By Hunter StenBackOnline editOr

Miami University stu-dent I.D. cards may be used for more than just swiping into buildings or buying lunch. In fact, student I.D. cards also store students’ personal identification numbers and chronicle the cardholder’s activities.

Student I.D. cards have the student’s plus number encoded in the magnetic strip and also have a PIK number on the chip on the card, which is a unique number to identify the I.D.

According to Joseph Bazeley, information secu-rity officer for IT Services, when the magnetic strip is swiped, the reader is able to pull out the plus number, which is then recorded in the system.

“While there is little in-formation actually stored on the card, it is important to remember that the vast ma-jority of student information is stored in BannerWeb, and we have the ability to link other systems to Banner to either access or store infor-mation,” Bazeley said. “The badge access system does contain some information about students, which is accessible to a Miami em-ployee accessing the badge access system through a workstation.”

According to Miami University Police Depart-ment (MUPD) Lt. Benja-min Spilman, the ability to track student activity based on card swipes is not new or exclusive to the “smart cards,” which were first is-sued to students living in dorms this fall.

“With the old I.D. cards, whether you used it at a point of sale, at Shriver Center or at a dining hall or anywhere else with a

magnetic swipe reader, there’s always been that ability to find that infor-mation after the fact,” Spilman said.

logged and loaded

Whether a student has the new or old-style I.D. card, a transaction log within the swipe access software tracks card activ-ity. For the new cards, this log also records when a student uses their card to open a door or if they have attempted to access a room they don’t have access to. Those records, however, are FERPA protected, meaning the university isn’t actively monitoring them.

“We would only go look-ing through these records when a Miami employee had a legitimate need to see that information, and when we did that we would only be looking for the specific information that was re-quested,” Bazeley said.

One such request would be to aid in a police inves-tigation, during which Ba-zeley said law enforcement would need a subpoena to access the records. Howev-er, unlike other law enforce-ment agencies, Spilman said MUPD does not need such an order to access the infor-mation because it is stored on Miami’s servers.

“To my knowledge, there’s not a subpoena is-sued for that information,” Spilman said. “[Issuing a subpoena] is not some-thing that typically has to be done.”

Spilman added that MUPD rarely uses the in-formation collected from Miami I.D. cards in inves-tigations, instead opting for other techniques.

“Like so many other things, it’s a resource,” Spilman said. “Having the resource available doesn’t

mean that it’s used ev-ery single investigation. I think [student I.D. card records] are probably very rarely used.”

‘it takes more than a phone call’

Another example of a records request that would be approved includes re-leasing the data for use in a disciplinary hearing with the Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution (OESCR), Miami’s student court, to confirm whether or not a student had swiped into his/her room around the time he/she said.

Susan Vaughn, direc-tor of OESCR, said the re-cords are rarely accessed and are mainly used for safety purposes.

“The records are accessed by our office maybe once or twice a year,” Vaughn said. “I could see other offices might need them to verify whether or not a person has actually been on campus.”

Although data can be ac-cessed if necessary, Vaughn said it is not necessarily be-ing collected, but it is being stored. Therefore, students should expect a lot of priva-cy because there has to be a really good reason to access the records.

“It’s kind of like how much money is in your ac-count. Well, who has the right to know that? Not a lot of people. So I would say laws would govern that, and students should expect a high level of privacy be-cause that’s what we tell students,” Vaughn said.

During a hearing with OESCR, students have the right to see everything in their file and can verify the information, including when they used their I.D.

By tOm dOwneyFOr tHe miami Student

The Miami University hockey team stumbled to-ward the end of 2011, but they started off 2012 on the right blade, sweeping No. 15 Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing.

The RedHawks won the first game 2-1 in overtime and then won the second game 4-0, behind senior goalie Connor Knapp both nights. It was the first time the Red and White had swept the Spartans since 2008.

In the first game, the RedHawks scored first as sophomore forward Bryon Paulazzo scored after senior forward Trent Vogelhuber’s shot was blocked. The goal came with just 2:12 left in the first period.

The Red and White’s lead lasted only a few seconds, however, as MSU tied the game up. Neither team man-aged to score again in regula-tion, despite opportunities for both squads.

Miami scored just under

1:30 into the overtime period to win the game, as freshman forward Austin Czarnik – back from competing for the United States in the World Junior Championships – found fellow freshman for-ward Jimmy Mullin, who managed to get the puck past MSU’s senior goalie Drew Palmisano to end the game.

“For the first game in a month, I thought our guys played pretty well,” Head Coach Enrico Blasi said.

The goal was the first career game winner for the freshman.

Knapp finished the game with 33 saves, as MSU out-shot the ’Hawks 34-27. However, the RedHawks’ strong play in penalty kills helped immensely as they killed all five of the Spartans’ power plays.

The second game saw Knapp continue his strong play as the ’Hawks won 4-0. It was Knapp’s first shutout of the season and ninth of his career.

The RedHawks scored their first goal on junior

forward Reilly Smith’s 5-3 power play goal, his 13th of the year. Smith was recently named team captain, the team’s third in addition to seniors Alden Hirschfeld and Will Weber.

The Red and White

would then put the game out of reach with three third period goals.

Freshman forward Tyler Biggs, senior forward Alden Hirschfeld and freshman forward Blake Coleman all scored during the period.

Both Hirschfeld and Cole-man had assists during the game as well.

Knapp finished with 20 saves for the game, 11 of which came on the Spartans’ eight power play chances. The RedHawks killed all

eight of them while con-verting on one of their six advantages.

The RedHawks also domi-nated in shots on goal, rack-ing up a season high 44 com-pared to MSU’s 20.

Freshman forward Cody Murphy also returned to the ice during the series for the first time since he suffered a left leg injury in his first col-legiate game Oct. 8.

“It was a real exciting mo-ment and I’ve really been looking forward to my first game back,” Murphy said.

The RedHawks may enter this weekend ranked once again after receiving votes for the Top 25 last week and after a sweep of the Spartans who entered the series ranked No. 15 in the nation.

Miami will go back on the road this weekend as they face off against Lake Supe-rior State University, who swept the ’Hawks earlier this year.

Puck drop is set for 7:35 and 7:05 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, repectively, in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

The Miami StudentTUESDAY, JAnUArY 10, 2012

Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826

miami uniVerSity OXFOrD, OHIOVOlume 139 nO. 30

In 1971, The Miami Student reported that the Student Affairs Council was continuing to probe retroactive action that prohibited students from receiving financial aid – including employment – from the university if they were under conduct probation. The Board of Trustees had agreed to the action, but nine students on probation before the Trustees’ decision were punished according to the new rule and had to give up their jobs at the university.

id cards enable miami to store data about student movement

Thieves steal copper over break

’Hawks sweep No. 15 Spartans on the road

i.d. cardS,SEE PAGE 9

aarOn Snyder THE STATE nEWS

Junior captain reilly Smith heads down the ice against Michigan State University’s Matt Cran-dell during a weekend series in East Lansing, Mich. Friday and Saturday. Miami’s sweep of the no. 15 Spartans gives them their third sweep of the season.

tOday in miami HiStOry

andrew Bray THE MIAMI STUDEnT

uP clOSe and PerSOnalGirl Talk, real name Gregg Michael Grillis, focuses on his music during a concert at Brick Street Bar and Grill Dec. 8. David nail will be performing at the venue Jan. 25.

By Jenni wienercamPuS editOr

Amidst Oxford home break-ins during winter va-cation, Miami University endured a theft on campus. Copper wires estimated to be worth $,000 were stolen from the university.

Associate Director of Uni-versity Communications Claire Wagner said some faculty members noticed the lights near the walkways of Tallawanda Road were off the night of Jan. 4. An investiga-tion took place the next morn-ing, which revealed missing copper cables.

“When the street lights are out, we treat those as a high priority,” Assistant Vice Presi-dent of Operations for Physi-cal Facilities Cody Powell said. “We learned that there

was no electricity being fed to those lights because the wires were gone.”

Four copper cables, each 250 ft. in length, were stolen from the utility tunnels under Tallawanda Rd., Wagner said.

Powell said the theft had two major impacts on the university.

“Safety is very important, so having lights out on cam-pus is not a good thing,” he said. “The second impact was that the university had to pay for labor and material to put the lights back into service.”

Seeing that safety was a major concern, Powell said the lights were quickly re-paired and were back in ser-vice by Friday.

Although the replacement cost Miami $3,000, Powell said he estimated the scrap value of the copper stolen is

less than that.To prevent this from hap-

pening in the future, Miami has a safety program to make sure all access to the utility tunnels is closed and secured.

“There are people in our operations that have access to the tunnels, but the best we can do is make sure things are secured,” Powell said. “We don’t want students or any other unauthorized persons down there because there is a potential risk of injury.”

Powell went on to say, “A theft is very unfortunate. The university has to scramble to pay to get everything back to how it needs to be. But we have to keep the campus safe and hopefully prevent it from happening in the future.”

The Miami Univer-sity Police Department is investigating.

