Tuesday October 18, 2011 year: 132 No. 20 the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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thelantern Admissions drug test not likely at OSU
sports
Andi Hendrickson Lantern reporter hendrickson.1085@osu.edu
Players praised
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Junior defensive tackle John Simon and junior tight end Jake Stoneburner received football honors Monday.
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Linn State Technical College in Linn, Mo., faces a lawsuit for its new mandatory drug tests for incoming students, but Ohio State officials say a policy similar in nature would not happen at OSU. LSTC’s website states the mandatory tests are required by all “degree or certificate seeking students” who wish to enroll in the college, and “refusal to screen will result in an administrative or student-initiated withdrawal” from the college. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have sued LSTC on behalf of six dissenting students and have won a temporary injunction. In an interview with The New York Times, Kent Brown, the college’s lawyer, said that of around 540 new students enrolled before the injunction, none refused to take the drug test. Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for Undergraduate Admissions and First-Year Experience at Ohio State said she does not think a program like LSTC’s would ever survive at OSU. “As long as I’ve been involved in admissions, which is 11 years, there has been no discussion at all at OSU or any other public university about drug testing,” Freeman said. “There are 4,000 colleges and universities out there, but I am not aware of any that do this and link it to the admissions.”
As long as I’ve been involved in admissions, which is 11 years, there has been no discussion at all at OSU or any other public university about drug testing. Mabel Freeman Assistant vice president for Undergraduate Admissions The OSU application has a section for students to list any criminal history, including drug charges. This section does factor into admissions decisions, but that is the extent to which the university looks at individual drug use, Freeman said. Matt Keaton, a second-year student in political science and psychology, said he could see the merit in a mandatory drug-testing program for OSU like the one implemented at LSTC. “I think it’s interesting,” Keaton said. “I think it supports a healthy lifestyle for students. I think that there’s a lot of positives that would come out of it.” Other students are not so keen on the testing and see it as an infringement of privacy. Joe Hocevar, a second-year student in pharmaceutical sciences, disagrees with the policy, and said he thinks it would deter many students from even applying to college.
“Drug testing would take away the opportunity for a lot of people that would otherwise contribute to their community and academic program and school,” Hocevar said. Even though he said implementing a system would be difficult and time-consuming, Hocevar did find one positive aspect of the policy. “It definitely would make campus safer … just because a lot of times there can be some violence over drugs, and drugs can make people do crazy things,” Hocevar said. The lawsuits against the school are interesting because he can see both sides of the argument, Keaton said. On one hand, he said he agrees with the college’s reasoning behind the screening, but he also agrees that it may infringe on students’ rights. “Freedom … is something that I hold to a very high level of accountability,” Keaton said. “At the same time, it’s not unreasonable to think of college as a job, so to speak, so colleges should have the same seriousness that people treat part-time or full-time jobs with, the fact that it is required at most workplaces.” Brown said in an interview with The New York Times that because of the specific technical programs offered at the college, including operating heavy machinery and dealing with high-voltage
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OSU club juggles fun, practice Kaitlyn Lyle Lantern reporter lyle.42@osu.edu
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Stones roll through
“Some Girls: The Rolling Stones - Live in Texas” documentary is scheduled to screen at local theaters Tuesday.
campus
Summoning Siri
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We test out the new ‘intelligent personal assistant’ software available on the Apple iPhone 4S.
weather
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Kaitlyn Lyle / Lantern reporter
Jake Schnieders juggles knives while practicing with the OSU juggling club on the Oval Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.
Counter-protest to Westboro Baptist Church aims to ‘spread love,’ not anger
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Students walking through the Oval Monday night had a reason to look up from their phones and iPods, as brightly-colored balls whizzed through the air. Members of the Juggling Club of Ohio at The Ohio State University were practicing their craft, tossing juggling balls and clubs to one another outside the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library. The club is a creative arts group at OSU, made up of students who enjoy juggling and other circus arts, according to the club’s Facebook page. The group meets every Monday on the Oval at 6 p.m. to practice juggling and garner student interest in the club. Students walking by are encouraged to stop and learn a few juggling tricks, even if they’ve never juggled before. Kevin Murnan, a fourth-year in molecular genetics and one of the club’s newer members, got involved that way. “I was walking last week to the library and I saw these guys. I thought, ‘That looks fun,’ so I just (walked over) and they let me juggle,” Murnan said. Murnan said he was surprised at how easy he found juggling to be. Though he meets with club, Murnan said he doesn’t have any plans to take juggling beyond that. It’s a hobby to “procrastinate me from studying, it’s working pretty well,” he said. Club members juggle balls, clubs, rings and diablos, which resemble giant yo-yos which are tossed on a rope between two handles. Many members of the club have gotten involved in ways similar to Murnan, while other members of the club have more juggling experience. Jake Schnieders, a fifth-year in industrial and systems engineering, has juggled in the Ohio Renaissance Festival the past three years. Last summer, Schnieders worked for Cincinnati Circus Co. in his hometown. The company, founded by Dave Willacker, has an indoor and outdoor circus school and a flying trapeze where visitors can
Andi Hendrickson Lantern reporter hendrickson.1085@osu.edu
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Westboro Baptist Church will face a counterprotest on its Oct. 25 visit to Ohio State, according to a Facebook event titled “No Hate at Ohio State.” Kayleigh Brewer, a fifth-year in biology and the creator of the Facebook event, said she did not expect the event to be receiving so much attention, with more than 290 confirmed guests on Monday. “I honestly did not think that it would have this many people joining in it,” Brewer said. “I just thought maybe to get the word out there.” Brewer created the event after reading about the upcoming WBC visit and doing some research about the group. “Something about that just struck a chord with me, protesting funerals,” Brewer said.
Mary Giardina, a third-year in mathematics and English, is one of the confirmed guests on the Facebook event, and said in an email she plans to be an active participant in the counter-protest. “I will be at the protest, probably with a sign,” Giardina said in the email. “(Westboro Baptist Church’s) signs always say ‘God hates fags’ so I will probably go with ‘God loves fags.’” Though Giardina disagrees with Westboro Baptist Church’s message, she said she recognizes the group has a right to protest, but will exercise her own rights as well. “The beauty of America is that even if you’re wrong, you still have a right to express what you think and feel,” Giardina said. “If WBC was not allowed to protest at our public university, we would not be the America that the founding fathers imagined for us.”
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cody cousino / Photo editor
A girl dressed in “Star Wars” attire mocks the Oct. 4, 2010 Westboro Baptist Church protest held on Ohio State’s campus by protesting against fans of the “Star Trek” series.
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