Tuesday September 17, 2013 year: 133 No. 65
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern ? ? ? ? Presidential Search
sports
It has been 60 days since the search began.
Committee to finalize presidential profile DanieL benDtsen Lantern reporter bendtsen.1@osu.edu
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Coach Urban Meyer said junior quarterback Braxton Miller will start against Florida A&M if he is healthy enough.
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After wrapping up its final public forum, Ohio State’s Presidential Search Advisory Subcommittee is set to finalize its presidential profile to present to the Board of Trustees. The presidential profile is the culmination of the work of the advisory subcommittee and describes the characteristics Ohio State’s next president should have in three to four pages, subcommittee chair and OSU law professor Deborah Jones Merritt told The Lantern Sunday. The subcommittee is set to present the profile for final revisions to be made by the Presidential Search Committee Tuesday. The Board of Trustees will then approve the profile at its next meeting, Nov. 7 and 8, Merritt said. The advisory subcommittee is also drafting a portrait of the university to capture the essence of its mission, which will be used to attract and inform potential candidates about the intricacies of OSU. That portrait, which exceeds 30 pages, was originally intended to be completed by mid-September, but Merritt said it will not be finished for several more weeks. Though the profile is nearly complete, the subcommittee plans to continue to get input from private campus groups, such as the College of Medicine Assembly and the University Senate, into early October, and Merritt said the profile could be revised accordingly. “The information we’ve gotten so far has been remarkably consistent and there has been great
Mario robertson Lantern reporter robertson.328@osu.edu
Actor and Old Spice commercial star Terry Crews stars in ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine,’ a role he says he can relate to.
campus
Courtesy of LifeLine Response
a screenshot from LifeLine response eDU, a personal safety mobile app.
Week of encouragement
Ally Week is a series of programs devoted to student awareness of religions, cultures and sexualities.
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consensus across all different groups of the university: students, faculty, staff, alumni. So I don’t expect any of the groups in the next six weeks to tell us anything radically different, but we will continue to convey those themes and what people find important to the selection subcommittee,” Merritt said. The qualities described in the profile came from the concerns voiced at the presidential search forums as well as the private meetings of the advisory subcommittee, although the two generally provided consensus, Merritt said. The subcommittee also consulted OSU’s 2007 profile as well the profiles from other university’s searches.
The No. 1 quality the current profile describes is vision, Merritt said. “We don’t just want someone to manage where we are. We want someone who is a leader and will articulate a vision,” she said. “Although, we also talk in the profile about how that vision must be consistent with who we are and our particular strengths.” Merritt said the profile also states the need for someone who knows how to manage a complex organization, and someone who has a deep understanding of university culture.
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USG prioritizes personal safety with new app
old spice star turns to comedy
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DanieL benDtsen / Lantern reporter
Moritz college of Law professor Deborah Jones Merritt and UsG President taylor stepp field questions from students at a town hall meeting hosted by UsG at the ohio Union sept. 10.
The trial period for Ohio State students to test run LifeLine Response EDU, a personal safety mobile app, as a part of an Undergraduate Student Government program started Monday. The cost of the USG deal is confidential and the 500 spots open for the pilot program had not yet been filled as of Monday night, according to a USG member. “LifeLine Response is a phone application that works like a campus blue light on your phone,” said USG senior adviser Matt Deptola, a fourthyear in public affairs. “The application has two modes. It has your thumb mode, which is your active mode, which most people will use and it has your timer mode.” The LifeLine Response app costs $8.99 on iTunes with a $7.99 cost for a one-year subscription of the service.
