The Lantern - January 25 2018

TUESDAY

THURSDAY

ENGAGEMENT

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Drake stresses significance of community partnerships in addressing issues in Columbus.

COLUMBUS’ OWN

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Friends since childhood, band members enjoy trying new methods of making music together.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

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Ohio State marches toward 10-0 in Big Ten with Penn State up next | PREVIEW

MEN’S HOCKEY

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Ohio State vs. Michigan. Preview of No. 6 Buckeyes battle with No. 17 Wolverines. | PREVIEW

The student voice of the Ohio State University

Thursday, January 25, 2018

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Year 138, Issue No. 5

When federal funding falters Ohio State resorting to new alternatives to fund research OWEN DAUGHERTY Assistant Campus Editor daugherty.260@osu.edu JAKE RAHE Senior Lantern reporter rahe.21@osu.edu Colleges and universities across the country are finding new ways to support their research endeavors as the federal government’s funding has flattened over the years, and Ohio State is no exception.

Ohio State’s research and development expenditures, which are the total amount the university spends on research, hit a five-year low in 2016 of $847 million, after peaking two years prior at $983 million. Research expenditure is considered a direct reflection of incoming research money.

The state’s flagship university is a powerhouse research institution, conducting studies on everything from climate change to cures for cancer. Ohio State has consistently ranked in the top 20 among universities in to-

AMANDA PARRISH | LANTERN REPORTER

Eight tampon dispensers were installed in the Ohio Union restrooms to provide greater access to free feminine hygiene products.

COURTESY OF OHIO STATE

Ohio State is branching out and looking for new sources of research funding as federal support has stagnated over the years. tal research expenditures, but fell to 22nd in the National Science Foundation rankings in 2016. Ten years ago, Ohio State was ranked ninth.

While that dip in expenditures and slip in rankings might not be representative of the university’s

research as a whole, one thing is certain: Ohio State is branching out and looking for new forms of funding.

The university’s recently retired vice president of research, Carol Whitacre, said Ohio State is trying to “diversify its funding

portfolio” by finding sources other than heavily relied upon grants from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. This federal-government funding makes up around 75 percent of the college’s research

Ohio State professor Robyn Wilson is standing up to the Environmental Protection Agency after she was emailed a message implicitly asking for her resignation from the Science Advisory Board – an act she said is specifically targeting scientists at academic institutions.

In November, Wilson refused to resign and has not received a response from the agency since.

Wilson, alongside current and former advisory board members, is suing the EPA in an attempt to overturn administrator Scott Pruitt’s directive that bans scientists who receive their funding from serving on any of the agency’s advisory boards.

In a press conference Wednesday, Wilson said this move directly impacts researchers at universities, because they typically receive grants from the EPA. This puts the researchers in a sticky situation, since the grants could be tied to other scientists who are

RIS TWIGG | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Robyn Wilson, an associate professor of risk analysis and decision science, displays postcards and letters supporting her decision to sue the EPA. dependent on the money, a situation Wilson experienced firsthand.

Wilson, an associate professor of risk analysis and decision science, said she is in the midst of conducting research with several partners, and if she agreed to stop the EPA-funded work to continue her role on the board, the others

would be left in the dark.

Pruitt’s directive is said to have been developed to create a more diverse board and avoid any conflicts of interest.

Wilson said the agency is inferring “that in some way, because the EPA was funding your research that you then wouldn’t be able to be objective, that you

AMANDA PARRISH Lantern reporter parrish.272@osu.edu

would then spin your data or spin your science in ways that would serve a particular mission at the agency.”

“That brings into question a bit what the intentions are behind this,” she said. “There’s obviously maybe another intention behind it because it’s duplicating, in my opinion, [preventive] processes already in place.”

She said the directive removes board members from institutions to make way for industry researchers who might agree with the current administration’s views on environmental issues like climate change.

According to a report from the Center for Investigative Reporting, 68 percent of the new Science Advisory Board consists of industry-funded scientists, 14 of which contributed nearly $320,000 to Pruitt’s Oklahoma state Senate campaign.

Many critics of Pruitt’s directive have said it is an effort to remove unbiased science from the EPA and increase the influence of industries regulated by the agen-

A pilot program set forth to increase access to free feminine hygiene products on campus is nearly ready to begin as tampon dispensers in Ohio Union restrooms were installed Tuesday.

The program, introduced by Undergraduate Student Government, will consist of 20 tampon dispensers split between the Union and the RPAC. “Eight of the 20 dispensers have arrived and will be installed in the Ohio Union beginning [Tuesday],” said Dave Isaacs, spokesman for the Office of Student Life. “The other 12 are still on backorder.”

The backorder was caused by overwhelming demand with the manufacturer, Hospeco — a national corporation that specializes in “universal access to menstrual hygiene products,” as stated on Hospeco’s website.

In some states like Illinois and California, public schools are required to have free tampon dispensers in their bathrooms, resulting in a substantial increase in demand for Hospeco.

USG Vice President Sophie Chang who has been pushing for the program as of last semester, was made aware Thursday that the order wouldn’t be filled in time.

This is not the first roadblock USG faced in the installation process. Ohio State’s Facilities Operations and Development is responsible for the installation of the dispensers. was unsure where to place the machines in the bath-

EPA CONTINUES ON 6

TAMPONS CONTINUES ON 2

FUNDING CONTINUES ON 3

Ohio State professor sues EPA after it enacts a ‘blatant attack on science-informed policy’ RIS TWIGG Assistant Photo Editor twigg.10@osu.edu

Tampon accessibility pilot program begins on campus

CAMPUS

2 | Thursday, January 25, 2018

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Political Pulse ZACH VARDA Senior Lantern reporter varda.6@osu.edu Political Pulse is a weekly column with the goal of giving objective to-the-point information to readers on current political events.

New abortion bill

MATT DORSEY | ENGAGEMENT EDITOR

President Michael Drake speaks in the Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom at the Ohio Union during lunch Wednesday at Ohio State’s first-ever Community Engagement Conference.

President Drake highlights importance of partnerships to solve community problems MATT DORSEY Engagement Editor dorsey.215@osu.edu

our fellow citizens, people all throughout our region, all throughout our state and all across the country and the world.”

University President Michael Drake spoke Wednesday afternoon on the importance of human connection in overcoming community challenges.

