TNR 10.25.12

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THE NEWS RECORD

132 YEARS IN PRINT VOL. CXXXIII ISSUE LVVVVI

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 25 | 2012

COUNTRY IN REARVIEW life & arts | 4

SHOWDOWN FOR KEG sports | 6

Trustees unanimously name Ono president RYAN HOFFMAN | NEWS EDITOR The University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees unanimously passed a motion to officially appoint Santa Ono to the position of president Tuesday. “It was an easy decision,” said Francis C. Barrett, chairman of the board. The motion was proposed and approved after a 15-minute executive session. “The action we’re about to take is monumental to the history of the University of Cincinnati,” Barrett said after the board returned from executive session. Before the board members voted on the proposal, a number of faculty members, trustees and members from the presidential search committee praised Ono for his work at UC. “Wow,” said trustee Ginger Warner, recounting the first time she met Ono. “[Ono] is the right man at the right time to take this university forward.” “President Ono is the embodiment of what it means to be a bearcat,” said Lane Hart, student body president. “Our university is in a stronger position today than it has been in our entire history,” Barrett said.

“You are the right man to lead this university today and tomorrow.” Ono repeatedly mentioned that he was honored by the appointment and that his commitment to UC would never waiver. “I’m incredibly honored to be the president of the hottest college in America,” Ono said. “Today is among the proudest of my life. I am and will always be proudly UC.” One of Ono’s top priorities as president will be filling the positions currently occupied by interim faculty members. “I’ll be moving swiftly to change that,” Ono said. The majority of the positions that need to be filled require the formation of a search committee. The are four interim deans and several interim faculty positions in the presidents cabinet including the provost, the chief diversity officer and the vice president for student affairs — which was one position, but will now be two separate positions. A search for a permanent general counsel has already started, Ono said. SEE ONO | 2

FILE ART

TWEETER IN CHIEF Santa Ono was unanimously selected by the Board of Trustees the University of Cincinnati Monday.

