9.12.12

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Wednesday September 12, 2012 year: 132 No. 96

the student voice of

The Ohio State University

www.thelantern.com

thelantern Gee, Kasich to reform education budget

sports

Daniel Chi Asst. photo editor chi.55@osu.edu

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Friendly American soil

The USMNT defeated Jamaica, 1-0, at Crew Stadium in Columbus Tuesday.

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Gov. John Kasich, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee and other higher education officials met on Tuesday at the Statehouse to identify a solution to divide the education dollars for the next state budget. In the conference, Kasich emphasized the importance of keeping costs down and helping Ohio’s economy grow by keeping college students on Ohio. But overall, Kasich wants to help more students graduate from college. “We all know we can do better on graduation rates,” Kasich said. Kasich said he believes that the new funding system should reward institutional graduation rates, instead of just enrollment figures. The new education budget is scheduled to be completed by Thanksgiving. “There have been some movements in creating a new formula, and we hope to speed up the process so that we can begin to fund higher education on the basis of graduation, rather than on the basis on enrollment,” Kasich said. Kasich asked Gee to help with this process and lead the effort, but quickly pointed out that this responsibility won’t fall solely on OSU. “I’ve asked Dr. Gee again to kind of lead the effort, but this is not just going to be an Ohio Statecentric process,” Kasich said. “I see higher education reform happening each and every single year, but I want them to do well. They are critical to the future economic development of our state.”

daniel chi / Asst. photo editor

Gov. John Kasich and OSU President E. Gordon Gee attend a meeting at the Statehouse on Tuesday to discuss a budget plan for higher education with Ohio college and university officials. Gee said there was not much of a plan before this initiative. “They really didn’t have one,” Gee said. “It was sort of a budget process, so this is the new plan.” With this responsibility, Gee summarized what Kasich wanted from them as a group. “Generally, this is a fairly strict command control system,” Gee said. “What the governor has done is he asked us to come up with ideas on how to improve the quality of the educational experience,

how we can keep jobs in Ohio, how we can keep students in Ohio and how we can successfully build the economy grow from 11.6 million Ohioans to an even greater number.” Gee said the new budget plan will have a positive impact for OSU and provide the university with stability for its students. “Well, it’s about making sure we have the

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Student, TKE brother dies unexpectedly Emily Tara Oller reporter tara.3@osu.edu

A dying breed

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James Blackmon is scheduled to perform 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Garden Theater.

campus

OSU club honors 9/11 victims

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Courtesy of Jeanne Harman

“I can’t believe I’m not gonna see him.” Jeanne Harman, mother of Scott Harman, a third-year student who died Monday afternoon, said the shock of her loss still hasn’t fully set in. “It was an honor and privilege to be his mother for 20 years,” Jeanne Harman said. Jeanne Harman told The Lantern what she heard happened Monday afternoon. She said her son was at his apartment with his roommate, who left at about 2 p.m., and when his roommate returned a little after 4 p.m., he found Scott Harman unconscious and no attempt to call 911 had been made on his phone. She said that even though his roommate called 911, it was too late. He never was taken to the hospital. Although the exact cause of Scott Harman’s death is unknown at this time, Scott Harman had a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is “a condition in which the heart muscle becomes thick. Often, only one part of the heart is thicker than the other parts. The thickening can make it harder for blood to leave the heart, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood,” according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s website. Scott Harman was diagnosed with the genetic heart condition, which

3rd-year OSU student Scott Harman died unexpectedly Monday. Above, an 18-year-old Harman poses with dolphins in a photo provided by his mom, Jeanne Harman.

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Towing company sued for overcharging hannah brokenshire Lantern reporter brokenshire.2@osu.edu “I was in there five minutes tops, it was ridiculous,” said Keith Kennedy, who faced one of Ohio State students’ worst nightmares: getting his car towed. Last winter, Kennedy, now a thirdyear in mechanical engineering, drove to Raising Cane’s on High Street, parked his car and walked outside to find that Shamrock Towing, Inc. had towed his vehicle. “I parked in the alley, ran a paper in, talked to the manager for a minute, came out, and my car was gone. And it was snowing,” Kennedy said. “Obviously somebody was waiting for someone to park there.” Kennedy walked home in the snow and asked a friend to drive him to collect his car at the towing company. “It was $145 — that number is burned into my brain,” Kennedy said. Ohio law states towing companies are prohibited from charging more than $90 for towing and $12 per day for storage, but according to a lawsuit filed Aug. 29 with the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Shamrock Towing and Camcar Inc. regularly charge an additional $30 administrative fee that the law does not allow. Fred Gittes is one of three attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs, Bill McCartney and Marta Stewart-Bates, for overcharging customers. The suit seeks to bring an end to this illegal practice, Gittes said in a press release. But Tim Duffey, president of Shamrock Towing, said he thinks the administrative fees are justified.

iliana corfias / Lantern photographer

A lawsuit has been filed against Shamrock Towing, Inc. and Camcar Inc. for allegedly charging more than $90 for towing and $12 per day for storage, a rate regulated by Ohio law. “It’s just like anything else, there’s going to be service charges, there’s going to be taxes,” Duffey said. Kennedy said he talked to his parents about the added cost and, although they were informed it was against the law, Kennedy decided not to follow up with the complaint. “Once the towing company has your car, you are basically helpless when it comes to what you have to pay to get it back,” Gittes said. “You can’t negotiate, you can’t refuse to pay, and in most cases, the person

who just got towed has no idea what is reasonable, much less what the maximum allowed rate is.” Duffey pointed to New York City’s towing rates as an example of how his company’s prices are reasonable. According to the New York Police Department’s website, the average cost of a tow in New York City costs $185 with an overnight fee of $20. This does not take into account added fees individual companies may charge. Jordan Davis, general manager

for Camcar, said he could not comment on what the company charges for its services due to the ongoing lawsuit. Kennedy might have been right in thinking that someone was waiting for him to park illegally. “(Tow truck drivers) have a little route they run, kind of like a trail out in the woods except this is through alleys,” Duffey said, though he added that most of the time, the trucks

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