The Miami Student | February 2, 2024

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

Volume 152 No. 9

Miami University — Oxford, Ohio

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

‘It was heartbreaking’: Black students question their security at bars

Miami spent twice as much on men’s sports than women’s sports in 2022 fiscal year JACK SCHMELZINGER SPORTS EDITOR

KETHAN BABU

ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

Now, in the face of Miami’s $36 million budget deficit, Griffin has lost his contract, and the future of the farm is uncertain.

“At Miami, my goal is, or was, to develop community-supported agriculture that includes both the Miami and Oxford communities,” Griffin said. “It was meant to be an educational opportunity and program to develop a better understanding of the role food plays in a community and an individual’s life.”

Funded by a $200,000 start-up grant from the Miami University Provost Innovation & Interdisciplinary Fund, the farm was able to get off the ground running as an interdisciplinary innovation project under Miami’s Institute for Food. Despite its distance from campus, the farm has been home to numerous class projects, intern and volunteer opportunities and a community-supported agriculture program.

In the 2022 fiscal year, Miami University spent twice as much money on men’s sports than on women’s sports, according to financial reports submitted by Miami to the NCAA. Miami reported operating expenses of nearly $19 million on the men’s side of athletics compared to less than $9.5 million on the women’s side.

Despite Title IX reaching its 50th anniversary in 2022, many universities fail to meet its guidelines.

At Miami, the athletic department strives to reach equity in all areas for women’s sports. With 334 male and 344 female athletes across eight men’s teams and 11 women’s teams in 2023, Miami has to carefully evaluate the athletic program to ensure that they are compliant with Title IX. Title IX was enacted in 1972, primarily to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and activities, including those related to athletics. Any university that receives federal funding, which includes Miami, is required to be in compliance with Title IX, such as by providing equal athletic opportunities for men and women, accommodating the athletic interests of students regardless of gender and providing equal opportunities, resources and facilities among other things.

The amount of money spent on men’s vs. women’s sports is not required to be equal in most areas, but Title IX requires colleges and universities to provide equal benefits, opportunities and treatment for both men and women to participate in sports.

Jennifer Gilbert, an associate athletic director and deputy Title IX coordinator for Miami, said the university strives to give men and women student athletes equal opportunities.

“My responsibility is to make sure that male and female student athletes have an equal opportunity to be successful,” Gilbert said. “It doesn’t mean equal, but it has to be equitable.”

Financial disparities between sports Camber Hayes, a senior soccer player at Miami, said she believed that men and women athletes at Miami are generally treated in a fair and equitable way. The Miami Student conducted a review of Miami’s athletic expenditures as it relates to Title IX. In the financial reports for the fiscal year (FY) 2022, however, the most recent publicly available data, the university spent less both on women’s sports overall and per participant.

Overall expenditures are skewed by football, which had 133 total participants in FY22, and a budget of more than $10 million. While football accounted for the greatest overall disparity between men’s and women’s sports, unequal funding existed between more directly comparable teams, too, such as men’s and women’s basketball or baseball and softball.

For example, in FY22, Miami spent nearly double on travel per away game for men’s basketball than it did for women’s basketball.

Overall, Miami spent about 50% more per athlete on men’s basketball than women’s basketball. Similarly to basketball, the university spent more than three times more on equipment per participant for baseball than it did on softball.

In some specific instances, female athletes received more funding. For example, an average of $250 was spent per athlete in women’s track and field and cross country, more than the per-athlete cost of meals for men’s track and field and cross country. However, the number pales in comparison to the nearly $1,800 spent on meals for each athlete on the football team.

Miami employs seven head coaches for men’s sports and eight head coaches for women’s sports. On average, head coaches for men’s sports are paid more than double head coaches for women’s sports. The same is true for assistant coaches.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

BRICK STREET BAR IS A POPULAR SPOT FOR MIAMI STUDENTS ON A NIGHT OUT. PHOTO BY JAKE RUFFER

CHLOE MCKINNEY

ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR If Debra Olabode, a junior social work and international studies major, had to describe how her experience going out to Oxford bars differed from white students’ experiences, she’d use one word: “awareness.”

Being a minority in a predominantly white college town means

In this issue

Black students, like Obalode, might be more guarded. Obalode said that when she goes out, she knows that people might discriminate because of her “darker complexion.” Three percent of students at Miami identify as Black, according to a 2022 survey provided by the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence.

“What if I get stamped [at the bar] and because sometimes their stamps aren’t very dark, are they going to

think I’m lying and try to kick me out?” Obalode asked.

Recent events haven’t eased these concerns either. On Nov. 18, Oxford Police Officer Matthew Blauvelt struck Devin Johnson, a Black Miami University football player, multiple times in an altercation outside Brick Street Bar. When video footage of the incident began circulating, some people were shocked by Blauvelt's actions.

Since then, an external investigation by Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser determined Blauvelt was within his rights to strike Johnson and that he did not use excessive force — an unsettling verdict for some. The Oxford Police Department (OPD) is now conducting an internal investigation of the incident and reviewing its use of force policies, according to a statement from Police Chief John Jones from Jan. 12.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Miami Tribe of Oklahoma celebrates its annual winter gathering AUSTIN SMITH

ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY

As student activism increases, Miami checks its free speech policies - page 4

ENTERTAINMENT

A love letter to Letterboxd - page 10

To many people, the winter season brings feelings of reunion with family, friends and, most importantly, home. For most of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, reunion means trekking to Oklahoma to gather with their people and culture.

More than 400 Miami Tribe members and guests gathered at tribal headquarters in Miami, Oklahoma, on Friday, Jan. 26 to celebrate their 27th annual winter gathering.

The two-day event included students and faculty from Miami University and various Native American tribes, including Seneca Cayuga, Creek, Osage, Cherokee, Shawnee, Quapaw and Peoria.

The event started in 1997 as a stomp dance but has grown to include games, crafts, presentations, storytelling and gourd dancing.

“Our winter gatherings are when we have our people come home,” Donya Williams, the elected secretary-treasurer of the tribe, said. “We are always stronger together than we are apart.”

JARED NALLY SHOWS GUESTS HOW TO PLAY THE PLUM STONE GAME. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

This year, they honored Diane Hunter, the now retired Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), with the highest accolade for her work in protecting and preserving historic lands and providing education about the Miami Tribe. The THPO position was established in Section 106 of the National Historic

Preservation Act, which dictates that federal agencies must consult with the THPO before a project, usually ground service, on historic lands.

Logan York, a Miami University alum, will replace Hunter as the new THPO after her nine years of service to the community.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

The future of Miami’s farm amid budget cuts and a major leadership loss SOPHIE KWIATKOWSKI THE MIAMI STUDENT

SPORTS

Big Reputations: Are Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift really ‘End Game?’

Since 2016, Miami University’s 14-acre farm north of Yager Stadium has given students a hands-on

agricultural learning experience.

For Charles Griffin, the director of farm production and operations, the project has been his career for seven years.

- page 8

GREENHAWKS

The future of Miami’s farm amid budget cuts and a major leadership loss - page 15 ROWS OF CROPS COLOR THE LANDSCAPE ACROSS THE FIELDS OF MIAMI’S FARM. PPROVIDED BY AUDREY ALLEN.

FYI

2

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Voted Best College Newspaper in 2023 at the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Awards.

Things to do

SEAN SCOTT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Luke Macy Digital Managing Editor

Macey Chamberlin

Alice Momany Print Managing Editor

Jake Ruffer

Design Editor Photo Editor

Reagan Rude Senior Campus & Community Editor

Reece Hollowell Audio Editor

Kasey Turman Taylor Stumbaugh Campus & Community Editors

Ryann Beaschler Video Editor Claudia Erne

Jack Schmelzinger Sports Editor

Social Media Editor

Devin Ankeney Opinion Editor

Chloe McKinney

Raquel Hirsch Anna Reier Oxford Editors

Olivia Patel Stella Powers

Reece Hollowell Entertainment Editor

Austin Smith

Kaitlin McDowell Food Editor

Kethan Babu

Evan Stefanik Style Editor

Chloe Southard

Asst. Campus & Community Editors Asst. Sports Editor Asst. Entertainment Editor

Teddy Johnson Patrick Sullivan

Erin McGovern

Humor Editors

Hannah Potts Asst. Design Editors

Sam Norton Greenhawks Editor

Claire Lordan Magazine Editor

Fred Reeder Jr.

Devin Ankeney Business Manager

Sacha Bellman

Adam Smith Asst. Business Manager

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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.

Fri 2/2

Fri 2/2

Classic Movie Fridays

3 p.m. 5 p.m.

Peabody Hall, 022 Watch classic films in the Western Center.

Open Skating Goggin Ice Center

7:15 p.m. 8:30 p.m.

Rent skates from Goggin Ice Center and take laps on the ice.

Sat

Smash and Honor

2/3

Play multiple generations of Super Smash Brothers in a double elimination tournament.

Engineering Building, 270

Thur

Drop by with Duck

2/8

Come pet Duck the dog for a session of dog therapy.

Clinical Health Science & Wellness Buidling, 2002

Sun

Civil Rights Film Festival

2/11

Miami’s Civil Rights Film Festival begins on 2/11 for Black History Month.

Tue

Barbie Watch Party

2/13

Peabody Hall, Leonarde Theatre

Shriver Center, JDOL rooms Watch one of 2023’s most popular movies with all your friends.

1 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

3 p.m. 4 p.m.

6 p.m. 9:30 p.m.

6:30 p.m. 10 p.m.

‘It was heartbreaking’: Black students question their security at bars CONTINUED FROM FRONT Olabode was “disheartened” by the results of the investigation.

She said seeing Johnson on the ground reminded her of when police brutality ignited the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

“I remember thinking when I was watching the video, I was like, I can’t even be safe in Oxford,” Olabode said.

Kam Little, president of the Black Student Action Association (BSAA), said she wishes OPD would take “some accountability.” Gracie Grady, a sophomore political science major and Associated Student Government senator, also said the incident has negatively affected her perspective on the OPD. “It diminishes the trust between the very small number of students of color at this university … between us and people that are supposed to be protecting us,” Grady said.

Obalode said she couldn’t remember a time in Oxford bars when anyone was outwardly racist to her. However, this was not the case for Little, who recalled an interaction she and a friend had with a customer at Skipper’s Top Deck.

“We had someone come up to us and pretty much ask us, ‘What are we doing here?’” Little said. “‘How did we get here? Why are we here?’ Basically asking us questions implying we don’t have a right to be at Miami … It was heartbreaking.”

Andrew Amarantos, owner of Skipper’s Top Deck, said he was not aware of this interaction and it is not often that instances like this happen at his bar. He also said he has been supportive of Miami’s Black community and has hired many Black student

workers through the years.

“You know, when alcohol is involved, people say things they shouldn’t and wake up in the morning and regret it,” Amarantos said.

The incident with Johnson has not been reported as racially motivated, and there are no current lawsuits against OPD or Brick Street alleging specific wrongdoing. However, Obalode said she would rather go somewhere she sees as more inclusive after the events of last semester.

“I feel the most comfortable at Bar 1868, specifically on drag nights,” Obalode said. “Oftentimes they have drag queens who are women of color or even Black drag queens as well.”

Little has been in communication with Brick Street Bar since the incident happened. The bar had previously committed to meeting with students from BSAA in a statement published on Dec. 29.

In an email to The Miami Student, John Greiner, a partner at Faruki PLL law firm, wrote on behalf of Brick Street Bar, “Mr. Johnson’s case should play out in the court system. Mr. Johnson will have his day in court when his criminal case is tried.”

Little said the BSAA is dedicated to providing students of color with community. She is working with OPD as the internal investigation continues and offered anyone struggling with this incident the opportunity to reach out to herself or someone else in the organization. “[The incident] does make me question, ‘Are Black students really safe in Oxford and free to fully exemplify their Blackness?’”

Little said. mckinn15@miamioh.edu

SKIPPER’S TOP DECK IS A SIT-DOWN PUB WHERE STUDENTS CAN DRINK, EAT AND CHAT. PHOTOT BY JAKE RUFFER

SIDE BAR IS A POPULAR HANGOUT FOR MIAMI’S OLDER STUDENTS. PHOTO BY JAKE RUFFER

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Winter break saw a spike in crime on Miami students’ property

How to celebrate Black History Month in Oxford

GRAPHIC BY MACEY CHAMBERLIN

KASEY TURMAN

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Between Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, Oxford police responded to 20 incidents, according to the Oxford police report.

On Jan. 23, a woman stated that her vehicle was stolen from her apartment complex parking lot at the 500 block of College Corner Pike.

At 3:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, a man reported that someone entered his house on the 200 block of South Campus Ave. without permission. No items were listed as missing, and there are no current suspects according to the police report.

On Jan. 24, items were taken from a pack-

age on the porch of a fraternity house on the 300 block of Tallawanda Road.

At 1:15 p.m. on Jan. 24, a student returned to their house located on the 200 block of W. Church St. for the first time since the end of the fall semester. Upon their return, the house had been gone through and multiple items were missing.

On Jan. 25, Oxford officers responded to a man who discovered a knife puncture in one of his car tires, which was parked on the 300 block of N. College Ave. On Jan. 26, a property manager reported a bullet hole found in an exterior wall at an apartment complex located on the 3800 block of

Southpointe Parkway.

At 1:21 a.m. on Jan. 27, officers responded to an unresponsive male in the backseat of a taxi outside a local bar on East High Street. The male was found to be under the influence, underage and in possession of a fake ID. He was taken to McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital where he continued to be belligerent. He was then transported to Butler County Jail.

At 4:50 p.m. on Jan. 27, a student reported that her house window was broken while she was away for winter break. turmankd@miamioh.edu

4 ways to save money this semester AUSTIN SMITH

ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR From skyrocketing tuition and textbook expenses, college students have seen the cost of higher education continue to rise, making the “American dream” harder to achieve. In-state tuition and fees at public national universities have grown about 56%, adjusted for inflation, over the last two decades, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Many families are looking for alternative solutions, such as sending their children to community college, where students are estimated to save $8,000 per year compared to a public four-year in-state college.

But for students currently attending college, traditional money-saving strategies such as loading up on AP or dual-enrollment courses are no longer an option. While becoming a resident assistant (RA) is a great way to save money on room and board costs, many Miami University students have expressed concerns about inadequate compensation and a higher workload than other universities.

So, how can current college students save (or even make) money while not having access to these traditional strategies?

Avoid credit card debt and take advantage of rewards Building credit in college is a great way to kick-start your financial future and procure better loans after college. However, credit card debt can quickly weigh you down with high and compounding interest.

According to Forbes, the average annual percentage rate (APR), the interest on unpaid debt, of student credit cards for the week of Jan. 22 is about 27%, making credit card debt more of a burden.

If you use credit cards in college, pay the card in full every month. Doing this ensures that you won’t incur additional debt in interest and can get a better credit score.

While credit cards may be unwise for some, those who use them responsibly can reap many benefits through credit card rewards. Many

student and secured cards offer rewards such as cash-back on restaurants and gas. Some companies, such as Discover, give cardholders a cash-back match at the end of their first year.

Cash-back can quickly add up and save you hundreds of dollars per year. Remember to spend only what you typically would on debit and ensure you meet the sign-up bonus requirements.

Invest extra money If you have a chunk of cash sitting idly in your checking or savings account that you will not need in the next six months to a year, it may be wise to invest that money into a certificate of deposit (CD) or a major index fund.

With a current annual inflation rate of 3.4%, the money in your checking account is losing value. COLLEGE STUDENTS HAVE MANY FINANCIAL BURDENS, BUT THERE ARE WAYS TO SAVE WHILE STUDYING. GRAPHIC BY HANNAH POTTS Investing in CDs and low-risk index funds is a great way to ensure your savsites such as CollegeData and CollegeInfoGeek ings aren’t losing value. offer extensive lists of discounts that college As of January, CDs can offer interest rates students can take advantage of. of up to 5.51% with little to no risk for the lendDelete Doordash and Uber Eats er. Index funds, such as the S&P 500, average In a late-night study crunch, delivering food annual returns of up to 10% but with the risk of may be convenient, but doing this too often market volatility. may lead to financial disaster.

To mitigate the risk of market volatility, With services such as DoorDash and Uber only invest money you will not need soon and Eats, you pay for the food, the driver, high dehold your assets as long as possible. livery and service fees, and occasionally fees Take advantage of student discounts to the merchants. According to the New York One of the benefits of being a college student Times, price markups can be as high as 25% to is the numerous student discounts. Wheth- 91% for certain orders. er talking about subscription services or even Not only do high fees hurt the consumer, mainstream brands, there are many ways for but they also hurt local restaurants. According students to take advantage of these discounts. to CNN, delivery services charge restaurants up Sites such as UNiDAYS and StudentBeans to 30% per order, leaving profits laser-thin or make it easy for students to find deals and save red. money. Apple Music and Spotify offer student A better alternative to delivery apps is to orsubscriptions, and many other services, such as der pickup from the restaurants directly, avoidnewspapers and video platforms, are free if you ing high fees and saving money. are a Miami student.

If you are looking for more ways to save, smith854@miamioh.edu

PHOTO BY

ANNA REIER

OXFORD SECTION EDITOR February is nationally recognized as Black History Month, and there are many ways to celebrate and acknowledge Black Americans.

This year is the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, making this Black History Month even more special.

The Miami Student has compiled this list of activities in Oxford to help you participate in this month-long celebration.

Cultural Celebration Spring Kick-Off Social Feb. 1, 12-2 p.m. — Armstrong Atrium Attend this social hosted by the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence to learn more about the spring Heritage and History months and the accompanying campus resources.

Civil Rights Film Festival Feb. 12-17, 6-9:30 p.m. — Leonard Theatre This five-night event helps commemorate the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer.

The festival will feature popular films such as “Selma”, “The Butler” and “Mississippi Burning.”

Black History Month Banquet Feb. 15, 7 p.m. — Armstrong Pavilion C The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion will host the 2024 Black History Month Banquet that is free of charge. The theme of this year’s banquet is “Beyond The Barriers” and will feature guest speaker Imokhai Okolo, a lawyer from Akron. RSVP by Feb. 9.

Bus Trip to Freedom Center Feb. 18, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. — Freedom Center (Cincinnati) The International Student and Scholar Services will lead a bus trip to downtown Cincinnati’s National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. There is no charge to enter the museum, but there will be a $5 bus fee.

Lecture: ‘Training for Freedom’: A Look Behind The Lens Feb. 21, 1-4 p.m. — Williams Hall Ryan Donchness of PBS Western Reserve Television will visit campus to speak about the documentary “Training for Freedom.” “Training for Freedom” focuses on the events during Freedom Summer and how they connect to the civil rights movement. reieram@miamioh.edu

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Campus and Community As student activism increases, Miami checks its free speech policies

FREE SPEECH IS SEEN ACROSS CAMPUS THROUGH STUDENT PROTESTS. COLLAGE BY TAYLOR STUMBAUGH

ALICE MOMANY

PRINT MANAGING EDITOR Personal ideologies, opinions and values are constantly being vocalized on Miami University’s campus through student protests, guest speakers and discussions in the classroom. As a public institution, Miami is a hub for students, faculty, staff and even visitors to advocate on behalf of their beliefs — even if not everyone agrees with them.

