are infuriated and/or confused by that.

But why shouldn’t she become an attorney? As evidenced by the 2001 classic “Legally Blonde,” and lots of real-life female lawyers (did you see what Amal Clooney wore to last year’s Met Gala? Or any photo of Laura Wasser?) it’s possible for someone to care about both fashion and criminal justice.

While her husband has praised President Trump and met with him in the Oval Office, Kardashian West has long been vocal about her liberal politics.

She posted a selfie with Hillary Clinton on Instagram in summer of 2015, with Kanye West grimacing in the background. The following spring, Kardashian West seemed to formally endorse Clinton in a post on her personal website, writing: “No matter what candidate you support for the next presidential election, you have to admit that it’s fucking AWESOME that a woman is up for the job!!!”

The West family also joined the March for Our Lives protest in Washington, D.C. last spring, advocating for stricter gun laws.

“Having my daughter march alongside her grandfather and parents was a day I hope she remembers forever,” Kardashian West captioned an Instagram photo of Kanye and their daughter North, age 4 at the time. “I know that the younger generation will vote to change these gun laws that so desperately need to be changed … I hope when it comes time to vote we all step up and vote to protect our children.”

Last year, Kardashian West worked with her attorney to lobby Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner to convince the president to grant Alice Marie Johnson clemency. The 63-year-old grandmother had been sentenced to life in prison for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense. After reading about Johnson’s case online, Kardashian West was determined to help.

“I hope to continue this important work by working together with organizations who have been fighting this fight for much longer than I have and deserve the recognition,” she tweeted afterward.

Even if Kardashian West were to help only one or two other people with her future license to practice law, wouldn’t that be worth it? A random civilian without 100 million Instagram followers and seven perfumes named for themselves

likely wouldn’t have been able to appeal directly to the president to help Johnson.

Kardashian West can, and probably will, use her fame for good.

Her late father, Robert Kardashian, was also a prominent Los Angeles attorney. He defended his longtime friend O.J. Simpson, and whether or not you believe Simpson was guilty, Kardashian got him acquitted of murdering wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ronald Goldman, in 1994.

Kardashian was also a businessman, and Kardashian West has often spoken about his influence on her.

“I feel lazy when I’m not working,” she has said. “I learned all my business sense from my dad. He always believed in me, and I think the last thing he said to me before he passed away was, ‘I know you’re gonna be OK. I’m not worried about you.’”

Kardashian West seems to have the work ethic to study 18 hours a week with two mentor lawyers, take a “baby bar” exam soon and continue studying for three more years if she passes, which is one way to obtain a law degree in California (and three other states).

“She’s incredible: just the kindest, smartest — I have been so impressed by everything she’s doing and how committed she is,” Erin Haney, one of Kardashian West’s mentors, told Vogue.

Most Kardashian West critics take is-

“Even if Kardashian West were to help only one or two other people with her future license to practice law, wouldn’t that be worth it?” sue with the fact that she’s famous for being famous, or that she does nothing but take mirror selfies and try to tone down Kanye’s often intense Twitter rhetoric.

But shouldn’t those critics be happy that she’s attempting to become a traditionally productive member of society now?

And for critics of Kim K’s new career direction, wouldn’t you rather she pursue justice for people as a properly licensed attorney for people who may not have help otherwise?

She didn’t just buy a stack of law textbooks and start calling herself an attorney; Kardashian West is training the same way as anyone who wants to become a lawyer but can’t attend law school for whatever reason. Again, she can use her popularity and influence for good, and probably get some of her young fans invested in politics and/or criminal justice. So what if she’s wearing her own makeup line while she’s doing it? daviskn3@miamioh.edu