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THE NEWS RECORD
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
NEWSRECORD.ORG
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014
Construction spending raises concerns as University debt grows HEATHER KING AND CHANDLER BONN
Nippert Stadium is scheduled to be under construction until August 2015.
Provost develops faculty-focused fellows program
HEATHER KING | STAFF REPORTER
While brick-and-mortar spending expands, a growing university-wide debt looms, despite what University of Cincinnati officials call a strong financial rating. Over the past five years, UC spent more than $530.5 million to pay the principal cost and interest on money the university borrowed to finance renovation and building initiatives, according to university financial records. The figure for spending in 2014 was $112.8 million — enough money to provide 2,563 UC students with full scholarships for four years. Greg Loving, president of the UC chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the university is addicted to building the campus at the expense of “building people.” According to Loving, the AAUP’s most recent salary negotiations with the administration suggest slow progress in changing the university’s spending pattern. “[After a year of negotiations] we did get a raise,” said Loving, who is also an associate professor of philosophy. “We beat
inflation by maybe 1 percent. What that means is we are still at the bottom of a lot of our peer institutions.” Loving said that during negotiations with the AAUP, university officials wanted UC to become part of the Association of American Universities, where UC would be competitive with the 62 other schools involved. But if UC was a member of AAU, “We would be making the bottom salary,” Loving said. Sara Hutchinson, an adjunct Spanish professor at UC, said the university spending numbers are shocking. Hutchinson notes that the numbers show officials emphasizing construction rather than helping students. Hutchinson, a UC graduate, said she was reminded of UC’s spending when the university sent her an email asking for donations. “The email encouraged alumni to ‘make their mark’ by donating to the Nippert Stadium [renovation],” Hutchinson said. “This was frankly insulting to me, as the ‘mark’ that students should be making is to SEE SPENDING PG 3
STUDENTS PLEDGE TO END SEXUAL ASSAULT
IT’S ON US COMES TO UC
STACI BOOTHE | CONTRIBUTOR
As part of development initiatives for faculty and leadership, Beverly Davenport, senior vice president and provost, created a Provost Fellows Program that will grant two faculty members the opportunity to work directly with the administration. The Provost Fellows Program creates opportunities for faculty to lead important initiatives for the university. The program is also about recognizing the value the University of Cincinnati’s faculty brings to conversations about the school’s future, Davenport said. “My experience as a provost fellow at Virginia Tech showed me just how important this kind of opportunity can be,” Davenport said. “At UC, we need for our faculty to understand the workings of the administration and we need to work hand in hand to create a strong and vibrant future for our whole UC community.” Vice Provost Richard Miller will facilitate the fellows program that is set to launch early next year. The program’s initiatives for 2015 will be to work with the University Honors Program, assisting in the analysis of data from the faculty satisfaction survey, according to Miller. The faculty members chosen to be a part of the program will maintain their faculty titles, but will spend half their time working in the provost’s office — approximately 20 hours a week for a year, Miller said. The Provost Fellows Program is similar to the program Davenport started at Purdue University when she was associate provost there, Miller said. Purdue’s Provost Fellows Program was launched by Davenport in 2009 and is still an ongoing program. “Like the program at Purdue, UC Provost Fellows will be able to be a part of developing and refining the initiatives they’re assigned — in essence, collaborating at high levels with the administration to chart the course for the future and hopefully increasing their interest and abilities to take on these positions in the future,” Davenport said. The Provost Fellows Program is one that will be continued for years to come at UC, Miller said. Future Fellows may be involved in other ongoing initiatives in the provost’s office, such as the new cluster hiring initiative, faculty development, student success and international affairs, according to Miller. “Bringing faculty into high-level conversations about these initiatives, which will directly impact them, their peers and the future of UC, gives us all a broader understanding of these critical issues,” Davenport said.
NATALIE COLEMAN | NEWS EDITOR
Members of UC Student Government signed the pledge to recognize and end sexual assault as part of a national campaign titled It’s On Us.
Administration joins students, brings national campaign to university level KATIE COBURN | NEWS EDITOR
Students and campus organizations at the University of Cincinnati are collaborating to address and prevent sexual assault on campus beginning with its introduction of the UC It’s On Us campaign Friday. Launched by the White House, It’s On Us is a national campaign brought to UC by the collaborative efforts of the Office of the Provost, UC’s Women’s Center, RECLAIM Peer Advocates, Student Government and other student leaders and advocates on and off campus. The UC It’s On Us campaign follows the national ‘It’s On Us’ four-part pledge: to recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault; to identify situations in which sexual assault may occur; to
intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given; and to create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported. Emily Imhoff, a fourth-year international affairs student and director of government affairs in Student Government, said the campaign’s purpose is to spread a culture of consent and to hold students and administration accountable. “It’s obviously an issue,” Imhoff said. “Sometimes people don’t realize it’s an issue because walking to and from classes you don’t typically see violent acts of assault, but they are so ingrained in our society, we’re just conditioned to ignore them, to excuse them.” One in four campus women will survive rape or attempted rape during her college career at UC, whereas, one in five women of the general population will survive rape or attempted rape over the course of her life, according to The Campus
Sexual Assault Study: Summary Report of Results for the University of Cincinnati of June 2007. “Not only does every single person deserve a life free of violence, every person deserves an education free of violence,” said Maria Kothman, a fourthyear social work student who serves as a RECLAIM Peer Advocate for UC’s Women’s Center. “It’s unacceptable that the rates are higher for campus women.” The statistic addressed women at UC who survived rape or attempted rape, but it did not account for other forms of sexual assault. “One in four women survive rape or attempted rape, but so many of the other three out of four may survive other forms of sexual assault, or they may survive harassment, stalking, or intimate partner violence,” Kothman said. David Schmutte, a fifth-year RECLAIM SEE IT’S ON US PG 3
Design student one of three in US to win Volkswagen internship JOEL MCGRINDER | CONTRIBUTOR
After designing a unique, futuristic vehicle for a video game, a University of Cincinnati student won an internship in Germany with Volkswagen. Cameron Bresn, a third-year industrial design student in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, is one of three winners of the 2014 Volkswagen Design Contest and will intern with the carmaker in Germany for six months. Bresn and the two other winners are invited to participate in a six-month internship at the Volkswagen design center in Wolfsburg, Germany. The internship offers the winners of the competition the chance to experience and participate in the daily operation of the company and to participate in ongoing projects, according to the Volkswagen contest website. The competition was global, allowing submissions from all over the world. Not only did Bresn have to compete against unknown participants, but fellow UC students as well.
“The entire junior class of industrial design students was competing,” Bresn said. “We discussed some ideas, but it was mostly an individual effort.” Contest participants were required to design a vehicle in collaboration with a scenario for a video game. Because of the limitless bounds of the fictional universe the prompt provided, Bresn strived to design anything but the ordinary. “I focused on the car … making it nontraditional,” Bresn said. Researching and implementing the aesthetic techniques of designers — such as Joris Laarman, Zaha Hadid, and Dion Lee — Bresn found inspiration for his futuristic vehicle. After Bresn came up with a vehicle design he liked, the conceptual video game universe surrounding it fell into place. Because Bresn came up with a futuristic and sleek vehicle design, he chose a sci-fi video game universe to complement his concept – a racing game that pushed the SEE DESIGN PG 3
PROVIDED
Bresn’s winning design, above, is called the S-2 Boson Racer. The Volkswagen internship offers the winners the chance to experience and participate in the daily operation of the company.
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