Wednesday May 16, 2012 year: 132 No. 70
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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6A Unbarred Urban, staff open up to students
Shelby Lum / Lantern photographer
From left to right: Coach Urban Meyer, his wife Shelley Meyer, co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell, his wife Amy Fickell and defensive line coach Mike Vrabel demonstrate a new football tradition in front of students at the Urban Meyer Town Hall Meeting in the Ohio Union May 15.
300 for the record
The OSU baseball team’s win against Toledo Tuesday marked coach Greg Beals’ 300th win in his coaching career.
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Raving Ross
Evan Speyer Lantern reporter speyer.10@osu.edu Students had the opportunity to learn more about Ohio State coaches and players at the Urban Meyer Town Hall Meeting Tuesday evening. Meyer, defensive coordinator Luke Fickell, defensive line coach Mike Vrabel and strength coach Mickey Marotti fielded a variety of questions that ranged from “What is your favorite pregame ritual?” to “Where is your favorite spot to go on a date in Columbus?” The event was part of an effort that Meyer is making to get the student body more involved with the football program. “Something that is very important to me is the
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Television personality Ross Mathews, known for his role on “Chelsea Lately,” spoke at the Ohio Union Monday.
campus
relationship with the student body,” Meyer said. “We want your support. We want our student athletes to be part of the student body, to give back to the student body and to do things with the student body.” In April, Meyer opened practice as part of student appreciation day. Meyer said the football team is planning on working with the student body on a community service project in June. Steven Eckstein, a third-year in engineering physics, said he was impressed with Meyer’s drive to involve the student body with the football program. “It’s great,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like a disingenuous public relations move. I get the feeling that this is who he really is. He seems to understand that it’s the fans who make a college university special.” Meyer said he hopes to get the fans involved on
game days by starting a new tradition with a drill called quick calls. Attendees were introduced to the drill, which involved a combination of clapping, squatting and grunting, by Marotti and senior fullback Zach Boren. “We do them before practice,” said Meyer, “to make sure our team is focused, energized and ready to go to put in a good days work. We also do them before we play a game for the same reason and same purpose. We clap together, we do a drill together and then we get ready to go play the game.” Meyer said the team will do the drill in unison with the students about 15 minutes prior to kickoff. “Right before we go back into the locker room, I’m going to bring the whole football team and coach
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OSU works to reuse abandoned bicycles Thomas Doohan For The Lantern doohan.4@osu.edu The future of bicycles abandoned on Ohio State’s main campus rests in the hands of the university’s Transportation and Parking Services (T&P) who, with others, are devising ways to reuse the bicycles. “I locked my bike to a loading dock by McPherson (Chemical Lab),” said Luke Brooks, a fourth-year in chemical engineering. “I came back an hour later and there was a pink slip on my bike that said if you do this again, your bike will be gone.” Brooks’ story is familiar to many OSU students. T&P control officer supervisor Marshall King said these incidents happen because of theft or T&P impoundment. “We take probably a couple hundred bikes a year,” King said. “Depending on the bike, they’ll either use bolt cutters if it’s a cable, or a torch if it’s a u-bolt. There are other tools that we could use. A portable band saw works pretty well … With a $300 investment, you can be a heck of a bicycle thief.” King said some of the bicycles are collected for abandonment and others are collected because their owners parked them illegally, which would have been the case for Brooks had he not caught it. “Once someone secured their cable lock to a door handle on Jones Tower on the south side of the building. That one we took,” King said. He said in that case, they even wrote an incident report so when the owner came looking for the bicycle, it would be easier to find. King said for the most part, T&P collects bicycles
Ally Marotti / Copy chief
Transportation and Parking Services at OSU are looking at new and creative ways to dispose and recycle bikes that have been impounded on campus grounds. on campus during early July. By this time, the campus has settled down and the collection process is less of a hassle. T&P’s website said bicycles that have been reported as abandoned or have clearly not moved all year get a tag placed on them explaining they will be picked up. If the bicycles are not moved after the warning, T&P eventually collects them. The collections go to T&P’s bicycle impound
lot, which has an official holding period of 90 days, according to its website. King said bicycles can be collected by contacting T&P and paying a $30 fee. If the bicycles remain unclaimed for the whole 90 days, their fate lies in the hands of a few T&P personnel.
2A Ohio House passes texting-while-driving ban
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Waffle House opens doors
Five months after the announcement of its campus debut, Waffle House opened Tuesday at 1712 North High St.
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Lindsey Barrett Lantern reporter barrett.684@osu.edu Ohio drivers await a signature from the governor to make it illegal to text while driving. Multiple sources have said Gov. John Kasich is expected to sign a bill that would make Ohio the 39th state to ban texting while driving, according to data from the Governors Highway Safety Association. The statewide texting ban passed in the Ohio House of Representatives 82-12 Tuesday after the Senate approved the bill May 3 by a vote of 25-8. Rep. Nancy Garland, D-New Albany, who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Rex Damschroder, R-Fremont, said the ban is necessary due to the tragedies caused by distracted driving. “Texting while driving is a serious problem that creates dangerous situations for everyone on the road,” Garland said. The proposed ban on distracted driving would prohibit all drivers from texting while driving and would prohibit minors from using hand-held electronic devices, including iPads, laptops and computer tablets, except in emergencies. All drivers would also be allowed to use voice-activated navigation devices.
The bill would make texting while driving a secondary offense for drivers 18 years old and older, meaning that a driver caught texting must have been pulled over for violating another traffic violation that occurred first. Adult violators of the ban would pay a fine of up to $150. For minors, texting while driving or using a handheld device while driving would constitute a primary offense. Those caught in violation would face a $150 fine and a 60-day license suspension the first time they are pulled over, and a $300 fine and a one-year suspension for subsequent citations. If enacted, the texting ban would have a six-month grace period where officers would issue warnings rather than fines and license suspensions. The House voted 88-10 last June to approve a version of the text-ban bill that did not include the ban of hand-held electronic devices for minors but made all violations of the ban primary offenses. The Senate refused to pass the earlier version. The new law will not overrule more strict local laws that apply in some areas of the state. Some have doubted the bill’s enforceability and its infringement on personal freedom. Yet, for some, the ban does not go far enough. Garland said she would have liked to make violation of the ban a primary offense for all drivers, but said the proposed ban is “a step forward in reducing texting while driving, and that means saving lives.”
Photo Illustration by Cody Cousino / Photo editor
The Ohio House approved Senate changes to a bill that would ban texting while driving in Ohio.
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