The final cost of the deal USG and LifeLine EDU have worked out for the pilot program is confidential because of “the deal we received compared to that of the other schools,” Deptola said. In the thumb mode, the user presses his or her thumb on the screen of their iPhone or Android. If his or her thumb is released from the screen for 13 seconds, according to the USG website, an alarm sounds and the app prompts for a four-digit passcode, Deptola said. Users then either enter a code to disarm the alarm or an emergency passcode, Deptola said. If an emergency passcode is entered, LifeLine EDU call center will call the phone and ensure an emergency is taking place before dispatching help, Deptola said. If neither passcode is entered, emergency services will use the phone’s GPS location to find the user, while LifeLine EDU texts and emails three preset emergency contacts,
including a map of the phone’s location with the messages, Deptola said. The timer mode is meant for activities like jogging or doing something for an extended period of time where the user can’t hold his or her finger on the phone. After the preset amount of time runs out, the alarm goes off and the user is prompted to enter either the emergency passcode or the disarming code. The LifeLine EDU pilot program was not in response to any demands for increased safety measures but was an idea some USG members felt would work well at OSU, USG Vice President Josh Ahart said. “We are always looking for ways to expand safety off-campus. That is one of the most important things we do,” said Ahart, a fourth-year in public affairs. “Safety is always a priority, and we always want to make sure students feel safe off-campus,
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OSU safety task force strives for education erica MaUDer Lantern reporter mauder.2@osu.edu Ohio State’s Traffic Safety Task Force was implemented a year ago this month, but some OSU students still think there’s room for the program to improve. The Traffic Safety Task Force was created in September 2012 in an attempt to increase safety after three traffic incidents on or near to campus left OSU students with major injuries. Lindsay Komlanc, OSU spokeswoman for Administration and Planning, said the measures have been timed to add on a new message related to traffic safety every so often. “We wanted to take a logical approach,” Komlanc said. “First concentrating on pedestrian messaging, then moving onto motorist messaging and then bicycle messaging, and toward the end of Spring Semester we implanted the Walk Zone on the Oval because it really put all of those messages together.” Those crossing the Oval with bikes are supposed to dismount and walk across, creating a “walk zone” Komlanc said, though, enforcement of that zone is not what’s key. “While enforcement is part of any effort and a major part of traffic safety, writing citations is not the main focus of this campaign,” Komlanc said. “The main point is education, with enforcement to support needed behavior change.” Komlanc said in an email there were 85 traffic offense citations issued and 40 warnings, including speeding, jaywalking and not following traffic control devices, issued from Jan. 1 through Sept. 1. Some students said the safety zones were a positive addition to campus, but the campaign still needs more work.
ritika sHaH / Asst. photo editor
a safety sign outside Derby Hall noting the Walk Zone near the oval. “(The safety rules) should be more enforced but it’s a very good idea since there are so many students on campus,” said Sarah Buckalew, a second-year in Chinese who rides her bike around campus. “It’s about the awareness that you could hurt someone and that you need to be respectful of the detriments and that fact people have been hurt.” Other students said the existing signs aren’t enough.
“If the point of the zones is awareness, put up more signs up along the path so it is completely obvious so that you cannot miss it, or put up a stop sign and make it more like traffic if they want the zones to work,” said Maggie Tamborski, a third-year in Chinese who also rides her bike to class. While the university’s primary goal is awareness, Komlanc said University Police have had a visible presence on campus since the start of the semester, and officers have been issuing warnings related to jaywalking and other traffic safety violations. University Police also have the ability to write citations that come with fines rather than just warnings. Buckalew said enforcement is more important than awareness. “There should be at least one person related to the staff or a professor at the university who just walks around the Oval once a day and sees (people riding bikes through the area) because it could reduce the risks by a lot,” Buckalew said. “There should definitely be consequences for those who don’t follow the rules because people will respond to that.” Tamborski said the requirement to dismount bikes and walk them through the Oval puts some students on a time crunch and can affect the time they get to class, possibly making them late. “They should have a separate area (on the Oval) that’s just for bikes because I know I would have been late to class several times because I will have class either really close to (or on) the Oval and then have to go around to get to a road,” Tamborksi said. Over the summer, a university-wide survey was conducted to get a basic understanding of how the spring pilot program was received. The responses received were used to help shape the direction of the program this fall and also help in future endeavors, Komlanc said.
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