10 15 lantern

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Tuesday October 15, 2013 year: 133 No. 86

the student voice of

The Ohio State University

www.thelantern.com

thelantern Greek housing standards could be tweaked in 2016

sports

Greek houses may become more like residence halls

DANIEL BENDTSEN Lantern reporter bendtsen.1@osu.edu

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Fresh start for Hall

With additional resting time from OSU’s bye week, redshirtsenior running back Jordan Hall is set to practice this week.

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When second-year students are required to live on-campus in less than three years, options for housing will dwindle. For those who want to move to the off-campus neighborhood, Greek housing will likely be the main retreat. OSU, however, plans to require some changes for fraternities and sororities that wish to continue housing second-years. Student Life organized a committee which met last year to discuss changes to be made with the intent of making the experience of living in a fraternity or sorority congruent with that of living in residence halls. That goal is the basis for a draft of new housing standards for Greek Life, which among other things would require chapter houses to have desks in each bedroom or dayroom and a study space. The new housing standard, while not finalized, would also ban alcohol from all common areas and require chapters to have a live-in adviser, recommended to be at least one year removed from being

New housing standards for fraternities and sororities that wish to continue housing second-year students may include: Ban on alcohol from all common areas A requirement for chapters to have a live-in adviser A requirement for chapter houses to have desks in each bedroom and a study space Greek Life represents about 7 percent of OSU’s student body Source: leadlearnserve.osu.edu

There are roughly 7K second-year students currently enrolled at OSU Source: osu.edu

KAYLA BYLER / Managing editor of design an undergraduate student . According to the proposed policy, alcohol would be allowed in bedrooms where at least one student is 21 years old, and chapters could apply for alcohol policy exemptions under certain circumstances. Some chapters, though, prohibit alcohol in their houses already. The committee that worked on the draft included faculty, staff and representatives of the Greek Life

governing councils, the Interfraternity Council, the Multicultural Greek Council, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., and Panhellenic Association. Student Life spokesman Dave Isaacs said it is up to the chapters whether they want to participate in the second-year living program or not. “We believe that our Greek organizations will make successful

partners with STEP, and have approached them on that basis. However, participation by the chapters is entirely voluntary, and we encourage each chapter to perform its own due diligence in order to arrive at the decision that is best for them,” Isaacs said. STEP, the Second-Year Transformational Experience Program, is a co-curricular component of the requirement for second-year students to live on campus but STEP will likely not be mandatory for students. “I can’t imagine that we would ever require a student to do STEP, what we hope is that we can build a program that every student wants to participate,” said Vice President for Student Life Javaune AdamsGaston in an August interview with The Lantern. Currently STEP is the only co-curricular component of the second-year live-in requirement. Other programs, however, may be developed, Adams-Gaston said. Isaacs said a committee met with Greek Life chapters that requested a meeting to gather feedback. Chapters would have to opt-in

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Students, Alutto agree: university affordability a priority KATHLEEN MARTINI AND LIZ YOUNG Lantern reporter and Campus editor martini.35@osu.edu and young.1693@osu.edu

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The ‘Dead’ reborn

Catch up on ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 4 premiere events, including a wealth of new characters.

campus

Although Ohio State does not have a permanent leader at its helm, Interim President Joseph Alutto isn’t taking that as an excuse to stop the university’s progress. Alutto, who has been interim president since former OSU President E. Gordon Gee’s retirement July 1, said he hopes to leave the university a better place than he found it. “I hope to accomplish what I’ve hoped to accomplish at every position I’ve had,” Alutto said in an interview with The Lantern Sept. 23. “Which is by the time I leave here, I hope this will be a better institution as a result of what I’ve been able to do.” Alutto served as executive vice president and provost of the university from October 2007 until June 30, and he served as interim president from July 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2007, between former President Karen Holbrook and Gee’s second term at the university. Alutto was also previously the dean of the Fisher College of Business. He said he has four main goals for his term, including drawing in quality students, faculty and staff, creating new programs and providing key resources. As far as drawing “the very best possible students” goes, Alutto said there are some issues that need to be overcome. “It’s a balancing issue as we deal with the

