Thursday April 12, 2012 year: 132 No. 51
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern Email leaked days before USG election
sports
Thomas Bradley and Katelyn Pruchnicki Campus editor and Lantern reporter bradley.321@osu.edu and pruchnicki.5@osu.edu
Flipping history
1B
The OSU women’s gymnastics team will perform in the NCAA Championship for the first time in 22 years.
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Shining ‘Shoe
An anonymous email sent might cause trouble for one duo campaigning for Undergraduate Student Government elections Thursday and Friday. Presidential candidate Taylor Stepp, a secondyear in Russian and public affairs, and his running mate Kevin Arndt, a third-year in political science and public affairs, are the subject of the email sent Monday to more than 200 leaders and members of the Greek community at Ohio State. The email, which informed recipients of “platform points that might be of interest” to members of the Greek community, had a screen shot attached. The screen shot was of a separate email from Stepp and several portions of a Google document. Some highlighted portions of the screen shot seem to be early platform ideas from Stepp and Arndt’s campaign. The email highlights sections of campaign notes, which Stepp, and Stepp alone, acknowledges writing most of. However, Stepp denies writing a portion that deals with a plan to push toward “tougher sanctions” on any future sexual violence acts committed by members of the Greek community. The fraternity Phi Kappa Psi is mentioned in the platform as an example of a fraternity that commits sexual crimes against women. The platform mentions ideas such as “publicizing fraternities that constantly roofie drinks … Phi Si (sic), for example.” “Girls should know about this and I believe that this is completely essential to maintaining a safe
THOMAS BRADLEY / Campus editor
Presidential candidate Taylor Stepp (left) was the subject of an anonymous email sent to Greek leaders and members April 10. Presidential candidate Travis Skaggs (right) had a correspondence with Stepp in the leaked email. campus,” a portion of the platform read — which Stepp denies ever seeing or writing. Stepp said he is disappointed with USG, and the email has caused damage to his and Arndt’s campaign. “Kevin (Arndt) is a part of the Greek community, and this is very unfortunate to our reputations, and also to (Phi Kappa Psi),” Stepp said. “They’ve been hurt by this a lot and I think that’s something we need to keep in mind … It was completely unjust.”
Matthew Kotapish, president of Phi Kappa Psi, said the email sent out was very disappointing. “The statements made about Phi Psi are false and misleading. Under no circumstances does the organization condone that kind of behavior,” Kotapish said. “We were hurt that this was the perception (of our fraternity) … Not a single thing in that document about us is remotely true.”
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5A
A movie partly filmed in OSU’s Ohio Stadium titled “Touchback” premieres Friday at AMC Lennox.
campus
Cody Cousino / Photo editor
Coach Urban Meyer invited all OSU students to the team’s spring football practice April 14. After working with the Office of Student Life, this new tradition will allow students and other members of the OSU community access to the football team.
OSU’s field day with football team, staff Lauren Clark Lantern reporter clark.1760@osu.edu
Solid serving
2A
While there are ample options for campus dining, some facilities receive more praise and profit than others.
This Saturday at ‘Shoe will be nothing like any current Ohio State student has seen before. In an attempt to better connect students to student-athletes, football coach Urban Meyer has opened his morning practice to students, faculty and staff at Ohio Stadium this Saturday. In an exclusive interview with The Lantern, Meyer said how important this event is to him. “So often you get the football team separated from your student body,” Meyer said. “That’s awful, that’s not right.” Meyer said this now-annual tradition is supposed
Joseph Frazier Lantern reporter frazier.193@osu.edu
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mostly sunny scattered t-storms isolated t-storms scattered t-storms Ally Marotti / Copy chief
www.weather.com
Practice will start at 10:45 a.m. and will run until about 12:45 p.m. During practice, attendees will have the opportunity to tour the locker room and press boxes. After practice, students are invited to go down on the field to meet players, coaches and staff, or just hang out on the field and play football at Ohio Stadium, Ashton said. Admission is free and doors open at 10:15 a.m. Families of students, faculty and staff are also welcome and only one BuckID per group is needed. The cost of the event to OSU was not immediately available. Javaune Adams-Gaston, vice president for student life, said she hopes this brings together the OSU community even more.
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USG candidates make final push for votes
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to give students a feeling of ownership of their team, and to give them the access they want. “It’s your team, we’re here for you,” Meyer said. “We’re going to celebrate with you after the game, we’re going to sing the fight song with you. We’re here for you guys. We’re not just saying that. That’s why we do this and our guys are excited about it.” Bryan Ashton, chair for the Council on Student Affairs and a fourth-year in finance, said Meyer approached the Office of Student Life about three weeks ago with the idea of establishing a tradition. “We really see it as a way to connect the students not just to coach Meyer but also to all the studentathletes that are there … give them the opportunity to see them and meet them … on more of a personal level instead of just watching them from the south stands during the Spring Game,” Ashton said.
Lyndsay Mikolajewski, a third-year in civil engineering, campaigns April 10 on the Oval.
The Oval will set the stage for each Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidate as the months of hard work and the weeks of little sleep boil down to these final two days of campaigning. The final days of the campaign have “been crazy hectic,” said Taylor Stepp, a presidential candidate and second-year in Russian and public affairs. “It’s really getting into crunch time. It’s really getting to a point where months and months of hard work is culminating into two days.” USG elections begin on Thursday, and continue through Friday. There are three stages of the campaign, Stepp said, and the basis of the pre-campaign period is about talking to people.
“The first week-and-a-half is more about reaching voters, talking to people, getting your name out there, getting the buzz created,” Stepp said. “And then these two days, is all kind of like building up to this climax of saying, ‘Hey, we have two days to make a difference. Everything that we’ve done won’t be worth anything if we don’t come to play for these two days.’ And that’s what’s really hard about it because you have to face everyday like a battle. You’ve got to keep the troops motivated.” Kyle Strickland, another presidential candidate and third-year in political science, said enthusiasm within the campaign is key. “You’ve got to be fired up and you’ve got to be excited about winning this thing,” Strickland said. “We’re getting volunteers, coordinating volunteers, getting them ready for Thursday and Friday and making sure they’re not too burned out from the first week or so.”
Stepp said he is also trying to maintain high energy within his campaign. “We’ve got a lot of people that are really excited about doing stuff,” Stepp said. “But there are some people that haven’t been as excited, and we need to make sure they come to play because this is a huge operation.” Each presidential candidate said getting students out to vote is the top priority during the final stretch. Presidential candidate Travis Skaggs, a second-year in economics, likened his campaign’s strategy to coordinating a Facebook event. “You can’t just invite people to a page or invite them to an event. You actually have to message them one-on-one,” Skaggs said. “You have to be texting your friends, calling. You have to be saying, ‘Vote now.’
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