Senior editor-in-chief reflects on year at the helm
The editor-in-chief leaned back in her chair and asked, “What changes would you make as editor-in-chief?”
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The editor-in-chief leaned back in her chair and asked, “What changes would you make as editor-in-chief?”
Earlier this week, the players on the Otterbein football team received a mass text from their coaches. The text instructed the players to gather in the Rike for an impromptu meeting that evening. As the team sat on the Rike bleachers waiting to hear what was going on, Head Coach Joe Loth stood in front of them and told them the news: He accepted a position as head football coach at Western Connecticut State University.
Otterbein’s new vice president of enrollment management, Jefferson Blackburn-Smith, will be taking office March 1.
The story of how David and Denise Tripp met is a very unusual one.”
Otterbein has enrolled — erm, hired — its new vice president for enrollment management.
Last week’s fatal shooting of a police officer at Virginia Tech is a stark reminder to all college campuses to evaluate their crisis management plans.
The identity of Candidate No. 3 for vice president of enrollment management has been revealed. Steven P. Vitatoe, the executive director of enrollment at John Carroll University, will be visiting campus Wednesday, Nov. 30, and Thursday, Dec. 1.
The identity of Candidate No. 2 for vice president of enrollment management has been revealed. Jefferson R. Blackburn-Smith, the senior associate director for strategy, outreach and recruitment in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience at Ohio State University, will be visiting campus Nov. 28 and 29. Read below for a detailed profile of Blackburn-Smith.
The identity of candidate No. 1 for the vice president for enrollment management position has been revealed. Brian F. Dalton, the senior vice president for strategic planning at Mercer University in Georgia, will be visiting campus Nov. 21-22. Read below for a detailed profile of Dalton.
Who’s up for a game of Guess Who?
“There’s echoes of so many things going on right now,” Ken Burns said as echoes of feedback and static chirped from the speakers above him.
Something felt wrong.
They’ve got the same mohawks. The same piercings. The same athletic attire. And, unless you look really closely, the same face.
1st Place: Ellie Detrich and Lauren Zachrich DeVore Hall When Lauren Zachrich and Ellie Detrich moved into their DeVore Hall suite, they had a precise plan in mind for the design of their room. "Lauren is the artsy one and already had a color scheme from last year, and I accompanied that," said Detrich, a sophomore life science and English major. Zachrich, a junior art and psychology major, based the room's turquoise and maroon color palette on an ornate cushion from HomeGoods. That same cushion inspired one of the room's two original paintings by Zachrich, who is considering becoming an interior designer. Friends of Zachrich and Detrich often comment on how their room looks more like the family room in a home rather than a residence hall room. A bowl filled with fresh fruit and a scarf collection hanging on the wall adds to the room's sophisticated feel. "My mom and my sister are really into art and design, so I have an appreciation for it," Detrich said. "But (Lauren's) the brains behind the operation." 2nd Place: Dimitrios Spantithos 25 W. Home St. Though junior biology major Dimitrios Spantithos aspires to be a dentist, one look at his room makes one think he's after a spot on a professional sports team. Every wall is adorned in sports memorabilia, from basketball posters to track lane numbers to pom-pom curtains. But his love for sports is more of a hobby than a vocational pursuit. "I spend a lot of time studying here," he said. "It's just a nice atmosphere to be in." 3rd Place: Ali Ernest and Sam Stolarz DeVore Hall After coincidentally buying the same purple bedspread, sophomore business administration majors Ali Ernest and Sam Stolarz decided to use that color to inspire the design of the rest of their room, which is awash in pinks, purples and blacks. The focal point of their room is a wall covered in words written on note cards. "It's a wall of inspiration," Ernest said. t&c;
Bright blasts of jazz weren't enough to light up the dim third floor of the Old Bag of Nails Pub Friday night. The Otterbein jazz combo led by Jay Miglia may have played several crowd-pleasers that night, but one key ingredient was missing from the performance: a fully realized sense of style. There was no doubt that the two trumpeters, trombonist, guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer and keyboardist had mastered their instruments from a technical standpoint years ago. They played the melodies of each song flawlessly and rarely hit a sour note. But when the solos took off, it almost seemed as if the players were reading notes from their music stands rather than playing real improvised jazz — and in this sense, their priority seemed to lie in playing the solos "correctly" rather than with a defined sense of flair or energy. Technical proficiency is certainly not the No. 1 goal when it comes to a jazz ensemble of this order. The band played about seven funk-tinged jazz gems throughout the hour-and-a-half set, providing ample time in each song for soloing. The most riveting moment of the night wasn't during the band's liveliest piece, but rather its prettiest. "Soothe us!" Miglia shouted from the