EditorsLauren Ceronie

Jenni Wienercampus@miamistudEnt.nEt2 CAMPUS

TueSDaY, JanuarY 10, 2012

MU drug violations rise, highest in 3 yearsBY allison mcGillivraYFor thE miami studEnt

The number of drug violations on Miami Uni-versity’s campus for 2011 are likely to be higher than they have been in the last three years.

“Not [by] an amount that will make you fall off your chair, but they are in fact higher,” Chief of Miami University Police John Mc-Candless said.

In 2008, the Miami Uni-versity Police Department (MUPD) reported 39 drug violations; in 2009, there were 60 drug violations; in 2010, there were 55 drug violations.

In 2011, there were between 75-80 drug violations.

A violation most of-ten refers to an arrest,

McCandless said. The de-partment has a zero toler-ance policy when it comes to drug possession or use.

“If our officers come upon someone who is in possession or using drugs, we always cite or make an arrest,” McCandless said.

The Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution (OESCR) reported an in-crease in drug use violations, called a 106A violation in the student handbook, for fall 2011 from the two previous fall semesters.

In fall 2009, there were 42 students charged with 106A, in fall 2010, 51 stu-dents were charged and in fall 2011, 89 students were charged.

MUPD’s 2011 numbers have not been totally com-piled yet, McCandless said.

McCandless said it is normal for the number of

drug violations to rise and fall over a series of years and there can be no defini-tive answer for why these numbers vary.

“If you look at all of our numbers, they tend to spike either up or down which I don’t think is all that un-usual,” McCandless said. “I don’t know how much you can read into that. Is it that the officers were more assertive with getting out? Is it that the RAs were calling us more? I don’t know if I can give you a definitive answer as to why that happens.”

Despite the year-to-year statistical variations, Mc-Candless said no assump-tions can be made about the amount of drug use on campus.

“Would I say that drug use is rampant and out of control? No, I think we see

little blips up and down whether it’s drugs or alco-hol,” McCandless said.

Associate Director of OESCR Chris Taylor, said the increase in violations is part of a national trend of increase in marijuana use.

“Nationally, numbers are up for marijuana in par-ticular. This is a trend that has been happening since 2008,” Taylor said. “We are part of that trend, I don’t think there is anything in particular that has changed at Miami.”

According to both Mc-Candless and Taylor, mari-juana is the drug the highest number of students are cited for using.

“It is also the easiest drug to find in some ways because of the smell,” Taylor said.

Taylor said the Ameri-can Psychological

Association believes this increase in marijuana use may be the result of chang-ing state policies on medical marijuana usage.

Taylor said other than marijuana, OESCR sees occasional prescription drug violations and the rare violation for cocaine or ecstasy.

McCandless said MUPD sees similar trends, and that most drug violations are reported by residence hall staff.

One of the reasons the drug violation numbers for 2011 may be higher is be-cause more resident assis-tants are recognizing and reporting drug activity, ac-cording to McCandless.

Director of the Office of Residence Life Ger-ald Olson, said via email that residence assistants are told to call the Miami

University Police Depart-ment when they suspect drug use is occurring and then write an incident report of what occurred, just as they would regarding any other situation.

The drug policy of a uni-versity is determined by the state and local laws of the area.

McCandless said MUPD follows Ohio law when it comes to citing or making a drug related arrest, but there are some universities that follow city ordinances when determining their drug policies.

Miami offers sever-al ways to educate and counsel students about substance abuse, accord-ing to Leslie Haxby Mc-Neill, assistant director of

december graduates bid farewell to their alma materBY JEnn smolasEnior staFF WritEr

Hundreds of students gath-ered for commencement at Millet Hall Dec. 16 at Millett Hall to bid farewell to their Miami University years.

Miami awarded 894 di-plomas at commencement, including 89 associates, 632 bachelors, 149 masters and 17 doctorates, according to Miami’s news and public in-formation office.

Kelsey Gross, a journal-ism and international studies double major, graduated this past December.

Gross graduated in under the average four years. For now, Gross is focused on her job search, she said.

“Between January and May, I’m going to be ap-plying for jobs full time,” Gross said.

Gross said she was able to graduate in under four years because of how proac-tive she was about planning her schedule.

“I didn’t mess around with credit hours,” Gross said.

Lauren Kelly, like Gross, is also a journalism and international studies dou-ble major who graduated in December.

Kelly decided to stay an extra semester past the tra-ditional four years. She is preparing to move out to Los Angeles for an internship.

“I’d ultimately like to do fashion styling and fashion journalism,” Kelly said.

She hopes that her in-ternship may lead to a full-time position.

While graduating in under four years is typically con-sidered “early” and gradu-ating in over four years is considered “late,” University Registrar David Sauter said students should not think of it that way.

“’Early’ and ‘late’ might not be the best verbiage,” Sauter said. “For example, students seeking double majors, purposefully adding opportunities such as study abroad, etc. — are not ‘late’ as much as simply ‘taking longer to graduate than four years.’ Same for ‘early’ – perhaps ramping up summer classes, coming to us with more acceptable AP scores.”

Both Gross and Kelly agreed that there are ad-vantages to graduating in December.

“I would recommend it,” Gross said of graduating in December, adding that in her case, she still gets to en-joy a college lifestyle with her friends while applying for jobs without worrying about classes.

December graduation can be advantageous for imme-diate employment seekers as well, Kelly pointed out.

“(Employers) want people to start in January,”

Kelly said, and December graduates have that ability she said.

Marketing major Jillian Fleming also graduated at December commencement, and agrees that it is beneficial to the job search.

“An advantage of gradu-ating in December would definitely be the job market,” Fleming said. She was able to take advantage of employ-ers looking to hire in Decem-ber, and now has a job with an e-business consulting firm in the Dayton area.

Fleming, who graduated in under four years, said she strongly recommends December commencement, which she said has both good and bad aspects.

“It can be somewhat an-ticlimactic,” Gross said, pointing out that there’s not as much hype in December as there generally is before spring commencement.

Fleming added that de-spite having a job, it’s difficult leaving Miami friends behind as they finish their education.

“Enjoy the time you have left,” Fleming said, adding that she wished she could do it all over. “Miami was a great experience.”

BY laurEn cEroniEcampus Editor

In the middle of win-ter, Miami University is already preparing for the dog days of sum-mer by improving air conditioning capabilities.

Students trudging around campus on the first day back from break may have noticed fences covered in green tarps obscuring parts of Miami University’s campus.

Those green fences are protecting areas where workers are replacing the

chilled water pipes that run through campus.

Miami is increasing the size of the chilled water pipes that provide air conditioning to build-ings on campus, accord-ing to Doug Hammerle, Senior Project Engineer and project manager for the central campus chilled water project.

“There will be increased cooling loads from the Armstrong Student Center so the cooling will need more capacity,” Hammerle said. “This improvement will meet its needs along with future needs.”

The chilled water pipes carry 44 degree water and run through the univer-sity’s underground tun-nel system, connecting most major buildings on campus, according to Hammerle.

The project also includes putting a new 1,730 ton chiller in Miami’s south chiller plant. The overall project will cost $2.3 mil-lion and should be com-pleted in July, according to Hammerle. However, students can expect to see the green fences disappear in mid-March along the tunnel route.

Julia EnGElBrEcht THe MiaMi STuDenT

Green covered fences protect construction areas around campus. Miami is replacing the chilled water pipes that run beneath the campus.

University replaces chilled water pipes to meet increased cooling needs

LISA GEHRING THE MIAMI STUDENT

SAY HELLO TO A NEW SEMESTERA student leaves MacCracken hall on the way to class on the first day of the spring semester.

an advantage of graduating in December would definitely be the job market.”

Jillian FlEminGmiami univErsitY GraduatE

druGs,See PaGe 9

*Savings based on total North American textbook rental savings vs new book price.Individual store savings vary by location. See store for details. 161JBTS12

RENTNOWSAVENOW

Follett’s Miami Co-op Bookstore110 East High Street

www.miamicoop.bkstr.com

Stop in and take a roll of the dicefor your chance TO WIN BIG!

*Limited time only. See store for details.

3 TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012www.miamistudent.net

By Catherine UBryStaff Writer

When Miami University students depart campus and venture home for breaks, the small businesses in the up-town district face the pros-pect of keeping business up without students around to help sales.

Summer and winter breaks are the periods of the year in which uptown business own-ers see the most slowdown in sales due to the decrease in students on campus who go uptown for shopping, eating and entertainment.

Business during summer break is surprisingly not as slow as many may imagine, according to Economic De-velopment Director for the City of Oxford Alan Kyger.

“It is usually slower around Christmas than summer,” Kyger said. “In the summer, there is still summer school and Miami has a lot of camps and activities that bring other people into town.”

He also said during the hol-idays some businesses, main-ly bars, employ strategies to keep revenue coming in when the students are gone.

