Tuesday January 14, 2014 year: 134 No. 6
www.thelantern.com @TheLantern weather high 46 low 30 showers
thelantern the student voice of The Ohio State University
Unraveling the ‘Q’ question
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Author talks prison time
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New sorority coming to OSU
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TBDBITL marches into iPad commercial fame 3 campus JACOB HOLLAR Lantern reporter hollar.38@osu.edu The Ohio State Marching Band has exited the field of Ohio Stadium for the winter, but hasn’t left the spotlight. A commercial released Sunday by Californiabased tech company Apple features the Marching Band in rehearsal. “We’re really very happy we were selected by Apple,” director of the Marching Band Jonathan Waters said. ”We’re not endorsing a specific company or specific product … but the iPad has helped the Marching Band do what we do.” Some band
members said it doesn’t feel like reality to be in an Apple commercial. “It’s pretty surreal,” said Zachary Naughton, a fourth-year in electrical engineering and a sousaphone player in the band, about being in the advertisement. The commercial for Apple’s iPad Air features the Marching Band as part of a montage of people and groups using iPads for a variety of activities. The narration comes from Robin Williams in the 1989 film “Dead Poets Society,” and includes lines from Walt Whitman’s poem “O Me! O Life!” “Our name associated with Apple is really special,” Naughton said. There are a lot of similarities between Apple and the Marching
Band that make the collaboration make sense, said Ryan Barta, a fourth-year in business and trumpet player. He said both organizations take pride in their “high quality, simplicity, creativity and precision.” “I was waiting a long time for the moment to air,” Barta said. Christopher Hoch, associate director of the Marching Band, said he, too, thinks the advertisement was an exciting opportunity. “It’s pretty cool seeing the band on a national, professionally made commercial,” Hoch said in an
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Photo illustration by KAYLA BYLER / Managing editor of design Photo by RITIKA SHAH / Asst. photo editor
Carbon spending in Columbus Columbus has spent $600K on carbon. That $600K could pay for about:
60 in-state OSU students’ tuition
*each cap represents 2 students
600K vanilla ice cream cones from McDonald’s *each cone represents 30K ice cream cones
75K Netflix subscriptions
*each logo represents 3K subscriptions
25 Toyota Prius cars
Source: undergrad.osu.edu, MADISON CURTIS / Design editor reporting
REGINA BONFIGLIO Lantern reporter bonfiglio.20@osu.edu The smell and taste of what some have described as dead underbrush might be lingering in the Columbus water for a while longer. After two months of treatment and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, there is no definite solution in sight to the unpleasant taste and odor in the water. Emily Knisley, a third-year in international studies, compared the scent of the water to that of decaying plant life. “It’s the same smell as really early spring when the snow melts (the) musty smell of dead underbrush,” Knisley said. The odor is a result of algal blooms in Columbus’ Hoover Reservoir, affecting about 550,000 Central
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FRANCIS PELLICCIARO Lantern reporter pellicciaro.1@osu.edu The chapter is ending for three High Street textbook stores. College Town, located at 1770 N. High St., closed within about the last month, and University Book Exchange, located at 10 E. 15th Ave., is set to close its store by the end of Spring Semester. Buckeye Books, located at 2060 N. High St., closed during Fall Semester. College outfitter Neebo owned College Town. Textbooks can still be purchased or rented through the Neebo website. “We continue to evaluate our retail stores and remain committed to improving store operations and, most importantly, serving our guests. As part of our ongoing process of overall continuous improvement, we have decided to close College Town,” said Neebo communications specialist Julie Himmelberg in an email. Brian Wade, the director of property management at RS Garek Associates Ltd., the real estate firm that owns the building, said College Town’s closing didn’t necessarily have to do with the store itself as much as a shift in the dynamic of book stores in recent years. “It’s just not feasible for them to lease 12,000 square feet and sell books when they’re making a shift online,” Wade said. Books can still be ordered online through University Book Exchange. According to its website, the store in Columbus is its only location. A Barnes and Noble manager did not respond to an email requesting comment on the stores’ closures. Some Ohio State students said the closures could lead to book shortage issues. “If we close down a store, then that’s one less
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The OSU Marching Band plays at a football game against Buffalo, Aug. 31.
