THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWS ORGANIZATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI | WWW.NEWSRECORD.ORG
THE NEWS RECORD
131 YEARS IN PRINT VOL. CXXXI ISSUE VI
MONDAY | OCTOBER 3 | 2011
REDHAWKS
GET BELL RUNG sports | 6
TALE AS OLD
AS TIME
“Beauty and the Beast” romances the Aronoff.
entertainment | 4
Cincinnati prepares for infestations JASON HOFFMAN | NATION & WORLD EDITOR
The region’s most infamous pest drew state representatives to Price Hill Friday. State Reps. Denise Driehaus and Dale Mallory hosted a town hall meeting in the Price Hill Community Center to discuss the bed bug epidemic with Cincinnati residents. Driehaus, representative of Ohio’s 31st district and Price Hill resident, said the meeting was called because of the severity of bed bug infestations in Cincinnati. “[Bed bugs] are the biggest
problem facing our community right now, because everyone is at risk for infestation.” Driehaus said. Susan C. Jones, an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State, was on hand to educate attendees about the pests. Jones began her presentation by asking how many people in the room experienced bed bug infestations — everyone raised their hands. Although she lives in Columbus, Jones recognized the severity of the bed bug problem in Cincinnati, which has been listed as one of the most infested city in America by
multiple organizations. In 2010, Terminex named Cincinnati as second-most infested city in the nation behind New York. Orkin named Cincinnati No. 1 last year. “These are the most devastating pests there is in the world because of the medical, financial and emotional toll they can take on people,” Jones said. The spread of bed bugs is as easy as brushing clothing against furniture or another person. The risk of exposure is raised for people whose jobs demand
JASON HOFFMAN | NATION & WORLD EDITOR
BED BUGS BITE Reps. Denise Driehaus and Dale Mallory address Cincinnatians about the pests in the Pricehill Community Center.
SEE BED BUGS | 5
UC grad OCCUPY writing CINCINNATI honored
BETHANY CIANCIOLO | STAFF REPORTER
The University of Cincinnati’s long-standing doctoral creative writing program is making itself more prominently known on the national level. The program, developed in the 1950s, was ranked eighth in the country by Poets & Writers magazine. “We really are a true hybrid program where we want [the students] to be versatile,” said Michael Griffith, an associate professor of English. “We want them to be scholars and writers. We want them to be able to teach across a wide spectrum of classes.” The English and comparative literature program with a creative dissertation gives the students that versatility, Griffith said. “It’s a degree that really works, because people are reading literature and theory and all of the stuff that a traditional PhD has, but when they come to the dissertation, they’re writing a fulllength book of poetry plus a long critical article,” said Don Bogen, professor of creative writing and modern poetry. “A lot of colleges and universities are looking for these sorts of people,” Bogen said. “They don’t want people who are so narrowly specialized that all they can teach is creative writing.” Seth Abramson of Writers and Poets Magazine surveyed 145 applicants to doctoral creative writing programs from 2007 to 2011. The magazine asked the students to provide where they were planning to apply, using a Google-sponsored polling application and a forum on the Poets & Writers website. However, Griffith wants to give a note of caution when looking at the ranking. “If you’re talking about nuclear physics, it’s possible to have a real hard and fast ranking of programs,” he said. “In creative writing, it’s a much more nebulous thing, so it’s very difficult to rank. But it’s great for us. It helps with recruiting, it helps with administration, and it helps get the word out that we’re really a top-notch program.”
FILE ART | THE NEWS RECORD
HEAD FIRST RESEARCH Cincinnati Children’s received $12 million to fund research.
Children’s takes on migraines ZOHAIR HUSSAIN | TNR CONTRIBUTOR
COULTER LOEB | CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
TAKING A STAND Activists involved with Occupy Cincinnati, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations currently happening in New York City, Chicago and Boston, vote on their demonstration — slated to take place downtown this weekend — will proceed Sunday at Sawyer Point.
Speakers, SG discuss ballot issues: SB 5 and Issue 48 LANCE LAMBERT | STAFF REPORTER
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FOCUSED ON BALLOTS University of Cincinnati Student Government heard from Mark Miller (above) of COAST and from John McNay, president of the UC chapter of the AAUP.
Two of the most controversial issues in Cincinnati, Senate Bill 5 and Issue 48 — both slated for the Nov. 8 election — were brought to the floor of University of Cincinnati Student Government in Tangeman University Center Wednesday. Senate members gathered at 6 p.m. to hear from a UC union leader and local advocacy groups as they addressed the ballot season’s critical issues. In March, Gov. John Kasich signed into law SB 5 — a widely controversial collectivebargaining overhaul. Proposed Issue 48 could block both rail and streetcar transit in Cincinnati until 2020. John McNay, president of the UC chapter of the American Association of University Professors, spoke to the crowd about the impact of SB 5 and encouraged students to vote for a repeal of the bill Nov. 8. “There is special language that directly targets us [professors],” McNay said.“Language in SB 5 that says if you’re a faculty member that does service at the university, you can’t belong to the union. Each [professor] must choose between maintaining a voice for the faculty or doing service for the faculty, not both.” The collective-bargaining rights are taken away from the professors and instead given to the managing horde: The board of trustees, McNay said. “Two options: Illegal strikes, which turn firefighters [and] police into criminals, or lawsuits, which is not cheaper,” McNay said. Opponents of SB 5 are pointing the finger SEE SG | 5
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The National Institutes of Health have awarded Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (CCH) Medical Center a $12 million grant toward innovation in migraine research. The grant will go toward research based on a clinical trial comparing medications for adolescents and children who suffer from migraines. The trial was developed through the CCH Headache Center, the largest in the country. It will compare two different medications —Amitriptyline and Topiramate — to see what will be most effective in migraine prevention. The study is scheduled to be done at 40 different sites across the country with CCH leading the way as clinical coordinator. “There haven’t been a lot of clinical studies in adolescent migraines and especially not like this,” said Dr. Andrew Hershey, co-director of the Headache Center and one of the leaders of the project. The study stands apart in that it will compare the two most typically used medications rather than just focusing on one, Hershey said. “This is going to be a real world study of headaches and headache medication,” said co-director Dr. Scott Powers. Powers said he hopes that, through these trials, headache specialists can begin to develop more effective, more realistic treatment options for their patients. “Either way, these trials are going to provide results,” Powers said.“If we find out the medication works, then the way they work may give some idea of how to understand the basic mechanism of headaches. If we get a negative trial, it’ll tell us we better get to work in a hurry.” With a previous lack of investment in headache research, not enough is known about the migraines and how to effectively treat them. With this recent grant, there is an opportunity for headache specialists to get the answers they need, Powers said. “It’s a really big deal for them to make that investment. It will set the trend for where science will go in the next couple of decades.” Powers and Hershey have been in development of the project for the past two years. Now, they’re finally getting the national backing to make it happen. The grant itself wasn’t what excited them the most, Powers said. “We’re very excited to help the families of these patients,” Powers said. “We’re mostly excited about the fact that we can make a difference for these kids.”