Monday March 4, 2013 year: 133 No. 32
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern Chardon still ‘hurts’ 1 year after shooting
sports
SAM HARRINGTON Lantern reporter harrington.227@osu.edu
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Sky high expectations
The OSU football team starts spring practice Tuesday and many expect big things in the upcoming season.
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Ohio State student Bianca Mandato remembers the morning of Feb. 27, 2012, beginning like any other. What she initially thought was a practice lockdown drill in physics class became serious when text messages saying “somebody got shot” began circulating. Three Chardon High School students Daniel Parmertor (16), Demetrius Hewlin (16) and Russell King Jr. (17) were fatally shot when gunman T.J. Lane came into their high school cafeteria and began shooting. Chardon High School is in Chardon, Ohio, a small town outside Cleveland. Two others were injuried. “It was a nightmare,” said Mandato, a first-year in interior design who graduated from Chardon High School last spring. “We all just sat (in class), and just cried together, hugged one another. We just supported each other. It was hard.” On Tuesday, Lane pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault. His sentencing will be on March 19, where he is expected to receive life in prison. Matthew Leskovec, now a first-year in psychology and Chardon graduate, said it seemed that the school immediately began receiving support from throughout the community.
Courtesy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer
A distraught Ava Polaski (right), then a sophomore, leaves school grounds with her mother, Misty Polaski (left). Five students were shot at Chardon High School on Feb. 27, 2012. “We had a prayer vigil at our town square right that night and hundreds and hundreds of people showed up, so right away the kindness from everyone just started flowing in,” Leskovec said. The school received support from other local schools, Columbine High School, villages in Africa and even Project Linus, a nonprofit that donates blankets to those in need, Mandato said. “It was amazing the support that we got, it
was overwhelming,” she said. “It was a good feeling to know that everyone was there for us.” For some Chardon graduates, the most telling act of kindness was during the 2012 basketball season when opponents wore Chardon’s school colors. “It was amazing to see that people playing
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USG Election 2013 Stepp elected USG president for 2nd term KRISTINE VARKONY Lantern reporter varkony.1@osu.edu
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Will newspapers die out?
New York Times columnist and media critic David Carr visited OSU and shed light on the future of journalism.
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Sequester could harm students weather
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Taylor Stepp, a third-year in public affairs, was re-elected to a 2nd term as USG President. Election results were announced on March 2.
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Water main break costs OSU $3 million BEN KEITH Senior Lantern reporter keith.146@osu.edu
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TIM KUBICK / For The Lantern
The incumbent Taylor Stepp was re-elected as Undergraduate Student Government president in a historic Ohio State election. Stepp was the only candidate listed on the ballot, making for the first unopposed USG presidential election since 1966. After facing no official challengers, Stepp will serve as the first two-term president since the 2002 election. Stepp was re-elected after receiving 70.6 percent of the votes cast for president in the 2013 election. He will serve alongside newly elected vice president, Josh Ahart. “I’m really excited. We’ve had a very long campaign this year. I’m really excited to stay in the office and continue doing some work,” Stepp said Saturday. This year’s election brought in 4,027 valid votes, with 2,649 going to Stepp and
Ahart, both third-years in public affairs. The 2013 USG election turnout was roughly half that of last year’s presidential election, when four campaigns competed and 8,279 people voted. The turnout for 2012 was the highest voter turnout since 1975. Yet Ahart said he is happy with the number of votes cast considering he and Stepp were running unopposed. “I’m really relieved that students actually voted, that they got involved in the process,” Ahart said. “They did not say, ‘Well USG is not important … we don’t need to vote this time.’ That’s what I’m relieved about.” Write-in candidates captured 29.4 percent of the votes. Jacob Coate, a second-year in political science, and James Prather, a second-year in finance, were the leading write-in candidates with 412 votes. OSU students Josh Samuels and Michael Dasu captured 186 votes, and Goat captured 242 votes according to Tyler Byrum, chief justice of the USG Judicial Panel and a third-year in engineering physics.
Park-Stradley Hall had been open for about a month before the $3 million water main break lead to an evacuation, and the cost has some students wondering why all the kinks weren’t worked out. “It’s a lot of money, and it’s a new dorm,” said Ashley Bauer, a second-year in international studies and Park-Stradley resident. “You think they would’ve had everything worked out.” Park-Stradley, built as Park and Stradley Halls in 1959, was renovated and reopened for Fall Semester 2012 as part of a more than $171 million South Campus renovation project. The water main break came less than a month after students moved in. The cost of the September water main break affecting Park-Stradley and Baker halls is not a final estimate. “While (the $3 million figure) does include a significant amount of the cost for clean-up, debris
removal, repair of the water line and other equipment repairs, it is not a final estimate,” said Lindsay Komlanc, OSU Administration and Planning spokeswoman. “The university has continued to work through our insurance carriers to recover these costs.” OSU hired engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., in September to investigate the cause of the water main break, but it remains unknown. The break occurred in a 10-inch water main in a utility tunnel underneath College Road, near Drinko and Steeb halls. Water from the break flooded the sub-basement, the floor beneath the main basement, of Park-Stradley. The flooding triggered an alarm at about 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 16. More than 2,000 students were evacuated from Park-Stradley and Baker East and West halls. Students spent the night wherever they could, with about 150 students spending the night in the RPAC. Baker East and West were reopened to residents
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ANDREW HOLLERAN / Photo editor
Park-Stradley Hall located at 120 W. 11th Ave. on OSU’s South Campus
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