Thursday January 23, 2014 year: 134 No. 11
www.thelantern.com @TheLantern weather high 12 low 3 flurries
thelantern the student voice of The Ohio State University
Buckeyes still confident
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Band blends genres
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Chemical fire, 13 thefts
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More than 1.5K students affected by water main break near Lincoln Tower Daniel Bendtsen Senior Lantern reporter bendtsen.1@osu.edu
Daniel Bendtsen / Senior Lantern reporter
Crew members work to repair a water main break in the south Lincoln Tower parking lot Jan. 22. OSU shut off the water in Lincoln and Morrill Tower, the Drake Performance and Events Center and the Women’s Field House while the issue was resolved.
Daniel Bendtsen / Senior Lantern reporter
Residents of Morrill and Lincoln Towers were provided with heated, portable restrooms to use while water services were off in the residence halls Jan. 22.
A water main break Wednesday left four West Campus buildings without water services for more than five hours. A “slow water leak” was discovered in the south Lincoln parking lot at approximately 10 a.m. Wednesday, said Student Life spokesman Dave Isaacs. Maintenance crews identified the source of the leak as a break in a water main. They initially hoped to be able to fix the main without interrupting water service but determined at approximately 4:30 p.m. that it would be necessary to shut off the water to Lincoln Tower, Morrill Tower and the Drake Performance and Event Center, Isaacs said. Administration and Planning spokeswoman Lindsay Komlanc said Wednesday in an email water service to the Women’s Field House was also stopped. At 11 p.m., crews on the scene confirmed that the water services had been restored to all four buildings. As of 7 p.m., the cause of the water main break was undetermined, Isaacs said in an email. About 450 residents live in Lincoln, while more than 1,100 live in Morrill, Isaacs said. People can live on 20 floors of Morrill and nine floors in Lincoln, according to the University Housing website. Ohio State brought heated portable toilets and sinks to the scene and supplied hall desks with bottled water to Lincoln and Morrill residents. Isaacs advised students needing to shower go to the RPAC, roughly half a mile away, up until midnight. Temperatures fell as low as minus 2 degrees Wednesday, with a maximum temperature of 10 degrees. The forecast predicted temperatures of about 7 degrees Wednesday night, according to Weather Underground. Some students saw the issues as a major inconvenience before the water was restored. “I’ve had to stop drinking water so that I wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom,” said Samantha Saraceni, a first-year in exploration, before 9 p.m. “I’m going to wait until the morning so I don’t have to shower at the gym … because I don’t want to
take all my stuff there and walk all the way back in the freezing cold.” Madison Kessler, a first-year in dance, lives in Lincoln Tower and expressed dismay after hearing the news Wednesday afternoon. “I’m in so much shock right now. If I can’t shower or drink water, it’s a huge inconvenience,” she said. Candace Danby, a first-year in communication who lives in Morrill Tower, shared similar sentiments. “If you have to go to the bathroom, it’s really inconvenient because you have to go outside in the -4 degree windchill. And a lot of my roommates shower at night, so now they have to go to the RPAC,” she said. Others, though, weren’t so upset about the halted water flow. “I like it (the lack of running water) because this distilled water that they gave us is better than what’s flowing from the water fountain with all the carbon in it,” said Jason Wan, a first-year in finance. Recently, the Columbus water has smelled and tasted differently than usual. The odor is a result of algal blooms in Columbus’ Hoover Reservoir. In order to treat the water’s taste and odor, the city has been treating the water with five times the usual amount of carbon normally used, according to the Department of Public Utilities website. Water-related issues also affected Nosker House Wednesday morning. A maintenance worker on the scene, who declined to be named, said he believed slow water flow caused a pipe to freeze and subsequently burst. Isaacs was unable to provide further information about the Nosker House incident Wednesday evening and said it still had not been determined whether the water main break south of Lincoln Tower was also the result of cold weather. Two weeks ago, Ohio State called off classes Jan. 6 and 7 because of extreme weather conditions as temperatures fell to minus 7, according to Weather Underground. There were several water-related issues around campus after the temperatures fell that week, including a water main break near Macquigg Laboratory, leading to some roads covered with ice being closed, and a burst pipe in Pomerene Hall. Madison Curtis contributed to this article.