“Over Thanksgiving, a few bars have nights called, “Townie Nights,” which at-tempts to encourage people who are returning to their hometown of Oxford to get out and mix and mingle with other people they may have used to know from home and to catch up with old friends,” Kyger said.

However, not all businesses

see a huge slowdown during the holidays or other times when most students are at home on breaks. Some busi-nesses report seeing a spike in revenue, according to Kyger.

“There is a perception that there is little parking avail-able during the school year so people think that because it is break, they can park and go uptown to places like Fi-esta Charra or Buffalo Wild Wings, or other places they may not always go very of-ten during the school year,” Kyger said.

Employee Cheri Corcoran of the shop The Apple Tree, agreed that business certainly

slows down when students leave for breaks, although it does not slow down too se-verely and the store still gets a decent amount of business in the summer.

“Business does get slower, but it has actually been really good because of the camps and activities in the summer”, Corcoran said. “It’s been sur-prisingly good in summer because of orientation but as for Christmas, we’ve done really, really well and the townspeople have been great for shopping.”

Bryan Fries of Bagel and

Deli Shop said although busi-ness is slower during the win-ter than the summer during break, there is still a decent amount of business when stu-dents leave thanks to people visiting Oxford.

“There’s obviously a larger difference with us be-ing not as busy and we have reduced hours with not as many people working, but we still get business,” Fries said. “We had a lot of people from Cincinnati, Colum-bus and Dayton coming back for the holidays who would come by for a bagel, so we’ve been getting pretty good business.”

Fries said Bagel and Deli reduces its normal work-ing hours much more dur-ing winter break compared to the school sessions in the summer.

“It is slower during win-ter break because during the summer there are some stu-dents still around for classes,” Fries said.

Sophomore Drew Mc-Cormick said, “It’s inevitable that businesses are going to be slower over the holiday breaks because uptown’s main consumers are the stu-dents at the university.”

By JeSSiCa BargaStaff Writer

Students and professors donated time and resources during finals week and over winter break to help out those who benefit from the Oxford Choice Pantry.

A food and supplies drive started by Miami University professor Glenn Muschert succeeded in collecting over several dozen grocery bags of goods to donate.

“I was reading The Miami Student and there was an ar-ticle about the students who go to the food pantry, and it just got me thinking,” Muschert said. “A lot of students [in my sociology class] feel that we’re

studying other people, but we are touched by those issues.”

Muschert said hunger is an issue that students can help fix.

Muschert spoke to his own class and sent an email to fel-low faculty members to share with their classes, encouraging them to bring in food, hygiene products and household items that could be donated to the pantry for those in need.

“It was a small idea that didn’t take much time to do,” Muschert said.

After collecting the supplies that students had brought in, Muschert and other participat-ing professors brought them to the Oxford Choice Pantry.

“We were bringing the

food in through the back and there were [customers] com-ing in to get the food … it

was a really neat experience,” Muschert said.

Overall, Muschert collected about a dozen grocery bags of items from his class, with about a 22 percent participation rate for students in that class.

“I think the important thing is that this was a kind of grass-roots movement,” Muschert

said. “It was just something that we got together and did for the community.”

Pepper Stetler was another professor who participated in the food drive.

“Glenn sent the email [after

reading] The Miami Student article, and it was so easy to do … the response from my students was really impres-sive,” Stetler said. “I was re-ally proud of Miami students for how they responded,” add-ing that her classes provided about 15 grocery bags of items to donate.

First-year Megan Dunagan said she was not aware of the food drive at the time, but is supportive of the idea of help-ing out people in need, espe-cially other students.

“Students have other things to worry about rather than getting their next meal … they should just be focused on getting their degree,” Dunagan said.

Center offers help for rising heating costs

Uptown businesses adapt to remain profitable during breaks

resolution passed to improve perilous intersection

Drive targets student hunger

JUStin reaShLiSa reyMann

COMMUnity@MiaMiStUdent.net4 COMMUNITYTUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012

POLiCe BEAT

For Christmas we’ve done really, really well and the townspeople have been great for shopping.”

Cheri COrCOraneMPLOyee at the aPPLe tree

I was reading The Miami Student and there was an article about the students who go to food pantry, and it just got me thinking.”

gLenn MUShertMiaMi UniVerSity PrOfeSSOr

Bar fight ensues uptown, male hit by beer bottle

erratic driving leads to OVi for drunk driver

Unlicensed driver cited for drug paraphernalia

By MOrgan SChafferfOr the MiaMi StUdent

With the winter months in full swing, the heaters (and bills) will be cranking up ev-erywhere. What do residents of Oxford who cannot afford the monthly bill do?

Oxford Police Department Sgt. John Varley said there are not specific laws pertain-ing to the eviction of families due to their inability to pay energy bills

“It is all circumstantial,” Varley said. “It will depend on the situation. Obviously if there are kids involved, they’re probably not going to turn the heat off.”

“Families who need help with bills go to the Oxford Family Resource Center, which also helps families with clothing and food. Also, the churches in Oxford are very generous. Families can go there to present their needs and the churches will help in whatever ways they can,” Miami University first-year and native of Oxford Joop Roberts said.

Director of the Oxford Family Resource Center Diane Ruther-Vierling said there are several programs and agencies designated to helping lower income fami-lies cover heating costs. She also said there are an in-creasing number of people going to homeless shelters in Hamilton.

“Duke Energy has a pro-gram called Heat Share, and we have access to some of that money. There is also HEAT,

which is a federal government program helping to provide people with heating utilities,” Ruther-Vierling said.

Ruther-Vierling also said the center receives dona-tions from other individuals and churches.

Glenwood Energy Gen-eral Manager Keith Smith said bills may not neces-sarily increase for cus-tomers using natural gas, depending on natural gas prices.

“Typically, heating bills normally don’t rise in the winter,” Smith said. “When you’re comparing heating costs, a lot of people think that electricity is less expen-sive than natural gas. We are finding that electricity is about twice the price of natural gas currently.”

The amount of money spent on heating a home can vary.

“It really depends on the storage capacity, how much is in storage and how cold the winter is,” Smith said. “If it is a really cold winter, it will have a slight increase. Aver-age cost of natural gas is $8 an MCF, which is measured as 1,000 cubic feet of gas. Cost has remained relatively stable over the past three or four years.”

In concurrence with Rob-erts and Ruther-Vierling, Smith also said some people are willing to help.

“There are several state and federal agencies that help people with paying bills. We also try to help if we can. Typically, there are people who fall behind,” Smith said.

By JUStin reaShCOMMUnity editOr

The Oxford City Council unanimously passed a resolu-tion approving an application for a Transportation, Com-munity and System Preserva-tion (TSP) grant on behalf of Miami University from the state of Ohio during its regular meeting Jan. 3. T

he resolution allows fund-ing for Miami to improve pub-lic safety on city streets and focused on improving traffic flow and pedestrian safety at the corners of U.S. Route 27 and Spring Street, and Maple and Spring streets.

The intersection at U.S. Route 27 was especially dan-gerous in 2011. On Dec. 7, three separate accidents oc-cured on Miami’s campus. One woman obtained such injuries that required her to be

flown to the closest local hos-pital to receive urgent care.

The application was a result of a university-sponsored cam-pus circulation master plan, according to Senior Project Architect and Manager John Seibert. With the consultation of Baker Engineering, Seibert and a university project com-mittee focused on improving pedestrian safety on campus. More specifically, the commit-tee focused on improving traf-fic flow and pedestrian safety at the corners of U.S. Route 27 and Spring Street, and Maple and Spring streets.

Since the grant is through the federal government, Mi-ami’s application had to be supported and submitted by the local government, Seibert said. With the passage of this resolution, Oxford is now the co-sponsor of the grant.

“We believe that

resignalization of traffic lights at Spring St. and Patterson Ave. is plausible,” Seibert said. “We are absolutely happy that the resolution was passed, and if we get the funds, we will do due diligence on the specific planning of the project.”

The committee will be noti-fied March 31 to be told they were granted the funds by the federal government.

The deadline for the federal grant was Jan. 6, which caused much discussion at the meet-ing. Also, the specifics of the plan were not fully understood by the council.

The passage of this resolu-tion is only a one-time approv-al for the city manager to sign and sponsor the grant, accord-ing to Oxford Mayor Rich-ard Keebler. This means that even if the grant is approved, it is not guaranteed the city will accept it.

“My concern wasn’t about the overall grant, but the spe-cifics that were listed in the ap-plication,” Keebler said.

The main issue the city council had was that they were approving a grant before un-derstanding and approving each detail within it.

“We had the cart before the horse,” Keebler said.

The resolution passed unan-imously because, after further discussion, the city council agreed to sponsor it but in-sisted on reviewing and revis-ing it before they accept it if indeed the federal government awards it to them.

“We need to find what is best for the community, which is the city and Miami as a whole, and we haven’t had the opportunity to see the project as a whole but the resolution passed because it had in there time for further in-

vestigation and development,” Keebler said.

On the issue of danger-ous vehicle and pedestrian traffic listed in the commit-tee’s master plan, Keebler said that stoplights would be the best alternative to the current situation.

