The Bobcats placed third overall at Saturday’s Navy Classic, putting seven wrestlers in the top-five of their weight classes with two champions.
Michael Harris powers Ohio’s offense to a pair of wins against Mercyhurst with four goals on the weekend.
Halftime Fest is gone, leaving open an opportunity for a different fall music festival to step in.
In the past few weeks, a variety of popular video games have been released. None of which, may I say, I’ve purchased. I’ve been trying to put myself on a spending ban, which is considerably hard this time of the year. Here are the recent releases I’m itching to check out: Even though I played it for the Xbox 360, I want to check out Grand Theft Auto V for the next-gen consoles. From what I’ve read, there will be more first-player options and other features not in the original version.I’m a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed series. Assassin’s Creed Unitywas plagued with problems after it was released — something pretty common for Ubisoft games — but the overall plot seems interesting. The game is set in Paris during the French Revolution.I also love the Call of Duty franchise — it’s my guilty pleasure video game. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the 11th primary installment of the series. While I don’t know about all the changes the series has made, I’ve heard many Call of Duty fans say it’s one of their favorite titles from the game (at least recently) and that it’s worth checking out.I’m a little sad to admit that I’ve never played any of the Far Cry games, but I plan on picking up Far Cry 4. I also want to check out Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I’ve never been a Lord of the Rings fan, but the game seems interesting and I’m a big fan of open-world games, so it would probably work really well for this title.Embarrassingly, I’m not a big Super Smash Bros. fan, but I’ll probably check out the new 3DS version of the game. I’m a big fan of the new Mario Kart 8 so it’s only fair to check this one out too. I still haven’t even invested in a next-gen console, but I’ve been considering it for a long time, and if I ever do, which is inevitable, it’ll be the PS4. I love my Xbox 360, but the PS4 shows more promise and the exclusives are more appealing for me. I also like that the network is free and you don’t need to purchase a membership just in order to connect to Netflix on the device. Sophie Kruse is a junior studying journalism. What games do you want to check out? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or find her on Twitter at @kruseco
A new student-led campaign will be officially launching next semester to help spread awareness about the current state of the environment. Environmentally conscious Ohio University students Christie McFarland and Leah Wilson have been working on their Take Back The Tap campaign this semester. The campaign started in their SOUL Environmental Studies 4900 class and is dedicated to keeping water a public service rather than a corporate commodity. As outlined in McFarland and Wilson’s proposal, they want to ban water bottle sales on OU’s campus by first targeting campus markets, Baker University Center and vending machines.TBTT joined Food & Water Watch, a non-profit organization of environmental activists and advocates for social justice that has worked with 60 universities across the country to try to end plastic water bottle sales. Food & Water Watch helped set up a stipend for McFarland and Wilson to use each semester for supplies to help organize and educate other students interested in the campaign.“They’ve taught me how to organize a campaign and how to be in contact with administration, and to work with the university on our project,” McFarland said about the training she’s done with Food & Water Watch.According to an article from Business Insider, water bottle sales in 2012 reached $11.8 billion in the United States. Food & Water Watch has stated that in 2009, 48.7 percent of bottled water was actually municipal tap water. McFarland said that fact “is ironic because you’re paying for water provided to you, and the companies selling it advertise that it is safer than tap water. Worldwide sales total over $100 billion per year, which is more than enough to provide every person in the world with clean water.”“It would be a big statement for the university to ban the sales of bottles,” McFarland said, adding that 90 college campuses have banned bottles in one form or another. Not only does this issue have an environmental impact, but it also delves into social justice with how water has turned into a product instead of a right for people. It is estimated to cost $0.02 to provide water for every person.TBTT will officially launch next semester and hopes to gather more students to further awareness of this issue at OU. McFarland and Wilson plan to have screenings for documentary films, including Tapped and Flow, while continuing to table and petition to students outside of Baker Center. They also plan to have water taste tests to show the lack of difference between the taste of bottled water and tap water.“Mindlessly consuming things affects not only one single person, and through buying water bottles, we treat water as a privilege instead of a basic human right,” McFarland said.McFarland and Wilson both demonstrate what it takes to be an activist and I wish them the best of luck with their campaign.Grant Stover is a sophomore studying English and a concerned environmentalist. Email him at gs155412@ohio.edu
