The News Record 9.8.14

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TAKING BACK SUNDAY

RECORD-SETTING WIN

Band discusses its recent tour in Q&A

Women’s soccer team scores big at home PG 6

PG 5

THE NEWS RECORD NEWSRECORD.ORG

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2014

Blue Ash student receives semester of free tuition As incentive for students to register for classes early, UC Blue Ash awards student by paying for fall classes SAM MORREN | STAFF REPORTER

For any college student, the beginning of a new school year comes with struggles. But for Rebecca Zeiler the struggles became lighter when she received a free semester of tuition. Zeiler, a first-year dental hygiene student at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College, is the sole winner of a free fall semester at UC. Her free tuition is the result of a program at UC Blue Ash that encourages students to register early for the upcoming semesters so they can get the classes and schedule they prefer. Zeiler’s name was drawn from a pool of 1,770 eligible students, according to a UC Blue Ash College press release. Those who register by the designated deadline are automatically entered into a drawing to win free tuition. Zeiler, who after a three-year wait taking general education courses, was able to register for her dental hygiene classes back in April, when she was granted one of the 28 spots in the program. This automatically

entered her in the drawing for free tuition. “When I got the news, I thought it was a prank and I spent the Memorial Day weekend wondering if it was true or if it was one of those emails you get telling you you’ve won a cruise,” Zeiler said. For Zeiler, the new school year came with its unique set of challenges. She spent the summer undergoing surgery on her vocal chords. “I recently had two surgeries on my vocal chords,” Zeiler said. “[The surgery] was so recent, I was not able to talk the first day of classes.” As the school year began, Zeiler was facing mounting medical bills and the expenses of a new school year and program. “[The free tuition for the fall semester] couldn’t have come at a better time,” Zeiler said. Since Zeiler received free tuition, her scholarships were sent to her as a refund. She then used the refund money to pay off some of her medical bills. Zeiler and her classmates want to express their gratitude by paying it forward. They entered the UC Blue Ash Dash, a fundraising run on Oct. 11, to help raise money for the UC Blue Ash College Scholarship Fund.

PROVIDED Winner Rebecca Zeiler with Cady Short-Thompson, dean of UC Blue Ash

INSIDE A ROBBERY

New scholarship benefits public health students ELYSSE WINGET | CONTRIBUTOR

Giving up money for the joy of teaching, a retired professor donated $100,000 to aid international students in earning an education and taking their knowledge back to their home countries. James O’Reilly has been with the University of Cincinnati for 34 years, spending 18 years as a part-time professor before retiring in 1998 to work as a volunteer professor. “I wanted to be teaching because I loved teaching, not for the money,” O’Reilly said. As a volunteer professor in the department of public health, O’Reilly met a young woman in his class, Maria Nakafeero, who inspired him to start a scholarship fund. Nakafeero is an international student from a small area in Uganda called Kabingo. As a child, Nakafeero watched four of her siblings die from untreatable illnesses before the age of 5. The lack of public health in Nakafeero’s country is what inspired her to come to Cincinnati to learn skills to solve this issue. “[UC president] Santa Ono believes that global public health is one of the rising priorities of our university and I agree,” O’Reilly said. Nakafeero worked with a child at Shriner’s Hospital from July 2011 to June 2012, gaining motivation to invest in an education. She returned to Uganda with the intention of coming back to complete a master’s degree to learn how to improve public health internationally. She began her education at UC in spring but has struggled to find the funding to keep her there. O’Reilly, upon hearing that one of his students may not be able to continue her degree, decided to do something about it. “After she did tremendous work and told me she could not continue, I was shocked,” O’Reilly said. He approached UC officials and asked if he would be able to endow a scholarship for $100,000. The scholarship would not only pay for Nakafeero’s education, but also other international students like her.The criteria for receiving the scholarship is simple. “The person must be coming to the US to get a master’s of public health and return to that third-world country and bloom where they are planted,” O’Reilly said. O’Reilly said he was comfortable giving a large sum of money to UC because he believes in helping international students from third world countries achieve a remarkable education that is affordable to them. O’Reilly also featured Nakafeero on a website called “Hope for Kabingo” which shares her story nationally and seeks to help provide for her education further than just the scholarship.With this money, Nakafeero is able to complete her entire master’s degree and is on track to graduate fall 2015. She agreed to the terms of the scholarship, to return to Uganda after she graduates, which was her goal all along. “In my wildest dreams, I want to go back to Uganda and work with international health,” Nakafeero said. “I can contribute the skills I’ve learned from UC to my country.” “If we can help her and give the people of Uganda her as a resource, they will be able to do what the surrounding countries cannot yet,” O’Reilly said. O’Reilly hopes the scholarship will continue for years to come, though it’s too early to say. “You have running water,” Nakafeero said. “Appreciate more and don’t take that for granted.