“Stop signs for the most part might help pedestrian safety but they are a major im-pediment for flowing traffic,” Keebler said. “Stoplights do a much better job in both, so I want to see discussion on that particular item.”

The council also unani-mously passed a resolution creating residential permit parking on Rose Avenue be-tween Poplar Street and Cam-pus Avenue. The permit park-ing allows for city residents to have clearer streets to improve parking, especially with Rose Avenue close to campus.

Around 2 a.m. Sunday, Oxford police officers were conducting an in-vestigation at Brick Street Bar and Grill, when a “large bar fight” broke out inside the business. Of-ficers escorted a bloody male away in handcuffs, but later determined that he was a victim and had been hit in the head with a beer bottle. The victim de-clined to file a report and refused medical treatment. Police said they have no suspects at this time.

Around 2:30 a.m. Sat-urday, an Oxford Police Department officer parked in the Walgreens parking lot noticed a car going at a high rate of speed through the Kroger parking lot on S. Locust Street. The car stopped in the road at least 30 seconds after bot-toming out, police reports said. The car accelerated rapidly, going 12 miles per hour over the posted 25 miles per hour speed lim-it. The officer caught up to the car at the intersection of Locust and High streets at a red light.

The vehicle did not move through the first green light and waited about 20 seconds through the second green light before crossing through the intersection. The car then crossed the double-yellow line and turned onto College Corner Pike, where the officer stopped the vehicle.

The driver, identified as 60-year-old David Hol-lingsworth, had slurred speech and difficulty keeping his head up and admitted to having a few drinks and taking pre-scription narcotics.

Hollingsworth’s blood alcohol concentration was .14, police said.

Hollingsworth was ar-rested for operating a ve-hicle under the influence, marked lanes violations and speeding.

Around 8:30 p.m. Fri-day, an Oxford Police De-partment officer observed a gold vehicle driving on College Corner Pike with only one headlight functioning. The vehicle pulled abruptly into the parking lot of Auto Zone and as the officer pulled up behind him, the driver, identified as 29-year-old William Hixson, ex-ited the vehicle with his hands in the air. Hixson told the officer “I don’t have a driver’s license, you caught me.” The of-ficer searched the vehicle and found a plastic baggy with 28 grams of marijua-na in it on the passenger seat floorboards, as well as scale and plastic bags in the back seat. Hixson was cited for possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.

private bedrooms. leather-style furniture. game room. fitness center. business center. tanning room. individual leases.

scan

&

lea

rn apply online @ hawkshousing.com513.523.7666 • 5262 Brown Road

when you sign a lease

gift card$500be entered to win a

$429+ rates atdeposit+ zero

Limited time only. Rates, fees, deadlines & utilities included are subject to change.

5 TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012www.miamistudent.net

EditorsNoëlle BerNard

orIaNa PaWlYK Editorial@miamistudEnt.nEt6 OPINION

TUeSdaY, JaNUarY 10, 2012

Editorial

rule of Thumb

Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826

The Miami Student

Editorial Board

sam Kay edITor IN ChIef

BEthany BrunEr NeWS edITor

noëllE BErnard edITorIal edITor

oriana PaWlyK edITorIal edITor

Justin rEash CoMMUNITY edITor

laurEn CEroniE CaMPUS edITor

JEnni WiEnEr CaMPUS edITor

Jm riEGEr SPorTS edITor

all letters must be signed in order to be printed. Please send letters via e-mail to: editorial@miamistudent.net We reserve the right to edit for length, content and clarity.

PatriCK GEysEr The MIaMI STUdeNT

syllabus weekThe reset button has been pushed. Make this semester better than the last and hit the ground running.

last semester for seniorsIt’s a bittersweet time for seniors as they take their final courses and prepare to say goodbye to the red bricks and toasted rolls in May.

Jun BEi The MIaMI STUdeNT

improving pedestrian safetyThis is long overdue, but hopefully pedestrians can feel safer in trusting crosswalks again in the future.

Copper banditsPolice are trying to identify those responsible for stealing more than 250 feet of copper wire from Miami’s campus, worth about $3,000.

Women’s basketball team winning eight consecutive gamesWomen’s basketball is making Miami proud! Now it’s time for redhawk fans to show their unadulterated support. The ladies have a home game at 7 p.m. Wednesday … Be there!

hockey sweeping michigan stateCongratulations to Miami hockey for defeating (and shaming) a ranked team!

Beyoncé and Jay-Z welcome daughter, Blue ivy CarterHollywood added another famous child to the mix Saturday. We will all see in about 15 years if Blue’s famous parents passed on the gift of music.

to ensure student privacy, university must be transparent

Miami University col-lects a wealth of informa-tion about students using I.D. cards. When students purchase something at a dining hall or swipe into a building, that informa-tion does not just disappear but is stored electronically. Now that students use I.D. cards instead of keys to en-ter dorm rooms, the amount and detail of data the uni-versity collects has reached new levels, raising concerns about student privacy.

It is time to evalu-ate what information the university collects, why and for a shorter time pe-riod it is stored and under what circumstances it can be accessed.

Transaction log software is found within each swipe card and the new cards have more advanced soft-ware because now students need swipe access for their individual rooms instead of just to gain access to the building. This wealth of information creates a sort of record of students’ daily lives.

These records are not actively monitored be-cause the information is protected by federal pri-vacy laws. However, if the police or other university employees need access to the logged information, it is readily available. It is not

clear whether there is a pre-cise protocol for accessing these records.

The editorial board of The Miami Student sees problems with the current approach to managing this data. If this information gets into the wrong hands, it could be detrimental for students. According to the university, the informa-tion that is tracked moni-tors how often and when a student accesses his or her room and if a student tries to open a room they do not have access to. The argument is that the infor-mation has the potential to assist police and the Of-fice of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution (OE-SCR) to identify trends for delinquent students.

The board questions the necessity of the university keeping records of students’ comings and goings for one years time. Since the trans-action log software is fairly new, the university appears to not have determined

protocols on how to man-age the data. At this time, the university is keeping the logged data for a year but that may be too long.

This board suggests the university reassess the se-curity of the data logs. In order to ensure student pri-vacy, significant measures articulating access policies need to be implemented. Moreover, the univer-sity needs to be transpar-ent to students about how their movements are being tracked. Instead of relying on the code of conduct to detail the power of swipe cards, the university should tell students upfront when they first receive I.D. cards all that the system entails. Ultimately, students de-serve to know what data the university collects.

This board would like to see an open dialogue between students and the administration about what data should be collected and what privacy rights students have.

The following piece, written by the editorial editors, reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board.

In order to ensure student privacy, significant measures articulating access policies need to be implemented. Moreover, the university needs to be transparent to students about how their movements are being tracked.

is looking for

designers.E-mail Colleen at yatescl@muohio.edu

for more information.

MiamiStudent

The

As the GOP debates con-tinue in full force, an NPR article on Sunday asked the title question, “Has Obama Waged a War on Religion?” alongside the accusations coming from candidates. Seemingly, if there was one thing the candidates agree on, it’s the conceived no-tion of conflict between the religious and otherwise.

Rick Perry made the bold-est claim, saying the war on religion not only exists, but also belongs to Presi-dent Barack Obama. Rick Santorum comes in second by saying we’re coming to a conflict between “man’s laws and God’s laws.” And how does that con-flict come to be? Accord-ing to Perry, such a con-flict spawns from allowing gays to serve openly in the military. Any reason-able observer might then ask, “How does that affect those candidates?”

While the article exam-ines the different positions on which both sides feel they are playing a zero sum game, it ends on the most important question. What ever happened to live and let live? The opposite side of live and let live is noth-ing new to political tirades, yet remains something ev-eryone should question. In-stead of focusing so much

on whether or not some-one should be allowed to do something, instead ask what it matters that they can. The decision should come down on the side of what concretely stems from a person’s actions.

Consider this: a couple wishes to get married to express their love for one another, and they do so by participating in the com-monly occurring religious ceremony that is marriage. They state their love for one another, and remain faithful. Now, should they be allowed to do this? Well, according to the First Amendment, this is guaranteed. This marriage has zero bearing on the lives of other people, un-less the offended party is intruding upon the privacy of others. By the way, that couple is same sex. The situation has come full circle. It seems Perry and Santorum are personally waging a war on religion by “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

I am uninterested in de-bating the religion of those preaching it to the world, but I wonder about the environment that creates them. The word ‘bigot’ gets thrown around, I’d wager, as much as any other when describing conservatives.

A bigot is to be under-stood as someone intolerant of other creeds or beliefs. It isn’t limited to those who are religious, just those who are so sure someone else is wrong, that they must not be tolerated. I’d double down on my wager at this point, and say it in-cludes most of the people using it. I have seen so few arguments about conserva-tives being wrong on the matter, because people skip so quickly into playground name calling, which begs the question if there is even time for them to make such an argument.

