February 2 2016

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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 THELANTERN.COM

CAMPUS

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Vinton County is one of many “food deserts” across America, and a team from Ohio State is working toward helping 13,000 residents get more healthy sources of food. ON PAGE 4

THE STUDENT VOICE OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

ARTS&LIFE

Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government passed a resolution supporting the access to course syllabi prior to scheduling for students. The resolution was brought Jan. 20 to the general assembly floor and passed unanimously with 41 aye votes to 0 nay. The opportunity to make textbooks more affordable weighed heavily in the decision to pursue

and propose the resolution. According to OSU Undergraduate Admissions, the average estimated cost of textbooks is $1,234 for two semesters of full-time enrollment per student. However, the hope is that Resolution 48-R-30 would offer avenues to lower those costs. “We hope that the resolution will encourage professors to lower cost, open source or even (not require a) textbook,” said Mario Belfiglio, a second-year in biology and primary sponsor of the resolution. “Knowing ahead of time will also

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SPORTS

An engineering graduate student had the opportunity to present his design for a new amusement park attraction to Disney. ON PAGE 4

Despite losing three-time All-American Jesse King to the National Lacrosse League draft, the men’s lacrosse team looks to its first-year players to fill his shoes. ON PAGE 8

USG supports early syllabi availability DANIEL HERBENER Lantern reporter herbener.4@osu.edu

YEAR 136, ISSUE NO. 9

help students find the most affordable options available to them.” In addition to textbook affordability, simply understanding classes before enrolling would be a benefit of the available syllabi, Belfiglio said. “When you just see a very generic description of the course online, you are going to make a very generic decision,” he said. “It would definitely help students sign up for classes that are appropriate for them.” The Departments of Accounting

and Management Information Systems, Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering, all offer their syllabi on their websites. However, getting the syllabi on Buckeyelink is the ultimate goal of the resolution. “We would want the syllabi to be centralized. People have no idea that syllabi are available on the Department of Accounting’s website,” Belfiglio said. While the officials in the Office of Academic Affairs were not SYLLABI CONTINUES ON 3

A farewell to the ‘fro KEVIN STANKIEWICZ | ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

A rubber duck with a cotton ball glued to the top of its head sits on the edge of Mirror Lake during the Afroduck Remembrance Ceremony on Monday night. A few hundred students gathered for a final memorial for Afroduck, the animal that died Friday. The ceremony was organized through Facebook. Kelly Ahearne, a first-year in forestry, fisheries and wildlife, said she felt compelled to honor the campus’ fallen iconic waterfowl one last time. “He’s a presence on campus, and we all kind of love him,” she said. (“My friends and I) like to joke around that Brutus is our real mascot, but Afroduck is our secondary one.”

Law professor pens book on US elections ALLISON BUGENSTEIN Lantern reporter bugenstein.4@osu.edu Ohio State Moritz law professor Edward Foley just published his second book, “Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States.” The book recounts the historical upsets, scandals and untold stories surrounding elections in the U.S. Foley dives into American history to narrate election disputes from all the way back in the 18th century to the 2008 presidential election, and he finds no shortage of material. “I started the project not expecting it to be a history book, but working on it, I realized the only way to understand this was to go back to the founding of the country,” Foley said about his book, which was released Jan. 4 by Oxford University Press. Foley has been teaching election politics and constitutional law since 1991. He is the director of election law at Moritz and the Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law. Foley said election law is a foundation of U.S. government. However, when the government was first formed, no one guessed that elections would get so dicey, and fewer laws and regulations were put in place to help decide contested elections. He said the good news is that ELECTIONS CONTINUES ON 3

Improv group spreads smiles 1 laugh at a time ASHLEY WILKINSON For The Lantern wilkinson.178@osu.edu

COURTESY OF GABRIELLE TAPHORN

The Fishbowl Improv group and the Operation Smile Club collaborate during a Jan. 29 event to raise money to help children with cleft lips or cleft palates.

The Fishbowl Improv group partnered up with Ohio State’s Operation Smile Club in an effort to raise money for children in need of surgery for cleft lips or cleft palates. On Friday, Fishbowl held a show in which Operation Smile collected donations for a child in need. The show could be called a success for Operation Smile because it raised enough money for a child to receive his or her surgery. “The Fishbowl event was amazing,” said Timothy Zhu, a fourthyear in economics and president of Operation Smile at OSU. “We ended up raising $330, exceeding our goal of raising $240.”

OSU’s Operation Smile began four years ago. The organization chapter was created at OSU by Zhu. When the group was founded, he said there were only four members. Now, Operation Smile has nearly 50. “This group is great because it’s built like a family full of students who care about the cause and love to organize events,” Zhu said. “We are also really good friends.” Since the organization’s beginning at OSU, the group has held more than 40 events in an effort to raise money for face-reconstruction surgeries. It takes $240 to pay for the surgery of one child. OSU’s Operation Smile has donated enough money to pay for 45 surgeries so far. Zhu said he hopes Operation Smile and Fishbowl Improv will

continue working together “until every child has a beautiful smile and until every child can live a normal life.” Zhu said that in Operation Smile’s first year at OSU, the group raised only $60. “Within the last four years we have raised up to around $10,000,” Zhu said. All proceeds of OSU’s Operation Smile go to the nonprofit group’s national level, which has a network of more than 5,000 volunteers. Operation Smile has helped pay for surgeries in more than 60 countries, Zhu said. Operation Smile’s event with Fishbowl Improv, which was free, was the fifth collaboration between the groups. Fishbowl Improv shows are held every week at the Ohio SMILES CONTINUES ON 3


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