It was our pleasure to chronicle the Ohio volleyball team’s 17-game winning streak and undefeated Mid-American Conference campaign this year, and we’re sad to see that the Bobcats bowed out of the conference tournament too early.As you can read on our front page today, the Bobcats lost to Western Michigan in five sets — falling in the final three sets before a stunned Convo crowd.Historically, the MAC has been a conference that has had only one representative in the NCAA Tournament: its postseason tournament victor. Given Ohio’s pedigree, we believe that it should be considered for an NCAA at-large bid — or an NCAA Tournament invitation extended to a team that didn’t win its conference tournament.Ohio has a 23-5 record and has topped major-conference teams such as Ohio State, Virginia Tech and Syracuse this season.Thirty-one of the 64 NCAA Tournament teams receive bids for winning their respective conference tournaments, while the remainder receive at-large bids.Although Ohio’s conference schedule wasn’t as challenging as some other teams that are seeking NCAA at-large bids, we believe the Bobcats have what it takes to stand up to some of the nation’s best teams.It would be a shame to see Friday’s nonconference game against Dayton be the Bobcats’ final bout of the season. Our fingers are crossed for an at-large bid.Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
Have you had trouble streaming Netflix on the Athens Campus recently? If so, you’re not alone.A few weeks ago, students started complaining on Twitter — and even calling the Service Desk — about poor Netflix performance. At roughly the same time, The Post ran a story that helped raise campus awareness about the issue.In response, we dug into our network traffic statistics to figure out what exactly was going on. What we discovered was enlightening, to say the least.In the past three years, Netflix bandwidth usage has quadrupled, with a whopping 20 percent of that increase coming in the past three months. During that same period, the amount of bandwidth the university allocates, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for Netflix traffic, has remained the same.That daytime allocation was designed to preserve some bandwidth during the week for research, academic and administrative uses at the university, not to completely disable Netflix. No wonder students thought we had started blocking access to the service. When demand gets too high on an Internet connection, things grind to a halt.Bandwidth is not cheap. The university currently spends $175,000 per year for our main Internet pipeline. We can’t just let Netflix have as much of that capacity as it likes. If we did, movie and TV streaming would make the entire campus network unusable – something that actually happened in spring 2011 during the last week of classes. Can you imagine not having Internet and trying to study for finals?We are not trying to take away your Gilmore Girls re-runs.As a first step, we have quadrupled the bandwidth available for Netflix and will be watching closely to see if that alleviates the problem without slowing things down for other users. We also are looking into creative ways to manage our bandwidth that will make the most efficient use of our pipeline during the day.It’s too soon to tell if the measures we have taken are enough. If you are a Netflix user, you can help us out by reporting performance problems, either by calling 740-593-1222 or by putting in a help request at www.ohio.edu/oitech. You can tweet @OhioIT if you like, but it’s much easier to troubleshoot when we can work with you in chunks bigger than 140 characters.Talk to us: we listen.Sean O’Malley is the IT Communications Manager at Ohio University
Graduate Travis Brown started an online donation page to be donated to LGBT scholarships, F--kRapeCulture and events such as Take Back the Night.
A former OU professor was killed Friday night after being struck by a car near his home in rural Athens County.
Not all those who have concealed weapon licenses in Athens have had their training in the county.
The dog is named Brody.
Nelsonville Music Festival announces its first round of artists to play the 2015 festival.
With the first of three days completed at the H2Okie Invitaional, Ohio showed signs of improvement from its previous meets starting in preliminaries, which took place at 10 a.m., to the finals, which took place at 6 p.m., on Thursday in Christiansburg, Virginia.