The 11-minute speech took place during lunch in the Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom at the Ohio Union during the university’s first-ever Community Engagement Conference. It touched on two high-profile problems in Ohio — food inaccessibility and opioid addiction — and the need for people to work together to solve them.

“These are places where we need partners and need to partner with people to be able to find the most effective solutions,” Drake said.

The university’s role as a central part of community work is essential, he said.

“Why do [universities] exist? Why are we here?” Drake asked rhetorically. “We’re here to be able to educate people to be able to go into our communities and to uplift the quality of life for our neighbors, for our families, for

“We’re here to be able to educate people to be able to go into our communities and to uplift the quality of life for our neighbors, for our families, for our fellow citizens.”

Michael Drake Ohio State University President

Drake spent several minutes describing the President’s Prize program, an annual award founded in 2016 given to two graduating seniors each year to launch community outreach programs. Prize winners are given a one-year living stipend of $50,000 as well as $50,000 in startup funds for their programs.

Ohio State has awarded the prize to four students so far. Drake highlighted two of them in his speech: Maggie Griffin for her project to

increase fresh food accessibility in Ohio, and Alina Sharafutdinova for her impending project in a Franklin County high school to offer assistance to students impacted by the opioid crisis.

While the President’s Prize program allows students to propose projects anywhere in the world, Drake said he was proud to see winning proposals that focus on Ohio.

“It’s been great to see that the best projects that we’ve seen have routinely focused on our own communities, right here with the people that we live and work with, on things that are the most pressing problems that we face,” he said.

Designed as a networking event for community outreach workers, Drake’s sentiment of the two President’s Prize programs was done to emphasize the importance of partnerships for the university.

“This is not one person going out and doing something or just the university going out and doing something,” he said. “It’s really people working with people across various sectors, all coming together in an aligned effort to try and make our world better.”

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

TAMPONS FROM 1

University strives to improve student well-being, welcomes feedback

COURTESY OF OHIO STATE

To the editor: The health and well-being of our students is our top priority; this includes mental-health support and services. Over the past two years, Ohio State has increased the Office of Student

Life’s Counseling and Consultation Service’s staff by 13 clinicians and two support positions.

We also have added locations in Lincoln Tower and in the North Residential District. Our goal is to offer students the availability of a triage call with a clinician within one day of first contact and, for those with urgent needs, access to individual appointments within one week. For those with less urgent needs, we offer a multimodal approach that includes a variety of alternative support, including workshops, group counseling, wellness coaching and off-campus referrals.

We offer interventions for students to help address emotional and mental-health concerns in the

immediate and short-term. In addition, we work with many Ohio State and community providers to ensure that, when necessary, referrals for full-service, specialized or long-term care can be made.

We strive to offer the highest standards of quality care and service to help students advance their success and well-being, and appreciate feedback that contributes to our ongoing effort to improve support for students.

rooms since many have tile walls, causing logistical complications.

“FOD wants to put the dispensers on drywall instead of tiles,” USG President Andrew Jackson said. “The drywall is easier to cover back up as compared to having to replace the whole tile for where you place the dispenser.”

Jackson said FOD plans to place the dispensers regardless of wall material because of the schedule complications resulting in a later installation date. “[FOD] is waiting on the machines to be transported to them, so they can be installed,” Chang said, “Then the products can be put into the machines, and then we can start the trial process.”

Sincerely, Javaune Adams-Gaston, PhD Senior Vice President Office of Student Life The Ohio State University

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The Ohio Senate passed a bill last week that would require aborted fetuses to be buried or cremated.

The bill went through 24-9 with votes coming in along party lines.

Republican Sen. Joe Uecker, who proposed the legislation, said the bill is all about respect for human life.

“The goal is simply to keep the remains of babies that have been aborted out of landfills,” Uecker said. “It is a dignity of human life issue.”

This is the second attempt to have the proposed requirements made into law. A similar bill, also proposed by Uecker, made it out of the Senate last session but never received a vote in the House.

Uecker said the proposed legislation is motivated by documented cases of aborted fetal remains being found in landfills, citing a specific case in the Cincinnati area where two sanitation workers at a water treatment facility found the remains of an aborted baby on the screens used to filter out solid waste.

“That was a very traumatic and horrific sight for these two workers from the water treatment facility,” Uecker said.

Opponents of the bill have decried the legislation as an unconstitutional restriction on abortion providers.

Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, derided the legislation in a statement ahead of the Senate vote.

“When a woman has made the decision to have an abortion she should be able to to access that care in her community without judgment or harassment,” she said. “The anti-abortion politicians behind this bill want to force a woman who has had an abortion to have to consider and decide upon burial or cremation services — it’s inappropriate and demeaning.”

Opponents of the bill also have pointed out that a similar law in Indiana was found unconstitutional by a federal judge, but that decision is currently being appealed.

Uecker said if his legislation does not get a vote in the House this session, like last session, then he will propose it again next session.

Government shutdown National news over the weekend was focused on the three-day shutdown of the federal government, but that came to an end POLITICS CONTINUES ON 3

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FUNDING FROM 1

funding.

“When I first came into this job, we were relying mostly on federal funds,” said Whitacre, who was with the university for 36 years before retiring in 2017. She had served as the vice president of research since 2008. “Federal is still our bread and butter, our largest source of money. But we have also spread our wings a little bit and gone much more after industry and foundations.”

Whitacre and university leaders know the tenor of federal funding for research is changing.

Since 2008, with inflation taken into account, federal funding across the board has essentially declined, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mark Failla, professor emeritus of human nutrition, said Ohio State’s decrease in funding is not abnormal.

“It is everywhere,” Failla said.

“I think it is a national crisis, to be honest.”

Furthermore, in its first budget proposal in May, the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to cut funding of NIH and NSF. Ohio State has fared somewhat better than other schools, however, steadily gaining in NIH funding from 2012 to 2017. The university funding grew from $142 million to $171 million during that span, an almost 20 percent increase. But with inflation taken into account, that number has less shine.

University President Michael Drake considers federal grants to be the best indicator of success because the competition is so vast.

“We traditionally look very closely at NIH funding,” he told The Lantern in November. “That means a lot because there is a set pool of money and there is a national peer review process meant to select the best ideas.”

NIH accepting proposals from Ohio State indicates quality work and ideas, Drake said. He pointed to private fundraising and industry partnerships as new and increasingly important sources of the much-needed capital a place like Ohio State needs to continue to grow.

“We are up in our industry-related research,” Drake said. “We want to continue to have that moving forward.”

