The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 139 NO. 9
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
In 1996, The Miami Student reported that The Miami Student had filed suit against Miami University claiming violation of the Public Records Act. The Student claimed that reporters were denied records from the University Disciplinary Board on the basis of violation of individual privacy. The Student ultimately won the case and received an award for “Best Defense of First Amendment” from the Society of Professional Journalists.
Miami to host Westboro Baptist Church By Amanda Seitz
Special Reports Editor
Miami University is moving ahead with preliminary plans to bring Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) to speak on campus in October. The religious group is known for picketing soldiers’ funerals. The group is widely recognized for controversial picket signs they carry which are printed with phrases such as “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled March 2 that the church is allowed to picket at fallen soldiers’ funerals on the grounds of First Amendment rights. Often, universities find themselves the unwilling target of a WBC picket. But a controversial picketing session is not in the pipeline for Miami when the group comes to speak on campus with faculty members and select students Tuesday, Oct. 25. College of Arts and Science Dean Phyllis Callahan approved the department of
comparative religion’s proposal for the visit Monday morning. Callahan said via e-mail she is consulting with the department but was not available for further comment. Westboro Baptist Church spokeswoman Shirley PhelpsRoper will be the only campus visitor, comparative religion professor Liz Wilson said. Westboro Baptist Church could not be immediately reached for comment. The church has already notified the university, however, of plans to picket an unspecified event in Cincinnati during their stay in Ohio. Wilson said Phelps-Roper has given the university “her word” that WBC will not picket Miami or Oxford. Wilson hopes the university community will learn more about the family and followers of Westboro Baptist Church because of the visit. “The intellectual discourse in our country, everyday, everyone is screaming at each other,” Wilson said. “It behooves us to listen to the screaming (and) try
CONTRIBUTED BY K763 UNDER CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE
Protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church have garnered national attention with their picketing of soldiers’ funerals and events like the Golden Globes, where the above photo was taken. A spokeswoman for the church will be visiting Miami in October to speak to students about the church and its beliefs.
to engage it as human being-tohuman being.” One Miami student, CoPresident of Spectrum Billy Price, has seen the Westboro Baptist Church picket at a past rally he attended. “From what I can gather, they’re essentially a group that spews hatred and incurs violence,” Price said. “I think if we can keep it respectful, that’d be the goal. (But) I’ve found they’re often challenged with keeping things respectful.” Price said although he is interested to see what the group has to say, he hopes the Miami community will come together to speak out against the church’s beliefs. “That’s one of the great things about groups like these, they represent a great opportunity for all walks of life to work together and produce some synergies that we wouldn’t otherwise see,” Price said. Documents obtained by The Miami Student stress Miami
WesTboro, SEE PAGE 9
Room and board set Franco documentary filming still a possibility to increase in 2012 By Jenni Wiener Campus Editor
By Lauren Ceronie
Campus Editor
Living on campus at Miami University will be more expensive for students starting next year. The Board of Trustees voted Friday to increase the cost of room and board for the 2012-2013 academic year by 3.5 percent. The increase means a typical meal plan and double room will cost $10,596. Currently, the cost of a typical meal plan and double occupancy room is about $10,240. The cost hike for room and board was higher for board than for room with room costs increasing almost 3 percent and board costs increasing nearly 4 percent. Increasing food prices are the reason Miami needs to raise the price of board, according to David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services. “Food prices rose quite significantly,” Creamer said at the Board of Trustees meeting Friday. “Food costs are expected to rise faster than the CPI (Consumer Price Index).” The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has predicted the cost of food will increase nearly 3 percent, a prediction Miami took into account when deciding to increase board rates, according to Creamer. In a July 2011 letter between Jon Brubacher, manager of food purchasing and operations analyst, and Peter Miller, associate vice president of auxiliaries, Brubacher
recommended increasing the cost of board to keep up with costs of food. “After analyzing our bids prices and comparing current food prices, I am recommending a 4.75 percent increase as our anticipated increase in cost of food for the 2012-2013 school year,” said Brubacher in the letter. “This is based on our analysis of the cost of activity of high use items, discussion with suppliers, and information from web resources.” Residence hall renovations are the reason behind the hike in room costs, Creamer said. The university plans to spend $500 million on residence hall renovations and improvements over the next 15 years and it’s common for institutions to raise room and board in advance of renovations, according to Creamer. The university decided to vote on raising room and board rates now so students would have time to make housing arrangements for next year, according to Creamer. “We want to give students the opportunity to know how much living on campus will be as they plan where to live next year,” Creamer said. Miami is not alone in raising room and board rates. Colleges and universities all across Ohio, including Ohio State University, Kent State University, the University of Cincinnati, Bowling Green State University and Ohio University, are raising their
ROOM & BOARD, SEE PAGE 9
Although Miami University and James Franco’s production company, Rabbit Bandini, never fully came to an agreement for filming about undergraduate life, there is still hope for the project to move forward here. The production company was also turned down by Ohio University and Xavier University, with similar concerns about student privacy and the reputation of the schools. Rabbit Bandini’s Producer Vince Jolivette, who grew up in Hamilton, said the only reason the filming at Miami fell through is because the company was not allowed enough access to do a proper documentary. “To create a proper documentary, nothing can get in the way,” Jolivette said. “I need free reign to truthfully show what I’m seeing. Miami was worried about being portrayed in a bad light. They wanted to censor the documentary, which would have turned it into a promotional video instead.” Jolivette went on to say that doing the entire documentary just to have it censored by the university seemed unfair, so he told the university that it would not work. He said that he and Franco started this project three to four years ago when Franco went back to college. “James and I were talking about the TV show Greek and how no TV show about college ever got it right,” Jolivette said. “So we said let’s try to do something real. Regular college life stories are
drama enough.” The original idea for the show was a mix between reality TV and narrative TV, Jolivette said. None of the networks could grasp the idea, so Rabbit Bandini decided they would shoot the show and then have their agents help them sell it. “When we talked to Miami, we were talking about making it more of a documentary on undergrad life, which was not exactly what I wanted to do, but everyone was really excited about it,” Jolivette said. If allowed, Jolivette said he wanted to make the filming into a class where he and Franco would help students learn
to shoot and edit. He was even going to try to bring in professionals from Los Angeles to speak at weekly seminars. “All that was meaningless though if we didn’t have access to filming it,” Jolivette said. “So we went back to our original idea of interviewing a bunch of students, getting their stories and making a narrative TV show with people who would act out the stories on a fictionalized campus. That way, everything would be the same and it would still be a well rounded show but Miami’s name would not be shown and its reputation would be protected.” TV shows about college are
generally shot on a campus. According to Jolivette, filming on campus is a normal part of life at the University of California, Los Angeles. Miami, however, was concerned people would recognize the campus and did not wish to be a part of this. “These kind of projects are always an uphill battle,” Jolivette said. “We are still exploring our options for this project. It’s very dear to our hearts, so we somehow want to find a way to do it. Something in southern Ohio would be great because I am familiar
FRANCO, SEE PAGE 9
ANDREW BRAY THE MIAMI STUDENT
THE MAN WE WANT HIM TO BE Country artist Chris Young performs for a sold out Brick Street Bar and Grill Wednesday.Young is nominated for CMA New Artist of the Year. See article on page 8.