VOL. CXXXVIII ISSUE XVVI • FREE-ADDITIONAL COPIES $1
THE NEWS RECORD THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI’S INDEPENDENT, STUDENT-RUN NEWS ORGANIZATION / THURSDAY, JAN. 9, 2014
WALTER HIM AND ‘HER’ MITTY
LIVING LABORATORY EXTENDS EDUCATION OUTSIDE CLASSROOM
UC FIELD STATION
SPIKE JONZE TELLS CLASSIC LOVE STORY WITH MODERN LENS
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SLAIN BY NIGHTS
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Neighborhood association wants to ban outdoor couches CUFNA concerned about couch fire hazard, Cincinnati Police and Board of Health have yet to act RYAN HOFFMAN NEWS EDITOR
The neighborhood association representing most of the area surrounding the University of Cincinnati wants to rid the area of upholstered couches on residential porches. “[Couches] pose safety, health risks to neighboring properties and to officers and other first responders,” said Cherie Wallape, Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview Heights Neighborhood Association president. “They are a fire hazard and attract vermin.” The Cincinnati Police Department along with the Board of Health were going to start issuing citations for couches on porches starting Jan. 1, according to the minutes from the CUFNA November meeting. District Five Police Officer Lisa Johnson presented a report to CUFNA recommending the removal of upholstered couches from porches, primarily because they are a fire hazard, she said. “The main goal is to try to save lives,” Johnson said. “If
we can stop it before it starts then it’s worth doing.” However, CPD and the Board of Health have yet to issue a single citation, so far. “I’m not going to go out of my way and write citations for every couch outside,” Johnson said. “We’ve got crime and thefts and that’s the priority.” There is no official city ordinance addressing outdoor couches. To cite a resident or landlord for an outdoor couch, the Board of Health would have to inspect a couch based on a complaint filed with CPD or the Board of Health. The Board of Health would then have to inspect each case and determine if it qualifies as litter, per the City of Cincinnati municipal code, said Rocky Merz, public information officer for the Cincinnati Health Department. Although it’s based on a case-by-case basis, outdoor couches covered by a porch typically don’t qualify as litter, Merz said. While there is no blanket law addressing outdoor couches, all it will take is one death from a couch fire to make it an issue, Johnson said, while noting that some residents might see the issue as a violation of individuals’ SEE COUCHES PG 2
MADISON SCHMIDT CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER The CUF Neighborhood Association wants to get rid of upholstered couches on residential porches in the neighborhoods surrounding UC.
POLAR VORTEX
UC Medical Center named top 200 for care of heart attack patients JAMIE MAIER STAFF REPORTER
SARA BLANKEMEYER STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Renovations to one of America’s oldest collegiate stadiums started in early December. Construction, ranging from $80 to $85 million, is expected to be completed in 2015.
Winter weather disrupts campus life; students displaced, buildings evacuated RYAN HOFFMAN NEWS EDITOR
The polar vortex that displaced 45 Stratford Heights residents and shut down the University of Cincinnati for two days continued to wreak havoc Wednesday with pipes bursting in buildings throughout campus. Announcements of busted pipes and evacuated buildings continued to pour in to Wednesday evening. Tangeman University Center was evacuated multiple times throughout the day, after busted pipes triggered emergency alarms and caused phone service to go out in parts of the building, including the Catskeller. The Corry Boulevard entrance to the Corry Garage was closed after a leak caused part of the roof to collapse. The College of Design, Art, Architecture and Design was briefly evacuated after a pipe burst and Kettering Lab — where water affected the electrical switchgear — on the medical campus will remain closed until a safety evaluation can be conducted. But the worst of the damage came Tuesday, when a pipe burst around 3 a.m. in a third-floor bathroom in Tower Hall located on the Stratford Heights Complex. The water spilled out of the bathroom and down the third floor hall, eventually seeping down to the second and third floor. Because the pipe was part of the sprinkler system, the emergency alarm went off and students had to temporarily vacate the building. They re-entered the building
shortly after to find saturated walls and floors and in some cases, personal property submerged under several inches of standing water. “The whole thing was very chaotic,” said Cameron Meeks, a first-year architecture student who was displaced after the incident. “It just seems like the university doesn’t have an emergency plan in place for something like this.” As of press time, 45 students were relocated to other on campus housing — including Morgen’s Hall, the Campus Recreation Center and other buildings in the Stratford Heights Complex. Meeks said the move has added pressure during an already hectic time of the year. The university is doing its best to accommodate all students involved, said Todd Duncan, Housing and Food Services
director. Every student affected had $10 transferred to their Bearcat card to wash and dry any wet clothing. Any students relocated to a more expensive residence hall will not be charged the difference and the university will work on transferring parking decals for residents who were relocated across campus, Duncan said. But the university will not replace any damaged personal property, per the campus housing lease agreement. “We regret that the university is unable to assume responsibility for damage to students’ personal property,” according to an email sent from the Office of resident Education and Development to affected residents. “This limitation is outlined in the terms and conditions of the housing SEE POLAR VORTEX PG 2
PHIL DIDION PHOTO EDITOR A busted pipe caused part of the roof in Corry Garage to collapse at the Corry Boulevard entrance Wednesday.