While industry-driven research might be on the rise, it is not always applicable to researchers such as Failla, who specializes in long-term projects focused on feeding people more efficiently.

“Most of the industry is not interested in making the long-term investments that there will be true outcomes from,” Failla said. “It is

THE STUDENT VOICE OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY The Lantern is a student publication which is part of the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. It publishes issues Tuesday and Thursday, and online editions every day. The Lantern’s daily operations are funded through advertising and its academic pursuits are supported by the School of Communication. Some of the advertising is sold by students. The School of Communication is committed to the highest professional standards for the newspaper in order to guarantee the fullest educational benefits from The Lantern experience.

POLITICS FROM 2

JACK WESTERHEIDE | PHOTO EDITOR

The state-of-the-art Brain and Spine Hospital located on W. 10th Ave recently underwent a renovation to increase research space. now always just nickel-and-dime stuff.”

In addition to industry research, Ohio State has seen an increase of donations given from outside private donors. The most recent completed fundraising campaign, But for Ohio State, raised more than $3 billion total, with more than $1 billion going directly toward research.

The Wexner Medical Center continues to grow and enhance its facilities for research, as well, with large chunks of those projects coming from fundraising.

“It’s actually much harder today [to receive a federal grant] than it has been. There tends to be nationwide more researchers out there.

So there is greater competition for the same dollar.”

Mark Failla Professor emeritus of human nutrition

“We had our best year in philanthropy [in 2016],” Drake said. “Overall, the medical center had its philanthropy up dramatically year over year, as we did on the rest of campus.”

Whitacre has seen the landscape of research funding shift dramatically in her tenure, to the point where the demand for research money now outpaces the supply from the federal government.

She said this new reality leads to increased competition for federal grants, which makes getting proposals accepted and funded an increasingly difficult task.

“It’s actually much harder today [to receive a federal grant] than it has been,” she said. “There tends to be nationwide more researchers out there. So there is greater competition for the same dollar.”

Editor in Chief Kevin Stankiewicz Managing Editor for Content Jacob Myers Managing Editor for Design JL Lacar Copy Chief Rachel Bules Campus Editor Summer Cartwright Assistant Campus Editor Owen Daugherty Sports Editor Colin Hass-Hill Assistant Sports Editor Edward Sutelan Arts&Life Editor Ghezal Barghouty Assistant Arts&Life Editor Sara Stacy Photo Editor Jack Westerheide Assistant Photo Editor Ris Twigg Design Editor Chandler Gerstenslager Assistant Design Editor Kelly Meaden Multimedia Editor Hailey Stangebye Social Media Editor Nick Clarkson Engagement Editor Matt Dorsey Oller Reporter Sheridan Hendrix Miller Projects Reporter Erin Gottsacker

Researchers and professors at Ohio State hoping to receive grants have felt the squeeze firsthand.

“We have these highly trained, young, very sharp scientists that are coming into universities as professors,” Failla said. “Well, they spend so much of their time in their offices writing proposals to get responses [from the government] on, ‘What an idiot you are, we aren’t giving you any money to do that’.”

With so much of a researcher’s time being taken up by writing grant proposals, Failla said student researchers aren’t receiving the training that they used to.

“What happens is faculty aren’t bellied up to the research bench working right there with grad students, with undergrads, postdocs, etcetera, teaching them the tricks you learn along the way,” Failla said. “Little manipulations, how to really get that reaction to go, all those sorts of things that, during my generation, we were there with mentors right beside us saying, ‘No you idiot, this is how to properly pipet.’”

According to the NSF database, the federal government funded 939 full-time research positions at Ohio State in 2015, the most recent year data was available. In 2011, that number was 1,278.

“You turned the world upside down now, and who suffers?”

Failla asked, before he answered his own question. “I think those young faculty do, but even senior faculty are having difficult times with funding, but also the next

generation, the ones we are supposed to be training.”

The university created an office in 2015 designed to help researchers secure funding through grants by helping them craft more developed and thoughtful proposals.

Whitacre said the Proposal Development Center helps researchers ranging in experience from undergraduate students to world-renowned doctors.

The university recruited the director from neighboring Battelle’s proposal office, Ruth Ann Hendrickson, to lead its center.

“She has been amazingly effective,” Whitacre said.

Whitacre said the attention to detail and meticulous work on requests for proposals has bolstered Ohio State researchers’ chances of receiving grants.

Since its inception, Whitacre said the office has a 50 percent success rate in proposals it submits.

“That’s unheard of,” Whitacre said. “This is a strategy we’ve done that other universities really haven’t.” The typical success rate for NIH proposals in 2016 was 19 percent.

Ohio State has created several other programs to raise funds for research, such as its own crowdfunding site similar to GoFundMe called Buckeye Funder.

Drake touted longstanding partnerships with companies, such as Honda, as important forms of industry-driven research funding.

The Dow Chemical Company lists Ohio State as one of its many academic institutions it collaborates with to “advance scientific research and develop the world’s next generation of scientists and leaders,” according to the company’s website.

And Battelle, the research giant where Hendrickson previously worked, endows several research positions at Ohio State.

Researchers and Whitacre almost unanimously agree that even with those outside sources growing, at the end of the day it comes down to federal funding.

Failla said his research hinges on receiving federal grants, calling it a matter of “survival.”

“Without grants you can’t do research,” Failla said. “Bottom line.”

Monday night when President Donald Trump signed a threeweek stop-gap funding bill.

The shutdown was a result of disagreements regarding immigration legislation, with Democrats attempting to tie the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program to the funding bill.

Republicans rebuffed the efforts, accusing Democrats of playing politics and denying funding for troops and children’s insurance, since funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program — a measure Democrats required in the legislation — was also written into the funding bill.

Ultimately, funding for the CHIP program was extended for six years and the bill passed late Monday night, while DACA found no resolution. But Democrats received assurance from Senate Republicans to hash out immigration issues in the coming weeks.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the agreement reached would make the debate over immigration fair.

“Let me be clear: This immigration debate will have a level playing field at the outset and an amendment process that’s fair to all sides,” McConnell said in a press conference.

The White House was pleased with the deal. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said it amounted to what Trump had proposed from the beginning.

“I am pleased Democrats in Congress have come to their senses and are now willing to fund our great military, border patrol, first responders and insurance for vulnerable children,” Trump said in a statement read by Sanders.