Miami, like all public institutions of higher education in Ohio, is subject by state law to adopt a campus free speech policy to protect the First Amendment rights of individuals.

“We want to have students express themselves, student groups to express themselves, and we are going to make sure to do it in the right way so it doesn’t get shut down,” said Scott Walter, assistant vice president for Student Life at Miami.

University sees uptick in activism Last fall, both students and student organizations expressed their opinions on everything from the labor practices of Starbucks to concern over the future of humanities majors at the university. Walter, who has been at Miami for 14 years, said his office has worked on more demonstrations in 2023 than the previous five years combined.

“What we saw last semester was an educational period … to understand [what] is protected constitutional expression of free speech,” said Amy Shoemaker, vice president of Miami’s General Counsel.

Miami’s General Counsel is responsible for overseeing the campus free speech policy, and Shoemaker said that since its adoption in August 2022, no one has filed a complaint for an alleged violation.

“I think that speaks particularly well to how our campus supports and manages the rights of faculty, staff and students to engage in the rights of freedom of expression,” Shoemaker said.

Creating Miami’s policy In April 2022, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 135, which required public institutions of higher education to adopt a policy affirming the First Amendment right to free speech. The statute also required institutions to create a procedure through which individuals

could report if their rights were violated by an employee of the institution.

Miami’s policy was crafted by President Gregory Crawford and approved by the Board of Trustees. To create a policy that was in line with the statute and valued the concerns and opinions of the faculty, Shoemaker said guidance from the Chancellor’s office, the Office of Student Life, the University Senate and the Provost’s Office all contributed to the formation of the policy.

Unlike Miami, other institutions such as The Ohio State University solicited feedback from students to inform their policy. Some students like Peren Tiemann feel that they should be a part of those conversations.

“If we can’t express ourselves on campus, then we’re not going to keep learning anything, but at the same time, if we’re not safe from other violent speech, we’re also not going to be able to learn safely,” Tiemann, a senior public administration major, said. “So I feel like it’s really important to get student feedback on all of that.”

Under Miami’s adopted policy, the university commits itself to nine principles, which include “maintaining a campus as a marketplace of ideas,” promoting a “lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation” and preventing the university from shielding individuals from free speech.

However, there are some exceptions to this policy in which Miami has the authority to regulate a demonstration based on time, place and manner. While individuals cannot be shut down for the content being said, they can be condemned for the use of campus property if used for disruptive purposes.

If individuals feel that their right to freedom of expression has been violated, they can make a claim through EthicsPoint, and the General Counsel will review the complaint to discern if the allegation was a violation. If found to be in violation, an investigation will be launched.

Despite receiving no complaints in the year that the policy has been instated, the General Counsel plans to review the policy in July 2025.

There are no review requirements in the statute; however, Shoemaker said they uphold their policies to other outside standards as well.

How Miami compares Since 2020, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan pro-First Amendment organization, has researched and ranked U.S. colleges on policies and the atmosphere around freedom of expression on campus.

“FIRE sort of monitors universities to determine whether or not they are meeting their obligations to provide information with particularity so that nobody would find themselves in a situation where they don’t know enough about their rights,” Shoemaker said.

Sean Stevens, the Chief Research Advisor for FIRE, has been collecting data on schools since the launch of the ranking system. The data is collected through a survey completed by undergraduates, graduates and alumni and asks various questions about how comfortable students are expressing their views in different contexts on campus, the frequency of self-censorship, tolerance for controversial speakers, how clear administration is in support of free speech on campus and the difficulty of having open conversations.

The researchers also include metrics such as tuition, acceptance rate and enrollment and evaluate the college’s free speech policy. Each college is then ranked on a scale from least restrictive to very restrictive.

This year, Miami ranked 102 out of 248 schools overall, earning an “average” rating. Last year, Miami was ranked 101 out of 203 schools, and in 2021 it was ranked 113 out of 154.

“We don’t have a record of anything really controversial happening there over the last few years,” Stevens said. “But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.”

Miami ranked the lowest in the “openness” category, placing 236 out of 248. The category measures “the student’s perceived ability to have conversations about difficult topics on campus.” “[Miami] is one of the more balanced campuses,” Stevens said. “Its liberal student to conservative student ratio is less than two to one, so that might contribute a little bit to that [ranking]. It’s difficult to have those cross-ideological conversations.”

Tiemann has found it hard to have cross-ideological conversations in many of their classes and even outside the classroom.

“I feel like any time any sort of controversial issue is brought up, it either turns into some kind of yelling match between students, or the professor’s forced to shut down the conversation entirely,” Tiemann said.

But with the previous busy semester and the upcoming presidential election, Walter is expecting a busy year for campus activism.

“We see a lot more activism, especially in the fall,” Walter said. “The good thing is, I think most of our students understand time, place, and manner to know what they can and can’t do or who to go to if they have questions.” momanyaj@miamioh.edu

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Leadership changes at Miami University come to multiple departments STELLA POWERS

ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Recently, Miami University has undergone a significant number of deanship changes within various departments, with a search still underway in the College of Arts and Science (CAS). The hiring process for these positions is extensive to ensure that the best candidates are selected.

The Board of Trustees initiated this process, incorporating committees and a national search through the firm Storbeck Search.

These committees are chaired by a dean appointed by Miami’s Provost Elizabeth Mullenix and consist of five faculty members. Mullenix said each committee includes four members selected by the college, and one appointed by her. One undergraduate student selected by Associated Student Government, one graduate student selected by the Graduate Student Association and one representative from the Alumni Advisory Board are also involved in the process.

The committee and the search firm are involved in the recruitment efforts, ensuring it is as thorough and successful as possible. Choosing who to hire for a dean position is an important decision, as the dean is the leader of his or her respective college. “[The deans] work with their colleagues to set a vision for that college, and then they implement that vision,” Mullenix said. “They are expected to be a fundraiser for their college, and we are currently in a comprehensive funding campaign, so the deans all have fundraising goals as part of that campaign.”

The deans also have roles related to hiring within their colleges, including being in charge of any issues relating to promotion or tenure.

“They preside over the hiring of new faculty,” Mullenix said. “They are also responsible for strategic planning in their divisions and also they have fiduciary responsibility so they’re responsible for overseeing the budget of the colleges.”

Amity Noltemeyer recently stepped into the role of interim Dean of the College of Education, Health and Society (CEHS), temporarily replacing Jason Lane until the university finds a permanent replacement to take over in July 2025.

Noltemeyer has various goals she hopes to accomplish during her time in this role and is meeting with different people and groups to make these goals a reality.

“Student success and offering the best opportunities for our students to have success is clearly, first and foremost, something that’s really important to CEHS and important to me,” Noltemeyer said. “I feel like we’re already doing a really good job in that area, but how can we do even better in terms of making sure that students have the right opportunities, the right support, the right

PROVOST ELIZABETH MULLENIX IS PART OF RECENT CHANGES AT MIAMI THAT WILL CONTINUE. PHOTO BY LUKE MACY

experiences and instruction?”

John Weigand stepped down from his position as interim dean of the College of Creative Arts, with Ryan Fisher taking his place.

Weigand took over after Mullenix took on the provost role in 2022.

Coming from a background in the Department of Architecture and Interior Design, Weigand is a big supporter of the arts, despite many of these fields being under fire.

“I’m very optimistic that arts and creativity are going to survive and flourish into the future,” Weigand said.

Weigand will return to teaching upon leaving this position.

“I will miss a lot of this,” Weigand said. “It’s a little bit difficult for me, but I am really looking forward to being able to be in the classroom and to work with students more. I really miss that.”

Bethany Perkins has replaced Brent Shock as Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success. Perkins originally agreed to an interview, but did not respond to follow-up requests to coordinate a time.

The search for the CAS Dean is still underway, with four finalists selected: Melissa Gregory, Renée Baernstein, Matthew Smith and David Hemmer.

Baernstein currently serves as Senior Associate Dean of the CAS at Miami. She said whoever takes over for current Dean Chris Makaroff has a lot to look forward to.

“It has been a great honor to work with him,” Baernstein said.

“I think anyone who follows him is going to be challenged to match his devotion and his dedication to the college. We’ve been very lucky to have him so far.”

The open forums will begin on Feb. 5 in Kreger Hall room 319 for the four finalists for the CAS dean position. powers40@miamioh.edu

After one year with AI technology, educators still grapple with how to regulate its use SEAN SCOTT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF When ChatGPT made its explosive debut on the internet just over a year ago in November 2022, Justin Klein’s friends were quick to put this artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the test, literally.

“During my data structures class, we were studying for the final,” the junior computer science major at Miami University said. “My friends were talking about how they were putting some of the practice questions into ChatGPT, and it was generating very active responses.”

In the year since then, AI technology has inspired countless think pieces about the future of education and forced professors to adapt.

Tim Lockridge, an associate professor of English at Miami, said he incorporates AI into each of his syllabi.

Rather than putting a blanket ban on the technology, though, he focuses on defining acceptable uses for his students.

“To me, it’s a tool, and writing is something we do with tools,” Lockridge said. “We have to have tools to write; without tools there is no writing. Those tools range from pencils to pens to word processors to now tools like these large language models …

The advice I give to students is that the tool has to align with the job and your goals for the job.”

If a student is struggling with a dense theoretical reading, Lockridge

said an acceptable use of AI in his class may be to put it through a tool that can generate an abstract. In that way, AI can act as an entry point for students to approach difficult text, but Lockridge said it shouldn’t be a final step. Instead, he said students should assess the summary and use their own analytical skills to complete the reading themselves.

One of Lockridge’s classes this semester, ENG 171 humanities and technology, focuses on how various types of computer technology, including AI, relate to the humanities.

He said they may use AI to help write summaries or outline arguments and make sense of readings, but it won’t be an endpoint of students’ learning.

“I’m personally interested in tactical uses of that tool to help us learn, but the concern that I have and I think many people do is that writing is thinking,” Lockridge said.“For me, if an activity is to help us do writing as thinking, then we need to make sure that the tools we’re using serve that goal of helping us to think through complex arguments and complex texts.”

In Klein’s computer science classes last semester, his professors similarly allowed students to engage with AI, but with specific restrictions.

“Using AI to generate code in order to solve a problem was not allowed,” Klein said, “but [using it] as a tutor getting an answer to a question was fine. But if you put in AI-generated code and submitted it, they wouldn’t allow that.”

Some professors have also outright banned use of AI in any form for their courses. Brenda Quaye, assistant director for academic integrity, said Miami is intentionally leaving the decision to individual faculty members rather than creating an overarching AI policy for every class.

“For me coming from the academic integrity perspective, it is similar to, you know, some faculty members will do open book or open note tests, some will not,” Quaye said.

“Some will allow calculator use. Some will not … Like any of those parameters that instructors set within their courses to meet the goals and the purpose of the assignments, they can make decisions about how and when they use AI or don’t.”

Last semester, Quaye said 35% of her office’s 225 academic integrity cases involved potential unauthorized use of AI. Typically, students will get a zero on assignments with unauthorized uses of AI, and there may be an additional 5-10% reduction in their overall grade in the class depending on the value of the assignment. In more severe cases, students could fail the class.

Beyond imposing sanctions, Quaye makes an effort to talk to students about why they felt the need to cheat and offer alternative strategies.

She said most students who come through her office cheat due to procrastination or a lack of confidence in their writing, but turning in partial or late work can have better outcomes in

PROFESSORS ARE STILL ATTEMPTING TO FIND USES FOR AI IN THE CLASSROOM. GRAPHIC BY HANNAH POTTS

those situations.

“I have a lot of conversations about trusting oneself,” Quaye said. “Professors don’t really expect PhD-level writing in an undergraduate course. They expect undergraduate student writing, and there are all different levels of that. It’s really apparent really quickly when it is not a student’s voice, and faculty members pick up on that pretty fast.”

In many cases, Quaye said AI can actually make writing worse because it may come off as unnatural. For students who use AI to help with coding, she said most cases are caught because the code includes elements that haven’t been taught or don’t adhere to the assignment instructions.

Klein has experimented with AI for coding himself, and he said it isn’t infallible yet. He may use it as a baseline to get started with problems, but he said the programs today struggle to gener-

ate 100% accurate code that complies with test cases. Still, he’s expecting to use AI in his career after college.

“If you needed to write code for a website, you can have [AI] generate the basic backbone of the front end … that it’s really good at because it’s not a complicated task,” Klein said. “It helps reduce tedious tasks like that.”

For Lockridge, the biggest deterrent against unauthorized AI use is simply the damage to students’ learning.

“If you want to cheat the system, you can cheat the system and get away with it for a certain amount of time,” Lockridge said. “We have to maintain standards and we have to encourage people to do the right thing, and there’s teaching involved there, but how do you train people to find value in the work? That’s got to be the center of it.” scottsr2@miamioh.edu

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

‘She was always supercharged’: The Miami Student alumna wins ‘18 of the last 9’ award REAGAN RUDE,

SENIOR CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR

DOYLE’S JOURNALISM CAREER HAS PUT HER IN SOME INTERESTING SITUATIONS FOR CÉILÍ DOYLE , RIGHT. PHOTO PROVIDED BY CÉILÍ DOYLE

When Céilí Doyle toured Miami University as a high school senior, all she knew was that she wanted to write. What she didn’t know is where writing would take her.

The Chicago native certainly didn’t expect it to take her to Appalachian Ohio, or to a barge on the Ohio river cleaning trash or alligator hunting in Texas. Least of all, she didn’t anticipate her writing to land her on Miami’s 18 of the last 9 alumni list.

Entering Miami as a writing scholar, Doyle (’20) immediately joined The Miami Student as a journalism major, where she developed impressive reporting skills and undertook multiple heavy-hitting stories.

James Tobin, a professor of journalism at Miami and former adviser for The Student, said Doyle immediately stood out as a student and a journalist. “[You have] to be aggressive and have the old-fashioned word ‘gumption’ when it comes to pursuing sources and pursuing information,” Tobin said. “Céilí had that, and she’s had it from day one.”

After graduating, she landed a job with Report for America, where she worked for the Columbus Dispatch, covering rural issues in Ohio. There, she earned the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors’ Rising Star Award, awarded to journalists with less than five years of professional experience.

That was until a coworker at the Dispatch let her know about a new startup newsroom in Houston, again taking her somewhere she never expected to go.

“This was before the Landing even had a name,” Doyle said. “I was curious, but I was adamant that I was not going to live in Texas; yet here I am, having lived in Texas for over a year.”

At Houston Landing, Doyle works

as a reporter covering the region’s suburbs and rural communities. After just over a year, Doyle has made a major impact on the community through her investigative piece in Liberty County.

“It’s about this developer who has used some pretty sketchy lending practices to attract largely undocumented folks to the area and buy lots of land,” Doyle said. “We’ve published six stories [about the developer] so far.”

Shortly following Doyle and the Landing’s coverage, the Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against the developer, corroborating their reporting. Doyle said she loves her job because she gets to learn something new every day with each story.

This year, Doyle was included in Miami’s “18 of the last 9,” the university’s highest alumni award that honors 18 alumni from the past nine years — loosely based on Forbes “30 under 30,” but inspired by 1809, the year Miami was founded. The award was created by the Miami University Alumni Association to acknowledge recent graduates who “lead, innovate or create a significant positive impact on the world around them” through their work or service.

Doyle said she was incredibly honored to be recognized by Miami for her work and looks forward to visiting the university to speak with journalism students.

“I’m so grateful,” Doyle said. “I loved my Miami experience, and I appreciate the opportunity to come back and share a bit about my experiences and show folks that yes, you can make it in this industry. It’s not easy, but it’s 100% worth it.”

Tim Carlin, a Miami alum (‘22) who also works at the Landing, said Doyle has been a source of inspiration for him as a journalist since meeting her at The Miami Student his first year.

“She truly embodied what it meant and what it means to put your heart and your soul into the stories that you tell,” Carlin said. “She is very, very passionate and just believes so wholeheartedly in the work that she does.”

Carlin said that Doyle, his editor when he first joined The Student, taught him what it really means to do journalism.

“We were handling some really hard topics, you know, fraternities getting getting suspended for hazing violations, sexual assault on campus,” Carlin said, “and she really taught me how to cover things with grace and with humility and with empathy.”

Despite her talent and diligence, Doyle considers herself lucky to have a job in an industry as competitive as journalism. Several newsrooms have seen mass layoffs in recent weeks, including the Houston Landing and the Los Angeles Times.

“Our industry is very fickle, and the work we do is important,” Doyle said. “It’s sometimes hard to square those two things. That the people who have the power and the authority to make those decisions don’t necessarily have the same perspective or altruistic values that the journalists who produce these stories and create the stories and tell the stories do.”

The dwindling career options for journalists extends to academia as well — even at Miami. Tobin said that despite journalism graduates being consistently recognized in the 18 of the last 9, the department hasn’t been getting new faculty positions.

“The journalism faculty has been stressed in the last few years,” Tobin said. “And yet they seem to value the graduates that we’re turning out, so I wish they’d sort of put two and two together and give us some more faculty.” rudere@miamioh.edu

Miami Tribe of Oklahoma celebrates its annual winter gathering CONTINUED FROM FRONT

PARTICPANTS LOOKED OVER THE VARIOUS MYAAMIA ARCHIVES. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

MYAAMIA HERTIAGE STUDENTS MADE BUTTONS FOR PARTICIPANTS. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

CHIEF DOUGLAS LANKFORD PRESENTS DIANE HUNTER WITH MEDAL OF HONOR. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

GUESTS ARE SHOWN HOW TO PLAY THE MOCCASIN GAME. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

THE OPENING OF THE ARCHIVES WERE MARKED WITH A RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

JARED NALLY SHOWS PARTICIPANTS HOW TO PLAY THE PLUM STONE GAME. PHOTO BY AUSTIN SMITH

The federally recognized Miami Tribe used to live in the states of present-day Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan until a series of treaties forcefully removed the Myaamia people into Kansas and then Oklahoma, where they currently reside.

The winter gathering serves to reunite the tribe, which has citizens in all 50 states, and promote efforts to revitalize myaamiaataweenki — Miami language — and cultural traditions.

Games and makerspace activities Among the many festivities and traditions of the Myaamia people include the Moccasin Game, or mahkisina meehkintiinki, in which participants on one side hid four pieces — three white and one black — under four small pads, and the other team had to flip over the pads with a drumstick in attempt to find the black piece on the second or third try. The hiding team got points if found on the first or fourth try.

Seenseewinki, also known as the plum stone game, was another game played at the event in which participants flipped small stones marked with x’s and dots in red and white in an attempt to create a particular formation. Points are awarded based on the rarity of the formation, ranging from two to 10.