Of course, there are those who do legitimately defend the points, yet the political climate continues to ignore this by building itself off the condescending stances that someone is wrong or stupid by virtue of their distance to the right or left. Whether the person is the bigot, or being called it, the two are cut

from the same cloth. People are entirely too focused on other people and how they live their lives. The desire to eliminate plurality is appar-ent as soon as the presenta-tion boils down to furor in place of argument.

Taking the optimistic stance might look like this: while so many of these people rear ugly heads in public, they are merely examples of misguided at-tempts at achieving good actions; actions that might create a higher caliber citi-zen. But how can good be forged in a storm of so much negativity? Why is it that politics and religion are to be avoided at family din-ners? People feel cornered, and being wrong scares them. Maybe that’s because instead of the idea that be-ing wrong today means being right tomorrow, be-ing wrong today makes tomorrow full of shame and humiliation.

7TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012 OP EDwww.miamistudent.net

strategically speakingJessica sink

2012: let the countdown begin

Taking the optimistic stance might look like this: while so many of these people rear ugly heads in public, they are merely examples of misguided attempts at achieving good actions; actions that might create a higher caliber citizen.

Happy New Year! Here it is: 2012, the 12th year of the third millennium of the 21st century. The United Nations General Assem-bly designated 2012 as the “International Year of Co-operatives,” and the “In-ternational Year of Sustain-ability for All,” in order to emphasize the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, whatever that means.

The year 2012 looks to be a remarkable one. It marks the second and last solar transit of Venus of the century and the 2012 Sum-mer Olympics in London. It also marks the 60th anni-versary of Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne, the 60th anniversary of NBC’s Today Show and the 100th anniversary of a very big boat that sank next to an iceberg. A variety of popu-lar beliefs also suggest that 2012 will see the apocalyp-tic end of the world, as we know it.

According to an ancient Mayan prophecy, there will be a shift in the global cal-endar on Dec. 21. At that

point, the calendar reaches the end of its 5,126th epoch. This has been interpreted to suggest the end of the world will come that day through natural disasters and world-wide catastrophes including earthquakes, floods and dra-matic temperature changes. The movie 2012 began with images of the state of California plunging into the sea, and balls of fire falling from the sky. Not intended to be taken seriously, of course. After all, it is just a movie.

Yet, with any dooms-day prediction, people get excited. Believers are fas-cinated with the idea that 2012 could be the last year of earth. As with the infa-mous Y2K event, many are preparing, stocking food, buying vacation packages to the Caribbean and regis-tering for skydiving lessons. The official website for the apocalyptic date, www.De-cember212012.com, posted an article about the Mexi-can city of Tapachula in-stalling a countdown clock in the middle of the city to keep everyone focused on

the amount of time left. Although there is no cer-

tainty about these predic-tions, merely speculation, there could be a bright side to a coming doomsday. In an attempt to think posi-tively, for Miami Univer-sity students, it would mean no more group projects, internships, student loans, utility bills or frustratingly short one day “fall breaks.” For everyone else, no more IRS, credit card bills or workplace issues.

Perhaps Congress already knows something the rest of us don’t know. Why worry about the impossibility of repaying a $15.2 trillion na-tional debt or the danger of nuclear war? If the world is ending in December, there is no reason to fret. Ron Paul may be smarter than we think.

All jokes aside, no one knows whether 2012 will be the last year we all live and breathe. No day is guaranteed. It’s extremely likely that, before our time, a dinosaur went to bed thinking there would be a tomorrow. Ultimately, the

goal should be to live each day like it is your last. Not to throw it away on mean-ingless pursuits, but really do something worthwhile. Ask yourself, if today were your last day, would you be able to stand up and be proud of it?

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s char-acter relives the same day over and over again, caught in an endless cycle of wak-ing up to Feb. 2. It is only after he learns the true val-ue of life that he is able to escape and become a better person. There is a count-down clock on each of our lives; the goal is to be sure those minutes really matter.

It seems we are con-stantly looking for an end, preparing for a doomsday, living in uncertainty. Yet, if we always fear the end, we won’t really enjoy the journey. Whatever hap-pens, make 2012 a great year. Make good choices and always find the joy in each day. The world could end on Dec. 21 or it could end on Dec. 20. It is a leap year, after all.

J. Daniel Watkins

While gOp questions war on religion, they are creating their own

the cOntrarian

erin killinger THE MIAMI STUDENT

What is your new year’s resolution?

student on the street

“To be able to cook more healthy food at home.”

kellie huebnerseniOr, accOunting

Jess Dell’aquiOasOphOmOre, accOunting

rachel DaWsOnFirst-year, marketing

rOss smithFirst-year, marketing

Dustin gutzWillerFirst-year, early chilDhOOD eDucatiOn

asiaameighFirst-year, psychOlOgy

Jessie WagOnerFirst-year, music eDucatiOn

nickcraWFOrDseniOr,eDucatiOn

“To take all my vitamins.”

“To get in better physical shape and tone up.”

“To learn to play the guitar.”

“To grow in my relationship with Jesus.”

“To learn how to eat with chopsticks.”

“To get to know more people on campus.”

“To improve my study habits and skills.”

EditorMEGAN MCGILL

ArtS@miAmiStudEnt.nEt8 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTTUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012

By mEgAn mcgillArtS And EntErtAinmEnt Editor

Over break, many students tuned in from their respective holiday locations to watch Mi-ami University Associ-ate Professor of music Pansy Chang perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

“I stayed up to watch her,” senior music education major Jeni Berecek said.

“I watched the entire show because I didn’t know when she’d be on. Pink Martini came on at the end as the musical guest. It was really cool to see my teacher on na-tional television.”

Berecek studies cel-lo with Chang. Chang performed with the 12-

member group Pink Martini, an acclaimed ensemble that performs music all over the world that crosses the genres of classical, jazz and pop.

“The band leader [Thomas Lauderdale] is enamored with mu-sic of the early 1900s. The band records songs in all different kinds of languages,” Chang said. According to Chang, the group enjoys internation-al acclaim and is espe-cially popular in Europe. Appearing on the To-night Show was part of the group’s Holiday Tour, which also included a New Year’s Eve perfor-mance at Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

“It’s definitely work, but it’s fun work,” Chang said. According to Chang, the

group spent the entire day at the studio on the day of their appearance on the Tonight Show. Pink Martini rehearsed

during the day so camera crews would know where and when to direct their cameras. According to Chang, they filmed the show around 4 p.m.

“The show is filmed in the afternoon and aired and night, but it’s filmed in real time,” Chang said.

“There’s a commercial break beftore the musical guest, so we had a short time to run out onstage and get settled.”

“It was cool to see her [Chang] work together with the violinist. Her husband [Dan Faehnle] is a guitarist and he was fea-tured a lot,” Berecek said. Sophomore vocal per-formance major Gibran Mahmud also tuned in to watch Chang.

“They did a close up on Professor Chang. She looked like a diva play-ing her cello,” Mahmud said. “I was so proud and thought, ‘That’s my teacher!’”

According to Mahmud, Chang is widely respect-ed by the music students at Miami.

“She has really high expectations because she really believes we can achieve a lot. Everyone appreciates her feedback and seeks her opinion,” Berecek said.

Chang has been per-forming with Pink Mar-tini since 1998. Accord-ing to Chang, the group is very understanding of her teaching sched-ule and always wel-comes her to perform whenever she is able.

AndrEW BrAy THE MIAMI STUDENT

locAl BAnd FilmS in WilliAmS HAll StudioThe Ground’s filming took place over winter break in preparation for their MUTV debut. This fimling will air on MUTV within the next two weeks.

Professor plays on ‘Tonight Show’

By Emily KEttErErFor tHE miAmi StudEnt

For thousands of years, women were the subjects of male artists and not fully rec-ognized as artists themselves, but a new exhibit at the Miami University Art Museum tells a different story. Tuesday, Cura-tor Jason Shaiman of the muse-um unveiled the second part of his exhibit Out of the Shadows: The Rise of Women in Art.

According to Shaiman, the seed for this two-part exhibit was planted in him as an un-dergraduate student when he realized a lack of female artists being discussed in his classes and textbooks.

“I came to realize that there were very few women rep-resented until you get into the 20th century… I always thought there had to be more,” Shaiman said.

“When I came here and saw the collections that we had, I knew that I finally had the op-portunity to pursue the topic.”

Part one of Out of the Shad-ows focused on the depiction of women in art and began to tell the tale of women as art-ists. Its galleries focused on landscapes, portraiture and non-representational art. Ac-cording to Art History Profes-sor Pepper Stetler, the exhibit was a balanced way of looking at both women as artists and subjects by not privileging one over the other and creating dif-ferent ways to talk about the relationship between women and art.

“The part of the show that was my favorite was the sec-tion of self-portraits by Audrey Flack,” Stetler said.

“By playing with the idea of identity, I think the Flack paint-ings emphasized that women have filled a variety of roles and chosen various identities in the history of art. It makes viewers think about how wom-en are in control of their public identity, playing and manipu-lating it like Flack does.”

