Annual cookouts welcome students to off-campus life
Sep. 7, 2006The annual Welcome Back Community Cookouts, funded by the Center for Student Legal Services and Athens City Council, will be Saturday at three city locations.
MULTIMEDIA
Editorial: Election 2006
Sep. 7, 2006During the waning hours of the 2004 presidential election coverage, when pundits and commentators took turns predicting the future, everyone began to realize Ohio was the key. The candidate who took the state would surely be sitting in the Oval Office come January. And, as everyone remembers, Ohio and its 21 electoral votes leaned right.
Scouting Report: Bobcats gear up for 'monster' of an offense
Sep. 7, 2006Leading the Mid-American Conference with 1,656 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns in his first year on the field raised a few eyebrows.
Column: Culture shock seems relative from here
Sep. 7, 2006To the 6,000 or so freshmen wandering around Athens wide-eyed and overwhelmed, I want to offer you my sympathy. The change from the familiar to someplace foreign is tremendously difficult, no matter how excited you are about starting something new.
Despite high tuition, OU continues to draw students
Sep. 7, 2006Although the state of Ohio had a negative net migration in the fall of 2004, Ohio University has experienced no problems with losing students to other states, a university official said.
Columnist scores insights with religion piece
Sep. 7, 2006Thanks for Maggie Kostendt's column, Getting Spirituality
Bob Dylan isn't a-changin'
Sep. 7, 2006Tell your ma and tell your pa: the musical voice of their generation has undeniably gotten his steam back with his 31st disc, Modern Times. This disc features the same Bob Dylan whom your parents knew; you can sense it in nearly every line from the legend's mouth. But it is also a completely different Dylan in other ways that let other generations latch on as well. Modern Times conjures up images of an aging figure brooding over his keyboard rather than a young go-getter with a guitar on his shoulder and a harmonica around his neck.
Reynolds brings soul to Blue Gator
Sep. 7, 2006Athens may have several pacifistic Buddhists, but how many of them can say they've collaborated and toured with the Dave Matthews Band? Tim Reynolds boasts both of these things and will be in Athens tonight to pave a musical road wrought with twists and dissonance.
Alcohol policy sets punishments
Sep. 7, 2006About 35 students attended a forum yesterday to discuss Ohio University's new, comprehensive alcohol response policy that features standardized reactions to alcohol- or drug-related violations.
Witnesses say police cruiser hit student
Sep. 7, 2006A male Ohio University student was struck by an Athens Police Department cruiser traveling south near 2 1/2 Elliot St. around midnight yesterday, witnesses said.
Renamed Campus Edge gets a nod
Sep. 7, 2006The proposed apartment complex previously known as Campus Edge took another step in the development process Thursday as the Athens Planning Commission gave preliminary approval to the most recent version of the project.
New Bobcat 'Rufus' welcomed by fans
Sep. 6, 2006When Rufus the Bobcat first rolled in to Peden Stadium Saturday night, the crowd cheered with approval, but the athletic department wasn't surprised. The made-over mascot is the result of a year of efforts to improve Ohio University's athletic image. The response at the game was very positive
COLUMN: Bobcat coach shines in supporting role
Sep. 6, 2006When a director picks the cast of his upcoming sports movie, he usually looks toward a proven actor to portray the inspiring, or in some cases overbearing and short-sighted, head coach.Just one year before he was trying to get a bunch of motherf****** snakes off a motherf****** plane, actor Samuel L. Jackson played hard-nosed, no-nonsense high school basketball coach Ken Carter in Coach Carter
Mulberry to limp through technical difficulties, official says
Sep. 6, 2006Ohio University's Mulberry e-mail system is experiencing service problems that are expected to continue for several days.Webmail, the online service of Mulberry, will not be available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day until the university determines the root cause of the problem.Sean O'Malley, spokesman for the IT department, said it appears as though the system cannot handle the high traffic this week after students returned from summer break. The Mulberry application will still be working, but at a noticeably slower rate, O'Malley said.