With the bill providing only three weeks of funding, all eyes will now turn to the debate over DACA, border patrol and immigration as a whole to see whether a bipartisan deal can be struck.

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FASHION OSU graduate finds success in Short North clothing boutique. | ON PAGE 5

Moritz alumnus featured in death penalty documentary

COLUMBUS’ OWN OWN COLUMBUS’

Christopher Robin:

Old friends make new music COURTESY OF QUENTIN PRUNEAU

Local band Christopher Robin includes members (from left to right) Aaron Payne, Quentin Pruneau, Mounir Lynch and Dylan Matthews. The band hopes to release a new album by the end of summer 2018.

KAYLEE HARTER Lantern reporter harter.830@osu.edu Christopher Robin might seem like a fitting name for a band whose members have known each other since early childhood, but it actually has nothing to do with the “Winnie The Pooh” character.

The band’s name is a tribute to a middle-school math teacher named Christopher Robin Lisi, who served as a role model for the young members of the band.

“At the beginning of every year he always told students to try something new,” said keyboardist Quentin Pruneau, a third-year in construction systems management. “He always encouraged us all to play music and expand our talents. So I think part of his influence taught us to push ourselves, and us all loving to play music brought us together.”

The four Columbus natives have come a long way since they first played Red Hot Chili Peppers songs together in Dominion Middle School’s talent shows under the name The Ice Cold Banana Peppers.

“I think I was playing cowbell or something ridiculous like that,” said vocalist and guitarist Aaron Payne, a third-year in ar-

WHAT’S UP THIS WEEK

chitecture.

Years later, the group has played at venues like The Basement and Skully’s Music-Diner and has ventured from its Red Hot Chili Peppers roots, now drawing inspiration from bands like Young the Giant and Hippo Campus.

COURTESY OF WILL FRANCOME

“The Penalty” is a documentary exploring the impact of the death penalty in Columbus premiering at First Community Church on January 26.

Bassist and vocalist Mounir Lynch, a third-year in health promotion and education and Spanish at University of Cincinnati, said he dislikes the ways music is often labeled and finds it difficult to classify Christopher Robin’s genre.

“I think we’re just a really good melodic kind of alternative rock kind of sound. We’re all really good at the instruments we play,” he said.

The group dynamic works because each member brings something to the table, Pruneau said.

He said Payne has a strong understanding of music composition; Lynch has the best ear; and Dylan Matthews, a third-year in health promotion and education at Cincinnati, is well-trained and a “stellar” drummer.

Pruneau’s strength, Lynch said, is his dedication. Perhaps the most outgoing of the group, Pruneau spreads the word about shows and encourages people to listen to the group on Spotify.

Despite the fact that Pruneau and Payne go to Ohio State while Lynch and Matthews go to Cincinnati, the group remains committed to working together to create new music.

“I think it’s pretty impressive what we can do considering the situation we’re in and how little time we have together,” Lynch said.

If all goes as planned, Christopher Robin will release a new album by the end of this summer.

Although only five of the 13 songs the band hopes to have for the album are finished, Payne said he is optimistic the remaining tracks will come together.

“If we really have a pretty clear vision and we’re actually able to put the time in at that particular moment, [a song] can come together in a day or two,” he said.

The album will feature rerecordings of two songs from the group’s self-titled EP. “Heart Beats Faster,” a crowd favorite, and “Poste,” one of the band’s favorite songs to perform, will be reworked and rerecorded to incorporate the band’s slightly changed sound, which features synth and one guitar instead of two.

The band also will rerecord its single, “Sleepwalking,” in order to keep a consistent recording quality throughout the album.

The band hopes to continue playing as long as all members remain in the area, but with graduation looming in the not-so-distant future for its members, the fate of Christopher Robin remains uncertain.

“We’d like to get as much done as we possibly can before this comes to an end,” Pruneau said.

“We don’t know when that is, but we all know it’s coming so we’re just trying to work together and make as much happen as possible.”

Christopher Robin will headline a show at Skully’s Music-Diner at 1151 N. High St. on March 4 at 7:30 p.m. Ticket information will be available at a later date.

Thursday, Jan. 25

Friday, Jan. 26

Saturday, Jan. 27

Sunday, Jan. 28

Introduction to Vegan Cooking 6:30 p.m. at The Angry Baker University District, 247 King Ave. Learn how to substitute with plant-based foods, fill your pantry with vegan eats and cook a threecourse meal. Tickets are $60.

Angry Orchard Rosé Launch Party 5 p.m. at The Walrus, 143 E. Main St. Be the first to try Angry Orchard’s rosé ahead of a national release later this month. Admission is free.

Winter Wonderland 2 p.m. on the South Oval. Join OUAB for ice skating, hot chocolate, curling and more to celebrate the winter season. Admission is free.

Unicron Comedy Hour(ish) 7:30 p.m. at Two Dollar Radio Headquarters, 1124 Parsons Ave. Comedian and activist Brooke Cartus will headline the event with guests Matt Loxley, Sam Sobul and Jameson Rogers. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $5 at the door.

The Penalty Columbus Premiere 7 p.m. at First Community Church, 3777 Dublin Road. The documentary explores the impact of the death penalty in Ohio and will be followed by a discussion with director Will Francome and attorney Allen Bohnert. Admission is free.

Jackpot!

7:30 p.m. at Trism, 1636 N. High St. The Las Vegas-style show will feature nine of Columbus’ premiere dancers performing numbers to music ranging from Britney Spears to Frank Sinatra.

Tickets start at $10.

“We’re just trying to work together and make as much happen as possible.”

Quentin Pruneau Christopher Robin keyboardist

GHEZAL BARGHOUTY Arts & Life Editor barghouty.5@osu.edu Director Will Francome brings to light one of America’s most divisive issues in his latest documentary, “The Penalty,” which makes its Columbus debut this weekend.

The feature-length documentary uncovers the human costs of capital punishment by following the stories of three central characters affected by the death penalty in the course of four years, including an alumnus of the Moritz College of Law, Allen Bohnert.

“The Penalty” takes an in-depth look at stories that have dominated headlines in the United States, humanizing capital punishment by following Ohio’s botched execution of Dennis McGuire; the wrongful conviction of Damon Thibodeaux that led to 15 years on death row; and the family of Darlene Farah, whose daughter Shelby was brutally murdered in 2013.

“The death penalty is not really DOCUMENTARY CONTINUES ON 5

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets In Concert 2:00 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St. The movie will be screened for four showings throughout the weekend while the Columbus Symphony Orchestra performs the score. Tickets start at $49 via Ticketmaster.