Columbus water ‘safe’ despite smell
bookstores closing doors
18th Ave Library opens a new entrance after renovations ANDREW TODD-SMITH Lantern reporter todd-smith.1@osu.edu Ohio State students can gather around the fireplace to study now that the 18th Avenue Library’s first floor has opened. Renovations to the library are on time and the facility is fully functional for the first time since the university switched from quarters to semesters in Fall Semester 2012. The budgeted $1.9 million project was renovated gradually as the library, formerly named the Science and Engineering Library, remained open and available for use throughout the construction process. “One of the things that adds time to a project is having the building open 24/7 (while) we’re under construction. Renovating a building while it’s in use is a bit of a challenge,” said Bruce Leach, head of the 18th Avenue Library. The project was allotted a $1.9 million budget in order “to perform needed upgrades to the space so it can best serve our students’ academic needs,” OSU spokeswoman for Administration and Planning Lindsay Komlanc said in an email. She said in a later email the project was “both on time and on budget.” The first floor receives a significant amount of traffic, Komlanc said, so the project also created a new entrance to the building along 18th Avenue to help traffic flow more efficiently and make the building more accessible. The streamlined first floor now features increased seating in the Terra Byte Cafe, two areas with computer workstations, new furniture and lighting, a centralized printing station and a lounge alcove with an electric fireplace. No changes were made to the spaces or foodservice capabilities of the cafe, Komlanc and Leach said. Acock Associates Architects, the same firm that executed a substantial upgrade to William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library from 2007-09, designed the changes. The conversion of one of the signature arched windows on the north side into a second entrance required some of the more noticeable and intensive construction work. “The 18th Avenue entrance is like a pressure release valve on the building, another opportunity for people to come in from that direction and either head upstairs or to the cafe,” Leach said. In 2012, Leach said users visited the library 1.3 million times. Stand-up computer stations, which Leach said were in an often crowded area in the center of the old layout, now line one side of a curved partitioning “bar” that divides the study area from the cafe space. This replaces a cluster of workstations that used to contribute to congestion and obstructed foot traffic within the main lobby. Leach said construction personnel made good use
SHELBY LUM / Photo editor (top) RITIKA SHAH / Asst. photo editor
The 18th Avenue Library after (top) and before its $1.9M renovation. The library was renovated gradually and remained open and available for use throughout the construction process. of time during the university’s summer and winter breaks to perform more intensive interior work, including the replacement of flooring that was worse for wear in the more than 20-year-old building. “A lot of time went into planning for when loud, dirty work could be done that wouldn’t get in the way of when students are studying,” Leach said. Some students had positive things to say about the upgrades. Staff member Jordan Mendenhall, a fifth-year in mechanical engineering, said while the new design resulted in less space for employees, it “hasn’t changed a whole lot about how we actually go about working.” “It definitely looks a lot better though, as far as the aesthetics,” Mendenhall said. Other students said the new door is one of the renovation’s best features. “This (new) door is really, really nice. Before, we used to all funnel in from that (existing) door,” said Kristin Snider, a third-year in wildlife science and an employee at Terra Byte Cafe. “It allows flow a lot easier. This allows more people, which is, I think, another reason why they did the renovations. People would come in, they would bleed over and even then they didn’t have anywhere to work so they would go up(stairs).”
Snyder said she hasn’t noticed an increase in traffic since the reopening. “I haven’t noticed us get significantly busier. We’ve always been really busy, especially during lunch,” Snyder said. “This is still the beginning of the semester. Maybe later, when we get toward midterms, it might increase, but we haven’t had a chance to see it yet because there isn’t as much traffic as there will be then.” Gracey Crombie, a third-year in psychology and criminology who also works at the Terra Byte Cafe, said she’s happy with the renovations as well. “There’s a lot more sitting space. It used to fill up very quickly, but now there’s a lot more people sitting here with the added space. The bathrooms got completely redone, too, and they are nice,” Crombie said. Sydney Kiel, a first-year in international studies, said the added entrance “makes things a little less hectic.” Leach said the upgrades to the campus resource were long overdue. “The finishes were just worn out. This building was designed to be a big box of paper with some seats for people in it,” Leach said.
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