Any institution as large as Ohio State has areas where it can do a better job of restraining and controlling cost issues. Joseph Alutto OSU Interim President question of access to excellence,” he said. “Access is really just a matter of keeping costs as low as possible and you provide access as a result of that to students, a wide variety of students. “And excellence is actually easy … It’s hiring the very best faculty and staff and spending all your resources to do that. So to do either access or excellence really doesn’t take much talent. To do access to excellence, however, to combine those two, that attention built into who we are as an institution and it’s that balance that I think is so important for us as we go forward.” He went on to say OSU needs to work on containing its costs. “Any institution as large as Ohio State has areas where it can do a better job of restraining and controlling cost issues,” Alutto said. “I know that there (are) areas where we could do things better and more efficiently, which means we take some of the pressure off the affordability question.” Some OSU students said they agree that cost savings are important.

“Cost efficiency (leads to) savings for students in the long-run,” said Michael Schuler, a fourth-year in industrial and systems engineering. “Right now, I know we have a huge problem as far as affordability for college for many students, and I think that should be the goal of all university (presidents) right now, to really decrease those costs, to make secondary education something that’s really attainable for everyone.” Other students said OSU should be especially frugal in its time of transition. “Until we have an official president who can set long-term goals, I don’t think we should unnecessarily spend money,” said Nick Bashian, a second-year in chemistry. Bashian said Alutto should work to connect with students more. “I feel like Gee had a better connection with students,” he said. “I like that about a president, and I feel like Alutto should try to do the same thing more.” Alutto said his goal of creating programs would help draw all faculty and students together. “You can bring great students to an institution, you can hire great faculty, but unless you create programs, it doesn’t pay off for either one of them. It’s to make sure that we continue to have new programs, strengthen the programs we have, and decide how to distribute those resources of students to faculty,” he said.

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State of OSU’s health could be improved, some say

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Learning from a distance

Through Semester Online, students can apply to take online courses from other universities for credit.

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ALEXA CARSON Lantern reporter carson.239@osu.edu Some leaders of health and wellness at Ohio State want to make the university the healthiest in the nation, but they don’t think it’s all on them — it starts on a personal level. “It doesn’t work from a top down approach,” said Bernadette Melnyk, associate vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer and dean of the College of Nursing. “You have to have people at a grassroots (level) who are helping us to create environments and cultures of wellness.” The annual address on the State of Health and Wellness in Buckeye Nation, held Monday at Ohio Union and led by Melnyk, focused on inspiring faculty members to have a positive attitude toward health and wellness and included a discussion about ways to improve their overall personal wellness. “I want people to get inspired and motivated to make healthy lifestyle behavior changes,” Melnyk said in an interview with The Lantern after the address. About 200 people attended the address, which included lunch. The event cost approximately $5,500 and was paid for by the College of Nursing, according to Kathryn Kelley, the chief advancement officer of the College of Nursing. Melnyk first addressed some findings from a report of more than 28,000 faculty members’ Personal Health and Well-Being Assessments. The assessments combine self-reported information about the participant’s health along with information from biometric health screenings, which are screenings of a patient’s overall health through measures like blood pressure or body mass index, a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Melnyk said this type of information can help wellness leaders determine where the university is in terms of health and plan desired outcomes accordingly.

Courtesy of Sanford Meisel, College of Nursing

Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing, speaks at the State of Health and Wellness in Buckeye Nation Oct. 14 at the Ohio Union. Faculty and staff members who do not complete a PHA only have access to two basic health care plans, which cost upwards of about $95 per month, instead of having four options that cost upwards of $34 per month, according to the OSU My Benefits Plan 2014 website. Melnyk said according to the assessments, about 61 percent of the faculty and staff are overweight or obese and about 25 percent reported their total cholesterol levels are more than 200. Cholesterol levels between 200 to 239 are considered borderline high and those above 240 are considered high, which can lead to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to the American Heart Association website. Melnyk said these levels are “not a whole lot

better” than the national average, which is about 200, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have a lot of room for opportunity,” she said. Larry Lewellen, vice president of care coordination and health promotion, said OSU needs to work on constant improvement. “We’ve got to be more healthier next year than this year, and healthier still the following year,” he said in his speech at the event. Melnyk emphasized the importance of engaging in four key behaviors for personal health and wellness: not smoking, participating in at least 30 minutes of physical activity five times a week, eating

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