Jeff Dunham: Passively Aggressive 3 p.m. at the Schottenstein Center. The ventriloquist will bring his cast of characters to Columbus as part of his his 60-city North American tour. Tickets start at $49.50 via Ticketmaster.

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Thursday, January 25, 2018 | The Lantern | 5

Alumna’s boutique reVAMPs Short North ASHLEY DIGGINS Lantern reporter diggins.10@osu.edu Ellen Shirk didn’t think she would own her own clothing store in Columbus just two years after graduating from Ohio State, especially without a degree in fashion merchandising. Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

During their senior year, Shirk and three friends began exploring the idea of opening an online clothing boutique.

Upon graduation, Shirk independently launched VAMP Official. The next year, she chased her passion, followed her heart and quit her day job to open a brick-and-mortar location at 997 N High St.

“She just hits everything head-on.

When there’s something to learn or something new that needs to happen, she’s like, ‘OK, I’m going to figure it out.”

Wendy Goldstein Senior lecturer in fashion and retail studies

“I had a few close friends in my sorority. We were all really obsessed with shopping and shopping online at stores from Australia and Europe,” Shirk said. “And then we started following [those] stores and got super interested in how to start an online store.”

Shirk and her friends took an independent study course in the fashion and retail studies program, during which they learned what it takes to own and operate an online store.

The brand they had in mind was trendy for a clientele of young professionals, and they wanted to stick to an affordable price point, Shirk said.

The faculty advisers for the independent study were Wendy Goldstein, senior lecturer in the fashion and retail

COURTESY OF ELLEN SHIRK

Ellen Shirk, a graduate from Ohio State’s architecture program, poses for a photo while celebrating the opening of her store, VAMP Official.

studies program, and Alexandra Suer, lecturer in the fashion and retail studies program. Shirk now considers these women her mentors.

Goldstein said Shirk is extremely motivated, the kind of student who wastes no time in pursuing ideas. For example, Goldstein said if you asked Shirk to do research on which bank she should open a checking account with, “in a week she would’ve come back having contacted four or six banks and having made a decision and opened an

FRANK W. HALE, JR. BLACK CULTURAL CENTER

account.”

As Shirk’s friends were enrolling in graduate school, she created the store a couple weeks after graduating, along with starting a full-time job at an architecture firm. She then started participating in the Sunlight and Moonlight markets downtown, which feature pop-up shops and a variety of vendors.

After about a year of having the online store and participating in pop-up shops, Shirk started looking around for a possible storefront.

“I would drive through [Short North] –– because I lived downtown –– on my way home and I basically would look for little spaces with paper on the windows and I ended up finding this one kind of out of nowhere because it wasn’t listed,” Shirk said.

The owner of the retail location Shirk had her eye on only wanted to lease for a year because of future renovations, which was perfect for Shirk, who was wary about the risks of signing a longer lease as a new business.

She quit her job and signed the lease the next day.

Shirk opened the current location of VAMP Official on July 15. “It’s still crazy to me. It feels like it’s a dream,” Shirk said.

Though she’s following her passion, Shirk said owning a business is more work than she imagined.

Goldstein said the whole experience was a reality check for Shirk, but “she’s grown to the next step and she’s really starting to work on her business more than in her business.”

Shirk said as a young woman, she’s not always taken seriously as a businessperson, but Goldstein believes Shirk handles any challenge she faces well.

“She just hits everything head-on. When there’s something to learn or something new that needs to happen, she’s like, ‘OK, I’m going to figure it out,’” Goldstein said.

DOCUMENTARY FROM 4

serving [families],” Francome said. “We were always told that it’s for the families –– to give them closure. But we think that for most of them, it does exactly the opposite. It prolongs their grief, it prolongs their time in court [and] it prolongs their having to deal with it.”

“There’s always a price to be paid for the work that we do.”

Allen Bohnert Moritz College of Law alumnus

The 46th Annual

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Francome said the idea behind “The Penalty” grew out of his previous work “One For Ten,” a series of films that profiles 10 wrongly convicted people on death row.

From that project, Francome knew there was a larger story to tell, one that focused on a different aspect of the issue.

“There’s been many great films about someone who sits on death row, but we wanted to show that there was more than that, that it affected families, it affected the exonerees and the lawyers,” he said. “It was so much more than that sort of classic image of a person sitting behind the glass and waiting for their death.”

In the case of Allen Bohnert, assistant public defender for the Southern District of Ohio, his role began in 2014, two weeks before the execution of McGuire and the first-ever use of a lethal-injection method.

Francome said Bohnert’s role wasn’t originally slated to be a driving story throughout the film, but after his client, McGuire, endured an unprecedented degree of suffering during his execution –– it took 26 minutes to pronounce him dead –– Bohnert immediately became a source to be followed.

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“It’s a story that could be any of my colleagues all across the country who do this kind of work, who represent unpopular clients [and] who do it to the best of our abilities,” Bohnert said. “There’s always a price to be paid for the work that we do because the work that we do is toxic.”

McGuire’s botched injection resulted in a 3 1/2-year hiatus of executions in Ohio, which ended in July 2017.

As the execution of Ohioan Raymond Tibbetts approaches on Feb. 13, “The Penalty” is being screened throughout Columbus as a push for a favorable clemency decision for Tibbets and a way to encourage Gov. John Kasich to stop the execution.

“I just want [the audience] to really consider how the death penalty affects America and where it fits within society here,” Francome said. “I really didn’t want to make a film that preaches too hard one way or the other. I wanted it to be something that feels more balanced and allows people to come in and make their own decisions after they watch these few stories and consider how it’s affected the people within the film.”

Four screenings of “The Penalty” will take place in Columbus on Friday, Sunday and Monday including a showing at the Moritz College of Law’s Saxbe Auditorium at 9 a.m. Monday. Francome will hold a discussion after each screening and Bohnert will be present at Monday’s showing to answer questions from the audience.

Admission to all screenings is free.

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6 | The Lantern | Thursday, January 25, 2018

EPA FROM 1

cy in its decision-making. The EPA does not comment on pending litigation.

“It appears to be a sort of purge [of independent scientists],” Wilson’s lawyer, Michael Burger said. “And there does seem to be a part of this which does also seem to be primarily about a form of cronyism that seems angled towards helping Pruitt in furthering his political ambitions.”