“I think my favorite part so far has been playing the games,” Richard Moore, a botanist and associate professor in the biology department, said. “I really enjoyed the bowl game.”

Moore went on the 12-hour journey as a part of a workshop called Indigenizing the Curriculum. The workshop, composed of several university faculty across various departments, has plans to create modules and lessons that connect with the Miami Tribe.

Storytelling Aalhsoohkaana, the winter stories, feature talking animals and Wiihsakacaakwa — a humorous character with immense power and insights from previous generations.

The stories may only be told in the wintertime and are not meant to be video or audio recorded, preserving the richness of the present moment.

“One reason for this [seasonal] restriction is that we demonstrate respect for the animals by telling stories about them only during the winter when they are less active, hibernating or have migrated away,” according to Aacimotaatiiyankwi, a community blog.

The winter stories embody traditional narratives about the Miami

Tribe and establish the philosophy for navigating present-day challenges.

Gourd Dancing The Gourd Dance, revitalized by Kiowa veterans after World War II and the Korean War, is meant to honor tribal veterans. Several drummers sit around the large drum and keep a steady pace, while dancers stand around them in a circle and shake their decorated gourd, or stainless steel salt shaker, to the rhythm of the drum.

During the song, the dancers move around and shake to the drum, but as the song changes to a stronger beat, the dancers stop in place and shake their gourds harder, singing songs passed down by their ancestors.

Stomp Dance For Myaamia people, the Stomp Dance is a social dance characterized by celebrating fire and togetherness.

The Shawnee Tribe taught Myaamiaki (the Miami people) the traditional stomp dance in the mid-1990s, revitalizing the dance in the community.

The Stomp Dance consists of a flame with participants spiraling around it, alternating between man and woman. The women wear shell shakers around their ankles while the man in the front leads the call. The participants begin to stomp their feet, moving around the flame while the men call. Anyone can participate in the dances, tribal member or not.

“We get together and dance together, and make everything feel okay,” Williams said. “I hope dancing together and being with us and feeling like family here is what we all try to portray.”

Many people participated in the Stomp Dance, ranging from tribe members to Miami University faculty — for many, it was their first time.

Madalyn Warnimont, a Miami University alum, participated in the dance and liked the social element of the event.

“I feel like there’s a really close connection with everyone, even if you’re not part of the culture,” Warnimont said.

The Stomp Dance wrapped up the event, leaving the Miami Tribe and its guests forever connected as they departed.

Indigenous communities have historically been misrepresented and inaccurately reported on by the press, including The Miami Student.

To address this history, we work with Stella Beerman, Myaamia Adviser to The Miami Student, to ensure that each story including the Myaamia Center and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is accurate. smith854@miamioh.edu

OXFORD

6

SEAN SCOTT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Hi folks, On Jan. 28, the Oxford Press page of the Journal-News ran for the last time. The Press started as an independent newspaper for the community nearly a century ago, but it had been an insert for the Journal-News for the past few years. Now, it’s gone entirely.

Local news is essential for every community. A dedicated community paper increases civic engagement

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Introducing the Oxford Page

and often leads to more candidates running for office. It offers a centralized source of information on events and local government decisions. It can even help nurture a shared sense of community identity and become a source of pride for residents.

The loss of the Press, reduced as it was to a single page of stories once a week in a larger paper, is a loss nonetheless.

That’s why The Miami Student is introducing a new section focused solely on Oxford this semester.

For years, the staff at The Student has worked to expand our coverage of

OXFORD PAVILION SERVES AS A COMMUNITY GATHERING SPACE FOR BOTH STUDENTS AND

Oxford. This work has ranged from biweekly stories on city council meetings to features of local businesses and in-depth stories covering the Talawanda School District’s attempt to pass a levy. Now, those stories will have a dedicated space in each print edition.

Our Oxford section will build on our current coverage of Oxford City Council, Talawanda School Board and more. Beyond that, we’re open to letters to the editor, regular columns and guest columns from members of the community looking for a platform to share their stories and opinions on topics relevant to other Oxford residents.

This week, we’re covering how one yoga studio is focusing on the spiritual side of the practice, taking a look at the history of Brick Street Bar and digging into the Oxford Fire Department’s budgetary woes. In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching a newsletter dedicated to Oxford stories, and we’re excited to keep growing in this direction.

As this section develops, we’ll need feedback from the community to better understand what everyone wants and needs out of local news coverage. We’re a staff of full-time students with heavy course loads and extracurriculars. Some important stories, especially those that develop off-campus, can slip under the radar

THE MIAMI STUDENT WILL NOW BE COVERING THE OXFORD COMMUNITY AND THE PEOPLE WITHIN IN. PHOTO BY JAKE RUFFER

without a community to help us find them.

We want the Oxford section to center our audience of this city’s permanent residents, not just the students who call Oxford home for four years. If our past coverage has failed to adequately serve the Oxford community, or if there’s something specific we aren’t covering that you want us to focus on, feel free to let us know.

For now, you can find our coverage online at miamistudent.net, follow us on social media and pick up our print edition every other week. Our current distribution locations include the Oxford Community Arts Center, the

municipal building, Kofenya, Bodega, Kroger, the Oxford Lane Library, Best Western, Ace Hardware, Patterson’s Cafe, United Dairy Farmers, the Elms Hotel, DuBois Bookstore and the Oxford Chamber of Commerce.

Have ideas for what we should cover next? Feel free to reach out to me at scottsr2@miamioh.edu, or connect with our Oxford editors Anna Reier and Raquel Hirsch at reieram@miamioh.edu and hirschr2@ miamioh.edu.

Until next time, Sean scottsr2@miamioh.edu

RESIDENTS ALIKE. PHOTO BY JAKE RUFFER

Weird squash and colorful eggs

CRAIG HARKRIDER IS JUST ONE OF OXFORD’S MANY GROWERS. PHOTO BY JIM RUBENSTEIN

JIM RUBENSTEIN

COMMUNITY COLUMNIST Oxford has two principal sources of locally grown and produced food: the Oxford Farmers Market Uptown on Saturday mornings and Moon CoOp Market in Tollgate Mall every day.

In recent years, Miami students have shown much more interest in

eating healthy food. At MOON CoOp, Miami students accounted for one-fourth of the shoppers just a few years ago, but now they are well over half of the shoppers. So this space in The Miami Student is devoted to suggestions for obtaining and preparing healthy food grown and produced in the Oxford area.

Craig Harkrider is typical of Oxford’s local growers. Craig has two full-time jobs. Miami students may encounter Craig in his full-time Miami job without knowing it, because Craig runs the box office. If you’ve ever obtained a ticket for a performance in Millett Hall or Hall Auditorium, Craig has helped you, perhaps indirectly online, if not face-to-face.

On Saturday mornings, you can find Craig at the Farmers Market Uptown. He’s there every Saturday year-round, in the summer heat and the winter cold. Craig and his wife Sharon have a farm outside of town called Stoney Hedgerow. This time of year, they have really weird-looking winter squash and multi-colored eggs.

Winter squash is actually grown in the summer, but gets its name because most varieties can be stored through the winter thanks to the thick

rind. The English word “squash” derives from the Narragansett word askutasquash, which means “a green thing eaten raw.” “Squash” as a verb, meaning to crush, as well as the racquet sport, derives from Romance languages and has no connection with the etymology of the food.

Craig’s squashes have exotic names. Examples include Autumn frost, Blue Kuri, Blue Prince, Cinderella’s Carriage, Red Kuri, Starry Night, Sunshine Kabocha, Tetsukabuto, Thelma Sanders and Yuxi Jiang Bing Gua. Here’s how to cook one of these weird squashes. First, cut open the squash. If you can’t get a knife through the raw squash, don’t hurt yourself.

Microwave the whole squash for five minutes, and then cut it open.

Chop a large squash into several pieces, remove the seeds, put the pieces in a baking dish, fill the bottom of the dish with some juice or water, and either microwave for around 10 minutes or bake in the oven at 400 degrees for around 30 minutes.

When you lift the lid of a Stoney Hedgerow egg carton, instead of a uniform array, you are dazzled by a rainbow assortment of colors. Craig explains that the multiplicity of colors

results from having many breeds of heritage hens.

Craig told me that his chickens are very happy, and happy hens lay more and better-tasting eggs. How does Craig know that his chickens are happy? His answer: because they are chatting away with each other.

In what language, I asked. Chicken talk. Craig, do you speak chicken

talk? No, but I understand what they are saying, and they say they are happy. What are they happy about? They get to roam around in the fields mowing the grass. rubensjm@miamioh.edu

THE FARMERS MARKET FEATURES A VARIETY OF COLORFUL FALL HARVESTS. PHOTO BY JIM RUBENSTEIN

Living up to the name: Oxford Community Yoga creates an environment of welcoming and inclusion

SHR-HUA MOORE

SENIOR STAFF WRITER Soothing flute music plays as sunlight streams across the room, highlighting a collection of plants whose only similarity is the pots they’re planted in. There are statues dispersed in between the indoor garden, ranging from the Hindu God Shiva to a small Buddha sitting in the soil of one of the pots.

Is this some sort of spiritual paradise?

Well, sort of. This is the Oxford Community Yoga studio.

Oxford Community Yoga (OCY) was founded in 2021 by Jessica Lohrey, an Oxford-area native and Miami University graduate who returned to the town during the COVID-19 pandemic. She saw a need for a yoga studio after noticing that Root Yoga (a previous Oxford studio) had closed its doors.

“I thought [that] this is a place that needs a yoga studio, found the spot that we’re in, and I opened it up in December 2021,” Lohrey said.

Lohrey is a firm believer in “decolonizing yoga,” which is a movement aimed at returning yoga to its more traditional roots of meditation and connecting with one’s own spirituality. She explained that while yoga was originally more of a spiritual practice, Western influences changed it to more of a physical exercise.

“Out of the eight limbs of yoga, only one involves postures,” Lohrey said. “In the West, yoga has been geared toward and marketed toward middle and upper class white women … Since the origins of yoga lie with people of color, the beginning of decolonizing yoga is to give them a voice within the community.”

This goal is reflected at the front door of the OCY studio, where entrants will find a sticker that declares how the studio is a “safe space.” The studio also offers scholarships for BIPOC people, incorporates meditation and breathing exercises in addition to physical ones, and emphasizes that yoga is for everyone, regardless of their background or body shape.

The studio also goes on an annual

SIGNS WITH POSITIVE MESSAGES LIKE THIS ONE ARE COMMON IN LOHREY’S STUDIO, PROMOTING AN ENVIRONMENT OF PEACE AND SERENITY. PHOTO BY SHR-HUA MOORE

trip to India for those who want to learn more about the historical roots of yoga.

Lohrey said that part of creating an inclusive environment also involves making sure no one is too overwhelmed by her studio’s teaching methods.

“If someone is, for example, a devout Christian, I don’t want them to feel uncomfortable in my class,” Lohrey said. “[In order] to be inclusive for students, I’m trying to be sensitive to their beliefs as well. I try to only drop little bits [of spiritual practices] into the class so people don’t leave and think that we’re ‘weird yoga folks.’”

Naaborle Sackeyfio is an associate professor of global and intercultural studies at Miami who began a course with the studio to become a yoga teacher. She said she was already familiar with the idea of decolonization in other disciplines, but was blown away by how committed OCY is to it. “[OCY] is the most inclusive yoga studio I’ve encountered, including the ones that I’ve attended in New York City or New Jersey,” Sackeyfio said. “[Lohrey] created a welcoming environment with such care that it really just astounded me … she’s really provided a space where we can address challenging topics.”

Sackeyfio hopes to use the philosophy taught at OCY and apply it to her own classes.

“I envision bringing some practices into the classroom — maybe not a yoga session, but something that will allow students to stop for a few minutes, reflect, and get their bearings,” Sackeyfio said. “While we’re lifting, we often forget to take a pause.”

Despite the Miami Recreational Sports Center has its own yoga program, but there’s no tension or direct competition between OCY and the university. In fact, there has been collaboration and participation from Miami students in attending the studio and helping it grow.

Liv Snow, a senior at Miami majoring in art education, was part of a team in an entrepreneurship class that worked with Lohrey to figure out ways to increase the studio’s visibility in the community.

“The initial goal was to increase enrollment in the teacher training program and [to] get more Miami student engagement, but [the project] kind of shifted to how we can make OCY a diverse and equitable place where yoga is accessible,” Snow said.

The students created a recommendation that included getting media presence and taking professional pictures for the website. Throughout the process, Snow said that Lohrey was an excellent person to work with. “[Lohrey] is awesome,” Snow said. “She’s a very successful woman and knows what she’s talking about, but never makes you feel stupid for not knowing things.”

Other Miami students have also been taking classes at OCY. Alexan-

dra Leurck is a senior majoring in theater and arts entrepreneurship who has been going to classes for two years and enrolled in the teacher training program last September.

“I was originally considering another studio, but when I found out more about community yoga, I recognized and saw [that] they use more traditional aspects of yoga and ground the studio in the roots, which is how I want to go about how I do my teacher training and approach yoga,” Leurck said. “I’ve been loving it ever since.”

Leurck emphasized how unique it was to have such an innovative approach to yoga in Oxford.

“The name highlights belonging to a community and meditation mindfulness, which is often prioritized in more urban areas,” Leurck said. “To have it in a small town in a rural area is unique and special in its own way.” moorese6@miamioh.edu

LOHREY BEGINS EACH YOGA SESSION WITH A WELCOMING SMILE TO HER NEW AND RETURNING STUDENTS. PHOTO BY SHR-HUA MOORE

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

After months of financial struggle, Oxford Fire Department’s problems are far from over OLIVIA PATEL

ASST. CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY EDITOR With troubles beginning almost a year ago, Oxford’s fire department continues to struggle with its financial deficit caused by stretching its services thin. Oxford’s fire and EMS services currently serve Oxford, Hanover and Riley townships, as well as more than 16,000 students enrolled at Miami University living in Oxford.

Calls from Miami continue to soar, as the number has increased by 44 since The Miami Student’s last inquiry on Nov. 26, 2023, bringing the total number of calls during the 20232024 school year to more than 250.

According to data presented by assistant city manager Jessica Greene to Miami’s Board of Trustees in a meeting in December, Miami facilities made a total of 680 calls to Oxford’s fire and EMS services in 2022, accounting for 32.8% of the total calls made to the department out of all entities it serves. Miami facilities and student housing accounted for 43.12% of fire calls to the department.

The number of false alarm calls has risen dramatically since 2021. As a college town, Oxford’s largest population groups calling to the fire department are in the 10-19 and 20-29 ranges, which make up roughly 74% of Oxford’s population. The 18-23 age group alone accounts for 32.8% of all fire and EMS calls. This data prompted the city to approach the university and ask for assistance with funds back in December.

“We said to [Miami] that we have expenses exceeding revenue, and we have to do something to secure our fire and EMS fund,” Greene said. “So we just said, we are a community, and we have to approach this together.”

The fire department currently has nine full-time firefighters and paramedics, which each responded to 338 calls in 2021, totaling 3,041 calls. In comparison, Liberty Township’s 42 firefighters and paramedics responded to a total of 3,098 calls in 2021, totaling 74 calls per fire/EMS worker.

“Our fire and EMS services are responding to many more calls than other fire departments,” Vice-Mayor Chantel Raghu said. “Who is liable if something bad happens to a student or resident since there are not enough services?”

Greene, Raghu and other members of Oxford’s community presented this information to Miami’s Board of Trustees. Raghu and several other members of the Oxford community expressed their frustration in Miami’s lack of support for the fire and EMS services it uses.

“We kind of came to the ‘pay for the service or get your own’ consensus,” Raghu said. “It’s a fair question of if you’re getting provided a service, don’t you think you should pay for it?”

Present at the December meeting representing the university was Ted Pickerell, secretary for the Board of Trustees; Jayne Brownell, vice president for student life; David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and

business services; and Randi Thomas, vice president of ASPIRE. Mayor William Snavely, Oxford City Manager Doug Elliott, Greene, Fire John Chief Detherage and Police Chief John Jones were also present at the meeting for the city of Oxford.

Following the meeting, Miami was willing to cooperate with the city to find a solution to the current financial crisis. Although the final plans are far from complete, a few ideas came from this meeting, including a possible increase in income tax, an increase in fees or a cut in services.

Greene and Miami representatives decided that the option they would explore more formally would be a property tax, with Miami making an in-lieu-of taxes payment for their use of the fire and EMS services.

However, this plan is still in the draft phase and needs further exploration before a formal plan can be made.

“The reason we started to explore this option is because [the city] looked at who is using the fire and EMS services based on data, and the main populations using these resources are students and the elderly, which are the two population groups that do not pay income tax,” Greene said.

However, citizens like Raghu fear that this solution may put a strain on those already paying for fire and EMS services.

“We just want it to be fair,” Raghu said. “I personally don’t want to see people being double taxed who are already paying for the services.”

Instead of increasing income or property taxes on the residents of Oxford who already pay some sort of tax toward the fire and EMS services, Greene is instead looking into ways for Miami to pay for the services they benefit from as well, including pushing students who live off campus to pay through their rental property owner.

Other solutions to help address the false alarm issue on Miami’s campus were discussed, including educating first-year students on fire safety within the dorm and how to avoid falsely tripping the alarm.

Greene said the city plans on meeting with Miami again possibly in early March after rerunning the deficit numbers on this year’s estimates based on last year’s data and having a work session with the city council to inform them of the “high-level” conversations the city had with Miami and get their feedback on how to proceed.

However, real change may not be made until November if the council decides on a levy to pass a property tax or any changes.

GRAPHIC BY OLIVIA PATEL

GRAPHIC BY OLIVIA PATEL

patelou@miamioh.edu

CALLS TO OXFORD FIRE DEPARTMENT CONTINUE TO SKYROCKET, PUTTING STRAIN ON THE LIMITED STAFF. PHOTO BY JAKE RUFFER

Behind the Building: Brick Street Bar SADIE CHILDS STAFF WRITER

Today, Brick Street Bar is a staple of the Uptown experience for Miami students. Still, you can tell from a

glance at the building that there may be more history there than meets the eye.

“Brick” as it’s affectionately known by students, located at 36 E. High St., was built in 1938. The prop-

erty was once the private residence of Arthur Ramsey, a local Oxford dentist at the time, and housed other private businesses. However, on Sept.

23, 1938, it was reopened as a movie theater after being rebuilt by the F&Y construction company.

The building was originally named Miami-Western Theatre, after Miami’s Western College for Women.

But, according to the Ohio Historic Inventory, the theater went through multiple names including “Act 1” and “This-n-That.”

In 1979, the theater gained historic status through the Ohio Historic Inventory under the ownership of Katherine Snook. This

THE FRONT ENTRANCE TO MIAMI-WESTERN THEATRE IN 1950. BRICK STREET STILL USES THE MARQUEE FOR MESSAGES TODAY. PHOTO PROVIDED BY HERITAGE OHIO

means that the theater was recognized as having a historic form and character, likely due to its central location in Oxford. Additionally, the building now qualifies as “historic” due to its age and popular frontage.

