Monday April 9, 2012 year: 132 No. 48
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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OHIO STATE UN I VERSI T Y two part series
It’s all on the line
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OSU football defensive line coach Mike Vrabel is still determining his key players with the Spring Game nearing.
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Thomas Bradley / Campus editor
Niraj Antani, a 3rd-year in political science, and Nikki Brown, a 3rd-year in political science and women studies, are running for president and vice president of USG.
Travis Skaggs and Danielle Meyer have taken on the objective to be ‘the new face’ of USG.
Niraj Antani and Nikki Brown have developed the goal to ‘be the voice’ for the student body.
Kelsie Ozamiz Senior Lantern reporter ozamiz.4@osu.edu
Battling it out
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Battle of the Bands took place Thursday at Newport Music Hall to raise money for underprivileged music programs.
campus
Are outside workouts better?
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Thomas Bradley / Campus editor
Travis Skaggs, a 2nd-year in economics, and Danielle Meyer, a 3rd-year in political science, are running for president and vice president of USG.
The Oval gets crowded this time of year, but bright yellow shirts and a familiar logo make it easy to spot Undergraduate Student Government presidential candidate Travis Skaggs, a second-year in economics, and his running mate, Danielle Meyer, a thirdyear in political science. Skaggs and Meyer said what sets them apart from the other candidates is their focus on getting one-on-one time with students and advocating for their specific needs. “We had face time with students and that’s why our logo is ‘The New Face,’” Skaggs said. The recognizable North Face logo ties together their ideology and gives students something by which to remember them. Skaggs said face time with students from different backgrounds and social circles was important to how they built their platform. “We did a very organic approach,” Skaggs said. “We went to everyone and said, ‘What do you want to see out of USG? What do you want to see ultimately out of the university?’ And the result is our platform.” The team said communication, especially on a face-to-face level, is what’s been lacking from USG in the past. “We really wanted to see a change within USG,” Meyer said. “USG is a great organization, but the flow of communication isn’t right. Students aren’t really seeing all the good that USG is doing. People don’t feel like voting in USG elections because they think it’s a pointless election.” Skaggs said problems they hear most consistently from students are about academic issues dealing with
the semester switch, advisers and new credit hour rules, concerns that Skaggs and Meyer have devoted a large part of their platform to addressing. “Our plan isn’t to make a new forum or panel or committee for that issue,” Skaggs said. “We aren’t trying to propose more bureaucracy and more voices to complicate the issue. Our job at USG is not to say, ‘Let’s create something new.’ It’s to advocate.” Skaggs said he’s particularly passionate about their wellness platform which encompasses health, sustainability and safety. “Safety has been an area of interest to me, and we realized that people have been wondering why we don’t get timely police reports,” Skaggs said. “The only ones reported directly to students are those within our campus or close enough to pose a threat to our safety.” Meyer said she’s been working hard to support students who live off campus. One of the biggest issues is the housing hunt that most off-campus dwellers have experienced. “Landlords are all on different schedules for leases and renewal deadlines,” Meyer said. “I would really like all the landlords to be on the same schedule. It would make students’ lives easier and we don’t need to have that extra stressor.” Skaggs and Meyer said ultimately, their biggest concern is advocating for students. “We want to make sure that right from the get-go we’re held accountable,” Meyer said. “USG tends to come every year in the spring and ask you to vote for them, and then you don’t hear from them for another year. Our main promise is that we’re going to listen to students.”
