Mohawk March
Throughout the month of March and into half of April (due to a
formal request by my girlfriend), I had a mohawk. Yes, I was
that kid. And yes, I was often whistling. Sometimes it was the
smurf theme song. Let’s not judge. On a side note, people
don’t whistle enough. I say we need to increase the general
whistling populace. People are happier when they are
whistling.
My mohawk did not arise from a lost bet. I actually wanted it.
Mohawk March started my freshman year. In my mind, this was my
last chance to do something wild and crazy. To do something
that I wouldn’t normally do. After that early spring month, I
would be hunting for internships. I would be interviewing and
would have to look professional. I would have to start acting
like an adult. Well, the freshman mohawk didn’t last very
long. Within two weeks, I buzzed my hair so my grandmother
couldn’t see it during Easter. To understand this, you have to
know that my grandmother is more Catholic than the Pope.
Imagine your best Polish Babushka stereotype, take away the
shawl, and you’d probably be pretty spot on to my Baba. I
would’ve gotten quite a talking to because of my hairstyle
choice. It wouldn’t have been pretty. For example, my cousin
got a three hour conversation because he put black sharpie on
his fingernails. He was in junior high. Just imagine the
grandmother wrath that a mohawk would’ve brought down.
I got the mohawk because sometimes you just have to do things
you don’t normally do. It’s called living. I was a square in
high school. I will freely admit I was pretty boring. I wasn’t
necessarily uptight, but I was definitely controlled. I never
dyed my hair. I never wore silly clothing. The most
uncontrolled appearance I may have had in high school was that
time I let my facial hair grow in for about a week. It looked
terrible. Its getting better though – both the growth rate of
my facial hair and the amount of boring I am. In college, I
slowly started to realize the opportunity that was slipping
by. So, the first Mohawk March was born that fateful spring of
2005.
So, here I am senior year. I will be hunting for full-time
jobs here in the coming months. This is definitely the last
time my hair style will ever be my own. From this point on, I
will be dealing with costumers, managers and a corporate world
that doesn’t appreciate three to four inches hair of sticking
straight up. So, I decided to do a senior year mohawk.
I let my hair grow out for roughly six months. I got a decent
haircut in November, the sides trimmed in December, and that
was it. By the time March rolled around, I had a lot of hair.
(Photos courtesy of Facebook.com). I even tipped the mohawk
blue this time around. I know, I’m very wild. The blue didn’t
last very long. It turned from bright blue, to cobalt to some
form of odd gray pretty quickly.
The moral of the mohawk is to live life to its fullest. My
personality does not fit a mohawk. The mohawk does not fit me.
But, sometimes you just have to do those things you wouldn’t
normally. I’m not suggesting everyone go out and get a mohawk.
That would make you unoriginal. If you are a known party
animal, read a book and relax on a Saturday night. If you are
a little uptight, do something loose. If you spend too much
time at your computer, go skydiving! Or maybe just take up
walking. Baby steps. But whatever you do, get out of your
comfort zone.
Do you hate parties? Go to one – at least one. Never ran a
mile? There is always a first time. Do you dye your hair all
the time? Leave it alone once. Afterward, when it is all said
and done, you’ll be glad you stretched your definition of
yourself that much further. There is absolutely no reason for
you to have a simple definition.
A May Day message
The Iraqi labor movement released a 2008 May Day message
addressing their grievances and detailing their demands. These
heroic people have resisted not only American aggression but
also the brutal infighting which American occupation has
caused. They are being denied basic human rights, including
the right to organize – yet still they do, at great personal
peril. These are our brothers and sisters, the true would-be
liberators of Iraq.
“On this day
fellow trade
against war
struggle for
military and
of international labour solidarity we call on our
unionists and all those worldwide who have stood
and occupation to increase support for our
freedom from occupation,” they begin, “both the
economic.
“We call upon the governments, corporations and institutions
behind the ongoing occupation of Iraq to respond to our
demands for real democracy, true sovereignty and selfdetermination free of all foreign interference.
“Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought
nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our
people. In the name of our ‘liberation,’ the invaders have
destroyed our nation’s infrastructure, bombed our
neighbourhoods, broken into our homes, traumatized our
children, assaulted and arrested many of our family members
and neighbours, permitted the looting of our national
treasures and turned nearly twenty percent of our people into
refugees.”
It is difficult to imagine the severity of the Iraqi refugee
crisis. It would be as if America was laid to waste and 50-or-
so million of its most-educated people, the people bestequipped to rebuild what is left, all fled the country.