audience. Taking his cue, guitarist Isaac Maupin, a sophomore who would do justice to the nickname Slowhand Jr., instantly pealed out the indelible guitar intro to "Mo' Better Blues" like he was slicing butter. Near the end of the piece, the guitars, horns and keyboard, which was programmed to sound like an organ, all came together, and the effect was like that of listening to a gospel choir — a powerful, moving sound bolstered by a sense of unity and harmony among different instrumentalists. Though bass guitarist Kyle Kubovcik hid in the background of the songs most of the time, those who listened carefully could pick up on his jaunty and skillful playing. His occasional solos bobbed and bounced in an effortless sort of way, especially during "Mo' Better Blues." The other part of the rhythm section, drummer Mike Johnson, a senior, played not only with sonic verve but also visual verve. He coolly spun his drumstick around his hand throughout the pieces and at one point played a drum with his palms. His solos were loud and exciting and suggested a background in rock music. The ensemble's rendition of "Wayne's Thang" by the Kenny Garrett Quartet was one of the night's more kinetic moments. The performers burst into double-time as junior trumpeter Sam Kolis came close to matching the intensity of the sax solo in the original. Moments like these gave the performance a shot of flavor that wasn't always present. The combo was certainly not show-stopping. The people in the audience looked bored as they lifelessly sipped their drinks and checked their phones. The large, cavernous room wasn't exactly brimming with funky energy. Perhaps this band needs to learn how to throw caution to the wind and simply get lost in the music. A cover of Jaco Pastorius' catchy, reggae-flavored interpretation of "The Chicken" ended the night, and suddenly the band seemed to be less concerned with craft and more concerned with style. Maybe it was because it was the last song of the night, or maybe it was simply because one can't have a bad time while playing a melody as effervescent as the one in "The Chicken." Either way, this newfound sense of fun was exactly what the jazz combo needs to tap into in the future.
Vianca Yohn has come a long way from being denied a gay-straight alliance at her high school. In the fall, the junior English major will start her second consecutive term as president of FreeZone, Otterbein's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) organization. She's been a member since the first quarter of her freshman year, when she stepped in as secretary. Yohn didn't have an organization like FreeZone in her high school in Madison, Ala. Both of her attempts to start a gay-straight alliance (GSA) were halted by the high school's principal, who thought it would promote sex. "He said, ‘All told, letting you have a GSA will be like letting you start a Nazi club. It wouldn't be read as you hoped,'" Yohn said. "He tried to take the stance that parents wouldn't want a GSA. We're not here for the parents, but for the students." Yohn was discouraged, but didn't give up. The principal told her that if she could bring a sizable number of students interested in a GSA to his office, he would reconsider. A couple weeks later, she and a group of 30 students spent two hours there explaining why a GSA would make them feel safer. His response? "He pulled out the outdated anti-sodomy law. He kept 30 people after school for nothing. It still didn't happen," Yohn said. The gold may have been scarce at the end of that rainbow, but things changed in college. "I didn't have a huge community of queer-identified people other than my girlfriend," Yohn said. "When I came to FreeZone and we were able to discuss it in a safe environment, it helped me validate my identity that hadn't been validated for the first 18 years of my life." FreeZone tore down the strict boundaries of gender for Yohn, who grew up thinking everyone had to be either a boy or a girl. She now identifies with the "Q" in the GLBTQ acronym, which stands for "queer" or "queer-identified." "I identify with being female-bodied, but in my head, I don't necessarily identify as a boy or a girl," she said. For some, FreeZone is a haven away from judgment and intolerance. Like Yohn, sophomore creative writing major Jessica McGill didn't have a GSA in the small farm town where she grew up. "Coming to college and finding a safe place to explore my own sexuality was good because I couldn't do that back home," she said. "I could also help my friends who were stuck get the resources they need." One of FreeZone's goals this year is Thursday's 5 p.m. Day of Silence Speak Out. During this annual forum, students take turns standing in front of a microphone at Towers Plaza and sharing experiences in which they've felt silenced by others. "It's very rousing," Yohn said. "I usually tear up at least once." A topic that's caused a lot of discussion among FreeZone members is the value of adding another letter to the acronym: "A" for "ally," meaning someone who is straight but supports other kinds of sexuality. "The allies are just as vital a part of the community," sophomore English major Beth Merritt said. "They have just as much of a voice. They're part of the majority helping the minority." FreeZone may represent a minority, but when its members come together, they become their own majority – and it's here that they feel most compelled to be themselves. "In FreeZone, we can be whoever we really are," Merritt said. "It's like going home."
