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THE NEWS RECORD

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

NEWSRECORD.ORG

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2014

UC student arrested, charged with seven burglaries in Daniels Hall CASSIE LIPP | STAFF REPORTER

A University of Cincinnati student has been charged in connection with multiple thefts from campus residence Daniels Hall on the night of Nov. 1. The UC Police Department has since recovered and returned nearly all of the property stolen. Within 12 hours of the thefts, 18-yearold Khalaf Mohamed was arrested after attempting to use a stolen credit card at the BP gas station on Jefferson Avenue, according to UCPD Lt. Chris Elliott. Mohamed, a first-year student, was detained for questioning on Nov. 2 and confessed to entering the rooms and stealing MacBooks and cash. He also confessed to being drunk at the time of the thefts, Elliott said. Mohamed was charged with five counts of theft, five counts of criminal trespassing and misuse of credit cards, according to records from the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts. Mohamed was in Daniels Hall prior to the thefts, looking for places to party with a friend, Elliot said.

“They were partying initially together, and then Khalaf had some other interests in mind as well when they went into these rooms, and [when] saw these computers he figured he could pawn some,” Elliott said. Elliott said Mohamed and his friend left the building, but Mohamed came back later that night with other intentions, looking around the dorm for rooms that were unlocked. A student who lives in Daniels Hall let Mohamed back into the building, according to Michele Ralston, UCPD public information officer. “This is a great example for students to really understand the importance of being safe and taking accountability to keep themselves safe by locking their doors,” Ralston said. Elliot said that Mohamed decided to pawn the computers at pawnshops in the Columbus, Ohio, area, where Mohamed is from. UCPD worked with the Columbus Police Department on the case. CASSIE LIPP | STAFF REPORTER

SEE ARREST PG 3

Khalaf Mohamed, the student arrested for the thefts, admitted to coming to the dorm with the intention to enter unlocked rooms and steal property.

Alumni sue UC for GENTRIFICATION IN OVER-THE-RHINE handling of sexual assault allegations REVITALIZATION EFFORTS EXACERBATE CLASS DIVIDE DOWNTOWN

BECKY BUTTS | ONLINE EDITOR

Two University of Cincinnati students sued the university Nov. 25, claiming that UC violated their constitutional rights by presuming them to be guilty of sexual assault allegations filed against them. The suit was filed against the university and Daniel Cummins, assistant dean of students and director of judicial affairs. One student is an athlete currently pursing an undergraduate degree at UC. The other student is a recent graduate of UC law. Both remain anonymous in the court documents released by Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas. The athlete was told in October that another student complained he violated the UC Sexual Harassment Policy. His coach told him that he was immediately suspended from the team. The student did not have the opportunity to defend himself and was not told about the nature of allegations or who made them before he was suspended. SEE LAWSUIT PG 3

MADISON SCHMIDT | PHOTO EDITOR

A family walks down Main Street toward 15th Street past a row of dilapidated apartments and abandoned townhouses in Over-the-Rhine. KINSLEY SLIFE & ANNIE DENNIS | THE NEWS RECORD

A panel of scholars at the University of Cincinnati’s Fall Poverty Lecture series presented an alternative view Wednesday that challenges the traditional picture of gentrification as simply renovation by another name. Scholars at the “Poverty and Gentrification” presentation, held at the Taft Research Center, said gentrification often results in the displacement of hundreds of working-class families and the unraveling of a tightly knit and historic neighborhood. Dr. Andrew Leong, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston who has written extensively about “disappearing Chinatowns” in several American cities, spoke about the cause and effects of gentrification, specifically in urban areas. “Gentrification’s main goal is to fulfill a tourist mentality, but instead of renovations happening over the course of several years, we are beginning to