“The invaders helped to foment and then exploit sectarian
divisions and terror attacks where there had been none. Our
union offices have been raided. Union property has been seized
and destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen. Our leaders
have been beaten, arrested, abducted and assassinated. Our
rights as workers have been routinely violated.
“The Ba’athist legislation of 1987, which banned trade unions
in the public sector and public enterprises (80% of all
workers), is still in effect, enforced by Paul Bremer’s postinvasion Occupation Authority and then by all subsequent Iraqi
administrations. This is an attack on our rights and basic
precepts of a democratic society, and is a grim reminder of
the shadow of dictatorship still stalking our country.
“Despite the horrific conditions in our country, we continue
to organise and protest against the occupation, against
workplaces abuses
conditions.”
and
for
better
treatment
and
safer
The signatories of the statement, representing a large number
of Iraqi trade unions, agreed on four simple demands.
“We call upon our allies and all the world’s peace-loving
peoples to help us to end the nightmare of occupation and
restore our sovereignty and national independence so that we
can chart our own course to the future.
1) “We demand an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops
from our country, and utterly reject the agreement being
negotiated with the USA for long-term bases and a military
presence. The continued occupation fuels the violence in Iraq
rather than alleviating it. Iraq must be returned to full
sovereignty.
2) “We demand the passage of a labour law promised by our
Constitution, which adheres to ILO [i.e., International Labor
Organization] principles and on which Iraqi trade unionists
have been fully consulted, to protect the rights of workers to
organize, bargain and strike, independent of state control and
interference.
3) “We demand an end to meddling in our sovereign economic
affairs by the International Monetary Fund, USA and UK. We
demand withdrawal of all economic conditionalities attached to
the IMF’s agreements with Iraq, removal of US and UK economic
‘advisers’ from the corridors of Iraqi government, and a
recognition by those bodies that no major economic decisions
concerning our services and resources can be made while
foreign troops occupy the country.
4) “We demand that the US government and others immediately
cease lobbying for the oil law, which would fracture the
country and hand control over our oil to multinational
companies like Exxon, BP and Shell. We demand that all oil
companies be prevented from entering into any long-term
agreement concerning oil while Iraq remains occupied. We
demand that the Iraqi government tear up the current draft of
the oil law, and begin to develop a legitimate oil policy
based on full and genuine consultation with the Iraqi people.
Only after all occupation forces are gone should a long term
plan for the development of our oil resources be adopted.”
They conclude by thanking those who have stood by them and
demonstrated for them. Surely their courage puts us to shame.
We ought to be doing much more to organize and express our
discontent with American occupation, both because we bear
responsibility for their suffering and because we face none of
the risks that they do.
Workers in Iraq are organizing for a better future, a future
unencumbered by American imperialism and theocratic
gangsterism. You had better hope they succeed.
Drug problem
measure
difficult
to
Experts suspect the drug abuse problem on college campuses
isn’t portrayed accurately in the numbers.
“There are students at every university with dependence
issues,” said Dr. Christopher Halasy, medical director and
chief of medicine at the Student Medical Center. “And this is
not easily quantifiable, as we only learn of cases which
present themselves to us for help or apply to drop from class
work after inpatient treatment for detox and rehab.”
Recent studies across the United States have reported a fairly
significant number of students are abusing prescription drugs
on college campuses, and it has yet to be determined how
prevalent this issue is at UT.
A recent study done in October 2006 by Pharmacotherapy, a
journal of human pharmacology and drug therapy, took a random
sample of 4,580 college students across the country and found
that 5.9 percent, or 269 students, reported lifetime and pastyear prevalence for illicit use of prescription stimulants.
Approximately 75.8 percent of those students reported pastyear use of an amphetamine-dextroamphetamine combination
commonly known as Adderall, and 24.5 percent of those students
reported past-year use of methylpbenidate commonly known as
Ritalin, Concerta, Metadate, or Methyline.
Administration at UT report dealing with approximately three
to seven cases per school year of prescription drug abuse
among students.
“I suspect there is probably more of it going on,” said Terry
Teagarden, assistant director for student judicial affairs.
“I know it happens,” Teagarden said. “We just don’t get that
much of it.”
The problem with finding cases of students abusing
prescription drugs is it seems easier for students to hide
their usage unless their behavior is out of the ordinary, said
Jo Campbell, director of residence life.
“We see half of a dozen cases in a year,” Campbell said. “So
it’s not a huge problem, but again these are the people we
become aware of because of their behavior.”
In the small number of cases UT finds of prescription drug
abuse, they report mostly abuse of Ritalin and Adderall,
Campbell said.
Even though faculty members at UT don’t seem to encounter many
cases of prescription drug abuse, students say it’s definitely
common on campus.