New apartment complex Majority of OSU international students come from China to offer more amenities Hannah Chenetski Lantern reporter chenetski.4@osu.edu
Shelby Lum / Photo editor
Construction on Norwich Flats continues Jan. 22. The new apartment complex being constructed at 250 W. Norwich Ave. is set to open in July.
Aly Gordon Lantern reporter gordon.847@osu.edu Ohio State students looking to up their standards for housing will soon have a new option to consider. Located just northeast of Varsity Club on West Norwich Avenue, Norwich Flats is one of several off-campus housing complexes that are currently under construction. The fully furnished complex is slated to boast a myriad of amenities, including a fitness center, computer lab, covered parking, a group study room and a lounge area. Construction on the Edwards Communities project, which began in fall 2013, is still underway and is set to conclude in July 2014. The complex is set to open for residents in August, with one- to four-person rooms ranging from $1050 to $775 per month per person, respectively, said Nate Rivard, the regional vice president of Edwards Communities. Student interest so far has been high, Rivard said. “It’s been incredible. Lots of OSU students have contacted us via email, phone, Facebook,” Rivard said. “The location is perfect for business students, engineers and architects.”
continued as Norwich on 2A Thursday January 23, 2014
More than 6,000 international students came to Ohio State to study this past fall, but the countries they came from aren’t all evenly represented. Chinese students represented nearly 60 percent of the international student population, as there were 3,606 Chinese undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled at OSU for Fall Semester 2013, up about 4.9 percent from 2012 figures, according to the student enrollment report. Lu Yin, a second-year in business and Chinese international student, said he came to the U.S. for better opportunities for education. “The universities here in the U.S. are really good, both in teachers and academic equipment,” Yin said. “Almost 30 percent of my friends choose to go abroad for study.” OSU isn’t the only American university where Chinese students comprise a majority of the international student population — China was the “leading place of origin” for those coming to the U.S. to study in the 2012-13 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education Open Doors 2013 Report. The total number of Chinese students studying in the U.S. was also up 21.4 percent from the previous year, according to the report. Zhihui Chu, a fourth-year in strategic communication, said her parents and grandparents had always planned for her to study abroad. “I made it happen earlier than when they expected by transferring (from a school in China),” Chu, who transferred her second year, said. “I simply wanted to change an environment and push myself a little bit. I plan on going to grad school in the states after my undergrad program.” Jingan Zhou, a third-year in marketing, said he transferred to the U.S. from China during his sophomore year of college in March 2012. He said he decided to leave his home country to study abroad because he liked having the opportunity to choose whatever major he wanted to pursue as a student. “I realized that my passion was not in the finance area. So I chose to do marketing, and I am having a minor of design,” Zhou said. “Plus, the business program at (the) Fisher (College of Business) is of very high quality and reputation, which is another reason that I came to Ohio State, rather than other colleges.” Zhou said most of his friends from China have come to the U.S. to pursue their studies as well.
“Most of my friends feel the same way, and a lot of them are willing to have more engagement with the domestic student(s), the community and the city of Columbus,” Zhou said. Some of the most popular majors among international students are engineering, physics and business management, according to USA TODAY. Lindsey Thaler, the director of undergraduate studies for OSU’s Department of Physics, said the students she advises who are from China face many of the same struggles as students from the U.S. “The Chinese students I meet with have the same academic questions and problems as
domestic students,” Thaler said. “Perhaps the one thing that does stand out is that international students sometimes say that being away from their families is difficult and can affect their academic performance.” India, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan followed after China in overall enrollment at OSU for Fall Semester 2013, totaling 1,225 students between the three of them, according to the student enrollment report. Zhou said he is mostly just happy to be at OSU. “I love being involved with (one of) the biggest campus(es) in the nation, and I am proud to say I am a Buckeye now,” Zhou said.
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