VOL. CXXXVIII ISSUE XVVVII • FREE-ADDITIONAL COPIES $1
THE NEWS RECORD THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI’S INDEPENDENT, STUDENT-RUN NEWS ORGANIZATION / MONDAY, FEB. 3, 2014
PENGUIN HOUSE CONCERT PLAY
PARTIALLY-BLIND, 98-YEAR-OLD ARTIST’S EXHIBIT COMING TO UC
PIXEL PAINTER
LOCAL MUSICIANS TURN LIVING ROOM INTO GIANT MOSH PIT
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CATS KEEP WINNING
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Data shows decrease in crime in area surrounding campus UC and Cincinnati Police crack down on crime in uptown appears to be working, according to report ALEXIS O’BRIEN NEWS EDITOR
Efforts by the University of Cincinnati and its community partners to combat crime in areas surrounding the university’s main campus appear to be working, according to data. “As you will see, crimes in this geographic area [surrounding campus] have decreases every year, including robberies,” said Robin Engel, director of the Institute of Crime Science. “In 2013, we had the lowest number of robberies involving students since 2008.” By tapping into UCPD and CPD data, Engel and her team created a database of crimes committed exclusively in the six identified uptown neighborhoods around UC — Avondale, Clifton, Corryville, CUF, Mt. Auburn and Avondale. Though violent crimes — homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — in these areas increased by .7 percent from 2012, they also decreased by 10.5 percent relative to the three-year average. Specifically, rape and robbery crime data reflected a decrease from 2012 with 11.1 percent and 1.3 percent fewer occurrences respectively, and there was no change in the number of homicides relative to 2012, according to data released in December 2013.
Study finds UC not conducive to free speech RICO CAJIGAL CONTRIBUTOR
For the sixth year in a row, the University of Cincinnati kept its reputation for restricting free speech and it isn’t the only university labeled so, according to an annual report released by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. UC fell in the 59 percent of 427 universities that “maintain policies that seriously infringe upon students’ speech rights.” The problem at UC lies with the university’s definition of sexual harassment, said Samantha Harris, director of policy research at FIRE. “Sexual harassment refers to behavior on the basis of sex, is not welcome, is personally offensive, debilitates morale, and interferes with the work or academic effectiveness of its victims,” Harris said. “Because of the ‘or’ in this clause, this definition is extraordinarily broad, encompassing any behavior on the basis of sex that another person finds offensive.” Each of the universities that FIRE analyzed received one of three possible ratings — UC received the worst possible ranking — based on the universities’ policies regarding free speech. This is not the first time UC’s free speech policies have come under fire. In 2012, UC’s free speech policy SEE FIRE PG 2
CRIME BLOTTER 1/31 Series of robberies on Bishop Street Police are investigating a series of robberies on Bishop Street that happened though out the past week. Police say most of the robberies occurred during the daytime when the tenants where not home. Police also believe most of the incidents on the street south of UC main campus were carried out by juveniles. 1/25 Robbery in alley behind Deaconess Hospital Police are still searching for two suspects who robbed four UC students by Deaconness Hospital. The suspects, one who was armed with a handgun, stole personal property from three students in an alley by the hospital. The fourth student fled the scene.
The data shows a more consistent decrease in the total number of property crimes — burglary, theft from auto, auto theft and “all other theft” — reported in 2013, both as compared to 2012 and the three-year average. There was 10 percent fewer property offenses in 2013 that 2012 and 15.9 percent fewer of these offenses, according to data. “However, these overall decreases were countered by increases in the number of burglaries and auto thefts,” according to the December 2013 Monthly Crime Report. “In particular, burglaries rose by 4.5 percent and auto thefts increased by 6.4 percent from 2012.” “Other property offenses showed reductions, but the largest reductions observed corresponded to thefts from auto, as there were 36.2 percent fewer of these crimes in 2013 than in 2012 and 38.9 percent fewer than in the previous three years combined.” Jeff Corcoran, UC interim police chief, said these improvements are the results UC’s expanded partnership with CPD and new partnership with the Institute of Crime Science, which is part of the UC criminal justice program. “We began a partner car program about four years ago that put a UCPD and CPD officer together in one car to patrol the neighborhoods around the campus in the evening,” Corcoran said. “This fall we expanded beyond that to put an additional eight to twelve CPD and UCPD officers in the surrounding neighborhoods specifically to address
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street robberies.” The increased law enforcement patrol began in August 2013 and also increased police coverage in the areas surrounding campus from four days a week to seven. “Criminals are looking for target-rich environments and if they see our guys, they’re going somewhere else,” said Jeffrey Blackwell, Cincinnati police chief. UCPD, CPD and the Institute of Crime Science meet every two weeks to evaluate crime patterns that call for these types of patrol changes. “The partnership between the three groups has allowed us to focus on a more data driven approach to addressing crime both on and off campus,” Corcoran said. “Besides the extra patrols, some other actions to come out of this partnership include putting over 90 new street lights in the CUF neighborhood, installing five video surveillance cameras, expansion of NightRide, and the Student Safe Housing program to identify offcampus housing that meets certain criteria for safety.” And while many students are feeling safer on and around campus, prospective students and their parents continue to note crime as a potential problem. “We get the safety question at most all UC recruiting events,” said Caroline Miller, vice president of enrollment management. “The fact that we can report SEE CRIME PG 2
EARS WIDE OPEN