“Its everywhere you go,” said Justin Dieter, an undecided
freshman. “Prescription drugs are the most abused drugs there
are.”
Dieter said he was prescribed Adderall when doctors said he
had attention deficit disorder. He took the drug for about a
week, but decided to stop because he didn’t like how they made
him feel.
“Your mind is awake, but your body is exhausted,” Dieter said.
“I couldn’t fall asleep.”
Adderall is typically used by students to study or to simply
get high, Dieter said.
“People call Adderall the poor man’s crack,” he said.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, stimulants
affect neurotransmitters in the brain to increase alertness,
attention and energy, which are accompanied by increases in
blood pressure, heart rate and respiration.
“The mental capacity of the student doesn’t change,” said
Steven Martin, associate professor and chair in the department
of pharmacy practice. “It changes the mental acuity and
maintains your alertness.”
Students who abuse prescription stimulants for long periods of
time will eventually experience a powerful crash, Martin said.
“I don’t really think students can go through college living
like that,” Martin said. “Your body can’t go without sleep,
and eventually your body is going to catch up with you and
you’re going to crash.”
The dangers that accompany stimulant abuse can lead to
respiration failure and heart failure if students abusing
these drugs are unaware of specific heart problems, Martin
said.
“Most young people tend to tolerate abuse fairly well,” he
said.
The serious danger of stimulant abuse lies in the addiction to
these drugs that can form through prolonged use, Martin said.
“You’re adding a neurotransmitter to the brain in a situation
where previously the brain was fine,” he said. “When you take
it away you’re creating a situation where your brain craves
the drug even more.”
UT breaks the silence
One-and-a-half million women are raped and/or physically
assaulted by an intimate partner each year according to the
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
If it were up to Diane Docis and many other determined women,
that number would be zero.
Docis is the coordinator of the Sexual Assault Education and
Prevention Program at UT and is one of the main organizers for
the UT Clothesline Project.
The Clothesline Project is a display of t-shirts created by
survivors of violence against women and is a part of UT’s
month long recognition of Sexual Assault Month. The project
allows the families of victims of violence and survivors of
abuse to raise awareness about violence against women, while
honoring those who lost their lives as a result of violence.
“It’s something people don’t talk about,” Docis said. “We have
to know the reality of sexual violence so we can put an end to
it. One of the things that’s so powerful about this project is
that it ends the silence.”
The project was held Wednesday in Student Union and consisted
of T-shirts that were displayed on a clothesline to symbolize
breaking the silence surrounding violence against women. Each
t-shirt included a personal message from a survivor of abuse,
or a tribute to someone who lost their life due to violence or
any type of abuse. Each color represented a different kind of
abuse toward women:
Blue or green represented incest and child abuse, red or pink
represented any type of sexual assault, yellow or brown
represented dating and domestic abuse, lavender or purple
represented homophobic hate crimes and lesbian partner abuse,
orange represented ritual abuse, and white symbolized murder.
Sharon Barnes, associate professor of interdisciplinary and
special programs at UT said it is important to educate college
students about domestic violence and any kind of abuse against
women.
“It’s so common in a lot of students’ families and in their
interpersonal relationships with each other,” she said.
“There’s not a lot of good role models with healthy
relationships for young people and a lot of people are still
ignorant about the issues.”
Lisa Fedina, 22, a senior majoring in social work and a member
of UT United for Respect and Nonviolence (UTurn) and the
Student Social Work Organization, said that the Clothesline
Project is an uplifting event for women.
“They’re making a statement in a very artful, respectful and
empowering way,” Fedina said. “It’s a way of healing for a lot
of people.”
Along with the Clothesline Project, the Sexual Assault and
Prevention Program is also taking part in 14th-annual Take
Back the Night, a rally that raises awareness about violence
against women.
The event is Friday at 6 p.m. at Woodward High School and will
feature music, speakers, workshops and poetry to celebrate
Sexual Awareness Month. The event will also feature a women’s
march around the neighborhood and a men’s workshop that will
educate men on how to end violence against women.
“There’s so many different aspects to this event,” Docis said.
“The men’s program is important because that’s who has the
power to create change. We have educate the men and encourage
the good guys to step up.”
Barnes agreed.
“We have to recognize, validate and affirm our male allies.
They’re few in numbers but are strong and deep in commitment.
We have to educate men about their role,” she said.
Another important part of Take Back the Night is the Silent
Witness Project, a display of life-size wooden silhouettes
that represent local women murdered in acts of violence.
When it comes to violence against women, Fedina said that many
people often underestimate the severity of the situation.