Part of the old movie theater decorations remain today at the Oxford Lane Library. The large mural in the library displays the Art Deco style that would have originally been throughout the theater, both inside and out. The mural made by Stiver Studios in 1938 also pays homage to the women’s college that once helped populate the theater and was responsible for the name.

In the ’70s, the exterior was largely the same as today, yet the iconic red brick was originally a yellow adobe brick. Another notable change is the lack of the original lights above the main signs on the outside of the theater, though those have been gone

since 1979.

However, the marquee that often displays different phrases each night is original to the building, as are parts of the original curved white tiles that flank the marquee, possibly dating back to its opening.

The Miami-Western Theatre closed its doors after 50 years. In 1990, the building underwent remodeling to become a bar called First Run in 1993. This establishment lasted only a decade before what we now know as Brick Street took over the location in 2004.

Now, the Art Deco style inside has long since been replaced with various sports jerseys, posters and beer signs.

Nevertheless, when walking through the bar someone can imagine what it might have been like as a central theater for the Oxford community. childssb@miamioh.edu

THE CORNER OF EAST HIGH AND NORTH POPLAR IN 1963 FEATURING MIAMI WESTERN THEATRE, WHICH IS NOW KNOWN AS BRICK STREET. PHOTO PROVIDED BY SMITH LIBRARY OF REGIONAL HISTORY

8

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

sports

Big reputations: Are Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift really ‘End Game?’

SINCE BEING SEEN TOGETHER IN SEPTEMBER 2023, TAYLOR SWIFT AND TRAVIS KELCE HAVE TAKEN THE WORLD BY STORM. PHOTOS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

SOFIA CENTRELLA

THE MIAMI STUDENT The 2023-24 football season has ushered in a new “era” for the pop icon Taylor Swift.

On Sept. 24, 2023, Swift was spotted in the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs after recent speculation of a new relationship with Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce. The couple has dominated headlines ever since, sparking mixed feedback from fans of both Swift and Kelce.

There is no doubt that both of these stars are among the best in their respective fields.

Kelce is in his 11th NFL season and has now made four Super Bowl appearances and is looking for his third Super Bowl victory. He was

also named a first team All-Pro four times, along with nine Pro Bowl selections. He’s made more catches in the NFL playoffs than any other player in history.

This year, he has statistically had one of his worst regular seasons since 2015, with only five touchdowns and less than 1,000 receiving yards. But Kelce has been able to turn his game around in the playoffs with Swift in attendance.

In the Chiefs’ first game of the 2023 postseason against the Buffalo Bills, Kelce secured two touchdowns.

Last week in the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens, Kelce grabbed 11 receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown.

Swift has also broken some records this year. After re-recording her earlier albums, she has now sur-

passed Barbra Streisand for the most No. 1 albums for a female artist. The Eras Tour, which showcased a variety of her songs throughout her entire career, became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time with roughly $1 billion in revenue.

Meaghan Grasso, a Miami University junior marketing and entrepreneurship major and “Swiftie,” scored tickets to the show. The singer’s connection to the NFL has given her a new point of connection with people who love the sport.

“I’ve always loved Taylor Swift but have never been that big on football,” Grasso says. “But now sometimes when my dad has had the game on downstairs, I’ll go watch it with him.”

Both of their successes generated them each large platforms with large fan bases. So when their relationship began, the internet blew up. Media outlets and fans flooded Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, feeds and within minutes, Kelce and Swift became the newest “it” couple.

This response was not surprising. Pretty soon, Swift was attending most of Kelce’s games for the rest of the season and cameras did not fail to flaunt it. Seeing her celebrate next to Mama Kelce and Brittany Mahomes on live television became a regular sight.

The publicity did not stop there.

Social media pages frequently put the new couple in the spotlight. ESPN, NFL.com and Bleacher Report are just some of many. After a few weeks, the influx of attention resulted in very

mixed feedback from the public.

Complaints have risen from football fans, as well as some Swifties, concerning the amount of content dedicated to their relationship instead of game coverage. According to Sports Illustrated, researchers analyzed the amount of time Swift was shown on television during the AFC championship, which only summed up to a total of 44 seconds.

There could be a variety of reasons why people have felt such disdain concerning this. Swift may have just become an outlet for people to express their negativity. The combination of social media and television attention may be too much for some.

Football fans could also be sick of the Chiefs’ successes over recent years and how now there is such a large influx of “bandwagon fans” to fuel their fanbase even more.

Miami junior supply chain and operations management major Sam Thaler sees both sides of this ongoing battle.

“It’s expanding the NFL’s reach into demographics it usually wouldn’t reach, but I can understand fans being annoyed,” Thaler says. “Media rights are pricing people out of watching their favorite teams with exclusive streaming and fans generally want to watch their teams play without the attention on Taylor or any underlying narratives.”

People who feel more strongly about the situation have taken to the internet to voice their opposition toward the Chiefs. Haters put their

faith in Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson last week, with hopes that he would knock the Chiefs out of the playoffs, but Jackson and the Ravens fell short. Now, many voice their distaste in the final Super Bowl XLVIII matchup between the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.

Despite the backlash, the publicity helped develop a new mutualistic relationship between Swift and the NFL. Apex Marketing Group reported to Front Office Sports that her presence has helped generate the NFL and the Chiefs about $331.5 million in revenue.

The NFL has historically eclipsed the other professional sports in revenue in the United States. With the help of Swift, who knows what new numbers the organization will reach.

Anaka Bretzke, Miami senior journalism and fashion major and Missouri native, is a long time Swiftie and Chiefs fan. She enjoys the publicity and does not view it as problematic.

“I’ve liked all the attention. I know some don’t, but they are just doing regular relationship stuff,” Bretzke says. “If anything, the attention has benefitted the NFL with her there.”

We will most likely see the couple next at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday, Feb. 11, for the Super Bowl.

Who knows what will happen next, but Travis Kelce may conclude his year with two rings on his finger. centresj@miamioh.edu

Student section woes: Exploring the Miami Athletics attendance problem

DESPITE WINNING THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIP IN 2023, YAGER STADIUM WAS BARELY OVER HALF-FULL FOR HOME GAMES ON AVERAGE THIS SEASON. PHOTO BY JESSICA MONAHAN

PATRICK REAVES

THE MIAMI STUDENT The Miami University men’s basketball team was putting the finishing touches on a dominant 82-43 win over Spalding University on a Tuesday night late in November. However, there was one problem: a major lack of energy in Millett Hall. Excluding the pep band, around 30 students arrived to watch the RedHawks, most doing so while sitting down.

Events like this occur frequently on campus. What has led to this atmosphere, and more importantly, how can the school address the problem?

Field hockey head coach Iñako Puzo believes that taking programs for granted has led to complacency and a lack of support.

“I think many people in this com-

munity — and not just students, but also professors and some level of administrators — don’t know what we have,” Puzo said. “Sometimes, we have to step back and think how Miami would look without athletics, and recognize the impact athletics have on any campus.”

The most obvious answer to Miami’s attendance problem is to have winning teams. That responsibility falls on athletes and coaches more than anyone else. Yet, Miami football, which won the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship in 2023, averaged just 13,395 fans in attendance for home games in 2023.

Yager Stadium holds nearly 25,000 spectators. Six MAC football teams averaged higher attendance in 2023.

There is more to creating an enjoyable atmosphere than just winning. People have to be aware of

events and value the event over other priorities. Most importantly, people need to have a fun time at the game and want to return.

Most students at Miami have grown up supporting schools with larger brands. In Ohio, those schools are Ohio State University and University of Cincinnati. Of course, there is plenty of Indiana University, University of Notre Dame and University of Kentucky merchandise (among others) around campus as well. Other MAC schools struggle with a similar issue. Students would rather drive an hour or two to see Cincinnati or Ohio State play than get in free at a Miami game.

Travis Steele, the men’s basketball head coach, is no stranger to building elite atmospheres. At Xavier University, where he coached for four years before coming to the RedHawks, he

helped build one of the best atmospheres in college basketball. He believes that changing the culture starts with getting students to take pride in where they are right now.

“The bigger concern is how do we get students to take pride in the place that they’re at,” Steele said. “We want to see Miami, right? It’s where we are, it’s what we represent. I think the key is moving people emotionally to get them to have that feeling.”

Students appear to get “that feeling” Uptown more than in Millett Hall or Yager Stadium.

Part of the reason why they may not find excitement in Miami’s athletic venues is because of how the university controls its sponsorships. Miami’s athletic department outsources sponsorships to a large company called Van Wagner. Oftentimes, these sponsors can be seen in the in-game production. If you have been to a Miami football game, you may be familiar with the Kroger Dance Cam or the SDS Delivery of the Game.

These sponsor moments in games take away opportunities for the university to try fun and engaging activities which could make the atmosphere more energetic.

The final large factor in a student coming to a game or not is if they even know there is a game going on. A lack of knowledge about game times makes it almost impossible to get students in the building because of how many other priorities they have. This is where athletic communications and marketing comes into play.

Lindsay Sparks is the Chief Athletic Marketing and Communications

Officer at Miami. She oversees many student interns, helps balance the $70,000 annual budget across the five ticketed sports and coordinates different plans to promote games while making sure the staff is ready for gameday. She also helps run ingame events.

“All you can do is make sure that students know there’s the opportunity,” Sparks said. “That part is hard because you have no control over the power of choice. The second factor would be: Did they have a good time while they engaged the way they chose to engage?”

Despite the current efforts within the athletic department, including working with university social media accounts and sending information to residence hall directors, some think that more can be done to ensure students are actually informed of what is going on with Miami Athletics.

“We need to do a better job of putting these two worlds together,” Puzo said, “because there are two different bubbles right now: the Athletic Department and the rest of the university.”

Steele seconded the sentiment expressed by Puzo.

“My first several years at Xavier, we sold that thing out,” Steele said. “It wasn’t always like that, but it was important to the university, and it was important to the athletic department … When I first got here, I was floored with the little student support we got, but have a plan to attack that. It’s not going to fix itself.” reavespj@miamioh.edu

Miami spent twice as much on men’s sports than women’s sports in 2022 fiscal year CONTINUED FROM FRONT

GRAPHIC BY JACK SCHMEZLINGER

Largely because of football, sometimes other men’s sports have to take a back seat for Miami to stay in compliance with Title IX. “Our men’s track team doesn’t have the same number of scholarships as our women’s track team,” Gilbert said. “The men swimmers and track athletes probably don’t get some of the same treatment … because we have to make up for the 110 football athletes.”

Men’s basketball required $199,589 in travel expenses in 2022, while women’s basketball required $117,607. Men’s basketball traveled for 14 out of 32 games, while women’s basketball traveled for 14 out of 31. Both teams traveled for 14 games, with the women’s team traveling farther on average, including a trip to West Palm Beach, Florida.

As for expenses such as travel, Assistant Athletic Director Liz Bath explained that any differences have

logical explanations. For example, the men’s team has one more player and one more coach. Additionally, she explains that the men’s team required more food when they traveled.

“This is going to be a men versus women thing,” Bath said. “Men eat more than women. It’s just the fact that male athletes need more than the female athletes. Food is going to be a huge part of that. It also is going to depend on the schedule for each year. If the women are traveling more or the men are traveling more, it’s going to sway one side.”

Disproportional marketing Hayes felt that one place where Miami could do better is in its promotion of men’s versus women’s athletics. Gilbert believes this to be a fair criticism.

“Our athletic staff in the marketing and promotions department has been tasked with increasing revenue,” Gilbert said. “In order to increase rev-

enue, that means they’ve got to spend all their time on ticketed sports.”

Miami has five ticketed sports: football, hockey, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and volleyball.

Because more male sports are ticketed, Gilbert said there are significantly more social media promotions on the men’s side. She also said that the athletic department lost a lot of communications staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so a lot of social media responsibility has fallen to assistant coaches for certain sports.

Scholarships Title IX requires institutions to spend scholarship funds proportionally to the amount of male and female athletes. For example, if women made up 40% of student-athletes, then they would need to receive 40% of available scholarship funds. With this stipulation, institutions are not required to spend equal amounts of money on male and female athletes.

In 2022, Miami put more than $11 million toward scholarships for athletes, with male athletes receiving nearly 60% of the total. Per unduplicated athlete (athletes that play two or more sports but are counted as one in expenditures data), male athletes received $22,119.20, with female athletes receiving $18,702, a difference of more than 15%. Women athletes at Miami received less total scholarship money and less scholarship money on average than men athletes.

Gilbert explained that this difference can arise from the number of in-

state female athletes compared to the number of out-of-state male athletes.

“Women’s sports teams are all funded at the NCAA maximum,” Gilbert said. “We offer the maximum number that the NCAA will allow us to offer to all of our women’s sports.

Even though we’re spending a little more money on men’s scholarships, a lot of that has to do with out-of-state athletes. Quite a few of our women’s sports are really strong in the state of Ohio, but we tend to recruit out of the state of Ohio for football, men’s basketball, stuff like that.”

At Miami, many women’s athletic programs have seen great success in recent years. The field hockey team has won 13 straight Mid-American Conference (MAC) titles, counting regular season and tournament

championships separately. Miami softball has made the NCAA tournament every year since 2021. The synchronized skating program is one of the best in the country.

The differences in funding are impossible to ignore. But according to Gilbert, men’s and women’s athletes at Miami have equal opportunities to succeed.

“Whenever we make a major financial decision we make sure it won’t tip the scales too far in favor of the women or in favor of the men,” Gilbert said. “We work hard to make sure men and women athletes at Miami are treated fairly, that they’re given equitable experiences at our school. schmelj2@miamioh.edu babukc2@miamioh.edu

GRAPHIC BY JACK SCHMELZINGER

9

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

The transfer portal giveth, and the transfer portal taketh SEAN WIESEMANN

THE MIAMI STUDENT Coming into the offseason, the Miami University RedHawks looked like it had a serious chance to contend for a Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship in 2024, as well as a potential berth in the new 12-team college football playoff.

However, on Dec. 23, star running back Rashad Amos and wide receiver Gage Larvadain, two of the best players Miami had on offense, opted to enter the transfer portal for the second time in their careers. Larvadain has since announced his commitment to the University of South Carolina, while Amos is still looking for a place to play. Miami also lost sack leader Caiden Woullard to the transfer portal. The first-time transfer will play for the University of Oklahoma Sooners in 2024.

The 2023 season for Miami football saw many transfers making big impacts. About three quarters of players on Miami’s roster were non-transfer players, but often it was the transfers who made big plays.

It started Week 2 against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Larvadain, who transferred from Southeastern Louisiana University, would end the day with 273 yards, just 10 yards short of Jack Sorenson’s school receiving record. In the second quarter, he caught a 99-plus yard pass from quarterback Brett Gabbert, the longest play in school history.

During that game, Michael Dowell, a Michigan State University transfer, snagged an interception to

hold off a late Massachusetts rally.

Looking back, it seems like foreshadowing.

Contributions didn’t just come from Larvadain or Dowell. Mercer University transfer Yahsyn McKee made two of the biggest plays in school history to cement his legacy in the next game against the University of Cincinnati, which Miami hadn’t beaten since 2005 before this season. McKee blocked a potential game-winning 35-yard field goal attempt against the Bearcats as time expired in regulation, and then intercepted quarterback Emory Jones’ overtime pass to win the game for the RedHawks.

There are many more words to be written about the contributions of transfer players, like 1,000-yard rusher Amos or the second-leading sacker Brian Ugwu, a Rutgers University transfer.

The transfer portal has done a lot for the Miami football program in the last few years, but it has also done damage, with mixed results for the players involved. Before the 2023 season, Miami lost three top players to the transfer portal. Rusty Feth, an offensive lineman, transferred to the University of Iowa, where he was an honorable mention all-Big Ten player. Fellow offensive lineman Caleb Shaffer decided to transfer to the University of Oklahoma, where he only started one game in his only season for the Sooners. Cornerback John Saunders Jr. transferred to the University of Mississippi, where he was second-team all-SEC as a safety in 2023.

The creation of the transfer portal in 2018 was a first step in the

liberalization of athlete movement and freedom. In July 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began to allow athletes to profit off their names, images and likenesses (NIL), furthering the movement.

After entering the transfer portal, a player is allowed to return to his original team at any time, should his coach allow him to do so. That has allowed the RedHawks to retain players such as the Lou Groza award-winning kicker Graham Nicholson this year and Gabbert last year.

Plenty of key players still plan on returning to Miami for the 2024 season, such as Gabbert, Nicholson, the 2023 MAC Defensive Player of the Year Matt Salopek and much of the offensive line.

And as of the conclusion of Miami’s 2023 season with the Cure Bowl on Dec. 16, Miami fans felt that, despite the disappointing 9-13 loss to Appalachian State University in a monsoon, there was hope for a team that looked to return as many as 18 of the 22 starters.

Prior to that game, on Dec. 13, Judge John Preston Bailey of West Virginia ruled that two-time transfers were now allowed to play immediately. Before this, the NCAA had required second-time transfers to sit out a year before playing at their new school. On Dec. 22, the NCAA released a memo that allowed the players who had transferred once (like Amos and Larvadain, who entered the portal on Dec. 23) to transfer again without penalty. wiesemsm@miamioh.edu

GRAPHIC BY JACK SCHMELZINGER

Two Miami first-years who have made an instant impact: Maddy Huhn and Núria Jurjo

BOTH HUHN AND JURJO HAVE HAD LONG ROADS TO OXFORD. PHOTOS PROVIDED BY MIAMI ATHLETICS

ANDREW RELVAS

THE MIAMI STUDENT After a controversial conclusion to the 2022-23 women’s basketball season, the Miami University RedHawks faced a completely new beginning. Of the 12 players on last year’s roster, only five returned. The arrival of Head Coach Glenn Box, as well as four incoming transfers, helped fill the RedHawks’ blank slate.

Miami also recruited five firstyears, who make up over half of the roster this season. For first-year players Maddy Huhn and Núria Jurjo, the journey to Oxford has been unconventional.

These two players both traveled quite a distance before arriving at Miami, and their eventual decision to commit to the RedHawks took some time to develop.

Huhn, a native of Carlsbad, California, said her decision to come to Oxford came down to two things.

“I wanted to experience a different part of the country,” Huhn said.

“But also, I wanted to be somewhere where I felt like I could contribute right away and make a difference.”

At Carlsbad High School, Huhn averaged 24 points, five rebounds and four assists per game as a senior.

She also holds the record for most career points (2,117) for the Carlsbad Lancers and was named First Team All-Conference in her final season.

This season, Huhn has made a difference for the RedHawks as a starter by averaging four points, two rebounds and one assist on 32% shooting from the field in 23 minutes as a first-year.

She’s also been gaining confidence as the season continues and credits it to Box and her teammates.

“Having a coach believe in you as a freshman definitely is a confidence booster,” Huhn said. “And it feels great to be surrounded by players who support you.”

