Thursday May 17, 2012 year: 132 No. 71
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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thelantern Meyer disapproves of NCAA playoff system
sports
Michael Periatt Asst. sports editor periatt.1@osu.edu
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Large lacrosse turnout
Ohio Machine, a pro lacrosse team, set a new world record for the largest lacrosse game ever played Wednesday.
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A four-team playoff system seems inevitable for college football, but Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer said he’s not in favor of abandoning the bowl system. “I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this,” Meyer said. “I think the ideal setup is what’s happened in the last decade of football. I think we’ve had a true national champion.” Meyer said he “can’t fathom” the workload the coaches would face with such a quick turnaround between a semifinal and championship game, and the staff would have to sleep in the office to adequately prepare. “If I’m in the top four like you said, then I’m going to kill my coaches now,” Meyer said. “Forget recruiting. We’re going to put that on the side. We’re going to prepare in case we have to play any one of those three teams and that will be exhausting.” Al Tabar, a third-year in electrical engineering, said he thinks teams would need more than a week to prepare between games. “Teams would need a couple weeks to prepare. Two or three days or whatever is not nearly enough time, because you gotta game plan,” he said.
Cody Cousino / Photo editor
OSU coach Urban Meyer discusses the football team, a possible playoff system, recruiting and more at a press conference in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center May 16. Meyer won two national championships at Florida under the current BCS system, which uses a combination of human and computer polls to pit the two highest-rated teams at the end of the season in a championship game. Critics of the current system say identifying the top-two teams at the end of the year isn’t always clear and that
schools from smaller conferences are systematically excluded from the start. In an April meeting, 11 conference commissioners and Notre Dame agreed that college football should move to a four-team playoff with two semifinals games followed by a championship. Conference and university representatives are in the process of figuring
out how they want the playoff system to look before it’s put into effect. When Meyer coached at the University of Utah in 2004, his team went undefeated in the regular season, but was not selected as one of the two teams to play in the national championship.
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Credit companies target students despite laws patrick Cooley Lantern reporter cooley.205@osu.edu
Rocking reunion
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Grunge rock bank Theory of a Deadman is scheduled to perform Saturday at Rock on the Range for its third time.
campus
Car chargers changing the future
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Almost every Ohio State student can relate to having stacks of mail filled with credit card applications and inboxes bombarded with MasterCard and Visa offers. “I got a Discover Card in the mail this weekend,” said Aja Goare, a firstyear in communication. She said she thinks she receives about as many credit card offers as the average person, but has never applied for a Discover Card and was surprised when the company sent her a card. The credit card industry spends millions of dollars per year marketing to young people, but efforts have been made in recent years to stop credit card companies from making contact with impressionable college students who don’t always use credit cards properly. Those companies have been barred from college campuses, laws have made it more difficult for them to acquire students’ addresses and young people can no longer apply for a card without proving they have the assets to repay any debt they accrue. However, a recent study from
Photo Illustration by Cody Cousino / Photo editor
While credit card companies have been banned from targeting students and bribing them with free food and giveaways, a study says they are finding ways around the law. the University of Houston found that credit card companies are finding ways around such restrictions. In 2007, then-Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, with the help of several colleges, including OSU, sued Citibank for offering OSU students free food in return for filling out credit card applications.
Ohio College Dems scold senator for loan rate vote Sarah Stemen Oller reporter stemen.66@osu.edu
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Two years later, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which further limited the ways credit card companies can market to young people by restricting the amount of information they could collect, like students’ addresses, barring them from campuses
Some letters are full of cordial remarks, thanks, sincere salutations and best wishes. But not the one that the College Democrats of Ohio sent to Sen. Rob Portman R-OH. College Democrats of Ohio sent the letter to Portman on Monday, condemning him for voting against a Democratic proposal in Congress to freeze federal student loan interest rates. The proposal was shot down May 8, which would have frozen Stafford loan interest rates at 3.4 percent by eliminating a tax break for wealthy citizens. If no action is taken in Congress, those interest rates will double to 6.8 percent on July 1. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that it would cost close to $6 billion for one year
to extend the current federal student loan interest rates. According to the White House website, about seven million students nationwide would accrue an additional $1,000 in interest over their lifetime if the rates are not extended. Debate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress addresses where the $6 billion would come from. Both parties agree the student interest rates should stay at 3.4 percent. However, Senate Republicans proposed the funding to come from eliminating a public health fund created by Obama’s new health-care law. Senate Democrats, who proposed the failed legislation, said they want the money to come from taking away a tax break for the wealthy. The letter was signed by 10 different university College Democrats presidents, including Ohio State’s president, Mallory Kimble.
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nationwide, and requiring young people to have a co-signer to obtain a card or prove they had the revenue to repay any debt accrued. But a survey released in April recently found that students still frequently receive credit card offers in the mail. A University of Houston study found that neither keeping credit card companies from coming onto college campuses nor restricting the amount of information they can collect kept them from contacting students. Providers are following the laws, said Jim Hawkins, a University of Houston law professor and one of the authors of the study, but they are finding ways around them. “They’re finding other ways to get students’ addresses,” Hawkins said. “They don’t need credit bureaus.” However, a trade group for banks said credit card companies and banks offer extensive financial education. The University of Houston’s study surveyed 500 students. A questionnaire was distributed to large lecture classes with a diversity of students that them about their credit card use and how credit card companies
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Road to loan rate resolution april 23, 2012 President Barack Obama begins a week-long push on college campuses to convince Congress to take action to freeze student loan interest rates Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney announces he also wants to keep student loan interest rates the same april 27, 2012 Romney visits Otterbein University, talking to graduating seniors about job opportunities May 5, 2012 Obama visits Ohio State May 7, 2012 Romney visits Euclid, Ohio, to talk about the auto industry bailout May 8, 2012 First proposed Democratic legislation fails in Congress May 14, 2012 Ohio College Democrats release letter to Portman, admonishing him for voting against legislation July 1, 2012 With no further legislation, interest rates will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent source: reporting
chRiS Poche / Design editor
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