“I don’t think people comprehend the enormity of the problem,”
she said. “So many rapes and acts of violence against women go
unreported and we have to recognize that it’s a problem and
try to solve it.”
Barnes said one of the most important aspects to Take Back the
Night is that it gives women the opportunity to come together
and support one another.
“It’s a symbolic gesture,” she said. “It’s women saying that
they will help each other and that they don’t have to be
protected by a man.”
In the past years Take Back the Night and the Clothesline
Project have occurred Docis said that she has always gotten a
positive reaction from the campus community.
“I’ve recieved a great reaction from students when we’ve done
this in the past,” Docis said. “I feel hope when I see
students on campus taking action and wanting to make a
difference.”
“It has a deep affect on the students and is deeply
empowering,” Barnes said. “A lot of students are survivors of
abuse and haven’t told anyone. This event gives them a sense
that they can tell someone and that their experience is
honored.”
Docis said that when it comes to issues such as domestic
violence and rape, issues that are often difficult to
pinpoint, many people feel powerless and don’t know how to
help. Docis encouraged students to become involved with campus
organizations such as UTURN that advocate nonviolence or to
join community-based programs.
“There are a million ways to make a difference in your daily
life and the best way is to speak-up — don’t remain silent,”
Docis said.
Docis and Barnes agreed that despite the large number of women
who continue to be abused every day, they are committed to
speaking out against violence against women.
“I know everywhere there are people working to end violence
against women, people care and we all can make a difference,”
Docis said.
“This is a life commitment,” Barnes said. “I’m committed to
women and men having loving and peaceful relationships.”
SG Senate wraps up year
UT’s Student Senate held its last session of the semester on
Tuesday night, and during it, two resolutions were passed in
hopes of helping students get their opinions to the
administration.
One of the passed resolutions, written by Student Senators
Glenn Mains and Mark D’Apolito, asks UT President Lloyd Jacobs
to hold office hours every week.
Much like office hours faculty members hold, Student Senate is
requesting Jacobs to have three hours that would be free for
students to address Jacobs with concerns about UT. The
resolution also requests the hours remain constant every week
and be well advertised.
“Direct interaction with students is very important. The
president sees a lot of value in it,” said Tobin Klinger,
senior director for University Communications. “The format
that that takes has a lot of value to it.”
Jacobs
Yanshan
Toledo,
with it
is currently in China as part of a delegation to
University in Qinhuangdao, China, a sister city to
in honor of the memorandum of understanding UT has
and was unavailable for comment.
Student Senate also passed a referendum in opposition to the
July 1 deadline for the merging of departments within the
College of Arts and Sciences by Dean of the college Yueh-Ting
Lee.
The referendum does not oppose the merging of the departments,
just the deadline.
This is the second referendum the body has passed in response
to occurrences in the College of Arts and Sciences, the first
occurring last week supporting the no-confidence vote the Arts
and Science Council passed against Lee on April 15.
Lee is also in China as part of the delegation to Yanshan
University.
A resolution for supporting the creation of an Office of
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Initiatives was also
introduced at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The resolution, written by Student Senator Noah Gillespie,
would support UT Spectrum, the student LGBT group on campus
and the Safe Places Program in beginning the LGBT Initiatives
office “in order to create a friendlier atmosphere for [LGBT]
students … provide a center for education and programming, and
engage individuals dedicated to advocacy and tolerance,”
according to the resolution.
Ten members for Student Government President Greg Seifert and
SG Vice President Kristina Karbula’s cabinet were approved at
the meeting, as well.
The next meeting for Student Senate will be Aug. 26 at 8:15
p.m. in Student Union Building room 2592.
Opportunity in merger
The past few months have been turbulent ones for the
University of Toledo, capable of wrenching the institution
from its foundations and inspiring ruinous upheaval. Many
faculty members feel disenfranchised as of late at UT, cut out
from the decision-making process that so intimately affects
their careers and livelihoods. Aside from that, the
administration has repeatedly pursued plans that seemingly
seek to cripple the College of Arts and Sciences, turning it
into nominally existent academic entity equipped to offer only
a bare-bones-list of course offerings that can, at best,
simply complement a STEMM education.
In order to truly improve this university – or at least to
keep it functioning adequately – all parties involved must
have a hand in planning UT’s future. It is undeniable that
there are important advancements that can be made here at UT,
even though the idea of improving a “failing liberal arts
education” is ridiculous and dangerous. In order to even come
close to accomplishing these goals and maybe moving UT ahead
in national ranks, no matter the direction, there must be
shared faculty and administrative governance. A marginalized
faculty will, at best, simply not cooperate with an oppressive
administration and become stressed, creating a nightmarish
bureaucratic tug-of-war game and an unhealthy atmosphere for
student education. At the worst, it will encourage faculty
members to leave this university and continue their careers
elsewhere.
