The News Record 2.10.11

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWS ORGANIZATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI | WWW.NEWSRECORD.ORG

THE NEWS RECORD

131 years in print Vol. CXXXI Issue XXXVI

THURSDAY | FEB. 10 | 2011

WELCOME HOME

spotlight | 4

Veterans at UC share their experiences from abroad and how it feels being home

CLOSE CALL

Cats hold on for victory against DePaul

sports | 6

Residence hall to reopen in fall 2012 Sean Peters | Chief reporter

coulter loeb | CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER

BACK IN BUSINESS Morgens Hall and Scioto halls will once again house UC students after renovations.

Closed since August 2008, Morgen’s Hall is scheduled to reopen for residential use at the start of Fall quarter 2012. Morgens Hall and neighboring Scioto Hall were closed “to upgrade the life safety systems to university standard,” said Todd Duncan, director of housing and food services at the University of Cincinnati. “Morgens Hall is being prepared for a comprehensive systems renovation program that will include

a new glass exterior incorporating the balconies as interior living space,” Duncan said. “The program will replace the plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems, upgrade the elevators and renovate the unit kitchens and bathrooms.” Since the halls closed, UC has allocated approximately $3 million toward renovations. Reports of black mold, asbestos and lead-based paint from the two halls’ residents have not been formally recognized by UC. Before the August 2008 closure,

graduate students living in Morgens Hall received a letter in March of that year notifying them their lease would be prematurely cut. Those students were redistributed to other living spaces, most located off campus. There is currently no tentative date set for the residential reopening of Scioto Hall, though the first floor is being used as College of Design, Architecture. Art and Planning studios and the second and third floors are being utilized as offices for UC’s Office of Housing and Food Services.

Sexual assault hits UC

james sprague | NEWS EDITOR A University of Cincinnati student was the victim of an alleged sexual assault on campus Saturday evening. The unidentified victim reported the assault Sunday to UC’s Reclaim program — the university’s 24-hour sexual violence help line — and received medical treatment for the assault at University Hospital. The alleged assault occurred in a residence hall on campus and the victim, according to the report, knew the alleged suspect. Alcohol was also involved in the incident, according to the report. The victim did not report the assault to the UC Police Division, said Amy Howton, sexual assault response coordinator for the UC Women’s Center. “Generally speaking, very few rapes and crimes of sexual violence are reported to police,” Howton said. “Statistics vary, but typically numbers are one in 10 sexual assaults are reported to police.” Gene Ferrara, chief of UCPD, agreed with Howton’s assessment of the reports. “Typically, [Howton’s] office receives more reports than we do because sometimes the victim/ survivor goes to Women’s Services but does not want to make a police report,” Ferrara said. There could be many reasons why the assault was not reported to the UCPD, Howton said. “A perceived lack of response from the criminal justice system, not wanting people to know what happened, not wanting to testify in court, not wanting to ‘get the person’ in legal trouble and self-blame [are all possible],” Howton said. Howton was not at liberty to release any other information regarding the case, but did say the victim has been referred to the UCPD and the Ombuds Office. The victim is also considering reporting the assault to UC Judicial Affairs, according to the report. Statistics were unavailable for January, but UCPD reported three sexual assaults in 2010, Ferrara said. Sexual assault statistics reported to the UC Women’s Center were unavailable as of press time. Calls to the UC housing office to determine the specific residence hall the assault occurred in were not returned. INSIDE

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Entertainment Spotlight Classifieds Sports

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MARKED FOR EXTINCTION? Current plans by CEAS could eliminate the computer science program, the majors of UC students like Jon Wedaman and TJ Ellis.

