TNR 9.27.12

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THE NEWS RECORD

132 YEARS IN PRINT VOL. CXXXII ISSUE LVVIV

THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 27 | 2012

CAPITAL COLLISION

OBAMA AT U.N.

sports | 6

nation | 3

Board chairman explains severance

DANI KOKOCHAK | STAFF REPORTER

The University of Cincinnati’s Undergraduate Student Government meeting was visited by Chairperson Francis Barrett Wednesday. Chairman C. Francis Barrett spoke in

depth on the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees’ decision to compensate former President Gregory Williams following his abrupt resignation. Williams resigned August 21, a week before classes began for the semester. Williams gave personal reasons for his

LAUREN PURKEY | PHOTO EDITOR

EXPLANATION FOR COMPENSATION Board of Trustees chairman Fran Barrett answered questions regarding former President Gegory Williams severance deal at the Student Government meeting on Wednesday.

resignation, but didn’t elaborate. Williams will still be a tenured professor in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Law, Barrett said. Williams’ employment contract stated if should he no longer be president, he would be entitled to be paid the equivalent of the highest paid professor in either of these two colleges for life, Barrett said. “I think it is a great thing in trying to buy him out that way,” said Zach Nieberding, director of finances. “We don’t know how healthy he is, I hope he lives a long life but he could be living the next thirty years.” The board’s decision actually saved the university money in the long run, Barrett said. In the College of Law, the current highest salary is $255,000 annually, equaling out to $5.1 million if Williams lived for 20 more years, Barrett said. The university is required to pay him the $112,750 resignation compensation, the $100,000 retirement benefit, and the $255,000 tenured salary this year, Barrett said. “We were also required to pay the fulltenured salary for the rest of his life, so we felt that it was fair to negotiate that way down, in a contract buyout, to what was thought to be a fair number of $800,000 a year, saving millions of dollars,” Barrett said. The former president is also able to seek employment at other universities on top of compensation, Barrett said. The money to compensate Williams

will come out of the general funds of the university, which is funded partially by student tuition. Williams’ contract to consult on different matters will have no impact on the student body, Barrett said. “Your lives [as students] should not change one way or the other,” Barrett said. Several SG members asked Barrett about the details of how the board decided to pay Williams more than $1.2 million in the next two years. “I’m thankful that [Barrett] came to address the senate and I think that’s really important to have those open lines of communication with the board of trustees,” said Lane Hart, student body president. There was an open forum for any student to come and voice their concerns about Williams’ compensation and senators were asking the right questions to get that information, Hart said. “Any time there is a change in major university leadership, it does have an impact on students. The amount of compensation he has been given is a lot of money when we are talking about the tuition dollars that we as students pay,” Hart said. “Any time we have to expend that much money is a negative thing for students because that money is not being used correctly to benefit students.” The compensation could be used to give scholarships to more students, subsidizing programs, and building new academic programs, Hart said.

Park regs tossed by lawsuit BEN GOLDSCHMIDT | CHIEF REPORTER

A rule that allowed private policy-makers to write rules for Washington Park was voted down by Cincinnati’s Park Board Thursday. Park Rule 28 – the policy that was voted down – allowed rules that circumvented the public process to be enforced by law, as long as they were posted on a sign, said Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati homeless Coalition. A lawsuit filed by Jerry Davis of the Homeless Congress, Ann Brown and Andrew Fitzpatrick of the People’s Platform for Equality and Justice claims that the unchecked rules were discriminatory towards homeless people. Jennifer Kinsley, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said she is going to continue the lawsuit because Park Rule 28 was just one of the reasons for the lawsuit. Kinsley was not available for comment on those reasons. Park Rule 28 allowed representatives from the Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation (3CDC), the Superintendent of Cincinnati Parks and a Captain in the Cincinnati Police Department to create rules without going through the City Solicitor or a public forum, as the law requires, Spring said. The rules that were to be made only applied to Washington Park, and allegedly targeted homeless people’s rights, Spring said. One rule disallowed rummaging through garbage cans, and another prohibited people from dropping off clothing or food, according to the lawsuit.

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Local News Nation & World Arts Life Sports

PHIL DIDION | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

SEARCHING FOR SUPPORT Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan speaks to supporters at the Fredrick Steel Co. in Carthage, Ohio Tuesday.

