Tuesday November 22, 2011 year: 132 No. 43
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
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sports
6A
Look ahead to Michigan
OSU football coach Luke Fickell discussed Saturday’s big game and his Michigan history at a press conference.
Lightning to halt jump?
Lantern file photo
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Students splash each other with water while in Mirror Lake on Nov. 23, 2010. Thomas Bradley Campus editor bradley.321@osu.edu With students preparing for Tuesday night’s Mirror Lake jump 2011, the forecast might put a halt to the tradition. Traditionally, students jump into Mirror Lake the week before the football game between Ohio State and Michigan, a rivalry that has been called the greatest in all of sports. This year, the jump is on a Tuesday, just like
4A
Top 10 albums of 2011
The Lantern ranks five albums that made our list of the Top 10 of the year, including “Lasers” and “21.”
campus
Pass the baton
November for a Mirror Lake jump,” Armstrong said. “I don’t know that there is a precedent that we can apply for this.” Armstrong said if lightning is spotted close to Mirror Lake, Public Safety will evacuate the lake. “If we identify any lightning within a 10-mile radius of Mirror Lake, we are going to ask people to leave the lake, because it’s not safe to be in a body of water with lightning close,” Armstrong said. Armstrong said they would temporarily evacuate Mirror Lake until the lightning passes.
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Campus crime prompts safety petition Danielle Hyams Senior Lantern reporter hyams.2@osu.edu The recent wave of off-campus crimes affecting Ohio State has prompted Undergraduate Student Government president Nick Messenger and Inter-Fraternity Council President Clark Siddle to introduce a petition detailing four objectives to enhance student safety. Another Timely Warning was issued Monday, informing students of an armed robbery that took place early Sunday morning on Iuka Avenue. Two non-students were robbed at gunpoint by two white males between the ages of 20 to 25 years old, one of which was armed with a gun. As a result of all the robberies and a meeting with Javaune Adams-Gaston, vice president of Student Life, Messenger and Siddle decided to write up the petition. “We had a meeting with Dr. J (Adams-Gaston) regarding the crime issue and Nick (Messenger) and I had left that meeting and, to be honest, we were pretty upset,” Siddle said. “We know the resources are available to provide security in this area, they just have red tape blocking them. We just wanted to grab the bull by the horns and we knew we needed to take action.”
danielle hyams / Lantern reporter
USG president Nick Messenger took his petition around to several fraternities and sororities on Monday Nov. 21, 2011. Messenger plans to turn in the petition on Tuesday. Messenger and Siddle plan to present petitions Tuesday during the meeting of President E. Gordon Gee’s safety task force. Gee sent out an email Thursday to students detailing his plan to form a team of senior university leaders to address the crime occurring near campus. The task force includes
representatives from several different areas of campus. The team is chaired by Jay Kasey, senior vice president for administration and planning. Messenger is a member of the task force, representing USG. Other members of the task-force include: Adams-Gaston; Chris Culley, senior vice president and general counsel; Tom Katzenmeyer, senior vice
president for university communications; Melinda Church, executive officer for the Office of the President; Paul Denton, Chief of University police; VJ Gadepally, president for Council of Graduate Students; Megan Conroy, president for Inter-Professional Council. Messenger said the problem is not the awareness of crime, it is the crime itself. “I don’t think it’s an argument whether there is increased awareness or increased crime,” Messenger added. “One student being held at gunpoint is too many students being held at gunpoint, and if we don’t take proactive steps now its just going to keep happening.” First and foremost, Messenger and Siddle seek to expand the OSU Police and Columbus Division of Police mutual-aid agreement. “We’re hoping the task force will produce a shared jurisdiction between OSU police and Columbus police, allowing OSU police to be more proactive in stopping crime,” Messenger said. Siddle echoed that sentiment. “The joint jurisdiction issue is the biggest, we have a police force of 50 or so officers for the university and
2A Semester switch hard, but good change
A group of OSU students reestablished Buckeye Twirl, a club where baton twirlers meet to share tricks and routines.
Sarah Stemen Oller reporter stemen.66@osu.edu
weather high 64 low 51 showers
W 52/33 TH 56/40 F 59/47 SA 56/49
it was last year, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Before last year’s Tuesday jump, the tradition was for it to be on a Thursday. The forecast for Tuesday evening is a low of 51 degrees with a 70 percent chance of precipitation, according to weather.com. High wind and lightning is expected for the campus area. Bob Armstrong, director of Emergency Management & Fire Prevention from the OSU Department of Public Safety, said he does not know what to expect for a turn out because of the weather. “I can’t remember the last time we had 60-someodd degrees and thunderstorms at the end of
am showers sunny partly cloudy showers www.weather.com
University officials have 600 courses left to be re-evaluated out of a total 3,000 that needed further examination for the upcoming quarterto-semester switch. Steven Fink, co-chair of the Semester Conversion Coordinating Committee, told The Lantern Monday the process of revising course numbers and names and reassessing course material will be completed by December at the latest. “We are still in the process of transitioning every major, every minor, interdisciplinary, graduate program and so on,” Fink said. “Every course has been resubmitted and reviewed through its respective college and through Academic Affairs and that process is just about done.” Fink said the 600 courses that remain to be reviewed are graduate and interdisciplinary courses. “All the major programs and
undergraduate programs are pretty well finished,” he said. “In terms of courses, there are close to 13,000 courses that had to get resubmitted.” Fink said the quarter-to-semester conversion will be completed on time as projected for Summer 2012. “We looked at the curriculum on a college-by-college basis,” he said. “And some just needed mechanical changes, while others needed more.” Fink said the university is aware of trends in enrollment that switching to semesters has caused in similar universities. “At the University of Minnesota, there was an uptick in enrollment right before the switch, which is expected as those who want to graduate take heavier course loads,” he said. “Similarly, there is a decline right after the switch.” OSU will prepare for this predictable pattern by “staffing for these changes,” Fink said. Fink said he was not sure how much the conversion was costing the university, but he said the reasons for the switch were not financial.
continued as Police on 3A
cody cousino / Photo editor
From left to right: Scott Boden, assistant director of residence life; Steven Fink, co-chair of the Semester Conversion Coordinating Committee; Melinda Nelson, associate provost and search coordinator for Student Life; Kellie Uhrig, director of marketing communications for Student Life; and Sean Fitzpatrick, director of academic affairs for USG, discussed the quarter-to-semester conversion on Nov. 21, 2011. “A great advantage is that there are some 19 other institutions switching to semesters in the state of Ohio, and we want uniformity,” he said. Melinda Nelson, associate provost and search coordinator for Student Life, said the university has
received a positive reaction from faculty. “I think a lot of them are jazzed,” she said. “A lot of faculty felt restrained by the 10-week term.”
continued as Term on 3A 1A