UC Health CEO reflects on tenure so far, listens to community members BRYAN SHUPE CHIEF REPORTER
These days, Richard Lofgren spends a lot of his time listening. Lofgren — who took over as CEO of University of Cincinnati Health after the retirement of former CEO James Kingsbury Dec. 2 — has spent the past two months listening to colleagues and analyzing the needs of the institution to improve health care and make it more affordable. On his first day, he challenged the health system’s clinicians, nurses and staff to “bring their ‘A’ game every day.” So far, he said he’s been pleased with UC Health’s development in the field of healthcare, but there is much that needs to be done. “I’ve been doing a lot of listening,” Lofgren said. “This is an organization that has rich tradition, there’s lots of stuff that is going extremely well and I need to understand that, so I’ve probably spent the majority of my time getting to know people within the medical center, people within the university and people within the community itself.” Formed in 2009, UC Health is one of the top health care providers in the region. It’s a collaboration of top clinicians and researchers aimed at bettering treatment and innovation in hospitals around greater Cincinnati. It has locations throughout Cincinnati and extends as far as Lexington, Ky. Lofgren said UC Health is the only academic medical center in a community of almost 3 million people. UC Health is not technically part of the University of Cincinnati, but the two have an ongoing affiliation with UC to serve as the clinical arm of educational research, Lofgren said. Despite not being an official extension of UC, the non-profit organization is still closely united with UC’s College of Medicine and is even largely comprised of UC professors — the organization consist of more than 700 certified clinicians and surgeons. “So it’s got this rich tradition building upon this new momentum, which is exciting from my standpoint,” Lofgren said. “And I think it’s exactly the kind of platform that we need to make a big difference.” Prior to taking the helm of UC Health, Lofgren worked with United Health Care, a consortium comprised of all of the medical academic centers from around the country. According to the United Health Group, UHC has invested nearly $3 billion in research and development in the past five years. “We’re very, very fortunate to have Rick
LAUREN KREMER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Richard Lofgren took over as president and CEO of UC Health in December. Since coming to UC, he has spent most of his time listening to different stakeholders in order to make more informed decisions about UC Health.
with us,”Thomas Boat, dean of College and Medicine, said in a statement. “He has been a consultant to a lot of academic health centers and he has really been able to see what works and what doesn’t work across the country in these settings.” Given Lofgren’s extensive experience in improving American healthcare, he said the long-term problems facing UC Health coincide with problems affecting similar institutions nationwide. “The biggest issue facing the health of the country isn’t necessarily the lack of technology, it’s really a healthcare delivery system that’s clumsy and increasingly not affordable,” Lofgren said. “It’s important that we leave a legacy of a healthcare system that’s sustainable; meaning that it’s accessible, of high quality and oh yeah, affordable.”
Lofgren said building a state of the art clinical delivery system — a procedure is set in place to accurately provide healthcare to the public — is only half of the battle. The other half is advancing academic programs to spur further research and development. “We need to make a commitment to the entire greater region that regardless of how sick, or how complex a medical problem, they can get world-class care right here in Cincinnati,” Lofgren said. “That’s what we’re trying to build to.” Lofgren said he has yet to encounter any surprises or setbacks, which he accredits to the transparency of UC Health. He said given the nationwide concerns about healthcare reforms and lack of funding, Cincinnati is the place to turn that around. SEE HEALTH PG 2
Drone research could help fight forest fires, save firefighters’ lives UC students using unmanned air crafts to effectively battle wild fires; cost of technology could be an issue SAMIYYAH WILDER CONTRIBUTOR
DAN SULLIVAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Professor Kelly Cohen (left) and graduate student Bryan Brown (right) discuss research that could help predict and monitor wild fires.
Research at the University of Cincinnati could help fight forest fires more effectively, and consequently save firefighters’ lives using drones. “We started off with the wild fires because it’s a little more open space and you don’t have to worry about people or anything like that,” said Bryan Brown, a thirdyear graduate student. Brown is the student leader of the UC Surveillance for Intelligent Emergency Response Robotic Aircraft Team, which deals specifically with research pertaining to the use of unmanned aircrafts in emergency response situations. Brown and Kelly Cohen — an associate professor of aerospace engineering with 15 years of experience working with drones — are working together with about 14 other students in the College of Engineering and CHIEF.NEWSRECORD@GMAIL.COM / 513.556.5908
Applied Sciences to find ways to implement drones in emergency responses. Using a GPS system that runs through Google Earth the drone is able to gather info about the fire without risking a pilot’s life, Cohen said. With that information, officials are able to see how the fire is growing and make predictions on how fast it will grow over time. “If we know how it is growing than we can make sure that our people won’t be in harms way,” Cohen said. The technology could be a game changer, especially in light of the recent tragedies including a wild fire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters in November, Cohen said. The drones could also provide information on how a specific fire started. However, the high cost of the technology presents a problem for implementing the research in fire departments across the country. “The firefighters do not have a valid budget for military IV’s,” Cohen said. “They need low cost so we are trying to develop for them low cost solutions.” SEE DRONES PG 2