March 2, 2017

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Hookup Culture

Is hookup culture healthy for our generation?

Mick Cronin

Coach says seed placement doesn’t matter

THE NEWS RECORD / UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI THURSDAY, MAR. 2, 2017

NEWSRECORD.ORG

Ohio sees a higher number of drug overdoses

Upcoming SG election JUSTIN REUTTER | NEWS EDITOR

JEAN PLEITEZ | CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER)

Kevin Leuger and Nicole Price speak on how their platform can improve UC, Tuesday, February 28, 2017 in The News Record newsroom.

IAN LEBLANC | CONTRIBUTOR

Lakshmi Sammarco asked, “Ever play Russian roulette?” It’s the morning of Feb. 27 at Dr. Sammarco’s office, and she has a full day of work ahead of her as the Hamilton County coroner; Nine people died in Hamilton County last weekend due to drug overdoses. With sincerity, she likens the nature of the past weekend’s drug overdoses to the lethal game of chance. “We’ve seen a gamut of mixtures,” said Sammarco. Drugs like fentanyl, ketamine, heroin and cocaine comprise the cocktail Sammarco, police, addiction service groups and health officials have to deal with. Drug mixtures add to the risk of overdose and harm – a truth that was realized last weekend. The beginning of the year has been as equally troubling as last weekend. The period from Jan. 15, 2016, to Feb. 26, 2016, yielded 49 overdose deaths. According to Sammarco, there have been 94 this year. UC student and member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy Kaelynn Rearick believes that the fight against harmful drugs must be a team effort. “I don’t know what could be causing the spike, but in order to get the numbers down, I believe that public education is imperative,” said Rearick, adding that implementing less strict medical amnesty policies and working to treat addiction as a public issue rather than a criminal issue would help. One way would be through use of needle exchange programs, according to Rearick. The stain caused by an overdose reaches beyond the individual. “The most dire consequence of overdose is the strife it causes families. It leads to children becoming orphans,” Rearick said. The surviving family members of two individuals who overdosed over the weekend include three children who are now orphans, according to Sammarco. Work is still being done to evaluate the specific drugs, ratios and other factors that contributed to last weekend’s scourge. For now, health and public safety officials’ goal is to continue to educate and mitigate drug use and overdose. The Addiction Services Council is Hamilton County’s biggest player in the anti-drug game. They held a news conference on Monday in recognition of the weekend’s event, and many public officials came to speak and offer insight. The overwhelming consensus of the meeting was that the state of Ohio must legislate to attack drug use as a medical issue – rather than criminal – and increase funding for abuse prevention programs. Ohio currently has three of the top 10 cities for drug overdose. Toledo is at number 10, Cincinnati is at number six and Dayton is number one.

JEAN PLEITEZ | CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER)

Bashir Emlemdi and Dana Drage talk about their platform, Tuesday, February 28, 2017 in The News Record newsroom.

JEAN PLEITEZ | CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER)

Mike Arnold and Jack Thorson visit The News Record newsroom to elaborate how their platform will help UC students out, Tuesday, February 28, 2017.

Who is most valuable to UC men’s bball? DAVID WYSONG | SPORTS EDITOR ETHAN RUDD | STAFF REPORTER JASON SZELEST | STAFF REPORTER CLAUDE THOMPSON | STAFF REPORTER OPINION