We wrote earlier this semester about Bobcat Lane opening for a six-month trial run in December, editorializing that we were glad the road was finally opening after years of deliberation — even though it was just on a temporary basis.We also added it was concerning that Ohio University and the city of Athens were dedicating so much time and resources to the project.As was reported in Thursday’s edition of The Post, the trial-run has been delayed an additional eight months to August 2015. The project will be combined with additional Richland Avenue changes, and the university is setting aside $355,000 for construction.That is absurd.Although the university said the project will consist of more than just pulling three stakes out of the ground and leveling off the sidewalk so that cars can drive over, $355,000 is far too much for the opening up of what is essentially a right-turn-only alleyway.We had been glad to hear that Bobcat Lane would open this year, as tentatively planned. The road, when finally opened, should ease traffic in front of Baker and on Richland Avenue and create a safer atmosphere for pedestrians crossing Richland at a crosswalk where a student was struck by a car earlier this semester.OU officials said the $355,000 will finance the widening of Bobcat Lane that will make it passable for motor coaches and safer for pedestrians, as well as improved lighting in the area.Those are good ideas, but not $355,000 good ideas. OU officials: We suggest you take action to open the road as soon as possible. See how it goes. Make improvements based on your findings.Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
I often hear that a journalist’s instincts take over in the midst of a breaking news event.My first reaction when I heard of the fire in Uptown Athens on Sunday was to mistakenly run the wrong way down South Congress Street, away from the fire. I saw smoke, but it took me a trip around the block to find the fire.Luckily for me, many of The Post’s staffers had better instincts than I. After shooting a quick video of the flames and jotting down a couple notes at approximately 5:30 a.m., I spent the rest of the day holed up in our newsroom, updating our coverage as new information became available.A team of approximately 10 Post reporters and photographers stayed on the scene, feeding information back to our managing editor, Sara Jerde, and myself. Their reporting was read by thousands of readers — many of whom also shared our content on social media.It’s common for readers to turn to our website for breaking news coverage, but Sunday’s online audience was far and away the largest that The Post has ever had during a single 24-hour period.On Sunday alone, our online news stories, photos and videos were viewed more than 150,000 times. That affirms to me that The Post’s commitment to breaking news reporting is paying dividends to our readers.Please don’t get me wrong: Posties don’t revel in situations of tragedy, panic or sadness. Rather, we know that it’s our duty to provide our readers information about such events.Our efforts, it appears, have been mostly well-received. But journalists are under the microscope more than ever during times of breaking news, and I have fielded complaints from readers and sources this semester about Post photographers being too steadfast; reporters pestering authorities to get the latest updates; and editors spreading misinformation on social media.We do our best to eliminate those instances and strive to treat such situations — and those affected by them — with the professionalism and respect they deserve. I was particularly proud of how Post staffers conducted themselves while reporting on the Uptown fire.I was also deeply moved by many of the stories they have told this week. I hope many of you were too.As always, thanks for reading.Jim Ryan is a senior studying journalism and political science and editor-in-chief of The Post. Want to sound off on this issue? Contact him at jr992810@ohio.edu or on Twitter at @Jimryan015
You’re standing in the middle of the tampon or pad aisle, perusing your options, and you eventually pick one out and hide it to the best of your ability. This is something that likely anyone who has experienced periods first-hand knows. However, this isn’t the way it should be.