PLAYING TO HIS CROWD

Ryan stops in Cincinnati, talks jobs and debt to packed house TYLER BELL | STAFF REPORTER Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was once again in Cincinnati era Tuesday. The morning town hall meeting at Fredrick Steel Co. in Carthage, Ohio, sought to garner support for he and Mitt Romney ahead of the November election. “Most of our jobs in this country come from successful small businesses,” Ryan said. “Sixty-five percent of our net new jobs, they don’t come from the big, giant corporations.” Though blame for the current state of the economy could be laid on both parties, President Barack Obama’s administration’s spending could eventually destroy the economy, Ryan said. Ryan used a line graph as a visual aid throughout his presentation to highlight the increase in the national debt. “They tell us they don’t even think the economy can survive past that point, because of the mountain of debt we have,” Ryan said. “We want to show you we’ve got to deal with this.” Burke Byer, who spoke at the event, owns the steel-recycling factory and joined other speakers who focused on highlighting the flaws of Obama’s administration and confirming that, if elected, Republicans would change America for the better.

THURSDAY

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SPORTS

What: Women’s volleyball When: Friday 7 p.m. Where: Pittsburgh

What: Women’s Soccer When: Friday 7:30 p.m. Where: University of South Florida What: Football When: Saturday 3:30 p.m. Where: Virginia Tech

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What: Women’s volleyball When: Sunday 1 p.m. Where: University of South Florida

“I’m here to tell you, we’re in hard times,” Byer said during his speech. A clock represent the national debt continuously rose on the wall closest to the speaking platform. The clock read $16,077,537,000,000 at 10:22 a.m., $70 billion higher than reported by the US Treasury on its website later in the day. “Because of Barack,” said Steve Chabot, Republican Representative for Ohio’s first district. “Americans are broke.” The Obama campaign doesn’t want the voters looking back at the administration’s inability to come through on promises Obama made in his 2008 run for the presidency, Chabot said. “Remember when president, candidate at the time, Obama said that he was going to cut the deficit in half?,” Chabot said. “He doubled it.” Brad Wenstrup, Republican nominee for congress in Ohio’s second district, said that Obama’s reaction to the bombings in Libya and Iran’s nuclear program would be seen as weakness by America’s enemies. “We can not afford the high cost of weakness, and with Romney and Ryan we will not be weak, and we will not apologize to anyone,”Wenstrup said. “Let’s put someone in the White House who will swear to uphold the constitution and mean it.”

Ryan spoke briefly about foreign policy in the Middle East, vowing to protect Israel, a long-time ally of the US, from Iran and its other regional enemies. “We believe in peace though strength,” Ryan said. Ryan entered the building in his tour bus to the song “Rock n’ Roll Train” by AC/DC. Rand Paul, senator and son of congressman Ron Paul, who ran against Mitt Romney in the primaries earlier this year, introduced Ryan to the crowd. Jessica Stuart, a full-time mother from Cincinnati, said she supports the Romney campaign because it aligns with her values of her kids having a good college education and getting a job so that they can have children of their own who did the same. When asked what her “Moms For Mitt” pin stood for she said: “I feel like it’s for core values, for those morals and values that I am trying t raise my children with.” “We love everything he stands for and the direction he’s going to take the country,” said Danny Williams, guitarist for Pistol Holler, a southwestern Ohio band that played live for the event.

EVENT RUNDOWN LIFE

What: Catskeller Unplugged When: Thursday 7 p.m. Where: Catskeller

What: The Amazing Spider Man When: Friday 7 p.m. Where: TUC 220 What: Moonrise Kingdom When: Friday 9 p.m. Where: TUC 220

What: CCM Student Recital When: Wednesday 6:45 p.m. Where: Emery 2100

NEWSRECORDNEWS@GMAIL.COM | 513.556.5908

ACADEMIC

What: AAUP chapter meeting When: Thursday 12:00 p.m. Where: TUC 425

What: Huntington’s disease seminar When: Thursday 5 p.m. Where: Cresge Auditorium What: Serve Beyond speaker series When: Thursday 6 p.m. Where: TUC 220


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