The Cincinnati Bearcats have a lot of scoring options. The men’s basketball team rosters four guys averaging 9.9 points per game or more – Jacob Evans, Kyle Washington, Gary Clark and Troy Caupain. But which one of them is more valuable? As the team gears up for the NCAA tournament, sports experts Ethan, Claude, Jason and David say who they think is most important for the success of UC. Ethan: Jacob Evans When the Bearcats run their spread offense well, the offense looks great. However, the Bearcats were unable to spread the court against the University of Central Florida and Southern Methodist University because Cincinnati went cold from the outside. Here’s the thing – someone must help spread the floor by moving the ball and hitting perimeter shots. That someone must be Evans. He’s UC’s best outside shooter and a real X-factor when it comes to running the offense. If Clark and Washington get double-teamed, Evans must be there for the outlet pass and the score. When Evans heats up, Clark and Washington should follow suit. When you make the defense respect perimeter scorers, the inside opens up. Sure, Washington’s offensive production has been great this season, but he won’t be getting more double-doubles without Evans. Claude: Troy Caupain Over the last few games the Bearcats have played, starting with the loss against SMU, a concerning trend for UC has appeared and that is as Caupain goes, so does the team. During the losses to SMU and UCF, Caupain went zero-for-seven and onefor-nine from the field. The loss to UCF saw the team score its lowest total of the season at 49 points. The Bearcats need Caupain to shoot well to be successful in the coming weeks and to garner any respect come national tournament time. In his senior year, the pressure on Caupain is heavier than it’s ever been with his final games in a UC uniform coming faster

than he may have expected, but he won’t get another chance next year. The time to perform is now. Jason: Troy Caupain This answer is easy. Caupain is by far the most important player in terms of guiding the UC men’s basketball team on a tournament run. Despite a couple of other players possessing more offensive talent, such as Washington and Evans, it is still Caupain who head coach Mick Cronin trusts with the game on the line. He is the leader and captain of this team, and he has started every game for the Bearcats for the past three seasons. How he goes, the Bearcats go, and when he struggles, especially as of recently, UC has produced poor results. In their last two losses against SMU and UCF, Caupain has scored a combined five points on 1-of-16 shooting. Caupain needs to realize that this is his final shot as a collegiate basketball player, and he has the capability to lead this team farther than they have ever gone in the Mick Cronin era. David: Kyle Washington The guys above me make great points – but they’re wrong. The most important player to this year’s UC team is clearly Washington. Cincinnati was ousted in the second round in 2015 and in the first round in 2016. Caupain was on both of those teams, and Evans played in 2016. You know who did not play? Washington didn’t play, and his addition to the team has, arguably, jumped them from an eight- or nine-seed to a four or five. Washington is tied for the team’s leading scorer, while also averaging just over seven rebounds a game, and leads the team in blocks. He has been a major upgrade from Octavius Ellis, and his value to the team will show this month.

JUSTIN HILES | CONTRIBUTOR

Troy Caupain (10) and Kyle Washington (24) regroup after an early foul on Tulsa. February 18, 2017.

Student Government election season is upon us. This year, there are three slates for president and vice president: Kevin Leugers and Nicole Price, Bashir Emlemdi and Dana Drage and Mike Arnold and Jack Thorson. The main points of Leugers and Price’s campaign include textbook affordability, providing adequate resources for sexual assault survivors and updating mental health resources, as well as supporting diversity, inclusion and transparency. Creating diversity and transparency includes providing seats for identitybased senators, said Leugers. For the most part, the Student Government is currently largely white and a part of Greek life on campus, according to an external assessment conducted last year. “Right now [Senate meetings are] not an open table,” said Price. “It is a room with the door barred shut.” The Leugers and Price campaign also emphasizes providing protection for international students, ensuring that a safe learning experience is provided regardless of immigration status. “It is not even so much about the title ‘sanctuary campus’ as the effect,” said Price. Emlemdi and Drage’s platform is called “For the Bearcats.”The idea of the platform is to create a campus that is inclusive for all Bearcats, and it is divided into six categories to address points from

academics to mental wellbeing. “Everybody is a Bearcat, no matter how you identify – be it theologies, religions, ethnicities…It doesn’t matter,” said Emlemdi. One of the specific points of their platform is a 21-credit hour forgiveness policy, in which students attempting to graduate could take three extra credit hours without an additional fee in order to jump-start their careers rather than stay an extra semester to finish a class. “I can’t imagine the stress of being forced to stay another year,” said Drage. Another point discussed was to provide bussing between UC and NKU for UC home games while Nippert Stadium is renovated. “UC home games are a big part of the first-year experience,” said Drage. “We want to make sure we enhance that experience while our permanent home is being built.” The Emlemdi and Drage platform also pledges to centralize resources for sexual assault survivors to provide clarity and ease of access. “The issue is complex,” reads their platform page. “Getting help should not be.” Drage said her biggest accomplishment was working on gender-based violence programs, and she would continue to advocate for survivors while in office. Both the Leugers-Price and Emlemdi-Drage platforms include medical amnesty for alcohol, in which first-time offenders who are dangerously inebriated and in need of medical help can receive

