Monday November 1, 2010 year: 130 No. 85 the student voice of
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thelantern Sex, drugs and hip-hop dance
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Students weigh in on fun, ‘eye-opening’ classes they have taken at OSU DYLAN TUSSEL Lantern reporter tussel.2@osu.edu
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Giant disappointment?
Greg Oden hasn’t lived up to his NBA hype, but in an interview with The Lantern, he said it’s not his fault.
Many students trudge hesitantly to class, counting the days until the end of courses that they consider 10-week af˜ ictions. It could be chemistry for non-majors or, for others, Mythology of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. But in three Ohio State courses, students learn about topics that don’t drive them to drop out of college and seek employment at the nearest 7-Eleven. These classes, which students described as “eye-opening” and “a blast,” involve three subjects students don’t usually have the opportunity to discuss in an academic setting: sex, drugs and hip-hop. PSYCH 333.02 — Human Behavioral Problems: Sexual Sexual issues are taboo in many everyday conversations, but this course encourages students to be open about them, said Megan Bracher, a thirdyear in psychology who took the class. “You get to talk about sex the whole time,” she said. Lisa Cravens-Brown, the professor of psychology who teaches the course, said she isn’t surprised students enjoy the class discussions. “Who doesn’t want to talk about sex?” she said. “It’s not something students generally get to talk about freely in an academic setting.” Cravens-Brown said her class covers sexually
campus
AUSTIN OWENS / Lantern photographer
Harry Kennedy (left), a second-year in electrical engineering, and Elli Kallinicou (right), a second-year in nutrition, learn a routine during their hip-hop dance class Thursday. related psychological issues, ranging from abortion and miscarriage to pornography and prostitution. Because the topics are controversial, CravensBrown said she tries to create a comfortable environment for her students. “Each time students come to class, I strive to
have them have fun and to have laughed, even during the more serious issues,” she said. “I think humor is a great way to cope.” Zaneta Street, a third-year in psychology who
2A Four midterm races to shape Ohio’s future
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Rally to restore sanity
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert drew thousands Saturday in Washington, D.C.
arts
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Vampires vs. zombies
A Lantern editor examines the dichotomy between vampires and zombies.
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Race for governor
RICK SCHANZ Campus editor schanz.5@osu.edu Republicans remain optimistic that the 2010 elections on Tuesday will earn them a majority of the Senate, House and gubernatorial seats across the country, but Democrats are resolute that voters will not abandon the party. The storylines leading up to the elections have been predominantly about voters’ displeasure with their government’s spending, lost jobs and rumblings of politicians being out-of-touch with their constituents. The Lantern chose four of the most important races in Ohio and the Columbus area to preview. Strickland vs. Kasich Gubernatorial Election Like the majority of October polls, a Rasmussen survey released Thursday showed former Rep. John Kasich ahead of incumbent Gov. Ted Strickland. The numbers show a four-point lead for Kasich. According to the poll, 48 percent of likely voters in Ohio support Kasich, and 44 percent said they would vote for Strickland, a Democrat. Strickland has struggled to get above 45 percent in the polls. Still, the gubernatorial election is shaping up to be a close race, in contrast to the 2006 blowout when then-Rep. Ted Strickland earned 60 percent of the vote over Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s 37 percent. Since then, Strickland’s tour as governor has been less than ideal. He was criticized in 2007 when 64,000 Ohio State employees’ names and Social Security numbers were stolen from a backup data storage device in a 22-year-old intern’s car.
John Kasich Republican
Ted Strickland Democrat
Furthermore, Ohio has lost about 400,000 jobs while Strickland was in ofÿce — a rallying ÿgure for Republican Kasich’s campaign. “Ted Strickland lost 400,000 jobs in Ohio and just sat on his hands during the worst economic crisis since the great depression,” said Rob Nichols, press secretary for Kasich, in an e-mail to The Lantern. “What Ted Strickland and President (Barack) Obama are doing isn’t working, and Ohioans are prepared to hold them accountable in November.” When Obama was on the Oval at Ohio State on Oct. 17, Strickland made it clear to the estimated 35,000 attendees that jobs were already coming back to Ohio and, relative to the rest of the U.S., Ohio is in good shape. Strickland’s campaign focuses on discrediting Kasich by pointing out his employment with the investment ÿrm, Lehman Brothers. The ÿrm went bankrupt on Sept. 15, 2008, which helped spur the collapse of the ÿnancial system.
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OSU’s design students craft pumpkin portraits NICOLE FRIE Lantern reporter frie.1@osu.edu For students enrolled in Design 251 at Ohio State, carving pumpkins is more than an annual tradition — it’s educational. Nearly 60 students from the course’s three sections sat on the ˜ oor in room 365 of Hopkins Hall carving pumpkins for the design school’s annual project Friday. Design 251 is a basic design course required for second-year design students that includes industrial, visual communication and interior design. The pumpkin-carving project began ÿve years ago. Associate design professor Carolina Gill had worked on a similar project at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Tony Reynaldo, an assistant design professor, wanted to organize a similar project for OSU students. “I was ˜ ipping through some of (Gill’s) stuff and I was like, ‘Why are we not doing that here?’ We took a chance, bought a bunch of candles, and we threw this project out at the students and they loved it. It was a hit,” Reynaldo said. Students completed the project between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Though they were required to stay only during their regularly scheduled three-hour studio time, most students took four to six hours, Reynaldo said. “They all can work together in the room. We basically tear the whole studio apart, get all the desks and everything out and create a gigantic ˜ oor space so it’s more open.” Reynaldo said. “It actually gets them to be like kids again.” The project was a continuation of the fundamental design principles the students were studying in class. The students were “working with what would be considered gray scale — black, white and grays — but in this case, they have to ‘think in pumpkin,’”
Photo courtesy of Tony Reynaldo
Design 251 students carved Dwight Schrute from ‘The Office,’ Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central and other celebrities’ portraits onto pumpkins as part of a design contest, which doubled as a class project. Reynaldo said. Therefore, the color palate was vibrant orange, orange, yellow and red. “They have to really think in reverse because when you light a pumpkin, you’re backlighting it just
like a computer monitor,” Reynaldo said. “So you have to think about where those transparent spaces are going to be in terms of a light source.”
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