Program cuts planned by CEAS to UC administrators. “Cincinnati has nine Fortune-500 companies, he College of Engineering and Applied and every single one of those companies is Science announced plans to suspend going to need computer science majors in the the computer science program, future,” said Wedaman, a fifth-year computer science student. “If UC [goes through with the combine several majors and implement a fee for all CEAS students at a town hall plan], we’re compromising the future of UC and the future of Cincinnati as well.” meeting Feb. 3. Companies that recruit UC computer CEAS Dean Carlo Montemagno’s presentation cited the upcoming semester science co-op students include General Electric, Children’s Hospital, Seapine Software conversion, budget cuts and the summer 2010 and Northrup. In addition, merger of the Colleges of Tata Consultancy Engineering and Applied I think it is difficult to regard Services recently opened Science as reasons for Cincinnati as a first-rate an office in Mason, Ohio the upcoming changes. to gain better access to The plan calls for an university if they don’t have a UC computer science indefinite suspension to computer science program. students, said T.J. Ellis, undergraduate computer —jerry paul president of UC’s ACM science admissions UC computer science professor and a fifth-year computer beginning Fall quarter emeritus science student. 2012. The plan also states The students, however, that a small number of will suffer most from the changes, said Peter computer science courses will be permanently Burke, a third-year computer science student. shifted to the computer engineering program. “According to the dean, we will not be While Montemagno’s plan states students currently at UC will not be affected by these affected; yet if the program is cut, many of us are worried that, with professors leaving, we changes, some are already concerned. will lose our accreditation,” Burke said. “To “The dean is not acting in the best interest of take away a continuously growing program the students,”said Jon Wedaman, treasurer of the Association of Computing Machining (ACM)’s that will determine the future of nearly all technology? It simply baffles me that this is the UC chapter.“He won’t state the reasons why [the one program that doesn’t have the importance program] should be cut when computer science to stay within the university on some level.” is growing and there are more jobs than ever for Suspending admission to the program could computer science grads.” affect the accreditation process, said Jerry Paul, ACM members hosted a town hall meeting UC professor emeritus of computer science. Tuesday to discuss the ramifications of Montemagno’s plan. The organization is also UC’s program is up for ABET reaccreditation in 2012. sending letters to the global ACM community “One of the major components of and companies that participate in the UC accreditation is if the institution is giving co-op program, asking them to send responses ariel cheung | managing editor

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proper support to the program,” Paul said. “[Suspending admission] is a dangerous move; I have a feeling it’s certainly not going to help accreditation.” Paul regards the indefinite suspension and plan to limit staff replacements and move courses to the undergraduate computer engineering program as an effective cancellation of the computer science program, despite the fact that Montemagno has not announced a long-term plan for the program. “I think it is difficult to regard Cincinnati as a first-rate university if they don’t have a computer science program,” Paul said.“It’s hard for me to imagine a program that would be less likely to be canceled, considering the national programs calling for computer science majors in particular.” Organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Air Force have invested millions of dollars in efforts to recruit high school students to major in computer science, Ellis said. “Facing this kind of federal spending, it’s clearly a national priority,”Ellis said.“We’re the second-largest college in Ohio, and it seems ludicrous to be fighting against this priority.” While the students understand that an estimated $4.9 million deficit for the 2011-12 CEAS budget means cuts must be made, they want clearer answers from Montemagno about the future of their college, Ellis said. “The dean does not state a reason for why cancelling the [computer science] undergraduate degree would help any of his goals,”Ellis said.“He said it was just a ‘judgment call.’ He didn’t elaborate after that. We want to know why.” Montemagno was not available for comment as of press time.

LGBTQ trains SG on safe environments scott winfield | STAFF REPORTER

FORECAST

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eamon queeney | PHOTO editor

UC Student Government is working to establish safe zones for the LGBTQ community and welcomed LGBTQ Program Director Leisan Smith for Safe Zone training at the weekly SG meeting Wednesday. During a training session that took place while Student Government was in recess, Smith explained that a Safe Zone is a designated area where a member of the LGBTQ community can relax knowing they are welcome and will not face discrimination. “Student Government approached us to be Safe-Zone trained and they wanted to be Safe Zone allies,” Smith said. “They wanted to support the LGBTQ community and have their areas be considered safe communities for the LGBTQ staff, students and faculty on campus.” Student senators received

resource books outlining specific information and goals regarding the safety of LGBTQ individuals. Members were also informed about preferred language and vocabulary. Members were given contracts at the end of the training process and were given the option of signing on and becoming Safe Zone Allies. Those who signed the contract received a sticker with a pink triangle insignia, usedto designate Safe Zones for LGBTQ individuals. More than one third of LGBTQ undergraduate students have experienced harassment within the past year and those who experienced harassment reported that derogatory remarks were the most common form at 89 percent, and that students were more often the source of harassment —79 percent — according to Sue Rankin at ngltf.org. Smith expressed hers and Student Government’s main

Joe wilkens | contributing photographer

PLAYING IT SAFE SG underwent Safe Zone training during their Wednesday evening meeting. goals in this process. “A lot of times people are not as comfortable talking about LGBTQ issues because they are not regularly having the conversations,” Smith said.

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[Our goals are] to get people comfortable with the language, with having the conversations, with asking questions and to know there are resources on campus here for the LGBTQ community.”


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