VOL. CXXXVI ISSUE XVIV • FREE-ADDITIONAL COPIES $1
THE NEWS RECORD THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI’S INDEPENDENT, STUDENT-RUN NEWS ORGANIZATION / THURSDAY, NOV. 21, 2013
SPEAKING SERIES WRAPS WITH EROTIC, PROVOCATIVE POET
VISITING WRITERS
CATS ROUTE BEATNIK MURDER CAMPBELL
‘KILL YOUR DARLINGS’ HITS BIG SCREEN IN DRAMATIC FASHION
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‘WALKING DEAD’
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Safety around campus improving; still more work needed Increased patrols leading to decreased crime, officials talk future strategies ALEXIS O’BRIEN NEWS EDITOR
DAN SULLIVAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Board of Trustees chair Fan Barrett, UC President Santa Ono, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell and UC Vice President for Administration and Finance Bob Ambach (left to right) at Tuesday’s safety committee meeting.
Ohio governor to speak at winter commencement
While heightened enforcement efforts are improving crime trends in the areas surrounding the University of Cincinnati, UC and local law enforcement officials are still searching for methods to reduce crime. “I want to see no red dots on the map,” said President Santa Ono when he examined a crime data map of Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview during the monthly Campus Safety Committee meeting Tuesday. Since the Aug. 25 implementation of increased law enforcement patrolling— a
change that increased police coverage in the areas surrounding campus from four days a week to seven — crime around UC has decreased about 54 percent, said Robin Engel, director of the Institute of Crime Science. “Criminals are looking for target-rich environments and if they see our guys, they’re going somewhere else,” said Jeffrey Blackwell, Cincinnati police chief. Cincinnati Police, with the help of UCPD, have focused on preventing street robberies though an increased law enforcement presence in areas where students live and socialize. “To be honest, this is the safest I felt during my four years here,” said Jaclyn Hyde, student body vice president. SEE SAFETY PG 2
STUDENT SOLUTIONS
RYAN HOFFMAN NEWS EDITOR
The University of Cincinnati landed a big name to speak at its December commencement ceremony. UC announced Monday that Ohio Gov. John Kasich will speak at the ceremony commemorating 2014 graduates. “John Kasich has been an exceptional supporter of higher education,” said UC President Santa Ono, in an email to The News Record. “He has collaborated extensively with university presidents in Ohio and cares deeply about student success. I’ve enjoyed working with him on several initiatives and feel that our university system is stronger because he has been governor.” Kasich said via Twitter that he was looking forward to speaking at the ceremony. SEE KASICH PG 2
CRIME BLOTTER 11/10 Attempted Robbery on Calhoun Street and Clifton Avenue A male suspect, approximately 20 years old, got out of a car on Calhoun Street and Clifton Avenue and demanded a pedestrian victim’s cell phone at 2:25 a.m. Sunday. The suspect exited a tan Chevrolet Malibu, in which were other occupants the victim could not describe, and struck the victim with a bottle when the victim resisted. The victim sustained a small laceration above his right eye and the suspect got back in the car and fled the scene. Nothing was taken in the offense. 11/15 Robbery at Clifton International Market Three male suspects robbed Clifton International Market at 3232 Jefferson Avenue Friday afternoon. According to Cincinnati Police, 21-year-old Quinton Scott was one of the suspects who injured the market employee through physical assault and a strike to the face with a glass object. The suspect was last seen heading toward Burnet Woods. 11/20 Robbery at Euclid Avenue and Daniels Street A male victim was confronted at gunpoint and his wallet and cell phone were taken at Euclid and East Daniels at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. The suspect was described as male, black, 20 to 25 years old, 6’4” tall, wearing a brown and red hooded sweatshirt and maroon pants. He was last seen on Eden Avenue heading south toward William Howard Taft Road. Cincinnati and UC police were unable to locate the suspect after searching the area.
PHIL DIDION PHOTO EDITOR Debra Merchant, vice president for student affairs and services, helps host the Students’ Experience event while students provide input for how the university could be more inclusive.
