10 22 lanterns

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Tuesday October 22, 2013 year: 133 No. 91

the student voice of

The Ohio State University

www.thelantern.com

thelantern Kasich announces Gee’s role in affordability research

sports

mICheLe TheoDore Copy chief theodore.13@osu.edu

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Disappointing defense

Coach Urban Meyer and his players said the Buckeye defense was subpar compared to Iowa’s Saturday. anDrea henDerSon / Asst. multimedia editor

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ohio Gov. John kasich announced oSU President emeritus e. Gordon Gee’s new higher education initiative oct. 21 at an ohio Board of regents conference at Columbus State Community College.

Ohio State President Emeritus E. Gordon Gee is set to lead a study seeking ways to improve higher education for Ohio students. Gee’s research will focus on college affordability and relevance for Ohio students, he said at a Monday meeting of the Ohio Board of Regents Trustees after the study was announced by Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “Just today, if you noticed, the governor announced that I’m going to take on a major initiative of the state, talking about what I think is the burning issue of today, and that is how does one increase quality of higher education and how does one do it in a way that it’s cost effective and affordable for students,” Gee said in a Monday interview with The Lantern. “We know how to increase quality, we know how to cut budgets, but we don’t know how to bring the concept of cost and quality together, so that’s what were really trying to do with this.”

Gee said at the Monday Board of Regents meeting he didn’t want to predict the outcome of the study, but added it should be a collaborative, statewide investigation, although other members have not yet been publicly announced. “The beauty of what we’re doing is the fact that there aren’t specifics,” Gee said of his new initiative at the meeting. “This is a soft science. We know the questions, and I don’t want to have preconceived notions about it. So we’re going to do what I think is in the best interest of the state.” The two have worked together on higher education initiatives in the past, including earlier this year when Kasich asked Gee to work on an effort to identify a solution to divide the education dollars for the state budget. Undergraduate Student Government president Taylor Stepp said affordability is an important aspect of higher education and he was happy to hear about the partnership. “Affordability is a huge concern not just for USG but for really the nation,” said Stepp, a fourth-year in

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Alutto: OSU ‘about as safe as we can make it’ LoGan hICkman Lantern reporter hickman.201@osu.edu

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Threat for the dead

Issues continue for the characters on ‘The Walking Dead.’ Check out our review of the latest episode.

campus

Though some Ohio State students say they feel unsafe in the off-campus area, a few OSU officials have said the university is doing all it can to promote safety in those neighborhoods. Interim President Joseph Alutto said the threat comes with the location of OSU’s campus. “This is a big urban cosmopolitan area with all the vibrancy that goes with it but then all the risks as well,” Alutto said in an interview with The Lantern Sept. 23. “This is an urban university … It’s about as safe as we can make it.” Alutto said OSU works closely with police to make sure there is as much coverage as possible in the off-campus neighborhoods through an agreement Fall Semester 2012 that gave University Police and Columbus Division of Police joint jurisdiction in the off-campus area. OSU has also reached out to Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman for help. “Mayor Coleman has been incredibly supportive of this university and is open to suggestions. Those conversations take place all the time,” Alutto said. “We’re certainly doing everything we can.” A house of 15 people in OSU’s off-campus area discovered Aug. 30 there had been a man secretly living in their basement, causing some students to express concerns about the safety of off-campus housing. The students, who live on 13th Avenue, thought a locked door in the basement led to a utility closet. When one of the

