ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
Volume 161 No. 7
Miami university — Oxford, Ohio
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2024
Students react to Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential win
H.A.W.K.S Peer Health Educators give out Narcan, fentanyl testing strips in 'reverse trickor-treating' bags ANNA REIER ASST. CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY EDITOR
GRAPHIC BY OLIVIA MICHELSEN.
TAYLOR STUMBAUGH SENIOR CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR “Disappointed.” “Excited.” “I hoped for change.” “Shocked.” “This will be a change for the future.” President-elect Donald Trump secured his victory last night over Vice President Kamala Harris. His supporters are overwhelmed with excitement, while Harris’s supporters are left in shock.
In this issue
In Butler County, 36% voted for Harris, and 62% voted for Trump. Student reactions 2QH ¿UVW \HDU PDWK PDMRU VDLG she now feels embarrassed to be an American. Lauren, who is only going E\ KHU ¿UVW QDPH GHFOLQHG WR XVH KHU last name saying she felt uncomfortable with people she knew knowing her vote. )RU KHU WKH GUHDG ṘFLDOO\ VXQN in when she woke up the morning of Nov. 6, looked at her phone and saw Trump had won. After following the election most of the night, Lauren fell asleep uneasily, knowing the odds were against her candidate.
SPORTS EDITOR
Meet the Miami mergers who donated $5 million to bring solar panels to campus - page 8
CAMPUS & COMMUNITY
Bringing creative visions to life: New Wave Theatre Company fosters talent - page 5
After practice, the Miami UniverVLW\ PHQ¶V EDVNHWEDOO FRDFKLQJ VWD̆ UHWXUQ WR WKHLU ṘFHV DW 0LOOHWW +DOO Head coach Travis Steele sits at his desk. On the wall behind him hang the jerseys of Wally Szerbiak and Ira Newble, two former RedHawks who went on to play in the NBA. In between the jerseys is a mural of the eight Miami players who went on to play professionally, including Ron Harper and Wayne Embry. These players remind Steele, who is entering his third season at Miami, of the glory the program held in the 1990s and 2000s. “I feel like our program had been dormant for a while,” Steele said. “Some of the young men we’re recruiting nowadays, they weren’t even born the last time we were in the NCAA tournament.” Steele was born in Indiana, a state ZKHUH EDVNHWEDOO LV D VLJQL¿FDQW SDUW of life. His grandmother fell in love with the sport and listened to every Indiana University Hoosier game.
ELIZA SULLIVAN
Women can actually be sports fans, too - page 11
SPORTS
Brett Gabbert: Legacy of a Miami legend - page 6
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She lived with Steele, and her love for basketball bled through the rest of the family. $V WKH \RXQJHVW RI ¿YH VLEOLQJV 6WHHOH KDG VHYHUDO LQÀXHQFHV +LV older brother, John Groce, currently serves as the head coach of the Akron University Zips, last year’s Mid-American Conference (MAC) champions. When Groce was an assistant coach at North Carolina State from 1996-2000, Steele visited every summer. Seeing his brother in a coaching SRVLWLRQ ZDV 6WHHOH¶V ¿UVW LPSUHVVLRQ of collegiate basketball. “In a lot of ways, [I] was kind of his shadow growing up,” Steele said. “When he would be coaching in the summers, I would go spend every summer with him and train with their players. I knew then I wanted to coach [and] be like him.” Since 2001, Steele has coached at every level, but he hasn’t left the Midwest. While attending Butler University, he assisted at Ben Davis High School 20 minutes away. After graduating, he joined Groce at The Ohio
State University as a graduate assistant. Many people in his shoes would have stayed at Ohio State and climbed the ladder, but Steele left after one year and assisted at Wabash Valley in the National Junior College Athletic Association. “You pop the popcorn, you do the ODXQGU\ \RX¶UH PRSSLQJ WKH ÀRRUV you’re coaching the team: You do everything,” Steele said. “It was a great learning experience. The fear is as you go down to that level, you can never go back up. That’s why everybody told me not to do it.” In 2006, Steele returned to the Big Ten as an assistant coach for the Hoosiers, the team he grew up watching. He helped head coach Kelvin Sampson lead Indiana to an NCAA tournament appearance in 2007. He had bounced from program to program, spending no more than two years at any one school. Once he got to Xavier University in 2009, he settled for 15 years, eventually rising to head coach in 2018.
