TUESDAY
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
THURSDAY
P2
“SCE saved my life”: A shared personal experience.
FASHION
P4
Bloggers look to bring individual style and values to online fashion world.
FOOTBALL
P8
No true second safety is a concern for Ohio State following spring practice.
SPRING GAME
P8
Starting tight end, linebackers and more. What we learned from spring practice.
The student voice of the Ohio State University
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
thelantern.com
@TheLantern
Year 138, Issue No. 25
USG working to be more transparent with students’ money AMANDA PARRISH Lantern reporter parrish.272@osu.edu
USG SPENDING Outreach ($4,810)
3%
ZACH VARDA Senior Lantern reporter varda.6@osu.edu The Ohio State Undergraduate Student Government commands a budget in excess of $100,000, and nearly all of that money is supplied by students. What this money is used for has recently come into question, and next year’s leaders are hoping to answer concerns with transparency. The majority of USG funding comes from a portion of the student activity fee, a $37.50 charge that every student pays each semester. Largely due to this student cost, funding for USG has been brought under the microscope during the past two election seasons.
7%
21%
Govt. relations ($10,950)
4%
Health & Safety ($6,400)
6%
Internal Affairs ($8,100) Student Affairs ($31,095.34) Sustainability ($16,447.50)
21%
19%
Academic Affairs ($5,550) Diversity & Inclusion ($3,710)
3%
4%
President/Senior Staff ($28,150)
11%
General Assembly ($31,180)
TOTAL: $146,392.84
LANTERN ILLUSTRATION BY JL LACAR | MANAGING EDITOR FOR DESIGN
SPENDING CONTINUES ON 3
‘An awakening for women’ Why women are breaking election records in 2018
JERROD A. MOGAN Lantern reporter mogan.7@osu.edu Vanessa Enoch reached her breaking point in March. That’s when she read a HuffPost article, titled “Room full of men decides fate of women’s health care,” which featured a photo of exclusively white male members of the House Freedom Caucus discussing the Republicans’ proposal for health care reform. She found it unsettling, and it was part of the reason the Ohio State alumna joined the record wave of women running for public office. “Some of the ideas that came out of that room really bothered me,” said Enoch, who is a Democratic Party candidate running to represent Ohio’s 8th congressional district just east of the state’s border with Indiana. “The idea that maternity should not be covered in health care — that is very disturbing.” The number of women running for governor and U.S. House of Representatives in 2018 has reached an all-time high, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. For House races, 310 women have filed as major party candi-
COURTESY OF JOHN GLENN COLLEGE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Vanessa Enoch (left) is running on the Democratic ticket to represent Ohio’s 8th congressional district. dates so far, surpassing the previous high of 298 set in 2012. In gubernatorial elections, 40 women have filed thus far, surpassing the 1994 record of 34. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, said there is a potential for the number of women running for the House to reach 430, and that they’re waiting to confirm record-setting numbers in Senate races, as well. To Enoch, the increase in female candidates represent “an awakening for women” who no-
ticed their concerns were not taken seriously in government. “A lot of women didn’t realize that our issues weren’t on the table,” she said. Enoch said more women started paying attention after the 2016 election of Donald Trump and what they saw as the mistreatment of women by their government. “Some of the things that have happened in Congress, this most recent Congress, has demonstrated a lack of respect for women and women’s voices,” Enoch said. Walsh agreed the 2016 elec-
tion energized women to run for office. “I think there was a general feeling and kind of an awakening about the real and serious consequences of elections,” she said. “A lot of the issues [women] cared about, given the election of Donald Trump … these were things that were going to be in jeopardy.” Women win at the same rate as men in comparable races, Walsh said. Whether the increase in women running translates to an increase in women holding office depends largely on the number of open seats available. Women make up nearly 51 percent of the U.S. population, but the percentage of female representation in every level of government is less than half of that, according to CAWP. Thirteen of Ohio’s 18 representatives are men, while only 11 women have ever represented Ohio in the House. The state has never had a female U.S. senator — or a female governor. “Women are less likely to consider that they are qualified to run for office at almost every point in their professional careers. Starting from college on, they feel like they are less qualified,” said AWAKENING CONTINUES ON 2
Energy Partners CEO says it won’t compromise sustainability for profit RIS TWIGG Assistant Photo Editor twigg.10@osu.edu Serdar Tufekci’s first Ohio State office was in the windowless basement of the Baker Systems Engineering building, back when he was a graduate student in 1994. But 14 years later, he sits in an office in the same building with windows on the fourth floor — now as the CEO of Ohio State Energy Partners. Since August 2017, Tufekci has been leading the university’s newest “P3,” or public-private partnership, created following a deal between Ohio State, Frenchbased energy conglomerate Engie and infrastructure investment firm Axium. The partnership has various sustainability goals, such as cutting emissions by 25 percent in one decade. The company plans to reach that marker — and then some — by decreasing the university’s reliance on its current energy grid, a system owned and operated by American Electric Power that pulls energy from coal, natural gas, solar and wind power. “What we’re trying to do on campus is minimize the reliance on the grid and generate [energy] on campus,” Tufekci said. “Whatever we do here is trailblazing.” “The grid itself is like a giant pool where the generators, coal plants, [natural] gas, wind or solar [energy] pour water into the pool,” Tufekci said. “We users are the tap at the bottom and we get a mix of what’s in the pool.” Under Ohio State’s current energy system, every time somebody flips a light switch or drinks from a water fountain on campus, that energy primarily comes from fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas, making it difficult for the university to achieve its sustainability goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Ohio State becoming carbon neutral would mean it absorbs the same amount of carbon dioxide it produces. A microgrid, however, would allow Ohio State to have more control over what sources of energy are being used and how much of that energy goes to which building, Tufekci said. Additionally, OSEP plans on investing ENERGY CONTINUES ON 2