Tuesday February 16, 2010 year: 130 No. 64 the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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Va. Tech backs student media
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Fire leaves students homeless CHRIS GRABER Lantern reporter graber.54@osu.edu An electrical ÿre torched the attic of a house at 295 E. 17th Ave. Monday afternoon, leaving 10 students without housing. Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Jerry Birkhimer estimated the total damage to be $10,000. No one was injured. “We had around 45 ÿreÿghters on the scene and we had it contained within the ÿrst ÿve or 10 minutes,” Birkhimer said. Campus ÿres “are not very frequent but when they do happen there is usually a lot of damage.
“It was daytime. We got here early, attacked the ÿre early and pretty much saved the residents’ lives except for the damage in the attic.” Although the three-story house was still intact, Birkhimer said the house could be uninhabitable for as long as a month. “They need to talk to the landlord about ÿnding additional housing because it could be three weeks before this is ready to be inhabited again.” Birkhimer said. “Maybe longer than, depending on what the maintenance people ÿnd, whether the entire roof needs [to be replaced] and how much electrical damage [there is].” Evelyn Curry, a resident of the house and third-year in journalism, said the ÿre department informed her that it’s possible the house could be permanently ruined.
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sports
8A Web site features Bucks fans worldwide Photo courtesy of osu.edu
Buckeye fans Alumni Eric Smith, Shelley Mulconrey, Allison Smith and Rhonda Stienecker spell out the signature Ohio State cheer while scuba-diving near the island Sint Eustatius in the Netherlands Antilles. Watch a slideshow of O-H-I-O photos at thelantern.com.
Madsen making a difference
For the first time, Kyle Madsen is coming off the bench and playing consistently, with 11 points against Indiana
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Something to say? say it online
The O-H-I-O link on Ohio State’s home page has 4,373 photos of Buckeyes worldwide performing the signature cheer, and that number increases every day. There are so many photos, in fact, that when Ted Hattemer, the director of new media for University Communications, tried to pull them all up on his screen, his computer froze. “I’m never going to click on ‘view all’ again,” he said.
He said the Web site, which is in its third year, was started because the university received so many e-mails from Buckeye fans around the world. It wasn’t until they received a picture of OSU student Nicholas Pavlik, who was deployed in Afghanistan, that they realized the project could be something special. “That’s when we thought there’s more here that we could do with it,” he said. The site now receives pictures of the cheer performed at weddings, family vacations, from students studying abroad or those just around the OSU campus. The photos “come in all hours of the day from all corners of the world,” Hattemer said.
He wouldn’t expect anything else. “Ohio State has a lot of pride,” he said. “No other school has [a cheer] like it.” Since the Web site started tracking views in June 2008, it has received 6,960 picture views and about 1.5 million hits. “But that could be your grandma clicking on your picture 12 times in a row,” Hattemer said. He said every photograph typically gets about 12 views. Photos that are out of the ordinary can receive 1,000 views or more. Hattemer said he receives help monitoring the pictures from three other staff members and two
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Weather leads to 40-car crash, but OSU stays open as usual
campus
Bucks drawn to Peace Corps weather
DANIELLE HARTMAN Lantern reporter hartman.271@osu.edu
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high 29 low 25
BEVAN SCHNECK Lantern reporter schneck.9@osu.edu Monday was business as usual at Ohio State, despite snow, ice and poor road conditions. The winter weather created a massive pile-up of more than 40 cars north of Franklin County in the afternoon, shutting down the southbound lanes of Interstate 71. There were no injuries in the crash, said Wanda Mitchell, dispatcher at the Delaware post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. But numerous vehicles were blocking the roadways for hours, including several semi-trucks. “There are so many, it’s going to take a while for us to catch up,” Mitchell said. Meanwhile all classes and events on campus continued, regardless of the weather. University staff typically see a storm coming and get road crews to start plowing in a timely manner, said Jim Lynch, director of OSU Media Relations.
The university allowed all drivers to use the campus parking garages after 4 p.m. yesterday so crews could remove snow from the parking lots. “We’re unlike K-12 schools,” Lynch said. “We don’t often close because of inclement weather.” Lynch said the university stays open because the OSU Medical Center must stay open. The efforts from road crews around campus weren’t enough to stop Elizabeth Middy from having a minor car accident in the afternoon. She and another driver collided in slick road conditions on Cannon Drive near Ohio Stadium. There were no injuries. Middy was on campus to pick her mother up from work, who didn’t want to drive home in the snow and heavy trafÿc. Middy said it took her more than an hour to reach State Route 23 north and Interstate 270 from State Route 315 north, following the accident. Total snow accumulation was expected to reach 6 to 9 inches by this morning.
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Alumna says she has easy solution to debt: Join a credit union
snow showers
DANIELLE HARTMAN Lantern reporter hartman.271@osu.edu
WE 30/21 flurries TH 30/23 mostly cloudy FR 30/23 mostly cloudy SA 28/22 snow showers www.weather.com
With rising interest rates, it’s not uncommon for American credit card holders to quickly accumulate debts they can’t afford. For those who ÿnd themselves buried in debt, an Ohio State alumna can help. Jamie Chase, a 1999 graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communication, is a co-inventor of American Debt Relief Challenge, a program that has saved Americans a total of $20 million, Chase said. The ADR Challenge has accomplished these savings by simply transferring consumer debt from banks to credit unions. Chase said a typical interest rate at a bank is
18 to 20 percent, while a credit union averages 6 to 12 percent. Credit unions can charge less interest because they are nonproÿt. “Banks exist to make a proÿt,” Chase said. “Credit unions are more like libraries; they only exist to serve.” She said credit unions are guided by a board of JAMIE CHASE directors, all of whom are members of the community. “This means they are more willing to help people in the community whose house[s] might be facing foreclosure, for example,” Chase said. “They only exist to make life better, and a lot of people don’t
know that. Why would I choose to use a bank when a credit union does the same stuff?” In addition to her work in the U.S., Chase has gone overseas to explore the beneÿts of credit unions. In 2006, she went on a goodwill mission to Mali, West Africa. There she found credit unions improving the quality of life for young girls who would otherwise be forced to beg and sell their bodies to survive on their own. Chase said the girls were taken off the street and sent to attend the Here Je Development Center in Mali, where they received training in traditional African arts. After graduation, the girls were given loans by a Mali credit union so they could create their own businesses.
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