The American College of Cardiology Foundation recognized the University of Cincinnati Medical Center as one of the top 200 best programs in the country for its quality care of heart attack patients. “The American College of Cardiology Foundation and the American Heart Association commend University of Cincinnati Medical Center for its success in implementing standards of care and protocols,” said James Jollis, an ACC Foundation representative and professor at Duke University, in a statement. “The full implementation of acute and secondary prevention guidelinerecommended therapy is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of heart attack patients.” UC Medical Center received the award by following the foundation’s treatment guidelines for eight consecutive quarters and meeting a performance standard of 90 percent for specific performance measures. By adhering to these guidelines UC Medical Center follows the ACC and AHA recommendations, monitors drug safety and improves the overall quality of care for cardio patients. Faculty physicians and staff in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory and the cardiovascular intensive care unit are responsible for this high level of care.
UC offers bracketology course for second year BRYAN SHUPE CHIEF REPORTER
For the second consecutive year, a University of Cincinnati bracketology class returns in time for the approaching NCAA March Madness tournament. Instructed by UC alumnus Paul Bessire, who graduated from UC in 2005 with a Master’s of Science degree in quantitative analysis, the course examines the analytical aspect of tournament brackets and will be taught over three Saturdays — one each in February, March and April. “One thing that is undervalued within UC right now is the considerable amount of research that has been done over the last ten or fifteen years within the field of sports analytics,” Bessire said. Though Bessire recommends experience with probabilities and statistics, he doesn’t require any SEE BRACKETOLOGY PG 2
Student government creates plan to retain, promote past ideas, agendas Plan to help keep previous administration’s ideas viable for future administrations could come in March NATALIE COLEMAN STAFF REPORTER
MADISON SCHMIDT CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Jacklyn Hyde (left) and Joe Blizzard (right) at Wednesday’s senate meeting.
University of Cincinnati Undergraduate Student Government approved a strategic plan Wednesday that will set an ever-evolving agenda of goals for future SG members to consider. “We spend a lot of time generating ideas, and a lot less time making the ideas tangible and sustainable for when we leave,” said Aaron Sykes, senator at-large.“All of our ideas are floating in space and nothing is holding us accountable to keep them sustained from year to year.” Though the specifics have yet to be worked out, the plan will promote the retention and evolution of ideas across new and old SG cabinets. The strategy is slated to be finalized by March 12 and will be presented to the senate for approval March 19. “We need to think about how we can make this plan not just our plan but next year’s plan, and the year after that,” CHIEF.NEWSRECORD@GMAIL.COM / 513.556.5908
Sykes said.“What we should focus on our overarching initiatives for each year’s student government to use as a guide.” A committee began meeting in 2012 to draft the principles of the plan and develop the steps it would take to finalize it, though the plan was slow to take off. “One issue I saw was that the accountability was not there,” said Joe Blizzard, student body president.“The people working on each initiative need to be passionate and need to be in student government long enough to do something.” Other SG members thought the plan would just waste the government’s meeting time. “There wouldn’t really be a purpose,” said Benjamin Keefe, student trustee.“It may be possible that we have a completely different room of people here in two years. This sounds more like a mission statement to me.” UC President Santa Ono was excited about the future of the plan, said Andrew Naab, senator-at-large. “We’re trying to provide a vision that future student governments can look at,” Naab said. “Next years senate can say ‘This is the vision of the 2013 senate which we can build off of.’”