Wilson joined the lawsuit in hopes that other scientists with expertise relevant to the science behind the agency’s decision-making process won’t be excluded from serving as advisers.

“I think it’s a blatant attack on science-informed policy,” Wilson said. “They can have a board who’s friendly to deregulation and be willing to say things about science that isn’t truthful.”

Burger acknowledged Pruitt has discretionary power to prevent individual candidates deemed too biased or partial from serving on committees, but said what is going on now is an abuse of that power.

“There is no basis for it,” Burger said. “I think there is a very strong case to be made that it is in violation of a number of laws and Office of Governmental Ethics regulation.”

According to the U.S. Office of Governmental Ethics, scientists on advisory boards are allowed to

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engage in matters “where the disqualifying financial interest arises from his nonfederal employment … provided that the matter will not have a special or distinct effect on the employee or employer other than as part of a class.”

In Wilson’s case, the “disqualifying financial interest” is the EPA grant and her nonfederal employment is her Ohio State research funded by the grant.

But as a special government employee, she is exempt from being a conflict of interest so long as the grant has no special effect on her or the university.

As for the next steps in the lawsuit, Burger and Wilson are unsure of what will happen, especially since the EPA has remained silent on the issue.

Either the EPA will answer the complaint, Burger said, or it will file a motion to dismiss it.

Regardless, the EPA must file a record and provide the documents the agency relied on to issue the directive in the first place, he said.

Wilson said she contemplated filing a lawsuit for two months before making a final decision because she was afraid of retribution not for herself, but for her colleagues and the university.

If it really wanted to, she said the EPA could theoretically take away her and her collaborators’ grant funding or take away fund-

ing opportunities for the university.

It’s unlikely the agency would do that, Wilson said, because she believes the EPA would get “slammed” by negative reaction and protests, mainly because of the Ohio State’s reputation as a research institution.

If she were offered back her board position, she said she would accept it, adding the lawsuit more than likely will not be complete by the time her three-year term is supposed to end in September.

“Chances are, it’s not going to directly impact me in that way,” Wilson said. “But I hope for the sake of science that it could be overturned because I think it’s a pretty clear attack on a lot of really intelligent, decent individuals who are basically now being punished for having been the best people to answer the agency’s questions.”

Summer Cartwright contributed to this article

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BASKETBALL FROM 8

his ankle in the fourth game of the season, Wesson took over as the starter and has not let up.

As a starter, Wesson has averaged 11.3 points and 5.4 rebounds in 21.6 minutes per game. While the numbers don’t jump out, Wesson has become a better defender and has avoided foul trouble more. He has fouled out three times as a starter, but only once in his past 10 games.

Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said that even though Wesson has shown improvements and has been a key cog in the team’s success this season, he still does not want to put much pressure on his young big man by playing him too much.

“It’s a lot to expect a kid of his size as a freshman really even to play 20 minutes,” Holtmann said.

“I think his minutes are probably where we’d like for them to be. I think sometimes he could play a little more, sometimes a little less depending on how he’s playing.

He’s done a very good job with the minutes, but I wouldn’t want to put 30 minutes on him right now as a freshman.”

Wesson’s conditioning has improved, but it is clear after five minutes on the court that he gets worn out. He starts to breathe heavily and is slower to post and seal, meaning the team needs to bring in a fresher defender to maintain solid interior play.

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As he continues to develop and adjust to the workload, Wesson will turn his raw tools into game skills and be able to keep using those tools later into games, Holtmann said.

“He’s so gifted with his hands and I think his feet can get better,” Holtmann said. “They’re not bad right now, but they’ve got to get a lot better in the offseason. His explosiveness, his movement. But I think that you can tell pretty early on when he’s [tired].”

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PLEASE RECYCLE

Puzzles

Answer Key for Jan. 23: 20. Path that water takes as it evaporates, condenses, falls to Earth, and evaporates (watercycle) 21. Layer of Earth between the crust & the core (mantle) 22. 1 whole spin of the Earth on its axis (rotation) Across 2. Center part of the Earth (core) 4. Tools used to measure air pressure (barometer) 6. Opening in the Earth’s crust from which steam, lava, & ashes erupt (volcano) 8. Layer of gases that surround Earth & other planets (atmosphere) 10. Changing of a gas to a liquid (condensation) 12. Formed when sediments are layers, squeezed, and cemented together (sedimentaryrock) 14. Process that breaks down rocks (weathering) 15. Formed when lava or magmacools & hardens (igneousrock) 17. Shaking of the Earth’s surface caused by the release of energy along a fault (earthquake) 18. Water leaving the cloud as rain, snow, sleet, or hail (precipitation)

Down 1. Semi-frozen rain drops (sleet) 3. Movement of sediment away from one place (erosion) 5. Formed when existing rock is heated at high pressures & temperatures (metamorphicrock) 7. Tool used to measure wind speed (anemometer) 9. Imaginary center line around which the Earth rotates (axis) 11. 1 full orbit of an object around another object (revolution) 13. Changing of a liquid into a gas (evaporation) 16. Average of weather conditions over a long period of time (climate) 19. Outermost layer of Earth (crust)

Periodic Table Across

Down

5. Process in which substances undergo chemical changes that result in the information of a new substance

1. Characteristic of a substance that can be observed with out changing the substance into another substance

7. Change that alters the form or appearance of a material but does not make the material into another

2. Covelent bond in which electrons are shared unequally

8. Material made of 2 or more elements that has the same properties of metal

3. Attraction between a positive metal ion and the electrons surrounding it

9. Study of the properties for matter and how matter changes

4. Neutral particle made of 2 or more atoms joined by a covelent bond

10. Characteristic of a substance that describes its ability to change into different substances

6. Atom or group of atoms that has become electrically charged

14. Attraction between oppositely charged ions

10. Chemical bond formed when 2 atoms share electrons

16. Substance formed as a result of a chemical reaction

11. Combination of symbols that represents the element in a compund

17. Anything that has mass and takes up space 18. Substance that enters into a chemical reaction 19. Colelent bond in which electrons are shared equally

12. Solid that forms from a solution during a chemical solution 13. Force that holds atoms together 15. Orderly 3 dementional pattern of atoms in a solid

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Thursday, January 25, 2018 | The Lantern | 7

FOOTBALL ANALYSIS

The impact of Ohio State losing Kerry Coombs COLIN HASS-HILL Sports Editor hass-hill.1@osu.edu Kerry Coombs has always stuck out. He sprints down the sideline as his team races down the field to cover kickoffs. He joins his team in practice drills, running around the field and throwing passes to players. In nearly every picture, his mouth is agape as he screams at his team.