NATALIE COLEMAN | NEWS EDITOR Billy Bramel, one of the victims of the armed robbery, recalls another incident two years ago when he was beaten nearly to death by two men in Northern Kentucky.

Three victims reveal details of armed robbery, describe crime step by step KATIE COBURN | NEWS EDITOR

A University of Cincinnati student and his roommates were victims of a robbery early Friday morning at their house on 174 Warner St. after an armed suspect approached the student walking home from his car parked blocks away. Around 3:15 a.m., Billy Bramel, 23, drove to the Stop’n Go on West McMillan Street — which he referred to as the ‘Stab’n Grab — to buy a VitaminWater for his girlfriend, Hanah Mack, 23, who he had just dropped off at the house. After not being able to find a parking spot on Warner Street, Bramel parked his car on the south end of Ohio Avenue and to the west of Bellevue Hill Park. He was about a seven to eight minute walk away from his house, Bramel said. “Soon as I get out of the car, he was right there with a gun and said, ‘Give me all your money or I’m going to kill you,’ ” Bramel said. The suspect told Bramel that his gun was a .45 revolver. The armed suspect continued to threaten Bramel — who did not have a phone on his person. “He told me, ‘You better have some money or I’m going to kill you. If you make a noise, I’m going to kill you,’ ” Bramel remembered. After Bramel insisted that he had no money on his person, the suspect asked Bramel where he was going. Bramel told the suspect that he was walking to his house located a couple of blocks away. The suspect hit Bramel on his shoulder blade with the gun and ordered Bramel to take him to his house. Six residents live in the house. Four of them, including Bramel, were in the home at the time of the robbery. Two of the residents attend UC fulltime and one resident attends part time. The suspect walked closely to Bramel’s side with the gun pointed at his back. The suspect and Bramel walked northbound on Ohio Avenue and turned left onto Warner Street. Bramel said he and the suspect passed a couple entering an apartment on Ohio Avenue. The suspect told Bramel to not attract attention or else he would kill him in front of the people. “I just walked normal, and I was just complying,” Bramel said.“I played it cool.” While they walked, Bramel said the suspect tried to justify his unjust actions. “He told me, ‘This is just the way the world is. It’s nothing personal,’ ” Bramel said. “What are you talking about it’s nothing personal? You have a gun to my head.” The suspect told Bramel that he had just been released from jail and was at a ‘low’