This is a big urban cosmopolitan area with all the vibrancy that goes with it but then all the risks as well Joseph Alutto Interim President house’s residents opened the door, they found a bedroom complete with framed photographs and textbooks. Since then, the locks were changed by the leasing company, NorthSteppe Realty. There have also been two armed robberies reported at a Huntington Bank branch located on 11th Avenue on OSU’s campus that prompted University Police to issue public safety notices, as well as two off-campus armed home robberies and one on-campus armed robbery that led to public safety notices. Despite the university’s efforts to promote safety in off-campus neighborhoods, Alutto said students must do their part, too, because OSU cannot “protect against everything.” “We just ask students to be careful about what they do, where they live, when they’re out on the streets, which is what you would say in any urban environment,” Alutto said. Like Alutto, Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph Steinmetz said he is concerned about off-campus safety — not only with regard to street crime, but also about landlords ensuring quality residences to their student tenants, during an interview with The Lantern Oct. 8. “As an institution, what we have to do is

Cavs play exhibition game at Schott

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Former Buckeye forward (12) evan Turner is cornered by Cleveland Cavaliers guard alonzo Gee (33) and forward anderson varejao (17) in an exhibition game oct. 21 at the Schottenstein Center. Cleveland won, 104-93.

100 years of rec Sports

October marks the centennial for organized recreational sports on campus.

weather high 55 low 39 mostly sunny

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mostly cloudy www.weather.com SheLBy LUm / Photo editor

pressure the responsibility in the landlords in ways that we can,” Steinmetz said. This pressure will come once the construction of second-year housing on campus is complete, giving students better options of where to live, Steinmetz said. The projects — the North Residential District Transformation and South Campus High Rise Renovation and Addition Project — are scheduled to be complete by Fall 2016, when OSU plans to require second-year students to live in OSU housing. Mike Groeniger, an off-campus landlord with G.A.S. Properties , said he considers off-campus neighborhoods to be mostly safe. Groeniger said he often sees locals in the area who he believes commit reoccurring crimes. “I’ve been down here for about six years now and I see the same homeless type-of-guy always walking around by our office, always in the area,” Groeniger said. “Every day I see him with a brand new bike, and it just drives me crazy.” Groeniger said OSU has never reached out to him regarding crime prevention in the off-campus area. Even so, Groeniger said he helps his tenants stay safe by providing lighting in parking areas around his properties and ensuring locks are intact on all doors on his properties. Groeniger said he advises students to do their part to stay safe as well by reaching out to their landlords whenever they have a concern. “Be observant and don’t be scared to make a

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Study: 1 in 4 college students have texted while driving CaroLIne keyeS Senior Lantern reporter keyes.64@osu.edu Four of five college students have texted while driving, according to research from King’s College in Pennsylvania. The study’s main researchers Garold Lantz and Sandra Loeb also found male drivers are more likely to text while driving and tend to think of themselves as more proficient drivers than others on the road, leading them to believe they are less likely to endanger themselves or others. “There seems to be a mentality that use of electronic devices is dangerous for everyone but ‘me,’” Lantz and Loeb said in a joint released statement. The study by Lantz and Loeb was published in the “International Journal of Sustainable Strategic Management.” Vaughn Bookheimer, a first-year in finance at Ohio State, said he knows a lot of people who text and drive but said it is dangerous. “I don’t know anyone in (particular) who has caused an accident, but my cousin was hit by a driver who was texting and driving,” Bookheimer said. Previous research has demonstrated that texting and driving increases the risk of getting into a car accident by 23 times the normal accident rate, according to Pediatric Academic Societies research. Additionally, a study in May by the Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York also found that texting and driving has

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80 percent of college students have texted while driving

Texting while driving distracts the driver for an average of 4.6 seconds – the equivalent of driving at a speed of 55 mph for the length of AN ENTIRE football field without looking at the road. source: reporting kayLa Zamary / Design editor now surpassed drinking and driving as the leading cause of death among teenagers. According to the medical center’s study, more than 3,000 teenagers die each year as a result of texting and driving and 300,000 are injured, while approximately 2,700 teenagers die from drinking and driving each year and 282,000 are injured. Kaitlin Bradley, a second-year in strategic communication, said she is not surprised by the statistics about college students texting and driving. “Even after a home football game, people are sitting in traffic and will pull out their phones because they think it’s

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