Around Campus
Mike Judge speaks to University Students about Browns Edge Partnership
“Ask not what your community can do for you”
By: Cory William Berlekamp
Twitter: @Cberlekamp
Email: berlekampc@findlay.edu
“It could be a doctor’s office, could be some other thing.” Ryan Fausnaugh said as he locked up the house that was not quite a home. Tucked away on a side street, The Center for Safe and Healthy Children is shadowed by Blanchard Valley Hospital. It sits with just two cars in the parking lot today, a relief to Fausnaugh as he walks from room to room locking up the building after sending his only volunteer home.
“It’s a children’s advocacy center,” said Fausnaugh, the executive director for the center. “Our goal is to bring in every case of reported sexual abuse against the children of Hancock County and to have them work through the center. We just aren’t as blatant as saying ‘Children’s Advocacy Center of Findlay’ and that’s for a specific reason. We want some anonymity for people coming through because it is a horrible thing to go through.”
The center opened in 2006 with the goal of providing a safe atmosphere for the children but more importantly, it has acted as the only stop children would have to make when being interviewed about their trauma.
“Last year we had 95 reported cases here, 66 of them came for interviews,” said Fausnaugh. “That’s 66 kids that came through here telling you about the worst day of their life.”
The nonprofit organization has a Board of Directors in which consists of members of the community ranging from David Emsweller, vice president of student affairs at the University, to Lt. Robert Ring, who is in charge of the detective unit at the Findlay Police Department.
“We are not there every day, thank goodness,” said Lt. Ring. “Knock on wood, we have only a couple cases so far in 2018. Generally, we see that around spring time for some reason things just start to spike up.”
As a nonprofit organization, the center has to rely on grant proposals written by Fausnaugh and community support. They hold different events throughout the year to help raise money and awareness including the Night at the Mazza Museum event which took place at the University of Findlay last November.
“It’s hard to get people to understand what we do,” said Pam Lather, former president of the board. “People don’t want to talk about child abuse. You don’t go to a dinner party or a cocktail party and talk about the child abuse that’s happening out your backdoor.”
According to Lather, however, that is exactly what they want to do. Last year, before the Night at the Mazza Museum event, the University of Findlay hosted Elizabeth Smart in the AMU.
“It’s hard to get people to come out when it’s just us talking. It helps to have a little more notoriety,” said Fausnaugh.“I know everybody came to hear about her but the first five minutes allowed me to share what we are doing. So, that’s 500 people who have never heard of us, or maybe heard of us but who get a little bit more knowledge.”
UF is partnering with The Center for Safe and Healthy Children is partnering to continue their outreach by hosting these events. The University is hoping to host another author or speaker come next year in the fall. Emsweller says the University has a responsibility to help further the center’s mission.
“Well I think it’s important, I mean human trafficking and sexual abuse are things that any university would be interested in assisting the community with,” said Emsweller.
Emsweller is in his second year on the board, and, with the support of Findlay, he helps with the programming of different events and helps Fausnaugh find volunteers. An upcoming event is purse bingo on Saturday, Feb. 28.
“I haven’t been [to purse bingo], but I guess it is really big,” laughed Emsweller. “These people all come in and play bingo to win these designer purses, I guess it makes quite a lot of donations, but for instance the center wants to see if they can get some of our athletes to model the purses as they auction them off.”
Emsweller also says students have helped design events and mailing information. As for volunteering at the center, Fausnaugh was more tentative.
“It’s emotional, you feel for every one of these kids and it makes you a very conscientious parent,” said Fausnaugh. “I feel bad for my kids because there are a lot of things they won’t be able to do, not that you suspect everybody but if something sounds fishy then your red alert goes up.”
Green campus club
By: Leah Palm
Twitter: @_palmegranate
Email: Palml@findlay.edu
The idea of creating a movement has become profound in recent years. Whether it is a #metoo or a protest on the street, inspired people work every day to create a change in their communities. At the University of Findlay, students have begun to create a movement aimed at making campus more eco-friendly in a world of declining environmental awareness.
The Green Campus Club, a student formed and student run committee, creates efforts to increase educational awareness and student involvement in protecting the Earth, starting locally. Student organizer, Abigail Corless, became inspired to share her passion for sustainability after a three-day conference last semester. According to Corless, she was determined to apply her inspiration gained from the conference to everyday life on-campus.
“I learned that a movement is not created by the first person involved it is actually created by all the people who follow the first person…it was clear to my small group that we needed to make a change to the recycling on campus.”
While starting a movement is easier said than done, The Green Campus Club has charged forward in their efforts to make campus a more eco-friendly environment, and they have targeted their efforts on indoor recycling. Currently, campus recycling policies make it difficult to have campus wide indoor recycling and Corless knew that it would take student initiative to change these policies.