Cadets train at Indiana facility

Rappelling, paintballing, leadership par for the FTX course

TYLER BELL | SENIOR REPORTER

Under gray skies and chilly rainfall, ROTC cadets from the University of Cincinnati’s Bearcat Battalion took on MARK TIME MARCH ROTC cadets from the Bearcat Batallion march in the early their 48-hour Field Training Exercise (FTX) at Camp Atterbury, Ind., and saw “That’s our job as their staff, trying to make them do the it till the cold, soaking end. best that they can for camp that summer,” Dinkelacker said. The exercise was just one fragment of UC’s ROTC whole As Battalion Commander, he personally oversaw the program, a regimen designed to push cadets early on in their planning of the event. college careers. The fall FTX is, for many students, their “It was just my staff in the classroom probably three or first military experience, but it is completely organized — four days out of the week the whole time, just making sure executed by seniors who have been through the Leadership it’s all ready and squared away,.” Development and Assessment Course (LDAC). While preparation for LDAC and commission were the The weekend-long event prepares underclassmen to focus of the upperclassmen, the freshman experience was move up into leadership roles and seniors for commission in tailored to acclimate the new cadets to military customs the spring. It’s that dual usage — training the new cadets and and lifestyle. They slept in barracks, ate military rations and seasoning the older ones — that helps UC’s ROTC stand out. conducted themselves as soldiers for the weekend. “One of the things that makes the UC program so strong The seniors had already been awake an hour for is that the seniors are in charge of the program,” said Lt. Col. supervisory purposes when the underclassmen were woken William Galinger, Bearcat Battalion commander. at 6 a.m. Saturday. A few hours later, the freshmen were As for Galinger’s credentials, he was awarded the Bronze decked out in paintball gear, being briefed on small unit Star, the Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf tactics and basic weapon safety. Clusters, and the Ordnance Order of Samuel Sharpe. Cadets are tested on how well they are able to give and Galinger and other active and retired Army personnel execute patrol maneuvers at LDAC, said David Sievers, a supervise and evaluate the cadets during training. senior cadet and officer in charge of the paintball course. “When they have questions, we help steer them in the “At LDAC you’ll be doing squad tactics just as they’re right directions, but they have to do that discovery learning doing here,” Sievers said. and get to the solutions themselves,” Galinger said. The cadets began by practicing “rushing” towards an Problem solving and leadership skills are crucial for the seniors during their last year because senior cadets are enemy in teams of two. Rushing is a cooperative tactic in which two soldiers take turns covering the other’s forward nearing the beginning of their career in the military. “In about eight months, all of our seniors will pin on movement. Seniors played the role of the enemy and the cadets second lieutenant bars and become commissioned officers traded paintball fire back and forth to get used to moving in the United States Army,” Galinger said. under duress. The freshmen proved formidable; after several Galinger gave a lecture on Order of Merit Score to cadets runs, Sievers, who was an “enemy”, was covered in hits and the first night, laying out goals required for cadets to achieve get their first pick of occupations in the highly competitive had to be relieved. Cadets practiced squad maneuvers next, splitting into accession process. The OMS is a combination of several factors — the biggest being LDAC scores — a fitness test enemy teams and moving toward each other from different points in the woods. score and the cadet’s college grade point average. “It was my first Army training experience,” said Gabriella “GPA is huge,” said Steven Tanner, a fourth-year cadet. Gracia, a freshman cadet. “It was fun to get to bond with the Scoring in the top 1 percent of the class lands the cadet his other cadets.” or her occupation of choice. Playing paintball and getting to experience life in the Tanner was appointed S1, a staff position charged with maintaining a running count of all battalion personnel, after military were the two best things about the weekend, Gracia said. LDAC this summer. “It’s always fun to get in the woods, run around, shoot “Our job here is to make the MS3s better than we were,” said Christopher Dinkelacker, a senior cadet and the some paintballs at each other,”said Steven Robin, a freshman cadet. “It was definitely a bonding thing.” student Battalion Commander. “I think we can instill that After paintball, cadets moved to the toughest portion same goal for them, so when they leave, they’re helping the of the day’s activities: rappelling from the top of a 60-foot underclassmen below them.” tower. Cadets trained for the event earlier by rappelling 15 Dinkelacker placed in the top 200 of more than 5,000 feet down the side of Calhoun Parking Garage. cadets that competed for commissions this year and said The difference between the Calhoun garage and the preparing cadets for LDAC was crucial.

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morning during the weekend-long Field Training Exercise. tower was massive, said Audrey Russo, a first-year cadet. “We jumped to 60 [feet], and I wasn’t even comfortable with 15 yet,”Russo said. But, at the top of the tower, she found herself hesitant.“I’m afraid of heights,” she said.“I don’t even take the elevators — I always take the stairs.” Russo’s ability to overcome the obstacle, however, is something more than defeating a 60-foot tower. “It’s monumental for them,” said Jacob Marck, a fourthyear cadet. “It shows them they can overcome something.” The paintball fights and rappelling get freshmen interested in the program, as well as building confidence and camaraderie, Marck said. “There’s 32 freshmen with me here today,” he said. “I would say probably no more than five have ever had any experience with climbing.” “We tell them all the time it’s not the physical part that’s going to get you, it’s the space between your ears that’s going to stop you from doing things,” Galinger said. The rappelling tower is the last event of the day, and the freshman cadets finish off the night with dinner and a movie. The sophomores and juniors’ entire day is spent doing land navigation, and they don’t make it back until 11 p.m. Reveille sounds at 5 a.m. and the entire battalion puts on their packs to march to the obstacle course more than a mile away. The obstacle course is the last event of the day. The seniors instruct the underclassmen how to negotiate each obstacle and cadets are then released to take the obstacles on at their own pace. The largest obstacle, a 15-foot rope climb that leads into a high-walk on logs over a drop of the same height and ends in a 30-foot descent down a cargo net, which hems up many cadets who aren’t adept rope climbers. “It’s amazing how just two days ago they’re coming out here and they’re seeing these obstacles and you can see it in their eyes: ‘I can’t do this,’ ” Galinger said. In 48 hours, cadets have been through the paintball course, down the rappelling tower and over the obstacle course. The confidence the freshmen have gained is obvious, Galinger said. Seeing seniors gives underclassmen something to not only look up to, but also aspire to. The weekend was an introductory experience in a variety of ways for the freshmen, Galinger said, and the success of the weekend was evident in how they performed. “It was exceptional,” Galinger said.

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