Jurjo has had a similar journey, gaining confidence as a first-year after traveling a long distance to Oxford. Jurjo is a native of Barcelona, Spain. She also wanted to have a chance to add to the Miami basketball program.

“I was coming to a new team with a new coach where I could contribute,” Jurjo said. “Miami really pursued me to the very end of my decision process.”

In Barcelona, she attended Institut Montserrat Roig, where she shot 49.4% from the floor as a senior and averaged 10 points per game as a

junior while shooting 75% from the charity stripe.

Jurjo also played for Basket Almeda, one of the top second division women’s clubs in Spain. She played for three seasons and averaged five points and two rebounds on 49% shooting last season.

This season for the RedHawks, Jurjo has been a consistent force off the bench. She is averaging three points, two rebounds and a team high 2.3 assists per game in 16.8 minutes.

Both Jurjo and Huhn’s favorite memory on-court was their decisive victory over the Xavier University Musketeers on Nov. 28, a 58-57 overtime winner at home for the RedHawks.

Box spoke of how proud he was of the team’s effort that game.

“I’m super happy for our team and our staff,” Box said. “Everyone has worked super hard. It was good for them to see something good happen.”

The RedHawks are 4-14 so far this season, with two of their wins coming in overtime. The first was over Xavier, and then the RedHawks beat Oakland University 68-66 on the road.

The RedHawks are a much different team from last year’s group, which finished 10th of 12 in a very competitive Mid-American Conference (MAC). They didn’t qualify for the conference tournament, but they finished 7-11 in MAC-play and missed due to an 0-3 record versus Ball State University and Bowling Green State University combined.

That team had five players who averaged 63.1 points per game, which accounted for 90% of the points.

They also averaged 25.9 rebounds per game which accounted for 73% of the rebounds last year.

The RedHawks lost all five of those players via transfer and returned only five of the 12 players from last year’s roster.

Miami’s team makeup this year includes four true first-years, the five returners and five transfers as well as a brand new head coach.

Time will tell how the RedHawks will mesh together, but they have an opportunity to make a run for the conference tournament with six home conference matchups occurring in the next month and a half.

In their next few games, Miami will take on two MAC teams which are ranked 11th and 12th. The RedHawks’ next matchup will take place in Akron against the University of Akron Zips on Feb. 3. relvasaj@miamioh.edu

Looking back at the 2023 ‘Swamp Bowl’ KETHAN BABU

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR On Dec. 8, 1888, Miami University and the University of Cincinnati played the first college football game in the state of Ohio. If on Dec. 8, 1888, the weather had been like it was on the day of the Cure Bowl in Orlando last month, there would have been no 127th Battle for the Victory Bell for the RedHawks to finally win in 2023.

They would have surely scrapped the whole thing.

In December, Florida averages pretty warm temperatures. For a state known for rain, there is a surprisingly low chance of precipitation each day in December (18%), but not on the day of the Cure Bowl.

On Dec. 16, 2023, severe thunderstorms, flooding and high-winds engulfed the state. These were the conditions that the RedHawks faced in Orlando against the Appalachian State Mountaineers.

The RedHawks finished the regular season with an 11-2 record, their best record since 2003 (13-1), and the second Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championship victory in the Chuck Martin-era.

For the week leading up to the game, the players engaged with the community and visited the Universal Studios theme park. The weather was perfect all week leading up to the game.

Redshirt first-year linebacker Luke Myers said nobody discussed the weather until the day before the game. At that point, the discussion became whether the game would even go on.

“We didn’t think anything of it,” Myers said. “The weather changes all the time. The day before, the talk was all about whether we would even

play.”

The monsoon-like conditions weren’t in the forecast until the night before and the day of the game. Adam Boyer, the football team’s equipment manager, said the week leading up to the game showed no signs of what was to come.

“The weather was perfect the entire week, except for that day,” Boyer said. “We got there on Monday, and I would say every day was 70 to 75 degrees and sunny. You couldn’t have asked for better weather.”

No one fully understood how bad the weather would be at the Cure Bowl until the morning of the game.

“Everyone started joking about it,” Boyer said. “Guys were out on the field, and it was just a nice, light rain.

Then it opened up, started pouring and never stopped. I looked at the forecast and realized that we had two inches of rain coming.”

The rain continued relentlessly as the game neared its start. Despite the quick preparation by Boyer and his equipment staff of students, the weather dominated the game more than either team. With nothing else to do, the RedHawks stormed the field in the same manner as the surrounding rain.

Both teams initially tried passing, but an interception by star Miami defensive back Yahsyn McKee on the game’s first play from scrimmage made it clear that the rain would

make this a run-heavy game. The RedHawks and the Mountaineers rushed for a combined 360 yards, compared to 255 combined passing yards.

Even when the ball was kept on the ground, neither team could hold onto the slippery oblate spheroid. The wet field caused so many fumbles that no one could even keep track. Miami said there were 13; ESPN said 12.

Running-backs were slipping, quarterbacks were losing the ball in their hands and the offensive line couldn’t stick to the ground and block.

The team had two types of cleats: hard bottom and molded bottom.

Each player has his own preference, but Boyer ensured that there were plenty of cleats, socks and gloves to go around.

“When it rains, our center switched from molded to hard bot-

toms so he could get into the ground more and not slip,” Boyer said. “The only guy on our team last year that was concerned with what his cleats did was Rashad Amos. He switched back and forth like three or four times between a couple different pairs.”

With the heavy use of the rungame, players kept sliding on the field and losing their balance. By halftime, the field paint at the 50-yard line was smeared over the players’ socks and uniforms.

Boyer and his equipment staff stayed busy for the duration of the game. For many staffers, this was the worst rain at any sporting event they’ve worked. Boyer needed to organize his staff. He assigned everyone a role, but they struggled to keep up with the weather.

“We ended up assigning one person to a trash bag with a bunch of towels. Anytime a ball came off, it went immediately in the bag,” Boyer said. “One kid had around 30 quarterback towels in his pockets and hoodie so he could hand them out. It takes a little bit more organization on our end.”

The staff handed out towels, swapped cleat bottoms, traded foot-

balls and dried the ones that weren’t in play, removed visors and handed out new gloves, jackets, etc.

The wet field provided a significant challenge for everybody. The offense couldn’t keep the ball in their hands, and their reliance on the rungame allowed the Mountaineers to force three fumbles. For Myers and the defense, their goal was simple: play to the same level as usual.

“Our big emphasis is on doing your job,” Myers said. “The attitude on the defensive side of the ball is always the same. You just have to be tougher and not let it affect you.

Don’t let outside factors like the rain impact your job. You can still go out there and whoop somebody.”

The RedHawk defense held the Mountaineers to 13 points with one interception and two fumble recoveries, but the RedHawks couldn’t overcome the weather when the ball was in their hands.

After the devastating 9-13 loss, the RedHawks were ready to dry off and fly back to Oxford. Historically, Miami rarely plays in weather-intensive games. The 2017 matchup between the RedHawks and the University of Cincinnati Bearcats saw strong winds and rain, but nothing compares to last year’s Cure Bowl.

Despite this, Boyer maintains that the experience was a teaching moment for the team and equipment staff.

“I was proud of our kids,” Boyer said. “The first half was a little rough, just everyone getting used to it. But, I thought in the second half we all did a really good job of adapting and finding our roles and making it work.” babukc@miamioh.edu @thekethan04 All photos by Jessica Monahan

10

entertainment

Entertainment’s most anticipated media of 2024

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

A love letter to Letterboxd

LETTERBOXD, A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM FOR SHARING AND REVIEWING FILM, HAS QUICKLY BECOME ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR CHLOE SOUTHARD’S FAVORITE APP. GRAPHIC BY CHLOE SOUTHARD

FIND OUT WHAT RELEASES THE ENTERTAINMENT STAFF IS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS YEAR; FROM FILMS TO ALBUMS, THERE’S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE TO GET EXCITED ABOUT. GRAPHIC BY CHLOE SOUTHARD

STAFF REPORT A new year means a plethora of new media: albums, films, shows, books and more. The Miami Student’s entertainment section has compiled a list of what we’re looking forward to this year. Go ahead and give it a read, you may find something to get excited about.

‘MaXXXine’ (release date TBA) I am a huge fan of Ti West’s “X” and its prequel “Pearl.” “MaXXXine” will be the final film in the trilogy, with scream queen Mia Goth reprising her role as Maxine Minx as she continues to pursue her dreams of becoming a movie star. I haven’t stopped thinking about “X” and “Pearl” since I first watched them, and I know “MaXXXine” will be the perfect ending to West’s bloody trilogy.

- Chloe Southard, Asst.

Entertainment Editor ‘Wicked Part 1’ (Nov. 27) I love the “Wicked” musical so much, and it was one of my grandma’s favorites. I’m curious to see how Ariana Grande performs as Glinda. I’m also anxious to see if it ends up being another “Mean Girls” situation, where the movie’s adaptations of the songs are not as well-liked as the original musical version.

- Taylor Powers, Entertainment Writer “Wicked” is one of my favorite musicals, and I’m very excited to see what a film version of the stage musical will look like. Much of the discussion around the film has been about Ariana Grande taking on the role of Glinda, but Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Jonathan Bailey will also be making appearances. Cynthia Erivo, a British actress and singer, will star as Elphaba. Given the two leading ladies’ histories on Broadway and on screen, I have high hopes for this film.

- Callie Meyer, Entertainment Writer New Pearl Jam album (release date TBA) Pearl Jam has confirmed that a new album is done and waiting to be named and released.

Following a lackluster album in 2020, I’m excited to see what Eddie Vedder and company can come up with. I don’t expect new stadium anthems or a resurgence of grunge. I do however expect a politically charged record that lands its punches somewhere between Green Day and Rage Against the Machine.

- Kasey Turman, Campus & Community Editor ‘Deadpool 3’ (July 26) I’ve been a fan of Deadpool for a long time, and I begged my mom to see the first one in theaters in 2016 when I was freshly 14 and into comic book heroes.

Ryan Reynolds’ performance as Deadpool is always funny and heartfelt and lends itself well to the character. Hugh Jackman is going to be joining Reynolds, reprising his role as Wolverine.

I’m excited to see what storyline is going to be explored and how these two characters will interact. I have high hopes!

- Callie Meyer, Entertainment Writer I’m really excited to see “Deadpool 3” since Hugh Jackman is returning to play Wolverine. I always wanted to see these two characters on screen together, and I honestly never thought it would happen, so I’m super pumped!

- John Hatch, Entertainment Writer ‘Lana’ — SZA (release date TBA) SZA is my favorite artist, and I loved the experimental tracks we got from “SOS,” but during an interview in December, she said she no longer associated or felt connected with the music from that album, so it’ll be exciting to see if this new album is something completely different or more in the realm of her debut album “CTRL.” - Kiser Young, Entertainment Writer ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ (Oct. 4) Do I care about the Joker or DC at all? No. But I do care deeply about Lady Gaga, who is starring alongside Joaquin Phoenix in this musical sequel to 2019’s “Joker.” Gaga is an outstanding actress, and I’m excited to see what she does with the character of Harley Quinn, especially after Margot Robbie’s beloved portrayal of her.

- Chloe Southard, Asst.

Entertainment Editor New Weeknd album (release date TBA) Since the 2021 Super Bowl Halftime show, I had a newfound love for The Weeknd — so much so that his song “Is There Someone Else?” ended up on my Spotify Wrapped this year. I can’t wait for his next album, especially since it’s his last album where he’s formally known as The Weeknd and the closing of his “After Hours” trilogy.

- Katie Whitehead, Entertainment Writer Final ‘Grand Tour’ episodes (Feb.) If you know anything about car journalism or entertainment, you know the trio that present “The Grand Tour.” Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have manned “Top Gear” and then “The Grand Tour” since 2002. This year, the trio announced that they will be presenting two final episodes to close out their 20 plus year long run in the form of specials that go to Mauritania and Zimbabwe.

There’s no doubt that the specials will be filled with beautiful scenery and great cars. I know I’ll be crying by the end of the last one.

- Kasey Turman, Campus & Community Editor ‘TANGK’ — Idles (Feb. 16) I’m really excited for the new Idles album — I especially liked the band’s last album, and I really like the dance-punk inspired sound of the singles put out so far.

- John Hatch, Entertainment Writer ‘Inside Out 2’ (June 14) I’m interested to see how anxiety is portrayed through Riley, and I think “Inside Out 2” has the potential to be very impactful in how mental health is displayed in the media.

- Taylor Powers, Entertainment Writer The first “Inside Out” was my childhood, and it absolutely resonated with me because at the time of its release, I was not only the same age as the main character, but I had also moved houses.

I can’t wait to watch the second one now that I’m more grown up, especially with the new emotions of anxiety and embarrassment.

- Katie Whitehead, Entertainment Writer

CHLOE SOUTHARD

ASST. ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR In today’s digital age, there’s an app for everything.

For those learning a new language, there’s Duolingo. For someone looking to book a place to stay, there’s Airbnb. For those looking for love, there’s Tinder.

And for those who love movies, there’s Letterboxd.

Letterboxd, named after a film transferring process, is a social media platform in which users can keep track of, review and share their tastes in film. It almost functions as a diary; for each film logged, users can add a review and rate the movie using a five star system. Think of it as a Goodreads for film instead of books.

I began using Letterboxd in 2021.

I was taking a sexualities and film class, and I thought it’d be fun to log each film that I watched. I now use the platform religiously, and I can confidently say that it’s become my favorite app.

Your Letterboxd profile is as serious as you make it, and that’s part of why I love the platform so much.

There’s no correct way to review a film. I love leaving silly, one-liner reviews of movies I’ve watched, and others enjoy writing long-form, thought-out reviews.

No matter what your opinion on a

film is, someone out there will share that same idea. What the majority labels as trash may be a masterpiece to you, and on Letterboxd, you’re guaranteed to find someone else who appreciates the film similarly to yourself.

If you feel isolated for not enjoying a widely-loved film, don’t worry, someone else hates it just as much as you. I’ve never felt so comforted when I saw how many people also hated “2001: A Space Odyssey” just as much as I did.

While the platform is free to use, there are paid options that give users access to more features. The pro tier allows users to track their stats, select their favorite streaming services and more. The patron tier includes all the features of pro plus the ability for users to change movie posters and display backdrops on their accounts, reviews and lists.

When users pay to become a pro or patron on Letterboxd, the money directly goes to the creators. Because I use the app so much, I’ve upgraded to patron, and I don’t regret it.

But perhaps what I love most about Letterboxd is the way it allows us to connect through film. Communal viewing experiences are much less common today due to the rise of streaming. Through Letterboxd, you’re able to see what the entire community is watching, its thoughts on certain films, what people want to watch, etc.

This new way of bonding through cinema is the reason why I find myself instantly logging a film after viewing it. There’s something so exciting about being able to publicly share your thoughts on a movie and getting to read others’ in return, especially your friends’.

Nearly all of the accounts I follow on Letterboxd belong to my friends, and I’m constantly checking their profiles to see what they’ve been watching. Whether a friend has watched a movie I love or want to watch, it makes for an interesting conversation whenever we see each other in person.

Not to mention, I’ve been exposed to several films that I never would’ve heard of without Letterboxd. Many of these movies have scored a place on my favorites list, including “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Mayday” and “Eileen.”

Thanks to Letterboxd, I’m always adding onto my watchlist. Now, whenever I feel like watching a movie, I’m never unsure of what to pick.

Whether you consider yourself a cinephile or just casually watch movies, Letterboxd is well worth the download. Being able to connect through the art of film is such a human experience, and Letterboxd takes that experience to a whole new level. @_chloebowie_ southacr@miamioh.edu

We’re ‘Dune’ it again

EDITOR IN CHIEF SEAN SCOTT EXPLORES “THE MOVIES” AS AN EXPERIENCE AND HOW THE FILM INDUSTRY IS BATTLING AGAINST STREAMING AFTER ATTENDING A REISSUE OF “DUNE” IN THEATERS. GRAPHIC BY CHLOE SOUTHARD

SEAN SCOTT

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF It’s a Wednesday night, and the Imax theater in the West Chester AMC is packed with hundreds of people.

No one is there to see the scant offerings of 2024 so far or the holiday holdovers (pun intended) of last year. There’s definitely no one interested in “Aquaman 2,” though some are undoubtedly Jason Mamoa fans.

No, everyone has gathered for the one night only reissue of Denis Villenueve’s 2021 masterpiece, “Dune.”

This is a movie made to be seen in theaters. The scale is massive, the visual effects weighty. Hans Zimmer’s score and Greig Fraser’s cinematography demand to be heard and seen in the largest format possible, surrounding the audience.

Sure, a not-insignificant portion of tonight’s audience is probably there for the promise of an extended preview for the soon-to-be-released “Dune: Part Two,” which, by the way, didn’t actually play — thanks, AMC. But the real treat is really getting to experience “Dune” the way it was intended.

Three years ago, I would’ve found this turnout almost impossible.

I’m a self-professed skeptic when it comes to the future of the theater industry. 2019 clearly stood out as a high-water mark for movies (at least in terms of box office returns) even before the pandemic crippled the industry mere months later. Disney alone had seven billion-dollar movies, a feat I doubt any studio will come close to anytime in the near future.

That same year, Apple TV+ and Disney+ both launched, and Peacock and the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max were on the horizon. The future of film had never looked so dismal, cramming best picture nominees onto phone displays instead of the 50-foot screens they deserved.

Fast forward two years and the painful recovery of the box office from COVID-19 was limping along when Villeneuve’s “Dune” premiered in October.

While “Dune” was my most anticipated title of the year, both because of my love of Frank Herbert’s books and for what Villeneuve accomplished with “Arrival,” I would describe my hopes for a sequel at the time as very low.

Despite occupying a similar place in science fiction as “Lord of the Rings” in fantasy, the mass appeal of “Dune” is undeniably smaller. “The Fellowship of the Ring” boasts 2.78 million ratings on GoodReads to “Dune’s” 1.3 million — not exactly a flattering comparison.

Against the odds, the film hobbled along past $400 million worldwide. I admit that even with the COVID caveat, I would’ve preferred $500 million to call it a success. As it was, such artistic achievements as “Venom: Let there be Carnage” and “Sing 2” beat the film at the box office.

And yet, Warner Bros greenlit “Dune: Part Two.” One month out from the sequel’s premiere (finally), and the anticipation feels huge this time around. As of right now, I would put its box office hopes around $650 million, a major increase from part one, and “Dune: Messiah,” my favor-

ite book in the series, is already in the works.

What changed?

Well, aside from the obvious waning of the pandemic (or at least people’s attentiveness to it), theaters finally seem to be putting up a decent fight against streaming. The past year in movies will forever be remembered for two things. First, the death of superhero movies as guaranteed tentpoles. Second, Barbenheimer.

For years, directors and actors have been begging audiences to see their movies in large formats. But when the biggest offerings in theaters month after month are MCU movies, and streaming services offer us the same characters at minimal pricing in shitty show format, there’s no longer a reason to go to theaters.