“I decided to form Green Campus Club because of The University of Findlay’s current recycling practices, I wanted to change them, and I knew I couldn’t do it alone. Dr. Sekar, volunteered to be Green Campus Club’s advisor and since then we have had more people join the club and share their passion about recycling and green living.”
The initiative of students just like Corless have led to an ongoing change in policy that will allow indoor recycling at all print stations, in the mail room, and in the food court in the College of Business building. While the Green Campus Club has already done a large amount of work in a short amount of time, there is still a lot that still needs to be accomplished. Plastic waste is the biggest culprit when it comes to the pollution of landfills. According to Corless, recycling is not the solution to this, but it is the best possible thing students can do to contribute to the excessive waste pollution. Corless encourages,
“We the students are going to be the people who make changes on the University of Findlay’s campus and I am personally determined to make the change to increase recycling. We are hoping that we can continuously improve the green efforts on campus as there are endless areas in which we can improve on.”
To learn more about the Green Campus Club or how to get involved stop in for free pizza at the Feb. 6 meeting in Davis 1120 at 8:30 p.m. or email Abigail Corless at corlessa@findlay.edu
UF introduces new masters program
By: Abigail Frye
Twitter: @Abigail_EF
Email: fryea@findlay.edu
The University of Findlay will be introducing the new online Master of Arts in Professional Communication Program (MAPC) next semester. The program will be offered year-round, starting with three classes in the fall of 2018.
The planning for this program began around three years ago with Dr. Ron Tulley, dean of College of Liberal Arts and professor of English, Dr. Elkie Burnside, assistant professor of English and director of the Master of Arts in Professional Communication Program, and Dr. Cheri Hampton-Farmer, associate professor of Communication and chair of the Department of Communication. The group focused on how it could fit into UF’s curriculum.
Hampton-Farmer says the first three proposal processes were approved internally with the next two being external approvals. The internal proposals took about two years while the external took up to nine months, leading to a lengthy process of approvals for MAPC. The idea originated from the requests of students and the need for a program for all kinds of people in different places in their lives.
“We wanted an opportunity to help those people, like the nontraditional students, or the ones who are already working and don’t have time to sit in class,” said Hampton-Farmer.
Hampton-Farmer also explains how these classes will be about helping students who are already professionals and want to reach higher positions to find more fulfillment.
“Anybody can do this at any time in their life, with family and work, the accessibility is there,” added Hampton-Farmer.
The program was also not a costly decision for UF, according to Burnside.
“With excellent support from ITS and library, along with adjusting the staff load, we’re not adding a lot to the University as the resources are already there,” said Burnside.
Hampton-Farmer and Burnside both say that this program can help students in the Findlay community along with others all around the country.
“More and more employers need critical thinkers, they want someone who can learn the process that is specific to their company, and the skills they learn here will help them connect with companies and be able to learn through the business,” said Burnside.
“The communications skills they learn are transferable so it’s hard to pinpoint one job,because everyone uses communication in their work, so we’re helping people get better at what they’re already doing,” added Hampton-Farmer.
With this program being brand new to the University, there are many hopes that it will thrive. “Successful programs like the Master of arts in rhetoric and writing in the English department acted as a model for us, and by working with marketing and admissions to have a solid pace, our goal is 12-15 students next fall,” said Burnside.
The Master of Arts in Professional Communication Program will contain different topic courses, including team building in health professions and team building across disciplines. For this program, students are required to a have bachelors degree from an accredited institution, a cumulative GPA of 3.0 on 4.0 scale, two letters of recommendation and a personal statement. For more information, the admissions office contains all standard and conditional requirements for MAPC.
“We wanted to make something unique with thorough research, something no one else is doing in this way, as some programs aren’t fully online,” said Hampton-Farmer. “We’ve aligned learning objectives with the National Communication Association and we plan to get the program approved and endorsed by Quality Matters.”
H&M advertisement sparks controversy
By: Olivia Wile
Twitter: o_wile
Email: wileo@findlay.edu
The second week of 2018 has proved to be that of a nightmare for the H&M clothing brand.
The company recently released an advertisement with an African American child wearing a green hoodie with the phrase, “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle.” The decision to feature this child with a speculated racial slur on his sweatshirt has since sparked controversy.
Assistant Professor of Communication Dr. Megan Adams explains that such a mistake stems from a lack of communications within the H&M team.
“So many factors go into this that we study in communications,” said Adams.
“We can say with assurance there was a breakdown in communications somewhere down the line.”
According to the article, “H&M’s ‘monkey’ ad isn’t the first time celebs have yanked endorsements, but it’s rare” on USA Today, Rapper G-Eazy and Singer The Weeknd ended their partnerships with the brand because of the incident. Though these celebrities were quick to end their ties with H&M, the mother of the child reacted differently.
The Fox News article “Mom of H&M ‘Coolest Monkey’ ad model slams critics ‘crying wolf,’ tells them to ‘get over it: says that Terry Mango responded to critics of her child in a now-deleted Facebook post stating, “stop crying wolf all the time, unnecessary issue here… get over it.”