Shared governance is especially crucial at a time like this,
though, with union negotiations between the university and the
faculty members proceeding and an haphazard deadline of July 1
for department mergers hanging over the heads of faculty
members and administrators. In this spirit, a combined Faculty
Senate incorporating members from the Main Campus and the
Health Science Campus stands as a grand opportunity to develop
a shared faculty voice for dialogue with the administration on
how to operate UT. The Faculty Senate, consisting of 64
members justly apportioned according to number of faculty
members in each college, will give UT President Lloyd Jacobs
one prominent faculty authority with which to establish a
dialogue. He might find this streamlined and consolidated
approach to UT operation more agreeable, given his distaste
for excessive and multiple operations as outlined in his
second annual address.
To truly enfranchise this new Faculty Senate, though, the
board of trustees along with UT’s administration must give
faculty members a place at the table. This year, unlike
previous ones, Faculty Senate has not had representation on
the board of trustees. This exclusion robs the trustees of a
crucial insight into campus dynamics and the faculty members
of a significant mechanism for expressing their grievances.
If such precautions are taken and warnings are heeded, UT’s
future will improve significantly as all those attached to the
university will work together for a common vision. If the
reckless re-engineering as pursued by the administration
continues, however, an impassable divide might come to wrench
this university apart – and it might happen soon.
UT goes 1-1 on the road
The Rockets’ softball team was shutout in the second game of a
doubleheader against Cleveland State yesterday after taking a
5-2 victory in the first game.
UT managed just three hits over five innings in the 8-0 loss
in the second game.
Senior Erica Singer, sophomore Whitney Erickson and freshman
Sam Toy were the only Rockets with a hit.
The Vikings opened the scoring in the second inning with a
bases-loaded walk.
CSU took over the game in the bottom of the third inning,
scoring five runs on a lead-off homerun, two runs on errors,
and a two-run homer.
After breaking up the no-hitter in the top of the third
inning, the Rockets managed just one hit in each of the final
two innings.
Amanda Macenko pitched all five innings for CSU allowing three
hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
The game was called after the Vikings hit a two-run homerun in
the bottom of the fifth inning.
Freshman Shana Szypka took the loss for UT, allowing four
earned runs and five total in two innings on three hits and
two walks.
In the first game of the double header, sophomore Hannah
Rockhold earned a complete-game victory in the Rockets 5-2
win.
In the top of the first inning, UT struck first when senior
Leslie Stong crossed the plate on a single by junior Brie
Ford. Stong reached base after being hit by a pitch and
stealing second base. Ford scored later in the inning on a hit
by Erickson to give the Rockets a 2-0 lead.
Freshman Kelly Hmiel hit an RBI single to increase the lead to
three in the top of the second inning. In the third inning,
senior Valerie Moxim singled to right field and Erickson
scored on an error to take a 5-0 lead.
The Vikings broke the shutout in the bottom of the fourth
inning with two runs on an RBI double by Christa Coppus and a
groundout RBI from Jessica Burt.
Rockhold and UT’s defense buckled down after the fourth
inning, allowing only one hit and no runs in the final three
innings. Rockhold allowed two runs on five hits in seven
innings pitched with three strikeouts and no walks.
The Rockets managed eight hits in the game. Ford and Moxim
each had one run and an RBI. Ford went 2-for-4 at the plate
while Moxim hit 2-for-3.
Rockhold allowed two runs in the game on five hits in seven
innings with three strikeouts and no walks in the victory.
The Rockets will host rival Bowling Green at Scott Park at 2
p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
UT
blocks
file
sharing
network
UT Information Technology blocked access to a network used by
several popular peer file sharing programs yesterday. This
came after receiving a number of illegal use notices from the
Recording Industry Association of America.
Access at UT to the Gnutella network, which is used for
programs such as LimeWire, FrostWire and Cabos, was terminated
yesterday evening, according to team leader for quality,
communication and security Melissa Crabtree.
“The RIAA can aggressively scan for programs,” Crabtree said.
“They recently went after people who were using Gnutella, and
apparently [a lot of] people on campus were using [it]. In
order to reduce the number, we decided to block the use of it
entirely.”
IT received 66 violation notices yesterday and 65 the day
before from the RIAA, Crabtree said.
IT heeds the notifications from the RIAA because UT legal
consultants advised that doing otherwise was illegal, Crabtree
said.