Barbenheimer finally reaffirmed the importance of “The Movies” as an experience. Of course you have to see “Oppenheimer” in the largest format available. Of course you need to get dressed up and make a whole day out of watching “Barbie” with your friends. Movies are made to be a communal experience, not something you sit on your couch and throw on at 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday when you’re bored and sad (no judgment, though).

With “Dune: Part Two,” it looks like audiences are willing to buy in.

Warner Bros has abandoned its dayand-date strategy of letting movies premiere in theaters and on streaming at the same time, encouraging fans to catch the film in theaters or risk missing out on the conversation.

The star power of Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh undoubtedly helps as well, and why wouldn’t you want to see the sand worms as large as possible?

Thanks to schedule changes by studios in the wake of the writers’ and actors’ strikes, 2024 is pretty light overall on butts-in-seats movies. Reissues like “Dune” certainly help though, and I expect we’ll see more anniversary-type movies trying to fill the space.

Hopefully Hollywood can learn from 2023 instead of panicking about what’s sure to be a down year and put more money into the theatrical experience going forward. scottsr2@miamioh.edu

FOOD

11 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Mealtime with Meredith: 10-minute General Tso’s Stir-Fry MEREDITH PERKINS COLUMNIST

Hello, chefs.

With all the chaos of starting a new semester, few students want to devote an hour of their night to experimenting with a new recipe.

Sometimes, it feels like students have to choose between having a ‘real’ dinner and getting assignments done.

With my chicken and vegetable stir-fry recipe, you don’t have to choose: You can make a hearty, delicious meal in just 10 minutes.

I love this stir-fry recipe because I can get a serving of protein, starch and vegetables in the same amount of time it would take to make a pot of simple boxed mac and cheese.

To create this recipe, all you need is a box of rice noodles, some chicken breasts, some General Tso’s sauce and any blend of vegetables you prefer.

I enjoy adding honey and sesame oil to my General Tso’s sauce to sweeten and deepen the flavor, but if you don’t have these pantry staples on-hand, simple salt and pepper will be fine.

For my vegetable blend, I use Kroger’s stir-fry starter pack. I like this frozen blend of peppers, mushrooms, onions, snap sugar peas, broccoli, carrots and celery because it is cheap and ensures I have a diversity of vegetables in my meal without having to prep and cut each individual vegetable.

I typically use three pots for this recipe: one for the veggies, one for pan-searing the chicken and one for boiling the rice noodles. It creates more dishes, but it cuts the cooking time.

Because rice noodles cook very quickly, I recommend cooking them last: Overcooking rice noodles isn’t tragic, but often results in a mushy, sticky texture.

I start with getting the chicken pan-searing and my noodle water boiling. Pan-searing is my favorite method for cooking chicken because it gives chicken a crispy, flavorful exterior and a juicy interior if prepared correctly.

To pan-sear chicken, coat the bottom of a pot (I prefer a pot to a skillet to not get oil splatters on my stovetop) with oil until the oil is hot. Salt the chicken on each side, then set in the pan.

It is best to not add every seasoning immediately, as they can burn in the oil. To season my chicken, I add Kick’n Chicken, which goes well with a variety of different cuisines.

After the chicken sears for 90 seconds, I flip it and add seasoning to the seared side. About 90 seconds later, I flip it again and add seasoning to the unseasoned seared side.

While my chicken continues to cook, I drizzle some oil in my vegetable pot and pour my full bag of frozen stir-fry starters in.

I let the frozen vegetables thaw for a little bit, then add a teaspoon of ses-

ame oil, two tablespoons of General Tso’s sauce and a drizzle of honey.

I let my chicken cook to an internal temperature of 155 degrees and then remove from the pan, as the chicken continues to cook internally after being removed. Removing it slightly earlier than 165 degrees can preserve juiciness.

Once my chicken is done, I toss my container of rice noodles in the boiling water, letting them cook for three minutes. If you are only cooking one portion, use half of your container of rice noodles and cook the other half on the day you eat your leftovers.

I cut my chicken into bite-sized pieces and mix them into my vegetable pot, letting the chicken soak in General Tso’s sauce.

When the noodles are done, you can serve them on the side or swirl them into your vegetable pot to coat in the sauce.

When it is time to serve, plate the stir-fry in a bowl. I enjoy giving the chicken and vegetable blend a light drizzle of sesame oil.

If you haven’t invested in a bottle of sesame oil, seriously do it. It’s $5 and elevates the umami taste of any rice or noodle bowl magnificently.

And, there you go chefs: after 10 minutes, you have freshly grilled chicken, freshly sautéed vegetables and delicious rice noodles in a beautiful bowl of stir-fry. perkin16@miamioh.edu

Oxford welcomes new chicken restaurant Uptown

FEATURED ARE THE INGREDIENTS USED TO PREPARE THIS QUICK MEAL. PHOTO BY MEREDITH PERKINS

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THIS GENERAL TSO’S STIRFRY IS A PERFECT ALTERNATIVE TO ORDERING TAKEOUT AND CAN BE MADE WITH VERY FEW INGREDIENTS. PHOTO BY MEREDITH PERKINS

KAITLIN MCDOWELL FOOD EDITOR

Jan. 21 marked the grand opening of Oxford’s newest chicken restaurant, OxVegas Chicken.

Owned by Miami alum Jackson Trester and current senior Tyler Storer, OxVegas Chicken is located on 48 E. Park Place.

The two met at Miami in an entrepreneurship class in 2021 and came up with their idea for the restaurant for Startup Weekend Miami, where they took home third place.

This is not Oxford’s first chicken restaurant, as Gobbler has been open since late November; however, the two restaurants have many differences.

Due to its proximity to campus, OxVegas Chicken is convenient for Miami students living on and off campus. Gobbler, located on Spring Street, can seem like a farther distance for students in dorms and traveling on foot.

OxVegas Chicken is open from noon until 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, making it a great late night snack choice for those dancing the night away at Brick Street. The restaurant is open until midnight Sunday through Wednesday.

The interior of this new restaurant is very spacious and offers many tables for indoor dining. OxVegas Chicken also has a full bar that has yet to open.

The menu is substantially smaller than Gobbler’s, but it serves all the staples one would expect from a fried chicken restaurant.

The options include Texas toast, french fries, mac and cheese, chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders.

Like every other chicken restaurant nowadays, OxVegas has also created its own dipping sauce, known as OxSauce. This sauce could be easily mistaken for thousand island dressing.

Fair price for filling food The restaurant started on a good foot with its affordable prices. OxVegas chicken charges $10.49 for three chicken tenders and one sauce, labeled as the “Freshman” on the menu, and $16.49 for the “Senior,” eight tenders and two sauces. The menu titles are perfect for a chicken restaurant in a college town.

OxVegas Chicken offers a contactless method of ordering with three touchpads on the wall. This allowed for a quick way to place an order.

The restaurant was not busy when I arrived, and my food was ready very quickly.

I ordered the freshman meal which came with three chicken tenders, french fries and a piece of Texas toast.

The chicken tenders were very crispy, but not so crispy that they tasted burnt. I dipped these in the OxVegas sauce, which added a subtle sweetness to the tenders.

The fries were comparable to those served at Skipper’s Pub, which in my opinion are too greasy and soft. The Texas toast was also very soft and garlic flavored.

Overall, I really enjoyed my meal. I received a very filling amount of food for a good price on a college student budget.

In addition to their delicious food, OxVegas Chicken sells merchandise for their restaurant, similarly to other Oxford establishments like Bagel and Deli and Skipper’s.

The restaurant sells a T-shirt, a crewneck with the slogan “Love, Honor, Chicken” on the back and a hooded sweatshirt.

GIVING CIRCLE GRANTS Have a project or an idea that needs funded? MIAMI Women wants to invest!

THE INTERIOR OF OXVEGAS CHICKEN IS VERY SPACIOUS AND PROVIDES MANY OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDOOR DINING. PHOTO BY KAITLIN MCDOWELL

• •

Applicants are invited whether solo or in groups, teams or organizations.

Grants awarded for programs, projects, initiatives, and research that are not profitmaking endeavors.

Think big! $125,000 awarded in grants last year.

Finalists will be part of Hawk Tank, a live, fastpitch event on May 2, 2024, where our Giving Circle members will vote for their favorite projects to receive funding.

OXVEGAS CHICKEN’S SIGNATURE DIPPING SAUCE IS TITLED OXVEGAS SAUCE AND ADDS A SWEET FLAVOR TO THE TENDERS. PHOTO BY KAITLIN MCDOWELL

Past winners include: Miami University Mentoring Program for Women and Minorities in STEM, Nursing Peer Tutoring Program, Democracy Bus, and many others.

For more on past recipients, visit GivetoMiamiOH.org/HawkTankUpdates.

APPLY BY FEB. 16, 2024.

GIVETOMIAMIOH.ORG/WGCGRANTS

INSTEAD OF A TRADITIONAL CASHIER STYLE, OXVEGAS CHICKEN ALLOWS ITS CUSTOMERS TO ORDER ON TABLETS ATTACHED TO THE WALL. PHOTO BY KAITLIN MCDOWELL

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Are you a: ......

• • • •

Rating: 8/10 mcdowekr@miamioh.edu

If you are a student, staff, or faculty member of any of the Miami University campuses, you are invited to apply for grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000.

PICTURED IS THE FRESHMAN MEAL, FEATURING 3 CHICKEN TENDERS, WAFFLE FRIES AND TEXAS TOAST. PHOTO BY KAITLIN MCDOWELL

writer photographer designer or illustrator?

Visit miamistudent.net to Join the TMS Team!

12

humor J-term: My time adulting TEDDY JOHNSON

CO-HUMOR EDITOR Ahh, J-term.

For many, J-term serves as a time to relax, take a break or, for the ambitious few, even enroll in a class.

(That last option is reserved for those with money — J-term classes are like $10,000.)

However, a brave few individuals (me) opt to acquire a job and pay for the many expenses (car that I chose to buy) life presents to you.

I worked more days than I had off, and I loved my jobs as well as the people I worked with, which I am incredibly grateful for. If I wasn’t so busy over J-term I’d lose my freaking mind.

I thought that working jobs in the adult world would be a good time to take a break from the antics that come with being a Miami student, but I couldn’t be more wrong.

Working at a local townie bar proved to have its fair share of antics as well.

The only thing worse than drunk college students is drunk middle-aged people. I’ve never received such direct sexual innuendos from female customers in my life.

And boy, if I had a dollar for every time someone said I look like Jeremy Allen White, I’d have well, maybe 20 dollars. But still!

Working at a middle-aged bar also can boost the ego a bit because damn, these ladies held nothing back. Even though I was probably half their age, I got constant compliments on my appearance, particularly my gluteus maximus.

I also thought that going to the

bars in Oxford was a fever dream, but here I am in Bloomington, Illinois driving a man named Cupcake home because he couldn’t find an Uber.

In the wildest series of events, a drunken patron lost his phone and didn’t remember their address because of how drunk they were.

Being the hero that I am, I drove him home, and it turns out he lives in my neighborhood. Boy am I lucky!

Not only did I work at a bar, I served as an assistant manager (or as we call it “ass man”) at a climbing gym which had its fair shares of bloopers as well.

Yes, said bloopers were mostly my fault but I did learn valuable lessons.

My dumbest moment occurred in consecutive shifts. There seemed to be a leak somewhere in the gym, so naturally I shop-vacuumed it up to clear out the water.

The next day, I used the same shop-vac to suck up some dust from our other vacuum filter. As the shopvac did its sucky thing, dust poured out of the air vent. Turning the gym pro shop into a dusty mess, reminiscent of “The Foggy Fog” from Dora’s Pirate Adventure.

My boss said, “Someone must’ve taken out the bag in the shop vac.” As we looked, embarrassment spread across my face faster than COVID spread at anti-vax rallies. The bag was broken because I shop-vacuumed water with a bag in it.

Apparently this is a no-no. Oops.

Adulting can be hard. But, we learn from our mistakes. Don’t be afraid to make them. john1595@miamioh.edu

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

I hate skiing

GRAPHIC BY ERIN MCGOVERN

PATRICK SULLIVAN HUMOR EDITOR

I will never go skiing.

I don’t understand the cult that all skiers are a part of. It’s just as cult-like as Miami’s Greek Life, and it possesses some similarities. Both are always recruiting and trying to tell you it’s not hell. People think hell is hot and fiery, I think it’s cold and at the top of a ski slope.

Allow me to paint the picture of what a fun ski day sounds like to me.

I put on the thickest coats I can find and get in my car. Like an idiot rookie, I put them on before even arriving at the ski resort so immediately I’m like a sweatshop. Apparently, Ohio has mountains, and for some reason, I drive an hour to one of these “mountains.”

I get out of the car, my sweat dries instantly, and immediately I turn to pellet ice. After paying about $150 for a pass and all my gear, I strap what feels like bear traps to my feet and find myself at the bottom of the slope watching the ever revolving ski chairs.

Skiers have mere seconds to jump onto one of these before it whisks you away to your death. The second I sit in the chair and my feet leave the ground, I realize I really need to pee.

But it doesn’t matter. There’s no way off this ride of doom.

And then it happens. I reach the “mountain” top. The dismount from the ever loving death trap chair lift of doom is terrifying because there are only three outcomes, and you have seconds to figure it out.

1) Jump off and elegantly maneuver out of the way. That never happens.

2) Jump/fall off and get knocked into the snow by your chair. Head in the snow, you can’t get up because there’s a chair. After chair. After chair. Hitting you in the back as you lie in embarrassment. The chairs never stop. Allegedly there’s one emergency stop button, but if you press it, you get shot on sight.

And then there’s the third option.

I wouldn’t wish the third option on my worst enemy. The third option is when you miss the stop and have to

ride that thing all the way back down.

You ride down looking like a disappointment, as the other skiers are spitting on you, throwing ice at your head and screaming unrepeatable insults.

Now let’s say you managed option one or two. Now, because of a mixture of fear and cold, you’re shaking on the top of the mountain and there appears to be only one way down. Your friends are long gone, leaving you next to some 7-year-olds who kick you in the shin before they go down.

How do they do this while wearing skis? Don’t ask.

All you’ve been told is “pizza to stop taco to go.” What does that even mean? You push with your sticks, and you’re going, and you’re picking up speed and you fall. And you’re falling.

And you’re falling. Trees are whizzing by. People are laughing. Children are urinating on your dreams. Snow is getting into crevices you didn’t even know existed.

And then it’s over.

I’m lying in a snow covered heap at the bottom. I stand up, pick up my skis, and what’s left of my dignity, and beeline to the bathroom. I’ve already defecated my pants at this point, but I figured I should clean myself off.

Finally, after I put myself together again, I head back towards the death ride of ski chairs. My friends tell me the park is closing, and it’s time to go home.

As I get to my car, I am wet from the head down due to the mixture of snow, sweat and tears. Before I drive home, I have to put on a brave face and tell my mom I had a great time so she wouldn’t scold me for wasting $150. And that is why I will never go skiing. sulli293@miamioh.edu

New Year’s Resolutions for Miami Students TEDDY JOHNSON CO-HUMOR EDITOR

Eat the food you made at home instead of paying for New Year, New You? If you already gave up on your an overpriced bagel New Year’s resolutions, here are some more ideas for the most ambitious Miami students to work on this se- Ladies — walk home instead of laying on the ground mester. when you are drunk Use meal swipes instead of using all your declining dollars in the first 2 weeks back Show up to your 8:30 classes Go to class on Green Beer Day

Gentlemen — stop pouring beers down your pants Athletes —Listen to Kendrick Lamar when he says, “Sit Down. Be Humble.”

Go to church (of Chanks)

Go to class … in general

Trim the bushes on campus instead of jumping in them

Stay sober for more than one day in a row Pee in the bathroom instead of on the Sundial turtles Water the sidewalks so the sprinklers don’t have to

No caffeine after 10 p.m. because you do need to sleep Write for the school newspaper john1595@miamioh.edu

Miami Plan classes the university should add CONNOR OVIATT

THE MIAMI STUDENT This semester, I am taking on a variety of Miami Plan courses.

I’m happy with my selections, but I couldn’t help but think there would be a few classes I would enjoy taking a bit more. At the end of the article, I will attach a petition to make sure that our voices are heard. It’s our education, after all.

Underwater Basket Weaving Broomball and ice skating sound like fun classes. But I think the pinnacle of athleticism lies in underwater basket weaving. I am an avid watcher of The Association of Underwater Basket Weaving Professionals and Amateurs (AUBWPA), and I can’t help but say that Hansel “Sea Sewer’’ Jackson is the greatest athlete of all time. I’m even saying that as someone who was born in the same hos-

Are you a: • writer • photographer • designer • or illustrator?

pital as LeBron. Underwater basket weaving teaches resolve, precision and hydration that many Miami students need.

The Wiggles: A Look Into Australian Performance Who would not like to earn their art credit by singing along and analyzing The Wiggles? Nothing would get you more excited to attend your 8 a.m. Friday class like singing classics such as “Fruit Salad” and “Get Ready

to Wiggle.” Plus, I think that students should only get an “A” if they recreate “The Toilet Song” and email it to the entire university. Not only would it be an entertaining class, but it could bring our university together.

Diplomatic negotiations with Dora and Diego I think learning from our childhood heroes, adventurers Dora and Diego, would be a great way to gain an intercultural perspective. Not only do

Diego and Dora travel the world, but they interact with renowned criminals such as Swiper. This would be a great opportunity for psychology and political science majors to be exposed to the “art of negotiation” (typically reserved for elite business students).

This would be a challenging and stressful course but would be a great capstone option for those majors. oviattcc@miamioh.edu

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

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style

14

Unveiling fast fashion’s environmental impact

EUROPEAN PROTESTORS ADVOCATE AGAINST FAST FASHION’S EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT. PHOTO VIA STEFAN MÜLLER ON WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

MADDIE REISINGER THE MIAMI STUDENT

Gen Z consumers are quick to purchase trendy, cheap clothing items, but there’s a cost.

Fast fashion is a retail strategy focused on producing affordable, trendy clothing quickly and cheaply.

According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 2-8% of global carbon emissions.

Boohoo, H&M, Shein and Forever 21 are just some examples of clothing retailers that utilize fast-fashion practices.

It is imperative that fast fashion practices take more precedence in regard to international climate change initiatives — the source of which is consumerism.

Young people account for a majority of fast fashion purchases. According to BBC, more than 40% of 16 to 24-year-olds buy clothes online at least once a week. Spending totals on clothes vary widely across the globe, with British people spending the most.

In 2019, the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion was created in an effort to tackle this ongoing environmental crisis. It partnered with UN bodies to promote and educate others on the risks of fast fashion within their countries.

Bills have been introduced within Congress and on the state level across the country, but the U.S. has yet to implement true legislation against fast fashion. Bills have been passed protecting the rights of garment workers, which is a step in the

right direction.

The Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change Act (The FABRIC Act) is the first federal fashion bill in the U.S. Buying secondhand clothing is a prime example of how to reduce the consumerism of fast fashion. Companies such as Poshmark, Depop and Facebook Marketplace make it easy to buy and sell clothing items and accessories. Thrift stores are another popular option to either pass on or purchase clothes for a reduced price.

Clothing rental companies have been on the rise as an alternative to fast fashion shopping. Rent the Runway, Nuuly and FashionPass offer clothing rentals for different time durations and categories of clothing.

Rather than shopping at Forever 21 for a particular item you’ll only wear once, these rental companies are great opportunities to constantly cycle through a wardrobe without the harmful effects of fast fashion.

Fast fashion’s environmental impact on the world cannot be ignored any longer. Companies have evolved and proven that sustainability within fashion is achievable through smart practices.

It is now time for government agencies to follow suit and enact proper legislation. The choices global powers make today will determine the fashion industry’s role in creating more environmentally friendly practices for the future.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Start this spring semester in a new style EVAN STEFANIK STYLE EDITOR

Now that the new semester has started, Miami University students are searching for ways to revamp their style.

For some, that means keeping up with the glow they got on vacation by self-tanning at Oxford’s Palm Beach Tan or shopping for winter clothes at the local TJ Maxx and Goodwill. Others shed last year’s skin by clearing out their wardrobe.

Dulce Matthews, a junior computer science major, runs a private Snapchat story where she sells her retired pieces to friends for as low as $5. Then, she either donates the leftovers as hand-me-downs to her family or pawns them at Plato’s Closet.

“The holidays kickstart you wanting to be a new person, so more people are willing to buy my stuff,” Matthews said. “They get to enjoy my stuff, and I get rid of it. It’s a win-win.”

She tends to stock up on athleticwear and warm long-sleeves for herself after finishing her sales. In this cold stretch, wearing beige and deeper colors like navy to contrast the brightness of Oxford’s gray envi-

STUDENTS SHOULD WEAR WINTER COATS, BUT FEEL FREE TO DRESS UP UNDERNEATH WITH NEUTRAL SHADES LIKE BEIGE. PHOTO BY EVAN STEFANIK

ronment makes her happiest.

Her approach typically puts her in sweatpants and sweatshirts from Aloe and Urban Outfitters. Most days, she wears her long North Face coat and comfortable UGG boots overtop.

“I try to curate myself to be more minimalistic,” Matthews said. “I’d rather not have as much but have some staples instead.”

MANY STUDENTS GO SHOPPING FOR THE NEW SEMESTER AT TJ MAXX IN OXFORD. PHOTO BY EVAN STEFANIK

reisinmy@miamioh.edu

STUDENTS OFTEN DONATE GOODS FROM THEIR HOLIDAY SEASON AT THE OXFORD GOODWILL. PHOTO BY EVAN STEFANIK

Walking around campus, Matthews hopes to see less Lululemon and Artizia on students. So, they might visit Goodwill to turn a profit from the trendy brands.

Ruth Cole, Goodwill’s store manager, said up to 30 more students come to the store every day now, compared to the stagnance of business during Miami’s break.

Besides the outdated Christmas products that constantly load in, students also stop by to sort through decorations for their upcoming fun.

“A lot of students come in to buy miscellaneous things for themed parties,” Cole said. “A lot of household goods go, too.”

But for improving their own physical appearance instead, students check in at Palm Beach Tan. Madison Huber, general manager and senior education studies major, mostly encounters sorority members around this time.

“There’s always a boost in business because of rush season,” Huber said. “We go from about 70-80 people a day to 100.”

Huber recommends anybody interested in instant results to first experiment with light-to-medium sprays, rather than trying to darken quickly using a sunbed. The company offers sprays that gradually match the customers’ skin tone.

However, saving money bodes best for students. So, for the simplest way to improve in fashion ahead of the curve this semester, they should follow Matthews’s advice.

“People get attached to clothes for their sentimental vibe,” Matthews said. “But you have to think about what you’re actually wearing, and if it makes sense to still take up space in your closet.” stefanec@miamioh.edu

The ultimate 2024 fashion ‘ins and outs’ list

LEE COMBINES SOME OF HER INS AND OUTS FOR 2024. GRAPHIC BY EVAN STEFANIK

ALLISON LEE

STYLE COLUMNIST If you were a fan of “The Clique”

by Lisi Harrison, then you will know that “ins and outs” lists have been around for a while.

Although the series’ main character was cutthroat and brutal with her

lists, the internet has put a fun twist on them — so I decided to make my own.

Out: Cropped jackets How are these keeping anybody warm?

Stylish? Sure. But I would much rather be warm and functional than freezing for an outfit that people will

Are you a: • writer • photographer • designer • or illustrator?

just see on my socials anyway.

And besides, if you do not layer correctly, outfits can quickly become awkward to wear and bulky with cropped jackets.

I loved my cropped puffer circa 2019, but whenever I wore it with oversized hoodies, it would look unbalanced and be uncomfortable to

move in. The sleeves always felt too tight for their length.

A jacket that you can feel good in is so underrated. They are often just seen as something to throw over your outfit, but finding a jacket that is both stylish and functional can add complexity to your wardrobe and quickly become a staple.

Out: Noisy prints Trends change quicker by the second, and it can be hard to keep up with them. That being said, noisy prints are so distracting if not done properly.

Patterns can be iconic and show-stopping if executed correctly.

Instead of going toward fast fashion-esque cheaply made patterns, prints should be good quality and sparsely used.

Animal prints, houndstooth and flannel patterns are best used as statement pieces, like an oversized coat or a silk blouse. Bright colors can often look busy and pull attention away from your natural features (which should always be complimented), especially when mixed with prints.

Instead of reaching for micro-trendy patterns, go for a classic that can be used in your wardrobe for years to come.

Late 2023 brought forward several trends and aesthetics, but they all took root in simplicity and minimalism. I picked two big “ins” that are easy to come by and sustainable for your closet.

In: Ribbons With the resurgence of the coquette aesthetic and soft femininity, ribbons have been everywhere. Urban Outfitters has a featured line,

Kimchi Blue, that showcases the ribbon in several forms as sleeves, knits and even garnish.

The simple ribbon can be used in so many ways besides the conventional hair accessory. I like to tie ribbons around purse straps, replace shoelaces with them and weave them into my torn-up clothes.

Ribbons have been underutilized, but they can be so unique if you use your imagination.

In: Little black purses Every single time I’m in New York City, the girls look so effortlessly chic with their little black purses slung over their shoulders. I am no expert in trend forecasting, but I can predict that the popular crossbody bags will soon fade into yesterday.

As the target demographic for brands like Lululemon shift toward younger age groups, investing in a timeless black purse will ensure that your outfits always look put-together and timeless.

A little black purse will always elevate your outfits, no matter what aesthetic you are going for. It is much more practical than your average crossbody because it is more spacious and easily fits over outerwear, compared to the awkward lumps crossbody bags cause.

Building a capsule wardrobe is extremely important, especially now with such prevalent consumerism.

That is why basics are in, to make sure that my clothes can stay relevant throughout the microtrends that come and go. leeam8@miamioh.edu

Visit miamistudent.net to Join the TMS Team!

15

GreenHawks

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

An underground battery: Miami’s latest geothermal plant conversion

BILLINGS HALL HOUSES THE CURRENT NORTH CHILLER PLANT, WHICH WILL BE TRANSFORMED INTO A GEOTHERMAL PLANT. PHOTO BY AVA KALINA

AVA KALINA COLUMNIST

Following senior commencement, Miami University plans to break ground for construction, but not for a new academic building or residence hall.

Miami will begin drilling more than 500 wells almost 850 feet into the earth as the university’s next step toward carbon neutrality. The wells will be used for geothermal energy extraction to support the conversion of the North Chiller Plant from fossil-fuel-powered steam systems to a geothermal energy plant. According to the Energy Information Administration, geothermal plants use wells to extract and use the heat from the Earth’s interior to power turbines that generate electricity.

Olivia Herron, director of sustainability at Miami, is overseeing this project.

“Through the President’s Climate Leadership Commitment, President Crawford has committed Miami to carbon neutrality by 2040. The biggest source of our emissions, broadly, is energy,” Herron said. “But specifically, we can attribute the biggest single source to heating and cooling our buildings.”

The North Chiller Plant, located between Withrow and McFarland Halls, currently provides heating and cooling through steam systems powered by natural gas, a fossil fuel.

Although cleaner than conventional fossil fuels such as coal and oil, natural gas is non-renewable, and unintended leaks or flaring can harm the environment.

“We have transitioned to natural gas, which is obviously a lot cleaner.

But still, we know that it’s not efficient to send something really hot through 14 miles of underground line. You’re just always going to have heat loss,” Herron said. “... This transition to geothermal is essential to achieving our carbon neutrality targets and will just improve the energy efficiency of all of the buildings it starts.”

The soon-to-be North Geothermal Plant will provide clean heating and cooling to many North campus buildings, including Millett Hall and the Student Athlete Development Center. In addition to North Campus buildings being supported by the North Geothermal Plant, Shideler and Bachelor Hall will be transitioned onto Western’s existing geothermal energy plant.

The Oxford campus projects to heat 43 buildings from geothermal by 2026, accounting for 39% of campus buildings and making geothermal the largest energy source by square footage and number of buildings.

Geothermal plants produce and store energy all year round, making them a reliable source for fluctuating weather patterns and changing climates. Don Van Winkle, the associate director of engineering within Miami’s physical facilities department, explains its capacity to balance energy shortages in times of need.

“What the geothermal wellfield will allow us to do is take that energy we’re pulling out in an unbalanced situation and store it in the ground,” Van Winkle said. “So if we are in the cooling season, we’ve got to take a bunch of heat out of spaces. And we always have someplace to put heat, there’s always domestic hot water going on, no matter what time of year.”

Van Winkle explained that the current steam system is a balancing

act of energy use, and with geothermal the ground can be used as an underground battery to store unused energy.

“There is always use for some of the heat, but it could be out of balance. We can use the new geothermal wells to send that heat into the ground, and then it’s available for us to use in the winter when we are unbalanced the other way.”

The original project outline for digging these geothermal wells planned on tearing up the Millett parking lot, but discussions in the fall 2023 semester led to a decision not to drill the wells underneath the parking lot. Herron said the wells will be dug under the grass in front of Millett instead.

The energy efficiency, low cost and storage abilities of geothermal energy make it an enticing source of energy for college campuses. With its growing popularity, Miami has run into issues finding contractors to begin construction.

“Cost is going crazy with everything right now, but there’s also a pretty high demand for transitioning to geothermal, especially amongst college campuses,” Van Winkle said.

“Contractors, they’re becoming more available but a lot of them are busy.

There’s a lot of people doing this work. It’s hard to get good competitive pricing and construction in general right now.”

Once the plant is in operation, the university expects costs to go down from removing cooling towers that currently serve the chiller plant, which require excessive chemicals and water for steam production.

The transition to geothermal is one step closer to Miami’s goal of carbon neutrality, and places Miami as an exemplary institution in the race to decarbonization. From 20082022 the university reduced their energy-based carbon emissions by 57% and saved $95 million from utility usage. Another geothermal plant will push Miami to wider dependency on geothermal energy and a subsequent reduction in emissions.

“It’s also exciting because the goal is essentially for eventually all buildings to be tied on to this geothermal system,” said Herron.

Miami’s North Chiller Plant conversion is expected to begin in the summer of 2024 and be in full operation starting the spring of 2026, with time to charge the Earth’s “battery” over the summer months. kalinaae@miamioh.edu

GRAPHIC BY SEAN SCOTT

Sustainability events on campus to look out for this spring

GRAPHIC BY MACEY CHAMBERLIN

SAM NORTON,

GREENHAWKS EDITOR After six weeks off, Miami University students have once again made the journey back to Oxford for another semester. Students tough out the first several weeks of cold weather, wet conditions and windy days until the spring. The coming of spring brings warm weather and the blooming of plants, a reminder of the resiliency of the natural environment.

It is no wonder that spring is often associated with environmental movements and emphasis on sustainability practices; just look at when Earth Day falls. Miami is no exception to this trend, and there are plenty of events, activities and clubs that can help you get in touch with the environment this semester.

EarthFest — 11 a.m. 2 p.m., April 20 EarthFest is an annual event held in the Oxford Memorial Park that spreads awareness about sustainability in the Oxford community.

The event will be held on April 20, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and allows Miami students, faculty and Oxford residents to interact with dozens of student groups and Oxford organizations.

The event is free and often comes with live entertainment and giveaways. It is hosted by the Miami Environmental Professionals Association, which you can contact to learn more.

Altman Lecture Series The 2023-2024 John W. Altman Program in the Humanities Department focuses on environmental justice. In the fall semester, several speakers came to Miami including famed activists and scientists such as Winona Laduke and Sandra Steingraber.

The Altman Series will once again bring speakers to Miami in the spring, with talks ranging from using photography as a catalyst for climate change awareness to discussions on abolitionist ecology. These events are open to the public and are often accompanied by a coffee and conversation event earlier in the day.

• “Art as Transformation: Using Photography to Effect Change,” Latoya Ruby Frazier — 6:00 p.m./Feb. 29 • “Climate Justice as Freedom,” Julie Sze — 5:00 p.m./Mar. 19 • “Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth,” Elizabeth Rush — 5:00 p.m./April 2 • “Black Ecofeminism and Abolitionist Ecology,” Jennifer James — 5:00 p.m./April 18

• “‘Everything is Going to Have to Be Put Back’: Responsibility and Repair in the Anthropocene,” Michelle Neely — 1:00 p.m./April 19 Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum Exhibition This semester, the Miami Art Museum will display an exhibition titled The World in Which We Live: The Art of Environmental Awareness from Jan. 30-June 8. Along with featuring environmental-themed art from more than 20 artists, there will also be webinars and receptions that take place throughout the semester for students and faculty alike to learn more about the exhibition.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Three Valley Conservation Trust and the Miami University FOCUS Program, which also has a theme of environmental justice for the 20232024 school year. Students can visit the museum for free.

Belk Lecture — Feb. 28 The annual Ethel Belk Lecture brings in esteemed botanists to share their research and expose listeners to the world of plant sciences.

On Feb. 28, Heidi Appel will give a talk on plant sensory ecology and the ways plants sense their environment and communicate with one another.

Appel is a professor at the University of Houston who has received grants from the National Science Foundation and has been featured on media outlets such as BBC and NPR. The free event will be hosted at 7 p.m. in the Leonard Theater, 120 Peabody Hall.

Wildflower Walks Each spring for eight consecutive Sundays between March and May, wildflower walks are held in the Silvoor Biological Sanctuary. The walks are held by botanists from Miami and are open to all interested in learning more about the 60 species of wildflowers found in the five-acre plot next to Peffer Park. The walks depart at 1 p.m. from the Peffer Park Pavillion.

The Silvoor Biological Sanctuary, although one of the smallest natural areas in Oxford, houses some of the best biodiversity in the area. A short trail winds through plots of wildflowers and native trees and down to Collins Creek, offering plenty of nature to immerse yourself in.

The spring offers plenty of opportunities to learn more about sustainability, the environment and to enjoy the outdoors. Take advantage of the warm weather and the abundance of events put on by the university and student organizations to stay on top of the sustainability scene this semester. nortonsm@miamioh.edu

The future of Miami’s farm amid budget cuts and a major leadership loss CONTINUED FROM FRONT Griffin said that students come to the farm and are automatically immersed into an environment most have not experienced before. They’re not only planting for most likely their first time but they are also developing a newfound connection with the Earth.

Despite his contract being nulled, Griffin recognized that the university’s current budget deficit has pressed it into tight corners. David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and business services, wrote in an email to The Miami Student that he was not directly involved in the decision.

Alecia Lipton, associate director of media relations, confirmed in an email to The Student that the decision was financial. The farm was initially funded by internal and external grants before being subsidized by the College of Arts and Science.

“The intention was always that the farm become self-sustaining, covering both its operational and personnel costs,” Lipton wrote. “Unfortunately, it has not been able to do that, so the difficult decision was made to discontinue the Community Support-

ed Agriculture program.”

Lipton added that the Institute for Food is evaluating options to continue the educational mission of the farm.

“I understand the university’s situation, and I think we have to rely on outside funding until we can figure out how to give the farm’s activities financial viability and budgetary value,” Griffin said.

Despite the university’s budget woes, Griffin has maintained optimism surrounding this period of financial unrest.

“We’ve already had to cancel the Community Supported Agriculture program for this coming year but it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have a restart since it allows for a reconsideration of the farm’s activities to make them better and more efficient,” Griffin said.

Amanda Bentley Brymer, the assistant director of the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, shares Griffin’s optimism for this period of change.

“I have some hopes that we could still lock in on the curriculum connected to the farm and really build up its interdisciplinary focus so that in a

few years, the university would fold in the farm in a way that is sustainable,” said Bentley Brymer.

Nancy Parkinson, a registered dietitian nutritionist and nutrition professor, is also positive about the future of the farm and voiced her hopes of increasing student and community involvement.

“I just think there are some untapped resources that we could utilize such as getting the farm connected to local restaurants, initiating a campus food truck, bringing in alumni who are in food businesses to mentor our students, and starting semester-long workshops on the farm,” said Parkinson.

Despite its challenges, students regularly get involved at the farm.

Audrey Allen, a junior majoring in environmental earth science and sustainability, worked with the farm as part of her sustainability capstone course, IES 474.

“It was definitely a positive experience. I think more students should get involved with the farm. It’s a hands-on experience that most students don’t experience,” Allen said.

Undeterred by a shift in leadership since Charles Griffin’s lost con-

GRIFFIN PICTURED WORKING ON THE FARM, WHERE HAS BEEN SINCE 2016.

PROVIDED BY FIONA LAWLER

tract, Bently Brymer and the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability have called for a get-together of all faculty connected to the farm to discuss future steps.

“I am delighted that the consensus seems to be that there is still oppor-

tunity for the farm to grow and to be seen as valuable to Miami in the long run,” Bentley Brymer said. “I’m still not ready to give up this fight.” kwiatksk@miamioh.edu

Opinion

16

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

GRAPHIC BY ERIN MCGOVERN

Miami’s winter break is too long: It doesn’t need to be

J-Term gets a bad rap, and it shouldn’t AVA KALINA COLUMNIST

Oxford’s quiet streets get quieter after Dec. 17. Chipotle is missing its infamously long line, and Kofenya has open booths. A winter break in Oxford is odd, yes, but it isn’t so bad.

Miami University’s “J-term” this year was a three-and-a-half week term pushing the spring semester to Jan. 29. This means a long winter break for Miami students: six weeks in total.

The break can sound daunting, but it’s extra time for students to work, travel, study or simply relax after a grueling fall semester.

At the end of my junior year, I finally had a rough idea of how I wanted to use my majors post-graduation. Yet at that point, I didn’t have time to get an internship to place me on the path I wanted. But at that precarious moment, I realized I had six whole weeks off for winter break — time that allowed me to find an internship and work part-time to get the experience I was lacking.

