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April 20, 2017
Campus looks to work with students with food allergies
RecPlex set to break ground January 2018 by Alex Nemec nemeca14@uwosh.edu After 16 months of delay, the RecPlex is set to break ground in January 2018, according to Oshkosh Student Association President Austyn Boothe. Associate Planner of planning services Jeff Nau said the RecPlex is going through a final staging review. “We have an outside consultant going through [the plans],” Nau said. “I don’t really know how long that is going to take.” Boothe said after getting the update at Senate, Tuesday, almost everything needed for the RecPlex is done except for one final approval which is supposed to be finished this Friday. Boothe said there is a lot of frustration with the delays because this project would benefit UW Oshkosh, being the first of its kind in the state. “It would be a great way to bring students who have a passion for athletics to our University,” Boothe said. “But there is a lot of red tape. Whether it be the University,
the state or the city of Oshkosh.” UWO sophomore Hunter Cook said the RecPlex would be great to have on campus. “It would give people the option to play more intramural sports or even a place to be active other than cramCOURTESY OF UW OSHKOSH ming into one gym,” Cook UW Oshkosh plans to break ground for the RecPlex said. January 2018 after being delayed for 16 months. The red tape is what’s causing the delay in construction the idea is and doesn’t think 70 parking spots near Grubeginning, and OSA doesn’t it’s going to be built during enhagen Conference Center, the rest of his Boothe said. know what time here. Boothe said she hopes the red tape We’ve promoted this heav- Boothe said the RecPlex will be finished is, Boothe ily on our University. This is she’d like since the campus has investsaid. “Unfortu- something that will make an there to be ed so many resources into it. trans“There’s been student nately, OSA intramurals experience and an more on dollars collected to pay for is not getting athletics experience really, re- parency the issue be- this,” Boothe said. “We’ve the behind ally nice on this campus. cause she’d promoted this heavily on our the scenes — Austyn Booth like to be able University. This is something of the what OSA President to provide that that will make an intramural the red tape information to experience and an athletics is exactly,” students. experience really, really nice Boothe said. “We do get on this campus.” “We found Boothe said she hopes to out from the chancellor, who asked about it a lot and it had just found out a couple doesn’t look good when we see the campus’ current plan weeks ago, that the project say ‘I don’t know.’ But we finalized and finished within was still being pushed back.” don’t know,” Boothe said. the next year. “I’d love to see this hapCook said he thinks the “We aren’t getting the inforcampus should update ev- mation ourselves so we can’t pen,” Boothe said. “It’s going to benefit students and eryone on why [the RecPlex] get it out to students.” The RecPlex is likely to benefit this campus at the end is or isn’t being built so that people at least know what cause removal of about 50- of the day.”
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March for Science to raise awareness about environmental issues on Earth Day by Aaron Tomski tomska69@uwosh.edu March for Science is coming to University of Wisconsin Oshkosh on Earth Day, April 22 for its first year to raise awareness of the importance of science. UWO religious studies professor Laura Hartman said the Student Environmental Action Coalition was contacted by the organizers of the event to have UWO spread the word of the importance of science. “SEAC is not a science club, and I think students were captivated by the idea,” Hartman said. “They always wanted to be involved in the community as students who are interested in environmental issues.” Hartman said we only know about environmental issues because scientists tell us. “A lot of people think that if you do environmental science, you are a scientist,” Hartman said. “But there’s room for a whole bunch of us who aren’t scientists at all but who recognize the value of science and who are deeply influenced by science.” Senior environmental science major Jonathon Buchinger said he was inspired to participate in the March for Science and gave his idea to the club SEAC. “I pushed for the idea of the March for Science in SEAC,” Buchinger said. “It kind of is the campus connection to the whole march.”