UT does not actively scan for such violations; they only
respond to the notifications from the RIAA, according senior
network security analyst Chad Hrivnyak.
“We don’t even know who the student is. We just shut off the
offending machine,” Hrivnyak said.
Blocked students do not find out what’s happened to their
account until they inevitably call the IT help desk to
discover why they aren’t getting access, Hrivnyak said.
Without blocking access to the Gnutella network outright, IT
faced dealing with each violation on a case-by-case basis,
Crabtree said, adding that this was extremely time consuming.
“It takes up to about two and half hours to investigate who
the offender is and then additional time to get them to come
in here and do interviews,” Crabtree said.
Hrivnyak agreed.
“We were talking weeks and weeks of interviewing students,
which is not practical at all,” he said.
First time offenders would lose network access until being
interviewed by someone within IT. Second time offenders lost
network privileges for the rest of the year and needed to
appear before Judicial Affairs, according to Crabtree.
“This is to protect the rights of the students,” Crabtree
said. “We would be shutting down the access for all these
students. That would mean if they were [distance learning]
students, they could not have access to their classes until
they came in.”
Preventing access to the Gnutella network is achieved using a
technology UT already has called an intrusion prevention
system. Since UT already owns the software, the policy change
has cost UT nothing, Hrivnyak said.
“They actually pushed a little check box, pressed execute,
then it just applies the policy, and it works,” Hrivnyak said.
IPS looks for recognizable internet traffic patterns to
identify connections that are using the file sharing network,
and then blocks it, Hrivnyak said.
According to Hrivnyak, UT is less severe than some other
universities in how it deals with offenders.
Wayne State [University] actually has a $100 re-activation fee
they have to pay after their [address] is blocked,” he said.
“And that’s on a first offense.”
Crabtree agreed about UT’s leniency.
“I do firmly believe the University of Toledo is a lot less
aggressive than a lot of universities,” she said. “We feel we
are trying to give students the benefit of the doubt.”
SG hopeful for Dorr Street
Mike Betz, former Student Government president, said students
can expect a lot of progress on Dorr Street development by
fall if plans move forward properly.
“A large portion of Dorr Street will be developed [by then],”
he said.
Matthew Schroeder, the director of business enterprise for the
UT Foundation said, to date, the foundation has received many
requests for information about the development.
“We have received well over 30 requests from local and
national developers,” he said, adding that the cost of the
project cannot be determined yet.
“Until the proposals are received back, we won’t know the
scope of the project in terms of a dollar amount the developer
is willing to develop until about the end of June,” he said.
“The Student Government will be involved, along with various
student groups, and the community as a whole will help move
forward in a process to create a development that is accepted
and embraced by students, faculty and the community,”
Schroeder said.
Student Government is important, Schroeder said, “in
identifying the key placeholder groups and being involved in
the process to communicate to the developer what the students
want. The best fit or the best model for graduate and
undergraduate students is a critical step in this process.”
Student Government President Greg Seifert said he plans on
getting in touch with businesses and companies to see about
getting their business on Dorr Street.
“Personally, I’d like to see a video store so students
wouldn’t have to travel far away to rent movies,” he said.
Student Government’s job is to take ideas from students and
offer a different approach, Seifert said, and contact these
business and land owners or whoever is selling the property
and hook those two up.
“Something like Pita Pit that is so successful in Bowling
Green … I don’t understand why Pita Pit wouldn’t want to put
one [branch] in Toledo,” Seifert said.
“We want to make sure students get their voices heard too, and
make sure they get what they want,” Seifert said.
“Kristina Karbula, the vice president of Student Government,
and I will be here all summer, and we can take care of the
stuff relating to Dorr Street,” Seifert added. “We’re getting
opinions from students now, [and] we’re still in the initial
stages of getting to know the administrators.”
“[Dorr Street] has been a big concern since I was a freshman,
and it’s a perfect place for businesses to be located,” he
said.
The oil companies’ scheme
aWe all get mad when we have to fill up our gas tank these
days, unless we work for ExxonMobile or Chevron. Who wouldn’t
be mad? Look at gas prices: $3 is suddenly cheap! It’s flatout ridiculous when oil companies are making 40 billiondollar-a-year profits, and we’re paying 200 percent more for
gas than we did 10 years ago.
That’s right. According to the Department of Energy, gas in
the midwest cost on average $1.05 in 1998. Now it is
considerably above three dollars. That would mean the price of
gas has tripled. Tripled! Have our incomes tripled? Has the
price of anything else tripled? Maybe. A lot of economists say
that the price level is normal and that oil companies are
making record-high profits because of record-high demand for
their product.