To the Editor,As many are aware, a fire broke out and spread through many buildings on West Union Street early morning of November 16. The fire spread rapidly through the businesses and apartments, leaving a lot of damage behind, and students without homes and belongings. Fortunately, there were no fatalities and those affected by the fire are being taken care of by the generous community.Let us all learn from this devastating experience and be thankful no lives were lost. As a friendly reminder, please remember to follow these fire safety guidelines so that in an event of a fire, you will be prepared and get out safely:- Get out IMMEDIATELY at the sound of an alarm or sign of a fire. - Fires spread rapidly. DO NOT try to gather belongings. Exit promptly, then call 911. - Be sure to have two escape routes in case one is blocked by fire. Have a plan in mind.- Smoke detectors are lifesavers and absolutely must be installed properly and tested often. Without smoke alarms, the smoke could overcome you, putting you into a deeper sleep, rendering you helpless and unable to escape. Test them every month, and change the batteries twice a year.- Practice basic fire safety. Do not leave cooking or open flames, such as candles, unattended and use common sense when disposing of smoking materials. - Always remember that when under the influence of drugs or alcohol, your ability to make logical decisions in an emergency situation are greatly reduced.The Athens Fire Department would like to thank all responding agencies who offered their services. Also, we thank those who offered their hospitality, providing food and drinks, during the tiresome event. Please contact our department at 740-592-3301 for any questions regarding fire safety or concerns. Lt. Dan Riley is a firefighter for the Athens Fire Department.
Bobcats keeping focus up for Mercyhurst after big CSCHL sweep.
Scenes from Opera and Musical Theater event to showcase student talent in opera and musical theater singing and acting.
After recounting their experiences during the Union Street fire to The Post earlier this week, the paper caught up with Alison Stewart and Rachel Portik to see how they’re doing five days after a fire that deeply affected them.Last Sunday’s Union Street fire, a rare disaster that ravaged one of Athens’ most beloved blocks, left affected Ohio University students in various states of disarray. One of those students is Alison Stewart. “We were the attic, and it kinda fell through to the bottom,” said Stewart, a previous resident of 12 ½ B W. Union St., an apartment that was torched by the fire. “My entire apartment is just gone.” Stewart’s bedroom — under a little white roof three stories above the street — collapsed during the fire that displaced 40 OU students — 17 of them permanently — who were all safely evacuated Sunday morning. No one was seriously injured and everyone survived, yet the same cannot be said for many personal belongings. “Everything is a total loss,” said Stewart, a senior studying special education. “I had one roommate, and everything of hers was a total loss, as well.” Those losses, Stewart said, included her glasses, her bed and her great grandmother’s necklace. While other students and faculty from the university provided considerable donations of clothes, toiletries and other household supplies to the fire-affected students, not everything has been easy to replace. “Although I did get a lot of donations, I am having to go out and buy professional clothing, because I am going to be a teacher, so I’m still in my field placement,” Stewart said. Replacing lost personal items will put an unforeseen strain on these families, especially for the upcoming holiday season. “I feel bad because my parents have paid a lot for this incident,” Stewart said. “But I think we’ll manage — we’ll pull through the holiday. My siblings might not be getting as much for Christmas, which I feel bad about.” Not every Bobcat who was affected by the Union Street fire is having to cope with considerable damages. “We really just had to get our clothes smoke-cleaned,” said Rachel Portik, one of the previous residents above Chipotle on Court Street. “We’re just dealing with the water damage now.”Her apartment, which only had smoke and water damage, was not damaged by the flames. On Sunday, Portik told The Post she believed her roof had caught fire and did not know if any of her possessions still existed.Despite the discrepancies in fire-related damages, one resounding theme has echoed from these resilient Bobcats: thankfulness. “I’m very thankful. The university has been amazing to us,” Portik said. “They have done everything to make this better for us; they’ve been very helpful during this time.” These students are also appreciative of the firefighters who fought the blaze and police officers who assisted in the fire evacuations. “Back where we are, there are so many doors and only a few little houses,” Portik said “The fact that they got everybody up and out is just amazing.” The donations that students and faculty provided were also well received.“I actually feel extremely thankful for the generosity that’s been given to me this week,” Stewart said. “It really shows you who cares about you and will support you through these kinds of things. I feel very thankful.”Material possessions may come and go, but for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, these students say they still have something to celebrate.@bnbjournobb308113@ohio.edu
Solutions by The State News