Three galleries and around 200 items make up Part two. The galleries indicate a pointed focus toward women as the art-ist. Medium rather than subject matter take precedence.

The first gallery entitled The Focal Point of Women utilizes photography to explore wom-en’s influence in art. It includes early portraiture of women from Oxford’s surrounding areas, famous photojournal-ists like Margaret Bourke-White, and also more recent local photographers.

The second and third galler-ies, Weaving Women into His-tory and Material Culture of Women, focus on items from all over the globe, diverse time periods and mediums. Vintage dresses made by women in sweatshops from Cincinnati stand next to rugs from Persia. The diverse material culture also includes everything from Native American woven bas-kets and African woodcarv-ings to pottery from a former Miami professor. All of these items come together under the Miami Art Museum’s roof to contribute to the narrative of women and art.

Out of the Shadows: The Rise of Women in Art Part II will be open from Jan. 10 to May 12.

The Miami University Art Museum is located at 801 S. Patterson Ave. Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

For more information, visit the museum’s website at www.muohio.edu/artmuseum

By cHriStinA cASAnoFor tHE miAmi StudEnt

The Department of Theater will be holding auditions for Thornton Wilder’s Our Town from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Call-backs

will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday.

A sign-up sheet with audition time blocks will be posted on the Call Board in the Center of Performing Arts by the Green Room (Room 144), where those audition-ing will check-in before their scheduled audition

time. Report to the Green Room 15 minutes before your audition and an as-sistant will direct you to the audition location.

Those auditioning need to prepare two one-minute contrasting monologues as well as a 30-second scene of pantomimed ac-tion without words or

props. Cold readings will be available for those who don’t have monologues.

It is recommended for those auditioning to read the play before auditions. Copies are on reserve at Amos Music Library.

There are a number of roles available in this quintessential American

play. Showing the lives of the town of Grover’s Corners, Our Town ex-plores life, love and death in a small town at the turn of the 20th century. Roles include the Gibbs and Webb families and a number of townspeople who navigate the New Hampshire town.

By cHriStinA cASAnoFor tHE miAmi StudEnt

Most students re-turned to campus after three relaxing weeks, but a group of six students from the Department of Theatre got back to the grind early.

On Jan. 3, these stu-dents left Oxford for the University of Illinois Ur-bana-Champaign to attend the 2012 Kennedy Center American College The-ater Festival (KCACTF) Regional Competition.

Every year, Miami Uni-versity sends a group of students to KCACTF to compete in different ar-eas of theater arts. Student actors and designers are nominated for exceptional

work on shows, and stage managers and designers can enter themselves into competitions as well.

One of the nominated design competitors, se-nior Lawton Lovely, received an honorable

mention second place award for his sound de-sign for Miami University Theater’s production of Independence (February 2011). Lovely wrote and

recorded the music for the interludes between scenes and for intermission.

Mari Taylor, a sopho-more, entered an unreal-ized set design for compe-tition. This is the first year she attended KCACTF.

Taylor was the only stu-dent from Miami compet-ing in this category.

“I was terrified by the judges and got grilled, but did not pass through

to finals. My professor mentioned that I was one of the big ‘maybe’s’ and I should be very proud of myself. It was a fun expe-rience,” Taylor said.

Junior Christi Mueller also competed for the first time under the category of stage management.

“It’s a lot different than showing a design or act-ing because a stage man-ager doesn’t really have a physical thing to pres-ent other than a binder filled with notes and cues, so I had to explain the challenges I had and how I overcame them,” Mueller said.

Students who attend KCACTF have a multi-tude of workshops and shows that they can at-tend when they are not

competing. Workshops in-volved all areas of theater, from acting and move-ment to hands-on design.

According to Taylor, the annual festival is always a great reminder of why theater people do what they do.

“I was surprised about how many students around our region strive to share theater like I want to do. All the creative peo-ple surrounding me made me feel proud- like I was apart of the elite crowd. It was a great experience,” Taylor said.

“KCACTF was a great reminder to me that I would like to pursue a higher form of theatri-cal art than just com-mercial entertainment,” Mueller said.

I was surprised about how many students around our region strive to share theater like I want to do.”

mAri tAylormiAmi uniVErSity SoPHomorE

They did a close up on Professor Chang. She looked like a diva playing her cello. I was so proud and thought, ‘Thats my teacher!’”

giBrAn mAHmudSoPHomorE

new art exhibit showcases women

Students refine theatrical skills at Illinois competition

Department of Theater invites students to audition

health education.There are drug education

classes and counseling op-tions for students who be-lieve they have a problem with drugs or other forms of substance abuse.

Ethics and Student Con-flict Resolution also issues these classes and an assess-ment counseling session to those charged with 106A.

McNeill said these sanc-tions are meant to protect the opportunities that stu-dents have available to them for the future.

“I think it would behoove students to think about what some of the potential consequences are, the legal, the health consequences, as well as thinking long term, because there are some types of violations that can limit the kinds of choices you have in the future,” McNeill said.

According to Bazeley, removing identifying information from an I.D. card would prevent students from be-ing able to use a meal plan, the Rec-reational Sports Center, checking out at the library, paying for printouts, vending machines and numerous oth-er things, so it’s necessary to keep that information on the cards.

Still, in an effort to protect student privacy, Vaughn said it takes more than a phone call to access the records and the school also documents any

record requests.“It’s probably going to take more

than a phone call saying ‘hey, give me some records,’” Vaughn said. “They’re going to want to know why you want them.”

Not-so-private practice?

Despite the safety benefits and technical necessities of storing data generated from the use of student I.D. cards, the collection of personal infor-mation does not sit well with every Miami student.

Sophomore J.D. Armor, who uses

the new I.D. card to access his dorm room in Scott Hall, was unaware that the university has the ability to view his whereabouts based on his swipe activity.

“It almost feels like Big Brother, being tracked like that,” Armor said. “It’s not that I didn’t realize they could probably collect it, but to use [my swipe data] in ethics hearings or some-thing like that seems invasive.”

According to Bazeley, the univer-sity is committed to maintaining stu-dent records safely and securely. The records are housed within the secure data center, which is regularly patched with anti-virus and firewall measures.

Bazeley also said any information collected from I.D. card activity is stored on Miami’s servers for one year before being deleted, per the school’s record retention policy.

“The records will be stored for one year and then they are destroyed,” Ba-zeley said. “Pretty much every record that Miami creates in the course of do-ing business falls into some form of a records retention schedule, and the time frame for the door logs was con-firmed by the university secretary who maintains that records schedule.”

Still, Armor said many of his friends were surprised to learn about just how much the school could know about her schedule.

“I don’t really think it’s something people think about,” Armor said. “Most of my friends probably never considered the possibility of someone knowing when they went in and out of their room. It’s not a normal thing to worry about.”

While Vaughn acknowledged that the system is not perfect, she still believes the security benefits of the new system outweigh the privacy concerns.

“I think it’s a really, really good idea to have the swipe access,” Vaughn said. “I guess a side note is that it does allow you to see if a student has en-tered in or out of (their rooms), but I think it has more safety value, like if your swipe is stolen you can actually shut it off.”

9 TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012 CAMPUSwww.miamistudent.net

Groups on campus offer support for gay students, alumniBy Taylor HoseyFor THe MiaMi sTudeNT

With sleek and electrifying black hair going all the way down to the floor, a long dark pencil skirt almost touching the ground and a tight-fitting blouse with a pearl necklace and bracelet to perfectly compliment it, the costume chosen to portray classic pop singer Cher this past Hallow-een was just about complete.

Only a little make-up was still needed but the style of makeup left first-year Cam-eron Stevenson in a bind.

“This was the first time I’d gotten to dress up this year,” he said. “I didn’t know what exactly was ‘too much’ or what was just right.”

As a gay first-year at Miami University, Steven-son spent his first semester getting comfortable in his own skin.

“I had come out before coming here, but didn’t know what anyone else [on campus] would have to say about it,” Stevenson said.

However, any form of doubt has subsided. Steven-son boasts about the positive reaction his costume received uptown and about how he’s made so many new friends here so far.

“I’ve found the right friends here who don’t judge me on my sexuality and I know they’ll support me through whatever,” Steven-son said. “I know we’ll be friends all four years.”

Besides friends helping him on his journey as a gay student here, he also has plans to take advantage of various lesbian, gay, bisex-ual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) events hosted around campus.

“I’ve heard about the drag

shows that are done for char-ity here and I definitely plan on participating,” he said.

The drag shows – four a year – are run by the Spec-trum LGBTQ organization, raising thousands of dollars for local, national and inter-national charities, Spectrum president Mark Noviski said.

Although Stevenson himself is not a part of the organization, he still had very positive things to say about it.

“It helps people become so much more comfortable with their sexuality, knowing there are other people here to help support them,” Stephen-son said. “I participate in just about all of the events that Spectrum holds.”