Record high demand, eh? Let’s see … what other option is there
if I want to fuel my car? Should I use my electric car that
hasn’t been perfected yet, despite having been invented in the
1830s? That’s right, look it up. Robert Anderson of Scotland
invented the first crude electric carriage.
Or maybe I can use my hydrogen or natural gas car that would
be perfectly feasible, except that oil companies continue to
buy their patents so that they can’t be perfected. Not to
mention the immense inertia on America’s part. How many
natural gas filling stations are there? Only now has a
mainstream car been built to handle natural gas: Honda’s
Civic.
Alas, I have no other option but to fuel my car with good ol’
gasoline. (Well, I could take public transportation. I do that
a lot.) Production of oil isn’t slowing down (Yet. Do some
research on “Peak Oil” and prepare to be freaked out), so why
are prices so high? One factor: lack of oil refineries.
Yes, there are an innumerable amount of factors that decide
what you and I pay for gas, but a major part is supply and
demand. See, the supply at the source isn’t slowing down
(extraction is actually rising to meet demand), but the supply
at the refineries is. Refineries are vital in the process of
turning crude oil into gasoline. It’s like turning cotton into
thread. We don’t wear big balls of cotton, but we wear the
thread made from the cotton in the form of clothes.
Anyhow, there is evidence to support a theory that big oil
companies are refusing to build more refineries in an effort
to limit supply (thus raising prices). Some economists say
this is foolish because increased production would actually be
beneficial. Well if it’s so beneficial, why aren’t they
building more refineries?
Take a wild guess how many refineries have been built in the
United States between 1975 and 2000. Drum roll… One! Whoah, I
bet that’s only because pollution laws are so tight. Wrong!
Guess how many refineries were proposed. One! Crazy isn’t it?
Demand keeps increasing but the supply continues to stay the
same. Sounds like a good way to increase prices (and profits).
Weird, huh, that demand increases but total refined production
has steadied in the low 400 million barrel mark for January of
2008 as opposed to closer to 500 million barrels in May of
2005. That’s according to the DOE again.
There is further evidence to support my claims. The U.S.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded in March 2001 that
oil companies had intentionally withheld supplies of gasoline
from the market as a tactic to drive up prices – all as a
“profit-maximizing strategy.” According to Public Citizen,
“The largest five oil refiners in the United States
(ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Valero and Royal Dutch Shell)
now control over half (56.3%) of domestic oil refinery
capacity; the top ten refiners control 83%. Only ten years
ago, these top five oil companies only controlled about one-
third (34.5%) of domestic refinery capacity; the top ten
controlled 55.6%.”
That clearly makes it easier for the big boys to do as they
please. They continue to buy independent refineries in an
effort to reduce supply growth. It’s not like they need any
financial help. Their profits are so ridiculously high!
According to Public Citizen, “In 1999, for every gallon of
gasoline refined from crude oil, U.S. oil refiners made a
profit of 22.8 cents. By 2004, the profits jumped 80% to 40.8
cents per gallon of gasoline refined. Between 2001 and
mid-2005, the combined profits for the biggest five refiners
was $228 billion.”
I’m not for a state-run oil company. I’m not for a pure
capitalist market. I’m not completely sure what will create
lower fuel costs. One thing is certain, though: companies will
continue to make record profits. They will continue, that is,
until they run out of product to sell.
We must not leave the Iraqis
vulnerable
Today’s soldiers know history. They know that abandoning their
allies is deadly for those left behind.
Two weeks ago, I joined more than 10 other Michigan Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans to attend the Vets For Freedom, Vets on
the Hill event in Washington. There, we joined more than 400
other Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from around the country to
tell our political leaders that not only is victory in Iraq
possible, it is necessary. All we ask is that the our
political leaders not pull the rug out from under us and, more
importantly, out from under the Iraqi people now that real
progress is being made.
We did not do this because we are Republicans or Democrats. We
don’t believe that wanting America to win in Iraq and defeat
the forces of radicalism is a partisan goal. It is an American
goal, and we support any politician, Republican, Democrat or
independent, who shares that one belief.
That’s why Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Rep. Jim
Marshall, a Democrat, were on the stage with Sen. John McCain,
a Republican. Whatever the situation was in 2003, whether or
not going into Iraq was the right thing to do in the first
place, it doesn’t matter. That is a debate for history. It’s
2008 now, and we have to make decisions based on the reality
we have, not the reality we would prefer.
I was deployed to Iraq for nine months, and in that time I
talked to countless amounts of Iraqis. Some didn’t like us,
some wanted us to leave, but most did not. What they wanted
was for America to live up to its word. They wanted us to rid
the country of terrorists and militias so they could live in
peace.