point. The suspect also admitted to taking drugs prior to the confrontation. Bramel said the suspect told him that he was ‘cracked out and out of his mind.’ Moving west on Warner Street toward the house, the suspect and Bramel walked passed Sauer Avenue on their left. At the corner of Sauer Avenue and Parker Street, Bramel said there were four to five Cincinnati Police Department cars arresting a person for vandalism of property — graffiti. Once the suspect and Bramel arrived at the house, the suspect hit Bramel a second time in his spine with the butt of the gun. Bramel said the door was locked and he did not have a key. “He said, ‘You better get this door open or I’m going to kill you right here, right now,’ ” Bramel said.“He kept saying, ‘I’m a professional. Just do what I say. I’m a professional.You think I’m playin’? I’ve done this like 13 times.You think I’m playin’ with you right now? I will kill you right now.’ ” The suspect then threw a beer can at Bramel’s bedroom window to attract his girlfriend Mack’s attention. The suspect told Bramel to act normal and pretend he was a friend that needed to come inside. “He had me pulled up real close to him and had the gun right in my upper back between my shoulder blades and said, ‘If you even hint to her, I’ll kill you, and I’ll take off running and they’ll never find me,’ ” Bramel said. Mack unlocked the door and Bramel said the suspect instantly pointed the gun at Mack and pushed her toward the stairs, ordering them both to walk upstairs while announcing it was a robbery. Bramel said the suspect entered his and Mack’s room and waved the gun around, ordering Bramel to pack his valuable electronics into bags— DVDs, laptop, cable box, iPod, iPhone and a 42-inch TV. The bags used to pack the property belonged to the residents. The suspect then asked for money and Bramel denied having money. Bramel said the suspect took $260 from Mack’s purse — this month’s rent money. While Bramel packed the bags, the suspect sexually assaulted Mack, Bramel said. “He put his fingers inside of her. I watched him with his hand down her pants, and she told me that he put his fingers inside of her,” Bramel said.“That pierced right through my heart. That was the worst part of the whole thing. That was worse than having a gun held to my head.” Once everything was bagged up, the suspect demanded to enter the room across the hall, where Joey Langenbrunner, 22, a fifth-year electronic media major, was trying to go to sleep in his bed. After forcing Bramel to kneel on the ground with his head on the floor, Bramel

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said the suspect pistol-whipped him in the back of his head, causing him to bleed. The suspect ordered Mack to open the bedroom door, which was locked, Bramel said. Langenbrunner said he was cranky and annoyed that Mack was knocking on his door as he was trying to fall asleep. Langenbrunner said he got out of his bed when he heard Bramel say that he was bleeding. Langenbrunner then heard a huge crash on the door. “I heard him say, ‘If you don’t open up the door, I’m going to kill both of you,’ ” Langenbrunner said.“That’s when my heart sunk.” Langenbrunner said he opened the door because he did not want his roommates to die. The suspect entered the room, turned on the light and ordered the three roommates to get down on their hands and knees. “I thought he was going to hurt Billy, because he picked on him the whole time,” Langenbrunner said.“I just kept quiet the whole time.” The suspect forced Bramel to pack Langenbrunner’s belongings into bags, including an Xbox 360, Xbox games, a Wii, cables, headphones, laptop, wallet and a 32-inch TV. Langenbrunner said he gave the suspect $250 — this month’s rent money. Bramel and Langenbrunner said the suspect sexually assaulted Mack a second time in Langenbrunner’s room and grabbed Mack’s butt. “That’s when I got scared,” Langenbrunner said.“Especially when he said, ‘We’re going to see how much you love him.’ ” Bramel thinks the suspect would have sexually assaulted Mack to a greater degree if he were given the opportunity. Bramel said Mack kept very calm and did not cry. While this was occurring on the second floor, Michaela Beekman, 19, was in her room directly above Bramel and Mack’s room playing her keyboard. Beekman said she arrived home from work about 10 minutes prior to the suspect and Bramel’s arrival. “I heard doors slamming downstairs. I thought people were coming in and out of the house or someone was pissed off or something,” Beekman said.“I didn’t hear anything anyone was saying.” Beekman said her door was closed and locked. Beekman learned of the robbery from a Facebook status that Langenbrunner posted at 4:49 a.m. after the incident concluded. She said she started to freak out, turned off her lights and hid in her closet, scared that someone might still be in the house. Beekman talked to Mack on the phone to comprehend what happened. “I just felt horrible afterwards, because SEE ROBBERY PG 3

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