Hartman said there is a huge role for science in environmental studies as well. “It is important because it helps us to understand our world, understand our problems and solutions,” Hartman said. UWO genetics professor Lisa Dorn said science is what advanced our civilization. “Every advancement comes from someone who recognized the realities of our world or with scientific fashion,” Dorn said. “Things like your car, your smartphone or medicine, none of that is possible without science.” Dorn said the reason why the march was organized on Earth Day was because of skeptics of climate change. “There is some symbolism having it be on Earth Day because much of the concern is because of the persistent denial of climate change science,” Dorn said. Buchinger said because he is an environmental studies major, everything comes through the lens of environmentalism. “For me, having the march on Earth Day says that we care about science and also the climate change that is affecting our Earth,” Buchinger said. Buchinger said the March for Science proves there are people who care about science, and one of the reasons is because of climate change. “It is saying yeah, we care about science, and [science] is kind of a link to
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how we look at the world and what is going on,” Buchinger said. “It is important because it is a statement of everyone that is involved saying ‘here I am, I am the member of the community,’ and science should be part of the community.” Buchinger said science is an important part of the campus and community. “Science is what drives us forward, and drives humanity forward,” Buchinger said. “It can’t be tainted because it is based in fact. It doesn’t leave room for opinion to sway it.” Dorn said bringing awareness to the campus is important. “We wanted to show the people of Oshkosh that we are here and we are not a threat,” Dorn said. “It is not always clear that people understand that or it is easy to ignore.” Hartman said the march is intended to inform others of the value of science. “If there is a threat to funding or a threat to credibility for science, those threats should be answered with assertion of the importance of science,” Hartman said. Hartman said the March for Science is more of a celebration of science. “It is a way that is non confrontational, but simply celebratory,” Hartman said. “I see this march as a celebration of what science has done for us. I am here for medical science I am here because of all these amazing sciences.”
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by Morgan Van Lanen vanlam57@uwosh.edu While other freshmen were busy worrying about making friends and getting to their classes on time, Claire Clough was concerned about what she was going to be eating every day. Clough, now a UW Oshkosh sophomore, is lactose intolerant and has been allergic to fish for most of her life. A week into her freshman year, she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Clough said she now lives off-campus so she can prepare meals better suited to her dietary needs. However, for the year she did live on campus, it was not easy finding foods she would feel confident eating. “I struggled with food options the most, and getting enough to eat and enough protein,” Clough said. “When I lived on campus, I would eat the same thing everyday. I also struggled with getting enough to eat because I would eat everything I could, but it was all very light food and not very filling.” A study done by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention in 2013 found that food allergies among children have increased by approximately 50 percent between 1997 and 2011. Marty Strand, the assistant director for dining operations, said this statistic is consistent with what he has experienced. “Without a doubt, more people with food allergies are being identified,” Strand said. “I think that students had them before, but just didn’t know it. If they have identified that they are especially sensitive, then we can work with them.” In recent years, gluten, nut, soy and dairy have become the four most common food allergies for students with a meal plan at UWO, Strand said. Strand said making sure these students are taken care of is something very important to the dining staff. “We once had a person who was just so allergic to nuts that they couldn’t be in a building with peanut butter in it,” Strand said. “They were afraid of that. We can’t have people being afraid to eat some place.” Although UWO Dining assists students with common food allergies like gluten, cooks occasionally run into students with much more eccentric sensitivities, Strand said. UWO chef Fritz Niebergall said he once helped a student who was allergic to garlic, an ingredient that can be found in many foods served on campus, in the form of dried, powder, liquid or fresh. Sometimes students have allergies that do not always relate to food itself, but can still interfere with mealtime, Strand said. “We have had things as
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strange as light allergies,” Strand said. “We had to provide a place for somebody to eat that didn’t have lights in it because they were just overly sensitive to light. She was able to eat here every single day because we had a room that had windows and that was pretty much the only light the room had. We reserved the whole room for her for the whole year.” There is a process Strand said he encourages students with food allergies take part in, in order to improve their dining experiences on campus. It starts with a student letting someone know during a tour or preview day that he/she has an allergy that needs special attention, Strand said. Once a student is enrolled at Oshkosh, Niebergall will take it into his own hands and help students from there, as every allergy type is treated differently. “I would like students to reach out to me,” Niebergall said. “I have systems in place for diners with allergies. However, if you do not talk to someone, you might not know about how to avoid contact with the item that you’re allergic to. An example is, for gluten-free students, we have a section separate from the regular population for gluten-free items. Most of the other students do not know that gluten-free items can become gluten by cross contact.” Clough said cross-contamination is something students with dietary restrictions like her take very seriously. “That is a worry that I have,” Clough said. “It has, unfortunately, happened before and it will happen again. That is one of the problems people with food allergies deal with.” Niebergall said he will also take time to show students how to properly read the menus in Blackhawk Commons so they know what ingredients every food item contains. For example, if a dish contains soy, it will be marked so people with the allergy steer clear. “I try to teach the students to look at the nutritional info at each station, which will have the info they need on over 90 percent of the foods here,” Niebergall said. “I give my email and work cell phone out to these folks and encourage them to call or ask me question.” If students with allergies who dine in Blackhawk or Reeve Memorial Union have not yet notified Niebergall, Strand said he encourages them to stop into his office in the basement of Blackhawk so they can get help from the chef. “Safety is No. 1 on my list,” Niebergall said. “Not only for folks with allergies, but for the rest of the general population too.”
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