Now, Ohio State must attempt to replace Coombs’ ferocious excitement.

Coombs, the cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator, will leave Columbus to take a position on Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel’s staff, according to a report by Yahoo’s Pete Thamel. He coached with Vrabel in 2012 and 2013 when Vrabel worked as Ohio State’s defensive line coach on head coach Urban Meyer’s inaugural staff.

Coombs’ intense coaching style has earned results during his six seasons as one of head coach Urban Meyer’s assistants.

One of the program’s most irreplaceable assistants, Coombs oversaw the improvement of Ohio State’s cornerbacks as they grew into one of the nation’s top position groups.

The Buckeyes ranked 26th and 67th in passing yards allowed per attempt in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Since then, Ohio State ranked eighth in 2014 and 2015, first in 2016 and 12th in 2017. The team ranked top-five in interceptions for two seasons under Coombs. Prior to last season, he was promoted to assistant defensive coordinator and earned a $70,500 raise, which increased his base salary to $500,000 per year.

The on-field success of the defensive backs translated into interest from some of

COLIN HASS-HILL | SPORTS EDITOR

Ohio State cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs fires up the team on the first day of fall camp on Aug. 5. the nation’s top prospects.

The Buckeyes received commitments from five-star cornerback prospects Shaun Wade and Jeffrey Okudah, as well as Kendall Sheffield, a former five-star recruit, before playing a year of football at the junior college level. The trio is expected to join redshirt sophomore Damon Arnette as the top options to start at cornerback next season.

That recruiting success has followed the ascendancy of top recruits to the NFL. Since Ohio State hired Coombs as cornerbacks coach in 2012, every starting corner-

back has made the NFL. The Buckeyes have had 10 players selected by NFL teams in the first round of the draft since 2012. Four of those players — Eli Apple, Bradley Roby, Marshon Lattimore and Gareon Conley — were cornerbacks under Coombs. With Denzel Ward projected as a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Coombs will have molded five cornerbacks into first-round picks in the past five years.

The Buckeyes also will lose their top recruiter of the Cincinnati area. Prior to Ohio State hiring him in 2012, Coombs spent

five seasons coaching the Bearcats. Before then, he was the head coach of a local powerhouse, Colerain High School.

That translated into Ohio State reeling in commitments from some of the top prospects in Cincinnati, a historically difficult area for the program to recruit. The Buckeyes landed several four-star prospects from the city — cornerback Amir Riep, defensive tackle Jerron Cage, tight end Jake Hausmann, athlete Sam Hubbard— since Coombs arrived, as well as five-star linebacker Justin Hilliard and wideout Jalin Marshall.

Without Coombs, Ohio State lacks an assistant coach with extensive ties to Cincinnati. The team also will lose its most consistently upbeat, fiery assistant who, despite being one of the older coaches on the staff, brought energy to the program.

Ohio State cannot afford to make a questionable hire when replacing Coombs.

Last offseason, Meyer upgraded from offensive coordinators Tim Beck and Ed Warinner to Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day, but downgraded from co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Luke Fickell to Bill Davis. Meyer added former Washington State defensive coordinator Alex Grinch to the staff in an undisclosed role.

Grinch might end up in Coombs role, but his main experience comes as a safeties coach, which is defensive coordinator Greg Schiano’s responsibility.

Coombs’ replacement will probably not have his Cincinnati ties or relentless enthusiasm, but will be expected to replicate his success against premier quarterbacks and continue his pipeline of cornerbacks into the NFL. Needless to say, that won’t come easy.

@chasshill

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

No. 12 OSU seeks bounce-back wins against Iowa, Michigan State State BRYAN SUAREZ Lantern reporter suarez.98@osu.edu Following back-to-back losses, punctuated by a 99-69 loss Monday to No. 14 Maryland, the No. 12 Ohio State women’s basketball team (16-4, 5-2 Big Ten) will take to the road Thursday night to face Iowa (15-5, 3-4 Big Ten).

Although the Hawkeyes have struggled lately, junior center Megan Gustafson has provided them with consistent play this season. Gustafson averages a monstrous double-double with 23.6 points and 12.8 rebounds per game, while adding 2.1 blocks per game. She shoots 67 percent from the field.

She will be tasked with matching up against Ohio State redshirt senior Stephanie Mavunga.

The team’s third-leading scorer, Mavunga averages 15.2 points and 11 rebounds per game. She will draw a tough matchup and slowing Gustafson down will be key in order to come out on top. “[Gustafson] does a fantastic job of getting great positioning, deep positioning and she knows exactly how to play the game,” Mavunga said. “She doesn’t force things, she pushes the ball out.”

After Gustafson, the Hawkeyes’ productivity drops, but there still are players who can be dou-

COLIN HASS-HILL | SPORTS EDITOR

Ohio State senior guard Kelsey Mitchell dribbles during the first half of the Buckeyes’ game against Quinnipiac on Nov. 15. ble-digit scorers. The Hawkeyes will need to rely on redshirt freshman guard Alexis Sevillian and sophomore guards Mackenzie Meyer and Kathleen Doyle, who all average more than 10 points per game.

With Ohio State’s recent struggles against teams atop the Big Ten, Thursday’s game comes as a chance to get back on track.

Iowa has a strong 15-5 record and is 8-2 at home. However, the Hawkeyes have lost three straight games and have lost four of five games to start 2018.

In for the Buckeyes to attain results, they will need stronger performances on both ends of the court. They have been were 183144 in the past two games, and a lot of the damage has come in

the second half, when opponents hold a 97-66 advantage against Ohio State.

The Buckeyes will look to shake off back-to-back poor shooting performances. Following the first Big Ten loss, they looked to improve on their shooting. However, it was another rough night, with the Buckeyes shooting just 39 percent from the field and 27 per-

cent from deep.

“We need to move on, but we need to talk about [their problems on the court] or we’re just setting ourselves up to repeat history,” Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff said.

Ohio State returns home Following the Iowa game, Ohio State will head back home to face Michigan State (14-7, 4-4 Big Ten) at noon Sunday at the Schottenstein Center.

This will be the first matchup for both teams since last season when the Spartans gave the Buckeyes their only loss in conference play in a road game that ended 94-75.