The brand itself seemed to have quickly realized its’ mistake releasing a statement on Monday, Jan. 8 stating, “We agree with all the criticism that this has generated — we have got this wrong and we agree that, even if unintentional, passive or casual racism needs to be eradicated wherever it exists.” The photo has since been removed from the H&M website.
As Adams has a background in news, she explains that although she made mistakes during her previous career, H&M’s larger platform has made this incident that much more problematic.
“It was a mistake, but I don’t think it was as harmful because it was localized,” said Adams reflecting on an incident during her career. “I think the issue of audience reach is different when something is national news.”
As for the future of the brand, she is not sure the company will suffer as much as some may think.
“I don’t think this will necessarily hurt their brand as much as it should,” she said. “Are people actually going to stop getting cheap clothes are H&M because of this principle? Only time will tell.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration at the University of Findlay
Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration at the University of Findlay, January 17, 2018
Sho Baraka lecture
Mandel drops out of election
By: Jacob Sarver
Twitter: @Senatorsarver
Email: sarverj@findlay.edu
The upcoming 2018 election is one that could shift the tide of the senate. With a majority of the government republican, this upcoming election is crucial if democrats want the ability to enact policy changes and if they want to work to stop what the opposition is doing under the current executive power.
The races for the senate will be held in the following states: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
Here in Ohio, Sherrod Brown is up for reelection and his opposition was Josh Mandel. Mandel was the best contender when it came to beating out Brown because of Brown’s extreme likeability and his powerhouse voice that has been favored in the last presidential campaign and in recent senate meetings. Back in 2012, Mandel only lost to Brown by six points.
However, on Jan. 5th, Mandel sent out an email to all his supporters announcing his withdraw from the upcoming senatorial race this year. He announced his wife is fighting a health battle and that his time will be spent caring and looking after her, leaving no time to focus on the campaign. Mandel says he looks forward to a future campaign.
Ohio is a crucial state for republicans to keep their spot. With these elections, democrats could either win out in another state, making the senate dead split, or, if they win out Ohio, the divide would grow allowing more policy changes to be brought forth by the GOP.
Considering the breaking news about Mandel, conservatives are struggling to find a top replacement because campaigning is already underway. With little name recognition for the group compared to that of Brown, they’ll need to work quickly and swiftly to find someone to reach the broad group that Mandel was able to.
Senate races may not seem as significant because they aren’t as flashy as the presidential elections, but the impact brought forth by the senate is as strong in comparison to the president.
The election will be held on Nov. 8, 2018. To find your polling location you can go to the Ohio Secretary of States website. Voting early is always an option as well once the race gets closer.
“Private” life
By: Grant Goetcheus
Twitter: @goetcheusg
Email: goetcheusg@Findlay.edu
As the constitution was written over two centuries ago, society has changed since that time period. The forms of communication were slower. Things were mostly hand written and spread through word of mouth.
Although the word press was coming into society, it was not fully integrated into mass communication. With the creation of the internet, communication has become easier. The time it takes to type a tweet is shorter than it would be to write a letter.
These advancements have not come without cost, however. Society has become connected at every facet of life. The idea of privacy and a safe space it is becoming more challenged every day.
Privacy was never mentioned in the constitution and was never talked about in the legal system in America until the 1960’s. Griswold v. Conn. (381 U.S. 479) set the precedent that stated citizens have privacy in their homes and the things that they do in their homes. Another defining case relating to this was Kats v. US (389 U.S. 347), further clarifying that citizens have privacy in all areas outside the home that have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
With social media climbing into society, privacy has become difficult. Every selfie and every post shrinks that area of reasonable privacy. While this may not impact one’s personal life, it could be detrimental to a professional one.
According to the National Conferences of State Legislatures, “Some employers, however, say that access to personal social media accounts of employees is needed to protect the employer’s proprietary information or trade secrets, to comply with certain federal financial regulations or to prevent the employer from being exposed to legal liabilities.” Employers are not really concerned about selfies, but are worried about the company documents and ideas that are in the background of that picture.
The states have already begun creating legislature to protect employee’s passwords for personal internet accounts. So far 26 states have passed laws pertaining to employers and 13 have passed laws pertaining to educational institutions therefore making it important to understand states laws at work and home.
In regards to social media and future employment, University of Findlay Professor of Mass Media and the Law Dr. Diana Montague says reading the code of ethics is important.
“Look at your company’s codes of ethics and the employee handbook for rules on social media activities. Social media is under the protection of the 1st Amendment and free speech,” said Montague. “However, that protects against the government and not an employer. They can legally fire you if they show that you violated their rules that were signed when you started.”
There is no telling how social media will change and how future laws could change the way it’s used. Until then, it is important to reflect on posts and what can become of them after hitting send.