THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWS ORGANIZATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI | WWW.NEWSRECORD.ORG
THE NEWS RECORD
131 years in print Vol. CXXXII Issue LVI
THURSDAY | JUNE 2 | 2011
The year in
sports
Supporting those in need
Cincinnati soul permeates ears
Addressing suicide sports at UC | 6
sports | 6
spotlight | 3
TUC welcomes two new restaurants coulter loeb | Chief Photographer
GET THE BOOT A Taco Bell and Papa John’s will be replacing the Pizza Hut Express and Gold Star Chilli in TUC.
News Record Staff
University of Cincinnati students can expect some changes to their on-campus dining options starting Fall quarter. Tangeman University Center will be adding a Taco Bell and Papa John’s to the food court, according to UC’s University Dining Services. Taco Bell will offer a full menu, while Papa John’s will have both full pizzas and personal sizes. “After receiving feedback from students and [Undergraduate] Student Government representatives, we are pleased to bring two national brands to campus that students are enthusiastic about,” said John Hautz, director of auxiliary services
for UC’s Housing and Food Services. “By meeting these demands, we hope to enhance the overall UC student experience in Tangeman University Center.” The new restaurants will be replacing Pizza Hut Express and Gold Star Chili, which will close on June 9 and 10, respectively. Burger King, Chick-fil-A and KumaNeko Sushi will remain open during construction of the new restaurants. Meanwhile, Mick & Mack’s Contemporary Café, also located in TUC, will be undergoing renovations during Summer quarter. University Dining Services plans to update the café’s interior to include a fireplace, AV services and acoustic enhancements. The News Record will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
Children cartoon culprits? lera Khubunaia | Senior Reporter
Did Mickey Mouse birth an American culture of consumerism? That’s question a University of Cincinnati professor is addressing in a recent communication research project. The Walt Disney Classics might have something to do with societies’ consumerist desires, according to Eric Jenkins, a first-year assistant professor of communication in UC’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences. Jenkins presented part of his book based on the research May 18 at the International Educational Research Conference in Athens, Greece. “The biggest claim of the book is how animation has a distinct impact on consumerism on a way it promotes certain habits of consumption,” Jenkins said. “I kind of do a comparison between the liveaction cinema and animation and talk about the ways that we perceive them differently.” There is a connection between the people’s attraction toward Disney cartoons and their connection with goods, according to Jenkins. When society looks at animation, there is always the knowledge that those are not the real bodies — and that knowledge makes the reaction to animation different, Jenkins said. “Disney, obviously, has had a large impact on consumer culture,” Jenkins said. “I am more interested in cartoons rather than movies because animations are more of a perceptual experience. I thought that there was something to watching the animation itself that enticed us into being consumers.” Disney cartoons have something subtler and deep that gives us the habits that are conducive toward consumption and may be used as an introduction to the consumer culture for children, Jenkins said. “We teach kids to the products and commodities,” Jenkins said. “As we get older, maybe our taste will change, but that basic experience is still there. We’ve been trained into that base consumerism experience.” His future plan is to continue his studies in a similar area, talking about the connection between the media and consumerism, and the way media trains certain habits of consumptions.
marisa whitaker | senior photographer
SG HAGGLES FEE Student Government compromised on and approved a $50 co-op fee increase.
SG: $50 co-op fee hike Scott Winfield | Senior Reporter
coulter loeb | the news record
TAKE ME HOME Keeper Jim Imholte tends to a puppy known by its number, #952 as the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals visit the University of Cincinnati to spread awareess and prevention information with four legged friends looked for new owners. Thursday, May 25.
