Press on
SPJ holds second annual press conference with President Hodge.
♦ Campus, page 2
Cast your ballot
♦ Campus, page 2
ASG endorses two candidates for Oxford City Council Tuesday.
Tourney time
♦ Sports, page 18
Miami’s field hockey team advances to the MAC tournament semi-finals.
The Miami Student
Miami University ♦ Oxford, Ohio
Volume 130, No. 118 ♦ www.miamistudent.net
Friday, November 2, 2007
Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
Students’ art display evokes conflict
Tire swing, 7 noose-like ropes in campus tree meant to depict death of childhood
By Megan Weiland and Monica Bolyson
For The Miami Student
Miami University’s Associated Student Government (ASG) passed a resolution in an emergency session Thursday night to respond to an artistic display found on Western Campus Tuesday that included a tire swing and seven noose-like ropes. According to the three student artists involved, the piece, titled “Growing Up,” was a class project, pre-approved by their professor and another member of the art department staff and was intended to signify the death of childhood—death being signified by the noose-like ropes and childhood signified by the tire swing. A representative for the artists attended the emergency session to explain the thought process behind the display. “It was never intended to be a racial statement,” said the representative. “It was a class project for an Intro to Art class. The artists even changed the
knots to scaffolding knots to signify death in its purest form without creating an actual noose.” He added that the seven noose-like ropes were meant to signify seven decades or 70 years, the lifespan of an average man. They were hung in a way that they could only clearly be seen if sitting on the tire swing. The display was exhibited in a tree on Patterson Avenue across from the Art Building from 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, until a student called the police at 5:13 p.m. alerting them to the display. “It was only intended for our class to see,” said one of the students involved. “We put it up right before our art class and immediately after my last class I went to take it down. When I got there, around five, police were there and wouldn’t let me touch it.” The representative for the student said to ASG members that this was for safety purposes only as the ropes were hung high in the tree. n See ART, page 13
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The controversial exhibit pictured above was taken down early Tuesday evening after student complaints.
MU students Burglary, theft subject of Campus Crime Alert #8 call for safer lighting all over campus
By Caroline Briggs
Senior Staff Writer
By Laura Houser
Campus Editor
The streetlights may line the sidewalks and illuminate the parking lots, but according to some students, Miami University is still very much in the dark. According to a report released Oct. 25 by the Miami University Police Department (MUPD) and HAWKS Peer Health Educators, more than 40 percent of students suggested that the university improve exterior lighting on campus in an effort to strengthen campus safety. The study reported survey results taken during Campus Safety Awareness Week Oct. 15-18, sponsored by MUPD, during which 772 students were asked how they felt about campus safety at Miami. However, according to both MUPD and Miami’s department of physical facilities—the call for more lighting is nothing new. “Just from talking to students, one of the most common concerns we hear is ‘Man, we need more lighting around here,’” said Lt. Stephen Van Winkle, an officer with MUPD. MUPD Police Chief John McCandless agreed that lighting is, and always has been a concern. “When people are asked what the safety hazard is on campus, the overwhelming response is lighting,” McCandless said. Associated Student Government’s (ASG) secretary for off-campus affairs, senior Jen House, said there have been recommendations for more lighting by the Shriver Center, since, she claims, so many students pass by there, as well as the cross walks on High Street, Patterson Avenue and Spring Street. Other complaints seem to center around the Slant Walk, Van Winkle said, pointing out that the streetlights lining the popular thoroughfare are shorter (therefore dispersing light over a smaller area) n See LIGHTING, page 14
After another on-campus burglary and theft of electronics this weekend at Collins Hall, Miami University has released Campus Crime Alert #8. The alert stated via e-mail that between 9 p.m. Oct. 26 and 3 a.m. Oct. 27 someone entered a male student’s room and took a laptop computer and an iPod from his desk. The report states that the door to the room was most likely unlocked at the time. First-year Taylor Brinkman, who had his room entered and his electronics taken, told police his items were valued at about $2,600. The incident is the sixth Campus Crime Alert regarding burglary on and off campus, though the total number of burglaries this year has exceeded six this academic year, according to Lt. Andrew Powers of Miami University Police Department (MUPD). “There wasn’t anything particularly unusual about this case,” Powers said. “We just keep stressing that people keep their rooms locked.” The alert wasn’t issued until 11 a.m. Wednesday, though the burglary was reported to MUPD at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Miami University also released an e-mail to Oxford residents Tuesday regarding an incident with a female student on Brown Road that occurred early Monday afternoon. The information bulletin said a student headed to Hawk’s Landing, formally University Commons, was grabbed by a white male in his 30s who had been following her. A Miami female senior said that at about 1 p.m. Oct. 29 she was following the male on Brown Road while talking to her mom on a cell phone. Once off the line, the female noticed the man had stopped on the sidewalk in front of her. She said she thought he was going to cross the road, but when she got closer the man grabbed her wrist and gropped her, while mumbling something unintelligible. “I was just confused,” the female said of the man who had bloodshot eyes. “He must have been under the influence of something.” After she broke free, the senior said she ran to her apartment and eventually called the police. She described the male as wearing a flannel shirt, work boots and a knit hat. She didn’t sustain any injuries. Claire Wagner, director of university communications, said that the school is not required to report assaults to a community because of the Clery Act. The
Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security and Campus Crime Statistics Act clarifies what guidelines Miami must follow with Campus Crime Alert procedure. The school is, however, required to report any burglary, the unlawful entering of an occupied living space. “We at least needed to put out the information (of the Brown Road incident),” Wagner said. “Nothing is black and white. It occurred in broad daylight, which is unusual.” The female said she was bothered by the issuance of the Campus Crime Alert regarding the theft of another laptop and iPod, while her incident didn’t receive the same treatment. “I can’t believe that a missing iPod is considered more important than a person being violated,” the senior said. “I think a human being is more important than a laptop. Assault is assault.” Karam also cited other incidences in the year around Brown Road and Hawk’s Landing. Campus Crime Alert #5 entailed an aggravated robbery of a wallet that included a Miami student being cut by a knife. “I don’t feel as safe (at Hawk’s Landing),” the female said. “We are far away from (campus) and things seem to be out of control here—wild parties, cars getting vandalized and someone getting stabbed. We’ve started to lock our door even when we’re here.”
Drum it out
MICHAEL PICKERING/The Miami Student
Orlando Cotto of Panoramic plays the congas during the Miami University Steel Band concert Tuesday evening in Hall Auditorium.
Campus 2 Community 4 Features 8
INSIDE
Opinion 10 FYI 16 Sports 18