The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 138 NO. 43
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
In 1982, The Miami Student reported a 17-point plan created by Associated Student Government outlining suggestions for a new recreation center was presented. The plans included basketball courts, a track above the sports center, a pool and a theater.
Ingram to address state of student body
Eight halls lose funding
By Kaila Frisone
By Shannon Pesek
“The mindset of the students For The Miami Student needs to be developed and to change over the next coming Student Body President Heath years in order to make that jump Ingram will address the Miami from a really good public school University community to articu- in Ohio to a top-tier ranked institulate his vision tion like we are,” and concerns “This is the type of Hall said. for the univerSome students venue that would sity as his term also think the really allow me to comes to an end Miami commuthis semester. nity, especially articulate the According concerns that I see the student body, to Ingram, a needs to do within the student student body more to improve body and bring president has its reputation. not addressed Behavior students and the Miami comamong some other community munity in apstudents members together.” especially has proximately affour years. fected Miami’s HEATH INGRAM With both reputation in STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT the problems the local setting, and the sucbut some becesses that have occurred in the havior has also hit the past year, Ingram said he thinks national spotlight. it’s important for him to comMatthew Weber, first-year stumunicate with students, faculty dent and ASG senator from Haviand administration. ghurst Hall, said students need “I felt very strongly that this is to be more responsible to uphold an important event and it’s one that Miami’s reputation. the student body president owes “Students need to hold each the student body,” Ingram said. “I other accountable for their acfeel as if I’m responsible for com- tions,” Weber said. “If someone municating with the student body, sees someone else getting out of and I think that this is the type of line, it shouldn’t be socially unacvenue that would really allow me ceptable to tell them their behavto articulate the concerns that I see ior is unacceptable.” Among the many other topics within the student body and bring students and other community Ingram will address are the financial struggles Miami is experimembers together.” Ingram said he wants his speech encing and how ASG is involved to inspire students to take ownership of their education at Miami. See INGRAM, page 9 According to Ingram, excelling educationally will promote the university and students. EXTRAS WANTED! “I’m trying to get everybody to realize that each one Do you still want to be in of us together controls the fuGeorge Clooney’s movie ture of Miami’s reputation,” The Ides of March? he said. Not only will Ingram talk about It’s not too late to sign up how students can better Miami to be an extra. through academics, he will also Crews filming the movie address students’ social behavior. are looking for 708 extras With the past year’s problems in for Thursday, March 3. the Greek community as well as student behavior uptown, he To become an extra, thinks it is time for students to restudents must e-mail alize student behavior influences a digital photograph of Miami’s reputation. themselves, their name, “All of us have to come tocell phone number and gether and think about how each e-mail address to dareone of us can do our own part todreamcastingextras@ to make Miami better,” Ingram gmail.com. said. “This is the only way Miami is going to be able to comIn addition, students must pete with the best schools in put “Miami U. Student” the country.” in the subject line of Ingram said he wants Miami to the e-mail. have a competitive mentality so the Extras for the film are uninstitution can increase the value paid and must be willing of the Miami degree and its reputation. David Hall, secretary of pubto stay on set all day. lic relations for Associated Student Reporting by Lauren Ceronie Government (ASG), agrees with Ingram’s platform.
RHA takes action after trend of low attendance For the Miami Student
Eight Miami University residence halls will no longer be receiving funding due to low attendance from leaders within each. The halls that have lost funding because of attendance problems are McFarland, Richard, Dorsey, Havighurst, Hamilton, Bishop, Heritage Commons and McKee halls. The Miami University Residence Hall Association (RHA) serves as a liaison between students, Resident Assistants (RAs) and the administration in creating opportunities for programming and enrichment. Residence halls typically request between $100 and $1,500, according to RHA Director of Finance junior
Jim Millward. Every residence hall on campus has a group of students who represent its community council within RHA. The general assembly (GA) members are responsible for attending a meeting once a week and working for the university as a whole, Millward said. The GA of each residence hall is responsible for requesting funds for the hall he or she is representing, so members’ attendance at the meetings is imperative, Millward said. Millward said GA members can miss up to five meetings before their hall loses funding. Millward said those halls lose the ability to request funds for programming from RHA’s Funding Board. Halls that request funding must present a five to 10 minute
presentation to RHA’s funding board, which then decides how much (if at all) to grant the hall. GA member Rose Kaplan, who has never missed a meeting, said it is unfortunate halls are losing funding. “It’s very easy not to lose the funding,” Kaplan said. “At the beginning of the year, the rules are clearly laid out. Five absences are very generous.” Millward said in an emergency case a member of the GA can call in a proxy to attend a meeting in his or her place, which would prevent the hall from losing funding. The majority of this funding comes from the student fee, according to Associate Director of
wSee FUNDING, page 8
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SAMANTHA LUDINGTON The Miami Student
The lobby of the Farmer School of Business houses props for George Clooney’s new movie, The Ides of March.