They just appeared in a box one day. "I was real surprised when we got them," Otterbein bookstore manager Ann Morris said. Lightweight, red and sleeved, they were carefully stacked near the entrance of the bookstore. Customers gawked at the veritable mountain they formed in the otherwise nondescript bookstore. The Otterbein sleeved blankets, which many may be inclined to call the Otterbein Snuggie® despite a copyright violation, have been on sale since earlier this school year. The wearable blankets are completely red other than the white drawing of Cardy the Cardinal's face on the front. "They sold really well here before Christmas," Morris said. "Probably a lot of moms and dads got them under the tree." Morris guessed that the 100 percent polyester blanket, marked down from $22.95 to $17.95, would become a seasonable item after this first year, sold only through the fall and the winter. Practical Uses for the Otterbein Sleeved Blanket Wall Art Getting tired of seeing Marley, Zeppelin and an unforgivable number of Beatles posters in dorm rooms? Smear a few fistfuls of sticky tack on the back of your Otterbein sleeved blanket and voila, you have some super original and totally hip wall art. Pin that baby up above your desk, over your window or on your door, and you just might be revered as the greatest dorm decorator since that kid who covered his walls in stolen Cardinal Cards. Tent Everyone knows 3 a.m. fire drills are no fun, but what else are you gonna do when the insomniac down the hall is craving a nice, big bowl of burnt popcorn? Tell him he can't have it? Hell no! Your Otterbein sleeved blanket can be jury-rigged into a tent for those on-the-fly middle-of-the-night fire drills. Just shove a stick in the ground and throw the blanket on top, and before you know it you'll be nice and warm while deathly popcorn smoke consumes your entire building. Sled Still waiting for that blasted bridge on West Main Street to go up? Be patient — technology has only advanced so far in the field of bridge-building, and those construction workers need to play "Call of Duty: Black Ops" too. In the meantime, you can transform your sleeved blanket into a makeshift sled, gleefully gliding from one side of Alum Creek to the other. Invisibility Cloak Did you know that the Otterbein sleeved blanket comes with its own invisibility function? Just throw it on and say the words "Abracasnuggie," and you'll turn 100 percent invisible, just like in the movies. Now when you've been waiting in line at the OtterDen for 45 minutes for a salad and a cup of water, just whip out your blanket, sneak behind the counter and make the salad yourself. While you're there, stock up on some plates and to-go lids for this weekend when they are sure to run out.