aid without fear of legal discipline. “A girl at the University of Miami died of alcohol poisoning, and her friends didn’t call 911,” said Leugers. “We are focused on making sure that every Bearcat makes it to the next weekend, the next night.” The Arnold and Thorson platform emphasizes giving a voice to students outside of what Arnold describes as the “Student Government bubble.” Both of them are founding members of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. “I’ve learned how to manage my team and improved leadership through Greek life,” said Thorson. “It’s set me up for a great future ahead.” But neither of them currently participates in SG, and they believe this gives them an outside perspective. “Being outside of Student Government, you actually are not inside the bubble of Student Government,” said Arnold. The platform wishes to represent the interests of students who are not heavily involved in campus politics or student organizations. “There seems to be such a disconnect between SG and the 80 percent of students who don’t vote, their ideas and their issues,” said Arnold. The platform emphasizes transparency, both in the SG senate room and upper administration. “The university needs to wait for student input and then make decisions, not the other way around,” said Arnold.

OLIVIER DOULIERY | ABACA PRESS | TNS

GOP Presidential candidate John Kasich speaks during CPAC 2016 on March 4, 2016 in National Harbor, Md. The American Conservative Union hosted its annual Conservative Political Action Conference to discuss conservative issues.

Kasich proposes higher taxes PARKER MALATESTA | NEWS EDITOR

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s fiscal budget proposal imposes higher taxation for Cincinnatians at a time when the city’s budget shortfall is estimated to be the worst since the recession, according to the University of Cincinnati Economic Center. The estimated expenses for the city for 2018 are $414.1 million, while the estimated revenues total at $389 million, creating a $25.1 million margin. Kasich is preparing to increase taxation in Cincinnati by about $1.2 million in total. That is the amount the city would lose over two years with his new budget. “The assault on local government has got to stop,” Mayor John Cranley told the Cincinnati Enquirer. Kasich, with the help of Republican lawmakers, cut the Local Government Fund in half between 2011 and 2013. The margin was used to balance the state’s total budget, lowering income taxes and restructuring emergency funds. The key feature in the proposal is that the new formula implements a “capacity-driven” structure. The deficit in Cincinnati is roughly 10 percent of the Local Government Fund that the state of Ohio shares with the city. Eight of the region’s 28 cities, including Sharonville and Blue Ash, would also suffer losses under the new bill. Moraine, a suburb of Dayton, has the largest proposed budget cut at 40 percent. “I agree with Mayor Cranley’s concerns,” said fourth-year finance and business economics student Nikith Reddy. “My parents live in one of the areas that would be affected, and this could be [a] major problem.”

Inversely, with some cities being forced to cut budgets, others would receive more aid from the state. Across Ohio, funding to local governments would increase by 3.5 percent over two years. Hamilton County would be given a supplementary $307,000 under the governor’s proposition. The proposed funding infrastructure focuses on a town’s tax capacity. The governor’s argument is simple – cities struggling to raise money from local taxation should receive more funding from the state. At the moment, money is allocated mostly based on population. In regards to counties, taxation will be analyzed based on capability to garner sales and property taxes. At the Ohio House Finance Committee, Budget Director Tim Keen elaborated on the state’s key objective with the bill. “We want to ensure that Ohio maintains the momentum and continues to experience success. This new executive budget sustains that by building for Ohio’s next generation. This is a budget that maintains strong and stable state finances, is structurally balanced, prioritizes education and higher education and focuses on workforce development,” he told lawmakers. One conflict with the proposal that politicians are identifying is that citizens with low incomes and work in highly populated cities would be forced to spend more of their money on taxes. The bill would be dispersed in fluctuations. In 2018, 5 percent of funding from local governances would be based solely on taxation capacity. By 2020, it would reach 20 percent.

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