Students hope to cash in on Clooney visit By Sylvie Turner For The Miami Student
George Clooney and Ryan Gosling have chosen Oxford to film their upcoming movie The Ides of March. Clooney, who was spotted a few weeks ago scoping out Miami University’s Farmer School of Business (FSB), will return to campus with co-star Gosling Feb. 28 through March 4. Filming will take place the first half of the week, Feb. 28 through March 1, at FSB. The crew will
move to Walnut Street and Campus Avenue March 2 through 4. During the visit, students should take advantage of what they know best, technology. The website meetthefamous. com allows anyone to join the ranks of the paparazzi. It doesn’t matter if the picture is taken on a camera phone or digital camera, although high quality pictures make the most money, according to the site. Upload your photo to the website and wait for your confirmation e-mail to be sent.
The site will then pitch the photo to more than 1,000 worldwide publications with all of the sales tracking back to the contributor, according to the site. The site claims contributors get paid 60 percent of all commissions collected, which range from $10 to $100,000. There are many variables involved in how much each photograph sells for, according to the site. This includes factors such as who the celebrity is, the
wSee CLOONEY, page 8
Wal-Mart bus route test proves promising, parking plans future trials By Adam Giffi Senior Staff Writer
The Wal-Mart access shuttle proposal has successfully completed test trips from Miami University’s Oxford campus to the retailer roughly three miles away. Despite these tests, an official route will not be implemented just yet. According to Vanessa Cummings, assistant director of parking and transportation services, after test runs Feb. 19 and 20, more test runs are still necessary. “The route was a good success,” Cummings said. “We want to see what the demand is. We want to see if every other week is
something that needs to be looked at. We want to look at the average number of riders.” The next test routes will occur March 19, April 2 and April 16. They will depart from the Shriver Center at 1:30 p.m. and pick up students from Wal-Mart at 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. Cummings said one pickup time and location will likely be the norm if a permanent Wal-Mart route is established. Cummings said the Shriver pick up seems sufficient. “We found that the people that rode came to Shriver for the first pick-up time,” Cummings said. “After that, they really weren’t
picking up new people, they were just picking up people that didn’t fit on the shuttle in the first round.” Another element that is being adjusted is the size of the vehicle. “We’re going to take a larger sized bus than the one we took the last time,” Cummings said. “The first time what we did was used the access vehicles and then somebody else drove as well. Both of them made several trips to get everyone out there and back, so we’re going to use a full-sized bus this time instead of using the access bus.” David Keitges, director of international education, volunteered to drive on the original test runs.
According to Keitges, over the course of Saturday and Sunday, roughly 70 students took advantage of the service. “I happened to be there and we were using an 11 passenger bus, which didn’t fit the bill,” Keitges said. “So I drove my car to WalMart to pick up the slack.” Keitges said the Wal-Mart endeavor is a project that includes several departments contributing in an effort to provide the service for students. “This was a joint project,” Keitges said. “Associated Student Government, the Parents Council, international education and parking services are involved in this at some
level. We’re involved because international students generally don’t have cars. Transportation is quite an issue for international students and one of their top concerns here at Miami.” Keitges said testing the Wal-Mart route has brought scrutiny from many students. “I do think if people want to complain about Wal-Mart, that’s certainly their right to do so,” Keitges said. “People need an opportunity to go shopping. If they would like us to not go to Wal-Mart because they have a political agenda against it, then maybe they should
wSee BUSES, page 9