Director Seth Cotterman stroked his beardless chin and jotted down some notes on a yellow legal pad. He was completely focused while watching the two lead actors rehearse one of the most emotionally raw scenes in the play he's directing. Even though he was sitting on a regular wooden chair, it was not hard to imagine a Hollywood-style director's chair in its place, the kind that doesn't seem to have any real function to its design other than pageantry. And even though he had remained calm throughout the entire rehearsal so far, it was not hard to imagine him leaping into a screaming fit of artistic fury, sacrificing his dignity for the good of his play. The scene ended. "I have three things," he said as he stood and tamely ran through a list of suggestions. The actors resumed character and tried the scene a different way. Cotterman is a senior theatre and public relations double major with a focus on theatre management and directing. Involved with the theatre department since his freshman year, Cotterman has directed two productions at Otterbein and was the assistant director of three other plays. "The Runner Stumbles" is his final production before he graduates. "I think that you have to have a strong knowledge base before you can try and renovate or try to do something on your own," Cotterman said. "It's good to see how other people do it that are successful. I've had a lot of experience working with professors that have inspired me and helped me to find my own voice in directing." "The Runner Stumbles" is based on the mysterious disappearance of a nun named Sister Rita in 1907. She and the priest of the convent, Father Rivard, were suspected to have had an illicit relationship, and he is put on trial for murder. The play jumps back and forth between the court and significant moments between Father Rivard and Sister Rita. "I read through a lot of plays, and none of them really spoke to me," Cotterman said. "What I see is a conflict of interest between wanting a relationship and wanting to focus on your career and moving forward a lot." Charlotte Baird, junior theatre major and sound board operator for the play, said, "He's really patient and calm when he's working — not tense or anything." "I am a senior, and this is the last chance I get to say something on my own," Cotterman said. "I don't want the audience to come in and say we see how much he cared about the show. I want the audience to say that was a great show and it made me feel something."
After sampling some of the food the OtterDen will be serving when it opens this Friday at noon, I'd bet a good meal that it will be a hit on campus. While its late hours, lounge area and diverse menu are pluses, the most exciting thing about the OtterDen is that students can use a meal swipe to purchase an entrée, side and drink. Students can order specific kinds of sandwiches off the menu or create a completely customized one using the ingredients in all the other sandwiches. The menu will feature much more than what is listed here, including hot dogs, burgers, salads, soups and — best of all — milkshakes. House Roasted Sirloin Housed between two warm and perfectly semi-crunchy slices of bread, this roast beef sub was juicy and tasty. With a dash of pepperjack cheese, the different flavors of the ingredients melded together like food coloring in water. Rating: 3 1/2 Veggie Pita Pocket This hodgepodge of vegetables was served between two dry wedges of pita bread and slathered in hummus. As healthful as the sandwich may be, its diverse flavors, which included cucumbers, tomatoes and mushrooms, didn't really come together. Rating: 2 Hot Italian Hoagie This delicious sandwich featured a thick stack of roasted turkey and honey-glazed ham blanketed in a layer of delicious melted cheese, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and onions. But what really ignited this firecracker of flavor was the house-made Italian dressing. Rating: 4 Grilled Three-Cheese Sandwich Globs of orangish-yellow and white cheese spilled through the two diminutive slices of bread that constituted the OtterDen's version of an American classic. While the heaping amount of cheese was perfect for university student appetites, an unwelcome smoky flavor crept into the dish somewhere during the cooking process. Rating: 3 Grilled Banana PB&J; Sandwich Who knew peanut butter and jelly were down for a threesome? It sounds kind of gross, but the ingredients in this interesting confection come together almost as naturally as the childhood favorite they were based on. Tasty enough to be a dessert, this oddball recipe adds some fun to the menu. Rating: 3 1/2 Giant Cupcakes What made the OtterDen cupcakes the perfect end to my meal was not their taste so much as their density. They were like black holes of batter, chocolate chips and frosting. Even though both the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes tasted slightly off (just like the brownies at the Cardinal's Nest), they were heavy enough to satisfy anyone with a sweet tooth. Rating: 3