Column: Life imitates everyone else's imitation
Sep. 6, 2006African culture? You think of masks and tribal dances.South American culture? Incan temples and Spanish explorers.Asian? Gongs and dragons.But no one associates stereotypical American culture with pilgrims and Indians.Ask 10 people and I bet you get 10 different definitions, and I bet not one mentions the forefathers or immigrants or anything more than 50 years old.American culture is contemporary, and who can blame us? For a country with just over 200 years of history under its belt, it's no wonder pop culture has replaced rituals and traditions of days of yore.Besides, Americans come from such diverse backgrounds that celebrities, fast food and television commercials are sometimes the only things that Americans of vastly different heritage, class or race can all relate to.Although on the surface we are all stewing in the melting pot in the midst of an obesity epidemic, idolizing rock stars and pop princesses while talking on cell phones, Americans tend to identify with their place of origin as well as the country of their citizenship. The Irish go nuts on St. Patty's Day, the Italian grandmothers are always trying to shove food down everyone's throat. We say that characteristics are in our blood. We preserve what boils down to imitations of parts of our ancestors' daily lives to pay tribute to our personal history.And so we create false culture to fill in what we think we're lacking. Think about Disney's Epcot, or other smaller tourist ventures that seek to deliver genuine imitation experiences of other cultures. We watch the Travel Channel, we see the movies, and then if we get the chance to see other cultures first hand for real, sometimes we're disappointed.Sometimes the real deal is inferior to our decked-out, made-up imitation.Let's take African culture for example. I'll use it because I spent time in Tanzania over the summer.Side note: Tanzania is just south of Kenya on the east coast of Africa. Don't worry, when I first found out about it, I didn't know where it was either.Anyway, Tanzania is pretty poor (understatement) and tourism is one of the biggest industries generating income for the people. Westerners come to go on safari and experience the unadulterated primitive culture they expect from a Third World nation.The funny thing is, Tanzanians are striving to industrialize and westernize. Their impressions of American culture are filled with misinformation and glorified views in much the same way many Americans misunderstand African culture.The effect is startling. Now, not only do we have culture being imitated in our own country, but our desire for perceived authenticity is changing they way other cultures present themselves to Americans.In Tanzania, I visited a Masaii village. The women in the tribe dressed in their traditional formal dress, danced and sang in their native language. Then men sacrificed a goat while we watched, thunderstruck by the primitive tools they used and clothes they wore.Later, our guide told us that they only dressed that way and cut open an animal because we were there. It's not actually a part of their daily lives.I have to admit I felt a little cheated.I mean, it was really cool to see and just what I would have expected, but finding out that my version of what African tribes actually do was inaccurate, and then finding out that they catered to my fantastic ideas made me wonder how exactly culture gets preserved.I felt the same way about the traditional African dancers I saw. The dancers weren't all from the same tribe that created the dance being performed and the costumes came from all different regions' and groups' traditional clothing. The performance was obviously geared toward its American audience ' the best little pieces from a bunch of different places put together to make a final product that hardly resembles any of the original parts.Consumers of culture, who keep the interesting parts and disregard the pedestrian, are deciding what gets preserved and what gets discarded. We stay interested as long as it stays interesting.And maybe our perceptions don't equate to the reality, but then we just have to ask ourselves, is this a bad thing?Is it better to have a skewed view of what a culture is, or ignore it completely and risk losing culture all together?
Lonely nights and the return of the Athens wall of sound
Sep. 6, 2006Note: Corrected on Sept. 7, 2006.
