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WedneSdAY, APriL 30, 2014 | mount PLeASAnt, micH. | iSSue no. 85 VoL. 95
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Woman reported student groped, choked her By Orrin Shawl Staff Reporter
Mohammad Alradhi, a Central Michigan University international student charged with criminal sexual conduct, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. on May 8. Alradhi, 25, is charged with two fourth-degree counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count of assault and battery. Each of the charges relate to a separate
incident that happened on three different days within the same week, according to an affidavit obtained from the Isabella County Trial Court. All three incidents occured in the third-floor study room in Herrig Hall. CMU Police officers Kip Williams and Scott Malloy were sent to Herrig at about 11:45 p.m. on April 13, read the affidavit. The female student issuing the complaint told CMUPD she had been
harassed by Alradhi for several days before the first incident. “(The student) reported that she met Alradhi in passing and had very general conversations within Mohammad their residence hall,” the affidavit Alradhi read. “In the past few weeks he would walk her to
her room and they exchanged phone numbers.” The first incident occurred around 6:15 p.m. on April 8. Alradhi sent a text message to the female student asking her to meet him in the study room to talk, according to the document. During the conversation, the female student felt uncomfortable, and indicated she had to leave. As they hugged each other goodbye, Alradhi grabbed her wrists and tried to kiss her. As she
pulled away, Alradhi attempted to grope her, the affidavit read. The female student was able to get away and ran out of the room. Alradhi encountered the female student a second time in the study room before 2 a.m. on April 12. After another uncomfortable conversation, this time about sex, Alradhi insisted they go to a hotel, and he wanted to have sex. w ALRADHI | 7A
CHM 101 cancelled for Fall 2014 Professors say new active learning rooms to blame By Mark Johnson Senior Reporter
undergraduates is if our committees are functioning properly.” Some faculty and staff are conducting their research in partnership with other universities’ institutional review boards without a formal process. In doing so, those universities receive grant funds CMU is missing out on. Courses that used to assign projects involving human subject research have been altered to avoid using the difficult review board process, which results in a less scholarly experience for students.
Katherine Blystone has been teaching chemistry at Central Michigan University for more than 20 years, but next semester, she’ll have to forfeit one of her courses due to a miscommunication over the university’s active learning room project. Armchair Chemistry, designated as CHM 101 and typically taught in Dow 135, will be put on a temporary hiatus until the course can be “reconstructed” to be compatible with the active learning classrooms. The classrooms will be converted from two different Dow Hall rooms, including room 135, a chemistry lab. Blystone said plans for the active learning rooms and the class cancellations were made without faculty consent. “This whole project blindsided us,” Blystone said. “(The active learning rooms) were never discussed with the faculty. We never even knew about the blueprints.” One of the main reasons the classes were cancelled was the incompatibility of the rooms and the required safety measures needed to run a chemistry lab. These measures require access to wash sinks, safety showers and storage space for hazardous chemicals needed to carry out CHM 101 experiments. Designs for the active learning rooms did not include these features, Blystone said. A total of $1.5 million in university funding was allocated for the active learning rooms by Central Michigan University Board of Trustees in February. The project is being funded by the College of Science and Technology, the Academic Division Fund and the University Reserve Fund. The active learning rooms are essence modified lecture halls built around a central podium. The goal is to facilitate more communicative learning interactions between professors and students. Rooms will be outfitted with USB connections in the desks and a collection of display monitors. While Blystone and other chemistry professors have cried foul, others within the College of Science and Technology said faculty members were as informed as they could be. “It was done as timely (and transparently) as we could have done it,” said David Ash, chair of the chemistry department.
w RESEARCH | 6A
w CHEM | 2A
Taylor Ballek | Staff Photographer A CMU police officer puts out a couch fire Saturday during a party after students ran around the fire chanting “USA” at South Franklin and East Gaylord streets.
Putting out the fire City enacts emergency ordinance to discourage student fires By Malachi Barrett Senior Report
Mount Pleasant Mayor Sharon Tilmann and Central Michigan University President George Ross warned students that destruction and arson will not be tolerated. “Anybody romanticizing destruction of property and putting people in danger, I have no respect for,” Ross said. “We are looking for any and all ways to curtail the outrageous
behavior that’s happening in our city,” Tilmann said. “It’s getting out of hand.” An emergency city ordinance was issued Monday to discourage city-wide couch burnings. Ross also took a decisive stance on the issue in a university-wide press release urging civility. During an exclusive interview with Central Michigan Life, Ross said that the university supports the city’s decision to take action “100 percent.”
“We’ve been neighbors for a century plus. We have a great responsibility to this community,” Ross said. “I expect students, faculty and staff to act responsibly and treat it like their home.” Ross characterized the mentality of setting fires to blow off endof-the-year steam as careless and disrespectful. The city’s planning commission unanimously approved an emergency ordinance to further discourage students from lighting fires at end-
of-the-semester celebrations over the last few years. The ordinance would charge those within 300 feet of an open fire with a misdemeanor. The emergency ordinance is coupled with the already existing outdoor burning regulations wwhich state “no person shall kindle or maintain any bonfire or rubbish fire or permit any such fire to be kindled or maintained within the city limits.” w COUCHES | 6A
Human research protection program still in non-compliance By Justin Hicks Senior Reporter
Central Michigan University remains out of compliance with federal regulations for its human research protection program, despite making recent strides to address the issue. The university has had a faulty program, including its institutional review board, for more than 20 years, said Richard Backs, board chairman and a CMU psychology professor. “It’s always been under-funded. It’s always been under-staffed,” Backs said. “That’s part of what the
AD BE SMART & RE
(2013) consultant’s report was trying to get the provost and president to recognize. The infrastructure has never been in place at the level we need.” Failing to abide John McGrath by federal regulations could result in the loss of more than just federal dollars, according to a 2013 external report done by HRP Consulting, Inc. “The university is at stake for losing grants and faculty to other
institutions who can provide better quality IRB review of their research,” the report reads. Provost Michael Gealt said he understands the value of a successful institutional review board Michael Gealt for students of all departments. “It’s very important that (students) get research experience while they’re undergraduates,” Gealt said. “The only reason they get that research experience while they’re
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