The Spartans have lost two straight games, due in part to an injury-depleted backcourt. Their guard depth is limited. Thus, they had only eight active players in their 74-48 loss to Michigan Tuesday.

With multiple injured players, the game against Michigan State could be a chance for the Buckeyes to create momentum.

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SPORTS

8 | Tuesday, January 25, 2018

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

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Ohio State can stop its slide down Big Ten with win at Iowa. | ON PAGE 7

MEN’S BASKETBALL

B1G 10-0? No. 13 Ohio State has a chance vs. Penn State EDWARD SUTELAN Assistant Sports Editor sutelan.1@osu.edu

PROJECTED STARTERS

No. 13 Ohio State (18-4, 9-0 Big Ten) has survived a few scares. On Jan. 17, it came within four points of losing to Northwestern in the final minute in an eventual 71-65 win and was trading leads with Nebraska Monday, until pulling away late to a 64-59 win.

Now it welcomes a struggling Penn State (13-7, 3-4 Big Ten), which has lost four of its past six games, to the Schottenstein Center at 8 p.m. Thursday, with eyes set on a 10-0 start to Big Ten play.

Scouting Penn State The Nittany Lions have been involved in plenty of close games this season. Nine of their 21 games have been decided by single digits, and two have gone into overtime.

Part of the reason they are in so many close games has been their defense. Penn State has the 43rd-best defensive efficiency in the country and has held opponents to just a 47 percent effective field goal percentage (37th-best), according to the advanced statistics website KenPom.com.

It also ranks in the top 25 in blocking and steal percentages.

However, this defense matches up poorly against Ohio State. It typically plays manto-man, a type of defense Ohio State has flourished against this season. The best way to slow down Ohio State’s 31st-best offensive attack has been to run a zone defense.

Penn State G - Jamari Wheeler - Freshman 6-foot-1, 170 lbs., 3.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.0 apg

G - Tony Carr - Sophomore 6-foot-5, 204 lbs., 18.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 4.8 apg

G - Shep Garner - Senior 6-foot-2, 196 lbs., 10.4 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.4 apg

F - Mike Watkins - Redshirt soph.

6-foot-9, 254 lbs., 13.3 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 0.7 apg

F - Lamar Stevens - Sophomore 6-foot-8, 226 lbs., 15.6 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 2.0 apg

Ohio State JACK WESTERHEIDE | PHOTO EDITOR

Ohio State freshman forward Kaleb Wesson (34) looks to pass the ball in the second half in the game against Michigan State on Jan. 7 in Value City Arena. Ohio State won 80-64.

Penn State’s offense also will not match up well against Ohio State’s defense.

Though the Nittany Lions have shot 37.4 percent from the 3, they generate 54.4 percent of their offense from inside the arc, the 57th-highest rate in the nation.

Teams that have been able to beat Ohio State do so from long range, with 36.4 percent of opponents’ points coming from

3-point range, 36th-highest in the country. Opposing teams have mustered only the 257th-highest 2-point percentage in its point distribution at 46.9 percent.

Monitoring Kaleb Wesson’s minutes Ohio State has relied heavily on freshman center Kaleb Wesson this season. After sophomore center Micah Potter injured

G - C.J. Jackson - Junior 6-foot-1, 175 lbs., 13.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 4.2 apg

G - Kam Williams - Redshirt Senior 6-foot-2, 185 lbs., 8.4 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 0.4 apg

F - Jae’Sean Tate - Senior 6-foot-4, 230 lbs., 12.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 2.8 apg

F - Keita Bates-Diop - Redshirt Senior 6-foot-7, 235 lbs., 20.0 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.4 apg

C - Kaleb Wesson - Freshman 6-foot-9, 270 lbs., 11.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.1 apg

BASKETBALL CONTINUES ON 6

MEN’S HOCKEY

No. 6 OSU going for season sweep against rival No. 17 Michigan CAMERON THOMPSON Lantern reporter thompson.3262@osu.edu

RIC KRUSZYNSKI | OHIO STATE ATHLETICS

The Ohio State men’s hockey team celebrates a goal from Freddy Gerard in a game against Michigan on Nov. 24.

When Ohio State and Michigan face off, no matter what sport, the game and atmosphere is unlike any other matchup.

Ohio State redshirt sophomore defenseman Wyatt Ege saw that firsthand when he visited Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take on the Wolverines for the first time on Nov. 24.

“These guys want to take your head off, so don’t catch your head down. It’s a big deal, it’s a big deal to be out there,” Ege said. “Their fans were definitely in our ears all game; their student section was right near our bench.”

When the No. 6 Ohio State men’s hockey team (15-5-4, 8-51-0 Big Ten) hosts No. 17 Michigan (12-10-2, 7-7-2-1 Big Ten) Friday and Saturday, Ege said he’s “expecting to see the same thing here.

Ohio State could be without junior forward Mason Jobst and senior defenseman Janik Moser.

Jobst did not play against Penn State on Jan. 13 due to a lower-body injury. Moser left the same game after a hit from Penn State junior forward Andrew Sturtz. Both players are gametime decisions, head coach Steve

Rohlik said.

The Buckeyes are coming off a bye week after splitting a weekend series against Penn State,.

They’ve won seven of their last eight games. Michigan enters the matchup having won its past four games, sweeping No. 13 Minnesota and No. 14 Penn State with a 15-6 scoring margin.

“These guys want to take your head off, so don’t catch your head down. It’s a big deal, it’s a big deal to be out there.”

Wyatt Ege OSU redshirt sophomore defenseman

“They’re going to come in here and obviously try and throw the first punch,” Rohlik said. “You’ve seen that in the last four games, I think they’ve scored a goal in the first two minutes of all four of those games.”

Michigan has relied on strong goaltending from sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne, who earned the Big Ten First Star of the Week last week. Lavigne made 118 saves on 124 shots, good for a .949 save percentage in

the four games.

Ohio State sophomore forward Tanner Laczynski has been one of the most consistent forwards in the NCAA, leading the country with 23 assists. He is also tied for third in in the country with 34 points. Laczynski said it comes down to simple plays to beat any goaltender.

“I think just shots, lots of shots early and often. I think the more shots we have early, make him uncomfortable,” Laczynski said.

“Then, he’ll be back on his heels and I think we’ll get a couple early.”

The puck will drop in the first game of the series at 7 p.m. Friday at the Schottenstein Center.

Saturday’s game will start at 8 p.m.

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