November 29, 2012

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Thursday November 29, 2012 year: 132 No. 140

the student voice of

The Ohio State University

www.thelantern.com

thelantern Task force aims to improve off-campus area

sports

michael burwell Lantern reporter burwell.37@osu.edu

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Blue Devils blast Buckeyes

OSU traveled to play Duke Wednesday and lost to the Blue Devils, 73-68.

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The Ohio State Undergraduate Student Government announced a plan Wednesday that will reach beyond campus’ boarders. In the USG’s annual State of the University address Wednesday at the Ohio Union, president Taylor Stepp announced the creation of the Off-Campus Development Task Force, which will address problems in the University District such as deteriorating physical conditions of houses, landlord problems and rent issues. The task force, which will be led by former USG president Nick Messenger, will get an initial finding of how the off-campus area is by surveying students and parents, as well as talking to landlords and city legislatures for the next three to four weeks. Messenger also said he plans to issue a comprehensive report of their findings by Feb. 1. “Conditions off campus are pretty awful right now, and I think we have one of the world’s greatest university libraries, we have a great union, a great rec center facility,” said Messenger, a fourth-year

in economics and political science. “But when students and their parents come to Ohio State and walk through that off-campus neighborhood, it stands out as a sore spot.” Messenger added that the task force will create “student development goals” between Feb. 1 and March to “isolate the key things that development in the off-campus area needs to include to create a student neighborhood.” In addition to creating the task force, USG will also conduct a comprehensive survey Spring Semester to determine how to improve semesters and help students with the conversion. The study will focus on all aspects of students’ lives on the semester system, such as added course loads, stress levels and the pacing of classes. The study will also focus on internship opportunities for students, as well as recreational usage. “We realized this was going to be bigger than we thought it would be, so we wanted to do a thorough, thoughtful professional study,” Stepp said. Other points Stepp addressed in the State of the University address included

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Horse-drawn carriages bring holidays to OSU People ride in horse-drawn carriages across campus at OUAB’s ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland’ event outside of the Ohio Union on Nov. 28.

tim kubick / For the Lantern

Undergraduate Student Government President Taylor Stepp addresses a crowd at the Ohio Union for the annual State of the University speech.

Jaywalking patrols back to normal citations was only tracked for a couple of weeks, and Columbus Police do not have current jaywalking citation statistics. Bowling does believe, however, that there have been fewer students jaywalking. “It did seem to reduce it to some extent,” he said. “We’re not talking about 90 percent of it, we’re probably more talking like 15 or 20 percent.” Sarah Wynn, a fourth-year in communications and women’s studies, disagreed. “I can just watch people on campus and they just jaywalk all the time, and off campus they do too,” Wynn said. Wynn received one of the 467 citations back in September when she was crossing 15th Avenue at High Street with friends. Wynn said there were no cars coming when they crossed the street, but the traffic light was red and a couple of officers on bicycles stopped and wrote them citations. Jaywalking tickets cost $50 plus fees from the county clerk’s office and typically cost the violator about $90. While Wynn said she felt the

Todd Avery Senior Lantern reporter avery.82@osu.edu

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Karate Coyote’s rise

Karate Coyote is slated to perform 9 p.m. Friday at the Rumba Cafe.

campus

Crime drops from 2011

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weather high 49 low 31

partly cloudy partly cloudy showers mostly cloudy www.weather.com

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Dorm’s repeated fire alarms annoy students kayla byler Lantern reporter byler.18@osu.edu

partly cloudy

F 56/36 SA 59/47 SU 57/50 M 61/48

jon Shields / Lantern photographer

The Columbus Division of Police is back to its normal patrol after a September crackdown on jaywalking in the Ohio State campus area. Almost 470 jaywalking citations were issued over two weekends in September as police presence in the campus area was heightened. Columbus Police Precinct 4 Commander Chris Bowling said there were anywhere between 15 and 18 officers near campus on any given evening watching for jaywalking. However, the officer count is back to the normal 11-man campus walking crew that Bowling said deal with the more “egregious offenders.” “We’re still strictly enforcing. We just don’t have the resources dedicated to it that we were doing for a while,” Bowling said. “So there are still people getting citations for various issues, but not to the extent that it was over the course of a couple of weekends.” Bowling said the number of

Alarms cause problems at Residence on 10th

Fire alarms have gone off at least 10 times in the Residence on 10th since Aug. 19. Alarms were sounded three different times during the week of Nov. 4. because of smoke in the common area, according to an email sent to residents from hall director Mary Anne Wilk and assistant hall director Cheria Dial. “The alarm was caused by an elevated heating unit near a detector at one of our building entrances. The heating unit was emitting smoke due to a chemical coating which protects the unit’s heating coils,” the email said. The most recent alarm on Nov. 12 was “due to a surge in water levels within the building’s fire pump.” This was also the cause of a fire alarm that went off at 2 a.m. earlier in the semester. Water levels could surge if a sprinkler is

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18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Fire alarms went off three times from Nov. 4 to Nov. 10 at Residence on 10th, and at least 10 alarms have gone off in the building since Aug. 19.

Photo illustration by KAYLA BYLER and KAYLA ZAMARY / Lantern reporters

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