They were willing to help us, but they were also aware of the
consequences. They know that if they commit to the American
side and the Americans abandon them as we did in 1991, it
means death for them and their families. They know this, and
it is real. It is not an abstract idea for them.
Most Iraqis don’t support Al-Qaeda and the militias, but when
our commitment to stay in Iraq and finish the job is in doubt
– as it was when Sen. Harry Reid went on TV and said, “this
war is lost” – Iraqis are going to hedge their bets. They may
not support the militias, but when they are betting their
lives, most of them are not going to commit to America unless
they are assured that America is committed to them.
That’s why Vets For Freedom supports any politician who
supports the mission in Iraq. We – all Americans and not just
Republicans or President Bush – owe it to the Iraqi people to
see this through.
My father’s generation of American soldiers saw what happened
in Southeast Asia, and we do not want a repeat of the Killing
Fields – this time as Sunnis are massacred by Iranian-backed
militias. We do not want an Iraqi version of the Vietnamese
boat people.
Never again do we want to see our allies forced from their
homeland because America abandoned them. America has a choice.
We do not have to let history repeat itself. This is why I
went to Washington two weeks ago, and why I am a member of
Vets For Freedom.
Our message to Capitol Hill was: “Let them win.” My message to
you is: “Never again.”
Boley twins attribute success
to family values
For senior baseball players Sean and Scott Boley, family is
the centerpiece of their success, especially their parents.
What we are taught as children becomes vital as we grow older,
and those lessons develop into the fibers that hold together
our lives.
“They taught us a lot of stuff growing up-how to manage time
and a good work ethic,” Scott said.
It paid off, too, both on and off the field.
The twin brothers grew up in Celina, Ohio where the roots to
their baseball glory were planted. They have been playing
together since they were little kids. Both were four-year
letter winners in baseball at Celina High School, receiving
first-team all-state honors during their senior year.
Scott had a batting average of .451 that season, tallying 30
RBI and seven home runs. He was named to The Daily Standard
Dream Team, rated as the No. 1 third baseman in Ohio and the
25th-best prospect in the state overall by The Buckeye Scout.
Sean also excelled in high school. As the team’s catcher, he
hit .523 with six homers and fifteen doubles in his senior
season, tallying 41 RBI as The Daily Standard’s 2004 Player of
the Year.
When it came to picking a college to further their baseball
careers and their educations, the University of Toledo was
pretty much a no-brainer.
“It was close to home,” Sean said. “We’re just really familyoriented.”
Their older brother, Travis, was also playing baseball for the
Rockets at the time, later becoming a volunteer assistant
coach for the team in 2006.
It did not take long for them to make their mark at UT.
Together, the Boley brothers have put together impressive
resumes in the last three years, adjusting quickly to the
rigors and expectations of college life.
“It’s definitely a lot more demanding,” Sean said. “Just the
time spent trying to get to class and get to practice,
especially with the competition you’ve got out on the field.
It’s a lot tougher.”
In his first three years for the Rockets, Sean has a .249
batting-average with eight home runs and 31 RBI in 80
appearances for the Rockets. He also played for the Lima Locos
in the 2006 Great Lakes Summer League, where he was selected
to the all-star team.
Scott has also enjoyed success in his tenure with UT. He
averaged .286 with 15 homers and 84 RBI in his first three
seasons, consistently improving each year.
In 2007, he started all 54 games at third base, batting .306
with seven homeruns and 39 RBI, and was drafted by the Kansas
City Royals in the 46th round of the Major League Baseball
Amateur Draft.
The duo excels off the field just as much as they do on it,
exemplifying what it means to be the quintessential studentathlete. Both were members of the National Honor Society in
high school, and they have maintained their focus on education
at the collegiate level as well.
Sean is a human resource management major and was named the
Sports Man of the Year by the University of Toledo StudentAthlete Advisory Council last Monday. Scott is majoring in
finance and has the highest GPA for a senior athlete with a
3.976 average. He was an ESPN The Magazine second-team
Academic All-American in 2007, a two-time first-team ESPN The
Magazine Academic All-District IV selection, and an Academic
All-MAC Team honoree in 2006-2007.
Unfortunately, injuries are part of the game. After helping
lead the Rockets last year to their first MAC Tournament
appearance since 1999, both have seen limited action this
season due to injury as the team has struggled to a 12-24
record.
“This year’s been a little rough, but we still have time to
turn it around,” Scott said.
Despite the recent setbacks, one thing remains certain for the
resilient Boley brothers: there is nowhere to go but up.