Friday August 31, 2012 year: 132 No. 89
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern Campus crime wave: 14 robberies in week
sports
Christopher Braun and Ayan Sheikh Design editor and Senior Lantern reporter braun.200@osu.edu and sheikh.51@osu.edu More than a dozen people have been robbed in the Ohio State campus area since Aug. 23, according to Columbus Division of Police and Ohio State police records. While students received a crime alert from the university the afternoon of Aug. 26 describing two armed robberies and an armed robbery attempt that had occurred in the days prior, one of which happened on campus, no crime alert was sent to students regarding 10 other crimes reported around the campus area in the past week. Ohio State Police Chief Paul Denton said the recent alert was issued because University Police
“are obligated under federal law to look at those (crimes) that occur on campus,� but he said OSU police cannot immediately alert students to every crime reported in the city of Columbus. Denton said there is an evaluation process before sending out crime alerts, and they are careful to publish information that will help people take actions for their own safety. “It has to be accurate, you don’t want to put out misinformation,� he said. Columbus Division of Police Commander Christopher Bowling said that in addition to involving a crime on campus, the recent alert was sent because two other crimes were thought to be related based on the description of the suspect. While Columbus Police works closely with University Police, oftentimes working a joint patrol with one OSU officer paired with one Columbus officer at night, Bowling said that he cannot say
precisely why an alert was not issued regarding the crimes that occurred in the last week. “Their triggers are their triggers,� Bowling said. “Columbus Police has the ability to respond on campus if they choose to do so, but there is a police department on campus so they handle what’s on campus, we handle what’s off campus.� To avoid future crime, Bowling advises students to use resources such as Student Safety Services when out at night alone and to pay attention to their surroundings. “I’ve driven through the area in daytime and people step out in front of me because they’re so busy with their heads stuck in their cellphones,� Bowling said. “If you can’t see a big car coming, you probably aren’t going to see that person coming from behind a building.�
1B Urban era ready to launch for OSU football
Pure muscle
OSU defensive lineman John Simon wakes up at 4:30 a.m. every day to get in the weight room.
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No shore thing
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MTV reality show ‘Jersey Shore’ announced that its 6th season will be its last.
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Evan Speyer Senior Lantern reporter speyer.10@osu.edu For a program entering its 123rd season of play, Ohio State football will look considerably different this fall. After a disappointing 6-7 record last season, first-year head coach Urban Meyer will not only install a new offensive scheme, but a new hope as well. “It’s a new era for OSU football,� said OSU football historian Jack Park. “I’m not sure if there have been many head coaches that came into (a) new position with higher expectations. It’s because of his record. He’s been a winner everywhere he’s gone.� OSU didn’t lack for wins during former coach Jim Tressel’s tenure from 2001-2011. They did, however, lack the offensive firepower seen in programs Meyer has coached, Park said. From 2003-2010, Meyer’s teams at both the University of Utah and the University of Florida averaged about 35.6 points per game. In that same span, Tressel’s teams averaged a little more than 30 points per game. In 2004, 2007 and 2008, Meyer’s teams averaged more than 40 points per game, something Tressel’s Buckeyes never accomplished during his tenure in Columbus. “The best part about Meyer’s offense was the excitement in watching each possession,� said Andrew Blatter, a second-year graduate student in public policy and management, who was an undergraduate at Utah when Meyer coached there. “It’s very unlike Tressel’s consistently conservative offense. Meyer isn’t afraid to take chances, and that keeps defenses on their toes.�
Andrew Holleran / Photo editor
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Urban Meyer answers a question at Big Ten Media Days in Chicago on July 26. The first-year Buckeyes football coach is scheduled to begin his OSU career Saturday against Miami (Ohio) in the ‘Shoe.
campus
$2B in Prof asks Obama Social media exposes construction reps to classroom Internet hate speech on campus weather
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Kristen mitchell Campus editor mitchell.935@osu.edu
Halie Williams Lantern reporter williams.3948@osu.edu
The Ohio State professor who asked faculty members to open their classrooms to organizers from President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has spoken up about the claims against him in light of a university review. According to an email from OSU Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph Alutto, a professor sent a message to his colleagues encouraging them to invite Obama organizers to speak in their classrooms about voting in the upcoming election. University President E. Gordon Gee received an email regarding an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the situation, While the email did not specifically name the professor, the article identified him as Brian McHale, an arts and humanities distinguished professor of English, who has been teaching at the university for nearly 11 years. In the email to faculty, Alutto said the university legal counsel has determined that faculty must not participate in partisan politics, which includes “inviting political organizers into our classroom.� “Simply put, partisan political discussions may not be sponsored by university employees on the Ohio State campus,� Alutto said. “I urge you to refer to the guidelines regarding political activity by employees of the university.� In a copy of his message on the The Chronicle of Higher Education, he passed along a message to fellow faculty about inviting representatives from the Obama campaign into their classrooms to register students to vote. “If you were willing, they would send along a volunteer to make a pitch to your students about registering to vote,� the message said. “This would involve five minutes or less of class time, at the beginning
www.weather.com
Ohio State has shown its intolerance for hate crimes on campus, but one member of the community wanted to take it even further by exposing racist comments on the Web. The @OSU_Haters Twitter account and the Tumblr account osuhaters. tumblr.com, were created in May to “expose the hate at Ohio State.� The Tumblr account’s profile reads, “Ohio State is no place for hate. We expose tweets from haters here, especially those which were deleted.� The Twitter handle simply retweets other tweets that are OSU-related and deemed racist, and the Tumblr account posts pictures of those tweets. The account had about 200 followers Thursday evening. One tweet, which was posted onto the Tumblr account from a Twitter user read, “You are Asian, so I hate you. #notmadaboutit #annoying.� Another tweet the Haters account posted read, “I like my men like I like my toilets, clean and white.�
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Lantern file photo
A sign is held up during a sit-in at the Ohio Union April 6 to combat racism on campus. An email to The Lantern from the OSU Haters groups said that “anonymity is key to the safety of OSU Haters� and would not disclose the number of participants in the student-made group. The email said the group believes awareness is critical to breaking down racism at the university.
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