Student Senate hoping to give students a say in general fee
Sep. 6, 2006Student Senate passed a resolution yesterday to create the General Fee Governance Council to give students of Ohio University a voice in where the university's general fee will be spent.We have passed something that is seriously monumental
Cinderellas find their way into college football
Sep. 6, 2006Despite mounting just 144 yards of total offense in its game Saturday night, our beloved Ohio football team did something the likes of Colorado and Duke were unable to do on the first weekend of the season ' defeat a Division 1-AA team.Yes, those same Colorado Buffaloes that played in the Big 12 Championship Game a mere eight months ago lost 19-10 at home to Montana State. Luckily for the Buffaloes, their amazingly bad start to the 2006 season was topped by Duke getting shut out by Richmond, 13-0.Elsewhere, only a failed two-point conversion by Illinois State allowed Kansas State to get by, Arizona State was tied with Northern Arizona after three quarters, and Maryland was lucky to knock off William and Mary. Apparently, the big-time upsets are not just reserved for March anymore. For decades, it was easy to separate the haves from the have-nots in college football, unlike college basketball, which always seemed to provide some kind of Cinderella story year in and year out. Nowadays, because of players seeking better opportunities elsewhere and scholarship restrictions, that line of separation is starting to become blurred.The change is either welcomed or despised. On one hand, there are those who love rooting for the underdogs and would enjoy seeing the impossible happen. Just look at the television ratings from last year's Ohio/Pittsburgh game if you want proof. The fans of the smaller schools have that hope that their teams can hang with the big boys now. After Saturday, the players of those smaller schools have the desire to be the next Montana State.Meanwhile, there are the athletic directors at the big schools. What used to be a $250,000 stomping of a smaller school in front of the home crowd is slowly becoming a $250,000 September funeral for the football season, which has to be making these administrators sweat just a bit. Also, who can forget the losing coaches? Surely Dan Hawkins didn't have this in mind when he left the blue turf of Boise State, where he won 53 games in five seasons, for the supposedly greener pastures of Colorado. As someone who loves a good shocker every now and then ' unless it happens to my team ' I think the unpredictability makes college football better. The idea of your team being able to win on any given Saturday can only bring more fans to the games, hoping to see the unexpected.On a final note, if I was Penn State coach Joe Paterno, I wouldn't be worried about the upcoming match-up with No. 2 Notre Dame or the meeting with No. 1 Ohio State on Sept. 23. Instead, I'd be putting all my resources into the game that takes place between those two when 1-AA Youngstown State travels to Happy Valley on Sept. 16. A loss to the Penguins would probably be enough to put the 79-year-old Paterno into retirement. Then again, JoePa would definitely be able to say he's seen everything. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to let Duke coach Ted Roof know how easy it was to score on Richmond with his team on NCAA Football '07.
Editorial: Bluffing to the top
Sep. 6, 2006The gambling industry has hit a roadblock in pushing for a constitutional amendment to allow slot machines in Ohio. Half of the signatures gathered in support of the slot machines ' and the Learn and Earn initiative ' have been found to be invalid. The massive signature-gathering campaign has long been underway to put the issue on the November ballot. Now, thousands of signatures are needed in a matter of days for Ohioans to vote on the issue. But whether or not the signatures are obtained, this invalidity only highlights the deceptive nature of the operation. Signatures have been gathered under the guise of Learn and Earn ' a scholarship program that would reap 30 percent of profits from Ohioans gambling. Financial aid for Ohio's higher education is certainly needed, but playing to this weakness in Ohio's economy seems to be a scapegoat to allow gambling. Signature collectors are paid $8-$15 an hour to push the scholarship program, conveniently down-playing details of the outcome of the slot-machines, how the money will be appropriated and what it means for Ohioans in the long run. Seven racetracks and two new locations in Cleveland would together house the 31,500 slot machines if approved. If it does manage to show up on the ballot, whether or not gambling is considered a moral issue, the manipulation already rampant through this operation should be enough to detract voters from voting yes.
Notes recovered after ex-IT officials sue OU
Sep. 6, 2006A consultant group accused of violating Ohio state law for destroying documents related to its investigation of data theft at Ohio University recovered those documents in early August. Moran Technology Consulting of Naperville, Ill., which conducted an audit of the university's Information Technology department after network security breaches, recovered notes from 22 interviews the group conducted, which are at the center of a legal battle between the university and two fired IT administrators.Some notes were recovered using software that found deleted documents, and others were found in archived e-mails, said Charles Moran, president of the consulting group. We got everything. Suing the university for the disclosure of those notes and other documents are former administrators Tom Reid and Todd Acheson, who have claimed the interview notes are crucial to the defense that they're mounting to keep their jobs. The two have appealed their firing to the university.But neither of the men nor their lawyers were informed that the notes were discovered weeks before they filed a lawsuit seeking those and other records Aug. 22.We have a lawsuit pending and they still haven't told us
