TUESDAY
THURSDAY
CAMPUS
P2
A budget windfall from Ohio Stadium alcohol sales means four additional police officers on campus.
ALUMNI
P3
A group of former football players hang up their cleats and pick up the BBQ tongs at their new restaurant.
WHAT’S UP
P4
Your guide for what to do this weekend.
TULSA
P8
What to watch for on both sides of the ball against the Buckeye’s weektwo opponent.
The student voice of the Ohio State University
Thursday, September 8, 2016
thelantern.com
@TheLantern
Year 136, Issue No. 43
18th Avenue set for November completion PATRICK WILEY Lantern reporter wiley.221@osu.edu Ohio State students will need to continue finding alternate routes to class this semester, as the construction on West 18th Avenue is still a few months from completion. The project, which began during Spring Semester 2015, has a completion date listed as “fall 2016,” according to a sign on the fencing surrounding the construction. More specifically, construction is scheduled to be completed sometime this November, said Nicole Holman, a spokeswoman for Ohio State’s Office of Administration and Planning. The ongoing construction spans almost 700 feet, extending between Magruder Avenue and College Road on campus. Since May of last year, that portion of West 18th Avenue has been closed to vehicular traffic. For pedestrians, walkways have been provided on the sides of the roadway, as well as two bridges that allow passage across the construction. Totaling $10.5 million for the complete installation, the 18th Avenue project aims to extend the
PATRICK WILEY | LANTERN REPORTER
A portion of West 18th Avenue is still under construction, but is on track to be completed this November. utility tunnel from the East Regional Chilled Water Plant to the Celeste Quad. Holman explained that the con-
struction will help chilled water be delivered in a more environmentally friendly way to nearby buildings.
“Extension of the utility tunnel from the East Regional Chilled Water Plant will provide more reliable and efficient chilled water
to the Newman and Wolfrom, Celeste, Evans and McPherson labs,” Holman said. Nevertheless, students continue to be inconvenienced by the barriers from construction. “It’s just annoying,” said Alex Schilling, a fourth-year in computer science and engineering. “I had hoped the construction would have finished by now.” Schilling, who frequently visits the 18th Avenue Library, said that access has been even further restricted this semester, making it difficult to get where he needs to go. “Almost all of my classes are in and around 18th Avenue, so it’s been a struggle for the past few semesters,” he said. For the time being, Holman encourages students to be careful regarding their safety in the construction areas. “Safety is the university’s top priority. We want to remind people that the construction fences are in place for your safety,” she said. “Please be aware of your surroundings, avoid distractions and stop, look and listen when in construction areas around campus.”
2012 study might explain Trump’s, Clinton’s rhetoric DEEPTI HOSSAIN Lantern reporter hossain.32@osu.edu A study led by an Ohio State professor in 2012 found that voters’ perceptions of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney went beyond their words on the campaign trail, and it is being applied to the 2016 election as well. Researchers concluded that whether a candidate is perceived as being trustworthy and presidential depends on his or her language intensity and the kind of economic situation people feel like they themselves are in. Language intensity is the extent to which word choices vary from neutrality, unrelated to inflection or volume. “For example, when Donald Trump refers to Obamacare as a ‘disaster,’ that’s high-intensity language,” said David Clementson, the lead for this study and a doctoral candidate in the School of Communication. “Conversely, if Hillary Clinton were to refer to Obamacare as ‘in need of tweaks,’ or ‘an ongoing process,’ that would be low-intensity.” Additionally, if someone perceives his or her economic situ-
“During this election, which is fairly tumultuous, we are seeing various segments of the population responding very differently to the language intensity of the politicians.” David Clementson Doctoral candidate, School of Communication
ation as stable, that person will want a lower-intensity candidate. “If people feel like they are in stable times, and the economy is good, then they want a presidential candidate to reflect that by using low-intensity language, therefore being more trustworthy and presidential,” Clementson said. Similarly, if people feel they are in a bad economic situation, they are more likely to prefer inflated, high-intensity rhetoric. Although the study was conducted in the weeks before the 2012 election, it appears in the September 2016 issue of Presidential Studies Quarterly. Clementson said the findings are rele-
LANTERN FILE PHOTO
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Columbus international airport on March 1. vant in 2016. and have a lot of resentment built “During this election, which is in,” he said. fairly tumultuous, we are seeing Swigger said the median invarious segments of the popula- come of a potential Trump voter is tion responding very differently to actually higher than most Amerthe language intensity of the poli- icans, however that can be overticians,” Clementson said. ruled if they live in economically Nathaniel Swigger, an associate depressed areas. professor of political science, said “They look around them and Trump’s high-intensity language they are concerned about their is useful for his candidacy. communities, about ‘What are my “Trump is appealing to a group kids going to do when they grow of people who are already angry up? Are they going to have to
move somewhere else?’” Swigger said. “That’s the anger he’s really speaking to.” The study is based on language expectancy theory, in which people feel either favorable or adversely toward, or persuaded by, language intensity depending on their expectations. “So you pick out this one guy — he’s been an international figure for 30 years and a star of a primetime, major television show,” Clementson said. “So when he uses high-intensity language, he is fulfilling the expectations that most people probably have of a high-profile, international businessman who has been a mainstay in the media for decades.” Swigger said the key differences between the two presidential candidates’ is rhetoric. Trump is “absolutist,” he said. “You have a world divided between winners and losers. Trump talks about how he wants to make America win again — I don’t think that’s accidental,” he said. “There’s actually quite a lot of literature that suggests that Republicans respond much more favorably to black and white scenarios … and I think that’s what we see TRUMP CONTINUES ON 2