Students share ideas on making campus, university more inclusive BRYAN SHUPE CHIEF REPORTER
Conversations about race and diversity at the University of Cincinnati took a different tone Wednesday as students gathered in the African American Cultural Resource Center to offer their ideas to foster acceptance and inclusion on campus. “This particular session is a little bit more than an ongoing conversation,” said Debra Merchant, vice president for Student Affairs and Services. “I am inviting you to partner with us for action. We want action to come out of this meeting because we’re talked out.” Merchant and Bleuzette Marshall, interim chief diversity officer, hosted the meeting and encouraged attendees to formulate concrete ideas about how the community can better support unrepresented faculty and students. “I think we’re missing the point,” said Amara Agomuo, a fourth-year political science student. “The students out at [the Tangeman University Center] weren’t expressing themselves over diversity. The main issue is race, not diversity. The thing that I’ve realized is that even though I get A’s, I don’t feel competent. At the end of the day, I feel like I’m still a token.” Wednesday’s meeting built on the conversation that began during an open forum hosted by Provost Beverly Davenport Nov. 13 and addressed concerns
that surfaced at a student-organized town hall meeting Friday. Merchant and Marshall began the discussion by pointing out existing, diversity-driven initiatives at UC, such as the College of Engineering Emerging Ethnic Engineers — a program that aims to increase the number of ethnic engineering students. Davenport thinks solid ideas that increase the comfort level of underrepresented students and faculty are the ones that will lead to solutions. “What we’re talking about is identity,” Davenport said. “Our identities are bigger than race, they’re more than gender and where we came from. If you are not thinking, questioning and reflecting on who you are, then we’ve all missed the boat.” Davenport told some students they should be questioning their identity during their time at college because “that’s what college is all about,” but said hearing students question the efforts of UC is hard. “I think the most hurtful thing to me over the last few days is people saying to other people, ‘Don’t come here,’” Davenport said. “I didn’t come here to be a part of an institution that feels that a huge part of it is not doing the best it can. I won’t shy away and I don’t sweep things under the rug.” Terry Kershaw, department head of Africana Studies, said the open discussion was a definite step in the right direction, but that it’s only the start to bridging cultural gaps at UC. “It’s always a positive step when people
who feel they have been marginalized have their voices heard, and there’s a collective effort to say ‘Let’s make a difference,’” Kershaw said. “But it can’t stop here. Talk is cheap.” Following a short brainstorming session before the two-hour meeting came to an end, students and faculty members presented multiple ideas to promote diversity and acceptance on campus. Among those ideas was the possibility of mandatory diversity classes and improvements to the diversity website. “What we’re going to do is take all this information and pull out some strategies so we can have some actionable items,” Merchant said. The next open forum for the UC community is scheduled for Dec. 2.
PHIL DIDION PHOTO EDITOR Amara Agomuo, a fourth-year student, speaks at the UC Student’s Experience forum in the AACRC Wednesday.
SG supports Ohio House bill giving student trustees vote on university boards If passed, house bill would give student trustees vote JAMIE MAIER STAFF REPORTER
DAN SULLIVAN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Student body president Joe Blizzard (left) and vice president Jacklyn Hyde at Wednesday’s meeting.
In a meeting with a packed agenda, University of Cincinnati Undergraduate Student Government voted to support state legislation and to further diversity initiatives on campus. The legislation would allow student trustees that sit on pubic universities’ governing boards to vote — a right they currently do not have. “We are elected by the entire student body to represent them,” said Jaclyn Hyde, student body vice president. “If we are given the chance and the opportunity to have this vote and to give this voice in such an important board, we need to jump on it.” Of 39 states with student trustees, Ohio
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is one of seven with non-voting students on the board. All 14 public Ohio university trustee boards include two non-voting student members who represent undergraduate and graduate students. “If 82 percent of the states in the United States give this vote, why are we regressing when we need to be progressing?” Hyde said. The bill — endorsed by UC’s undergraduate and graduate governances — is scheduled to be considered by the Ohio House in early January. Student government also decided — in response to recent events and questions about UC’s diversity efforts — to add more students to student government’s the Diversity Council. “There has been a lot of emotional anger from students over what has SEE SG PG 2