experience a hyper-gentrification that’s focusing on corporate welfare,” Leong said. “The city then turns a blind eye on its duty to protect the area’s already-existing communities.” The panel also included Tom Dutton, a Miami University professor and director of the Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine, who spoke on gentrification in the historic Cincinnati neighborhood. Dutton explained that the renovation of OTR is portrayed as an urban renaissance, which carries the positive connotation of bringing life to an otherwise dark and dilapidated historic neighborhood. “People are failing to understand that this renaissance narrative has masked an empirical account of what Cincinnati has done through legislation to drop kick people out of the city and directly or indirectly create policy that makes people into economic others rather than citizens in a community,” Dutton said. One scholar who was not part of the panel but is considered the leading expert

on gentrification in OTR is Alice Skirtz. Outraged when local power brokers used what she saw as a campaign of disinformation to justify the removal of longtime residents, Skirtz combined scholarship and passion to produce “Econocide: Elimination of the Urban Poor.”The book challenges the stereotypes associated with the historic neighborhood. Dr. Skirtz said it is a prime example of gentrification run amok. “Over-the-Rhine has been privatized by outside forces, so that we, who care about the community and live in the community, have no say in what is happening. That is not only immoral but puts democracy at real risk,” Skirtz said. In response to Skirtz’s book, Dutton said that it should be required reading for any community where gentrification is taking place. “Skirtz exposes in biting detail just how, through what can be only considered as a conscious alliance of city power and the SEE GENTRIFICATION PG 3

Student arrested for rape in Steger to appear in court PATRICK MURPHY | STAFF REPORTER

The University of Cincinnati student charged with the kidnapping and rape of another student on UC’s campus is expected in court for a bench trial on Monday. Mark Thomas Glover, a 27-year-old graduate student at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, was arrested and charged in connection to a sexual assault that occurred around 4 p.m. on Sept. 29 in the Steger Student Life Center. Glover was charged with one count of kidnapping, one count of gross sexual imposition and four counts of rape. Glover lured the sexual assault survivor to the sixth floor of the Steger Student Life Center when he forced her into a unisex restroom, according to Jeff Corcoran, who was serving as UC’s interim police chief at the time of the incident. “The victim was having lunch in one SEE ASSAULT PG 3

Student struggles to find convenient, gender-neutral bathrooms on campus DAVID WATKINS | CONTRIBUTOR

MADISON SCHMIDT | PHOTO EDITOR

Ali Davis, a transgender student at UC, faces obstacles as simple as finding a gender-neutral bathroom during his daily schedule on campus.

With over 43,000 students enrolled at the University of Cincinnati — a college said to embrace diversity and inclusivity as core institutional values — LGBTQ students might experience trouble with accessibility to gender-neutral bathrooms on campus. Third-year anthropology and Africana studies student Ali M. Davis arrives to school every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m. On Thursdays he does not leave until around 6:30 p.m. One particular Thursday afternoon in October, Davis was in the McMicken College of Arts and Science and needed to use the restroom. Davis identifies as a transgender man, a person who was assigned female at birth but identifies as a man. “I went into the women’s bathroom — I’m in the process now of going through a transition and I don’t always “pass,” but you know, it’s okay — and they kind of gave me this look where they felt uncomfortable, but I also felt uncomfortable, so I went out,” Davis said.

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“I attempted to go in the men’s bathroom, but I was just like, ‘Not today. I don’t even feel like dealing,’ so I was forced to hold it.” “Passing” refers to an individual’s ability to be viewed as a cisgender woman or a cisgender man based on gender cues such as clothing and behavior. Cisgender is defined as a person whose gender identity is aligned with what they were designated as at birth based on their physical sex. While Davis has not experienced physical violence in the bathroom, “passing” usually eliminates the discomfort he feels and judgment from other people. “I am thankful that I appear this way and I can usually pass, so they do not usually say anything to me, but you cannot limit it to words,” Davis said. “It’s in their actions too and in the way they stare. It takes such a huge toll to where sometimes I do not have the energy to deal with it some days.” Davis went five hours without using the SEE GENDER NEUTRAL PG 3

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