Rose Zhou Lantern reporter zhou.371@osu.edu Two Undergraduate Student Government candidates said they hope their voice, and the voice of the students, is heard loud and clear above the rest. USG presidential candidate Niraj Antani, a third-year in political science and philosophy, and vice presidential candidate Nikki Brown, a third-year in political science and women studies, chose the campaign slogan “Be the voice.” The candidates said they are aware students might be tired of people who run for office just to fill their resumes. They said the idea of showing up for two weeks of the year and then disappearing is wrong. Antani and Brown said they want to change that culture. “You can go to past platforms, you’ll look it up, you’ll see two or three things that got done and nothing else, and that’s what we want to change,” Antani said. “We want the students to be the voice of the student government, to drive what we are doing.” Instead of telling students what they need to do, Antani and Brown said their priority is to make sure they are listening to students. “Students are the voice behind student government,” Antani said. To be more engaging with their constituents, Antani and Brown want to place suggestion boxes in every building on campus. Antani said he is encouraging students to fill out the “Voice of the Buckeye” section on their website. “We’ll say what we’ve done, whom we’ve met with, what’s the progress. If we fail, which I’m sure we will … we’ll say what we’ve failed. If we succeed, we’ll say we’ve succeeded,” Antani
said. “Students can hold us accountable, that way we don’t disappear.” Antani and Brown said they would like to set up “semester hotlines” and “walk-in advising hours” to solve students’ problems of waiting for weeks to meet with their own advisers. The cost of hiring trained graduate students or additional advisers would come from the $250,000 USG budget. Antani said they want to make sure they spend the USG budget money wisely to benefit students, and their policies would never be a contributing factor to any increases in student fees. Antani and Brown said they want to expand the East Residential route of the Campus Area Bus Service hours on weekends and spend money more effectively on student escort services to improve on- and off-campus safety. In an effort to keep students safe, Antani and Brown are pushing for joint jurisdiction in the campus area, a neighborhood watch program, self-defense classes and increased off-campus lighting. The candidates want to work on public-private partnerships to get Ohio State students discounts on taxis, Mega Bus tickets and flight fares. They said they want to finalize contracts with multiple companies, and they expect various discounts to go into effect before Autumn Semester. Antani and Brown said they want to negotiate with the state to make the first four days of each semester tax free for textbook purchases, which could save students up to $100 per year. While their campaign plays on their names and its reference to pop star Nicki Minaj, Antani and Brown said they will be focused on completing their promises. “We’ll take our platform, we’ll take the bright colors off, we’ll take the campaign logo off and we’ll put it on the USG website,” Antani said. “We’ll have a scorecard for every single platform.”
Club cheerleading team mourns coach Team prepares for national competition without coach, mentor Joey Delaney Get the daily email edition!
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Pat Brennan Sports editor brennan.164@osu.edu The Ohio State All-Girl Cheerleading team is on the mat for a full dress rehearsal the Saturday before it departs for nationals — that’s the way coach Joey Delaney ran the program since 1998. There was a notable absence this past Saturday, though — Delaney wasn’t there. Delaney, 39, died Thursday at 7:55 p.m. at The Wexner Medical Center at OSU after experiencing difficulty breathing at the RPAC. In keeping with tradition, the team gathered on the mat Saturday at the Jesse Owens North Recreation Center to get its prep work in before leaving for Daytona Beach, Fla., Wednesday, where the team will participate in the National Collegiate Cheerleading nationals. A crowd of about 80 people assembled as the team, donning its red bows and starch-white uniforms with a “Block-O” on the front, ran through its routines. There were tears and long embraces at the Saturday training session, which was equal parts preparation for the upcoming competition and a chance to honor Delaney, who guided the team to a 2012 Club Big Ten cheerleading title. Saturday also marked the first time any current member of the team practiced without the coach they adore. Christine Stearns, a first-year in pharmaceutical science, said the sadness in the gym was tangible.
“You could see the look in everyone’s faces (Saturday) — we were not mentally prepared,” Stearns said. “We were freaking out. We were so nervous. Most of us haven’t been in this gym since last practice. It was like, we don’t want to walk in here and see the mat and get upset and everything. But we have to do what we have to do.” The crying and sadness was frequently drowned out by the blasts of pop music that rocked the gym. The smiles of the team members returned as they burst onto the mat to demonstrate their high-energy routines. Sadness would creep back, though — after finishing the first routine, team members took several minutes to compose themselves. Part of this, Stearns said, was to tend to nagging injuries. Stearns added that the team was also missing Delaney. “A lot of the girls were just upset in general because he wasn’t there,” Stearns said. In addition to the support and critiquing you’d expect from a cheerleading coach, Delaney provided a moral compass for his players, Faith Anne Roche, a third-year in psychology, told The Lantern. Roche cheered with the OSU club team for two years, and described Delaney as her mentor. “He was that inspiration that everyone needs in a coach. He was just, like, the ultimate coach. When something was wrong … he was always there for you doing whatever he could,” Roche said. “He taught me a lot of life skills. How to be determined
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Joey Delaney
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