Wittenberg Admin: Keeping Us on the Blind Side

More than a week after a Wittenberg professor was arrested for multiple accounts of rape and kidnapping, there's no doubt that the entire campus (and probably much of Springfield, Ohio) knows about the incident. Whether it was from Facebook, the Springfield News Sun, or the word of mouth, students found out. And with no help from the Administration at all.

 So say that you were some Hobbit of a student who had access to none of those sources. You'd still be receiving the (two) emails that the school sent out, but with the bare minimal amount of information to go off of, you'd feel left in the dark. All you'd know was that a Wittenberg professor had been arrested and put on permanent leave. But for what?

It's highly likely that the Administration knows that we know about it. They probably assume that not everyone is a Hobbit and that news spread relatively fast the day after their first lack-luster email was sent out. But would it really be that difficult for them to be brutally honest with the student body? Despite knowing the details of the incident, I've overheard that most students would generally feel more comfortable if the school was frank with them about what happened. Even just one detailed email about the professor and his crimes would be enough but it seems as though the Admin would rather just cover things up.

Needless to say, their decisions seem to be causing more unrest and distrust from the students than anything, which really reflects poorly on them as a whole.

-Fran

Getting Caught Up: The Times They are A-Changin'

Over the past couple of months, Wittenberg has seen more (public) criminal activity than I've seen in the two (soon to be two and a half) years that I've been here. With 4 sexual assault issues on behalf of the students and now a case involving a professor, students are buzzing with talk about what has happened to our dear old Witt.

One comment on a facebook status even said that everything has gone to "Shittenberg" and that this year in particular just seems to be a bad one.

"Everyone is just so out of control", my roommate commented after reading the Springfield News Sun article regarding Prof. Adrian.

There was a chance that Adrian would have been my French professor last year had I not received Prof. Wilkerson instead, but I do know students who took his classes. This in itself is scary because it means that people I know could have been in danger and not even have known it. And while partying on campus has always been a major part of the weekend at Witt, friends have become far more cautious about going out as well. I think students have begun to realize that anyone can be a victim to sexual assault crimes, and that these sorts of problems exist within our precious Wittenberg Bubble.

-Fran

Story Ideas

1. "I Heart Women's O" is taking place this week and alot of students and student organizations are involved. Maybe do an overall cover-story, interviewing people who are part of the events (like the "Vagina Monologues") or the higher-ups in charge of putting it all together. Go to an event. Take notes of what happens and the atmosphere, then write an article on it.

2. It seems that most students came back from fall break more exhausted than rested. Are students already on the slide this semester? Does this atmosphere really exist? Maybe interview students from different grades and ask how they feel about this semester, if they feel on the "slide". Perhaps ask if professors can see it in their classes.

3. Regardless of not being directly related to Witt, students feel as though the elections are a big impact on them. Talk to students about what they think is riding on this election. You don't even have to ask who they're voting for, just what they feel are important topics. Maybe ask their opinions on the debates or the fact that this election is so heavily advertised. Find out what students want in their ideal candidate even.

Drinking: And How Witt Makes You Realize That You Need It

Okay. So maybe that title isn't completely accurate. But that really is what it's felt like to be a student here at Witt.

Before college, I have absolutely no interest in drinking. My parents always had wine with dinner on weekends, and they had a pretty decent store of liquor in the house that I was never denied access to. Then again, I never actually "broke into it" for some rowdy late night whisky drinking either. So coming to Witt, I had absolutely no plans to become a hardy or frequent drinker. And so this day, that has stayed true.

I'm a junior now, and I can honestly say that I've never been black-out "drunk". I've gotten "tipsy" and "fun" but never to the point where I've passed out. I've never even had a hang-over. And honestly, I'm not really interested in getting one either.

I understand that this is college and that partying is something that alot of people spend a good 4 days out of their week doing. But personally, I don't see the point of doing it that often. It just gets boring and repetative in my opinion. Why do something so often and run into the ground as opposed to doing it more sparingly and actually getting the chance to remember the night past 10pm?

Maybe I'm the minority here. Maybe I'm just missing out on this thing that everyone seems to think is so necessary. But unless not-getting smashed every weekend is going to kill me, I don't think I'll be doing it any time soon.

-Fran

When It's Good, It's Good. When It's Bad...

At the beginning of this school year, I began my fifth semester of class here at Wittenberg University as a Junior. This means that, since my Freshman year, I've taken sixteen classes; some of which were good, and some of which were quite the opposite.

Unfortunately, one of my experiences with a "bad" class occurred the first semester of the my Freshman year. The class was called "Cave Ecology", and I was taking it as a science credit which the intent of avoiding taking something like "Biology". I found the content interesting enough, but one, the class was an hour and a half, and two, it was an entirely lecture-based period that was done in a large, cold room in the Science Center. Anything we learned came from whatever the professor said about the Powerpoint and all of our grades, saver one project, were based around tests and quizzes. Granted, I already found it difficult to take lecture notes based off of what someone is speaking, and I'm also not terribly good at test-taking; especially when I'm studying from half-assed notes.

Needless to say, I dropped the class before I had the chance to actually fail it.

But my sophomore year was completely different. My first semester, I took English 290 with Professor Davis, and I couldn't have been more happy. Not only were we reading some of the most interesting American literary pieces in history, but all of the other students in the class were English Majors who were as genuinely excited about this kind of stuff as I am. We had engaging classroom discussions, thought-provoking paper assignments, and projects that were complicated, but fun. Even studying for my exams for that class was cool just because it gave the students the opportunity to just sit down in Post and talk about books for a few hours.

I think every college student will experience a bad class at some point. But the truth of the matter is that the majority of the college-level courses that I've taken have been interesting and engaging. A couple of "bad apples" in the bunch haven't changed that.

-Fran

Facebook: Who Cares?

Upon waking up every morning, I usually check my iphone for text messages, important emails, and any other notifications that I may have received. However, one more thing I find myself obligated to check is Facebook. Let's face it, anyone who doesn't have a Facebook in this day and age might as well not exist. I keep my Facebook for social obligations, to keep in touch with "old friends" and to make sure that I'm up to date with all the buzz. But lately, I've been feeling as though my status updates are made more so to keep appearances up for the sake of reminding my 300+ Facebook friends that I'm still alive somewhere, than they are for the sake of my enjoying 'blogging' my personal thoughts.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I used to be all about Farmland and Island Farm and all those other crazy game apps back in highschool. I can even remember kids discussing such things in class. But surely my virtual crops are suffering because I haven't played those stupid games in years now. Again, I just feel like those silly things are a burden.

Perhaps I'm just getting older, or perhaps Facebook has started to feel the way Myspace did before everyone jumped the internet ship. But either way, I'm beginning to care less and less about this website that's pretty much been deemed a necessity by our entire American culture.

-Fran