SB5 email causes ruckus James Sprague | NEWS EDITOR
courtesy of mct campus
MAGIC MONEY MOUNTAIN Eric Jenkins analyzes possible capitalist communication in Disney cartoons. IN BRIEF What: Where: When:
Learn to open your mind TUC MainStreet Cinema 6 p.m. Thursday, June 2
If you’re feeling down lately, join Professor Kanniks Kannikswaren’s honors seminar to learn how to get back to feeling good. “Growth” will feature numerous live presentations of speakers explaining how they achieved their dreams. Expect interaction, multimedia and thinking “outside of your own bubble.” INSIDE
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Entertainment Spotlight Sports Classifieds
One lone email from a University of Cincinnati assistant dean drew the ire of conservative students on campus Tuesday. Andrea Wall, the assistant dean of UC’s College of Pharmacy, sent out on an email on the UC listserv to pharmacy students asking if they were registered voters interested in signing a petition to place Ohio Senate Bill 5 on the November 2011 ballot. “Are you a registered Ohio voter in Hamilton or Butler Counties?” the email from Wall said. “Would you be interested in signing a petition to place Ohio Senate Bill 5 (SB5) on the November ballot? If so, this message is for you!” Senate Bill 5, the proposed legislation that advocates say would balance the state’s budget, while opponents say it would strip collectivebargaining rights from public workers. Wall’s email proceeded to detail how two UC pharmacy professors, Drs. Robert Cluxton and Teresa Cavanaugh, would be collecting signatures for the petition outside room 311 in the College of Pharmacy from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday. The email received backlash from the website CampusReform.org, a conservative student website that has voiced its support of Ohio Senate Bill Five. “Professors at the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy are using their school-issued email addresses to lobby students to sign a petition in favor of repealing Senate Bill 5,” wrote Matthew Hurtt — who is not a UC student — on the website’s blog. The email described the purpose of the petition that Drs. Cluxton and Cavanaugh were collecting signatures for. “By signing the petition, you are exercising
your right to vote on Senate Bill 5. Signing the petition is not a vote for or against SB5 it merely places the bill on the ballot in November for a vote,” the email explained further. “If SB5 is on the ballot you can be sure that both sides on the issue will provide considerable information for you the voter to decide what is best for Ohio.” If the statewide petition drive collects enough signatures — 231,000 — the bill will be placed on November’s ballot in the form of a referendum, which will allow voters to either approve it or repeal it. The tone of the email, despite appearing neutral, was labeled by the CampusReform blog as a subtle push by professors — who would also be affected by SB5 — to repeal the bill. “It appears as though the professors in question understand they are using their school-issued (and by extension, taxpayerfunded) email addresses to lobby against SB5,” Hurtt wrote in the blog. “They carefully suggest their message is not for or against the collective bargaining bill, but only those who want to repeal it are pushing this effort.” One UC student agreed with the view of CampusReform. “I feel that this is a gross misuse of school resources,” said Ryan Printy, a graduate student in the College of Pharmacy who also ran as a Libertarian candidate for Ohio’s 32nd House District last November. “The professors used the College of Pharmacy email listserv to promote their own personal political agenda.” Whether or not university policy allowed the email, it is highly unethical for the professors to use school resources in such a manner, Printy said. “We are a pharmacy college, not a political science program,” Printy said. “Our professors see sb5 | 4
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A $50, 19 percent increase to the quarterly $260 co-op fee was approved 13-9 by University of Cincinnati’s Undergraduate Student Government Wednesday. Initially, the Division of Professional Practice (DPP), also known as the Cooperative Education or co-op Program, proposed a $100 increase to compensate for their $192,000 deficit, but SG decided to make a compromise to satisfy both the student body and OPP. “We’re cutting [the fee] in half and it’s a very fair compromise,” said Student Body Vice President Michael Linger. “What we tried to do by splitting it in half was because there were such extremes — it was either $0 or $100 — if you’re dealing with extremes you’ve got to get somewhere in the middle.” Associate provost and Director of Professional Practice Kettil Cedercreutz argued that DPP could not overcome it’s deficit with less than a $100 increase. “If we’re going in with a $50 fee I can’t do my job,” Cedercreutz said. SG senators were appointed the task of collecting student feedback on the proposed 38 percent increase after their last meeting and some found that student approval was extremely low. “Students from some polls were 90 percent against [the fee],” said SG President Alan Hagerty. “We wanted to make sure we met student needs and priorities first. We also recognized that the university has needs that it needs to meet too. The feeling was that if we decided to vote for $100 that it would not pass.” Along with the approval of the reduced fee, SG approved an Aug.31 deadline for the $50 fee payment. As the fiscal year begins with the rapidly approaching Summer quarter, students will be billed the $50 in addition to the previous $260 co-op fee, but won’t have to pay the additional $50 until Aug. 31. SG received a letter from UC bursar Ken Wolterman that stated his office recognized the fee was being assessed late, thus they will hold late fee penalties of $100 or less until Aug.31 so students have time to allocate the fee into their budgets. The Office of the Bursar collects student fees through Financial Aid, student sponsors and cash payments. SG later approved, through unanimous decision, the formation of a student advisory committee with DPP to create a stronger window of communication between students and administrators. “[The committee] will be the vehicle to drive the concerns of students and the faculty this upcoming year and [help SG] reevaluate all of the comments and criticisms we’ve had see sg | 4