As a student who took all honors and AP classes in high school, applying to Miami University’s Honors College seemed like a no-brainer to me. I was promised a tight-knit community of academically-focused students, rigorous courses, meaningful extracurricular opportunities and invaluable resources. Instead, I have been underwhelmed by almost every aspect. When I was considering applying to Miami, I heard all about its Living Learning Communities (LLC). It sounded exciting – I liked the idea of choosing my neighbors based on a shared interest. But when I was accepted into the Honors College, I was automatically put into the Honors Residential College LLC. This means what my neighbors and I have in common is … being honors students. This isn’t exactly
something you can bond over very easily. The Honors College is supposed to be a tight-knit community of academically-focused students, but throughout the Honors College, I have found a pervasive attitude of elitism. There is a prevailing idea that being honors students makes us special, better or more deserving than others. Honors students must complete six “honors experiences,” including two honors courses. The remaining four experiences can include volunteer work, study abroad, leadership positions in clubs, research or tutoring. Students are already involved in many of these, and that just makes “honors experiences” extra paperwork. In their senior year, honors students must also complete a senior project, which uses experiential learning or a traditional thesis to allow students to dive deeper into a
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Camping on campus: What’s the policy? SADIE CHILDS THE MIAMI STUDENT
subject of their choosing. I am excited to do this project; it’s the type of thing , KRSHG WR ¿QG LQ WKH +RQRUV &ROOHJH However, I’m disappointed that this is the only requirement that realO\ SXVKHV VWXGHQWV WR SXW H[WUD H̆RUW into their studies. The honors experiences just feel like more hoops to jump through – on top of the Miami Plan and divisional requirements – ZLWK PLQLPDO DGGHG EHQH¿W WR WKH student. $V D ¿UVW \HDU , ZDV DGYLVHG WR only take one honors class per semester because these courses would be very academically challenging. This semester, I chose a philosophy class. Although I love this class, the RQO\ GL̇FXOW SDUW RI LW LV EHLQJ DEOH to understand the subject matter. No further classwork or deeper thinking is required as an honors student in this course.
Buried deep in Miami University’s Use of University Property policies is Section 9, which outlines something few students likely know: camping on Miami property is strictly prohibited. However, there’s an important exception: approved student organization activities are allowed in designated areas. This means student RUJDQL]DWLRQV FDQ FDPS LQ VSHFL¿F locations if they receive approval. The process runs through the Event Space Reservation System and The Hub, and also goes through WKH 2̇FH RI 6WXGHQW $FWLYLWLHV At the end of last school year, a small group of students protesting as members of Students for Justice in Palestine and the Young Democratic Socialists of America set up tents as part of their demonstration. After this, the policies in Miami’s student handbook were reviewed, something that occurs every year. Dean of Students BaShaun Smith explained that it had been a while since the policy had been updated. “I think it’s smart for folks to renew and re-look at policies,” Smith VDLG ³$W GL̆HUHQW LQVWLWXWLRQV ,¶YH been at, the gap for updating has been anywhere from seven to eight years.” The Miami policy had previously not been updated since at least 2014. Jayne Brownell, the senior vice president of Student Life and the chair of the Student Life Council, made the updates and ultimately voted on them. These updates were ¿QDOL]HG RYHU WKH VXPPHU DQG DSproved at the beginning of the semester. Brownell said the original policy was written before she arrived at Miami.
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Underwhelmed and disappointed: A first year’s perspective on the Honors College THE MIAMI STUDENT
OPINION
this would be the change the United States needs. “I feel the economy is going to get a lot better, and especially being a college student, I feel like all those policies are going to help us, especially because this is a time where we need to grow,” Anderson said. “We’re going to go into the tough parts of our life trying to get jobs, and we’re going to tie down money and just have a nice economy to go into a whole new world buying houses, just moving on, leaving your own childhood house. I feel like it’s gonna be big for us college students.”
Head coach Travis Steele hopes to bring Miami basketball back to 2000s-era glory KETHAN BABU
GREENHAWKS
“I don’t know if I was consuming biased media throughout this election, but I was very convinced that Kamala would have a good shot at the election,” Lauren said. “So I was just shocked to see what happened in the battleground states.” Lauren isn’t the only student who faced restlessness last night, waiting as each state’s results were reported. )HOORZ ¿UVW \HDU DQG ¿QDQFH PDjor Bryce Anderson said he stayed up until 2 a.m. with his friends following the election coverage. He said he reacted to Trump’s victory with excitement instead of disappointment, and said he had renewed hope that
)RU DOPRVW R R̆ FDPSXV students, Halloween trick-or-treating didn’t involve stepping foot outside. Instead of Snickers and KitKats, they received condoms, Narcan and fentanyl testing strips on their doorsteps. These “goodie bags” were courtesy of the H.A.W.K.S. Peer Health Educators through their annual “reverse trick-or-treat” event. Twice a year, the H.A.W.K.S. spend roughly 150 hours putting together the bags and delivering them to students. The spring event is known as “Safe Spring Break.” Leslie Haxby McNeill, assistant director of Student Wellness, has run the H.A.W.K.S. program for more than 20 years and has supervised the distribution of goodie bags for nearly 10. “H.A.W.K.S has been around since 2003,” Haxby McNeill said. ³7KHLU PLVVLRQ LV WR ¿QG ZD\V WR share information with students about health and wellness and engage them in conversation. It’s not just, you know, here’s the information. They would dress up and knock door-to-door with information about sexual assault, alcohol and drugs.” 7KLV \HDU PDUNHG WKH ¿UVW time Narcan and fentanyl testing strips were included in the bags.