Spectrum is self-described as the largest LGBTQ alli-ance of undergraduate stu-dents on campus and has seen an increase in both

membership and participa-tion over the past several years, Noviski said.

“The campus climate has gone from being extremely hostile to moderately accept-ing over the past few years, and many people have been coming out as a result,” Noviski said.

Within Spectrum and the ever-increasing positivity for gay activism, several events are planned for students all year round such as the drag shows, awareness week and most recently, the counter-event to the Westboro Baptist Church picket, Unite Miami.

Such events have many in attendance besides just those in Spectrum, Noviski said. “Members of other di-versity organizations attend our events and vice versa,” Noviski said. “In essence, people who face discrimi-nation and prejudice tend to

stick together, especially at a university known for a lack of diversity.”

Such organizations include Gleam, Haven and 1809 LGBT Alumni.

As a faculty-run organiza-tion, Gleam includes employ-ees from professors to coach-es. The organization supports employees who have come out while interacting with student organizations.

“The main focus of [this is letting students] know that there are [lesbian, gay, bisex-ual and transgender] faculty and staff on campus and that they are not alone,” Gleam member Dan Meyers said.

Additionally, there are alumni and graduate groups to attract a wider range of Miami students. These or-ganizations use their time to collaborate with others on campus and have bimonthly meetings to discuss various

events that are coming up and how to spread positivity within the campus.

Haven, the queer graduate alliance, is an organization that is geared towards those at Miami for graduate school-ing. With goals to connect with other LGBTQ groups on campus, many outings are planned to collaborate with such groups such as Hallow-een parties, election bashes and meetings help uptown.

Not much different from them would be the LGBT 1809 Alumni organization, which is a group of Miami alumni working together to spread support and positiv-ity to current students, staff, and faculty. The group has regional networking events in cities such as Chicago and New York, annual scholar-ship awards and financial support of various LGBT groups on campus.

druGs, FROM PAGE 2

When you need transportation to:Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

Dayton Ohio International Airport We also specialize in Sports & Reunion transportation needs

513.424.1462 2850 TOWNE BLVD MIDDLETOWN, OH 45044BIOLIFEPLASMA.COM

$220RECEIVE UP TO

IN A MONTH!

SCHEDULE YOUR PLASMA DONATION TODAY AT BIOLIFEPLASMA.COM!

$100NEW DONORS OR PREVIOUS DONORS WHO HAVEN’T DONATED IN SIX MONTHS OR MORE, PRESENT THIS COUPON AND RECEIVE $100 IN JUST TWO DONATIONS.Must present this coupon prior to the initial donation to receive $40 on your first and $60 on your second successful donation. Initial donation must be completed by 1.31.12 and subsequent donations within 2 weeks. May not be combined with any other offer. Valid only at participating locations. Expires 2.14.12 MS

GO TO GYM. EAT HEALTHY. SAVE A LIFE. FINALLY, A RESOLUTION YOU WANT TO KEEP.

i.d. cards, FROM PAGE 1

PuT your sKills To use aT THE MIAMI STUDENT!

e-Mail Julia aT PHoTo@ MiaMisTudeNT.NeT

For More iNForMaTioN.

PHOTOGRAPHERS

News 513-529-2257 Editorial 513-529-2259

Advertising 513-529-2210 Fax 513-529-1893

10 FYI TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012

The Miami StudentOldest university paper in the United States, established in 1826

Website: www.miamistudent.net For advertising information: miamistudent@gmail.com

The Miami Student (Tuesday/Friday) is published during the school year by the students of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

The content of The Miami Student is the sole responsibility of The Miami Student staff. Opinions expressed in The Miami Student are not necessarily

those of Miami University, its students or staff.

CORRECTIONS POLICYThe Miami Student is committed to providing the Miami University community

with the most accurate information possible. Corrections may be submitted up to seven calendar days after publication.

Sam KayEditor in Chief

Joe Gioffre Business Manager

Baylor MyersAsst. Business Manager

Carly Huang Finance Director

Kendall Flynn National Advertising DirectorClassified Advertising Director

Danny NicolopoulosAdvertising Representative

Nick StrzeleckiAdvertising Representative

Pat GodfrayAdvertising Representative

Katherine MeilnerAdvertising Representative

Steve ZinsAdvertising Representative

WDJ Inc. - Bill Dedden Distributor

Bethany Bruner News Editor

Colleen Yates Managing Editor

Hunter Stenback Online Editor

Lauren Ceronie, Jenni Wiener Campus Editors

Justin Reash, Lisa Reymann Community Editor

Megan McGill Arts & Entertainment

Noëlle Bernard, Oriana PawlykEditorial Editors

JM Rieger Sports Editor

Julia EngelbrechtPhoto Editor

Sacha DeVroomen BellmanAdviser

Senior Staff Writers

Adam GiffiJenn Smola

Morgan SchafferAllison McGillivary

Staff Writers

Samantha CallenderShayn Corcoran

Dan Hamlin

Editorial Columnists

Ty Gilligan Karli Kloss

Jessica Sink

Sports Staff Writers

JM Reiger

Designers

Haley BielNicole Crandall

Erin KillingerMichelle Ludwin

Abigail OffenbakerRaleigh Robertson

Photography Staff

Allison BackovskiAndrew Bray

Thomas CaldwellLisa Gehring

Elizabeth Haenng

Bloggers

Brittany DoveMcKenzie GrahamHannah Poturalski

Emily SheriffDavid Small

Garrett SmithJessica Stringfield

Cartoonists

Noah CarlAshley Ceroli

Patrick GeyserMadeline Hrybyk

notice

Roommate Needed for 2nd Sem in One West High, Loft 404. Please contact Red Brick at 524.9340. www.redbrickoxford.com 333 N Locust (between Vine & Sycamore) 4 Huge Bedrooms and 2 Full Bathrooms Hardwood Floors throughout Wooded Lot Pristine Con-dition Includes Summer of 2012 at no extra cost $2075 per person per semester www.redbrickoxford.com

Help Wanted

Earn $1000-$3200 a month to drive our brand new cars with ads. www. FreeCarJobs.com

For rent

Single & Double Occupancy Apart-ments Available now and Second semester and 12/13Check Us Out www.foxandhounds-apts.com www.oxfordrents.com Call 523-2440 Text 335-7044 $1980/per/sem, $380/per/mo Exquisite 4 bedroom house at 1020 Arrowhead Dr. Every amenity, $2100 furnished, you must see, near Rec. www.swiftrentals.homestead.com 513-523-5819 4 Bedroom duplex available in Northridge in a quiet residential area beginning in May. Perfect for gradu-ate students and professors. Call 513.257.7237 for more info. 4 BDRM WITH GARAGE!! $2000/pp/ps. Free Summer Rental! Available June 1 for 2012/13. 49 Indian Cove Circle, across from Hawk’s Landing. New carpet, paint, and washer/dryer in 2011. 4 bdrm/2 bath, garage, all appliances. Will also consider month-ly rental. Call Barry at 864-680-7913 or email barrykeith1@gmail.com.

apartments

Roberts Apartments 2012-2013. Great Location! 1- and 2-Bedrooms. Close to Uptown/Campus. Laundry Facilities. Off-Street Parking. Well-Maintained. Energy efficient. 2011/12 2nd Semester 1-Bedroom available. www.roberts-apts.com 513-839-1426 info@roberts-apts.com LIVE UPTOWN in Oxford’s Nicest Building & Only 1 Unit Remaining!Huge Party Deck on Main & High Best Pricing Uptown! $4125 pp, Includes Summer of 2012 at no extra cost! 513-524-9340 www.redbrickoxford.com

Houses

19 E. Collins House for Rent Avail ‘12-’13. Permitted for 4. 2 blocks from campus, 2 blocks from uptwn. Utilities incl. Washer/dryer. Privately owned and managed. $3300/pers/sem. Call John 513-708-8355 New, Spacious 4 bedroom/ 2 full bath house available for 12-13 school year. $2025 pp/per sem. Contact Red Brick at 524.9340. 2 Person House Available for 12-13. Excellent location! 1 Block from Up-town, 2 Blocks from Campus $2,950 pp Call 524.9340 Great House and Location Three bedrooms - perfect for three or four. Near library, rec center and uptown on a cul-de-sac street. New appli-ances and utilities. Sun deck. $2800/pp/sem. 513-255-3067

roommate needed

Roommate needed - Spring 2012 in house with 5 guys at 17 W. Church. Rent $2900. Short walk uptown, A/C, and Washer/Dryer. Please contact strzelnj@muohio.edu if interested. ROOMMATE NEEDED Spring 2012. Separate bedroom in new house on Elm and Vine street - next to the green/blue bus stop. All-guys - sorry ladies. Roommates very easy to get along with, never any problems or drama. Price negotiable, (~ $1,900). If interested, contact me at carlnj@muohio.edu or (502) 526-7633. Thanks! FEMALE STUDENT ROOMMATE WANTED! for spring semester. Fur-nished appt, great location uptown. Call 614.205.6171

We’re giving away $500 every day in December to one lucky winner each day!no purchase neccessary - see website for details

We’ll pay you top-dollar for your books. Plus, you just might win some money.