I like to think that I have a high level of self control (when my doctor told me to stop sucking my thumb at 5 years old, I never did it again). Taking the initiative to seek out winter term opportunities can be difficult. I had to search in early October to have a job lined up for our winter term.

Miami also only seems to push two options to occupy the winter-term: taking a class or studying abroad. The average student likely can’t do either without scholarships or a passport — especially if you’re out of state.

But this year, I received an email from my data analytics adviser with a solution: micro-internships. The department organized several three-to-four-week internships with local companies and organizations, specifically designed for the winter term. Brilliant!

Although I already had my internship, I was excited to see the department taking the initiative to provide professional development opportunities to students with nothing to do over the grueling six weeks.

Our winter term is a privilege, and it’s a huge benefit of attending Miami, but the university should aim to offer more opportunities, services and advice for students during this unique, extra term.

More departments should organize micro-internships for students, Miami should consider sending out a flyer with advice and ideas for students to spend their time and how to best focus on mental wellness.

I was in my house, alone, for five whole weeks, which was nice and peaceful, but sometimes quite boring. So why don’t more students stay over break? I mean, how fun would it be to gallivant around Oxford without classes, and few responsibilities? Sorry Oxford residents, I know how valuable time without the student body on campus can be.

An extended winter break is also built-in wellness time for students to recover between semesters.

Not only did I work part-time, I had the time to read, consistently exercise, get back into old hobbies and have the longest ‘Sunday reset’ ever, without the stress of school or holidays surrounding me.

I suggest spending a January in Oxford at least once and using it to your advantage. Take up that hobby you’ve been talking about for years, sleep in and find a resume-building job or a fun one.

Trust me, J-term isn’t that bad when you know how to use it. kalinaae@miamioh.edu

Ava Kalina is a senior from northern Virginia double majoring in diplomacy & global politics as well as data analytics while pursuing her certificate in geographic information sciences. She has been an opinion and GreenHawks columnist for two years at The Student.

SAM NORTON

GREENHAWKS EDITOR “When do you head back to school?”

“Not until January 29th.”

“Dang, that’s long!”

I have had some form of this conversation with my friends and family more times than I count this winter break. It always ends in surprise or confusion about the length of my stay at home. Each time it happens, I am reminded how absurdly long Miami University’s winter break is.

My friends who attend the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, Ohio University and out-of-state schools have been back in classes for more than three weeks by now.

Meanwhile, Miami students will have only finished their first week of the spring semester.

Our winter break is too long, and the stark difference between Miami and other universities begs the question: why do we do winter break so differently?

The obvious first answer is that we have a winter term for classes. Miami’s “J-Term” ran from Jan. 2-26 this year. That’s a pretty short time to cover an entire semester’s worth of material, if you ask me. The cost also ends up being different and hard to understand.

You have to apply separately for winter term financial aid. Also, the individual cost per credit hour is more than if you take more than 12 credit hours during the semester.

Our winter break ends up being about six weeks long, depending on when students get done with finals. This is an awkward time frame. While the first two weeks may be taken up with holiday festivities, I’ve always felt that the remaining four weeks are hard to fill.

It’s too short to get a job unless you’re lucky enough to be returning somewhere that will work around your weird schedule.

I have found odd ways to make money and stay busy, but it feels like I have to make a huge effort not to drown in boredom.

On top of that, hometown friends who go to any other school aren’t around for half of our break. This only exacerbates the feeling of boredom. I fortunately have a few hometown

friends who also go to Miami, but I know most students are not in this situation.

Moreover, our extended winter break does not just impact students this time of year, it messes with our summer break. As a result of going back to school two to three weeks longer in the winter, we must also stay in school two to three weeks longer at the end of the semester.

Scrolling social media and seeing friends on their summer break while we have to study for finals is not a fun experience. Getting on my phone for a study break, seeing half of my Instagram feed of people at the beach, and then having to go back to studying organic chemistry is not fun.

A four-week-long winter break following the same schedule as other Ohio universities would be infinitely better for our student body. The sixweek-long winter term isn’t used enough by Miami students to justify its continued presence, and I don’t see how that will change anytime soon. I would rather have those extra two weeks during summer break to work, travel and spend time with friends and family.

While I understand that some students need to take classes outside of the normal two-semester schedule or want to study abroad for less than a whole semester, the summer term can be easily used for both of these. It simply does not seem that the winter term benefits enough students to justify the detriments it causes the majority of us.

I realize that it is not the end of the world to have this longer break. I appreciate any sort of break from the insanity of college life, but it can and should be done better. Too much of a break can be bad, and Miami should seriously consider eliminating the winter term and shortening winter break. nortonsm@miamioh.edu

Sam Norton is a third-year honors student majoring in biology with an environmental science co-major and journalism minor. He has been writing for The Student since his first year, won a regional SPJ award for his opinion columns, and is currently the GreenHawks and Assistant Opinion Editor.

Being bored is overrated

GRAPHIC BY MACEY CHAMBERLIN

KISER YOUNG

THE MIAMI STUDENT Boredom: a feeling that comes and goes, but always manages to return. As young adults in college, we’re told that these will be the “best years of our lives,” and that we’ll dream about reliving these days the moment our feet leave the stage, hands clutching onto our degree.

However, boredom seems to be a consistent issue day to day.

Monday through Friday, class after class, as exciting as college may be, it’s incredibly easy to get locked into the repetition of attending class, grinding out schoolwork and then

rotting in bed.

This boring routine — disguised as an organized, structured way of living — becomes a rut and is rather impossible to escape.

After the hibernation of “J-term,” pangs of boredom are ones students come to know all too well. The repetition of doing nothing for six weeks becomes quite draining.

Now I’m not saying that having unplanned moments of relaxation and without routine are bad, but rather that boredom is simply the struggle of finding a way to be comfortable in your own presence without the need of stimulation.

Although boredom is a feeling

that is not going away anytime soon, we should change the way we view it.

It may be the key to changing a lazy day of boredom into a fulfilling one.

Obviously, the first thing to come

to mind when battling boredom is to pick up a hobby. While hobbies are probably the best defense against periods of dullness, most people think their chosen hobby is the best hobby.

When choosing a good way to fill your time, it is crucial to understand that you need to put your time into something that aligns with your passions. I often give myself lofty goals I cannot fulfill, like reading consistently, despite not reading a book in full since the third grade.

But the second I invested my time into an avenue such as music or DJing, my hobby no longer felt like a task required to stimulate these otherwise empty moments, but it truly improved my day-to-day.

Hobbies need to be extensions of our interests for them to become useful ways to spend time. The best way to find your passions is to find yourself.

Miami campus offers a variety of clubs and things to do, but activities as simple as cooking can be quite engaging and a breath of fresh air from dining hall food. It could be something as simple as listening to a new album every week.

“When choosing a good way to fill your time, it is crucial to understand that you need to put your time into something that aligns with your passions.”

Even though the concept of self can be a daunting thought, it is the prime reason making boredom uncomfortable. No matter how many hobbies you take up or clubs you join, you will always be uneasy with boredom if you’re incapable of appreciating time by yourself.

You don’t need to spend all your hours of free time realigning your chakras practicing meditation, but learning to appreciate the self and the time you spend with yourself is crucial. Because there’s a little alone time every now and then, it can be much more than a lonely fact of life.

Youngk20@miamioh.edu

Kiser Young is a first-year strategic communication major from Beavercreek, Ohio. He is a contributor to both the opinion and entertainment sections at The Student and is a District 8 senator for the Associated Student Government.

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

To the class of 2024: Let life happen

DEVIN ANKENEY OPINION EDITOR

The COVID kid class of 2024 is about to graduate. As a member of this unique cohort, I’ve been experiencing some intense fear and loathing for my future after May graduation.

College can be a time filled with great experiences, but also with dif-

to dwell on the challenges of these next several months.

It’s easy to overthink those crappy moments; I do it constantly. I’ve had bad arguments with exes that ruined entire months, made bad choices leading to broken friendships and terrible class schedules, and regretted them for too long before using those moments as a platform on which I can propel myself forward.

If there’s anything I can learn from my first-year experience at Miami, with online classes and hardly any peers on campus, it’s that every moment passes, whether good or bad. While an incredibly stressful time, it helped me make the most of my senior year so far.

I’ve made tremendous friendships with people who share my passions, had new experiences GRAPHIC BY MACEY CHAMBERLIN and been to new places, tried new ficult decisions and hard truths. Not things and expanded my worldview. everything works out. Friendships get A lot of that wouldn’t have happened tough. Getting a job is a miserable ex- if I let myself dwell on the past the perience for many. way I did throughout high school.

As I enter my final semester here Everything that happened in the at Miami University, I’m reminding past is context for the present. Even myself to be more present and real- the most minute details of the present ize that all the tough parts of these are influenced by the abundance and past four years have led me to where accumulation of experiences you’ve I am now. I’m reminding myself not had in your life. There’s no avoiding

it, so why not live in the moment knowing you couldn’t have gotten there without what led to it?

As I and the rest of the class of 2024 begin our job application process and stress over the uncertainty of the future, remember now and then to look up and appreciate today.

Don’t let this senioritis-filled, stressful semester take over the fact that you’ve made it this far.

Spend some time talking with your favorite professors. Go take a walk in the natural areas. Make the most of your time with your friends.

This is all to make one crucial point: let life happen. Bad moments are stepping stones toward the great experiences of our lives. They’re not good reasons to fester in the stress.

Though many of our post-graduation futures may not be set in stone, and that can be scary, know that it will all resolve. We’ll all be fine, happy and fulfilled with our lives.

Go forward this semester with your head held high. Let yourself feel accomplished. Look around and drink it all in as often as possible.

The stress that comes from thinking about the future means you’ve made something great of these past four years, and what’s to come will be all the more great because of it.

So, to my fellow May graduates: enjoy this semester. Be happy with the life you’ve built for yourself. Don’t take it too seriously. Live in these moments as much as you can. ankenedw@miamioh.edu

Devin Ankeney is a senior double-majoring in journalism as well as media and communication with a history minor from Scarsdale, New York. They have been with The Student for three years and are currently the Opinion Editor, Business Manager and a multi-section contributor.

From cornfields to city streets: Broadening my perspectives in NYC CAMILA LOPEZ-DIAZ THE MIAMI STUDENT

My parents were raised in urban Chile. Upon moving to the U.S. in the ’90s, they wanted nothing more to do with urban life and settled down in “real America” — the suburbs of Cincinnati.

The place I call home.

Growing up, all I’ve ever known was Ohio’s quiet life — something that I slowly began to resent as I grew older and traveled outside of my home state. The monotony of Ohio’s tranquility sparked a craving for the dynamic and the unknown.

A cliché that has always stuck with me is that “people always want what they don’t have.” This sentiment has echoed in my own journey. While my parents sought solace in the serene suburbs, yearning for a break from the hustle of city life, I found myself drawn to the chaos they left behind.

This allure became an irresistible force, urging me to explore beyond the confines of Ohio’s tranquility.

So, that’s what I did.

This winter, I embarked on a transformative journey that led me to the iconic streets of New York City.

The towering skyscrapers, overpopulated holiday streets and the cultural

fusion of the city were a striking shift from Ohio’s corn fields and strip malls. Each corner of the city told a story, and I eagerly embraced the unpredictable narrative that unfolded with every step.

The vibrant streets of New York became a canvas for new experiences, pushing me out of my comfort zone and into a world of endless possibilities — and I reveled in it.

particular, captured my heart — Brooklyn.

Brooklyn welcomed me with open arms, offering a unique blend of artistic expression, cultural richness and a sense of community that resonated with me on a profound level. From my tattoo artist to the local bookstore owner — each spoke of their love for their home with such tenderness.

Each neighborhood felt like chapters in a story that I was destined to be a part of.

I found a sense of belonging that went beyond physicality.

Brooklyn became more than a place; it became a feeling, an emotion that whispered, “You belong here.”

I discovered that the concept of home wasn’t confined to a single place. In many ways, it more closely replicated a quilt — woven with the threads of my quiet childhood in Ohio and the urban life

“The vibrant streets of New York became a canvas for new experiences, pushing me out of my comfort zone and into a world of endless possibilities — and I reveled in it.”

The juxtaposition of these two worlds fueled a sense of awe and wonder, which propelled me to explore and absorb every facet of the bustling metropolis. One borough, in

GRAPHIC BY ERIN MCGOVERN

I now hope to be part of.

My journey to the concrete jungle not only broadened my perspective but deepened my appreciation for the contrasting elements that shape my identity. Although my heart dropped when landing back in Ohio, I returned with traces of New York’s vibrancy, aiming to meld it with the quiet life I know so well.

People do indeed want what they don’t have, but sometimes, they discover unexpected beauty amidst the contrasts of their desires. My venture to the city that never sleeps became a pivotal chapter, shaping my aspirations and enriching the narrative of my life’s journey. lopezdcp@miamioh.edu

Camila Lopez-Diaz is a third-year majoring in media and communication with an ETBD minor from Mason, Ohio. They contribute to The Student’s opinion section and are actively involved in their studies.

Borrowing her eyes to see myself: My winter break queer rediscovery

GRAPHIC BY ANASTASIJA MLADENOVSKA

ANASTASIJA MLADENOVSKA THE MIAMI STUDENT

When I started high school in 2019, everyone saw the “gays and lesbians” as the new big thing in Macedonia.

I recall a time when books and publishers were fetishizing the “new normal” plaguing us from the West and the U.S. There were bold movies normalizing gay romance, and protests were held for the first time. All of a sudden, the rainbow turned from a playful object in children’s books to the most controversial topic at dinner tables.

Retrospectively, the queer journey represented a sort of exotic other-worldly experience.

I remember reading many novels written “by the queers for the queers” and scrolling through progressive platforms online featuring girls and boys kissing and then deleting my history and hiding my books

as my heart was fighting with itself for a breather. I was scared, yet not so much from the judgment I knew would follow, but more from my own mind where these secrets of love, joy, humanity and confusion hid.

I firmly believed that my curiosity for women had no substance as long as it existed between me and my best friend, a girl that I would kiss occasionally. I thought in all naivete that it’s just what girls do.

One day, carrying all the confusion, I confessed some of my thoughts to my mother. This was the only time we ever talked about it before, and she decided with my other family members to send me to some sort of Balkan conversion therapy.

Macedonian culture didn’t yet know how to fully describe my experiences. It felt like the words “Macedonian” and “queer” were antonyms. When I came to Ohio as an international student, this dichotomy strengthened. All the voices in my

head were pointing to the idea of giving up one or the other.

I understood quickly that my queer experience was quite different from the average American or Ohioan queer experience, but I am also not connected to my cultural heritage in the same way my peers at home were.

I never believed in conversion therapy, especially not the one I received since my therapist turned out to be a lesbian. I often reminisce about this woman in her 40s listening to my stories as if they were her own, trying to persuade me that Macedonia is no land for queer people.

Three years later, during this past winter break, I remembered her wrinkled face again. I remembered her eyes that looked like black holes sucking up my soul every time I opened my mouth and tried to grasp the deeper meaning of my existence as a fellow lesbian.

I remember my smile slowly fading away when she told me that all

her queer friends had moved to Sweden and Germany to live their lives.

After once stalking her Facebook, I saw she moved to Norway and has a wife.

“Oh, how the tables have turned!”

I thought to myself, realizing that I have completely shut down my queerness for the last two years.

In preparation for college in Ohio, I took out my piercings, re-dyed my hair and camouflaged myself as the average straight girl succumbing to the wishes of my family and country.

I never thought Ohioans would judge me, but I still tended to hide that part of myself.

I always somehow ended up in a room full of queer conversations. As an international student living with Balkan queerness at Miami University, it felt like every peer I met was an expert in living their queer truth.

Confused and frustrated after a very difficult fall semester this December, I left for winter break.

The thought of this winter break excited and terrified me at the same time. Going back to the Balkans, remembering the places that I once called home, I quickly realized how much they have changed.

Through unfamiliar landscapes and different people among the crowds, I saw her. She was an old acquaintance, someone I met and haven’t spoken to in three years. She reached out to me out of nowhere on Instagram.

“You are in my city and how dare you not call me?” she said as if we had never stopped talking at all. We decided to meet up.

The night before we went out I sat and prayed that she wouldn’t turn my stomach upside down, that I wouldn’t feel the need to look into her eyes and kiss her like I did when I first met her.

She felt like a tornado, making

me forget all the times I let go of my queer self to be the bigger person for society. I admired her — so comfortable in her clothes, with her identity, smiling like she had conquered herself.

After reconnecting, I didn’t feel any more pain, estrangement or the need to escape my queer body. Looking into her eyes, I knew I would come back to Ohio feeling more at home than ever.

At first, I thought that winter break would be very long, then I wished it would never end. It’s funny how some people enter our lives and change them forever.

Re-engaging with our past selves can often lead to discovering the most authentic versions of ourselves. mladena@miamioh.edu

Anastasija Mladenovska is a second-year political science, finance and Russian, East European & Eurasian studies triple major from Macedonia. She is involved with the Honors College and Scholar Leaders. She also volunteers for the League of Women Voters of Oxford.

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Photo

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2024

First day of school for McVey Data Science THE GROUND LEVEL OF MCVEY DATA SCIENCE SPORTS AN EXTENDED REALITY (XR) LAB FOR ETBD COURSES.

JAKE RUFFER

PHOTO EDITOR Students populated classrooms in the McVey Data Science building for the first time on Monday. Course attendance was accompanied by exploration, direction-seeking and approving remarks.

“Isn’t this crazy?” a passing professor asked a student on the second floor that morning. “There are people in here!”

“This is awesome!” she agreed.

For Owen Dossett, a junior data science and statistics and biomedical engineering double-major, the excitement was too much.

“I came before classes started,” he said. “I just, like, walked around with a friend and the entire building is really, really cool.”

Dossett’s data science courses still

aren’t taught in McVey, but he assists with research in the building and hopes to spend more time with the new facilities in the near future.

Construction on the three-story structure full of steel, glass and gadgets began in October 2021 and was finished in January. Dr. Asaad Althoubi, an assistant professor in the computer science and software engineering department, said the building delivered on all the promises made in early models.

“It’s a great investment, this building,” Althoubi said.

Home to the departments of emerging technology in business and design (ETBD), statistics, computer science and software engineering, McVey Data Science will also host data-oriented events for the local community. @jakeruffer rufferjm@miamioh.edu

STUDY SPACES LINE THE WALKWAYS, INVITING STUDENTS LIKE DOSSETT TO USE THE SPACE EVEN WHEN THEIR CLASSES ARE ELSEWHERE.

ROOMS AND LABS ARE FILLED WITH TECHNOLOGY FOR USE IN CLASSES ACROSS DEPARTMENTS.

STUDENTS MADE THEIR WAY TO CLASSROOMS IN THE BUILDING FOR THE FIRST TIME ON MONDAY.

THE BUILDING IS SITUATED BETWEEN BENTON AND WITHROW HALLS ON TALLAWANDA ROAD.