Adam Grabowski knows what it means to procrastinate productively. If he didn't, he wouldn't be the successful stand-up comedian he is today. Back when he was in college, if he had a test to study for or a paper to write, you'd probably find him holed up in his dorm room learning the art of being a comedian. Where would that psychology degree have taken him in life, anyway? For the past two years, the 23-year-old Chicago native has been doing stand-up in various Midwest colleges. He will appear at Otterbein Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7:00 pm in the Campus Center. T&C;: Has your degree in psychology helped you at all in your comedy career? Adam: Yes. Not physically, but just in the ability to be able to take different perspectives. You know? Or just thinking of something from a different way. Really, anything that's funny is only funny 'cause you're making a connection in your mind between two things, or something you recognized. It's funny 'cause you never looked at it from a different angle. Getting the degree in psychology probably is why I know how to do comedy well. But the actual degree itself has not really done anything. T&C;: That's interesting. Adam: "That's interesting" is actually my favorite answer to any question. It's the psychologist's answer 'cause it never implies good or bad. You know? Someone's like, "Oh, look at my new haircut." I'll be like, "That's interesting." I'm not saying I like it, but I'm still engaging. You don't get in trouble that way. T&C;: How has your act evolved since you started two years ago? Adam: Oh, man. When I look at what I used to do, I feel like I was terrible. And I wasn't at the time, you know? That's why I eventually got here. But just more confidence, more ability to speak to people. I have fun with it, you know? There's not that nervousness. The only nervous is in the excited nervous. T&C;: Do you have tips for students who are masters of "productive procrastination" like you were in college? Adam: That's how I started into comedy, actually, 'cause I was graduating and didn't know what I wanted to do. I always assumed I would go all the way through all the school I could. Like I figured I was going to go master's and boss the Ph.D. I was finishing early, and instead of, like, figuring out what grad school I want to do, I put all my effort into getting my comedy together, and then started doing comedy. So my advice is make sure the productive procrastination is something useful. T&C;: How do you come up with ideas for your act? Adam: Whatever comes up. Most of my jokes have come from conversation with people, or things I've noticed – just anything like that. So everyday life, real experiences – stuff like that. It's very rare if I sit down and say, "Time for jokes." It's never happened that way. T&C;: Do you have any specific examples in mind? Adam: Well, a lot of my jokes are true, actually. One bias in comedy is that the story and joke have to be funny enough that even if it's not true, it's hilarious. Like, my friend burned me a CD with all techno music. It took me 10 minutes to realize the CD was skipping. T&C;: One reviewer criticized you for not commenting on important issues and yet calling yourself a "Life Commentator." Your rebuttal? Adam: I guess life isn't just about current issues. If something's timeless, it's a greater aspect of life than the thing that's happening now. Although things happening now are very important, if it's some sort of phenomenon that you can always understand or can be understood or laughed at a couple years later, then I think it's more involved in people's lives. T&C;: Who is your favorite comedian from the past, and who is your favorite modern comedian? Adam: Oh, from the past? Well, I'm pretty young. I'm 23. So from the past, I look back and say, like, Gaffigan or Seinfeld. Louis C.K. is great. Joel McHale is great. His stand-up's a little different, but I like it in most everything. T&C;: I read that one of your dream goals is to be the host of "The Soup." Adam: It would be great. It would just be, like, one-liners. They only do one take. That's not really my dream goal. I don't know what my dream goal is. I never answered the "when I grow up" question. I want to be, like, I don't know. I want to know what I want to be when I grow up. T&C;: Do you consider stand-up comedy your career? Adam: Yeah, this is what I do for a living. I hope it can continue to be my career. T&C;: Do you think you'll ever go to grad school? Adam: It stands to be said. I like teaching a lot. I'm good at it, working with students. I really like doing that because you can interject things about life with it. You know, even if you're teaching math, you can still teach them how to interact with one another. That's really where I got improv skills, just from answering any question. Kids ask everything. I don't shy away from questions. So I would probably go for a master's in secondary education. T&C;: If any of our readers are interested in a career of stand-up, where do you recommend they begin? Adam: Begin by testing your ideas and material with friends. What I started doing, I would talk to people at parties, wherever I went, and just tell them these things, and see how they reacted. If they thought they were funny. The way you talk to an audience is the way you should talk to your friend, for the most part. You just walk up to them and start telling them a story or something funny. It was funny. When I was first doing that, I talked to everyone. So I was talking to girls at parties. Someone's like, "Aww, is Adam hitting on these girls again?" And my friends are like, "No, it's just his new audience." After the girls left, I'm like, "Great. Thank you for your input." And I would just walk away. Not in a rude way, but not like I was trying to pick them up. T&C;: One final question: What advice do you have for current college students? Adam: The best thing you can do is get involved in something. Actually, two things. One, there's a lot of different groups and student activities and all different venues and organizations at your school that you probably don't know about or are not involved in, and they're free, so do them now. And the other one is get involved in whatever your degree is, whatever your major is, get involved in something outside of school that relates to it. 'Cause everything requires work experience or some sort of knowledge in these fields, and the classroom doesn't completely get you there. An internship, or working something.