WELCOMESTUDENTSHOME

TMSONLINEwww.miamistudent.net

Up to 90% Off used textbooks.

The next bestthing to free.

/textbooksSavings based on list price.

Available for iPhoneand Droid. Downloadthe Amazon Student Appto check prices instantly.

11 TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012www.miamistudent.net

By Brian GallaGher For The MiaMi STudenT

The Miami University Women’s Basketball team has played very good bas-ketball over the past month, notching big victories which have boosted them to the top of the Mid-American Conference (MAC).

With a 72-51 win Saturday over the University at Buffalo, the RedHawks have now won eight straight games, includ-ing 10 straight home wins. That victory improved Mi-ami’s record to 12-3 and 2-0 in the MAC.

Head Coach Maria Fan-tanarosa has emphasized fundamentals all season and the ’Hawks have clearly been taking her teachings to heart. They have dominated the boards, holding a rebounding advantage in all but one of their past eight wins, and they have held seven of their past eight opponents to fewer than 70 points.

“We’ve been playing re-ally well on defense and we’re just making it hard for the opponents to get good shots,” junior guard Courtney Osborn said.

The ’Hawks opened the contest against the Bulls with a pair of threes by junior for-ward Kirsten Olowinski and sophomore guard Hannah Robertson and jumped out to a 6-0 lead.

Buffalo was able to close the gap to 9-8 with just over 16 minutes to play but that was as close as they would get. The RedHawks began to pull away soon after and headed into halftime with a 38-20 advantage with no plans of slowing down.

Miami pushed the lead to 20 at 13:47 when the Bulls made one last push, going on a 7-0 run to bring the score to 34-47, but the night belonged to the RedHawks. On the heels of a 23 point perfor-mance by Osborn the ’Hawks shut the door and picked up their second conference win. Olowinski added 15 points and 14 rebounds en route to her 25th career double-double, moving her into sec-ond place in school history in that category.

In the midst of the win ning streak, Fantanarosa stressed that the RedHawks must resist the temptation to get ahead of themselves.

“We’re still focusing on one game at a time, on the things we can control, which are our defense, our rebound-ing, and taking care of the ball,” Fantanarosa said.

The highlight perfor-mance of the break was the overtime thriller against the

University of Akron, which saw the ’Hawks come out on top 95-85.

Osborn dropped 48 points, which not only set a school record and a MAC record for single-game scoring performance, but was also the most points scored by a player in NCAA Division I this season.

“That was definitely a team accomplishment,” Os-born said. “My teammates put me in a position to hit shots and really did the dirty work and all I had to do was hit the shots.”

Miami will look to con-tinue their wining streak as they take on the Kent State University Golden Flashes 7 p.m. Wednesday at Millet Hall. Although Kent comes in with just a 2-10 record, this is not one that the RedHawks can sleep on.

“When you get into con-ference play, you have to focus on playing a full 40 minutes,” Fantanarosa said. “You can’t take any time off or a team will surprise you.”

ediTorJM RIEGER

SporTS@MiaMiSTudenT.neT12 SPORTSTUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012

andreW GeiSlerGoinG lonG WiTh GeiSler

BenGalS BuilT For FuTure SuCCeSS

RedHawks soar past Bulls

SCoTT alliSon THE MIAMI STUDENT

Sophomore forward Erica Almady fights off Iona College defenders and puts up a shot during Miami’s 92-77 win Dec. 2. Almady is averaging 6.5 points and 5 rebounds per game this year.

Miami’s women riding 8-game winning streak

By JoSh norThFor The MiaMi STudenT

The Miami University men’s basketball team fin-ished off their winter break games with a loss to the University of Akron in their Mid-American Con-ference (MAC) season opener 65-60.

Senior forward Julian Mavunga once again led the RedHawks with his fifth 20-point game of the season, racking up 23 points and 14 rebounds. This was also Mavun-ga’s ninth double-double of the season.

The RedHawks shot 50 percent from the floor and held a seven point lead late in the game, but Akron was able to make a late run to beat the Red and White.

“All season, finishing games has been our Achil-les heel,” Mavunga said. “We had a seven point lead and then they went on a run. It takes a whole team to get the job done and we need to finish games together.”

Miami also got big contri-butions from freshman guard Brian Sullivan. He scored 14 points against Akron af-ter a career-high 24 points in a loss against Vanderbilt

University. Head Coach Charlie Coles was im-pressed with how he played in his first MAC game.

“He made shots for us,” Coles said. “I wasn’t sure if he would because of how physical Akron is, but he did a great job.”

The RedHawks have gone 2-6 since the start of December, with tough road losses at No. 7 Ohio State University and previously ranked Vanderbilt Univer-sity. Miami did manage to notch victories over Wil-liam and Mary College and Belmont University, which made the NCAA tourna-

ment last year and was de-scribed by Coach Coles as “one of, if not the best mid-major in the country.”

Miami is last in the MAC East Standings, but Coles points to a tough out of con-ference schedule as well as turnovers as the reason the ’Hawks have gotten off to a disappointing start.

The Red and White will look to rebound Wednesday against MAC rival Kent State University. Miami split the series with Kent State last season, winning at home and losing on the road. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. in Kent, Ohio.

Conventional wisdom on the Cincinnati Bengals this season will be that they were a year or two away from being a great team. And as it often is, conven-tional wisdom is correct.

What puts the Bengals in such a prime position? For starters, the Bengals were a good team this year, which is saying something.

They had a lot riding on a couple of important rook-ies, and most rookies don’t pan out. More specifically, most rookie quarterbacks are a complete disaster, but Cincinnati’s irrefutably was not.

Actually, as far as rookie quarterbacks go, Andy Dalton was about as good as it gets. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that he had fellow rookie AJ Green to throw it up to.

Green is quite a talent at wide out, and the Bengals are lucky to have him. In fact, it’s what the Cleve-land Browns have been constantly lacking ever since they rose up from the dead in 1999. Their lack of a dynamic receiv-er-quarterback combo has put them in a football coma, and it won’t end un-til they rectify this basic personnel flaw.

Easier said than done, but that’s why the Bengals are in such a great spot. Pair the advantage of hav-ing Dalton and Green with the fact that their defense can actually play, in ad-dition to the league tak-ing a sharp turn toward the aerial attack in recent years, you’ll see clearly that the future is bright in Cincinnati.

The key to the whole equation for future Ben-gal success is the afore-mentioned early connec-tion between Dalton and Green. Green is a special player, he’s the dynamic guy that every team needs, and Andy Dalton has the number one charac-teristic you look for in a quarterback: confidence.

Don’t get me wrong; Dalton was unbelievably bad in every measurable way in the Bengals season ending loss to the Houston

Texans. He threw three in-terceptions (one of which was not his fault), but he displayed confidence throughout the game, and throughout the season for that matter.

The moment never seemed too big for the red-head from Texas who had never run any offense but the spread in a meaningful football game in his life.

Sure, the Bengals didn’t beat a winning team all sea-son and only ended up 9-8. I’ll also readily admit that taking a look at Dalton’s stat sheet wouldn’t exactly make the football version of Bill James bat an eye, but there is a reason that such a man has not arisen in the football world.

Much of the analysis we do of football players comes less from the specif-ic stats and more from the bottom line. And what’s Andy Dalton’s bottom line? The man wins games wherever he goes. No mat-ter how good or bad those around him are.

We’re talking about the guy that lead Texas Christian University to a Rose Bowl win. Yes, their defense could play, but there’s a reason quarter-backs receive the scrutiny they do; they are the lead-er. And what does a leader need above all else? Con-fidence, something Andy Dalton exudes.

He looked nothing like a rookie quarterback who had just seen his team’s golden opportunity to ad-vance in the playoffs go to the wayside on the team’s final drive.

Instead, he tried to lead them back.

Instead, he was push-ing the tempo and working hard to score. Granted, he made some mistakes along the way, but he played with guts.

A quarterback with guts and confidence and a re-ceiver that seems to have the ability to take over a game offensively, that’s a formula for success in the NFL. And now that the Bengals have the pieces, it’s time to sit back and watch the game unfold.

Red and White fall short against Akron

eaST

Bowling Green 12-3 (2-0)Miami 12-3 (2-0)Ohio 8-8 (1-1)Kent State 2-10 (1-1)Akron 6-10 (0-2)Buffalo 5-11 (0-2)

WeST

Western Michigan 5-10 (2-0)Eastern Michigan 9-6 (1-1)Toledo 8-6 (1-1)Central Michigan 9-7 (1-1)Ball State 6-9 (1-1)Northern Illinois 6-8 (0-2)

WoMen’S BaSkeTBalloVerall (MaC)

Standings

SCoTT alliSon THE MIAMI STUDENT

Sophomore guard Quinten Rollins drives to the hoop during a 56-47 loss against Cincinnati Nov. 29. Miami has lost four of their last five games.